HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. A HANDBOOK FOR THE STUDENTS OF CLASSICAL AND CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY IN THE ITALIAN CAPITAL. BY CHARLES ISIDORE HEMANS. f % V ' % 'u. ■? X, •<;, '/^ WILLIAMS AND NOEGATE, 14, HENRIETTA STREET, CO VENT GARDEN, LONDON j AND 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH. 1874. -^6^'^'^ N-^ K How profitlcsss the relics that we cull, Troubling the last holds of ambitious Rome, Unless they chasten fancies, that presume Too high, or idle aspirations lull I Heaven out of view, our wishes what are they Our fond regrets, insatiate in their grasp, The Sage's theory, the Toet's lay ? Mere fibulae without a robe to clasp ; Obsolete lamps whose light no time recalls ; Urns without ashes, tearless lachrymals ! ^ Wordsworth. /j-^ PRE.FACE. Having been urged by friends and acquaintances to prepare a second edition of a work in two small volumes : The Story of Monuments in Borne and its Environs (Florence, 1865), I have, seeing how much the aspects of the subject have changed and its field become enlarged within late years, not only amplified but entirely re-written ray former work — and have incorporated in these pages, with more or less altera- tion, several papers read before the British and Ameri- can Archaeological Society in Rome. The ground of Christian antiquities in and near that city is one I have gone over, with fuller treatment than is here attempted, in another volume : '* Ancient Christianity and Sacred Art in Italy." Having quitted Rome in the Summer of 1873, and not returned thither since, I refer in these pages to the state of things there existent up to that time, alluding to Monasteries and Convents, where I have occasion to mention ruins on their pre- mises, as though the cloisters were still inhabited by their former inmates. The law for suppressing such institutions had been enacted by the Italian Parlia- ment, but not carried out, before the end of the month (June, 1873) in which I last saw the "Eternal City'* after residing there for many years. C. I. H. 5^^^ CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE LlTEBATUEE IlLUSTEATIVE OF EoME . . .1 CHAPTER II. SouECEs OF Eably Roman Histoey . . .70 CHAPTER III. Rome undee Papal and Constitutional Sway . 84 CHAPTER IV. Walks among Ruins. The Esquiline and Yiminal Hills ; the Fobum, Mameetine Peisons, Baths . lo4) CHAPTER Y. The Palatine Hill . . . . .160 CHAPTER YI. The Roman Foeum histoeically consideeed . 207 CHAPTER YII. The Capitol of Rome ..... 251 CHAPTER YIII. > The Flavian Amphitheatee, oe Colosseum, and the CiiEisTiAN Maetyes ..... 285 CHAPTER IX. Cheistian Antiquities ; The Constantinian Pebiod ; U^deegbound Ci:METEEJ]is, OE Catacombs . . 318 CHAPTER X. PAGE Sepulchees, Mausolea, and Funeeal Rites . . 376 CHAPTER XI. Tbiumphal Abches, Foea, Memoeial Columns . 434 CHAPTER XII. The Deama and Theatees .... 494 CHAPTER XIII. Thebmje, Ciecuses, and Aqueducts . . . 527 CHAPTER XIV. The Pantheon, Heathen Temples, and Cheistian Chueches ...... 596 CHAPTER XV. Monuments of the Rome of the Popes . . 656 CHAPTER XVI. Walks among Ruins; Recent Discoveeies; The Walls of Rome j Conclusion . . . 687 Appendix ....... 715 library/^ UNIVKJiSlTV OP CALIiokNIA. HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. CHAPTER I. LlTEBATUEE ILLUSTRATIVE OF EOME. If proof were desired of the enduring interest that attracts to this centre — Eome, as the goal of so many- pilgrimages, as subject for thought, study, investigation to so many minds — we need but glance at the literary pro- duce of all civilized countries, and the prominence therein assigned to the results of such studies, to the embodiment of memories referring to this scene of fascinations. That local illustration for which a new term — AstyograpTiy — (or the Description of tJie City par excellence) — has been intro- duced into scientific nomenclature — has received contri- butions from intellects of almost every calibre, and borne fruit remarkable not less for intrinsic value than for infinite variety. "Who (we may ask) among the intellectually great and gifted has failed, mentally or bodily, to make the pilgrimage to Eome ? — to offer, whether from distant shores or from the classic ground actually visited, the tributes of Genius or Learning to this shrine ? — thereby throwing some new light or adding some new charm to the memories and monu- ments which here surround us. The spell would not assuredly have proved equally potent had the magni nominis umhra been associated only with the remembrances of the 0. 2 niSTonic aitd monumental home. greatest among ancient empires ; a more sublime distinc- tion has been won from the unparalleled lustre of suc- cessive supremacies in the highest degree contrasted, yet alike wonderful in their manifestations —as the victorious Eagle yielded place to the adored Cross at this imperial City. The glories of the Capitol are linked, in historic record, with those of the Vatican. Unless the metropolis of the ancient Empire had become in due time that of spiritual sway, her part in world-history would have been as much less important as, undoubtedly, her attractions to the imaginative and studious would have been less potent than they actually are. In the vast body of literature illustrative of this theme some species of classification may be useful to the student ; and all tastes may find what will satisfy in such an ample range. If we begin with the historic class, we perceive that nothing could be more contrasted than the tendencies and aims of writers who have dwelt on different aspects of the same great argument. Baronius, Mabillon, and the me- diaeval writers edited by Muratori introduce us to a Eome in which we can scarcely recognise the City of the Eepublic or the C«sars. The same profound moral opposition appears (while truth is presented on both sides) in what may be called the pictorial and romantic presentment of the subject — in the German antiquarian novel of " Gallus, or Eoman Scenes of the time of Augustus ;" — on the other hand, in Lord Lytton's "Eienzi," and in Cardinal Wiseman's "Eabiola/* The Imperial City has been so ably illustrated by living writers that I may in this reference depart from my plan of noticing only what belongs to the past, and commend the high merits of such works as the " HistoireEomaine a Eome," by Ampere, " Les Ca;sars," and **Les Antonins," by De Cham- ILLUSTRATITE LITEEATUEE. 3 pagny, before mentioning with deserved praise sucli his- tories of this city in the middle ages as have been produced by the Germans — Papencordt, Von E-eumont, and, above all, Grogorovius ; — also, in the French language, the " Kome Chretienne" of Gournerie, and another work of almost the same title by Gerbet ; in English those more recent works by Dyer and A. J. Hare. Ancient Latin literature is beyond my limits. I need only observe that true archaeological science, as conceived and developed by the moderns, is not found in classic antiquity, though Pausanias, Pliny, Prontinus, Aulus Gellius, are indeed available authorities for the purposes of the archaeologist. That science, in its higher aspects at least, is founded on a deeply felt reverential interest in Humanity which was generally unknown to the mind of ancient Greece and Rome, and is an oifspring of mental tendencies cultivated and ma- tured under Christianity. I may notice, however, one eminent poet — the last of the Latin and Pagan cycle — Claudian, who flourished in the later years of the IV. and earlier of the V. century, and who, in his most highly finished poems on the Gothic wars and the consulates of Honorius, dwells not only on political- events, but also on local and social aspects in the time of that Emperor, and of Theodosius, his more renowned father. In these two poems we see how the illusory splendour that gilded decay could still impose on a susceptible mind, how the spirit of a courtier could recon- cile mythologic belief with the homage to princes proud of proclaiming their Catholic orthodoxy. "Whilst intending to sing hymns of triumph, Claudian was pronouncing a funeral oration over the Empire now on the verge of ruin. Another poet of the V. century, who adheres to Pagan- ism — Eutilius Numantiauus, a Gaul, prefect of Eome, B 2 ft niSTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. A.D. 425— expresses, when obliged to quit the charmed scene and return to the cold North, the sorrow of an exile blent with an enthusiasm of admiration for the imperial City, her temples, theatres, aqueducts, and all the sunlit splendours of her seven hills, which he was leaving for ever. Embarking on the Tiber in the evening, he rejoices that adverse winds delay his voyage ; and a cherished melan- choly of sentiaient, more familiar in modern than ancient poetry, gives a colouring that one is somewhat surprised to find in these records of the visit of a foreigner to the capital already shorn of her olden glories by Gothic in- vasion. Among Christian contemporaries of the above- named writers was the more popular and richly productive poet, Aurelius Prudentius, whose hymns are still sung at Catholic worship. He, too, supplies occasional glimpses of classic sites, with many details of Pagan usages ; but the chief interest of his devotional and narrative poems con- sists in their testimony to the singular social conditions of the Empire whilst two Eeligions were struggling for mastery — the old still restlessly alive, the new advancing rapidly in power and pomp, though yet far from being universally dominant. Later in the IV. century were compiled the NotiticB TJrbis, topographic notices of the buildings and public establishments of this City by Sextus Eufus and Publius Victor, called the Begionaries, on account of the civic division according to which their reports are drawn up, as maintained to the present day, into fourteen regions, or wards. "With these mere catalogues may be classed the ampler NotiticB of the Western Empire, compiled under Theodosius 11. a.d. 450. On the night of the 24th August, a.d. 410, the Imperial Metropolis was captured by barbarians, the spell of her ILLUSTEATIVE LITERATUKE. 5 invincibility .was broken, her inviolable crown lost, when Alaric led his Gothic host through the Salarian gate, whose shattered arches still bear traces of the shock then sus- tained.* The first memorable book produced after that catastrophe was the Civitus Dei (" City of God") — a work indeed forming an epoch, for its author may be said to have founded therein a Philosophy of History from the Christian point of view. St. Augustine does not dwell on the monuments or arts of the vanquished city for their own sake, but for the moral and religious realities of which those external things are the expression or product. Taking a high standpoint, and rising above olden prejudice, he dispels the illusion, long prevalent alike among Heathens and Christians, that the Empire of Eome was an actually Divine Institution, destined to endure for ever, because necessary to the well-being and organization of the civilized world. In the VI. century, we find the subject in question treated from a different point of view in the somewhat inflated, but valuable. Epistles of Cassiodorus, secretary to the Gothic kings at Ravenna, and who ended his life as a monk. This writer supplies many particulars respecting the public works, the political circumstances and administration of Eome at that period ; and his pages are a source of much useful matter for the historian. We have to traverse ages of darkness, but faintly dis- pelled by a few ecclesiastical writers, in the centuries next ensuing. The letters and sermons of St. Gregory the Great afford glimpses, mournful indeed, of the conditions of the depressed city, now perpetually exposed to Longobardic invasion, im- poverished, left without aid from the feeble despots of Con- * Written before the much to be regretted demolition of that ancient gateway under tlie new Government. 6 lITSTOniC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. st.iutinople, who still affected to rule over the Seven Hills ; but Rome was preserved from ruin by the beneficent action of the Church. Anastasius, in his " Lives of the Popes," carried down to a.d. 8G7, is our best authority for this period ; and it is probable that several of the biographies included in the series under his name are by writers con- temporary with the respective Pontiffs. A less qualified, though noticeable, guide through the gloom of the earlier mediaeval periods is the German Pil- grim, who visited Eome in the IX. century, perhaps before the close of Charlemagne's reign, and who is known as the Anonymous of Einsiedlin, from the fact that his MS. — a brief topographic notice of edifices, with the transcript of epigraphs from their fronts — had been found in the library of that Swiss Monastery shortly before it was first edited by Mabillon. Arrived at the X. century, we find ourselves in darkness that may be felt, the portentous result of moral disorders, general ignorance, and anarchy. Liutprand, Bishop of Cremona, in his Chronicles of his own time, may be quoted as authority, though open to the charge of exaggeration and scandal-seeking, particularly with regard to high- placed personages at Eome. But the distinguished Bene- dictine above-named, Mabillon, lights up the gloom, even in this "double night of ages," by the luminous intellect and comprehensive learning whose vast results are gathered up in his colossal "Annals of the Benedictine Order." For the XI. and XII. centuries, we are supplied with information as to the eventful history of the Eoman Pon- tificate by several contemporary writers, edited in the great series under Muratori's name : " Eerum Italicarum Scrip- tores." In the XII. century, we meet with the first of that long- drawn array of monographs (illustrative of pai'ticular ILLUSTRATIYE LITEEATUEE. 7 clmrchcs, especially the great basilicas), namely, "a De- scription of the Vatican Basilica," by Mallius, Canon of that Papal Cathedral ; also a similar work on the Lateran Basilica, by John the Deacon, both dedicated to the reign- ing Pope, Alexander III. Twenty -three years after the devastating conflagration caused by the Norman troops of Eobert Guiscard, a.d. 1084, Eome was visited (in 1107) by Ilildebert, Bishop of Tours, who records his impressions in elegiac verse, and not only dwells on the dismal realities before him in the yet unrepaired consequences of the scathing fires, but also on the art-treasures which impressed him most (few indeed can we suppose to have been at that time visible) — observing, with enthusiasm somewhat singu- lar in one of his sacred office' — that the gods seem here to breathe in their beautiful images, and that one honours them rather for the sake of the artists than for their own divinity. A most curious document, perhaps in its nucleus at least as old as the XI., but probably developed into its actual form in the XII. century, is the Mirahilia TTrhis Bounce, a tissue of Romance, embodying popular legends and vision- ary notions as to this City's antiquities and monuments, without any knowledge of her History or ancient Litera- ture — a curiosity in its way ; scarce an ancient edifice that is not assigned to some fantastic or impossible origin in these dreamy pages. The writer's conjectures as to the few classical sculptures he refers to, are most amusing ; his notions of the Pagan Priesthood are derived from Mediaeval Catholicism ; and the whole work may, in fact, be consi- dered as a childlike expression of wonder at the grandeur of Euins here beheld, but 'utterly without comprehension. Not the least singular circumstance as to this book is its publication in Eome by authority, as a recommendable guide for Pilgrims, a.d. 1470 ! 8 nisTonic and monumental eome. To tlic same class of writings coloured by phantasy, with- out any basement of knowledge, pertain the Travels of Benjamin Tudela, a Eabbi, arriving here about a.d. 1173, and who (an Israelite in heart and soul) sees Jerusalem, her destinies, her memories, reflected in the whole world. He entertains us with an account of 80 palaces built by as many emperors at this wonderful city ! In his eyes the Maxentian Circus is the Palace of Titus, which that Em- peror was obliged to build at such extramural distance, on account of the disgrace incurred by him for not having taken Jerusalem in two years, but (contrary to senatorial orders) spent three years on the enterprise of that siege. Martinus Polonus (a Polish Bishop of Cosenza), in a chronicle written about a.d. 1320, retails many legends from the Mirabilia, and (a strange mistake in the pages of one who could report from ocular inspection) hazards the statement that the circuit of Rome's walls measured 42 miles! On occasion of the first Jubilee, appointed by Boniface VIII. 1300, Dante arrived here as envoy of the Florentine Eepublic ; but the sojourn left few traces on his immortal page, — if "in his mind— other than a bitter hostility against that Pontiff, whom, however, he is gene- rous enough reverentially to pity for the cruel wrongs suffered by him at the hands of the myrmidons hired by Philip le Bel. Eeminiscences of spectacular occasions — the splendours of the Lateran — the thronging of Pilgrims on the S. An- gelo bridge, and the exposition of the Volio Santo at S. Peter's, are all that relates to Home in other passages of the ^^JDivina Commedia,'* where Boniface, or some other reprobated Pope, is not in question. Dante remembers Rome as the metropolis of the Church and the seat of the spiritual power whose corruptions he denounces. The more genial and impressionable Petrarch, whose ILLUSTEATIVE IITERATUBE. 9 visit to Eome for his coronation on the Capitol, a.d. 1341, was the second occasion on which he saw this city, gives most interesting records of his thoughts and feelings, whilst here, in his Latin Letters. There, in many delightful pages, we have the pleasure at last of contemplating the reflex (so to say) of monumental Eome in a richly gifted intellect— one of those " with mind that sheds a light on all it sees" — who lost nothing of the Present and appre- ciated all in the Past. This eminently representative man of his time accepted every thing in the range of mediaeval belief, whilst far above the level of contemporary intelligence. His enthu- siasm alike warms among the ruins of the Porum and on the site where, as he repeats the legend of the Ara Cceli church, Augustus beheld the vision of the Virgin Mother and Divine Child, interpreted by the oracular Sibyl ! Nor does he doubt the tradition that the Temple of Peace (meaning the Basilica of Constantine) was preternaturally overthrown — one part at least sinking into sudden decay, of which neither time nor earthquake was the cause— at the advent of the true Prince of Peace ! It is pleasant to accompany Petrarch on his long walks through this then depopulated city, as in the evening hours, when he used to ascend the vaulted roofs of the Diocletian Thermae, thence to contemplate the wide prospect of neglected antiquities, or while away the time in talk with a congenial companion on ancient and modern History, or on Philosophy and Eeligion. But even this Child of Grenius, disposed as he is to see the brighter side of the picture, does not shut his eyes to lamentable realities — the ignorance and social degradation here too evident during the sojourn of the Papal Court at Avignon. " Who (he asks) are at this day more ignorant of Eome than the Komans ? Unwillingly do I say it — nowhere is Eome luss 10 HISTOEIO AND MONUMENTAL HOME, known of than at Rome." Sec also liis eloquent appeal, addressed, a.d. 13G2, to Urban V., urging liini to restore the Holy See to its ancient metropolis. A mournful pic- ture of the desolation and anarchy here prevailing at that period is found in the contemporary life of Cola di Eienzo, edited by Muratori, and later (with valuable annotations) by Zefferino Ee. Interesting and graphic report of what took place in Home during the Jubilee year, 1350, is given as well by that anonymous writer as by the younger Vil- lani ; and for further particulars of the deplorable social state in the XIV. century, we may consult, in Muratori, the chronicler Monaldeschi, who describes what he had seen within Eome's walls. On the 17th January, 137.7, Pope Gregory XI. made his solemn entry into Eome, restoring the Papal residence to the Capital abandoned by its sovereign Priests during 72 years. Nothing could have surpassed the pomps or enthusiasm of his reception ; for, amid whatever depression and gloom, the Church could always command the homage of magnifi- cence. As to this festive occasion we have a very curious report, " Itinerarium Gregorii XI," in somewhat ponder- ous Latin verse by an eye-witness, Amelius Alectensis, a prelate who rode in the Papal procession which entered by the Ostian gate early on the morning of that day. The long cavalcade could not reach the silent halls of the Vatican (henceforth the residence preferred to the ruinous Lateraa Palace) till the hour of Complines, that is, after Vespers. The XV. century was one of progress, promoted by new and potent influences in almost every walk. Yet at the beginning of this epoch one chronicler describes this City as so desolate that she resembled rather a village of cowherds than a civilized metropolis ! This was during the long Kchism of the Antipopes, eventually put down by the ILLUSTRATIVE LTTEllATURE. 11 jaiemoralble Council of Constance, a.d. 1414. The fall of the Byzantine Empire drove away many exiled Greeks, and among them many savans, to seek refuge in the AVest, thus contributing to revive the studies of classical literature and appreciation for the intellect of antiquity. Such Popes as Martin V., Nicholas Y., and Pius II., must be remembered among benefactors of their age and metropolis. In 1467 was issued the first printed book from a Eoman press, namely, the " Pamiliar Epistles " of Cicero ; but the German typographers, who opened that establish- ment here, had already brought out an edition of Lactantius at Subiaco. The writer first claiming notice in the walk I am now considering, at this period, is Elavio Biondo, engaged between 1431 and 1447 in investigating and describing Eoman and Italian antiquities, the fruit of which labours is contained in his " Soma Eestaurata" and " Italia Illustrata." In the first of those volumes we become acquainted with the then condition of monuments, many of which have since vanished, or been so maltreated that, as they now rise before us, they are but the shadows of a shade compared with the picture presented to us in Biondo's pages. Ciriaco of Ancona, who came to this city first in 1424, afterwards (in the suite of the Emperor Sigismund) in 1433, was almost the first Italian traveller w^ho made the search for, and collecting of, antiques a primary object. He has left in a Latin Itinerary some gleanings obtained (not indeed very copious) by those labours on his diligent journeys. Another learned traveller, Ambrogio Traversari, the beatified Eather- General of the Camaldulese Order, wrote a most curious work under the pedantic title of " Hodeporicon," describing his official visits to monasteries, and the state in which he found them, both in the Eoman and Tuscan provinces, a.d. 1432. Next in order of date appears a distinguished savant. 12 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. Poggio Braccioliui, the Florentine secretary to Nicholas v., and author (besides many other works) of the " Do Varietate Fortunae " (about a.d. 1447), which commences impressively with meditations on the fate of Empires, suggested by the scene before him as he sat thoughtful on the Capitoline Hill, where the Tabularium, still so con- spicuous and majestic in ruin, was then utilized as a salt magazine. His testimony is valuable, for his brief allusions inform us with regard to the actual state of decay and the deliberate injuries inflicted on the monumental wealth of this city. Pomponio Leto, another protegS of Nicholas v., succeeded in reviving theatrical performances here, on a stage with classical sock and buskin, where were produced comedies of Terence and Plautus, in prelatic palaces. The same writer contributed a Latin treatise (but meagre indeed) on the local antiquities. The learned Platina, librarian of the Vatican under Sixtus IV., produced the first comparatively modem biographic work on the Popes, carried down to his own time, a.d. 1471 ; and though far from a discriminating — sometimes indeed an amusingly credulous historian — his account of ecclesiastical buildings and restorations adds to the interest of his still celebrated work. The social conditions of Eome towards the end of this century are displayed in occasional glimpses through the tissue of court details and scandals, compiled by two chamberlains of the Vatican, Infessura and Burckhart, — both apparently accurate in their elaborately minute diaries; but it is suspected that the one by Burckhart, chamberlain to Alexander VI., has been interpolated so as to make the picture (if possible) darker than the original. Belevant to this social picture is one fact here stated, that between the last illness of Innocent VIII. and the election of his successor, Alexander VI. an interval of seventeen days (July to August 1492), were perpetrated in this holy city 220 assassinations ! ILLUSTRATIVE LITEEATURE. 13 Before turning from the XV. century, I may recommend an admirable illustration of monumental Eome at this period, due not to the pen but to the pencil, by Giuliano Giamberti (better known as Sangallo), a series of drawings, ably executed, a.d. li(55, and now to be seen in the Barberini Library. In the XVI. century we may hail with pleasure the new developments of archaeology as an organised science, resting on (or at least beginning to find) a firm basis of evidences and learning, but still far from the accuracy since attained. Nowhere more than at this centre was encouraged the spirit of that renaissance which led to results beyond all that could have been anticipated by the Popes. Among writings of the class I have to notice, now appear the several descriptions of the City and her Mirabilia by Eafiaele Maff'ei (1506), by Andrea Fulvio (1527) etc., tho " Discourses " on Antiquity by Scamozzi ; also, more im- portant, the " Topography of Kome" (Latin) by Marliani — the first to cast aside untenable tradition and pedantry, the first to illustrate his text by engravings. Another such work, Antichitd di Boma^ by Lucio Mauro, is furnished with an Appendix by Aldroandi on the statues then extant here— the earliest notice of such art relics, scattered over public and private buildings at this period. Two architects who describe Eoman antiquities at about the same time, are Bernardo Gamucci (1552) and Pirro Ligorio, the latter being one of those professionally engaged at St. Peter's. Designs, which are more to be relied upon than his text, illustrate the volume by Ligorio, many of whose theories might raise a smile ; yet amid much wild guess-work, he sometimes lights upon a truth confirmed by later authorities. One of his strangest fantasies is that which absolutely translocates the Eoman Forum, and places the Mamertine Prisons among the ruins of the three 14 nisTonic akd monumental home. temples over which stands the Church of S. Niccolo in Carcere ! and this after promising, in a chapter well en-' titled " Paradoxes," to rescue the whole world from the darkness of antiquarian error ! Raphael's memoir, addressed to Leo X., on the means of preserving or restoring classic monuments, is a precious, though brief, document ; and the Libro dell* Architettura by Labaco, director of antiquarian researches under that pontificate, is also valuable. A learned Dominican, Leandro Alberti, compiled with much diligence an antiquarian and historical description of all Italy — its cities, monuments, " mountains, lakes, rivers, fountains, baths, mines, and all the marvellous works of Nature here displayed" — as his quaint preface sets forth. This work seems to me the best of its description hitherto produced ; and it is remarkable that, ages before Niebuhr, this erudite monk disputes the claim of Somulus to be con- sidered the Founder of Rome, assuming far higher anti- quity for the Boma quadrata on the Palatine, which ho thinks must have given its name to, and not received it from, that hero, whose very existence has since been doubted ! Onofrio Panvinio, a very learned Augustinian, commenced (about 1550) a colossal work on E-ome's Ancient History — " Antiquae Urbis*[mago," which he did not live to finish, but which must be prized even in its fragmentary state ; and in another work, a Latin description of the Seven Roman Basilicas, we may appreciate his learning in sacred archaeology. In 1588 appeared the Stazioni di Roma by TJgonio ; and in 1600 the most complete account of the Christian as distinct from the Pagan metropolis — I mean, the Tesori Nascosti ("Hidden Treasures of the August City ") by Ottavio Pancirolli. More important was the publication, in 1586, of the first volume of the great work, ILLUSTRATIVE LITEEA.TTJRE. 15 finiBlied in 1605, by Cardinal Cesare Baronio, which won for him the designation: " Father of Ecclesiastical History." Its incorrectnesses have been pointed out, its merits fully recognised. The striking presentment of facts, the vast accumulation of antiquarian evidences in this work entitle it to its high place ; and he who desires mentally to behold and estimate the most eventful eras of mediaeval Rome, as laid before us in this History of the Church up to the year 1198, should not fail to study Baronius. The last antiquarian work I have to notice within the XVI. century, is that by the sculptor Flaminio Yacca (1594), whose off-hand notes, mostly jotted down from personal observation, were not intended for publicity, and are therefore the more welcome, being spontaneous, simple, and free from all attempts at rhetoric. In those pages we learn the extent to which Eoman antiquities had been de- spoiled and classic statuary dispersed through ignorance, or avarice, before the years in which Elaminio Yacca wrote. Arrived at the epoch of great religious struggles, we find this illustrative literature still keeping the even tenor of its way, undisturbed by polemic tempests. Every imaginable battery of attack was directed against the " Niobe of Na- tions," yet none of her foes could affect to despise her, — that being impossible. Even among all the tragic shocks suffered by her in the stormy past, nothing can be paralleled to the hideous Saturnalia of atrocity and license in the siege, sack, and massacre by the mercenary troops of Bourbon, who fought under the banner of the Catholic Emperor Charles Y., and here achieved their diabolical victory on the 6th May, 1527. The terrific sequel to their ingress on that day is described by two eye-witnesses, by Benvenuto Cellini in his charac- teristic and amusingly vain autobiography, and by a writer known under the name of Jacopo Buonaparte, but supposed 16 HISTORIC AWD MONUMENTAL EOME. to bo no other than the historian Guicciardini, who was hero at the time. In 1510 arrived in Kome a German Auguatinian Friar, who laterwards became celebrated as Dr. Martin Luther. Even he saw something to praise in this City — especially the severities of the police, who used strongly to patrol at night, and summarily hang, or drown in the Tiber, suspicious persons found with arms in their hands about the streets. Classical ruins spoke not to the mind of that Saxon Re- former, who has only to say (mark the elegance of the simile !) that he saw such things piled up as high as three spears of a German LanzTcnecJit — see Storia Documentata di Carlo Fl, by De Leva, for particulars of this biographical episode. Eabelais, that Prince of Buffoons, describes his visit here, and his presentation to Clement YII. under a veil of comic allegory, indicating, without even naming, this City of Churches and church bells, as VIsle Sonnante — see his " Pantagruel," which sheds the gall of intensest sarcasm over everything. Ariosto does not describe, but rather satirizes the Roman life of his day ; and Machiavelli (in his Legazioni) gives attention to political aspects alone. Montaigne, a sceptic too calmly philosophical to be illiberal in any cause, makes us feel interested in his Italian travels during 1580. He allows that Rome, in spite of many deficiencies, is a pleasant place, though without a single respectable street of shops like those in Paris ! Crossing the Campagna, he sees only a repulsive and dreary solitude, but finds the aqueducts worth noticing. As to local anti- quities in general, he observes (I translate his words): " that " those who say the Huins of Rome are here before us, " afiirm too much — for it is, in fact, her Sepulchre that we " behold J the world, weary of her dominion, having broken ILLUSTRATIVE LITERATUEE. 17 " up and reduced to dust that wonderful body, which man- " kind hastened to bury, fearing to contemplate her even " when dead and prostrate !" To the same century belongs (though later published) one of the most truly monumental historic works ever pro- duced, and of the highest value for the illustration and study of Christian Kome, its institutions, the pontificate, the lives and characters of Popes and Cardinals : Vitce et IRes GestcG Fontijicum Bomanorum et S. R. E. Cardinalium, by Alfonso Ciaconius, a Spanish Dominican who, being sent by his monastic superiors to Rome, was here promoted to the Patriarchate of Alexandria, and died in this city, a.d. 1601, in the 59th year of his age. He left his great work to be finished by his nephew, who published it in two folio volumes, 1601-1602. An enlarged edition was commenced by Wadding, and completed by Yitorelli, 1630. Finally appeared from a E-oman press, ] 676, in the fully developed form in which we now possess it, the work in four folios, carried down to the pontificate of Clement IX., through the labours of the continuators of Ciaconius, the above- named Yitorelli, Ughelli, Martinelli, Oldoini, a Jesuit, and Becillo, an Oratorian priest. Here we find not only the biographies, but the most important documents, bulls and briefs issued by the several Popes, engravings from their coins, and from the monuments originally erected to them, many of which have been destroyed or dispersed. In many instances the continuators are content to supply comments or amplifications to the text of the learned Dominican. In the XVII. century appears a new and very interest- ing form of antiquarian literature, in which the religious aspect is dwelt on almost exclusively ; in which the Metro- polis of the Church almost effaces her Pagan predecessor, and all the monuments of the Heathen Empire became dim in the shadow of the Cross. This direction of mind and 18 HISTOBIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. study becomes couapicuous in the local literature — a result of great changes after great conflicts, and affording proof that agitations which shake society to its depths have their beneficial consequence in intellectual spheres. Eemarkable indeed was the devotional spirit, the elevation of tone attained since the semi- Paganized age of the Medici had been held up to highest admiration, and left long lingering influences. Next to the able work on Sacred ArchsBology by Pan- cirolli, above mentioned, was brought out (1632) the first complete illustration of the Christian Cemeteries, called Catacombs, so far as then known or accessible, Boma Sotteranea, edited by Severano from the MSS. left by the indefatigable Bosio (a Maltese), who spent thirty years in exploring those hypogaea, but was prevented by death (in 1600) from publishing the fruit of his courageous labours. This posthumous work was afterwards amplified in a Latin version by Arringhi, of deserved repute. Boma ex Ethnica Sacra (" Eome from Heathen made Sacred "), by MartineUi (1653), is a small volume full of matter, that Bcrves to keep the promise of its title, most carefully com- piled. A similar aim is pursued, with feeling and learning, by Marangoni in his Cose Gentilesche e Profane (which may be translated as " Profane and Heathen Objects applied to the uses of the Church"), being in fact a study on the external relationships and interior contrasts between Pagan and Christian Worship. A work by the same author, *' Sacred and Profane Memories of the Plavian Amphi- theatre," may intensify our interest (even after we have read all subsequent contributions on this theme) in the marvels and vicissitudes of the Colosseum. Later appeared several important works on sacred archi- tecture, considered with regard to liturgic applications and as an expression of faith, the De Sacris JEdificiis, and Monu- ILLUSTEATIVE LTTEEATURE. 19 menfa Vetera by Ciampini, referring to the principal basilicas and other old churches, as well those of Eome as of Eavenna. Among the many monographs illustrative of particular churches, and profusely supplied from the Eoman press, may be distinguished those on the Lateran and >S'. Maria in Cosmedin, by Crescimbuci, that by Mgr. Nicolai on the Ostian Basilica, and, by Padre Casimiri, the history of Franciscan churches and convents in the Papal States. Among many volumes of which St. Peter's is the subject, its " grotte " (or crypt-church) is ably illustrated in two works by Dionisi and Torrigio ; its more modern buildings by Fontana and Cancellieri — the former of whom tells us that up to 1694 had been spent on that Basilica the sum of 46,800,000 scudi. The series of complete studies, pro- duced in adequate form, on classic Eoman antiquities, scarcely begins before this period ; and the Boma Vetus ac ^' \ believe, out of print. "With better success \Yore set on foot^ C \^ V' 30 niSTORTC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. two other publications, like the former for weekly IsBue : the Memorie di Belle Arti and Monumenti Inediti, the latter kept up for several years by the Abbate Guattani, who has been called the " Father of modern guide books," owing to his descriptive and useful work upon Eome, 1805, the first on a plan like (yet unlike) that of such manuals of later date. Other literature, not referring so much to monuments themselves as to their effect on feeling or imagination, had its birth towards the end of the last century ; and at about the same time appears that taste for idealizing descrip- tion peculiar to the Eomantic School. Few writers had hitherto expressed that poetic feeling for the solemnity of ruins, which craves an answer to thought or an accord with the emotions of the soul in their desolate grandeur ; nor was the mind of the age yet familiar with anything like the fourth Canto of Childe Harold, or any such refinements of sentiment as are eloquently uttered in Corinne. The first work of this tendency, and of the class alluded to, is the Notti JRomane, by Count Alessandro Verri, who was inspired for his task by the discovery, in 1 780, of the long forgotten sepulchre of the Scipios on the Appian "Way. Never, perhaps, did an author imagine for himself a grander situation than does Verri in communing with (as he describes), and escorting over the historic sites of their earthly experiences, even into the penetralia of the Vatican, the spirits of Rome's great ones — rulers, sages, bards, and warriors — who in the silence of midnight appear to him, in fitful gleams of mysterous light, amidst the dark recesses of that cavernous tomb, thence to revisit those scenes where they desire to learn the deep lessons of the • historic drama evolved since they made their exit from life's stage in the Eternal City. The conception is fine, but the execution of this work inferior. Awe-striking and poetic ILLUSTRATIYE LITERATURE. 31 ghost stories are au offspring of northern, not southern, fantasy. The shadowy Dramatis Personce of the " Notti '* remind us of spectres on the stage — too rhetorical for the supernatural, too erudite in discourse to impress as awful or spirit-like— yet, with whatever defects, Verri's work bears the stamp of a cultivated, fervid, and religious mind. After the subsidence of the political convulsions amidst which the XVIII. century expired, the speedy reappearance of the same theme in the literary arena aifords striking proof of the enduring power in its attractiveness. Dynasties passed ; ideas changed even more than did governments ; but the charm that draws so potently towards this centre still acts as in ages passed. "Within the limits to which I must confine myself, I can but glance at the intellectual revolution in antiquarian literature (brought about within comparatively recent years) which has led to rejection of almost all theories respecting the origin, dates, even designa- tions of the temples and other ruins in Rome. The importance of the proofs supplied, and the dates attested, by construction had been hitherto almost ignored by archaeologists. One work of the present century which I may mention, the German *• Description of Eome " by Bunsen and other celebrated collaborators (who concentrate, and reproduce with new colouring what is best in almost all the writings I have named) supplies statistics of this Illustrative Litera- ture, up to the date (some thirty-five years ago) when that Beschreibung appeared. On the Topography of this City had been produced enough to fill 10 folio volumes ; on the Christian Antiqui- ties (without including the many monographs on particular churches) enough for 20 folios ; on the Art Collections (ex- clusive of guides and notices of the Vatican Museum) enough for 40 — in all, 70 folio volumes relating to Rome ! 32 nisTonic and monumental rome, It is melancholy to observe, in glancing over this wide range, how much fruit of toil and learning has been almost forgotten— owing (I believe) to the failure, on the part of many writers, to concentrate regards on general and per- manent interests in their antiquarian pursuits. As other Sciences seek the vestiges of creation in the cosmic universe, the Archaeological should seek, as its paramount aim, the traces of moral and intellectual life in relics of the far-off Past. Unless the studious find such treasure hidden in the dust of Empires their labour is thrown away, and they remain, like those described by Wordsworth — " Lost in a gloom of uninspired research." The dawn of the XIX. century found this city im- mersed in disastrous confusion and social evils of every kind, though just beginning to recover from the first shocks of a revolutionary onset, by which all its institutions and sys- tems, political and ecclesiastical, had been overthrown. The Papal See had been vacant since the death, in exile and captivity at Valence, of the much-tried octogenarian Pontiff", Pius VI. Pew among the historic vicissitudes which have caused the " ancestral fabrics of the world" to sink down in ruin, seem so awful as the almost instantaneous collapse before the aggressive spirit of revolt, unbelief, an- tagonism against all that was ancient and time-honoured, at this centre so especially the home of venerated tradition and conservative principle. The banner which waved over the Vatican and the S. Angelo Castle in the year 1800, symbolized Atheism and Regicide ; and the triumph had been rendered bloodless only through the utter inability to resist. A reaction, however, against Prench ascendancy in this peninsula had recovered Rome for the Pontificate, but a few days before the deposed Pope's decease, and a Neapoli- ILLUSTBATIVE LTTEEATUEE. 33 tan force occupied this city, whilst provisional government was proclaimed in the name of King Ferdinand on be- half of the sacerdotal sovereignty. Not long afterwards was welcomed with exulting joy the ingress of one of the most estimable among those who have worn the tiara — Pius VII., who was elected in the monastery of St. Giorgio at Venice, 14th March, 1800. At this period the social state of Eome was perhaps more exceptional, compared with that of other European capitals, than at any time subsequent — though indeed the abnormal has been more or less the characteristic condition of the metropolis of the Church at all times ; presenting a picture full of strongest contrasts, splendour and rudeness, superfluous luxuries and deficiency in the common com- forts, not to say the decencies of life. Munificence in public works, it is true, had signalized the very long ponti- ficate of the sixth Pius. Learned societies and intentionally poetical accademie, (" Arcadians" and others), were in full bloom ; but as to the literature entitled for any endurano«, it was but in one walk that it showed signs of life here — the Archaeological, which indeed has never suspended its activities in Eome. The citizens were pleasure-loving frequenters of the cafe, and eager to enjoy fetes of whatever description. They had glimpses, though not very often (at least through official channels), of the great world beyond the Campagna and beyond the Alps ; for political journalism had now an infant existence among the Eomans — a tiny Diario di Roma having begun its career, for weekJy publication, in 1710. Eeligious celebrations were at this period most splendid ; and public amusements various, though not exactly con- formable to modern tastes — as the bull and buffalo baiting, (since prohibited) in the mausoleum of Augustus. On the stage (as in the days of Shakespeare) female characters ^ OF THE '^ UNIVERSITY 34 niSTOBIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. were acted by beardless youths. A change of circumstances, rather than opinions, had led to the discontinuing of the Passion Play, or Tragedy of the Crucifixion, with chorus and music, which used to be performed on G-ood Fridays in the Colosseum. Experienced writers, of most different taste and temper, mainly agree in what they tell us about Eome in the last century. We may learn from Goethe, Goldoni, Alfieri, from the dissipated Casanuova, the scientific Lalande, and our countryman, Beckford, as well as our countrywoman, the vivacious Lady Mary "Wortley Montague, many curious details of its social life and local peculiarities. The first of the successive spoliations by which France, republican and imperial, enriched herself at the expense of Italy, was inflicted on Eome and the Papal Government on occasion of the armistice forced on the acceptance of Pope Pius VI. in 1796, when the Pontifl" had to pay 15 million francs, to cede 100 MS. codes from the Vatican library, and 100 works of art, pictures and sculptures, from museums. In the February of 1797 was negotiated the treaty of Tolentino, which obliged the Pope to cede Bologna, Perrara, Ancona, the whole of Eomagna, also Avignon and its county (Venissin) to France ; and in the next year the "Tiberine Eepublic," under French ascendancy, was proclaimed at Eome. As to the condition of monuments and classical ruins in this city at the beginning of the present century, we have the evidence of old engravings and a few illustrated books. Temples and triumphal arches were, in great part, buried under ground ; columns, up to half or two-thirds the height of their shafts, concealed by the accumulated soil or debris. In the Vatican and other museums 100 master-pieces of art, including 80 sculptures, and in the library of that palace, 500 precious MSS. were missing,— the spoils carried off to ILLUSTRATVE LITERATUIIE. 35 Paris, from whence not more than 22 of the 3000 pictures taken from galleries in Eome and the Pontific States, ever found their way back to this city. During the few years that Pius YII. was left undisturbed on his throne, he showed interest in classical monuments and fine art ; passed a law against the exportation of antiques and art-works ; created a fund yielding 10,000 scudi per annum, for the purchase of objects to enrich galleries and museums — applicable, as finally determined, to the repair of churches and monuments. He also ordered excavations round the arches of Severus and Constantino, at Ostia and Tusculum. It was in vain that this Pontiff travelled to Paris to pro- pitiate and crown the Conqueror bent on further conquests. The next ensuing vicissitudes are well known : before the Pope's exile, 1809-14, the Eoman States were annexed to the Prench Empire. Soon afterwards, at the dawn of a July morning, 1809, Pius YII. was carried away with violence, after the military seizure and escalade of the Quirinal Palace, to remain for five years in captivity. How- ever unjust and unscrupulous, the usurping government in power at Eome during his absence acted with vigour and intelligence in the sphere of antiquarian research and civic embellishment. Now began to disappear certain mediaeval characteristics of a city which, up to this date, did not possess the luxury of illumination at night, nor streets that were named saved by popular usage, nor houses numbered in those dismal streets, nor public gardens or promenades. More remarkable is the impulse given, and subsequently acted on with similar plans or projects by the restored Pontificate (thus taking a lesson from its victorious foe), in the range of public works and for archaeologic interests. The sudden breaking up and dislocating of the social system, during the Prench occupation, caused an extent of misery described as appalling. In order to save multitudes of d2 36 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. every class from extreme want, the foreign authorities or- ganised an institution of Beneficence, providing work and daily pittances of food to all applicants. Hence, and witli method evidently determined by taste and knowledge many desirable undertakings were proposed and carried out. Excavating labours on the Capitol and on the several Fora laid open to their basements the buried columns anc arches. To an English Duchess we owe the full display and iden- tification of the column dedicated to the Greek Emperor Phocas, a detestable tyrant. Other works now disencum- bered the triumphal arches ; obtained access to the labyrintl] of subterranean cells and corridors under the arena of the Colosseum ; also laid open the wide space around Trajan's column, where we now look down upon the attempted res- toration and stunted shafts of the TJlpian Basilica. The Pincian Hill, hitherto, with exception of the Medici Villa, (a fashionable, frequented spot) all covered with en- closures and orchards (dangerous to travel by night,) was transformed into a public promenade. Other such grounds for recreation were planted with trees on the northern slopes of the Coelian. All these plans were adopted, and much that had been left incomplete was finished, after the return of Pius VII,, who re-entered his capital, with restored sovereignty and popular rejoicing, 24th May, 1814. Under his Pontificate the transformation of Eome continued. The southern declivity of the Capitol, where were now discovered the substructions of the Temple of Concord, the principal Forum and that of Trajan, the restored arch of Titus, the Pincian gardens and their architectonic terraces above the Piazza del Popolo — all these scenes and objects still present to us proofs of well-directed activity under that excellent Pope, and also of the beneficial influences, the ILLUSTEATIVE LTTEEATURE. 37 seeds for civilising fruit, left in this classic ground by Erencli ascendancy under tlie first Empire. Tli,e restored Pope left many traces of his well directed cares ; for to him we owe the first systematic repair of the Colosseum, pursued continuously by his successors ; also the Protomotheca of the Capitol, and the splendidly enriched Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican Museum, commenced in 1847, the year after a great act of justice, had been demanded and carried out, through restoration to Italy of her lost art works, now sent back (though not without considerable deductions) from Paris. Similar enterprise and intelligence were shown (though with less eminent results) in the shorter Pontificates next ensuing, Leo XII. (1823-29) spent 24,000 scudi on res- torations, &c., at the Lateran Basilica, and enjoined on all bishops to urge the faithful to concur with offerings for the restoration of St. Paul's, after the fire in 1823 which reduced it to ruins. That Basilica is the subject of one of those valuable monographs, in which so many of Eome's ancient churches are studiously illustrated, by Mgr. Niccolai. Its restoration exemplifies the spirit, the de- votedness to ideal and traditionary interests, of the Pontific government, which (with embarrassed finances) long con- tinued to spend 50,000 scudi per annum on the works, though in no way necessary for religious uses or even popular worship, at a church which, in fact, serves only as a monument, a splendid sanctuary over the Apostle's tomb, visited but on a few anniversaries by crowds who assemble rather to gaze than to pray within its walls. In Leo XII.'s time was projected, what we now rejoice to see on its way to accomplishment, the reducing of the entire Eorum to its original level. Pius YIII. reigned too short a time (19 months) for leaving traces of his good intentions in the state or localities of Eome. 38 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL KOME. Gregory XVI., elected in February, 1S32, amidst political tempests very threatening to his throne, loved and patron- ized the fine arts ; founded three Museums, the Etruecan, the Egyptiaii, and that of Antique Sculpture at the Lateran ; also added to the Christian Museum in the Vatican the only valuable collection of mediaeval paintings in Eome. Excavations now proceeded with some activity. In earlier ages antiquarian interests in the monumental range were occasionally promoted, habitually neglected, and sometimes remorselessly outraged by the Popes. The primitive (and not unnatural) bias of the Sacerdotal Power was to break up, or appropriate, classical antiques as trophies of the Church over Heathenism. Thus did Sixtus V. re-erect obelisks to place the Cross, set with relics, at their apexes. If excavations or repairs were attempted, consecutiveness and consistency were wanting. At the present time we may congratulate ourselves on the impossibility, for the future, of such demolitions as that of the Temple of Pallas, (in Nerva's Eorum) to supply marbles for a fountain, or of such vaunting records as that on the Pantheon, in which a Pope takes credit to himself for stripping the noble portico of its bronzes, that they might be cast into cannon for the St. Angelo fortress, and in part used for a cumbrous canopy over the high altar of St. Peter's. I have allowed myself this (perhaps too long) episode to the special subject now before me — the Literature illustrative of Rome — because so great a change as I have noticed in the action of the Pontificate concerning antiquarian and monumental things, forms a memorable fact in the history of that Power ; also because the results of such newly directed energies have to a great degree altered the base- ment, whilst enlarging the field, of the studies and speculation to which that literature is devoted. Before ILLUSTRATIVE LITEEATFEE. 39 mentioning other contributions, I may name a few works which bring before us the picture of Koman realities at this transitionary period : the "Utudes statistiques sur Some et les Mats Pontijlcaux ,'' by Tournon, an official under French Government, who supplies much more than merely statistic details as promised ; also the Memoir of Cardinal Pacca, Secretary of State, and companion in exile to Pius yil., and the interesting biographies of that Pontiff and his successor, Leo XII., by Artaud, Secretary of the Erench Legation in Eome. "When peace and order were for an interval restored to the Seven Hills with their ancient government in 1800, archaeological literature (never totally suspended here, save at great political crises) assumed somewhat novel forms. The Memorie di Belle Arti and Monumenti Inediti, were perio- dicals which, some time before that period, had begun to appear weekly — the latter not only edited but entirely writ- ten by the Abate Gruattani, who has been called the " Father of modern guide books," having won that title by his Boma Descritta (published in 1805), a carefully compiled work, though not very like the manuals of later birth now in con- stant use. Most striking, in Guattani's above-named volume, is the opening passage, where he describes the grand pano- rama viewed from the summit of Trajan's Column. Other writers continued to maintain reputation of earlier origin — as the two Abbati Fea and Cancellieri. The long literary career of the former extends from 1790 to 1836 ; the num- ber of his brochures, reports, &c., on antiquarian matters, amounting to no fewer than 118. The latter, almost as active, Cancellieri, has left 161 published and 79 inedited works, treating of his favourite themes, — ecclesiastical, traditionary, and historic — in short, of all things pertaining to and centering around Eome. But highest among competitors stands the distinguished scholar and critic, 40 HISTOmC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. Eunio Quirino Visconti, who commenced in 1785 that series of delightful works on classic sculptures and the Iconogra- phy of Greek and Roman antiquity, which are not, nor ever can be, forgotten. Between 1800 and 1804 appeared the well illustrated volumes by the Abate TJggeri, (in Erench and Italian), Journees Pittoresques des Edifices de Home, and Journees des Environs de Home, with plans and outline engravings of monuments (in a restored, not the then actually ruinous, condition) ; also including ancient churches ; the descriptive text commendable and interesting; one volume treating of the materials used in the construction of ancient build- ings — among the first attempts I know of, to make such details serve as basement for conclusions, on the method carried out to fuller extent by Mr. J. H. Parker. During the French occupation was resuscitated the Roman Archcsologic Academy, founded in the XV. century by Pomponio Leto, but soon suppressed by Pope Paul II., who took alarm at certain platonic tendencies he deemed anti-christian, in the intellectual temper of its members. Pius VII. not only sanctioned, but liberally endowed this academy; and its periodical " Memorie " continued long to supply valuable contributions from writers of mark, as the above-named Visconti, Antonio I^ibby, and the illustrious Cardinal Mai. The exaggerated and idealizing estimate of ancient Greek and Eoman Eepublicanism, as alike of all emanating there- from, fostered by the Eevolution, was succeeded by a more temperate and calm, yet still enthusiastic, appreciation. And this tendency is now represented by writers in our language, whose reminiscences of Italy and of classic art in Italian galleries or palaces, still prove delightful and in- structive. Among the first of this class, and still remem- bered, as he deserves; is the learned and tastefully critical ILLUSTRATIVE LITEEATURE. 41 Forsyth, who agreeably dwells on the recollections of a two years' residence (1801-3) in Italian cities. Chetwode Eustace in his " Classical Tour " (1802) worthily fulfils hi» promise, linking the memories of ancient history, the images and sentiments of Latin poetry, with every attractive site in the cities, villages, the solitary ruins and majestic tombs of Italy. Matthews's "Diary of an Invalid" (1817), and Bell's " Observations on Italy," are both works evincing highly cultivated minds, possessed of a deep feeling and appreciation for art. Seldom does tourist literature make good any titles to enduring fame; but in reference to Eome, and to Italian regions generally, the exceptions ar& not few. Among such are the genial and entertaining Voyages, well defined on their title page as "literary, histo- ric, and artistic," by Valery ; also the same French writer's CuriosiUs et Anecdotes Italiennes; and the Voyages dans Latium, by Bonstatten, which dwell on sad and wretched social realities of the Present, amidst the memories and relics of the ever attractive Past ; also the Toscane et Bome (more recent), by Poujoulat. We should not forget Miss Eaton's " Eome in the XIX century," nor Lady Morgan, whose " Italy" (1819-20) con- tains much that had better not have been written ; but at the same time many curious particulars respecting a period of violent and bigoted reaction against Eepublican revolution and French Imperialism ; vivacity of style, and a generous love for freedom in its alliance with civil progress, giving a charm to this as to other works by that brilliant lady. Here I may notice some contributions of later date: the Promenades dans Home, by Beyle, who takes the nom de plume of Stendhal ; and the " Six Months in Italy " by Hillard, whose genial discursive mind will, we may be 'sure, win the appreciation of enduring popularity for his volumes. 42 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. The crimes and tempests of the great Bevolution were followed by other reactionary influences, the fruit of which we see in the literature of the ensuing period. Hence arose, a birth of modern feeling, the new Komantic School, expressing sentiments excited by the solemnity of ruin and by the memories of the remote Past, without at all enter- ing into antiquarian questions. We may suppose that the weariness of politics, and perhaps the abhorrence against political crime, contributed to induce many minds to seek refuge, with hope for refined pleasure, in an intellectual world far apart from that troubled stage where so much of evil, such dramas of ambition, had been recently enacted. Impressions of awe, or fascinating melancholy, received from the contemplation of the ruin or the tomb, now found utterance, — a voice speaking of new tendencies and of mental culture little known in previous times. Neither the classically antique, nor earlier modern writers, accord with this literary bias and spirit. A deeply felt sense of the mystery in man's career on earth enters into the tendency now manifesting itself, into the disposition which regarded the monuments of Antiquity rather with emotion than with scientific interest. To this sense all the precincts of classical and mediaeval ruin become hallowed ground. An eminent representative of this school, and first in order of date, is Chateaubriand, whose impressions of Eome and its environs (in 1803) — see particularly his letter to M. do Fontaines — are recorded in pages among the most characteristic written by him. Never yet had the Colos- seum, the Campagua, the Villa of Hadrian near Tivoli, been so glorified by musical eloquence as in those pages. Next comes the most gifted woman yet known in the arena of any literature, Madame de Stael, who wrought up in her " Corinne" the reminiscences of a journey undertaken to beguile sorrow in 180i, and the secondary title of which ILLUSTRATIVE LITEEATUEE. 43 work, •" L'ltiilie," is the best index to its proper subject, at least tbat which forms its groundwork — namely, the feel- ings and thoughts awakened hy this land — most of all by Rome. The many local incorrectnesses in that book are the errors of the archaeologists of her time, rather than her own. Throughout this biographic romance nothing is so evident as the strong bias of its writer to find a pre- dominant human interest in all things— to place that (like the fairest flower on the ruin's wall) amidst the moulder- ing relics of the Past ; and to clothe sucli, interest in lan- guage which is true poetry, though not in metre. She often, indeed, loses sight of the material object, or so transforms it, in the intensity of the thought it awakens, that one forgets its claim to notice. More than half a century, since her death, has set the seal of enduring fame on all Madame de Stael's principal works. She never wrote (I believe could not write) anything that is not, in more or less degree, characterized by refinement of feeling and nobleness of soul. Still more superfluous than any criticism on Corinne, would it be to dwell, in addressing English readers, on the beauties or defects of Childe Harold^ the first poetic illustration (see its 4th Canto) here to be noticed on the subject of Eome. The most familiarly quoted passages,— those, for instance, on the Colosseum, the Eorum, and the Tomb of Cecilia Metella — are striking examples of the modern temper and feeling brought to the contemplation of antique monu- ments, and which regard those objects from a standing- point essentially individual. The carelessness sometimes betrayed by this poet is curiously exemplified in a stanza which confounds and blends together into one architectural type, the Mausoleum of Hadrian with the Pyramid of Cestius ! The notes to the 4th Canto, by Lord Broughton, were 4f4i niSTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. cvciituallj amplified into a valuable work on Italy, supply- ing remarkable details of the vicissitudes from which classic monuments suftered during stormy and semi-barbaric mediaeval periods. I allow myself a glance at the pages of other poets. Next in chronologic order comes B-ogers* " Italy," without ori- ginality or power, but with a quiet charm of its own, which still makes that poetic volume popular. JNearer to the present time, and with deserved laurels round a venerable brow, comes the truly philosophic and religious Wordsworth. His " Memorials of a Tour in Italy " (1837), consisting of sonnets and blank verse effu- sions, pertain to the declining phase of his career, nor can rank among his master-pieces. His leading thought, in those poems, dwells on the then novel theories which rejected so much of the hitherto admitted in History ; and while ex- pressing natural regrets at such disenchantment, he owns the essential importance of a step secured, and a luminous point attained, for historic science. A beautifully situated mountain village, where he spent the last night before his arrival at Eome, inspired the Poet Laureate for a composi- tion, " Musings near Acquapendente," which is more dis- tinguished by his characteristic feeling, quiet yet profound, and by his moralizing strain of reflection, than all his poems evoked by the splendours and memories of the Eternal City. Macaulay's magnificent " Lays of Ancient Rome," may be contrasted, but will not suffer from the contrast, with Wordsworth's very different effusions. La Martine in his " Meditations " dwells comparatively little upon Rome ; more on the fascinating shores of Naples and the South. Thomas Moore {Bhymes hy the Road, 1819) gives but few pages to his reminiscences of the former city ; nor are those pages lit up with the glow of his more fervid ILLUSTRATIVE LITEIIATURE. 45 inspirations ; his vision of great painters, from Margaritone to Leonardo da Vinci, is indeed finely conceived, but feebly executed. II Pianto, a French poem with Italian title by Barbier (1830), dwells on the social aspects, the present without the past in Kome ; and Ampere (more celebrated for his prose than his poetical works) gives only a few extracts, one describing the Papal benediction at the Lateran, from his own JEpitre sur Borne in rhyme. It is the Northern more than the Italian genius that has found inspiration in ruins, and associated them with immortal verse. Never, I believe, was so sublime an image associated with S. Peter's and the Vatican, as the vision of the avenging Archangel in the first Canto of the Basvilliana by Vincenzo Monti, a poem founded on the story of an intriguing emissary from France who was assassinated after an anti-republican tumult on the Corso, shortly before the deportation of Pius VI. and the overthrow of pontific government. The Drama too, where it throws intense light on eventful epochs and leading characters, conformable with historic lessons, should be noticed in this reference ; and there are two modern tragedies which deserve to class among powerful presentments of historic epochs, the chief scenes being laid in or near Eome : " Attila, or the Scourge of God," by the German Werner, and, in Italian, Arnaldo da Brescia by Niccolini, one of the noblest dramatic works in that language, illustrating the struggle of the Pontificate against the earlier mediaeval antagonism — the anticipative reformation of that Arnaldo, who was the opponent and victim of the English Pope, Adrian IV. It is in the historic walk that the literary illustration of Erome has put forth its greatest energies, and attained its most signal progress, during the period here considered. The publication (1811)of the Eoman History byNiebuhr was 46 HISTOniC AND MONUMENTAL DOME. one of those events that leave enduring traces, and influence all subsequent treatments of the same theme — like a beacon lit on a height, which cannot escape the gaze of any traveller thenceforth undertaking the ascent. That work was regarded as a challenge, and somewhat violently opposed by writers who could not acquiesce in, and were startled by, theories calling into question the very existence of the traditionary founders and earliest kings of Eome, while throwing doubt on so many heroic episodes which have delighted alike the schoolboy and the riper student, the young and the old, wherever " Livy's pictured page" has been incorporated in the cursus of education. Antagonists, as usual unjust, imputed, I believe, to the German historian more scepticism than he ever avows or is responsible for. We observe that, in the second edition of his work (1827), the views maintained in the first are somewhat modified ; and might we not suppose that a residence of four years in this City, during the interval, had had its efiect on his theories, as those two editions of his celebrated work enounce them ? Few examples of philosophic history, that I know, can be compared for power of reasoning and insight to the chapter where Niebuhr argues out the theory that, in early Eoman annals, Romulus and Numa are not simple person- alities, but representatives of distinct epochs in a self- developing state and nascent civilization — such contrast and sequence being in harmony with the moral order as apparent in the general historic drama. First, the genius of Conquest, defiant and aggressive— next, the legislative and sacerdotal spirit, with definite institutions, laws, estab- lished religion, and appropriate ritual. This writer sees, however, the opening of a new epoch, and the dawn of credible history in the reign of Tullus Hostilius : but it is above all on that of Servius TuUius ILLUSTRATIVE LITERATURE. 47 that he dwells, as the most important period of incipient ' civilization and authentic traditions, now rising into dis- tinctness from the twilight of uncertainties — "the most remarkable of the Kings of Eome (as he calls the latter) whom the history of the local constitution obliges us to consider as a real individuality, though in all the narratives hitherto supplied by historians he is made to appear quite as mythological as Eomulus and Eemus" — such are this learned writer's words. In Kiebuhr we see the imaginative faculty brought to bear on historic research, while sustained and guided by vast learning. Imagination assuredly has its legitimate office in History : its torch may give but a flickering light, and yet avail for those who have to traverse the deeply overshadowed realms of the far-off Past. The theories of Niebuhr are not absolutely novel, nor unsupported by earlier writers. So long ago as the 15ih century an Italian savant, Lorenzo Valle, and in later times Scaliger, Lipsius, Perizonius of Leyden, De Beaufort, had alike represented a reaction of critical discernment against unquestioning credulity, with regard to the primi- tive annals of Eome. Subsequent writers — Michelet, Arnold, Mommsen, Am- pere, and Cesare Cantu — have treated that History, if not from the very same point of view, yet with different con- clusions from those formerly prevailing. Ampere (see his Sistoire Momaine a Home), whose theories are founded on accurate local observation, goes beyond JSiebuhr in giving distinctness to pre-historic antiquity ; and presents to view, with finely pictorial effect, the wild scene of fortified villages and forest-clad hills, eventually comprised within the Servian walls. On the Palatine alone, three colonies — Siculan, Sabine, and Pelasgian ; on the Capitol, two colonies — Sabine and Etruscan ; on the Janiculan, one ; 48 HISTOBIC AKD MONUMENTAL ROME. on the Aventine, another such primitive settlement with a social state perhaps, little raised above the barbaric, till finally brought from chaos into order under rational re- straints, unity of laws and interests. I may cite Cesare Cantii (a living writer, and therefore beyond the range to which I confine myself), as truly entitled to represent the modern historic genius of Italj. His works are themselves monuments of vast research, marvellous comprehensiveness, and philosophy applied to the subjects grasped by his indefatigable intellect. In the first volume of his Storia degli Italiani he presents a picture of the Seven Hills in their primeval colonized state— almost coinciding with the ideal sketch by Ampere, and essentially agreeing, if not in all points, with Niebuhr. I can but rapidly glance at other historic works which undertake either the entire argument or some episodes of the all-attractive theme — Eome under the Empire, and liome under the Popes. Among the earnest and high- aiming is De Champagny, author of Les Cesars and Les Anionins, also De Broglie, author of VJEylise et V Empire. Some years ago, TuUio Dandolo commenced a great work — Storia del Pensiero ("History of Thought") — and left valuable portions of his performance (interrupted by death) in his Nascent Christianity , — Munasticism and Legends^ — The Borne of the Popes, all evincing the thoughtful earnest- ness and deeply religious feeling of this Italian writer recently deceased. Cherrier treats ably of the momentous struggle between the Pontificate and the Grerman Poten- tates in his Luttes des Papes et des JEmpereurs. Dr. Miley, in his History of the Pontific States^ and his Pome under Paganism and under the Popes, supplies with pleasing style the results of wide research and ecclesiastical studies — only sometimes too decidedly in the tone of the theological champion and apologist. A superior place must be assigned ILLUSTRATIVE LITERATUEE. 49 to Eanbe's " History of the Popes," while we only regret that such a writer limits himself within the chronology of but two centuries, the sixteenth and seventeenth. In him we at once recognise historic power of the highest class, together with keen perception of goodness in character and of beauty in art. Hanke looks down from a height so far above party spirit and sectarian feeling, that it is diffi- cult to admit bigotry or sectarianism in any studies of the same subject after reading his memorable work. A valuable contribution, though from its largeness of scope necessarily sketchy, is Spalding's " Italy and the Italian Islands," which brings his narrative down to 1840, dwelling much on literature, antiquities, and art, especially in what relates to Rome. The first writer of this period to undertake a complete History of Mediseval Eome, was a German, Pappencordt, who well executed the part he lived to finish, but left that pregnant subject to be fully worked out by living authors, among the ablest of whom Eeumont and Gregorovius, have both treated it with admirable power. The History of Eome in the Middle Ages by the latter, recently brought down in a seventh volume to the year 1500, seems to me one of the first masterpieces in the whole range of the literature it belongs to, whether in the German or other languages. The biographies which throw light on epochs, and ac- quaint us with the sources of eventful movements, should not be forgotten — as that of Gregory VII. by Voigt, that of Boniface VIII. by Padre Tosti (author of many valuable works), that of Savonarola by Villari, who lifts the veil before a dark picture displaying, unfortunately for the Church, unholy ambition and immoralities on the most revered of thrones, that of the Eoman Pontificate, in the XV. century. The life of Leo X. by Eoscoe is sufficiently 50 HTSTORTC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. known and undoubtedly valuable, but somewhat too rose- coloured as regards the personal claims of his hero. The " Hyppolitus " by Bunsen is a study of the eccle- siastical conditions of Rome in the third century, most care- fully carried out. The " Countess Matilda^'' by the same reverend Padre Tosti, is one of the many works on the struggles between the Church and Empire in the XI. cen- tury. 1 may name but one other, which seems to me the great masterpiece of this class— and is, indeed, much more than mere biography— a complete picture of the polity, the mind and movements of Christendom at the end of the XII. and beginning of the XIII. century : the " Life and Times of Innocent III." by Hurter, a Swiss Professor, who left the Calvinistic to join the Eoman Catholic communion. I have not yet noticed save in brief allusion the writers whose career began in the last century, or their works bearing on those studies to which Archaeo- logy is dedicated. The archaeological literature of this period in Eome announces vigour and progress. Its leaders generally reject the conclusions and condemn the scepticism of the German historic school. Among them appears first Antonio Nibby, who began his career, very young, in 1817 ; and the first guide to Eome compiled on the modern plan, or something like it, was produced by him in alliance with Vasi, an engraver as well as antiquary. The more important Mura di Soma and Foro Bomano, by the former, soon followed ; and in his earlier as well as later writings Nibby adheres to the now exploded error of transposing the Forum in the direction from north-east to south-west, whilst he designates the temples on the Capitoline declivity as those of Fortune and Jupiter Tonans ! In his Viaggio Antiquario (1819) he supplies the first complete, vivid, and pleasing description yet given in the Italian language, narrating also the historic traditions, of the ancient sites comprised within the Campagna limits. This ILLUSTRATIVE LITERATURE. * 61 suggestive subject had iudeed been treated with ability about seventy years before by the Jesuit father, Eschinardi, whose work, *' Descrizione di Eoma e dell' Agro Romano," is in- teresting and learned. Another work by Nibby comprises all that his own Viaggio contains, and eclipses his youthful performance, namely, the Analisi (1837), as he not happily calls it— or " Analysis, antiquarian, historic and topographic of the .Environs of Some." Surprising is the indifference of the earlier Eoman Anti- quarians and of tourists alike to the wealth of antiquities and memories, the wild and solemn or lovely scenes within the region called '^ Comarca of Eome." Montaigne just glances at it, notices the Aqueducts which traverse it, expresses disgust at the undulating waste, all solitude and sterility, without finding anything to admire. The growth of an opposite taste and feeling is among the tokens of enthu- siasm and sensibility distinguishing the Eomantic, and reflected on the Archaeological School in Literature. Among the last of Nibby's publications came " Eome in 1838," four large volumes, which may be highly recommended for vivacity of treatment and judicious condensation of know- ledge — the best work yet produced in Italian on the subject of Eome Heathen and Christian, classical and modern. Be- sides some learned Germans, few antiquarian writers had hitherto attempted any continuous history of monuments, comprising the changes and shocks they have been exposed to and suffered from, in Eome. It is above all desirable to bridge over the mediaeval gulf between the ancient and modern in a city where the revolutions of the social state and of the Pontificate so disastrously affected the conserva- tion of antiquities, so often led to the destruction of classical ruins. Nibby well supplies that desideratum ; and I may sig- nalise his monographs (so to call them) on the fortified e2 62 HISTOniC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. walls of Romo, on the Forum, the Palatine, the Plavian Amphitheatre. His pages reflect the multifarious associa- tions, and evoke the many phantoms, strange, wild, and tragic, the records of conflict and crime, which haunt, to the historic eye, the scenes of classical antiquity in Eome. Byron's lines — *• Admire, exult, despise, laugh, weep, for here There is much matter for all feeling "— apply not less suitably to the Forum during the period of mediaeval vicissitudes than while it was the chief political arena of the Republican and Imperial metropolis. In vastness of design and extent of classical learning, the first among Roman archaeologists is Luigi Canina, who sur- passes, and often disagrees with, his predecessors. His long literary career opens with his " Topografia '* (Topography of Ancient Rome, 1831), followed by the Foro Bomano, Edifizii Antichi, and many other highly finished monographs, among the best those on the sepul- chres of the Appian Way, on the Cities of Veii, Care, Tusculumj &c. His honoured name last appeared, soon after the close of a long life, in 1855, — see the posthumous publication, Esposizione Topoyrajica, referring to Ancient Rome and its Environs, here considered in three epochs : the pre-historic, the kingly, and the consular. Canina beyond any of his forerunners availed himself, and magni- ficently, of the draftsman's and engraver's arts. What had been first accomplished with much imaginative power by Piranesi was more scientifically carried out by the stafi" of artists under Canina's direction. It is unfortunate that his style exemplifies the extreme of that difiiiseness, too often the bane of Italian prose — but we must forgive much to so well-qualified a master ! His exhaustive treatment of Roman Antiquities seems to me ILLUSTRATIVE LITERATURE. 53 even less admira'ble than the ability with which he resusci- tates the imposing Past, reconstructing many ancient and almost pre-historic cities crushed out by the dominant Power, and now only represented perhaps by a dismal farm-house rising amidst formless ruins, or by the track of streets and fosses in the solid rock, or by some sullen tower frowning in grim decay over the uncultivated plains of Latium. The process by which such skeletons are clothed with the flesh and blood of national life through the abilities and vast learning of Canina, is like a magic glass made to display the figures or groups once reflected on its surface from living forms long since mouldered into dust. Curiously characteristic of the Italian critical taste, is the conclusion against the most sublimely religious style of architecture, the Acute (miscalled Grothic), which Canina deliberately condemns in his volume on the ^^Architecture of Christian Temples ^ In association with ISTibby should be mentioned our countryman. Sir William Gell, who was some time his collaborator, and whose "Topography of Eome and the Campagna " is both useful and pleasing, carefully compiled, lucid, and efilcient as a guide to the tourist. Other English writers now appear, taking their rank among learned illustrators of Eome : — in 1818 Burton, and in 1831 Burgess, who surpasses the former - his " Topo- graphy and Antiquities of Borne " being the most complete English work on the subject hitherto produced. Both these authors belong, however, to the old school, several of whose theories have been rejected by later competitors. In 1818, whilst many distinguished German savans were assembled in this City, and whilst Niebuhr was envoy of Prussia to the Vatican, was projected in that circle the vast under- taking not made public till 1830, in which year appeared the first volume of the celebrated work, which I do not 64 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. hesitate to pronounce the most complete, splendidly con- ceived, deeply thought out, and ably executed among all in the literature I have to notice — the Beschreihimg (" De- scription of the City of Rome"), as its modest title sets forth, being the joint production of Baron Bunsen, Platner, Gerhard, Rostell and Niebuhr. Bunsen contributes by way of preface a general apergu of the literature relating to local antiquities, also the entire department of ancient churches, their history and artistic features. Platner supplies all else that relates to the Christian City and its other monuments besides those churches, and to the museums. Niebuhr illustrates the decline of the Ancient, and growth of the Modern Capital. It would be superfluous to dwell further on the tran- scendent merits of this well-known work : but remarkable, among the gems of its contents, are the last-named writer's " Historic Abstract " of Roman annals (a finished picture rather than a sketch) ; also the chapter on the Forum at different epochs, and those on St. Peter's and the Vatican. Such treatment of mediaeval aspects and memories as was undertaken by Nibby had been anticipated in the Besclirei- hung, and with striking success. It may be said that the leading argument and moral theme around which erudition and thought array their wealth so effectively in this work, is that wonderful revolution which transformed the seat of Pagan Empire and ancient Civilization into the concen- trated centre of other influences that so long guided and dominated over Latin Christianity. A compendium of the Beschreihung, by Professors Platner and Urlichs, supplies for practical use all that can be briefly given in a narrow stream from such a copious fountain. In the original work many theories still contested by other writers are advanced by the German archaeologists (and may be learnt through Urlich's Manual) — that, for instance, advanced by Niebuhr, ILLUSTRATIVE LITERATURE. 55 who first concluded that the beautiful Corinthian columns below the north-east angle of the Palatine (where such im- portant labours for discovery are now in progress) are the peristyle of the Curia Julia, or Senate-house built by Augustus. It is interesting so to regard the graceful ruins in question, which other German authorities refer either to the Temple of Minerva or the Chalcidicum, both connected with the senatorial edifice ; and these writers allow noble memories to be associated with those ruins under the Palatine. The Forum of Julius Caesar is recognised by these writers partly inside the ponderous brick tower of the Conti (built by Innocent III.), partly in the massive walls serving as a background to the colonnade of the Forum of Nerva, and behind which stood the lost temple of Pallas. "What Nibby called the Temple of Fortune, the Germans determine to be that of Vespasian ; and his temple of Jupiter Tonans, on the Capitol, to be that of Saturn, which contained the State Treasury — an establishment we may suppose to have been in the Tabularium, behind that temple. Arrived at this stage of our studies, we see before us the whole aggregate of Eoman Monuments brought within the discerning eye of science, and explained on a basis of historic as well as literary experiences. A vantage ground is gained from which one can hardly anticipate in the future any necessity of receding ; though we certainly may look for- ward to future contests among archaeologists. Comparing, for instance, what we find in the letters of Petrarch, written from this City, with the information now at hand, we per- ceive how absolute the revolution in the method of inter- preting antiquity at Eome. It wiU be no more possible to mistake, as does that great Past, the pyramid tomb of Cestius for that of Romulus, or the enormous arcades which 56 niSTORIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. rise 80 imposingly near the Forum, and have no charac- teristic of a fane for Heathen worship, for the temple of Peace founded by Vespasian. At this stage should be noticed the energetic labours of the German savana to promote antiquarian interests in other ways at Eome. In 1829 was founded, with co-operation of Bunsen, Ger- hard, Kestner, also with Italian collaborators, Fea, Nibby, and others, the Institution for Archcoologic Correspon- dence, which has ever since held weekly meetings during ^ the winter in its library on the Capitol, that hihliotheca for the gratuitous use of members, which is the first of its description, i.e. for archaeological literature, in Kome. Two periodicals are issued by this Society, — a " Bulletino," monthly during the winter ; and an annual of larger scale with plates, Monumenti ed Annali, alike in the Italian language. The liberality and unlimited publicity of this German Institute and its proceedings deserve all praise. It does not confine its studies and researches within the walls of Rome, and at its sessions we may hear reports or discussions on the novelties of enterprise and discovery in all lands where relics of classical art exist. Teutonic genius bears away the palm, it must be owned, in every race where I have now to notice its efibrts. An interesting and well-finished work by Christian Miiller, Boms Campagna (1824), completes the cycle of recent illustrations in that long-neglected field. Gallus, or " Eoman Scenes in the time of Augustus," by Becker, is first-rate in another class. Most admirable is that studious analysis of the private life of the Ancients, often undertaken by savans in the XVII. century, and ably w^orked out by more than one Italian writer, as in the Vita Frivata del liomani by Amato. The Eoman citizen of old time has been followed into all the retreats of his home ILLUSTBATIVE LITERATURE. 57 occupations ; the entire net- work of liis daily life brought before us. Such is the task attempted by an earlier writer in Erench, the Baron de Theis — see his " A^oyages de Polyclete," or the imaginary travels of a young Greek, who visits Eome in the time of Sylla. Becker's " G alius " is more masterly and vivid ; and it is certainly a right direction which later archaeology has taken in showing the human being as the central object, to which all the rest is but draperies or framework — remembering that the axiom, " The f)roper study of mankind is man," is not less profoundly true because uttered in a truism. A more recent and very pleasing work on Eoman Anti- quities, " Museums and Euins" (German and English) by Dr. Emil Braun, is useful for the student's guidance ; but its contents, characterized by fine taste, should be appro- priated lefore one visits the sites and galleries referred to. The " Italian Eesearches" by Eumohr (1827) is a genial and indefatigably pursued study of Christian Art in its more recondite and unfrequented treasure houses, whether church, cloister, or palace, as well as in the generally known collections on Italian shores. More comprehensive are the volumes on Art History, of course comprising though not limited to the Southern regions by Schnaase andLiibbe ; the " History of Sculpture from the earliest ages to the present day," by the latter being translated into English. I cannot omit to mention but need not extol such a general favourite as Kugler's Handbook, or the well elaborated Histories of Sculpture, ancient and modern, by Cicognara and of Italian Architecture by Mici. The fervid love for and intense study of Sacred Art considered as an emanation from Christian faith, appears together with the power of communicating such feeling in other writers of superior mark. 68 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. Lord Lindsay dedicates mainly to Eome one volume of his interesting Sketches of the History of Christian Art, and supplies a well-ftnished compendium of those legends most often represented in mediaeval treatment, without knowing which subjects we find much that is unintelligible. This writer analyses to its depths that Christian mytho- logy which is, in fact, the contemplation of theological subjects and saintly examples, by the popular mind in a devout but little educated age. Eio's works rank high in this class, dwelling especially on the mystic and ascetic aspects in Art. Mrs. Jameson, in her volumes on " Legend- ary Art," accomplishes a far-reaching task with conscientious carefulness, deep feeling, an ever serene and lucid style ; her aim elevated and her success eminent, for she completely removes her subject from technicalities and connoisseurship to display its higher alliance with civilization, with the pro- gress of popular ideas and religious thought. Other writers exclusively treat of Christian Eome, considering its ec- clesiastical polity as well as its sacred monuments, and from a height where they stand above the mists of controversy as Gournerie and Gerbet, whose works may be classed together. The latter has, however, a different method from his competitors, and gives more sterling value to hi» " Eome Chretienne " by preferring the chronologic order, treating each century apart, whilst interweaving Eccle- siastical History, the lives of Pontiffs and Saints, with other themes. We observe the proofs of increasing depth, of more Ca- tholicity of spirit and sympathies not merely in individual writers, but in the general characteristics of this literature as recently produced. It becomes in many respects supe- rior to its own antecedents, to what earlier illustrators of analogous subjects, such as the unquestionably well quali- fied writers on art, Lanzi and Agincourt, had published — ILLUSTRATIVE LITERATIJEE. 59 the present century, at least with respect to life's closing years, being the period also of those two. I may mention, but can hardly do more than enumerate by name, other works standing on the confines between two territories, the historic and fictitious, or the religious-anti- quarian — as the "Mores Catholic8e,"byKenelmDigby, which absorbs as into a focus, with great fascinations of style and genuine enthusiasm sustained by vast learning, all bright and pure, noble and affecting elements in the Catholicism of Rome, the historic grandeur of her hierarchy, the wonder- ful results of her influence on mind and genius. Interesting also are such works, proceeding from like sympathies, as the " Monks of the "West," by Montalembert, and Les Monasthes Benedictins en Italie, by Dantier. We may find in many ways useful, (though in literary merits far inferior to these) a compilation, the DizionariOj " Dic- tionary of Historico-Ecclesiastical Erudition," ill-arranged and tediously diff'use, yet a mine of information respecting ecclesiastical traditions, rites, biographies, the Pontific Court, and the line of sacerdotal Sovereigns, by GaetanO' Moroni, a laic official in the service of Gregory XVI., and wto began in 1840 that publication reaching the enormous extent of 103 volumes, finished in 1859. If report be true he was assisted to some degree by so distingushed a colla- borator as the same Pope Gregory himself, a learned theolo- gian. Piction also comes within the scope of my subject, when (as in many instances) an imaginative tale is made the vehicle of illustrating principles, of acquainting us with a moral atmosphere, and with its effects on life and character. Out of this class a few works may be selected, each as a. type under which may be ranged many others. The early struggle between the vigorous youth of Chris- tianity and expiring Paganism, presenting the inspired self- CO niSTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. devotedncss of the faithful under persecution, is exempli- tied in Cardinal Wiseman's Fahiola^ with thoroughly ac- quired knowledge of sacred antiquities well introduced ; and the same epoch (but very differently treated) is brought before our minds in the " Valerius" of Lockhart. The pic- turesque aspects and traits of popular life, amidst a frame- work of beautiful scenes, appear in the ever-favourite Impro- visatore, by Andersen, admirably translated by Mrs. Howitt. A philosophic study of the effects of moral atmosphere on character, and of guilt itself on mind and happiness, is supplied in Hawthorne's Transformation — where we feel ourselves in the veritable atmosphere of modern Eome. The novel founded on the life of Beatrice Cenci, by Guer- razzi, is simply revolting, without even fidelity to facts ; and that dreadful story, as well as the state of Rome at the time, may be better learnt from a non-fictitious and trustworthy Sforia di Beatrice Cenci e de* suoi Tempi, by Dalbono, a living writer. The romance by Gilbert, founded on another guilty life and episode of horrors, " Caesar Borgia," is full of picturesque grouping, and well sus- tained, without much transgression against historic fact. A splendid and dramatic pourtrayal of the manners and vicissitudes of the XIV. century, is made subservient to the efi*ect of a central character, brought into the strongest relief, in Lord Lytton's Bienzi, with only too decided an aim at the apotheosis of his hero. After considering the real history of the Tribune through the unexaggerating medium of genuine documents and contemporaneous evi- dence, it seems to me to convey a lesson more instructive, while much more mournful, than the high wrought inci- dents and somewhat too melodramatic catastrophe of that brilliant romance. The authentic biography of Cola di Rienzo is supplied in Muratori's great compilation of Latin and Italian chroni- ILLUSTRATIVE LITEHATURE. 61 cles ; and more recently in an annotated edition by Zefe- rino Ee. If we believed in Destiny we might suppose its power to have decreed that in all provinces of human affairs and interests, scientific pursuits, enterprise, movement, innova- tion and policy, memorable things should signalise the annals of the new epoch, which commenced for Eome with the Pontificate opening, after a quite unexpected choice by the Cardinals in Conclave, on the 16th June, 1846. During the first years of this period political change, agitation, and hopes so occupied the general mind that archgeologic in- terests seemed forgotten ; and few paid attention to the first noticeable public works within the present pontificate, which completed the discovery of ancient, partly concealed by modern architecture, namely, all that remains of three temples (already indeed partially laid open, one being erroneously associated with the story of the Eoman Daughter) under the church of S. Niccolo in Gar cere.* Nor much more (I believe) was heeded an important discovery on the Palatine, at the northern hill-side, of buttress walls in massive stone work, evidently belonging to the primitive city, whether founded by Eomulus or any one else — therefore among the oldest relics here extant. Pius IX. (as is well known) was induced to fly from his agitated capital in November 1848, and did not return, after long sojourn at Gaeta and Portici, till the April of 1850. Subsequently were commenced those renewed energies of antiquarian research, and also the new activities of Koman literature on analogous subjects, which signally dis- tinguish this Pontificate, and which have been munificently encouraged by his Holiness. * This title is founded on the popular error assuming the subterranean cells under the central temple to have been used as prisons— another of the mistakes perpetuated in " Childe Harold." 62 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL BOME. Excavations now undertaken led to the re-opening of the Julian Basilica, long buried in level ruin ; also the dis- encumbering (as directed by Canina) of the earth-embedded Mausolea on the Appian Way ; the bringing to light of the Ostian ruins, temples, thermae, tombs, and remains of streets ; on the Palatine such rich results as are known to have rewarded the labours ordered by the French Emperor, and intelligently carried out by Signer Rosa, in the Far- nese Gardens, purchased by Napoleon III. Among the 258 successors of S. Peter, none has expended so much for restorations, for antiquarian interests and public works as Pius IX. Among the foundations due to his generosity are the chromolithographic press, engaged principally on works of sacred archaeology, the Museum of Architectural Antiquities in the Tabularium, and the Christian Museum in the Lateran Palace. That last collection contains the choicest specimens of art and epigraphy from the Christian cemeteries called Catacombs, allusion to which leads me here to notice the progress of research in, and of literature referring to, those subterranean cemeteries. After the death, in 1600, of Antonio Bosio, a Maltese, the Columbus of discovery in the so-called Roma Boiteranea^ explored by him for thirty -three years, the fruit of his cou- rageous labours first saw the light in 1632, through means of Severano (an Oratorian Priest), who in that year published the work so entitled, " Subterranean Eome," afterwards brought out with additions, translated into Latin, by Arringhi. During the XVIII. century Boldetti, Bottari, Fabretti, and Mamachi produced, from the Roman press, the works above alluded to on Christian antiquity, which expand, interpret, and sustain the high interest felt for the monu- ments and themes comprised in this sphere. Towards the close of the same century, and in the earlier ILLUSTRATIVE LITERATURE. 63 years of the next, the pursuit was comparatively neglected ; nor do we find any memorable contributions within that period to the literature on this subject. Singular indifference is betrayed with regard to Sacred Antiquities by those who, in the interval between the opening years of those two centuries, visited Italy and Eome. Addison (1700) does not mention the Catacombs or their contents ; nor does the learned Lalande in his "Voyage" (1765-6) allude to such places. Beckford. (writing from Eome in 1780) says, in his characteristic mood : " I think I shall wander soon in the Catacombs, which I try lustily to pursuade myself communicate with the lower world" — but does not tell U3 that such wanderings were actually accomplished by him. Madame de Stael was under the error, common in her day, that those cemeteries served for the actual residence of numbers of the per- secuted faithful ; and, struck by horror at this idea, declares (in the words of her Corinne) that she did not desire to visit them, whilst avowing her admiration for those who, sustained by enthusiasm, could endure such a living death : " le cachot pres du sepulchre, le supplice de la vie a cote des horreurs de la mort." In our own time have been admirably completed the fuller literary illustrations of Christian Antiquity, after researches renewed in this sphere, — one intellectual consequence of the new bias given to thought and sentiment. Three contemporary French writers, Eaoul Eochette, G-ournerie, and the Abbe Gerbet, in their works on Christian Eome, have entered with erudition and earnest feeling on the treatment of the same theme : primitive Christian Art in the subterranean cemeteries. Lord Lindsay also treats this subject with much ability and appreciation ; but since he wrote, in 18 i7, the permeable extent of those hypogaea has been much enlarged, the 64j nisTomc and monumental home. range of their contents increased, requiring fuller illustra- tion in consequence. Most praiseworthy and efficient are the works from the Roman press, especially those more or less known through- out Europe, by the Chev. de Eossi, the third volume of whose inestimably valuable Boma Sotteranea is now (I under- stand), nearly completed. As I cannot criticise the living, and it would be superfluous to dwell on that writer's . eminent merits, I need but name his principal publications : — first in importance, the one whose title I have given, a colossal work with chromolithographic plates and facsimiles from epigraphs ; next the Inscriptiones Christian(S, the first volume of which comprises 1374 epigraphs, the plurality from Eoman cemeteries, and now classified in the Lateran Museum ; also the interesting periodical entirely from the pen of De Eossi, Bulletino di Archeologia Cristiana, alike illustrated by plates, which first appeared in January 1863, as a monthly, but is now continued as a tri-mestral pub- lication, informing its readers of all progress made in the exploring works still under the learned author's direction, besides other memorable discoveries of Christian Antiquity in Italian cities, and occasionally of those in other countries. One other valuable work by a living writer I may name to praise : the Vetri Ornati, (" Glasses adorned with Figures in gilding") by Padre Garucci, a learned and complete treatise on those glass tazze (318 being edited and engraved in this volume), which the ancient Christians used both sacramentally and as gifts on domestic occasions ; and the subjects in gilding upon which are usually religious, figures of saints, &c., though in some instances mythologic, — iu such cases, no doubt, with a Christian meaning more or less recondite. In 1844 appeared the first and unfortunately- last volume of a work, vast in conception, by the late Padre Marchi: "Monuments of primitive Christian Art" — in- ILLUSTRATIVE LITERATURE. 65 tended to comprise the entire cycle of such sacred antiquity, but in this, the sole published, instalment dwelling on the topographic part and peculiarities of formation alone, in the ancient cemeteries. This writer hazards the conjecture that the aggregate extent of Eoman " Catacombs " reaches the amazing amount of between 800 and 900 miles, and that the number of the Dead therein laid may be reckoned as from six to seven millions ! As to the former conclusion he is corrected by Sigr. Michele de Eossi (brother to the Cavaliere), who, after applying planometric instruments in those cemeteries, ascertained that their measurement in length, exclusive of chapels and irregular areas, is 588 Eoman miles ! Padre Marchi entirely refutes the notion of identity between the underground Christian cemeteries and the arenaria, or sand-pits for procuring pozzolana, with which they, in some instances, communicate. He shows that the former cannot be a mere continuance or enlargement of the latter, seeing the difference in the qualities of soil and rock, and in every method pursued in forming those two classes of excavations. The discovery of an entrance to the cemetery of S. Callixtus, the generally chosen place of interment for the Eoman Bishops in the third century, and in which was found the tomb of S. Cecilia, led to a long continued series of works, crowned with most interesting results, during recent years. It was through studies made, in the society of Padre Marchi and De Eossi, on the site where explorations were carried on during 1847, that Dr. Northcote collected materials for his well-known and efficient volume serving as an excellent manual for those who desire to ascertain and examine leading facts and features in this sphere.* * A more important later publication, by the Rev. Dr. Northcote and Mr, Brownlow, is a compendious version of the Chev. de Rossi's " Roma Sotteranea." 66 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. It is not surprisiug that many should have sought in the subterranean regions around Eome an arsenal for the weapons of controversy ; for if the artistic works there found be indeed of the origin supposed, their silent witness to the mind and temper, or to the usages, of the primitive Church may be deemed almost oracular, and entitled to reverential regard from Christians of whatever communion. The artistic monument^ the broken relief or chiselled line sometimes speak more impressively than does the historic page. In our studies of Roman History we might fail to be convinced of the reality of the anguish of remorse distract- ing the soul of a fratricide Emperor, had we not seen the arches raised in honour of Septimius Severus and his sons, Antoninus and Geta. As to the claims of the immature and rudely executed painting and sculpture in Eoman *• Catacombs," we must make large deductions, knowing that those retreats continued to be adorned, and their paint- ings to be from time to time restored, during nine centuries ; their chapels to be frequented for devotion during about two centuries more, namely, till the XIII. Yet, allowing for all this, we find internal proof of high antiquity not only in the artistic character of many works, but in what is still more telling, in the moral and spiritual order. These proofs may guide us to the approximative deter- mining of dates, otherwise so involved in obscurity. The selection of certain subjects and the eliminating of others, even those which eventually became most popular, indicate the difference between the devotional temper of the primi- tive and the mediaeval Church ; and where such evidence appears, we may conclude for correspondent antiquity in art^works. It is remarkable how carefully the entire cycle of the Passion, and its dread catastrophe on Mount Calvary are omitted in the range here before us. Nowhere is the ILLUSTRATIVE LITERATURE. 67 contrast between the primitive and the later religious Art so striking as in the presentment of the most sacred Per- sonality ever seen in human form, around whom all others are like satellites round the central orb ; and a more exalted, more just conception surely is that which regards His adorable Being in a light of benign beauty, clothed with attributes of power, grandeur, and love, rather than in aspects which appeal to painful pity, to compassion instead of feelings blent with religious reverence and awe. In their aggregate, I believe that these primitive monuments contain far more which confirms and accords with Truths embraced by almost all Christians, than any elements proper to the regions of controversy, or capable of being used for refutation or attack. Arrived at the middle of the present century, I must leave my subject. All know how the last years preceding 1850 were crowded with events and conflicts. The whole series of those vicissitudes, acted out at E-ome and elsewhere within Italian limits, has been illustrated in quite a library of contemporary literature, mostly Italian, much (though not certainly all) deserving the attention of those desirous to understand the relations between this city and a newly-constituted kingdom, between the Vatican and the public life around it. Many of the writings in question, which cropped up in every form, circumstantial History, Political Essays, the Drama, the Satire, the Novel and the Pamphlet, will assur- edly perish. Among those deserving to live are : the " His- tory of the Papal States" in the present century, by Earini, the Bivolgimenti Italiani by Gualterio, and the magnificently eloquent Rinuovamento Civile d* Italia by Gioberti — his last work, 1851. "With these may also be classed the section comprising that revolutionary period in the Stobia di Cento Anni by Cesare Cantu, as well as the same subject, F 2 68 niSTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. treated with more largeness and depth, in the last -chapter of his greater work, the Storia degli Italiani. Never were the political claims and antecedents of the Papacy so boldly challenged or searchingly analyzed — at least by any Italian and non- Protestant writer— as in the " Sovranita e Governo Temporale dei Papi" (1840), by Leopoldo Galeotti, a member of the Tuscan Ministry in 1859. Deducing principles from facts, he seeks lessons for the guidance of the future from the errors and failures of the past. Without any irreligiousness or levity of spirit, he discloses the deep-seated abuses and incurable defects of ecclesiastical absolutism unchecked by civic or constitu- tional rights. Soon after the suppression of the reforms conceded by Pius IX, and the reaction in absolutist sense by his government, was published " Eome et le Monde," by !Niccolo Tommaseo, a volume glowing with patriotic as well as deeply religious feeling, and intense in its eloquent pro- test against the enormous evils inflicted by retrograde and illiberal policy on the throne and credit of the Supreme Pontificate. Another brief but impressive protest, from a truly Christian standing-point, against the fatally pursued policy of the Vatican in late years, is the " Court of Eome and the Gospel" — I translate the title— by the Marquis Boberto d'Azeglio. It is in the historic walk that the Italian mind has proved of late most fruitful, and given the most satisfactory signs of vigorous life — a life reawakened through political influences, memorable events, and generally felt national impulses. Bringing this sketch to a close, I may refer once more to Archaeology, the special subject of the literary range here considered, and of the most memorable literary activities in Bome. I believe that science to be of little avail save for the sake of what it leads to ; and that if we pursue it as a^war ILLUSTRATIVE LITERATUEE. 69 lity, we shall be like travellers wending their way through rocky glens and dim forests, without heeding the verdant declivities, pleasant homesteads, and sunny mountain-tops which rise beyond, above, and around their path. It is in alliance with other pursuits that this science must fulfil its true mission. So far as its regards are fixed on this centre, ancient and modern, on Heathen and Christian Kome, it may serve to us as a key for explaining the destinies and rank of this metropolis in the world's history. Thus applied, we may use archaBological, together with kindred studies, for the object of interpreting the mystery of Life, and apprehend- ing that resistless onward movement which from the philo- sophic point of view may be described as the progress of Humanity— from the religious, as Divine Providence on earth. 70 CHAPTER 11. Sources of eaelt Eoman Histoey. In Ampere's interesting and learned work, "Ilistoire Romaine a Rome," nothing strikes me more as an example of vivid pictorial writing, than the manner in which that author brings before the mental eye the aggregate of ancient cities, or rather fortified villages, which stood in primitive times on the seven hills occupied in later ages by- Imperial Rome ; their structures and earthworks, their rude mansions and fortifications rising (as we may suppose) in sternly picturesque distinctness amidst primaeval forests and morasses — during a period which, of course, we can only contemplate in the dimness of pre-historic antiquity. No writers that I am acquainted with have so vividly presented that far-off Past to the imagination as those belonging to the modern historic school, impugned for its scepticism, and whose conclusions are rejected by several distinguished archaeologists, especially those of Italian birth. I believe there is not such wide difference as is often aflarmed between the still prevalent archaeologic theories respecting Rome, and that comparatively new historic school alluded to ; and if the extremes of incredulity may be objected to in some instances, we should remember that the leaders of learned investigation in this walk are not all agreed together ; some accepting to a greater, others to a less extent, the assertions of olden tradition. What in fact is History, as a Science, but the investigation into and deduction from facts, compiled with critical discernment of evidence, and the attempt (at least) to explain the causes of political and SOURCES OF EARLY ROMAN HISTORY. 71 Social movements ? Such being its true character, we must be prepared to find all philosophic History progressive, self- developing, and from time to time arriving at new accepta- tion or interpretation of truths. The Historic theory must naturally change, retract, or modify its anterior decisions, as the study of documents and monuments extends, as the inquiring spirit attains increasing vigour, boldness and depth. With this enlarged view of the field open to it, archaeological science is the best auxiliary of that sister science ; and neither can it move in a direction counter to that of Historic research, nor yet ignore any well-ascer- tained results, which the efforts of that agency have won for our knowledge and advantage. The fabric of Truth may be raised on the ruins of Error ; and I believe that those writers accused of undue scepticism, Niebuhr, Ampere, Mommsen and others, have best succeeded in rescuing the certain from the uncertain, the genuine tradition from the baseless legend. In raising questions as to the credibility of Roman History (in reference of course to its early epochs alone), we have a right to ask what is the original basis on which it rests? What were the sources of which the ancient historians could have availed themselves, what the use of such sources which we can trace in their extant works ? The earliest system for keeping public records at Home which we are informed of, is curiously indicative of a semi-barbaric simplicity in manners. In the year of the City 291 a vow was made, during a visitation of pestilence, that thenceforth the first magistrate (Consul or Dictator) should strike a nail into the wall of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, by way of chronological computation, at the end of every year. The earliest written historic documents of which we have any notice, were divided into : — 1st, " Annales Maximi" (or Grreat Annals) ; 2nd, the Public Acts ; 3rd, the " Libri Lintei" (so called because tbey were written oi» 72 HISToniC AKD MONUMENTAL KOME. linen), or books of magistrates; 4th, the Pontifical hoois, which related apparently to religious or ritual matters alone; mentioned by Horace as "Annosa volumina vatum," (the ancient volumes of the prophets or oracular priests.) The Annales Maximi were commenced by the chief Pontiff, Publius Mutius, in the time of the Gracchi, about a century and a half before the Christian era. Servius tells us they extended over 80 books, containing all things noticeable set down from day to day ; but Cicero {de Legihus) speaks of them slightingly. I^othing (he says) could be more amusing (nihil potest esse jocundius) than those records. The next question is the possible preservation of any among the above-named documents, and the use to which they were (or deserved to bej applied by writers undertaking the complete and strictly coherent history of the City and State. An able historian, Mommaen, shows that if there ever existed official registers of the Consuls anterior to those still in part extant (namely, the Capitoline Fasti, dug up on the Forum in the XYIth century), such documents probably perished in the Gallic conflagration, B.C. 364. AVe have also mention of private chronicles, no vestiges of which remain, and which appear to have been simple pedigrees, painted on the walls of corridors in patriciau mansions, with the titles of offices or magistracies respectively held by the individuals named. Besides these, there were the custom- ary panegyrics pronounced by relatives at the funerals of distinguished persons — valuable, it may be, to contemporary citizens — but what account can the historian set on memo- rials thus originating, even if extant — the natural influence of personal feeling, sorrowful regard or family pride being considered? Plutarch (whose authority we must defer to), a Greek bom in the first century of our era, and long resident in Rome, distinctly asserts that Roman history liad been corrupted and its earliest documents destroyed. SOURCES or EARLY ROMAN HISTORY. 73 (see his treatise on tlie "Fortune of the Eomans.") In his interesting Life of ISTunia, we find highly relevant evi- dence on this subject : "A certain writer, named Clodius,"* in a book of his entitled Strictures on Chronology, avers that the ancient registers of Eome were lost when the city was sa,cked by the Grauls ; and that those which are now extant were counterfeited, to flatter and serve the humour of some men, who wished to have themselves derived from some ancient and noble lineage, though in reality with no claim to it."— (Clough's Plutarch.) Livius, referring to the annals drawn up before the taking of Eome by the Gauls, a. u. c. 390, states that the greater part perished in the flames ("incensa urbe plerseque in- teriere"). The first historian of Eome who is known to us by name (not by any extant work) was a Siculo-Greek, Timseus of Taormina, who carried his subject down to the date A. t:. c. 492, i.e. B.C. 281; and to him is due the primitive conception, so finely wrought up in epic poetry by Virgil, of the flight of ^Eneas, guided by the celestial powers, from Troy ; his arrival on the Latian coast, and the romantic origin of the new kingdom destined to rule the world through the descendants of that idealized hero. Not much later than TimsDus comes another historian, the first of Eoman birth who treated this subject, and who also wrote in Greek, Quintus Fabius Pictor, favourably men- tioned by Cicero. He flourished about a century and a quarter before our era ; and, like the Sicilian, begins his narrative with the arrival of ^Eneas in Latium. But what- ever the value of this second Greek history of Eome, we only know of it among things that have ]3erished. Next appears the first writer who treated this theme in the Latin language, Porcius Cato, the Censor, who died 149 u.c. But his Origines, in which he dwells on the origin of Eome and * Perhaps, Claudius Quadiigerius. 7 y^ 74 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. the earliest epochs in her history, is not preserved to us ; even the few fragments edited as ascribable to him being now deemed spurious. The sole work by Cato which has come down to us as genuine, is one treating of agriculture, (de Be Rusticd). Other annalists are mentioned by Diony- sius and Cicero, but known to us by name alone. As for the credit of G-reek historians referred to, we have the testi- mony of the above-named Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who says, (I quote from Spelman's translation) : " No accurate history of the Romans in the Greek language has hitherto appeared, but only summary accounts and short epitomes." But Dionysius would assuredly have excepted Polybius, had that Greek historian, who was led a prisoner to Eome after the conquest of Macedonia, included the earlier stages in the historic subject he so ably illustrates; his work commencing not before the year 220 B.C., and carrying its theme down to the destruction of Carthage, — a tragedy witnessed by Polybius himself, 146 B.C. The above- mentioned Dionysius, who visited Rome in the reign of Augustus, anno 7. B.C., describes in an interesting manner the method he pursued whilst compiling his justly cele- brated work, of which only eleven out of twenty-two books written by him, are preserved. He tells us (I quote from Spelman's version) : " Having lived twenty-two years in Rome, and employed all that period in preparing materials for this work, having learned the Roman language and acquainted myself with their (Latin and Greek) writings, some things I received from men of the greatest considera- tion among them (the Roman citizens) for learning, whose conversation I used ; and others I gathered from histories written by the most approved Roman authors, suc*h as Porcius Cato, Pabius Maximus." This writer goes on to mention other historians whose works are lost, but refers to no such sources for historic evidence as the above- named annals of Pontiffs or Magistrates. It is evident that SOURCES or EARLY ROMAN HISTORY. 75 this learned and indeed conscientious writer makes no account of the historians who had preceded him, at least with regard to the primsDval antiquities, the twilight period of Eome, or the popular traditions concerning the founda- tion of this City. Both the date of its origin, and the name, even the sex of its individual founder are regarded by him as uncertain — either (he conjectures as to that person) a son of ^neas, or a Trojan woman named Homa^ among the fugitives from Ilion ! Dionysius assumes the probable pre-historic existence of three successively founded cities — a triple antiquity receding into infinite remoteness, and entirely pertaining to the Past, before the later Eome rose into recorded reality on the Palatine Hill. As to the name, the Greek jow/xr? (strength, fortitude) seems both a probable and suitable, indeed the most finely significant, etymology. I may observe, before turning away from Dionysius, that the passage 1 have cited may also be admitted as, within a limited sense, capable of affording support to conclusions in favour of the credibility of much, if not all, in the narrative so coloured by suggestion or superstition on the pages of the later historians. A learned, pains-taking writer spent twenty-two years in Eome, earnestly bent on collating and compiling materials for his arduous task, and was satisfied that such trustworthy materials could be ob- tained, that an authentic history of this City and State could be drawn up. The wZ^m-sceptical school would do well to re- member his unbiassed testimony. But at the same time we must accept his avowal of utter uncertainty as to the origin, date, and founder of Eome. Dyer (see his very careful analy- sis of the evidences for the genuineness of early Eoman history) concludes that the written annals of this City were extant in the year 331 e.g., and reached as far back as 449 B.C. (" Kings of Eome.") Several ancient historians inform us of the existence of inscribed records, seen by themselves, 76 niSTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. iu whicli the memory of those early ages was preserved for the E-ome of the consular aud imperial periods. Polybius, for instance, had seen and copied (1. iii. 22-26), in the Mnxrium on the Capitol, the original treaty between Rome and Carthage, drawn up in the first year of the Eepublic ; and the archaism of the language is observed by him. Li\ius (1. i. 32) tells us that the laws of Numa were copied out, and exposed in public, by order of Ancus Martins ; and Dionysius (1. iv. 25) saw the treaty between Servius Tul- lius and the Latins, engraved in antique Greek characters, on a brazen column in the temple of Diana on the Aventine Hill. Cicero bears distinct evidence to an early origin, or at least the tradition of such origin, for the art of writing in Rome : " Romuli autem setatem, jam inve- teratis litteris atque doctrinis, omnique illo antiquo ex in- culta hominum vit^ sublato, fuisse cernimus." (De Repub. ii. 10, 18). Official documents, later than the Annates, &c. above men- tioned, are also known to have existed. In the time of Julius Caesar the Senate first began to have its acts regis- tered in writing ; and thus did political journalism originate at Rome. Another compilation of great value to the his- torian was that of bronze and copper tablets, containing Treatises, Senatusconsults, Plebiscits, &c. originally depo- sited in temples, the more important in that of Jupiter Ca- pitolinus. All (or nearly all) these records were finally placed in the Tabularium. The oldest parts of that build- ing, whose remains are still majestically conspicuous on the Capitol, are referred by Canina (I believe correctly) to the date 175 B.C., in which year (or not long afterwards) we may suppose that transfer of the tablets to have been ordered. We know that the Tabularium, or Record Office, was attacked — an event finely described by Tacitus — in the civil war between Vitellius and Vespasian, when the assail- SOURCES OF EARLY ROMAN HISTORY. 77 ants threw burning torches into the open porticoes, and were retaliated against with similar fiery missiles, the besieged flinging down brands in their defence till the flames, furi- ously spreading, caught several adjacent buildings— among others the great temple of Jupiter; and in that conflagra- tion all the historic tablets were melted down. We are told, however, by Suetonius that Vespasian undertook to restore all those registers, and collected as many as 3000 tablets from temples or public archives, supposed to be du- plicates, or substantially identical with the records lost. It is questioned whether any Eoman historians really made the use possible either of the more ancient, or of Vespasian's restored collection in the Tabularium. A high place is certainly due to the vivid and entertain- ing Livius — the favourite of old and young for so many generations, who was born at Padua, spent a great part of his life in Kome, and died there a.d. 17. He extended his admirable work over 142 books, only 35 of which are ex- tant entire, though we possess epitomes of several others. No one can read them without a sense of the picturesque and the real, so much does truthful simplicity characterize his pages. Yet he acknowledges over and over again the uncertainty of the foundation his narrative rests upon, as to the origin of the State and Power he contributes so much to glorify. " Jwc?e certe(l quote one such passage^ singulorum gesta etpullica monumenta confum^ — (" Certainly, therefore, the acts of individuals, as well as the public monuments, are in a confused state.") His poetic episodes about the birth, exposure, and rescue of Eomulus and Eemus, their divine parentage on the father's side, and the unhappy fate of their Vestal mother, is taken from the still more lively narrative (a fragment from the lost work of Eabius Pictor) preserved in the first book of Dionysius. The fabulous nature of that tale may be inferred when we learn from Plutarch's 78 niSTOBIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. testimony (see his " Parallels between the Greek and Eoman Histories") that almost its exact counterpart appears among the legends of the ancient kings of Arcadia, and also among old stories relating to Cures, the Sabine city, and its founder. Yet there is noticeable proof of the early acceptance of the Eomulean legend. In the year of the City 458 (296 B.C.) a bronze group of the she-wolf suckling the twins was erected under the jicus ruminalis, the sacred fig-tree, supposed to overshadow the identical spot, on the Forum. There are not a few instances in which Livius betrays want of critical discernment and imperfect intel- ligence of leading principles in human history, or in social laws. The first* mention made by him of religious usages, refers to the rustic festivities and races at the Lupercal feast, and to that worship of Pan, the God of Nature, which was imported by the Arcadian Evander from Greece to the Palatine — the historian not even telling us in this passage whether Evander did, or did not, found any city on that hill. Soon afterwards he describes certain rites in honour of the Greek Hercules, and other unnamed gods, according to Alban usage. In almost the next page he describes the founding, or rather vowing, by Romulus of the temple to Jupiter Eeretrius ; next, the origin of that of Jupiter Stator, and puts into the mouth of his hero such an invocation to Jove as Optimus Maximus, and " Eather of gods and men," — plainly indicating the developed idea of a quasi-monotheistic, or at least rational faith — a product of the civilized mind, obtained independently of direct revelation, but proper to a social stadium many ages beyond the supposed Eomulean period. I shall not occupy the reader's time by attempting to trace the growth and the change gradually manifested in theories as to the true sense of Eoman History, accepted by authors who rank high, and whose united testimony cannot be disregarded. The importance of the Histor}^ of Thought can- SOURCES OF EAELT ROMAIC niSTOET. 79 not be over-estimated ; and in this researcli we have before us a most interesting aiin and direction for our studies — indi- cated (I may say) in the title of a memorable work by a living Italian writer named Eosa : — " La Storia della Storia," tlie *' History of History itself." Doubts as to the veracity of the long popular Eoman Annales were first expressed in the XVth century by Lorenzo Valla, a famous Italian savant; next, in 1521, by Grlareanus, a Swiss, who pointed out the many errors of Livius, but was silenced by a storm of critical indignation. Scaliger and Justus Lipsius enter the lists towards the end of that century, sustaining the same theories ; next to them came Bayle in his Critical Dictionary; and after him, with more acumen and careful collation of texts, Beaufort in his work " Sur Tin certitude des cinq premiers siecles del'Histoire Romaine," 1738. That light among Italian philosophers, Giambattista Vice (see his " Scienza Nuova") finds a still more elevated theme than the directly historic, a deeper meaning than what lies on the surface, in Home's earliest records — the ideal History of Humanity ; and in the heroic episodes of the highly dra- matic story in question, so many symbols in allegoric form of progressive civilization and of self- constituting social life. Other Italian writers of the XYIIth century doubt the existence of Eomulus, and conclude that the Sabines, not the Eomans, were the conquerors of the primitive City. Algarotti showed the incredible nature of annals which allow for the duration of seven reigns of Kings, from Eomulus to Tarquinius Superbus, not less than 244i years ; all but the first of those ancient rulers having been elected, we are told, at mature age, three having died by violence, and one lost his throne by popular revolt. Compared with the scepticism of previous writers, the great Niebuhr is a heliever in ancient history. His arguments tend rather to confirm than to undermine; his influence is conservative 80 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL noME. more than destructive. As is often the case when men become wedded to their own opinions, especially to those that are novel, incredulity had been carried to excess ; subtlety of interpretation, in fact a sort of philosophic pastime, had been applied to this branch of historic inquiry. It seems to have been forgotten that the circumstance of an idealizing lustre having gathered around a favourite kero through the force of sentiment, through admiration or patriotic feeling, is no proof against the existence of the individual thus glorified. Admitting this, we might be led to doubt the historic existence of Constantino or Charle- magne. In the case of Niebuhr, his right to be considered ft creator rather than a destroyer in the historic sphere asserts itself in his treatment of the reign of Servius TuUius, arriving at which period he finds the acknowledged point where cosmic order emerges, mth a light of reality, from uncertainties and mythic legend. Even a faint dawn of that day is perceived by him early in the time of Tuilus Hostilius, third King of Rome. The contemporary and later episodes of individual heroism he regards, however, in nearly the same light as does Vico— considering them as allegoric presentments of highly idealized, but still credible facts. Later historians have rather urged onward the scep- tical tendency. Michelet carefully investigates all the known sources of Koman History, arriving at conclusions similar to (if not identical with) those of Niebuhr. Sir G-. C. Lewis may be classed with the most sceptical. In his " Inquiry into the Credibility of early Eoman History," he concludes that the contemporary evidence to historic facts extends no higher than the year of the City 473, when Pyrrhus landed in Italy, and the Eomans were first brought into contact with the Greeks ; that the oral traditions relat- ing to the kings (sole original channel for remembrances of the regal period) were not reduced to writing till about 120 SOUECES OF EAELT ROMAN HISTORY. 81 years after the downfall of Tarquinius. Dr. Arnold so far agrees with this writer as to determine (I quote his words) that " the legends of the early Eoman story are neither historical nor yet coeval with the subjects which they celebrate." The latest writer on the subject that I know of — Professor Seeley — (in an edition of Livius, with examina- tion and notes) carries incredulity further than most others. In the current history of Eome he finds " im- probability, inconsistency with other ascertained history, marvelousness, romance, self-glorification." He deems " the history of the Kings, not truth corrupted by passing from mouth to mouth, but fiction from the beginning." Theodore Mommsen concludes that Eoman History did not even originate till the time of the war with Hannibal, nearly at the sixth century of the City; and that the oldest work on this subject known to us even by name is a metrical chronicle by Naevius, of about the year Ti.c. 550. As a specimen of this learned writer's theories, I may cite his interpretation of the episode of the Horatii and Curatii : " The battle of the three Eomans with the three Alban brothers born at one birth (he says) is nothing but a personification of the struggle between two powerful and closely related cantons." Cesare Cantu exerts great learning, and eloquence springing from matured thought, in his treatment of Eoman History, and also in his analysis of the various interpretations applied to it. In the first volume of his truly monumental work, Storia Universale^ he observes that: "What we have long accepted as the proper names of kings are perhaps nothing else than appella- tions of ideal characters. Eomulus is, in fact, a demi-god ; Numa holds commune with the deities, a circumstance which betrays his mythic nature. The two (Kings) 82 nisTomc and monumental bome. might be regarded " (and here this writer exactly agrees with Niebuhr) " as two successive ages, the heroic and the sacerdotal.'* The field which, occupied by the forces of doubt and opposition, may be said to divide the archaeological school from the less sceptical ranks of the contemporaneous Historic school, is included within the comparatively narrow chronological limits of 175 years, from the king- ship of Eomulus to the election of Servius TuUius ; though much greater discrepancies exist between the school headed on the Historic side by writers later than Niebuhr, and the archaeologists opposed to them.*. The wand of disenchantment does not touch the most interesting groups among Eoman ruins that still attract all gazers and students. If any argument obliging us to doubt may remove to a more remote and dimmer distance the Palatine ruins, or other monuments, which, even before we know aught concerning their origin, at once assert their claims, and impress us by their character of immemorial antiquity, does it in consequence deprive them of any attraction, or weaken any voice that speaks to the reasoning ear (like " Sermons in Stones"), in this famous City, from the silent wrecks of the Past ? I think not ; but rather that the attributing of yet undeterminate, though imagin- able, age to those monuments invests^ them with higher * In a recent publication by Professor Nitzsch (" Die Romische Anna- listick "), it is inferred that Dionysius and Livius availed themselves of the works of two almost forgotten writers, Valerius Autiua and Licinius Macer, who composed their histories about the time of Sylla, in the interests of political factions, and from opposite points of view; and that such use of irreconcileable narratives without due allowance for the motives prompting the writers, is the principal cause of error and confusion in accredited Roman histories, is the farther inference of the German professor. SOURCES OF EARLY ROMAN UISTORT. 83 interest. Uncertainty is the condition of mind in which we must be satisfied to follow out many enquiries ; and in this case we are not left in ignorance such as discourages or humiliates — we are supplied with fresh stimulus to re- searches. The moral of my subject is well expressed by Euskin, "that every rightly constituted mind ought to rejoice, not so much in knowing anything clearly, as in feeling that there is infinitely more which it cannot know." F a 2 84 niSTOBIC AND MONUMENTAX ROME. CHAPTER III. BOME UNDEB PaPAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL SwAT. Befoee considering the ancient life and institutions of Pome, I may glance at the realities of the day in the elect Italian Metropolis since the political changes of such extra- • ordinary and all-pervading consequences. I may pass in review the results, affecting or facilitating the study and 'knowledge of Antiquity itself at this centre, from such a fact as the establishment of a new after overthrow of an :ancient authority. I may endeavour to answer the inquiry •whether the monumental (regarded apnrt from the poli- tical) Metropolis has gained in all that, while attracting, promises to throw light on the Past and aid the solution of its historic problems, through the transfer of sovereign power from priestly to secular hands. I shall, at the out- set, dwell on the picture of modern Pome a year after that change had been brought about. Peturning to this city, after an absence of a few months, in the autumn of 1871, 1 had expected to see many signs, like the dawning of a new day, of tlie renovation in its life .and institutions. At a distant view of the dusky walls and towered ga4;eways sweeping far, like the outworks of a vast solitary castle, along the undulatory surface of the un- <;ultured Campagna, no token of new realities or improve- ments could be perceived ; but on nearer approach, the restored Porta Pia reminded of the damage done in the last siege, and the gap between mouldering towers, all left of the demolished Porta Salaria, forced attention to the ROME UNDER PAPAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL SWAY. 85 decree by which that historic gateway, where Alaric with his Groths entered the metropolis of a falling empire, is con- demned (as I regret) to give place to a modern structure, called after Victor Emmanuel. Looking down from the tower of the Capitol upon a grand panorama which comprises the whole of ancient and modern Eome, her classical and ecclesiastical monuments, and the whole strikingly picturesque region, plains and mountains, valleys and uplands, the theatre of her history during the earliest epochs both of regal and republican government, nothing discernible to the eye yet announced the momentous events or innovations of recent date. Even while passing through streets and piazzas, one had not to notice much material improvement, or advance in the clean- liness and comforts notoriously deficient in the metropolis of the Popes. Professional beggars still plied their trade as formerly ; mendicant friars, with their brown habits and sandals, still made their rounds in the quest for alms ; the varieties of ecclesiastical costume, and the long files of semi- nary students still occupied the highways, though much that used to be characteristic and interesting had disap- peared ; and one missed not only the gorgeous retinue with which the Sovereign Pontiff used to appear abroad, preceded by military outriders, but also the ponderous gilt coaches and red-crested horses of the cardinals, who now drive about in sombre disguise both as to dress and equipage. Though the holy Viaticum was still carried with the custo- mary attendance and lighted tapers to the sick or dying, other religious processions had by this time become com- paratively rare. Funerals, instead of passing with lugu- brious pomp of torchlight, took place before the setting of the sun. Pilgrims no more appeared at the sacred seasons, the hospital founded in 1550 by the amiable St. Philip Neri being no longer open during Holy Week, or other periods. 86 HISTOEIO AND MONUMENTAL EOME, for their reception ; nor did the wildly picturesque Pifferari from the Abbruzzi mountains perform, during Advent, on indescribable bagpipes, their sonatas before favourite Madonna shrines. On the other hand, it must be owned that many things were improved. Even in obscure streets the darkness, pe- rilous to pedestrians and favorable to thieves, was dispelled by new gas works ; the police were manifestly more efficient both in numerical force and organization ; a more business- like movement was to be noticed in principal streets, and in the long Corso the state of thriving commerce was attested by the increase and previously rare splendours of shops. The almost unchecked activity of trade on Sundays (and I now speak in the present tense of things still present), would offend certain religious susceptibilities, but is not at all surprising^ seeing how far from the Puritanical Protest- ant standard are Italian notions as to the " Sabbath," and that the new authorities leave observance of holy days entirely to individual conscience, which conscience, in Home, adopts principles to the last degree remote from the Judaic, acknowledging no obligation of abstinence from innocent pleasures — scarcely indeed inhibiting any usual employments — on the festival common to all Christians. Among new buildings the large establishments for minis- terial use, some in convents adapted for such purposes, but without expulsion as yet of the religious communities, were conspicuous before the year 1871 had expired ; the law for suppressing monastic institutions not having yet been enforced here. Prom the terraces of the Pincian is now seen prominent the domed roof of the Chamber of Depu- ties, a mere temporary fabric thrown up in the court of the Monte Citorio palace, formerly appropriated to tribunals, prisons, and police-offices. A mong minor details, the re- turning visitor could not but notice the disappearance of ■^ -• ;^ // ^^n ^ I TTXr ^ BOME UNDER PAPAL AND CONSTITUTljtoNMi- ST^ATr , , 87 the tiara and keys, and the substitution m theii^ place (save ' ' on church-fronts, diplomatic, and certainWlief^re«(J^D^s^ . ^ of the white cross of Savoy and crown of Itafjp^- .^^ _ ._^ * ti At one historic building, the change now strikes one^'^gsF-^s:;- most remarkable, — the vast, gloomy, and unhomelike palace of the Vatican, where the head of the Latin Church still (while I write) condemns himself to a life of ex-professo captivity,— 'though all know him to be quite as free in matters of purely ecclesiastical and spiritual jurisdiction, indeed much more so than before the temporal sceptre had passed out of his hands. The great doors of that palace, communicating vdth the colonnade before St. Peter's, are to this day half-closed ; within we see the burly Swiss guards in their piebald uniform, and sometimes a pontific carbi- neer in the costume of that police force, now surviving only within the palatial premises. I have observed, though not so often of late as during the winter of 1870-71 , what seemed and was portentous — the marked, though silent, indication of popular ill-will, suspicion, irritability, among knots of idle gazers gathering before the entrance to that residence, and watching, with sinister glances, those who leave or enter. Once, in the winter I refer to, occurred a scene of con- fusion and threatened emeute before the Papal palace : a shot was fired, an offender fled, was pursued, arrested ; other arrests took place, a dense crowd assembled; the guards were reinforced, and during that evening, till a late hour after nightfall, the wide space before the Vatican was like a scene of intended conspiracy or revolt. Among the projects devised by engineers and architects, but yet in the stages only of project or discussion, there was much, at this time, to commend — a vast and multi- farious range of undertakings for public works, promising the future growth of what will, in fact, be a new Kome, unlike the old one under pontific government, and with 88 niSTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. pledges of improvement in all that affects comfort, civic security, refinement, industrial enterprise, yet not without scrupulous regard for the venerable claims of antiquity, for art, monuments, and ruins. During that winter was exhibited, in the senatorial Capitoline palace, a plan for the enlargement of this city, drawn up under direction of the engineer-in-chief, after four other plans, all on the same general basis, had been prepared. A report presented with the one approved by the muni- cipal council, set forth that, "the new quarters promise a development of population to almost double the actual amount." The engineer displays in his design a proposed extent of streets and piazzas over regions hitherto occupied by orchards, vineyards, lanes, and comprising no noticeable edifice, except some little-frequented old church. What is entirely new in these undertakings may be achieved, as was assumed, in ten years; but the works within the old quarters, where would be requisite at least as much of demolition as of construction, cannot be brought to their term so soon. On the plan above-mentioned the Tiber is seen crossed by five new bridges ; quarters far apart are connected by broad ranges of streets, mostly rectilinear, instead of the circuitous ways now open for transit ; the piazza before the Pantheon appears enlarged so as entirely to isolate the rotunda of that noble edifice, hitherto in great part concealed by paltry houses, and till the fifteenth cen- tury with mean shops encumbering the inter-columnations of its majeetic peristyle. St. Peter's is seen approached by a stately street from the St, Angelo Bridge, allowing full view of the fagade, dome, and porticos, from the angle where that old bridge joins the present highway, hence branching off into two narrow streets divided by a block of paltry buildings. Other projects have been presented for the protection of EOME UNDER PAPAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL SWAT. 89 the city from inundations by a system of quays on both sides of the Tiber, and by dykes along its banks from a point a few miles above that where it flows through the ancient walls ; also for the improvement of agriculture and of the breed of cattle on the Campagna. There, too, may we expect to see the domain of mournful but impressive solitude invaded by the genius of industry, reclaimed to prosperous and active life. In the January of 1872 were inaugurated, in the presence of the Minister of Public Works and the chief magistrates, the constructions of a Societd Mdijlcatrice founded on the same system as a similar company at Elorence, and who have purchased grounds on the Coelian in a hitherto almost deserted region, undertaking to provide within a year one hundred habitable rooms, let at very moderate rates. This company has also begun its activities beyond the Porta del Popolo, between that gateway and the Milvian Bridge, where 20,000 square metres are destined for the growth of a new suburb. The estimates for public works in this city, approved for the year 1872-3, amount to 9,035,865 francs, of which 7,691,612 are set down as extraordinary expenses for the civic enlargement ; for the repairs of streets, etc., 340,413 ; the entire amount of ordinary expenses being set down at only 365,194 francs. In the winter I refer to, the Eoman journals published a protest of the Superiors of religious orders, addressed to the diplomatic body accredited at the Vatican, against the suppression of their institutions and confiscation of their property in Eome. Their language is dignified, their plead- ing pathetic, and characterized by calm moderation ; but no result followed. I have no doubt that many monastic communities deserve all possible respect, and would be well entitled to exemption from the pitiless assault of modem 90 UISTOmC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. liberalism; that many cloisters, the retreats of learned leisure or austere piety, the beneJBcent centres of bound- lessly-flowing charities, will be honourably remembered after they have passed away — like stars that have set before the sight of the poor, the world-weary and dependent ; but the institution is condemned by public opinion, and also by a popular feeling now widely prevalent among Italians. Any future resuscitation of it, unless on an absolutely new basis, is indeed problematical. At the present time statistics in Eome bear evidence to important realities. The Parliament, in voting the esti- mates of 1872, after the question of obligatory instruction had been discussed, assigned 1,213,297 francs to the univer- sities, and 3,719,804 to professors, or, in Italian phrase, " the directing and teaching body ;" for the personnel of literary and scientific societies, 252,469, and for the so-called " In- stitutes of Superior Studies and Perfectionment," 299,685. The complete reorganizing of public instruction, as well in universities as in elementary schools, has been among the proceedings most praiseworthy, and consistently carried out by this government, wherever its constitutional sway has succeeded to overthrown despotisms. In the November of 1870 the Sapienza University of Eome was reopened wdth a renewed personnel of professors and new ordering of studies. Soon afterwards was inaugurated, with the pomp suited to Italian taste, in presence of the Prince Umberto and the Minister of Commerce, a technical school in the large convent founded (1623) for the Friars Minim of St. Francesco di Paola, a community little known for any characteristic merits. The eagerness for knowledge, especially in the walks of science, has manifested itself here in every way since the great political transition. Lectures on abstract scientific themes, at the university and the lyceum (the ex-lioman col- EOME UNDEE PAPAL AND CO]!fSTITUTIO:EfAL SWAT. 91 lege taken from the Jesuits) have attracted overflowing au- diences. At the former institution I attended the first of a course of Lectures on the " Philosophy of History," by the veteran statesman, philosopher, and poet. Count Teren- zio Mamiani, who was listened to with intensest interest by an audience filling the aula massima. The distinguished orator was enthusiastically applauded after his eloquent recommendations of self-culture as a primary element of moral welfare and progressive national life. The demand for means to satisfy the craving after knowledge is now corresponded to by various literary and scientific societies. Circulating libraries have been opened in quarters remote from the foreign colony centring around the Piazza di Spagna. A Societd Fromotrice (for promoting philosophic and literary studies), founded in Florence, has established itself in Eome, dedicating its efforts, as at the Tuscan capital, to the encouragement of new literature in the Belles Let- tres and philosophic walks ; its " acts" being published in a periodical. A Societd Internazionale^ mainly artistic, but also admitting literary objects, was founded by about fifteen young men, mostly artists, soon after the political change, and before long comprised 350 members ; a subvention of 10,000 francs per annum, half from the municipal, half from the provincial council, being secured to this body. On Saturday evenings this Society opens its rooms for lectures on scientific, literary, or philosophic themes. An annual art exhibition has been set on foot by this " International'* association, where painters and sculptors of all countries may bring their works before public notice. The general and strikingly evident result of the change of government at Eome may be summed up as the reawak- ening of intelligence, the stimulating of vital powers and energies variously applied ; the renewal of hope, courage and enterprise — intelligible signs and auguries of healthful 92 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. and enduring progress, though not without symptoms of danger to religious faith. Passing from the centres of busy life and public work» to scenes invested with other attractions and other memo^ ries, one is struck, even in such localities, by the evidence on every side of newly awakened energy, of newly applied activities. The continual enlargement of the field of dis- covery, and the improved method for the search of antiqui- ties are among the auspicious results of the recent political change, and among encouraging promises for the future of Eome as the Capital of united Italy. The visitor desiring to ascertain how the interests of the classically Antique have been respected or promoted by the Papacy, need not wander far through the streets of this metropolis before evidence, even unsought, will present itself to his eye. Should he approach (as in former times did the majority of tourists and pilgrims) at the northern side, and enter by the Flaminian Gate {Porta del JPopolo\ he may observe the time-worn marble which encrusts the lower storeys of the towers flanking that gateway, rebuilt by Vignola, 1561, and may learn from any guide-book that those great marble blocks are the spoils from an antient mausoleum, which stood on the adjacent piazza under the Pincian Hill, and is supposed (though without certain proof) to have been the tomb of Sylla — demolished (1475) by Sixtus IV. in order to use its material for an earlier restoration of the gate ordered by that Pope, and with the architecture of Baccio Pintelli.