p77  VI. The Temple of Saturn

In all probability the great substructures of travertine, which contained the vaults for the treasure of the state, belong to the building as restored by Plancus. When at the beginning of the civil war Caesar took possession of the treasury, he found in it 15,000 bars of gold, 30,000 bars of silver, and 30 million sesterces (about seven and a half million francs) in coin. In later time the superstructure of the temple was again restored; all the inscription on the architrave: SENATVS POPVLVSQVE ROMANVS INCENDIO CONSVMPTVM RESTITVIT — it had been destroyed by fire. Judging by the character of the letters in this inscription the restoration can hardly have occurred before the fourth century A.D. The columns of the vestibule are of grey granite, the columns at the side of red granite •(about 4 ft. 3 in. in diameter, and •about 36 ft. high); the bases are not uniform, and the whole thing makes the impression of a hasty and careless piece of work of a late period. The vestibule was approached by a flight of steps, the ground-plan of which has been preserved on a fragment of the Forma Urbis (see above p22); The entrance to the 'treasury' was probably on the south side, i.e. toward the 'Consolazione'; in the middle ages there was situated on this spot the little church of S. Salvator de Statera, with the relief described in the Mirabilia and said to represent the paying off of the army (see above p32). In front of the façade under the steps are found remains of old constructions of tufa (drains etc.): some of these have been wrongly identified as the remains of the altar of Saturn attributed to Hercules.