Here an interesting group of buildings still stands to mark the site of the famous ox-market, _Forum Boarium_. In its centre a brazen bull, brought from Egina,[80] once commemorated the story of the oxen of Geryon, which Hercules left to pasture on this marshy site, and which were stolen hence by Cacus,--and is said by Ovid to have given a name to the locality:

"Pontibus et magno juncta est celeberrima Circo Area, quae posito de bove nomen habet."

_Fast._ vi. 478.

The fact of this place being used as a market for oxen is mentioned by Livy.[81]

The Forum Boarium is associated with several deeds of cruelty. After the battle of Cannae, a male and female Greek and a male and female Gaul were buried alive here;[82] and here the first fight of gladiators took place, being introduced by M. and D. Brutus, at the funeral of their father in B.C. 264.[83] Here the Vestal virgins buried the sacred utensils of their worship, at the spot called Doliola, when they fled from Rome after the battle of the Allia.[84]

Amongst the buildings which once existed in the Forum Boarium, but of which no trace remains, were the Temple of the Sabine deity Matuta, and the Temple of Fortune, both ascribed to Servius Tullius.

"Hac ibi luce ferunt Matutae sacra parenti, Sceptiferas Servi templa dedisse manus."

_Ovid, Fast._ vi. 479.

"Lux eadem, Fortuna, tua est, auctorque, locusque, Sed superinjectis quis latet aede togis?

Servius est: hoc constat enim----"

_Fast._ vi. 569.

The Temple of Fortune was rebuilt by Lucullus, and Dion Cassius mentions that the axle of Julius Caesar's car broke down in front of it on occasion of one of his triumphs.[85] Another temple in this neighbourhood was that of Pudicitia Patricia, into which the noble ladies refused to admit Virginia, because she had espoused a plebeian consul[86] (see Chap. X.). Here, also, was the Temple of Hercules Victor, erected by Pompey.[87] The two earliest triumphal arches were built in this forum, being in honour of L. Stertinius, erected B.C. 196, after his victories in Spain.

The building which first attracts attention, among those now standing, is the _Arch of Janus_, the Sabine god. It has four equal sides and arches, turned to the four points of the compass, and forty-eight niches, probably intended for the reception of small statues.

Bas-reliefs on the inverted blocks employed in the lower part of this edifice, show that they must have been removed from earlier buildings.

This was probably used as a portico for shelter or business for those who trafficked in the Forum; there were many similar porticoes in ancient Rome.

On the left of the arch of Janus is a narrow alley, spanned by low brick arches, which leads first to the beautiful clear spring of the Aqua Argentina, which, according to some authorities, is the place where Castor and Pollux watered their horses after the battle of the Lake Regillus.

"Then on rode those strange horsemen, With slow and lordly pace; And none who saw their bearing Durst ask their name or race.

On rode they to the Forum, While laurel boughs and flowers From house-tops and from windows, Fell on their crests in showers.

"When they drew nigh to Vesta, They vaulted down amain, And washed their horses in the well That springs by Vesta's fane.

And straight again they mounted And rode to Vesta's door; Then, like a blast, away they passed, And no man saw them more."

_Macaulay's Lays._

The alley is closed by an arch of the celebrated _Cloaca Maxima_, the famous drain formed by Tarquinius Priscus, fifth king of Rome, to dry the marshy land of the Velabrum.

"Infima urbis loca circa Forum, aliasque interjectas collibus convalles, quia ex planis locis haud facile evehebant aquas, cloacis a fastigio in Tiberim ductis siccat."--_Livy_, lib. i. c.

38.

The Cloaca extended from the Forum to the Tiber, and is still, after 2,400 years, used, during the latter part of its course, for the purpose for which it was originally intended, though Pliny was filled with wonder that, in his time, it had already withstood the earthquakes, inundations, and accidents of seven hundred years. Strabo tells that the tunnel of the Cloaca was of sufficient height to admit a waggon laden with hay, but this probably supposes the water at its lowest. Agrippa, who cleaned out the Cloaca, navigated its whole length in a boat. The mouth of the Cloaca, composed of three concentric courses of blocks of peperino, without cement, is visible on the river a little to the right of the temple of Vesta.

