MILLIARIUM AUREUM
a column covered with gilt bronze, erected by
Augustus in 20 B.C., when he assumed the cura viarum about Rome
(Cass.
Dio liv. 8). It was regarded as the point of convergence of all the
great roads running out of the city (Plut. Galba 24), and on it were
engraved the names of the principal cities of the empire and their distances
from Rome, although these distances were reckoned from the gates in the
Servian wall, not from the milliarium itself (Plin.
NH iii. 66). This
stood
in capite romani fori (Plin. loc. cit.) and
sub aede Saturni (Tac.
Hist.
i. 27; Suet. Otho 6), probably between the rostra and the temple of
Saturn, but no trace of its foundations has been found (Richter,
BRT
ii. 12-13; HC 81; De Rossi, Piante icnografiche 31-32;
Jord. i. 2. 245,
314). Of the monument itself two possible fragments have been found,
one a part of the marble shaft, 1.42 metres long and 1.17 in diameter,
with two sides left rough and traces of bronze facing (Bull. d.
Inst. 1835,
78; Richter, Gesch. d. Rednerbuehne 35-37), and the other a part of a
circular marble plinth decorated with palmettes (Bull. cit. 1852, 81;
Thed. 133, 229; DR 374-5; RE
Suppl. iv. 499, 500).
