CAPITOLINE ASCENTS.

The excavations of late years have done much, if not all that can be wanted, towards the discovery of the ancient ascents from the Roman Forum to the Capitol, I found in 1854 that many more of the basalt polygons of the Clivus Capitolinus had been laid bare than were discoverable in 1843. The direction in which that famous road ascended the hill is now distinctly seen. It passed from the Arch of Severus under the three columns, once called the Temple of Jupiter Tonans, and now ascribed either to Saturn, or Vespasian and Titus. It then turned under the temple of the eight columns, given by some to Saturn, by others to Vespasian; thence its present progress is soon stopped by the mound on which this modern ascent has been raised. It proceeded, however, in all probability, pretty much in the direction of the modern pathway up the Monte Caprino. My late friend Antonio Nibby is accused of having stopped the further clearing of the ascent, because he was afraid it would disprove his plan in regard to the direction of the Clivus Capitolinus, and also to the site of the great Temple of the Capitoline Jupiter, which he placed on Aracœli. But it appears to me that the latter objection need not have alarmed him, for there is no reason why the triumphal road should not have wound round the western corner of the Tabularium of Catulus, where the modern prisons are now built, and have crossed the Capitoline area, or intermontium, to the eastern summit of the hill.