Walks in Rome

tus-Palace of Vespasian-Crypto-Porticus-Temple of Jupiter-Victor-The Lupercal and the Hut of Faustulus-Palace of Tiberius-Palace of Cal

in length, the others about 400: the area of its summit, to compare it with a familiar

idum," or fortress of the Pelasgi, of which the only remaining trace is the name Roma, signifying fo

ge were required without, obedience and fertility within the city.... The locality thus enclosed was reserved for the temples of the gods and the residence of the ruling class, the class of patricians or burghers, as Niebuhr has taught us to entitle them, which predominated over the dependent commons, and only suffered

parts, one inhabited, and the other called Velia, and left for the grazing of cattle. It had two gates, the Porta Rom

rs," which in time overran the whole hill, and, under Nero, two of the neighbouring hills besides, and whose ruins are daily being disinterred and recognised, though much confusion still remains regarding their respective sites. In A.D. 663, part of the palace remained sufficiently perfect to be inhabited by the Emperor Constans, and its plan is believed to have been entire

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proud Rome's

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pompous mansio

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ps of ilex trees and fragments of mouldering wall. In one corner was a casino of the Farnese (still standing) adorned in fresco by some of the pupils of Raphael. This and all the later buildings in the "Orti," are marked with the Farnese fleur-de-lis, and on the principal staircase of the garden is some really grand distemper ornament of their time. Since

-but the greatest assistance of all has been obtained from the Tristia of Ovid, who, while in exile, consoles himself by recalling the different buildings of his native city, which he mentions in describing the route taken by his book, which he

afterwards occupied by many of the great patrician houses, whose sites we shall return to and examine in detail, we reach that corner of the garden which is nearest to the Arch of Titus. Here a paved road of large blocks of lava has lately been lai

no nunc Via ju

Fast.

e road was calle

mperor Augustus, was born. This house afterwards passed into the possession of C. L?torius, a patrician; but after the death of Augustus, part of it was turned into a chapel, and consecrated to him. It was

succeeded by an Etruscan stranger, Lucius Tarquinius, who took the name of Tarquinius Priscus. This king also lived upon the Velia,[102] with Tanaquil his queen, and here he was murdered in a popular rising, caused by the sons of his predec

us. Beyond this, also on the right, are foundations of the Temple of Jupiter Stator, built by Romulus, who vowed that he would found a temple t

tram, porta est,

primum condita

ist. iii

tor ?dis habet,

ni condidit

Fast.

special interest from its connection

Palatin n'avaient pas à traverser comme s'il e?t fallu se rendre à la Curie. D'ailleurs Jupiter Stator, qui avait arrêté les Sabines à la porte de Romulus, arrêterait ces nouveaux ennemis qui voulaient sa ruine. Là Cicéron pronon?a la première Catilinaire. Ce

anquillement l'assemblée; nul ne lui rendit son salut, à son approche on s'écarta et les places restèrent vides autour de lui. Il écouta l

elques services à la république, ne puisse exister que par sa ruine, et qu'on ait besoin d'un étranger d'Arpinum pour la sauver.' Tant d'orgueil et d'impudence révoltèrent l'assemblée; on cria à Catilina: 'Tu es un ennemi de la patrie, un meurtrier.' Il sortit

r Stator, on the left,-are some remains c

e other eminence of the Palatine, which Rosa, contrary to other opinions, identifies with the Germale. The division of the Palatine thus named, was reckone

ground which it covered had previously been occupied by the villa of Catiline.[107] Here Suetonius says that Augustus occupied the same bed-room for forty years. Before the entrance of the palace it wa

iror, video fu

ostes, tecta

i, domus est? Quo

nti querna

dominum, non f

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osita velatur

gustas arbor

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ternos tres h

. iv

in every year sate as a beggar, receiving alms from the passers

rlier building entirely up with earth, so that they became a solid massive foundation. The ruins which we visit are thus for the most part those of the palace of Vespasian, but from one o

