CHAPTER VI.

THE PALATINE.

The Story of the Hill--Orti Farnesiani--The Via Nova--Roma

Quadrata--The Houses of the early Kings--Temple of Jupiter

Stator--Palace of Augustus--Palace of

Vespasian--Crypto-Porticus--Temple of Jupiter-Victor--The Lupercal

and the Hut of Faustulus--Palace of Tiberius--Palace of

Caligula--Clivus Victoriæ--Ruins of the Kingly Period--Altar of the

Genius Loci--House of Hortensius--Septizonium of Severus--Palace of

Domitian.

"The Palatine formed a trapezium of solid rock, two sides of which were

about 300 yards in length, the others about 400: the area of its summit,

to compare it with a familiar object, was nearly equal to the space

between Pall-Mall and Piccadilly in London."[99]

The history of the Palatine is the history of the City of Rome. Here was

the Roma Quadrata, the "oppidum," or fortress of the Pelasgi, of which

the only remaining trace is the name Roma, signifying force. This is the

fortress where the shepherd-king Evander is represented by Virgil as

welcoming Æneas.

The Pelasgic fortress was enclosed by Romulus within the limits of this

new city, which, "after the Etruscan fashion, he traced round the foot

of the hill with a plough drawn by a bull and a heifer, the furrow being

carefully made to fall inwards, and the heifer yoked to the near-side,

to signify that strength and courage were required without, obedience

and fertility within the city.... The locality thus enclosed was

reserved for the temples of the gods and the residence of the ruling

class, the class of patricians or burghers, as Niebuhr has taught us to

entitle them, which predominated over the dependent commons, and only

suffered them to crouch for security under the walls of Romulus. The

Palatine was never occupied by the plebs. In the last age of the

republic, long after the removal of this partition, or of the civil

distinction between the great classes of the state, here was still the

chosen site of the mansions of the highest nobility."[100]

In the time of the early kings the City of Rome was represented by the

Palatine only. It was at first divided into two parts, one inhabited,

and the other called Velia, and left for the grazing of cattle. It had

two gates, the Porta Romana to the north, and the Porta Mugonia--so

called from the lowing of the cattle--to the south, on the side of the

Velia.

Augustus was born on the Palatine, and dwelt there in common with other

patrician citizens in his youth. After he became emperor he still lived

there, but simply, and in the house of Hortensius, till, on its

destruction by fire, the people of Rome insisted upon building him a

palace more worthy of their ruler. This building was the

foundation-stone of "the Palace of the Cæsars," which in time overran

the whole hill, and, under Nero, two of the neighbouring hills besides,

and whose ruins are daily being disinterred and recognised, though much

confusion still remains regarding their respective sites. In A.D. 663,

part of the palace remained sufficiently perfect to be inhabited by the

Emperor Constans, and its plan is believed to have been entire for a

century after, but it never really recovered its sack by Genseric in

A.D. 455, in which it was completely gutted, even of the commonest

furniture; and as years passed on it became imbedded in the soil which

has so marvellously enshrouded all the ancient buildings of Rome, so

that till within the last ten years, only a few broken nameless walls

were visible above ground.

"Cypress and ivy, weed and wallflower grown

Matted and mass'd together, hillocks heap'd

On what were chambers, arch crush'd, columns strown

In fragments, choked-up vaults, and frescoes steep'd

In subterranean damps, where the owl peep'd,

Deeming it midnight:--Temples, baths, or halls?

Pronounce who can; for all that Learning reap'd

From her research has been, that these are walls.--

Behold the Imperial Mount! 'Tis thus the mighty falls."

_Byron, Childe Harold._

How different is this description to that of Claudian (de Sexto

Consulat. Honorii).

"The Palatine, proud Rome's imperial seat,

(An awful pile) stands venerably great:

Thither the kingdoms and the nations come,

In supplicating crowds to learn their doom:

To Delphi less th' inquiring worlds repair,

Nor does a greater god inhabit there:

This sure the pompous mansion was design'd

To please the mighty rulers of mankind;

Inferior temples rise on either hand,

And on the borders of the palace stand,

While o'er the rest her head she proudly rears,

And lodged amidst her guardian gods appears."

_Addison's Translation._

After the middle of the sixteenth century a great part of the Palatine

became the property of the Farnese family, latterly represented by the

Neapolitan Bourbons, who sold the "Orti Farnesiani," in 1861, to the

Emperor Napoleon III., for £10,000. Up to that time this part of the

Palatine was a vast kitchen-garden, broken here and there by picturesque

groups of ilex trees and fragments of mouldering wall. In one corner was

a casino of the Farnese (still standing) adorned in fresco by some of

the pupils of Raphael. This and all the later buildings in the "Orti,"

are marked with the Farnese _fleur-de-lis_, and on the principal

staircase of the garden is some really grand distemper ornament of their

time. Since 1861 extensive excavations have been carried on here under

the superintendence of Signor Rosa, which have resulted in the discovery

of the palaces of some of the earlier emperors, and the substructions of

several temples. After the revolution of 1870 the French portion of the

Palatine was sold by the Ex-Emperor Napoleon to the Roman municipal

government.

In visiting the Palace of the Cæsars, it will naturally be asked how it

is known that the different buildings are what they are described to be.

In a great measure this has been ascertained from the descriptions of

Tacitus and other historians,--but the greatest assistance of all has

been obtained from the Tristia of Ovid, who, while in exile, consoles

himself by recalling the different buildings of his native city, which

he mentions in describing the route taken by his book, which he had

persuaded a friend to convey to the imperial library. He supposes the

book to enter the Palatine by the Clivus Victoriæ behind the Temple of

Vesta, and follows its course, remarking the different objects it passed

on the right or the left.

* * * * *

If we enter the palace by the Farnese gateway, on the right of the

Campo-Vaccino, opposite SS. Cosmo e Damiano, we had better only ascend

the first division of the staircase and then turn to the left. Passing

along the lower ridge of the Palatine, afterwards occupied by many of

the great patrician houses, whose sites we shall return to and examine

in detail, we reach that corner of the garden which is nearest to the

Arch of Titus. Here a paved road of large blocks of lava has lately been

laid bare, and is identified beyond a doubt as part of the Via Nova,

which led from the Porta Mugonia of the Palatine along the base of the

hill to the Velabrum. In the reign of Augustus it appears to have been

made to communicate also with the Forum.

"Qua Nova Romano nunc Via juncta Foro est."

_Ovid, Fast._ vi. 396.

At this point the road was called _Summa Via Nova_.

Near this spot must have been the site of the house where Octavius lived

with his wife Afra, the niece of Julius Cæsar (daughter of his eldest

sister Julia), and where their son, Octavius, afterwards the Emperor

Augustus, was born. This house afterwards passed into the possession of

C. Lætorius, a patrician; but after the death of Augustus, part of it

was turned into a chapel, and consecrated to him. It was situated at the

top of a staircase--"supra scalas annularias"[101]--which probably led

to the Forum, and is spoken of as "ad capita bubula," perhaps from

bulls' heads, with which it may have been decorated.

Here we find ourselves, owing to the excavations, in a deep hollow

between the two divisions of the hill. On the left is the Velia, upon

which, near the Porta Mugonia, the Sabine king, Ancus Martius, had his

palace. When Ancus died, he was succeeded by an Etruscan stranger,

Lucius Tarquinius, who took the name of Tarquinius Priscus. This king

also lived upon the Velia,[102] with Tanaquil his queen, and here he was

murdered in a popular rising, caused by the sons of his predecessor.

Here his brave wife Tanaquil closed the doors, concealed the death of

the king, harangued the people from the windows,[103] and so gained time

till Servius Tullius was prepared to take the dead king's place and

avenge his murder.[104]

Keeping to the valley, on our right are now some huge blocks of tufa, of

great interest as part of the ancient _Roma Quadrata_, anterior to

Romulus. Beyond this, also on the right, are foundations of the _Temple

of Jupiter Stator_, built by Romulus, who vowed that he would found a

temple to Jupiter under that name, if he would arrest the flight of his

Roman followers in their conflict with the superior forces of the

Sabines.[105]

"Inde petens dextram, porta est, ait, ista Palati;

Hic Stator, hoc primum condita Roma loco est."

_Ovid, Trist._ iii. El. I.

"Tempus idem Stator ædis habet, quam Romulus olim

Ante Palatini condidit ora jugi."

_Ovid, Fast._ vi. 793.

The temple of Jupiter Stator has an especial interest from its

connection with the story of Cicero and Catiline.

"Cicéron rassembla le sénat dans le temple de Jupiter Stator. Le

choix du lieu s'explique facilement; ce temple était près de la

principale entrée du Palatin sur le Vélia, dominant, en cas

d'émeute, le Forum, que Cicéron et les principaux sénateurs

habitants du Palatin n'avaient pas à traverser comme s'il eût fallu

se rendre à la Curie. D'ailleurs Jupiter Stator, qui avait arrêté

les Sabines à la porte de Romulus, arrêterait ces nouveaux ennemis

qui voulaient sa ruine. Là Cicéron prononça la première

Catilinaire. Ce discours dut être en grande partie improvisé, car

les événements aussi improvisaient. Cicéron ne savait si Catilina

oserait se présenter devant le sénat; en le voyant entrer, il

conçut son fameux exorde: 'Jusqu'à quand, Catilina, abuseras-tu de

notre patience!'

