his present existence to the above burlesque character given to him by
the poet, whose amber has preserved many other grubs and worms: but to
classify Boccaccio with such a person, and to excommunicate his very
ashes, must of itself make us doubt of the qualification of the
classical tourist for writing upon Italian, or, indeed, upon any other
literature; for ignorance on one point may incapacitate an author merely
for that particular topic, but subjection to a professional prejudice
must render him an unsafe director on all occasions. Any perversion and
injustice may be made what is vulgarly called a "case of conscience,"
and this poor excuse is all that can be offered for the priest of
Certaldo, or the author of the _Classical Tour_. It would have answered
the purpose to confine the censure to the novels of Boccaccio; and
gratitude to that source which supplied the muse of Dryden with her last
and most harmonious numbers might, perhaps, have restricted that censure
to the objectionable qualities of the hundred tales. At any rate the
repentance of Boccaccio might have arrested his exhumation, and it
should have been recollected and told, that in his old age he wrote a
letter entreating his friend to discourage the reading of the
_Decameron_, for the sake of modesty, and for the sake of the author,
who would not have an apologist always at hand to state in his excuse
that he wrote it when young, and at the command of his superiors.[613]
It is neither the licentiousness of the writer, nor the evil
propensities of the reader, which have given to the _Decameron_ alone,
of all the works of Boccaccio, a perpetual popularity. The establishment
of a new and delightful dialect conferred an immortality on the works in
which it was first fixed. The sonnets of Petrarch were, for the same
reason, fated to survive his self-admired _Africa_, "the favourite of
kings." The invariable traits of nature and feeling with which the
novels, as well as the verses, abound, have doubtless been the chief
source of the foreign celebrity of both authors; but Boccaccio, as a
man, is no more to be estimated by that work, than Petrarch is to be
regarded in no other light than as the lover of Laura. Even, however,
had the father of the Tuscan prose been known only as the author of the
_Decameron_, a considerate writer would have been cautious to pronounce
a sentence irreconcilable with the unerring voice of many ages and
nations. An irrevocable value has never been stamped upon any work
solely recommended by impurity.
The true source of the outcry against Boccaccio, which began at a very
early period, was the choice of his scandalous personages in the
cloisters as well as the courts; but the princes only laughed at the
gallant adventures so unjustly charged upon queen Theodelinda, whilst
the priesthood cried shame upon the debauches drawn from the convent and
the hermitage; and most probably for the opposite reason, namely, that
the picture was faithful to the life. Two of the novels are allowed to
be facts usefully turned into tales to deride the canonisation of rogues
and laymen. Ser Ciappelletto and Marcellinus are cited with applause
even by the decent Muratori.[614] The great Arnaud, as he is quoted in
Bayle, states, that a new edition of the novels was proposed, of which
the expurgation consisted in omitting the words "monk" and "nun," and
tacking the immoralities to other names. The literary history of Italy
particularises no such edition; but it was not long before the whole of
Europe had but one opinion of the _Decameron_; and the absolution of the
author seems to have been a point settled at least a hundred years ago:
"On se feroit siffler si l' on pretendoit convaincre Boccace de n'avoir
pas ete honnete homme, puis qu'il a fait le Decameron." So said one of
the best men, and perhaps the best critic that ever lived--the very
martyr to impartiality.[615] But as this information, that in the
beginning of the last century one would have been hooted at for
pretending that Boccaccio was not a good man, may seem to come from one
of those enemies who are to be suspected, even when they make us a
present of truth, a more acceptable contrast with the proscription of
the body, soul, and muse of Boccaccio may be found in a few words from
the virtuous, the patriotic contemporary, who thought one of the tales
of this impure writer worthy a Latin version from his own pen. "I have
remarked elsewhere," says Petrarch, writing to Boccaccio, "that the book
itself has been worried by certain dogs, but stoutly defended by your
staff and voice. Nor was I astonished, for I have had proof of the
vigour of your mind, and I know you have fallen on that unaccommodating
incapable race of mortals, who, whatever they either like not, or know
not, or cannot do, are sure to reprehend in others; and on those
occasions only put on a show of learning and eloquence, but otherwise
are entirely dumb."[616]
It is satisfactory to find that all the priesthood do not resemble those
of Certaldo, and that one of them who did not possess the bones of
Boccaccio would not lose the opportunity of raising a cenotaph to his
memory. Bevius, canon of Padua, at the beginning of the sixteenth
century, erected at Arqua, opposite to the tomb of the Laureate, a
tablet, in which he associated Boccaccio to the equal honours of Dante
and of Petrarch.
22.
What is her Pyramid of precious stones?
Stanza lx. line 1.
Our veneration for the Medici begins with Cosmo and expires with his
grandson; that stream is pure only at the source; and it is in search of
some memorial of the virtuous republicans of the family that we visit
the church of St. Lorenzo at Florence. The tawdry, glaring, unfinished
chapel in that church, designed for the mausoleum of the Dukes of
Tuscany, set round with crowns and coffins, gives birth to no emotions
but those of contempt for the lavish vanity of a race of despots, whilst
the pavement slab, simply inscribed to the Father of his Country,
reconciles us to the name of Medici.[617] It was very natural for
Corinna[618] to suppose that the statue raised to the Duke of Urbino in
the _capella de' depositi_, was intended for his great namesake; but the
magnificent Lorenzo is only the sharer of a coffin half hidden in a
niche of the sacristy. The decay of Tuscany dates from the sovereignty
of the Medici. Of the sepulchral peace which succeeded to the
establishment of the reigning families in Italy, our own Sidney has
given us a glowing, but a faithful picture. "Notwithstanding all the
seditions of Florence, and other cities of Tuscany, the horrid factions
of Guelphs and Ghibelins, Neri and Bianchi, nobles and commons, they
continued populous, strong, and exceeding rich; but in the space of less
than a hundred and fifty years, the peaceable reign of the Medices is
thought to have destroyed nine parts in ten of the people of that
province. Amongst other things it is remarkable, that when Philip II. of
Spain gave Sienna to the Duke of Florence, his ambassador then at Rome
sent him word, that he had given away more than 650,000 subjects; and it
is not believed there are now 20,000 souls inhabiting that city and
territory. Pisa, Pistoia, Arezzo, Cortona, and other towns, that were
then good and populous, are in the like proportion diminished, and
Florence more than any. When that city had been long troubled with
seditions, tumults, and wars, for the most part unprosperous, they still
retained such strength, that when Charles VIII. of France, being
admitted as a friend with his whole army, which soon after conquered the
kingdom of Naples, thought to master them, the people, taking arms,
struck such a terror into him, that he was glad to depart upon such
conditions as they thought fit to impose. Machiavel reports, that in
that time Florence alone, with the Val d'Arno, a small territory
belonging to that city, could, in a few hours, by the sound of a bell,
bring together 135,000 well-armed men; whereas now that city, with all
the others in that province, are brought to such despicable weakness,
emptiness, poverty, and baseness, that they can neither resist the
oppressions of their own prince, nor defend him or themselves if they
were assaulted by a foreign enemy. The people are dispersed or
destroyed, and the best families sent to seek habitations in Venice,
Genoa, Rome, Naples, and Lucca. This is not the effect of war or
pestilence; they enjoy a perfect peace, and suffer no other plague than
the government they are under."[619] From the usurper Cosmo down to the
imbecile Gaston, we look in vain for any of those unmixed qualities
which should raise a patriot to the command of his fellow-citizens. The
Grand Dukes, and particularly the third Cosmo, had operated so entire a
change in the Tuscan character, that the candid Florentines, in excuse
for some imperfections in the philanthropic system of Leopold, are
obliged to confess that the sovereign was the only liberal man in his
dominions. Yet that excellent prince himself had no other notion of a
national assembly, than of a body to represent the wants and wishes, not
the will of the people.
23.
An Earthquake reeled unheededly away!
Stanza lxiii. line 5.
"And such was their mutual animosity, so intent were they upon the
battle, that the earthquake, which overthrew in great part many of the
cities of Italy, which turned the course of rapid streams, poured back
the sea upon the rivers, and tore down the very mountains, was not felt
by one of the combatants."[620] Such is the description of Livy. It may
be doubted whether modern tactics would admit of such an abstraction.
The site of the battle of Thrasimene is not to be mistaken. The
traveller from the village under Cortona to Casa di Piano, the next
stage on the way to Rome, has for the first two or three miles, around
him, but more particularly to the right, that flat land which Hannibal
laid waste in order to induce the Consul Flaminius to move from Arezzo.
