TEMPLE OF PEACE. O Thou who bad'st thy turtles bear, Oh Peace, thy injured robes upbind! COLLINS. BUILDINGS, like books, have sometimes a disputed authenticity; and it often happens that the question as to their true founders is agitated with more vivacity than in the case of authors and their writings, inasmuch as all their present value and interest depend on our knowledge of their origin. This is particularly the case with regard to the Temple of Peace. If the date and purpose of its foundation, as popularly described, be correct, it is one of the most interesting remains of antiquity; but if tradition can be fairly convicted of error in this instance, there is scarcely a ruin in Europe which possesses less claim to regard. According to the commonly received opinion, the dilapidated and almost rude structure we are contemplating was begun by the Emperor Claudius, but completed by Vespasian, and dedicated to the goddess of peace, on the successful termination of the Jewish war. Josephus, after describing the pomp of the triumphs which celebrated the final overthrow of his nation, says that the conqueror determined on building a temple to Peace; and that he finished it in so short a period, and in a style of such unexampled magnificence, that it astonished every beholder. The prodigious wealth which he had accumulated in the late wars assisted him in his design; and the rarest statues and paintings, with the most curious productions of every quarter of the world, were collected under its roof. Thither also he brought the spoils of the temple of Jerusalem; and the golden vessels and sacred instruments of its altars graced, as once before of old, the festive rites of idolaters. Such was the celebrity which the Temple of Peace acquired by the splendour of its ornaments, and the vast sums expended on every part of the structure, that it was regarded as the noblest edifice in the world. A curious custom also, which prevailed at a very early period in Greece, appears to have added considerably to its grandeur. In the temple at Delphos, rendered sacred to all the land by the mysteries of religion, both states and individuals deposited their accumulated wealth. Neither fraud nor violence dare approach a treasure which had been placed under the immediate guardianship of a deity; and in times when the weak had little protection against the strong, and one republic was always on the watch to surprise another, it contributed not a little to the general good that such an institution existed. It is not easy to discover so weighty a reason for the same custom being prevalent at Rome, at least not in the time of Vespasian or Titus; but, whatever was its origin, the Temple of Peace received an immense increase of wealth by its prevalence, and every citizen of rank and opulence rendered himself a sort of guardian of its sanctity by placing within its walls some valuable portion of his property. From the scanty records which remain respecting the original plan of this famous edifice, it is hardly possible to give an idea of its former grandeur. Three massy walls are all that now exist of the sumptuous temple which astonished the haughty Persian ambassador by its magnificence. The last of the eight pillars which adorned its front was removed, by the order of Pope Paul V., to the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, where it supports an image of the Virgin. The whole length of the building was about three hundred feet, and its breadth about two hundred. In the interior the walls were lined with gilded bronze and paintings by the most celebrated artists. Among the latter was the famous one of Protogones, who, in endeavouring to finish the figure of a dog and to add the foam which was supposed to have fallen from its mouth, was almost driven mad himself by finding all his efforts unsuccessful. At length losing all patience, he flung his brush with great fury at the picture, when, to his delight, he saw that he had, by that means, painted the foam to admiration. There is also said to have been an extensive library in this temple, which obtained for it the respect of the learned, as its other riches did the admiration of the curious. The goddess of Peace was worshipped in very early times by the Greeks; and she had a temple in Athens, built, it is said, by Cimon, in commemoration of his victory over the Persians. It is a singular circumstance that the Romans should not have had a place for her worship till so late a period as the reign of Vespasian, or |