Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/365

Rh Almost facing the temple and palace of the Vestal Virgins, are the ten beautiful columns that remain of the temple of Faustina. Further on, also, to our left are the ruins of the vast and colossal Basilica of Constantine built by Emperor Vespasian. Only one aisle, consisting of three arches, each with a span of 75 feet, remains, and this aisle gives us the idea of the magnitude of the temple when entire.

The winding Via Sacra now passes under the Arch of Titus—massive and still uninjured. It was erected by the people and the Senate of Rome after the taking of Jerusalem, and upon it therefore are sculptured the seven branched candlestick and other treasures of the Jewish temple. Even my guide-book waxes eloquent over this Arch,—and I will quote from it. "Standing beneath the Arch of Titus, and amid so much ancient dust, it is difficult to forbear the commonplaces of enthusiasm on which hundreds of tourists have always insisted. Over the halfworn pavement and beneath this arch, the Roman armies had trodden on their onward march to fight battles, a world's width away. Returning victorious with royal captives and inestimable spoils, a Roman triumph, that most gorgeous pageant of earthly pride, has streamed and flaunted in hundredfold succession over these same flagstones and through this yet stalwart archway."

To our left now are the ruins of the great temple of Venus in Rome, erected in 391, and which was the last pagan temple which remained in use in Rome. Passing onwards by the same paved way we proceed along a