On his left, and in front of him, is a ridge of hills bending down
towards the lake of Thrasimene, called by Livy "montes Cortonenses," and
now named the Gualandra. These hills he approaches at Ossaja, a village
which the itineraries pretend to have been so denominated from the bones
found there: but there have been no bones found there, and the battle
was fought on the other side of the hill. From Ossaja the road begins to
rise a little, but does not pass into the roots of the mountains until
the sixty-seventh milestone from Florence. The ascent thence is not
steep but perpetual, and continues for twenty minutes. The lake is soon
seen below on the right, with Borghetto, a round tower, close upon the
water; and the undulating hills partially covered with wood, amongst
which the road winds, sink by degrees into the marshes near to this
tower. Lower than the road, down to the right amidst these woody
hillocks, Hannibal placed his horse,[621] in the jaws of, or rather
above the pass, which was between the lake and the present road, and
most probably close to Borghetto, just under the lowest of the
"tumuli."[622] On a summit to the left, above the road, is an old
circular ruin, which the peasants call "the tower of Hannibal the
Carthaginian." Arrived at the highest point of the road, the traveller
has a partial view of the fatal plain, which opens fully upon him as he
descends the Gualandra. He soon finds himself in a vale enclosed to the
left, and in front and behind him by the Gualandra hills, bending round
in a segment larger than a semicircle, and running down at each end to
the lake, which obliques to the right and forms the chord of this
mountain arc. The position cannot be guessed at from the plains of
Cortona, nor appears to be so completely enclosed unless to one who is
fairly within the hills. It then, indeed, appears "a place made as it
were on purpose for a snare," _locus insidiis natus_. "Borghetto is then
found to stand in a narrow marshy pass close to the hill, and to the
lake, whilst there is no other outlet at the opposite turn of the
mountains than through the little town of Passignano, which is pushed
into the water by the foot of a high rocky acclivity." There is a woody
eminence branching down from the mountains into the upper end of the
plain nearer to the side of Passignano, and on this stands a white
village called Torre. Polybius seems to allude to this eminence as the
one on which Hannibal encamped, and drew out his heavy-armed Africans
and Spaniards in a conspicuous position.[623] From this spot he
despatched his Balearic and light-armed troops round through the
Gualandra heights to the right, so as to arrive unseen and form an
ambush amongst the broken acclivities which the road now passes, and to
be ready to act upon the left flank and above the enemy, whilst the
horse shut up the pass behind. Flaminius came to the lake near Borghetto
at sunset; and, without sending any spies before him, marched through
the pass the next morning before the day had quite broken, so that he
perceived nothing of the horse and light troops above and about him, and
saw only the heavy-armed Carthaginians in front on the hill of Torre.
The consul began to draw out his army in the flat, and in the mean time
the horse in ambush occupied the pass behind him at Borghetto. Thus the
Romans were completely enclosed, having the lake on the right, the main
army on the hill of Torre in front, the Gualandra hills filled with the
light-armed on their left flank, and being prevented from receding by
the cavalry, who, the further they advanced, stopped up all the outlets
in the rear. A fog rising from the lake now spread itself over the army
of the consul, but the high lands were in the sunshine, and all the
different corps in ambush looked towards the hill of Torre for the order
of attack. Hannibal gave the signal, and moved down from his post on the
height. At the same moment all his troops on the eminences behind and in
the flank of Flaminius rushed forwards as it were with one accord into
the plain. The Romans, who were forming their array in the mist,
suddenly heard the shouts of the enemy amongst them on every side, and
before they could fall into their ranks, or draw their swords, or see by
whom they were attacked, felt at once that they were surrounded and
lost. There are two little rivulets which run from the Gualandra into
the lake. The traveller crosses the first of these at about a mile after
he comes into the plain, and this divides the Tuscan from the Papal
territories. The second, about a quarter of a mile further on, is called
"the bloody rivulet;" and the peasants point out an open spot to the
left between the "Sanguinetto" and the hills, which, they say, was the
principal scene of slaughter. The other part of the plain is covered
with thick-set olive-trees in corn grounds, and is nowhere quite level,
except near the edge of the lake. It is, indeed, most probable that the
battle was fought near this end of the valley, for the six thousand
Romans, who, at the beginning of the action, broke through the enemy,
escaped to the summit of an eminence which must have been in this
quarter, otherwise they would have had to traverse the whole plain, and
to pierce through the main army of Hannibal.
The Romans fought desperately for three hours; but the death of
Flaminius was the signal for a general dispersion. The Carthaginian
horse then burst in upon the fugitives, and the lake, the marsh about
Borghetto, but chiefly the plain of the Sanguinetto and the passes of
the Gualandra, were strewed with dead. Near some old walls on a bleak
ridge to the left above the rivulet, many human bones have been
repeatedly found, and this has confirmed the pretensions and the name of
the "stream of blood."
Every district of Italy has its hero. In the north some painter is the
usual genius of the place, and the foreign Julio Romano more than
divides Mantua with her native Virgil.[624] To the south we hear of
Roman names. Near Thrasimene tradition is still faithful to the fame of
an enemy, and Hannibal the Carthaginian is the only ancient name
remembered on the banks of the Perugian lake. Flaminius is unknown; but
the postilions on that road have been taught to show the very spot where
_Il Console Romano_ was slain. Of all who fought and fell in the battle
of Thrasimene, the historian himself has, besides the generals and
Maharbal, preserved indeed only a single name. You overtake the
Carthaginian again on the same road to Rome. The antiquary, that is, the
hostler of the posthouse at Spoleto, tells you that his town repulsed
the victorious enemy, and shows you the gate still called _Porta di
Annibale_. It is hardly worth while to remark that a French travel
writer, well known by the name of the President Dupaty, saw Thrasimene
in the lake of Bolsena, which lay conveniently on his way from Sienna to
Rome.
24.
And thou, dread Statue! still existent in
The austerest form of naked majesty.
Stanza lxxxvii. lines 1 and 2.
The projected division of the Spada Pompey has already been recorded by
the historian of the _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_. Mr. Gibbon
found it in the memorials of Flaminius Vacca; and it may be added to his
mention of it, that Pope Julius III. gave the contending owners five
hundred crowns for the statue, and presented it to Cardinal Capo di
Ferro, who had prevented the judgment of Solomon from being executed
upon the image. In a more civilised age this statue was exposed to an
actual operation: for the French, who acted the Brutus of Voltaire in
the Coliseum, resolved that their Caesar should fall at the base of that
Pompey, which was supposed to have been sprinkled with the blood of the
original dictator. The nine-foot hero was therefore removed to the arena
of the amphitheatre, and, to facilitate its transport, suffered the
temporary amputation of its right arm. The republican tragedians had to
plead that the arm was a restoration: but their accusers do not believe
that the integrity of the statue would have protected it. The love of
finding every coincidence, has discovered the true Caesarian ichor in a
stain near the right knee; but colder criticism has rejected not only
the blood, but the portrait, and assigned the globe of power rather to
the first of the emperors than to the last of the republican masters of
Rome. Winckelmann[625] is loth to allow an heroic statue of a Roman
citizen, but the Grimani Agrippa, a contemporary almost, is heroic; and
naked Roman figures were only very rare, not absolutely forbidden. The
face accords much better with the "hominem integrum et castum et
gravem,"[626] than with any of the busts of Augustus, and is too stern
for him who was beautiful, says Suetonius, at all periods of his life.
The pretended likeness to Alexander the Great cannot be discerned, but
the traits resemble the medal of Pompey.[627] The objectionable globe
may not have been an ill-applied flattery to him who found Asia Minor
the boundary, and left it the centre of the Roman empire. It seems that
Winckelmann has made a mistake in thinking that no proof of the identity
of this statue with that which received the bloody sacrifice can be
derived from the spot where it was discovered.[628] Flaminius Vacca says
_sotto una cantina_, and this cantina is known to have been in the
Vicolo de' Leutari, near the Cancellaria; a position corresponding
exactly to that of the Janus before the basilica of Pompey's theatre, to
which Augustus transferred the statue after the _curia_ was either burnt
or taken down.[629] Part of the "Pompeian shade,"[630] the portico,
existed in the beginning of the XVth century, and the _atrium_ was still
called _Satrum_. So says Blondus.[631] At all events, so imposing is the
stern majesty of the statue, and so memorable is the story, that the
play of the imagination leaves no room for the exercise of the judgment,
and the fiction, if a fiction it is, operates on the spectator with an
effect not less powerful than truth.
