The temple of Jupiter Stator has an especial interest from its connection with the story of Cicero and Catiline.
"Cicéron rassembla le sénat dans le temple de Jupiter Stator. Le choix du lieu s'explique facilement; ce temple était près de la principale entrée du Palatin sur le Vélia, dominant, en cas d'émeute, le Forum, que Cicéron et les principaux sénateurs habitants du Palatin n'avaient pas à traverser comme s'il eût fallu se rendre à la Curie. D'ailleurs Jupiter Stator, qui avait arrêté les Sabines à la porte de Romulus, arrêterait ces nouveaux ennemis qui voulaient sa ruine. Là Cicéron prononça la première Catilinaire. Ce discours dut être en grande partie improvisé, car les événements aussi improvisaient. Cicéron ne savait si Catilina oserait se présenter devant le sénat; en le voyant entrer, il conçut son fameux exorde: 'Jusqu'à quand, Catilina, abuseras-tu de notre patience!'
"Malgré la garde volontaire de chevaliers qui avait accompagné Cicéron et qui se tenait à la porte du temple, Catilina y entra et salua tranquillement l'assemblée; nul ne lui rendit son salut, à son approche on s'écarta et les places restèrent vides autour de lui. Il écouta les foudroyantes apostrophes de Cicéron, qui, après l'avoir accablé des preuves de son crime, se bornait à lui dire: 'Sors de Rome. Va-t-en!'
"Catilina se leva et d'un air modeste pria le sénat de ne pas croire le consul avant qu'une enquête eût été faite. 'II n'est pas vraisemblable, ajouta-t-il, avec une hauteur toute aristocratique, qu'un patricien, lequel, aussi bien que ses ancêtres, a rendu quelques services à la république, ne puisse exister que par sa ruine, et qu'on ait besoin d'un étranger d'Arpinum pour la sauver.' Tant d'orgueil et d'impudence révoltèrent l'assemblée; on cria à Catilina: 'Tu es un ennemi de la patrie, un meurtrier.' Il sortit, réunit encore ses amis, leur recommanda de se débarasser de Cicéron, prit avec lui un aigle d'argent qui avait appartenu à une légion de Marius, et à minuit quitta Rome et partit par la voie Aurélia pour aller rejoindre son armée."—Ampère, Hist. Rom. iv. 445.
Nearly opposite the foundations of Jupiter Stator, on the left,—are some remains considered to be those of the Porta Palatii.
The valley is now blocked by a vast mass of building which entirely closes it. This is the palace of Augustus, built in the valley between the Velia and the other eminence of the Palatine, which Rosa, contrary to other opinions, identifies with the Germale. The division of the Palatine thus named, was reckoned as one of "the seven hills" of ancient Rome. Its name was thought to be derived from Germani, owing to Romulus and Remus being found in its vicinity.[106]
The Palace of Augustus was begun soon after the battle of Actium, and gradually increased in size, till the whole valley was blocked up by it, and its roofs became level with the hill-sides. Part of the ground which it covered had previously been occupied by the villa of Catiline.[107] Here Suetonius says that Augustus occupied the same bed-room for forty years. Before the entrance of the palace it was ordained by the Senate, B.C. 26, that two bay-trees should be planted, in remembrance of the citizens he had preserved, while an oak wreath was placed above the gate in commemoration of his victories.
It was before the gate of this palace that Augustus upon one day in every year sate as a beggar, receiving alms from the passers-by, in obedience to a vision that he should thus appease Nemesis.
Upon the top of this building of Augustus, Vespasian built his palace in A.D. 70, not only using the walls of the older palace as a support for his own, but filling the chambers of the earlier building entirely up with earth, so that they became a solid massive foundation. The ruins which we visit are thus for the most part those of the palace of Vespasian, but from one of its halls we can descend into rooms underneath excavated from the palace of Augustus. The three projecting rostra which we now see in front of the palace are restorations by Signor Rosa.
The palace on the Palatine was not the place where the emperors generally lived. They resided at their villas, and came into the town to the Palace of the Cæsars for the transaction of public business. Thus this palace was, as it were, the St. James's of Rome. The fatigue and annoyance of a public arrival every morning, amid the crowd of clients who always waited upon the imperial footsteps, was naturally very great, and to obviate this the emperors made use of a subterranean passage which ran round the whole building, and by which they were enabled to arrive unobserved, and not to present themselves in public till their appearance upon the rostra in front of the building to receive the morning salutations of their people.
If we ascend a winding path to the right, to the garden which now covers the greater part of the hill Germale, we shall find a staircase which descends on the left to join this passage, following which, we will ascend, with the emperor, into his palace.
