Chapter 4

DIVO. VESPASIANO. S. P. Q. R. IMP. CAES. SEVERUS.ET. ANTONINUS. PII. FELIC. AUG. RESTITUERUNT.

Looking across the front of this temple is

"The temple was consecrated to Saturn, upon the ascent leading from the Forum to the Capitol. Before this, the altar erected by the followers of Hercules stood there" (Dionysius, vi. 1. Seeibid., i. 34).

Only eight Ionic columns, with their capitals and architraves, remain. It was on the steps of this temple that the generals took the oath that they had given a correct account of their spoil and prisoners. It contained the public treasury, and, according to Solinus, was called the Treasury of Saturn. Livy (ii. 21) says, "In the consulate of Aulus Sempronius and Marcus Minucius,A.U.C.257, the Temple of Saturn was dedicated." Plutarch says, "Publicola appointed the Temple of Saturn to be the treasury, which they still make use of for that purpose, and empowered the people to choose two young men as quæstors or treasurers." The inscription is stillin situ.

SENATUS . POPULUSQUE . ROMANUS . INCENDIO .CONSUMPTUM . RESTITUIT.

TEMPLE OF VESPASIAN, TABULARIUM, AND PORTICO OF THE TWELVE GODS.View larger image.

or Golden Milestone, set up by Augustus (Dion Cassius, liv. 5), the site of which is at the angle of the temple on the side of the old Clivus Capitolinus, the ancient road leading up from the Forum. It was a gilded stone, on which the distance of all the principal towns was recorded, the distance being always measured from the city gates. Suetonius ("Otho," vi.) tells that "Otho gave his accomplices notice to wait for him in the Forum near the Temple of Saturn, at the Golden Milestone." Tacitus ("H." i. 27) relates the same; and Plutarch (in "Galba") agrees with them both, adding, "There terminate all the great roads in Italy."

Behind the Temple of Saturn, in the corner, is

the Schola Xantha, and the portico of the Dii Consentes, restored by Visconti in 1858, marked by eight Corinthian columns, partly modern, but with antique capitals and architraves; and the cellæ arranged in compact masonry behind them. It was called the Schola Xantha, from Fabius Xanthus, a curator of the monuments, who placed here the images of the household gods of Rome—Dii Consentes, because admitted to the council of Jove—Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars, Mercurius, Jovi', Neptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo (Ennius). The inscription tells us they were reinstated under Vettius Pretextatus,A.D.367.

Facing towards the Forum, at the back of the line of buildings at its top, is

(Seepage 170.)

In front of the Senate House, S. Adriano, is

which formerly supported the statue of that emperor. It faced the Senate House; and is placed upon a pedestal rising from a pyramidal basement of steps, the whole evidently the plunder of other edifices.

It was erected by Smaragdus, the Exarch of Italy, inA.D.608, and was excavated by the Countess of Devonshire in 1816.

It is thus mentioned by Byron,—

"Tully was not so eloquent as thou,Thou nameless column with the buried base!"Childe Harold, iv. 90.

"Tully was not so eloquent as thou,

Thou nameless column with the buried base!"

Childe Harold, iv. 90.

Between the Temples of Saturn and Castor are the remains of

on the site of the Basilica Sempronia, erected by Sempronius Gracchus,B.C.169 (Livy, xliv. 16). This was burned down, and rebuilt by Julius Cæsar, and called Julia, after his daughter. It was destroyed by fire, and rebuilt by Augustus (Dion Cassius, "Augustus"). It was again destroyed by fire, and rebuiltA.D.283. Suetonius tells us that Caligula, "during three days successively, scattered money to a prodigious amount among the people, from the top of the Julian Basilica" ("Caligula," xxxvii.). It is shown on two pieces of the marble plan.

In the "Mon. Ancyr.," Augustus says, "He rebuilt the Basilica Julia between the Temples of Castor and Saturn." Thus we see that the Will of Augustus, the marble plan, and the ruins, all three exactly agree. The portico was dedicated to his grandsons, Lucius and Caius (Suetonius, "Augustus," xxix.). It was the great court of appeal. (See Pliny, Jr., "Letters," v. 21, vi. 33.)

The old pavement has been well exposed, and put in proper condition for preservation; the remnants of frieze, and cornices, and columns found in the diggings have been set up on brick pedestals,—an innovation of Signor Rossa's. The old bits of pavement have been very smoothly linked together by the laying of Venetian mosaic cement, and the contrast between the modern and the antique is very apparent.

