"Record Office," and its substruction, upon which the back of the Senatorial Palace is raised. There still remains a massive wall built in the early Roman style, and intended apparently as a facing to the lower part of the hill; it is about one hundred and twenty feet in length, and ten in height, and some of the blocks of stone of which it is formed, are between seven and eight feet long. A part of this wall may be seen in the engraving referred to, upon the left side. Above it stood the Tabularium, presenting in front a range of pillars and arches, which preserved their original appearance till modern times; but a magazine for salt having been formed here, in the fifteenth century, that substance is said to have destroyed the piers, and rendered it necessary to take them down and replace them by the continued wall which now exists. Some capitals, and nearly the whole line of the architrave, are all that is to be seen externally of the ancient edifice; the modern wall has blocked up the vaults, and rendered them visible only from the inside. In the same Engraving the reader will perceive three fluted Corinthian columns, triangularly arranged, which we have there designated as a fragment of the temple of Jupiter Tonans, or "Jupiter Thundering." Augustus was journeying by night while engaged in an expedition against the Cantabri in the north of Spain, when the lightning flashed in front of his litter and killed one of his attendants who was lighting him on his way; on his return to Rome, the Emperor erected a temple to Jupiter Tonans, upon the Capitol. The columns in question are supposed to have formed a corner of the portico of that temple; "but what is the evidence for identifying it with their remains," says Dr. Burton, "I do not know." The building of Augustus was restored by Septimius Severus and his son Caracalla; and we can still read upon the frieze the letters RESTITUER-evidently a part of Restituere or Restituerunt, intimating that some persons had restored it. Till the French took possession of Rome, these columns remained buried for two-thirds of their height in that vast accumulation of soil which rose at the foot of the hill to the base of the Senator's Palace, and formed a platform of dirt and rubbish over which carts are seen driving in the old views of Rome. They are of white marble, forty-six feet and a half in height, and four feet eight inches in diameter at the base; Mr. Woods speaks of them as affording a curious testimony of the luxury and magnificence of the Roman architecture. "Upon the lateral frieze," says Dr. Burton, "there are several ornaments connected with sacrifices, such as the Albogalerus, or cap which the Flamen Dialis (Priest of Jupiter) wore; the Secespita, or iron knife with an ivory handle used by the same priest; the Capedunculus, or dish; an axe, a hammer, the aquaminarium, or jug; the aspersorium, or instrument för sprinkling the iustral water: all of them used in the rites of Jupiter, which may be another argument that these remains are rightly named." Mr. Woods mentions one still stronger, that the carving on the priest's helmet or cap represents a winged thunderbolt. A short distance to the left of this fragment, and a little beyond the limit of the Engraving in which it is seen, stand eight columns of oriental granite-six in front and two behind, supporting an architrave upon which we read,— SENATUS. POPULUSQUE. ROMANUS. "The senate and people of Rome, restored [the building] consumed by fire." "This inscription," says Mr. Woods, "has been thought to indicate a republican era, since there is no mention of any Emperor; but the architecture contradicts any such idea, and the present remains are now with more probability assigned to the fourth century." "We may regret the destruction of this temple more particularly," says Dr. Burton, “ because at no very distant period it was nearly perfect, and wantonly destroyed. Poggio, who wrote in the beginning of the fifteenth century, tells us that the whole of the temple, with part of the portico, was burnt to make lime; and that the pillars were thrown down after he came to Rome. Andrea Fulvio relates the same story; and this may perhaps furnish us with too true an insight into the cause of so many majestic edifices having entirely disappeared. When this temple was restored after the fire, it was probably done in haste, and the materials were employed in it which belonged to different buildings: for it has been observed that neither the diameters of the pillars nor the intercolumniations are equal. One of them nas evidently been made up of fragments of two different pillars, so that the diameter is greater near the summit than it is in the middle." The capitals have been called Ionic, bu Mr. Woods says that the epithet can hardly be applied to them with justice. The six columns which stand in a line, were the front of the portico of the building; the two columns behind, belonged to the side of the portico. 