Century.—Part I.
Prospect Of The Ruins Of Rome In The Fifteenth Century.— Four
Causes Of Decay And Destruction.—Example Of The
Coliseum.—Renovation Of The City.—Conclusion Of The Whole Work.
In the last days of Pope Eugenius the Fourth, 101 two of his
servants, the learned Poggius 1 and a friend, ascended the
Capitoline hill; reposed themselves among the ruins of columns
and temples; and viewed from that commanding spot the wide and
various prospect of desolation. 2 The place and the object gave
ample scope for moralizing on the vicissitudes of fortune, which
spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries
empires and cities in a common grave; and it was agreed, that in
proportion to her former greatness, the fall of Rome was the more
awful and deplorable. “Her primeval state, such as she might
appear in a remote age, when Evander entertained the stranger of
Troy, 3 has been delineated by the fancy of Virgil. This Tarpeian
rock was then a savage and solitary thicket: in the time of the
poet, it was crowned with the golden roofs of a temple; the
temple is overthrown, the gold has been pillaged, the wheel of
fortune has accomplished her revolution, and the sacred ground is
again disfigured with thorns and brambles. The hill of the
Capitol, on which we sit, was formerly the head of the Roman
empire, the citadel of the earth, the terror of kings;
illustrated by the footsteps of so many triumphs, enriched with
the spoils and tributes of so many nations. This spectacle of the
world, how is it fallen! how changed! how defaced! The path of
victory is obliterated by vines, and the benches of the senators
are concealed by a dunghill. Cast your eyes on the Palatine hill,
and seek among the shapeless and enormous fragments the marble
theatre, the obelisks, the colossal statues, the porticos of
Nero’s palace: survey the other hills of the city, the vacant
space is interrupted only by ruins and gardens. The forum of the
Roman people, where they assembled to enact their laws and elect
their magistrates, is now enclosed for the cultivation of
pot-herbs, or thrown open for the reception of swine and
buffaloes. The public and private edifices, that were founded for
eternity, lie prostrate, naked, and broken, like the limbs of a
mighty giant; and the ruin is the more visible, from the
stupendous relics that have survived the injuries of time and
fortune.” 4
101 (return) [ It should be Pope Martin the Fifth. See Gibbon’s
own note, ch. lxv, note 51 and Hobhouse, Illustrations of Childe
Harold, p. 155.—M.]
1 (return) [ I have already (notes 50, 51, on chap. lxv.)
mentioned the age, character, and writings of Poggius; and
particularly noticed the date of this elegant moral lecture on
the varieties of fortune.]
2 (return) [ Consedimus in ipsis Tarpeiæ arcis ruinis, pone
ingens portæ cujusdam, ut puto, templi, marmoreum limen,
plurimasque passim confractas columnas, unde magnâ ex parte
prospectus urbis patet, (p. 5.)]
3 (return) [ Æneid viii. 97—369. This ancient picture, so
artfully introduced, and so exquisitely finished, must have been
highly interesting to an inhabitant of Rome; and our early
studies allow us to sympathize in the feelings of a Roman.]
4 (return) [ Capitolium adeo.... immutatum ut vineæ in senatorum
subsellia successerint, stercorum ac purgamentorum receptaculum
factum. Respice ad Palatinum montem..... vasta rudera.... cæteros
colles perlustra omnia vacua ædificiis, ruinis vineisque oppleta
conspicies, (Poggius, de Varietat. Fortunæ p. 21.)]
These relics are minutely described by Poggius, one of the first
who raised his eyes from the monuments of legendary, to those of
classic, superstition. 5 _1._Besides a bridge, an arch, a
sepulchre, and the pyramid of Cestius, he could discern, of the
age of the republic, a double row of vaults, in the salt-office
of the Capitol, which were inscribed with the name and
munificence of Catulus. _2._ Eleven temples were visible in some
degree, from the perfect form of the Pantheon, to the three
arches and a marble column of the temple of Peace, which
Vespasian erected after the civil wars and the Jewish triumph.
_3._ Of the number, which he rashly defines, of seven _thermæ_,
or public baths, none were sufficiently entire to represent the
use and distribution of the several parts: but those of
Diocletian and Antoninus Caracalla still retained the titles of
the founders, and astonished the curious spectator, who, in
observing their solidity and extent, the variety of marbles, the
size and multitude of the columns, compared the labor and expense
with the use and importance. Of the baths of Constantine, of
Alexander, of Domitian, or rather of Titus, some vestige might
yet be found. _4._ The triumphal arches of Titus, Severus, and
Constantine, were entire, both the structure and the
inscriptions; a falling fragment was honored with the name of
Trajan; and two arches, then extant, in the Flaminian way, have
been ascribed to the baser memory of Faustina and Gallienus. 501
_5._ After the wonder of the Coliseum, Poggius might have
overlooked small amphitheatre of brick, most probably for the use
of the prætorian camp: the theatres of Marcellus and Pompey were
occupied in a great measure by public and private buildings; and
in the Circus, Agonalis and Maximus, little more than the
situation and the form could be investigated. _6._ The columns of
Trajan and Antonine were still erect; but the Egyptian obelisks
were broken or buried. A people of gods and heroes, the
workmanship of art, was reduced to one equestrian figure of gilt
brass, and to five marble statues, of which the most conspicuous
were the two horses of Phidias and Praxiteles. _7._ The two
mausoleums or sepulchres of Augustus and Hadrian could not
totally be lost: but the former was only visible as a mound of
earth; and the latter, the castle of St. Angelo, had acquired the
name and appearance of a modern fortress. With the addition of
some separate and nameless columns, such were the remains of the
ancient city; for the marks of a more recent structure might be
detected in the walls, which formed a circumference of ten miles,
included three hundred and seventy-nine turrets, and opened into
the country by thirteen gates.