The principal streets that ran into the Forum were:—

It commenced on the Palatine Hill at the Ædem Larium. Passing by the Arch of Titus, it turned to the left: thus far it was called the Clivus Palatinus and Summa Sacra Via; the slope down to the Forum was called the Clivus Sacer. It entered the Forum at the Temple of Antoninus, past which it turned again to the left, passing in front of the Temple of Cæsar; then turning to the right, passed through the centre of the Forum to the foot of the Capitol. The ascent here was called the Clivus Capitolinus. It was pavedB.C.174 (Livy, xli. 27).

Its windings are easily accounted for when we remember that it had to come from the top of the Palatine to the top of the Capitoline, passing through a narrow valley. It was called the Sacred Way from the sacred processions that passed along it, and from the sacred buildings that lined it.

Between the Basilica Julia and the Temple of Castor

ran to the forum of the cattle-dealers and Circus Maximus. "They had ground allotted to them for building houses, which was afterwards called the Vicus Tuscus" (Livy, ii. 14). "Verres had caused it to be paved so badly, that he made a point of never going along the street that he had taken the contract for paving" (Cicero, "Ver." i. 59). It was the route for the festal processions to the Circus and Aventine. Where it entered the Forum was a statue of the Tuscan god Vertumnus, the base of which statue was found near where the street first touched the Basilica Julia. This street was sometimes called the Vicus Thurarius, from the perfumers' shops.

went out of the Via Sacra between the Temple of Saturn and the Basilica Julia, running under the Capitol to the Porta Carmentalis, the gate in the wall from the Capitol to the river that led into the forum of the vegetable-dealers. Where it left the Via Sacra it was spanned by the Arch of Tiberius, erectedA.D.16 in commemoration of the lost eagles of Varus being recovered by Germanicus (Tacitus, "Annals," ii. 41). In this street was the Lacus Servilius.

Under our (right) side of the Temple of Castor are some remains of

From the Porta Romana on the Palatine, a short street went to the right out of the Via Nova into the Forum, ending between the Temples of Castor and Vesta. "It chanced that I was returning from the festival of Vesta by that way by which the Nova Via isnowjoined to the Roman Forum" (Ovid, "Fasti," vi. 389.) We wish Mr. Naso had been a little more explicit, and had given us the name of this short street; but we will endeavour to demonstrate what the name of this street was. We know from Suetonius that under the Palatine was the temple to the deified Augustus, and over it Caligula built his bridge, connecting the Palatine with the Capitol. Now, at the corner of the Palatine we have the ascent to this bridge remaining, so that it will not be difficult to find the probable site of the Temple of Augustus. Horace (O. iii. 3) implies that it was between the Temples of Castor and Hercules. Servius says it was near the Tuscan colony. Suetonius tells us it was on the site of the house in which he was born, and gives us the name of the street: "In the quarter of the Palatine Hill, and the street called the Ox-heads, wherenowstands a temple dedicated to him, and built a little after his death" ("Aug." v.). We conclude from the above that the probable name of this short street wasAd Capita Bubula, and in confirmation of this, ox-heads may still be seen sculptured on the fragments found at the end of this street, between the Temples of Castor and Vesta.

We must call attention to a cross street that ran from the Clivus Capitolinus to the Prison and the Clivus Argentarius, the name of which we cannot determine, unless it was reckoned part of the Argentarius. When the triumphal processions arrived at this point, the general and prisoners separated. He went up the Capitol to sacrifice, they to the Prison to death.

The road passing under the Arch of Severus is of very late date, and artificially formed. It ran from the cross street down the north side of the Forum for a short distance, when it turns to the left, apparently passing out of the Forum between the Curia and the Basilica Porcia. The roads, as a rule, did not pass under the triumphal arches, as they are represented on reliefs and coins, with the archways occupied with statues.

The open paved space, which was very much larger in the time of the Republic, was called

Varro says it was so called "fromcoïre, to meet,—the place of the ratification of the treaty between the Romans and Sabines." Livy tells us "it was an open space marked out in the Forum, where the assemblies called Comitia Curiata took place for the purpose of electing ministers of religious rites, making laws of a certain description, and deciding some suits, and inflicting punishment on criminals."

Domitian ordered the gallants of Cornelia, the president of the Vestal Virgins, to be whipped to death with rods in the Comitium.

A line of seven brick bases for honorary statues occupies one side; the edge of the paved area marks the top; the remains of a row of shops, destroyed by Signor Rossa in 1872, the bottom. The line of the modern road on the right was called

This was the Roman Exchange, where the money-changers transacted their business, and must not be confounded with the Temple of Janus already mentioned; nor must it be thought that there were a series of arches here, as some authors have supposed. Horace says(Sat. ii. 3), "Since all my fortunes were dissipated at the middle exchange" (Janus). Again (Ep. i. 1), "O citizens, money is to be sought first; virtue after riches. This is inculcated from the top to the bottom of 'change." He here distinguishes thesummus,medius, andimus, or the top, middle, and bottom of the exchange.

