Chapter IV: The Forums and the Coliseum (1)

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'œuvre 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.

"Les bas-reliefs du forum de Nerva représentent des femmes occupées
des travaux d'aiguille, auxquels présidait Minerve. Quand on se
rappelle, que Domitien avait placé à Albano, près du temple de
cette déesse, un collège de prêtres qui imitaient la parure et les
mœurs de femmes, on est tenté de croire qu'il y a dans le choix
des subjets figurés ici une allusion aux habitudes efféminées de
ces prétres."--_Ampère, Emp._ ii. 161.

"The portico of the temple of Minerva is most rich and beautiful in
architecture, but woefully gnawed by time, and shattered by
violence, besides being buried midway in the accumulation of the
soil, that rises over dead Rome like a flood-tide. Within this
edifice of antique sanctity a baker's shop is now established, with
an entrance on one side; for everywhere, the remnants of old
grandeur and divinity have been made available for the meanest
neccessities of to-day."--_Hawthorne._

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.

"Cedat equus Latiæ qui, contra templa Diones,
Cæsarei stat sede Fori. Quem tradere es ausus
Pellæo Lysippa Duci, mox Cæsaris ora
Aurata cervice tulit."

_Statius, Silv._ i. 84.

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:--

Bacchus and Ariadne: _Poussin_.
Vanity: _Paul Veronese_.
Calista and the Nymphs: _Titian_.
The murder of Lucretia: _Guido Cagnacci_.
Fortune: _Guido_.
Innocent XI.: _Velasquez_.
The Saviour and the Pharisee: _Titian_.
A lovely fresco of a child: _Raphael_.
St. Luke painting the Virgin: _Attributed to Raphael_.

"St. Luke painting the Virgin has been a frequent and favourite subject. The most famous of all is a picture in the Academy of St. Luke, ascribed to Raphael. Here St. Luke, kneeling on a footstool before an easel, is busied painting the Virgin with the Child in her arms, who appears to him out of heaven, sustained by clouds; behind St. Luke stands Raphael himself, looking on."--_Mrs. Jameson._

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.

"On a longtemps vénéré ici un crâne que l'on croyait être celui de
Raphael; crâne étroit sur lequel les phrénologistes auront prononcé
de vains oracles, devant lequel on aura bien profondément rêvé et
qui n'était que celui d'un obscur chanoine bien innocent de toutes
ces imaginations."--_A. Du Pays._

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.

"This spot, where the senate had its assemblies, where the rostra
were placed, where the destinies of the world were discussed, is
the most celebrated and the most classical of ancient Rome. It was
adorned with the most magnificent monuments, which were so crowded
upon one another, that their heaped-up ruins are not sufficient for
all the names which are handed down to us by history. The course of
centuries has overthrown the Forum, and made it impossible to
define; the level of the ancient soil is twenty-four feet below
that of to-day, and however great a desire one may feel to
reproduce the past, it must be acknowledged that this very
difference of level is a terrible obstacle to the powers of
imagination; again, the uncertainties of archæologists are
discouraging to curiosity and the desire of illusion. For more than
three centuries learning has been at work upon this field of ruins,
without being able even to agree upon its bearings; some describing
it as extending from north to south, others from east to west. The
origin of the Forum goes back to the alliance of the Romans and
Sabines. It was a space surrounded by marshes, which extended
between the Palatine and the Capitol, occupied by the two colonies,
and serving as a neutral ground where they could meet. The Curtian
Lake was situated in the midst. Constantly adorned under the
republic and the empire, it appears that it continued to exist
until the eleventh century. Its total ruin dates from Robert
Guiscard, who, when called to the assistance of Gregory VII., left
it a heap of ruins. Abandoned for many centuries, it became a
receptacle for rubbish, which gradually raised the level of the
soil. About 1547, Paul III. began to make excavations in the Forum.
Then the place became a cattle-market, and the glorious name of
Forum Romanum changed into that of Campo Vaccino.

