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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



turned to the left, and near the temple of Saturn 

 began to ascend the hill-side toward the Capitol, 

 reaching by a steep gradient the famous temple 

 of Jupiter Capitolinus, the foundations of which 

 have just been discovered under the Caffarelli 

 Palace. 



Topographical problems are not the only ones 

 raised by the study of the Forum. After we 

 know where to locate the edifices it must have 

 contained, and what names are to be given to 

 the ruins of monuments which still remain, all is 

 not yet done ; oilier questions arise that are 

 nearly as difficult of solution. Above all, the 

 question suggests itself, on seeing how inconsid- 

 erable its area was, how it could suffice for all 

 the purposes which it served. AVe know from 

 ancient authors that it was the most frequented 

 place in all Rome. Loungers, so numerous in all 

 great cities, here kept their rendezvous. Horace 

 tells us that he used to walk about in the Forum 

 every evening. There was much here to gratify 

 curiosity: to say nothing of the charlatans of 

 every sort, who were never wanting, there were 

 now and then regular exhibitions of paintings. 

 The chefs-d'oeuvre of Greece, after its overthrow, 

 were often exhibited here under the porticoes or 

 in the temples, and amateurs flocked thither to 

 view them. Victorious generals would sometimes 

 have their battles painted by able artists, and ex- 

 hibited in the Forum. One military commander, 

 the Prator Mancinus, carried his complacency so 

 far as to take his stand beside a picture repre- 

 senting his great achievements, in order to give 

 to visitors such explanations as they might re- 

 quire. This politeness so delighted the people 

 that in the following year they named him consul. 

 News-mongers and politicians crowded around 

 the hustings, forming animated groups, who en- 

 gaged in hot disputes, raising a fearful clamor. 

 The disputants busied themselves with drafts of 

 laws and plans of campaign, and they spared 

 neither the unpopular statesman nor the general 

 who was not victorious in the first battle. A lit- 

 tle farther down, below the Curia and near the 

 yEmilian Basilica, was the 'Change. The money- 

 brokers had their offices in certain arched pas- 

 sages known as Jam, and here they might be 

 seen seated at their desks, entering on their books 

 the money placed in their keeping, or the moneys 

 they loaned on good security and at an enormous 

 rate of interest. Here were assembled the stew- 

 ards of great estates, the equites who farmed the 

 public revenues, brokers, usurers, borrowers ; 

 important business was here transacted ; money 

 was quickly made, but more quickly lost. 



The Forum was also sometimes used for pop. 

 ular exhibitions, especially combats of gladiators. 

 Of course on such occasions it was crowded with 

 spectators. People were packed together in 

 dense masses, not only in the vicinity of the arena 

 itself, but also on the steps of the temples or the 

 terraces of the basilicas, and all along the streets 

 leading up the Capitoline and the Quirinal. Such 

 exhibitions often lasted several days, and usually 

 closed with a banquet served to all who were 

 present. To enable the people to view the spec- 

 tacle and to enjoy the banquet despite the heat 

 of the sun, Csesar bethought him of stretching 

 great awnings over the entire Forum ; and these 

 awnings were of silk, according to Dion Cassius. 

 Soon this sort of magnificence became the rule; 

 and once even, during a very hot summer, Augus- 

 tus suffered the awnings to stand during the en- 

 tire season. A more frequent spectacle even 

 than the combats of gladiators was the obsequies 

 of great personages. The cortege always passed 

 through the Forum, with its bands of flute-play- 

 ers, trumpeters, and clarionists, its women-mourn- 

 ers, its troops of friends, clients, and dependents. 

 Finally come chariots or litters bearing the an- 

 cestral statues. When the family of the deceased 

 was an ancient one, the number of statues carried 

 in the funeral cortege was very great ; at the 

 funeral of Marcellus there were over GOO of them. 

 And these processions never failed to pass 

 through the Forum even when it was occupied 

 by other assemblages of people. 



But it was the political assemblies, above all, 

 that attracted crowds to the Forum. Of these 

 there were three kinds, known as — 1. The legis- 

 lative assemblies (cons-ilia plebis, comitia tributa), 

 which made laws. 2. Simple meetings (condones), 

 in which nothing was put to a vote, and which 

 were called by magistrates who desired to make 

 anything known to the people. 3. Political tri- 

 als, conducted in public before juries, drawn by 

 lot, and presided over by a praetor. Of these 

 three sorts of assemblies, the first was the mest 

 important, and of least frequent occurrence. It 

 matters not how insane the desire of perpetually 

 changing their legislation that possesses a free 

 people, they cannot every day have laws to make 

 or to unmake. I would add that this first class 

 of meetings was not the most popular of the 

 three. Those solid discourses in which are set 

 forth broad views, and questions of state are dis- 

 cussed, are less adapted to popular assemblies 

 than to select bodies consisting of small numbers 

 of educated men. The multitude usually take 

 but little pleasure in such discourses, which are 