The passage, called Crypto-Porticus, is still quite perfect, and retains a great part of its mosaic pavements and much of its inlaid ceilings, from which the gilt mosaic has been picked out, but the pattern is still traceable. The passage was lighted from above. It was by this route that St. Laurence was led up for trial in the basilica, of the palace. Turning to the left, we again emerge upon the upper level.
The emperor here reached the palace, but as he did not yet wish to appear in public, he turned to the left by the private passage called Fauces, which still remains, running behind the main halls of the building. Here he was received by the different members of the imperial family, much as Napoleon III. was received by Princesses Mathilde, Clotilde, and the Murats, in a private apartment at the Tuileries, before entering the ball-room. Hence, passing across the end of the basilica, the emperor reached the portico in front of the palace, looking down upon the hollow space where were the Temple of Jupiter Stator and the other buildings connected with the early history of the Roman state. Here the whole Court received him and escorted him to the central rostra, where he had his public reception from the people assembled below, and whence perhaps he addressed to them a few words of morning salutation in return. The attendants meanwhile defiled on either side to the lower terraced elevation, which still remains.
This ceremony being gone through, the emperor returned as he came, to the basilica, for the transaction of business.
The name Basilica means "King's House." It was the ancient Law Court. It usually had a portico, was oblong in form, and ended in an apse for ornament. The Christians adopted it for their places of worship because it was the largest type of building then known. They also adopted the names of the different parts of the pagan basilica, as the Confessional, from the Confession, the bar of justice at which the criminal was placed,—the Tribune, from the Tribunal of the Judge, &c. A chapel and sacristy added on either side produced the form of the cross. The Basilica here is of great width. A leg of the emperor's chair actually remains in situ upon the tribunal, and part of the richly wrought bar of the Confession still exists. This was the bar at which St. Laurence and many other Christian martyrs were judged. The basilica in the palace of the Cæsars was also the scene of the trial of Valerius Asiaticus in the time of Claudius (see Chap. II.), when the Empress Messalina, who was seated near the emperor upon the tribunal, was so overcome by the touching eloquence of the innocent man, that she was obliged to leave the hall to conceal her emotion,—but characteristically whispered as she went out, that the accused must nevertheless on no account be suffered to escape with his life,[108]—that she might take possession of his Pincian Garden, which was as Naboth's Vineyard in her eyes. An account is extant which describes how it was necessary to increase the width of the seat upon the tribunal at this period, in consequence of a change in the fashion of dress among the Roman ladies.
This basilica, though perhaps not then itself in existence, will always have peculiar interest as showing the form and character of that earlier basilica in the Palace of the Cæsars, in which St. Paul was tried before Nero. But it is quite possible that it may be the same actual basilica itself,—and that the palace of Nero which overran the whole of the hill, may have had its basilica on this site, where it was preserved by Vespasian in his later and more contracted palace.
"The appeals from the provinces in civil causes were heard, not by the emperor himself, but by his delegates, who were persons of consular rank: Augustus had appointed one such delegate to hear appeals from each province respectively. But criminal appeals appear generally to have been heard by the emperor in person, assisted by his council of assessors. Tiberius and Claudius had usually sat for this purpose in the Forum; but Nero, after the example of Augustus, heard these causes in the imperial palace, whose ruins still crown the Palatine. Here, at one end of a splendid hall,[109] lined with the precious marbles of Egypt and of Libya, we must imagine Cæsar seated in the midst of his assessors. These councillors, twenty in number, were men of the highest rank and greatest influence. Among them were the two consuls and selected representatives of each of the other great magistracies of Rome. The remainder consisted of senators chosen by lot. Over this distinguished bench of judges presided the representatives of the most powerful monarchy which has ever existed,—the absolute ruler of the whole civilised world.
"Before the tribunal of the blood-stained adulterer Nero, Paul was brought in fetters, under the custody of his military guard. The prosecutors and their witnesses were called forward, to support their accusation; for although the subject-matter for decision was contained in the written depositions forwarded from Judæa by Festus, yet the Roman law required the personal presence of the accusers and the witnesses, whenever it could be obtained. We already know the charges brought against the Apostle. He was accused of disturbing the Jews in the exercise of their worship, which was secured to them by law; of desecrating their Temple; and, above all, of violating the public peace of the empire by perpetual agitation, as the ringleader of a new and factious sect. This charge was the most serious in the view of a Roman statesman; for the crime alleged amounted to majestas, or treason against the commonwealth, and was punishable with death.
