whose scattered fragments so far surpass the most eloquent descriptions,
he was astonished at the supine indifference [65] of the Romans
themselves; [66] he was humbled rather than elated by the discovery,
that, except his friend Rienzi, and one of the Colonna, a stranger of
the RhÙne was more conversant with these antiquities than the nobles and
natives of the metropolis. [67] The ignorance and credulity of the
Romans are elaborately displayed in the old survey of the city which
was composed about the beginning of the thirteenth century; and, without
dwelling on the manifold errors of name and place, the legend of the
Capitol [68] may provoke a smile of contempt and indignation. "The
Capitol," says the anonymous writer, "is so named as being the head
of the world; where the consuls and senators formerly resided for the
government of the city and the globe. The strong and lofty walls were
covered with glass and gold, and crowned with a roof of the richest and
most curious carving. Below the citadel stood a palace, of gold for the
greatest part, decorated with precious stones, and whose value might
be esteemed at one third of the world itself. The statues of all the
provinces were arranged in order, each with a small bell suspended from
its neck; and such was the contrivance of art magic, [69] that if the
province rebelled against Rome, the statue turned round to that quarter
of the heavens, the bell rang, the prophet of the Capitol repeated
the prodigy, and the senate was admonished of the impending danger." A
second example, of less importance, though of equal absurdity, may be
drawn from the two marble horses, led by two naked youths, who have
since been transported from the baths of Constantine to the Quirinal
hill. The groundless application of the names of Phidias and Praxiteles
may perhaps be excused; but these Grecian sculptors should not have been
removed above four hundred years from the age of Pericles to that of
Tiberius; they should not have been transferred into two philosophers
or magicians, whose nakedness was the symbol of truth or knowledge, who
revealed to the emperor his most secret actions; and, after refusing
all pecuniary recompense, solicited the honor of leaving this eternal
monument of themselves. [70] Thus awake to the power of magic, the Romans
were insensible to the beauties of art: no more than five statues were
visible to the eyes of Poggius; and of the multitudes which chance or
design had buried under the ruins, the resurrection was fortunately
delayed till a safer and more enlightened age. [71] The Nile which now
adorns the Vatican, had been explored by some laborers in digging a
vineyard near the temple, or convent, of the Minerva; but the impatient
proprietor, who was tormented by some visits of curiosity, restored the
unprofitable marble to its former grave. [72] The discovery of a statue
of Pompey, ten feet in length, was the occasion of a lawsuit. It had
been found under a partition wall: the equitable judge had pronounced,
that the head should be separated from the body to satisfy the claims of
the contiguous owners; and the sentence would have been executed, if
the intercession of a cardinal, and the liberality of a pope, had not
rescued the Roman hero from the hands of his barbarous countrymen. [73]
[Footnote 65: Yet the statutes of Rome (l. iii. c. 81, p. 182) impose a
fine of 500 _aurei_ on whosoever shall demolish any ancient edifice, ne
ruinis civitas deformetur, et ut antiqua Êdificia decorem urbis perpetuo
representent.]
[Footnote 66: In his first visit to Rome (A.D. 1337. See MÈmoires sur
PÈtrarque, tom. i. p. 322, &c.) Petrarch is struck mute miraculo rerum
tantarum, et stuporis mole obrutus.... PrÊsentia vero, mirum dict˚ nihil
imminuit: vere major fuit Roma majoresque sunt reliquiÊ quam rebar. Jam
non orbem ab h‚c urbe domitum, sed tam sero domitum, miror, (Opp. p.
605, Familiares, ii. 14, Joanni ColumnÊ.)]
[Footnote 67: He excepts and praises the _rare_ knowledge of John
Colonna. Qui enim hodie magis ignari rerum Romanarum, quam Romani cives!
Invitus dico, nusquam minus Roma cognoscitur quam RomÊ.]
