s-reliefs on the Arch of Constantine, and on the marble screens of
Trajan, recently excavated in the Forum itself, giving a view of its
north-western and south-eastern ends; and the remains of the antique
marble plan of Rome, now preserved in the Capitoline Museum,
originally affixed to the wall of the superb Temple of Rome, and
discovered in fragments in 1867 in the garden of the monastery of SS.
Cosma e Damiano. We also get most valuable help in the work of
identification from the Itineraries of the middle ages--especially
from that of the celebrated pilgrim from Einsiedlen, Zwingli's town in
Switzerland--who visited Rome in the eighth century, and left his
manuscript to his own abbey, where it may still be seen. A vast
apparatus of learning has been accumulated from the works of ancient
classic authors by the great scholars who have written on the
historical localities and buildings of the Forum, from Donati to
Becker. Nibby, Canina, Ampere, Bunsen, Plattner, and Uhrlich, in their
magnificent works have supplied a mine of wealth from which most
subsequent writers on the Forum have enriched their descriptions.

The direction of the Forum is nearly from north to south, trending a
little from north-east to south-west. It is surprisingly small to have
contained such a large number of buildings, and to have bulked so
prominently in the eye of the world; its greatest length being only
six hundred and seventy-one feet, and its greatest breadth about two
hundred and two feet. Beginning at the north end, we see before us the
vast mass of the ancient Capitol, the proudest symbol of the majesty
of Rome, crowned with the great staring medieval structures of the
Roman municipality, rising up into the campanile of Michael Angelo.
Until of late years, this renowned building was completely buried
beneath a huge mound of rubbish. Now that it has been removed, the
venerable fabric stands out distinctly to view, and we behold the
massive walls of the Treasury, the Record Office, and the Senate
House. The lowest part, constructed of huge blocks of volcanic stones,
was the AErarium or Public Treasury, and is supposed to have been
formed out of the original wall of the city of the Sabines, which
surrounded the hill of Saturn, as the Capitoline Mount was originally
called, long before Romulus laid the foundation of Rome. As the Roman
army was paid in coppers, spacious cellars were required for storing
the coin, and these were provided in t