The Arch of Titus is completely defaced outside, but in the interior of the
Arch, on each side, is a bas relief: the one representing Vespasian's
triumph over the Jews, and the Emperor himself in a car drawn by six
horses; the other represents the soldiers and followers of the triumph,
bearing the spoils of the conquered nation, and among them the famous
candlesticks that adorned the temple of Jerusalem are very conspicuous.
These figures are in tolerable preservation, only that the Emperor has lost
his head and one of the soldiers has absconded.
On issuing from the Arch of Titus we found ourselves in the Forum, now the
Campo Vaccino: so that cattle now low where statesmen and orators
harangued, and lazy priests in procession tread on the sacred dust of
heroes.
Ou des pretres heureux foulent d'un pied tranquille
Les tombeaux des Catons et les cendres d'Emile.
So sings Voltaire, I believe, or if they are not his lines, they are the
Abbe Delille's.[84]
The imagination is quite bewildered here from the variety of ancient
monuments that meet the eye in every direction. What vast souvenirs crowd
all at once on the mind! Look all around! the Via Sacra, the Arch of
Severus, and the Capitol in front; on one side of you, the temple of Peace,
that of Faustina and that of the Sun and Moon: on the other the remaining
three columns of the temple of Jupiter Stator; the three also of the temple
of Jupiter Tonans; the eight columns of the temple of Concord; and the
solitary column of Phocas. At a short distance the temple of Castor and
Pollux and that of Romulus and Remus, which is a round building of great
antiquity, whose rusticity forms a striking contrast with the elegance of
the colonnaded temples, and which was evidently built before the conquest
of Greece by the Romans and the consequent introduction of the fine arts
and of the Grecian orders of architecture.
You may wish to know my sensations on traversing this sacred ground. The
Via Sacra recalled to me Horace meeting the bavard who addresses him:
Quid agis, dulcissime rerum?[85] I then thought of the Sabine rape; of
Brutus' speech over the body of Lucretia; then I almost fancied I could see
the spot where stood the butcher's shop, from whence Virginius snatched the
knife to immolate his daughter at the shrine of Honor; next the shade of
Regulus flitted before my imagination, refusing to be exchanged; then I
figured to myself Cicero thundering against Catiline; or the same with
delicate irony ridiculing the ultra-rigor of the Stoics, so as to force
even the gravity of Cato to relax into a smile; then the grand, the heroic
act of Marcus Brutus in immolating the great Caesar at the altar of
liberty.