"The Forum was surrounded by a portico of two stories, the lower of
which was occupied by shops (tabernæ). In the beginning of the
sixth century of Rome, two fires destroyed part of the edifices
with which it had been embellished. This was an opportunity for
isolating the Forum, and basilicas and temples were raised in
succession along its sides, which in their turn were partly
destroyed in the fire of Nero. Domitian rebuilt a part, and added
the temple of Vespasian, and Antoninus that of Faustina."--_A. Du
Pays._

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.

"Les proportions de l'arc de Septime-Sévère sont encore belles.
L'aspect en est imposant; il est solide sans être lourd. La grande
inscription où se lisent les épithètes victorieuses qui rappellent
les succès militaires de l'empereur, Parthique, Dacique,
Adiabénique, se déploie sur une vaste surface et donne à
l'entablement un air de majesté qu'admirent les artistes. Cette
inscription est doublement historique; elle rappelle les campagnes
de Sévère et la tragédie domestique qui après lui ensanglanta sa
famille, le meurtre d'un de ses fils immolé par l'autre, et
l'acharnement de celui-ci à poursuivre la mémoire du frère qu'il
avait fait assassiner. Le nom de Géta a été visiblement effacé par
Caracalla. La même chose se remarque dans une inscription sur
bronze qu'on voit au Capitale et sur le petit arc du Marché aux
bœufs dont j'ai parlé, où l'image de Géta a été effacée comme
son nom. Caracalla ne permit pas même à ce nom proscrit de se
cacher parmi les hiéroglyphes. En Egypte, ceux qui composaient le
nom de Géta ont été grattés sur les monuments."--_Ampère, Emp._ ii.
278.

(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:

"Jam clamor, centumque viri, densumque coronæ
Vulgus: et infanti Julia tecta placent."

_Martial_, vi. _Ep._ 38.

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.

"At quæ venturas præcedit sexta kalendas,
Hac sunt Ledæis templa dicata deis.
Fratribus illa deis fratres de gente deorum
Circa Juturnæ composuere lacus."

_Ovid, Fast._ i. 705.

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.

"Quæris iter? dicam, vicinum Castora, canæ
Transibis Vestæ, virgineamque domum,
Inde sacro veneranda petes palatia Clivo."

_Martial_, i. _Ep._ 70.

"Hic focus est Vestæ, qui Pallada servat et ignem.
Hic fuit antiqui regia parva Numæ."
_Ovid, Trist._ iii. _El._ 1.

"Hic locus exiguus, qui sustinet atria Vestæ,
Tunc erat intonsi regia magna Numæ.
Forma tamen templi, quae nunc manet, ante fuisse
Dicitur; et formæ causa probanda subest.
Vesta eadem est, et Terra; subest vigil ignis utrique,
Significant sedem terra focusque suam.
Terra pilæ similis, nullo fulcimine nixa,
Aëre subjecto tam grave pendet onus.
Arte Syracosia suspensus in aëre clauso
Stat globus, immensi parva figura poli;
Et quantum a summis, tantum secessit ab imis
Terra. Quod ut fiat, forma rotunda facit.
Par facies templi: nullus procurrit ab illo
Angulus. A pluvio vindicat imbre tholus."

_Ovid, Fast._ vi. 263.

"Servat et Alba, Lares, et quorum lucet in aris
Ignis adhuc Phrygius, nullique adspecta virorum
Pallas, in abstruso pignus memorabile templo."

_Lucan_, ix. 992.

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]

"Hoc, ubi nunc fora sunt, udæ tenuere paludes:
Amne redundatis fossa madebat aquis.
Curtius ille lacus, siccas qui sustinet aras,
Nunc solida est tellus, sed lacus ante fuit."
_Ovid, Fast._ vi. 401.

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.

"A single cohort still surrounded Galba, when the standard-bearer
tore the Emperor's image from his spear-head, and dashed it on the
ground. The soldiers were at once decided for Otho; swords were
drawn, and every symptom of favour for Galba amongst the bystanders
was repressed by menaces, till they dispersed and fled in horror
from the Forum. At last, the bearers of the emperor's litter
overturned it at the Curtian pool beneath the Capitol. In a few
moments enemies swarmed around his body. A few words he muttered,
which have been diversely reported: some said that they were abject
and unbecoming; others affirmed that he presented his neck to the
assassin's sword, and bade him strike 'if it were for the good of
the republic;' but none listened, none perhaps heeded the words
actually spoken; Galba's throat was pierced, but even the author of
his mortal wound was not ascertained, while his breast being
protected by the cuirass, his legs and arms were hacked with
repeated gashes."--_Merivale_, vii. 73.

