[Illustration: EMPEROR HADRIAN] In the period of the decline the tomb was converted into a fortress, and this character it has retained to the present day. During the Middle Ages and early modern times, a period of fifteen hundred years, it was the center of nearly all the factional strife and of the civil and foreign wars that raged in and about the city. During this time it experienced the greatest changes in appearance by the removal of decorations and facings and the substitution of ramparts, turrets, and other elements of military defense. Its present name, Castle of Sant’ Angelo, was given it in the time of Pope Gregory the Great. The story is told that in 590, when leading a procession to Saint Peter’s in an attempt to check by prayer a dreadful pestilence, “as he was crossing the bridge, even while the people were falling dead around him, he looked up at the mausoleum and saw an angel on its summit, sheathing a bloody sword, while a choir of angels around chanted with celestial voices the anthem since adopted by the Church in her vesper service.” In commemoration of the miracle a statue of the Holy Angel Michael stands on the summit with wings outspread. This castle unites the memories of nearly two thousand past years with the living present. Having stood as a fitting tomb of a noble emperor, and again as the storm center of divisional strife, let it bide henceforth as a durable monument of Italian unity and freedom. [Illustration: THE APPIAN WAY Showing the Ruined Roman Tombs.] SUPPLEMENTARY READING HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT WORLD--_G. W. Botsford._ (The Macmillan Co.) It includes a brief history of Rome. TOPOGRAPHY AND MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT ROME--_S. B. Platner._ (Second edition, Allyn & Bacon.) The best treatment of the subject in English. RUINS AND EXCAVATIONS OF ANCIENT ROME--_Rudolfo Lanciani._ (Houghton, Mifflin Co.) By the greatest living authority on Roman topography. THE ROMAN FORUM--_C. Huelsen._ (Stechert & Co.) By a great scholar. THE ART OF THE ROMANS--_H. B. Walters._ (The Macmillan Co.) Treatment of the elements by a well known authority. ROME DESCRIBED BY GREAT WRITERS--_Editor, Esther Singleton._ (Dodd, Mead & Co.) Instructive and inspiring sketches by Maeterlinck, Crawford, Dickens, and other famous authors who have visited Rome. A SOURCE BOOK OF ANCIENT HISTORY--_C. W. & L. S. Botsford._ (The Macmillan Co.) Extracts from ancient writers relating to the Romans. THE MENTOR ISSUED BY The Mentor Association, INC. 381 Fourth Ave., New York, N. Y. Volume 1 Number 46 _Editorial_