VORTVMNVS TEMPORIBVS DIOCLETIANI  . ET . MAXIMIANI . (C.I.L. vi . 8o4; 10 see also Pseudo-Ascon, Ad Cic . Verr. ii . 1, 59) . The Vicus Tuscus was also called Thurarius, from shops of perfume-sellers (see Schol. ad

Hor . Sat. ii . 3, 228, and Ep. ii . 1, 269) . It is the street along which processions passed, mentioned by Cicero (Verr. ii .

I, 59) as extending a signo Vertumni in Circum Maximum . The

temple of Castor"—or, more properly, of " the Castores," i.e . Castor and Pollux—on the south-east side of the Vicus Tuscus was founded to commemorate the apparition in the Forum Temple of the Dioscuri, announcing the victory of Aulus Postumius of castor. at Lake Regillus, 496 B.C., and was dedicated in 484 B.C. by the son of A . Postumius (Liv. ii . 20, 42; Dionys. vi . 13; Qv . Fast. i . 706) . In 119 B.C. it was restored by the consul L . Caecilius Metellus Dalmaticus (Ascon . In . Cic .

Pro Scaur . 46), and, finally rebuilt in the reign of Augustus by Tiberius and Drusus, A.D . 6 (Suet . Tib . 20; Ov . Fast. i . 705; Dio Cass. lv . 8, 27) ; the three existing Corinthian columns and piece of entablature, all very delicate and graceful in detail, and of the finest workmanship, in Pentelic marble, belong to a still later restoration under Trajan or Hadrian . One point shows Roman timidity in the use of a lintel: the frieze is jointed so as to form a flat arch, quite needlessly, with the object of relieving the weight on the architrave . Its plan, hexastyle, with only eleven columns on the sides, is shown in fig . 8 . It had a lofty podium, faced with marble and decorated with a heavy cornice and pilasters, one under each column .

The podium is an interesting example of the enormous solidity of Roman buildings of the best

period . Solid tufa walls, 8 ft. thick, are built under the whole of the cella and the front row of columns, while the columns of the sides rest on spurs of similar walling, projecting at right angles from that under the cella; the part immediately under the columns is of travertine, and the spurs are united and strengthened laterally by massive flat arches, also of travertine . Between the foundations of the columns were chambers used as offices, &c . With the exception of a small chamber under the steps, entered from the Vicus Tuscus, the entire podium is filled up by a solid mass of concrete, made of broken tufa, pozzolana and lime, the whole forming a lofty platform, about 22 ft. high, solid as a rock, on which the columns and upper structure are erected . The podium contains 6 " Forum . Ivlivm . et . basilicam . qvae . fvit . inter . aedem . Castoris et . aedem . Satvrni . coepta . profligataqve . opera . a . patre. meo. perfeci. et. eandem. basilicam. consvmptam. incendio . ampliato . eivs . solo . svb . titvlo . nominis . filiorvm . inchoavi . et . si. vivvs . non . perfecissem . perfici . ab . haeredibvs . [meis . ivssil]." The filii here referred to are Augustus's grandsons, Gains and Lucius, adopted by him in 17 B.C . (see Dio Cass. lvi . 27) . ' Three medieval lime-kilns were found by Canina within this basilica, which accounts for the scantiness of the existing remains .

8 A few have

inscriptions, e.g . " Vinces . gaudes: perdes . plangis." 9 The whole building has unhappily been much falsified by need-less restoration . 10 A drawing' of this pedestal, which is now lost,_ with MS. note by Ligorio, exists in Cod . Vat . 3439, fol . 46 . n The temple of Castor is shown on two fragments of the marble plan, and its position is also indicated by the passage in the Mon . Anc. quoted above (note 6) . a few remains' of the earliest temple, built of blocks of grey-green tufa . Two fragments of mosaic, with simple lozenge pattern in white marble and basalt, still exist in the cella of this temple . The level of the mosaic, which probably belongs to the rebuilding of Tiberius, lies considerably below that of the later floor, which seems to date from Hadrian's reign . It has all the characteristics of early mosaic—very small tesserae fitted with great accuracy, like the early mosaic in the Regia .