James's of Rome. The fatigue and annoyance of a public arrival every morning, amid the crowd of clients who always waited upon the imperial footsteps, was naturally very great, and to obviate this the emperors made use of a subterranean passage

part of the hill Germale, we shall find a staircase which descends on the left to j

ings, from which the gilt mosaic has been picked out, but the pattern is still traceable. The passage was lighted from above. It was by t

, Clotilde, and the Murats, in a private apartment at the Tuileries, before entering the ball-room. Hence, passing across the end of the basilica, the emperor reached the portico in front of the palace, looking down upon the hollow space where were the Temple of Jupiter Stator and the other buildings connected with the early history of th

emperor returned as he came, to the ba

he form of the cross. The Basilica here is of great width. A leg of the emperor's chair actually remains in situ upon the tribunal, and part of the richly wrought bar of the Confession still exists. This was the bar at which St. Laurence and many other Christian martyrs were judged. The basilica in the palace of the C?sars was also the scene of the trial of Valerius Asiaticus in the time of Claudius (see Chap. II.), when the Empress Messalina, who was seated near the emperor upon the tribunal, was so overcome by the touching e

e Palace of the C?sars, in which St. Paul was tried before Nero. But it is quite possible that it may be the same actual basilica itself,-and that the palace o

us had usually sat for this purpose in the Forum; but Nero, after the example of Augustus, heard these causes in the imperial palace, whose ruins still crown the Palatine. Here, at one end of a splendid hall,[109] lined with the precious marbles of Egypt and of Libya, we must imagine C?sar seated in the midst of his assessors. These councillors, twenty in number, were men

Jud?a by Festus, yet the Roman law required the personal presence of the accusers and the witnesses, whenever it could be obtained. We already know the charges brought against the Apostle. He was accused of disturbing the Jews in the exercise of their worship, which was secured to them by law; of desecrating their

e practice of better emperors, but after reading their opinion, gave sentence according to his own pleasure, without reference to the judgment of the majority. On this occasion it might have been expected that he would have pronounced the condemnation of the accused, for the influence of Popp?a had now reached its culminating point, and she was a Jewish proselyte. We can scarcely doubt that the emissaries from Palestine would have d

, on the plan which may still be seen at Sta. Maria degli Angeli, which was in fact a great hall of a Roman house. The roof of this hall was one vast arch, unsupported except by the side walls. We have record of

apel for the worship of such members of the family-Livia and many others-as were deified after death.

arrow staircase, we can descend into what is perhaps the most interesting portion of the whole, the one unearthed fragment of the actual Palace of Augustus, which still retains remains of gilding and fresco, and an artistic group in stucco. An original window remains, and it will be recollected on looking at it, that when this was built it was not subterranean, but merely

annicus (son of Claudius and Messalina) swallowed the cup of poison which the emperor had caused Locusta to prepare and sank back dead upon his couch, his wretched sisters Antonia and Octavia, also seated at the ghastly feast, not daring to give expression to their grief and horror,-and Nero merely desiring the attendants to carry the boy out, and saying that it was a fit to which he was subject.[111] Here it was that Marcia the concubine presented the cup of drugged wine to the wicked Commodus, on his return from a w

right, is a Nymph?um, with a beautiful fountain surrounded by miniature niches, once filled with bronzes and statues. Water

he Vomitorium, with its bason, whither the feasters retired to tickle their

. Some of its Corinthian pillars have been re-erected on the sites where they were found. From

wn to have been especially fond of reciting his own compositions, probably did so here. Hence we may look down upon the valley between the Palatine and Aventine, where the rape of the Sabines took place

s during the Samnite war, in the assurance that he would gain the victory. On the steps is a sacrificial altar, which retains its grooves for the blood of the victi

is space was always kept clear, for here, constantly ren

from him, and reduce him to his father's private estates. In the enjoyment of these he lived rich, and, as he desired nothing more, secure: but the usurper dread

