Palatium

Prominent hill in the heart of Rome, a place of privileged housing and numinous character, settled first by Romulus, whose connection with the hill was celebrated throughout antiquity. Under Augustus, the region saw intense building activity, especially on the SW Palatine, which was transformed into a magnificent religious-residential center embodying Augustus’ deep personal connections to the hill. The Palatium rose S of the *Forum Romanum and *Velia, E of the *Forum Bovarium, N of the *Circus Maximus, and W of the *Caelian. Steep, defensible slopes, especially on the SW and NW faces of the hill, and a spacious plateau (c. 25 acres, Richardson 280), made the Palatine an ideal location for Romulus’ city. A low saddle connected the NE Palatine with the Velia, and offered the only gradual ascent to the hill’s summit (s.v. *“Clivus Palatinus”); the gentle slope in this area, and the proximity to the political heart of the city, the Forum Romanum, made the N foot of the Palatine (to the *Sacra Via) a sought-after address for Rome’s élite from the 6th c. B.C. onward (Carandini 1990; Tagliamonte 16). The toponym ‘Cermalus’, once thought to represent a separate lobe of the hill (Varro, Ling. 5.54: Cermalum; cf. Ammerman 13 on the physical topography), is now widely agreed to have referred to the SW corner of the hill (e.g., Castagnoli 1964, 173; Coarelli, LTUR I, 262). In addition to its advantageous position within the city, Romulus’ connections to the Palatine vested it with a special importance. It was from the Palatine summit that Romulus took the auspices before founding ‘his’ city (as opposed to the ill-fated foundation of Remus on the *Aventine, cf. *Remoria; Dion. Hal., Ant. Rom. 1.86-87; Livy 1.6.4-1.7.1; Ov., Fast. 5.149-52). The Romulean pomerium, the religious boundary of the city, was drawn around the base of the Palatine (e.g., Dion. Hal., Ant. Rom. 1.88; Plut., Rom. 11.2-3); it extended from the Ara Maxima of *Hercules in the Forum Bovarium, to the shrine of Consus in the Circus Maximus, then to the *Curiae Veteres on the NE corner, and finally to the shrine of the *Lares, on the saddle between the Palatine and Velia, or the Larundae, at the NW corner near the Forum Romanum (Tac., Ann. 12.24; Aronen, LTUR III, 176; Coarelli, LTUR IV, 207-9). The special antiquity and Romulean associations of the Palatine were recognized throughout the Republican and Imperial eras; for example, artifacts associated with the city’s founding were kept in a shrine of Roma Quadrata located in the *Area Apollinis before the Temple of *Apollo (Festus 310-12: Quadrata Roma in Palatino ante templum Apollinis; Richardson 333; the term was also used, primarily by Greek authors, to describe the Romulean city: Coarelli, LTUR IV, 207-9), and the hut of Romulus, the *Casa Romuli, was exactingly preserved on the Cermalus in its Archaic form through the 4th c. A.D. (Dion. Hal., Ant. Rom. 1.79.11; Reg. Cats., Regio X). Though the Archaic city walls had been dismantled by the 6th c. B.C. (Terrenato 317, Tagliamonte 19), three, or perhaps four, gates from Romulean fortifications had an ongoing presence on the Palatine (Terrenato 316; Tagliamonte 16). The best attested is the *Porta Mugonia, which stood along the “Clivus Palatinus”, between the *Nova Via and Sacra Via, and may have retained a built form through the Republican period (Terrenato 316). Also on the Palatine were the porta Romana and porta Romanula. Traditionally these have been seen as alternate names for a gate on the NW corner of the hill (Richardson 308), but Coarelli (LTUR III, 318-19) has recently argued that the porta Romana and porta Romanula were, in fact, two separate gates, the former located near the *Scalae Caci, the latter by the *Scalae Graecae; the physical form these gates may have had under Augustus is unknown, it seems likely that the names circulated only as toponyms by that date. According to Varro (Ling. 5.165), the porta Ianualis was also a Palatine gate (by the Scalae Graecae: Richardson 303); however, Varro’s testimony seems to conflate aspects of the gate with the *Ianus Geminus, and it remains a matter of speculation as to whether this was a gate in the Romulean city wall, an alternate name for the shrine of Janus, or both (cf. Tortorici 92, who notes the gate was “between the Palatine and Quirinal”; an identification with the Ianus Geminus would make better sense of Macrob., Sat. 1.9.17, who places the gate at the foot of the *Viminal). Romulus himself was intimately connected with a number of shrines on the Palatine. On the N slope, somewhere