407 
The energy and spirit of Dr. Schliemann has not been without 
effect upon the German Government, and the exploration of the 
remains at Olympia have been begun, and a convention entered 
upon between the German and the Greek Government. The 
results of this attempt to investigate one of the most classic, if 
not the most classic spot of ancient Greece, may it is hoped yield 
an abundant harvest, and European scholars be rewarded with 
much treasure of knowledge and art of the best times of Greece, 
which now lies hidden. It is not my purpose to speculate, but 
only to note, and I will therefore pass on to state what has been 
achieved by one of our own countrymen in the eternal city, Rome, 
where excavations of no ordinary interest are making known to 
us much more accurately the sites and positions of historical 
edifices, and the plan of ancient Rome will soon be beyond dispute, 
as well as the subsequent additions in the times of the Empire. 
I ought however first to mention the most recent acquisition in 
Greek antiquities tu the British Museum—a magnificent head 
of Aphrodite and the Castellani gems and bronzes. They are said 
to be the finest works of art extant. We owe much to Mr. J. H. 
Parker. But public interest is now awakened to the importauce 
of this field of enquiry, and the Italian Parliament, which voted 
£1,200 for this purpose in 1872 and 1873, was so much pleased 
with the results obtained, that in 1874 it voted £2,000 for the 
purpose. By this means (says Mr. Parker) we have now the whole 
length of the Forum Romanum excavated and part of the Via 
Sacra. Further discoveries have been the completion of the 
platform of the Basilica Julia, extending from the Temple of 
Saturn to that of Castor and Pollux, exactly as described by 
Augustus in his celebrated inscription ; under the north end of it 
the Cloaca Maxima has been found, with its original vaulting of 
semi-hexagonal character, called Etruscan, and exactly like the 
subterranean passage connected with the prison of the kings 
previously discovered by Mr. Parker, and both attributed to the- 
same period by Livy. 
