III. THE CAPITOLINE…

III. THE CAPITOLINE

The Story of the Hill--Piazza del Campidoglio--Palace of the Senator--View from the Capitol Tower--The Tabularium--The Museo Capitolino--Gallery of Statues--Palace of the Conservators--Gallery of Pictures--Palazzo Caffarelli--Tarpeian Rock--Convent and Church of Ara-Cœli--Mamertine Prisons.

The Capitoline was the hill of the kings and the republic, as the Palatine was of the empire.

Entirely composed of tufa, its sides, now concealed by buildings or by the accumulated rubbish of ages, were abrupt and precipitous, as are still the sides of the neighbouring citadels of Corneto and Cervetri. It was united to the Quirinal by an isthmus of land cut away by Trajan, but in every other direction was isolated by its perpendicular cliffs:--

"Arduus in valles et fora clivus erat."

Ovid, Fast. i. 264.

Up to the time of the Tarquins, it bore the name of Mons Saturnus,[19] from the mythical king Saturn, who is reported to have come to Italy in the reign of Janus, and to have made a settlement here. His name was derived from sowing, and he was looked upon as the introducer of civilization and social order, both of which are inseparably connected with agriculture. His reign here was thus considered to be the golden age of Italy. His wife was Ops, the representative of plenty.[20]

"C'est la tradition d'un âge de paix représenté par le règne paisible de Saturne; avant qu'il y eut une Roma, ville de la force, il y eut une Saturnia, ville de la paix."--Ampère, Hist. Rom. i. 86.

Virgil represents Evander, the mythical king of the Palatine, as exhibiting Saturnia, already in ruins, to Æneas.

"Hæc duo præterea disjectis oppida muris, Reliquias veterumque vides monumenta virorum. Hanc Janus pater, hanc Saturnus condidit arcem: Janiculum huic, illi fuerat Saturnia nomen."

Æn. viii. 356.

When Romulus had fixed his settlement upon the Palatine, he opened an asylum for fugitive slaves upon the then deserted Saturnus, and here, at a sacred oak, he is said to have offered up the spoils of the Cæcinenses, and their king Acron, who had made a war of reprisal upon him, after the rape of their women in the Campus Martius; here also he vowed to build a temple to Jupiter Feretrius, where spoils should always be offered. But in the mean time, the Sabines, under Titius Tatus, besieged and took the hill, having a gate of its fortress (said to have been on the ascent above the spot where the arch of Severus now stands) opened to them by Tarpeia, who gazed with longing upon the golden bracelets of the warriors, and, obtaining a promise to receive that which they wore upon their arms, was crushed by their shields as they entered. Some authorities, however, maintain that she asked and obtained the hand of king Tatius. From this time the hill was completely occupied by the Sabines, and its name became partially merged in that of Mons Tarpeia, which its southern side has always retained. Niebuhr states that it is a popular superstition that the beautiful Tarpeia still sits, sparkling with gold and jewels, enchanted and motionless, in a cave in the centre of the hill.

After the death of Tatius, the Capitoline again fell under the government of Romulus, and his successor, Numa Pompilius, founded here a Temple of Fides Publica, in which the flamens were always to sacrifice with a fillet on their right hands, in sign of fidelity. To Numa also is attributed the worship of the god Terminus, who had a temple here in very early ages.

Under Tarquinius Superbus, B.C. 535, the magnificent Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, which had been vowed by his father, was built with money taken from the Volscians in war. In digging its foundations, the head of a man was found, still bloody, an omen which was interpreted by an Etruscan augur to portend that Rome would become the head of Italy. In consequence of this, the name of the hill was once more changed, and has ever since been Mons Capitolinus, or Capitolium.

The site of this temple has always been one of the vexed questions of history. At the time it was built, as now, the hill consisted of two peaks, with a level space between them. Niebuhr and Gregorovius place the temple on the south-eastern height, but Canina and other authorities, with more probability, incline to the north-eastern eminence, the present site of Ara-Cœli, because, among many other reasons, the temple faced the south, and also the Forum, which it could not have done upon the south-eastern summit; and also because the citadel is always represented as having been nearer to the Tiber than the temple: for when Herdonius, and the Gauls, arriving by the river, scaled the heights of the Capitol, it was the citadel which barred their path, and in which, in the latter case, Manlius was awakened by the noise of the sacred geese of Juno.

The temple of Jupiter occupied a lofty platform, the summit of the rock being levelled to receive it. Its façade was decorated with three ranges of columns, and its sides by a single colonnade. It was nearly square, being 200 Roman feet in length, and 185 in width.[21] The interior was divided into three cells; the figure of Jupiter occupied that in the centre, Minerva was on his right, and Juno on his left. The figure of Jupiter was the work of an artist of the Volscian city of Fregellæ,[22] and was formed of terra-cotta, painted like the statues which we may still see in the Etruscan museum at the Vatican, and clothed with the tunica palmata, and the toga picta, the costume of victorious generals. In his right hand was a thunder-bolt, and in his left a spear.

"Jupiter angusta vix totus stabat in Æde; Inque Jovis dextra fictile fulmen erat."

Ovid, Fast. i. 202.

At a later period the statue was formed of gold, but this figure had ceased to exist in the time of Pliny.[23] When Martial wrote, the statues of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, were all gilt.

"Scriptus es æterno nunc primum, Jupiter, auro, Et soror, et summi filia tota patris."

Martial, xi. Ep. 5.

In the wall adjoining the cella of Minerva, a nail was fastened every year, to mark the lapse of time.[24] In the centre of the temple was the statue of Terminus.

"The sumptuous fane of Jupiter Capitolinus had peculiar claims on the veneration of the Roman citizens; for not only the great lord of the earth was worshipped in it, but the conservative principle of property itself found therein its appropriate symbol. While the statue of Jupiter occupied the usual place of the divinity in the furthest recess of the building, an image of the god Terminus was also placed in the centre of the nave, which was open to the heavens. A venerable legend affirmed, that when, in the time of the kings, it was requisite to clear a space on the Capitoline to erect on it a temple to the great father of the gods, and the shrines of the lesser divinities were to be removed for the purpose, Terminus alone, the patron of boundaries, refused to quit his place, and demanded to be included in the walls of the new edifice. Thus propitiated he was understood to declare that henceforth the bounds of the republic should never be removed; and the pledge was more than fulfilled by the ever increasing circuit of her dominion."--Merivale, Romans Under the Empire.

The gates of the temple were of gilt bronze, and its pavement of mosaic;[25] in a vault beneath were preserved the Sibylline books placed there by Tarquin. The building of Tarquin lasted 400 years, and was burnt down in the civil wars, B.C. 83. It was rebuilt very soon afterwards by Sylla, and adorned with columns of Pentelic marble, which he had brought from the temple of Jupiter Olympus at Athens.[26] Sylla, however, did not live to rededicate it, and it was finished by Q. Lutatius Catulus, B.C. 62. This temple lasted till it was burnt to the ground by the soldiers of Vitellius, who set fire to it by throwing torches upon the portico, A.D. 69, and dragging forth Sabinus, the brother of Vespasian, murdered him at the foot of the Capitol, near the Mamertine Prisons.[27] Domitian, the younger son of Vespasian, was, at that time, in the temple with his uncle, and escaped in the dress of a priest; in commemoration of which, he erected a chapel to Jupiter Conservator, close to the temple, with an altar upon which his adventure was sculptured. The temple was rebuilt by Vespasian, who took so great an interest in the work, that he carried away some of the rubbish on his own shoulders; but his temple was the exact likeness of its predecessor, only higher, as the aruspices said that the gods would not allow it to be altered.[28] In this building Titus and Vespasian celebrated their triumph for the fall of Jerusalem. The ruin of the temple began in A.D. 404, during the short visit of the youthful Emperor Honorius to Rome, when the plates of gold which lined its doors were stripped off by Stilicho.[29] It was finally plundered by the Vandals, in A.D. 455, when its statues were carried off to adorn the African palace of Genseric, and half its roof was stripped of the gilt bronze tiles which covered it; but it is not known precisely when it ceased to exist,--the early fathers of the Christian Church speak of having seen it. The story that the bronze statue of Jupiter, belonging to this temple, was transformed by Leo I. into the famous image of St. Peter, is very doubtful.

Close beside this, the queen of Roman temples, stood the Temple of Fides, said to have been founded by Numa, where the senate were assembled at the time of the murder of Tiberius Gracchus, B.C. 133, who fell in front of the temple of Jupiter, at the foot of the statues of the kings: his blood being the first spilt in Rome in a civil war.[30] Near this, also, were the twin Temples of Mars and Venus Erycina, vowed after the battle of Thrasymene, and consecrated, B.C. 215, by the consuls Q. Fabius Maximus and T. Otacilius Crassus. Near the top of the Clivus was the Temple of Jupiter Tonans, built by Augustus, in consequence of a vow which he made in an expedition against the Cantabri when his litter was struck, and the slave who preceded him was killed by lightning. This temple was so near, that it was considered as a porch to that of Jupiter Capitolinus, and in token of that character, Augustus hung some bells upon its pediment.

On the Arx, or opposite height of the Capitol, was the Temple of Honour and Virtue, built B.C. 103, by Marius, with the spoils taken in the Cimbric wars. This temple was of sufficient size to allow of the senate meeting there, to pass the decree for Cicero's recall.[31] Here Nardini places the ancient Temple of Jupiter Feretrius, in which Romulus dedicated the first spolia opima. Here, on the site of the house of Manlius, was built the Temple of Juno Moneta, B.C. 345, in accordance with a vow of L. Furius Camillus.[32] On this height, also, was the Altar of Jupiter Pistor, which commemorated the stratagem of the Romans, who threw down loaves into the camp of the besieging Gauls, to deceive them as to the state of their supplies.[33]

"Nomine, quam pretio celebratior, arce Tonantis, Dicam Pistoris quid velit ara Jovis."

Ovid, Fast. vi. 349.

It was probably also on this side of the hill that the gigantic Statue of Jupiter stood, which was formed out of the armour taken from the Samnites, B.C. 293, and which is stated by Pliny to have been of such a size that it was visible from the top of Monte Cavo.

Two cliffs are now rival claimants to be considered as the Tarpeian Rock; but it is most probable that the whole of the hill on this side of the Intermontium was called the Mons Tarpeia, and was celebrated under that name by the poets.

"In summo custos Tarpeiæ Manlius arcis Stabat pro templo, et Capitolia celsa tenebat: Romuleoque recens horrebat regia culmo. Atque hic auratis volitans argenteus anser Porticibus, Gallos in limine adesse canebat."

Virgil, Æn. viii. 652.

"Aurea Tarpeia ponet Capitolia rupe, Et junget nostro templorum culmina cœlo."

Sil. Ital. iii. 623.

... "juvat inter tecta Tonantis, Cernere Tarpeia pendentes rupe Gigantes."

Claud. vi. Cons. Hon. 44.

Among the buildings upon the Intermontium, or space between the two heights, were the Tabularium, or Record Office, part of which still remains; a portico, built by Scipio Nasica,[34] and an arch which Nero built here to his own honour, the erection of which upon the sacred hill, hitherto devoted to the gods, was regarded even by the subservient senate as an unparalleled act of presumption.[35]

In mediæval times the revolutionary government of Arnold of Brescia established itself on this hill (1144), and Pope Lucius II., in attempting to regain his temporal power, was slain with a stone in attacking it. Here Petrarch received his laurel crown (1341); and here the tribune Rienzi promulgated the laws of the "good estate." At this time nothing existed on the Capitol but the church and convent of Ara-Cœli, and a few ruins. Yet the cry of the people at the coronation of Petrarch, "Long life to the Capitol and the poet!" shows that the scene itself was then still more present to their minds than the principal actor upon it. But, when the popes returned from Avignon, the very memory of the Capitol seemed effaced, and the spot was only known as the Goat's Hill,--Monte Caprino. Pope Boniface IX. (1389--94) was the first to erect on the Capitol, on the ruins of the Tabularium, a residence for the senator and his assessors, Paul III. (1544--50) employed Michael Angelo to lay out the Piazza del Campidoglio; when he designed the Capitoline Museum and the Palace of the Conservators. Pius IV., Gregory XIII., and Sixtus V. added the sculptures and other monuments which now adorn the steps and balustrade.[36]

* * * * *

Just beyond the end of the Corso, the Via della Pedacchia turns to the right, under a quaint archway in the secret passage constructed as a means of escape for the Franciscan Generals of Ara-Cœli to the Palazzo Venezia, as that in the Borgo is for the escape of the popes to S. Angelo. In this street is a house decorated with simple but elegant Doric details, and bearing an inscription over the door which shows that it was that of Pietro da Cortona.

The street ends in the sunny open space at the foot of the Capitol, with Ara-Cœli on its left, approached by an immense flight of steps, removed hither from the Temple of the Sun, on the Quirinal, but marking the site of the famous staircase to the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, which Julius Cæsar descended on his knees, after his triumph for his Gallic victories.[37]

The grand staircase, "La Cordonnata," was opened in its present form on the occasion of the entry of Charles V., in 1536.[38] At its foot are two lions of Egyptian porphyry, which were removed hither from the Church of S. Stefano in Cacco, by Pius IV. It was down the staircase which originally existed on this site, that Rienzi the tribune fled in his last moments, and close to the spot where the left-hand lion stands, that he fell, covered with wounds, his wife witnessing his death from a window of the burning palace above. A small space between the two staircases has lately been transformed into a garden, through which access may be obtained to four vaulted brick chambers, remnants of the substructions of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. A living wolf is kept here in commemoration of the nurse of Romulus and Remus.

At the head of the stairs are colossal statues of the twin heroes, Castor and Pollux (brought hither from the Ghetto), commemorating the victory of the Lake Regillus, after which they rode before the army to Rome, to announce the joyful news, watered their horses at the Aqua Argentina, and then passed away from the gaze of the multitude into celestial spheres. Beyond these, on either side, are two trophies of imperial times discovered in the ruin on the Esquiline, misnamed the Trophies of Marius. Next come statues of Constantine the Great and his son Constantine II., from their baths on the Quirinal. The two ends of the parapet are occupied by ancient Milliaria, being the first and seventh milestones of the Appian Way. The first milestone was found in situ, and showed that the miles counted from the gates of Rome, and not, as was formerly supposed, from the Milliarium Aureum, at the foot of the Capitol.

We now find ourselves in the Piazza del Campidoglio, occupying the Intermontium, where Brutus harangued the people after the murder of Julius Cæsar. In the centre of the square is the famous Statue of Marcus Aurelius, the only perfect ancient equestrian statue in existence. It was originally gilt, as may still be seen from marks of gilding upon the figure, and stood in front of the arch of Septimius-Severus. Hence it was removed by Sergius III. to the front of the Lateran, where, not long after, it was put to a singular use by John XIII., who hung a refractory prefect of the city from it by his hair.[39] During the rejoicings consequent upon the elevation of Rienzi to the tribuneship in 1347, one of its nostrils was made to flow with water and the other with wine. From its vicinity to the Lateran, so intimately connected with the history of Constantine, it was supposed during the middle ages to represent that Christian emperor, and this fortunate error alone preserved it from the destruction which befell so many other ancient imperial statues. Michael Angelo, when he designed the buildings of the Capitoline Piazza, wished to remove the statue to its present site, but the canons of the Lateran were unwilling to part with their treasure, and only consented to its removal upon an annual acknowledgment of their proprietorship, for which a bunch of flowers is still presented once a year by the senators to the chapter of the Lateran. Michael Angelo, standing in fixed admiration before this statue, is said to have bidden the horse "Cammina." Even until late years an especial guardian has been appointed to take care of it, with an annual stipend of ten scudi a year, and the title of "Il custode del Cavallo."

"They stood awhile to contemplate the bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius. The moonlight glistened upon traces of the gilding which had once covered both rider and steed; these were almost gone, but the aspect of dignity was still perfect, clothing the figure as it were with an imperial robe of light. It is the most majestic representation of the kingly character that ever the world has seen. A sight of the old heathen emperor is enough to create an evanescent sentiment of loyalty even in a democratic bosom, so august does he look, so fit to rule, so worthy of man's profoundest homage and obedience, so inevitably attractive of his love. He stretches forth his hand with an air of proud magnificence and unlimited authority, as if uttering a decree from which no appeal was permissible, but in which the obedient subject would find his highest interests consulted: a command that was in itself a benediction."--Hawthorne.

"I often ascend the Capitoline Hill to look at Marcus Aurelius and his horse, and have not been able to refrain from caressing the lions of basalt. You cannot stand on the Aventine or the Palatine without grave thoughts, but standing on the spot brings me very little nearer the image of past ages."--Niebuhr's Letters.

"La statue équestre de Marc-Aurèle a aussi sa légende, et celle-là n'est pas du moyen âge, mais elle a été recueillie il y a peu d'années de la bouche d'un jeune Romain. La dorure, en partie détruite, se voit encore en quelques endroits. A en croire le jeune Romain, cependant, la dorure, au lieu d'aller s'effaçant toujours davantage, était en voie de progrès. 'Voyez, disait-il, la statue de bronze commence à se dorer, et quand elle le sera entièrement, le monde finira.'--C'est toujours, sous une forme absurde, la vieille idée romaine, que les destinées et l'existence de Rome sont liées aux destinées et à l'existence du monde. C'est ce qui faisait dire au septième siècle; ainsi que les pèlerins saxons l'avaient entendu et le répétaient; 'Quand le Colisée tombera, Rome et le monde finiront.'"--Ampère, Emp. ii. 228.

The building at the back of the piazza is The Palace of the Senator, originally built by Boniface IX. (1389), but altered by Michael Angelo to correspond with his buildings on either side. The fountain at the foot of the double staircase was erected by Sixtus V., and is adorned with statues of river gods found in the Colonna Gardens, and a curious porphyry figure of Minerva--adapted as Rome. The body of this statue was found at Cori, but the head and arms are modern additions.

"Rome personnifiée, cette déesse à laquelle on érigea des temples, voulut d'abord être une Amazone, ce qui se conçoit, car elle était guerrière avant tout. C'est sous la forme de Minerve que Rome est assise sur la place du Capitole."--Ampère, Hist. Romaine, iii. 242.

In the interior of this building the Hall of the Senators contains some papal statues, and that of Charles of Anjou, who was made senator of Rome in the thirteenth century.

The Tower of the Capitol contains the great bell of Viterbo, carried off from that town during the wars of the middle ages, which is never rung except to announce the death of a pope, or the opening of the carnival. During the closing years of the temporal power of the popes, it has been difficult to obtain admission to the tower, but the ascent is well repaid by the view from the summit, which embraces not only the seven hills of Rome, but the various towns and villages of the neighbouring plain and mountains which successively fell under its dominion.

"Pour suivre les vicissitudes des luttes extérieures des Romains contre les peuples qui les entourent et les pressent de tous côtés, nous n'aurons qu'à regarder à l'horizon la sublime campagne romaine et ces montagnes qui l'encadrent si admirablement. Elles sont encore plus belles et l'œil prend encore plus de plaisir à les contempler quand on songe à ce qu'elles ont vu d'efforts et de courage dans les premiers temps de la république. Il n'est presque pas un point de cette campagne qui n'ait été témoin de quelque rencontre glorieuse; il n'est presque un rocher de ces montagnes qui n'est été pris et repris vingt fois.

"Toutes ces nations sabelliques qui dominaient la ville du Tibre et semblaient placées là sur des hauteurs disposées en demi-cercle pour l'envelopper et l'écraser, toutes ces nations sont devant nous et à la portée du regard.

"Voici de côté de la mer les montagnes des Volsques; plus à l'est sont les Herniques et les Æques; au nord, les Sabins; à l'ouest, d'autres ennemis, les Etrusques, dont le mont Ciminus est le rempart.

"Au sud, la plaine se prolonge jusqu'à la mer. Ici sont les Latins, qui, n'ayant pas des montagnes pour leur servir de citadelle et de refuge, commenceront par être des alliés.

"Nous pouvons donc embrasser le panorama historique des premiers combats qu'eurent à soutenir et que soutinrent si vaillamment les Romains affranchis."--Ampère, Hist. Rom. ii. 373.

Beneath the Palace of the Senator (entered by a door in the street on the right), are the gigantic remains of the Tabularium, consisting of huge rectangular blocks of peperino supporting a Doric colonnade, which is shown by an inscription still preserved to have been that of the public Record Office, where the Tabulæ, engraved plates bearing important decrees of the Senate, were preserved, having been placed there by Q. Lutatius Catulus in B.C. 79. A gallery in the interior of the Tabularium has been fitted up as a museum of architectural antiquities collected from the neighbouring temples. This building is as it were the boundary between inhabited Rome and that Rome which is a city of ruins.

"I came to the Capitol, and looked down on the other side. There before my eyes opened an immense grave, and out of the grave rose a city of monuments in ruins, columns, triumphal arches, temples, and palaces, broken, ruinous, but still beautiful and grand,--with a solemn mournful beauty! It was the giant apparition of ancient Rome."--Frederika Bremer.

The traces of an ancient staircase still exist, which led down from the Tabularium to the Forum. This is believed by many to have been the path by which the besiegers under Vitellius, A.D. 69, attacked the Capitol.

The east side of the piazza--on the left as one stands at the head of the steps--is the Museo Capitolino (open daily from 9 to 4, for a fee; and on Mondays and Thursdays gratis, from 2½ to 4½).

Above the fountain in the court, opposite the entrance, reclines the colossal statue of a river-god, called Marforio, removed hither from the end of the Via di Marforio (Forum Martis?) near the arch of Severus. This figure, according to Roman fancy, was the friend and gossip of Pasquin (at the Palazzo Braschi), and lively dialogues, merciless to the follies of the government and the times, used to appear with early morning, placarded on their respective pedestals, as passing between the two. Thus, when Clement XI. mulcted Rome of numerous sums to send to his native Urbino, Marforio asked, "What is Pasquino doing?" The next morning Pasquin answered, "I am taking care of Rome, that it does not go away to Urbino." In the desire of putting an end to such inconvenient remarks, the government ordered the removal of one of the statues to the Capitol, and, since Marforio has been shut up, Pasquino has lost his spirits.

From the corridor on the ground floor open several rooms devoted to ancient inscriptions and sarcophagi with bas-reliefs. The first room on the left has some bronzes--in the centre a mutilated horse, found, 1849, in the Trastevere.

"Calamis, venu un peu avant Phidias, n'eut point de rival pour les chevaux. Calamis, qui fut fondeur en bronze, serait-il l'auteur du cheval de bronze du Capitole, qui, en effet, semble plutôt un peu antérieur que postérieur à Phidias?"--Ampère, Hist. Rom. iii. 234.

At the foot of the staircase is a colossal statue of the Emperor Hadrian, found on the Cœlian.

The Staircase is lined with the fragments of the Pianta Capitolina, a series of marble slabs of imperial date (found in the sixteenth century under SS. Cosmo and Damian), inscribed with ground plans of Rome, and exceedingly important from the light they throw upon the ancient topography of the city.