* Proceeding from the Piazza del Popolo down the Corso, the tourist will observe * The exact site of Sylla's mausoleum cannot be determined ; but it appears from a passage in the " Pharsalia" (1. 11) that it was on the Campus Martins : Felix his Sylla vocari, His meruit tumulum medio sibi tollerc campo ? ROME UNDEE PAPAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL SWAY. 93 a tablet set into a house-front in that long street, recording the demolition of the triumphal arch of Marcus Aurelius, for the convenience of public transit and of Carnival races, as decreed by Alexander YII. in 1662.* Farther on, he wi'U reach the spot where this street was spanned by another such arch (near the Piazza Sciarra) — the sculptured trophy erected, a.d. 46, in honour of Claudius, and to commemo- rate the victories won by that Emperor's generals, rather than by himself, in Britain, for the sake of which successes in Claudius's campaign the cognomen, " Britannicus" was conferred upon him. It seems, from the language of Andrea Eulvio (in his Antiq. Tlrlis, written 1527) that this arch was destroyed in his time, after he had seen it in pre- servation ; but he does not assign any motive for such an act of Vandalism under the reigning Pope, Clement VII. Plaminio Vacca tells us that many sculptures, the head of Claudius recognisable in some, were dug up on this spot, 1565 ; that he himself purchased no less than 136 cartloads of these antique fragments ; that the rest passed into the hands of one Signor Cesarini, who placed them in his gar- dens on the Esquiline Hill. Other researches for the relics of that arch were undertaken in 1641 by the Prince -di Carbonaro, who owned a palace built on the site, (1640) ; and at considerable depth were then found frag- mentary sculptures, friezes, shafts, &c. in great profusion. Before these could be removed, the reigning Pope^ Urban VIII., intimated his intention to reserve the right of pur- chase, as guaranteed by law, to the State. Consequently, the private speculators lost their interest in the object of * The relievi (some at least, if not all) from this arch are preserved, and now seen on the landing place of a staircase in the Conservators' palace on the Capitol. They are far surpassed in merit by the other relievi, from another arch erected to M. Aurelius, now in a court off a lower landing place of the same stairs. 9^ HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. research : the prince suspended his excavations ; and all these art-treasures were left where found, again interred under the street^ no authorities interposing to save them ! The collection made by Vacca was dispersed ; and Cesa- rini's purchase had a like fate, two reliefs fortimately ex- cepted, which are now in the atrium of the Borghese Villa : their subject, an allocution by the Emperor to his troops ; and though the figures be much mutilated, no one head entire, a grandeur and freedom of style here afford proof of the excellence in the Eoman art-school under Claudius. This arch was decreed to him (as observed) by the Senate after victories in Britain ; and its epigraph, recording those successes, is another relic preserved from its front, now set into a garden-wall behind the Barberini Palace. The terms of this inscription are characterized by haughty com- placence such as an Englishman may smile at : Ti. Claudio Caes. Augusto Fontifici Max. TR. P. IX. Cos. VI. Imp. XVI. P.E. Senatus Populmq. JR. quodBeges Britannicd absq. ulla jactura domtierit Oentesgue Barbaras prima indicia subegerit* — such the estimation of our countrymen and their Kings in the imperial Eome of the first century. At a few paces from the site of that vanished monument we reach the church of S. Maria in Via Lata^ in one of the subterranean chambers below which (assumed by vague tra- dition to have been the prisons in which were confined four of the Apostles), we see the remains, in immense travertine blocks without cement, of another triumphal arch, that of Diocletian, reduced to a ruinous fragment (its lower por- tion alone being preserved) for the sake of its materials and for a rebuilding of the Church, ordered in 1491 by Inno- cent Vm. Leaving the Corso, and finding ourselves on the piazza of the Pantheon, we cannot contemplate the ma- * I copy this as restored, almost half being modem, for its present location in the Barberini gardens. ROME UNDER PAPAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL SWAY. 95 jestic peristyle of that edifice without being reminded of the unscrupulous spoliation of its bronzes, (those, namely, oa the portico-ceiling), by Urban VIII., who has consigned this proceeding to the commendation claimed from posperity in a vaunting epigraph placed besides the ancient portal. It surprises us still more to find such an enlightened Pope as Benedict XIV. among the despoilers of the Pantheon ; for it was by him that the lofty attics between the colonnades and cupola were stripped of the entire encrustation, pilasters, cornices, &c., in porphyry and other coloured marbles, in order to use all that rich material for certain superfluities of church-decoration! — thus depriving Agrippa's edifice of the finest example of antique polychromatic decoration, applied to architecture, in Rome ! Leaving the Porum Eomanum to enter that of Nerva (called also " Transitorium"), we may observe the disgraceful neglect to which its beautiful ruins are abandoned — hitherto disregarded even under the new Grovernment — with a portico and columns, supporting a finely sculptured entablature and frieze, buried in earth to about one-half the height of their marble shafts ! But still more must we reprobate the act of Paul Y., who totally demolished the temple of Pallas, still erect and majestic in ruin, as it had remained up to his time, within the limits of that quadrangular portico ; the Borghese Pope making use of all the material so obtained for the heavy, ill-designed fountain, called after him, on the Janiculan Hill (1612), and on the front of which stand six Ionic columns of red granite from the demolished Minerva fane. An engraving given by Marliano {Urlis Bomce Topog. 1588), shows us the classic edifice in its then state, with still graceful, though decayed, architecture. Fortunately the rich adornment of marble clothing remains, still intact, round the lower walls of the Pan* 96 HISTORIC AND MOiniMENTAL ROME. theon. It would be unjust to pass unnoticed all that other Popes have done for the benefit, and favourable to the effect, of this most majestic fane. The bronze cover- ing of the dome, entirely stript off and carried away by the rapacious Constans II., on occasion of his ill-omened visit to Eome, a.d. 663, was replaced, but only with leaden tiles, by Martin Y ., 1425. The inter-columnations of the portico were freed from the encumbrances of paltry booths (as we have seen) by Eugenius IV. ; yet again were the graceful shafts concealed by such profane intrusion before the XVII. century ; and in 1611 Paul.V. proved himself a benefactor by prohibiting all traffic in this portico, and removing the wooden shops raised for such purposes. Two of the columns wanting (how lost is unknown) were re- placed by others of red granite by Alexander VIII. (1662) ; another, overthrown, was re-erected by Urban VIII. The modern accumulations, which had raised the level of the piazza in front, were removed by Clement XI. ; and other encumbrances, paltry shops, were removed from its area by Pius Vn. Among the undertakings of the Commission of Antiquities under Pius IX., was one with the object of iso- lating the entire rotunda by demolition of the mean houses which had clustered around it —a work well commenced, but not yet completed. Between the Porum Eomanum and the Colosseum, we pass the ruined cella and elevated terrace of Hadrian's temple of Venus and Eome ; and may here remember the deliberate spoliations by which the classic fane, up to that time probably standing in its ancient completeness, was left exposed to natural decay and the inclemency of sea- sons, when, A.D. 625, Pope Honorius I. stripped off its entire roof of gilt bronze tiles to use that material (as he could not do without permission from the G-reek Emperor) for the adornment and covering of St. Peter's basilica. Passing ROME UN^DER PAPAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL SWAT. 97 between the Aventine steep and the Tiber bank, on the road to the Ostian gateway (a region still solitary, though commanding a fine expanse of the civic buildings and heights, as we look northwards) we are again reminded of outrages against the antique by the Sovereign Ponti- ficate. Some marble arches, described by Flavio Biondo as beautiful, and conjectured to belong to a temple either of Hercules or Eortuna, stood below the Aventine de- clivities till the time of Sixtus IV., who caused them to be taken down in order to convert the marble into 400 cannon balls. But before such demolition those ruins had been pitilessly dealt with, and in part (as Biondo tells us) reduced to lime ! Elsewhere, on the Tiber banks within the city, similar reminiscences occur to us. At the entrance to the Fabrician bridge (Ponte Quattro Capi), on the river's left bank, once stood a marble arch of classic style and decoration, the very existence of which had long been forgotten till the learned Chev. de Rossi discovered some mention of it in a MS, code at the Magliabecchiana Library in Florence. Also from the same document was first made known to archaeologists, through the same gentle- man's researches, another arch erected in the Elaminian Circus, probably triumphal, of stonework repaired in marble, — its origin of the republican, its restorations of the imperial period. Both arches have alike vanished, leaving no vestige ; nor is any record discoverable by which we can learn how and when they disappeared ! Passing between the Palatine and the Coelian, we can recognize the spot once occupied by the stately fa9ade called Septizonium, added to the imperial buildings by Septimius Severus, and which was finally taken down by order of Sixtus V., for applying its marbles and still erect columns partly to other adornment in St. Peter's church, partly for the superb " Capella Sistina " founded 98 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. by that Pope at S. Maria Maggiorc, and in whicli ho erected his own monument. Sixtus V. was a great Pope, a benefactor to Eome, but also an unscrupulous despoiler of her classic monuments. We are reminded, when con- templating the enormous structure of the Tabularium on the Capitol, of the base uses to which that building was applied as a salt-magazine, its massive stonework being all corroded, in the interior, by the action of salt upon the tufa. This degradation of the ancient edifice continued for at least two centuries, and is mentioned by Poggio in the XV., by Nardini in the XYII. century. Of course, several Pontiffs were responsible; but the special proceeding of Sixtus v., affecting this Capitoline edifice, was the de- liberate removal, and apparently the destruction, of the antique statues placed along either the summit or some elevated terrace where they had fit place ; and for which act that Pope is commended by a Portuguese prelate, named De Bargas, who thus alludes to the fate of these sculp-, tures : ''a Capitolii turre dejecta, quae quasi ex edito loco clamare videbuntur." The same writer extols Pius V. for bis intention (fortunately not carried out) of removing all antique statues from the Vatican palace, as things Pagan and profane : " ex SDdibus Vaticanis hujusmodi omnes statuas alio mandare cogitaverit " {y.De Aedificiarum TIrh. Bom. Uversoribus, Sbud De Obeliscis, both in Grrsevius, Thes. Antiq. t. iv.) Amidst the stupendous ruins of the Antonine Thermse it is diffieult to forget or forgive the proceedings of a Pope, Paul III., who otherwise did much for the interests of Art and Archaeology ; but proved merciless as chief despoiler of the colossal skeleton left as it were dimly to represent the grand structure of M. Aurelius Antoninus, called Caracalla. That Pope not only removed all the sculptures hitherto discovered among those ruins to the Farnese palace, but, for HOME UNDER PAPAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL SWAY. 99 the Use of the masons whilst that residence for his family was rising to completeness (1534), caused the outer encrus- tations of fine brickwork to be pealed off from the loftier masses of the old, ivy-covered walls.* The permission given by Pius IV. (1564) to the Tuscan Duke Cosimo I. to remove, and transport to Florence the last column still erect in those Thermre, naturally accelerated the progress of decay. A similar act was, probably, followed by similar results^the removal, namely, of the last erect among the beautiful Corinthian columns from the arcades of the Basilica of Constantino to the piazza before S. Maria Mag- giore, where it now serves to support a statue of the Virgin Mary, as destined by Paul V., IGlS.f Even in presence of S. Peter's and the grandest creations of pontific power in architectural forms, we are reminded also of pontific Vandalism— a term perhaps too strong, but still appropriate in this case. Till about the close of the XV. century stood erect between the Vatican and the S. Angelo bridge a pyramidal mausoleum, like that of Cajus Cestius, and called in mediaeval times, " Memoria Romuli." Even Petrarch (see his " Eamiliar Epistles") unquestion- ing admits this to be the veritable sepulchre of Eomulus ; and under that notion, probably, was it introduced in the scene of S. Peter's martyrdom, among the relievi by Eila- * Sante Bartoli states that the scavi in these Thermae wei-e made, under Paul III., by order of Cardinal Famese, his nephew, and that they proved so richly productive of statues, bas-reliefs, columns, marbles of different species, besides quantities of minute objects — cameos, intagli, bronze statuettes, medals, lamps, &c. — that of these was formed the abundant collection in the Farnese palace. Nibby adds that " there remained, over and above, a great quantity of (sculptured) heads, busts, basso-relievi, &c., heaped up in two magazines within the samepalazzo." {Roma nelV Anno mbcccxxxviii.) t The costs of this transport were nearly 11,000 Roman scudi. — V. Fea. H 2 100 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. rete (1441) on the bronze doors of the ancient, still pre- served as tlie chief ingress to the modern basilica of the Apostle. That monument was taken down by order of Alexander VI. for the convenience of a new approach to the great church, when the existing street (now " Borgo Nuovo") was opened by him. Such proceedings, many others of character analogous with which might be cited, may convince us that the Popes awoke gradually to the sense of a duty with respect to the guardianship and preservation of classic antiquities, after the general feeling of enlightened Europe had declared itself, demanding their compliance, and after public opinion, however little habitually regarded at the Vatican, had caused its voice to be heard even in those precincts. That truly religious Christian Poet, Prudentius, rising above the mists of fanaticism, puts into the mouth of Con- stantine words, addressed to the Eoman Senate, in which the imperial convert recommends the preservation of the art, purified from the superstitious usage of ancient times : Marmora tabente respergine tincta lavate, O proceres ! liceat statuas consistere puras, Artificum magnorum opera. (Contra Symmach. 1. v. 502.) But little did this bias appear in the ecclesiastical circles at Rome ; nor is it surprising that the Pastors of the Church should have desired to annihilate all pertaining to that apparatus of external agency and charms by which the Heathen Religion acted on the feeling or sensualism of multitudes. The first public work of importance for civic utility undertaken by any Pope, was the restoration of the city-walls, first commenced by Gregory II. a.d. 725 — pro- jected, though not carried out, at an earlier period by Pope Sisinnius, who (708) ordered lime to be prepared for these buildings. Gregory II. undertook to restore the Eastern side, EOME UNDER PAPAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL SWAT. 101 near the Tiburtine (or S. Lorenzo) gate — a project, inter- rupted by political troubles, and carried out by that Pope's immediate successor, Gregory III. About a.d. 772, Adrian I., seeing that in many parts those fortifications were ruinous and their towers overthrown, assembled the pea- sants of the Campagna and the populations of towns in the Eoman district, and the contiguous one called '' Tuscia," or '' Toscana Suburbicaria," and, dividing them into squad- rons, assigned to each group of labourers the task to be exe- cuted, extending over a certain section, or curtain, of walls with the towers rising at intervals. More important were the completely new fortifications built round S. Peter's and its purlieus (the " Borgo" quarter), and forming, in fact, a separate city, called from its founder Civitas Leoniana, In the year 846 the Saracens, sailing from Ostia up the Tiber, devastated the Koman environs, and pillaged the two great basilicas, S. Peter's and S. Paul's, both then extramural. In 847 was elected Pope Leo IV., an energetic as well as truly religious man, who proposed to himself the main objects of replacing the incalculable losses, and repairing the immense damage inflicted by those Moslem invaders on the chief cathedrals ; also a general restora- tion of the city -walls, and erecting of new fortifications to surround the Vatican and its purlieus. The works for repair in other parts were superintended by the Pope, and two towers, on opposite banks of the river, were built where the Tiber flows through the civic limits on the south-western side, therefore commanding the approach from Ostia. The works for the new, the " Leonine," city, were commenced A.D. 848, and completed before the 27th June, 852. On that day, appointed for the inauguration, the saintly Pon- tiff led a long procession of Cardinals, Prelates, and all the Eoman Clergy round the entire cincture, all walking bare- footed, their heads strewn with ashes. Prelates sprinkled 102 niSTORTC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. holy water on the new walls, and at each of the gates tho Pope recited, not without tears, a prayer composed by himself. Thus arose the " Leonine City," the ruins of which, now mouldering curtains of walls, with a few lofty round towers in the Vatican gardens, but better preserved where used for supporting the covered corridor between that palace and the S. Angelo castle, now form a picturesque accessory, rising behind the heavy masses of the Vatican architec- ture, and transporting our minds from the modernized aspects and secularized spirit of the XVI. century Ponti- ficate back to the more apostolic and noble-minded Pontiffs of old time, and the strongly contrasted circumstances of the historic scene amidst whicb they lived. The deliberate destruction of antiquities in Mediseval Eome seems to have been continued unsparingly, syste- matically till towards the close of that period assumed to comprise the ages called ''middle." Aqueducts fell into ruin, perhaps through, natural decay rather than tho violence of man (exceptiug the injuries done to them in order to stop the water supply during the Gothic siege), during, or soon after, the IX. century. The Pora of Nerva and Trajan wxre still adorned with edifices, beautiful no doubt, however ruinous, till the X. century, when those classic remains w c'l'c swept away, probably during the tumults and anarchy atlcndingthe infamous domination of the Counts of Tuscu- lum, of Theodora and Marozia. In the XI. century (1084) 0('('ii7'red the tremendous disaster of the conflagration kindled by the Normans whom E-obert Guiscard led to the rescue of the heroic Pope Gregory VII., then a prisoner in S. Angelo after Rome had been besieged and occupied by Henry IV. Accounts vary ; but all testimonies agree in stating lli.'il llial Hit swept over the entire region from the Capitol to the Laleran — therefoi-e comprising the whole HOME UNIXER PAPAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL SWAY. 103 Eoman Forum, and (probably) the two other above-named Tora of Imperial origin. We find proof that, during these ages, the care of ancient monuments, at least the claim to the right of determining and decreeing for the object of their conservation, belonged to the Magistracy, not to the Popes. In 1162 the " Eoman Senate" bestowed the Column of Trajan on the neighbour- ing monastery of S. Ciriaco, no longer extant ; and at the same time decreed the penalty of death, besides confisca- tion of property, for the off"ence of deliberately damaging that sculptured column. An epigraph in curious Latinity is seen on the old walls, now closed, at the Porta Metronia, recording a restoration of the civic defences in that part by the Senate ; the date 1157 ; this inscription being headed by a mutilated name of a reigning Emperor, one whole line capable of being restored as : E. D. N. Prideeico Sa Gr.L. — and filled up as Regnante Domino nostro Frederico Semper Augusto Gloriosissimo — the name (Frederick I. " Barbaros- sa") having been probably cancelled after that potentate had been excommunicated. It is note-worthy that the Grcrman Emperor, not the Pope (Adrian IV.), is the sovereign here named, and with loyal deference. The picture of this city in its monumental aspects, and the condition of its classical antiquities in the XV., XVI. and XVII. centuries, may be contemplated in the pages of writers describing what they saw. Following the guidance of Flavio Biondo, and endeavour- ing to identify the sites of the much maltreated monuments he mentions, we become sadly bewildered, at a loss to account for the total disappearance, or at present meta- morphosed state of antiquities which rise before the mind's eye through the assistance his pages aff'ord to imagination. Among things now lost — violently destroyed as we must suppose — he describes the vaulted halls of the Ther- 104! HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. msB of Alexander Sevcrus in the purlieus of the Corso ; other extensive ruins, which he supposes to be the Tlicrinrc of Domitian, spreading around the Convent of S. Sy lv( .stti- ; and, nearer to the northern limit of that Corso street, " immense substructions," still visible though a stately palace had been raised amidst these now vanished heaps of forgotten ruin for a Cardinal, in the XIV. century. On the high ground of the Quirinal this writer saw, as he describes, the portico and erect statues of the Thermae founded by Constantine, all extant remains of which, ex- cepting the effigies of that Emperor and his son, now placed on pedestals above the balustrades of the Capitol- ine stairs, are now buried, and for ever lost to view, below the cellars of the Eospigliosi palace. The ruins now before us in the pleasant valley of gardens between the Quirinal and Pincian hills — a spot known as the " Gardens of Sallust " — are still picturesque, overgrown by ivy and underwood, and with gaping arcades half concealed by forest-trees in many parts ; but nothing here before us at this day corresponds to Biondo's description of these remains of imperial buildings as, in his words, "marvellous and stupendous ruins." Nor, onrthreEsquiline hill, do we see any shadow now cast by the lofty arched halls once over- looking or surrounding the church of S. Pietro in Vincoli, and which (with error not so surprising as many others on the part of well-known archaeologists at Eome) Biondo assumed to be no other than the Curiae Veteres. Por the XVI. century we have the reports of Onofrio Panvinio, and those still more circumstantial, though in language of naive brevity, by the sculptor Plaminio Vacca ; for the XVII. the learned pages of Fabricius, of the Scottish Dempster, and other savans. The first named writer describes the now totally lost remains of the Thermae of Nero, near the S. Eustachio church and the Sapienza University, as EOME UNDER PAPAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL SWAT. 105 arcus altissimi ("most lofty arcades"), and the ruins of Domitiau's Tlierma) (alike vanished) which were seen by him, conspicuous near the Porta Pinciana, with remains of paintings on their inner walls. In the ruins of Agrippa's Thermae, still extant, though reduced to the remnant of a single vaulted hall behind the Pantheon, Fabricius saw ranks of seats rising like those of a theatre {sedilia scam- norum ordinis), and remains of vitreous mosaic. The Thermae of Diocletian are described by him as so imposing that we must conclude that those ruins retained far more classic magnificence, extending over greater space, at that period than at present — still prominent and striking as they are at this day, while monasteries, churches, prisons, rise amidst and conceal to such a degree the " skeleton of the majestic form." Nothing is before us at this day of the ruins he saw between the churches of *S^. Niccolo in Carcere and S. Maria in Por^zco— those, namely, of the beautiful sculpture- adorned Portico of Octavia, still represented indeed by the remnants of its colonnades and pediments above the small church, ;S^. Angela in Fescaria, near the gloomy old fish- market. The fatal dispersion and incalculable loss of ancient art- works in Eome never has been, nor can be, accounted for. Among the most precious recent acquisitions for the galleries of classic sculpture, several — those indeed of supreme rank, as the Athlete with the strigil, the portrait statue of Augustus, the colossal Hercules in gilt bronze (all now at the Vatican) — were found through the researches, or works undertaken for building, by private persons. It is on record that at the end of the IV. century Eome con- tained 80 gilt bronze and 74 ivory statues of Deities, also 22 equestrian eifigies (all probably portraits) of heroic size, besides two colossal statues, and the marble multitude, 106 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. groups and relievi, in theatres, thermae, and on thirty-six triumphal arches. A writer of the time of Justinian states that within this city's walls there were then extant 37S5 statues, bronze and marble, of emperors, heroes, and other illustrious ones — without including the rest ! The Greek writer Socrates (born about a.d. 380) tells us in his " Eccle- siastical History " (from a.d. 306 to 439), that the Rome of the V. century — after the siege and capture by the Goths— contained 424< temples, 17 basilicas, 16 thcrmaB, 19 aqueducts, 29 libraries, 856 balnei (baths less grandly developed than the thermae), 1352 fountains, 5 naumachiae, 6 arenas for gladiatorial combats and shows according to ancient usage. The loss and dispersion of such artistic wealth, the demolition and decay to which so many antique monuments were abandoned in mediaeval Eome, would have been im- possible but for the moral atmosphere which then prevailed here ; but for the non-appreciation of classic Art, and the total absence of that feeling, excited by historic or memory- haunted E-uin, which finds utterance in modern literature. Neither the antique nor the mediaeval mind could enter into or appropriate, much less be guided by, such feeling. The Latin Poets of the Empire might have contemplated the ruined cities of Latium, Sabina, Etruria, might have wandered amidst the desolate remains of Veii, Gabii, Fi- denae, or penetrated many cavern-tombs, profusely adorned with the mysterious sepulchral paintings of the Etruscans ; the sorrowful wrecks of fallen dominion, the decaying sanc- tuaries of ancient lieligion were before the eyes of those Poets ; yet how rarely is any sentiment to which such scenes or objects had given birth, expressed in their writings !* * I might except the lines of Propertius, inspired by the spectacle of the ruined Veii, which, since the conquest by Camillus, b.c. 390, had been left deserted and abandoned to the natural process of decay for 343 EOME UNDEE PAPAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL SWAY. 107 Having noticed the shortcomings of the Popes, in ages long past, with regard to the claims of Antiquity, I may now turn to a more agreeable subject, desirous of doing justice to their efforts and liberality for the preservation of the classic monuments under their immediate superin- tendence. In the archaeological as in the political sphere the procedure of the Eoman Pontiffs has been, generally speaking, uniform. An impulse once admitted, a prin- ciple once adopted, successive Popes have conformed to the intention of their predecessors, with consistency compara- tively little affected by individual temper, or by the frequent vacancies and brief average term of occupation of their throne. Not till the XY. century do we, however, meet with any examples of that care for antiquities or classic art which has, in later time, deserved and won credit for the sovereign High Priests. The first stage in this new direc- tion given to their energies, after their public works had been long almost exclusively confined to sacred objects, or the institutions of charity, was that of activity in promot- ing civic improvement, utilitarian undertakings, public convenience, &c. Martin V. (1417-1431) set himself to the task of repairing, and where requisite rebuilding all the parochial churches in this City ; and by edict enjoined on all Cardinals the duty of restoring, besides providing for the spiritual admin- istrations of, those churches from which they took their re- spective titles. That Colonna Pope extended his cares further. Moved by the calamitous and squalid state in winch he found Eome on his arrival from Constance, where years before Julius Caesar distributed its territoiy in lots, together with that of Capena, among his disbanded soldiers; Et Veil vetercs et vos turn rcgna f uistes, Et vestro posita aurca sella foro. Nunc intra muros pastoris buccina lente Cantat et in vestris ossibus arva metunt. El. xi. 1. 4, 108 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. ho had ])con elected, "the good Pontiff (says Platlna), applied himself to the adorning and emhellishing of the City, as well as to the reform of its corrupt manners ; and in a short time it (the City) was seen in much better con- ditions ; hence was he (Martin V.) called not only Pontiff, but also Father of his country." Eugenius IV. (1431-14!4'7) continued the undertakings for civic benefit and embellish- ment : caused the principal streets to be widened, and those in the Campus Martins (the populous quarter of modern Home) for the first time paved. His meritorious cares for the Pantheon, and the disencumbering of its noble portico, (v. Flavio Biondo) I have mentioned. Nicholas V. (1447- 1455), a man of elevated character and enlightened mind, undertook greater monumental works than any of his prede- cessors had even projected : e.g. the new St. Peter's basilica, and a new Vatican palace, where the entire Curia and College of Cardinals might have residence. He lived to see but the first few stone-courses of the basilica commenced by the architect Eossellini, and the completion in the pon- tific palace of two additional chapels, besides an ample wing of the buildings begun in his time, but left unfinished till the pontificate of Alexander VI. Paul II. (14G4-1471), who loved magnificence, and built f5r himself, when Cardi- nal, the most beautiful palace yet seen in Christian Eome (now "Palazzo di Venezia"), formed what may be considered a nucleus Museum of classic art (though not for public benefit) by collecting in that new residence, inhabited by him both as Pope and Cardinal, all the antique sculpture of which he could obtain possession.* What must have been the profane excess of the despoil- ing mania, even later than this time, when such outrages * " He ordered researches for antique statues throughout Kome; and that all such as could be found bhould be transferred to his palace under the Capitol." — Platina. ROME UNDER PAPAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL SWAY. 109 against sacred things could occur in the metropolis of the Church as called for the edict of Sixtus IV. (1477), threat- ening not only spiritual penalties but heavy fines for the then frequent oft'ence of robbing churches, even the chief basilicas, of their marbles, porphyry, and other precious stones for the private uses of unscrupulous citizens — outrages which were occasionally perpetrated so late as in the time of Urban VIII. (1623-44), who renewed that edict, alike denouncing similar offences, and especially addressing the Clergy, secular and regular, who were culpa- ble for thus maltreating the sacred edifices under their care Sixtus IV., more absorbed by political than by ecclesias- tical interests, nevertheless proved a benefactor to Kome through means of public works— opening new streets, enlarg- ing piazzas, rebuilding, levelling, &c. In the earlier years of the XV. century, only one out of the nineteen ancient aqueducts brought water into this city {v. Flavio Biondo.) Sixtus restored the " Aqua Virgo" conduits, the greater part of which are subterranean, and thus supplied the most salubrious of the waters brought hither in ancient times.* According to Platina, indeed, other aqueducts (that his- torian does not say which) were restored by the same Pope. Julius II. (1503-1513) may be considered, as observes the archaeologist Pea, " the third Founder of Eome j" and that learned Abate vindicates for the warlike Pope who com- manded at the siege and mounted the first breach in the walls of Mirandola — to a degree more than is allowed by Eoscoe in his celebrated " Life of Leo X." — the honour of originating and promoting many of the grand and praise- * It is, in the opinion of some ciiemists, surpassed by the Mareian waters, the lately renewed supply of which is due to a company of capi- talists ; and the first gushing of which crystalline waters, in a graceful fountain opposite the Diocletian Thermae, was inaugurated by Pius IX, a few days before the siege of Rome in September, 1870. 110 nisTomc mtd monumental eome. worthy works, the credit for which is commouly awarded to the Medici Pope, his successor. It was Julius who founded the new S. Peter's, (150G), who chose, among many designs, that of Bramante for the great basilica ; who first engaged Eaffael to paint in the " stanze" of the Vatican ; who patronized Peruzzi and San- gallo. It was through his prudent economies that Pope Julius was able to leave five million gold scudi in the Pontific treasury, afibrding means for that lavish expenditure which Leo X. carried further than any of his predecessors, squan- dering (as he did) 200,000 scudi on th6 pomps and decora- tions of a single occasion, his " possesso," or installation at the Lateran ! Not that we should forget the signal ser- vices to literature and munificent patronage of genius in every walk, on the part of Pope Leo. That tiara-crowned MecaBnas gave 5000 sequins for the newly-discovered MS. of Tacitus, the first five books of the precious History rescued from oblivion in a monastic library. The Eoman University had fallen into decay before his Pontificate. Founded by Boniface VIIL, it was permanently established on its more modern basis by Eugenius lY. ; and Nicholas V. effected still more, for the benefit of the " Sapienza," by engaging the most learned professors of the time for its cathedra). Paul II. and Sixtus IV. imitated, though they did not equal, the munificence so well applied by the estimable Pope Nicholas.* Alexander VI. amplified and completed the University buildings. Leo X. gave new life to this institution, whose revenues, long ill-administered, had been at last alienated ; he invited on handsome terms the ablest professors in Europe ; and lectures were thence- forth given to Eoman students from the newly-established chairs of Moral Philosophy, Ehetoric, Logic, Mathematics. Leo X. conferred on Eaffael the office of Chief-Commissary for archaeological works, assigning to him the surveillance * V, Tiraboschi, who enters fully into this subject. EOME UNDER PAPAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL SWAT. Ill over and acquisition of Antiques, wMlst all who might discover such objects were charged to make report to him within three days, under a penalty of from 100 to 300 gold scudi. The sphere of Eaftael's duties and responsibilities extended over a radius of ten miles around, as well as the whole interior of, the City. Humanity and Civilization might sympathise with the unfortunate Clement VII., when, returning from his sor- rowful exile at Orvieto, after his flight from the S. Angelo castle, he wept over the misery and ruin — the traces apparent in his desolated metropolis— of the outrages inflicted by the ferocious hordes of the Constable Bourbon, (1527.)* Yet we are assured that the vestiges of that ter- rible catastrophe — the siege, sack, and massacre by savage marauders fighting under the banner of the Catholic Em- peror — were almost completely obliterated, as to the City's outward aspects at least, through the restorations or repairs actively carried on under Paul 111.(1534-1549). That PontiflT, as we have seen, scrupled not to use the materials of the An- tonine Thermae for his own buildings at the Parnese palace ; yet to him are due some celebrated edifices and many civic improvements : the Pauline Chapel and Sala Eegia of the Vatican ; the opening of new streets, as those between the S. Angelo bridge (Via Faold) and the Via Giulia, between the Piazzas di Spagna and del Popolo {Via Bahuino). By him was ordered the removal of the noble equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius from the Lateran piazza, where it had * On the day of the capture, 4000 victims, soldiers and citizens, were massacred in cold blood. Every church in Eome was pillaged ; even the grave was not respected ; and the sepulchres of Popes at S. Peter's were broken open, to rob the dead of vestments and ornaments ! During two months did these outrages and horrors continue ; and the entire amount of precious objects destroyed or carried away, together with other robberies, is estimated at twenty million Roman scudi. — See details given in " II Sacco di Roma," under the name (perhaps assumed) of Giacomo Buonaparte. 112 nisTomc and monumental rome. been placed by Sixtus IV"., to the summit of the Capitol, where it was erected in its present position by Buonarotii. Pope Paul's biographers inform us that he did good in the way of demolition as well as creation — throwing down crazy old houses, and many of the narrow lanes called vicoli. Such demolishing works (not even churches being spared) were carried to the greatest extent in the prepara- tions for the festive entry of Charles V. (153G), for which occasion was also made the staircase forming an easy ascent to the Capitol on the northern side. Out of gratitude for all he had done to benefit his metropolis, a statue of Paul III. was erected in the great hall of the Capitoline palace by the grateful Senate, 1543. Pius V. (15G6-1572) again restored the Aqueduct which brings the " Virgo " waters into Eome ; also certain por- tions of the fortifying walls. Anxious for ecclesiastical discipline and rigorous reform of manners, &c.,he ordered one measure advantageous to the effect of sacred architec- ture, though fatal perhaps to much that was interesting within sacred walls — the removal, namely, from all church interiors of the more conspicuous tombs, like mausolea, erected in the midst of their naves or aisles. During the short pontificate of Sixtus V. (1585-1590) more was effected, through the efforts and abilities of that most energetic man, than had been accomplished by any of his predecessors in the longest reigns ever accorded by the term of life to a sacerdotal sovereign in Eome. Through those efforts was it mainly that this City became metamorphosed, exchanging its gloomy and me- diaeval aspects for those of modern civilization.* Sixtus * Till the time of Julius, as a contemporary writer upon Rome describes, every Cardinal's house was a " tower " — that is, a strongly fortified castle ; as were also those of the Barons and other magnates, from whose broils and lawless violence the citizens suffered so long and ROME UNDEE PAPAL AND CONSTITUTIOKAL SWAT. 113 did more than this. The change he wrought was moral — more than material : the almost unchecked and audacious license of brigandage in the immediate environs, the law- less ferocity and public contests of armed aristocrats and their retainers, the dangers to which life and property were constantly exposed in the streets, — all these evils did he provide against, and to a great extent suppress, giving the first efficient blow to a state of barbarism which rendered the social life of Eome a scandal and an exception amidst civilized Europe. The reforming Pope is said to have de- clared (in his emphatic words) to the Duke of Luxembourg, that in the time of his immediate predecessor, Gregory XIII., " Neither men nor women were in safety in their o^m houses, nor in broad daylight," — i.e. at Eome. Sixtus V. understood and projected the task of restora- tion in a sense all his own. He demolished much (as we have seen) without regard to the claims of the Classical or Antique ; and if he desired to preserve or restore the monuments of Heathen power and genius, it was in order to connect them with trophies of Christianity ; if he re-erected Egyptian Obelisks, it was to make them adorn the approach to cathedral-churches and to surmount their apices with the victorious Cross ; if he repaired and freed from sur- rounding soil the columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius, it was with intent to make them serve as basements to the statues of S. Peter and S. Paul. He not only overthrew, in order to procure marbles and columns for S. Peter's, the beautiful, though ruinous, arcades of the Septizonium added by Septimius Severus to the Palatine structures, but grievously. The aspects of many monuments and other buildings in Rome as they stood till the close of the XV. century, may be contem- plated in the valuable sets of drawings by Sangallo at the Barberini Library. I Hi IIISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. swept away extensive ruins (probably those of Diocletian's ThermaB) for the purpose of enlarging his private estate round the villa built for him by Domenico Fontana (that architect's first work) in the valley between the Esquiline and Quirinal hills, where that pleasant villa, recently restored by its owner, Prince Massimi, is overlooked by S. Maria Maggiore.* Sixtus V. had no bigoted aversion to antique Art because of its Heathen origin, like the well-intentioned Adrian VI., who when the Vatican sculptures were pointed out to him, a stranger and foreigner, newly arrived in Borne, turned away with the exclamation : Sunt idola Gentium ! How general the taste for and practice of collecting antique sculptures had become among the prelacy and nobility of E-ome in the former Pope's time, is attested in a now rare work, Le Antichit4 della Ciitd di Homa (Venice, 1588), where are enunierated the private galleries besides those in the Vatican and Capitoline palaces ; and the richest Art collections in this city, next to those two, are mentioned as belonging to Cardinal Farnese, to a Mgr. Carpi, to the Savelli, Massimi, and Altieri families ; others in the Capranica and Mellini palaces being also remembered. It was by Sixtus that the sublime colossi of Castor and Pollux with their steeds were placed where they now stand on the Quirinal Hill, so finely grouped with the companion obelisk and fountain flowing into a classic urn — the original place of those sculptures * The same Fontana supplies a full report of the public buildings and improvements carried out by the liberal patron who had raised him from obscurity ; and in this volume he naively commends the Pope for such destruction of the antique, among other proceedings praise-worthy in his eyes : " The Holy Father (he says) has ordered to be pulled down (Tia jaUo guastare) the antique ruins which obstructed the ap- proaches to S. Mai-ia degli Angeli," — i.e. the church built by Buonarotti among the scattered relics of those vast Thermal. EOME UNDER PAPAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL SWAY. 115 having been in the Thermae of Constantine on the same hill* Among that Pope's utilitarian public works, the Aque- duct (called after him " Acqua Eelice," from his baptismal name Felix) is the most note-worthy. The continual labours of 2000, sometimes between 3000 and 4000 men, achieved this construction, imitative of those of Republican and Imperial Rome, for the same purpose of water-supply ; but the arcades of the Sixtine Aqueduct look poor and mean beside the majestic ruins of the Claudian and Mar- cian. The new Vatican library, substituted for that built by Sixtus IV., and the printing press in the same palace, are among the foundations due to the fifth Sixtus ; and the great wing of the pontific palace, the part where his suc- cessors have resided ever since, was commenced by the same Pope. We cannot certainly approve of his proceeding in the demolition of the ancient Lateran palace, residence of the Popes from the time of Constantino till the Avignon exile, and kept up as such even during their absence, but mercilessly condemned, without regard for all its historic memories and remaining art- decorations, to give place to the heavy and characterless edifice built by Domenico Fontana, under order of Sixtus, beside the ancient basilica. But the crowning glory of this pontificate was the comple- tion of the cupola of S. Peter's, with the architecture of Giacomo della Porta, a work for which Sixtus devoted 100,000 gold scudi annually, and oil which 600 labourers toiled day and night. The architect and builders calcu- lated ten years for the time requisite. Sixtus answered * Tlie epigraph on a basement informs us of the original location of these statues, and of the traditions assigning them to the artists Phidias and Praxiteles : Sixtus IV., a.d. 1589, hcec signa temporis vi deformata Testihdt, veterihiosque repbsitis inscriptionibii,s, e proximis Constantiniani- hus Thermis in Quirinalem mcam transtulit. I 2 116 nisTomc and monumental home. that he would allow them two years, and demanded the completion of their task by that time. AVithin twenty-two months did the marvellous dome swell to the fulness of its majestic proportions, a.d. 1590.* The Obelisks, a striking monumental feature of this city, were all (save one) restored and replaced where they now stand by the Popes. The first such achieve- ment — the removal and re-erection of one of these mystic symbols of old Egypt's faith and worship — attended as the transaction was with more excitement, and more impressing to witnesses, than were any like operations, is in a peculiar manner associated with the memory of Sixtus V. That Obelisk which stands, finely effective, in the centre of the majestic sweep of the Vatican colonnades, is the only one, among all those extant in E-ome, which was never overthrown or broken, being a monolith, 135 feet high, originally adorning the Circus of Cajus Caligula — called also " Circus of Nero." Its former place was near the front of the S. Peter's Sacristy, little more than 863 feet distant from its present situation. It has 110 incised hieroglyphics, and from the mention of it by Pliny (Ixxxvi. c. xi. § 15) appears to be, though brought from Egypt by the Emperor Cajus, a Eoman copy imitative of an Egyptian antique, namely, the Obelisk raised by the son of Sesostris, whom Pliny calls " ISTuncu- reus." The earliest mediaeval notice of this, long the sole erect obelisk in Eome, is found in the fantastic pages of the " Mirabilia Eomae." The writer mentions the then popu- lar tradition that this Obelisk was the tomb of Julius Caesar, whose ashes were set in a globe, encrusted with gold and • Well is it said of this high-minded Pontiff, who has been so much misrepresented, and the history of whose life has beeen treated like romance: "II avait nobles passions, il aimait les livres, les arts, et les constructions." v. Baron d'Hiibner's very interesting biography, " Sixte Quint." ROME UNDER PAPAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL SWAY. 117 gems, on its apex ! He also transcribes the moralizing epi- graph (which, seeing that he writes of things known to himself and his readers, must have been placed somewhere on or near the monument in question) : Ccesar tanfus eras quantus et Orbis^ et nunc in modico claudis auro. Petrarch also mentions it, accepting the mediaeval tradition (1. xii. Epist. II.) Nicholas V. conceived the grand but impracti- cable idea of raising this obelisk on the shoulders of four colossal statues of the Evangelists, and placing on its sum- mit a bronze statue of Christ bearing the cross. Paul II. and Paul III. thought of removing it to the Vatican piazza j and the latter consulted Michael Angelo on the under- taking ; but could not induce him to accept the commission. Sixtus Y., after conferring with many architects, preferred the project presented, with various others, by Domenico Eontana. The operations commenced on the 30th April, 1586, and the obelisk was raised to its actual place, in the presence of the Pope and an immense multitude, through the labour of 800 men and 140 horses, on the 10th September following. It is said that the business of the day began before sunrise, and that the last rays of the setting sun gilt the granite shaft and surmounting cross, when the momentous task was finished. Eontana was re- warded by the Pope with nobility, a pension of 2000 scudi transmissable to his heirs, 5000 gold scudi in ready money, and aU the material (valued at 20,000 scudi) used for the operations. On that morning pontifical High Mass was celebrated in St. Peter's ; and after exorcism of the obelisk as a thing made impure by Heathenism, the bronze cross, containing a relic of the true " Crux Domini," was raised from a portable altar below to the apex, whilst the Clergy knelt around, and the choir sang hymns. The blast of trumpets, and roar of artillery announced the consummate event. An indulgence of ten years was granted to all the faithful who, passing before this consecrated antique, should 118 niSTOBIC AND MONUMENTAL IIOME. adore the »ign of redemption with rfecital of a Pater Noster. Characteristic of the thought and intent of Sixtus V., and indeed nobly conceived, are the epigraphs on the modern basement : Ecce Crux Domini — Fugite partes adversee — Vicit Leo de tribu Juda — contrasted with the original dedi- cation on the shaft, in the name of one of the worst Pagan Emperors, to the memory of Augustus and Tiberius : Divo Cccsari Divi Julii Augusto Ti. Ccesari Divi Augusta Sacrum. The costs of this removal and re-erection were 37,000 scudi. Long afterwards (1723) the bronze ornaments, festoons and eagles, were set round the lower part of the monolith ; and the cross at the apex was restored by another Eontana, 1702. In the Vatican library we see an interesting wall- picture of the scene on the piazza before St. Peter's, on the loth September, 1586 — curious for the details in the background, showing the then state of the unfinished basilica and pontific palace. Next was erected (1587) by the same architect commis- sioned by the same Pope, the Obelisk on the Piazza del Popolo, which was originally dedicated to the sun-god, Osiris, by Eameses III. (the Sesostris of Greek historians) at Heliopolis, and may be assigned to date about 1550 years before our era. This was exported from Egypt by Augustus, and placed on the spina of the Circus Maximus, where it was exhumed from a depth of about 9 feet underground, the costs of removal and re-erection being, in this instance, 10,299 scudi. In the same year, 1587, was erected the Obelisk before the north-western front of S. Maria Maggiore, one of two such antiques which flanked the entrance to the mauso- leum of Augustus, and was brought from Egypt, as supposed, by Claudius.* It was exhumed near the church * More probably by some later Emperor, seeing that Pliny mentions, as existing in Rome in his time, the obelisks placed by Au- gustus in the Circus Maximus and on the Campus Martins, and that of ROME UNDER PAPAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL SWAT. 119 of St. Eocco, (not far from the imperial mausoleum), shortly before the year 1527, at which date Fulvio mentions that it had been seen by him; and its neglected remnants were (it seems) left on the same spot till the time of its re-erection by order of Sixtus, and under care of the above-named architect. The modern inscriptions round its basement form a curious record of religious ideas — the key-note being supplied by the adjacent basilica and the precious relics there enshrined — alluding to the vision of the Virgin Mother and Divine Child beheld by Augustus on the site of the Aracocli church on the Capitol ; also to the universal peace which preceded the Nativity, and to the sacred cradle {sacra cuna) believed to be in S. Maria Maggiore, where that object is exhibited with pomp of solemnity and- illuminations at Christmas. In the following year was erected, also by Fontana, the Obelisk which ranks first with respect both to scale and antiquity — that on the Lateran piazza, originally raised by King Thoutmes IV. in front of a great temple at Thebes, about the year (as the learned in hieroglyphics decide) 1740 B.C., and brought from Eome, about a.d. 353, by the Emperor Constans, whose father, Constantino, had ordered its removal from Thebes, but did not live to see his purpose carried into effect. Constans caused it to be erected toge- ther with the other above-named obelisk, on the spina of the great Circus, where it long lay prostrate, broken into three pieces ; and in the works for restoration it was necessary to cut off the lower part, thus shortening the monolith shaft (of red granite) by 4 palms. The actual height of that shaft (without the base) is 105 feet 7 inches ; the whole height from the ground, 141 feet.* Since this symbolic Cajus Caligula in the Vatican Circus, but does not mention any obelisks before the imperial mausoleum. * The ornaments added byFontana, four bronze lions, and the mount, (a trois coteaux) with the cross on the apex, are the armorial devices adopted by the lowly-born Pope Sixtus. 120 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. monument was first erected by the Egyptian King, how many Empires, Dominions, Institutions, Keligions, have passed away! All the struggles and conquests of Republican and Imperial Eome recede into modern time before the vener- able antiquity of this silent witness— but the Cross, the symbol now on its apex, is still dominant throughout the truly civilized world !* Among the epigraphs on the base- ment erected by Eontana, one contains an error against history, for it alludes to the adjacent Lateran Baptistery as the building in which Constantine received the purifying sacrament — though it is now well known, and might have been ascertained in the time of Pope Sixtus, that the first Christian Emperor set the bad example of postponing his baptism till he lay on his deathbed at Achyron, near Nicomedia, a.d. 337.t The Obelisk on the Piazza Navona is one of those entirely of Roman work, and explained by its hieroglyphics as dedicated by Domitian, who destined it to adorn his villa on the Albano Lake. Thence it was removed, a.d. 311, by the tyrant Maxentius to the Circus on the Appian Way, founded by him and named after his son Eomulus. Poggio Bracciolini saw it, broken into four pieces, among the ruins * According to the interpretation of the hieroglyphics by Champollion, this obelisk is proved to be commemorative of the King Thoutmes, or Thothmes, who was of the 18th dynasty, the Moeris of the Greeks. It scarcely need be observed that such an antiquity far exceeds that of the confirmed date of the Exodus from Egypt, and even that of the birth of Moses. The proximity to the great basilica, long the representative cathedral of the Papacy, and entitled "Mother of all Christian Churches," with the contiguous residence of the Pontificate during about a thousand years (I mean, of course, the palace destroyed, not that Jbuilt, by Six- tus), adds another impressive association of ideas and memories to this primaeval monument from Thebes. t When exhumed in the Circus Maximus, 1587, by order of Sixtus, this obelisk was found about 10 palms below the surface; costs of the scavi, transport, and re-erection, being 24,716 scudi. EOME UNDER PAPAL AFD CONSTITUTIONAL SWAT. 121 of the Circus ; and there it was left after that writer's time, buried deep under ground, till some period in the XYI. century. Fulvio saw it, again exhumed, in 1527. It was re-erected, 1651, by order of Innocent X., the architect being Bernini ; and that Pope's device, a dove with an olive-branch — poor and vain substitute of heraldry for sacred symbolism ! — now surmounts its apex. The Obelisk on the Piazza Minerva is in its upper part alone Egyptian, the rest Roman. Brought from the East, it was placed before the temple of Isis, which is supposed to have stood near the site of the Dominican church, S. Maria della Minerva, opposite to which it now stands. It was re- erected, by order of Alexander VII., who assigned the task to Bernini, 1667, and one of that famous artist's pupils, Eerrata, sculptured the marble elephant, on whose back, with fantastic taste, this obelisk was raised, to stand as we see it. Its companion is the Obelisk now on the piazza before the Pantheon, originally erected before the same temple of Isis ; and after the levelling and polishing up of that piazza by Clement XI., placed where it now stands in 1711. The Obelisk on the Monte Citorio, in front of the present Parliament House, was originally raised by the Egyptian King Psammeticus, in the YII. century before our era, at Heliopolis, with dedication to Osiris as the Sun- God. Augustus brought it to Eome, and raised it — again dedi- cated to the Sun — in the Campus Martins, destined as a commemoration of his victories in Egypt ; also to serve as the gnomon of a meridian. It is mentioned by the " Anony- mous" of Einsiedlin as still erect when he (the German pilgrim) visited Eome about the beginning of the IX. cen- tury. It fell at last, and several fragments were dug up one after another, before and during the XYI. century. Sixtus Y. desired to re-erect it, but was prevented, owin^- 122 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL KOME. to the impossibility of finding the portions still wanting;. In 1748 the buried remnant, the principal part indeed of its shaft came to light ; and was re-erected by order of Pius VI. after being restored with granite pieces from the ruined column of Antoninus Pius, 1792 ; its apex now crowned with a globe and small pyramid of bronze. The damaged condition in which it was found showed the action of fire on its granite shaft ; and it is conjectured that, with many adjacent buildings overthrown, or destroyed, it suf- fered from the conflagration caused by the Norman troops of Kobert Gruiscard in 1084. If so, this obelisk, with its traces of the ravaging flames, serves to determine the limits, variously reported, of the extent over which that tremend- ously destructive fire was spread. The Obelisk on the piazza before the Quirinal palace served, with its companion now standing before S. Maria Maggiore, to flank the entrance to the Mausoleum of Augustus, near which it was found, with the other, and alike buried, in 1527. On that spot it lay till its removal and re-erection were ordered by Pius VI. in 1786. The two Obelisks on the Pincian Hill were re-erected by the two Popes Pius — one, that so finely conspicuous on the terrace above the grand staircase ascending from the Piazza di Spagna, in 1788 ; the other, amidst the acacia avenues and flower-beds of the public gardens, in 1823. The former stood originally in the Circus of Sallust, amidst those gardens which became an Imperial property, where Emperors successively built for themselves. Prom thence it was removed in 1733 ; and the dedication on its modem basement is to the Holy Trinity, the church opposite, with front on the same terrace, being alike so dedicated : Tropceo Cruets prcdjixo, Trinitati Augusto — with such allusion to the relics set in the iron cross on its apex, those namely of the true " Crux Domini," of SS. Augustine, Francesco di ROME UNDER PAPAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL SWAT. 123 Paola, jind Pius V. This Obelisk also is a Eoman imitation of Egyptian work, and probably of the period of the Anto- nine Emperors. The other Obelisk on the Pincian is also of Eoman work- manship, and is supposed to have been placed by Hadrian among the buildings and gardens of his delightful Tiburtine villa; thence subsequently removed, either by Helioga- balus or Aurelian, to the Circus in the " Horti Variani," the favourite residence of the former young Emperor, and the gardens and structures of which occupied the site where now stand the church and monastery of S. Croce, extending also beyond the adjacent city walls. This obelisk, after being long left prostrate near the Porta Maggiore, was placed in the Barberini grounds (though not there erected,) 1638. A princess of that family presented it to Clement XIV. ; and it was deposited in a court of the Vatican till, at last, Pius VII. ordered its re-erection in the place where we now see it. Erom the sense of its hieroglyphics, address- ing the deified Antinous as, " Antinous Osiris, Oracle", (or *' Utterer of Truth"), it is supposed to have been origin- ally dedicated to that favourite of the Emperor Hadrian in a temple alike raised to his honour — if so, probably at Antinopolis, the city named after him in Egypt, before its transfer, for another location, to the imperial villa. The dates on the basements of these two Obelisks are memor- able ; one (1789) coinciding with the incipient movements of the greatest revolution that ever shook the fabric of Society, or waged war against the Church ; the other (1823) with the close of that Pontificate during which Catholicism was re-established, its influences revived and strengthened in many lands, and the Papacy restored to its temporal throne, with its former territorial possessions. The sole Obelisk in Eome which was not restored or re-erected by any Pope, is that in the beautiful grounds of 124 HISTOETC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. the Villa Mattel on the Coelian Hill. A fragment only of the antique is, in this instance, preserved ; and the broken remnants of the original had been long left below the northern slope of the Capitol, on which hill it is supposed to have stood before another temple of Isis ; till at last the worthy magistrates presented it, in token of respect, to the Duke Mattel, then owner of that Villa, who placed it where it now stands, 1563. Amidst whatever surroundings, whether rising against the harmonious lines and masses of architecture, the basilica, the portico, or the palace, or seen in the vista of umbrageous avenues, soaring above their luxuriant foliage, the Obelisk is always a striking and appro- priate object. It appears to solemnize the scene, and pre- serve the record of a religious thought from far-distant ages. Turning once more to the XVI. century from this digres- sion, we find even in that brilliant epoch of Italian Litera- ture and revived Art, the work of decay continuing its havoc, in some instances quite unchecked, among Home's antiquities. Andrea Fulvio describes as vast and imposing the ruins of the above-named Circus in the gardens of Heliogabalus — their structure extending near the S. Croce basilica and beyond the Porta Maggiore. They have totally vanished ! Such also has been the fate of a temple, with dedication perhaps unique — to " Jupiter Tragicus," — near the convent of S. Lorenzo Fanisperna on the Viminal hill ; but fortunately two seated statues, admirable for truthful individuality, of the Greek dramatic Poets, Menander and Posidippos, were rescued from the destruction of that sanctuary raised to the drama-protecting god — these being now in the Vatican. Bufalini's map ('drawn up in 1551^, shows us a long perspective of ruins conspicuous on the Pincian hill, and extending over the ground now occupied by the Via Sistina and Via Porta Pinclana. They pro- bably belonged to the buildings of some Emperor in those ROME UNDER PAPAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL SWAT. 125 gardens of LuciiUiis on the " coUis hortarum," which be- came imperial property after they had been violently taken from their rightful owner by the infamous wife of Claudius, by her who caused his death. Not one vestige of them remains; nor is aught left of another edifice, a rotunda with domed roof, on a spot amidst the modern Pincian gardens, which structure was popularly known as the "hall of Apollo." In the Colonna gardens on the Quirinal we still see some remains of very massive and apparently rich architecture — the temple of the Sun, founded by Aure- lian ; but those fragments are slight and formless things compared with the imposing ruins described as still erect on that site up to a period later than the XVI. century. Some writers mention a colonnade below the Tarpeian Eock which they (it seems erroneously) supposed to be the portico of Pompey, adjoining the curia and theatre founded by that great leader. These, too, have vanished. I agree with the Abate Pea in thinking that the XVI. century should be rather called " the age of Julius II.," than that of Leo X. In the influences proceeding from the Vatican for the benefit of art and promotion of great works, the former Pontiff set the best example. Julius may be consi- dered the founder of the sculpture gallery in the pontific palace ; and what that collection was, towards the middle of the same century, we learn from an eye-witness, Onofrio Panvinio. It contained (he says) the Laocoon, the Apollo (Belvedere), the Venus, the " Cleopatra" (he means the sleeping Ariadne) ; and was he adds, " most celebrated for other ancient monuments there seen," (aliquot prceterea vetustis monumentis celeberrimus est). Julius, when Car- dinal, purchased the recently discovered Belvedere Apollo ; also, after he had become Pope, the recently exhumed Laocoon group and the Hercules torso, called " Belvedere" 12G nisTonic and monumental home. from its location in the Palace whore all those sculptures were placed by him. It was in the XVII. century that public and private museums, galleries of classic art, collected by Popes or Car- dinals, developed here so fully as to impart new charm and attractiveness to the ** Eternal City." From this period we may regard Rome as the metropolis of the "Belle Arti" in a now recovered, restored, and w^ell-ordered aggregate. Then was erected and enriched with a celebrated collection of antiques the Villa Borghese, founded by the Cardinal Scipione of that family, nephew to Paul V. (Pope from (1005-21) ; but the art-collection in that beautiful suburban palace was almost entirely seized and taken to Paris by Napoleon I., who promised an indemnity of fifteen million francs to the Prince Borghese, his brother-in-law. The sculptures now in that villa have been, for the major part, bollected since 1805, and principally obtained by scavi on the estates of the Borghese family — several from the Sabina district. The Villa Albani was founded by the Cardinal Alessandro of that house in the last century; and the owner availed himself of the assistance of Winckelmann for the purchase and arrangement of the sculptures placed in that residence. The Villa Ludovisi was founded by the Cardinal Ludovico of that family, nephew to Gregory XV. (1621-1623) ; its sculpture-gallery, as we now see it, having been arranged by Canova. Cardinal Ludovisi purchased most of the art works which had been placed by Signer Cesarini (above-mentioned) in his estate near S. Pietro in Vincoli, obtained by that family from the Borgias. The architect of the beautiful palazzo amidst the pleasant gardens and forest-trees of the Ludovisi Villa, a delicious rus in urhe extending over a portion of the wooded grounds once occupied by the Gardens of Sallust, and bounded by the ancient city- walls on the north and east, was Domenichino, ROME UNDER PAPAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL SWAY. 127 who adorned its walls with some of the frescoes there seen, besides the more celebrated wall-paintings by Gruercino. The nucleus of the Capitoline Sculpture G-allery is due to Pius v., who (1566) presented many antique statues and busts, formerly in the Belvedere Court of the Vatican, to the municipal magistrates. On the summit of the stairs leading up to that hill at its northern side, the colossal statues of Castor and Pollux were placed by Grregory XIII. (1572-1585) ; and his successor, the energetic Sixtus, added in juxtaposition the so-called "Trophies of Marius." Ad- ditions were made to the incipient gallery by Urban VIII., by Innocent X., and Clement XI. between 1623 and 1721. But Clement XII. (1730-174iO) may be considered the founder of the Capitoline Museum in its later development ; he having purchased and bestowed, for the same museum, a most rich assortment of the sculptures belonging to Car- dinal Alessandro Albani. Between 1740 and 1769 Bene- dict XIV. and Clement XIII. made other suitable donations. Pius VII. founded (1820) the " Protomotheca," or gallery of busts of Italian celebrities* in the wing of the Capitoline buildings opposite to that containing the ancient sculptures. The magnificent project of the Vatican Museum was con- ceived by Clement XIV. (1769-1775.) He commenced it, but left the full accomplishment to his successor Pius VI. ; and now arose, in grandeur and beauty, that marvellous palace of Art, the " Pio-Clementino Museum," to which Pius VII. made the addition called after him " Museo Chiaramonti," also the splendidly enriched " Braccio Nuovo," built from the designs of Stern, 1817. Pius VII showed intelligence superior to the prejudices * Also those of illustrious foreigners, entitled by their long residence at Rome to the honours of Italian naturalization ; and whose busts were formerly in the Pantheon, together with those of Italians— a few of the latter being still left in that temple. 128 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. of state and Btation by destiuing all the most valuable pictures carried away by rrench invaders for a new Pinacotheca in the Vatican, instead of replacing them in the several churches, in Eome and other cities of the Pon, tific States, from which they had been removed. The advice of Cardinal Consalvi supported that of Canova in favour of this project. The Vatican picture-gallery was enlarged by Gregory XVI., who placed it in a suite of rooms built for it by Leo XII. ; but a much more suitable locale on a higher storey was assigned for the purpose by Pius IX. The collection of mediaeval paintings (the only one of such class that exists in Eome), which occupies a hall of the great suite forming the Vatican library, is due to Gregory XVI. (1839). It completes the series of artistic and antiquarian objects (many from the cemeteries called Catacombs) which now form the Christian Museum of the Vatican — most valuable for the illustration of the life and genius of ancient and mediaeval Christianity— a Museum founded by Benedict XIV. (1756) with the collections originally formed by Buonarotti, Carpegna,and Vittori. The same Pontiff created a Commission charged with the duty of preserving antique monuments in and around Eome, also with the task of acquiring classic sculptures and paintings for Museums. Between the years 1805-9, and again after the return of Pius VII. from exile (1814), scavi and other works for disencum- bering and restoring antiquities were carried out on the Porum Eomanum and the Porum of Trajan, round the arches of Septimius Severus, Titus, and Constantine. The Titus Arch, more dilapidated than the others, unfortunately required more than the usual restoring process, and was for the greater part rebuilt in travertine (the antique being of Pentelic marble) by the architect Valadier, (1822), who removed the ponderous remnant of a great tower, belong- ing to an old castle of the Frangipani, which had shut in EOME UNDER PAPAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL SWAT. 12"9 and weighed down the beautiful monument of imperial vic- tories. Another Frangipani tower, raised above the Arch of Janus Quadrifrons, remained, though but a ruinous pile, on its summit till finally taken down, 1829. Leo XII., prepar- ing for the celebrations of the Jubilee Year 1825, appointed an " Apostolic Visitation " of all churches in Eome, whilst inviting their chief clergy and patrons to restore or embellish to whatever extent was desirable, and setting the example himself by restorations at his own expense at S. Maria Maggiore, of which basilica he had been Cardinal Archpriest. This Pontiff spent 24,000 scudi on other works and repairs at the Lateran Church and baptistery. In the January of 1825 he issued an Encyclica desiring all bishops to invite the faithful to concur with their offerings for the rebuilding of the S. Paul's basilica on the Ostian Way, de- stroyed by the fire in 1823. The task of collecting art- works for museums and restoring antiquities was zealously prosecuted by Gregory XVI., who founded the gallery of antique sculptures in the Lateran palace, the Etruscan and Egyptian Museums in the Vatican. Hardly is it necessary here to mention all that has been accomplished, for archaeological and artistic interests, for civic improvements and public works of almost every de- scription, by Pius IX. Under his pontificate have been laid open the ruins of the Julian Basilica on the Forum and the far-extending series of mausolea, columbaria, and other tombs on the Appian Way. The massive and immense, though but partially preserved, buildings of the Tabularium on the Capitol have been rescued from baser uses — they had served for a debtors' jail in the time of Gregory XVI. — and appropriated as a Museum for the fragments of classic architecture from the Forum or other sites. The creation of the Christian Museum, consisting exclusively of the art and epigraphs from the subterranean cemeteries, in the K 130 HISTORIC AND MONUMEITrAL ROME. Lateran palace, claims for his present Holiness the grati- tude of all interested in sacred antiquities and in the archse- ology of the Church. In 1855 were commenced the scavi^ of such important scope and results, at Ostia. In 186G were uncovered the remains of the quay and the port on the Tiber, near the declivities of the Aventine, at the spot called ** La Marmorata," where immense quantities of marble, alabaster, porphyry, &c. wrought and unwrought, still lay, having been, untold ages ago, unshipped here for Roman use. About the same time were undertaken scavi in the Thermee of Antoninus ; also on the northern summit and slopes of the Palatine Hill — works limited to the ground occupied by the great buildings of Septimius Severus and the Stadium of Domitian. The beautiful (but much maltreated) ruins of the Portico of Octavia were brought more fully into view by the demolition of modern walls — and by the expedient of throwing back into the rear of the classic colonnades, previously in great part con- cealed, the facade of the church, 8. Angela in Pescaria^ which had much obscured the architecture of the Augustan age. For this work the present Pqntiff is known to have spent 6000 scudi out of his own private purse. To the series of works for discovering the antique, well carried out under this same pontificate, and well rewarded, must be added the scavi in Trastevere which laid open the station of the 7th Cohort of " Vigiles" (or Fire-Brigade) ; also those (commenced by private proprietors) which re- sulted in the discovery of the beautifully painted and stucco-adorned sepulchral chambers on the Via Latina, about three miles from the Porta S. Giovanni ; also those at the village of Prima Porta, eight miles from Eome on the Flaminian Way, which opened the buried ruins of a villa of Livia, and secured — a great prize — the noble statue of Augustus now in the Vatican. The Lateran Museum of ROME UNDER PAPAL AXD CONSTITUTIONAL SWAY. 181 sculpture has received valuable additions from Pius IX., consisting of a suite of rooms filled with antiques from Ostia. It would be foreign to my actual purpose to dwell now and in this place 014 the magnificent undertakings and public works of Pius IX. in the range of ecclesiastical interests, public charities, modern art, church-restoration, or adornment within sacred walls. I rather desire to point out the general merits of the Eoman Pontiffs in their efforts for the benefit of mind and intellect, for the promotion of such studies, and satisfying of such tastes as have a refining and elevating effect. In a luminous manner has the Papacy (whatever its defects and abuses) asserted its claim to be considered the Patron of Genius, pledged to recognize the truth that, even though sprung from the darkest gloom of Heathen superstition, all crea- tions of ideal beauty bear witness to the aspirings and immortal destinies of the human soul. Yet it must be owned that the procedure of the Eoman Pontiffs, with respect to things here in question among local antiquities, has not always been consistent or systematic. Such inconsistency and want of organization as one cannot but observe in Eome may be ascribed to the peculiar nature of that sovereignty, uniting opposite and hardly reconcilable elements, with which the supreme See has been invested. Wandering on the classic ground of its metro- polis, we have alternately to commend the carefulness and to regret the indifference shown towards relics of the his- toric Past, which are more or less interesting to the whole civilized world. The Forum — that all-attracting centre — was scarcely touched for purposes of research below its surface till the XYI. century, and then only on the ground near the Corinthian columns supposed to be the Dioscuri Temple. Not till the present century — first by French authorities, next by Pius VII. — were any efficient labours K 2 132 HISTOBTC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. of excavation carried over much extent on that area Still worse was the state in which the other Fora were left for ages : those of Augustus and Nerva had become unin- habitable swamps long before 1600, from which year, and not earlier, dates the origin of the streets now intersecting those regions. I have noticed the deplorable condition in which what remains of the beautiful portico around the Pallas Temple, in Nerva' s Forum, is beheld at this day. The stately colonnade with lofty shafts of Carrara marble, supposed to be the temple of Neptune, which stood in the midst of the " Portico of the Argonauts," erected by Agrippa, is deplorably obscured— almost vulgarized — by the building up of the intereolumnationsand appropriating of the entire ruin as the front to a Custom-house, here founded by Innocent XII. (1691-1700.) The great Thermae were all neglected till the time of Leo X., when those of Titus and Trajan were in part cleared of soil and made accessible. The Palatine was left, during untold ages, a solitude of orchards, vegetable gardens, and wild growth, the imperial ruins almost entirely buried or other- wise hidden from view — as described by Onofrio Panvinio in the XVI., by Dempster in the XVII. century, and tis Goethe also saw the Imperial Mount still desecrated about ninety years ago. Some scavi had indeed been carried out, before that time, by order of the Duke of Parma (1725), and later in the same century near the villa built on that hill by Cardinal Parnese, whose property, inherited from the Parnesi by the Bourbons reigning at Naples, was purchased from the ex- King Prancis by Napoleon IIL Most maltreated among all Pome's antiquities was the Colosseum, long used as a common quarry where the baro- nial families helped themselves ad libitum to building mate- rials, till at last the happy thought of rescuing the grand old amphitheatre by consecration occurred to the Popes. EOME UNDEE PAPAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL SWAT. 133 Clement X. founded a chapel (1675) in one of the re- cesses of an arcade; Benedict XYI. introduced (1749) the devotion of the Via Crucis, for which the Cross in the centre and the shrines with pictures of the Passion around the area were erected by his order. No repair of these ruins, nor any means for rescuing them from natural decay, had been thought of till the task was undertaken by Pius YII., since whose time works for restoring have been almost incessant in the Flavian amphitheatre. It might have been anticipated that any other govern- ment succeeding to that of the Pontificate, and retaining durable possession of Eome, would adopt a totally different method, and organise works for the research and preserva- tion of the Antique in this city on a plan never admitted, and of character suited to obtain its objects more speedily and efficiently than any that ever was admitted under Papal sway. And such has been exactly the case since the me- morable event of JSeptember, 1870, which transferred this capital from a sacerdotal to a secular monarchy. LIBRARY XJNIVEKSITV OK 134 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. CHAPTER IV. WALKS AMONG RUINS. THE ESQUILTNE AND VIMINAL HILLS, THE FORUM, MAMEKTINE PRISONS, BATHS. The manner in whicli new authorities pursue antiquarian undertakings in Borne is not less contrasted with former proceedings in that range than is the constitutional mo- narchy itself with the theocracy which has yielded place to it. About three years have passed since that great change; yet still are the older quarters of this city left in their old conditions. But when we quit the lower for the higher regions, reaching the heights of the Quirinal and Esquiline Hills, we perceive a new Rome rapidly springing up, with rectilinear and symmetric streets, large commodious man- sions, a general air of cheerfulness and civilization— the genius of the nineteenth century, in fact, confronting the metropolis so little improved during ages of pontifical dominion — though (it is fair to add) much embellished under Pius IX. At some spots the scene, in such transi- tional circumstances, is curiously picturesque. "Where once were solitary fields, neglected gardens, squalid cottages, with here and there a grey old villa amidst high walls, dusky cypresses and ilex-trees, the surroundings all rural though actually within the civic circuit and towered gateways, we no.v discern on every side the signs and consequences of wide-spreading innovation — the activities of the mason and the builder breaking up the ground and intersecting it with long lines of foundation-walls, incipient streets* or habitations near to completeness. Large mansions of faded aristocracy or once wealthy prelates are dragged into view by the removal of their enclosures or uprooting of their WALKS AMONG RUINS. 135 gardens — the metamorphosis thus effected around them being itself an apt symbol of the decline of the Past before the ascendant Present. On the higher grounds of the classic hills almost all available space has been purchased bj companies ; and at the beginning of the year 1872, 2000 new houses were in progress of building. The newly appointed Commission of Antiquities, to which the Govern- ment assigns a subvention of 300,000 francs per annum, comprises six assessors ; and an engineer (Signor Lanciani, himself a welt-known archaeologist) is engaged to report weekly to the magistrates all things found in the range of the antique. IS'othing of classic character can be sold or re- moved till after sanction obtained for so disposing of such objects. The earliest adopted projects of the Commission were : the uniting of all grounds on the Palatine Hill in a single estate for furtherance of scavi over the entire extent ; the reducing of the Porum to its ancient level, and the opening of the (for the most part buried) Via Sacra as far as the Colosseum ; the purchase and excavating of the Forum of Augustus; the complete disencumbering of the Antonine Thermae, and reduction to their ancient level of the halls and palestrae throughout those vast ruins. Ex- ternal to the city the principal undertakings resolved on, and soon commenced, were those amidst the ruins of the Tiburtine Villa of Hadrian, purchased for scavi over their whole extent ; and the resuming of the works at Ostia, commenced in 1855 by the late Grovernment. So many remains of mansions, more or less palatial and richly decorated, have been discovered on the high grounds of the Quirinal, Esquiline, and Viminal Hills, that we may infer the anciently aristocratic character of this entire region. One of the most magnificent relics of classic archi- tecture yet found in Rome, is a marble pediment with exquisitely wrought frieze, Corinthian mouldings, and 136 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. brackets supporting eagles with thunderbolts in their talons, exhumed near the limits of the Praetorian Camp, on the side where its fortifications were demolished when the whole area of that camp was comprised within the new circuit of the Honorian walls, long after the Praetorian Guards had been disbanded by Constantino. In the neighbourhood of S. Maria Maggiore the scene presented by the incipient works and rapidly progressing novelties is most striking ; and as one looks down from the stairs on the northern side of that basilica, the eye takes in a wide range where things new and old are contrasted. Mournful (to one remember- ing what this scene once was), yet picturesque and fraught with cheerful promise is that strange metamorphosis of the once almost uninhabited region, the wide solitary plateau, the garden-grounds, and valleys between the Esquiline and Quiiinal. There stands the once secluded and still beau- tiful villa Montalto, with its classic portico built by Fontana for the Prancisean Cardinal who became Pope Sixtus v. — how changed since it was the favourite retreat of that extraordinary man, in his comparatively calm retirement of learned leisure during his predecessor's pontificate !* Over a very ample area within the Eoman walls is the Committee of Antiquarian Works empowered to extend its projects ; and the undertaking of either excavations or buildings by private individuals on those grounds is pro- hibited. Looking at the map of this city, and describing an ellipse from north-west to south-east, we find that the space within that area includes the Forum, the Palatine, the Colosseum, the Circus Maximua, the Temple of Claudius on the Ccelian hill, and the Antonine Thermae ; also, though somewhat beyond the elliptic limits, the ground near the • This mansion was the first work of the Cardinars ]yrotegd, Domenico Fontana, restored by Prinec Massimo, 1871. WALKS AMONG KUINS. 137 Porta S. Sebastiano, where are several, Columbaria entered from vineyards. Otber classic sites, the Fora of Augustus and Domitian, the Portico of Octavia, &c., the Committee reserves for researches at a future period. One of the first things effected by Signor Eosa, in his capacity as Commissary of Antiquities, was the uproot- ing of trees and plants in the Colosseum, a proceeding unfavourably criticized, for it divests those ruins of a most beautiful feature — all that garland- drapery and forest-shade which added so much to their solemn picturesqueness. Grood taste might have pleaded, at least, for the luxuriant wild flowers and graceful creeping plants, whicli formed a " Plora of the Colosseum," illustrated in a learned and pleasing volume by Dr. Deakin ; but as to the trees of larger growth, they were undoubtedly accelerating the progress of decay, and, therefore with good reason ejected. The works at Ostia, formerly directed by the Chevalier Carlo Visconti, were resumed under Signor Rosa's direction, who rather endeavours to protect from injury all hitherto discovered remains of that city, than to extend excavations further on an already well-worked soil. Such precautions had been unfortunately neglected, and, in consequence, much damage done to some of the Ostian ruins not long after their disinterment. Other discoveries have, however, been made in the course of later works on the desolate sea-coast. A Museum of Antiquities, established on the spot, will henceforth be the place of deposit for valuable objects found at Ostia, almost all of which had previ- ously been brought to Rome, those of special interest being placed in the Lateran Museum. Among minor thiugs noticeable within the city -walls, is the cleansing of the long disgracefully neglected arch of Janus Quadrifrons, and also of the adjacent Areas Arqen- tariiLs, raised by silversmiths and merchants to Septimius 138 nisTomc and monumental home. Severus, his Empress, and their sons. On the latter monu- ment, in part concealed by the contiguous church of S. Giorgio, have been more fully brought to light some relievi hitherto almost hidden — among other subjects the small figure, on a pilaster, of a god, probably Bacchus, correspon- dent to the Hercules on the pilaster opposite. There is a class of treasure-trove continually cropping up in freshly opened soil at Rome, which may be dismissed in a few words : cornices and mouldings, fragments of friezes and sculptures, more or less precious, remnants of painted stucco and mutilated inscriptions. To an eye familiar with these things, the redundance divests them of interest ; but there is one centre, the Forum Romanum, where all that the labours of research bring to light must be priced at a higher value, where almost every antique fragment speaks to us of events or personages of world-wide renown. The project of reducing this classic region to its original level was first brought forward, but never carried out, during the short pontificate of Leo the Twelth. Adopted and sanctioned soon after the late political changes, 1870, its accomplishment, directed by the new Commission of Archaeological Works, has been steadfastly, though not rapidly, advancing ; and almost every time one visits the field of these important labours, the eye is attracted by some novelty of aspects, or objects newly added to things discovered, something that promises new light on topo- graphical questions. Media3val ruins, among the classical here found so pro- fusely, one of which former, a tower or castle, has been partly demolished since its recent exhumation, show us how the Forum was used and occupied after the fall of the Empire. The discovery of streams, partly subterranean, accounts for, and squares with, the various traditions of events taking place beside lakes or fountains : the poetic WALKS AMONa EUINS. 189 legends of tlie Curtian Gulf; of the apparition of Castor and Pollux mysteriously announcing, beside the Juturna fountain, the victory on the banks of Eegillus the moment after its accomplishment ; also the earlier originating romance concerning the infancy of Eomulus and Eemus. The legend about the Dioscuri and the Eegillus battle we may now associate with local realities, for we look down upon the lately uncovered channel of a narrow stream, beneath the Corinthian columns long regarded by most (though not by all) archaeologists as the fane of the Divine Twins, raised in fulfilment of the vow made by the victor, Postumius, upon the spot where that vision was seen. A broader stream, flowing towards the Tiber, and passing under the pavement of the Basilica Julia, may be identified with the Lacus Servilius, beside which took place one of the atrocious massacres ordered by Sylla during his dicta- torial reign of terror, when 7000 citizens were put to death in the Circus Maximus ; 4700 more in other parts of the city, many being slain on the Porum — see Pestus, who mentions this long concealed stream as " continens Basilicse Julii." The extensive ruins of that Basilica, founded by Augustus, and dedicated to the deified Julius, were laid open several years ago by works under Canina's direction ; they occupy, and form a limit to, the north- western side of the Porum. A multitude of antique mar- bles, friezes, broken sculptures, epigraphs, dedications on pedestals of lost statues, have been found here ; the rich inlaid pavement has been restored, mostly with the ancient material ; the ruined arcades of brickwork have been in part rebuilt for preservation of what is old, now mixed with what is new ; the quadruple files of pilasters, di- viding the interior like our churches, are re-erected to the height of a few feet, with modern brickwork — altogether a series of restorations much to be regretted and in very bad 140 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. taste. The openings of the partly restored arcades near the north-western angle are filled up with mediaBval masonry, in which we recognize the remains of a church founded by Pope Julius the First, a.d. 337, and called after him (Ponlific and Imperial dedications here coinciding) Basilica Julia.* Many remnants of marble decoration were exhumed here, in style Byzantine, with the cross intro- duced among details. A beautiful colonnette of flowered alabaster was taken hence to the Vatican Library. Ves- tiges of religious painting on the old brick walls, and sup- posed to be of the sixth century, were seen when the consecrated part was first exposed, but soon faded away. The " tabernae veteres," of origin in the most ancient, the kingly, period, and subsequently converted, being at first mere wooden booths (from one of which, a butcher's stall, Virginius seized the knife to slay his daughter), into the offices of bankers and money changers, are now deemed recognizable in some massive structures of travertine, with the remains of a staircase, exteriorly to the western side of the arcades belonging to the Pagan, and built up to serve for the purposes of the Christian Basilica. It is fortunate for those who wish to study the monu- mental with a view to establishing their connexion with historic records, that in the Forum the topographical generally corresponds to the chronological order. Begin- ning at the south side, under the Palatine declivities, and pursuing our way northwards, we find, first, the ruins referable to the last century of the Republic and first of the Empire ; next, those of the time of Trajan and the Anto- nines ; and, lastly, at the base of the Capitoline Hill, the Arch of Septimius Severus and the temples restored by * Anastasius mentions this church as " juxta Forum ;" the biographer can hardly be supposed to mean any other built by the same Tope. WALKS AMONG RUINS. 141 that ruler, besides one restored by the rival of Constantine, Maxentius. Eecently discovered ruins at the south-eastern angle, opposite the Castor and Pollux Temple (so-called,) are among the most interesting, and may be identified, beyond doubt, with the " J5des Cajsaris," raised on the spot where the body of Julius Csesar was burnt at his ever- memorable funeral. An altar was soon erected, afterwards a porphyry column inscribed " Parenti Patriae," and, finally, a temple, often mentioned by poets (see Ovid, " Metamorph.," lib. XV., and "Ex Ponto"), and dedicated by Augustus to his uncle, the founder of the Imperial House. In the April of 1872 works undertaken on this spot brought to light, first, some additional fragments of the Fasti, other parts of which valuable series were found near the Dioscuri (or Castor) Temple in 1540. Soon was reached a quadrangular platform, with remains of a marble stylobate and massive tufa walls, supporting a formless heap of interior masonry, embedded in which, at the front looking towards the north, extends a semicircular tribune of stonework, like the later Kostrum still in its place beneath the Arch of Septimius Severus, — this (the newly discovered) being manifestly the '* Eostra Julii," placed by Augustus before the uiEdes of the deified dictator. At a distance, the ruin-heap to which this fane is now reduced looks like an earthen mound, rent by fissures, rugged and of irregular outlines; but on its summit we perceive the once levelled space for a considerable edifice raised, no doubt, on the spot where the ashes of the illustrious Dead were interred. The basements of seven columns (travertine) were dug up near the front of this ruin, below the Eostra, to which latter there was ascent by two staircases, just recognizable. The whole structure rises from an area paved with travertine, and raised by four steps above the surrounding level of tbe Forum. Excepting the fragment of a large cornice with dental mouldings. 142 niSTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. no marble remains have been found among these ruins ; and we are hence led to infer that Julius Caesar's fane must have been despoiled long ago, and deliberately, either by- barbarian invaders, mediaeval Popes, or unscrupulous citi- zens. The wealth of marble decorations, Corinthian friezes, fluted columns, bas-reliefs, fragments of colossal statuary, among the rest a gracefully sculptured altar, &c., which lie strewn around the lofty platform of the Dioscuri Temple, attest the superb character of that fane, and the exquisite, if redundant, richness of the architectonic style at the period of the two last known restorations here effected, the one by Tiberius, the other by Domitian, who renovated if he did not completely rebuild the edifice, founded a.it.c. 255. Much attention was excited by the discovery among the debris of an epigraph in small letters of archaic character, on what seems a cornice, giving the name Bomulus, son of MarSy twice, with the words in a mutilated line, " De Csenensibus," no doubt referring to the first victory of Eomulus over the Sabines of Csenina and their king, whom he slew. The epigraphy in this curious instance seems that of the imitative rather than genuinely antique — an attempted reproduction, perhaps under the declining Empire, of some record flattering to the patriotism and accordant with the gupergtition of the " Populus Komanus." The first discovery of the Consular Fasti, containing the list of Consuls from the year of the city 272 till the time when Augustus filled the curule chair, 721, was made in the XVI. century. They were found near the cella of the Temple above-named, a part of that edifice left extant till the seventeenth century, when all the inner ruin was swept away. No fewer than twenty difl'erent names have been given to those beautiful columns, the peristyle, which Eoman antiquaries now agree in assuming to be the Dioscuri Temple. Niebuhr was, I believe, the first to advance the theory that those Corinthian WALKS AMONG EUINS. 143 columns pertain to the " Curia Julia," or Senate-house re- built by Augustus, after being founded by Julius Caesar when Triumvir, and dedicated to the latter by his nephew. Bunsen (modifying Niebuhr's view) refers those ruins to the " Minervaeum," a sacred vestibule of the Senate-house, in which stood the altar and image of Victory, twice removed by Christian Emperors in the fourth century, and once replaced by the last of those who were heathen. Canina recognizes in those columns the Curia itself. "We are in- formed that in connexion with that hall of august assemblage was the " Grraecostasis," where foreign ambassadors used to meet, and wait till they could be admitted to audience by the Conscript Fathers— this locality being, probably, a raised platform, inclosed but roofless, as was also the " Senaculum," where the senators used to muster before entering the hall for deliberations. The recent works have brought to light a spacious platform, reached by a central and two lateral staircases, in front of the columns above named; this elevation being silp ported on the south side by massive and regular stonework (travertine), and on the north by tufa buttress walls, seemingly more ancient. May we not admit the conjecture, at least, that this is the Graecostasis ? that the German savants may be right, and that, therefore, we see before us no less interesting an edifice than the Senate house with its vestibule dedicated to Minerva, of the Augustan age (restored by Domitian,) in the graceful colonnade beneath the Palatine, opposite the fane of Julius Caesar ? The deposit of the Pasti in such a building seems suitable, — a political record in the chief centre of political transactions. Behind the colonnade, and immediately below the Palatine, stands a conspicuous elevation in brickwork, of the best ancient style, with precisely such constructive arches, of wide span, as we see in the rotunda of the Pan- theon. These great walls, if continued rectilinearly towards 144 niSTonic and monumental home. the Corinthian peristyle, would approach it at an angle little distant from the southern extremity, or last column. It seems to me that the German archaeologists and Canina have clearly proved the brickwork structure to be no other than that hall of senatorial assemblage, where was heard the voice of Rome's political wisdom, whence issued decrees decisive to the destinies of the Eoman world. Here may we listen with profound attentiveness to the silent eloquence ofEuin! Another recent discovery — the basement for a monu- mental work evidently of large scale, at a short distance northwards from the -^des Caesaris, may be identified as the support of the equestrian statue of Domitian so en- thusiastically apostrophized by Statins {Silvae, 1. 1, Carm. 1), and important for determining topographic questions as to the sites of buildings in their position relative to that of the imperial efiigy. The courtly poet, who anticipates duration for Domitian's statue coeval with that of the terrestrial globe — Stabit dum terra polusque Dnm Bom ana dies I tells us that the colossus stood fronting the temples of "Divus Julius," while the Emperor's fether, Vespasian, and Concord (namely, the temples of such dedication on the Capitoline declivity) looked blandly upon him (Domitian in effigy) from the rear;* that the Julian basilica was at his right hand, the more ancient ^JEmilian basilica at his left. The imperial countenance was turned towards the Palatine and the fane of Vesta ; and the ex- pression here used, " exploratas ministras" (referring to the Vestal Virgins), may imply allusion to the destruction of that temple by fire, for the second time, in the conflagra- * Terga pater, blandoquc videt Concordia vultu. WALKS AMONa RUINS. 145 tion, A. u. c. 512, mentioned by Livius and the elder Pliny. The horse, named Cyllarus, of the divine Castor, trembled at beholding from the temple of the Dioscuri the other more formidable steed on which rode the deified Emperor (poetically, not yet officially so honoured) ; while from the adjacent Curtian Gulf the phantom of the self-devoting Hero, who leapt into it, rose out of the subterranean regions to greet with reverential homage this last scion of the Flavian house, who would himself have accomplished a similar self-sacrifice, for the salvation of Eome, had the gulf yawned open in Domitian's time ! Most precious among all art-works yet found on this site, are two large marble panels, sculptured with admirable rilievi on both sides (a peculiar circumstance), and now standing erect on the spot where they were exhumed be- neath the ruins of a medisBval tower near the column of the Byzantine despot, Phocas. Various conjectures have been advanced as to the subjects of those fine sculptures, which, on one side of each panel, consist of groups, evidently historic, with many figures ; on the other, in each instance, of the three animals, a boar, a ram, and an ox, ofi'ered as victims in the Suovetauralia sacrifice at the lustral rites, when the Census was taken, and also on other great occasions — as at the founding of the restored temple of Jupiter Capitolinus (Tacitus, Hist. 1. iv. 53) — the crea- tures being here represented with the fillets and garlands used for adornment of such victims. The explanation of the two groups first advanced, I believe, by Dr. Henzen in a paper read before the German ArcliEeological Institute at Eome, seems to me the most satisfactory, and thoroughly accordant with the compositions in each case. In one rilievo we see a dignified personage standing on the rostrum, and promulgating an edict before a numerous assemblage of citizens, who all appear to listen with applause. Beyond, L 14G HISTORIC AND MONtJMENTAL ROME. or rather lateral to this, in the same composition is seen a figure, apparently the same personage, seated on a throne raised on a platform, a woman with a child in her arms, and apparently another (whose figure is now lost) led by her hand, standing before him. In this we may re- cognize a monumental commemoration of the beneficence of Trajan, in providing out of the State Treasury for the support of the indigent children, of both sexes, in all Italian cities — an act of public charity first projected by Nerva, and which won such gratitude for Trajan that the title Res- titutor Italic was conferred upon him ; an extant epigraph recording it in the eulogistic terms, JEternitati ItalicB suce prospexit (see retrospective mention of this act in Spar- tianus, " Life of Hadrian.") The woman before the throne may be intended to represent Italian mothers in the aggre- gate returning thanks, with their children, to the Imperial benefactor ; the person on the rostra, Trajan himself The other sculpture commemorates another proof of the bene- volent spirit of Trajan — the burning, in his presence, of the tablets on which unpaid debts to the State Treasury, the arrears for a certain period, were registered. Several persons are seen bearing large tablets, which they are throwing in a heap on the ground, also a man whose arm (mutilated) seems raised in act of applying fire with a torch, standing near ; and beyond, at the extremity, is a seated figure (the emperor) of which remains nothing but part of one leg. That the scene is the Eoman Forum, is evident from the architecture in both backgrounds— the temples on the Capitoline declivity, the arcades of the Tabularium, still majestic though now surmounted and crushed down by the modern municipal palazzo, and also a triumphal arch, probably that of Tiberius, which no longer exists.* Another detail determining the locality is (in each * The arcades, in one of these backgrounds, may be intended for a lateral view of the Julian BasiUca. WALKS AMONG EUINS. 147 of the two rilievi) a statue on a pedestal under a fig-tree, now headless, but still showing, thrown across the shoulders, the carcase of an animal, apparently of the porcine genus. It has been conjectured that this is the Marsyas ; but the cha- racter of what remains is grotesque to a degree not suitable for such an individuality in art. It must, I conclude, be meant for the statue of Sylvanus, which also stood on the Forum, under a fig-tree, and as to which Pliny (H.N.) tells us that, because the roots were threatening to undermine the image or its basement, the fig-tree was removed from its neighbourhood. One naturally inquires about the use and original position of these marble panels ; and it seems a good conjecture that they may have served to line an entrance or corridor leading into the Comitium, where, of course, they would have been seen on both sides. The site of the Comitium itself, an unroofed but enclosed area, long disputed among antiquaries, some placing it at the north, others at the south end of the Forum, may thus be determined, or at least conjectured ; the level below the Phocas column and not far from the Capitoline slope, where these marbles were found, may have been occupied by that arena for political assemblage. If able to decide as to this, we should not be far from determining the other disputed sites of the more ancient Curia, called Hostilia, and the Eostra Vetera. Three other fragments of rilievi, with mutilated figures, now placed in the Julian Basilica, seem to belong to the same series and epoch as those better preserved sculptures. The fine characteristics of Roman art under Trajan may be distinguished by every eye at all experienced, in those interesting sculptures ; and we may compare them with the other valuable illustrations of the same emperor's life, from his triumphal arch, but actually adorning the arch of Con- stantine. It is much to be lamented that the heads in L 2 148 ursTomc and monumental rome. these rilievi are almost all wanting, not one being pre- served entire. The hands and many of the arms are so cleanly cut off that we may suspect malice prepeme {[ier- haps the fanaticism of the early Christians) to have done the Vandal work. We have no other antique sculptures in Rome which illustrate so admirably as do these the less familiarly known or brilliant, episodes in the history of Empire. Topographic details may seem trivial compared with the artistic monuments which commemorate history ; but so long as the page of Horace continues to delight the studious and exercise the critical mind in all civilized lands, assuredly the idea of that genial poet, who tells of his walk and talk on the Yia Sacra, — Ibam forte Via Sacra, sicut mens est mos, Nescio quid meditans nugarum, et totus in illis — will associate itself with that ancient way trod so often by triumphal processions on the Torum. Late discoveries have thrown light on this also. Standing on the modern, high above the original level of this classic area, near the arch of Septimius Severus, and looking southwards, we see an extent of broad road, skirting the Julian Basilica on the western side, and on the other side overlooked by the Column of Phocas, as also by seven basements for other columns or memorial statues; four of these basemenis liaving been uncovered by the recent works, the others previously. The pavement of this way is a bad specimen of medisBval work up to a point, near the ^Edes Ca^saris, where we see the regular compactly laid blocks of a genuine antique Eoman road. Before the point of junction between the older and newer, this way is crossed by the stream above mentioned, the " Lacus Servilius," which cuts through it, without any bridge. It is evident that the ancient road, no doubt carried over that stream by an arch, has disap- WALKS AMONG EUINS. 149 pcared, and that mediaDval restorers did not take tlio trouble to provide any bridge of enduring masonr}^, perhaps con- tenting themselves with a wooden one. May we not infer that this road, overlooked by the memorial columns or statues from those seven basements, as also by the Phocas column, is a branch of the Yia Sacra, though hitherto it has been usual to place that way further along the Eorum's eastern side ? Admitting this, we may suppose that the road running along the western side is the older ; the other, and newer, a branch added to the Sacred Way after the erection of the triumphal arch of Titus, under which, as well as under the arch of Septimius Severus, that later road passes. Under the last-named arch we see another speci- men of mediajval pavement, an attempted restoration of the antique, lost to view beneath the level along which we walk, high above the area on which all the ruins stand. That road, still for the most part covered, would skirt the fronts of the temple of Antoninus and Faustina, and of that converted into a church as SS. Cosmo e Damiano, would pass under the Titus Arch, and thence descending into the valley of the Colosseum, reach the arch of Constantine, deviating westwards. Among details lately brought into view, is a junction road, which, crossing the excavated area near the ^des Caesaris, would have communicated between the other parallel ways, both of which (I venture to suggest) may have been designated " sacra." The tradition of the numerous memorial statues erected on the Forum, both in Eepublican and Imperial epochs, is confirmed by the dis- covery of the large brick basements in a line with the Phocas column ; and it is noticeable how conspicuous are the statues on columns in the background of an authentic bas-relief, representing the Porum in the time of Constan- tine, on the triumphal arch of that emperor. Classing that 150 nisTonic and monumental home. sculpture with the two much finer rilievi referable to tho time of Trajan, whose good deeds they commemorate,* we have now three antique presentments of the Forum at dates in the second and fourth centuries of our era. The oldest portion of the horror-striking Mamertine Prisons attributed to Ancus Martins, and called after him,t is the most ancient among all Eoman buildings still extant as originally constructed. The character of these prisons is best described in the words of Sallust. J Though the testimony of Varro (de Lingua^ Latina 1. v. 151), and other classical writers (Liv. 1. i. c. 38, 56 ; Dionys. 1. iii. 67 ; Servius, Qucest. 1. xv. c. 32) seems to assign later origin to the lower than to the upper of the two subterranean chambers under the Forum, there are local features which lead rather to the conclusion that the lower is the more ancient, and that this was excavated out of the solid rock before the upper, the more spacious prison-chambCT, could have been built. Some writers (Abeken, Mittel. Ital.) suppose the lower prison to have been originally a mere cistern, whence water was drawn up through the orifice, afterwards used for letting down captives who were con- demned there to die. Ampere believes it to be a Pelasgic work, therefore the oldest monument in Eome, the Egyp- tian obelisks alone excepted, and called " TuUianum " not from Servius Tullius, the supposed founder, but from tuUius, * For full explanation of the subject of one of these rilievi, the beneficent provision made by Trajan for indigent children, see Pliny, 'Panegyricus,' 26, 27. t From " Mamers," the ancient form of the name wliich in more modern Latinity becomes "Martins," or Mars. X Est locus in carcere quod Tullianum appellatur, ubi paullulura descendens ad laevam, circiter duodecim pedis humi depressus. Earn muniunt undique parietes ; atque insuper camera, lapideis fomicibus vincta ; sed incultu, tencbris, odore fojda, atque tcrribilis ejus facics.-— '* De Bello Catilin." c. hv. WALKS AMONG RUINS. 151 a spring. Around this narrow dungeon tlie quadrilateral blocks of lithoid tufa project so as to give to its interior the form of a truncated cone, cut off at the summit by the pavement of the upper story — a detail which certainly confirms the theory ascribing earlier origin to the lower^ later to the upper chamber. Only three sides of that terrific lower dungeon are built, the others being excavated out 9f the tufa rock. The tradition of the imprisonment of S. Peter and S. Paul in these dungeons rests on no indubitable proof, but must be at least as old as the IX century, seeing that it is mentioned in the MS. — of perhaps an earlier period — ^left by the "Anonymous" (the German Pilgrim) at Einsiedlin, in which document is mention also of the fountain {Fons S. JPetris, uhi est career ejus) which flows under the lower chamber, and is said to have gushed forth miraculously for supplying water to the two Apostles when they baptized their jailors, Processus and Martinianus, together with forty-seven other converts, fellow-prisoners, who had been alike influenced by their teaching. But this tradition refutes itself, seeing that such a number of persons could not have been crowded together in a narrow cell, which has the measurement of only 13 Roman feet in length, by 20 in breadth. The consecration of these prisons for Christian worship is ascribed to the Pope S. Sylvester, in the time, and at the suggestion, of Constantino — for which see an apocryphal letter given to S. Jerome, and the " De Eerum Inventoribus " of Polidoro Yirgilio. Immediately above the prisons stands a dim lit chapel of ponderous architecture, generally known as that of the Crucifix (II Crocefisso) ; and above this rises the larger church of S. Giuseppe de' JFalegnami, built by the well- known architect Griacorao della Porta, 1598, for the Guild of Carpenters under the patronage of S. Joseph, which 152 IIISTOniC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. brotherhood had met for worship in a wooden chapel on the same site, since the year 1537. By their orders the lower dungeon w^as paved, and its actual flooring in con- sequence raised about six feet above the original level. Benedict XIV. appointed the celebration of Pontifical High Mass in the S. Giuseppe church on the 6th day within the octave of S. Peter's festival. They who have been resident in Rome during those solemnities of eight days' duration will remember the picturesque and affecting rites, the daily masses in the dungeons only illuminated by faintly burning altar-candles, and attended by devout throngs, all kneeling in silent prayer, every morning during the octave which commences after the 29th June. In the lower prison we are shown a stunted column, to which it is said that the two Apostles were chained. Over the altar, here erected, a modern relief, in gilt metal, repre- sents the baptism of the two jailors. On the descent from the upper chamber custodi point out one of those relics which even tradition condemns, and the official sanctioning of which only serves to compromise the Eoman Church — the supposed impression of S. Peter's head, seen in profile, and made in the massive stone-work where a jailor brutally thrust him against the wall. The narrow cavity in the roof being the sole original ingress into this prison, the Apostle could not have descended those stairs, beside which such memorial of him is seen ; and the pseudo-relic here before us may be classed with the impression of the knees of S. Peter in the church of S. Maria Nuova on the Eorum, and that of the feet of the Saviour on the pavement of the Appian Way, now exhibited at the basilica of S. Sebastian. The front of the Mamertine Prisons on the Forum was rebuilt, a.d. 22, by the Consuls A^ibius Eufinus and Cocceius Nerva, whose names are inscribed on a massive cornice of WALKS AMONG EUINS. ' 153 this structure, now seen within the modern building by which the ancient one — oldest among edifices overlooking the Forum — is entirely concealed on the outer side. Most interesting are the results of recent works undertaken and carried out by Mr. J. H. Parker, C.B., which have reopened and brought under notice several long-forgotten chambers of a subterranean building, evidently belonging to the same constructions as those well-known prison chambers. Among archaeological undertakings conducted by foreign enterprises at Eome, those accomplished, and the services rendered to antiquarian interests in the same monumental field, by the above-named gentleman have been in the highest degree important, and in every instance well directed. The labours ordered by him with object of discovering the full extent of the prisons erroneously sup- posed to have consisted of two small chambers alone, were commenced in 1868, with the assistance of Prof. Grori, a well-known Eoman archaeologist. It is now made evident that the two dungeons, below the churches of the Crocefisso and S. Gruiseppe dei Palegnami, cannot form the entire Mamertine prisons ; and that a place of durance for offenders of every class had the extent one may suppose requisite for such uses in the capital of empire. Livius says of one of the unfortunate victims confined here : ut in carcere instar furls et latronis — includatur. We descend below an obscure court, entered from the Via Ghettarello, at a short distance eastward from the Forum, first into a vaulted chamber, dark as night, formerly used as a safe for butcher's meat, and measuring in length 12*82, in width 4 '92 metres. An aperture in the floor is the sole entrance to a lower, and still more dreadful dungeon ; and from this chamber we enter another, of irregular form, a trapezium, the longest side measuring 5" 50 metres, having also an aperture in the pavement for communication with a lower 154 niSTOBIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. story. The floor has been considerably raised by hcaped- up soil and debris, to adapt this interior to modern use, for the butcher or wine seller. Hence we pass through a gap, opened in brickwork walls of great thickness, into the first branch of a corridor, extending in two different directions, and arched over with a semi-hexagonal stone vaulting. The walls of these chambers are of massive tufa blocks ; the vaults of stone, mingled with brick ; but the corridor first entered is lined with brickwork of a com- paratively late period. There are five of those prison chambers, reached by two entrances ; all the interiors lofty, with vaulted roofs, partly of stone, partly brickwork, — which latter may be of the IV. century, the latest period when the Mamertine prisons are known to have been used for confining criminals (v. Ammianus Marcellinus). Some narrow square windows in the partition walls may have served for passing food to the prisoners. A staircase by which we ascend from one and descend into another cham- ber, is probably among the more modern details. The corridor is of such masonry, in lithoid tufa, as attests its connection, and probably coeval origin, with the dungeons under the S. Griuseppe church. It is a narrow, gloomy, and horror-striking place, where one has to stoop low under the ponderous vault, picking one's way with difiiculty over ground usually saturated with water, and after rains flooded over in some parts. Reaching a point where three passages meet, and turning round a sharp angle, we find ourselves near a low iron door, which opens upon the deep- , est and darkest of the prison-chambers under the Porum. The other branch of this passage, which we here quit, ex- tends much further, imder the arch of Septimius Severus to the channel of the Cloaca Maximus ; and this we may suppose to have served for disposing of the bodies of those who died in captivity — unless exposed on the fatal " Scalae WALKS AMONG EUIKS. 155 GemoniaB** (which were in front of the prisons towards the Eorum) ; these corpses being probably thrown into the great sewer. Many victims whose names are on the historic page, perished by violent death in the Mamertine Prisons. Here did the Decemvirs Appius Claudius and Oppius commit suicide (b.c. 449) ; here (probably in the lowest of the prisons now serving for worship) was the unhappy Jugurtha, after being led in the triumphal procession, left to die of starvation, B.C. 104 ; here was the Gallic chief Vercingetorix inhumanly murdered by order of Julius Csesar ; here were the accomplices of Catiline strangled by command of Cicero, then Consul, B.C. 63; here were Sejanus and his innocent daughter put to death, a.d. 31; and here (according to the cruel usage on occasion of imperial triumphs) was Simon Bar Jonas, the defender of Jerusalem, executed after the Romans had achieved the conquest of Palestine, a.d. 70. The lines of Ju- venal, referring to olden times when one place of imprison- ment sufficed under the Kings and Tribunes, may allude to these dungeons, but imply less high a tribute to the huma- nity, or rather to the public morality of Some in that earlier period, when we interpret them by the new light thrown on realities, and revealing the extent of the Mamertine Pri- sons, through recent discoveries.* Since the late political novelties, we have heard not merely the assumed fact of S. Peter's confinement within these walls, but likewise his tenure of the Eoman Episco- pate, and his claim to be regarded as the Founder of an Apostolic See in this City publicly discussed. The advance of well-sustained arguments on the negative side — against * Felices proavorum atavos, felicia dicas Saicula, qui quondam sub Regibus atque Tribunis Viderunt uno contentam carcere Romam. —Sat. iii. 15G IlISTOHIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. the possibility that that Apostle could ever have visited Borne — by Italian theologians addressing a Roman audience at short distance from the towers of the Vatican, was itself an event of high moral significance. The step in archaeolo- gical research newly accomplished at the Mamertine Prisons, may be said to have occurred at the right moment, when such inquiries into the actually ascertainable histories of S. Peter and S. Paul can be pursued in the Metropolis of the Popes.* The more the field of antiquarian research expands in and around Eome, the more do we see, built in every style, Thermae, Lavacra, Ealnea ; and the more must we be convinced of the importance such establishments possessed • to ancient Eoman eyes. Proofs of this, in fact, pervade Roman literature. Many must remember the vivid picture of the splendours of the Bath in imperial times, contrasted with the rude simplicity which satisfied Scipiojn his retreat at Lintemum— see one of the most interesting among Seneca's letters (Ep. 89, 1. xiii.). Even the stoic Epictetus, despising all superfluities, draws lessons for the conduct of life from the experiences, good and bad, of the public bath — see Chapter ix. of his '* Enchiridion." Curious and com- plicated buildings, evidently for the Bath, have lately been brought to light on the south-eastern slope of the Palatine, between the Arch of Titus and that of Constantino, a site * The recent discovery has led to new conclusions as to the probable origin and purpose of an enormous construction in lapis Gahinus, some portions being of travertine, which rises against the Capitoline Hill on one side of the narrow court, off the Via Ghetarello, from which we enter the long-forgotten prison-chambers. Previously those remains were con- sidered as part of the Forum founded a.u.c. 708, soon after the battle of Pharsalia, by Julius Cajsar. We may now admit the notion that they pertain to the Mamertine buildings ; but even as such they may have served for a boundary, on the north-western side, to the later raised Forum. WALKS AMOXG RUINS. 157 where nothing was seen previously except a steep shelving bank, divided into half-natural terraces, overgrown with grass and weeds, above which extend the gardens of the S. Bonaventura Convent among imperial ruins. The recent discoveries add a new feature to this scene, while linking the Forum and Palatine monuments with the triumphal arches and the Colosseum. Most conspicuous (though not an altogether new discovery) are several lofty piles of enormous regularly hewn stone-work, near the Titus Arch, now more fully displayed to view by the clearing away of soil. Some cumbrous walls of mediaeval brickwork on this spot are remains of the castle built by the Erangipani, A.i). 1130, and called (because at one time used as a maga- zine for documents and archives) Turris Chartularia — a fortress which absorbed the imperial arch, converted by the Erangipani into a bulwark or keep, from the summit of which the mediaeval ruins were not removed till that arch was restored by Pius VII. 1822. A front of construc- tion in antique brickwork, propping up the slope of the Palatine behind these ruins, is now brought into view, together with the arched openings of chambers in three storeys, those on the ground-floor alone accessible, and still retaining their vaulted roofs, with painted stucco on their walls. We may ascend a dilapidated staircase to a high terrace above these ruins, whence is enjoyed an im- pressively beautiful view of monuments and churches, woody gardens and distant mountains. Below those more ancient buildings on the hill-side extend the structures, crowded together without apparent unity of plan, which, till lately, were buried under soil and verdure. Exploring this labyrinth, we find, besides the bath chambers, others, that seem to be vestibules or accessories of the " balnea,'* with partition- walls of different height, few of the interiors roofed over, though some retain traces of olden magui- 158 niSTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. ficence — prostrate shafts and colonnettcs of green-veined Carystian and other marble, pavements of porphyry, serpentine, or giallo antico, &c. In several chambers the whole apparatus of the marble-lined bath is still seen, with descent by steps, and terra-cotta calorifers set in the thick- ness of the walls. A small hypocaust is at once re- cognizable by the arrangements for the furnace. Most conspicuous is one hall, larger than the rest, and still in part roofed, with a hemicycle like the apse of a church, con- taining a semicircular platform raised about two feet, an oval cavity being in the midst, lined with marble as is the platform-summit. Through this cavity passes a narrow channel for water ; and here, no doubt, we have before us an apparatus for the hot bath, round which the bathers would sit on the marble ledge. The marble incrustation in this chamber is of the richest, Phrygian paonazetto, giallo, porphyry, &c. Some Christian lamps, with the usual symbols, have been found here ; hence, and also from the rude ma- sonry of the outer walls, the inference that this building was used for Christian worship, and perhaps in part re-erected as a basilica, the ecclesiastical record of which has yet to be searched for. The faithful may, possibly, have applied the arrangements of the bath, ready at hand, for the purpose of the Baptistry. At the southern side of these ruins, below a steep bank of earth, opens a descent by stairs to a dark abyss, into which, however, one may penetrate without torchlight ; and at the foot of the stepfi we find a well of clear water, probably in part filled up. By whom erected, and at what date, were these bath-chambers, who shall say ? The masonry does not indicate the best, nor the very worst period of the Empire. Private baths were not added to the patrician mansions of this city till the sixth century u.c. ; and it was in the year 729 of Rome that the first Thermae, destined for public use, were erected by Agrippa. Some WALKS AMONG EUINS. 159 suppose that those chambers under the Palatine had no connection with the imperial palace, tliat they were public, though not gratuitous baths, especially for the benefit of the wealthier classes whose favourite rendezvous was the Forum or the Via Sacra. Publius Victor informs us that in the Eegio IV. of ancient Eome, where these ruins stand, there were no fewer than seventy -five halnecd private ^ besides the " Balneum Daphnidis," probably more important. Yet this Eegio, called Templum Pads from the fane built by Vespasian within its limits, was, though distinguished for numerous public monuments, the smallest of the fourteen into which the " Urbs" was divided by Augustus. The amazing splendours of even the balnea for private use in imperial Eome are detailed with graphic skill by Statius iahis Sylvae (1. 1. Carm. V; II Carm. II). One conjecture is that the baths recently exhumed below the Palatine may be those of Heliogabalus, the sole noticeable addition made by him (besides a temple of the Sun-god) to the buildings on that Hill — on the lower declivity of which these ruins may be said to stand. It has been conjectured also that some more massive structures, the remnants of a great edifice in stonework, near these balnea, but nearer to the Arch of Titus, may belong to that temple itself, raised above the remains of a more ancient one, in which the boy Heliogabalus desired to concentrate all the sanctities of Eoman worship, postponing all other gods to the Syrian Deity whose high-priest he gloried to be.* * In these " Walks " I propose to direct attention only to those ruins and monuments which have been either discovered, or after long oblivion brought into notice and into fuller light, as well as more facile access, through recent researches. IGO ITTSTOIITC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. CHAPTER V. THE PALATINE HILL. A woNDEHFUL fact in the great drama of world-history is the rise and development, from rude and obscure origin, of that Roman dominion which threw into shade all the grandeurs and triumphs of antecedent Kingdoms raised up for more ephemeral sway ; a dominion whose magnifi- cence and potency led to the belief, long entertained even by the Christian mind, and against which S. Augustine argues effectively in his " City of God,*' that immutable late or Divine Providence had allotted an eternal duration to the Empire whose rulers had their seat on the Palatine Hill. Yet there is another fact still more extraordinary, still more suggestive of reflection and enquiry, still more demanding the earnest studies of the Historian, Philosopher, and Moralist for its explanation — the irremediable Decline, the inevitable and tragic Fall of that colossal Empire ! Passing in fatal periphery through stages of profound corruption, paralytic weakness, and miserable decay, it expired with dissolution which presents the phenomenon of a two-fold death — that, namely, of the Western Empire when the Herulan King Odoacer deposed the young Romulus Augustulus, a.d. 476, and that of the Eastern, A.D. 1453, when the Moslem Sultan captured Constanti- nople, and the last of the Greek Caesars fell in combat beneath the walls he had bravely defended. No comment on this historic tragedy was ever, I believe, so appropriately uttered as that (understood in such reference by Eathers of the Church) from the pen of an Apostle at Patmos : " I THE PALATINE HILL. IGl saw an angel come down from Heaven having great power, and the earth was lightened with his glory ; and he cried with a loud voice, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, — the mighty City, in one hour is her judgment come ; for her sins have reached unto Heaven, and Grod hath remem- bered her iniquities ! " As the Porum and Capitol are the centres where we are reminded of the better and nobler aspects, the ancient institutions, sagacious government, and popular life of this City, so is the Palatine Hill the site where monuments serve to bring before our minds most strikingly the causes of Decline and Fall, as well as the characters and lives of those rulers responsible for so much evil, and though in several examples admirable and just men, in others pre- senting every most odious trait of depravity and guilt. Here we stand amidst far-extending ruins where historic knowledge enables us to see the stains of blood shed in sumless murders, the gloomy shadows from every possible crime, the deep dyed pollution from every imaginable vice. "We cannot isolate those who reigned on the Palatine from the social sphere amidst which they stood supreme ; for the character and conduct of rulers, the traits which normally distinguish Dynasties seated on thrones may be deemed a reflection and consequence of the moral state prevailing amongst those governed by them. The crimes and licen- tiousness of the Ca3sars and their Court would have been impossible unless criminality and license had poisoned the atmosphere around. Eeading the lives of Nero, of Cajus (called Caligula), of Domitian and Commodus, we may be less struck by the enormities of the Tyrant than by the proofs, displayed in darkest colours by Tacitus, Sue- tonius and Dion Cassius, of the wide-spread complicity, the participation in their worst follies and vices on the 2^art of patricians and populace, of slavish courtiers, abject seiia. tors, and high born but infamous women. M 162 niSTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. The memories associated with the Palatine Hill, which probably derives its name from JPaleSy the protecting God- dess of shepherds and pastures, whose festival, the PaUiliaf was celebrated on the 21st April (the day marked by tradi- tion as that of the founding of the great City), those throng- ing memories of the Imperial Mount extend, from the origin to the Fall of the Western Empire, over 1229 years. Ascending higher in the dim lit regions of the remote Past, we are met by other associations rather of the fabulous than historic class, attaching to that celebrated site, and extend- ing over about 530 years — namely, from the supposed period of the Arcadian King " Evander," and the tradi- tionary arrival of ^neas on the Latian coast, till the origin of the Eomulean city. Over the dimness of that far-off Past is thrown a light from creative imagination. Among the most beautiful passages in ancient Latin poetry is that in which Virgil describes the voyage, up the Tiber, of JEneas and his comrades, directed by Divine oracles to the foot of that Mount then rising amidst primaeval forests and morasses, its summit being crowned by the rude citadel and sparsely scattered houses of the Arcadian colony; describ- ing also the simple hospitality with which the venerable King receives those guests at a banquet spread in open air for a festival of olden worship, after which he conducts them over the wildly picturesque region around the Palatine of what we may call (accrediting earliest traditions) the Arcadian E]»och. "Kes inopesEvandrushabebat." (Evander had but a humble and poor state) where the Eoman power finally arose, " equal to that of heaven itself,"* as Eome's greatest Epic Poet declares. Several fanes and sanctuaries, not forgotten, are men- tioned as existing even in that far distant time on the • Arcemque procul, et rara domorum Tecta vidcnt, quae nunc Romana potentia coelo iEquavit. — ACneid,, 1. viii. 98. THE PALATINE HILL. 163 same hill ; among others, the Lupercal, a cavern and adjacent grove where Pan was worshipped with Arcadian rites, and where sacrifice was offered till the time of Augus- tus. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, our authority for this fact, mentions a temple of Ceres, where women alone sacri- ficed, founded by the same Arcadians ; and other writers tell us of temples to Victory and Good Taith (Eides), the latter founded by Numa, the former known to have been rebuilt by a Consul in the year of the City 458. Passing to what is more distinctly recorded, and observ- ing the coincidences of things memorable in diverse lands, we find that the accepted date of the origin of Eome, 753 years before our era (according to Varro), was the first year of the 7th Olympiad, sixty-one years after the rise of the Macedonian kingdom, sixty-seven years after the fall of the Assyrian Empire, thirty- three years after the overthrow of the kingdom of Israel through the conquest of Samaria, and whilst the Prophet Isaiah was raising his voice with in- spired utterances at Jerusalem. But is that comparatively recent period, seven and a half centuries before our era, indeed the date of the original city, first founded on the Palatine Hill ? Modern writers who have gone farthest in questioning the ancient historians, but to whom has been im- puted more scepticism than (I think) they can be convicted of, draw a striking picture of the scene amidst which Komulus established his colony. Ampere — (see his Sistoire Bomaine ^ Borne) assumes the existence of nine primaeval cities, or fortified villages, on the hills afterwards numbered as the Classical Seven : on the Capitol, Saturnia, founded by the aboriginal Latins, but mythologically ascribed to Her- cules ; on the same Hill, Tarquinium^ an Etruscan fortress ; on the Palatine three distinct cities, the southern summit occupied by Palatium, a Sabine settlement, the north-west- ern by the ante-Komulean BomUy a Pelasgic settlement • the M 2 ICl niSTORTC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. iiitorvoiiinpj space by Sikelia, a scat of the Siculi, who finally migrated to the island still called after them, while colonists of the same race occupied the Aventine, with a city called Momuria,the Sabines being seated also on the Janiculan, and the Etruscans on the Coelian, where they had an encamp- ment named (like that hill itself) from one of their chief- tains. Nor is this idea of the Seven Hills and their ear- liest occupants without support from Classic authority. Dionysius, who wrote in the time of Augustus, states that those Pelasgi who were not destroyed or dispersed in colo- nies, remained on the site where, in process of time, their posterity, together with men of other races, built the city of Eome. Elsewhere the same historian, recalling still earlier traditions, states that the first settlers here were the Oenotri, or Arcadians, with whom the wandering Pelasgi became allied ; that still later came other Arcadians under a chosen leader, Evander, the son of Mercury and Car- mcnta (or Themis), who settled and built a village on the hill to which was given a name from their mother city, Pallantium, in Arcadia. Subsequently to these migrations came the Hercules (whom this writer regards as an historic personage, deified by fable) with an army of Greeks, some of whom remained to found a city, Saturnia, on the hill afterwards called Capitolinus. In the 432nd year after the Trojan war, the Albans, a mixed race of Arcadians, Pelasgi and Trojans, subsequently named Latins, built on and fortified both hills, the Palatine and Capitol, sending for occupation of them a colony led by twin brothers, named Komulus and Eemus, who were of Dardan descent through JEneas, and allied to their own tings. Elsewhere this writer says : " If one desires to look into earlier reports, even a third Eome will be discovered more antient than these, and which was founded before ^neas and the Tro- jans came into Italy." He adds a fact indicative of the THE PALATINE HILL. 165 rapid progress and energies of the new colonists : that the baud led by Eomulus did not exceed 3000 foot and 300 horse at the beginning of that leader's reign, but that wheioi Eomulus was cut off by violent death (37 years afterwards) the forces of the primitive city amounted to .4000 foot and about 1000 of mounted soldiery, to which census must of course be added the women and children. Accordant with these primitive traditions is the poetic testimony I have cited from Virgil. The venerable Evander conducts his Trojan guests over the wild places around the newly colo- nized Palatine, amidst profound forests which Latiau shepherds regarded with awe as the haunt of Divine beings, of creatures who (to the thought of olden superstition) mysteriously wandered over — dale or piney mountain, In forests, by slow stream or pebbly spring, In chasms and watery depths — and amidst such scenes he points out to their notice the prostrate walls of two cities ascribed to antiquity remote evea from the imaginary point of view in Virgil's Epic — "monuments of men of ancient time"* — ancient, ihatis, about six centuries before the founding of Eome ! One was a city built by " Father Janus ;" another by the god Saturn ; Janiculum being the name of one, Saturnia that of the other. The testimony of Livius as to the origin of the Eome of Eomulus, is confirmed through recently discovered re- mains on the Palatine only in so far as those ruins attest the existence of a small but strongly fortified city on that hill, built by a not unskilful people on the spot where the Historian places it, and with construction recognisable to the archseologic eye as of very early date. Yet is there one circumstance in which Livius is singularly contradicted -* Veterumque vides monimenta virorum. ICG UISTOllIC AND MONUMENTAL KOME. by the monuiiieutrd Lytton's version.) THE ROMAN FOEUM HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. 219 from the name given in sundry ccclesiaBtical documents to the north-eastern region of the Forum, " In tria Fata" — - singular record of the idea of that mysterious power, im- mutable Fate, surviving after all the splendours and triumphs of Rome's great Forum had passed away, all its monuments been reduced to long disregarded ruin ! The younger Pliny (Ep. 17, 1. i.) highly commends a person who had obtained from Trajan the permission to erect a statue on the Forum ; observing that it was not more honourable to have such a memorial erected to oneself than to raise it for another's honour on a site so illustrious ! The elder Pliny mentions statues of Pythagoras and Alcibiades, which stood on the horns (curving extremities) of the Comitium. The statue of Pompey the Great was thrown down from its pedestal on the Forum after the battle of Pharsalia, but was generously replaced by the victorious Cser^ar. The situation of the Comitium, an enclosed space without roofing, cannot be determined, some supposing it to have been at the southern, others at the northern extremity of the Forum. A late memorable discovery {v. supr. p. 145,) seems to confirm the latter conclusion — if (as con- jectured) the marble panels with sculptures on both sides, found erect under the ruins of a mediaeval tower near the north-eastern angle, served to flank the entrance to that arena of political affairs. Alike uncertain is the original place of the Rostra Yeteres — the ancient tribunal for orators. No permanent tribunal for such purpose is known to have been placed in the Forum till the year of the city 417 ; anterior to which it seems that the spot for public speaking was the so-called " Yulcunal," on the slope of the Palatine. In the year 336 B.C., the Romans having gained a naval victory over the citizens of Antium, several of those enemies' ships were burnt, others transported to the Roman docks ; and the 220 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. bronze prows of the latter were used to decorate a pulpit, now raised for public speaking, probably near the centre of the Forum. Julius Caesar, no doubt for a political motive, removed both this tribunal and the Comitium with it. Long after his time, the poet Claudian, in his lines cele- brating the sixth Consulate of Honorius, indicates the site of the Rostra as below the Palatine: "Subjectis Regia rostris." This transferred tribunal may be identified in a massive structure of tufa stonework, rectilinear, and so placed, near the arch of Septimius Severus, that a person standing on the summit would have the Capitoline hill at his back,- the whole extent of the Forum in front. "WTiat we see is but a remnant, discovered by the clearing of the accumulated soil in the time of Pius VII., and now over- arched by the vaulting that supports a modern road. We still perceive the cavities for inserting the prows (rostra) ^ or imitations of them in bronze, on some of the large square- hewn stones. The form and position of this structure correspond to the details in a relievo on the arch of Con- stantino, where that Emperor appears addressing the people from the rostrum, on occasion of his triumph over Maxen- tius. Among the reminiscences which inspired an English Poet on the Eorum, — where the immortal accents glow, And yet the eloquent air breathes, burns with Cicero, it is interesting to know that here, from this tribunal, did the great orator often address his audience ; and here were the severed head and hands of Cicero exposed to insult after he had fallen (b.c. 43), the most illustrious victim of the Triumvirs.* The conquest and almost total destruction of Rome by * Varro, cited by Porphyrion, says that the tomb of Romulus was behind the Rostra— of course meaning the earliest of those tribunals on the Forum. THE EOMAN rOKIJM HISTOEICALLY CONSIDERED. 221 the Grauls (b.c. 390, or 387) must have caused integral change to the Forum in all its aspects. One might suppose that the circumstances of such a tremendous catastrophe would have remained distinct in local memories, even though never committed to writing. The tragic picture of the venerable Senators awaiting their doom, seated motionless and silent on their curule chairs, till the work of massacre begun, is one of the most grandly impressive among scenes and events associated with this site. The narrative of that great disaster by Livius is somewhat incoherent. His words imply that the whole city, the fortress on the Capitol alone excepted, was left in smouldering ruin; yet else- where, he reports the decree obtained by the deliverer Camillus from the Senate, " that all the temples, having been in possession of the enemy, should be restored, their bounds traced, and expiation made for them — that Capito- line games should be exhibited in honour of Jupiter, Opti- mus Maccimus, for having in time of danger protected his own mansion and the citadel of Eome." — (Baker's version). Almost in the next page, the Historian mentions a debate of the Senate held in their ancient place of assemblage, the Curia Hostilia, which cannot, therefore, have perished in the flames. The primitive temple of Vesta was certainly destroyed. From its ruins the four virgin priestesses escaped to Caere (now Cerveteri), carrying with them all such of their sacred objects as were portable, after burying the rest in earthen vessels (doliola) under the house of the Plamen Quirinalis. Their fane was soon rebuilt, but was again burnt down about 120 years afterwards. At that second conflagration, the Pontifex Maximus, Caecilius Metellus, risked his life to save the thrice- sacred Palladium ,^ from A^esta's sanctuary, and lost his eyesight in the her<3a« ^ effort, fortunately successful. He was rewaiHle?^ by the honours of a statue, with an epigrap^,^ Arected on thp \ 222 nisTOEic and monumental dome. Capitol, the unique privilege of going to the Senate- house in a chariot instead of on foot, and the cognomen of *' Pius," transmissible to all his descendants (Liv. 1. xix. Valerius Maximus, 1. 1. c. IV j Pliny, H. N. 1. vii. c. 43, § 41.) The irregular and unsystematic method in which the City was restored, is mentioned by historians. " The haste of the builders,'* says Livius, "took away all attention to the regulation of the courses of streets ; for, setting aside all regard to distinctions of property, they built on every spot found vacant. The form of the City appears as if force alone had directed the distribution of the lots." (Baker's " Livy," 1. x. § 54.) The first noteworthy edifice on the Eorum among those that arose new, not among those restored, is the Temple of Concord, founded by Furius Camillus, the conqueror of the invading Grauls, appointed Dictator for the fifth time, who intended in that sacred structure to commemorate the accord between Patri- cians and Plebeians, brought about through the measure which allowed both classes to be eligible, and members of each to be alternately elected, for the Consulate. The Senate often assembled in the cella of this temple ; and here it was that Cicero denounced the conspiracy of Cata- line. After a fire had much damaged the edifice, B.C. 84, it was restored, probably by the same Lutatius Catulus, the ffidile, who built the upper storeys of the Tabularium. Previously to the date here assumed, that of Caesar's funeral, for our review of the Forum in the last period of Republican rule, four great buildings had arisen on this site, of not one among which any vestige can be positively pointed out : the Basilicas or high courts of justice — characteristic monu- ments of the genius and vocation which elevated Eome to the rank of Lawgiver for the world she effected so much to civilize. First was raised, b.c. 185, the Porcian Basilica, so THE ROMAN FORUM HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. 223 called from its founder Marcus Fortius Cato, the Censor ; and this edifice was among several reduced to ruins by the fire kindled at the tumultuous funeral of Clodius (b.c. 51), whose antagonist Milo, responsible for his violent death, was defended by Cicero. Next was founded, b.c. 180, the Pulvian Basilica by the Censor, one time Consul, M. Fulvius Nobilior. Next in order of date, B.C. 163, the Sempronian, probably on the site of the Julian Basilica still before us in roofless ruin — the former being founded by Sempronius Gracchus, twice Consul, and father of the celebrated, but alike unfortunate, Tribunes. Lastly arose the most splendid of these great edifices, the ^milian Basilica, founded about the year 45 b.c. by the Consul Lucius JEmilius Paulus, and for the expenses of which building Caesar advanced 1500 talents, equivalent to 7,500,000 francs. Its quadruple colonnades of purple- veined Phrygian marble are mentioned by Pliny (H. N. xxxvi. c. 15) ; and the ground-plan of this majestic edifice is preserved to us on one of the fragments of the antique map of Eome, incised on marble, found behind the church of SS. Cosmo e Damiano, and now in the Capitoline Museum. It was dedicated, b.c. 14, by another member of the ^milian family, and after being injured by fire, was restored partly at the expense of Augustus, who assisted the same patrician house for that object. A second restoration, a.d. 22, is mentioned by Tacitus. In the " Sylvse" of Statins (1. 1, § 1), this grandest among the basilicas of the Eepublic is styled " regia," a regal structure.* The last notice of it is found in the " Eegionaries," towards the end of the lY. century ; and it is conjectured {v. Nibby, " Eoma Antica e Moderna") that Theodosius removed from its deserted, if not already ruinous courts, the graceful shafts of paonazzetto * BcUigeri sublimis Regia PauUi. 224 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. (Phrygian) marble, to adorn the extramural church dedi- cated to S. Paul. Admitting this, we may still persuade our- selves that we look on the vestiges of the splendid ^milian Basilica in the flat pilasters of purple-veined marble, now erect against the walls of the transepts in the restored S. Paolo on the Ostian Way — themselves but remnants of the colonnades overthrown and shattered by the fire, 1823.