Augustus J. C. Hare

Forum of Trajan—(Sta. Maria di Loreto)—Temple of Mars Ultor—Forum of Augustus—Forum of Nerva—Forum of Julius CÆsar—(Academy of St. Luke)—Forum Romanum—Tribune—Comitium —Vulcanal—Temple of Concord—Temple of Vespasian—Temple of Saturn—Arch of Septimius Severus—Temple of Castor and Pollux—Pillar of Phocas—Temple of Antoninus and Faustina—Basilica of Constantine—(Sta. Martina—S. Adriano—Sta. Maria—Liberatrice, SS. Cosmo and Damian—Sta. Francesca Romana)—Temple of Venus and Rome—Arch of Titus—(Sta. Maria Pallara—S. Buonaventura)—Meta Sudans—Arch of Constantine—Coliseum.

FOLLOWING the Corso to its end at the Ripresa dei Barberi, and turning to the left, we find ourselves at once amid the remains of the Forum of Trajan, erected by the architect Apollodorus for the Emperor Trajan on his return from the wars of the Danube. This forum now presents the appearance of a ravine between the Capitoline and Quirinal, but is an artificial hollow, excavated to facilitate the circulation of life within the city. An inscription over the door of the column, which overtops the other ruins, shows that it was raised in order to mark the depth of earth which was removed to construct the forum. The earth was formerly as high as the top of the column, which reaches, 100 Roman feet, to the level of the Palatine Hill. The forum was sometimes called the "Ulpian," from one of the names of the emperor.

"Before the year A.D. 107 the splendours of the city and the Campus beyond it were still separated by a narrow isthmus, thronged perhaps by the squalid cabins of the poor, and surmounted by the remains of the Servian wall which ran along its summit. Step by step the earlier emperors had approached with their new forums to the foot of this obstruction. Domitian was the first to contemplate and commence its removal. Nerva had the fortune to consecrate and to give his own name to a portion of his predecessor's construction; but Trajan undertook to complete the bold design, and the genius of his architect triumphed over all obstacles, and executed a work which exceeded in extent and splendour any previous achievement of the kind. He swept away every building on the site, levelled the spot on which they had stood, and laid out a vast area of columnar galleries, connecting halls and chambers for public use and recreation. The new forum was adorned with two libraries, one for Greek, the other for Roman volumes, and it was bounded on the west by a basilica of magnificent dimensions. Beyond this basilica, and within the limits of the Campus, the same architect (Apollodorus) erected a temple for the worship of Trajan himself; but this work probably belonged to the reign of Trajan's successor, and no doubt the Ulpian forum, with all its adjuncts, occupied many years in building. The area was adorned with numerous statues, in which the figure of Trajan was frequently repeated, and among its decorations were groups in bronze or marble, representing his most illustrious actions. The balustrades and cornices of the whole mass of buildings flamed with gilded images of arms and horses. Here stood the great equestrian statue of the emperor; here was the triumphal arch decreed him by the senate, adorned with sculpture, which Constantine, two centuries later, transferred without a blush to his own, a barbarous act of this first Christian emperor, to which however we probably owe their preservation to this day from more barbarous spoliation."—Merivale, Romans under the Empire, ch. lxiii.

The beautiful Column of Trajan was erected by the senate and people of Rome, A.D. 114. It is composed of thirty-four blocks of marble, and is covered with a spiral band of bas-reliefs illustrative of the Dacian wars, and increasing in size as it nears the top, so that it preserves throughout the same proportion when seen from below. It was formerly crowned by a statue of Trajan, holding a gilt globe, which latter is still preserved in the Hall of Bronzes in the Capitol. This statue had fallen from its pedestal long before Sixtus V. replaced it by the existing figure of St. Peter. At the foot of the column was a sepulchral chamber, intended to receive the imperial ashes, which were however preserved in a golden urn, upon an altar in front of it.

"And apostolic statues climb
To crush the imperial urn, whose ashes slept sublime."
Childe Harold, cx.

It was while walking in this forum, that Gregory the Great, observing one of the marble groups which told of a good and great action of Trajan, lamented bitterly that the soul of so noble a man should be lost, and prayed earnestly for the salvation of the heathen emperor. He was told that the soul of Trajan should be saved, but that to ensure this he must either himself undergo the pains of purgatory for three days, or suffer earthly pain and sickness for the rest of his life. He chose the latter, and never after was in health. This incident is narrated by his three biographers, John and Paul Diaconus, and John of Salisbury.[50]

The forum of Trajan was partly uncovered by Pope Paul III. in the sixteenth century, but excavated in its present form by the French in 1812. There is much still buried under the streets and neighbouring houses.

