REGIA
* (
τὸ βασίλειον, App. Cass. Dio;
τὸ βασίλειον οἴκημα, Plut.;
῾Ρήγια,Plut. Cass. Dio):
the house (regia domus) which Numa is said to have
built, and either lived in (
Solin. i. 21:
Numa in colle primum Quirinali
deinde propter aedem Vestae in regia quae adhuc appellatur; Ov. Trist.
iii. I. 30;
Fast. vi. 263-264; Serv. ad
Aen. viii. 363:
quis enim ignorat
regiam ubi Numa habitavit in radicibus Palati finibusque Romani fori
esse ?;
vii. 153; Tac.
Ann. xv. 41), or at least used as his headquarters
(Cass. Dio, frg. vi. 2:
ὅτι ὁ Νουμᾶς ᾤκει ἐν Κολοϝῷ τῷ Κυριϝαλίῳ ... τὰ δὲ δὴ ἀρχεῖα ἐν τῇ ἱερᾷ ὁδῷ εἶχε καὶ τάς τε διατριβὰς πλησίον τοῦ ῾Εστιαίου ἐποιεῖτο καὶ ἔστιν ὅτε καὶ κατὰ χώρεω ἔμενεν; Plut. Numa 14:
ἐδείματο πλησίον τοῦ τῆς ῾Εστίας ἱεροῦ τὴν καλουμένην ῾Ρηγίαν οἷόν τι βασίλειον οἴκημα: καὶτὸ πλεῖστον αὐτόθι τοῦ χρόνου διέτριβεν). It is also said
to have been the house of the pontifex maximus (Serv. ad
Aen. viii.
363: domus enim in qua pontifex habitat regia dicitur, quod in ea
rex sacrificulus habitare consuesset, sicut flaminia domus in qua flamen
habitat, dicebatur (the italicised words are interpolated); cf.
Jord.
i. 2. 299); and of the rex sacrorum (Serv. loc. cit.;
ii. 57:
flaminia
autem domus flaminis dicitur sicut regia regis domus; Cass.
Dio liv. 27,
where Augustus is said to have given the house of the rex to the
Vestals because it adjoined theirs; Fest. 279: regia domus ubi rex
habitat). This latter statement, however, is the result of confusion
between rex and rex sacrorum (Jord. cit.), for the domus regis sacrorum
or sacrificuli was on the Velia and had no connection with the regia
(Fest. 293:
ne eatenus quidem sacra (via) appellanda est a regia ad
domum regis sacrificuli sed etiam a regis domo ad sacellum Streniae).
On the other hand, the regia could not have been the dwelling-house of
the pontifex maximus, for in historical times it was a consecrated fanum
containing sacraria (Fest. 278:
(Regia). . .quod in fanum a pon(tifice)
.. . tant quod in ea sa(cra fiunt quaedam a rege sol>ita usurpari; cf. 329).
The actual house of the pontifex was probably the domus publica, in
the precinct of the Atrium Vestae (Suet. Caes. 46; Cass.
Dio liv. 24;
RE i. A. 466), until Augustus transferred this residence to the Palatine
(Van Deman, The Atrium Vestae 11, 12, 13).
During the republic, therefore, the regia was the official headquarters
of the pontifex maximus, and its position, directly north-west of the
aedes Vestae, is made certain by the existing ruins (cf. Hor.
Carm. i. 2. 15:
vidimus flavum Tiberim... ire deiectum monumenta regis templaque
Vestae). In it was a shrine of Mars, sacrarium Martis, in which were
kept the hastae and ancilia of that god (Serv.
Aen. vii. 188, 603;
viii. 3;
Gell. iv. 6. 1, 2; Cass.
Dio xliv. 7 ; Iul. Obs. 6. 36, 44, 44 a, 47,
50 (ed. Rossbach); WR 503, 556;
Jord. ii. 271-272; RE i. A. 1880; cf.,
however, Becker, Top. 229-232;
RE i. 2113); and the sacrarium Opis
Consivae (Varro,
LL vi. 21:
Opeconsiva dies ab dea Opeconsiva quoius in
regia sacrarium quod ideo artum ut eo praeter virgines Vestales et sacerdotem publicum introeat nemo; Fest. 186, 249; Fast. Arv. a. d. viii
Kal.
Sept. vi. 32482, CIL i². p. 237; WR 203, 502). Certain sacrifices are recorded as having been performed in the regia (
Varro vi. 12;
Fest. 329;
Macrob. i. 15. 19, 16. 30), a sheep was offered to Janus on
9th January by the rex sacrorum (CIL i². p. 306), and the blood of the
October horse was sprinkled on its hearth and the head fastened on its
wall (Fest. 178; Plut. q. Rom. 97; cf. Cass.
Dio xliii. 24; and see
BC 1920, 152-162). The archives of the pontifices were probably kept
here, for the tablets from which the annales maximi were edited, were
hung on the outer wall of the building (Cic. de leg. i. 2. 6 ;
Gell. ii. 28. 6;
Dionys. i. 76. 3), and it was the place of assembly of the college of pontiffs
(Plin. Ep. iv. II. 6; Cic. ad
Att. x. 3 a, I; WR 503), and at times of the
Fratres Arvales (
CIL vi. 2023. 9).
