DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42497#0081
SECT. III.]
The Palatine.
29
The position of these stations has long been and still is matter
of dispute and discussion among Roman antiquaries. The evidence
is very slight, as the existing remains are so scanty, still they are
sufficient to shew that there is little doubt that the whole of the
Palatine Hill, with some space round it beneath (as the expression
per ima montis of Livy implies) was included. The testimony of
Aulus Gellius ’, “ that the pomoerium of Romulus was bounded by
the radices or lower extremities of the hill slopes/’ implies this also.
It has, however, been supposed by some writers that the whole
platform of the hill was not occupied by the Roma Quadrata, and
that there was a foss across the middle of the hill ; this may now
be clearly traced, and there are remains of the early tufa walls of
Romulus (?) on each side of it.
It remains, therefore, to point out the stations, as nearly as they
can be ascertained from existing remains, along the probable line
of the foss.
All agree that the position of the Forum Boarium was at the
western corner of the Palatine, though at some distance from the
base of the cliff and extending to the Tiber, and that the modern
Piazza della Bocca della Verita occupies a good part of its site.
The line of the furrow (sulcus}, starting from this forum, is said to
have included the great altar of Hercules"1, which was certainly
near to the Ara Maxima. It will be shewn, in the Appendix to
this Section, that this altar was probably in front of the church
of S. Maria in Cosmedin.
From this point the cippi were, we are told, directed to the
(2.) Ara Consi. No remains of this altar having been yet dis-
covered, we have to fall back upon the incidental mention of it
by Tertulliann, who says that it was near the Meta of the Circus
Maximus, and by Dionysius, who says :—■
“The Romans, even to this day (the time of Augustus), continue to celebrate
the feast then instituted by Romulus, calling it Consualia, in which a subterranean
altar placed near the Circus Maximus, the ground being sunk for that purpose, is
honoured with sacrifices and burnt offerings of first-fruits, and a course is run both
by horses in chariots and by single horses. The god to whom these honours are
paid is called Census by the Romans0,” &c.
1 “ Antiquissimum autem pomoerium
quod a Romulo institutum est, Palatini
montis radicibus terminabatur. ” (Aulus
Gellius, lib. xiii. c. 14.)
m Livy (lib. x. c. 23) mentions the
round temple of Hercules in the Forum
Boarium, and as the form of a temple
was not often changed, this gives some
probability to the opinion of Donatus,
that the round temple of the time of the
empire, now called the Temple of Vesta,
and on the side of the Forum Boarium
next the Tiber, is on the site of the
Temple of Hercules of the time of
the Kings.
u ‘1 Consus, ut diximus, apud metas
sub terra delitescit. ” (Tert, de Spect. 8.)
0 Dionys. Ant., ii. 2, 31.
The Palatine.
29
The position of these stations has long been and still is matter
of dispute and discussion among Roman antiquaries. The evidence
is very slight, as the existing remains are so scanty, still they are
sufficient to shew that there is little doubt that the whole of the
Palatine Hill, with some space round it beneath (as the expression
per ima montis of Livy implies) was included. The testimony of
Aulus Gellius ’, “ that the pomoerium of Romulus was bounded by
the radices or lower extremities of the hill slopes/’ implies this also.
It has, however, been supposed by some writers that the whole
platform of the hill was not occupied by the Roma Quadrata, and
that there was a foss across the middle of the hill ; this may now
be clearly traced, and there are remains of the early tufa walls of
Romulus (?) on each side of it.
It remains, therefore, to point out the stations, as nearly as they
can be ascertained from existing remains, along the probable line
of the foss.
All agree that the position of the Forum Boarium was at the
western corner of the Palatine, though at some distance from the
base of the cliff and extending to the Tiber, and that the modern
Piazza della Bocca della Verita occupies a good part of its site.
The line of the furrow (sulcus}, starting from this forum, is said to
have included the great altar of Hercules"1, which was certainly
near to the Ara Maxima. It will be shewn, in the Appendix to
this Section, that this altar was probably in front of the church
of S. Maria in Cosmedin.
From this point the cippi were, we are told, directed to the
(2.) Ara Consi. No remains of this altar having been yet dis-
covered, we have to fall back upon the incidental mention of it
by Tertulliann, who says that it was near the Meta of the Circus
Maximus, and by Dionysius, who says :—■
“The Romans, even to this day (the time of Augustus), continue to celebrate
the feast then instituted by Romulus, calling it Consualia, in which a subterranean
altar placed near the Circus Maximus, the ground being sunk for that purpose, is
honoured with sacrifices and burnt offerings of first-fruits, and a course is run both
by horses in chariots and by single horses. The god to whom these honours are
paid is called Census by the Romans0,” &c.
1 “ Antiquissimum autem pomoerium
quod a Romulo institutum est, Palatini
montis radicibus terminabatur. ” (Aulus
Gellius, lib. xiii. c. 14.)
m Livy (lib. x. c. 23) mentions the
round temple of Hercules in the Forum
Boarium, and as the form of a temple
was not often changed, this gives some
probability to the opinion of Donatus,
that the round temple of the time of the
empire, now called the Temple of Vesta,
and on the side of the Forum Boarium
next the Tiber, is on the site of the
Temple of Hercules of the time of
the Kings.
u ‘1 Consus, ut diximus, apud metas
sub terra delitescit. ” (Tert, de Spect. 8.)
0 Dionys. Ant., ii. 2, 31.