SACRA VIA
the oldest and most famous street in Rome. It and the Nova
via were the only streets in the city called viae before the imperial period,
when we hear of a
VIA FORNICATA,
VIA TECTA and
VIA NOVA (qq. v.).
Sacra via (
ἡ ἱερὰ ὁδός) was the correct and well-nigh universal form of
the name, and the reverse order, via Sacra, occurs, outside of poetry
(e.g. Hor.
Sat. i. 9. 1), with extreme infrequency (Plin.
NH xix. 23;
Not. Reg. IV; Suet. Vit. 17; Ascon. Cic. pro Mil. 14
1;
CIL vi. 9239,
9418, 9549). Further evidence for this is found in the word sacravienses
(Fest. 178), and in the protest raised by the grammarians against the
common practice of pronouncing the name as if it were a compound
(Fest. 290:
nec ... appellari debere ait Verrius sed disiuncte, ut caeteras
vias Flaminiam Appiam Latinam, ut ne Novamviam quidem, sed
Novam viam).
The Sacra via proper began at the top of the Velia, where it was
called summa Sacra via, near the temple of the Lares (Mon.
Anc. iv. 7),
the house of the rex sacrorum (Fest. 290), the temple of Jupiter Stator
(Plut. Cic. 16:
ἱδρυμένον ἐν ἀρχῇ τῆς ἱερᾶς ὁδοῦ πρὸς τὸ Παλάτιον ἀνιόντων)
and the later arch of Titus (Haterii relief, Mon. d.
Inst. v. 7:
arcus in
sacra via summa), and extended down to the east end of the forum, a point
variously designated as near the regia, the temple of Vesta, or the arch
of Fabius (Fest. 290;
Mart. i. 70. 3-4; Cic. pro Plane. 17:
si quando
iactor in turba, non illum accuso qui est in summa sacra via cum ego ad
Fabium fornicem impellor; Varro,
RR i. 2). Thrice in poetry (Hor.
Carm. iv. 2. 35;
Mart. i. 70. 5;
iv. 78. 7) this section seems to have been
called sacer clivus (see
CLIVUS SACER), and to go from the upper end to
the lower was called sacra via descendere (Cic. ad
Att. iv. 3. 3; Asc. in
Scaur. 27; Hor. Epod. 7. 7), or deducere (Sail. Hist. ii. frg. 45). This
street, from the top of the Velia to the entrance to the forum, is the
Sacravia of all the sources, literary and epigraphical, down to the end of the
empire, with two exceptions, Varro (
LL v. 47:
Carinae postea Cerionia,
quod hinc oritur caput sacrae viae ab Streniae sacello quae pertinet in
arce(m), qua sacra quotquot mensibus feruntur in arcem et per quam
augures ex arce profecti solent inaugurare. Huius sacrae viae pars haec
sola volgo nota quae est a foro eunti primore clivo), and Festus (290:
Sacram viam quidam appellatam esse existimant quod in ea foedus ictum
sit inter Romulum ac Tatium: quidam quod eo itinere utantur sacerdotes
idulium sacrorum conficiendorum causa. Itaque ne eatenus quidem,
ut vulgus opinatur, sacra appellanda est a regia ad domum regis sacrificuli, sed etiam a regis domo ad sacellum Streniae, et rusus a regia usque
in arcem). It is evident that Varro-and Festus following his authority-
believed that the Sacra via owed its origin to the fact that it was the course
of religious processions, and supposed that the street began at the shrine
of
STRENIA (q.v.), not mentioned elsewhere, but near the site of the
Colosseum, ascended the slope of the Velia, and after descending to
the regia, crossed the forum to the Capitol. This statement, however,
is disproved by what he himself adds about common usage. There is
therefore no reason for supposing that Sacra via ever meant more than
the street from the Velia to the regia (cf. Plin.
