the fig-trees, lotus, and cypress, which we hear of in the Roman Forum,-one would imagine it a romantic solitude, instead of a place crowded, as it was, with temples and tribunes, altars and statues, basilica and rostra, shops and exchanges,* triumphal arches and senate-houses. There is, indeed, no end to the contents of the Forum. For besides all the buildings I have already enumerated, and the still greater number I have not, the Pila Horatii, on which the spoils of the Curatii were heaped-the rostral column to Caius Duillius, the first Roman who ever gained a naval victory,—all the public triburals,—the statue of Horatius Cocles, of the Three Fates,† of Castor and Pollux,-the equestrian statues of Clelia, of Domitian, and fifty more,-the Temple of Apollo, || the Temple of Augustus, of Vespasian, and of Hadrian, the Basilica Opimia and Sempronia,temples, in short, without number, and basilicas without end-stood somewhere in the Forum. Nay, the antiquaries believe (for what, in some cases, will they not believe, and in others will they not doubt ?) - The Forum was surrounded with shops, chiefly of bankers, (Argentariæ Taberna) and with porticos.* It is also said to have had two Jani or Exchanges, similar to the arch of Janus Quadrifontus. + Procopius speaks of them as late as the 6th century. They stood before the Temple of Jupiter Tonans. Plin. lib. xxxiv. c. 8. || Mentioned by Plutarch. * Livy, lib. xii. c. 27, and Ixxvi. c. 11. that at the base of the Palatine Hill alone, stood the Curia, the Comitium, the Basilica Porcia, the Grecostasis, the Temple of Romulus, the Temple of Castor and Pollux, the Temple of Vesta, with the House of the Vestal Virgins, and the Sacred Grove, and the Lake of Juturna,-all these, and more than I can at this moment recollect, in one little corner of the Forum! To recapitulate all the buildings which are said, even on good authority, to have been contained within it,—since it surpasses the limits of human comprehension to conceive where they found room, -would only be fruitlessly to exhaust your patience, which I must already have severely tried. 'One conclusion, however, common sense dictateseither that these buildings never did stand here at the same time, or that the limits of the Forum must have been very considerably greater than those at present ascribed to it. But we must not only find space for the buildings, but for the people. The whole Roman populace seem at times to have been convened here. Here they assembled for the election of inferior priests and magistrates, for the hearing of causes, the trial of accused citizens, and the attendance on popular harangues. It was here, when Scipio was accused by the country he had saved, that, for all reply, he turned towards the Capitol, and called upon his fellow-citizens to follow him to the Temple of Jupiter," the best and greatest," there to return thanks to the immortal gods, under whose auspices he had, on the anniversary of that very day, conquered Hannibal, and delivered Rome. The people followed him with enthusiastic plaudits, and his accuser was left alone. * It was here, in times of alarm and commotion, they beset the doors of the Senate-house; and here, in the struggle between contending parties, at the election of opposing candidates, or the passing of contested laws, they even found room to fight; it was the frequent theatre of frays, tumults, popular commotions, wounds, and bloodshed. In the times of the Republic, shews of gladiators were exhibited here to the people, especially at funeral games; and consequently, we may suppose that no small portion of the immense population of Rome was assembled to view a sport they delighted in so much. How, in a space so circumscribed, such buildings stood, and such scenes were acted, it is impossible for us to comprehend. But I must have done. Forgive, if you can, this unconscionable long letter. I do assure you I am not nearly so tiresome as the antiquaries; but this you will find it difficult to believe. Adieu. . Livy, Dec. iv. lib. xxxviii. c. 51. LETTER XX. FORUMS OF THE EMPERORS, AND THEIR REMAINS. -FORUM OF JULIUS CÆSAR, OF AUGUSTUS, AND OF NERVA OR DOMITIAN.-FORUM AND TRIUMPHAL COLUMN OF TRAJAN.VESPASIAN'S FORUM OF PEACE.-FORUM OF ANTONINUS PIUS.-TRIUMPHAL COLUMN OF MARCUS AURELIUS.-TEMPLE OR BASILICA OF ANTONINUS PIUS. FROM the Roman Forum, we must now turn to the Forums of the Emperors, which were chiefly situated to the east of it, and seem to have formed a sort of chain communicating with each other. The Church of St Adrian, is called in tribus foris, from the Roman Forum, and the Forums of Cæsar and of Augustus, of which it forms the connecting point. From the title it bears, it would appear that at the time this old church was built, the sites of all the three Forums must have been open and apparent, although those of the two Emperors are now built up with streets and houses, and are no longer distinguishable. The Forum of Cæsar extended from the point where this church now stands to the south, behind the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, to the Church of S. S. Cosmo and Damiano or the Temple of Romulus and Remus-and in the court of that convent are still to be seen some massy walls, said to have formed a part of it, which are the sole vestiges of its former magnificence. The ground alone for the Forum of Cæsar cost one hundred millions of sesterces, about eight hundred thousand pounds.* The Forum of Augustus-or the Forum of Mars, as it was called, from the splendid temple he erected in it to the avenging God of Wart-was immediately behind the spot which the Church of St Martina and S. Luca now occupies, and must have been at the very base, if not upon the Capitoline Hill. There are now no remains of it, except some fragments of walls said to have belonged to the Taberna, or shops, which encircled this, as well as every other Forum; and which, (though not worth looking at,) are to be seen behind the church, in the dirtiest court I ever was in. Really an antiquary, or rather an antiquity hunter at Rome, ought to have no olfactory nerves. The ruin called the Temple of Peace, whether or not its claims to that title be allowed, must be considered as fixing the site of Vespasian's Forum of Peace; simply for this reason, that if we deny the said Forum a place here, where else shall we find room for it on the Via Sacra, on which we know that it stood? Therefore, even if we must assign the |