25.
And thou, the thunder-stricken nurse of Rome!
Stanza lxxxviii. line 1.
Ancient Rome, like modern Sienna, abounded most probably with images of
the foster-mother of her founder; but there were two she-wolves of whom
history makes particular mention. One of these, _of brass in ancient
work_, was seen by Dionysius[632] at the temple of Romulus, under the
Palatine, and is universally believed to be that mentioned by the Latin
historian, as having been made from the money collected by a fine on
usurers, and as standing under the Ruminal fig-tree.[633] The other was
that which Cicero[634] has celebrated both in prose and verse, and which
the historian Dion also records as having suffered the same accident as
is alluded to by the orator.[635] The question agitated by the
antiquaries is, whether the wolf now in the Conservator's Palace is that
of Livy and Dionysius, or that of Cicero, or whether it is neither one
nor the other. The earlier writers differ as much as the moderns: Lucius
Faunus[636] says, that it is the one alluded to by both, which is
impossible, and also by Virgil, which may be. Fulvius Ursinus[637] calls
it the wolf of Dionysius, and Marlianus[638] talks of it as the one
mentioned by Cicero. To him Rycquius _tremblingly_ assents.[639]
Nardini is inclined to suppose it may be one of the many wolves
preserved in ancient Rome; but of the two rather bends to the Ciceronian
statue.[640] Montfaucon[641] mentions it as a point without doubt. Of
the latter writers the decisive Winckelmann[642] proclaims it as having
been found at the church of Saint Theodore, where, or near where, was
the temple of Romulus, and consequently makes it the wolf of Dionysius.
His authority is Lucius Faunus, who, however, only says that it _was
placed_, not _found_, at the Ficus Ruminalis, by the Comitium, by which
he does not seem to allude to the church of Saint Theodore. Rycquius was
the first to make the mistake, and Winckelmann followed Rycquius.
Flaminius Vacca tells quite a different story, and says he had heard the
wolf with the twins was found[643] near the arch of Septimius Severus.
The commentator on Winckelmann is of the same opinion with that learned
person, and is incensed at Nardini for not having remarked that Cicero,
in speaking of the wolf struck with lightning in the Capitol, makes use
of the past tense. But, with the Abate's leave, Nardini does not
positively assert the statue to be that mentioned by Cicero, and if he
had, the assumption would not perhaps have been so exceedingly
indiscreet. The Abate himself is obliged to own that there are marks
very like the scathing of lightning in the hinder legs of the present
wolf; and, to get rid of this, adds, that the wolf seen by Dionysius
might have been also struck by lightning, or otherwise injured.
Let us examine the subject by a reference to the words of Cicero. The
orator in two places seems to particularise the Romulus and the Remus,
especially the first, which his audience remembered to _have been_ in
the Capitol, as being struck with lightning. In his verses he records
that the twins and wolf both fell, and that the latter left behind the
marks of her feet. Cicero does not say that the wolf was consumed: and
Dion only mentions that it fell down, without alluding, as the Abate has
made him, to the force of the blow, or the firmness with which it had
been fixed. The whole strength, therefore, of the Abate's argument hangs
upon the past tense; which, however, may be somewhat diminished by
remarking that the phrase only shows that the statue was not then
standing in its former position. Winckelmann has observed that the
present twins are modern; and it is equally clear that there are marks
of gilding on the wolf, which might therefore be supposed to make part
of the ancient group. It is known that the sacred images of the Capitol
were not destroyed when injured by time or accident, but were put into
certain underground depositories, called _favissae_.[644] It may be
thought possible that the wolf had been so deposited, and had been
replaced in some conspicuous situation when the Capitol was rebuilt by
Vespasian. Rycquius, without mentioning his authority, tells that it was
transferred from the Comitium to the Lateran, and thence brought to the
Capitol. If it was found near the arch of Severus, it may have been one
of the images which Orosius[645] says was thrown down in the Forum by
lightning when Alaric took the city. That it is of very high antiquity
the workmanship is a decisive proof; and that circumstance induced
Winckelmann to believe it the wolf of Dionysius. The Capitoline wolf,
however, may have been of the same early date as that at the temple of
Romulus. Lactantius[646] asserts that in his time the Romans worshipped
a wolf; and it is known that the Lupercalia held out to a very late
period[647] after every other observance of the ancient superstition
had totally expired. This may account for the preservation of the
ancient image longer than the other early symbols of Paganism.
It may be permitted, however, to remark, that the wolf was a Roman
symbol, but that the worship of that symbol is an inference drawn by the
zeal of Lactantius. The early Christian writers are not to be trusted in
the charges which they make against the Pagans. Eusebius accused the
Romans to their faces of worshipping Simon Magus, and raising a statue
to him in the island of the Tyber. The Romans had probably never heard
of such a person before, who came, however, to play a considerable,
though scandalous part in the church history, and has left several
tokens of his aerial combat with St. Peter at Rome; notwithstanding that
an inscription found in this very island of the Tyber showed the Simon
Magus of Eusebius to be a certain indigenal god called Semo Sangus or
Fidius.[648]
Even when the worship of the founder of Rome had been abandoned it was
thought expedient to humour the habits of the good matrons of the city,
by sending them with their sick infants to the church of Saint Theodore,
as they had before carried them to the temple of Romulus.[649] The
practice is continued to this day; and the site of the above church
seems to be thereby identified with that of the temple; so that if the
wolf had been really found there, as Winckelmann says, there would be no
doubt of the present statue being that seen by Dionysius.[650] But
Faunus, in saying that it was at the Ficus Ruminalis by the Comitium, is
only talking of its ancient position as recorded by Pliny; and, even if
he had been remarking where it was found, would not have alluded to the
church of Saint Theodore, but to a very different place, near which it
was then thought the Ficus Ruminalis had been, and also the Comitium;
that is, the three columns by the church of Santa Maria Liberatrice, at
the corner of the Palatine looking on the Forum.
It is, in fact, a mere conjecture where the image was actually dug up;
and perhaps, on the whole, the marks of the gilding, and of the
lightning, are a better argument in favour of its being the Ciceronian
wolf than any that can be adduced for the contrary opinion. At any rate,
it is reasonably selected in the text of the poem as one of the most
interesting relics of the ancient city,[651] and is certainly the
figure, if not the very animal to which Virgil alludes in his beautiful
verses:--
"Geminos huic ubera circum
Ludere pendentes pueros, et lambere matrem
Impavidos; illam, tereti cervice reflexam,
Mulcere alternos, et corpora fingere lingua."[652]
26.
For the Roman's mind
Was modelled in a less terrestrial mould.
Stanza xc. lines 3 and 4.
It is possible to be a very great man and to be still very inferior to
Julius Caesar, the most complete character, so Lord Bacon thought, of all
antiquity. Nature seems incapable of such extraordinary combinations as
composed his versatile capacity, which was the wonder even of the Romans
themselves. The first general--the only triumphant politician--inferior
to none in eloquence--comparable to any in the attainments of wisdom, in
an age made up of the greatest commanders, statesmen, orators, and
philosophers that ever appeared in the world--an author who composed a
perfect specimen of military annals in his travelling carriage--at one
time in a controversy with Cato, at another writing a treatise on
punning, and collecting a set of good sayings--fighting and making love
at the same moment, and willing to abandon both his empire and his
mistress for a sight of the Fountains of the Nile. Such did Julius Caesar
appear to his contemporaries, and to those of the subsequent ages who
were the most inclined to deplore and execrate his fatal genius.
But we must not be so much dazzled with his surpassing glory, or with
his magnanimous, his amiable qualities, as to forget the decision of his
impartial countrymen:--
HE WAS JUSTLY SLAIN.[653]
27.
Egeria! sweet creation of some heart
Which found no mortal resting-place so fair
As thine ideal breast.
Stanza cxv. lines 1, 2, and 3.
The respectable authority of Flaminius Vacca would incline us to believe
in the claims of the Egerian grotto.[654] He assures us that he saw an
inscription in the pavement, stating that the fountain was that of
Egeria, dedicated to the nymphs. The inscription is not there at this
day, but Montfaucon quotes two lines[655] of Ovid [_Fast._, iii. 275,
276] from a stone in the Villa Giustiniani, which he seems to think had
been brought from the same grotto.
