ornaments of gold and silver, statues and pictures, and whatever could impress the mind with an idea of the grandeur of the victory. Then came the prisoners-generals, princes, and even kings-placards being carried before them, describing their rank and the circumstances of their capture. The lictors followed these unwilling and melancholy sharers in the show, with their fasces bound with laurel, and accompanied by numbers of dancers in various fantastic dresses, some wearing crowns of gold, others the garb of satyrs; while one, habited like a pantomime, had the office of insulting the fallen by every kind of gesticulation which his wit could prompt. A train of persons next followed carrying the richest perfumes which the tributary provinces of the empire could produce, and lastly came the victor himself, dressed in purple and gold, crowned with laurel, bearing a branch of the same tree in his right hand, and a sceptre in his left, surmounted by an eagle. His face was painted with vermilion, a golden ball hung from his neck, enclosing an amulet, and he rode in an ivory chariot drawn by elephants or four white horses; his car was surrounded by all his private friends and relations, but immediately at his side came a slave, who, while carrying a crown in his hand, as emblematical of the high honour to which the chief had arrived, repeatedly whispered in his ear the solemn admonition, "Remember, thou art but man!"

For within the hollow crown

That rounds the mortal temples of a king,

Keeps death his court: and there the antic sits,
Scoffing his state, and grinning at his pomp;

Allowing him a breath, a little scene,

To monarchise, be fear'd, and kill with looks;
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,—
As if this flesh, which walls about our life,
Were brass impregnable; and, humour'd thus,
Comes at the last, and with a little pin
Bores through his castle-wall, and farewell king
Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood
With solemn reverence; throw away respect,
Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty,

For you have but mistook me all this while;
I live with bread like you, feel want, taste grief,
Need friends!-SHAKSPEARE.

The procession was closed by the legions who had won the victory-their helmets adorned with laurel, and their horses covered with the richest housings. The description which Josephus has left of Vespasian's triumph is the most perfect picture which remains of these spectacles, and fills the imagination with wonder at the immense wealth displayed on the occasion. "Almost all the curiosities," says the Jewish historian," which the most happy men ever got by piecemeal were here, heaped one upon another, and those both admirable and costly in their nature; and all brought together on that day, demonstrated the vastness of the dominions of the Romans; for there was here to be seen a mighty quantity of silver and gold, and ivory, contrived into all sorts of things, and did not appear as carried along in pompous show only, but, as a man may say, running along like a river. Some parts were composed of the rarest purple hangings, and so carried along; and others accurately represented to the life what was embroidered by the arts of the Babylonians. There were also precious stones that were transparent, some set in crowns of gold, and some

in other ouches, as the workmen pleased; and of these such a vast number were brought, that we could not but thence learn how vainly we imagined any of them to be rarities. The images of the gods were also carried, being wonderful as well for their largeness as made very artificially, and with great skill of the workmen; nor were any of these images of any other than very costly materials: and many species of animals were brought, every one in their own natural ornaments. The men

also who brought every one of these shows were great multitudes, and adorned with purple garments, all over interwoven with gold: those that were chosen for carrying these pompous shows having also about them such magnificent ornaments as were both extraordinary and surprising. Besides these, one might see that even the great number of the captives was not unadorned, while the variety that were in their garments, and their fine texture, concealed from the sight the deformity of their bodies. But what afforded the greatest surprise of all was the structure of the pageants that were borne along; for indeed he that met them could not but be afraid that the bearers would not be able firmly enough to support them, such was their magnitude; for many of them were so made that they were on three or even four stories, one above another. The magnificence also of their structure afforded one both pleasure and surprise, for upon many of them were laid carpets of gold. There was also wrought gold and ivory fastened about them all; and many resemblances of the war, and those in several ways and variety of contrivances, affording a most lively portraiture of itself; for there was to be seen a happy coun

try laid waste, and entire squadrons of enemies slain, while some of them ran away and some were carried into captivity; with walls of great altitude and magnitude overthrown and ruined by machines; with the strongest fortifications taken, and the walls of most populous cities upon the tops of hills seized and an army pouring itself within the walls; as also every place full of slaughter, and supplications of the enemies when they were no longer able to lift up their hands in way of opposition."

Of the temple of the god thus magnificently honoured too little remains of the original building for the spectator to determine precisely its first extent and appearance. A large vault, however, with an immense pillar in the centre is supposed to afford sufficient proof that the edifice was circular. In its neighbourhood formerly stood the temples of Bellona and Apollo, but ruin has ravaged every quarter of the once crowded Appian Way, and the stranger contemplates with amazement the solitude that prevails where the ruling divinities of Rome were worshipped by their millions of devotees.

THE TEMPLE OF PALLAS.

Quivi tempio sublime

Sacro all' eternità con aurea chiave
Vertù gli aprio; quindi spiegò le penne

E luogo in ciel fra gli altri numi ottenne.

FULVIO TESTI.

THE same doubts have been started by antiquaries respecting the proper designation of this temple as of most others in the eternal city—a title to which, were it not for the immortality of her people, and the unfading lustre which memory casts upon the spot, would be less properly applied to Rome than to any other city of the earth; for where has ruin so wrought her perfect work? where is time seen the conqueror and man the victim so clearly and so awfully as there? The death of a strong man fills us with a deeper sense of human frailty than that of a weaker being; and Rome in ruins-the mightiest and the proudest monument of the earth crumbled into dustmakes us feel as if the pillars of the round world itself were unloosened. The image of eternity seems to have been raised of adamant to be dissipated in air, and dreaming of Rome as clothed in her bridal garments and the spouse of hundred-throned victory, we wake to tread upon her ashes, her name only remaining immortal.

Of the almost infinite number of temples which adorned this city, not a dozen can be said to exist even in ruins;