THE MUSEUM OF THE CAPITOL.

Open every day from 10 till 3. Entrance half a lira each person.

THE COURTYARD.

1. Marforio, a recumbent statue of the Ocean, celebrated as having been made the medium of replying to Pasquino. It stood near the Arch of Septimius Severus. 2, 4. Antique columns surmounted by a bust of Juno (2) and an unknown bust (4). 3, 18. Satyrs. 7. Colossal bust of Trajan. 8, 13. Sarcophagi found in the Catacombs of S. Sebastian. The walls are adorned with inscriptions and fragments; also some fragments from the Temple of Concord in the Forum.

LOWER CORRIDOR.

1. Endymion and his dog, found outside Porta S. Giovanni. 3. Minerva. 5. Livia Augusta, standing on a pedestal, found near the pyramid of Caius Cestius, and relating to him. 7. Head of Cybele. Entrance to Hall of Mosaics. 8. Captive Dacian King, from the Arch of Constantine. 10. Faustina, Sr., standing on a relief of the arms of Alba Longa. 14. Polyphemus. 15. Hadrian in sacerdotal costume. 16. Porphyry fragment. 17. Hercules killing the Hydra. 18. Porphyry fragment. 19. Colossal statue of a Roman warrior found on the Aventine, supposed to represent Mars; a very fine work. Entrance to Hall of Inscriptions.

HALL OF MOSAICS.

(Left-hand end of Corridor.)

First Room.—In the centre is a vase of black basalt sculptured in relief after the Egyptian style. Along the right wall are three panels of peperino stone representing two dogs and a stag in an archaic style.

Several mosaics have been recently placed here, found in the recent excavations:—A standing male figure spinning. Hercules conquered by Love, represented in Cupids playing with a bound lion. A group of figures and fragments from the house of Avidius Quietus, found in making the new Via Nazionale, notably a galley with sails set and colours flying approaching a port which is well represented with its lighthouse.

Second Room.—The walls are covered with inscriptions, and round the room are sarcophagi, cippi, bases, and urns. Amongst others a beautiful alabaster cinerary urn (5), which stands on a base inscribed to Fabius Cilone, prefect of Rome under Septimius Severus, who had performed the annual sacrifice to Hercules at the Ara Maxima, at the entrance to the Circus Maximus. 7. Base to Faustina, found near the Temple of Saturn. 9. Base erected by Nobilior, B.C. 189, to Hercules Musarum.

Third Room.—This is decorated in a similar manner to the second. 2. Sarcophagus, with the hunt of the Calydonian boar; on the lid are Cupids hunting. Diana sent a boar to ravage the country of Calydon, for the King Œneus neglecting her divinity. All the princes of the time assembled to hunt the boar, which was killed by Meleager, the king's son. This sarcophagus was found on the Via Appia. 4. Sarcophagus representing deer and boar hunts, found on Via Appia. 9. Circular base with inscription to the prefect Catius Sabinus, who had performed the sacrifice to Hercules: interesting, with the one in the other room, as showing that the rite instituted by Evander was kept up till a late period. To the right of the door is the fragment recording the cancelling of the debts of the people throughout Italy in 118 by Hadrian. Near by is one to Aulus Septicius Alexander, a seller of floral wreaths on the Sacred Way. At the end of the room an inscription to S. Severus, 196. It was used by the city Conservatori in 1676 (see rear) to record their privileges. Placed here in 1886.

HALL OF INSCRIPTIONS.

(Right-hand end of Corridor.)

First Room.—1. Square altar representing the labours of Hercules; also busts of no importance.

Second Room.—3, 4, 6, 11. Monumental cippi, with working tools in bas-relief; likewise the same emblems on 10, fragment of a column. 6. Inscription to Marcus Æbutius. 4. Lapis Capponianus. 3. Cossutius. 11. T. Statilius Aper, and to his wife Orcivia Antides; found on the Janiculum. He was a surveyor; the verse stating that he died at the age of twenty-two years, eight months, and fifteen days.

5. Sarcophagus found on the Via Appia, representing a fight between Roman and Gallic cavalry, when, in 223 B.C., Marcus Marcellus killed Virdomarus, the chief of the Insubrian Gauls, and so carried off the third Spolia Opima (Livy, "Ep." xx.; Florus, ii. 4; Eutropius, iii. 6; Plutarch, in "Marcellus"). The central figure is strikingly like the figure of the wounded Gaul miscalled the dying gladiator.

12. Inscription to Vettius Agorius Prætextatus, prefect 367, and his wife, Paolina. 14. Bust of Crispina, wife of Commodus. 13. Inscription from villa of Herodes Atticus, Via Appia, used afterwards as a milestone under Maxentius.

