ol between the remaining pillars of two temples, the
pedestals and part of the shafts sunk in the rubbish: then passing
through the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus, you proceed along the
foot of Mons Palatinus, which stands on your right hand, quite covered
with the ruins of the antient palace belonging to the Roman emperors,
and at the foot of it, there are some beautiful detached pillars still
standing. On the left you see the remains of the Templum Pacis, which
seems to have been the largest and most magnificent of all the temples
in Rome. It was built and dedicated by the emperor Vespasian, who
brought into it all the treasure and precious vessels which he found in
the temple of Jerusalem. The columns of the portico he removed from
Nero's golden house, which he levelled with the ground. This temple was
likewise famous for its library, mentioned by Aulus Gellius, Further
on, is the arch of Constantine on the right, a most noble piece of
architecture, almost entire; with the remains of the Meta Sudans before
it; and fronting you, the noble ruins of that vast amphitheatre, called
the Colossaeum, now Coliseo, which has been dismantled and dilapidated
by the Gothic popes and princes of modern Rome, to build and adorn
their paultry palaces. Behind the amphitheatre were the thermae of the
same emperor Titus Vespasian. In the same quarter was the Circus
Maximus; and the whole space from hence on both sides, to the walls of
Rome, comprehending above twice as much ground as the modern city, is
almost covered with the monuments of antiquity. I suppose there is more
concealed below ground than appears above. The miserable houses, and
even garden-walls of the peasants in this district, are built with
these precious materials. I mean shafts and capitals of marble columns,
heads, arms, legs, and mutilated trunks of statues. What pity it is
that among all the remains of antiquity, at Rome, there is not one
lodging-house remaining. I should be glad to know how the senators of
Rome were lodged. I want to be better informed touching the cava
aedium, the focus, the ara deorum penatum, the conclavia, triclinia,
and caenationes; the atria where the women resided, and employed
themselves in the woolen manufacture; the praetoria, which were so
spacious as to become a nuisance in the reign of Augustus; and the
Xysta, which were shady walks between two porticos, where the men
exercised themselves in the winter. I am disgusted by the modern