from
the Tiber's edge to the foot of the wooded slope. Then, the hurried
harvesting, the sheaves cast into the river, the dry, stiff stubble
baking in the sun, and presently the men of Rome coming forth in
procession from the dark Servian wall on the left to dedicate the field
to the War God with prayer and chant and smoking sacrifice. By and by
the stubble trodden down under horses' hoofs, the dusty plain the
exercising ground of young conquerors, the voting place, later, of a
strong Republic, whither the centuries went out to choose their consuls,
to decide upon peace or war, to declare the voice of the people in grave
matters, while the great signal flag waved on the Janiculum, well in
sight though far away, to fall suddenly at the approach of any foe and
suspend the 'comitia' on the instant. And in the flat and dusty plain,
buildings begin to rise; first, the Altar of Mars and the holy place of
the infernal gods, Dis and Proserpine; later, the great 'Sheepfold,' the
lists and hustings for the voting, and, encroaching a little upon the
training ground, the temple of Venus Victorious and the huge theatre of
Pompey, wherein the Orsini held their own so long; but in the times of
Lucullus, when his gardens and his marvellous villa covered the Pincian
hill, the plain was still a wide field, and still the field of Mars,
without the walls, broken by few landmarks, and trodden to deep white
dust by the scampering hoofs of half-drilled cavalry. Under the
Emperors, then, first beautified in part, as Caesar traces the great
Septa for the voting, and Augustus erects the Altar of Peace and builds
up his cypress-clad tomb, crowned by his own image, and Agrippa raises
his triple temple, and Hadrian builds the Pantheon upon its ruins, while
the obelisk that now stands on Monte Citorio before the House of
Parliament points out the brass-figured hours on the broad marble floor
of the first Emperor's sun-clock and marks the high noon of Rome's
glory--and the Portico of Neptune and many other splendid works spring
up. Isis and Serapis have a temple next, and Domitian's race-course
appears behind Agrippa's Baths, straight and white. By and by the
Antonines raise columns and triumphal arches, but always to southward,
leaving the field of Mars a field still, for its old uses, and the tired
recruits, sweating from exercise, gather under the high shade of
Augustus' tomb at midday for an hour's rest.

Last of all, the great temple of the Sun,