was an altar and statue of Victory, which formed the last
rallying-ground of expiring paganism against the dominating
Christianity of the empire. In the year 382 the Christian party had
removed this altar and statue; and when their restoration was demanded
by Symmachus, the request was refused by Ambrose, as opposed to the
conscience of the Christian senators; and this decision being ratified
by the votes of the assembly, the doom of paganism, as the national
religion, was in consequence sealed. The Curia Julia ceased to serve
its original purpose at the death of Caligula, when the consuls
convoked the senate in the Capitol instead, to mark their aversion to
the rule of the Caesars; and the building was probably burnt down and
finally rebuilt in the time of Diocletian. One of the most curious
uses to which it was put, was to mark the _Suprema tempestas_, which
closed the hours of legal business, by means of its shadow projected
on the pavement; a primitive mode of reckoning time which existed
before the first Punic war, and was afterwards superseded by a
sun-dial and a clepsydra or water-clock erected in the Forum.

Near the Curia under the present roadway must lie the site of the
Comitium, or meeting-place of the Roman burgesses. This was far the
most important spot in the Forum in the days of the Republic. It was
not a covered building, but a templum or a consecrated space open to
the air. In its area grew a fig-tree, in commemoration of the sacred
tree which sheltered Romulus and Remus in their infancy; and we read
of drops of blood and milk falling upon it as omens from the sky. One
of the stones on its pavement, from its extraordinary blackness, was
called the tombstone of Romulus, and a number of statues adorned its
sides, including the three Sibyls, which gave the name of "In Tria
Fata" down to medieval times to this part of the Forum. From its
rostra, or stone platform, addresses were delivered by political
agitators to open-air assemblies of the people. The Comitium reminds
us very strikingly of the municipal origin of the Roman empire. In
primitive times that mode of government was admirably adapted to the
necessities of the city; but when Rome became mistress of the world it
was found unfitted to discharge imperial functions. The establishment
of the monarchical form of Government overthrew the Comitium, and with
it the very life of the Roman city.

In front of the church of S. Adriano--said to be no other t