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.]
[Footnote 35: Porticus Êdis ConcordiÊ, quam cum primum ad urbem accessi
vidi fere integram opere marmoreo admodum specioso: Romani postmodum ad
calcem Êdem totam et portic˚s 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 CÊcilia Metella was burnt for lime, (p. 19, 20.)]
[Footnote 36: Composed by ∆neas Sylvius, afterwards Pope Pius II.,
and published by Mabillon, from a MS. of the queen of Sweden, (MusÊum
Italicum, tom. i. p. 97.)
Oblectat me, Roma, tuas spectare ruinas:
Ex cujus laps˚ 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.]
[Footnote 37: Vagabamur pariter in ill‚ urbe tam magn‚; quÊ, cum propter
spatium vacua videretur, populum habet immensum, (Opp p. 605 Epist.
Familiares, ii. 14.)]
[Footnote 38: 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 CÊsar, 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]
[Footnote 39: 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 ItaliÊ Medii ∆vi,
dissertat. xxvi., (tom. ii. p. 493--496, of the Latin, tom.. p. 446, of
the Italian work.)]
[Footnote 40: As for instance, templum Jani nunc dicitur, turris Centii
Frangipanis; et sane Jano impositÊ turris lateritiÊ conspicua hodieque
vestigia supersunt, (Montfaucon Diarium Italicum, p. 186.) The anonymous
writer (p. 285) enumerates, arcus Titi, turris Cartularia; arcus Julii
CÊsaris et Senatorum, turres de Bratis; arcus Antonini, turris de
Cosectis, &c.]
[Footnote 41: 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 FortunÊ, p. 12.)]
[Footnote 42: Against the emperor Henry IV., (Muratori, Annali d'
Italia, tom. ix. p. 147.)]
[Footnote 43: I must copy an important passage of Montfaucon: Turris
ingens rotunda.... CÊciliÊ MetellÊ.... 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 Êvo,
tempore intestinorum bellorum, ceu urbecula adjuncta fuit, cujus mnia et
turres etiamnum visuntur; ita ut sepulchrum MetellÊ 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.)]
[Footnote 431: This is inaccurately expressed. The sepulchre is still
standing See Hobhouse, p. 204.--M.]
[Footnote 44: See the testimonies of Donatus, Nardini, and Montfaucon.
In the Savelli palace, the remains of the theatre of Marcellus are still
great and conspicuous.]
[Footnote 45: 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 Senat˚
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.]
[Footnote 46: Muratori (Dissertazione sopra le Antiquit‡ 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.]
[Footnote 47: 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.)]
[Footnote 48: Petrarch thus addresses his friend, who, with shame
and tears had shown him the mnia, lacerÊ specimen miserable RomÊ, 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 integrÊ fuit olim gloria RomÊ
ReliquiÊ testantur adhuc; quas longior Êtas
Frangere non valuit; non vis aut ira cruenti Hostis,
ab egregiis franguntur civibus, heu! heu'
--------Quod _ille_ nequivit (_Hannibal_.)
Perficit hic aries.]
[Footnote 481: 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.]
