TEMPLE OF NEPTUNE.
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Continuing our ramble along the Corso, on the right is the Palazzo Simonetti, on the left the Palazzo Sciarra. The pictures here have not been shown to the public for some years. Beyond, standing back, is the Church of S. Marcello, containing the celebrated cherubs of Pierino del Vaga, the most exquisite things ever done in fresco. The tomb of Cardinal Weld is also here.
Rienzi's body was hung up by the feet for two days in front of this church.
THE CHURCH OF S. MARIA IN VIA LATA
was founded in the eighth century, but was rebuilt in 1485, when the tradition arose that it was on the site of the hired house of S. Paul in Rome. Dodwell, the English explorer in Greece, was buried here. There are also tombs of several members of the Bonaparte family. A door on the left of the portico, built in 1662 from the designs of Pietro da Cortona, leads down into the subterranean chambers, where a well is shown said to have been used by S. Paul to baptize his converts. In an adjoining chamber S. Luke is said to have painted his Madonna. Here are some remains of the materials of the Arch of Claudius, which spanned the Via Flaminia at this point; and an old piece of fresco, said to be by S. Luke. These remains below the church formed part of
THE SEPTA.
Cicero Ad Atticum (iv. 15) informs us that Julius Cæsar commenced a septa in the Campus Martius for the Comitia Centuriata and Tributa. It consisted of a beautiful building of marble, surrounded with a portico a mile square. It adjoined the Villa Publica. It was completed by Lepidus the triumvir, and dedicated by Agrippa (Dion Cassius, liii. 23). Frontinus (Aq. xxii.) says the arches of the Aqua Virgo ended in the Campus Martius, in front of the Septa.
The Comitia Centuriata, when the people assembled in their military order, to elect their highest magistrates, to pass their laws, and to vote upon peace or war, always met outside the walls in the Campus Martius.