three
hundred and four shrines, eighty statues of gods, of precious metal,
sixty-four of ivory, and three thousand seven hundred and eighty-five
miscellaneous bronze statues. The number of marble statues is not
given. It has been said, however, that Rome had two populations of
equal size, one alive, and one of marble.

I have had the opportunity of witnessing or conducting the discovery
of several temples, altars, shrines, and bronze statues. The number of
marble statues and busts discovered in the last twenty-five years,
either in Rome or the Campagna, may be stated at one thousand.

Before beginning the description of these beautiful monuments, I must
allude to some details concerning the management and organization of
ancient places of worship, upon which recent discoveries have thrown a
considerable, and in some cases, unexpected light.

Roman temples, like the churches of the present day, were used not
only as places of worship, but as galleries of pictures, museums of
statuary, and "cabinets" of precious objects. In chapter v. of
"Ancient Rome," I have given the catalogue of the works of art
displayed in the temple of Apollo on the Palatine. The list includes:
The Apollo and Artemis driving a quadriga, by Lysias; fifty statues of
the Danaids; fifty of the sons of Egypt; the Herakles of Lysippos;
Augustus with the attributes of Apollo (a bronze statue fifty feet
high); the pediment of the temple, by Bupalos and Anthermos; statues
of Apollo, by Skopas; Leto, by Kephisodotos, son of Praxiteles;
Artemis, by Timotheos; and the nine Muses; also a chandelier, formerly
dedicated by Alexander the Great at Kyme; medallions of eminent men; a
collection of gold plate; another of gems and intaglios; ivory
carvings; specimens of palaeography; and two libraries.

[Illustration: Entablature of the Temple of Concord.]

The Temple of Apollo was by no means the only sacred museum of ancient
Rome; there were scores of them, beginning with the Temple of
Concord, so emphatically praised by Pliny. This temple, built by
Camillus, at the foot of the Capitol, and restored by Tiberius and
Septimius Severus, was still standing at the time of Pope Hadrian I.
(772-795), when the inscription on its front was copied for the last
time by the _Einsiedlensis_. It was razed to the ground towards 1450.
"When I made my first visit to Rome," says Poggio Bracciolini, "I saw
the Temple of Concord almost intact (_aedem fere integram_), built of
whi