Vicus Jugarius


The Vicus Jugarius, or the Street of the Yoke-Makers, was an ancient street leading into the Roman Forum. The Vicus Jugarius was very old—perhaps even older than Rome itself. The Latin word jugarius can mean either "yoke" or "ridge".
The Vicus Jugarius entered the Forum from the southwest, along the shoulder of the Capitoline Hill and between the Temple of Saturn and the Basilica Julia near Servilius’ Pool. The Arch of Tiberius was built for the street to pass through here. Its other end, in the southern Campus Martius, was near the Forum Holitorium. This was the extent of the street in late Republican and Imperial times, but in former days, it was much longer, extending as far as the Quirinal Hill and representing a part of the original trade route to the Tiber River. Its ancient name may actually have originally signified a “high-road’, rather than the later sense of “yoke”; something like "the Road along the Ridge".
A spot on the road known as the Equimaelium perhaps recorded the leveling of the home of Spurius Maelius.

Etymology

words associated with jugarius include jugalis and jugo. Some words deriving from this Latin root are : "yoke", "join", "juncture", "conjugal" and even "yoga". Juga, or Jugalis, is an epithet of the goddess Juno in her aspect as marriage goddess. As Juno Juga—Juno of the Yoke of Holy Matrimony—she had an altar on the Vicus Jugarius. Although it was believed by the ancients that this gave its name to the street, in reality, it was probably the other way around.