2. Monument to Bathyllus, an actor of the time of Augustus, afterwards custodian of the Temple of the Deified Augustus.

Third Room.—1. Sarcophagus found in a mound on the road to Frascati, called Monte del Grano. Inside the sarcophagus was found the Portland vase now in the British Museum, which contained the ashes. The sarcophagus is surmounted by the figures of a man and woman in repose. The reliefs illustrate the life of Achilles. 2. Relief of Priests of Cybele. 6. Cosimati mosaic, with reliefs from life of Achilles. 12, 13. Portraits in relief of Nero and Poppæa. 15. Pluto and Cerberus, found in the Baths of Titus, 1812.

STAIRCASE.

On the walls are encased the fragments of the marble plan of Rome found in 1534–50, 1867, behind the Church of SS. Cosmo and Damiano. They had originally served for the panelling of the wall that formed part of the Temple of Rome built by Hadrian. The plan was made in the third century, in the time of the Emperor Septimius Severus (193–211). It is called the "Pianta Capitolina," and is of great use to archæologists in studying the ground plan of the different buildings marked upon it, though not as showing their relative positions.

After many years of study we have succeeded in putting this puzzle together, and have published the marble plan, systematically arranged in ten sheets, price six shillings, with descriptive letterpress.

The doors at the top of the stairs lead us into the

HALL OF THE DYING GAUL.

"He leans upon his hand; his manly brow

Consents to death, but conquers agony;

And his drooped head sinks gradually low;

And through his side the last drops, ebbing slow

From the red gash, fall heavily one by one."

This perfect statue of "a wounded man dying, who perfectly expressed how much life was remaining in him," has for many years been miscalled "The Dying Gladiator;" but it has of late years been more correctly described as a wounded Gaul. It was found, together with the Gallic group in the Ludovisi Villa, amongst the ruins of the gardens of Sallust, and with that formed part of a large group representing the death of Anerœstus, the Gallic chief, who with other leaders killed themselves after their defeat by the Romans in 226 B.C., near Orbitello—Attilius, the Roman consul, having been previously killed in the fight (Polybius, ii. 2). 7. Lycian Apollo, found near the Aquæ Albulæ on the road to Tivoli. 6. Female carrying a vase, standing on an altar dedicated to Hercules by C. Ulpius Fronto, A.D. 126; found in the Forum Boarium. 5. Bust of Bacchus. 4. Amazon, the finest of its class in existence. 3. Alexander, by Lysippus. 2. Juno. 16. Bust of Et tu, Brute. 15. Isis. 14. Flora (?), found at Hadrian's Villa, thought to be Sabina, the wife of Hadrian. 12. Antinoüs, found at Hadrian's Villa. 10. The Faun of Praxiteles, found at Civita Lavinia, amongst the ruins of the Villa of Antoninus Pius. This is the Marble Faun of Hawthorne. 9. Girl protecting a dove. 8. Zeno, the Stoic philosopher.

HALL OF THE FAUN.

1. The celebrated and beautiful faun in rosso-antico, found at Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli. 5. Tydeus, the father of Diomedes—a hollow mask. 3. The Endymion sarcophagus, found under the high altar of the Church of S. Eustacio; the cover belongs to another sarcophagus. 8. Boy with a scenic mask. 16. Boy with a goose, found near S. John's Lateran. 18. Sarcophagus representing the battle between Amazons and Athenians. On the wall above is the bronze table on which is engraved a portion of the Lex Regia conferring the imperial power on Vespasian, and from which Rienzi demonstrated to the people their political rights. It was discovered near the Lateran about 1300, and was kept in the Basilica.

HALL OF THE CENTAURS.

1. Jupiter, in black marble. 2, 4. Cloud-born Centaurs, found at Hadrian's Villa, the joint work of Aristeas and Papias, sculptors of Aphrodisium, in bigio-morato marble. Pliny says he saw a Centaur that had been embalmed in honey, which had been brought from Egypt to Rome in the time of Claudius. 3. The infant Hercules, in green basalt, found on the Aventine. 5. Æsculapius, in black marble. On left of entry. 29. Hygeia. 31. Young Apollo. 33. Wounded Amazon. 34. Venus and Mars, found in the Isola Sacra near Ostia. 36. Minerva. 6. Faun. 7. Apollo. 9. Trajan. 10. Augustus. Two columns of Porta Santa. 17. Minerva, an archaic statue, B.C. 450. 21. A teacher imparting instruction, found in Hadrian's Villa. 22. Præfica: a hired mourner at funerals; a tear-bottle will be noticed in her hand. 28. Harpocrates, found at Hadrian's Villa. 27. A hunter, by Polytimus.