"These accusations were supported by the emissaries of the Sanhedrim, and probably by the testimony of witnesses from Judæa, Ephesus, Corinth, and the other scenes of Paul's activity.... When the parties on both sides had been heard, and the witnesses all examined, the judgment of the court was taken. Each of the assessors gave his opinion in writing to the emperor, who never discussed the judgment with his assessors, as had been the practice of better emperors, but after reading their opinion, gave sentence according to his own pleasure, without reference to the judgment of the majority. On this occasion it might have been expected that he would have pronounced the condemnation of the accused, for the influence of Poppæa had now reached its culminating point, and she was a Jewish proselyte. We can scarcely doubt that the emissaries from Palestine would have demanded her aid for the destruction of a traitor to the Jewish faith; nor would any scruples have prevented her listening to their request, backed as it probably was, according to Roman usage, by a bribe. However this may be, the trial resulted in the acquittal of St. Paul. He was pronounced guiltless of the charges brought against him, his fetters were struck off, and he was liberated from his long captivity."—Conybeare and Howson.
Beyond the basilica is the Tablinum, the great hall of the palace, which served as a kind of commemorative domestic museum, where family statues and pictures were preserved. This vast room was lighted from above, on the plan which may still be seen at Sta. Maria degli Angeli, which was in fact a great hall of a Roman house. The roof of this hall was one vast arch, unsupported except by the side walls. We have record of a period when these walls were supposed insufficient for the great weight, and had to be strengthened, in interesting confirmation of which we can still see how the second wall was added and united to the first.
Appropriately opening from the family picture gallery of the Tablinum, was the Lararium, a private chapel for the worship of such members of the family—Livia and many others—as were deified after death. An altar, on the original site, has been erected here by Signor Rosa, from bits which have been found.
Hitherto the chambers which we have visited were open to the public; beyond this, none but his immediate family and attendants could follow the emperor. We now enter the Peristyle, a courtyard, which was open to the sky, but surrounded with arcades ornamented with statues, where we may imagine that the empresses amused themselves with their birds and flowers. Hence, by a narrow staircase, we can descend into what is perhaps the most interesting portion of the whole, the one unearthed fragment of the actual Palace of Augustus, which still retains remains of gilding and fresco, and an artistic group in stucco. An original window remains, and it will be recollected on looking at it, that when this was built it was not subterranean, but merely in the hollow of the valley, afterwards filled up. In these actual rooms may have lived Livia, who in turn inhabited three houses on the Palatine, first that of her first husband Nero Drusus, whom Augustus compelled her to divorce; then the imperial house of Augustus; and lastly that of Tiberius, the son by her first husband, whom she was the means of raising to the throne.
We now reach the Triclinium or dining-room, surrounded by a skirting of pavonazzetto with a cornice of giallo. Tacitus describes a scene in the imperial triclinium, in which the Emperor Tiberius is represented as reclining at dinner, having on one side his aged mother, the Empress Livia, and on the other his niece Agrippina, widow of Germanicus and granddaughter of the great Augustus.[110] It was while the imperial family were seated at a banquet in the triclinium, in the time of Nero, that his young step-brother Britannicus (son of Claudius and Messalina) swallowed the cup of poison which the emperor had caused Locusta to prepare and sank back dead upon his couch, his wretched sisters Antonia and Octavia, also seated at the ghastly feast, not daring to give expression to their grief and horror,—and Nero merely desiring the attendants to carry the boy out, and saying that it was a fit to which he was subject.[111] Here it was that Marcia the concubine presented the cup of drugged wine to the wicked Commodus, on his return from a wild beast hunt, and produced the heavy slumber during which he was strangled by the wrestler Narcissus. In this very room also his successor Pertinax, who had spent his short reign of three months in trying to reform the State, resuscitate the finances, and to heal, as far as possible, 'the wounds inflicted by the hand of tyranny,' received the news that the guard, impatient of unwonted discipline, had risen against him, and going forth to meet his assassins, fell, covered with wounds, just in front of the palace.[112]
Vitruvius says that every well-arranged Roman house has a dining-room opening into a nymphæum, and accordingly here, on the right, is a Nymphæum, with a beautiful fountain surrounded by miniature niches, once filled with bronzes and statues. Water was conveyed hither by the Neronian aqueduct. The pavement of this room was of oriental alabaster, of which fragments remain.
Beyond the Triclinium is a disgusting memorial of Roman imperial life, in the Vomitorium, with its bason, whither the feasters retired to tickle their throats with feathers, and come back with renewed appetite to the banquet.
We now reach the portico which closed the principal apartments of the palace on the south-west. Some of its Corinthian pillars have been re-erected on the sites where they were found. From hence we can look down upon some grand walls of republican times, formed of huge tufa blocks.
Passing a space of ground, called, without much authority, Bibliotheca, we reach a small Theatre on the edge of the hill, interesting as described by Pliny, and because the Emperor Vespasian, who is known to have been especially fond of reciting his own compositions, probably did so here. Hence we may look down upon the valley between the Palatine and Aventine, where the rape of the Sabines took place, and upon the site of the Circus Maximus. From hence, we may imagine, that the later emperors surveyed the hunts and games in that circus, when they did not care to descend into the amphitheatre itself.
