THE BRICKWORK STRUCTURE IN THE HALL BEHIND THE MARBLE PLAN

The original corner hall of the Templum Pacis, next to the hall of the Forma Urbis, now corresponding to the Monastery of SS. Cosma e Damiano, was the only one accessible by means of an actual entrance (the other halls were connected to the portico through rows of columns that emphasized the opening); its end slightly protruded outside the outer wall of the southwest portico (cfr. Fig. 71). After its remodeling for the addition of the great hall, it had no windows on three sides, and was characterized by a huge wall (3.30 m of thickness) on the Clivus side – the only one facing the exterior. Well before the Severan age, the two original entrances (one opposite the other) were walled up. When a new transverse wall was built nearly along the short axis of the corner hall (the travertine foundation excavated by Castagnoli and Cozza behind the late antique apse should be associated with this wall, unless the travertine blocks were just used during the construction process), dividing the space into two equal parts, in the resulting space toward the hall of the Forma Urbis a new continuous wall of brick-faced concrete, about 60 cm thick and provided with nine niches, was built against the inner side of the ashlar wall of the southeast portico, as well as against the brick facings of the walls behind the marble plan and toward the Clivus. This wall, which I call a reinforcement because it increased the thickness of the preexisting structures, is still well preserved on three sides of the monastery's basement and just partially above. Because of this wall, the original entrance toward the southeast portico lost its left-hand side but, in fact, it was completely walled up because a new entrance was built on the same axis as the southwest portico. The Clivus entrance was also halved and eventually completely blocked (or turned into a storeroom).