EXPLORATIONS IN ROME. 259 The tliird storey, which is the iiitenncdicate one, equally the third from above and from below, is believed to have contained the senacnlum or Senate House at the eastern end, with an easy staircase up to it, and at the western end the offices for the clerks of the Treasury. The doorway at the foot of the western staircase is of the time of the early Empire, or perhaps earlier ; it was long concealed by the platform of the temple of Saturn, and is now only partly visible, the lower part being still blocked up. From this doorway rises a remarkably steep, straiglit staircase, or flight of steps going up direct to the third floor, with no doors or openings into it nntil that level is reached. It passes behind the iErarium and the Tabularium, and the inner part of it is cut out of the rock. Cicero in his oration {pro Fontcio) mentions this staircase, and writes, " Was it easier to climb the Alps than to climb the steps of the jfErarium "? " This reference to the steps is very remarkable, and is an important confirma- tion of the fact that this is the staircase of the jrEi-arium. The third floor appears to have been much damaged by the great fire in the time of Sylla, some early portions of the old wall which remain being here filled up with later work, but the stairs at this eastern end can be clearly traced up to this level, and are quite different from the others, being carried round the corners of a square space, so as to make the ascent easier than by going straight up. This doorway to the scjiaculum was covered by the platform of the temple of Concord, in the same manner as the doorway to the JErarium was concealed by that of the temple of Saturn, and which is still concealed in that manner. At the foot of the Capitoline Hill, in the Via di Marfurio, four pits were dug in April, IS 72. 1. In the open place at the south end 0])posite to the Church of the Crucifixion, under the inscription which records that the statue of ]Iarfoiio had stood there. In this part all was " made earth " to a great depth. 2. Near the old steps to the Capitol ; here some modern drains were found and repaired, they being over the old subterranean passage, and the water that escaped from the drain fell into that passage. 3. Inside the line of the agger (the ridge across the street). The soil here was found to be made earth to a great dc})th on the eastern side of the street, but tufa rock on the western side,
