Nature and Art, December 1, 186(5.] 
TI-IE PALACE OF THE C^SAES. 
225 
THE PALACE OF THE CM S AE S . 
TITHE celebrated gardens of the Farnese palace, 
A which belonged to the ex-king of .Naples, were 
purchased of Francis II. by the Emperor Louis 
Napoleon, and the latter has prepared the materials 
of a highly-interesting chapter in his “Life of Julius 
Caesar” by placing them in the hands of the Chevalier 
Pietro Rosa, a learned Roman archaeologist. Ex- 
cavations were commenced in 1861, with the 
object, as given in the Chevalier’s own words, of 
bringing to light, for the advantage of science, all 
that remains . on that spot belonging either to the 
earliest epoch of the eternal city, of which the Pala- 
tine Mountwas the cradle, or to the latertimes of the 
republic and the empire, whose magnificent edifices 
covered nearly its whole surface. The labours of 
M. Rosa, described partly by himself, and partly by 
Dr. Henzen, in the “Bulletin of the Archaeological 
Institute of Rome,” have resulted in important dis- 
coveries and highly-interesting hypotheses, which 
cannot fail to be deeply interesting to the learned 
world. Those discoveries refer to three distinct 
objects — the primitive form of Mount Palatine ; 
the public and private buildings erected in the time 
of the Caesars ; and the monuments of a still older 
period on the ruins of which they were raised. 
M. Rosa’s first task was to clear away the super- 
incumbent soil of the gardens, and lay bare the 
ruins below ; and, after much research, he believes 
that he has made a discovery of great importance, 
and which will go far towards explaining what has 
before seemed obscure in ancient accounts. The 
discovery, or hypothesis, is this — that the surface of 
Mount Palatine, which has been heretofore re- 
presented as a trapezium, was formerly, like the 
Capitoline Hill, intersected by a hollow, or Inter- 
montium, dividing it into two plateaux of unequal 
size. Of these the western was the Germalus, and 
the smaller one, a mere appendage, which stretched 
towards the Esquiline and separated the two valleys 
of the Forum and the Flavian Amphitheatre, the 
Velia. M. Rosa declares that there is no doubt 
whatever of the original existence of these two 
heads of the Mount, for he has laid bare, beneath 
the palace of the Caesars itself, the under-ground 
constructions which filled up the original hollow, and 
furnished an artificial foundation for later erections. 
This discovery has led to the following important 
deductions. It is known, from the evidence of 
Solimus, that the Porta vetus Pcdatii, or Porta 
Mugionia, one of the gates of the old square city, 
constructed by Romulus, was situated at the cul- 
minating point of the Via Nova ( supra summam 
Novam Viam ) ; and as Festus tells us that the Via 
Nova , which branched off from the Via Sacra, at the 
place where the Arch of Titus was afterwards 
erected, and reached the banks of the Tiber 
by passing between the Velabruni and Mount 
Aventine, it is evident, he thinks, that the Via 
Nova must have followed the Interrnontium, or 
hollow (which, it will be seen by the plan annexed, 
VII. 
gives very nearly a square form to the Germalus ), 
in order to have reached the other side of the 
Palatine Mount, and thence the “ lowest ” point, 
where it abutted on the Tiber. This being the case, 
it was only necessary to excavate from the Arch of 
Titus, in the direction of the Interrnontium , in 
order to discover the foundation of the ancient way; 
and the point on this line where the remains of the 
Porta Mugionia might be found, would be at once 
the summit of the Via Nova and the point of de- 
parture of its prolongation across the Interrnontium. 
This being done, the situation of the house of Ancus 
Martius, which, according to Varro, stood on the 
left of the Via Nova, near the gate Mugionia (ad 
portam Mugioniam secundum Viam sub sinistra), 
would be determined. Two lines of Ovid — 
“ Indo petens dextram, porta est 
Augusta palati. 
“ Hie Stator, hoc primiim condita 
Roma loco est.” 
( Trist ., Book II.) 
directed M. Rosa’s researches to this spot where he 
was sure to find the vestiges of the Temple of Jupiter 
Stator ; and as the heights of the V elia rose before 
him to theleft of the Interrnontium , the position of the 
house of Tullius Hostilius and of the Temple of the 
Penates, as described by Solimus ( Tullus Hostilius 
habitavit in Velid, ubi posted Ileum Penatium cedes 
facta, est), was clearly indicated ; he was also enabled 
to fix the place of the house of Tarquin, whose 
windows, says Titus Livius, looked upon the Via 
Nova, near the Porta Mugionia, and the temple of 
Jupiter Stator. At the same time he was enabled 
to solve the much-vexed question touching the 
direction of the Via Nova, raised probably by the 
text of Ovid, who made it pass by the Velabrum 
and thus contradicted the words of Festus cited 
above. The dates clear up the discrepancy : the 
Interrnontium being closed over in time by build- 
ings, the direction of the Via Nova was altered, 
and passed round the hill by the Velabrum to the 
Circus Maximus. The discovery of the Inter- 
montium, moreover, enables M. Rosa to determine, 
as he believes, the perimeterof the ancient square city 
of Rome, founded, as the legends say, by Romulus. 
The famous wall, whose place was traced by the 
plough of the royal shepherd, per ima Montis Pala- 
tini, as Tacitus says, and the pomoerium, or boule- 
vard, of ancient Rome, which Aulus Gellius says 
was confined to the Mount Palatine, could not, 
according to M. Rosa, have descended and re- 
mounted the Interrnontium. The boundaries of 
the ancient city must have included only the Cer- 
malus — that part indicated on the plan by dotted 
lines. This point being admitted, the difficulties 
presented by the texts of Tacitus, Aulus Gellius, 
and Solimus, are cleared away. M. Rosa considers, 
also, that he has been enabled to fix the position of 
the head of the steps of Cacus ( supercilium sca- 
larum Caci), and the probable situations of the 
Q 
