Читать книгу Rambles in Rome - S. Russell Forbes - Страница 62

Vespasian having rendered such services by restoring the Capitol, and collecting the records in the Tabularium, no more suitable site could be found for the erection of a temple to the deified emperor than in front of an old entrance to this latter building. The three pillars, which are all that remain of the building, stand upon a lofty terrace; and the skill of the architect in concealing the limited depth of the space allotted to the temple is shown in his having placed the columns of the flank nearer to each other than those of the front.

The beauty of this ruin excites universal admiration. It approaches that of the Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Forum. The inscription on the architrave, copied, whilst still entire, by a monk of the monastery of Einsiedeln, in the eighth century, refers to the restoration of the building by Septimius Severus and Caracalla, who appear to have also restored other sanctuaries in the same neighbourhood.

DIVO. VESPASIANO. S. P. Q. R. IMP. CAES. SEVERUS.

ET. ANTONINUS. PII. FELIC. AUG. RESTITUERUNT.

Looking across the front of this temple is