on the saddle between the Palatine and Velia, stood the temple of *Iuppiter Stator, vowed by Romulus during a pitched battle with the Sabines (Livy 1.12.3-7); it remained an undeveloped fanum (consecrated ground) until the early 3rd c. B.C., when a second temple vow, this time by M. Atilius Regulus, spurred the Senate to erect an aedes on the site (Livy 10.36.11, 10.37.15). At the base of the NE Palatine corner, Romulus founded the *Curiae Veteres to house the city’s 30 religious curiae; soon Rome’s expanding population outgrew the modest Romulean foundation, and a new building, the *Curiae Novae, was erected. Under Augustus, the Curiae Veteres remained a sacred locale for four curiae that could not be transferred to the new site (Festus 180-82). Two Palatine shrines specifically commemorated aspects of Romulus’ life; the *Casa Romuli, believed to have been the hut where Romulus lived, was maintained as a sacred site on the SW Palatine slope (Dion. Hal., Ant. Rom. 1.79.11). Long held as a sacred site, the *Lupercal, a grotto at the base of the Cermalus where Faustulus was believed to have found Romulus and Remus with the she-wolf (e.g., Dion. Hal., Ant. Rom. 1.78.3; Ov., Fast. 2.381-424), was ‘built up’ by Augustus (RG 19: feci), though the architectural form his construction would have taken remains unclear. Several archaic altars and shrines were known to have been infima Nova Via, at the ‘low point of the Nova Via’, which lay near the Scalae Graecae and the *Velabrum; these included the altar and tomb of Acca Laurentia (Cic., ad Brut. 1.15.8: ara; Varro, Ling. 6.23-24: ad sepulcrum Accae; Aronen 13-14), the sacellum of Angerona (Solin. 1.6: sacellum; Varro, Ling. 6.23: in curia Acculeia; Degrassi, Inscr. Ital. 13.2, 541-42; Aronen 42), a shrine of Volupia (Varro, Ling., 5.164: ad Volupiae sacellum; Macrob., Sat. 1.10.7: in ara Volupiae; Aronen 213, 219), the altar of Larunda (Varro, Ling. 5.74: ara; Aronen 176-77; possibly an apex of the Romulean pomerium: Coarelli, LTUR IV, 207-9), and the shrine of Aius Locutius (Cic., Div. 1.45.101: ara; Livy 5.32.6: sacellum, 5.50.5: templum; Aronen 29). Though these modest cult sites are not represented on our map, they form an important link in a belt of shrines and altars that ringed the lower slopes of the Palatine. Further E, near the NE corner of the hill, rose the Curiae Veteres as well as the temples of Iuppiter Stator and of the Lares; the latter was restored by Augustus in 4 B.C. (RG 19). Also in the vicinity was the fanum Orbonae, a modest cult site of the sinister divinity Orbona (Cic., Nat. D. 3.63; Pliny, NH 2.16, who associates the deity with *Febris and Mala Fortuna; Palombi, LTUR III, 364; Richardson 277-78). Along the little-known E side of the hill was the sizeable Temple of *Fortuna Respiciens, erected by the 2nd c. B.C. (though perhaps founded by Servius Tullius in the mid-6th c. B.C.: Papi, LTUR IV, 23) and adorned with fine terracotta pedimental statues. Toward the SE was the subterranenean altar of Consus, which was located within the *Circus Maximus and respected as a cult site through late-antiquity; also situated within the Circus proper were Archaic cult sites of *Murcia and *Sol. Forming the SW turning point of the Romulean pomerium was the revered Ara Maxima of *Hercules, and somewhere along the base of the SW Palatine slope were the shady recesses of the Lupercal grotto. Grander temples and cult sites rose on the Palatine’s high plateau; on the SW corner of the hill stood temples to *Magna Mater, *Victoria, *Victoria Virgo and Apollo (on these, see below); included within this monumental complex were modest cult sites of *Bacchus, Roma Quadrata, and Romulus (the Casa Romuli), along with an altar to the N[VMEN] AVGVSTI dedicated by Tiberius in c. 6 A.D. (Palombi LTUR III, 349, who does not exclude a possible site near the *Capita Bubula). Somewhere atop the hill, the Republican Temple to *Noctiluca, a divinity associated with Luna and the night sky, ‘gleamed in the night’ (Varro, Ling. 5.68; Aronen, LTUR III, 345). A 3rd-c. B.C. cult of Pales may have been located on the hill (cf. Flor. 1.15; Aronen), as might a temple of *Iuppiter Invictus (often associated with the High Imperial remains on the E Palatine heights; e.g., Ziolkowksi, Richardson 227), though neither can be confirmed on the Palatine. This numinous Palatine, graced with serene shrines and gleaming temples, held deep personal associations for Augustus, who was born, and lived, on the hill. The home of his father C. Octavius, in which he was born, stood on the NE Palatine at the Capita