Here we are on the Quirinal Hill, the most northerly of the seven hills of Rome, which stretches from the northern extension of the Esquiline plateau in a south-westerly direction. It slopes off more gradually on the north and north-west to the Campus Martius.

The Quirinal hill is a collis not a mons like the Viminal. It has has been a distinguished address since Pomponius Atticus, recipient of Cicero's letters, was a resident and is a very residential hill.

The Quirinal Hill's name comes from the god Quirinus, who was identified with Romulus Ovid, Fasti ii.51)
Quirinus was itself derived from quiris, the Sabine word for a lance Ovid, Fasti ii.477. Others prefer to derive it from the name Quirium and some say it is a derivation from quernus, the oaktree.

The Temple of Quirinus is on this hill, as is the Temple of Semus Sancus.
The Temple of Salus was begun in 307 BC when Brutus let contracts for temple of Salus. Salus, salvation, is the personified Roman goddess of health and prosperity, both of the individual and the state. As Salus Publica Populi Romani goddess of the public welfare of the Roman people her temple was inaugurated in 302 BCE Livius X, 1, 9. Around 180 BCE sacrificial rites in honor of Apollo, Aesculapius, and Salus took place here Livius XL, 19. Her attribute was a snake or a bowl and her festival was celebrated on March 30. Salus is identified with the Greek goddess Hygieia.

Caracalla built here his Temple of Sarapis and Isis. Caracalla readmitted the Isis cult within the sacred confinements of the city. The religion of the great goddess reached its apogee then.

On the north and west slope of the hill were at least four approaches through cuts or depressions, three of which were marked by gates in the Servian wall, Porta Sanqualis, Porta Salutaris, and Porta Quirinalis.

At the foot of the Quirinal, is the enormous, brick-faced complex known today as Trajan's Market. It is actually composed of several distinct parts and contains the rock face laid bare by the removal of a saddle of stone that connected the Quirinal to the Capitoline Hill. This was part of a vast operation of urban redesign undertaken to make the area occupied by the
Forum of Trajan . At three storeys high, the lowest section of Trajan's Market is a broad semicircle following the curve of the exedra of the Forum of Trajan. It faces the street with a series of small interiors that are tabernae , shops. At either end are two apsidal halls.



Above the Via Biberatica are two other nuclei of the complex -a large cross vaulted hall with three storeys of rooms on each side, and further east, a complex of rooms with niches in the walls, arranged around a large domed hall. This is the headquarters of the Procurator, the imperial officer responsible for the management of the Forum of Trajan, and many of the other rooms are offices of the forum administration.




Trajan's Forum was inaugurated in 112 AD and his Column in 113 AD. The whole is a hymn of triumph of the Emperor over the Dacian barbarians. Notice the equestrian staute of Trajan in the middle of this enormous square. It is sealed off to the east by that basilica, and surrounded by porticoes on the other side. The porticoes are decorated with stautes of barbarians alternating with reliefs depicting piles of captured arms and portraits of previous emperors. In the middle of each long side is a deep exedra, separated from the porticus by a row of columns. The facade of the basilica overlooking the square has a columnar porch surmounted by a bronze four horse chariot. The interior has a double-aisled, two-storied porticus. The short sides were used as courts of Justice.

At the center of the west side of the basilica is Trajan Column, it is completely decorated with scenes illustrating the exploits of the emperor in Dacia.




His ashes are in a massive gold urn placed inside the base of the column.


And now we move on to the Capitoline Hill.