"All over the surface of what once was Rome it seems to be the effort of Time to bury up the ancient city, as it were a corpse, and he the sexton; so that, in eighteen centuries, the soil over its grave has grown very deep, by the slow scattering of dust, and the accumulation of more modern decay upon older ruin.

"This was the fate, also, of Trajan's forum, until some papal antiquary, a few hundred years ago, began to hollow it out again, and disclosed the whole height of the gigantic column, wreathed round with bas-reliefs of the old emperor's warlike deeds (rich sculpture, which, twining from the base to the capital, must be an ugly spectacle for his ghostly eyes, if he considers that this huge, storied shaft must be laid before the judgment seat, as a piece of the evidence of what he did in the flesh). In the area before the column stands a grove of stone, consisting of the broken and unequal shafts of a vanished temple, still keeping a majestic order, and apparently incapable of further demolition. The modern edifices of the piazza (wholly built, no doubt, out of the spoil of its old magnificence) look down into the hollow space whence these pillars rise.

"One of the immense gray granite shafts lies in the piazza, on the verge of the area. It is a great, solid fact of the Past, making old Rome actually visible to the touch and eye; and no study of history, nor force of thought, nor magic of song, can so vitally assure us that Rome once existed, as this sturdy specimen of what its rulers and people wrought. There is still a polish remaining on the hard substance of the pillar, the polish of eighteen centuries ago, as yet but half rubbed off."—Hawthorne, Transformation.

On the north of this forum are two churches: that nearest to the Corso is Sta. Maria di Loreto (founded by the corporation of bakers in 1500), with a dome surmounted by a picturesque lantern by Giuliano di Sangallo, c. 1506. It contains a statue of Sta. Susanna (not the Susanna of the Elders) by Fiammingo (FranÇois de Quesnoy), which is justly considered the chef-d'oeuvre of the Bernini School. The companion church is called Sta. Maria di Vienna, and (like Sta. Maria della Vittoria) commemorates the liberation of Vienna from the Turks in 1683, by Sobieski, king of Poland. It was built by Innocent XI.

Leaving the forum at the opposite corner by the Via Alessandrina, and passing under the high wall of the Convent of the Nunziatina, a street, opening on the left, discloses several beautiful pillars, which, after having borne various names, are now declared to be the remains of the Temple of Mars Ultor, built by Augustus in his new forum, which was erected in order to provide accommodation for the crowds which overflowed the Forum Romanum and Forum Julium.

"The title of Ultor marked the war and the victory by which, agreeably to his vow, Augustus had avenged his uncle's death.

"'Mars ades, et satia scelerato sanguine ferrum;
Stetque favor causa pro meliore tuus.
Templa feres, et, me victore, vocaberis Ultor.'[51]

The porticoes, which extended on each side of the temple with a gentle curve, contained statues of distinguished Roman generals. The banquets of the Salii were transferred to this temple, a circumstance which led to its identification, from the discovery of an inscription here recording the mansiones of these priests. Like the priesthood in general, they appear to have been fond of good living, and there is a well-known anecdote of the Emperor Claudius having been lured by the steams of their banquet from his judicial functions in the adjacent forum, to come and take part in their feast. The temple was appropriated to meetings of the senate in which matters connected with wars and triumphs were debated.... Here while Tiberius was building a temple to Augustus upon the Palatine, his golden statue reposed upon a couch."—Dyer's City of Rome.

"Up to the time of Augustus, the god Mars, the reputed father of the Roman race, had never, it is said, enjoyed the distinction of a temple within the walls. He was then introduced into the city which he had saved from overthrow and ruin; and the aid he had lent in bringing the murderers of CÆsar to justice, was signalised by the title of Avenger, by which he was now specially addressed.... The temple of Mars Ultor, of gigantic proportions, 'Et deus est ingens et opus,' was erected in the new forum of Augustus at the foot of the Capitoline and Quirinal hills."—Merivale, Romans under the Empire.

