VIVARIUM
an enclosure in which wild beasts intended for use in the
amphitheatre were kept (cf.
Gell. ii. 20). It is mentioned in one inscription of 241 A.D. (
CIL vi. 130), and by Procopius (
BG i. 22, 23). Procopius
states distinctly that it was close to the porta Praenestina, that its
outer walls were low without towers or battlements, and that it opened
directly into the city by a gate. This description indicates a rectangular
enclosure, just outside the porta Praenestina, between the Aurelian wall
where it coincides with the aqua Claudia and the via Labicana (HJ
365-367, 391-392). In the twelfth century and later the castra Praetoria
was called Vivarium, and a building just south of it the Vivariolum
(Vivaiolo). This fact, together with some evidence supposed to be
derived from the alleged place of discovery of the inscription, has been
regarded by some as proof that the Vivarium was this building south of
the Castra (
BC 1876, 188;
1877, 93;
LS ii. 247-249; Richter 298;
LR 385), but this view can hardly be maintained against the direct
testimony of Procopius.