Beyond this, on the right, is (partially restored) the grand staircase leading to the platform once occupied by the Temple of Jupiter-Victor, vowed by Fabius Maximus during the Samnite war, in the assurance that he would gain the victory. On the steps is a sacrificial altar, which retains its grooves for the blood of the victims, with an inscription stating that it was erected by "Cnæus Domitius C. Calvinus, Pontifex,"—who was a general under Julius Cæsar, and consul B.C. 53 and B.C. 40.
Now, for some distance, there are no remains, because this space was always kept clear, for here, constantly renewed, stood the Hut of Faustulus and the Sacred Fig-tree.
"The old Roman legend ran as follows:—Procas, king of Alba, left two sons. Numitor, the elder, being weak and spiritless, suffered Amulius to wrest the government from him, and reduce him to his father's private estates. In the enjoyment of these he lived rich, and, as he desired nothing more, secure: but the usurper dreaded the claims that might be set up by heirs of a different character. He had Numitor's son murdered, and appointed his daughter, Silvia, one of the Vestal virgins.
"Amulius had no children, or at least only one daughter: so that the race of Anchises and Aphrodite seemed on the point of expiring, when the love of a god prolonged it, in spite of the ordinances of man, and gave it a lustre worthy of its origin. Silvia had gone into the sacred grove, to draw water from the spring for the service of the temple. The sun quenched its rays: the sight of a wolf made her fly into a cave: there Mars overpowered the timid virgin, and then consoled her with the promise of noble children, as Posidon consoled Tyro, the daughter of Salmoneus. But he did not protect her from the tyrant; nor could the protestations of her innocence save her. Vesta herself seemed to demand the condemnation of the unfortunate priestess; for at the moment when she was delivered of twins, the image of the goddess hid its eyes, her altar trembled, and her fire died away. Amulius ordered that the mother and her babes should be drowned in the river. In the Anio Silvia exchanged her earthly life for that of a goddess. The river carried the bole or cradle, in which the children were lying, into the Tiber, which had overflowed its banks far and wide, even to the foot of the woody hills. At the root of a wild fig-tree, the Ficus Ruminalis, which was preserved and held sacred for many centuries, at the foot of the Palatine, the cradle overturned. A she-wolf came to drink of the stream: she heard the whimpering of the children, carried them into her den hard by, made a bed for them, licked and suckled them. When they wanted other food than milk, a woodpecker, the bird sacred to Mars, brought it to them. Other birds consecrated to auguries hovered over them, to drive away insects. This marvellous spectacle was seen by Faustulus, the shepherd of the royal flocks. The she-wolf drew back, and gave up the children to human nature. Acca Laurentia, his wife, became their foster-mother. They grew up, along with her twelve sons, on the Palatine hill, in straw huts which they built for themselves: that of Romulus was preserved by continual repairs, as a sacred relic, down to the time of Nero. They were the stoutest of the shepherd lads, fought bravely against wild beasts and robbers, maintaining their right against every one by their might, and turning might into right. Their booty they shared with their comrades. The followers of Romulus were called Quinctilii, those of Remus Fabii: the seeds of discord were soon sown amongst them. Their wantonness engaged them in disputes with the shepherds of the wealthy Numitor, who fed their flocks on Mount Aventine: so that here, as in the story of Evander and Cacus, we find the quarrel between the Palatine and the Aventine in the tales of the remotest times. Remus was taken by the stratagem of these shepherds, and dragged to Alba as a robber. A secret foreboding, the remembrance of his grandsons, awakened by the story of the two brothers, kept Numitor from pronouncing a hasty sentence. The culprit's foster-father hastened with Romulus to the city, and told the old man and the youths of their kindred. They resolved to avenge their own wrong and that of their house. With their faithful comrades, whom the dangers of Remus had brought to the city, they slew the king; and the people of Alba again became subject to Numitor.
"But love for the home which fate had assigned them drew the youths back to the banks of the Tiber, to found a city there, and the shepherds, their old companions, were their first citizens.... This is the old tale, as it was written by Fabius, and sung in ancient lays down to the time of Dionysius."—Niebuhr's Hist. of Rome.
In the cliff of the Palatine, below the fig-tree, was shown for many centuries the cavern Lupercal, sacred from the earliest times to the Pelasgic god Pan.
