Rome from the earliest times. Southern countries really require them,
and they were universally used until late in the middle ages. Under
Gregory I., one of the greatest and most excellent men of his period,
whose government was distinguished for its beneficial measures, though
he did not reign as a sovereign, Rome was already quite deserted; still,
from one of his letters, I have learned that the use of baths was then
quite common. Pope Hadrian I.,[28] likewise a very great man, restored
the Aqua Claudia, which had been neglected, for the purpose of supplying
the baths with water. Gregory I. states, that in his time many people
considered it sinful to bathe on a Sunday; but he himself, who was more
clear-sighted than his flock, issued a proclamation[29] advising the
people not to be so foolish as to allow themselves to be prevented by
such a prejudice. This is a proof that baths were then still in general
use. In Germany, too, they were more common in the middle ages than they
are now. Such _balnea_ or _balneae_ were very popular in ancient Rome
even before the manners of the Greeks had commenced exercising their
influence. _Thermae_ (θερμαί) were first built under Augustus; but we
must not infer from this, that previously people bathed in cold water
in the city, for whenever they wished to do this, they plunged into the
Tiber. I explain the name _thermae_ in the following manner:—It had
become customary at Baiae and other watering places to combine warm
baths with the use of the mineral waters and with sea-bathing: the life
in those places was like that in our watering-places: people frequented
them for the purpose of diverting their minds and taking care of their
bodies. Greeks (commonly called _Graeculi_) were not wanting to provide
amusements of every description with the same industry which Italians
and Frenchmen display in German watering-places. People there threw off
all cares and put aside every kind of work, whence the Roman nobles
repaired to such places every spring. This, however, required a large
fortune, for those who had to maintain themselves by their own industry
could not afford to go to Baiae and stay there for a month. For this
reason, Augustus and Agrippa, whose object was to keep the great body
of the population in comfort and good humour, built artificial baths
as a place in the capital itself, where the people, without travelling
to Baiae, might have similar enjoyments; just as at present mineral
waters may be enjoyed at a great distance from the springs. To these
places, then, every one who wished it, could go and take a bath; they
contained sulphureous baths, vapour-baths, etc., and people might lounge
there without the fatigue of a journey. The most magnificent buildings,
most luxuriously furnished, were erected for this purpose: besides the
bath-rooms, there were others, in which all kinds of amusements were
provided, such as places for the games of the time, for games at ball,
drafts, and the like, nay, even a library existed there, as at present
newspapers are kept in the Cafés. They were accordingly, in reality,
institutions to while away leisure hours in ease and comfort, and were
peculiarly fitted to extinguish the mutinous spirit of the people, and
to tame them by the enjoyments of life. These thermae became extremely
popular, whence one emperor after another contributed one to the number
already existing to prevent people being obliged to go to a distant part
of the city, and to provide each quarter with its own. The thermae of
Agrippa were outside the city, near the Campus Martius and the Pantheon,
for he would not disturb any part of the city with his new institution:
he took care, by irrigation, that everything was green in the Campus
Martius during the summer, and near to the Pantheon he ordered avenues
of trees to be planted. The thermae of Titus bear this name unjustly;
the earlier antiquarians, even as late as the fifteenth century, called
them thermae of Trajan; they existed in the Carinae and were of quite
a monstrous extent. In the middle ages the building was called Curia
Vecchia. The thermae of Caius and Lucius Caesar in the eastern part of
the city are now quite foolishly called _templum Minervae Medicae_. The
building which now bears this name, was nothing else than a large portico
belonging to the Thermae. There also existed thermae of Nero, Titus,
Septimius Severus, Caracalla, Alexander Severus (near those of Agrippa),
Decius, Diocletian, and Constantine, so that we can scarcely understand
how all these colossal buildings had room within the circumference of
Rome. In these thermae some of the choicest specimens of ancient art have
been discovered; they contained excellent galleries of paintings, and
the most beautiful statues were set up there in the most suitable places.
If the group of the Laocoon were still standing in the thermae of Titus,
where it originally stood, it would have a far more appropriate place
than that which it occupies at present.
