Rome has been so thoroughly exploited that perhaps the writing of a
layman on the subject would not interest the reader, so I shall not
attempt to go into details, for they would fill a very large book. Since
I last visited it the city had grown to be large, clean and prosperous,
under the careful and serious management of the king, whose business in
life seems to be the welfare of his people and the advancement of their
best interests. I met him and the queen at the Arch of Constantine; he
saluted, as he does to every one he meets when walking alone in the
suburbs of the city.
The three things that I remembered with the greatest interest on leaving
Rome--and I still admire them most of all--were Caracalla's Baths, the
Coliseum and the Forum. Perhaps no purely secular work of man has ever
approached the Baths of Caracalla in sumptuous, artistic magnificence and
splendor. They were more than a mile long and a little less than that in
width. They consisted of three vast baths, marble lined, with rare
mosaic floors: one for cold water, one for tepid and a third for hot
water. There were dressing rooms, refectories, lounging gardens, schools
of art, a court for athletes, another court for gladiators. Highly
carved marble columns supported the roofs and the rarest statues stood in
niches. The bathing capacity was the largest ever planned. To sit there
alone and people it, as when it was at its best, with all the glory of
the emperor, the court ladies, the vestal virgins, senators, warriors,
artists, men of letters and the rest, is a treat to the imagination that
cannot be realized on any other spot.
[Illustration: THE ARCH OF CONSTANTINE, ROME--ONE OF THE FINEST EXTANT.
THE EMPEROR THOUGHT IT ALL OUT AND PLANNED IT TO ASTONISH POSTERITY, AND
INCIDENTALLY TO RECORD HIS OWN GREATNESS]
The Coliseum is the largest amphitheatre ever built: it is more than a
third of a mile in circumference; it had seats for fifty thousand and
standing room for thousands more. The arena was two hundred and
seventy-three by one hundred and twenty feet. Beneath it were the dens
for lions, tigers, bears and bulls, with rooms for the gladiators and the
human victims. It was opened by Titus with a festival lasting over three
months in 80 A.D., and five thousand wild animals were killed during the
festivities. It was the place where the Christian martyrs met their
deaths under the persecuting emperors. The imagination runs riot while
trying to picture the tragic scenes that took place within its walls in
the presence of multitudes. It had a "bad eminence" all its own.
The Forum was in the early days the very heart of Rome, and all that was
great in it. It contained over sixty temples, public buildings, tombs,
triumphal arches, columns and great statues. Here Cicero and other
orators spoke to the people, and famous teachers made it their resort;
its name represented the thought and refinement of the age of which it
was the glory.
When I was in Rome I happened to be domiciled in a bedroom that had a
connecting door with another room of the same size. This door was of
course locked, the other room being occupied by an Italian. We had to
make a flying start for Naples at 5 A.M., and I got up at 4, in order to
shave, dress and breakfast in time to catch the train. I opened the
proceedings by starting to strop my razor on a big leather strop; the
door being quite flimsy, my Italian neighbor heard me distinctly, and as
he was trying to fall asleep he became very angry, jumped out of bed and
protested in loud and profane language. I paid no attention to his
protest and then he rang his bell long and violently. As I wanted to
make a respectable appearance at breakfast, I kept on stropping
diligently. This added to his indignation, and when the chambermaid
entered his den in response to the bell, he ordered her to go into my
room and stop the noise. She rushed toward me and intimated that the
gentleman was at the point of death--that he might die at any moment from
heart disease, unless he were permitted to sleep. I felt that a guest
had a right to shave in his own room, therefore I did not desist. My
irate neighbor then jumped out of bed and in his _pajamas_ ran downstairs
and brought up the manager, the cashier, the porter and a hall-boy. When
I opened my door the deputation implored me to cease stropping and start
shaving at once, and thus restore peace to the strained situation. I
explained that I was hurrying to the train and that this would be the
last of me; at which the Count rushed forward and grasping my hand,
exclaimed:
"Pardon, signor! shave all you like and do it now, but don't, for
heaven's sake, miss the train on any account, for if you commence that
horrible slapping again I shall make my way to the nearest mad house!"
When the cause of the disturbance had ceased, he soon fell asleep, and
when I began to lather my face he was artistically playing a "_fluto_"
obligate with his nose. At this I began to knock on the door, and he at
once called out:
"What now? What you want?"
"I want you to stop snoring or I'll alarm the house and have you
expelled."
"Ah, you get even with me, you do! I catch the leetle joke. What will
you haf to drink, signor? the wine is on me."