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

44

Appendix to Historical Construction of Walls.

Tabularium, of which arcade we have the remains, though walled up.
It was also above the Clivus Capitolinus, the inclining or sloping
road up to the Capitol, which was paved b.c. 174, and the building is
mentioned by Livys on that occasion. The lower part of it is visible.
Macrobiush, in the Saturnalia, mentions it as the Treasury—“The
Romans would have the temple of Saturn for their Treasury.”
Solinus' mentions it in the same manner :—“ The building which
had been the Treasury of Saturn was consecrated as a temple in his
honour.” Plutarchk repeats the same story in his life of Publicola:—
“ The Treasury of Saturn was made into a temple, which remains at
the present time,” that is, in the time of Plutarch.
Servius1, in his Commentary or Scholia on the second Georgic,
describes this still more distinctly :—“ The Tabularia populi^ where
the public records were preserved (the Public Record Office of the
period), signifies also the temple of Saturn, in which was the Treasury,
and there are placed the acts by which the slaves were made free,”
(equivalent to the private acts of parliament in England in our own
days. If slavery still existed there as it did in Rome, it would be
necessary to preserve carefully the deeds by which any family was
made free.) In Rome, all public acts were recorded on bronze plates,
to make them more permanent; unfortunately the value of the bronze
for coining money, and making bronze ornaments, has led to the
melting-down of the greater part of these public records. Both
Dionysius and Livy distinctly state that the temple of Saturn was in
the Forum Romanumm. This temple was dedicated in a.u.c. 256
by the consuls, A. Sempronius and M. Minucius, who then instituted
the Saturnalia n.
Cicero playfully alludes to the steepness of the stairs of the FEra-
rium, comparing them to the Alps (as we have seen), and these
steep stairs remain to the present time (though long unknown),
having been excavated in 1870°.

s “Censores . . . et clivum Capitoli-
num silice sternendum curaverunt, et
porticum ab sede Saturni in Capitolium
ad Senaculum, ac super id curiam.”
(Livii Hist., lib. xli. c. 27.)
11 “4Edem vero Saturni aerarium Ro-
mani gsse voluerunt.” (Macrobii Satur-
nalia, c. 8.)
■ “4Edem etiam quae Saturni aera-
rium fertur, comites ejus condiderunt
in honorem Saturni.” (Solinus, c. 2.)
k Plutarch, Publicola.
1 “Populi tabularia ubi acta publica
continentur significat autem templum

Saturni, in quo et serarium fuerat, et
ubi reponebantur acta qua: susceptis
liberis faciebant parentes.” (Servius in
Virgilii Georgica, v. 502.)
m “ Et arcus interdiu sereno coelo
super 4Edem Saturni in foro Romano
intentus,” &c. (Livii Hist., lib.xli.c.21.)
n Livii Hist., lib. ii. c. 21.
0 “ Quae est igitur ista accusatio, quae
facilius possit Alpes, quam paucos sera-
rii gradus ascendere ? diligentius Rute-
norum, quam populi Romani defendat
aerarium? (Cicero pro Fonteio, cap.
i. 4.)