"Malgré la garde volontaire de chevaliers qui avait accompagné

Cicéron et qui se tenait à la porte du temple, Catilina y entra et

salua tranquillement l'assemblée; nul ne lui rendit son salut, à

son approche on s'écarta et les places restèrent vides autour de

lui. Il écouta les foudroyantes apostrophes de Cicéron, qui, après

l'avoir accablé des preuves de son crime, se bornait à lui dire:

'Sors de Rome. Va-t-en!'

"Catilina se leva et d'un air modeste pria le sénat de ne pas

croire le consul avant qu'une enquête eût été faite. 'II n'est pas

vraisemblable, ajouta-t-il, avec une hauteur toute aristocratique,

qu'un patricien, lequel, aussi bien que ses ancêtres, a rendu

quelques services à la république, ne puisse exister que par sa

ruine, et qu'on ait besoin d'un étranger d'Arpinum pour la sauver.'

Tant d'orgueil et d'impudence révoltèrent l'assemblée; on cria à

Catilina: 'Tu es un ennemi de la patrie, un meurtrier.' Il sortit,

réunit encore ses amis, leur recommanda de se débarasser de

Cicéron, prit avec lui un aigle d'argent qui avait appartenu à une

légion de Marius, et à minuit quitta Rome et partit par la voie

Aurélia pour aller rejoindre son armée."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iv.

445.

Nearly opposite the foundations of Jupiter Stator, on the left,--are

some remains considered to be those of the Porta Palatii.

The valley is now blocked by a vast mass of building which entirely

closes it. This is the palace of Augustus, built in the valley between

the Velia and the other eminence of the Palatine, which Rosa, contrary

to other opinions, identifies with the _Germale_. The division of the

Palatine thus named, was reckoned as one of "the seven hills" of

ancient Rome. Its name was thought to be derived from Germani, owing to

Romulus and Remus being found in its vicinity.[106]

The _Palace of Augustus_ was begun soon after the battle of Actium, and

gradually increased in size, till the whole valley was blocked up by it,

and its roofs became level with the hill-sides. Part of the ground which

it covered had previously been occupied by the villa of Catiline.[107]

Here Suetonius says that Augustus occupied the same bed-room for forty

years. Before the entrance of the palace it was ordained by the Senate,

B.C. 26, that two bay-trees should be planted, in remembrance of the

citizens he had preserved, while an oak wreath was placed above the gate

in commemoration of his victories.

"Singula dum miror, video fulgentibus armis

Conspicuos postes, tectaque digna deo.

An Jovis hæc, dixi, domus est? Quod ut esse putarem,

Augurium menti querna corona dabat.

Cujus ut accepi dominum, non fallimur, inquam:

Et magni rerum est hanc Jovis esse domum.

Cur tamen apposita velatur janua lauro?

Cingit et Augustas arbor opaca fores?"

_Ovid, Trist._ i. 33.

"State Palatinæ laurus; prætextaque quercu

Stet domus; æternos tres habet una deos."

_Fast._ iv. 953.

It was before the gate of this palace that Augustus upon one day in

every year sate as a beggar, receiving alms from the passers-by, in

obedience to a vision that he should thus appease Nemesis.

Upon the top of this building of Augustus, Vespasian built his palace in

A.D. 70, not only using the walls of the older palace as a support for

his own, but filling the chambers of the earlier building entirely up

with earth, so that they became a solid massive foundation. The ruins

which we visit are thus for the most part those of the palace of

Vespasian, but from one of its halls we can descend into rooms

underneath excavated from the palace of Augustus. The three projecting

rostra which we now see in front of the palace are restorations by

Signor Rosa.

The palace on the Palatine was not the place where the emperors

generally lived. They resided at their villas, and came into the town to

the Palace of the Cæsars for the transaction of public business. Thus

this palace was, as it were, the St. James's of Rome. The fatigue and

annoyance of a public arrival every morning, amid the crowd of clients

who always waited upon the imperial footsteps, was naturally very great,

and to obviate this the emperors made use of a subterranean passage

which ran round the whole building, and by which they were enabled to

arrive unobserved, and not to present themselves in public till their

appearance upon the rostra in front of the building to receive the

morning salutations of their people.

If we ascend a winding path to the right, to the garden which now covers

the greater part of the hill Germale, we shall find a staircase which

descends on the left to join this passage, following which, we will

ascend, with the emperor, into his palace.

The passage, called _Crypto-Porticus_, is still quite perfect, and

retains a great part of its mosaic pavements and much of its inlaid

ceilings, from which the gilt mosaic has been picked out, but the

pattern is still traceable. The passage was lighted from above. It was

by this route that St. Laurence was led up for trial in the basilica,

of the palace. Turning to the left, we again emerge upon the upper

level.

The emperor here reached the palace, but as he did not yet wish to

appear in public, he turned to the left by the private passage called

_Fauces_, which still remains, running behind the main halls of the

building. Here he was received by the different members of the imperial

family, much as Napoleon III. was received by Princesses Mathilde,

Clotilde, and the Murats, in a private apartment at the Tuileries,

before entering the ball-room. Hence, passing across the end of the

basilica, the emperor reached the portico in front of the palace,

looking down upon the hollow space where were the Temple of Jupiter

Stator and the other buildings connected with the early history of the

Roman state. Here the whole Court received him and escorted him to the

central rostra, where he had his public reception from the people

assembled below, and whence perhaps he addressed to them a few words of

morning salutation in return. The attendants meanwhile defiled on either

side to the lower terraced elevation, which still remains.

This ceremony being gone through, the emperor returned as he came, to

the basilica, for the transaction of business.

The name Basilica means "King's House." It was the ancient Law Court. It

usually had a portico, was oblong in form, and ended in an apse for

ornament. The Christians adopted it for their places of worship because

it was the largest type of building then known. They also adopted the

names of the different parts of the pagan basilica, as the Confessional,

from the _Confession_, the bar of justice at which the criminal was

placed,--the Tribune, from the _Tribunal_ of the Judge, &c. A chapel

and sacristy added on either side produced the form of the cross. The

_Basilica_ here is of great width. A leg of the emperor's chair actually

remains _in situ_ upon the tribunal, and part of the richly wrought bar

of the Confession still exists. This was the bar at which St. Laurence

and many other Christian martyrs were judged. The basilica in the palace

of the Cæsars was also the scene of the trial of Valerius Asiaticus in

the time of Claudius (see Chap. II.), when the Empress Messalina, who

was seated near the emperor upon the tribunal, was so overcome by the

touching eloquence of the innocent man, that she was obliged to leave

the hall to conceal her emotion,--but characteristically whispered as

she went out, that the accused must nevertheless on no account be

suffered to escape with his life,[108]--that she might take possession

of his Pincian Garden, which was as Naboth's Vineyard in her eyes. An

account is extant which describes how it was necessary to increase the

width of the seat upon the tribunal at this period, in consequence of a

change in the fashion of dress among the Roman ladies.

This basilica, though perhaps not then itself in existence, will always

have peculiar interest as showing the form and character of that earlier

basilica in the Palace of the Cæsars, in which St. Paul was tried before

Nero. But it is quite possible that it may be the same actual basilica

itself,--and that the palace of Nero which overran the whole of the

hill, may have had its basilica on this site, where it was preserved by

Vespasian in his later and more contracted palace.

"The appeals from the provinces in civil causes were heard, not by

the emperor himself, but by his delegates, who were persons of

consular rank: Augustus had appointed one such delegate to hear

appeals from each province respectively. But criminal appeals

appear generally to have been heard by the emperor in person,

assisted by his council of assessors. Tiberius and Claudius had

usually sat for this purpose in the Forum; but Nero, after the

example of Augustus, heard these causes in the imperial palace,

whose ruins still crown the Palatine. Here, at one end of a

splendid hall,[109] lined with the precious marbles of Egypt and of

Libya, we must imagine Cæsar seated in the midst of his assessors.

These councillors, twenty in number, were men of the highest rank

and greatest influence. Among them were the two consuls and

selected representatives of each of the other great magistracies of

Rome. The remainder consisted of senators chosen by lot. Over this

distinguished bench of judges presided the representatives of the

most powerful monarchy which has ever existed,--the absolute ruler

of the whole civilised world.

"Before the tribunal of the blood-stained adulterer Nero, Paul was

brought in fetters, under the custody of his military guard. The

prosecutors and their witnesses were called forward, to support

their accusation; for although the subject-matter for decision was

contained in the written depositions forwarded from Judæa by

Festus, yet the Roman law required the personal presence of the

accusers and the witnesses, whenever it could be obtained. We

already know the charges brought against the Apostle. He was

accused of disturbing the Jews in the exercise of their worship,

which was secured to them by law; of desecrating their Temple; and,

above all, of violating the public peace of the empire by perpetual

agitation, as the ringleader of a new and factious sect. This

charge was the most serious in the view of a Roman statesman; for

the crime alleged amounted to _majestas_, or treason against the

commonwealth, and was punishable with death.

