META ROMULI
a name sometimes given in the Middle Ages to a pyramidal
monument that stood between the mausoleum of Hadrian and the
Vatican (Mirab. 20, ap. Urlichs 106: sepulcrum Romuli quod vocatur
meta; Graphia 16, ap. Urlichs 119).
1 It was called meta alone (see
references in
LS i. 161, 186-189; DAP 2. viii. 1903, 383-384; memoria
Romuli (Ordo Benedicti in Lib. Cens. Fabre-Duchesne, ii. 153; Mon.
L.
i. 525) ; Ant. di Pietro ap. Muratori SS xxiv. o038, 1040, 1062 (1413-1417
A.D.)); and sepulcrum Remuli (Anon. Magl. ap. Urlichs 161 :
meta quae
ut dicitur fuit sepulcrum Remuli qui mandato Romuli in Iano mortuus
fuit: et de meta praedicta sicut iam dixi dubitoque non fuit Remuli
per Romulum facta, quia illis temporibus Romulus et sui non erant tantae
potentiae). Magister Gregorius calls it pyramis Romuli (
JRS 1919, 42,
56). At the beginning of the Renaissance it was also incorrectly called
SEPULCRUM SCIPIONIS (q.v.). The name meta Romuli was probably
given to this monument because the pyramid of CESTIUS (q.v.) had in
some way come to be called meta Remi. It is described as larger than
the pyramid of Cestius and of great beauty. From its marble slabs
were made in the tenth century the pavement of the Paradiso of
S. Peter's and the steps of the basilica. It stood at the intersection of the
Via Cornelia and the Via Triumphalis, on the east side of the latter (DAP
cit. 383-387), and its southern part was removed when Alexander VI
constructed the Borgo Nuovo in 1499 (
LS i. 126). The rest stood until
1518 at least (
LS i. 161, 186-189). The monument therefore covered the
Borgo Nuovo and the Via di porta Castello at their intersection (besides
the literature already cited, see Mon.
L. i. 525;
BC 1877, 188; 908, 26-30 ;
1914, 395-396;
Jord. ii. 405-406; HJ 659; Becker, Top. 662. It may
be seen in various mediaeval and early Renaissance views of Rome
(LR 560, fig. 214; Cod. Esc. 7v, 8) ).
