DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44944#0187
CURIA IULIA
145
a church, a metrical (?) inscription was painted over it, of which only
the first word, aspice, is preserved. Over the door were three large
windows. A small portion of the pavement of the interior, of various
coloured marbles, was recently exposed to view, but covered up again.
The marble facing of the internal walls was destroyed in 1562 (LR 266 ;
LS iii. 221 (for details, see Archivio Boccapaduli Arm. ii. Mazzo iv. 46. io).1
The brick facing of the exterior and the cornice were coated with stucco
to represent marble (ib.), just as was the case in the Thermae of Dio-
cletian.
In 303 a.d. there were erected in front of the curia, outside the
comitium, two colossal columns, in celebration of the vicennalia and
decennalia of Diocletian and his colleagues in the empire. The first
base, found in 1490, is lost; but the second, decorated with inferior
reliefs (one of which represents the suovetaurilia, in imitation of the
Trajanic slabs) which was found in 1547, still lies not far from the niger
lapis (Mitt. 1893, 281 ; HC 95-96; CIL vi. 1203-1205, 31261, 31262).
For a glass cup commemorating the same vicennalia see BC 1882, 180-190.
Near here are also fragments of a large base for a quadriga erected in
honour of Arcadius and Honorius after Stilicho’s victory over Gildo in
Africa in 398 a.d. (CIL vi. 1187, 31256 ; Mitt. 1895, 52-58 ; LR 261) and
another inscription celebrating Stilicho’s victory over Radagaisus at
Pollentia in 403 a.d. (CIL vi. 31987).
The church of S. Adriano was founded in the curia by Honorius I
(625-638 ; LP lxxii. 6), who added the apse. It is called in tribus fatis
from a group of the three fates which stood near the temple of Janus
(Jord. i. 2. 259, 349 ; BCr 1912, 146 ; HC 24, 26 ; HCh 260-261). After
this several bodies were buried in niches cut in the front wall, in the
concrete core of the steps, and in front of them, on the pavement of the
comitium. The doorway, 5.90 metres in height, probably remained in
use until after the fire of Robert Guiscard the Norman in 1087, when its
level was raised by 3.25 metres : and so it remained (with steps descending
into the church from the higher ground outside) until the restoration
of the church in 1654, when it was raised again by about the same amount.
When the ancient bronze doors were removed to the Lateran by Borromini
a few years later, various coins were found inside them, among which
was one of Domitian. Between 1654 and the end of the nineteenth
century there has been another rise in level of about I metre.
To the left of the curia was the Chalcidicum or Atrium Minervae
(q.v.) (the last remains of which disappeared when the Via Bonella was
made in 1585-90), a courtyard with a colonnade running down each side ;
while to the north-west again was the Secretarium Senatus, a hall measur-
ing 18.17 by 8.92 metres, with an apse at the north-east end. An
inscription shows that it had been restored by Junius Flavianus in
1 There is a full list, with sizes, signed by Pirro Ligorio, of 29 slabs of porphyry and
15° of marble removed by the Pope’s orders.
A.D.R.
K
145
a church, a metrical (?) inscription was painted over it, of which only
the first word, aspice, is preserved. Over the door were three large
windows. A small portion of the pavement of the interior, of various
coloured marbles, was recently exposed to view, but covered up again.
The marble facing of the internal walls was destroyed in 1562 (LR 266 ;
LS iii. 221 (for details, see Archivio Boccapaduli Arm. ii. Mazzo iv. 46. io).1
The brick facing of the exterior and the cornice were coated with stucco
to represent marble (ib.), just as was the case in the Thermae of Dio-
cletian.
In 303 a.d. there were erected in front of the curia, outside the
comitium, two colossal columns, in celebration of the vicennalia and
decennalia of Diocletian and his colleagues in the empire. The first
base, found in 1490, is lost; but the second, decorated with inferior
reliefs (one of which represents the suovetaurilia, in imitation of the
Trajanic slabs) which was found in 1547, still lies not far from the niger
lapis (Mitt. 1893, 281 ; HC 95-96; CIL vi. 1203-1205, 31261, 31262).
For a glass cup commemorating the same vicennalia see BC 1882, 180-190.
Near here are also fragments of a large base for a quadriga erected in
honour of Arcadius and Honorius after Stilicho’s victory over Gildo in
Africa in 398 a.d. (CIL vi. 1187, 31256 ; Mitt. 1895, 52-58 ; LR 261) and
another inscription celebrating Stilicho’s victory over Radagaisus at
Pollentia in 403 a.d. (CIL vi. 31987).
The church of S. Adriano was founded in the curia by Honorius I
(625-638 ; LP lxxii. 6), who added the apse. It is called in tribus fatis
from a group of the three fates which stood near the temple of Janus
(Jord. i. 2. 259, 349 ; BCr 1912, 146 ; HC 24, 26 ; HCh 260-261). After
this several bodies were buried in niches cut in the front wall, in the
concrete core of the steps, and in front of them, on the pavement of the
comitium. The doorway, 5.90 metres in height, probably remained in
use until after the fire of Robert Guiscard the Norman in 1087, when its
level was raised by 3.25 metres : and so it remained (with steps descending
into the church from the higher ground outside) until the restoration
of the church in 1654, when it was raised again by about the same amount.
When the ancient bronze doors were removed to the Lateran by Borromini
a few years later, various coins were found inside them, among which
was one of Domitian. Between 1654 and the end of the nineteenth
century there has been another rise in level of about I metre.
To the left of the curia was the Chalcidicum or Atrium Minervae
(q.v.) (the last remains of which disappeared when the Via Bonella was
made in 1585-90), a courtyard with a colonnade running down each side ;
while to the north-west again was the Secretarium Senatus, a hall measur-
ing 18.17 by 8.92 metres, with an apse at the north-east end. An
inscription shows that it had been restored by Junius Flavianus in
1 There is a full list, with sizes, signed by Pirro Ligorio, of 29 slabs of porphyry and
15° of marble removed by the Pope’s orders.
A.D.R.
K