How different is this description to that of Claudian (de Sexto Consulat. Honorii). "The Palatine, proud Rome's imperial seat, (An awful pile) stands venerably great: Thither the kingdoms and the nations come, In supplicating crowds to learn their doom: To Delphi less th' inquiring worlds repair, Nor does a greater god inhabit there: This sure the pompous mansion was design'd To please the mighty rulers of mankind; Inferior temples rise on either hand, And on the borders of the palace stand, While o'er the rest her head she proudly rears, And lodged amidst her guardian gods appears." _Addison's Translation._ After the middle of the sixteenth century a great part of the Palatine became the property of the Farnese family, latterly represented by the Neapolitan Bourbons, who sold the "Orti Farnesiani," in 1861, to the Emperor Napoleon III., for £10,000. Up to that time this part of the Palatine was a vast kitchen-garden, broken here and there by picturesque groups of ilex trees and fragments of mouldering wall. In one corner was a casino of the Farnese (still standing) adorned in fresco by some of the pupils of Raphael. This and all the later buildings in the "Orti," are marked with the Farnese _fleur-de-lis_, and on the principal staircase of the garden is some really grand distemper ornament of their time. Since 1861 extensive excavations have been carried on here under the superintendence of Signor Rosa, which have resulted in the discovery of the palaces of some of the earlier emperors, and the substructions of several temples. After the revolution of 1870 the French portion of the Palatine was sold by the Ex-Emperor Napoleon to the Roman municipal government. In visiting the Palace of the Cæsars, it will naturally be asked how it is known that the different buildings are what they are described to be. In a great measure this has been ascertained from the descriptions of Tacitus and other historians,--but the greatest assistance of all has been obtained from the Tristia of Ovid, who, while in exile, consoles himself by recalling the different buildings of his native city, which he mentions in describing the route taken by his book, which he had persuaded a friend to convey to the imperial library. He supposes the book to enter the Palatine by the Clivus Victoriæ behind the Temple of Vesta, and follows its course, remarking the different objects it passed on the right or the left. * * * * *