The upper Corridor is lined with statues and busts. Here and elsewhere we will only notice those especially remarkable for beauty or historic interest.[40]

L. 12. Satyr playing on a flute. R. 13. Cupid bending his bow. R. 20. Old woman intoxicated.

"Tout le monde a remarqué dans le musée du Capitole une vieille femme serrant des deux mains une bouteille, la bouche entr'ouverte, les yeux mourants tournés vers le ciel, comme si, dans la jubilation de l'ivresse, elle savourait le vin qu'elle vient de boire. Comment ne pas voir dans cette caricature en marbre une reproduction de la Vielle Femme ivre de Myron, qui passait pour une des curiosités de Smyrne."--Ampère, Hist. Rom. iii. 272.

L. 26. The infant Hercules strangling a serpent. L. 28. Grand Sarcophagus--the Rape of Proserpine. R. 33. Satyr playing on a flute. (In the wall on the left inscriptions from the columbarium of Livia.) R. 43. Head of Ariadne. L. 48. Sarcophagus--the birth and childhood of Bacchus. L. 56. Statue, draped. R. 64. Jupiter, on a cippus with a curious relief of Claudia drawing the boat with the image of the Magna Mater up the Tiber. L. 69. Bust of Caligula. R. 70. Marcus Aurelius, as a boy--a very beautiful bust. R. 70. Statue of Minerva from Velletri. The same as that in the Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican. R. 72. Trajan. 76. In the window, a magnificent vase, found near the tomb of Cecilia Metella, standing on a puteal adorned with reliefs of the twelve principal gods and goddesses.

From the right of this corridor open two chambers. The first is named the Room of the Doves, from the famous mosaic found in the ruins of Hadrian's villa near Tivoli, and generally called Pliny's Doves, because Pliny, when speaking of the perfection to which the mosaic art had attained, describes a wonderful mosaic of Sosus of Pergamos, in which one dove is seen drinking and casting her shadow on the water, while others are pluming themselves on the edge of the vase. As a pendant to this is another Mosaic, of a Tragic and Comic Mask. In the farther window is the Iliac Tablet, an interesting relief in the soft marble called palombino, relating to the story of the destruction of Troy, and the flight of Æneas, and found at Bovillæ.

"L'ensemble de la guerre contre Troie est contenu dans un abrégé figuré qu'on appelle la Table Iliaque, petit bas-relief destiné à offrir un résumé visible de cette guerre aux jeunes Romains, et à servir dans les écoles soit pour l'Iliade, soit pour les poëmes cycliques comme d'un Index parlant.

"La Table Iliaque est un ouvrage romain fait à Rome. Tout ce qui touche aux origines troyennes de cette ville, inconnues à Homère et célébrées surtout par Stésichore avant de l'être par Virgile, tient dans ce bas-relief une place importante et domine dans sa composition."--Ampère, Hist. Rom. iii. 431.

In the centre of the room is a pretty statuette of a girl shielding a dove.

The second chamber, known as The Reserved Cabinet, contains the famous Venus of the Capitol--a Greek statue, found immured in a wall upon the Quirinal.

"La vérité et la complaisance avec lesquelles la nature est rendue dans la Vénus du Capitole faisaient de cette belle statue,--qui pourtant n'a rien d'indécent bien que par une pruderie peu chaste on l'ait reléguée dans un cabinet réservé,--faisaient de cette belle statue un sujet de scandale pour l'austérité des premiers chrétiens. C'était sans doute afin de la soustraire à leurs mutilations qu'on l'avait enfouie avec soin, ce qui l'a conservée dans son intégrité; ainsi son danger l'a sauvée. Comme on l'a trouvée dans le quartier suspect de la Suburra, on peut supposer qu'elle ornait l'atrium élégant de quelque riche courtisane."--Ampère, iii. 318.

The two smaller sculptures of Leda and the Swan, and Cupid and Psyche--two lovely children embracing (most needlessly secluded here), were found on the Aventine.

From the end of the gallery we enter

The Hall of the Emperors. In the centre is the beautiful seated statue of Agrippina (grand-daughter of Augustus--wife of Germanicus--and mother of Caligula).

"On s'arrête avec respect devant la première Agrippine, assise avec une si noble simplicité et dont le visage exprime si bien la fermeté virile."--Ampère, iv.

"Ici nous la contemplons telle que nous pouvons nous la figurer après la mort de Germanicus. Elle semble mise aux fers par le destin, mais sans pouvoir encore renoncer aux pensées superbes dont son âme était remplie aux jours de son bonheur."--Braun.

Round the room are ranged 83 busts of Roman emperors, empresses, and their near relations, forming perhaps the most interesting portrait gallery in the world. Even viewed as works of art, many of them are of the utmost importance. They are--

1. Julius Cæsar, nat. B.C. 100; ob. B.C. 44. 2. Augustus, Imp. B.C. 12--A.D. 14. 3. Marcellus, his nephew and son-in-law, son of Octavia, ob. B.C. 23, aged 20. 4, 5. Tiberius, Imp. A.D. 14-37. 6. Drusus, his brother, son of Livia and Claudius Nero, ob. B.C. 10. 7. Drusus, son of Tiberius and Vipsania, ob. A.D. 23. 8. Antonia, daughter of Mark Antony and Octavia, wife of the elder Drusus, mother of Germanicus and Claudius. 9. Germanicus, son of Drusus and Antonia, ob. A.D. 19. 10. Agrippina, daughter of Julia and Agrippa, granddaughter of Augustus, wife of Germanicus. Died of starvation under Tiberius, A.D. 33. 11. Caligula, Imp. A.D. 37-41, son of Germanicus and Agrippina. Murdered by the tribune Cherœa (in basalt). 12. Claudius, Imp. A.D. 41-54, younger son of Drusus and Antonia. Poisoned by Agrippina. 13. Messalina, third wife of Claudius. Put to death by Claudius, A.D. 48.

"Une grosse commère sensuelle, aux traits bouffis, à l'air assez commun, mais qui pouvait plaire à Claude."--Ampère, Emp. ii. 32.

14. Agrippina the younger, sixth wife of Claudius, daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina the elder, great-granddaughter of Augustus. Murdered by her son Nero, A.D. 60.

"Ce buste la montre avec cette beauté plus grande que celle de sa mère, et qui était pour elle un moyen. Agrippine a les yeux levés vers le ciel, on dirait qu'elle craint, et qu'elle attend."--Emp. ii. 34.

15, 16. Nero, Imp. A.D. 54-69, son of Agrippina the younger by her first husband, Ahenobarbus. Died by his own hand. 17. Poppæa Sabina (?), second wife of Nero. Killed by a kick from her husband, A.D. 62.

"Ce visage a la délicatesse presque enfantine que pouvait offrir celui de cette femme, dont les molles recherches et les soins curieux de toilette étaient célèbres, et dont Diderot a dit avec vérité, bien qu'avec un peu d'emphase, 'C'était une furie sous le visage des grâces.'"--Emp. ii. 38.

18. Galba, Imp. A.D. 69. Murdered in the Forum. 19. Otho, Imp. A.D. 69. Died by his own hand. 20. Vitellius (?), Imp. A.D. 69. Murdered at the Scalæ Gemoniæ. 21. Vespasian, Imp. A.D. 70-79. 22. Titus, Imp. A.D. 79-81. Supposed to have been poisoned by Domitian. 23. Julia, daughter of Titus. 24. Domitian, Imp. A.D. 81-96, son of Vespasian. Murdered in the Palace of the Cæsars.

"Domitien est sans comparaison le plus beau des trois Flaviens: mais c'est une beauté formidable, avec un air farouche et faux."--Emp. ii. 12.

25. Longina (?). 26. Nerva (?), Imp. A.D. 96. 27. Trajan, Imp. A.D. 98-118. 28. Plotina, wife of Trajan. 29. Marciana, sister of Trajan. 30. Matidia, daughter of Marciana, niece of Trajan. 31, 32. Hadrian, Imp. A.D. 118-138, adopted son of Trajan. 33. Julia Sabina, wife of Hadrian, daughter of Matidia. 34. Elius Verus, first adopted son of Hadrian. 35. Antoninus Pius, Imp. A.D. 138-161, second adopted son of Hadrian. 36. Faustina the elder, wife of Antoninus Pius and sister of Elius Verus. 37. Marcus Aurelius, Imp. A.D. 161-180, son of Servianus by Paulina, sister of Hadrian, adopted by Antoninus Pius, as a boy. 38. Marcus Aurelius, in later life. 39. Annia Faustina, wife of Marcus Aurelius, daughter of Antoninus Pius and Faustina the elder. 40. Galerius Antoninus, son of Antoninus Pius. 41. Lucius Verus, son-in-law of Marcus Aurelius. 42. Lucilla, wife of Lucius Verus, daughter of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina the younger. Put to death at Capri for a plot against her husband. 43. Commodus, Imp. A.D. 180-193, son of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina. Murdered in the Palace of the Cæsars. 44. Crispina, wife of Commodus. Put to death by her husband at Capri. 45. Pertinax, Imp. A.D. 193, successor of Commodus, reigned three months. Murdered in the Palace of the Cæsars. 46. Didius Julianus, Imp. A.D. 193, successor of Pertinax. Murdered in the Palace of the Cæsars. 47. Manlia Scantilla (?), wife of Didius Julianus. {rival candidates (after murder of Didius 48. Pescennius Niger,{Julianus, A.D. 193) for the Empire, which 49. Clodius Albinus, {they failed to obtain, and were both put to {death. 50, 51. Septimius Severus, Imp. A.D. 193-211, successor of Didius Julianus. 52. Julia Pia, wife of Septimius Severus. 53. Caracalla, Imp. A.D. 211-217, son of Sept. Severus and Julia Pia. Murdered. 54. Geta, brother of Caracalla, by whose order he was murdered in the arms of Julia Pia. 55. Macrinus, Imp. A.D. 217, murderer and successor of Caracalla. Murdered. 56. Diadumenianus, son of Macrinus. Murdered with his father. 57. Heliogabalus, Imp. A.D. 218--222, son of Julia Soemis, daughter of Julia Mœsa, who was sister of Julia Pia. Murdered. 58. Annia Faustina, third wife of Heliogabalus, great-granddaughter of Marcus Aurelius. 59. Julia Mœsa, sister-in-law of Septimius Severus, aunt of Caracalla, and grandmother of Alexander Severus. 60. Alexander Severus, Imp., son of Julia Mammea, second daughter of Julia Mœsa. Murdered at the age of 30. 61. Julia Mammea, daughter of Julia Mœsa, and mother of Alexander Severus. Murdered with her son. 62. Julius Maximinus, Imp. 235--238; elected by the army. Murdered. 63. Maximus. Murdered with his father, at the age of 18. 64. Gordianus Africanus, Imp. 238; a descendant of Trajan. Died by his own hand. 65. (Antoninus) Gordianus, Junior, Imp. 238, son of Gordianus Africanus and Fabia Orestella, great-granddaughter of Antoninus Pius. Died in battle. 66. Pupienus, Imp. 238, {reigned together for four months and then 67. Balbinus, Imp. 238, {were murdered. 68. Gordianus Pius, Imp. 238, grandson, through his mother, of Gordianus Africanus. Murdered. 69. Philip II., Imp. 244, son of, and co-emperor with Philip I. Murdered. 70. Decius(?), Imp. 249--251. Forcibly elected by the army. Killed in battle. 71. Quintus Herennius Etruscus, son of Decius and Herennia Etruscilla. Killed in battle with his father. 72. Hostilianus, son or son-in-law of Decius, Imp. 251, with Treb. Gallus. Murdered. 73. Trebonianus Gallus, Imp. 251--254. Murdered. 74, 75. Volusianus, son of Trebonianus Gallus. Murdered. 76. Gallienus, Imp. 261--268. Murdered. 77. Salonina, wife of Gallienus. 78. Saloninus, son of Gallienus and Salonina. Put to death by Postumus, A.D. 259, at the age of 17. 79. Marcus Aurelius Carinus, Imp. 283, son of the Emperor Carus. Murdered. 80. Diocletian, Imp. 284-305; elected by the army. 81. Constantinus Chlorus, Imp. 305-306, son of Eutropius and Claudia, niece of the Emperor Claudius and Quintilius, father of Constantine the Great. 82. Julian the Apostate, Imp. 361-363, son of Julius Constantius and nephew of Constantine the Great. Died in battle. 83. Magnus Decentius, brother of the Emperor Magnentius. Strangled himself, 353.

"In their busts the lips of the Roman emperors are generally closed, indicating reserve and dignity, free from human passions and emotions."--Winckelmann.

"At Rome the emperors become as familiar as the popes. Who does not know the curly-headed Marcus Aurelius, with his lifted brow and projecting eyes--from the full round beauty of his youth to the more haggard look of his latest years? Are there any modern portraits more familiar than the severe wedge-like head of Augustus, with his sharp cut lips and nose,--or the dull phiz of Hadrian, with his hair combed down over his low forehead,--or the vain, perking face of Lucius Verus, with his thin nose, low brow, and profusion of curls,--or the brutal bull head of Caracalla,--or the bestial, bloated features of Vitellius?

"These men, who were but lay figures to us at school, mere pegs of names to hang historic robes upon, thus interpreted by the living history of their portraits, the incidental illustrations of the places where they lived and moved and died, and the buildings and monuments they erected, become like men of yesterday. Art has made them our contemporaries. They are as near to us as Pius VII. and Napoleon."--Story's Roba di Roma.

"Nerva est le premier des bons, et Trajan le premier des grands empereurs romains; après lui il y en eut deux autres, les deux Antonins. Trois sur soixante-dix, tel est à Rome le bilan des gloires morales de l'empire."--Ampère, Hist. Rom. liii.

Among the reliefs round the upper walls of this room are two,--of Endymion sleeping, and of Perseus delivering Andromeda, which belong to the set in the Palazzo Spada, and are exceedingly beautiful.

* * * * *

The Hall of Illustrious Men contains a seated statue of M. Claudius Marcellus (?), the conqueror of Syracuse, B.C. 212. Round the room are ranged 93 busts of ancient philosophers, statesmen, and warriors. Among the more important are:--

4, 5, 6. Socrates. 9. Aristides, the orator. 10. Seneca (?). 16. Marcus Agrippa. 19. Theophrastus. 23. Thales. 25. Theon. 27. Pythagoras. 28. Alexander the Great(?). 30. Aristophanes. 31. Demosthenes. 38. Aratus. 39, 40. Democritus of Aldera. 42, 43. Euripides. 44, 45, 46. Homer. 47. Eumenides. 48. Cneius Domitius Corbulo, general under Claudius and Nero. 49. Scipio Africanus. 52. Cato Minor. 54. Aspasia(?). 55. Cleopatra (?). 60. Thucydides (?). 61. Æschines. 62, 64. Epicurus. 63. Epicurus and Metrodorus. 68, 69. Masinissa. 71. Antisthenes. 72, 73. Julian the Apostate. 75. Cicero. 76. Terence. 82. Æschylus (?).

Among the interesting bas-reliefs in this room is one of a Roman interior with a lady trying to persuade her cat to dance to a lyre--the cat, meanwhile, snapping, on its hind legs, at two ducks; the detail of the room is given--even to the slippers under the bed.

The Saloon contains, down the centre,

1. Jupiter (in nero-antico), from Porto d'Anzio, on an altar with figures of Mercury, Apollo, and Diana.

2, 4. Centaurs (in bigio-morato), by Aristeas and Papias (their names are on the bases), from Hadrian's villa.

3. The young Hercules, found on the Aventine. It stands on an altar of Jupiter.

"On voit au Capitole une statue d'Hercule très-jeune, en basalte, qui frappe assez désagréablement, d'abord, par le contraste, habilement exprimé toutefois, des formes molles de l'enfance et de la vigueur caractéristique du héros. L'imitation de la Grèce se montre même dans la matière que l'artiste a choisie; c'est un basalt verdâtre, de couleur sombre. Tisagoras et Alcon avaient fait un Hercule en fer, pour exprimer la force, et, comme dit Pline, pour signifier l'énergie persévérante de dieu."--Ampère, Hist. Rom. iii. 406.

5. Æsculapius (in nero-antico), on an altar, representing a sacrifice.

Among the statues and busts round the room the more important are:--

9. Marcus Aurelius.

14. A Satyr.

21. Hadrian, as Mars, from Ceprano.

24. Hercules, in gilt bronze, found in the Forum-Boarium (the columns on either side come from the tomb of Cecilia Metella).

"On cite de Myron trois Hercules, dont deux à Rome; l'un de ces derniers a probablement servi de modèle à l'Hercule en bronze doré du Capitole. Cette statue a été trouvée dans le marché aux Bœufs, non loin du grand cirque. L'Hercule de Myron était dans un temple élevé par Pompée et situé près du grand cirque; mais la statue du Capitole, dont le geste est maniéré, quel que soit son mérite, n'est pas assez parfaite qu'on puisse y reconnaître une œuvre de Myron. Peut-être Pompée n'avait placé dans son temple qu'une copie de l'un des deux Hercules de Myron et la donnait pour l'original; peut-être aussi Pline y a-t-il été trompé. La vanité que l'un montre dans tous les actes de sa vie et le peu de sentiment vrai que trahit si souvent la vaste composition de l'autre s'accordent également avec cette supposition et la rendent assez vraisemblable."--Ampère, Hist. Rom. iii. 273.

28. Hecuba.

"Nous avons le personnage même d'Hécube dans la Pleureuse du Capitole. Cette prétendué pleureuse est une Hécube furieuse et une Hécube en scène, car elle porte le costume, elle a le geste et la vivacité du théâtre, je dirais volontiers de la pantomime.... Son regard est tourné vers le ciel, sa bouche lance des imprécations; on voit qu'elle pourra faire entendre ces hurlements, ces aboiements de la douleur effrénée que l'antiquité voulut exprimer en supposant que la malheureuse Hécube avait été métamorphosée en chienne, une chienne à laquelle on a arraché ses petits."--Ampère, Hist. Rom. iii. 468.

31. Colossal bust of Antoninus Pius.

* * * * *

The Hall of the Faun derives its name from the famous Faun of rosso-antico, holding a bunch of grapes to his mouth, found in Hadrian's Villa. It stands on an altar dedicated to Serapis. Against the right wall is a magnificent sarcophagus, whose reliefs (much studied by Flaxman) represent the battle of Theseus and the Amazons. The opposite sarcophagus has a relief of Diana and Endymion. We should also notice--

15. A boy with a mask.

21. A boy with a goose (found near the Lateran).

Let into the wall is a black tablet--the Lex Regia, or Senatus-Consultum, conferring imperial powers upon Vespasian, being the very table upon which Rienzi declaimed in favour of the rights of the people.

* * * * *

The Hall of the Dying Gladiator contains the three gems of the collection--"the Gladiator," "the Antinous of the Capitol," and the "Faun of Praxiteles." Besides these, we should notice--2. Apollo with the lyre, and 9. a bust of M. Junius Brutus, the assassin of Julius Cæsar.

In the centre of the room is the grand statue of the wounded Gaul, generally known as the Dying Gladiator.

"I see before me the gladiator lie: He leans upon his hand--his manly brow Consents to death, but conquers agony, And his drooped head sinks gradually low,-- And through his side the last drops, ebbing slow From the red gash, fall heavy, one by one, Like the first of a thunder-shower; and now The arena swims around him--he is gone, Ere ceased the inhuman shout which hailed the wretch who won.

"He heard it, but he heeded not--his eyes Were with his heart, and that was far away; He reck'd not of the life he lost, nor prize, But where his rude hut by the Danube lay There were his young barbarians all at play, There was their Dacian mother--he, their sire, Butchered to make a Roman holiday. All this rushed with his blood--shall he expire, And unavenged? Arise, ye Goths, and glut your ire!"

Byron, Childe Harold.

It is delightful to read in this room the description in Transformation:--

"It was that room in the centre of which reclines the noble and most pathetic figure of the dying gladiator, just sinking into his death-swoon. Around the walls stand the Antinous, the Amazon, the Lycian Apollo, the Juno; all famous productions of antique sculpture, and still shining in the undiminished majesty and beauty of their ideal life, although the marble that embodies them is yellow with time, and perhaps corroded by the damp earth in which they lay buried for centuries. Here, likewise, is seen a symbol (as apt at this moment as it was two thousand years ago) of the Human Soul, with its choice of Innocence or Evil close at hand, in the pretty figure of a child, clasping a dove to her bosom, but assaulted by a snake.

"From one of the windows of this saloon, we may see a broad flight of stone steps, descending alongside the antique and massive foundation of the Capitol, towards the battered triumphal arch of Septimius Severus, right below. Farther on, the eye skirts along the edge of the desolate Forum (where Roman washerwomen hang out their linen to the sun), passing over a shapeless confusion of modern edifices, piled rudely up with ancient brick and stone, and over the domes of Christian churches, built on the old pavements of heathen temples, and supported by the very pillars that once upheld them. At a distance beyond--yet but a little way, considering how much history is heaped into the intervening space--rises the great sweep of the Coliseum, with the blue sky brightening through its upper tier of arches. Far off, the view is shut in by the Alban mountains, looking just the same, amid all this decay and change, as when Romulus gazed thitherward over his half-finished wall.

"In this chamber is the Faun of Praxiteles. It is the marble image of a young man, leaning his right arm on the trunk or stump of a tree: one hand hangs carelessly by his side, in the other he holds a fragment of a pipe, or some such sylvan instrument of music. His only garment, a lion's skin with the claws upon the shoulder, falls half-way down his back, leaving his limbs and entire front of the figure nude. The form, thus displayed, is marvellously graceful, but has a fuller and more rounded outline, more flesh, and less of heroic muscle, than the old sculptors were wont to assign to their types of masculine beauty. The character of the face corresponds with the figure; it is most agreeable in outline and feature, but rounded and somewhat voluptuously developed, especially about the throat and chin; the nose is almost straight, but very slightly curves inward, thereby acquiring an indescribable charm of geniality and humour. The mouth, with its full yet delicate lips, seems so really to smile outright, that it calls forth a responsive smile. The whole statue--unlike anything else that ever was wrought in the severe material of marble--conveys the idea of an amiable and sensual creature, easy, mirthful, apt for jollity, yet not incapable of being touched by pathos. It is impossible to gaze long at this stone image, without conceiving a kindly sentiment towards it, as if its substance were warm to the touch, and imbued with actual life. It comes very near to some of our pleasantest sympathies."--Hawthorne.

"Praxitèle avait dit à Phryné de choisir entre ses ouvrages celui qu'elle aimerait le mieux. Pour savoir lequel de ses chefs-d'œuvre l'artiste préférait, elle lui fit annoncer que le feu avait pris à son atelier. 'Sauvez, s'écria-t-il, mon Satyre et mon Amour!'"--Ampère, Hist. Rom. iii. 309.

The west or right side of the Capitoline Piazza is occupied by the Palace of the Conservators, which contains the Protomoteca, the Picture Gallery, and various other treasures.

The little court at the entrance is full of historical relics, including remains of two gigantic statues of Apollo; a colossal head of Domitian; and the marble pedestal, which once in the mausoleum of Augustus supported the cinerary urn of Agrippina, wife of Germanicus, with a very perfect inscription. In the opposite loggia are a statue of Rome Triumphant, and a group of a lion attacking a horse, found in the bed of the Almo. In the portico on the right is the only authentic statue of Julius Cæsar; on the left, a statue of Augustus, leaning against the rostrum of a galley, in allusion to the battle of Actium.

The Protomoteca, a suite of eight rooms on the ground floor, contains a collection of busts of eminent Italians, with a few foreigners considered as naturalised by a long residence in Rome. Those in the second room, representing artists of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, were entirely executed at the expense of Canova.