* It is well known how the Christians took suggestion from the plan and architecture of the Eoman Judiciary Courts for the cathedrals of their worship. Christian Rome con- tains at this day four Basilicas ranking as Patriarchal, seven major Basilicas (inclusive of those four), and seven other churches invested with similar character though not equal rank ; altogether, fourteen major and minor basilicas, the first four being the privileged cathedrals of the Pope. The first erected triumphal arch on the Forum (b.c. 108), in honour of Fabius Maximus, called "AUobrox" from his victory over the Allobroges, stood at the southern side of this area at the period here referred to ; but no vestige of it remains ; and it is supposed to have been overthrown in the IV. century — more probably, in one of the sieges and pillages occurring in the more disastrous century that ensued. The triumphal arch, as a grand sculptured trophy of victorious Emperors, appears much later than that " Arcus Fabianus" of the Eepublic. I may now invite my readers to pass in thought over another long interval, not less than two centuries and a half, and contemplate the Forum after the last addition had been made to its stately group of public edifices and * It is not improbable, as conjectured by archaeologists, that the front of the church of 8. Adriano, near the north-west angle of the Forum, may present to us a remnant of the JEmilian Basilica. The brickwork now serving as a church-front, and intercepted by many arches now walled up, is evidently antique. THE EOMAN FOUUM HISTOEICALLY CONSIDEEED. 225 monuments under the Empire — namely, that latest erected among the arches, of the class just alluded to, in honour of Septimius Severus and his two sons. Strange indeed were the vicissitudes and metamorphoses which had passed over this historic centre during the interval from the death of Julius Csesar to the reign of the African Severus ! The people who could hail as deliverers of their country the assassins of the great Dictator, had submitted to, and superstitiously deified, a succession of the worst tyrants that ever lived or reigned. Among twenty-one Emperors, all had received divine honours, with exception of Tiberius, Caius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Yitellius. The insane volup- tuary Caius had profaned the temple of the Dioscuri by breaking open a passage into its cella from an advancing wing of his palace ; and used to seat himself, demanding divine worship, between the statues of the Twin Gods in that sanctuary ! Almost every edifice of the republican period had, before this time, disappeared from the Forum ; and Qu the Capitoline hill remained alone unchanged, where the massive structure is still in part preserved, the front and arcades of the Tabularium overlooking this historic area at the north-western side. Even the long-cherished and fre- quently restored " Cottage of Eomulus" on the Palatine had been destroyed by the great fire, together with the Temple of Vesta and other public buildings, in Nero's reign. Another conflagration had been fatal to the superb Temple of Peace, and to its purlieus richly adorned with sculptures, and called the "Forum Pacis," which Vespasian founded A.D. 75. The Curia Julia, or Senate House, restored by Augustus, now looked down upon the "Forum Eomanum," probably from the same spot where had stood the ancient Curia Hostilia. That edifice having been burnt down in the fire kindled at the funeral of Clodius (a.d. 51),* * Publius Clodius, a Roman soldier of noble birth, but infamous for Q 226 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL BOME. FauBtus, the son of Sylla, undertook to restore it ; only six years after the new Curia had been commenced it was demolished under pretext of raising a temple to Felicitas on the same spot, but in reality, as supposed, with the motive of a desire to suppress the memory and renown of the sanguinary Dictator, Sylla. The Triumvirate, or rather Julius Caesar, beside whom his colleagues fell into the shade, founded another Curia, which was finished and dedi- cated to Julius after his death by his grand-nephew Au- gustus. This later Senate-House became a museum of art under the first Emperor. Its walls were adorned with paintings — scenes from the Punic War, the Gallic Invasion, the delivery of Eome by Camillus, and the victories of that leader in battle against the Gauls, — the artists being two Greeks, named Niceas and Philochares. In its portico stood a Greek statue of Victory brought from Tarentum, before which every Senator used to offer incense on an altar as he passed into the hall of assemblage (Silius Italicus, Punic. 1. 1, 617). Some archaeologists assume that to this Augustan Curia (or to its portico consecrated as a temple) pertains the beautiful ruin of a Corinthian peristyle, now generally known as the temple of Castor and Pollux. The opposite theory, which det^ermines the sacred character for that ruin, as a temple, is (I believe) better supported. Admitting that the Corinthian columns do not pertain to the " Curia Julia," we may, nevertheless, his evil conduct, was slain by the retinue of Milo in an encounter which took place between the two when Milo was on his way towards Lanuvium, and Clodius was returning to Rome. Cicero, who defended the former from the charge of murder, says : " It lately brought the greatest honour to our friend Milo that with gladiators, hired for the sake of the Repubhc, he repressed all the attempts and madness of Publius Clodius." (De Offlciis, ii. xvii.) The death scene is supposed to have taken place on the ascent towards Albano, where the Appian Way reaches the base of the Latian hills. THE ROMAN FORUM HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. 227 recognize the hall of senatorial discussion in a lofty struc- ture of brickwork, the best ancient Eoman masonry in- deed, at the rear of those columns, and immediately under the declivity of the Palatine. Interesting is it to be assured that we have here before us the still erect, though roofless, walls of that edifice whence proceeded the legis- lation of the Eoman "World, that hall of august assemblage which Cicero designates as " the Temple of the sanctity, the intelligence and wisdom of the State !" The fane of the Dioscuri, which overlooked the Forum of the third century (in the time of Septimius Severus), was that restored by Domitian, and with how much splen- dour we may infer from the profusion of marble fragments, statuary, fi*iezes, sculptured rilievi, &c., recently exhumed around it. Near it, westward, stood the '* ^des Caesaris," or temple-tomb of the deified Julius, now to be recognized in a terrace of ruins brought to light, after long oblivion, with the semi-circular platform of the "Rostra Julii,'* placed by Augustus, still extant at the threshold of a peristyle no more seen. Between these two buildings and the Capitoline hill extended the great Basilica founded by Augustus on the site of the Sempronian, and dedicated, like the Curia, to " Divus Julius." "Works commenced and directed by Canina in 1853, also pursued with activity in later years, have brought to light the now low-reduced ruins of that Basilica Julia, a spacious platform with much of its fine intarsio pavement (now restored), overstrewn with many fragments of marble ornamentation, pedestals with epigraphs for memorial statues, and broken sculp- tures, statues and relievi, some of superior character ; also still erect portions of the arcades in brickwork, dividing the interior into aisles, and surrounding'the whole oblong paral- lelogram. So long ago as the XVI. century an epigraph, edited by Gruter, was found on this site, recording a resto- Q 2 228 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. ration of the Basilica by a Prefect of the City, a.d. 377, as also the erection of a statue within its walls — possibly that of Julius CaBsar (no more extant), which was found near the neighbouring Consolazione Hospital, and is men- tioned by Flaminio Vacca. This erecting, or restoring, of the effigy of the great Dictator by a Prefect of Christian Eome, would indeed be singular proof of that reverence for his memory which survived through mediaeval vicissi- tudes, and which appears in the pages of Dante ! One anonymous writer, quoted by Eckhard, tells that a great conflagration in the reign of Carinus, a.d. 283, swept over the Curia Julia, the Graecostasis, the Basilica of Augustus, and the entire Porum of CaGsar, all which edifices, he states, were restored by Diocletian ; and this must have been the last restoration of the classic archi- tecture on either Porum, respecting which we are in- formed. On the south-western side of the " Porum Eomanum" (as we are now considering it under the later Empire) stood the Temple of Antoninus Pius and Paustina, origi- nally approached by an ascent of twenty-one steps (all now buried) frgm the Via Sacra. Its columns, monoliths of green- veined Carystian marble (forty-five feet high), still stand with the inscribed architrave ; and time has also spared the lateral walls of the cella with their beau- tiful friezes, displaying finely sculptured relievi of griffins and candelabra. But these graceful ruins have been lamentably maltreated ; the shafts of the columns are deeply furrowed for inserting the rafters and roofs of paltry houses thrown up against them in mediasval times ; and the whole is now obscured, as well as disfigured, by the intrusive buildings of an ugly church, S. Lorenzo in Miranda, founded at an early date, but, as we now see it, (rebuilt 1602) a specimen of the poorest seventeenth-cen- THE EOMAN FOEUM HISTOEICALLT CONSIDEEED. 229 tury Italian style. The temple was founded by Antoninus Pius in honour of his deified Empress, shortly after her death in the third year of his reign (a.d. 141), and was dedicated after his decease, a.d. 161, to himself also, as an inscrip- tion added on a lower architrave (an anomalous detail) records. Faustina was not worthy of her virtuous and only too confiding lord. We may dissociate the memory of such a woman from that of the just Euler who nobly exemplified on a throne the principles of the Stoic Phi- losophy whose disciple he had been from his youth ; who preferred the title of Pacifier to that of Conqueror ; and used incessantly to repeat the maxim "that it was better to preserve the life of a single citizen than to destroy a thousand enemies." A view of this temple, in its original form, is introduced in the background of one of the rilievi from the demolished Arch of Marcus Aurelius, now set against the wall of a landing place above the great stairs in the Conservators' Palace on the Capitol. The equestrian statue of the last- named Emperor, the son-in-law and successor of Antoninus Pius, probably stood on the Eorum before the fane dedi- cated to his adoptive parents. In the middle ages that effigy (the only antique equestrian statue in bronze still preserved entire) was removed to the Lateran piazza, and probably owed its rescue from destruction to the fortunate popular error which regarded it as the authentic image of Constantine. The equestrian statue of Domitian, whose place was not far from that of M. Aurelius on the Forum, and the terrace-like basement for which has been lately uncovered, is said to have been actually converted, through change of the head, into a portrait of the first Christian Emperor — and as such respected. The sites of various buildings and enclosed, but roofless, areas connected with the Senate House are uncertain. 230 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. The Secretarium Senatus is supposed to have occupied the place of the church dedicated originally to S. Luke, after- wards to S. Martina also. The " Senaculum," a raised plat- form without roof, is supposed to have had its place on the spacious summit of a pile of masonry, now stript of its outer encrustation, either stone or marble, between the arch of Severus and the other still higher platform occu- pied by the temple of Concord. In a map of the Porum drawn up by Signor Eosa, this theory is adopted — it seems admissible. I have pointed out the still recognizable remnant of the Eostra removed by Julius Csesar from the Oomitium to the base of the Capitoline hill. Near it we see the later erected tribunal for public oratory, called Eostra Capi- toHna, of the imperial period, and on one of the horns of whose curving platform was placed by Augustus the mil- liarium Aureum, a cippus of gilt-bronze on which were inscribed the distances of all the Eoman roads beyond the city-gates. The semicircular elevation now before us, with remains of its coating in rich marbles, is probably the " Eostra" restored by Septimius Severus. Not far, west- ward, from the arch of that Emperor, stood another similar triumphal monument, now totally vanished — the arch of Tiberius, erected a.d. 13, to commemorate the victories of that Prince, assisted by his brother Drusus, and the later recovery of the standards lost when the Eoman legions were defeated by the Germans under the heroic Arminius, (Hermann), a.d. 9. By the jointly achieved victories of Tiberius and Drusus, B.C. 15-14, all the possessions lost in G-ermany were reco- vered, and the Vindelici, Eaeti, with other fierce tribes resubjected to Eome. These triumphs are celebrated by Horace in two odes, those of Drusus being especially dwelt on in Ode IV., those of Tiberius in Ode V., fourth THE EOMAN FOBUM HISTOETCALLT CONSIDEEED. 231 book ; but all the honour of the re-establishment of the Empire on its larger basis is given by the poet to Augus- tus. Near that arch of Tiberius, probably on one side of the rostra, stood an aedicula to the Genius of the Eoman people, erected e.g. 41, during the dictatorship of Julius Csesar — a monument to the idea of their own divinely appointed supremacy which then possessed that people's mind. Most magnificent among the temples now overlooking the Porum from the southern slope of the Capitol, was that of Concord, rebuilt by Tiberius during the lifetime of Augustus (a.d. 10), and dedicated by the former fifteen years after he had, when Consul, decreed such renovation of the fane founded by Camillus. It was subsequently restored by Septimius Severus and his son Antoninus, as shown by an epigraph exhumed on this site, where also was found another inscription recording the courtier devotedness of a citizen who ofi'ered in this temple five pounds' weight of gold and as many of silver, for the welfare of Tiberius (pro salute Tib. CcBsaris.) The dedication of this edifice, in its renewed splendour, aroused the attention and was cele- brated by the pen of Ovid, even from his sorrowful exile in Pontus. (Fasti, 1. vi. 637.) Little now remains of it except the lofty terrace on which stood the portico and cella, but about half of which area is buried beneath the modern road ascending the Capitol on the eastern side. Some beautiful fragments of its architecture are, however, preserved in the Museum of the Tabularium. On the spacious platform where that fane once proudly rose, re- main three large basements for statues, also some portions of richly chiselled cornices, and the pavement of Numidian and lasian marble — italice, " giallo antico " and " porta santa." On one immense block of the latter (pink and brown) marble is seen a small concave design, formerly 232 HISTOBIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. filled with gilt bronze, of the caduceus of Mercury, in- telligible symbol of Concord, and alone sufficient to determine the character of a building now preserved in such scanty relics. "What remained of this temple in the Middle Ages was, it is supposed, destroyed together with a baronial castle built over it, by decree of the uncompromising Senator Brancaleone, in the year 1258, when the principal fortresses of the turbulent barons were thus unsparingly treated — the Senator's expedient for striking those petty oppressors of medisDval Eome in their strongholds, wound- ing them where most vulnerable. Next to the temple of Concord stands another ruin, three beautiful Corinthian columns, all now left of a magnificent peristyle, which reminds us of the primaeval worship of Saturn, and the deeply significant mythology connected with it. This is the latest restoration of that ancient fane of the god, due to Septimius Severus and his son, as recorded by the in- scription on its architrave, of which but one mutilated word, restituer (restituerunt) , remains. Opinions are divided as to the identity of the Saturn Temple ; some antiquaries assuming it to be the other fane lower down on the Capitoline declivity, and now consisting of a badly restored Ionic portico with eight granite columns, archi- trave, and lofty stylobate. We know that the temple in question communicated with the State Treasury, the so- called " Sanctius (Erarium ;" and it^is palpably evident that during ages when the ponderous aes rude was still in circu- lation, such a deposit of the public money must have occu- pied large or numerous chambers, the ruins of which would be conspicuous. No vestige of such buildings is found in the vicinity of the peristyle and still partly pre- served cella of the temple lower down on the Capitoline hill. We may therefore conclude that that on the higher ground, represented by the Corinthian columns, is the fane of THE EOMAN FOEUM HISTORICALLY CONSIDEEED. 233 Saturn ; that on the lower, the Ionic edifice, the fane founded by Domitian in honour of his father and brother, and commonly called " Temple of Yespasian," though dedi- cated to Titus also. This determination is confirmed by epigraphic evidence ; and assurance is made doubly sure through the light thrown on the subject from the simple records of a Grerman pilgrim, the " Anonymous of Ein- siedlin," w^ho copied the then better preserved epigraph from the Corinthian peristyle, comprising the single word still left in imperfect state : Severus et Anton. — restituerunt ; and also the longer epigraph, as we still see it on the architrave of the Ionic portico : Senatus Populusque Ho- manus incendio consumptum restifuitj with the addition, Divo Vespasiano Augusto. The temple founded by Do- mitian was restored by order of the Senate after the fire here alluded to, and which is mentioned by the ecclesiastical historian Zosimus as occurring in the reign of Maxentius. Its restoration under the last (save one) of the heathen Emperors, must therefore have been the last • of which a fane for heathen worship in Eome was the object. Poggio Bracciolini mentions it as still standing entire at the date, 1452, when he wrote his eloquent essay, " De Yarietate Eortunae." In the rear of the lofty artificial terrace on which stands the other temple, we see on the massive stone- work of the Tabularium the easily discernible outlines of two arched doors, both walled up with similar ancient stonework. These we may suppose to be communications between the fane of Saturn and the chambers within that great fortress-like building on the Capitol, where the public money was kept ; and we have here confirmatory proof that the Corinthian colonnade represents the edifice dedicated to the God — the Ionic, that dedicated to the two Emperors. In an angle formed by the front of the Tabularium and the modern road ascending the Capitol on the western side. 234* HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL BOME. rises another Corinthian colonnade restored (injudiciously, I think) in 1857, with five columns of granite added to the five antique ones with shafts of fluted marble, behind which open seven vaulted chambers built in brickwork. Here we see the " Portico of the Dii Consentes" (or Consentii), the twelve superior gods and goddesses, six of each sex, styled also " Dii Majorum G-entium," who were the special counsellors of the supreme God, according to Etruscan mythology. The original epigraph, on the architrave of the colonnade, records a restoration of their images (sacrosancta simulacra,) by the Urban Prefect, Praetextatus, one who held his office under Julian— and in this restora- tion we have monumental proof of the zeal with which that Emperor applied himself to the desperate eff'ort of a heathen revival. Seven of the statues of the Dii Consentes were made of silver, offered by two Curators, who adorned the platform in front of this portico with marble decorations, supplying it also with bronze seats for public use. The terrace, thus laid out and embellished, served, like our modern Exchanges, for the assembly of men of business, and was called, from the name of one of those Curators, " Schola Xantha." Seven other vaulted chambers, below this terrace, are supposed to have been the offices of no- taries, who there passed the day transacting business or waiting for engagements. We have yet to consider the latest among monuments of the "Western Empire still erect within the limits of the Eorum —the arch raised in honour of Septimius Severus and his two sons, a.d. 205. A long inscription on its attic (repeated both sides) asserts the haughty claims of the JPopulus BomanuSy notwithstanding their abject submission to so many ferocious tyrants, one of whom, Caius called Caligula, characteristically desired that all had but a single neck to afford him the pleasure of decapitating all by one THE EOMAN FOETJM HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. 235 sword-stroke ! The Senate and People record on this arch the victories of their rulers as won for, and securing the aggrandisement of, their own Empire : " Imperium populi Eomani propagatum." A lesson of deeper meaniug may- be learnt from these chiselled lines, one of which (" Op- timis fortissimisque Principibus"), as is evident from the disposal of the cavities for the nails serving to fasten the inlaid gilt bronze letters, cannot be the original, but is substituted for some other line after the name, introduced above, of Antoninus the elder, with omission of that of Geta, the younger son of Severus.* The fratricide Emperor Antoninus, known by the nickname of Caracalla, who slew his victim (a.d. 212) in the arms of the wretched mother vainly striving to protect the one from the other of her children, ordered the name of his brother to be erased from all inscriptions, and his images alike destroyed wher- ever erected, as apparent to this day in the mutUated reliefs on the other arch raised by the bankers and gold- smiths in honour of Septimius Severus and his sons, in the Velabrum. Dion Cassius tells us that " to write or utter, even without design, his (Greta's) name, was sufficient for being declared and condemned as guilty. Poets were for- bidden to give that name to any character in their dramatic works." The fratricide, who had attempted violence also against the life of his father during the campaign in Britain, was " tormented" (the same historian tells us) " with fright- ful imaginings ; he fancied himself pursued by his father and brother with naked swords in their hands." He in- voked the souls of the dead, particularly that of Commodus — a strangely chosen protector ! — to rescue him ; yet, with ferocious inconsistency, scrupled not to offer to the gods, * Through inspection of the erased parts and of the marks left by the removed letters, it has been made out that the original line, the fourth from the top, was probably P. Sept. Luc. Fil. Getce NoUliss. Coosari. 236 HISTOBIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. in a temple at Alexandria, the sword with which he had slain his brother.* The sculptures on the Septimian Arch, representing the Oriental victories of that Emperor in the years 195, 198, betray an unaccountable and hopeless decline of art when compared with the beautiful relievi, of date 125 years earlier, on the similar jnonument in honour of Titus. The choice of subjects for artistic presentment on triumphal arches was not left to the arbitration of sculptors, but prescribed according to an authoritative, and, as we might say, hierarchic norma. On the summit was to be placed the imperial effigy in a bronze chariot, drawn by two, or four, horses. On the two fronts were to be represented the campaigns and victories of the honoured Emperor. On the keystone was to be the image of Eome personified as an amazon ; on^^the spandrils of the chief fornix (central arch), winged genii were to hover as figures of the four Seasons — emblems also of the eternal Empire, supposed to be enduring as the natural succession of those Seasons them- selves. At the spandrils of the minor arches (or elsewhere if there were but one fornix) were to appear the personi- fied cities and rivers of the conquered countries ; on the frieze, smaller relievi of the triumphal procession ; along the basement story, winged Victories with trophies, and captives led in bonds, the mournful accessorial groups which ever accompanied the proud procession along the Via Sacra and up the CHvus Capitolinus. * The moral of this example is finely expressed by Coleridge: " Just Heaven instructs us with an awful voice, That Conscience rules us, even against our choice; Our inward monitress, to guide or warn, If listened to; but if repelled with scorn, At length as dire Remorse she reappears, Works in our guilty hopes and selfish fears," &c, " Remorse" a Tragedy. THE EOMAN FOEUM HISTOEICALLT CONSIDEEED. 237 This finely conceived order of artistic illustration is fol- lowed out in the example before us, only with substitution of Mars bearing trophies for the "Eoma" on the chief keystone, also of Bacchus and Hercules (protecting deities of the African Emperor's family) for other figures usually introduced on the keystones of the minor arches. The relievi on the north side represent an attack on the city of Atris in Arabia ; the taking of Seleucia on the canal between the Tigris and the Euphrates ; also the capture of Ctesiphon, a city the residence of the Parthian kings, on the latter river. Near the highest angle at the spectator's right is represented the siege of Babylon, and a rudely designed building with a dome is intended for the famous temple of Belus. On the south side are represented the campaigns in Mesopotamia ; the sculptures here being so much damaged, apparently by the action of fire, that little can be distinguished. We can discern, however, the Per- sian dragon, adopted by the Eomans among their standards after those successful wars of Septimius Severus. In the scene of the triumph, on the frieze, we distinguish, among the small figures in low relief, the seated Eoma receiving homage from the subject Parthia, who kneels before her. In the group of captives, all in Oriental costume, driven like herds before the Eoman soldiers, on the basement story, is an affecting episode of an Asiatic soldier clasping a child to his breast, with expression of the deepest anguish in his poor aged face.* * This arch passed through vicissitudes in mediaeval times. A castle was built over and around it by a baronial family named De Bratis. A small church was thrown up against its front on the side towards the Forum, of which association with Christian worship we see a record to this day dimly preserved, in a much worn monogram of the Holy Name> within a circlet, incised on the marble pavement of the minor fornix^ at our left on the southern side. 238 HISTOBIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. VHere we see in contemporary and authentic present- ment the Koman triumph, one of the acts in whose gorgeous pageantry took place on the clivui, at a short distance from this arch, between the temples of Saturn and Vespasian. In the former of those fanes the conqueror deposed on oath that he had correctly reported the amount of booty and the number of captives taken. Between the two tem- ples the splendid procession made halt; the miserable prisoners were led away from its ranks, and the victor gave orders, from his car drawn by milk-white steeds, decisive of their fate — often that of death by strangulation or starvation in the Mamertine dungeons. There were, it is true, exceptions honourable to the humanity of the conquerors ; but, in its generally apparent moral aspects, the Eoman triumph was the glorification of cruelty ; its intent and circumstances reminding us of that official dis- regard for the attribute of mercy which so deeply stains the annals of the Republic and Empire alike. Eulers and Generals habitually ignored that which becomes The throned monarch better than his crown — and failed in noble deference to what is higher than con- quest, greater than sovereignty.* There were, in all, thirty-six triumphal and ornamental (namely, sculptured) arches in E-ome — the first triumphal one having been raised, B.C. 196, in honour of Stertinius, a successful military leader. (Liv. Ixxxi. c. 34.) Near the arch of Septimius was brought to light through * Even the ideal of a triumph suitable for a virtuous and clement Emperor, Trajan, is thus depicted by the younger Pliny: " Videor jam cemere non spoliis provinciarum et extorto sociis auro, sed hostilibus armis captorumque regum catenis triumphum gravem — videor intueri immanibus ausis barbarorum onusta fcrcula, et sua quemque facta vinctis manibus sequentem, etcV'—Paneg. xvii. THE ROMAN FOEUM HISTOEICALLY CONSIDEEED. 239 workg in the earlier years of this century about one-half of a curving platform, with remains of rich marble incrusta- tion on the outer side, and a circular brick basement at the eastern extremity. This is believed to be the later rostra of the Empire, at one end of which stood the " Mil- liarum Auraeum," at the other the " CJmbiiicus Eomse," from which all distances within the walls were measured, as those of the great highways beyond the city- gates were measured, and inscribed, on the former. This so-called " Eostra Capitolina," as it now rises before us, is probably (as above stated) a restoration. Other triumphal arches besides that of the last-named Emperor, stood on the Eorum, perhaps unimpaired, till the sieges and disasters of the V. century : one raised by the Senate to Augustus after the victory of Actium (Dion. li. 19) ; another raised by that Emperor himself, near the ^des Csesaris, to com- memorate the recovery from the Parthians of the standards lost by Crassus ; another, probably near the north-eastern angle under the Capitoline hill, in honour of Marcus Aurelius. Some valuable relievi from the last of those arches are fortunately preserved ; but the other memorials of conquest have vanished without a trace.* Let us now pass over another long interval — three cen- turies — and contemplate the Eorum as it appeared at the beginning of the seventh century of the Christian era. In the year 608 was erected the last monument to be called in any sense classic, which still stands in its place within these limits : the memorial of the Greek Emperor Phocas, no longer a " nameless column with the buried base," as when Byron saw and described it, its pedestal having been uncovered in 1813, and the dedicatory inscription conse- * Some remains, travertine stonework, of the arch of Fabius Allobrox (mentioned above) were destroyed in 1540, when the then extant epigraph on its front was removed to the Capitol. • 240 nisTonic and monumental bome. quently brought to light. But that epigraph is mutilated, as supposed by order of Ileraclius, successor to Phocas on the Byzantine throne, who also probably ordered the statue of gilt bronze at the apex to be taken down. We still see in the chiselled lines the name of Smaragdus, the Exarch, who raised this memorial, almost the sole monumental trace left in Eome by the feeble government of the Greek Exar- chate, whose seat was Eavenna.* The now imperfect epigraph accredits with all king-becoming virtues, and apostrophizes as optimo, clementissimo, " crowned by G-od," &c. a soldier who raised himself to the throne of Con- stantinople, A.D. 602, by means of revolt against his lawful sovereign Mauritius, whom he caused to be put to death, after being compelled to see his five sons butchered before his eyes. Nof content with this, Phocas ordered the wddowed Empress and her three daughters to be assas- sinated without any intelligible political motive for that crime! After a reign of eight years the usurper was deposed, and put to death like a common malefactor, his body being dragged through the streets and burnt in a market-place. Such the princes to whom Eome was sub- jected in these times under the Eastern Empire ! More momentous than any political was the moral revolution which had taken place in the ancient metropolis during the interval since we last endeavoured to picture to the mind's eye the realities of the Eorum. Interpenetrating society, that revolution had changed, together with the religious principle, the tendencies and ideas, the arts and literature, the whole tissue and complex relations of national and social life. There are two legends, the scene of both which is here before us, and whose contrasted characters well • Restorations of the fortifying walls and gates, by Belisarius, and the Porta Appia (or of S. Sebastiano), rebuilt probably by a later Exarch, are among the few works due to those officials. THE EOMAN FOEUM HISTOEICALLT CONSIDEEED. 241 serve to illustrate the spirit of Heathen and Christian times. Classic legend presents to us the yawning gulf, the self-devotion of Curtius, valour and patriotism personified in him whose sublime self-sacrifice delivers Eome from disaster and danger ; and on the same spot Christian legend imagines the mystic triumph of the saintly Pope Sylvester over the pestilential dragon which, issuing from underground, T^ew numbers by its venomous breath, a por- tent and terror to all citizens, till at last that holy Pontiff came with cross in hand, threw a chain around the monster's neck, and drove him back, submissive and powerless, to the mouth of the abyss, from whence he never more emerged — a picturesqye allegory of the overthrow of Paganism through Christian faith, the purifying of a corrupt social state through virtue of doctrines and influences that ema- nate from the Cross ! The temples still rose, majestic in their antique archi- tecture, around Eome's Forum, though incense no longer burnt, nor were victims slain, nor libations poured at their altars in the period here referred to. Twenty years after the Emperor Gratian had deprived the heathen priests and Vestal virgins of revenues hitherto guaranteed by the State. Theodosius passed a law, a.d. 383, ordering all the fanes of the ancient idolatry to be closed, and prohibiting the accus- tomed sacrifices under pain of death ; yet was it deemed necessary to revive this same law by new enactment in the time of Honorius, a.d. 408. It was, however, provided that such temples as served for public adornment, and contri- buted to the splendour or renown of great cities should be preserved intact, while many others were left to perish, some through deliberate demolition. Only one fane of the ancient superstition in Rome had yet been dedicated to Christian worship and reopened as a church — that, namely, which has been called both the B 242 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. Temple of Eomulus, the Temple of Eemus, and by German archaeologists supposed to be that of the Divine Penates, the civic protectors — a quadrangular edifice with a ro- tunda in front, which serves as vestibule, or atrium, to the principal part.* This temple, manifestly of the period of decline, was dedicated to the oriental saints, Cosmas and Damian, by Pope Felix IV. a.d. 527, and thus rescued for Christian service. As to its rank and importance under Heathenism, it is remarkable that no classic author men- tions it. In the dry catalogue of the " Eegionaries " we find the supposed earliest notice of it. Joannes Diaconus, in his life of S. Gregory the Great, also refers to it by the name of "templum Eomuli." The date of its origin has been established by the evidence of epigraphy ; the inscription on its fa9ade, beginning Jw?;?. Ccesar. Constantinus Maximus, being extant in a drawing of the plan and elevation of this edifice, preserved in the Vatican library. Fuller light has been thrown on the subject by the Chev. de Eossi, who clearly shows (in his " Bullettino di Archeologia Cris- tiana ") that this temple was raised by Maxentius, and dedi- cated to his early lost son, Eomulus, and that, after the downfall of that Emperor, the honour of the work was attributed, as in the case of other buildings erected by Maxentius, to his triumphant antagonist Constantine. The rotunda had a rectilinear portico, with columns of Carystian marble, two only of which are left standing, but not in their original place. In the rear wall of the quadrangular edifice were found, mixed with fragments of antique tombstones, those precious portions of an ancient map of Eome, incised on marble, either originally made or restored in the reign The consecrating and re-opening of the Pantheon for Christian worship took place either in the year 608 or 610, and with the permis- sion, still requisite, of the Greek Emperor, the above-named Phocas. THE ROMAN FORUM HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. 243 of Septimius Severus and Antoninus his son, which now- rank among the treasures of the Capitoline Museum. This invaluable treasure-trove (secured towards the close of the XVI. century) was due to an architect, Antonio Dosio ; the marbles were first transferred to the Earnese Palace ; finally (1742) to the Museum where we now see them. An inference which seems admissible is that this specimen of antique ichnography adorned the walls of some temple, probably that of Venus and E,ome, and was removed, as mere building material, to that consecrated as a church by Felix IV., perhaps for some repairs carried out by the Pope's order.* The first church which arose on the "Forum with construc- tion almost (if not entirely) new, was S. Adriano, founded among the ruins of the magnificent ^Emilian Basilica, by Pope Honorius I., about a.d. 630. Not only did the heathen temples look down, probably with the unimpaired beauty of their classic architecture, on this historic arena, but other edifices also, emblems of the institutions and powers of the ancient Empire, as the Basilica of Augustus and the Curia Julia. "Within the walls of that Basilica had arisen, where we still see it, now a ruin amidst ruins, an earlier oratory for Christian worship, founded by Pope Julius I., A.D. 337, in the western aisle of that imperial court of justice, whose arcades were filled up with the brickwork of the IV. century, still recognisable from its inferior character. "When these ruins were cleared of en- * Twenty-six compartments, on the walls of the staircase of the Museum, are filled with the fragments of this "Pianta Capitolina," several of which have been restored, not, it appears, in the best manner ; but drawings from the originals are fortunately extant in the Vatican library. Not long ago a few other fragments were found in the same place during some works undertaken by the Franciscan Friars at SS. Cosmo and Damiano. Among these is seen the only known indi- cation of an edifice the site of which is disputed — the Portico of Livia. E 2 244 nrsTOBTC and monumental eome. cumbering soil by recent works, some religious paintings (probably of the VI. century) were seen on the walls ; some vestiges of marble ornamentation, with the sculptured cross, were found strewn on the floor of the aisle conse- crated by Pope Julius. Among the most interesting historic memories associated with the Curia of the imperial period, is a transaction which marks a stage in the struggle between Heathenism and Christianity at the ancient capital, where the results of that contest were so momentous. I have mentioned the altar and image of Victory in the vestibule of the Senate House, sacred to Minerva, before which image every senator "had to throw incense on that altar as he passed into the hall of assemblage— an act of political rather than religious sig- nificance, but utterly inexcusable in the eyes of the primi- tive Christians. Altar and image acquired the character of a symbol and standard in the great conflict of principles carried on during the fourth century. The first Emperor who removed both from their place in the Curia, about A.D. 357, was Constantius, the second son of Constantino, and sole ruler over the Eoman world after the deaths of his two brothers. Both objects were replaced by Julian, his successor, probably in the first year, a.d. 360, of his short reign. Altar and image were again removed, in, or soon after, the year 382, by Theodosius, who was, in fact, through his stringent laws and more decided measures against the old superstition, the actual destroyer of Pagan worship and suppressor of its priesthood. A senate still in great part, if not in its plurality. Heathen, made repeated efforts to restore those relics of the proscribed worship in their Curia, and deputations were sent with the object of obtaining that grace from successive or co -reigning Em- perors, at Milan, or other cities where they then resided. On one occasion Symmachus, the most distinguished leader THE EOMAN FOEUM HISTORICALLY CONSIDERED. 245 of the Heathen party in the Senate, was chief spokesman before the Emperor Yalentinian. He was eloquently op- posed by S. Ambrose ; and to that great Bishop of Milan is mainly due the final extirpation of idolatrous forms from the senatorial procedure at E-ome. It is said that the panic caused by pestilence had given the first impulse, or pretext, for the demand made by Heathen senators, who did not want support among a people perhaps less generally con- verted to Christianity than their rulers supposed. Euge- nius, a usurper proclaimed Emperor by a military faction in Gi-aul, a.d. 372, ordered the altar and image to be replaced during his short sojourn, after his irregular elec- tion, at Eome. His feeble effort to revive the ancient superstition was soon crushed by Theodosius, who defeated him in battle (a.d. 394), and sentenced him to death. Again, and for the last time, were the objectionable relics of Heathenism set aside — the incense-cloud no more ascended to the Divine Victoria in Rome's Senate House. Yet one more effort was made for the revival of Pagan- ism, and this last strange attempt was also witnessed on the Eoman Forum. In the year 536 the Gothic war was raging, and greatest calamity impending over Eome, while panic prevailed among the citizens in anticipation of the long siege which actually ensued. There were those who desired to restore Heathen worship with endeavour to pro- pitiate the neglected gods of mythology, as if their pro- tection could avail more than the faith, morals and courage of Christianity at such a crisis ! In the silence of night was made, stealthily as with the sense of guilt, the attempt to re-open the long shut sacellum of Janus, which still stood (see the description by Procopius) untouched by decay. Was it the hope that the two-faced god might be induced to interpose for the city's rescue through this return to olden observances ? "Whatever the intent, the effort failed, for 246 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. the bronze valves could not be moved on their rusty hinges ; but the record remains, strangely betraying how long the bias and sentiment of Paganism lingered among a corrupt and enfeebled people. A wild superstition, the offspring of popular fear and patriotic pride, is mentioned in the narrative of what passed within this city during the Gothic siege. It was rumoured that those who had gone out in the sorties from the gates to meet and combat the foe, and who had fallen in brave resistance, rose from death on the field, and still, resuscitated corpses as they were, fought against the Goths for the rescue of Eome ! Among the few public buildings, with any claim to notice, raised on the chief Forum in the period of declining Empire, was the " Secretarium Senatus," where the Con- script Fathers usually assembled after this new Senate House had been founded for their use by an Urban Pre- fect, one Plavianus, a.d. 399. "We learn that another Prefect of Eome, named Eucharius, restored it in 407; and it is supposed that this later hall of assemblage stood at the north-eastern angle of the Forum, near the site of the present church dedicated both to S. Luke and to S. Martina. The site of an equestrian statue of Constantino, near the south-western angle of the arch of Septimius Severus, may be recognized by the remains of its basement in travertine. An inflated epigraph, the dedication of that effigy by the Consul Anicius Paulinus, was copied by the "Anonymous" of Einsiedlin.* Near that spot are seen the ruins of a small vaulted building, in the bad masonry of the period of decline, as to which nothing positive is * D. N. Constantino maximo, pio, felici ac triumphatori, semper Augusto, ob amplificatam toto orbe rem publicam factis consultisque t>. P. Q. R., dedicante Anicio Paulino juniore V. C. Cons. Ord. Praef. Urbis. THE EOMAN FOEUM HISTOEICALLT CONSIDEEED. 247 knewn — possibly a chapel for Heathen worship, and among the last such ever raised in Eome, of the time of Maxentius or Julian ? The civic government of the later period here in ques- tion (the Vn. century) was carried on by delegates sent from the Byzantine Court with the title of Dukes of Eome, resident on the Palatine, while the highest repre- sentatives of the G-reek Emperor in Italy were the Exarchs who had had their seat at Eavenna since the year 553. Another power, now rapidly advancing in self-development and with ever increasing signs of vital energy, which alone, amidst the general decline of institutions and corruption of manners, possessed the dignity of virtue and commanded the tributes of popular respect and sincere attachment, was that of the Eoman Bishops, to ignore the pre-eminence of whose vocation and merits, among potent agencies of a new civilization, would be blindness before one of the most luminous facts in the history of Christendom. Never had their sacred throne— yet dependent on no material support nor requiring the poor pageantry of secular courts — been more worthily filled than by the first Gregory, justly styled as both the saintly and " the Great." When we look on the Column of Phocas, this holy Pontiff" is brought before our minds amidst interesting associations ; for it was near the spot on which, a few years subsequently, that memorial was raised, that, before his election to the papal chair, Gregory saw the young Saxon captives exposed to be sold as slaves, and asking about their nationality and religion, became struck by their innocent looks and hapless fate. On this occasion, in genial mood, did he indulge in the well- known play upon words : not " Angli," but " Angeli ;" and the impression made thus casually did not prove fruitless, for it inspired the Saint with the resolution he hoped to carry out in person, of a mission for converting those still 248 HISTORIC AKD MON^UMENTAL ROME. left in Pagan darkness among the natives of Britain. S, Gregory was prevented from conducting that enterprise himself; but, after the cares of spiritual government had fixed him on the pontific throne, he confided it to others, holy men well chosen for such a task. Thus does the column of the infamous usurper Phocas link itself on the historic page, and in monumental association, with the evangelizing mission, organized by the saintly Pontiff and headed by S. Augustine, which set out from Rome for Britain, a.d. 596.* Nearly five centuries had passed since the erection of the Column of Phocas. For nearly 300 years the suc- cessors of Gregory I. had held temporal as well as spiritual sovereignty before the most intrepid asserter of their loftiest claims, another Gregory, seventh Pope of that name, en- countered the utmost fury of that opposition which was inevitable in the shock of antagonistic principles between the German Empire of the West and the Eoman Pontifi- cate now exerting an authority and afiecting Divine rights beyond all hitherto dreamt of, or appropriated, by the Christian Priesthood. In the month of May, 1084, the Norman leader, Eobert Guiscard, marched with his forces from Southern Italy, bent on the rescue of the heroic Pope, actually besieged in the S. Angelo castle, his last refuge, whilst the Emperor Henry IV. occupied Rome with his German army. Then broke out, whether through acci- dent or in the result of some slight contest between soldiers and citizens, the terrible conflagration which raged with greatest intensity on the Eorum, sweeping across the entire region from the Capitoline to the Coelian hill (much * How far was this mission, which led to tlie origin of the See and Primacy of Canterbury, from being the cause or first movement for the establishing of a Christian Church in Britain, is convincingly shown by Dr. Hook in his valuable " Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury." THE ROMAN FOBUM HISTOEICALLT CONSIDERED, 219 further, according to what some chroniclers state), and certainly most disastrous at this centre so renowned for monumental wealth and beauty. With that catastrophe it may be said that the ancient, the classical Eome passed away, suffering such metamorphosis as completely changed her olden aspects, dimmed her antique glories, reduced to mere skeleton forms her noblest architectural creations, " temple and pillar, and memorial tomb." Modern Kome may be dated thence ; and even on the Forum, though the Spirit of the Past can never be expelled from ground so haunted, from a scene so rich in classic remains, even here have vulgar realities, wretched modernizations, and bad taste intruded themselves. That fire kindled by the Normans under Gruiscard might be considered a symbol of a yet more momentous and, in moral import, more awful event — the final wreck of dominion destined for ever to pass away — the last fatal shock of destruction to the still majestic wrecks, if not to the already lost ascendancy, of the greatest of Empires. Who can contemplate without emotion such a picture — the last crushing accumulation of ruin upon ruins, the cradle become the tomb of Eoman greatness in this its pre-eminent centre and most monumentally illustrious arena ! * * It is inferred that the Forum Komanum could not have been entirely buried, or filled up with accumulated dShris, at the end of the XI. century, seeing that a silver coin of either the fourth or fifth Emperor Henry has been found, deep below the level for modern transit, on its ancient pavement, so much of which remained under- gi-ound before recently undertaken works had brought so much to light. The most noteworthy epigraphs exhumed in the recent scavi here, have been reported above. I may give at full the two which represent, pro- bably, the earliest and latest periods of which such records are before us within this excavated region. On the architrave of a pilaster of red 250 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. Syenite granite, in small archaic letters : Romulus MaHis F. Bex Arm. — De Coenensihus K. Mar — Martis F. Bex. II. On a massive cornice of marble, apparently from a portico, in large letters : Dominis omnium Qratiamo Valentinicmo et Theodosio Im- j>eratorU)Us T. Vol. Sept. Bass. — V. C. Proef. Urh. MajestaM eorvm dicamt. 251 I I^IBRAIiv uxiVKijsrrv ( CHAPTER VII. THE CAPITOL OF ROME. PoGGHO Beacciolini, commencing tis meditations on the vicissitudes of Portune in the affairs and interests of Hu- manity, himself on the Capitoline hill, as it stood overstrewn by neglected or defaced ruins in the earlier years of the XV. century, thus mourns over the condition of that classic mount : " Oh, how greatly does this Capitol differ from that of which our Maro sung : — Aurea nunc, olim sylvestribus horrida dumis ; So much so, indeed, that his (Virgil's) lines might now be suitably paraphrased : — Aurea quondam, nunc squalida spinetis vepribusque referta !" De Variet. Fortunce, 1. i. Though surrounded by historic associations and iden- tified with national glories, the Eoman Capitol is but vaguely mentioned, and with diverse use even of the local terms applied to it, by antique authors. In their pages " Capitolium " sometimes signifies the fortress on the Tar- peian rock alone; sometimes the hill itself (the ancient Saturnia), with all the buildings upon it; but more frequently the Temple of Jove, that most famous and conspicuous among edifices here placed, which some ar- chaeologists suppose to have stood on the Tarpeian, the south-western, summit ; others, on the plateau (north- eastern), now occupied by the Franciscan church and convent of Aracceli. Livius often implies, in the name 252 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. " Capitolium," the arx with all its surroundings.* Tacitus, describing the civil war between Vitellius and Vespasian, and deploring the destruction of that thrice sacred fane of the Capitoline Jove, together with other buildings around it, as clearlj implies the temple alone, emblem and chief sanctuary of a religious system, in the same designation ; the splendid temple founded by Tarquinius Superbus being, for that historian, the Capitol itself. So also does the younger Pliny understand, when mentioning that temple. Winding up his panegyric of Trajan with a solemn prayer to the gods who were guardians of empii-e (custodes imperii) y but especially to the Capitoline Jov^, he implores of that deity to bestow on Home, when the day should come, a worthy successor to so virtuous a ruler ; or, if it were im- possible that another should prove like unto Trajan, to be at least present in, and through divine power guide, the counsels of those called to elect one worthy to be adopted by Trajan himself in the Capitol—" Monstres aliquem quern adoptari in Capitolio deceat " — namely, in the great temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. Horace in several passages uses the revered name "Capitolium" as synonymous with political or imperial power ; the sacred hill becoming the emblem of Eoman dominion — e.y., in his Ode on the con- quest of Egypt (1. i. carm. xxxvii), where, alluding to Cleopatra, he supposes her bent on effecting ruin to the Empire and the Capitol : — * " It was decreed first that the military youth with their wives and children, also the more vigorous among the Senators, should ascend hito the Capitoline citadel {in arcem Capitolinum). — Exhortations were ad- dressed to the company of young men, whom they (the Senators) fol- lowed to the Capitol and into the citadel {in Capitolium atquein arcem). — While these events were taking place at Veii, the citadel of Home and the Capitol {a/rx Romx CapitoUwmque) were in great peril" (Liv. li. c. 22, 27), the historian here referring to the crisis of the Gallic invasion and capture. THE CAPITOL OF EOME. 253 dum Capitolio Regina dementes ruinas Funus et imperio parabat.* Elsewhere, lamenting the avarice and cupidity of his time, he uses the designation in the same sense as does Tacitus, understanding therein the Temple of Jupiter, into which fane (he says), as into the ocean, men, if they were truly penitent for sin and worldliness, would cast all super- fluous wealth : — in Capitolium, Quo clamor vocat et turba faventium, * * * * Gemmas et lapides aurum et inutile, Summi materiem mali, Mittamus, scelerum si bene poenitet.f (L. 3, c. xxiv.) Yet one other, the sole antique edifice still erect, con- spicuous and imposing even in decay, on this hill-summit, had importance in the eyes of all ancient Eomans, and is mentioned by classic writers in terms that almost identify it with this historically renowned hill, or at least with the fortified, though not sacred, aggregate of monuments re- flecting so much glory on Eome's Capitol. I mean that • *' In this ode" (says Lord Lytton) *' the three pictures of Cleopatra constitute the action of a drama : her insolent power with its Oriental surroundings— her flight and fall — her undaunted death : — * While ruin and death were prepared For Rome by the fell madding Queen.' " t " O, were we penitent indeed for sins, How we should haste to cast gems, gauds, gold useless, Save as the raw material of all ill, Amid the shouts of multitudes applauding, Into the vaults of Capitolian Jove, Or that safe treasure-house — the nearest ocean !" Lord Lytton's version. 254 HISTOBIC ATTD MONUMENTAL ROME. edifice now popularly called, and named in guide-books, " Tabularium " — t. e. the Archivium, or Eecord Office, of the Republican and Imperial city alike, also connected with, indeed containing within its massive walls, the ^ra- rium, or Treasury of State. United with the Temple of Saturn (though actually within this strongly fortified build- ing on the Capitol), that treasury was, we may infer, en- tered from the cella of the ancient fane on the declivity above the Torum. The still immense, though but in part preserved, structure of the Archivium, built in regular courses of lithoid tufa from Gabii {Japis Gahinus), is only visible on the side overlooking the declivity, where its front presents an extent of massive and firm masonry, 37 feet high and 240 feet wide ; also, in a remnant of its huge masonry at each of the narrower sides ; while the whole body of the building northwards is concealed by an insig- nificant municipal palazzo. Yet that modern building also has its historic claims, for it stands on the site of the resi- dence inhabited by Cola di Rienzo while he held office first as Tribune, afterwards as Senator— that official abode having been burnt down on the day of the revolt fatal to the government and life of the once worshipped Reformer and Ruler of Rome in the XIV. century. The sullen towers of dusky brick with machicolations, overlooking the Forum, belong to the restoration of the senatorial residence, commenced by Pope Boniface IX. about the end of the XIY . century, and finished by . Martin Y. The oldest extant portion of the Archivium, or Tabularium, dates from antiquity scarcely determinable ; some antiquaries (as Canina) referring these buildings to the year b.c. 175 ; but the two upper storeys (only one of which remains) are known to have been added when the whole was restored by the aedile Lutatius Catulus, B.C. 78. The principal storey consists of a lofty arched corridor with arcades opening THE CAPITOL OP HOME. 255 towards the Eorum, and divided by sixteen Doric pilasters ; but of those arcades all have been built up, one excepted, with rude mediaeval masonry, and a few vestiges alone indi- cate the forms or elevation of the pilasters on the southern front of this sternly majestic ruin, sole representative of Eepublican Eome among all monuments on or around the principal Forum. In the Middle Ages the spacious interior of this singular building, with dim-lit halls and corridors under high-hung vaults, was divided by partition walls into numerous dwell- ings or shops. In the XV. century the corridor on the second storey, of date a.d. 78, was utilized as a salt maga- zine, in which state Poggio Bracciolini saw and described it ; and thus it continued to be used, or rather abused, till a period in the XVII. century. Later we find this edifice serving for a debtor's gaol, and so till the last days of Gregory XVI. ; its massive structure for the most part hidden by paltry buildings on the southern side above the Forum. Pius IX. sanctioned the project of appropriating the principal corridor as a museum of classic architecture, the more precious remnants of which, left strewn around ruined temples on the Porum and elsewhere, were collected to be skilfully restored under Canina's direction, and placed where we see them— a unique display among Eome's mira- lilia. The friezes from the Temples of Saturn and Con- cord were restored, under the able director, by four marble cutters, who gave eight years to the task. On that of the former temple (by some supposed to be the one dedi- cated to Vespasian) is an interesting illustration of sacri- ficial rites in well-executed relievi of implements and ornaments : the patera, for pouring the victim's blood on altars ; the discus, on which to carry the flesh to be burnt ; the simpolum and perfericulum, for libations of wine or other liqiiids, the latter without any handle, which the former is 256 nisTOEic and monumental rome. provided with ; the augur's lituus^ curved like an episcopal crozier; the ffalerum, not unlike a mitre, worn by the Elamens ; the aspergillum, a horse-tail for the sprinkling of holy water. The appropriation as a salt magazine has left traces to this day in the dim- lit corridor ; for the immense tufa blocks are corroded and discoloured almost to the height of the roof by that material. The new Government has effected a thorough clearing out of the antique edifice ; dark chambers, long abandoned and inaccessible, while filled with rubbish or debris, have been re-opened and disencumbered; gloomy and myste- rious recesses, deep-sinking staircases, and high-arched passages have been made permeable. The whole interior has been opened to the public as a museum, accessible daily without let or hindrance ; and the custodi on duty are bound to give their services gratuitously. The complete clearing out of a suite of vaulted chambers on the ground- floor, only lighted by small square windows made by breaking the solid walls in medisBval times, enables us now to pursue our studies and meditations at leisure amidst the realities and memories of this gloomy old edifice. Among the few Latin writers who mention the Tabu- larium, identifying it with the ^rarium, and also with the Temple of Saturn, is Servius : " Populi Tabularia, ubi actus publici continentur, significat autem Templum Satumi, in quo et ^rarium fuerat." Cicero also mentions (in one of his epistles) the steep stairs of the State Treasury — with probable allusion to a great staircase but recently re- opened to its full height and depth, which descends in profound darknes sfrom the upper storey to the lowest level of this interior. We now enter this building through an ingress in the stupendous stone-work on the narrow western side. Here, THE CAPITOL OF HOME. 257 observing the antique masonry, we see that the end of the great corridor has originally opened westward, but been filled up with similar, though less ancient, stone-work. The cor- ridor was therefore open to the public, anciently serving as a covered way for transit across the Capitoline hill. Passing under a ponderous arch, at an angle with the entrance, and through a vestibule, we find ourselves in a great hall, dim-lit, lofty and cavernous, now enriched with a profusion of the beautiful relics above alluded to. Here also lie, strewn on the pavement, various epitaphs, dedications, &c., in good or bad Latinity. A broad stone staircase (partly antique) leads hence, ascending under brick arches, to an upper corridor with massive and still firm vaulting, less lofty, and divided into two parallel aisles by immense pillars of brickwork, said to have been raised in a restora- tion by Michel Angiolo. But that such a division entered into the original plan is evident, for the springings of the vaults, old and ruinous, are still seen above the modern brickwork in different places. Here we have to be guided by the custode with his torch through total darkness. Groping our way to the western end of this corridor, we reach a low doorway, or rather aperture broken open in the wall, near the angle at the left side. Entering, we now find ourselves at the summit of a lofty and very steep staircase, which yawns abruptly before our feet like a precipice ; and the effect of the stupendous masonry, seen by lurid torchlight, is most striking. We descend by sixty- seven steep and partly-ruinous steps, under a vaulting of singular construction, divided into horizontal bays at dif- ferent levels, and between each of which is a curtain- wall sinking lower and lower at each stage. The staircase is overhung by five of those massive walls, form^g so many " flat arches," as such constructive detail, borrowed by the Eomans from the Etruscans, is called. At the foot of this s 258 HISTOBIC AND MONUMETfTAL ROME. descent we find ourselves under a rounded arch, on the inner side of the great structure overlooking the Forum ; and may perceive the outlines of a closed door, filled up with stonework like the rest, which (we may conclude) once formed communication with the cella of the Saturn Temple — hence the identifying, in common parlance, of the Trea- sury itself with that fane. We may infer that this staircase communicated with the chambers on the ground-floor (re- cently re-opened), where the public money, a deposit requiring very ample space, lay heaped up in darkness and security. Here we are reminded of the vivid descrip- tion by Tacitus, and may suppose ourselves on the actual stage of the scene so well narrated by him, occurring in that contest between Yitellius and Vespasian, when the Capitoline buildings were defended by Sabinus, brother to the latter, and attacked by the soldiery of the former, the still reigning. Emperor. "We must quit this interior, and re-enter the ancient edifice at the eastern side in order to penetrate into the long suite of vaulted chambers, till recently filled with soil or debris, which formed the ground-floor storey, and may be supposed to have served for the purposes of the Treasury, Here may we place the scene of another event, finely described in Lucan's " Pharsalia," — the violent invasion of the sacred ^rarium by Julius Caesar, and his seizure of the wealth deposited there, the most daring act hitherto achieved by him in his progress to dictatorial power. Among incidents of importance associated with this building was the destruction, by the fire kindled in the attack against those who defended the Capitol for Yitellius, of all the State records, 3000 on bronze tablets, which had been laid up in the ancient Tabularium from old time. "We know that Vespasian undertook the restoration of those documents, at least by the supply of copies or dupli- THE CAPITOL OF EOME. 259 cates ; but the loss, for the purposes of history, must have been irreparable. That fabric had thenceforth to be raised oa feeble or uncertain foundations, where Eome's ancient records were in question.* Only one other monument of antiquity, of either repub- lican or imperial times, remains on the Capitoliue summit ; though many others, so well known and oft described, stand on the declivity of this hill above the Eorum. I allude to the ruins in the gardens of the Caffarelli Palace, now the residence of the Prussian Legation, on the Tarpeian height. These consist of a few courses of stone-work, a reddish- grey tufa, in regular square-hewn blocks, like the fortifica- tions of the Eomulean city. We descend into a grassy hollow, amidst the plantations and flower-beds of the pleasant garden, to visit these primitive ruins which bear an impress of venerable antiquity manifest at once to the archaeologic eye, and impressive to the imagination. The formless remains of an edifice, now extant, have lost all architectonic features ; and in the low, but massively built walls, we can recognize only an outline, or general plan, of what appears to be the cella of a temple, entered by steps (three gradines being left) from a narrow vestibule, and enclosed within an oblong parallelogram, the outer court or sacred peribolon. What was this temple, if such indeed were the character of the building in question ? Undoubtedly one among the most ancient raised on any of the Seven Hills ; by some archgeologists supposed to be that of Juno Moneta, which stood on the highest plateau of the Tarpeian rock. I am disposed to think — or at least may suggest — that we have here before us no less venerable a monument than the very first temple known to have been founded in the city of the Kings ; and, if we accept the traditions wrought up into the narrative of Livius, the one vowed by * V. supr. pp. 76, 77. s2 260 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. Romulus himself to Jupiter Feretrius when he hung up the spolia opima^ trophies of his first achieved victory, on the sacred oak in a grove overshadowing the intermontium between the eastern and western summits of the Saturnian hill* A rather obscure passage in Varro {De Lingua Latinaj 1 V.) implies the existence in his time of certain remains of the primitive city, Saturnia, on this hill ; but we cannot identify those vestiges with anything now extant, f What he says about the Tarpeian rock — that it was so called " from Tarpeia, a Vestal virgin, who was there put to death * " Bearing the spoils of the slain leader of the foes, suspended to a stage (feretrivm) constructed for the purpose, he (Romulus) ascended the Capitol {in CapitoUvm ascendit), and there, when he had deposited them beside an oak sacred in the eyes of shepherds, he, at the same time with that offering, marked out the limits of a temple of Jove, and added the cognomen of the god: Jupiter Feretrius I ' I Romulus, the King and victor, make offering to thee, and dedicate to thee a temple in these regions.' This is the origin of the temple which was first of all con- secrated at Rome." Still more interesting than this narrative of Livius (1. 1, c 5), is the testimony of Dionysius, who saw the ruins of that primitive fane as they stood when Augustus was Emperor : " After the procession and sacrifice, Romulus built a small temple on the summit of the Capitoline Hill to Jupiter, whom the Romans call Feretrius. The ancient traces (or ruins) of it still remain, the longest sides of which are leess than fifteen feet (in measurement). In this temple he consecrated the spoils of the King of the Coeninenses, whom he had killed with his own hand." — Dionys. 1. ii. § 34. t *' Hunc antea montem Saturniam appellatum prodiderunt et ab eo late Saturniam terram, ut etiam Ennius appellat : antiquum oppidum in hac fuisse Saturnia scribitur. Ejus vestigia etiam nunc manent tria, quod Satumi fanum in faucibus, quod Saturnia porta quam Junius Bcribit ibi, quam nunc vocant Pandanam, quod post sedem Satumi in aedificiarum legibus privatis parietes Postici Muri sunt scripti." The '* Satumi fanum," of course, is the original Temple of Saturn, still before us in ruins, though not those of the edifice extant in the time of Varro, b.c. 24 to a.d. 61. THE CAriTOL OF EOME. 261 and buried by the Sabines," — certainly does not tally with other legends so damaging to the fair fame of that heroine. It is probable that the real Tarpeia was anciently held in honour ; else why give her name to a celebrated and historic spot ? Niebuhr mentions the poetic superstition, re- ported to him by Eoman maidens, that the supposed traitress of the ancient citadel was still alive, or at least visible as a beautiful phantom richly vested, in some sub* terranean abyss of the Capitoline Hill. Like a luminous point in a shadowy landscape does the Eoman Capitol rise before us, in the picture of the pre- historic, the regal, the republican, and the imperial epochs. Alike through those periods, as through the stormy Middle Ages, were its memories and its special dedication allied with the cause of independent and popular govern- ment. We might compare, in order to contrast its des- tinies with those of a more sacred Mount — Calvary, the centre of influences and powers more high and enduring than any that emanated, or operated on the world, from the metropolis of ancient empire. A characteristic of the race which sprung from a mingled Pelasgic, Etruscan, and Sabine stock, was the tendency to revere localities ren- dered illustrious, or in any sense sacred. The conspi- cuousness of the Capitol, in both classic and mediaeval Eome, is a manifestation of this feeling ; and it is obser- vable that under Papal sway this Hill continued to be a centre of secular, opposed to sacerdotal, authority. The Popes prudently ceded it to the magistracy, under whose protection they placed the church of Aracoeli, the only one ever built on the Capitoline summit, another, of less importance, excepted, which stood on the same spot. In the former, till at least as late as ad. 1521, was held a court of justice, presided over by the Senator. In that church political assemblies used to convene on various 262 nisTOEic and monumental eome. occasions, as on the morning of that fearful day wlien Christian Eome was visited by the most tremendous dis- aster on record in her history — the siege and capture by the ferocious hordes under the Constable Bourbon, 6th May, 1527. A valiant young citizen made a vain effort to rouse the spirit of the inhabitants, assembled within these consecrated walls, urging them to something like organized resistance before the foe could effect en- trance. -5^ The Capitol was the scene of the solemn sacrifice to Jupiter, which formed the climax to the pomps of imperial triumph ; and it was the Emperor himself, not the Elamen Dialis, who then officiated. Devout rulers sometimes as- cended on their knees the stairs before the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, as till the XYIII. century pious Catholics used to mount, alike kneeling, the steep and lofty staircase leading to the front of the Aracoeli church. The first appropriation of this hill as a place of strength in mediaeval times was by feudal, not sacerdotal, domination. A baronial family named Corsi fortified and held its summit in the XI. century ; their towers and castles were partly thrown down by the Emperor Henry IV., in 1080; the rest by Eobert Guiscard, in 1084. In 1145 Arnoldo di Brescia, w^ho first visited Eome during that year, advised that a palace should be built, as the seat of municipal government, on this hill ; the citizens being then in revolt against the Papal sway, and the Pontiff, Eugenius III., in exile at Viterbo. Perhaps some older magisterial seat had existed on the same spot, and been ruined about a month previously in that eventful year, when the popular cause for a time obtained the ascendant, and a Government opposed to the Pontificate established itself. In 1144 Pope Lucius II. headed an attack against the party who had fortified them- selves on this hiU, but was vigorously repulsed, and, ac- THE CAPITOL OF ROME. 268 cording to one account, met with his death from the blow of a stone hurled, with other missiles, against the assailants. In 1145 the people held council on the Capitol, and came to the resolution of offering armed resistance against the Emperor Frederick I., whom they regarded as their most dangerous enemy, whilst the Pope (our countryman Adrian IV.) was crowning him at St. Peter's. A peaceful coronation, the meed of mental sovereignty, took place in the great hall of the Capitoline Palace on Easter-day, 1341, when Petrarch received the laurel- wreath from the hands of the senator. Count dAnguillara, after the gentle poet had recited a sonnet on the glories of imperial Kome. The people shouted : " Long life to the Capitol and to the Poet!" after witnessing that ceremony performed with pomp, and accompanied by the sound of trumpets and fifes. The laurel-wreath was finally suspended at the shrine of S. Peter, in the great basilica, by the devout Crowned One, who was then in his thirty-sixth year. The XIV. century witnessed many events and many vicissitudes, with alteration to local aspects, on the Capitoline Hill. After the fire kiudled in the attack on the municipal (or senatorial) palace by the people infuriated against E.ienzo, on the day (8th October, 15354) when that once idolized reformer of the State fell a victim to ferocious assassins, the restoration ordered by Boniface IX. had given to the new buildings the character rather of a fortress than a peaceful seat for the Eoman magistracy. This was objected to ; and with characteristic jealousy it was stipulated, in a conven- tion between the still ascendant popular party and that Pope's immediate successor. Innocent VII., that the same palace should be completed in a different style, such as was suitable not for a castle, but a municipal residence, with a tribunal for the administration of justice {adformam palatii et loci communis judicii). In such style were the buildings 264 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. finished during the pontificate of Martin V. (1417-24). The conspicuous staircase leading to the facade of the Aracoeli church, is the only structure of the time of Bienzo that still remains to remind us of the eventful period of political and social reform, followed by anarchy and revolt, in which that personage occupies the historic scene.* Those marble stairs, formed with fragments from the ruins of the Temple of Quirinus, presented by the magistrates to the Franciscan Friars, were constructed in 1348 ; the cost, 5000 florins, supplied through ofi'erings made during a visitation of pesti- lence to the Madonna-picture, which still hangs over the high altar of that church.f The site of the famous temple of Jupiter has long been a disputed question. Archaeologists of the earlier Eoman school agreed to place it on the eastern summit of the hill where now stand the Aracoeli church and convent. Donati and other Italian writers first opposed this, as also did Bunsen and other Germans, assuming that the temple stood on the western summit, or Tarpeian rock. Canina, JNibby, and Emil Braun returned to the former theory, llamiuio Vacca (writing in 1594) describes the remains of large marble pilasters seen by himself on the western side, behind the *' Palazzo dei Conservatori." Out of those * To the 120 steps of this ancient staircase four more were added at the basement in the XVI. century, owing to the sinking of the soil at the level from which they rose. A tablet near the church doors, in Grothic letters, gives the architect's name, and the date, 25th October, 1348. t Franciscan traditions represent this picture as the one carried through the streets by S. Gregory I. during a pestilence, when the Archangel was seen in air, sheathing his sword in token of the with- drawal of divine chastisement, over the castle hence called " IS. Angelo;" but another Madonna-picture, and apparently (like this) a work of early Byzantine art, now in the Borglicse chapel at S. Miiria Maggiorc, dis- putes the claim to such historic distinction. THE CAPITOL OF EOME. 265 marbles were wrought statues, — by Vacca himself, a lion for the Medici Villa on the Pincian hill ; by other artists, some sacred figures, ordered by a Cardinal, for a chapel in S. Maria della Pace. Baron Bunsen superintended excava- tions in the gardens of the Caffarelli palace, and there saw (as he describes) the masonry of a substruction in enormous blocks of peperino (tufa), on which the whole plateau of those gardens rested. When that palace was built (1578) many remains of antique masonry were destroyed, or re- moved, in order to clear out the requisite space. Santi Bartoli mentions walls of massive stonework, twenty-five palms in thickness, on the Tarpeian declivity, which were also swept away. Nibby, arguing for his theory, reports discoveries which certainly seem to confirm it : massive structures in volcanic tufa, masked by the buttress walls of the Aracoeli staircase (below which are still open some dark chambers in ancient brickwork) ; also numerous ruins, found in the gardens of the Aracoeli convent, of the mingled lateritial and reticulated masonry in use under the Flavian Emperors, and therefore ascribable to the rebuild- ing of the Temple by Vespasian. Some undescribed ruins, on some part of this hill, were knowD, amidst the profound mediaeval ignorance of an- tiquity, as " templum maximum," under w^hich name they were bestowed (about 1130) by the Antipope Anacletus II. on the Benedictine monks then established where the Ara- coeli friars are now. It is possible that a church on the Piazza Montanara, between the western declivities of the hill and the Tiber, and which was demolished in 1587, re- ceived its name, 8. Sahatore in Maximis, from those ruins. The original temple of Jupiter Capitolinus was founded by Tarquinius Priscus with the means supplied by the spoils of a conquered town, Apiola, and in fulfilment of a vow made during the Sabine war. Tarquinius "the Proud'* 20l> HISTOUIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. continued the works, expending on them the amount of 400 talents, gold and silver, from the spoils of another con- quered city, Suessa Pometia. It is difficult to credit the statement of Livius that such a sum barely sufficed for the foundations alone of this temple (Liv. 1. i. c. 53), which was not dedicated till after the expulsion of the last King, in the first year of the Republic, by the Consul and PontiiF M. Horatius Pul villus. During the rites certain persons insidiously endeavoured to interrupt by informing Horatius of the death of his son, just occurred; but he continued, stifling his sorrow, without for a moment suspending the sacred duties befofe him.* The fane was dedicated to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, with three altars. The image of the first god was originally of terra cotta, which it was usual to dye red, with minium, for solemn festivities ; but that olden image was replaced first by one of bronze, and finally, in the time of Domitian, by a golden statue raised on Jove's altar here.f In the front, or under the portico, were statues of all the Kings, probably placed by the second Tarquin, and in the midst, another, erected under the Republic, of Brutus. Pliny considered these sculptures genuine relics of antiquity, and dwells on the proof how ancient was the fashion of wearing rings, seeing that two effigies, those of Numa and Servius, had each a ring on the third finger. Julius Caesar excited suspicion of his ambi- tious designs by setting up his own statue among these, and (with evil omen) next to that of Brutus. J * " Not even did he turn away his regards from public religious duties to private sorrow, lest he should seem to be acting the part of a father rather than that of a pontiff" — says Valerius Maximus, 1. v. c. x. Cicero and Seneca also praise this proof of equanimity. t " Sculptus et aeterno nunc primum Jupiter auro." — Martial. 1. xi. ep. v. J Dion Cassius attributes this not to Cocsar himself, but to his flat- terers : " They also set one of his statues, of ivory, next to that of THE CAPITOL OF EOME. 267 The primitive temple was burnt down B.C. 83, and re- built by Sulla with increased splendour. Valerius Maxi- mus reports that the immediate cause of Sulla's death (at Puteoli) was a fit of rage provoked by the delay of an officer at that town in collecting the sums promised by the Decurions for the new construction. . The fane was dedi- cated by the Consul, L. Catulus, fourteen years after the foundations had been laid. But this second temple was also destroyed by fire, as we have seen, in the attack on the Capitol A.D. 70. Vespasian built another of surpassing magnificence. "We learn from Tacitus {Hist. 1. iv. c. 53) most curious particulars of the observances and rites attending the inauguration of the works for this new edifice. The superintendence was assigned to Lucius Vestinus, a dis- tinguished knight, who first consulted the Haruspices. Those authorities prescribed that the ruinous remains should^ in order to prevent any profane use of them, be thrown into a marsh, and that the new buildings should stand on the same foundations without change of plan or scale — for " the Gods did not desire to alter the ancient form" (nolle Bens mutare veterem formam). On a fine summer's day the ceremonies took place : all the area destined for the building was encircled with fillets, stoles, and garlands ; the first who entered it were soldiers, carry- ing boughs of olive trees, emblems of peace and happiness ; next came the Vestal Virgins with a band of youths and maidens, all whose fathers and mothers were living, and all of whom assisted the Vestals in the ceremony of sprinkling the whole area with pure water from springs, fountains, Brutus— an event surprising enough, as he was killed by Marcus Brutus, who was descended from the first." {Manning's translation.) Siieto- iiius enumerates among the extraordinary honours paid to him : " proe- nomen Imperatoris, cognomen Patris Patriai, statuum inter rcges " (in J. Cajsar, L. xxvi.) 2G8 HISTORIC and monumental eome. and rivers. Next was performed the Suovetaurilia sacri- fice of an ox, a boar, and a ram, the entrails of which animals were laid by the officiating Pontiff on a pile of green turf, after which that high priest invoked Jove, Juno, and Minerva, deities presiding over the Empire, to promote the completion of their sacred seat about to be raised by their worshippers ; the Pontiff touching, at the same time, the fillets which bound the foundation stones, and the cords for lowering them. Priests, Senators, Knights, Magis- trates, and many other citizens then united their efforts for lowering the first stone, and with it were laid coins of gold and silver, also the virgin ore of metals never yet cast into the furnace. " The Haruspices had ordered (says Tacitus) that this edifice should not be profaned by gold or any stone employed for other uses." Suetonius and Dion Cassius tell us that Vespasian himself took part in remov- ing the ruins, carrying them away on his shoulders. Though plan and measurement were the same, the new rose loftier than the old temple ; and this is the sole such edifice known to us in ancient Kome of dimensions at all considerable ; the peribolos (sacred enclosure with colon- nades) being 200 feet in length, 185 in breadth ; the cella, or place of worship, 120 by 50 feet. This third met with the fate of the former temples, being ruined by fire shortly before the death of Vespasian. Another was built by Domitian with surpassing magnificence. Plutarch, men- tioning the tradition that Tarquin had spent 40,000 lbs. weight of silver on the foundations alone of the first temple,* * See his life of Valerius Publicola, who desired himself to dedicate the temple, but was prevented by his opponents. Plutarch narrates a similar incident to that which occurred at the dedication of the other temple. The Consul, who officiated, was falsely informed during the rites that his son had died on a campaign ; he continued, after a brief reply, undeterred from the duties before him. THE CAPITOL OF ROME. 269 states that the gilding alone of the fourth temple cost — far indeed beyond the means of any private citizen— more than 12,000 talents, or 60 'million francs ! It rose on a lofty terrace of masonry, 800 feet in circumference, with front towards the south, and provided with a peristyle of three files of marble columns; the lateral colonnades, along the side walls, being in double file; the three sacraria of the deities parallel, and communicating with each other, so that in this respect the interior must have resembled those Christian churches which have naves and aisles, each terminating in a chancel and altar. All the piety and intensity of which the antique Eoman worship was capable found vent in the observances within these sacred walls. Till the time of Augustus the Sibyl- line books were kept here, under the statue of Jove. A multitude of ex-voto offerings from wealthy citizens and devout princes were accumulated in this interior. Au- gustus, as we have seen, offered to the " Jupiter Capito- linus " 16,000 lbs. weight of gold, besides pearls and gems valued at about 900,000 francs ; Hieron, king of Syracuse, sent an image of Victory ; Aristobulus, king of Armenia, a vine-tree made of gold ; LucuUus imported from Apollonia, for like dedication, a statue of Apollo, about 14 metres high, for which he paid 150 talents (720,000 francs); various statues of Jupiter and Minerva, in bronze or marble, were offered with like intent ; and among other sculptures here placed, were statues of Tabius Maximus and Scipio Africanus, two busts given by the Consul Len- tulus, and a figure of a dog licking its wound, so perfect that it was deemed beyond all price, and the guardians of the fane had to answer for its safety with their lives. (Pliny, H. N. xxxiv. § 7.) The statue of Scipio Afri- canus, who used to pass nights within these sacred walls, was removed hence when required for the funeral proces- 270 niSTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. sions of the " gens Cornelia." * The practice of sleeping iu this templet with the hope of obtaining propitious dreams is mentioned by Plaut'us {CurcuUo). The stately fane, rebuilt under the Empire, had six Corinthian columns at the front, eight columns and a pilaster at each side. In the interior stood, besides the three chief altars, sediculaB to the goddess Youth and to Terminus. Here also was the " Capitoline Treasury," de- posited by Camillus in (or under) the throne of Jupiter. At the summit of the fa9ade, on the central acroterium, was another image of that god, in a quadriga, erected by the Curule ^diles, B.C. 315, and afterwards replaced in the several restorations of the temple itself. The original * "To him alone (says Valerius Maximus, 1. viii. c. xv.) the Capitolinm was as a domestic atrium." Dion Cassius imputes to Julius Crcsar the spoliation of this temple, besides the seizure of the public treasure in the jErarium : " Caesar, wanting money, took out of the Capitol all the costly ornaments that had been consecrated to the gods." The fine description by Lucan of the violation of the sacred Treasury, and the resistance offered by the Tribune, Ccecilius Metellus, occurs in the " Pharsalia," 1. iii. 114-168; and the connection between that building and the Saturn Temple is indicated in the lines: — Tunc rupes Tarpeia sonat, magnoque reclusus Testatur stridore fores : tunc conditus imo Eruitur templo multis intactus ab annis Romani census populi, quem Punica bella Quem dederat Perses, quem victi praida Philippi, &c. t A passage in Suetonius {August, xci.) may signify that Augustus not only frequented, but occasionally slept in this temple, as when he dreamt that Jupiter made complaint to him of the diminution of worshippers in his fane, to which he answered that he had caused the Thunderer {i. e., the Temple of Jupiter Tonans) to become a door-keeper to the Capitoline Jove. The former temple was erected by Augustus on this hill, b.c. 22, in memory of his rescue from lightning, which passed over the litter in which he was carried on a campaign. After that dream he hung bells to the tympanum, in order to give to his new temple the attributes of a doorway. THE CAPITOL OF ROME. 271 group of Jove in his chariot was of terra cotta wrought at Veii ; and to this refers the legend narrated by Plutarch. The second Tarquin ordered this sculpture for the fane founded by him ; but before its completion he lost his kingdom. The augurs, observing something unusual when the terra cotta work was being prepared in the furnace, prophesied power and prosperity to the future owners of it ; the citizens of Veii therefore determined to keep it for themselves. Soon afterwards they held a festival, with chariot races; the victor, crowned for his triumph, was driving his car off the arena, when suddenly his horses started at galloping speed, and notwithstanding all the driver's efforts, bore him thus from Veii to the walls of Rome, and there overthrew him to the ground, not far from the Porta Eatumena, a gate below the northern slope of the Capitol. Alarmed and admonished by this portent, the authorities of Veii con- ceded the chariot of Jupiter to the Romans. The sacer- dotal stamp, and the notion of divine favour, especially secured for the rising city, are obvious in this legend. Pliny the younger mentions the ceremony of the public adoption, in this Capitoline temple, of Trajan as successor in empire to Nerva (Panegyr. VIII.). Some lines in the poem of Claudian on the VI. Consulate of Honorius lead us to infer that the splendid fane stood intact at that period, a.d. 404 ; but soon occurred an act of deliberate spoliation done by Stilicho, the ablest military leader of his time, who (in 408) removed all the lamina of gold, wrought in relievo, from the chief portals. The heathen historian Zosimus tells us that on that occasion were found inscribed on a panel of those doors the words — Misero Begi servantur — ominously appropriate to such a ruler as the young Honorius. In the sack of the city by Genseric, A.D. 455, one half of the gilt bronze tiles covering the roof was torn off. Ruins of the edifice no doubt remained 272 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. during the Middle Ages ; and Ifhe last writers to mention what were supposed to be its vestiges in masonry and marble, seen by themselves, are Poggio Bracciolini and Flavio Biondo, both in the XV. century. "We have now to consider the memory, not any extant remains, of the Capito- line buildings as surrounded by an imaginative atmosphere, the offspring of child-like awe, unchecked by any knowledge of history. In the " Mirabilia Urbis " the Capitol becomes to the fantasy of the mediaeval writer (or compiler) an en- chanted palace in the midst of the impregnable arx, its walls plated with gold and glass, its front studded with gems, and surmounted by pinnacles, on which stood statues of all the subject provinces, each with a bell hung round its neck. When any province of the empire revolted it was contrived by magical art that the bell of the corresponding statue should ring ; and thus was the supreme sovereignty of the ancient world rendered in a manner omniscient. Another version of the romantic description mentions a lamp, on the tower of this palace, visible from ships at sea, and before which a mirror used to be held, with the mysterious result that all things then happening on earth, or, at least, all movements hostile against Rome, would then be reflected on that magic glass ! A French romance makes Virgil the builder, through enchantment, of that tower on the Capitol, with the marvellous statues. A remnant of the Frangipani Castle, on the arch of Titus, which was for the most part destroyed by Gregory IX. was popularly called " Tower of Virgil " (Marangoni, Anfiteatro Flavio). Strange is the fate of that renowned Jupiter temple, so completely vanished that even the spot on which it stood has become matter for dispute ! The first church raised on the summit generally believed to have been occupied by it, was a small one called 8. Maria in CampidogliOy with adjoining cloisters for Bene- THE CAPITOL OP EOME. 273 dictlnes. No positive date can be assigned for its origin, which "Wadding attributes (Annates Minor, t. ii., § Ivi.) to Constantino, other writers to S. Grregory I. ; others sup- posing it not older than the VII. century. It is, however, certain that both church and cloisters were bestowed on the Eranciscan Eriars Minor by Innocent IV. in 1251, and that those Friars took possession in the next year. The actual buildings date from a subsequent period, and in great portion from 1464<, in which year a Cardinal pro- tector, Oliviero Caraffa, restored a great part and rebuilt (as Nibby states) "at least two-thirds of the church." The title " S. Maria in Aracoeli" was originally given solely to an isolated chapel with marble canopy and domed roof, which stands in a transept, and under the altar of which lie the relics of S. Helena, this being believed to occupy the site of an altar dedicated by Augustus as " ara primogeniti Dei," after the Cumaean Sibyl had prophesied to him the birth of the Messiah. Struck by this prediction, the master of the Eoman world is said to have consulted the Delphic oracle, and received response in mystic verse : — Me puer Hebrseus, divos Deus ipse guburnans, Cedere sede jubet, tristemque redire sub Orcum ; Aris ergo dehinc tacitis abscedito nostris. The writers considered of authority for this deeply- signi- ficant legend are Grreek ecclesiastics, Cedrenus in the XI. century, Nicephorus in the XIV., and others later.* At the present day the Franciscan church has a character of bar- baric splendour blent with vestiges of classic antiquity and the purer features of Italian Gothic, now much obscured. In twilight hours and at evening rites, especially at the mid- night mass of Christmas, the scene here presented as we enter is most impressive, whatever may be objected to by criticism. * For the later and fullest development of this legend see the " Le- geHda Aurea," written in the XIII. century. 274 HISTOmC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. I have never witnessed the spectacle of the " Prcscpio," or waxwork group of the Nativity on a theatric stage in one of its side chapels, without being struck by the manifest ana- logies between religious usage in Heathen and in Christian Eome ; and still more naturally do such reflections occur to the mind at the extraordinary ceremonies of the Epiphany, here so attractive, when the benediction is given to kneel- ing multitudes with the painted and jewelled image of the Divine Infant, now lifted up and seemingly adored, just as is the Eeal Presence in the sacramental elements, first from the high altar, and again, with more memorable effect amidst the gorgeous surroundings — richly-robed priests, silken banners and crosses, soaring incense, and pomp of military accompaniment — from the platform in front at the summit of the great staircase, now entirely covered with throngs, especially of the peasant class, so that no stone of the old marble steps, not one " coin of vantage " in ^^e whole lofty structure is left visible !* The analogies between the expressions of religious senti- ment under the dominance of different beliefs, must be regarded with deep interest, and cannot be estimated from the sceptical, but from the reverential point of view. It would betray ignorance or levity to ignore all that the Latin Church has done to guide, perpetuate, and beautify those outward signs of the inner life. Before leaving the Capitol we may consider the evidence preserved in the Conservators' palace, and in forms of The *' bambino " here so revered, and which it is still usual to carry to the bed of sickness, in order to impart with it a blessing of supposed miraculous virtues, was carved by a Franciscan friar at Jerusalem in olive-wood, from a tree on the sacred mount, at some period in the XVII. century. Besides the group of the Holy Family, the Shepherds and Magi, two other dressed wax- work figures, Augustus and the Sibyl, are placed beside the illuminated stage in memory of the legend which adds so much interest to this venerable church. TnE CAPITOL OF EOME. 275 classic art, throwing light on the question above alluded to respecting the site of the Jupiter temple. Such monumental testimony is before us in a series of highly- finished relievi, in an open court entered from the first landing place of the chief staircase — sculptures removed from a now lost triumphal arch raised in honour of Marcus Aurelius on the Eorum. They are not arranged as the sequence of sub- jects manifestly requires. In their proper historic order, they should stand as follows : the departure of the Emperor for a campaign ; the same Euler on horseback with an official (probably a Praetor) standing beside him, and two kneeling figures, perhaps meant for the Grerman provinces imploring his clemency or the bestowal of peace ; the return of the Emperor from a successful expedition to Eome, that City, personified as an Amazon with helmed head, receiving him at the Porta Triumphalis, while she presents a globe to the imperial Victor whose head (an observable detail) is veiled, as for sacrifice, which may lead us to conclude that such rites were performed by the Caesars on their return from foreign wars, immediately after their state ingress, and perhaps near the gates of the city. Two figures, in the background of this scene, are supposed by Visconti to be the Genii of the Senate and the Eoman People. JSText should come the triumphal procession : the Emperor in a quadriga as- cending the Capitol, whilst Victory, a winged female, places a crown on his brow — trumpeters preceding ; in the back- ground being seen an arch, probably that for which the sculp- tures were executed, also a temple with Corinthian columns, apparently that of Saturn, on the southern declivity of that Hill. On the imperial chariot are figures of Juno, Minerva, and Neptune. Next comes the sacrifice before the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, the finest among these sculptures, and that in which the topographic question is signally eluci- dated. The scene is not any sacred interior, but a platform T 2 276 niSTORTC and monumental home. in the open air, where the Emperor appears in act of throw- ing incense on the fire lit on a small altar. He is veiled for the sacrificial rite and attended by a little boy (the Camillus), who holds the thurifer, while another youth near him is playing on a fife, and the " Popa " stands with his axe, about to slay the steer which, with garlanded head and neck, is led to the sacrifice ; the Flamen Dialis and other subordinate ministers having their places in this group. In the background are two buildings with architecture dis- tinctly defined ; to the spectator's left, and therefore (sup- posing the scene to be on the Capitoline summit) on the site of the Aracoeli church, stands a temple with peristyle and pediment, on the tympanum of which are several sculp- tures, of size so small as to baffle criticism, but among which are recognizable figures of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, besides other deities. The identity of this building with the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus is attested by the detail of the ingress to its cella through three doors, as in the case of churches provided with a nave and two aisles. This circumstance precisely corresponds to the known features of the Capitoline temple, with its altars to three deities, and three portals at the principal front. The other build- ing, which appears somewhat more distinct, and standing on a lower plain in this relief, must be the Tabularium, of which we have two authentic representations in ancient sculpture — that before us, and another in one of the small ill-executed rilievi on the arch of Constantino. In the re- lief before us of the sacrifice on the Capitol, the Tabularium presents a front divided by flat pilasters with Doric capi- tals. Along the highest cornice (or sky-line) are placed statues of men combating with animals — in the centre one who fights a lion, the other wald beasts being less easily distinguished. Conventionally represented and of small scale as they are, these sculptures seem copied from THE CAPITOL OF ROME. 277 superior originals, no other, we may believe, tlian the antiques destroyed in orthodox zeal against Paganism by Sixtus V.* The argument of Bunsen against in- terpreting the relief in the sense here assumed, rests mainly on this — that the temple of the Capitoline Jove is not described as Corinthian, the order of the peristyle here introduced ; and that that fane stood (as Etruscan ritual prescribed) looking southward ; while the edifice in this relief has (supposing the site to be the platform between the two hill-summits) a northern aspect. It may be urged in answer that the conventional character of architecture in backgrounds of sculptured grouping, may account for incorrectness ; and that the detail of the triple portals for a fane with triple dedication, which no other Eoman temple is known to have received, may be deemed almost conclu- sive. On the higher landing place of the staircase in the same palazzo are two other rilievi, very inferior to those I have described, from the other arch of Marcus Aurelius,t or, as some antiquaries conjecture, fi'om that of Antoninus Pius, both erected on the Plaminian Way. The subjects of these sculptures are : the Apotheosis of Faustina, the con- sort of the latter, and adoptive mother of the former Emperor ; and the dedication (or rather proclaiming of the decree to dedicate) the temple on the Porum to Anto- ninus Pius, as well as to the wife who died before him. We see the deified Empress soaring from the funeral pyre, borne * Supr. p. 98. — Still more deplorable, if more excusable, than this act of the uncompromising Pope, was the destruction of sculptures adorning the porticoes of the Tabularium, through their use as missiles to hurl against the assailants in the struggle between the Vitellian and Vespasian parties. Tacitus (see his graphic description, Hist. 1. iii. 71, 72) tells how Sabinus, the brother of Vespasian, defending that edifice, " rerulsas uudique statuas, decora majorum,in ipso aditu vice muri objecisset." t The arch on the riaminiun Way, demolished, in order to widen the Cortjo, A.D. 1653. 278 niSTonic and monumental home. up by a winged figure, the Genius of Eternity, here repre- sented as female, for such a Genius is of difterent sex> according to that of the individual who is accompanied, in classic art. Still does the tradition cling like a shadow from the Past to Rome's Capitol, which appropriates this hill for political proceedings and celebrations, secular (not ecclesiastical) festivity, academic (musical or literary) performances, premiation of artists or students, &c. All know the story of the destined coronation of Tasso,his death on the appointed day (25th April, 1595), and the funeral processsion from S. Onofrio instead of the poetic triumph on the Capitol. Besides the coronation which was actually obtained by Petrarch in 13 il, the laurel-wreath has been placed on the heads of less illustrious poets, by Senatorial hands, in the great hall of the Capitoline palace : in 1725, by desire of Pope Benedict XIII., it was here bestowed on Bernardino Perfetti, a writer of almost forgotten verse ; again in 1776, on a lady renowned in her day as an improvvisatrice, Maria Maddalena Morelli, who was crowned, after impromptu declamation on themes given by the judges present, and who finally left her laurel- wreath, as an ex- veto, in a church of her native place, Pistoia (v. TroUope, " Decade of Italian Women.") In the municipal "palazzo" was per- formed a grand " accademia " of vocal and instrumental music, composed expressly for the occasion, on the evening of the day Pius IX. published the dogma of the Immaculate Conception at S. Peter's. Turning to more distant times, and to the Aracoeli church, we may dwell on high and solemn memories which add sanctity to the dim-lit aisles of that Christian fane. Cola di Eienzo, whose name so frequently recurs among remi- niscences of this classic hill, planted on the Capitol the standard of the " Good Estate ;" was here elected Tri- THE CAPITOL OF EOME. 279 bune, and resided here both in that capacity (134!7) and afterwards (1354) as Senator. During the few months of his tribunate, he celebrated a triumph, the principal scene of which was on this height, for his victory over the barons and their retainers, headed by Stefano Colonna, at the Tiburtine (or S. Lorenzo) gate. After sacred rites in the Aracoeli church, the Tribune hung up, as ex-votos, before the Madonna- picture over its high altar his steel wand of office, and also the silver crown, in form of a laurel- wreath, which had been placed on his brows in the Lateran basilica.* A more magnificent triumph, far nobler, because more reli- gious, than those of the Caesars, while amidst earthly pomps referring all to the Omnipotent Euler, was accorded by Pius v., and its final act celebrated with splendid rites in this church (4th December, 1571), in honour of Marc Antonio Colonna, commander of the ships forming the naval con- tingent of the Pope to the fleet of the triple alliance in the, battle of Lepanto. In memorial of that victory of Christian over Moslem power (5th October, 1571) the Eoman Senate renewed the ceiling of the same , church, supplying one of those flat wooden roofs, coffered and profusely gilt, which are of comparatively late origin in ecclesiastical architecture. Political scenes pass next in review before us on the Capitol. On this height an emissary of French Eevolution planted the tree of liberty, 28th December, 1797 ; and here did the Erench authorities proclaim the downfall of pontific sovereignty and the Ct^tablishment of the "Tiberine Ee- public," 15th Pebruary, 1798. On the 10th June, 1809, was published here, as in all principal quarters of the city, with sound of trumpets, lowering of the pontific standard, and elevating of another instead, the annexation of Eome and * Another old Byzantine Madonna-picture, in the Borghese chapel at S. Maria Maggiore, disputes the claim to such honours with that of Aracoeli. 280 niSTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. the Papal States to the Trench Empire. On the 9th Febru- ary, 1849, the National Assembly or " Eoman Constituent" decreed the decadence, de facto and de jure, of that often assailed sovereignty (Pius IX. having fled from Rome on the 19th November previous) — which act, together with the establishment of democratic government, as the " Eepub- blica Romana," was proclaimed on this hill. A vote of the Assembly to the same effect was published from the loggia of the municipal palace here, 3rd July, 1849, the last day of the existence of that Republic represented by it. Shortly after the entry of the victorious French on the same day, the resto- ration of Pius IX. and of the papal throne wasproclaimed on this classic hill. On this spot was made a feeble attempt at revolt with attack by night on the guards here stationed, shortly before the battle of Mentana (November 3rd, 1867). On the Capitol and in the Forum was celebrated a funereal pageant (17th March, 1872), with long-drawn procession, banners, allegoric statues, &c. in honour of the lately deceased Mazzini. Among the exciting incidents of the now-memora- ble 20th September, 1870, was the lowering of the pontific standard and erecting of that of the Italian King, with exult- ing popular demonstrations, a few hours after the entry of the Italian army by the Porta Pia. A tablet in two exemplars on the front of the municipal palace records the result of the Plebiscite, the votes of 40,785 against 46, which was pro- claimed also on this hill, 11th October following.* Modern researches on the Capitol have been rewarded by discovery of a system of shafts and tunnels, perpendicular and horizontal, that pierce this hill in every direction, and are supposed to have served for supplying the citadel S. P. Q. R. Qitesta memoria ricorderd nei posteri il giorno 1 1 Ottdbre 1870, qiuindo i Romani con voto solemne unanvme si vollero ricongiunti alV Italia sotto il costittizionale Governo di Vittorio Emawaele e dei suoi Successori. I voti furono : favorevoU, 40,785 — contrarii, 46. THE CAPITOL OF ROME. 281 with water — if not, as some have concluded, favissa, re- cesses where the sacred objects of temples, no longer ser- viceable, used to be deposited. These cavities, however, appear too vast and intricate to have been formed for such purpose. Their highest range is at a depth of 138 palms from the summit of the Tarpeian rock. One passage ex- tends both eastward and westward, below the Fiazza delta Consolazione, where its course is impeded by ruin, being' permeable for the length of 303 palms. This passage ex- pands into an ample corridor, having the sides lined with slabs of fine marble. A similar corridor extends northwards till it sinks into a lower storey, now full of water ; and on the southern side are two passages, one 21 palms below the other, leading to springs of water. It is obvious how im- portant were these subterranean ways — probably indeed the means of preserving the Eoman citadel at the crisis of the Gallic siege. Externally are seen a few entrances to their long- winding recesses : two on the southern surface of the Tarpeian rock, above an obscure court near the Consolazione piazza ; a third on the precipice at the northern side, whence that passage has been penetrated to a point below the statues of Castor and Pollux. Approaching this hill at the northern side, where is the ascent by an inclining plane made for the state ingress of Charles V. into Eome, 1536, we may well share the feel- ing expressed in one of "Wordsworth's sonnets : — Is this, ye Gods, the Capitoline Hill, This petty steep, in truth, the fearful rock Tarpeian named of yore, and keeping still That name, a local phantom formed to mock The traveller's expectation ? The palazzi here before us, flanking three sides of a quad- rangular terrace, have neither grace nor dignity in their architectural forms. One may admit the sarcasm of Ma- 28^ HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. vio Biondo, that the senatorial seat " as he saw it restored by Boniface IX., was one in which a private person might be ashamed to dwell." As now before us, an insignificant specimen of the modern palatial style, it completely masks, on this side, the antique structures of the Tabu- larium ; its facade bearing the impress of Buonarotti's hand, who added its best detail, the external staircase with double flight and a lofty platform. Giacomo della Porta finished this palace. Buonarotti made designs for the two lateral ones, whic^ ^.re altered for the worse when those buildings were completed by Del Duca. The statues and other antiques ranged above the heavy balustrade along the ridge of the ascent, and on the level summit, alone serve to link this modernized part of the Hill with classic antiquity; but those sculptures, eff'ective from a distance, have no character of high art — excepting indeed one masterpiece beyond price.* The Marcus Aurelius on his steed, in * The two lions of black granite, at the foot of the ascent, probably adorned a temple of Isis and Serapis, on the site of which they stood till transferred, about a.d. 1556, to their present place. The lion on which Eienzo was seated amidst the furious crowd, when the assassins struck him, has disappeared. The colossal Castor and Pollux with their steeds (much restored) were found in the Jews' quarter; they are supposed to have stood in the Theatre of Balbus, and were transferred by order of Gre- gory XIII. in 1579, to the Capitol, The statues of two of the sons of Constantine (probably Constantine II. and Constantius) are from the ruins of the Thermae of the Emperor, their father, on the Quirinal Hill. The piles of armour and weapons (miscalled " trophies of Marius") were removed from the extant ruins of the castellum (or decorated reservoir with fountains) of an aqueduct near S. Maria Maggiore, by order of Sixtus V ; but are supposed to have been first erected on the Forum of Trajan. Winckelmann refers them to the time of Domitian. The recumbent colossi of the Tiber and the Nile, against the front of the staircase before the municipal palace, are mentioned by Biondo as placed in a street on the Quirinal, and were then (XV. century) believed to rei)resent Kome and Bacchus ! The Rome Triumphant, a seated figure, THE CAPITAL OF EOME. 283 attitude that seems at once to exhort with eloquence and command with majesty, is the only one extant of twenty- two equestrian bronze statues known to have stood in Eome till at least so late as the V. century of our era. This was originally gilt. "While supposed to be the image of Con- stantino, it was removed from its original place on the principal Forum, by Pope Clement III., about 1187, to the piazza before the Lateran; finally, by order of Paul III., to the spot where it now stands, re-erected under care of Buonarotti, by whom the marble pedestal wa» /Tjade out of a massive cornice found on the Porum of Nerva, 1538. Among the festivities appointed by Eienzo for the occasion of his receiving knighthood in the Lateran basilica, the horse of Marcus Aurelius was converted into a fountain of wine and water, those liquids flowing from its nostrils for the whole day. A Prefect of Eome rebellious against a Pope, John XIIL (966), was punished, besides other barba- rous cruelties, by being hung by the hair of his head to this bronze horse, then in its Original place on the Forum. Hospitalities were offered to the Eoman people, still more profuse than those of Eienzo, by several Popes, Urban VIIL, Innocent X., Clement IX., and Clement X., on occasion of their installations at the Lateran, when the two Egyptian lions at the foot of the Capitoline ascent poured wine from their mouths, as, in some similar festivities for the pontific " Possesso," did also the fountain on the platform-summit. On the north-west declivity, where the new authorities have improved a bank of barren soil into a in a niche between those two statues, with head and arms of Parian marble, and draperies of porphyry, was found, according to Nibby, at Cori (the Latian Cora), though another writer (Montagnini,illf'ira&iZia) mentions its discovery in a subterranean chamber, magnificently adorned with stucco relief, silver borderings and rich marble incrustations, under a vineyard on the Esquiline Hill, near S. Martino ai Monti. 284) nisTOBic and monumental eome. pleasant garden with a staircase and a zig-zag road for easy ascent, were discovered in the recent works some massive remains, in lithoid tufa, of the Servian fortifications, In this instance carefully preserved, and made visible, in two portions, under arches raised expressly to shelter them. These relics may assist us in evoking before the mental gaze the picture of the antique Capitolium* on its northern side ; its declivities fortified by buttress walls, without approach by stairs or practicable way ; the superb Temple of Jupiter on one of its horns, or eastern and western summits (I must conclude for the site of Aracoeli) ; the citadel on the Tarpeian rock ; several other temples raising their colonnades and tympana, of classic style, within that arx and on other disposable spaces ;t the Tabularium and ^rarium, with its sculpture-adorned porticos, on the inter- montium. All the local aspects and architectural features are now essentially changed ; the monumental glories vanished like " the baseless fabric of a dream." * The traditionary origin of this name, through discovery of a human head below the foundations of the great temple, can only be considered a philologic myth. t Among those of exceptional dedication, and said to have been founded by Romulus, that of Vejovis, a deity of ill omen, or Evil Spirit, (supposed by some to be no other than Jupiter the Infant) — probably no building but an enclosed space, destined as refuge for husbandmen and their herds during war or inundations. Within the arx were the trees, probably a grove walled round, whence the Fetialcs took consecrated boughs of verbena when they had to conclude a treaty between Rome and other cities or countries. 285 CHAPTER VIII. THE FLAVIAN AMPHITHEATRE (OR COLOSSEUM) AND THE CHRISTIAN MARTI RS. TnE last of the Eoman Pontiffs who was canonized as a saint (in 1712), Pius Y., used to say that whoever desired relics from Eome need but gather the soil, all saturated with the blood of martyrs, in the Flavian Amphithe- atre. A like sense of local sanctities is expressed in the legend of S. Gregory the Great, who, when asked to send some precious relics to a Greek Empress, presented to the Byzantine envoys a handful of earth from the same arena, which, when aware that they received it with surprise and contempt, he pressed between his hands till blood was seen to ooze from that hallowed clay ! These two stories rest on a notion which the archaeologist may find erroneous, for we have reason to believe the amphitheatric arena was not an earthy platform on terra jirma^ but a boarded stage like those on which the modern actor treads. But the memo- ries thus associated (as the two sainted Popes justly felt) with the ruins of the great edifice in question, are the most deeply interesting— "the charm of this enchanted ground" — and far more truly sublime than all the material grandeur and vastness of scale here displayed to our admi- ration. Legends are a symbol of truth ; and if the highest interest attached to antiquities be that proceeding from their connection with the history of Humanity and Civili- zation, or Eeligion, assuredly the light reflected from Christian annals, from the fate of those who met with dreadful death, suftering for conscience sake, within the 280 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL nOMi:. walls of that vast amphitheatre, may excite still more wonder and emotion than all its architectural features, all the characteristics of its construction, or the perfect adapta- tion of parts to a general purpose in the whole enormous fabric. A countryman of ours, the venerable Bede, is the first writer who can be cited as applying to this building, in the Vlllth century, the name by which it is now popu- larly known. He quotes as a proverb already current, what with scarcely an altered word is versified by Byron : " While stands the Colosseum, Rome shall stand, When falls the Colosseum, Rome shall fall, And when Rome falls, the world." In the Latin original : Quamdiu stabit Coliseus (sic) stabit et 'Roma ; quando cadet Coliseus, cadet et Roma ; quando cadet Roma^ cadet et mundus. This saying seems to imply that the edifice was still standing, almost in its ancient entireness, when the venerable Bede lived and wrote. The uses to which a building has been applied form its main title to historic importance. Eegarded in such connection, the Flavian Amphitheatre, whilst in the highest degree attractive to the eyes of the archaeologist and archi- tect, may be deemed the most signal monument of Evil, the most striking evidence of legalised cruelties, and syste- matic outrage against Humanity ever raised by man in enduring material. Considering all that it signifies and all that it serves to record, we may agree with the modern historian who says of imperial Eome that, in the eye of Deity, she was ** the Eepresentative of all errors and of all crimes." It needs but average acquaintance with ancient manners as depicted in classic literature to measure, in this instance, the depths of iniquity among local memories, and distinguish how many stains, besides those of blood, darken the walls of that ruined edifice ! I need say- no more on a THE FLAVIAN AMriTITIIEATRE. 287 sul)jcct wliicli will not bear further exposition, and may be understood by the reader. Such a contrast between the ancient and modern spirit of society, of belief and institu- tions as is suggested to our thought within those walls, leads ns to estimate, on the one hand, the brutalized and degraded social state, the dark realities possible even at a high stage of Latin civilization ; and, on the other, the purifying powers of Christianity. This lesson is more elo- quent than all the appeals of the pulpit, more affecting as it here speaks to us, on the arena surrounded by ruin, than are all the creations of sacred Art, all the magnificence of ritual in the stateliest temples of Catholicism at Eome. A striking moral antagonism meets us in the pages of the Latin and later Greek literature between the precepts of philosophy and the usages of common life — between the theories of virtue and their habitual, public, often outrageous contradiction in practice. The writings of Cicero, Seneca, Plutarch, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, convince us that a noble estimate of human duties, a deep sense of the value of human life, a full recognition of the mercy that should season justice, were attainable by the mind and reconcileable with the belief of antiquity. The masters of the Stoic School were teaching at Eome, or within the knowledge of Eoman citizens, during the very period when homicidal shows in the arena were a favourite amusement, those moral prin- ciples through which their system approached nearest to the ethics of the Gospel ; and the sense of the preciousness of the life which was habitually sacrificed for the public entertainments most in favour, is finely expressed in a well known line by Juvenal : Nulla unquam de morte Tiominis cunctatio longa est ('' Never in any case can delay be too long when the life or death of man is in question"). Cicero, referring in one of his familiar epistles to such shows of the arena as attracted the Roman populace in his day, pro- 288 iiTSTORTC A.VD MOM'^n-NTM innrr:. tests against them long bctbro gladiatorial combats liad beeu seen in any permanent amphitheatre : " Magnificent are they indeed (he says), but what pleasure can there be to a cultivated mind in the spectacle of an unarmed man exposed to be torn by a furious beast, or of a noble animal transfixed by darts ?" A living author, who presents to us the moral life and intellectual status of the ancient Eomans with exhaustive treatment and immense range of well-directed learning, Eriedlander, compiles all the proofs and examples at hand to show the salutary influences of philosophic schools over that civic life ; but I believe the general conclusion must be that the high estimate of duties, the exalted aims inculcated by philosophic schools under the Empire were confined in their effects to a cultivated few, were little difi*used over the practice, or reflected in the temper, of the many. The , homicidal combats of Gladiators were first exhibited in Eome, B.C. 263, on the Forum Boarium, and among the funeral pomps prepared by Marcus and Decimus Brutus for the obsequies of their father. During some time after- wards they were only displayed at the public funerals of conspicuous' persons; and it was usually round the pyre, on the chief Porum, that the gladiators fought. Finally such homicidal shows were introduced at all the more solemn obsequies, even those of patrician matrons. Under the Empire, Knights and Senators, private citizens, even in some instances women (to the disgrace of their sex) descended into the arena, for fight, like hirelings.* But * Tacitus, referring to the reign of Nero, says : " In the same year were exhibited gladiatorial shows on a scale no less magnificent than those of previous years; but many women of noble birth, and many senators disgraced themselves by appearing on the arena." Suetonius mentions similar shows in the time of Domitian, when women took part with men in the amphithcatric combats {nee virorum modo pugnas, sed THE FLAVIAN AMPHITHEATRE. 289 the usually chosen actors, or victims, in those bloody ]iageants, were captives, slaves, and condemned malefactors. These, the regular gladiators, were trained and lodged with due care for their health and strength, in colleges called " ludi." If dismissed and set free, as the final reward of long services or successes, the gladiator could never hold equestrian rank, whatever his fortune or merits ; the slave who was manumitted or dismissedfrom such an employ, which inflicted the stain of infamy even in Eoman eyes, could never rank with other freemen, but belonged to an inferior class designated as peregrinus dedititius. The first amphi- theatres raised in this city were temporary wooden struc- tures ; the first known to us being that erected by Julius Caesar, on the Campus Martins, for public entertainments at his grand triumph of four days* duration. Grreat was the variety of the shows then exhibited in the ephemeral edifice : a naumachia, a slaughter of many wild beasts, a combat between antagonists mounted on forty elephants, and other contests, in which so many human lives were lost that this waste both of blood and treasure for amuse- ment resulted in making Caesar (as Dion Cassius states) extremely unpopular. The first permanent amphitheatre in Eome was that raised by Statilius Taurus, at the desire of Augustus, on a site probably near the Monte Citorio, westwards of the piazza Colonna, on which now stands the great building formerly serving for police-courts and pri- sons, now for ^ the Parliament of the Italian Kingdom. et femmarum), Domitian. IV. Juvenal describes such shameful spec- tacles on the arena — Where the bold fair Tilts at the Tuscan boar with bosom bare. —Sat. I. 22. Nor was this practice put down till the reign of Septimius Severus, when a decree abolished it as illegal for the future, (v. Walford's ''Juvenal,'" in Collins's ^'Ancient Classics." U 290 niSTOBIC AND MONUMENTAL BOME. Probably the outer walls alone of that amphitheatre were of stone, the rest woodwork, as we may infer from the fact of its being destroyed by fire in the time of Nero. Another temporary amphitheatre was erected by Nero's order ; another permanent (i. e. architectonic) one was commenced by the Emperor Caius, but never finished. At length arose, on ground once occupied by a lake among the pleasure-gardens of the " Golden House," the marvellous Amphitheatre, called after its founder of the Flavian family, commenced by Vespasian soon after the conquest of Jerusalem, a.d. 72, finished and dedicated by Titus, A D. 80, but not (it seems) raised to its full altitude, with a lofty attic above the trip] e-stor eyed arcades, till the time of Domitian, between the years 82 and 96. Dion Cassius tells us that more than 9000 animals were slain on its arena at the fetes for the dedication. Eutropius reports the number as 5000.* The unrivalled scale of this edifice among buildings of its class accounts for the name by which it has been long known. With no courtly exaggera- tion does the poet Martial assert its rank among the wonders of the ancient world, and declare that all monu- ments ever reared by Kings yielded to this unparalleled creation of the Flavian Caesars.f It is scarcely necessary * The former writer states that, among these spectacular displays " troops of cranes fought together, and four elephants, together with 9000 other animals, both wild and tame, were killed; and even women (though none of high rank) lent their aid for slaying them. Many men engaged in single combat ; many others by companies in land and sea- fights ; for the amphitheatre was suddenly filled with water, and there appeared bulls, horses, and other domestic animals, trained to go through the same exercises in the water as on land." He tells us that these shows lasted 100 days; and that on the third day there was a nautical combat, in which 3000 men were engaged. f Omnis Csesario cedat labor amphitheatro; Unum pro cunctis fama loquatur opus. THE FLAVIAN AMPHITHEATRE. 291 to particularize the measurements given in all guide- books : the height 160 feet ; the length, taking the diameter of the external ellipse, G15 feet; the width, measured alike externally, 510 feet : the ground occupied, about five acres. The number of spectators who could be seated on the gradines is estimated at 87,000, without including several thousands more who had standing room on the highest terrace, a covered gallery running round the whole ellipse, where alone were women admitted, excepting the Vestal Virgins privileged to sit in the same rank with Emperors and Senators. One writer calculates that the cost of the outer structure alone, in square-hewn travertine blocks, would amount to 17 million francs. The first restora- tion of this amphitheatre was ordered by Antoninus Pius after a great fire, destructive to many other build- ings whilst greatly damaging this {v. Capitolinus). In the short reign of Macrinus, it was struck by lightning (a.d. 217), and Dion Cassius, an eye-witness, states that the upper storeys or tiers of seats were totally de- stroyed by the fire thus kindled ; all the other parts being scorched, or more or less injured, though heavy rains were falling at the time. In consequence, the combats were held for many years in the Circus Maximus, the amphitheatre being abandoned. Its subsequent restoration was com- menced in the reign of Heliogabalus, and finished in that of Alexander Severus— i.e. between a.d. 222 and a.d. 235. The thousandth year of Rome occurring a.d. 248, magnifi- cent shows, slaughters of wild beasts, &c. were ordered for celebrating that anniversary by the Emperor Philippus. In A.D. 281, the Emperor Probus, on occasion of his public triumph for military successes, exhibited, besides the chase of many animals, combats by 300 pairs of gladiators, all pri- soners of war, mostly Africans, on the same stage. This amphitheatre stood with all its arrangements, splendours, u 2 292 niSTomc and monumental home. and appropriate spectacles as of old, when described, with vivid presentment of the imposing scene, by the poet Cal- purnius (Eclog. VII.) about a.d. 282, Carinus and Nume- rianus then reigning ;* and that the whole structure pre- served its ancient integrity till the end of that century appears from the words of Ammianus Marcellinus, who mentions it with wondering admiration. (1. xvi. c. x.) It is evident, seeing the effects of the conflagrations re- ported, that the whole upper storey must have been origi- nally of woodwork, nor restored in masonry till after the fire A.D. 217. Eemains of the architecture of that period are now strewn around the arena : broken columns, cornices, &c. of marble and granite, also some of the marble tripods used for burning perfumes — the columns for supporting the roof of a gallery carried round the highest part, and where the spectators had only standing room. In these fragments we observe the characteristics of decline, as in the rude chiselling of Corinthian capitals, contrasted with other examples, here before us, of that order in its purity. In the stonework of the attics, round the inner ellipse, we see inserted, to fill up space, many fragments of wrought marble, no doubt from other buildings — a barbarous ex- pedient that also indicates decline. Under the Christian Emperors' sway other disasters and other restorations en- sued. An earthquake did much injury to the amphitheatre and other buildings, a.d. 442 (v. Paulus Diaconus) ; and the record of repairs carried out subsequently is before us in two inscriptions, now placed near the southern entrance to the arena, giving the names of the reigning Theodosius II. and Yalentinian III. with that of the Urban Prefect, Eufus Lampadius, who ordered the requisite works. Again did * Balteus en gemmis, en illita porticus auro Certatim radiant the Poet's lines attesting the splendid decora- tions of the porticos and cincture walls (haltea) between the storeys of gradines. THE FLAVIAN AMPHITHEATEE. 293 these buildings suffer from earthquake about a.d. 508 ; after whicb other repairs were undertaken by the Prefect, Decius Venantius Basilius, as recorded in two epigraphs (dug up in 1813), the latinity of which curiously shows how language became corrupt — in one exemplar (both now placed near the chief entrance at the northern side) the word " abomi- nandi," in reference to the earthquake, being spelt " ahon- tinandi" The actual level of the arena is supposed to have been about twelve feet lower than the present. Con- sidering to what uses this stage was appropriated — the gladiatorial combats and exposure of victims to wild beasts — we may remember that the shedding of human blood for public entertainment was borrowed by the Eomans from the Etruscans, among whom prevailed the dark superstition that such sanguinary shows were acceptable to departed, spirits — hence their display at funerals. And here we are met by an idea running deeply through ancient mythologic systems, of mysterious efficacy in bloodshed — a belief which seems to originate either in the sense of guilt or fear of preternatural punishment. Marcus Aurelius humanely endeavoured to check the rage for amphitheatric spectacles, and their sanguinary excess, first by diminishing the funds appropriated for their cost, next by ordering that the gladiators should fight with blunted weapons alone. We may suppose, therefore, that, during the nineteen years of that Emperor's reign, such combats, if not bloodless, were scarcely attended with sacrifice of human life. But the low estimate generally set on that priceless object in an- cient times is singularly betrayed in a passage of Dion Cassius, where that historian, mentioning a public triumph accorded by Claudius to one of his generals after the suc- cessful war in Britain, tells us that gladiatorial combats were among the entertainments provided, in which not only many freedmen but also many British captives were com- 291 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. polled to take part ; and because a great number lost their lives in those shows, Claudius (by no means one of the most cruel Emperors) greatly rejoiced — literally, ^^ gloried in this." The infliction of a dreadful death, through ex- posure to beasts on the arena, for the simple offence of abandoning the state religion, would be incredible, and in utter contradiction with the principles of Roman jurispru- dence in the case of those who suffered for their profession of the Christian faith, were it not apparent that a species of revolt partaking of political treason was imputed to them. Tolerant indifferentism characterized the polythe- istic worship and sagacious legislation of the mighty Em- pire ; and the persecutions here in question, notwithstand- ing the naturally humane instincts fostered by a system which " found familiar place for every god," can only be accounted for through reference to the common misunder- standing as to the belief, and the hideous calumnies as to the religious usages, of the primitive Church, especially with regard to her holiest mystery, that most carefully veiled from profane regards — the sacred key-stone and rallyiug-point of Christian worship from the time of its celebration in subterranean cemeteries — the Eucharistic Sacrament. We have extant proof of this in the blasphe- mous caricature discovered, some years ago, among the Palatine ruins, and referred to the time of Septimius Severus, representing in rudely scratched outlines a cruci- fixion with the head of an ass to the figure on the cross, and a man standing below in the attitude literally signified by the term adoration* Local traditions may exaggerate ; but exaggeration is not itself a discredit to truth, rather a proof of the profound impression caused by extraordinary realities. We may reject the tradition that in the cemetery * Raising (that is) the hand to the mouth, and kissing it, in act of reverence. THE FLAVIAN AMl'HITHEATEE. 295 (or catacomb) of S. Calixtus alone, are interred 174,000 martyrs, and that 10,000 such sufferers for faith are in- terred in the other subterranean burial place below the three churches on the site where S. Paul was put to death. Though the earlier evidence respecting the fate of such martyrs be but slight, its general validity cannot be ques- tioned ; and in the very first instance it proceeds from an adverse source. Eemarkable is the passage of Tacitus describing the punishment of the Christians by JNero — the first persecution at Eome. Soon after the devastating conflagration of a.d. 64, that Emperor is supposed, to have desired to avert from himself to those innocent victims the suspicion of having caused the disaster. " He (Nero — says the great historian) punished with exquisite tortures those persons, hated for their crimes, whom the common people call Christians; the originator of that name being one Christus, who, under the reign of Tiberius, was put to death by the procurator Pontius Pilate. For a time that pernicious superstition had been suppressed ; but it broke out again, and not only in Judaea, where this pestilence had birth, but also in Eome, whither flows and is practised all evil, where all atrocious and infamous usages are admitted. First, therefore, were arrested those who confessed ; after- wards, on their denunciation, an immense multitude, not indeed because guilty of the crime of incendiarism, but because convicted of hatred against the human race" (or, as some read this passage, *' being hated by the whole human race") ; " and a sort of irony was added to their punishment, some being covered with the skins of beasts and torn to death by dogs; others -fastened to crosses; others set on fire,* so that, when the day declined, they * " Flammandi" — set on fire after being smeared over with pitch or other combustible matter. 296 iiisToiirc and monumental home. (the latter) miglit servo to light up the darkness." Nero (says the historian) " celebrated in that place (namely, the A'atican gardens) the Circensian games, driving his car him- self, dressed like a charioteer, and mingling as a spectator among the crowd ; hence arose pity for those wretches, who, though deserving of every imaginable punishment, were not put to death for the public good but to satisfy his cruelty alone." As observed by TertuUian in his Apologia : " When you (he addresses the Heathens) call ua Chresliani, because you do not know our real name, you give us a name implying goodness and benevolence" — i. e. in the sense of the Greek XP»? ffrog, sometimes substituted forxpto^T'oc by heathen writers.* No report as to the number who suffered under Nero or other Emperors is given by ancient historians ; and we are in- formed that the very first proceeding in the persecution under Diocletian, a.d. 303, was the destruction of all the sacred books and registers kept in the Christian churches. AYe may conclude that the originally compiled " A cts" of martyrs for the most part perished in that catastrophe, owing to which loss we are left in ignorance as to those put to death under Domitian, Trajan, and Hadrian. Eccle- siastical historians divide the eras of persecution into either ten or twelve : first, that under Nero, a.d. 61 to 68 ; last, that apparently the most violent, under Diocletian and Max- imianus, which raged from a.d. 303 to 310. To these may be added, either as the eleventh or thirteenth persecution, that during the short reign of Julian, a.d. 361-2. There is no proof that, during the intervals between those onsets, the condition of the Christians under the Empire was generally * Suetonius (m Claudio:^::^y.) unable to distinguish between Christians and Jews, thus mistakes the sacred name when mentioning the expul- sion of the latter from Rome, by order of Claudius : " Judaeos, impulsore Chresto assiduc tu^lultuantc!^, lioma expulit." CTIIE FLAYIAN AMPniTHEATRE. 297 3r calamitous ; that either their lives were in peril, or their religious usages proscribed ; and late re- searches in the vast field which we may designate by the title of De Rossi's admirable work, Boma Sotteranea, supply evidence that at least for the burial of their dead the Christians had the same liberty as other citizens under Heathen emperors. Alexander Severus, who placed a statue of the Saviour beside those of Orpheus and Abraham in his private oratory, allowed the E,oman Christians to open a public place of worship, where now stands the basi- lica of aS^. Maria in Trastevere. Gibbon concludes that the number put to death for their faith throughout the Empire, in the persecution under Diocletian, scarcely amounted to 2000. With the evidence now at hand, I believe this may be contested. We may refer to the significant testimony of epitaphs from the cemeteries called Catacombs, so much more amply supplied than in that historian's time ; espe- cially to such exemplars as contain, after proper names, certain numeric signs, long supposed to imply the order or number of the loculi (or excavated tombs ), but now other- wise explained, seeing that many such epitaphs have been found with the designation Mar tyres, or Christi Martyr es, followed by numerals, 30, 40, 150, and in the highest known instance, 550, obviously indicating those who had won that glorious title. Towards the end of the IV. century the elo- quent and devout Pradentius reports what he had himself observed in the lapidary style of such memorials : Sunt et multa tamen tacitas claudentia tumbas — Marmorea qua© solum significant numerum. (" There are many marble tablets covering silent tombs, on which is signified nothing more than a certain number.") The same Christian poet mentions elsewhere the interment of sixty martyrs in the same cemetery — " all i he adds) among those obscure victims whose names arc known onlv to Christ." 298 HISTOHIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. The " Martyrs of the Colosseum, " as we might call those who suffered for faith on the arena here before us, were, no doubt, numerous. Seventeen Christians are known by name, besides the many who suffered alike without leaving any record, as having met death on this fatal stage. Some antiquaries (v. Marangoni Anfiteatro Flavio) infer that, so early as the time of Domitian there were victims who died for their faith within this build- ing. Many years ago was found in the cemetery called after S. Agnes a metrical epitaph, now in the crypt-chapel underneath S. Martina on the Forum, which records the name and fate of one G-audentius, put to death under Ves- pasian, but of whom nothing else is known save what these rude Latin verses announce. The allusion made therein to a theatre has led 4;o the inference that this Gaudentius was himself the architect of, or one of the builders engaged in, the amphitheatre. Translation from such an original must to some degree be conjectural, but I hazard the fol- lowing, observing that the barbaric latinity can scarcely be of the Mavian emperor's time : " Such rewards dost thou reserve, O cruel Vespasian? Thou art rewarded with death, G-audentius, but rejoice — admitted, as thou art, into the city promised by the author of thy glory, there where all things are given by Christ, who has prepared for thee another theatre in heaven."* If this victim actually yielded up his life within the building he laboured to raise to its ma- jestic completeness, the memory of his death would enhance the pathetic and solemn associations of an edifice more im- posing perhaps in ruin than in that completeness long lost ! Though the above, and a few more vague intimations, * Sic premia servas Vespasiane dire Premiatus es morte Gaudente letare Civitas ubi glorie tue Autori Promisit iste dat Kristus omnia tibi Qui aliura paiavit theatru in celo. THE FLAVIAN AMPIIITHEATllE. 299 might justify the belief that Christians were exposed to wild beasts on the same arena before the end of the first century, the earliest detailed and trustworthy account of such mar- tyrdom is in the *' Acts of S. Ignatius," the third bishop of Antioch, who is said traditionally to have been the child blessed, and presented to the Disciples as a model of humi- lity, by the Eedeemer. "While Trajan was at Antioch, Ignatius was cited to appear before him, because accused of opposition to the established religion, and was con- demned to suffer death at Kome— an order probably motived by the fear that his public execution in the city where he had won reverence and love in his apostolic office, might kindle public feeling, or excite tumult. The holy bishop, after receiving his sentence with cheerfulness, set out for his long journey on foot, guarded by ten soldiers like a common criminal. At Smyrna he had an interview with S. Poly carp, the disciple of S. John ; and thence did he address his affecting extant letters to the Christians at Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles in L}'dia, and at Eome, desiring the latter to make no attempt for saving his life. Having reached this metropolis in December, a.d. 109, he was des- tined to suffer at the recurrence of the next great festival, celebrated with public shows in the amphitheatre — namely, on the 1st of February, 110. On that day he was exposed to lions on the arena ; and soon after those animals had been let loose against him, as he knelt calmly amidst the gazing multitude, Ignatius ceased to live, his body being devoured, all except the larger bones, which were reverently collected and carried back to Antioch, probably by some Syrian Christians, who had followed him from thence. That martyr's remains were brought back from Antioch to Eome, a.d. 637, after the whole Syrian region, as well as Palestine, had been subjected by Moslem con- quest ; and those bones now lie under the high altar of 300 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. S. Clcmente, not far from the spot where he suffered. The earliest trustworthy accouut of his martyrdom is in an ancient Latin version from a Greek original now lost, and first edited (I mean the translation) by Arch- bishop Usher. Another extant narrative, in Greek, is by the Byzantine writer Metaphrastes, who is not alto- gether trustworthy. Both these narratives are inserted in the well-known ylc^a Sincera Martyrum^ by the learned Trench Benedictine, Kuinart. The Eoman martyrology now in use is believed to be, in its nucleus at least, ascrib- able to S. Jerome, and founded on primitive documents col- lected or drawn up by the seven ecclesiastical notaries appointed for the service of the local church by Pope Cle- ment in the first century. Seeing the loss of the Christian documents destroyed in the time of Diocletian, we must exercise critical reserve in admitting what remains as au- thentic. As we descend the stream of time, these so-called " Acts" become more and more overloaded with the marvel- lous—a literature founded on records of fact, but embel- lished by imagination to a degree almost unlimited. The preternatural taming of fiercest beasts, become powerless before the Christian hero or heroine, and crouching down to lick the feet of their destined victims, who are divinely protected amidst all ordeals, rescued from all torture and perilous exposure either by visibly intervening angels, or by sudden suspension of natural laws — such are the fre- quently recurring marvels in these singular legends ! Yet the apparent purpose of all such miraculous agency is sure to be finally defeated ; for the last act of the tragedy is, in all instances. Death ! A curious example of the gradual development of such legends is in the case of S. Agnes, whose affecting story is no doubt true in its leading details. The Legenda Aurea reports that she was placed amidst flames (as represented in the mosaic of the VJI. century at THE FLAVIAN AMPHITHEATBE. 301 her cliurcli on the Nomentan Way), without being injured, though several spectators were burnt to death on the spot ! The circumstance of those flames being extinguished by her prayers, was added later. Prudentius, writing in the same century in which Agnes suff'ered (a.d. 303) — omits all these particulars in his beautiful hymn to her honour, — merely describing her decapitation, though he indeed mentions an apparently miraculous rescue for her protection, i.e. the preternatural growth of her hair, so as to cover her entire person, when she was exposed to insult in the vaulted cells round the Circus Agonalis, still open below another church dedicated to her, at least as early as the VIII. century, on the Piazza Navona. In the latter years of the IV. century Pope Damasus wrote the metrical lines in honour of this Saint, chiselled on a marble tablet still to be seen on the wall of the staircase by which we descend into the extra- mural S. Agnese basilica. S. Damasus, as well as Pruden- tius, omits the later added episode of her being beloved by the Urban Prefect's son, of that rejected lover being punished for insolence to her by instant death, and re- suscitated through the victim's prayers. It is mentioned by Baronius that the practice of early ages was to have the Acts of Martyrs, in compendious form, read at the worship both of the Latin and Greek rites ; but that the Eoman Church would not admit the rehearsal of more fully detailed Acta, as appointed by a council at Carthage, a.d. 409, because (that historian states) " many of these writ- ings had been composed by ignorant persons, and some interpolated by heretics." Thus did the Eoman Church show her superior critical discernment. The great moral lesson of those legends fortunately remains embedded in that precious ore of truth which may be separated from fiction, and which shines with purest light through records of noble realities — of enduring energies, of celestial love stronger than death, of luminous testimony to the spiritual 302 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. and unquenchable life in the '* immortal being with our dust entwined," exemplified in the fate of numbers who suffered with heroic resignation. It seems ascertainable that the Flavian amphitheatre, or its vicinity, was the usual site chosen for the death of Christian victims at Eome. Several were beheaded near one of the entrances ; and usually on one of those rounded black stones called in con- sequence pietre scellerate, of the species known to science as lapis cequipondus, or nephriticus, many specimens of which are kept in Eoman churches to this day. The known instances of suffering for Christian faith on the amphitheatric arena, those, namely, which are still com- memorated (see the Latin Missal and Breviary), and enter into the scope of my subject, may be given in chronological order. Under Trajan (and, it appears, before the death of S. Ignatius) 270 Christians were there slaughtered by the arrows of the Pretorians, after they had been condemned to labour in the sandpits on the Salarian Way. In a.d. 118, Placidus, a patrician and officer of cavalry, who, after his conversion, took the name of Eustachius, was exposed, together with his wife Theopista and their two sons, to wild beasts on the same arena ; though all are said by the legend to have been miraculously preserved from one death only to suffer another far more dreadful — being shut up within a brazen bull, beneath which fire was kindled— a version of the well-known story of the cruelties of Phalaris, tyrant of Agrigentum, which we may fairly question, con- sidering the state of laws and manners in Eome at that period — the last year of Trajan and first of Hadrian. The brazen bull of Phalaris is mentioned by Valerius Maximus, writing in the reign of Tiberius, as among the most horrid examples of atrocity in the annals of all known countries.* * " Saevns etiam ille senei tauri inventor, quo inclusi, subditis ignibns, longo et abdito cniciatu," &c. Memorabilia, 1. ix. c. 11, § 9. THE FLAVIAN AMPHITHEATRE. 803 Can we suppose such an instrument to have been first introduced for public executions under either of those more just and humane Emperors, which a writer under Tiberius brands with infamy and abhorrence ? In the year 226, Martina, a Eoman maiden of patrician birth, who, left early an orphan, had given all her wealth to the poor, was exposed to lions on the arena, and (according to the legend) left unhurt ; but was at last beheaded, after undergoing most cruel tortures. Her festival, 30th January, is kept with splendour at the church on the Eorum, where her remains lie.* Another preternatural rescue from wild beasts is narrated of Abdon and Sennen, two Persians of noble birth, said to have been slain by the gladiators (a.d. 253), after being brought on the arena naked and bleeding from the scourge inflicted because they had dared to spit at the idol they were commanded to worship. It seems doubtful, however, whether those martyrs suffered in Eome or in Persia, whence (according to some accounts) their bodies were brought to be interred in the cemetery now known as " Catacomb of S. Ponziano." Other martyrs as to whom the circumstances of their death only are on record, are said to have been burnt in fires kindled before the statue of Nero (changed into an Apollo), near the northern side of the amphitheatre, a.d. 259. In A.D. 272 a Eoman lady named Prisca was here exposed to the lions, but (according to the legend) miraculously pre- served from injury ; alike rescued when thrown into a fiery furnace, though at last beheaded, a death which seems tacitly * Here were those relics discovered in the reign of Urban VIII., who commissioned Pietro Berettini (da Cortona) entirely to rebuild that church, henceforth called 8. Martina e 8. Luca. The martyr's relics are enshrined in a magnificent altar of gilt bronze, designed by the same architect, in a splendidly adorned crypt-chapel. 