The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-11-07
FOUND IN THE FORUM.
Important Results Of the Recent Rom

Important Results of the Recent Rom
an Excavations.
| The excavations which Signor Gia-
como Boni has been conducting with
such marvellous intuition for nearly
two years have just yielded results
more striking than any yet obtained
The Niger Lapis and Cippus with the
archaic inscription, the Basilica Emilia,
the Sacrario of Mars. the house of the
| Vestals and the many sacred wells
scarcely possesses the poetlcal interest
of the discoveries now made under the
| site of the demolished Church of Santa
Maria Liberatrice.
AS soon as the removal of the church
and it's foundation was fairly completed
| Sgnor Boni set to work to search for
| the Fons and the Lacus Juturna, which
| there was reason to believe had existed
| between the temple of Castor and Pol
lux and the house the Vestals. He
first came on a magnificent Greek torso
| of an Apollo, which had evidently be-
longed to a series of statutes adjoining
a shrine. Next he lighted on the Fons
Juturnae--a deep well crowned with
fine marble top and carved with an in
Juturna. An altar adorned with soul
ptures of the nymph was discovered
close by together with the marble cor
nice of a shrine, bearing in large letters
the words, Sacred to Juturna."
Continuing the excavations close to
the well in the expectation of finding
the lacus, he found a splendid statute
of Esculapius in almost perfect preser-
walton, with representations of the ira
dltional serpent and of the child strang-
ling the cock, Fragments of q statute
to the goddess Roma next came to
light, together with bust of Jupiter
and an altar bearing in high relief
the figures of the Dioscuri castor
and Pullox), Diana Lucifera, Juturna
and Jupiter. All these affairs and stat
ues are of the finest Greek marble,
worked in the best Greek style. To
them should be added beautifully
sculptured head. feet and part of the
chest of horse. which must have be-
longed to the series of statues and have
been wantonly broken up when the Pa
gan shrines were desecrated by the
Christians The juxtaposition of Escu-
lapius and the gods to the Fons Jutur-
nae is interpreted as an indication of
the Roman belief in the scantity of wa
ter and of its healing powers.
This belief stood out still more clear
ly when but a few PAGES further on
Signor Boni finally discovered the La
Gus Juturnae. The lacus is at least
forty yards square in extent, and in
closes three bubling springs in three of
its angles. The fourth angle Is occu-
pied by the remains of marble stair
way down to the water In the centre
Is a square pedestal, which, no doubt |
a statue of the nymph Juturna once |
stood. The bottom and sides of the la
Gus were lined with the choicest white |
marble, most of which still remains. |
The quality of the water has been test |
ed, and has been found to be perfectly |
pure.
Sad t say, the treatment of this mag |
nifcent fountain by the Christians was !
barbarous in he extreme. When dis
covered by Signor Boni it was full of |
earth and of fragments of the splendid |
which must have stood around |
1t, and was buried under two metres of /
human eXcrement. Not only did the
Chris tians, in their disregard of clean
iness and carelessness of hygiene, thus
destroy the purest fountain in Rome,
out they converted the spot into huge
atrina. 1t IS a striking epilogue to
his dissertation that, when the negli-
yence of the popes had allowed the
Roman aqueducts to fall into ruin, the
Christians should have been obliged to
obtain water by sinking wells in the
Forum at the very edge OF the main
;ewer The fountain, or lacus, will be
eleansed and inclosed, and
plants and ferns will be placed around
t. Thus it will regain something of its
tncient purity, though it's splendor is
gone forever.
Almost simultaneously with these dis
,overies Signor Bni, in another part of
he Forum, near the Capitol, came on
he rostrum of the Caesars, which many
writer's have enormously placed at