Background
Though originally a residential area of healthy families; by the Republican time, the Vicus Tuscus became a hub of Roman commerce where there were many stores (horrea) on both sides, such as booksellers. According to Horace’s Epistles, books were on sale in front of the statues of Etruscan God Vertumnus and Janus Geminus in the Tuscan street and inside the Forum. The most influential merchants were expert dealers of incense and perfume (turarii in Latin), giving rise to the street's second name - Vicus Turarius. Propertius recorded that these tradesmen made sacrificial offerings to Vertumnus, whose statue stood on Vicus Tuscus.
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