Chapter LXXI: Prospect Of The Ruins Of Rome In The Fifteenth Century.--Part II
These general observations may be separately applied to the amphitheatre
of Titus, which has obtained the name of the Coliseum, [49] either from
its magnitude, or from Nero's colossal statue; an edifice, had it been
left to time and nature, which might perhaps have claimed an eternal
duration. The curious antiquaries, who have computed the numbers and
seats, are disposed to believe, that above the upper row of stone steps
the amphitheatre was encircled and elevated with several stages of
wooden galleries, which were repeatedly consumed by fire, and restored
by the emperors. Whatever was precious, or portable, or profane, the
statues of gods and heroes, and the costly ornaments of sculpture which
were cast in brass, or overspread with leaves of silver and gold,
became the first prey of conquest or fanaticism, of the avarice of the
Barbarians or the Christians. In the massy stones of the Coliseum, many
holes are discerned; and the two most probable conjectures represent
the various accidents of its decay. These stones were connected by solid
links of brass or iron, nor had the eye of rapine overlooked the value
of the baser metals; [50] the vacant space was converted into a fair or
market; the artisans of the Coliseum are mentioned in an ancient survey;
and the chasms were perforated or enlarged to receive the poles that
supported the shops or tents of the mechanic trades. [51] Reduced to its
naked majesty, the Flavian amphitheatre was contemplated with awe and
admiration by the pilgrims of the North; and their rude enthusiasm
broke forth in a sublime proverbial expression, which is recorded in the
eighth century, in the fragments of the venerable Bede: "As long as the
Coliseum stands, Rome shall stand; when the Coliseum falls, Rome will
fall; when Rome falls, the world will fall." [52] In the modern system
of war, a situation commanded by three hills would not be chosen for
a fortress; but the strength of the walls and arches could resist
the engines of assault; a numerous garrison might be lodged in the
enclosure; and while one faction occupied the Vatican and the Capitol,
the other was intrenched in the Lateran and the Coliseum. [53]
[Footnote 49: The fourth part of the Verona Illustrata of the marquis
Maffei professedly treats of amphitheatres, particularly those of
Rome and Verona, of their dimensions, wooden galleries, &c. It is from
magnitude that he derives the name of _Colosseum_, or _Coliseum_; since
the same appellation was applied to the amphitheatre of Capua, without
the aid of a colossal statue; since that of Nero was erected in the
court (_in atrio_) of his palace, and not in the Coliseum, (P. iv. p.
15--19, l. i. c. 4.)]
[Footnote 50: Joseph Maria SuarÈs, a learned bishop, and the author of
a history of PrÊneste, has composed a separate dissertation on the seven
or eight probable causes of these holes, which has been since reprinted
in the Roman Thesaurus of Sallengre. Montfaucon (Diarium, p. 233)
pronounces the rapine of the Barbarians to be the unam germanamque
causam foraminum. * Note: The improbability of this theory is shown
by Bunsen, vol. i. p. 239.--M.]
[Footnote 51: Donatus, Roma Vetus et Nova, p. 285.
Note: Gibbon has followed Donatus, who supposes that a silk manufactory
was established in the xiith century in the Coliseum. The Bandonarii,
or Bandererii, were the officers who carried the standards of their
_school_ before the pope. Hobhouse, p. 269.--M.]
[Footnote 52: Quamdiu stabit Colyseus, stabit et Roma; quando cadet Coly
seus, cadet Roma; quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus, (Beda in Excerptis
seu Collectaneis apud Ducange Glossar. Med. et InfimÊ Latinitatis,
tom. ii. p. 407, edit. Basil.) This saying must be ascribed to the
Anglo-Saxon pilgrims who visited Rome before the year 735 the Êra of
Bede's death; for I do not believe that our venerable monk ever passed
the sea.]
[Footnote 53: I cannot recover, in Muratori's original Lives of the
Popes, (Script Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. P. i.,) the passage that
attests this hostile partition, which must be applied to the end of the
xiith or the beginning of the xiith century. * Note: "The division is
mentioned in Vit. Innocent. Pap. II. ex Cardinale Aragonio, (Script.
Rer. Ital. vol. iii. P. i. p. 435,) and Gibbon might have found frequent
other records of it at other dates." Hobhouse's Illustrations of Childe
Harold. p. 130.--M.]
