Augustus, the Street of the Tuscans which divided
the temple from the basilica, and the Vicus Iugarius between the
basilica and the Temple of Saturn, were but a few feet wide and could
easily be crossed by means of a _passerelle_. We are told by Suetonius
and Josephus how Caligula used sometimes to interrupt his aerial
promenade midway, and throw handfuls of gold from the roof of the
basilica to the crowd assembled below. I have mentioned this bridge
because the words of Suetonius, _supra templum divi Augusti ponte
transmisso_, gave me the first clew towards the identification of the
splendid ruins which tower just behind the church of S. Maria
Liberatrice, between it and the rotunda of S. Teodoro.

The position of Caligula's palace at the northeast corner of the
Palatine being well known, as also the site of the Basilica Julia, it
is evident that the building which stands between the two must be the
Temple of Augustus. This conclusion is so simple that I wonder that no
one had mentioned it before my first announcement in 1881. The last
nameless remains adjoining the Forum have thus regained their place
and their identity in the topography of this classic quarter.

[Illustration: Plan of the Temple of Augustus.]

[Illustration: Remains of the Temple of Augustus, from a sketch by
Ligorio.]

The construction of a temple in honor of the deified founder of the
empire was begun by his widow Livia, and Tiberius, his adopted son,
and completed by Caligula. An inscription discovered in 1726, in the
Columbaria of Livia on the Appian Way, mentions a C. Julius Bathyllus,
sacristan or keeper of the temple. Pliny (xii. 19, 42) describes,
among the curiosities of the place, a root of a cinnamon-tree, of
extraordinary size, placed by Livia on a golden tray. The relic was
destroyed by fire in the reign of Titus. Domitian must have restored
the building, because the rear wall of the temple, the _murus post
templum divi Augusti ad Minervam_, is mentioned in contemporary
documents as the place on which state notices were posted. It has been
excavated but once, in June, 1549, when the Forum, the Sacra Via and
the Street of the Tuscans were ransacked to supply marbles and lime
for the building of S. Peter's. Two documents show the wonderful state
of preservation in which the temple was found. One is a sketch, taken
in 1549, by Pirro Ligorio, which, through the kindness of Professor T.
H. Middleton,[56] I reproduce from the original, in