Ode 5.

We shall find this temple mentioned again in c. xci. of the life of
Augustus.

[155] The Portico of Octavia stood between the Flaminian circus and the
theatre of Marcellus, enclosing the temples of Jupiter and Juno, said to
have been built in the time of the republic. Several remains of them
exist, in the Pescheria or fish-market; they were of the Corinthian
order, and have been traced and engraved by Piranesi.

[156] The magnificent theatre of Marcellus was built on the site where
Suetonius has before informed us that Julius Caesar intended to erect one
(p. 30). It stood between the portico of Octavia and the hill of the
Capitol. Augustus gave it the name of his nephew Marcellus, though he
was then dead. Its ruins are still to be seen in the Piazza Montanara,
where the Orsini family have a palace erected on the site.

[157] The theatre of Balbus was the third of the three permanent
theatres of Rome. Those of Pompey and Marcellus have been already
mentioned.

[158] Among these were, at least, the noble portico, if not the whole,
of the Pantheon, still the pride of Rome, under the name of the Rotondo,
on the frieze of which may be seen the inscription,

M. AGRIPPA. L. F. COS: TERTIUM. FECIT.

Agrippa also built the temple of Neptune, and the portico of the
Argonauts.

[159] To whatever extent Augustus may have cleared out the bed of the
Tiber, the process of its being encumbered with an alluvium of ruins and
mud has been constantly going on. Not many years ago, a scheme was set
on foot for clearing it by private enterprise, principally for the sake
of the valuable remains of art which it is supposed to contain.

[160] The Via Flaminia was probably undertaken by the censor Caius
Flaminius, and finished by his son of the same name, who was consul
A.U.C. 566, and employed his soldiers in forming it after subduing the
Ligurians. It led from the Flumentan gate, now the Porta del Popolo,
through Etruria and Umbria into the Cisalpine Gaul, ending at Ariminum,
the frontier town of the territories of the republic, now Rimini, on the
Adriatic; and is travelled by every tourist who takes the route, north of
the Appenines, through the States of the Church, to Rome. Every one
knows that the great highways, not only in Italy but in the provinces,
were among the most magnificent and enduring works of the Roman people.

[161] It had formed a sort of honourable retirement in which Lepidus was
shelve