At the head of the Via Sacra (for this famous route of the great Triumphators now opens before us), upon our right, is the new and indescribably splendid Temple of Venus and Rome, a building just completed by Hadrian. This edifice has been reared by demolishing the last of the ruins of the impossibly extravagant “Golden House,” the architectural monstrosity of Nero. In order to get sufficient room for his new structure Hadrian also was compelled to move the colossal statue of Nero (99 feet high) located near the site and to set it nearer the Flavian Amphitheater. This had been a great task, executed by the clever architect Decrianus, with the aid of twenty-four elephants--performed to the delight of all the idling crowds in Rome. The statue now towers upon its new pedestal, with Nero’s unworthy head sagaciously lifted from its shoulders and one of the Sun God substituted. The new Temple of Venus and Rome is a truly magnificent object; rising as it does upon a terrace 26 feet high, 500 feet long, and 300 broad, and surrounded by an enormous portico of 400 columns each 40 feet high. The versatile Emperor boasts that he has been the architect himself, and whatever are the real facts no vestibule to the fora could well be more impressive. =230. The Arch of Titus: Continuation of the Sacred Way.=--With the Temple of Venus and Rome to our right and the substructures of the Palatine to the left we go straight ahead to the Arch of Titus. Everybody recognizes the shape of that impressive but relatively simple structure. Its bas-reliefs showing the spoils of Jerusalem--the “Golden Table” and more particularly the “Seven Branched Candlestick”--are destined to be reproduced countless times. Old men in Hadrian’s day can still recall the Triumphal Procession when the son of Vespasian returned in glory; how the great throng of cheering soldiers and citizens swept up toward the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, then halted at the portal of the Temple while Simon Bar-Giora, the captive Jewish leader who had been dragged in the procession, could be taken to a high place overlooking the Forum and deliberately scourged to death. At the news that he had perished all the vast company made the crags and columns quake with their brutal “acclamation,” and Titus entered the shrine to sacrifice and to bear witness how much mightier was Latin Jove than Palestinian Jehovah. [Illustration: SPOILS FROM JERUSALEM: Arch of Titus.] And now the Via Sacra turns at right angles, or, to be more accurate, its thronging ways divide. Go to the left and you will come upon a high street passing under the brow of the Palatine. It runs a considerable distance toward the Capitol, receiving several sloping avenues or broad staircases leading down from the Palatine. This is “New Street” (_Nova Via_), the most convenient route to certain buildings on the southern side of the Forum.