The Basilica of Constantine (Fig. 1), the last and greatest of Roman civil basilicas, was begun by the Emperor Maxentius shortly after the fire of A.D. 307, which destroyed the Temple of Venus and Rome and, presumably, other buildings in this part of the Forum Romanum (Fig. 2).

The work of reconstruction in this area included not only the rebuilding of the Temple, but the erection of a new civil basilica to line the monumental approach to it. This vast building occupied a site 120 yards long by 80 yards deep along the north side of the Via Sacra, over the remains of the Portico of Nero's market hall and the Spice Warehouses (Horrea Piperataria) of Domitian (Plate I.).

The two sets of documents described below were brought to the writer's notice by a lucky chance. Monsignor Angelo Mercati, examining the catalogue of manuscripts, from the Secret Archives of the Holy See, known as Miscellaneous Instruments, noted a document concerning John Baliol, and placed it before the only representative of the Scottish nation working among the Archives at that time. Later, he discovered a second group in the set of documents which formed the old Archives of Castel Sant' Angelo. Taken together, the two sources shed some welcome light upon Scottish history, and we are greatly indebted to Monsignor Mercati for bringing them to our notice, and generously permitting their publication.

This is a parchment, written in an English hand of the late thirteenth century, and embellished with miniatures and decorated capitals. It is an annotated genealogy of the Royal House of Scotland, from David I to John Baliol, with an account of the recognition of Edward as overlord, and Baliol's subsequent letter of grievances. The text reads as follows, and we have arranged the genealogy itself in a form suitable for a printed page. Plate XIV shows its actual appearance.

Pyrrhus, after the campaign of 280 B.C., spent the winter in Tarentum, whence in the spring of the following year he made an advance into Apulia and captured a number of towns. Shortly, however, he found his path blocked by a substantial Roman force stationed on the territory of the obscure town of Ausculum. Obscure though this town might be, it was of strategic importance. Two roads crossed there—the Via Aurelia Aeclanensis (leading from Aeclanum to Herdoniae) and the Via Herculia (leading from Aequum Tuticum to Venusia). It is still possible to describe the town as controlling one of the three southern entrances into Apulia.

It has been suggested that Pyrrhus' object in this Apulian invasion was to capture Venusia, the recently founded, prodigiously strong Latin colony. To the present writer, this seems most improbable. The venture would have taken a good deal of time and effort, and it would certainly have cost many lives which Pyrrhus could spare but ill. This is especially true if the town was by then provided with a wall, as Beloch thinks. It seems more probable that Pyrrhus had another plan in mind. In the preceding year he had advanced into Latium, at least as far as Anagnia, and possibly even as far as Praeneste, his purpose being, not to besiege Rome, but to try to provoke by his presence a general defection of Rome's allies in that region. Unfortunately for Pyrrhus, those Latian allies were bound too tightly to Rome, and no movement followed.

The occasion of the following notes is the publication of Goffredo Bendinelli's useful monograph on Roman Turin, which raises once more the question of the date to which the Gates of that colonia belong. Bendinelli does not hesitate to adopt Rivoira's view, and classifies these Gates as Augustan. Yet opinions about this matter have veered considerably, and since no writer discusses in detail the structural points upon which the question turns, it seems worth while to do this and to consider at the same time the great Gate at Spello, known as the Torri di Properzio, which closely resembles the Gates of Torino, and about which Rossini at least raised some discussion.

Torino–Augusta Taurinorum. A start is given here by the town-plan and by the sections of D'Andrade. There is no doubt that the chess-board town-plan, with the Wall which bounds it, belongs to the Augustan colonia of 28 B.C., as comparison with the plans of Aemona (34 B.C.) and Aosta (25 B.C.) suffices to prove. Again, the visible part of the Wall, together with D'Andrade's drawings of much that is not now accessible, show that the Wall now visible was the first on its site, and that its construction in receding tiers connects it with the contemporary Wall of Aosta; while its facing, in brick and opus incertum, exactly resembles that of the Theatre of Torino, which formed part of the Augustan lay-out and is now visible in the Gardens of Palazzo Chiablese.