at the present level of the
upper piazza, it is not even now too steep for wagons. Again, one must
remember that the opus quadratum wall which extends along the south side
of the Corso does not go past the basilica, and also that there is a
basis for a statue of some kind in front of the basilica on the level of
the Piazza Garibaldi.

It is a question whether the ancient forum was entirely paved. The
paving can be seen along the basilica, and it has been seen back of
it,[139] but this pavement belongs to another hitherto unknown part of
Praenestine topography, namely, a SACRA VIA. An inscription to an
aurufex de sacra via[140] makes certain that there was a road in
Praeneste to which this name was given. The inscription was found in the
courtyard of the Seminary, which was the precinct of the temple of
Fortuna. From the fact that this pavement is laid with blocks such as
are always used in roads, from the cippus at the corner of the basilica
to keep off wagon wheels, from the fact that this piece of pavement is
in direct line from the central gate of the town, and last from the
inscription and its provenience, I conclude that we have in this
pavement a road leading directly from the Porta Triumphalis through the
forum, alongside the basilica, then turning back of it and continuing
round to the delubra and precinct of the temple of Fortuna Primigenia,
and that this road is the SACRA VIA of Praeneste.[141]

At the upper end of the forum under the south facade of the temple, an
excavation was made in April 1907,[142] which is of great interest and
importance in connection with the forum. In Plate V we see that there
are three steps of tufa,[143] and observe that the space in front of
them is not paved; also that the ascent to the right, which is the only
way out of the forum at this corner, is too steep to have been ever more
than for ascent on foot. But it is up this steep and narrow way[144]
that every one had to go to reach the terrace above the temple, unless
he went across to the west side of the city.

The steps just mentioned are not the beginning of an ascent to the
temple, for there were but three, and besides there was no entrance to
the temple on the south.[145] Nor was the earlier temple much lower than
the later one, for in either case the foundation was the rock surface of
the terrace and has not changed much. Although these steps are of an
older construction than the steps of the basilica, yet they were n