Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-24
THE ROMAN FORUM
Extent Of the Clearing Grad
ually Being Enlarged.
LIONEL PHILLIPS WORK
TRACT OF ADJACENT LAND RE
GENTLY PURCHASED.
Appeal Of Prof. Boni, the Archaeologist
in Charge to the Carnegie Institu-
tion-History Of the Excavation.
BY WILLIAM e. CURTIS.

BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star and
Chicago Record Herald.
ROME, December IA, 1903.
The Roman forum, which has been the
center of interest for classical scholars In
Rome for the last half century. Is being
gradually extended and what was supposed
to be its limits are now well within the cen
trail part. Under the direction of Giacomo
Boni. an accomplished and learned archae-
ologist from Venice, force Of ITO men is
kept at work removing the soil and carting
it away, and scarcely a month passes with
out the discovery of important historical re-
mains
1t has been disclosed that the forum had
q much larger area than anyone supposed,
and it's extent is not yet determined and 1t
contains more things of interest than any
body dreamed Of Through the generosity
of Lionel Phillips, a South African mining
millionaire who has taste for archaeology
and visits Rome frequently, tract of land
adjoining the forum has been purchased.
the houses which occupy 1t are being torn
down, and the fifty or sixty feet of earth
and debris upon which they stand will be
dug away down to a level with the pave
ment of the forum of which this territory
is supposed to have once been part.
While making excavations there not long
ago, between fifteen and twenty marble
images, some human, some in the form OF
beasts, were uncovered four feet below the
surface. There was no way to identity
them; there was nothing in the neighbor
hood to furnish a clew to their character
purpose or explain how they came to be
there until it was accidentally disclosed
that the house which stood upon the ground
had formerly been occupied by a notorious
iorger of antiquities. He had evidently
made these images and buried them in the
ground. is usually done, to give them
the color of age and then either forgot
them or hadn't time to dig them up before
he moved away.
The land. which was purchased and which
will be soon removed, undoubtedly covers a
part of the Baslica Julia which was the
courthouse of imperial Rome, and Mr.. Boni
hopes to find much of interest to the legal
profession, but he is still more anxious to
burrow under the Church of ST. Adriano
and a convent of Spanish monks which now
occupies the site of the Roman senate house
or curia. as 1t was called. 1t is interesting
to know that the modern Romans have
adopted the same term to describe the col
lege of cardinals.
Appeal to Carnegie Institution.
The church and convent referred to can
be bought for 100000, and Prof Boni has
appealed to the Carnegie Institution at
Washington for the funds the theory
that the result of the excavation will bene-
fit science, literature. and particularly jul
r;sprudence, for in the Curia Roman jul
risprudence had its birth and development
Divine law was proclaimed in the desert of
Arabia, but common law had it's origin in
Rome, and in a building which was destroy
ed and rebuilt upon it's own ruins so many
times Prof. Boni is confident that impor-
tant archives and tablets are concealed
among the rubbish that lies under the foun-
dations of the convent
At least five times was the senate house
n oct fiYp1aS Inv A.n frY-io hr,
barbarans The ruins were never searched,
but were simply leveled and the foundations
of the next building were laid upon them
Prof Boni is so confident Of finding things
that will interest every lawyer in the world
that he thinks the Carnegie Institution
would be justified, within its charter, in fur
nishing the funds. The money that pays
for the excavations comes from an annual
appropriation by the Italian parliament but
If anything extra is attempted the expense
must be paid by private contributors.
For twenty-seven centuries the Roman
forum has possessed intense human inter-
est. For thousand years it was the CEN
ter of the world-the heart of Rome. In the
days when Halicarnassus, Tatus and Rom
illus were frowning at each other from the
Palatine, Ceolian. Capitolne and Quirinal
hills of Rome, 1t was utilized as neutral
ground, where these rival chiefs could meet
and discuss affairs of common interest and
Importance. 1t was a swampy, unwhole-
some plain. lying between the hills 1 have
mentioned and receiving their drainage. 1t
was not fit for cultivation, and was too I'M
healthy for residences, but it served for an
assembling ground, and the public gradual
ly began to use it as well their chiefs,
until the passing years saw it made a mar
ket at which the people from the surround
ing country exchanged merchandise and
bartered for the products and manufactures
of each other. Then. they fell under the
control of the chiefs that lived upon the
Palatine, pavement was laid. booths and