This grotto and valley were formerly frequented in summer, and
particularly the first Sunday in May, by the modern Romans, who attached
a salubrious quality to the fountain which trickles from an orifice at
the bottom of the vault, and, overflowing the little pools, creeps down
the matted grass into the brook below. The brook is the Ovidian Almo,
whose name and qualities are lost in the modern Aquataccio. The valley
itself is called Valle di Caffarelli, from the dukes of that name who
made over their fountain to the Pallavicini, with sixty _rubbia_ of
adjoining land.
There can be little doubt that this long dell is the Egerian valley of
Juvenal, and the pausing place of Umbritius, notwithstanding the
generality of his commentators have supposed the descent of the satirist
and his friend to have been into the Arician grove, where the nymph met
Hippolitus, and where she was more peculiarly worshipped.
The step from the Porta Capena to the Alban hill, fifteen miles distant,
would be too considerable, unless we were to believe in the wild
conjecture of Vossius, who makes that gate travel from its present
station, where he pretends it was during the reign of the Kings, as far
as the Arician grove, and then makes it recede to its old site with the
shrinking city.[656] The tufo, or pumice, which the poet prefers to
marble, is the substance composing the bank in which the grotto is sunk.
The modern topographers[657] find in the grotto the statue of the nymph,
and nine niches for the Muses; and a late traveller[658] has discovered
that the cave is restored to that simplicity which the poet regretted
had been exchanged for injudicious ornament. But the headless statue is
palpably rather a male than a nymph, and has none of the attributes
ascribed to it at present visible. The nine Muses could hardly have
stood in six niches; and Juvenal certainly does not allude to any
individual cave.[659] Nothing can be collected from the satirist but
that somewhere near the Porta Capena was a spot in which it was supposed
Numa held nightly consultations with his nymph, and where there was a
grove and a sacred fountain, and fanes once consecrated to the Muses;
and that from this spot there was a descent into the valley of Egeria,
where were several artificial caves. It is clear that the statues of the
Muses made no part of the decoration which the satirist thought
misplaced in these caves; for he expressly assigns other fanes
(_delubra_) to these divinities above the valley, and moreover tells us
that they had been ejected to make room for the Jews. In fact, the
little temple now called that of Bacchus, was formerly thought to belong
to the Muses, and Nardini[660] places them in a poplar grove, which was
in his time above the valley.
It is probable from the inscription and position, that the cave now
shown may be one of the "artificial caverns," of which, indeed, there is
another a little way higher up the valley, under a tuft of alder bushes;
but a _single_ grotto of Egeria is a mere modern invention, grafted upon
the application of the epithet Egerian to these nymphea in general, and
which might send us to look for the haunts of Numa upon the banks of the
Thames.
Our English Juvenal was not seduced into mistranslation by his
acquaintance with Pope: he carefully preserves the correct plural--
"Thence slowly winding down the vale we view
The Egerian _grots_: oh, how unlike the true!"
The valley abounds with springs,[661] and over these springs, which the
Muses might haunt from their neighbouring groves, Egeria presided: hence
she was said to supply them with water; and she was the nymph of the
grottos through which the fountains were taught to flow.
The whole of the monuments in the vicinity of the Egerian valley have
received names at will, which have been changed at will. Venuti[662]
owns he can see no traces of the temples of Jove, Saturn, Juno, Venus,
and Diana, which Nardini found, or hoped to find. The mutatorium of
Caracalla's circus, the temple of Honour and Virtue, the temple of
Bacchus, and, above all, the temple of the god Rediculus, are the
antiquaries' despair.
The circus of Caracalla depends on a medal of that emperor cited by
Fulvius Ursinus, of which the reverse shows a circus, supposed,
however, by some to represent the Circus Maximus. It gives a very good
idea of that place of exercise. The soil has been but little raised, if
we may judge from the small cellular structure at the end of the Spina,
which was probably the chapel of the god Consus. This cell is half
beneath the soil, as it must have been in the circus itself; for
Dionysius[663] could not be persuaded to believe that this divinity was
the Roman Neptune, because his altar was underground.
28.
Great Nemesis!
Here, where the ancient paid thee homage long.
Stanza cxxxii. lines 2 and 3.
We read in Suetonius, that Augustus, from a warning received in a
dream,[664] counterfeited, once a year, the beggar, sitting before the
gate of his palace with his hand hollowed and stretched out for charity.
A statue formerly in the villa Borghese, and which should be now at
Paris, represents the Emperor in that posture of supplication. The
object of that self-degradation was the appeasement of Nemesis, the
perpetual attendant on good fortune, of whose power the Roman conquerors
were also reminded by certain symbols attached to their cars of triumph.
The symbols were the whip and the _crotalo_, which were discovered in
the Nemesis of the Vatican. The attitude of beggary made the above
statue pass for that of Belisarius: and until the criticism of
Winckelmann[665] had rectified the mistake, one fiction was called in to
support another. It was the same fear of the sudden termination of
prosperity, that made Amasis king of Egypt warn his friend Polycrates of
Samos, that the gods loved those whose lives were chequered with good
and evil fortunes. Nemesis was supposed to lie in wait particularly for
the prudent; that is, for those whose caution rendered them accessible
only to mere accidents; and her first altar was raised on the banks of
the Phrygian AEsepus by Adrastus, probably the prince of that name who
killed the son of Croesus by mistake. Hence the goddess was called
Adrastea.[666]
The Roman Nemesis was _sacred_ and _august_: there was a temple to her
in the Palatine under the name of Rhamnusia;[667] so great, indeed, was
the propensity of the ancients to trust to the revolution of events, and
to believe in the divinity of Fortune, that in the same Palatine there
was a temple to the Fortune of the day.[668] This is the last
superstition which retains its hold over the human heart; and, from
concentrating in one object the credulity so natural to man, has always
appeared strongest in those unembarrassed by other articles of belief.
The antiquaries have supposed this goddess to be synonymous with Fortune
and with Fate;[669] but it was in her vindictive quality that she was
worshipped under the name of Nemesis.
29.
He, their sire,
Butchered to make a Roman holiday.
Stanza cxli. lines 6 and 7.
Gladiators were of two kinds, compelled and voluntary; and were supplied
from several conditions;--from slaves sold for that purpose; from
culprits; from barbarian captives either taken in war, and, after being
led in triumph, set apart for the games, or those seized and condemned
as rebels; also from free citizens, some fighting for hire
(_auctorati_), others from a depraved ambition; at last even knights and
senators were exhibited,--a disgrace of which the first tyrant was
naturally the first inventor.[670] In the end, dwarfs, and even women,
fought; an enormity prohibited by Severus. Of these the most to be
pitied undoubtedly were the barbarian captives; and, to this species a
Christian writer[671] justly applies the epithet "innocent," to
distinguish them from the professional gladiators. Aurelian and Claudius
supplied great numbers of these unfortunate victims; the one after his
triumph, and the other on the pretext of a rebellion.[672] No war, says
Lipsius,[673] was ever so destructive to the human race as these sports.
In spite of the laws of Constantine and Constans, gladiatorial shows
survived the old established religion more than seventy years; but they
owed their final extinction to the courage of a Christian. In the year
404, on the kalends of January, they were exhibiting the shows in the
Flavian amphitheatre before the usual immense concourse of people.
Almachius, or Telemachus, an Eastern monk, who had travelled to Rome
intent on his holy purpose, rushed into the midst of the arena, and
endeavoured to separate the combatants. The Praetor Alypius, a person
incredibly attached to these games,[674] gave instant orders to the
gladiators to slay him; and Telemachus gained the crown of martyrdom,
and the title of saint, which surely has never either before or since
been awarded for a more noble exploit. Honorius immediately abolished
the shows, which were never afterwards revived. The story is told by
Theodoret[675] and Cassiodorus,[676] and seems worthy of credit
notwithstanding its place in the Roman martyrology.[677] Besides the
torrents of blood which flowed at the funerals, in the amphitheatres,
the circus, the forums, and other public places, gladiators were
introduced at feasts, and tore each other to pieces amidst the supper
tables, to the great delight and applause of the guests. Yet Lipsius
permits himself to suppose the loss of courage, and the evident
degeneracy of mankind, to be nearly connected with the abolition of
these bloody spectacles.
30.
Here, where the Roman million's blame or praise
Was Death or Life--the playthings of a crowd.
Stanza cxlii. lines 5 and 6.