5 (return) [ See Poggius, p. 8—22.]
501 (return) [ One was in the Via Nomentana; est alter præterea
Gallieno principi dicatus, ut superscriptio indicat, _Viâ
Nomentana_. Hobhouse, p. 154. Poggio likewise mentions the
building which Gibbon ambiguously says be “might have
overlooked.”—M.]
This melancholy picture was drawn above nine hundred years after
the fall of the Western empire, and even of the Gothic kingdom of
Italy. A long period of distress and anarchy, in which empire,
and arts, and riches had migrated from the banks of the Tyber,
was incapable of restoring or adorning the city; and, as all that
is human must retrograde if it do not advance, every successive
age must have hastened the ruin of the works of antiquity. To
measure the progress of decay, and to ascertain, at each æra, the
state of each edifice, would be an endless and a useless labor;
and I shall content myself with two observations, which will
introduce a short inquiry into the general causes and effects.
_1._ Two hundred years before the eloquent complaint of Poggius,
an anonymous writer composed a description of Rome. 6 His
ignorance may repeat the same objects under strange and fabulous
names. Yet this barbarous topographer had eyes and ears; he could
observe the visible remains; he could listen to the tradition of
the people; and he distinctly enumerates seven theatres, eleven
baths, twelve arches, and eighteen palaces, of which many had
disappeared before the time of Poggius. It is apparent, that many
stately monuments of antiquity survived till a late period, 7 and
that the principles of destruction acted with vigorous and
increasing energy in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
_2._ The same reflection must be applied to the three last ages;
and we should vainly seek the Septizonium of Severus; 8 which is
celebrated by Petrarch and the antiquarians of the sixteenth
century. While the Roman edifices were still entire, the first
blows, however weighty and impetuous, were resisted by the
solidity of the mass and the harmony of the parts; but the
slightest touch would precipitate the fragments of arches and
columns, that already nodded to their fall.
6 (return) [ Liber de Mirabilibus Romæ ex Registro Nicolai
Cardinalis de Arragoniâ in Bibliothecâ St. Isidori Armario IV.,
No. 69. This treatise, with some short but pertinent notes, has
been published by Montfaucon, (Diarium Italicum, p. 283—301,) who
thus delivers his own critical opinion: Scriptor xiiimi. circiter
sæculi, ut ibidem notatur; antiquariæ rei imperitus et, ut ab
illo ævo, nugis et anilibus fabellis refertus: sed, quia
monumenta, quæ iis temporibus Romæ supererant pro modulo
recenset, non parum inde lucis mutuabitur qui Romanis
antiquitatibus indagandis operam navabit, (p. 283.)]
7 (return) [ The Père Mabillon (Analecta, tom. iv. p. 502) has
published an anonymous pilgrim of the ixth century, who, in his
visit round the churches and holy places at Rome, touches on
several buildings, especially porticos, which had disappeared
before the xiiith century.]
8 (return) [ On the Septizonium, see the Mémoires sur Pétrarque,
(tom. i. p. 325,) Donatus, (p. 338,) and Nardini, (p. 117, 414.)]
After a diligent inquiry, I can discern four principal causes of
the ruin of Rome, which continued to operate in a period of more
than a thousand years. I. The injuries of time and nature. II.
The hostile attacks of the Barbarians and Christians. III. The
use and abuse of the materials. And, IV. The domestic quarrels of
the Romans.
I. The art of man is able to construct monuments far more
permanent than the narrow span of his own existence; yet these
monuments, like himself, are perishable and frail; and in the
boundless annals of time, his life and his labors must equally be
measured as a fleeting moment. Of a simple and solid edifice, it
is not easy, however, to circumscribe the duration. As the
wonders of ancient days, the pyramids 9 attracted the curiosity
of the ancients: a hundred generations, the leaves of autumn,
have dropped 10 into the grave; and after the fall of the
Pharaohs and Ptolemies, the Cæsars and caliphs, the same pyramids
stand erect and unshaken above the floods of the Nile. A complex
figure of various and minute parts to more accessible to injury
and decay; and the silent lapse of time is often accelerated by
hurricanes and earthquakes, by fires and inundations. The air and
earth have doubtless been shaken; and the lofty turrets of Rome
have tottered from their foundations; but the seven hills do not
appear to be placed on the great cavities of the globe; nor has
the city, in any age, been exposed to the convulsions of nature,
which, in the climate of Antioch, Lisbon, or Lima, have crumbled
in a few moments the works of ages into dust. Fire is the most
powerful agent of life and death: the rapid mischief may be
kindled and propagated by the industry or negligence of mankind;
and every period of the Roman annals is marked by the repetition
of similar calamities. A memorable conflagration, the guilt or
misfortune of Nero’s reign, continued, though with unequal fury,
either six or nine days. 11 Innumerable buildings, crowded in
close and crooked streets, supplied perpetual fuel for the
flames; and when they ceased, four only of the fourteen regions
were left entire; three were totally destroyed, and seven were
deformed by the relics of smoking and lacerated edifices. 12 In
the full meridian of empire, the metropolis arose with fresh
beauty from her ashes; yet the memory of the old deplored their
irreparable losses, the arts of Greece, the trophies of victory,
the monuments of primitive or fabulous antiquity. In the days of
distress and anarchy, every wound is mortal, every fall
irretrievable; nor can the damage be restored either by the
public care of government, or the activity of private interest.
