"Here also was a statue of Apollo sounding the lyre, apparently a likeness of Augustus; whose beauty when a youth, to judge from his bust in the Vatican, might well entitle him to counterfeit the god.

Around the altar were the images of four oxen, the work of Myron, so beautifully sculptured that they seemed alive. In the middle of the portico rose the temple, apparently of white marble. Over the pediment was the chariot of the sun. The gates were of ivory, one of them sculptured with the story of the giants hurled down from the heights of Parnassus, the other representing the destruction of the Niobids. Inside the temple was the statue of Apollo in a tunica talaris, or long garment, between his mother Latona and his sister Diana, the work of Scopas, Cephisodorus, and Timotheus. Under the base of Apollo's statue Augustus caused to be buried the Sibylline books which he had selected and placed in gilt chests. Attached to the temple was a library called _Bibliotheca Graeca et Latina_, apparently, however, only one structure, containing the literature of both tongues. Only the choicest works were admitted to the honour of a place in it, as we may infer from Horace:

'Tangere vitet Scripta, Palatinus quaecunque recepit Apollo.'

_Ep._ i. 3. 16.

"The library appears to have contained a bronze statue of Apollo, fifty feet high; whence we must conclude that the roof of the hall exceeded that height. In this library, or more probably, perhaps, in an adjoining apartment, poets, orators, and philosophers recited their productions. The listless demeanour of the audience on such occasions seems, from the description of the younger Pliny, to have been, in general, not over-encouraging. Attendance seems to have been considered as a friendly duty."--_Dyer's City of Rome._

The temple of Apollo was built by Augustus to commemorate the battle of Actium. He appropriated to it part of the land covered with houses which he had purchased upon the Palatine;--another part he gave to the Vestals; the third he used for his own palace.

"Phbus habet partem, Vestae pars altera cessit: Quod superest illis, tertius ipse tenet.

Stet domus, aeternos tres habet una deos."

_Ovid, Fast._ iv. 951.

Thus Apollo and Vesta became as it were the household gods of Augustus:

"Vestaque Caesareos inter sacrata penates, Et cum Caesarea tu, Phbe domestice, Vesta."

_Ovid, Metam._ xv. 864.

Other temples on the Palatine were that of _Juno_ Sospita:

"Principio mensis Phrygiae contermina Matri Sospita delubris dicitur aucta novis."

_Ovid, Fast._ ii. 55.

of Minerva:

"Sexte, Palatinae cultor facunde Minervae Ingenio frueris qui propiore Dei."

_Martial,_ v. _Ep._ 5.

a temple of Moonlight mentioned by Varro (iv. 10) and a shrine of Vesta.

"Vestaque Caesareos inter sacrata penates."

_Ovid, Met._ i.

From the _Torretta del Palatino_ which is near the house of Caligula, there is a magnificent view over the seven hills of Rome;--the Palatine, Aventine, Capitoline, Clian, Quirinal, Viminal, and Esquiline. From this point also it is very interesting to remember that these were not the heights considered as "the Seven Hills" in the ancient history of Rome, when the sacrifices of the _Septimontium_ were offered upon the Palatine, Velia, and Germale, the three divisions of the Palatine--of which one can no longer be traced; upon the Fagutal, Oppius, and Cispius, the secondary heights of the Esquiline; and upon the Suburra, which perhaps comprehended the Viminal.[122] Hence also we see the ground we have traversed on the Palatine spread before us like a map.

If we descend the staircase in the Palace of Caligula, we may trace as far as the Porta Romana the piers of the _Bridge of Caligula_, which, half in vanity, half in madness, he threw across the valley, that he might, as he said, the more easily hold intercourse with his friend and comrade Jupiter upon the Capitol. One of the piers which he used for his bridge, beyond the limits of the palace, was formed by the temple of Augustus built by Tiberius.[123] This bridge, with all other works of Caligula, was of very short duration, being destroyed immediately after his death by Claudius.

Returning by the Clivus Victoriae, we shall find ourselves again on the eastern slope of the hill from which we started, the site once occupied by so many of the great patrician families. Here at one time lived Caius Gracchus, who to gratify the populace, gave up his house on the side of the Palatine, and made his home in the gloomy Suburra. Here also lived his coadjutor in the consulship, Fulvius Flaccus, who shared his fate, and whose house was razed to the ground by the people after his murder.

