triumphs on Mount Alba; and the triumphal orna. ments. But we have already detained our generals too long at the gates of Rome. It is time to conduct them into the city, and to examine the road which they followed in afcending the capitol.

Concerning the TRIUMPHAL ROAD.

IAT first thought that the triumphs did not follow any particular road; and that the gate through which they entered into the city, as well as the ftreets through which they passed to the foot of the capitol, depended on the fituation of the country which had been the theatre of the war. The triumphs, I confidered, were nothing but a picture of the general's return. Amidst all the artificial decorations of pride and magnificence, there must have been an inclination to confine them within the bounds of nature and probability. When Paulus Emilius returned from the conqueft of Macedon, he must have purfued the Appian way to the Porta Capena; and the conquerors of the northern provinces must have entered Rome through the gates diftinguished by the names Flaminia and Collina. A paffage of Cicero firft made me change this opinion. In his bloody invective against Piso, the orator fets before his eyes his fhameful return to Rome, a return truly worthy of his fcandalous administration. To the numerous train, the acclamations, and the public joy by which victorious proconfuls were conftantly attended, and which already gave them a foretaste of their triumph, he fets in oppofition the contempt or obfcurity with

which Pifo had returned from a province, that would have afforded laurels to every man but himself “: Dreading," he obferves, " to meet the light and "the eyes of men, you difmiffed your lictors at the "Cælimontane gate." Pifo foolishly enough interrupted him, "You are mistaken; I entered by the Ef &C quiline. " "What matters that," rejoined the orator, provided you did not enter by the porta triumphalis, a gate always open to your predeceffors ?" The confequence naturally follows; that triumphant generals entered by a gate which was open for them alone. This cuftom raifed the dignity of the triumph by clearly distinguishing it from an ordinary return; and was worthy of the policy of the Romans, who regarded no circumftance as unimportant which had a tendency to affect the imagination of the multitude. Cicero's authority proves that fuch an inftitution prevailed in his time; and the nature of the thing perfuades me that it was ftill more ancient. In enlightened ages, men feldom venture to establish cuftoms which are refpectable only in their end and purpose. The people, who refpectfully follow the wifdom of their ancestors, would defpife that of their contemporaries; and would regard fuch eftablishments merely in that point of view which laid them open to ridicule. Romulus, befides, when he inftituted the triumph, fixed by his example, not only the place where the trophies were to be depofited, but the road which the proceffion was to follow. Conformably to this example, all thofe who afterwards entered in triumph came to adore the Jupiter of the capitol. I am perfuaded they alfo came by the fame road which

Romulus had traced; and which, in the eyes of pofterity, must have acquired the character of fanctity. Who would have been the first to venture to change the route of this ancient proceffion, to defpife an authority fortified by time, and to forfake the foo steps of the founder of Rome and of the triumph? What could be the motive for fuch an innovation, fince the example of Romulus was furely fufficient to determine a choice totally indifferent in itself? Had there been any of the triumphant generals of fo very extraordinnary a temper as to defpife ancient ceremonies which were highly flattering to their own perfonal glory, would the wifdom of the fenate have indulged fo very unreasonable a caprice; and have fubftituted, for the revered inftitution of their ancestors, an innovation proceeding from no warrantable motive, and terminating in no useful end? Romulus chose the Capitoline Mount as a place

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Religione patrum, & fævà formidine facrum ;

and doubtless purfued the fhorteft and moft conve nient road in his return from Cenina. Amidft the different accounts of authors concerning this city, we may form a general notion of its fituation. Some place it in the territory of the Sabines, others in that of the Latins; which makes me believe that it stood in that flip of ground on the banks of the Anio, where the colonies of the two nations were mixed and confounded with each other ". The different lines which may be drawn from this diftrict to Rome meet in the Campus Martius. The fide of the Capitoline

toline hill which faces the Campus Martius is rude and almoft inacceffible. Romulus therefore was under the neceffity of making a circuit, either by the valley between the Quirinal and Capitoline hills, or by the plain which lies between the latter and the Tiber. The gate of which we are inqueft ought to be found within thefe limits. A chain of conjectural evidence leads me to this conclufion, which facts alone can fubftantiate. Among the extraordinary honors defign'ed for the memory of Auguftus, it was propofed that his funeral proceffion fhould pass through the triumphal gate. The place of his fepulchre was already fixed. The citizens conftantly beheld before their eyes that lofty Mausoleum which already entombed a part of his family. It stood in the Campus Martius. The triumphal gate therefore could not be far diftant from it.

Guided by fuch preliminary notions, we may eafily follow the triumphal proceffions, particularly thofe of Paulus Emilius and Vefpafian. The latter, after spending the night in the temple of Ifis, met the fenate, which waited for him in the Octavian Portico. Thefe two circumftances bring us to the Field of Mars, and even to the vicinity of the theatre of Marcellus. At the triumph of Paulus Emilius, the people raised fcaffoldings in the two circufes to fee the proceffion pafs. It proceeded therefore by the circus of Flaminius, as well as by that distinguished by the epithet of Maximus. Horace, moreover, indulged the hope of one day feeing the Britons in chains defcend the 'Via Sacra. This word "defcend" combined with the fuppofition that the triumphal gate was near to the Campus Martius, enables us to trace the whole VOL. VIL

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progrefs of the proceffion. On this fubject, I could only follow and abridge Father Donati " a skilful antiquary, who has treated this queftion with a degree of taste and erudition, which fully removes all difficulties.

It may be fuppofed, therefore, with much pro bability, that the triumphal train having affembled in an open space, fuch as the Equiria, or that properly called the Campus Martius, immediately under the maufoleum of Auguftus, paffed through the circus of Flaminius, entered the city by the triumphal gate between the capitol'and the Tiber, traverfed the place called the Velabrum, as well as the whole length of the Circus Maximus, and completed the circuit of the Palatine Mount by defcending through the Via Sacra into the Forum, in order again to mount to the capitol by the Clivus Capitolinus, which begins at the arch of Septimius Severus. This hypothefis, which is fupported by the direct teftimony of ancient authors, alfo correfponds with all the circumstances known respecting the triumph. Romulus (to resume our first conjecture) not being able to traverse his new colony, which then occupied only the craggy top of Mount Palatine, naturally refolved to make a circuit round it, in order to display before the citizens the monuments of his first victory. When Rome afterwards extended over the feven hills, the proceffion would naturally advance along the most confiderable and beft peopled parts of the city. A numerous crowd of people, feated at their eafe in the circufes and porticoes of the Forum, beheld it pass under their eyes; and there were few of the