now would no longer have had any meaning: we know for certain, that the finance department, and all that belonged to it, had its offices there: the whole was like a city of palaces. In the middle stood the column, round which was twined a representation of the two Dacian wars of Trajan in bas relief. Although these bas reliefs have suffered from fire and lightning, they are still quite excellent, as this branch of the art was then at its height: they are in exquisite taste. These figures are also of value in an historical and antiquarian point of view, as they give us representations of weapons, armour, dresses, and buildings of which otherwise we should not have known anything. Within, there are steps which lead to the top; and beneath, there is a vault in which the ashes of Trajan were laid: of the latter nothing more is to be found. On the top was the bronze statue of Trajan: this was taken down in the times of barbarism, and Sixtus V. replaced it by a statue of St. Peter. In the Forum round it, two gigantic buildings in the form of _basilicæ_ have been brought to light by the clearings made by the French. The magnificence of these, beggars all description: among other things, there are floors in them of the most beautiful Numidian marble. At the entrances of the Forum, there arose triumphal arches; which we only know from coins: it may be that Constantine despoiled one of these, and had a piece of it patched into his own triumphal arch. Under Hadrian also, costly buildings were erected; as for instance, the temple of Venus and Roma: but unluckily he had no taste, and following his own whims, he exercised a baneful influence. Of the time of Antoninus Pius, we have ruins which are much less beautiful; and under M. Antoninus, there remains of sculpture only the art of casting in bronze: his bronze statue is excellent; but the sculptures on the arch of Antoninus are far inferior to those of Trajan’s reign. In the triumphal arch of Severus, a most dreadful falling off is to be seen: even the proportions are neglected, as people were no longer able to draw. The spread of Christianity is unjustly reproached with having driven out the fine arts: they had already died away before that.