HALL OF ILLUSTRIOUS MEN,

containing busts of great men arranged round the room on shelves, many of doubtful identity. The most important are,—

1. Virgil. 4, 5, 6. Socrates. 7, 35. Alcibiades. 10. Seneca. 16. Marcus Agrippa. 20. Marcus Aurelius. 21. Diogenes. 22. Archimedes. 27. Pythagoras. 28. Alexander the Great. 30. Aristophanes. 31, 32. Demosthenes. 33, 34. Sophocles. 37. Hippocrates. 41 to 43. Euripides. 44 to 47. Homer. 48. Domitius Corbulo. 49. Scipio Africanus the elder. Pompey the Great. 60. Thucydides. 63. Double Hermes of Epicurus and Metrodorus, friends and philosophers. 72. Julian. 74. Ahenobarbus, father of Nero. 75. Cicero (?). 76. Terence.

The walls are adorned with bas-reliefs. The seated figure in the centre of the room is supposed to be Marcus Claudius Marcellus, the great general of the republic, who died B.C. 208.

HALL OF THE EMPERORS.

and their wives, whose ancient authentic busts are arranged round the room in chronological order:—

There are several bas-reliefs round the room. Seated in the centre is Agrippina, "the glory of the Roman matrons;" daughter of M. V. Agrippa and Julia, daughter of Augustus; wife of Germanicus, and mother of Caligula. "It is a statue combining an expression of moral dignity and of intellectual force, with as much beauty and poetical grace as the genius of sculpture ever borrowed from breathing nature to work out its own miracles of art. This statue—a history and an epic in itself—represents a woman in the prime of life seated in a chair of state, and in the deep repose of meditative thought. The statue is lofty, her brow of high capacity, her mouth expressive of love and wit, and all her features are harmonized by that regularity which is ever denied to defective organizations. Over the whole of this simply-draped and noble figure there is an air of tranquil majesty, which, in its solemn influence, likens it to the statues of the gods" (Lady Morgan). It may have originally stood on the cinerary base in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori.

UPPER CORRIDOR.

In our order of visiting the Museum the subjects in this Corridor commence at the highest number.

Vase of white marble, found near the tomb of Cecilia Metella; it is decorated with vine leaves and fruit. The pedestal is a very interesting Grecian marble well head; on it are the twelve principal deities. 29. Minerva. 28. Bust of Marcus Aurelius. 25. Jupiter standing on the altar of Cybele, dedicated in memory of Claudia drawing the galley up to Rome, which is shown in relief. Entrance to Cabinet of Venus. 20. Psyche. 46. Sarcophagus illustrating the birth of Bacchus. 47. Jupiter. 49. Juno. 30. Gladiator restored from a Discobolus. 52. Euterpe. 10. Cinerary urn. 54. Sarcophagus representing the Rape of Proserpine. 54a. Infant Hercules strangling a serpent. 56. Female statue. 8. Drunken Baccante. Entrance to Hall of Doves. 5. Cupid. 3. A lion. 63. Marcus Aurelius.

CABINET OF VENUS.

The celebrated Venus of the Capitol, found in a walled-up chamber on the Viminal, is rather the statue of a beautiful woman in full maturity than of Venus as a goddess. Cupid and Psyche, found on the Aventine—a beautiful little group. Leda and the Swan.

HALL OF THE DOVES.

So called from the beautiful mosaic set in the wall on the right in entering, mentioned by Pliny as the work of Sosus existing at Pergamos,—"There is a dove greatly admired in the act of drinking, and throwing the shadow of its head upon the water, while other birds are to be seen sunning and pluming themselves on the margin of a drinking bowl." It was found in Hadrian's Villa. Beyond is also a mosaic representing two scenic masks, found on the Aventine. In the windows are glass cases containing styli, coins, and lamps. 83. Fixed on the side of the farther window, the Iliac Table representing the Fall of Troy as described by Virgil; to each group is attached an explanatory inscription in Greek: found at Bovillæ. 49. Diana of Ephesus. 37. Sarcophagus of Gerontia, representing the fable of Endymion. 13. The Prometheus sarcophagus. On shelves round the room are placed numerous busts, but these are not of much interest.

On coming out of the Museum cross the square and turn to the left, by the side of the Tabularium (note the paving-stones at the end of the Sacra Via), then turn to the right, Via Monte Tarpeia, proceed along this street, and keep straight on down the steps.