64 Till within a recent period, these remains were commonly assigned to that "Temple of Concord" in which Lentulus and the other accomplices in Catiline's conspiracy were brought before the senate for trial by the order of Cicero, and from which they were taken to the Mamertine prisons, there to meet the fate which we have described in speaking of those dungeons. The classical enthusiasm of travellers used consequently to be at its height when they stood before these columns. "For my own part," says Middleton, as oft as I have been wandering about in the very rostra of old Rome, or in that temple of Concord where Tully assembled the senate in Catiline's conspiracy, I could not help fancying myself much more sensible of the force of his eloquence; whilst the impression of the place served to warm my imagination to a degree almost equal to that of his old audience." Twenty years ago a more sensitive visiter was still more powerfully affected. "The Ionic portico of the Temple of Concord," says the author of Rome in the Nineteenth Century," stands in the Roman Forum. At the sound of its name, the remembrance flashed upon my mind that it was here that Cicero accused to the assembled senate the guilty conspirators leagued with Catiline; and entering its grass-grown area, I felt with enthusiasm which brought tears into my eyes that I now stood on the very spot his feet had then trod." The writer certainly wept in the wrong place; for it has been proved beyond a doubt that these are not the remains of the Temple of Concord. The real site of that edifice was discovered in 1817, when its cella or area was uncovered, and some decisive inscriptions were dug up; the spot is a little further north, and a little higher up the hill. It is there that the traveller must now shed his tears,-if indeed he be bold enough to shed them anywhere, after such a warning. The new claimant of these columns is the Temple of Fortune. That this goddess was worshipped on this hill, close to the temple of Jupiter Tonans, is proved by the testimony of an inscription; we know, too, that a “ Temple of Fortune" was burnt in the time of Maxentius, the competitor of Constantine. The period of its restoration might thus agree with that assigned by architects to the restoration of the edifice of which the columns are a remnant. THE PANTHEON. "As St. Peter's," says Simond, "affords the best sample of modern art in Rome, so does the Pantheon exhibit the most satisfactory and best preserved specimen of ancient art; for, notwithstanding the injuries it has sustained at the hands of barbarians of all ages, no signs of natural decay are yet visible; and with this magnificent model before their eyes, it appears strange that the architects of St. Peter's should not have accomplished their task more worthily. The Pantheon seems to be the hemispherical summit of a modern temple taken off and placed on the ground; so it appears to us, at least, accustomed to see cupolas in the former situation only; for to the ancients, the summit of a modern temple might appear the Pantheon raised in the air." This majestic edifice is in the very heart of modern Rome; it is closely surrounded with buildings, and its situation tends as much as possible to dissolve the spell that is over it." It is built in the dirtiest part of modern Rome," says the author of Rome in the Nineteenth Century; " and the unfortunate spectator, who comes with a mind filled with enthusiasm to gaze upon this monument of the taste and magnificence of antiquity, finds himself surrounded by all that is most revolting to the senses, distracted by incessant uproar, pestered by the crowd of clamorous beggars, and stuck fast in the congregated filth of every description that covers the slippery pavement; so that the time he forces himself to spend in admiring its noble portico generally proves a penance from which he is glad to be liberated, instead of an enjoyment he wishes to protract. We escaped none of these nuisances, except the mud, by sitting in an open carriage to survey it; the smells and the beggars were equally annoying. You may, perhaps, form some idea of the situation of the Pantheon at Rome, by imagining what Westminster Abbey would be in CoventGarden market, but I wrong Covent-Garden by such a 64 THE FARNESE VILLA, AND RUINS OF THE PALACE OF THE CÆSARS. parallel; nothing resembling such a hole as this could exist in England, nor is it possible that an English imagination can conceive a combination of such disgraceful dirt, filthy odours, and foul puddles as that which makes the vegetable-market in the Piazza della Rotonda at Rome." The Pantheon is now known by the name of the Church of Santa Maria ad Martyres, or, more commonly, by that of La Rotonda. It was dedicated by Pope Boniface IV. "and as he moved to this place the remains to the Virgin, of saints and martyrs from the different cemeteries, enough to fill twenty-eight wagons, it received the additional title of ad Martyres." Gregory IV., in 830, dedicated it to all the saints. Upon the subject