column, erected at a still later period, in honour of the Emperor Phocas, and was once surmounted by his statue in bronze. On the other side of the Forum, under the brow of the Palatine, are the sad remains of the temple of Jupiter Stator, erected upon the spot, where old Romulus rallied his legions against his Sabine invaders, and consecrated in after ages by Cicero's pathetic apostrophe to the statue of the god presiding over the shrine. Three noble columns of Parian marble, crowned with a mutilated entablature, forming as it is supposed the vestibule, alone survive the general wreck of the proud structure. In one of our many visits, an artist was observed, seated like Marius amidst ruins, sketching the picturesque fragments of the fane. All these relics of buried splendour, and hundreds of others of less note over which the visitant stumbles at every step, are within the precincts of the ancient Forum, which was about eight hundred feet in length, and five hundred in width. Excavations have been made to the Roman pavement, by resurrection amateurs of France and England, aided occasionally by the purse of the Pope; and tremendous gulfs yawn round these columns, into which another Curtius and his horse might plunge without difficulty. The Dutchess of Devonshire has been among the most active and liberal patrons, in disenterring the works of art. In every instance, new discoveries have rewarded the labour and expense of research; and unrevealed treasures doubtless yet remain to be brought to light, though under the present Pope, the excavations appear to be suspended. From the Forum towards the south, along the base of the Palatine Mount, ran the Via Sacra, (Sacred Way,) which is now buried in some places to great depth, and lined on both sides with ruins. Beginning with the extreme right, the first object which arrests attention, is a small round temple, once dedicated to Romulus, and erected on the Lupercal, or place where the wolf nursed her twin foundlings. The walls are ancient, but the roof modern. A pagan altar stands at the entrance, bearing an inscription which states, that it once smoked with incense to false gods. The temple has been changed into a christian church, and consecrated to St. Stephen, whose image is substituted for the she-wolf and her boys, in bronze, now deposited in the Museum at the Capitol. Farther on is the triumphal arch of Titus, standing by the side of the Sacred Way, and close to the foot of the Palatine. It is by far the most interesting work of the kind at Rome. Despoiled as it has been of many of its ornaments, by pious plunderers, from Constantine downward, it is still a beautiful ruin. It was erected by order of the senate, and consecrated to Titus, in honour of his conquest of Judea. A personification of the Jordan, in the usual form of a rivergod, is sculptured upon the frieze; and on the interior of the arch are portrayed the sacred symbols of the Jewish religion—the tables of the law, the trumpets for proclaiming the Jubilee, and the seven golden candlesticks. The latter somewhat resemble the trident of Neptune, with the seven branches in a direct line. These delineations are supposed to be accurate, and furnish valuable illustrations of the Scriptures, though they appear in odd company, mixed up with bas-relief representations of the triumphal processions and apotheosis of a Heathen Emperor. The Jews from a national feeling rather creditable to them, cautiously avoid passing under this Arch, which calls to mind the captivity of their country. -At the junction of the Via Sacra and the Via Triumphalis, (the latter avenue winding between the Palatine and Cœlian Hills,) rises the Arch of Constantine, more lofty and in better preservation than either that of Titus or Severus. In fact, the former is indebted, if not to the latter, certainly to some of the ancient buildings of Rome, for a portion of its ornaments. Trajan's Arch was demolished and robbed of its splendour, to enrich this proud pile, dedicated to the first Christian Emperor, in honour of his victory gained over Maxentius, near the Milvian Bridge. Eight beautiful columns of yellow antique adorn its faces, above which are statues of Dacian Warriors, and sculptured friezes, all plundered from the monument of his predecessor. In the tasteless jumble of these materials, it is odd enough to see a bas-relief representing the pagan sacrifice of suovetaurilia, (in which a swine, sheep, and bull, were the triple victims,) appropriated to an Emperor, who had just seen an image of the cross in the sky, and while his brow was yet reeking with holy water from the font of St. John Lateran. But with all his inconsistencies, and with all his robberies of Rome, to embellish his own capital, Constantine did some good; and though he seems to have changed his religion from policy, rather than a sincere conviction, he was instrumental in affording protection to the early Christians. On the left side of the Forum and of the Sacred Way, once stood the temple of Saturn, which was the Treasury of the Roman Republic. It is now utterly demolished, and the Church of St. Adrian occupies its site. The brazen gate has been transferred to St. John Lateran, the mother church of Rome. In front of the temple, the centre of the ancient city, a golden column was erected by the order of Augustus, on which the distances to the respective provinces were marked. From this point, great roads diverged like radii to all parts of the empire. There was something grand in the idea, and still grander in the avenues themselves, paved, as they were with massive flags, at an immense expense. In front of the church of St. Lorenzo, a few yards from that of St. Adrian, are ten Corinthian columns, which once belonged to a temple erected on the same site, to the memory of Antoninus Pius, and the Empress Faustina. Near it rose the temple of Remus, the brazen door and porphyry pillars of which are woven into a little church, substituted in its place. Its marble pavement, engraven with a plan of Rome in the third century, is now deposited in the Museum at the Capitol; but the