"Ces lieux ont encore un air et comme une odeur de marecage--quand on rode aux approches de la nuit dans ce coin desert de Rome ou fut placee la scene des premiers moments de son premier roi, on y retrouve, a present mieux qu'au temps de Tite-Live, quelque chose de l'impression que ce lieu devait produire il y a vingt-cinq siecles, a l'epoque ou, selon la vieille tradition, le berceau de Romulus s'arreta dans les boues du Velabre, au pied du Palatin, pres de l'antre Lupercal. Il faut s'ecarter un peu de cet endroit, qui etait au pied du versant occidental du Palatin, et faire quelques pas a droite pour aller chercher les traces du Velabre la ou les rues et les habitations modernes ne les ont pas entierement effacees. En s'avancant vers la Cloaca Maxima, on rencontre un enfoncement ou une vieille eglise, elle-meme au dedans humide et moisie, rappelle par son nom, San Giorgio in Velabro, que le Velabre a ete la. On voit sourdre encore les eaux qui l'alimentaient sous une voute sombre et froide, tapissee de mousses, de scolopendres et de grandes herbes frissonnant dans la nuit. Alentour, tout a un aspect triste et abandonne, abandonne comme le furent au bord du marais, suivant l'antique recit, les enfants dont on croit presque our dans le crepuscule les vagissements. L'imagination n'a pas de peine a se representer les arbres et les plantes aquatiques qui croissaient sur le bord de cet enfoncement que voila, et a travers lesquelles la louve de la legende se glissait a cette heure pour venir boire a cette eau. Ces lieux sont assez peu frequentes et assez silencieux pour qu'on se les figure comme ils etaient alors, alors qu'il n'y avait ici, comme dit Tite-Live, vrai cette fois, que des solitudes desertes: _Vastae tunc solitudines erant_."--_Ampere, Hist. Rom._ i. 271.

The church with the picturesque campanile near the arch of Janus, is _S.

Giorgio in Velabro_, founded in the fourth century, as the Basilica Sempronia, but repeatedly rebuilt. The architrave above its portico was that where Rienzi affixed his famous inscription, announcing the return to the Good Estate: "_In breve tempo gli Romani torneranno al loro antico buono stato_." The church is seldom open, except on its festival (Jan. 20), and during its station in Lent. The interior is in the basilica form, the long nave being lined by sixteen columns, of various sizes, and with strangely different capitals, showing that they have been plundered from ancient temples. The carving on some of the capitals is sharp and delicate. There is a rather handsome ancient baldacchino, with an old Greek picture let into its front, over the high altar.

Beneath is preserved a fragment of the banner of St George. Some injured frescoes in the tribune replace mosaics which once existed here, and which were attributed to Giotto. In the centre is the Saviour, between the Virgin and St. Peter; on one side, St. George with the martyr's palm and the warrior's banner,--on the other, St. Sebastian, with an arrow.

Several fragments of carving and inscriptions are built into the side walls. The pictures are poor and ugly which relate to the saint of the church, St. George (the patron of England and Germany), the knight of Cappadocia, who delivered the Princess Cleodolinda from the dragon.

"Among good specimens of thirteenth century architecture is the portico of S. Giorgio, with Ionic columns and horizontal architrave, on which is a gothic inscription, in quaint Leonine verse, informing us that the Cardinal (or Prior) Stephen, added this detail (probably the campanile also), to the ancient church--about the middle of the thirteenth century, as is supposed, though no date is given here; and in the midst of an age so alien to classic influences, a work in which classic feeling thus predominates, is remarkable."--_Heman's Sacred Art._

Partly hidden by the portico of this church, is the beautiful miniature _Arch of Septimius Severus_, erected to the emperor, his wife Julia Pia, and his sons Caracalla and Geta, by the silversmiths (argentarii) who had their shops in the Forum Boarium on this very spot ("cujus loci qui invehent"). The part of the dedication relating to Geta (as in the larger arch of Septimius) was obliterated after his murder, and the words FORTISSIMO FELICISSIMOQUE PRINCIPI engraved in its place. The architecture and sculpture, part of which represents a sacrifice by the imperial family, prove the decadence of art at this period.

Proceeding in a direct line from the Arch of Janus, we reach the _Church of Sta. Maria in Cosmedin_, on the site of a Temple of Ceres, dedicated by the consul Spurius Cassius, B.C. 493, and afterwards re-dedicated to Ceres and Proserpine, probably by Augustus, who had been initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries in Greece. The church was built in the basilica form, in 782, by Adrian I., when the name Cosmedin, from the Greek ??s??, is supposed to have been given, from the ornaments with which he adorned it It was intended for the use of the Greek exiles expelled from the East by the iconoclasts under Constantine Copronimus, and derived the epithet of Sta. Maria in Scuola Greca, from a "Schola" attached to it for their benefit. Another relic of the Greek colony which existed here is to be found in the name of the adjoining street, Via della Greca. In the middle ages the whole bank of the river near this was called Ripa Greca.