"La louve, nourrice de Romulus, a peut-être été imaginée en raison des rapports mythologiques qui existaient entre le loup et Pan défenseur des troupeaux. Ce qu'il y a de sûr, c'est que les fêtes lupercales gardèrent le caractère du dieu en l'honneur duquel elles avaient été primitivement instituées et l'empreinte d'une origine pélasgique; ces fêtes au temps de Cicéron avaient encore un caractère pastoral en mémoire de l'Arcadie d'où on les croyait venues. Les Luperques qui représentaient les Satyres, compagnons de Pan, faisaient le tour de l'antique séjour des Pélasges sur le Palatin. Ces hommes nus allaient frappant avec les lanières de peau de bouc, l'animal lascif par excellence, les femmes pour les rendre fécondes; des fêtes analogues se célébraient en Arcadie sous le nom de Lukéia (les fêtes des loups), dont le mot lupercales est une traduction."—Ampère, Hist. Rome, i. 143.
In the hut of Romulus were preserved several objects venerated as relics of him.
"On conservait le bâton augural avec lequel Romulus avait dessiné sur le ciel, suivant le rite étrusque, l'espace où s'était manifesté le grand auspice des douze vautours dans lesquels Rome crut voir la promesse des douze siècles qu'en effet le destin devait lui accorder. Tous les augures se servirent par la suite de ce bâton sacré, qui fut trouvé intact après l'incendie du monument dans lequel il était conservé, miracle païen dont l'equivalent pourrait se rencontrer dans plus d'une légende de la Rome chrétienne. On montrait le cornouiller né du bois de la lance que Romulus, avec la vigueur surhumaine d'un demi-dieu, avait jetée de l'Aventin sur le Palatin, où elle s'était enfoncée dans la terre et avait produit un grand arbre.
"On montrait sur le Palatin le berceau et la cabane de Romulus. Plutarque a vu ce berceau, le Santo-Presepio des anciens Romains, qui était attaché avec des liens d'airain, et sur lequel on avait tracé des caractères mystérieux. La cabane était à un seul étage, en planches et couverte de roseaux, que l'on reconstruisait pieusement chaque fois qu'un incendie la détruisait; car elle brûla à diverses reprises, ce que la nature des matériaux dont elle était formée fait croire facilement. J'ai vu dans les environs de Rome un cabaret rustique dont la toiture était exactement pareille à celle de là cabane de Romulus."—Ampère, Hist. Rom. i. 342.
Turning along the terrace which overhangs the Velabrum we reach the ruins of the Palace of Tiberius,[113] in which he resided during the earlier part of his reign, when he was under the influence of his aged and imperious mother Livia. Here he had to mourn for Drusus, his only son, who fell a victim (A.D. 23) to poison administered to him by his wife Livilla and her lover the favourite Sejanus. Here also, in A.D. 29, died Livia, widow of Augustus, at the age of eighty-six, "a memorable example of successful artifice, having attained in succession, by craft if not by crime, every object she could desire in the career of female ambition."[114]
The row of arches remaining are those of the soldiers' quarters. In the fourth arch is a curious graffite of a ship. In another the three pavements in use at different times may be seen in situ, one above another. On the terrace above these arches has recently been discovered a large piscina, or fish-pond, and the painted chambers of a building, which is supposed to have been the House of Drusus (elder brother of Tiberius) and Antonia. Several of the rooms in this building are richly decorated in fresco, one has a picture of a street with figures of females going to a sacrifice, and of ladies at their toilette; another of Mercury, Io, and Argus; and a third of Galatea and Polyphemus. From the names of the characters in these pictures represented being affixed to them in Greek, we may naturally conclude that they are the work of Greek artists.
The north-eastern corner of the area is entirely occupied by the vast ruins of the Palace of Caligula, built against the side of the hill above the Clivus Victoriœ, which still remains, and consisting of ranges of small rooms, communicating with open galleries, edged by marble balustrades, of which a portion exists. In these rooms the half-mad Caius Caligula rushed about, sometimes dressed as a charioteer, sometimes as a warrior, and delighted in astonishing his courtiers by his extraordinary pranks, or shocking them by trying to enforce a belief in his own divinity.[115]
"C'est dans ce palais que, tourmenté par l'insomnie et par l'agitation de son âme furieuse, il passera une partie de la nuit à errer sous d'immenses portiques, attendant et appellant le jour. C'est là aussi qu'il aura l'incroyable idée de placer un dieu infâme.
"Caligula se fit bâtir sur le Palatin deux temples. Il avait d'abord voulu avoir une demeure sur le mont Capitolin; mais, ayant réfléchi que Jupiter l'avait precédé au Capitole, il en prit de l'humeur et retourna sur le Palatin. Dans les folies de Caligula, on voit se manifester cette pensée: Je suis dieu! pensée qui n'était peut-être pas très-extraordinaire chez un jeune homme de vingt-cinq ans devenu tout-à-coup maître du monde. Il parut en effet croire à sa divinité, prenant le nom et les attributs de divers dieux, et changeant de nature divine en changeant de perruque.
