The pilgrimage of the Tiber, from its mouth to its source: with some account of its tributaries

Front matter

o4 cu

.V

^0^

Preface

Although we were both familiar with a good part of the river previously to the journey here described, yet on this occasion we conscientiously made the whole tour of it, from its mouth to its source, in order that nothing should be omitted in the account of its course. The journey took about five weeks, leaving out the excursions made from Rome. We were accompanied by two artist friends, one the length of the whole journey, and the other from Perugia ; both of whom lent the aid of their pencils to illustrate our progress.

Though not very easy to define, my plan of selection in writing this book has been a very special and precise one to myself. It may be indicated by the term picturesque. I have not attempted to write a guide book or a history. I have thought it enough to have chosen those events and circumstances which group themselves about my subject wherever their importance and interest may have made their introduction desirable from a picturesque or illustrative point of view. I have only given as much personal adventure as might serve to string my narrative upon. A few old stories will be found here, associated or connectedwith the ancient river, which I hope it will not be thought are repeated once too often. I did not think, however, when treating of the Tiber as a subject that this was the place to omit them. The pictures given from local historians of the mediaeval condition of some of the Tiberine towns, and country, will, I believe, be new to most English readers. The chapter upon the popular songs of central Italy will also probably afford an insight into a quite fresh field of literature, as I do not know that any of them have been brought forward before in the English language.

As regards the illustrations, it was intended that my artist friends should have prepared their own drawings for the engraver, had not their absence from England pre-

PREFACE. vii

vented them from doing so. They have no cause, however, to complain of the way in which their sketches or drawings have been copied. For myself, I must record my special obligations to the engraver of my little tail-pieces, which have been reproduced with perhaps as much fidelity as the nature of the material will allow.

In conclusion, I can only say that I have left no known source of information unexamined, nor any spot within my limits unexplored, likely to furnish matter of interest. If it were not too presumptuous I should express the hope that my reader may find some analogous pleasure in reading my book to that which I had in making the journey of. which it gives the account.

It may be mentioned that the terms "right" and "left," occurring in these pages, refer to the upward journey.

Contents

PAGE

Introductory . . . . . . . i

Rome. From the Protestant Cemetery to the Tower

Chapter I. Intro Duc Tor V

BEFORE entering on the more special description of the Tiber and its course I will here give my readers a few general facts concerning it.

We are told that the Tiber was first called Albula on account of the light colour of its waters ; but that afterwards it took the name of Tiberinus from a certain Alban king, who, being slain on its banks, was carried down by the flood. It probably was only called u white " by a figure of speech — just as Virgil called it " Cceruleus Tibris " from the hue reflected on its waters. The tawny-yellow or chestnut colour that really belongs to it, and serves to distinguish it so specially in the lowlands, is communicated by vast quantities of earthy deposit, of which it contains about seventeen per cent, at times of flood, gathered during its course from the regions of Umbria. It takes its rise in the central Apennines, where they trend towards the Adriatic, in the direction of Urbino, on Monte Fumajolo, almost within sight of Rimini. It is joined in its course by many tributaries, which have been variously numbered according to what has been thought worthy of the name. The principal ones are the Anio, the Nar, the Chiana, and the Topino, into which the Clitumnus discharges itself. / B

THE PILGRIMAGE OF THE TIBER. Chap. I.

It flows in a south-westerly direction. Its whole length is about two hundred and sixty miles, its breadth below Rome about two hundred yards. Its current flows at the rate of about three miles an hour. Its elevation at Rome is eighteen to twenty feet above the sea-level. It quickly narrows in the upward direction ; and at Ponte Felice, near Borghetto, not quite sixty miles from its mouth, is now unnavigable for large vessels. It has always been subject to disastrous overflowings ; records of which abound in every historical account of it from the earliest times. Frequent mention is made in earlier epochs of vast numbers of serpents left by these floods wherever they spread, which sometimes added the calamity of pestilence to that of deluge. It would appear from this that the fauna of the contiguous districts must be changed, since they are now seen no longer : perhaps owing to its denudation of wood. The aspect of its neighbourhood must have altered greatly from the time when the wide Campagna stretched its breadth of undulating country in the pride of culture from its shores, and its sides were lined with groves, villas, and mansions from Ostia to Otricoli, a distance of almost seventy miles from its mouth. Some have supposed that its bed has been raised since the historic period ; this, however, can scarcely have been the case to any appreciable extent, as the position of the earliest bridges marks pretty much the same water-level as that which must have prevailed upwards of two thousand years back.