[Footnote 68: After the description of the Capitol, he adds, statuÊ
erant quot sunt mundi provinciÊ; et habebat quÊlibet tintinnabulum ad
collum. Et erant ita per magicam artem dispositÊ, ut quando aliqua regio
Romano Imperio rebellis erat, statim imago illius provinciÊ vertebat
se contra illam; unde tintinnabulum resonabat quod pendebat ad collum;
tuncque vates Capitolii qui erant custodes senatui, &c. He mentions an
example of the Saxons and Suevi, who, after they had been subdued by
Agrippa, again rebelled: tintinnabulum sonuit; sacerdos qui erat in
speculo in hebdomada senatoribus nuntiavit: Agrippa marched back and
reduced the--Persians, (Anonym. in Montfaucon, p. 297, 298.)]
[Footnote 69: The same writer affirms, that Virgil captus a Romanis
invisibiliter exiit, ivitque Neapolim. A Roman magician, in the xith
century, is introduced by William of Malmsbury, (de Gestis Regum
Anglorum, l. ii. p. 86;) and in the time of Flaminius Vacca (No. 81,
103) it was the vulgar belief that the strangers (the _Goths_) invoked
the dÊmons for the discovery of hidden treasures.]
[Footnote 70: Anonym. p. 289. Montfaucon (p. 191) justly observes, that
if Alexander be represented, these statues cannot be the work of Phidias
(Olympiad lxxxiii.) or Praxiteles, (Olympiad civ.,) who lived before
that conqueror (Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiv. 19.)]
[Footnote 71: William of Malmsbury (l. ii. p. 86, 87) relates a
marvellous discovery (A.D. 1046) of Pallas the son of Evander, who had
been slain by Turnus; the perpetual light in his sepulchre, a Latin
epitaph, the corpse, yet entire, of a young giant, the enormous wound
in his breast, (pectus perforat ingens,) &c. If this fable rests on the
slightest foundation, we may pity the bodies, as well as the statues,
that were exposed to the air in a barbarous age.]
[Footnote 72: Prope porticum MinervÊ, statua est recubantis, cujus caput
integr‚ effigie tantÊ magnitudinis, ut signa omnia excedat. Quidam ad
plantandas arbores scrobes faciens detexit. Ad hoc visendum cum plures
in dies magis concurrerent, strepitum adeuentium fastidiumque pertÊsus,
horti patronus congest‚ humo texit, (Poggius de Varietate FortunÊ, p.
12.)]
[Footnote 73: See the Memorials of Flaminius Vacca, No. 57, p. 11, 12,
at the end of the Roma Antica of Nardini, (1704, in 4to.)]
But the clouds of barbarism were gradually dispelled; and the peaceful
authority of Martin the Fifth and his successors restored the ornaments
of the city as well as the order of the ecclesiastical state. The
improvements of Rome, since the fifteenth century, have not been the
spontaneous produce of freedom and industry. The first and most natural
root of a great city is the labor and populousness of the adjacent
country, which supplies the materials of subsistence, of manufactures,
and of foreign trade. But the greater part of the Campagna of Rome is
reduced to a dreary and desolate wilderness: the overgrown estates of
the princes and the clergy are cultivated by the lazy hands of indigent
and hopeless vassals; and the scanty harvests are confined or exported
for the benefit of a monopoly. A second and more artificial cause of the
growth of a metropolis is the residence of a monarch, the expense of
a luxurious court, and the tributes of dependent provinces. Those
provinces and tributes had been lost in the fall of the empire; and
if some streams of the silver of Peru and the gold of Brazil have been
attracted by the Vatican, the revenues of the cardinals, the fees
of office, the oblations of pilgrims and clients, and the remnant
of ecclesiastical taxes, afford a poor and precarious supply, which
maintains, however, the idleness of the court and city. The population
of Rome, far below the measure of the great capitals of Europe, does not
exceed one hundred and seventy thousand inhabitants; [74] and within the
spacious enclosure of the walls, the largest portion of the seven hills
is overspread with vineyards and ruins. The beauty and splendor of the
modern city may be ascribed to the abuses of the government, to the
influence of superstition. Each reign (the exceptions are rare) has been
marked by the rapid elevation of a new family, enriched by the childish
pontiff at the expense of the church and country. The palaces of
these fortunate nephews are the most costly monuments of elegance and
servitude: the perfect arts of architecture, sculpture, and painting,
have been prostituted in their service; and their galleries and gardens
are decorated with the most precious works of antiquity, which taste or