"These accusations were supported by the emissaries of the

Sanhedrim, and probably by the testimony of witnesses from Judæa,

Ephesus, Corinth, and the other scenes of Paul's activity.... When

the parties on both sides had been heard, and the witnesses all

examined, the judgment of the court was taken. Each of the

assessors gave his opinion in writing to the emperor, who never

discussed the judgment with his assessors, as had been the practice

of better emperors, but after reading their opinion, gave sentence

according to his own pleasure, without reference to the judgment

of the majority. On this occasion it might have been expected that

he would have pronounced the condemnation of the accused, for the

influence of Poppæa had now reached its culminating point, and she

was a Jewish proselyte. We can scarcely doubt that the emissaries

from Palestine would have demanded her aid for the destruction of a

traitor to the Jewish faith; nor would any scruples have prevented

her listening to their request, backed as it probably was,

according to Roman usage, by a bribe. However this may be, the

trial resulted in the acquittal of St. Paul. He was pronounced

guiltless of the charges brought against him, his fetters were

struck off, and he was liberated from his long

captivity."--_Conybeare and Howson._

Beyond the basilica is the _Tablinum_, the great hall of the palace,

which served as a kind of commemorative domestic museum, where family

statues and pictures were preserved. This vast room was lighted from

above, on the plan which may still be seen at Sta. Maria degli Angeli,

which was in fact a great hall of a Roman house. The roof of this hall

was one vast arch, unsupported except by the side walls. We have record

of a period when these walls were supposed insufficient for the great

weight, and had to be strengthened, in interesting confirmation of which

we can still see how the second wall was added and united to the first.

Appropriately opening from the family picture gallery of the Tablinum,

was the _Lararium_, a private chapel for the worship of such members of

the family--Livia and many others--as were deified after death. An

altar, on the original site, has been erected here by Signor Rosa, from

bits which have been found.

Hitherto the chambers which we have visited were open to the public;

beyond this, none but his immediate family and attendants could follow

the emperor. We now enter the _Peristyle_, a courtyard, which was open

to the sky, but surrounded with arcades ornamented with statues, where

we may imagine that the empresses amused themselves with their birds

and flowers. Hence, by a narrow staircase, we can descend into what is

perhaps the most interesting portion of the whole, the one unearthed

fragment of the actual _Palace of Augustus_, which still retains remains

of gilding and fresco, and an artistic group in stucco. An original

window remains, and it will be recollected on looking at it, that when

this was built it was not subterranean, but merely in the hollow of the

valley, afterwards filled up. In these actual rooms may have lived

Livia, who in turn inhabited three houses on the Palatine, first that of

her first husband Nero Drusus, whom Augustus compelled her to divorce;

then the imperial house of Augustus; and lastly that of Tiberius, the

son by her first husband, whom she was the means of raising to the

throne.

We now reach the _Triclinium_ or dining-room, surrounded by a skirting

of pavonazzetto with a cornice of giallo. Tacitus describes a scene in

the imperial triclinium, in which the Emperor Tiberius is represented as

reclining at dinner, having on one side his aged mother, the Empress

Livia, and on the other his niece Agrippina, widow of Germanicus and

granddaughter of the great Augustus.[110] It was while the imperial

family were seated at a banquet in the triclinium, in the time of Nero,

that his young step-brother Britannicus (son of Claudius and Messalina)

swallowed the cup of poison which the emperor had caused Locusta to

prepare and sank back dead upon his couch, his wretched sisters Antonia

and Octavia, also seated at the ghastly feast, not daring to give

expression to their grief and horror,--and Nero merely desiring the

attendants to carry the boy out, and saying that it was a fit to which

he was subject.[111] Here it was that Marcia the concubine presented the

cup of drugged wine to the wicked Commodus, on his return from a wild

beast hunt, and produced the heavy slumber during which he was strangled

by the wrestler Narcissus. In this very room also his successor

Pertinax, who had spent his short reign of three months in trying to

reform the State, resuscitate the finances, and to heal, as far as

possible, 'the wounds inflicted by the hand of tyranny,' received the

news that the guard, impatient of unwonted discipline, had risen against

him, and going forth to meet his assassins, fell, covered with wounds,

just in front of the palace.[112]

Vitruvius says that every well-arranged Roman house has a dining-room

opening into a nymphæum, and accordingly here, on the right, is a

_Nymphæum_, with a beautiful fountain surrounded by miniature niches,

once filled with bronzes and statues. Water was conveyed hither by the

Neronian aqueduct. The pavement of this room was of oriental alabaster,

of which fragments remain.

Beyond the Triclinium is a disgusting memorial of Roman imperial life,

in the _Vomitorium_, with its bason, whither the feasters retired to

tickle their throats with feathers, and come back with renewed appetite

to the banquet.

We now reach the portico which closed the principal apartments of the

palace on the south-west. Some of its Corinthian pillars have been

re-erected on the sites where they were found. From hence we can look

down upon some grand walls of republican times, formed of huge tufa

blocks.

Passing a space of ground, called, without much authority,

_Bibliotheca_, we reach a small _Theatre_ on the edge of the hill,

interesting as described by Pliny, and because the Emperor Vespasian,

who is known to have been especially fond of reciting his own

compositions, probably did so here. Hence we may look down upon the

valley between the Palatine and Aventine, where the rape of the Sabines

took place, and upon the site of the Circus Maximus. From hence, we may

imagine, that the later emperors surveyed the hunts and games in that

circus, when they did not care to descend into the amphitheatre itself.

Beyond this, on the right, is (partially restored) the grand staircase

leading to the platform once occupied by the _Temple of Jupiter-Victor_,

vowed by Fabius Maximus during the Samnite war, in the assurance that he

would gain the victory. On the steps is a sacrificial altar, which

retains its grooves for the blood of the victims, with an inscription

stating that it was erected by "Cnæus Domitius C. Calvinus,

Pontifex,"--who was a general under Julius Cæsar, and consul B.C. 53 and

B.C. 40.

Now, for some distance, there are no remains, because this space was

always kept clear, for here, constantly renewed, stood the _Hut of

Faustulus and the Sacred Fig-tree_.

"The old Roman legend ran as follows:--Procas, king of Alba, left

two sons. Numitor, the elder, being weak and spiritless, suffered

Amulius to wrest the government from him, and reduce him to his

father's private estates. In the enjoyment of these he lived rich,

and, as he desired nothing more, secure: but the usurper dreaded

the claims that might be set up by heirs of a different character.

He had Numitor's son murdered, and appointed his daughter, Silvia,

one of the Vestal virgins.

"Amulius had no children, or at least only one daughter: so that

the race of Anchises and Aphrodite seemed on the point of

expiring, when the love of a god prolonged it, in spite of the

ordinances of man, and gave it a lustre worthy of its origin.

Silvia had gone into the sacred grove, to draw water from the

spring for the service of the temple. The sun quenched its rays:

the sight of a wolf made her fly into a cave: there Mars

overpowered the timid virgin, and then consoled her with the

promise of noble children, as Posidon consoled Tyro, the daughter

of Salmoneus. But he did not protect her from the tyrant; nor could

the protestations of her innocence save her. Vesta herself seemed

to demand the condemnation of the unfortunate priestess; for at the

moment when she was delivered of twins, the image of the goddess

hid its eyes, her altar trembled, and her fire died away. Amulius

ordered that the mother and her babes should be drowned in the

river. In the Anio Silvia exchanged her earthly life for that of a

goddess. The river carried the bole or cradle, in which the

children were lying, into the Tiber, which had overflowed its banks

far and wide, even to the foot of the woody hills. At the root of a

wild fig-tree, the Ficus Ruminalis, which was preserved and held

sacred for many centuries, at the foot of the Palatine, the cradle

overturned. A she-wolf came to drink of the stream: she heard the

whimpering of the children, carried them into her den hard by, made

a bed for them, licked and suckled them. When they wanted other

food than milk, a woodpecker, the bird sacred to Mars, brought it

to them. Other birds consecrated to auguries hovered over them, to

drive away insects. This marvellous spectacle was seen by

Faustulus, the shepherd of the royal flocks. The she-wolf drew

back, and gave up the children to human nature. Acca Laurentia, his

wife, became their foster-mother. They grew up, along with her

twelve sons, on the Palatine hill, in straw huts which they built

for themselves: that of Romulus was preserved by continual repairs,

as a sacred relic, down to the time of Nero. They were the stoutest

of the shepherd lads, fought bravely against wild beasts and

robbers, maintaining their right against every one by their might,

and turning might into right. Their booty they shared with their

comrades. The followers of Romulus were called Quinctilii, those of

Remus Fabii: the seeds of discord were soon sown amongst them.

Their wantonness engaged them in disputes with the shepherds of the

wealthy Numitor, who fed their flocks on Mount Aventine: so that

here, as in the story of Evander and Cacus, we find the quarrel

between the Palatine and the Aventine in the tales of the remotest

times. Remus was taken by the stratagem of these shepherds, and

dragged to Alba as a robber. A secret foreboding, the remembrance

of his grandsons, awakened by the story of the two brothers, kept

Numitor from pronouncing a hasty sentence. The culprit's

foster-father hastened with Romulus to the city, and told the old

man and the youths of their kindred. They resolved to avenge their

own wrong and that of their house. With their faithful comrades,

whom the dangers of Remus had brought to the city, they slew the

king; and the people of Alba again became subject to Numitor.