The temple of Castor was often used as a

meeting-place for the senate, and its lofty podium formed a tribunal for orations.' The Fons or Lacus Juturnae (see Ov . Fast. i . 705, and Dionys. vi . 13), at which the Dioscuri were fabled to have watered their horses, was beside their temple; the precinct was discovered in 1900-1 . The Lacus itself, a basin 164 ft. square and 61 ft. deep, is immediately opposite the three standing columns of the temple; in the centre is a base of ,opus reticulatum, which supported statues of the Dioscuri; an altar with reliefs, together with other sculptures, has been found close by, and a few yards off is a small chapel or aedicula, intended for a statue of Juturna, and in front of it a well-curb (puteal) of white marble, set up by the aedile M . Barbatius Pollio in the reign of Augustus . Close to the temple of Castor, at the angle of the Forum, stood the arch of Augustus, set up in 20 B.C. to commemorate the recovery Arch of of the standards taken from Crassus by the Parthians . Augustus . Its foundations were discovered in 1888; it had three bays, and rested on the pavement of a street which before the time of Augustus formed the E. boundary of the Forum . On the other side of the Sacra Via stand the remains of the temple of Divus Julius, erected by Augustus . Though little beyond its Temple concrete core is left, its plan can be fairly well made out T Dlvua from the voids in the concrete, which show the position Juttus. of the tufa foundations under the walls and columns (as in the temple of Castor) . The temple itself, a hexastyle prostyle building, with close intercolumniation (Vitr. iii .

2), stood on a lofty podium with a curved

recess in the front between two flights of stairs (see Plate VIII.) . The wall which now fills up the recess is a late addition . In 1898 the base of a large altar was discovered in the niche, doubtless that mentioned by Appian (Bell . Civ. ii . 148) . The podium, which projects in front of the temple itself, was adorned with beaks from the ships taken at Actium (Dio Cass. li . 19), and hence it was called the Rostra Julia, to distinguish it from the other rostra described above . Both were used for the funeral orations in honour of Augustus (Suet . Aug. too; see also Dio Cass. liv . 35) . Besides the concrete core and the curved tufa wall of the recess, little now exists except a small bit of the mosaic of the cella floor and some fragments of the cornice and pediment, of fine Greek marble . This temple is represented on coins of Augustus and Hadrian .

The temple of

Vesta, founded according to tradition by Numa,3 stands at the southern angle of the Forum on the ancient line of Temple the Sacra Via (Ov . Trist. iii . 1, 28) . No shrine in Rome of Vesta. was equal in sanctity to this little circular building, which contained the sacred fire and the relics on which the welfare and even the existence of Rome depended . The original building was destroyed in 390 B.C. by the Gauls; it was burnt again in 241 B.C., again in the great fire of Nero's reign, and then in the reign of Commodus; after this it was rebuilt by Severus, to whose age belong the fragments of columns, cornice and other architectural features now lying around the ruined podium . With the aid of coins' and a relief preserved in the Uffizi at Florence' it is possible to make a sufficiently accurate restoration of the temple.° It consisted of a circular cella, surrounded by eighteen columns, with screens between them; the circular podium, about to ft. high, still exists, mainly of concrete with some foundations of tufa blocks, which may belong to the original structure . Recent excavations have disclosed a pit (favissa) in the middle of the podium, where the ashes of the sacred fire were temporarily stored . In the time of Pliny (H.N. xxxiv . 7) the tholus or dome over the cella—symbolizing the canopy of heaven (Ov . Fast. vi . 276)—was covered with Syracusan bronze . Its position near the temple of Castor is mentioned by Martial (i .

71-73).7 The Regia, or

office of the pontifex maximus, was on the Sacra Via, close by the temple of Vesta . It also was traditionally Regis. founded by Numa, and used as his dwelling-house; It was destroyed in 390 B.C. by the Gauls, and was again burnt in 210 B.C . (Liv. xxvi . 27), when the temple of Vesta narrowly ' On these see Delbriick, Das Capitolium von Signia (1903), p . 22 ; Der Apollotempel auf dem Marsfelde (1903), p . 14; van Buren in Class . Rev. xx. pp . 77 if . 2 The front of the podium was decorated with ships' beaks . One of the mad acts of Caligula was to make the temple of Castor into the vestibule of his palace by breaking a door through the back of the cella (Suet . Cal . 22) .

3 Another

legend attributes its founding to Romulus . On the coins see Dressel, Zeitschr. fur Numismatik (1899), 20 if . ° Lanciani, L'Atrio di Vesta (1884), pl. xix . ° See Huelsen, The Roman Forum, p . 190, fig . Io8 . ' See Jordan, Vesta and die Laren (Berlin, 1865); and Auer in the Denkschriften der Wiener Akademie (1888), ii . 209 if.escaped . Ovid (Trist. iii . I, 28) describes this end of the Forum thus: " Haec est a sacris .quae via nomen habet, Hic locus est Vestae, qui Pallada servat et ignem, Hic fuit antique Regia parva Numae." It was again damaged by fire in 148 B.C. and 36 B.C., after which it was rebuilt in marble by Cn . Domitius Calvinus, and its outer walls inscribed with the lists of consuls and triumphs (fasli consulares et, triumphales) of which many fragments have been recovered . Recent excavations have brought to light the tufa foundations of the republican building, including a round substructure, which may have supported the sacrarium Martis, in which were preserved the ancilia or sacred shields and spears (Gell. iv .