301 nisTomc and monumental rome. owned to be beyond all powers of dclivoranoc. About a.d. 300, Vitus, a young Sicilian of p.ili Irian Mi lli, baptized in spite of his father's opposition, together with his nurse Crescentia, and her husband Modestus, alike converts, was sent with those companions from Sicily to Kome for judg- ment as criminal. These three victims expired amidst the tor- tures of the rack, after theyoung Vitus had first been exposed to lions on the arena, then thrown into a cauldron filled with molten lead and pitch, but alike preserved in both instances by an Angel visibly interfering ! The legend adds that the bodies of those three martyrs, left unburied on the Cam- pagna, were for several days guarded by eagles from other creatures of prey ! In the VIII. century a church, near the arch of Grallienus, was dedicated in this city to Vitus and Modestus ; but the actual S. Vito (now almost deserted) is of the date 1477. That Sicilian Martyr became one of the most popular saints among the Italian peasantry, who used to regard him (if indeed they do not still) as a celestial protector against the bite of serpents ! Other less fully detailed stories of martyrdom in the amphitheatre, are those of Eleutherius, an lUyrian bishop, put to death under Hadrian ; of Alexander, a bishop of Jerusalem, and of one Potitus ; all these having sufiered under Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. I may allow myself a digression to con- sider the fate of five victims, two of them women delicately brought up and of superior station, Perpetua and Felicita, who suffered, a.d. 205, not in the Plavian amphitheatre, but in another of Eoman foundation in the Mauritania province. Pelicita, a patrician matron, had given birth to a child in the prison a few days before that appointed for her death; yet not even this circumstance availed to secure her any respite. No miraculous elements are mixed up with the story of this martyrdom, either respecting the two ladies or their three companions, who were alike torn by THE FLAVIAN AMPHITHEATEE. 305 wild beasts on the same day. The more deeply affecting in its simplicity is the tragic narrative, given with traits of sublime fortitude, in the Acta edited by Euinart ; and this single fact, the spectacle of the cruel death of such suf- ferers displayed for public amusement — suffices to illustrate the inhuman depravity, the brutal ferocity of manners under the Empire at that period. We now reach a time when the Church was expand- ing her life and authority, with progressive power and splendour, after Constantine had secured freedom for the religious status of Christianity, long before himself be- coming an avowed convert, as at a later stage in his some- what hesitating career. The first of his beneficent decrees against the atrocities of the amphitheatre was that issued from Berytus, a.d. 325, prohibiting gladiatorial combats for ever. That Emperor, just in legislation, inconsistent in conduct, forbade the exposure even of criminals for death as a public spectacle. But it appears that these righteous laws soon became a dead letter, even before a.d. 357, when they were revived by his son Constans, and again between that date and a.d. 386, when Theodosius prohibited homi- cidal shows, together with all other public amusements, on the Sundays alone, as his edict imports. That the gladiatorial shows were still exhibited till the end of the IV. century, is evident from the third enactment of the law against them, for both the eastern and the western states, by Arcadius and Honorius, a.d. 397. At last we find both historic evidence and generous protest against such cruel practices from the genius of Christian poetry, true to its high mission. Prudentius in his theological poem, Contra SymmacJium, written, about a.d. 384, in opposition to the Heathen party headed by the Senator Symmachus, indig- nantly denounces the cruelties still witnessed in the amphi- theatre, while he appeals to the humanity of the reigning 306 HISTOBIC Ain) MONUMENTAL ROME. Emperor, Valentinian II. I translate from his verse into plain prose : " Behold the iniquitous sanctuaries of the infernal Dis, to whom falls immolated the wretched gla- diator, laid low on the fatal arena. Alas for the victims of Tartarian power in this yet unpurified Eome ! "Wherefore does the impious altar of frantic amusement yet demand its sacrifices ? Why must we still see the youth of the land led forth to wanton slaughter, and the cruel lust of pleasure still fgd with blood ? Wherefore are still pre- sented to sight the funereal dust of the cavea, and the gloomy spectacles of amphitheatric pomp ? Let it be pro- hibited to offer murderous sacrifice by the slaughter of our fellow-creatures ; let none be slain in the imperial city to afford pleasure by their last agonies ; let no blood-stained weapons inflict death for sport any more !" Thus had this eminent poet to denounce a great evil continued more than seventy years after Christianity had become the officially recognized religion in Eome ! That the action of that faith in reforming social life and institu- tions at Rome was slow, cannot surprise us ; for a religion working from within to without did not at once attack, or suddenly overthrow, either the external forms or the manners and practices in which antagonism to its principles was embodied ; attaining its beneficent ends more surely, though gradually, by striking at the root or basement where the evil existed. The official death-blow was given to Heathenism in the Western Empire by the edicts of Theo- dosius, and especially those passed A.D. 392 ; but the general suppression of Heathen worship, and the final closing of its temples in Eome, dates from about the year 408, and the reign of Honorius. The old superstition, retiring from great centres, retained much longer its hold ov^er obscure places and rural populations. From " Pagus," (a village) derived the name now given to its followers, Fagani — THE FLAVIAN AMPHITHEATRE. 307 Pagans. In the highly curious history of the decline of Heathenism we see how long the spirit can survive after the public recognition and authorized agency of a system have passed away. The tenacious life of the classical super- stition in Rome, indeed throughout Italy, reminds us of the mediaeval demonologic legend about the phantom knight, who continued to combat in the lists, challenging and charg- ing against all opponents, till night closed on the scene ; this mysterious champion being in fact a necromantic and unreal mockery, the shadow of some redoubtable warrior already laid low by his death- wound in the trampled dust ! Later than the reign of Theodosius, the entertainments, fetes, and manners still popular in the Western Empire, con- tinued to be in many respects most anti- Christian. Till the end of the IV. century it seems that not only the gladiatorial combats, but the practice of exposing criminals to beasts in the amphitheatres, for the amusement of crowds, was still customary. We find an example of this in the life of S. Ambrose by Paulinus, a contemporary cleric of the Milanese Church, who narrates the following story : In the year 396 the usual spectacles of the amphitheatre were ordered at Milan to celebrate the investiture with the consulate of the young Honorius. The public had already assembled when Stilicho, the famous general, sent guards to arrest a convicted criminal, one Creseonius, and bring him into the arena to be there devoured by leopards. They found him taking sanctuary in the Cathedral. S. Ambrose himself and others of the clergy interposed to protect him ; but notwithstanding their efforts and the local sanctities, the unfortunate man was dragged away by the guard, whose leaders, we are told, were " perfidious Arians." Creseonius was led forth to die for the amusement of multitudes ; but the leopards, when let loose, instead of making him their prey at once, bounded from the arena up the terrace-seats X 2 808 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. where were seated those who had ordered the profaning of the sanctuary, and disregarded the commands of a holy pre- late. Those officials were dreadfully mangled by the beasts, though the biographer does not state that their wounds were mortal. He adds, however, (and this story is the more remarkable seeing that Paulinus tells of what had happened in the city where he lived at the time, and addresses himself • to readers among whom many may have been witnesses of the scene,) that this quasi-miraculous event made a great impression, induced the valiant Stilicho to submit to penance for several days, and to release the criminal with safety for life, commuting his punishment to exile. With regard to the temper of the society amidst which homicidal shows were exhibited and enjoyed, we might apply the quaint language of one of those Chronicles to which I have alluded : " The multitude of Christians lived in neglect (of their duties), and sat in the councils of vanity." The first Christian Emperors were, with few exceptions, of ordinary or worthless character. Retiring from the post of danger, probably foreseeing a tempest now announced on the horizon through signs and omens of approaching catas- trophe, they took refuge in the sea-girt Ravenna, fearing to remain in the ancient capital, as to which Honorius and the two Valentinians little concerned themselves. It was about seven years before Grothic invaders entered Rome, and the charm of ^invincibility had been broken for ever when Alaric passed with his hosts at midnight, a.d. 410, through the Salarian Gate, that a signal victory was obtained over those foes by the ablest Roman leader, the above-named Stilicho, at PoUentia in Liguria. The Senate consequently decreed the honours of a triumph, not to the gallant General himself, but to the insignificant Emperor. It was long since a reigning Cajsar had been seen within Rome's walls, when Honorius arrived here, with a pompous retinue, in THE FLAYIAN AMPHITHEATEE. 309 December 402. Now was prepared a programme of festi- vities like those of the " trebly hundred triumphs'' in the palmy days of ancient Empire. Gladiatorial combats were ordered among other shows ; neither Christian principle, nor the humane legislation already sprung from it, being regarded before the absorbing claims of pleasure. Among the myriads of spectators thronging the great amphitheatre on that day (1st of January, 403), was one obscure stranger who did more for the cause of humanity under the declining Empire than had hitherto been effected by all the laws of its Christian rulers, with regard at least to the suffering and death inflicted for public sport.. An Oriental monk named Telemachus, or Almachius, actuated either by the resolve to fulfil a fixed purpose formed before setting out on his long pilgrimage, or by a sudden inspiration of heroic charity, no sooner had seen the homi- cidal contest commence than he left his seat among the humbler classes on the higher gradines, descended into the arena, and interposed between the armed gladiators ; there, falling on his knees, appealed to the multitude present, adjuring them to compassionate those hired victims, to re- nounce such cruel pastimes for ever ! He was answered by a tempest of rage, sarcasm, insult ; the popular wrath against the interference of an obscure monk with the favourite entertainments sanctioned by an orthodox Em- peror, and celebrated in his honour. Many left their seats and procured stones, eager to punish the rash intruder on the spot. Telemachus, overwhelmed by the stony shower, soon fell, a bleeding corpse, among the gladiators. We are not informed of any further suspension in the round of pleasures and pomps prepared for that day. According to another account, the heroic monk was put to death by the gladiators themselves at the behest of the Urban Prefect. His self-sacrifice is described by authority which neither 810 niSTOBIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. Gibbon nor any other accredited historian has disputed, being first mentioned in the ecclesiastical history of the Greek Theodoretus, a contemporary, who finished his work about A.D. 450. He tells us that " the admirable Emperor (Honorius), apprised of this circumstance, numbered him (Telemachus) with the victorious martyrs, and abolished those iniquitous spectacles " (1. v. c. 26). Less honour has been rendered to the memory of that self-devot- ing man than might have been expected. He is not even named in the Koman Missal or Breviary, though com- memorated (I believe) in the Greek Church on the Ist January ; and it is known that a pious Theatine priest ap- pointed a Mass to be celebrated for his anniversary, each New Year's Day, in a chapel fitted up within an arcade on the southern side of the Colosseum. Otherwise the name of Telemachus might have been forgotten. But not in vain did this last of the martyrs who sufltered in the great amphitheatre, so nobly distinguish himself among those — Who poured their lives out smiling-— in that doom Finding a triumph if denied a tomb I A reaction of pity and humane feeling, combining with the legislative edicts moulded on a Christian basis, led finally, and soon after this event, to the suppression of the sanguinary shows on the arena for ever. The gladiatorial profession disappeared ; and Eome at least was freed from such foul dishonour to her civil character and social life, as those bloody spectacles of the amphitheatre. "Would that we could say the same of all Christian Europe at this period ! but historic evidence is to the contrary. Homicides, ordered for public entertainment, continued till a later date. 8al- viauus, a priest of Marseilles, in his elo(juent work on the Divine Government (jDe Guhernatione Dei) written in THE FL1.VIAN AMPHITHEATEE. 311 the V. century, later than the reign of Honorius, makes indignant protest against the sacrificing of human life for public sport (the victims at this time being probablj common criminals), still exhibited within the walls of amphi- theatres in the Western Empire, though no longer in the ancient metropolis ; and, we may trust, abolished before the end of that century in which Salvianus lived. The mediaeval vicissitudes of the Colosseum throw a romantic colouring over its history in ensuing ages. In the XI. century this building was fortified ; in the year 1130 it was held by the Erangipani, who, having given refuge in an adjacent fortress to a much harassed Pontiff, Innocent II., sustained a regular siege of the amphiteatre, undertaken by an A.ntipope.* When, a.d. 1312, the Emperor Henry VII. arrived in Eome for his coronation, he obliged the Annibaldischi family, then owners of this fortified edifice, to give up as well the ancient building as all their other castles in the city. In the year 1250, Brancaleone, one of those senators who ruled with a rod of iron, having vigorously bearded in his den the lion of lawless Aristocracy by causing the overthrow of 150 baronial castles in Eome, decreed, and probably commenced, the total demolition of the amphitheatre, which the dauntless reformer held to be a dangerous stronghold of ruffians, such as ought to be dislodged at any cost ! Among the last public games in which bestial (not human) blood was shed on this arena, were those exhibited in the time of Theodorick (who certainly had sovereign honours awarded to him at * The countless holes which riddle the surface of the stonework, and have puzzled antiquaries not a little, may be ascribed, in great part, to this appropriating of the edifice as a fortress, for which beams and staples were inserted; though, no doubt, many were caused by the extract- ing of iron clamps, not one piece of metal being left. Even in the VI. century, and in times of peace, the material of this ill-used building began to be despoiled— r. Cassiodorus, Ep. 1. ii. 7, iii. 31. 312 niSTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL BOME. Eome), A.D. 519 and 523 ; on both occasions for the fttes at the opening of a Consulate ; on the first, the Consul being that King's son-in-law. In 1332 an attempted revival of these amusements was beheld on the same spot : a grand spectacular bull-fight, attended with much pomp and cir- cumstance, as described by the chronicler Monaldeschi, an eye-witness. All the Eoman baronial families were repre- sented by the flower of the urban youth, who appeared on the arena, each in gorgeous costume, and with some mournfully amorous motto on helm or shield. But sad was the close of that day's pageantry ! The number orfury of the bulls proving too much for the inexperienced champions, who had pro- mised so bravely, eighteen young men were stretched in death, and seven others left bleeding from serious wounds on that fatal arena.. Scarcely a noble family that was not put into mourning by such tragic issue of favourite amusements. This was the last of such spectacles in the great edifice. Another appropriation of these ruins, more novel and singular, was for the performance of Mystery plays, a dra- matic display first introduced, in its rude nucleus, at some period within the XI. century. The Church, after long de- nouncing and making every effort against the theatre, at last had the sagacity to take under her protection, set her seal upon, and appropriate the long exclusively profane stage. In the XII. century the sacred Drama developed into splendour. One performance, long popular and usually produced at Easter, was : " The Advent and Judgment of Antichrist ;" another, the " Creation," with Adam and Eve in Paradise, frequently acted at Palermo. Among such dramas annually performed at Florence, were : the " Ascen- sion," the " Annunciation," and the " Descent of the fiery Tongues." Usually the most awful or most sacred subjects were preferred ; and we read of one dramatic entertainment with the attractive title : " Hell Opened." In the Colos- THE FLAVIAN AMPHITHEATRE. 313 seum such religious entertainments were provided, during about three centuries, by the Archconfraternity of the Sacro Gonf alone (or Sacred Standard), founded in 1263. Till A.D. 1540, used to be acted within these walls, on each Good Friday, a Mystery Play with dialogue in ottava rima and lyric choruses sung to music : the subject, the Passion and the Eesurrection, — the title thus given by Tiraboschi: La Rappresentazione del nostra Signor Gesu Crist o con la sua santissima Misurrezione. It seems to have been owing to some obstacle from the sinking of the structure near the part chosen for performance, not through any concession to new religious or social tendencies, that this annual entertain- ment was discontinued during the pontificate of Paul III. Sixtus V. desired to utilize the vast ruins by establishing a woollen manufactory in them ; but this was never carried out. The earliest recognizable sign of the devotional pur- pose which, at last, secured safeguard from injury through consecration of this building, is before us in a rude painting, made in the XVI. century, of the Crucifixion, with a pic- torial map of Jerusalem, over an inner arcade on the north side. The first chapel within these ruins was erected by Clement X. in the year of Jubilee, 1675, or (as some state) restored only by that Pope, having been founded earlier than 1600. Clement XI. resolved to restore the outer cincture of arcades, and to found a church, dedicated to all Martyrs, on the Arena, which by way of preparation, was blessed by that Pope ; but the church (designed by Pontana) never arose on the site chosen. In 1741 a hermit was appointed to guard and reside at the oratory above mentioned ; and in the first year that he entered on such duties the unfortunate man was stabbed by a robber, though not mortally, for the sake of despoiling that chapel under his guardianship. The reigning Pope, Benedict XIV., consequently ordered all the ingresses to be closed by iron gates, locked and barred at 314 niSTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL KOME. night. Before such precautions had been taken, these ruins had become so notoriously a haunt of evil doers that the whole neighbourhood fell into bad repute. At last the much abused amphitheatre was reclaimed from profanations when Benedict XIV., in 1749, caused to be erected the plain wooden Cross in the centre, and the fourteen painted shrines round the ellipse for the stations of the " Via Crucis," a devotion for the first time celebrated on this arena after Cross and shrines had been solemnly blessed on the 27th December, 1749. The person who, with due sanction, instituted that devo- tion of the Via Crucis, was a zealous and energetic Fran- ciscan, beatified by Pius VI., and canonized by Pius IX. as S. Leonardo da Porto Maurizio. He it was who began this observance, on the above-named day, in the vast Flavian amphitheatre. The perpetual celebration of such devotions on the evenings of Sunday and Friday, and daily during Holy "Week, was entrusted to a Sodality called Amanti di Gesu e Maria, founded by the same Leonardo at his con- vent of S. Bonaventura, on the Palatine, in 1754. Benedict XIV. finally declared the whole ground within the Colos- seum to be sacred, conformably with which consecration the Cardinal Vicar celebrated Mass, and gave communion to many worshippers, the 19th September 175(5, on the arena now purified by the genius of Christianity. I have yet to mention another beneficent appropriation of a part of these ruins for some time, from the year 1381, as a hos- pital dependent on that of the Lateran ; one memorial of which we see in a relief-bust of the Saviour, between two candelabra, the sacred device of the Lateran Chapter, above some of the arcades on the lowest story.* For some cen- * In one instance this device is seen in painting, older than the sculp- tured examples, over an arcade near the principal entrance at the northern fiide. I THE FLAVIA^N AMnilTllEATRE. 315 turies the Colosseum continued to be used as the common quarry, from whence the baronial families took whatever brick or travertine they wanted for their buildings. That many Eoman palaces were built with such spoils is noto- rious ;* and in the last instance the landing place of tlie Eipetta (on the Tiber) was made with stone- work so ob_ tained, in ITOrS. But there is no proof of such Vandalism as the deliberate overthrow of any erect portions of the ruin ever being permitted in modern time ; only the masses already laid prostrate being thus- utilized. Lastly, we have to consider the recent restorations, on the whole judicious, but in some parts deplorably disfi- guring. These works were commenced by Pope Pius VII., in 1805, on the exterior, and with the erecting of an enormous buttress at the southern side of the outer ellipse. Continued by Prench authority, they secured interesting discoveries in 1813 : a subterranean system of corridors and chambers, some of the former having cavities in the roofs, all these corridors (there are seven) being rectilinear ; the masonry that of the period of decadence, travertine and irregular brickwork mixed. This part, so important as throwing light on the usages of antiquity, one regrets to find inaccessible, the pontific authorities having ordered the ingresses, by two now ruinous staircases near the chief southern entrance to the arena, to be closed on account of the influx of water and bad air in those underground places. The restorations of the interior were resumed under Pius VII. in 1815, and in that year was opened the passage, also subterranean, formed by Commodus for communica- tion between the amphitheatre and his palace on the Coelian Hill — this passage being paved with mosaic, and * First that built for himself by Cardinal Barbo (Pope as Paul II.) begun in 1455, and now called Palazzo di Venezia. 31G IIISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. its walls liucd with marble along the lower part. It was the scene of an unsuccessful attempt against that Emperor's life by one Quintianus, and is still open to view, at the side near the imperial " pulvinar," though not permeable. During the exile of Pius VII. the French in office revived dramatic performances in the Colosseum with Voltaire's " Mort de Cesar ;" for which occasion (in truly French- revolutionary taste) the statue of Pompey was brought from the Palazzo Spada, in order that great Caesar might fall in mimicry, as in reality, at the foot of his defeated rival's effigy. During the eventful pontificate of Pius IX. this arena has been the chosen scene for political gatherings and demonstrations, strikingly picturesque amidst the silent grandeur of ruin. Here, in the spring of 1848, was declared with emotional oratory the sacred obligation of the Romans to participate in the war for liberating Italy from Austrian rule, and the obligation also on the part of the Pontiff to bless and sanction such patriotic enterprise. Here, in sequence and fatal reaction against the pontific policy pursued, was rung by later orators the knell of Papal sovereignty, with popular jubilation at the overthrow of a once beloved ruler, who could not, or would not, under- stand the conditions for preserving his throne. None present could forget the scene here witnessed on the even- ing of September 22nd, 1870, when a municipal Junta was elected by popular acclamation, in lieu of another more tumultuously elected on the Capitol the evening after the siege on the 20th inst. previous. Banners, devices, military music and exulting vivas seemed, on that occasion of less irregular assemblage, like tokens of a movement so pregnant with consequences to the future, that the pomps, even the horrors witnessed within these walls in olden time, might be forgotten amidst such interests. The beacon-lights of our journey along historic fields. THE FLAVIAN AMPHITHEATRE. 317 the landmarks for our refreshment and guidance, are those evidences of moral or intellectual progress, without which the ruin and the monument would be meaningless things, silent to the inner as to the outer ear, and History itself but a long file of mournful records. I have endeavoured to sketch the vicissitudes, almost unique, to which has been strangely subjected the vast structure so imposing in its decay, and in its solitude peopled with memories so multi- tudinous. Looking around us within its walls, we may be struck by the thought that the building once appropriated to wasteful pomps, cold-blooded cruelties, and pitiless sacri- fice of life in the last degree disgraceful to ancient civiliza- tion, has become, in one aspect, a sanctuary for devout souls — a trophy of the transmuting power and Spirit which emanate from the precepts of One whom Tacitus and Sueto- nius scarcely thought it necessary to name. We behold in these rescued ruins a symbol of moral conquest which an Apostle, whose voice was raised in Eome, asserts and predicts for the Supremacy now owned with adoration at the shrines in the Flavian Amphitheatre : — " HE shall reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet." LIBRARY UNJYEHSITY OF CALIKOUXJ V. 318 inSTORTC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. CHAPTER IX. CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES : THE CONSTANTINIAN PERIOD ; UNDERGROUND CEMETERIES, OR CATACOMBS. "When the light of the setting sun, blent with the mel- lowing touches of Time, gives an almost golden tint to the Arch of Constantine as it rises in marble relief against the background of cypress and ilex trees on the Coelian hill, we may dwell with interest (in the pleasant evening-hours) on the contrasted characteristics of Roman art at its zenith and in its deep decline, alike presented before us on the storied surface of that monument. The highest excellence of Roman sculpture is exemplified in the relievi and colossal statues of which the now lost Arch of Trajan was despoiled for adorning this later trophy of imperial victories, "while the period of decline, almost to a level with barbarism, is represented by the bas-reliefs prepared expressly in honour of the first Christian Emperor. But not even those art-works, so valuable as illustrating the phases through which antique sculpture passed under the Empire, invest that monument, still standing perfect, with such historic importance as do the words of the epigraph chiselled on its attic, and re- peated at both sides, — before reading which it is well to consider the salient facts which occurred during the few years immediately preceding that in which this memorial of Constantine was erected. Memorable among the fasti of Roman Empire was that day, 27th October, 313, when Flavius Aurelius Constantine, CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 319 then in the seventh year of his reign, entered Eome amidst the customary pomps of " the trebly hundred triumphs," and passed along the Via Sacra to the Capitoline summit for due celebration of his victory achieved the previous day, on the plain called Saxa Rubra, a few miles beyond the Plaminian gate, over his adversary Maxentius, a profligate and hateful tyrant, whose defeat proved, in fact, the over- throw of Heathenism before the now rapidly progressing successes of Christianity. About twelve years after that victorious ingress, and six years before Constantine took the step, so injurious to the old metropolis, of transferring the seat of government to the capital founded by himself on the Bosphorus, the Eoman Senate raised in his honour that arch which, with lamentable example of official Van- dalism, and implied incapacity in the artistic produce of the day, was decked with sculptures torn from the Arch of Trajan, — in part, also (as some critics conclude) from that of Gordianus, alike with the former swept away by unknown vicissitudes. The epigraph on the Arch before us states that this trophy was raised by the Eoman Senate and people to " the Em- peror and Csesar, Flavins Constantinus, Maximus, Augustus, the Father of his Country, because, through the instinct of Deity and the magnanimity of his mind (instinctu Divinitatis, mentis magnitudine) , he had, by means of his legions and justly wielded arms, avenged the Eepublic by the overthrow alike of the Tyrant and of all his faction."* * *' Imp. Caes. Fl. Constantino Maximo P. F. Augusto S. P. Q. R. quod instinctu divinitatis, mentis magnitudine, cum exercitu suo tam ue tyranno quam de omni ejus factione uno tempore justis Republicam ultus est armis, arcum triumphis insignem dicavit." Over the lateral arches are inscribed the formulae: Bic x.—Sic xx.— Foil's x.—Votis xx., conveying the acclamations of the Senate and People for confirming the impe- rial dignity in its then pJssessor, after each period of ten years— the 320 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. The phrase quoted abovo^" instinctu Divinitatis" — is so singular, so unlike the familiar terms of classic epigraphy, that archaeologists long assumed it to be a substitute for some other words more conformable with Heathen conven- tionalities—as " Nutu Jovis optimi maximi," or something of similar import. But the Chev. de Eossi has ascertained, through minute inspection, that such cannot be the case ; that (as apparent from the cavities for the nails fastening the bronze letters now lost), there has been no alteration of the antique original in this instance. "What then the obvious inference, but that a Senate still, pe aps in its totality, Heathen, agreed, with, consent of f . Emperor who, after emancipating the Christian Church from oppression, long hesitated before himself professing Christian faith, and was not baptized till he lay on his death-bed, to adopt a mean term by way of transaction between opposite religious systems. And thus was it allowed that the record chiselled on this marble monument should contain words of manifestly monotheistic sense, which might be reconciled alike with the more philosophic Heathenism and with orthodox Christianity, which could have given no umbrage either to Cicero or S. Augustine. The sculptures wrought expressly for this Arch serve to illus- trate the annals of the primitive Church, though we cannot class them among Christian art-works. They represent, in small reliefs, the siege and capture of a city (either Verona or Susa) by Constantine in his campaign against Max- entius ; the battle of Saxa Rubra, with the defeat and death of the latter Emperor ; the triumphal procession, the allocu- decennidl and vicennial vows for the 10th and 20th years of Constan- tine, according to the system of Augustus, which preserved a semblance of repubUcan rights in the periodically renewed bestowal of sovereign power on the reigning Casar. The vicennalia of Constantine were celebrated a.d. 326. CHRlSTTAJf ANTIQITITTES. 821 tion by the victor from the rostra on the Forum, and tlie dis- tribution bj Constantine with his own hand of the '* con- giarium," or largess to the people, among the festivities appointed for his triumph. On the key-stones of the central arch are figures of Rome personified ; and in the lateral archways four protomes (or relief-busts), much mutilated, of Constantine and his sons. In the medallion on the western side is represented the moon, as a goddess in a chariot, attended by Hesperus ; in another, on the opposite side, Aurora ascending from the eastern ocean, preceded by Phosphorus, the morning star. Besides these are the other allegoric figures, the four Seasons, &c. usually introduce^ on such arches, and doleful groups of captives driven like can!^ for slaughter before the victor's chariot. Considering the remarkable terms of the epigraph, and the connection between the subjects of these sculptures and other events of mighty import, we may recognize in the arch before us the earliest monumental record of publicly professed Chris- tianity at E/Ome. About a year after the events alluded to (a.d. 813), Con- stantine and his colleague Licinius issued two decrees grant- ing full toleration with liberty of worship alike to the followers of Christ, and those of all other religions professed throughout the Empire, but without any implied acceptance of the former faith by those co-reigning Emperors.* Begin- ning at this epoch, signalized as that of " the Peace of the Church," we may consider in chronologic order the monu- ments of the now emancipated Christianity at Eome. Proofs and tokens, in various forms, of the birth, development, and influences of Christian Faith, long anterior to its recogni- tion by the State, in that city, are not wanting. "We may * " It is consistent with the peace and tranquillity of our times that each may have the privilege to select and to worship whatever Divinity he pleases," &c. Y 822 HISTORIC AN13 MONUMENTAL ROME. reject the tradition of the confinement of S. Peter and S. Paul in the Mamertine prisons ; we may doubt the assumed fact of the sojourn of S. Paul and S. Luke in the vaulted chambers below S. Maria in Via Lata, on the Plaminian "Way (now the Corso) ;* yet may feel assured that we have before us the mansion of the Christian Senator, Pudens, who is mentioned by S. Paul,t and is said to have there entertained both that Apostle and S. Peter, in the now subterranean remains of an extensive building under the church of S. Pudenziana, between the Viminal and Esqui- line hills.J Kecent discoveries have invested those remains These massive buildings, undoubtedly antique, are known to belong to the Septa Julia, an immense quadrangle, divided into many depart- ments, for the assembling of the tribes and centuries (or companies of 100 men) to give their votes at elections. The area so appropriated was originally but an open space enclosed and divided by woodwork. Cicero (Ep. xvi. I. 4) first proposed to erect a marble edifice for such uses; and that project was eventually carried out by Agrippa, who surrounded the Septa with porticos, and adorned its halls with paintings, dedicating the whole structure to the " Divus Julius." It is, therefore, obvious that the tradition of the imprisonment of the Apostles in such a building must be rejected. t " Eubulus greeteth thee, and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren." (2 Timothy iv. 21.) X He (says the compiler of Papal Biographies known as Anastatius) " made a church in the thermae of Novatus, and dedicated it in honour of his sister Pudentiana." Novatus was a son of Pudens ; and the thermae formed for public use in a part of his family mansion are supposed to have been frequented during several centuries. Baronius mentions ruins on this site, extant in his time; and Piazza (" Sacre Stazioni") notices them as being well known when he wrote, towards the end of the XVII. century. Nibby, referring to the earlier local memories, states that " S. Peter abode here for seven years ; he here celebrated the divine sacrifice ; and here did he consecrate the saints, Linus and Clement, who eventually succeeded to him. Pudens, converted by him (that Apostle) to the faith, here received baptism, together with his four children, from his hands." — {Roma Moderna.) CHRISTIAN ANTIQriTIES. 323 of a patrician mansion with peculiar interest. Baronius preserves the church-tradition that S. Peter, arriving in Eome A.D. 44, resided first among the Jews who had been settled in the Transtiberine quarter since the reign of Augustus ; but, being expelled by his countrymen after he had begun to preach to the Grentiles, subsequently became the guest of that Senator, whom he had converted. Public baths, called after either Novatus or Timotheus, the sons of Pudens, were afterwards opened in this house, which became also a hospice, and was much frequented by the Oriental Christians arriving at Eome, till finally a church (the first opened for public Christian worship in this city) was consecrated within the same buildings by Pius I., Bishop of the Eoman see from a.d. 142 to 157, who was the grandson of Pudens. The latter may be identified with the personage who was governor, or prsefect, of some province in Southern Britain, and is named in an epigraph, now at Chichester, recording the erection of a temple by his means. And this Pudens we may suppose to be the same who is mentioned by Martial in an epigram addressed to one Kufus on occa- sion of the marriage of the Senator with a British lady, who changed her original name of Gladys for Claudia, a Koman name.* The church now known as S. Pudenziana, is first mentioned as " titulus Pudentis" in the acts of Synod held at Eome, a.d. 499. * " Claudia Peregrina, Rufus, is about to be married to my friend Pudens. Be propitious, Hymen, with thy torches," &c. (1. iv. Epig. xiii.) The lady here styled " Peregrina" (a foreigner) is supposed to have been the daughter of Caractacus, the British King, who was conquered and brought in chains to Rome, a.d. 47. The Spaniard Martial addresses Pudens in another epigram (1. iv. xxix.) ; and as the poet was in Rome from about a.d. 49 till the latter years of a long life (ob. a.d. 104), he may have been the friend of the Pudens who entertained S. Paul, and of his wife, the British princess, (v. Morgan, *' St. Paul in Britain," and Mr. J. H. Parker, '• House of Pudens." Y 2 324 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. It was rebuilt from the foundations by Pope Adrian I. (772-795) ; and tastelessly renewed in the style of the XVI. century by the Gaetani family — the graceful campanile, of the XII. century (time of Innocent III.) being alone left un- touched by such pseudo-restoration. The splendid facade of white marble, with much gilt and coloured decoration, has lately been erected by the Cardinal Buonaparte, cousin to the late Emperor, who takes his " title" in the Sacred College from this church. Fortunately the mediaeval reliefs round the central doorway are left untouched. An altar at the end of one aisle, which was restored by Cardinal Wise- man, the late "Titular," is said to contain part of the wooden table on which S. Peter consecrated the Eucharist in the Christian Senator's house. The buildings of the antique palace occupy a much greater area than the churi h above them ; and in their masonry an experienced eye can recognise the work of the first, mixed with that of the second century of our era. Part of the original structure forms the rear of the tribune, behind the high altar ; and here we see ten arched windows in brickwork of the Augustan age filled up with that of the time of Hadrian or Antoninus. In order to inspect the other remains, we must descend below the church into subterranean darkness. In a series of long narrow chambers we discern the same distinction between the masonry of the earlier and that of the later period. The flues for baths are extant near the angles of some of these now dark and deserted chambers. It is conjectured that the largest, formed of three halls united into one, may have been the original church ^consecrated by Pius I. ; a supposition confirmed by the remains of ornamentation in stucco on the vault, and some plain decorative painting in red colours on the walls. Some tesselated pavement (un- covered only to slight, extent) is seen on the floor. There are windows in the upper wall-surfaces, now built up, which CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 325 may have been formed to give light to the church. This dark deserted place, in which we must grope our way by taper-light, and where heaps of debris still encumber the ground, obstructing our progress from room to room, may be considered the first Christian Church founded in Eome. Strange indeed are the neglect and oblivion into which it has fallen, notwithstanding such claims to profound, even religious interest, in this metropolis of Latin Catholicism and seat of its supreme Pontificate ! Yet still greater sur- prise than that excited by the actual conditions of this ancient building may be felt when one learns that the Car- dinal Vicar refused the permission requisite for allowing Mr. J. H. Parker to undertake at his own cost, as he liberally offered to do, the works for clearing out and making permeable to its whole extent the long- forgotten palace of Pudens. It is to that eminent archaeologist that we owe the rediscovery of this ancient patrician residence, as well as the fullest illustration of its history in his published lec- tures. The refusal to sanction works that might have thrown fresh light on such a centre of interest in the range of Christian antiquities at Eome, might indeed astonish those unacquainted with the spirit prevailing, adverse to Protes- tant and foreign intervention even for promoting laudable objects, in that city, under its late government. The re- mains of the house of Pudens were certainly known to antiquarians long after the church had been built above them — for which see Ugonio, " Historia delle JStationi,'' 1588. Another ancient patrician mansion, consecrated by similar associations, and through the founding of a Christian oratory within its walls, is before us in the build- ings discovered below the church of S. Clemente on the Coelian hill ; the house, namely, of that Clement who is mentioned by S. Paul, and said to have been ordained 326 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. Bishop of Rome by S. Peter ; this see having undoubtedly been held by him for about nine years before his martyr- dom, A.D. 100.* The remains of his residence are in some respects similar to the buildings of Pudens ; but we cannot 80 well identify in this, as in the former case, the very chamber appropriated for Christian worship. The numerous and interesting wall-paintings in the church now forming a crypt below the more modern basilica of S. Clement, may be referred to periods between the IX. and XII. centuries — scarcely, in any instance, to earlier date, with exception of two heads (life size) distinguished by a superior, indeed classical, style. It is believed that Pope Calixtus I. founded another public church in Eome, about a.d. 222, on the site now occupied by the beautiful basilica of the XII. century, S. Maria in Trastevere. The ground was conceded to the Christians by the young Emperor Alexander Severus, who decided in their favour when the right of property was dis- puted between them and certain tavern-keepers ; the imperial judge being aware of the intent to dedicate that spot to sacred uses.j Above that primitive church rose ai other, no doubt more important, founded a.d. 340 by Pope Julius I., and restored, about 735, by Gregory III. It is known that before the last and direst persecution in the 19th year of Diocletian, a.d. 803, the Christians possessed twenty-five * "Clement also, and other my fellow-labourers, whose names are in the book of life." — Philippians iv. 3. It is noticeable that Eusebius does not even allude to the martyrdom, where he mentions the death of S. Clement: " In the third year of the above-mentioned reign (Trajan's), Clement, Bishop of Rome, committed the episcopal charge to Evarestus, and departed this life, after superin- tending the preaching of the Divine Word nine years." t Lanipridius (Vita Alex. § 49) reports the very words of Iiis sen- tcni'c: " Melius esse ut quonioducumquc illic Dcus colatur quam pojti- nariis do latiir." CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 327 public places of worship in Kome, besides fifteen suburban churches called basilicas, which were probably connected with the underground cemeteries called " Catacombs." That the Christian oratories were numerous and con- spicuous, if not beautiful, buildings, as raised long before the year 313, is evident from the rescript under that date addressed by Constantine to all the Bishops of the Empire, urging them to admonish all presbyters, deacons, and the faithful over whom they presided, " to be zealous in their attention to (or care for) the buildings, of churches ; either to repair or enlarge those which at present exist ; or, in case of necessity, to erect new ones." (Eusebius, " Life of Constantine.") In the above cited Kescript of Constantine .and Licinius, it is observed that the Christians were known to have possessed, besides places of worship, " other places also, belonging not to individuals among them, but to the right of the whole body," i.e., the aggregate Church. Eusebius, describing the consequences of the cessation of hostilities against them, mentions " temples rising from the soil to a lofty height, and receiving a splendour which far exceeded those that had been formerly destroyed" — namely, in the last persecution under Diocletian. In the range of Christian epigraphy no fewer than 11,000 examples, all Roman, and of date anterior to the close of the VI. century, are edited by the Chev. de Rossi, the earliest being of a.d. 71; two being of the second century, A.D. 107 and 110 ; altogether, 32 anterior to the time of Constantine. Among these the earliest with a distinctly Christian phrase (receptus ad Deum) belongs to the year 217 ; the first with the incised monogram of the holy name (XP.), to A.D. 291.* * An epitaph found in the cemetery of S. Lucina, below the S. Paul's basilica, to a youth who died in his 20th year, and ending " Kare bale " (i. e. care, vale), is supposed to be among the most ancient— probably of the time of the Flavian Emperors. 328 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. For acquainting ourselves with a more varied and artistic class of monuments left by the primitive Church at Home, we must pursue our researchqs through those vast subter- ranean corridors and chapels to which I have alluded, and the modern name for which, " Catacombs," of mediaeval origin and uncertain etymology, was in former time applied solely to the crypt below the S. Sebastian basilica on the Appian Way, in which (according to legends) the bodies of S. Peter and S. Paul were twice deposited during long intervals before their ultimate removal to more splendid tombs. It is well to commune in those dark and silent re- treats with the heroic Dead, the martyrs and confessors of a pure Faith, whilst we inquire and meditate concerning the Truth as by them apprehended, the spirit which sus- tained them for heroic endurance ; and ask whether it be possible for their sublime ideal, their religious life to rise again, divinely ascendant, in the Church of the Future ? Not more strange is the contrast between the simple yet deeply significant and symbolic art in those subterra- nean places and the gorgeous architecture with its appro- priate rites in the Papal basilicas, than is another contrast which has often occurred to me in the greatest of cathe- drals — Christ's mighty shrine above His martyr's tomb — between the sacerdotal, regal, and military pomps of the Papal High Mass, and the quiet scene, in the guest chamber of a humble mansion at Jerusalem, when the Divine Master instituted the sacramental commemoration of His precious death, destined to endure wherever His Gospel prevails, however variously understood by His followers, or embodied in ritual ! These cemeteries may be divided, as now shown by the best authority, into forty -two separate systems or excavated regions ; twenty-six being of the more important class, and I CIIEISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 329 only five of origin later than the Constantiuian period, A.B. 306 to 3G0.* The revived activity and opulent results of researches in that sphere may rank among events signalising the pontificate of Pius IX. More memorable, because addressing a wider range of students, is the literature illustrative of Christian antiquity called forth, and supplied with subject-matter, by those well-aimed undertakings. The contributions of the late Father Marchi, and those more generally known from the pen of the Chev. de Eossi are pre-eminent among the rest. Two works by the latter, Inscriptiones Christianae and Roma Sotteranea, are the fruits of labours pursued, and present the material collected, during twenty-one years. Great cause was there to regret the long suspense of works in those hypogaea consequent on the change of government at Kome. I need not here consider the validity of the excuses made, or of the reasons attributed to a PontifiT so generous as Pius IX. has shown himself with respect to public w^orks and antiquarian undertakings, for discon- tinuing the funds long supplied for scavi in this range. Much satisfaction was naturally felt at the renewal of those explorations, after an interval dating from the spring of 1870 to the November of 1871. All that has been done and discovered since is reported in the suc- cessive fascicoli of De Rossi's Bulletino di Archeologia Cristiana — see especially No. IV, of the new series, third year. The new impulse given to undertakings and studies, for- tunately bearing such precious fruit, in this sphere of sacred antiquity, may be dated from the discovery in 1844, by * For the classification, &c, of the several " Catacombs," v. De Rossi, " Roma Sotteranca," beyond comparison the best work on the subject, and the abridged English version of it by Dr. Northcote and Mr. Brownlow. 330 HIBTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. Padre Marchi, of ingress into those hypogaea known as the *' Catacombs of S. Callisto "—followed in 1845 by the dis- covery, through the exertions of the same individual, of the long-forgotten entrance to a cemetery called after two martyrs, Protus and Hyacinthus. Thenceforth labours in this sphere were more systematically prosecuted. From 1849 to 1851 the works in two systems of underground corridors were directed by De Bossi, a monthly assignment for the costs being secured by Pius IX. Presently was ordered by His Holiness an " Apostolic Visitation of the Catacombs ;" and in November. 1851, was created a '" Com- mission of Sacred Archaeology," which soon began its task of directing and superintending all scavi in that range. This committee, presided over by the Cardinal Vicar, and in immediate dependence on the Pope, has never been dis- solved, nor have new authorities interfered with its action ; but we hear of financial distresses as cause of interruption to its proceedings since 1870. There is reason for surprise at the comparative neglect in which certain of the most interesting cemeteries have been left since their re-opening at more or less recent dates — e.g. that originally named after the Persian martyrs Abdon and Sennen, whose bodies were brought to Eome, and there interred, in the fourth century ; but which cemetery is now known as the " Catacomb of S. Ponziano," from Pontianus, bishop of this see a.d. 230 to 235. In the hypogaeum so- named we see the most finely characterised, and about the best preserved among wall-paintings extant in any of the underground oratories or burial places. The works recently resumed have been principally in the two hypogaea near the Appian Way, one named after a patrician family, Praetextatus, the other after S. Callixtus, bishop of the Uoman see a.d. 219-223 ; this last '* Cata- comb " being supposed to owe its origin to Pope Zephy- CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES . 33 1 rinus, immediate predecessor of Callixtus. It has historic importance as the place of sepulture for the Roman bishops during the third century ; also as the first burial place which belonged not to any private person but to the local Church in her aggregate, and as the arena chosen for solemn fes- tivals of martyrs during at least the whole of the fourth century. "Whatever is undertaken in this promising soil may be expected to lead to more or less valuable results. Works long ago commenced have been recently resumed in the cemetery of Praetextatus, entered near the A ppian Way, and near the ingress to which stand two deserted old buildings, one round, the other rectangular, recognised as Christian basilicas. An opening into this cemetery was accidentally found in 1848. In 1850 was reached one of its crypts adorned wath paintings of classic character ; and in 1857, another still more remarkable — consisting of a lofty vaulted hall, not excavated but built in the fine Eoman brick- work of the second century ; the walls and vault adorned with paintings in which no Christian meaning is appa- rent — winged Genii (the four Seasons) sporting among gracefully interwoven branches of trees, foliage and vines. Here one might fancy one had entered a Pagan mausoleum, but for a well-designed figure of the Good Shepherd, with a lamb across his shoulders, on the rear-wall of an arched recess broken by the formation of a grave cut across that picture, and piercing both the wall and the rock. Presently were found here the fragments of an inscription, which, when restored, could be read as, Beatisumo Martijri Januario Damasus Episcopus fecit — the record placed by the zealous Pope Damasus over the tomb of the deacon Januarius, one of the seven sons of Eelicitas, a E-oman matron who, with all her children, suffered martyrdom a.d. 164. The tomb of Januarius, thus proved to be in this cemetery, was much revered by the Komau Christians. In the same 332 IIISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. hypogeum has also been fouud the tomb of S. Quirinus, a martyr who sufiered about a.d. 130 ; and here waa the saintly Bishop of Home, Sixtus II., beheaded, a.d. 257, suffering together with his deacons and other ministers who were pursued, discovered in the act of worship, and put to death in one of these underground chapels for havmg trans- gressed the edict of Valerianus which forbad the Christians to frequent their cemeteries any more — an unusually severe prohibition even in those times under the Heathen Empire. Another example of construction in ancient brickwork, in- stead of mere excavation in the tufa rock, is seen in the cemetery of Domitilla, entered from that called after the two martyred chamberlains of that lady, Nereus and Achilles (or Achilleus). Domitilla was the niece of the Consul Plavius Clemens, who married Flavia Domitilla, a niece of Domitian, and who was put to death for his faith under that Emperor's reign ; his wife being, for the same cause, banished to the island of Pandateria.* The Domitilla in whose estate, on the Via Ardeatina, a ChriHtian ceme- tery with chapels was opened, also suffered for the faith, being exiled to the island of Pontia. in the Tyrrhene Sea. The cemetery called after her has the uncommon adjunct of afa9ade wdth vestibule and two adjacent chambers, opening * Not only the fate of the Senator Clemens, but a general persecu- tion of Christians by Domitian is naiTated by Dion Cassius as follows : " The same year Domitian put to death several persons, and particularly Flavins Clemens, though he was his relation, and had married Flavia Domitilla, his kinswoman. The pretext he made use of to condemn him was, that he and Flavia his wife were guilty of impiety, which was the same pretence he used to punish several persons, who had embraced the manners and customs of the Jews. Some were executed, others only dispossessed of their estates." (Hist. Ixvii. 13.) The confounding of Christians with Jews, and the notion that the religion of the former was only that of an obscure sect sprung from Judaiism, appears in this as in other passages of ancient wrilerii. CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 338 on a higli road once perhaps frequented, but now at con- siderable depth below the surrounding Campagna. The two chambers are supposed to have served, one for the residence of a guardian, the other as a place of meeting for the gens (Domitilla's family) on anniversaries of funerals — though the opening of a well, in fact a puteal, in this chamber, has suggested the other notion that it may have been used as a Baptistery. A sloping path leads from this singular facade to a sepulchral chapel with an Arcosolium (or altar-tomb), and antique decorative paintings, winged genii, birds, vine-branches, on its vault, besides remnants of other pictures, superior in style and of subjects familiar in early Christian art — the Grood Shepherd, Daniel in the lions' den, the Agape or love feast. De Rossi conjectures that this may be the sepulchre of the Consul Clemens •* and that the whole adjacent structure may be of monumental character, a memoria raised in honour of that martyr. Such architectural details, in the above-named cemeteries, attest the general publicity of the hypogaea for Christian use. The Roman Christians had, no doubt, like privileges with other citizens for instituting sodalities, such as those called " sanctissima collegia," charged with the duty of providing for, and defraying the cost of, funerals, and whose practice it was to celebrate funereal banquets, or otherwise observe the anniversaries of the dead, especially of those who had been their benefactors. Exaggerated reports as to the normally depressed condition of the Church under Heathen rulers, are corrected by local and convincing proofs. There were indeed onsets of violent persecution. We have seen intolerance carried so far by the Emperor Valerianus as to prohibit the frequenting by the Christians of their under- ground cemeteries and chapels ; but that edict was with- * The relics of Flavius Clemens now lie under the high altar of S. Clemente on the Coelian hill. 884 niSTORTC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. drawn by his immediate successor, Gallienua (a.T). 2G1), who restored those places to the Roman bishop, while thus acknowledging the right of the local Church to pro- perty in them. It has been clearly shown that the statements in Church History as to bishops or priests re- siding " in cemeteries," should be understood to imply that they dwelt in buildings erected above, not in underground retreats within, the excavated regions. The belief that under pressure of persecution numbers lived, for safety's sake, in such hypogaea, must be rejected— not but that, in extremities of danger, some may have taken refuge in those underground cemeteries. It is known that certain of the Eoman bishops did so conceal themselves during ex- treme peril — as did Alexander I. in the second, Stephen I. and Sixtus 11. in the third century. In an epitaph to another S. Alexander, found in the Callixtan cemetery, are words that certainly imply the concealment of numbers, during peril, in such subterranean retreats : O tempora infausta quibus inter sacra et vota ne in cavernis quidam salvari possumus. And in the " Acts of S. Stephen " (a.d. 259) it is said that another saint, Hippolytus, vifam solitariam agebat in cryptis. "We may imagine the occasional flight for refuge to these hypogaea amidst storms of per- secution, but not the prolonged sojourn of numbers, where indeed their lives could not be sustained, in such places. Other works were commenced, in the winter of 1872-3, in the cemetery, near the Ralarian "Way, named after Thrason and Saturninus, martyrs of whom we know only that they were among the victims of the Diocletian persecution. A learned writer, Marangoni, conjectures that this hypogaeum was made by the Christians condemned during that persecu- tion to dig for the supply of clay to build the thermae dedi- cated in the name of that emperor. This cemetery has been hitherto little known or explored, though containing many CIIEISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 335 paintings and epigraphs of interest, besides an unusual num- ber of those supposed portraits of the deceased in act of prayer with outspread arms — hence called orantes. A rarer work of art is a mosaic representing, in brilliant tints, several birds (all, no doubt, here introduced as symbolic or mystic) on a disk set into the tufa rock beside a tomb in one of the corridors. Another undertaking has been carried on, not by official but private enterprise, and with interesting results, in a large section of the cemetery of S. Agnes, entered imme- diately below the extra-mural basilica of that saint. These works were commenced nearly three years ago, to be at intervals suspended and resumed, by the monks (Laterau Canons) of the adjacent monastery restored by Pius IX. The section of the excavations thus re- opened is at some distance from the well known and frequently visited part of the S. Agnes " Catacombs," though undoubtedly com- municating with those extensive hypogaea, which were first explored throughout, and described, by Padre Marchi. The lately discovered corridors extend in labyrinthine ramifica- tions comprising three storeys, accessible both from the tribune of the basilica and from the neighbouring S. Cos- tanza — that circular church originally erected as a mauso- leum for the daughters of Constantino, and the only one of the edifices founded by that emperor for sacred use that still stands, in or near Eome. No paintings had been found in this section of the vast cemetery up to the time I last visited it ; but the numerous epigraphs, and the evi- dences, in the lapidary style here before us, of ancient origin, deserve to be studied. The Latin epigraphy of different periods may be distinguished by practised eyes ; and several inscriptions here seen may be referred to the second, a few to the first century of our era — the large clearly incised letters, and the absence of later-adopted Christian for- mulae, alike attesting such early date. 33(5 IIISTOBIC AND MONUAfFXTAL TIOAIT':. On but few of the tombs arc s('<"ii any Clu'i^liaii nmiiIjoIs in this cemetery, with exception of the monogram of the holy name in the form known as the " Constantinian mono- gram." One epitaph is a rare example of coloured mosaic used in the letters (Greek) (piiXiKiTa MvrjaooiQ. Another tombstone presents, on one side, a "tabula lusoria" of Pagan origin, inscribed Victus es, Jeba (sic) te, ludere nescis — thus converted from profane to sacred use. Some of the chapels have groined vaults, and are of formation quite architectonic. A singular circumstance, which has given rise to conjectures, is the connection between this part of the great cemetery extending so far below the ground near the Nomentan Way, and four Heathen Columbaria, entered, not without difficulty, from the corridors lined with graves for the Christian dead. The inference that both Christians and Pagans at any time used the same places of sepul- ture, and scrupled not to perform their funeral rites pro- miscuously, cannot be admitted, but is indeed disproved by the entire range of monumental evidences. If in any case the distinction, dictated by religious feeling, in disposing of the remains of the dead, were disregarded, such laxity was condemned by the opinion prevailing among all Christian communities. Thus did S. Cyprian, writing to another bishop of the African church, severely blame him for having allowed a deviation from the proper usage at the funeral of his own child. The total separation of the believers from the unbelieving was indeed a natural result of Christian sentiment brought to bear upon the sanctities of death, and is a fact established by the whole aggregate of antiquities in the range here considered. The juxtaposition of the columbaria may be accounted for as either accidental, or a consequence of the extension of the corridors and chapels for Christain use after the downfall (or at least official suppression) of Paganism, when no CnEISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 337 obvious profanation would be apprehended from such vicinity of the tombs, and when the ashes were (probably) removed from their disregarded urns. In the newly opened corridors hf this cemetery are seen several of those small glass phials stained with a red sub- stance supposed to be blood,and which, being found imbedded in the tufa rock beside tombs, are determined by ecclesiastical authority to be proofs of martyrdom in the case of those beside whose last resting places they are deposited. The decree of the Koman Congregation of Eites on this subject has been called in question ; and some have assumed that such phials are stained not with blood but sacramental wine. It is fair to state in favour of the other received theory, that in one instance an inscription of decisive im- port — Sanguis Saturnini — has been found on such a vessel, not (I believe) extant, but mentioned by Boldetti, a trust- worthy witness. And is it possible, one may ask, that such a singular usage as the preservation of the sacramental species in deposit near the grave, could have failed to be recorded either in Church History or by tradition through other channels, instead of being solely made known to us through memorials indicating especial Iwnour for certain among the dead in Roman cemeteries ? From one of the corridors under the S. Agnes basilica we enter a vast extent of underground passages more spacious, and in plan different from those used for sepulture. Here we find ourselves in one of the immense ai^enaria made for extracting the pozzolana used as building material, another of which is entered from that section of the same cemetery long opened and frequently visited. It is supposed that this recently discovered arenarium contains the cavern in which Nero sought to conceal himself after his flight from the Golden House to the Villa of Phaon, on the last miser- able day of his life. If we may here locate the event of 338 IIISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. that tyrant's death, such association of the memory of the most bateful guilt with the most heroic fortitude and de- votedness as exemplified by the followers of Christ, would indeed be impressive to the imagination. What if the spirit of that Emperor could haunt this scene for visitation imposed among the punishments of wickedness in the invisible life !* It may be that the pious intent of the primitive Chris- tians was to imitate, in the form of their tombs, that rock- hewn sepulchre, yet unoccupied by other dead, in which was laid the body of the crucified Lord. Yet the mode of inter- ment adopted by them at Eome was by no means novel. Subterranean cemeteries were before them in various examples, and in use near this city by patrician families (as the Scipios), by Heathens of different classes, by Jews, and by heretical sects sprung from the Christianity whose tenets were misapprehended. Below the Appian Way we enter not only the far-extending " Catacombs " of the orthodox Eoman Church, but another hypogeaum, much smaller, adorned with fantastic and mystical paintings in which are recognised, in one compartment, the speculative ideas of the G-nostics ; in another, the oriental worship, where spirituality blent with sensualism, of the Persian Mithras. The precise date at which the other cemeteries were opened and first frequented, must be in most cases uncertain. We may unhesitatingly refer some to the second century — a few, I believe, to the first century of our era. To the earliest antiquity belongs, no doubt, the cemetery under S. Peter's, in which it is a tradi- tion that the inscribed tombstone of Pope Linus was found during the works for the new basilica; but the • Antiquarians adopting another tradition point out a cavern near the Salarian Way, not far from the site of Fidenae, as the actual scene of Nero's conccalmeut and death. CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 339 whole of which primitive burial place ia now absorbed — one might say, effaced, — by the vast structures of the modern church. To the first century also may be referred the cemetery no longer accessible (but explored by Boldetti), opened in the estate of a patrician matron, Lucina, on the Ostian Way, and in which was laid the body of S. Paul. Below the splendid high altar, with incrustations of lapis- lazuli and malachite, and lofty canopy resting on columns of oriental alabaster, in the lately restored S. Paolo Basilica, rests the sarcophagus containing those revered remains ; and during the works for rebuilding that church, after the fire in 1823, the veritable tomb of the Apostle was, for the last time, exposed to view, though not opened. Antiquity coinciding with the Apostolic age is claimed for the ceme- tery of S. Priscilla, mother of the Senator Pudens, on the Salarian Way; but it is known that another Christian matron of the same name had a cemetery opened under her estate on that high road, about a.d. 307. Both were probably made to communicate with each other, and thus form the actual hypogaeum, which contains much that is most interesting, known as *' Catacomb of S. Priscilla." To the earliest in date must also belong the above-men- tioned cemetery of Nereus and Achilleus, and that of Domitilla entered from it. An edict of Constantino, in Greek and Latin, attests the early entertained and highly reverential regard for the tombs of martyrs ; that converted sovereign reminding his subjects of " the places which are honoured as depositories of the remains of martyrs, and which continue to be memorials of their glorious departure." Among proofs of high antiquity in this sphere may be noticed the adoption of mythologic subjects or allegoric figures from Heathen Art. We see not only the winged Grenii of the four seasons in compositions by Christian painters ; but also Orpheus charming wild beasts z 2 340 IIISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. with his lyro ; and (ou sculptured Christian sarcophagi) the personified Heavens or Earth, issuing, as half-length figures, from the ground, to serve as a footstool for the enthroned Saviour. It was long before the Christian could totally sever itself from the Heathen Art, or derive its inspirations exclusively from sources independent of the antique ideal. The admission of elements from a Heathen origin seems to adumbrate, in the creations of an art still in its infancy, the spirit which continued, through later ages, to manifest itself in Latin Catholicism. The aggregate of records and art-works found in sub- terranean cemeteries would indeed acquire, to every earnest mind, a value beyond estimating if we could consider them as trustworthy exponents of the doctrine and principle, the religious thought or worship of the primitive Church ; though most erroneous would it be to conclude that all in this vast range of Christian antiquities can avail for such testimony. The paintings and sculptures here before us belong to dates ranging over at least 300 years j and many of the former art-works may be referred to periods within the YIII. and IX. centuries. "We know that Constantia, the daughter of the first Constantine, amplified and adorned the cemetery on the estate of S. Agnes, where that Virgin martyr was buried after being put to death in her own house beside the Nomentan Way ; and that consequently this place of sepulture continued in frequent use, so to say fashionable, for interment during the IV. century, if not much later. We know that Pope John III (a.d. 560) ordered a regular supply of bread, wine, and lights from the Papal chapel in the Lateran palace for the sacramental rites celebrated on Sundays in the underground oratories. Boniface I., about a.d. 419, and John I. about a.d. 525, were among Popes who ordered paintings to adorn the walls of those dim-lit sanctuaries. Towards the end of the CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 341 VIII. century many embellisliments, and probably resto- rations, were ordered in the subterranean cemeteries by Leo in. Between 772 and 795, Adrian I., a munificent pontiff, made important additions to the class of art-works, mosaics and others, adorning as well those underground chapels as the public churches of Rome. Nicholas I (858- 867) re-established the celebration of masses, which had long fallen into disuse, in the above-named chapels ; and, besides restoring the extramural churches, ordered works for repair and embellishment in the cemetery of S. Pontianus, and two others alike subterranean. The first general restoration in this sphere was that carried out with much energy and to great extent by Pope Damasus (366-384), who made new ingresses, new stair-cases, and otherwise facilitated the visit- ing of martyrs' tombs and oratories, and the frequenting of those hypogaea for devotional purposes. Interment in such cemeteries was of common practice till at least as late as the close of the Y. century, though for an interval abandoned after the siege and capture of Rome by the Goths under Alaric, a.d. 410. The visiting of the Martyrs' graves in underground chapels certainly continued, among other pious observances, and was especially practised on Good Fridays, till the time of Pope Honorius III. and the earlier years of the XIII century ; after which period it gradually fell into disuse ; and, strange to say, even the old entrances into almost all those excavated regions under the Eoman Campagna were forgotten ! Only three, among those connected with, and entered from spots near, suburban churches, are mentioned as known in the XIV. century ; in the XV,, only one — that, namely, below the S. Sebastian basilica on the Appian Way, still frequented at that time by pilgrims, and known as " cemeterium in catacumbas." About the middle of the XVI. century began the revival of interest and research directed to this range of Christian antiquities. 342 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. The first thorough exploration of one of the most exten- sive cemeteries was effected by the indefatigable Bosio (the greatest discoverer in this sphere) and Pompeo Ugonio, with other assistants, in 1593. Between that year and 1600, Bosio explored a great number of such hypogaea, opening near seven of the Roman highways. The whole extent, now explorable, of the very interesting cemetery used for the burial of the Popes in the III. century, and called after S.Callixtus, has been re-opened within com- paratively recent years. Here are seen paintings the style of which indicates much variety of dates. In the chapel con- taining the tomb whence the body of S. Cecilia was removed to the church raised in her honour by Pope Paschal I. in the IX. century, we see wall-pictures evidently among the latest extant in the class to which they belong — that more or less primitive among Christian art-works. A quaint picture of S. Cecilia, in the rich dress of a Eoman lady covered with jewels, and also a life-size head of the Saviour, quite Byzan- tine in character, here before us, cannot be supposed of date earlier than the VIII. or IX. century. But the series of IVescoes in another chapel adjacent, which from their intel- ligible illustratiofi of doctrines concerning the Eucharist and Baptism have given to the small oratory itself the popular name, " Chapel of the Sacraments," are all — to judge from evidence of style — among the most ancient, as they are also among the most classically characterized pic- tures in any Catacombs. In the S. Priscilla Cemetery is a painting perhaps intended (as Bosio conjectures) to represent the consecration to religious life of one of the daughters of Pudens by Pope Pius I., here represented as a venerable man, seated on a high chair, whilst giving a mantle (or veil) to a young woman who stands before him, with a Deacon attending. Such dedication of woman to a life set apart, but without the restraints of the CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 3i3 cloister, ig known to have been usual at least as early as the IV. century. Symbolism, attributes, costume supply other indications of date. Never do we see the Cross, save in the form of a diagram resembling it, and known as the " hidden cross," in the earliest Christian period ; and the monogram of the holy name, XP, though certainly intro- duced earlier, did not become common till after its display, emblazoned with gems and wrought in gold, on the purple labarum of Constantino. The aureole of sanctity was given first, in art-presentment, to the head of Christ alone ; next, to those of Angels, Evan- gelists, Apostles ; afterwards to that of the Virgin Mary : and finally, but not till the VII. century, to all Saints, now alike receiving this attribute ; the Divine Son, like the other Persons of the Trinity, being distinguished by the cruciform nimbus. Scarcely had three centuries passed before the tendency to embody Christian doctrine in a majestic and symbolic ritual became manifest in sacramental ceremonies at altars illumined by encircling candelabra or pendant lamps, while precious balsams burnt and incense sent up its fragrant cloud in the sanctuary ; a Clergy distinguished by classical costume, ofiiciating. As to vestments, it is evident that the antique, the Eoman toga and tunic, were long used in those rites ; and it was probably within the Constantinian period that prelates began to wear purple, that for pres- byters also the white garments of antique fashion began to be embroidered with purple or gold.* In the VII. century mosaic art presents to us the figures of bishops and priests attired in vestments almost the same as' those now worn by * One of the vetri ornati, or gilt glasses, illustrated in a learned work by Padre Garucci, has on it the figure of a presbyter, whose costume much resembles that in modem sacerdotal use. This (perhaps as old as the IV. century) belongs to a valuable collection purchased by Mr. Wil- shire. 344) niSTOBic and monumental eome. the Latin Clorgy at Mass. In the VI. century the plain wooden staff serving for an episcopal crozier was first adorned with gold : and the mitre was certainly common in the X. — probably known in the IX. century — two mosaic heads of Popes, on the portico of S. Cecilia in Trastevere, having this accessory ; and these if pertaining to the adorn- ments of the church originally built by Paschal I. (817-824), are proof of such earlier origin for the episcopal symbol. A blending of Heathen with Christian elements, natural to an Art yet in its infancy, and born amidst classic in- fluences or atmosphere, distinguishes the earlier from the later produce of that Art. We sometimes see this (as I have observed) in the personification of inanimate Nature, the Heavens or Earth, among the sculptures on sarcophagi where the Saviour is seated with His feet resting either on the cosmic globe or the firmament, represented as a half- length figure with a mantle above the head. In the subject of the Ascent of Elias (Catacomb of SS. Nereo and Achilleo), Mercury, the Conductor of Souls to Hades, is seated before the chariot in which the Prophet rises heaven- ward. In the same cemetery we see a poetic application of Mythology to Christian ethics in the subject of Orpheus charming wild beasts with his lyre, emblem of the social effects of the law of love imposed by the Divine Master. The four Seasons, as boy-genii with butterfly-wings, appear long before we become accustomed to the majestic figures of large-winged Angels or Archangels in this art-range. From antique symbolism were borrowed the Peacock (sig- nifying immortality), the Phoenix (for the resurrection), the Dove and other birds as emblems of the freed and beati- fied Soul ; the Stag, signifying desire for Baptism ; while from the Circus and arena were taken the palm of victory — not, originally, a symbol of martyrdom. Cupid and Psyche, ^inerva, Daedalus, and other mythologic personages sire CHEISTTAN ANTIQUITIES. 345 seen together with figures of Apostles or Saints among the gilt outlines on Christian glasses (tazze), the best collection of which is in the Vatican Library. Different indeed from the standing-point of the more modern is that of the primi- tive religious art, which rejects, from its prescribed range, all representations of the Eternal Being ; also (among its historic themes from the Gospel), the Annunciation, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the Ascension, in fact all subjects pertaining to the cycle of the Passion. The first approach to subjects of that class does indeed announce itself in the IV. century, and among the sculptures on sarcophogi now at the Lateran Museum, where we see the group of Christ before Pilate, who is washing his hands ; also the crowning of the Divine Victim in mockery, but with singular variation of detail — a chaplet of ilowers,instead of the crown of thorns, being placed by the Eoman soldier on His head. Long did the purpose prevail, as expressed in art, of presenting Him to the regards of adoring venera- tion and love rather than in those phases of His earthly history which appeal to other feelings by the spectacle of humiliation and anguish. The Cross appears either quite plain, chiselled in marble, or painted so that its surface seems studded with gems, long before the Crucifix is seen either in painting or sculpture, the sole example of which found in any " Catacomb" is a picture referred by Bottari to date near the close of the VII. century. The painted Crucifixion, seen in a public church (at JNTarbonne), is first mentioned by Grregory of Tours, who lived from 544 to 595. The sculptured Crucifix appears to have been first introduced, as a symbol of worship, about the beginning of the IX. century, in the time of Pope Leo III. Alike does this art reverentially abstain from the attempt to depict the awfulness of the Last- Judgment, the horrors of in- fernal punishment, and all personifications of Evil, in Satan 346 UISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. or his Demons. Docs it illustrate, one asks with interest, the Theology which was a fruit of the human intellect applied to the study of the sacred books, the synthesis of the doctrines taught by Christ and His Apostles ? Not, so far as I can discover, till comparatively later periods. The IV. century is the supposable date of the first attempts to delineate the Three Persons in the Godhead, the most striking example of which before us at Eome is on a sar- cophagus, formerly at the Ostian basilica (S. Paul's), and now in the Christian Museum of the Lateran. Among other rilievi illustrating, in this example, various subjects from both Testaments, the Pather, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are represented alike in human form, similar in type and of the same apparent age : the Pather seated on a throne, the Spirit standing behind Him, the Son in act of giving life to Eve, who issues from the side of Adam ; the Son being introduced again in the nexb group, but in different form, more youthful and beautiful, as the God now incarnate and communing with mankind ; His action here that of giving a wheatsheaf to Adam, a lamb (for the wool to make gar- ments) to Eve — emblems of their several tasks and labours consequent on their fall. Perhaps this daring departure from the reverential reserve of earlier Art was a result and expression of the feeling excited, the new impulse given to religious thought, by the recent decrees of the Nicene Council, A.D. 325, by the first publicly proclaimed definition, as drawn up by the aggregate Prelacy, of the mysteries of Triune Being in the Godhead. In the selection of subjects from the Sacred books, we observe a leading principle which serves as guide to such choice, indicating both the familiar use of the Scriptures among the Eoman Christians, and a certain modesty of the imagination in their mental temper of old. The events or personages represented are generally such as typify, or adumbrate, something ulterior CHEISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 347 and higher, other events or other personages invested with more sacred importance than those actually shown. The intended sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham, Koah in the Ark, Moses striking the rock to produce water, have obvious reference, the first to a more awful sacrifice, the two latter to Baptism ; as the shower of manna in the desert, the converting of water into wine, the multiplication of loaves and fishes undoubtedly refer to the sacrament of the Eucha- rist. The suff'erings of Job are an intelligible type, in this rangewheremysticmeaningisso evident, of the Redeemer's ; the Ascent of Elias is the event pre-figuring His resurrec- tion. Daniel in the lions' den, and the three Israelites in the fiery furnace are frequently seen subjects, which would have spoken consolation to those exposed to storms of persecution or the danger of violent death. The raising of Lazarus pre-figures the general resurrection ; the ofi'ering of gifts by the Magi implies the calling of the Grentiles into the Church ; and it is credible that in the subject of the cripple carrying his bed, after being healed, may have been understood an allusion to the forgiveness of sins. It is probable that the Arrest of S. Peter, led captive between two Jews —a subject more conspicuous in this Art than in the sacred narrative— may be intended to signify the perse- cutions in store for the Church at Jerusalem. The earliest known example of intended portraiture, without historic grouping, of the Eedeemer, is a life-size head on the roof of a chapel in the " SS. Nereo and Achilleo Catacomb" — which, even faded and blackened as it now is, still displays a just idea of the correspondence between physical and intellectual beauty. First link of the chain carried through so many ages, in tradition handed down by the successors and heirs of artistic genius, and brought to highest development by Leonardo da Vinci and Era Bar- tolomeo, this model seems to have been studied for other 348 UISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. works in the primitive range here considered. It is re- called to us by two finely treated colossal heads in the " S. Ponziano Catacomb," one of which is, I think, the most benignly beautiful among all early attempts at the ideal portraiture of Christ — a picture of date perhaps within the VI. century. In that cemetery called after Pope Pontianus is another unique art-work, and in con- nection with an object also unique — the sole Baptistery, still supplied with pure spring- water, found in any of these hypogaea. Above that font is a picture of the Baptism of our Lord, who is immersed up to the waist in the Jordan, while a winged angel, standing near S, John, holds His gar- ments ;* and beneath is painted the Cross in glorified form, set with gems, rising from a wreath of flowers, the A and 12 suspended by chains from its arms, and lighted candelabra above those mystic letters. The eminence assigned to S. Peter gradually, but signi- ficantly, declares itself among the ideas expressed in this primitive art, but with no indication of the doctrine which claims for the Eoman Bishops a supremacy derived from him. S. Peter is long associated with S. Paul in Christain Art, and without any implied distinction — rather, indeed, with signs and tokens of perfect equality between the two. On some of the gilt glasses they are represented side by side, with the Saviour hovering above, and holding a single crown over the heads of both. The tradition that those two Apostles were co-founders of the Church in Kome is, no doubt, of early origin, and may be inferred from the prominent place given to both, without any sign of inequality, in the representations by artists engaged in the service of that local * The Angel holds a tablet, on which are some mutilated Hebrew letters, apparently those of the name of God. {v. Palmer, " Christian Symbolism.") CHEISTlAJf ANTIQUITIES. 349 Church. We are reminded that the very earliest written records which associate S. Peter with the Eoman bishopric include S. Paul also in the same connection, and without any hint at supremacy enjoyed by one alone. Irenaeus, quoted by Eusebius {Hist. JEccles. B. v. c. 8), says that *' Peter and Paul proclaimed the Gospel, and founded the Church at Rome." Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, is quoted by the same historian, in a passage stating that " both of these (the two Apostles) having planted us (i. e. founded the Church) at Corinth, and having in like manner taught in Italy, suffered martyrdom about the same time" (ii. 25). The idea of the parity between these Apostles seems to have been at last superseded, or effaced, by the doctrine founded on vague tradition of an absolute headship held by S. Peter, as chief representative or minister of the perfect, in the same manner that Moses was of the imperfect Law and Covenant. This analogy is, in some instances, carried so far as an actual interchange of offices. On some of the gilt glasses a venerable man is represented striking the rock from which flows water, with name inscribed below — not, as we might expect, " Moses," but '' Petrus." That Apostle receiving the keys from Christ, is a subsequently familiar subject, first (I believe) treated among the reliefs on a sarcophagus from the Vatican cemetery, and su])posed to be so ancient as the IV. century. Prom the V. century the key, or a pair of keys, becomes the usual attribute of S. Peter, though by no means invariably given to him. On other sarcophagi that Apostle is represented with the wand, a sign of authority otherwise given in such early sculptures to the Saviour alone ; and this perhaps is the symbol indicating the full development of the doctrine of his supremacy. Not less significant, however, is the manner in which the earlier prevailing idea of parity between S. Peter and S. Paul is expressed in a large wall picture, 350 niSTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. much dimmed by time, in the apsidal recess of a chapel in the " SS. Nereo and Achilleo Catacomb," where the Saviour appears seated among the twelve Apostles, all of whom are standing, S. Peter and S. Paul alone excepted, who are both seated on chairs beside His throne. One who had been led through studies, sympathies, and perhaps aesthetic tastes to quit the Anglo- Catholic for the Eoman Catholic communion, and who expected to find in the " Eoman Catacombs" the most affecting and irrefutable evidence to the primaeval origin and inspired truthfulness of all which the latter Church teaches — received an impres- sion from that faded picture in the dim-lit cliapel, which led him to undertalte further research, with ripened judg- ment and wider experience, till, so influenced by the records of primitive faith, he was brought to the conviction that the Papacy, however beneficent and operative among the agents of Christian civilization, is merely a human system, resting on no principle established by the Divine Master, nor springing from any root of the true Vine destined for ever " the fruit of death or life to bear." The gradual elevation of the blessed Virgin to her ulti- mately attained rank in devotional regards may be traced through several stages. She appears at first, among subjects for early Art, in those scenes alone from which she could not be omitted, the Nativity and the Adoration of the Magi. If there be one exception (and in this instance the classic style indicates antiquity), it is in a picture in the cemetery named after S. Priscilla, representing her seated, with the Child on her lap, a star hovering above, and a man vested in a pallium, with a scroll in one hand standing before this group while pointing to the star. De Rossi and others assume a very early date, if not the apostolic age, for this picture, and that the figure pointing to the star must be intended for Isaiah. CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 351 I should say that the myst ic intent of this picture is to adumbrate the prophecies of Isaiah respecting the advent of the Light of the world, and the birth of the Messiah from a Virgin Mother. JN^ot till the V. century are the subjects of the Annunciation and the Presentation in the Temple (namely, among the mosaics at S. Maria Maggiore) introduced in the range of Art where Mary has necessarily her place. On gilt tazze she is sometimes the central figure, with arms extended in act of prayer, between SS. Peter and Paul, or other saints. With the Infant Christ in her arms she is seen much more frequently in later Art ; and this group became a symbol of orthodoxy after the Council of Ephesus (a.d. 431) had conferred upon Mary the lofty title of QeoToxoQ, " Mother of God." A date subsequent to the sessions of that General Council may (I believe) be assigned to a picture of this subject in the " S. Agnese Catacomb," the Mother with veiled head and arms extended in prayer, the Child apparently standing, not seated, before her, the monogram XP. being painted on each side. Seeing that neither of the heads has the aureole around it, we may infer that this picture cannot be more modern than the V. century ; and the monogram of the holy name shows it to be not earlier than the Constantinian period. When a woman is depicted alone in act of prayer, near a se- pulchre, we may suppose that a portrait of the deceased is intended, or the personified Church ; or (as probable, seeing what later devotional feeling became) the Mother of the Saviour, herself identified with such personification, as the Church thus represented by a maternal Intercessor.* * That this idea of personifying the Church in the form of Mary was not of earliest origin, or popular in very ancient time, we may conclude from the *' Pastor" of Hermes, where the Church is so introduced in female personification, without any reference to the Virgin Mother: "Lo! a Virgin meets me, adorned as if she were proceeding from the bridal 352 iiisTomc and monumental eome. From the idea of peculiar efficacy in her praycr8 arose the superstition which exalts her into a heavenly Queen, attri- buting to her celestial powers, glories, and prerogatives, transferring the lowly Handmaid of the Lord into a being invested with goddess-like characteristics, and rendering to her a worship which reminds of that paid to Cybele or the Bona Dea by the Heathen. A method for visiting the subterranean cemeteries, w^ith some approach to the chronologic order of their origin and contents, may be suggested. In the first group w^e may examine those the antecedence of which in date seems unquestionable — named after Lucina (or Commodilla), S. Priscilla, Flavia Domitilla, S. Cyriaca, PrsBtextatus, S. Pon- tianus, Maximus and Thraso (or Thraso and Saturninusj, S. Callixtus, and Hermes, the last formerly named after the saints Basilla, Protus, and Hyacinthus. The cemetery in the estate of the matron Lucina extends below and near the S. Paul's basilica, but can no longer be explored — being almost effaced, as is the ancient Vatican cemetery, by the great church above it. That of Cyriaca, another Christian matron, may be explored to but slight extent, in a corridor entered from the extramural church of S. Lorenzo. Some excavated passages and chapels, with the paintings on their walls, were till lately visible on the rocky heights above the adjacent " Campo Santo," for the enlarging of which public burial ground those portions of the primitive cemetery were unfortunately destroyed. The S. Priscilla cemetery, one of the most interesting, belongs, as I have shown, to different dates. It contains a chapel called, from its form, " Capella Greca/' regularly chamber, clothed entirely in white, and with white sandals, and veiled up to her forehead, and her head covered by a hood, and she had white hair. I knew from my former visions that this was the Church, and I l>ecame joyful." — Vision IV. c. 2. ( CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 353 built instead of being excavated, and, apparently destined for sarcophagi (no sepulchral niches being here seen), which was supposed to have been the place of sepulture for the family of Pudens. If not of such high antiquity as the time of that Christian Senator, its ornamentation in painting and stucco certainly announces a very early origin ; as elsewhere in this " catacomb" antiquity is indicated by the quasi classic style of art, and by epitaphs without the later adopted Christian formulas, some being painted in vermilion on tiles. In this instance we see exemplified the connection between a Christian cemetery and an ancient arenarium, some portions of which have been used for sepulture ; though such appropriation seems to have been soon abandoned, as impracticable, and the passages of the ancient sandpit blocked up, instead of being used to their full extent for the burial of the dead. The distinction between the ancient arenaria and the excavations originally made for Christian purposes may be observed here, as in the S. Hermes and S. Agnes ceme- teries. I have alluded to the picture which Bosio ex- plains as the consecration of a daughter of Pudens to the religious life,and which is in the so-called " Cappella Greca." Seeing that, besides the principal group there represented, a woman standing in the attitude of prayer, and a mother seated with a child in her arms are introduced, another writer (Bottari) conjectures that we see here a present- ment of the two states of woman's life, the married and unmarried. Another unusual subject, among those painted in inis cemetery, is supposed to be the soul of a Christian woman received at the portals of Paradise. The character of the art, as also the constructions, in the Domitilla and Prsetextatus cemeteries are sufficient proof of their very ancient origin. Next in importance to the Callixtan " cata- comb," with respect to the number and variety of art-works, 2 A 354) niSTOEIC and MOinJMENTAL HOME. is that called after S. Agnes, one of the most interesting. The paintings here are, in some examples, of date, no doubt, within the third century, but in the greater part of the following or still later ages. Among those quite classic in character and of obvious antiquity, are : a group of Christ with eight Apostles, all seated, and a figure of the Saviour alone, seated, with two caskets containing scrolls (the Old and New Testaments) beside Him. Among paintings of uncommon subjects, is one representing the parable of tlie Ten Virgins. In this cemetery we see arrangements for gfiving instruction to neophytes in chambers provided with chairs cut out of the solid rock ; two such seats being usually prepared, one for the bishop or presbyter, the other for the deaconess presiding over those of her own sex ; and these chambers contain no paintings, or other signs of being used for worship. One large chapel is like a basilica for pontific rites, and communicates, divided only by the width of a corridor, with a smaller oratory, probably for female worshippers, such separation of the sexes being thus early attested. Many chapels in this " S. Agnese cata- comb" have architectural details, pilasters, cornices, &c. cut in the solid rock, which display careful execution, and lead us to infer the improved circumstances of the Church in the IV. century. The principal portion of the cemetery named after S. Helena, formerly after the martyrs Peter and Marcellinus • there interred, extends below a small church dedicated to those saints within the ruinous mausoleum of that Empress on the Via Labicana. It is no longer accessible to the public ; and the paintings it contains are of inferior style, the heads coarsely treated though expressive, the costumes comparatively modern — of about the VII . century. Another portion of this catacomb, discovered in 1838, is entered from a villa (of the Del Grande family) on the same high- CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES, 355 way. It consists of a spacious corridor, with descent by- marble steps at both extremities, and two large chambers, alike provided with ample niches for sarcophagi, instead of the usual excavated tombs. The pavement of the corridor is mosaic, the designs and colours of which resemble rich carpet-work, with the figure of a dove and the symbolic olive-branch, but no other sacred subject or emblem repre- sented. Lateral passages, the entrances to which we see, are still blocked up. Below a farm on the Via Salaria Vecchia we descend into the cemetery of S. Hermes (a martyr who suffered in the reign of Hadrian), formerly named after others there interred, Basilla, Profcus, and Hyacinthus. Among all the " Roman Catacombs" this is the most awe-striking, the most sepulchral in gloom, and beset with obstacles in the path of the explorer. After once passing some hours in its dismal depths, I was glad to return into sunshine and daylight. Here also has an ancient arenarium been used for Christian sepulture to some extent, the wide passages being lined with brick walls under the excavated vault and massive pilasters erected in the midst, the sides of those structures being used for sepulchral loculi like the other wall-surfaces. The two largest chapels, lighted by luminaria from the roofs, are also propped up with brick walls and arches. In another spacious chapel, mosaics (an art rarely seen in these cemeteries) adorn the recess of an arcosolium, — their subjects, with figures rudely designed and much mutilated, Daniel in the lions' den, Moses strik- ing the rock, and a single figure in Oriental costume, pro- bably belonging to the otherwise lost group of the Magi before the Mother and Child.* Above Daniel's figure is painted a cross, with gilding and gems in colour on it. An * Mr. J. H. Parker conjectures for these mosaics the date a.d. 577. 2 A 2 356 nisTOEic and monumental kome. arcosolium in another chapel is adorned with a picture that seems very ancient : Christ enthroned amidst the twelve Apostles, who are all seated on low chairs, the costumes white and antique in fashion. Other paintings are in the arched recesses of similar tombs in the corridors— the most remarkable, one representing the bestowal of holy Orders by a bishop, who is seated on a high throne at the summit of stairs, while two candidates stand beside him, each with a scroll (the Gospels) in one hand. Among the few epitaphs, Greek and Latin, still left in this cemetery, is one which eulogises the dead as " sapientissimam ani- mam." The sunset of antique Art, before a night of barbarism, manifests itself in the paintings, whose superior character I have noticed, in the S. Pontianus cemetery ; the finest being, I believe, of dates within the VI. and VII. centuries ; the others, of the period of latest restorations in these hypogaea, i. e. the VIII. century. Among the mural pictures here, two colossal heads of the Saviour are distinguished by a benign and noble beauty, presenting some analogies with the treatment of the same subject in the admirable mosaics (date a.d. 530) which adorn the apse of S. Cosmo e Damiano on the Forum. Striking is the contrast between such conceptions of the Divine ideal and the stern, repulsive head of Our Lord in the mosaic of the V. century at the S. Paolo basilica. Those paintings in the " catacomb" announce indeed the emancipation of Christian art from the gloomy fanaticism which threatened at one time to overshadow and subject it — which set up the strange theory that a plain and vulgar, not a beautiful or majestic, aspect should be given to the person of Christ in Art ! Other cemeteries, easily to be explored, are entered from the extramural churches of S. Sebastiano and S. Pancrazio. That below the former church, long the only one of these CHEISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 357 hypogaea generally known, may be inspected under tlie guidance of a friar of the adjoining Franciscan convent. It is extensive, and contains several chapels, but no works of primitive art, though enough is seen in this " S. Sebastian© Catacomb" for acquiring a just idea of such burial places, their complicated formation, the mode of interment carried out in them, and the profound gloom of their mysterious depths, depressing to the spirits unless one can rise from the visible to the invisible. This " catacomb" seems to have been much visited in the XV. century, being at that time mistaken for the more important Callixtan cemetery, not far distant, and alike entered from the Appian Way. Several epitaphs, here placed in comparatively modern times, erroneously designate the tombs as those of Eoman bishops: One was set up by an Archbishop of Bourges, in 1409, over the supposed tomb of S. Cecilia, whose original sepulchre (whence her body was removed to her Transtiberine church in the IX. century) is now to be identified in the Callixtan cemetery. Behind the tribune of the S, Sebastiano basilica we enter a semi- subterranean chapel, no doubt one of the earliest built for Christian worship, probably about the middle of the TV. century, and finished by Pope Damasus about a.d. 369. It contains, in the middle of its area, the sepulchral recess, now surmounted by an altar, in which the bodies of S. Peter and S. Paul lay (according to an early legend) for several months, and afterwards the body of S. Peter alone for a period of forty years in the third century. Eound the walls of this primitive building is a low stone seat, for the use, apparently, of those who assembled here to recite the psalms or offices of the Church. Some very curious mediaeval frescoes adorn the walls of another Oratory, communicating wdth this by a staircase, also behind the tribune of the S. Sebastiano basilica. An- other cemetery extends in several subterranean storeys 358 nisTOEic and monumental home. between the Via Appia and the Via Ardeatina, and is named after S. Balbina, to whom was dedicated an ancient church still standing, as rebuilt in 1489, on the Aventine hill. Though made the subject of a report by De Eossi, this cemetery has not yet been thoroughly explored or described. In 1853 was discovered the ruinous and roofless church of S. Alexander, on the site where that Pope suffered death, A.D. 119, and was interred, near the Nomentan Way. On the same level with that long-buried church extend the corridors and chapels of a cemetery named after that Martyr Pontiff". These contain no art- works, but well deserve to be visited ; for here, without any long exploration, we see other interesting objects, epigraphs in Greek and Latin, terra cotta lamps, iron implements, such as are occasionally found in Christian tombs, and supposed to be instruments of torture ; also some of those glass phials stained with red, which ecclesiastical authorities assume to be the tokens of martyrdom— as having held the blood poured out in such holy death. One of the three churches on the site where (and precisely within the area of one of which, S. Paolo alle Tre Fontane) S. Paul is supposed to have suffered death, bears the name «S'. Maria della Porta del CielOj or Scala Goeli, derived from a vision of S. Bernard, who believed he saw souls liberated from Purgatory ascending heavenward on aerial stairs whilst he was celebrating mass for them. Underneath this small church, rebuilt, a.d. 1^82, in the uninteresting modern Italian style, extends a cemetery whose subterranean passages are no longer permeable, named after S. Zeno, and (according to a legend scarcely credible) containing the relics of more than 10,000 martyrs, victims in the Diocletian persecution! "We can now only look into one of the dark corridors through a grated window in a crypt-chapel with descent by two staircases CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 359 from the high altar. At the left of that altar opens a narrow chamber, or cell, said to be the place where S. Paul was kept during the last moments before being led out to die by the headsman's stroke. The three fountains in the .other modernised church, rebuilt 1599, are said to have gushed from the spots where his head, rebounding, fell thrice before it finally rested. In 1866 were disco v^ered, about five miles from Rome on the Via Portuensis (close to the Civitavecchia railway), the ruins of a temple and place of meeting for the " Fratres Arvales," the twelve Priests whose duty it was to celebrate the Ambarvalia festival ; the first intimation of the existence of such forgotten remains being found in a tablet, dug up on this spot, with the Acts of that sodality inscribed thereon. Works undertaken by the Grerman Archseologic Institute, and directed by Prof Henzen, soon led to the further discoveries ; and here, among the ruins of the Pagan fane, now devoid of all architectural features, was opened the ingress to a Christian cemetery, recognised as that named after one Generosa, and also (from the estate on which it was originally formed) " ad Sextum Philippi." In the first corridor of the hypogaeum we see a picture of the Good Shepherd ; in a chamber, or oratory, thence entered, an- other more remarkable painting, distinguished by the cha- racter of the heads : Christ seated amidst four Saints each holding a crown (the ancient symbol of martyrdom), the names Faustinianus and Kufinus being inscribed over two ; that of Simplicius — a martyr who suffered together with the former of those two by being drowned in the Tiber during the Diocletian persecution — the name which, it appears, must have been over the head of another figure in this group. The finest specimen of early Christian sculpture still extant, and still left where it was discovered (though not 360 nisTonic and monumental home. on the same spot) within the crypt of S. Peter's, is the large earcophagus adorned with two orders of relievi, serving as the tomb of Junius Bassus, Prefect of Rome, who died a nyophyte, a.d. 859, aged forty-three. On the front are ten groups, divided by pilasters supporting canopies : the prin- cipal figure that of Christ represented as a beautiful youth, seated between two Apostles, His feet resting on the earth, here personified as an old man (Tellus), whose half figure emerges from the ground. Besides the usual sculptured subjects (from the Old and New Testaments) here before us, is a highly curious series of smaller emblematic rilievi, in which sheep appear performing the miracles wrought by Christ and Moses. A sheep strikes a^ rock with a wand, imitating the act of Moses ; a sheep, using the same wand, touches three baskets filled with bread, to represent the miraculous multiplying of loaves ; next to this, in curiously symbolic representation of the Baptism of Christ, is seen a sheep laying its paw on the head of another such animal placed in a stream, while from a bird, hovering above, de- scends a ray of light to that creature's head. The next of these singular rilievi seems intended for the reception of the Tablets of the Law, Moses being represented by one sheep, Joshua by another; next is the raising of Lazarus— a sheep touching with a wand a mummy-like figure upright in a tomb. Another rilievo, at the extreme left of the spec- tator, seems to represent the three Israelites, by as many- sheep, in the fiery furnace ! Even in this comparatively later product of Christian Art, the only subjects from the cycle of the Passion are : the entrance into Jerusalem, Christ before Pilate, who is about to wash his hands, and the denial of our Lord by S. Peter. The porphyry tombs of Helena, the mother, and Con- stantia, the sister of the first Constantino, both removed from their ancient mausolea to the Vatican Gallery, are CURISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 361 valuable works of the transitionary period when Christian art, yet undeveloped, confined itself to subjects scarcely- distinguishable from those proper to Paganism. The rilievion the sarcophagus of Helena represent battle-scenes, warriors on horseback, and prostrate captives, with minia- ture busts of the Empress and her imperial son. Those on the sarcophagus of the daughter, more rudely executed and heavy in design, display vintage-scenes, children treading the grape, peacocks, lambs, and also Bacchic heads — the first among those subjects capable indeed of interpretation in Christian sense, as referring to the " True Vine," or the Eucharistic sacrament. Subjects similar to those on the tomb of Constantia are before us in mosaic on the vault of a circular aisle in the church on the Nomentan "Way, originally built as a mausoleum for the sister and daughter of Const antine— the only one still erect of the many edifices founded by that Emperor, in or near Eome, and described in florid terms by contemporary writers. ;S'. Costanza, as it is now called, is a rotunda 73 feet in diameter, surrounded by a vaulted aisle, with arcades rest- ing on 24 coupled granite columns of the composite order, with attic and cupola above. The ancient doorway was ent'^red through a porch with an arcade now fallen into ruin. Two additional entrances, opening on vaulted recesses, or tribunes, were made when this building was converted into a church. It was consecrated for public worship by Pope Alexander IV. about a.d. 1259, after restorations necessi- tated by the natural process of decay, and by the sinking in of the ancient cupola, even in this best preserved among the Constantinian edifices. The mosaics in the lateral tri- bunes are inferior works of the time of Alexander IV. A_mong those of the Constantinian period (which we may consider as extending from 306 to 360), are some female heads, probably portraits of the sister and daughter of 362 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL SOME. that Emperor. The cross is introduced, but as a mere ac- cessorial ornament, in one of the compartments into which the vaulting of the aisle is divided. The original dome was covered with mosaics on its concave surface, — the subjects borrowed from Heathen Art — all which have disappeared (v. Ciampini, " Vetera Monumenta.") A pleasant walk beyond the Porta Maggiore leads us to the mausoleum of S. Helena, from whence her porphyry tomb was removed, a.d. 1154, to serve for the sepulchre of a Pope, Anastasius IV., at the Lateran basilica. After being injured by the fire which destroyed the ancient church in 1308, that sculptured tomb was left in the con- tiguous cloisters till, in the last century, Pius VI. ordered it to be restored and placed in the Vatican Museum. The Empress's mausoleum, more rent and shattered by time than that of her grand- daughter, looks at a distance like a lofty and ruinous mediaeval tower on the solitary Campagna ; and it is not till we approach that the character of this building can be discerned — a rotunda provided with eight ample niches, alternately curvilineal and rectilineal, with as many round-headed windows above, in the ruined part of the interior ; only two of the niches being saved from decay, one converted into a plain little chapel for funeral masses. Some Pagan epitaphs, and antique rilievi (a knight with his horse and his page) are set into the walls. The name, " Tor Piguattara," by which this edifice is now popularly known, derives from the poor expedient of in- serting earthenware vessels {pignatte) in the brickwork, exemplified here as well as in the Maxentian Circus on the Appian Way, another edifice of the period of decline. The modest parochial church and small manse of the curato on the same premises, amidst a quiet garden, where the Empress's mausoleum stands in decay, add to the singularity of the contrast between the actual and former conditions CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 863 f)f the magnificent sepulchre erected by Constantine for his mother.* "We may believe that one Christian oratory within Rome's walls exists, at this day, almost in the same state as when that Emperor and Pope S. Sylvester were living. In Anas- tasius we read that that saintly bishop consecrated for worship a hall in the Thermae of Trajan on the Esquiline Hill, and there, a.d. 324, held a Council, or Synod, at which, according to some writers 284 (according to others 230) bishops intervened, Constantine himself and the Prefect of Eome attending. About the year 500, a more important church was raised on the same site by Pope Symmachus. In 1650, on occa- sion of some works for restoring S. Martino ai Monti under- taken by the Carmelites of the adjoining convent, was dis- covered the now semi-subterranean interior, which may be identified as that primitive church in the buildings of Tra- jan — a dim-lit cavernous hall divided by massive pillars into four aisles, under a high-hung vault. Some faded frescoes on the dusky walls may be referred to mediaeval, not to earlier, Christian art. To the more ancient, the Constan- tiuian, period may be ascribed the painting on one of the bays of the vaulted ceiling — a large red cross studded with jewels, and, at the angles between its arms, four books, each within a nimbus, the earliest adopted emblem of the * S. Helena died, an octogenarian, about a.d. 326 — the exact date uncertain ; both Eusebius and Socrates asserting that she spent her last days in Palestine, and was buried at Constantinople. Anastasius men- tions the funeral honours rendered to her by her son, who probably caused the removal of her body to this sepulchre prepared by him : " Mausoleum condidit, ubi bcatissimam Augustam matrcm suam posuit in sarcophago porphyretico." Born of an obscure family in Bithynia she wedded Constantius Chlorus when he was an officer of no high rank under Gallienus. Not till her sixty-fourth year did this pious lady, the reputed discoverer of the True Cross at Jerusalem, and foundress of many churches, become a Christian. 3G4 UISTOBIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. Evangelists in art. The father-general of the Carmelites, Padre Filippini, spent 70,000 scudi in the splendid adorn- ments and rich marbles, &c. for the modern church, and caused that ancient part, which was filled with debris, to be cleared out and restored for public worship, still celebrated here on the days of Stations and on certain festivals. The Popes have been most careful to preserve the scattered sculptures and epigraphs found in the primitive Christian cemeteries. Eugenius IV. andCallixtusIII. (XV. century) forbade under heavy penalties the destruction or alienation of such antiques ; and the learned Nicholas V. is said to have intended to collect them in a museum. Benedict XIV. charged Mgr. Bianchini to collect all the sepulchral tablets procurable for a place in the Vatican. The numerous series of such epigraphs. Pagan and Chris- tian, covering the walls of a long corridor in that museum, was arranged, as now before us, by another learned prelate, Gaetano Marini, acting under the orders of another intel- ligent pontiff, Pius VI. I have mentioned the valuable collection known as the Christian Museum of the Vatican, which contains numerous objects from '' Catacombs," as also from other localities. Another museum, among whose various contents are many objects and epigraphs from those cemeteries, is that formed by the Jesuit Fathers in the " CoUegio Komano." The Propaganda College also con- tains a museum rich in antiques, of mediaeval and earlier periods, most varioiis in character and origin. Many ori- ginals, as well as copies from paintings and sculptures in *' Catacombs," are to be seen among numerous relics of saints in the " Custodia di Eeliquie," in the buildings of the Eoman Seminary, entered at the side next the S. Agos- tino church, and usually open to the public on the Thurs- day before Holy Week. Several ancient Christian epi- graphs are still left, where long ago placed, in the porticos /- CHEISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 365 and cloisters of churches or monasteries — S. Marco, S. Maria in Trastevere, the extramural S. Paolo and S. Lo- renzo. But all such collections, even that of the Vatican, are surpassed in value and extensiveness by the great assortment of sculptures, epigraphs, and copies from mural paintings now forming the Christian Museum of the Late- ran — the epigraphs classified, as we see them, in the most suitable method by the Chev. de Eossi. The spiritual import, the generally prevailing moral sense conveyed in the aggregate of sacred monuments found in the hypogaea around Rome, — this, the paramount question to which studies and reflection must lead us, can scarcely be answered with judgment perfectly unbiased. "Where such high and deeply-felt interests are at stake, it is diffi- cult to attain the intellectual independence requisite for impartial, clear, incisive, and strictly just decision. It seems to me that the main Truth around which this multitude of monumental records revolves, and which symbolism, epigraphs, artistic representations serve to illustrate, is no other than this — the Divine character and office of Christ, and belief in Him as the manifestation of Deity, the Mes- siah announced by Hebrew Prophets, the Logos imagined, or d'mly foreseen, by the more exalted philosophy of Heathen schools ; the fulfilment of all prophecies and anti- types in Him ; the subordinating of all religious ideas and doctrines to faith in Him, of all practice in the life of His followers to the aim of imitating His example ; of all wor- ship to conformity with the doctrines and spirit of His teaching. Much evidence is also before us in this range respecting discipline, ritual, and the social life of the early Christians. The beneficent action of their religion on society may be inferred even from negative proofs. The epitaphs of the dead indicate the realities s-midst which they lived. A 366 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. form of charity not uncommon among the ancient Romans was the adoption of foundlings or abandoned children, who became thenceforth the property of their protectors, and are mentioned in epigraphs as alumni, but never either as servi (slaves bought with money) or vernce, slaves born of others in servitude, and in the master's house. Amidst the immense number of Pagan epigraphs at Eome the mention of such alumni is indeed frequent, but less so than among the comparatively few Christian inscriptions before us in the same city ; and in only six among 11,000 such records preserved from the first centuries of our era, is found any allusion to the class of slaves or freedmen, servi or liherfi, so frequently named in Heathen epigraphs. Hence may be inferred the humanizing influence of the faith which, without directly assailing the institution of slavery, taught that all may alike enjoy the true liberty whereby Christ has made us free.* With regard to sacramental belief and ob- servances, we find much that is most significant in the mural paintings, and also the sculptures here considered. A picture in the so-called " Chapel of the Sacraments," in the Callixtan Cemetery, represents a man and a boy (of about ten years) standing together in a river, the former baptizing the latter — proof that infant baptism, or at least that of young children, was practised.f Most striking are the evidences of the pre-eminence assigned to the Euchar- istic Sacrament, as the chief and perpetually recurring solemnity for which the faithful assembled, and without * This aspect of charities among the early Christians is well brought out, and with full details, by Dr. Northcote, both in the " Roma Sotte- ranea" and his smaller volume, " The Roman Catacombs." t S. Justin, the philosophic Apologist and Martyr, who suffered death at Rome, a.d. 167, gives the baptismal formula used in the second cen- tury : — " In the name of the Father of all and Lord God, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and a Holy Spirit." — Apol. c. 61. CHEISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 367 which it cannot be assumed that congregational worship ever took place in the usual ordering of its observances. The primitive Christians did not meet merely to join in liturgical prayers recited by presbyters, or to listen to sermons ; but to take part in what was to them the holiest and most affecting transaction, commemorative of the death and sacrifice of their crucified Lord. Most expressive is the symbolism referrible to this rite. Not a merely rationalistic, but a high and mystic meaning was attached to it. The idea of a Divine Presence — however conditioned or explainable — is shown by the association of the fish (the ixQvQ, which word in the Grreek contains the initials of the name and titles of Christ) with the eucharistic elements ; sometimes the bread alone, sometimes both, loaves and a phial of wine, being so explained in a sacramental and spiritualized sense by the accompanying figure.* The milk-pail, some- times held by a shepherd, but in other instances suspended to a crook, which a lamb seems to support, or without either shepherd or sheep — therefore obviously a self-dependent symbol— may be understood as another emblem of the life- giving food, the Body and Blood received by faith in the Eucharist. The principal day when all assembled for worohip was the first in the week — not with any intention of substituting this for the Jewish Sabbath, but of cele- brating it as the more joyful festival of the Lord's Eesur- rection. In the Epistle of Barnabas (apocryphal, but certainly written in the early years of the second century) the Jewish Sabbath is treated as an utter mistake, and the * E.g. The fish together with loaves, but no wine, placed on a tripod, before which stands a man who seems to be in act of blessing those objects, while a woman (the Church ?) stands near in attitude of prayer; the fish swimming in water, with a basket containing loaves and a phial of red wine on its back — copies from which originals are in the Lateran Museum. 368 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. " Lord's Day" opposed to it as of voluntary observance dependent on the feeling of the Christian communities. It is difficult to determine the date when the practice of invoking Saints had origin ; though certain that it pre- vailed before the end of the IV. century. The first instance in any literary document of invocation addressed to the Virgin Mary occurs in the " Life of S. Justin," by S. Gre- gory Nazianzen, bishop of his native place from a. n. 328, deceased 373.* Alike difficult is it to refer to any certain date the first introduction of prayer for the dead. Among 1374 epigraphs edited by De Eossi in the first volume of his great compilation, " Inscriptiones ChristiansB," we do not find one in which such prayer is distinctly uttered, or the belief in a state of purgatorial suffering is expressed. Such intercession, and the doctrine which justifies it, were, I believe, the natural results of the growth of devotional feeling and of a reaction of intellect against the doctrine of eternal punishment ; but I can find no proof that either the devotional practice or the speculative belief prevailed among the primitive Christians. Where the customary formula " in pace " is united to a verb, and that verb is not abridged, it is the indicative, present, past, or future, not the optative mood which is used in all earliest examples : e.g. vixit, recessitj requiescit^ dormit.f In many epitaphs * V. Mrs. Jameson, " Legends of the Madonna." For the direct and solemn invocation of Saints, practised in the IV. century, we have epigraphic evidence in the metrical lines by Pope S. Damasus in honour of S. Agnes, on a marble tablet discovered (1728) by the antiquarian Marangoni, and now set into a wall near the staircase leading to the interior of the extramural church dedicated to her. Of ten lines in this composition, the last are as follows : — veneranda mihi sanctum decns alma pndoris, Ut Damasi precib(ns) faveas precor inclyta Martyr. t I have dwelt, somewhat more fully than in these pages, on the same points of doctrine and monumental evidence in another volume, " His- tory of Ancient Christianity and Sacred Art in Italy." CHRISTIAN AKTIQUITIES. 869 the dead are declared to have passed immediately into a state of bliss, into the presence of Deity, without any word that implies the idea of inevitable penalties as payment of a debt due for sin from the faithful followers of Christ. Numerous epitaphs with such prayer uttered by survivors for, or immediately addressed to, the lost ones are, it is true, at hand and of unquestionable antiquity. Among others, are several in which the deceased are invited to pray for those they have loved on earth, and the survivors seem to rely, with a consoling tenderness, on the efficacy of their intercessions. But if those departed be capable of bene- fiting the living by their prayers at the throne of Deity, can they be supposed to be at the same time in a state of suffering, which would alienate and withdraw them from the Divine Presence ? The belief in the blissful state of the righteous soul, immediately consequent on its departure from mortal life, is frequently and distinctly expressed in lines chiselled on these ancient tombstones.* "We find sufficiently clear evidence of the constitution of a hierarchy in the primitive Church, divided into bishops, presbyters, deacons, exorcists,t acolytes — not that the dis- * E.g. — " Tuus spiritus a carne recedens est sociatus Sanctis pro mentis " " Dum casta Afrodita fecit ad astra viam, Christi modo gaudet ia aula." " Cujus Spiritus in luce Domini receptus est." The following to a wife and mother, aged thirty -eight, is still more significant (date a.d. 392) : — *' Non tamen haec tristes habitat post limina sedes Proxinia sed Christo sidera celsa tenet." On the beautifully sculptured tomb of Junius Bassus it is set forth that he, though but a neophyte, had passed into the presence of God : " Neofitus lit ad Deum," notwithstanding that the deceased, who was Prefect of Rome, must have died unbaptized. f The following passage in Justin Martyr is supposed to include the formula used in the second century at the rite of exorcism : — "By the name 2 B 870 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. tinction between the Elders in general and the Overseer (or bishop) of each local community was very strongly marked, or that it conferred very great superiority on the latter above the former — the bishop presiding over the body of presbyters. Those of prelatic rank were no doubt highly honoured, and designated as " Papa" during many ages before that title was exclusively arrogated to themselves by the Eoman Pontiffs — namely by Gregory VII., for him- self and his successors. Offices were assigned to women, which gave her dignity, influence, means for usefulness. Besides the unmarried maidens, vsddows also were set apart with a form of consecration to religious life ; and from among the latter were chosen the Deaconesses charged to admi- nister to, superintend, and perhaps occasionally instruct those of their own sex. In the time of Pope Cornelius (a. d. 251-2) the Deaconesses in the service of the Eoman Church were as many as 1500. One of these, Marcella, guided by the counsels of S. Athanasius, founded the first of this very Son of God, who was born through a virgin, and became man, capable of suffering, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and died, and rose again from the dead, and ascended into heaven, every demon exorcised is conquered and subdued." — (Dial. c. Tryph. c. 85). The belief in the mysterious powers and various agency of Demons seems to have developed with highly imaginative and all-pervading force during the second century. Donaldson (" History of Christian Literature and Doctrine") thus epitomizes the theory of Justin, in such reference : — ** Christ uses His kingly power for two great purposes— the utter destruction of tl « Demons who seduce men to wickedness, and the dis- pensation of spiritual blessings to those who trust Him." As I have observed, the personified Evil, the figures of demoniac beings, however characterized, are utterly unknown to the Christian Art of primitive times. The correspondent doctrine of good, opposed to evil. Angels appears early to have obtained, and risen into distinctness. Hermas, in the "Pastor," mentions six angels created first, and to whom God en- trusted the whole creation, that they might rule over it. CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 371 Sisterhood who lived together in community — in fact, a primitive monastic association.* But was the Christian life, at the time when peace and freedom were finally secured for the Church, a veritable model of eti'ict and pure conformity to the ideal standard ? Had three centuries passed over that Church without wit- nessing any dereliction from the original principles or devotional practice of her divine institution ? We have reason to believe the contrary. Proof is before us on the historic page, which, even though proceeding from a Heathen source, must be allowed some weight, in reference at least to what was external, notorious, and intelligible even to those not within the pale of the baptized communi- ties. In March, a.d. 311, the Emperor Galerius, co-reign- ing with Maximianus, Constantino, and Licinius, published a rescript which, although indulgent and concessionary towards the Christians, contains imputations against them implied in these remarkable words : " Among other matters which we have desired for the benefit and common advan- tage of our people, we have determined — that also the Christians, who have left the religion of their fathers, should return again to a good purpose and resolution. For by somo means such arrogance had overtaken and such stupidity had beset them that they would not follow the principles anciently prescribed to them — but they began to make and follow new laws, each one according to his own purpose and his own will. We saw that they neither gave the honour that was due to the imalortal Grods, nor heeded that (the God) of the Christians — we have resolved that * To Marcella many of the letters of S. j€roine are addressed. This pious Roman matron, who died about a.d. 410, was considered to be so deeply versed in the Scriptures that bishops sometimes consulted her respecting the disputed sense of sacred texts. 2 B 2 372 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. there may be Christians again, and that they may restore the houses in which they were accustomed to assemble."* However the Cliurch of the IV. century may have dif- fered from that of apostolic times, there is, in the range of monuments here considered, enough to enable us to evoke before the mental eye a grand and ennobling fact, fraught with assertion of the capacities of Humanity for high attainment, a picture of social life informed by a spirit in striking opposition to all that was dark or evil, while superior to all that was highest and purest, in Heathen antiquity : fervour without fanaticism, serenity combined with heroism, gentleness with strength, courage immove- able as the rock, nerved to endure all for a sacred cause, a rapturous but cheerful piety, a faith and worship long preserved from the taint of superstitious and trivial novel- ties. Amidst conflicts and perils were " victories of pre- vailing will," in the assured possession of that peace pro- mised by the Divine Master, and given by Him not as the * The edict, in the original Latin, thus sets forth the Emperor's intended indulgence : — " ut etiam Christiani, qui parentum suonim reliquerunt sectam, ad bonos mentes redirent. Siquidem eadem ratione tanta eosdem Christianos voluntas invasisset, ct tanta stultitia occupas- set, ut non ilia veterum instituta sequerentur, quae forsitan primum parentes eorum constituerunt, sed pro arbitrio suo, atque ut hisdem erat libitum, ita sibimet leges f acerent, quos observarent, et per diversa varios populos congregarent — atque cum plurimi in proposito perseverarent, ac videremus nee Diis eosdem cultum ac religionem debitam exhibere, nee Christianorum Deum observare, contemplatione mitissima? nostrae clementiae intuentes, &c." For this document, in extenso, v. Lactantius, " da Mortibus Persecutorum," xxxiv. Eusebius translates it into Greek in his Ecclesiastical History, of the English version of which by C. F. Cruse, in Bohn's Series, I avail myself. Galerius is supposed (v. Baro- nius, an. 311 § 29-36), to have been incited by remorse, whilst suffering from a dreadful malady, to issue this edict of clemency a short time before his death. The other co- reigning Emperor, Maximinus, refused to publish it. CHEISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 373 world giveth — the living testimony to the Invisible and Immortal amidst trials and sorrows in this transitory scene. It is justly observed by Donaldson, (" History of Christian Literature and Doctrine") that " a student could not re- ceive a more satisfactory impression of the truth that God was working among the Christians in a most remarkable manner, than by turning from the fetid pages of stern Juvenal or licentious Martial to the pure, unselfish, loving words of Clemens Eomanus, Polycarp, or Hermas."* There is also a negative testimony conveyed with the force of a solemn warning in the records of ancient Christianity at Eome. We learn from various sources how profound was the reverence with which martyrs were regarded in early ages by the Christians. Their tombs became the altars for earliest celebration of sacramental rites ; and hence the discipline of the Eoman Church, to this day, requiring relics to be inserted in every altar before it can be conse- crated or used for Mass. The arcosolium in the subter- ranean oratory is, in fact, the grave either of a martyr or some other saintly person, whose body lies in the excavated tomb, or sarcophagus, under an arched recess before which the officiating presbyter would stand. Often do we see other graves opened beside those much-honoured resting places, and so excavated as to impair the symmetry of the * Hermas, author of the '' Pastor," the earliest literary document of the Roman Church, is supposed to have been the brother of Pope Pius I. But little can be ascertained respecting him with certainty except the fact that his work was written about a.d. 130. A passage in the *' Pastor" thus attests the temper, so remote from gloomy asceticism, in the Christian communities of that time : " Every cheerful man does what is good, and minds what is good, and despises grief ; but the sor- rowful man always acts wickedly — because he grieves the Holy Spirit, which was given to man a cheerful spirit. The entreaty of the sorrow- ful man has no power to ascend to the altar of God." 37-1 niSTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. dim-lit chapel, or break through and mutilate the paintings on its rocky walls — details affording proof of the anxiety to secure interment beside the holy Dead, as though such proximity could benefit the recently deceased. The solemn funerals of martyrs, with torch-bearing processions, are mentioned at very ancient date ; and among the gi*ace- ful honours paid to those Heroes of Faith were usages borrowed from the Heathen, as the crowning of the lifeless head with flowers, the hanging of garlands above the grave, the strewing of lilies and roses upon that resting place. In order honourably to i-eceive the bodies of martyrs brought back to their native towns, the citizens used to meet them beyond the walls, carrying boughs of trees and flowers, together with all the Clergy wearing chaplets on their heads, and having torches or tapers in their hands. These usages were blamed by certain Fathers of the Church, especially by the austere TertuUiau, perhaps from no other cause than that their origin was Heathen. The " Agapai," degenerating from their primitive character as a simple but solemn banquet connected with the Eucha- ristic observance and communion, were held in compara- tively later ages for the special purpose of honoui-ing particular martyrs ; and it was in such, their later phase, that they were condemned and finally abolished by prelates and Councils, by S. Ambrose at Milan and by decrees of Synods held at Laodicea (a.d. 395) and (a.d. 397) at Car- thage. Yet, notwithstanding the enthusiastic reverence for those enrolled among the " noble army," no sign or indi- cation do we find, in the range of evidences I have to con- sider, of the disposition to rank their sufferings beside those of Christ, or to suggest reliance upon their merits. In primitive Christian Art the subject of martyrdom is un- known ; or, if allowed to appear, its admission obliges us to infer comparatively late origin — as in the terra cotta relief CHEISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. 375 of S. Sebastian, which Bosio supposes not more ancient than A.D. 500. The figure of Isaiah suffering death by being sawn asunder (as tradition records of him) is seen on one of the gilt glass tazze, referred to a date in the IV. cen- tury. The primitive Church seemed to shrink, with pro- foundly religious sensitiveness, from the danger of over- estimating human claims, or admitting any undue regard which enthusiastic feeling might direct towards those who had died for the faith, or towards the Virgin Mother so na- turally revered. The conclusion which I am led to through study of the art and records here in question, is that their general significance testifies against all and every approach to creature-worship, all and every tendency to the substi- tuting of the means for the end, all proclivity to reliance on human intercessions ; every true follower of the Divine Master being deemed a king and a priest through the grace and glory received from Him. He alone, the Light of the World, was presented to religious regards as infallible Guide and perfect model, sole High Priest of the new Covenant, sole Mediator between the true worshippers and the Eternal Father. /TlBRAliV XJNlVKIiSlTY OK 376 HISTOBIC A5D MONUMENTAL EOME. CHAPTER X. SEPULCHRES, MAUSOLEA, AND FUNERAL RITES. From the cemeteries and monuia^nts of the primitive Christians let us now turn to those of Heathen origin in Eome. The high importance attributed to funeral rites, and the complicated observances with which they were celebrated sprung from the idea, deeply rooted in the mind of antiquity, that the privation of such honours affected the soul in the invisible life, and that the disembodied spirit whose mortal remains had been left without sepulture was condemned to a homeless exile, a mournful wandering for at least one hundred years on the banks of the infernal stream before they could be wafted over in the bark of Charon, or have any chance, even through the awards due to virtue, of reaching the Elysian fields * Cicero (De * The Sibyl said, ' You see the Stygian floods, The sacred streams, which Heaven's imperial state Attests in oaths, and fears to violate. The ghosts rejected are the unhappy crew Deprived of sepulchres and funerals due; The boatman, Charon : those, the buried host, He ferries over to the farther coast ; Nor dares his transport vessel cross the waves With such whose bones are not composed in graves. A hundred years they wander on the shore ; At length, their penance done, are wafted o'er.' Dryden's " Virgil," JEn. 1. vi. Ovid {Fasti, 1. ii. 550) tells of spectres arisen from the grave, who went howling about the streets of Rome and the Latian fields by night, because the rites due to their mortal remains had been neglected during war. SEPULCHRES, MAUSOLEA AND EUNEEAL BITES. 377 Legilus, 1. ii.) speaks with a voice of authority on this sub- ject : " Let those who have passed into the world of souls be considered as deified : but let men diminish the unne- cessary expense and sorrow which is lavished on them. With regard to the rite of sepulture, it is so sacred a thing that all confess it should be discharged in consecrated ground, and if possible in the land belonging to the family." As to the obligations of survivors, in case of those who died at sea, he determines (citing anterior decisions) that, if the body of one killed on shipboard had been cast into the sea, " his family was free from any charge of neglect to the deceased, inasmuch as no bones remained on the earth, in which case his heir should sacrifice a sow to his manes. If, on the contrary, a bone had remained on the earth — fasts should be appointed to last three days, and a sow should likewise be sacrificed, if the deceased had died in the sea." A law of the Twelve Tables ordered that none of the dead should either be buried or burned within the city. As soon as life had passed away began those observances in the chamber of death, so often and affectingly mentioned by liatin poets : a kiss was impressed on the lips of the deceased by the nearest relative, that thus might be caught, or received from its deserted tenement, the breath just part- ing. All present then raised a loud wailing, with invoca- tion of the dead by name {conclamatio) , as if striving to recall animation by this sorrowful appeal.* An actual return to consciousness from a trance mistaken for death, through the effect of such lugubrious tumult, is men- tioned by Quintilian. * Nee non eonsueto languescent corpora lecto ? Depositum nee me qui fleat, ullus erit ? Nee mandata dabo ? nee cum clamore supremo Labentes oculos condet amica manus ? Ovid, Trist. 1. iii. El. iii. 378 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. The duties and charge of the funeral were assigned to the Lihitinarius, one of a profession whose services were secured at the temple of Venus Libitina, and who supplied assistants, as well as all the materials requisite, for solemn obsequies. At the same temple it was also necessary to re- port and pay a tax for the registration of the death ; as in that of Juno Lucina births had to be registered with pay- ment. The person to whose care the body was at once con- signed, was the polUnctor, who washed and anointed it. It was then attired in the dress suitable to the individual's station — the toga, edged with purple, for every free citizen ; any garland, or leafy crown, won by military or other public services, being placed on the brow. Juvenal, lament- ing the disuse of the toga in a corrupt age, alludes to that practice of assuming it only in death : — Pars magna Italiae est, si vernm admittimus, in qua Nemo togam sumit, nisi mortuus. — Sat. iii. 171. The lying-in-state, on an ivory couch with purple coverlet, in the atrium of the mansion, the feet of the body being turned towards the outer door, ensued before interment with solemnities. In a silver vessel (or censer) incense was burnt before that bed of funeral state, and at the outer door of the house was erected a pine or cypress-tree, serving to announce the domestic loss, and also warn those forbidden, on account of offices held by them (as the Flamen of Jupiter), ever to look on a corpse. The funeral procession took place in the forenoon, usually at the fourth hour, except for the obsequies of children who died before assuming the toga virilis — such being carried to the grave by torch-light, in the evening. Strange were the groups appearing at all grand funerals in ancient Eome, so numerous that a master of ceremonies, designator, was required to marshal the array. First came the tihicines — flute players, and others who performed oix SEPULCHBES, MAUSOLEA AND FUNEBAL BITES. 379 louder instruments, the horn or trumpet ; next, the praejicae, hired female mourners, who sang the naenia, a chanted wail with praises of the dead ; after these, mimics, engaged not only to declaim appropriate pas- sages from tragic poets, but actually to imitate the person and manners of the deceased— this last office assigned to the "Archimimus ;" next appeared the ancestral imagines, waxSs.,,^^ masks representing the ancestry of the deceased, and worn 7 by persons who undertook a species of dramatic personifi- cation, attired in the costume of those they had to repre- sent.* If the deceased had won yictories, the names of well-fought battles, of towns or provinces subdued by him, were borne inscribed on standards, as at military triumphs. Lastly appeared the funeral couch, of ivory co- vered with purple or gold-embroidered vestments {Attalicce vesfes), carried by eight freedmen, the relatives following, besides those liherti emancipated by the will of the deceased, and, who, in sign thereof, now wore the cap called pileum. ^ Black was the colour worn by all relatives and attendants.f At public funerals, and those of high solemnity the proces- sion passed to the Torum, and the bier was set down before the rostra, where one of the nearest of kin pronounced the funeral oration, a usage for the first time mentioned in reference to the obsequies of Junius Brutus (see Plutarch), though no doubt of much earlier origin ; and this honour, once confined to the male sex, was extended to matrons also after the taking of Rome by the Gauls, in reward for the patriotism displayed by Eoman ladies at that crisis. The funeral pyre, where the last ceremonies took place, was of * Such wax masks were kept in the atrium of the aristocratic family- mansion. Ovid {Fasti, 1. i.) alludes to them : " Pass in review the waxen images as they are distributed through the halls of the en- nobled," t White became the mourning colour for females only, under the Empire. 380 III8T0EIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. wood, with other combustible material, more or less lofty according to the pomp of the occasion. Around that pyre were planted cypresses ; and upon the body, there laid out, frankincense, perfumes, and oil were poured, garlands and locks of hair were strewn by affectionate mourners. Lastly was given by all the farewell kiss.* Once more arose the loud general cry of the conclamatio, with the wailing of the hired praejicae, during whose lamentations the nearest kins- man set fire to the pile with averted face. When the flames had done their work, the glowing ashes were sprinkled with wine and milk. The relics were then placed, with amo- mum and other perfumes, in an urn, after being first dried in a linen cloth ; thus deposited, they were sprinkled with old wine and new milk ; the urn was laid in the Columba- rium or other sepulchre, the interior of which was be- sprinkled with perfumes ; there, beside the tomb, were placed lamps, and alabaster or other phials of perfumes, — such as, from the erroneous notion that they were meant to contain tears, have been called lachrymatoria. A last fare- well to the dead was then uttered in the afi"ecting formulas : Ave anima Candida — terra tibi levis sit — molliter cubent ossa, &c. Lustral water w^as sprinkled on all present, and the ilicet (word of dismissal) pronounced. On the ninth day were observed the novendialia, or feriae novendiales, wdth sacrifices and funeral repasts, usually simple, though rich families sometimes invited many guests to such banquets sumptuous in character.f On these * See the touching details of a funeral, with anticipated sorrow, in Propertius (1. II. El. xiii.), addressing his beloved Cynthia : — Tu vero nudum pectus lacerata sequeris ; Nee fueris nomen lassa vocare meum- Osculaquc in gelidis ponas suprema labellis Cum dabitur Syrio munere plenus onyx. t The coena funeris was tlie funeral banquet given at the house of the deceased ; the cocna feraUs an offering of simple viands, with SEPULCHEES, MATJSOLEA AND FTJKEEAL KITES. 381 occasions, food, garlands of flowers, lamps, and other vessels used to be laid on the grave ; and long after the death and funeral, the periodical placing of viands and rose- wreaths (rosae et escae, often provided for by the will of the deceased) was maintained, especially on anniversaries of the birthday. In the month of February occurred the annual -^^ and general celebrations in honour of the Dead, which the Catholic Church may be said to have christianized in the^ solemnities for All Souls' Day and its vigil.* The domestic observances at funerals, solemnized with genuine sorrow, and conformable to antique prescription, are nowhere more feelingly described, with all their piously regarded details, than in the Elegy of TibuUus (1. iii. El. ii.) expressing the desire that those last tributes should be y paid to himself by his beloved Neaera and her mother : Z Then, when I change to flitting- shade and air, And dusky ashes my white bones bespread, Before my pile, with long dishevelled hair. Bathed in her tears, let chaste Neaera tread. But let her with her sorrowing mother come, And one a son, and one a husband weep ; Call my departed soul, and bless my tomb, And their pure hands in living waters steep. bread and wine, at the tomb, the ninth day after the interment. The banquet given with more profusion to relatives and guests near the monument, or other place of sepulture, was called silicernium. A funeral banquet on larger scale and with invitation to greater numbers, was called epulum funebre. After the death of Af ricanus such an enter- tainment was given by Q. Maximus, who invited to it the whole Roman people, * Ovid describing the sacrifice to the Manes at the " Feralia " (19th February), presents a pleasing picture of these rites: "The shades of the Dead ask but humble offerings. Enough for them is the covering of their tomb, overshadowed with the chaplets laid thereon, and the scattered fruits, and the little grain of salt, and corn soaked in wine, and violets loosened from the stem." — Fasti 1. ii. 535-644. 5^^ Li E :"••,• /i^r>- "^■^■'" OF THE ^" UNlVERr>ITY 882 niBTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. Ungirdled then collect whate'er was mine, My ivory bones in sable vestment swathe ; First sprinkle with the mellow juice of wine, Anon with snowy milk the relics bathe. Absorb the moisture soft with Imen veils, And dry repose them in a marble tomb; With gums, whose incense dewed Panchaia's gales,' Arabia's balm, and Syria's rich perfume. With odours let remembrance mingle tears; So, turned to dust, would I in peace be laid, &c. (Translated by Elton, in Bohn's Series.) For more stately obsequies we may refer to the fine de- scription of the funeral of Drusus, in the " Oonsolatio ad Liviam Augustam demorte Drmiy^ ascribed to Ovid (?) ; for those of slaves, to Horace, Sat. 1. 1, VIII. ; for burials of the poorer description, to the same poet, Sat, 1. 11, v. Among symbolic and other objects placed in sepulchres, the lamp had a conspicuous place ; and the usage of keeping it lit perpetually was common, if not universal, for many ages.* The idea that the soul remained, in some manner, with the ashes, and that it should not be left in darkness, has been suggested to account for the importance attached to this graceful observance ; but it seems more probable that the intent was thus to honour the Infernal Deities. There was * The laws of the Twelve Tables imposed checks (apparently little heeded in the time of the Empire) on the excesses of display, feasting, &c. at funerals. " We find (says Cicero, de Legibus, 1. II.) provision in the Twelve Tables intended to obviate the superfluous expenses and extravagant mournings at funerals. — Let extravagance therefore be diminished to three suits of mourning, with purple bands, and ten flute- players. Excessive lamentations are also to be prohibited by this rule — * Let not the women tear their cheeks or make the lessiis or funeral wailings.' " (Translated by C. D. Yonge in Bohn's " Classical Library.") SEPULCHEES, MAUSOLEA AND FUNEBAL EITES. 