NH xix. 23 :
mox Caesar
dictator totum forum Romanum intexit viamque sacram ab domo sua
et clivum usque in Capitolium; Plut. Cic. 22:
καὶ πρῶτων ἐκ Παλατίου παραλαβὼν τὸν Λέντλον ἦγε διὰ τῆς ἱερᾶς ὁδοῦ καὶ τῆς ἀγορᾶς μέσης),
although the term is now frequently used to include the stretch from
Colosseum to forum, and sometimes of that within the forum also.
The explanations given by Varro and Festus (cf. also Serv.
Aen. viii.
641) are unsatisfactory, and probably the street was called sacra
because on it stood the most sacred shrines of Rome, those of Vesta
and the Lares, as well as the dwellings of the Vestals, the pontifex
maximus and the rex sacrificulus (cf. Ov. Trist. iii. I. 28; Binder, Die
Plebs 62-64), although it may be that the street itself, from its position
and early importance, was regarded as something intrinsically sacred
(
Mitt. 1895, 162).
The course and level (
AJA 1923, 390 sqq.) of the Sacra via varied
somewhat at different times. As it was the principal means of communication between the Palatine and the forum (Plut. Cic. 22; Tac.
Hist. iii. 68; Cass.
Dio lxiv. 20;
lxxvii. 4), it probably began on the
summit of the Velia, near the porta Mugonia and the temple of Jupiter
Stator, and ran in a fairly straight line to the regia and temple of Vesta,
but just at what point it approached them is not certain. After
the building of the fornix Fabianus in 121 B.C. the street passed
through it.
We have but scanty remains of the Sacra via of the period of Sulla.
A street (which is perhaps the vicus Vestae) which diverged from it at
the fornix has been found under the temple of Julius Caesar and
the arch of Augustus, the pavement of which lies at 11.90 metres above
sea-level (
JRS 1922, 12-14); and a few blocks exist of its pavement
below the steps at the north-east corner of the temple of Julius at 12.50
metres above sea-level. At the 'temple of Romulus' it lay at about
14 metres and at the divergence of the clivus Palatinus at about 27 metres
(
AJA 1923, 397-8). For the remains of structures attributable to this
period (and to earlier times) along this portion of its course, mainly
shops and wells, see TF 87, 88.
After the rebuilding of the regia in 36 B.C. and the building of the
temple of Divus Iulius a few years later, it passed to the north of these
structures, and then bent to the left to the temple of Castor (
Mart. i. 70. 3-4:
vicinum Castora canae transibis Vestae virgineamque domum). For
the early empire the line is definitely established by the discovery of the
Augustan pavement (Ills. 10, 45, 46), 5 metres wide, for a considerable part
of this distance, which shows that the street curved to the north just east
of the very top of the Velia, which it left very near the present arch of
Titus. It falls from a level of 28.30 metres above sea-level at a point
7 metres east of the arch of Titus to 12.60 metres at the north-east
corner of the temple of Julius. Some of this pavement has been found
under the steps of the temple of Venus and Roma (
AJA 1923, 399 sqq.-
and also for what follows).
Opposite the middle of the basilica of Constantine this Augustan
pavement is crossed by the massive concrete foundations of a series
of arcades of the time of Nero (
AJA 1923, 403 sqq.). These foundations
run in parallel lines, first south-east and then, turning at right angles,
south-west. This shows that Nero changed the line of the Sacra via,
in connection with the building of the DOMUS AUREA (q.v.), and made
it run between this portico and the one opposite it up to the vestibule
and then around the north-west corner of that building with a sharp
turn. On the north side of the Augustan pavement are the foundations
and walls of later private houses and buildings, which were destroyed
by the erection of arcades on this side also. The level at the east end
of the forum remained as before. At the temple of Romulus it was
about 16.70 metres above sea-level, in front of the basilica of Constantine
22.50 to 23.10, and at its junction with the clivus Palatinus about 27.60
metres. When Hadrian built the temple of Venus and Roma, some
further alterations in the street in front of it must have been made,
and thereafter the Sacra via from the Velia downwards to the regia
appears to have been an avenue, about 30 metres wide, flanked on both
sides by porticoes and shops, those on the north being finally destroyed
by the erection of the basilica of Constantine. It was this avenue that
was represented by the pavement, 23 metres wide including the side walks,
which was removed in 1899
2 (LR 190;
BC 1900, 11; Atti 516; Mem.
