PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



Cambribge ^ Ijitenpl^ir al S^tittg . 



October 23, 1876. 

 Prof. J. Clerk Maxwell, RR.S., "President, in the chair. 



The following Communication was made to the Society by- 

 Mr J, H. Parker, C.B., Oii the Forum and Colosseum at 

 Home. 



Mr Parker gave a detailed account of the Forum Romanum 

 and Colosseum, as they are now laid open to view by recent 

 excavations. He began by observing that the received interpreta- 

 tions of those passages in the classics which relate to the historical 

 topography of Rome rest entirely upon what are called the Roman 

 traditions, dating only from the sixteenth century, and often far 

 from the truth. By the aid of lime-light he next exhibited a 

 series of views shewing first the Forum as it appeared in 1650 

 (from an engraving) with 30 ft. of earth upon it, and the same site 

 as at present excavated ; and then he took the audience an 

 imaginary walk with him from the Capitol down the Forum, 

 noting in succession the three columns of the temple of Saturn 

 and the aerarium (treasury) behind it — the temple of Concord and 

 the seven columns of the temple of Vespasian — the arch of 

 Septimius Severus, — the column of Phocas ('nameless column 

 with a buried base') — two wondrous screen-walls with bas-reliefs 

 of the beginning of the second century, representing (1) a boar, 

 ram, and bull in procession for the suovetaurilia, and (2) a file of 

 citizens bringing the records of their state-debts to be burnt, 

 according to a generous decree of the Emperor Hadrian. In the 

 "Via Sacra he shewed the temple of Antoninus and Faustina as it 

 was till recently, and also in its present condition now that the 

 monolithic columns of cipollino marble, 46 ft. high, can once more 

 be seen in all their beauty — the temple of Romulus (the son of 

 Maxentius) — the Cloaca Maxima — and the arches of Titus and 



Vol. hi. Pt. l 1 



