Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1867-01-30

From the Boston journal. -.
Ancient Rome--The Forum
LETTER FROM CARLETON" {

What's wonderful page is that which
history has turned down upon the cluster
ed hills of this ancient city Stand amid
the ruins, walk beneath the broken arches,
behold the shattered columns and massive
masonry slowly crumbling beneath the
touch of time, and you are transported
backward through twenty-five hundred
years. By the aid of these memorials
you connect yourself with the days when
the Savior of men and the Apostles were
on earth. Shut your eyes and ears to
the sights and sounds of the present, and
you may behold the glory of those distant
years--thc years of the Commonwealth
when julius Caesar led the legious of
Rome to victory; the period of the En-
plre when Augustus sat upon the throne,
when the city was in the noon. day of her
majesty and splendor.-Here you listen
to the eloqncnce of an orator, who, though
the grass for eighteen hundred years has
waved over his ashes, still charms US With
his persuasive voice. Beneath these state
ly arches government was administered
from writtcn code Of laws, while all the
rest ef Europe was an unexplored, barbar-
GUS region, except that wonderful region
called Greece. This was the seat of civ
iiizaton while yet the smoke Of human
sacrifice asccnded from Stonhenge! So
standing here We may take leap back
ward into the centuries.
! | shall attempt no learned description
of ancient Rome, neither shall | weary
your readers with details of what there is
to be secii among the ouins-of the mag
nitude, proportions or hight of old tenn
pies. but would 60, with them rather in
quiet way, to few places in the old
city, where, sitting upon q broken column,
or an overturned statue, CT standing be-
side some crumbling walls, we may obtain
a view, Or glimpse rather, of the city as
it was before this Angels sung their song
of Peace to the shepherds of Judca.
r,,n yonr-,, Do
Taking our way along the narrow
streets of modern Rome on this bright
December mordibg we reach the Forum
of ancient Rome, which was the centre Of
the city. Not the centre perhaps of pop.
ulalion, but of the glory, splcudor, mag
nifcensc, pomp, ceremony; also of poll
tics, religion, government, learning, law
and oratory. There were several forums
in the city, erected at different periods,
but the spot where shall take your rea.
ders is that known as the Roman Forum
situated in a hollow between the Capito-
line and the Palatiue hills, the place
where Cicero uttered his burning words
against Cataline. If we mount the ros.
trum where he delivered his orations, q
central point, and then stretch cord Q
half mile in length, We may describe Q
circle which will include very much of the
greatness of old Rome. Likening it tc
orb of day, We may call that circle the
sun of modern history, illuminating al
the centuries between Romulus aud the
present hour. ew s so -1igla
Romulus was the founder of Roue,'i
is said. We will take a lock by and b
at the wall which he built and the house
or rather the locality, where it is'said hi
4 lived, on the Palatine Hill seven hundred
and fifty three years before the Christian
era. That was in the time of Ahaz, King
Of Judah. HezCkiak aud lsaiho wer,
young men. Elijah had just gone tc
heaven in his chariot of fire. Babylon
was iu the midday of her might. Greece
was approaching the meridian Il of he
splendor, but the sun of Egypt was going
down. 1t was morning with Carthage
but everywhere else in the world ther'
was the darkDcss of barbaric night. Ant
yet Romulus reared his city on the ruins
il is said, of an ancient city What peo
pie lived here, and what they accomplish
ed, is in oblivion.
The Capitoline and Palatine hills wer'
two of the seven on which Rome was built
They are not more than sixty or seventy
rods apart, and are Lut moderate eleva
tions on the east bank Of the Tiber. Th'
ancient capitol was erected on tho Capito
line, while the palaces Of the Empero
we're erected on the Paiatone. The hol
low between was thick with public build
ings 'At
Let us go down from the Capitolin
hill, row covered with the buildings 0
modern Rome, and stand upon the Ros
trum--a mere wall now-semicircular il
form, built of rough stones, but once over
laid with polished marble. The slab
have been taken away, and what we 90
Of the rostrum is only the substitution
AT our back is the Temple Of Concord