Excubitorium of the VII Cohort of the Vigiles

The Excubitorium of the VII Cohort of the Vigiles is located in the Trastevere district and is situated eight meters below the current street level. It was discovered in the years between 1865-1866, during the numerous nineteenth-century excavations undertaken for the recovery of works of art, and had as its reference an ancient wall that emerged in the garden of a private house on Piazza Monte di Fiore, opposite piazza San Crisogono, both of which disappeared in the most recent urban layout of the district.

From the first phases of the excavation, the purpose of the rooms brought to light was immediately clear based on the large number of graffiti on the walls, in which the VII Cohort of the Vigiles was repeatedly mentioned. The building was in fact identified as an excubitorium or guardhouse, created towards the end of the 2nd century AD inside a private house, bought or rented by the public administration. The good state of conservation of the monument and the extraordinary documentary value of the graffiti meant that light was shed on the organization of the vigiles and their life in the barracks. In the graffiti that have now disappeared, not only greetings to the emperors and thanks to the gods were often used, but also the name and number of the cohort, the names and ranks of the vigiles were indicated: in particular, the indication of “sebaciaria” and “milites sebaciarii” often recurred, in connection with the word “sebum”, that is, tallow (solid ox or mutton fat) that the vigiles used to fuel their torches during night patrols. The vigiles corps was in fact established in 6 AD by the emperor Augustus, to ensure night-time surveillance of the streets, both for fire prevention and public safety purposes.

Only in 1966, one hundred years after its discovery, was it decided to provide an adequate arrangement by covering the monument. The monument to this day consists of a large hall, with a hexagonal basin with concave sides in the centre. Opposite it, on the south wall, is an elegant arched door, which leads into the lararium, a sort of chapel of the tutelary genius of the vigiles, the Genius excubitorii remembered by the graffiti. In the room located to the west with the cocciopesto floor interrupted in the centre by a manhole cover, it has been suggested that a bathroom was used, while the purpose of the two adjacent and communicating rooms on the opposite side remains uncertain. To the north, there is a narrow ambulatory and a room with a buried dolium, a container used to store grain, legumes and oil.

Photo credits: courtesy of the Capitoline Superintendency