6), and an under-ground cistern, which has been brought into connexion with the shrine of Ops Consiva (

Varro, L.L. vi . 21) . The official residence of the pontifex maximus was not the Regia, but the domus publica; when Augustus succeeded to the office, he conveyed a part of his residence on the Palatine to the state in order to satisfy the claims of tradition, and presented the domus publica to the vestals . The excavations of 1883–84 laid bare remains of this very interesting building, and showed that it was a large house extending close up to the Atrium Vestae; its orientation corresponded with that of the Regia . The existing remains are of several dates—first, walls of soft tufa, part possibly of the earliest building; second, walls of hard tufa, of rather later date; and lastly, concrete walls faced with brick, decorated with painted stucco, and columns of travertine, also stuccoed and painted' with a large quantity of fine mosaic of that early sort which has very small tesserae put together with great accuracy . These valuable remains were preserved in spite of the erection of later buildings over them, because the levels of the later floors were higher than those of the Regia, and thus covered and protected the mosaics and lower parts of the walls and columns . The Atrium Vestae, or house of the vestals, like the temple, was many times burnt and rebuilt; the existing building, which was excavated in 1883–84 and more completely in 1901, seems Atrium to have been built after the great fire of A.D . 64, and to Vestae. have been restored or enlarged several times—by the Flavian emperors, who added the colonnade; Hadrian, who built the tablinum and other rooms at the end ;the Antonines, and Septimius Severus, who restored the whole after the fire of A.D . 192 ? It consists of a large atrium or quadrangle with columns of cipollino . At one end is the tablinum, with three small rooms on each side of it—probably for the six vestals . A bathroom, bakehouse, servants' offices, and some rooms lined with rich marbles extend along the south-west side .

This extensive building is set against the side of the Palatine, which is cut away to admit the lower

storey . Thus the level of the first upper floor is nearly the same as that of the Nova Via, on which it faces, about 23 ft. above the ground floor . The upper floor is in part well preserved; it contains a large suite of bath and other rooms, which were probably the sleeping apartments of the vestals . All the better rooms and the baths are lined with polished marbles, many of great beauty and rarity; the floors are mostly mosaic of tessellated work . The paving of the tablinum was a beautiful specimen of inlay in porphyry and marble . In many places alterations and clumsy patchings of the 4th and 5th centuries are apparent . A number of statues of the chief vestal, or virgo vestalis maxima, with inscribed pedestals, were found in the atrium, mostly of the 3rd century, though a few are earlier; these are of especial interest as illustrating the sacerdotal dress of the vestals.° Nothing but the Nova Via separates the Atrium Vestae from the imperial palace (see Plin . Ep. vii . 19; Aul . Gell.. i . 12), which extends over the site of the Lucus Vestae—" qui a Palatii radice in Novam Viam devexus est " (Cie . De Div. e .

45) . A curious octagonal structure in the middle of the atrium looks very much like a border for

flower-beds; and it is possible that this miniature garden was made by the vestals when the Lucus Vestae ceased to exist . By the main entrance from the Forum stood a small aedicula —a large pedestal, at the angles of which were columns supporting an entablature.' It no doubt contained a statue of Vesta, there being none within the temple . It is of the time of Hadrian . Gratian confiscated the house and endowments of the vestals in A.D . 382, but the atrium continued to be partly inhabited for many centuries later by imperial or papal officials.° In September 1884 a road was ° The columns were crimson, the travertine rain-water gutter bright blue, and the inner walls had_simple designs in panels of leaf ornament and wreaths . 9A full account of the Atrium Vestae and its successive restorations is given in Miss E . B . Van Deman's Atrium Vestae (1909) . e° The most important of these have been removed to the Museo delle Terme . 1' The front is inscribed SENATVS . POPVLVSQVE .

ROMANVS . PECVNIA . PVBLICA . FACIENDAM . CVRAVIT . 12 In the excavations of

December 1883 a pot was found in the north corner containing 83o silver pennies of English kings of the 9th and loth centuries—Alfred the Great, Edward I., Aethelstan, Eadmund I., and others . A list of these is given by De Rossi in Lanciani's work, L'Atrio di Vesta (Rome, 1884) .