The San Francisco call., 1899-08-12
ROMAN EXCAVATIONS.
Result of the Recent Work Done IN
he

Result of the Recent Work Done in
the Forum.
When the Pelloux Ministry was
formed at the end of June, and Signor
Bacelli became Minister of Public In
struction, it was assumed by the archie
ologists that something would be done
to push forward the work of excava-
ton and arrangement of the classical
remains in the Forum museum, and
that the well-known enthusiasm of
Signor Bacelll for all that belongs to
the history of Rome would be sufti-
cient to overcome the objections GER
tain to be raised on the score of ex-
penSe.
l remember walking around the Pala-
/ tine hill one hot morning in July and
/ hearing the SpeculatiOnS of the guard
/ ians and the cicerOni as to what could
/ be done if Signor Bacelli had his way,
had enough money at his disposal and
remained long enough in office to carry
! through his plans.
Signor Bacelli did not disappoint eX-
/ pectations, but a great proportion of
/ the credit for the discoveries lately
made is due to Signor BOni, a Venetian
engineer and architect, who is animated
by passion for archaeology in general
and the Forum in particular The
means at his disposal were small being
only 5000 lire Oess than 5000, and when
it is seen what SignOr BOni has done
for that amount, in conjunction with
the fact that the gilt letters placed on
| the Pantheon during SignOr Bacelli's S
last term of office cost G300, it will be
admitted that on the present occasion
Italy has obtained good results at
cheap price and with an absence of
jobbery.
First. below the floor of the temple
of Vesta four brick walls were discov-
cred probably built in the time of Ha-
drian), which form kind OF chamber.
Searchers for marble in the sixteenth
century may have spoiled one of the
walls. The chamber is supposed to
have served as depository for the
ashes of the sacred fire. which were
taken from the temple once year.
No discoveries, properly so called,
were made on this site, which stands
at the northwest of the house of the
Vestals, but the inscribed frieZe and
the capitals and bases of columns and
pilasters were replaced in their orig
inal positions.
In the neighborhood of this monu-
ment the really important discoveries
began. In front Of the temple was
wall built of tufa. Between that wall
and the hemicycle of the front wall of
the temple was found the core of the
base of the honorary column which,
after Caesars murder, was set up
parentipatriae. This column was built
of the marble known as gallo antico.
The core of the base is made of con-
crete formed with chips of gallo antico
and of gray Carrara marble. The fact
Of this base being in concrete seems TO
show according to some archaeological
authorities. that the fragments now
found must be reconstruction and not
the original one, as concrete was not
used at the time of julius Caesar.
Several fragments of the recon
structed Temple of julius Caesar have
been found in a retaining wall, which
forms a kind of embankment to that
side of the Forum. They seem to have
been built into the wall indiscriminate-
ly. as were also several pieces of the
Basilica Emilia. One of these frag-
ments, nearly cubic yard in size is
very finely decorated with bulls skull
or boucranion. The wall or embank-
ment in which these blocks have been
found must be made up in great part
of similarly interesting remains, but ex-
cavations have had to be suspended on
account of a protest lodged with the
Government by the dWellers in the
wretched little houses which stand on
the brow of the embankment itself.
The only way out of the difficulty would
be to have money enough to eXpropriate
these tumble-down buildings and re-
move them. Here is chance for
wealthy archeolOgists to intervene, buy
the wretched novels and make q present
of them TO the archaeological authori-
ties.
Niger Lapis in Comitio locum funestum
Significat ut ali Romuli morti destinatum.
Wrote Festus, the commentator OF the
writings of Flaccus The Comitium
was a kind of open-air lobby or Sale
des Pas Perdus for the Roman Senate.
Near the Comitium Signor Boni found
black stone, or rather a pavement of
black marble, three meters seventy five
centimeters by four meters in extent.
The slabs Of black stone are very thick.