At the foot of the staircase is a restoration by Michael Angelo of the column of Caius Duilius. On the upper flight of the staircase is a bas-relief of Curtius leaping into the gulf, here represented as a marsh.

"Un bas-relief d'un travail ancien, dont le style ressemble à celui des figures peintes sur les vases dits archaïques, représente Curtius engagé dans son marais; le cheval baisse la tête et flaire le marécage, qui est indiqué par des roseaux. Le guerrier penché en avant, presse sa monture. On a vivement, en présence de cette curieuse sculpture, le sentiment d'un incident héroïque probablement réel, et en même temps de l'aspect primitif du lieu qui en fut témoin."--Ampère, Hist. Rom. i. 321.

On the first and second landings are magnificent reliefs, representing events in the life of Marcus Aurelius, Imp., belonging to the arch dedicated to him, which was wantonly destroyed, in order to widen the Corso, by Alexander VII.

"Jusqu'au lègne de Commode Rome est représentée par une Amazone; dans l'escalier du palais des Conservateurs, Rome, en tunique courte d'Amazone et le globe à la main, reçoit Marc Aurèle; le globe dans la main de Rome date de César."--Ampère, iii. 242.

The Halls of the Conservators consist of eight rooms. The 1st, painted in fresco from the history of the Roman kings, by the Cavaliere d'Arpino, contains statues of Urban VIII., by Bernini; Leo X., by the Sicilian Giacomo della Duca;[41] and Innocent X., in bronze, by Algardi. The 2nd room, adorned with subjects from republican history by Lauretti, has statues of modern Roman generals--Marc Antonio Colonna, Tommaso Rospigliosi, Francesco Aldobrandini, Carlo Barberini, brother of Urban VIII., and Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma. The 3rd room, painted by Daniele di Volterra, with subjects from the wars with the Cimbri, contains the famous Bronze Wolf of the Capitol, one of the most interesting relics in the city. The figure of the wolf is of unknown antiquity; those of Romulus and Remus are modern. It has been doubted whether this is the wolf described by Dionysius as "an ancient work of brass" standing in the temple of Romulus under the Palatine, or the wolf described by Cicero, who speaks of a little gilt figure of the founder of the city sucking the teats of a wolf. The Ciceronian wolf was struck by lightning in the time of the great orator, and a fracture in the existing figure, attributed to lightning, is adduced in proof of its identity with it.

"Geminos huic ubera circum Ludere pendentes pueros, et lambere matrem Impavidos: illam tereti cervice reflexam Mulcere alternos, et corpora fingere lingua."

Virgil, Æn. viii. 632.

"And thou, the thunder-stricken nurse of Rome! She-wolf! whose brazen-imaged dugs impart The milk of conquest yet within the dome Where, as a monument of antique art, Thou standest:--mother of the mighty heart, Which the great founder sucked from thy wild teat, Scorch'd by the Roman Jove's ethereal dart, And thy limbs black with lightning--dost thou yet Guard thy immortal cubs, nor thy fond charge forget?"

Byron, Childe Harold.

Standing near the wolf is the well-known and beautiful figure of a boy extracting a thorn from his foot, called the Shepherd Martius.

"La ressemblance du type si fin de l'Apollon au lézard et du charmant bronze du Capitole le tíreur d'épine est trop frappante pour qu'on puisse se refuser à voir dans celui-ci une inspiration de Praxitèle ou de son école. C'est tout simplement un enfant arrachant de son pied une épine qui l'a blessé, sujet naïf et champêtre analogue au Satyre se faisant rendre ce service par un autre Satyre. On a voulu y voir un athlète blessé par une épine pendant sa course et qui n'en est pas moins arrivé au but; mais la figure est trop jeune et n'a rien d'athlétique. Le moyen âge avait donné aussi son explication et inventé sa legende. On raccontait qu'un jeune berger, envoyé à la découverte de l'ennemi, était revenu sans s'arrêter et ne s'était permis qu'alors d'arracher une épine qui lui blessait le pied. Le moyen âge avait senti le charme de cette composition qu'il interprétait à sa manière, car elle est sculptée sur un arceau de la cathédrale de Zurich qui date du siècle de Charlemagne."--Ampère, iii. 315.

Forming part of the decorations of this room are two fine pictures, a dead Christ with a monk praying, and Sta. Francesca Romana, by Romanelli. Near the door of exit is a bust said to be that of Junius Brutus.

"Il est permis de voir dans le buste du Capitole un vrai portrait de Brutus; il est difficile d'en douter en le contemplant. Voilà bien le visage farouche, la barbe hirsute, les cheveux roides collés si rudement sur le front, la physiognomie inculte et terrible du prémier consul romain; la bouche serrée respire la détermination et l'énergie; les yeux, formés d'une matière jaunâtre, se détachent en clair sur le bronze noirci par les siècles et vous jettent un regard fixe et farouche. Tout près est la louve de bronze. Brutus est de la même famille. On sent qu'il y a du lait de cette louve dans les veines du second fondateur de Rome, comme dans les veines du premier, et que lui aussi, pareil au Romulus de la légende, marchera vers son but à travers le sang des siens.

"Le buste de Brutus est placé sur un piédestal qui le met à la hauteur du regard. Là, dans un coin sombre, j'ai passé bien des moments face à face avec l'impitoyable fondateur de la liberté romaine."--Ampère, Hist. Rom. ii. 270.

The 4th Room contains the Fasti Consulares, tables found near the temple of Minerva Chalcidica, and inscribed with the names of public officers from Romulus to Augustus. The 5th Room contains two bronze ducks (formerly shown as the sacred geese of the Capitol) and a female head--found in the gardens of Sallust, a bust of Medusa, by Bernini, and many others. The 6th, or Throne Room, hung with faded tapestry, has a frieze in fresco, by Annibale Caracci, representing the triumphs of Scipio Africanus. The 7th Room is painted by Daniele da Volterra(?) with the history of the Punic Wars. The 8th Room (now used as a passage) is a chapel, containing a lovely fresco, by Pinturicchio, of the Madonna and Child with Angels.

"The Madonna is seated enthroned, fronting the spectator; her large mantle forms a grand cast of drapery; the child on her lap sleeps in the loveliest attitude; she folds her hands and looks down, quiet, serious, and beautiful: in the clouds are two adoring angels."--Kugler.

The four Evangelists are by Caravaggio; the pictures of Roman saints (Cecilia, Alexis, Eustachio, Francesca-Romana), by Romanelli.

By the same staircase, passing on the left a wonderful relief of the apotheosis of the wicked Faustina, we may arrive at the Picture Gallery of the Capitol (which can also be approached by a separate staircase, entered from an alley at the back of the building), reached by two rooms inscribed with the names of the Roman Conservators from the middle of the sixteenth century. This gallery contains very few first-rate pictures, but has a beautiful St. Sebastian, by Guido, and several fine works of Guercino. The most noticeable pictures are--

1st Room.--

2. Disembodied Spirit (unfinished): Guido Reni. 13. St. John Baptist: Guercino. 16. Mary Magdalene: Guido Reni. 20. The Cumæan Sibyl: Domenichino. 26. Mary Magdalene: Tintoretto. 27. Presentation in the Temple: Fra. Bartolomeo. 30. Holy Family: Garofalo. 52. Madonna and Saints: Botticelli? 61. Portrait of himself: Guido Reni. 78. Madonna and Saints: F. Francia, 1513. 80. Portrait: Velasquez. 87. St. Augustine: Giovanni Bellini. 89. Romulus and Remus: Rubens.

2nd Room.--

100. Two male portraits: Vandyke. 104. Adoration of the Shepherds: Mazzolino. 106. Two Portraits: Vandyke. 116. St. Sebastian: Guido Reni. 117. Cleopatra and Augustus: Guercino. 119. St. Sebastian: Lud. Caracci. 128. Gipsy telling a fortune: Caravaggio. 132. Portrait: Giovanni Bellini. 134. Portrait of Michael Angelo: M. Venusti? 136. Petrarch: Gio. Bellini? 142. Nativity of the Virgin: Albani. 143. Sta. Petronilla: Guercino. An enormous picture, brought hither from St. Peter's, where it has been replaced by a mosaic copy. The composition is divided into two parts. The lower represents the burial of Sta. Petronilla, the upper the ascension of her spirit.

"The Apostle Peter had a daughter, born in lawful wedlock, who accompanied him in his journey from the East. Petronilla was wonderfully fair; and Valerius Flaccus, a young and noble Roman, who was a heathen, became enamoured of her beauty, and sought her for his wife; and he, being very powerful, she feared to refuse him; she therefore desired him to return in three days, and promised that he should then carry her home. But she prayed earnestly to be delivered from this peril; and when Flaccus returned in three days, with great pomp, to celebrate the marriage, he found her dead. The company of nobles who attended him, carried her to the grave, in which they laid her, crowned with roses; and Flaccus lamented greatly."--Mrs. Jameson, from the Perfetto Legendario.

199. Death and Assumption of the Virgin: Cola della Matrice.

"Here the death of the Virgin is treated at once in a mystical and dramatic style. Enveloped in a dark blue mantle, spangled with golden stars, she lies extended on a couch; St. Peter, in a splendid scarlet cope as bishop, reads the service; St. John, holding the palm, weeps bitterly. In front, and kneeling before the couch or bier, appear the three great Dominican saints as witnesses of the religious mystery; in the centre St. Dominic; on the left, St. Catherine of Siena; and on the right, St. Thomas Aquinas. In a compartment above is the Assumption."--Jameson's Legends of the Madonna, p. 315.

123. Virgin and Angels: Paul Veronese. 124. Rape of Europa: Paul Veronese.

At the head of the Capitol steps, to the right of the terrace, is the entrance to the Palazzo Caffarelli, the residence of the Prussian minister. It has a small but beautiful garden, and the view from the windows is magnificent.

"After dinner, Bunsen called for us, and took us first to his house on the Capitol, the different windows of which command the different views of ancient and modern Rome. Never shall I forget the view of the former; we looked down on the Forum, and just opposite were the Palatine and the Aventine, with the ruins of the Palace of the Cæsars on the one, and houses intermixed with gardens on the other. The mass of the Coliseum rose beyond the Forum, and beyond all, the wide plain of the Campagna to the sea. On the left rose the Alban hills, bright in the setting sun, which played full upon Frescati and Albano, and the trees which edge the lake, and further away in the distance, it lit up the old town of Labicum."--Arnold's Letters.

From the further end of the courtyard of the Caffarelli Palace one can look down upon part of the bare cliff of the Rupe Tarpeia. Here there existed till 1868 a small court, which is represented as the scene of the murder in Hawthorne's Marble Faun, or "Transformation." The door, the niche in the wall, and all other details mentioned in the novel, were realities. The character of the place is now changed by the removal of the boundary-wall. The part of the rock seen from here is that usually visited from below by the Via Tor de' Specchi.

To reach the principal portion of the south-eastern height of the Capitol, we must ascend the staircase beyond the Palace of the Conservators, on the right. Here we shall find ourselves upon the highest part of

"The Tarpeian rock, the citadel Of great and glorious Rome, queen of the earth, So far renown'd, and with the spoils enriched Of nations." Paradise Regained.

"The steep Tarpeian, fittest goal of treason's race, The promontory whence the traitor's leap Cured all ambition." Childe Harold.

The dirty lane, with its shabby houses, and grass-grown spaces, and filthy children, has little to remind one of the appearance of the hill as seen by Virgil and Propertius, who speak of the change in their time from an earlier aspect.

"Hinc ad Tarpeiam sedem, et Capitolia ducit, Aurea nunc, olim, silvestribus horrida dumis, Jam tum religio pavidos terrebat agrestes Dira loci; jam tum silvam saxumque tremebant." Virgil, Æn. viii. 347.

"Hoc quodcumque vides, hospes, qua maxima Roma est, Ante Phrygem Aeneam collis et herba fuit." Propertius, iv. eleg. I.

It was on this side that the different attacks were made upon the Capitol. The first was by the Sabine Herdonius at the head of a band of slaves, who scaled the heights and surprised the garrison, in B.C. 460, and from the heights of the citadel proclaimed freedom to all slaves who should join him, with abolition of debts, and defence of the plebs from their oppressors; but his offers were disregarded, and on the fourth day the Capitol was re-taken, and he was slain with nearly all his followers. The second attack was by the Gauls, who, according to the well-known story, climbed the rock near the Porta Carmentale, and had nearly reached the summit unobserved--for the dogs neglected to bark--when the cries of the sacred geese of Juno aroused an officer named Manlius, who rushed to the defence, and hurled over the precipice the first assailant, who dragged down others in his fall, and thus the Capitol was saved. In remembrance of this incident, a goose was annually carried in triumph, and a dog annually crucified upon the Capitol, between the temple of Summanus and that of Youth.[42] This was the same Manlius, the friend of the people, who was afterwards condemned by the patricians on pretext that he wished to make himself king, and thrown from the Tarpeian rock, on the same spot, in sight of the Forum, where Spurius Cassius, an ex-consul, had been thrown down before. To visit the part of the rock from which these executions must have taken place, it is necessary to enter a little garden near the German Hospital, whence there is a beautiful view of the river and the Aventine.

"Quand on veut visiter la roche Tarpéienne, on sonne à une porte de peu d'apparence, sur laquelle sont écrits ces mots: Rocca Tarpeia. Une pauvre femme arrive et vous mène dans un carré de choux. C'est de là qu'on précipita Manlius. Je serais desolé que le carré de choux manquât."--Ampère, Portraits de Rome.

This side of the Intermontium is now generally known as Monte Caprino, a name which Ampère derives from the fact that Vejovis, the Etruscan ideal of Jupiter, was always represented with a goat.[43] On this side of the hill, the viaduct from the Palatine, built by Caligula (who affected to require it to facilitate communication with his friend Jupiter), joined the Capitoline.

We have still to examine the north-eastern height, the site of the most interesting of pagan temples, now occupied by one of the most interesting of Christian churches. The name of the famous Church of Ara-Cœli is generally attributed to an altar erected by Augustus to commemorate the Delphic oracle respecting the coming of our Saviour, which is still recognised in the well-known hymn of the Church:

Teste David cum Sibylla.[44]

The altar bore the inscription "Ara Primogeniti Dei." Those who seek a more humble origin for the church, say that the name merely dates from mediæval times, when it was called "Sta, Maria in Aurocœlio." It originally belonged to the Benedictine Order, but was transferred to the Franciscans by Innocent IV. in 1252, since which time its convent has occupied an important position as the residence of the General of the Minor Franciscans (Grey-friars), and is the centre of religious life in that Order.

The staircase on the left of the Senators' palace, which leads to the side entrance of Ara-Cœli, is in itself full of historical associations. It was at its head that Valerius the consul was killed in the conflict with Herdonius for the possession of the Capitol. It was down the ancient steps on this site that Annius, the envoy of the Latins, fell (B.C. 340), and was nearly killed, after his audacious proposition in the temple of Jupiter, that the Latins and Romans should become one nation, and have a common senate and consuls. Here also,[45] in B.C. 133, Tiberius Gracchus was knocked down with the leg of a chair, and killed in front of the temple of Jupiter.

It is at the top of these steps, that the monks of Ara-Cœli, who are celebrated as dentists, perform their hideous, but useful and gratuitous operations, which may be witnessed here every morning!

Over the side entrance of Ara-Cœli is a beautiful mosaic of the Virgin and Child. This, with the ancient brick arches above, framing fragments of deep blue sky--and the worn steps below--forms a subject dear to Roman artists, and is often introduced as a background to groups of monks and peasants. The interior of the church is vast, solemn, and highly picturesque. It was here, as Gibbon himself tells us, that on the 15th of October, 1764, as he sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the bare-footed friars were singing vespers, the idea of writing the "Decline and Fall" of the city first started to his mind.

"As we lift the great curtain and push into the church, a faint perfume of incense salutes the nostrils. The golden sunset bursts in as the curtain of the (west) door sways forward, illuminates the mosaic floor, catches on the rich golden ceiling, and flashes here and there over the crowd (gathered in Epiphany), on some brilliant costume or closely shaven head. All sorts of people are thronging there, some kneeling before the shrine of the Madonna, which gleams with its hundreds of silver votive hearts, legs, and arms, some listening to the preaching, some crowding round the chapel of the Presepio. Old women, haggard and wrinkled, come tottering along with their scaldini of coals, drop down on their knees to pray, and, as you pass, interpolate in their prayers a parenthesis of begging. The church is not architecturally handsome, but it is eminently picturesque, with its relics of centuries, its mosaic pulpits and floors, its frescoes of Pinturicchio and Pesaro, its antique columns, its rich golden ceiling, its gothic mausoleum to the Savelli, and its mediæval tombs. A dim, dingy look is over all--but it is the dimness of faded splendour; and one cannot stand there, knowing the history of the church, its great antiquity, and the varied fortunes it has known, without a peculiar sense of interest and pleasure.

"It was here that Romulus in the grey dawning of Rome built the temple of Jupiter Feretrius. Here the spolia opima were deposited. Here the triumphal processions of the emperors and generals ended. Here the victors paused before making their vows, until, from the Mamertine prisons below, the message came to announce that their noblest prisoner and victim--while the clang of their triumph and his defeat rose ringing in his ears, as the procession ascended the steps--had expiated with death the crime of being the enemy of Rome. On the steps of Ara-Cœli, nineteen centuries ago, the first great Cæsar climbed on his knees after his first triumph. At their base, Rienzi, the last of the Roman tribunes, fell--and if the tradition of the Church is to be trusted, it was on the site of the present high altar that Augustus erected the 'Ara Primogeniti Dei,' to commemorate the Delphic prophecy of the coming of our Saviour. Standing on a spot so thronged with memories, the dullest imagination takes fire. The forms and scenes of the past rise from their graves and pass before us, and the actual and visionary are mingled together in strange poetic confusion."--Roba di Roma, i. 73.

The floor of the church is of the ancient mosaic known as Opus Alexandrinum. The nave is separated from the aisles by twenty-two ancient columns, of which two are of cipollino, two of white marble, and eighteen of Egyptian granite. They are of very different forms and sizes, and have probably been collected from various pagan edifices. The inscription "A Cubiculo Augustorum" upon the third column on the left of the nave, shows that it was brought from the Palace of the Cæsars. The windows in this church are amongst the few in Rome which show traces of gothic. At the end of the nave, on either side, are two ambones, marking the position of the choir before it was extended to its present site in the sixteenth century.

The transepts are full of interesting monuments. That on the right is the burial-place of the great family of Savelli, and contains--on the left, the monument of Luca Savelli, 1266 (father of Pope Honorius IV.) and his son Pandolfo,--an ancient and richly sculptured sarcophagus, to which a gothic canopy was added by Agostino and Agnolo da Siena from designs of Giotto. Opposite, is the tomb of the mother of Honorius, Vana Aldobrandesca, upon which is the statue of the pope himself, removed from his monument in the old St. Peter's by Paul III.

On the left of the high altar is the tomb of Cardinal Gianbattista Savelli, ob. 1498, and near it--in the pavement, the half-effaced gravestone of Sigismondo Conti, whose features are so familiar to us from his portrait introduced into the famous picture of the Madonna di Foligno, which was painted by Raphael at his order, and presented by him to this church, where it remained over the high altar, till 1565, when his great niece Anna became a nun at the convent of the Contesse at Foligno, and was allowed to carry it away with her. In the east transept is another fine gothic tomb, that of Cardinal Matteo di Acquasparta (1302), a General of the Franciscans mentioned by Dante for his wise and moderate rule.[46] The quaint chapel in the middle of this transept, now dedicated to St. Helena, is supposed to occupy the site of the "Ara Primogeniti Dei."

Upon the pier near the ambone of the gospel is the monument of Queen Catherine of Bosnia, who died at Rome in 1478, bequeathing her states to the Roman Church on condition of their reversion to her son, who had embraced Mahommedanism, if he should return to the Catholic faith. Near this, upon the transept wall, is the tomb of Felice de Fredis, ob. 1529, upon which it is recorded that he was the finder of the Laocoon. The Chapel of the Annunciation, opening from the west isle, has a tomb to G. Crivelli, by Donatello, bearing his signature, "Opus Donatelli Florentini." The Chapel of Santa Croce is the burial-place of the Ponziani family, and was the scene of the celebrated ecstasy of the favourite Roman saint Francesca Romana.

"The mortal remains of Vanozza Ponziani (sister-in-law of Francesca) were laid in the church of Ara-Cœli, in the chapel of Santa Croce. The Roman people resorted there in crowds to behold once more their loved benefactress--the mother of the poor, the consoler of the afflicted. All strove to carry away some little memorial of one who had gone about among them doing good, and during the three days which preceded the interment, the concourse did not abate. On the day of the funeral Francesca knelt on one side of the coffin, and, in sight of all the crowd, she was wrapped in ecstasy. They saw her body lifted from the ground, and a seraphic expression in her uplifted face. They heard her murmur several times with an indescribable emphasis the word 'Quando? Quando?' When all was over, she still remained immoveable; it seemed as if her soul had risen on the wings of prayer, and followed Vanozza's spirit into the realms of bliss. At last her confessor ordered her to rise and go and attend on the sick. She instantly complied, and walked away to the hospital which she had founded, apparently unconscious of everything about her, and only roused from her trance by the habit of obedience, which, in or out of ecstasy, never forsook her."--Lady Georgiana Fullerton's Life of Sta. Fr. Romana.

There are several good pictures over the altars in the aisles of Ara-Cœli. In the Chapel of St Margaret of Cortona are frescoes illustrative of her life by Filippo Evangelisti,--in that of S. Antonio, frescoes by Nicola da Pesaro;--but no one should omit visiting the first chapel on the right of the west door, dedicated to S. Bernardino of Siena, and painted by Bernardino Pinturicchio, who has put forth his best powers to do honour to his patron saint with a series of exquisite frescoes, representing his assuming the monastic habit, his preaching, his vision of the Saviour, his penitence, death, and burial.

Almost opposite this--closed except during Epiphany--is the Chapel of the Presepio, where the famous image of the Santissimo Bambino d'Ara Cœli is shown at that season lying in a manger.

"The simple meaning of the term Presepio is a manger; but it is also used in the Church to signify a representation of the birth of Christ. In the Ara-Cœli the whole of one of the side-chapels is devoted to this exhibition. In the foreground is a grotto, in which is seated the Virgin Mary, with Joseph at her side and the miraculous Bambino in her lap. Immediately behind are an ass and an ox. On one side kneel the shepherds and kings in adoration; and above, God the Father is seen surrounded by crowds of cherubs and angels playing on instruments, as in the early pictures of Raphael. In the background is a scenic representation of a pastoral landscape, on which all the skill of the scene-painter is expended. Shepherds guard their flocks far away, reposing under palm-trees or standing on green slopes which glow in the sunshine. The distances and perspective are admirable. In the middle ground is a crystal fountain of glass, near which sheep, preternaturally white, and made of real wool and cotton wool, are feeding, tended by figures of shepherds carved in wood. Still nearer come women bearing great baskets of real oranges and other fruits on their heads. All the nearer figures are full-sized, carved in wood, painted, and dressed in appropriate robes. The miraculous Bambino is a painted doll swaddled in a white dress, which is crusted over with magnificent diamonds, emeralds, and rubies. The Virgin also wears in her ears superb diamond pendants. The general effect of the scenic show is admirable, and crowds flock to it and press about it all day long.

