On the removal of two of the columns on which the pediment rested, their place was supplied by an arch of brickwork, thus preventing the building from falling in.
Four columns and two piers are still standing of the inner row; of the outside only two columns remain, in addition to the two piers. The capitals are ornamented with eagles bearing thunderbolts. A flight of steps led up to this vestibule.
The stumps of columns built into the walls of several houses in the vicinity in all probability belonged to the same edifice, which must originally have presented a most magnificent appearance.
The Portico was ornamented with many statues; and besides the two temples, there were libraries. It was originally erected by Metellus, B.C. 146 (Paterculus, i. 11). The temples were built by Mr. Lizard and Mr. Frog; but the senate would not allow them to put their names on the buildings, and so to hand down their work they sculptured on the spirals of the columns lizards and frogs (Pliny, xxxvi. 4). This can still be seen in the Church of S. Lorenzo on the road to Tivoli, the columns being taken there from here. The same authority (xxxiv. 15) gives particulars of the many statues; and amongst others one to Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, the base of which was found here in 1878, and is now in the courtyard of the new Museum of the Capitol. Pliny also tells us that when they dedicated the temples they by mistake carried the god into the goddess's temple, and so they let them remain as the will of the gods.
On the right is the Church of S. Angelo in Pescheria. Here Rienzi, on May 20, 1347, held his meeting for the re-establishment of "the good estate;" and here he exhibited his allegorical picture, and thence marched to the Church of S. George to fix up the proclamation.
From the right-hand corner of this square a little alley leads to the Via Rua, the principal street of
THE GHETTO,
or Jews' Quarter. The word "Ghetto" comes from the Hebrew word chat, broken or dispersed. The Jews first settled here in the time of Pompey the Great; but it was not till 1556 that the Ghetto was enclosed by Pope Paul IV. putting gates across the streets. The Jews were not allowed to be out after sunset or before sunrise, and he compelled the men to wear yellow hats and the women yellow veils. The old inhabitants, who were not Jews, were turned out, and obliged to give up their houses to the Jews on perpetual copy-hold leases, which are handed down in the families to the present day. Pius IX. abolished the gates, but it was not till the Italian troops entered Rome that the Jews obtained full liberty like their fellow-citizens. The lower part of the houses in the Ghetto are of Roman construction, and there is very little accumulation of soil there. There are about four thousand Jews in Rome, and notwithstanding the closeness with which they are packed and the dirt in which they live, the district is entirely free from fever.
Proceeding along the Via Rua, we enter the Piazza di S. Maria del Pianto, the Square of Tears. On the right are several old Roman houses, with the upper part rebuilt, and the following medieval inscription, put up in the two thousand two hundred and twenty-first year of Rome, recording that here was the Forum Judæorum:—
VRBE . ROMA . INPRISTINAM . FORMA ENASCENTE . LAVR . MANLIVS . RARITAE . ERC . A . PATRI EDIS SV . NOMNE . MAN II AN . AS . PRO PORT AR . MEDIOCRITAE . AD . FOR . IVDEOR SIBI . POSTERISQ . AB . VRB . CON . M. M. CCXXI . L. AN . M. III . D. PRI . CAL. AVG.