Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-26
FOUND IN THE FORUM
Prof. Boni Tells Of the I'm
portant Discoveries.
CARE OF THE RELICS
CAUSE FOR CONTROVERSY AMONG
THE LEARNED.
Pedestal of Statue of the Emperor
Domitian Found Re
Gently.
BY WILLIAM e. CURTIS.


or two the man behind the pick and shovel
turns up some valua BILE relic of tine imperial
age or the prehistoric period. These relics
are taken to the national museum, in the
ruins of the Baths of Diocletan for the
learned pundits to quarrel over, and how
they do quarrel: One would think that the
destinies of the human race rested upon the
question whether column was erected in
the second century beforetor the first CEN
fury after the crucifxion; and as every
body who has an opinion never hesitates to
express it, the controversies become very
lively. The discoveries have been so im-
portant of late that the guide books to the
Forum must be corrected annually, and
according to scientific prediction, much of
interest and value yet remains to he UNI
covered in addition to the cradle of civil
law, which Professor Boni thinks is hidden
under the old Spanish convent at the cor
ner where the Roman senate house used to
stand.
Pedestal of Domitian Statue.
The latest important discovery is the ped
estal of colossal equestrian statue which
the Emperor Dontian erected in his own
honor in the first century A. D., and it was
found buried in the mud of the swamp into
which the brave Curtius plunged on horse
back You will recall the story as told by
Macaulay in his Lays of Ancient Rome,
even if you have forgotten the historical
facts you learned in childhood. The statue
was well known. 1t has been described by
many writer's as one of the wonders of the
golden age, triumph of genius. The poet
laureate of the empire, a scribbler named
Status, who | assume, was editor OF Dom
itian's political organ, was commanded to
write some verses to celebrate the unveii-
ing Just as we are In the habit of doing at
the present day, and mis- poem has been pre-
served
Said Prof. Boni: The statue represented
the emperor sitting on horseback with his
right hand extended in an attitude in
terpreted to mean possession He was
facing the temple of Augustus; on the
right was the Baslica Julia, on the left
the Basilica Emilia and behind him the
temple or Concord. The statue has never
been found. 1t was probably destroyed
after the murder of Domltian, by order OF
the senate which had a habit of treating
the relics of dead emperors in that way,
but we found the pedestal in August. 1t
is made of hard concrete, and the sockets
occupied by the feet of the bronze horse
prove that it was six times as large as life,
and must have been at least sixty feet
high. No such statue was ever erected be-
fore or since anywhere. The colossus OF
Nero was nearly as large, and was of
bronze also, but it only represented a man,
while that of Domitian was equestrian.
Nero's statue was transformed by Yes
pasian, his successor, into statue OF the
sun by adding halos to the head, and was
taken over to the Colosseum and placed in
the center of the arena. That was how the
great amphitheater obtained its name"
Where are you digging now?" I asked
Prof. Boni. =
1--WE are digging around the column of
Diocletian, the nameless column. Of which
Byron wrote continued Prof. Boni.
Some time about the seventh century
terrace was built around 1t. with steps
leading up to a platform, and about fifty
thew torn If
supposed to be the column of Folka, be-
cause of a careless reading of the inscrip-
ton, which plainly says that a gilded
figure was placed on the top of the column
in the beginning Of the seventh century.
but its surroundings show plainly that 1t
was erected in the fourth century, and we
now propose to restore it to its original
condition as erected by Diocletian in his
own honor. He rebuilt the Basilica Julia
and the senate house.
Prof. Boni's Ambition.
when I came here in the autumn of
1893" continued Professor Boni, at was
my ambition, not so much to discover new
archaeological remains as to evoke the gen.
Jus of the place, give the dry bones life and
restore the principal objects of interest as
nearly as possible to their original condi-
ton. For example, the Temple of Vesta,
the typical hearth of the Roman state, was
then a naked, formless ruin, torn to pieces
in pitless manner by careless excavators.
whose work conveyed no meaning and con-
ferred no benefit. Proceeding as much by
Intuition as by any other guide, began on
the heroum Of Caesar, a building erected
by Augustus on the spot where the body of
his adopted father was cremated. julius
Caesar was assassinated in the theater of
Pompey, down town, but his body was
brought to the palace and cremated in the
by freedmen and carried to the sepulchre
of his family in the Campus Martius. Upon
the spot where the body was burned a col
umn Of yellow Numidian marble was erect
ed, bearing the inscription, ITO the Father
Of His Country, and an altar was built,
wherein his followers burned sacrifices to
his names. These monuments were over
turned by the rival party under Dorabella,
a nephew Of Cicero, sbut Caesars veterans
re-erected Them and Augustus sacrificed 800
of his enemies as explatory victims. No
trace of these monuments had been discov-
cred by my predecessors, but after careful
investigation, I succeeded in finding the
pedestal of the altar, which was, SO to
speak, the axis of the Roman empire And
although Augustus became the executor of
his imperial policy II Is to the statue of
Julius Caesar gazing down the Forum with
an augurs rod in his right hand as shown
on the coins of Augustus, that we must look
as TO the beginning Of new political and
monumental era for Rome.
THE first monument erected In the life
time of julius Caesar in the Forum is the
rostra. which he reconstructed at the Can't
toline end, between the Temple of Saturn
and the Temple of Concord and against the
rock out of which the early founders of
Rome hewed the altar to Vulcan, which now
constitutes the most venerable monument
in Italy, and probably In Europe 1t still
stands as it was hewn with axes and cover
ed with a rusty red plaster. We are restor-
ing the pedestal of the altar and propose to
recompose the imperial rostrum. We have
gathered together all the piecs that were
found In the ruins and will put them back
as nearly as possible where they used to be-
On the superstructure Of this rostra Mark
Antony pronounced his funeral GRAFTON over
Caesars body. and there were nailed the
head and hands OF Cicero as symbols that
The rostra Is the only trace of julius