Yet two causes may be alleged, which render the calamity of fire
more destructive to a flourishing than a decayed city. _1._ The
more combustible materials of brick, timber, and metals, are
first melted or consumed; but the flames may play without injury
or effect on the naked walls, and massy arches, that have been
despoiled of their ornaments. _2._ It is among the common and
plebeian habitations, that a mischievous spark is most easily
blown to a conflagration; but as soon as they are devoured, the
greater edifices, which have resisted or escaped, are left as so
many islands in a state of solitude and safety. From her
situation, Rome is exposed to the danger of frequent inundations.
Without excepting the Tyber, the rivers that descend from either
side of the Apennine have a short and irregular course; a shallow
stream in the summer heats; an impetuous torrent, when it is
swelled in the spring or winter, by the fall of rain, and the
melting of the snows. When the current is repelled from the sea
by adverse winds, when the ordinary bed is inadequate to the
weight of waters, they rise above the banks, and overspread,
without limits or control, the plains and cities of the adjacent
country. Soon after the triumph of the first Punic war, the Tyber
was increased by unusual rains; and the inundation, surpassing
all former measure of time and place, destroyed all the buildings
that were situated below the hills of Rome. According to the
variety of ground, the same mischief was produced by different
means; and the edifices were either swept away by the sudden
impulse, or dissolved and undermined by the long continuance, of
the flood. 13 Under the reign of Augustus, the same calamity was
renewed: the lawless river overturned the palaces and temples on
its banks; 14 and, after the labors of the emperor in cleansing
and widening the bed that was encumbered with ruins, 15 the
vigilance of his successors was exercised by similar dangers and
designs. The project of diverting into new channels the Tyber
itself, or some of the dependent streams, was long opposed by
superstition and local interests; 16 nor did the use compensate
the toil and cost of the tardy and imperfect execution. The
servitude of rivers is the noblest and most important victory
which man has obtained over the licentiousness of nature; 17 and
if such were the ravages of the Tyber under a firm and active
government, what could oppose, or who can enumerate, the injuries
of the city, after the fall of the Western empire? A remedy was
at length produced by the evil itself: the accumulation of
rubbish and the earth, that has been washed down from the hills,
is supposed to have elevated the plain of Rome, fourteen or
fifteen feet, perhaps, above the ancient level; 18 and the modern
city is less accessible to the attacks of the river. 19
9 (return) [ The age of the pyramids is remote and unknown, since
Diodorus Siculus (tom. i l. i. c. 44, p. 72) is unable to decide
whether they were constructed 1000, or 3400, years before the
clxxxth Olympiad. Sir John Marsham’s contracted scale of the
Egyptian dynasties would fix them about 2000 years before Christ,
(Canon. Chronicus, p. 47.)]
10 (return) [ See the speech of Glaucus in the Iliad, (Z. 146.)
This natural but melancholy image is peculiar to Homer.]
11 (return) [ The learning and criticism of M. des Vignoles
(Histoire Critique de la République des Lettres, tom. viii. p.
47—118, ix. p. 172—187) dates the fire of Rome from A.D. 64, July
19, and the subsequent persecution of the Christians from
November 15 of the same year.]
12 (return) [ Quippe in regiones quatuordecim Roma dividitur,
quarum quatuor integræ manebant, tres solo tenus dejectæ: septem
reliquis pauca testorum vestigia supererant, lacera et semiusta.
Among the old relics that were irreparably lost, Tacitus
enumerates the temple of the moon of Servius Tullius; the fane
and altar consecrated by Evander præsenti Herculi; the temple of
Jupiter Stator, a vow of Romulus; the palace of Numa; the temple
of Vesta cum Penatibus populi Romani. He then deplores the opes
tot victoriis quæsitæ et Græcarum artium decora.... multa quæ
seniores meminerant, quæ reparari nequibant, (Annal. xv. 40,
41.)]
13 (return) [ A. U. C. 507, repentina subversio ipsius Romæ
prævenit triumphum Romanorum.... diversæ ignium aquarumque clades
pene absumsere urbem Nam Tiberis insolitis auctus imbribus et
ultra opinionem, vel diuturnitate vel maguitudine redundans,
_omnia_ Romæ ædificia in plano posita delevit. Diversæ qualitates
locorum ad unam convenere perniciem: quoniam et quæ segnior
inundatio tenuit madefacta dissolvit, et quæ cursus torrentis
invenit impulsa dejecit, (Orosius, Hist. l. iv. c. 11, p. 244,
edit. Havercamp.) Yet we may observe, that it is the plan and
study of the Christian apologist to magnify the calamities of the
Pagan world.]
