Vicus Tuscus

Vicus Tuscus ("Etruscan Street") was an ancient street in the city of Rome, running southwest out of the forum Romanum between the basilica Iulia and the temple of Castor and Pollux towards the forum Boarium and circus Maximus via the west side of the Palatine Hill and Velabrum. Platner, Samuel B. "Vicus Tuscus." "A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome" London, Humphrey Milford: Oxford University Press, 1929. ]

History

The name of Vicus Tuscus is believed to have originated from Etruscan immigration to Rome due to two presumptive reasons, one of which was their exile to the city after the defeat of Etruscan king Porsenna’s army by the Roman legions at Ariccia in 506 BC. The second possibility is that Etruscans had come to aid the Romans against Titus Tatius, a Sabine ruler who invaded Rome in around 750 BC after Romans abducted Sabine women, and later settled down in the neighborhood of the Roman forum. [ Tacitus, Cornelius. The Annals & The Histories. Trans. Alfred Church and William Brodribb. New York, 2003. ] This settlement was composed of workers whose task in Rome was to construct the temple of Iuppiter Capitolinus. Additionally, Dionysius indicates that the Roman senate provided Etruscans a place to build houses near Vicus Tuscus. [ Dionysius, of Halicarnassus. The Roman antiquities of Dinysius Halicarnassensis. Trans. Edward Spelman, Vol. 2. London, 1758. 4 vols. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale Group. ]

Background

Though originally a residential area of healthy families; by the Republican time, the Vicus Tuscus became a hub of Roman commerce where there were many stores ("horrea") on both sides, such as booksellers. According to Horace’s Epistles, books were on sale in front of the statues of Etruscan God Vertumnus and Janus Geminus in the Tuscan street and inside the Forum. [ Peck, Tracy. Classical Philology, Vol. 9, No. 1. (Jan., 1914), pp. 77-78. ] The most influential merchants were expert dealers of incense and perfume ("turarii" in Latin), giving rise to the street's second name - Vicus Turarius. Propertius recorded that these tradesmen made sacrificial offerings to Vertumnus, whose statue stood on Vicus Tuscus. [ Hornblower, Simon and Antony Spawforth. “Vertumnus.” "The Oxford Classical Dictionary". Oxford, New York : Oxford University Press, 2003. ]

Function

Vicus Tuscus was frequently used as an important path of communication between the Roman Forum and the forum Boarium and circus Maximus. When Romans conducted a sacrificial rite to their gods, two white cows were led through Vicus Tuscus and Velabrum via the forum Boarium, to arrive at the Temple of Juno Regina on the Aventine Hill. [ Livius, Titus. Livy. Tras. Frank G. Moore. Vol. 7. London, 1943. 13 vols. Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd. ]

During the Roman Games, the Vicus Tuscus was a route for processions. Statues of gods on wagons were paraded through here from the Capitol to the Circus Maximus.Claridge, Amanda. "Rome: An Oxford Archaeological Guide". New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.]

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