Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/307

 EXPLORATIONS IN ROME. 253 Government will doubtless sooner or later take it in lian«l ; but they have enough already in hand to last them for the next fifty years. I will now proceed to speak of their great works. The Government has undertaken to excavate the whole of the Forum Koinanum, and the Palatine Hill, with the slopes round it on all si<Ies, down to the Via Sacra on one side, the Circus Maximus on the other, the Forum Komanum at the north end, and the Colosseum at the other. For this great w^ork the Parliament has voted £1200 a year, and several hundred men are employed upon it, m-idcr the direction of the Cavaliere Rosa, who had for some years the management of the excavations for the Emperor of the French. In many respects it could not be in better hands, but Signer Rosa is unfortunately too fond of Restora- tions, which destroy the genuine chai'acter of the work, and make it work of the nineteenth century instead of work of the time of the Roman emperors. In the Forum Romanum last year he built thirty-nine new bases of brick to correspond with one ancient base which was of travertine, and it is doubtful whether there ever were any pillars where he has placed these bases, or any vault or roof over a great part of this long raised platform of the Basilica Julia. That great building was begun by Julius Csesar, and finished by Augustus, who enlarged it very much, and altered the plan of it, so that what had been the breadth became the lenoth. as we are told by the cotemporary authors. The north end towards the tabularium and the temple of Saturn was covered in, and the arches of that part remain. They are built of travertine, according to the fashion of the day, corresponding closely to the arch of Dolabella on the Ca3lian, dated b}' an inscription upon it of a.d. 10, when Dolabella was Consul in the time of Augustus. These stone arches do not extend more than a third of the length of the great platform. The brick bases that Rosa has built are cari'ied on to the further end of it, and the marble pavement was cut through in several phices to admit them. In justice to the Italian Government, I must state the fact that the}' have now forbidden any more restorations to be made. There can be no doubt that too nmch work has been thrown upon Signor Rosa, who has been obliged to leave a great deal to other j^ersons who are often very ignorant.