Having thus pointed out the principal buildings of the Forum, we will descend to its level, and identify some of its historical sites.

At the left-hand cornerof the Vicus Tuscus and the Via Sacra, a brick pedestal marks the site of the Shrine of Venus Cloacina, erected in commemoration of Tarquin making the Cloaca Maxima.Cloacinacomes fromcluere=purgare, to purge.

DEATH OF VIRGINIA.View larger image.

Oppositethis shrine, facing up the Vicus Tuscus, is some brickwork—remains of a line of shops that faced towards the Temple of Cæsar, and which were destroyed by Signor Rossa in making theexcavations. The end shop only was saved. This was the site of the butcher's stall from which Virginius snatched the knife that saved his daughter's honour.

"Virginius demanded to speak with Virginia; and permission being granted, he drew the maiden and her nurse aside to the shops near the shrine of Cloacina, now called the new shops, and there, snatching a knife from a butcher's stall, plunged it into his daughter's breast" (Livy, iii. 48).

At the left-hand corner, facing the Temple of Castor, the oval basin of this fountain has been cleared, and the spring which supplied it is covered with an iron grating, and has been turned into the Cloaca. It is no doubt the same at which the twin-gods, Castor and Pollux, washed their horses after fighting for Rome in the battle of Lake Regillus, when they announced to the people that the battle was won. Similar stories are told by Florus. When the Romans conquered Perses, king of Macedonia, the twin-gods washed themselves at the Lake of Juturna; and when they defeated the Tigurini, the gods were seen to deliver a letter to the prætor in front of their temple.

Juturna was the sister of Turnus, immortalized by Jupiter, and turned into a fountain, whose waters were used in Vesta's sacrifices, and had curative powers.

stood between the Temples of Cæsar and Castor; some slight remains can still be seen. It was erected to Fabius Maximus, the conqueror of the Allobroges, now Savoy. It was erectedB.C.121, being the first triumphal arch in the Forum. The Romans originally called their triumphal archfornix, notarcus.

The pseudo-Ascon says it stood before the Temple of Castor. The inscription was found in the sixteenth century, and is given by Gruter, ccccvi. 5—

Q . FABIO . ALLOBROGICINOMAXIMO.

Another fragment is given in the Vatican Codex, 3368, 4—

Q . FABIUS . Q . F . MAXIMUS . AED . CVR . REST.

Cicero is the first author who speaks of this arch, and he alludes to it several times. In "Verres" (i. 7) he says: "He (Caius Curio) sees Verres in the crowd by the Fornix Fabius. He speaks to the man, and with a loud voice congratulates him on his victory." Asconius, commenting on this passage, says: "Fornix Fabius arcus est juxta Regiam in Sacra Via a Fabio censore constructus, qui a devictis Allobrogibus Allobrox cognominatus est, ibique statua ejus posita propterea est."

In "Pro Plancio" (vii.) Cicero says: "When I am hustled in a crowd, and pushed against the Arch of Fabius, I do not complain to the man who is at the top of the Sacra Via, but to him who pushes me." Again ("De Orat." ii. 66) he says: "Crassus said in a speech to the people that Memnius, though himself so great a man, as he came into the Forum, stooped his head at the Arch of Fabius."

Seneca ("De Constantia Sapientis," i.) says: "Cato was dragged from the (old) Rostra to the Arch of Fabius"—that is, nearly the whole length of the Forum. Trebellius Pollio ("Saloninus Gallienus," i. 10) says: "There was at this time at the foot of the hill Romulus (Palatine) a statue, that is before the Sacred Way, between the Temples of Faustina and Vesta, near to the Arch of Fabius." This exactly describes the site.

We have two views of this arch preserved to us on ancient reliefs. The first, from the Arch of Marcus Aurelius, now on the stairway of the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitol, represents the arch on the left of the Temple-Tomb of the deified Cæsar. The second, a relief on the monument of Marcus Aurelius on the Comitium, nearest the Arch of Septimius Severus, depicts the Arch of Fabius to the right of the Temple of Castor and Pollux.

