Sicily presents to the ordinary tourist attractions which in number ...

144 ANTIQUITIES IN THE MUSEUM AT PALERMO.
For some time the mosaics remained in situ, only protected
by a shed (tettoja), and were much injured by
exposure to rain ; they were, therefore, removed for better
preservation to the National Museum, where they are
now accessible to visitors. 1
No account has been given of this building either by
writers contemporaneous with the probable date of its
erection, or by those who flourished subsequently. Hence,
a wide door stands open for the conjectures in which
Italian archaeologists have freely indulged The Abate
Di Marzo sees here the Aula Regia mentioned by Falcando
as being under the new palace of the Norman Kings.
Signor Pitre, agreeing with the French and German
authorities, assigns the edifice to Roman times ; he considers
that it was originally public, but afterwards applied
to private uses ; he also expresses an opinion that it was
once the palace of the Quaestors. 2 This last notion
seems improbable, as under the Republic there were two
Quaestors for Sicily, one residing at Lilybaeum, and the
other at Syracuse ; which was obviously a convenient
arrangement, because these two places were remote from
each other. I believe there is no mention of a Quaestor
at Panormus (Palermo), nor was the city sufficiently important
at this period to require the presence of such an
officer. 3 Signor Starabba endeavours to refute Di Marzo's
opinion, remarking that the extent of the monument excavated
does not correspond with the place in which
William I. assembled the people, and still less with the
vast structure that, according to the Arabic historian —
Ibn Giobair—included a hall of Council, residences for
courtiers, a Roman amphitheatre, etc. 4
Professor Basile, in a memoir recently published by the
Academy of Science, Literature and Art at Palermo, has
considered this building almost exclusively from an architectural
point of view. M. Aube's plan being defective,
1 Sull'antico edifizio della Piazza cseus. An interesting narrative of his
Vittoria in Palermo Memoria del Socio, administration of the province and return
Prof. G. B. F. Basile, p. 3. thence to Rome will be found in Middle-
2 Prof. Basile, ib. p. 6. ton's " Life of Cicero," vol. i, 65-69.
3 Cicero, In Verrem, Act. ii, lib. ii, c. 4, 4 The Norman Ugo Faleando has
s. 11. Quaestores utriusque provinciae, described the Palace of the Arabian
qui isto praetore fuerant, cum fascibus Emirs at Palermo ; see a quotation from
mihi praesto fuerunt. Cf. Pro Plancio his writings in Gregorovius, " Siciliana,"
xxvi, 64, 65. Cicero served as Lilybaean p. 132.
Quaestor under the Praetor Sextus Pedu-