Rome.
There are many other interesting ruins in and about the Campo Vaccino,
besides those I have mentioned; but of some structures which we know
formerly stood here, no vestige is now to be seen. This is the case
with the arch which was erected in honour of the Fabian family. There
is the strongest reason to believe, that the ancient Forum was entirely
surrounded with temples, basilicæ, and public buildings of various
kinds, and adorned with porticoes and colonades. In the time of the
Republic, assemblies of the people were held there, laws were proposed,
and justice administered. In it was the Rostrum, from whence the orators
harangued the people. All who aspired at dignities came hither to canvass
suffrages. The Bankers had their offices near the Forum, as well as
those who received the revenues of the Commonwealth; and all kind of
business was transacted in this place. In my visits to the Campo Vaccino,
I arrange the ancient Forum in the best manner I can, and fix on the
particular spot where each edifice stood. In this I am sometimes a little
cramped in room; for the space between the Palatine Hill and the Capitol
is so small, and I am so circumscribed by arches and temples, whose ruins
still remain, that I find it impossible to make the Forum Romanum larger
than Covent Garden. I looked about for the Via Sacra, where Horace met
with his troublesome companion. Some people imagine, this was no other
than the Forum itself; but I am clearly of opinion, that the Via Sacra
was a street leading to the Forum, and lost in it, as a street in London
terminates at a square. I have, at last, fixed on the exact point where
it joins the Forum, which is very near the Meta Sudans. If we should ever
meet here, I shall convince you by local arguments, that I am in the
right; but I fear it would be very tedious, and not at all convincing, to
transmit them to you in writing.
As Rome increased in size and number of inhabitants, one Forum was found
too small, and many others were erected in process of time; but when we
speak of the Forum, without any distinguishing epithet, the ancient one
is understood.
The Tarpeian Rock is a continuation of that on which the Capitol was
built; I went to that part from which criminals condemned to death were
thrown. Mr. Byres has measured the height; it is exactly fifty-eight
feet perpendicular; and he thinks the ground at the bottom, from evident
marks, is twenty feet higher than it was originally; so that, before this
accumulation of rubbish, the precipice must have been about eighty feet
perpendicular. In reading the history of the Romans, the vast idea we
form of that people, naturally extends to the city of Rome, the hills
on which it was built, and every thing belonging to it. We image to
ourselves the Tarpeian Rock as a tremendous precipice; and, if afterwards
we ever have an opportunity of actually seeing it, the height falls so
short of our expectations, that we are apt to think it a great deal less
than it is in reality. A mistake of this kind, joined to a careless view
of the place, which is not in itself very interesting, has led Bishop
Burnet into the strange assertion, that the Tarpeian Rock is so very
low, that a man would think it no great matter to leap down it for his
diversion. Criminals thrown from this precipice, were literally thrown
out of the city of old Rome into the Campus Martius, which was a large
plain, of a triangular shape; two sides of the triangle being formed by
the Tiber, and the base by the Capitol, and buildings extending three
miles nearly in a parallel line with it. The Campus Martius had its name
from a small temple built in it, at a very early period, and dedicated
to Mars; or it might have this name from the military exercises performed
there. In this field, the great assemblies of the people, called Census
or Lustrum, were held every fifth year; the Consuls, Censors, and
Tribunes, were elected; the levies of troops were made; and there the
Roman youth exercised themselves in riding, driving the chariot, shooting
with the bow, using the sling, darting the javelin, throwing the discus
or quoit, in wrestling, running; and when covered with sweat and dust,
in consequence of these exercises, they washed their bodies clean by
swimming in the Tiber. Horace accuses Lydia of ruining a young man, by
keeping him from those manly exercises in which he formerly excelled.
——Cur apricum
Oderit campum, patiens pulveris atque solis:
Cur neque militaris
Inter equales equitet, Gallica nec lupatis
Temperet ora frænis?
Cur timet flavum Tiberim tangere?
The dead bodies of the most illustrious citizens were also burnt in this
field, which was adorned gradually by statues and trophies, erected
to the memory of distinguished men. But every feature of its ancient
appearance, is now hid by the streets and buildings of modern Rome.
The inhabitants of Rome may be excused for chusing this situation for
their houses, though by so doing, they have deprived us of a view of
the Campus Martius. But surely they, or their Governors, ought to show
more solicitude for preserving the antiquities than they do; and they
might, without inconveniency, find some place for a Cow Market, of less
importance than the ancient Forum. It is not in their power to restore
it to its former splendor, but they might, at least, have prevented its
falling back to the state in which Æneas found it, when he came to visit
the poor Evander.
Talibus inter se dictis ad tecta subibant
Pauperis Evandri: passimque armenta videbant
Romanoque Foro et lautis mugire carinis.
I have already said, that besides this, there were several Forums in
Rome, where Basilicæ were built, justice administered, and business
transacted. The Emperors were fond of having such public places named
after them. The accounts we have of the Forums of Nerva, and that of
Trajan, give the highest idea of their grandeur and elegance; three
Corinthian pillars, with their entablature, are all that remain of the
former; of the latter, the noble column placed in the middle, still
preserves all its original beauty. It consists of twenty-three circular
pieces of white marble, horizontally placed one above the other; it is
about twelve feet diameter at the bottom, and ten at the top. The plinth
of the base is a piece of marble twenty-one feet square. A staircase,
consisting of one hundred and eighty-three steps, and sufficiently wide
to admit a man to ascend, is cut out of the solid marble, leaving a small
pillar in the middle, round which the stair winds from the bottom to
the top. I observed a piece broken, as I went up, which shewed, that
those large masses of marble have been exquisitely polished on the flat
sides, where they are in contact with each other, that the adhesion and
strength of the pillar might be the greater. The stairs are lighted by
forty-one windows, exceedingly narrow on the outside, that they might
not interrupt the connection of the basso relievos, but which gradually
widen within, and by that means give sufficient light. The base of the
column is ornamented with basso relievos, representing trophies of
Dacian armour. The most memorable events of Trajan’s expedition against
the Dacians, are admirably wrought in a continued spiral line from the
bottom of the column to the top. The figures towards the top, are too far
removed from the eye to be seen perfectly. To have rendered them equally
visible with those below, it would have been necessary to have made them
larger proportionably as they ascended. Viewed from any considerable
distance, all the sculpture is lost, and a plain fluted pillar, of the
same proportions, would have had as fine an effect. But such a frugal
plan would not have been so glorious to the Prince, whose victories are
engraven, or so interesting to the legionary soldiers, many of whom, no
doubt, are here personally represented. Besides, it would not now be near
so valuable a monument, in the eyes of antiquarians, or so useful a study
to sculptors and painters, who have occasion to represent the military
dress of the Romans, or the costume of the East in that age. Exclusive of
the statue, this beautiful pillar is a hundred and twenty feet high. The
ashes of Trajan were deposited in an urn at the bottom, and his statue at
the top. Pope Sixtus the Fifth, in the room of the Emperor’s, has placed
a statue of St. Peter upon this column. I observed to a gentleman, with
whom I visited this pillar, that I thought there was not much propriety
in placing the figure of St. Peter upon a monument, representing the
victories, and erected in honour of the Emperor Trajan. “There is some
propriety, however,” replied he coldly, “in having made the statue of
_brass_.”