g, into the Tiber, which had overflowed its banks far and wide, even to the foot of the woody hills. At the root of a wild fig-tree, the Ficus Ruminalis, which was preserved and held sacred for many centuries, at the foot of the Palatine, the cradle overturned. A she-wolf came to drink of the stream: she heard the whimpering of the children, carried them into her den hard by, made a bed for them, licked and suckled them. When they wanted other food than milk, a woodpecker, the bird sacred to Mars, brought it to them. Other birds consecrated to auguries hovered over them, to drive away insects. This marvellous spectacle was seen by Faustulus, the shepherd of the royal flocks. The she-wolf drew back, and gave up the children to human nature. Acca Laurentia, his wife, became their foster-mother. They grew up, along with her twelve sons, on the Palatine hill, in straw huts which they built for themselves: that of Romulus was preserved by continual repairs, as a sacred relic, down to the time of Nero. They were the stoutest of the shepherd lads, fought bravely against wild beasts and robb

a city there, and the shepherds, their old companions, were their first citizens.... This is the old tale,

as shown for many centuries the cavern Lupercal, sa

entum, quem Rom

ida monstrat su

tum Panos de

?n. vi

ées et l'empreinte d'une origine pélasgique; ces fêtes au temps de Cicéron avaient encore un caractère pastoral en mémoire de l'Arcadie d'où on les croyait venues. Les Luperques qui représentaient les Satyres, compagnons de Pan, faisaient le tour de l'antique séjour des Pélasges sur le Palatin. C

preserved several objects

destin devait lui accorder. Tous les augures se servirent par la suite de ce baton sacré, qui fut trouvé intact après l'incendie du monument dans lequel il était conservé, miracle pa?en dont l'equivalent pourrait se rencontrer dans plus d'une lé

s mystérieux. La cabane était à un seul étage, en planches et couverte de roseaux, que l'on reconstruisait pieusement chaque fois qu'un incendie la détruisait; car elle br?la à diverses reprises, ce que la nature de

rious mother Livia. Here he had to mourn for Drusus, his only son, who fell a victim (A.D. 23) to poison administered to him by his wife Livilla and her lover the favourite Sejanus. Here also, in A.D. 29, died Livia,

piscina, or fish-pond, and the painted chambers of a building, which is supposed to have been the House of Drusus (elder brother of Tiberius) and Antonia. Several of the rooms in this building are richly decorated in fresco, one has a picture of a street with figures of females goin

nsisting of ranges of small rooms, communicating with open galleries, edged by marble balustrades, of which a portion exists. In these rooms the half-mad Caius Caligula rushed about, sometimes

use, il passera une partie de la nuit à errer sous d'immenses portiques, attendant et a

'humeur et retourna sur le Palatin. Dans les folies de Caligula, on voit se manifester cette pensée: Je suis dieu! pensée qui n'était peut-être pas très-extraordinaire chez un jeune homme de vi

range de soi: sur les monuments de l'Egypte on voit Ramsès-roi présenter son offrande à Ramsès-dieu; mais Caligula fit ce que n'avait fait aucun Pharaon; il

d them by coolly replying that he was thinking how by one word he could cause both their heads to roll on the floor. He amused himself with similar banter even with his wife C?sonia, for whom he

ed passage which led from the palace to the theatre, a singular chance which oc

s, half-hidden behind a curtain in an obscure corner, was dragged forth with brutal violence; and great was the intruder's surprise when they recognised him as Claudius, the long despised and neglected uncle of the murdered emperor.[116] He sank at their feet almost senseless with terror: but

r's,-and asked no questions, merely desiring a servant to pour him out some more wine, and went on eating his supper.[117] Here also Claudius, who so dearly loved eating, d

by the Sabine aborigines before the time of Romulus, and to be the earliest temple at Rome of which