Under the bank of earth to the right of Cæsar's Temple-Tomb stood

Dion Cassius records (liv. 8) that Augustus built an arch in commemoration of the Parthian treaty near the Temple-Tomb of Cæsar. This is borne out by Maii, an interpreter of Virgil ("Æn." viii. 606), who says the Arch of Augustus was near to the temple of the deified Julius. The "Mirabilia" mentions it, and gives the same site: "Templum Minervæ cum arcu conjunctum est ei, nunc autem vocatur Sanctus Laurentius de Mirandi;" that is, the Temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina, now the Church of San Lorenzo in Miranda. Accordingly, it was on the right of the Temple of Cæsar. Between it and the Temple of Antoninus the following inscription on marble was found in 1540–46:—

SENATVS . POPVLVSQVE . ROMANVSIMP . CAESARI . DIVI . IVLI . F . COS . QVINCTCOS . DESIGN . SEX . IMP . SEPTREPVBLICA CONSERVATA.(Gruter, ccxxvi. 5.)

It is doubtful whether this refers to the Arch of Augustus or to the Temple of Cæsar, both having been built by Augustus. A coin ofAugustus represents this arch, with the legend, CIVIB . ET . SIGN . MILIT . A . PART . RECVP. In the early part of 1884, on the Via Sacra, near the Temple of Antoninus, some thirty travertinevoussoirs—which formed part of an arch, the diameter of which was 12 feet 17 inches—were brought to light. So far, the excavations do not show where this arch stood; but when the road between the Temples of Cæsar and Antoninus is cut away, we may hope to find the site.

PLAN OF THE ROSTRA, AND TEMPLE-TOMB OF CÆSAR.View larger image.

PLAN OF THE ROSTRA, AND TEMPLE-TOMB OF CÆSAR.

We know from Dion Cassius that Cæsar encouraged the popular business to be carried on at the lower end of the Forum, and that he turned the steps of the Temple of Castor into a temporary rostra. On this becoming popular he built a new rostra, which was called the plebeian rostra or Rostra Julia. We learn from Suetonius that it was before the Temple of Cæsar. Cicero, speaking from it against Mark Antony, bids his audience look to the (their) left at the gilt equestrian statue of Antony which stood before the Temple of Castor.

HADRIAN ADDRESSING THE PEOPLE FROM THE ROSTRA JULIA.View larger image.

HADRIAN ADDRESSING THE PEOPLE FROM THE ROSTRA JULIA.

This is one of the most interesting spots in the Forum. Cæsar built the second rostra with its rear towards the Forum, represented by the darker lines in the above plan. In front, towards the curved edge, Antony spoke, Cæsar's body being on the level below. The body was burnt and buried "in the Forum in that place visible from the old monumental Regia of the Romans. On the spot was placed an altarwhere nowis the Temple of Cæsar" (Appian, ii. 42). "The same men were erecting a tomb in the Forum who had performed that irregular funeral" (Cicero, "First Phil." ii.).

It was decorated with the rams of the captured ships of Antony and Cleopatra. It was the custom to speak from the circular edge; but when the Temple of Cæsar was built, it was erected close up to his rostra, on the site where the people had previously stood, and so they had to turn about and address the people from the flat edge. "As he was seated on the rostra at the festival of Pan, Mark Antony placed upon his brow a royal diadem" (Velleius Paterculus, ii. 56).

When Cæsar was killed, it was not in the Capitol, as Shakespeare makes it, nor in the Senate House upon the Forum, but in Pompey's Senate House (seepage 195). From there the body was carried to his house, and next day into the Forum, on its way to the Campus Martius, and was placed in front of the Rostra Julia for some friend to make the funeral oration over it. Mark Antony mounted the rostra, and there made his famous speech, "which moved the people to that degree that they immediately burned the body in that very place, and afterwards interred his ashes" (Dion Cassius, "Cæsar").

Livy ("Epit." xcvi.) says that "Cæsar's body was burned before the plebeian rostra." Dion Cassius says his temple-tomb was built on the very spot where his body was burned.

Unfortunately Antony's address has not come down to us, so we must accept Shakespeare's immortal version.

Crossing the Sacred Way, which passes along the front of Cæsar's Tomb, we arrive at the space occupied by the shops destroyed in excavating. The construction remaining shows that they were rebuilt at a late date. It will be noticed that the soil is damp and sandy. This spot was once marshy, and took its name from Mettius Curtius, a leader of the Sabines, getting mired here in the battle which took place about the carrying off of the women. Plutarch, Livy, Dionysius, and Ovid agree in this; and not from the fable related by Livy (vii. 16) of the Forum opening, and Marcus Curtius jumping in, horse, armour, and all. The former event is commemorated in a relief in stone now in the Capitol; whilst the latter fable is depicted in the marble relief now in the Borghese Museum.

