Another flight of modern stairs leads down into the Tullianum: the opening down which the prisoners were cast can still be seen. The iron door is the opening of a sewer leading into the Cloaca Maxima, by which means the dead bodies, &c., were taken away. This drain is of the same construction as the Cloaca Maxima, and comes from beyond the other chambers, mentioned below, with which it also communicates. The Roman Catholic tradition is, that SS. Peter and Paul were confined here, and they show the pillar to which they are said to have been chained, though there are no marks of a staple having been fixed in the stone, as represented in the bronze bas-relief; and a fountain which miraculously sprang up when they had converted their keepers, and they wished to be baptized: this was evidently alluded to by Jugurtha. The name Mamertine Prison is medieval. By the ancients it was called _the Prison_, or the Tullian Prison.[3] The two chambers are only a small part of the ancient prison, which extended up the left side of the Clivus Argentarius, the modern Via Marforio, and evidences of its extent can be seen in the cellars of the houses. It evidently extended up as far as No. 68, for under that wine shop we found two chambers corresponding with the two under the church. The prison was approached from the Forum by a flight of stairs called THE SCALÆ GEMONIÆ, or Stairs of Wailing. Criminals were often put to death on them, and others were exposed there after death. "Those who were put to death were exposed on the Scalæ Gemoniæ, and then dragged into the Tiber" (Suetonius, "Tiberius," lxi.). _At a short distance from the church in the little lane opposite, Via Marmorelle, 29_, are some more remains of the Prison, which eventually became the "STATIONES MUNICIPIORUM" AND FORUM OF JULIUS CÆSAR. "Julius Cæsar, with money raised from the spoils of war, began to construct a new Forum" (Suetonius, "Cæsar," xxvi.)--the site costing about £807,291. This new Forum was necessary, on account of the old Forum becoming too small for the public business. Pliny (xvi. 86) mentions the barracks of the municipal guards as being between the Vulcanal and the Forum of Julius Cæsar. These remains consist of a series of five large chambers; one is forty feet long and fourteen wide, divided by modern walls and partitions in various ways, and not easy of access. The walls are of tufa. The vaults are of brick, with openings for letting down prisoners. These are of later date than the tufa walls, and one of them is supported by a fine arch of travertine. THE ROMAN FORUM (Il Foro). _The new excavations are open to the public every day without fee._