"THE Palatine formed a trapezium of solid rock, two sides of which were about 300 yards in length, the others about 400: the area of its summit, to compare it with a familiar object, was nearly equal to the space between Pall-Mall and Piccadilly in London."[99]

The history of the Palatine is the history of the City of Rome. Here was the Roma Quadrata, the "oppidum," or fortress of the Pelasgi, of which the only remaining trace is the name Roma, signifying force. This is the fortress where the shepherd-king Evander is represented by Virgil as welcoming Æneas.

The Pelasgic fortress was enclosed by Romulus within the limits of this new city, which, "after the Etruscan fashion, he traced round the foot of the hill with a plough drawn by a bull and a heifer, the furrow being carefully made to fall inwards, and the heifer yoked to the near-side, to signify that strength and courage were required without, obedience and fertility within the city.... The locality thus enclosed was reserved for the temples of the gods and the residence of the ruling class, the class of patricians or burghers, as Niebuhr has taught us to entitle them, which predominated over the dependent commons, and only suffered them to crouch for security under the walls of Romulus. The Palatine was never occupied by the plebs. In the last age of the republic, long after the removal of this partition, or of the civil distinction between the great classes of the state, here was still the chosen site of the mansions of the highest nobility."[100]

In the time of the early kings the City of Rome was represented by the Palatine only. It was at first divided into two parts, one inhabited, and the other called Velia, and left for the grazing of cattle. It had two gates, the Porta Romana to the north, and the Porta Mugonia—so called from the lowing of the cattle—to the south, on the side of the Velia.

Augustus was born on the Palatine, and dwelt there in common with other patrician citizens in his youth. After he became emperor he still lived there, but simply, and in the house of Hortensius, till, on its destruction by fire, the people of Rome insisted upon building him a palace more worthy of their ruler. This building was the foundation-stone of "the Palace of the CÆsars," which in time overran the whole hill, and, under Nero, two of the neighbouring hills besides, and whose ruins are daily being disinterred and recognised, though much confusion still remains regarding their respective sites. In A.D. 663, part of the palace remained sufficiently perfect to be inhabited by the Emperor Constans, and its plan is believed to have been entire for a century after, but it never really recovered its sack by Genseric in A.D. 455, in which it was completely gutted, even of the commonest furniture; and as years passed on it became imbedded in the soil which has so marvellously enshrouded all the ancient buildings of Rome, so that till within the last ten years, only a few broken nameless walls were visible above ground.

How different is this description to that of Claudian (de Sexto Consulat. Honorii).

After the middle of the sixteenth century a great part of the Palatine became the property of the Farnese family, latterly represented by the Neapolitan Bourbons, who sold the "Orti Farnesiani," in 1861, to the Emperor Napoleon III., for £10,000. Up to that time this part of the Palatine was a vast kitchen-garden, broken here and there by picturesque groups of ilex trees and fragments of mouldering wall. In one corner was a casino of the Farnese (still standing) adorned in fresco by some of the pupils of Raphael. This and all the later buildings in the "Orti," are marked with the Farnese fleur-de-lis, and on the principal staircase of the garden is some really grand distemper ornament of their time. Since 1861 extensive excavations have been carried on here under the superintendence of Signor Rosa, which have resulted in the discovery of the palaces of some of the earlier emperors, and the substructions of several temples. After the revolution of 1870 the French portion of the Palatine was sold by the Ex-Emperor Napoleon to the Roman municipal government.

In visiting the Palace of the CÆsars, it will naturally be asked how it is known that the different buildings are what they are described to be. In a great measure this has been ascertained from the descriptions of Tacitus and other historians,—but the greatest assistance of all has been obtained from the Tristia of Ovid, who, while in exile, consoles himself by recalling the different buildings of his native city, which he mentions in describing the route taken by his book, which he had persuaded a friend to convey to the imperial library. He supposes the book to enter the Palatine by the Clivus VictoriÆ behind the Temple of Vesta, and follows its course, remarking the different objects it passed on the right or the left.

