restoration was demanded by Symmachus, the request was refused by Ambrose, as opposed to the conscience of the Christian senators; and this decision being ratified by the votes of the assembly, the doom of paganism, as the national religion, was in consequence sealed.  The Curia Julia ceased to serve its original purpose at the death of Caligula, when the consuls convoked the senate in the Capitol instead, to mark their aversion to the rule of the Caesars; and the building was probably burnt down and finally rebuilt in the time of Diocletian.  One of the most curious uses to which it was put, was to mark the Suprema tempestas, which closed the hours of legal business, by means of its shadow projected on the pavement; a primitive mode of reckoning time which existed before the first Punic war, and was afterwards superseded by a sun-dial and a clepsydra or water-clock erected in the Forum.

Near the Curia under the present roadway must lie the site of the Comitium, or meeting-place of the Roman burgesses.  This was far the most important spot in the Forum in the days of the Republic.  It was not a covered building, but a templum or a consecrated space open to the air.  In its area grew a fig-tree, in commemoration of the sacred tree which sheltered Romulus and Remus in their infancy; and we read of drops of blood and milk falling upon it as omens from the sky.  One of the stones on its pavement, from its extraordinary blackness, was called the tombstone of Romulus, and a number of statues adorned its sides, including the three Sibyls, which gave the name of “In Tria Fata” down to medieval times to this part of the Forum.  From its rostra, or stone platform, addresses were delivered by political agitators to open-air assemblies of the people.  The Comitium reminds us very strikingly of the municipal origin of the Roman empire.  In primitive times that mode of government was admirably adapted to the necessities of the city; but when Rome became mistress of the world it was found unfitted to discharge imperial functions.  The establishment of the monarchical form of Government overthrew the Comitium, and with it the very life of the Roman city.

In front of the church of S. Adriano—­said to be no other than the actual Curia of Diocletian, though greatly altered and partly rebuilt by Pope Honorius I. in the year 630—­are some fragments of the Basilica AEmilia.  This court was erected on the site of the Basilica Fulvia, and superseded by a more splendid building called the Basilica Pauli, which was the Bourse or Exchange of ancient Rome.  The building of this last Basilica was interrupted for a long time by the disorders consequent on the assassination of Caesar.  When finished, it was considered to be one of the most magnificent buildings in the world; and was especially admired on account of its beautiful columns of Phrygian marble.  These were afterwards removed to decorate the church of St. Paul outside the gate, where some of them that