of this change of name from all the gods" of antiquity to "all the saints" of the "The Popish Church, the remarks of Middleton, in his celebrated letter from Rome, will be read with interest. noblest heathen temple," he says, "now remaining in the world is the Pantheon, or Rotunda, which, as the inscription over the portico informs us, having been impiously dedicated of old by Agrippa to Jove and all the gods, was piously consecrated by Pope Boniface the Fourth to the Blessed Virgin and all the Saints. With this single excep. tion, it serves as exactly all the purposes of the Popish as it did for the Pagan worship, for which it was built. For, as in the old temple, every one might find the god of his country, and address himself to that deity whose religion he was most devoted to; so it is the same thing now; every one chooses the patron whom he likes best; and one may see here different services going on at the same time at different altars, with distinct congregations around them, just as the inclinations of the people lead them to the worship of this or that particular saint. "And what better title can the new demigods show to the adoration now paid to them, than the old ones whose shrines they have usurped? Or how comes it to be less criminal to worship images erected by the Pope, than those which Agrippa or that which Nebuchadnezzar set up? If there be any real difference, most people, I dare say, will be apt to determine in favour of the old possessors; for those heroes of antiquity were raised up into gods, and received divine honours, for some signal benefits of which they had been the authors to mankind, as the invention of arts and sciences, or something highly useful and necessary to life; whereas, of the Romish saints, it is certain, that many of them were never heard of but in their own legends or fabulous histories; and many more, instead of any services done to mankind, owe all the honours now paid to them to their vices or their errors, whose merit, like that of Demetrius in the Acts, was their skill of doms into convulsions for the sake of some gainful im raising rebellions in defence of an idol, and throwing king posture. And as it is in the Pantheon, it is just the same Rome; they have only pulled down one idol to set up in all the other heathen temples that still remain in another, and changed rather the name than the object of their worship." 66 The Pantheon is said to have been erected by Agrippa, the intimate friend and councillor of Augustus, twenty-six years before the Christian æra, in memory of the emperor's victory over Antony, and it was then dedicated to Jupiter theon itself is a compound of two Greek words, signifying Ultor, (or the Avenger,) and all the Gods. The term Panall" and "God;" but it appears that among the ancients themselves there was a doubt as to the original application says, "It is perhaps called so because, in the statues of of this name. Dion Cassius, writing in the third century, Mars and Venus, it received the images of several deities. But, as it appears to me, it has its name from the convex form of its roof, giving a representation of the heavens." There is, however, a great deal of obscurity connected with "The every point of the ancient history of this edifice. Its oriwas a part of the Baths of Agrippa, of which some supginal destination is a matter of dispute; some say that it posed remains are to be seen in its neighbourhood. Abate Lazari," says Sir John Hobhouse, " has done his utmost to prove this structure a bath, or, at least, not a temdoes not always mean a religious edifice, out sometimes ple; or, if it were a temple, he would show that a temple a tomb, and sometimes the mast of a ship, and that the 'Pantheon' was a band of soldiers; however, as our Pantheon is neither one nor the other of these three, we need not embarrass ourselves with the name, which was a difficulty even in ancient times." The opinion that the vast cell of this edifice did belong to a bath, is certainly not so ridiculous as at first sight it might appear. "Every round edifice," says Forsyth, "that contains alcoves, is now perhaps too generally pronounced baths. Such is the Temple of Minerva Medica, and such The Pantheon a bath! to have been the exhedra, or the calidarium of ancient Could that glorious combination of beauty and magnifioriginally was the Pantheon. cence have been raised for so sordid an office? Yet, con sider it historically; detach the known additions, such as the portal, the columns, the altars; strip the immense cylinder and its niches of their present ornament, and you will then arrive at the exact form of the calidaria now existing in Rome." 66 Cameron, the author of a learned work on ancient baths, says decidedly that this magnificent edifice served as a vestibule to the Baths of Agrippa. This supposition," he remarks, "will not appear to be void of foundation, if we consider that in the most considerable baths, such as those of Caracalla, Dioclesian, and Constantine, there