228 
THE PALACE OF THE CHCSARS. 
[Nature and Art, December 1, 1866. 
Lower down, to the north of the latter, extend 
the buildings of the house of Caligula. In ex- 
cavating to find the traces of the ancient Clivus 
Victories, M. Rosa came \ipon a kind of colossal 
gallery, composed of two ranges of arches, one 
above the other (N. N.). A marble balustrade 
exists in the upper range, and bas-reliefs in stucco 
are to be seen on the vaultings and frieze ; the 
nature of these latter, defaced though they are, is 
said to indicate the buildings which Caius Caligula 
constructed in an infamous fit of speculation, and 
to which his agents invited visitors in the basilics 
and public places. 
The constructions marked 0. 0., P. P., erected 
by the successors of Caligula, mask the galleries in 
question, and give them, in certain places, the air 
of a cavern. This spot, moreover, of all the 
splendid and terrible places here, is that which is 
haunted by the most terrible reminiscences. All the 
prestige of solemn acts and historic grandeur cannot 
here shut out the horrors of human infamy. Under 
these dark arches we see in our mind’s eye the shade 
of the imperial fool, who threw a bridge across the 
Forum, in order that he might converse privately 
with Jupiter in the night. Here, perhaps, the 
impure Messalina paraded her own dishonour, and 
the haughty Agrippina concocted her sanguinary 
intrigues. That arch which opens on the Velabmm 
is the postern-door ( pars postica palatii ), by Avhich 
the perfidious Otho, wading through blood to the 
throne, Avent to join his accomplices at the Golden 
Standard, leaving the kiss of Judas on the cheeks 
of him whose head and throne he coveted. 
The tortuous Avay which traverses the Palace of 
Caligula M. Rosa believes to be the Clivus Victories, 
as it is at the foot of this sloping road that Festus 
places the Portei Remiana, the second gate of the city 
of Romulus, and the same, no doubt, by which the 
assassin of Galba made his escape. Outside of this 
gate should be found the steps Avhicli led, by way of 
the Yelabrum, to the Circus Maximus. Near it 
Avere the Temple of Castor and Pollux, the Domus 
Publica, which Avas the dAvelling of Caesar, the groA'e 
dedicated to Yesta, and the dwelling of the sacred 
virgins ; and, finally, here commences the Forum 
Romanum, a mine of gold, yet scarcely opened, for 
the historian and the archaeologist. 
Quitting now the habitations of the Caesars, we 
again ascend Mount Palatine and glance at the 
monuments, anterior to the imperial epoch, which 
M. Rosa has discovered or indicated. A trench 
thirty feet Avide has been opened at the point marked 
G. on the plan, that is to say, by the side of the 
portico which separates the Triclinium from the 
Library already mentioned (and, consequently, near 
the Intermontvum), and has yielded good fruit. Here 
were found the broken columns of the portico G., 
of which the stylobate alone remained in its place. 
The foundations thus laid open are not extensive 
but possess great interest ; they are said to belong 
undoubtedly to the time of the republic, and cer- 
tainly anterior to the time of Sylla, as they are 
built of the stone taken from the Ccelian, one of 
the seven hills of Rome, the use of Avhich Avas given 
up in Sylla’s time, when Alba and Travertine stone 
came into use. The most important vestiges which 
M. Rosa has yet discovered of constructions anterior 
to the time of the republic are those of the Temple 
of Jupiter Stator, of the Auguratorium , and of the 
Temple of Jupiter Yictor. The exhumation of the 
first of these is, however, not yet far advanced. 
The director wisely confined himself at first to the 
determination of the limits of the Imperial Palace 
itself and of the private constructions of the Ctesars, 
knowing that such a course would narroAvthe ground 
for his future researches. He argued, moreover, 
that the tendency to aggrandisement manifested by 
Tiberius, by Caligula, and by Nero would only have 
been arrested in presence of the sacred character of 
neighbouring edifices ; and the discovered situation 
of the buildings of the Imperial period revealed to 
him the fact that certain monuments of the republic 
were preserved long into the Imperial epoch. As 
regards the temple promised by Romulus to Jupiter 
Stator, Titus Livius, Ovid, and other writers fix its 
position near to the Porta Mugionia; and, as the 
limits of the Imperial buildings on that side of the 
hill touch very nearly the slopes towards the Yia 
Sacra, and moreover were connected Avith other con- 
structions between which there Avas little space, it 
became eA r ident that remains of the edifices of the 
republican period, and especially the Auguratorium 
and the Temple of Jupiter Yictor, must be sought 
in other directions. 
There remained to be examined a space of ground 
about 600 feet in length and 300 in breadth, in the 
Avestern part of the Mons Palatinus and occupying 
the angle between the Yelabrum and the Circus 
Maximus. On this spot M. Rosa has discovered 
two monuments, of Avhich the antiquity is believed 
to be proved not only by the quality of the materials 
employed, but by their disposition and by the mode 
of construction, Avliich is that known under the 
name of square work, or Etruscan properly so called. 
One of these monuments is composed of tAvo terraces 
of unequal size, the smaller of which commands the 
larger, and both are contained betAveen two great 
parallel Avails, which serve as their supports. Against 
these Avails also rest the two large flights of steps 
which grae access from without to the great terrace, 
and thence to the smaller one above it. On the 
small terrace and against the central portion of the 
back Avail advances a kind of rectangular rostrum 
or pulpit, which M. Rosa believes Avas Avithout 
doubt the augural chair, the sacred seat whence 
the priests studied Destiny by observation of the 
heavens. Such is the general outline of the Augura- 
torium, marked J. in the plan, which Avas con- 
tracted, as tradition reports, on the A T ery place 
where Romulus consulted the heavens respecting 
the foundation of Rome. 
The position and conformation of the building in 
question seem to leave no doubt of its identity. 
Tacitus and Quintilian tell us that in a Roman camp 
— and old Rome Avas but a permanent entrenched 
camp- — the Auguratorium was situated as near as 
possible to the Prestorium and to the western limit 
of the camp ; Tacitus adds, that it contained in 
