I was in a garden on top of one part of the ruins where flowers and
trees were growing, and then I went down through the mass of ruins by a
flight of seventy-five stairs, which, the attendant said, was built by
Caligula. I was then probably not more than half way to the bottom of
this hill of ruins, which is honeycombed with corridors, stairways, and
rooms of various sizes. The following scrap of history concerning
Caligula will probably be interesting: "At first he was lavishly
generous and merciful, but he soon became mad, and his cruelty knew no
bounds. He banished or murdered his relatives and many of his subjects.
Victims were tortured and slain in his presence while dining, and he
uttered the wish that all the Roman people had but one neck, that he
might strike it off at one blow. He built a bridge across the Bay of
Baiae, and planted trees upon it and built houses upon it that he might
say he had crossed the sea on dry land. In the middle of the bridge he
gave a banquet, and at the close had a great number of the guests thrown
into the sea. He made his favorite horse a priest, then a consul, and
also declared himself a god, and had temples built in his honor." It is
said that Tiberius left the equivalent of one hundred and eighteen
millions of dollars, and that Caligula spent it in less than a year. The
attendant pointed out the corridor in which he said this wicked man was
assassinated.

Near one of the entrances to the Forum stands the Arch of Titus, erected
to commemorate the victory of the Romans over the Jews at Jerusalem in
A.D. 70. It is built of Parian marble and still contains a
well-preserved figure of the golden candlestick of the Tabernacle carved
on one of its walls. There is a representation of the table of showbread
near by, and some other carvings yet remain, indicating something of the
manner in which the monument was originally ornamented.

The Colosseum, commenced by Vespasian in A.D. 72 and finished by Titus
eight years later, is a grand old ruin. It is an open theater six
hundred and twelve feet long, five hundred and fifteen feet wide, and
one hundred and sixty-five feet high. This structure, capable of seating
eighty-seven thousand people, stands near the bounds of the Forum. It is
the largest of its kind, and is one of the best preserved and most
interesting ruins in the world. When it was dedicated, the games lasted
one hundred days, and five thousand wild beasts were slain. During th