When excavated in 1813 it was found to stand on an isolated pedestal, with an inscription recording that it was erected by the exarch Smaragdus to the emperor Phocas; and the mode in which the offering was made was worthy of the infamous subject and the venal dedicator.  Nothing can be clearer from the style of the monument than that it was stolen from the Temple of Vespasian adjoining; for it is an exact fellow of the three graceful Corinthian pillars still standing in front of the AErarium.  It was near this pillar, a few years after it was raised, that Gregory the Great, before he became Pope, saw the young Saxon captives exposed to be sold as slaves, and was so struck with their innocent looks and hopeless fate that he asked about their nationality and religion.  Being told that they were Angli, he said, “Non Angli, sed Angeli.”  The impression made upon him led to a mission for converting the natives of Britain, which set out from Rome under St. Augustine in 596.  Thus does the column of the infamous usurper Phocas link itself on the historic page with the conversion of Britain to Christianity.

Beside the Pillar of Phocas are two large marble screens or parapets, with magnificent bas-reliefs sculptured on both sides.  They were discovered about sixteen years ago in situ, and are among the most interesting and important objects that have been brought to light by the recent excavations in the Forum.  Their peculiar form has given rise to much controversy; some antiquarians regarding them as an avenue along which voters went up to the poll at the popular elections of consuls, designed either to preserve the voters from the pressure of the mob, or to prevent any but properly qualified persons from getting admission; while others believe that the passage between the double screen led to an altar.  This latter opinion seems the more plausible one, for the sculptures on one side represent the suovetaurilia—­a bull, a ram, and a boar, adorned with ribbons and vittae, walking in file, which were usually sacrificed for the purification of Rome at the Lustrum, as the census taken every five years was called.  The other sculptures on the marble screens consist of a number of human figures in greater or less relief; one of them being supposed to commemorate the provision made by Trajan for the children of poor or deceased citizens in the orphanage which he was the first to found in Rome; and the other, the burning of the deeds which contained the evidence of the public debt of the Roman citizens, which the emperor generously cancelled.  But the chief significance of the sculptures lies in their background of architectural and other objects indicating the locality of the scenes represented.  They place before us a view of the Forum as it appeared in the time of Trajan, and enable us to identify the various objects which then crowded it, and to fix their relative position.  The topographical importance of these reliefs has been well discussed by Signor