ccording to the Sibylline books, frequent showers of stones which had occurred could only be expiated by its being transported to Rome. It was given up to the Romans by their ally Attalus, king of Pergamus, and P. Cornelius Scipio, the young brother of Africanus-accounted the worthiest an

qu'elle e?t été, disait on, seule épargnée dans deux incendies du temple, nous n'avons plus cette statue, mais nous avons au Capitole un bas-relief où l'événement miraculeux est représenté. C'e

presented by a statue with its face to the east; the building was adorne

di sunt t

cto stat Cory

, Ep. i

estruction by fire, was entirel

a nature. On honorait cette déesse de l'Asie par des orgies furieuses, par un mélange de débauche effrénée et de rites cruels; ses prêtres efféminés dansaient au son des fl?tes lydiennes et de ses crotales, véritables castagnettes, semblables à celles que fait résonner aujourd'hui la paysanne romaine en dansant la fougueuse saltarelle. On voit au musée du Capitole l'effigi

e of Cybele, stood the Temple of Apollo, though Signor Rosa places it on the other sid

ient authors. Propertius, who was present at its dedication, has devoted a short elegy

aro surgebat m

Ph?bo cari

rat supra fa

byci nobile

os Parnassi v

bat funera

trem Deus ipse,

onga carmina

ius, ii

ari gradibus s

onsi candida

ist. iii

as gilt. The columns were of African marble, or giallo-antico, and must have been fifty-two in number, as

niam tibi tard

agno C?sare

peciem P?nis d

anai f?mina

t. ii.

nis ubi sunt a

tricto barbar

ist. iii

ver the pediment was the chariot of the sun. The gates were of ivory, one of them sculptured with the story of the giants hurled down from the heights of Parnassus, the other representing the destruction of the Niobids. Inside the temple was the statue of Apollo in a tunica talaris, or long garment, between his mother Latona and his sister Diana, the work of Scopas, Cephisodorus, and Timot

gere

nus qu?cunque r

i. 3

more probably, perhaps, in an adjoining apartment, poets, orators, and philosophers recited their productions. The listless demeanour of the audience on such occasions seems

propriated to it part of the land covered with houses which he had purchased upon the

artem, Vest? pa

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.

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Fast.

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tu, Ph?be dom

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Fast.

Min

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ntioned by Varro (iv. 10

reos inter sac

, Me

member that these were not the heights considered as "the Seven Hills" in the ancient history of Rome, when the sacrifices of the Septimontium were offered upon the Palatine, Velia, and Germale, the three divisions of the Palatine-of which one can no lo

ley, that he might, as he said, the more easily hold intercourse with his friend and comrade Jupiter upon the Capitol. One of the piers which he used for his bridge, beyond the limits of the pala

rro mentions that his house had also a domed roof.[124] Here also the consul Octavius, murdered on the Janiculum by the partisans of Marius, had a house, which was rebuilt with great magnificence by Emilius Scaurus, who adorned it with columns of marble thirty-eight feet high.[125] These two last-named houses were bought by the wealthy Clodius, who gave 14,800,000 sesterces, or about 130,000l., for that of Scaurus, and throwing down the Porticus Catuli, included its site, and the house of E. Scaurus, in his own magnificent dwelling. Clodius was a member of the great house of the Claudii, and was the favoured lover of Pompeia, wife of Julius C?sar, by whose connivance, disguised as a female musician, he attempted to be present at the orgies of the Bona Dea, which were celebrated in the house of the Pontifex Maximus close to th

called from its beauty "the Venus of the Palatine," and was remarkable for its size, the taste of its furniture, and the beauty of its grounds. "It was adorned with pillars of Hymettian marble, with expensive vases, and triclinia inlaid with brass. His gardens were provided with fishponds, and some noble lotus-trees shaded his walks. Ahenobarbus, his colleague in the censorship, found fault with such corruption of manners,[127] estimated his house at a hundred million, or, according to Valerius Maximus,[128] six million sesterces, and complained of his crying for the loss of a lamprey as if it had been a daughter. It was a tame lamprey which used to come at the call of Crassus, and feed out of his hand. Crassus retorted by a public speech against his colleague, and by his great powers of ridicule, turned him into derision; jested upon his name,[129] and to the accusation of weeping for a lamprey, replied, that it was more than Ahenobarbus had done for the loss of any of his three wives."[130] Cicero purchased the hous