---

If we enter the palace by the Farnese gateway, on the right of the Campo-Vaccino, opposite SS. Cosmo e Damiano, we had better only ascend the first division of the staircase and then turn to the left. Passing along the lower ridge of the Palatine, afterwards occupied by many of the great patrician houses, whose sites we shall return to and examine in detail, we reach that corner of the garden which is nearest to the Arch of Titus. Here a paved road of large blocks of lava has lately been laid bare, and is identified beyond a doubt as part of the Via Nova, which led from the Porta Mugonia of the Palatine along the base of the hill to the Velabrum. In the reign of Augustus it appears to have been made to communicate also with the Forum.

At this point the road was called Summa Via Nova.

Near this spot must have been the site of the house where Octavius lived with his wife Afra, the niece of Julius CÆsar (daughter of his eldest sister Julia), and where their son, Octavius, afterwards the Emperor Augustus, was born. This house afterwards passed into the possession of C. LÆtorius, a patrician; but after the death of Augustus, part of it was turned into a chapel, and consecrated to him. It was situated at the top of a staircase—"supra scalas annularias"[101]—which probably led to the Forum, and is spoken of as "ad capita bubula," perhaps from bulls' heads, with which it may have been decorated.

Here we find ourselves, owing to the excavations, in a deep hollow between the two divisions of the hill. On the left is the Velia, upon which, near the Porta Mugonia, the Sabine king, Ancus Martius, had his palace. When Ancus died, he was succeeded by an Etruscan stranger, Lucius Tarquinius, who took the name of Tarquinius Priscus. This king also lived upon the Velia,[102] with Tanaquil his queen, and here he was murdered in a popular rising, caused by the sons of his predecessor. Here his brave wife Tanaquil closed the doors, concealed the death of the king, harangued the people from the windows,[103] and so gained time till Servius Tullius was prepared to take the dead king's place and avenge his murder.[104]

Keeping to the valley, on our right are now some huge blocks of tufa, of great interest as part of the ancient Roma Quadrata, anterior to Romulus. Beyond this, also on the right, are foundations of the Temple of Jupiter Stator, built by Romulus, who vowed that he would found a temple to Jupiter under that name, if he would arrest the flight of his Roman followers in their conflict with the superior forces of the Sabines.[105]

The temple of Jupiter Stator has an especial interest from its connection with the story of Cicero and Catiline.

Nearly opposite the foundations of Jupiter Stator, on the left,—are some remains considered to be those of the Porta Palatii.

The valley is now blocked by a vast mass of building which entirely closes it. This is the palace of Augustus, built in the valley between the Velia and the other eminence of the Palatine, which Rosa, contrary to other opinions, identifies with the Germale. The division of the Palatine thus named, was reckoned as one of "the seven hills" of ancient Rome. Its name was thought to be derived from Germani, owing to Romulus and Remus being found in its vicinity.[106]

The Palace of Augustus was begun soon after the battle of Actium, and gradually increased in size, till the whole valley was blocked up by it, and its roofs became level with the hill-sides. Part of the ground which it covered had previously been occupied by the villa of Catiline.[107] Here Suetonius says that Augustus occupied the same bed-room for forty years. Before the entrance of the palace it was ordained by the Senate, B.C. 26, that two bay-trees should be planted, in remembrance of the citizens he had preserved, while an oak wreath was placed above the gate in commemoration of his victories.

It was before the gate of this palace that Augustus upon one day in every year sate as a beggar, receiving alms from the passers-by, in obedience to a vision that he should thus appease Nemesis.

Upon the top of this building of Augustus, Vespasian built his palace in A.D. 70, not only using the walls of the older palace as a support for his own, but filling the chambers of the earlier building entirely up with earth, so that they became a solid massive foundation. The ruins which we visit are thus for the most part those of the palace of Vespasian, but from one of its halls we can descend into rooms underneath excavated from the palace of Augustus. The three projecting rostra which we now see in front of the palace are restorations by Signor Rosa.