14 (return) [
Vidimus flavum Tiberim, retortis Littore Etrusco violenter undis,
Ire dejectum monumenta Regis Templaque Vestæ. (Horat. Carm. I.
2.)
If the palace of Numa and temple of Vesta were thrown down in
Horace’s time, what was consumed of those buildings by Nero’s
fire could hardly deserve the epithets of vetustissima or
incorrupta.]
15 (return) [ Ad coercendas inundationes alveum Tiberis laxavit,
ac repurgavit, completum olim ruderibus, et ædificiorum
prolapsionibus coarctatum, (Suetonius in Augusto, c. 30.)]
16 (return) [ Tacitus (Annal. i. 79) reports the petitions of the
different towns of Italy to the senate against the measure; and
we may applaud the progress of reason. On a similar occasion,
local interests would undoubtedly be consulted: but an English
House of Commons would reject with contempt the arguments of
superstition, “that nature had assigned to the rivers their
proper course,” &c.]
17 (return) [ See the Epoques de la Nature of the eloquent and
philosophic Buffon. His picture of Guyana, in South America, is
that of a new and savage land, in which the waters are abandoned
to themselves without being regulated by human industry, (p. 212,
561, quarto edition.)]
18 (return) [ In his travels in Italy, Mr. Addison (his works,
vol. ii. p. 98, Baskerville’s edition) has observed this curious
and unquestionable fact.]
19 (return) [ Yet in modern times, the Tyber has sometimes
damaged the city, and in the years 1530, 1557, 1598, the annals
of Muratori record three mischievous and memorable inundations,
(tom. xiv. p. 268, 429, tom. xv. p. 99, &c.) * Note: The level of
the Tyber was at one time supposed to be considerably raised:
recent investigations seem to be conclusive against this
supposition. See a brief, but satisfactory statement of the
question in Bunsen and Platner, Roms Beschreibung. vol. i. p.
29.—M.]
II. The crowd of writers of every nation, who impute the
destruction of the Roman monuments to the Goths and the
Christians, have neglected to inquire how far they were animated
by a hostile principle, and how far they possessed the means and
the leisure to satiate their enmity. In the preceding volumes of
this History, I have described the triumph of barbarism and
religion; and I can only resume, in a few words, their real or
imaginary connection with the ruin of ancient Rome. Our fancy may
create, or adopt, a pleasing romance, that the Goths and Vandals
sallied from Scandinavia, ardent to avenge the flight of Odin; 20
to break the chains, and to chastise the oppressors, of mankind;
that they wished to burn the records of classic literature, and
to found their national architecture on the broken members of the
Tuscan and Corinthian orders. But in simple truth, the northern
conquerors were neither sufficiently savage, nor sufficiently
refined, to entertain such aspiring ideas of destruction and
revenge. The shepherds of Scythia and Germany had been educated
in the armies of the empire, whose discipline they acquired, and
whose weakness they invaded: with the familiar use of the Latin
tongue, they had learned to reverence the name and titles of
Rome; and, though incapable of emulating, they were more inclined
to admire, than to abolish, the arts and studies of a brighter
period. In the transient possession of a rich and unresisting
capital, the soldiers of Alaric and Genseric were stimulated by
the passions of a victorious army; amidst the wanton indulgence
of lust or cruelty, portable wealth was the object of their
search; nor could they derive either pride or pleasure from the
unprofitable reflection, that they had battered to the ground the
works of the consuls and Cæsars. Their moments were indeed
precious; the Goths evacuated Rome on the sixth, 21 the Vandals
on the fifteenth, day: 22 and, though it be far more difficult to
build than to destroy, their hasty assault would have made a
slight impression on the solid piles of antiquity. We may
remember, that both Alaric and Genseric affected to spare the
buildings of the city; that they subsisted in strength and beauty
under the auspicious government of Theodoric; 23 and that the
momentary resentment of Totila 24 was disarmed by his own temper
and the advice of his friends and enemies. From these innocent
Barbarians, the reproach may be transferred to the Catholics of
Rome. The statues, altars, and houses, of the dæmons, were an
abomination in their eyes; and in the absolute command of the
city, they might labor with zeal and perseverance to erase the
idolatry of their ancestors. The demolition of the temples in the
East 25 affords to _them_ an example of conduct, and to _us_ an
argument of belief; and it is probable that a portion of guilt or
merit may be imputed with justice to the Roman proselytes. Yet
their abhorrence was confined to the monuments of heathen
superstition; and the civil structures that were dedicated to the
business or pleasure of society might be preserved without injury
or scandal. The change of religion was accomplished, not by a
popular tumult, but by the decrees of the emperors, of the
senate, and of time. Of the Christian hierarchy, the bishops of
Rome were commonly the most prudent and least fanatic; nor can
any positive charge be opposed to the meritorious act of saving
or converting the majestic structure of the Pantheon. 26 261
20 (return) [ I take this opportunity of declaring, that in the
course of twelve years, I have forgotten, or renounced, the
flight of Odin from Azoph to Sweden, which I never very seriously
believed, (vol. i. p. 283.) The Goths are apparently Germans: but
all beyond Cæsar and Tacitus is darkness or fable, in the
antiquities of Germany.]