was a room, both in form and situation, exactly similar to the Pantheon, and apparently destined to the same use. It does not much regard our present argument to inquire, whether the Pantheon was entirely built by Agrippa, or whether it had from ancient times served for religious purposes, and was only repaired by him, since we know that, among the Romans, even in private houses, the great hall, or atrium, was considered as a place sacred to religion; that in this room the statues of their ancestors were placed, and here they paid their adorations at the altars of their household gods." It seems to be generally admitted, that the whole edifice was not erected at once; the differences in the materials and in the workmanship, the want of correspondence in the design, and the partial settlements which have taken place, are all adverse to the opinion that it was. Mr. Woods refers to a French architect, who seems to have satisfactorily ascertained that the building never could have been originally finished without a portico, as it is commonly supposed that it was. The masses of brickwork which are joined to the circular body of the edifice, in order to bring out a straight line to receive the portico, were carefully examined; but neither on their face, nor on the face of the circular cell itself, were there any traces of the method of completing the building without a portico. The conclusion was drawn, that no finishing ever could have taken place on either, but that the present portico, or something analogous to it, must have existed from the first. Mr. Woods himself inclines to the opinion, that the cell is actually posterior to the portico, instead of the portico being an addition to the cell, and in support of it he mentions two circumstances. "The first is, that the use of unburnt bricks was only recently introduced into Rome in the time of Agrippa, as appears from the manner in which Vitruvius speaks of them, and the first effort would scarcely be one of this magnitude and importance. The second circumstance is, that the marble employed in the portico and pronaos is Pentelic, while that within is Carrara." The latter species of marble was not used till much later than the former. The external appearance of the edifice will be best understood by a reference to our engraving. The portico is one hundred and ten feet long by forty-four deep, and is supported by sixteen columns of the Corinthian order. Each of the shafts of these columns is of one piece of oriental granite, and forty-two feet in height; the bases and capitals are of white marble. The whole height of the columns is forty-six feet five inches; the diameter just above the base, is four feet ten inches, and just beneath the capitals, four | feet three inches. The interior of the rotunda has a diameter of nearly one hundred and fifty feet; the height from the pavement to the summit was originally the same, but the floor has been raised seven or eight, to a level with the pavement of the portico. The light is admitted only by a circular opening in the dome, twenty-eight feet in diameter; through this aperture a flood of light diffuses itself over the whole edifice, producing a sublime effect," but only showing all its beauties "by permitting every passing shower to deluge its gorgeous pavement." The rain is carried off by a drain to the Tiber, but from the low situation of the building in the Campus Martius, the waters of the Tiber, when it is swollen, find their way up the drain, and flood the interior. Myriads of beetles, scorpions, worms, rats and mice, "joint tenants of the holes in the pavement," may then be seen retreating before the waters, as they gradually rise from the circumference to the centre of the area, which is a little elevated above the rest of it. A beautiful effect, says Dr. Burton, is produced by visiting the building on these occasions at night, when the moon is reflected upon the water through the aperture of the dome The wall of the rotunda is twenty feet in thickness; six See Saturday Magazine, Vol. X., p. 201. chapels or recesses are formed out of it; each of them is decorated with two pilasters, and two Corinthian columns. There is a seventh recess opposite o the entrance, and entirely open. Above the great cornice, which is of white marble, rises an attic, from the entablature of which springs the great vault of the dome. THE BATHS. "As the Romans," says Dr. Adam, " neither wore linen nor We have an interesting description of the luxury and magnificence which characterized the baths of the Romans under the immediate successors of Augustus, in a letter written by Seneca; and at the same time we have a picture of the rude simplicity of those which were used in an earlier age. We give it in the version of an old translator, published in 1614, with some slight alterations. "Of the countrie-house of Africanus, of his building and bath, which was neyther garnished nor neat. "Lying in the verie towne [villa] of Scipio Africanus, I write these