clined to descend may occasionally obtain admittance at the workmen's entrance, of whom a few are generally there, or near the spot, under charge of a superintendent. The entrance is on the south-west angle of the enclosure; and the visitor once admitted, is allowed to ramble about alone as long as he pleases. The road in question, which is supposed to be the one distinguished by the title "Clivus Sacer," emerging from the Forum underneath the bank from a distance that, until further experiments are made by clearing away the earth in that quarter, nobody will be able to define, passes thence through the arch, towards the north-west angle of the excavation. As far as regards a specimen of the ancient mode of road-making, it is in the most perfect state of preservation; though formed on a homely model, such as one can hardly reconcile to the mind, as corresponding with the pomp and circumstance of a triumphal procession on its way to the Temple of Jupiter; for it consists of enormous ill-fashioned blocks of selce, each the size of the bottom of an ordinary chair, like the half-natural half-artificial roads one occasionally meets with on the seashore through a sandy beach, composed of a promiscuous assemblage of live rock and boulders. It is curious, at all events, that the material selce, notwithstanding that the term is derived from the Latin silex, ablativo silice, contains no siliceous matter, but is exclusively the light blue volcanic substance cited under the letter B in the Appendix to the first volume of this work; while at the same time the large size and flat surface of the stones appear to correspond with a road of the same primitive form of construction such probably as was the rude, inhospitable cradle for the new-born lamb, idealized by Virgil in the shepherd's pathetic apostrophe,

"Spem gregis ah silice in nudâ connixa reliquit."

As the fragment exists at present, so it seems likely to remain for a long period, since upon the wall which lines the banks of the excavation, above the spot whence it emerges from the Forum, is engrafted a tablet of marble, bearing a lengthy inscription of Gregory XVI., relating to the operations undertaken to remove the wall of Pius VII., and include the Arch of Septimius Severus in the larger excavation as above stated.

Another of the lesser ruins to be observed within the excavation is a small and nondescript structure, supposed to have been a sort of rostrum or place of resort for the teachers of youth, whether a school or a species of instruction termed "ludus literarius." The object in question, close on the western side of the Arch of Septimius Severus, is a truncated portion of a small conical brick building, sheathed with Porta Santa marble, of which about twelve feet in height remains. The diameter at the bottom is about twelve feet also, but with the exception of the semblance of a form, as above stated, some sheathing adhering to the brick-work, and some fragments of pilasters, no characteristic feature whatever is recognizable— such is its present dilapidated condition.

The next of the principal ruins to be attended to, situated in the north-eastern angle, is the Temple of Concord, supposed to have been built by Camillus about 390 years before the Christian era, for the purpose of commemorating the reconciliation between the patricians and plebeians, and also particularly remarkable as being the building whither on the occasion of Catiline's conspiracy the Roman senate were convoked by Cicero. The original edifice was in existence at the commencement of the Empire, and restored by Tiberius; and afterwards, having been destroyed by fire in the war of Vitellius and Vespasian, was rebuilt by Vespasian, and was afterwards burnt a second time in the great conflagration during the reign of Titus. The ruin, however, according to the ecclesiastical writers, was in existence in the eighth century, when Pope Adrian I., about the year 780, converted a portion of its foundation to the substructure of the small church SS. Sergio e Bacco, which he erected on the spot. The church was rebuilt in the year 1198 by Innocent III., but afterwards being in a dilapidated state, was destroyed by Paul III. for the sake of the material in the sixteenth century. Whatever was the title by which the ruin was distinguished at that period, it appears subsequently to have entirely escaped the recollection of the antiquaries, by whom the name of the Temple of Concord was given to another ruin, at present called the Temple of Fortune, as if the one above mentioned had never been in existence, until the year 1817, when, in the course of

an operation undertaken on the spot by the French ambassador, the ancient substructure of the temple in question was found buried under the soil. At all events, notwithstanding the prevalence of so unaccountable a mistake among the learned for so long a period, its identity is now very generally recognised, not only from its position with reference to other adjoining objects as described by the ancient writers, but also on the authority of four votive inscriptions relating to the restoration of the building by Tiberius, which, together with a considerable portion of the frieze and entablature, were also exhumated. The ground plan, moreover, particularly with regard to the portico, which, as it is taken for granted, for want of space, was less in breadth than the façade of the edifice, has been found on comparison to agree with the ancient diagram in the Pianta Capitolina. The ruin, as it appears at present, after its unexpected resurrection from oblivion, consists of the pavement and substructure of the cella of the temple, of which the area is square, or nearly so, and the height, the ground having been removed all round, eight or ten feet, forming altogether a plain open platform, upon which, a person, once below in the excavation, may clamber without much difficulty, and examine the various quality of the paving material at leisure. These slabs of marble, giallo antico, pavonazzetto, and other of the finer sorts, which, broken in pieces. as small as if done purposely with a hammer, have been exposed in the open air for several years since the discovery, have occupied each perhaps its present position since the days of Tiberius; though the effects of fire are evident in the discolouration of the marble, not only of the pieces of the pavement, but of other fragments of the ruin which lie below scattered on the ground, such as portions of columns of giallo antico, and of pavonazzetto, and also pieces of an entablature and of colossal statues. The principal fragments, however, of the above description, which were discovered at the time of the French excavation, not only those of the Temple of Concord, but others belonging to the Temple of Jupiter Tonans, were removed to the lower chambers of the Tabularium, where they are said to be preserved at present.

