VICUS CUPRIUS
a street on the Esquiline, running from the TIGILLUM SORORIUM (Dionys. iii. 22. 8) north across the slope of the Carinae to the Subura. It crossed the CLIVUS ORBIUS (q.v.) at its highest point, where the daughter of Servius Tullius is said to have driven over the body of her murdered father (Liv. i. 48. 6; Varro, LL v. 159). The vicus, therefore, seems to have coincided with the Vie del Colosseo and del Cardello. Varro (loc. cit.) derives the name from a Sabine word and uses this derivation as evidence that the Sabines settled here (vicus Ciprius a cipro, quod ibi Sabini cives additi consederunt, qui a bono omine id appellarunt; nam ciprum Sabine bonum. HJ 258, 263, 322; Jord. i. 3. 155; RE iv. 1761; cf. for an erroneous theory, Pais, Ancient Legends 273). The churches of S. Maria and S. Nicolao inter duo were so called because they stood between this street and the COMPITUM ACILII (HCh 340, 394).