by Severus Alexander at the termination of his Alexandrine aqueduct, opened in 225 (see Hist. Aug. Sev. Alex. 25). But, the marble trophies now set at the top of the Capitoline steps bear a quarry mark which shows them to be of the time of Domitian: it consists of the following inscription, now not visible, as it is cut on the under part—IMP . DOM . AVG . GERM . PER . CHREZ . LIB . * Cᛊ.[1]
Places of Amusement.
The Circus Maximus (see Circus) occupied the Vallis Murcia[2] between the Palatine and the Aventine. Its first rows of seats, Circuses. which were of wood, are said to have been made under the Tarquins (Liv. i. 26, 35; Dionys. iii. 68). Permanent carceres were set up in 329 B.C. and restored in 174 B.C. (Liv. viii. 20, xli. 27). In the reign of Julius Caesar it was rebuilt with (for the first time) lower seats of stone (Plin. H.N. xxxvi. 102), the upper being still of wood (Suet. Caes. 39); Dionysius (iii. 68) describes it as it was after this rebuilding. It was further ornamented with marble by Augustus, Claudius and other emperors. The wooden part was burnt in the great fire of Nero, and again under Domitian; it was considerably enlarged by Trajan, and lastly it was restored by Constantine. In its later state it had a marble façade with three external tiers of arches with engaged columns, and (inside) sloping tiers of marble seats, supported on concrete raking vaults (Plin. Paneg. 51). A great part of these vaults existed in the 16th century, and is shown by Du Pérac. It is said by Pliny (H.N. xxxvi. 102)—if the text be not corrupt—to have held 250,000 spectators, while the Regionary Catalogues give the number of seats as 485,000; but Huelsen has shown (Bull. Comm. Arch., 1894, 421 ff.) that the figures are much exaggerated and must, moreover, be interpreted, not of the number of spectators, but of the length of the tiers expressed in feet. The end with the carceres was near the church of S. Maria in Cosmedin.[3] Some of its substructures, with remains of very early tufa structures on the Palatine side, still exist below the church of S. Anastasia (see Plan of Palatine). The obelisk now in the Piazza del Popolo was set on the spina by Augustus, and that now in the Lateran piazza by Constantius II. The Circus Flaminius in the Campus Martius was built in 221 B.C. by the C. Flaminius Nepos who was killed at the Trasimene Lake in 217 B.C.; remains of the structure existed until the 16th century, when they were destroyed to build the Palazzo Mattei. In the middle ages its long open space was used as a rope-walk, hence the name of the church called S. Caterina dei Funari, which occupies part of its site.[4] The circus of Caligula and Nero was at the foot of the Vatican Hill (Plin. H.N. xxxvi. 74). The modern-sacristy of St Peter's stands over part of its site. The obelisk on its spina remained standing in situ till it was moved by Fontana[5] for Sixtus V. to its present site in the centre of the piazza. The great stadium, foundations of which exist under most of the houses of the Piazza Navona (Agonalis), and especially below S. Agnese, is that built by Domitian and restored by Severus Alexander. That it was a stadium and not a circus is shown by the fact that its starting end is at right angles to the sides and not set diagonally, as was always the case with the carceres of a circus; nor is there any trace of foundations of a spina. The best preserved circus is that built by Maxentius in honour of his deified son Romulus, by the Via Appia, 2 m. outside the walls of Rome. It was attributed to Caracalla till 1825, when an inscription recording its true dedication was found.[6]
The first permanent naumachia was that constructed by Augustus between the foot of the Janiculan hill and the Tiber. The naumachia of Domitian was pulled down and the materials used to restore the Circus Maximus (Suet. Dom. 5); it was perhaps restored by Trajan, for the remains of a naumachia built of opus reticulatum mixed with brick have been discovered near the mausoleum of Hadrian.
The first stone theatre in Rome was that built by Pompey in 55-52 B.C. (see Theatre: Roman); it contained a temple to Venus Theatres. Victrix, and in front of it was a great porticus, called Hecatostylum from its hundred columns. This is shown on the marble plan.[7] Considerable remains of the foundations exist between the Piazza dei Satiri, which occupies the site of the scena, and the Via de' Giubbonari and Via del Paradiso. Adjoining this was the porticus Pompeiana, which contained the curia of Pompey, where Caesar was murdered, after which it was walled up. The colossal statue, popularly supposed to be that of Pompey, at the feet of which Caesar died,[8] now in the Palazzo Spada, was found in 1553 near the theatre. This theatre was restored by Augustus (Mon. Anc. 4, 9); in the reign of Tiberius it was burnt, and its rebuilding was completed by Caligula. The scena was again burnt in A.D. 80, and restored by Titus. According to Pliny (H.N. xxxvi. 115), it held 40,000 spectators; the Regionary Catalogues give the number 17,580. Huelsen estimates its capacity at 9000-10,000 spectators. In 1864 the colossal gilt bronze statue of Hercules, now in the Vatican, was found near the site of the theatre of Pompey, carefully concealed underground. The theatre of Marcellus is much more perfect; complete foundations of the cunei exist under the Palazzo Savelli, and part of the external arcade is well preserved. This is built of travertine in two orders, Tuscan and Ionic, with delicate details, very superior to those of the Colosseum, the arcade of which is very similar to this in general design. This theatre was begun by J. Caesar, and finished by Augustus in 13 B.C., who dedicated it in the name of his nephew Marcellus.[9] It was restored by Vespasian (Suet. Vesp. 19). Foundations also of the theatre dedicated by Cornelius Balbus in 13 B.C. (Suet. Aug. 29; Dio Cass. liv. 25) exist under the Monte dei Cenci; and in the Via dei Calderari there is a small portion of the external arcade of a porticus (Plan, No. 42); the lower storey has travertine arches with engaged columns, and the upper has brick-faced pilasters. This has been supposed to be the Crypta Balbi mentioned in the Regionary Catalogues, but is more probably the Porticus Minucia, built in 110 B.C. An interesting account of the temporary theatre of M. Aemilius Scaurus, erected in 58 B.C., is given by Pliny (H.N. xxxvi. 5, 113). The same writer mentions an almost incredible building, which consisted of two wooden theatres made to revolve on pivots, so that the two together made an amphitheatre; this was erected by C. Curio in 50 B.C. (H.N. xxxvi. 116).