The interior of this church is of great interest. The nave is divided from the aisles by twelve ancient marble columns, of which two have especially curious antique capitals, and are evidently remains of the temple which once existed here. The choir is raised, as at S. Clemente.

The pavement is of splendid Opus Alexandrinum (1120); the ambones are perfect; there is a curious crypt; the altar covers an ancient bason of red granite, and is shaded by a gothic canopy, supported by four Egyptian granite pillars; behind it is a fine episcopal throne, with lions, said to have been used by St. Augustine, an ancient Greek picture of the Virgin, and a graceful tabernacle of marble inlaid with mosaic, by _Deodato Cosmati_. In the sacristy is a very curious mosaic, one of the few relics preserved from the old St Peter's, A.D. 705. (There is another in S. Marco at Florence.) Crescimbeni, the founder and historian of the Arcadian Academy (d. 1728), is buried in this church, of which he was a canon. On St. Valentine's Day the skull of St. Valentine, crowned with roses, is exhibited here.

In the portico is the strange and huge mask of stone, which gives the name of _Bocca della Verita_ to the neighbouring piazza. It was believed that if a witness, whose truthfulness was doubtful, were desired to place his hand in the mouth of this mask, he would be unable to withdraw it, if he were guilty of perjury.

"Cette Bouche-de-Verite est une curieuse relique du moyen age. Elle servait aux jugements de Dieu. Figurez-vous une meule de moulin qui ressemble, non pas a un visage humain, mais au visage de la lune: on y distingue des yeux, un nez et une bouche ouverte ou l'accuse mettait la main pour preter serment. Cette bouche mordait les menteurs; au moins la tradition l'assure. J'y ai introduit ma dextre en disant que le Ghetto etait un lieu de delices, et je n'ai pas ete mordu."--_About, Rome Contemporaine._

On the other side of the portico is the tomb of Cardinal Alfanus, ob.

1150.

"The church was rebuilt under Calixtus II.; about A.D. 1128, by Alfanus, Roman Chancellor, whose marble sepulchre stands in the atrium, with his epitaph, along a cornice, giving him that most comprehensive title, 'an honest man,' _vir probus_. Some more than half-faded paintings, a Madonna and Child, angels, and two mitred heads, on the wall behind the canopy, give importance to this Chancellor's tomb. Though now disfigured exteriorly by a modern facade in the worst style, interiorly by a waggon-vault roof and heavy pilasters, this church is still one of the mediaeval gems of Rome, and retains many olden details: the classic colonnades, probably left in their original place since the time of Adrian I.; and the fine campanile, one of the loftiest in Rome; also the sculptured doorway, the rich intarsio pavement, the high altar, the marble and mosaic-inlaid ambones, the marble episcopal throne, with supporting lions and a mosaic decoration above, &c.,--all of the twelfth century. But we have to regret the destruction of the ancient choir-screens, and (still more inexcusable) the white-washing of wall surfaces so as entirely to conceal the mediaeval paintings which adorned them, conformably to that once almost universal practice of polychrome decoration in churches, prescribed even by law under Charlemagne. Ciampini (see his valuable history of this basilica) mentions the iron rods for curtains between the columns of the atrium, and those, still in their place, in the porch, with rings for suspending; also a small chapel with paintings, at one end of the atrium, designed for those penitents who were not allowed to worship within the sacred building--as such, an evidence of disciplinary observance, retained till the twelfth century. Over the portal are some tiny bas-reliefs, so placed along the inner side of the lintel that many might pass underneath without seeing them: in the centre, a hand blessing, with the Greek action, between two sheep, laterally; the four evangelistic emblems, and two doves, each pecking out of a vase, and one perched upon a dragon (more like a lizard), to signify the victory of the purified soul over mundane temptations."--_Hemans' Christian Art._

Close to this church stood the Palace of Pope Gelasius II. (1118).

