By the time that we have passed the last theatre of the three we have arrived at the river end of the low valley leading into the Forum between the Capitoline Hill and the Palatine, a place which had once been a cattle-market but had now become an open place surrounded by dwellings of the humbler sort.  It still, however, bore the name of “Cattle-Market.”  If from this point we followed the river bank, we should come to the wharves, to which the smaller ships bring up the Tiber the freights of grain transhipped from the larger vessels from Alexandria or Carthage, or of marble from the quarries of Numidia, Greece, and Phrygia, or of granite and porphyry from Upper Egypt.  All along this bank are the offices and storehouses of such cargoes, and here too is performed much of the shaping of those blocks which Rome is using in such astonishing profusion.  Along the river by the stone embankment the ships are moored, with their cables passed through huge stone corbels or sculptured lions’ mouths.  No busier part of Rome could be found than this, but we have no time to proceed further in this direction.

In front of us rises the Aventine Hill, another quarter of the wealthy, but otherwise chiefly distinguished by its temples of Juno the Queen and of Diana.  Turning our eyes from the Aventine to the left we see lying in the valley between Aventine and Palatine—­where now are the Jewish Cemetery and the grimy Gasworks—­the vast Circus Maximus or Hippodrome.  This structure, devoted chiefly to chariot-racing, is some 700 yards in length and 135 in width, and will at a pinch hold nearly a quarter of a million spectators.  In all probability it would seat 150,000.  It consists, as the illustration will show, of long tiers of seats sweeping down the sides and round the curved end of an oblong space.  As with the theatres, its outside view presents three tiers of marble arches, and through the lowest tier are numerous staircases leading to the various sections of the seats within.  Those seats themselves are laid upon large vaults of concrete; the lower rows are of marble, the upper ones are as yet of wood.  How the chariot-races were run, and what is meant by the “sports of the circus,” will naturally require a separate narration.

Coming back from the entrance of this mammoth place of amusement and turning up the Velabrum Valley, we pass by a temple of Augustus, to which is attached a public library, and issue by the temple of Castor into the Forum to our first standing-point at F.

CHAPTER VIII

STREETS, WATER-SUPPLY, AND BUILDING MATERIAL

After this rapid walk through the more interesting parts of the capital, we may consider one or two connected topics of natural interest.