Return to the Temple of Castor and Pollux
"Just think at what hazard to life men's household fortunes are increased, their brassbound coffers comfortably filled, their cash deposits banked with the vigilant Castor..." Juvenal, Satires (XIV, 260-262)
Sealed by metal doors, the loculi served as repositories for the imperial treasury (fiscus) and as safe deposit for the wealth of private individuals. The unsavory reputation of the Vicus Tuscus that passed between the Temple of Castor and the Basilica Julia cannot have been reassuring.
References: Juvenal: The Sixteen Satires (1998) translated by Peter Green (Penguin Classics). The illustration comes from The Roman Forum (1970) by Michael Grant.