the ?dile Seius. Seius having declared that so long as he lived, Clodius should not have it, Clodius caused him to be poisoned, and then bought his house under a feigned

o take such a course; but he was hampered ever after with debts. Clodius, who had been defeated but not beaten, still continued his persecutions. He organised a gang of street boys to call out under Cicero's windows, 'Bread! Bread!' His bands interrupted the dramatic performances on the Palatine, at the Megalesian games, by rushing upon the stage. On another occasion, Clodius, at the head of his myrmidons, b

he Palatine, amounted to about 16,000l. The house of Quintus Cicero was rebuilt close

s Mark Antony,[134] whose house was afterwards given by August

the different marbles and alabasters. There is nothing of any great importance. The fragments of statues and some busts which have been fo

ound of the French div

ublic career Hortensius was frequently engaged on the same side with Cicero, and then always recognised his superiority by allowing him to speak last. Hortensius died B.C. 50, to the great grief of his ancient rival.[138] The splendid villas of Hortensius were celebrated. He was accustomed to water his trees with wine at regular intervals,[139] and had huge fishponds at Bauli, into which the salt-water fish came to be fed from his hand, and he became so fond of them,

of Raphael, but these have been destroyed or removed in deference to the modesty of the present inhabitants.

accessible either from the end of the lane of S. Buenaventura, or from a gate on the left of the Via dei Fienili just before reaching Sta. Anastas

farm buildings, are remains which proba

e oblong blocks. Here also are fragments of bases of towers of republican times. Behind S. Teodoro are remains of an e

moins régulier. Les murs d'une petite ville du Latium fondée par un aventurier ne pouvaient être aussi soignés que les murs des villes de l'étrurie, pay

elques-uns même l'avaient probablement passé déjà et habitaient le mont C?lius. Romulus dut s'adresser à eux, et faire faire cet ouvrage par des architects et des ma?ons étrusques. Ce fut aussi selon le rite de l'étrurie, pays sacerdotal, que Romu

tarque,[142] et, avec un grand détail par Tacite,[143] qui sans doute avait sous les yeux les livres des pontifes.

à Rome, comme partout, l'usage du fer. Il partit du lieu consacré par l'antique autel d'Hercule, au-dessous de l'angle occidental d

ant toujours son sillon, à tracer sans le savoir la route que devaient suivre un jour les triomphes, puis revint au point d'où il était parti. La charrue, l'instrument du labour, le symbole de la vie agricole des enfants de Saturne, avait dessiné le contour de la cité guerrière de Romulus. De même, quand on avait détruit une ville, on faisait passer la ch

aming, when, at this spot, between the sacred grove and the temple of Vesta, he heard a supernatural voice, bidding him to warn the senate of

he cliff. Near this were the steps called the Stairs of Cacus, leading up to the hut of Faustulu

VIT. Some suppose this to be the actual altar mentioned above as erected to the Genius Loci, in consequence of the mysterious warning of the Gallic invasion. The father of the t

generally believed to have been executed during the reign of Septimius Severus, and to have been done in an idle moment by one of the soldiers occupying these rooms, supposed to have been used as guard-chambers under that emperor. If so, it is perhaps the earliest existing