"Ce temple Était particuliÈrement cher À Auguste. Il voulut que les magistrats en partissent pour aller dans leurs provinces; que l'honneur du triomphe y fÛt dÉcernÉ, et que les triomphateurs y fissent hommage À Mars Vengeur de leur couronne et de leur sceptre; que les drapeaux pris À l'ennemi y fussent conservÉs; que les chefs de la cavalerie exÉcutassent des jeux en avant des marches de ce temple; enfin que les censeurs, en sortant de leur charge, y plantassent le clou sacrÉ, vieil usage Étrusque jusque-lÀ attachÉ au Capitole. Auguste dÉsirait que ce temple fondÉ par lui prÎt l'importance du Capitole.

"Il fit dÉdier le temple par ses petit-fils Caius et Lucius; et son autre petit-fils, Agrippa, À la tÊte des plus nobles enfants de Rome, y cÉlÉbra le jeu de Troie, qui rappelait l'origine prÉtendue troyenne de CÉsar; deux cent soixante lions furent ÉgorgÉs dans la cirque, c'Était leur place; deux troupes de gladiateurs combattirent dans les Septa ou se faisaient les Élections au temps de la rÉpublique, comme si Auguste eÛt voulu, par ces combats qui se livraient en l'honneur des morts, cÉlÉbrer les funÉrailles de la libertÉ romaine."—AmpÈre, Emp. i. 224.

The temple of Mars stands at the north-eastern corner of the magnificent Forum of Augustus, which extended from here as far as the present Via Alessandrina, surpassing in size the forum of Julius CÆsar, to which it was adjoining. It was of sufficient size to be frequently used for fights of animals (venationes). Among its ornaments were statues of Augustus triumphant and of the subdued provinces—with inscriptions illustrative of the great deeds he had accomplished there; also a picture by Apelles representing War with her hands bound behind her, seated upon a pile of arms. Part of the boundary wall exists, enclosing on two sides the remains of the temple of Mars Ultor, and is constructed of huge masses of peperino. The arch, in the wall close to the temple, is known as Arco dei Pantani. The sudden turn in the wall here is interesting as commemorating a concession made to the wish of some proprietors, who were unwilling to part with their houses for the sake of the forum.

"C'est l'histoire du moulin de Sans-Souci, qui du reste paraÎt n'Être pas vraie.

"Il est piquant d'assister aujourd'hui À ce mÉnagement d'Auguste pour l'opinion qu'il voulait gagner. Envoyant le mur s'inflÉchir parce-qu'il a fallu Épargner quelques maisons, on croit voir la toute-puissance d'Auguste gauchir À dessein devant les intÉrÊts particuliers, seule puissance avec laquelle il reste À compter quand tout intÉrÊt gÉnÉral a disparu. L'obliquitÉ de la politique d'Auguste est visible dans l'obliquitÉ de ce mur, qui montre et rend pour ainsi dire palpable le manÈge adroit de la tyrannie, se dÉguisant pour se fonder. Le mur biaise, comme biaisa constamment l'empereur."—AmpÈre, Emp. i. 233.

(The street on the left—passing the Arco dei Pantani—the Via della Salita del Grillo, commemorates the approach to the castle of the great mediÆval family Del Grillo; the street on the right leads through the ancient Suburra.)

At the corner of the next street (Via della Croce Bianca)—on the left of the Via Alessandrina—is the ruin called the "Colonnace," being part of the Portico of Pallas Minerva, which decorated the Forum Transitorium, begun by Domitian, but dedicated in the short reign of Nerva, and hence generally called the Forum of Nerva, on account of the execration with which the memory of Domitian was regarded. Up to the seventeenth century seven magnificent columns of the temple of Minerva were still standing, but they were destroyed by Paul V., who used part of them in building the Fontana Paolina. The existing remains consist of two half-buried Corinthian columns with a figure of Minerva, and a frieze of bas-reliefs.

It was in this forum that Nerva caused Vetronius Turinus, who had trafficked with his court interest, to be suffocated with smoke, a herald proclaiming at the time, "Fumo punitur qui vendidit fumum."

Returning a short distance down the Via Alessandrina, and turning (left) down the Via Bonella, we traverse the site of the Forum of Julius CÆsar, upon which 4000 sestertia (800,000 l.) were expended, and which is described by Dion-Cassius as having been more beautiful than the Forum Romanum. It was ornamented with a Temple of Venus Genetrix—from whom Julius CÆsar claimed to be descended—which contained a statue of the goddess by Archesilaus, a statue of CÆsar himself, and a group of Ajax and Medea by Timomacus. Here, also, CÆsar had the effrontery to place the statue of his mistress, Cleopatra, by the side of that of the goddess. In front of the temple stood a bronze figure of a horse—supposed to be the famous Bucephalus—the work of Lysippus.