"While this is taking place on one side of the church, on the other is a very different and quite as singular an exhibition. Around one of the antique columns a stage is erected, from which little maidens are reciting, with every kind of pretty gesticulation, sermons, dialogues, and little speeches, in explanation of the Presepio opposite. Sometimes two of them are engaged in alternate questions and answers about the mysteries of the Incarnation and the Redemption. Sometimes the recitation is a piteous description of the agony of the Saviour and the sufferings of the Madonna, the greatest stress being, however, always laid upon the latter. All these little speeches have been written for them by their priest or some religious friend, committed to memory, and practised with appropriate gestures over and over again at home. Their little piping voices are sometimes guilty of such comic breaks and changes, that the crowd about them rustles into a murmurous laughter. Sometimes, also, one of the little preachers has a dispetto, pouts, shakes her shoulders, and refuses to go on with her part; another, however, always stands ready on the platform to supply the vacancy, until friends have coaxed, reasoned, or threatened the little pouter into obedience. These children are often very beautiful and graceful, and their comical little gestures and intonations, their clasping of hands and rolling up of eyes, have a very amusing and interesting effect."--Story's Roba di Roma.

At other times the Bambino dwells in the inner Sacristy, where it can be visited by admiring pilgrims. It is a fresh-coloured doll, tightly swathed in gold and silver tissue, crowned, and sparkling with jewels. It has servants of its own, and a carriage in which it drives out with its attendants, and goes to visit the sick. Devout peasants always kneel as the blessed infant passes. Formerly it was taken to sick persons and left on their beds for some hours, in the hope that it would work a miracle. Now it is never left alone. In explanation of this, it is said that an audacious woman formed the design of appropriating to herself the holy image and its benefits. She had another doll prepared of the same size and appearance as the "Santissimo," and having feigned sickness, and obtained permission to have it left with her, she dressed the false image in its clothes, and sent it back to Ara-Cœli. The fraud was not discovered till night, when the Franciscan monks were awakened by the most furious ringing of bells and by thundering knocks at the west door of the church, and hastening thither could see nothing but a wee naked pink foot peeping in from under the door; but when they opened the door, without stood the little naked figure of the true Bambino of Ara-Cœli, shivering in the wind and the rain,--so the false baby was sent back in disgrace, and the real baby restored to its home, never to be trusted away alone any more.

In the sacristy is the following inscription relating to the Bambino:--

"Ad hoc sacellum Ara Cœli a festo nativitatis domini usque ad festum Epiphaniæ magna populi frequentia invisitur et colitur in presepio Christi nati infantuli simulacrum ex oleæ ligno apud montem olivarum Hierosolymis a quodam devoto Minorita sculptum eo animo, ut ad hoc festum celebrandum deportaretur. De quo in primis hoc accidit, quod deficiente colore inter barbaras gentes ad plenam infantuli figurationem et formam, devotus et anxius artifex, professione laicus, precibus et orationibus impetravit, ut sacrum simulacrum divinitus carneo colore perfunctum reperiretur. Cumque navi Italiam veheretur, facto naufragio apud Tusciæ oras, simulacri capsa Liburnum appulit. Ex quo, recognita, expectabatur, enim a Fratribus, et jam fama illius a Hierosolymis ad nostras familiæ partes advenerat, ad destinatam sibi Capitolii sedem devenit. Fertur etiam, quod aliquando ex nimia devotione à quadam devota fœmina sublatum ad suas ædes miraculosè remeaverit. Quapropter in maxima veneratione semper est habitum a Romanis civibus, et universo populo donatum monilibus, et jocalibus pretiosis, liberalioribusque in dies prosequitur oblationibus."

The outer Sacristy contains a fine picture of the Holy Family by Giulio Romano.

The scene on the long flight of steps which leads to the west door of Ara-Cœli is very curious during Epiphany.

"If any one visit the Ara-Cœli during an afternoon in Christmas or Epiphany, the scene is very striking. The flight of one hundred and twenty-four steps is then thronged by merchants of Madonna wares, who spread them out over the steps and hang them against the walls and balustrades. Here are to be seen all sorts of curious little coloured prints of the Madonna and Child of the most extraordinary quality, little bags, pewter medals, and crosses stamped with the same figures and to be worn on the neck--all offered at once for the sum of one baiocco. Here also are framed pictures of the saints, of the Nativity, and in a word of all sorts of religious subjects appertaining to the season. Little wax dolls, clad in cotton-wool to represent the Saviour, and sheep made of the same materials, are also sold by the basket-full. Children and Contadini are busy buying them, and there is a deafening roar all up and down the steps, of 'Mezzo baiocco, bello colorito, mezzo baiocco, la Santissima Concezione Incoronata,'--'Diario Romano, Lunario Romano nuovo,'--'Ritratto colorito, medaglia e quadruccio, un baiocco tutti, un baiocco tutti,'--'Bambinella di cera, un baiocco.' None of the prices are higher than one baiocco, except to strangers, and generally several articles are held up together, enumerated, and proffered with a loud voice for this sum. Meanwhile men, women, children, priests, beggars, soldiers, and villani are crowding up and down, and we crowd with them."--Roba di Roma, i. 72.

"On the sixth of January the lofty steps of Ara-Cœli looked like an ant-hill, so thronged were they with people. Men and boys who sold little books (legends and prayers), rosaries, pictures of saints, medallions, chestnuts, oranges, and other things, shouted and made a great noise. Little boys and girls were still preaching zealously in the church, and people of all classes were crowding thither. Processions advanced with the thundering cheerful music of the fire-corps. Il Bambino, a painted image of wood, covered with jewels, and with a yellow crown on its head, was carried by a monk in white gloves, and exhibited to the people from a kind of altar-like erection at the top of the Ara-Cœli steps. Everybody dropped down upon their knees; Il Bambino was shown on all sides, the music thundered, and the smoking censers were swung."--Frederika Bremer.

The Convent of Ara-Cœli contains much that is picturesque and interesting. S. Giovanni Capistrano was abbot here in the reign of Eugenius IV.

Let us now descend from the Capitoline Piazza towards the Forum, by the staircase on the left of the Palace of the Senator. Close to the foot of this staircase is a church, very obscure-looking, with some rude frescoes on the exterior. Yet every one must enter this building, for here are the famous Mamertine Prisons, excavated from the solid rock under the Capitol.

The prisons are entered through the low Church of S. Pietro in Carcere, hung round with votive offerings and blazing with lamps.

"There is an upper chamber in the Mamertine Prisons, over what is said to have been--and very possibly may have been--the dungeon of St. Peter. The chamber is now fitted up as an oratory, dedicated to that saint; and it lives, as a distinct and separate place, in my recollection, too. It is very small and low-roofed; and the dread and gloom of the ponderous, obdurate old prison are on it, as if they had come up in a dark mist through the floor. Hanging on the walls, among the clustered votive offerings, are objects, at once strangely in keeping and strangely at variance with the place--rusty daggers, knives, pistols, clubs, divers instruments of violence and murder, brought here, fresh from use, and hung up to propitiate offended Heaven; as if the blood upon them would drain off in consecrated air, and have no voice to cry with. It is all so silent and so close, and tomblike; and the dungeons below are so black, and stealthy, and stagnant, and naked; that this little dark spot becomes a dream within a dream: and in the vision of great churches which come rolling past me like a sea, it is a small wave by itself, that melts into no other wave, and does not flow on with the rest."--Dickens.

Enclosed in the church, near the entrance, may be observed the outer frieze of the prison wall, with the inscription C. TIBIUS. C. F. RUFINUS. M.. COCCEIUS. NERVA. COS. EX. S. C., recording the names of two consuls of A.D. 22, who are supposed to have repaired the prison. Juvenal's description of the time when one prison was sufficient for all the criminals in Rome naturally refers to this building:

"Felices proavorum atavos, felicia dicas Sæcula, quæ quondam sub regibus atque tribunis Viderunt uno contentam carcere Romam."

Sat. iii. 312.

A modern staircase leads to the horrible dungeon of Ancus Martius, sixteen feet in height, thirty in length, and twenty-two in breadth. Originally there was no staircase, and the prisoners were let down there, and thence into the lower dungeon, through a hole in the middle of the ceiling. The large door at the side is a modern innovation, having been opened to admit the vast mass of pilgrims during the festa. The whole prison is constructed of huge blocks of tufa without cement. Some remains are shown of the Scalæ Gemoniæ, so called from the groans of the prisoners--by which the bodies were dragged forth to be exposed to the insults of the populace or to be thrown into the Tiber. It was by this staircase that Cicero came forth and announced the execution of the Catiline conspirators to the people in the Forum, by the single word Vixerunt, "they have ceased to live." Close to the exit of these stairs the Emperor Vitellius was murdered. On the wall by which you descend to the lower dungeon is a mark, kissed by the faithful, as the spot against which St. Peter's head rested. The lower prison, called Robur, is constructed of huge blocks of tufa, fastened together by cramps of iron and approaching horizontally to a common centre in the roof. It has been attributed from early times to Servius Tullius; but Ampère[47] argues against the idea that the lower prison was of later origin than the upper, and suggests that it is Pelasgic, and older than any other building in Rome. It is described by Livy, and by Sallust, who depicts its horrors in his account of the execution of the Catiline conspirators.[48] The spot is shown to which these victims were attached and strangled in turn. In this dungeon, at an earlier period, Appius Claudius and Oppius the decemvirs committed suicide (B.C. 449). Here Jugurtha, king of Mauritania, was starved to death by Marius. Here Julius Cæsar, during his triumph for the conquest of Gaul, caused his gallant enemy Vercingetorix to be put to death. Here Sejanus, the friend and minister of Tiberius, disgraced too late, was executed for the murder of Drusus, son of the emperor, and for an intrigue with his daughter-in-law, Livilla. Here, also, Simon Bar-Gioras, the last defender of Jerusalem, suffered during the triumph of Titus.

The spot is more interesting to the Christian world as the prison of SS. Peter and Paul, who are said to have been bound for nine months to a pillar, which is shown here. A fountain of excellent water, beneath the floor of the prison, is attributed to the prayers of St. Peter, that he might have wherewith to baptize his gaolers, Processus and Martinianus; but, unfortunately for this ecclesiastical tradition, the fountain is described by Plutarch as having existed at the time of Jugurtha's imprisonment This fountain probably gave the dungeon the name of Tullianum, by which it was sometimes known, tullius meaning a spring.[49] This name probably gave rise to the idea of its connection with Servius Tullius.

It is hence that the Roman Catholic Church believes that St. Peter and St Paul addressed their farewells to the Christian world.

That of St. Peter:--

"Shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me. Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.... Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."--2nd St. Peter.

That of St. Paul:--

"God hath not given us a spirit of fear.... Be not thou, therefore, ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.... I suffer trouble as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound. Therefore I endure all things, for the elect's sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus.... I charge thee by God and by the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead ... preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine; ... watch in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."--2nd Timothy.

On July 4, the prisons are the scene of a picturesque solemnity, when they are visited at night by the religious confraternities, who first kneel and then prostrate themselves in silent devotion.

Above the Church of S. Pietro in Carcere, is that of S. Giuseppe del Falegnami, St. Joseph of the Carpenters.

"Pourquoi les guides et les antiquaires qui nous ont si souvent montré la voie triomphale qui mène au Capitale et nous en ont tant de fois énuméré les souvenirs; pourquoi aucun d'eux ne nous a-t-il jamais parlé de ce qui survint le jour du triomphe de Titus, là-bas, près des prisons Mamertines? Laisse-moi vous rappeler que ce jour-là le triomphateur, au moment de monter au temple, devant verser le sang d'une victime, s'arrêta à cette place, tandis que l'on détachait de son cortége un captif de plus haute taille et plus richement vêtu que les autres, et qu'on l'emmenait dans cette prison pour y achever son supplice avec le lacet même qu'il portait autour du cou. Ce ne fût qu'après cette immolation que le cortége reprit sa marche et acheva de monter jusqu'au Capitole! Ce captif dont on ne daigne nous parler, c'était Simon Bar-Gioras; c'était un des trois derniers défenseurs de Jérusalem; c'était un de ceux qui la défendirent jusqu'au bout, mais hélas! qui la défendirent comme des démons maîtres d'une âme de laquelle ils ne veulent pas se laisser chasser, et non point comme des champions héroïques d'une cause sacrée et perdue. Aussi cette grandeur que la seule infortune suffit souvent pour donner, elle manque à la calamité la plus grande que le monde ait vue, et les noms attachés à cette immense catastrophe ne demeurèrent pas même fameux! Jean de Giscala, Eléazar, Simon Bar-Gioras; qui pense à eux aujourd'hui? L'univers entier proclame et vénère les noms de deux pauvres juifs qui, quatre ans auparavant, dans cette même prison, avaient eux aussi attendu la supplice; mais le malheur, le courage, la mort tragique des autres, ne leur ont point donné la gloire, et un dédaigneux oubli les a effacés de la mémoire des hommes!"--(Anne Severin) Mrs. Augustus Craven.

"Along the sacred way Hither the triumph came, and, winding round With acclamation, and the martial clang Of instruments, and cars laden with spoil, Stopped at the sacred stair that then appeared, Then thro' the darkness broke, ample, star-bright, As tho' it led to heaven. 'Twas night; but now A thousand torches, turning night to day, Blazed, and the victor, springing from his seat, Went up, and, kneeling as in fervent prayer, Entered the Capitol. But what are they Who at the foot withdraw, a mournful train In fetters? And who, yet incredulous, Now gazing wildly round, now on his sons, On those so young, well pleased with all they see, Staggers along, the last? They are the fallen, Those who were spared to grace the chariot-wheels; And there they parted, where the road divides, The victor and the vanquished--there withdrew; He to the festal board, and they to die. "Well might the great, the mighty of the world, They who were wont to fare deliciously And war but for a kingdom more or less, Shrink back, nor from their thrones endure to look, To think that way! Well might they in their pomp Humble themselves, and kneel and supplicate To be delivered from a dream like this!"

Rogers' Italy.

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IV. THE FORUMS AND THE COLISEUM

Forum of Trajan--(Sta. Maria di Loreto)--Temple of Mars Ultor--Forum of Augustus--Forum of Nerva--Forum of Julius Cæsar--(Academy of St. Luke)--Forum Romanum--Tribune--Comitium --Vulcanal--Temple of Concord--Temple of Vespasian--Temple of Saturn--Arch of Septimius Severus--Temple of Castor and Pollux--Pillar of Phocas--Temple of Antoninus and Faustina--Basilica of Constantine--(Sta. Martina--S. Adriano--Sta. Maria--Liberatrice, SS. Cosmo and Damian--Sta. Francesca Romana)--Temple of Venus and Rome--Arch of Titus--(Sta. Maria Pallara--S. Buonaventura)--Meta Sudans--Arch of Constantine--Coliseum.

Following the Corso to its end at the Ripresa dei Barberi, and turning to the left, we find ourselves at once amid the remains of the Forum of Trajan, erected by the architect Apollodorus for the Emperor Trajan on his return from the wars of the Danube. This forum now presents the appearance of a ravine between the Capitoline and Quirinal, but is an artificial hollow, excavated to facilitate the circulation of life within the city. An inscription over the door of the column, which overtops the other ruins, shows that it was raised in order to mark the depth of earth which was removed to construct the forum. The earth was formerly as high as the top of the column, which reaches, 100 Roman feet, to the level of the Palatine Hill. The forum was sometimes called the "Ulpian," from one of the names of the emperor.

"Before the year A.D. 107 the splendours of the city and the Campus beyond it were still separated by a narrow isthmus, thronged perhaps by the squalid cabins of the poor, and surmounted by the remains of the Servian wall which ran along its summit. Step by step the earlier emperors had approached with their new forums to the foot of this obstruction. Domitian was the first to contemplate and commence its removal. Nerva had the fortune to consecrate and to give his own name to a portion of his predecessor's construction; but Trajan undertook to complete the bold design, and the genius of his architect triumphed over all obstacles, and executed a work which exceeded in extent and splendour any previous achievement of the kind. He swept away every building on the site, levelled the spot on which they had stood, and laid out a vast area of columnar galleries, connecting halls and chambers for public use and recreation. The new forum was adorned with two libraries, one for Greek, the other for Roman volumes, and it was bounded on the west by a basilica of magnificent dimensions. Beyond this basilica, and within the limits of the Campus, the same architect (Apollodorus) erected a temple for the worship of Trajan himself; but this work probably belonged to the reign of Trajan's successor, and no doubt the Ulpian forum, with all its adjuncts, occupied many years in building. The area was adorned with numerous statues, in which the figure of Trajan was frequently repeated, and among its decorations were groups in bronze or marble, representing his most illustrious actions. The balustrades and cornices of the whole mass of buildings flamed with gilded images of arms and horses. Here stood the great equestrian statue of the emperor; here was the triumphal arch decreed him by the senate, adorned with sculpture, which Constantine, two centuries later, transferred without a blush to his own, a barbarous act of this first Christian emperor, to which however we probably owe their preservation to this day from more barbarous spoliation."--Merivale, Romans under the Empire, ch. lxiii.

The beautiful Column of Trajan was erected by the senate and people of Rome, A.D. 114. It is composed of thirty-four blocks of marble, and is covered with a spiral band of bas-reliefs illustrative of the Dacian wars, and increasing in size as it nears the top, so that it preserves throughout the same proportion when seen from below. It was formerly crowned by a statue of Trajan, holding a gilt globe, which latter is still preserved in the Hall of Bronzes in the Capitol. This statue had fallen from its pedestal long before Sixtus V. replaced it by the existing figure of St. Peter. At the foot of the column was a sepulchral chamber, intended to receive the imperial ashes, which were however preserved in a golden urn, upon an altar in front of it.

"And apostolic statues climb To crush the imperial urn, whose ashes slept sublime." Childe Harold, cx.

It was while walking in this forum, that Gregory the Great, observing one of the marble groups which told of a good and great action of Trajan, lamented bitterly that the soul of so noble a man should be lost, and prayed earnestly for the salvation of the heathen emperor. He was told that the soul of Trajan should be saved, but that to ensure this he must either himself undergo the pains of purgatory for three days, or suffer earthly pain and sickness for the rest of his life. He chose the latter, and never after was in health. This incident is narrated by his three biographers, John and Paul Diaconus, and John of Salisbury.[50]

The forum of Trajan was partly uncovered by Pope Paul III. in the sixteenth century, but excavated in its present form by the French in 1812. There is much still buried under the streets and neighbouring houses.

"All over the surface of what once was Rome it seems to be the effort of Time to bury up the ancient city, as it were a corpse, and he the sexton; so that, in eighteen centuries, the soil over its grave has grown very deep, by the slow scattering of dust, and the accumulation of more modern decay upon older ruin.

"This was the fate, also, of Trajan's forum, until some papal antiquary, a few hundred years ago, began to hollow it out again, and disclosed the whole height of the gigantic column, wreathed round with bas-reliefs of the old emperor's warlike deeds (rich sculpture, which, twining from the base to the capital, must be an ugly spectacle for his ghostly eyes, if he considers that this huge, storied shaft must be laid before the judgment seat, as a piece of the evidence of what he did in the flesh). In the area before the column stands a grove of stone, consisting of the broken and unequal shafts of a vanished temple, still keeping a majestic order, and apparently incapable of further demolition. The modern edifices of the piazza (wholly built, no doubt, out of the spoil of its old magnificence) look down into the hollow space whence these pillars rise.

"One of the immense gray granite shafts lies in the piazza, on the verge of the area. It is a great, solid fact of the Past, making old Rome actually visible to the touch and eye; and no study of history, nor force of thought, nor magic of song, can so vitally assure us that Rome once existed, as this sturdy specimen of what its rulers and people wrought. There is still a polish remaining on the hard substance of the pillar, the polish of eighteen centuries ago, as yet but half rubbed off."--Hawthorne, Transformation.

On the north of this forum are two churches: that nearest to the Corso is Sta. Maria di Loreto (founded by the corporation of bakers in 1500), with a dome surmounted by a picturesque lantern by Giuliano di Sangallo, c. 1506. It contains a statue of Sta. Susanna (not the Susanna of the Elders) by Fiammingo (François de Quesnoy), which is justly considered the chef-d'œuvre of the Bernini School. The companion church is called Sta. Maria di Vienna, and (like Sta. Maria della Vittoria) commemorates the liberation of Vienna from the Turks in 1683, by Sobieski, king of Poland. It was built by Innocent XI.

Leaving the forum at the opposite corner by the Via Alessandrina, and passing under the high wall of the Convent of the Nunziatina, a street, opening on the left, discloses several beautiful pillars, which, after having borne various names, are now declared to be the remains of the Temple of Mars Ultor, built by Augustus in his new forum, which was erected in order to provide accommodation for the crowds which overflowed the Forum Romanum and Forum Julium.

"The title of Ultor marked the war and the victory by which, agreeably to his vow, Augustus had avenged his uncle's death.

"'Mars ades, et satia scelerato sanguine ferrum; Stetque favor causa pro meliore tuus. Templa feres, et, me victore, vocaberis Ultor.'[51]

The porticoes, which extended on each side of the temple with a gentle curve, contained statues of distinguished Roman generals. The banquets of the Salii were transferred to this temple, a circumstance which led to its identification, from the discovery of an inscription here recording the mansiones of these priests. Like the priesthood in general, they appear to have been fond of good living, and there is a well-known anecdote of the Emperor Claudius having been lured by the steams of their banquet from his judicial functions in the adjacent forum, to come and take part in their feast. The temple was appropriated to meetings of the senate in which matters connected with wars and triumphs were debated.... Here while Tiberius was building a temple to Augustus upon the Palatine, his golden statue reposed upon a couch."--Dyer's City of Rome.

"Up to the time of Augustus, the god Mars, the reputed father of the Roman race, had never, it is said, enjoyed the distinction of a temple within the walls. He was then introduced into the city which he had saved from overthrow and ruin; and the aid he had lent in bringing the murderers of Cæsar to justice, was signalised by the title of Avenger, by which he was now specially addressed.... The temple of Mars Ultor, of gigantic proportions, 'Et deus est ingens et opus,' was erected in the new forum of Augustus at the foot of the Capitoline and Quirinal hills."--Merivale, Romans under the Empire.

"Ce temple était particulièrement cher à Auguste. Il voulut que les magistrats en partissent pour aller dans leurs provinces; que l'honneur du triomphe y fût décerné, et que les triomphateurs y fissent hommage à Mars Vengeur de leur couronne et de leur sceptre; que les drapeaux pris à l'ennemi y fussent conservés; que les chefs de la cavalerie exécutassent des jeux en avant des marches de ce temple; enfin que les censeurs, en sortant de leur charge, y plantassent le clou sacré, vieil usage étrusque jusque-là attaché au Capitole. Auguste désirait que ce temple fondé par lui prît l'importance du Capitole.

"Il fit dédier le temple par ses petit-fils Caius et Lucius; et son autre petit-fils, Agrippa, à la tête des plus nobles enfants de Rome, y célébra le jeu de Troie, qui rappelait l'origine prétendue troyenne de César; deux cent soixante lions furent égorgés dans la cirque, c'était leur place; deux troupes de gladiateurs combattirent dans les Septa ou se faisaient les élections au temps de la république, comme si Auguste eût voulu, par ces combats qui se livraient en l'honneur des morts, célébrer les funérailles de la liberté romaine."--Ampère, Emp. i. 224.