"But love for the home which fate had assigned them drew the youths

back to the banks of the Tiber, to found a city there, and the

shepherds, their old companions, were their first citizens.... This

is the old tale, as it was written by Fabius, and sung in ancient

lays down to the time of Dionysius."--_Niebuhr's Hist. of Rome._

In the cliff of the Palatine, below the fig-tree, was shown for many

centuries the cavern Lupercal, sacred from the earliest times to the

Pelasgic god Pan.

"Hinc lucum ingentum, quem Romulus acer Asylum

Retulit, et gelidâ monstrat sub rupe Lupercal,

Parrhasio dictum Panos de monte Lycæi."

_Virgil, Æn._ viii. 342.

"La louve, nourrice de Romulus, a peut-être été imaginée en raison

des rapports mythologiques qui existaient entre le loup et Pan

défenseur des troupeaux. Ce qu'il y a de sûr, c'est que les fêtes

lupercales gardèrent le caractère du dieu en l'honneur duquel elles

avaient été primitivement instituées et l'empreinte d'une origine

pélasgique; ces fêtes au temps de Cicéron avaient encore un

caractère pastoral en mémoire de l'Arcadie d'où on les croyait

venues. Les Luperques qui représentaient les Satyres, compagnons de

Pan, faisaient le tour de l'antique séjour des Pélasges sur le

Palatin. Ces hommes nus allaient frappant avec les lanières de peau

de bouc, l'animal lascif par excellence, les femmes pour les rendre

fécondes; des fêtes analogues se célébraient en Arcadie sous le nom

de Lukéia (les fêtes des loups), dont le mot lupercales est une

traduction."--_Ampère, Hist. Rome_, i. 143.

In the hut of Romulus were preserved several objects venerated as relics

of him.

"On conservait le bâton augural avec lequel Romulus avait dessiné

sur le ciel, suivant le rite étrusque, l'espace où s'était

manifesté le grand auspice des douze vautours dans lesquels Rome

crut voir la promesse des douze siècles qu'en effet le destin

devait lui accorder. Tous les augures se servirent par la suite de

ce bâton sacré, qui fut trouvé intact après l'incendie du monument

dans lequel il était conservé, miracle païen dont l'equivalent

pourrait se rencontrer dans plus d'une légende de la Rome

chrétienne. On montrait le cornouiller né du bois de la lance que

Romulus, avec la vigueur surhumaine d'un demi-dieu, avait jetée de

l'Aventin sur le Palatin, où elle s'était enfoncée dans la terre et

avait produit un grand arbre.

"On montrait sur le Palatin le berceau et la cabane de Romulus.

Plutarque a vu ce berceau, le _Santo-Presepio_ des anciens Romains,

qui était attaché avec des liens d'airain, et sur lequel on avait

tracé des caractères mystérieux. La cabane était à un seul étage,

en planches et couverte de roseaux, que l'on reconstruisait

pieusement chaque fois qu'un incendie la détruisait; car elle brûla

à diverses reprises, ce que la nature des matériaux dont elle était

formée fait croire facilement. J'ai vu dans les environs de Rome un

cabaret rustique dont la toiture était exactement pareille à celle

de là cabane de Romulus."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ i. 342.

Turning along the terrace which overhangs the Velabrum we reach the

ruins of the _Palace of Tiberius_,[113] in which he resided during the

earlier part of his reign, when he was under the influence of his aged

and imperious mother Livia. Here he had to mourn for Drusus, his only

son, who fell a victim (A.D. 23) to poison administered to him by his

wife Livilla and her lover the favourite Sejanus. Here also, in A.D. 29,

died Livia, widow of Augustus, at the age of eighty-six, "a memorable

example of successful artifice, having attained in succession, by craft

if not by crime, every object she could desire in the career of female

ambition."[114]

The row of arches remaining are those of the soldiers' quarters. In the

fourth arch is a curious _graffite_ of a ship. In another the three

pavements in use at different times may be seen _in situ_, one above

another. On the terrace above these arches has recently been discovered

a large piscina, or _fish-pond_, and the painted chambers of a building,

which is supposed to have been the _House of Drusus_ (elder brother of

Tiberius) _and Antonia_. Several of the rooms in this building are

richly decorated in fresco, one has a picture of a street with figures

of females going to a sacrifice, and of ladies at their toilette;

another of Mercury, Io, and Argus; and a third of Galatea and

Polyphemus. From the names of the characters in these pictures

represented being affixed to them in Greek, we may naturally conclude

that they are the work of Greek artists.

The north-eastern corner of the area is entirely occupied by the vast

ruins of the _Palace of Caligula_, built against the side of the hill

above the _Clivus Victoriœ_, which still remains, and consisting of

ranges of small rooms, communicating with open galleries, edged by

marble balustrades, of which a portion exists. In these rooms the

half-mad Caius Caligula rushed about, sometimes dressed as a charioteer,

sometimes as a warrior, and delighted in astonishing his courtiers by

his extraordinary pranks, or shocking them by trying to enforce a belief

in his own divinity.[115]

"C'est dans ce palais que, tourmenté par l'insomnie et par

l'agitation de son âme furieuse, il passera une partie de la nuit à

errer sous d'immenses portiques, attendant et appellant le jour.

C'est là aussi qu'il aura l'incroyable idée de placer un dieu

infâme.

"Caligula se fit bâtir sur le Palatin deux temples. Il avait

d'abord voulu avoir une demeure sur le mont Capitolin; mais, ayant

réfléchi que Jupiter l'avait precédé au Capitole, il en prit de

l'humeur et retourna sur le Palatin. Dans les folies de Caligula,

on voit se manifester cette pensée: Je suis dieu! pensée qui

n'était peut-être pas très-extraordinaire chez un jeune homme de

vingt-cinq ans devenu tout-à-coup maître du monde. Il parut en

effet croire à sa divinité, prenant le nom et les attributs de

divers dieux, et changeant de nature divine en changeant de

perruque.

"Non content de s'élever un temple à lui-même, Caligula en vint à

être son propre prêtre et à s'adorer. Le despotisme oriental avait

connu cette adoration étrange de soi: sur les monuments de l'Egypte

on voit Ramsès-roi présenter son offrande à Ramsès-dieu; mais

Caligula fit ce que n'avait fait aucun Pharaon; il se donna pour

collègue, dans ce culte de sa propre personne, son cheval, qu'il ne

nomma pas, mais qu'il songea un moment de nommer consul."--_Ampère,

Emp._ ii. 8.

Here "one day at a public banquet, when the consuls were reclining

by his side, Caligula burst suddenly into a fit of laughter; and

when they courteously inquired the cause of his mirth, astounded

them by coolly replying that he was thinking how by one word he

could cause both their heads to roll on the floor. He amused

himself with similar banter even with his wife Cæsonia, for whom he

seems to have had a stronger feeling than for any of his former

consorts. While fondling her neck he is reported to have said,

'Fair as it is, how easily I could sever it.'"--_Merivale_, ch.

xlviii.

After the murder of Caligula (Jan. 24, 794) by the tribune Cheræa, in

the vaulted passage which led from the palace to the theatre, a singular

chance which occurred in this part of the palace led to the elevation of

Claudius to the throne.

"In the confusion which ensued upon the death of Caius, several of

the prætorian guards had flung themselves furiously into the palace

and began to plunder its glittering chambers. None dared to offer

them any opposition; the slaves or freedmen fled and concealed

themselves. One of the inmates, half-hidden behind a curtain in an

obscure corner, was dragged forth with brutal violence; and great

was the intruder's surprise when they recognised him as Claudius,

the long despised and neglected uncle of the murdered emperor.[116]

He sank at their feet almost senseless with terror: but the

soldiers in their wildest mood still respected the blood of the

Cæsars, and instead of slaying or maltreating the suppliant, the

brother of Germanicus, they hailed him, more in jest perhaps than

earnest, with the title of Imperator, and carried him off to their

camp."--_Merivale_, ch. xlix.

In this same palace Claudius was feasting when he was told that his

hitherto idolised wife Messalina was dead, without being told whether

she died by her own hand or another's,--and asked no questions, merely

desiring a servant to pour him out some more wine, and went on eating

his supper.[117] Here also Claudius, who so dearly loved eating,

devoured his last and fatal supper of poisoned mushrooms which his next

loving wife (and niece) Agrippina prepared for him, to make way for her

son Nero upon the throne.[118]

The Clivus Victoriæ commemorates by its name the _Temple of

Victory_,[119] said to have been founded by the Sabine aborigines before

the time of Romulus, and to be the earliest temple at Rome of which

there is any mention except that of Saturnus. This temple was rebuilt by

the consul L. Posthumius.