The only visible remains of this forum are some courses of huge square blocks of stone (Lapis Gabinus), in a dirty court.

Part of the site of the forum of Julius CÆsar is now occupied—on the right near the end of the Via Bonella—by the Accademia di San Luca, founded in 1595, Federigo Zuccaro being its first director. The collections are open from 9 to 5 daily. A ceiling representing Bacchus and Ariadne, is by Guido. The best pictures are:—

A skull preserved here was long supposed to be that of Raphael, but his true skull has since been found in his grave in the Pantheon.

Just beyond St. Luca, we enter the Forum Romanum.

The interest of Rome comes to its climax in the Forum. In spite of all that is destroyed, and all that is buried, so much still remains to be seen, and every stone has its story. Even without entering into all the vexed archÆological questions which have filled the volumes of Canina, Bunsen, Niebuhr, and many others, the occupation which a traveller interested in history will find here is all but inexhaustible; and, after the disputes of centuries, the different sites seem now to be verified with tolerable certainty. The study of the Roman Forum is complicated by the succession of public edifices by which it has been occupied, each period of Roman history having a different set of buildings, and each in a great measure supplanting that which went before. Another difficulty has naturally arisen from the exceedingly circumscribed space in which all these buildings have to be arranged, and which shows that many of the ancient temples must have been mere chapels, and the so-called "lakes" little more than fountains.

The excavations which were made in the Forum before 1871 are for the most part due to the generosity of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. The papal government always displayed the most extraordinary apathy about extending them, and, when a large excavation was made in the winter of 1869—70, by the British ArchÆological Society, in front of the Church of Sta. Martina, insisted on its being immediately filled up again, instead of extending it, as might easily have been done, to join the excavation which had long existed on the Clivus Capitolinus. Lately the excavations have been considerably increased, but were the roads leading to the Forum to be closed, and a large body of efficient labourers set to work, the whole of the Roman Forum and its surroundings might be laid bare in a month, without any injury to the interesting churches in its neighbourhood. At present, even that part which is disinterred is cut up by a number of raised causeways, which distract the eye and mar the general effect, and the excavations, recommenced by the Italian government, are slowly and inadequately carried on.

If we stand on the causeway in front of the arch of Septimius Severus, and turn towards the Capitol, we look upon the Clivus Capitolinus, which is perfectly crowded with historical sites and fragments, viz.:—

1. The modern Capitol, resting on the Tabularium. This is one of the earliest architectural relics in Rome. It is built in the Etruscan style, of huge blocks of tufa or peperino placed long-and cross-ways alternately. It was formerly composed of two stages called Camellaria. Only the lower now remains. It contained the tables of the laws. The corridor which remains in the interior is used as a museum of architectural fragments. The Tabularium probably communicated with the Ærarium in the temple of Saturn.

2. On the right of the excavated space, and nearest the Tabularium, the site of the Tribune, in front of which were the Rostra, to which the head of Octavius was affixed by Marius, and the head and hand of Cicero by Antony, and where Fulvia, the widow of Clodius, spat in his dead face, and pierced his inanimate tongue with the pin which she wore in her hair. In front of the rostrum were the statues of the three Sibyls called Tria Fata.

3. Below, a little(**typo? little?) more to the right, is the site of the Comitium, where the survivor of the Horatii was condemned to death, and saved by the voice of the people. Here, also, was the trophied pillar which bore the arms of the Curiatii. In the area of the Comitium grew the famous fig-tree which was always preserved here in commemoration of the tree under which Romulus and Remus were suckled by the wolf, and beneath which was a bronze representation of the wolf and the children.

4. A little more to the left, is the site of the Vulcanal, so called from an altar dedicated to Vulcan, a platform (still defined) where, in the earliest times, Romulus and Tatius used to meet on intermediate ground and transact affairs common to both; and where Brutus was seated, when, without any change of countenance, he saw his two sons beaten and beheaded. Adjoining the Vulcanal was the GrÆcostasis, where foreign ambassadors waited before they were admitted to an audience of the senate.