The temple of Mars stands at the north-eastern corner of the magnificent Forum of Augustus, which extended from here as far as the present Via Alessandrina, surpassing in size the forum of Julius Cæsar, to which it was adjoining. It was of sufficient size to be frequently used for fights of animals (venationes). Among its ornaments were statues of Augustus triumphant and of the subdued provinces--with inscriptions illustrative of the great deeds he had accomplished there; also a picture by Apelles representing War with her hands bound behind her, seated upon a pile of arms. Part of the boundary wall exists, enclosing on two sides the remains of the temple of Mars Ultor, and is constructed of huge masses of peperino. The arch, in the wall close to the temple, is known as Arco dei Pantani. The sudden turn in the wall here is interesting as commemorating a concession made to the wish of some proprietors, who were unwilling to part with their houses for the sake of the forum.

"C'est l'histoire du moulin de Sans-Souci, qui du reste paraît n'être pas vraie.

"Il est piquant d'assister aujourd'hui à ce ménagement d'Auguste pour l'opinion qu'il voulait gagner. Envoyant le mur s'infléchir parce-qu'il a fallu épargner quelques maisons, on croit voir la toute-puissance d'Auguste gauchir à dessein devant les intérêts particuliers, seule puissance avec laquelle il reste à compter quand tout intérêt général a disparu. L'obliquité de la politique d'Auguste est visible dans l'obliquité de ce mur, qui montre et rend pour ainsi dire palpable le manège adroit de la tyrannie, se déguisant pour se fonder. Le mur biaise, comme biaisa constamment l'empereur."--Ampère, Emp. i. 233.

(The street on the left--passing the Arco dei Pantani--the Via della Salita del Grillo, commemorates the approach to the castle of the great mediæval family Del Grillo; the street on the right leads through the ancient Suburra.)

At the corner of the next street (Via della Croce Bianca)--on the left of the Via Alessandrina--is the ruin called the "Colonnace," being part of the Portico of Pallas Minerva, which decorated the Forum Transitorium, begun by Domitian, but dedicated in the short reign of Nerva, and hence generally called the Forum of Nerva, on account of the execration with which the memory of Domitian was regarded. Up to the seventeenth century seven magnificent columns of the temple of Minerva were still standing, but they were destroyed by Paul V., who used part of them in building the Fontana Paolina. The existing remains consist of two half-buried Corinthian columns with a figure of Minerva, and a frieze of bas-reliefs.

"Les bas-reliefs du forum de Nerva représentent des femmes occupées des travaux d'aiguille, auxquels présidait Minerve. Quand on se rappelle, que Domitien avait placé à Albano, près du temple de cette déesse, un collège de prêtres qui imitaient la parure et les mœurs de femmes, on est tenté de croire qu'il y a dans le choix des subjets figurés ici une allusion aux habitudes efféminées de ces prétres."--Ampère, Emp. ii. 161.

"The portico of the temple of Minerva is most rich and beautiful in architecture, but woefully gnawed by time, and shattered by violence, besides being buried midway in the accumulation of the soil, that rises over dead Rome like a flood-tide. Within this edifice of antique sanctity a baker's shop is now established, with an entrance on one side; for everywhere, the remnants of old grandeur and divinity have been made available for the meanest neccessities of to-day."--Hawthorne.

It was in this forum that Nerva caused Vetronius Turinus, who had trafficked with his court interest, to be suffocated with smoke, a herald proclaiming at the time, "Fumo punitur qui vendidit fumum."

Returning a short distance down the Via Alessandrina, and turning (left) down the Via Bonella, we traverse the site of the Forum of Julius Cæsar, upon which 4000 sestertia (800,000 l.) were expended, and which is described by Dion-Cassius as having been more beautiful than the Forum Romanum. It was ornamented with a Temple of Venus Genetrix--from whom Julius Cæsar claimed to be descended--which contained a statue of the goddess by Archesilaus, a statue of Cæsar himself, and a group of Ajax and Medea by Timomacus. Here, also, Cæsar had the effrontery to place the statue of his mistress, Cleopatra, by the side of that of the goddess. In front of the temple stood a bronze figure of a horse--supposed to be the famous Bucephalus--the work of Lysippus.

"Cedat equus Latiæ qui, contra templa Diones, Cæsarei stat sede Fori. Quem tradere es ausus Pellæo Lysippa Duci, mox Cæsaris ora Aurata cervice tulit."

Statius, Silv. i. 84.

The only visible remains of this forum are some courses of huge square blocks of stone (Lapis Gabinus), in a dirty court.

Part of the site of the forum of Julius Cæsar is now occupied--on the right near the end of the Via Bonella--by the Accademia di San Luca, founded in 1595, Federigo Zuccaro being its first director. The collections are open from 9 to 5 daily. A ceiling representing Bacchus and Ariadne, is by Guido. The best pictures are:--

Bacchus and Ariadne: Poussin. Vanity: Paul Veronese. Calista and the Nymphs: Titian. The murder of Lucretia: Guido Cagnacci. Fortune: Guido. Innocent XI.: Velasquez. The Saviour and the Pharisee: Titian. A lovely fresco of a child: Raphael. St. Luke painting the Virgin: Attributed to Raphael.

"St. Luke painting the Virgin has been a frequent and favourite subject. The most famous of all is a picture in the Academy of St. Luke, ascribed to Raphael. Here St. Luke, kneeling on a footstool before an easel, is busied painting the Virgin with the Child in her arms, who appears to him out of heaven, sustained by clouds; behind St. Luke stands Raphael himself, looking on."--Mrs. Jameson.

A skull preserved here was long supposed to be that of Raphael, but his true skull has since been found in his grave in the Pantheon.

"On a longtemps vénéré ici un crâne que l'on croyait être celui de Raphael; crâne étroit sur lequel les phrénologistes auront prononcé de vains oracles, devant lequel on aura bien profondément rêvé et qui n'était que celui d'un obscur chanoine bien innocent de toutes ces imaginations."--A. Du Pays.

Just beyond St. Luca, we enter the Forum Romanum.

* * * * *

The interest of Rome comes to its climax in the Forum. In spite of all that is destroyed, and all that is buried, so much still remains to be seen, and every stone has its story. Even without entering into all the vexed archæological questions which have filled the volumes of Canina, Bunsen, Niebuhr, and many others, the occupation which a traveller interested in history will find here is all but inexhaustible; and, after the disputes of centuries, the different sites seem now to be verified with tolerable certainty. The study of the Roman Forum is complicated by the succession of public edifices by which it has been occupied, each period of Roman history having a different set of buildings, and each in a great measure supplanting that which went before. Another difficulty has naturally arisen from the exceedingly circumscribed space in which all these buildings have to be arranged, and which shows that many of the ancient temples must have been mere chapels, and the so-called "lakes" little more than fountains.

"This spot, where the senate had its assemblies, where the rostra were placed, where the destinies of the world were discussed, is the most celebrated and the most classical of ancient Rome. It was adorned with the most magnificent monuments, which were so crowded upon one another, that their heaped-up ruins are not sufficient for all the names which are handed down to us by history. The course of centuries has overthrown the Forum, and made it impossible to define; the level of the ancient soil is twenty-four feet below that of to-day, and however great a desire one may feel to reproduce the past, it must be acknowledged that this very difference of level is a terrible obstacle to the powers of imagination; again, the uncertainties of archæologists are discouraging to curiosity and the desire of illusion. For more than three centuries learning has been at work upon this field of ruins, without being able even to agree upon its bearings; some describing it as extending from north to south, others from east to west. The origin of the Forum goes back to the alliance of the Romans and Sabines. It was a space surrounded by marshes, which extended between the Palatine and the Capitol, occupied by the two colonies, and serving as a neutral ground where they could meet. The Curtian Lake was situated in the midst. Constantly adorned under the republic and the empire, it appears that it continued to exist until the eleventh century. Its total ruin dates from Robert Guiscard, who, when called to the assistance of Gregory VII., left it a heap of ruins. Abandoned for many centuries, it became a receptacle for rubbish, which gradually raised the level of the soil. About 1547, Paul III. began to make excavations in the Forum. Then the place became a cattle-market, and the glorious name of Forum Romanum changed into that of Campo Vaccino.

"The Forum was surrounded by a portico of two stories, the lower of which was occupied by shops (tabernæ). In the beginning of the sixth century of Rome, two fires destroyed part of the edifices with which it had been embellished. This was an opportunity for isolating the Forum, and basilicas and temples were raised in succession along its sides, which in their turn were partly destroyed in the fire of Nero. Domitian rebuilt a part, and added the temple of Vespasian, and Antoninus that of Faustina."--A. Du Pays.

The excavations which were made in the Forum before 1871 are for the most part due to the generosity of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. The papal government always displayed the most extraordinary apathy about extending them, and, when a large excavation was made in the winter of 1869--70, by the British Archæological Society, in front of the Church of Sta. Martina, insisted on its being immediately filled up again, instead of extending it, as might easily have been done, to join the excavation which had long existed on the Clivus Capitolinus. Lately the excavations have been considerably increased, but were the roads leading to the Forum to be closed, and a large body of efficient labourers set to work, the whole of the Roman Forum and its surroundings might be laid bare in a month, without any injury to the interesting churches in its neighbourhood. At present, even that part which is disinterred is cut up by a number of raised causeways, which distract the eye and mar the general effect, and the excavations, recommenced by the Italian government, are slowly and inadequately carried on.

If we stand on the causeway in front of the arch of Septimius Severus, and turn towards the Capitol, we look upon the Clivus Capitolinus, which is perfectly crowded with historical sites and fragments, viz.:--

1. The modern Capitol, resting on the Tabularium. This is one of the earliest architectural relics in Rome. It is built in the Etruscan style, of huge blocks of tufa or peperino placed long-and cross-ways alternately. It was formerly composed of two stages called Camellaria. Only the lower now remains. It contained the tables of the laws. The corridor which remains in the interior is used as a museum of architectural fragments. The Tabularium probably communicated with the Ærarium in the temple of Saturn.

2. On the right of the excavated space, and nearest the Tabularium, the site of the Tribune, in front of which were the Rostra, to which the head of Octavius was affixed by Marius, and the head and hand of Cicero by Antony, and where Fulvia, the widow of Clodius, spat in his dead face, and pierced his inanimate tongue with the pin which she wore in her hair. In front of the rostrum were the statues of the three Sibyls called Tria Fata.

3. Below, a little(**typo? little?) more to the right, is the site of the Comitium, where the survivor of the Horatii was condemned to death, and saved by the voice of the people. Here, also, was the trophied pillar which bore the arms of the Curiatii. In the area of the Comitium grew the famous fig-tree which was always preserved here in commemoration of the tree under which Romulus and Remus were suckled by the wolf, and beneath which was a bronze representation of the wolf and the children.

4. A little more to the left, is the site of the Vulcanal, so called from an altar dedicated to Vulcan, a platform (still defined) where, in the earliest times, Romulus and Tatius used to meet on intermediate ground and transact affairs common to both; and where Brutus was seated, when, without any change of countenance, he saw his two sons beaten and beheaded. Adjoining the Vulcanal was the Græcostasis, where foreign ambassadors waited before they were admitted to an audience of the senate.

5. Below the Vulcanal, and just behind the Arch of Severus, is the site of the Temple of Concord, dedicated, with blasphemous inappropriateness, B.C. 121, by the consul Opimius, immediately after the murder of Caius Gracchus. Here Cicero pronounced his orations against Catiline before the senate. A pavement of coloured marbles remains. At its base are still to be seen some small remains of the Colonna Mænia, which was surmounted by the statue of C. Mænius, who decorated the rostra with the iron beaks of vessels taken in war.

6. The three beautiful columns which are still standing were attributed to a temple of Jupiter Tonans, but are now decided to belong to the Temple of Vespasian. The engravings of Piranesi represent them as buried almost to their capitals, and they remained in this state until they were disinterred during the first French occupation. The space was so limited in this part of Rome, that in order to prevent encroaching upon the street Clivus Capitolinus, which descends the hill between this temple and that of Saturn, the temple of Vespasian was raised on a kind of terrace, and the staircase which led to it was thrust in between the columns. This temple was restored by Septimius Severus, and to this the letters on the entablature refer, being part of the word Restituere. Instruments of sacrifice are sculptured on the frieze.

7. On the left of the excavated space, close beneath the Tabularium, a low range of columns recently re-erected represents the building called the School of Xanthus, chambers, for the use of the scribes and persons in the service of the curule ædiles, which derived their name from Xanthus, a freedman, by whom they were rebuilt.

8. The eight Ionic columns still standing, part of the Temple of Saturn, the ancient god of the Capitol. Before this temple Pompey sate surrounded by soldiers, listening to the orations which Cicero was delivering from the rostrum, when he received the personal address, "Te enim jam appello, et ea voce ut me exaudire possis." Here the tribune Metellus flung himself before the door and vainly attempted to defend the treasure of the Ærarium in this temple against Julius Cæsar. The present remains are those of an indifferent and late renovation of an earlier temple, being composed of columns which differ in diameter, and a frieze put together from fragments which do not belong to one another. The original temple was built by Tarquin, and was supposed to mark the site of the ancient Sabine altar of the god and the limit of the wood of refuge mentioned by Virgil.

9. Just below the Temple of Saturn is the site of the Arch of Tiberius, erected, according to Tacitus, upon the recovery by Germanicus of the standards which Varus had lost.

10. The remains of the Milliarium Aureum, which formed the upper extremity of a wall faced with marbles, ending near the arch of Severus in a small conical pyramid. Distances without the walls were inscribed upon the Milliarium Aureum, as distances within the walls were upon the pyramid (from which in this case they were also measured) which bore the name of Umbilicus Romæ. The Via Sacra, which is still visible, descended from the Capitol between the temples of Saturn and Vespasian,--being known here as the Clivus Capitolinus, and passed to the left of--

11. The Arch of Septimius Severus, which was erected by the senate A.D. 205, in honour of that emperor and his two sons, Caracalla and Geta. It is adorned with bas-reliefs relating his victories in the east,--his entry into Babylon and the tower of the temple of Belus are represented. A curious memorial of imperial history may be observed in the inscription, where we may still discern the erasure made by Caracalla after he had put his brother Geta to death in A.D. 213, for the sake of obliterating his memory. The added words are OPTIMIS FORTISSIMISQVE PRINCIPIBUS--but the ancient inscription P. SEPT. LVC. FIL. GETÆ. NOBILISS. CÆSARI, has been made out by painstaking decipherers. In one of the piers is a staircase leading to the top of the arch which was formerly (as seen from coins of Severus and Caracalla) adorned by a car drawn by six horses abreast, and containing figures of Severus and his sons. It was in front of this arch that the statue of Marcus Aurelius stood, which is now at the Capitol.

"Les proportions de l'arc de Septime-Sévère sont encore belles. L'aspect en est imposant; il est solide sans être lourd. La grande inscription où se lisent les épithètes victorieuses qui rappellent les succès militaires de l'empereur, Parthique, Dacique, Adiabénique, se déploie sur une vaste surface et donne à l'entablement un air de majesté qu'admirent les artistes. Cette inscription est doublement historique; elle rappelle les campagnes de Sévère et la tragédie domestique qui après lui ensanglanta sa famille, le meurtre d'un de ses fils immolé par l'autre, et l'acharnement de celui-ci à poursuivre la mémoire du frère qu'il avait fait assassiner. Le nom de Géta a été visiblement effacé par Caracalla. La même chose se remarque dans une inscription sur bronze qu'on voit au Capitale et sur le petit arc du Marché aux bœufs dont j'ai parlé, où l'image de Géta a été effacée comme son nom. Caracalla ne permit pas même à ce nom proscrit de se cacher parmi les hiéroglyphes. En Egypte, ceux qui composaient le nom de Géta ont été grattés sur les monuments."--Ampère, Emp. ii. 278.

(The excavations in thé Forum are open to the public on the same days as the Palace of the Cæsars--Thursdays and Sundays.)

The platform on which we have been standing leads to the Via della Consolazione, occupying the site of the ancient Vicus Jugarius, where Augustus erected an altar to Ceres, and another to Ops Augusta, the goddess of wealth. (In this street, on the left, is a good cinque-cento doorway.) Where this street leaves the Forum was the so-called Lacus Servilius, a basin which probably derived its name from Servilius Ahala (who slew the philanthropist Sp. Mælius with a dagger near this very spot), and which was encircled with a ghastly row of heads in the massacres under Sylla. This fountain was adorned by M. Aggrippa with a figure of a hydra. The right side of the Forum is now occupied for a considerable distance by the disinterred remains of the Basilica Julia, begun by Julius Cæsar, and finished by Augustus, who dedicated it in honour of his daughter. A basilica of this description was intended partly as a Law Court and partly as an Exchange. In this basilica the judges called Centumviri held their courts, which were four in number:

"Jam clamor, centumque viri, densumque coronæ Vulgus: et infanti Julia tecta placent."

Martial, vi. Ep. 38.

Beyond the basilica are three beautiful columns which belong to a restoration of the Temple of Castor and Pollux, dedicated by Postumius, B.C. 484. Here costly sacrifices were always offered in the ides of July, at the anniversary of the battle of the Lake Regillus, after which the Roman knights, richly clothed, crowned with olive, and bearing their trophies, rode past it in military procession, starting from the temple of Mars outside the Porta Capena. The entablature which the three columns support is of great richness, and the whole fragment is considered to be one of the finest existing specimens of the Corinthian order. None of the Roman ruins have given rise to more discussion than this. It has perpetually changed its name. Bunsen and many other authorities considered it to belong to the temple of Minerva Chalcidica; but as it is known that the position of the now discovered Basilica Julia was exactly between the temple of Saturn and that of Castor, and a passage of Ovid describes the latter as being close to the site of the temple of Vesta, which is also ascertained, it seems almost certain now that it belonged to the temple of the Dioscuri. Dion-Cassius mentions that Caligula made this temple a vestibule to his house on the Palatine.

Here, on the right, branches off the Via dei Fienili, once the Vicus Tuscus, or Etruscan quarter (see Chap. V.), leading to the Circus Maximus. At its entrance was the bronze statue of Vertumnus, the god of Etruria, and patron of the quarter. The long trough-shaped fountain here, at which such picturesque groups of oxen and buffaloes are constantly standing, is a memorial of the Lake of Juturna the sister of Turnus, or as she was sometimes described, the wife of Janus the Sabine war-god. This fountain, for such it must have been, was dried up by Paul V.

"At quæ venturas præcedit sexta kalendas, Hac sunt Ledæis templa dicata deis. Fratribus illa deis fratres de gente deorum Circa Juturnæ composuere lacus."

Ovid, Fast. i. 705.

Here, close under the Palatine, is the site of the famous Temple of Vesta, in which the sacred fire was preserved, with the palladium saved from Troy. On the altar of this temple, blood was sprinkled annually from the tail of the horse which was sacrificed to Mars in the Campus-Martius. The foundation of the temple was attributed to Numa, but the worship must have existed in Pelasgic times, as the mother of Romulus was a vestal. It was burnt down in the fire of Nero, rebuilt and again burnt down under Commodus, and probably restored for the last time by Heliogabalus. Here, during the consulate of the young Marius, the high priest Scævola was murdered, splashing the image of Vesta with his blood,--and here (A.D. 68) Piso, the adopted son of Galba, was murdered in the sanctuary whither he had fled for refuge, and his head, being cut off, was affixed to the rostra. Behind the temple, along the lower ridge of the Palatine, stretched the sacred grove of Vesta, and the site of the Church of Sta. Maria Liberatrice was occupied by the Atrium Vestæ, a kind of convent for the vestal virgins. Here Numa Pompilius fixed his residence, hoping to conciliate both the Latins of the Palatine and the Sabines of the Capitoline by occupying a neutral ground between them.

"Quæris iter? dicam, vicinum Castora, canæ Transibis Vestæ, virgineamque domum, Inde sacro veneranda petes palatia Clivo."

Martial, i. Ep. 70.

"Hic focus est Vestæ, qui Pallada servat et ignem. Hic fuit antiqui regia parva Numæ." Ovid, Trist. iii. El. 1.

"Hic locus exiguus, qui sustinet atria Vestæ, Tunc erat intonsi regia magna Numæ. Forma tamen templi, quae nunc manet, ante fuisse Dicitur; et formæ causa probanda subest. Vesta eadem est, et Terra; subest vigil ignis utrique, Significant sedem terra focusque suam. Terra pilæ similis, nullo fulcimine nixa, Aëre subjecto tam grave pendet onus. Arte Syracosia suspensus in aëre clauso Stat globus, immensi parva figura poli; Et quantum a summis, tantum secessit ab imis Terra. Quod ut fiat, forma rotunda facit. Par facies templi: nullus procurrit ab illo Angulus. A pluvio vindicat imbre tholus."

Ovid, Fast. vi. 263.

"Servat et Alba, Lares, et quorum lucet in aris Ignis adhuc Phrygius, nullique adspecta virorum Pallas, in abstruso pignus memorabile templo."

Lucan, ix. 992.

Close to the temple of Vesta was the Regia, where Julius Cæsar lived (as pontifex maximus)--where Pompeia his second wife admitted her lover Clodius in the disguise of a woman to the mysteries of the Bona Dea--whence Cæsar went forth to his death--and from which his last wife Calpurnia rushed forth with loud outcries to receive his dead body.

Somewhere in this part of the Forum was the famous Curtian Lake, so called from Mettus Curtius, a Sabine warrior, who with difficulty escaped from its quagmires to the Capitol after a battle between Romulus and Tatius.[52] Tradition declares that the quagmire afterwards became a gulf, which an oracle declared would never close until that which was most important to the Roman people was sacrificed to it. Then the young Marcus Curtius, equipped in full armour, leapt his horse into the abyss, exclaiming that nothing was more important to the Roman people than arms and courage; and the gulf was closed.[53] Two altars were afterwards erected on the site to the two heroes, and a vine and an olive tree grew there.[54]

"Hoc, ubi nunc fora sunt, udæ tenuere paludes: Amne redundatis fossa madebat aquis. Curtius ille lacus, siccas qui sustinet aras, Nunc solida est tellus, sed lacus ante fuit." Ovid, Fast. vi. 401.

Some fountain, like those of Servilius and Juturna, bearing the name of Lacus Curtius must have existed on this site to imperial times, for the Emperor Galba was murdered there.

"A single cohort still surrounded Galba, when the standard-bearer tore the Emperor's image from his spear-head, and dashed it on the ground. The soldiers were at once decided for Otho; swords were drawn, and every symptom of favour for Galba amongst the bystanders was repressed by menaces, till they dispersed and fled in horror from the Forum. At last, the bearers of the emperor's litter overturned it at the Curtian pool beneath the Capitol. In a few moments enemies swarmed around his body. A few words he muttered, which have been diversely reported: some said that they were abject and unbecoming; others affirmed that he presented his neck to the assassin's sword, and bade him strike 'if it were for the good of the republic;' but none listened, none perhaps heeded the words actually spoken; Galba's throat was pierced, but even the author of his mortal wound was not ascertained, while his breast being protected by the cuirass, his legs and arms were hacked with repeated gashes."--Merivale, vii. 73.

