ROMAN EXCAVATIONS. 



197 



connoisseurs, give evidence of higher art and 

 more skillful execution than are to be found in 

 the best specimens from Pompeii. AVe know as 

 a fact that, in the reign of Augustus, that is to 

 say, at the time when this hall was built, a cer- 

 tain artist won a great reputation by being the 

 first who thought of adorning with pleasing pict- 

 ures the walls of apartments. " On the walls," 

 writes Pliny, " he represented country-houses, 

 porticoes, shrubbery trimmed in various figures, 

 woods, groves, hill-sides, fish-ponds, canals, rivers, 

 lie introduced into these scenes persons walking 

 about, or boating, or arriving at the house on 

 asses or in vehicles ; or, again, fishing, hunting, 

 setting snares, engaged in the work of the vint- 

 age." This famous artist must surely have been 

 employed by Maecenas, and who knows but that 

 here we find one of his great works ? There is 

 one circumstance which at first seemed strange, 

 but which, as we shall see, is easily accounted 

 for, namel}', the fact that this hall, with its grand 

 decorations, appears to be nothing but a kind 

 of cave. It rises only four metres above the 

 ground, while its floor is ten metres below the 

 surface. It was lighted through its vaulted roof, 

 and the large quantity of broken glass found 

 among the rubbish shows that light was admitted 

 through glass windows. 



For what purpose can this vast hall have been 

 used, and why was it constructed with so much 

 luxury ? The answer is to be found in its inter- 

 nal arrangement. At one end it forms a semi- 

 circle around which are seven rows of concentric 

 seats, rising one above the other to the ceiling, 

 amphitheatre-fashion. At the opposite end there 

 are found, in the middle of the wall, the remains 

 of a rostrum. These two discoveries set all 

 doubts at rest ; for, as we learn from the writers 

 of that period, this was the arrangement common 

 in halls for public reading where those literary 

 gatherings, so fashionable under the empire, used 

 to be held. Here, then, it was that the wits of 

 the time, after inviting their friends and acquaint- 

 ances to come and hear them, used to read their 

 literary productions. Yonder, on that elevated 

 platform, the orator would take his stand, " clad 

 in a brand-new toga," says Persius, " with glit- 

 tering rings on his fingers, after having greeted 

 the audience with a winning glance of his eye." 

 At the foot of the rostrum roomy seats were ar- 

 ranged on the marble pavement for eminent per- 

 sonages whom the author wished to flatter, and 

 who were made as comfortable as possible, so 

 that they might be the more ready to admire the 

 performance. On the benches at the farther end 



of the hall sat packed together the commonalty » 

 obscure friends, clients, dependents, people that 

 were invited to fill the house and to applaud. 

 This was the noisy portion of the audience : the 

 grandees in the orchestra expressed their satis- 

 faction in hardly-audible murmurs. When we 

 have ascertained the purpose for which this hall 

 was built, we have no difficulty in understanding 

 its plan and arrangement. It was half under- 

 ground so as to be cooler in summer. Public 

 readings often took place in August during the 

 vacations of the Senate — Augusto recitanles mense 

 poetas — and we know what August is at Rome. 

 To make the audience of two hundred or three 

 hundred souls more comfortable at the noontide 

 hour, the hall was half subterranean ; but, at the 

 same time, to make them forget that they were 

 in a cave, decorations of a light and cheerful 

 character were introduced everywhere. This was 

 especially the object of the blind windows with 

 their false perspectives. Thus nothing was lack- 

 ing that might promote in the audience a kindly 

 disposition toward the author: friendship had 

 already made them indulgent critics, and the lux- 

 ury and comforts of the hall might easily trans- 

 form this favorable disposition into enthusiasm. 

 Imagine a delightful retreat such as this, where 

 everything is provided that can please the eye, 

 with a kindly audience, and a skilled reader re- 

 citing a piece that on the whole is mediocre and 

 poorly written, but filled with clever hits, happy 

 observations, sly allusions to the occurrences of 

 the day, and little thrusts at the emperor and his 

 ministers, and you will understand why the au- 

 dience should burst every now and then into ap- 

 plause. This it is which so often led men at that 

 time astray as to the true merits of literary com- 

 positions, and which caused them to regard as 

 immortal masterpieces trifles that were destined 

 never to be heard of by later generations. 



If the work done on the Esquiline by private 

 industrial enterprise has been of such value to 

 science, what might we expect of work done un- 

 der the immediate control of Science itself, and 

 directed toward purely scientific ends ? Success 

 was here assured : the excavations were to be 

 carried on in well-known, historic ground, which 

 had been the scene of great events in the past. 

 The Forum of Rome was marked out in advance 

 as the best field for the researches of explorers, 

 and hence the Forum first engaged the attention 

 of Signore Rosa. Having once commenced work 

 here, he labored on for two years without inter- 

 mission. 



In speaking of the excavations in the Forum 