The abolition at Rome of the ancient games must be understood with some
latitude; and the carnival sports, of the Testacean mount and the Circus
Agonalis, [54] were regulated by the law [55] or custom of the city. The
senator presided with dignity and pomp to adjudge and distribute the
prizes, the gold ring, or the _pallium_, [56] as it was styled, of cloth
or silk. A tribute on the Jews supplied the annual expense; [57] and the
races, on foot, on horseback, or in chariots, were ennobled by a tilt
and tournament of seventy-two of the Roman youth. In the year one
thousand three hundred and thirty-two, a bull-feast, after the fashion
of the Moors and Spaniards, was celebrated in the Coliseum itself; and
the living manners are painted in a diary of the times. [58] A convenient
order of benches was restored; and a general proclamation, as far as
Rimini and Ravenna, invited the nobles to exercise their skill and
courage in this perilous adventure. The Roman ladies were marshalled in
three squadrons, and seated in three balconies, which, on this day, the
third of September, were lined with scarlet cloth. The fair Jacova di
Rovere led the matrons from beyond the Tyber, a pure and native race,
who still represent the features and character of antiquity. The
remainder of the city was divided as usual between the Colonna and
Ursini: the two factions were proud of the number and beauty of their
female bands: the charms of Savella Ursini are mentioned with praise;
and the Colonna regretted the absence of the youngest of their house,
who had sprained her ankle in the garden of Nero's tower. The lots of
the champions were drawn by an old and respectable citizen; and they
descended into the arena, or pit, to encounter the wild bulls, on foot
as it should seem, with a single spear. Amidst the crowd, our annalist
has selected the names, colors, and devices, of twenty of the most
conspicuous knights. Several of the names are the most illustrious of
Rome and the ecclesiastical state: Malatesta, Polenta, della Valle,
Cafarello, Savelli, Capoccio, Conti, Annibaldi, Altieri, Corsi: the
colors were adapted to their taste and situation; the devices are
expressive of hope or despair, and breathe the spirit of gallantry and
arms. "I am alone, like the youngest of the Horatii," the confidence of
an intrepid stranger: "I live disconsolate," a weeping widower: "I burn
under the ashes," a discreet lover: "I adore Lavinia, or Lucretia," the
ambiguous declaration of a modern passion: "My faith is as pure," the
motto of a white livery: "Who is stronger than myself?" of a lion's
hide: "If am drowned in blood, what a pleasant death!" the wish of
ferocious courage. The pride or prudence of the Ursini restrained them
from the field, which was occupied by three of their hereditary rivals,
whose inscriptions denoted the lofty greatness of the Colonna name:
"Though sad, I am strong:" "Strong as I am great:" "If I fall,"
addressing himself to the spectators, "you fall with me;"--intimating
(says the contemporary writer) that while the other families were the
subjects of the Vatican, they alone were the supporters of the Capitol.
The combats of the amphitheatre were dangerous and bloody. Every
champion successively encountered a wild bull; and the victory may be
ascribed to the quadrupeds, since no more than eleven were left on the
field, with the loss of nine wounded and eighteen killed on the side
of their adversaries. Some of the noblest families might mourn, but the
pomp of the funerals, in the churches of St. John Lateran and St. Maria
Maggiore, afforded a second holiday to the people. Doubtless it was not
in such conflicts that the blood of the Romans should have been shed;
yet, in blaming their rashness, we are compelled to applaud their
gallantry; and the noble volunteers, who display their magnificence,
and risk their lives, under the balconies of the fair, excite a more
generous sympathy than the thousands of captives and malefactors who
were reluctantly dragged to the scene of slaughter. [59]
[Footnote 54: Although the structure of the circus Agonalis be
destroyed, it still retains its form and name, (Agona, Nagona, Navona;)
and the interior space affords a sufficient level for the purpose of
racing. But the Monte Testaceo, that strange pile of broken pottery,
seems only adapted for the annual practice of hurling from top to
bottom some wagon-loads of live hogs for the diversion of the populace,
(Statuta Urbis RomÊ, p. 186.)]
[Footnote 55: See the Statuta Urbis RomÊ, l. iii. c. 87, 88, 89, p. 185,
186. I have already given an idea of this municipal code. The races of
Nagona and Monte Testaceo are likewise mentioned in the Diary of Peter
Antonius from 1404 to 1417, (Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom.
xxiv. p. 1124.)]
[Footnote 56: The _Pallium_, which Menage so foolishly derives from
_Palmarius_, is an easy extension of the idea and the words, from the
robe or cloak, to the materials, and from thence to their application as
a prize, (Muratori, dissert. xxxiii.)]