During the Middle Ages the water of the Tiber formed the principal drink of the Romans. It was borne for sale through the city on the backs of asses. The mother of Cola di Rienzo was one of these water-vendors. So much was it valued above other waters that the Popes Clement the Seventh and Paul the Third never travelled far without taking a supply of it with them. One can scarcely imagine this muddy fluid to be preferred ; unless, indeed, there were some remnant of the ancient reverence for the stream still lingering to a later period.

Introduction

Its current is a dangerous one. It goes seething through the Campagna like a boiling caldron. He must be a clever swimmer who would breast its treacherous eddies and spreading whirlpools in safety.

How many memories rise up in the mind as we look at it, and think of the splendid triumphs it has witnessed and of the dark deeds performed on its banks ! It was to its shores that legend sent the heroic Hercules to wash the Iberian heifers after having slain the monster Geryon. It saw ^Eneas pass to deeds of valour and glory when the saffron-coloured morning rose in the sky and the well-wooded banks were vocal with the songs of many birds. Hither the frenzied Bacchanalians used to rush at dead of night with frantic cries and wild contortions — raving women with floating hair — plunging inextinguishable torches into the stream, symbols of the unquenchable passions that tore and consumed them. Here the sick slaves and abandoned children were left to perish unpityingly, the miserable victims of cruelty and superstition. Borne upon its tawny bosom the consul ^Emilius entered Rome in a royal galley of sixteen tiers of oars, proud in the gorgeous spoils of the conquered Macedonia, when the whole city flowed out to meet him. Its bed received the body of the flagrant and scandalous emperor Heliogabalus drunk with crime and loathsome through every vice, after he had been massacred by a maddened populace and dragged about the streets of Rome with shouts of ferocious joy. It was into its waters that the ashes of the noble champion of freedom and rtruth, Arnold of Brescia, were cast, one more victim to the cause of unappreciated philanthropy and liberty. By the Tiber Pope Gregory the Eleventh returned to'Rome, together with the functionaries of the papal court, in all the splendour of ecclesiastical pomp, after the seventy- two years' exile of the papacy at Avignon in Provence, landing at St. Paul's amidst the acclamations of vast crowds, whence he was escorted triumphantly into the city. These and a thousand other memories seem to be written on its turbid

B 2 wrinkles as they flow down to the sea, bearing everything into oblivion, and veiling the dark secrets of which it has been the unwearied witness through the long course of unnumbered centuries.

But it is time to commence our journey.

HEAD OF THE TRAJAN CANAL, NEAR OSTIA.

Chapter II. From Ostia To Rome

WHEN I went to Italy, in the spring of eighteen hundred and seventy-one, for the special purpose of exploring the Tiber, it was but supplementary to a long previous residence in that country, which had already made me acquainted with a good part of its course. In the first instance, I took up my quarters in Rome, revisiting the various places in the neighbourhood ; some of them more than once. Whilst there I was able to go down the stream to Ostia, in a steamer that leaves Rome weekly for the mouth of the river, for a short time during the spring. On this occasion, and subsequently, I was much indebted to Mr. Welby, the proprietor of the navigation of the river, for much kindness, courtesy, and information. If the Caesars wTere to come back, what would they say to an Englishman being in virtual possession of the stream they reverenced so sacredly and guarded so jealously ! Yet such at present is the case.