When one gladiator wounded another, he shouted, "He has it," "Hoc
habet," or "Habet." The wounded combatant dropped his weapon, and
advancing to the edge of the arena, supplicated the spectators. If he
had fought well, the people saved him; if otherwise, or as they happened
to be inclined, they turned down their thumbs, and he was slain. They
were occasionally so savage that they were impatient if a combat lasted
longer than ordinary without wounds or death. The emperor's presence
generally saved the vanquished; and it is recorded, as an instance of
Caracalla's ferocity, that he sent those who supplicated him for life,
in a spectacle, at Nicomedia, to ask the people; in other words, handed
them over to be slain. A similar ceremony is observed at the Spanish
bull-fights. The magistrate presides; and after the horseman and
piccadores have fought the bull, the matadore steps forward and bows to
him for permission to kill the animal. If the bull has done his duty by
killing two or three horses, or a man, which last is rare, the people
interfere with shouts, the ladies wave their handkerchiefs, and the
animal is saved. The wounds and death of the horses are accompanied with
the loudest acclamations, and many gestures of delight, especially from
the female portion of the audience, including those of the gentlest
blood. Every thing depends on habit. The author of _Childe Harold_, the
writer of this note, and one or two other Englishmen, who have certainly
in other days borne the sight of a pitched battle, were, during the
summer of 1809, in the governor's box at the great amphitheatre of Santa
Maria, opposite to Cadiz. The death of one or two horses completely
satisfied their curiosity. A gentleman present, observing them shudder
and look pale, noticed that unusual reception of so delightful a sport
to some young ladies, who stared and smiled, and continued their
applause as another horse fell bleeding to the ground. One bull killed
three horses, _off his own horns_. He was saved by acclamations, which
were redoubled when it was known he belonged to a priest.
An Englishman who can be much pleased with seeing two men beat
themselves to pieces, cannot bear to look at a horse galloping round an
arena with his bowels trailing on the ground, and turns from the
spectacle and the spectators with horror and disgust.
31.
And afar
The Tiber winds, and the broad Ocean laves
The Latian coast, etc., etc.
Stanza clxxiv. lines 3 and 4.
The whole declivity of the Alban hill is of unrivalled beauty, and from
the convent on the highest point, which has succeeded to the temple of
the Latian Jupiter, the prospect embraces all the objects alluded to in
the cited stanza; the Mediterranean; the whole scene of the latter half
of the _AEneid_, and the coast from beyond the mouth of the Tiber to the
headland of Circaeum and the Cape of Terracina.
The site of Cicero's villa may be supposed either at the Grotta Ferrata,
or at the Tusculum of Prince Lucien Buonaparte.
The former was thought some years ago the actual site, as may be seen
from Myddleton's _Life of Cicero_. At present it has lost something of
its credit, except for the Domenichinos. Nine monks of the Greek order
live there, and the adjoining villa is a cardinal's summer-house. The
other villa, called Rufinella, is on the summit of the hill above
Frascati, and many rich remains of Tusculum have been found there,
besides seventy-two statues of different merit and preservation, and
seven busts.
From the same eminence are seen the Sabine hills, embosomed in which
lies the long valley of Rustica. There are several circumstances which
tend to establish the identity of this valley with the "_Ustica_" of
Horace; and it seems possible that the mosaic pavement which the
peasants uncover by throwing up the earth of a vineyard may belong to
his villa. Rustica is pronounced short, not according to our stress
upon--"_Usticae cubantis_." It is more rational to think that we are
wrong, than that the inhabitants of this secluded valley have changed
their tone in this word. The addition of the consonant prefixed is
nothing; yet it is necessary to be aware that Rustica may be a modern
name which the peasants may have caught from the antiquaries.
The villa, or the mosaic, is in a vineyard on a knoll covered with
chestnut trees. A stream runs down the valley; and although it is not
true, as said in the guide books, that this stream is called Licenza,
yet there is a village on a rock at the head of the valley, which is so
denominated, and which may have taken its name from the Digentia.
Licenza contains seven hundred inhabitants. On a peak a little way
beyond is Civitella, containing three hundred. On the banks of the Anio,
a little before you turn up into Valle Rustica, to the left, about an
hour from the _villa_, is a town called Vicovaro, another favourable
coincidence with the _Varia_ of the poet. At the end of the valley,
towards the Anio, there is a bare hill, crowned with a little town
called Bardela. At the foot of this hill the rivulet of Licenza flows,
and is almost absorbed in a wide sandy bed before it reaches the Anio.
Nothing can be more fortunate for the lines of the poet, whether in a
metaphorical or direct sense:--
"Me quotiens reficit gelidus Digentia rivus,
Quem Mandela bibit rugosus frigore pagus."
The stream is clear high up the valley, but before it reaches the hill
of Bardela looks green and yellow like a sulphur rivulet.
Rocca Giovane, a ruined village in the hills, half an hour's walk from
the vineyard where the pavement is shown, does seem to be the site of
the fane of Vacuna, and an inscription found there tells that this
temple of the Sabine Victory was repaired by Vespasian. With these
helps, and a position corresponding exactly to every thing which the
poet has told us of his retreat, we may feel tolerably secure of our
site.
The hill which should be Lucretilis is called Campanile, and by
following up the rivulet to the pretended Bandusia, you come to the
roots of the higher mountain Gennaro. Singularly enough, the only spot
of ploughed land in the whole valley is on the knoll where this Bandusia
rises.
" ... tu frigus amabile
Fessis vomere tauris
Praebes, et pecori vago."
The peasants show another spring near the mosaic pavement, which they
call "Oradina," and which flows down the hills into a tank, or mill-dam,
and thence trickles over into the Digentia.
But we must not hope
"To trace the Muses upwards to their spring,"
by exploring the windings of the romantic valley in search of the
Bandusian fountain. It seems strange that any one should have thought
Bandusia a fountain of the Digentia--Horace has not let drop a word of
it; and this immortal spring has in fact been discovered in possession
of the holders of many good things in Italy, the monks. It was attached
to the church of St. Gervais and Protais near Venusia, where it was most
likely to be found.[678] We shall not be so lucky as a late traveller in
finding the "occasional pine" still pendent on the poetic villa. There
is not a pine in the whole valley, but there are two cypresses, which he
evidently took, or mistook, for the tree in the ode.[679] The truth is,
that the pine is now, as it was in the days of Virgil, a garden tree,
and it was not at all likely to be found in the craggy acclivities of
the valley of Rustica. Horace probably had one of them in the orchard
close above his farm, immediately overshadowing his villa, not on the
rocky heights at some distance from his abode. The tourist may have
easily supposed himself to have seen this pine figured in the above
cypresses; for the orange and lemon trees which throw such a bloom over
his description of the royal gardens at Naples, unless they have been
since displaced, were assuredly only acacias and other common garden
shrubs.[680]
32.
Upon the blue Symplegades.
Stanza clxxvi. line 1.
[Lord Byron embarked from "Calpe's rock" (Gibraltar) August 19, 1809,
and after travelling through Greece, he reached Constantinople in the
_Salsette_ frigate May 14, 1810. The two island rocks--the Cyanean
Symplegades--stand one on the European, the other on the Asiatic side of
the Strait, where the Bosphorus joins the Euxine or Black Sea. Both
these rocks were visited by Lord Byron in June, 1810.--Note, Ed. 1879.]
END OF VOL. II.
LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
FOOTNOTES:
[555] {470} The writer meant _Lido_, which is not a long row of islands,
but a long island: _littus_, the shore.
[556] _Curiosities of Literature_, ii. 156, edit. 1807, edit. 1881, i.
390; and Appendix xxix. to Black's _Life of Tasso_, 1810, ii. 455.
[557] {472} _Su i Quattro Cavalli della Basilica di S. Marco in
Venezia_. Lettera di Andrea Mustoxidi Corcirese. Padova, 1816.
[558] {473} "Quibus auditis, imperator, operante eo, qui corda Principum
sicut vult, & quando vult, humiliter inclinat, leonina feritate
deposita, ovinam mansuetudinem induit."--_Romualdi Salernitani
Chronican, apud Script. Rer. Ital._, 1725, vii. 230.
[559] {474} _Rer. Ital._, vii. 231.
[560] {475} See the above-cited Romuald of Salerno. In a second sermon
which Alexander preached, on the first day of August, before the
Emperor, he compared Frederic to the prodigal son, and himself to the
forgiving father.
[561] Mr. Gibbon has omitted the important _ae_, and has written Romani
instead of Romaniae.--_Decline and Fall_, chap. lxi. note 9 (1882, ii.
777, note i). But the title acquired by Dandolo runs thus in the
chronicle of his namesake, the Doge Andrew Dandolo: "Ducali titulo
addidit, 'Quartae partis, & dimidiae totius Imperii Romaniae; Dominator.'"
