Velabrum

The Velabrum (for the name, e.g., Plautus, Capt. 489; Varro, Ling. 5.44, 5.156 distinguishing a Velabrum Minus; occasionally the plural Velabra occurs: Prop. 4.9.5; Ov., Fast. 6.405) is part of the “Central Valley” (*Vallis: Forum-Velabrum) between the *Capitoline and *Palatine, adjoined on the NE by the Forum basin and on the SW by the city’s central flood-plain. It was “an important zone of transit” connecting the *Forum Romanum with the *Forum Bovarium, and beyond to the *Portus Tiberinus and *Circus Maximus (Cressedi 250-54; Guidobaldi and Angelelli 104-7). Two major thoroughfares ran through the Velabrum: the *Vicus Iugarius along the foot of the Capitoline, and the *Vicus Tuscus along the base of the Palatine. By the early 2nd c. B.C. the Velabrum was reputed as a buzzing market area (Plaut., Capt. 489: quasi in Velabro olearii; Curc. 483: in Velabro vel pistorem vel lanium vel aruspicem ...), and in the later 1st c. B.C. Horace refers to it in this way, highlighting the Vicus Tuscus as the area’s main business artery (Sat. 2.3.228-30: ac Tusci turba impia vici, ... cum Velabro omne macellum ...). The Vicus Tuscus was also the street for processions leading from the Forum Romanum to the Circus Maximus and *Aventine (Plut., Rom. 5.5, connects the term ‘Velabrum’ alternatively with the vela, sails, which spanned the street during spectacles; also Ov., Fast. 6.405: Velabra solent in Circum ducere pompas; cf. Dion. Hal., Ant. Rom. 5.36.4; Livy 27.37.15, for the expiatory procession of 207 B.C.; s.v. *Clivus Publicius). The route of Caesar’s Gallic triumph in 46 B.C. also led ‘through’ or ‘by’ the Velabrum (Suet., Iul. 37.2: Velabrum praetervehens, see below; for the suggested course of the triumphal route in general, Coarelli 1988, 365-67; Guidobaldi and Angelelli 105). Late-Republican and Augustan writers preserve an image of the ancient Velabrum as a swampy pool (Varro, Ling. 5.43-44; Prop. 4.9.5-6; Ov., Fast. 6.405-14; cf. Plut., Rom. 5.5); accordingly, Varro understands the term ‘Velabrum’ as deriving from vehere, to convey, and velatura, ferrying. Recent geological research suggests a factual basis for this ancient tradition. In the early centuries of the first millennium B.C., the Velabrum apparently “ran as an open, continuous valley between the Forum basin and the main Tiber valley” which may have been “seasonally wet and dry” with “an incised stream at the valley bottom”; such a situation would have necessitated a ferry service during the rainy winter months (Ammerman 220-21 with 218 fig. 3, arguing against the traditional saddle-shaped Velabrum). The courses of two old streets, the Vicus Iugarius and Vicus Tuscus, stay close to the base of the Velabrum’s flanking hills and reflect the once impassable terrain in the valley’s center. Archaeologically, the broad zone between these streets is — aside from the well-known course of the *Cloaca Maxima — a terra incognita. On the Palatine side of the Vicus Tuscus stands the only grand-scale building known from the Augustan Velabrum, the *Horrea Agrippiana (cf. Festus 68: Velabra quibus frumenta ventilantur). Just N of it are remnants of a late-Republican or Augustan-era residence (*Domus: Vicus Tuscus). Further NE, at the junction between the Velabrum and the Forum Romanum near the *Scalae Graecae and the *Nova Via, lay an agglomeration of archaic altars and shrines (such as the tomb-altar of Acca Larentia, in Velabro: Varro, Ling. 6.24; also shrines of Angerona, Volupia, and Aius Locutius; on these, too small to represent on our map, s.v. Palatium). An unspecified site ‘near the Cloaca Maxima’ (Varro, Ling. 5.157) and presumably in the Velabrum (Coarelli, LTUR) was known as the Doliola, after the jars (doliola) with mysterious contents buried there. Perhaps not too far away was a site called ad busta Gallica (Varro, loc. cit.; Coarelli, LTUR; cf. *Aequimelium). Probably situated in the Velabrum but also unlocated is a sanctuary of Fortuna or Felicitas built by Lucullus and remembered as the place where, during his Gallic triumph, the axle of Caesar’s chariot broke (Dio Cass. 43.21.1: τῷ Τυχαίῳ τῷ ὑπὸ τοῦ Λουκούλλου οἰκοδομηθέντι , combined with Suet., Iul. 37.2: Velabrum praetervehens; further Strabo 8.6.23: Λεύκολλος δὲ κατασκευάσας τὸ τῆς Εὐτυχίας ἱερὸν; Palombi). This sanctuary may be identical with the Temple of Felicitas famed for the collection of art erected before it (Cic., Verr. 2.4.4, 2.4.126; Pliny, NH 34.69: ante Felicitatis aedem, 36.39; an equation taken for granted by Richardson 150; Palombi). The Fortunium, which is listed after the Velabrum in the late-antique Regionary Catalogues (Regio XI: Circus Maximus), could refer to this Lucullan sanctuary or to that of *Fortuna et Mater Matuta. Despite the lack of archaeological evidence, it is clear that the Velabrum was a frequented and bustling zone of passage and commerce, featuring rows of shops and warehouse facilities. On occasion, spectacular parades wound their way through the Velabrum, while memories of past processions clung to certain sites; further, its very name was seen as connected with the concept of conveyance or ferrying. Yet, tempering this image of passage, the entire zone seems to have been densely inhabited (s.v. Vicus Tuscus; Vicus Iugarius; also note the insula Volusiana, s.v. Forum Bovarium). Only continued topographic research offers hope of understanding the balance of stasis and flux in this enigmatic but vital urban region.