5. Below the Vulcanal, and just behind the Arch of Severus, is the site of the Temple of Concord, dedicated, with blasphemous inappropriateness, B.C. 121, by the consul Opimius, immediately after the murder of Caius Gracchus. Here Cicero pronounced his orations against Catiline before the senate. A pavement of coloured marbles remains. At its base are still to be seen some small remains of the Colonna MÆnia, which was surmounted by the statue of C. MÆnius, who decorated the rostra with the iron beaks of vessels taken in war.

6. The three beautiful columns which are still standing were attributed to a temple of Jupiter Tonans, but are now decided to belong to the Temple of Vespasian. The engravings of Piranesi represent them as buried almost to their capitals, and they remained in this state until they were disinterred during the first French occupation. The space was so limited in this part of Rome, that in order to prevent encroaching upon the street Clivus Capitolinus, which descends the hill between this temple and that of Saturn, the temple of Vespasian was raised on a kind of terrace, and the staircase which led to it was thrust in between the columns. This temple was restored by Septimius Severus, and to this the letters on the entablature refer, being part of the word Restituere. Instruments of sacrifice are sculptured on the frieze.

7. On the left of the excavated space, close beneath the Tabularium, a low range of columns recently re-erected represents the building called the School of Xanthus, chambers, for the use of the scribes and persons in the service of the curule Ædiles, which derived their name from Xanthus, a freedman, by whom they were rebuilt.

8. The eight Ionic columns still standing, part of the Temple of Saturn, the ancient god of the Capitol. Before this temple Pompey sate surrounded by soldiers, listening to the orations which Cicero was delivering from the rostrum, when he received the personal address, "Te enim jam appello, et ea voce ut me exaudire possis." Here the tribune Metellus flung himself before the door and vainly attempted to defend the treasure of the Ærarium in this temple against Julius CÆsar. The present remains are those of an indifferent and late renovation of an earlier temple, being composed of columns which differ in diameter, and a frieze put together from fragments which do not belong to one another. The original temple was built by Tarquin, and was supposed to mark the site of the ancient Sabine altar of the god and the limit of the wood of refuge mentioned by Virgil.

9. Just below the Temple of Saturn is the site of the Arch of Tiberius, erected, according to Tacitus, upon the recovery by Germanicus of the standards which Varus had lost.

10. The remains of the Milliarium Aureum, which formed the upper extremity of a wall faced with marbles, ending near the arch of Severus in a small conical pyramid. Distances without the walls were inscribed upon the Milliarium Aureum, as distances within the walls were upon the pyramid (from which in this case they were also measured) which bore the name of Umbilicus RomÆ. The Via Sacra, which is still visible, descended from the Capitol between the temples of Saturn and Vespasian,—being known here as the Clivus Capitolinus, and passed to the left of—

11. The Arch of Septimius Severus, which was erected by the senate A.D. 205, in honour of that emperor and his two sons, Caracalla and Geta. It is adorned with bas-reliefs relating his victories in the east,—his entry into Babylon and the tower of the temple of Belus are represented. A curious memorial of imperial history may be observed in the inscription, where we may still discern the erasure made by Caracalla after he had put his brother Geta to death in A.D. 213, for the sake of obliterating his memory. The added words are OPTIMIS FORTISSIMISQVE PRINCIPIBUS—but the ancient inscription P. SEPT. LVC. FIL. GETÆ. NOBILISS. CÆSARI, has been made out by painstaking decipherers. In one of the piers is a staircase leading to the top of the arch which was formerly (as seen from coins of Severus and Caracalla) adorned by a car drawn by six horses abreast, and containing figures of Severus and his sons. It was in front of this arch that the statue of Marcus Aurelius stood, which is now at the Capitol.

(The excavations in thÉ Forum are open to the public on the same days as the Palace of the CÆsars—Thursdays and Sundays.)

The platform on which we have been standing leads to the Via della Consolazione, occupying the site of the ancient Vicus Jugarius, where Augustus erected an altar to Ceres, and another to Ops Augusta, the goddess of wealth. (In this street, on the left, is a good cinque-cento doorway.) Where this street leaves the Forum was the so-called Lacus Servilius, a basin which probably derived its name from Servilius Ahala (who slew the philanthropist Sp. MÆlius with a dagger near this very spot), and which was encircled with a ghastly row of heads in the massacres under Sylla. This fountain was adorned by M. Aggrippa with a figure of a hydra. The right side of the Forum is now occupied for a considerable distance by the disinterred remains of the Basilica Julia, begun by Julius CÆsar, and finished by Augustus, who dedicated it in honour of his daughter. A basilica of this description was intended partly as a Law Court and partly as an Exchange. In this basilica the judges called Centumviri held their courts, which were four in number:

