NYMPHAEUM (1)
a monumental fountain, fed by the aqua lulia (LA
393-395), between the via Tiburtina vetus and the via Labicana. The
existing remains, of brick-faced concrete, show a two-storied facade
with a wide central niche and arched openings on each side. In front,
was a curved basin into which the water flowed from the building behind
(Durm, fig. 543; for list of further illustrations, see HJ 348). In the
side openings stood the marble trophies (trophaea) which were removed
in 1590 by Sixtus V and set up on the balustrade of the Piazza del
Campidoglio (
LS iii. 168; HF i. p. 409). Their style is certainly Domitianic (
SScR i. 128, who attributes them to Domitian's double triumph
over the Chatti and Dacians in 89 A.D.), but they were not made for this
setting, but for another, in which a Victory stood between them (Mitt.
1923-4, 185-192). A quarry mark of Domitian is said to have been seen
under one of them (Cittadini ap. Martinelli, Roma ex ethn. sacra, 430;
Mitt. 1891, 44; HJ 349, n. 16) and an inscription (
CIL vi. 1207=31263),
quoted by Petrarch and copied (in part only), near the Lateran about 1470,
may also be attributed to that emperor (
Mitt. 1899, 255-259).
Despite what has been said to the contrary, however, the brickwork
of the structure itself is not of the time of Domitian, but probably
of Alexander Severus, on whose coins the building appears to be
represented (Cohen 297-303, 479, 480).
In the Middle Ages this nymphaeum had already been connected
with Marius and his triumph over the Cimbri, and it appears as Cimbrum
in a document of 1176 (
Jord. ii. 517), in the Mirabilia and the Ordo
Benedicti (
Jord. ii. 640, 665); as templum Marii (Ordo Benedicti, Mira-
bilia, locc. citt.), and as Marii Cimbrum (Petrarch,
Ep. vi. 2;
Rem. i. 118).
Poggio (ap. Urlichs, 236) says that this templum was built by Marius
from the spoils of the Cimbri and that his trophaea were still visible
on the monument, confusing these trophies with the MARII MONUMENTA
(q.v.). This confusion may have been due to the fact that, after the
damnatio memoriae, Domitian's name was erased from so many inscriptions that some of his buildings were attributed to others (HJ 348-350;
Durm 475; Maass, Die Tagesgotter in Rom u. den Provinzen,
Berlin
1902, 64-65; D'Esp.
Mon. ii. 176-7;
Fr. ii. 63-65 YW 1923-4, 107;
DuP 115-117).
