Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

senate, but it is something to hope that we tread the site and may touch a fragment of the Porch which was guarded by the equestrian patriots who escorted the consul and menaced Cæsar and the friends of the conspirators with their swords.* If this, however, was the Temple of Concord, it is not easy to understand why such a position should have been thought peculiarly secure. It does not certainly correspond with the usual incorrect notion that the temple was in the Capitol. The ruins can hardly be said even to be on the Capitoline ascent, which is supposed by some to be included in the Capitol itself.†

* Philip x. "Equites Romani qui frequentissimi in gradibus Concordiæ steterant," &c.

Varro places the temple between the Capitol and the Forum. Festus also (in voc. Senatula)," inter Capitolium et Forum." See Marlian. in loc. citat. and Nardini; also P. Victor "Unum (Senaculum) ubi nunc est ædes Concordiæ, ubi magistratus cum Senioribus deliberant," de regionibus urbis. Ap. Græv., tom. iii. p. xi. I leave the text above as written in 1817; but there can be little doubt now as to the real position of the old temple. The fragments are in part buried under the mound on which the modern "Via del Arco di Settimio" is constructed; but a portion of the marble flooring of the cella has been disinterred, and is distinct evidence of the position of

[ocr errors]

alteration lately proposed for the text of that author—“ magnum vero illud in vita ejus, quod Romæ omnes ædes publicas, quæ vitio temporum labebantur instauravit, nusquam prope suo nomine ascripto, servatis tamen ubique titulis conditorum." For "tamen read "nisi," says Nibby, and justly-for if Severus almost never "marked the marble with his name," how comes it that all his existing works should be exceptions to that modest indifference to renown?

VOL. II.

E

*

The doubts respecting the other three columns are of an earlier date than those concerning the Temple of Concord. Fulvius Ursinus considered the name of Jupiter Tonans a rash conjecture when applied to any certain position in the Capitol, and particularly near the modern prisons; but the regionary Victor finds that temple in the Capitoline declivity,† which Suetonius had placed in the Capitol. It is in order to reconcile these contending notices, that the dilation of the Capitol has been adopted by the antiquaries.‡ The letters left on the frieze, ESTITVER, correspond with the Lateran inscription thought to belong to the other temple, yet nothing has been gained by the coincidence.

ARCH OF SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS.

A coin of the time of Caracalla is the only ancient record of this considerable monument, and this shows us that the arch was formally surmounted with a triumphal car. Two figures are seen in the car, which is drawn by six horses, and has a foot soldier on each side

he Temple. Much importance is attached to a figure of the caduceus cut into the marble; originally the figure was inlaid with bronze, which has been removed, but the shape of the wand has been carefully preserved. The emblem of the God of Eloquence is supposed to have reference to the harangues occasionally delivered in this famous place of assembly (1842-1854).

* Marlian., ibid. lib. ii. cap. iii. note 3.

Edes Jovis Tonantis in Clivo Capitolii, dedicata ab Augusto." -De Region. Urb. Regio viii. in loc. cit. p. 105.

Donatus, lib. ii. cap. xi.

of it. At each of the corners there is also a soldier on horseback. The most interesting particular connected with this arch is, perhaps, the visible erasure of the name and titles of Geta, for which have been substituted the concluding two letters of the third line and the whole of the fourth line. A similar substitution is observable in the inscription on the Janus in the Velabrum, and also in that of the bronze tablet in the Capitoline Museum. Caracalla could not bear to be reminded of his deceased brother. He wept whenever he saw the image or statue, or was any way reminded of Geta. The Romans are said by the Historians to have wondered at so much grief; but whether they were surprised or not, they pretended to sympathize with their murderous master, and in these erasures have left us a striking proof of their servility and debasement.

The present respectable appearance of this half buried monument is due to Pius VII., whose care is recorded by an inscription on the wall that surrounds it, and that prevents the accumulation of earth and rubbish which had frustrated three previous attempts at restoration. The Popes who had before failed in the same endeavour were Leo X., assisted though he was by Michael Angelo, Pius IV., in 1563, and Gregory XV. in 1621.

