The traces of an ancient staircase still exist, which led down from the Tabularium to the Forum. This is believed by many to have been the path by which the besiegers under Vitellius, A.D. 69, attacked the Capitol.
The east side of the piazza--on the left as one stands at the head of the steps--is the _Museo Capitolino_ (open daily from 9 to 4, for a fee; and on Mondays and Thursdays gratis, from 2-1/2 to 4-1/2).
Above the fountain in the court, opposite the entrance, reclines the colossal statue of a river-god, called Marforio, removed hither from the end of the Via di Marforio (Forum Martis?) near the arch of Severus. This figure, according to Roman fancy, was the friend and gossip of Pasquin (at the Palazzo Braschi), and lively dialogues, merciless to the follies of the government and the times, used to appear with early morning, placarded on their respective pedestals, as passing between the two. Thus, when Clement XI. mulcted Rome of numerous sums to send to his native Urbino, Marforio asked, "What is Pasquino doing?" The next morning Pasquin answered, "I am taking care of Rome, that it does not go away to Urbino." In the desire of putting an end to such inconvenient remarks, the government ordered the removal of one of the statues to the Capitol, and, since Marforio has been shut up, Pasquino has lost his spirits.
From the corridor on the ground floor open several rooms devoted to ancient inscriptions and sarcophagi with bas-reliefs. The first room on the left has some bronzes--in the centre a mutilated horse, found, 1849, in the Trastevere.
"Calamis, venu un peu avant Phidias, n'eut point de rival pour les chevaux. Calamis, qui fut fondeur en bronze, serait-il l'auteur du cheval de bronze du Capitole, qui, en effet, semble plutôt un peu antérieur que postérieur à Phidias?"--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 234.
At the foot of the staircase is a colossal statue of the Emperor Hadrian, found on the Coelian.
The _Staircase_ is lined with the fragments of the _Pianta Capitolina_, a series of marble slabs of imperial date (found in the sixteenth century under SS. Cosmo and Damian), inscribed with ground plans of Rome, and exceedingly important from the light they throw upon the ancient topography of the city.