The Statue was destroyed by the people after his death, and the base of the pedestal is all we have left, standing upon the travertine pavementof the Forum. It is interesting to archæologists as putting to rest the arguments in reference to the names and positions of the different buildings in the Forum. The poet Statius ("Silvæ," i. 1, 22) describes the relative position of the different buildings and this statue. He tells us that the statue was situated in the middle of the Forum, near the Curtian Lake. In front of it was the temple of the deified Julius; behind it were the Temples of Vespasian and Concord; on one side the Basilica Julia, and on the other the Basilica Æmilia; whilst the rider looked towards the Temple of Vesta and the Imperial Palace.

MARCUS CURTIUS LEAPING INTO THE GULF.(Relief in the Villa Borghese.)]View larger image.

Suetonius tells us that the tablet inscribed upon the base of Domitian's triumphal statue was carried away by the violence of a storm, and fell upon a neighbouring monument.

A little beyond this pedestal, to the right, are the remains of another pedestal, a deep round hole recently closed, and beyond it a third pedestal.

Upon the first we will place

Servius informs us that this statue was put up in the principal forum of every city as an emblem of civic liberty and even-handedjustice. It stood in front of the old rostra. Horace and Martial both refer to it as being near the judge's seat. It had a pig-skin of wine on one shoulder, denoting the plentiful supply to the city, and had the other arm extended with the hand open, showing that every one should have equal justice.

Over the round hole stood

or well altar. This is shown on a coin as being round.

"At a small distance from the statue of Attus, both the hone and the razor are said to be buried under a certain altar; the place is calledPuteusby the Romans" (Dionysius, iii. 72). Cicero ("De Div." i. 17) says, "It was on the Comitium, and was erected over the spot where the hone and razor were buried." (See also Horace, Ep. i. 19.)

Upon the other base we will place

"Tarquin erected a brazen statue of him in the Forum to eternalize his memory with posterity. This statue is still remaining, and stands before the Senate House, near to the holy fig-tree. It is less than a middle-sized man, and has a veil over the head" (Dionysius, iii. 72). "The statue of Attus Navius was erected before the Senate House, the pedestal of which was consumed when the Senate House itself was burned at the funeral of Publius Clodius" (Pliny, xxxiv. 11). "There was a statue of Attus, with a fillet on his head, in the place where Tarquin had the whetstone cut in two with a razor, on the Comitium, or place of assembly, just by the steps, at the left-hand side of the Senate House" (Livy, i. 36).

was a fig-tree that, according to Festus, was planted by Tarquin in commemoration of his having had the whetstone cut in two with a razor, according to the augury of Attus Navius. It should not be confounded with the Ruminal fig-tree which grew upon the Palatine, as has been done by some writers. It is rather a curious incident that since the excavations were made, a fig-tree sprang up near the pedestal of Marsyas. This is the tree shown on the reliefs of the monument of Marcus Aurelius.

Just beyond these three objects, a semicircular mark on the pavement points to the site of

The original Rostra was first called the Suggestum or Pulpit, but inA.U.C.416 the name was changed into Rostra (beaks).

"The prows from the six ships captured from the Antiates were ordered to be placed as decorations on the Suggestum in the Forum, which was hence called Rostra" (Livy, viii. 14; Florus, i. 11; Pliny, xxiv. 11).

"The Rostra stood on the Comitium in front of the Curia" (Varro), from which the orators harangued the people assembled in the open air; and it was evidently only a temporary structure, probably of wood, and not a building like the other two Rostra. It stood upon a circular basement, but the top was square; on the outside were fixed the brazen beaks which belonged to the captive vessels of the Antiates. About the Rostra were placed the statues of the ambassadors put to death by Lar Tolumnius, king of Veii, and others who suffered on similar occasions; the three Fates, Horatius Cocles, Camillus, Hercules, the father of Vitellius, and others who deserved well of their country.

"When Caius Gracchus brought in his bill to regulate the courts of judicature, there was one thing very remarkable: whereas the orators before him, in all addresses to the people, stood with their faces towards the Senate House and the Comitium, he then, for the first time, turned the other way,—that is to say, towards the Forum,—and continued to speak in that position ever after. By this he intimated that the people ought to be addressed, and not the senate" (Plutarch).

Suetonius tells us that on the death of Augustus "two funeral orations were pronounced in his praise, one before the Temple of Julius by Tiberius, and the other before the Rostra, under the old shops, by Drusus." Some read this passage, "from the old Rostra;" but our rendering is more correct, though in either case he is referring to the Rostra that stood in front of the Curia.

