198 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



I feel entirely at ease, for I have before me an 

 excellent work, which refreshes my memory, and 

 leaves me hardly any occasion for referring to 

 my note-book. This work is the production of a 

 young architect belonging to our school in Rome, 

 M. Ferdinand Dutert, who closely observed all 

 the work done under the direction of Signor 

 Rosa, noting its progress from day to day, fol- 

 lowing in the steps of the workmen, collecting 

 and copying every little fragment of ornamenta- 

 tion, every trifling bit of sculpture found as the 

 work progressed. Not only will his book inform 

 the reader who has never seen the Forum as to 

 its present state, and refresh the memory of 

 those who have seen it ; he h;is furthermore en- 

 deavored to give us an idea of the Forum as it 

 was in ancient times. 



He reconstructs ruined temples, sets up again 

 fallen columns, erects statues on their bases l 

 again, and restores ail those splendors of which 

 hardly the ruins still remain. I know that in | 

 works of this nature there is a great deal of con- 

 jecture, but M. Dutert's restorations are com- 

 monly grounded upon indications so clear that 

 we may regard them, on the whole, as entirely 

 trustworthy. To his work, therefore, I confi- 

 dently refer the curious reader who would know 

 what the Forum looked like in the early days of 

 the empire. 1 



The Forum has always enjoyed the rare good 

 fortune of being the centre, the heart of Rome. 

 In nearly all of our modern capitals activity and 

 life migrate in the lapse of ages : at Paris they 

 have passed from the left to the right bank of 

 the Seine, and from one extremity of the city to 

 the other. Rome has been more faithful to its 

 ancient traditions. Ever since the time when, 

 according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Romu- 

 lus and Tatius, occupying the one the Palatine 

 and the Coelian, the other the Capitoline and the 

 Quirinal, concluded to meet together for a dis- 

 cussion of their common affairs in the humid and 

 unwholesome plain lying between the Capitoline 

 and the Palatine, that region has never ceased to 

 be the scene of the assemblies and deliberations 

 of the Romans. In early times there was no 

 other public place in the city, and it was used for 



1 "Le Forum Fomain,'* par M. Ferd. Dutert, arolii- 

 tecte, ancien pensionnaire de l'Academie de France a Home. 

 Paris : Levy. The only fault I am disposed to find with 

 this excellent work is, that now and then proper names 

 are sriven incorrectly. Why did not the author send his 

 proofs to some of his fellow-pupils in the Archa ological 

 School at Rome for revision ? Had this been done, we 

 should not find, for instance, the name of the triumvir 

 Lepidus given as " Lepidius." 



all sorts of purposes. In the morning it was a 

 market-place for the sale of provisions of all 

 kinds, during the day it was occupied by the 

 courts of justice, and in the evening it was a 

 promenade. In the course of time public squares 

 were multiplied, and there were special markets 

 for the sale of cattle, vegetables, fish, etc. (forum 

 boarium, olitorium, piscatorium) ; there were even 

 markets for the sale of choice delicacies (forum 

 cuppedinis). But the old Forum of Romulus al- 

 ways held its preeminence over them all. Even 

 the empire, which changed everything else, did 

 not deprive the Forum of this privilege. The em- 

 perors established round about it public squares 

 more extensive, more regular, more sumptuous ; 

 but these were always looked on as mere annexes 

 and dependencies of what continued to be the 

 Roman Forum, par excellence. This Forum with- 

 stood the first disasters of the barbarian inva- 

 sions, and outlived the capture of Rome by the 

 Visigoths and the Vandals. After each squall 

 the citizens set about refitting it as best they 

 could ; and even the barbarians — Theodoric, for 

 example — took pains to repair the ruins they 

 themselves had wrought. This ancient public 

 square and its edifices were still in existence at 

 the opening of the seventh century, when the 

 Senate conceived the unfortunate idea of dedi- 

 cating to the abominable tyrant Phocas that col- 

 umn of which Gregorovius says that " it was 

 preserved by the Nemesis of history as a last 

 monument of the baseness of Romans." From 

 this time forward the process of decay went on 

 unhindered. Each war, each invasion, over- 

 turned some ancient monument which was never 

 again restored. The temples and the triumphal 

 arches were now flanked with towers and crowned 

 with battlements after the manner of strong- 

 holds ; they were daily attacked during the par- 

 tisan conflicts; they finally went to ruin, and 

 their dlbris now covers the soil to the depth of 

 some ten metres. Every century adds its share 

 to the stratum of rubbish covering the ancient 

 city. When, in 1536, Charles V. passed through 

 Rome on his return from the expedition to Tunis, 

 the pope wished to have the avenger of Christen- 

 dom pass beneath the Arches of Constantine, Ti- 

 tus, and Severus ; and, in order to make a better 

 route for the imperial train, he had the Forum 

 cleared of the ruins which filled it. " Over two 

 hundred houses," says Rabelais, who was an eye- 

 witness, " were torn down, besides three or four 

 churches." Antiquity was covered over with this 

 rubbish, and lost to sight. Henceforth the Forum, 

 now become a grazing-place for cattle (camp* 



