r
children where Appius Claudius had first seen Virginia reading. Having
been partially destroyed by fire, Augustus afterwards completed and
greatly enlarged the building. It was used as the place of meeting of
the _Centumviri_, a court which we learn from the younger Pliny, who
himself practised before it, had a hundred and eight judges sitting in
four separate tribunals, within sight and hearing of one another, like
the old courts in Westminster Hall. The Basilica is not yet entirely
excavated, a large part of its breadth being still under modern
buildings. It consisted of a series of plain, massive arches built of
travertine. The pavement is wonderfully perfect, being composed of a
mosaic pattern of valuable marbles, doubtless saved from destruction
or removal to build some church or palace by the fortunate
circumstance that the ruins of the Basilica covered and concealed them
at an early period. On this pavement and on the steps leading up to it
are incised numerous squares and circles which are supposed to have
been tabulae lusoriae, or gaming-tables. A few have inscriptions near
them alluding to their use. Cicero mentions the dice-players of the
Forum with reprobation; and the fact that such sports should have
intruded into the courts of justice shows that the Romans had lost at
this time their early veneration for the law. The rows of brick arches
seen on the platform are mere modern restorations, placed there by
Cavaliere Rosa to indicate the supposed original plan of the building.
At the south end of it an opening in the pavement shows a part of the
Cloaca Maxima, with the sewerage passing through it underneath.

The ancient street between the Basilica Julia and the Temple of Castor
and Pollux, is undoubtedly the famous _Vicus Tuscus_, so called after
the Etruscan soldiers who belonged to the army of Porsenna, and, being
defeated at Ariccia, took refuge in this part of Rome. This street, so
often mentioned by classic writers, led to the Circus Maximus, and is
now identified with the Via dei Fienili; the point of departure from
the Forum being marked by a statue of Vertumnus, the Etruscan god, the
ruined pedestal of which, in all likelihood, is that which has lately
been unveiled on the steps at the north-east corner of the Basilica
Julia. It was considered almost as sacred as the Via Sacra itself,
being the route taken by the great procession of the Circensian games,
in which the statues of the gods were carrie