all the Papal exploits, inasmuch as, by half choking up and pressing down the great remains of the temples in that quarter, it served to perpetuate the deformity of those majestic ruins. Yet an inscription on the wall facing the prisons records, that this was the work of Pope Clement XI. and his Conservators in 1709. The first labour of the French administration was devoted to breaking up this hideous causeway.

The Via del Arco de Settimio is a paved road, large enough, and not too steep, for carriages. It is, however, but seldom used, and a chain has been drawn across the upper end of it. The ancient building of the Capitol has been recently cleared on this side, and the large travertine blocks of which it is composed, being exposed, show what must have been the massive solidity of the ancient citadel. The contrast between them and the before-mentioned brick wall under the terrace is exceedingly striking.

THE TEMPLE OF CONCORD.

The reader may recollect a fine passage in Middleton's letter from Rome: "For my own part, as I have been rambling about in the very rostra of old Rome, or in that temple of Concord where Tully assembled the senate in Catiline's conspiracy; I could not help fancying myself much more sensible of the force of his eloquence, whilst the impression of the place served to warm my imagination to a degree almost equal to that of his old audience."

The author of the Free Enquiry' was no enthusiast, even in the cause of his favourite Cicero, and the emotions which he confesses himself to have felt will be assuredly partaken by any one imbued with a moderate respect for the wisest and best man of all antiquity. Every site and relic that can remind us of him must be regarded with that veneration with which he himself contemplated the porticoes and seats of the Athenian philosophers: and we treasure up the little dies of the pavement which lie scattered on the Formian shore, and may possibly have been trodden by the saviour of his country, with an affectionate regard scarcely inspired by the masterpieces of ancient art.*

There is certainly no delight comparable with that derived from the sight of objects connected with the writings and actions of those, some of whom, according to the panegyric of Dryden,—

"Better lived than we, though less they knew."

be

How fully such a delight is enjoyed at Rome may understood by the most ignorant, and is experienced by the most indifferent observer. The fear of ridicule, the vice of the age, is, in this instance, insufficient to check the honest indistinct admiration, which, it may be some consolation for the timid to learn from competent authority, is not the sign of folly, but of superior sense,

*Cicero is the hero of Mola di Gaeta; a tomb and a villa, said to belong to him, are shown by the antiquary at the inn of that town.

*

and is the sole origin of wisdom. The memory of the great orator was preserved at Rome even in the ages of ignorance. In the twelfth century, an ancient structure was known by the name of the temple of Cicero. He had not a temple raised to him, but no man that ever lived was more deserving of one.†

We must be content with the site, for we cannot trust much to the objects of the Roman Forum. It will have been seen that when Middleton was at Rome the eight columns under the Capitol with the inscription, "Senatus Populusque Romanus incendio consumptum restituit," were usually supposed those of the Ciceronian Temple of Concord. In fact, they had gone by that name in the fifteenth century, when seen by Poggio, who witnessed the destruction of the cell and part of the portico. The author of the 'Ordo Romanus,' in

* Μάλα γὰρ φιλοσόφου τοῦτο το πάθος, τὸ θαυμάζειν, οὐ γὰρ ἄλλη ȧpxn piλooopías avrŋ. Platon. Theæteti. dialog. oper. tom. i. p. 155. The reader may remark the use the eloquent Winkelmann has made of this authority. Storia delle Arti, &c. lib. v. cap. vi. tom. i. p. 393.

† Benedict, in his Ordo Romanus, says, "Mane dicit missam ad sanctam Anastasiam, qua finita descendit cum processione per viam juxta porticum Gallatorum ante templum Sybillæ et inter templum Ciceronis et porticum Cimorum."-Ap. Mabillon. Mus. Ital., tom. ii. p. 125, num. 16.

"Romani postmodum ædem totam et porticus partem disjectis columnis sunt demoliti."-De Variet. Fortunæ ap. Sallengre, tom. i. p. 501. Mr. Lumsden, who published his volume on the antiquities of Rome in 1797, talks as if the doubts respecting these ruins were unfounded. He says, "But as the Temple of Concord is not mentioned in the inscription, some antiquaries, contrary to tradition, D

VOL. II.

the twelfth century, places it near the Arch of Severus,* a position which seems to accord with that given to the Temple of Concord by Dion Cassius,† and by Servius,‡ the first of whom says it was near the prisons, and the second near the Temple of Saturn, on the Clivus Capitolinus. Plutarch, in his life of Camillus, mentions that it looked towards the Forum. An inscription found near the ruins, as Marlianus § and Faunus ||

have doubted if this was it."-p. 360. Of this very unsafe guide an equally credulous writer says—

"And Lumsden taught him to converse of Rome."

And then follows a note extolling Mr. Lumsden. See Dial. iv. of 'Pursuits of Literature,' a work which enjoyed the most marvellous popularity, and the author of which, amongst other proofs of scarcely sane self-importance, actually goes the length of comparing his foolish fears to the Passion of our Saviour. It is written," says

he, "I hope we all know where, and being in an agony he prayed yet more fervently."" Pursuits of Literature,' Dial. iii., note. The quotation from the New Testament is given in Greek.

*“Descendit ante privatam Mamertini; intrat sub arcu triumphali inter templum fatale et templum Concordiæ." Ordo Roman. Auct. Benedict. ap. Mab. ib. p. 143, num. 51. The author of the 'De Mirabilibus Roma' also says, Templum Concordiæ juxta Capitolium, ante quod arcus triumphalis."—Ap. Montfaucon Diar. Italic., cap. xx.

he

66

† Hist. Rom. lib. lviii. cap. ii. tom. ii. p. 885. Near the prison, says, that is the Mamertine, ἀλλ ̓ αὐθημερόν η γερουσια πλησίον τοῦ οἰκήματος ἐν τῷ “Ομονοείῳ, &c. vol. ii. p. 885, edit. Hamb.

"Templum Saturni, quod est ante Clivum Capitolium, juxta Concordiæ templum."-Ad Æneid. lib. ii. ver. 116.

§ Marlian. Topog. Urb. Rom. cap. x. lib. ii. only says, “Inventus est autem lapis," without saying where.

Faunus, lib. ii. cap. x. de Antiq. Urb. Rom. "In marmore præterea quodam aliquando in ruinis reperto." Is the Abate Fea justified from this in saying, "Che vi fu trovata per testimonianza