At the foot of the Clivus Capitolinus, on the left (looking towards the Arch of Titus) stood the Temple of Janus Quirinus, between the great Forum and the Forum of Julius Cæsar, and near the ascent to the Porta Janualis, by which Tarpeia admitted the Sabines to the Capitol. Procopius, in the sixth century, saw the little bronze temple of Janus still standing. This was one of many temples of the great Sabine god.

"Quum tot sint Jani; cur stas sacratus in uno, Hic ubi juncta foris templa duobus habes?"

Ovid, Fast. i. 257.

This was the temple which was the famous index of peace and war, closed by Augustus for the third time from its foundation after the victory of Actium.[55]

" ...et vacuum duellis Janum Quirini clausit, et ordinem Rectum, et vaganti fræna licentiæ Injecit."

Horace, Ode iv. 15.

Besides this temple there were three arches, whose sites are unknown, dedicated to Janus in different parts of the Forum.

" ...Hæc Janus summus ab imo Perdocet----"

Horace, Ep. i. 1, 54.

The central arch was the resort of brokers and money-lenders.[56]

" ...Postquam omnis res mea Janum Ad medium fracta est."

Hor. Sat. ii. 3, 18.

Along this side of the Forum stood the Tabernæ Argentariæ, the silversmiths' shops, and beyond them--probably in front of S. Adriano--were the Tabernæ Novæ, where Virginia was stabbed by her father with a butcher's knife, which he had seized from one of the stalls, saying, "This, my child, is the only way to keep thee free," as he plunged it into her heart.[57] Near this also was the statue of Venus Cloacina.[58]

The front of the Church of S. Adriano is a fragment of the Basilica of Æmilius Paulus, built with part of 1500 talents which Cæsar had sent from Gaul to win him over to his party. This basilica occupied the site of the famous Curia of Tullus Hostilius.

"Là se réunit, pour la première fois sous un toit, le conseil des anciens rois que le savant Properce, avec un sentiment vrai des antiquités romaines, nous montre tel qu'il était dans l'origine, se rassemblant au son de la trompe pastorale dans un pré, comme le peuple dans certains petits cantons de la Suisse."--Ampère, Hist. Rom. ii. 310.

The Curia was capable of containing six hundred senators, their number in the time of the Gracchi. It had no tribune,--each speaker rose in turn and spoke in his place. Here was "the hall of assembly in which the fate of the world was decided." The Curia was destroyed by fire, which it caught from the funeral pyre of Clodius. Around the Curia stood many statues of Romans who had rendered especial service to the state. The Curia Julia occupied the site of the Curia Hostilia in the early part of the reign of Augustus. Close by the old Curia was the Basilica Porcia, built by Cato the Censor, which was likewise burnt down at the funeral of Clodius. Near this, the base of the rostral column, Colonna Duilia, has been found.

Opposite the Basilica Julia, in the depth of the Forum, is the Column of Phocas, raised to that emperor by the exarch Smaragdus in 608. This is--

"The nameless column with a buried base,"

of Byron, but is now neither nameless nor buried, its pedestal having been laid bare by the Duchess of Devonshire in 1813, and bearing an inscription which shows an origin that no one ever anticipated.

"In the age of Phocas (602--610), the art of erecting a column like that of Trajan or M. Aurelius had been lost. A large and handsome Corinthian pillar, taken from some temple or basilica, was therefore placed in the Forum, on a huge pyramidal basis quite out of proportion to it, and was surmounted with a statue of Phocas in gilt bronze. It has so little the appearance of a monumental column, that for a long while it was thought to belong to some ruined building, till, in 1813, the inscription was discovered. The name of Phocas had, indeed, been erased; but that it must have been dedicated to him is shown by the date.... The base of this column, discovered by the excavations of 1816 to have rested on the ancient pavement of the Forum, proves that this former centre of Roman life was still, at the beginning of the seventh century, unencumbered with ruins."--Dyer's History of the City of Rome.

"Ce monument et l'inscription qui l'accompagne sont précieux pour l'histoire, car ils montrent le dernier terme de l'avilissement où Rome devait tomber. Smaragdus est le premier magistrat de Rome,--mais ce magistrat est un préfet, l'élu du pouvoir impérial et non de ses concitoyens;--il commande, non, il est vrai, à la capitale du monde, mais au chef-lieu du duché de Rome. Ce préfet, qui n'est connu de l'histoire que par ses lâches ménagements envers les Barbares, imagine de voler une colonne à un beau temple, au temple d'un empereur de quelque mérite, pour la dédier à un exécrable tyran monté sur le trône par des assassinats, au meurtrier de l'empereur Maurice, à l'ignoble Phocas, que tout le monde connaît, grâce à Corneille, qui l'a encore trop ménagé. Et le plat drôle ose appeler très-clément celui qui fit égorger sous les yeux de Maurice ses quatre fils avant de l'égorger lui-même. Il décerne le titre de triomphateur à Phocas, qui laissa conquérir par Chosroès une bonne part de l'empire. Il ose écrire: 'pour les innombrables bienfaits de sa piété, pour le repos procuré à l'Italie et à la liberté.' Ainsi l'histoire monumentale de la Rome de l'empire finit honteusement par un hommage ridicule de la bassesse à la violence."--Ampère, Emp. ii. 389.

A little behind the Column of Phocas are the marble slabs commemorating the sacrifices called Suovetaurilia, consisting of a pig, a sheep, and an ox, animals which are sculptured here in bold relief. On the side towards the Capitol a number of figures are represented, amongst them a woman presenting a child to the emperor, in reference to Trajan's asylum for orphans, or for those who were too poor to bring up their children. On the other side is a burning of deeds in reference to the famous remission of debts by Trajan.

Beyond this, on the left, the base of the famous statue of Domitian has been discovered as described by Statius:

"Ipse loci custos, cujus sacrata vorago, Famosusque lacus nomen memorabile servat."

Silv. i. 66.

Here the Via Sacra turns, almost continuing the Vicus Tuscus. On its right, on a line with the Temple of the Dioscuri, has been discovered the base of the small Temple of Julius Cæsar (Ædes Divi Julii),[59] which was surrounded with a colonnade of closely-placed columns and surmounted by a statue of the deified triumvir. This was the first temple in Rome which was dedicated to a mortal.

"Fratribus assimilis, quos proxima templa tenentes Divus ab excelsa Julius æde videt."

Ovid, Pont. El. ii. 2.

Dion Cassius narrates that this temple was erected on the spot where the body of Julius was burnt. It was adorned by Augustus with the beaks of the vessels taken in the battle of Actium, and hence obtained the name of Rostra Julia. He also placed here the statue of Venus Anadyomene of Apelles, because Cæsar had claimed descent from that goddess. Here, in A.D. 14, the body of Augustus, being brought from Nola, where he died, was placed upon a bier, while Tiberius pronounced a funeral oration over it, before it was carried to the Campus Martius.

The road turns again in front of the remains of the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, erected by the flattery of the senate to the memory of the licentious Empress Faustina, the faithless wife of Antoninus Pius, whom they elevated to the rank of a goddess. Her husband, dying before its completion, was associated in her honours, and the inscription, which still remains on the portico, is "DIVO ANTONINO ET DIVÆ FAUSTINÆ. EX. S. C." The front of the temple is adorned with eight columns of cipolino, forty-three feet high, supporting a frieze ornamented with griffins and candelabra. The effect of these remains would be magnificent if the modern road were removed, and the temple were laid bare in its full height, with the twenty-one steps which formerly led to it. It is also greatly injured by the hideous Church of S. Lorenzo in Miranda, which encloses the cella of the temple, and whose name, says Ampère, naively expresses the admiration in which its builders held these remains.[60]

On the left we now reach the Church of SS. Cosmo and Damian, considered by Nibby and others to occupy the site of a temple of Remus. Ampère has since proved that this temple never existed, and that the remains are those of a Temple of the Penates, rebuilt by Augustus. Here Valerius Publicola had a house, to which he removed from the Velia, in deference to the wishes of the Roman people.

"Le sentiment d'effroi que la demeure féodale des Valérius causait, était pareille à celui qu'inspiraient aux Romains du moyen âge les tours des barons, que le peuple, dès qu'il était le maître, se hâtait de démolir. Valerius n'attendit pas qu'on se portât à cette extrémité, et il vint habiter au pied de la Velia. C'est le premier triomphe des plébéiens sur l'aristocratie romaine et la première concession de cette aristocratie."--Ampère, Hist. Rom. ii. 274.

A little further on are three gigantic arches, being all that remains of the magnificent Basilica of Constantine, which was 320 feet in length and 235 feet in width. The existing ruins are those of one of the aisles of the basilica. There are traces of an entrance towards the Coliseum. The roof was supported by eight Corinthian columns, of which one, remaining here till the time of Paul V., was removed by him to the piazza of Sta. Maria Maggiore, where it still stands. This site was previously occupied by the Temple of Peace, burnt down in the time of Commodus. This temple was the great museum of Rome under the empire, and contained the seven-branched candlestick and other treasures brought from Jerusalem,[61] as well as all the works of art which had been collected in the palace of Nero and which were removed hither by Vespasian. A statue of the Nile, with children playing around it, is mentioned by Pliny as among the sights in the temple of Peace.[62]

It was near this that the Via Sacra was crossed by the Arch of Fabius, erected B.C. 121, in honour of the conqueror of the Allobroges,--the then inhabitants of Savoy. Close to this portion of the Via Sacra also stood a statue of Valeria, daughter of Publicola, by whom the honours of the virgin Clœlia were disputed.

Besides those which we have noticed, there is mention in classical authors of many other buildings and statues which were once crowded into this narrow space; but all trace of many even of those enumerated is still buried many feet below the soil.

The modern name of Campo Vaccino, by which the Forum is now known, is supposed by some antiquaries to be derived from Vitruvius Vacco, who once had a house there.

"La guerre aux habitants de Privernum (Piperno) rattache à une localité du Palatin.... Les habitants de Fondi avaient fait cause commune avec les habitants de Privernum. Leur chef, Vitruvius Vacca, possedait une maison sur le Palatin; c'était un homme considérable dans son pays et même à Rome. Ils demandèrent et obtinrent grâce. Privernum fut pris, et Vitruvius Vacca, qui s'y était réfugié, conduit à Rome, enfermé dans le prison Mamertine pour y être gardé jusqu'au retour du consul, et alors battu de verges et mis à mort; sa maison du Palatin fut rasée, et le lieu où elle avait été garda le nom de Prés de Vacca."--Ampère, Histoire Romaine, iii. 17.

But the name will seem singularly appropriate to those who are familiar with the groups of meek-faced oxen of the Campagna, which are always to be seen lying in the shade under the trees of the Forum, or drinking at its water-troughs.

"'Romanoque Foro et lautis mugire Carinis.'

"Ce vers m'a toujours profondément frappé, lorsque je traversais le Forum, aujourd'hui Campo-Vaccino (le champ du bétail); je voyais en effet presque toujours à son extrémité des bœufs couchés au pied du Palatin. Virgile, se reportant de la Rome de son temps à la Rome ancienne d'Evandre, ne trouvait pas d'image plus frappante du changement produit par les siècles, que la présence d'un troupeau de bœufs dans le lieu destiné à être le Forum. Eh bien, le jour devait venir où ce qui était pour Virgile un passé lointain et presque incroyable se reproduirait dans la suite des âges; le Forum devait être de nouveau un lieu agreste, ses magnificences s'en aller et les bœufs y revenir.

"J'aimais à les contempler à travers quelques colonnes moins vieilles que les souvenirs qu'ils me retracaient, reprenant possession de ce sol d'où les avait chassés la liberté, la gloire, Cicéron, César, et où devait les ramener la plus grande vicissitude de l'historie, la destruction de l'empire romain per les barbares. Ce que Virgile trouvait si étrange dans le passé n'étonne plus dans le présent; les bœufs mugissent au Forum; ils s'y couchent et y ruminent aujourd'hui, de même qu'au temps d'Evandre et comme s'il n'était rien arrivé."--Ampère, Hist. Rom. 1. 211.

"In many a heap the ground Heaves, is if Ruin in a frantic mood Had done his utmost. Here and there appears, As left to show his handy-work not ours, An idle column, a half-buried arch, A wall of some great temple. It was once, And long, the centre of their Universe, The Forum--whence a mandate, eagle-winged, Went to the ends of the earth. Let us descend Slowly. At every step much may be lost, The very dust we tread stirs as with life, And not a breath but from the ground sends up Something of human grandeur.

* * * * *

Now all is changed; and here, as in the wild, The day is silent, dreary as the night; None stirring, save the herdsman and his herd, Savage alike; or they that would explore, Discuss, and learnedly; or they that come, (And there are many who have crossed the earth,) That they may give the hours to meditation, And wander, often saving to themselves, 'This was the Roman Forum!'"

Rogers' Italy.

"We descended into the Forum, the light fast fading away and throwing a kindred soberness over the scene of ruin. The soil has risen from rubbish at least fifteen feet, so that no wonder that the hills look lower than they used to do, having been never very considerable at the first. There it was one scene of desolation, from the massy foundation-stones of the Capitoline Temple, which were laid by Tarquinius the Proud, to a single pillar erected in honour of Phocas, the eastern emperor, in the fifth century. What the fragments of pillars belonged to, perhaps we can never know; but that I think matters little. I care not whether it was a temple of Jupiter Stator or the Basilica Julia, but one knows that one is on the ground of the Forum, under the Capitol, the place where the tribes assembled, and the orators spoke; the scene, in short, of all the internal struggles of the Roman people."--Arnold's Journal.

"They passed the solitary column of Phocas, and looked down into the excavated space, where a confusion of pillars, arches, pavements, and shattered blocks and shafts--the crumbs of various ruins dropt from the devouring maw of Time--stand, or lie, at the base of the Capitoline Hill. That renowned hillock (for it is little more) now rose abruptly above them. The ponderous masonry, with which the hillside is built up, is as old as Rome itself, and looks likely to endure while the world retains any substance or permanence. It once sustained the Capitol, and now bears up the great pile which the mediæval builders raised on the antique foundation, and that still loftier tower, which looks abroad upon a larger page of deeper historic interest than any other scene can show. On the same pedestal of Roman masonry, other structures will doubtless arise, and vanish like ephemeral things.

"To a spectator on the spot, it is remarkable that the events of Roman history, and of Roman life itself, appear not so distant as the Gothic ages which succeeded them. We stand in the Forum, or on the height of the Capitol, and seem to see the Roman epoch close at hand. We forget that a chasm extends between it and ourselves, in which lie all those dark, rude, unlettered centuries, around the birthtime of Christianity, as well as the age of chivalry and romance, the feudal system, and the infancy of a better civilization than that of Rome. Or, if we remember these mediæval times, they look further off than the Augustan age. The reason may be, that the old Roman literature survives, and creates for us an intimacy with the classic ages, which we have no means of forming with the subsequent ones.

"The Italian climate, moreover, robs age of its reverence, and makes it look nearer than it is. Not the Coliseum, nor the tombs of the Appian Way, nor the oldest pillar in the Forum, nor any other Roman ruin, be it as dilapidated as it may, ever give the impression of venerable antiquity which we gather, along with the ivy, from the grey walls of an English abbey or castle. And yet every brick and stone, which we pick up among the former, had fallen, ages before the foundation of the latter was begun."--Hawthorne, Transformation.

"A Rome, vous marchez sur les pierres qui ont été les dieux de César et de Pompée: vous considérez la ruine de ces grands ouvrages, dont la vieillesse est encore belle, et vous vous promènerez tous les jours parmi les histoires et les fables.... Il n'y à que Rome où la vie soit agréable, où le corps trouve ses plaisirs et l'esprit les siens, où l'on est à la source des belles choses. Rome est cause que vous n'êtes plus barbares, elle vous a appris la civilité et la religion.... Il est certain que je ne monte jamais au Palatin ni au Capitole que je n'y change d'esprit, et qu'il ne me vienne d'autres pensées que les miennes ordinaires. Cet air m'inspire quelque chose de grand et de généreux que je n'avais point auparavant: si je rêve deux heures au bord du Tibre, je suis aussi savant que si j'avais étudié huit jours."--Balzac.

* * * * *

Before leaving the Forum we must turn from its classical to its mediæval remains, and examine the very interesting group of churches which have sprung up amid its ruins.

Almost opposite the Mamertine Prisons, surmounted by a handsome dome, is the Church of Sta. Martina, which contains the original model, bequeathed by the sculptor Thorwaldsen, of his Copenhagen statue of Christ in the act of benediction. The opposite transept contains a very inferior statue of Religion by Canova. The figure of Sta. Martina by Guerini reposes beneath the high altar. The subterranean church is well worth visiting. An ante-chapel adorned with statues of four virgin martyrs leads to a chapel erected at the cost and from the designs of Pietro da Cortona, whose tomb stands near its entrance, with a fine bust by Bernini. In the centre of the inner chapel lamps are burning round the magnificent bronze altar which covers the shrine of Sta. Martina, and beneath it, you can discover the martyr's tomb by the light of a torch which a monk lets down through a hole. In the tribune is an ancient throne. A side chapel contains the grave in which the body of the virgin saint, with three other martyrs, her companions, was found in 1634: it is adorned with a fine bas-relief by Algardi.

"At the foot of the Capitoline hill, on the left hand as we descend from the Ara Cœli into the Forum, there stood in very ancient times a small chapel dedicated to Sta. Martina, a Roman virgin, who was martyred in the persecution under Alexander Severus. The veneration paid to her was of very early date, and the Roman people were accustomed to assemble there on the first day of the year. This observance was, however, confined to the people, and not very general till 1634; an era which connects her in rather an interesting manner with the history of art. In this year, as they were about to repair her chapel, they discovered, walled into the foundations, a sarcophagus of terra-cotta, in which was the body of a young female, whose severed head reposed in a separate casket. These remains were very naturally supposed to be those of the saint who had been so long venerated on that spot. The discovery was hailed with the utmost exultation, not by the people only, but by those who led the minds and consciences of the people. The pope himself, Urban VIII., composed hymns in her praise; and Cardinal Francesco Barberini undertook to rebuild her church. Amongst those who shared the general enthusiasm was the painter, Pietro da Cortona, who was at Rome at the time, who very earnestly dedicated himself and his powers to the glorification of Sta. Martina. Her church had already been given to the Academy of Painters, and consecrated to St. Luke, their patron saint. It is now 'San Luca and Santa Martina.' Pietro da Cortona erected at his own cost, the chapel of Sta. Martina, and when he died, endowed it with his whole fortune. He painted for the altarpiece his best picture, in which the saint is represented as triumphing over the idols, while the temple in which she has been led to sacrifice, is struck by lightning from heaven, and falls in ruins around her. In a votive picture of Sta. Martina kneeling at the feet of the Virgin and Child, she is represented as very young and lovely; near her, a horrid instrument of torture, a two-pronged fork with barbed extremities, and the lictor's axe, signifying the manner of her death."--Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art.

The feast of the saint is observed here on Jan. 30, with much solemnity. Then in all the Roman churches is sung the Hymn of Sta. Martina--

"Martinæ celebri plaudite nomini, Cives Romulei, plaudite gloriæ; Insignem mentis dicite virginem, Christi dicite martyrem.

Hæc dum conspicuis orta parentibus Inter delicias, inter amabiles Luxus illecebras, ditibus affluit Faustæ muneribus domus.

Vitæ despiciens commoda, dedicat Se rerum Domino, et munifica manu Christi pauperibus distribuens opes Quærit præmia cœlitum.

A nobis abigas lubrica gaudia Tu, qui martyribus dexter ades, Deus Une et trine: tuis da famulis jubar, Quo clemens animos beas. Amen."

There is nothing especial to notice in S. Adriano, which is built in the ruins of the basilica of Emilius Paulus, or in S. Lorenzo in Miranda, which occupies the temple of Antoninus and Faustina, but Sta. Maria Liberatrice, built on the site of the house of Numa and the convent of the Vestals, commemorates by its name a curious legend of the fourth century. On this site, it is said, dwelt in a cave, a terrible dragon who had slain three hundred persons with the poison of his breath. Into this cave, instructed thereto by St. Peter, and entrusting himself to the care of the Virgin, descended St. Silvester the Pope, attended by two acolytes bearing torches, and here, having pronounced the name of Christ, he was miraculously enabled to bind the dragon, and to shut him up till the day of Judgment. But when he ascended in safety, he found at the mouth of the cave two magicians who had followed him in the hope of discovering some imposture, dying from the poison of the dragon's breath,--and these also he saved alive.

We now reach the circular building which has been so long known as the temple of Remus. To the right of the entrance are two pillars of cipolino, almost buried in the soil. The porphyry pillars at the entrance, supporting a richly sculptured cornice, were probably set up in their present position when the temple was turned into a church. The bronze doors were brought from Perugia. If, as is now supposed, the temple on this site was that of the Penates, the protectors against all kinds of illness and misfortune, the modern dedication to the protecting physicians Cosmo and Damian may have had some reference to that which went before.

The Church of SS. Cosmo and Damiano was founded within the ancient temple by Pope Felix IV. in 527, and restored by Adrian I. in 780. In 1633 the whole building was modernized by Urban VIII., who, in order to raise it to the present level of the soil, cut the ancient church in half by the vaulting which now divides the upper and lower churches. To visit the lower church a monk must be summoned, who will bring a torch. This is well worth while. It is of great size, and contains a curious well into which Christian martyrs in the time of Nero are said to have been precipitated. The tomb of the martyrs Cosmo and Damian is beneath the altar, which is formed of beautiful transparent marble. Under a side altar is the grave of Felix IV. The third and lowest church (the original crypt) which is very small, is said to have been a place of refuge during the early Christian persecutions. Here is shown the altar at which Felix IV. celebrated mass while his converts were hiding here--the grave in which the body of the pope was afterwards discovered--and a miraculous spring, still flowing, which is said to have burst forth in answer to his prayers that he might have wherewithal to baptize his disciples. A passage which formerly led from hence to the Catacombs of St. Sebastian, was walled up, twenty years ago, by the paternal government, because twenty persons were lost in it. In this crypt were found the famous "Pianta Capitolina," now preserved in the Capitol. In the upper church, on the right of the entrance from the circular vestibule into the body of the building is this inscription--

"L'imagine di Madonna Santissima che esiste all'altar magg. parlò a S. Gregorio Papa dicendogli, 'Perchè piu non mi saluti mentre passando eri solito salutarmi?' Il santo domandò perdona e concesse a quelli che celebrano in quell'altare la liberazione dell'anima dal purgatorio, cioé per quell'anima per la quale si celebra la messa."[63]

Another inscription narrates--

"Gregorius primus concessit omnibus et singulis visitantibus ecclesiam istam sanctorum Cosmæ et Damiani mille annos de indulgentia, et in die stationis ejusdem ecclesiæ idem Gregorius concessit decem millia annorum de indulgentia."

Among the many relics preserved in this church are, "Una ampulla lactis Beatæ Mariæ Virginis"; "De Domo Sanctæ Mariæ Magdalenæ"; "De Domo Sancti Zachariæ profeta!"

Deserving of the most minute attention is the grand mosaic of Christ--coming on the clouds of sunset.