21 (return) [ History of the Decline, &c., vol. iii. p. 291.]
22 (return) [———————————vol. iii. p. 464.]
23 (return) [———————————vol. iv. p. 23—25.]
24 (return) [———————————vol. iv. p. 258.]
25 (return) [———————————vol. iii. c. xxviii. p. 139—148.]
26 (return) [ Eodem tempore petiit a Phocate principe templum,
quod appellatur _Pantheon_, in quo fecit ecclesiam Sanctæ Mariæ
semper Virginis, et omnium martyrum; in quâ ecclesiæ princeps
multa bona obtulit, (Anastasius vel potius Liber Pontificalis in
Bonifacio IV., in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii.
P. i. p. 135.) According to the anonymous writer in Montfaucon,
the Pantheon had been vowed by Agrippa to Cybele and Neptune, and
was dedicated by Boniface IV., on the calends of November, to the
Virgin, quæ est mater omnium sanctorum, (p. 297, 298.)]
261 (return) [ The popes, under the dominion of the emperor and
of the exarchs, according to Feas’s just observation, did not
possess the power of disposing of the buildings and monuments of
the city according to their own will. Bunsen and Platner, vol. i.
p. 241.—M.]
III. The value of any object that supplies the wants or pleasures
of mankind is compounded of its substance and its form, of the
materials and the manufacture. Its price must depend on the
number of persons by whom it may be acquired and used; on the
extent of the market; and consequently on the ease or difficulty
of remote exportation, according to the nature of the commodity,
its local situation, and the temporary circumstances of the
world. The Barbarian conquerors of Rome usurped in a moment the
toil and treasure of successive ages; but, except the luxuries of
immediate consumption, they must view without desire all that
could not be removed from the city in the Gothic wagons or the
fleet of the Vandals. 27 Gold and silver were the first objects
of their avarice; as in every country, and in the smallest
compass, they represent the most ample command of the industry
and possessions of mankind. A vase or a statue of those precious
metals might tempt the vanity of some Barbarian chief; but the
grosser multitude, regardless of the form, was tenacious only of
the substance; and the melted ingots might be readily divided and
stamped into the current coin of the empire. The less active or
less fortunate robbers were reduced to the baser plunder of
brass, lead, iron, and copper: whatever had escaped the Goths and
Vandals was pillaged by the Greek tyrants; and the emperor
Constans, in his rapacious visit, stripped the bronze tiles from
the roof of the Pantheon. 28 The edifices of Rome might be
considered as a vast and various mine; the first labor of
extracting the materials was already performed; the metals were
purified and cast; the marbles were hewn and polished; and after
foreign and domestic rapine had been satiated, the remains of the
city, could a purchaser have been found, were still venal. The
monuments of antiquity had been left naked of their precious
ornaments; but the Romans would demolish with their own hands the
arches and walls, if the hope of profit could surpass the cost of
the labor and exportation. If Charlemagne had fixed in Italy the
seat of the Western empire, his genius would have aspired to
restore, rather than to violate, the works of the Cæsars; but
policy confined the French monarch to the forests of Germany; his
taste could be gratified only by destruction; and the new palace
of Aix la Chapelle was decorated with the marbles of Ravenna 29
and Rome. 30 Five hundred years after Charlemagne, a king of
Sicily, Robert, the wisest and most liberal sovereign of the age,
was supplied with the same materials by the easy navigation of
the Tyber and the sea; and Petrarch sighs an indignant complaint,
that the ancient capital of the world should adorn from her own
bowels the slothful luxury of Naples. 31 But these examples of
plunder or purchase were rare in the darker ages; and the Romans,
alone and unenvied, might have applied to their private or public
use the remaining structures of antiquity, if in their present
form and situation they had not been useless in a great measure
to the city and its inhabitants. The walls still described the
old circumference, but the city had descended from the seven
hills into the Campus Martius; and some of the noblest monuments
which had braved the injuries of time were left in a desert, far
remote from the habitations of mankind. The palaces of the
senators were no longer adapted to the manners or fortunes of
their indigent successors: the use of baths 32 and porticos was
forgotten: in the sixth century, the games of the theatre,
amphitheatre, and circus, had been interrupted: some temples were
devoted to the prevailing worship; but the Christian churches
preferred the holy figure of the cross; and fashion, or reason,
had distributed after a peculiar model the cells and offices of
the cloister. Under the ecclesiastical reign, the number of these
pious foundations was enormously multiplied; and the city was
crowded with forty monasteries of men, twenty of women, and sixty
chapters and colleges of canons and priests, 33 who aggravated,
instead of relieving, the depopulation of the tenth century. But
if the forms of ancient architecture were disregarded by a people
insensible of their use and beauty, the plentiful materials were
applied to every call of necessity or superstition; till the
fairest columns of the Ionic and Corinthian orders, the richest
marbles of Paros and Numidia, were degraded, perhaps to the
support of a convent or a stable. The daily havoc which is
perpetrated by the Turks in the cities of Greece and Asia may
afford a melancholy example; and in the gradual destruction of
the monuments of Rome, Sixtus the Fifth may alone be excused for
employing the stones of the Septizonium in the glorious edifice
of St. Peter’s. 34 A fragment, a ruin, howsoever mangled or
profaned, may be viewed with pleasure and regret; but the greater
part of the marble was deprived of substance, as well as of place
and proportion; it was burnt to lime for the purpose of cement.
