e story, or
suddenly indicated by the appearance of a dialogue. Animated,
therefore, by apprehensions such as these, we hasten to assure them
that in no instance will the localities of our story trench upon the
limits of the well-worn Forum, or mount the arches of the exhausted
Colosseum. It is with the beings, and not the buildings of old Rome,
that their attention is to be occupied. We desire to present them with
a picture of the inmost emotions of the times--of the living, breathing
actions and passions of the people of the doomed Empire. Antiquarian
topography and classical architecture we leave to abler pens, and
resign to other readers.

It is, however, necessary that the sphere in which the personages of
our story are about to act should be in some measure indicated, in
order to facilitate the comprehension of their respective movements.
That portion of the extinct city which we design to revive has left few
traces of its existence in the modern town. Its sites are
traditionary--its buildings are dust. The church rises where the temple
once stood, and the wine-shop now lures the passing idler where the
bath invited his ancestor of old.

The walls of Rome are in extent, at the present day, the same as they
were at the period of which we now write. But here all analogy between
the ancient and modern city ends. The houses that those walls were
once scarcely wide enough to enclose have long since vanished, and
their modern successors occupy but a third of the space once allotted
to the capital of the Empire.

Beyond the walls immense suburbs stretched forth in the days of old.
Gorgeous villas, luxurious groves, temples, theatres,
baths--interspersed by colonies of dwellings belonging to the lower
orders of the people--surrounded the mighty city. Of these innumerable
abodes hardly a trace remains. The modern traveller, as he looks forth
over the site of the famous suburbs, beholds, here and there, a ruined
aqueduct, or a crumbling tomb, tottering on the surface of a
pestilential marsh.

The present entrance to Rome by the Porta del Popolo occupies the same
site as the ancient Flaminian Gate. Three great streets now lead from
it towards the southern extremity of the city, and form with their
tributaries the principal portion of modern Rome. On one side they are
bounded by the Pincian Hill, on the other by the Tiber. Of these
streets, those nearest the river occupy the position of the famous
Campus Mart