Evening star., 1897-02-06
WHERE CAESAR LIVED.
Landmarks Of the Great Julius to Be
Found I'm Modern Rome.

Landmarks OF the Great Julius to Be
Found I'm Modern Rome.
From Harper's Magazine.
All students will remember that Julius
Caesar announced that all Gaul was divid-
ed into three parts; each Of which, with all
the gall in his possession, he attached to
himself. This celebrated man of letters,
against the advice of his wife, Calpurnia,
went out to meet his fate on a famous
March morning, from the Regia, close to
the temple of Vesta in the Forum; and
here his widow received his body, brought
back with all its gaping wounds by a few
of his faithful slaves. Alas, 1t was too late
for her to tell him that she had told him
so; but no doubt, in all her great grief, she
thought it!
Mr.. Forbes says that Caesar lived in the
nrst house in the Via Sacra. He describes
1t as fronting toward the temple of Vesta
while the portico and shops built at a later
period over its ruins ran parallel with the
sacred Way The house side of the atrium
ne continues, is plainly marked by the
fragments Of columns composed of traver-
tine coated with stucco and frescoed, and
amid the shops are remains of a beautiful
olack and white mosaic pavement, the
fragments OF the borders showing that
they once belonged to the older edifice
The mansion had two entrances into the
Via Sacra, one nearly touching it's north
east corner.
Caesar was not killed in the Capitol. as
Shakespeare said. What Hamlet" called
that Brute part was played in Pompey's
senate House, or the Theater of Pompey,
the Church of 8. Andrea della VaIle on the
new thoroughfare called Corso Vittorio
Emanuele, now standing upon its site Mr.
Forbes explains that the great star beneath
the cupola marks as near possible the
spot upon which the autocrat fell As the
deposed Bonaparte lies under the Dome of
the Invalides, in Paris SO rises in Rome a
oome over the place where another, IL not
greater. conqueror was extinguished
P0mpeys statue, at the foot of which
great Caesar fell, q colossal not unpainlv
figure of man, is believed generally to be
now standing in the Palazzo Spada ALA
hegola, In the Piazza di Capo di Ferro 1t
Is placed in what is called the council
chamber of the palace and what are said
to be the stains of great Caesars blood are
according to tradition, still visible upon the
ca can OF Pompey's left leg. Mr.. Hare quotes
Suetonius as narrating that the statue
was removed from the Curia by Angus
tus, and placed upon q marble Janus in
front Of the basilica," and the same au-
mon rnorityaMr. y, Hare-adds that 1T was found
upon that exact spot during the pontificate
OF Julius III Q550-55)." Whether this be
the original figure Of Pompey or not, 1t has
been addressed by Byron as Thou dread
statue: yet existent in the austerest form
Of naked mystery" and it has been ac-
cepted and apostrophized by many other
Well-known writers of prose and of verse
as being authentic. And while am will
L
on record as doubling, somewhat, the
stains of Caesars blood
Mark Antony delivered his famous fu-
neral Grafton on the Rostra Julia, on the
east side Of the Forum. The ancient writ
ers tell us how greatly 1t moved the peo-
pie, who Immediately burned the body I'm
that very place. and afterward inferred the
ashes there; but they do not report An
tonys words. That they could hardly be
more moving than were the words put into
Antony's mouth by Shakespeare ali report
ers Of great speeches, in the present day.
Caesar, which was erected on his funeral
pile. Sig. Lanciani says, was DESTROYED in
1546 1t is now an unmarked mass of rough
and broken stones.
The Temple of Caesar and Caesars
house. and the other intensely interesting
features of the Forum are not easily dis.
tinguished by the present pilgrims, even
with the aid of the clearest Of plans. Small
tablets stating Here Caesar Lived or
Here Caesar Died." or here happened this
or here happened that historical event,
would be of great help to the inquiring
tourist of today. II Keats and Scott and
Goethe are SO honored by the municipality
of Rome. why should not the homes of the
men of earlier times have some mark to
distinguish their occupancy?
Very few spots in the world are more
Impressive than this same Roman Forum.
Here one walks. by means of a few mod
ern wooden steps, out OF the end of the
nineteenth century into q space dating back
to a period when there were no centuries
at all, as we count them: to q period which
was old before the middle ages were born.
And In the Forum, even more strangely
than at the pyramids themselves, Is one
forced to acknowledge that art is short,
and that time Is deeting.
literary gentleman not unknown to the