[Illustration: PLATE IV. The Sacra Via, and its turn round the upper end
of the Basilica.]

FORUM, C.I.L., XIV, 3015.

The most ancient forum of Praeneste was inside the city walls. It was in
this forum that the statue of M. Anicius, the famous praetor, was set
up.[137] The writers hitherto, however, have been entirely mistaken, in
my opinion, as to the extent of the ancient forum. For the old forum was
not an open space which is now represented by the Piazza Savoia of the
modern town, as is generally accepted, but the ancient forum of
Praeneste was that piazza and the piazza Garibaldi and the space between
them, now built over with houses, all combined. At the present time one
goes down some steps in front of the cathedral, which was the basilica,
to the Piazza Garibaldi, and it has been supposed that this open space
belonged to a terrace below the Corso. But there was no lower terrace
there. The upper part of the forum simply has been more deeply buried in
debris than the lower part.

One needs only to see the new excavations at the upper end of the Piazza
Savoia to realize that the present ground level of the piazza is nearly
nine feet higher than the pavement of the old forum. The accompanying
illustration (plate IV) shows the pavement, which is limestone, not
lava, that comes up the slope along the east side of the basilica,[138]
and turns round it to the west. A cippus stands at the corner to do the
double duty of defining the limits of the basilica, and to keep the
wheels of wagons from running up on the steps. It can be seen clearly
that the lowest step is one stone short of the cippus, that the next
step is on a level with the pavement at the cippus, and the next step
level again with the pavement four feet beyond it. The same grade would
give us about twelve or fifteen steps at the south end of the basilica,
and if continued to the Piazza Garibaldi, would put us below the present
level of that piazza. From this piazza on down through the garden of the
Petrini family to the point where the existence of a Porta Triumphalis
has been proved, the grade would not be even as steep as it was in the
forum itself. Further, to show that the lower piazza is even yet
accessible from the upper, despite its nine feet more of fill, if one
goes to the east end of the Piazza Savoia he finds there instead of
steps, as before the basilica, a street which leads down to the level of
the Piazza Garibaldi, and although it begins