The _Palatine_ was originally nothing but an inhabited district like the
other hills. Cicero’s house stood upon it, and coming from the Via Sacra,
one may still approximately determine the spot where it stood. Augustus,
too, lived on the Palatine, but only as a private person. Tiberius built
another house for himself by the side of that of Augustus, and probably
inhabited it before his accession. Caligula built a palace there in
another part; but notwithstanding this, the whole of the Palatine was
full of private dwelling-houses, and there was no other public building
on it except temples. The conflagration under Nero destroyed all the
buildings on this hill. Nero then erected a palace on the Palatine;
but not satisfied with this, he continued it down to the Esquiliae and
even up the Esquiliae. The so-called golden house was situated between
the two hills, on a splendid spot, and extremely well chosen. But, at a
later time, we see that the imperial palace occupied the whole of the
Palatine. We must not imagine this to have been one homogeneous and
regular building, constructed on one plan, with a large front, like our
royal palaces. Nothing is more senseless than the restorations which the
old Italian antiquarians, such as Bianchini and Panvini, have made of
this golden house: the latter has drawn an outline of a building which
never existed at all. It is only now that the eyes of antiquarians have
been opened in regard to this subject. The whole of the Palatine hill
is covered with ruins, which have raised its height. The lower part of
the building is completely filled with earth; and if a person wishes to
investigate it, he must break through the ground until he reaches these
vaults. They are a real labyrinth; I have been successful in many points
of the topography of Rome, but I have not been able to form an idea of
the imperial palace. The excavations which were made in 1724 extended
only over a small part, but the _aula Domitiani_ was then brought to
light; the outlines of an enormous hall and splendid columns, partially
preserved, belonged to this aula, and can easily be made out; but there
is also a great number of I know not what kind of chambers: I can give
you no information about them. It would be desirable to see systematic
excavations made there. The whole district is the private property of
the king of Naples, whence the pope cannot order excavations to be made;
the ambassador of the king had permission to do so, but he was recalled
from Rome. The palace must have existed as late as the middle ages,
perhaps until the 11th or 12th century; it was then reduced to ashes,
as is attested by the excavations, which have shown traces of a great
conflagration. In a ritual of the coronation of the emperors belonging
to the end of the 11th century, which has been printed from the original
of Cencius Camerarius,[30] we read—“When the emperor is crowned in St.
Peter, he and the empress proceed to the _palatium Romanum_, the emperor
entering the apartment of Augustus, and the empress that of Livia.” These
apartments are correct and have been found, and the statement shows that
they were inhabited. Some fifty years ago a French dealer in works of
art made excavations there, on which occasion many things are said to
have been found, but the place was pillaged in a most disgraceful manner.
Traces of a magnificence appeared which surpass all our conceptions:
the walls of the rooms were covered with silver plate, and large pieces
of silver texture served as tapestry; in other palaces the walls were
covered with ordinary tapestry (_aulaea_), but here silver was employed
instead. The treasures among the ruins were so numerous, that even after
the pillage some things still remained.
There are, properly speaking, only two streets in ancient Rome, which
are known as such, namely, the _Via Sacra_ and the _Subura_. The former
began at the ridge, which extended from the Palatine to the Esquiliae,
and was called _Velia_, known as the place where the house of P. Valerius
Poplicola stood; from this Velia it ran across the Forum, and on the
other side of the Palatine, the form of which is almost square, it turned
towards the boundary line between the Roman and the Sabine town. We
know from Varro, that in the language of ordinary life only the first
part of the street, namely, that on the Velia, bore the name of Via
Sacra. The buildings by which it was lined were by no means splendid;
the houses which have been dug out are very small, and no person of rank
lived there; but, at the same time, it was the street through which
the processions passed, and there were a great many statues in it. The
street, as I said before, began at the height; it passed between the
temples of Venus and Peace, and had several triumphal arches. At the
point where it touched the Forum there stood the _fornix Fabianus_. It is
possible that it may have been the custom, even in early times, to make
temporary arches of foliage on the occasion of a triumphal procession;
but the first arch made of stone was that for the triumph of Q. Fabius
Allobrogicus. The arches still existing are those of Titus, Septimius
Severus, and that of Constantine, which is entirely composed of stolen
basreliefs; but there were many more, as, for example, two of Trajan,
one of Valentinian and another of Gratian. They stood in the street of
the Ponte St. Angelo, and existed as late as the middle ages; their
inscriptions are preserved in copies.
