It Is Of Immense Size And Extremely Well Preserved.
The ground on
which it stands being much filled up and only half of the Arch appearing,
the rest
Remaining buried in the earth, it was judged adviseable to
excavate all around it in order to come to the pedestal; so that now there
is a walled enclosure all around it and into this enclosure it is a descent
of at least eighteen feet from the ground outside. Several statues of
captive Kings and bas-reliefs representing the victories of Constantine
adorn the facade of this triumphal arch. The inscriptions are perfect, and
the letters were formerly filled up with bronze; but these have been taken
out at the repeated sackings that poor Rome has undergone from friend and
foe. At a short distance from the Arch of Constantine is the Arch of Titus,
under which we moved along on our road towards the Capitol and my friend
the Jew was too much of a cosmopolite to feel the smallest repugnance at
walking under the Arch. Our conversation then turned on the absurd hatred
and prejudice that existed between Christians and Jews; he was very liberal
on this subject and in speaking of Jesus Christ he said: "Jesus Christ was
a Jew and a real philosopher and was therefore persecuted, for his
philosophy interfered too much with, and tended to shake the political
fabric of the Jewish constitution and to subvert our old customs and
usages: for this reason he was put to death.
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