383 a deep meaning in the superstition whicli led the Eomans always to leave a burning lamp naturally to eccpire, instead of extinguishing its flame. (Plutarch, Quest. Bom. 75.) It has been conjectured that vases were placed in the tombs of the religiously initiated alone — but this is uncertain. The principal entrance to the sepulchre was always on the side farthest from the highway, lest any person holding sacred office should look into the chamber of death. Sarcophagi of porphyry, or other coloured marbles, began to be used in the second century of our era ; subsequently, those of white marble with elaborate relievi on their surfaces. Of this latter class we see examples in all the sculpture galle- ries of Eome — their origin both Pagan and Christian — none more admirable than the large sarcophagus now in the Capitoline Museum, which was found, about 1590, in the singular tomb now reduced to the form of a circular earthen mound, three miles beyond the city-walls — the so-called " Monte del Grano ;" the sarcophagus having been supposed, without any proof, to be that of the Emperor Alexander Severus and his mother. The finely-conceived sculptures in alto-relievo upon it represent subjects from the cycle of the Trojan War. In this sepulchre was found the beautiful vase now known as the " Portland Vase." The usual scenes represented in such sepulchral rilievi convey mystic meanings, in some instances implying a spiritualized, even consoling, belief as to the state of the departed. Epi- sodes from the myth of Bacchus are supposed to aUude to doctrines taught in the mysteries of that god, and probably of sublime import ; the union of Bacchus with Ariadne, after her desertion by Theseus, being considered an alle- gory of the transport of the soul from a sorrowful to a bliss- ful existence. The subject of that same god approaching Ariadne during her sleep, in her abandonment on the isle of Naxos, also that of Diana and the sleeping Endymion, 384 HTSTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. imply the peaceful awakening of the soul to happiness after death. Griffins and lions, guarding the iSre that represents the sun, signify the migrations of the soul till it become so purified as to be worthy of admission to a happier home. Dolphins and other marine animals suggest the voyage to another world ; the lifted torch represents that for lighting the journey into the shadowy realm ; the half open portals are those of the invisible Hades ; the head of Medusa (it- self a striking symbol of Death, petrifying all by whom its fearful countenance is beheld), implies, when associated with Lions or Swans, the opposite paths of light and dark- ness. The mask is emblematic of the mortal tenement. Eros gazing on a mask, or leaning on the urn of Psyche, is an allegory representing the triumphant release of the immor- tal from the perishable nature. An eagle drinking from a cup held by Ganymede, is interpreted as the soul in hea- venly life, supplied with nectar by the minister of the gods. Achilles at Scyros, preferring a brief and glorious to a long and inactive life, points out to aspiring virtue the rewards obtainable. The punishment of Marsyas, the contests and fate of the Giants in rebellion against Zeus, and the tragic death of Clytemnestra warn the soul of the conse- quences of guilt in another life. Bacchanalian scenes in general, dances, banquets, festive processions. Pan and the Centaurs may be understood as allegories of enjoyment in the Elysian fields. Scarcely do we find a single tragic scene, or any conveying direct allusion to death in these funereal sculptures. The story of Alcestis, that of Protesilaus, and the return of his shade to commune with Laodamia (on a sarcophagus at the Vatican) are indeed exceptions ; but more frequently are seen, among favourite subjects, the contests and joys of life, the Circus, the combat and defeat of barbarian foes, the labours of Hercules, or other heroic achievements, in which it seems the object to throw a SEPULCHRES, MAUSOLEA AND FUNERAL RITES. 385 veil over mortal fate — or, may we ask in the language of poetry : Was it to show how slight The bound that severs festivals and tombs ? Music and silence ? roses and the blight ? Crowns and sepulchral glooms ? One striking contrast between the sepulchres of Pagan- ism and Christianity — the general absence, in the former, of declared belief in a future life, and its constant pro- fession in the latter — is forced upon our attention the more we observe the examples so numerous in the museums of Eome. Other and brighter aspects occasionally appear amidst the memorials of the Pagan dead. During the last period, approaching that of the fall, of Empire, we find a spirituality more distinctly manifest in funereal art and epigraphs ; indications not only of belief in a future beyond the tomb, but sometimes even the hope of reunion for those that have loved on earth, in happier existence, being occasionally seen, — as in one remarkable example (at the Capitoline Museum), a sarcophagus with an epitaph in which the widowed wife refers to her husband, L. Sempronius Firmus : itapeto vos oinnes sanetissimae liabeatis meum c m et vellitis huic indulgentissimi esse horis nocturnis et etiam mefato suadere vellit ut et ego jpossim dulcius et celerius aput (sic) eum pervenire* In the same museum are placed all the epitaphs of the lilerti and libertae of Livia, affording curious insight into the domestic life of that empress : Liviae Aurifex — Ornatrix — Sarcinatrix — Lector — Ostiarius — Co- lorator, being among the titles of offices held by male and female servants hired to administel* to the amusement or adorn the person of the wife of Augustus. G-ruterus has edited many affecting and beautiful Heathen epitaphs— one on a girl of eighteen years : Ipso mihi Jlore juveutae * The mutilated passage might be read, conjugis met animam. 2 c 386 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. ruperunt filo sarores ; oue on a wife, iu the iiamo of her husbaud : aeternum meum vale solatium ; oue on a father, in the name of his children : Numina nunc inferna precor patri date lucos Qois est purpureus perpetuusque dies — and another expressing belief truly Christian : Jgnis Tialet corpus, ipsam caelum animam. The following are the last lines of an elegy to a young girl, on a tablet with pine- cones in ornamental relief, which has unaccountably found its way to the garden (or court) of a wine shop, on the road leading to the Milvian bridge — to the left as we proceed from the Porta del Popolo : At si funereo flores periere Decembri, Post hyemes florum vita secunda venit. Villicae quam distant a nostris funera florum; Flos redit, at morions nulla puella redit. A philosophic theory assumed that the soul consisted of two separate elements: the image, elImKov, which after death passed to Hades, and the nobler celestial part, which might be admitted, through virtue or heroism, into the company of the Gods, or at least translated to super- terrestrial regions. Thus did Hercules, after his body had been consumed in the flames, pass as a shadowy image into the nether world, but iu his semi-deified character became also an inmate of the Olympic Heaven.* Implied belief, more or less consoling, and pointing to a future beyond the grave, is recognisable in the sculptures on several antique sarcophagi. The relievi (of very inferior style) on one in the Capitoline Museum may be said to represent the com- plete history of the soul according to Neo-Platonic theo- * Umbra, in the sense of a departed spirit passed into a shadowy existence, occurs in an epitaph to one Fortunata, found on the Via Labi- cana, 1861, the last line as follows : Nullum onus incumbas, speret et umbra cinis — which might be read^ " speret umbra et cinis." SEPULCnUES, MAUSOLEA AND FURERAL RITES. 387 ries :— the creation of the mortal tenement by Prometheus ; the infusion of life, in the form of a butterfly, by Minerva ; death at the inevitable hour decreed by the Parcae ; the emancipated Spirit, first seen as a butterfly, finally em- bodied in the figure of Psyche, on its journey to the in- visible world under guidance of Mercury. Other sepulchral reliefs and epitaphs convey very different meaning: the genius with inverted torch, and the Medusa-head express nothing that can be interpreted in the sense of hope beyond the grave ; and the dedication of some tombstones, Somno aeter- nali, B. M. S., seems the cold assurance of a hopeless negatioik__ Eoman mausolea were not built on any prescribed norma ; nor are rules laid down for their architecture by Yi- truvius. Hence the varied and in many instances anomalous forms of their extant ruins. Erom early ages, as shown by the law of the Twelve Tables — " Hominem mortuum in urbe ne sepelito neve urito" — the practices of cremation and interment (the former of Etruscan origin) were co- existent; some families persisted in burying their dead, unconsumed by fire, long after the opposite usage had become common. Sulla was the first of his house whose remains were burnt according to his desire, fearing, as he did, outrage similar to that he had himself inflicted on the body of Marius. Christianity had long prevailed before the pyre and its attendant pomps disappeared at the Eoman funeral. Macrobius, author of the Saturnalia, who died A.D. 419, being a Pagan, regrets that in his time the stately funerals with the cremation of the body were no longer seen. The earliest sarcophagi were simply adorned with mould- ings, flutings, or Doric friezes (like that of Scipio Barbatus), reliefs of horses' or oxen's heads, etc. In later times, under the Empire, fruit, flowers, garlands, figures of genii, etc. were sculptured on them ; about the time of Hadrian, complex groups in high or low relief; and under the An- 2 c2 388 HiSTonic and monumental home. tonine emperors it was usual to order copies from celebrated originals for the sculptures on the tomb ; porphyry or other precious and coloured stones being now preferred to white marble. I'he porphyry sarcophagi of the mother and daughter of Constantino are the largest sculptured tombs known in that material, their execution indicating manifest decline. Others for Christian interment, now collected at the Lateran Museum, and so interesting for the symbolic and religious meanings conveyed in their sculptures, are referred, with few exceptions, to the fourth century. The modern appro- priation of many antique tombs has been singular. That supposed to have contained the body of Cecilia Metella now stands in the court of the Farnese Palace ; that of Hadrian was taken from his mausoleum to serve for the entombment of Pope Celestinus 11. a.d. 1143, and ulti- mately perished in a conflagration at the Lateran basilica, either 1308 or 1360 ; the English Pope, Adrian IV., lies in an urn of red granite, chiselled with the familiar Pagan symbol of death, Medusa-heads, and, on its front, an ox-head between pendent garlands ; a sarcophagus, with Tery curious reliefs of a marriage-rite (now in the extra- mural basilica of S. Lorenzo) contains the body of a car- dinal bishop, deceased 1256. Before the present century little care was taken for pre- serving either mausoleum or columbarium in or near Eome. Piranesi's engravings (1756) exhibit many such monuments, on the Appian Way, in conditions most different from what we now see ; also many others that have disappeared, as the columbarium, discovered 1727, of the liberti and libertae of Livia, which (as Marangoni reports) " was, with detestable example, completely destroyed." Another such burial-place, that of the freedmen of Augustus, is preserved in obscure remains, where we can scarcely recognise the original of the drawings by Piranesi. The subterranean sepulchre of the Arruntia family, found near the Porta SEPULCHRES, MAUSOLEA AJSB FJIKEUAIj RITES. 389 Maggiore, 1736, was only saved from the fate of being again buried underground at the instance of the antiquary Ficoroni. Pyramidal mausolea existed in several examples on the Appian, Salarian, and Flaminian ways till the XVI. century. The sepulchral pyramid once erect between the S. Angelo Castle and S. Peter's, said to have exceeded in scale the monument in the same form to Cestius, and popularly called the "Tomb of Eomulus," was swept away by Alexander VI. ; but one authentic representation of it is before us on the bronze portal of that basilica, among the reliefs by the Florentine Filarete, date 1442. One of the first undertakings of the kind ordered by the Papal Government, was the disencumbering of that pyra- midal tomb of Cestius from the soil, or debris, to the depth of 16 feet, in the time of Alexander VII., 1663. Finely prominent in the group formed by the towers of the Ostian gateway, the Ilonorian walls, and the cypress-grove of the cemetery for Protestants, this mausoleum is an almost solid mass of tufa and basalt, clothed with marble now much blackened by time ; 124 feet in height, 100 (or, as some report, 95) feet wide at each basement. The monument now stands in a wide trench, the depth of which is the measure of the soil accumulated around it, and on one side raised above the Ostian Way. On two of the three sides are inscriptions in cubital letters — one recording the fact that this structure was completed in 330 days : Opus absolutmn ex testamento diebus cccxxx ; — the other giving the names and offices of Cajus Cestius, Praetor, Tribune, and Septemvir of the Epulones. Together with some columns and pedestals, were dug up near it two marble cippi, an inscription on both of which supplies the names of the heirs and executors of the deceased, among them Messala Corvinus and other well known contemporaries of Augustus ; and this epigraph enables us to determine the 390 nisTonic and monumental kome. date indicated in another curious detail, i.e. that the ex- pense of erecting this pyramid had been defrayed by the sale of " Attalic vestments," which could not be buried with the dead in his tomb, owing to the prohibition of such usage by the Aedile : ex venditione Attalorum, quae eis per edictum Aedilis in sepulcrum C. Cesti ex testamento ejus inferre non licuit.* Such vestments, probably of woven gold or embroidered in gold, which took their name from Attalus, king of Pergamos, and served both for dress and hangings in the interior of houses, were introduced into Eome shortly after the Oriental victories of Scipio Asia- ticus, A. u. c. 5Q^. Agrippa was the aedile, holding that office, B.C. 34, who forbade the uhc of them among ornaments iu the sepulchre. The pyramid in question was not pene- trated by any modern explorer till a.d. 1590, when it was entered (for the first time on record) by Bosio, who describes how he reached its central chamber in his " Roma Sotterranea." A low narrow passage, broken through the solid mass in 1663, leads into a quadrate vaulted cell, 13 feet in length, where the custode's taper enables us to see but dimly the remains of encaustic painting on stucco, now much faded, but still admirable for grace of design ; the only subjects left being four winged Victories on the vault, besides a small candelabrum on one wall. Piranesi, who copied them in their less damaged state, supposes the whole composition to represent one of the sacred banquets which it was the duty of the epulones to order, at great festivals, in honour of the gods. Above the modern entrance to this pyramid is an arched recess, where was found the sarco- phagus (np longer here), and also, if we can credit the strange story, a terra-cotta vessel filled with gold ore ! Near the angle, at the side of the Ostian "Way, is the ancient * Both cippi are now in the portico on the ground floor of the Capi- toline Mosennu SEPULCHRES, MAUSOLEA AND FUNEEAL EITES. 391 ingress into the sepulchral chamber, — a narrow passage sloping upwards, still open to its whole extent, but so high above the basement as to be inaccessible. Bosio mentions the attempt, made in his time, to break through the solid mass by perforating the vault of the chamber, in the search for treasure ! In November, 1861, the apex of this mauso- leum was struck off by a thunderbolt, and hurled to the base with such crash and stunning shock that a gardener, then at work in the adjacent cemetery, was thrown flat on his face. It has been restored in travertine, the light grey- colour of which is so difi'erent from the weather-stained marble that the contrast looks harsh, but will be subdued, no doubt, by Time's reconciling touches.* With intent to consider this range of antiquities accord- ing to the order of their discovery in modern time, we should first visit the subterranean sepulchre of the Scipios on the Appian Way, the re-opening of which cemetery, 1780, created sensation throughout Italy, and inspired a work retaining its deserved place among classics of the Italian language, " the Notti Eomane" of Verri. No in- telligent judgment was shown in the procedure of removing almost all its contents from this hypogeum. A sarcophagus (the only one of chiselled stone here found), containing the remains of L. Scipio Barbatus, a bust, supposed that of the poet Ennius (who, as Livius tells us, was honoured with a statue in this family-tomb), and all save three of the an- tique epitaphs being transferred to the Vatican Museum, and copies only substituted in the tomb, but so carelessly * Falconieri published an account of this mausoleum with outline engravings of the paintings as extant in 1663. A female figure seated at a small table, and another carrying a vase and patera, might belong to a group at the funereal banquet. Petrarch strangely mistook this monument, calling it the tomb of Remus i The inscriptions may have been covered with ivy when he saw it. 392 HI8T0IIIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. nrranged that even their proper bites are not occupied by these transcripts ! Even the ashe^ found in their graves were scattered ; the skeleton of Scipio Barbatus was carried away — not without honour indeed— by a Venetian senator, who raised a modest monument for its final resting place, at his villa near Padua. Farther injury was done to this subterranean sepulchre by erecting walls for support of the superincumbent masses of tiifa rock, in which its corridors and chambers are excavated, and blocking up the sole ancient ingress. The principal entrance, with a facade still par- tially preserved, opens at a higher level than the ancient road, so that the interior could only have been reached by temporary stairs. This is not the most ancient, though no doubt of high antiquity, being a portal with architectonic details presenting one of the earliest examples of the arch in Roman building ; its doorway-head formed by nine quad- rate blocks of peperino, and surmounted by fluted Doric pilasters, between which were placed the funereal epigraphs ; of these pilasters one imperfect shaft and basement being alone left. "Within this doorway the lateral walls were painted red. The epigraph on the sarcophagus now at the Vatican has been supposed the most ancient extant in the Latin language ; the member of the Scipio family whom it records having been Consul a. u. c. 456 ; but it is inferred that another epitaph, found a.d. 1616, long before the under- ground corridors of this sepulchre had been opened, in the vineyard above, is in reality the most antique. This latter is the inscription to the son of that Scipio, who bore the same name. Both are in metrical lines, and have the titles in letters painted red ; the orthography of the later one, the epitaph of the younger Scipio, being more archaic, it is supposed that this was the first inscribed on the funereal stone ; and that the tomb of Scipio the elder was not pro- SEPULCIIIJES, MAUSOLEA ATsD TUNEEAL EITES. 303 vided with its extant epitaph till within the century after his death.* When, for some repairs of the Honorian walls near the Porta Maggiore, in 1838, a ponderous brick tower, lateral to that gateway, was taken down, a most interesting dis- covery was made — the curiously fashioned and sculptured monument of the master-baker, named Yirgilius Eurysaces, and his wife, Atistia. The former not only practised his useful trade, but was also public contractor to the apparatoresy officers charged to inspect the aqueducts. f His monument is of triangular form and consider- able elevation : a lower story (travertine) consisting of * The elder of the two here entombed was Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus, son of Cneius Scipio and cousin of Scipio Africanus. The younger was Lucius' son, with the same name, and the conqueror of Corsica, who was Consul, b.c. 258. The epitaph of the former presents curious specimens of Latinity, as in the line (the second), " prognatus fortis vir sapiensque quouis forma virtutei parisuma" (virtute parissima), and the accusatives without the final letter (last line), " Subigit omne Loucana opsidesque abdoucit." The still more archaic epitaph of the younger Scipio is now in the Barberini palace, set into a wall near the door of the library; its metrical lines as follows : — Hone ' Oino ' Ploirume • Consentiont ' B ' — Dvonoro • Optvmo • Fuisse ' Viro ' Lvciom • Scipione ' Filios ' Barbati Consol • Censor • Aidilis ' Hie • Fvet • A ' — Hec • Cepit ' Corsica ' Aleriaque • Vrhe Dedet Tempestatehus * Aide * Hereto • which, in classic orthography, should be read : Hunc unum plurimi consentiunt Romae lonorum optimum fuisse vi/rum, Lucium Scipionem : Filius Barhati, Consul, Censor, Aedilis, hie fuit a (pud vos): hie eepit Corsicam, Aleriamque Urhem, dedit Tempes- tatihus aedem merito. t As his epitaph (the letters and spelling of which indicate date near the end of the Republican period, or not much later,) informs us. It is repeated twice, on the two faces of his monument, as follows : Est hoc monumentum Marcci Virgilei Eurysacis Pistoris Redemptoris Apparet. 394 nisTOEic and monumental home. a series of upright cylinders, intended to represent the panaria (baskets) in which loaves were kept, or else such mortars as were used for kneading the dough ; the upper, of similar cylinders laid horizontally with their interiors displayed, as we may suppose was the method for exhibit- ing the loaves on sale in the worthy baker's shop. Along the summit runs a frieze with small relievi which illus- trate the entire process of bread-making : the grinding of corn at a mill, where the wheel is being turned by an ass, the kneading, the weighing and distributing of loaves —alike of travertine stone, much mutilated. On the side where the portrait-statues, in relief, of the married pair formerly stood, the monument is most ruinous, and now entirely stript of its outer stonework. The bas-relief of both the figures is fortunately preserved, and now stands against a wall on the opposite side of the high road ; life-size, and so far from idealized are these efBgies that the sculptor, with daguerrotype exactness, has copied from nature a large wart on each face ! Near them are placed various archi- tectural ornaments, among which the form of tl^e round loaf, marked by a cross, is seen in different examples ; also a curious bread-basket of travertine — no other than the urn for the ashes of Atistia.* Pliny informs us (H. N. 1. xviii. c. 28) that the baker's trade was not established in Kome till B.C. 173 ; previous to which time every good wife, or else the domestic slaves, made bread at home. The Claudian aqueduct passes close to this tomb, without impinging against it ; but the Honorian fortifications absorbed — completely immuring it — prove how completely all ancient reverence for the Manes and sepulchre, at least those of the Heathen dead, had passed away in the * The epitaph to her, also extant, is placed near : Fuit Atistia uxor mihei Femina o'pitwmoi veixsit guoivs Corjporis Beliquiae quod sujpercmt simt in hoc pana^io. SEPULCnilES, MAUSOLEA AND FUNERAL RITES. 395 fifth century. Under precisely similar circumstances was found, when the Salarian gate in those fortifying walls was destroyed, in order to be rebuilt, 1870, the tomb, now in the Capitoline Museum, with portrait-sculp- ture and long inscriptions (Greek and Latin) of a pre- cocious youth, Sulpicius Maximus, deceased in his twelfth year, who won the prize for Greek verse against fifty -two competitors in the "Agones Capitolini," instituted by Domitian a.d. 86 ; and who, having attained those honours, A.D. 94, was crowned by the same Emperor on the Capitol with a wreath of oak-leaves. This tomb was enclosed within one of the round towers flanking the Porta Salaria. The whole prize poem by the boy so gifted is engraved on pilasters beside his efiigy in Carrara marble. Four columbaria are entered from a level occupied by gardens and vineyards, between the Appian and Latin Ways, where a complete necropolis seems to have been formed. The last discovery here made, 1853, is most in- teresting : a subterranean not (like the others) forming a single quadrate chamber, but extending in three lofty arched corridors. Into this we descend by the antique staircase. The vaulted ceiling retains much arabesque decoration^ painted garlands, flowers, foliage, birds gracefully designed. A gallery, now just traceable, ran along the upper part for approach to the higher loculi, which are ranged in files, either five or six-storied, and in many instances richly ornamented with colonnettes of paonazzetto or giallo- antico (Phrygian and Numidian coloured marbles), their interiors lined with other marble; the epitaphs in well- formed letters, painted red ; several being to freedmen of the imperial household ; one to a person here styled BaS*OPANOS SAPMATON— probably an ambassador sent from a city on the Bosphorus to Eome. One was placed by a Eoman lady over the ashes of her favourite dog, with his 396 HISTOETC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. portrait in low relief, and the epitaph Synoris Olycon Deli- cium. Two tablets here seen were raised to the librarians of the Greek and Latin libraries forming the Palatine col- lection founded by Augustus. One curious epitaph is to a college of musicians in the service of Tiberius — the names of all, and of their domestics, including the cook, being given in the inscribed list. Another, to one Claudia Etheris, ter- minates with an injunction quite conformable to Christian ethics ; parce parcenti tibi ; the tomb of this lady having a marble front with two apertures for looking into it. Many of these sepulchres are of marble chiselled in architectonic forms, with cinerary urns like aediculoe, or miniature tombs. From the extremity of one corridor a narrow passage, excavated in the tufa, leads out of this columbarium into a dark chamber filled with bones, among which were found entire skeletons in rude coffins of tile, laid on brick platforms — the remains, no doubt, of slaves, who were not allowed the honours of the pyre, but were carried to interment on open biers by hired assistants — the Sandipi- lari* A sarcophagus, the only one seen here, is laid in a recess, for opening which several niches, made for urns, have been sacrificed. Another columbarium, near to the above- described, contains some busts of good style, no doubt portraits of the deceased ; also besides the usual cinerary ollae, marble urns with epitaphs — one conveying the solemn admonition : ATe tangite, mortales, reverere manes deos. Another, discovered in 1832, close to the Porta Latina (entered from a vineyard), is one of the most inte- resting and beautifully decorated, though time and damp have done much injury. Originally lit by a window in the * Thus also were children usually buried — though, in some instances, allowed all the honours of the solemn funeral and cremation, as implied in the affecting lines of Statins on the death and obsequies of a child cut off in his twelfth year {8ylv. 1. ji, 1). SEPULCHRES, MAUSOLEA JLND FUNERAL RITES. 397 roof, it is now onlj to be seen by taper light ; and we descend, by its ancient stairs, into cliambers lower and narrower than those of other such places for sepulture. Among paintings here before us, there are some in style similar to those in the thermae of Titus, therefore ascrib- able to a period when Greek influences prevailed in Roman art. Several figures, faded as they are, have still a character of grace and truthfulness ; and the architectonic adornment of the niches, with colonnettes, capitals, and frontispieces, is pleasing. One tablet represents, in mosaic on a purple ground, two griffins (mystic guardians of the tomb) beside a sacred tripod. Among sepulchres still extant, however transformed, and comprised within the actual cinctures of Kome's walls, one of the most remarkable is that of C. Publicius Bibulus, an aedile of the plebeian class, also of his posterity after him, which stands in the narrow Via di Marforio, on the Capito- line hill, this being one of the most singular examples of maltreatment that any such ruins in Eome present. We see but a remnant of its travertine fa9ade, now built around so as to form part of the front of a paltry house, with a modern window broken open in its upper story, and about ten feet of its basement buried in the ground. Above that quadrate substructure is the mortuary chamber. The front was adorned by four Doric pilasters supporting an Ionic architrave and frieze with ox-heads and garlands. The epitaph, still legible, is in the orthography of the later E-epublican period, telling that Caius Publicius Bibulus, sedile, was allowed, in honour of his virtues, a monument for himself and his posterity, raised at the public expense on the Flaminian Way, as decreed by the Senate and People. Otherwise we are quite without information respecting this personage, who is not mentioned by any ancient writer. , His monument, restored in brickwork at some compara- »398 nisTOBTC and monumental home. tively modern date, seems to have remained in the same condition as at present since the Xlltli century. Its inte- rior may be reached, and the ancient structure recognized, in the cellars of a sausage and cheesemonger's shop, to which we descend by a dark staircase. Here we enter several spacious vaulted rooms, with remains of massive regular stonework, like that of the exterior building. On one side is seen, through an aperture in the brickwork, an abyss whose depth is faintly lit up by the taper lowered for the visitor's inspection. The walls, of similar ancient stone- work, are well preserved in this chamber. A youth who did the honours of this sepulchral cheese-shop, (for hundreds of cheeses are ranged along shelves in the principal cellar), told me the pavement had been recently raised to a height more than the stature of a man. Nearly opposite to the front of this mausoleum, in the Via Morforio, stands a form- less pile of ruins in brickwork, now built up into a house- front, which evidently belonged to a tomb, and is supposed, though without either local or historic proof, to be that of the Claudian family, — almost the only ruins in Eome which archeologists have not undertaken to identify beyond doubt! Two other columbaria are entered from the gardens, left to quiet and solitude till railway disturbed the rural scene, between the Porta Maggiore and the highly pic- turesque ruins of a domed and decagonal edifice miscalled ** temple of Minerva Medica." One of those subterranean burial places was formed by Arruntius, Consul in the year VI. of our era, for his freedmen and servants, as implied in an inscription formerly over the entrance ; the other seems to have been destined for different families. Both these columbaria, re-opened in 1736, contain cinerary urns and epitaphs still in their proper places ; also remnants of grace- ful decoration in stucco, and paintings of that gay character SEPULCHRES, MAUSOLEA AND FUNERAL RITES. 399 SO often seen in the burial places of the ancient Romans. Several other columbaria were discovered in 174G under vineyards on the Appian Way within the Porta S. Sebas- tiano (or Appian gate). In the course of five years were opened an enormous number — ninety-two such sepulchral buildings, mostly in two storeys, during works directed by Ficoroni, who is our informant. One extensive columba- rium, probably among those first discovered by that anti- quarian, was re-opened a few years ago on that ground near the ancient way, nearly opposite to the sepulchre of the Scipios. Eschinardi {Agro Romano) mentions the open- ing, in the last century, of a subterranean sepulchre in which, lay several skeletons with coins still held between the teeth— an evidence of the usage, not supposed to have been common, though occasionally followed, among the Eomans, of providing the dead with the ohulus to pay for their voyage across the Stygian river in old Charon's boat. We read of the grim practice of wetting such coins, for the viaticum of the parting spirit, with the blood of gladiators shed in combats at the funeral banquet or below the pyre ! Another discovery, made in Ficoroni's time, was that of numerous columbaria on the Ostian Way, the contents of which were all broken, except one sarcophagus in Greek marble, chiselled with graceful figures of the nine Muses in bas-relief, now at the Albani villa. About the same period was opened, outside the Porta Pinciana, a complete necro- polis of similar sepulchres for urn burial, with the ollae for ashes, and the epitaphs all in their places. In 1731 were found between the second and third mile on the Via Claudia, under a vineyard, the remains of a large sepulchre with a flight of steps leading down to a vaulted chamber, where stood intact a beautiful vase of Oriental alabaster on a marble sarcophagus containing ashes, among which lay two gold rings set with emeralds ; also another 400 niSTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL BOME. large sarcophagus, encrusted with Parian marble, upon which stood several tazze, together with a curious and elaborately wrought vessel of bronze still containing the charcoal in which incense had been left to shed fragrance in the darkness of the tomb. We have also general ac- counts, by writers who were eye-witnesses, of the discovery of numerous columbaria and other sepulchres upon the riaminian, Ostian, Tiburtine, Praenestine, Labiean and Portuense Ways; of others along an extent of several miles on the Aurelian Way — all eventually filled up with soil and. lime for the purposes of agriculture ! A method adopted for rendering the sepulchi-e not only inviolate, but undiscoverable to future ages, was by ex- cavating the rock or soil of some mound, or suitable de- clivity, so as to form a chamber for the dead ; there consigning the ashes, or unconsumed corpse, and closing the ingress with a rock, or concealing it with shelved-up earth so that neither record might tell, nor any natural appearance betray, where death had thus its inviolable sanc- tuary, supposed to be secure. Such a description of tomb was found in the course of works for the paving of a road, at the third mile on the Via Plaminia (seeBellori and Ficoroni) ; another (seen by the latter of those writers) was discovered, in the working of a quarry, on the declivity of Mount Al- gidus. Another expedient for preserving the relics of the dead, together with precious objects laid beside them, was by cleaving asunder a mass of the hardest stone, depositing the cinerary urn in the carefully fashioned bed ; then reuniting the two fragments, and inserting the whole in the pavement of a sepulchral chamber. Such an extraordinary tomb came to light in the last century, when several sepulchres were opened on the Tiburtine Way, near the extramural S. Lo- renzo : the labourers having removed a block of peperino from the floor of an underground chamber, the whole mass SEPULCHRES, MAUSOLEA AND FUNEBAL RITES. 401 fell into pieces, revealing in the cavity at its centre a beautiful porphyry vase, containing the bones of a child and a gold ring set with a cornelian bearing the figure of a Chimaera. (v. Eicoroni's description of this curious discovery.) The conventional terms of antique Eoman epitaphs, represented by initials, are of such constant recurrence that the following key may be serviceable, though I cannot afford space for the entire series : S • E • Mc situs est. M • S • or D • I • M ; JDiis manibus sacrum ; Diis inferis manihus. or M * Quieti, Memoriae K • deotg Karax^ovioig, to the infernal Gods; as in Latin, Diis manibus et genio. X • fivr)nr}g x^P'^^y *^ memoriam ; K I, Keirai, jacet. H • D • M • Amico hoc dedit monumentum. • F • C • Amico optimo faciendum curavit. M * or B • DE SE M • Benemerenti, or Bene de se merenti. Q — B • V • Bene quiescat, Bene vale. S • H • Communi sumptu heredum. S • E • C • De suo faciendum curavit. 1 ' M • C * V . JExjure manium conservatum voco. I • Fieri jussit. T • E • I • S • Ecc testamento fieri jussit sihi. L • N • K Sac lege nihil rogatur. I • O • Ser. • Teste Jove optimo Servatore. D * P • L ' P * Tit de piano legi possit. B • A • vTTo (iovXrJQ Soy/xart,i.e. . hg decree of the Senate. H ' M • H • N ' S . Hoc monumentum heredes non sequitur. 2 D 402 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. N*V'N'D'N-P*0, Negue yendetur, neque do- nahitur, neque pignori obligabitur. Abundant and interesting illustration of the practice and belief connected with last rites, of the honours due to the dead, and the theories respecting their invisible existence are found in Latin Literature, especially in the poets — Virgil, Horace, Propertius, TibuUus, Statins, Catul- lus, Claudian.* The general testimony of epitaphs and funereal art leads us to infer that, whatever the doctrines of philosophic schools may have been, belief in a future life prevailed, and in the popular mind was more deeply -rooted than the opposite scepticism, especially in that period during which the evidence from poetic literature is so abundantly supplied — the second and third centuries of our era.f It is true that such consolatory belief is often contradicted and ignored even in words chiselled on the tombstone ; and in some instances we find the most boldly avowed materialism in the language ascribed to those passed from mortal life, as in epitaphs like the following: Nonfueras^ nunc es iterum, * Horace, 1. I. 24, 28, ii, 3, 6, iv, 7 ; Ovid, Trist. 1. v. 14 ; ex Pont. 1.9; Propertius, 1. iii., El. 1, 2, 6, 10, 14; Tibullus, 1. 1, El. 2,4 ; Catullus, 1. iii. EL 2, Carw. iii. 37 ; Statius, Syh. 1. ii. 1, v. 1 ; Val. Flaccus,^rsron. l.i. 781 ; Silius Italicus, Punic 1. iii.30 ; Ausonius, Parent. ix. xviii. xix ; Claudianus, In Rufin. 1. 1 1 ; and (most important) the entire book vi. of the ^neid. t Not merely a vague idea, but an immortal truth is implied in the affecting lines with which the dying Priscilla takes leave of her hus- band Abascantius in the beautiful poem by Statius, " Abascantii in Priscillam Pietas." (Sylv. v. 1.) After enjoining the fulfilment of her last wishes by the survivor, she adds : Sic ego ncc Furias nee deteriora videbo Tartara, et Elysias fclix admittar in oras. SEPULCHRES, MAUSOLEA AND lUNERAL RITES. 403 nunc desines esse — Es^ hibe, lude, vent —v,nth the obvious moral : " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die."* Eeligious instruction was no part of the duties required from Flamens, Augurs, Pontiffs, or other Heathen priests ; and the eloquence with which exalted minds, Cicero, Seneca, and others, proclaimed the high destinies of the imperishable soul, could not reach the multitude. Even the Elysium of their apprehension was but a shadowy, unreal and unsatisfying state, whose enjoyments were the pale reflex of earthly pastimes. Virgil shares the opinions of Homer with respect to the Elysian existence which he could, nevertheless, describe in exquisite poetry.f Horace, in the admired ode to Dellius, (1. ii. 3), whilst dwelling on the sources of moral strength open to philosophic minds, does not point to any enduring reward won by virtue as a star of consolation or guidance amidst life's tempestuous voyage. Totally different are the grounds on which he would support the serene dignity of a soul superior to * In the course of the works for the new *' confession," or crypt- chapel, at St. Peter's, was found below the old buildings, in 1626, a sepulchre with the recumbent statue of a man holding a tazza in his hand, and an epitaph so sensual and materialistic that it was destroyed as a thing scandalous, though not before a copy, which Fabretti pre- serves for us {Insc. dom. c. V. 387), had been made. f " He thoroughly adopts Homer's view of the incomparable supe • riority of the life of the upper world to the best possible estate in the land of shadows," repeating " the sad lament of Achilles in the Iliad — that the life of a slave on earth was more to be desired than the colour- less existence of the heroes in Elysium." (CoUins's Virgil in " Ancient Classics for English Readers.") The Latin Poet's doctrine of the return of souls to earth for a second probationary course, doomed to com- mence the mundane career again, after the Lethaean draught had steeped all memories in profound forgetfulness, is distinctly enounced in the sixth book of the -3Cneid. . 2 D 2 404 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME, vicissitude.* The manes are sometimes invoked as beings endowed with superhuman powers ; yet Cicero mentions the rejection, even by the popular mind, of the old fables regarding them. (Tusc. 1. 21, 48.) On the other hand, we find the extreme opposite idea as to their divine attributes expressed in the appeal of a husband to his deceased wife : " Spare, most beloved, spare thy husband, I pray thee, that he may yet for many, many years ever bring sacrifices and garlands to thee, and fill the lamps with sweet-smelling oil" — namely, in the sepulchral chamber.f Apparitions of the dead are mentioned by Plutarch (Dio. c. ii., Cimon, c. i.), Dion. (Ixxvii. 15), Suetonius (Caius Cses. c. lix) ; and in a romantic tale of horrors, quite according to the more modern * Firm be thy soul ! — serene in power, When adverse fortune clouds the sky ; Undazzled by the triumph's hour, Since, Dellius, thou must die ! * * * For thou, resigning to thine heir, Thy halls, thy bowers, thy treasured store, Must leave that home, those woodlands fair, On yellow Tiber's shore. What then avails it if thou trace From Inachus thy glorious line, Or, sprung from some ignoble race, If not a roof be thine ? Since the dread lot for all must leap Forth from the dark revolving urn, And we must tempt the gloomy deep Whence exiles ne'er return. (Translated by F. H.) t V. Freidlander, " Sittengeschichte Roms." That learned writer states, with respect to the custom mentioned above of supplying the obolus, laid in the tomb, for passage money in Charon's bark, that it pre- vailed from the middle of the fourth to the second century, B.C. ; and was kept up in western Europe till mediaeval periods. SEPULCHEES, MAUSOLEA AND FUNERAL RITES. 4'0o ghost-story type, by the younger Pliny. (Ep. 1. vii. 27.) A testimony to the elevation of religious thought, and its power of attaining convictions that console and purify, guided by the light vouchsafed assuredly to the Heathen as well as the Christian mind, is before us in the memorable words of Cicero, (DeLegibus, 1. ii. x.) ; " When the law commands us to render divine honours to those of the human race who have been consecrated as Deities, such as Hercules and the rest of the demi-gods, it indicates that the souls of all men are indeed immortal, but that those of Saints and Heroes are divine." The Roman Emperors were variously dealt with, accord- ing to their deserts during life, in the funeral and in the tomb. There is a legend associated with the no longer extant sepulchre of Nero, highly characteristic of the temper with which mediaeval Home dwelt on, and interpreted, the memories of her historic Past, On the height of the Pincian hill extended north-east- ward the gardens of the Domitian gens, the ancestors of Nero, where a faithful few gave to that Emperor's remains a decent sepulture in the ancestral monument of that family. One there was who afforded affecting proof of attachment to his memory by strewing flowers on his tomb.* But popular feeling, which reserves the vengeance of tra- ditionary hate for the crimes of the powerful, learned to mark that grave with infamy ; and terror, sprung from • When Nero perished, by the justest doom "Which ever the destroyer yet destroyed, Amidst the roar of liberated Rome, Of nations freed, and the world orerjoyed, Some hands unseen strewed flowers upon his tomb : Perhaps the weakness of a heart not void Of feeling for some kindness done, when power Had left the Wretch an uncorrupted hour. Byron. 406 IIISTOKIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. that feeliDg, overshadowed the spot. A walnut-tree, which grew near, was believed to be haunted; amidst its branches were heard strange sounds and seen stranger sights, demo- niac faces that gibbered horribly, and superhuman eyes which glared in the dark, appalling passengers ; till at last none would venture by that way, and the whole neighbour- hood fell into disrepute. About the year 1099 Pope Pas- chal II., moved by such preternatural portents, ordered public prayers for three days, at the end of which the Blessed Virgin signified to him in a dream that he should demolish the ill-omened sepulchre and cut down the tree which sheltered it, throw the ashes of Nero into the Tiber, and sanctify the spot by founding thereon a temple dedi- cated to herself. All this the Pontiff punctually performed : he cut down the tree, laid the first stone of a church ; and, to accelerate the purification of that accursed grdund, caused the building, even before its completion, to be consecrated, many Cardinals and Bishops assisting. What was yet wanted for the worlis was supplied by voluntary contributions ; hence did the church take its name, appropriately demo- cratic—" S. Mary of the People." One regrets to find this significant legend passed over in silence by authorities on Church History, Baronius and others. ;;;-^Among observances of deep significance, after the deaths of princes, was that of casting stones at temples and over- throwing altars, while, as in times of public calamity, all shops were shut and all business suspended. Such honours were paid to the dead Augustus as had seldom, if ever, been witnessed in Eome, and implied the readiness on the part of the once republican citizens to sanction the highest pretensions, if not to submit to the unlimited despotism, of other Rulers.* With the aid of the descrip- * Dion Cassius gives the fullest account of the Emperor's funeral: " First the body was laid on an ivory couch with purple hangings em- SEPULCHRES, MAUSOLEA AND FUNERAL RITES. 407 tion by Strabo we may call up before mental vision the mausoleum which was erected for himself and his suc- cessors by that Emperor in the year B.C. 27 : " It was raised to a considerable elevation on foundations of white marble, and covered to the summit with plantations of evergreen trees. A bronze statue of Augustus surmounted the whole. In the interior were sepulchral chambers, con- taining his ashes and those of his family. The ground was laid out in groves and public walks." — The disposal of the sculptured adornments on the Eoman broidered with gold ; but concealed in a coffin. In front (of the proces- sion) appeared his (Augustas') statue in triumphal robes, and carried from the Palatine by those designated as magistrates for the ensuing year. Another image entirely of gold was carried from the senate- house; a third was borne on a triumphal chariot, and in the rear followed the effigies of his ancestors and other relations who had died before him, except that of Julius Ciesar, who had been enrolled among the Gods. Next came the images of all the ancient Romans who had been illus- trious, from Romulus to Pompeius the Great, whose effigy also appeared amongthe rest. Emblems were also displayed (in the pageantry) represent- ing all the provinces which he (Augustus) had conquered. In this order they proceeded to the Forum, where the body was set down." Afier ihe funeral oration pronounced by Tiberius from the Rostra Julii (before the .i^Edes Caesaris) the procession passed in prescribed order, attended by all the Senators, all the knights with their wives, and an iiiunense multitude of the Roman people, to the Campus Martins, taking the route by way of the Porta Triumphalis. There, when the body was placed on the pyre (as the historian continues), " the chief priests first moved in procession around it ; after these, the knights and magistrates in like manner ; and the heavy-armed guard {ottXitikov) thronged thither (to the place of cremation), and threw upon the pyre all the insignia they had won by signalizing themselves in his (the Emperor's) service. When this was finished, the Centurions set fire to the pile, which was soon in flames ; and at the same time an eagle was seen to fly up from it, mounting in the air as if it carried the soul of Augustus to heaven. When all these rites were finished, every one retired except Livia, Avho remained there five days with the most distinguished knights, and at last collected the bones, which she laid in the tomb." 408 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. mausolea generally was prescribed, and of finely imagined details. Along the upper part were friezes with relievi of Bacchic triumphs, the labours of Hercules, or other Mytho- logic subjects interpreted in a profound sense. On the summit stood statues of the dead personified as deities (». the above quoted lines of Statins), and sometimes that of the Grenius of Death. On gables, or other uppermost archi- tectural parts, were masks or votive tablets. When the monument was in two storeys the upper served for funeral rites and sacrifice, the lower only for interment. If the roof were domical, it was surmounted by a bronze pine-cone. Cypresses were usually planted around the building. The adjacent triclinia were adorned with appropriate paintings and mosaic pavements. The Augustan Mausoleum was a rotunda about 225 feet in diameter, with a hall, alike circular, in the midst, around which the statues of the Caesars were ranged ; and external to which were (probably on each storey) fourteen cham- bers, one on the ground-floor serving as a vestibule, the others for sepulture. The sole entrance, on the southern side,was flanked by obelisks, both which, after being long left broken and forgotten, are now placed erect, one on the Esquiline, the other on the Quirinal hill. The ashes first laid in this monument were those of the early-lost Mar- cellus, son of Octavia, Augustus' sister, by her first husband Claudius Marcellus. That nephew and destined heir of the Emperor died, at the age of twenty- two, B.C. 22, deeply lamented, and immortalized in the lines of Virgil in which this stately tomb is mentioned, and on hearing which read by the poet himself the mother swooned away.* Next in suc- * This youth (the blissful vision- of a day) Shall just be shown on earth and snatched away. The Gods too high had raised the Roman state, . Were but their gifts as permanent as great. SEPULCHRES, MAUSOLEA AND FUNERAL RITES. 409 cession, among the ranks of death, were laid in this sepulchre the ashes of Agrippa (b.c. 12), Octavia (b.c. 11), and Drusus, the son of Livia by her first husband and younger brother of Tiberius (B.C. 9). Affecting allusion to these losses in the same family and among those allied to it by marriage is introduced in the elegy •' de Morte Drusi Neronis " (or " Consolatio ad Liviam") by either Pedo Albinovanus or Ovid — a poem which records, in pathetic language, the observances and the thoughts referring to the dead in ancient Eome : Condidit Agrippam, quo te, Marcelle, a sepulcro * * * Vix posito Agrippa tumuli bene janua clausa est: Perficit oflScium funeris ecce soror. Ecce, ter ante datis, jactura novissiraa, Prusus A magno lacrimas Csesare quartus habet. Claudite jam, Parcae, nimia reserata sepulcra: . Claudite, plus justo jam domus ista patet. The ashes of Nerva were the last laid in this mausoleum (a.d. 96), after which funeral it remained shut. On a night of horrors it was broken into with violence by the Gothic soldiery, led by the hope of finding treasures beside the dead, during the sack of Eome in 409. Suetonius and Dion mention an awe-striking portent, among others said to have occurred before the death of Vespasian: the mysterious opening of this sepulchral pile— its sole portal moving on What groans of men shall fill the Martian field ! How fierce a blaze his flaming pile shall yield ! "What funeral pomp shall floating Tiber see, When, rising from his bed, he views the sad solemnity ! The Trojan honour, and the Roman boast, Admired when living, and adored when lost. Dryden's " Virgil." For these lines Octavia rewarded the poet with a sum equivalent to X2000 sterling. 410 niSTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. the massive hinges without human touch.* Prom the end of the first century we lose sight of this mausoleum till the mediaeval period, when (like many other antique edifices) it was converted into a fortress by the Colonna family — thenceforth popularly called " Agosta." On the 30th May, 1167, the Romans were defeated by the Tusculans, and in a frenzy of suspicion against the Colonnas, whom they accused of the treason which they wished to believe Avas cause of that defeat, vented their wrath against this edifice by devastating and, so far as possible, demolishing it. The crumbling vaults and the inner walls are supposed to have been ruined by that onset. The fortified tomb, however, still served for the same purposes ; and in 1241 was held by a Cardinal Colonna, a partizan of the Emperor Frederick II., and consequently opposed to the reigning Pope, Gregory IX. A Senator appointed by that Pontiff attacked this fortress with the civic troops under his com- mand, and took it with violence. Yet the ruined fortress still belonged to the Colonnas at the time of a wild strange proceeding which took place, probably, in a court beneath its embattled rotunda — the burning of the body of Cola di E.ienzo by a multitude of Jews ; those mutilated remains after being dragged through the streets, were (by the desire of the Colonna family) consumed here on a pile of dry thistles. Poggio Bracciolini saw this mausoleum in con- dition like an earth-covered mound, planted with trees ; and in the following century (the XVI.) Andrea Fulvio de- scribes it as nearly in the same state as at present. Sante Bartoli {Sepolcri Antichi) supplies an engraving of it, date 1768, showing the outer circuit of walls still erect, with more or less of their original altitude in different parts. In * "Among other prodigies, the mausoleum of the Caesars flew open on a sudden, and a blazing star appeared in the heavens." Sueton. Vesjyas. xxiii. SEPULCHRES, MAUSOLEA AND FUNEEAL KITES. 411 1773 works were undertaken for clearing away the debris, and laying open what still remained of classic architecture among these ruins. Towards the end of the same century the highest storey, which rests (like an ample terrace) on the enormous mass of ruined masonry below, was converted into an amphitheatre for alfresco entertainments, equestrian displays, jousts, fireworks, &c., among others bull and buffalo-baiting, already a favourite amusement of the Roman populace, which was first exhibited on this arena 1780, and here continued till at last, and for ever, prohibited by the estimable Pope Pius VIII., 1829. Theatrical performances on a temporary stage now divide public attention with the equestrian shows in this whimsically metamorphosed and outraged mausoleum. Such scenes as are now beheld within the circle of amusements so strangely located, may remind us of Shakespeare's lines : — Imperial Caesar, dead and turned to clay, &c. From the inner courts of two buildings, one in the Via de' Pontejici, the other a " palazzo" in the Via Bipetta, along the Tiber-bank, are seen remnants of the great ro- tunda in reticulated masonry, now totally stript of its marble encrustations, with a crown of heavy mediaeval battlements. From the level of the amphitheatric arena the custode leads us into four dim-lit vaulted chambers, one of which is supposed, indeed appears, to be a portion of the corridor lead- ing into a central hall, where probably the ashes of the first imperial master of Home were laid, together with the statues of his successors there subsequently erected. By the light of a lamp, lowered through a chiuk, we have a glimpse into a dark abyss, not yet accesible. Erom the cortile of the " palazzo," in Via Eipetta, we can penetrate farther towards the heart of this mysterious pile, hitherto so little explored or made permeable ; and here, on the ground-floor of its 412 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. rotunda, we recognize, as still entire, that southern ingress by which alone the vast tomb could be entered in ancieut times, and the gates of which opened spontaneously, as if to admit one more of the imperial dead, though not of the Augustan house, when Vespasian was about to expire ! The neglect of these ruins, and the failure of even attempting to discover further what time and man have hitherto spared or left recognizable on this site, are among the least pardonable instances of disregard for classic anti- quity in Home. Near the mausoleum was the enclosed ustrina^ where the bodies of the imperial family were reduced to ashes. On its site have been found several cinerary urns and cippi, (now in the Vatican) ; among the latter, the funeral cippus, with an epitaph, on which was placed the urn containing the ashes of the high-souled Agrippina, wife of Germani- cus and mother of Caius Caesar. This now stands, but without its urn, in the court of the Conservators* Palace on the Capitol. Agrippina, incurring the hatred of Tiberius, was banished to the island of Pandataria, where she died of famine by order of that tyrant. One of the few good deeds recorded of her son was his care to collect her ashes with his own hands, besides those of his brother, alike the victim of Tiberius, who had been exiled till death on the other Mediterranean isle of Ponza. Those relics, brought to Rome by way of Ostia, thence up the Tiber, were deposited with honours in the Augustan mausoleum by the Emperor Caius, who ordered yearly solemnities (inferiae) in memory of those victims ; also Circensian games for the special honour of his mother, her chariot being drawn in the long array of the customary procession. (Sueton. Ccesar Calig. XV.) After the funeral of Nerva the chambers in the Augustan mausoleum could admit no other relics of the dead. Trajan's ashes were immured in the column raised to him SEPULCHRES, MAUSOLEA AND FUNEBAL RITE^. 413 by the grateful Senate. His successor, Hadrian, determined to erect another mausoleum for himself and those who should reign after him, in the gardens of Domitia, near the left bank of the Tiber ; and also to connect that edifice by a bridge with the river's opposite bank, for suitable approach. Both sepulchre and bridge were built in the nineteenth year of Hadrian's reign, between a.d. 135 and 136. Eemembering that Emperor's history, one looks with interest upon his stately tomb, which has passed through such strange vicissitudes. In Hadrian, as in Trajan and the Antonines, we see personified the better genius of Rome's Empire, the intellectual and beneficent principle among those who ruled over it. Notwithstanding his vices, the adopted son and successor of Trajan aimed at a high standard of mental accomplishments and public duties. He founded or magnificently restored temples and fora. More liberal even than his predecessor in public charities, he pro- vided for indigent children, for senators, knights and magis- trates, who had fallen into poverty. Seventeen out of the twenty years of his reign were spent by him in journeys, during which he left tokens of royal generosity among the cities and provinces visited. Marching on foot and bare- headed, like the humblest soldier in his armies, the Euler of the Eoman world thus crossed the eternal snows of the Alps and the sands of African deserts, dispensing benefits around him, while apparently bent on self-culture and the attainment of profitable knowledge. Eeturning to his metropolis, he de- sired political improvements, and to some extent remodelled the internal administration ; suppressed republican forms now devoid of meaning, and created a species of Council of State in which able jurisconsults were called to assist him by their advice and wisdom. Laws were enacted forbid- ding masters to sell their slaves as gladiators or for in- famous professions ; and depriving them of the right to 414 niSTOIlTC AND MONUMENTAL BOME. inflict death on the slaves possessed by them. This accom- plished Emperor excelled in eloquence, philosophy, sciences, as also in the fine arts, sculpture, painting, music. Yet, however enlightened, he did not object to being worshipped as a god in the temple of Jupiter Olympus at Athens, a fane completed by him 560 years after it had been com- menced. In that city, to which he gave a constitution modelled on the antique, he caused himself to be initiated in the Eleusinian Mysteries. Hadrian seems, with all his virtues, vices, talents, and superstitions, an embodiment of ancient civilization and of the Eoman Imperial Power in its brighter aspects, strikingly displayed on its throne. Yet his death-bed was darkened by despair.* More than once, while dying, did he attempt suicide ; and the lines composed by him in an interval of calm, shortly before life's last moment, express that almost hopeless uncer- tainty as to the soul's future which so often appears in the epitaphs and elegiac verse of Heathen antiquity : Animula, vagula, blandula, Hospes, comesque corporis Quae nunc obibis in loca ? Pallidula, rigida, nudnla, Nee, ut soles, dabis jocos. Under such a Euler, as under the Antonines also, the Empire seemed at the apogee of well-established greatness and splendour. We must read its history by the light of subsequent times in order to solve the problem of its ulti- mate fate, to understand the causes of its corruption and decay. "With the aid of a description by Procopius, and of the magnificently designed restoration in Canina's work * He died at Baiae, a.d. 138, aged probably sixty-two (though Spar- tianns makes him seventy-two), after reigning little less than twenty- one years. SEPULCHRES, MAUSOLEA AND FUI^ERAL BITES. 415 (" Architettura Eomana"), wemay form to ourselves a pic- ture of the Mausoleum of >Hadrian in its pristine beauty and completeness.* From an immense quadrangular basement rose, between the Vatican declivities and the yellow Tiber, the first storey, also quadrangular, with Doric pilasters and arched recesses in which were placed funereal tablets with epitaphs ; a cornice and frieze extended along the four fronts, and at the angles stood colossal equestrian statues. Above this rose the great rotunda with walls of massive stonework, embellished by a colonnade of the Doric order, this being divided into two storeys, the upper with a Corin- thian colonnade ; the whole surmounted by a dome, on the apex of which was placed a bronze pine-cone. The traver- tine masonry of the rotunda was encrusted with Parian marble ; and statues of the imperial persons here entombed stood in the inter-columnations around, f The last Em- peror whose ashes were laid here was Septimius Severus, who died at York, when on a campaign in Britain, a d. 211. His body was first consigned to the flames on a funeral pyre near that city ; the ashes, laid in a golden urn, were brought to Eome. Spartianus (see his life of the same Em- peror) states this fact, but Dion Cassius says that an urn of porphyry was the receptacle in which the relics were placed in this monument. In such an urn were the ashes of H adrian brought from Baiee to be here entombed. It is probable that all such imperial relics were alike laid first, after being removed from the pyre, in golden urns, which were placed * The first among the purple-rohed dead whose ashes were laid within these walls was the adopted son of Hadrian, Lucius CElius Verus, who died before that Emperor, and whose worthless and licentious cha- racter did not debar him from the honours of apotheosis, besides those of the imperial obsequies. t " StatusB ex eodem et Pario marmore virorum equorumque, miro artificio facta, desuper insident." Procopius, "De Bello Gothorum," 1. 1. 41G HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. in the ampler tombs, or Barcophagi, of porphyry destined to occupy recesses in the sepulchral chambers. The mur- dered Geta was buried in the tomb of the Septimian family, still extant in ruin, on the Appian Way. Henceforth the great Mausoleum remained shut, and in undisturbed silence till the catastrophe of the Gothic siege and sack, a.d. 409, exposed this, alike with the Augustan monument on the Campus Martius, to barbaric spoliation. "What a subject for poet or painter would be that irruption of the fierce soldiery led by Alaric, and which perhaps occurred on the first night of their triumph over the captured city, into the hitherto inviolate halls of the imperial dead ! It is certain that before the Gothic war and sieges of Eome in the VI. cen- tury, this mausoleum had been fortified. Gibbon concludes that it was first so utilized by Belisarius in his preparations for defending the city before the siege, a.d. 537 ; but the fact that it was long previously called " Career Theodorici," seems to justify the inference that the Ostrogothic king, Theodoric, had first converted this sepulchre into a castle, and perhaps during his sojourn in E-ome, a.d. 500. During that long Gothic war which commenced in 536, the build- ing was attacked by those invaders under their king Vitiges, and defended by the Greek soldiers of Belisarius. The Goths attempted to take it by escalade, and at this emergency the Greeks adopted the expedient of hurling down from the battlemfents the classic sculptures, colossal statues and others, by which they succeeded in repelling the assailants at infinite loss to the interests of art. All those precious sculptures, sacrificed by the Vandalism not of barbarians but Greeks,* lay for ages buried in earth, before * " Communi tamen consensu, diffractis marmoreis istis vastisque simulachris, ex eomm fragmentis ingentia saxa in hostium capite superne devolrunt; Gothi vero percussi oppugnationem remittunt." Procopius, 1. i. SEPULCHRES, MAUSOLEA AND FUNERAL RITES. 417 a few were at last recovered. In the time of Urban VIII. some works for deepening the moat of the castle led to the exhuming of the celebrated statue of the Faun, now at Munich, known by the name of that Pope's relatives (into whose hands it first passed) as the " Barbarini Faun." Sub- sequently was found the other statue of a Faun dancing, now in the Uffizi Gallery at Florence ; also a colossal bust of Hadrian, now in the Vatican. Knowing what was the revival and the liberal encouragement of Art (especially sculpture) under that Emperor, we may imagine the merits of the rest among those antiques not hitherto exhumed. It is said that a bronze pine-cone crowned the apex of the mausoleum ; this and two bronze peacocks (symbols of im- mortality), which probably stood beside the sole original entrance, were placed in the outer court (the paradisus) before S. Peter's by Pope Symmachus (498-514) — long previous to their removal to their actual place in a garden of the Vatican palace. In 549 the " castle of Theodoric" was taken by the Gothic soldiers of Totila from a Greek garrison ; the latter having sustained a vigorous assault before they capitulated, urged by famine, after which all (with exception of their captains) passed over to the enemy. Thus did the classic mausoleum become a stronghold of Gothic invaders, who held it during three years, namely, till the occupation of Eome by Narses after Totila's death. After that final success of the Greeks, which terminated the Gothic war in Italy, the hostile garrison surrendered on condition of safety to life for all in this fortress. The year 590 is the date assigned to the event in which originated (according to legend) the new name for this fortified sepulchre. A dreadful pestilence visited Rome in that year, and among the victims was the Pope, Pelagius II., elected (578) whilst the city was beleaguered by the invading Longobards. The saintly successor to that pontiff, 2 E 418 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. Gregory I., had scarcely entered upon his sacred office before he ordered, as means for deprecating the Divine wrath and exciting such piety as might console or strengthen the afflicted, a great penitential procession in- cluding all orders of the clergy and citizens of both sexes. Arriving at the bridge (then called that of S. Peter) built by Hadrian as an approach to his tomb, the holy Pontiff saw, hovering over that antique pile, an Angel sheathing a sword, while celestial voices were heard chanting the anthem, now introduced by the Church in her Vesper-office : Megina coelij laetare, quia quern meruisti portare resurrexity sicut dixit J Alleluja ; — to which S. Gregory responded : Ora pro nobis DeuTUj alleluja! But many centuries passed before the " Castle of S. Angelo" became a familiar term. Alternately known as career and castrum, it is called by the Anonymous of Einsiedlin (about a.d. 800) the Adria- nium ; subsequently, from the tenth century, the arx or turris Crescentii ; other names, given to it in the Mirabilia, and in documents of the Xllth century, being templurriy and castellum Adriani. S. Peter Damian (XI. century) is one of the first who calls it, in reference to that miraculous manifestation, the " Mountain of the Angel" — montem qui dicitur S. Angeli* The period, in the X. century, during which this castle (as the sepulchre may now be called) was the stronghold of a usurping and profligate faction, headed by the notorious * In the procession of the Roman parochial clergy from the S. Marco church to S. Peter's, on S. Mark's day, the Canons of S. Maria Maggiore and the Franciscan Friars of Aracoeli (both which churches claim to possess the identical Madonna-picture said to have been carried by Pope S. Gregory in the penitential solemnities during the plague), so soon as they arrive at the S. Angelo bridge join in the chanted anti- phon: Regina coeli, laetare — thus commemorating the vision of the Archangel over the Mole of Hadrian. SEPULCHEES, MAUSOLEA AND FUNEBAL KITES. 419 Marozia (daughter of one Theophylactus, who bore the title of patrician, duke, and " Senator Eomanorum"), and bj her successive husbands, has been often dwelt on and held up to due opprobrium by historians, especially by the contemporary Luitprand, Bishop of Cremona.* From A.D. 974 this castle was held for several years by Crescentius, a daring leader of energetic spirit, whose object was to put down the temporal domination of the Popes. For this purpose he raised up an Antipope (Fran- cone, a Cardinal Deacon), who conspired with him against the legitimately elected Benedict VI. That ill-fated Pontiff was arrested, imprisoned, and after a short time strangled, in this same building. With the complicity of the pretender, Crescentius doomed to similar fate another Pontiff, John XIV., who was here also imprisoned and put to death, either by starvation or poisoning, 984. Another Antipope was raised up for brief usurpation by Crescentius. Otho III., the young Grerman Emperor, arrived in Rome a.d. 998, accompanied by the legitimate Pontiff, Gregory V., who had been driven from his throne and See. The Castle, after several assaults by the troops under that Emperor, was cap- tured, but on terms of surrender with guarantee for the life of Crescentius, notwithstanding which that leader was almost immediately put to death — either decapitated, with twelve of his followers, or thrown down from the battlements, and afterwards hanged from a beam. Still more to the reproach * Marozia's first husband was Alberic, Consul of Rome and Marquis of Camerino ; the second, Guido, Duke or Marquis of Tuscany ; the third, Hugo, Marquis of Provence, who was elected King of Italy, and crowned at Pavia, a. d. 926. Her son by the first marriage, Alberic, excited a revolt against his step-father, the foreign King, who was com- pelled to escape from the castle by stealth, after which Marozia was mercilessly consigned to imprisonment within the same gloomy walls by her own son, and (it seems) for the rest of her life. 2e2 420 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. of the victor were the wrongs of Crescentiua's widow, Stefania, now exposed to brutal outrage, which she avenged — if a romantic story be true, — by Otho's death. Having gained his confidence, and become either his wife or favourite, she is said to have administered the poison of which that Emperor died, a.d. 1002.— (Bollandists, ^c^a, 16 Mariii.) In 1063 the " tower of Crescentius," as this edifice waa called after the events above alluded to, was occupied by another chief of the same name, probably descended from the former, who supported another Antipope, Cadolaus, and was besieged by the citizens, faithful to their legitimate Pontiff, Alexander 11. This siege lasted for two years (with what damage to the edifice may be inferred), till finally termi- nated by the withdrawal of Cadolaus, unable longer to sustain his pretensions. In 1084 a third Crescentius gave refuge within these walls to the heroic Gregory YII. while his most deadly foe, the Emperor Henry IV, occupied Eome with a German army ; but the intervention of the Norman, Bobert Guiscard, saved the much-tried Pontiff from foreign and domestic foes. In 1099, Urban II. obtained the Castle by armed force from the party of the Antipope, Guibertus, who had held it for eight years. In 1130 were elected on the same day the Pope historically ranking as legitimate, Innocent II., and Anacletus II., considered an Antipope. The latter long maintained his pretensions by armed force against the rival claimant, defending himself in this castle till the better accredited cause of Innocent * " Incidit in insidias mulieris malae, videlicet ejus cujas virum Crescentium, sibi rebellantem, captum jusserat capitalem subire senten- tiam ; et ab ilia non praecavens, quamvis a sancto viro saepius esset commonitus, vencno intra cubiculum dormiens infectus est." — Life of St. Ecribert, Archbishop of Cologne. SEPULCHRES, MAUSOLEA AND FUNEKAL EITES. 421 prevailed. Again was the " S. Angelo" assailed, now by the Emperor Frederick I. in 1167, but defended with valour by the troops of Pope Alexander III. It was oc- cupied by Eobert of Naples during the Papal residence at Avignon, that King opposing the Emperor Louis VII., who came to Eome for his coronation in 1313 ; it was seized by the popular party, risen against the nobles, opposing both the Guelphic and Ghibelline cause, after the de- parture of that G-erman Emperor; and subsequently was held by a democratic leader invested with dictatorial power, Arlotto degli Stefaneschi, who banished several baronial families, demolished their towers, and destined Hadrian's Mausoleum for the same fate, from which it was rescued by the timely interference of the Orsini, who continued to be chatelains of this fortress for many years. Kienzo abode within these walls during a few days ; and hence, at the close of the first act in his life's marvellous drama, did he take flight.* On the arrival of Grregory XI. from Avignon, bent on restoring the Holy See to Eome, the keys of the Castle were sent to him at Corneto, where he landed, 1376. A French chatelaiu joined the cause of the Antipope, raised up against his immediate successor. Urban VI., and made war from this fortress against the citizens, who, to avenge themselves, became the aggressors in turn, and besieged the Castle during a whole year, till the garrison was constrained by famine to surrender, 1378. After this the enraged citizens, whose homes had been set on fire or demolished by the missiles hurled from the * On the 15th of December, 1347, a movement having been raised against him, (the Tribune), he retired into the Castle with an escort of armed men, whilst his wife fled from Rome in the disguise of a friar. Shortly afterwards Rienzo attempted, but in vain, to assemble the people on the Capitol by the well-known signal of the bell. After this he fled to Bohemia. " Vita di Cola Rienzo," edited by Muratori, and (later) by Zeferino Re, from a contemporary writer. 422 IIISTOEIC AWD MOI^UMENTAL HOME. battlements, attempted to destroy the entire building. But the Btupeudous strength of its ancient masonry baffled their efforts ; the mausoleum still stood after the fortress had been dismantled ; and thus did it remain, a desolate and useless, but no doubt grandly picturesque ruin, till restored, and again converted into a fortress, about the close of the XIV. century, by Pope Boniface IX. It is described, in its mutilated state, by an eye-witness, Theo- doric da Niem, writing in the same century. That onset by the Roman people had so far succeeded as entirely to deprive the imperial monument of all that remained of its classic ornamentation, and all that indicated its architectural character in antiquity — marble incrustations, cornices, and sepulchral slabs left in situ. All the marble was stript off and used for paving streets ; two only of the epitaphs being spared, and left in their places till the XVI century. During the interval that the building remained in such desolate state, goats browsed among these ruins. Pope Boniface IX., before ordering the renewed fortifications, took the precaution of forbidding the removal of the traver- tine stones and blocks of marble, which, it seems, all who wanted them were accustomed to carry away — as the ruins of the Colosseum used to be alike treated in former ages. The actual state of the stonework in the lower part of the rotunda shows traces of the efforts to destroy, after stripping it of its outer crust. Another writer who saw these ruins about a.d. 1329, Benvenuto di Eambaldi, a commentator on Dante, represents them as more damaged than we might infer from the words of the above-named Theodoric : istud sumptuosum opus destructum et prostratum est ("that magnificent structure is now destroyed and levelled with the ground.") Henceforth we have to consider the Mole of Hadrian as a fortress of the Popes, developed to its present state in the r SEPULCHKES, MAUSOLEA AND FUNERAL KITES. 423 VII. century ; the antique being preserved but in its lower portion, the rest entirely modern. "We easily discern the line of demarcation between the massive travertine of the imperial monument and the brickwork of the fortress. Its aspect, however, (even in this modern phase) must once have been far more picturesque than at present. In San- gallo's drawing — see the series executed by him a.d. 1465 — it looks, in frowning grandeur, like a suitable scene for tragic romance ; the upper part crowned with high square towers and turreted battlements ; the whole girt by a cincture of bastions with massive round towers ; two quadrangular bul- warks flanking the extremity of the bridge, then so con- nected with these outworks that passengers would actually stand within the fortress after crossing the river. Mar- lianus (1588) describes its " double cincture of fortifications — a large round tower at the extremity of the bridge ; two towers at a certain distance with high pinnacles, and the cross on their summits ; the river flowing all around." A rude little woodcut, in Gamucci's Antichith Bomane, shows this castle as it stood about the year 15t50. John XXIII. added, about 1411, the long corridor connecting the castle with the Vatican palace, and which was restored first by Alexander Yl., next by Urban VIII. in 1630. This gallery is carried along the northern side of the Leonine City, over those walls of the IX. century which have for the most part dis- appeared ; communicating between the Palace and the Castle by two passages, the keys of which are kept by the Pope, — the lower lit only by loopholes ; the upper, like a roofed loggia, open on both sides. The whole upper part of the great rotunda was twice restored, in the second instance entirely rebuilt, by Alexander VI. (1495), after that enor- mous structure, now converted into a donjon-keep, had been struck by lightning which, reaching a powder-magazine, caused a fire destructive to all the modern building of brick- 424i HISTORIC and monumental noME. work. Above the restored donjon-keep (as we may now call the fortified rotunda) the same Pope erected a ponderous square tower, still standing amidst later adjuncts. "When other works were undertaken with the object of repairing the damage done in the siege by the troops of Bourbon (1527), the castellated portions of the " S. Angelo" were mostly renewed or enlarged by Pope Paul III., himself an eye-witness of the sack and massacre by those savage mer- cenaries. The unfortunate Clement VII. was besieged in this fortress, whilst the whole city was occupied by the in- vading army under the Prince of Orange (successor to the Bourbon killed at the first assault) from the 6th of May till June 5th, 1527. Not till the 13th August was he able to return, with the thirteen Cardinals who had shared his sufferings, and almost famine itself, in the beleaguered castle, to the Vatican palace, where he was guarded in sight by a Spanish officer, who (as an Italian writer, Moroni, reports) " treated the Vicar of Christ as if he had been a chief of brigands." Not being able to advance the entire amount exacted for his ransom, 400,000 gold scudi, he was again consigned to captivity in the same gloomy fortress, whera he remained till the night (8th December, 1527) when he effected his perilous escape, in the disguise of a merchant, and with the tiara-jewels sewed up in the folds of his dress, as ingeniously contrived by Benvenuto Cellini, a fellow-prisoner. Under the escort of Luigi Gonzaga, the Pope now fled to Orvieto, where he passed six months in a dilapidated episcopal palace ; thence removing to Viterbo, being able to return thence to Eome in October, 1528. When we look down from the S. Angelo battlements at the present day, enjoying the grand panorama of the City, Campagna and mountains thence seen, the eye follows the long line of the covered corridor carried partly on arches, partly upon the old Leonine walls of the IX. century, to SEPULCHRES, MAUSOLEA AND FUNERAL RITES. 425 the Vatican. That communication between the castle and palace reminds us of its founder, the notorious Baldassare Cossa, an unworthy Pope as John XXIII., deposed by the Council of Constance, 1415 ; of the Borgia, Alexander YI., who escaped through this way to the place of refuge on, or soon after, the evening when Charles VIII. entered Eome with a formidable army — the last night of the year 1494 ; also of the ill-fated Clement A^II., who from that corridor beheld, as he passed, the horrible Saturnalia of bloodshed and license, pillage and sacrilege in the worst possible excess, after his capital had been entered by the hordes of the Constable Bourbon.* After these events the S. Angelo Castle was held undis- turbed by pontific garrisons till 1798, when a French army, 9000 strong, took possession of Rome. A shock, the rever- beration of revolutionary violence, had previously inflicted damage on the fortress-buildings accumulated together * The Pope and his counsellors were so paralyzed at the crisis of danger that no orders were given to provision the castle till the enemy were witliin tlie city's walls. More than 3000 persons, including thirteen Cardinals (there were then eighteen of the Sacred College in Rome) took refuge in that fortress, exposed to the horrors of siege and famine. For many days before the attack, a wild-looking fanatic, called, or calling himself, the " Prophet of Siena," had been denouncing judgment against the Capital of the Church, and calling on her citizens to repent. Portents and omens were said to have occurred, as was stated by credible witnesses. The consecrated Host fell from the illumi- nated altar of the " Sepulchre" in the Papal chapel on the Good Friday previous. A Madonna in S. Maria Traspontina, near S. Peter's, was struck by lightning, which broke to pieces the image of the Infant in her arms, Mid threw her crown, all shattered, on the pavement. It is esti- mated thjvt the value of precious objects (many of the highest artistic merits) destroyed or made prey, was more than six millions of gold florins. /The amount of ransoms imposed for the release of persons detained captive in their own houses, or elsewhere, is said to have been nearly 'as much. v. •' II Succo di Roma", and Muratori, Annali. 426 niSTOBic and monumental bome. at such different dates. On the festival of SS. Peter and Paul (29th June) in that same year, a powder-magazine on the premises was maliciously set fire to, and a portion of the fortifications blown up with results fatal to many lives, besides serious injury to several persons. Amidst the vicissi- tudes so disastrous to the pontific throne, near the close of the last century, Pius YI. was obliged to expend all that re- mained of the sum of 5,150,000 scudi in gold, deposited by the frugal Sixtus V. in a strong chest within this fortress — the empty receptacle being still shown here. The tiaras and precious mitres, &c. of the Papacy, hitherto kept in the Castle, were, about the same time, removed to the Vatican palace. In the September of 1799, a small Frencli garrison was attacked in, and constrained to surrender, this fortress by the Neapolitans, wbo took possession of Eomie on bebalf of the pontific sovereignty shortly before the election, at Venice, of Pius VII. Later changes in the political horizon were felt within the walls of this fortified tomb, and determined the colour of the banners succes- sively raised above it, as is well known. For many ages little was known of, nor could any one explore, the interior of the antique building. In 1825 an energetic officer in the pontific service, named Bavari, de- termined to investigate and penetrate to the extent possible. Not without difficulty and danger did lie discover those dark mysterious places — veterum penetralia regum — into which the visitor is now admitted by a custode. Bavari succeeded in opening and making permeable the lower segment of a winding corridor which passes spirally up to the highest storey of the rotunda, and along which a chariot might have been driven to the summit. Into this passage, now in total darkness, that officer first entered, descending from a cavity in the vaulted roof ; finding it at that time almost filled with the debris of ruined masonry. The lower part SEPnCHRES, MAUSOLEA AND EUKEEAL UlTES. 427 of its brick vralls was encrusted with marble, the floor paved with mosaic, or rather tesselated marbles — of all which remnants only are now seen by the torchlight required for exploring. At the foot of the gradual descent we reach, still in profound darkness (but for the torches or tapers supplied), a lofty vaulted vestibule, built of travertine in enormous blocks, communicating with the sole ancient en- trance to the rotunda, now walled up, and opposite to which ingress, at the other extremity of this vestibule, opens an arched recess which probably contained the colossal statue of Hadrian, whose finely sculptured head has been found. In this part were discovered remnants of incrustation in giallo antico on the travertine walls, and of tesselated pave- ment on the floor. The only other portion of the antique interior which can now be seen, is the great hall, central to the rotunda, in the form of a Greek cross, the masonry tra- Tertine and peperino, where the ashes of Hadrian and other Emperors were entombed in urns placed within lofty niches at each side of this chamber. Its stone walls are supposed to have been encrusted with Phrygian veined marble {paonazzettd) ; and it is believed that the porphyry sarcophagus of Hadrian stood in the centre. That impe- rial tomb has had a strange fate. The upper part of it was removed from the mausoleum to serve as the coflBn of another Emperor, the German Otho II., deceased a. d. 983, and buried under the portico of the old S. Peter's. When the tomb of Otho was transferred to the crypt below the modern basilica, that remnant of the porphyry sarcophagus was appropriated for the baptismal font still in use at S. Peter's in a lateral chapel. The other, the principal, part of Hadrian's tomb was used for the burial of Pope Inno- cent II. at the Lateran, a.d. 1143 ; and there did it remain till shattered, and in consequence lost to view, by one of the conflagrations fatally injurious to that church in the XIV. century. 428 HISTOBIC AND MONUMENTAL BOME. Ilorror-slrikiug dungeons, visited by no ray of sim-Hght nor breath of fresh air, are shown in the buildings added, or restored, by Alexander VI. above the antique basement of the S. Angelo fortress. "We may ask respecting the victims doomed to such awful solitude : — How left they not Life, or the sonl's life, quenched on such sepulchral spot ? After seeing the famous prisons of Venice, and those almost as dreadful (but known to have been long unused) below the palace of the Inquisition, behind the colonnades of 8. Peter's, I can compare nothing of the description to those grave-like cells in the fortified mausoleum. Yet there are still greater horrors within the same guilt-stained Trails. Below the floors of other dark chambers we look down into abysses of seemingly measureless depth, the oubliettes (iialice, irabocchette) , which the lowered torch shows to be of regular formation like circular pits, lined with solid masonry. Two only can be seen ; but we are told of tkirti/ similar in formation, now to great extent filled up with soil or debris, in this fortress of the Popes. Into these abysses were victims thrown whose fate was long left secret — their remains never being found. Among others doomed to such a death, was, probably, the young and gallant Astorre di Manfredi, lord of Faenza, the captive (after that city had been taken by siege) and innocent victim of Cesare Borgia.* / Remembering that these dungeons and inventions of atro- city are attributable to potentates styling themselves Vicars of Christ on earth, it seems to me that one could not adduce more telling proof, in every sense condemnatory, * It is certain that this last of the Manfredi who held sway at Faenza, disappeared, no more to be heard of, after he had been brought to Ilome and imprisoned iu the S. Angelo Castle. SEPULCHEES, MAUSOLEA AKD FUNERAL RITES. 429 against the union of temporal and spiritual power in priestly hands : Si monumentum quceris, circumspice ! A curious record of the mediaeval notions as to what the " Mole of Hadrian " was in its majestic completeness, is before us among the reliefs seen on the bronze portals of St. Peter's, executed by Eilarete, a.d. 1431. The edifice is there fantastically represented in the foreground of the scene of St. Peter's martyrdom — such an idea of its van- ished architecture being, it is said, founded on an allusion to it in one of the sermons of Pope S. Leo, quoted by the chronicler Pietro Manlio. Humbler, but interesting, places of sepulture have been brought to light within Eome's walls during recent years. In 1864 was discovered the monument of the Sempronii family, on the western declivity of the Quirinal hill, found in the course of works for rebuilding offices, etc., connected with the pontific palace. An inscription announces that this was the sepulchre of Cneius Sem- pronius, of his daughter, his sister, and mother ; the style of the letters indicating an early period, about the last years of the Eepublic. It is a stately tomb, built of massive stonework ; an arch of ample span opening in the centre of its elevation, and a broad frieze, with well-executed relievi, palm-branches and foliate designs, along the upper part. Like the tomb of Bibulus, it marks the limits of the Ser- vian walls on this hill-side, where, higher up on the Quiri- nal steep, was found a solidfragment of those fortifications, swept away in the works for making the ascent more facile by a winding road. We look down upon the Sempro- nian monument from a much higher ground than that on which it rises; its actual situation affording proof of the changes of level so singularly brought about in the ci^urse of time and vicissitudes at Eome. In 1800 was opened a Columbarium divided into three 430 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. cliainbcrs, in the beautiful gardens of the "VVolkonski Villa on the Coeliau Hill. An epigraph, extant on its front, in- forms us that this belonged to Claudius Vitalis, an archi- tect, and his family. The style of the Koman letters and the fine brickwork here indicate a date within the first century of our era. Several epitaphs and relics of the dead in some of the terra cotta ollce are still seen in the sepulchral chambers ; in one, which is the darkest, some remnants of painting, figures and heads, adorn the walls. The ivy- clothed arcades of the Neronian Aqueduct pass through this pleasant garden ; and through the scarcely ruinous arches we have glimpses of a never-to-be forgotten landscape — the gracefully formed Latian Hills in the distance, south- wards ; the dusky walls and towers of Aurelian and Hono- rius in the foreground, and, nearer still, the Lateran with the S. Croce basilica. Elsewhere, it is antiquity alone which claims our attention; here, it is the harmony between majestic ruins, historic memories, and the ever-youthful charm of imperishable Nature. We may here raise our thoughts from amidst the tombs of Heathenism to the con- templation of that world whose Divine Author declared of Himself, when invested with the garb of humanity, " I am the Resurrection and the Life." I cannot in these pages consider the wide range of monu- ments on the Eoman Compagna ; but may mention some memorable specimens, finest of the description yet brought to light in or around the ancient City, of classical Eoman Art applied to the decoration of the sepulchre — namely, in the patrician tombs situated on high ground beside the Via Latina, about two miles beyond the Porta S. Giovanni. Excavations begun on this site by an enterprising gentleman, Signer Eortunati, 1S58, led to the disinterment (as one may say) of a primitive Christian basilica, S. Stephen's, reduced to low substructions in decay, and also the far- SEPULCHEES, MAUSOLEA AND FUNERAL EITES. 431 extending ruins, chambers and passages containing many such relics as epigraphs, busts, coins, fragmentary sculp- tures, of a sumptuous villa belonging to different patrician families in succession — first the Servilii; last, the Anicii, ancestors of S. Gregory the Great. Along the ancient way, the pavement of which is now to much extent uncovered, stand conspicuous sepulchres of the class called heroa — which unite the character of the oratory and the tomb — divided into two storeys, the lower being subterranean. One, with a tetrastyle portico upon the road-side, has two chambers in the lower storey, reached by a double flight of steps. The vaulted roof of the inner chamber is adorned with bas-reliefs in stucco, all preserved so perfectly that in no part are sharpness of touch or delicacy of execution im- paired by the hand of time : the subjects mythical and finely imagined — Nymphs and Nereids seated in graceful atti- tudes on fabulous animals swimming in water. Nymphs and Fauns dancing, &c. ; the floating grace of movement in some figures, the dignity of repose in others, the freedom of design in all claiming the highest praise. Eemains of marble pavement are here extant; and the walls were encrusted with the same material, torn off apparently with violence. Three marble sarcophagi, all broken by despoilers, with rilievi in good style, were also found here. The outer chamber con- tains another sarcophagus, in like manner injured. The siglae on tiles, found among these ruins, enable dates to be determined as corresponding to a.d. 159, 160 ; thus may we refer to the period of the Antonine Emperors all the de- corative art so admirable and well-preserved on this ground. At a short distance we find another tomb of the same class, and with its upper storey now ruinous and roofless, re- taining still, however, a mosaic pavement, on which is the figure of the dolphin, emblem of the voyage to the Elysian shores. We descend by steps, in darkness, leading to the 432 nisTOEic and monumental home. chambers of the lower storey — not (as in the case of the other sepulchre) into an open atrium. Here w-e enter two vaulted halls, alike in darkness. The outer contains some sculptured sarcophagi and wall-paintings of inferior charac- ter. The inner is enriched with exquisite decorations, partly in painting, partly in stucco-relief: groups and single figures, miniature landscape with architectural foregrounds, ornamental borders most graceful in design, showing what fairy delicacy could be displayed in decorative art, and how suggestive was the Mythology of the ancients. Eight of these subjects are landscape with small groups ; the rest (relievi) are of the mythologic and poetic class : at the centre of the vault, Jupiter with his eagle ; at the sides, the Judgment of Paris, Priam begging the body of Hector from Achilles, Thetis appearing to Achilles whilst he plays on the lyre, Mercury with Jupiter, and Ceres in her chariot drawn by a lion and a boar ; below these the figures, with attributes, of Mercury, Bacchus, Apollo, Mars ; and near the angles at the springing of the vault, the four Seasons. A large but plain sarcophagus, in this chamber, still contains the skeletons of two bodies, divided from each other by a partition, and visible when the custode introduces a taper through a cavity. This rudely fashioned tomb is, no doubt, more ancient than the sepulchral building in which it is placed. Other sarcophagi, in the same chamber, have rilievi on their fronts (the usual mystic subjects referring to the state of the dead), in which a superior style indicates about the same period as that of the decorations on the vault and walls — the second century of our era. In the outer chamber the paintings, birds and animals, on the walls, and the sculpture on the sarcophagi, laid along a broad ledge or platform, are alike in point of art inferior; among the bas-reliefs are the medallion heads of a married pair, with a touching epitaph. Here, as frequently in the Christian "cata- SEPULCnURS, MAUSOLEA AND FUNERAL BITES. 483 combs," the intended portraits of the dead have been first blocked out in the marble and left unfinished. On one late occasion, when I was visiting the inner chamber of this painted sepulchre, the custode lit a classic lamp on the old sarcophagus placed in the midst, and was so obliging as to leave me alone. Never shall I forget that scene in the dim twilight faintly displaying the beautiful decorations of the splendid tomb-chamber. Assuredly, if outward circum- stances could favour the idea or hope of communion with the Departed, if the thrilling sense of their presence could be deemed the earnest of such solemn privilege as indeed attainable, here might such idea or hope possess the mind. Whom might we not desire to summon from the processioa passed into the Spirit-land, in such a sanctuary ? 2p 434 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL JIOMB. CHAPTER XI. TRIUMPHAL ARCHES, FORA, MEMORIAL COLUMNS. As the arch of Constantine forms, through its sculptures illustrating that Emperor's career, a link between the Heathen and Christian monuments of Rome, so does that of Titus, through the far superior reliefs on its marble surface, connect the memorials of the great Empire with those of Judaic nationality and worship, presenting to us, reflected, as it were, on the mirror of classic art, the fate of an extraordinary people identified with a still revered religious system, the local establishment and hierarchy of which it was Rome's part to overthrow. Both these tri- umphal arches are like signs and trophies of a mighty instrumentality appointed for the accomplishment of tasks which variously tended to promote the cause of the civili- zation allied with Christian faith. The conquest of Jerusalem, strikingly recorded on the more ancient of those arches, took place after a siege which had lasted five months and a half, from the first investment of the city, in September, a.d. 70. Vespasian had charged his son to open his fourth campaign witli this enterprise ; Titus having at that time 80,000 men under his command, while the Jews had not more than 24,000 well-armed soldiers for the defence of their city, though a multitude of zealots were ever ready to take part as irregular combat- ants in the unequal contest. The first assault was made on the 23rd April, the last day of the Paschal week ; and on the 6th May the assailants entered through a breach in the walls, though not at once to obtain mastery over more than the lower civic quarters within the double cincture of forti- TRIUMPHAL ARCHES, FORA, MEMORIAL COLUMNS. 435 fications. The Temple was plundered, set on fire and destroyed, notwithstanding all the efforts of Titus to save it, probably on the 2nd September, a.d. 70~according to Josephus at the date (the 10th of the Hebrew month Ab) precisely 1130 years, 7 months, and 15 days from its first foundation by Solomon, 539 years and 45 days from its restoration under Cyrus.* Though Jerusalem had * Josephus thus narrates the catastrophe, after stating that Titus had encamped with his whole army around the Temple on the morning chosen for the attack: •' As for that house (the temple), God had, for certain, long ago doomed it to the fire, and now the fatal day was come, according to the revolution of ages. — These flames took their rise from the Jews themselves, and were occasioned by them; for upon Titus re- tiring, the seditious lay still for a little while, and then attacked the Romans again, when those that guarded the holy house fought with those who quenched the fire that was burning the inner courts of the temple ; but these Romans put the Jews to flight, and proceeded as far as the holy house itself. At which time one of the soldiers, without staying for any orders, and without any concern or dread upon him, and being hurried only by a certain divine fury, snatched somewhat out of the materials that were on fire, and, being lifted by another soldier, set fire to a golden window, through which there was a passage to the rooms round about the holy house, on the north side of it. As the flames rose the Jews made a great clamour— and spared not their lives nor sufifered anything to restrain their force, since that holy house was perishing." The historian goes on to describe the terrific scenes of conflict and massacre, lamentation and horror that ensued, and the vain efforts of Titus to quench the flames for the rescue of the sacred building ; how the young Caesar (as he is here styled) went with his chief captains into the Holy of Holies, " and saw it, with what was in it, which he found to be far superior to what the foreigners had related, and not inferior to what we (the Jews) boast of." He made a last effort to save that most sacred part; but the " hope of plunder induced many to go on, seeing that all round about it was made of gold; and one of them that went into tlie (holy) place prevented Caesar, when he ran so hastily out to restrain the soldiers, and threw fire upon the hinges of the gate in the dark, whereby the flames burst out from within." From this moment all was lost ; 2f 2 436 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. been taken by siege seventeen times, it had only once been totally overthrown (by Nebuchadnezzar) before its final destruction by the Romans. Even the ground on which the sacred city had stood was ploughed up by the soldiers under Titus, the order for this being induced by know- ledge of the practice, common among Oriental people, of burying money and other valuable objects in earth during troublous times. That young prince, so renowned for clemency after he had succeeded his father on the throne, caia«ed numbers of the Jews taken captive beyond the gates to be crucified within sight of their fellow citizens j and though life had been promised to all who should submit, those who passed over to the Eoman camp, craving mercy, were mostly massacred. The statement of Josephus that 1,100,000 Jews perished during the siege is questionable, indeed incredible ; but it is certain that Titus, reserving only those who had personal advantages to grace his triumph, ordered all the captives above seventeen years of age to be drafted off" to the quarries of Egypt, or con- demned to fight as gladiators, and all the children to be sold into slavery. Josephus also states that 11,000 Jews perished from starvation, and that, in the whole course of the war, 90,000 were made prisoners. Awful portents were rumoured of, and believed, in the doomed city before those events : phantom warriors and chariots had been seen battling in the air ; the gates of the Temple had burst open of their own accord ; and on the solemn day of Pentecost preternatural voices were heard in the Holy of Holies, uttering the words, " Let us depart hence," while the sacred interior was illumined with light that outshone its golden lamps, and its golden walls shook as though invi- the intruders were forced to quit the burning sanctuary, Titus and his captains with the rest. '* Thus was the holy place burnt down without Caesar's approbation." — Whiston's " Josephus," B. vi. c. iv. TEIUMPHAL ARCHES, FOBA, MEMORIAL COLUMNS. 437 sible beings were rushing forth, and the Divine Presence deserting that once glorious fane.* A.fter the conquest the tribute of two drachmas, which every Jew had given an- nually to that sanctuary of his religion, was required to be transferred to the lately restored fane of Jupiter on the Capitol. Titus, associated by his father in the imperial govern- ment, shared the honours of the triumph with Vespasian ; this being the 321st among such celebrations at Eome. The triumphal arch was erected by the Senate after the younger Emperor's death, as implied in the term, " divus," given to him in the epigraph still on its south- eastern front : Senatus Populusque Bomanus Divo Tito Divi Vespasiani Ffilio) Vespasiano Augusto. One may regret that another epigraph, dug up near this monument, was not replaced, besides that in large letters on its attic — the former expressing the political tradition as to the im- portance of the conquest in Palestine, and the hitherto impregnable strength of the ancient metropolis which the Romans destroyed.f * " Portents and prodigies announced the ruin of the city. — Swords were seen glittering in the air; embattled armies appeared, and the temple was illuminated by a stream of light, that issued from the heavens. The portal flew open, and a voice more than human denounced the immediate departure of the gods {audita major humana vox : Exce- dere Beos.) There was heard, at the same time, a tumultuous and terrific sound, as if superior beings were actually rushing forth." (Tacitus, Hist. 1. V. — Murphy's translation.) Josephus reports the mysterious words according to the received tradition, as above : fitTafiaivwfiev evTsvOfv — •' Let us depart hence." He describes the supernatural lustre seen by night in the sanctuary, as a portent which preceded the breaking out of the war and invasion. f After the names and titles of Titus, this epigraph sets forth that, under the auspices and with the aid of his father, the young prince gentem Judceoru/m domvdt, et TJrbem HierosoVymam, omnibus ante se dMCibus, regibus, gentibusque aut frustra petitam aut omnino intentatam, delevit. 438 UISTOBIC AND MONUMENTAL BOME. The rilievi on the arch before us, among the finest of GrsDCO-Roman art, represent on the inner sides the pro- cession of the triumph, in which Titus appears standing in his quadriga, led by the personified Eoma, whilst a mnged Victoria places a laurel- wreath on his head ; opposite to this, a group of soldiers carrying the spoils of the temple (pro- bably concealed before the desecration and burning of that edifice) , namely, the seven-branching candelabrum, the golden altar for incense, and the silver trumpets ; also such stand- ards, with the inscribed names of victories or subjugated places, as were always borne in triumphal processions. On the key-stones are relief-statuettes of the personified City and the Genius of the Koman People, the latter with a cornucopia and a patera in her hands. At the spandrils of the arch we see larger figures of the winged Victoria ; and along a frieze, miniature rilievi of the same procession, in which oxen are led to the sacrifice in the temple of Jove on the Capitol, and an image of an old man, the per- souified Jordan, is carried on a stage.* Josephus states that the books of the Mosaic Law were also exhibited among the spoils of victory.f In the triumphal procession * The Christian historian Orosias sees a mystic import and mani- festation of divine vengeance in the fact that an imperial father and son thus triumphed together over the fallen Jerusalem .• "Pulchrum etigno- lum antea cunctis mortalibus inter trecentum viginti triumphos, qui a conditione Urbis usque ad id tempus acti erant, hoc spectaculem fuit, patrem et filium uno triumphale curru vectos, gloriosissimam ah his, qui Patrem et Filium ofEenderant, victoriam reportasse." f The description of the triumph by Josephus, {B. viii. c. v.), an eye- witness, is the most trustworthy, as well as fullest in details: Vespasian and Titus, he tells us, passed the night previous in the Temple of Isis ; crowned with laurel, aYid clad in purple silk robes, they met the senators, magistrates and knights in the morning at the portico of Octavia, where both took their seats on ivory chairs, while all the soldiers made acclama- tions, after which both Emperors (now co-reigning) offered prayer to the TRIUMPHAL ARCHES, FORA, MEMORIAL COLUMNS. 439 Vespasian appeared first in his chariot, Titus next in another chariot, and after him Domitian, magnificently- attired, riding on a noble steed. The arch was dedicated to Titus alone by his brother and successor, Domitian, and probably was not finished till several years after the former Emperor's death — as has been conjectured, not till the reign of Trajan. The admirable sculptures upon it have so suffered from time that few of the heads, scarcely one entire figure remains complete ; and the whole structure has been modernized, rather than restored, by the works carried out for repair of the antique marble in travertine, by order of Pius VII., 1822. The fluted columns, which gods. Thence proceeding to the PortaTriumphalis,both, after tasting food and assuming the triumphal garments, offered sacrifice before images of deities, and passed through that gateway, marching first through the theatres on the grand procession to the Forum and Capitol. Among the countless treasures and precious objects of silver, gold, and ivory, were carried " images of the gods, wonderful for their largeness, and made very artifically and with great skill, nor any of other than costly material." Next were carried " pageants, many of them so made that they were on three, or even four, storeys, upon many of which were laid carpets of gold, with wrought gold and ivory fastened about them all.'' Also were displayed '* resemblances" (paintings?) of scenes in the Judaic war: — " a happy country laid waste, and squadrons of enemies slain; walls of great altitude overthrown, the strongest fortifications taken; populous cities seized on, and an array pouring itself within the walls" — these re- presentations, as well as the other objects, being carried by a multitude of men in purple garments interwoven with gold. After the " pageants " came " a great number of ships, and other spoils in great plenty ;" those from the Temple of Jerusalem being most conspicuous, i.e. " the golden table of the weight of many talents ; the candlestick also that was made of gold, though its construction was now changed from that which we made use of — last of all the spoils, was carried the Law of the Jews," Next in the ranks appeared images of Victory, either of ivory or gold ; after these came the two Emperors in their chariots, and Domitian on horseback. 440 HISTOBIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. flank tho sole archway, present the earliest known example of the composite Eoman order. In the middle ages the whole structure was surrounded, and probably concealed, by a fortress of the Trangipani, who incorporated it with the so-called " Turris Chartularia," a great castle the ruins of which still lie strewn near this monument, intermixed with relics of other antiquities. On the summit of the arch itself the Frangipani raised their battlements, or rather another storey, for the purposes of defence ; and the vestiges of that barbaric pile were not removed till the time of the restorations in 1822. In other mediaeval periods the name " Arch of the Seven Candlesticks" {septem lucernarum), suggested by the reliefs, was that by which this antique was popularly known. Here, beside the trophy of Israel's fall, used to halt the long-drawn procession for the installation of the Popes at the Lateran, whilst a deputation of Jews pre- sented a copy of the Pentateuch to the new Pontiff with pro- fessions of loyalty, to which his Holiness responded to the effect that he prized and revered the law given to Moses, but condemned their interpretation of it, seeing that the Messiah, whom they still expected, had already made His advent on earth, the true Son of Grod and divine Eeedemer. At the " possesso" of the Lateran, celebrated with more than usual pomp a few months after the election of Pius IX., this observance was omitted. The Arch of Titus awakens an interest due to the personal character of that Emperor, who was styled, as no ruler had been before him, the " Delight of the human race :" — " 'I*ve lost a day,* the Prince who nobly cried Had been an Emperor without his crown."* He died at the age of forty, a.d. 81, after a reign of little * Young, "Night Thoughts." TEIUMPHAL AECHES, FOBA, MEMOEIAL COLUMNS. Ml more than two years. When the intelligence of the event (which took place at a villa near Eeate) reached Eome, the Senators hastened by night to the Curia, without waiting for the usual summons, and there, with closed doors, pro- nounced such eulogies on his acts and virtues as exceeded all the homage of praise offered to him when alive. Yet the early career of Titus had given no fair promises, rather exicted the worst apprehensions.* A Jewish legend makes his death a signal instance of divine chastisement : the destroyer of the Temple and of the favoured city is said to have died after seven years of dreadful sufferings, caused by a gnat which had crept into his brain, and there grew to the size of a sparrow, having iron claws ! (Salvador from the Talmud, quoted by Merivale, " History of the E/omans," ch. Ix.) Other memories, more deeply interesting to the Chris- tian mind, are linked with the trophy of victories here before us. The anticipation of a great Deliverer is said to have nerved and stimulated the Jews in their resistance against the invincible Eomans; and before we quit the spot where this classic arch presents its historic sculptures to view, it is well to remember the testimony of Heathen writers on this subject. " A persuasion had possession of most of them," says Tacitus, speaking of the conflict at Jerusalem, " that it was contained in the ancient books of the priests that at that very time the East should prevail, and that men who issued from Judea should obtain the Empire. The common people, as is the way with human cupidity, having once interpreted in their own favour this grand destiny, were not even by their reverses brought round to the truth of facts." Suetonius, in the same refer- * " Praeter saevitiam suspecta in eo luxuria erat — nee minus libido — suspecta et rapacitas — denique propalam alium Neronem et opinabantur ct praedicabant." — Sueton. Tit. 7. 442 nisTonic and monumental home. ence, says : " The whole East was rife with an old and persistent belief, that at that time persons who issued from Judea should possess the empire." Josephus, whose sym- pathies were with the Romans, says that his unfortunate countrymen were encouraged in their stand against the invaders by " an ambiguous oracle, found in their sacred writings, that at that date some one of them from that country should rule the world." He pronounces, observes Dr. Newman, " that the oracle was ambiguous ; he cannot state that they thought it so."* It is a tradition that the captives brought from Judea to Rome were forced to labour at the construction of the Titus A.rch, as also in the works for building the great amphitheatre and another edifice, or rather group of edifices, founded by Vespasian, the "Forum of Peace,"t which comprised a temple with the same dedication. It appears that three great buildings occupied the prin- cipal space in this Forum : at the centre, the Temple of Peace ; laterally, a valuable and famous library, and another edifice in which private citizens used to deposit their wealth for safe preservation. Some have supposed (v. Canina, " Indicazione Topografica di Eoma Antica — epoca impe- riale") that the church of SS. Cosmo e Damiano stands on the ruins of that last-named building; and that some walls in Newman, "Essay in aid of a Grammar of Assent," ch. x. 7. t " After these triumphs were over — Vespasian resolved to build a temple to Peace, which he finished in so -short a time, and in so glorious a manner as was beyond all human expectation and opinion. He had this temple adorned with pictures and statues ; for here were collected and deposited all such rarities as men aforetimes used to wander all over the habitable world to see — he also laid up therein those golden vessels and instruments that were taken out of the Jewish temple, as ensigns of his glory. But still he gave order that they should lay up their Law, and the purple veils of the holy place in the royal palace itself, and keep them there."— {Whiston's "Josephus," B. VII. c. v.) TEIUMPHAL ARCHES, FOBA, MEMORIAL COLUMNS. 443 massive quadrate stonework, at one side of that conventual church, belong to the cincture around the Temple of Peace. Later discoveries, as I have shown, correct the notion respecting the ruins on that site. Josephus, who was pro- bably present at the dedication of the new Temple and Forum, a.d. 70, mentions the treasures and precious art- works placed in, or around, that fane by Vespasian, among which latter objects were several of the sculptures brought from Grreece by Nero for adorning his " Golden House." The sacred vessels from Jerusalem were also deposited in the Temple of Peace. A mediaeval inventory of relics at the Lateran includes all those sacred vessels, as being still pre- served in that Cathedral of the Popes.* We are informed of their real fate. The magnificent " Forum Pacis" was devastated by fire, a.d. 191, nor ever, it seems, in any part restored. Prom that conflagration the vessels of Judaic worship were rescued, to be deposited in some temple on the Palatine. "With other spoils they were carried away by the Vandals at the sack of Eome, under Genseric, who trans- * Vespasian, though not a well educated or literary man, appreciated learning and philosophy. He was the first of the Roman Emperors to assign regular salaries to grammarians and rhetoricians (philosophers and sophists being included among the latter), as well in the provinces as in Rome. To some of that class, both Greeks and Latins, his libe- rality secured the amount of 800 sterling per annum. (Sueton. Yesp. 18). " He is said to have declared that, to maintain the state of public affairs, 40,000 millions of sesterces, or 320 millions sterling, were requi- site. — Other writers have proposed to alter quad/ring enties into quadra- gies, i.e. 400 millions, or 32 millions sterling." — " The new Augustus closed once more the temple of Janus, which had stood open since the German wars of the first Princeps ; or, according to the computation of the Christian Orosius, from the birth of Christ to the overthrow of the Jewish people." (Merivale, " History of the Romans under the Empire," c. Ix.) The coins of the period are stamped with allusions to the peace and prosperity secured by Vespasian: Pax orbis terra/rum— Pad ceterni domKS Fespastam, &c. 411 HISTOBIC AND MONUMENTAL BOME. ported them to Carthage. When that city was captured and sacked in the victorious African campaign of Belisa- rius, A.D. 634), the sacred vessels were seized, to be brought to Constantinople. Justinian sent them thence to Jeru- salem as donations to different churches ; again from that restored (and now Christian) city were they, for the second time, carried away among spoils of war by the Persians under their king Chosroes, who subdued Palestine and captured its metropolis with the slaughter of 90,000 persons, A.D. 614. The Greek Emperor Heraclius concluded five successful campaigns in Persia with a decisive victory, a.d. 627 ; but, though he recovered and brought back to Jeru- salem the reputed relic of the True Cross, he is not known to have found or possessed himself of those sacred vessels from the Temple, which thenceforth disappear, no longer traceable on the historic page. The Temple of Peace, of which the legend (mentioned by Petrarch) stated that it fell partly into ruin on the night of the Nativity — at the advent of the true Prince of Peace — has completely disappeared, together with the entire aggregate of Vespasian's buildings on his Forum. It appears that some remnants of them were extant till the VI. century, for we are told that up to that period the site of those splendid edifices, near the south-eastern limits of the Forum Romanum, was still known by its ancient name, " Forum of Peace." From the arch of Titus we may turn to other monuments of similar character, though not all alike to be classed properly among the " triumphal," but serving as land- marks to historic periods, in the successive stages of growth and decline through which Rome's Empire passed. In the year 8 before our era (a.tj.c. 745) was erected the arch on the Appian "Way, which stands in striking contrast to the suUen towers and battlements of the adjacent Porta TEIUMPHAL AECHES, FOEA, MEMOEIAL COLITMNS. 445 S. Sebastiano — rebuilt, as we see it, probably by Belisarius. This memorial arch was raised to the honour of Drusus Nero, named also Decimus Claudius, the son of Livia by her first husband, and adopted by Augustus together with his elder brother Tiberius ; Drusus being the father of Caesar Germanicus and the Emperor Claudius, and grand- father to Caius, called Caligula. A distinguished commander in the wars in Germany and Gaul, he was the first Eoman who entered the Northern Ocean by means of a canal formed for transporting his ships between the Rhine and the Tssel.* His death, when only in his 30th year, was caused by a fall from his horse on his return with the army from the Elbe to the Ehine, B.C. 9. Tiberius travel- led 200 miles in one day for the sake of seeing and attend- ing his brother on his deathbed. The body was brought to Eome ; and after a grand funeral, in which the panegyric was pronounced by Augustus, the ashes of Drusus were entombed in that Emperor's mausoleum. The arch was erected conformably to a decree of the Senate, which at the same time conferred the cognomen of Germanicus on the heroic Dead and his posterity in the male line. It was built of travertine encrusted with marble, an equestrian * His exploits and merits are finely recorded by Horace in the Ode (IV. 1. iv.) referring to his victories oyer the Vindelici and Easti, against whom the young Drusus was sent, when in his twenty-third year, by Augustus, B.C. 14 ; So the Vindelici young Drusus saw, Leading war home to their own Esetian Alps : enough that hosts Victorious long and far, Vanquished in turn by a young arm and brain, Felt what the mind and what the heart achieves, When reared and fostered amidst blest abodes, And with parental love A Caesar's soul inspires a Nero's sons. (Lord Lytton's Version.) 446 HISTOBIC AND MONUMENTAL BOME. statue of Drusus, between sculptured military trophies, being placed on the summit, with the epigraph below (on the attic) : Nero Claudius Drus. German. Imp. S. C, The Emperor Antoninus utilized this structure for the aqueduct which brought water to his great Thermae in the vicinity, and the specus (or channel) of which aqueduct still remains, in ruin, above the more ancient monument. Probably some restoration of this arch was at the same time ordered ; and we may suppose that the two columns of warm-tinted breccia (" Africana") were then placed where we see them at the side facing the Appian gate, — four columns having originally stood at each front. Seeing that those two, now alone left, are of the composite Roman order (first exem- plified in the columns on the Titus Arch), we must infer their later origin — an adjunct made to this structure of date within the Augustan age. The above-cited elegy (p. 409), written for the consolation of Livia after the death of her illustrious son, is not only an eloquent tribute to his merits, but the finest description in Latin poetry of the antique funeral attended with all its pomps, all demonstrations of public mourning, as well as private and deeply felt sorrow.* Neither the Appian Gate nor the fortified walls through which its towered archway opens were erect in the time of Nero; but for the Christian eye and feeling that arch of Drusus is invested with special interest from the remembrance that it was under * Funera ducuntur Romana per oppida Drusi, (Heu f acinus !) per quae victor itunis erat. Obvia turba ruit : lacrimisque rigantibus ora Consulis erepti publica damna refert. Omnibus idem oculi ; par est concordia flendi, Funeris exsequiis adsumus omnis Eques. Omnis adest aetas : moerent juvenesque senesque ; Ausoniae matrcs, Ausoniaeque nurus, &c. TRIUMPHAL ARCHES, FORA, MEMORIAL COLUMNS. 447 this monumental trophy that the Apostle Paul passed on his first arrival in Eome, after a journey the date of which is given by some historians as a.d. 59, by others as in the year 61 of our era.* About the close of the second century of that era certain bankers and cattle-merchants erected a small arch (conven- tionally so named, though in fact all its architectonic lines are horizontal or vertical) in honour of Septimius Severus, his wife Julia Pia, and their sons, Antoninus and Greta. The eastern side of this monument is in part concealed by the contiguous church, S. Giorgio in Velabro, which was founded in the YI. century, and is so built as to sacrifice much of the antique to the more modern structure — but recent works (as already stated) have laid open some por- tion of the elevation long lost to view. The rilievi on this arch are interesting, though, critically considered, of little merit, and inferior even to those of the Severus Arch on the Torum. On the inner sides are two quasi-historic subjects : Septimius and his consort offering fruit and wine on a tri- pod altar ; the Emperor with head veiled for the sacrifice ; the Empress also wearing a veil and tiara, with the cadu- ceus, symbol of concord, in her hand ; opposite to this, a similar act of bloodless sacrifice, in which the two brothers were originally represented offering fruit with libations ; but the figure of G-eta has been completely erased, conform- ably with the orders of the fratricide Emperor, who desired that every record, whether in sculpture or epigraph, of his * " The holy Apostle, though he came actually in bonds, was treated by the faithful of that city (Rome) with as much honour as if he had arrived among them in triumph ; for many Romans went forth to meet him, some at Forum Appii, distant fifty-one miles from the city; others at the Tres Tabemae, distant thirty-three miles. Of Forum Appii no vestige remains ; but the Tres Tabemae is said to be (represented by) the modern Cistema."— Baronius, An. 59. 448 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. murdered brother should be destroyed. Other evidence to the same effect is before us on this structure ; for the whole of the 5th, and part of the 3rd line of the dedicatory epigraph have been altered with omission of the name which the murderer could not bear either to see or hear uttered.* The countenance of Antoninus in this relievo contrasts favourably with that bust of him (in the Capitoline Museum), which has been called, " the last sigh of Art" — the look of fierce suspiciousness, the repulsive but evidently truthful likeness to a dark-minded tyrant, in that highly characteristic head, having no trait that suggests compari- son with the youthful figure, and (much mutilated as the marble rilievo is) still recognisably pleasing aspect under which the same person is here represented. The other sculptures have a certain value, though poorly executed. They comprise, along a frieze below the two groups, the sacrificial instruments and priestly insignia, the perferi- culum, patera, acerra (incense-box), the vase for lustral water, the lituus of the Augur and galerum of the Fla- men, the axe and mallet for slaughter. Underneath the frieze sculptured with those objects, on the western side, is another mutilated group of a sacrifice. On the attic, beside the dedicatory inscription, are the figures of Hercules and Bacchus, tutelary deities of the Septimian family. On the outer side (westward) are other rilievi of four females, (probably priestesses), and a candelabrum; below these, * In the 3rd line: HI. P.P. Procos. Fortissimo FeUcissimogue Prvn- evpi ; and the whole of the 5th : Parthici Maximi Brita/nnici Maamii. The Senate ordered sacrifices to Concord and other deities for the recon- ciliation of the brothers soon after their joint accession to sovereign power ; but that rite conld not take place owing to the unaccountable disappearance of the Consul who was to oflBciate. Dion mentions this as a portent of ill, and also the appearance of two wolves on the Capitol, " which was looked on as a presage of what was to happen between the two Emperors." TRIUMPHAL ARCHES, FOKA, MEMORIAL COLUMNS. 449 some figures probably intended for the cattle-merchants, who contributed to the erection of this arch. Another sub- ject, introduced on the same side — a plough drawn by a bull and a heifer — may be considered allegoric — apparently allusive either to the founding of Eome by Eomulus, or generally to the observances for laying the foundations of new cities according to Etruscan usage. (Plutarch, Quasi. Bom. 27.) The testimony to the power of conscience,in the mutilated sculptures and epigraphs on this arch, is indeed impressive, — even more so than on the other monument raised in honour of the same Emperor, associated with his sons, on the Eorum. We often hear Cicero and Seneca quoted by " Italian preachers for the support or illustration of Chris- tian ethics, but I have never heard adduced in the pulpit the evidence here before us, immortalized on the marble surface, to that voice of Grod within us — the token of His presence, and warning of His wrath against the guilt- stained soul, — which was alike, among realities of the inner life, felt by the Heathen with shuddering awe as at this day, with deeper apprehension, by the Christian. Close to this monument stands the "Arch of Janus," which should rather be called a Janus Quadri/rons, being merely an arcade-passage, such as never received any special dedication ; this having served for the assemblage of mer- chants from the adjacent Forum Boarium, or cattle market. The inferior style of the fragmentary mouldings and capitals, dug up in the vicinity, and now ranged along the summit of a projecting socle, has led to the conjecture that it dates from the period of Septimius Severus ; and proba- bly the spoils of other edifices were used for adorning this. Statues of deities stood in the twelve niches on each side at the four fronts, but all these, together with the columns which flanked those arched recesses, have perished. During 2g 450 HISTORIC AlfD MONUMENTAL HOME. the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the arch supported a ponderous brick tower of one of the Prangipani castles, whilst completely enclosed by a curtain of walls. The area was first disencumbered from debris in ] 812 ; though its original level was not completely uncovered till 1827 ; and some vestiges of the mediaeval tower (demolished in 1820) still remain on the summit of this ponderous " Janus Quadrifrons." Similar places of assemblage are said to have been erected in all the regions of the city. Another monument there is which recalls the period of declining Empire, as also one of the most worthless among its rulers— the arch, popularly called " Arco di San Vito," raised in honour of Grallienus (who reigned from a.d. 260 to 267), and of his consort, Julia Salonina. The solitary little church of S. Vito on the Esquiline hill (near St. Maria Maggiore) has imparted that modern name to the structure, which, though antique, betrays almost the lowest decadence of art in Eome. It was erected, about a.d. 262, by M. Aurelius Victor, Prefect of the City, and, it seems, a boon companion of that voluptuous Emperor, whose favourite retreat was the Licinian gardens near this spot. Kear the same site Gallienus ordered a statue to be erected to himself, double the height of the colossal one of Nero, and adorned with the attributes of the sun-god, — a monster work left unfinished, and probably destroyed by his successor. The luxuriousness of this Emperor ex- ceeded all limits — perhaps surpassing all that we know of Heliogabalus. He used no vessels at his table except such as were of gold studded with diamonds. His dress was of the utmost splendour, his very buskins being set with gems ; and no other powder except gold dust ever touched his hair. The wealthiest senators suffered confiscation of property, and several were condemned to death, in order to supply means for his imperial pleasures or extravagances. The disastrous events of his reign, whilst the MOISUMENTAL AECHES, FORA, MEMOEIAL COLUMNS. 451 Empire was distracted by the struggles of the " thirty- tyrants ;" his cruelty and debaucheries, still more his impious disregard for the fate of his aged father, Valerian, left to die a captive in the power of the Persian king Sapor, form a strange comment on the adulatory terms in which Grallienus is eulogized in the epigraph on this arch : Cle- mentissimo principi cuius invicta virtus sola pietate superaia est, etc. — now too much effaced to be legible from below. Of three archways pertaining to the original plan, the central one alone remains perfect, with Corinthian pilasters and an attic, much dilapidated, in travertine masonry. For the character of G-allienus, and of his reign, see Tre- bellius PoUio, who gives a specimen of his poetic capacities, and describes "the circensian, scenic, gymnastic and gladiatorial shows, the chases of wild beasts given by him, &c.," adding that " he invited the people to festivities, as if for days of triumph, whilst many were mourning for the captivity of his father." Gallienus and his family— a wife and four children — were all assassinated, a.d. 267 ; that Emperor himself meet- ing with such fate whilst he was encamped before Milan in a war against one of the ephemeral usurpers so rapidly succeeding to each other, Acilius Aureolas, who had assumed the imperial purple in the year previous, was defeated in battle, a.d. 269, by Claudius II., successor to Gallienus, and either slain on the field or put to death after the en- gagement by the soldiers. The chains and keys of the principal gates of Yiterbo were hung to the arch before us in the year 1245, and there suffered to remain till the year 1825, as trophies of success in the civil wars so disgraceful and disastrous to mediasval Italy. The Eomans having sent troops to attack that city, the intimidated Yiterbese sub- mitted without fighting, and accepted the conditions of peace, among the clauses of which was one requiring them 2g2 462 HisTomc and monumental eome. to yield up tlie great bell of their municipal palace (the " Comune*'), which was brought to Eome, and hung up in the tower of the Capitol, at the same time that those civic keys were appended to the arch of Grallienus. Let us now turn to brighter periods in the history of Empire, and to monuments of another class, the Fora and memorial Columns, erected in the first and second cen- turies. An imposing elevation of ancient walls in massive and regular stonework (peperino), with two parallel cor- nices of travertine (height 90 feet), has been supposed a part of the cincture around the Forum of Augustus, which we might picture to ourselves as an area fortified like a distinct city, between the eastern side of the Forum Romanum and the base of the Viminal hill.* Those lofty walls, extended from north to south, now serve partly as the front of a convent of nuns, the windows and portals of which have been opened by breaking through the enormous stonje blocks. Four arched entrances are walled up with similar stonework on that front of antique masonry : one only remains still open, though in great part buried under- ground. Modern archaeologists, rejecting formerly received traditions, agree in considering this enormous structure to be a part of the fortifying walls raised around ancient Eome by her kings — probably those of Servius TuUius ; and the same origin is assumed by recent writers for other remains in massive stonework, of considerable elevation, enclosed within a ponderous brick tower, frightful and gloomy to behold, which is all now left of a castle built for the Conti family by the most illustrious scion of that * " He (Augustus) raised a great many public buildings, the most considerable of which was a Forum with the temple of Mars the Avenger The reason for the founding of this Forum was the vast number of judicial causes, for which the two earlier Fora not being sufficient, it was requisite to have a third." — Sueton. Octav. 29. TEIUMPHAL AECHES, FORA, MEMORIAL COLUMNS. 453 house, Pope Innocent III., in the year 1203.* The fortifi- cations of which Augustus availed himself as a boundary wall to his l?orum on the eastern side, may be seen, in another part, from an obscure court behind a small caffe in a street near the spot where those more conspicuous ruins rise before us : and in that other remnant of the same structure we see proof of restorations, also antique ; the lower strata being of compact well-preserved stonework, the upper rugged as a natural rock, and worn by the action of time. "Whatever the real date of those massive old walls, it is now generally assumed that the beautiful ruins of a temple with a peristyle of Corinthian columns in Carrara marble, which abuts against them at the eastern angle, must be no other than the fane of Mars Ultor, the most splendid edifice in the Augustan Forum, and founded by that Emperor conformably to a vow made before the battle of Philippi. Not but that this ruined temple also has been a subject of dispute, some writers supposing it to be that * Those walls in the Conti tower have been referred to various origin. Canina supposed them to be either the temple of the Sun and Moon, or that of Tellus ; and Nibby shows grounds for believing that the castlo of Innocent III. was built on the ruins of the Tellus temple ; excavations (in 1825) having led to the discovery that the whole of it rests on an earlier structure of quadrilateral stonework. That temple of Tellus was founded about 266 b.c. by Sempronius Sophus, according to a vow made by him during an earthquake, whilst commanding in the war which resulted in the conquest of Picenum. Considerable ruins of it existed till the V. century. With another temple to Laverna it occupied the area of the house of Spurius Cassius, who was put to death, B.C. 485, because suspected of aspiring to tyrannic power, his house being demolished as the sentence of the law enforced. The Conti castle was partly over- throvra by an earthquake, 1 349 ; and again in part taken down by order of authorities, on account of the then dangerous state of the crumbling pile, in the XVII. century. 454 nisTOEic and monumental home. dedicated to Nerva by his successor Trajan. Palladio first maintained that it must be the celebrated temple of the Avenging Mars.* Assuming, as I believe we may, that the beautiful ruin here before us is indeed the fane raised by Augustus in fulfilment of his vow, and in gratitude for his victory over the cause and armies of the assassins of Cfesar, we may regard this graceful architecture as a monumental record of the profound emotions excited by that deed of blood so variously estimated by contempora- ries and by posterity.f In this temple the Senate used to assemble for discussions concerning war or peace ; and here did victorious leaders deposit the insignia borne in triumph as well as the standards taten in battle. From this fane magistrates, appointed to the command of armies, used to set out on their campaigns. The' Mirahilia Urhis Bomee, from the point of view common to mediaeval ignorance, alludes to the Augustan Forum as that " where is the temple of Carmenta, and within the limits of which stood the palace and two Fora of ISTerva !" The buildings on the area appropriated by Augustus seem to have Canina successfully, I think, meets the objections founded on the evidence of coins with representations of an sedicula, circular in form and bearing the dedicatory epigraph to Mars Ultor. He supposes the ttdicula to represent a holy place "within the cella of the temple on the Augustan Forum, which being semicircular, the concave sido would appear like a rotunda. In that place the first Emperor probably deposited, and desired that others after him should deposit, the standards taken from foes in battle — as Augustus himself records in the Ancyran inscription: ea autem signa vn penetrale, quod est in templo Martis Ultoris, reposv/i. t "JEdem Marti bello Phillippensi pro nltione paterna suscepto voverat," says Suetonius ( Octm. August 29), who recounts the various occasions and ceremonies for which this splendid temple was used. Here was placed the golden statue of Augustus, after his death, during tlie interval till it could be set up in a fane dedicated to him, as now pnrollcd among Deities. TBIUMPHAL AECHES, FOEA, MEMORIAL COLUMNS. 455 escaped from serious damage at the successive captures with pillage of Eome in the V. century, and were probably reduced to ruin, or in great part swept away (perhaps in order to supply material for other structures) during the turmoil .and factious dominion which brought disaster to this city in the X. century. In 955 a convent, dedi- cated to S. Basil, was built among the classic antiquities then extant on this site ; and that cloister is mentioned in ecclesiastical documents as situated within what is there called hortus mirabilis (" the marvellous garden ") — a naVve tribute to the grandeur of antiquity, about which little was known, and whose claims were little regarded in mediaeval Rome. An extant " Ordo " for pontific cere- monial and processions, of the year 1143, designates the temple by the name of " Nervia,"— proof of the then received tradition that it had been dedicated to, or founded by, Nerva. Instead of the convent of S. Basil, another, also for nuns, consecrated as the " Annunziata," now stands amidst the classic ruins dedicated to the Avenging Mars ; and this juxtaposition of Christian and Heathen sanctua- ries reminds us of the moral contrast between two religions — the one which enjoined vengeance as a duty, the other which condemns even the thought of embodying in irre- vocable deed the impulses sprung from such passion. The marble fane has not escaped deliberate outrage. Ori- ginally eight Corinthian columns rose in front of the cella, resting on a podium fifteen feet high ; only three columns being left with a remnant of the richly adorned soffit, and the travertine front wall (with cornices) of the inner pene- tralia. The fine fluted shafts (54 feet high) have been barbar- ously maltreated, and defaced by deep grooves cut in the marble for inserting the rafters of workshops thrown up against them for the use of stone-cutters. A ponderous belfry, for the convent -church, was erected immediately above what remains of the antique cslla, threatening (as 456 niSTOEic and monumental eome. Nibby saw and foretold) to weigh down and crush the whole beautiful relic — but this has been fortunately taken do\vn in precaution against such disaster. For some ages the purlieus of the Augustan Forum were left in the state of an uninhabitable swamp, which was not reclaimed or built upon till about the year 1600. The actual streets of an obscure and gloomy quarter began, about that time, to spring up ; and it is from such anterior state of things in this squalid neighbourhood that the name " Arco dei Pantani," — from Pantano, a marsh or bog — has been given to the sole arched ingress still open in the ancient walls near that ruined temple. Eesearches have shown that this gateway was originally ascended to by fifteen steps, though its passage is now on a level with the streets. No example is there in Eome of classical antiquity so disgracefully neglected as in the beautiful ruins of the Forum founded by Domitian, but often named after Nerva, to whom was dedicated one of the temples built within its area.* It was also called " Forum Transitorium," because serving as a public thoroughfare, and " Palladium" from the principal temple, that of Pallas, which stood in the midst of its area. What remains is but a fragment of the • Domitian was liberal and magnificent in public works. " He rebuilt a great many vast fabrics which had been destroyed by fire, amongst them the Capitolium. He likewise erected a new temple on the Capitol to Jupiter Gustos, and a Forum, which is now called that of Nerva; as also the temple of the Flavian family, a Stadium, an Odeum, and a Naumachia." (Sueton. Domitian. 5.) See also the courtier- inspirations of Statins in his " Sylvae," and in the poem entitled,. '* Via Pomitiana :" Qui reddit Capitolio Tonantem, Et pacem proprio domo reponit, Qui genti patriae futura semper Sancit limina Flaviumque culmen, etc. L. iv. 111. TRIUMPHAL AECHES, FOEA, MEMORIAL COLUMNS. 457 quadrangular portico that surrounded the whole space with sixteen Corinthian columns on each side. Two only of those columns are left ; their shafts (the ascertainable height of which is thirty -two feet) being at least half buried in the ground ; but a portion of the attic and sculptured frieze has fortunately been spared by time, so far at least as to give us an idea of the grandeur and grace of the architec- ture now vanished from this site. That frieze is adorned with sculptures in relief among the most admirable pre- served from the best period of Eoman Art : a full length colossal figure of Pallas majestic in her warlike array, with helmet and peplus, stands at the centre of the attic ; sub- ordinate to this, and on smaller scale along a frieze, are groups gracefully designed, which illustrate, together with certain allegoric subjects, the female industries over which that goddess presided : women weaving, weighing the thread, measuring the webs, carrying the calathus (or basket filled with their handiwork) ; besides these, a reclin- ing figure of a youth with an urn, a water-fall (probably that of the Anio at Tivoli — the youth, we may suppose, being its Eiver-god), and an arcade of one of the aqueducts supplying Eome with water. One of the groups is in- tended to represent Minerva ordering the punishment of Arachne for presuming to vie with herself in the art of needlework {y. Emil Braun, " Euinen und Museen Eoms.") The intercolumnations below this upper storey were occupied by the statues of deified Emperors, some on horseback, and with their titles and acts inscribed on bronze cippi set beside each — memorials here placed by Alexander Severus, whose memory it is pleasing to associate with that of the other virtuous ruler, Nerva, after whom this Eorum is called.* * " Statuas colossas, vel pedestres nudas vel equestres, divis impera- toribus in foro divi Nervse, quod Transitorium dicitur, locavit omnibus 458 nisTonic and monumental home. The massive wall in square-hewn blocks of lithoid tufa, at the rear of the colonnade, is supposed to belong to the vanished Forum of Julius Caesar ; and seeing that an arched doorway, filled up with stonework also antique, for entrance on this side, does not open, as symmetry would have re- quired, at the centre between the two extant columns, we may infer that it was formed for purposes associated with some earlier edifice, not for ingress into the " Torum Palla- dium," or " Transitorium." An engraving which shows the less damaged condition of these ruins in the XV. century, is edited by Canina ; another, showing their state in the cen- tury following, by Marliano (" Urbis EomsB Topographia," 1588) ; and the former writer gives the dedicatory epigraph on the frieze of a temple the ruins of which stood, graceful and conspicuous, on this Forum till the time of Paul V. (1605- 21): Imp. Nerva. Ccbs. Aug. Font. Max. Trih. II. Pot. Itnp. II. Procos. Such were the aspects of antiquity on this site when the Borghese Pope committed the outrage against its claims, which I have already mentioned, by overthrowing all that stood erect, save the remnant of the portico here before us, in order to use the marbles for the ill-designed and ponder- ous " Pauline Fountain" high on the Janiculan Hill. The present appropriation of the extant portion of the ruined Forum as a bakery, with door and windows broken open in the massive stonework, seems the last insult against classic antiquity that could be imagined after what had been pre- viously perpetrated by modern Vandalism on this spot. The many vices of Domitian seem to have been strongly tinged with superstitious fanaticism. Minerva was the cum tituHs, et colnmnis arcis, quae gestorum ordinem continerent— ." Lampridius, Alex. Sever, xxviii. The biographer adds that in this Alexander followed the example of Augustus, who placed marble statues of illustrious men {svAnmorum virorum), with inscriptions recording their actions, in the Forum founded bv him. TRIUMPHAL AECHES, FOEA, MEMORIAL COLUMNS. 459 goddess to whom he showed himself most devout. Jn her honour he celebrated every year the " Quinquatria Mi- nervae," whilst residing at his Alban villa (near the modern Albano), and also instituted a college of priests, out of which were chosen by lot presidents, or directors, required to provide, for popular entertainment, chases of wild beasts, scenic performances, and competitions of orators and poets. (Sueton. Domit. 4.) Among the terrors of a guilty con- science which became more intense in the last days of his life, this Emperor dreamt that Minerva departed from her sanctuary (that fane, we may suppose, which he had himself dedicated to her on this Forum), and declared that she could no longer protect him, because Jove himself had dis- armed her.* The luxurious despot required that the statues of himself (it seems there were several) erected on the Capitol, should be of no other material than gold or silver, and of a certain weight. His successor, raised to imperial power on the same day that Domitian was assassi- nated (a. d. 96), expressly forbade the erecting of statues in precious metals to himself. Nerva, who reigned little more than sixteen months, and died at the age of sixty-six, pre- sents a noble example of benignant virtues and moral con- sistency ; reconciling, as is well said of him by Tacitus, the Imperial power and the civil liberty which had hitherto seemed antagonistic (" Ees olim dissociabiles miscuit, prin- cipatum et libertatem," Jgric. 3.) Charity, personified in him, and applied to public and private necessities, for the first time appeared on the throne of the Caesars. He devised a plan, fully carried out by Trajan and the Antonine Empe- rors, for relieving the poor throughout all Italian cities, as well as in Eome, by a state provision for their children. He forbade the single combats of gladiators ; and it is well to * " Mincrvam quam superstitiose coluit, somniavit excedere sacrario, pogantem ultra se tueri eum posse, quod exarmata esset a Jove." Sueton. Domit. 15, 4G0 niSTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. remember such acts as his, with his personal example, whilst we gaze on the ruins associated with figures in such contrast on the historic page as Domitian and Nen^a.* "We may suppose the Forum of Trajan to have pre- sented in its pristine magnificence the grandest aggregate of public buildings in Eome, adorned with art-works dis- tinguished by the highest merit ever attained in the GrsBco-Roman school; its stately edifices symmetrically placed and isolated, with proper effect secured to each, instead of being crowded together in unsuitable proximity, as we cannot but believe to have been the case on the principal Forum and on the Palatine of the later Imperial period ; the whole group of Trajan's edifices having had the advantage of being planned by the same master-mind, ApoUodorus, a well-known architect of Damascus much engaged during this reign. Marcus Ulpius Traianus succeeded to his adoptive father, Nerva, in his forty-fifth year, a.d. 97, being absent with an army at Cologne when an embassy from the Senate an- nounced to him the event which raised him to the throne. Several of the years during which he reigned were spent by him in the camp, in wars against the Dacians and Parthians; and it was while engaged in his last campaign against the latter people that he died at Selinus, in Cilicia, a.d. 117. "We are, unfortunately, without any full or adequate history of Trajan's life. In Dion Cassius only a meagre abridgment of it is preserved from the original ; but the elaborate panegyric of this Emperor by the younger Pliny acquaints us with the finest traits of his character, and the noblest acts of his government up to the date a.d. 102, when that eulogium was publicly pronounced on occasion of * Martial justly infers that under a ruler like Nerva, Cato would have become an Imperialist : Si Cato reddatur, Caesarianus erit. Ep. 1. xi. 5. TRIUMPHAL ARCHES, FOR A, MEMORIAL COLUMNS. 