Brizio and Professor Henzen in the Proceedings of the Roman Archaeological Institute; and also in a paper read by Mr. Nichols before the Society of Antiquaries in London in 1875.  By translating into perspective their somewhat conventional representations of temples, basilicas, and arches, Mr. Nichols has given us in his monograph on the subject two very effective pictorial restorations of the Forum as it was in the days of Trajan.  Both the screens exhibit, very distinctly sculptured, a fig-tree and a statue on a pedestal, which are interesting from their classical associations.  The tree is not the famous Ruminal fig-tree originally of the Palatine and then of the Comitium, but, as Pliny tells us, a self-sown tree which grew in the mid Forum on the site of the Lake of Curtius, which in Ovid’s time, as we learn from himself, was a dry space of natural ground marked off by a low fence, and including an altar.  This fig-tree, along with a vine and an olive, which grew associated with it, was much prized on account of the shade which it afforded.  The figure under the fig-tree, carrying a vine stem on its left shoulder, and uplifting its right arm, has been recognised as that of Marsyas, whose statue was often put in market-places as an emblem of plenty and indulgence.  Martial, Horace, Seneca, and Pliny all alluded to this statue in the Forum, which stood near the edge of the Lake of Curtius, and was crowned with garlands by Julia, the daughter of Augustus, during her disgraceful assignations beside it with her lovers at night.

On the east side of the Forum the excavations have been stopped in the meantime, as the modern level of the ground is occupied by valuable houses, and two very interesting old churches, Santa Martina and Sta.  Adriano.  Under the part not yet exhumed lie the remains of the earliest of all the Basilicas, the Basilica of Porcia, built by the elder Cato in the immediate vicinity of the Curia, and also those of the famous Basilica AEmilia, which probably extended along the greater part of the east side of the Forum.  Some of the most important monuments of ancient Rome, known to us only by the writings of classic authors, doubtless lie buried in this locality.  Under the church of Sta.  Adriano, the famous Curia Hostilia or Senate House, attributed to Tullus Hostilius, stood.  The original building was destroyed by fire at the funeral of Clodius, through the carelessness of the populace, who insisted upon burning his body within it; but it was replaced by the Curia Julia, which was rebuilt by Augustus, who added to it an important structure, called in the Ancyran inscription Chalcidicum, for the convenience of the senators.  Around it stood the statues of men who had rendered important services to the state; and not far off was an altar and statue of Victory, which formed the last rallying-ground of expiring paganism against the dominating Christianity of the empire.  In the year 382 the Christian party had removed this altar and statue; and when their