Varro (L. L. 532, R. R. i. 2), Ovid (A. A. ii. 265), Propertius (iii. xvii. 11), Terence, Eunuchus, contemporary writers, all speak of a macellum and forum of Cupid upon the Via Sacra. Festus, who lived in the fourth century, speaks of them under the same name; so we may conclude that the ruins before us are the basilicas of the Forum of Cupid, restored by Maxentius, and dedicated by Constantine. The front of this platform, towards the Colosseum, was discovered in 1828 to have been used during the middle ages as a cemetery, several coffins of terra cotta being exhumed. At the corners are the remains of steps which led from below up to the delubra. Near the left-hand steps, in descending, are the remains of the PEDESTAL OF NERO'S COLOSSUS, which, as we have seen, first stood in the vestibule of his house; then where the atrium was; thence it was removed by Hadrian with twenty-four elephants to this spot, as is shown on a coin of Alexander Severus. It was 120 feet high. Vespasian radiated the head to make it represent the sun; Commodus took off Nero's head, and replaced it with his own. The popular quotation from Bede refers to this Colossus, not to the Colosseum. _In a line with Nero's Pedestal is the_ META SUDANS, the remains of a fountain, erected by Titus, and repaired by Domitian and Gordianus, which stood in the centre of a large circular basin. Popular tradition narrates that the gladiators used to wash here after combat: it is certainly possible, but not very probable, that they would come outside to wash at an open fountain. The epithet Meta Sudans, or "sweating-goal," is supposed to be taken from the perpetual issue of foaming water, or because it contributed to satisfy the thirst of the audience at the Colosseum; or _meta_, because it was built in the form of a goal, and _sudans_, because the water trickled out. _To the right is_ THE ARCH OF CONSTANTINE, dedicated by the senate and people of Rome to commemorate the victories of the first Christian emperor, to do which they took reliefs from the Arch of Trajan, and built them into an attic which they erected upon the top of the Arch of Isis, re-dedicating the conglomeration as the Triumphal Arch of Constantine. The reliefs which refer to Trajan can be easily distinguished from those of Constantine (which are very bad) owing to their superior style and the subjects represented. [Illustration: ARCH OF CONSTANTINE.]