Rambles in Rome: An Archæological and Historical Guide to the Museums, Galleries, Villas, Churches, and Antiquities of Rome and the CampagnaForbes, S. Russell
History
Rambles in Rome: An Archæological and Historical Guide to the Museums, Galleries, Villas, Churches, and Antiquities of Rome and the Campagna
Forbes, S. Russell
Art -- Rome; Rome (Italy) -- Guidebooks; Rome -- Antiquities
Its site is now occupied by the Piazza del Macao. Fragments of the
temple were found in August 1873, and an inscription to the goddess;
also the statue of a female member of the Claudian family.
"Quintus Marcius Ralla, constituted commissioner for the purpose,
dedicated the Temple of Fortuna Primigenia on the Quirinal Hill.
Publius Sempronius Sophus had vowed this temple ten years before, in
the Punic War, and, being afterwards censor, had employed persons to
build it," A.U.C. 558 (Livy, xxxiv. 53).
_Returning past the station, we come to the open space of the_
PIAZZA DI TERMINI,
a rather pleasant garden square, surrounded with trees, in the midst
of which spouts up the Aqua Marcia.
_Passing along our right, we come to the_
BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN, AND CHURCH OF S. MARIA DEGLI ANGELI.
The magnificent bathing establishments, called Thermæ, to distinguish
them from the ordinary baths, consisted of a long series of halls,
chambers, and courts, all lying on the same level, so that the extent
of surface required for laying out had to be artificially formed
either by the removal or the elevation of the soil. The thermæ founded
by Diocletian and Maximian, and completed by Constantius and
Maximinus, constituted the largest edifice of this kind. At present,
only the great hall, 350 feet by 80 feet, and 96 feet high, converted
into a church by Michael Angelo, exists in a state of tolerable
preservation. The original massive granite pillars, 40 feet high, and
5 feet in diameter, though so sunk into the ground (imitation
pedestals have been put to them) that their full height is nowhere
visible, are still standing; the antique vaulted roof has also been
preserved entire. This circumstance is of great importance for the
lighting up of this vast space--the masses of light falling upon it
at so favourable an angle, that the mind receives the same pleasing
impression at all hours of the day and at all seasons of the year.
Several considerable portions of the adjoining hall are still to be
seen, but, being included within the buildings of the neighbouring
schools and asylums, and partly converted into hay magazines, a clear
and complete survey of them cannot easily be obtained.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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