And. Dand. _Chronicon_, cap. iii. pars xxxvii. ap. _Script. Rer. Ital._,
1728, xii. 331. And the Romaniae is observed in the subsequent acts of
the Doges. Indeed, the continental possessions of the Greek Empire in
Europe were then generally known by the name of Romania, and that
appellation is still seen in the maps of Turkey as applied to Thrace.
[562] See the continuation of Dandolo's _Chronicle_, ibid., p. 498. Mr.
Gibbon appears not to include Dolfino, following Sanudo, who says, "Il
qual titolo si uso fin al Doge Giovanni Dolfino." See _Vite de' Duchi di
Venezia_ [_Vitae Ducum Venetorum Italiae scriptae_, Auctore Martino
Sanuto], ap. _Script. Rer. Ital._, xxii. 530, 641.
[563] {476} "Fiet potentium in aquis Adriaticis congregatio, caeco
praeduce, Hircum ambigent, Byzantium prophanabunt, aedificia denigrabunt,
spolia dispergentur; Hircus novus balabit, usque dum liv. pedes, & ix.
pollices, & semis, praemensurati discurrant."--_Chronicon, ibid_., xii.
329.
[564] {477} _Cronaca della Guerra di Chioza, etc._, scritta da Daniello
Chinazzo. _Script. Rer. Ital._, xv. 699-804.
[565] {478} "Nonnullorum e nobilitate immensae sunt opes, adeo ut vix
aestimari possint; id quod tribus e rebus oritur, parsimonia, commercio,
atque iis emolumentis, quae e Repub. percipiunt, quae hanc ob caussam
diuturna fore creditur."--See _De Principatibus Italia Tractatus Varii_,
1628, pp. 18, 19.
[566] {479} See _An Historical and Critical Essay on the Life and
Character of Petrarch_; and _A Dissertation on an Historical Hypothesis
of the Abbe de Sade_. 1810. [An Italian version, entitled _Riflessioni
intorno a Madonna Laura_, was published in 1811.]
[567] _Memoires pour la Vie de Francois Petrarque_, Amsterdam, 1764, 3
vols. 4to.
[568] Letter to the Duchess of Gordon, August 17, 1782. _Life of
Beattie_, by Sir W. Forbes, ii. 102-106.
[569] Mr. Gibbon called his _Memoirs_ "a labour of love" (see _Decline
and Fall_, chap. lxx. note 2), and followed him with confidence and
delight. The compiler of a very voluminous work must take much criticism
upon trust; Mr. Gibbon has done so, though not as readily as some other
authors.
[570] {480} The sonnet had before awakened the suspicions of Mr. Horace
Walpole. See his letter to Dr. Joseph Warton, March 16, 1765.
[571] "Par ce petit manege, cette alternative de faveurs et de rigueurs
bien menagee, une femme tendre & sage amuse pendant vingt et un ans le
plus grand Poete de son siecle, sans faire la moindre breche a son
honneur." _Memoires pour la Vie de Petrarque_, Preface aux Francais, i.
p. cxiii.
[572] In a dialogue with St. Augustin, Petrarch has described Laura as
having a body exhausted with repeated _ptubs_. The old editors read and
printed _perturbationibus_; but M. Capperonier, librarian to the French
king in 1762, who saw the MS. in the Paris library, made an attestation
that "on lit et qu'on doit lire, partubus exhaustum." De Sade joined the
names of Messrs. Boudot and Bejot with M. Capperonier, and, in the whole
discussion on this _ptubs_, showed himself a downright literary rogue.
(See _Riflessioni_, p. lxxiv. _sq._; _Le Rime del Petrarca_, Firenze,
1832, ii. _s.f._) Thomas Aquinas is called in to settle whether
Petrarch's mistress was a _chaste_ maid or a _continent_ wife.
[573] {481}
"Pigmalion, quanto lodar ti dei
Dell' immagine tua, se mille volte
N' avesti quel, ch' i' sol una vorrei!"
Sonetto 50, _Quando giunse a Simon l'alto concetto_.
_Le Rime_, etc., i. 118, edit. Florence, 1832.
[574] "A questa confessione cosi sincera diede forse occasione una nuova
caduta, ch' ei fece."--Tiraboschi, _Storia_, lib. iii., _della
Letteratura Italiana_, Rome, 1783, v. 460.
[575] {482} "Il n'y a que la vertu seule qui soit capable de faire des
impressions que la mort n'efface pas."--M. de Bimard, Baron de la
Bastie, in the _Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions de Belles
Lettres_ for 1740 (_Memoires de Litterature_ [1738-1740], 1751, xvii.
424). (See also _Riflessioni, etc._, p. xcvi.; _Le Rime_, etc., 1832,
ii. _s.f._)
[576] "And if the virtue or prudence of Laura was inexorable, he
enjoyed, and might boast of enjoying, the nymph of poetry."--_Decline
and Fall_, 1818, chap. lxx. p. 321, vol. xii. 8vo. Perhaps the _if_ is
here meant for _although_.
[577] {484} _Remarks on Antiquities, etc., in Italy_, by Joseph Forsyth,
p. 107, note.
[578] {485} _La Vita di Tasso_, lib. iii. p. 284 (tom. ii. edit.
Bergamo, 1790).
[579] _Histoire de l'Academie Francaise depuis_ 1652 _jusqu'a_ 1700, par
M. l' Abbe [Thoulier] d'Olivet, Amsterdam, 1730. "Mais, ensuite, venant
a l'usage qu'il a fait de ses talens, j'aurois montre que le bon sens
n'est pas toujours ce qui domine chez lui," p. 182. Boileau said he had
not changed his opinion. "J'en ai si peu change, dit-il," etc., p. 181.
[580] _La Maniere de bien Penser dans les Ouvrages de l'esprit_, sec.
Dial., p. 89, edit. 1692. Philanthes is for Tasso, and says in the
outset, "De tous les beaux esprits que l'Italie a portez, le Tasse est
peut-estre celuy qui pense le plus noblement." But Bohours seems to
speak in Eudoxus, who closes with the absurd comparison: "Faites valoir
le Tasse tant qu'il vous plaira, je m'en tiens pour moy a Virgile," etc.
(_ibid_., p. 102).
[581] _La Vita, etc_., lib. iii. p. 90, tom. ii. The English reader may
see an account of the opposition of the Crusca to Tasso, in Black's
_Life_, 1810, _etc_., chap. xvii. vol. ii.
[582] For further, and it is hoped, decisive proof, that Tasso was
neither more nor less than a _prisoner of state_, the reader is referred
to _Historical Illustrations of the IVth Canto of Childe Harold_, p. 5,
and following.
[583] {486} Orazioni funebri ... delle lodi di Don Luigi Cardinal d'Este
... delle lodi di Donno Alfonso d'Este. See _La Vita_, lib. in. p. 117.
[584] It was founded in 1582, and the Cruscan answer to Pellegrino's
_Caraffa_, or _Epica poesia_, was published in 1584.
[585] "Cotanto, pote sempre in lui il veleno della sua pessima volonta
contro alia Nazion Fiorentina." _La Vita_, lib. iii. pp. 96, 98, tom.
ii.
[586] _La Vita di M. L. Ariosto_, scritta dall' Abate Girolamo
Baruffaldi Giuniore, etc. Ferrara, 1807, lib. in. p. 262. (See
_Historical Illustrations, etc._, p. 26.)
[587] _Storia della Lett._, Roma, 1785, tom. vii. pt. in. p. 130.
[588] {486} _Op_. di Bianconi, vol. iii. p. 176, ed. Milano, 1802:
Lettera al Signor Guido Savini Arcifisiocritico, sull' indole di un
fulmine caduto in Dresda, Panno 1759.
[589] "Appassionato ammiratore ed invitto apologista dell' _Omero
Ferrarese_." The title was first given by Tasso, and is quoted to the
confusion of the _Tassisti_, lib. iii. pp. 262, 265. _La Vita di M. L.
Ariosto, etc_.
[590]
"Parva sed apta mihi, sed nulli obnoxia, sed non
Sordida, parta meo sed tamen aere domus."
[591] {488} Plin., _Hist. Nat_., lib. ii. cap. 55.
[592] _Columella_, De Re Rustica, x. 532, lib. x.; Sueton., in _Vit.
August_., cap. xc., et in _Vit. Tiberii_, cap. lxix.
[593] Note 2, p. 409, edit. Lugd. Bat. 1667.