The ruin of the Temple of Jupiter Tonans is situated close on the western side of the Temple of Concord, being the

remains of the temple built by Augustus in commemoration of his own signal preservation during his Cantabrian expedition, when, travelling through the roads in Spain by night in a litter, he was overtaken by a violent thunderstorm, and the slave who carried a torch in front struck down by lightning; so the temple was accordingly dedicated in gratitude to Jupiter, under the title of Jove the Thunderer. Augustus was accustomed to be carried in a litter during his military operations, in consequence, according to the account of Suetonius, of a vesical complaint which afflicted him continually, and had assumed an increased degree of virulence at the time in question. The accident, at all events, whether from the effects of debility or otherwise, produced a violent effect upon his nervous system, and the recollection ever afterwards on the occasion of a thunderstorm inspired him with such a lively sense of terror, that he invariably took refuge in a subterraneous or secluded chamber. He also adopted the precaution of constantly wearing a girdle of sealskin from confidence in the superstitious opinion generally entertained by the ancients, that the seal as well as the eagle were animals rendered invulnerable to lightning by a particular privilege granted to them by the deities.* According to the Ode of Horace, which, after his safe return from the expedition, celebrates his arrival, it would seem that a report had reached Rome of his having been actually killed by the thunderbolt in question:

“Herculis ritu, modo dictus, ô plebs,
Morte venalem petiisse laurum,

Cæsar Hispanæ repetit penates
Victor ab ora."†

The ruin of the temple, as afterwards restored by Septimius Severus and Caracalla, consists in its present state of three fluted Corinthian columns of Luna or Carrara marble, said to be four and a half ancient Roman feet in diameter, which, with a considerable portion of the entablature above, comprise the south-east angle of the building, whose façade, originally ornamented with six columns in a row, fronted towards the Forum. And there is also to be seen a portion of the substructure sheathed with tablets of marble, upon which the edifice was raised, whence it would appear that the entrance, instead of * Life of Octavius,' chaps. 29, 81, 82, 90. † Lib. iii. Ode 14.

being by a single continuous flight of steps, consisted of narrow flights at each intercolumniation. An interesting opportunity is here afforded to scientific people, with reference to the separate eras of Augustus and Septimius Severus, of comparing the different specimens of each period that appear in the entablature, of which the portion of the frieze in front, evidently belonging to the latter period, relating to the restoration of Septimius Severus and Caracalla, bears engraved in legible characters the letters "estituer," a portion of the word restituere. Upon the portion of the frieze on the eastern flank, though I have not paid attention to which of the periods it may belong, the bass-relief sculpture, executed in a style extremely highly wrought, represents principally the several articles and implements relating to the ancient sacrifices, among which is to be observed particularly, surmounted by a thunderbolt in allusion to the history of the temple, the Galerus, or cap, worn by the Flamen Dialis, or high priest of Jupiter. The Galerus was made of the skin of a sheep with the wool on, one of the animals sacrificed ; and the term, long after the establishment of the Christian religion, applied by one or more of the ecclesiastical writers to the red hat of the cardinal.

A few yards only south-west of the Temple of Jupiter Tonans stands the ruin of the Temple of Fortune, the principal and largest object in the excavation, the same which was so long mistaken for the Temple of Concord, as above stated, and whose present title necessarily gave rise to a subject of serious discussion among the antiquaries, on account of their being obliged unexpectedly and at short notice, immediately after the discovery of the real Temple of Concord, to furnish it with a new identity. I cannot pretend to state the various titles that were provided simultaneously in the dilemma, such as the "Temple of Juno Moneta," the "Temple of Vespasian,' and also of another Temple of Concord, supposed to have been built in addition to the one before referred to, upon the presumption that Tiberius built a new Temple of Concord on the spot in question, instead of restoring the old one as above stated. Some, moreover, affirmed it to be the remains of a Temple of Saturn, and others of a Temple of Vespasian; but finally the name of the Temple of Fortune, by which it has been generally distinguished ever since in Rome, was allotted

VOL. II.

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