461 Lis assumption of the consulate for the fourth time. The Empire attained its utmost splendour and fullest extent under Trajan ; but the just laws, the moderation, wisdom and humanity now exhibited on its throne reflect more glory on this reign than do all the conquests achieved over distant nations. In the pursuit of foreign conquests Tra- jan departed from the wise policy adopted by Augustus. He reduced the vast territory of Dacia, which lay beyond the Danube, and extended his victorious progress into Armenia, Mesopotamia, and other countries as far as the Persian Gulf. Hadrian renounced all those Eastern con- quests, adopting the principle recommended by Augustus as the rule of procedure in power. Trajan, in this respect less prudent than his successor, claims our highest admira- tion for his home policy and domestic sway. It is said of him by Dion that " he honoured and promoted all the good ; he never listened to informers ; gave not way to his anger, abstained equally ' from unfair and unjust punishments ; desired rather to be loved as a man than honoured as a sovereign, and inspired none save the enemies of his country with dread." WeU did the Senate bestow upon him a title nobler than those derived from local victories or sub- ject states by good and bad Emperors alike — Optimus^ the best of Eulers. Every year the day of his accession was kept with public festivities ; and Eutropius tells us that, long after his time, the Senate used to offer acclamations to each new Emperor with the augury that he might be more fortunate than Augustus, more virtuous than Trajan : felicior Augusta, meliore Traiano. The latter Emperor made his first entry into Eome, as sovereign, on foot and without pomp. Consigning the sword of office to the Praetorian Prefect, he said : " If I fulfil my duties, use it for me ; if I fail to do so, against me." His wife Plotina, imitating his example, turned to the assembled people as she stept on 462 niSTOBic and monumental eome. the threshold of the imperial palace, saying: " 1 hope to leave such as I was when I first entered here.** The benevolent Trajan assigned subventions for supporting the children of the poor ; and it is reported that two million persons were maintained by his bounties. The usual largesses to the soldiery and people were extended by him to minors of only twelve years, and so as to include even the absent. Not superior to the vanity of superstition, he allowed sacrifice to be offered to his statues, and vows to be made in the name of his " eternity." Admirable in the discharge of public duties, he was far from being of un- sullied private life. He was not free from the coarse vices of a Eoman soldier, which, if they ought not to be judged by our standard, betray how low was the standard accepted in his time, and above which an otherwise exalted mind could not raise itself. The new Forum was founded a.d. 113, and dedicated by Trajan himself in the following year, soon after which act he quitted Rome never to return. The group of superb buildings on this site rose at the northern side of a quad- rangle, 300 feet square, surrounded with pillared porticos, the chief entrance being through a triumphal arch. A colossal equestrian statue of Trajan stood in the centre of that area ; groups in bronze and marble, and relief sculp- tures illustrating the events of his life, were disposed over the same space, called by some writers " Traiani Platea." Beyond this rose majestic the Basilica called ** Ulpian," in width 185 feet, in length about 300 feet, the interior divided into a nave and four aisles by ninety-six columns, the central files of which were of Numidian yellow and Phrygian purple-veined marble, the rest of dark grey {higio) granite. An attic above the colonnades rose to half the height of the lower storey, and the whole was crowned with a flat ceiling entirely of bronze, which Pausanias mentions TRIUMPHAL ARCHES, FOEA, MEMORIAL COLUMNS. 463 (1. V. c. IV. § 4), as among tlie marvels of Trajan's Forum, The entrance was by three portals, flanked with columns of coloured marble. Along the exterior stood semi-colossal statues of captives ; triumphal chariots, military insignia, figures of war-horses, all in gilt bronze, adorned the cornices.* This basilica served not only as a Court of Justice, but as a gallery of portrait statues erected to illus- trious men ; and several basements with epigraphs being extant (some now in the Vatican, others still in situ), we ascertain that among the number so honoured were : Fla- vins Eugenius, Consul and Prefect of Eome, a.d. 350 ; Flavins Merobaudes, of either Celtic or Frankish origin, who was distinguished both in arms and in letters, a Greneral under the Emperor Gratian, and a poet not un- known to fame, but doomed to violent death by the usurper Maximus, a.d. 383 ;t Claudianus, the last truly great poet of Italian antiquity, who flourished in the later years of the IV. and earlier of the V. century ;% ^"^^ Sidonius * " In fastigiis Fori Traiani simulacra sunt sita circumundique in- aurata equorum atque signorum militarium, subscriptamque est ex MANUBiEis," (Aul. Gellius, 'Noct. Attic. 1. xiii. c. 24,)— that inscription implying that the cost of these ornaments had been defrayed bvthe sale of the spoils of victory. They probably stood along the whole extent of cornices above the porticos which enclosed the quadrangle. f The statue was erected to him a.d. 435, in the reign of Theodosius II. and Valentinian III. The veiy long epigraph on the basement (still before us on this Forum) is an example of corrupt style, inflated eu- logium, and courtier-servility. In the epigraph (also in situ) on the basement of the statue of Flavius Eugenius, the deceased emperor Con- stans is designated " divus/' as though the honours of the apotheosis were still accorded by nominally Christian authoi-ities. J Claudianus himself thus alludes to the statue here raised to him between a.d. 395 and 401 : Sed prior effigiem tribuit successus ahenam Oraque patricius nostra dicavit honos. " De Bello Getico, Praef. v. 7." 404 niSTORTC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. ApoUoiiaris, Bishop of Clermont, who died in him (ifty-sccoud year, a.d. 482.* From the last named writer we learn that till his time the manumission of slaves — now promoted and approved by the Churchi — used to take place with the usual formula, by the hands of Consuls on the kalends of January, in the Ulpian Basilica.f At the north side of this basilica was erected by the Senate the Column (columna cochlaa), presenting in twenty- three spiral bands of bas-reliefs the entire history of the Dacian wars carried on by Trajan between the years 102 and 105. This was the first monument of the description ever raised in Eome ; the order Doric, the whole consisting of thirty-four blocks of lumachella marble fastened together by bronze clamps. J The admirably designed rilievi around the shaft, comprising 2500 figures, all of the same height except those on the uppermost band, which exceed the others by from two to three inches, afford the fullest illustration He was Prefect of Rome, a.d. 468 ; and in two of his poems thus alludes to the bronze statue here erected in his honour: Nil vatum prodest adjectum laudibus illud Ulpia quod rutilat porticus aere meo. Ca/rm. VIII. Plosores cui fulgidam Quirites Et earns popularitate princeps, Traiano statuam foro locarunt. Ca/rm. IX. t Nam modo nos jam festa vocant, et ad Ulpia poscunt Te Fora donabis quos libertate Quirites. Patieg. ad Antemium, v. 544. t The last lines of the dedicatory inscription on the basement : ad declara/ndum quamtce altitvdims mons et Zocus tant [is rude] rihus sit egestus, refer to the ridge or tongue of land uniting the Quirinal with the Capitoline hill, which was levelled for the formation of this Forum. As the column is, exclusive of the statue and its pedestal at the summit, 127i feet high, the allusion here must be to the highest points of those two opposite hills ; that of the Quirinal being 1.51 feet, that of the Capitol 137 feet above the level of the Tiber. TRIUMPHAL ARCHES, FORA, MEMORIAL COLUMNS. 465 of Eoman tactics, military accoutrements and insignia, the fortifications and sieges of cities, &c. The massive basement exhibits other rilievi of the implements and trophies of war, besides winged Victories, and on the higher plinth eagles with garlands extending along each side. The figure of Trajan is recognisible, among the animated groups, by its quiet dignity and the plain but earnest countenance made familiar to us in many antique busts, We see him in various acts : offering the Suovetaurilia sacrifice before battle, haranguing his troops, receiving homage, listening to proposals of terms from vanquished or intimidated foes,* In the background of one group we see the monuments, in form of circular sediculse, with cypresses planted near, raised by the Eomans to their own dead in the enemy's country.f There are some among these historic sculptures which excite sympathy for the conquered rather than for the victors — as the tragic scene in a besieged town, where the inhabitants are burning their houses and property rather * A Pontiff, Trajan here the gods implores. There greets an Embassy from Indian shores ; Lo ! he harangues his cohorts — there the storm Of battle meets him in authentic form. In every Roman, through all turns of fate, Is Roman dignity inviolate ; Spirit in him pre-eminent, who guides. Supports, adorns, and over all presides, Distinguished only by inherent state From honoured instruments that round him wait. Memorial Pillar! mid the wreck of Time Preserve thy charge with confidence sublime. Wordsworth, « The Pillar of Traj an. " \ *' He (Trajan, says Dion Cassius) raised an altar to the memory of those who died in battle, and ordered funeral honours to be paid to them every year." 2 H 4M niSTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. than Burrender; another, in which several vanquished Dacians are drinking poison, dispensed out of a large bowl, rather than survive ; another, in which Decabulus, their king, and his chief captains are slaying themselves, prefer- ring death to submission. These admirable rilievi are wrought on slabs of Parian marble, with which the whole shaft is encrusted. It is cer- tain that, in their original completeness, they were brilliant with colour and profusely overlaid gilding. In 1833 a close inspection was made by nine architects of different nationa- lities, on the suggestion of the Danish architect Simper ; and in the result all bore testimony that Trajan's Column had been adorned with a coating of vivid colours, many de- tails and entire figures having been gilt. The egg and arrow moulding of the capital was tinted green, red, and golden yellow ; the abacus (probably) blue and red ; the spirals were either golden yellow, or gilt. In several groups the figures were all gilt, the backgrounds being of different colours, as suitable to the objects represented ; the vacant spaces, blue. The water of the various rivers (here intro- duced) was also blue (v. Meier, " Kunstgeschichte," and Francke, " Geschichte Trajan's.") "Winckelmann sup- poses that the usage of colouring statues of Deities was kept up at Eome till about the end of the third century, when it is mentioned by the Christian Amobius (Adversus Oentes, 1. vi.), in the time Diocletian was reigning. Plu- tarch {Questiones BomancB), observing the care of the Cen- sors for the splendour of the statue (no doubt meaning that of Jupiter Capitolinus), says that nothing so soon faded as the minium, or vermilion {rb fiiXrtvov), with which antique statues used to be painted. The ashes of Trajan were the first among all those of the dead honoured with sepulture inside the circuit of Bome's walls. After his body had been consumed on the TRIUMPHAL AECHE9, FORA, MEMOBIAL C0LUM:N-S. 467 pyre in Cilicia, those relics were brought to Rome and laid, within a golden vase, under his memorial pillar.* On each side of the Column stood a majestic edifice of Corinthian architecture with sculptured friezes, containing the collection of books and archives called the Ulpian Library ; one building appropriated for Greek, the other for Latin literature. Here were kept the ancient Latin edicts of the Praetors, (v. Aulus Gellius, 1. xi. c. 17) ; also the Ubri lintei, or registers, written on linen, of the imperial reigns, which could not be consulted without permission from the Urban Prefect ; and the libri elephantini, or Sena- tusconsults, which related to the Emperors personally, inscribed on laminae of ivory. Vopiscus, who mentions these documents in his life of the Emperor Tacitus (c. viii) , states in another biography, that of Probus, that in his time the books were removed from the Ulpian and placed in a new library connected with the Thermae of the then reigning Diocletian ; but there is a passage in one of the poetic epistles of Sidonius ApoUinaris (XVI. 1. ix), which seems to imply that the Ulpian collection was still in its original place. t Both those halls of the library founded by Trajan have sunk into indistinguishable ruin. Erom the arch which formed the chief entrance to the Eorum on the southern side, the distance to the memorial * " Ossa ejus collocata in urna aurea in Foro, quod ifidificavit, sub columna sita sunt," says Eutropius. Dion makes the statement that they were laid " in the column." We may suppose the place of deposit to have been in its massive basement. Nibby believed that the cavity for such purpose could be discerned, in the solid marble, at the left of the entrance by which we reach the staircase ascending to the summit with 184 steps, lit by 43 windows. f Quum meis poni statuam perennem Nerva Traianus titulis viderat Inter auctores utriusque fixam Bibliothecae. 2 H 2 468 nisTOEic and monumental eome. column was 650 feet ; and it appears that the same dis- tance intervened between that column and the portico at the northern extremity — 1100 feet being therefore the entire measurement of this area in length. In the midst of the quadrangle, surrounded with porticos, which formed a sacred enclosure or peribolus, stood the magnificent temple dedicated to Trajan after his death : a peripteros of Corin- thian architecture, with eight columns in front and fifteen along each side,* probably founded by Trajan himself in fulfilment of a vow made during the first Dacian war, and with intent of dedicating this fane to some deity. His apotheosis secured to Trajan himself the honours of the temple and worship, decreed by his successor. Remarkable testimony to the state of the Forum, as pre- served m its grandeur long after the transfer of the seat of Empire to a new Capital, is aff"orded by Ammianus Marcel- linus {Hist. Bom. 1. xvi. c. 10) in his account of the state- visit to the ancient capital made, with much show of Oriental pomp, by the Emperor Constantius II. a.d. 356, who was on that occasion accompanied by a Persian prince, Hor- misda. " When (says the historian) he (Constantius) came to the Eorum of Trajan, the most exquisite structure in my opinion under the canopy of heaven, and admired even by the deities themselves, he stood transfixed with wonder, casting his mind over the gigantic proportions of the place, beyond the power of mortal to describe, and beyond the reasonable desire of mortals to rival. He con- tented himself with saying that he should wish to imitate, and could imitate, the horse of Trajan, which stands by itself * Several broken shafts of this colonnade have been dug up, some six feet in diameter, since the year 1 765, when one such relic of the antique was found, and taken hence to the Albani villa, as Winckelmann informs us. Others, of black and white granite, now lie strewn en the area around the still erect colunm. TEIUMPHAL ARCHES, FOEA, MEMOEIAL COLUMNS. 460 in the middle of the hall (the porticos ?) bearing the Emperor on his back. And the royal prince Hormisda — answered with the refinement of his nature : * But first, O Emperor, command such a stable to be built for him, if you can, that the horse which you propose to make may have as fair a domain as this which we see.' " The devotional and highly-gifted poet, Yenantius Eor- tunatus, an Italian, who was made bishop of Poictiers, and died about a.d. 600, informs us that the practice of reciting poetic compositions in the Ulpian library was still main- tained in his time.* To about the date 600 may be referred a legend which, whatever its origin, attests the splendour and preservation of Trajan's buildings up to the beginning of the VII. cen- tury. "VVarnefrid, a Longobard, known as " Paulus Dia- conus," who flourished in the VIII. century, records the popular story of S. Gregory the G-reat — that, whilst walking on this Eorum and observing its stately edifices {opere magnifico constat esse constructum), his thoughts dwelt on the clemency and justice of Trajan towards a poor widow, deprived by violent death of her only son ; and the holy Pontiff felt deep sorrow that so virtuous an Emperor's soul should be for ever lost with those of other Heathens ; whilst full of this thought he entered S. Peter's church, prayed and wept at the Apostle's tomb, and there, falling into a trance or extasy, received intimation from on high that his prayer for Trajan had been heard and granted, while he was at the same time enjoined never again to intercede for those who had died without baptism, f Joannes Diaconus, a Benedic- tine monk of the IX. century, repeats this anecdote, which * Vix modo tain nitido pomposa poemata cultu Audit Traiano Roma verenda Foro. This testimony confirms the supposition that the collection of books had not been dispersed, but divided over the two libraries, the Ulpian and that of Diocletian, t S. Greg, l^agni Vita, c. 27. 470 lUSTOUlC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. he, however, discredits (** because so great a doctor could uot certainly have presumed to pray for a Pagan"), hut adds that it used to be publicly read in the churches of the Anglo-Saxons. John of Salisbury (ob. 1182) reports it in the tone of a believer, and S. Thomas Aquinas alludes to it with seriousness. Dante immortalizes in verse both the legend of S. Gregory and the tradition of Trajan's act of justice to the widow : L' alta gloria Del Roman Prence, lo cui gran valore Mosse Gregorio alia sua gran vitt»ria. {Pwg. X. 73.) What does this significant legend express but the protest of reason and charity against that gloomiest doctrine which condemns all, even the most virtuous among those who sought Truth without a guide, to eternal banishment from the Divine Presence and forfeiture of enduring blessedness ? The first deliberate spoliation of classic antiques on this Porum was perpetrated by a guilty Emperor, Constans II., during his inauspicious visit to Eome, a.d. 663. In the course of twelve days he seized all such moveable art-works, and especially bronzes,as he cared to possess. To what extent Trajan's Porum then suffered, we may conjecture. Con- stans intended to transport those spoils to Constantinople ; but he did not live to see that city again, for he was assassinated at Syracuse, a.d. 668. The precious objects brought from Eome, deposited by the G-reek despot in that Sicilian city, fell into the hands of the Saracens when Syracuse was captured by them. It is probable (as Gre- gorovius conjectures) that what still remained of the Ulpian and other ancient libraries in Eome was carried off by the imperial despoiler ; and that the colossal bronze statue of Trajan, at the apex of his column, had the same fate. The final ruin which overwhelmed all the edifices on this Forum, leaving alone erect that memorial pillar, solitary witness to the Past and historic guardian of the TBIUMPHAL ARCHES, FORA, MEMORIAL COLUMICS. 471 desolate scene — tJiis is among the strange facts which anti- quaries are baffled in attempting to account for. There are grounds for supposing that all the architecture on this cele- brated site remained erect, and essentially unaltered, till A.D. 800 ; and the catastrophe which overthrew, indeed almost annihilated, so many splendid structures must have occurred in some year between that period and a.d. 1000 ; certain writers assuming a date for the disastrous issue in the first half of the tenth century, while Eome was a prey to faction and anarchy under the immoral dominion of Theodora, Marozia, and the successive husbands of the latter. A faint light is thrown on the conditions of the ruinous Eorum, in later years, from ecclesiastical documents. In the XI. century part of its area belonged to a monastery of nuns, founded by the daughters of the above-named Theodora ; and in 1032, the Abbess of that sisterhood conceded to cer- tain priests a church, S. Nicholas, which stood below the memorial column. An early intimation of the dawn of revived art, or at least of the regard for classic monuments, is con- veyed in a decree of the Eoman Senate (date 1162) in favour of the nuns who had still legal title to property in that S. Nicholas church. Confirming their rights, the magis- trates recognize in the sculptured column one of the glories of Eome, decree that it should be preserved intact, and threaten even the penalty of death for the ofience of in any way mutilating it.* In the first half of the XVI. century several of the base- ments, with dedicatory inscriptions, for the statues of * "Salvo honore publico Urbis eidem columne ne unquam per aliquam personam . . . diruatur aut minuatur, sed ut est ad honorem ipsius ecclesiae et totius popoli Romani integra et incorrupta permaneat dum mundus durat, sic eius stante figura. Qui vero earn minuere tempta- vcrit persona eius ultimam patiatur supplicium et bona eius omnia fisco applicentur." (in Galetti, Frimicerio.) 472 HISTOKIU AND MONUMENTAL HOME. celebrities were dug up, also certain architectural fragments, most of which latter came to light in the course of the works for building a small church, S. Maria di Loreto, one of the two, with cupolas, which stand like twin-sisters on the modern " Piazza Traiana." Commenced in 1507 from the designs of Antonio Sangallo, that church was finished in 1580. In the map of Uome drawn up by Bufalini (1551) the solitary Column is shown as it then stood, in the midst of the irregular quadrangle of a small piazza. For many years, previous to 1680, its massive basement was entirely concealed by soil heaped up around it. Sixtus V. employed Domenico Fontana to clear away the soil, and render that marble structure again visible, also to repair the column where injured, and raise on its summit the statue of St. Peter (gilt bronze), which has taken the place of that of Trajan.* C-iaconius tells us that till this time the feet of the Empe- ror's statue were still left on the lofty pedestal, and that a bronze head of him, probably belonging to the lost figure, was dug up near the sculptured basement. Eor the repairs, purchase and demolition of houses, which had to be swept away as incumbrances from the narrow piazza. Pope Sixtus spent 14,528 Eoman seudi. At the time when French enterprise was first directed towards this classic site, the Column stood as it were at the bottom of a well, 50 feet square. In 1812, those foreigners, then masters of Eome, undertook to lay open the whole extent of Trajan's Forum,. * A work of little merit, cast in bronze from the model by Leonardo Sorman and Tommaso della Porta. Byron expresses the erroneous notion that the ashes of Trajan were contained in a globe held in the hand of his colossal statue, on this high summit : Apostolic statQes climb To crush the imperial urn, whose ashes slept sublime Buried in air, the deep blue sky of Rome, And looking to the stars, &c. (" Childe Harold," Canto ir. ex.) TRIUMPHAL ARCHES, FORA, MEMORIAL COLUMNS. 473 and began by demolishing blocks of paltry houses, besides two churches and monasteries. The restored pontific government did not continue those works for the desirable object aimed at by the Prench ; but merely took the pre- caution of enclosing within walls the excavated area, and carried out one feeble attempt at restoration by re-erecting several granite shafts of the prostrate colonnades in the Ulpian Basilica. The effect of this is poor ; the arrange- ment injudicious, for those broken columns do not even occupy their original places or pedestals. "We look down from a piazza into a hollowed space, 390 by 155 feet, at considerable depth below the level of the modern thorough- fares ; and it is only about one-sixth part of Trajan's Forum which is thus brought into view. Besides what here meets the eye, the sole other remnant of that splendid Forum consists of a lofty hemicycle in two storeys of vaulted chambers, erected against the western declivity of the Quirinal Hill. Entering through a low door from a squalid littlecourt(SaUtadel G^nYZo), we find ourselves in the upper, and can descend by an ancient staircase to the lower of those storeys. The front of the hemicycle displays some architectonicdetails, brick pilasters, and a well-designed cornice. It is supposed that a similar structure was erected against the opposite slope of the Capitoline hill J and the two hemicycles would have formed limits to an outer area, on the southern side of the quadrangle surrounded with porticos, which was, strictly speaking, the public Forum. Those ruins below the Quirinal are known by the popular name, " Baths of Paulus ^milius." For such uses they cannot have served at any time, and it is possible that they were occupied, under the Empire, for the lodging of soldiers on duty in the Forum, or in the basilica there situated. The last spoliation of the antique amidst the ruins of Trajan's buildings (mentioned by 4il-k IIISTOKIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. Nibby)* was the removal of slabs of precious marble for the pavement of the restored S. Paul's on the Ostian Way. Such proceeding, under Pope Gregory XVI., seems an unconscious expression of the antagonism of the Catholic Po^tificate against classic antiquity. Among the relics of ancient sculpture preserved from decay on this site, we find an admirable rilievo of Trajan with Senators, half-length figures, now in the Lateran Museum ; also in the open court of a palace, which stands above the ruins of the temple of Trajan, fronting the Piazza SS. Apo8toli,t several colossal horse-heads, probably from the series of decorative sculptures placed, along the cornices of the Forum ; and on the walls of the great staircase in that palazzo, a fine medallion relief of Nero, a portrait which almost redeems his countenance from the odious repute derived from other likenesses of him. I have ob- served that the sculptured trophies, miscalled " Trophies of Marius," now on the terrace of the Capitoline hill, are well ascertained to have stood originally in the same Eorum. But the finest art-works of Trajan's time, and illustrative of his career, are before us in the borrowed adornments on the arch of Constantino. Having considered that monu- ment and its historic importance in association with the first Christian Emperor, I may invite the reader to * Canina describes other considerable remains of the ont-buildings of the Forum below the Palazzo Ceva, and within the premises of a convent, S. Caterina da Siena, both on the Quirinalhill. A corridor in that cloister of nuns, is, according to his report, entirely excavated in the solid mass of antique masonry {Indicaz. Topog. di Boma Antica). After the final suppression of monasteries it will become possible for male visitors to inspect this abused remnant of Trajan's buildings. t This palace, formerly known as the " Imperiali,'' but now as "Palazzo Valentini," was founded by a ducal family in 1388, and entirely rebuilt in modem time for the Prince Francavilla. TEIUMPUAL AECHE8, FOIIA, MEMOBIAL COLUMNS. 475 bestow on it another inspection, for the sake of those reliefs and statues which belong to the time of Trajan, and were executed, probably, for the triumphal arch on his Torum. The immense superiority of -all the earlier to the later sculptures on the two fronts of the memorial raised in honour of Constantine, suffices to conyince us how totally, in the course of two centuries, Eome had lost the traditions and technical capacities of high art. Beginning with the larger reliefs on the attic, at the side near the Coelian Hill, we see represented on those borrowed panels : Trajan standing on a suggestus surrounded by his officers, receiving a barbarian prince, who wears the chlsbmjsjimhriatus — pro- bably Partomaspates, whom .this Emperor raised to the throne of Parthia ; Trajan again amidst his army, while some soldiers lead before him two Dacians bound — the discovery of an attempt at his assassination, for which agents had been hired by Decebalus, King of the Dacians, being the subject here intended ; Trajan on the suggestus, making an alloca- tion to his army ; the customary Suovefaurilia sacrifice of a swine, a sheep, and a bull, offered by the Emperor, as alike represented among the reliefs on his Column. On the side towards the Colosseum we see Trajan's triumphal return from his campaign, received at the Porta Capena by Kome personified as a majestic female with helmed head, tunic and buskins, accompanied by other allegoric figures, supposed to be Abundance and Clemency ; next to this, Trajan ordering the restoration of the Appian Way along the Pontine Marshes, while that Megina Viaruvi, an allegoric figure, seated on the ground and leaning on a wheel, here appropriately symbolic, appeals to, or thanks, the beneficent Emperor ; next, Trajan seated in the Forum, ordering an endowment from the state-treasury for indigent children, an act extolled in the panegyric of Pliny on this Emperor ; next, Trajan on the suggestus, while his soldiers lead before him 47G UISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. a barbarian king, probably Partomasiris, Prince of Arme- nia, whom he deprived of his throne. On the eastern and western side are some portions of a complicated battle- scene in the war between the Eomans and Dacians. Tvs^o other large rilievi, within the central of the three arch- ways, are supposed to belong to the same grand composi- tion : on one side, the defeat of the Dacians ; on the other, the triumphal return of Trajan to Eome, where he is re- ceived by the personified City, and by Victoria, who places a laurel-crown on his head. In a series of medallions on the attics are represented scenes from the private life of Trajan : we see him (beginning at the South side) setting out for the chase amidst attendants ;* sacrificing at a rural altar to Hercules, or Sylvanus ; on horseback at the chase of the boar ; sacrificing to Diana, near whose image hangs a boar's head (the offering of devout gratitude) on a tree ; again at the chase — the Emperor's head in this relief having been originally surrounded by a nimbus, the symbol of power which passed from the images of Emperors to those of Christian Saints. In another relief we see Trajan sacrific- * The figure of a youth with a beautiful head, seen in profile, better preserved than most of the others in this rilievo, is a recognisable por- trait of the famous Antinous, a Bithynian, the favourite of Hadrian, and deified by that Emperor after his premature death. To him was dedi- cated a temple with its proper priesthood; and in his honour did Hadrian found the city on the Nile called after him Antinopolis. One account of his death is that he offered himself up, a willing victim, for the sake of his imperial friend, after certain magicians had declared that by such sacrifice alone could the Emperor's life be prolonged. Another report is that Ire was drowned in the Nile while attending Hadrian on his journey through Egypt. It was said that he had been changed into a star (novitm sidiis Antinoum) ; and there were Greeks who believed that oracles proceeded from him in his temple {v. Spartianus and Aurelius Victor.) The deification of such a person was one of the last insults against reason and morality which broke the spell whereby Heathenism still maintained its hold over cultivated minds, under the Empire. TEIUMPHA.L ARCHES, FORA, MEMORIAL COLUMNS. 477 ing to Apollo ; again, amidst attendants after the chase, gazing on the carcase of an enormous lion just slain ; lastly, sacrificing to Mars Victor, probably in act of thanksgiving for his success in striking down such noble prey.* Admi- rable for truth and movement, these rilievi bring before us the acts and personality of the Emperor, even more than do any historic pages — the distinguishing character in the principal heads, the dignity and repose in each group, excit- ing our highest admiration. The lineaments of Trajan, as here represented, are more finely marked,and the expression is more intellectual than in the various busts of him ; and his historic repute accords with such worthier aspect, here reminding us of the tribute won by his virtues from the satiric Julian, that the gods awarded to him, above all others, the praise of clemency. The eight colossal statues of captive Dacian chiefs, placed along the attics of the Constantino arch, and supported by columns of Numidian yellow marble, are alike among spoils from the arch (or perhaps from the Eorum) of Trajan. Well-known is the story of their being decapitated, and their heads carried away in a mad freak by the graceless Lorenzino de' Medici, while his relative Clement VII. was Pope. But such outrage could not have been the fate of all those statues alike, for one of the heads was found under earth, about the end of the last century, and placed where we now see it in the Vatican Museum. Certain it is, how- ever, that all the eight heads were missing previous to a restoration, ordered by Clement XII., in 1734. One entire figure (that on the right of the central arch at the western side) was at the same time replaced by a modern work in lieu of the original, preserved only as a mutilated torso, * Or, as Emil Braun supposes, " a mysterious Oracle-scene, probably alluding to the wonderful escape of Trajan from the earthquake at Antioch." 478 nisTORic and aiontimextal Rome. which now stands on the ground-floor of the Capitolino Museum. Not only the sculptures designed in honour of Trajan, but this whole arch is a congeries of borrowed ornaments or fragments destined for more ancient buildings. De Bossi, after minute investigation, bore witness that it is " an accumulation of spoils from earlier monuments, not alone with respect to its basreliefs and statues, but the very stones of which it is constructed." Deeply fallen indeed must have been Tine Art at Eome when was thus fiet up, in honour of Constantine, a memorial so barbarously composed ! Marcus Aurelius, who succeeded to his adoptive father Antoninus Pius, a.d. 161, in his fortieth year, and reigned over the Roman world for nineteen years, won and merited «uch love and esteem from his subjects that his image used to be placed beside those of the Divine Penates, nor was there a respectable house or street in Home without some portrait of him — just as, in modern time and under pontific government, the Madonna-picture with its ever-burning lamp used to be seen in every establishment, government- offices, police-courts, cafes, restaurants, and shops in that •city. After carrying on war against the Parthians through his generals, this Emperor quitted Eome for a campaign, in which he personally commanded, against the Suevi, the Quadi and Marcomanni — G-erman races settled partly on the borders of the Danube, and partly in modern Moravia, the former between the Elbe and the Vistula. While on that campaign, M. Aurelius died at Sirmium, the capital of Pannonia, in his 59th year. His ashes, brought to Eome, were entombed in the Mausoleum of Hadrian. Well was it said of him, after his decease, that " lent (to mankind) by the gods, he had returned to the gods."* His extant » " A diia accommodatus, ad Decs redisset."— Capitolinus, M. Anton. TUlos. 18. TRIUMPHAL ABCHES, FOHA, MEMORIAL COLUMNS. 479 writings, which form, besides several letters, a email volume in the Greek language, partaking of the nature of autobio- graphy and moral meditations, present a noble example of a mind dedicated to the aim of self-culture and to the attain- ment of truth through virtue. His most famous teachers were Herodes Atticus, Cornelius Tronto, Sextus of ChaB- ronea (said to be the grandson of Plutarch), and Junius Eusticus. In his twelfth year this precocious student put on the philosopher's robe, thenceforth professing and prac- tising the principles of the Stoics, austere towards himself, mild and considerate towards all others. The two poles of his creed were : that happiness is entirely dependent on each individual himself, and that all are sent into the world to work for the common good. Pain, he asserts, is nothing to those who can despise and ignore it. In many repects his stoicism exactly accords with that of Seneca. His aspect, in youth distinguished by a refined and noble beauty, in later life marked by a thoughtful melancholy, emaciated but still characteristically refined, is made familiar to us by numerous antique busts and statues. It is in harmony with aU we know of his temper and conduct through life. From the recorded thoughts of this great and good Emperor we learn two important lessons : on one hand, the capacities of the human soul for exalted virtue, and for the appre- hension of spiritual truth even amidst the moral darkness of Heathenism ; on the other, the vagueness and inconsis- tencies of such ideas respecting the Infinite and Invisible as the mind, amidst adverse circumstances, can appropriate, while accepting no authoritative teaching, admitting no truth as an emanation from a Divine source. An impression of melancholy remains from the perusal of the pages which, nevertheless, excite admiration and sympathy for this vir- tuous Euler. A glorious ideal seems earnestly pursued and' intensely desired by him, yet continually to escape his i ^^-;.>^^ . \\^^ 480 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. grasp, or fade into a mist of epeculative uncertainty, like an earth-bom cloud intervening between the soul and the eternal sunshine. He seems to have less firm hold on the be- lief in Divine Providence and a future life than had Seneca;* yet to see " darkly as through a glass," and yearn for more distinct vision of, the glories revealed in the spirit's true sanctuary. It is often stated that the great principles of natural Eeligion may be acquired through the light within us, and through interpretation of the universe. Yet is it not from the precepts of Christ that the light which guides to such apprehension comes to us, determining our convic- tions, giving to our thought a distinctness little known to the Heathen ? Marcus Aurelius is no exception to the generality of ancient philosophers who often contradict themselves, sometimes indeed announcing high religious theories, but usually hesitating to admit, at times rather disposed to reject than receive, the leading principles of an enlightened faith, or a sustaining hope in the Infinite.f * " In this respect both he and Epictetus have fallen below Seneca, — Marcus Aurelius seems to cherish the fond aspiration though he does not assert it as a dogma." — Merivale, '* History of the Romans." f " Either the Gods have no power, or they have power. If they have no power, why dost thou pray to them ? In truth they do exist, and they do care for human things, and they have put all the means in man's power to enable him not to fall into real evils. — If there be another life for the soul, there certainly will be the Gods, who are every- where — if not, there will be an end of affliction and bodily evil." He generally acknowledges the imperishable life of a ruling faculty of mind, which emanates from and belongs to the Director of the Universe. Such theories may excite reverence and trust, with a belief in all- guiding Omnipotence, but they have no force to inspire love ; they appeal to intellect, leaving the heart cold and untouched. The volume known as the Meditations or Thoughts — in Italian, " Ricordi" — of Mar- cus Aurelius, bears the title in the original, tCjv dq tavrov, or " An Address to Himself." I avail myself of Long's translation. TRIUMPHAL AECHES, POEA, MEMOEIAL COLUMNS. 481 "Philosophy (he nobly says) consists in preserving the inner Genius innocent and without stain, superior to plea- sures and sorrows, acting never with rashness, falsehood, or feigning — expecting death with serenity. Thou hast in such manner to order thy actions and thoughts as if thou wert on the point of quitting this life. Thou wilt give thyself relief if thou dost every act as if it were the last." Grateful for the example and precepts of Antoninus Pius, he tells us that, " From my father I learnt to worship the Gods without superstition, and serve mankind without ambition." It seems difficult to account for the fact that under such a sovereign could be sanctioned the persecution of the Christians — with what degree of personal responsibility on his part may indeed be questioned. To him they seemed offenders against the legally established religion and sacred institutions of the Empire ; but he certainly did not desire that they should suffer for their religious belief or practice alone. In his writings he once alludes, and that in unfavour- able terms, to the constancy of those who died for their faith;* and the extent to which local persecution was car- ried on during his reign is shown by records undoubtedly authentic. (Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. v. 1-5 ; Snip. Severus, II. 46. Euinart, Acta Martyr. Merivale, ch. Ixviii.) Polycarp, the holy bishop of Smyrna, suffered either in this or the preceding reign — according to Baronius, in the year 162. The matron Eelicitas and her seven sons met death with heroic constancy at Kome, a.d. 164. In 177 * *' What a son! that is which is ready, if at any moment it must be separated from the body, and ready to be either extinguished or dispersed, or continue to exist ; but so that this readiness comes from a man's own judgment, not from mere obstinacy, as with the Christians, but considerately and with dignity, and in a way to persaade another with- out tragic show," — Long, *' Thoughts of M. Aurclius," (xi. 3.) 2 I 482 HISTORIC AWD MONUMENTAL ROME. broke out a violent persecution at Lyons, during which 48 martyrs suffered together with their bishop, Potitus. The answer of Marcus Aurelius to the Prefect of Gaul respecting the course to be pursued at Lyons against the Christians, was : " Confitentes, gladio coeduntur,hi vero qui negarent, incolumes dimittuntur." But this may be under- stood to imply that if the Christians confessed to the hideous crimes and licentiousness of which they were falsely accused, then only should they " bo slain with the sword — otherwise set free." Such a sense may be admitted because strictly accordant with the principles of the Emperor, and with the passage in a genuine letter of his given by Euse- bius : " If any cause trouble to any one simply because he is a Christian, let the person informed against be acquitted, although it be plain that he is a Christian ; but the informer shall be punished." Yet the Christian apolo- gists themselves never blame, but rather appeal to Marcus Aurelius as their protector, or as likely to protect their fellow- worshippers from injustice (v. Donaldson, " History of Christian Literature and Doctrine," vol. ii. c. 1.) He had, we may suppose, the sagacity to discern in the Chris- tian faith a principle of antagonism to the policy of the Empire, a danger to that state-maintained religion which was bound up with the political system of Eome and deemed essential to the endurance of her power. Desperate indeed must have been the condition of the sinking cause, in the effort to save which the philosophy, the intellectual ener- gies, and the admirable example of Marcus Aurelius proved fruitless, — all defeated by the resistless might and progres- sive triumphs of Truth ! Soon after the death of this philosophic Emperor, the Senate ordered a temple and a memorial column to be erected in his honour. Of the former edifice not a vestige remains ; even its site is uncertaiu, but we are assured ^TRIUMPHAL ARCHES, PORA, MEMORIAL COLTTMNS. 483 that it stood not far from the still erect column, and that it was dedicated both to M. Aurelius and to his wife, Annia Faustina (ob. 175), the daughter of Antoninus Pius.* That column, of Luna marble (height, the basement included, 122 feet 8 inches), was surmounted by a colossal bronze statue of the Emperor, which probably shared the fate of that of Trajan — carried away among other spoils by Con- stans II. in 663. Its shaft originally stood on a basement divided into three socles, or plinths, the whole resting on a platform ascended to by steps ; small bas-reliefs of the martial deeds of the Emperor, and winged genii holding gar- lands of oak-leaves were on the highest socle; the dedicatory inscription being on one side ; the whole shaft encrusted (like that of Trajan's column) w^ith spiral bands of historic reliefs, illustrating the campaigns of Marcus Aurelius in Germany. These sculptures are lamentably injured on the western side, where they show the action of fire on the scathed marble; and although the column was once struck by lightning, according to the report given by Poggio Bracciolini, it is probable that the most serious damage was caused to it by the conflagration while the Normans were occupying Eome, a.d. 1084. Thus, associated with the memory of Marcus Aurelius, do we see a record on this historic monument of the struggles and sorrows of the Pontificate, of the disasters caused, and the final triumph attained by it through means of the great Pope Hildebrand. In A.D. 955 the column was bestowed by Pope Agapitus II. * M. Aurelius himself bears testimony to the virtues of this woman, whose conduct is represented in the most unfavourable light by histo- rians. He thanks the gods for having given him " such a wife, so obedient, so affectionate, and so simple." He has been blamed for sanctioning the apotheosis of two alike unworthy persons — his colleague and cousin, Lucius Varus, adopted by Antoninus Pius together with himself (ob. 169), and the perhaps calumniated Faustina. 2i2 481) HISTOEIC AKD MONUMENTAL EOME. on the monks of the Benedictine cloister now called S. Silvestro in Capite ; and by those monks (probably in con- sequence of their losses owing to the same destructive fire), was alienated from the monastery, together with a small church, S. Andrew's, which stood near it. Both were re- claimed, not many years subsequently, for the same Bene- dictine cloister by its Abbot, a.d. 1119 ; and the inhibition, under severe spiritual penalties, of any further alienating either of that classic column or the S. Andrea church from the S. Silvestro property, is engraved on a stone tablet, still kept in the portico of the now modernized S. Silvestro.)* In 1589 Sixtus V. ordered a similar restoration of this as of Trajan's column, and a bronze statue of S. Paul, modelled by an obscure artist, De Servi, to be placed on its apex. The fine drawings of Piranesi, engraved in his valuable work on Roman Antiquities, show us the column of M. Aurelius as it stood at that time, before Pope Sixtus' repairs : the three- storeyed basement ruinous^ the historic rilievi round the highest plinth only in part preserved, and of the dedication the sole words extant : Consecratio — Divi Antonini Au' gitsti Fiiy (or, more probably, ** Divo Antonino," &c.) ; the pedestal for the lost statue on the summit still remaining, but crowned by Nature's hand with a wild growth of plants, enwreathing and beautifying decay — altogether, far more nobly picturesque than is this memorial as it now stands on a modern basement with the apostolic statue on its apex. The actual level of the piazza around it is 16 feet higher than the ancient level ; and consequently the two lower mem- • This curious document sets forth in the name of "Petrus Dei gratia hnmilis abbas, &c." " Si quis ex hominibus columpnam per violentiam a nostro monasterio subtraxerit, perpetue maledictioni sicuti sacrilegus et raptor et sanctarum rerum invasor subiaceat et anathematis vinculo perpetuo teneatur"— this being ratified by the authority of bishops, cardinals, and many clerics and laics intervening, a.d. 1119. TEIUMPHAL AECHE3, FOBA, MEMOEIAL COLUMNS. 485 bers of the plintK and the supporting platform with steps are now buried underground. The fragmentary epigraph was cut away by the Pope's workmen ; and what still remained of the bas-reliefs on three sides of the plinth was scraped off {fatti radere^ says Piranesi) in order to adjust a travertine coating around the antique structure, now entered through a doorway not on the same side as the original ingress. Strange to say, the inscriptions chiselled on the basement by Pope Sixtus' order perpetuate the vulgar error which converts this column into that of An- toninus Pius, erected by M. Aurelius, instead of that raised to the latter Emperor ! The religious sentiment, here referring to the statue of S. Paul, is finely expressed ; but when we remember the character and career of M. Aurelius, the phrase, in one of four epigraphs on the modern stone- work, ah omni impuritate exyurgatam^ seems flagrantly unjust. The sculptures on the shaft, like though scarcely equal to, those on Trajan's column, represent the whoLe history of the campaigns in Germany, a.d. 167 ; and it is well observed that " the Germania of Tacitus could not be better illustrated than by the life-like and characteristic figures in these bas-reliefs," (Emil Braun, " Euinen und Museen Eoms.") Many of the subjects — as the suovetau- rilia sacrifice before battle — are similar to those on the earlier-erected column. In one group we see, among other captives, a woman with a radiated crown on her head — probably one of the prophetesses, or priestesses (like the " Norma " of the operatic stage), so revered by ancient Germanic tribes. But the relief most interesting is that of the event, beneficial to the Eoman army in their sore distress, and fatal to the enemy, when, as Christian writers state, in answer to the prayers of a Legion entirely composed of Christian soldiers, rain descended for the refreshment of the Eomans, hail with thunder and light- 486 nisTOEic aitd monumental bome. ning for the discomfiture of the Marcomanni. Hence the name, positively accounted for by the same writers — of the " Thundering Legion " (v. Tertullian, Apol. 5 ; Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. v. 5 ; Orosius, vii. 15.) On the other hand, heathen writers alike regard this co-operation of the ele- ments, for the issues of war, as preternatural and obtained by prayer — not offered up by the baptized Legionaries, but by Marcus Aurelius.* The epithet "thundering" was given to one of the Eoman legions in the time of Trajan. In the relief before us (on the eastern side of the shaft) we see a colossal phantom, like a grim river-god, intended for Jupiter Pluvius, hovering above the conflicting armies with outspread arms, from his right hand and arm pouring rain over the Eomans, from his left hurling hail and thunder- bolts against the Q-ermans, many of whom lie prostrate beneath the disastrous shower. In 1777, an epigraph (now in the Vatican) was dug up below the piazza in the midst of which this column stands, importing a petition from one Adrastus, a freedman of Septimius Severus, to be allowed to build a house for him- self near its base ;t and from the purport of these lines it seems that the good man held the office of guardian, or custodCj to that classic monument. Capitolinus, describing the apotheosis of Marcus Aurelius, tells of persons who believed they had received responses, or counsels, from * " Fulmen de coelo precibus suis contra hostium machinamentum extorsit, suis pluvia impetrata quum siti laborarent." Capitolinus, Vita Anton. Phihs. 24. Claudian ascribes the intervention either to the good Emperor's prayer or to magicians, who accompanied the army — prefer- ring the former explanation : Chaldaja vaga sen carmina ritu Armavere Deos, sen, quod reor, omne Tonantis Obsequium Marci mores potuere mereri. See also Baronius, An. 176. t Pos(t) coZit(mnam divi) Marci et Famtina(e). TEIUMPHAL AECHES, FORA, MEMORIAL COLUMNS. 487 him in dreams — probably while sleeping in the temple dedicated to him, with expectation of such heaven-sent communications. Thus were persons induced to sleep in the temples of JEsculapius and other deities, hoping for similar favours. Besides the historic reliefs on this column, the numerous statues and busts of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina serve to acquaint us with the art-school of their time ; but the finest sculptures of this period are the rilievi which adorn the basement alone of another column erected by that Em- peror and his colleague, Lucius Yerus, to the memory of their adoptive father Antoninus, also named Titus Aure- lius, on whom the Senate bestowed the well-deserved cognomen of " Pius." Adopted as Caesar and successor by Hadrian, a.d. 138, Antoninus reigned nearly twenty-three years, dying at the age of 75, a.d. 161. Of his life and character it is justly observed by Merivale that " every step, every act;, seems to have been weighed by a good heart, carefully directed to a definite end." He embraced and exemplified the principles of Stoic Philosophy, though not occupying himself with the systems or disputations of schools. To his reign is due the praise of being the only one, among those of Eoman sovereigns in the second cen- tury, which is pure from the stain of persecution; and though this has been disputed by some writers, the testimony of Christian contemporaries is in his favour.* Orosius joins in * See the Epistle of this Emperor to the assembly of Asia, published at Ephesus (Eusebius, 1. iv. 13.) " You (he says to the Asiatics) neglect both the gods and other duties, especially the worship of the Immortal. But the Christians, who worship Him, you expel and per- secute to death." . . "If any still persevere in creating difficulties to any one of these because he is of this description (t.e. a Christian), let him that is thus arraigned be absolved from crime, although he should appear to be such ; but let the accuser be held guilty." 488 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. the strain of panegyric, declaring that he was moved to favour the Christians by the " Apology " of Justinus, or " Justin Martyr," which was addressed to this Emperor.* Unlike his adoptive father and predecessor, he was so scrupulously attentive to the duties of home-government, that throughout his long reign he never passed a day absent from Eome or its environs. Numerous sculptured likenesses acquaint us with his benign and noble aspect, one of the most prepossessing in the whole range of antique portraiture.f After his decease his two adoptive sons and successors erected to him a memorial column not far from, and almost on a parallel line, westward, with that subse- quently raised to M. Aurelius. The former " Antonine Column" was discovered, prostrate, fractured, and buried imder earth, below a house at the north-west angle of the Piazza Monte Citerio, in 1709, and in order to extract this treasure-trove, the house was necessarily demolished. The shaft, a plain monolith of granite, was subsequently laid in the court of the Monte Citerio palace ; the basement only was re-erected, first on the piazza in front of that palace by desire of Pope Benedict XIV., and finally, where it stands at this day, in the Vatican garden called *' Giardino della Pigna," from the great bronze pine-cone, there placed, which is said to have crowned the cupola of Hadrian's mausoleum. On one side of the sculptured basement is the dedicatory inscription ; on two others are alto-rilievi displaying characteristics of the best period in Eoman Art. Grandly treated and poetic in conception is the principal subject, the Apotheosis of Antoninus and Faustina : the imperial pair are seen borne aloft on the outspread wings of a floating figure (probably intended for * Benignum eum ergo Christianos fecit." t "Vultu screno ct pulcro, procerus membra, dccenter validus." P. Victor, Epit. XV. TBIUMPHAL ARCHES, FOEA, MEMOEIAL COLUMNS. 489 the G-enius of Eternity), this last a superbly beautiful form, embodying the ideal of heroic youth with god-like power. In his hand that Genius holds a globe with a serpent coiled around it, and the signs of the zodiac in relief on its surface. Beside the glorified mortals hover two eagles, ascending with them to the skies. Below are seated two allegoric personages : Eome, as a matron with helmed head, leaning on a shield on which are represented the Twins suckled by the wolf— and the Campus Martins, personified as a young man who supports on his knee an obelisk, this figure, with its appropriate symbolism in that Egyptian monument, being introduced because the same Campus was the appointed scene where every apotheosis took place. The other rilievi represent military groups on horse and on foot, bearing standards and insignia, all pass- ing before the spectators in orderly movement and with great vivacity of action — these being intended for the pro- cession of the cavalcade round the funeral pyre at the celebrations of the Apotheosis. In this instance we may remember that it was the Empress who was first deified ; the Emperor afterwards.* The granite shaft, originally on this sculptured basement, was never re-erected, but utilized for repair of the obelisk from Heliopolis, reared by Augustus on the Campus Martins, and raised to its present place on the Monte Citerio in 1792. * Faustina (ob. 141) was deified by her husband's desire; and it was probably in the following year that the temple on the principal Forum was erected by him in honour of the wife who so little deserved his confidence. The remains both of Faustina and Antoninus were laid in the mausoleum of Hadrian, where the epitaph of the former was extant in situ till the XVI. century: Imp. Caesari T. Mlio Hadriano Antonino Aug. Pio. Pontif. Maxim, Trih. Potest. XXIIII. Imp. II. Cos. IIII. P. P. Under his reign the usage of burning the dead began to be abolished, and interment, the earlier practice, to be resumed at Home. 4D0 niSTOBIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. The formal and solemn apotheosis (Latin " Consecratio") was first decreed in honour of Julius Ca)sar soon after his death ; next, with similar sanction and still more of pomp, for the posthumous honours of Augustus, and now were the priests of a college named " Sodales Augustales '* appointed expressly for the worship accorded to him. The example was followed in the case of all succeeding Emperors, unless when prohibited by act of their immediate successors. Henceforth the Prince so exalted was styled "Divus ;"and in many instances this deification was extended to the nearest relations of the reigning CsBsars, especially to their consorts. The medals struck to commemorate the imperial " Divi " bear such devices as an eagle, a blazing altar, a funeral pyre, a sacred car drawn by elephants ; or, in the case of females, a carpentum (the chariot especially for their use) drawn by mules, and the spirit ascending to the skies on a peacock ; the deified of the other sex being usually repre- sented borne heavenwards on an eagle. Julius Caesar, Augustus, and Tiberius alike prohibited the offering of divine worship to themselves during their life-time in Eome and throughout Italy, but allowed themselves to be adored in foreign countries. (Sueton. Jul. 76 ; Octav. 52 ; Tacit. Ann. i., 10, 78, iv. 37, 55.) The two Antonines alike rendered divine honours to their deceased wives, the two Faustinas. The daughters of Nero and Titus, the wife, sisters, and niece of Trajan were among the deified princesses. Neither virtue nor philosophy on the throne, nor the spirit of civilization under the Empire ever attempted to check the fantastic and superstitious pomps, or the creature- worship of the Apotheosis, the public celebration of which was attended with picturesque and gorgeous, rather than pathetic or truly solemn observances. In the imperial palace a waxen effigy of the deceased was laid on an ivory TEIUMPHAL ARCHES, FOEA, MEMORIAL COLUMNS. 49l couch, covered with draperies of cloth-of-gold. Senators and patrician ladies visited it daily, remaining for a time seated around that bed ; the Senators, all in black, on one side, the ladies, all in white, on the other. On the eighth day the most distinguished of the knightly order and the youngest of the Senators bore it in long-drawn procession through the Via Sacra to the Campus Martins. Hymns in praise of the dead were sung by choirs of well-born youths and maidens when the* procession reached the Forum. On the Campus was erected, for the occasion, a lofty wooden structure like a pharos, in several storeys, surrounded by a portico inlaid with ivory and gold. The effigy on its couch was placed, amidst piled-up perfumes, fruits, odoriferous plants and precious objects (which used to be sent as offerings from distant provinces), on the second story of this funeral pyre. Hymns were again sung, and the cavalcade, knights and many soldiers on horseback, passed with measured pace round the splendid structure, followed by chariots driven by men in purple attire, with other attendants bearing the images of the deified Emperors, great generals, and subject provinces. The new Prince, seated on a tribunal, pro- nounced a panegyric. After this, attended by the Consul and Magistrates, he applied fire with a torch to the com- bustible pile, from the summit of which an eagle was let loose while the flames rose on high— a peacock at the apo- theosis of a princess.* Soon was erected a temple with its * One now almost forgotten poet raised his voice in protest against these idolatries: Jamque impia ponere templa, Sacrilegosque audent aras, coeloque repulses Quondam Terrigenas superis imponere regnis, Qua licit ; et stolido verbis illuditur orbi. (Fragment of satire of Turnus, in Burmann's " Anthologia Latina,",an(J in Wernsdorflfs *' Poetae Latini Minores,") 492 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. priesthood and sacrifices appointed for the cultus of the newly deified Euler. (v. Herodian, Hist. 1. iv.) Under Trajan and the Antonines the Empire attained its utmost extensiveness, though not all the conquered regions were permanently annexed. Its area covered a superficies of 1,363,560 square leagues, and included about 120 million inhabitants. Beyond those limits, within which lay all the provinces governed by Pro-consuls, ranged a wide circuit of more or less dependent states, some tribu- tary, all more or less submissive to the great ascendant Power, while enjoying what Senecacalls "doubtful liberty."* Since the commencement of the reign of Vespasian litera- ture and art had flourished ; and under the Antonines Philosophy held a place of recognized eminence. Yet the portents announcing decay already appeared ; the seeds of corruption began to bare fatal fruit. Prolonged peace, under Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, had led to laxity in the discipline of the Legions. Marcufe Aurelius witnessed an incipient decline in the political and military system, a hopeless collapse in the religious life of ancient Eome. The impression of melancholy appears in his thoughtful writings ; and the consciousness of danger now besetting the official worship, was (as we have reason to believe) what incited him against the Christians.f Amidst the omens prophetic of ill, awaiting a mighty state now near to the * "Regiones ultra fines imperii dubiae libertatis." f ♦* The decline of which Marcus Aurelius was the melancholy witness, was irremediable; and his pale solitary star was the last apparent in the Roman firmament." (Merivale, c. Ixvii.) The philosophers whose precepts he.especially adopted, were ApoUonius, Diognotus, Alexander the Platonist, Rusticus, and Maximus. One of those most honoured by this Emperor, and most influential in his time, was Epictetus, author of the "Enchiridion," a work rich in high thoughts, moral precepts, and elevated religious ideas. TEIUMPHAL ARCHES, FOEA, MEMOEIAL COLUMNS. 493 period signalized by its great disasters, oocurred the shocks of natural misfortune, tremendous in their force. " The ancient world (says Niebuhr) never recovered from the blow injaicted upon it by the plague which visited it in the reign of Marcus Aurelius." A similar pestilence broke out in the time of Commodus, and it is said that 2000 died every day, in the metropolis alone, while it lasted. The succession of such a Prince as the last-named to such a father, marks an impress of darkest evil and moral dis- grace on the epoch at which we arrive in Roman History with the reign of the last of the Antonines. 4)91) HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. CHAPTER XII. THE DRAMA AND THEATRES. Among the relics of Imperial Eome only two theatres exist at this day in distinguishable ruin. During times when the tragic realities of mortal combat, bloodshed and death, could be enjoyed among public entertainments, when — the Roman's stoic glance Fell on that stage where man's last agony Was made his sport, who, knowing one must die, Recked not which champion — it may be easily understood how inferior were the attrac- tions, for the multitude, of all scenic performances ranging within the ideal sphere of high tragedy or genuine comedy. As easily may we account for the comparative feebleness and non-originality of Latin Dramatic Literature. Great in other walks, the Eoman genius asserted no pre-eminence in the Drama ; and it cannot be affirmed that, since the days of Eacine, Corneille, Alfieri, the modern literature of any country has displayed proofs of impress or influences received from the dramatic creations of ancient Eome. No institution was ever more completely diverted from its primitive character and purposes than the Stage. The first " ludi scenici" exhibited in this city were intended to appease the wrath of the Gods during a visitation of pesti- lence in the year 361, B.C., the performers being brought from Etruria, where such displays, consisting of dances to the music of flutes, were in vogue. In memory of this,* * Valerius Maximus says respecting this originally devotional purpose THE DRAMA AND THEATEES. 495 the primitive and religious purpose for which such enter- tainments were first provided, dramatic performances, even under the Empire, used to be given on occasion of the festivals of Deities, as at the games sacred to Ceres (19th April)* and at those called " Megalesian," celebrated in honour of the Bona Dea (or " Mater Idea "), annually, from the time that the image of that goddess was brought from Pessimus to Eome, B.C. 195 (v. supr. p. 175). To those simple "ludi" of Etruscan origin succeeded the farces called " Atellan Eables," from Atella (the modern Aversa) near Naples, with dialogue in the ancient Oscan language ' — the only such performances in which a Boman citizen could take part without infamia. These farces were, in fact, as the German critic Eriedlaender, observes, " a sort of Polcinello comedy," introducing four typical characters : Fappus, the pompous old man, or *' heavy father ;" Dosse- nuSj the wiseacre ; Bucco, the glutton ; Maccus, the harle- quin or buffoon. The quaint extempore dialogue, long left to the skill of the actors, was replaced, about half-a- century before our era, by written scenes which belong to the dramatic literature of the time. Next were introduced of the " ludi scenici:" Jamque plus in exquisite et novo cultu religionis,, quam in uUo humano consilio positum opis videbatur. Itaque placandi coelestis numinis gratia, &c. (1. ii. c. iv.) * " The games sacred to Ceres were celebrated according to annual custom. In the midst of the public spectacle, intelligence arrived that Dtho was no more, and that all the military then in the city had . . . sworn fidelity to Vitellius: the people heard the news with transport, and the theatre shook with applause. The audience, crowned with laurel wreaths, and strewing the way with flowers, went forth in proces- sion, and with the images of Galba displayed in a triumphant manner, visited the several temples, and afterwards with their chaplets raised a fancied tomb to his memory on the spot, near the lake of Curtius, where that Emperor breathed his last." Tacitus, Rist. I. ii. Iv. (Murphy's translation.) 496 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL BOME. the"Mimi," without the conventional Dramatis Person© of the " Fabulffi," and in which alone did women appear on theKoman stage — with what moral effect on themselves and the public may be inferred from the fact that, at the bidding of those present, the actresses in such plays would, while they danced, lay aside one garment after another till reduced to almost, if not absolute, nudity. The "Mimi" continued longest to occupy the Eoman scene, and survived the fall of the Western Empire. In the reign of Augustus were introduced, and mainly through the efforts of two favourite Greek actors, Pylades and Batyllus, the " FabulsB Saltier'* or ** Pantomimus," a species of dramatic dumb show, like the pantomime-ballet carried to perfection at this day on the Italian stage. The argument, or plot, was usually mythologic, in some instances taken from History, and in many favourite pieces deeply tragic, interpreted by able performers with such skill that not only tributes of rapturous applause, but tears often attested their success. The actor himself (Quintilian tells us, vi. 2, 35) was sometimes seen to leave the stage weeping. The subject smd libretto, though unspoken, were frequently supplied b^ writers of high standing. Lucan wrote four- teen pieces for such mimic representation. The greatest effects were produced, and the highest celebrity attained by the pantomime actors who alone, among performers on the finally established Eoman stage, appeared without masks, the male characters in a sort of harlequin costume with short mantle. The use of masks, though of immemorial antiquity in Latium, did not prevail on the Eoman stage till the century after dramatic entertainments had been first seen in that city. As fully systematized, the maskerading for the stage was curiously varied and complex. Seven different masks were prepared for old men*s characters ; only three for old THE DRAMA AI^D THEATRES. 497 women; whilst young ladies had the maximum of fourteen duly assigned to them, each indicating not alone the charac- ter and temper, but also the age of the fair one.* This clumsy expedient, limiting the powers of expression by the most artificial of restraints, may supply the measure of the superiority enjoyed by modern above antique impersona- tion on the stage. Had an actor been equal in versatility and passion to Grarrick or Talma, had an actress possessed the genius and beauty of the supreme Siddons or the nobly classic style of Eachel, we may doubt whether those quali- ties, under such disguises as the antique stage imposed, could have ever secured the triumphs — the mastery over the minds of thousands through duly exerted effort — attained by those eminent artists in their respective walks and characters. The modulations of the voice were some- times sustained by the music of a flute ; and, with singular disregard to scenic illusions, the so-called " actor" on many occasions did nothing but gesticulate, whilst (behind the scenes) a vocalist sang the words. Cicero mentions the apparently inseparable connection between music and declamation on the, tragic stage : " Let dramatic recitations with vocal music and singing, lyres and flutes, be practised in the theatre as by law prescribed, as long as they are kept within the bounds of moderation." (" Laws," Yonge's translation, 1. 11, xii.) Valerius Maximus (1. 11, c. iv.) mentions the practice of a popular actor and dramatic writer, Livius, who, after his voice had become weakened through long exertion, used to confine himself to tacit gesti- * Collins, " Plautus and Terence" in " Ancient Classics for English Readers." Julius Pollux, a Greek of the second century (Christian era), in his " Onomasticon" enumerates no less than twenty-six diffe- rent classes of theatric masks, divided into the ranks of men, women, youths or boys, and slaves, {v. Cell's " Pompeii.") 2 K 498 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME, culation, whilst a boy accompanied liiin on the flute. In the " De Legibus," Atticus says to Cicero : "As your friend Eoscius, the actor, in his old age was forced to give up his most brilliant modulations, and to adapt the instru- mental accompaniments to a slower measure ; so you also, my Cicero, find it necessary daily to relax from those lofty conflicts of oratory," &c. (1. 1, iv.) It is supposed that all Eoman citizens with their wives and children were admitted gratis ; slaves alone, and also foreigners, unless the latter were public guests, being refused that privilege at the Eoman theatre. The hours of performance (of course by daylight, as is the case in many second-class Italian theatres at this day) were between 12 and 2.30 p.m.— namely, just before the usual hour of the cosna, which gradually superseded the dinner. (Momrasen, " Eomische Geschichte.") Among entertainments of later introduction in this city, was the " Pyrrhic Dance," a species of ballet-pantomime in which both female and male slaves used to take part. In its origin this was a Doric war-dance, developed into the dramatic form during the imperial period, and first becoming popular in Ionia, where it was usually performed by youths of patrician birth. Such were frequently invited to Eome, there to perform in presence of the Emperors and their courts. The first performance of genuine comedy in Eome was about the date 239 B.C., when were acted the plays of Livius Andronicus, a freedman, who also appeared in his own characters ; but of all whose works only about 105 verses are preserved to this day. In the year 155 b.c. was commenced the first constructive theatre built in Eome, by the two Censors in office ; but the severe republican spirit of the age so condemned this novelty that the consul, Scipio Nasica, obtained a decree from the Senate commanding THE DRAMA AND THEATRES. 491) the works to be stopped and the material sold by auction.* The rude and grotesque farces of olden style were acted in open air, without any arrangement for accommodation. At last appeared temporary theatres, thrown up in woodwork, which successively rose and vanished, after serving for ephe- meral purposes, year after year.f The first such temporary structure seen in Some was prepared for entertainments, among other shows and games, at the triumph of the consul Lucius Mummius for the conquest of Corinth, which city he not only captured but destroyed, p.c. 146. Most magnificent among structures of this description was that erected by ^milius Scaurus, who, after distinguishing himself in the wars of Pompeius, was by him appointed Governor of Judaea. This woodwork theatre contained 360 columns, and was adorned with 3000 bronze statues, whilst accom- modating 30,000 spectators. A scene of fairy splendour must the " house" itself — not to say the stage — have been ; for it is described as of three architectonic orders ; the first with columns of Cretan marble, the second supported on shafts of rock crystal, the third and highest with columns of gilt wood. Pliny considers that the results, in the moral sphere, of such novel entertainment were more injurious to the citizens than had been, with regard to other interests, all the wars and proscriptions of the remorseless Sulla ! (H. N. xxxvi. 15.) In the year 58 B.C. Caius Curio, who took part,and was slain, in the war of Caesar against Pompeius, erected two great * The Senatusconsultum forbade the erecting of any seats, perman- ent or otherwise, for spectators at dramatic entertainments, either in the city or within the circuit of a mile around its walls. Valer. Max. 1, iv. c. iv. § 2. f Ovid evidently alludes to such structures : Scsena viget, studiisque favor distantibus ardet : Proque tribus resonant terna theatra foris. Trist. 1. iii. El. xii, 2 K 2 500 lIiaTORTC AND MOXr MENTAL ROME. theatres of woodwork, placed buck to back, and rendered moveable through ingenious mechanism, so that, after dra- matic performance on the respective stages, both were united^ together, thus being converted from two theatres into a single amphitheatre, the scena of each vanishing like a phantasm, and the spectators remaining at their seats during this marvellous gyration ! Pliny hesitates whether to admire most the skill of the contrivance, the success of the execu- tion, or the imperturbability of the Eoman public, who could submit to be thus disposed of in the transmuting process. (11. N. 1. xxxvi. c. XV. § 22.) Of course gladiatorial com- bats formed the second, and no doubt most popular part of the entertainment in this unique " house," which, however, was only made use of in such manner and for such various displays on two occasions. The Eoman Theatre, in its finally determined form and arrangements, was in many respects different from the Greek. It had the same architectonic scenery with colon- nades, or other elevations of solid material, though not con- trived, like the flat scene on that more ancient stage, to open in the centre for displaying interiors. Nor was the area between the Eoman stage and the ascending tiers of seats appropriated for the Chorus, with its measured dance and solemnly chanted lyric declamation ; this entire space (the *' orchestra" of the antique, corresponding to the pit of the modern theatre) being assigned to privileged spectators, first to senators alone, finally, as the Lex Eoscia, B.C. 68, determined, to those also of the equestrian order, w^ho had fourteen rows of benches behind the orchestral seats of the Conscript Fathers. The profession of the stage was gener- ally in low repute — not, indeed, without exceptions to this rule. Eoscius, the greatest artist ever seen on the Eoman boards (ob. B.C. UO), was the friend of Cicero, who defended him in a lawsuit, and a man so respectable in private THE DIUMA AND THEATllES. 501 life that he rose "to the rank of senator. He is said to have been remunerated at the average of £4,800 sterling per annum — according to one reading of Cicero's report on this subject, £43,434. Another famous actor, Latinus, Avas the friend of the Emperor Domitian, and is eulogized not less for his virtues than his talents in the epitaph, " Dulce decus scense," written for him by Martial.* Performers in lower walks also earned large sums. Marcus Aurelius restricted to ten gold piecesf the gifts which magistrates, or other persons who ordered dramatic entertainments, used to bestow on all successful actors engaged by them. Vespasian, on occasion of the inaugurating of a restored stage in the Marcellus theatre, gave large sums, not less than 40,000 sesterces, to every performer, besides golden crowns to all the more eminent, and to one, the tragedian ApoUinaris, 400,000 sesterces. J A female dancer could earn 40,000 francs per annum. An actor says of himself in the Latin Anthology : " Hence (from my professsion) have I secured a spacious house and a sufficient fortune."§ Cicero is witness both for and against the Roman theatre, both to the merits and high character of pre-eminent * " I, that lie here, am Latinus, the pleasing ornament of the stage, the honour of the games, the object of your applause, and your delight ; who could have fixed even Cato himself as a spectator, and have relaxed the gravity of the Curii and Fabricii. But my life took no colour from the stage, and I was known as an actor only in my profession. Nor could I have been acceptable to the Emperor without strict morality. He, hke a god, looks into the inmost recesses of the mind. Call me, if you please, the slave of laurel-crowned Phoebus, provided Rome knows that I was the servant of Jupiter" — this " Jupiter'* being no other than Domitian,— Eptgr.xxviii. 1. ix. t The aureus, somewhat more, according to Gibbon, than eleven shillings. X About 100,000 francs. § " Hiuc mihi larga domus, hinc mihi census erat." 502 UISTOBIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. jujtors, aud the generally low repute of their profession. In the fragmentary " de Kepubliea," Scipio says : " As they (the ancients) thought the whole histrionic art and every- thing connected with the theatres discreditable, they thought fit that all men of that description should not only be deprived of the honours belonging to the rest of the citizens, but should also be deprived of their franchise by the sentence of the censors." — " Comedies could never (if it had not been authorized by the common customs of life) have made theatres approve of their scandalous exhibi- tions." Elsewhere Cicero says, speaking for himself, that " Comedy is an imitation of life ; a mirror of customs, an image of truth." (" Commonwealth," 1. iv. Tonge's ver- sion). Actors were liable to the degradation of corporal chastisement by the Eoman magistrates who engaged them ; though this discipline was limited by Augustus to the theatric premises, and the time during which the perform- ance lasted. (Sueton. Octav. August. 45.) Passing over the many Latin dramatists whose works have perished, we first acquaint ourselves with the Comedy of ancient Eome in the pages of Titus Accius (or Maccius) Plautus, the son of a slave (ob. 184 B.C.), and author of 130 comedies, only twenty of which are preserved. He began his literary career about 224 B.C., and continued till death, almost without a rival,tobe the favourite of his public. Por about five centuries did his plays hold their position, familiarly seen, and ever applauded, in Eome's theatres. Their characters,names, scenery are Greek ; but the manners they depict, essentially Eoman; and perhaps no other writer has so fully illustrated the every-day life in the great city. Publius Terentius, born at Carthage, B.C. 186, was ten years old when Plautus died ; either by birth a slave or enslaved as prisoner of war, he received his liberty from the Eoman Senator who bought him, and whose pre- THE DllAMA AND THEATEES. 503 uomen, Terentius, he took. He is said to have translated 108 of the comedies of Menander ; but six only of his plays are extant, and these, which may be considered originals however imitated from Greek models, are probably all that he ever produced in completeness, or ever saw on the stage. The two writers moved in different spheres. Terence has less of broad farce, and more of the comedy of high life than Plautus. The " Eunuchus" (or " Ethiopian Slave"), by the former, was the most popular of all his plays, and for this the ^diles gave him about j660. sterling, the largest sum hitherto paid for any comedy at Rome. S. i\ugustine is our authority for the thrilling effect produced by a line in his " Heautontimorumenos" (or " Self-Tormentor") : Homo sum : humani nihil a me alienum puto — (Act i. sc. 1.) at which the whole audience, including many of the rude and ignorant, broke out into most fervent applause — honourable not less to themselves than to the author. This comedy, as well as its Greek name, is in great measure borrowed from a lost one among those of Menander. The ancient theatres being open only on festivals, nor ever for more than a few successive days, no piece could have what we call " a long run," as in our time. It is said that Terence perished at sea, his MS. translations being lost with him, on his voyage from Greece ; or, according to another story, that he died of grief for the loss of those literary treasures, after escaping from shipwreck.* * " It is said that when he offered his first play to the JEdiles, who, as the regulators of the public games, had to choose the pieces which were to enjoy the honour of public representation, he found the officer to whom he brought it to read seated at table. The young author was desired to take a stool at a distance, and begin ; but he had scarcely got through the opening passage of the '• Maid of Andros," when the iEdile motioned him to a scat at his own side, and there the reading was cot HTSTOHIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. Ten tragedies are usually edited under the name of Seneca, though only four — Hercules Furens, Thyestes, The- bais, and Hippolytus — are considered to be his genuine works. By some critics the two former, and also the (Edipus are attributed to the Philosopher's father, Annaeus Seneca ; and the Octavia (most manifestly not Lucius Seneca's work, seeing that he himself is among the charac- ters, and his pupil Nero is therein presented under the most odious colours) is attributed either to Scseva Memor, who flourished in the time of Trajan, or (as by Vossius) to the historian Florus. It is probable that all those ten trage- dies were written with a view to recitation alone, not to ])erformance on the stage. The Chorus, which on the Koman boards appeared together with the actors, not in the orches- tra, where its office was so important and its grouping so grand in the (xreek theatre, is introduced in all these trage- dies, with declamation in high-sounding lyric verse. The style is generally inflated, the imagery redundant ; the rhetorical passages are too prolonged. Inconsistencies, contradictions of thought and sentiment occur in a manner so like what we find in the Stoic Philosopher's undoubted writings, that this aloue seems to attest the author's identity in some at least among these dramatic works.* With all their completed." (Lucas Collins, " Plaatus and Terence.") The Andria was first acted 166 u c. * In the Troades the Chorus call to mind " the happy Priam, wander- ing among pious souls in the safe Elysian fields ;" yet elsewhere declare that the departed spirit vanishes like smoke, that after death is nothing- H^s, that death itself is nothing : " Post mortem nihil est, ipsaque mors nihil." The Chorus of Corinthian citizens in the Medea utter lines that are strikingly prophetic, far beyond the knowledge and geographic theories of ancient Rome : Venient annis stccula seris, C^uibus oceanus vincula rerum THE DRAMA. AND TIIEATEES. 505 faults, tliej are distinguished by a tone of moral dignity, and an elevated purjDOse, evinced in frequent assertion of high principles, of just views respecting life and duty. The 2)assages of the Chorus are among the finest, both in thought and language ; and the brief sententious dialogue some- times conveys impressively in single lines the maxims of Stoicism. Marcus Aurelius regrets the deterioration of dramatic Literature. " After tragedy (he says) the old comedy was introduced, which had a magisterial freedom of speech, and by its very plainness of speaking was useful in recom- mending men to beware of insolence. But as to the middle comedy which came next, observe what it was, and again for what object the new comedy was introduced, which gradually sunk down into a mere mimic artifice." "We perceive a superior aim in Seneca ; but the idea of making the stage a vehicle for moral or intellectual improvement seems scarcely to have occurred to the Eoman mind. "We are informed of the splendours of spectacular display and appliances of mechanism on that local stage.* Valerius Maximus mentions the awnings for protecting the public from sun and rain, — suggestive of a finely wrought passage in Lucretius jf also the fountains which diff'used Laxet, et ingens pateat tellus, Tethysque novos detegat orbes, Nee sit terris ultima Thule. * So through the parting stage a figure rears Its body up, and limb by limb appears By just degrees, till all the man arise, And in his full proportion strikes the eyes. Addison's "Ovid," Metam. 1. iii. f This the crowd surveys, Oft in the theatre, whose curtains broad, Bedecked with crimson, yellow, or the tints Of steel cerulean, from their fluted heights 50G HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. coolness through the overheated atmosphere. The decora- tion of the architectonic scene that writer describes as sometimes all brilliant with colours, or with pictures hung to columns and fa(;ades ; at times still more magnificently adorned, the whole being plated over with silver, ivory, and sometimes with gold, (1. 11, c. iv.) But what were the other spectacles displayed to please a Eoman public ? Horror- striiiing realities of bloodshed, torture, and lingering death, which degraded the scene so long occupied by Plautus and Terence into a charnel-house, a scaffold for the agonizing doom of malefactors, who there underwent the sentence of justice by way of entertainment for the crowd — by their pangs affording pastime, giving the ghastliness of reality to tragic catastrophes ! Besides exhibitions that were grossly indecent,* this degraded stage displayed such spectacles as a notorious robber fastened to a cross and devoured by wild beasts, thus made to enact the sufferings of Prome- theus ;t another criminal, in the drama of Dcedalus, raised up on mimic wings, to be cast down among hungry bears Wave tremulous; and, o'er the scene beneath. Each marble statue, and the rising rows Of rank and beauty, fling their tints superb, While as the walls with ampler shade repel The garish noon-beam, every object round Laughs with a deeper dye, and wears profuse A lovelier lustre, ravished from the day. Watson's " Lucretius," 1. iv. 77 sqq. Martial, " De Pasiphais Spectaculo." — {Be Spec, v.) ; Suetonius, Nero, 12. f *' As erst, bound down upon the Scythian rock, Prometheus with ever-renewed vitals feasted the untiring vulture, so has Laureolus, sus- l)ended on no feigned cross, offered his defenceless entrails to a Cale- donian bear. His mangled limbs quivered, every part dripping with gore. — This criminal had surpassed the crimes of ancient story, and what had been fabulous was, in his case, a real punishment." — Ibid. Ejy. vii. THE DllAMA ANIi TUEATIIES. 507 for his perhaps merited death ;* another condemned to appear in the part of Orpheus, and be torn to pieces by- bears, as the poet was by infuriated Bacchantes. f In the part of Mutius Scsevola a slave was condemned to have his hand burnt off, thus imitating the voluntary sacrifice of the Eoman conspirator against Porsena. Another victim was actually consumed in the flames, by such death representing the scene of Hercules on Mount CEtus. In the presence of Nero, an unfortunate actor was raised from the ground (his part being Icarus), and dashed on the stage so that the Emperor's feet and footstool were sprinkled with his blood.;}: The classic writers of Rome afford ample testimony to the demoralizing influences of the local stage. Ovid counsels young maidens, among remedies against love, ne'er to frequent the wanton theatre Where vain desires in all their pomp appear. Zosimus points out the licentiousness of the pre-eminently popular pantomime performance : " It was (he says) in the time of Augustus that was introduced the Pantomime with dance, which had never been heard of before, as well as many other things productive of a multitude of evils." Tacitus describes the abuses of the stage in the reign of Nero : " To gratify his passion ,for scenic amusements, he (the Emperor) established an entertainment called the * " Daedalus, while thou wast being thus torn by a Lucanian bear, how must thou have desired to have those wings of thine !" — Ibid. Ep. viii. f " Above the poet hung many a bird, but he himself was laid low, torn by an ungrateful bear. Thus, however, this story, which was before but a fiction, has now become a fact." — Ibid. Ep. xxi. Martial's " De Spectaculis" contains allusions extending from a.d. 80 to about A.D. 94. J " Icarus, upon his first attempt, fell down close by his (Nero's) feet, and bespattered him with his blood." — Sueton. JVero. 12. 508 niSTOEIC AM) MONUMENTAL HOME. Juvenile Sports. To promote this institution numbers of the first distinction enrolled their names. Neither rank, nor age, nor civil honours were an exemption. All degrees m embraced the theatrical art, and, with emulation, became the rivals of Greek and Eoman mimicry ; proud to languish at the soft cadence of effeminate notes, and to catch the graces of wanton deportment. Women of rank studied the most lascivious characters." (Annals, 1. xiv. 15.) Disorders, leading sometimes to bloodshed, used to take place in the theatre, owing to the passionate partisanship for favourite actors or dancers — and this notwithstanding the presence of an entire cohort, 1000 soldiers, according to regulations for maintaining order at dramatic performances from the earlier times of the Empire. Nero removed that guard from the theatres ; and the consequences were that the tumults of faction increased so as to necessitate the banishment of all Pantomimi from Eome and Italy. They were recalled four or five years later. The Senate decreed (a.d. 15) that those histrionic favourites should only exhibit themselves in public, not at private entertainments. Domi- tian prohibited their public appearance whilst permitting them to act in private houses. Nerva, yielding to the popular wish, sanctioned the reappearaiuce of the Panto- mimi on the public stage. Trajan again suppressed all their performances, but, after his triumph for his Dacian conquests, a.d. 106, revoked that inhibition, Hadrian not only gave full liberty to the stage and its artists, but allowed the Pantomimi who were engaged for the pleasure of his court to exhibit, like others, in public. The law which deprived all actors of the honours and privileges of citizenship was revoked, probably by Diocletian, on behalf of those who had only appeared on the boards when minors in age. A fatal germ of decay and tendency to corruption mani- THE dhama. and titkatres. "509 lest themselves in the Theatre as iu other institutions of ancient Eome. It is well to contemplate the realities of that stage created and possessed bj the genius of such Heathen- ism as dominated over the Eoman mind : its shows and paraphernalia, its fantastic pantomime, and horror-striking tragedies made subservient to licentiousness, pandering to brutal tastes, attracting the lowest minds by the most detestable exhibitions. The walls of Roman theatres might tell a tale almost as dreadful as might the arcades of the Colosseum. There is matter for thought and gratitude in the consideration of such realities of the Past contrasted with those of the Present ; and we turn from the ancient theatre with a quickened sense of all we owe to the beneficent power of that Faith which has made its purifying influ- ences felt even in the haunts of public amusement. Let us now consider the few remains of buildings appro- priated for dramatic performance, at this day extant in Rome. The oldest of which any remnant is visible is the theatre founded, about b.c. 14 (dedicated two years after- wards), by Cornelius Balbus, Consul in the year 39 B.C., the friend of Augustus, and who enjoyed the honours of a triumph for military successes in Africa, B.C. 19. Much of the wealth accumulated from the spoils of victory was applied to the building of this theatre, with a contiguous portico. According to the " Notitia Urbis," it could accom- modate 30,085 ; according to other reports, only 11,510 spectators. It is supposed that the gloomy palace, once that of the Cenci family (near the Jews' quarter), stands on an elevation formed by its long prostrate debris. In the pontific " Ordo" of 1143 it is styled, by strange mistake, " Theatrum Antonini." The sole conspicuous remnants of it now visible are a portion of one of the cunei, near that " palazzo Cenci ;" also two columns and a fragment of an architrave built into a house front. In the obscure Via S. 510 niSTORIC iLND MONUMENTAL BOME. Maria in Cacaberis there are other remains of its architecture iu travertine, two half-columns, an architrave, and an upj^er storey with brick pilasters, which probably belonged to the portico, one of those called " crypto-porticus" because enclosed within walls. Near this were found (about 155G) the colossal statues of Castor and Pollux, with their steeds, which no doubt adorned thdt Balbus Theatre, and which now stand on the platform terrace of the Capitol. Julius Caesar, desiring to vie with, and in all things sur- pass, his rival Pompeius (who had founded the most splendid theatre in Eome), ordered the erection of another theatre, in the clearing of the space requisite for which many houses, even temples, were demolished, on an area between the Tarpeian rock and the left bank of the Tiber. Augustus completed this edifice, and dedicated it to his beloved nephew, the early-lost Marcellus, B.C. 12. It is said to have accom- modated 20,000 spectators. "We are told that in the enter- tainments for inaugurating it 700 wild animals were slaughtered ; and Pliny mentions a tame tiger, the first such specimen seen at Eome, exhibited on that occasion. This theatre was reduced to ruin by the great fire in the time of Nero, and was restored by Vespasian. It probably suffered also from the fire during the reign of Titus ; and Lampridius mentions the intention only of Alexander Severus to restore it — " theatrum Marcelli reficere voluit." About the year 1086, it was fortified and occupied by Pier Leone, the founder of a famous family, who gave shelter within these walls, a.d. 1099, to Pope Urban II. at an emergency of danger.* That much -tried Pontiff closed his life, in the same year, while a guest of his protector in this * The mediaeval chronicler of the Popes, Pandolphus Pisanus, says : " Qui (Urban II.) apiid ecclesiam Sancti Nioolai in Carcere, in dome Petri Leonis — auimam Deo reddidit." THE DRAMA AND THExVTRES. 511 now castellated theatre. In 1116 a tumult broke out among the Eoman people owing to a struggle of factions for obtaining the office of Civic Prefect— then invested with considerable powers. Pier Leone desired to secure it for his son, and in consequence his fortress was attacked on the eastern side, where now extends the quaintly characteristic Piazza Montanara — a haunt in which we may observe the genuine Eomanesque in the popular life of Eome. That onset, as we may believe, caused great damage to what remained of classic architecture in the metamorphosed building of Augustus. The descendants of Pier Leone were succeeded in occupation here, in the XIII. century, by the potent Savelli family, who became extinct in the earlier years of the last century. Their successors were the Orsini, which baronial family, once alike powerful and turbulent, still owns and inhabits the modern palazzo which in this instance absorbs the classically antique. Of the two storeys of arcades only twelve arches remain, with their vaulted chambers still open on the ground floor ; above these are the arcades and pilasters of the second storey, still recognisable, though the spaces ^re filled with mediaeval masonry, no doubt thrown up by the Savelli, and of the style called •* Saracenesca," which prevailed much in and around Eome during the middle ages. The highest storey has totally disappeared. It was, we may believe, an attic with recti- linear windows and Corinthian pilasters — seeing that the other orders, Doric and Ionic, are represented in the two storeys still partially preserved. We see here the earliest example in Eome of the prescribed super-imposition of those classic orders, Doric on the ground floor, Ionic on the upper, and Corinthian (as in this instance supposable) on the highest storey. A dusky and sullen pile, in its now half ruinous and rudely repaired condition, has this Marcellus theatre become. The arcades still erect in massive tra- 512 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. vcrtine stonework, scarcely injured, on the ground floor, are utilized as shops of the humblest description, in the interior of which wo see the ancient vaulting quite firm and com- pact. Here we find the establishments of a blacksmith, a cheesemonger, and an osteria. The business of the smithy, after night-fall, causes a lighting up of the antique interior most picturesque in effect as seen from the outside ; and I would advise the tourist to order a bottle of wdne from mine host of the dim-lit osteria for the sake of observing at leisure (and with compensation) the mysterious retreat, which at first sight might be supposed a cavern, or some fit haunt for bandits, where Antiquity is here subjected to such vulgar, yet withal picturesque appropriation. The plan of this theatre is clearly displayed in a well- preserved portion of the ancient map of Rome, now in the Capitoline Museum. A few fragments of architecture probably belonging to the proscenium of this theatre— ?'.e. a Doric pilaster and cornice — remain at the angle of a house near the gateway of the Orsini palace ; also, set into the front-wall of that mansion, some granite columns from the classic stage. In the dingy penetralia of an old-fashioned osteria (" della Campana") some of the vaulting which sustained the gra- dines may be recognized ; and no doubt many other rem- nants still exist, concealed among the dilapidated houses of obscure streets near the Piazza Montanara which now occupies the site of the Forum Olitorium, or great veget- able market, of the ancient city, external to the Porta Car- mentalis in the Servian walls, here rising along the level ground between the Tarpeian Eock and the Tiber. In a narrow portion of those old fortifications there were three gateways, the Carmentalis (under the Tarpeian rock), the Triumphalis,and the Flumentana, nearer to the river. Livius THE DEAMA AND THEATRES. 513 (1, iv. 2G) mentions the ludus Trojce* in which well-born youths, among others Caius, the grandson of Augustus, took part at the fetes for inaugurating this theatre, B.C. 12. Suetonius in his life of that Emperor (Octav. August. 29) gives but few words to the subject — more in his life of Vespasian, referring to the dedication of the restored scena.f In dark subterranean places by torchlight might be seen, till recent time, vestiges of the first erected, and apparently the most magnificent of permanent theatres in Eome, that founded by Pompeius the Great, B.C. 54, at the same time as, and connected with, other extensive public buildings : a temple, a vast portico with one hundred columns around its quadrangle, and a Curia for the assemblage of the Senate, — scene of a memorable event — the assassination of Julius Caesar. The temple, dedicated to Yenus Victrix, stood within the semicircular cavea of the theatre ; and this aggregate of stately edifices occupied the level space between the south-western side of the Campus Martins and the left bank of the Tiber. The superb portico was called, from its hundred columns, Secatonstylon ; and is said to have been 700 feet in length by 550 in width. The area included within its graceful architecture was planted with trees, as a public garden ; and along the four sides of the vast parallelogram opened exedrce, for repose or converse, * Under the general name of ludi were included chariot races, gla- diatorial combats, theatrical performances, and also those military shows, like reviews or sham-fights, exhibited by youths of patrician birth on horseback, called ludi Trojce. v. Tacit. Ann, xi. 11, Suet. Aug. 43. Virgil, ^neid. 1. v. 448-587. f " In these games — he revived the ancient musical performances {acroamata). To Apollinaris the tragedian he gave 400,000 sesterces; to Terpnus and Diodorus, the cithm-cedi, 200,000; and the least that he gave to any (of the artists engaged) was 40,000, besides a great many gold crowns." — Vespas. 19. 2 L 614 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. alternately rectilinear and curvilinear in form. It is sup- posed that the forty -four columns of granite in the beau- tiful court of the Cancelleria palace, built by Bramante, may have belonged to that Pompeian portico. The northern angle of the stage is supposed to have reached the site where now stands the tribune of the Theatine church, S. Andrea delta Valle ; the Curia to have stood near the church, or contiguous convent, of S. Carlo ai Catinari* The senatorial prohibition against the erecting of any theatre in the city or its environs being still in force, Pompeius adopted the expedient of giving a species of con- secration to the scene for public amusement by raising the temple of Venus at a level with the highest gradines, in the midst of the caveOf there so placed that its front would overlook the stage. When, therefore, the public were invited to the festivities for the inauguration of the build- ing, it was for spectacles and games given in honour of the goddess that the Eoman people were officially sum- moned. Dion Cassius (1. xxxix. c. 38) mentions the musical performances and athletic contests provided for the occa- sion.t Plutarch states that the plan and architecture of this theatre were copied from a Greek original, at Mitylene, The diagram of these buildings is fortunately preserved among the fragments of the ancient plan of Rome, in the Capitoline museum. We there recognise the theatre, with its mutilated title Theatkum (Pomp)Ei, the portico, and the Curia at the south-western side of the quadrangular colonnades. "We may even identify the very spot where " great Caesar fell" beneath Pompey's statue, in a hemicycle at one extremity of the hall for the Judge's tribunal, at which, no doubt, the Dictator would have taken his seat on the fatal Ides of March. Brutus, we are told, sat at that tribunal administering justice, while perfectly tranquil and self-pos- sessed, on the morning of that day. t He also mentions, but does not guarantee, the report that this theatre was actually built by one Demetrius, a freed man of Pompeius, Who had acquired immense wealth in the campaigns of that leader. THE DRAMA AND THEATEES. 515 the capital of Lesbos, where Pompeius had been present at games and poetic recitations given in his honour after his victories over Mithridates, king of Pontus. Struck by the beauty of that Lesbian theatre, the victorious leader ordered plans and drawings of it for his architects to copy in another edifice, his own creation, the desire of erecting which in Rome seems then and there to have entered into his mind.* According to Pliny (H.N. xxxvi. 15), this theatre could accommodate 40,000 spectators ; but other reports reduce the number to 27,000, or 17,580. In the mind of the founder, his theatre and temple became asso- ciated with ominous portents of his own fate. Plutarch tells us that, on the night before the battle of Pharsalia : " Pompeius dreamt that he was entering the theatre where the people received him with joyous bursts of applause, and that he proceeded to adorn the temple of Venus, giver of victories, with many spoils won in battle ; which vision in one sense encouraged him, but in another gave him trouble through the fear that, the race of Caesar being derived from Venus, it might signify that glory and splendour were to be acquired not by himself but by Caesar, his antagonist." (Pompeius, Ixvii.) In the year 22 (a.d.) the stage, probably of woodwork alone, * *' Being delighted (says Plutarch, Pomp.. XLI.) with the theatre of Mitylene, he ordered designs of the elevation and plan, intending to have one like it erected at Rome, hut larger and more magnificent." The same writer describes the entertainments at the inauguration of this theatre : " a variety of gymnastic games, performances of music, and combats with wild beasts, in which were killed 500 lions ; but the battle of elephants afforded the most astonishing spectacle." Dion adds that eighteen elephants were then exhibited, to be attacked by armed men ; and that the people, moved by their piteous cries, desired and obtained for those creatures that life should be spared. In all these particulars we find no mention of any nobler, or dramatic, appropriation of this new theatre at Rome. 2 L 2 51G HI8T0EIC AUTD MONUMENTAL HOME. was destroyed by fire. It was restored and dedicated anew, with splendid entertainments, by Claudius.* Among pageants beheld within these walls, the most memorable was that prepared by Nero,in honour of his guest Tiridates, king of Armenia. Not only the scena^ but the whole cavea and gradines of seats were covered with gilding, and the velarium (awning) was of purple studded with gold stars, and displaying in the midst the eflSgy of Nero in act of driving a chariot. In memory of this, the day so celebrated for the reception of the oriental King was called "the golden day."t The theatre again suffered much from the great fire, A.D. 80, in the time of Titus, and was restored by Domitian. Eusebius mentions another conflagration, a.d. 247, in which not only this theatre but the great portico adjoining it sustained serious injuries ; and after which it was again restored. Yet once more did fire devastate these buildings, kindled during a grand spectacular performance given by Carinus (v. Vopiscus, Life of that Emperor, c. xix). The restoration by Diocletian is described as most magnifi- cent ; and thenceforth was the " Hecatonstylon" called " Porticus Jovia," from the cognomen of Jovius, which Diocletian assumed. Erom a mutilated epigraph copied by the " Anonymous of Einsiedlin," it appears that yet one * The description of the dedicatory festival by Suetonius indicates the position of the temple with respect to the cavea and orchestra : " In the games he (Claudius) exhibited for the dedication of the Pompeian theatre, which had been burnt and restored by him, he pre- sided on a throne erected in the orchestra, after having first offered up prayers in the temple above (cum iprius ajpud superiores eedes supplicasset) , and then descended into the middle of the cavea, whilst all present kept their seats in silence." (Tib. Clavd. 21.) The same historian tells us that Cains Cajsar finished (dbsolvit) the theatre of Pompeius and the temple of Augustus, " works that were left incomplete under Tiberius." (C. Ccesar CaUg. 21.) f Ttjv rjn'ipav xpvaijv. Dion, 1. xliii. 6. THE DRAMA AND THEATEES. 517 more restoration, probably after damages caused to these buildings bj earthquake, was carried out in the names of Arcadius and Honorius, then reigning over the East and West — an important testimony, for it serves to prove that the performances of the classic stage (whether dramatic or merely spectacular) were kept up in Eome during the earlier years of the V. century.* There are indeed grounds for supposing that till the reign of the Ostrogothic King, Theodoric (who ruled over almost all Italy for thirty-three years, till his death, a.d. 526), entertainments of some kind were still given in the Pompeius Theatre, for we find mention in the letters of his secretary Cassiodorus (Varior. 1. iv. § 51) of certain repairs ordered by him, and which he charged the Senator Symmachus to see carried into effect as requisite in the then state of this antique building. That it still existed in ruins which were conspi- cuous, and known under the right name, till the XII century, is shown by the pontific '* Ordo" (1143), which directs that the procession attending the Pope on his way from St. Peter's to the Lateran, on Easter Monday, should pass between the Circus of Alexander and the " Theatrum Pompei." Towards the close of the XIII. century these classic remains were, like so many others in Eome, appro- priated by baronial owners, and for fortified residence, namely by the then powerful Orsini. Petrarch saw what he calls an " Arch of Pompeius the Great" — probably one of the arcades, or chief entrances, of the theatre, still erect. An epigraph found on this site, " Grenium Theatri Pompeiani," is given by Elavio Biondo, probably one among many the exhuming of which, together with heaps of marble frag- ' * DDnn. Arcadius et Honorius perpetui Augg. Theatrwm Pompei ederiore amhikt magna etiam interiore virtute convulsum suhdmtis et esLcitatis invice — . 618 niSTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. ments, on this area, is mentioned by the learned Poggio Bracciolini early in the XV. century. But what was the fate of that Curia — scene of the ever memorable tragedy which it would indeed be interesting to associate with any extant ruins ? After the murder of the great Julius the Senators retired in confusion, heedless of the efforts of Brutus to detain and address them on the spot. In their retreat they spread terror and confusion through the city. The low populace and the gladiators began the work of pillage and rapine. If there were any power left in Rome amidst the anarchy ensuing^ it might be said to rest with that poor mangled corpse, which lay bathed in blood at the base of Pompeius' statue, an image itself over- thrown in the struggle of the death- scene, till three slaves at last carried it away on a litter to the house of the widowed Calpurnia. During the tumult excited by the subtle elo- quence of Antonius in his well-known funeral oration, the people rushed to this Curia and set fire to it, but apparently without any serious damage to its solid architecture. The site of the bloody deed being held in abhorrence, it was soon ordered that this edifice should be shut. From the words of Suetonius (" Curiam, in qua occisus est, obstrui placuit") we may infer indeed that the entrances were walled up ; and at the same time it was decreed that the Ides (15th) of March should be designated parricidiutn, and that the Senate should never assemble on that day. Appian is our autho- rity for the firing of the Curia by the populace ; and Dion Cassius mentions its being closed, no more to serve as a senate-house, immediately after the murder. (1. xlvii. 19.) Thenceforth we find no record of this building, and may sup- pose that, together with the portico of a hundred columns, it either perished through some shock of disaster, or was taken to pieces by unscrupulous owners— probably the Orsini — intending to use its materials for their barbaric THE DRAMA AND THEATRES. 519 fo rtresses. In modern time, long after the Orsini castle had disappeared, a palazzo named after its proprietors, " Pio Eighetti," arose on a part of the ground once occupied by the now buried ruins of the theatre. Below that mansion were, till recently, visible and accessible some note-worthy remains of the Pompeian buildings. One descended from two different wings of the residence into cellars communicating with some halls in ancient masonry under vaulted roofs of tufa stonework ; the construction in other parts being of the same stonework mixed with the opus reticulatum. Another chamber is excavated out of solid rock (lithoid tufa) , and on one side lined with brickwork. But the most remarkable remnant of the antique among these ruins is an elevation of enormous and regularly hewn blocks of the tufa called peperino, apparently the foundation walls of some edifice. One must accept the conclusion of learned archaeologists that this belongs to the temple which Pom- peius dedicated to Venus, and that the halls with reticulated masonry belong to the ground-floor storey of the theatre.* It was with surprise and indignation that I learnt, when desiring on one occasion to revisit these ruins, and applying as usual at the Pio-Erighetti mansion, that the subterranean chnmbers were no longer accessible ; that in consequence of some buildings being undertaken by new proprietors, those underground places were so blocked up by partition walls that no portion of the antique constructions could be seen. In an obscure crescent-formed street, called Grotta Fintaj near this spot, are some remains of massive vaults covered with apparently ancient stucco, now all begrimed with smoke, and enclosed within some rude and dismal stables. These also may be considered remains of the Pompeian * Measurement of the peperino construction, 22 paces in length; the square hewn stones, 6 palms in width, 2 in height, v. B$sc1vreihung Bonis. 520 iirsTomc and monumental home. theatre ; and new buildings, recently in progress, threaten to cause the destruction, or concealment, of the few vestiges of antiquity on this site, as elsewhere. The name Grotta Pinta is derived from a Madonna-picture discovered, after being long forgotten, in one of those ancient vaulted cham- bers — such as are popularly called in Rome " grotte," in this same street — no doubt belonging likewise to the buildings of Pompeius. The ruins of the public works raised by that mighty leader were suffered to disappear, buried underground, for the convenience of private persons, without any interference from authorities, or protest from learned societies, under the late Government of Eome. Such neglect is inexcusable, see- ing that it betrays not alone want of reverence for the illus- trious dead, but disregard for the solemn lessons of History- embodied in the brilliant course of Eoman triumphs. With the above-mentioned ruins are associated the memories of two among the greatest made known to us on the historic page. Beading the lives of CsBsar and Pompeius as narrated by Plutarch, and considering the marvellous display, in both, of exhaustless energies, unfailing resources, power to endure, to guide and subdue, the wonderful drama of victories, and the pageant-symbolism of those victories in the long-drawn triumphs on the Sacred Way — above all, the pathos of the tragic catastrophe with which each illustrious career closes — can we fail to admit the conviction that these men were instruments in the hands of God ? May we not with justice apply to both (to the Dictator more especially) the lines in Manzoni's sublime lyric on the death of the first Napo- leon : — Chiniam la fronte al massimo Fattor, che voile in Lui Del Creator suo Spirito Piu yasta orma stampar ! THE DEAMA Al!fD THEATEES. 521 Plutarch, writing about eighty years after the death of Caesar, may have availed himself of oral traditions still popular and distinct, and is therefore a credible witness. He mentions the circumstance, so fraught with impressive effect, of the illustrious victim falling at the base of Pom- peius' statue, and drenching it with his blood — " as if (says the historian) Pompeius himself hnd presided over the vengeance inflicted on his foe, who now lay prostrate at his feet," pierced with twenty-three wounds, after (and this we have also from the same writer) — Folding liis robe with dying dignity — that no indecorous attitude or exposure might mar the solemnity of his death-scene. The celebrated statue now in the Spada palace was found (1553) under a street. Via de' sLeufari, at some distance north-westward from the theatre,* wij^re it lay under earth, being actually divided into two by the partition wall of a house, the head lying on one side, the body bn another. Purchased by a Cardinal for 500 scudi (2500 fr^cs), it was placed in that mansion which subse- quently too"t its name from other owners, the Spadas. Much controversy hks been raised about this colossal figure, which is of Grreek marble, eleven feet high. In support of the claim investing it with iriost of interest, may be urged the resemb- lance, pronounced by critics unmistak cable, in the nobly characterized head to that of Pompeius on coins ; and among details in which likeness appears, is the gathering of the hair in a species of knot over the forehead, a pecu- liarity distinguishing the great leader — see Plutarch, who calls this natural head-dress avaaroXrj.f * " He (Augustus) removed the statue of Pompeius from the Curia in which J. Caesar had been slain, and placed it on a marble Janus (arch), opposite the royal entrance to his (the Pompeian) theatre." — Sueton. Octav. August. 31. f The archaeologist Fea assumes that this is a portrait statue of Domi- tian, executed during his life, and (like others of that Emperor) ordered 622 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. Other sculptures of a high order have been exhumed on, or near, the site of Pompeius' buildings. In the time of Julius II. was found under the adjacent Campo di Fiori the far-famed ** Torso Belvedere," or seated Herculies, prob- ably belonging to a group of the demi-god with Hebe standing beside him — the work, as the Greek epigraph on the base informs us, of Apollonius, an Athenian. In 1864 was discovered, in the course of laying foundations for new building at the Pio-Righetti palace, the colossal bronze Hercules, referred by some critics to the best period of Greek art (though opinions on its claims widely differ), which was purchased by Pius IX. for 10,000 scudi, and placed in the Vatican Museum. It was laid underground, at the depth of thirty feet, in a kind of tunnel formed of travertine stonework, and otherwise filled with shells and debris, being thus deposited, no doubt, in order to preserve it from injury — and, we may suppose, by some ancient Heathens who feared the iconoclast zeal of the Christians.* to be broken after his death. The marks of fillets on the shoulders show that the head was crowned with a diadem ; this detail, also the globe in the right hand, and the nudity of the figure, seem to militate against the notion that it can be intended for an officer or magistrate under the mighty Republic. But the diadem and globe may have been assigned by flattery to the conqueror of Mithridates, to him who " found Asia Minor the boundary, and left it the centre of the Roman Empire" {v. Murray's " Rome") ; and there is reason to believe that the place where this antique was found, under a cellar, corresponds to that of the Janus Arch on which Pompeius' effigy was erected after its removal from the Curia. * In tlie same curiously contrived burial-place with the statue were found heaps of broken marbles, various in quality, and comprising the most precious species ; also, at the feet of the Hercules, a small female bust. In the recent works at the same 'palazzo, other now subterranean chambers were opened, and among fragmentary marble objects that lay in them were found a dressed female statue, in style superior, and a head so death-like as to be evidently from a cast taken after decease. Explorations on this site, undertaken by Signor Righetti, led to the THE DEAMA AND THEATEES. 523 One conjecture is that it is a portrait of Domitian in the character of Hercules, that Emperor's favourite deity.* Before the time of Pompeius the treasures of Greece had been brought in abundance to Eome. The Consul Marcel- lus, who conquered Syracuse after a siege of three years (B.C. 212), declared that he had despoiled that great city in order to enrich the public edifices of Eome. Well known is the story of the Consul L. Mummius, the conqueror and destroyer of Corinth, Thebes and Chalcis (b.c. 147), who, sending to Eome the art-works seized at Corinth, imposed the obligation on those to whom he entrusted them, in case of their being damaged or lost, to make others like them! Other Eoman Generals had a different way of estimating such objects ; but almost all alike regarded, and appropriated them, as spoils of war. Lucius Scipio, returning from his campaigns, brought to the now well- enriched metropolis 1424 lbs. weight of silver, and 1024 lbs. of gold wrought in vases. Marcus Fulvius Nobilior (Consul, B.C. 189) returned from his victories in ^tolia with 280 statues of bronze, and 230 of marble. Sulla, after despoil- ing Athens and other Greek cities, brought with him the artistic and other treasures from the three most splendid temples of Apollo at Delphi, from that of ^sculapius in Epidaurus, and that of Jupiter at Elis, from which last fane unearthing of many remnants of marble ornamentation, no doubt from the theatre ; and at the same time researches were ordered by Govern- ment with the object of reaching the possibly extant ruins of the Heca- tonstylon portico. No important results were obtained; and we must mourn the loss of the Pompeian buildings as irretrievable. * Near the site of the Pompeian theatre was found the colossal statue of Melpomene (the right forearm and the tragic mask in the hand restored) now in the Louvre — a cast at the South Kensington Museum. It is a grand embodiment of the ideal of personified Tragedy, like one inspired from the musings of profound melancholy tempered by an atmosphere of lofty serenity. 624 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. even its columns and the bronze threshold of its portal were carried to Eome. Varro and Licinius Murena (the former in the wars of Pompeius against Ca3sar,the latter intheMith- ridatic war under Sulla) caused the walls of temples in Sparta to be stript of their fresco-paintings, that those works might be transported to the same great centre. Julius Caesar collected statues, paintings, intaglio gems, &c., thus setting an example followed by many wealthy citizens, who became connoisseurs, amassing such treasures for private benefit. Many Greek artists, driven by want from their now sub- jected country after the wars between CsBsar and Pompeius, repaired to Italy, and found employment, fame and ample recompense at Eome. To return to the vicissitudes of the theatre, — which, under Christian authority and influences, were utterly unlike anything occurring in earlier times, and (as might be expected) were most singular in the Eome of Papal Government. While the memory of what the ancient stage had been was still vivid in the public mind, it was natural that the Church should severely condemn it, denouncing not only the histrionic profession, but all those who countenanced it by their presence. In primitive times spiritual penalties were decreed against the faithful for attendance at theatres. In the so-called " Apostolic Constitutions" is the clause : *' Whoever is addicted to theatres and public spectacles — let him either cease to intervene at such, or be refused Baptism." It was rigorously required that actors should quit the stage before being admitted to any Sacraments. Cyprian (in a letter to one Eucratius) answers with un- compromising negative the inquiry whether an actor who had been duly received into Christian communion, but who, as means of supporting himself, gave lessons in his art to young candidates, could be permitted thus to countenance THE DRAMA ANU THEATRES. 525 the profession he had ceased publicly to practise. In the latter half of the TV. century, a Council at Laodicea strictly forbade the frequenting of theatres to all eccle- siastics ; and the apostate Emperor Julian commends the self-denial of the Christian Clergy with this respect, in a letter to a Heathen pontifex. The second Council of Aries (a.d. 452) decreed that a Christian who appeared in any part on the stage should be deprived of communion during forty days. An African Council, in the same century, undertook to petition the reigning Emperor forthe suspense of all theatrical entertainments, even with Heathen per- formers, on Sundays and other festivals. The sixth CEcumenical Council, at Constantinople, a.d. 680, excluded actors from the sacraments, and forbade the faithful to assume any theatrical travesties.* Eminent Fathers of the Church, eastern and western, Augustine, Basil, Ambrose, and Cyril of Jerusalem alike condemn the stage and its artists. But it does not appear that the taste for it was at any time eradicated among the faithful, at least after the fresh fervour of the Apostolic age had passed away. We are told that at the funeral of the above-named Julian, " comedians, resenting his con- tempt for the theatre, exhibited, with applause of a Christian audience, the lively and exaggerated representation of the faults and follies of the deceased Emperor." (Gribbon, ch. xxiv.) The corruptions of the antique Eoman stage may be considered to be expiated at this day by the modern theatre, and those connected with it, wherever the Latin Church is dominant. In the christianized city under the Papal sceptre the first permanent theatre was founded by a private speculator, and opened for public performances in (or soon after) the year 1691, on the site of the prisons called from a mediaeval tower " Torre di Nona," where the * Mamachi, " Costumi dei primitivi Cristiani," t. ii. c. v. § iii. 11. 526 HISTOETC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. unhappy Beatrice Cenci spent the last days of her life, and near to which she suffered on the scaffold. But the reigning Pope Innocent XII. was so displeased at this novelty that he ordered the new theatre not only to be closed, but demo- lished. His more liberal successor, Clement XI. (1700-21), allowed it to be rebuilt by the architect Carlo Fontana. Both those estimable Pontiffs, however, rejected the appeal of the body of actors in Prance against the rigours of the national clergy, who had excluded them from the sacraments during a jubilee proclaimed by Innocent XII. in 1696, and during the " Holy Tear," 1700. Their supplications were referred to a Committee of Bishops at Eome, who in each instance decided unfavourably, of course with sanction from the Vatican — v. Migne, " Dictionnaire des Mysteres." [Restored several times, and in the last instance in 1820, the " Tor di Nona," or Apollo, is still the fashionable theatre for operatic performance. A descriptive yv^ork on Bome, 1744,* enumerates, besides that same " Tor di Nona," seven theatres then in activity within this metropolis ; the second in date of origin being the teatro Capranica, built (1720) within the picturesque XY . century palace of the Capranica family ; the third, teatro Valle, still appropriated to legiti- mate drama, and originally built (1726) within the palace of the Delia Valle family. Till the late political changes, the Cardinal President of Eome and the Comarca used to " assist," in his magisterial capacity, at the first perform- ance of each winter season at the Apollo opera-house, f * Bernardini, Descrizione dei Bioni cU Roma, published by order of Benedict XIV. f Lecky, " History of Rationalism," follows out thoroughly and ably the curious particulars of the conflict between the Church and the Stage, and shows how it has resulted in the victory won, with aid from the auxiliary forces of modem intellect and popular taste, by the latter over the former. THERMS AND AQUEDUCTS. 527 CHAPTEE XIIL THERMS, CIRCUSES, AND AQUEDUCTS. The public Bath and the various entertainments enjoyed at the " ThermsB" fill a prominent place in the social life of the ancient Eomans, that life from thorough acquaintance with which we learn no lesson so strikingly conveyed as this — that, among nations guided by no deeply-felt or rational religion, accepting no high standard of morality, decay and irremediable corruption are the inevitable law and darkly prevailing fact. For the exercises of bathing and swimming, as for per- sonal cleanliness, those citizens were first provided with a lake (the piscina publico) ^ which all could make use of, in the year B.C. 312, when the waters of the Appian Aqueduct were brought along underground channels to a spot near the Circus Maximus, in the valley between the Coelian and Aventine hills. Here alone could they so enjoy and cleanse themselves till within a few years before our era, when the first establishment for cold and hot baths (ThermsB) was be- queathed to the citizens by its founder Vipsanius Agrippa, the son-in-law of Augustus by marriage with his only daughter Julia, from the age of eighteen the intimate friend, later the influential counsellor of that Emperor, and who, in the stages of a brilliant career, was thrice Consul, once -Sldile, B.C. 33, commander of fleets and armies, and who died at the age of fifty-one, b.c. 12.* To him were this * Justly is it said of this distinguished man in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, ** that he was the greatest military commander of Rome 528 nisTomc and monumental dome. people indebted for the free use of the Thermae built in his extensive gardens on the Campus Martins, and supplied with water from a source near the Via Collatina, called "Aqua Virgo," eight miles distant from the city-gates. The chronologic order in which other public Thermae were founded, those of Agrippa having been opened B.C. 21, was as follows : those of Nero, a.d. 65 ; of Titus, a.d. 81 ; of Domitian (probably an amplification of the former), a.d. 95 ; of Trajan, between a.d. 98 and 117 (the precise date uncertain) ; of Commodus, a.d. 1 85 ; of Septimius Severus, A.D. 202 ; of M. Aurelius Antoninus, a.d. 216 : of Helio- gabalus, between a.d. 218 and 222 ; of Alexander Severus (who probably united by intermediate buildings the Thermae of Agrippa and Nero), a.d 229 ; of Decius, between a.d. 249 and 251 ; of Aurelian (in the Transtiberine quarter), between a.d. 270 and 275 ; of Diocletian, a.d. 302 ; of Con- stantino, a.d. 326.* Besides these,other such establishments were founded by the Empresses Agrippina and Helena, and by a patrician matron, Olympias, alike for their own sex exclusively. The whole system of the Eoman Bath, and the arrange- ments in the great public buildings appropriated to it, are fully described by learned writers ; and the English reader will find all information on this subject in the Dictionaries of Classic Antiquity by Smith, Eich, and Eamsay. I need but mention the principal compartments into which those edi- fices, so few of which are preserved to this day even in ruin, were divided: the " Erigidarium," a great hall, containing since the days of Julius Caesar, and the most honest of Roman Go- vernors in any province." Virtutis nohilissima, labor e, vigilid, periculo invictiis, is the eloquent praise bestowed on him by V. Paterculus. * There is reason to conclude that the buildings of Agrippa and Alexander Severus should class among the great halnaa for bathing alone, not among the Thermae, vt^here so many other accessorial plea- sures, and so many halls or courts for different purposes were provided. THERMAE, CIECUSES, AND AQUEDUCTS. 529 the cold plunge batH (natatio, piscino) ,\a.rge enough for many to join in the exercise of swimming ; the " Tepidarium," of about the same size, heated artificially, but not at very high temperature ; the "Calidarium" (sudatormm, concamerata su- datio), usually a rotunda, heated by a furnace under the pavement (ht/poca?istum), from which the hot air ascended by flues (caloriferes) ranged around the walls ; and here did the bathers sit on stone benches, rising one above the other, till profuse perspiration came on. At one angle of this apartment was placed a cylindrical pillar communicating with the furnace, and closed at the summit with a metal disk, which could be lifted so as to admit hot air, or even flames, as desired for raising the temperature — and this, sometimes indeed the whole apartment from this object, was called the " Laconicum." Besides these, the three principal divisions, there was the Balneum, where the hot bath could be taken in two ways — either in a large marble vessel Qahrum) around which the bathers were seated, or iu a marble tank (alveus) sunk below the level of the floor, and in which the whole body was immersed. Other minor com- partments were: " Apodyteria" (rooms for undressing), " Capsarii" (for slaves who took care of the bathers' clothes), " Baptisteria," smaller (probably private) chambers for the plunging baths ; " Eloeothesia," for the anointing of the body with oil ; " Conisteria," for sprinkling it with sand after the bath or athletic exercises ; " Sphaeristeria," for the, among the Eomans, favourite game at ball. In some, if not in all the Thermae, one apartment contained an altar dedicated to the Deity supposed to preside over such establishments. The main body of buildings, the Thermae properly speaking, stood in the midst of a great quadrangle laid out as a garden with walks, and planted usually with plane trees, around which rose porticos and other structures,— an imposing ex- 2 M 530 uisTonic and monumental bome. tent of rich architecture for various uses, the haunts of plea- sure, or of study, where intellectual converse, fine art, and favourite spectacular displays might be enjoyed by all classes alike. Here were placed the Exedrae, open hemicycles with seats, for conversation ; the Scholae, for literary discussion, and in which, probably, took place the frequent recitations by poets, or other writers, of their own works ; a stadium (called also theatridium) with seats ascending stepwise, as in theatres, for races and other popular amusements ; also Pinacothecae, and libraries, usually two, one for Greek and one for Latin literature. The Palsestrae were spacious hypsethral courts, surrounded with porticos, for gymnastic exercises or the performances of professional athletes, and which (as still dis- tinguishable in the Antonine Thermae) formed two great compartments at the opposite sides of the main body of build- ings. It appears that the " xysti " on the thermal pre- mises were not covered corridors, like those attached to the Greek gymnasia, but open walks, bordered with box, and winding amidst beds of flowers in the (no doubt) very pleasant gardens amidst which the great central edifice stood. Literary pursuits occupied much of the time spent by cultivated men on such premises. Augustus used to compose epigrams while in the bath. The younger Pliny mentions his similar literary habits— composing his hendecasyllabic verses in his carriage, at the supper-table, or in the bath. — {Epist. xiy. 1. iv.) Aulus Gellius tells us that he used to read Sallust's " Catilina" with a congenial friend, whilst they walked together in the gardens around the Baths of Titus.* Horace complains of the too frequent declamations by poets, who loved to collect audiences for a • " Hieme jam decedente apud balneas Titias in area sub calido sole cum Favorino philosopho ambulabamus, atque ibi inter ambulandum legebatur Catilina Sallustii, quem, in manu amici conspectum, legi jusserat." — Noct. Attic. 1. ill. 1. THEEMiE, CIRCUSES, AND AQUEDUCTS. 531 sort of preparatory publication of their works in the Scholaa or ExedrsB of — The vaulted baths, which best preserve the sound, While sweetly floats the voice in echoes round. Juvenal, enumerating the miseries of life in Rome, does not forget such recitations in the Thermae — Where poets, while the dog-star burns, rehearse To gaping multitudes their barbarous verse. — Sat. iii. 6.* The enjoyment of the Bath was often carried to a volup- tuous excess — especially by some of the worst among the Emperors. Commodus used to bathe seven times a-day ; Gallienus five or six times daily, at least in the summer- months. Dark reminiscences overshadow the courts of the great Eoman Thermae, though destined for purposes so use- ful, blameless, and conducive to health. We learn that the slaves there on duty were sometimes punished for slight misdemeanours by being " washed alive," as, with horrid levity, death by suffocation in the hot bath was called ; and on one occasion Commodus, the callow tyrant being then but twelve years old, ordered a halneator to be thrown into the fiery furnace for overheating the water which the young CsBsar was about to use, at Centumcellae — now Civi- tavecchia. The Bath was one of the scenes of that disso- lute Emperor's habitual orgies: " Hac igitur lege vivens ipse cum trecentis concubinis — in palatio per convivia et balneas bacchabatur." — Lampridius, Gommod. 5. In the rage of the fratricide Antoninus against the friends and dependants of the murdered Geta, numbers were put to * " Those (poets and historians) whom frequent failure had made desperate waited till the bathing hour, and would then assault the ears of the disgusted but helpless bathers." — " Here might also be heard the latest extravagances of the Philosophy of the day, the last ingenious turn given to the tenets of Epicurus or to the arguments of Zeno." — Wal- ford's " Juvenal" in Collins' " Ancient Classics." 2 M 2 532 nisTonic and moitdmental eom:e. death in i)rivate houses, at the supper table, and iu the Thermse.* During the struggle between two rival claim- ants for the Eoman Bishopric (fearfully ominous of future corruptions in the local Church and on the Papal throne !) — Liberius and Felix II. — after the return of the former from exile (a.d. 357), many of the adherents of the latter were " inhumanly murdered in the streets, in the public places, in the baths, and even in the churches." — (Gibbon, " Decline and Fall," c. xxi. Baronius, an. 157, § 58.) The Thermee were generally opened to the public betweien 1 and 2 p.m., when a bell rang to give notice ;t and they remained open at least till sunset, even in the night-hours uuder the reigns of some Emperors — a usage forbidden by Tacitus (a.d. 275) for fear of seditious assembling on those premises. J The license of a corrupt age permitted both sexes to frequent them at the same hours, an abuse tole- rated and prohibited by successive Emperors, whose moral standard may be thence inferred. It was allowed by Helio- gobalus, suppressed by Alexander Severus.§ The entrance fee was never (as ascertainable) more, for any class of citizens, than a quadrans, about half a farthing English; and under some Emperors absolute gratuity was the system. The Caesars themselves used to bathe among their subjects ; and the virtuons young Alexander often walked from the Palatine to the Thermae, which he would enter, distinguished by a purple mantle alone, among other customers. || • It is said that 20,000 persons were put to death by Antoninus " Cara- calla" for the offence of attachment to his brother. f Redde pilam ; sonat ses thermarum, ludere pergis. — Martial. 1, iv. Ep. 63. X " Tbermas omnes ante lucemam claudi joissit, nequid per noctem seditionis orireter." — Vopiscus, Tacit. 10. § " Balnea mixta Romae exhiberi prohibuit ; quod quidem jam antS prohibitum, Heliogabalus fieri permiserat." — Lampridius, Alex. Sev. 24. . 11 " Thermis et suis et vetcrum frequenter cum populo usus est, et j THEEMiE, CIRCUSES, AND AQUEDUCTS. 533 The abandonment of the public Thermse and cessation of all the entertainments there provided, seem to have been caused by the long-continued Gothic war in the VI. cen- tury. The supply of water was, if not entirely, for the greater part cut off by the breaking of the Aqueducts, an expedient of Vitiges, the Ostrogothic King, whilst he was besieging Eome, a.d. 547. After the capture of this city by Totila, King of the Ostrogoths, A. d. 546, that conqueror left the desolate seat of Empire for a time absolutely depopu- lated, obliging all the citizens to follow him into exile, and detaining all the Senators as hostages. During forty days it is on record that an awful and absolute solitude prevailed within the city walls; no sound of human life was heard, no gathering was seen in public places, no bell invited worshippers to Christian rites.* Procopius, a contempo- rary, describes this appalling fact — among all recorded in the history of the ancient metropolis the one most im- pressive to the imagination.f It is impossible to determine sestate maxime balneari veste ad Palatium revertens, hoc solum impera- torium habens quod lacernam coccineam accipiebat." — Lampridius, Alex. Bev. 42. * One-third of the fortifying walls having been demolished by com- mand of Totila before he left with his army, '* the Senators were dragged in his train and confined in the fortresses of Campania ; the citizens, with their wives and children, dispersed in exile ; and during forty days Rome was abandoned to desolate and dreary solitude." The Senate after this catastrophe became virtually extinct, though the title of Senator was still assumed by the Eoman nobles. After the victory of Narses those Senators made captive (v. Gibbon) endeavoured to return, but were prevented by the Goths, and many were massacred in the Campanian fortresses. " Few subsequent traces can be found of a public council, or constitutional order." — Decline and Fall, ch. xliii. t Procopius, mentioning the forced emigration after the siege and •capture by Totila, states : " Caerteros omnes cum conjugibus et liberis ad Campaniaj loca transmisit — nuUo hominura in Urbe relicto, quam 534 nisTonic and monumental eome. precisely the date when the last of the public Therm®, not in ruin, was closed and finally abandoned. The total desue- tude into which the public bathing fell, together with the loss of all that the vast thermal establishments had provided, seems due not to the decay of civic prosperity and wealth alone, but to moral causes, to an antagonism between ancient and modern manners, and to that tendency of deplorable asceticism which went so far as to encourage the notion that the neglect of personal cleanliness was in some sort meritorious ; that austere saints and hermits ought to be imitated in the habitual disregard of all cares for the body as in other respects. Yet the more enlightened spirit of primitive Christianity is opposed to such abject superstition; and the examples of beneficence among the clergy show a juster sense of what self-respect demands within the bounds of temperance. The holy Pope G-regory I. reproves the timid scruples of those who objected to the use of the baths on Sundays. When, a.d. 467, Anthemius, a general of the eastern Empire, was elected by the Roman Senate to the throne of the West, that ill-fated Emperor caused his house in Constantinople to be converted into a church and hospital, with baths, for aged men Theodosius II. Emperor of the East from 408 to 450, passed a law extending the privilege of sanctuary to the porticos, gardens, and baths connected with churches, as to the sacred buildings themselves. His consort, Elia Eudocia, founded baths (for the poor gratui- tous) in several cities of the eastern Empire. The wisely penitus destitutam dimiserat." — (Hist. 1. iii.) In that disastrous epoch (the VI. century) Rome was taken by invading armies, and occupied by conquerors, Gothic and Greek, five times ; by Belisarius, a.d. 636 ; by Totila, 546 ; by Belisarius again, 547 ; again by Totila, 559; lastly by Narses, 552. Pope Gregory the Great mentions a prediction of S.^ Benedict that this city should never be destroyed by Totila, but would be mined by earthquakes and the shocks of Nature. THEEMiE, CIECTJSES, AlfD AQUEDUCTS. 535 liberal Theodoric, among other benefits conferred on Italian cities under his sway, founded public Thermae at his capital Eavenna, in Naples, Pavia, and Spoleto. "We find that baths, gratuitously opened, were long maintained on the premises of monasteries ; and at one cloister, founded in the Lucca province in the VIII. century, the bath, besides other cha- rities, might be enjoyed by twelve poor persons daily during Holy "Week (Muratori, " Atitich. Ital. diss, xxxvii). The Confraternity of the S8. Trinita, dedicated to the assistance of pilgrims at Kome, was founded by S. Philip Neri, a.d. 1548 ; and as its charitable cares are now applied in the SS. Trinita de* Pellegrini hospital, with the substantial supper and the lavanda for multitudes of pilgrims of both sexes daily from Palm Sunday till Easter, the intention of that Saint is so carried out as to recommend and exem- plify the union of cleanliness with piety.* Of nine public ThermsB in Eome, remains of which are extant (though not all visible), only three rise before us at this day with any imposing masses of ruin from observation of which the original plan or architectonic characteristics * The hospital above-named, and the new church attached to it, were opened in 1612 ; but the charitable reception of pilgrims in an asylum, originated by the good San Filippo, dates from 1550. That hospital contains 488 beds; and in the two refectories, for men and women sepa- rately, 944 may be seated and served at the same hour. The pilgrim, to be entitled to admittance, must present credentials from his bishop or that prelate's vicar, with proof that he has travelled at least 60 miles, and for a devotional object. In the " Anno Santo" this asylum used to be continually open to such applicants ; and in the last Jubilee Year, 1825, the number of those received was 263,592. That fountain of charities has been stopped since the recent change of government — not (that I am aware) through any interference from new authorities. Pilgrimages to heathen shrines and oracles were common in ancient time ; but where was there anything like the charitable provision organized by Christian saints and princes ? 536 nisTOEic and monumental eome. can be understood or imagined. The extensive buildings of those earliest founded — the ThermaB bestowed on the Homans by the munificent Agrippa, exist but in a few- scattered ruins near the noblest of his public works, the now christianized Pantheon. Most conspicuous among these remains is a circular hall, with shattered dome-like vault, partly hidden by the mean houses of an obscure street, Via deir Arco della Ciamhella, a name which is curiously signifi- cant. Early in the XVI. century a Cardinal della Valle ordered excavations on this site, with a view to finding the buried remains of Aprippa's buildings. Presently was dug up a large civic crown of gilt bronze, which the workmen reported of to his Eminence as a huge ciamhella — the name given to a ring-formed cake, still much in request at cafes, &c. in Eome. Hence the title of that narrow street near the Minerva piazza {v. Flarainio Yacca's curious notes on the discoveries and researches made in his time.) The mention of the extant ruins, during the XVI. century, by Albertini and Eulvio, leads us to suppose that they were then far more conspicuous than at present. In 1719 some still lofty walls of bath chambers (or porticos) were demo- lished on the space then required for the Accademia Eccle- siastica, founded in that year, near the Pantheon, and with its front on the same Minerva piazza. Some vestiges of the antique brick buildings are still seen behind the walls of that college. I cannot here consider the glorious Pantheon as connected with, or even intended for, the uses of the ThermjB. Other ruins of Thermae have entirely disappeared. Those of Constantine were finally destroyed, or buried under- ground, when the Rospigliosi palace was built on the same site by a Cardinal Borghese, nephew to Pope Paul V. In the works for founding that mansion on the Quirinal hill were discovered the statues of Constantine and his two sons — TIIEEM^, CIECUSES, AND AQUEDUCTS. 537 the first now in the atrium of the Lateran basilica, the two others on the terrace summit of the Capitoline hill — and the few extant remains of those latest Thermae can only be sought for in the cellars of the modern palazzo. The Thermae called alternately Neronian and Alexandrine, are often named in mediaeval chronicles ; and we learn that in the X. century the potent family of the Counts of Tusculum raised their barbaric fortresses amongst, and above, the ruins. Till the time of Benedict XIV. conspicuous remains of those vast buildings stood on the premises of the Palazzo Madama, formerly the Post-office, now the Senate-house of the Italian kingdom. That palazso, built by a Cardinal in the XV. century, and ceded to Margaret of Austria on her marriage with Ottavio Farnese, was purchased by Pope Benedict from the Lorraine Emperor, Francis I., and con- verted into a residence for the Grovernor of Kome, as well as seat of the criminal tribunals. Other ruins of antique structures were visible in its vicinity till recent times, but are now completely hidden by modern walls; and thus have perished those Neronian Therms so often mentioned in the epigrams of Martial. * The luxurious Otho, who reigned during three months, A.D. 69, thought of spending a sum equal to about ten million francs on the completion of the " Domus Aurea" of Nero. Vespasian (as we have seen) almost entirely demo- lished those vast buildings, and restored the imperial gar- dens to the citizens for private use, though he spared many of the Neronian buildings on the Palatine, and also those on the south-western slopes of the Esquiline hills. These latter were appropriated by Titus for the Thermae founded by him, and with a portion of their structures raised above * Quid Nerone peius, Quid thermis melius Neronianis ? 1. vii. Ep. 34. 538 HISTOBIO AND MONUMENTAL HOME. the palatial halls, which were filled up for the support of the superimposed buildings.* Domitian completed what Titus had commenced ; and Trajan founded other Thermae less extensive, and supposed to have been destined for female bathers alone, farther eastward on the high ground of the same hill. Proof is afforded by an epigraph dug up among the ruins of the latter, Trajan's Thermae, that they were restored, and therefore, no doubt, were in use during the V. century,f In the actual state of the numerous ruins extending over several gardens (especially those of the S. Pietro in Vincula monastery) on the Esquiline, it is difficult to distinguish the works of the respective Emperors ; but all are now picturesquely blent together by the recon- ciling hand of Time, midst decay that beautifies what it overthrows. Fortunately the great thermal structures did not offer such advantages as mediaeval Popes or baronial families cared to avail themselves of (save in few instances) for fortification or residence ; but neither did these relics of antiquity escape from deliberate spoliation. Albertini {de Mirabilibus Urbis) tells us that Julius II., in whose time he lived, removed the porphyry columns found among the ruins on the Esquiline for adorning a chapel in St. Peter's ; and the ruinous chambers with various paintings on their walls, which the same writer mentions,^ near the church * Both Snetonius and Martial notice the rapidity with which these Thermaj were built : Hie ubi miramur velocia munera thermas Abstulerat miseris tecta superba ager — says the latter, de Spectac. II. ■j- Works ordered by the Prefect of the City " ad agendam Terma- rum Traianarum gratiam," are there recorded. J Loca dimta variis picturis exornata, &c. THERMS, CIECUSES, AND / AQTJBAij^m 58^ / ^ Y) of S. Pietro in Vincula, have totally dis/ipppared. th 1796 a great hall of the buildings of Tiljus was eonfverted into ] ' • a powder magazine, the superfluous parts of the ancient ' masonry being swept away. Great wealth of art-works has been yielded by the soil long accumulated over the Esquiline ruins. In 1506 was found the group of the Laocoon, under a vineyard on this hill belonging to one Felice de Freddi, who was rewarded by the reigning Pope, Julius XL, with the right to one half of the taxes received at the Porta S. Giovanni — commuted by Leo X. into an office under Government.*" Flaminio Vacca mentions numerous fragments of statuary and painted ornamentation dug up in his time (XVI. century) on the grounds near S. Pietro in Vincula. About 1594* several massive and finely wrought marble cornices were taken from the same site for adorning the new church of the Jesuits — the Gesu, founded by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, 1568. One writer records the discovery among the same ruins of fifty-four fragments of sculpture and twenty-five complete statues, all found near some halls supposed to belong to Trajan's Thermae, and popularly called " Sette Sale," near which also was un- earthed that famous Laocoon group. After ages of neglect and apparently oblivion, several ruinous chambers belonging (as inferrible) to the Thermae of Titus, were reopened and explored in the earlier years of the XVI. century, when able artists fortunately saw, and copied, the now lost orna- mentation on the walls of those dark interiors. I transcribe a passage in Vasari's life of Giovanni da Udine : — " Excavations were made at S. Pietro in Vincula, and among the ruins of the Palace (?) of Titus, with the • The fact is mentioned in the epitaph on the tomb of De Freddi, at Aracoeli. Pliny (H. N. xxxvi. c. iv.) tells us that this much admired work, which, he says, '* may be considered superior to all others both in painting and sculpture," stood in thcj^alace of Titus. 