[594] _Vid_. J. C. Boulenger, _De Terrae Motu et Fulminib_., lib. v. cap.
xi., _apud_ J. G. Graev., _Thes. Antiq. Rom_., 1696, v. 532.
[595] [Greek: Ou)dei\s keraunothei\s a)/timo/s e)sti o(/then kai\ o(s
theo\s tima~tai]. Artemidori _Oneirocritica_, Paris, 1603, ii. 8, p. 91.
[596] {489} Pauli Warnefridi Diaconi _De Gestis Langobard_., lib. iii.
cap. xxxi., _apud_ La Bigne, _Max. Bibl. Patr_., 1677, xiii. 177.
[597] I. P. Valeriani _De fulminum significationibus declamatio_, _apud_
J. G. Graev., _Thes. Antiq. Rom_., 1696, v. 604. The declamation is
addressed to Julian of Medicis.
[598] {490} See _Menum. Ant. Ined_., 1767, ii. par. i. cap. xvii. sect.
iii p. 50; and _Storia delle Arti, etc_., lib. xi. cap. i. tom ii. p.
314, note B.
[599] _Nomina gentesque Antiquae Italiae_ (Gibbon, _Miscell. Works_,
1814). p. 204, edit. oct.
[600] {492} The free expression of their honest sentiments survived
their liberties. Titius, the friend of Antony, presented them with games
in the theatre of Pompey. They did not suffer the brilliancy of the
spectacle to efface from their memory that the man who furnished them
with the entertainment had murdered the son of Pompey: they drove him
from the theatre with curses. The moral sense of a populace,
spontaneously expressed, is never wrong. Even the soldiers of the
triumvirs joined in the execration of the citizens, by shouting round
the chariots of Lepidus and Plancus, who had proscribed their brothers,
_De Germanis, non de Gallis, duo triumphant consules_; a saying worth a
record, were it nothing but a good pun. [C. Vell. Paterculi, _Hist_.,
lib. ii. cap. lxxix. p. 78, edit. Elzevir, 1639. _Ibid_., lib. ii. cap.
lxvii.]
[601] {494} _Il Principe di Niccolo Machiavelli_, Paris, 1825, pp. 184,
185.
[602] _Storia della Lett. Ital._, edit. Venice, 1795, tom. v. lib. iii.
par. 2, p. 448, note. Tiraboschi is incorrect; the dates of the three
decrees against Dante are A.D. 1302, 1314, and 1316.
[603] {495} So relates Ficino, but some think his coronation only an
allegory. See _Storia, etc., ut sup._, p. 453.
[604] By Varchi, in his _Ercolano_. The controversy continued from 1570
to 1616. See _Storia, etc._, edit. Rome, 1785, tom, vii. lib. iii. par.
iii. p. 187.
[605] {496} Gio Jacopo Dionisi _Canonico di Verona_. Serie di Aneddoti,
n. 2. See _Storia, etc._, edit. Venice, 1795, tom. v. lib. i. par. i. p.
24, note.
[606] "Vitam Literni egit sine desiderio urbis." See T. Liv., _Hist._,
lib. xxxviii. cap. liii. Livy reports that some said he was buried at
Liternum, others at Rome. _Ibid._, cap. lv.
[607] _Trionfo della Castita_, _Opera_ Petrarchae, Basil, 1554, i. _s.f._
[608] {497} See Note 6, p. 476.
[609] The Greek boasted that he was [Greek: i)so/nomos]. See the last
chapter of the first book of Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
[610] {498} "E intorno _alla magnifica risposta_," etc. Serassi, _Vita
del Tasso_, lib. iii. p. 149, tom. ii. edit. 2. Bergamo.
[611] {499} "Accingiti innoltre, se ci e lecito ancor l'esortarti, a
compire l'immortal tua Africa ... Se ti avviene d'incontrare nel nostro
stile cosa che ti dispiaccia, cio debb' essere un altro motive ad
esaudire i desiderj della tua patria." _Storia della Lett. Ital._, edit.
Venice, 1795, tom. v. par. i. lib. i. p. 75.
[612] {500} _Classical Tour_, chap. ix. vol. iii. p. 355, edit. 3rd. "Of
Boccaccio, the modern Petronius, we say nothing; the abuse of genius is
more odious and more contemptible than its absence, and it imports
little where the impure remains of a licentious author are consigned to
their kindred dust. For the same reason the traveller may pass unnoticed
the tomb of the malignant _Aretino_." This dubious phrase is hardly
enough to save the tourist from the suspicion of another blunder
respecting the burial-place of Aretine, whose tomb was in the church of
St. Luke at Venice, and gave rise to the famous controversy of which
some notice is taken in Bayle. Now the words of Mr. Eustace would lead
us to think the tomb was at Florence, or at least was to be somewhere
recognised. Whether the inscription so much disputed was ever written on
the tomb cannot now be decided, for all memorial of this author has
disappeared from the church of St. Luke.
[613] {501} "Non enim ubique est, qui in excusationem meam consurgens
dicat: juvenis scripsit, & majoris coactus imperio." The letter was
addressed to Maghinard of Cavalcanti, marshal of the kingdom of Sicily.
See Tiraboschi, _Storia, etc._, edit. Venice, 1795, tom. v. par. ii.
lib. iii. p. 525, note.
[614] {502} _Dissertazioni sopra le Antichita Italiane_, Diss. lviii. p.
253, tom. iii. edit. Milan, 1751.
[615] _Eclaircissement, etc., etc._, p. 648, edit. Amsterdam, 1740, in
the Supplement to Bayle's _Dictionary_.
[616] {503} _Opera_, i. 540, edit. Basil, 1581.
[617] Cosmus Medices, Decreto Publico, Pater Patriae.
[618] Corinne, 1819, liv. xviii. chap. iii. vol. iii. p. 218.
[619] {504} _Discourses concerning Government_, by A. Sidney, chap. ii.
sect. xxvi. p. 208, edit. 1751. Sidney is, together with Locke and
Hoadley, one of Mr. Hume's "despicable" writers.
[620] {505} Tit. Liv., lib. xxii. cap. v.
[621] _Ibid._, cap. iv.
[622] _Ibid._
[623] {506} _Hist._, lib. iii. cap. 83. The account in Polybius is not
so easily reconcilable with present appearances as that in Livy; he
talks of hills to the right and left of the pass and valley; but when
Flaminius entered he had the lake at the right of both.
[624] {507} About the middle of the twelfth century the coins of Mantua
bore on one side the image and figure of Virgil. _Zecca d'Italia_, iii.
pl. xvii. i. 6. _Voyage dans le Milanais, etc._, par A. L. Millin, ii.
294. Paris, 1817.
[625] {509} _Storia delle Arti, etc._, lib. xi. cap. i. pp. 321, 322,
tom. ii.
[626] Cicer., _Epist. ad Atticum_, xi. 6.
[627] Published by Causeus, in his _Museum Romanum_.
[628] _Storia delle Arti, etc._, lib. xi. cap. i.
[629] Sueton., in _Vit. August._, cap. xxxi., and in _Vit. C. J. Caesar_,
cap. lxxxviii. Appian says it was burnt down. See a note of Pitiscus to
Suetonius, p. 224.
[630] "Tu modo Pompeia lentus spatiare sub umbra" (Ovid, _Art. Am._, i.
67).
[631] Flavii Blondi _De Roma Instaurata_, Venice, 1511, lib. iii. p. 25.
[632] {510} _Antiq. Rom._, lib. i., [Greek: Cha/lkea poie/mata palai~as
e)rgasi/as].
[633] Liv., _Hist._, lib. x. cap. xxiii.
[634] "Tum statua Nattae, tum simulacra Deorum, Romulusque et Remus cum
altrice belua vi fulminis icti conciderunt."--Cic., _De Divinat._, ii.
20. "Tactus est etiam ille qui hanc urbem condidit Romulus: quem
inauratum in Capitolio parvum atque lactentem uberibus lupinis inhiantem
fuisse meministis."--_In Catilin._, iii. 8.
"Hic silvestris erat Romani nominis altrix
Martia, quae parvos Mavortis semine natos
Uberibus gravidis vitali rore rigabat:
Quae tum cum pueris flammato fulminis ictu
Concidit, atque avulsa pedum vestigia liquit."
_De Suo Consulatu_, lib. ii. lines 42-46.
[635] Dion., _Hist._, lib. xxxvii. p. 37, edit. Rob. Steph., 1548.