things unto thee, having adored the spirit of him and the altar which I suppose to be the sepulcher of so great a man. . . . . . . I saw that towne builded of foursquare stone, a wall compassing about a wood, towers also set under both sides of the towne for a defence. A cisterne laid under the buildings, and green places which was able to serve even an armie of men. A little narrow bathe, somewhat darke, as the olde fashion was. None seemed warme for our ancestors except it were obscure. Great pleasure entred into me, beholding the manners of Scipio and of us. In this corner that horrour of Carthage, to whom Rome is in debt that it was taken but once, washed his bodie, wearied with the labours of the countrie: for he exercised himselfe in worke, and he himself tilled the earth, as the fashion of the ancients was. He stood upon this so base a roofe,-this so mean a floore sustained him. But now who is he that can sustaine to be bathed thus? Poore and base seemeth he to himself, except the walls have shined with great and precious rounds, except Alexandrian marbles be distinguished with Numidian roofe-caste, except the chamber be covered over with glasse, except stone of the Ile Thassus, once a rare gazing-stocke in some church (temple), have compassed about our ponds into which we let down our bodies exhausted by much labour; except silver cocks have poured out water unto And as yet I speake of the conduits of the common sort; what when I shall come to the bathes of freedmen? What profusion of statues is there,-what profusion of columns holding nothing up, but placed for ornament, merely on account of the expense? What quantity of waters sliding downe upon staires with a great noise? To that delicacie are we come, that men will not tread but upon precious stones. In this Bathe of Scipio, there be verie small chinckes, rather than windowes, cut out in the stonewall, that without hurt of the fense they should let the light in. But now they are called the bathes of moths, if any be not framed so as to receive, with most large windows, the sunne all the day long, except they be batned and coloured (sunburnt) at the same time, except from the us. bathing vessel they look upon both land and sea. But in old time there were few bathes, neither were they adorned with any trimming up. For why should a thing of a farthing worth be adorned, and which is invented for use, and not for delight? Water was not poured in, neither did it alwaies, as from a warm fountain, runne fresh. But, O the good Gods! how delightful it was to enter into those bathes, somewhat darke and covered with plaster of the common sort, which thou diddest know that Cato, the overseer of the buildings (ædile), or Fabius Maximus, or some one of the Cornelii, had tempered for you with his owne hand? For the most noble ædiles performed this duty also of going into those places which received the people, and of exacting cleanliness, and an useful and healthie temperature; not this which is lately found out, like unto a setting on fire, so that it is meet indeed to be washed alive, as a slave convicted of some crime. It seemeth to me now to be of no difference, whether the bathe be scalding hot or be but warme. Of how great rusticity do some now condemn Scipio, because into his warm bathe he did not with large windowes (of transparent stone) let in the light? O miserable man! He knew not how to live; he was not washed in strained water, but oftentimes in turbid, and, when more vehemently it did rain, in almost muddy water." Amongst many luxurious habits for which Pliny censures the Roman ladies of his time, is the practice of having their bathing-rooms floored with silver. In the fourth century, Ammianus Marcellinus attempted to convey a notion of the enormous extent of the public baths, by saying, that they were built "in the manner of provinces." This writer reckons sixteen public baths in the city of Rome; of these, the principal were those of Agrippa, Nero, Titus, Domitian, Antoninus, Caracalla, and Diocletian. All these edifices, though differing in size, and many other respects, agreed in the general outline of their plan. They were surrounded by extensive gardens, and oftentimes decorated with a spacious portico. The different halls and apartments of the main building were used for various purposes, some for bathing and swimming, and the usual athletic exercises, others for conversation, and for the recitation of poets and the lectures of philosophers. They were splendidly fitted up, and were furnished with collections of books. The attachment of the Romans to the practice of bathing continued undiminished till the time of the removal of the seat of empire to Constantinople. After this period, says Cameron, "We have no account of any new Thermæ being built, and suppose that most of those which were then frequented in the city of Rome, for want of the imperial patron age gradually fell into decay. It may, likewise, be remarked, that the use of linen became every day more