a grand palace suitable to the position of the head of the Roman Empire.

Dion Cassius says, "The people planted laurels before his house on the Palatine, and hung a crown or wreath of oak-branches on the roof of it, as to the perpetual conqueror of the enemies of the State, and servant of the citizens; but they called his house a palace, and decreed that Cæsar should always live on the Palatine. He accepted some splendour, because it was right that the Emperor should inhabit such a house as would deserve the name of a palace."

In the course of excavations carried on over the northwest portion of the Palatine, a house has been discovered which answers very well to the residence of Augustus, as mentioned by these authors. There are two floors; the upper one is composed of a number of small chambers, which are built of concrete, faced with reticulated work, agreeing very well with the time of Hortensius. On the lower level, at the north end, state apartments have been added, and a great deal of ornamentation introduced. In front of the four chambers laid open is an area paved with mosaic-work of fine description, and with remains of an altar. The walls of the rooms are highly decorated with frescoes painted on a finely-prepared surface, representing Greek mythical subjects, domestic scenes, birds, candelabra, columns, flowers and fruits. They are admirably executed, and agree very well with the Augustan age of art: the whole fits in with the history that Augustus accepted some splendour. It seems also clear that his residence was near the spot where the cottage of Romulus had been; for Dion Cassius says that he dwelt in the Prætorium, which he chose out of all the hill, because Romulus lived there. And as the cottage of the founder of Rome is assigned by Varro to the Germalus, and by Dionysius to the corner as you turn from the Palatine Hill to the Circus, we must place the House of Augustus near the western border of the Palatine, certainly to the north-west of the great foss which bounded Roma Quadrata on the south-east.

Tiberius had a palace on the Palatine close to that of Augustus, of which there are considerable remains, and in two divisions at different levels. The lower portion of it stands upon the Germalus, or platform, half-way down the hill, against the cliff of the upper part of the hill, on the side over the Circus Maximus. The other portion on the higher level is separated from the House of Augustus by the pavement of a street only; and here there are hypocausts under the floors of two chambers with the hot-air flue from a vaulted chamber below. Of the lower part the outer wall has fallen down, but the partition walls and the back walls against the cliff remain; among these is a fine mosaic pavement..

The construction of this House of Tiberius closely resembles that of the north wall of the Prætorian Camp, as seen from the inside, where there are sleeping-places for the guards built up against the wall: that camp was built by the same emperor. Tiberius added a library to this dwelling, as Augustus had connected one with the temple of Apollo, which was called the Palatine Library.

The next emperor, Caligula, also built on the Palatine, but at the opposite or northern end of the hill, where it touches the Forum. Suetonius says that this emperor used the temple of Castor and Pollux as a vestibule to his palace: part of it, therefore, must have stood on that low level just within the boundary-wall at the foot of the hill. The slope on the cliff of the Palatine down to this temple having now been completely excavated, it is seen that the whole surface downwards to the edge of the Forum is covered with buildings, connecting Caligula's halls on the top of the cliff with the lowest level on the plain. There are considerable remains of his structures, both of the palace, and also of the bridge, which he threw across the valley in order to connect the Palatine and Capitoline Hills at a high level, and all these are of brick. Higher up on the face of the hill is a great mass of buildings, consisting of chambers, with a long and lofty vault, which supports the pressure of the earth overhead. It is through these that the Clivus Victoriæ with its pavement of basaltic lava passes, to gain the summit of the hill. High overhead against these chambers is a series of corbels, which carried a balustrade or screen of pierced white marble, a fragment of which, beautifully executed, remains. Chambers of the time of Trajan and Hadrian are added on the east side of the clivus, or sloping paved road; but it seems that the summit of the Palatine was not large enough for the architects of the emperors, and they built great offices and guard-chambers against the cliffs all round, to gain space. This perpetual process of enlargement went on for two centuries, and is most conspicuously traceable on the face of the hill which fronts the Circus Maximus, and on the side opposite to the Cœlian. After Nero's Domus Aurea, which was converted into uses for the public benefit, there was no state palace built till Domitian's time. Vespasian resided sometimes on the Palatine, more frequently in the House of Sallust, which, with its gardens and stadium, had become the property of the Crown after the death of Sallust's nephew, who was intestate. This palatial residence in which Nero lived, and to which he was carried when dead, and which was inhabited also by two of the Flavian Emperors, and probably also by Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian, has been lately excavated. It stands on the edge of the deep foss composing the stadium, formerly the garden, very near to its north-eastern end, and

is immediately outside the point where the northernmost portion of the agger and wall of Servius joined on to the still more ancient fortifications terminating in a small square very rude tower, of tufa rock, described in the chapter on the defences of the five hills. It is a vast structure, five storeys high, and built partly in brickwork of imperial date, of good, but not of the best, style. The basement is occupied by a Nymphæum, or circular bath, with four recesses, one at the end of each diameter, giving an internal measurement of fifty-eight feet. Contiguous to it are two bath-chambers, with finely tessellated floors, and walls overlaid with the usual lamina of cement, richly coloured. The great bath is very lofty, with a vaulted dome above. The room farthest from this compartment is the Sudarium, or hot-air chamber, heated by twenty-one terra-cotta flues from the hypocaust below. The next intermediate room was also heated by the same great stove below. From the easternmost of these ascends a cochlea, or spiral staircase with marble steps, to the first storey, on which is a hall, 68 by 25 feet, with engaged columns of brick at regular intervals all round; these have been veneered with marble, now stripped off. On the south-east side of this saloon is the site of the balcony, commanding a view of the Circus below. The back of the palace abuts upon the cliff of the Quirinal, which is faced along the whole length of this arm of the Circus with arched chambers recessed in the walling. The upper walls of Sallust's house are of the usual rubble, basaltic blocks cemented with concrete, and faced with opus reticulatum. It is thus interesting to be able to see from one spot examples of the very early period of kingly work in the fragments of tufa under the cliff, of the reticulated stonework of the Republic, and of the marble and brickwork of the Empire. This is not the only place where such combinations occur; it is found on the scarped side of the Viminal Hill, looking towards the Quirinal, just out of the street Quattro Fontane, and again, as before mentioned, at the Porta Viminalis most conspicuously.

Domitian commenced the series of vast buildings which nearly cover the central portion of the Palatine in its greatest length from north-east to south-west. The ruins give an impression of the greatest magnificence. The name given to this palace seems to have been Ædes Publicæ, of which Pliny speaks in Trajan's time, and Ædes Imperatorum, as mentioned by Lampridius; but when the latter author wrote, very large additions had been made to it, and the whole southern half of the area was covered by them. The brick-stamps found in the walls of the earlier structures shew that Domitian began the work, and it was probably carried on by succeeding emperors, Nerva having inscribed the name Ædes Publicæ upon it. These buildings were continued by Commodus, of whose palace there are considerable remains, with the stadium (?) or gymnasium (?) excavated in 1877-80. This is the building which in the Regionary catalogue is called Sedes Imperii Romani in Regio X.*

On examining this great palace, it is plain that the architects found the level space on the summit of the Palatine insufficient for the execution of their grand plan. The surface on which they built was intersected by the ancient original foss, which was excavated to the width of a hundred feet, and to the depth of thirty feet, right across the

• Dr. Fabio Gori in his Archivio, vol. ii. p. 381, says that this building was the Pentapylon Jovis Arbitratoris of the Regionary Catalogue of Regio X., but this is very doubtful. Until the French nuns can be dismissed, and this part of the Palatine, where such important remains exist under the Villa Mills, is carefully excavated, nothing certain can be known about it.