The first time Cicero spoke from the Rostra was when he delivered his oration for the Manilian Law,A.U.C.687, when in his forty-first year. After his assassination, the head and hands of Cicero were placed upon this Rostra, from where he had so often addressed the Romans—"that very Rostra, which he had made his own; nor was there a less concourse to see him there than had formerly been to hear him" (Florus, iv. 6). "That everybody might see them in the very place where he had formerly harangued with so much vehemence" (Dion Cassius, "Augustus").

THE ROSTRA.

The form of this Rostra is preserved to us, being represented on a coin.

There is an important passage in Pliny which shows the exact site of the Rostra, as it was used to mark the hour of noon. When the summoner caught sight of the sun passing the edge of the Rostra, he declared the hour of noon. A man standing on this site will roughly represent the Rostra, and as the gun fires at mid-day the edge of the sun can be seen coming past him by a person standing by the pedestal at the bank in front of S. Adriano, who will roughly represent the summoner. We have tried this numerous times with our audience, and it is the only spot on the Forum where it answers.

"Theaccensusof the consuls proclaiming mid-day aloud, as soon as, from the Senate House, he caught sight of the sun between the Rostra and the Græcostasis: he also proclaimed the last hour, when the sun had gone off the Mænian Column to the Prison" (Pliny, vii. 60).

View larger image.

In excavating the open space of the Comitium upon the Forum in the summer of 1872, an interesting discovery was made of two marble screens or balustrades sculptured on each side, the onebeing some historic scene, the other representing animals. At the time, and since their discovery, many suggestions have been offered as to their signification and use, but none seemed satisfactory, at least to us. After considerable thought, examination of the ground, and putting this and that together, we have arrived at an estimate of their use and meaning entirely different from the hitherto received opinion; in which we are supported by their construction and the classic passages relating to them. They arein situas found, but a new piece of marble has been put under them.

From this it will be seen that we have made an important discovery bearing upon the topography of the Forum, which will be of interest not only to classical students, but to every one interested in the word Rome.

We have discovered that the reliefs on the screens upon the Comitium in the Forum portray scenes from the life of Marcus Aurelius, showing in their backgrounds the buildings occupying two sides of the Forum—from the Temple of Concord to the Arch of Fabius—and that these marble balustrades led up to the statue of that emperor. The space where it stood can be plainly traced upon the pavement; and that is why these pictures refer to epochs of his life. The statue is still existing, and now stands in the square of the Capitol, where it was erected by Michael Angelo, who brought it from the Lateran in 1538, where it had been placed about 1187, when it was removed from the Forum, near the Column of Phocas, where it had long been looked upon as a statue of Constantine, and is so called in the Regiona Catalogue; hence its preservation.

The whole group was evidently erected in honour of Marcus Aurelius, and in commemoration of the important events in his life depicted on the screens, as recorded by Dion Cassius.

The first relief represents a scene upon the Forum between the old Rostra Marsyas and the fig-tree—burning the forty-six years' arrears of debts which Marcus Aurelius had forgiven the people.

"After that he remitted all that had been due to the Public and Imperial Treasuries for the course of forty-six years, without including therein Hadrian's reign, and ordered all the papers of claims to be burned in the Forum" (Dion Cassius, "Marcus Aurelius").

This was on the marriage of his son Commodus with Crispina.

It will be noticed that the relief is to the right of the fig-tree and Marsyas. Now, if we go round to the other relief, we have the same tree and Marsyas in the same relative positions; but the relief is tothe left, and the scenes are taking place between the Rostra Julia, the fig-tree, and Marsyas:—

Giving the donation of eight pieces of gold.

Roma, or perhaps Faustina, thanking him for the Puellæ Faustinianæ.

"After he had come back to Rome, as he was one day haranguing the people, and speaking of the number of years he had spent abroad in his expeditions, the citizens with a loud voice cried out, 'Eight,' at the same time extending their hands to receive as many pieces of gold. The emperor, smiling, repeated, 'Eight,' and ordered every Roman eight pieces, which was so considerable a sum, that so great a one was never given before by any emperor" (Dion Cassius, "Marcus Aurelius").

It will be noticed that two men are holding up their hands with fingers extended, one five, the other three—eight.

The other scene on this relief represents a female figure advancing to the seated figure of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, leading a child and carrying another, to thank him for the orphan schools he founded in Rome in memory of his wife after her death, and which he named after her. "New Faustinian schools he instituted in honour of his dead wife" (Julius Capitolinus, "M. Antoninus," xxvi.).