general; that great disorders were committed in the baths, a proper care and attention in the management of them not being kept up; and that the aqueducts by which they were supplied with water were, many of them, ruined in the frequent invasions and inroads of the barbarous nations. All these causes greatly contributed to hasten the destruction of the baths.. It is probable that the Romans resorted to the baths, at the same time of the day that others were accustomed to make use of their private baths. This was generally from two o'clock in the afternoon, till the dusk of the evening: this practice, however, varied at different times. Notice was given when the baths were ready, by the ringing of a bell; the people then left the sphæristerium, and hastened to the caldarium, lest the water should cool. But when bathing became more universal among the Romans, this part of the day was insufficient, and they gradually exceeded the hours that had been allotted for that purpose. Between two and three in the afternoon, was, however, the most eligible time for the exercises of the palæstra. Hadrian forbade any but those that were sick to enter the public baths before two o'clock. The Thermæ were by few emperors allowed to be continued open so late as five in the evening. Martial says, that after four o'clock, they demanded a hundred quadrantes of those who bathed. This, though a hundred times the usual price, only amounted to nineteen pence. We learn from the same author, that the baths were sometimes opened earlier than two o'clock. He says, that Nero's baths were exceeding hot at twelve o'clock, and the steam of the water immoderate. Alexander Severus, to gratify the people in their passion for bathing, not only suffered the Thermæ to be opened before break of day, which had never been permitted before, but also furnished the lamps with oil, for convenience of the people." | Ruins of several Thermæ are to be seen in Rome; the most extensive and best preserved are those of Titus, Antoninus, Caracalla, and Diocletian. BATHS OF CARACALLA. "EXCEPT the Coliseum," says Mr. Carne, "no ruin is so deeply interesting as the Baths of Caracalla. In their secluded site, apart from the many piles of ruins around which the steps of strangers are constantly passing as on a thoroughfare, a luxuriant foliage hanging on the walls, they carry the imagination of the visiter to far distant and different scenes, when voluptuousness and splendour reigned in every part. Some edifices are more impressive in their ruin, than others in their entireness. When the sunset is thrown on the waving foliage, and falls through many a vast arch and gateway, one is tempted to believe that such is the case here. A great number of workmen were employed in making excavations; a bath had lately been discovered, with a descent of marble steps, and a pavement of fine mosaic." The ruins of these baths, to use the expression of Forsyth, show us "how magnificent a coarse rufilan may be." They form the principal ruin on Mount Aventine; there is much more of the ancient building remaining, than there is of either the Baths of Diocletian or those of Titus. Dr. Burton, speaking of the general appearance of the remains, says, that they look not unlike the ruins of some of our old castles in England; next to the Coliseum, they present the greatest mass of ancient building in Rome. The length of the whole is generally said to be 1840 feet, and the breadth 1476. Simond, however, tells us, that he "paced the outside of these ruins, and found them to be about 1200 feet on a side, equal to thirty-five or forty acres, and nearly commensurate with the garden of the Tuileries." Adopting this latter measurement, we may say roughly, that the ruins are spread over a square each of whose sides is a quarter of a mile,-or that they occupy a surface equal to a sixteenth of a square mile. " Eustace gives a spirited description of the ancient building. At each end," he says, were two temples, one to Apollo, and another to Esculapius, as the tutelary deities of the place, sacred to the improvement of the mind, and the care of the body; the two other temples were dedicated to the two protecting divinities of the Antonine family, Hercules and Bacchus. In the principal building were, in the first place, a grand circular vestibule, with four halls on each side, for cold, tepid, warm, and steam baths; in the centre was an immense square for exercise, when the weather was unfavourable to it in the open air; beyond it a great hall, where sixteen hundred marble seats were placed for the convenience of the bathers; at each end of this hall were libraries. This building terminated on both sides in a court surrounded with porticoes, with an odeum for music, and in the middle a spacious basin for swimming. Round this edifice were walks shaded by rows of trees, particularly the plane; and in its front extended a gymnasium, for running, wrestling, &c., in fine weather. The whole was bounded by a vast portico, opening into