The _Subura_ is still called by the same name. Nardini is quite mistaken
in his assertion, that the ancient Subura was situated in a different
locality, near the Lateran; no man in his senses can admit this, for it
is opposed to all our evidence. We even have the express testimony of
Varro, that its site is identical with that of the present Subura, that
is, in the plain north of the Esquiliae, whence it had the advantage of
being completely built on both sides. In it stood the house of Caesar,
and in the times of the republic the aristocracy generally lived there
and in the Carinae on the Esquiline. Afterwards, in the time of emperors,
a change took place in this respect, and every one removed to the new
quarters, whence, in the days of Juvenal and Martial, the Subura was
inhabited only by the lowest classes; at present, too, it is the abode
of poverty. The _Carinae_ were a quarter rather than a single street, in
the district of S. Pietro in Vincola. After the great fire, Nero built a
palace (not the golden house) there; and not far from it was the palace
of Titus and the thermae of Trajan.
The Quirinal had no remarkable buildings; at a later period Aurelian
erected there the temple of the Sun, the most gigantic building in all
Rome, of which vast ruins still exist in the garden of the Colonna
family. At that time there was a taste for everything gigantic, because
architects were no longer able to produce the beautiful. The _Viminal_,
too, contained nothing worth noticing. The Carinae, as I have already
remarked, were on the _Esquiline_. Within the walls of Servius Tullius, I
know of no particularly remarkable edifice belonging to the early period,
though it contained a large number of small temples. The same must be
said of the _Caelius_ in its narrower sense; only one arch still exists
there; in the middle ages it contained many buildings.
On the rugged side of the _Aventine_, towards the river, stood the temple
of Diana, which, according to tradition, Servius Tullius had built as
a point of union for the Romans and Latins, and in which the table
containing the ancient treaty was preserved. On the same hill there
existed the thermae of Decius and a number of other buildings. I have
already observed, that the Porta Trigemina was on the Aventine towards
the river. On the side of the Palatine towards the Aventine there was a
flight of marble steps, called the _Scala Caci_; one tradition assigned
it to the Palatine, and another to the Aventine, a discrepancy which
probably arose from the opposition between the inhabitants of the two
hills.
Having thus rapidly passed over the hills, I shall now proceed further. A
_suburb_ was first formed between the Palatine, Aventine, and Esquiline
on the one side, and the Tiber on the other. I have already mentioned
as a part of it the _Forum olitorium_, which was at the same time a
fish-market, and still exists unchanged. The suburb became a thickly
inhabited district, and in it Augustus built the theatre of Marcellus and
the great portico of his sister Octavia.
Another suburb extended along the Tiber as far as Ponte Sisto at the
great reach of the river, where the amphitheatre of Statilius Taurus
was situated; it occupied the whole side of the river, which in our
maps is erroneously called Campus Martius. We generally imagine that
this Campus was the only one the Romans had; but this is a mistake, for
Campi also existed in front of other hills and gates; and like the great
Campus, they were gradually covered with houses, though they were neither
as extensive nor as important as the Campus Martius. One of them was
the _Campus Esquilinus_, in the plain before the Esquiline beyond the
agger, and the _Campus Caelimontanus_ at the foot of the Caelius (now
the palace of the Lateran) was another. These two Campi are as clear as
possible, and are frequently mentioned; their destination was the same
as that of the Campus Martius, and when in consequence of inundations
the games could not be held in the latter, they were transferred to the
Caelimontanus or the Esquilinus. Both these Campi were national property.
Ever since the time of Augustus, houses were built in the Campus Martius.
It contained the well known _septa_, a place fenced round, in which the
centuries voted; even Pompey had built his theatre on the very border of
the Campus; Agrippa erected his thermae there, and his incomparably more
beautiful Pantheon; and Augustus had there his Mausoleum, from which an
avenue of trees led to the buildings of Agrippa. Alexander Severus built
there new thermae, a circus, and several triumphal arches, so that the
Campus Martius entirely disappeared. In the second and third century Rome
extended more and more in that direction, whence at present that part
is thickly covered with houses. Of the buildings which are found there,
I have already mentioned the thermae of Alexander Severus, the Circus
Agonalis, and the structures of Agrippa, and I shall now say a few words
about the _Mausoleum, of Augustus_. This building formed a gigantic mass,
and was as imperishable as the pyramids. The descriptions we have of it
are very obscure, nor do its remains enable us to form an idea of it;
the drawings of its remains, which were made in the sixteenth century,
are very doubtful. A large bas-relief may still have existed, also a
water basin made of stone, which has disappeared in an unaccountable
manner; but otherwise I believe that the drawings contain restorations.