640 niSTOEIC AND MONrMENTAL EOME. hope of finding statues, when certain subterranean cham- bers were discovered ; and these were decorated all over with minute grottesche, small figures, storie and ornaments, executed in stucco of very low relief. These discoveries Raifaelle was taken to see, and Giovanni accompanied his master, when they were both seized with astonishment at the freshness, beauty, and excellent manner of these works — in so fair a state of preservation — CdlleAgrottesche, because first found in grottoes or subterranean places," — Giovanni copied those rilievi twice, and with the utmost exactness. These copies he showed to his illustrious master, " who was then in process of adorning the Papal loggie by command of Pope Leo X. He (Kaffaelle) caused Giovanni to decorate all the vaultings of the house (the Vatican palace) with most beautiful ornaments in stucco, surrounding the whole with grottesche similar to the antique — in mezzo and basso rilievo. Giovanni not only equalled the antique in this performance, but even surpassed them— his productions being infinitely superior in these respects to the antiques found in the Colosseum, or painted in the Baths of Diocle- tian and other places known to us." The curious origin of the word "grotesque," in sense so different from that now commonly understood therein, is noticeable ; and see- ing the habitual carelessness of Vasari, we may suppose that the " Baths of Diocletian" are here put for those pre- viously misnamed as the " Palace of Titus." After the close of the XVI. century those ruins seem to have been neglected ; the painted chambers left long unvisited. "We hear of their being again to some extent accessible in 1774, at about which date the frescoes still seen on the walls were copied for the engravings given in a valuable work, " Le Terme di Tito," by Mirri and Carletti, 1776— see also Bel- lori, Pict. Antiq. delineates a Bar toll. In 1811 these ruins were more thoroughly cxj)lorcd and made accessible, as at THERMiE, CIRCUSES, ATfD AQUEDUCTS. 511 the present day, by the French. It was found that tlie ThermsD of Titus comprised, besides the great compartments of the Tepidarium and Erigidarium, accessorial libraries (Greek and Latin?), gymnasia, sphseristeria, a theatre for races or athletic exercises, and a portico, supposed to have connected these structures with the Colosseum, We now enter a suite of long parallel chambers, the walls of which pass obliquely to those of many other differently planned chambers and corridors, entered after we have passed through the outer buildings. The former, the inner halls and passages, may be referred to the Neronian palace. Among them is a long and lofty vaulted gallery {crypto-porticus) , originally lit from windows in the roof, but now in total darkness only dispelled by torchlight, and which (after untold ages of desertion) was reopened in 1813. On its vault we see by the lurid light of the lifted torch various exquisite paintings on a small scale : floating figures of bac- chantes and nymphs, citharisti, griffins, bright-plumage d birds, - gate life and energies of the primitive Church need not he here pointed out. May we not conclude that Providence, in raising up such a Euler, designed not only to prepare an instrument for strengthening through opposition the cause of Divine Eeligion, but also to exhibit on the pinnacle of powerthe last extrfeme of guiltand licentiousness unchecked by moral or spiritual restraint ? Almost the only link that allies Nero with the common lot (besides the inevitable accidents of humanity) appears in the remorse recorded of him. That witness, the voice of God within the sinful soul, the tyrant could not silence ; and among the historic memories which haunt the dismal ruins of the " golden palace," is that of the agonies endured by, and the testimony 5i^ UISTOBIC i-ND MONUMENTAL HOME. extorted from the imperial wretch to a prijieiple seated in the inmost life of tlie soul, to " the immortal being with our dust entwined."* Oh ! ben provvide il Cielo * Che nom per delitti mai lieto non si a. (Alfieri) The ruins of the Thermse of Trajan, scattered pictures- quely over an extent of monastic gardens on the eastward height of the Esquiline, pertain to several distinct com- partments of building — the spacious Tepidarium, the semi- circular exedrsB, and Baptisteria for hot and cold baths. It is disputed whether a great reservoir for water, in nine compartments, further eastward on this hill, pertained to these or to the earlier founded Thermae. Seven only of the vaulted chambers being accessible, the two others filled with soil and debris, they are popularly called the " Sette Sale." They communicate with each other by four arched apertures in each partition wall, placed alternately so that no two are opposite ; and in consequence of this arrange- ment for the passage of the water with sufficient resistance to its action on the building, we may obtain a view, ob- liquely, through the whole suit of these ruinous chambers, the effect of which, thus seen, is striking. Below this there is another storey of the same reservoir, alike divided into " When he was in Greece (says Suetonius) he durst not presume to attend at the performance of the Eleusinian rites, upon hearing the crier discharge all impious and wicked persons from approaching." The historian so strikingly describes his remorse for the murder of his mother, that it is better to quote the original words: " Suepe confessus exagitari se matema specie, verberibus Furiarura ac taedis ardentibus. Quin et facto per magos sacro, revocare manes et exorare tentavit." (Sueton. in Nero. 34.) Dion adds the circumstances that, whilst on the beautiful shores of Baiae, the scene of that murder, the matricide was terrified, even in the daytime, by a sound like warlike yet mournful trumpets issuing from the unhonoured tomb of Agrippina. THEEMJE, CIECTJSES, AND AQUEDUCTS. 545 chambers, but now completely buried under earth, nor in any part explorable. Ficoroni, " Yestigie di Eoma Antica," describes these now buried chambers, which he had seen open ; and mentions the discovery among them of coins stamped with the figure of a woman, and the legend Judcea capta — affording proof that these buildings should be ascribed to Titus, rather than Trajan. I have described above (p. 363) the other section of the latter Emperor's Thermae which has been consecrated for Christian worship, and is still in use as a crypt chapel below the Carmelite church, S. Martino ai Monti. There is another spot, where monumental ruins and landscape, the near and distant features of the scene, are full of that charm which so distinguishes the historic loca- lities of Eome. On the height of the Aventine, overlook- ing the valley between that hill and the Palatine, and near the solitary church of S. Prisca, are some remains of lofty constructions, with arches, supposed to be the Thermae (or, more probably, balnaea) named after Licinius Sura, one time Consul, and confidential friend of Trajan. In the best-preserved portion we find a large cavernous room fitted up to serve as a kitchen and wine-shop, and before the entrance to this half-modernized antique, we may seat our- selves at a table, enjoying one of those never-to-be-forgotten scenes which form the distinction and fascination of the " Eternal City" — the Palatine ruins the central object, a multitude of church- towers and cupolas beyond, the vast remains of the A ntonine Thermae in the middle-distance southwards, and the Sabine and Alban mountains forming majestic boundaries to the Campagna region seen in glimpses beyond the walls of Aurelian and Honorius. There is a passage in Aurelius Victor {JEpif. c. xiii.) which makes Trajan himself the founder of these balnaea, and assumes that he named them after L. Sura out of gratitude 2 N 640 nisTonrc and monumental komr. for services that had contributed to raise him, by election, to the imperial throne.* It seems probable that the buildings, whatever their character, were founded by Tra- jan before he became Emperor, and supplied with water from the aqueduct known as " Aqua Traiana." An epigram by Martial alludes to the house of Sura as situated near the famous temple of Diana on the Aventine, and command- ing a view of the Circus Maximus, which occupied the now quiet valley, laid out in vegetable gardens, between the eastern slopes of the Aventine and the western of the Pala- tine hillf While contemplating this spot, our thoughts naturally recur to other memories ; and I may here allow myself a digression from the therm® and balnsea of the Empire to the much more ancient structures and entertainments of the Circus Maximus. This was, originally, an arena destined for those chariot races and other spectacles of which the E-oman populace were most fond ; nor was the great Circus enclosed within walls till towards the end of the Eepub- lican period. There were, eventually, seven such places of amusement in Eome. The one distinguished as " Maximus" is said to have been founded by Tarquinius Priscus on the site of the traditionary Eape of the Sabine women by the rude subjects of Eomulus. Eestorations and consider- able additions to this theatre of " Circensian" games were made during the Eepublic ; and the whole structure was more superbly restored, or rather rebuilt with new magni- * " Hie in honorem Surae, cujus studio imperium arripuerat, lavacra condidit." — Leaden water-pipes have been found among the ruins with the inscription Aqua Traian. Q. Anicius Q. F. Antonian. cm. Therma- ri(,m Varianarwm. t Quique videt propius magni certamina Cy-ci, lAudat Aventinus vicinus Sura Dianje. 'i Epig.l. vi. 64, "InDetractorem." theumje, ciecfses, and aqueducts. 547 ficence, by Julius Caesar ; subsequently embellished, or am- plified, by Augustus, Claudius, Domitian, Trajan and Anto- ninus Pius. Its proportions, after the improvements by Julius Cfesar, were 2187 feet in length and 960 in breadth ; the number of spectators it could accommodate, about 250,000, and this without including about 150,000 who could stand under the porticoes encircling the arena. Here were exhi- bited the trophies of war ; and the immense Circus became the favourite resort of loungers and itinerary speculators, vendors of ointment, market-criers, soothsayers, etc. There were five principal entrance-gates : two at the angles of the twelve " carceres," whence the chariots issued for the race ; one at the opposite extremity, the Porta Triuntphalis, for the victors to make their exulting exit; and a lateral ingress, the Porta Lihitinarid, was appropriated for carrying out those slain in the chariot race, or in sanguinary combat. The other gate, " Porta Pompae," served for the entrance of the grand processions with which the entertainments com- menced. Not exactly in the axis, but obliquely, passed the Spina, along elevated platform through which flowed a stream of water. On this platform stood obelisks, and pillars (pJialce) with architraves, on which rested seven eggs and seven dolphins of marble (the former allusive to Castor and Pollux, the latter to Neptune), one of which was taken down at the end of each course, to mark the progress of the chariot-racers. Images of the deities presiding over the Circensian games stood on the Spina, and at one end (probably that nearest the " Carceres ") was an altar underground, dedicated to the god Census — among those of the lower world, but identified in later times with Neptune — which same altar was never uncovered, or seen, except when sacrifice had to be offered to that divinity. At the two extremities of the Spina were placed low conical pillars, " Metae," for marking the com- 2 N 2 648 niSTonic and monumental home. moncemcnt and term of each race — those at the starting- poiDt being called " primsD," those at the end " secund® metae." The arcades around the great Circus were used for many purposes, some for trading ; often abused, as was tolerated under the Empire, for the haunts of vice. Till the time of Honorius the combats, or chace, of wild animals, were kept up, and continued to attract multitudes to this favourite scene. Theodoric revived (and appa- rently for the last time) the more splendid shows of the Circus, which gradually fell into desuetude in Eome, though much longer maintained at Constantinople. The wildest excesses of partisanship, sometimes with tragic consequences, broke out from the zeal on the part of a cor- rupt and idle populace for the factions, or, as they were called, '* colours" of the Circus ; the charioteers being classed according to the colours which were, severally, their badges for distinction — these, from earliest time, being Venetif Prassini, Hussati, Alhati (blue, green, red, white), with supposable allusion to the four seasons of the year. Domitian added two others (Factions and Colours), the Aurati and Purpurcp, or golden and purple. The secret of the immense popularity enjoyed by the " greens" at Eome, is explained by the later Byzantine writers, from whom we learn the -curious fact that their colour was popular among the Eomans because proper to the goddess Flora, whose name was one of those deemed sacred and mystic, only known to the privileged, nor allowed to be publicly pro- nounced, i.e. Amor, and Flora — by which the sovereign city itself was designated. At Constantinople those frivolous, but in result most fatal rivalships, led to worse evils than are on record even in Eoman Annals. During the reign of Justinian a tumult broke out among the partisans of the two factions then dividing public favour at that eastern capital, which led to TIIEEMiE, CIRCUSES, AND AQUEDUCTS. 549 the sacrifice of 30,000 lives in a single day — nor subsided even after such fierce ebullition ; for, as Gibbon states, the *' blue and green factions continued to afflict the reign of Justinian, and to disturb the tranquillity of the Eastern Empire." The popularity of the Circus was maintained, and at highest intensity, long after the gladiatorial and other shows of the amphitheatre had been suppressed ; and the same historian tells us that " the impatient crowd rushed, at the dawn of day, to secure their places ;" — that " many passed a sleepless and anxious night in the adjacent porticoes,"— (" Decline and Fall," Chap. XXXI.)— such was the eagerness to witness the Circensian games ! Very different are the reminiscences for which we must turn to the pages of ecclesiastical historians, who describe a strange scene in the Circus Maximus, during the brief residence of the Emperor Constans in Eome, and whilst the occupation of the Papal Chair was disputed (a.d. 356), by two claimants, Liberius and Felix. The former had yielded to the more powerful party, and was for a time exiled to Thrace. Constans issued a decree for his return, with the strange provision that he should be re-installed to govern the Church together with Ms rival, Felix. This decree, read before the people in the Circus, was received with sarcasm and reprobation; some exclaimed in irony that as the spectators were divided into two parties, dis- tinguished by colours peculiar to the arena, it was fair that one should be governed by Liberius, the other by Felix ! But the prevailing sentiment exf)ressed itself in unanimous cries : Vnus Deus, unus Ohristus, unus Episcopus !* As to the Circus Maximus, its now recognisable ruins are * Liberius did not return to Rome till the next year, and was then exposed to many hostilities till after the death (as it seems a violent one, and by order of Constans) of his rival Felix II,— v. Baronius, an. 356 § 114, '15. 550 msTouic and monumental eome. few : mere shapeless masses of brickwork, representing tlio curvature of the southern extremity, beside the high road, at a short distance from the south-western angle and slopes of the Palatine hill. The foundations of the Carceres are under S. Maria in Cosmedin. Through the vegetable gar- dens that now cover the valley of the arena, flows the quiet stream of the Maranna, or Aqua Crahra. A range of vaulted halls (used as work-shops, or applied to other humble purposes) along the western base of the Palatine, either belong to, or were connected with, the arcade-por- tico surrounding that arena. In that valley, now occupied by gardens and a few cottages, were exhumed, 1587, the two obelisks transferred to their present sites by Sixtus V.— both found here under soil accumulated to the depth of twenty- four feet. At the same time were discovered some vaulted conduits, through which the Tiber-waters could have been admitted (for the Naumachia) into the Circus. The influx of those waters prevented the farther prosecution of re- searches on the site (see F. Yacca). Till the XVI. century (see Gamucci) stood the ruins of a gateway of the great Circus behind S. Maria in Cosmedin ; and much later were to be seen the tiers of seats beside the highway {Via de' CercJii) where the curving form is still discernible in a few heaps of ruined masonry. Prom the letters of Cassio- dorus it appears that this Circus must have existed in its antique completeness under the reign of Theodoric ; to aristocratic Vandalism may be ascribed its final desolation, after it had passed into the possession of the Frangipani, in \ mediaeval periods. However such havoc may have been caused, it has so transformed the scene as to present, in that quiet valley between the Aventine and Palatine hills, the greatest possible contrast to the spectacles here displayed in olden time. The great Circus was, in fact, the centre of almost THBRMiE, ClllCUSES, AND AQUEDUCTS. 551 all the pageants and entertainments in which ancient iiome took delight : the chariot and foot-race, the ath- letic contest, the gladiatorial combat, the uaumachia, or mimic sea-fights, the chace and slaughter of wild animals, &c. The pompa, or grand procession, before the ludi cir- censes on high festivals, displayed all the gay magnificence, the gorgeous profuseness, the picturesque accessories, the symbolism, and absurdities of- Latin Heathenism. De- scending from the Capitol into the Forum, this procession passed through the " via sacra," skirting the base of the Palatine, and entering the Circus at the north-western extremity, whence it moved slowly round the arena before coming to a halt shortly before the games were to com- mence. First appeared the ^dile, or Praetor, clad in an embroidered toga ;* next, a company of patrician youths on horseback, representing the order of Knights ; next to these the charioteers, in coloured tunics and leathern cui- rasses ; next, the athletes, almost nude (as they had to appear for their performances) ; after these, public dancers divided into three corps — men, youths, and boys ; musi- cians playing on flutes, pipes, or louder instruments ; per- formers representing, in costume. Satyrs and Sileni, with goat-skins thrown round them, long matted hair, and gar- lands of flowers in their hands or hung to their shaggy persons — these being the comic actors of the occasion, who used to accost, and crack their jokes with, the admiring spectators. After them came the subordinate ministers of worship with incense and perfumes; next, in solemn array, borne on chariots and stages inlaid with ivory and gold, the images of gods, deified Emperors and Empresses, all with jewelled crowns on their heads ; first, among the * The toga, xncta, originally worn by Consuls at their triumplis ; afterwards, under the Empire, by Consuls, Praetors, and ^diles alike, when they presided at the Circcnsian games. 652 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. imaged celestials, being the twelve major Deities (Dil Consentit) ; next to these, Mars, Hercules, the Graces. The last group consisted of a company of noble youths wearing embroidered togas, with chaplets of flowers on their heads. When the onward movement had stopped, and all was ready for the games, the images were placed on the spina — namely, in SBdiculae along its summit. The names of one hundred charioteers were put into an urn, and thence drawn out, four at a time, as they had successively to join in the race. At the signal given by the -Sdile, or other presiding magistrate, who lifted up a red napkin (mappa) in his right hand, the chariots started ; the marble eggs and dolphins (first introduced by Agrippa) were used as markers in the race— an egg being (as we may suppose) taken down at the beginning, a dolphin at the end of each course round the spina. We see, in several rilievi on siircophagi representations of these ludi^ with the curious detail of trials of the charioteers' skill by assistants, or slaves, who used to throw large vases under the horses' feet as they dashed along through the arena ; also the rash aelf-exhibition, for further such trial, of slaves who used to throw themselves across the path traversed, expecting to be driven over without injury or accident ! Twenty-five courses were usually run, the chariots being four at each ** heat ;" and after the victor had made good that title, he received from the ^dile, or Praetor, his due rewards, a leafy crown of gold or silver, a palm branch, and a sum of money, before he made his exit through the triumphal gate. Foot-races, wrestling, pugilistic contests, gladia- torial combats, and sometimes dramatic performances pro- longed the entertainment after the chariots had been driven off.* The most magnificent pompcB and ludi of the Circus • Vitellius, we are told by Tacitus, " built a set of carceres (stalls) for the charioteers, and kept in the Circus a constant spectacle of gladiators THERMiE, CIRCUSES, AND AQUEDUCTS. 553 were those at the festivals of Ceres (9th of April), and Census, the especial protecting Deity of this institution and of the exercises appropriated to it.* The games in honour of Census lasted five days from the 6th October ; and on such occasion was for the first time acted the Hecyra of Terence, whilst Julius Csesar and Cornelius Dolabella were JEdiles. It is remarkable that both S. Paul and Horace draw a moral, referring to our mortal race through the stadium of life, from the exhibitions of the Circus : Thus from the goal when swift the chariot flies, The charioteer the bending lash supplies, To overtake the foremost on the plain, But looks on all behind him with disd-ain. From hence how few, like sated guests, depart From life's full banquet with a cheerful heart ! (Francis's "Horace," Sa*. 1. 1, 1.) The latest description by an ancient writer of the enter- tainments as still kept up, with their olden splendour and variety, on Eome's great Circus, is supplied in Claudian's poem on the sixth consulate of Honorius. That poet dwells with a courtier's delight on the details of pomp and demon- strations of loyalty to the young Emperor then present. He tells of the chariot-races, the slaughter of wild animals, and a bloodless military pageant that seems to have united the characters of a tourney and a warlike dance.f These and wild beasts ; in this manner dissipating with prodigality, as if his treasury overflowed with riches." — Rist. 1. 1, xciv. * •* Circus erit pompa celeber, numeroque Deorum Primaque ventosis palma petetur equis. Hi Cereris ludi, &c."— Ovid, 'Easily 1. iv. c. 2. t " As soon as the appointed number of chariot races was concluded, the decoration of the Circus was suddenly changed ; the hunting of wild beasts afforded a various and splendid entertainment, and the chace was succeeded by a military dance, which seems, in the lively description 55 i lllSTOKIC ASD MONUMENTAL HOME. festivities wore ordered for the two-fold purpose of cele- brating the sixth consulate of Honorius, a.d. 404, and the vainly-assumed victory over the Goths after their retreat, led by Alaric — but a few years before their greatest victory, and the last humiliation of the imperial metropt lis through their means. The ruins which serve best for enabling us to re-con- Btruct the antique Circus are those near the Appian Way, founded, about a. d. 310, by the Emperor Maxentius, and dedicated in the name of his son Eomulus, who, cut off by early death, a. d. 309, was deified by his father. That last of the Heathen Emperors who reigned at Rome had a villa near this site, the ruins of which, gloomy but picturesque, rise amidst the scant growth of trees on an uncultivated upland of the desolate Campagna overlooking the scene of vanished pleasures. A mediseval chronicler mentions this Circus under the barbaric name of girulum ; and it seems that the ground and buildings became a sort of dependency of the great castle built, about 1298, by the G-aetani family, on high ground southward above the valley occupied by the Maxentian structures — that castle for which the majes- tic mausoleum of Cecilia Metella was appropriated as a donjon-keep. The antique remains here before us still retain sufficient distinctness of form to enable us to recognise the constructive plan, leading arrangements and of Claudian, to present the image of a modern tournament." (Gibbon, " Decline and Fall," c. xxx.) I subjoin the lines in which, speakin}^ as an eye-witness, the poet describes Buch perhaps unusual displays on this classic arena : . " llajc et bclligcros exercuit area lusus, Armatos hie sa;pe choros, certaque vagandis Textas lege fugas, inconfuso.s({ue ret-ur^us Et pulchros errorum artes, jucuucUuiiic INhirtia Ccrnimus." V. 621-625. I UIMIVt! theemtE, circuses, and aq*65|^js'..__ .. 555 features of tlie Eoman Circus. Still do we see in situ the spina traceable to its entire extent ; tlie twelve car- ceres in more low-reduced ruin, with the chief entrance to the arena in the midst ; the arched triumphal gate at the opposite extremity ; on one side (northwards), amidst the gradines of seats for the public, the puhinar (or loggia) for the Emperor and his court (communicating by a corridor or gallery with the villa of Maxentius) ; on the other side of the lateral walls bounding the arena, the tribune for the presiding -^dile, or other magistrate in the capacity of " editor spectaculorum." The tiers of seats rose above vaulting, now all ruinous, thrown up between two parallel curtains of wall. Along the platform summit of the spina was a channel for water ; and two transverse passages across it (still recognisable) served for the assistants, who, moving from side to side, threw water on the chariot wheels for precaution against the danger of their igniting. Several fragments of sculpture, among others a headless statue of Libera (or Proserpina) seated, with Cerberus crouching under her chair, also pedestals for other statues, have been found on this spina. ^ ot far from the central point on its summit we perceive a space, originally hollowed out and filled with flint stones, in which was erected the obelisk, here exhumed, after being long left prostrate and broken, before its removal (1G50) to be again raised up, in its pre- sent place, on the Piazza Navona. The direction in which the spina passes through this Circus does not correspond to the axis of the arena, but is slightly oblique ; and the twelve carceres are not built in a right line but along the segment of a circle, so that each chariot would have to traverse the same distance from its career (or stall) to the starting point between the western extremity of the spina and the gradines of seats overlooking the arena on the right. The accommodation for spectators consisted of a single 550 niSTomc and monumental eome. pracinctio with ten gradines, on which 15,000, or (according to eome writers) 18,000 could be seated. At the angle between the carceres and the lateral walls stand two lofty- towers, curvilinear on the outer, rectilinear on the other sides, which afforded stations for musicians, the exulting strains from whose instruments, played probably on the roofs of those high buildings, commenced the brilliant entertain- ment. Then did the -Sdile raise the scarlet mappa as signal for the races to begin ; and now, we may suppose, came the most thrilling in the (no doubt) highly exciting and picturesquely varied ludi of the ancient Circus. Ee- eearches, made in 1825, have led to the discovery of stairs, with seven steps, on the outer side of the triumphal gate — therefore must the victorious charioteer have quitted the arena, with his crown and palm-branch, on foot through this egress. An epigraph in red-painted letters, dug up during those works of excavation, affords clearest proof of the origin, and dedication, of this Circus by Maxentius.* It was a short time after he had dedicated it under the name of the youthful " Cajsar," that the tyrant w^as overthrow]©, and lost his life in the battle with Constantine at the Saxa Eubra. It seems that popular hatred against the memory and vices of the former led to the despoiling of his villa near the Appian Way, and also (as inferrible) of the Circus here before us, which seems to have been deprived, through Bome violent onset, of its architectural decorations and sculptures — though, as we have seen, many fragments of the latter were left, to be eventually exhumed and collected after the breaking up of the ruin-encumbered ground. It is certain that, after the date of that momentous battle, * Divo Ronmlo N{ohilis) M{emoricB) V(iro). Cos. Ord. 11. Filio D(omini) N{o8tri) Maxentii Invict V{iri) et perp. Aug. Nepoti T{er) Divi Maxi- miani Sen{i)oris ac (bis August!.) This inscription has been placed beside the arch of the triumphal gate, below which it was found. I THEEM^, CIBCUSES, AND AQUEDUCTS. 557 A.D. 312, we hear no more of tliis suburban Circus. Its ruins become associated (as do tbe relief sculptures on the Arch of Constantino) with the memorials of an eventful conflict — the antagonism of powers and principles — fraught with consequences of enduring eff'ect, after resulting, im- mediately, in the overthrow of the Heathen and establish- ment of the Christian dominion. Such thoughts of the past as may well occupy our minds amidst the solitude of a memory-haunted scene, and the solemn beauty of the landscape which here extends before us, overstrewn with ruins of the Eepublic and Empire, from the towered tomb of Cecilia Metella to the olive-clad declivities of the Alban Hills, — such thoughts assuredly constitute the attraction of the desolate and silent spot on which we stand amidst these Maxentian ruins, where the relics of Heathen Empire, the dry bones of perished Antiquity, are linked with interests afi'ecting the inner-life and immortal desti- nies of man. I have been led into so long a digression from my present subject, the ThermaB, by another view, that from the Aventine height overlooking the valley once peopled with the pomps and entertainments of imperial Eome. Before returning to the consideration of such antiques, let us observe some interesting ruins under an old casino, in a vineyard of Prince Torlonia not far from the same ridge of the Aventine hill. Here we descend by a long inclining corridor into the vaulted halls of a residence assuredly palatial, but now all dark and silent. We enter galleries diverging in different directions, and chambers of diff'erent size, in the most spacious of which are seen graceful paintings, human figures, birds, garlands, &c. of miniature scale, preserved on the still firm stucco of the walls and vault. We may believe that this is the palace of Trajan, built for that Prince by the Senate ; the style of the artistic ornaments, as also the 658 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. brickwork masoury, indicating his period. The buildings of the dusky casino are also in part antique, probably remnants either of that palace or of the balnaea called after Sura. The reign and character of Trajan are memories that give dignity to this sombre place — the desolate old farmhouse and the now buried chambers beneath it. ITio stern majesty of Buin and the calm loveliness of Nature blend together in the vastest among all remains of imperial Thermae extant, those founded by Antoninus, named ** Caracalla." Formerly these ruins were mantled and garlanded with verdure and wild growth in rich luxu- riance. Forest trees overshadowed the enormous piles of fallen masonry, or waved on heights apparently inacces- sible ; the arbutus, the monthly rose and other graceful plants flourished under the shelter of the stupendous walls ; the overhanging vaults, still spanning abysses beneath, were carpeted with green weeds, velvety moss, and a pro- fusion of wild flowers. One might have apostrophized the immense structure in "Wordsworth's lines on a very diffe- rent ruin under northern skies : Time loves thee ! at his call the Seasons twine Luxuriant wreaths around thy forehead hoar ; And though past pomp no changes can restore, A sootliing recompense, his gift, is thine ! But a change has come over the scene within recent years. It has been thought best to cut down the forest- trees, uproot the wild plants, and display the ancient structures in denuded vastness — a proceeding which may serve to check continuous decay, but has (I think) been carried too far both in these and in the Flavian buildings. We may hope that Nature will be allowed to rc-assert her rights, alike here and in the Colosseum, without such danger to the maintenance of the Antique as archaeolo- gists should v.arn and provide against. theemtE, circuses, and aqueducts. 550 Spartianus describes the Antonine Thermae as magnificen- tissimce, and extols as an inimitable masterpiece of construc- tion the roofing entirely formed of bronze or copper bars in- terwoven like the straps of a sandal, over a great apartment which he calls the cella soliaris — probably the Tepidarium. Lampridius tells us (in Heliogab. c. xvii.) that Antoninus himself inaugurated these Thermae, bathing here on the first day that they were opened (a.d. 216). This may have been one of the last appearances of that Emperor in public before he left Eome never to return. He was at Nicomedia in the April of the same year ; and on the 8th April, 217, the guilty wretch was assassinated by a centurion on his journey from Edessa to Carrhes, after reigning little more than six years. His Thermae certainly were not complete when the founder inaugurated them ; and the outer porticos, probably all the accessorial buildings, were added during the reigns of Heliogabalusand Alexander Severus, a.d. 218-235.* We are told that they contained IGOOmarble chairs for bathers, and 200 columns {v. Olympiodorus, a writer of the V. cen- tury)— reports that may well be believed, seeing that the great central block of buildings, surrounded by a quadrangle of subordinate halls and porticos, measures 720 feet in length by 375 feet in width ; the whole occupying an area of 140,000 square yards. It is certain that these baths were in use till at least the earlier years of the VI. century, and the signa found on tiles aftbrd proof that they were restored in the reign of Theodoric. Till the XV. century the buildings were invested with much of their pristine splendour, marble incrustations still clothiog * Aurelius Victor states that they were finished whilst Antoninus was in Syria. Among the signa on tiles, found among the ruins, is one with the names of two Consuls in office a.d. 206 — proof that the works were commenced before Antoninus had succeeded to his father on the throne, a.d. 211. 6G0 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. the brick walls, columns erect, architraves and sculptured friezes still in their place. Almost all objects of value, and all the discoverable works of art were removed from these outraged ruins by order of the Cardinal Farnese, who became Pope as Paul III., for adorning the palace founded by him some time prior to 1534, in which year he ascended the pontific throne. A systematic spoliation was carried out by that Farnese Cardinal. Then were exhumed and appro- j priated those precious antique sculptures to which the ^ Farnese name is still attached : the colossal Hercules (sup- posed to be a copy from Lysippus), the colossal Flora, and the largest marble group of antique sculpture hitherto known, the so-called " Toro Farnese " — i.e. the punishment of Dirce, who is tied to the horns of a wild bull by the sons of her rival Antiope — brought (as Pliny tells us) from Ehodes, and originally possessed, in Rome, by Asinius PoUio. Not contented with such spoils, the unscru- pulous Cardinal even caused the coating of fine brick- work to be stript off the lofty walls (the inner-masonry being alone left) for the supply of building-material to his workmen at the new palazzo ! The last of the great granite columns left erect in the central hall of these ThermaB (the Tepidarium), was presented by Pope Pius V. to Cosimo I., Grand Duke of Tuscany, and eventually raised to its present place on the Piazza S. Trinita at Florence, 15(55. The first Pope who took any steps towards pre- serving or clearing out these ruins, was Paul V. 1605-21). He desired them to be made accessible on every side, and destined the area for the exercises and pastime of seminary- students. The first important excavations on this site, in modern time, were undertaken by a Count de Yelo, in 1824 ; and then was discovered the largest mosaic yet known among Roman art-works of its class, representing numerous life-size figures, heads of athletes and pugilists, all probably THERMiE, CIRCUSES, AND AQUEDXTCTS. 561 portraits of favourite performers on the arena — strikingly- characteristic and most repulsive in coarseness.* This com- position (now at the Lateran palace) covered the floor of a semicircular recess on the southern side of a great quad- rangular court, formerly surrounded by porticos, and serving for the exercises of the palaestra, where we now first enter the ruins of the great central building. The disjecta membra are so immense, and still to such a degree intel- ligible, that it is comparatively easy to reconstruct these Thermae for theoretic consideration. The halls and courts displayed different degrees of splendour ; and though visi- tors of every class were admitted by the tessercs (tictets) the price of which was next to nothing, it seems that distinctions were observed in the nature of the accommodation sup- plied for patricians and plebeians severally — not but that many of the pleasures here localized were for all alike. The various accessorial buildings, dressing rooms, private bath-chambers, also the libraries and pinacotheca,were prob- ably lighted from unglazed windows ; but the large apart- ments, in which costly decoration and grace of architecture were carried to the highest (iegree, had no other illumina- tion than that from pendant lamps, candelabra, and sconces — a light which, we may suppose, would have been finely suitable, and strikingly effective as it gleamed on the surface of radiant marbles, the long-drawn perspective of halls and vaults, the columns of porphyry and granite, the bright-hued mosaics, and (noblest among adornments of the scene) the statuary which rose, pure, grand, majestic, in * Pliny (H. N. 1. xxxv. c. vii.) mentions the first appearance of paintings representing gladiators and their combats in the time of Nero. They were usually placed in porticos ; and one such picture was hung up by Terentius Lucauus in the sacred grove of Diana on the Avcntiue hill. 2 o 602 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. arched recesses or under the chiselled cornices and friezes of Carrara marble. The principal front of these buildings on the side over- looking the Appian AVay, also the two narrower fronts of the central structure presented a perspective of colonnades with shafts of red granite ; the architraves, and (probably) the attics above, being adorned with vitreous mosaic. Prom the portico along the eastern front was entered the suite of chambers for private baths, still recognizable (the bath- compartments being preserved in some interiors), though all are ruinous, all more or less encumbered with brush- wood, weeds, and fallen masonry. At the extremities were two spacious halls, probably the Greek and Latin libraries, with alabaster columns, mosaic pavements, walls partly encrusted with marble, partly adorned with stucco relief- work. From the outer court, laid out like a garden and planted with trees, amidst which rose the main buildings, were entered, through colonnades of yellow Numidian marble, the semicircular' tribunes called exedrsB, serving for converse or repose. Two great quadrangular courts, at the northern and southern sides of the central building, both surrounded with porticos, served as palestrae, or epJie- boea, for athletic exercises, wrestling, and other gymnas- tics. The Frigidarium, an immense oblong apartment on the eastern side, was without roof, but of rich architec- tonic character ; eight large granite columns supporting an architrave of white marble ; smaller columns dividing this interior at the two narrower sides from splendid anti-cham- bers. Along the lofty walls were two orders of niches, flanked by columns, where statues (the works, we may believe, of Greek masters) looked down on the bathers in the ample piscina^ into which they descended from a marble ledge extending around it. The Tepidarium, the central thebmj:, circuses, and aqueducts. 563 apartment in these buildings, was the most splendid ; its lofty vaults resting on eight immense porphyry columns ; its walls in great part lined with the same purple stone. In the Sudatorium the walls and vault were alike one gleam- ing surface of mosaics and precious marbles. In some of the smaller chambers, ranged around the three principal apartments (the Tepidarium,°rrigidarium, and Sudatorium), there were walls encrusted with rose-coloured alabaster ; and in all these interiors the tesselated pavement of coloured marbles displays rich and varied devices, the designs being usually copied from most graceful patterns, still before us are niany remains recently brought to light. The time of most numerous assemblage for bath- ing was in the earlier afternoon-hours, before the coena* Then might be seen every grade of society, the aggregate representatives of Eome's ancient life, high and low, rich and poor, aristocratic and plebeian, gathered together for the same enjoyment or "dolce far niente;" sometimes, amidst the heterogeneous throng, the Emperor himself, bathing or conversing, while distinguished from other visi- tors only by a purple mantle thrown over his white linen vestments, —as was the virtuous young Alexander Seve- rus when he visited the public thermsD. The recitations, or readings, by poets, philosophers, historians, of their newest works, may have been given either in the pillared library or in the hemicycle of the vaulted exedra. In the Conisteria, where the athletes had their bodies rubbed before exercise, it is supposed that geometricians used to * Such the time of day preferred by Horace for his visit to the halnea : Ast ubi me fessum sol acrior ire lavatum Admonuit, fugio rabiosi tempora signi. jSat.vi. 1. 1. 2 o 2 564 nisTOEic and monumental kome. design figures, for the instruction of- their hearers, on the sand-strewn floor.* "VVhilo wandering through the vast ruins of the Anto- nino Thermfe, we may be reminded of one salutary and just principle admitted in the system, and influencing the social state, of Latin antiquity — the recognition of a cha- racter entitled to respect and privileges in the " Civis Bomanus," whatever the individual might possess in mind • or fortune, whatever the accidents of birth or occupation — a dominant idea preparatory, we may believe, to the ascen- dency of another more high and beneficial one, that of universal brotherhood uniting the human race under one supreme Father. From a garden near the northern side of these build- ings, below the declivity of the Aventine hill, we may descend into a range of vast subterranean corridors, extending in diverse directions under the great Thermae, but so obstructed by enormous masses of fallen brick- work that we cannot in any part explore to great dis- * V. Montfaucon, " L'Antiquite expliquce," t. iii. p. 11. " The visitor (to the baths) first entered a room not artificially heated, where he undressed, and had the body rubbed, or anointed. He thence passed into the Tepidarium, and remained there for some time ; thence into the Sudatorium, where, besides the subterranean fire, there was the Laconicum, which appears to have been a furnace level with the floor. From the Sudatorium he passed into the Calidarium, and after staying for a time in the hot bath, returned to the sweating-bath, and thence passed again into the Tepidarium, finally into the Frigidarium. As all who came to bathe did not pass through all these processes, there were baths in the tepid chambers for those who did not wish to go farther ; also others in the cold chambers for those who did not want either the tepid or the hot bath." The same learned writer enumerates the various perfumes used for anointing the body, and in which great costliness was manifest : they were compounded of roses, lilies, myrrh, marjoram, narcissus, iris, nard, wild vine, &c.— most precious being that called cinnamonium. Different perfumes were used for the hair and eyebrows, neck and arms, &c. THEEMiB, CIRCUSES, AND AQUEDUCTS. 565 tancc. The daylight here penetrates in some places ; but occasionally we are in darkness only dispelled by the taper-light which, as well as a guide, must be procured. It is a strange and awe-striking labyrinth, in its present state of gloom and unexplorable vastness. Such a subter- ranean storey may have served for diJEFerent purposes — as the support of the superstructure ; the discharge of the water, millions of gallons of which, daily used in the baths, could thus have been drawn off without causing damage or inconvenience otherwise inevitable. The many daves in the service of the bathers had, probably, occasion to descend into this lower region for various purposes connected with their task in the care of the extensive premises. A striking and rapidly wrought change in the aspects of this scene of ruins, with some loss of the picturesque, but also much gain for archaeological interests, has been the consequence of the labours here carried out, under new authorities, since 1870. I shall not forget the effect pro- duced, and the astonishment it excited when I visited this spot, after a long interval of absence, in the Spring of 1872. The lofty walls and high-hung vaults were denuded of the verdant draperies and leafy veils with which Nature had clothed and adorned them. Only a few evergreen trees were left, with their dusky foliage still waving at some of the highest points, or least accessible " coins of vantage." Many workmen were here engaged on that spring-day ; their activities and the sound of their implements disturb- ing, with strange contrast, the quiet and solemn stillness whicb here held almost undisputed reign in days gone by. The richly paved floors, distinguished by rainbow- varieties of tints, and graceful or fantastic designs on the tesselated surface, attracted and pleased the eye in many chambers where, hitherto, grass and flowering weeds alone had spread 566 UISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. beneath the feet. Some elaborately chiselled cornices of white marble had been replaced where (at least) they were supposed to have been originally set against the walls. Most precious among recently recovered treasure-trove were three male torsi in Greek marble, now erected on pedes- tals, in the great court at the southern side of the central buildings — one of these being colossal, the others of heroic proportions; all (as it seemed to me) marked by fine characteristics. In a ruinous (but still roofed) hall, at the south-eastern angle of this spacious court, I saw that day another recently- found treasure — a much mutilated colossal head of Bacchus, the ivy-wreath round the brow indicating that god as the subject ; little being left of this sculpture except the fore- head and eyes — yet that little sufficient to convey an impression of noble beauty, serene, even solemn. In the central apartment of the Tepidarium lay several frag- ments of chiselled marbles, broken shafts of porphyry and granite columns strewn on the recently-opened ground, where the ancient pavement was now brought to view below enormous accumulations of debris. The archi- tectonic ornaments, among these relics of scattered wealth, are beautifully wrought. Uncommon in design, and finely executed, are several white marble capitals, severed from their columns, of the composite Eoman order, with human figures, deities or Victories, sculptured in high relief under strongly marked volutes. One of these accessorial statuettes is evidently a Hercules ; and some capitals are thus orna- mented with four statuette rilievi, the figures too much mutilated for the subjects, still graceful in decay, to be recognised.* * Other examples of original and effective employment of figures, armour, trophies, &c. on the capitals of antique columns, are seen among the architectonie-fragments in the Tabularium ; also in the colonnade THERMS, CIRCUSES, AND AQUEDUCTS. 567 The so-called Thermae of Diocletian should be more properly named from that Emperor's colleague, the co- reigning Maximianus, who actually founded them, a. d. 302. The former, however, fills the more prominent place in history, and is naturally brought to our minds by the ruins of the great structure dedicated in his name. Valerius Aurelius Diocletianus, both of whose parents were slaves, took his original and less high-sounding name, Diodes, from Doclia, a small town in Dalmatia, the birth- place of his mother. He was elected Emperor by the army on the same day, a.d. 281, that his predecessor, Numeri- anus, was assassinated whilst on the march, returning from a campaign in Persia. The new sovereign associated with himself on the throne a comrade in arms, Maximianus ; and in order to secure more efficiently organized resistance against the increasing dangers of the now enfeebled State, eventually shared the imperial power with two others, Constantius Chlorus and G-alerius Maximinus, both raised to the rank of " CaBsar," a. d. 292. Diocletian reserved to himself the general government of the East. To Maxi- mianus he assigned Italy and the African provinces ; to Galerius, Thrace and Illyria ; to Constantius, Graul, Spain, and Britain. " He may be considered" (observes Gribbon) " like Augustus, the founder of a new Empire." It was the deep-laid plan and policy of Diocletian to raise up an elaborately organized despotism on the ruins of the ancient Roman Constitution ; to reduce the Senate to nullity ; to concentrate all power in the hands, primarily, of the co- reigning "Augusti," and, secondarily, in those of their (badly restored) of the portico before the cellce of the Dii Consentii on the Capitol ; and in the magnificent columns, of very large scale, trans- ferred from some ancient edifice to the chancel of the extramural S. Lorenzo basilica. 508 ursTomc and monumental home. subordinate colleagues, the " Cajsars." Hitherto laws had been ratified by the sanction of the Senate; but hence- forth that body became " a useless monument of antiquity on the Capitoline hill, losing all connection with the im- perial court,"* while Diocletian resided at Nicomedia, Maximianus at Milan. A change of insignia and forms accompanied the innovation in the system of government. Laying aside the austere simplicity of ancient manners and costume, the two "Augusti" now girt their brows with the diadem, a fillet studded with pearls, and assumed robes entirely of silk, sometimes of gold tissue, with a profuse display of jewellery on their persons, even on their sandals.f The ancient titles of civic offices — Consul, Pro- consul, Censor, Tribune — hitherto assumed by all the Em- perors, were laid aside ; the absolute Eulers were addressed, or named, as Numen — Majestas — Divinitas. This new mo- narchic system, whatever its defects, proved more secure and firmly based than the military despotism which had preceded it. During ninety-two years, from Commodus to Diocletian, the throne had been made vacant by violence twenty -two times ; and of thirty-four emperors who reigned during that period, thirty sufi'ered violent death ; the dangerous supremacy being alike conferred and taken away, in many instances the short-lived nominees deprived of life and power at once, by the Praetorian Guards. Diocletian never saw Eome, after his elevation to power, till the twentieth year of his reign, when he visited it for a triumph he shared with A Maximianus, memorable as the last of all such celebrations in the ancient capital. Trophies of victory in Africa and Britain, in the Ehenish and Danubian provinces were dis- * "Decline and FaU." t "Qui (Diocletianus) primus ex auro veste qusesita, scrici ac pur- purae gemmarumque vim pluntis concupiverit."— Aurelius Victor, De THERMiE, CIECUSES, AND AQUEDUCTS. 569 played in the gorgeous procession. Before the chariots of the two Emperors were borne images, or paintings, of the provinces, also the rivers and mountains in regions subject to Eome ; the wives, the children and sisters of the King of Persia — themselves made captive, but set at liberty- after the concluding of peace with that monarch — were represented in effigies that swelled the pageantry on the " Sacred Way." Aurelian, in this most splendid triumph (a. d. 302) in which the captive Queen, Zenobia, walked in golden chains before the victor's path, introduced the novelty of a chariot drawn to the Capitol by four stags (or perhaps reindeers) instead of white horses. In the last preceding triumph, that of Probus (a. d. 281), the Circus Maximus was converted into a forest, where thousands of wild animals, lions, leopards, bears, stags, ostriches, &c. were hunted and slain. Three hundred couples of gladia- tors were made to fight in the arena during those festivities. Diocletian stayed only two months in Rome after his triumph, and abruptly quitted its walls some days before he was expected to appear in the Senate-house vested with the insignia of the Consulate. In the history of the Church this reign is marked by an event of tragic importance, the persecution, commonly reckoned as the tenth, and which, instigated, it was said, by Gralerius, broke out with exces- sive violence in the year 303 ; the first step being an edict of intolerance issued at Nicomedia on the 23rd of Peb- ruary.* The Christians had hitherto been protected, even favoured, by Diocletian.f * The cruel proceeding led to the adoption of a new era by the Chris- tians — the " Era of the Martyrs," dated from the accession of Diocletian, 29th August, 284, and still in use among the Copts and Abyssinians. t " The persecution (says Baronius) above all others most cruel, which is called the tenth. It was commanded that the churches should be overthrown and destroyed even to their foundations; that the sacred writings of the Christians should be burnt; that all (Christians) should 570 HI8T0BIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. Tho abdication of Diocletian, in his fifty-fifth year, " after he had conquered all his enemies and accomplished all his designs," was the first^instance of such a step deliberately and voluntarily taken by a Euler of the ancient world. On a wide plain near Nicomedia, the Emperor, seated on a lofty throne, laid aside before an immense multitude all tho insignia of sovereign power (1st May, 305), and im- mediately retired from the city to his chosen retreat, a large and splendid palace built for himself near Salona in Dalmatia. Maximianus reluctantly took the same step, as preconcerted, and on the same day, at Milan ; but resumed the purple in the following year at Rome, where his son, Maxentius, had been proclaimed Emperor by the army. After some years passed in that palace among the ruins of which now stands the city of Spalatro, Diocletian died there, A.D. 313, in his sixty-eighth year. He used to affirm that ho had only begun truly to live since the day of his abdi- cation ; and it is a well-known anecdote that when urged by his ex-colleague to resume the purple, he replied that Maximianus could never have imputed such a wish to him had ho seen the cabbages cultivated by his own hand in the gardens of his home near Salona.* The political system of be ignominiously deprived of whatever honours they had received; and that private persons who persisted firm in their resolves, should lose their liberty. This, says Eusebius, was the first edict issued ; but after a short interval it was ordered by other imperial letters that all the bishops should be imprisoned, and through every possible means forced to sacri- fice to the idols." We may reject the assertion of some writers that both Diocletian and Maximianus were induced to abdicate by despair at the failure of this last attempt to extirpate Christianity — " uterque ex dcsperatione Christianae religionis a.ho\endge."—{Panegyr. Veteres, v. iii.) * That town is said to have been his birthplace — hence his natural preference for the retreat chosen in his premature old age and enfeebled health: When Diocletian's self-corrected mind The imperial fasces of the world resigned. TUERMiE, CIRCUSES, AND AQUEDUCTS. 571 Diocletian was transmitted to, and fully developed by, the Christian Emperors. It may be said to have operated with effects far from beneficial on the religious as well as political temper of after ages — on the relations between the Church and the governing power under the Eastern Empire. The despotic principles of the later Eoman Csesarism were in- deed to a fatal degree inherited by ecclesiastical authority, even beyond those limits, even more in the "West than in the East. Let us now consider the only ruins in Eome with which the name of Diocletian is associated. Those Thermae on the Viminal hill, the vastest of all such establishments in this city, having accommodation for 1600 bathers at a time, were founded a. d. 302, in the year, namely, that the two co-reigning "Augusti" celebrated their triumph at the ancient metropolis. It is probable that the undertaking was commenced, or ordered, during their short sojourn here, and as a token of regard for their Eoman subjects. The buildings were not dedicated till after both those Em- perors had laid down the sceptre ; the two " Caesars," Con- stantius Chlorus and Maximiniis, performing the ceremony, A.D. 306.* There is a tradition accepted by Baronius, but rejected by later historians of the Church — by Eleury and Tillemont — that 40,000 Christian soldiers, after being degraded from their rank in the army, were forced to work Say why we trace the labours of his spade In calm Salona's philosophic shade? The still retreats that soothed his tranquil breast Ere grandeur dazzled, and its cares oppressed. Rogers, "Pleasures of Memory." * Gruter gives a fragmentary inscription found near the ruins, referring to that act of dedication: Thermas felices DiocleUano cceptas ^dificiis pro tanti operis magnitiidine omni cultu jam perjcctis numine ejus consecrarunt 572 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. at these buildings, and all put to death after the completion of their task. Seeing the proximity of the Salarian gate, through which Alaric entered Eome, it is inferred that these Therma) Buffered more or leas from the violence of the Gothic inva- ders; yet we have the testimony of Sidonius ApoUinaris in proof that these, alike with the baths of Agrippa and Nero, continued to be in full use, frequented and materially complete, till about the end of the V. century.* Even after Ming into ruin these structures stood, imposing no doubt, and immense in extent, till the latter half of the XVI. century. Fulvio (1. Ill) describes them as seen by himself in 1527, with lofty vaulted halls, circular chambers, massive columns and rich cornices still in situ ; the ample reservoirs for water still preserved. Bufalini's map of Bome (1551) shows that the vast edifice then stood free from all incumbrances, in no part enclosed within private property. Engravings, executed about a.d. 15G0, present to view the antiquities on this level height of the Viminal as still so extensive and majestic, in despite of all ravages of time, that it is difficult to recognize in what is actually before us the majestic remains of the Diocletian Therma3, now so metamorphosed, modernized, and appropri- ated with so much sacrifice of the antique.f Neither pontiff * The poetical Bishop of Clermont thus alludes to them, and in the same lines to the retreat of the abdicated Emperor: Iluic ad balnea non Neroniana Nee qua) Agrippa dedit, vel ilia cujus Bustum Dalmaticoe vident Salonse: Ad thermas tamen ire sed libebat Privato bene praebitus pudori. — Carmen ad ConsenUv/m. f See the interesting, and now rare, views of Rome and the environs, by -iEgidius Sadeler — a testimony to the unchecked decay and maltreat- ment of antiquities in this city since the period when that artist saw and sketched them. He gives three engravings of the Diocletian ThermaBj exhibiting a spectacle different indeed from what we now behold. THERMiE, CIECUSES, AND AQUEDUCTS. 573 nor patrician had yet interfered with them. A small church dedicated to Cyriacus, a soldier put to death for his faith in the tenth persecution, was the sole modern building hitherto raised amidst these wrecks of the Past. In, or soon after, the year 1560, Pope Pius IV. purchased an estate within which these ruins were then enclosed — originally the property of a Prench Cardinal, Bellay — from another proprietor. Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, the saintly Arch- bishop of Milan, nephew to the then reigning Pontiff. The same Pope Pius bestowed the ground on the Carthusian monks, previously established at the basilica and cloisters of S. Croce in Gerusalemme. He also commissioned Buona- rotti to build a church for those Carthusians among the thermal ruins. The great artist availed himself of a spacious hall, an oblong quadrilateral, and of several vaulted cham- bers contiguous to it, for the nave, atrium, and lateral chapels of S. Maria degli Angeli, under which title the new Carthusian church was consecrated by Pius IV. The external area was cleared of incumbrances, probably with much demolition of the antique, by order of Sixtus V. : and the large monastery, which presently rose up among the still conspicuous ruins, no doubt contributed much to the sacrifice or concealment of the great thermal buildings.* In 1593 the Carthusians sold a part of these premises, together with the ruins there extant, and a vast number of fragmentary sculptures, architectonic ornaments, &c. found therein, to a pious lady, the Countess Sforza di S. Flora, who presently handed over her entire purchase to another monastic brotherhood, the Cistercians of the reformed con- gregation founded by S. Bernard at Clairvaux. In order to provide a church for the latter, a great circular hall of * Venuti stsites that Sixtus V. caused most of the buildings above ground to be demolished, and those that were subterranean to be filled up with the waste material for support to the church or cloisters. 674 iiisTonic and monumental home. the Thorinro, with domed roof still preserved, was easily utilized ; and in the course of the works for transforming that ancient structure into the actual S. Bernardo, an abundant store of marble and sculptured fragments was exhumed on this spot. Still more acceptable was the dis- covery of eighteen busts of philosophers, all which were purchased by Cardinal Farnese for enriching the art collec- tion in his palace. The interior of the rotunda, now conse- crated, is striking — indeed beautiful, in spite of many taste- less details and adornments added by modern hands. The ample dome, still retaining its antique coffered ornamenta- tion, contributes much to an effect aerial yet solemn in the architecture. It is stated in a MS. history of this Cistercian Abbey of S. Bernardo that the pious donatrix ordered many wall paintings, within the rotunda finally converted into a church, to be effaced on account of their obscene character. It seems that even till the middle of the XVII. century, the principal group of the ruins, possessed by the Carthusian monks, was far more imposing than at present. Nardini (" Roma Antica") describes them in their then condition with " stupendous vaults, massive columns, and subterra- nean halls" — two "chapels" (bath-chambers ?) having,been, he says, " lately discovered." Montfaucon mentions what he . himself had learnt from the Carthusian Prior, that more than 200columns had been removed from these extensive remains, to be erected, or otherwise used, in different buildings; and the same writer describes subterranean chambers below the S. Maria degli Angeli church, in which had been found many remnants of marble incrustation, all made use of by the monks for adorning or completing that sacred edifice. The entrances to those chambers were walled up in Mont- faucon's time (" L'Antiquite expliquee," &c. t. iii. p. ii.). A deplorable disfigurement of the architecture designed (in part only adapted) by Buonarotti, was carried out when THEEMiE, CIRCUSES, AND AQUEDUCTS. 575 tliis Carthusian church was altered by the architect Yanvi- telli in 1747. I need not here particularize the degree to which its fine original character, maintained on the basis of the antique through the efforts of the earlier master, was sacrificed in that last and worst modercization of classic antiquity on this site.* The spacious and solemn cloisters* with one hundred Doric columns supporting rounded arches, also from the designs of Buonarotti, are still, fortunately, preserved intact, with the four lofty cypress-trees, planted by the same great artist's hand, rising, fit guardians of the religious scene, beside the classic urn of a fountain in the midst. In the Carthusian church, a remarkable statue of * The whole edifice now received quite a different aspect ; the lateral became the principal entrance, and the chapel of the Madonna, formerly- least important, became the tribune with its high altar. The chapel of S. Bruno, adapted in Michelangiolo's design for the high altar, became a lateral chapel. Eight additional columns of brick, coated with stucco, were erected; and, for uniformity, the granite shafts of the antique ones were concealed by a similar covering. So ill was Vanvitelli's design accomplished that, at this day, the closed archways may be distinctly- seen, owing to the crumbling away of the stucco with paltry ornamental painting on the lateral walls. The dimensions of the church, however, and the leading features preserved from Buonarotti's design, secure to it still a character o'f grandiose and majestic gravity. The spiritual administra- tions of the Carthusians being confined to their own community, neither confessional nor pulpit is seen within these walls. Neglect is too apparent, externally and internally; and it seems a reproach that such an edifice should have been long left in forlorn decay, its lofty antique vaulting and the stuccoed columns rendered unseemly by abrasures on their surface. Since the change of government, certain devoted partisans of the Vatican, among Roman citizens, got up a subscription for present- ing to the Pope a golden throne ! Pius IX. had the good sense to refuse the costly bauble ; and it is understood that the sum intended to have been wasted upon it will be applied to the worthier object of providing this church with a suitable f a9ade and chief portal. Its outer aspect, on the side of the chief entrance, has been nothing else than disgraceful since the deformation by Vanvitelli. 57G niSTORTc and monumental home. S. Bruno, by Iloudon, a French sculptor who lived from 1740 to 1820, occupies a recess in the rotunda of the antique building through which we pass into the nave of the now sacred edifice. With arms folded and head drooping, as in profound thought or wrapt contemplation, over the breast, the ascetic Saint here stands before us like an intensely present individuality, a form, indicating with wondrous truthfulness the " depths of a being sealed, and severed from mankind." Here, amidst the surroundings of the Christian sanctuary, we may find subject for meditation in the con- trasted motives which led two men to quit the world for retirement amidst circumstances and influences the most unlike that can be conceived — the Emperor Diocletian and the Carthusian Saint, Bruno. The tradition of the 40,000 soldier-martyrs may be almost baseless ; yet it is quite possible that the victim S. Cyriacus, a chapel dedicated to whom once stood in the ruinous Thermae, may have been one of those compelled, with con- victs or slaves, to labour in the works for erecting them. "We may consider the edifice that here perpetuates Diocletian's illustrious name as a memorial, not only of the greatness but also of the injustice of that Kuler. Associated with the history of the tenth persecution, and the saintly heroism of those who through endurance resisted the shock, its ruins remind us of a triumph far more momentous and glorious than that celebrated by the co-reigning " Augusti," in the year 302, at Eome. Further injuries to those remains on the Viminal hill have been caused by recent public works ; and the locality with all its features has gone through much change during the last few years. The adj acent railway -station has afforded pretext for not a little demolition. Massive remnants of the Servian walls have been brought to light, and partly swept away, in the works for laying down iron rails THERMS, CIRCUSES, AND AQUEDUCTS. 577 near the south-eastern side of these Thermae. A rotunda in the quadrangle of ancient buildings, central to which stood the main structure for the baths (corresponding to that other rotunda now used as a church), was long since enclosed within the premises of a prison for felons. The great hemicycle of the theatre (or stadium) for races and athletic displays, on the south-western side of the quadrangle between those two circular halls, has been broken through for the opening of a uew line of streets. That hemicycle had its inner side adorned with statuary in twenty recesses, all (till recently) preserved. It was en- closed, and consequently protected from injury, in the gardens of the Cistercian monks; but, those "religious" having lost their property, the ruins have suffered from the irrepressible progress of civic improvement. More and more are the once vast and splendid buildings of the Thermae on the Viminal hill becoming transformed, or obscured, by the spirit of change. The ruins which were a favourite haunt of Petrarch in the calm evening hours, would not certainly be recognized by the Laureate of the XIV. century, were he to revisit them now. The Aqueducts, which may be classified next to the Thermae, form a striking, indeed unique feature not alone in the solemn landscape of the Campagna and in mountain- glens beyond that solitary region, but within the very walls of the ancient city. If less interesting than are such structures as remind us of institutions or social conditions, these also may be deemed monumental — recording, as they do, the enterprise and knowledge, the practical energies, the architectural skill and science of the Eomans. Con- sidered from one point of view, they remind us also of religious ideas, of that worship of waters, rivers, streams and fountains, as well as the mighty ocean, which seems born of gratitude towards the beneficent powers of Nature, and 2 p 578 nisTomc and monumental home. presents one of the pure and genial aspects in Greek and Latin mythology.* Many pages might be filled with quotations from classic poets who utter this sweet and natural feeling,t no where more gracefully expressed than in the well known ode of Horace : O fons Bandnsiae, 8plen()idior vitro, &c.t In this city of fountains — there are no fewer than 660, many adorned with sculptures, in modern Eome — The sound, and sight, and flashing ray Of joyous waters in their play may often bring to our minds a thought of the Naiads and * Simul ipsa precatur Oceannm patrem rerum, Nymphasque sorores, Centum quaa silvas, centum quae flumina servant. Virgil, Qeorgica, \. iv. 381, f Oft for his love the mountain Dryads s«ed. And every silver sister of the flood : Those of Numicus, Albula, and those Where Almo creeps, and hasty Nar o'erflows; Where sedgy Anio glides thro' smiling meads. Where steady Farfar rustles in the reeds, &c. Garth's " Ovid," Metamorph. 1. xir, X Oh I worthy fragrant gifts of flowers and wine, Bandusian fount, than crystal far more bright I To-morrow shall a sportive kid be thine, Whose forehead swells with horns of infant might, Er'n now of love and war he dreams in vain, Doomed with his blood thy gelid wave to stain. Let the red dog-star burn ! — his scorching beam. Fierce in resplendence, shall molest not thee ! Still sheltered from his rays, thy banks, fair stream. To the wild flock around thee wandering free. And the tired oxen from the furrowed field The genial freshness of their breath shall yield. And thou, bright fount, ennobled and renowned Shall by thy Poet's votive song be made, &c. (Translated by F. H,) THEEMiE, CIRCUSES, AND AQUEDUCTS. 579 other peaceful deities presiding over rivers and streams. We learn from Frontinus tliat the Sibylline books were consulted before it could be officially decided which waters, those of the Marcian or Anio Vetus aqueduct, should be brought along subterranean channels to the Capitoline hill. Tacitus informs us of the indignation excited against Nero because he had bathed at the fountain-head of the former, the Marcian, waters : " By this act of impurity he was thought to have polluted the sacred stream. A fit of illness, which followed this frolic, left no doubt in the minds of the populace. The gods, they thought, pursued with vengeance the author of so vile a sacrilege." {Annals, xiv. 22.) The best ancient authority on the subject of Aqueducts is the above-named Sextus Julius Frontinus, who was Urban Prefect under Vespasian, a.d. 70, was made Gover- nor of Britain, a.d. 75, and from the year 97 held the office of " Curator Aquarum" under Nerva and Trajan. His work in two books, " De Aqueductibus Urbis Eomse," is the fullest that could be desired. During about four cen- turies the Eomans had no supply of water except from the Tiber, from cisterns, and a few running streams. The first person who secured to them such advantage was a citizen of military renown, but more famous, and truly a primor- dial benefactor, in his magisterial capacity, Appius Clau- dius, named " Caecus" from his misfortune of blindness, who was twice Consul (for the second time B.C. 295), and for many years Censor.* Through the energies of this Censor a new era commenced for Eome, with respect at least to public works and material improvements. " Then (says Mommsen) did she lay aside the aspects of a mere • Aurelius Victor (De Viris Illustr.) gives the anecdote of his appear- ing in the Senate, carried on a litter, when blind and old, to oppose, and effectually, br a magnificent speech the proffered treaty of peace with Pyrrhus, the King of Epirus who had invaded Italy. 2 p 2 580 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL BOME. village, becoming a well-adomcd and stately capital." The aqueduct which, alike with the highroad made by the Censor, was called " Appian," was constructed B.C. 312, and brought water from a source about five miles distant along channels almost entirely subterranean, entering Eome through the Ccelian, passing under the Aventine hill, and thence along a itpeeus (conduit), visible for about GO paces, to the Porta Capena, over which its channel was carried.* The other aqueducts were built at the following dates respectively : B.C. 293, the Anio, called "Anio Vetus," founded by the PraBtor of the City, Manlius Curius Dentatus, bringing the waters of that classic river from a source near Subiaco — the length of this construction being forty- three miles ; B.C. 146, the Marcian, by the Urban Praetor L. Marcius Eex ; B.C. 126, the Tepulan, from a source near the tenth milestone on the Via Latina, founded by two Censors, C. Servilius Cepio and L.CrassusLonginus; B.C. 34, the Julian, and B.C. 27 the" Virginiana, or "Aqua Virgo," both built by Vipsanius Agrippa — the former restored by Augustus in the year 5 B.C., and subsequently by M. Aurelius Antoninus ; the latter, celebrated for the excellence of its waters, having received its name from the fact that its source, about ten miles distant from Eome, near the Via Collatina, was pointed out to some soldiers, desirous of quenching thirst, by a young maiden. This was the water most prized, and espe- cially preferred for bathing— see Martial (Up. 1. xiv. 163) : Virgine vis sola lotus abire domum— who elsewhere calls it cruda-nivea ; Ovid describing it as gelidissima. Trontinus mentions an aedicula built over the * Alluded to in Juvenal's lines {Sat. iii. 10) mentioning his departure with a friend on a journey ; dum tota domus rheda componitur una Substitit ad veteres arcus. madidamque Capon am. THERMS, CIRCUSES^ AND AQUEDUCTS. 581 source, and in which was placed a picture of the peasant girl who led the thirsty soldiers to that spring. Agrippa during the one year of his ssdileship, B.C. 27, supplied the city with 700 lacus (pools), 105 fountains, IBO reservoirs, and 170 baths for public use, for the adornment of which, in the aggregate, 300 statues of bronze and marble were erected by his order.* The next aqueduct in sequence of date was the Alsietina, originally made by Augustus for the sole purpose of sup- plying a " JSTaumachia," or lake for the mimic show of sea- fights. This brought water from two lakes, the Alsietinus and Sabbatinus (now lago di Bracciano); but those streams not being quite salubrious, Trajan supplied the conduits from another source, near the last-named lake, about 26 miles from Kome ; and he in part rebuilt this aqueduct (a.d. 109). The " Aqua Traiana" reached the highest level within the city on the Janiculan hill, and supplied the Transtiberine quarter. It continued to flow till a. d. 537, when it was utilized for turning the mills erected during the stress of the siege of Eome by the Goths {v. Procopius) ; on that account did the invader, Vitiges, determine to cut off the water-supply on this side, and cause the aqueduct to be broken. After the siege it was restored by Belisarius. Again, a.d. 755, was it broken by a besieging force under Astolphus, king of the Longobards ; about twenty years afterwards it was again restored by the energetic Pope Adrian I. ; again, and repeatedly, becoming ruinous, it was made for a time ser- viceable by Gregory IV., a. d. 827, and by Nicholas I. shortly after the injury inflicted on it by the Saracens in A.D. 816. This is the aqueduct which, now modernized, is called "Acqua Paola," and supplies the showy but ill- * Pliny, H. N. 1. xxxvi. c. xv. — a chapter full of curious details respecting public edifices, &c. in Rome. 682 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. designed fountain on the Janiculan hill, erected by Paul V. in 1612. Next in succession appears the most magnificent amonfj; all such public works, the double aqueduct of Claudius called " Anio Novus" and " Claudian,'* commenced by that Emperor's predecessor, Caius CsBsar, a. d. 38, and finished A.D. 52. The channels of the Anio Novus bring water from a distance of 42 miles, the entire length of the construc- tions, subterranean and above-ground, being 62 miles ; the other, called the Claudian, being supplied by springs 38 miles distant from Rome. Both channels are supported on the same arcades, which, extending like a procession of ruins along the Campagna, are of the continuous length of 6 1 miles. These are the most imposing, the loftiest, and in their actual state most graceful among all such con- structions ; in some parts rising to the height of 109 feet,* and in two storeys of arches, for some distance running parallel with, and at one point (between the city and the Alban hills) joining the more ancient arcades of the Mar- cian aqueduct. This double Claudian aqueduct brought at first three, and finally four springs of pure water into Kome ; ,but, strange to say, they ceased to flow, owing to some fortuitous injuries, after ten years, and the wonder- fully constructed channels were left dry till restored by \'espasian, a. d. 71. In the reign of Titus other repairs * " Hi sunt arcus altissirai sublevati in quibusdam locis CIX. pedes"— says Frontinus, from whom we learn that the Anio Novus and Claudian channels brought into Rome one-third of all the water supplied in his time. The specxis of the Claudian is 6 Roman feet high, and .3 wide; that of the Anio Novus, 9 feet high and 3^ wide. Suetonius says, in somewhat depreciating tone, that Claudius executed many works rather great than necessary {magna potius quam necessaria) ; that " the principal of these were an aqueduct that was begun by Caius, a canal for the discharge of the Fucine lake, and the harbour of Ostia." THERM.E, CIKCUSES, AND AQUEDUCTS. 583 were found necessary, a. d. 80 ; and this aqueduct was sub- sequently restored by Septimius Severus, also (as infer- rible from the masonry in some parts) by Constantine. It was broken, alike with others, by the Grothic enemy during the siege in 537, but no doubt repaired once more, subse- quently to that disaster, for we learn from the "Anonymous" of Einsiedlin that part at least of its waters reached the city when he (the German pilgrim) visited Eome — about the beginning of the IX. century. The vast constructions of the Claudian Aqueduct terminated in a castellum, the ruins of which were formerly conspicuous, near the inner side of the Porta Maggiore, but have totally disappeared (v. Piranesi, Antichita, t. i. § 124, and Nibby, Moma Anfica, v. i.). Nero added a magnificent new branch to this aqueduct, with finely -built arcades extending from that gateway along the Coelian hill to the temple of Claudius, site of the SS. Giovanni e Paolo church and convent. Those structures were restored in inferior masonry by Septimius Severus, a. d. 201 ; and the Neronian aqueduct was ulti- mately prolonged, in order to supply the Palatine and Aventine hills, either by Vespasian or Titus ; the masonry of the period of those Flavian princes being recognizable in the later adjuncts — as in the arcades still standing at the base of the Palatine, nearly opposite the S. Gregorio church. Subsequently were built the other less impor- tant aqueducts as follows: A. d. Ill, the Traiana, called after Trajan, who completed what Nerva had commenced ; the Severiana, built by Commodus for the supply of his Therma?; the Antoniana, by M. Aurelius Antoninus for his more magnificent Thermae, thus amply supplied ; the Alexandrina, a.d. 225, by Alexander Severus, which last aqueduct brought water from a distance of about thirteen miles, first to the Therma) of that Emperor on the Campus Martins — the constructions of this aqueduct being for 6S4 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. Home extent utilized to support the channels of the Aqua Felice, so called from the founder of the modern building, SixtuB V. (Felix Peretti). Procopius states that fourteen aqueducts were broken by the Ostro-Gothic invaders during the siege in the VI. century ; but we find convincmg proof that the Eomans continued to enjoy an abundant in- flux of pure waters till much later times. Alaric cannot have damaged any aqueduct in the earlier Gothic siege. The Gallic poet, Eutilius Numantianus, dwelling with delight on his recollections of Eome about a.d. 416, in his " Itinerarium," mentions those constructions in terms which imply their then perfect preservation ;* and Cassio- dorus, writing about twenty years before the siege by Totila, employs words, in the same reference, of similar im- port. The Gothic king, whose minister he was, Theodoric,t during his stay in Eome, a.d. 500, appointed an officer for the repair and maintenance of aqueducts, whilst alike pro- viding for the restoration of public works in general. During the VIII. and IX. centuries several repairs of aqueducts were ordered by the Eoman bishops, as men- tioned in the Biographies ascribed to Anastasius. In 786 the Antoniana (then called the " Jopia") aqueduct was restored by Pope Adrian I. In the IX. century the most ancient, the Appian, aqueduct still brought its waters into Eome ; and it seems that the Virginiana never * Quid loquar aerio pendentes fornice rivos Qua vis imbriferas tolleret Iris aquas? Hos potius dicas crevisse in sidera montes. Intercepta tuis conduntnr flumina muris, Consumunt totos celsa lavacra lacus. Iter ad Yen. Eufimn, 97-102. t "Flumina quasi constructis montibus producuntur." — Variar. vii. c. 6. THERM.I1, CIECUSES, AND AQUEDUCTS. 585 ceased to flow, however its channels were obstructed, and though but a scanty stream, during many ages. In the XII. century that branch of the great Tlaudian aqueduct which was extended by Nero along the CoDlian hill, is mentioned as in use, and known by the name of " Aqua Lateranensis," from the basilica near which it passed. During the XIV. century, and whilst the Popes were absent, long deserting their ancient See, the supply from the Eoman aqueducts M^as so scanty that water used to be sold in the streets. The mother of Cola di Eienzo eked out a livelihood by such humble traffic. Strabo says truly that " whole rivers flowed through the streets of Eome." The nine aqueducts described by Frontinus delivered daily almost 28 millions of cubic feet ; and it is calculated that when all the aque- ducts were in operation, the water supply must have been 50 million cubic feet in twenty, four hours— more than ten times that of London ! The total length of the aqueducts in the time of Frontinus was 278 miles. The aggregate number of such constructions, finally built, is given by Aurelius Victor, in the IV. century, as fourteen; but nineteen are mentioned in the catalogues (or " JSTotitisB") of the Eegionaries. All entered the city at the eastern side, between the Porta Tiburtina (or S. Lorenzo) and the great monumental structure of the Porta Maggiore — with ex- ception of the Appian, the Virginiana (which passes under the Pincian hill), and the Alsietina, which supplied the higher grounds on the Janiculan and the Transtiberine quarter. The superintendence of aqueducts was assigned by Augustus to a magistrate called " Curator Aquarum," whose office was superseded, in the reign of Diocletian, by that of the " Consulares Aquarum ;" and again, in the V. century, was such superintendence vested in a single officer, " Comes Formarum Urbis." Under these responsible persons were placed 700 employes charged with the repair 686 HISTORIC and monumental eome. of the constructions and distribution of the waters ; this body being divided into Familia puhlica and Familia Ccesa- riSf the former paid by the State, the latter by the Emperors. The first works for restoring aqueducts ordered by the Popes in the XV. century, were those of Nicholas V. ; next, those of Sixtus IV., both of whom provided for the requisite repairs of the Virginiana structures, as also at the great fountain called " di Trevi," where those waters first discharge themselves after entering the city (v. Infes- sura, JDiario, anno 1452). Well known, and often described, are those aqueduct constructions which are the most conspicuous of their class in Eorae : the monumental and double arch, in rusticated travertine stonework, of the Anio Novus and Claudian, which, built into the cincture of fortifying walls, forms the actual Porta Maggiore ;* the other arch, in travertine of the best (the Augustan) period, with an ox-head sculptured on the keystone, surmounted by the three specus of the Marcian, Tepulan, and Julian aqueducts, and alike con- verted into a civic gateway — Porta Tiburtina, or S. Lorenzo ;t t^© nymphaeum, or decorative fountain, on the * There are three epigraphs on the ponderous attic above the arch- ways: the first records the original works of Claudius, supplying Rome with the waters of two springs, called Cseruleus and Curtius, from a distance of 35 miles, also those of the Anio from a point 62 miles distant ; the second records the restorations by Vespasian, adding the singular fact that the two former springs had ceased to flow along this conduit for nine years; the third, similar repairs, after the buildings had decayed {vetustate dilwpsibs), by order of Titus. t The Julian is the highest, the Marcian the lowest; and the ruinous specus of the latter may be entered, also to a short extent explored, at the right (inner side) of the gateway. Over this arch, great part of which is embedded in earth, there are three inscriptions: the first re- f ording restorations of all the existing aqueducts by Augustus (rivos vith the opposite Tiber-banks, before cither the Fabrician or Cestian were j built. The date of the latter is placed by some writers within the period of the reign of Augustus, HEATHEN TEMPLES AND CHEISTIAN CHTTECHES. 619 all three are alike designated pius, feliXy victor^ triumfator, (sic), and also " Pontifex Maximus," an equivocal title, for Christian Eulers at least, which seven of the Christian Emperors of Eome did not scruple to assume. Soon after the year 1000, the Grerman Kaiser Otho III. founded on this Island a church dedicated to S. Adalbert, bishop of Prague, who died a martyr's death, a.d. 997. Subsequently, after the same Emperor had placed therein the body of S. Paulinus of Nola, and the reputed relics of the Apostle Bartholo- mew, it was called after SS. Adalbert and Paulinus ; iBnally, after S. Bartholomew — the title by which it is now exclu- sively known. The ancient church was rebuilt by Pope Paschal II. in 1113, and successively restored by G-elasius II. and Alexander III. in the same century. The Eabrician bridge is overlooked, on the insular side, by a dusky old tower, the sternly picturesque remnant of a great fortress, one of several held by the Pierleoni family, and in which Pope Victor III. resided during a short period of his troublous pontificate (1086-8), together with his powerful protectress and devout adherent, the Countess Matilda, whilst an Antipope (calling himself Clement II.) disputed the possession of the sacerdotal sovereignty and of its metropolis. During the middle ages this island received the name, difficult to account for, of " Insula Lycaonia." The practice dating from the time of Tiberius, of confining persons condemned to death, but only such as were of the higher class, in this solitary place, was kept up during the reigns of several Christian Emperors ; but the humane laws of Theodosius prolonged to twenty days the respite, for- merly of only ten days, allowed to such persons in this their last melancholy retreat.* * Arvandus, Prefect of Gaul, was confined on this island under sen- tence of death, a.d. 468 ; but his life was eventually spared by the Emperor Antheraius. €20 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL BOME. From the garden of the Franciscan Convent of S. Bar- tolommeo we may descend by a steep shelving bank to the water's edge, and there inspect the remnant of a construc- tion in regular travertine stonework, which gave to the greater part (if not to the whole) of this small island the form of a Eoman ship — a trireme, the mast being represen- ted by an obelisk which rose at the centre.* On that stone surface, immediately above the tawny waters, we Bee the figure of a serpent coiled round a wand, and beyond this, chiselled in the same travertine, an ox-head in high relief — these curious relics being all now left to remind us of a once famous temple of ^^sculapius here placed amidst the dashing and dark-hued Tiber waters. It stood probably on the site now occupied by the church and hos- pital of S. Giovanni Calabita (opposite to S. Bartholomew), below which former church was found, some years ago, an epigraph referring to the favisscB^ cavities or wells, under the ^sculapian temple, for useless ex-votos or other objects that had served their turn to be thrown into, after being swept away from the sacred interior. The origin of the island temple raised to the God of Medicine is recorded by Livius, and, with fuller details, by Valerius Maximus. (JDe Memorabilibus, 1. i. viii.) A pestilence having raged in the city during three years, the Sibylline books were at last consulted ; and in those oracular pages was found the intimation that deliverance would be se- cured by bringing the god JEsculapius to Eome from his favourite sanctuary near Epidaurus in the Peloponnesus. * The basement of the obelisk was discovered in 1676, on the piazza in front of the church. Some fragments of it were long to be seen at the Albani Villa, whence they were taken away by the French. From Paris they reached Munich ; thence, at last, Urbino. Examination afforded proof that the original level, on which that obelisk stood, was 14 feet lower than the present area central to the island. HEATHEN TEMPLES AND CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 621 An embassy was in consequence sent thither. The Epi- daurian citizens did not oppose ; and presently, after the Eoman envoys had visited the suburban fane, a large ser- pent, there kept and revered as emblem of the god, glided spontaneously from the sacred precincts, and swam to the Eoman galley at anchor in the neighbouring har- bour. When the ship arrived at Antium, the serpent swam to the shore, and stayed three days in the ^scula- pian temple near that sea-port. Hence suffering itself to be brought by sea, and up the Tiber, within the walls of Eome, it glided away and hid itself among the long reeds which then grew on the uninhabited island over- looked from one bank by the Capitol, from another by the Janiculan Hill. There, consequently, was founded the tem- ple to the god whose emblem, the compliant serpent from Epidaurus, was, of course, respectfully entertained within the sacred premises till death.* This fane appears to have stood intact, and been still frequented by worshippers, till the V. century of our era. On its threshold was chiselled a metrical prescription for cure from the bite of poisonous reptilesjused with reported success by Antiochus III. (called "the Great"), King of Syria (v. Pliny, H. N. 1. xx, c. 24). The sick repaired hither for healing ; and many used to pass the night in this temple, expecting intimation through * " Why (says Plutarch, QucBstiones Romance, 94) is the temple of JEsculapius placed outside the city ? Is it because it was believed that the god had come to Kome from Epidaurus, and that his temple there is not within, but at considerable distance from, the city itself so called ? Or is it because, the serpent having quitted the Eoman galley and gone to land on the island, where it disappeared from view, the belief arose that the god had by this means indicated the place where his temple should be founded?" The date of the embassy to Epidaurus is given as B.C. 291; though some writers (see Murray's *' Rome") assign to the building of the temple itself the earlier date of b.c. 293. C22 niSTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. dreams of the remedies that would restore their health.* Ex-voto tablets were appended to the walls, with the symp- toms of disease and methods of cure inscribed on them ; also other offerings, sometimes wrought in precious metals, representing diseased limbs, which had been healed through the power of ^Esculapius, or the skill of his priests — per- haps through the force of imagination alone. Slaves used to be brought to this sanctuary for the treatment of their maladies, and often, if no cure ensued, left abandoned and forgotten, to encounter miserable death, on the island — a cruel practice which was checked by a humanely in- tended law of Claudius.f Besides the multiform ex-votos there were other objects in this temple, ornaments of in- trinsic value, and among them several Greek pictures presented by an Urban PrsBtor, within the sacred precincts. Two other temples, one dedicated to Faunus, the other to Jupiter invoked as Vejovis, stood in the neighbourhood ; and it is supposed that the beautiful granite columns with composite capitals, dividing the nave and aisles of the S. Bartholomew church, are relics from that fane of Jove. Ovid observes the proximity of the two temples consecrated to kindred deities. | In many cities and different countries there were hospi- tals (or establishments which may be compared, for want of other simile, to such), called ^sclepii, in connection * Similar reliance was placed on the healing powers of the goddess Isis, or her priests, by the Romans. TibuUus mentions the usage of hanging up pictures, commemorative of recovery from illness, in a temple dedicated to her, which, probably, stood near the church of SS. Nereus and Achilleus. The poet addresses her with the assurance — Nam posse mederi Picta docet templis multa tabella tuis. t Suetonius, in Claud. 25. See Plautus, Curculio, Act 2, Sc. L, for the usage of sending sick slaves to be cured at this temple. t Junctaque sunt magno templa nepotis avo. — Fasti, 1. 1. 294. HEATHEN TEMPLES AND CHRISTIAN CHUECHES. 623 with the temples of the God of Medicine, to which the sick used to repair, often from distant regions, with the hope of being cured. That the priests of ^sculapius found profit both in the credit and reliance on their medical skill due to their official character, may be inferred from/ the testimony of Lucian, who calls the temple of that Grod at Pergamos, " a shop." At Athens the children of those who had died for their country's cause, and also the abandoned offspring of illegitimate unions, were provided for by the State. Nerva and Trajan assigned a subsistence for indigent orphans ; but this chari- table provision ceased before the reign of Pertinax, about 70 years after the death of Trajan.* Hadrian proved beneficent towards the poor of Eome, and Antoninus Pius maintained many destitute children at his own expense. But no permanent institution for the relief and gratuitous maintenance of the suff'ering, the refuge of the infirm and aged, or the reclaiming of the fallen — nothing correspondent in character to our hospitals, alms- houses, asylums — existed amidst the civilization of the Eoman Empire. Among the ruins of the imperial city and those exhumed under the lava of Vesuvius, such edi- fices — the sanctuaries of Charity — have never yet been recognized. Antique Heathenism had neither the idea nor the word to express Charity in anything like our accepta- tion of its profound meanings. The well-administered hospital of the order founded by S. John Calabita (called " S. John of God ") stands on the Tiber island, with its spacious wards and cheerful gardens overlooking the river, its small but richly ornamented church, and altars for the holy Mass in every corridor, a striking testimony to the pure spirit breathed over the Christian world from the • See Cardinal Morichini's valuable work; " IstituU di x'ulhUca Caritd in Roma." 624 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. precepts of Divine Eeligion. Never has the Catholic Church, even at the worst periods of semi-barbarous superstition and priestly abuses, forgotten to inculcate and act out the principle of self-devoting benevolence. Never has Christian society, under her teaching, ceased to own the deeply-impressed conviction that " So many are The sufferings that no human aid can reach, It needs must be a duty doubly sweet, To heal the few we can." (Coleridge.) Let us again visit that region where ruins and historic memories are so abundant, the north-western slopes and terraces of the Coelian hill. Near the monastery founded by S. Gregory the Great, stands the church, above-men- tioned, of ISS. John and Paul, brother martyrs who suffered in the reign of Julian. The earliest oratory was founded here in the Y. century by a wealthy patrician, Pammachius, namely, in the mansion inhabited by those brothers, and where they were put to death by decapitation — probably the very building of an imperial palace in which they had served their master, both being attached to the court of the son of Constantino. The church was restored, and a venerable campanile with storeys of arcade windows built beside it, in the XII. century ; but in its more ancient part the Boman masonry of early date is still recognizable. Its lofty tower rises above an angle of an edifice, in travertine stonework, evidently of classic character. In order to inspect this more closely, we must enter the grounds on the slope of the hill below the terrace garden of the SS. Giovanni e Paolo convent. We here reach the front of a majestic arcade in two storeys, the lower of which is almost buried under earth, though we may still descend into its spacious chambers. The arches are divided by HEATHEN TEMPLES AND CHRISTIAN CHUKCHES. 625 pilasters of the Tuscan order, and in the style called rustic. After many disputes as to its origin this edifice is now generally supposed to be an outer cincture of porticos surrounding the temple raised to the deified Claudius by Agrippina, but demolished by Nero, who required the area for the inordinate extent of his own buildings and pleasure- grounds. Vespasian restored that temple with magnifi- cence ;* and the tradition of such origin (for the building here before us) was retained in medissval times, as apparent in the designation for the extant ruins, Clodeum or Claudeium — the former used in a bull of ilonorius III,, 1217. Some writers, however, conclude that these classic arcades belong to the outworks of a palace called " Domus Vitelliana," which was purchased, enlarged, and long inhabited by Commodus, who formed the covered way leading thence to the Flavian amphitheatre, where the subterranean entrance to it is now visible — that dark corridor in which an abortive attempt was made against the life of Commodus. The un- worthy son and successor of Marcus Aurelius is said to have preferred this residence on the Coelian to the more ancient abode of the Caesars on the Palatine, because he could not sleep in those gorgeous halls. Truly the voice that cried, " Sleep no more," might -well have been audible to his inner sense. We have abundant proof that the Heathen mind, at least in social conditions such as pre- vailed at Eome, was not less susceptible to the tortures of remorse than is the Christian. It was in this palace on the Coelian that Commodus was assassinated, a.d. 192. His luxurious and guilt-staiued court presents a striking con- trast in association with the edifices, and their inmates, now occupying the retired region on the north-western declivities of the same hill, where Passionist friars lead a * Suetonius in Ves'pas. c. 9 ; Martial, de Spectac. ep. 11; Aurelius Victor, de Cossar. c. 9. 2 s 620 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL KOME. life of voluntary poverty and rude austerities, where Bene- dictine monks dwell in the monastic home and perpetuate the memory of the holy Pope Gregory ; and where, in the ancient church of S. Stefano Botondo, we see the most terrific examples of agonizing death endured by a martyr multitude, who assuredly (however their sufferings or numbers may have been exaggerated) met with their fate voluntarily for a noble cause — and with what pangs we are reminded by the all too horror-striking pictures around the circular walls of that church. Under those ruins (whether of temple or palace) near the Tassionist convent we may explore a labyrinth of subterranean passages scooped out of the native rock, and said to be of vast extent, leading into some exca- vated chambers and containing many springs of pure water (Platner reports of no fewer than 42) ; but these mysterious hypogea are no longer explorable to any great distance, and we have soon to retrace our steps along paths obstructed by fallen rock-masses. Various, and some fantastic notions have been advanced as to these excava- tions under the Coelian, which I believe to be nothing else than quarries formed for obtaining stone used in the build- ings of the city — certainly not, as some learned antiquarians (Venuti among them) assume, a vivarium for keeping the wild beasts to be exhibited on the arena of the neighbouring amphitheatre. The recent laying out of streets under the same hill has brought within view, now more easily ob- tained than formerly through removal of the barriers of private property, a great extent of ancient structures, raised up, and forming lofty buttresses, against the declivi- ties of that hill on the north-eastern side, where it over- looks the Colosseum. These singular and unintelligible ruins are characterized by a certain picturesque grandeur, and are generally set down as substructions of the temple of Claudius. It is also conjectured that they pertain, in part HEATHEN TEMPLES AND CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. G27 at least, to a Ludus Gladiatorius, or principal establishment where gladiators were maintained and instructed in their sanguinary profession. Some of the buildings and excava- tions on this hill-side evidently belong to an aqueduct, founded or restored by Septimius Severus, which brought water to the Flavian amphitheatre. An extraordinary aggregate of ancient constructions, of different periods and various in plan, were discovered, not many years ago, below S. Anastasia, a church founded in the X. and rebuilt in the XYII. century, near the north- western basement of the Palatine hill. It was in the course of works in the vault for preparing the sepulture of the illustrious Cardinal Mai, here interred (1854), that the existence of antique buildings, now subterranean, and for ages forgotten, under this spot became known. Here we may visit by torchlight suites of chambers, corridors, arcades, a spacious room with baths, vaulted halls, &c. ; and among these labyrinthine ruins we reach (most noteworthy object among all) the remains of stupendous fortifications, with a huge square tower projecting from an elevation of regular stonework in enormous blocks (lithoid tufa) fitted together without cement — pertaining, no doubt, to the most strongly fortified cincture round the Eome of the Kings, though perhaps of later date than the walls of Servius TuUius (?). Seen by the lurid light of torch or taper, these relics of an almost unknown Past impress the mind with a sense of awe. "We seem to be wandering among the wrecks of a buried world in this dark and silent region so long concealed and forgotten under earth : Horror ubique animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent. Some of the buildings here before us, are, it is supposed, of the time of Julius Caesar ; others, of that of the Antonine Emperors. Many of the smaller chambers were, appar- ently, shops opening on an ancient road ; others, vaulted 2 s 2 628 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. in rectilinear suite, belonging to the arcades (Jbrnices) which surrounded the Circus Maximus. Altogether, this strange labyrinth of structures without system or symmetry, those of one period sacrificed to those of another, the earlier to the later, may be said to typify the perplexing obscurities of far-remote or pre-historic times, for guidance through which the torch of knowledge has often been laboriously sought, but rarely kindled with light that is sufficient. Difficult indeed is it to evoke from the colossal wrecks of Eoman antiquity the splendid realities of the Past, from her ruined temples to raise before the mind's eye the majestic picture of the sacrificial worship and joyous fes- tivities celebrated under their domes, in their penetralia or porticos ; to remind ourselves, as among things real, that— There have been bright and glorious pageants here Where now grey stones and fallen columns lie, And reeds and lyres their Dorian melody With incense clouds around the temple blending, And throngs with laurel boughs before the altar bending. In one instance we are assisted, for the attainment of such distinctness to the mental gaze, by detailed descrip- tions of what was in its ancient integrity a most splendid temple, still prominent in its actual decay, and not only founded, but designed, by an imperial architect. I refer to that dedicated by Hadrian, its founder, to Venus and Borne, and the ruins of which occupy the high terrace ground between the Forum and the Colosseum. All the splendour and refined taste which distinguished the public works of Hadrian, appear to have been concentrated in this magnificent fane. Yet there is a well-known story of severe criticism pro- nounced on the design for this edifice by Apollodorus, the HEATHEN TEMPLES AND CHEISTIAN CHURCHES. 629 famous architect of Damascus, whom that Emperor con- sulted, and of the cruel reprisals of Hadrian, who ordered that artist to be put to death in punishment for his bold frankness— an atrocity little in accord with what is known respecting that Emperor's character, and not even men- tioned in the life of him by Spartianus, a better authority than the mere abridgment by Ziphilinus of the sixty-ninth book of Dion Cassius.* The double temple occupied the site of the vestibule of the Neronian " Domus aurea," and was probably founded in the year 121 — certainly on the 21st April, the day observed as that of the origin of Eome (anno natali urbis). On the same occasion were struck medals with the effigy of Hadrian and the proud legend, TIrhs Moma Sterna S. O. The whole exterior of this temple was encrusted with Proconnesian marble. In front of each cella rose a peristyle of ten Corinthian columns, and forty columns * " He (Hadrian) sent to him (ApoUodorns) the plan of the temple of Venus, which he had raised, to let him see that great works could be made without his assistance; and he desired to know if he could find any fault with the design. In reply Apollodorus sent him word that the temple was neither lofty enough nor long enough ; that, for want of suflScient height, it did not appear sufficiently conspicuous from the Via Sacra; and that it ought to be provided with places in which to deposit the machines (fiijxctvrjfiaTa) which might be there put together in secret and produced on the theatre (i.e. the Flavian amphitheatre) ; that, as to the statues, they were too large, and not proportioned to the height of the temple, so that if the Goddesses should have a mind to stand up and go away, they would be prevented," (Dion, Ixix. 4.) Hadrian seems to have acted on one part at least of this suggestion. On the side of the terrace which faces the amphitheatre, the slope of the hill Ls propped up with buttress walls, where perhaps were formed entrances into vaults below the high ground on which the temple and its sacred enclosure stand. Such vaults may have served to contain those machines for the specta- cular pomps of the arena ; and it is to be hoped they will one day be re-opened. 630 HISTOBIC AND iJONUMENTAL HOME. of the same white marble flanked the lateral walls on each side. The inner walls were covered with the most precious veined and tinted marbles ; the vaults were a gleaming surface of gilt stucco, which covered the orna- mentation, in sunken coffers, still preserved in ruin. Around the interior of the two cellse rose columns of porphyry, between which were recesses (still seen), whence statues (probably Greek) looked down upon the worship- pers ; the colossal images of Yenus and E-ome being seated in tribunes or apses at the extremity of the respective cellae, one for each goddess. Silver statues of Marcus Aurelius and. his consort Faustina were placed here by the grateful Senate during the reign of that Emperor. At the same time was erected within these walls an altar (probably dedicated to Venus) at which betrothed lovers used to offer sacrifice before their nuptials (Dion. 1. Ixxi. 31.) The majestic edifice stood on an elevated basement with steps leading to each front, and in the midst of aperibolus (sacred enclosure), which occupied the entire area of a terrace 150 yards long and 110 broad ; this wide space being enclosed within a quadrangular portico, 400 feet long and 200 broad, with double files of granite columns, several broken shafts of which, immense in scale, now lie strewn on the ground. The richly adorned architecture was greatly damaged by fire, about a.d. 307, and was restored by Maxentius, (as Aurelius Victor states) before many years had elapsed.* Even after this we find it classed among the noblest public edifices in Eome during the reign of the young Constantius (a.d. 356,) — see Ammianus Marcellinus, who calls it " the temple of the city." {Hist. 1. xvi.) It appears that till * " Adhuc cuncta opera, quae magnifice construxerat, Urbis f anum atque Basilicam Flavii (Constantini) meritis Patres sacravere."— De Caesarihus^ c. xl. HEATHEN TEMPLES AND CHRISTIAN CHUECHES. 631 near the end of the IV. century it continued to resound with the hymns and witness the sacrifices of heathen worship, as we learn from Prudentius in his poem against Symmachus (1. ii. 218) — probably written a.d. 384. The subsequent history of this edifice affords signal proof of the contemptuous disregard for the monuments of classic antiquity on the part of the Eoman Pontiffs throughout the middle ages. In 625, Pope Honorius I, with permission from the Greek Emperor Heraclius, stript the entire roof of the gilt bronze which covered it, over both the cellae, in order to use that material for the S. Peter's church. About the same year that Pope founded a small church or oratory, dedicated to the Virgin, among these buildings of Hadrian. About 760, Pope Paul I. raised another oratory among, or near to, the now roofless ruins of the temple ; this latter church being dedicated to SS. Peter and Paul, and contain- ing the supposed impression of the knees of S. Peter on the pavement of the Via Sacra, where that Apostle had knelt while he discomfited by his prayers the magical arts of Simon Magus, who attempted to fly in presence of Nero.* Pope Paul II. carried away much of the antique material from these ruins for his new palace, 1455-68. In the next century, Elaminio Vacca saw the great marble slabs, which paved the sacred enclosure of the temple, carried off for use in other buildings. Nibby attests what he saw during scavi superintended by him on the same spot — dense masses, stratifications in fact, formed of broken marble, remnants of statuary and * This strange relic, with pretensions still admitted, is now to be seen in the church of 8. Maria Nuova (alias, 8. Francesca Romana) which has been raised among the temple ruins, with a monastery, in the garden of which is enclosed the least decayed part ; the apsidal extremities of the two cellae being placed back to back. 632 nisTOEic and monumental eome. architectonic decoration, many shewing the action of fire on their surface ; also, among these debris, a limekiln for burn- ing marbles amidst piles of porphyry, the broken masses of which had been thus utilized on account of the incombus- tible nature of that stone. The best preserved of the two cella), with the apsidal tribunes placed back to back, is en- closed within the garden of an Olivetan monastery. On the other side, where these ruins overlook the Colosseum, violence and spoliation have left more apparent traces. Sometimes the area on this, the southern, side, is chosen for moonlight concerts in the Spring or Autumn season. I have heard strains of music from that sanctuary of fallen gods on a delicious night — (it was in the Spring ensu- ing after the late change of government,) — with harmonies alternately mournful and triumphal, which seemed in accordance with the scene, the memories and visible things assembled in the region amidst which this temple stands, a centre so distinguished by the monumental vestiges of powers and grandeurs successively raised up and cast down! There are usages and ideas that deserve to be noticed while we linger among these ruins, and call to mind the rites here performed in honour of the Paphian goddess. Venus was worshipped in Eome under various titles ; in the Forum as " Cluacina," i.e. the Purifier ; in the Circus Maximus as " Murtea," from the myrtle, her dedicated tree. The festivals called " Vinalia" (23rd April and 19th August) were celebrated in her honour and that of Jupiter alike. There is reason to assume that in the religious ideas of the ancient Latins the true Venus (as the Latin designation implies) was regarded as a masculine, not feminine deity. If in the popular belief, and to the poetic mind of antiquity, the " laughter-loving dame," Qiiam jocns circumvolat et Citpido, — HEATHEN TEMPLES AND CHRISTIAN CHUECHES. 633 she was, no doubt, considered also as a being invested with higher attributes, a creative power, a beneficent and mighty Mother — in the sense in which, though but as a pure abstraction, she is invoked — " CEneidum Genetrix" — in a magnificent passage by Lucretius. Plutarch (Quesst. JRom. xlv.) mentions the usage, at the " Vinalia," of pour- ing out great quantities of wine in the goddess's temple. *' Is this (he says) an emblematic manner of teaching that festivals should be celebrated after (or with ?) a fast, and with careful avoidance of intoxication, because the gods prefer those who pour out in torrents ever so much of pure wine, to those who drink it?" A learned Eoman archaeologist (often named above) Marangoni, particularizes thirty-five churches in Eome as all raised on the ruins of antique temples, — a fact not easily to be verified ; but we may well admit the correctness with which he enumerates, among the relics of Heathen fanes transferred to sacred ground within this city, 688 columns of marble, granite, porphyry, and other precious stone. In some instances the local Catholicism has raised her sanctuaries not amidst ruined temples, but amidst other works of .classic architecture, with singularly defiant dis- regard for their claims, characteristic indeed of the temper of pontific government during many ages past. One emi- nent example is before us in the Portico of Octavia, for ages occupied and half-concealed by an insignificant church, 8. Angela in Pescaria. Among several such grace- ful structures — the public porticoes, adorned with statues, busts, and other works of art, in the Imperial city, — that built by Augustus, and named after his sister Octavia, was the most celebrated. Priceless sculptures —works of Greek art — by the first masters, Phidias, Praxiteles and their earliest pupils — the celebrated Cupid of Praxiteles, eques- trian statues by Lysippus, &c. stood under its marble 634 HISTOBIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. colonnades (Pliny, H. N. 1. xxxv. 10, 11.) It occupied the site of another portico, raised B.C. 146 by Quintus Metellus sumamed Macedonicus from his victories in Macedonia. In plan an oblong parallelogram, with double files of Corinthian columns — the supposable length 750 feet, the total number of columns 270— it enclosed within its majestic area two temples dedicated to Jupiter and Juno, built from the designs of the Greek architects, Saurus and Batracus. Among precious works of art said to have been placed in this portico, was the noble statue of Mars reposing, now in the Ludovisi Villa — though some writers affirm that it was found under the ruins of another similar structure, built by Cneius Octavius, B.C. 167, and restored by Augustus. One antiquarian authority, Sante Bartoli, states that the Venus de' Medici also was found in the Octavian portico J but (strange to say !) the discovery of that famous statue is so uncertainly recorded, that it is still questionable whether its place was here or in the Villa of Hadrian near Tivoli ! Among the fine details in the extant ruins of the Octavian colonnade, we notice eagles with thunderbolts, in reference to the worship of Jove in his adjacent temple, on the Corinthian capitals. On the western front was a propylseum or porch, flanked by eight columns on each side, and projecting from a rectilinear structure. The build- ing was greatly damaged by a conflagration in the reign of Titus, and restored by Septimius Severus, about a.d. 203. We now see but a small remnant, in which the part restored is easily recognisable — a heavy brick arch raised to supply the place of what had been overthrown by fire, and an inscription on an architrave, where the plural verb (incendio consumptum restituerunt), refers to the work of the last named Emperor and his son Antoninus. Dion Cassius mentions the destruction of the libraries, Greek HEATHEN TEMPLES AND CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 635 and Latin, connected witli this Portico, in the same confla- gration. The two temples in the midst of the quadrangle have alike perished without leaving a trace. The church of S. Angelo in Pescaria, so named from the adjacent fish market, was founded under these classic colon- nades, A,D. 755, and is mentioned in the history of Cola di Eienzo. In this edifice did that leader summon the people by sound of trumpet on the Vigil of Pentecost, 1347.* The S. Angelo church was built so as deplorably to dis- * He caused to be painted on an inner wall of this church an allegoric picture designed to represent the Divine chastisement against the lawless Roman nobles, and the deliverance of the Catholic cause ; the scene taking place before a church, near the entrance to which sat a lamb wearing some kind of armour. On the summit of a campanile appeared SS. Peter and Paul, uttering the words, " Lamb, Lamb, come to the succour of our hostess !" From the skies descended several falcons (the nobles), who flew right into a fire ; while, highest of all, hovered a Dove extending a myrtle-crown, held in its beak, to another bird, like a sparrow — the Church ? On the same day a schedule was affixed on the portal of 8. Giorgio in Velahro with the words : " In a short time the Roman People shall return to their ancient good estate;" both displays excited much attention, curiosity, ridicule. But affairs took a more serious aspect, when, on the Vigil of Pentecost, the people were summoned, by sound of trumpet, to meet Rienzo at night in the church within the Octavian Portico. Here, before and after midnight, the leader of the movement heard thirty Masses— Catholic discipline then allowing celebration at such hours for that festival. In the morn- ing he marshalled a procession to accompany him hence to the Capitol, for the proclamation of the " good estate." In the van were boi-ne four embroidered banners presenting the figures of Rome seated on two lions, holding a globe and palm ; S. Paul with sword and crown ; S. Peter with his Keys; S. George in knightly accoutrements. 100 armed fol- lowers attended ; and the Vicar of the absent Pope did not refuse to grace the extraordinary pageant by his presence, walking beside Rienzo, who was on that day proclaimed Tribune of Rome on the Capitol. — See Vita di Cola di Rienzo, by a writer of the XIV. century, edited by Zefferinp Re. 636 niSTOEic and monumentax home. figure and conceal the few Corinthian columns and pilasters of the portico still erect. It is difficult to account for the disappearance of all but the remnant of the beautiful work of the Augustan Age, here before us. Probably (as antiqua- rians infer), the rest was thrown down by a most disastrous earthquake, a.d. 442, fatal to many antique edifices in Eome.* Not forgotten in the middle ages, it was called sometimes "Portions Severini," sometimes "templum Severi- anum.'' I have mentioned the works ordered by Pius IX. (1866) for isolating what remains of the antique structure, and throwing back the front of the cburch, so as to allow the marble shafts and long buried basements to be seen. In the course of those works on this site remains of the an- cient civic fortifications were discovered at the rear of the church, and a dark narrow crypt, probably the original oratory of the VIII. century, was made accessible. The narrow and obscure streets, the fish market, and the purlieus of the neighbouring Ghetto (Jews' quarter), extending around this wreck, still fair and stately, of the Augustine age, typifies the contrast between the Eome of the Caesars and that of the mediaeval Pontificate. Augus- tus and Cola di Eienzo here meet in shadowy representa- tion of social circumstances, of moral, political, and reli- gious interests the most opposite that can be imagined ! In the gardens of the Colonna Palace, on the high ground of the Quirinal, we see a few remnants of a Temple of the Sun founded by Aurelian on a site already dedicated to that God, and where sacrifices used to be offered to him in August. Near this a great permanent camp (Castra) was established by the same Emperor. Aurelianus, having risen * Muratori cites a mediseval chronicler for this event, and its diastrous results in Rome. It is, however, obvious that the demohtion of the Octavian Portico must, in the greater part, have been caused by deliberate Vandalism, — the columns, &c. been removed for use in other buildings. HEATHEN TEMPLES AND CHEISTIAN CHUECHES. 637 from the military ranks by merit and services, was elected successor to Claudius II. a.d. 270. His reign is distin- guished by many brilliant exploits : the defeat of the Goths and Vandals, victories over Germanic tribes in Umbria, and, above all, the conquest of Palmyra (the Tadmor of Solomon), a.d, 273, and capture of its famous Queen, Zenobia, whom the conqueror treated with honour due, after she had been compelled to walk, in gold chains, in the procession for his gorgeous triumph.* Aurelian was assas- sinated by his own soldiers, when on the march in a cam- paign against the Persians, a.d. 273. The fate of the illustrious Longinus, called a " living cyclopedia," who resided at Zenobia's court, and was put to death by the Emperor's order after that Queen had become his captive, is about the greatest stain on the memory of Aurelian. In the splendid temple of the Sun, its founder placed the rich and abundant spoils from Palmyra — among other sculptures a statue of Belus, also the amount of 15,000 lbs. weight in gold.f A great staircase for ascending the Quirinal from the Campus Martins, was raised either by Aurelian or Constan- tino, in the rear of that temple. The drawings by Serlio, Palladio, and Sangallo, shew how stately were the ruins of that fane of the Sun-god, even as extant till the XVI cen- tury. It appears that they were in great part demolished in the time (if not by order of) Sixtus V. The noble statues of Castor and PoUux, with their steeds, stood originally in front of Aurelian's temple. They were event- * In this place I may mention with praise the fine statue of the Palmyran Queen, regal and beautiful in bondage, executed at Rome by Miss Hosmer — that lady's master-piece, as it seems to me. t Vopiscus, Vita Av/rel. Victor, De Casar. c 35, Eutropius, Hist. ix. 9, Zosimus, 1. 61. The biographer Vopiscus mentions the sale of wines, permitted by Aurelian, in the portico of this temple. 638 nisTonic and monumental rome. ually removed to the terrace before the Quirinal palace by the same Pope Sixtus.* In the pleasant gardens of the palace built for the Colonna family by Pope Martin V. nothing now serves to remind us of Aurelian and his Temple — of Zenobia or Palmyra— save the enormous remnant of a finely chiselled Corinthian pediment and frieze. On the steep declivity of the hill we find the outer shell of the great staircase— a quad- rangular structure with many windows — which suddenly opens before us, like an abyss lined with ancient brickwork. An extent of massive substructions, supposed to belong to the temple, were laid open by works for lowering the slope of the principal ascent to the Quirinal palace, a few years ago. Scarcely could be found an example of the wilful disfigurement of classic architecture with results more detrimental to its beauty than in the instance of the peri- style of eleven, originally fifteen, Corinthian columns, lofty and massive (42i feet high), of the Luni marble first brought to Eome by Julius Caesar, which have been built up so as to form a front to the outer court of a Custom-house (Piazza di Pietra), by order of Pope Innocent XII. (1691- 1700.) Long supposed to be a temple of Neptune, these noble and much abused ruins were determined, first by German archaeologists, to belong to a temple raised by Antoninus Pius either to Marciana, the sister, or to Ma- tidia (her daughter,) the niece of Trajan, both princesses having had the honours of apotheosis. In order to observe * Roman antiquarians agree in the statement that those sculptures were originally placed in the thennse of Constantine on the Quirinal hill. It is certain that the site from whence they were finally removed was that, in the Colonna gardens, where are seen the few remnants of Aurelian' 8 buildings. Hence the conjecture, recently hazarded, that those ruins belong not to the temple, but to the later founded thermae. The colossal statues may have been transferred by Constantine from the former to the latter edifice. HEATHEN TEMPLES AND CHRISTIAN GHURCHES. 639 the enormous remains of the coffered vaulting, we should enter the court, over the inner side of which these ruins hang like a beetling rock of marble. A considerable chronologic, but a much wider moral, in- terval divides the above-mentioned edifices from another, most different in character, recently discovered in connexion with a Christian church — namely, the now subterranean " Mithrajum " for the worship of the Persian Sun-god, Mithras, re-opened a few years ago among other ancient buildings below the basilica of S. Clement on the Coelian hill, which church itself had become subterranean, and been left underground, long unknown, till re-discovered through the exertions of the estimable Prior of the Irish Dominicans inhabiting the contiguous cloister, Father MuUooly. The heathen temples above-mentioned represent the ancient religious system of Eome at its zenith ; the Mithrseum reminds us of its decline, of the transitionary state of feverish excitement, morbid craving for novelties, dissatis- faction at old errors without any clear apprehension of newly announced or heavenly truths, which preceded the great revolution in belief and worship — a not unnatural temper of mind in the revolt against superstition, during which, painfully and feebly — The intellectual power through words and things Went sounding on, a dim and perilous way !* The Mithraic religion had its spiritual and noble as well as its darker aspect; also such analogies with- Christianity as alarmed the ancient Fathers of the Church, who considered it a masterpiece of Satan, a diabolic opposition to the progress of the true faith. Plutarch (" Isis and Osiris," c. 47) cites Zoroaster in testimony of the doctrine that Mithras held a mediatorial place between * Wordsworth's " Excursion," b. iii. 040 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME, Ormuzd, or Oromase, and Ahriman, the Powers of good and evil, of light and darkness ; and that the Persians gave him a name corresponding to the Greek Mto-ir/^e, " Mediator." The same writer mentions the first introduction of this worship in western Europe and at Eome in the time of Pompeius : the pirates, he says, who were subdued by that great leader at Olympus (a city of Lycia), "celebrated secret mysteries, among others those of Mithras, which are retained to the present day, and which were first made known to the Eomans through them."* Although thus early admitted in the West, that oriental worship does not appear to have become prevalent in Eome or its vicinity till the second century of our era, when it was especially patronized by Commodus.f The mention of it by Statins proves, however, that it was to a certain degree popular in the time of Domitian and Trajan. True to the old Eoman instruct of identifying foreign deities with those of the re- cognized Latin mythology, that poet sees in Mithras nothing else than an oriental manifestation of Apollo, whom he thus invokes in the concluding lines of the first book of his Thebaid : Whether the name of Titan please thee most, A name revered on the Achsemenian coast, Or great Osiris, whom the Pharian swain Decks with the first-fruits of the ripened grain ; Or Mithras more, to whose prolific rays The grateful Persian adoration pays, Who grasps the horns of the reluctant steer, While on his head encircling lights appear.J (Lewis's "Statius," Thebaid, 1. i. 714.) * Life of Pompeius Magnus. t Justin states (adv. Tryph.) that Commodus offered human victims in sacrifice to Mithras with his own hands. J Concluding in the original : Seu Persii snb rupibus antri Indignata sequi torquentem cornea Mitrara. HEATHEN TEMPLES AND CHRISTIAN CnURCHES. G41 Tlie candidate for admission into Mithraic mysteries had to pass through severe ordeals, lasting (as is supposed) for eighty days — to fast in some desert solitude, to submit to be beaten with clubs, to lie in snow during many days, to throw himself into fire (or what seemed to be such) after a bath. Finally, certain mystic signs were made on his forehead ; he was admitted to a sacramental participation of bread and water, together with a beverage made of flour ; a crown, held at the point of a sword, was placed on his head, and he was declared a " soldier of Mithras." That oriental God, in his sublime character comprehen- sible to the initiated, was regarded as the bestower of immortality on his faithful followers, the Lord and giver of life, the Creator of the world, and animating Spirit of the universe. By him was the earth made pregnant and fruitful in due season. By him were ransomed souls led through the signs of the Zodiac into the elysian realm. Accepting the doctrine of pre-existence, that — Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting — the Mithraic worshipper believed that the soul had de- scended to earth through the tropic of Cancer, and would, when duly purified, return through that of Capricorn to the state of blessedness. The symbols of this worship, and especially those asso- ciated in monumental art with the leading Mithraic sub- ject, the sacrifice of a steer by the God himself, were strikingly significant.* Mithras, a noble-looking youth, * Many examples of this subject, mostly of very inferior art, in sculpture, have been exhumed, some vs^ithin recent years, at Rome. The finest beyond comparison is that, life size, now in the " Hall of Animals" at the Vatican. The roofless Mithrseum at Ostia, with altar still in situ, and a dedicatory inscription on its mosaic pavement, yielded several fragmentary (but no entire) sculptures, and must be referred to the time of Coramodus, with whose Ostian palace it was connected. 2 T 642 HISTOEIC AlTD MONUMENTAL ROME. in oriental costume, with tunic a:id Phrygian cap, stahs the bull with a golden dagger ; that animal being emble- matic of the earth, and tliis act of the God not an inflicting of death but bestowal of life— the quickening of the powers qf Nature, as through the vivifying beams of the Sun directed to her maternal bosom. It is the cosmogonic sacrifice offered annually by the Divine Mediator to the eternal Ormuzd ; and in such act the initiated saw still deeper meanings— the triumph of Good over Evil, of light and love over infernal darkness ! The usual accompanying symbols are : a youth holding up a kindled torch, also a; blossoming tree, emblematic of the Spring; a man of mature age, with a reversed torch, also a fruit-bearing tree, for the Autumn season ; a serpent and a scorpion, intro- duced probably with astronomic sense ; a dog, attacking the bull while it is being wounded, emblematic of the good Genius, also of the star Sirius ; an eagle and a hawk, birds dedicated to Ormuzd ; a lion, implying an advanced stage of initiation ; a cypress and a palm, trees sacred to Mithras. When, as sometimes seen in relievi, a ray of light is darting to the head of Mithras, this signifies the perpetual and immediate intelligence between the Supreme and the Mediatorial Deity. S. Jerome and Prudentius mention this worship as practised in their times. Surviving the first onset against Heathenism by Christian rulers, it was revived by Julian at Constantinople; nor finally suppressed till a.d. 378, when, under the reign of Valentinian II. and Gratianus, the Prefect of Italy (named Gracchus) ordered the Mi- thraic temples to be destroyed, the sacred caverns (for in such dark places were its rites, probably all those of ini- tiation, celebrated) to be thrown open and despoiled. The Mithraeum under the old (itself below the compara- tively new) church of S. Clement, is like a spacious hall HEATHEN TEMPLES AND CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. G-i3 with a waggon- vault roof, formerly lit by eleven skylight windows, all which are now blocked up. "We observe at one end the recess for an altar, with a deep cavity for the blood of the victims in its rear. Along two sides ex- tends an elevated platform, slanting towards the lateral walls, with ascent by steps, and semicircular recesses, lined with marble, opening at intervals along its front. On the vault there are vestiges of a frieze adorned with figures, now but dimly traceable in outlines, once filled probably with mosaic or stucco reliefs. We may infer that the platform served for fraternal banquets (like the Christian A^ajpai), which are known to have formed part of the more cheerful celebrations at Mithraic festivals. In the midst of this hall has been placed a large marble base- ment, perhaps for supporting a candelabrum, with a rude relief of Mithras slaying the bull, and on the other side a serpent— this having been found in another interior ex- cavated below the same church. It is conjectured (v. de ^jEossi, Bullettino di Archeologia Cristiand) that this fane for Mithraic worship is the very chamber in the mansion of the holy E.oman Bishop, S. Clement, which was the first oratory for Christian use therein consecrated — the nucleus (so to say) of the Basilica eventually raised above it ; also that, some time after the death of the same saint — probably luring a period of persecution— the Christian was super- jded by the Mithraic worship through means of heathen ithorities who desired to obliterate all local memories of proscribed faith in that mansion. Another curious Mithraic monument, found near this lite (though not in the temple itself), is a statuette repre- jnting the birth of the Grod, as a naked child issuing )m a rock, with obvious allusion to the production of fire pom the flint. Lights were, in fact, a conspicuous detail in Temples of 2t2 644 HISTOBIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. Mithras, where seven conical stone basements (all sup- porting lamps), called pyrcei, were placed along the walls — as in some instances found— figuring, to the gaze of the devout, the seven planets, assumed to be so many stages of the soul's purification. Numerous edicts for the suppression of Heathen worship were issued before such object was finally attained. The laAv of Arcadius and Honorius (a.d. 395) was sufficiently stringent : statuimus nullum ad Fanum vel quodlibet Tern- plum habere quempiam licentiam adeundi, vel ahominanda sacrijicia celehrandi quolihet loco vel tempore. Next was issued, in 899, an edict aimed against the iconoclast zeal of the new Christians : De ornamentis publicorum operum non evertendis: — Sicuti sacrificia prohibemus ita volumus publico- rum operum ornamenta servari, etc., the penalty for transgres- sors being 2 lbs. fine in gold. In the same year those two Emperors issued an edict against the maintenance of temples in rural districts : Si qua in agris templa sunt, sine turba ac tumultu diruantur, etc.; another forbidding unauthorized acts of violence against such buildings : Aedes inlicitis rebus vacuus nostrarum beneficio sanctionum ne quis conetur evert ere. — Si quis vero sacrijicio fuerit deprehensus ad eum legibus. vindicetur. A.D. 404 Arcadius ordered the demolition of eight temples, one renowned for magnificence, at Gaza. In 408 followed the important edict of Honorius withdrawing the annonae (revenues) from aU Heathen fanes : Templorum detrahentur Annonae ; also requiring that all images, if still objects of super- stitious regard, should be removed, suis sedibus evellan- tur; and all Pagan altars destroyed ; but that the edifices containing them, whether in town or country, should be preserved ad usum publicum. In 415 the temple- revenues were declared to have devolved to the im- perial treasury. The popular games and feasts, con- HEATHEN TEMPLES AND CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 645 nected with the ancient worship, were for a time tolerated , apart from the rites now proscribed; but in the year 408 those festivities also were prohibited by a decree of Honorius, to the effect : Non liceat ammino in honorem sacrilegi ritus funestioribus locis exercere convivia, vel quid- quam solemnitatis agitare. In 423 Theodosius II. ordered all the still extant temples of Heathenism to be destroyed ; but two years afterwards, another edict issued by the same Emperor at Constantinople, seems to provide for the consecration to Christian worship of such antique fanes as had yet been spared. (" Cunctaque eorumfana, templa, de- luhra, si qua etiam nunc restant integra, prcecepto magistra- tuum destrui conlocationeque venerandcB Christiance Re- ligionis signi expiare prcecipimus.^^) In some instances the Christian Emperors endeavoured to check the fanatic zeal of those eager to destroy all the classic monuments- of Heathenism ; and an edict of Constans, the son of the great Constantino, prohibited under a heavy fine, (15 lbs. weight of gold) the demolition of the suburban temples near E-ome, which were to be preserved entire and intact — intactcG incorrupt aque. Most decided, and contributing most directly (as is obvious) to the final suppression of the ancient system, its rites and idolatries, was the edict of Theodosius, promulgated soon after his accession to the throne (a.d. 378) : " It is our will and pleasure that none of our subjects, whether magistrates or private citizens, however exalted, or however humble may be their rank and condition, shall presume in any city or in any place to worship an inanimate idol by the sacrifice of a guiltless victim." Erom the date of that Emperor's decrees, the use of the illegal ceremonies subjected the ofiender to the for- feiture of the house or estate where they had been per- formed ; and if the property of another had been chosen GIG HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL SOME. for the scene of such ceremonies, the offender had to dis- charge a fine of 25 lbs. of gold, or more than 1000 pounds sterling. (Gibbon, " Decline and Fall.") Pope Leo I. (440-61), deservedly styled the Great, laments that the Eoraans ascribed their deliverance from Vandal invasion rather to Heathen deities than to the pro- tection of Apostles ! — A crisis of the struggle, towards the end of the IV. century, is illustrated by an anecdote quite dramatic, which the historian Zosimus supplies (1. v. c. 38) : Serena, niece of Theodosius and wife of Stilicho, being in Eome, A.D. 394, one morning directed her walk to the temple on the Palatine where was still revered the miraculous image of the Mater Idea (a conical black stone, probably an aerolite, placed in the mouth of a silver statue,) brought from the Phrygian Pessinus in the year of the city 548. Observing on that idol a precious necklace, she stretched out her hand to transfer it to her own person, an act not accomplished without being seen by an aged priestess, whose duty it was to guard the sacred place, and who upbraided Serena for her sacrilege. That princess, with- out pity for the feeble defender of a feeble cause, retorted first with sharp reprisals of the tongue, and finally by ordering her attendants to eject the poor Vestal* from the fane thenceforth left desolate. * ** One of the Vestal Virgins still left," is the expression of Zosimus, who pi-eviously tells us that the priests and priestesses had been expelled from their temples, subsequently to the withdrawal of means for their support. We may therefore conclude that the priestess in question had been, so to say, pensioned off by an appointment in lieu of what she had lost. Her imprecations against Serena are considered by the Heathen liistorian to have been fulfilled in the violent death to which that Princess was, soon afterwards, unjustly condemned under suspicion of corres- pondence with Alaric for the betrayal of Rome, during the first siege by the Gothic King. Zosimus mentions the sacrifice on the Capitol which Uic Senate was advised to order for propitiating the offended gods HEATHEN TEMPLES AND CHRISTIAN CHUECHES. 647 Till at least as late as tlie first years of Theodosius the system of Heathen worship at Eome was preserved on its olden foundation. The aggregate priesthood was divided into colleges. There were fifteen Pontifi*s, who presided over all persons and things consecrated to the Gods ; five of these, including the Pontifex Maximus, having been (according to tradition) appointed by Numa ; the total number not more than nine till the time of Sulla. The office of Pontifex Maxi- mus was conferred by the Senate, and, under the Empire, bestowed, as a matter of course, on each Euler successively. There were sixteen Augurs ; two (as supposed) having been appointed by Eomulus, three by Numa ; five, of the plebeian class, being added to this college, B.C. 300 ; and the total number raised by Sulla to fifteen, by Julius Caesar to sixteen. Being the keeper of religious secrets, the Augur could never be deprived of his dignity, — even though convicted of crimes. This College was finally suppressed by Theodosius. The college of Flamens consisted of fifteen members, three among whom ranked as major, always chosen from the patrician class ; the rest as minor, eligible from the plebeian class. The three " majores," traditionally deriving office from Numa, were the Flamen Dialis (priest of Jupiter), the Elamen Martialis (of Mars), and the Flamen Quirinalis, of Eomulus (invoked as Quirinus), or rather of two gods blended together into a union symbolic, probably, of the perpetual military league between the Eomans and Sabines. The Flamen Dialis was assisted in certain rites by his law- fully wedded wife ; was entitled to a curule chair, and to a seat in the Senate. If this Flamen lost his wife he was at that emergency; but adds the significant fact that not one of the citizens proved ready to assist at such idolatrous rites which, it seems, were only proposed, never actually offered up during that Gothic siege, the final result of which was probably the death blow to lingering idolatry, as well as an all but immediately mortal shock to the diseased body of the Western Empire. 648 niSTOuic and monumental home. obliged to abdicate. He was not allowed the privilege of divorce, or second marriage, till that ancient prescription was set aside, when a priest of Jupiter was permitted to divorce a lawful wife by the authority of Domitian. On religious grounds it was prohibited to this Flamen ever to depose on, or otherwise take, an oath, whatever the occasion. The costume of the several Flamens was a purple woollen robe (laena) with a peculiarly formed cap {apex, galerum), not unlike the mitre. The Pontifices wore a loose white woollen robe with broad purple border, and a sugar-loaf cap with a tassel on its summit. The Augurs wore a mantle and cap similar to those of the Pontiffs, and the crooked lituus (like a crozier) was a badge of their office. The " Quindecemviri Sacrorum," keepers of the Sibylline books, were originally two, raised afterwards to ten, and finally, by Sulla, to a college of fifteen. The '* Epulones," charged to provide for the banquets (Jectisterna) given to the gods in, or on the premises of, their respective temples, were a college originally of five, raised by Julius CaBsar to ten members. The twelve " Eratres Arvales" had the office of celebrating (15th of May) the festival of the Gods pre- siding over agriculture, and on whom depended the fertility of the soil. High in rank among other ministers was the " Eex Sac- rorum," or " Sacrificus," created after the expulsion of the last of the Kings — always a patrician, and assisted on cer- tain occasions by his wife, who had the title of Eegina. He was jealously prohibited from holding any magistracy, nor could he harangue the people. Plutarch mentions the significant ceremonial of the sacrifice performed by him on the Forum in front of the enclosed Comitium, immedi- ately after which this " Eex" had to fly, quitting the scene like a guilty man — an antique observance in which tlie hatred against the tyranny of kings declared itself in a dramatic manner. HEATHEN TEMPLES AND CHEISTIAN CHURCHES. 649 The Haruspices, charged with the task of inspecting the entrails of animals, also the victims brought to sacrifice, and the flour, frankincense, &c. used at sacrificial rites, were originally three in number — later becoming more numerous, perhaps without limitation ; for we learn that the Senate sent, every year, six (or, as some writers state) twelve noble youths to Etruria, there to learn the art of such divination as the Haruspices practised. The Luperci were priests of Pan, their ojigin being ascribed to Numa, who had to sacrifice dogs and goats to their special deity. The "Vestal Virgins were originally four, but finally raised to six in number ; chosen among patrician maidens of the tender age of between six and ten, and consecrated by the Pontifex Maximus. They had to devote themselves to the service of the Goddess, the maintenance of the sacred fire and care of the Palladium, during thirty years — ten for learning, ten for practising their duties, and the remainder for teaching them to novices. After that period the Vestal might quit her retreat, and even contract marriage. Her privileges were numerous— the most exalted, that of granting life to any criminal whom she might meet on his way to execution — a prerogative of mercy which the Church confers, in Eome, on all members of the College of Cardinals. The well-known punishment of the Vestal for the most heinous violation of her vows, took place near the Porta CoUina, and not far from the existing churches of ;S'. Susanna and S. Maria della Vittoria on the Quirinal hill. Plutarch reports {Quest. Bom. 96) that "the priests, up to this day, proceed to accomplish expiations on that site," — namely, above the subterranean chamber in which the Vestal was left to perish with a burning lamp, a loaf of bread, and some milk and water for her temporary sustenance. The costume of these priestesses was a long white robe bordered with purple, and a fillet round the 660 HISTOEIC ATSD MONUMENTAL EOME. head, without any sort of ornament, not even that of long hair. No doubt, the worship of their Goddess recedes back into higher antiquity than the origin of Rome, and was common to the Latins and Sabines alike.* Besides these priests and priestesses there were the " Sodales Titii," appointed either by Eomulus (?) for rendering honour to the memory of the Sabine King, eventually his colleague, Titus Tatius ; or by that king himself, for the purpose of maintaining intact the Sabine ritual ; also the " Sodales Augustales," twenty-five in num- ber, first appointed, a.d. 14, for the worship of the deified Augustus; after which example either similar colleges were created, or a single priest was appointed, to perpetuate the honours of all those successively enrolled among the *'divi" or "divae." Among the members of this numerous ministry, the Pontifex Maximus ranked first in real power as in precedence ; after him, the Bex Sacrificus, the riamen Dialis, and Flamen Quirinalis. A remarkable testimony to the aspects of Heathenism at Rome in the latter half of the IV. century is given by Prudentius, and with reference to the above-described temple of Venus and Rome. He supposes a youth, brought up in the ancient religion, to leave his home for a walk along the Porum and Via Sacra on a feast-day : " Now, proceeding from his house with intent of admiring the public festivals and games on the sacred day, he beholds the lofty Capitol and the priests, crowned with laurel, administering at the temples of the gods. He hears how the sacred way resounds with the bellowing of oxen before the fane {deluhrum) of Roma ; for she also is worshipped, like a goddess, with bloody sacrifice. Even the name of * " Er gehort zu den ursprunglichsten nnd verbreitetsten Culfcen der ganzen hellenisch-italischen Volksfamilie." — Schwegler, Mm. Oes- chichte, xi. 9. HEATHEN TEMLPES AND CHRISTIAN CHUECHES. 651 the City is deemed divine (or a Deity); and we see the temples of this City and of Yenus rising together under the same vaulted roof, where incense is burnt at the same time to the two sister-goddesses."* {Contra Symmachumt 1. i. 215-223.) Among the many causes which contributed to the decline of this system was the manifest superiority in the religious ideas conceived by elevated minds over all that was em- bodied in ceremonial, or brought within the apprehension of the multitude. " The Romans (says S. Augustine) forbade the poets to bring the magistrates into contempt, but im- posed no restraint on their ridiculing the Grods." Tet it is in the pages of poets, as also in those of the master spirits, Who dwelt on earth, yet breathed etherial air Cicero, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, that we find the evidence of that higher ideal as to the Divine attributes and human duties, which prepared for revolt against a long established and pompous idolatry. Persius (Sat. 11.) thus defines the true piety towards the Gods : Bring a mind Where legal and where moral sense are joined With the pure essence; holy thoughts that dwell In the soul's most refined and sacred cell ; A bosom dyed in honour's noblest grain — Deep dyed ; with these let me approach the fane.f And the same poet thus estimates the Divine purposes in providential laws for the punishment of guilt : * The peculiar construction of that temple, with its double cella, and apsidal recesses placed back to back, one looking towards the Capitol, the other towards the Colosseum, is well indicated, conformably with the extant ruins, in these lines by the Christian Poet. t Browne, " History of Roman Classical Literature." 652 niBTOBIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. Dread Sire of Gods I when lust's envenomed stings Stir the fierce nature of tyrannic kings, When storms of rage witliin their bosoms roll, And call in thunder for thy just control, O then relax the bolt, suspend the blow, And thus, and thus alone thy vengeance show ! In all her charms, set Virtue in their eye, And let them see their loss — despair and die. (Sat. III. translated by Giflford.) Sacrifice for sin is rarely alluded to, nor does it seem to have been uppermost among intentions for which the victim was made to bleed at Eoman altars. Poets, indeed, seem to look back to the period when no bloody sacrifice was ofiered, as that of the primitive purity from which the national religion had degenerated. Ovid says in the Fasti, (1. y.) : "After by his sin some mortal has made the Gods enraged, the victim has been a soothing sacrifice for his crimes;" but elsewhere asserts, (1. 1. 