Beyond the basilica are three beautiful columns which belong to a restoration of the Temple of Castor and Pollux, dedicated by Postumius, B.C. 484. Here costly sacrifices were always offered in the ides of July, at the anniversary of the battle of the Lake Regillus, after which the Roman knights, richly clothed, crowned with olive, and bearing their trophies, rode past it in military procession, starting from the temple of Mars outside the Porta Capena. The entablature which the three columns support is of great richness, and the whole fragment is considered to be one of the finest existing specimens of the Corinthian order. None of the Roman ruins have given rise to more discussion than this. It has perpetually changed its name. Bunsen and many other authorities considered it to belong to the temple of Minerva Chalcidica; but as it is known that the position of the now discovered Basilica Julia was exactly between the temple of Saturn and that of Castor, and a passage of Ovid describes the latter as being close to the site of the temple of Vesta, which is also ascertained, it seems almost certain now that it belonged to the temple of the Dioscuri. Dion-Cassius mentions that Caligula made this temple a vestibule to his house on the Palatine.

Here, on the right, branches off the Via dei Fienili, once the Vicus Tuscus, or Etruscan quarter (see Chap. V.), leading to the Circus Maximus. At its entrance was the bronze statue of Vertumnus, the god of Etruria, and patron of the quarter. The long trough-shaped fountain here, at which such picturesque groups of oxen and buffaloes are constantly standing, is a memorial of the Lake of Juturna the sister of Turnus, or as she was sometimes described, the wife of Janus the Sabine war-god. This fountain, for such it must have been, was dried up by Paul V.

Here, close under the Palatine, is the site of the famous Temple of Vesta, in which the sacred fire was preserved, with the palladium saved from Troy. On the altar of this temple, blood was sprinkled annually from the tail of the horse which was sacrificed to Mars in the Campus-Martius. The foundation of the temple was attributed to Numa, but the worship must have existed in Pelasgic times, as the mother of Romulus was a vestal. It was burnt down in the fire of Nero, rebuilt and again burnt down under Commodus, and probably restored for the last time by Heliogabalus. Here, during the consulate of the young Marius, the high priest ScÆvola was murdered, splashing the image of Vesta with his blood,—and here (A.D. 68) Piso, the adopted son of Galba, was murdered in the sanctuary whither he had fled for refuge, and his head, being cut off, was affixed to the rostra. Behind the temple, along the lower ridge of the Palatine, stretched the sacred grove of Vesta, and the site of the Church of Sta. Maria Liberatrice was occupied by the Atrium VestÆ, a kind of convent for the vestal virgins. Here Numa Pompilius fixed his residence, hoping to conciliate both the Latins of the Palatine and the Sabines of the Capitoline by occupying a neutral ground between them.

Close to the temple of Vesta was the Regia, where Julius CÆsar lived (as pontifex maximus)—where Pompeia his second wife admitted her lover Clodius in the disguise of a woman to the mysteries of the Bona Dea—whence CÆsar went forth to his death—and from which his last wife Calpurnia rushed forth with loud outcries to receive his dead body.

Somewhere in this part of the Forum was the famous Curtian Lake, so called from Mettus Curtius, a Sabine warrior, who with difficulty escaped from its quagmires to the Capitol after a battle between Romulus and Tatius.[52] Tradition declares that the quagmire afterwards became a gulf, which an oracle declared would never close until that which was most important to the Roman people was sacrificed to it. Then the young Marcus Curtius, equipped in full armour, leapt his horse into the abyss, exclaiming that nothing was more important to the Roman people than arms and courage; and the gulf was closed.[53] Two altars were afterwards erected on the site to the two heroes, and a vine and an olive tree grew there.[54]

Some fountain, like those of Servilius and Juturna, bearing the name of Lacus Curtius must have existed on this site to imperial times, for the Emperor Galba was murdered there.

At the foot of the Clivus Capitolinus, on the left (looking towards the Arch of Titus) stood the Temple of Janus Quirinus, between the great Forum and the Forum of Julius CÆsar, and near the ascent to the Porta Janualis, by which Tarpeia admitted the Sabines to the Capitol. Procopius, in the sixth century, saw the little bronze temple of Janus still standing. This was one of many temples of the great Sabine god.