It is said that there was also a kind of suspended gardens with the
soil artificially carried into them, but this may be founded on some
misunderstanding.
The _mausoleum of Hadrian_, at present the Castel S. Angelo, was even
a much larger structure. Its restoration, which we see in drawings,
is anything but trustworthy; but there are drawings of the fifteenth
century, in which a small portion, which was then still uninjured, is
represented. At present we still see an immense pile impregnable and
inaccessible, into which there was only one entrance like that of a cave,
with a passage leading to the burial place. There Hadrian, Antoninus
Pius, and Antoninus the philosopher were buried. Inscriptions about it
are still found in the Itinerary of Einsiedeln, which belongs to the
seventh or eighth century. This building was used as a fort at a very
early period; Belisarius there defended himself against the Goths: the
Roman garrison consisted of Huns who hurled the statues with which
the building was adorned against the enemies. It is possible that
the Barberini Faun was on that occasion thrown down, as it was found
there at the time when Urban VIII. built the fortifications. During
subsequent wars the Castel S. Angelo was often defended, as for example,
when under Crescentius the city refused to surrender to Otho III. The
greatest devastations took place in the fourteenth century, when the
Romans, who were then little better than barbarians, wanted to level the
whole structure with the ground, because it had occasioned them great
annoyance: at that time many more inscriptions were preserved than at
present. For weeks and months they laboured in tearing away the marble
coating and the outward ornaments, but not being able to get through they
gave it up at last. Pope Alexander VI. built some towers as means of
defence, and on that occasion the destruction was carried still further.
But after that time, three inscriptions still remained in the sixteenth
century. The present condition, which is still imposing, is the work of
Urban VIII. who made a regular fortress of it. In order to provide it
with artillery, he caused the bronze of the vestibule of the Pantheon to
be melted and eighty cannons to be made of it, which, during the French
revolution, were carried by Murat to Naples. The costly sarcophagi of
porphyry, which belonged to the mausoleum of Hadrian are dispersed; one
of them still exists in the palace Borghese, and another, generally
called the sarcophagus of Agrippa, probably also belonged to it.
Trajan’s ashes were contained in an urn which stood on his column. Hence
the opinion that the gilt ball on the obelisk in front of the Circus
contained the ashes of Augustus; but this is only an erroneous opinion
of the middle ages; it was opened under Sixtus V. when the obelisk was
removed, and nothing but dust was found in it; but how this dust had got
into it, no one can tell, perhaps it was introduced by rain. It certainly
was not the ashes of Augustus, for we know distinctly where Augustus and
his family were buried. There still exists in the Capitol a very simple
coffin containing the remains of Agrippina; its side has the inscription
_Ossa Agrippinae Germanici_. During an accidental excavation near San
Carlo and the Corso, a _bustum_ of the Caesars was discovered, on which
their bodies were burnt; each imperial family had a distinct place for
this purpose. At present several monumental stones of such _busta_ exist
in the Museo Pio-Clementino; they always have an inscription, such as _C.
Caesar hic crematus est_. I believe there still exist half-a-dozen of
such inscriptions.
Not far from the _moles Hadriani_ there was a third _Circus_, built by
Nero, and by the side of it stands the church of St. Peter. According to
a tradition, the iron gate, where the apostles Peter and Paul suffered
the death of martyrs, still exists there; but according to others, Peter
died on the Janiculus, the _mons aureus_ of the middle ages. There, too,
a suburb arose as early as the time of Justinian; the church of St. Peter
attracted many inhabitants, and the place was especially occupied by
Germans, Saxons, and Lombards, who went to Rome for devotional purposes,
or were engaged in the service of the Praefectus to defend the pope. They
had their quarters (_scholae_) there, whence the name _schola Saxonum_,
and in the same district we have the Ospidale in Sassi. This suburb was
surrounded with walls by Leo IV. and called _Burgus_ (_Borgo_).
_Trastevere_, on the same side of the river, though separated by a great
space, was a suburb as early as the time of Augustus; it now contains
the oldest houses in Rome, which belong to the eleventh and twelfth
centuries. Augustus had gardens there, and during the republican period a
_navale_ existed there on the south of the Aventine. On the same bank of
the river there was a _naumachia_, a district surrounded by a wall, which
could be filled with water for mock-fights with small boats.