The palace on the Palatine was not the place where the emperors generally lived. They resided at their villas, and came into the town to the Palace of the CÆsars for the transaction of public business. Thus this palace was, as it were, the St. James's of Rome. The fatigue and annoyance of a public arrival every morning, amid the crowd of clients who always waited upon the imperial footsteps, was naturally very great, and to obviate this the emperors made use of a subterranean passage which ran round the whole building, and by which they were enabled to arrive unobserved, and not to present themselves in public till their appearance upon the rostra in front of the building to receive the morning salutations of their people.

If we ascend a winding path to the right, to the garden which now covers the greater part of the hill Germale, we shall find a staircase which descends on the left to join this passage, following which, we will ascend, with the emperor, into his palace.

The passage, called Crypto-Porticus, is still quite perfect, and retains a great part of its mosaic pavements and much of its inlaid ceilings, from which the gilt mosaic has been picked out, but the pattern is still traceable. The passage was lighted from above. It was by this route that St. Laurence was led up for trial in the basilica, of the palace. Turning to the left, we again emerge upon the upper level.

The emperor here reached the palace, but as he did not yet wish to appear in public, he turned to the left by the private passage called Fauces, which still remains, running behind the main halls of the building. Here he was received by the different members of the imperial family, much as Napoleon III. was received by Princesses Mathilde, Clotilde, and the Murats, in a private apartment at the Tuileries, before entering the ball-room. Hence, passing across the end of the basilica, the emperor reached the portico in front of the palace, looking down upon the hollow space where were the Temple of Jupiter Stator and the other buildings connected with the early history of the Roman state. Here the whole Court received him and escorted him to the central rostra, where he had his public reception from the people assembled below, and whence perhaps he addressed to them a few words of morning salutation in return. The attendants meanwhile defiled on either side to the lower terraced elevation, which still remains.

This ceremony being gone through, the emperor returned as he came, to the basilica, for the transaction of business.

The name Basilica means "King's House." It was the ancient Law Court. It usually had a portico, was oblong in form, and ended in an apse for ornament. The Christians adopted it for their places of worship because it was the largest type of building then known. They also adopted the names of the different parts of the pagan basilica, as the Confessional, from the Confession, the bar of justice at which the criminal was placed,—the Tribune, from the Tribunal of the Judge, &c. A chapel and sacristy added on either side produced the form of the cross. The Basilica here is of great width. A leg of the emperor's chair actually remains in situ upon the tribunal, and part of the richly wrought bar of the Confession still exists. This was the bar at which St. Laurence and many other Christian martyrs were judged. The basilica in the palace of the CÆsars was also the scene of the trial of Valerius Asiaticus in the time of Claudius (see Chap. II.), when the Empress Messalina, who was seated near the emperor upon the tribunal, was so overcome by the touching eloquence of the innocent man, that she was obliged to leave the hall to conceal her emotion,—but characteristically whispered as she went out, that the accused must nevertheless on no account be suffered to escape with his life,[108]—that she might take possession of his Pincian Garden, which was as Naboth's Vineyard in her eyes. An account is extant which describes how it was necessary to increase the width of the seat upon the tribunal at this period, in consequence of a change in the fashion of dress among the Roman ladies.

This basilica, though perhaps not then itself in existence, will always have peculiar interest as showing the form and character of that earlier basilica in the Palace of the CÆsars, in which St. Paul was tried before Nero. But it is quite possible that it may be the same actual basilica itself,—and that the palace of Nero which overran the whole of the hill, may have had its basilica on this site, where it was preserved by Vespasian in his later and more contracted palace.

Beyond the basilica is the Tablinum, the great hall of the palace, which served as a kind of commemorative domestic museum, where family statues and pictures were preserved. This vast room was lighted from above, on the plan which may still be seen at Sta. Maria degli Angeli, which was in fact a great hall of a Roman house. The roof of this hall was one vast arch, unsupported except by the side walls. We have record of a period when these walls were supposed insufficient for the great weight, and had to be strengthened, in interesting confirmation of which we can still see how the second wall was added and united to the first.

Appropriately opening from the family picture gallery of the Tablinum, was the Lararium, a private chapel for the worship of such members of the family—Livia and many others—as were deified after death. An altar, on the original site, has been erected here by Signor Rosa, from bits which have been found.