ATRIUM REGIUM (q.v.) is referred to
the regia by
Jord. i. 2. 380, and Toeb. 3.
The regia was burned and restored in 148 B.C. (Obseq. 19; Liv. epit.
Oxyrh. 127-129;
Gilb. iii. 407 (for a possible burning by the Gauls in
390 B.C., see Mem. Am.
Acad. ii. 59-60)); and again in 36 B.C., when
the restoration was carried out by Cn. Domitius Calvinus who created a
building, small but of unusual beauty (Cass.
Dio xlviii. 42; cf. Plin.
NH
xxxiv. 48;
CIL vi. 1301 ;
EE iii. 266). The evidence of the ruins shows
that the statement of Tacitus (
Ann. xv. 41) that the regia was destroyed
in the fire of Nero is greatly exaggerated (for possible injury by the
great fire in Commodus' reign, see
Herodian i. 14. 3). The building is
represented on a fragment of the Marble Plan (21), and is mentioned in
the third century (Solin. loc. cit.) and probably in the fourth (
CIL vi. 511).
The existing ruins belong to three periods, the republican, the early
imperial and the mediaeval. Of the superstructure of the first two
periods almost nothing remains except the lowest courses of some of the
walls and many architectural fragments. The republican remains
are found only in the foundations of the imperial structure, the ground
plan of which is practically identical.
There are traces of the repairs of 148, while the walls of cappellaccio
probably date from well before the fire of 390 B.C. After the restoration
of Calvinus the regia was shaped like an irregular pentagon, filling the
space between the Sacra via, the temenos of Vesta, and the temple of
Julius Caesar, and consisting of parts unsymmetrically joined together.
The principal part was trapezoidal, with a mean length of about 22 metres
and a width of 8 metres, and was built of solid blocks of white marble,
with a pavement of marble slabs. Some fragments of the cornice in
this material are preserved.
1 On the west and south sides were inscribed
in four double panels the fasti consulares, and on the pilasters of the
south side, the fasti triumphales, and many of the fragments of these
blocks have been preserved and are now in the Palazzo dei Conservatori
(
Mitt. 1904, 117-123;
1905, 77-80;
NS 1904, 8-10;
1925, 376-382;
1926, 62-67; YW 1925-6, iii;
BC 1904, 188;
1925, 238-270;
WS
1902, 324-325;
LS ii. 197-200;
RE vi. 2027-2045).
The interior was divided into three rooms, in the largest of which
was found a pavement of Anio tufa blocks (perhaps therefore post-Sullan),
and in this a circular substructure of grey tufa, 2.53 metres in diameter,
dating from the early period.
2 There was a doorway in the original
building, but it was roughly widened for the mediaeval house, and two
rude steps placed in front of it.
The irregular space between this part of the regia and the Sacra via
was occupied by an open court, with a covered ante-chamber at the east
end, where the main entrance seems to have been. The greatest width,
north and south, of the area of the regia was about 27 metres, and the
least about 12 metres. The court was paved with slabs of marble, and
in it are two wells and a cistern, which may date from a very early time,
though Frank assigns the greater age to the main (trapezoidal) building,
and contained fragments of various kinds. Near the cistern is a base
of tufa blocks, with traces of a circular superstructure. To this may
belong the round block of peperino with the inscription A. COVRI (second
century B.C.).
3 At the south-west end of the marble building is a small
room, and near this in the wall was found the inscription (
NS 1899, 128)
of the
SCHOLA KALATORUM (q.v.), but no identification of any of the
existing divisions of the ruins with any of the parts of the ancient regia
mentioned in classical literature is possible.
In the seventh or eighth century the regia was transformed into
a private house, the traces of which are visible in all parts of the area,
but especially along the Sacra via, where the house was approached
by a flight of two steps roughly made of marble and travertine, on which
stood a row of cipollino columns taken from some ancient building.
Literature: general-
Jord. i. 2. 298-304, 423-429;
Gilb. i. 225-227,
305-310, 341-352;
iii. 407-410; Thedenat 91-94, 274-277; HC 180-185;
RE i. A. 465-469; WR 502; LR 221-223;
RL xix. 1910, 201-216, where
Pais argues that the regia and Vesta cult were not established in the
forum until the fourth century B.C.; for recent excavations-
Mitt. 1886,
94-98, 99-111;
1902, 62-66;
1905, 77-80;
1921, 17-23; Archaeologia,
1887, 227-250; Jahrb. d.
Inst. 1889, 228-253; NS 1899,220-223,384-386,
486-488;
BC 1899, 205-213;
1903, 42-55;
1920, 152-162;
CR 1899,
322, 466;
1901, 139; AA 90000, 6-8; Atti 518-525; Toeb. 1-12; TF
81-85; DR 249-274; HFP 36, 37.