Ancient Rome had originally only one bridge, the _Pons Sublicius_; it
consisted at first entirely of wood, and could be taken down for the
purpose of defending the city against the attacks of an enemy. This
bridge remained for a long time the only one. The _Pons Milvius_, in the
neighbourhood of Rome, was likewise very ancient, but was three Roman
miles distant from the Porta Carmentalis. After the third Punic war,
Scipio, as censor, built a second bridge (_Pons Palatinus_) across the
Tiber. It was situated before the Velabrum, near to the Pons Sublicius,
and between it and the island. Not a trace of the Pons Sublicius now
exists. The Milvian bridge was at first likewise made of wood, and no
doubt that of Scipio also. The latter remained throughout the middle ages
until the sixteenth century. There have been hydrostatic disputes about
this bridge, as to whether it was built flat against the current of the
river or not; it does not, however, seem probable, that, if it had been
constructed on a wrong principle, it should have existed for a period of
1700 years; we must rather suppose that during this long interval the
Tiber changed its course. In the sixteenth century, when the river had
retreated, the bridge broke down. I am of opinion that Cavaliere Linotte,
who asserts this, is right, although he is not a man of learning: such
investigations do not require much learning, and good common sense
is often of greater assistance. In the same century, the bridge was
restored, but twenty years later it broke down again; at present only
a few arches of it exist, and the first, on the opposite bank, may be
assumed with certainty to be the one that was built by Scipio. A poor
woman had established a garden upon its ruins, and for the payment of a
trifle I was allowed to go there as often as I liked.
The _island_ which, according to tradition, was formed out of the corn
thrown into the river after the expulsion of the Tarquins, is remarkable
for the temple of Aesculapius. Even in very early times, and long before
the age of Augustus, the incredibly tasteless attempt was made to give
to that temple the form of a ship, in imitation of the vessel in which
the god had been conveyed to Rome; it was built of travertine. During
the middle ages a considerable part of the temple still existed, as may
be seen from a drawing of Boissard, which was made in the fourteenth
century. Old people under Pius VI. still saw a great deal of it, but
afterwards a large part of the wall was used for other purposes; in like
manner a splendid part of the thermae of Titus was destroyed as late as
1796.
The island was connected with the mainland on both sides by the _Pons
Cestius_ and the _Pons Fabricius_, which were very ancient. Next came the
_Pons Senatorius_, on the spot now occupied by the Ponte Sisto; _Pons
Aelius_ near S. Angelo, and the _Pons Milvius_ outside the city, now
Ponte Molle.
I shall now proceed to speak of
LATIUM
as the country of the Latins. We shall first take Latium Proper, then the
coast from Antium to Terracina, which was originally a Tyrrhenian and
afterwards a Volscian country, and lastly the country of the Hernicans.
But I have previously to make some remarks about the port towns of Rome.
All rivers of any importance carrying sand or mud form a delta, their
mouths being pushed forward by the tides or the nature of the seas. Down
to a certain point, they flow in a straight line, and then divide into
two arms, leaving a low sand-bank between them. Such are the deltas of
the Po, the Mississipi, the Nile, and the Ganges. The Tiber forms a
similar πρόχωσις, and the ridges of sand on both sides become more and
more widely separated from each other. On the left arm, which accordingly
must have existed as early as that time, king Ancus Marcius, who is no
doubt an historical personage, built the town of _Ostia_. I believe I
can prove that Ancus Marcius concluded a treaty with the Latins, by
which a number of the Latin towns, I mean those between Rome and the
sea, were ceded to Rome, while other places remained united with Latium.
In after times, Rome twice concluded similar treaties with Latium.
Ostia was founded as a pure Roman colony, and became the port town of
Rome. Afterwards it grew into a very large place, as is clear from the
extensive and very splendid ruins. It was first destroyed in the war
between Marius and Sulla, and afterwards frightfully devastated by the
Vandals; in the ninth century it existed again, but was then destroyed by
the Saracens. The great pope Leo IV. restored it, but the new town was
not of long duration. At present the atmosphere is very unhealthy, which
was not the case in the time of ancient Rome; whence we must infer, that
then there were no marshes in the neighbourhood, for the poisonous air
comes from the marshes. The district is at present so neglected that the
place is completely deserted.