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which admission may be obtained into this Temple of Fame, written in old Latin (e. g. siet for sit), are sufficiently pedantic; but there is nothing very classical in the guardians of this repository, for they are no other than the Conservators of Rome, assisted by the various academies, and referring to the final decision of his Holiness for the time being. One of the rules lays down that none but those notoriously possessed of a genius of the first order, and none but the dead, shall have a place in the collection-yet the busts seemed to me to have increased exceedingly since 1822-and if such men as Sterne, the architect of the Braccio Nuovo (though he had much merit) are to be admitted, another room will soon be wanted for the reception of these memorials. The law against admitting the living was violated for the sake of the sovereign, for Leo XII. was already there in 1828.

The modern Romans at one time declared that flattery of the living was infamous; but they repented of their decree, and having removed the stone on which it was inscribed, replaced it by a milder sentence, denouncing only those who, WITHOUT GOOD CAUSE, should propose to receive a statue to a reigning pope or his relations. The sufficing reason included the enlargement of the papal dominions, the service of the people, or any other. exploit above the common, by which the great man of the day might appear to have deserved to be remembered by posterity. Since the Senate and Roman people of 1634 relented from their former stern severity, more

than 200 years have elapsed, and not one sovereign has ruled them whose good deeds might not, by his contemporary Conservators and Academies, be allowed to have done something above the common run of kings.

This is the inscription:

Quod in malas adulatorum artes sancitum erat, id ne civibus de republica præter morem meritis officiat, atque adeo in ingrati animi vitium ducat assentationis fuga-Visum est Senatui Populoque Romano assentiente Principe vetus decretum æqua ratione moderari, atque amoto lapideo decreti monumento aliud his consignatum verbis reponere.

Infamiæ nota inurendos tantummodo eos atque a publicis officiis removendos qui sine causa maximum reipub. commodum respiciente de erigendis statuis aut insignibus viventi Principi aut Princip. sanguinis conjunctis in Senatu verba fecerint. Non autem illos qui vel aucta ditione vel servato Populo vel re quapiam in commune bonum supra communem modum gesta meruisse posteritatis memoriam videbantur.-Die 26 mens. Jan. 1634.

GENTS.

e one much, if not iscovery of the to the Capitol. asait polygons

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which he placed on Araceli. But it appears to me that the latter objection need not have alarmed him, for there is no reason why the triumphal road should not have wound round the western corner of the Tabularium of Catulus, where the modern prisons are now built, and have crossed the Capitoline area, or intermontium, to the eastern summit of the hill. Indeed there are some polygons of the old road to be seen close under the recently opened entrance on that side into the Tabularium.

The theory that the Triumphal Way was a continuation of the Via Sacra derives some support from the discovery of the lines of basalt polygons running alongside of the base of the Basilica Julia to the ruins of the temples under the Capitol. It seems ascertained that this part of the road was anciently called the Clivus Sacerus as well as the Via Triumphalis; but the conjecture that identifies this ascent with the “Clivus Asyli” appears unfounded. That road is, with greater probability, carried from the Arch of Severus, where some of its flag-stones were discovered, in 1803, to the back of the Mamertine Prisons, corresponding perhaps with a lane passing in that direction into the Via del Arco di Settimio, and called the Via di S. Pietro in Carcere. Some modern brick-walls, of considerable height, supporting a terrace attached to the convent and church of Aracoeli, rise immediately above this lane, and, together with other mean buildings, entirely disfigure the ancient site and appearance of this angle of the Capitoline "

CHAPTER XIII.

CAPITOLINE ASCENTS.

THE excavations of late years have done much, if not all that can be wanted, towards the discovery of the ancient ascents from the Roman Forum to the Capitol. I found in 1854 that many more of the basalt polygons of the Clivus Capitolinus had been laid bare than were discoverable in 1843. The direction in which that famous road ascended the hill is now distinctly seen. It passed from the Arch of Severus under the three columns, once called the Temple of Jupiter Tonans, and now ascribed either to Saturn, or Vespasian and Titus. It then turned under the temple of the eight columns, given by some to Saturn, by others to Vespasian; thence its present progress is soon stopped by the mound on which this modern ascent has been raised. It proceeded, however, in all probability, pretty much in the direction of the modern pathway up the Monte Caprino. My late friend Antonio Nibby is accused of having stopped the further clearing of the ascent, because he was afraid it would disprove his plan in regard to the direction of the Clivus Capitolinus, and also to the site of the great Temple of the Capitoline Jupiter,

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