The first stone amphitheatre in Rome was that built by Statilius Amphitheatres. Taurus in the reign of Augustus. (For the Colosseum and the Amphitheatrum Castrense, see Amphitheatre; for the Baths, see that article.)
Arches, Columns, Tombs and Bridges.
The earliest triumphal arches were the two erected by L. Stertinius (196 B.C.) in the Forum Boarium and in the Circus Maximus, out Arches. of spoils gained in Spain.[10] In the later years of the empire there were nearly forty in Rome. The arch of Titus and Vespasian on the Summa Sacra Via was erected by Domitian to commemorate the conquest of Judaea by Titus in his father's reign. Reliefs inside the arch represent the triumphal procession—Titus in a chariot, and on the other side soldiers bearing the golden candlestick, trumpets and table of prothesis, taken from the Jewish temple. The central part only of this monument is original; the sides were restored in 1823.[11] Another arch in honour of Titus had previously been built (A.D. 80) in the Circus Maximus; its inscription is given in the Einsiedeln MS. (C. I. L. vi. 944). A plain travertine arch near the supposed palace of Commodus on the Caelian is inscribed with the names of the Consul Publius Cornelius Dolabella (A.D. 10) and of the flamen martialis, C. Junius Silanus. It may have originally been used to carry the Aqua Marcia; in later times the Aqua Claudia passed over it. The so-called arch of Drusus by the Porta Appia also carries the specus of an aqueduct—that built by Caracalla to supply his great thermae. Its composite capitals show, however, that it is later than the time of Drusus, and it was very possibly the work of Trajan. Adjoining the church of S. Giorgio in Velabro a rich though coarsely decorated marble gateway with flat lintel still exists—built, as its inscription records, in honour of Severus and his sons by the argentarii (bankers and silversmiths) and other merchants of the Forum Boarium in 204. It formed an entrance from the Forum Boarium into the Velabrum. The figure of Geta in the reliefs and his name have been erased by Caracalla; the sculpture is poor both in design and execution (see Bull. Inst., 1867, p. 217, and 1871, p. 233). Close by is a quadruple arch, set at the intersection of two roads, such as was called by the
- ↑ See Bruzza, in Ann. Inst. (1870), and Lenormant, Trophées de Marius, Blois (1842). This once magnificent building, with the marble trophies in their place, is shown with much minuteness on a bronze medallion of Severus Alexander (see Froehner, Médaillons de l'empire, Paris, 1878, p. 169).
- ↑ So called from a prehistoric altar to the Dea Murcia (Venus); Varro, L.L. v. 154.
- ↑ Part of it is shown on a fragment of the marble plan (see Jordan, F. U. R.); it is represented on a bronze medallion of Gordian III., with an obelisk on the spina and three metae at each end; in front are groups of wrestlers and boxers (see Grueber, Rom. Med. pl. xli., London, 1874).
- ↑ The remains extant in the 16th century were described by Ligorio, Libro delle Antichitá (1553), p. 17.
- ↑ See his Trasportazione dell' Obelisco Vat. (1590).
- ↑ Nibby, Circo di Caracalla (1825); Canina, Edifizj di Roma, iv. pls. 194-96.
- ↑ Plut. Pomp. 52; Dion Cass. xxxix. 38; Tac. Ann. xiv. 20.
- ↑ See Fea, Rom. Ant. lxviii. 57, for an account of its discovery.
- ↑ Suet. Aug. 29. See Mon. Anc. 4, 22: "Theatrvm . ad . aedem. Apollinis . in . solo magna . ex . parte . a . [privatis .] empto . feci . qvod . svb . nomine . M . Marcelli . generi . [me]i . esset." The temple of Apollo here named was one of the most ancient and highly venerated in Rome; it was dedicated to the Delphic Apollo in 431 B.C. by Cn. Julius (Liv. iv. 25); meetings of the Senate were held in it; and it contained many fine works of art—an ancient cedar-wood statue of Apollo (Plin. H.N. xiii. 11) and the celebrated statues of the slaughter of the Niobids by Praxiteles or Scopas (Plin. H.N. xxxvi. 28), of which many ancient copies exist.
- ↑ Liv. xxxiii. 27.
- ↑ This arch is the earliest known example of the so-called Composite order, a modification of Corinthian in which the capitals combine Ionic volutes with Corinthian acanthus leaves; in other respects it follows the Corinthian order.