"The mosaics of SS. Cosmo and Damian (A.D. 526--530) are the finest of ancient Christian Rome. Above the arch appear, on each side of the Lamb, four angels, of excellent but somewhat severe style; then follow various apocalyptic emblems: a modern walling up having left but few traces of the four and twenty elders. A gold surface, dimmed by age, with little purple clouds, forms the background: though in Rome, at least, at both an earlier and later date, a blue ground prevailed. In the apsis itself, upon a dark blue ground, with golden-edged clouds, is seen the colossal figure of Christ; the right hand raised, either in benediction or teaching, the left holding a written scroll; above is the hand, which is the emblem of the First Person of the Trinity. Below, on each side, the apostles Peter and Paul are leading SS. Cosmo and Damiano, each with crowns on their heads, towards the Saviour, followed by St. Theodore on the right, and by Pope Felix IV., the founder of the church, on the left. This latter, unfortunately, is an entirely restored figure. Two palm-trees, sparkling with gold, above one of which appears the emblem of eternity, the phœnix--with a star-shaped nimbus, close the composition on each side. Further below, indicated by water-plants, sparkling also with gold, is the river Jordan. The figure of Christ may be regarded as one of the most marvellous specimens of the art of the middle ages. Countenance, attitude, and drapery combine to give him an expression of quiet majesty, which, for many centuries after, is not found again in equal beauty and freedom. The drapery, especially, is disposed in noble folds, and only in its somewhat too ornate details is a further departure from the antique observable. The saints are not as yet arranged in stiff parallel forms, but are advancing forward, so that their figures appear somewhat distorted, while we already remark something constrained and inanimate in their step. The apostles Peter and Paul wear the usual ideal costume. SS. Cosmo and Damiano are attired in the late Roman dress: violet mantles, in gold stuff, with red embroideries of oriental barbaric effect. Otherwise the chief motives of the drapery are of great beauty, though somewhat too abundant in folds. The high lights are brought out by gold and other sparkling materials, producing a gorgeous play of colour which relieves the figures vigorously from the dark blue background. Altogether, a feeling for colour is here displayed, of which no later mosaics with gold grounds give any idea. The heads, with the exception of the principal figure, are animated and individual, though without any particular depth of expression; somewhat elderly, also, in physiognomy, but still far removed from any Byzantine stiffness; St. Peter has already the bald head, and St. Paul the short brown hair and dark beard, by which they were afterwards recognizable. Under this chief composition, on a gold ground, is seen the Lamb upon a hill, with the four rivers of Paradise, and the twelve sheep on either hand. The great care of execution is seen in the five or six gradations of tints which the artist has adopted."--Kugler.

SS. Cosmo and Damian, to whom this church is dedicated, were two Arabian physicians who exercised their art from charity. They suffered under Diocletian. "First they were thrown into the sea, but an angel saved them; and then into the fire, but the fire refused to burn them; then they were bound to crosses and stoned, but the stones either fell harmless or rebounded on their executioners and killed them, so then the pro-consul Lycias, believing them to be sorcerers, commanded that they should be beheaded, and thus they died." SS. Cosmo and Damian were the patron saints of the Medici, and their gilt statues were carried in state at the coronation of Leo X. (Giovanni de' Medici). Their fame is general in many parts of France, where their fête is celebrated by a village fair--children who ask for their fairing of a toy or gingerbread calling it their "St. Côme."

"It is related that a certain man, who was afflicted with a cancer in his leg, went to perform his devotions in the Church SS. Cosmo and Damian at Rome, and he prayed most earnestly that these beneficent saints would be pleased to aid him. When he had prayed, a deep sleep fell upon him. Then he beheld St. Cosmo and St. Damian, who stood beside him; and one carried a box of ointments, and the other a sharp knife. And one said, 'What shall we do to replace this diseased leg when we have cut it off?' And the other replied, 'There is a Moor who has been buried just now at St. Pietro in Vincoli; let us take his leg for the purpose.' So they brought the leg of the dead man, and with it they replaced the leg of the sick man; anointing it with celestial ointment, so that he remained whole. When he awoke he almost doubted whether it could be himself; but his neighbours, seeing that he was healed, looked into the tomb of the Moor, and found that there had been an exchange of legs: and thus the truth of this great miracle was proved to all beholders."--Mrs. Jameson, from the Legenda Aurea.

Just beyond the basilica of Constantine, stands the Church of Sta. Francesca Romana, which is full of interest. It was first built by St. Sylvester on the site of the temple of Venus and dedicated to the Virgin, under the title of Sta. Maria Antica. It was rebuilt in A.D. 872 by John VIII., who resided in the adjoining monastery during his pontificate. An ancient picture attributed to St. Luke, brought from Troy in 1100, was the only object in this church which was preserved when the building was totally destroyed by fire in 1216, after which the church, then called Sta. Maria Nuova, was restored by Honorius III. During the restoration, the picture was kept at S. Adriano, and its being brought back led to a contest amongst the people, which was ended by a child exclaiming--"What are you doing? the Madonna is already in her own church." She had betaken herself thither none knew how.

In the twelfth century the church was given to the Lateran Canons, in the fourteenth to the Olivetan monks; under Eugenius IV., the latter extended their boundaries so far that they included the Coliseum, but their walls were forced down in the succeeding pontificate. Gregory XI., Paul II., and Cæsar Borgia, were cardinals of Sta. Maria Novella. In 1440 the name was changed to that of Sta. Francesca Romana, when that saint, Francesca de' Ponziani, foundress of the Order of Oblates, was buried here. Her tomb was erected in 1640 by Donna Agata Pamfili, sister of Innocent X., herself an Oblate. It is from the designs of Bernini, and is rich in marbles. The figure was not added till 1868.

"After the death of Francesca, her body remained during a night and a day at the Ponziani Palace, the Oblates watching by turns over the beloved remains.... Francesca's face, which had recently borne traces of age and suffering, became as beautiful again as in the days of youth and prosperity; and the astonished bystanders gazed with wonder and awe at her unearthly loveliness. Many of them carried away particles from her clothes, and employed them for the cure of several persons who had been considered beyond the possibility of recovery. In the course of the day the crowd augmented to a degree which alarmed the inhabitants of the palace, Battista Ponziani took measures to have the body removed at once to the church, and a procession of the regular and secular clergy escorted the venerated remains to Santa Maria Nuova, where they were to be interred.

"The popular feeling burst forth on the occasion; it was no longer to be restrained. Francesca was invoked by the crowd, and her beloved name was heard in every street, in every piazza, in every corner of the Eternal City. It flew from mouth to mouth, it seemed to float in the air, to be borne aloft by the grateful enthusiasm of a whole people, who had seen her walk to that church by her mother's side in her holy childhood; who had seen her kneel at that altar in the grave beauty of womanhood, in the hour of bereavement, and now in death, carried thither in state, she the gentle, the humble saint of Rome, the poor woman of the Trastevere, as she was sometimes called at her own desire."--Lady G. Fullerton's Life of Sta. Francesca Romana.

A chapel on the right of the church contains the monument of Cardinal Vulcani, 1322, supporting his figure, with Faith, Hope, and Charity sculptured in high relief below. Near the door is that of Cardinal Adimari, 1432, who died here after an ineffectual mission to the anti-pope Pedro da' Luna. In the left transept was a fine Perugino (removed 1867); in the right transept is the tomb of Pope Gregory XI., by Pietro Paolo Olivieri, erected by the senate in gratitude for his having restored the papal court to Rome from Avignon. A bas-relief represents his triumphal entry, with St. Catherine of Siena, by whose entreaties he was induced to return, walking before his mule. A breach in the walls indicates the ruinous state into which Rome had fallen, the chair of St. Peter is represented as floating back through the air, while an angel carries the papal tiara and keys; a metaphorical figure of Rome is coming forth to welcome the pope.

"The greatest part of the praise due to Gregory's return to Rome belongs to St. Catherine of Siena, who, with infinite courage, travelled to Avignon, and persuaded the pope to return, and by his presence to dispel the evils which disgraced Italy, in consequence of the absence of the popes. Thus it is not to be wondered at, that those writers, who rightly understand the matter, should have said that Catherine, the virgin of Siena, brought back to God the abandoned apostolical chair upon her shoulders."--Ughelli, Ital. Sacra, vi. col. 45.

Near Pope Gregory's tomb some blackened marks in the wall are shown as holes made by the (gigantic) knees of St. Peter, when he knelt to pray that Simon Magus might be dropped by the demons he had invoked to support him in the air, which he is said to have done to show his power on this spot.

"When the error of Simon was spreading farther and farther, the illustrious pair of men, Peter and Paul, the rulers of the Church, arrested it by going thither, who suddenly exhibited as dead, Simon, the putative God, on his appearance. For when Simon declared that he would ascend aloft into heaven, the servants of God cast him headlong to the earth, and though this occurrence was wonderful in itself, it was not wonderful under the circumstances, for it was Peter who did it, he who bears with him the keys of heaven, ... it was Paul who did it, he who was caught up into the third heaven."--St. Cyril of Jerusalem.

"Simon promised to fly, and thus ascend to the heavenly abodes. On the day agreed upon, he went to the Capitoline hill, and throwing himself from the rock, began his ascent. Then Peter, standing in the midst, said, 'O Lord Jesus, show him that his arts are in vain.' Hardly had the words been uttered, when the wings which Simon had made use of became entangled, and he fell. His thigh was fractured, never to be healed,--and some time afterwards, the unhappy man died at Aretia, whither he had retired after his discomfiture."--St. Ambrose.[64]

"There can be no doubt that there existed in the first century a Simon, a Samaritan, a pretender to divine authority and supernatural powers; who, for a time, had many followers; who stood in a certain relation to Christianity; and who may have held some opinions more or less similar to those entertained by the most famous heretics of the early ages, the Gnostics. Irenæus calls this Simon the father of all heretics. 'All those,' he says, 'who in any way corrupt the truth, or mar the preaching of the Church, are disciples and successors of Simon, the Samaritan magician.' Simon gave himself forth as a God, and carried about with him a beautiful woman named Helena, whom he represented as the first conception of his--that is, of the divine--mind, the symbol and manifestation of that portion of spirituality which had become entangled in matter."--Jameson's Sacred Art, p. 204.

The vault of the tribune is covered with mosaics.

"The restored tribune mosaics (A.D. 858--887, during the pontificate of Nicholas I.), close the list of Roman Byzantine works. By their time it had become apparent that such figures as the art of the day was alone able to achieve, could have no possible relation to each other, and therefore no longer constitute a composition; the artists accordingly separated the Madonna on the throne, and the four saints with uplifted hands, by graceful arcades. The ground is gold, the nimbuses blue. The faces consist only of feeble lines--the cheeks are only red blotches; the folds merely dark strokes; nevertheless a certain flow and fulness in the forms, and the character of a few accessories (for instance, the exchange of a crown upon the Virgin's head for the invariable Byzantine veil), seem to indicate that we have not so much to do here with the decline of Byzantine art, as with a northern and probably Frankish influence."--Kugler.

The convent attached to this church was the abode of Tasso during his first visit to Rome.

Behind Sta. Francesca Romana, and facing the Coliseum, are the remains generally known as the Temple of Venus and Rome, also called Templum Urbis (now sometimes called by objectors the "Portico of Livia"), which, if this name is the correct one, was originally planned by the Emperor Hadrian to rival the Forum of Trajan, erected by the architect Apollodorus. It was built upon a site previously occupied by the atrium of Nero's Golden House. Little remains standing except a cella facing the Coliseum, and another in the cloisters of the adjoining convent (these, perhaps, being restorations by Maxentius, c. 307, after a fire had destroyed most of the building of Hadrian), but the surrounding grassy height is positively littered with fragments of the grey granite columns which once formed the grand portico (400 by 200 feet) of the building. A large mass of Corinthian cornice remains near the cella facing the Coliseum. This was the last pagan temple which remained in use in Rome.[65] It was only closed by Theodosius in 391, and remained entire till 625, when Pope Honorius carried off the bronze tiles of its roof to St. Peter's.

"Ac sacram resonare viam mugitibus, ante Delubrum Romæ; colitur nam sanguine et ipsa More deæ, nomenque loci, ceu numen, habetur. Atque Urbis, Venerisque pari se culmine tollunt Templa, simul geminis adolentur thura deabus."

Prudentius contr. Symm. v. 214.

"When about to construct his magnificent temple of Venus and Rome, Hadrian produced a design of his own and showed it with proud satisfaction to the architect Apollodorus. The creator of the Trajan column remarked with a sneer that the deities, if they rose from their seats, must thrust their heads through the ceiling. The emperor, we are assured, could not forgive this banter; but we can hardly take to the letter the statement that he put his critic to death for it."--Merivale, ch. lxvi.

In front of this temple stood the bronze statue of Clœlia, mentioned by Livy and Seneca, and (till the sixth century) the bronze elephants mentioned by Cassiodorus. Nearer the Coliseum may still be seen the remains of the foundation prepared by Hadrian for the Colossal Statue of Nero, executed in bronze by Zenodorus. This statue was twice moved, first by Vespasian, in A.D. 75, that it might face the chief entrance of his amphitheatre,[66] whose plan had been already laid out. At the same time--though it was a striking likeness of Nero--its head was surrounded with rays that it might represent Apollo. In its second position it is described by Martial:

"Hic ubi sidereus propius videt astra colossus Et crescunt media pegmata celsa via, Invidiosa feri radiabant atria regis, Unaque jam tota stabat in urbe domus."

De Spect. ii.

It was again moved (with the aid of forty-two elephants), a few yards further north, by Hadrian, when he built his temple of Venus and Rome. Pliny describes the colossus as 110, Dion Cassius as 100 feet high.

"Hadrian employed an architect named Decrianus to remove the colossus of Nero, the face of which had been altered into a Sol. He does not seem to have accomplished the design of Apollodorus to erect a companion statue of Luna."--Merivale, ch. lxvi.

Near the Church of Sta. Francesca the Via Sacra passes under the Arch of Titus, which, even in its restored condition, is the most beautiful monument of the kind remaining in Rome. Its Christian interest is unrivalled, from its having been erected by the senate to commemorate the taking of Jerusalem, and from its bas-reliefs of the seven-branched candlestick and other treasures of the Jewish Temple. In mediæval times it was called the Arch of the Seven Candlesticks (septem lucernarum) from the bas-relief of the candlestick, concerning which Gregorovius remarks, that the fantastic figures carved upon it prove that it was not an exact likeness of that which came from Jerusalem. The bas-reliefs are now greatly mutilated, but they are shown in their perfect state in a drawing of Giuliano di Sangallo. On the frieze is the sacred river Jordan, as an aged man, borne on a bier. The arch, which was in a very ruinous condition, had been engrafted in the middle ages into a fortress tower called Turris Cartularia, and so it remained till the present century. This tower originally formed the entrance to the vast fortress of the powerful Frangipani family, which included the Coliseum and a great part of the Palatine and Cœlian hills; and here, above the gate, Pope Urban II. dwelt in 1093, under the protection of Giovanni Frangipani. The arch was repaired by Pius VII., who replaced in travertine the lost marble portions at the top and sides.

"Standing beneath the arch of Titus, and amid so much ancient dust, it is difficult to forbear the commonplaces of enthusiasm, on which hundreds of tourists have already insisted. Over the half-worn pavement, and beneath this arch, the Roman armies had trodden in their outward march, to fight battles, a world's width away. Returning victorious, with royal captives, and inestimable spoil, a Roman triumph, that most gorgeous pageant of earthly pride, has streamed and flaunted in hundred-fold succession over these same flagstones, and through this yet stalwart archway. It is politic, however, to make few allusions to such a past; nor is it wise to suggest how Cicero's feet may have stepped on yonder stone, or how Horace was wont to stroll near by, making his footsteps chime with the measure of the ode that was ringing in his mind. The very ghosts of that massive and stately epoch have so much density that the people of to-day seem the thinner of the two, and stand more ghost-like by the arches and columns, letting the rich sculpture be discerned through their ill-compacted substance."--Hawthorne, Transformation.

"We passed on to the arch of Titus. Amongst the reliefs there is the figure of a man bearing the golden candlestick from the Temple at Jerusalem, as one of the spoils of the triumph. Yet He who abandoned His visible and local temple to the hands of the heathen for the sins of His nominal worshippers, has taken to Him His great power, and has gotten Him glory by destroying the idols of Rome as He had done the idols of Babylon; and the golden candlestick burns and shall burn with an everlasting light, while the enemies of His holy name, Babylon, Rome, or the carcass of sin in every land, which the eagles of His wrath will surely find out, perish for ever from before Him."--Arnold's Journal.

"The Jewish trophies are sculptured in bas-relief on the inside of the arch beneath the vaulting. Opposite to these is another bas-relief representing Titus in the quadriga, the reins borne by the goddess Roma. In the centre of the arch, Titus is borne to heaven by an eagle. It may be conjectured that these ornaments to his glory were designed after the death of Vespasian, and completed after his own.... These witnesses to the truth of history are scanned at this day by Christians passing to and fro between the Coliseum and the Forum; and at this day the Jew refuses to walk beneath them, and creeps stealthily by the side, with downcast eyes, or countenance averted."--Merivale, Romans under the Empire, vii. 250.

"The restoration of the arch of Titus reflects the greatest credit on the commission appointed by Pius VII. for the restoration of ancient edifices. This, not only beautiful, but precious monument, had been made the nucleus of a hideous castellated fort by the Frangipani family. Its masonry, however, embraced and held together, as well as crushed, the marble arch; so that on freeing it from its rude buttresses there was fear of its collapsing, and it had first to be well bound together by props and bracing beams, a process in which the Roman architects are unrivalled. The simple expedient was then adopted by the architect Stern of completing the arch in stone; for its sides had been removed. Thus increased in solid structure, which continued all the architectural lines, and renewed its proportions to the mutilated centre, the arch was both completely secured and almost restored to its pristine elegance."--Wiseman's Life of Pius VII.

The processions of the popes going to the Lateran for their solemn installation, used to halt beside the arch of Titus while a Jew presented a copy of the Pentateuch, with a humble oath of fealty. This humiliating ceremony was omitted for the first time at the installation of Pius IX.

* * * * *

At this point it may not be inappropriate to notice two other buildings, which, though situated on the Palatine, are totally disconnected with the other objects occupying that hill.

A lane runs up to the right from the arch of Titus. On the left is a gateway, surmounted by a faded fresco of St. Sebastian. Here is the entrance to a wild and beautiful garden, possessing most lovely views of the various ruins, occupying the site of the gardens of Adonis. This is the place where St. Sebastian underwent his (so-called) martyrdom, and will call to mind the many fine pictures, scattered over Europe, of the youthful and beautiful saint, bound to a tree, and pierced with arrows. The finest of these are the Domenichino, in Sta. Maria degli Angeli, and the Sodoma at Florence. He is sometimes represented as bound to an orange tree, and sometimes, as in the Guido at Bologna, to a cypress, like those we still see on this spot. Here was an important Benedictine Convent, where Pope Boniface IV. was a monk before his election to the papacy, and where the famous abbots of Monte Casino had their Roman residence. Here, in 1118, fifty-one cardinals took refuge, and elected Gelasius II. as Pope. The only building remaining is the Church of Sta. Maria Pallara or S. Sebastiano, containing some curious inscriptions relating to events which have occurred here, and--in the tribune, frescoes, of the Saviour in benediction with four saints, and below, two other groups representing the Virgin with saints and angels, placed, as we learn by the inscription beneath, by one Benedict--probably an abbot.

Further up the lane a "Via Crucis" leads to the Church of S. Buonaventura, "the seraphic doctor" (Cardinal and Bishop of Albano, ob. July 14, 1274), who in childhood was raised from the point of death (1221) by the prayers of St. Francis, who was so surprised when he came to life, that he involuntarily exclaimed, "O buona ventura"--("what a happy chance")--whence the name by which he was afterwards known.[67]

The little church contains several good modern monuments. Beneath the altar is shown the body of the Blessed Leonardo of Porto-Maurizio (ob. 1751), who arranged the Via Crucis in the Coliseum, and who is much revered by the ultra-Romanists for having prophesied the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The crucifix and the picture of the Madonna which he carried with him in his missions, are preserved in niches on either side of the tribune, and many other relics of him are shown in his cell in the adjoining convent of Minor Franciscans. Entered through the convent is a lovely little garden, whence there is a grand view of the Coliseum, and where a little fountain is shaded by two tall palm trees.

"Oswald went next to the monastery of S. Buenaventura, built on the ruins of Nero's palace. There, where so many crimes had reigned remorselessly, poor friars, tormented by conscientious scruples, doom themselves to fasts and stripes for the least omission of duty. 'Our only hope,' said one, 'is that when we die, our faults will not have exceeded our penances.' Nevill, as he entered, stumbled over a trap, and asked its purpose. 'It is through that we are interred,' answered one of the youngest, already a prey to the bad air. The natives of the south fear death so much that it is wondrous to find there these perpetual mementoes; yet nature is often fascinated by what she dreads, and such an intoxication fills the soul exclusively. The antique sarcophagus of a child serves as the fountain of this institution. The boasted palm of Rome is the only tree of its garden."--Madame de Staël, Corinne.

* * * * *

The arch of Titus is spoken of as being "in summa Via Sacra," as the street was called which led from the southern gate of Rome to the Capitol, and by which the victorious generals passed in their triumphant processions to the temple of Jupiter. Between the arch of Titus and the Coliseum, the ancient pavement of this famous road, composed of huge polygonal blocks of lava, has been allowed to remain. Here we may imagine Horace taking his favourite walk.

"Ibam forte Via Sacrâ, sicut meus est mos, Nescio quid meditans nugarum, et totus in illis."

Sat. i. 9.

It appears to have been the favourite resort of the flaneurs of the day:

"Videsne, Sacram metiente te viam Cum bis ter ulnarum togâ, Ut ora vertat huc et huc euntium Liberrima indignatio?"

Horace, Epod. 4.

The Via Sacra was originally bordered with shops, some of which, together with some baths, have been unearthed on the right of the road. Ovid alludes frequently to the purchases which might be made there in his time. In this especial part of the Via was the market for fruit and honey.[68]

"Dum bene dives ager, dum rami pondere nutant; Adferat in calatho rustica dona puer. Rure suburbano poteris tibi dicere missa; Illa vel in Sacra sint licet empta Via."

Ovid, Art. Aman. ii. 263.

At the foot of the hill are the remains of the bason and the brick cone of a fountain called Meta Sudans, where the gladiators used to wash. Seneca, who lived in this neighbourhood, complains (Epist. lvi.) of the noise which was made by a showman who blew his trumpet close to this fountain.

On the right the Via Triumphalis leads to the Via Appia, passing under the Arch of Constantine. The lower bas-reliefs upon this arch, which are crude and ill-designed, refer to the deeds of Constantine; but the upper, of fine workmanship, illustrate the life of Trajan, which has led some to imagine that the arch was originally erected in honour of Trajan, and afterwards appropriated by Constantine. They were, however, removed from an arch of Trajan (whose ruins existed in 1430[69]), and were appropriated by Constantine for his own arch.

"Constantin a enlevé à un arc de triomphe de Trajan les statues de prisonniers daces que l'on voit au sommet du sien. Ce vol a été puni au seizième siècle, car, dans ce qui semble un accès de folie, Lorenzino, le bizarre assassin d'Alexandre de Médicis a décapité toutes les statues qui surmontaient l'arche Constantin, moins une, la seule dont la tête soit antique. Heureusement on a dans les musées, à Rome et ailleurs, bon nombre de ces statues de captifs barbares avec le même costume, c'est-à-dire le pantalon et le bonnet, souvent les mains liées, dans une attitude de soumission morne, quelque fois avec une expression de sombre fierté, car l'art romain avait la noblesse de ne pas humilier les vaincus; il ne les représentait point à genoux, foulés aux pieds par leurs vainqueurs; on ne donnait pas à leurs traits étranges un aspect qu'on eût pu rendre hideux; on les plaçait sur le sommet des arcs de triomphe, debout, la tête baissée, l'air triste."

