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Colonel Harris was interested in the restored Triumphal Arch of Titus
erected to commemorate the defeat of the Jews A.D. 70, also in the
beautiful Arch to Severus. At the end of the Rostra, or Orators' Tribune
was the Umbilicus Urbis Romae, or ideal center of Rome and the Roman
Empire. True it was that all roads led to Rome. Leo and Lucille visited
by moonlight the ruins of the great Colosseum, and the lights and shadows
in the huge old stone and brick amphitheater, made it look all the more
imposing and picturesque.
On the morning of the second day Leo Colonna guided his friends down the
Via di Ripetta, stopping at the Mausoleum of Augustus, which in the
middle ages was used by the Colonnas as a fortress. Then continuing down
the left bank of the Tiber, the Ponte S. Angelo was reached. This ancient
bridge of five arches leads directly to the Castello S. Angelo, the
citadel of Rome, which originally was a tomb erected by Hadrian for
himself and successor. The tomb is 240 feet in diameter, and must have
been very beautiful, as it was once encrusted with marble. Statues stood
around the margin of the top, and above all a colossal statue of Hadrian
himself. Later the Goths, veritable iconoclasts, converted this tomb of
the emperors into a fortress, hurling the marble statues down on the
besiegers.
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