NYMPHAEUM (2)
on the Esquiline, between the via Labicana and the
Aurelian wall, just inside the line of the Anio vetus. There is no mention
of this structure in ancient literature or inscriptions, but it is without
doubt a monumental nymphaeum. The existing ruins consist of a
decagonal hall of opus latericium, which was covered with a domed
roof until part of it fell in in 1828, surrounded on three sides with other
chambers added at a later date. In the interior of the hall are nine
niches, besides the entrance; and above these are ten corresponding
round-arched windows. The diameter of the hall is about 24 metres,
and the height was 33. It is very important from the structural point
of view, and especially for the meridian ribs in the dome. The outside
walls were covered with marble and the interior richly decorated in a
similar manner (Durm, figs. 306-308, 313, 339; Choisy, pl. x. i. pp.82-84;
Sangallo, Barb. 12; Giovannoni in Ann. d. Society d. Ingegneri, 1904, 165-
201 ;
LS iii. 158-61 ;
JRS 1919, 176, 182; RA 182-188; cf. HJ 360, n. 44,
for references to other illustrations and plans).
1 In the fifteenth century
Flavius Blondus (Roma Instaurata) called these ruins Le Galluzze, a
name of uncertain meaning that had been applied earlier to some ruins
near S. Croce in Gerusalemme (
Jord. ii. 130-131). Since the seventeenth
century the nymphaeum has frequently been called
TEMPLUM MINERVAE
MEDICAE (q.v.), on account of the erroneous impression that the
Giustiniani Athene had been found in its ruins (HJ 360;
LS iii. 158-161).
It is now often attributed to the
HORTI LICINIANI, but without adequate
reason.
