OLD ROME: A HANDBOOK TO THE RUINS OF THE CITY AND THE CAMPAGNA. BY ROBERT BURN, M.A., FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. BEING AN EPITOME OF HIS LARGER WORK ‘ROME AND THE CAMPAGNA.’   LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL, & CO. 1880. [ The Right of Translation is reserved. ] LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS....

This book is intended to serve as a handbook to the actually-existing ruins and monuments of ancient Rome and the Campagna. It is divided into topographical sections for the convenience of travellers visiting Rome, and the monuments which exist in each section have been briefly described, and a summary given of their history and archæological value. The introductory section contains general remarks upon the site, monumental history, and architecture of Rome; and in a section prefixed to Chapter

I.— The Site of Rome and the Walls of Rome. One of the principal points in the early history of every nation is the effect of the natural configuration of the country in which their first settlements are formed upon the subsequent character of the people. The site of Rome consists of several separate hills, upon which distinct groups of original settlers established themselves. These groups after a temporary rivalry seem to have agreed to form a confederation, in which the leading part was assig

THE PALATINE AND VELIA. The entrance to the ruins on the Palatine Hill is now made through a gateway opposite to the Basilica of Constantine. This gateway was erected by the architect Vignola in the sixteenth century as an approach to the Farnese Gardens, which formerly occupied the north-western part of the Palatine Hill. On the right and left hand of the gateway are placed two ancient pedestals, which were discovered near the Arch of Septimius Severus in 1547. One of these, which stands on the

THE FORUM ROMANUM. At a short distance from the entrance to the Palatine we can enter the Forum near the ruins of an ancient temple, three columns of which are still standing. These three columns are among the most conspicuous and beautiful remains of ancient Rome. No doubt can now be felt that they belonged to the Temple of Castor and Pollux. The situation agrees with that which is pointed out by the Ancyræan inscription, and by the fact that Caligula made a passage from the Palatine Palace to

THE COLISEUM AND ESQUILINE. On the road from the Forum Romanum to the Coliseum, after passing through the Arch of Titus, we descend between the platform and ruins of the Temple of Venus and Rome, and the remains called the lavacrum of Heliogabalus, mentioned previously, and, close to the south-western corner of the mass of substruction on the left, we find a conical column of brickwork about thirty feet high. A large breach on the side towards the Coliseum shows that the centre was pierced with

THE IMPERIAL FORA AND THE CAPITOLIUM. The whole space between the Quirinal and the Capitoline Hills was occupied by the immense Forum and public buildings which Trajan constructed. The Column of Trajan, with its wonderful spiral reliefs, still marks the site of this great mass of masonry; but the remainder, which included a basilica, two libraries, a temple, and two extensive porticoes, has disappeared with the exception of a fragmentary ruin in the Via della Salita del Grillo under the Quirinal

THE VELABRUM AND THE CIRCUS FLAMINIUS. The church of S. Giorgio in Velabro, which stands between the Palatine Hill and the river near the Piazza Bocca della Verità, retains the ancient name of this district, formerly a swamp called the Velabrum. This is perhaps the best point from which to begin our survey of the ruins of the Velabrum. The most conspicuous ruin near the church is the archway called Janus Quadrifrons, from its quadrilateral shape. It is a massive square building of white marble,

PANTHEON, COLUMN OF MARCUS AURELIUS, MAUSOLEUM OF AUGUSTUS, MAUSOLEUM OF HADRIAN, AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. Near the Piazza Venezia and S. Marco, to the east of the site of the ancient Circus Flaminius, stood the Septa, an ancient building erected for the purpose of holding the Roman comitia or elections. Some ruins of a very peculiar kind are situated under the Palazzo Doria and the church of S. Maria in Via Lata. They consist of ancient piers of travertine stone, about thirty-nine inches square, stan

THE QUIRINAL HILL—BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN—AGGER OF SERVIUS—CASTRA PRÆTORIA. The broad flat space to the N.E. of the Quirinal Hill, was occupied by the Thermæ of Diocletian, now converted into the great Church of S. Maria degli Angeli. This enormous group of buildings was the most extensive of all the gigantic edifices of the empire, and the ground plan is not difficult to trace by the aid of the existing ruins. Some idea of their dimensions will be given by remarking that the grand court enclosed a

THE AVENTINE AND CÆLIAN HILLS. Before the end of the regal period there was an enlargement of the limits of the city in which the Aventine and Cælian were comprehended. Dionysius, Livy, and Aurelius Victor all relate that Tarquinius Priscus undertook the building of a new stone wall for the defence of the whole of the new quarters of the city, but that he did not live to finish it. The design was carried out by Servius Tullius, who also constructed the enormous agger called by his name, and stil

MONUMENTAL ANTIQUITIES IN THE MUSEUMS, PIAZZAS AND OTHER PLACES. Besides the ruins which are still standing in Rome and the Campagna, many historical monuments may be seen in the Roman museums, and in some of the gardens and piazzas. The principal among these are as follows: 1. Numerous Egyptian antiquities were found near the Churches of S. Maria sopra Minerva and that of S. Stefano in Cacco, on the site of the ancient Temples of Isis and Serapis. Of these the most remarkable are the two obelis

The geological strata found on the site of Rome and in its immediate neighbourhood divide themselves into three principal groups. The oldest of these is a marine formation, and exhibits itself upon the Vatican, Janiculum, and Monte Mario. The second, of which all the hills on the eastern bank and the district of the Campagna are composed, is of volcanic origin, and consists chiefly of beds of tufaceous matter erupted from submarine volcanoes and more or less solidified. The third, which appears