26 



ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES. (ITALY.) 



the gymnasium was in a good state of preser- 

 vation ; and a great palace-hall, or atrium, of 

 late date, has an arch appearing with purely 

 Hellenic details. The Street of Tombs presents 

 monuments of every period, one of which can 

 not be later than the seventh century B. o., 

 \vhik* many are as recent as the eleventh or 

 twelfth Christian century. One of the large 

 mausoleums offers a perfect parallel to the 

 tombs of the kings at Jerusalem. One hun- 

 dred and twenty-four sarcophagi were opened 

 for the first time, and many archaic cinerary 

 urns were found. Inhumation and cremation 

 appear to have been maintained side by side. 

 In the sarcophagi were discovered ornaments 

 of gold, terra-cotta figurini, small vases, and 

 glasses, including some fine specimens of thin, 

 transparent glass, and several thousand coins. 

 Tiie walls, of which the chief masses date from 

 the fourth century B. o., are more than two 

 miles in length, are remarkably well preserved, 

 and rise in many piaces to within one or two 

 courses of their original height of sixty feet 

 and over. 



Villas of Ancient Roman Nobles. Advantage has 

 been taken of the works of reconstruction and 

 public improvement that have been going on 

 in the city of Rome, to make a careful exami- 

 nation of the ruins and relics of ancient Roman 

 life that are from time to time in the course 

 of the work rendered accessible : and by this 

 means much progress has been made toward 

 an ideal restoration of the city as it was dur- 

 ing^ the imperial period. The Via Nazionale, 

 which has been in the course of opening and 

 building during the past twelve years, passes 

 close to the line of the ancient Vicus Lon- 

 gus, which ran through one of the most aristo- 

 cratic quarters of the town. In this region, 

 starting from the modern Piazza di Magnana- 

 poli and advancing toward the baths of Dio- 

 cletian, the remains of the " superb mansions " 

 of between fifteen and twenty Roman nobles 

 have been brought to light, but the explora- 

 tions of them, which were made during the 

 earlier period of the excavations, were " irreg- 

 ular and merely accidental," and the informa- 

 tion that was gained respecting them was not 

 as accurate or exhaustive as is desired. A 

 more important and regular work, the building 

 of the office of the Minister of War, is giving 

 the opportunity of exploring under better au- 

 spices that portion of the district which extend- 

 ed from the Vicus Longus to the Vicus Portge 

 Colliiue, and from the Templum Salutis to the 

 baths of Diocletian. The war office covers an 

 area of 15,000 square metres which formerly 

 belonged to the monastery of the Barberine 

 nuns. The ground was explored in a desulto- 

 ry manner when the monastery was built, at 

 the beginning of the seventeenth century, but 

 > lirt value of the information it might have 



the 



yielded was not then appreciated. The new 

 exploration of the same ground has been at- 

 tended with the discovery of the town resi- 

 dence of Vulcacius Rufinus, the uncle of Juli- 



an the Apostate, who became consul in A. D. 

 347, prefect of the Prastorium, A. D. 349, and 

 again, A. D. 368, governor of Numidia, member 

 of the privy council, etc. The vestibule of the 

 palace is a large hall, paved with marble in- 

 crustations of the rarest kind, and the lower 

 part of the walls is covered with the same. On 

 the left side of the entrance was found a mar- 

 ble pedestal dedicated to Vulcacius Rufinus by 

 the township of Ravenna, the information 

 contained in which, compared with that given 

 by writers of the time, makes it possible to 

 trace closely the successive steps of the dis- 

 tinguished citizen's career. This residence, 

 which faced the street on the south, was sur- 

 rounded by other palaces on the north and east 

 sides, and an imperial warehouse on the west. 



The remains of a very extensive villa con- 

 taining numerous works of art have been dis- 

 covered on the line of the road leading from 

 Rome to Marino, near the railway -station 

 called II Sassone. The palace proves to have 

 belonged originally to a Voconius Pollio, and 

 to have afterward passed into the hands of the 

 Valerii. It stands in the center of a platform, 

 which was raised artificially above the level of 

 the Campagna by a long line of arched sub- 

 structures. It was built at the end of the first 

 century, in the reticulated style of masonry, and 

 was rebuilt two centuries later, with bricks 

 and small cubes of peperino. It contained 

 reception, bath, and sleeping rooms, a central 

 hall shaped like a basilica, and gardens sur- 

 rounded by porticoes, basins, and fountains. 

 The pavements of the first period are laid down 

 in chiaroscuro mosaics; those of the second 

 period are incrusted with polychrome marble ; 

 and the columns of the porticoes are cut in 

 rough local stone and coated with painted 

 stucco. Among the numerous works of sculpt- 

 ure that have been brought to light are a Mar- 

 syas tied to a tree, in pavanazzetto marble; 

 the statue of an athlete; a bearded satyr; a 

 winged Victory ; a group of an eagle carrying 

 up to the skies a half-devoured lamb ; a semi- 

 colossal Apollo, " equally remarkable for good 

 preservation and for excellent workmanship " ; 

 an aged man, representative of a new type of 

 sculpture, the exact character of which has 

 not been determined ; a Hercules with the 

 spoils of the Nemean lion, from which the head 

 and feet are missing ; a youthful and merry 

 Bacchus ; and a bust of Paris. 



Exploration of the Atrium Vestee. The house 

 of the Vestal Virgins in Rome has been e'xca- 

 vated, and several statues or parts of statues 

 or inscriptions of chief Vestals of the third 

 century have been recovered from it. The 

 house, which appears to have been rebuilt 

 after the destruction of the Atrium Vestas in 

 A. D. 191, is a rectangular oblong building, and 

 was surrounded by streets on every side. The 

 entire block was 115 metres long and 53 me- 

 tres wide, and the Atrium VestaB proper, which 

 gave its name to the whole building, was 67 

 metres long and 24 metres wide. The archi- 



