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 p122  Cliva

Collecting a number of small individual entries on pp122‑126 of

Samuel Ball Platner (as completed and revised by Thomas Ashby):
A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome,
London: Oxford University Press, 1929.


Clivus Bassilli: a road, mentioned only once (CIL VI.36364), that seems to have branched off from the via Tiburtina in the area now occupied by the cemetery of S. Lorenzo (PBS III.90; Mitt. 1891, 112).

 p123  Clivus Capitolinus: see separate page.

Clivus Capsarius: a street on the Aventine known only from a fragment of the Acta Arvalia of 240 A.D. (NS 1914, 473‑474; DAP 2.XII.37: in domu Fab. Fortunati promag. q.e. in clivo Capsar. in Aventino maiore). The capsarii looked after the clothes of persons using the public baths (CIL VI.9232: capsarariusº de Antonianas (thermas)), and the clivus may have received its name because the attendants of the clothes rooms of the baths of Caracalla lived in it (cf. DE II.101).

Clivus Cosconius: a street of unknown location, built by a viocurus of the same name (Varro, LL V.158).

Clivus Delphini: a street mentioned only in the Regionary Catalogue in Region XII. It was probably a little north of the thermae Antoninianae, and possibly connected the via Nova with the via Ardeatina, along the line of the modern Via di S. Balbina.

Clivus Mamuri: a street mentioned only in mediaeval documents (LP XLII.6; Acta S. Susan. 11 (vicum), Aug. p. 632; BC 1914, 374), which probably took its name from the statua Mamuri (Not. Reg. VI). This, the statue of Mamurius Veturius, the legendary maker of the ancilia (Fest. 131; Ov. Fast. III.382‑392; Plut. Numa 13; WR 147, 558), was probably close to the temple of Quirinus and the Curia Saliorum (q.v.) and the street may have run south-east from the Alta Semita (HJ 410; Gilb. I.295; III.370; RhM 1894, 405, 417).

Clivus Martis: the name given to that part of the via Appia, just before it is crossed by the line of the later Aurelian wall, where it ascended to the temple of Mars (q.v.). Cf. Fast. Ant. ap. NS 1921, 97, Marti in Cl[ivo], 1st June. In process of time the grade of the road was removed or at least very much diminished (CIL VI.1270). In 296 B.C. the clivus was paved (Liv. X.23), and repaved in 189 B.C., when it was provided with a porticus, and afterwards known as the Via Tecta (q.v.) (Liv. XXXVIII.28;  p124  Ov. Fast. VI.191‑2). This via Tecta is to be distinguished from the via Tecta in the campus Martius.

Clivus Orbius (Urbius): the earliest name of a street that led up the Carinae to the top of the Oppius, crossing the vicus Cuprius (Sol. I.25; Liv. I.48). In this street Tullia is said to have murdered her father, and it was afterwards called vicus Sceleratus (Liv. loc. cit.; Dionys. IV.39; Varro, LL V.159; de vir. ill. 7.18; Fest. 332, 333; Ov. Fast. VI.609). The line of the Vicus Cuprius (q.v.) seems fairly certain, approximately that of the Via del Cardello and Via del Colosseo, and therefore the clivus Orbius probably corresponded in part at least with the Via di S. Pietro in Vincoli, where ancient pavement has been found (HJ 258). Pais (Legends 273) locates it farther south, within the area of the domus Aurea, but with less plausibility.

→ For additional details,
see Annas Rom Guide.

Clivus Palatinus: the name applied for convenience (it has no ancient warranty) to the road ascending to the Palatine from the Sacra Via (q.v.) near the Arch of Titus. A small piece of its pavement belonging to the time of Sulla was found at about 29 metres above sea-level, and considerable remains of that laid by Augustus at a slightly higher level have been found near the Arch of Titus. That of Nero was slightly higher again and was about 17 m. wide (AJA 1923, 397 sqq.; Mem. Am. Acad. V.121‑123). [Dr. Van Deman has since shown me that the arcade of Nero ran up as far as the arch attributed to Domitian by Boni, and by her to Augustus (see Arcus Domitiani (1), T.A.]

Clivus Patrici: see Vicus Patricius.