[636] Luc. Fauni _De Antiq. Urb. Rom._, lib. ii. cap. vii., _ap._
Sallengre, 1745, i. 217,
[637] Ap. Nardini _Roma Vetus_, lib. v. cap. iv., _ap._ J. G. Graev.,
_Thes. Antiq. Rom._, iv. 1146.
[638] Marliani _Urb. Rom. Topograph._, Venice, 1588, p. 23.
[639] {511} Just. Rycquii _De Capit. Roman. Comm._, cap. xxiv. p. 250,
edit. Lugd. Bat. 1696.
[640] Nardini, _Roma Vetus_, lib. v. cap. iv.
[641] Montfaucon, _Diarium Italic._, Paris, 1702, i. 174.
[642] _Storia delle Arti, etc._, Milan, 1779, lib. iii. cap. iii. s. ii.
note * (i. 144). Winckelmann has made a strange blunder in the note, by
saying the Ciceronian wolf was _not_ in the Capitol, and that Dion was
wrong in saying so.
[643] Flam. Vacca, _Memorie_, num. iii. _ap_. _Roma Antica di Famiano_,
Nardini, Roma, 1771, iv. _s.f._ p. iii.
[644] {512} Luc. Fauni _De Antiq. Urb. Rom._, lib. ii. cap. vi., _ap._
Sallengre, tom. i. p. 216.
[645] See note to stanza lxxx. in _Historical Illustrations_.
[646] "Romuli nutrix Lupa honoribus est affecta divinis. Et ferrem, si
animal ipsum fuisset, cujus figuram gerit." Lactant., _De Falsa
Religione_, lib. i. cap. xx., Biponti, 1786, i. 66; that is to say, he
would rather adore a wolf than a prostitute. His commentator has
observed that the opinion of Livy concerning Laurentia being figured in
this wolf was not universal. Strabo thought so. Rycquius is wrong in
saying that Lactantius mentions the wolf was in the Capitol.
[647] To A.D. 496. "Quis credere possit," says Baronius [_Ann. Eccles._,
Lucae, 1741, viii. 602, in an. 496], "viguisse adhuc Romae ad Gelasii
tempora, quae fuere ante exordium Urbis allata in Italiam Lupercalia?"
Gelasius wrote a letter, which occupies four folio pages, to Andromachus
the senator, and others, to show that the rites should be given up.
[648] {513} _Eccles. Hist._ (Lipsiae, 1827, p. 130), lib. ii. cap. xiii.
p. 40. Justin Martyr had told the story before; but Baronius himself was
obliged to detect this fable. See Nardini, _Roma Vet._, lib. vii. cap.
xii.
[649] _Accurata e succincta Descrizione, etc., di Roma moderna_, dell'
Ab. Ridolfino Venuti, Rome, 1766, ii. 397.
[650] Nardini, lib. v. cap. 3, ap. J. G. Graev., iv. 1143, convicts
Pomponius Laetus _Crassi erroris_, in putting the Ruminal fig-tree at the
church of Saint Theodore; but, as Livy says the wolf was at the Ficus
Ruminalis, and Dionysius at the temple of Romulus, he is obliged to own
that the two were close together, as well as the Luperal cave, shaded,
as it were, by the fig-tree.
[651] {514} Donatus, lib. xi. cap. xviii., gives a medal representing on
one side the wolf in the same position as that in the Capitol; and on
the reverse the wolf with the head not reverted. It is of the time of
Antoninus Pius.
[652] _AEn_., viii. 631-634. (See Dr. Middleton, in his letter from Rome,
who inclines to the Ciceronian wolf, but without examining the subject.)
[653] {515} "Jure caesus existimetur," says Suetonius, i. 76, after a
fair estimation of his character, and making use of a phrase which was a
formula in Livy's time. "Maelium jure caesum pronuntiavit, etiam si regni
crimine insons fuerit:" [lib. iv. cap. xv.] and which was continued in
the legal judgments pronounced in justifiable homicides, such as killing
house-breakers.
[654] _Rom. Ant._, F. Nardini, 1771, iv. _Memorie_, note 3, p. xii. He
does not give the inscription.
[655] "In villa Justiniana exstat ingens lapis quadras solidus, in quo
sculpta haec duo Ovidii carmina sunt:--
"'AEgeria est quae praebet aquas dea grata Camoenis,
Illa Numae conjunx consiliumque fuit.'
Qui lapis videtur eodem Egeriae fonte, aut ejus vicinia, istuc
comportatus."--_Diarium Italic._, Paris, 1702, p. 153.
[656] {516} _De Magnit. Vet. Rom_., ap. Graev., _Ant. Rom_., iv. 1507 [1.
Vossius, _De Ant. Urb. Rom. Mag_., cap. iv.]
[657] Eschinard, _Descrizione di Roma e dell' Agro Romano_, Roma, 1750.
They believe in the grotto and nymph. "Simulacro di questo Fonte,
essendovi scolpite le acque a pie di esso" (p. 297).
[658] _Classical Tour_, vol. ii. chap. vi. p. 217.
[659] Lib. 1. _Sat_. iii. lines 11-20.
[660] {517} Lib. iii. cap. iii.
[661] "Quamvis undique e solo aquae; scaturiant." Nardini, lib. iii. cap.
iii. _Thes. Ant. Rom_., ap. J. G. Graev., 1697, iv. 978.
[662] Eschinard, etc. _Sic cit_., pp. 297, 298.
[663] {517} _Antiq. Rom_., Oxf., 1704, lib. ii. cap. xxxi. vol. i. p.
97.
[664] Sueton., in _Vit. Augusti_, cap. xci. Casaubon, in the note,
refers to Plutarch's Lives of Camillus and AEmilius Paulus, and also to
his apophthegms, for the character of this deity. The hollowed hand was
reckoned the last degree of degradation; and when the dead body of the
praefect Rufinus was borne about in triumph by the people, the indignity
was increased by putting his hand in that position.
[665] _Storia delle Arti, etc_., Rome, 1783, lib. xii. cap. iii. tom.
ii. p. 422. Visconti calls the statue, however, a Cybele. It is given in
the _Museo Pio-Clement_., tom. i. par. xl. The Abate Fea (_Spiegazione
dei Rami. Storia, etc_., iii. 513) calls it a Crisippo.
[666] {519} _Dict. de Bayle_, art. "Adrastea."
[667] It is enumerated by the regionary Victor.
[668] "Fortunae; hujusce diei." Cicero mentions her, _De Legib._, lib.
ii.
[669]
DEAE. NEMESI
SIVE. FORTV
NAE
PISTORIVS
RVGIANVS
V.C. LEGAT.
LEG. XIII. G.
GORD.
(See _Questiones Romanae, etc._, ap. Graev., _Antiq. Roman._, v. 942. See
also Muratori, _Nov. Thesaur. Inscrip. Vet._, Milan, 1739, i. 88, 89,
where there are three Latin and one Greek inscription to Nemesis, and
others to Fate.)
[670] {520} Julius Caesar, who rose by the fall of the aristocracy,
brought Furius Leptinus and A. Calenus upon the arena.
[671] "Ad captiuos pertinere Tertulliani querelam puto: _Certe quidem &
innocentes gladiatores inludum veniunt, & voluptatis publicae hostiae
fiant_." Justus, Lipsius, 1588, _Saturn. Sermon._, lib. ii. cap. iii. p.
84.
[672] Vopiscus, in _Vit. Aurel._, and in _Vit. Claud._, _ibid._
[673] Just. Lips., _ibid._, lib. i. cap. xii. p. 45.
[674] Augustinus (_Confess._, lib. vi. cap. viii.): "Alypium suum
gladiatorii spectaculi inhiatu incredibiliter abreptum," scribit. ib.,
lib. i. cap. xii.
[675] {521} _Hist. Eccles._, ap. _Ant. Hist. Eccl._, Basle, 1535, lib.
v. cap. xxvi.
[676] Cassiod., _Tripartita_, ap. _Ant. Hist. Eccl._, Basle, 1535, lib.
x. cap. ii. p. 543.
[677] Baronius, _De Ann. et in Notis ad Martyrol. Rom. I. Jan._ (See
Marangoni, _Delle memorie sacre, e profane dell' Anfiteatro Flavio_, p.
25, edit. 1746.)
[678] {524} See _Historical Illustrations of the Fourth Canto_, p. 43.
[679] See _Classical Tour, etc._, chap. vii. p. 250, vol. ii.
[680] {525} "Under our windows and bordering on the beach is the royal
garden, laid out in parterres, and walks shaded by rows of orange
trees."--_Classical Tour, etc._, chap. xi. vol. ii., 365.