Hitherto the chambers which we have visited were open to the public; beyond this, none but his immediate family and attendants could follow the emperor. We now enter the Peristyle, a courtyard, which was open to the sky, but surrounded with arcades ornamented with statues, where we may imagine that the empresses amused themselves with their birds and flowers. Hence, by a narrow staircase, we can descend into what is perhaps the most interesting portion of the whole, the one unearthed fragment of the actual Palace of Augustus, which still retains remains of gilding and fresco, and an artistic group in stucco. An original window remains, and it will be recollected on looking at it, that when this was built it was not subterranean, but merely in the hollow of the valley, afterwards filled up. In these actual rooms may have lived Livia, who in turn inhabited three houses on the Palatine, first that of her first husband Nero Drusus, whom Augustus compelled her to divorce; then the imperial house of Augustus; and lastly that of Tiberius, the son by her first husband, whom she was the means of raising to the throne.

We now reach the Triclinium or dining-room, surrounded by a skirting of pavonazzetto with a cornice of giallo. Tacitus describes a scene in the imperial triclinium, in which the Emperor Tiberius is represented as reclining at dinner, having on one side his aged mother, the Empress Livia, and on the other his niece Agrippina, widow of Germanicus and granddaughter of the great Augustus.[110] It was while the imperial family were seated at a banquet in the triclinium, in the time of Nero, that his young step-brother Britannicus (son of Claudius and Messalina) swallowed the cup of poison which the emperor had caused Locusta to prepare and sank back dead upon his couch, his wretched sisters Antonia and Octavia, also seated at the ghastly feast, not daring to give expression to their grief and horror,—and Nero merely desiring the attendants to carry the boy out, and saying that it was a fit to which he was subject.[111] Here it was that Marcia the concubine presented the cup of drugged wine to the wicked Commodus, on his return from a wild beast hunt, and produced the heavy slumber during which he was strangled by the wrestler Narcissus. In this very room also his successor Pertinax, who had spent his short reign of three months in trying to reform the State, resuscitate the finances, and to heal, as far as possible, 'the wounds inflicted by the hand of tyranny,' received the news that the guard, impatient of unwonted discipline, had risen against him, and going forth to meet his assassins, fell, covered with wounds, just in front of the palace.[112]

Vitruvius says that every well-arranged Roman house has a dining-room opening into a nymphÆum, and accordingly here, on the right, is a NymphÆum, with a beautiful fountain surrounded by miniature niches, once filled with bronzes and statues. Water was conveyed hither by the Neronian aqueduct. The pavement of this room was of oriental alabaster, of which fragments remain.

Beyond the Triclinium is a disgusting memorial of Roman imperial life, in the Vomitorium, with its bason, whither the feasters retired to tickle their throats with feathers, and come back with renewed appetite to the banquet.

We now reach the portico which closed the principal apartments of the palace on the south-west. Some of its Corinthian pillars have been re-erected on the sites where they were found. From hence we can look down upon some grand walls of republican times, formed of huge tufa blocks.

Passing a space of ground, called, without much authority, Bibliotheca, we reach a small Theatre on the edge of the hill, interesting as described by Pliny, and because the Emperor Vespasian, who is known to have been especially fond of reciting his own compositions, probably did so here. Hence we may look down upon the valley between the Palatine and Aventine, where the rape of the Sabines took place, and upon the site of the Circus Maximus. From hence, we may imagine, that the later emperors surveyed the hunts and games in that circus, when they did not care to descend into the amphitheatre itself.

Beyond this, on the right, is (partially restored) the grand staircase leading to the platform once occupied by the Temple of Jupiter-Victor, vowed by Fabius Maximus during the Samnite war, in the assurance that he would gain the victory. On the steps is a sacrificial altar, which retains its grooves for the blood of the victims, with an inscription stating that it was erected by "CnÆus Domitius C. Calvinus, Pontifex,"—who was a general under Julius CÆsar, and consul B.C. 53 and B.C. 40.