Bubula, close by the Romulean Curiae Veteres. As a young man (c. 44-40 B.C.), Octavian lived in a house at the top of the Scalae Graecae (once the residence of C. Licinius Macer Calvus: Suet., Aug. 72.1; Papi, LTUR II, 129). Already by the late 40s, when he purchased the Palatine home of Q. Hortensius, Octavian had put into motion plans to create an impressive new residence on the SW Palatine; once home to Romulus himself, the Cermalus would be developed, over the course of his reign, into a spectacular agglomeration of houses, temples, porticoes and libraries, worthy of a Hellenistic monarch. The Augustan palatial complex included the temples of Magna Mater (which he restored in A.D. 3), Victoria, Victoria Virgo, and was most intimately connected with that of Apollo (dedicated in 28 B.C.); seamlessly extending the fabric of his home were porticoes and public libraries (*Porticus: Apollo [Palatium]; *Bibliotheca Latina Grecaque). Combining several Republican residences (the culmination of a 1st-c. B.C. trend toward ever more spacious and luxurious housing: Papi 1998, 46-47; cf. Cic., Dom. 44.115), Augustus housed his extended family on the Palatine, each domus probably separated from the next by minor streets or alleyways (Papi 1998, 47-48; cf. *Domus: Livia). Despite the unprecedented combination of the religious with the residential in Augustus’ palatial complex, Dio Cassius reminds readers that it was from its close connection to the Archaic hut of Romulus that Augustus’ new residence derived its renown (53.16.5). Of the other élite Romans privileged to live on the Augustan Palatine we know rather little. Many distinguished Republicans had homes there (Carandini 1988; Royo esp. 70-72, 121-23; e.g., *Domus: M. Aemilius Scaurus), and by the mid-1st c. B.C. residences were bought and sold, enlarged and renovated with abandon (some spending millions of sesterces for a single domus, e.g., 14.8 million paid by Clodius: Pliny, NH 36.103; or Cicero’s residence, undervalued at 2 million: Cic., Att. 4.2.3-5). Despite the myriad facts known about the constant turn-over of Palatine real-estate in the 1st c. B.C. (in large part courtesy of Cicero), few Augustan-era proprietors, outside of the imperial family, are known by name; the house once belonging to M. Tullius Cicero (Cic., Dom. 100, 103, 114-16) was occupied by Sisenna Statilius Taurus (cos. A.D. 16), perhaps by the late-Augustan period and definitely by A.D. 30 (Vell. Pat. 2.14.3). Augustus’ birthplace at the *Capita Bubula was owned, at least in part, by a Gaius Laetorius (probably by the late-Augustan period, almost certainly in the years after A.D. 14: Suet., Aug. 5). The flamen Dialis had a residence on the Palatine, most likely on the NW corner of the hill, above the Scalae Graecae (Dio Cass. 54.24.2; *Domus Flaminia). Further information is supplied by the isolated remains of late-Republican and Augustan-era houses scattered across the hill (s.v. *Domus: Palatium [1-9]). Literary sources and extant remains suggest that the N slope, especially S of the Sacra Via between the Domus Publica and the “Clivus Palatinus”, was an important quarter, densely packed with luxury housing (s.v. Domus: M. Aemilius Scaurus; Domus: Nova Via; Domus: Palatium [9]; Carandini 1988), as was the area below the domus Tiberiana on the NW corner of the hill (s.v. Domus: Palatium [4-8]; Krause esp. 192; cf. *Domus: Vicus Tuscus). No vicus-neighborhoods are known from the Augustan Palatine, but the NE corner of the hill was known as ‘at the Capita Bubula’, possibly after the bucrania (ox heads) displayed outside the Curiae Veteres. The Augustan state of the E and S sectors of the hill (below Vigna Barberini and the later-Imperial domus Augustiana and domus Flavia) remains largely a cipher, due in large part to massive Imperial building projects as well as nascent archaeological investigations (e.g., the recent work in the Vigna Barberini; cf. Domus: Palatium [1]). The street system across the hilltop is also unknown to us; aside from an initial trace of the “Clivus Palatinus” which ascended the hill from the N, and a few alleyways in the Augustan palatial complex (*Clivus Victoriae), nothing can be said with certainty of the streets that once traversed the plateau. Though the lacunae in the archaeological and literary evidence are significant, it is clear that the Palatine was one of Augustan Rome’s premier addresses, and home to the city’s political power-brokers who could only stand to gain through their proximity to Rome’s first citizen, the pater patriae, who made his home on the hill.