Social life at Rome in the Age of Cicero | Page 9

double-headed Janus, standing at the entrance to
the Forum from the Argiletum and the Porta Esquilina; then the
Comitium and Curia (which last was burnt by the mob in 52 B.C., at
the funeral of Clodius), and reach the foot of the Clivus Capitolinus,
just where was (and is) the ancient underground prison, called
Tullianum, from the old word for a spring (tullus), the scene of the
deaths of Jugurtha and many noble captives, and of the Catilinarian
conspirators on December 5, 63. Here the via Sacra turns, in front of
the temple of Concordia, to ascend the Capitol. Behind this temple,
extending farther under the slope, is the Tabularium, already mentioned,
which is still much as it was then; and below us to the south is the
temple of Saturnus, the treasury (aerarium) of the Roman people. Thus
at this end of the Forum, under the Capitol, are the whole set of public
offices, facing the ancient religious buildings around the Vesta temple
at the other end.
The way now turns again to the right, and reaches the depression
between the two summits of the Capitoline hill. Leaving the arx on the
left, we reach by a long flight of steps the greatest of all Roman
temples, placed on a long platform with solid substructures of Etruscan
workmanship, part of which is still to be seen in the garden of the
German Embassy. The temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, with his
companions Juno and Minerva, was in a special sense the religious
centre of the State and its dominion. Whatever view he might take of
the gods and their cults, every Roman instinctively believed that this

great Jupiter, above all other deities, watched over the welfare of Rome,
and when a generation later Virgil placed the destiny of Rome's
mythical hero in the hands of Jupiter, every Roman recognised in this
his own inherited conviction. Here, on the first day of their office, the
higher magistrates offered sacrifice in fulfilment of the vows of their
predecessors, and renewed the same vows themselves. The consul
about to leave the city for a foreign war made it his last duty to sacrifice
here, and on his return he deposited here his booty. Here came the
triumphal procession along the Sacred Way, the conquering general
attired and painted like the statue of the god within the temple; and
upon the knees of the statue he placed his wreath of laurel, rendering up
to the deity what he had himself deigned to bestow. Here too, from a
pedestal on the platform, a statue of Jupiter looked straight over the
Forum,[32] the Curia, and the Comitium; and Cicero could declare
from the Rostra, and know that in so declaring he was touching the
hearts of his hearers, that on that same day on which it had first been so
placed, the machinations of Catiline and his conspirators had been
detected.[33] "Ille, ille Iupiter restitit; ille Capitolium, ille haec templa,
ille cunctam urbem, ille vos omnes salvos esse voluit."
The temple had been destroyed by fire in the time of Sulla, and its
restoration was not as yet finally completed at the time of our
imaginary walk.[34] It faced towards the river and the Aventine, i.e.
south-east, according to the rules of augural lore, like all Roman public
buildings of the Republican period. From the platform on which it
stands we look down on the Forum Boarium, from which we started,
connected with the Forum by the Velabrum and the vicus Tuscus; and
more to the right below us is the Campus Martius, with access to the
city by that Porta Carmentalis which Evander showed to Aeneas. This
spacious exercise-ground of Roman armies is already beginning to be
built upon; in fact the Circus Flaminius has been there for more than a
century and a half, and now the new theatre of Pompeius, the first stone
theatre in Rome, rises beyond it towards the Vatican hill. But there is
ample space left; for it is nearly a mile from the Capitol to that curve of
the Tiber above which the Church of St. Peter now stands; and on this
large expanse, at the present day, the greater part of a population of
nearly half a million is housed. I do not propose to take the reader

farther. We have been through the heart of the city, as it was at the
close of the Republican period, and from the platform of the great
temple we can see all else that we need to keep in mind in these
chapters.
CHAPTER II
THE LOWER POPULATION (PLEBS URBANA)
The walk we have been taking has led us only through the heart of the
city, in which were the public buildings, temples, basilicas, porticos,
etc., of which we hear so