Early one morning, just when the sun was throwing his first rays over the top of the Aventine, H. and I hastened to- the Ripa Grande, and soon after found ourselves steaming down the river at a pretty good speed, owing to the rapidity of the current. Our party was a very animated one, consisting altogether of Italians, who were going for a day's run to the sea-side, or to spend a week there with their families. A plethoric band did its best to keep up the

THE PILGRIMAGE OF THE TIBER, Chap. II.

spirits of the company by blowing its loudest. Mirth and hilarity prevailed on every hand. Meals were improvised and every one seemed gay and happy.

Agreeably to the plan of this volume, I shall not detain the reader during this part of the journey, but take the stream in its upward course from Ostia.

In two hours we found ourselves at Fiumicino, a strong wind blowing from the sea, and rolling the white breakers far on the strand.

Immediately on our arrival we left the crowd of holiday makers, taking our way across the Sacred Island to Ostia.

The Tiber enters the Mediterranean by two mouths, the one below Ostia, which is its natural one, the other at Fiumicino (which we had just navigated), an artificial canal formed by the Roman Emperor Trajan in order to avoid the shoals and sand-banks which obstructed its natural passage. These two outlets are distant from each other about three miles. There was a still earlier cutting made by Claudius from a point higher up the river, which flowed into the sea more to the north, the silting up of which made the present one necessary ; it led into a port long since left inland by the retiring sea, now only showing a few ruins near the hamlet of Porto. The irregular angle formed by the two streams is called the Isola Sacra, or Sacred Island, once famous for the worship of Venus, its fertile summer pastures and abundant winter roses. Now its aspect must be vastly changed. It is a dreary desert of marshy ground, overgrown with the ash-pale asphodel, rampant reeds and lean, bristling rushes ; roamed by herds of half-wild oxen with enormous horns, which eyed us menacingly as we passed, as if resenting our intrusion on their territory. Here and there a lonely tower or wall rises, forlorn witness of the desolation around. To the right of the river is the ancient town of Ostia, once on the sea, but now withdrawn far from it, buried in ruin, choked with thistles, hidden under green corn-fields, which the wind waves over the graves of a thousand households. Everything seems to mourn ; whilst

Chap. II.

FROM OSTIA TO ROME.

the sadness is made still more touching by the numerous streets, temples and houses which modern excavations have made bare, showing them pretty much as they were left hundreds of years ago. A few of the most important and interesting may be examined.

Turning a little from the river, we first observe the naked but substantial walls of what has been supposed a temple of Jupiter of about the second century. A very noble building it must once have been, for on the surface of its brickwork are yet to be seen the holes by means of which it was covered with marbles. A tessellated road extending for a long distance leads us to a wide and imposing flight of steps which were once flanked by Corinthian columns-— they are now despoiled of their covering, doubtless a costly one — to the threshold, across the whole breadth of which a solid monolith of African marble is laid, about eighteen feet long and four wide, probably being at least as thick. The interior consists of a vast hall or chamber, almost square, with niches at the sides for statues. At the extreme end facing the entrance, the altar still remains in a despoiled condition, above which is a raised tribune with cells on each side. Over this altar must have stood the image or statue of the presiding deity of the place. There are no means of lighting from without excepting through the doorway — a characteristic common to the temples of both Greece and Rome, in which, perhaps, a solemn and mysterious gloom may have been desired. Beneath this hall is a subterranean chamber supposed to have been used as a place of preparation for the priests before the celebration of the rites of worship. At one side of the temple, and exposed to the open air, is a peribolos or columned enclosure for practising gymnastic exercises or games. In it are to be seen some magnificent fragments of marble architectural mouldings.

As the temples of Ostia represent several distinctive forms of religious worship, a slight sketch of their nature in connection with them may not be unacceptable to the reader.

s

THE PILGRIMAGE OF THE TIBER. Chap. II.

The worship of Jupiter constituted one of the loftiest religious functions of ancient times. He was represented as a majestic figure with a long flowing beard, seated upon a throne, holding a thunderbolt in his right hand and a victory in the other, having at his feet an eagle bearing away Ganymede. The upper part of his body was naked, the lower clothed. All these characters were supposed to have a mystic meaning ; the throne denoting stability and security of empire ; the nakedness of the upper part of his body, that he was only visible to the higher intelligences and in the celestial parts of the universe ; the clothing of the lower part, that he was hidden from the inferior world. The sceptre in his right hand signified his omnipotence ; the victory in his left, that he was invincible ; and the eagle, that he was the lord of heaven.