"Non content de s'élever un temple à lui-même, Caligula en vint à être son propre prêtre et à s'adorer. Le despotisme oriental avait connu cette adoration étrange de soi: sur les monuments de l'Egypte on voit Ramsès-roi présenter son offrande à Ramsès-dieu; mais Caligula fit ce que n'avait fait aucun Pharaon; il se donna pour collègue, dans ce culte de sa propre personne, son cheval, qu'il ne nomma pas, mais qu'il songea un moment de nommer consul."—Ampère, Emp. ii. 8.
Here "one day at a public banquet, when the consuls were reclining by his side, Caligula burst suddenly into a fit of laughter; and when they courteously inquired the cause of his mirth, astounded them by coolly replying that he was thinking how by one word he could cause both their heads to roll on the floor. He amused himself with similar banter even with his wife Cæsonia, for whom he seems to have had a stronger feeling than for any of his former consorts. While fondling her neck he is reported to have said, 'Fair as it is, how easily I could sever it.'"—Merivale, ch. xlviii.
After the murder of Caligula (Jan. 24, 794) by the tribune Cheræa, in the vaulted passage which led from the palace to the theatre, a singular chance which occurred in this part of the palace led to the elevation of Claudius to the throne.
"In the confusion which ensued upon the death of Caius, several of the prætorian guards had flung themselves furiously into the palace and began to plunder its glittering chambers. None dared to offer them any opposition; the slaves or freedmen fled and concealed themselves. One of the inmates, half-hidden behind a curtain in an obscure corner, was dragged forth with brutal violence; and great was the intruder's surprise when they recognised him as Claudius, the long despised and neglected uncle of the murdered emperor.[116] He sank at their feet almost senseless with terror: but the soldiers in their wildest mood still respected the blood of the Cæsars, and instead of slaying or maltreating the suppliant, the brother of Germanicus, they hailed him, more in jest perhaps than earnest, with the title of Imperator, and carried him off to their camp."—Merivale, ch. xlix.
In this same palace Claudius was feasting when he was told that his hitherto idolised wife Messalina was dead, without being told whether she died by her own hand or another's,—and asked no questions, merely desiring a servant to pour him out some more wine, and went on eating his supper.[117] Here also Claudius, who so dearly loved eating, devoured his last and fatal supper of poisoned mushrooms which his next loving wife (and niece) Agrippina prepared for him, to make way for her son Nero upon the throne.[118]
The Clivus Victoriæ commemorates by its name the Temple of Victory,[119] said to have been founded by the Sabine aborigines before the time of Romulus, and to be the earliest temple at Rome of which there is any mention except that of Saturnus. This temple was rebuilt by the consul L. Posthumius.
Chief of a group of small temples, the famous Temple of Cybele, "Mother of the Gods," stood at this corner of the Palatine. Thirteen years before it was built, the "Sacred Stone," the form under which the "Idæan Mother" was worshipped, had been brought from Pessinus in Phrygia, because, according to the Sibylline books, frequent showers of stones which had occurred could only be expiated by its being transported to Rome. It was given up to the Romans by their ally Attalus, king of Pergamus, and P. Cornelius Scipio, the young brother of Africanus—accounted the worthiest and most virtuous of the Romans—was sent to receive it. As the vessel bearing the holy stone came up the Tiber it grounded at the foot of the Aventine, when the aruspices declared that only chaste hands would be able to move it. Then the Vestal Claudia drew the vessel up the river by a rope.
"Ainsi Sainte Brigitte, Suédoise morte à Rome, prouva sa pureté en touchant le bois de l'autel, qui reverdit soudain. Une statue fut érigée à Claudia, dans le vestibule du temple de Cybèle. Bien qu'elle eût été, disait on, seule épargnée dans deux incendies du temple, nous n'avons plus cette statue, mais nous avons au Capitole un bas-relief où l'événement miraculeux est représenté. C'est un autel dédié par une affranchie de la gens Claudia; il a été trouvé au pied de l'Aventin, près du lieu qu'on désignait comme celui où avait été opéré le miracle."—Ampère, Hist. Rom. iii. 142.
In her temple, which was round and surmounted by a cupola, Cybele was represented by a statue with its face to the east; the building was adorned with a painting of Corybantes, and plays were acted in front of it.[120]
This temple, after its second destruction by fire, was entirely rebuilt by Augustus in A.D. 2.
