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Julian Caesars rose on white marble foundations, a series of concentric
terraces, planted with cypress trees, to the great bronze statue of
Augustus that crowned the summit. Here rested the ashes of Augustus, of
the young Marcellus, of Livia, of Tiberius, of Caligula, and of many
others whose bodies were burned in the family Ustrinum near the tomb
itself. Plundered by Alaric, and finally ruined by Robert Guiscard, when
he burnt the city, it became a fortress under the Colonna, and is
included, with the fortress of Monte Citorio, in a transfer of property
made by one member of the family to another in the year 1252. Ruined at
last, it became a bull ring in the last century and in the beginning of
this one, when Leo the Twelfth forbade bull-fighting. Then it was a
theatre, the scene of Salvini's early triumphs. Today it is a circus,
dignified by the name of the reigning sovereign.

Few people know that bull-fights were common in Rome eighty years ago.
The indefatigable Baracconi once talked with the son of the last
bull-fighter. So far as one may judge, it appears that during the
Middle Age, and much later, it was the practice of butchers to bait
animals in their own yards, before slaughtering them, in the belief that
the cruel treatment made the meat more tender, and they admitted the
people to see the sport. From this to a regular arena was but a step,
and no more suitable place than the tomb of the Caesars could be found
for the purpose. A regular manager took possession of it, provided the
victims, both bulls and Roman buffaloes, and hired the fighters. It does
not appear that the beasts were killed during the entertainment, and one
of the principal attractions was the riding of the maddened bull three
times round the circus; savage dogs were also introduced, but in all
other respects the affair was much like a Spanish bull-fight, and quite
as popular; when the chosen bulls were led in from the Campagna, the
Roman princes used to ride far out to meet them with long files of
mounted servants in gala liveries, coming back at night in torchlight
procession. And again, after the fight was over, the circus was
illuminated, and there was a small display of Bengal lights, while the
fashionable world of Rome met and gossiped away the evening in the
arena, happily thoughtless and forgetful of all the spot had been and
had meant in history.

The new Rome sinks out of sight below the level of the old, as one
climbs the heigh