vanity has prompted them to collect. The ecclesiastical revenues were
more decently employed by the popes themselves in the pomp of the
Catholic worship; but it is superfluous to enumerate their pious
foundations of altars, chapels, and churches, since these lesser stars
are eclipsed by the sun of the Vatican, by the dome of St. Peter,
the most glorious structure that ever has been applied to the use of
religion. The fame of Julius the Second, Leo the Tenth, and Sixtus the
Fifth, is accompanied by the superior merit of Bramante and Fontana,
of Raphael and Michael Angelo; and the same munificence which had been
displayed in palaces and temples was directed with equal zeal to revive
and emulate the labors of antiquity. Prostrate obelisks were raised from
the ground, and erected in the most conspicuous places; of the eleven
aqueducts of the CÊsars and consuls, three were restored; the artificial
rivers were conducted over a long series of old, or of new arches,
to discharge into marble basins a flood of salubrious and refreshing
waters: and the spectator, impatient to ascend the steps of St. Peter's,
is detained by a column of Egyptian granite, which rises between two
lofty and perpetual fountains, to the height of one hundred and twenty
feet. The map, the description, the monuments of ancient Rome, have been
elucidated by the diligence of the antiquarian and the student: [75] and
the footsteps of heroes, the relics, not of superstition, but of empire,
are devoutly visited by a new race of pilgrims from the remote, and once
savage countries of the North.
[Footnote 74: In the year 1709, the inhabitants of Rome (without
including eight or ten thousand Jews,) amounted to 138,568 souls, (Labat
Voyages en Espagne et en Italie, tom. iii. p. 217, 218.) In 1740, they
had increased to 146,080; and in 1765, I left them, without the
Jews 161,899. I am ignorant whether they have since continued in a
progressive state.]
[Footnote 75: The PËre Montfaucon distributes his own observations into
twenty days; he should have styled them weeks, or months, of his visits
to the different parts of the city, (Diarium Italicum, c. 8--20, p.
104--301.) That learned Benedictine reviews the topographers of ancient
Rome; the first efforts of Blondus, Fulvius, Martianus, and Faunus, the
superior labors of Pyrrhus Ligorius, had his learning been equal to his
labors; the writings of Onuphrius Panvinius, qui omnes obscuravit, and
the recent but imperfect books of Donatus and Nardini. Yet Montfaucon
still sighs for a more complete plan and description of the old
city, which must be attained by the three following methods: 1. The
measurement of the space and intervals of the ruins. 2. The study of
inscriptions, and the places where they were found. 3. The investigation
of all the acts, charters, diaries of the middle ages, which name
any spot or building of Rome. The laborious work, such as Montfaucon
desired, must be promoted by princely or public munificence: but
the great modern plan of Nolli (A.D. 1748) would furnish a solid and
accurate basis for the ancient topography of Rome.]
Of these pilgrims, and of every reader, the attention will be excited
by a History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; the greatest,
perhaps, and most awful scene in the history of mankind. The various
causes and progressive effects are connected with many of the events
most interesting in human annals: the artful policy of the CÊsars, who
long maintained the name and image of a free republic; the disorders of
military despotism; the rise, establishment, and sects of Christianity;
the foundation of Constantinople; the division of the monarchy; the
invasion and settlements of the Barbarians of Germany and Scythia; the
institutions of the civil law; the character and religion of Mahomet;
the temporal sovereignty of the popes; the restoration and decay of the
Western empire of Charlemagne; the crusades of the Latins in the East:
the conquests of the Saracens and Turks; the ruin of the Greek empire;
the state and revolutions of Rome in the middle age. The historian
may applaud the importance and variety of his subject; but while he is
conscious of his own imperfections, he must often accuse the deficiency
of his materials. It was among the ruins of the Capitol that I first
conceived the idea of a work which has amused and exercised near twenty
years of my life, and which, however inadequate to my own wishes, I
finally deliver to the curiosity and candor of the public.
Lausanne, June 27 1787