Parker, John Henry: The archaeology of Rome (1,text): I. The primitive fortifications (Oxford [u.a.], 1874)

1 he Primitive Fortifications.

[CHAP. I.


the king, offer to thee these royal arms, and dedicate a temple to thee on that spot
which I have now measured out in my mind, to be a repository for those grand
spoils, which, after my example, generals in future times shall offer, on slaying the
kings and generals of their enemies. ’ This was the origin of that temple which
was the first consecrated in Rome''.”

The Capitol in this passage does not signify the hill afterwards so
called, but that part of the Palatine which had been specially forti-
fied, as the Arx or Capitold, on which was the royal residence, as
usual in all primitive fortifications. The Romans at this period had
possession of the Palatine only, and it therefore follows that the
sacred oak and the Temple of Jupiter Feretrius6 were on the Pala-
tine, not on the Capitoline Hill.
Again, in the following passage, the reference to the Arx or
Citadel must be taken to mean the Arx on the Palatine.
“ The Roman Citadel was commanded by Spurius Tarpeius. His maiden
daughter, who had accidently gone without the fortifications to bring water
for the sacred rites, was bribed by Tatius with gold to admit some of his troops
into the Citadelf.”

The Romans were obliged to send down to the stream called
Argentina for spring-water, and at this stream they met the Sabines
coming down from their city on the Hill of Saturn, afterwards
the Capitol. This place of meeting gave the king, or chief of the
Sabines, the opportunity of seducing the fidelity of the Roman
maiden. The citadel into which she admitted them appears to
have been the Arx with the royal residence on the Palatine, which
from various circumstances must have been at the north end of the
hill, and the house of Romulus was near the north-west corner, with

c Livii Hist., lib. i. c. .10.
d The name of Capitol is said to
apply strictly to the small temple which,
according to the Etruscan rites, was
always placed in the arx or citadel, the
most secure place in the fortress or
town. This temple always contained
the images, or paintings of the three
tutelar deities—Jupiter, Juno, and Mi-
nerva, and the same custom was con-
tinued by the Romans in their houses ;
the lares, or private chapel, in the most
secure part of the house, contained al-
ways images, or paintings, or both, of
the three tutelar gods. An instance
of this custom may be seen in the lares
excavated in 1867, within the boundary
of the Thermae of Caracalla, but be-
longing to an earlier building, believed
to have been the private house of the
Emperor Hadrian.

e During the excavations made by
the Italian Government on the Palatine
Hill in the spring of 1871, considerable
remains of the walls of a very ancient
temple of the character of the walls of
Romulus were brought to light, on the
western corner over S. Anastasia, there-
fore near the spot where the house of
Romulus and the sacred oak are known
to have stood. From this a grand stair-
case of the same early character de-
scends in the direction of the Circus
Maximus, and seems to have passed
under S. Anastasia to the infima nova
via, before mentioned ; the lower part
of the steps there is cased with marble,
the upper part is of the rude stones
of early character not intended to be
seen, and was probably cased with
wood only.
f Livii Hist., lib. i. c. II.