This was the temple which was the famous index of peace and war, closed by Augustus for the third time from its foundation after the victory of Actium.[55]

Besides this temple there were three arches, whose sites are unknown, dedicated to Janus in different parts of the Forum.

The central arch was the resort of brokers and money-lenders.[56]

Along this side of the Forum stood the TabernÆ ArgentariÆ, the silversmiths' shops, and beyond them—probably in front of S. Adriano—were the TabernÆ NovÆ, where Virginia was stabbed by her father with a butcher's knife, which he had seized from one of the stalls, saying, "This, my child, is the only way to keep thee free," as he plunged it into her heart.[57] Near this also was the statue of Venus Cloacina.[58]

The front of the Church of S. Adriano is a fragment of the Basilica of Æmilius Paulus, built with part of 1500 talents which CÆsar had sent from Gaul to win him over to his party. This basilica occupied the site of the famous Curia of Tullus Hostilius.

The Curia was capable of containing six hundred senators, their number in the time of the Gracchi. It had no tribune,—each speaker rose in turn and spoke in his place. Here was "the hall of assembly in which the fate of the world was decided." The Curia was destroyed by fire, which it caught from the funeral pyre of Clodius. Around the Curia stood many statues of Romans who had rendered especial service to the state. The Curia Julia occupied the site of the Curia Hostilia in the early part of the reign of Augustus. Close by the old Curia was the Basilica Porcia, built by Cato the Censor, which was likewise burnt down at the funeral of Clodius. Near this, the base of the rostral column, Colonna Duilia, has been found.

Opposite the Basilica Julia, in the depth of the Forum, is the Column of Phocas, raised to that emperor by the exarch Smaragdus in 608. This is—

"The nameless column with a buried base,"

of Byron, but is now neither nameless nor buried, its pedestal having been laid bare by the Duchess of Devonshire in 1813, and bearing an inscription which shows an origin that no one ever anticipated.

A little behind the Column of Phocas are the marble slabs commemorating the sacrifices called Suovetaurilia, consisting of a pig, a sheep, and an ox, animals which are sculptured here in bold relief. On the side towards the Capitol a number of figures are represented, amongst them a woman presenting a child to the emperor, in reference to Trajan's asylum for orphans, or for those who were too poor to bring up their children. On the other side is a burning of deeds in reference to the famous remission of debts by Trajan.

Beyond this, on the left, the base of the famous statue of Domitian has been discovered as described by Statius:

Here the Via Sacra turns, almost continuing the Vicus Tuscus. On its right, on a line with the Temple of the Dioscuri, has been discovered the base of the small Temple of Julius CÆsar (Ædes Divi Julii),[59] which was surrounded with a colonnade of closely-placed columns and surmounted by a statue of the deified triumvir. This was the first temple in Rome which was dedicated to a mortal.

Dion Cassius narrates that this temple was erected on the spot where the body of Julius was burnt. It was adorned by Augustus with the beaks of the vessels taken in the battle of Actium, and hence obtained the name of Rostra Julia. He also placed here the statue of Venus Anadyomene of Apelles, because CÆsar had claimed descent from that goddess. Here, in A.D. 14, the body of Augustus, being brought from Nola, where he died, was placed upon a bier, while Tiberius pronounced a funeral oration over it, before it was carried to the Campus Martius.

The road turns again in front of the remains of the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, erected by the flattery of the senate to the memory of the licentious Empress Faustina, the faithless wife of Antoninus Pius, whom they elevated to the rank of a goddess. Her husband, dying before its completion, was associated in her honours, and the inscription, which still remains on the portico, is "Divo antonino et divÆ faustinÆ. ex. s. c." The front of the temple is adorned with eight columns of cipolino, forty-three feet high, supporting a frieze ornamented with griffins and candelabra. The effect of these remains would be magnificent if the modern road were removed, and the temple were laid bare in its full height, with the twenty-one steps which formerly led to it. It is also greatly injured by the hideous Church of S. Lorenzo in Miranda, which encloses the cella of the temple, and whose name, says AmpÈre, naively expresses the admiration in which its builders held these remains.[60]

On the left we now reach the Church of SS. Cosmo and Damian, considered by Nibby and others to occupy the site of a temple of Remus. AmpÈre has since proved that this temple never existed, and that the remains are those of a Temple of the Penates, rebuilt by Augustus. Here Valerius Publicola had a house, to which he removed from the Velia, in deference to the wishes of the Roman people.

