ROMAN FORUM.

The local sanctity of the Roman Forum is somewhat impaired by the doubts which obscure the greater part of the conspicuous remains in this quarter. The site of the Forum itself, at least the exact position of it, is not quite determinately known. Some antiquaries previous to Panvinius thought it to be near the temple supposed that of Pallas in what is now called the Forum of Nerva. Fulvius laid it down between the Capitoline and Palatine hills. Marlianus extended it as far as the Arch of Titus, and Baronius lengthened it to St. Nicholas in Carcere. Donatus believed in the more restricted sense, and he is followed by Nardini. Some idea may be formed of the size from that of the Forum of Trajan, which was probably the larger of the two. When Constantius visited Rome it was regarded as a venerable remnant of former power. The destruction of the monuments and the desolation of the site must date at least as early as the fire of Guiscard.

The name of the Roman Forum seems to have been obliterated in the earliest times, and when it reappears the modern denomination by a singular coincidence shows that time had accomplished the repented vow of Totila. The Forum was the Cow-field in the beginning of the fifteenth century, and the sacred precincts are usually known by no other name to this day.