Chief of a group of small temples, the famous _Temple of Cybele_,

"Mother of the Gods," stood at this corner of the Palatine. Thirteen

years before it was built, the "Sacred Stone," the form under which the

"Idæan Mother" was worshipped, had been brought from Pessinus in

Phrygia, because, according to the Sibylline books, frequent showers of

stones which had occurred could only be expiated by its being

transported to Rome. It was given up to the Romans by their ally

Attalus, king of Pergamus, and P. Cornelius Scipio, the young brother of

Africanus--accounted the worthiest and most virtuous of the Romans--was

sent to receive it. As the vessel bearing the holy stone came up the

Tiber it grounded at the foot of the Aventine, when the aruspices

declared that only chaste hands would be able to move it. Then the

Vestal Claudia drew the vessel up the river by a rope.

"Ainsi Sainte Brigitte, Suédoise morte à Rome, prouva sa pureté en

touchant le bois de l'autel, qui reverdit soudain. Une statue fut

érigée à Claudia, dans le vestibule du temple de Cybèle. Bien

qu'elle eût été, disait on, seule épargnée dans deux incendies du

temple, nous n'avons plus cette statue, mais nous avons au Capitole

un bas-relief où l'événement miraculeux est représenté. C'est un

autel dédié par une affranchie de la gens Claudia; il a été trouvé

au pied de l'Aventin, près du lieu qu'on désignait comme celui où

avait été opéré le miracle."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 142.

In her temple, which was _round and surmounted_ by a cupola, Cybele was

represented by a statue with its face to the east; the building was

adorned with a painting of Corybantes, and plays were acted in front of

it.[120]

"Qua madidi sunt tecta Lyæi

Et Cybeles picto stat Corybante domus."

_Martial, Ep._ i. 71, 9.

This temple, after its second destruction by fire, was entirely rebuilt

by Augustus in A.D. 2.

"Cybèle est certainement la grande déesse, la grande mère,

c'est-à-dire la personnification de la fécondité et de la vie

universelle: bizarre idole qui présente le spectacle hideux de

mamelles disposés par paires le long d'un corps comme enveloppé

dans une gaîne, et d'où sortent des taureaux et des abeilles,

images des forces créatrices et des puissances ordonnatrices de la

nature. On honorait cette déesse de l'Asie par des orgies

furieuses, par un mélange de débauche effrénée et de rites cruels;

ses prêtres efféminés dansaient au son des flûtes lydiennes et de

ses _crotales_, véritables castagnettes, semblables à celles que

fait résonner aujourd'hui la paysanne romaine en dansant la

fougueuse _saltarelle_. On voit au musée du Capitole l'effigie

bas-relief d'un _archigalle_, d'un chef de ces prêtres insensés, et

près de lui les attributs de la déesse asiatique, les flûtes, les

crotales, et la mystérieuse corbeille. Cet archigalle, avec son air

de femme, sa robe qui conviendrait à une femme, nous retrace

l'espèce de démence religieuse à laquelle s'associaient les délires

pervers d'Héliogabale."--_Ampère, Emp._ ii. 310.

We have the authority of Martial[121] that in the immediate

neighbourhood of the temple of Cybele, stood the _Temple of Apollo_,

though Signor Rosa places it on the other side of the hill in the

gardens of S. Buonaventura. Its remains have yet to be discovered.

"Nothing could exceed the magnificence of this temple, according to

the accounts of ancient authors. Propertius, who was present at its

dedication, has devoted a short elegy to the description of it, and

Ovid describes it as a splendid structure of white marble.

'Tum medium claro surgebat marmore templum,

Et patria Phœbo carius Ortygia.

Auro solis erat supra fastigia currus,

Et valvæ Libyci nobile dentis opus.

Altera dejectos Parnassi vertice Gallos,

Altera mœrebat funera Tantalidos.

Deinde inter matrem Deus ipse, interque sororem

Pythius in longa carmina veste sonat.'

_Propertius,_ ii. _El._ 31.

'Inde timore pari gradibus sublimia celsis

Ducor ad intonsi candida templa Dei.'

_Ovid, Trist._ iii. _El._ 1.

"From the epithet _aurea_ porticus, it seems probable that the

cornice of the portico which surrounded it was gilt. The columns

were of African marble, or _giallo-antico_, and must have been

fifty-two in number, as between them were the statues of the fifty

Danaids, and that of their father, brandishing a naked sword.

'Quæris cur veniam tibi tardior? aurea Phœbi

Porticus a magno Cæsare aperta fuit.

Tota erat in speciem Pœnis digesta columnis:

Inter quas Danai fœmina turba senis.'

_Propert._ ii. _El._ 31.

'Signa peregrinis ubi sunt alterna columnis

Belides, et stricto barbarus ense pater.'

_Ovid, Trist._ iii. 1. 61.

"Here also was a statue of Apollo sounding the lyre, apparently a

likeness of Augustus; whose beauty when a youth, to judge from his

bust in the Vatican, might well entitle him to counterfeit the god.

Around the altar were the images of four oxen, the work of Myron,

so beautifully sculptured that they seemed alive. In the middle of

the portico rose the temple, apparently of white marble. Over the

pediment was the chariot of the sun. The gates were of ivory, one

of them sculptured with the story of the giants hurled down from

the heights of Parnassus, the other representing the destruction of

the Niobids. Inside the temple was the statue of Apollo in a tunica

talaris, or long garment, between his mother Latona and his sister

Diana, the work of Scopas, Cephisodorus, and Timotheus. Under the

base of Apollo's statue Augustus caused to be buried the Sibylline

books which he had selected and placed in gilt chests. Attached to

the temple was a library called _Bibliotheca Græca et Latina_,

apparently, however, only one structure, containing the literature

of both tongues. Only the choicest works were admitted to the

honour of a place in it, as we may infer from Horace:

'Tangere vitet

Scripta, Palatinus quæcunque recepit Apollo.'

_Ep._ i. 3. 16.

"The library appears to have contained a bronze statue of Apollo,

fifty feet high; whence we must conclude that the roof of the hall

exceeded that height. In this library, or more probably, perhaps,

in an adjoining apartment, poets, orators, and philosophers recited

their productions. The listless demeanour of the audience on such

occasions seems, from the description of the younger Pliny, to have

been, in general, not over-encouraging. Attendance seems to have

been considered as a friendly duty."--_Dyer's City of Rome._

The temple of Apollo was built by Augustus to commemorate the battle of

Actium. He appropriated to it part of the land covered with houses which

he had purchased upon the Palatine;--another part he gave to the

Vestals; the third he used for his own palace.

"Phœbus habet partem, Vestæ pars altera cessit:

Quod superest illis, tertius ipse tenet.

* * * * *

Stet domus, æternos tres habet una deos."

_Ovid, Fast._ iv. 951.

Thus Apollo and Vesta became as it were the household gods of Augustus:

"Vestaque Cæsareos inter sacrata penates,

Et cum Cæsarea tu, Phœbe domestice, Vesta."

_Ovid, Metam._ xv. 864.

Other temples on the Palatine were that of _Juno_ Sospita:

"Principio mensis Phrygiæ contermina Matri

Sospita delubris dicitur aucta novis."

_Ovid, Fast._ ii. 55.

of Minerva:

"Sexte, Palatinæ cultor facunde Minervæ

Ingenio frueris qui propiore Dei."

_Martial,_ v. _Ep._ 5.

a temple of Moonlight mentioned by Varro (iv. 10) and a shrine of Vesta.

"Vestaque Cæsareos inter sacrata penates."

_Ovid, Met._ i.

From the _Torretta del Palatino_ which is near the house of Caligula,

there is a magnificent view over the seven hills of Rome;--the Palatine,

Aventine, Capitoline, Cœlian, Quirinal, Viminal, and Esquiline. From

this point also it is very interesting to remember that these were not

the heights considered as "the Seven Hills" in the ancient history of

Rome, when the sacrifices of the _Septimontium_ were offered upon the

Palatine, Velia, and Germale, the three divisions of the Palatine--of

which one can no longer be traced; upon the Fagutal, Oppius, and

Cispius, the secondary heights of the Esquiline; and upon the Suburra,

which perhaps comprehended the Viminal.[122] Hence also we see the

ground we have traversed on the Palatine spread before us like a map.

If we descend the staircase in the Palace of Caligula, we may trace as

far as the Porta Romana the piers of the _Bridge of Caligula_, which,

half in vanity, half in madness, he threw across the valley, that he

might, as he said, the more easily hold intercourse with his friend and

comrade Jupiter upon the Capitol. One of the piers which he used for his

bridge, beyond the limits of the palace, was formed by the temple of

Augustus built by Tiberius.[123] This bridge, with all other works of

Caligula, was of very short duration, being destroyed immediately after

his death by Claudius.

Returning by the Clivus Victoriæ, we shall find ourselves again on the

eastern slope of the hill from which we started, the site once occupied

by so many of the great patrician families. Here at one time lived Caius

Gracchus, who to gratify the populace, gave up his house on the side of

the Palatine, and made his home in the gloomy Suburra. Here also lived

his coadjutor in the consulship, Fulvius Flaccus, who shared his fate,

and whose house was razed to the ground by the people after his murder.

