=233. The Forum Area: the Posting of Public Notices.=--Walking out into the area itself, we find it solidly paved with rectangular blocks of travertine. The days are gone when closely packed throngs of quirites stood for hours upon this pavement listening to the orators bidding them vote upon peace or war, or for or against some proposed law, as lay in their right as free citizens. Gone, too, is the day of that great funeral pyre of garments, ornaments, trinkets, tables and benches, which the frenzied mob heaped around the corpse of Cæsar after Marcus Antonius had thundered his invective against Cassius and Marcus Brutus. But not gone is the Senate House (the _Curia_), looking out across the plaza from the northern side of the square, just beyond the Temple of Janus. And around the orator’s stands, the Rostra, at the western end of the area there is still another elaborate funeral in progress; the wearers of the imagines sitting in their curule chairs, and the orator pompously lauding “the noble departed.” Truth to tell the Forum is frequented every morning largely to get the news. Not merely can you meet the bearers of all sorts of public or confidential information; you can spend an hour merely reading the great “white boards” (_albums_) bearing official and private notices which stand around everywhere. The “Daily Gazette” is here posted, and we shall consider its contents presently; but apart from that, whether you wish to know the price of grain or the day set for a lawsuit; whether Syphax the Moor will race his four in the next circus, or Epaphroditus the Athenian will lecture to-morrow on the nature of the soul, the Forum placards will tell you everything. Gossip incalculable, often of a kind which no man dare put in writing, you may also pick up, as well as accost half of your acquaintance. A visit to the Forum, therefore, is almost as important to a Roman of parts and activity as in another age will be the perusal of the paper. =234. Western End of Forum: the Rostra: the Golden Milestone: the Tullianum Prison.=--At the extreme western end of the area, more temples are seen rising on the slopes of the lofty Capitol. Here is the Temple of Saturn; and higher still the Temple of the deified Vespasian, the Temple of Concord, and the great “Public Record Office,” the Tabularium, and the Rostra are reached just before you quit the level area and take the winding ascents towards the Capitol.