[Illustration: MARCUS CURTIUS LEAPING INTO THE GULF. (_Relief in the Villa Borghese._)] Suetonius tells us that the tablet inscribed upon the base of Domitian's triumphal statue was carried away by the violence of a storm, and fell upon a neighbouring monument. _A little beyond this pedestal, to the right_, are the remains of another pedestal, a deep round hole recently closed, and beyond it a third pedestal. _Upon the first we will place_ THE STATUE OF MARSYAS. Servius informs us that this statue was put up in the principal forum of every city as an emblem of civic liberty and even-handed justice. It stood in front of the old rostra. Horace and Martial both refer to it as being near the judge's seat. It had a pig-skin of wine on one shoulder, denoting the plentiful supply to the city, and had the other arm extended with the hand open, showing that every one should have equal justice. _Over the round hole stood_ THE PUTEAL SCRIBONIUS LIBO, or well altar. This is shown on a coin as being round. "At a small distance from the statue of Attus, both the hone and the razor are said to be buried under a certain altar; the place is called _Puteus_ by the Romans" (Dionysius, iii. 72). Cicero ("De Div." i. 17) says, "It was on the Comitium, and was erected over the spot where the hone and razor were buried." (See also Horace, Ep. i. 19.) _Upon the other base we will place_ THE STATUE OF ATTUS NAVIUS. "Tarquin erected a brazen statue of him in the Forum to eternalize his memory with posterity. This statue is still remaining, and stands before the Senate House, near to the holy fig-tree. It is less than a middle-sized man, and has a veil over the head" (Dionysius, iii. 72). "The statue of Attus Navius was erected before the Senate House, the pedestal of which was consumed when the Senate House itself was burned at the funeral of Publius Clodius" (Pliny, xxxiv. 11). "There was a statue of Attus, with a fillet on his head, in the place where Tarquin had the whetstone cut in two with a razor, on the Comitium, or place of assembly, just by the steps, at the left-hand side of the Senate House" (Livy, i. 36). THE FICUS NAVIA was a fig-tree that, according to Festus, was planted by Tarquin in commemoration of his having had the whetstone cut in two with a razor, according to the augury of Attus Navius. It should not be confounded with the Ruminal fig-tree which grew upon the Palatine, as has been done by some writers. It is rather a curious incident that since the excavations were made, a fig-tree sprang up near the pedestal of Marsyas. This is the tree shown on the reliefs of the monument of Marcus Aurelius. _Just beyond these three objects_, a semicircular mark on the pavement points to the site of THE ROSTRA. The original Rostra was first called the Suggestum or Pulpit, but in A.U.C. 416 the name was changed into Rostra (beaks).