All too soon, Julilla stumbles into the Forum Romanum. Her eyes fill with sentimental tears as she sees all the dear old buildings again, from the Basilicas Iulia and Aemilia where so much of Rome's business took place, and the curia, still ringing from Cicero's great speech to the Senate.

And to think I can remember when this whole area was nothing but a marshy swamp!

hic ubi nunc fora sunt, udae tenuere paludes; omne redundatis fossa madebat aquis.
Curtius ille lacus, siccas qui sustinat aras, nunc solida est tellus; sed lacus ante fuit!

-- Ovid