Caelius Mons

A spacious hill with gradual slopes that rises E of the *Palatine, S of the *Oppian, and N of the *Via Appia Valley (Giannelli). Several ancient toponyms were used to denote specific areas: Caeliolum (Varro, Ling. 5.46), in Caeliculo (Cic., Har. Resp. 32), and Ceriolensis (Varro, Ling. 5.47) probably referred to the N slope near SS. Quattro Coronati (Giannelli; contra, Rodríguez Almeida, who associates the terms with the Caelian’s W promontory, the site of the mid-1st c. A.D. Temple of Divine Claudius). Martial alone uses the toponyms Caelius maior and minor (12.18.6); most place the Caelius maior in the region of the Villa Mattei — S. Maria in Domnica, and the Caelius minor near SS. Quattro Coronati (Giannelli; contra, Rodríguez Almeida, whose Caelius minor is on the W leg of the hill, and Caelius maior in the vicinity of the Villa Fonseca-Lateran). Though our knowledge of the later-Imperial Caelian is quite rich, especially in light of recent excavations (Pavolini 1993a; id. 1993b; Liverani), the Augustan Caelian remains largely a cipher. Only two cult sites are known, with certainty, to have stood on the hill in the early 1st c. A.D.: *Minerva Capta, and *Carna; and of these, only that of Minerva has a known location (albeit an approximate one on the N slope near SS. Quattro Coronati). Diana was honored at a small shrine on the NE Caelian until the mid-1st c. B.C., when L. Capurnius Piso destroyed the ‘most sacred shrine of Diana’, sanctissimum Dianae sacellum (c. 58 B.C.: Cic., Har. resp. 32; Palombi 14; Colini 40). In addition, a 2nd-c. B.C. aedes dedicated to *Hercules Victor may have stood on the E Caelian, though this is very heavily debated. The scarcity of archaeological evidence predating the disastrous fire of A.D. 27 (Suet., Tib. 48; Tac., Ann. 4.64; Vell. Pat. 2.130.2; Pavolini 1993a, 445) makes estimating the density of late-Republican/Augustan urbanization on the Caelian a speculative exercise. Nevertheless, several factors suggest that the hill was moderately built up by the early 1st c. A.D. At least one neighborhood, the *Vicus Statae Matris, is securely placed on the Augustan Caelian, as are several isolated structures (*Caelius Mons: Building [1-6]). Cicero informs us that the shrine of Diana was surrounded by dwellings (Har. resp. 32), and Suetonius relates that the fire of A.D. 27 destroyed blocks of houses on the Caelian (Tib. 48). Further, the Caelian was home to a number of late-Republican/Augustan residences; known both archaeologically and through literary accounts, these domus seem to have been quite luxurious. In fact, the opulent marble-clad house of Mamurra, built on the Caelian in the mid-1st c. B.C., was the epitome of ostentatious building to Pliny (NH 36.48; s.v. *Domus: Mamurra; Guidobaldi). A second residence, this of the early 1st c. B.C., reached such heights that the Augurs could no longer satisfactorily take auspices (Cic., Off. 3.66: aedes, insula; Val. Max. 8.2.1: domus); on their orders, this structure was demolished (by 91 B.C.: Papi 82). The few residences known archaeologically seem to have been well-appointed, either with elegant wall-paintings (*Domus: Caelian [2]) or fine mosaic pavements (*Domus: Caelian [1], [3], [4]). The insulae, large apartment blocks with multiple units serving both residential and commercial purposes, that characterized the Caelian after the fire of A.D. 64 are not archaeologically well attested prior to Nero’s reign (Pacetti 461), though sporadic literary references suggest the building type may have been in use earlier (Cic., Off. 3.66; Suet., Tib. 48: dominus insularum); a few mercantile structures — rows of shops (tabernae) — have been recovered on the Augustan Caelian as well (*Caelius Mons: Building [1], [5]). The urban impact of the Servian Wall in this region is disputed, since its course across the Caelian remains hypothetical due to the absence of secure physical remains (s.v. *Muri: Caelius Mons), and since its continued existence in the Augustan period is questioned: having lost their defensive value, the walls seem to have fallen into disrepair, and perhaps had already been dismantled in places (Colini 32; see below). Two known points anchor the course of the walls — the *Porta Capena and the porta Caelimontana, which had been restored in A.D. 10 as the *“Arcus Dolabellae et Silani”; the third Caelian gate, the *Porta Querquetulana, is convincingly located near SS. Quattro Coronati, along the axis of the *“Via Tusculana”. Outside this gate ranged an open space, the *Campus Martialis, used on occasion for games (ludi) and religious festivals. Two groupings of Republican tombs lay outside the Servian Wall, one just beyond the Arch of Dolabella and Silanus, the other along the “Via Caelimontana” (*Sepulcra: Caelius Mons [1], [2]). The streets that ringed the base of the Caelian are known with some certitude: the *Via Appia and its nameless continuation within the Servian Wall, the *Via di S. Gregorio, and the “Via Tusculana”. In contrast, the streets which crossed the hilltop in the Augustan period are poorly understood. In fact, only one major street axis, that of the *“Clivus Scauri”–*“Via Caelimontana”, is attested in the late-Republican period. The “Clivus Scauri” ascended the W Caelian slope from Via di S. Gregorio to the Arch of Dolabella and Silanus. Once outside the Servian Wall, this street ran E across the heights as the “Via Caelimontana” to join the “Via Tusculana” (Pavolini 1991-92, 121); no ancient name is preserved for the portion outside the Servian Wall, thus Colini’s coinage “Via Caelimontana” has gained currency. A second well-known street axis on the Caelian, conventionally called the vicus Capitis Africae, is of Imperial date (Pavolini 1991-92, 118-19), and cannot reliably be extrapolated back into the Augustan era; the earliest evidence for the vicus name comes from the reign of Trajan. A Republican road, however, may have run up the natural depression in the N slope of the hill (Colini 59, suggested only by the importance of the street axis; Pavolini 1993b, 27) though the radical changes in the morphology and elevation of the region obscure its original course (Pavolini 1993b, 282; some light is shed by recent excavations: s.v. *Caelius Mons: Building [6]). More encouraging are recent excavations below the Military Hospital which have revealed an Augustan-era E–W street axis on the E Caelian, well outside the Servian Wall (Pacetti 458; Pavolini 1993a, 445). While no pavers were recovered in situ, the perfect alignment of the extant buildings suggests the course of the street, which probably continued c. 50 m E to intersect with the “Via Caelimontana”; the excavators hypothetically extend the street W across the Caelian’s summit, but the absence of corroborative evidence for this extended course in the Augustan era prohibits such a depiction on our map (note that, if in fact correct, the extension of this street requires that the Servian Wall in this area had been completely demolished by the Augustan era, as the line of the street crosses that of the Republican defenses). Addendum The built-up residential area on the Caelian could be extended some 100 m further outside the Servian Wall, along the strip of the “Via Caelimontana,” so as to include the row of tabernae (Caelius Mons: Building, 5; no. 292) along with the adjacent residence (Domus: Caelius Mons, 1; no 291), and perhaps even the remains of a luxury residence further south (Domus: Caelius Mons, 4; no. 289). This has been pointed out by A Grüner, Göttinger Forum für Altertumswissenschaft 7 (2004) 1061 and appears in Urbem 42 fig. 1 (Rome). A line of maximum expansion for this residential area is set by groups of Republican tombs (Sepulcra: Caelius Mons, 1 and 2; no. 290 and 288).