d of human destroyers,
taken as a model for churches by Roman architects, though built
originally for a law court. In front is the Arch of Titus, with its
well-known sculptures of the spoils from the Temple of Jerusalem,
spanning the highest point of the Via Sacra. And closing up the view
is the grandest ruin in the world, the stupendous broken circle of the
Colosseum, rising tier above tier into the blue sky, burnt deep brown
by the suns of ages, holding the spectator breathless with wonder, and
thrilling the mind with the awful associations connected with it.

The Forum lies like an open sepulchre in the heart of old Rome. All is
death there; the death of nature and the death of a race whose long
history has done more to shape the destiny of the world than any
other. The soil beneath our feet is formed by the ashes of an extinct
fire, and by the dust of a vanished empire. Everywhere the ruins of
time and of man are mingled with the relics of an older creation; and
the sculptured marbles of the temples and law courts, where Caesar
worshipped and Cicero pled, lie scattered amid the tufa-blocks, the
cinders of the long quiescent volcanoes of the Campagna. Nature and
man have both accomplished their work in this spot; and the relics
they have left behind are only the exuviae of the chrysalis out of
which the butterfly has emerged, or the empty wave-worn shells left
high and dry upon an ancient coast-line. It is a remarkable
circumstance that the way in which the Forum originated was the very
way in which it was destroyed. The cradle of Roman greatness became
its tomb. The Forum originated in the volcanic fires of earth; it
passed away in the incendiary fires of man. In the month of May 1084
the Norman leader, Robert Guiscard, came with his troops to rescue
Gregory VII. from the German army which besieged Rome. Then broke
out--whether by accident or design is not known--the terrible
conflagration which extended from the Capitol to the Coelian Hill, but
raged with the greatest intensity in the Forum. In that catastrophe
classical Rome passed away, and from the ashes of the fire arose the
Phoenix of modern Rome. The greatest of physical empires was wrecked
on this spot, and out of the wreck was constructed the greatest
spiritual empire the world has ever known. For the Roman Pontificate,
to use the famous saying of Hobbes, was but the ghost of the deceased
Roman Empire sitting crowned upon the grave thereof.

CHAPTER