COLUMN OF PHOCAS.

The neighbouring column of Phocas can no longer be part of the temple of Jupiter Custos, or the Græco

*

stasis, or the bridge of Caligula. It must appear strange that the simple expedient of digging to the base to look for an inscription was delayed until 1813, on purpose, as it were, to give scope to further conjecture. It seems that some struggle was made to believe it dedicated to the emperor Maurice, the name of the fallen tyrant being carefully erased.

The affection of Gregory the Great, who then exercised a powerful influence over the Romans, towards his Piety the emperor Phocas, is well known to have been as great as that of the exarch Smaragdus in whose name the column was erected: and indeed that murderer has found a defender even in modern times.† The gilded

* optIMO CLEMENTIS. felicissimOQUE PRINCIPI DOMINO n. focae imperatorI

PERPETUO A DO CORONATO TRIVMPHATORI

SEMPER AVGVSTO

SMARAGDVS EX PREPOS SACRI PALATII
AC PATRICIVS ET EXARCHVS ITALIAE
DEVOTVS EIVS CLEMENTIAE

PRO INNVMERABILIBVS PIETATIS EIVS
BENEFICIIS ET PRO QVieTE

PROCVRATA ITAL. AC CONSERvatA LIBERTATE
HANC STatvam. pietaTIS EIVS

AVRI SPLENDore micanTEM. HVIC
SVBLIMI COLVmNae ad PERENNEM
IPSIVS GLORIAM IMPOSVIT AC DEDICAVIT
DIE PRIMA MENSIS AVGVSTI INDICT. VND.
PC PIETATIS EIVS ANNO QUINTO.

See Lettera sopra la Colonna dell' Imperatore Foca, scritta da
Filippo Aurelio Visconti. Roma, 1813, p. 10.

+ Two Dutchmen sat down to protect and attack this worthy character. Ant. de Stoppelaar, oratio pro Phoca Imperatore, Amstel. 1732, and Simon Van den Brink, orat. in Phocam Imperatorem.

statue representing a hideous monster, and such as the decayed arts could then furnish, the style and even the letters of the inscription, the shattered repaired column, transferred from some other structure and defaced by rude carving, must have forcibly bespoken the degradation of the Forum and of the Roman race.

Amstel. 1732. Gibbon, vol. viii. 8vo. cap. lxvi. p. 212, overlooked or despised these authors, who were awakened from their repose by the Abate Cancellieri, the friend of Visconti. Lettera. Ibid., p. 10.

ADDITIONAL NOTE.

It was reserved for the 13th of March, 1813, to discover that this pillar did not form part of an ancient edifice, but was a triumphal column; and the excavations directed by the late Duchess of Devonshire at the base of it, and renewed in 1816, uncovered a pavement of white travertine flag-stones and a basement ascended by eight steps a cubit in height, of which one range was completely laid bare.

The same labours exposed two other square basements of brickwork, on which it appears that isolated columns had formerly been raised; for here were found two or three immense fragments of oriental granite pillars, many pieces of sculptured marble, capitals and cornices, and some inscribed stones, one of which, with a sort of unaccountable indifference, had been again laid down to serve as a step. Two of the inscriptions are half in Greek and half in Latin :—

ΑΠΩΣΙΚΑΚΟΙΣ
ӨЕОІС

EX ÓRÁCVLÓ

ΑΘΑΝΑΙ
ΑΠΟΤΡΟΠΑΙΑΙ

EX ÓRÁCVLÓ

These votive inscriptions are remarkable for the elegance of the character and for the accents which are placed over the Latin words. It has also been observed that the arwσikakois has never been discovered in any Greek author, although of an obvious meaning. An

a Nibby says eleven; I will put only eight.
b Nibby, For, Rom.,
cap. i.
p. 167.

« ZurückWeiter »