"'Summus tristis captivus in arcu.'"

Ampère, Emp. ii. 169.

The arch was further plundered by Clement VIII., who carried off one of its eight Corinthian columns to finish a chapel at the Lateran. They were formerly all of giallo-antico. But it is still the most striking and beautiful of the Roman arches.

"L'inscription gravée sur l'arc de Constantin est curieuse par le vague de l'expression en ce qui touche aux idées religieuses, par l'indécision calculée des termes dont se servait un sénat qui voulait éviter de se compromettre dans un sens comme dans l'autre. L'inscription porte que cet arc a été dédié a l'empereur parcequ'il a délivré la république d'un tyran (on dit encore la république!) par la grandeur de son âme et une inspiration de la Divinité, instinctu Divinitatis. Il parait même que ces mots ont été ajoutés après coup pour remplacer une formule peut-être plus explicitement païenne. Ce monument, qui célèbre le triomphe de Constantin, ne proclame donc pas encore nettement le triomphe du Christianisme. Comment s'en étonner, quand sur les monnaies de cet empereur on voit d'un côté le monogramme du Christ et l'autre l'effigie de Rome, qui était une divinité pour les païens?"--Ampère, Emp. ii. 355.

We now turn to the Coliseum, originally called The Flavian Amphitheatre. This vast building was begun in A.D. 72, upon the site of the reservoir of Nero, by the Emperor Vespasian, who built as far as the third row of arches, the last two rows being finished by Titus after his return from the conquest of Jerusalem. It is said that 12,000 captive Jews were employed in this work, as the Hebrews in building the Pyramids of Egypt, and that the external walls alone cost a sum equal to 17,000,000 francs. It consists of four stories, the first Doric, the second Ionic, the third and fourth Corinthian. Its circumference is 1641 feet, its length is 287, its width 182, its height 157. The entrance for the emperor was between two arches facing the Esquiline, where there is no cornice. Here there are remains of stucco decoration. On the opposite side was a similar entrance from the Palatine. Towards S. Gregorio has been discovered the subterranean passage in which the Emperor Commodus was near being assassinated. The numerous holes visible all over the exterior of the building were made in the middle ages, to extract the iron cramps, at that time of great value. The arena was surrounded by a wall sufficiently high to protect the spectators from the wild beasts, who were introduced by subterranean passages closed by huge gates, from the side towards the Cœlian. The podium contained the places of honour reserved for the Emperor and his family, the Senate, and the Vestal virgins. The places for the other spectators who entered by openings called vomitoria, were arranged in three stages (caveæ), separated by a gallery (præcinctio). The first stage for knights and tribunes, had 24 steps, the second (for the common people) 16, the third (for the soldiery) 10. The women, by order of the emperor, sate apart from the men, and married and unmarried men were also divided. The whole building was probably capable of containing 100,000 persons. At the top, on the exterior, may be seen the remains of the consoles which sustained the velarium which was drawn over the arena to shelter the spectators from the sun or rain. The arena could on occasions be filled with water for the sake of naval combats.

Nothing is known with certainty as to the architect of the Coliseum, though a tradition of the Church (founded on an inscription in the crypt of S. Martino al Monte), ascribes it to Gaudentius, a Christian martyr, who afterwards suffered on the spot.[70]

"The name of the architect to whom the great work of the Coliseum was entrusted has not come down to us. The ancients seem themselves to have regarded this name as a matter of little interest; nor, in fact, do they generally care to specify the authorship of their most illustrious buildings. The reason is obvious. The forms of ancient art in this department were almost wholly conventional, and the limits of design within which they were executed gave little room for the display of original taste and special character.... It is only in periods of eclecticism and renaissance, when the taste of the architect has wider scope, and may lead the eye instead of following it, that interest attaches to his personal merit. Thus it is that the Coliseum, the most conspicuous type of Roman civilisation, the monument which divides the admiration of strangers in modern Rome with St. Peter's itself, is nameless and parentless, while every stage in the construction of the great Christian temple, the creation of a modern revival, is appropriated with jealous care to its special claimants.

"The dedication of the Coliseum afforded to Titus an opportunity for a display of magnificence hitherto unrivalled, A battle of cranes with dwarfs representing the pigmies was a fanciful novelty, and might afford diversion for a moment; there were combats of gladiators, among whom women were included, though no noble matron was allowed to mingle in the fray; and the capacity of the vast edifice was tested by the slaughter of five thousand animals in its circuit. The show was crowned with the immission of water into the arena, and with a sea-fight representing the contests of the Corinthians and Corcyreans, related by Thucydides.... When all was over, Titus himself was seen to weep, perhaps from fatigue, possibly from vexation and disgust; but his tears were interpreted as a presentiment of his death, which was now impending, and it is probable that he was already suffering from a decline of bodily strength.... He lamented effeminately the premature decease he too surely anticipated, and, looking wistfully at the heavens, exclaimed that he did not deserve to die. He expired on the 13th September, 81, not having quite completed his fortieth year."--Merivale, ch. Ix.

"Hadrian gave a series of entertainments in honour of his birth-day, with the slaughter of a thousand beasts, including a hundred lions and as many lionesses. One magical scene was the representation of forests, when the whole arena became planted with living trees, shrubs, and flowers; to complete which illusion the ground was made to open, and send forth wild animals from yawning clefts, instantly re-covered with bushes.

"One may imagine the frantic excess to which the taste for gladiatorial combats was carried in Rome, from the preventive law of Augustus that gladiators should no more combat without permission of the senate; that prætors should not give these spectacles more than twice a year; that more than sixty couples should not engage at the same time; and that neither knights nor senators should ever contend in the arena. The gladiators were classified according to the national manner of fighting which they imitated. Thus were distinguished the Gothic, Dacian, Thracian, and Samnite combatants; the Retiarii, who entangled their opponents in nets thrown with the left hand, defending themselves with tridents in the right; the Secutores, whose special skill was in pursuit; the Laqueatores, who threw slings against their adversaries; the Dimachæ, armed with a short sword in each hand; the Hoplomachi, armed at all points; the Myrmillones, so called from the figure of a fish at the crest of the Gallic helmet they wore; the Bustuarii, who fought at funeral games; the Bestiarii, who only assailed animals; other classes who fought on horseback, called Andabates; and those combating in chariots drawn by two horses, Essedarii. Gladiators were originally slaves, or prisoners of war; but the armies who contended on the Roman arena in later epochs, were divided into compulsory and voluntary combatants, the former alone composed of slaves, or condemned criminals. The latter went through a laborious education in their art, supported at the public cost, and instructed by masters called Lanistæ, resident in colleges, called Ludi. To the eternal disgrace of the morals of Imperial Rome, it is recorded that women sometimes fought in the arena, without more modesty than hired gladiators. The exhibition of himself in this character by Commodus, was a degradation of the imperial dignity, perhaps more infamous, according to ancient Roman notions, than the theatrical performances of Nero."--Hemans' Story of Monuments in Rome.

The Emperor Commodus (A.D. 180-182), frequently fought in the Coliseum himself, and killed both gladiators and wild beasts, calling himself Hercules, dressed in a lion's-skin, with his hair sprinkled with gold-dust.

The gladiatorial combats came to an end, when, in A.D. 403, an oriental monk named Telemachus, was so horrified at them, that he rushed into the midst of the arena and besought the spectators to renounce them: instead of listening to him, they stoned him to death. The first martyrdom here was that of St Ignatius, said to have been the child especially blessed by our Saviour--the disciple of John--and the companion of Polycarp--who was sent here from Antioch, where he was bishop. When brought into the arena, he knelt down, and exclaimed, "Romans who are present, know that I have not been brought into this place for any crime, but in order that by this means I may merit the fruition of the glory of God, for love of whom I have been made prisoner. I am as the grain of the field, and must be ground by the teeth of the lions, that I may become bread fit for His table." The lions were then let loose, and devoured him, except the larger bones, which the Christians collected during the night.

"It is related of Ignatius that he grew up in such innocence of heart and purity of life, that to him it was granted to hear the angels sing; hence, when he became bishop of Antioch, he introduced into the service of his church the practice of singing the praises of God in responses, as he had heard the choirs of angels answering each other.... His story and fate are so well attested, and so sublimely affecting, that it has always been to me a cause of surprise as well as regret to find so few representations of him."--Jameson's Sacred Art, 693.

Soon after the death of Ignatius, 115 Christians were shot down here with arrows. Under Hadrian, A.D. 218, a patrician named Placidus, his wife Theophista, and his two sons, were first exposed here to the wild beasts, but when these refused to touch them were shut up in a brazen bull, and roasted by a fire lighted beneath. In 253, Abdon and Sennen, two rich citizens of Babylon, were exposed here to two lions and four bears, but on their refusing to attack them, were killed by the swords of the gladiators. In A.D. 259, Sempronius, Olympius, Theodulus, and Exuperia, were burnt at the entrance of the Coliseum, before the statue of the Sun. In A.D. 272, Sta. Prisca was vainly exposed here to a lion, then starved for three days, then stretched on a rack to have her flesh torn by iron hooks, then put into a furnace, and--having survived all these torments--was finally beheaded. In A.D. 277, Sta. Martina, another noble Roman lady, was exposed in vain to the beasts and afterwards beheaded in the Coliseum. St. Alexander under Antoninus; St. Potitus, 168; St. Eleutherius, bishop of Illyria, under Hadrian; St Maximus, son of a senator, 284; and Vitus, Crescentia, and Modesta, under Domitian, were also martyred here.[71]

"It is no fiction, but plain, sober, honest truth, to say: so suggestive and distinct is it at this hour: that, for a moment--actually in passing in--they who will, may have the whole great pile before them, as it used to be, with thousands of eager faces staring down into the arena, and such a whirl of strife, and blood, and dust going on there, as no language can describe. Its solitude, its awful beauty, and its utter desolation, strike upon the stranger, the next moment, like a softened sorrow; and never in his life, perhaps, will he be so moved and overcome by any sight, not immediately connected with his own affections and afflictions.

"To see it crumbling there, an inch a year; its walls and arches overgrown with green, its corridors open to the day; the long grass growing in its porches; young trees of yesterday springing up on its ragged parapets, and bearing fruit--chance produce of the seeds dropped there by the birds who build their nests within its chinks and crannies; to see its pit of fight filled up with earth, and the peaceful cross planted in the centre; to climb into its upper halls, and look down on ruin, ruin, ruin, all about it; the triumphal arches of Constantine, Septimius Severus, and Titus, the Roman Forum, the Palace of the Cæsars, the temples of the old religion, fallen down and gone; is to see the ghost of old Rome, wicked, wonderful old city, haunting the very ground on which its people trod. It is the most impressive, the most stately, the most solemn, grand, majestic, mournful sight conceivable. Never, in its bloodiest prime, can the sight of the gigantic Coliseum, full and running over with the lustiest life, have moved one heart, as it must move all who look upon it now, a ruin. God be thanked: a ruin!

"As it tops all other ruins: standing there, a mountain among graves: so do its ancient influences outlive all other remnants of the old mythology and old butchery of Rome, in the nature of the fierce and cruel Roman people. The Italian face changes as the visitor approaches the city; its beauty becomes devilish; and there is scarcely one countenance in a hundred, among the common people in the streets, that would not be at home and happy in a renovated Coliseum to-morrow."--Dickens.

The spot where the Christian martyrs suffered is now marked by a tall cross, devoutly kissed by the faithful,--and all round the arena of the Coliseum, are the small chapels or "stations," used in the Via Crucis, which is observed here at 4 P.M. every Friday, when a confraternity clothed in grey, with only the eyes visible, is followed by a crowd of worshippers who chaunt and pray at each station in turn,--after which a Capuchin monk preaches from a pulpit on the left of the arena. These sermons are often very striking, being delivered in a familiar style, and upon popular subjects of the day, but they also often border on the burlesque.

"Oswald voulut aller au Colisée pour entendre le Capucin qui devait y prêcher en plein air au pied de l'un des autels qui désignent, dans l'intérieur de l'enceinte, ce qu'on appelle la route de la Croix. Quel plus beau sujet pour l'éloquence que l'aspect de ce monument, que cette arène où les martyrs ont succédé aux gladiateurs! Mais il ne faut rien espérer à cet égard du pauvre Capucin, qui ne connâit de l'histoire des hommes que sa propre vie. Néanmoins, si l'on parvient à ne pas écouter son mauvais sermon, on se sent ému par les divers objets dont il est entouré. La plupart de ses auditeurs sont de la confrérie des Camaldules; ils se revêtent, pendant les exercises religieux, d'une espèce de robe grise qui couvre entièrement la tête et le corps, et ne laisse que deux petites ouvertures pour les yeux; c'est ainsi que les ombres pourraient être représentées. Ces hommes, ainsi cachés sous leurs vêtements, se prosternent la face contre terre, et se frappent la poitrine. Quand le prédicateur se jette à genoux en criant miséricorde de pitié! le peuple qui l'environne se jette aussi à genoux, et répète ce même cri, qui va se perdre sous les vieux portiques du Colisée. Il est impossible de ne pas éprouver alors une émotion profondément religieuse; cet appel de la douleur à la bonté, de la terre au ciel, remue l'âme jusque dans son sanctuaire le plus intime."--Madame de Staël.

"'C'est aujourd'hui Vendredi,' dit Guy, 'il y aura foule au Colisée, il vaudrait mieux, je crois, y aller un autre jour.'

"'Non, non,' dit Eveline, 'c'est précisément pour cela que je veux y aller. On m'a dit qu'il fallait le voir ainsi rempli de monde, et que d'ailleurs cette fête était curieuse.'

"'Ce n'est pas une fête,' dit Guy gravement, 'c'est un simple acte de dévotion qui se répète tous les Vendredis.'

"'En vérité,' dit Eveline, 'et pourquoi le Vendredi?'

"'Parceque c'est le jour où Christ est mort pour nous; par cette raison, vous ne l'ignorez pas, ce jour est demeuré consacré dans le monde chrétien ... dans le monde catholique du moins,' repondit Guy.

"'Mais à quel propos choisit-on le Colisée pour s'y réunir ce jour là?'

"'Parceque le Colisée a été baigné du sang des martyrs et que leur souvenir se mêle là plus qu'ailleurs à celui de la croix pour laquelle ils l'ont versé.'"--Mrs. Augustus Craven in Anne Severin.

The pulpit of the Coliseum was used for the stormy sermons of Gavazzi, who called the people to arms from thence in the revolution of March, 1848.

It is well worth while to ascend to the upper galleries (a man who lives near the entrance from the Forum will open a locked door for the purpose), as then only is it possible to realize the vast size and grandeur of the building.

"May, 1827.--Lastly, we ascended to the top of the Coliseum, Bunsen leaving us at the door, to go home; and I seated myself just above the main entrance, towards the Forum, and there took my farewell look over Rome. It was a delicious evening, and everything was looking to advantage:--the huge Coliseum just under me, the tufts of ilex and aliternus and other shrubs that fringe the walls everywhere in the lower part, while the outside wall, with its top of gigantic stones, lifts itself high above, and seems like a mountain barrier of bare rock, enclosing a green and varied valley. I sat and gazed upon the scene with an intense and mingled feeling. The world could show nothing grander; it was one which for years I had longed to see, and I was now looking at it for the last time. When I last see the dome of St. Peter's I shall seem to be parting from more than a mere town full of curiosities, where the eye has been amused, and the intellect gratified. I never thought to have felt thus tenderly towards Rome; but the inexplicable solemnity and beauty of her ruined condition has quite bewitched me, and to the latest hour of my life I shall remember the Forum, the surrounding hills, and the magnificent Coliseum."--Arnold's Letters.

The upper arches frame a series of views of the Aventine, the Capitoline, the Cœlian, and the Campagna, like a succession of beautiful pictures.

Those who visit the Coliseum by moonlight will realize the truthfulness of the following descriptions:--

"I do remember me, that in my youth, When I was wandering,--upon such a night, I stood within the Coliseum's wall, Midst the chief relics of almighty Rome; The trees which grew along the broken arches Waved dark in the blue midnight, and the stars Shone through the rents of ruin; from afar The watch-dog bayed beyond the Tiber; and More near from out the Cæsar's palace came The owl's long cry, and, interruptedly, Of distant sentinels the fitful song Began and died upon the gentle wind:-- Some cypresses beyond the time-worn breach Appeared to skirt the horizon, yet they stood Within a bowshot where the Cæsars dwelt, And dwell the tuneless birds of night, amidst A grove which springs through levell'd battlements, And twines its roots with the imperial hearths; Ivy usurps the laurel's place of growth;-- But the gladiator's bloody circus stands, A noble wreck in ruinous perfection! While Cæsar's chambers, and the Augustan halls, Grovel on earth in indistinct decay. And thou didst shine, thou rolling moon, upon All this, and cast a wide and tender light, Which softened down the hoar austerity Of rugged desolation, and fill'd up, As 't were anew, the gaps of centuries; Leaving that beautiful which still was so, And making that which was not, till the place Became religion, and the heart ran o'er With silent worship of the great of old:-- The dead but scepter'd sovereigns, who still rule Our spirits from their urns."

Manfred.

"Arches on arches! as it were that Rome, Collecting the chief trophies of her line, Would build up all her triumphs in one dome, Her Coliseum stands; the moonbeams shine As 't were its natural torches, for divine Should be the light which streams here, to illume The long-explored but still exhaustless mine Of contemplation; and the azure gloom Of an Italian night, where the deep skies assume

"Hues which have words, and speak to ye of heaven, Floats o'er this vast and wondrous monument, And shadows forth its glory. There is given Under the things of earth, which Time hath bent, A spirit's feeling, and where he hath leant His hand, but broke his scythe, there is a power And magic in the ruined battlement, For which the palace of the present hour Must yield its pomp, and wait till ages are its dower."

Childe Harold.

"No one can form any idea of full moonlight in Rome who has not seen it. Every individual object is swallowed in the huge masses of light and shadow, and only the marked and principal outlines remain visible. Three days ago (Feb. 2, 1787) we made good use of a light and most beautiful night. The Coliseum presents a vision of beauty. It is closed at night; a hermit lives inside in a little church, and beggars roost amid the ruined vaults. They had lighted a fire on the bare ground, and a gentle breeze drove the smoke across the arena. The lower portion of the ruin was lost, while the enormous walls above stood forth into the darkness. We stood at the gates and gazed upon this phenomenon. The moon shone high and bright. Gradually the smoke moved through the chinks and apertures in the walls, and the moon illuminated it like a mist. It was an exquisite moment!"--Goethe.

It is believed that the building of the Coliseum remained entire until the eighth century, and that its ruin dates from the invasion of Robert Guiscard, who destroyed it to prevent its being used as a stronghold by the Romans. During the middle ages it served as a fortress, and became the castle of the great family of Frangipani, who here gave refuge to Pope Innocent II. (Papareschi) and his family, against the anti-pope Anacletus II., and afterwards in the same way protected Innocent III. (Conti) and his brothers against the anti-pope Paschal II. Constantly at war with the Frangipani were the Annibaldi, who possessed a neighbouring fortress, and obtained from Gregory IX. a grant of half the Coliseum, which was rescinded by Innocent IV. During the absence of the popes at Avignon the Annibaldi got possession of the whole of the Coliseum, but it was taken away again in 1312, and placed in the hands of the municipality, after which it was used for bull-fights, in which (as described by Monaldeschi) nobles of high rank took part and lost their lives. In 1381 the senate made over part of the ruins to the Canons of the Lateran, to be used as a hospital, and their occupation is still commemorated by the arms of the Chapter (our Saviour's head between two candelabra) sculptured in various parts of the building. From the fourteenth century it began to be looked upon as a stone-quarry, and the Palazzos Farnese, Barberini, S. Marco, and the Cancellaria, were built with materials plundered from its walls. It is said that the first of these destroyers, Cardinal Farnese, only extorted permission from his reluctant uncle, Paul III., to quarry as much stone as he could remove in twelve hours, and that he availed himself of this permission to let loose four thousand workmen upon the building. Sixtus V. endeavoured to utilize it by turning the arcades into shops, and establishing a woollen manufactory, and Clement XI. (1700--1721) by a manufactory of saltpetre, but both happily failed. In the last century the tide of restoration began to set in. A Carmelite monk, Angelo Paoli, represented the iniquity of allowing a spot consecrated by such holy memories to be desecrated, and Clement XI. consecrated the arena to the memory of the martyrs who had suffered there, and erected in one of the archways the still existing chapel of Sta. Maria della Pietà. The hermit appointed to take care of this chapel was stabbed in 1742, which caused Benedict XIV. to shut in the Coliseum with bars and gates. After this time destruction became sacrilege, and the five last popes all contributed to strengthen and preserve the walls which remain. Even so late as thirty years ago, however, the interior was (like that of an English abbey) an uneven grassy space littered with masses of ruin, amid which large trees grew and flourished, and the clearing out of the arena, though exhibiting more perfectly the ancient form of the building, is much to be regretted by lovers of the picturesque.[72]

Among the ecclesiastical legends connected with the Coliseum, it is said that Gregory the Great presented some foreign ambassadors with a handful of earth from the arena as a relic for their sovereigns, and upon their receiving the gift with disrespect, he pressed it, when blood flowed from the soil. Pius V, urged those who wished for relics to gather up the dust of the Coliseum, wet with the blood of the martyrs.

In 1744 "the blessed Leonardo di Porto Maurizio," who is buried in S. Buonaventura, drew immense crowds to the Coliseum by his preaching, and obtained permission from Benedict XIV. to found the confraternity of "Amanti di Gesù e Maria," for whom the Via Crucis was established here. Recently the ruins have been associated with the holy beggar, Benoit Joseph Labré (beatified by Pius IX. in 1860), who died at Rome in 1783, after a life spent in devotion. He was accustomed to beg in the Coliseum, to sleep at night under its arcades, and to pray for hours at its various shrines.

The name Coliseum is first found in the writings of the Venerable Bede, who quotes a prophecy of Anglo-Saxon pilgrims.

"While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand; When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall; And when Rome falls, the world."[73]

The name was probably derived from its size; the amphitheatre of Capua was also called Colossus.

"When one looks at the Coliseum everything else becomes small; it is so great that one cannot keep its true image in one's soul; one only remembers it on a smaller scale, and returning thither again finds it again grown larger."--Goethe, Romische Briefe.

Once or twice in the course of every Roman winter the Coliseum is illuminated with Bengal lights.

"Les étrangers se donnent parfois l'amusement d'éclairer le Colisée avec des feux de Bengale. Cela ressemble un peu trop à un finale de mélodrame, et on peut préférer comme illumination un radieux soleil on les douces lueurs de la lune. Cependant j'avoue que la première fois que le Colisée m'apparut ainsi, embrasé de feux rougeâtres, son histoire me revint vivement à la pensée. Je trouvais qu'il avait en ce moment sa vraie couleur, la couleur du sang."--Ampère, Emp. ii. 156.

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