PAX, TEMPLUM
* (aedes, Vict.;
Εἰρήνης νεώς, Procop.;
Εἰρηναῖον, Cass. Dio
lxxii.;
τέμενος Εἰρήνης , other Greek writers):
the temple of Peace
which was begun by Vespasian after the capture of Jerusalem in 71 A.D.,
and dedicated in 75 (Suet. Vesp. 9; Joseph. b.
Iud. vii. 5. 7 (158) ; Cass.
Dio lxv. 15. ; Aur. Vict. Caes. 9. 7; Ep. 9. 8). It stood in the middle of
the forum Pacis, north of the basilica Aemilia (
Mart. i. 2. 8), probably
at the junction of the modern Vie Alessandrina and dei Pozzi. Statius
seems to ascribe the completion of this temple to Domitian (
Silv. iv. 3. 17;
cf. iv. I. 13), but this emperor's claim may have had little foundation
(cf. Suet. Dom. 5). Within the temple, or attached closely to it, was a
library, bibliotheca Pacis (
Gell. v. 21. 9;
xvi. 8. 2; Boyd, 16-17, 36-37).
In it were placed many of the treasures brought by Vespasian from
Jerusalem, as well as famous works of Greek artists (Joseph. b.
Iud.
vii. 5. 7; Plin.
NH xii. 94;
xxxiv. 84;
xxxv. 102, 109;
xxxvi. 27,
58;
Paus. vi. 9. 3;
Iuv. ix. 23; Hephaest. ap. Phot. Bibl. 149. 32 Bekk.),
and Pliny (
NH xxxvi. 102) speaks of it, the basilica Aemilia and the
forum of Augustus, as the three most beautiful monuments in Rome.
Just before the death of Commodus, probably in 191, the temple was
destroyed by fire (Cass.
Dio lxxii. 24. I; Galen, de comp. med. i. I),
1
but it must have been restored, probably by Severus, for it is mentioned
in the succeeding centuries as one of the most magnificent buildings
in the city (
Herod. i. 14. 2; Amm.
Marcell. xvi. 10. 14; Hist. Aug.
trig. tyr. 31. 10). It gave its name to the fourth region of the city (Not.
Reg. IV). In 408 there were seismic disturbances for seven successive
days in the forum Pacis (Marcell. Comes, Chron. min. ed. Mommsen
ii. 69:
in foro Pacis per dies septem terra mugitum dedit), and the
temple may have been injured then. At any rate Procopius (
BG
iv. 21), writing in the sixth century, says that it had long since been
destroyed by lightning, although there were still many works of art set
up in the immediate vicinity.
The enclosure within which the temple stood is not called forum
in literature until after the time of Constantine. Enclosure and temple
together appear in Pliny (xxxvi. 27) as Pacis opera, and in the Greek
writers as
τέμενος Εἰρήνης(see above). Forum Pacis is found in
Ammianus, Polemius Silvius and Marcellinus Comes (locc. citt.),
φόρον Εἰρήνηςin Procopius (loc. cit.); forum Vespasiani first in Ep. de Eulalio
antipapa a. 418 (ap.
Migne xviii. 397), Polemius Silvius (loc. cit.), and
undoubtedly in Aurelius Victor (Caes. 9. 7). On the north-west it
adjoined the (later) forum Transitorium, and on the south-east the
basilica of Constantine, being rectangular in shape with the same orientation as the other imperial fora. Its length was 145 metres, and its width
about two-thirds as much, although its north-east boundary is uncertain.
It had an enclosing wall of peperino lined with marble and pierced with
several gates. The peperino blocks have left impressions on the concrete
of the basilica of Constantine, the north-west side of which was set
against it. At the south-east corner there was an entrance from the
Sacra via through a monumental passage which, after several changes,
is now the church of SS. Cosma e Damiano. (For the history and description of this building, and the theory that it was the Urbis fanum,
mentioned by Aurelius Victor (40. 26) as built by Maxentius and consecrated to Constantine, and not the templum divi Romuli, see
P. Whitehead,
BCr 1913, 143-165;
YW 1913, 21.) Further investigations have led him to the conclusion that the rectangular building in opus
quadratum
2 was the temple of the Penates as restored by Augustus
(
AJA 1923, 414;
1927, 1-18; RPAiii.83-95). In the time of Severus a wall
was built across the north-east end of this entrance,
3 and on its north-east
side, towards the forum, on a facing of marble slabs, was placed the so-called
Capitoline Plan of the city, Forma Urbis Romae, the fragments of which
were first discovered in May and June 1562. A facsimile is fixed to the
wall of the garden of the Palazzo dei Conservatori. (For the description
and discussion of this Plan, see Jord. Forma Urbis Romae
regionum XIV,
Berlin 1874; H. Elter, de Forma Urbis Romae, diss. i. ii., Bonn 1891;
Hulsen, Piante icnografiche,
Mitt. 1890, 46-63; Ann. d.
Inst. 1867, 408-
423;
1883, 5-22;
BC 1886, 270-274;
1893, 128-134;
1901, 3-7;
Mitt.
1889, 79, 229;
1892, 267;
RhM 1894, 420; HF i. p. 534; and for the
discovery of new fragments, and the rearrangement on the wall of the
museum,
NS 1882, 233-238;
1884, 423 ;
1888, 391-392, 437, 569; 1900,
633-634;
BC 1888, 386;
1899, 3-21;
1902, 347-348;
1903, 380;
Mitt.
1916, 152;
CR 1899, 234;
1901, 330;
1902, 96; Atti del Congresso
internazionale di Scienze storiche
(1903), Rome 1907, i. 111-122; Lanciani,. Golden Days of the Renaissance in Rome,
Boston 1906, 130;
PI. 2-5;
CRA 1910, 499-508; DAP 2. xi. 101-107; DR 209-213; RE
Suppl. iv. 484-485.) Maxentius in any case added the round building,
with its facade on the Sacra via (RA 215-217).
The history of the forum Pacis is that of the templum, and apart
from the entrance just described, scarcely any traces of either have been
found except a portion of the pavement of giallo antico and pavonazzetto
of the southern angle of the form ten metres below the present level of
the Via del Tempio della Pace (
BC 1876, 52-53 ; see in general HJ 2-7;
Rosch. iii. 1721;
Gilb. iii. 135, 186-187 ; Thedenat 190-193).