ROMA QUADRATA (2)
a shrine in which were kept various sacred objects
connected with the foundation of the Palatine city, which is probably
represented on a fragment of the Marble Plan, where a small four-sided
structure stands in the
AREA APOLLINIS (
Mitt. 1896, 202-204; DAP 2.
xi. 115, 118; Fest. 258:
quadrata Roma in Palatio ante templum
Apollinis dicitur, ubi reposita sunt quae solent bona ominis gratia in
urbe condenda adhiberi, quia saxo munitus (?) est initio in speciem
quadratam; Ov.
Trist. iii. 1. 31 sqq.:
inde petens dextram ' Porta est,'
ait,' ista Palati; [ hic Stator, hoc primum condita Roma loco est.' [ singula
dum miror, video fulgentibus armis [ conspicuos postes tectaque digna
deo. Cf.
Fast. iv. 829 sqq.; Joseph. Ant.
Iud. xix. 3. 2, 223:
ἐν εὐρυχωρίᾳ τοῦ παλατίου - πρῶτον δὲ οἰκηθῆναι τῆς ῾Ρωμαίων πόλεως τοῦτο παραδίδωσιν ὁ περὶ αὐτῆς λόγος). This passage has generally been
taken to fix Roma quadrata in the
AREA PALATINA (q.v.). We may note
that a number of dedications to early deities, Anabestas, Marspiter,
Remuriene (CIL i². 969-971 vi. 21, 487, 566=30794) and the elogium
of Fertor
(CIL i². p. 202 n. xli.=vi. 1302), all of them archaistic inscriptions, perhaps of the time of Claudius, which have been connected, not
unnaturally, with the site of Roma quadrata, were also found between
the summa Sacra via and the mediaeval ruins which were formerly
believed to belong to the temple of Jupiter Stator, but have since been
excavated by Boni, and ascertained to be the foundations of two towers,
which he conjectures to be the
Turres Cencii, domnae Bonae et Unquitatis (Iniquitatis ? in which Pope Gelasius II was imprisoned in 1118),
which were demolished by Calixtus II in 1119 (
LPD ii. 323, 324, n. 18).
The foundations of a triumphal arch also came to light (see
ARCUS
DOMITIANI (2)). A statue of the fifth-fourth century B.C. (perhaps of
the school of Timotheus) which has generally been interpreted as a
Victory, was also found here (
AJA 1918, 347); but the lack of wings is
against the identification (DAP 2. xiv. 235-239).
As we have seen, the site of the
AREA PALATINA (q.v.) has been
generally connected with that of Roma quadrata (2); but inasmuch
as the latter is stated by Festus to be ante templum Apollinis, it is difficult
to find a place for it if we accept (as on other grounds we are probably
right in doing) the theory of Pinza and Richmond as to the latter.
Richmond's attempt to locate the area in front of the temple, and Lugli's
placing of it to one side (ZA 175-176) do not seem successful. It may
indeed be better to accept Reid's and Leopold's idea ' that the name
Roma quadrata, as restricted to the mundus, is a purely antiquarian
invention' (
YW 1914, 12-13) founded only on Plutarch.
During the ludi saeculares of 204 A.D. a tribunal was erected 'ad
Romam quadratam' for the distribution of suffimenta (incense); see
CIL vi. 32327. As another was erected in area Apollinis, it is probable
that Roma quadrata was at a little distance from it (HJ 43). See the
references on
ROMA QUADRATA (1).