A little further on are three gigantic arches, being all that remains of the magnificent Basilica of Constantine, which was 320 feet in length and 235 feet in width. The existing ruins are those of one of the aisles of the basilica. There are traces of an entrance towards the Coliseum. The roof was supported by eight Corinthian columns, of which one, remaining here till the time of Paul V., was removed by him to the piazza of Sta. Maria Maggiore, where it still stands. This site was previously occupied by the Temple of Peace, burnt down in the time of Commodus. This temple was the great museum of Rome under the empire, and contained the seven-branched candlestick and other treasures brought from Jerusalem,[61] as well as all the works of art which had been collected in the palace of Nero and which were removed hither by Vespasian. A statue of the Nile, with children playing around it, is mentioned by Pliny as among the sights in the temple of Peace.[62]

It was near this that the Via Sacra was crossed by the Arch of Fabius, erected B.C. 121, in honour of the conqueror of the Allobroges,—the then inhabitants of Savoy. Close to this portion of the Via Sacra also stood a statue of Valeria, daughter of Publicola, by whom the honours of the virgin Cloelia were disputed.

Besides those which we have noticed, there is mention in classical authors of many other buildings and statues which were once crowded into this narrow space; but all trace of many even of those enumerated is still buried many feet below the soil.

The modern name of Campo Vaccino, by which the Forum is now known, is supposed by some antiquaries to be derived from Vitruvius Vacco, who once had a house there.

But the name will seem singularly appropriate to those who are familiar with the groups of meek-faced oxen of the Campagna, which are always to be seen lying in the shade under the trees of the Forum, or drinking at its water-troughs.

Before leaving the Forum we must turn from its classical to its mediÆval remains, and examine the very interesting group of churches which have sprung up amid its ruins.

Almost opposite the Mamertine Prisons, surmounted by a handsome dome, is the Church of Sta. Martina, which contains the original model, bequeathed by the sculptor Thorwaldsen, of his Copenhagen statue of Christ in the act of benediction. The opposite transept contains a very inferior statue of Religion by Canova. The figure of Sta. Martina by Guerini reposes beneath the high altar. The subterranean church is well worth visiting. An ante-chapel adorned with statues of four virgin martyrs leads to a chapel erected at the cost and from the designs of Pietro da Cortona, whose tomb stands near its entrance, with a fine bust by Bernini. In the centre of the inner chapel lamps are burning round the magnificent bronze altar which covers the shrine of Sta. Martina, and beneath it, you can discover the martyr's tomb by the light of a torch which a monk lets down through a hole. In the tribune is an ancient throne. A side chapel contains the grave in which the body of the virgin saint, with three other martyrs, her companions, was found in 1634: it is adorned with a fine bas-relief by Algardi.

"At the foot of the Capitoline hill, on the left hand as we descend from the Ara Coeli into the Forum, there stood in very ancient times a small chapel dedicated to Sta. Martina, a Roman virgin, who was martyred in the persecution under Alexander Severus. The veneration paid to her was of very early date, and the Roman people were accustomed to assemble there on the first day of the year. This observance was, however, confined to the people, and not very general till 1634; an era which connects her in rather an interesting manner with the history of art. In this year, as they were about to repair her chapel, they discovered, walled into the foundations, a sarcophagus of terra-cotta, in which was the body of a young female, whose severed head reposed in a separate casket. These remains were very naturally supposed to be those of the saint who had been so long venerated on that spot. The discovery was hailed with the utmost exultation, not by the people only, but by those who led the minds and consciences of the people. The pope himself, Urban VIII., composed hymns in her praise; and Cardinal Francesco Barberini undertook to rebuild her church. Amongst those who shared the general enthusiasm was the painter, Pietro da Cortona, who was at Rome at the time, who very earnestly dedicated himself and his powers to the glorification of Sta. Martina. Her church had already been given to the Academy of Painters, and consecrated to St. Luke, their patron saint. It is now 'San Luca and Santa Martina.' Pietro da Cortona erected at his own cost, the chapel of Sta. Martina, and when he died, endowed it with his whole fortune. He painted for the altarpiece his best picture, in which the saint is represented as triumphing over the idols, while the temple in which she has been led to sacrifice, is struck by lightning from heaven, and falls in ruins around her. In a votive picture of Sta. Martina kneeling at the feet of the Virgin and Child, she is represented as very young and lovely; near her, a horrid instrument of torture, a two-pronged fork with barbed extremities, and the lictor's axe, signifying the manner of her death."—Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art.