341 Since the arrival of Poggius, the temple of Concord, 35 and
many capital structures, had vanished from his eyes; and an
epigram of the same age expresses a just and pious fear, that the
continuance of this practice would finally annihilate all the
monuments of antiquity. 36 The smallness of their numbers was the
sole check on the demands and depredations of the Romans. The
imagination of Petrarch might create the presence of a mighty
people; 37 and I hesitate to believe, that, even in the
fourteenth century, they could be reduced to a contemptible list
of thirty-three thousand inhabitants. From that period to the
reign of Leo the Tenth, if they multiplied to the amount of
eighty-five thousand, 38 the increase of citizens was in some
degree pernicious to the ancient city.
27 (return) [ Flaminius Vacca (apud Montfaucon, p. 155, 156. His
memoir is likewise printed, p. 21, at the end of the Roman Antica
of Nardini) and several Romans, doctrinâ graves, were persuaded
that the Goths buried their treasures at Rome, and bequeathed the
secret marks filiis nepotibusque. He relates some anecdotes to
prove, that in his own time, these places were visited and rifled
by the Transalpine pilgrims, the heirs of the Gothic conquerors.]
28 (return) [ Omnia quæ erant in ære ad ornatum civitatis
deposuit, sed e ecclesiam B. Mariæ ad martyres quæ de tegulis
æreis cooperta discooperuit, (Anast. in Vitalian. p. 141.) The
base and sacrilegious Greek had not even the poor pretence of
plundering a heathen temple, the Pantheon was already a Catholic
church.]
29 (return) [ For the spoils of Ravenna (musiva atque marmora)
see the original grant of Pope Adrian I. to Charlemagne, (Codex
Carolin. epist. lxvii. in Muratori, Script. Ital. tom. iii. P.
ii. p. 223.)]
30 (return) [ I shall quote the authentic testimony of the Saxon
poet, (A.D. 887—899,) de Rebus gestis Caroli magni, l. v.
437—440, in the Historians of France, (tom. v. p. 180:)
Ad quæ marmoreas præstabat Roma columnas, Quasdam
præcipuas pulchra Ravenna dedit. De tam longinquâ
poterit regione vetustas Illius ornatum, Francia, ferre
tibi.
And I shall add from the Chronicle of Sigebert, (Historians of
France, tom. v. p. 378,) extruxit etiam Aquisgrani basilicam
plurimæ pulchritudinis, ad cujus structuram a Roma et Ravenna
columnas et marmora devehi fecit.]
31 (return) [ I cannot refuse to transcribe a long passage of
Petrarch (Opp. p. 536, 537) in Epistolâ hortatoriâ ad Nicolaum
Laurentium; it is so strong and full to the point: Nec pudor aut
pietas continuit quominus impii spoliata Dei templa, occupatas
arces, opes publicas, regiones urbis, atque honores magistratûum
inter se divisos; (_habeant?_) quam unâ in re, turbulenti ac
seditiosi homines et totius reliquæ vitæ consiliis et rationibus
discordes, inhumani fderis stupendà societate convenirent, in
pontes et mnia atque immeritos lapides desævirent. Denique post
vi vel senio collapsa palatia, quæ quondam ingentes tenuerunt
viri, post diruptos arcus triumphales, (unde majores horum
forsitan corruerunt,) de ipsius vetustatis ac propriæ impietatis
fragminibus vilem quæstum turpi mercimonio captare non puduit.
Itaque nunc, heu dolor! heu scelus indignum! de vestris marmoreis
columnis, de liminibus templorum, (ad quæ nuper ex orbe toto
concursus devotissimus fiebat,) de imaginibus sepulchrorum sub
quibus patrum vestrorum venerabilis civis (_cinis?_) erat, ut
reliquas sileam, desidiosa Neapolis adornatur. Sic paullatim
ruinæ ipsæ deficiunt. Yet King Robert was the friend of
Petrarch.]
32 (return) [ Yet Charlemagne washed and swam at Aix la Chapelle
with a hundred of his courtiers, (Eginhart, c. 22, p. 108, 109,)
and Muratori describes, as late as the year 814, the public baths
which were built at Spoleto in Italy, (Annali, tom. vi. p. 416.)]
33 (return) [ See the Annals of Italy, A.D. 988. For this and the
preceding fact, Muratori himself is indebted to the Benedictine
history of Père Mabillon.]
34 (return) [ Vita di Sisto Quinto, da Gregorio Leti, tom. iii.
p. 50.]
