ed that dreadful consequences would be
produced by the removal in this way of the great barriers erected by
Nature.

Many fine specimens still survive the ravages of ages, among which may
be mentioned the eleven massive Corinthian columns, upwards of
forty-two feet high, and four and a half feet in diameter, which form
the peristyle of the Temple of Neptune in the Piazza di Pietra, well
known as the old Custom-house. These pillars suffered severely from
the action of fire, and are much worn and defaced, but there is a
grandeur about them still which deeply impresses the spectator; and
the blocks of marble which form the inner part of the architrave and
entablature, as seen from the inner side of the court, are so
stupendous that the ruins "overhang like a beetling rock of marble on
a mountain peak." Grander still is the majestic column of Lunar marble
dedicated to Marcus Aurelius, in the Piazza Colonna, which rears aloft
its shaft one hundred and twenty-two feet in the air, wreathed around
with spiral bands of historic reliefs, illustrating the Roman
conquests over the German tribes north of the Danube. Very splendid
specimens of the same marble may be seen in the three fluted
Corinthian columns and a pilaster belonging to the Temple of Mars
Ultor erected by Augustus in his Forum after the battle of Actium,
which are the largest columns of any kind of marble in Rome, being
eighteen feet in circumference, and upwards of fifty-four feet high.
The two well-known pillars of the portico of the Temple of Minerva,
called Le Colonnacce, belonging to the adjoining Forum of Nerva, are
also composed of the same material; as also the three deeply-fluted
Corinthian columns that remain of the Temple of Vespasian in the Roman
Forum, which still retain some traces of the purple colour with which
they appear to have been painted. By far the largest single masses of
Lunar marble are the two portions of a gigantic frieze and
entablature, highly ornamented with sculpture, one measuring one
thousand four hundred and ninety cubic feet, and weighing upwards of
one hundred tons, lying in the Colonna gardens on the slope of the
Quirinal. These relics are supposed to have belonged to the splendid
Temple of the Sun, which Aurelian erected after the conquest of
Palmyra, and in which he deposited the rich spoils of that city. They
are associated therefore with romantic memories of the famous Queen
Zenobia, who spent her last days near Tivoli, afte