At this corner of the hill also was the house of Q. Lutatius Catulus, poet and historian, who was consul B.C. 102, and together with Marius was conqueror of the Cimbri in a great battle near Vercelli. In memory of this he founded a temple of the "Fortuna hujusce diei," and decorated the portico of his house with Cimbrian trophies. Varro mentions that his house had also a domed roof.[124] Here also the consul Octavius, murdered on the Janiculum by the partisans of Marius, had a house, which was rebuilt with great magnificence by Emilius Scaurus, who adorned it with columns of marble thirty-eight feet high.[125] These two last-named houses were bought by the wealthy Clodius, who gave 14,800,000 sesterces, or about 130,000_l._, for that of Scaurus, and throwing down the Porticus Catuli, included its site, and the house of E. Scaurus, in his own magnificent dwelling. Clodius was a member of the great house of the Claudii, and was the favoured lover of Pompeia, wife of Julius Caesar, by whose connivance, disguised as a female musician, he attempted to be present at the orgies of the Bona Dea, which were celebrated in the house of the Pontifex Maximus close to the temple of Vesta, and from which men were so carefully excluded, that even a male mouse, says Juvenal, dared not show himself there. The position of his own dwelling, and that of the pontifex, close to the foot of the Clivus Victoriae, afforded every facility for this adventure, but it was discovered by his losing himself in the passages of the Regia. A terrible scandal was the result--Caesar divorced Pompeia, and the senate referred the matter to the pontifices, who declared that Clodius was guilty of sacrilege.

Clodius attempted to prove an alibi, but Cicero's evidence showed that he was with him in Rome only three hours before he pretended to have been at Interamna. Bribery and intimidation secured his acquittal by a majority of thirty-one to twenty-five,[126] but from this time a deadly enmity ensued between him and Cicero.

The house of Clodius naturally leads us to that of Cicero, which was also situated at this corner of the Palatine, whence he could see his clients in the Forum and go to and fro to his duties there. This house had been built for M. Livius Drusus, who, when his architect proposed a plan to prevent its being overlooked, answered, "Rather build it so that all my fellow-citizens may behold everything that I do." In his acts Drusus seemed to imitate the Gracchi; but he sought popularity for its own sake, and after being the object of a series of conspiracies was finally murdered in the presence of his mother Cornelia, in his own hall, where the image of his father was sprinkled with his blood. When dying he turned to those around him and asked, with characteristic arrogance, based perhaps upon conscious honesty of purpose, "when will the commonwealth have a citizen like me again?" After the death of Drusus the house was inhabited by L. Licinius Crassus the orator, who lived here in great elegance and luxury. His house was called from its beauty "the Venus of the Palatine," and was remarkable for its size, the taste of its furniture, and the beauty of its grounds. "It was adorned with pillars of Hymettian marble, with expensive vases, and triclinia inlaid with brass. His gardens were provided with fishponds, and some noble lotus-trees shaded his walks. Ahenobarbus, his colleague in the censorship, found fault with such corruption of manners,[127] estimated his house at a hundred million, or, according to Valerius Maximus,[128]

six million sesterces, and complained of his crying for the loss of a lamprey as if it had been a daughter. It was a tame lamprey which used to come at the call of Crassus, and feed out of his hand. Crassus retorted by a public speech against his colleague, and by his great powers of ridicule, turned him into derision; jested upon his name,[129]

and to the accusation of weeping for a lamprey, replied, that it was more than Ahenobarbus had done for the loss of any of his three wives."[130] Cicero purchased the house of Crassus a year or two after his consulate for a sum equal to about 30,000_l._, and removed thither from the Carinae with his wife Terentia. His house was close to that of Clodius, but a little lower down the hill, which enabled him to threaten to increase the height, so as to shut out his neighbour's view of the city. Upon his accession to the tribuneship Clodius procured the disgrace of Cicero, and after his flight to Greece, obtained a decree of banishment against him. He then pillaged and destroyed his house upon the Palatine, as well as his villas at Tusculum and Formia, and obliged Terentia to take refuge with the Vestals, whose Superior was fortunately her sister. But in the following year, a change of consuls and revulsion of the popular favour led to the recall of Cicero, who found part of his house appropriated by Clodius, who had erected a shrine to Libertas (with a statue which was that of a Greek courtezan carried off from the tomb)[131] on the site of the remainder, which he had razed to the ground.[132]

"Clodius had also destroyed the portico of Catulus; in fact, he appears to have been desirous of appropriating all this side of the Palatine. He wanted to buy the house of the aedile Seius. Seius having declared that so long as he lived, Clodius should not have it, Clodius caused him to be poisoned, and then bought his house under a feigned name! He was thus enabled to erect a portico three hundred feet in length, in place of that of Catulus. The latter, however, was afterwards restored at the public expense.