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.

"Quum tot sint Jani; cur stas sacratus in uno,
Hic ubi juncta foris templa duobus habes?"

_Ovid, Fast._ i. 257.

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]

" ...et vacuum duellis
Janum Quirini clausit, et ordinem
Rectum, et vaganti fræna licentiæ
Injecit."

_Horace_, Ode iv. 15.

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

" ...Hæc Janus summus ab imo
Perdocet----"

_Horace, Ep._ i. 1, 54.

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

" ...Postquam omnis res mea Janum
Ad medium fracta est."

_Hor. Sat._ ii. 3, 18.

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.

"Là se réunit, pour la première fois sous un toit, le conseil des
anciens rois que le savant Properce, avec un sentiment vrai des
antiquités romaines, nous montre tel qu'il était dans l'origine, se
rassemblant au son de la trompe pastorale dans un pré, comme le
peuple dans certains petits cantons de la Suisse."--_Ampère, Hist.
Rom._ ii. 310.

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.

"In the age of Phocas (602--610), the art of erecting a column like
that of Trajan or M. Aurelius had been lost. A large and handsome
Corinthian pillar, taken from some temple or basilica, was
therefore placed in the Forum, on a huge pyramidal basis quite out
of proportion to it, and was surmounted with a statue of Phocas in
gilt bronze. It has so little the appearance of a monumental
column, that for a long while it was thought to belong to some
ruined building, till, in 1813, the inscription was discovered. The
name of Phocas had, indeed, been erased; but that it must have been
dedicated to him is shown by the date.... The base of this column,
discovered by the excavations of 1816 to have rested on the ancient
pavement of the Forum, proves that this former centre of Roman life
was still, at the beginning of the seventh century, unencumbered
with ruins."--_Dyer's History of the City of Rome._

"Ce monument et l'inscription qui l'accompagne sont précieux pour
l'histoire, car ils montrent le dernier terme de l'avilissement où
Rome devait tomber. Smaragdus est le premier magistrat de
Rome,--mais ce magistrat est un préfet, l'élu du pouvoir impérial
et non de ses concitoyens;--il commande, non, il est vrai, à la
capitale du monde, mais au chef-lieu du duché de Rome. Ce préfet,
qui n'est connu de l'histoire que par ses lâches ménagements envers
les Barbares, imagine de voler une colonne à un beau temple, au
temple d'un empereur de quelque mérite, pour la dédier à un
exécrable tyran monté sur le trône par des assassinats, au
meurtrier de l'empereur Maurice, à l'ignoble Phocas, que tout le
monde connaît, grâce à Corneille, qui l'a encore trop ménagé. Et le
plat drôle ose appeler très-clément celui qui fit égorger sous les
yeux de Maurice ses quatre fils avant de l'égorger lui-même. Il
décerne le titre de triomphateur à Phocas, qui laissa conquérir par
Chosroès une bonne part de l'empire. Il ose écrire: 'pour les
innombrables bienfaits de sa piété, pour le repos procuré à
l'Italie et à la liberté.' Ainsi l'histoire monumentale de la Rome
de l'empire finit honteusement par un hommage ridicule de la
bassesse à la violence."--_Ampère, Emp._ ii. 389.

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:

"Ipse loci custos, cujus sacrata vorago,
Famosusque lacus nomen memorabile servat."

_Silv._ i. 66.

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.

"Fratribus assimilis, quos proxima templa tenentes
Divus ab excelsa Julius æde videt."

_Ovid, Pont. El._ ii. 2.

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.

"Le sentiment d'effroi que la demeure féodale des Valérius causait,
était pareille à celui qu'inspiraient aux Romains du moyen âge les
tours des barons, que le peuple, dès qu'il était le maître, se
hâtait de démolir. Valerius n'attendit pas qu'on se portât à cette
extrémité, et il vint habiter au pied de la Velia. C'est le premier
triomphe des plébéiens sur l'aristocratie romaine et la première
concession de cette aristocratie."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ ii. 274.