Clivus Publicius: a street constructed and paved by Lucius and Marcus Publicius Malleolus, who were curule aediles about 238 B.C. (Fest. 238; Varro, LL V.158; Ov. Fast. V.293‑4). It began in the forum Boarium, near the west end of the circus Maximus and the porta Trigemina (Frontin. 5; Liv. XXVII.37), and must have extended across the Aventine in a southerly direction (Liv. XXVI.10), past the temple of Diana to the Vicus Piscinae Publicae (q.v.). It was said to have been burned to the ground in 203 B.C. (Liv. XXX.26), which must mean that it was thickly built up.

Clivus Pullius: a street running south from the Subura across the western end of the Oppius to the Fagutal (Sol. I.26; Varro, LL V.158), passing the point now occupied by the church of S. Pietro in Vincoli. An inscription of the end of the fourth century (CIL VI.31893; BC 1891, 354‑355) was found here which mentioned the clivumpullenses, and until the end of the sixteenth century the line of the street was marked by the church of S. Giovanni in Carapullo or in clivo Plumbeo (HJ 257; BC 1907, 180; HCh 271).

Clivus Rutarius: mentioned only in one inscription (CIL VI.7803), from which it cannot be determined whether it is the name of a part of the via Aurelia outside the porta Aurelia, or of another street running into this.

 p125  Clivus Sacer: written sacer clivus in the three passages in which it occurs at all (Hor. Carm. IV.2.35; Mart. I.70.5; IV.78.7), another name, apparently confined to poetry, for the Sacra Via (q.v.) proper, that is, the ascent from the forum to the summa Sacra via. It is often stated that this was also the name of the street that branched off from the summa Sacra via and ascended the Palatine (Clivus Palatinusq.v.), but probably without reason (HJ 21, 105; HC 250; Richter 160; Gilb. III.423; CR 1902, 336; Mitt. 1902, 97; 1905, 119).

Clivus Salutis: a street mentioned only in Symmachus (Ep. V.54.2) and LP XLII (vit. Innoc. I.6), but probably identical with the vicus Salutis or Salutaris of an inscription (CIL VI.31270) that was found at the S.W. end of the Via del Quirinale.​1 This street was evidently named from the collis Salutaris or the temple of Salus, and probably connected the Alta Semita with the vicus Longus, corresponding in general with the Via della Consulta (HJ 405; RhM 1894, 404). The ancient pavement has been found along this line, in some places as deep as 18 metres below the present level (BC 1889, 386; 1890, 11).

Clivus Scauri: see separate page.

Clivus Suburanus: the irregular continuation of the Subura, where it ascended between the Oppius and Cispius to the porta Esquilina (Mart. V.22.5; cf. X.19.5). The remains of ancient pavement show that it followed in general the line of the Vie di S. Lucia in Selci, di S. Martino, and di S. Vito. A street which ran northward to join it from the west side of the thermae of Trajan was found in 1922 (NS 1922, 219).2

 p126  Clivus Triarius: a street known only from one inscription (CIL XV.7178), but perhaps identical with the vicus Triari of the Capitoline Base (CIL VI.975) in Region XII.

Clivus Victoriae: the ascent to the Palatine from the Velabrum on the west side (Fest. 262; FUR 37, 86), which took its name from the temple of Victoria (q.v.). It probably began at the porta Romana, a little south of the present church of S. Teodoro. The present path, skirting the cliff, ascends to the north corner of the hill, where it turns abruptly to the right and passes under the substructures of the domus Tiberiana. Ancient pavement exists all along this path, and there is no reason for doubting that this is the line of the clivus as it existed after the erection of this part of the palace; but this building must have materially altered previous conditions and the earlier line of the street. A repaving of it may be alluded to in an inscription of the Sullan period found in the forum (BC 1899, 53; NS 1900, 310; Klio 1902, 259, No. 38; CIL I2.809).

Cliviusº Urbius: see Clivus Orbius.


The Authors' Notes:

1 HJ cit. calls it Via Venti Settembre: but the street is rightly called Via del Quirinale from the Piazza del Quirinale to the Quattro Fontane (KH I‑III).

2 It is described as running north and south (i.e. parallel to the west side of the thermae) for over 50 metres, but the thermae face north-east.


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