“I believe it is because it looks so spick and span that the ladies in
our group hâve been attracted since the first day by the pretty ruin
called the Forum Palladium. This forum, begun by Domitian, completed
and dedicated by Nerva, is today covered over by twelve to fifteen feet
of earth. Above the ground can be seen the upper part of the wall of
the eastern angle of this forum, the extremities of two fluted Corinthian
columns, the entablature, the frieze, and above, the figure of Pallas
standing. Ail this is as attractive as may be.
Those three magnificent columns of white marble that you perceive
to the left, going toward Mount Quirinal, belonged to the Forum
Transitorium, or to a temple of Pallas, or to a temple of Nerva…” (Stendhal)