LETTER XIX. THE ROMAN FORUM. FRENCH taste, which made a flower-garden round the mighty walls of the Colosseum, conceived the bright idea of converting the Roman Forum into a promenade. This they effected. Besides which, during the whole fourteen years that they had possession of Rome, they never ceased to talk of clearing out the Forum to its ancient level; nay, they actually did remove a fountain, and finish the excavation of the half-buried arch of Septimus Severus, and the columns of Jupiter Tonans, which the Pope had previously commenced. Is not this one among the many proofs, that "La Grande Nation" always talked more magnificently than they acted? We hear much in Rome of what the French intended to have done; we see very little that they did do. An impoverished people and a ruined nobility, can bear witness to the enormous contribu tions they levied upon this city, but we see few memorials of its expenditure. You will not relish this doctrine I know, but it is nevertheless true. Whatever the French may have been, however, the English, as far as I see, are at present the most active excavators. There is the Duchess of D— at work in one corner, and the Pope, moved by a spirit of emulation, digging away in another, while divers Milor' Inglesi are commencing their operations in as many different places; and so many gulfs are opening in the Roman Forum, without any apparent probability of a Curtius appearing to close them, that I cannot but groan over the destruction of the smooth green sod, on which the ruined temples and fallen capitals rested in such beautiful repose, and over the clanking of chains, and toiling of galley slaves, that profane the affecting solitude of a spot once sacred to freedom. If these discoverers, instead of each chusing, like so many anglers, their own little particular spot according to their own fancy, would act upon one combined plan,-if they would remove the barns and mean modern buildings that now disgrace the Forum,-fairly carry away the soil that fills it up, and clear it out to the level of the ancient pavement, -some good might come of it, and antiquarians at least would have reason to rejoice. But as long as they continue to make holes in it, and to pile up all the rubbish they take out of one place on the top of another, which may just as likely contain the very object they are in search of, I cannot but think that they are doing more harm than good, especially as the surface they cover with rubbish far exceeds the space they clear. It would require a Hercules to remove the unsightly mountains they have already raised. The Pope readily grants permission to all sorts of persons to excavate as much as they please, and wherever they please; but he does not give them any great encouragement, for he takes to himself the half of whatever they find; and what is far worse, he will not allow any piece of antiquity, however small, to be carried out of Rome: Not a leg of an old statue, nor a scrap of a basso relievo, nor a broken-headed bust, will he suffer to escape him. The finder may sell it in Rome, but may not take it away. Now, as most of our countrymen, who dig and delve in this manner, wish to carry the fruits of their labour to embellish their own country, this law acts almost as a prohibition to their exertions. An English nobleman, who did not count upon the strict enforcement of this rule, lately dug up an old Sarcophagus, and was preparing to carry off his prize, when its exit was stopped by the Dogana; nor could his holiness be induced to grant permission for its passage, although Sarcophagi are so common in his states, that you cannot enter a Vignaiuolo's hovel in Rome or the Campagna, without seeing the pigs eating out of these sculptured marble memorials of the mighty dead. However, though nothing ancient can be carried off with the Pope's permission, much may be carried off without it. A silver key at Rome will unlock many gates; and should this fail, an old statue can sometimes make an elopement over the walls of the city in the dead of night, with an activity very unsuited to its age and gravity. The present surface of the Forum is from fifteen to twenty feet above its ancient level. You may descend into any of the various excavations that are making in it, and amongst chained couples of galley slaves, that are labouring, cursing, and begging in the same breath, you may stand upon the ancient pavement of the Roman Forum, where Brutus and Cato and Tully once trod. That you tread it now, is indeed almost all that you can be secure of, after the most unwearied inquiries. All except its site is uncertain, and that is fortunately so clearly ascertained by such a multitude of classical authorities, that it can admit of no doubt. I might cite Livy, Propertius, Plutarch, and a crowd of other testimonies, but is there a page of the domestic history of Rome that does not point out the site of her Forum as between the Palatine and Capitoline Hills? And can it be necessary to take so much pains to prove what is alike undisputed and undisputable? Indeed, on the spot, a thousand local proofs, if proofs were wanting, press conviction on the mind, which at a distance cannot be comprehended. I have subjoined a little plan of the Forum, and of the ruins now standing in it, together with the surrounding hills, and a very few of the most interesting objects in its vicinity, which may probably serve to give some idea of their local and relative situation. Anciently there were Forums, or, to speak more |