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 Clœlia 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.

"La guerre aux habitants de Privernum (Piperno) rattache à une
localité du Palatin.... Les habitants de Fondi avaient fait cause
commune avec les habitants de Privernum. Leur chef, Vitruvius
Vacca, possedait une maison sur le Palatin; c'était un homme
considérable dans son pays et même à Rome. Ils demandèrent et
obtinrent grâce. Privernum fut pris, et Vitruvius Vacca, qui s'y
était réfugié, conduit à Rome, enfermé dans le prison Mamertine
pour y être gardé jusqu'au retour du consul, et alors battu de
verges et mis à mort; sa maison du Palatin fut rasée, et le lieu où
elle avait été garda le nom de _Prés de Vacca_."--_Ampère, Histoire
Romaine_, iii. 17.

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.

"'Romanoque Foro et lautis mugire Carinis.'

"Ce vers m'a toujours profondément frappé, lorsque je traversais le
Forum, aujourd'hui Campo-Vaccino (le champ du bétail); je voyais
en effet presque toujours à son extrémité des bœufs couchés au
pied du Palatin. Virgile, se reportant de la Rome de son temps à la
Rome ancienne d'Evandre, ne trouvait pas d'image plus frappante du
changement produit par les siècles, que la présence d'un troupeau
de bœufs dans le lieu destiné à être le Forum. Eh bien, le jour
devait venir où ce qui était pour Virgile un passé lointain et
presque incroyable se reproduirait dans la suite des âges; le Forum
devait être de nouveau un lieu agreste, ses magnificences s'en
aller et les bœufs y revenir.

"J'aimais à les contempler à travers quelques colonnes moins
vieilles que les souvenirs qu'ils me retracaient, reprenant
possession de ce sol d'où les avait chassés la liberté, la gloire,
Cicéron, César, et où devait les ramener la plus grande vicissitude
de l'historie, la destruction de l'empire romain per les barbares.
Ce que Virgile trouvait si étrange dans le passé n'étonne plus dans
le présent; les bœufs mugissent au Forum; ils s'y couchent et y
ruminent aujourd'hui, de même qu'au temps d'Evandre et comme s'il
n'était rien arrivé."--Ampère, Hist. Rom. 1. 211.

"In many a heap the ground
Heaves, is if Ruin in a frantic mood
Had done his utmost. Here and there appears,
As left to show his handy-work not ours,
An idle column, a half-buried arch,
A wall of some great temple. It was once,
And long, the centre of their Universe,
The Forum--whence a mandate, eagle-winged,
Went to the ends of the earth. Let us descend
Slowly. At every step much may be lost,
The very dust we tread stirs as with life,
And not a breath but from the ground sends up
Something of human grandeur.

* * * * *

Now all is changed; and here, as in the wild,
The day is silent, dreary as the night;
None stirring, save the herdsman and his herd,
Savage alike; or they that would explore,
Discuss, and learnedly; or they that come,
(And there are many who have crossed the earth,)
That they may give the hours to meditation,
And wander, often saving to themselves,
'This was the Roman Forum!'"

_Rogers' Italy._

"We descended into the Forum, the light fast fading away and
throwing a kindred soberness over the scene of ruin. The soil has
risen from rubbish at least fifteen feet, so that no wonder that
the hills look lower than they used to do, having been never very
considerable at the first. There it was one scene of desolation,
from the massy foundation-stones of the Capitoline Temple, which
were laid by Tarquinius the Proud, to a single pillar erected in
honour of Phocas, the eastern emperor, in the fifth century. What
the fragments of pillars belonged to, perhaps we can never know;
but that I think matters little. I care not whether it was a temple
of Jupiter Stator or the Basilica Julia, but one knows that one is
on the ground of the Forum, under the Capitol, the place where the
tribes assembled, and the orators spoke; the scene, in short, of
all the internal struggles of the Roman people."--_Arnold's
Journal._