Now, for some distance, there are no remains, because this space was always kept clear, for here, constantly renewed, stood the Hut of Faustulus and the Sacred Fig-tree.

In the cliff of the Palatine, below the fig-tree, was shown for many centuries the cavern Lupercal, sacred from the earliest times to the Pelasgic god Pan.

In the hut of Romulus were preserved several objects venerated as relics of him.

Turning along the terrace which overhangs the Velabrum we reach the ruins of the Palace of Tiberius,[113] in which he resided during the earlier part of his reign, when he was under the influence of his aged and imperious mother Livia. Here he had to mourn for Drusus, his only son, who fell a victim (A.D. 23) to poison administered to him by his wife Livilla and her lover the favourite Sejanus. Here also, in A.D. 29, died Livia, widow of Augustus, at the age of eighty-six, "a memorable example of successful artifice, having attained in succession, by craft if not by crime, every object she could desire in the career of female ambition."[114]

The row of arches remaining are those of the soldiers' quarters. In the fourth arch is a curious graffite of a ship. In another the three pavements in use at different times may be seen in situ, one above another. On the terrace above these arches has recently been discovered a large piscina, or fish-pond, and the painted chambers of a building, which is supposed to have been the House of Drusus (elder brother of Tiberius) and Antonia. Several of the rooms in this building are richly decorated in fresco, one has a picture of a street with figures of females going to a sacrifice, and of ladies at their toilette; another of Mercury, Io, and Argus; and a third of Galatea and Polyphemus. From the names of the characters in these pictures represented being affixed to them in Greek, we may naturally conclude that they are the work of Greek artists.

The north-eastern corner of the area is entirely occupied by the vast ruins of the Palace of Caligula, built against the side of the hill above the Clivus Victorioe, which still remains, and consisting of ranges of small rooms, communicating with open galleries, edged by marble balustrades, of which a portion exists. In these rooms the half-mad Caius Caligula rushed about, sometimes dressed as a charioteer, sometimes as a warrior, and delighted in astonishing his courtiers by his extraordinary pranks, or shocking them by trying to enforce a belief in his own divinity.[115]

After the murder of Caligula (Jan. 24, 794) by the tribune CherÆa, in the vaulted passage which led from the palace to the theatre, a singular chance which occurred in this part of the palace led to the elevation of Claudius to the throne.

In this same palace Claudius was feasting when he was told that his hitherto idolised wife Messalina was dead, without being told whether she died by her own hand or another's,—and asked no questions, merely desiring a servant to pour him out some more wine, and went on eating his supper.[117] Here also Claudius, who so dearly loved eating, devoured his last and fatal supper of poisoned mushrooms which his next loving wife (and niece) Agrippina prepared for him, to make way for her son Nero upon the throne.[118]

The Clivus VictoriÆ commemorates by its name the Temple of Victory,[119] said to have been founded by the Sabine aborigines before the time of Romulus, and to be the earliest temple at Rome of which there is any mention except that of Saturnus. This temple was rebuilt by the consul L. Posthumius.

Chief of a group of small temples, the famous Temple of Cybele, "Mother of the Gods," stood at this corner of the Palatine. Thirteen years before it was built, the "Sacred Stone," the form under which the "IdÆan Mother" was worshipped, had been brought from Pessinus in Phrygia, because, according to the Sibylline books, frequent showers of stones which had occurred could only be expiated by its being transported to Rome. It was given up to the Romans by their ally Attalus, king of Pergamus, and P. Cornelius Scipio, the young brother of Africanus—accounted the worthiest and most virtuous of the Romans—was sent to receive it. As the vessel bearing the holy stone came up the Tiber it grounded at the foot of the Aventine, when the aruspices declared that only chaste hands would be able to move it. Then the Vestal Claudia drew the vessel up the river by a rope.

In her temple, which was round and surmounted by a cupola, Cybele was represented by a statue with its face to the east; the building was adorned with a painting of Corybantes, and plays were acted in front of it.[120]

This temple, after its second destruction by fire, was entirely rebuilt by Augustus in A.D. 2.