"Cybèle est certainement la grande déesse, la grande mère, c'est-à-dire la personnification de la fécondité et de la vie universelle: bizarre idole qui présente le spectacle hideux de mamelles disposés par paires le long d'un corps comme enveloppé dans une gaîne, et d'où sortent des taureaux et des abeilles, images des forces créatrices et des puissances ordonnatrices de la nature. On honorait cette déesse de l'Asie par des orgies furieuses, par un mélange de débauche effrénée et de rites cruels; ses prêtres efféminés dansaient au son des flûtes lydiennes et de ses crotales, véritables castagnettes, semblables à celles que fait résonner aujourd'hui la paysanne romaine en dansant la fougueuse saltarelle. On voit au musée du Capitole l'effigie bas-relief d'un archigalle, d'un chef de ces prêtres insensés, et près de lui les attributs de la déesse asiatique, les flûtes, les crotales, et la mystérieuse corbeille. Cet archigalle, avec son air de femme, sa robe qui conviendrait à une femme, nous retrace l'espèce de démence religieuse à laquelle s'associaient les délires pervers d'Héliogabale."—Ampère, Emp. ii. 310.
We have the authority of Martial[121] that in the immediate neighbourhood of the temple of Cybele, stood the Temple of Apollo, though Signor Rosa places it on the other side of the hill in the gardens of S. Buonaventura. Its remains have yet to be discovered.
"Nothing could exceed the magnificence of this temple, according to the accounts of ancient authors. Propertius, who was present at its dedication, has devoted a short elegy to the description of it, and Ovid describes it as a splendid structure of white marble.
"From the epithet aurea porticus, it seems probable that the cornice of the portico which surrounded it was gilt. The columns were of African marble, or giallo-antico, and must have been fifty-two in number, as between them were the statues of the fifty Danaids, and that of their father, brandishing a naked sword.
"Here also was a statue of Apollo sounding the lyre, apparently a likeness of Augustus; whose beauty when a youth, to judge from his bust in the Vatican, might well entitle him to counterfeit the god. Around the altar were the images of four oxen, the work of Myron, so beautifully sculptured that they seemed alive. In the middle of the portico rose the temple, apparently of white marble. Over the pediment was the chariot of the sun. The gates were of ivory, one of them sculptured with the story of the giants hurled down from the heights of Parnassus, the other representing the destruction of the Niobids. Inside the temple was the statue of Apollo in a tunica talaris, or long garment, between his mother Latona and his sister Diana, the work of Scopas, Cephisodorus, and Timotheus. Under the base of Apollo's statue Augustus caused to be buried the Sibylline books which he had selected and placed in gilt chests. Attached to the temple was a library called Bibliotheca Græca et Latina, apparently, however, only one structure, containing the literature of both tongues. Only the choicest works were admitted to the honour of a place in it, as we may infer from Horace:
"The library appears to have contained a bronze statue of Apollo, fifty feet high; whence we must conclude that the roof of the hall exceeded that height. In this library, or more probably, perhaps, in an adjoining apartment, poets, orators, and philosophers recited their productions. The listless demeanour of the audience on such occasions seems, from the description of the younger Pliny, to have been, in general, not over-encouraging. Attendance seems to have been considered as a friendly duty."—Dyer's City of Rome.
The temple of Apollo was built by Augustus to commemorate the battle of Actium. He appropriated to it part of the land covered with houses which he had purchased upon the Palatine;—another part he gave to the Vestals; the third he used for his own palace.
Thus Apollo and Vesta became as it were the household gods of Augustus:
Other temples on the Palatine were that of Juno Sospita:
of Minerva:
a temple of Moonlight mentioned by Varro (iv. 10) and a shrine of Vesta.
From the Torretta del Palatino which is near the house of Caligula, there is a magnificent view over the seven hills of Rome;—the Palatine, Aventine, Capitoline, Cœlian, Quirinal, Viminal, and Esquiline. From this point also it is very interesting to remember that these were not the heights considered as "the Seven Hills" in the ancient history of Rome, when the sacrifices of the Septimontium were offered upon the Palatine, Velia, and Germale, the three divisions of the Palatine—of which one can no longer be traced; upon the Fagutal, Oppius, and Cispius, the secondary heights of the Esquiline; and upon the Suburra, which perhaps comprehended the Viminal.[122] Hence also we see the ground we have traversed on the Palatine spread before us like a map.
If we descend the staircase in the Palace of Caligula, we may trace as far as the Porta Romana the piers of the Bridge of Caligula, which, half in vanity, half in madness, he threw across the valley, that he might, as he said, the more easily hold intercourse with his friend and comrade Jupiter upon the Capitol. One of the piers which he used for his bridge, beyond the limits of the palace, was formed by the temple of Augustus built by Tiberius.[123] This bridge, with all other works of Caligula, was of very short duration, being destroyed immediately after his death by Claudius.
