Old Rome

Chapter 15

6. The famous bronze figure of the wolf and twins is placed in the gallery of bronzes on the Capitol. It was found, according to Flaminius Vacca, who wrote in 1594, near the Arch of Ja.n.u.s Quadrifrons. Urlichs, who has discussed the probable history of this figure in the Rheinisches Museum, thinks that it is the figure dedicated by the Ogulnii, aediles in B.C. 297, and mentioned in the tenth book of Livy.

7. A stupendous sarcophagus brought from Vico Varo, with a bas-relief representing the Calydonian boar hunt, stands in the Museum of the Capitol, and in the next room is the sepulchral monument found at the Porta Salaria in 1871, recording the young Greek scholar who won the prize at the Agon Capitolinus in A.D. 86. Another most interesting sarcophagus, which was found at the Monte del Grano on the road to Frascati, and contained the vase called the Portland Vase now in the British Museum, stands in the Hall of the Urns in the Capitoline Museum.

8. On the wall of the staircase in the Capitoline Museum are the fragments of the celebrated marble plan of Rome cut in the time of Septimius Severus, which shows the sites and ground plans of the Portico of Octavia, the Theatre of Pompeius, the Basilica of Trajan, the Basilica Julia, and the Theatre of Marcellus.

9. The Dying Gladiator, or more properly the Dying Gaulish Herald, was found in the gardens of Sall.u.s.t, near the Porta Salaria. It now stands in the room called the Hall of the Dying Gladiator at the Capitoline Museum.

10. In the Hall of the Faun at the Capitoline Museum may be seen one of the most beautiful ancient bas-reliefs in Rome, representing the battle of Theseus, and the Amazons. This is on a sarcophagus which was found near Torre Salona on the Via Collatina.

11. In the Capitoline Museum, the Halls of Busts of the Emperors and of Ill.u.s.trious Men, the Venus of the Capitol, and the Doves of Pliny, are monuments connected with several celebrated spots in Rome and the Campagna.

12. The places, however, at which most of the important antiquities have been found are the Villa of Hadrian, near Tibur, and the ruins of Veii and Ostia. The following is a list of the chief monuments which were found there and are now placed in the Vatican Museum.

A. From Hadrian"s Villa.

1. Faun. No. 84. } 2. A Vestal. No. 120. } 3. A Niobid. No. 176. } Museo Chiaromonti.

4. Clotho. No. 498. } 5. Bacchic bas-reliefs. No. 642. } 6. Hercules. No. 732. }

7. Baths of granite and ma.s.ses of alabaster in the 4th portico of the Cortile di Belvedere.

8. Mosaics on the wall in the Hall of the Animals and in the Cabinet of the Masks.

9. The Candelabra on each side of the Ariadne in the Gallery of Statues.

10. Colossal bust of M. Aurelius in the Hall of the Busts. No. 288.

11. Corinthian columns in the Hall of the Muses.

12. Colossal Hermae at the entrance of the Rotonda and bust of Faustina, No. 541 in the Rotonda.

13. Granite statues at the doorway of the Hall of the Greek Cross.

14. Discobolus, No. 618 in the Hall of the Biga.

15. Ephesian Diana, No. 81, and Female Statue No. 222, in the Gallery of Candelabra.

16. Egyptian figures in the Egyptian Museum.

B. From Veii and the North-Western Campagna.

1. Statue of Tiberius. No. 400. } Museo Chiaromonti.

2. Head of Augustus. No. 401. }

3. Statue of Augustus from Prima Porta, in the Braccio Nuovo.

C. From Ostia.

1. Antoninus. No. 6. } 2. Winter. No. 13. } 3. Bust of young Augustus. No. 416. } 4. Bust of Julia. No. 418. } 5. Juno. No. 534. } Museo Chiaromonti.

6. Head of Neptune. No. 606a. } 7. Boy and Swan. No. 651. } 8. Sarcophagus of Nonius Asprenas. No. 685. } 9. aesculapius. No. 684. } 10. Bust of Antoninus Pius. No. 700. }

11. Ganymede. No. 38. } 12. Ceres. No. 83. } Braccio Nuovo.

13. Bust of Commodus. No. 121. }

The other princ.i.p.al ancient monuments now in the Vatican Museum besides those from the Villa of Hadrian, from Ostia, and Veii, above-mentioned, are:--

1. The statue of Demosthenes from the neighbourhood of Cicero"s Tusculan villa. No. 62. Braccio Nuovo.

2. The Torso Belvedere found near the ruins of the Theatre of Pompeius.

No. 3, Museo Pio Clementino.

3. The Laoc.o.o.n found near the Baths of t.i.tus. Cortile di Belvedere. No.

74.

4. The great porphyry basin found at the Baths of Diocletian. Rotonda.

5. Sarcophagi of S. Constantia and S. Helena, and cippus of Syphax found on the road to Tibur. Hall of the Greek Cross.

6. Sarcophagus of L. Scipio Barbatus, from the Tomb of the Scipios, near the Porta S. Sebastiano. Museo Pio Clementino.

In the Capitoline Museum are placed:--

A. From Hadrian"s Villa.

1. Colossal head of Cybele. No. 9 in the courtyard,

{ Psyche. No. 53. } 2. { Cupid of Praxiteles. No. 13. } In the Gallery.

{ Euterpe. No. 32. }

3. Roman Matron. No. 3. } 4. An Amazon. No. 5. } In the Hall of the Dying Gladiator.

5. Flora. No. 11. } 6. Antinous. No. 13. }

7. The Faun. No. 1 in the Hall of the Faun.

8. Centaurs in bigio antico. No. 2. } 9. A Gymnasiarch. No. 27. } In the Saloon.

10. Harpocrates. No. 34. }

Some other great ancient monuments are placed as follows:--

1. The first milestone on the Appian Road, found in 1584, is now placed in the Piazza del Campidoglio at the top of the steps leading up from the Piazza d"Ara Cli on the right hand. The seventh milestone is placed opposite to it.

On the stairs of the Capitol are also placed the marble sculptures called the trophies of Marius which were brought from the ruin on the Campus Esquilinus, not very far from the Arch of Gallienus. At the top of the steps stand two equestrian figures of the Dioscuri, said to have come from the neighbourhood of the Theatre of Balbus, and the statues of Constantine and his son Constans from the Baths of Constantine on the Quirinal. At the foot of the staircase are the two Egyptian lions found as above mentioned near the Church of S. Stefano in Cacco. The history of the bronze equestrian statue of M. Aurelius, now in the Piazza of the Capitol, cannot be traced as Palladio states to the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, but it was more probably found as Fea has recorded, near the Arch of Septimius Severus.

2. A bronze cista mistica found at Praeneste is in the Kircherian Museum.

3. The wooden beams from the Villa of Caesar in the lake of Nemi, are kept partly in the Kircherian Museum, and partly in the Gallery on the right hand of the Vatican Library.

4. The caricature of Alexamenos from the Palatine is in the Kircherian Museum.

5. The mosaics from the Baths of Caracalla are in the Hall of Mosaics at the Lateran.

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