much a landscape as a
ruin." This is supposed to be the palace of Caligula; and its remains
abundantly attest the extraordinary magnificence of this imperial
domain, which contained all that was rich and rare from the golden
East, from beyond the snowy Alps, and from Greece, the home of art.
The substructions of this mighty ruin are truly astonishing; they are
so vast, so massive, so enduring, that they seem as if built by
giants. Concealed by modern houses built up against the foot of the
palace, some of the remains of the famous bridge which Caligula threw
obliquely over the Forum can be made out; two of the tall brick piers
are visible above the houses, and in the gable of the outer house the
spring of one of the arches can be distinctly seen. The bridge was
constructed by Caligula for the purpose of connecting his palace with
the Capitol, on the summit of which stood the magnificent Temple of
Jupiter, so that, as he said himself, he might be able to converse
conveniently with his colleague, the greatest of the gods! It is
probable that it served more than one purpose; that it was used both
as an aqueduct and a road for horses and chariots from the Palatine to
the Capitol. Be this as it may, it must have been a stupendous
structure, nearly a quarter of a mile long, and about a hundred feet
high, striding over the whole diagonal of the Forum, with a double or
triple tier of arches, like the remains of the Claudian aqueduct that
spans the Campagna.

The immediate vicinity of the Temple of Castor and Pollux is full of
interest to the classical student. To the right of it are the remains
of the Regia or Royal Palace, the official residence of the early
kings of Rome, and afterwards, during the whole period of the
Republic, of the Pontifex Maximus, as the real head of the State as
well as the Church. Numa Pompilius resided here in the hope that, by
occupying neutral ground, he might conciliate the Latins of the
Palatine and the Sabines of the Capitoline Hills. It was also the home
of Julius Caesar during the greater part of his life, where Calpurnia,
his wife, dreamed that the pediment of the house had fallen down, and
the sacred weapons in the Sacrarium were stirred by a supernatural
power; an omen that was but too truly fulfilled when Caesar went forth
to the Forum on the fatal Ides of March, and was carried back a bloody
corpse from the Curia of Pompey. It ceased to become the residence of
the Pontifex when Augustus b