parts are in such confusion as to form a complete Chinese puzzle, for the amusement of antiquaries. Next commences a region of colossal ruins, the first of which are three enormous arches, supposed to have belonged to the temple of Peace, erected by Vespasian after the conquest of Judea, and filled with the spoils of the east. Its position seems to favour this conjecture, as it stands opposite the Arch of Titus, on the Via Sacra. It is said to have been three hundred feet long, and two hundred feet wide; divided into three aisles by stupendous columns; and the vaulted ceiling covered with gilt bronze. One of its fluted Corinthian pillars, of white marble, now standing before the church of St. Maria Maggiore crowned by a statue of the Virgin, measures sixteen feet in circumference and fortyeight feet in height. Its interior was filled with Grecian statues, and with the treasures of vanquished nations. Tradition says, that the edifice with all its wealth and splendour was consumed by a flame bursting out beneath it from the earth. But the truth is, little seems to be known of its history; and antiquaries are yet disputing about the age, in which it was constructed. Seated on an eminence, at the distance of a few yards, are the remains of the double temple of Venus and Rome, probably intended to illustrate the fable, that neas, the founder of the Roman empire, was, as Virgil makes him, the son of a goddess. Who knows but this shrine, embodying the traditions of the day, may have suggested the first idea of the Eneid, as the great epic poet, green from Mantua, was strolling along the Via Sacra, on his return from the Forum to his lodgings on the Esquiline Hill? The foundations and a part of the walls of the two-fronted temple yet remain; and enormous fragments of pillars from its porticos actually block up the road. But, the Coliseum is in sight, and what objects can appear large in the vicinity of this stupendous pile, which rises like a mountain at the termination of the Sacred Way! Its location between three of the Hills of Rome, and in the midst of Triumphal Arches, is as grand as its proportions are colossal. I have seen this ruin at all hours of the day and night; for there is a prescribed routine of fashionable visits, through which every traveller is obliged to go, under the penalty of being denounced as heretical in taste and sentiment. He must climb the Palatine, and see the sun go down, the west redden, and twilight fade in mellow tints upon the walls. He must see the moon rise, and produce an image of her own orb, by bathing one half of this little world in light, while the other is lost in darkness. He must see her softened beams peer through the ragged loopholes of time, curtained with festoons of ivy and the wild shrubbery growing upon the ramparts. He must see the bat flit, and hear the owl rustle and hoot in the desolate arches. The foot-fall of the sentinel must respond to the echo of his own, as he paces at midnight through the gloomy galleries. Thus much is an indispensable requisition. But he is at liberty to go farther. He may recal the day, when more than a hundred thousand spectators, (equal to nearly the whole population of the modern city,) were here assembled, arrayed in all the splendour of Roman costume, and ranged in five concentric tiers of seats rising one above another, from the podium appropriated to the Emperor, the Senate, and the Vestal Virgins, to the gallery at the height of a hundred and fifty feet from the ground. He may imagine what thunders of applause rent the air, as the vomitories poured forth, into an arena three hundred feet long and two hundred feet wide, the wild beasts of the African, Parthian, and Dalmatian forests, intermingled with gladiators accoutred for the fight; or when the scene changed, and the monsters of the deep gambolled in their own element, or brazen-headed gallies met in naval combat. He may then cast his eye over that arena, and see a throng of devotees now kneeling upon the green sod, before the circle of little shrines rising round its borders; he may watch the multitude, issuing through the gate leading to the Sacred Way, in long procession under the banners of the cross, while the vesper hymn to the Virgin, chanted by a thousand voices, dies in mournful cadence amidst the ruihed porticos. I have complied to the letter with all these requisitions, and if they have failed to inspire me with that enthusiasm, which some others have felt, the fault does not arise from negligence. To deny that the Coliseum is interesting would be folly; but that it is paramount in interest among the ruins of Rome, I am not prepared to acknowledge. It is not associated with a single name or a single event, for which the visitant cares a straw. It was erected by Vespasian, and very properly dedicated to Nero, the very prince of tyrants, whose colossal statue, 125 feet in height, is said to have originally presided over the games. Hence the name of Coliseum. All its amusements were those of vulgar and even barbarous curiosity. No Roscius, no Garrick-neither the dramatic nor the comic Muse, has thrown a charm over its scenes. In character, its arena was but little elevated above a slaughter-house, which a modern spectator would scarcely attend were it possible, and which he does not care to revive in recollection. It is con- In point of architecture, the Coliseum is also less interesting than some other ancient edifices at Rome. sidered as a hurried and unfinished structure. these deductions, the reader may ask, in what does its interest consist? Chiefly in its colossal proportions, its massive materials, and its miraculous preservation, through all the wars, convulsions, and dilapidations, with which Rome * Five thousand wild beasts were slaughtered for the amusement of a Roman audience on the night the amphitheatre was first opened. Human victims without number, consisting of captives, slaves, early christians, and volunteer glaidators have bled upon the arena, which was so constructed as readily to imbibe the torrents of blood. The lions' den of Daniel was a paradise to this, |