no solid foundation; the truth is, that of the three grand works which I have mentioned, the first was erected at a time when Grecian architecture was in its infancy, and the two others before any regular intercourse had taken place between the Greeks and Romans. The latter derived their arts and sciences from their neighbors, the Etrurians, a singular people, who flourished in riches, power, and science, for some ages before the Greeks began to emerge from their primitive barbarism, and to them the Romans probably were indebted for that solid taste which distinguished them ever after. In fact, they seem in all their works and edifices to have had constantly in view the three great qualities, which in architecture give excellence without the aid of ornament, and by their own intrinsic merit command admiration. This simple and manly style shewed itself in the very infancy of the city, expanded with the greatness and resources of the republic, and displayed itself, not in the capital only, but in the most distant provinces; it survived the fall of the empire, struggled for ages of convulsion with the spirit of barbarism, and, as a monument of its triumph, at length raised over the fanes, the porticos, the triumphal arches of the mistress of the world, the palaces, the obelisks, the temples of the Modern City.

Whether this effect be attributed to the example and lessons of the Etrurians, and to the architectural school established by Numa, or to that magnanimity which seems to have grown out of the very soil, and to have been inhaled with the air of ancient Rome, I know not: but it cannot be ascribed to the influence of the Greeks, as it arose before they were known, and flourished long after they were forgotten, among the Romans.

At a later period they certainly borrowed the Greek orders, but they employed them upon a scale commensurate with their own greatness and far above the means of the Greeks. In fact, the latter seem, in a great measure, to have confined their magnificence to gates, mausoleums, and temples; while the former, allowing their splendor a much wider range, extended its influence to baths, circusses, forums, curiæ, and Basilicæ; not to speak of roads, bridges, cloaca, and aqueducts: nay, they seem, even in the opinion of the Greeks themselves, who speak of the wonders of Rome with an admiration that could have arisen from a sense of inferiority only, to have surpassed them even in those very fabrics in which the principal boast and glory of Greece consisted, and to have left them at length the sole advantage of having first invented the Orders. In reality it would be difficult to find a temple equal in beauty to the Pantheon, in magnitude to that of Peace, and in splendor to that of Jupiter Capitolinus. The tomb of Adrian, în materials, elevation, and ornament, equalled, perhaps excelled, the Halicarnassian mausoleum*, and all the theatres of Greece sunk

* The dimensions of the latter were, according to Pliny, sixty-three feet in length, somewhat less in breadth, and in height twenty-five cubits or about forty feet; its whole circumference, including a square or open space around it, was four hundred and eleven feet. On the mausoleum rose a pyramid of the same elevation as the mausoleum itself, that is, between thirty-eight and forty feet, and on its summit stood a quadriga. The elevation of the whole was one hundred and forty feet. It was supported by thirty-six pillars, and its four sides were sculptured by four of the most eminent artists. I leave the task of reconciling these dimensions with the rules of proportion to professed architects. I must however add, that excepting the elevation they are far inferior to those of the Roman mausoleum.

into insignificance before the enormous circumference of the Coliseum.

Some travellers, in order to disparage the monuments of Roman grandeur and raise the fame of Greece, have remarked, that the former are of brick and were lined or cased only with marble, while the edifices of the latter were entirely of marble; but this remark originated in hasty and imperfect observation, and is inaccurate in both its parts, as many, perhaps most, of the public buildings at Rome were of solid stone or marble, and several of the Grecian edifices of brick cased with marble pannels. Of this latter kind was the mausoleum above-mentioned *. Mausolus, indeed, is said to have first invented the art of incrusting brick walls with marble, a practice introduced into Rome in the reign of Augustus by Caius Mamurra, Part of the walls of Athens were formed of the same materials, as was the palace of Croesus, that of Attalus, and several public edifices at Lacedæmon. Pliny goes so far as to assert, that the Greeks preferred brick to stone in great buildings as more durable, and adds that such walls, when the perpendicular line is duly attended to, last for ever.

FORUMS.

We next come to the forums or squares, which are represented by the ancients as alone sufficient to eclipse the splendor of every other city. There were two kinds of forums,

Pliny, xxxv. 14.

the Fora Venalia and the Fora Civilia. The former were merely markets, and were distinguished each by a title expressing the objects to which they were appropriated, such as the Forum Boarium, Piscatorium, &c. of these of course, the number was indefinite, though commonly supposed to be about twelve. The Fora Civilia were intended, as the name implies, for the transaction of public business, and were five in number; the Forum Romanum-D. Julii-Augusti-Nervæ, frequently called Transitorium and Trajani. The Forum Romanum was in rank the first; its name was coeval with the city, and its destination connected with all the glories of the Republic. It was in fact the seat or rather the throne of Roman power. It was encircled with buildings of the greatest magnificence; but these buildings were erected at different periods, and perhaps with little regard to regularity. They circumscribed its extent within very narrow limits, but these limits were consecrated by omens and auguries, and ennobled by fame and patriotism; they were too sacred to be removed. It was therefore found inadequate to the accommodation of the crowds which flocked to the public assemblies, and Julius Cæsar took upon himself the popular charge of supplying the Roman people with another forum, without however violating the dignity and pre-eminence of the first, which always retained exclusively the title of Great, and the appellation of Roman.

Of the Julian forum we only know, that the ground on which it stood cost nine hundred thousand pounds, and that its principal ornament was a temple of Venus Genitrix.

The forum of Augustus was lined on each side by a portico, and terminated by the temple of Mars Bis Ultor*. Under the porticos, on one side stood in bronze the Latin and Roman kings, from Eneas down to Tarquinius Superbus; on the other were ranged the Roman heroes all in triumphal robes." On the base of each statue was inscribed the history of the person whom it represented. In the centre rose a colossal statue of Augustus.

The Forum Nerva, or Transitorium, so called because it formed a communication between the three other forums and that of Trajan. There are still some remains of this forum, as part of the wall that enclosed it, some Corinthian pillars belonging to one of its porticos, and the portal of the temple of Minerva. It was begun by Domitian, but finished by Nerva.

The Forum Trajani, or Ulpianum, was the last in date, but the first in beauty. The splendor of these edifices was indeed progressive: the Julian was supposed to have surpassed the Roman; that of Augustus is ranked by Pliny among pulcherrima opera quæ unquam, and yet it was acknowledged to

* Ovid. Fast. Lib. v. ver. 552.

+ The account given by Suetonius is highly honorable to Augustus. Proximum a Diis immortalibus honorem memoriæ ducum præstitit qui imperium populi Romani ex minimo maximum reddidissent. Itaque . . . . . statuas omnium triumphali effigie in utraque Fori sui porticu dedicavit. Professus est edicto, Commentum id se ut illorum velut ad exemplar et ipse dum viveret, et insequentium ætatum principes exigerentur a civibus.-Oct. Cæs. Clug. XXXI.