Returning by the Clivus Victoriæ, we shall find ourselves again on the eastern slope of the hill from which we started, the site once occupied by so many of the great patrician families. Here at one time lived Caius Gracchus, who to gratify the populace, gave up his house on the side of the Palatine, and made his home in the gloomy Suburra. Here also lived his coadjutor in the consulship, Fulvius Flaccus, who shared his fate, and whose house was razed to the ground by the people after his murder. At this corner of the hill also was the house of Q. Lutatius Catulus, poet and historian, who was consul B.C. 102, and together with Marius was conqueror of the Cimbri in a great battle near Vercelli. In memory of this he founded a temple of the "Fortuna hujusce diei," and decorated the portico of his house with Cimbrian trophies. Varro mentions that his house had also a domed roof.[124] Here also the consul Octavius, murdered on the Janiculum by the partisans of Marius, had a house, which was rebuilt with great magnificence by Emilius Scaurus, who adorned it with columns of marble thirty-eight feet high.[125] These two last-named houses were bought by the wealthy Clodius, who gave 14,800,000 sesterces, or about 130,000l., for that of Scaurus, and throwing down the Porticus Catuli, included its site, and the house of E. Scaurus, in his own magnificent dwelling. Clodius was a member of the great house of the Claudii, and was the favoured lover of Pompeia, wife of Julius Cæsar, by whose connivance, disguised as a female musician, he attempted to be present at the orgies of the Bona Dea, which were celebrated in the house of the Pontifex Maximus close to the temple of Vesta, and from which men were so carefully excluded, that even a male mouse, says Juvenal, dared not show himself there. The position of his own dwelling, and that of the pontifex, close to the foot of the Clivus Victoriæ, afforded every facility for this adventure, but it was discovered by his losing himself in the passages of the Regia. A terrible scandal was the result—Cæsar divorced Pompeia, and the senate referred the matter to the pontifices, who declared that Clodius was guilty of sacrilege. Clodius attempted to prove an alibi, but Cicero's evidence showed that he was with him in Rome only three hours before he pretended to have been at Interamna. Bribery and intimidation secured his acquittal by a majority of thirty-one to twenty-five,[126] but from this time a deadly enmity ensued between him and Cicero.
The house of Clodius naturally leads us to that of Cicero, which was also situated at this corner of the Palatine, whence he could see his clients in the Forum and go to and fro to his duties there. This house had been built for M. Livius Drusus, who, when his architect proposed a plan to prevent its being overlooked, answered, "Rather build it so that all my fellow-citizens may behold everything that I do." In his acts Drusus seemed to imitate the Gracchi; but he sought popularity for its own sake, and after being the object of a series of conspiracies was finally murdered in the presence of his mother Cornelia, in his own hall, where the image of his father was sprinkled with his blood. When dying he turned to those around him and asked, with characteristic arrogance, based perhaps upon conscious honesty of purpose, "when will the commonwealth have a citizen like me again?" After the death of Drusus the house was inhabited by L. Licinius Crassus the orator, who lived here in great elegance and luxury. His house was called from its beauty "the Venus of the Palatine," and was remarkable for its size, the taste of its furniture, and the beauty of its grounds. "It was adorned with pillars of Hymettian marble, with expensive vases, and triclinia inlaid with brass. His gardens were provided with fishponds, and some noble lotus-trees shaded his walks. Ahenobarbus, his colleague in the censorship, found fault with such corruption of manners,[127] estimated his house at a hundred million, or, according to Valerius Maximus,[128] six million sesterces, and complained of his crying for the loss of a lamprey as if it had been a daughter. It was a tame lamprey which used to come at the call of Crassus, and feed out of his hand. Crassus retorted by a public speech against his colleague, and by his great powers of ridicule, turned him into derision; jested upon his name,[129] and to the accusation of weeping for a lamprey, replied, that it was more than Ahenobarbus had done for the loss of any of his three wives."[130] Cicero purchased the house of Crassus a year or two after his consulate for a sum equal to about 30,000l., and removed thither from the Carinæ with his wife Terentia. His house was close to that of Clodius, but a little lower down the hill, which enabled him to threaten to increase the height, so as to shut out his neighbour's view of the city. Upon his accession to the tribuneship Clodius procured the disgrace of Cicero, and after his flight to Greece, obtained a decree of banishment against him. He then pillaged and destroyed his house upon the Palatine, as well as his villas at Tusculum and Formia, and obliged Terentia to take refuge with the Vestals, whose Superior was fortunately her sister. But in the following year, a change of consuls and revulsion of the popular favour led to the recall of Cicero, who found part of his house appropriated by Clodius, who had erected a shrine to Libertas (with a statue which was that of a Greek courtezan carried off from the tomb)[131] on the site of the remainder, which he had razed to the ground.[132]