At this corner of the hill also was the house of Q. Lutatius Catulus,

poet and historian, who was consul B.C. 102, and together with Marius

was conqueror of the Cimbri in a great battle near Vercelli. In memory

of this he founded a temple of the "Fortuna hujusce diei," and decorated

the portico of his house with Cimbrian trophies. Varro mentions that his

house had also a domed roof.[124] Here also the consul Octavius,

murdered on the Janiculum by the partisans of Marius, had a house, which

was rebuilt with great magnificence by Emilius Scaurus, who adorned it

with columns of marble thirty-eight feet high.[125] These two last-named

houses were bought by the wealthy Clodius, who gave 14,800,000

sesterces, or about 130,000_l._, for that of Scaurus, and throwing down

the Porticus Catuli, included its site, and the house of E. Scaurus, in

his own magnificent dwelling. Clodius was a member of the great house of

the Claudii, and was the favoured lover of Pompeia, wife of Julius

Cæsar, by whose connivance, disguised as a female musician, he attempted

to be present at the orgies of the Bona Dea, which were celebrated in

the house of the Pontifex Maximus close to the temple of Vesta, and from

which men were so carefully excluded, that even a male mouse, says

Juvenal, dared not show himself there. The position of his own dwelling,

and that of the pontifex, close to the foot of the Clivus Victoriæ,

afforded every facility for this adventure, but it was discovered by his

losing himself in the passages of the Regia. A terrible scandal was the

result--Cæsar divorced Pompeia, and the senate referred the matter to

the pontifices, who declared that Clodius was guilty of sacrilege.

Clodius attempted to prove an alibi, but Cicero's evidence showed that

he was with him in Rome only three hours before he pretended to have

been at Interamna. Bribery and intimidation secured his acquittal by a

majority of thirty-one to twenty-five,[126] but from this time a deadly

enmity ensued between him and Cicero.

The house of Clodius naturally leads us to that of Cicero, which was

also situated at this corner of the Palatine, whence he could see his

clients in the Forum and go to and fro to his duties there. This house

had been built for M. Livius Drusus, who, when his architect proposed a

plan to prevent its being overlooked, answered, "Rather build it so that

all my fellow-citizens may behold everything that I do." In his acts

Drusus seemed to imitate the Gracchi; but he sought popularity for its

own sake, and after being the object of a series of conspiracies was

finally murdered in the presence of his mother Cornelia, in his own

hall, where the image of his father was sprinkled with his blood. When

dying he turned to those around him and asked, with characteristic

arrogance, based perhaps upon conscious honesty of purpose, "when will

the commonwealth have a citizen like me again?" After the death of

Drusus the house was inhabited by L. Licinius Crassus the orator, who

lived here in great elegance and luxury. His house was called from its

beauty "the Venus of the Palatine," and was remarkable for its size, the

taste of its furniture, and the beauty of its grounds. "It was adorned

with pillars of Hymettian marble, with expensive vases, and triclinia

inlaid with brass. His gardens were provided with fishponds, and some

noble lotus-trees shaded his walks. Ahenobarbus, his colleague in the

censorship, found fault with such corruption of manners,[127] estimated

his house at a hundred million, or, according to Valerius Maximus,[128]

six million sesterces, and complained of his crying for the loss of a

lamprey as if it had been a daughter. It was a tame lamprey which used

to come at the call of Crassus, and feed out of his hand. Crassus

retorted by a public speech against his colleague, and by his great

powers of ridicule, turned him into derision; jested upon his name,[129]

and to the accusation of weeping for a lamprey, replied, that it was

more than Ahenobarbus had done for the loss of any of his three

wives."[130] Cicero purchased the house of Crassus a year or two after

his consulate for a sum equal to about 30,000_l._, and removed thither

from the Carinæ with his wife Terentia. His house was close to that of

Clodius, but a little lower down the hill, which enabled him to threaten

to increase the height, so as to shut out his neighbour's view of the

city. Upon his accession to the tribuneship Clodius procured the

disgrace of Cicero, and after his flight to Greece, obtained a decree of

banishment against him. He then pillaged and destroyed his house upon

the Palatine, as well as his villas at Tusculum and Formia, and obliged

Terentia to take refuge with the Vestals, whose Superior was fortunately

her sister. But in the following year, a change of consuls and revulsion

of the popular favour led to the recall of Cicero, who found part of his

house appropriated by Clodius, who had erected a shrine to Libertas

(with a statue which was that of a Greek courtezan carried off from the

tomb)[131] on the site of the remainder, which he had razed to the

ground.[132]

"Clodius had also destroyed the portico of Catulus; in fact, he

appears to have been desirous of appropriating all this side of the

Palatine. He wanted to buy the house of the ædile Seius. Seius

having declared that so long as he lived, Clodius should not have

it, Clodius caused him to be poisoned, and then bought his house

under a feigned name! He was thus enabled to erect a portico three

hundred feet in length, in place of that of Catulus. The latter,

however, was afterwards restored at the public expense.

"Cicero obtained public grants for the restoration of his house and

of his Tusculan and Formian villas, but very far from enough to

cover the losses he had suffered. The aristocratic part of the

Senate appears to have envied and grudged the _novus homo_ to whose

abilities they looked for protection. He was advised not to rebuild

his house on the Palatine, but to sell the ground. It was not in

Cicero's temper to take such a course; but he was hampered ever

after with debts. Clodius, who had been defeated but not beaten,

still continued his persecutions. He organised a gang of street

boys to call out under Cicero's windows, 'Bread! Bread!' His bands

interrupted the dramatic performances on the Palatine, at the

Megalesian games, by rushing upon the stage. On another occasion,

Clodius, at the head of his myrmidons, besieged the Senate in the

temple of Concord. He attacked Cicero in the streets, to the danger

of his life; and when he had begun to rebuild his house, drove away

the masons, overthrew what part had been re-erected of Catulus'

portico, and cast burning torches into the house of Quintus Cicero,

which he had hired next to his brother's on the Palatine, and

consumed a great part of it."--_Dyer's City of Rome_, 152.

The indemnity which Cicero received from the state in order to rebuild

his house on the Palatine, amounted to about 16,000_l._ The house of

Quintus Cicero was rebuilt close to his brother's at the same time by

Cyrus, the fashionable architect of the day.[133]

Among other noble householders on this part of the Palatine was Mark

Antony,[134] whose house was afterwards given by Augustus to Agrippa and

Messala, soon after which it was burnt down.

A small _Museum_ in this part of the garden contains some of the

smaller objects which have been found in the excavations, and specimens

of the different marbles and alabasters. There is nothing of any great

importance. The fragments of statues and some busts which have been

found (including Flavia Domitilla, wife of Vespasian, and Julia,

daughter of Titus), have been sent to Paris, but casts have been left

here.

We have now made the round of the French division of the Palatine.

* * * * *

It has been decided that some remains which exist in the garden of the

Villa Mills (now a Convent of Visitandine Nuns) are those of the House

of Hortensius, an orator, "who was second only to Cicero in eloquence,

and who, in the early part at least of their lives, was his chief

opponent."[135] Cicero himself describes the extraordinary gifts of his

rival[136] as well as the integrity with which he fulfilled the duties

of a quæstor.[137] In the latter portion of his public career Hortensius

was frequently engaged on the same side with Cicero, and then always

recognised his superiority by allowing him to speak last. Hortensius

died B.C. 50, to the great grief of his ancient rival.[138] The splendid

villas of Hortensius were celebrated. He was accustomed to water his

trees with wine at regular intervals,[139] and had huge fishponds at

Bauli, into which the salt-water fish came to be fed from his hand, and

he became so fond of them, that he wept for the death of a favourite

muræna.[140] But the house on the Palatine was exceedingly simple and

had no decorations but plain columns of Alban stone.[141] This was the

chosen residence of Augustus, until, upon its destruction by fire, the

citizens insisted upon raising the more sumptuous residence in the

hollow of the Palatine by public subscription. The subterranean chambers

which have been discovered have some interesting remains of stucco

ornament.

The villa, which is now turned into a convent, possessed some frescoes

painted by Giulio Romano from designs of Raphael, but these have been

destroyed or removed in deference to the modesty of the present

inhabitants. The neighbouring church and garden of S. Sebastiano occupy

the site of the _Gardens of Adonis_. (See Chap. IV.)

* * * * *

A large, and by far the most picturesque portion of the Palace of the

Cæsars (the only part which was not imbedded in soil ten years ago), is

now accessible either from the end of the lane of S. Buenaventura, or

from a gate on the left of the Via dei Fienili just before reaching Sta.

Anastasia. The excavations in the last-named quarter were begun by the

Emperor of Russia, who purchased the site, but afterwards presented it

to the city.

Behind Sta. Maria Liberatrice, in some farm buildings, are remains which

probably belong to the Regia of Julius Cæsar.

Beyond this, against the escarpment of the Palatine, a part of the

_Walls of Romulus_ has been discovered, built in large oblong blocks.

Here also are fragments of bases of towers of republican times. Behind

S. Teodoro are remains of an early concrete wall, behind which the tufa

rock is visible. The wall is only built where the tufa is of a soft

character.

"La système de construction est le même que dans les villes

d'Étrurie et dans la muraille bâtie à Rome par les rois étrusques.

