Читать книгу Rambles in Rome - S. Russell Forbes - Страница 68

on the site of the Basilica Sempronia, erected by Sempronius Gracchus, B.C. 169 (Livy, xliv. 16). This was burned down, and rebuilt by Julius Cæsar, and called Julia, after his daughter. It was destroyed by fire, and rebuilt by Augustus (Dion Cassius, "Augustus"). It was again destroyed by fire, and rebuilt A.D. 283. Suetonius tells us that Caligula, "during three days successively, scattered money to a prodigious amount among the people, from the top of the Julian Basilica" ("Caligula," xxxvii.). It is shown on two pieces of the marble plan.

In the "Mon. Ancyr.," Augustus says, "He rebuilt the Basilica Julia between the Temples of Castor and Saturn." Thus we see that the Will of Augustus, the marble plan, and the ruins, all three exactly agree. The portico was dedicated to his grandsons, Lucius and Caius (Suetonius, "Augustus," xxix.). It was the great court of appeal. (See Pliny, Jr., "Letters," v. 21, vi. 33.)

The old pavement has been well exposed, and put in proper condition for preservation; the remnants of frieze, and cornices, and columns found in the diggings have been set up on brick pedestals—an innovation of Signor Rossa's. The old bits of pavement have been very smoothly linked together by the laying of Venetian mosaic cement, and the contrast between the modern and the antique is very apparent.

The principal streets that ran into the Forum were:—