Upon the inner sides of the Avenue are represented on each balustrade a boar, a ram, and a bull—the animals offered at the triple sacrifice, orsuovetaurilia(fromsus,ovis,taurus), which was performed once every five years, orlustrum, for the purification of the city.

It was an institution of Servius Tullius, the ceremony consisting in leading the boar, ram, and bull thrice round the assembly of the people, and then offering them to Mars. There is a similar representation upon a relief of Trajan on the Arch of Constantine, and upon a pedestal found near the Arch of Septimius Severus.

To our left of the Arch of Severus is

Neither the position nor the construction of this Rostra answers to that of the original Suggestum, which took the name of Rostra from having fixed on it thesixbronze beaks of the Antiates' ships. The original Rostra, shown on a coin of Palikanus, the orator mentioned by Cicero ("Brutus," lxii.)—see page 42—was a wooden pulpit. Its exact site we have already identified. The last historical notice thatwe have of it is in Spartianus's "Life of Didius Julianus" (iv.),A.D.193. After saying that the emperor addressed the Senate, he adds, "but the people expressly in the Rostra before the Curia."

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Under the Empire the Rostra had lost its use, and only served occasionally for the emperor to address the people from, or for reading out edicts and proclamations. The western end of the Forum saw many changes after the fire under Commodus, and was rearranged under Septimius Severus, who restored the old edifices, retaining the names of the founders, and erected others (Spartianus, "Severus," xxiii.). In 203 an arch was erected to Severus and his two sons, and a new Rostra was made on the south side of this arch. By cutting away a piece of the slope of the Capitoline Hill, he formed an escarpment 11 feet high, which was faced with a curved brick wall, and cased with Porta Santa marble, in panels 3 feet 1 inch wide. Between each pair of panels there is a space 6½ inches wide, from which a piece of marble jutted out 3½ inches. Only one of these exists. On it there was fixed a bronze beak, probably made in imitation of the old ones, for in that day they had no naval foes from whom to capture ships. If there was one row only, there were eighteen in all; if two rows, thirty-six. This in itself is sufficient to show the ridiculousness of calling this the original Rostra, which had six beaks only. The peculiar marble casing also shows late work. At the north end of this platform was erected the Umbilicus (E), and on the south endwas placed the Milliarium Aureum (F). From the level space on the top of this escarpment the orator would speak; whilst at a short distance in his rear was the street Clivus Argentarius, leading from the Via Sacra to the Porta Rutuminia. This Rostra was popularly known as the People's Rostra, because from it they were addressed—"Deinde ad Rostra Populum convocarunt" (Capitolinus, "Maximus et Balbinus," iii.). The narrowness of the level space on the top of this Rostra caused great inconvenience; and as room could not be gained in the rear, it had to be taken in front, encroaching on the Comitium. Forty-three and a half feet in front of the curved wall of Porta Santa a straight wall was built of travertine and tufa, 78 feet long, with side walls from it back to the extreme ends of the Rostra, and this was cased with Carrara white marble, the space between the two walls being filled with earth, thus making a large platform with a square instead of a curved front. The blocks of tufa and marble were tied together by iron clamps, of which fragments remain, of a shape not used in the earlier days, but used now.That the curved wall and the straight wall are not contemporary is shown by the construction, as well as by the fact that the curved wall is faced with coloured marble, which would not have been the case if it had not at one time been open to the Forum. The curved wall is on a line with the Arch of Severus; but the tufa wall comes out 25½ feet beyond the arch, and is not parallel with the curved wall behind it. The tufa and travertine wall is erected on the travertine pavement of the Comitium.

We believe these changes on this Rostra were made in the time of Aurelian (270), after the death of Claudius II., whose statue was erected on this Rostra. "Illi totius orbis judicio in rostris posita est columna palmata statua superfixa" (Pollio, "Claudius," iii.). Upon this Rostra also Aurelian erected a statue of the Genius of the Roman People. Aurelianus—"Genium Populi Romani in rostra posuit" ("E Chronicis antiquis excerpta Aurelianus"). The fourth century guides, "Curiosum Urbis" and "De Regionibus" (in Regio viii.), mention the Genium Populi Romani, the latter adding "aureum." They both mention three Rostra in the Forum. The statue of Claudius was not represented as wearing the Roman toga, but the Greek pallium, from which this Rostra became known as the Rostra ad Palmam; and this part of the Forum in later times was called ad Palmam.

Theodoric—"Deinde veniens ingressus urbem venit ad Senatum, et ad Palmam populo adlocutus" ("Excerpta Valesiana," lxvi.).