Cependant l'appareil est moins régulier. Les murs d'une petite

ville du Latium fondée par un aventurier ne pouvaient être aussi

soignés que les murs des villes de l'Étrurie, pays tout autrement

civilisé. La petite cité de Romulus, bornée au Palatin, n'avait pas

l'importance de la Rome des Tarquins, qui couvrait les huit

collines.

"Du reste, la construction est étrusque et devait l'être. Romulus

n'avait dans sa ville, habitée par des pâtres et des bandits,

personne qui fût capable d'en bâtir l'enceinte. Les Étrusques,

grands bâtisseurs, étaient de l'autre côté du fleuve. Quelques-uns

même l'avaient probablement passé déjà et habitaient le mont

Cœlius. Romulus dut s'adresser à eux, et faire faire cet ouvrage

par des architects et des maçons étrusques. Ce fut aussi selon le

rite de l'Étrurie, pays sacerdotal, que Romulus, suivant en cela

l'usage établi dans les cités latines, fit consacer l'enceinte de

la ville nouvelle. Il agit en cette circonstance comme agit un

paysan romain, quand il appelle un prêtre pour bénir l'emplacement

de la maison qu'il veut bâtir.

"Les détails de la cérémonie par laquelle fut inaugurée la première

enceinte de Rome nous ont été transmis par Plutarque,[142] et, avec

un grand détail par Tacite,[143] qui sans doute avait sous les yeux

les livres des pontifes. Nous connaissons avec exactitude le

contour que traça la charrue sacrée. Nous pouvons le suivre encore

aujourd'hui.

"Romulus attela an taureau blanc et une vache blanche à une charrue

dont le soc était d'airain.[144] L'usage de l'airain a précédé à

Rome, comme partout, l'usage du fer. Il partit du lieu consacré par

l'antique autel d'Hercule, au-dessous de l'angle occidental du

Palatin et de la première Rome des Pelasges, et, se dirigeant vers

le sud-est, traça son sillon le long de la base de la colline.

"Ceux qui suivaient Romulus, rejetaient les mottes de terre en

dedans du sillon, image du Vallum futur. Ce sillon était l'Agger de

Servius Tullius en petit. A l'extrémité de la vallée qui sépare le

Palatin de l'Aventin, où devait être le grand cirque, et où est

aujourd'hui la rue des _Cerchi_, il prit à gauche, et, contournant

la colline, continua, en creusant toujours son sillon, à tracer

sans le savoir la route que devaient suivre un jour les triomphes,

puis revint au point d'où il était parti. La charrue, l'instrument

du labour, le symbole de la vie agricole des enfants de Saturne,

avait dessiné le contour de la cité guerrière de Romulus. De même,

quand on avait détruit une ville, on faisait passer la charrue sur

le sol qu'elle avait occupé. Par là, ce sol devenait sacré, et il

n'était pas plus permis de l'habiter qu'il ne l'était de franchir

le sillon qu'on creusait autour des villes lors de leur fondation,

comme le fit Romulus et comme le firent toujours depuis les

fondateurs d'une colonie; car toute colonie était une

Rome."--_Ampère, Hist. Rome_, i. 283.

Close under this, the northern side of the walls of Romulus, ran the

_Via Nova_, down which Marcus Cædicius was returning to the city in the

gloaming, when, at this spot, between the sacred grove and the temple of

Vesta, he heard a supernatural voice, bidding him to warn the senate of

the approach of the Gauls. After the Gauls had invaded Rome, and

departed again, an altar and sanctuary recorded the miracle on this

site.[145]

At the corner near Sta. Anastasia, are remains of a private house of

early times built against the cliff. Near this were the steps called the

_Stairs of Cacus_, leading up to the hut of Faustulus. On the other side

the _Gradus Pulchri Littoris_, the κλη Ακτη of Plutarch, led to the

river.[146]

Here a remarkable altar of republican times has been discovered, and

remains _in situ_. It is inscribed SEI DEO SEI DIVAE SAC.--C SEXTIVS C T

CALVINUS TR--DE SENATI SENTENTIA RESTITVIT. Some suppose this to be the

actual altar mentioned above as erected to the Genius Loci, in

consequence of the mysterious warning of the Gallic invasion. The father

of the tribune, C. S. Calvinus, mentioned in the inscription, was consul

with C. Cassius Longinus, B.C. 124, and is described by Cicero as an

elegant orator of a sickly constitution.[147]

Beyond this a number of chambers have been discovered under the steep

bank of the Palatine, and retain a quantity of _graffiti_ scratched upon

their walls. The most interesting of these, found in the fourth chamber,

has been removed to the museum of the Collegio Romano. It is generally

believed to have been executed during the reign of Septimius Severus,

and to have been done in an idle moment by one of the soldiers occupying

these rooms, supposed to have been used as guard-chambers under that

emperor. If so, it is perhaps the earliest existing pictorial allusion

to the manner of our Saviour's death. It is a caricature evidently

executed in ridicule of a Christian fellow-soldier. The figure on the

cross has an ass's head, and by the worshipping figure is inscribed in

Greek characters, _Alexamenos worships his God_.

"The lowest orders of the populace were as intelligently hostile to

it [the worship of the Crucified] as were the philosophers. Witness

that remarkable caricature of the adoration of our crucified Lord,

which was discovered some ten years ago beneath the ruins of the

Palatine palace. It is a rough sketch, traced, in all probability,

by the hand of some pagan slave in one of the earliest years of the

third century of our era. A human figure with an ass's head is

represented as fixed to a cross, while another figure in a tunic

stands on one side. This figure is addressing himself to the

crucified monster, and is making a gesture which was the customary

pagan expression of adoration. Underneath there runs a rude

inscription: _Alexamenos adores his God_. Here we are face to face

with a touching episode of the life of the Roman Church in the days

of Severus or of Caracalla. As under Nero, so, a century and a half

later, there were worshippers of Christ in the household of Cæsar.

But the paganism of the later date was more intelligently and

bitterly hostile to the Church than the paganism which had shed the

blood of the apostles. The Gnostic invective which attributed to

the Jews the worship of an ass, was applied by pagans

indiscriminately to Jews and Christians. Tacitus attributes the

custom to a legend respecting services rendered by wild asses to

the Israelites in the desert; 'and so, I suppose,' observes

Tertullian, 'it was thence presumed that we, as bordering upon the

Jewish religion, were taught to worship such a figure.' Such a

story, once current, was easily adapted to the purposes of a pagan

caricaturist. Whether from ignorance of the forms of Christian

worship, or in order to make his parody of it more generally

intelligible to its pagan admirers, the draughtsman has ascribed to

Alexamenos the gestures of a heathen devotee. But the real object

of his parody is too plain to be mistaken. Jesus Christ, we may be

sure, had other confessors and worshippers in the Imperial palace

as well as Alexamenos. The moral pressure of the advancing Church

was felt throughout all ranks of pagan society; ridicule was

invoked to do the work of argument; and the moral persecution which

crowned all true Christian devotion was often only the prelude to a

sterner test of that loyalty to a crucified Lord, which was as

insensible to the misrepresentations, as Christian faith was

superior to the logic, of heathendom."[148]--_Liddon, Bampton

Lectures of 1866_, lect. vii. p. 593.

These chambers acquire a great additional interest from the belief which

many entertain that they are those once occupied by the Prætorian Guard,

in which St. Paul was confined.

"The close of the Epistle to the Ephesians contains a remarkable

example of the forcible imagery of St. Paul. Considered simply in

itself, the description of the Christian's armour is one of the

most striking passages in the sacred volume. But if we view it in

connection with the circumstances with which the Apostle was

surrounded, we find a new and living emphasis in his enumeration of

all the parts of the heavenly panoply,--the belt of sincerity and

truth, with which the loins are girded for the spiritual war,--the

breast-plate of that righteousness, the inseparable links whereof

are faith and love,--the strong sandals, with which the feet of

Christ's soldiers are made ready, not for such errands of death and

despair as those on which the Prætorian soldiers were daily sent,

but for the universal message of the gospel of peace,--the large

shield of confident trust, wherewith the whole man is protected,

and whereon the fiery arrows of the Wicked One fall harmless and

dead,--the close-fitting helmet, with which the hope of salvation

invests the head of the believer,--and finally the sword of the

Spirit, the Word of God, which, when wielded by the Great Captain

of our Salvation, turned the tempter in the wilderness to flight,

while in the hands of His chosen Apostle (with whose memory the

sword seems inseparably associated), it became the means of

establishing Christianity on the earth.

"All this imagery becomes doubly forcible if we remember that when

St. Paul wrote the words he was chained to a soldier, and in the

close neighbourhood of military sights and sounds. The appearance

of the Prætorian Guards was daily familiar to him; as his 'chains,'

on the other hand (so he tells us in the succeeding Epistle),

became well known throughout the whole _Prætorium_! (Phil. i. 13).

