is monograph on the subject two very
effective pictorial restorations of the Forum as it was in the days of
Trajan. Both the screens exhibit, very distinctly sculptured, a
fig-tree and a statue on a pedestal, which are interesting from their
classical associations. The tree is not the famous Ruminal fig-tree
originally of the Palatine and then of the Comitium, but, as Pliny
tells us, a self-sown tree which grew in the mid Forum on the site of
the Lake of Curtius, which in Ovid's time, as we learn from himself,
was a dry space of natural ground marked off by a low fence, and
including an altar. This fig-tree, along with a vine and an olive,
which grew associated with it, was much prized on account of the shade
which it afforded. The figure under the fig-tree, carrying a vine stem
on its left shoulder, and uplifting its right arm, has been recognised
as that of Marsyas, whose statue was often put in market-places as an
emblem of plenty and indulgence. Martial, Horace, Seneca, and Pliny
all alluded to this statue in the Forum, which stood near the edge of
the Lake of Curtius, and was crowned with garlands by Julia, the
daughter of Augustus, during her disgraceful assignations beside it
with her lovers at night.

On the east side of the Forum the excavations have been stopped in the
meantime, as the modern level of the ground is occupied by valuable
houses, and two very interesting old churches, Santa Martina and Sta.
Adriano. Under the part not yet exhumed lie the remains of the
earliest of all the Basilicas, the Basilica of Porcia, built by the
elder Cato in the immediate vicinity of the Curia, and also those of
the famous Basilica AEmilia, which probably extended along the greater
part of the east side of the Forum. Some of the most important
monuments of ancient Rome, known to us only by the writings of classic
authors, doubtless lie buried in this locality. Under the church of
Sta. Adriano, the famous Curia Hostilia or Senate House, attributed to
Tullus Hostilius, stood. The original building was destroyed by fire
at the funeral of Clodius, through the carelessness of the populace,
who insisted upon burning his body within it; but it was replaced by
the Curia Julia, which was rebuilt by Augustus, who added to it an
important structure, called in the Ancyran inscription Chalcidicum,
for the convenience of the senators. Around it stood the statues of
men who had rendered important services to the state; and not far off