[Footnote 57: For these expenses, the Jews of Rome paid each year 1130
florins, of which the odd thirty represented the pieces of silver for
which Judas had betrayed his Master to their ancestors. There was a
foot-race of Jewish as well as of Christian youths, (Statuta Urbis,
ibidem.)]
[Footnote 58: This extraordinary bull-feast in the Coliseum is
described, from tradition rather than memory, by Ludovico Buonconte
Monaldesco, on the most ancient fragments of Roman annals, (Muratori,
Script Rerum Italicarum, tom. xii. p. 535, 536;) and however fanciful
they may seem, they are deeply marked with the colors of truth and
nature.]
[Footnote 59: Muratori has given a separate dissertation (the xxixth) to
the games of the Italians in the Middle Ages.]
This use of the amphitheatre was a rare, perhaps a singular, festival:
the demand for the materials was a daily and continual want which the
citizens could gratify without restraint or remorse. In the fourteenth
century, a scandalous act of concord secured to both factions the
privilege of extracting stones from the free and common quarry of the
Coliseum; [60] and Poggius laments, that the greater part of these stones
had been burnt to lime by the folly of the Romans. [61] To check this
abuse, and to prevent the nocturnal crimes that might be perpetrated
in the vast and gloomy recess, Eugenius the Fourth surrounded it with a
wall; and, by a charter long extant, granted both the ground and edifice
to the monks of an adjacent convent. [62] After his death, the wall was
overthrown in a tumult of the people; and had they themselves respected
the noblest monument of their fathers, they might have justified the
resolve that it should never be degraded to private property. The inside
was damaged: but in the middle of the sixteenth century, an Êra of taste
and learning, the exterior circumference of one thousand six hundred
and twelve feet was still entire and inviolate; a triple elevation of
fourscore arches, which rose to the height of one hundred and eight
feet. Of the present ruin, the nephews of Paul the Third are the guilty
agents; and every traveller who views the Farnese palace may curse the
sacrilege and luxury of these upstart princes. [63] A similar reproach is
applied to the Barberini; and the repetition of injury might be dreaded
from every reign, till the Coliseum was placed under the safeguard of
religion by the most liberal of the pontiffs, Benedict the Fourteenth,
who consecrated a spot which persecution and fable had stained with the
blood of so many Christian martyrs. [64]
[Footnote 60: In a concise but instructive memoir, the abbÈ Barthelemy
(MÈmoires de l'AcadÈmie des Inscriptions, tom. xxviii. p. 585) has
mentioned this agreement of the factions of the xivth century de
Tiburtino faciendo in the Coliseum, from an original act in the archives
of Rome.]
[Footnote 61: Coliseum.... ob stultitiam Romanorum _majori ex parte_ ad
calcem deletum, says the indignant Poggius, (p. 17:) but his expression
too strong for the present age, must be very tenderly applied to the
xvth century.]
[Footnote 62: Of the Olivetan monks. Montfaucon (p. 142) affirms this
fact from the memorials of Flaminius Vacca, (No. 72.) They still hoped
on some future occasion, to revive and vindicate their grant.]
[Footnote 63: After measuring the priscus amphitheatri gyrus, Montfaucon
(p. 142) only adds that it was entire under Paul III.; tacendo clamat.
Muratori (Annali d'Italia, tom. xiv. p. 371) more freely reports the
guilt of the Farnese pope, and the indignation of the Roman people.
Against the nephews of Urban VIII. I have no other evidence than the
vulgar saying, "Quod non fecerunt Barbari, fecere Barberini," which was
perhaps suggested by the resemblance of the words.]
[Footnote 64: As an antiquarian and a priest, Montfaucon thus deprecates
the ruin of the Coliseum: QuÚd si non suopte merito atque pulchritudine
dignum fuisset quod improbas arceret manus, indigna res utique in locum
tot martyrum cruore sacrum tantopere sÊvitum esse.]