As the Lares were the departed spirits of the ancestors of each family who watched over their descendants, so the Penates were the gods selected by each family as its special protectors. And as there were the Lares of the city, so there were the Penates, whose chapel was termed Ædes Deum Penatium, and the gods were called Penates Populi Romani. These Penates were supposed to have been the gods brought from Troy by Æneas. We learn from the "Monumentum Ancyranum," that Augustus rebuilt the Ædem Deum Penatium in Velia; and Solinus (i.) tells us that Tullus Hostilius lived on the Velia, where afterwards was the Chapel of the Penates. Dionysius thus describes it:--"For the things which I myself know, by having seen them, and concerning which no scruple forbids me to write, are as follows. They show you a temple at Rome, not far from the Forum, in the street that leads the nearest way to the Carinæ, which is small, and darkened by the height of the adjacent buildings. This place is called by the Romans, in their own language, _Veliæ_; in this temple are the images of the Trojan gods exposed to public view, with this inscription, ΔΕΜΑΣ , which signifies Penates. For, in my opinion, the letter Θ not being yet found out, the ancients expressed its power by the letter Δ. These are two youths, in a sitting posture, each of them holding a spear; they are pieces of ancient workmanship" (Dionysius, i. 68). THE RECENT EXCAVATIONS. In the new excavations upon the line of the Via Sacra a monumental cippus has been found, with the following inscription,--FABIUS. TITIANUS.--V. C. CONSUL.--PRAEF. URBI.--CURAVIT. He was consul and prefect of the city, A.D. 339 to 341, under the Emperor Constans I. This was one of three bases recorded as having stood in front of the Temple of Romulus in the sixteenth century, one of which is in the Museum of the Villa Borghese, and the other is in the Naples Museum. Another base was found, dedicated to the Emperor Constantius II. by Flavius Leontius, prefect of Rome in 356 A.D. This is similar to the one in the Capitoline Museum. The inscription reads,--TOTO. ORBE. VICTORI.--DN. CONSTANTIO. MAX.--TRIUMFATORI.--SEMPER. AUG.--FL. LEONTIUS. V. C.--PRAEF. URBI. ITERUM.--VICE. SACRA. INDICANS.--D. N. M. Q. EIUS. Remains of Roman and medieval buildings and a fountain have been uncovered in the course of excavating, also some architectural fragments. The whole length of the Via Sacra has been now uncovered as far as the steps leading up to S. Bonaventura. THE HOUSE OF JULIUS CÆSAR.