His worship commanded the highest honours. The first day of every period was dedicated to him by festivals, sacrifices, or libations. He was the Lord of Light ; the white colour was sacred to him. The victims most commonly offered to him were a goat, a sheep, or a white bull with gilded horns : the lesser offerings made to him were salt, flour, or incense. His chariot was supposed to be drawn by twenty-four white horses ; his priests wore white caps ; the consuls were robed in white when they offered their first sacrifices to him. The oak and the olive were consecrated to him. His worship was largely followed by the Roman ladies.

Probably the lofty ceremonial of the homage done to him here would be but the shadow of the more splendid rites of the Capitol of Rome, which was considered specially his seat ; but enough is left to us in the proportions and grandeur of this fine temple to certify that his worship even here was no mean thing, and that it bore the significance of the highest form of religious pomp and display.

Not very distant from this is another temple, with a long colonnaded approach, dedicated to another kind of worship, that of Cybele and Atys. This mysterious form of religion/

Chap. II.

FROM OSTIA TO ROME.

or rather superstition, looms out to us through the lurid ages, a dark symbolism and outgrowth of some of the most confusing and incomprehensible elements that lie at the bottom of human nature. It is the communion of those wild and mysterious passions that seem always lying in wait for the unwary to hur] them in their stormy arms on the waves of ever-unsatisfied desire, which bear in their train the furies of anguish, remorse, madness, and self-despair.

Cybele appears primarily to have represented the Earth : the great fruitful mother of organic being. The worship of the earth under one form or other is the most ancient and extensive of all worships. It ruled the religious mind of races long passed away. But what is the most remarkable of all, it would appear as if traces of its symbolism still exist in some modern forms of Christianity. In the Capitoline gallery of sculptures at Rome is a bas-relief of a priest of Cybele, bearing in one hand an aspergillum for the scattering of consecrated water, and in the other a long scourge and a shell, in which are fruits and a pine cone. From his head depend two strings of beads of recurrent sizes, long enough to have served the devotional purpose of the modern rosary without being taken off. At the sides, besides some musical instrument, are sculptured a censer, a pedum, or crooked staff, which may have answered to the ecclesiastical pastoral crook. Lastly, there is the Phrygian cap, of such a form that it might appear to shadow forth the tiara of modern times.

Diodorus Siculus says that Cybele was the daughter of Meon, king of Lydia, and Dindyme, his wife. The king not desiring that she should be brought up, caused her to be exposed on Mount Cybele (from which she took her name). She was, however, suckled by the leopards and other savage animals. Being here discovered by some shepherdesses, she was carried to their home and brought up amongst them. As she grew up she surpassed her companions as much in wisdom and beauty as in the qualities of genius and invention. She made the stops

IO

THE PILGRIMAGE OF THE TIBER. Chap. II.

to the flute, and introduced the use of timbrels and drums. Her love for children, of whom she had saved many from various diseases, gave her the name of Mother in the Mountain.

Cybele then fell in love with Atys, afterwards called Papas. She was subsequently led by accident to the court of her father, who, discovering her amour, caused Atys to be slain, together with the shepherdess who had first found and rescued her. Upon this she became delirious, and ran through the country shrieking and beating drums. The Phrygians about this time, suffering cruel distempers and severe famine, consulted an oracle, and were thereupon desired to bury Atys and honour Cybele as a goddess. Annual sacrifices were instituted in her honour, and afterwards a stately temple was built to her in the city of Pessinus, in Phrygia. Here her worship was celebrated with great uproar : her priests beating tabrets and striking bucklers with spears, dancing furiously with wild contortions and frantic gesticulations, dark and evil doings being mixed with these violent devotions.

