ROME ; 



Forum Romanum what we now 

 see there is in the main his in con- 

 ception and built the first of a 

 series of fora in the space between 

 the Capitol and Quirinal, with' a 

 view to the improvement of com- 

 munications between the N. and S. 

 parts of the city. It was in his time, 

 too, that the river was first em- 

 banked, and that Pompey erected 

 the first important group of public 

 buildings in the Campus Martius. : 



Augustus completed what Juluu, 

 had begun, and besides displayed 

 much activity in other directions ; 

 so that his famous boast that he 

 found Rome of brick and left it of 

 marble is amply justified. He 

 erected three groups of public 

 buildings in the Campus Martius, 

 restored no fewer than 82 temples 

 and built others, including that 

 of Apollo on the Palatine, divided 

 the city into 14 regions, eight of 

 them within the Servian wall and 

 five outside it, the fourteenth being 

 formed by the island and a con- 

 siderable commercial quarter on 

 the right bank of the river. A 

 police and fire brigade was also 

 established, the river was once 

 more regulated, and the first public 

 baths were constructed. 

 Imperial Palaces 



The next emperors were mainly 

 occupied with providing them- 

 selves with magnificent palaces. 

 Augustus had been content with 

 the house of Cicero's opponent 

 Hortensius, which, generally known 

 as the house of Livia, may still 

 be seen on the Palatine. This was 

 the aristocratic quarter, and recent 

 excavations there have brought to 

 light remains of other houses of 

 the same period with fine paintings. 

 The successors of Augustus con- 

 structed a splendid palace on this 

 hill, while Nero occupied the whole 

 district between the Palatine and 

 Esquiline with his enormous Golden 

 House, which spread over a larger 

 area than the Vatican. Whether he 

 was responsible for the fire which 

 is always associated with his name 

 will never be known ; but he cer- 

 tainly took advantage of it, not only 

 in this respect, but by compelling 

 private proprietors to reconstruct 

 their houses more substantially 

 and to encroach less on the streets. 



Vespasian marked the accession 

 of a new dynasty by the restora- 

 tion to public uses of much of 

 what Nero had appropriated, and 

 built the first permanent amphi- 

 theatre, the Colosseum, where Nero 

 had formed an ornamental lake ; he 

 also added a new forum, that of 

 Peace, rebuilt the temple of Jupiter 

 on the Capitol, and carried out 

 new survey of the city. To his se- 

 cond son, Domitian, is mainly due 

 the construction of a still more 



6679 



magnificent imperial residence on 

 the Palatine. Of that which had 

 preceded it, we may gain some idea 

 from the remains which he left 

 under the floors of his palace, for 

 Roman builders did not destroy 

 the remains of previous edifices, 

 but left them to serve as founda- 

 tions. It was approached by a 

 series of magnificent halls, one of 

 which has been generally, but 

 wrongly, identified with the temple 

 erected in honour of Augustus 

 after his death, while the church 

 of S. Maria Antiqua was ensconced 

 in another in the 6th century. 



Hence an inclined plain led up 

 to the Palatine, where the palace 

 of Tiberius on the N.W. sum- 

 mit of the hill was rebuilt, while 

 the S.E. part was taken up by 

 another huge palace, divided into 

 state apartments, a residential 

 portion, and a garden. Domitian 

 began the construction of a new 

 forum, which was finished by 

 Nerva ; but the series of imperial 

 fora was completed by Trajan, who 

 finally cut back the cliff of the 

 Quirinal to a maximum height of 

 100 ft., as the inscription on his 

 column records, and thereby 

 was enabled to overcome finally 

 the difficulty of communications 

 through this narrow space which 

 is one of the most pressing traffic 

 problems of the present day. He 

 also brought another aqueduct to- 

 Rome, and erected enormous public 

 baths on the site of the Golden 

 House. These were until 1895 

 known as the baths of Titus, which 

 were in reality close to the Colos- 

 seum, and very much smaller. 

 The Golden Age 



Hadrian, his successor, was also 

 active in building, and besides the 

 immense villa which he erected for 

 himself near Tivoli, he is respon- 

 sible for the temple of Venus and 

 Rome, for the Pantheon in its 

 present form, one of the best pre- 

 served ancient buildings, and 

 certainly the most beautiful in- 

 terior which we have, and for his 

 mausoleum, which later became 

 the Castle of S. Angelo, the great 

 fortress of the popes, and the 

 bridge leading to it. Marcus 

 Aurelius imitated Trajan in erect- 

 ing a column on which his cam- 

 paigns were represented in bas- 

 relief ; but Septimius Severus 

 was the next great builder, the 

 fire in the reign of Commodus having 

 given him his opportunity. 



The temple of Vesta, the house 

 of the Vestals, and other buildings 

 were restored by him ; he made 

 a considerable addition to the im- 

 perial palace on the Palatine, and 

 was- responsible for a marble plan 

 of ancient Rome, considerable 

 fragments of which exist. His son 



ROME 



Caracalla built huge thermae on 

 the Via Appia, but the rest of the 

 emperors of the 3rd century A.D. 

 had no leisure for building, with 

 the exception of the hasty con- 

 struction of the city walls by 

 Aurelian and Probus, who took 

 advantage as far as possible of 

 existing buildings. They are built 

 of concrete faced with brick and 

 are still in great measure preserved. 



In 283 another fire gave Diocle- 

 tian the opportunity of further 

 extensive restorations ; he was 

 also responsible for the colossal 

 baths which bear his name, and 

 which are now the seat of one of the 

 finest of Roman museums. Maxen- 

 tius erected the greater part of the 

 huge basilica in the Forum which 

 his conqueror, Constantine, com- 

 pleted a building which can no 

 longer claim to be the earliest 

 basilica in Rome, now that one of 

 the 1st century A.D., undoubtedly 

 pagan, decorated with very fine 

 stuccoes, has been found under- 

 ground near the Porta Maggiore. 

 Christian Basilicas 



Constantine was also responsible 

 for the erection of the earliest and 

 most important of the Christian 

 basilicas : S. Pietro, S. Paolo, S. 

 Lorenzo, etc., many of which stood 

 on the actual site of the tombs 

 of the martyrs ; this fact led to 

 the preservation of the roads which 

 led to them throughout the Middle 

 Ages, and is thus of topographical 

 importance. After the triumph 

 of Christianity the catacombs, 

 which had been excavated along 

 the main highroads, became the 

 goal of pilgrims, and some of the 

 basilicas of Constantine were built 

 over the tombs of the saints. 



After the barbarian invasions, in 

 which the aqueducts were de- 

 stroyed, the upper portions of the 

 city, which depended on them for 

 their water supply, were aban- 

 doned, and medieval Rome, with 

 the exception of a number of iso- 

 lated churches, convents, and 

 strongholds, was crowded into the . 

 low ground near the river. Many of 

 the last were built into the remains 

 of ancient edifices, which had been 

 partially ruined by earthquakes: 

 one of the worst of these occurred 

 in the middle of the 9th century. 

 It is to these, and not to the 

 damage wrought by the barbarian 

 invaders, that the destruction of 

 the ancient monuments must be 

 attributed. 



Of medieval Rome, as a fact, 

 very little remains except towers 

 and campanili. Most of the 

 churches, as well as the great papal 

 palaces of the Vatican and the 

 Lateran, have been transformed 

 entirely by the architects of the 

 Renaissance and of its successor 