We have the authority of Martial[121] that in the immediate neighbourhood of the temple of Cybele, stood the Temple of Apollo, though Signor Rosa places it on the other side of the hill in the gardens of S. Buonaventura. Its remains have yet to be discovered.

The temple of Apollo was built by Augustus to commemorate the battle of Actium. He appropriated to it part of the land covered with houses which he had purchased upon the Palatine;—another part he gave to the Vestals; the third he used for his own palace.

Thus Apollo and Vesta became as it were the household gods of Augustus:

Other temples on the Palatine were that of Juno Sospita:

of Minerva:

a temple of Moonlight mentioned by Varro (iv. 10) and a shrine of Vesta.

From the Torretta del Palatino which is near the house of Caligula, there is a magnificent view over the seven hills of Rome;—the Palatine, Aventine, Capitoline, Coelian, Quirinal, Viminal, and Esquiline. From this point also it is very interesting to remember that these were not the heights considered as "the Seven Hills" in the ancient history of Rome, when the sacrifices of the Septimontium were offered upon the Palatine, Velia, and Germale, the three divisions of the Palatine—of which one can no longer be traced; upon the Fagutal, Oppius, and Cispius, the secondary heights of the Esquiline; and upon the Suburra, which perhaps comprehended the Viminal.[122] Hence also we see the ground we have traversed on the Palatine spread before us like a map.

If we descend the staircase in the Palace of Caligula, we may trace as far as the Porta Romana the piers of the Bridge of Caligula, which, half in vanity, half in madness, he threw across the valley, that he might, as he said, the more easily hold intercourse with his friend and comrade Jupiter upon the Capitol. One of the piers which he used for his bridge, beyond the limits of the palace, was formed by the temple of Augustus built by Tiberius.[123] This bridge, with all other works of Caligula, was of very short duration, being destroyed immediately after his death by Claudius.

Returning by the Clivus VictoriÆ, we shall find ourselves again on the eastern slope of the hill from which we started, the site once occupied by so many of the great patrician families. Here at one time lived Caius Gracchus, who to gratify the populace, gave up his house on the side of the Palatine, and made his home in the gloomy Suburra. Here also lived his coadjutor in the consulship, Fulvius Flaccus, who shared his fate, and whose house was razed to the ground by the people after his murder. At this corner of the hill also was the house of Q. Lutatius Catulus, poet and historian, who was consul B.C. 102, and together with Marius was conqueror of the Cimbri in a great battle near Vercelli. In memory of this he founded a temple of the "Fortuna hujusce diei," and decorated the portico of his house with Cimbrian trophies. Varro mentions that his house had also a domed roof.[124] Here also the consul Octavius, murdered on the Janiculum by the partisans of Marius, had a house, which was rebuilt with great magnificence by Emilius Scaurus, who adorned it with columns of marble thirty-eight feet high.[125] These two last-named houses were bought by the wealthy Clodius, who gave 14,800,000 sesterces, or about 130,000l., for that of Scaurus, and throwing down the Porticus Catuli, included its site, and the house of E. Scaurus, in his own magnificent dwelling. Clodius was a member of the great house of the Claudii, and was the favoured lover of Pompeia, wife of Julius CÆsar, by whose connivance, disguised as a female musician, he attempted to be present at the orgies of the Bona Dea, which were celebrated in the house of the Pontifex Maximus close to the temple of Vesta, and from which men were so carefully excluded, that even a male mouse, says Juvenal, dared not show himself there. The position of his own dwelling, and that of the pontifex, close to the foot of the Clivus VictoriÆ, afforded every facility for this adventure, but it was discovered by his losing himself in the passages of the Regia. A terrible scandal was the result—CÆsar divorced Pompeia, and the senate referred the matter to the pontifices, who declared that Clodius was guilty of sacrilege. Clodius attempted to prove an alibi, but Cicero's evidence showed that he was with him in Rome only three hours before he pretended to have been at Interamna. Bribery and intimidation secured his acquittal by a majority of thirty-one to twenty-five,[126] but from this time a deadly enmity ensued between him and Cicero.

