On issuing from the Arch of Titus we found ourselves in the Forum, now the
_Campo Vaccino_: so that cattle now low where statesmen and orators
harangued, and lazy priests in procession tread on the sacred dust of
heroes.
Ou des pretres heureux foulent d'un pied tranquille
Les tombeaux des Catons et les cendres d'Emile.
So sings Voltaire, I believe, or if they are not his lines, they are the
Abbe Delille's.[84]
The imagination is quite bewildered here from the variety of ancient
monuments that meet the eye in every direction. What vast souvenirs crowd
all at once on the mind! Look all around! the _Via Sacra_, the Arch of
Severus, and the Capitol in front; on one side of you, the temple of Peace,
that of Faustina and that of the Sun and Moon: on the other the remaining
three columns of the temple of Jupiter Stator; the three also of the temple
of Jupiter Tonans; the eight columns of the temple of Concord; and the
solitary column of Phocas. At a short distance the temple of Castor and
Pollux and that of Romulus and Remus, which is a round building of great
antiquity, whose rusticity forms a striking contrast with the elegance of
the colonnaded temples, and which was evidently built before the conquest
of Greece by the Romans and the consequent introduction of the fine arts
and of the Grecian orders of architecture.
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