338-43): "In days of old it was plain spelt and unadulterated salt that had efficacy to render the Gods propitious to man. The altar used to send forth its smokes, contented with the Sabine herbs.. The knife of the present day, which opens the entrails of the stricken bull, had, in those times, no employment in sacred rites. Ceres was the first who took pleasure in the blood of an animal, the ravenous sow — avenging the injury done to her property." In the Fasti (Iv. 622) is also described the curious ceremonial of throwing images, those of old men, from the Sublician bridge, instead of the human victims so sacrificed in the barbaric worship of a remote antiquity.* * Censorinus (De Die Natali, 1. iii. c. 6.) dwells approvingly on the purer worship in which no blood was shed, at the altars of Apollo, in Dclos: "Deli, ad ApoUinis Genitoris aram— nemo hostiam coedit." The atrocities of human sacrifice had not been totally abolished at Rome even in the IV. century. Prudentius and Lactantius mention them as HEATHEN TEMPLES AND CHEISTIAN CHURCHES. 653 The Heathenism of Eome could perceive the deep-seated disease of sin, could symbolize the terrors of guilt in the Furies with serpent-locks, with tossing torch and brandished scourge, but could not provide a remedy, or teach expiation through faith, love, and purifying repentance.* The primitive Christians denounced this religion as a worship of evil demons and seducing spirits. Such theory we may reject — for, amidst all its corruptions and follies, it held to certain primordial truths, the justice of the G-ods, the retribution against guilt ; it inculcated practical duties, loyal deference to authority, moral courage, consistent patriotism. It enforced (ceremonially at least) the condi- tions of purity for the worshipper in the temple. Before the sacrifice a minister, with a wand, passed through the sacred place to expel those uninitiated or excommunicate, the last comprising all guilty of enormous crimes; after this was heard a warning voice, "Nocentes, profani, abscedite," from the altar. Yet signs and portents are said to have preceded at no long intervals the catastrophe of final ruin to the Koman Heathenism ; and, as ancient writers narrate these things, they impress us like spirit-mysteries that baffle conjecture, suggesting unanswerable questions, and sending our minds occurring in their own time, in the homicidal worship of Jupiter Latialis on the Alban Mount, where now stands the solitary convent of mendicant Passionists : *' Funditur humanus Latiali in munere sanguis," says the poet. See also Lactantius, de Falso Belig. (1, i. c. 24.) * " When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man— and changed the truth of God into a lie; worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness and vile affections." S. Paul, Epistle to the Romans, c. i. v. 21—26. 65i HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. to wander in the regions of the invisible, the unexplainable and unearthly. One such phenomenon is mentioned by Plutarch in his life of Sulla (c. vii.) : " While the horizon was clear and cloudless, there was heard suddenly the sound of a trumpet, shrill, prolonged, and as it were, wailing, so that all men were startled and awed by its loudness. The Etruscan soothsayers declared that it fore- boded the coming of a new generation, and the revolution of the world. For that there were eight generations of man in all, differing from each other in habits and ways of life ; and each had its allotted space of time, when Heaven brought round again the recurrence of the Great Year ; and that when the end of one and the rise of another was at hand, some wondrous sign appeared in earth or heaven." Another anecdote of the supernatural is given by the same writer in his very interesting essay, in form of dialogue, on the Cessation of Oracles. Philippus, an interlocutor, after prefacing " in regard to the deaths of Grenii, I have heard the words of a man neither frivolous nor presumptuous," proceeds to narrate what had occurred to his compatriot Epitherses, a grammarian : " He had embarked for Italy in a vessel laden with cargo for commerce and many passen- gers. When evening arrived, and they had sighted the Echinades islands, the wind fell, and the ship was presently borne by the waves near the isle of Paxos.* Most of the crew were awake, many at table drinking after they had finished their supper, when suddenly was heard a voice pro- ceeding from the Paxos isle, and calling in loud tones for a certain Thamus. All were seized with amazement. This Thamus was an Egyptian pilot ; but there were few among the passengers who knew him, or had ever heard his name. Thrice did he (Thamus) hear himself thus called, but still • 4> siQftU island between Ithaca and the five Echinades, or Echinae islands. HEATHEN TEMPLES AND CHEISTIAN CHUECHES, 655 kept silent. At last the invisible speaker, giving more forcer to his accents, exclaimed : ' When thou shalt be at the height of Palodes, announce that the great Pan is dead^ After having heard these words (continued Epitherses), we were all struck with terror, and consulted whether it were better that Thamus should obey this command, or rather set at nought and neglect it. finally it was agreed that if the wind were blowing at the time, Thamus should be silent, but that if we should be detained by a dead calm he ought to repeat the words he had heard. When the vessel arrived near the Palodes, as there was no breath of wind and the waves Vv'^ere quite calm, Thamus, at the height of the poop and directing his gaze towards the land, repeated the words he had heard uttered (from the Paxos isle) : * Tlie great Pan is dead.' He had hardly finished when loud wailings and groans, mingled with cries of astonishment, burst forth, and not as from the voice of a single person, but from many voices unitedly. Because the witnesses to this event had been numerous, the rumour of it soon spread through Eome, and Thamus was there summoned to the court of Tiberius Csesar, who placed such confidence in his narration that he ordered enquiries and research to be made with regard to the being named Pan."* * It is a conjecture, but perhaps cannot be determined, that this mysterious incident coincided in date with the Crucifixion — both cer- tainly occurring in the time of the same Emperor. On this story, and with such assumed chronology, is founded the magnificent poem by Elizabeth Browning, " Pan is dead." /\ I B K A R V UNI N Kits 1 TV OF CALlFOUNlxV 650 HISTORIC AND MONUM:eNTAL ROME. CHAPTER XV. MONUMENTS OF THE ROME OF THE POPES. We have considered the institutions and public buildings, &c., that sprung up during the period with which the events of Roman history were synchronous from the origin of this city till the reigns of Constantino and his three sons — namely, from B.C. 753 to a.d. 360, during which time this State was governed by seven Kings, four hundred and eighty-three pairs of Consuls, besides occasionally appointed Dictators, and nearly the final number of sixty- three Emperors. Let us now turn to the monuments, in artistic, architectural and other forms, of succeeding ages from the Constantinian period to the reign of Charlemagne. It is Christianity which henceforth do- minates over the moral scene*. A most extraordinary change took place within the interval from a.d. 360 to 800, in the conditions of the Church and the relations of the epis- copal oflBce at Rome. The lowly and self- devoting suc- cessors of S. Peter (as the bishops of this see, perhaps without solid historic foundation, were regarded and ad- dressed,) had been followed by Pontiffs possessing immense wealth, seated on a throne and wielding a sceptre of sovereignty, commanding armies, and treating all the monarch s of Christendom as responsible, and in certain * Gibbon concludes that, about the middle of the III. century, the number of Christians in Rome amounted to about 50,000 ; but that the total number throughout the Empire, before the officially implied con- version of Constantine, did not CKceed one-twentieth of the entire popu- lation (?) MONUMENTS OF THE EOME OF THE POPES. 657 sense subject to them ! Personal merits, apostolic virtues displayed on that sacred throne, the perfection of disci- pline, and the superior organisation (an inheritance from the Genius of ancient Home,) maintained through the efforts of those who sat thereon, were among the main causes which led to a pacific revolution so important. But had no moral change overclouded the sunshine of righteous- ness and purity so radiant in the life of the primitive Church, during the ages ensuing after the State had recognised and endowed her ? Heathen testimony is unfa- vourable — nor to be rejected, if received with reserve. Aramianus Marcellinus tells us that Julian, before he openly apostatized from the faith, " had found by experience that no wild beasts were so hostile to men as Christian sects, in general, one to'another." (Hist. 1. xxii. 5.) And the same historian, speaking of the Emperor Constantius, affirms that he had " confused the Christian religion, which is plain and simple, with old women's superstitions — had excited and encouraged dissensions by diifuse wordy expla- nations," — i.e. in theology. Did the ostentatious protection of crowned converts in no way sully the celestial beauty of that Catholic Church, mystically proclaimed the Bride of the Divine Lord ? An edict of Theodosius, passed soon after his late deferred baptism in February 380, seems a very alarming sign of the intrusion of Csesarism within the sphere of spiritual interests. It is important that we should estimate its effects on the subsequent constitution and claims of the Catholic Clergy. The Emperor declares : " It is our pleasure that all the nations which are governed by our clemency and moderation should adhere to the religion which was taught by S. Peter to the Eomans, which faith- ful tradition has preserved, and which is now professed by the Pontiff Damasus, and by Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic holiness. According to the discipline 2 u 668 nisTOBic atid monumental home. of the Apostles and the doctrine of the Gospel, let ns believe in the sole Deity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, under an equal majesty and a pious Trinity. We authorize the followers of this doctrine to assume the title of Catholic Christians ; and as we judge that all others are extravagant madmen, we brand them with the infamous name of Heretics. Besides the condemnation of Divine justice, they must expect to suffer the severe penal- ties which our authority, guided by heavenly wisdom, shall think proper to inflict upon them."* Would that the records, now before us in Home, of that eventful period here in question, were more numerous and more easily to be colligated in their significant character with historic events ! Such as they are, they should be studied together with, and estimated in the light reflected from. Ecclesiastical History. I may briefly notice them in their chronologic order, beginning at the point of time where I quitted the subject, " Christian Antiquities," in a previous chapter. The octagonal Baptistery of the Lateran, erroneously said to have been founded by Constantme, is an alm€>st unaltered example of the architecture of the Y, century ; for though the frescoes and decorations of its interior are of modem date, the architectonic plan, the graceful colon- nade of porphyry and white marble, the cupola and font for Baptism by immersion, remain in their original com- pleteness. The foundation of this edifice may be ascribed to Celestine I. (Bishop of Eome from a.d. 422 to 432), its completion to Sixtus III. (432-440). Anastasius tells us * In the November of the following year Theodosius restored the charches at Constantinople (long possessed by Arians) to the Catholics. In the next May he convoked in that city the Second General Council, "which issued in the overthrow of the great heresy."— Newcftan, •• Church of the Fathers. »* MONUMENTS OF THE ROME OP THE POPES. 659 that the porphyry columns were among donations from the latter Pope to this building. The two lateral chapels, dedi- cated to the two SS. John, the Evangelist and Baptist, are additions made by Pope Hilary (461-7). An epigraph over the entrance to one of them preserves the words inscribed by his desire : " Liberatori suo B. Joanni Evangelistse Hilarius Episcopus famulus Christi," allusive to his escape, whilst he was acting as legate of Leo I. (" the G-reat") at the second Council of Ephesus, from serious bodily danger, owing to the fury of fanatic monks which violently burst forth during the debates of the fathers there assembled ! - The chapel dedicated to the Baptist contains a beautiful mosaic decoration on gold ground, occupying the entire vault; the Divine Lamb with radiated nimbus in the centre ; birds beside vases full of fruit, emblematic of the enjoyment of Paradise by the ransomed soul, in the com- partments around — an example of sacred art still partaking of the character, modest in symbolism, which distinguishes it in its primitive form as seen in the subterranean ceme- teries.* When this chapel was repaired in the last century, the rich inlaid pavement and the marble incrustation of the walls were tastelessly removed ; but the spirally fluted columns of serpentine over the altar are among antique details still preserved. In this Lateran Baptistery Pope Hilary placed two libraries, the first collected by the Eoman bishops of which we are informed. The finest example of mosaic art applied to Christian subjects is of still earlier date than the above-mentioned, though not associated with architecture so little altered as that of the Baptistery founded by Celestine I. To Pope * " That doves and birds of every species symbolize the souls of the faithful, pure and simple (cohomhce sine felle), which, freed from corporeal chains, have flown to the bosom of God, is a point certain and elementary," — De Kossi, Bullettino, ^nno 4, No. IV. .2 u 2 GGO niSTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. Sixtus III. we owe the most elaborate and valuable works within the range of early Christian art in this form, namely, the mosaic. A beautiful legend accounts for the origin of S. Maria Maggiore, or the Liberian Basilica. The Virgin Mary is said to have appeared in night-dreams to Joannes, a wealthy patrician, and also to Pope Liberius (352-55), desiring that a church, dedicated in her name, should be built on the Esquiline Hill, and on ground to be signalised the next morning (5th August) by a preternatural fall of snow — which actually fell, covering the highest summit of that hill, to the amazement of the citizens ! At the expense of that pious patrician, who had already intended so to apply his fortune, Liberius (between a.d. 352-355) founded this Basilica, one of the five ranking as patriarchal ; the Pope himself tracing the outlines of its gro«ind-plan on the snow-covered area. The ancient church did not last long, and was completely rebuilt by Sixtus III. So also did the later edifice, in its turn, disappear ; but, fortunately, the mosaics above the chancel arch and along the attics round the nave still remain, a precious relic of Christian art in the V. century. Besides several subjects from the New Testament, here represented, these mosaics present the earliest known illus- tration in chronological order of the Old Testament history from the annals of the Patriarchs to the Exodus and the Book of Joshua. Many novelties are here introduced for the first time in sacred art; and the whole composition serves to display the progress both of religious ideas and artistic treatment. The Deity, or God the Father, is represented in the scenes from the Old Testament as hovering in clouds over the earthly groups. Angels, majestic white-robed figures with large wings, are conspicuous, here first appearing in artistic treatment as ministers who intervene for extending MONUMENTS OP THE EOME OF THE POPES„ GGl divine protection over humanity. Above and at the' Sides of the chancel arch, we see the Annunciation and the vision of the Angel to Zachariaa, both subjects treated most origin- ally. Not only does a white-robed angel descend, floating downwards together wdth the heavenly Dove, towards the place where Mary, in rich attire, is seated, but two other angelic ministers are introduced standing near her ; these, as well as all other angels in the mosaics before us, having nimbus-crowned heads — an attribute not here given to Mary. Three angels, instead of the one alone mentioned in the evangelic book, appear to Zacharias while he stands before the curtained doorway of the Temple. Below those groups is represented the offering of gifts by the three wise men (or Mag]), the Divine Child being here seated alone on an ample throne, while another personage is seated on a lower chair beside Him — for whom intended ? may we ask. In the original com- position that personage was an elderly male figure, no doubt intended for one of the Magi, only two of whom are seen in the mosaic now before us, whereas, in another of the groups, we see three Magi. A most unjustifiable alteration of this group was ordered when the church was restored by Benedict XIY. Instead of the male figure seated beside the Child was substituted that of Mary with a nimbus-crowned head and purple vest- ments. Among other innovations then made, one of the Magi was omitted, and the Mother's figure, originally standing behind the throne of the Child, was changed into that of an Angel, adding a third to the group of celestial ministers in the back ground. This is not to re- store, but to falsify Art ! On the right of the chancel arch the subjects in the same series are: the Presentation in the Temple, the Holy Family being accompanied on their way by three angels, and several other figures here 662 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL KOME. introduced, the Temple being seen in the distance ; next to tliis, the Flight into Egypt, a subject singularly treated — the Child being on foot, escorted by three angels ; Joseph and Mary being quite subordinate figures, with several others (some in military garb) grouped together, as for a solemn leave-taking before the departure. Below this are Been the Magi (in fantastic Oriental costume) before Herod, whose head has the nimbus, here an attribute of Bovereign power— but almost faded away in the actual state of the mosaic. In the smaller compositions along the attic, the Patri- archal History is illustrated down to the meeting of Abra- ham and Melchisedec. !From the Exodus snd Joshua are taken several subjects, here (I believe) for the first time seen in art. The miracle of the Sun and Moon stand- ing still at the behest of Joshua, displays curiously the astronomic notions of the time. We have to regret that, for the formation of two lateral arches, opposite the entrances to modern chapels, six of these mosaic-pieces on the attics were destroyed ; also that seven others have been replaced by modern works of the same description. Above the chancel arch is an early example of the mystic subjects which henceforth become traditional: the divine Lamb on the Apocalyptic throne, S. Peter and S. Paul, and the four emblems of the Evangelists : an angel for S. Matthew, a winged lion for S. Mark, a winged ox for S. Luke, an eagle for S. John.* Such attributes * In order to observe by suitable light these most interesting mosaics, we should visit S. Maria Maggiore in the early hours of a sunny day. With such light as then streams through the long pillared nave and splendid aisles, kindling the superb high altar and its por- phyry canopy, the interior of this ancient church makes an impression never to be forgotten. It seems to rise like an embodied voice from MONUMENTS OF THE HOME OF THE POPES. 663 were probably suggested by the description of the four mysterious creatures attending the Almighty in the vision of Ezekiel; — but they are interpreted also with ulterior reference to the Incarnation, the Passion, the Resurrection, and Ascension. These henceforth familiar emblems are here before us in the earliest example at Eome. They appear, in the second known instance, among the mosaics at the St. Paul's basilica on the Ostian Way. That basilica, of patriarchal rank and high antiquity, was re- stored, or rather rebuilt, by Theodosius in place of a primitive church founded by Constantine above the tomb of the great Apostle. The Theodosian church (as we may call it) received new embellishments, and was repaired by Leo I., after injuries caused by lightning (a.d. 440). At the same time were executed a series of mosaics over the chancel-arch, by desire of Gralla Placidia, the daughter of Theodosius and sister of Honorius.* In this larger composition the principal figure is that of Christ, a colossal half-length, with a wand of authority in one hand, the other being raised to bless. The four evangelic em- blems, the four-and-twenty Elders offering crowns in adoration, two Angels with wands, and SS. Peter and Paul appear in the same composition — the latter figures, as re- stored, having also wands in their hands, though without such attributes in the original — injudiciously altered by modern touches. That half-length figure of the Saviour is the earliest example, in Eoman art, of aspect neither youthful Christian Antiquity — answering to our ideal of-— " A mighty minster, dim, and proud, and vast," with far more spirituality of efEect than any other among the Roman- esque basilicas. * These and the other mosaics (of the XIV. century) in and beside the apse were fortunately saved, though not without damage, from the fire in 1823. See Cardinal Wiseman's description of this church in ruin, as he saw it after that disaster. 664 nisTOBic and monumental home. nor beautiful, but elderly, stern, and sombre, given to His imaged form, which here arrests the attention before any- other object, dominating, as it does, above the splendid in- terior of the great basilica with effect repulsive, even startling. We cannot but see, in this art- work, an evidence of deterioration in the religious ideal, even more than of decline in technical treatment : it is the Son of God with- drawn from human sympathies, invested with attributes that only excite terror — the Judge effacing the E-edeemer. The sombre and sullen character of this head calls to mind the change in the Christian ideal as to the per- sonality of the Incarnate Logos. In extreme reaction against the sensualism and worship of form in Paganism, several early writers, " Fathers" of the Church, maintained that His outward form must have been plain, even insignificant. The later Christian genius, after religious art had begun more boldly to strike into a new career, returned to classical types, founding thereon its treatment of the Divine subject, before ascetic principles and subtle theologic distinctions had cast a different hue over religious thought. Justin, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria support that sombre idea of the Saviour's person. " The body of Jesus," (says Origen,) " was without comeliness" {adv. Ceh.). During the IV. century, how- ever, ascendancy was obtained (fortunately for art) by the more poetic conception, which Saints Chrysostom and Je- rome support.* It is not till late in the XIII. century "Certe falgor iste et majestas divinitatis occultse, qua etiam in hnmana facie relucebat,ex primoad se\identes trahere poterat aspectus" — says S. Jerome, admitting the idea finely expressed in one of Words- worth's « Ecclesiastical Sketches :" Glory to God, and to the Power who came In filial duty clothed with Love Divine, That made His human tabernacle shine Like ocean burning with pnrpureal flame ! MONUMENTS OF THE EOME OP THE POPES. G65 tliat we find this worthier ideal again asserting itself in art-treatment. Over the chancel-arch of S. Paul's we see the sole contemporary epigraph extant with the name of that Pontiff whose efforts effected the object of averting from Eome the " scourge of God " — the invader Attila and his Huns : Flacidicepia mens operis devus Jiomme (sic) paterni gaudet pontijicis studio splendere Leonis. In the mosaic here before us the mystic animals, as well as the Apostles, have the nimbus; and among the twenty -four Elders, twelve were originally distinguished by the veiled and twelve by the unveiled head — as representatives, the former of saints under the Law, the latter of those under the Gospel. Another art-work erected by St. Leo I. is that sternly characterized bronze statue of S. Peter, in the Apostle's great Basilica, which is an object of so much popular reverence, expressed by the kisses on its foot. It is a tra- dition that this statue was cast from the bronze of an antique of Jupiter, and that it was erected by the Pope in S. Peter's Church to commemorate tlie deliverance of Bome from Attila. Such association invests it, indeed, with high interest. Some critics infer, however, that it is a work of Byzantine art, assuming so from the fact that on the ancient basement there was a Greek inscription allusive to some representation of the Saviour in gilt metal (probably a bronze relievo) , perhaps with the figure of S. Peter walking on the sea : " Behold here God the "Word (represented) in gold, the divinely hewn rock, treading upon which I do not totter." The actual basement, on which the marble chair rests, is more modern. The coun- tenance preserves the traditionary type of S. Peter in art, but the composition on the whole is stiff and unpleasing. In the round church, S. Stefano Botondo^ long noted by archaeologists as a Pagan temple, but actually built for 666 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL ROME. Christian use between a.d. 467 and 483, we see the imi- tation of clafisic models in such manner as to assimilate and adapt; also (unlike in this respect to the falsely conceived Italian renaissance) to infuse a new purpose and meaning into the elements supplied by antiquity. This edifice is, in fact, an anomalous but beautiful specimen of architec- ture, exhibiting an arbitrary assortment of classical details — the antique christianized ^ as we might describe it. It has suffered much from alterations made in the XV. century. Probably closed and deserted whilst the Popes were at Avignon, it is known to have been reduced to roofless ruin before the year 1440. Nicholas V. ordered repairs, which were, unfortunately, so carried out as to sacrifice an entire nave, or outer circuit of the whole rotunda ; the columns and arcades which divided the outer from the inner part being then walled up, as we see them at this day. The sole entrance was closed, and another formed, together with a portico and vestibule. Instead of the ancient cupola, the interior was roofed over with a flat wooden ceiling. Tifty- eight columns (Ionic), of granite and marble, form a fine perspective ; two very lofty shafts and pilasters crossing the central compartment under an attic, the windows of which exhibit rude species of tracery, wdth remnants of glass-painting ; altered as it is, this interior has still an impressive character of sacred solemnity. Finest among specimens of the mosaic art of the YI. cen- tury is that in the church of 88. Cosmo e Damiano on the Forum, built by Pope Felix IV. (526-530), who, in this instance, had only to adapt and enlarge an antique heathen temple, raised by the Emperor Maxentius in honour of his deified son Eomulus, for Christian worship. Modern changes (ordered by Urban VIII.) have greatly altered the interior of this church, and reduced its height through the raising of the pavement so as to form a crypt out of MONUMENTS OF THE EOME OF THE POPES. 667 the lower portion. Still, however, are left complete, though not without modern touches, the finely conceived mosaics in the apse : the Saviour between two groups, consisting of the martyr physicians to whom this church is dedicated, also SS. Peter and Paul, S. Theodore, and Pope Pelix the founder. The Saviour's figure in this composition is one of the last examples, before a total decline in sacred Art, of a truly noble and poetic ideal, neither sternly ascetic nor repulsive, in the presentment of the sublime subject. Majestically standing on bright clouds, clad in long gar- ments, the Eoman pallium and toga, all of gold tissue, He holds the Gospel book (a volumen, or wrapt scroll) in the left hand, whilst extending the right arm in action that seems both to command and to bless — the countenance distinguished by solemnity and benign graciousness ; the long hair, of dark auburn, falling in massive curls down the face and neck. SS. Cosmas and Damian are ofi"ering crowns (the Martyr's symbol and trophy) of laurel leaves set with large gems in the front ; SS. Peter and Paul have aspects conformable to the long-prevailing traditionary types of those two Apostles ; Pope Pelix, who carries a model of this church, wears the pontific vestments by which prelates were now distin- guished among their clergy — though neither mitre nor cro- zier had yet been adopted; but his figure is entirely modern, an intended portrait of S. Gregory I., as this mosaic was renewed in the XVII. century. The costume of all the other figures is Classico-Eoman, without any novel detail. Various symbols are introduced in this fine mosaic : the Star, the Phenix, the Palm ; also the mystic cities, Jerusalem and Bethlehem, with the Jordan flowing across the foreground. Along a frieze, below the principal group, are twelve sheep emblematic of the Apostles, all turn- ing towards a Lamb erect in the centre, the victim "slain C6S niSTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. from the foundation of the world" — whose head has a radiant nimbus, and whose feet rest on a mount whence are gushing the four rivers of Paradise. Again do we see, on the chancel arch, the Divine Lamb as described in the Apocalyptic vision, seated on a throne, with a seven-sealed book, amidst seven candelabra. The four emblems of the Evangelists had originally their place in the composition, but two of those mystic figures were destroyed in the un- scrupulous modernization of the church. Tour white- robed Angels with large wings, and two figures oiFering- cpowns alone remain from a group of the four-and-twenty Elders alike sacrificed by that wretched taste so offensively displayed in works of pseudo-restoration at Eome, where the apparent object has been to obliterate or disguise mediajval art even in its finest and most characteristic creations — a self-betrayal of that spirit which distinguishes, indeed severs, the comparatively modern Papacy from the primitive Patriarchate of the Eoman See. Pope Pelagius II. (572-90) seems to have availed himself of sundry spoils in wrought marble from antique edifices for constructing the extramural basilica founded by him over the tomb of St. Laurence, above which an oratory had been erected by Constantino ; afterwards enlarged and embel- lished by Theodosius ; later, restored by Sixtus III. and Leo I. The ancient basilica eventually became the choir only of a much ampler church, when the S. Lorenzo now before us was completed, and its plan essentially altered by Honorius III. about 1216. The mosaics ordered by Pela- gius adorn what, in consequence of those changes, has become the inner instead of the outer side of the chancel arch — no longer visible from the nave, but from the tribune, the orientation of which has been reversed. These art- works have suffered through restoration in painting instead of the material originally used. At the centre of the MONUMENTS OF THE ROME OP THE POPES. G69 group appears the Saviour, youthful but severe in aspect — seated on a globe, with a long cross (crux liastata) in one hand, the other being raised to bless ; beside Him stand SS. Peter and Paul, the former holding the wand symbolic of authority. The other ' figures are SS. Stephen, Laurence, Hippolytus, and Pope Pelagius (in white vestments) pre- senting the model of this church. The attributes here given to St. Laurence are a long wand, and the book of the Gospels, as proper to a, deacon ; while Hippolytus, a martyr, offers a leafy crown set with gems. St. Paul is without any symbol, but distinguished by the philosophic type of his head. At the sides the usual cities are seen, Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Here also we perceive the same classic charac- teristics as in other mosaics of the same period. The art of the VII. century reflects the increasing splen- dour of worship and majesty of form in the now dominant Church at Eome. Pope S. Gregory I, (590-604) developed the liturgy and ritual into completeness which still bears the impress of his master-hand. That liturgy which, in an earlier phase, had been modelled by Pope Gelasius (492-496), now comprised such observances for solemn days, Christmas, Holy Week, and Easter, as approximate to those actually carried out, with whatever augmentation of out- ward pomp, in the Latin Church.* To the great S. Gre- gory may be ascribed the introduction of almost all that distinguishes the rites at the Paschal season : the blessing of the sacred oils and general communion of the clergy from the hands of the Bishop on Holy Thursday ; the reservation of the Eucharist, for the " Mass of the Pre- * The most ancient Sacramentary is attributed to S. Gelasius ; but many ceremonies were ordered by his predecessors. Pope Simplicius (467-482) appointed hebdomadary priests to administer the sacraments at all hours of the day in the three basilicas of S. Peter, S. Paul, and S. Laurence. 670 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. sanctified," which, as well as the " adoration of the Cross," was appointed for Good Friday ; also the blessing of the font and public baptisms on Holy Saturday, and, for Easter, the first " Mass of the Eesurrection," celebrated at mid- night after the Saturday's vigil. The beautiful formula of the blessing of the Paschal candle (on that vigil) is eaid to have been not first introduced, but restored, by Pope Theo- dore I. (642-649) from more ancient liturgic usage. Now also did the vestments of the Clergy become, in richness and fashion, almost identical with those in actual use,* though we do not yet see the episcopal mitre or the tiara of the Pope. ITie vocal music during worship received, as is well known, its distinguishing character, solemnly harmonious, through the efforts and skill of S. Grregory. In architecture the finest example of this period, and perfect development of the Eomanesque basilica- style, is before us in the ancient features, preserved amidst much modern work and profuse adornment, of the extramural S. Agnese — on the site of that Saint's martyrdom in her own house on the Nomentan "Way, where a church (or oratory) is said to have been built, about a.d. 324, by a pious lady, Constantina, supposed, though without any proof, to have been a daughter of the Emperor Constantino. That primitive church over her • In a note (snpra p. 348), I have mentioned that on one of the ancient Christian glasses in the valuable collection belonging to a learned archaeologist, Mr. Wilshire, there is a figure supposed to be a presbyter in sacerdotal vestments like those now in use. I had not yet seen, as I subsequently have, the gilt glass in question, which is on view, with the whole collection, at the South Kensington Museum. I may now state my conviction that neither is the figure that of a priest nor the costume ecclesiastical ; but that a laic personage, perhaps some saint, is here intended, clad in rich costume which indicates rather the feminine than the masculine sex. No proof can be found, that I am aware, of the adoption of sacerdotal vestments like those now issued in the Latin Church, earlier than the VII. century. MONUMENTS OF THE EOME OF THE POPES. G71 tomb, or rather communicating with the underground cemetery where her body lay, was restored by Pope Sym- machus early in the VI. century, and again renewed, pro- bably rebuilt, by Honorius I., about 626. It has, like the more ancient part of the S. Laurence basilica, a double order of classic colonnades with a gallery for female wor- shippers. The S. Lorenzo is more majestic, the S. Agnese basilica more graceful ; and if such types of the genuine Romanesque fail to express the devout aspirings, the sense of the Infinite manifested in the mediaeval architecture of later growth, they have, nevertheless, a charm of solemn re- pose, of purity blent with grandeur. The mosaic in the vault of the >S^. Agnese apse is of the time of Pope Honorius (625- 640) representing three figures only : the Martyr Agnes, in splendid dress, with a diadem on her head, holding a scroll (the Gospels), and standing on a platform surrounded by flames, allusive to the fire from which she is said to have been miraculously rescued, but only for the suflTering of death otherwise inflicted. Beside her stand the pontifls Symmachus and Honorius, the former with a jewelled book (bound like those in modern use), the latter with a model of this church in his hand.* Above the figure of Agnes we see the symbol of the Divine presence, a hand * Late controrersies have revived the recollection of ecclesiastical measures against Honorius I., which it is difficult to reconcile \\dth recently defined theories respecting the Roman Pontificate. He wa& condemned for accepting, or favouring, the monotholite heresy by five Popes (S. Leo among them), by the General Councils of Constantinople (680), Nicsea (787), and another at Constantinople, 870. In the profes- sion of faith read by all Popes on the day of their election from the VII. till the end of the IX. century, the sixth General Council, which condemned Honorius with several other teachers deemed heretical, was explicitly adhered to, and with particularizing by name of all those theologians, the Pope included, whose teaching was thus reprobated. — See Pere Gratry's " Lettres" to the Archbishop of Malines. 072 niSTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. extended as it were from heaven, with a jewelled crown, the reward of her martyrdom. No attempt at represent- ing otherwise the Eternal Father was tolerated by the reli- gious feeling of the Church in those times— hardly, indeed, in any known instance, by Western art, till the XIV. cen- tury.* The mosaic before us betrays the decline of the art here presented; the countenance of S. Agues is insipid and doll-like, though the other heads have more truthful- ness. Theologically considered, this work attests the in- creasing veneration for Saints ; the Virgin Martyr being, in fact, the heroine of the scene, beside whom the Pontiffs of an illustrious See appear but subordinate. It is possible that much of the building of Pope Symmachus may be still before us — so early in date, therefore, as the beginning of the VI. century. The level of the Campagna around this church has been so much raised in the lapse of ages, that it became necessary to construct a broad internal staircase, restored, as we see it, about 1528, for descending into the nave and aisles. Along the walls above the stairs are placed many ancient Christian epigraphs, mostly from the underground cemetery called after S. Agnes, one extensive branch of which passes imme- diately under this church and the adjacent S. Costanza. The interior of S. Agnese has been overladen with costly ornaments and works of art, few above the mediocre class. Pius IX., after being rescued from a dangerous accident in the adjoining monastery (1856), caused the whole of this interior to be decorated anew, and rebuilt the long-deserted cloister for Lateran Canons. The high altar, with a pon- derous baldacchino resting on poryhyry columns, is of the date 1620 — that canopy being so ill contrived as to • I have noticed above (p. 346) the few extant examples of the inju- dicious attempt, soon repressed, to introduce the Three Persons of the Trinity, alike in human form, within the range of art, so early as the IV. century. MONUMENTS OF THE ROME OP THE POPES. 673 conceal the interesting mosaics from view as one stands before it. While attending the magnificent worship— with pontifical high Mass — on S. Agnes' day in this church, it has seemed to me that such a ritual is the perfect expres- sion of what the solemn yet graceful architecture in silence announces — groups, symbols, forms being all in finest har- mony. Another example of the mosaic of the same century, superior both in design and execution, is seen in a chapel founded in conjunction with the Lateran Baptistery by Pope John IV. (640-42) and finished by his successor, Theodore I. (640-49.) The saint to whom it is dedicated, Venantius, was a bishop of Dalmatia, the native land of John IV., who transported his relics hither, together with those of Domnus, another Dalmatian prelate, and of six soldier martyrs, all natives of Sclavonia. Little of the original building of this chapel is left unaltered, the modernization being in the worst style ; and a ponderous reredos obstructs the view of the valuable mosaics which cover the apsidal vault and the entire space above the chancel arch. These works evince the prevalence of classic traditions ; are distinguished by a noble simplicity and religious earnestness. In the apse is represented the Saviour, a half-length figure in act of blessing, apparently of mature age, with long dark hair, and a somewhat stern majesty of aspect. At each side is seen a colossal Angel with fair florid countenance and party-coloured wings, hovering amidst bright clouds ; below, with arms extended in prayer, stands the Virgin Mother, depicted as an aged personage with white hair ; laterally to her are two groups of several figures : S. Peter, and S. John the Baptist (each holding a cross-headed wand), S. Paul with a richly bound volume in his hand, S. John the Evangelist, SS. Venantius and Domnus, both in episcopal vestments — all with names inscribed above. The one figure without any name, holding the model of a church 2 X 674 niSTOBIC AND MONTIMENTAL HOME. (or rather of this chapel) is, no doubt, intended for Pope John IV. At the sides of the archway, external to the apse, are the figures of other saints, all with names inscribed — Palmianus, Julius, Asterius, Anastasius, Maurus, Septimius, Antiochianus, Cajanus ; five of these being in loDg white pur- ple-bordered vestments, each holding a foliate crown— one only (Anastasius) clad in a classic mantle of gold tissue. Above are introduced the four emblems of the Evangelists, • and at the extremities Jerusalem and Bethlehem. This mosaic presents the first example, in any extant form of art at Eome, of the introduction of the Virgin as the principal personage amidst a group of Apostles and Saints — not that she is here the crowned Queen of Heaven, or herself the object of devotional regard, but the motherly intercessor, or ideal personification of the Church — such having been, I believe, the primitive idea of her, so ex- aggerated and widely departed from in later ages. The discovery and transfer of the bodies of two brother martyrs. Primus and Felicianus, of patrician birth, who suffered and were buried together, their original resting place being the cemetery under the NomentanWay, induced the above-named Pope Theodore to adorn the small low apse of S. Stefano Eotondo, in which church he enshrined those martyrs' relics, with the mosaics still extant. This composition has a dignified simplicity. In the centre rises a large cross studded with gems, over which hovers the celestial Dove; beside it stand Primus and Felicianus in antique Eoman costume, the toga with broad purple lati- clam, each holding a book — the classical type being still retained in this art-work. But few monuments remain extant in Eome to remind us of the VIII. century — an epoch most eventful in the history of the local Church and Pontificate. MONUMENTS OF THE EOME OP THE POPES. 675 A revolt was excited in Italy by the violent measures which the Greek Emperor, Leo III. (718-41) called " the Isaurian," adopted for carrying out his proposed icono- clastic reform and uprooting the devotional use of images, as well in the Western as in the Eastern Church. The strong movement of resistance led to the de facto over- throw of the Byzantine government in this peninsula, and the suppression of the Roman Duchy, after the last of the few who successively represented the Greek autocrat as Dukes of Eome, had been driven away, a.d. 726.* In the sequel, and through free act of the citizens, a magis- terian authority (not, however, approaching to sovereign power) was conferred by free act of the Roman citizens on their Pontiff, Gregory II. (715-31). The opposition of that Pope to the Byzantine autocrat expressed and confirmed the national resistance, on the part of the Italians, against the interference with theird evotional prac- tices. "Abandon your rash and fatal enterprise ; reflect, tremble, and repent," were the words of Gregory in writing to Leo III. against his iconoclast projects. At the court of Constantinople both the second and third Gregory were denounced as the instigators of treason, and leaders of rebellion. A Greek fleet and army were sent to invade the Exarchate ; landing at Ravenna, those forces were routed by the Italians with great slaughter, and this victory proved fatal to the cause of the eastern Empire in the peninsula. The Pope summoned a Synod of 93 bishops, and amidst their assemblage pronounced i-ianathema against all " who should attack the traditions of the fathers and the images of the Saints." Por some years the magisterial character of the Pontificate was exercised * The Duchy of Rome extended from Viterbo and Terracina, and from Nami to the mouth of the Tiber — all which territory became afterwards the so-called " Patrimony of S. Peter." 2x2 67G HISTORIC AlTD MONTTMENTAL ROME. wisely and well, without any apparent aim or desire to seeure greater temporal prerogatives for the Eoman See. But a complete metamorphosis of the primitive episcopal character now raised (or should we say lowered ?) it to that of secular sovereignty, with all attendant cares and honours, splendours and perils, as finally brought about by the famous donation of Pepin, the Prankish king, to Pope Stephen II. (a.d. 755), confirmed and augmented by Charle- magne to Adrian I. in 774. Through this donation all the cities and territories wrested by the Prankish princes from the Longobard kingdom in northern Italy and along the Adriatic coast, were handed over and made subject to the Popes. Thus did the Eoman Pontificate pass through the momentous change which converted it from a purely spiritual to a temporal supremacy, the former, the aposto- lic, character being indeed retained, however in danger of being subordinated to the latter. No declaration, however, of the final severance of Kome from the Greek Empire was formally made ; and so late as a.d. 767 Pope Stephen IV. required the citizens, soon after his election, to take the usual oaths of fidelity to the reigning autocrat, Constan- tine IV. Many antecedent steps and favouring tendencies had prepared for this transition so memorable in the history, so pregnant with results affecting the interests, of the Church. Pope Gregory III. (751-41) sent an embassy to Charles Martel, now sovereign of the Franks in all but name, entreating his armed intervention for protection of the Eoman See against its most dreaded foes, the Longo- bards; the Pope offering, in return, to renounce his allegiance to the Greek Emperor, and bestow on Charles the rank of Consul, or Patrician, of Eome. That prince responded with fair promises alone to the pontific envoys. Pope Zacharias (741-52) made terms with the Longobard MONUMENTS OF THE EOME OF THE POPES. 677 king Liutpraud, and in a friendly meeting at Terni (742) obtained from him more than restitution of certain rights — even the recognized dominion over four cities in the Bene- ventan province, which the Longobards had occupied for two years. During the pontificate of Stephen III. (752-57) the Longobard king, Astolphus, invaded the Exarchate, overthrew the feeble Greek government which had ruled over those northern Italian states for nearly 200 years till the last Exarch was dispossessed in 751. Astolphus soon showed hostile purposes against the Pontificate, but was induced, through gifts and entreaties, to promise a truce of forty years. As, however, his intentions of break- ing all such engagements became evident, Stephen appealed, but without success, to the Greek Emperor, Constantino TV., and next applied to a stronger protector, Pepin, recently proclaimed king of France. Eor the first time did a Eoman Pontiff cross the Alps, and as a supj)liant to secular power for secular interests. At the first meeting between Stephen and Pepin, the king paid him all the honours now usually rendered to Popes, knelt, acted as his groom, led, and walked beside, the horse he rode on. But on the next day, Stephen and his attendant clergy knelt in sack- cloth and ashes before Pepin, imploring him by all that was sacred in the eyes of both to rescue the Holy See from imminent dangers. After Pepin and his two sons had been crowned at Paris by the Pope, the king invaded Italy, laid siege to Pavia, the Longobard capital, and compelled Astolphus, who was there reduced to helplessness, to promise cession to the Pontificate of all the cities he had wrested from the Greek government. But at the beginning of the next year (755) the perfidious Longobard king invaded the Eoman states, and laid siege to the ancient city during three months. Stephen III., now in sore distress, appealed 678 HISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. again to Pepin, addressing him and the Frankisli nation in an extraordinary letter, where he speaks in the name, and identifies himself with the person, of S. Peter. This expedient had effect. Pepin again crossed the Alps with an army, defeated the Longobards at the pass of Chiuse, and again besieged Pavia. Astolphus, still encamped before Eome, raised the siege of that city, submitted to a heavy tribute and to the conditions imposed by the Prankish king of ceding twenty-two cities, which he had won from the Exarchate by conquest, to the Pope. "Within the walls of Pavia was drawn up the famous act by which Pepin made donation to the Holy See and S. Peter of twenty-two (or twenty-one) cities, including Eavenna, Eimini, Pano, Urbino, Gubbio. The keys of all those places, together with the document (of which no copy is extant) were laid on the high altar of S. Peter's by the Abbot of S. Denis, sent as envoy by the Prankish king. I know of no historic parallel to the combined circum- stances and interpositions which brought about the es- tablishment of temporal power for the Eoman Pontiffs, except one : the marvellous combination of adverse events and influences which, in our day, have led to the overthrow of that Sovereignty. It may surprise us to find how soon and utterly was disregarded by the Eoman Pontiffs the principle implied in the words of Christ at the last solemn supper, whereby He enjoined on the minds of the Twelve, His chosen auditors, the acceptance of a standard for the duties and sanctities of the apostolic office so different from any that has ever been consistently followed by temporal princes.* It may be admitted, nevertheless, that the attainment of sovereignty • "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise dominion over them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so, &;c."— S. Luke xxii. 25, 26. MONUMENTS OF THE EOME OF THE POPES. 679 by the Popes was a result of convictions, no doubt resting on a just basis, that the action of the Church should be essentially free, that her Hierarchy should enjoy complete independence of the secular power. Towards the end of this century coins of Popes, as sove- reigns, were issued from a pontific Eoman mint, which is first mentioned in the acts of a Synod at Kavenna, a.d. 877. The coins of Adrian I. and Leo III. with the title " Domi- nus," given to them on the obverse, are the earliest extant. Aware of the magic in a name, the Eoman Pontiffs gradu- ally assumed to themselves alone the titles and epithets long shared by all eminent prelates of the East and West. Thus had " Papa," been the title commonly given to bishops before Grregory VII. claimed the exclusive right to it for himself and his successors. In the IX. century Benedict III. (857-58) first assumed that of " Vicar of S. Peter." The much more sublime title of " Vicar of Christ," is of comparatively late origin — certainly not one which the Eoman Bishops arrogated to themselves, or generally received, as exclusively their own in times we can call ancient. One example of it occurs, which may be so early as the first years of the V. century, if the inference drawn by Ciampini (" De sacris (Ediflciis,") be correct, that an inscription formerly on the pontific throne in the apse of the Lateran church restored by Constantius (the military leader who married Galla Placidia, sister of Honorius, and thus obtained imperial rank), was indeed of the same period with that restoration in the basilica. Ha3c est Papalis sedes, et pontificalis PrsBsidit et Christi de jui-e Vicarius isti. Another mediaeval inscription (perhaps of the VIII. century) in the crypt church of S. Peter's, gives to Gregory III. the designations " sanctissimus ac beatissimus Apostolicus Papa." 680 IIISTORTC AND MONUMENTAL nOME. Among Popes who reigned (for such term now becomes suitable) during the VIII. century, some were liberal patrons of art and promoters of public works, who loved the magnificence henceforth so easily within their reach. "With few exceptions they were estimable men, zealous in the discharge of their duties, nor unworthy to fill the extraordinarily high rank to which circumstances had raised them. Conspicuous for energies and munificence were the two whose pontificates lasted longest, Adrian I. (772-95), the favoured friend of Charles the Great, and Leo III. (795-815), who crowned that monarch as Empe- ror of the West. Only one of the several art-works ordered by Adrian I. is extant— the mosaics on the dim-lit apse of the church of S. Theodore, a rotunda, below the northern slopes of the Palatine hill, formerly supposed to have been a Heathen temple, but now recognized as, from its origin, built for Christian worship, at what exact date cannot be deter- mined — certainly restored by the above-named Pope in 774.* Eoman mothers still follow the old custom of bringing sick children to this church on S. Theodore's day, with the hope of their being cured through the touch of a relic of that saint— substituted for a recorded Heathen usage of dedicating children, during the Lupercal fetes, to Komulus. The mosaics alluded to represent the Saviour seated on a globe, while the hand of the invisible Deity, extending from clouds, holds a diadem over His head ; beside Him, SS. Peter and Paul, who respectively present After being long left ruinous, it was repaired and reclaimed for public worship by Nicholas V., 1450. Unfortunately, another restora- tion, by aement XI. in 1700, deprived this church of much of its antique character. It seems not improbable that it may stand on the f jundations of some Heathen temple. MONUMENTS OF THE ROME OF THE POPES. G81 two saints, Theodore, and another whose relics, we may conclude, were laid in this church. An interesting work of similar art ascribed to Pope Leo III. is in a building dedicated to the martyred servants of Domitilla, who have left their names to one of the most extensive catacombs. At the small church with features of basilica-architecture, SS. Nereo ed Achilleo on the Appian Way, we see a mosaic, ordered, it is believed, by that Pope, but now unfortunately in great part restored by being painted over. Grroups on small scale are ranged over the arch of the tribune : in the centre the Transfiguration ; laterally, the Annunciation, and the Madonna and Child attended by angels. In the first named composition Christ appears within a radiated elliptical nimbus ; the three Apostles kneeling awe- struck below Him. Moses and Elias, as here represented, are figures utterly unlike the types assigned to those personages in later art ; the angels are majestic beings in white robes ; the Blessed Virgin (twice represented) is in each instance seated on a throne, matronly, even severe, in aspect. The general treatment and costumes are of classic character ; and it is noticeable that the principal subject, the Transfiguration, now appears for the first time in E-oman art. The architectural details in this church, preserved from the VIII. century, are beau- tiful : a high altar with rich intarsio ornamentation, a quaint but graceful baldacchino supported by columns ; in front of that altar, a transenna (marble screen) through which we look down upon the tomb of the Saints beneath ; also richly inlaid ambones for the Grospel and Epistle, and similarly decorated chancel screens. The interior of this little frequented but remarkable building was restored, — no doubt more or less altered at the same time, when the relics of SS. Nereus and Achilleus were brought hither with extraordinary pomp, by desire of the celebrated historian, 682 HI8T0EIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. Baronius, titular Cardinal of the churcli dedicated to those saints.* I have alluded to the coronation of Charles the Great by Pope Leo III. at St. Peter's, which took place on % Christmas-day, 790, after the mass celebrated by his Holi- ness in the Prankish king's presence.! While Charles was kneeling before the high altar (unprepared, as at the time supposed, for what was to ensue) the Pontiff placed a precious crown on his head, and the Clergy, with voices in which those of the people united, thrice cried out, in the thence- forth usual formula at such occasions : " Life and victory to Charles the August, crowned by the hand of God, great and pacific Emperor !" We have before us a work of art which serves to record this event and the consequent rela- tions of the Imperial and Pontific power — placed on the site of the Lateran palace, residence of the Popes for nearly a thousand years. I refer to the mosaic, only pre- served in the copy from a drawing of the lost original — actually placed in a modern tribune built to represent that of the ancient banquet-hall (triclinium) of the Pontific Anastasius mentions a complete renewal of the church of SS. Nereus and Achilleus by Leo III, after the ancient one had become ruinous, and been filled with inundating waters. Lately has been dis- covered a long-buried church in ruin, recognised as the primitive basi- lica of S. Petronilla, below the ground of the Campagna near an' entrance to the "catacomb" named after those martyrs, the servants of Domitilla. There is reason to believe that this disinterred church was raised by Leo III. in proximity to the primitive oratory in which those two martyrs were buried. The evidence as to the restorations of the actual church on the Appian Way, and to the fact that mosaic decora- tions were placed in it, through means of the same Pope, is thus weakened. The mosaics in question have, however, such character as allows us to assign them to about the period of Adrian I. or Leo III. (v. De Rossi, Bullettini di Archaol. Crist, ammo 5, No. I.) t The chronology then in use made the year begin with Christmas— hence b this event mentioned by many writers under date 800. MONUMENTS OF THE ROME OF THE POPES. 683 palace. The original of this very curious composition was placed in the apsidal recess of a hall built by Leo III. on the palatial premises, in the latter years of the YIII. cen- tury. That banquet-hall is described as a scene in which used to be centred all the magnificence of the Papal court. Painting, mosaic, porphyry columns and marble incrusta- tions adorned it ; in the midst gushed a fountain, and around the walls were twelve tribunes, or arched niches, one containing the marble throne of the Pope. Here at Christmas and Easter were held state banquets enlivened (if we may use the term) by the singing of the pontific choristers to the organ. Here at Easter was the Paschal lamb served, and partaken of, after certain mystic ceremo- nies by his Holiness and eleven Cardinals, his guests. In the mosaics adorning this triclinium, Pope Leo, it is said, desired to commemorate both the coronation of Char- lemagne, and his own restoration to his throne, in peaceful independence, after having been obliged to fly from the fierce violence of a lawless faction, and take refuge as the guest of that monarch, then at Paderborn.* Within an apsidal vault is represented the risen Saviour amidst the Apostles, holding an open book on which is inscribed " Pax vobis." Bound the archivolt above are inscribed the words of the angelic hymn " Grioria in excelsis," &c., the very utterance with which the fugitive Pontiff greeted the Prankish king on his arrival at Paderborn, 799. * In 799, while leading the procession of the Roman Clergy on S. Mark's day, the venerable Pontiff was seized by an armed troop, whose leaders were two ecclesiastics; was thrown on the ground, stript of his vestments, beaten with clubs, and left bleeding and speechless, after the attempt had been made to tear out his eyes and tongue. He thus lay for some hours at 8. Silvcstro in Capite, and was thence taken by the conspirators to a monastery, S. Erasmus, adjacent to the S. Stefano Rotondo church. 684 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. Laterally to the apse are placed two groups : on one side, Christ enthroned between two kneeling figures, H. Peter, and an Emperor designated by name as E(ex) Con- stantinua, and distinguished by the square nimbus given to the living only, round his head — the latter being, we may conclude, intended for the Greek autocrat, contempo- raneous with Leo III., Constantino V. (780-97). In this group S. Peter is receiving three keys, while Constantino receives a banner, sign of dominion, from the Saviour. On the other side is S. Peter, enthroned between an Empe- ror and a Pope, who both kneel, the former (Charlemagne) receiving a banner, the latter (Leo. III.) a pallium from the Apostle thus exalted to highest dignity. Over both the kneeling figures the names are given with the prefix D. N. (dominus nosier) to each ; and beneath is in- scribed the invocation to S. Peter on their behalf : Beate JPetre dona bitam (sic) Leoni B.F. et bictoriam (sic) Caruli Begi dona. The Prankish king is depicted in the national costume, such as he is said to have worn on his coronation- day in Kome. The mystic emblem of the three keys, given in the other group to S. Peter, is explained as im- plying the power to bind and loose, with the superadded authority of the Popes over secular as well as spiritual interests. The pallium has been considered the symbol of the supremacy vested in S. Peter, and which he here con- fers on his earthly representative. In the original mosaic the entire group of the Saviour with the two kneeling figures had been destroyed by fire, or gradual decay, long before the rest perished, as unfortunately was the case, in 1743, when an attempt was made to remove the whole vault with the mosaic covering it, before the demolition, deemed necessary, of the sole extant remnant of the Papal palace adjoining the Lateran church. The mosaic composition fell into pieces during this process, though MONUMENTS OF THE EOME OF THE POPES. 685 every care had been taken for accomplishing the transfer in safety. A coloured drawing, preserved in the Vatican library, was at hand ; and the reproduction of the work, now before us, was placed in a building designed to repre- sent one end of the banquet hall with its artistic decoration — in fact an open loggia, raised against one side of the portico which contains the " Scala Santa," and fronting the Porta S. Giovanni. A few remnants of the original mosaic are now in the Christian Museum at the Vatican.* There is a profound yet mournful interest in the history of the Church at Eome, where the Spirit of the World so soon entered into conflict with the Spirit of Christ, and creature-worship, clad in shreds of Pagan pomp, so soon intruded into the sanctuary.f Yet, on the other hand, the contrasted pictures of this metropolis and its state under Heathenism and under Christianity cannot be con- templated without instruction to the intellect, consolation to the feelings, and a renewed sense of the " soul of good- ness " in the complexity qf human affairs. The polity which reigned at Eome had doubtless a great part in the education of the human race and the civilizing of nations. It fell, after prolonged and miserable decay, because its system revolved around no sublime truth universally taught and intelligible, its power maintained no generally accepted precepts of eternal morality. The faith whose symbol is the Cross introduced a new principle of progress, placed * Hullam refers to this composition as affording proof, in the detail of the banners conferred alike on both potentates, that the Greek sove- reignty was not effectually abrogated at Eome till some time after the donations of Pepin and Charlemagne. Both Adrian I. and Leo III. sent a banner, the symbol of sway, to the latter monarch. f Well do the lines of Keble estimate the life of tlie Church at this city: " By monarchs clad in gems and gold. She goes a mourner still." 686 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. Bocietj on a new basis. Wherever that faith prevails, though its pure character, its beneficent action and en- lightened influences may be checked or perverted — as, to some degree, they unfortunately were at the great centre of the Latin Church— it is at least impossible that national life should be absolutely retrogressive. In this, a fact confirmed by historic evidence from many ages, we see convincing proof of the divine origin of that Eeligion. WALKS AMONO RUINS ; RECENT DISCOVERIES J ETC. 687 CHAPTER XYI. WALKS AMONG RUINS ; EECENT DISCOVERIES ; THE WALLS OF ROME ; CONCLUSION. Much progress has been made in works for the discovery of antiquities, under the new Government at Eome, since the first pages of this volume were written. In some cases the task has been a continuation of undertakings com- menced before the late political change which led to the overthrow of an ancient system in the Italian Capital. Among the sites where excavations began at a period prior to, and have been resumed since, 1870, is one on the cultivated ground below the southern walls of the Anto- nine Thermae, where, at considerable depth, have been discovered the ruins of an extensive mansion, which must have been buried under earth for the levelling of a suffi- ciently spacious area on which to raise the vast halls and courts of those imperial Baths. The received tradition is that these long interred structures pertain to the palace of Asinius Pollio, the distinguished friend of Augustus and man of letters, the founder of the first public library in Eome, to whom Yirgil addressed the well-known eclogue on the birth of his son — the Poet's fire being kindled by, and many of his lines almost translated from, the Hebrew Prophets who rapturously looked forward to the glorious advent of the Messiah.* In these buildings — very pro- * Under these auspices, the child shall purge Our guilt stains out, and free the land from dread ; He with the Gods and Heroes like the Gods Shall hold fanailiar converse, and shall rule With his great Father's spirit the peaceful world. See, in Collins's " Virgil," (from which I cite this translation of a G88 IIISTOBIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. bably at one time the residence of Pollio, perhaps subse- quently that of different families in succession, we see the best example extant of an antique Koman interior with all its comfortless luxuries and provisions for a life nearly all the pursuits and engagements of which passed in the open air. Two hypaethral courts, the cavoedium and peristyle, communicate with passages and chambers. On the floor of the cavoedium we see such decoration in mosaic, black and white, as was not introduced in Eoman mansions till the time of Sulla, here representing the fantastic forms of Hip- pocampi, Tritons, and other imaginary creatures of the deep, some blowing wreathed horns as they float on pictured waves. More interesting are the wall-paintings in a Lara- rium, a small domestic chapel, with vaulted roof still entire, and its altar still in situ, with a kind of reredos for the little images of Household Gods.* Here we see pictured on the walls numerous figures, some graceful and of spirited remarkable passage) the argument for the theory that this eclogue may refer to the expected birth of a son of Augustus by his first wife, Scri- bonia ; or to that of his nephew, the lamented Marcellus. If really addressed to Pollio, the poem must have been written b.c. 30, when the latter was Consul, and about the time that a son, who died in infancy, was bom to him. It is supposed that Virgil derived his knowledge of the Hebrew Prophets from the Sibylline books. S. Augustine quotes twenty-seven verses, more or less clearly prophetic of the great Advent, from the reputed utterances of the Erythraean Sibyl. Justin Martyr asserts that " through the energy of evil demons death was decreed against those who should read the Sibyls or the Prophets." A'pol. 1. 1, C.44. * Small waxen images of the Lares, clad in dog-skins, were placed around the hearth, or beside the outer door, of every private house; and sometimes the figure of a dog, emblematic of their fidelity, was placed underneath. At their festivals, in May, garlands of flowers were appended to those images, and offerings of fruit made to them. The Penates were distinct deities, worshipped in the innermost part (penetra- Zia) of the mansion; but the Lares were revered as ancestral gods — the WALKS AMONG ETTINS ; RECENT DISCOVEEIES ; ETC. 689 design, fruit and flowers, musical instruments, &c. appa- rently executed at different periods and on several layers of stucco, one superimposed over tlie other. Among the best executed are : a group which seems meant for Ceres before the throne where Pluto and Proserpina are seated, the Dioscuri (only one figure, on a prancing steed, being left), Harpocrates placing a finger on his lip to enjoin silence, and the dog-headed Anubis* — this last reminding us of the fashionably prevalent Oriental superstitions and idola- tries in Eome, which Juvenal denounces with eloquent sarcasm.f It is probable that these wall-paintings are not more ancient than the time of the Antonine Emperors. Other chambers, corridors, conduits, deepbelow the same cul- tivated grounds, have been opened through labours directed by Mr. J. H. Parker. Large store of wrought marbles, fragments of decoration, inscribed tablets, &c. have been found on these purlieus of the great Thermae ; and we may infer that a superb palace, perhaps at one time occupied by beneficent spirits of forefathers who watched over the descendants still loved by them. At mihi contingat patrios celebrare Penates, Reddere antiquo menstrua thura Lari, Tibullus, El. iii. 1. 1. * Plangentis populi currit derisor Anubis. Juvenal, Sat. vi. 534. f To such Oriental influences does he ascribe the superstitious prac- tice of women who used to plunge into the Tiber before sunrise, even whilst the turbid stream was frozen over ! But, lo ! another tribe, at whose command See her, in Winter, near the Tiber stand, Break the thick ice, and, ere the sun appears, Plunge in the crushing eddy to the ears. Once, twice, and thrice; then, shivering at the breeze, Crawl round the field on bare and bleeding knees. Gifford's « Juvenal," Sat. vi. 523. 2 Y 690 HISTOEIC AND MOITUMENTAL EOME. some Emperor, extended over this region before it was comprised within the buildings named after Antoninus, or " Caracalla." The station of the " Vigiles" (fire-brigade), exhumed in Trastevere, is another curiosity rescued from interment and oblivion through works carried on by the late Government. There existed under the Eepublic a " Nocturnal Triumvirate" charged to protect Eome against the dangers of fire, and the ^diles were also responsible for precautions with the same object. But the more eflScient "Vigiles" were developed by Augustus into a force of twelve Cohorts, each 700 strong, and in which were enrolled freedmen emancipated, it seems, expressly to allow of their entering that service. They patrolled all night (v. Seneca, Ep. Ixvi.) ; and their Prefect, chief over the whole corps, had magisterial jurisdiction in cases of petty theft, &c., and over run-away slaves, whom he was required to send back to their masters. In the third century free citizens began to enlist in those ranks of the Fire Brigade, which was retained under the Greek Em- pire, receiving the new name of" Matricarii." In the transti- berine station the lodgings open around a hypaethral court paved with black and white mosaics, on which are figures of hippocampi and other nondescripts, fastastic creatures, some holding tridents and musical horns. On the stucco-covered walls are several graffiti (the amusement of the Firemen in idle hours), some being quasi historic, with allusion to Emperors or " Caesars," and to the illuminations with tallow candles* got up in the barracks for celebrating the decennial or vicennial vota on the tenth and twentieth anni- versaries of reigning Princes. In one such inscription the name of Heliogabalus has evidently been introduced * " Subaciaria "— a word here used, hitherto unknown — hence an addition to our known vocabulary of the Latin language. WALKS AMONG EUINS; EECENT DISCOVEEIES; ETC. 691 and finally erased — a noticeable record of hatred against notorious vice.* Here also we find a Lararium, entered from the open court, with a graceful architectonic decoration in terra-cotta adorning the ingress ; in the interior, some wall-paintings, among which a floating figure of Mercury- is the best designed. Other stations of the useful Yigiles have been brought to light after being long forgotten, one on the Coelian, one on the Aventine hill ; another (recently- found) below the Quirinal, near the Piazza SS. Apostoli — all, unfortunately, demolished or again consigned to the interment from which they had been rescued. Eecent laboursf have added to the range of visible antiquities in the so-called " Gardens of Sallust," occupy- ing a valley between the Quirinal and Pincian hills. In ancient time these gardens were called " Horti pretiosis- simi ;" for here stood a palace, a circus, baths, &c., built in a beautiful demesne by the original owner, no other than the historian Crispus Sallustius, who died, aged 51, B.C. 35. He was expelled from the Senate for notorious immoralities, but afterwards re-admitted, and appointed to the high office of Governor of Numidia. It was after his return, enriched by extortion from the African subjects of the Eepublic, that he purchased the gardens in which he built a splendid residence, and also the circus, &c., the ruins of which still bear his name. During a period of exile, while under disgrace, he employed his leisure in writing the histories, still famous, of the Jugurthine "War and Catiline Conspiracy, more favoured than his other work, a history of Eome, of which but few fragments are left. * On an inscribed tablet recently found in the Forum, the name of Messalina has been in like manner obliterated — creditable to the moral feeling against, at least, the notorious vices of those in eminent rank. t Undertaken by the proprietor of the estate, Mr. Spithover, book- seller and publisher. 2 y2 692 nisTOEic and monumental home. His administration of the African province was such as might justify comparison to the infamous Verres in the government of Sicily ; and the ruins in the " Gardens of Sallust " may be considered a monument of that pitiless disregard for humanity which characterized the procedure of Rome's delegated representatives in foreign lands. The historian himself bears witness against the Power he served, with evil result to others, with unjust profit to himself.* After his death, and that of his nephew and heir, the estate was purchased for the Emperors, and became a. favourite residence of Nerva, Vespasian, and especially of Aurelian, who spent mast of his time here, and used to take exercise on horseback under a superb portico, called from its thousand columns " Milliarensis," upon these premises. Procopius tells us that the buildings were fired (we may suppose them left in consequence desolate) by the Gothic soldiers of Alaric ; and seeing that those invaders entered Eome by the proximate gate, the Salarian, we may conclude that the fury of barbarian con- quest first vented itself on the palace and pleasure-grounds here situated. Ruin and landscape are now before us in this lovely scene. Not a vestige of the stately portico remains ; nothing of the circus, except a few low courses of brick- work on the north side of the valley ; the obelisk, which stood on the spina, being now erect before the church of Trinita de Monti, on the Pincian ; the ruinous "carceres" inclosed within the gardens of a villa (the Rignano Massimo) which occupies the western extre- mity of the grounds shared, in the south-eastern part, by another proprietor. Other ruins on the spot are still note- worthy: along the Quirinal declivities, a suite of high "Imperium ex justissimo et optimo, crudele intollerandumque factum." WALKS AMONG EUINS ; EECENT DISCOVEEIES } ETC. 693 vaulted cliambers, probably the ground-floor storey above whicli rose tbe chief structures of the imperial palace; these desolate halls being now partly filled with earth, or cavernous and gaping open, but adorned with ivy and trailing plants so profusely that their dark interiors are almost concealed by the leafy draperies which hang in front. Also, in the midst of the low ground, remains another better-preserved edifice, called (but quite erro- neously) the "temple of Venus Erycina" — the exterior octagonal ; a domed roof still covering the interior, which is , divided into halls, one very spacious, the others smaller, and also a vestibule communicating with the central apartment. The inner and outer halls, as well as the vestibule, have arched recesses, no doubt for sculpture, opening at intervals in the ancient masonry. "We may identify this building as one of those delightful retreats, for delicious repose, called " Nymphaea," where fountains gushed into marble basins under painted or gilded roofs, and amidst statues of naiads, river-gods, or sea-nymphs. Such places were among the outworks or dependencies of patrician villas, and are mentioned (though not under the name above given) by Horace. Among extant specimens we see the so-called " Grrotto of Egeria" in the valley of the Almo, and two half-natural, half-artificial caverns, in most romantic soli- tude on the shores of the Alban lake.* The edifice in the Sallustian gardens is the most completely preserved and architectonic among all the " Nymphaea" left to testify to Roman luxuries or antique refinement. Eeconstructing, on the basis of such vestiges and descriptions as are at hand, a splendid summer-house like this in the valley under the Quirinal, we may imagine a reality answering to the * The Emperor Charles V. gave a banquet, splendid no doubt, but still more picturesque, as we may imagine, in that Nymphseum misnamed after Egeria, before his state ingress into Rome after his victory at Tunis. Kircher, " Latium, vet. et nov. Descriptio." 6M HISTOBIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. ideal of an enchanted palace. Here might the luxurious Eoman, after following through existence the maxim of " carpe diem," have learnt how the most elaborately adorned path leads to satiety ; here might have been held those "banquets of despair," at which the life-weary or self-devoting wrought themselves up, amidst the intoxi- cation of pleasure — The sound of lyres, the flower-crowned goblet's flow — to the hopeless courage of death. In the rear of this building stands an edifice in several storeys, lofty though in part laid low by decay ; the masonry, partly of opits reticulatum^ indicating a good period in Eoman construction. A few courses of massive stonework, discoverable in these gardens, are supposed to be remnants of the Servian walls. Other vaguely distinguishable ruins of diflferent periods, some mediaeval, are strewn among the thickets and plantations of these grounds. The scene is picturesque in a high degree, with such blending of Nature's wild loveliness and the wrecks of what man has created in his days of power and splendour, as possesses a peculiar charm. More important for archaeological interests are the results of recent works ordered by the new Government. I have mentioned (supra p. 315) the discovery by the French, when directing similar works in Eome, of several chambers and corridors opened in 1813 under the arena of the Colosseum ; but which the pontific authorities, soon after the return of Pius YII., ordered to be closed on account of the stagnant water which in part filled them. These underground structures have been again opened and made accessible. As to their use diff"erent supposi- tions are advanced, but it may be concluded that all ancient amphitheatres had such a ground-floor storey — the most complete and well preserved example of which is in the amphitheatre of Capua. The masonry of those long buried WALKS AMONG ETJINS ; EECENT DISCOVERIES ; ETC. 695 structures below the Flavian edifice seems not older than the IV. century — in part mediaBval. The ancient arena is found to be 21 feet lower than the modern level. At some depth under the ground on which the stations of the " Yia Crucis" were erected in 1749, has been discovered a series of immense stone brackets, for support (as apparent) of a boarded and moveable stage. Three great arched tunnels are now seen, opening at the southern side of the major axis, the central one probably for the entrance of gladia- tors and victims condemned to die ; the two others for the wild beasts, and communicating with a " vivarium" in which they were kept. The middle tunnel is crossed, at intervals, by flat arches in massive travertine stonework. Lower down is seen the mouth of a cloaca, still fenced with metal grating, through which the arena might have been flooded for the naumachia entertainment. Another wel- come discovery is that of a rotunda of massive stonework, lithoid tufa, which, though reduced to a pile of vaguely traceable ruin, is recognised as the temple of Testa, often destroyed and rebuilt since the primaeval origin (whether historic or legendary) of that fane where Numa is said to have first placed the sacred fire, consigning it to the care of the dedicated sisterhood. , The site of these ruins confirms the conclusion of the later archaeologists, who showed that the Yesta temple must have stood on the limits of the Forum below the north-eastern declivities of the Palatine, and consequently near the small church of S. Maria Liberatrice, in the vicinity of which some sepul- chral epitaphs of Vestal Virgins were long ago exhumed. Most interesting are the memories that attach themselves to those now all but formless ruins— the traditions of a primaeval and mysterious worship, of idealized descent from Troy and ^neas claimed for Eome and for her Caesars. Tacitus informs us that Nero, when about to start on his journey for a theatrical progress through Greece, " offered 696 nisTOEic and monumental eome. up prayers for the success of his voyage in the Capitol, and thence proceeded to the temple of Vesta. Being there seized with a sudden tremor in every joint, arising either from superstitious fear of the Goddess, or from a troubled conscience, which never ceased to goad and persecute him, he renounced his enterprise altogether." (Annals, 1. xv. 36.) Some idea of the fruitfulness of the Koman soil in anti- quities, as well as of the energies directed to suitable re- search by the new Government, may be formed from the following reported list of objects found, through works un- dertaken by the present Archaeological Commission, during 1873 : 17 statues, 24 busts, 6 basso-rilievi, 7 sarcophagi, 2700 fragmentary sculptures, 125 epigraphs on marble, 14,900 coins, 700 stamped bricks, 2050 stamps on amphorae, 217 terra cotta lamps, 8 rings and 2 collars of gold — besides a great variety of objects in bronze, estimated at the value of about £8000. sterling. Among the sculptures the most highly prized are a statue of Hercules, and another (in Pentelic marble) of Apollo, life-size, wanting the head, but still magnificently beautiful in its mutilated state. A pro- visional museum of these sculptures and bronzes has been formed in the Conservators' palace on the Capitol ; and among its contents, may be particularized three life-size statues of athletes combating, a graceful little Venus, a fine torso like the Faun of Praxiteles, and a head of another Paun with a wreath of pine-cones and vestiges of red colouring, — wildly and strangely beautiful. The Hercules as a child, or Amor as Hercules, and the *' Mater Terra," seated within a species of sedicula, now in the Capitoline Museum, may also be signalized. Vigour and originality, rather than any other qualities, mark these works of Eoman, or Greco-roman art, to some of which we might apply the lines of Shelley : the sculptor sure Was a strong spirit, and the hue Of his own mind did there endure, WALKS AMONG EUINS ; EECENT DISCOVERIES J ETC. 697 After the touch, whose power had hraided Such grace, was in some sad change faded. Great indeed is the difference between the procedure of the present and that of the former Government in Eome with respect to archaeological undertakings and public works in general. The first Pope who prohibited the wilful destruction of antique art-works, but with little effect in his time, was Eugenius IV. (1431-47). Later in the same century Lorenzo de* Medici sent an emissary to collect antique inscriptions at Eome for his new palace at Elorence ; and the commissioner of the " magnificent " Lorenzo has left us a gloomy picture of the devastation and neglect he found still prevailing in the Papal metropolis. He tells of Eoman citizens who toasted that the foundations of their houses consisted entirely of fragments — the disjecta membra— of antique sculptures !* In 1462 the estimable and learned Pius II. published a brief ordering that all classical monuments in Eome should be protected and pre- served.! During his pontificate the Eoman magistrates put forth an edict {De antiquis cedijiciis non diruendis) for the same purpose ; but neither of these prohibitory acts withheld Sixtus IV. (1471-84) from the deliberate demo- lishing of a circular temple of Hercules in order to make cannon balls out of its travertine stonework ! The valley named after the old church of S. Vitale, * Fabroni, "Vita di Lorenzo de' Medici." t Mabillon edited from a MS. in the library of the ex-queen Christina of Sweden an epigram by the brilliant JEneas Piccolomini, who became Pope as Pius II. It may be thus translated : A charm is thine, Eome ! with joy I trace The classic records of thine ancient time. But see indignant a degenerate race Thy walls o'erthrow, thy marbles bum to lime. If yet three hundred years such outrage last, What wreck shall here remain to tell of grandeur past? C98 niSTOEiC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. between the Quirinal and Viminal hills, has lately under- gone changes that have deprived it of its singularly pictur- esque aspects, though no Vandalic injuries have been inflicted on the local antiques. Here, before a general break- ing up of the soil and laying down of foundations for new streets, was a quiet and pleasant spot, the low ground being overlooked by unenclosed grassy elopes where dimly distin- guishable ruins, the inheritance of different ages, invite the archsBologist to study and compare. On the Viminal declivity are strewn the vaguely distinguishable ruins of periods probably remote as that when the infant *' Urbs " was ruled over by kings, — fortifications, mutilated towers, buttress- walls ; lower down are the roofless chambers, with faded painting on their walls and remnants of mosaic on their floors, belonging to the lavacrum (baths founded for her own sex) of the Empress Agrippina. A dark cavern excavated on the hill-side, and lately re-opened, with a few remains of marble ornamentation in its narrow interior, is supposed to be one of the sanctuaries for Mithraic worship, probably for the rites of oriental initiation.* The walls and towers which surround Eome, — monu- mental, because bearing on their time-worn surface many marks of the vicissitudes of ages, from Aurelian to Pius IX. — form an aggregate which I may recommend to the study of all who desire to receive and to feel those impressions which the spectacle of this City, with its unitedly classic and Christian aspects, must create in every thoughtful mind — that impression which is conveyed in such epithets as are applied in verse by Byron to " the Niobe of Nations," and * Among recently discovered monuments of Mithraic worship are two rilievi now in the Conservators' palace, one found in a cave, no doubt used for secret rites, excavated on the Capitoline hill ; another removed from an old house, where it had served as pavement, in Trastevere ; neither of any good artistic qualities. WALKS AMONa EUINS ; EECENT DISCOVERIES ; ETC. 699 in diplomatic prose by an Emperor, Charles V., who mentions Rome as *' Communis omnium patria." A com- plete and learned history of the Eoman fortifications is given in the first volume (lately published) of Mr. J. H. Parker's valuable illustrated work, " The Archaeology of Eome." That well-known author maintains with able arguments, as I believe no other writer had done before him, the theory that the ancient city had not only those walls of the kings which became useless long before the Augustan age, but another system of defences, moenia, consisting more of earthworks than masonry, which Aurelian availed himself offer a much wider cincture, restored (perhaps amplified) by Honorius, and which (now commonly called the " Honorian walls ") formed subsequently the widest circuit of defences ever raised around Eome. A difficult and disputed passage in Yopiscus i^Sn Aureliano, c. xxxix.), usually read : *' He so enlarged the walls of the city of Eome that their circum- ference contained nearly fifty miles {quinquaginta prope millia murorum"), may be strictly reconciled with realities by reading, after " murorum," pedum, i.e. " 50,000 feet.'* Mr. Parker shows that the measurement of Aurelian's walls, including those totally destroyed, which extended along the eastern bank of the Tiber, is exactly 50,300 feet. He also proves — and we must be grateful to him for the satisfactory solution of a problem in this instance — the correctness of Pliny's statement (//. iV. 1. iii. c. 5) as to the sum of distances from the " milliarium aureum " on the Eorum to the several gates, 37, in the cinctnre of those walls, open during the first century of our era. Pliny makes the amount 30,765 passus (the pace of 4 feet 10|- inches, English) ; and this approximately corresponds to the aggregate of distances from the same centre to the gates still erect, as Mr. Parker has taken pains accurately to ascertain— ?.e. S0,14<0 passus. 700 niSTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. Poggio Bracciolini was the first writer to give almost correctly the circuit of the so-called Honorian walls — ^ten miles ; ascertained, according to official report in the time of Benedict XIV., to be, in fact, 10^ miles. The immediate purpose for which Aurelian surrounded the city with new walls, was to protect against incursions of the Goths, who had overrun Italy under the feeble reign of his predecessor, Gallienus. The works were commenced a.i>. 274, but not completed till about ten years later, under the reign of Probus (276- 82). A restoration (or renovation) of these walls was ordered by Honorius a.d. 403, as advised by his general and minister Stilicho ; and these later works, carried out under superintendence of the Urban Prefect Longinianus, were brought to completion in 404. They are extolled in the courtly verse of Claudian — an eye-witness whose poetic testimony is valuable.* These new walls were made to include the " Collis Hortorum" (Pincian Hill), the Praeto- rian Camp, and many other edifices, several conduits of aque- ducts, and even the now disregarded monuments of the dead. The varieties of material and masonry form a cu- rious comment on historic vicissitudes. All symmetry and coherence in method seem to have been set aside ; frag- ments of sculptured cornices, friezes, &c., are mixed up with the rudest stone and brickwork; several turreted wall- curtains, between lofty square towers, are in a kind of rubble work ; blocks of basalt- lava, tiles, travertine, and marble are heaped together without attempt at regularity ; and we are often reminded of the circumstances amidst * Addebnnt pulchrum nova moenia vultum, Audito perfects recens rumore Getarum. Septem continuo montes juvenescere muro. De. VI. Consul. Honor. Aug. 531-6. WALKS AMONG EXJINS ; EECENT DISCOVERIES; ETC. 701 wliieli sucli repairs were made, with tlie confused and care- less execution of a task hurried on by fear of surprise from foes — precisely, in fact, the realities amidst which the restorations by Belisarius were effected during the Gothic war. In the XIII. century these walls become curiously associated with ecclesiastical procedure, among the severities exercised by the Church against heresy. An edict of date 1231, Grregory IX. then reigning, imposes on all accom- plices, protectors and abettors of heretics in Eome punish- ment by fines amounting to one third of their property, and orders that such moneys should be applied to the requisite repairs of the civic fortifications. The first general restoration of these walls after the time of Honorius was ordered by the Ostrogothic King, Theodoric, and superintended by the Senate, about the beginning of the VI. century. The first similar works undertaken by any Popes were those of Grregory II. and Adrian I. in the VIII. century. In 1451, Nicholas V., eager to promote public improve- ments, ordered a repair of these fortifications, in the accom- plishment of which they were, for about a mile's extent on the southern side, entirely rebuilt. Paul III. commissioned Antonio Sangallo to restore and provide with bastions those parts that were weakest ; also to surround the " Leonine City " with completely new defences ; that Pontiff being naturally anxious to guard against such terrible disasters as he himself had witnessed when Eome was captured and sacked by the mercenaries of the Constable Bourbon. The works were never com- pleted according to Sangallo's design; and the useless Forta S. Spirito, near the colonnades before S. Peter's, is one of the few structures still left as that architect raised it. Urban VIII., adopting precautionary measures during a diplomatic conflict between the Vatican and the Duke of 703 HISTOniC i-ITD MONUMENTAL EOME. Parma, caused the tranetiberine quarter, hitherto (the Leo- nine City alone excepted) without any mural cincture, to be surrounded by walls and towers built according to the system of modem fortification. The most picturesque of the gateways are those restored by Belisarius or Narses during, or after, the Gothic war. Note-worthy, among the rest, are the following : the Porta Pinciana, with a Greek cross on its keystone, rebuilt by Belisarius, and now closed; the Porta Tiburtina (or " di San Lorenzo") of the time of Honorius ; the P. Maggiore, not originally a gateway, but a grand monumental arch of the Claudian aqueduct; the P. Asinaria (also closed), one of the gates that may be attributed, as it now stands, to Aurelian (called " Porta Lateranensis" in the middle ages), and which was walled up by the invader Ladislaus, King of Naples, in 1408. For this is now substituted the modern Porta 8. Giovanni. It was through that ancient gateway that Totila entered as conqueror, being admitted by the treachery of the Isaurian guards. Beyond it, westward, extend the still conspicuous ruins, incorporated with the eastern walls, of the Palace of Plautius Lateranus, a patrician who was put to death for his share in a conspiracy against Nero, and whose immense mansion passed successively into im- perial and papal hands. Presented by Constantino (ac- cording to tradition) to Pope S. Sylvester, it became the residence of the Roman Bishops for nearly a thousand years ; and hence was a patrician name transmitted from an extinct Eoman " gens," to be for ever associated with the acts and annals of Latin Catholicism, of (Ecumenical Councils and the Holy See. This pontific palace was left ruinous after the troubled reign of Gregory VII. till that of Callixtus II. (1086 to 1119) ; was restored by the latter Pope ; was much damaged by the fire fatal to the Lateran Church in 1308 ; and was for the last time inhabited by a WALKS AMONG EUINS; EECENT DISCOVEEIES; ETC. 703 Pope wlien Leo X. took up Hs abode here for a few days on occasion of his magnificently celebrated "possesso" (installa- tion) in that basilica, a.d. 1513. The Lateran palace of the Popes probably comprised but a remnant of the original mansion built by the family whose name it bore. In one of its porticos stood the still revered and devoutly ascended " Scalasanta," brought by S. Helena from Jerusalem. Not far from its ruins we reach the P. Metronia (closed), an epigraph set into the walls near which (inner side) records, in curious Latinity, some repairs ordered by the Senate, 1157 : next to this, the P. Latina (closed since 1808), rebuilt by Belisarius — the holy monogram, between A and €h, on the keystone, announcing its Greek origin. The neighbouring Forta Appia (or '' di S. Sebastiano") was rebuilt, either by Narses or one of the Grreek Exarchs, in the YI. century: it is a double gateway, flanked by lofty towers with battlements, and (like others of these old gates) formerly provided with a portcullis ; the lower part, or basement storey, being of marble in massive blocks, said to be spoils from the temple of Mars on a height (clivus Martis) above the Appian "Way. Over the arch, on the side towards the city, we see the Greek cross and the devotional formula Qeov x«P^s> with the names in Greek of two Saints, Conon and George, each preceded by the vocative dyte. On the left (entering) we see a curious record, in rude artistic form, of a conflict which took place at this gateway on S. Michael's day (29th September) 1327, when the Romans repulsed an invading Neapolitan force sent by King Robert under command of his son, the titular Prince of Morea, against the Emperor Louis, with design to prevent his coronation at Home — Pope John XXII., at Avignon, having refused to recognise the Bavarian claimant as Kaiser, and prohibited him from receiving the imperial crown, which, notwithstanding, was placed on Louis's head 704 niSTOBIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. at S. Peter's. A life-size ^rc^^o figure on the stonework of the Appian gateway represents the Archangel Michael, with regal sceptre and ball, trampling on a prostrate dragon.* The Porta Appia is strikingly picturesque, and as seen on the approach from the ancient road, a stern feudal grandeur distinguishes its dusky walls and sullen towers. Lastly we reach the Ostiensian, now " S. Paolo" gate, also a pic- turesque object as it stands grouped with the Cestian pyramid, the turreted walls, and the cypresses of the adja- cent cemetery assigned to Protestants.f It is a double structure in two distinct parts, the inner being the oldest, the outer a restoration by Belisarius or Narses. Through this gateway did Totila make his victorious entry for the second time ; and another conqueror of Eome, Ladislaua of Naples, also entered here with his forces, after a bombard- ment, A.D. I-IIO. Over the inner arch we see a picture (I believe of the XV. century) representing S. Peter under a canopy with colonnettes, and the invocation below: " Sancte Petre, ora pro nobis." Between these two last- named gates (nearest the Appian) is another devotional picture, the Blessed Virgin and Child, painted on the wall over an arch of one of the inner corridors, built for the soldiers engaged in defence. Such corridors extend for con- siderable length along these walls on the side towards the city; they are probably of the time of Aurelian, and add much to the picturesque effect of these fortifications in their now almost ruinous state. That Madonna-picture was probably The inscription below: Indictione XL mense Septembris, die pemd- timo infesto Sd. MicJiaelis intravit gens foresteria muria et fuit dehellata a populo Romano. t A portico with' colonnades, built by Theodosius, connected this gate with the S. Paul's basilica, but has totally disappeared —perhaps destroyed by German soldiers in the wars of Henry IV. against Gregory VII. WALKS AMONG RUINS ; RECENT DISCOVERIES ; ETC. 705 intended for the devotions of the Greek troops, and enclosed within an oratory fitted up for their use between the pro- jecting partition walls of the corridor — if so, a work of the VI. century — though, probably, retouched since that time.* Perhaps the most ancient structure incorporated with, not certainly belonging to, these fortifications, is the over- hanging mass of antique masonry, still firm and compact, which leans outwards at a considerable angle out of the perpendicular, below the steep declivity of the Pincian hill near the modern Porta del Popolo. This is described by Procopius as in the same condition in which we now see it during the Grothic siege, when Belisarius defended Rome for Justinian, a.d. 537 : — " rent into two parts, not from the base to the summit, but only from about the middle, and still in a state not very ruinous, though so much leaning (out- wards) that both sides, the inner and outer, alike can be seen — the Eomans calling this the broken wall." Belisarius, deeming such a structure useless, proposed to demolish it and throw up bastions in its place, but the devout citizens entreated him to leave it intact, because persuaded that it was under the special protection of S. Peter. The prudent General complied ; and the event confirmed popular super- stition, for neither was any attack directed against this point by the enemy, or even any alarm given here during the siege that ensued. Consequently does the "muro torto" (crooked wall) remain to this day as it stood during the reign of Justinian ! I have walked for miles along the quiet road that follows the outer circuit of Eome's ancient walls — often during the evening hours of Spring and Autumn— in those hours, namely, when the citizens are usually out of doors, seeking pleasure in one way or another; yet in such solitary * Mr. J. H. Parker was the first to make known this noticeable relic of Byzantine Art - as, with probability, the picture may be considered. ' 2 z 700 nisTonTC and monumental rome. wanderings have I not met with a human being except, perhaps, some labourer returning from his work, or herds- man driving the milk-white cattle of the Campagna, while the song of birds alone broke on the silence, and the beau- tiful landscape spread to view eastward and south-eastward of the City lay steeped in the light and colouring of the day's most delicious period under Italian skies. Between the modernized Porta Pia (ruined by the siege, 20th September, 1870) and the closed P. Pinciana^ we reach the P. Solaria, or rather the site of that demolished gateway, recently rebuilt in modern Italian style, and to be named after the King of Italy. I have above (p. 80) ex- pressed regret at the destruction of the former historic gate— as it truly was, for through this did Alaric and his force enter Rome on that terrible night when the sound of the Gothic trumpet awoke the citizens to the dread certainty that the spell of long-preserved invincibility, the tradition of inviolate dominion, was for ever broken for the now mournful Queen of Empire ! On the shattered front of that Salarian gate were visible traces of the catastrophe; the archivolt of both the inner and outer travertine arches being broken, and repaired in brickwork instead of the original stone masonry. In the course of the recent demolition a complete necropolis of sepulchres was discovered embedded in, or surmounted by, the round towers and bastions here raised (as we must conclude) in the time of Honorius. Most interesting, among discoveries thus made, was the sculptured monument of the young Poet, the successful competitor for the prize of Greek verses at the Capitol, which has been removed to the museum on that hill. (Supr. p. 395.) The extant remains of the old walls which may in every part be attributed to Aurelian, on the left bank of the Tiber, are highly picturesque. All now abandoned to WALKS AMONG KUTNS ; RECENT DISCOVERIES ; ETC. 707 natural decay, they rise, overgrown with ivy or other wild plants, along the slopes of the Janiculan hill ; the portion of greatest extent being enclosed within the pleasant grounds of the Barberini Sciarra villa, a " rus in urbe " on the higher ridges of that hill. Many remnants of massive stone-work, which stand in our path amidst gardens or in the little frequented places of Eome, are supposed to be the walls of the kings — if indeed they should not, in some instances, be referred to higher antiquity than the times of Servius TuUius or even Romulus. Distinguished, among these relics, for their imposing character are two elevations of massive stone-work, rising to considerable height, yet long completely buried under earth, in a large garden of the Jesuits (now Prince Torlonia's) on the Aventine hill, near the solitary S. Prisea church. These imposing structures were accidentally brought to light in the course of garden- works undertaken in 1851. A fine example of antique fortifications, they are built of immense quadrilateral blocks of lithoid tufa : and high on the front of one — the loftiest of the two extant curtain-walls — opens an ample arch of fine travertine masonry, no doubt a later adjunct, and supposed byarchssologists to be attributable to Camil- lus during the period of his dictatorship after the destruc- tion of Rome by the Gauls. Such an arched orifice may have served for military engines, catapults, set up for defence of the city, and from which missiles would have been hurled against assailants. Other remains of antiquity that may be supposed about equal to that of the Aventine walls, have been found below the chancel of the lower (the more ancient) church of S. Clemente on the Coelian hill. Here we may inspect by taper-light a rectilinear elevation, the lower part of im- mense courses of lithoid tufa, the upper of travertine blocks, which overlap the wall beneath it. Those structures are at 2z2 708 niSTOllIC AND MONUMEXTAL ROME. the same level with the mansion of the saintly Clement and the Mithraeum, alike discovered by excavations (ordered by Father MuUooly) below the same church. In 1848 was discovered, through the removal of soil on the north- western declivity of the Palatine, a considerable extent of fortifications, built up against the steep, and, no doubt, of at least as remote an origin as the Romuleaii period — whatever the date at which the small pre-historic city was so enlarged as to cover the entire area of this hill. With this antique construction we may compare another seen in the vicinity — the famous Cloaca Maxima, at one end of its great tunnel visible from an obscure spot near the S. Giorgio' church ; at the other end, where its huge mouth opens into the Tiber, best seen from the suspension bridge, or ponte rotto. The tunnel is built of blocks of reddish lithoid tufa, many being more than 5 feet long and 3 feet broad ; the archway opening on the river, composed of three concentric courses of lapis Gabinus. Archaeologists differ respecting the supposable antiquity of this extra- ordinary work. Fergusson (" Progress of the Eoman Eepublic") is, I believe, the first English writeu who maintains that such a tunnel, for the purposes of sewage, is beyond the means and requirements of a city like that governed by Tarquinius Superbus, to whom, and to date 634 B.C., it is traditionally attributed. May it not be the work of some ancient people, aborigines, Pelasgic, or Etruscan, who founded a pre-historic city, on and around the Palatine and Capitoline hills, long anterior to the sup- posed period of Eomulus ? The arched channel extends for 800 feet underground ; and the grim voyage along its sluggish stream to the river has been made by adventurous explorers. Another portion was discovered, at the depth of 40 palms, and with the channel under similar stone vaulting, in 1742.* It appears that the rest of this great * Ficoroni, " Vestigie di Roma." WALKS AMONG RUINS ; BECENT DISCOYEKIES ; ETO. 709 " cloaca " was originally open, but finally arched over either with stone or brickwork. The gloomy vault, along which the sight penetrates till lost in darkness, is illu- minated by a ray from Christian tradition, from the records of noble self-sacrifice; for into yon foul stream were thrown the bodies of several martyrs ; and legends state that two victims, Irenseus and Abondius, were cast into it alive, because they had dared to draw out from the same sewerthebody of another martyr, Concordia, nurse of 8. Hippolytus. It is on record that S. Sebastian, after suffer- ing on the Palatine hill, was also thrown into the " cloaca," and that his corpse was recovered through directions given by himself in a vision to some faithful friend ; his remains being thus rescued for burial on the spot where the basilica dedicated to that martyr now stands. Several antique fragments— architecture and sculpture — have recently been dug up on the high ground near the western side of the uncultured and long uninhabited level once occupied by the Praetorian Camp, and in recent years pertaining to an adjacent villa (within the ancient walls, though quite rural,) of the Jesuits. The later Praetorian Guards were instituted by Augustus for his personal pro- tection, and originally consisted of ten cohorts, each of 1000 men — raised by Vitellius to an aggregate of 16,000 men, nor ever afterwards reduced to a much lower number. They all received double pay, and retiring pensions. Con- stantine suppressed this formidable force, and caused most of its members to be dispersed over the legions in the regular army, a.d. 313. Within their " castra" took place the stormy intrigues of military despotism, after Claudius had given the first fatal precedent of receiving the Empire from their hands. Here were raised the shouts for Galba and curses against Nero, which the latter heard as he fled, on the last miserable night of his existence, to the villa 710 niSTOEIC AlfD MONrMENTAL HOME, where he killed himself. Here, on the night of the murder of Pertinax (a.d. 192), was the Empire set up for sale to the highest bidder, when the richest competitor, Didius Julianus, after ascending the camp walls, and thence ad- dressing the Praetorians, raised his offers to 6250 drachmas (upwards of £200 sterling) for each soldier. He won the prize which he enjoyed for only two months, being put to death by the same military force which had raised him up, leaving the blood-stained throne to an abler occupant, Septi- mius Sererus. Long after the disbanding of the Praetorians the walls of the Camp, on the side of its vast quadrangle to- wards the city, were thrown down, a.d. 40.3, and the area apparently left uninhabited ; the remaining walls being abandoned to decay till they w^ere finally incorporated with the fortifying cincture built in the V. century. Between the Porta Pia and Porta S. Lorenzo we distinguish the extensive and still imposing structures of the Camp where they are well preserved, in the firm compact brickwork of the time of Tiberius, under whose reign these " castra" were founded by his minister, the notorious Sejanus, a.d. 23. Two of the four towered gates remain, now walled up, but still exhibit- ing characteristics of antique military architecture. The principal one was called " Porta Decumana ;" and the extent of the three sides of this quadrangular fortress, still erect, is 5400 feet — a monument of violence and fierce conspiracy, now mantled with the draperies of wild plants or ivy garlands, and beautiful in decay, {v. Herodian, 1. vii. c. xi.) At the centre of the wide Camp stood a " sacellum," where the standards of the legions were kept and treated with divine honours — anointed (as were the images of gods), and hence called "Signa uncta;" by Tacitus men- tioned as *' propria legionum numina.'* To that oratory the fratricide Antoninus repaired, passing wildly through the streets, after the murder of Geta ; and there did he WALKS AMONa RUINS J RECENT DISCOVERIES; ETC. 711 spend the whole night before the sacred standards, affect- ing to thank the gods for rescue from death at his brother's hands. A Christian chapel was built on the same spot — for worship how different ! — at what date I know not ; but it certainly stood there till the XVI. century, when Piero Ligorio described the " castra" as seen by himself, tenantless, but overspread with orchards and vineyards. A few years before the late change of G-overnment a large barrack was built at the southern side of the great level area (purchased expressly for sucb use from the Jesuits) ; and here were lodged the foreign soldiery of Pius IX, who, on the day of inauguration, gave from a gorgeous throne under a pavilion, near the centre of the quadrangular space, his benediction to those troops, all marshalled in array, — a scene of strangely blent military and ecclesiastical pomps — apt em- blem of the vain reliance of the Papacy on the " arm of flesh !" Some lodgings of the Praetorians are still recognis- able in a series of small vaulted chambers under the old walls along the northern side. By the military class alone is the desolate and long abandoned Camp now inhabited. It was more mournfully impressive as I first saw it, a silent and solitary waste. Valuable results have been secured by late research in the sphere of Christian Antiquities, which is most suitably left to the superintendence of the Commissioners appointed by, and solely responsible to, the Supreme Pontiff. Between the Appian and Ardeatiue ways, and near the entrance into the cemetery called after SS. Nereus and Achilleus, have been opened, at a depth correspondent to the first storey in those subterranean." catacombs," the roofless ruins of a basilica supposed to have been built by Leo 111, about A.D. 800, in place of a primitive church, much fre- quented by pilgrims, which had fallen into decay, and in which lay the bodies of those two marly rs above-named ; 712 HI8T0BIC AND M05UMENTAL ROME. also that of Petronilla, the reputed daughter (or disciple ?) of S. Peter, whose remains were removed to the Vatican basilica by Paul I. about a.d. 756. (De Rossi, " Bullettino di Archeol. Crist." 2° serie, an. 5° No. I.) Another very ancient church, still, as from its origin, subterranean, has been discovered in a hypogeum extending far below the Nomentan way, which was explored by Bosio, and is sup- posed to be the primitive cemetery named " Ostrianus," where legends tell that S. Peter used to administer baptism. This crypt-church, now again made accessible, is entered from one of the underground corridors. It contains an arcosolium (or altar-tomb), on one side of which stands an episcopal chair cut out of the solid rock. I can recommend no more suitable point of view at which to begin our studies of History and monuments in Rome, Heathen and Christian, classic and mediaeval, than that obtained from the summit of the tower of the municipal palace on the Capitol. In the panorama here spread before us are comprised not only all the monuments on the Seven Hills and within the city-walls, but a wide sweep of undulating Campagna, its boun- daries of majestic mountains, Apennine and Latian, and the heights that rise in territories of extinct races, Etrus- can, Jiquian, Volscian, tSabine, Hernician— the entire theatre of Rome's history during about 400 years— for almost all the salient facts, the steps on the way to supreme dominion, in the annals of the Kingdom and Republic prior to the first Samnite war, b.c. 343, took place within the area comprised in that bird's-eye view from the Capitol — the conquest of AntemnaB (b.c, 748), of Fidense (738) ; the first wars against, and final subjection of the Veii, on the capture of their city by Camillus, B.C. 405 ; the Volscian victories of Marcius, surnamed,from another conquered city, Coriolanus, B.C. 471 ; the taking of Antium and destruction WALKS AMONG EUINS ; EECEFT DISCOVEBIES ; ETC. 713 of its fleet, b.c. 338. In the middle distance of the picture here spread before us lies the Sabine region, the gracefully accentuated mountains of which rise northward of those where Tivoli and Palestrina may be hence discerned. Beyond the neighbouring Campagna region, due north of Home, stands the boldly conspicuous and isolated Soracte, "like a long swept wave about to break ;" and in far distance, north- eastward (within the Abruzzo province), soars majes- tically the monarch of the Apennines, whose fortress-like summit is never without a snow-wreath, and whose name, " Gran Sasso d'ltalia," vindicates its dignity among other eternal guardians over the land — i] bel paese Ch' Ap])enin parte, e'l mar circonda e I'Alpe.* (Petrarch.) God is in History. And while gazing on this glorious scene, ia the midst of which Man has left enduring foot- * The view from the terrace on the Janiculan height, before 8. Pietro in Montorio, is still finer, indeed the picture to be preferred to all others for the beautiful alike with the monumental — Rome and the sweep of its environs combined in a grand pianorama. But it is from the Capito- line tower that we enjoy the most widely embracing and historically complete prospect. That other never-to-be-forgotten view displays much analogy with what is described, in lyric rapture, by Martial, " De Hortis Julii Martialis," (1. iv. Ep. 64) : Hinc septem dominos videre montes, Et totam licet aestimare Romam, &c. — referring to the scene enjoyed from the villa of his friend on a height which may be identified with the Monte Mario, a continuance of the Janiculan, where that range reaches its greatest alti;:ade, north of the City. Strange it is that the impression received, as modem writers have often eloquently borne witness, from the sites and surroundings of Rome, should be so rarely indicated, the sentiment so seldom implied in the utterances of classic poetry ! Few are the lines that express any emo- tional admiration for these scenes in Latin verse. Besides those of Martial above quoted, I may particularize some others : Vii^, Mneid, 1. viii. 347 ; 714 IIISTOEIC AND MONUMENTAL EOME. prints, wo may question, and receive silent answers in the soul, as to the Almighty pur[)ose for which so great a task was assigned to Republican and Imperial Rome, while her eagles were winged for victory over the known world. Let us linger on that tower-summit, till, on some brightly serene evening after the rich draperies of colour have melted from the purple hills, twilight begins to solemnize the aspects of City, Campagna, and fading distance — even till night lowers her curtain over the eventful stage— a moment in Nature's unvarying processes that seems emblematic of the obscurity which overclouds the far-off Past; of the darkness that has overtaken the dominion and triumphs of mightiest nations — all things, indeed, for which man toils and struggles, rejoices and mourns, leaving only the conquests of Paith and Intellect, the powers of Truth and Virtue to endure ! TibuUns, El.r.l. 11 ; Propertius, El. i. 1. 4; the "Itinerarium" of Ruti- lius the Gaul, and in Claudian. the poem on the Sixth Consulate of Ilonorius, 42-51, also De Bello Qetico, 61-4. The generally manifested contrast between the ancient and modem sentiment is mainly attributable, I believe, to the very marked difference in the contemplation of Nature, also in that of monumental works, by the Heathen: and the Christian miad. 715 APPENDIX. The mystic names of Borne, (p. 548.) " Flora " is supposed to have been the sacerdotal, " Sa- turnia" another alike secret, perhaps the most carefully concealed name of the ancient City. (Rosa, " Origini della Civilta.") The Tabulurium. (p. 25b\) The mention of the -^rarium, within the above-nam^d building, by Cicero, occurs in his Oration for M. Fonteius — not (as I supposed) in any of his letters — as follows : " What is this accusation ? Was it more easy to climb the Alps, than the few steps of the Mrsirium ?"—facilius possit Alpes, quam paucos JErarii yrad/m ascendere ? The Tem>ple of Msculapius. (p. 622.) The humane law of Claudius bestowed liberty on those slaves who were left abandoned on the Tiber island, whether for life or death, after being sent for the cure of maladies to this temple ; and if their masters should rid themselves of such unfortunate ones by killing them, made the former amenable to the common law — coedis crimine teneri. (Sueton. Claud. 25.) JPorticos. (p. 638.) Much may be said to support the infei-ence that the stately colonnade with monolith shafts of Luni marble, now built up in the front of an unsightly " dogana," does not belong to any temple, but to the Portico of Agrippa, dedicated to Neptune, the inner walls of which were adorned with paintings illustrating the entire story of the Argonautic Expedition. This edifice stood on the Campus 710 HISTOEIC AKD MONUMENTAL EOME. Martius, and certainly not far from the spot (Piazza di Pietra) where those maltreated ruins are seen. We may imagine it as one of the grandest public works due to the magnificence and good taste of Vipsanius Agrippa. Another beautiful Portico was built by Augustus, and dedicated to Livia ; but on what site we cannot be certain. Several writers identify it with the ruins of an edifice, no doubt classical in character, consisting of two storeys of much mutilated arcades (brickwork), with pilasters in travertine, built into the long front of a convent, S. Lucia in Selce, on th^ ascent of the Esquiline hill by a street called after that convent's church. The Portico of Livia is represented on a fragment of the marble map of Rome, found, a few years ago, behind the church of SS. Cosmo and Damiano on the l^orum, and thence transferred to the Capitoline Museum, where the other extant remains, in twenty-six compartments, of the same antique were placed by Benedict XIV. The Heathen Priesthood and Human Sacrifices, (p. 647.) The privileges bestowed and prohibitions imposed on the priest of Jupiter, were significant. He was forbidden to touch ivy, flour, leaven, the goat or the dog, and even to name either of those animals. " The dog (says Plu- tarch), being a combative animal, is kept away from sacred and inviolable places, in order that supplicants may there find a sure refuge It is natural that the priest of Jupiter, like a living and sacred image, should himself offer an altar of refuge to all who implore and supplicate him, with- out anything that could terrify or repel them. Whoever knelt at his feet was, on that day, exempt from all fear of being chastised or punished ; and if any person loaded with chains could reach his presence, his bonds would be taken off and thrown away, not through the porial of the house, but over the roof. It would have been of no avail APPENDIX. 717 for this priest to manifest so much benignity if a dog had kept watch beside him, terrifying and driving away those who had need of seeking refuge in his bosom." iQucsst. Mom. 109-111.) Pliny states (H. N. xxx. c. 1), that **in the year 657 after the founding of Eome, C. Cornelius Lentulus and P. Licinius Crassus being Consuls, a decree was published by the Senate that no human being should be sacrificed." Yet elsewhere, (H. N. xxviii. c. 2), Pliny mentions human sacrifices as of contemporary practice in Rome. " Our age (he says) has seen a Greek man and a Greek woman buried alive in the Forum Boarium ; and also" (so sacri- ficed) " men of other nations with whom we were in inter- course." Plutarch, in his life of Marcellus, the conqueror of Syracuse, gives the following account of what took place in Rome shortly before the war against the Gauls and Insubrians (li c. 225) : " The preparations they made for this war showed evidently how great were the apprehen- sions with which they (the Romans) undertook it — proof of which was apparent in the novelties then adopted in their mode of sacrifice ; for, although they had never pre- viously been used to practise strange rites, but had care- fully observed in their religious worship such humane ceremonies as accorded v*ith the practice of the Greeks, no sooner had this war broken out than they were under the necessity of complying with certain prophetic utter- ances in the Sibylline books, which required that two Greeks, a man and a woman, and also two Gauls, should be in like manner buried alive in the Eorum Boarium." Under the dictatorship of Julius Csesar two men were put to death, apparently as a sacrifice to the gods, in the Campus Martius.* Porphyry asserts that such immolations were * " Two men were put to death in a certain kind of sacrifice, the reason for which I am unable to state. They were slain in the Campus 718 nisTonic and monumental rome. not finally aboliahcd at Kome till the time of Hadrian, who passed a decree against them ; but, still later, were human victims slaughtered by Commodus in the Mithraic rites he himself celebrated — (" Sacra Mithraica homicidio vero polluit," says his biographer Lampridius.) — See also, for another instance of human sacrifice, Plutarch in Puhli- cohf iv. Oriental Superstitions at Rome. (p. 689.) " In the age of Juvenal, it was from the Nile and from the Orontes, above all other places, that issued forth the superstitions most fatal to purity in manners and to faith in religion. Along with these came troops of fortune- tellers from Armenia or from Comagene, of Chaldaean astrologers and of Syrian seers, who, at one fell swoop, took a firm hold on the whole Eoman people, but especially on the women. The wife would roam the streets by night, in open contempt of common decency and of her husband's orders :" " Should milk-white lo bid, from Meroe's isle She 'd fetch the sunburnt waters of the Nile To sprinkle in her fane ; for she, it seems Has heavenly visitations in her dreams. Mark the pure soul with whom the gods delight To hold high converse in the dead of night I For this she cherishes above the rest Her lo's favourite priest, a knave professed, A holy hypocrite, who strolls abroad With his Anubis, his dog-headed god." Walford's "Juvenal" in Collins's ** Ancient Classics." Martins, in presence of the PontifF and the priest of Mars ; and their heads were afterwards set up before the Regia {ro ^aaiXeiov.y Dion. Cass, xliii. 24. APPENDIX. 719 Temples of Hercules and Matuta. (p. 610.) The ruins of an Ionic peristyle with fluted columns, built up in the walls of a convent, and partly strewn OA^er a garden contiguous to S. Nicolo de' Cesarini, a small church near the site of the Flaminian Circus, are recognised as one of the many temples, a rotunda, dedicated to Hercules in Home — this having, probably, been founded in the time of Sulla, or about a century before our era. The inter- locutor Cotta, in Cicero's " De Natura Deorum," is made to say : " I should be glad to know which Hercules we should chiefly worship ; for they who have searched into those histories which are little known, tell us of several. The most ancient is he who fought with Apollo about the Tripos of Delphi, and is son of Jupiter and Lysito ; the second is the Egyptian Hercules ; the fifth, called Belus, is worshipped in India ; the sixth is the son of Alcmena by Jupiter — but by the third Jupiter, for there are many Jupiters," &c. (1. iii. xvi.) The singular rites at the festival of Matuta, observed by Roman matrons, are mentioned by Plutarch in his life of Camillus, during whose dictatorship, and by whose advice a temple • to that goddess of the Greek mythology — Leucothea, invoked as Matuta at Eome — was dedicated in this city. The Lupercal Cavern. Some subterranean chambers with walls of ancient brick- work, and through which flows a clear spring, near the northern declivities of the Palatine, were reopened a few years ago, and for the first time critically described by Mr. P«arker. These are assumed to be the primitive cavern of the Lupercal, metamorphosed by structures of the Imperial period ; also the site where the underground altar to Census was erected from earliest time. The depth under 720 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL HOME. the level, not only of the declivities, but even of the base- ment of the Palatine, on the slope of which hill that cavern opened, and the absence of all characteristics likely to distinguish a place appropriated to sacred festivities in those dark and narrow, though lofty, interiors, seem to me irreconcileable with such notions respecting their origin. Lupercus, from whose name derives that of the Lupercal festivals held in honour of Pan, was an ancient Latian deity worshipped by shepherds as the Protector of flocks, and identified by the Eomans with that Arcadian God. Census, the Q-od of secret deliberations, was, though not till a comparatively late period, identified with Neptune — the '' Neptunus Equestris," as Livius calls him. Antiquities on the Tiber-hanks. Among late discoveries should be mentioned three lions' heads, or rather gigantic corbels of travertine carved into such forms, and in character reminding of early Etruscan art, which were found, and first described, by Mr. J. H . Parker, after they had been for ages forgotten, being con- cealed under thick brushwood on a steep bank above the Tiber, opposite to the western slope of the Aventine hill, and near the site of the Sublician bridge. A third simi- larly carved corbel, but now only a mutilated remnant, is seen on a line with these, all projecting from a surface of ancient brickwork. From the cavities bored through two of these curious heads, it appears that they must have served for attaching horizontal poles to which vessels at anchor in the Tiber might be fastened with chains or cables — or else for extending chains across the river as a defence at the point where its winding stream enters within the civic circuit. Nearly opposite to these corbels, on the river's left bank, are others which served, no doubt, for similar uses, but are not alike sculptured, extant among the con- appendix:. 721 structions of the ancient wharf, called, in modern phrase, " La Marmorata," brought to light, after being long entirely- concealed under soil, in 1866. This wharf served for the unshipping of marbles, wines, &c. to be deposited in the neighbouring "Emporium," or Custom-house and maga- zines. On the level ground, now planted with orchards and vineyards, between the artificial " Monte Testaccio" (or hill of potsherds) and the Tiber's left bank, stand the dusky ruins of the Emporium, now like a palace in grim decay, built in the irregular masonry {opus incertum) of small polygonal stones with large tiles and a great deal of mor- tar, common at Eome during the period from B.C. 200 to B.C. 50 — to a date within which interval that gloomy but picturesque building may be referred. Some ruins strewn along the base of the Aventine, above the Tiber- bank, probably belong to the " horrea" or magazines, and, amidst gardens and thickets on the steep hill-side, add a suitable feature to a memorable scene — the historic City, with the Aventine and Capitoline heights, and irregularly piled up buildings, above the sinuous bed of the tawny- hued river,' strikingly displayed as we approach from the S. Paolo gateway. N'ym'pJicBa, (p. 693.) The magnificence of the Nymphsea, pleasure-houses on the estates or in the gardens of patrician mansions, is noticed by Ammianus, Aurelius Victor, and Capitolinus. An inscription records the restoration of one such delicious retreat, by a Prefect of the City, ad cultum pristinum. It seems that the Nymphajum was identical with the " antrum" mentioned by Horace — (" Grratp, Pyrrha, sub antro," Carm. v. 1. 1.) Such artificial "antra," or decorated and architectonic " caverns," are described by Lord Lytton as " grottoes attached to the houses of the luxurious, and in 3 A 721 HISTORIC AND MONUMENTAL BOME. which was placed a statue of Venus." The same illus- trious translator of Horace supposes that the " sedes" mentioned by that poet {Carm. xxx. 1. 1) was, " a pretty fane to Venus " in the grotto, or Nymphajum, of the lady, Glycera, for whom he wTote the complimentary ode invoking that goddess on her votary's behalf: Oh I leave thine own loved isle, Bright Queen of Cyprus and the Paphian shores I And here on Glycera's fair temple smile, Where vows and incense lavishly she pours, &c. Many instances of " banquets of despair" (p. 694), given and shared by persons resolved on death, are mentioned in Roman history ; memorable among others, that of Vibius Virrius, who, having opposed the surrender of Capua, with twenty-seven Senators of that city drank poison, all, after feasting and embracing each other, dying rather than witness an inevitable defeat, B.C. 231. (Liv. 1. xxvi. 13, 14.) The Colosseum. Among interesting discoveries on the lowest storey of this building are several marble slabs, probably for wall- panelling, with graffiti deeply incised on their surfaces, representing combats of gladiators among themselves and with wild beasts. On one panel are sketched the figures of a rhinocerus and a hare, intended (no doubt) to illustrate those exhibitions of wild and tame animals, taught to go through certain feats, which are mentioned by Martial, de Specta- culisj 9, 17, 23, 52. Th© works directed by Signor Eosa have secured most valuable results, laying open the long- buried structures and underground passages of the amphi- theatre. Preparatory to what has been last undertaken the cross and shrines of the " Via Crucis" had necessarily to be removed from the modern, which proves to be at much higher level than the ancient arena. APPENDIX, 723 The Basilica of Constant inc. Tiie Basilica built by Maxentius, about a.d. 306, does not pertain to any of tbe classes in which I have con- sidered ancient monuments in the above pages ; but its ruins are too important to be left unnoticed in any work de- scriptive of Eoman antiquities. They were long theoretically confounded with Vespasian's Temple of Peace, and probably stand on the site either of that fane or the " Forum Pacis." The error as to their origin was first refuted by Piranesi ; and Nibby was the first writer to prove, con- vincingly, that these vast remains can be no other than the Basilica of Maxentius, dedicated by the Senate, after that tyrant's death, to Constantine — see Aurelius Victor, who, after enumerating the public works of the former, adds : " Basilicam Flavii meritis patres sacravere." We cannot suppose this edifice to have been in its completeness either graceful or grand, though its ruins are most imposing. In length 320, in width 240 feet, it was covered with a vaulted roof resting on three arches, each oF about 80 feet span, these being supported by eight immense pilasters of brick, in front of which stood as many Corinthian columns of Greek marble, 65 feet high (capitals and bases included), one of which remained erect till 1613, when Paul V. ordered its transfer to the piazza before S. Maria Maggiore, where it now supports a bronze statue of the Blessed Virgin. The actual ruins consist mainly of three great apsidal tribunes, with vaults ornamented by sunken octagonal panels (or coffered work), most strikingly conspicuous on the level ground between the Forum and the Temple of Venus and Rome. This interior was lighted by large lunette orifices and thirty-nine smaller windows. Another window, opposite to a lateral door of the portico (which was on the narrow south- /24 UI8T0UIC AND MONUMENTAL ROMIi. eastern side), was converted into an apse adorned with sculp- ture, conformably to a change in the general plan adopted, it seems, soon after this basilica had been founded. Of thirteen recesses in the great tribunes, some appear to have been destined for statuary. In the central apse, among the ruins still erect, stands a massive brick basement for the throne of the Praetor (or Emperor when administering justice here) ; around this, a semicircular platform, with ascent by steps, for the assessors ; and in the rear walls are two rows of " plutei," or recesses for the scroll-columns which may have formed the archives of the Basilica. Between these we see remains of marble brackets, adorned with rilievi of " Victoriae," for supporting colorjettes, above which rose an entablature. A new entrance was opened, after the early -adopted change of the general plan, on the side near the Forum, this being flanked by porphyry columns, two remnants of which were dug up (1818), and placed where we now see them, in the court of the Conservator's palace on the Capitol. It is probable that this Basilica stood entire, still serving for its original uses, till the end of the V. century, after which we find no mention of it till the XV. century. It probably suffered much damage from the earthquake, disastrously violent at Eome, in 1349. In the XVI. century the ruins were reduced to serve as a stall for cattle; and thus were they left, neglected and defiled, till 1812, when efforts to rescue and disencumber them were made by French authorities. Other works were car- ried out on this site in 18 18, also (under Nibby's direction) in 1828. That archsDologist describes the disgraceful state in which these ruins were left from 1819 to 1828 ; and informs us of his attempt at a certain restoration of the ground-plan by re-erecting, though not to their full height, the brick pilasters on the side where the buildings were totally levelled to the ground. He mentions the discovery. APPENDIX. 725 amidst a mass of brickwork fallen from the vault, of a silver coin with the effigy and name of Maxentius on the obverse, and on the reverse the temple of Eome, with the legend : Conserv. TTrh. Sued. The principal apse, opposite the chief entrance, which was on the south-eastern side, is still degraded to the purposes of a granary. Above one of the immense tribunes extends a terrace once covered with the soil of a garden, removed through Nibby's care. That garden, which belongs to a " Conservatorio" (asylum for orphan girls) , being accessible, we may reach the roof above the enormous vault, and thence enjoy a memorable view of the classical region around. In its historic aspect this edifice is noticeable as the last imperial Court of Justice raised by the Heathen Power, the last founded before the fall of the Western Empire, at Kome. Christian Mosaics. The valuable Mosaic on the apse of S. Pudenziana is referred by some critics to the IV. century ; by others, and I believe on better grounds, to the VIII. — the period, namely, of the restoration of this building by Adrian I. In its actual state the composition dispbys marks of retouch- ing conformably with the canons of more modern art — probably at the time, 1597, when this church was again restored (or rather' modernized) by a Cardinal Graetani. The mosaic represents the Saviour seated on a rich throne between the sister saints, Praxedis and Pudentiana ; more in front of these, SS. Peter and Paul, with eight other male figures, all in classic costume ; in the background, an architectural perspective comprising a Christian basi- lica and a circular baptistery — interesting as authentic delineations of such edifices in their primitive form. 720 uisTonic and monumental home. The Walls of Rome and (he Castrense Amphitheatre. Following the outer circuit of these old walls, we reach on the southern side, near the Porta Maggiore, a point whore they adjoin, and where a part of their cincture is formed by, the arcades of an amphitheatre in masonry of fine brickwork with large tiles, which indicates a period not later than the tim^ of Tiberius or Nero. This is recognis- able as the Castrense Amphitheatre, so called from the " ludi Castrenses," or games celebrated by the soldiery ; and the edifice was probably destined ex])ressly for the entertainment of the Prff,torian Guards, whose camp is not far distant. No ancient writers, but only the ** Eegiona- rics" of the 1\. century, mention it. Its elliptic arena, 100 feet long in the major axis, was surrounded by a double- storeyed arcade, with (on each storey) 48 arches divided by Corinthian half columns on the lower, by pilasters on the upper order. The least ruinous segment is that absorbed into the civic fortifications — little more than one- third of the whole, with 18 arches, which are walled up on this outer side. The inner part, more defaced, has long served for a kitchen garden of the S, Croce monks, whose monastery is contiguous. In the last century the ancient level of the arena was laid open, and below it was found a cavity filled with the bones of wild animals — this perhaps belonging to such a hypogeum as recent works have brought to light under the great amphitheatre. INDEX. PAGE Actors 496 Adrian I, Pope 680 ^neas 162 iErarium 210,256,715 Agrippa Vipsanius 527, 581, 716 Agdppina 412 Alaric 198 Albert! Leandro ■'' 14 Alexander Severus 195, 326, 532 Altar of Ajus Locutius 174 of Saturn 210 of Victory 244 Ambrose, Saint 307 Amphitheatre — the Castrense 726 the Flavian 132, 137, 285, 694, 722 of Statilius Taurus 289 Anastasius 6, 682 Ancilia 169 Anti(i aides on the Tiber Banks 720 Antoninus, M. Aurelius 235, 448, 531 191,487 534 689, 718 197 488, 490 579 577 683 581 582 58-2, 'o'6\^ 446 582, 589 115 590 109, 580 583 583 580 583 109, 590 Antoninus Pius Anthemius Anubis, worship of Apollonius of Tyana Apotheosis Appius Claudius Aqueducts Alexandrina Alsieiina Aiiio Novus Anio Vetus Antoniana Claudian Felice — — Julian Marcian — — Neronian . Severiana Tcpulan Trajana Virginiana PAGE. Arches of Antoninus Pius 277 Augustus 239 Constantine y 149, 220, 318, 474 Diocletian " 94 Dolabella and Silanus 587 — — Drusus 445 Fabius AUobrox 224 Gallienus 450 Janus Quadrifrons 137, 449 Marcus Aurelius 93, 239 Septimius Sfeverus on the Forum 234 Septimius Severus on the Velabrum 447 Tiberius 146, 230 Titus 434 — Trajan 318, 475 Argive Chapels 172 Atellan Fables 495 Auguratorium 168 Augurs 647 Augustine, S. 6 Augustus 177,204,690,709 Aurelian 636, 706 Baptism 366 Baronius, Cardinal 15, 682 Basilicas : ^milian 223 Fulvian 223 Jovis 192 Julian 139, 227 of Max en tius( dedicated to Constantine) 9, 723 Porcian 222 Sempronian 223 Ulpian 462, 473 Basilicas, Christian 140, 224, 243, 711 Baths, private 158 of Agrippina 698 of Heliogabalus 195 ot Sura 545 728 INDEX. PAGE. Baths below the Palatine Hall 156 public (v. Thermic) Battle of Lciianto 279 ofRegillus 216 of Saxa Rubra 3 1 9 Belisarius 466, 681, 702, 705 Benedict VI. 419 Boniface IX. 422 Bosio 342,712 Bracciolini Poggio 12, 251, 700 Brancaleone, Senator 311 Bridges, JEUan (or S. Angelo) 415,418 . Cestian 618 Fabrician 618 Cains Caesar 182, 412 Caligula (v. Caius) Camillus 221 Capitol 98, 261, 280, 712 Caracalla (v. Antoninus) Catacombs (v. Cemeteries) Castles: S. Angelo 418 of the Conti 452 of the Corsi 262 of the Frangipani 128 , 157,311,440 Castor and Pollux 217 Cellini Benvenuto 15 Cemeteries, Christian ; S. Agnes 335, 340, 353 S. Alexander 358 S. Balbina 358 S. Callixtus 330, 342, 366 S. Cyriaca 352 Domitilla 332 — — Generosa 359 -- — Gnostic and Mithraic worshippers 338 S. Helena 354 S. Hermes 355 S. Lucina 339. 352 SS. Nereas and Achilleus 332,344, 711 Prnetextatus 331 S. Priscilla 339, 342, 352 S. Pontianus 330. 348, 356 Thrason and Satuminus 334 Vatican 338 S. Zeno 359 Ceres, worship of 1 75, 495 PAGE. Charities, ancient 622 Charles the Great 676, 680, 682 Charles Martel 676 Churches : S. Adriano 224, 243 S. Agnes 368, 670 S. Alessandro 358 S. Anastasia 627 — '— S. Angelo in Pescaria 635 S. Bartolommeo 619 S. Bernardo 574 S. Clemente 325, 707 SS. Cosmo and Damiano 242, 666 — — S. Costanza 361 11 Crocifisso 151 S. Giorgio 447 SS. Giovanni and Paolo 624 S.Guiseppe dei Falegnami 151 S. Lorenzo (extramural) 352, 567, 668 S. Lorenzo in Miranda 228 S. Maria degli Angeli 573 S. Maria in Aracoeli 261, 264,272 S. Maria in Cosmedin 617 S. Maria Egiziaca 609 S. Maria di Loreto 472 S. Maria Maggiore 660 S. Maria ad Martyres (Pan- theon) 600 S. Maria Nuova 631 S. Maria in Palladio 201 S. Maria del Popolo 410 S. Maria Scala Coeli 358 S. Maria del Sole 612 S. Maria in Trastevere 297, 326 S. Maria in Via Lata 94, 322 S. Martina (or S. Luca) 303 S. Martino ai Monti 363 SS. Nereo ad Achilleo 681, 682 S. Niccola in Carcere 613 S. Paul's, Ostian Basilica 37,129,224,339, 663 S. Paolo alle Tre Fontane 358 S. Peter's, Vatican Basilica 96, 97, 115 S. Pudenziana 322, 725 S. Sebastiano 357 INDEX. 729 PAGE. Churches, S, Silvestro in Ca- pite 484 S. Silvestro (crypt) 363 S. Stefano Rotondo 626, 665, 674 S. Teodoro eso — — S. Venanzio (chapel) 673 — — S. Vitale 69'7 Ciaconius Alfonso 17 Cicero 176, 220, 222, 226, 287, 376 Circensian Games 547, o51 Circus of Maxentius 554 Maximus 546, 549, 569 Cities, pre-historic, on site of Rome 163 Claudian, his poetry 3, 271, 463, 483, 553 Claudins, Emperor 184, 273 II. 218 Clement, Saint 300, 325 Clement, Senator and Martyr 332 Clement VII. Pope 111, 424 Cloaca Maxima 708 Colosseum (-y. Amphitheatre) Columbaria 388 of the Freedmen of Livia 388 on the Appian Way 395, 399 near Porta Latina 396 on the Claudian Way 399 near Porta Pinciana 399 in Wolkonski Villa 430 Column of Antoninus Pius 487 Duilius 218 Marcus Aurelius 482 Phocas 148, 239 Trajan 464 Comitium 147, 219 Commodns 193, 315, 493 Constans II. 470 Constantine the Great 305,318, 321 Constantino V. 684 Constantius II. 468 Consus, God of Counsels 547, 720 Coronations on the Capitol 278 Crescentius 419 Crucifixion, caricature of 294 Curia Hostilia 221 Julia 225, 244 Pompeiana 513, 518 Curias Vetcres 169 PAGE. Curtian Gulf 145 Cybele, image and worship of 175, 646 Dante 8,470 Deaconesses-,,...^^^^^ 370 Dedication of Temples 267 Deification of Emperors 181,490 Didius Julianus 710 l!)iocletian 567 Domitian 188, 194, 458 Drusus, Germanicus Nero 445 Dukes of Rome 198, 247 Emporium 721 Epictetus 480, 492 Epigraphs, Christian 327, 335, 364, 368 Heathen 385 Epitaphs 401 Eugenius IV. 108, 697 Evander 162 Exarchate of Ravenna 240, 677 Fasti, Consular 142 Faustina the Elder 489 the Younger 483 Felicitas, S. 481, 542 Felix II. 532, 549 Forum of Augustus 132, 452 of Julius Caesar 156 of Nerva (or Pallas) 95, 132, 456 Pads (of Peace) 142, 723 Romanum 138, 207 of Trajan 460 Founding of Rome 163 Frontinus, Sextus 579 Funeral Rites 377, 406, 466 Galerius 371 Gallienus 450, 531 Gardens of Sallust 691 Gates of Rome {v. Porta) Gaudentius, Martyr 298 Genseric 199 Germanicus {v. Drusus) Geta 235, 447 Giovanni da Udine 539 Golden Age 211, 213 Griccostasis 143 780 INDEX. PAGE. Graffiti 194 690, 704, 722 Gregory I. S. 181, 247, 669 II. 675 III. 676 V. 419 VII. 202 248, 420, 483 XI. 10, 421 XVI. 38 Guiscard, Robert 248 Grotto (so called) of Egeria 690, 693 Grottos, or Antra 721 Hadrian 413, 629 Haruspices 649 Helena, S. 363 Helionrabalus 159, 195 Heraclius, Greek Emperor 200, 240 Hercules, worship of 210, 612, 719 Heretics, punishment of 701 Hermes, Author of the " Pastor" 351, 373 Hierarchy, Christian 369 History, Early Roman 70 Honorius, Emijeror 306, 308, 700 Honorius I., Pope 671 Horace 148, 230, 252, 403 Hospice of Pilgruns 535 Ignatius, S., of Antioch 299 Innocent II. 420, 427 Invocation of Saints 368 Island of the Tiber 618, 715 Januarius. S. 331 Janus, his reign and worship 213 Jerusalem, conquest of 434 John XXII. 703 XXIII. 4-25 Julian, Emperor 244, 525, 657 Julius Ca-sar 215,266,270,518 Julius II. Pope 110, 125 Kings of Borne 167 Lacus Servilius 139 LuUislaus, king of Naples 702, 704 Laocoon, group of 539 PAGE. Lararium on the Palatine 196 in villa of Asinius Pollio 688 Lares, worship of 6'<8 Lateran Baptistery 658 Triclinium 683 Lateranus, Plautius 702 Legends of : S. Agnes 300 Ara Coeli 273 — the Death of Pan 655 the Human Capitol 272 the Castle of S. Angelo 417 8. Gregoiy the Great 469 S. Maria Maggiore 660 S. Maria del Popolo 406 Martyrdom 300 S. Sylvester and the Dragon 241 Tarpeia 261 Legion, the " thundering" 486 Leo I. S. 199, 665 III. Emperor 675 III. Pope 680, 683 X. 110, 703 XIL 37 Leonardo da Porta Maurizio, S. 314 Leonine City 101, 701 Leto Pomponio 12 Liberius, Pope 532, 549, 600 Libius Severus 198 Libraries: Palatine 179, 192 Ulpian 467 Ligorio, Pirro 13 Livius Andronicus 408 Titus, the Historiar 73,75 Louis VII. Emperor 421, 703 Lucan 270 Lucius Verus 483, 487 Lucius II. 262 Ludus Trojue 513 LuDercal, cavern of 163, 719 Lupercus, Latian De »y •720 Luther 16 Mamertine Prisons 150, 212 Manes, worship of 404 Marcello, S. 370 Marcellus 408 Marcus Aurclius 191, 293, 478, 651 INDEX. 731 PAGE. Marcus Aurelius, writings of 479 Marraorata, wharf on the Tiber 130, 721 Marriage and Divorce 173 Martina, S. 303 Martyrdom, represented in Art 374 Martyrs of the Amphitheatre (Colosseum) 285, 298 under Nero 295 number of 295, 297 honours paid to 339, 373 Maiy, the Blessed Virgin, in Art 264,279,350, 661, 704 Matuta,'Avorship of 610, 719 Mausoleum of: Augustus 407 C. Ccstius 389 Hadrian 413,415 Maxentius 319, 554, 723 Mithraic Worship 641, 698 Mithras 639 Monuments of: Kurysaccs and Atistia 393 P. Bibulus 397 Nero 405 the Sempronii 429 Sulla 92 Sulpioius Maximus 395 Mosaics, Christian 343, 351 355, 361, 364, 659, 660, 663 Heathen 560 Museums: of the Capitol 127,696 Christian, of the Lateran 129, 365 of the Tabularium 255 Christian, of the Vatican 364 Mystery Tlays 312 Names, mystic, of Rome 548, 715 Nero 185,543 " Goklen House" of 186, 188, 537, 542 Nerva 190, 459 Nicholas V. 108, 701 Niebuhr 45 Novcndialia, or Ferix 386 Numa Tompilius 166 Nymphsea 693, 721 Nyniphaium of Alexander Scverus 586, 590 PAGE. Obelisk of: the Lateran 1 1 9 the Vatican 116 on Monte Citorio 121 on Piazza of S. Maiia Maggiore 118 on Piazza Navona 120 on Piazza del Popolo 118 — - on the Pincian Hill 122 on the Quirinal Hill 1 22 on the Tiber Island 620 in Villa Mattel 124 Octavia, sister of Augustus 408, 633. wife of Nero 187 Orosius, Historian 438, 443, 487 Ostia 137 Otho III. 419 Pantomime, Dramatic 49 & Paganism, decUue and suppres- sion of 644 Palaces, ancient : of Asinius PoUia 687 Augustus 177, 204 Domitian 188 Lateran 68.3- Trajan, on the Aventine 557 Palaces, modern: CafFarelli 265 the Capitol 263, 272 of the Conservators 264 Madama 537 of Paul XL, or " di Venezia" 315 Palatine Hill 1 60 Pantheon 95, 5 & Panvinio, Onofrio 14 Paschal 11. 406 Paul, S., Apostle, at Rome 187, 192, 54a Paul IL, Pope 108 III. 701 Pelagius II. 66S Penates, worship' of 688 Pepin, King of France 677 Perpetua, Martyr 304 Persecution of Christians 295, 482, 543, 56^ Pertinax 185, 190, 710 Peter and Paul, SS. 151 represented in Art 348, 662, 663, 667 782 INDEX. PAGE. I'AOK. Peter, S. at Rome 155 Relics from the Temple of Petrarch 8, 202, 278 Jerusalem 443 Philip Neri, S. 635 Religion, ancient, in Rome Pius I. S. 323 173, 639, 651 II. 697 Ricimir 198 V. 112 Rienzo, Cola di 254, 263, 278, VI. 32 , 34, 426 410, 421, 635 VII. 33 ,35, 127,315 Ritual, Christian 343, 669 VIII. 39 Roma Quadrata 168 IX. 129, 316, 329, 711 Romulus 77, 79, 164, 220 Placidus, Martyr 302 Roscius 500 Platina • 12 Rostra 219, 230, 239 Plautus, M. Accius 216, 502 Plebiscite at Rome 280 Sacrament, the Eucharistic Plutarch .173,612, 633, 654, 719 366, 669 Pollio Asinius 687 Sacrifices 268,475,652 Polycarp, S. 481 Human 717 Pontiffs, Heathen 647 Sallust, Crispus 691 Popes, temporal power of Salii, College of .169 676, 678, 684 Sarcophagus (so-called) of Court of 683 Alexander Severus 383 titles of 679 of Constantia 361 Porta (or gates), ancient: of Hadrian 427 703 of S. Helena 361 702, 706 of Junius Bassus 360, 369 Latina 703 of Scipio Barbatus 391 Maggiore 583, 702 Saturn, worship of 211 Metronia 703 Saturnalia 212 Pinciana 702 Saviour of the World, repre- Ostiensis (or S. Paolo) 704 sented in Art 345, 347, Salaria 84. 706 348, 663, 673, 684 Tiburtina 586, 702 Schola Xantha 234 Porta (gates), modern: Sculpture, antique 145, 318, 438, S. Giovanni 702 447, 465, 475, 485, 488, 560 Pia 706 funereal 383 del Popolo 705 coloured 466 Portico of the Argonauts 132,715 Sebastian, S. 201 of Livia 716 Secretarium Senatus 230 of Octavia 130, 633 Senate 533, 568, 603 Prayer for the Dead 368 Senate House 227 Praetorian Camp 136, 709 Seneca 480, 504, 651 Guard 185, 709 Septa Julia 322 Prie8thcx)d, Heathen 647, 716 Septizonium 113, 1^4, 201 Prima Porta 130 Sessorium, palace 688 Prisca, S. 303 Seven Fatal Things of Rome Procopius 201, 705 170, 216 Prudentius 297, 305 Sibylline Books 180, 181. 579, Pyrrhic Dance 408 688, 717 Sibvls 218 Recitations, public 192, 469,531 Sidonius Apollinaris 464, 467 Sieges of Rome by: Alaric 198 INDEX. 733 PACE, Sieges of Rome bv: the Constable Bourbon 'l5, 111,262,424 the Gauls Genseric Totila Vitiges Sixtus II. IV. V. 112,202, Slavery and Slaves Spectres Stage, the ancient the modern Statius Statue of: Augustus S. Bruno Constantino Domitian Hercules Marcus Aurclius S. Peter Pompeius Sulla 267, 387, 523 Symbols: Christian 344, 367, 659, 671 Heathen 384, 387 Tabularium 254, 276, 567, 715 Telemachus, Martyr 309 Temple of : ./Esculapius 487, 620, 715 Antoninus and Faustina 229 Apollo Palatine 177, 178, 180, 204 Augustus 182, 184 — — Castor and Pollux 144,216,226 Ceres and Proserpina 616 Claudius 186, 625 Concord 222, 231 Cybele (Magna Mater) 175, 646 Fortune 173, 608 Hercules 611,719 Hope 614 Isis 622 Janus 212, 245, 443 Julius CiBSar 141,214 Juno Moneta 259 Juno Sospita 013 PAGE. Temple of: Jupiter Capitolinus 172^12:8,280,204 Jupiter Feretrius "^ 259 Jupiter Stator 168, 189 Jupiter Tonans 270 Jupiter Tragicus 124 Marciana (or of Neptune) 638 Mars Ultor 182, 453 Minerva Medica (so-called) 692 Mithras 639 Pallas 456, 459 Peace 442,444 Piety 613 Romulus (son of Maxen- tius) 242 Saturn 210 the Sun God 636 Tellus 453 Trajan 468 Vejovis 284 Venus and Cupid (so-called) 592 Venus Libitina 378 Venus and Rome 628 Venus Victrix 513 Vespasian and Titus 233 Vesta 167, 178, 212, 221, 610, 695 Virtue Terentius Publius Theatres of Balbus of C. Curio of Marcellus of Pompeius Scaurus Theodoric, Ostrogothic King 200,311 Theodosius the Great 244, 305, 306, 657 173 502 500, 524 509 499 610 513 499 701 Thermte of: Agrippa Antoninus Constantine Diocletian Nero Titus Trajan Tiberius Titus 536 98, 558 636 567,571 537 537, 541 363, 538, 544 181 440 734 INDEX. r\OK. Trnjan 140,190,271,1(10 IVinity, the Godlictid, rcpve- scnted in Art 346, 672 Triumphs 238, 262 568 Universify of Rome 110 Urban 11. 420 VIIJ. 95, 604 701 Vacca Flaminio 1.5 264 Valley of Fpcrla 591 of S. Vitale 697 Varro Tcrcntius 260 Vatican Museum 125 128 Palace 87 Venantius Fortunatus 469 Venus, worship of 632 Vespasian 188, 268, 443 Vestal Virgins 167 221, 649 Vestments, ecclcsiasticul 348 670 Via Crucis 314 Via Sacra H8 Victor III. -Sxs) PACK. Views of Rome 85, 712,713 Vigilcs (Fire Brigade) Stations of 130, 690 Villas, ancient, of Livia 130 Maxentius "" 554 Sallust fi2i Villas, modern, Albani 126 Bor r.. XOH.MA.N ANU SON, I'RINTKK.S, MAIDEN LANK. COVKNT