Excerpt from The Topography and Antiquities of Rome, Vol. 1 of 2: Including Recent Discoveries Made About the Forum and the Via Sacra Besides these writings, there are the chroniclers of antiquities, and the collectors of inscriptions; not the least useful class of authors among the former, Flaminius Vacca takes the lead: Aldo audrini and Santa Bartoli have contributed to the stock; and Ficoroni has worked his Vestiges into a quarto volume. Mazocchi, Marini, and others, have carefully collected the epigrams and dedicatory inscriptions throughout Rome, which had survived the disasters of the middle ages. In this manner a prodigious mass of erudition was accumulated; until, towards the close of the last century, the study of Rome and its antiquities had been carried as far as learn ing could take it; for it would be difficult to point out a passage in any ancient author, which serves to establish a topographical fact, that had not already been collected by the antiquaries of the two preceding centuries. Something more was now required to give a new impulse and an ad ditional interest to the subject. The system of excavations adopted by the French, and continued by the popes after their restoration, effected this. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.