341 (return) [ From the quotations in Bunsen’s Dissertation, it
may be suspected that this slow but continual process of
destruction was the most fatal. Ancient Rome eas considered a
quarry from which the church, the castle of the baron, or even
the hovel of the peasant, might be repaired.—M.]
35 (return) [ Porticus ædis Concordiæ, quam cum primum ad urbem
accessi vidi fere integram opere marmoreo admodum specioso:
Romani postmodum ad calcem ædem totam et porticûs partem
disjectis columnis sunt demoliti, (p. 12.) The temple of Concord
was therefore _not_ destroyed by a sedition in the xiiith
century, as I have read in a MS. treatise del’ Governo civile di
Rome, lent me formerly at Rome, and ascribed (I believe falsely)
to the celebrated Gravina. Poggius likewise affirms that the
sepulchre of Cæcilia Metella was burnt for lime, (p. 19, 20.)]
36 (return) [ Composed by Æneas Sylvius, afterwards Pope Pius
II., and published by Mabillon, from a MS. of the queen of
Sweden, (Musæum Italicum, tom. i. p. 97.)
Oblectat me, Roma, tuas spectare ruinas: Ex cujus lapsû
gloria prisca patet. Sed tuus hic populus muris defossa
vetustis Calcis in obsequium marmora dura coquit. Impia
tercentum si sic gens egerit annos Nullum hinc indicium
nobilitatis erit.]
37 (return) [ Vagabamur pariter in illâ urbe tam magnâ; quæ, cum
propter spatium vacua videretur, populum habet immensum, (Opp p.
605 Epist. Familiares, ii. 14.)]
38 (return) [ These states of the population of Rome at different
periods are derived from an ingenious treatise of the physician
Lancisi, de Romani Cli Qualitatibus, (p. 122.)]
IV. I have reserved for the last, the most potent and forcible
cause of destruction, the domestic hostilities of the Romans
themselves. Under the dominion of the Greek and French emperors,
the peace of the city was disturbed by accidental, though
frequent, seditions: it is from the decline of the latter, from
the beginning of the tenth century, that we may date the
licentiousness of private war, which violated with impunity the
laws of the Code and the Gospel, without respecting the majesty
of the absent sovereign, or the presence and person of the vicar
of Christ. In a dark period of five hundred years, Rome was
perpetually afflicted by the sanguinary quarrels of the nobles
and the people, the Guelphs and Ghibelines, the Colonna and
Ursini; and if much has escaped the knowledge, and much is
unworthy of the notice, of history, I have exposed in the two
preceding chapters the causes and effects of the public
disorders. At such a time, when every quarrel was decided by the
sword, and none could trust their lives or properties to the
impotence of law, the powerful citizens were armed for safety, or
offence, against the domestic enemies whom they feared or hated.
Except Venice alone, the same dangers and designs were common to
all the free republics of Italy; and the nobles usurped the
prerogative of fortifying their houses, and erecting strong
towers, 39 that were capable of resisting a sudden attack. The
cities were filled with these hostile edifices; and the example
of Lucca, which contained three hundred towers; her law, which
confined their height to the measure of fourscore feet, may be
extended with suitable latitude to the more opulent and populous
states. The first step of the senator Brancaleone in the
establishment of peace and justice, was to demolish (as we have
already seen) one hundred and forty of the towers of Rome; and,
in the last days of anarchy and discord, as late as the reign of
Martin the Fifth, forty-four still stood in one of the thirteen
or fourteen regions of the city. To this mischievous purpose the
remains of antiquity were most readily adapted: the temples and
arches afforded a broad and solid basis for the new structures of
brick and stone; and we can name the modern turrets that were
raised on the triumphal monuments of Julius Cæsar, Titus, and the
Antonines. 40 With some slight alterations, a theatre, an
amphitheatre, a mausoleum, was transformed into a strong and
spacious citadel. I need not repeat, that the mole of Adrian has
assumed the title and form of the castle of St. Angelo; 41 the
Septizonium of Severus was capable of standing against a royal
army; 42 the sepulchre of Metella has sunk under its outworks; 43
431 the theatres of Pompey and Marcellus were occupied by the
Savelli and Ursini families; 44 and the rough fortress has been
gradually softened to the splendor and elegance of an Italian
palace. Even the churches were encompassed with arms and
bulwarks, and the military engines on the roof of St. Peter’s
were the terror of the Vatican and the scandal of the Christian
world. Whatever is fortified will be attacked; and whatever is
attacked may be destroyed. Could the Romans have wrested from the
popes the castle of St. Angelo, they had resolved by a public
decree to annihilate that monument of servitude. Every building
of defence was exposed to a siege; and in every siege the arts
and engines of destruction were laboriously employed. After the
death of Nicholas the Fourth, Rome, without a sovereign or a
senate, was abandoned six months to the fury of civil war. “The
houses,” says a cardinal and poet of the times, 45 “were crushed
by the weight and velocity of enormous stones; 46 the walls were
perforated by the strokes of the battering-ram; the towers were
involved in fire and smoke; and the assailants were stimulated by
rapine and revenge.” The work was consummated by the tyranny of
the laws; and the factions of Italy alternately exercised a blind
and thoughtless vengeance on their adversaries, whose houses and
castles they razed to the ground. 47 In comparing the _days_ of
foreign, with the _ages_ of domestic, hostility, we must
pronounce, that the latter have been far more ruinous to the
city; and our opinion is confirmed by the evidence of Petrarch.
