The Epigraphical Topography of Præneste
Ædicula, C.I.L., XIV, 2908
From the provenience of the inscription this building, not necessarily a sacred one (Dessau), was one of the many structures on the site of the new Forum below the town.
PUBLICA ÆDIFICIA, C.I.L., XIV, 2919, 3032.
Barbarus Pompeianus about 227 A.D. restored a number of public buildings which had begun to fall to pieces. A mensor æd(ificiorum) (see Dict. under sarcio) is mentioned in C.I.L., XIV, 3032.
ÆDES ET PORTICUS, C.I.L., XIV, 2980.
See discussion of temple, page 42.
ÆDES, C.I.L., XIV, 2864, 2867, 3007.
See discussion of temple, page 42.
ÆDES SACRÆ, C.I.L., XIV, 2922, 4091, 9== Annali dell’Inst., 1855, p. 86.
See discussion of temple, page 42.
ÆRARIUM, C.I.L., XIV, 2975; Bull. dell’Inst., 1881, p. 207; Marucchi, Bull. dell’Inst., 1881, p. 252; Nibby, Analisi, II, p. 504; best and latest, Delbrueck, Hellenistische Bauten in Latium, I, p. 58.
The points worth noting are: that this ærarium is not built with reference to the temple above, and that it faces out on the public square. These points have been discussed more at length above, and will receive still more attention below under the caption “FORUM.”
AMPHITHEATRUM, C.I.L., XIV, 3010, 3014; Juvenal, III, 173; Ovid, A.A., I, 103 ff.
The remains found out along the Valmontone road130 coincide nearly enough with the provenience of the inscription to settle an amphitheatre here of late imperial date. The tradition of the death of the martyr S. Agapito in an amphitheatre, and the discovery of a Christian church on the Valmontone road, have helped to make pretty sure the identification of these ruins.131
We know also from an inscription that there was a gladiatorial school at Præneste.132
BALNEÆ, C.I.L., XIV, 3013, 3014 add.
The so-called nymphæum, the brick building below the Via degli Arconi, mentioned page 41, seems to have been a bath as well as a fountain, because of the architectural fragments found there133 when it was turned into a mill by the Bonanni brothers. The reservoir mentioned above on page 41 must have belonged also to a bath, and so do the ruins which are out beyond the villa under which the modern cemetery now is. From their orientation they seem to belong to the villa. There were also baths on the hill toward Gallicano, as the ruins show.134
BYBLIOTHECÆ, C.I.L., XIV, 2916.
These seem to have been two small libraries of public and private law books.135 They were in the Forum, as the provenience of the inscription shows.
CIRCUS, Cecconi, Storia di Palestrina, p. 75, n. 32.
Cecconi thought there was a circus at the bottom of the depression between Colle S. Martino and the hill of Præneste. The depression does have a suspiciously rounded appearance below the Franciscan grounds, but a careful examination made by me shows no trace of cutting in the rock to make a half circle for seats, no traces of any use of the slope for seats, and no ruins of any kind.
CULINA, C.I.L., XIV, 3002.
This was a building of some consequence. Two quæstors of the city bought a space of ground 148-1/2 by 16 feet along the wall, and superintended the building of a culina there. The ground was made public, and the whole transaction was done by decree of the senate, that is, it was done before the time of Sulla.
CURIA, C.I.L., XIV, 2924.
The fact that a statue was to be set up (ve)l ante curiam vel in porticibus for(i) would seem to imply that the curia was in the lower Forum. The inscription shows that these two places were undoubtedly the most desirable places that a statue could have. There is a possibility that the curia may be the basilica on the Corso terrace of the city. It has been shown that an open space existed in front of the basilica, and that in it there is at least one basis for a statue. Excavations136 at the ruins which were once thought to be the curia of ancient Præneste showed instead of a hemicycle, a straight wall built on remains of a more ancient construction of rectangular blocks of tufa with three layers of pavement 4-1/2 feet below the level of the ground, under which was a tomb of brick construction, and lower still a wall of opus quadratum of tufa, certainly none of the remains belonging to a curia.