there are many other interesting ruins in and about the campo vaccino, besides those i have mentioned; but of some structures which we know formerly stood here, no vestige is now to be seen. this is the case with the arch which was erected in honour of the fabian family. there is the strongest reason to believe, that the ancient forum was entirely surrounded with temples, basilic?, and public buildings of various kinds, and adorned with porticoes and colonades. in the time of the republic, assemblies of the people were held there, laws were proposed, and justice administered. in it was the rostrum, from whence the orators harangued the people. all who aspired at dignities came hither to canvass suffrages. the bankers had their offices near the[443] forum, as well as those who received the revenues of the commonwealth; and all kind of business was transacted in this place. in my visits to the campo vaccino, i arrange the ancient forum in the best manner i can, and fix on the particular spot where each edifice stood. in this i am sometimes a little cramped in room; for the space between the palatine hill and the capitol is so small, and i am so circumscribed by arches and temples, whose ruins still remain, that i find it impossible to make the forum romanum larger than covent garden. i looked about for the via sacra, where horace met with his troublesome companion. some people imagine, this was no other than the forum itself; but i am clearly of opinion, that the via sacra was a street leading to the forum, and lost in it, as a street in london terminates at a square. i have, at last, fixed on the exact point where it joins the forum, which is very near the meta sudans. if we should ever meet here, i shall[444] convince you by local arguments, that i am in the right; but i fear it would be very tedious, and not at all convincing, to transmit them to you in writing.
as rome increased in size and number of inhabitants, one forum was found too small, and many others were erected in process of time; but when we speak of the forum, without any distinguishing epithet, the ancient one is understood.
the tarpeian rock is a continuation of that on which the capitol was built; i went to that part from which criminals condemned to death were thrown. mr. byres has measured the height; it is exactly fifty-eight feet perpendicular; and he thinks the ground at the bottom, from evident marks, is twenty feet higher than it was originally; so that, before this accumulation of rubbish, the precipice must have been about eighty feet perpendicular. in reading the history of the romans, the vast idea we form of that people, naturally extends[445] to the city of rome, the hills on which it was built, and every thing belonging to it. we image to ourselves the tarpeian rock as a tremendous precipice; and, if afterwards we ever have an opportunity of actually seeing it, the height falls so short of our expectations, that we are apt to think it a great deal less than it is in reality. a mistake of this kind, joined to a careless view of the place, which is not in itself very interesting, has led bishop burnet into the strange assertion, that the tarpeian rock is so very low, that a man would think it no great matter to leap down it for his diversion. criminals thrown from this precipice, were literally thrown out of the city of old rome into the campus martius, which was a large plain, of a triangular shape; two sides of the triangle being formed by the tiber, and the base by the capitol, and buildings extending three miles nearly in a parallel line with it. the campus martius had its name from a small temple built in it, at a very[446] early period, and dedicated to mars; or it might have this name from the military exercises performed there. in this field, the great assemblies of the people, called census or lustrum, were held every fifth year; the consuls, censors, and tribunes, were elected; the levies of troops were made; and there the roman youth exercised themselves in riding, driving the chariot, shooting with the bow, using the sling, darting the javelin, throwing the discus or quoit, in wrestling, running; and when covered with sweat and dust, in consequence of these exercises, they washed their bodies clean by swimming in the tiber. horace accuses lydia of ruining a young man, by keeping him from those manly exercises in which he formerly excelled.
——cur apricum
oderit campum, patiens pulveris atque solis:
cur neque militaris
inter equales equitet, gallica nec lupatis
temperet ora fr?nis?
cur timet flavum tiberim tangere?
[447]
the dead bodies of the most illustrious citizens were also burnt in this field, which was adorned gradually by statues and trophies, erected to the memory of distinguished men. but every feature of its ancient appearance, is now hid by the streets and buildings of modern rome.
the inhabitants of rome may be excused for chusing this situation for their houses, though by so doing, they have deprived us of a view of the campus martius. but surely they, or their governors, ought to show more solicitude for preserving the antiquities than they do; and they might, without inconveniency, find some place for a cow market, of less importance than the ancient forum. it is not in their power to restore it to its former splendor, but they might, at least, have prevented its falling back to the state in which ?neas found it, when he came to visit the poor evander.
talibus inter se dictis ad tecta subibant
pauperis evandri: passimque armenta videbant
romanoque foro et lautis mugire carinis.
[448]
i have already said, that besides this, there were several forums in rome, where basilic? were built, justice administered, and business transacted. the emperors were fond of having such public places named after them. the accounts we have of the forums of nerva, and that of trajan, give the highest idea of their grandeur and elegance; three corinthian pillars, with their entablature, are all that remain of the former; of the latter, the noble column placed in the middle, still preserves all its original beauty. it consists of twenty-three circular pieces of white marble, horizontally placed one above the other; it is about twelve feet diameter at the bottom, and ten at the top. the plinth of the base is a piece of marble twenty-one feet square. a staircase, consisting of one hundred and eighty-three steps, and sufficiently wide to admit a man to ascend, is cut out of the solid marble, leaving a small pillar in the middle, round which the stair winds from the bottom to the top. i observed[449] a piece broken, as i went up, which shewed, that those large masses of marble have been exquisitely polished on the flat sides, where they are in contact with each other, that the adhesion and strength of the pillar might be the greater. the stairs are lighted by forty-one windows, exceedingly narrow on the outside, that they might not interrupt the connection of the basso relievos, but which gradually widen within, and by that means give sufficient light. the base of the column is ornamented with basso relievos, representing trophies of dacian armour. the most memorable events of trajan’s expedition against the dacians, are admirably wrought in a continued spiral line from the bottom of the column to the top. the figures towards the top, are too far removed from the eye to be seen perfectly. to have rendered them equally visible with those below, it would have been necessary to have made them larger proportionably as they ascended.[450] viewed from any considerable distance, all the sculpture is lost, and a plain fluted pillar, of the same proportions, would have had as fine an effect. but such a frugal plan would not have been so glorious to the prince, whose victories are engraven, or so interesting to the legionary soldiers, many of whom, no doubt, are here personally represented. besides, it would not now be near so valuable a monument, in the eyes of antiquarians, or so useful a study to sculptors and painters, who have occasion to represent the military dress of the romans, or the costume of the east in that age. exclusive of the statue, this beautiful pillar is a hundred and twenty feet high. the ashes of trajan were deposited in an urn at the bottom, and his statue at the top. pope sixtus the fifth, in the room of the emperor’s, has placed a statue of st. peter upon this column. i observed to a gentleman, with whom i visited this pillar, that i thought there was[451] not much propriety in placing the figure of st. peter upon a monument, representing the victories, and erected in honour of the emperor trajan. “there is some propriety, however,” replied he coldly, “in having made the statue of brass.”