Church in the days of Severus or of Caracalla. As under Nero, so, a century and a half later, there were worshippers of Christ in the household of C?sar. But the paganism of the later date was more intelligently and bitterly hostile to the Church than the paganism which had shed the blood of the apostles. The Gnostic invective which attributed to the Jews the worship of an ass, was applied by pagans indiscriminately to Jews and Christians. Tacitus attributes the custom to a legend respecting services rendered by wild asses to the Israelites in the desert; 'and so, I suppose,' observes Tertullian, 'it was thence presumed that we, as bordering upon the Jewish religion, were taught to worship such a figure.' Such a story, once current, was easily adapted to the purposes of a pagan caricaturist. Whether from ignorance of th

belief which many entertain that they are those once occup

which the loins are girded for the spiritual war,-the breast-plate of that righteousness, the inseparable links whereof are faith and love,-the strong sandals, with which the feet of Christ's soldiers are made ready, not for such errands of death and despair as those on which the Pr?torian soldiers were daily sent, but for the universal message of the gospel of peace,-the large shield of confident trust, wherewith the whole man is protected, and whereon the fiery

ty, outside the walls. As regards the former opinion, it is true that the word came to be used, almost as we use the word 'palace,' for royal residences generally or for any residences of princely splendour. Yet we never find the word employed for the imperial house at Rome: and we believe the truer view to be that which has been recently advocated, namely, that it denotes here, not the palace itself, but the quarters of that part of the imperial guards, which was in immediate attendance upon the emperor. The emperor was pr?tor or commander-in-chief of the troops, and it was natural that his immediate guard should be in pr?torium near him. It might, indeed, be argued that this military establishment on the P

an Church from the Christians of the imperial household. These notices bring before us very vividly the moral contrasts by which the Apostle was surrounded. The soldier to whom he was chained to-day

g been worn out; they had lost all hold on educated minds.... Over against the altars of Nero and Popp?a, the voice of a prisoner was daily heard, and daily woke in grovelling souls the consciousness of their divine destiny. Men listened, and knew that self-sacrific

tions can be finer than those formed by the huge masses of stately brick arches, laden with a wealth of laurustinus, cytizus, and other flowering shrubs, standing out against the soft hues and delicate blue and pink shadows of the distant Campagna. Beneath the terrace is a fine range of lofty chambers, with a broken statue at the end, through which there is

cted by Severus at the southern corner of the palace, in order that it might at once strike the eyes of his African compatriots,[150] on their arrival in Rome. He built two other edifices which he

Palatine. The magnificence of his palace is extolled in the inflated verses of Statius, who describes the imperial dwelling as exciting the jealousy of the abode of Jupiter-as losing itself amongst the stars by its height, and rising above the clouds i

as is suspended in the tombs. Presently there entered a troop of naked boys, blackened, who danced around with horrid movements, and then stood still before them, offering them the fragments of food which are commonly presented to the dead. The guests were paralysed with terror, expecting at every moment to be put to death; and the more, as the others maintained a deep silence, as though they were dead themselves, and Domitian spake of things pertaining to the state of the departed only.' But this funeral feast was not destined to end

e that the murder of

bidden his daughter to protect her favourite any longer. Scared by these horrors he lost all self-control, and petulantly cried, and the cry was itself a portent: 'Now strike Jove whom he will!' From supernatural terrors he reverted again and again to earthly fears and suspicions. Henceforward the tyrant allowed none to be a

d the account of Domitian's fall has been coloured by invention and fancy. The story that a child, whom he suffered to attend in his private chamber, found by chance the tablets which he had placed under his pillow, and that the empress, on inspecting them, and finding herself, with his most familiar servants, designated for execution, contrived a plot for his assassination, is one so often repeated as to cause great suspicion. But neither can we accept the version of Philostratus, who would have us believe that the murder of Domitian was the deed of a single traitor, a freedman of Clemens, named Stephanus, who, indignant at his patron's death, and urged to fury by the sentence on his patron's wife, Domitilla, rushed alone into the tyrant's chamber, diverted his attention with a frivolous pretext, and smote him with the sword he bore concealed in his sl

apitolinus,[151] but it was restored by Commodus, after a fire which occurred in his reign,[152] and

, and marble I left thee

nd brickwork I find thee!

. Cl