Opposite the church is a beautiful fountain, erected by one of the Medici, and beyond it the graceful round temple now called the _Temple of Vesta_, supposed by Canina to have been that of Mater Matuta, and by others to have been that of Hercules founded by Pompey. It is known to have existed in the time of Vespasian. It is very small, the circumference of the peristyle being only 156 feet, and that of the cella 26 feet,--the height of the surrounding Corinthian columns (originally twenty in number) 32 feet This temple was first dedicated as a church under the name of S. Stefano delle Carrozze; it is now called _Sta. Maria del Sole_.

This is not the Temple of Vesta (which was situated near the Church of Sta. Maria Liberatrice in the Forum) of which Horace wrote:--

"Vidimus flavum Tiberim, retortis Littore Etrusco violenter undis, Ire dejectum monumenta regum Templaque Vestae."

_Carm._ i. 2.

The modern overhanging roof of the temple has been much objected to, as it replaces an entablature like that on the temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli; but artists admire the exquisite play of light and shade caused by its rugged tiles, and, finding it a perfect "subject," wish for no change.

"C'est aupres de la Bouche-de-Verite, devant le petit temple de Vesta, que la justice romaine execute un meurtrier sur cent. Quand j'arrivai sur la place, on n'y guillotinait personne; mais six cuisinieres, dont une aussi belle que Junon, dansaient la tarantelle au son d'un tambour de basque. Malheureusement elles divinerent ma qualite d'etranger, et elles se mirent a polker contre la mesure."--_About._

Close to this--overhanging a little hollow way--is the _Temple of Fortuna Virilis_, built originally by Servius Tullius, but rebuilt during the republic, and, if the existing building is really republican, the most ancient temple remaining in Rome. It is surrounded by Ionic columns (one side being enclosed in other buildings), 28 feet high, clothed with hard stucco, and supporting an entablature adorned with figures of children, oxen, candelabra, &c. The Roman matrons had a great regard for this goddess, who was supposed to have the power of concealing their personal imperfections from the eyes of men. At the close of the tenth century this temple was consecrated to the Virgin, but has since been bestowed upon _St. Mary of Egypt_.

Hard by, is a picturesque end of building, laden with rich but incongruous sculpture, at one time called "The House of Pilate," but now known as the _House of Rienzi_. It derives its present name from a long inscription over a doorway, which tallies with the bombastic epithets assumed by "The Last of the Tribunes" in his pompous letter of Aug. 1, 1347, when, in his semi-madness, he summoned kings and emperors to appear before his judgment-seat. The inscription closes:--

"Primus de primis magnus Nicolaus ab imis, Erexit patrum decus ob renovare suorum.

Stat patris Crescens matrisque Theodora nomen.

Hoc culmen clarum caro de pignore gessit, Davidi tribuit qui pater exhibuit."

It is believed, from the inscription, that the house was fortified by Nicholas, son of Crescentius and Theodora, who gave it to David, his son; that the Crescentius alluded to was son of the famous patrician who headed the populace against Otho III.; and that, three centuries later, the house may have belonged to Cola di Rienzi, a name which is, in fact, only popular language for Niccola Crescenzo. It is, however, known that Rienzi was not born in this house, but in a narrow street behind S.

Tommaso, in the Rione alla Regola, where his father Lorenzo kept an inn, and his mother, Maddalena, gained her daily bread as a washerwoman and water-carrier--so were the Crescenzi fallen!

Here is the entrance to a suspension-bridge, which joins the remaining arches of the _Ponte Rotto_, and leads to the Trastevere. On this site was the Pons aemilius, begun, B.C. 180, by M. aemilius Lepidus and Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, and finished by P. Scipio Africanus and L. Mummius, the censors, in B.C. 142. Hence the body of the Emperor Heliogabalus was thrown into the Tiber. The bridge has been three times rebuilt by different popes, but two of its arches were finally carried away in an inundation of 1598, and have never since been replaced. The existing remains, which only date from the time of Julius III., are highly picturesque.

"Quand on a etabli un pont en fil de fer, on lui a donne pour base les piles du Ponte-Rotto, eleve au moyen age sur les fondements du Pons Palatinus, qui fut acheve sous la censure de Scipion l'Africain. Scipion l'Africain et un pont en fil de fer, voila de ces contrastes qu'on ne trouve qu'a Rome."--_Ampere, Emp._ ii. 209.

From this bridge is the best view of the Isola Tiberina and its bridges, and hence, also, the Temple of Vesta is seen to great advantage. Just below is the mouth of the Cloaca Maxima.