exhedræ, or spacious halls, where the poets declaimed, and philosophers gave lectures to their auditors." One of the apartments in these baths was famous in ancient times under the appellation of Cella Solearis. Spartian, who lived in the early part of the fourth century, speaking of Caracalla, says, "At Rome he left some astonishing baths, which bear his name. There is a room in them called Cella Solearis, which architects say could not possibly have been constructed in any other way. Cross bars of brass or copper are said to be placed over it, upon which the whole vaulting rests; and the space is so great, that skilful mechanics say that the same effect could not be produced by any other means." A later writer says that sixteen hundred seats of polished marble were made for the use of the persons bathing. The author of Rome in the Nineteenth Century gives the following description of a visit to the present ruins:"We passed through a long succession of immense halls, open to the sky, whose pavements of costly marbles, and rich mosaics, long since torn away, have been supplied by the soft green turf, that forms a carpet more in unison with their deserted state. The wind, sighing through the branches of the aged trees that have taken root in them without rivalling their loftiness, was the only sound we heard; and the bird of prey which burst through the thick ivy of the broken wall far above us, was the only living object we beheld. These immense halls formed part of 48 the internal division of the Therma, which was entirely devoted to purposes of amusement. The first of these halls or walled enclosures that you enter, and several of the others, have evidently been open in the centre. They were surrounded with covered porticoes, supported by immense columns of granite, which have long since been carried away; chiefly by the popes and princes of the Farnese family. In consequence of their loss, the roofs fell with a concussion so tremendous, that it is said to have been felt even in Rome, like the distant shock of an earthquake. Fragments of this vaulted roof are still hanging at the corners of the portico. The open part in the centre was probably destined for athletic sports. Many have been the doubts and disputes among the antiquaries, which of these halls have the best claim to be considered as the once wonderful Cella Solearis. All are roofless now; but the most eastern of them, that which is farthest to the left on entering, and which has evidently had windows, seems generally to enjoy the reputation. Besides these enormous halls, there are, on the western side of these ruins, the remains of a large circular building, and a great number of smaller divisions, of all sizes and forms, in their purpose wholly incomprehensible. Excepting that they belonged to that part of the Thermæ destined for purposes of amusement, nothing can now be known; and though the immense extent of the baths may be traced far from hence by their wide-spreading ruins, it is equally difficult and unprofitable to explore them any further. In the last of these halls there is a deep draw-well; and in one of our many visits to these ruins, we found a young Englishman of our acquaint* Other writers say that there is no appearance of windows. ance, who, in his ardour for antiquities, was on the point of descending in the bucket to the bottom of it. We could not succeed in stopping him, till we called in the testimony of the old woman who opens the door, in corroboration of our own, to prove that the well is not antico, but was made for the use of the pigs that now revel undisturbed in all the luxuries of these imperial halls." Some splendid specimens of ancient sculpture have been discovered in these baths. The Farnese Hercules, of which all our readers have doubtless heard, was dug out of these ruins in 1540. At first the legs were wanting; they were found in 1560, when they came into the possession of Prince Borghese, who refused to give them up. They were afterwards joined to the body; but in the mean while a fresh pair of legs had been executed by a modern artist under the direction of Michel Angelo, and these may now be seen in the Farnese palace at Rome. The name of Farnese Hercules was given to this statue because Paul the Third, who was the reigning pope, and whose property it became, was a member of the Farnese family. Another very famous statue, which was dug out of the ruins, is the Toro Farnese, or Farnese Bull, which was discovered in 1546. A celebrated Flora was also found here in 1540,-the year in which the Farnese Hercules was discovered. In page 41, we have given a view of the Baths. The engraving in page 45, represents the Farnese Villa and the ruins of the Palace of the Cæsars on the Palatine hill; we described them in a former number. That in page 48, represents the side of the celebrated church or Basilica of S. Giovanni Laterano, or St. John Lateran, which we shall describe hereafter. 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