"Ligaverunt ei manus a tergo et decollaverunt extra Capitolium et extrahentes jactaverunt eum juxta arcum triumphi ad Palmam" ("Acta SS., Mai." vii.).

Ammianus Marcellinus (xvi. x. 13) describes Constantius's visit in 356 to this Rostra: "When he arrived at the Rostra, he gazed with amazed awe on the Forum, the most renowned monument of ancient power; and being bewildered with the number of wonders on every side to which he turned his eyes, having addressed the nobles in the Senate House and harangued the populace from the Rostra, he retired." This expresses the feelings of many visitors in our day. The site commands a good view of the Forum.

RELIEF FROM THE ARCH OF CONSTANTINE REPRESENTING THE ROSTRA AD PALMAM, ETC.View larger image.

The remains of this Rostra are best illustrated by the representation of it in the relief on the Arch of Constantine; and by no possible imagination can it be made to agree with the coin of Palikanus.

In the centre is a platform with a straight front, having a lattice balustrade; on the right is a statue of Claudius II., and on the left the statue of the Genius of Rome. A group of people stand behind the railing and surround Constantine, who is addressing the people. Behind are five Corinthian columns surmounted with statues. The balustrade stood on the top of the tufa wall, and some of the fallen gray granite columns still exist. To our right, clear of the Rostra, is the Arch of Severus, a group of people being in front, looking up to the Rostra. On the left, in the background, are the Arch of Tiberius, spanning the Vicus Jugarius, and four of the arches of the Basilica Julia—the foreground being occupied by a crowd of people facing towards the Rostra.

The scene here depicted was no doubt that which took place on the entry of Constantine into Rome: "And with a loud voice and by inscriptions he made known to all men the salutary standard" (Eusebius, "Life of Constantine," xl.).

In the relief the head of Constantine is unfortunately missing; but it seems very appropriate that he should be represented addressing the Roman people from that Rostra, which was decorated with the statue of his ancestor Claudius II.

There are no beaks shown on the relief; but along the tufa wall, at regular intervals of 3 feet 4 inches, are cut grooves 6½ inches wide and 1½ inch deep: in these grooves are holes which, if they were to sustain beaks, would give thirty-six for a single row, and seventy-two for a double row.

We doubt if these grooves and holes were for beaks. They were more probably for the supports of the marble casing; they do not go completely through the wall.

Some authorities call these remains on the Clivus the Rostra Vetera, or the original Rostra. But it does not answer classic description, and the construction shows it to be of late date. It does not standonthe Comitium, orbeforethe Curia, norunderthe old shops. Besides, it looks down the Forum; so from here how could Gracchus haveturnedfrom the Senate House and Comitium towards the Forum?

was a monument marking the centre of the Roman world. The ruin of the Umbilicus is at the side of the Arch of Septimius Severus, at the end of the Rostra ad Palmam. Its pyramidal shape upon a round base can easily be distinguished.

This was between the Clivus Capitolinus and the Pass of the Two Groves (Via Arco di Septimo Severo), under the Capitoline Hill, and served afterwards as an advanced fort to the citadel. "He opened a sanctuary, in the place where the enclosure now is, on the road down from the Capitoline [Temple], called the Pass of the Two Groves" (Livy, i. 8). "He surrounded it with a high stone wall" (Ovid, "Fasti," iii. 231). The gate leading into it was called the Porta Pandana—"ever-open gate" (Solinus, i. 13. See Plutarch, in "Romulus;" Dionysius, ii. 15; Florus, i. 1; Varro and Festus). The remains of the tufa wall exist on the left of the Clivus, in front of the Temple of Saturn.

or great drain, begun by Tarquin the Great, containing a large stream of water rushing along, as it did over two thousand years ago, is exposed to view at the east end of the Basilica Julia.

It was finished by Tarquin the Proud,B.C.556 (Livy, i. 38, 55).

"Men spoke in admiration of the public sewers, too, a work more stupendous than any, as mountains had to be pierced for their construction, and navigation might be carried on beneath Rome; an event which happened in the ædileship of M. Agrippa, after he had filled the office of consul." (See Dion Cassius, "Augustus,"A.U.C.721.)

"For this purpose there are seven streams turned into the artificial channels, and flowing beneath the city. Rushing onward, like so many impetuous torrents, they are compelled to carry off and sweep away all the sewerage" (Pliny, xxxvi. 24).

of different buildings lie scattered about; to what edifices they belonged "pronounce who can." More than two hundred columns, and fifty capitals of exquisite workmanship, have been discovered in the excavations of the Forum. Near the reliefs on the Comitium is a pedestal with the following inscription:—

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