he underground vaults of the
Treasury, partially cut out of the volcanic rock of the Capitol, on
which the building rests. Above the Treasury, on the second floor, we
see the remains of the Doric portico of the Tabularium or Public
Record Office, where the records of Rome, engraved upon bronze
tablets, were kept. The place is now converted into an architectural
museum, where all the most interesting sculptured fragments found in
the Forum are preserved, and are exhibited by gaslight owing to the
darkness. These buildings, it must be remembered, form the back of the
Capitol fronting the Forum. Strictly speaking, they do not belong to
the Forum, which should be traced only from their verge.

The view on the other side of the Capitol, where a gently-inclined
staircase leads up from the streets to the piazza at the top,
surrounded by the modern municipal buildings, raised upon the ancient
substructures above described, is quite different. But the present
aspect of the Capitol is quite disappointing to one who comes to it
seeking for evidences of its former grandeur. There is no trace of the
Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, to which the triumphal processions of
the Roman armies led up, gorgeous with all the attractions of marble
architecture, and the richest spoils of the world, the most splendid
monument of human pride which the world then contained. Probably its
remains were used up in the construction of the gloomy old church of
the _Ara Coeli_, which is supposed by most archaeologists to stand upon
its site. The Capitol, it may be remarked, was precisely similar to
the moot-hill, or open-air court, which existed in our own country in
primitive times, and where justice was administered at regular
intervals. The tradition of this original use of it still clings to
the place as a shadow from the past. The hill has always been
appropriated for political purposes. It has continued from the
earliest days to be a centre of secular as opposed to ecclesiastical
authority. The Popes ceded it to the magistracy, whose municipal
buildings now cover it, and placed the church of Ara Coeli--the only
one ever built on the Capitoline Hill--under their protection. The
place of execution was chosen conveniently near to this moot-hill, or
seat of justice; and the criminal, when condemned, was speedily
executed, by being hurled over the rock, just outside of the eastern
rampart, which surrounded the settlement. We can thus easily
understand th