"Cicero obtained public grants for the restoration of his house and of his Tusculan and Formian villas, but very far from enough to cover the losses he had suffered. The aristocratic part of the Senate appears to have envied and grudged the _novus homo_ to whose abilities they looked for protection. He was advised not to rebuild his house on the Palatine, but to sell the ground. It was not in Cicero's temper to take such a course; but he was hampered ever after with debts. Clodius, who had been defeated but not beaten, still continued his persecutions. He organised a gang of street boys to call out under Cicero's windows, 'Bread! Bread!' His bands interrupted the dramatic performances on the Palatine, at the Megalesian games, by rushing upon the stage. On another occasion, Clodius, at the head of his myrmidons, besieged the Senate in the temple of Concord. He attacked Cicero in the streets, to the danger of his life; and when he had begun to rebuild his house, drove away the masons, overthrew what part had been re-erected of Catulus'

portico, and cast burning torches into the house of Quintus Cicero, which he had hired next to his brother's on the Palatine, and consumed a great part of it."--_Dyer's City of Rome_, 152.

The indemnity which Cicero received from the state in order to rebuild his house on the Palatine, amounted to about 16,000_l._ The house of Quintus Cicero was rebuilt close to his brother's at the same time by Cyrus, the fashionable architect of the day.[133]

Among other noble householders on this part of the Palatine was Mark Antony,[134] whose house was afterwards given by Augustus to Agrippa and Messala, soon after which it was burnt down.

A small _Museum_ in this part of the garden contains some of the smaller objects which have been found in the excavations, and specimens of the different marbles and alabasters. There is nothing of any great importance. The fragments of statues and some busts which have been found (including Flavia Domitilla, wife of Vespasian, and Julia, daughter of Titus), have been sent to Paris, but casts have been left here.

We have now made the round of the French division of the Palatine.

It has been decided that some remains which exist in the garden of the Villa Mills (now a Convent of Visitandine Nuns) are those of the House of Hortensius, an orator, "who was second only to Cicero in eloquence, and who, in the early part at least of their lives, was his chief opponent."[135] Cicero himself describes the extraordinary gifts of his rival[136] as well as the integrity with which he fulfilled the duties of a quaestor.[137] In the latter portion of his public career Hortensius was frequently engaged on the same side with Cicero, and then always recognised his superiority by allowing him to speak last. Hortensius died B.C. 50, to the great grief of his ancient rival.[138] The splendid villas of Hortensius were celebrated. He was accustomed to water his trees with wine at regular intervals,[139] and had huge fishponds at Bauli, into which the salt-water fish came to be fed from his hand, and he became so fond of them, that he wept for the death of a favourite muraena.[140] But the house on the Palatine was exceedingly simple and had no decorations but plain columns of Alban stone.[141] This was the chosen residence of Augustus, until, upon its destruction by fire, the citizens insisted upon raising the more sumptuous residence in the hollow of the Palatine by public subscription. The subterranean chambers which have been discovered have some interesting remains of stucco ornament.

The villa, which is now turned into a convent, possessed some frescoes painted by Giulio Romano from designs of Raphael, but these have been destroyed or removed in deference to the modesty of the present inhabitants. The neighbouring church and garden of S. Sebastiano occupy the site of the _Gardens of Adonis_. (See Chap. IV.)

A large, and by far the most picturesque portion of the Palace of the Caesars (the only part which was not imbedded in soil ten years ago), is now accessible either from the end of the lane of S. Buenaventura, or from a gate on the left of the Via dei Fienili just before reaching Sta.

Anastasia. The excavations in the last-named quarter were begun by the Emperor of Russia, who purchased the site, but afterwards presented it to the city.

Behind Sta. Maria Liberatrice, in some farm buildings, are remains which probably belong to the Regia of Julius Caesar.

Beyond this, against the escarpment of the Palatine, a part of the _Walls of Romulus_ has been discovered, built in large oblong blocks.

Here also are fragments of bases of towers of republican times. Behind S. Teodoro are remains of an early concrete wall, behind which the tufa rock is visible. The wall is only built where the tufa is of a soft character.