The house of Clodius naturally leads us to that of Cicero, which was also situated at this corner of the Palatine, whence he could see his clients in the Forum and go to and fro to his duties there. This house had been built for M. Livius Drusus, who, when his architect proposed a plan to prevent its being overlooked, answered, "Rather build it so that all my fellow-citizens may behold everything that I do." In his acts Drusus seemed to imitate the Gracchi; but he sought popularity for its own sake, and after being the object of a series of conspiracies was finally murdered in the presence of his mother Cornelia, in his own hall, where the image of his father was sprinkled with his blood. When dying he turned to those around him and asked, with characteristic arrogance, based perhaps upon conscious honesty of purpose, "when will the commonwealth have a citizen like me again?" After the death of Drusus the house was inhabited by L. Licinius Crassus the orator, who lived here in great elegance and luxury. His house was called from its beauty "the Venus of the Palatine," and was remarkable for its size, the taste of its furniture, and the beauty of its grounds. "It was adorned with pillars of Hymettian marble, with expensive vases, and triclinia inlaid with brass. His gardens were provided with fishponds, and some noble lotus-trees shaded his walks. Ahenobarbus, his colleague in the censorship, found fault with such corruption of manners,[127] estimated his house at a hundred million, or, according to Valerius Maximus,[128] six million sesterces, and complained of his crying for the loss of a lamprey as if it had been a daughter. It was a tame lamprey which used to come at the call of Crassus, and feed out of his hand. Crassus retorted by a public speech against his colleague, and by his great powers of ridicule, turned him into derision; jested upon his name,[129] and to the accusation of weeping for a lamprey, replied, that it was more than Ahenobarbus had done for the loss of any of his three wives."[130] Cicero purchased the house of Crassus a year or two after his consulate for a sum equal to about 30,000l., and removed thither from the CarinÆ with his wife Terentia. His house was close to that of Clodius, but a little lower down the hill, which enabled him to threaten to increase the height, so as to shut out his neighbour's view of the city. Upon his accession to the tribuneship Clodius procured the disgrace of Cicero, and after his flight to Greece, obtained a decree of banishment against him. He then pillaged and destroyed his house upon the Palatine, as well as his villas at Tusculum and Formia, and obliged Terentia to take refuge with the Vestals, whose Superior was fortunately her sister. But in the following year, a change of consuls and revulsion of the popular favour led to the recall of Cicero, who found part of his house appropriated by Clodius, who had erected a shrine to Libertas (with a statue which was that of a Greek courtezan carried off from the tomb)[131] on the site of the remainder, which he had razed to the ground.[132]

"Clodius had also destroyed the portico of Catulus; in fact, he appears to have been desirous of appropriating all this side of the Palatine. He wanted to buy the house of the Ædile Seius. Seius having declared that so long as he lived, Clodius should not have it, Clodius caused him to be poisoned, and then bought his house under a feigned name! He was thus enabled to erect a portico three hundred feet in length, in place of that of Catulus. The latter, however, was afterwards restored at the public expense.

"Cicero obtained public grants for the restoration of his house and of his Tusculan and Formian villas, but very far from enough to cover the losses he had suffered. The aristocratic part of the Senate appears to have envied and grudged the novus homo to whose abilities they looked for protection. He was advised not to rebuild his house on the Palatine, but to sell the ground. It was not in Cicero's temper to take such a course; but he was hampered ever after with debts. Clodius, who had been defeated but not beaten, still continued his persecutions. He organised a gang of street boys to call out under Cicero's windows, 'Bread! Bread!' His bands interrupted the dramatic performances on the Palatine, at the Megalesian games, by rushing upon the stage. On another occasion, Clodius, at the head of his myrmidons, besieged the Senate in the temple of Concord. He attacked Cicero in the streets, to the danger of his life; and when he had begun to rebuild his house, drove away the masons, overthrew what part had been re-erected of Catulus' portico, and cast burning torches into the house of Quintus Cicero, which he had hired next to his brother's on the Palatine, and consumed a great part of it."—Dyer's City of Rome, 152.