Palatine Hill. — There is a general consensus of opinion that the original Rome, Iloma Quadrata ('Square Rome'), was on the Palatine Hill only — the hill of Pales, the shepherds' god. It is with the S.W. angle that the earliest legends of Rome are mostly associated. It was there that the basket was found containing the twins Romulus and Remus, after it had been washed ashore by the Tiber. There also was the lair of the she- wolf that suckled the twins, etc. The Palatine Hill is kept for the most part sacred from modern buildings, and is almost entirely covered by ruins of buildings belonging to various epochs. Excava- tion is still going on, but seemingly no attempt is made to check the growth of vegetation. In the Republican period the Palatine became a fashion- able residential quarter. Here was the house of Cicero. On his exile in 58 B.C. the house was de- stroyed and the site confiscated, but in the next year it was restored to him. The Emperor Augustus was born near the N.E. corner, and various rooms of a house belonging to his wife Livia are still shown on the hill, with the frescoes on the inside walls. Under the Empire practically the whole of the hill was converted into a huge Imperial residence. The process was begun bjr Augustus, who acquired a valuable property which had once belonged to the orator Hortensius, and added to it by the purchase of adjoining properties. There the Imperial palace was built. Fire and destruction worked upon this and other buildings, and we cannot with certainty identify remains on the hill as belonging to buildings of a particular date. What one sees is great masses of brick- work, with arched roofs. The bricks are square, and very thin as compared with those of to-day. The surviving edifices impre-ss one greatly by their size and strength, but by nothing else. The whole
looks excessively shabby. The exiihmation is that what we are now looking on is only the inner core of the building proper. In the heyd.ay of their existence all these shabby brick buildings were enca.sed in marble. The marble, in the course of ages, has been stripped otl', jiartly in the interests of the decoration of Christian churches, and jiartly to be jiounded down and made into lime. There is a well-known saying of Augustus that he found Rome built of brick and left it made of marble. On seeing these ruins it occurred to the present writer that what was meant by this saying was simply that he had covered brick buildings with marble. The Imperial jialace on the Palatine was successively altered or enlarged, as the tastes or requirements of successive Emperors demanded. One most important building must be mentioned before we leave this hill, or mountain, as the Romans called it (see RoM.VN Ejil'lRK), namely, the templeandprecinct of Apollo on the N.E. part of the hill. The decoration of the temi)le was magni- ficent. In a double colonnade connected with it were statues of each of the fifty fabled daughters of Danaus, and there also were the Imperial libraries of Greek and Roman literature, one of the earliest public libraries in Italy, sjilendidly equipped by Augustus not only with manuscript books but also with busts of the great authors.
Capitol. — In modern times the Capitoline Hill is di.'<ligured on the southern side by a hideous barrack-like erection with a cam[)anile, called the Campidoglio, and on the other peak, the Arx, there is being erected an enormous monument to com- memorate united Italy. The great ornament of the Capitoline in ancient times was the temple of Jupiter, Best and Greatest (the god whom the Latin allies worshipped on the Alban Mount), together with Juno and Minerva. It was to this great temple that all the triumphal processions of Rome made their way. It was approached immedi- ately by the Cliuus Ccipitolinus, ' Capitoline .slope,' from the Forum. The temple measured about 204 ft. by 188 ft. At the angle of the hill nearest the Tiber was the Tarpeian Rock, from which criminals were hurled. The sheer cliff may be seen from various points. One of the most promi- nent ancient features on the Capitoline Hill to-day is the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, placed there in 1538, probably under the direction of Michael Angelo, who was commissioned to laj' out this site in as worthy a manner as possible. The statue owes its preservation to the belief that it was supposed to represent the earliest Christian Emperor, whereas, as a matter of fact, Marcus was one of the greate-st persecutors of the Church. It is the only equestrian statue of an Emperor that has survived. The Arx was in ancient times for the most part not built on : it was from the ground there that heralds got the sacred plants which played a part in the conclusion of treaties with foi'eign powers. The plant {iierbetia sagmina) symbolized the soil of Rome. The temple of Inno Moneta was on this height ; it was the seat of the Mint.
Forum. — Both these hills flank the Forum, to which most of our space must be devoted. Stand- ing near the Cliuus Capitolinus, one looks straight down the Forum, and tliere must have been a lovely view of the Alban mountains in the distance, before the enormous Flavian amphitheatre, com- monly called the Colosseum, shut it otl'. We must try to touch briefly on each of the more important buildings of which there are traces in the Forum. Like the Palatine, it is shut ofl'from modern intru- sions. The Forum was the centre of the throbbing life of the ancient city — the life social, commercial, legal, and political. Occupying a central position in the hollow surrounded by the various heights, it