A difference of opinion has existed as to the precise meaning of

the word in this passage. Some have identified it, as in the

authorised version, with the house of Cæsar on the Palatine: more

commonly it has been supposed to mean that permanent camp of the

Prætorian Guards, which Tiberius established on the north of the

city, outside the walls. As regards the former opinion, it is true

that the word came to be used, almost as we use the word 'palace,'

for royal residences generally or for any residences of princely

splendour. Yet we never find the word employed for the imperial

house at Rome: and we believe the truer view to be that which has

been recently advocated, namely, that it denotes here, not the

palace itself, but the quarters of that part of the imperial

guards, which was in immediate attendance upon the emperor. The

emperor was _prætor_ or commander-in-chief of the troops, and it

was natural that his immediate guard should be in _prætorium_ near

him. It might, indeed, be argued that this military establishment

on the Palatine would cease to be necessary, when the Prætorian

camp was established: but the purpose of that establishment was to

concentrate near the city those cohorts, which had previously been

dispersed in other parts of Italy: a local body-guard near the

palace would not cease to be necessary: and Josephus, in his

account of the imprisonment of Agrippa, speaks of a 'camp' in

connection with the 'royal house.' Such we conceive to have been

the barrack immediately alluded to by St. Paul: though the

connection of these smaller quarters with the general camp was such

that he would naturally become known to '_all the rest_' of the

guards, as well as those who might for the time be connected with

the imperial household.

"St. Paul tells us (in the Epistle to the Philippians) that

throughout the Prætorian quarter he was well known as a prisoner

for the cause of Christ, and he sends special salutations to the

Philippian Church from the Christians of the imperial household.

These notices bring before us very vividly the moral contrasts by

which the Apostle was surrounded. The soldier to whom he was

chained to-day might have been in Nero's body-guard yesterday; his

comrade who next relieved guard might have been one of the

executioners of Octavia, and might have carried her head to Poppæa

a few weeks before.

"History has few stronger contrasts than when it shows us Paul

preaching Christ under the walls of Nero's palace. Thenceforward

there were but two religions in the Roman world; the worship of the

emperor, and the worship of the Saviour. The old superstitions had

long been worn out; they had lost all hold on educated minds....

Over against the altars of Nero and Poppæa, the voice of a prisoner

was daily heard, and daily woke in grovelling souls the

consciousness of their divine destiny. Men listened, and knew that

self-sacrifice was better than ease, humiliation more exalted than

pride, to suffer nobler than to reign. They felt that the only

religion which satisfied the needs of man was the religion of

sorrow, the religion of self-devotion, the religion of the

cross."--_Conybeare and Howson._

Hence, we may ascend through some gardens beneath the Villa Mills, to

the terrace which surmounts the grand ruins at the end of the Palace of

the Cæsars, supposed to be remains of the _Palace of Nero_, but as no

inscriptions have been discovered, no part of it can be identified.[149]

These are by far the most picturesque portions of the ruins, and few

compositions can be finer than those formed by the huge masses of

stately brick arches, laden with a wealth of laurustinus, cytizus, and

other flowering shrubs, standing out against the soft hues and delicate

blue and pink shadows of the distant Campagna. Beneath the terrace is a

fine range of lofty chambers, with a broken statue at the end, through

which there is a striking view. One of these ruined halls has been

converted into a kind of museum of architectural fragments found in this

part of the palace, many of them of great beauty. This was the portion

of the palace which longest remained entire, and which was inhabited by

Heraclius in the seventh century. Some consider that these ruins were

incorporated into the

_Septizonium of Severus_, so called from its seven stories of building,

erected A.D. 198, and finally destroyed by Sixtus V., who carried off

its materials for the building of St Peter's. It was erected by Severus

at the southern corner of the palace, in order that it might at once

strike the eyes of his African compatriots,[150] on their arrival in

Rome. He built two other edifices which he called Septizonium, one on

the Esquiline near the baths of Titus, and the other on the Via Appia,

which he intended as the burial-place of his family, and where his son

Geta was actually interred.

The remaining ruins on this division of the hill, supposed to be those

of a theatre, a library, &c., have not yet been historically identified.

They probably belong to the _Palace of Domitian_ (Imp. A.D. 81--96), who

added largely to the buildings on the Palatine. The magnificence of his

palace is extolled in the inflated verses of Statius, who describes the

imperial dwelling as exciting the jealousy of the abode of Jupiter--as

losing itself amongst the stars by its height, and rising above the

clouds into the full splendour of the sunshine! Such was the

extravagance displayed by Domitian in these buildings, that Plutarch

compares him to Midas, who wished everything to be made of gold. This

was the scene of many of the tyrannical vagaries of Domitian.

"'Having once made a great feast for the citizens, he proposed,'

says Dion, 'to follow it up with an entertainment to a select

number of the highest nobility. He fitted up an apartment all in

black. The ceiling was black, the walls were black, the pavement

was black, and upon it were ranged rows of bare stone seats, black

also. The guests were introduced at night without their attendants,

and each might see at the head of his couch a column placed, like a

tomb-stone, on which his own name was graven, with the cresset lamp

above it, such as is suspended in the tombs. Presently there

entered a troop of naked boys, blackened, who danced around with

horrid movements, and then stood still before them, offering them

the fragments of food which are commonly presented to the dead. The

guests were paralysed with terror, expecting at every moment to be

put to death; and the more, as the others maintained a deep

silence, as though they were dead themselves, and Domitian spake of

things pertaining to the state of the departed only.' But this

funeral feast was not destined to end tragically. Cæsar happened to

be in a sportive mood, and when he had sufficiently enjoyed his

jest, and had sent his visitors home expecting worse to follow, he

bade each to be presented with the silver cup and platter on which

his dismal supper had been served, and with the slave, now neatly

washed and apparelled, who had waited upon him. Such, said the

populace, was the way in which it pleased the emperor to solemnise

the funereal banquet of the victims of his defeats in Dacia, and of

his persecutions in the city."--_Merivale_, ch. lxii.

It was in this palace that the murder of Domitian took place:

"Of the three great deities, the august assessors in the Capitol,

Minerva was regarded by Domitian as his special patroness. Her

image stood by his bedside: his customary oath was by her divinity.

But now a dream apprised him that the guardian of his person was

disarmed by the guardian of the empire, and that Jupiter had

forbidden his daughter to protect her favourite any longer. Scared

by these horrors he lost all self-control, and petulantly cried,

and the cry was itself a portent: 'Now strike Jove whom he will!'

From supernatural terrors he reverted again and again to earthly

fears and suspicions. Henceforward the tyrant allowed none to be

admitted to his presence without being previously searched; and he

caused the ends of the corridor in which he took exercise to be

lined with polished marble, to reflect the image of any one behind

him; at the same time he inquired anxiously into the horoscope of

every chief whom he might fear as a possible rival or successor.

"The victim of superstition had long since, it was said,

ascertained too surely the year, the day, the hour which should

prove fatal to him. He had learnt too that he was to die by the

sword.... The omens were now closing about the victim, and his

terrors became more importunate and overwhelming. 'Something,' he

exclaimed, 'is about to happen, which men shall talk of all the

world over.' Drawing a drop of blood from a pimple on his forehead,

'May this be all,' he added. His attendants, to reassure him,

declared that the hour had passed. Embracing the flattering tale

with alacrity, and rushing at once to the extreme of confidence, he

announced that the danger was over, and that he would bathe and

dress for the evening repast. But the danger was just then ripening

within the walls of the palace. The mysteries there enacted few,

indeed, could penetrate, and the account of Domitian's fall has

been coloured by invention and fancy. The story that a child, whom

he suffered to attend in his private chamber, found by chance the

tablets which he had placed under his pillow, and that the empress,

on inspecting them, and finding herself, with his most familiar

servants, designated for execution, contrived a plot for his

assassination, is one so often repeated as to cause great

suspicion. But neither can we accept the version of Philostratus,

who would have us believe that the murder of Domitian was the deed

of a single traitor, a freedman of Clemens, named Stephanus, who,

indignant at his patron's death, and urged to fury by the sentence

on his patron's wife, Domitilla, rushed alone into the tyrant's

chamber, diverted his attention with a frivolous pretext, and smote

him with the sword he bore concealed in his sleeve. It is more

likely that the design, however it originated, was common to

several of the household, and that means were taken among them to

disarm the victim, and baffle his cries for assistance. Stephanus,

who is said to have excelled in personal strength, may have been

employed to deal the blow; for not more, perhaps, than one

attendant would be admitted at once into the presence. Struck in

the groin, but not mortally, Domitian snatched at his own weapon,

but found the sword removed from its scabbard. He then clutched the

assassin's dagger, cutting his own fingers to the bone; then

desperately thrust the bloody talons into the eyes of his

assailant, and beat his head with a golden goblet, shrieking all

the time for help. Thereupon in rushed Parthenius, Maximus, and

others, and despatched him as he lay writhing on the

pavement."--_Merivale_, ch. lxii.

Trajan stripped the palace of his predecessors of all its ornaments to

adorn the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus,[151] but it was restored by

Commodus, after a fire which occurred in his reign,[152] and enriched by

Heliogabalus,[153] and almost every succeeding emperor, till the time of

Theodoric.[154]

"'Brickwork I found thee, and marble I left thee!' their Emperor vaunted;

'Marble I thought thee, and brickwork I find thee!' the Tourist may

answer."

_A. H. Clough._