She was generally represented as a matron holding keys to symbolize the undeveloped treasures of the earth. She wore a wreath of oak : her temples were round, and crowned with turrets to signify the cities built upon the earth. Her chariot was drawn with tame lions, in allusion to the power of culture : the various instruments she bore represented implements of culture.

Catullus, in one of his odes, describes in a few wonderful lines with the vigour of a master hand the initiation of Atys. After having taken the initiatory rite, by mutilating himself, he seizes the musical instruments and calls upon his fellows to join him in the new worship. "The whole band," says the poet, "forthwith yelled with quivering tongues, the light timbrel booms, the hollow cymbals clash, and up to Ida goes the impetuous rout with hurried steps : with them goes Atys with his timbrel, raving, panting, like one lost and demented, and leads the way through the murky forests,

Chap. II. FROM OSTIA TO ROME.

1 1 like an unbroken heifer shunning the burthen of the yoke. Swiftly the Gallae follow their hasty-footed leader. So when they reach the home of Cybele, wearied with excessive exertion they fall asleep fasting. Heavy sleep covers their drooping eyes with languor, and their raving phrensy subsides in soft repose."* Still more finely touched in, perhaps, is the bitter repentance of Atys at his awaking — a repentance that only adds to his fury. Then Cybele lets loose her lions. " ' Up, fierce beast, up,' " she says ; " 'go, hence with him, in madness, make him return hence, smitten with madness, into the forest, who audaciously desires to fly from my sway. Up! beat thy flanks with thy tail: lash thyself: make the whole region resound with thy roaring : toss fiercely thy tawny mane on thy tawny neck.' So said terrific Cybele, and unfastened the yokes with her hand. The beast, inciting himself, pricks up his impetuous spirit, runs, roars, and breaks down the bushes in his headlong course. But when he reached the verge of the foamwhitened shore, and saw soft Atys near the breakers, he made a rush. The bewildered wretch fled into the wild forest, and there he remained all his life long the bond-slave of Cybele."|

THE PILGRIMAGE OF THE TIBER. Chap. II.

The story of the arrival of the image or symbol of Cybele at Ostia and the carrying of it to Rome, is one of those wonderful legends which are made more of by the poet than the historian. It is told by Livy, and finds a lengthy narration by Ovid in one of his finest descriptive poems. It is thus related.

In the year of Rome five hundred and forty-seven, or about two hundred years before the birth of Christ, in consequence of the fall of numerous showers of stones the Sibylline books were consulted, when a prediction unknown before was found therein, which said that whenever Italy should be invaded by a foreign enemy, the foe should be conquered if the image of the Idsean mother should be brought from Pessinus in Phrygia to Rome. This discovery produced a profound consternation. At the same time notice was received of an approaching contest from the Pythian Apollo at Delphi, in which the Romans should be victorious : also at this time a speedy termination was expected to the war in Africa. It was finally concluded that the oracle at Delphi must be consulted on the best means of obtaining the object pointed out by the Sibylline books. They there learned that it was to be obtained by means of king Attalus, and that they must appoint the best man in Rome to receive it. They then went to the king of Pergamus, who conducted them to Pessinus, where a sacred stone was put into their hands, which they were told was the mother of the gods, to be conveyed to Rome. The honourable distinction of receiving it fell upon Publius Scipio Nasica, whose father had been recently killed in Spain ; upon what grounds

Chap. II.

FROM OSTIA TO ROME.

history is silent. He was accordingly sent to Ostia for the purpose. When the ship in which it was carried arrived within sight, Scipio sailed out to meet it, and receiving the stone reverently, placed it in the hands of the matrons, who passing it from one to another, conveyed it to Rome. Ere it reached the city all the people poured out to meet it. Frankincense was burned at every door and propitiatory prayers offered. It was then borne into the temple of victory on the palatine, crowds of persons bringing presents and celebrating the auspicious occasion. The stone was set in silver and worshipped under the name of Cybele. Some have conjectured it to have been an aerolite. The frequent mention of showers of stones by ancient writers leads to the conjecture that falls of meteorolites may have more frequently taken place than they do now ; or possibly they may have been volcanic stones thrown from a long distance ; if, indeed, the accounts are not fabulous altogether.

