408 
The celebrated three columns, so long a matter of dispute in 
theory, are now proved to belong to the Temple of Castor and 
Pollux (see Proceedings of Society of Antiquaries, June 25, 1874, 
p. 288). I mention this discovery as one among many others 
which serve to show the value of well-directed excavations, 
I may only now touch upon the discoveries at the Villa of 
Meczenas, with its wall-paintings, and the opening of the new 
gallery of statues, busts, and bas-reliefs, by the Archeological Com- 
mission at Rome, which will prove of the highest value to 
antiquarian’ research. 
Mr. Parker in his new work on the Archeology of Rome, gives 
a valuable and complete account of all that is known of the 
Egyptian obelisks now preserved at Rome, as well as of the 
Archeology of Rome itself. 
“The excavations made for the drains of the new city (for 
practically Rome is being rebuilt) have brought many things to 
light previously not known, as the house of the Lamie, near that 
of Mecenas, the latter of which is on a portion of the great agger 
of Servius Tullius. It is now clear that this great bank was 
eovered with houses as early as the first century of the Christian 
era, and that a street was made in the inner Fosse. The houses 
rested against the sloping bank and had no back windows.” Mr. 
Parker has traced the ancient Fosse of ‘“ Roma quadrata,” the 
date of which cannot be precisely determined, and of the second 
wall, which is as old as the kings and still exhibits gigantic 
remains. The Seven Hills can now be shown to have been so 
many separate hill fortresses—distinct villages—till they were at a 
later period joined together by a series of mounds. The slopes 
round the edges of the summit platform, when not natural cliffs, 
were cut away and scarped. The valley between them was for 
the most part a swamp or covered with timber.* 
It is time however that I turned from Italy to say something 
* See Atheneum, Feb, 12th, 1876, p. 230. 
