tion, and hence the want of regularity in some parts of the buildings, which, being monuments of republican Rome, did not perhaps enjoy the favor of the emperors. The triumphal arch of Septimus Severus, is nearly half buried in the ground.

CHAP. X.

THE ROMAN FORUM-COLISEUM-PALATINE MOUNT-AVENTINE

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-TOMB OF C. CESTIUS-CŒLIAN--SABURRA--ESQUILINEBATHS OF TITUS-MINERVA MEDICA-PALACE OF MŒCENASVIMINAL QUIRINAL-BATHS OF DIOCLESIAN.

THE Roman Forum now lay extended before us, a scene, in the ages of Roman greatness, of unparalleled splendor and magnificence. It was bordered on both sides with temples, and lined with statues. It terminated in triumphal arches, and was bounded here by the Palatine hill, with the Imperial residence glittering on its summit, and there by the Capitol with its ascending ranges of porticos and temples. Thus it presented one of the richest exhibitions that eyes could behold, or human ingenuity invent. In the midst of these superb monuments, the memorials of their greatness, and the trophies of their fathers, the Roman people assembled to exercise their sovereign power, and to decide the fates of heroes, kings, and nations.

Nor did the contemplation of such glorious objects fail to produce a corresponding effect. Manlius, as long as he could

extend his arm, and fix the attention of the people on the Capitol, which he had saved, suspended his fatal sentence.* Caius Gracchus melted the hearts of his audience, when in the moment of distress he pointed to the Capitol, and asked, with all the emphasis of despair, whether he could expect to find an asylum in that sanctuary, whose pavement still streamed with the blood of his brother. Scipio Africanus, when accused by an envious faction, and obliged to appear before the people as a criminal, instead of answering the charge, turned to the Capitol, and invited the assembly to accompany him to the temple of Jupiter, and give thanks to the gods for the defeat of Hannibal and the Carthaginians.

fluence of locality, and such the awe,

Such, in fact, was the ininterest, and even emotion, Hence the frequent refer

inspired by the surrounding edifices. ences that we find in the Roman historians and orators, to the Capitol, the Forum, the temples of the gods; and hence those noble addresses to the deities themselves, as present in their respective sanctuaries, and watching over the interests of their favored city," Ita præsentes his temporibus opem et auxilium nobis tulerunt, ut eos pene oculis videre possimus."‡ But the glories of the Forum are now fled for ever; its temples are fallen, its sanctuaries have crumbled into dust, its colonnades encumber its pavements now buried under their remains. The walls of the Rostra stripped of their ornaments, and doomed to eternal silence; a few shattered porticos; and here and there an insulated column standing in the midst of broken shafts, vast fragments of marble capitals and cornices, heaped

* Liv. vi. 20. VOL. I.

+ Liv. XXXVIII. 51.
FF

Cat. III. 8.

together in masses, rise to remind the melancholy traveller, that the lonely field he now traverses, was once the Roman Forum. A fountain fills a marble basin in the middle, the same possibly to which Propertius alludes, when speaking of the Forum in the time of Tatius he says,

Murus erant montes, ubi nunc est Curia septa,
Bellicus ex illo fonte bibebat equus.*

Lib. IV. 4.

A little farther on commences a double range of trees, that leads along the Via Sacra, by the temples of Antoninus, and of Peace, to the arch of Titus. A herdsman, seated on a pedestal while his oxen were drinking at the fountain, and a few passengers moving at a distance in different directions, were the only living beings that disturbed the silence and solitude which reigned around. Thus the place seemed restored to its original wildness, as described by Virgil,† and abandoned once more to flocks and herds of cattle. So far, in fact, have the modern Romans forgotten the theatre of the glory and imperial power of their ancestors, as to degrade it into a common market for cattle, and sink its name, illustrated by every page of Roman history, into the contemptible appellation of Campo Vaccino.

Proceeding along the Via Sacra, and passing under the

* As this fountain is near the three pillars, which have occasioned so much discussion, we may draw a presumptive argument from these verses, that they formed part of the Curia.

arch of Titus, on turning a little to the left, we beheld the amphitheatre of Vespasian and Titus, now called the Coliseum. Never did human art present to the eye a fabric so well calculated, by its size and form, to surprize and delight. Let the spectator first place himself to the north, and contemplate that side which depredation, barbarism, and ages have spared, he will behold with admiration its wonderful extent, well proportioned stories and flying lines, that retire and vanish without break or interruption. Next let him turn to the south, and examine those stupendous arches, which, stripped as they are of their external decorations, still astonish us by their solidity and duration. Then let him enter, range through the lofty arcades, and ascending the vaulted seats, consider the vast mass of ruin that surrounds him, insulated walls, immense stones suspended in the air, arches covered with weeds and shrubs, vaults opening upon other ruins; in short above, below, and around, one vast collection of magnificence and devastation, of grandeur and decay.*

Need I inform the reader that this stupendous fabric,

"Which on its public shews unpeopled Rome,
"And held uncrowded nations in its womb,"

* Martial prefers, perhaps with justice, this amphitheatre to all the prodigies of architecture known in his time.

Barbara Pyramidum sileat miracula Memphis :

Assiduus jactet nec Babylona labor;

Aere nec vacuo pendentia Mausolea

Laudibus immodicis Cares in astra ferant.

Omnis Cæsareo cedat labor amphitheatro

Unum pro

cunctis fama loquatur opus.

De Spect.