Adjoining some baths whose mosaics and marbles still attest their former splendour, is a third temple, dedicated to Mithras, the sun-god. The principal court still retains its original plan together with traces of the colonnade by which it was surrounded, doubtless open to the sky, but communicating with a wide chamber of brickwork masonry, which leads through an atrium into an interior one. On the floor of the court, which is of marble, a mosaic inscription signifies that L. Agrius Calendio gave and dedicated the temple (or perhaps only the mosaic) to the invincible sun-god Mithras. In a raised apse near the altar once covered with costly marbles were found three statues of Mithraic priests, with traces of gilding on the vestments, each bearing a torch ; one lowered, another lifted, the third, upon which the priest leans, being extinguished. Fragments of other sculptures were also found there.

This singular form of worship, probably of extreme antiquity in the East, appears to have been first made known in Italy by the companions of Pompey the Great on their return from the Oriental campaigns under that

THE PILGRIMAGE OF THE TIBER. Chap. II.

general in the century before the Christian era ; but it does not seem to have prevailed much in the western world until two or three centuries later.

Mithras was regarded as belonging to the realms of both Light and Darkness : as the genius between the Sun and the Moon : as the Reconciler between the Persian deities Ormuzd and Ahriman, who were the authors of Good and Evil : as the Demiurge or Creator of the Universe : as the conductor of souls through the signs of the zodiac, first, to mortal life in the world, and then to the supreme source of all things through death. According to some, he not only fashioned the world, but contains in himself the seeds of all life — just as the Nicene creed defines the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life. He also partakes of the passions and sorrows of men, here offering another analogy with Christianity ; and finally triumphs over Darkness and Evil.

The symbolism by which he is represented may be thus explained. Mithras slays a bull, which represents the fructifying earth, whose flank being open causes the vivifying blood to flow forth. Spring stands beside him as a youth with an uplifted torch ; also symbolized as a growing tree. Autumn as an old man with a reverted torch, is the bearer of ripened fruits, represented as a tree also. A serpent, a scorpion, and a dog (standing for the constellations through which the sun passes during the summer months) prey upon the bull, or assist the god in causing its blood to flow. The eagle and the hawk, symbols of the Oriental deity Ormuzd, sometimes soar near. Progressive mystic initiations formed a prominent part of Mithraic rites, as in those of Cybele. The two trainings, however, differed considerably ; the votaries of Cybele being educated through noise and uproar, those of Mithras in stillness and seclusion. The initiation of the latter was performed in caves where, secluded from light and all company, the probationers underwent eighty different kinds of tortures or expiations. Many were not able to endure these severe preparations, and died in the noviciate : often enough

Chap. II.

FROM OSTIA TO ROME.

IS those who survived were so crazed and shaken in mind, as never to recover their former condition. A relief found in the Tyrol represents the Mithraic worshippers seated at a feast, which would remind one of the Agape, or " Love- Feast," of the early Christians. There is a raised platform round the Mithreum of the newly-discovered temple at the church of San Clemente at Rome, which, it is thought, may have served such a purpose. An interesting discovery of a tablet consisting of the figure of Mithras, surrounded by an egg-shaped zone, on which are represented the signs of the zodiac, was made at Borcovicus (now Housesteads), on the Roman Wall in Northumberland.* In the same cave was found an altar with a dedicatory inscription.

Leaving these temples, it is saddening to walk through the deserted streets and houses of this bygone town. Floors covered with rich mosaics are now left open to the sky : mutilated statues keep forlorn state amongst unshorn grass and rank weeds : large jars for corn and wine, sunk into the ground, witness of buying and selling before Death had struck the last bargain : the worn pavements mark the passage of vehicles : everywhere are seen the signs of life and activity, long since ended, of an energetic and prosperous people, whose former home is usurped by the humming bee, the burly beetle, and the music-loving lizard.