founded the temple of Saturn; indeed, he may be called the founder of the Forum, since it was he who first surrounded it with private houses and shops. In his reign the Forum was thoroughly drained. He built the great cloaca, which carried off the water to the Tiber.* Servius Tullius completed the works begun by his predecessor around the Forum; he added a lower dungeon to the Mamertine prison, I called after him Tullianum. In Republican times one of the earliest buildings erected in the Forum was the temple of Castor and Pollux. In the year B.C. 337 the platform which stood near the curia, and whence the orators addressed the people, was adorned with beaks of ships taken from the Antiates, and hence was called the rostra. Extensive basilica began to be erected. In 184 B.C. the first of these buildings was erected by M. Porcius Cato, and called after him Basilica Porcia, and in 179 the Basilica Fulvia, while a third was built by T. Sempronius Gracchus in B.C. 169, and called Basilica Sempronia. In 121 B.C. the temple of Concord was built by the Consul L. Opimius, and in the same year the Forum was adorned with the arch of Fabius.

The buildings added in imperial times we shall notice in our next lecture.

* The word 'cloaca,' as generally applied to it, is a misnomer. It was not a sewer; it was a drain for carrying off the water in the valleys between the Capitoline, the Palatine, and the Quirinal. The Cloaca Maxima formed a part of a vast network of drains, whose waters were carried into the Cloaca Maxima, and thence discharged into the Tiber. This system of drains began at the foot of the Esquiline, in the Subura, and at the little Velabrum, which was at the foot of the Quirinal.

The Roman Forum, it is now generally agreed, extended from the foot of the temples of Concord and Saturn to the temple of Antoninus and Faustina and the arch of Fabius. The Basilica Julia was its boundary the whole length of the western side, while on the eastern side it was bounded by the curia, the rostra, and the Basilica Æmilia. From the slope of the Velia to the foot of the Capitoline, its length does not exceed three hundred yards, and the central space was a parallelogram, 290 feet long by about 123 feet wide.

In describing the existing remains of the Roman Forum of the Republican period, I have taken up my position on a spot which is near the early rostra, and where the Forum was divided into two parts-on the right was the comitium, where the Comitia Curiata. met, which was an assembly of thirty curia, into which the populus was originally divided, and which consisted of the patricians only; on the left was the Forum proper, the meeting place of the Comitia Tributa, which was an assembly of the thirty tribes which were essentially plebeian.

The rostra were placed between the two, so that the speaker might be heard on both sides. In the early times of the Republic, the orator, when speaking, fronted the comitium, or patrician portion of the Forum. Caius Gracchus was the first who turned his back to the comitium, and spoke with his face. towards the Forum, and addressed the plebs. The suggestum, or platform whence the orators addressed the people, was not raised to any great

height above the level of the Forum. It rested on five arches; the three in the centre were ornamented with the beaks of ships taken from the Antiates, whence the rostra derived its name. 'The mighty multitude,' as Mr. Merivale writes, of the Roman people occupied the whole vacant space between the Via Sacra and the Via Nova, and crowded without order or distinction of places around the occupant of the political pulpit.'

The paved road which passes along the north-east side of the Forum was the Via Sacra, which seems to have derived its name from the sacred processions for which it was used, and because the sacred offerings to Jupiter Capitolinus were borne along it monthly; along this also passed the triumphal processions. The line of the Via Sacra-which descended the Velia, passed under the arch of Fabius, and skirted the Forum on the right-was bordered on one side by public edifices, the Basilica Æmilia, the temple of Janus, and the Curia Julia; on the other by a range of statues on pedestals or columns, forming an august approach to the Capitol, which it mounted by an oblique and gradual ascent by the temples of Concord and of Saturn. It was the well-known principle of the Roman engineer, in making a road, to take the straightest line leading to the goal to which his road was directed. Now this is fully carried out in the course of the Via Sacra. It led down the Clivus Sacra, from the arch of Titus, passed under the arch of Fabius, which was on the edge of the Forum, then went in a straight line along the north-east side of the

Forum by the Basilica Æmilia, the temple of Janus, the Curia Hostilia, to the foot of the Clivus Capitolinus, where it ascended to the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. There is nothing to support the view that on reaching the edge of the Forum it turned to the left, then to the right, and on reaching the arch of Tiberius turned again to the right. These frequent turnings were against the well-known principle of the Roman engineer, such turns being, to use Mr. Fergusson's words, 'as abhorrent to a Roman roadmaker as a vacuum is said to be to nature.’

There is not the slightest foundation for supposing the course of the Via Sacra was ever changed at a later period. The Romans, who were intensely conservative in their religious practices, would never have changed the course of a via which was consecrated by the use and custom of many ages. According to Ovid, the Via Sacra received its name from the sacred rites which were performed on it.

Close to this, in the north end of the Forum, was the Curia Hostilia, which was built by Tullus Hostilius as a meeting place for the Senate, and which continued. almost down to imperial times to be the most usual place for holding assemblies of the Senate. It was raised above the level of the Forum, and was approached by steps, down which it is said Tarquinius threw Servius Tullius. The voice of a herald on these steps proclaimed the hour of noon, when, standing in front of the curia, he could see the sun between the Græcostasis and the rostra,* Every citizen then

* If anyone will stand with a compass in his hand, halfway between the arch of Septimius Severus and the spot where the

retired to his house, every door was closed, and everyone plunged into the dark recess of his sleeping chamber for the enjoyment of his midday slumber. The midday siesta generally terminated the affairs of the day, and every man was now released from duty, and free to devote himself to relaxation or amusement till the return of night. The curia was rebuilt by Sylla, when dictator, and was burnt in B.C. 54, at the time of the riots excited by the death of Clodius.

In front of the Curia Hostilia was the small temple of Janus, the doors of which were said to have been kept open during war, and shut during peace. The reason for this Ovid gives from the mouth of the god Janus himself, 'In order that the means of returning may lie open in readiness for the people when they have gone forth to war, the whole of my gates stand wide open, the bolt being removed. In times of peace I bar my doors, that she may by no means be enabled to depart.'-Fasti, i. 279.

In the year U.C. 725, B.C. 29, after the battle of Actium, the Senate decreed that the temple should be closed by Octavius. In the Monumentum Ancyranum, Augustus enumerates among his most honourable achievements that the gates of Janus, which had been closed only twice since the foundation of the city, had been closed three times by him. The subsequent occasions were A.U.C. 729 and 744. They were closed again by Vespasian in A.U.C. 824, A.D. 71.

rostra was supposed to have been, and face the south, the Curia Hostilia must have been behind him, to the north, where the church of S. Martina now is.