Vicus Tuscus

The ‘Tuscan Row’ was an old, history-laden street and its eponymous, adjacent quarter (with an early residential function attested: e.g., Varro, Ling. 5.46; Prop. 4.2.49-50; Livy 2.14.9; *Domus: Vicus Tuscus); the street ran through the *Forum Valley at the E foot of the *Palatine and formed the main connection between the *Forum Romanum, the lower *Forum Bovarium (Livy 27.37.15), and the *Circus Maximus (Dion. Hal., Ant. Rom. 5.36.4). Called, by Cicero, the ‘street from the statue of Vertumnus to the Circus Maximus’ (Verr. 2.1.154; Aronen), it was reputed for pageantry and processions (Cic., loc. cit.: viam tensarum atque pompae; Coarelli 365-67, for the suggested triumphal route). It was also known by the end of the Republic as a notoriously expensive shopping street (Hor., Sat. 2.3.228: Tusci turba impia vici; cf. Mart. 11.27.11). There is no doubt that the street left the Forum Romanum through the alleyway between the Temple of *Castor and the *Basilica Iulia (e.g., Richardson; Papi 197; cf. Poulsen and Grønne; Aronen), and the remains of a street pavement found S of this passage along the *Horrea Agrippiana attest to the presence of the road in the *Velabrum (Hurst); however, its course beyond this point has not been precisely determined. Coarelli (367 fig. 82), Richardson, and Papi (197) advocate a route through the site of the Severan Arch of the Argentarii (passing over the *Cloaca Maxima), contrary to the earlier suggestions of Palmer (145 fig. 1) and Scagnetti, who position the course further N, close to the foot of the Palatine. Our map leaves this open. Palmer has argued strongly for an extension of the Vicus Tuscus toward the *Pons Aemilius (followed by Coarelli, 25, 50, 104-5 fig. 20, 151, cf. 241 fig. 50), which he identifies with the vici Luccei mentioned by Cicero (Att. 7.3.6). This has found only limited acceptance as the approximate region where these vici once stood (Gesemann 393; Lega 176). More importantly, the street issuing from the Pons Aemilius, while carried on a viaduct across the low strip of land behind the Tiber embankment (s.v. *Tiberis: Grand Embankment; *Portunus, Aedes), may not have continued as a distinct street-line crossing the Forum Bovarium; thus, Palmer’s connection is not represented on our map.