ROMAN EXCAVATIONS. 



193 



EXCAVATIONS IX THE ROMAN FORUM AND ON THE 



ESQUIL1NE. 1 



By GASTON BOISSIEE. 



EVERYTHING invites the visitor at Rome 

 nowadays to concern himself by preference 

 with antiquity : antiquity it is that appears to 

 have derived greatest profit so far from the events 

 of the year 1870. The new Government owed 

 much to ancient memories ; to prove that Rome 

 deserved to be free and to control its own for- 

 tunes, and that Italy had the right to claim Rome 

 as its capital, appeal was made to the history of 

 the republic and the empire ; people were ever 

 talking of the Senate, the Forum, the Capitol, and 

 the new reclamations had much force added to 

 them from being backed by these great names. 

 Thus the Italian Government contracted an obli- 

 gation to the past which it set itself about dis- 

 charging so soon as it was installed at Rome. 

 As early as November 8, 1870, by a decree of the 

 king's lieutenant, there was instituted a super- 

 intendency of excavations for the city and the 

 province, and Pietro Rosa, the explorer of the 

 Palatine, was appointed to fill this office. Eight 

 days later work was begun in the Forum. At 

 the same time men were set to excavating at 

 the Baths of Caracalla, the Farnese Gardens, 

 Hadrian's Villa, and at Ostia. There was an ar- 

 dor of curiosity, a passion for exploration, the 

 like of which had not been seen for a long time, 

 and which were repaid by the most brilliant dis- 

 coveries. Unfortunately, these efforts grew slack 

 after a few years. The bad state of the Italian 

 finances compelled the Government to be less lib- 

 eral than was to have been wished ; then, too, it 

 happened that the archasologists, genus irritabile, 

 did not agree very well among themselves, and 

 time that might have been better employed, was 

 lost in disputes. Some few errors committed in 

 exploring the ancient floor of the Coliseo, gave 

 rise to sharp objections ; public opinion was ex- 

 cited, and the Government, after having- consulted 

 a municipal commission consisting of the most 

 eminent archaeologists of Rome, as De Rossi, Vis- 

 conti, Lunciani, and others, to whom had been 

 added for that special occasion a few foreign 

 scholars, as Henzen and Gregorovius, decided to 

 suspend the work. Then it was that the late 

 Minister of Public Instruction, Bonghi, in order 



1 Translated from the Revue des Deux Mondes, by J. 

 Fitzgerald, A. M. 



13 



to - put a stop to these wranglings, and to give 

 greater unity to the explorations, decided to es- 

 tablish a general directorship of excavations and 

 antiquities for the entire kingdom, and to appoint 

 thereto Signore Fiorelli. 



Notwithstanding these few misadventures of 

 detail, we can affirm that the excavations under- 

 taken at Rome since 1870 have produced the 

 best of results. Their success is explained by 

 the fact that they have been carried on methodi- 

 cally and scientifically. Till our own times this 

 was a very rare merit. There have been, it is 

 true, very able archaeologists before our time, yet 

 archaeology dates from yesterday. The princes 

 who since the Renaissance have had excavations 

 made in the soil of ancient cities, have sought 

 only for statues, curiosities, objects of art to 

 adorn their palaces ; beyond this they took little 

 interest in excavations. If by good luck they 

 came upon some grand edifice underground, they 

 hastened to remove out of it everything that 

 could be carried away, as the paintings on the 

 ceilings, the mosaics of the pavements, the mar- 

 bles of the walls. They first gutted the build- 

 ings, and then made haste to cover up the ruins. 

 We must therefore tone down considerably the 

 eulogies that have been pronounced upon these 

 pretended lovers of antiquity : they have saved 

 less than they have destroyed, and it were diffi- 

 cult to say at what cost of irreparable ruins 

 those museums were formed which have reflected 

 so much glory on their founders. There is all 

 the more reason for protesting against such bar- 

 barous proceedings, inasmuch as they are not yet 

 quite out of vogue. At Rome it is stated that 

 they are still practised daily in the excavations 

 at Porto, and that all that is done there is to 

 collect everything that may enrich the large col- 

 lections of a great seigneur. It is openly charged 

 that the workmen, having found the ruins of a 

 magnificent palace, the entire structure was 

 wrecked, and the ruins covered up, without per- 

 mitting even the plan to be determined. No 

 doubt statues, paintings, mosaics, are very valu- 

 able ; but if we are curious about the different 

 kinds of works of art found in ancient monu- 

 ments, ought we not to be still more curious 

 about these monuments themselves, which these 



