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

SECT. IV.]

The Capitol.— The Fossce.

47

forming the head of the city, and the strongest part of the fortifica-
tions. Its boundaries beyond the foss were, on the north, a level
plain on the bank of the Tiber, afterwards the Campus Martius,
often flooded and left a swamp; on the east, the valley separating
it from the Quirinal Hill; on the west, the Tiber; and on the
south, the low ground between it and the Palatine Hill, with the
forums or market-places originally made in the wide and deep foss
or valley. The pomoerium or slipe of the Tarpeian fortress extended
probably to the original foss of the Palatine on the south, and in the
eastern part of this the Forum Romanum was made. Outside of the
gate of Janus, at the south-west corner, was also the Forum Boarium,
which was level with the street or via, and with the bottom of the
foss. The lower parts of the columns of the theatre of Marcellus,
at the north end of the Forum Olitorium, are now buried consider-
ably by the raising of the old foss-way to the present level of the
street.
The foss then turned to the east, along the north side of the rock.
Part of the Ghetto, or Jews’ quarter, is now built in it, and the
Porta Triumphalis of the Caesars, now the porch of the church of
S. Angelo in Pescheria, is built across it. This is usually called the
Portico of Octavia, which joined to it; the archway or gate standing
between the portico of Octavia and the portico of Philip, as is
shewn on one of the fragments of the marble plan. The foss-way
then passed through the modern Piazza di Campitelli to the Piazza
di S. Marco, and thence turned to the south along the east side of
the rock, in what was originally a narrow gorge between the Capitol
and the Quirinal, perhaps cut out of the bed of tufa, and afterwards
widened to make the Forum of Trajan. The Forum of Julius Caesar
was also made in it, which afterwards united the Forum of Trajan
with the Forum Romanum.
The northern part of this ancient mound and foss was made use
of in the line of the fortifications of Servius Tullius, and had three
gates in it. There was afterwards a second agger and foss across
the plain to the north of the Capitol, made by Trajan to include
his additions to the pomoerium; it was customary to have a double
or triple line of defence to the Keep when the nature of the ground
admitted of it, and this level plain to the north would have been
a weak point in the defences h.
The pomoerium was again extended in this direction, until it ulti-
11 A second foss to the north, of the the bottom of the foss, one of which
time of Trajan, has been traced by the remains still in situ in a cellar near the
line of the cippi, or boundary stones, at Chiesa Nuova.