“Behold,” says the laureate, “the relics of Rome, the image of
her pristine greatness! neither time nor the Barbarian can boast
the merit of this stupendous destruction: it was perpetrated by
her own citizens, by the most illustrious of her sons; and your
ancestors (he writes to a noble Annabaldi) have done with the
battering-ram what the Punic hero could not accomplish with the
sword.” 48 The influence of the two last principles of decay must
in some degree be multiplied by each other; since the houses and
towers, which were subverted by civil war, required by a new and
perpetual supply from the monuments of antiquity. 481
39 (return) [ All the facts that relate to the towers at Rome,
and in other free cities of Italy, may be found in the laborious
and entertaining compilation of Muratori, Antiquitates Italiæ
Medii Ævi, dissertat. xxvi., (tom. ii. p. 493—496, of the Latin,
tom.. p. 446, of the Italian work.)]
40 (return) [ As for instance, templum Jani nunc dicitur, turris
Centii Frangipanis; et sane Jano impositæ turris lateritiæ
conspicua hodieque vestigia supersunt, (Montfaucon Diarium
Italicum, p. 186.) The anonymous writer (p. 285) enumerates,
arcus Titi, turris Cartularia; arcus Julii Cæsaris et Senatorum,
turres de Bratis; arcus Antonini, turris de Cosectis, &c.]
41 (return) [ Hadriani molem.... magna ex parte Romanorum
injuria.... disturbavit; quod certe funditus evertissent, si
eorum manibus pervia, absumptis grandibus saxis, reliqua moles
exstisset, (Poggius de Varietate Fortunæ, p. 12.)]
42 (return) [ Against the emperor Henry IV., (Muratori, Annali d’
Italia, tom. ix. p. 147.)]
43 (return) [ I must copy an important passage of Montfaucon:
Turris ingens rotunda.... Cæciliæ Metellæ.... sepulchrum erat,
cujus muri tam solidi, ut spatium perquam minimum intus vacuum
supersit; et _Torre di Bove_ dicitur, a boum capitibus muro
inscriptis. Huic sequiori ævo, tempore intestinorum bellorum, ceu
urbecula adjuncta fuit, cujus mnia et turres etiamnum visuntur;
ita ut sepulchrum Metellæ quasi arx oppiduli fuerit. Ferventibus
in urbe partibus, cum Ursini atque Columnenses mutuis cladibus
perniciem inferrent civitati, in utriusve partis ditionem cederet
magni momenti erat, (p. 142.)]
431 (return) [ This is inaccurately expressed. The sepulchre is
still standing See Hobhouse, p. 204.—M.]
44 (return) [ See the testimonies of Donatus, Nardini, and
Montfaucon. In the Savelli palace, the remains of the theatre of
Marcellus are still great and conspicuous.]
45 (return) [ James, cardinal of St. George, ad velum aureum, in
his metrical life of Pope Celestin V., (Muratori, Script. Ital.
tom. i. P. iii. p. 621, l. i. c. l. ver. 132, &c.)
Hoc dixisse sat est, Romam caruisee Senatû Mensibus
exactis heu sex; belloque vocatum (_vocatos_) In scelus,
in socios fraternaque vulnera patres; Tormentis jecisse
viros immania saxa; Perfodisse domus trabibus, fecisse
ruinas Ignibus; incensas turres, obscuraque fumo Lumina
vicino, quo sit spoliata supellex.]
46 (return) [ Muratori (Dissertazione sopra le Antiquità
Italiane, tom. i. p. 427—431) finds that stone bullets of two or
three hundred pounds’ weight were not uncommon; and they are
sometimes computed at xii. or xviii _cantari_ of Genoa, each
_cantaro_ weighing 150 pounds.]
47 (return) [ The vith law of the Visconti prohibits this common
and mischievous practice; and strictly enjoins, that the houses
of banished citizens should be preserved pro communi utilitate,
(Gualvancus de la Flamma in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum,
tom. xii. p. 1041.)]
48 (return) [ Petrarch thus addresses his friend, who, with shame
and tears had shown him the mnia, laceræ specimen miserable Romæ,
and declared his own intention of restoring them, (Carmina
Latina, l. ii. epist. Paulo Annibalensi, xii. p. 97, 98.)
Nec te parva manet servatis fama ruinis Quanta quod
integræ fuit olim gloria Romæ Reliquiæ testantur adhuc;
quas longior ætas Frangere non valuit; non vis aut ira
cruenti Hostis, ab egregiis franguntur civibus, heu!
heu’ ————Quod _ille_ nequivit (_Hannibal_.) Perficit hic
aries.]
481 (return) [ Bunsen has shown that the hostile attacks of the
emperor Henry the Fourth, but more particularly that of Robert
Guiscard, who burned down whole districts, inflicted the worst
damage on the ancient city Vol. i. p. 247.—M.]