! The path of victory is obliterated by vines, and
the benches of the senators are concealed by a dunghill. Cast your eyes
on the Palatine Hill, and seek among the shapeless and enormous
fragments the marble theatre, the obelisks, the colossal statues, the
porticos of Nero's palace; survey the other hills of the city,--the
vacant space is interrupted only by ruins and gardens. The Forum of the
Roman people, where they assembled to enact their laws and elect their
magistrates, is now inclosed for the cultivation of pot-herbs, or thrown
open for the reception of swine and buffaloes. The public and private
edifices that were founded for eternity lie prostrate, naked, and
broken, like the limbs of a mighty giant; and the ruin is the more
visible, from the stupendous relics that have survived the injuries of
time and fortune."

These relics are minutely described by Poggius, one of the first who
raised his eyes from the monuments of legendary to those of classic
superstition. 1. Besides a bridge, an arch, a sepulchre, and the
pyramid of Cestius, he could discern, of the age of the republic, a
double row of vaults in the salt office of the Capitol, which were
inscribed with the name and munificence of Catulus. 2. Eleven temples
were visible in some degree, from the perfect form of the Pantheon to
the three arches and a marble column of the temple of Peace which
Vespasian erected after the civil wars and the Jewish triumph. 3. Of the
number which he rashly defines, of seven _thermae_, or public baths, none
were sufficiently entire to represent the use and distribution of the
several parts; but those of Diocletian and Antoninus Caracalla still
retained the titles of the founders and astonished the curious spectator
who in observing their solidity and extent, the variety of marbles, the
size and multitude of the columns, compared the labor and expense with
the use and importance. Of the baths of Constantine, of Alexander, of
Domitian, or rather of Titus, some vestige might yet be found. 4. The
triumphal arches of Titus, Severus, and Constantine were entire, both
the structure and the inscriptions; a falling fragment was honored with
the name of Trajan; and two arches then extant in the Flaminian Way have
been ascribed to the baser memory of Faustina and Gallienus. 5. After
the wonder of the Coliseum, Poggius might have overlooked a small
amphitheatre of brick, most probably for the use of the praetorian camp;
the theatres of Mar