"La systeme de construction est le meme que dans les villes d'etrurie et dans la muraille batie a Rome par les rois etrusques.

Cependant l'appareil est moins regulier. Les murs d'une petite ville du Latium fondee par un aventurier ne pouvaient etre aussi soignes que les murs des villes de l'etrurie, pays tout autrement civilise. La petite cite de Romulus, bornee au Palatin, n'avait pas l'importance de la Rome des Tarquins, qui couvrait les huit collines.

"Du reste, la construction est etrusque et devait l'etre. Romulus n'avait dans sa ville, habitee par des patres et des bandits, personne qui fut capable d'en batir l'enceinte. Les etrusques, grands batisseurs, etaient de l'autre cote du fleuve. Quelques-uns meme l'avaient probablement passe deja et habitaient le mont Clius. Romulus dut s'adresser a eux, et faire faire cet ouvrage par des architects et des macons etrusques. Ce fut aussi selon le rite de l'etrurie, pays sacerdotal, que Romulus, suivant en cela l'usage etabli dans les cites latines, fit consacer l'enceinte de la ville nouvelle. Il agit en cette circonstance comme agit un paysan romain, quand il appelle un pretre pour benir l'emplacement de la maison qu'il veut batir.

"Les details de la ceremonie par laquelle fut inauguree la premiere enceinte de Rome nous ont ete transmis par Plutarque,[142] et, avec un grand detail par Tacite,[143] qui sans doute avait sous les yeux les livres des pontifes. Nous connaissons avec exactitude le contour que traca la charrue sacree. Nous pouvons le suivre encore aujourd'hui.

"Romulus attela an taureau blanc et une vache blanche a une charrue dont le soc etait d'airain.[144] L'usage de l'airain a precede a Rome, comme partout, l'usage du fer. Il partit du lieu consacre par l'antique autel d'Hercule, au-dessous de l'angle occidental du Palatin et de la premiere Rome des Pelasges, et, se dirigeant vers le sud-est, traca son sillon le long de la base de la colline.

"Ceux qui suivaient Romulus, rejetaient les mottes de terre en dedans du sillon, image du Vallum futur. Ce sillon etait l'Agger de Servius Tullius en petit. A l'extremite de la vallee qui separe le Palatin de l'Aventin, ou devait etre le grand cirque, et ou est aujourd'hui la rue des _Cerchi_, il prit a gauche, et, contournant la colline, continua, en creusant toujours son sillon, a tracer sans le savoir la route que devaient suivre un jour les triomphes, puis revint au point d'ou il etait parti. La charrue, l'instrument du labour, le symbole de la vie agricole des enfants de Saturne, avait dessine le contour de la cite guerriere de Romulus. De meme, quand on avait detruit une ville, on faisait passer la charrue sur le sol qu'elle avait occupe. Par la, ce sol devenait sacre, et il n'etait pas plus permis de l'habiter qu'il ne l'etait de franchir le sillon qu'on creusait autour des villes lors de leur fondation, comme le fit Romulus et comme le firent toujours depuis les fondateurs d'une colonie; car toute colonie etait une Rome."--_Ampere, Hist. Rome_, i. 283.

Close under this, the northern side of the walls of Romulus, ran the _Via Nova_, down which Marcus Caedicius was returning to the city in the gloaming, when, at this spot, between the sacred grove and the temple of Vesta, he heard a supernatural voice, bidding him to warn the senate of the approach of the Gauls. After the Gauls had invaded Rome, and departed again, an altar and sanctuary recorded the miracle on this site.[145]

At the corner near Sta. Anastasia, are remains of a private house of early times built against the cliff. Near this were the steps called the _Stairs of Cacus_, leading up to the hut of Faustulus. On the other side the _Gradus Pulchri Littoris_, the ??? ??t? of Plutarch, led to the river.[146]

Here a remarkable altar of republican times has been discovered, and remains _in situ_. It is inscribed SEI DEO SEI DIVAE SAC.--C SEXTIVS C T CALVINUS TR--DE SENATI SENTENTIA RESTITVIT. Some suppose this to be the actual altar mentioned above as erected to the Genius Loci, in consequence of the mysterious warning of the Gallic invasion. The father of the tribune, C. S. Calvinus, mentioned in the inscription, was consul with C. Cassius Longinus, B.C. 124, and is described by Cicero as an elegant orator of a sickly constitution.[147]