reconstruction, in 10 A.D., it was built of white marble, under the direction of the ablest architects of the age. When completed it was, in the words of Lanciani, "one of the finest monuments in the valley of the Forum and one of the richest museums of Rome." See restoration of Forum and its surroundings, facing p. 81. 151. Temple of Jupiter Stator. - The Temple of Jupiter Stator, Jupiter the stayer of the flight, seems to have been built during the earlier years of the republican period. It probably stood on the northern declivity of the Palatine Hill. The senate was in session in this temple when Cicero pronounced before it his first oration against Catiline. 152. Basilicas. The court-houses of Rome were the basilicas, of which there were several. The Basilica Por near the Curia, and was Other basilicas especially cia, the oldest of all, stood erected in the year 184 B.C. worthy of mention were the Sempronia, on the south side of the Forum, erected in 169 B.C.; the Opimia, near the Temple of Concord, erected in 121 B.C.; and the beautiful basilica Aemilia, erected in 54 B.C. on the north side of the Forum. See the accompanying illustration. 153. Tullianum. - The Roman state's prison, called Tullianum from the spring of water, tullius, which issues from the rock within it, was situated a short distance west of the Comitium and the Curia. It is interesting as one of the few remains which have reached our time from the regal period of ancient Rome. It consisted of two subterranean chambers, one above the other. Sallust describes it as a dark and frightful dungeon twelve feet under ground. It was the scene of some "of the most tragic events in Roman history." In it Lentulus, Cethegus, and their fellow-conspirators were executed. Nichols in his work on the Roman Forum says that "the Carcer plays a part in Roman history like that of the Tower of London in the history of England." 1 Adapted from Middleton's Ancient Rome. |