The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-04-14
DISCOVERIES IN ROME.
Interesting Finds in the Debris OF
the Auc Q IT City.

Important archaeological work has
been done during the past few months
in the Roman Forum. Those in charge
of the work, under Guido Baccelli,
Profes or Lanciani, DR.. Rus sell Forbes,
and others, have grown so enthusiastic
that digging is carried on by day and
by night. The great oblorg blocks
OF travertine stone that formed the
original walk Of Roma Quadrata are
now largely excavated on the Palatine
HILL, and differ entirely from the re-
mains OF later walls made of very
small fiat bricks or the three-cornered
bricks that preceded Augustus. So, by
the materials and method of construc-
tion of its successive layers, Rome Is
slowly telling to us her autobiography.
The newly discovered Sacred Way
Via Sacra) Is no less than fifteen feet
below the way that passes under the
arch OF Septimus Severus. and 1t un-
mistakably led from the Palatine Hill,
on which stood earliest Rome. down
toward the more recently built Forum.
A little further away, and near the
Coliseum, the Golden House OF Nero
has been so successfully excavated that
during the last autumn one was able
to wander through room after room.
through vast vaulted corridors, and
even into the bedroom of the Emper-
or. The alleged tomb of Romulus Is
simply a rude stone altar excavated
in the Forum not far from where stood
the Golden Milestone, to which all
4 t.
been regarded in the times of the later
Emperors as the final resting-place OF
Rome's founder. but even this Is ex-
tremely doubtful. There seems to be
little or no doubt, however, that the
circular stone altar discovered near Il
covers the actual spot where the ashes
of julius Caesar were deposited. As
one stands in the Forum, near the ros.
trum from which Antony addressed
the multitude over the body of thS
| murdered Caesar. he may watch, any
| day. the laborers plying their picks
| and shovels at the high bank of debri!
| bordering one side of this most his
| toric spot in Europe. At the surface
fifteen or twenty feet above old Rom'
go deeply did the debris OF ages hid'
| it-are the modern pavements. Half
| way down are revealed crumblint
brick tunnels which are the sewer
built during the Middle Ages. Lowe
| still. the men work more carefully, TO
/ beneath the mass of closely packet
| rubbish a fair white column OF del
| icately carved capital may be revealed
| The Minister of Public instruction
/ plans to clear away a portion OF tn
new city In line extending from tn
Roman Forum to the Forum of Trajln
several modern city blocks distant
| Archaeologbts are specially anxlou
| to unearth the Senate House. A fe7
weeks ago, in one Of the drains nea
the Church of st. Maria Liberatrict
gold coins. aursi by name, to the mum
Der OF four hundred were discoversd
| These, sewn up in a bag. were prot
ably hidden In the ground during on
OF the barbaric invaslons. The oldes
coin dates from the time OF Flaviu
Julius Constantinus (who lived fro1
337 to 361 A. d.. and shows the fig
ures OF Rome" and "Cons,antinople
supporting a shield with the legen
Gloria Republicae. There were foun
also several aurei OF Valerian I'LL, VIII
was slain by Petronius Maximus d
425 A. D.-The Outlook.