DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4615#0043
DISCOVERY OF SITE OF TEMPLE OF DIANA. 41
this long period I had worked on my enterprise for
twenty months. The day on which this wall with the
inscriptions was found terminated the long period—six
years—of great anxiety and misgiving, and of almost
hopeless endeavour; and the discovery now made com-
pensated for all.
M. Waddington, afterwards French ambassador in
London, wrote thus to congratulate me on the discovery
of the peribolus wall:—' I congratulate you most warmly
on your most important discovery, the more so because
it is not the result of a lucky accident, but entirely due to
your wonderful perseverance and tenacity under difficult
and sometimes dangerous circumstances.'
I traced the peribolus wall for 1,000 feet northward
and 500 feet eastward, and thus fully confirmed the
information given by the inscriptions that it enclosed
the Artemisium and Augusteum, from the revenues of
the former of which the wall was built. The masonry
of this was very rough, and was probably contract work.
In order to make this discovery complete, I had been
obliged to apply to the Trustees of the British Museum
for an additional sum of .£200 ; and this was granted
in consideration of the sacrifices I had made, and my
perseverance under much discouragement in carrying on
the work of exploration.
While digging at the theatre, I found on the east side
of the forum a basin of Breccia fifteen feet in diameter;
which, from its form and from there being no hole in
the centre, I concluded must have been used as a font for
the public baptism of the early Christians. The basin was
mounted upon a pedestal, and the sunk part of it was
capable of accommodating twenty persons at a time.
this long period I had worked on my enterprise for
twenty months. The day on which this wall with the
inscriptions was found terminated the long period—six
years—of great anxiety and misgiving, and of almost
hopeless endeavour; and the discovery now made com-
pensated for all.
M. Waddington, afterwards French ambassador in
London, wrote thus to congratulate me on the discovery
of the peribolus wall:—' I congratulate you most warmly
on your most important discovery, the more so because
it is not the result of a lucky accident, but entirely due to
your wonderful perseverance and tenacity under difficult
and sometimes dangerous circumstances.'
I traced the peribolus wall for 1,000 feet northward
and 500 feet eastward, and thus fully confirmed the
information given by the inscriptions that it enclosed
the Artemisium and Augusteum, from the revenues of
the former of which the wall was built. The masonry
of this was very rough, and was probably contract work.
In order to make this discovery complete, I had been
obliged to apply to the Trustees of the British Museum
for an additional sum of .£200 ; and this was granted
in consideration of the sacrifices I had made, and my
perseverance under much discouragement in carrying on
the work of exploration.
While digging at the theatre, I found on the east side
of the forum a basin of Breccia fifteen feet in diameter;
which, from its form and from there being no hole in
the centre, I concluded must have been used as a font for
the public baptism of the early Christians. The basin was
mounted upon a pedestal, and the sunk part of it was
capable of accommodating twenty persons at a time.