Am.
Acad. v. 115-126; see Ill. 7).
After the erection of the arch of Titus, the street passed through it
and continued eastward in a straight line to the Meta Sudans, between
the temple of Venus and Roma and the temple of Jupiter Stator and
the buildings on the slope of the Palatine. The Nova via joined the
Sacra via near the arch of Titus, and at about the same point the so-called
clivus Palatinus branched off the south and ascended the Palatine at
the porta Mugonia.
The Sacra via was also a residential quarter in regal and republican
times (
Gilb. iii. 360), and those who dwelt here were called sacravienses
(Fest. 178). According to tradition, Numa, Ancus Martius and Tarquinius
Superbus lived here (
Solin. i. 21-23; Plin.
NH xxxiv. 29), and Tullus Hostilius on the Velia (Cic. de rep. ii. 53). The houses of the
VALERII
(q.v.) (
Liv. ii. 7) and of Cn. Domitius Calvinus (Fest. 154) were in
summa Velia; and on the Sacra via itself were those of P. Scipio Nasica
(Pomp.
Dig. i. 2. 2. 37), Tettius Damio (Cic. ad
Att. iv. 3. 3), of the
Octavii (Sall. Hist. frg. ii. 45) and of the Domitii (
CIL vi. 2041, 25;
2042 d, 32352). Many remains of these houses of the republican
period have been found (
Mitt. 1902, 94-95;
1905, 118) on the south
side of the street in front of the atrium Vestae and farther east,
especially in the angle formed by the Nova via and clivus Palatinus.
Some of the ruins here are as late as the time of Augustus (
BPW 1905,
428).
Like all the first streets in great cities, the Sacra via became in process
of time largely a street of shops (Ov. Ars
Am. ii. 265-266;
Amor. i. 8. 100;
Prop. ii. 24. 14-15; Richter, 163-164). At the beginning of the empire
it is probable that these shops stood on both sides of the way, from the
entrance to the forum to the Velia, but in consequence of the great changes
wrought by the erection of the forum Pacis, the templum Sacrae Urbis
and the temple of Faustina, they were gradually restricted for the most
part to the south side of the street between the atrium Vestae and the
arch of Titus. Many inscriptions have been found relating to the tradesmen of the Sacra via, especially jewellers of all sorts (
CIL vi. 9207, 9221,
9239, 9418, 9419, 9545-9549), and those who dealt in flowers, fruit and
luxuries (vi. 9283, 9795, 9935).
Going eastward from the exit of the Sacra via from the forum area
between the temple of divus Iulius and the porticus Gai et Luci (
AJA
1913, 14-28), the street passes on the north the temple of Faustina
(141 A.D.), the archaic necropolis, the remains of private houses (HC
230-231;
Mitt. 1902, 94;
1905, 116; Atti 570-574), the Heroon
Romuli, and the basilica of Constantine; on the south the regia, the
remains of houses and shops between the street and the atrium Vestae,
and the great porticus (see above).
(
Jord. i. 2. 274-286, 415-416; HJ 14-15;
Gilb. i. 214-220, 236-238,
300-335; RE i. A. 1674-1677; Thedenat 167-173, 353-356; HC 218-252
pass.; DR 498-506 ; M61. 1908, 233-253 for an erroneous theory that
the Sacra via was the decumanus of the city; for recent excavations,
NS 1899, 265-266;
BC 1900, 10-11; 1902,34;
1903, 19-23; AA 9000, 9;
CR 1899, 322, 467;
1900, 239;
1902, 96, 286;
Mitt. 1902, 97. For a
restoration, see D'Esp.
Mon. ii. 84-89.)