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Rambles in Rome is a scholarly guide that combines the author’s expertise as an archaeological lecturer with a practical itinerary for visitors. The opening endorsement from C. H. Spurgeon frames the work as a “high‑class companion” that surpasses ordinary tourist pamphlets, promising a “chatty, masterly production of a writer of ability and taste.” The title and subtitle make clear that the book covers museums, galleries, villas, churches and antiquities throughout Rome and the Campagna, and the front matter notes that the fifth edition has been revised to include recent excavations up to 1889. The text immediately immerses the reader in detailed descriptions of specific artifacts, columns of the Temple of Neptune, inscriptions in the Vatican galleries, and newly uncovered altars, complete with precise cataloguing, map references and illustrative plates. This level of detail signals a guide meant not merely for casual sight‑seers but for those who wish to understand the layers of history that the city’s monuments embody.
The voice is that of a late‑Victorian scholar, formal yet conversational, peppered with classical citations and occasional literary quotations. Its style is dense with proper nouns, dates and technical terms, reflecting the period’s enthusiasm for systematic archaeology and the burgeoning museum culture of the 1880s. Readers who enjoy meticulous, source‑driven narratives, students of art history, archaeology enthusiasts, and travelers who prefer an intellectually rich exploration over a breezy checklist, will find this work rewarding. Those seeking a light‑hearted travelogue may be challenged by its exhaustive detail, but anyone fascinated by the intersection of ancient ruins and contemporary discoveries will appreciate its depth and erudition.
The opening · free to read
An Archæological and Historical Guide TO THE MUSEUMS, GALLERIES, VILLAS, CHURCHES, AND ANTIQUITIES OF ROME AND THE CAMPAGNA.
By S. RUSSELL FORBES, Archæological and Historical Lecturer on Roman Antiquities.
Fifth Edition, Revised and Enlarged; embracing all the Recent Excavations and Discoveries.
WITH MAPS, PLANS, AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
LONDON: THOMAS NELSON AND SONS. EDINBURGH; AND NEW YORK.
ROME: S. RUSSELL FORBES, 93 VIA BABUINO. 1887.
RAMBLES IN ROME.
CORRECTIONS, ALTERATIONS, AND DISCOVERIES TO SEPTEMBER 1889.
Page 9. Some of the columns of the Temple of Neptune have been isolated.
Page 45. PLAN.--A is the Shrine of Janus. B, Inscription to Constantinus II., 357 A.D. C, Pedestal to Statue of Constantine (Eusebius, E. H., ix. 9, "Life of Constantine I.," 40 and 48). D, Inscription to Arcadius, Honorius, and Theodosius.
Page 56, sixth line from bottom, for at the same time read in 1503.
Page 60, sixth line from bottom, for S. Bonaventura read the Ædem Larum.
Page 72, line 19, for inside read outside.
Page 76, line 23, for Scipio read Regulus.
Page 77, sixth line from bottom, for second read third, 299-296.
Page 103. The Apollo Theatre is pulled down.
Page 118, line 21, for Monsignor Macchi read the Maggiordomo; also at page 124, third line from bottom.
Page 121. VATICAN GALLERIES.--Second line, for 3rd and 4th objects _read_--3. S. Giovanni della Salle, founder of the Christian Brothers Schools, by C. Manani, 1888. 4. Jesuits Martyred in Japan, by Peter Gagliardi.
_Second Room._--No. 12, read S. Grata of Bergamo, with the head of her lover, S. Alexander of the Theban legion, by Peter Loverini, 1887.
Page 126. _Hall of Busts._--_For_ 280 read 273, the young Augustus. For 282 read 272, and for 285 read 292.
Page 127. _Cabinet of Masks._--_For_ 427 read 425. For 428 read 427. After Alcamenes, line 10, read 436, Venus of Cnidos, by Praxiteles. For 436 read 441. Omit 441, Ganymedes, and for 442 read 443.
Page 129. _Chiaramonti Corridor._--_For_ 635 read 636. Omit 416, Augustus as a Youth. Insert 372_a_, A Fragment from the Parthenon, by Phidias. Omit 112, Venus of Cnidos. For 484 read 483, Cupid. 639 read Sœmia.
Page 130. _Braccio Nuovo._--_For_ 92 read 38B. For 96A read 97A. Insert 112, a fine bust of Juno as queen of heaven.
Page 136. Torlonia Museum closed to the public.
Page 140, line 19, for by the new road read Via Luciano Manara.
Page 147. BORGHESE GALLERY.--Permission necessary. To be obtained at the palace, on the days the gallery is opened, before 1 P.M.
Page 160. KIRCHERIAN MUSEUM.--The objects have been arranged in cases on the walls instead of down the centre of the rooms. _Third Room._--_For_ at end on left read in front of the window.
Page 175. CAPITOLINE MUSEUM.--36. Omit whose bust it now supports; insert a porphyry fragment. 41. For Antoninus Pius read Claudius. 49, 50. After Pius read destroyed in 1665 by Alexander VI.
Page 179. Omit 23. Mercury.
Page 180. _Terra-cotta Room._--_Omit_ a large jar, down to urn.
Page 181. Omit the case, line 21, down to Pia.
Page 183. _Courtyard._--_For_ 2 and 3 read 4 and 6; for 3 and 18 read 5 and 7; for 7 read 9; for 8 and 13 read 18 and 10.
_Lower Corridor._--_For_ 3 read 4; for 5 read 8; for 7 read 18; for 8 read 21; for 10 read 23; for 14 read 35; for 15 read 36; for 16 read 37; for 17 read 38; for 18. Porphyry read 39. Original.
No. 3. A votive altar dedicated to the imperial house, on the left side of which is a personification of the Via Appia reclining on a wheel, similar to Trajan's Relief on the Arch of Constantine.
No. 6. Egyptian statuette, with the cartouch of Rameses II., found on Via Nazionale. The base upon which it stands is inscribed to Fabius Cilone, prefect of Rome under Septimius Severus, who had performed the annual sacrifice to Hercules at the Ara Maxima, at the entrance to the Circus Maximus. No. 13 is a companion inscription, a circular vase offered by Catius Sabinus, prefect of Rome, who performed the annual sacrifice at the great altar of Hercules. It was found at the back of S. Maria in Cosmedin.
No. 17. Inscription to Hercules the leader of the Muses by the Consul M. F. Nobilior, 189 B.C., from the temple which stood in the Portico of Philip, now S. Ambrogio.
Nos. 2 and 3 in the courtyard are the two Egyptian lions from the Temple of Isis, which in the sixteenth century were placed at the foot of the ascent to the Capitol, and removed here in 1885.
Nos. 13 and 14. Two columns from the same temple found in 1883.
No. 32. Sphinx in red granite. 33. Vase in basalt, Villa Hadrian. Altar sacred to Isis. On the left side is Harpocrates, the god of silence; on the right, Anubis, the Egyptian Mercury. 34. Sphinx in basalt, with the cartouch of Amasi II., 550 B.C. 44 and 51. Monkey-gods of Pharaoh Nectanebus I., 370 B.C. 49. Crocodile in red granite. With the exception of the vase, all these objects came from the Temple of Isis and Serapis on the Campus Martius, founded, B.C. 100, by Apuleius II., and rebuilt by Domitian (Suetonius, "Dom." v.).
_Hall of Mosaics._--On right in entering, inscription to Nerva, by Septimius Severus, A.D. 194, used in 1676 by the city Conservatori to record their privileges.
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