THE JANICULAN 432
CHAPTER XI.
THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN.
The Cappuccini--S. Isidore--S. Niccolo in Tolentino--Via S.
Basilio--Convent of the Pregatrici--Villa Massimo Rignano--Gardens
of Sallust--Villa Ludovisi--Porta Salara--(Villa Albani--Catacombs
of Sta. Felicitas and Sta. Priscilla--Ponte Salara)--Porta
Pia--(Villa Torlonia--Sant' Agnese--Sta. Costanza--Ponte
Nomentana--Mons Sacer--S. Alessandro)--Villa Torlonia within the
walls--Via Macao--Pretorian Camp--Railway Station--Villa
Negroni--Agger of Servius Tullius--Sta. Maria degli
Angeli--Fountain of the Termini--Sta. Maria della Vittoria--Sta.
Susanna--S. Bernardo--S. Caio.
Opening from the left of the Piazza Barberini, is the small _Piazza of
the Cappuccini_, named from a convent suppressed since the Sardinian
occupation, but which was one of the largest and most populous in Rome.
The conventual church, dedicated to _Sta. Maria della Concezione_,
contains several fine pictures. In the first chapel, on the right, is
the magnificent _Guido_ of the Archangel Michael trampling upon the
Devil,--said to be a portrait of Pope Innocent X., against whom the
painter had a peculiar spite.
"Here the angel, standing, yet scarcely touching the ground, poised
on his outspread wings, sets his left foot on the head of his
adversary; in one hand he brandishes a sword, in the other he holds
the end of a chain, with which he is about to bind down the demon
in the bottomless pit. The attitude has been criticised, and
justly; the grace is somewhat mannered, verging on the theatrical;
but Forsyth is too severe when he talks of 'the air of a dancing
master': one thing, however, is certain, we do not think about the
attitude when we look at Raphael's St. Michael (in the Louvre); in
Guido's it is the first thing that strikes us; but when we look
farther, the head redeems all; it is singularly beautiful, and in
the blending of the masculine and feminine graces, in the serene
purity of the brow, and the flow of the golden hair, there is
something divine; a slight, very slight expression of scorn is in
the air of the head. The fiend is the worst part of the picture; it
is not a fiend, but a degraded prosaic human ruffian; we laugh with
incredulous contempt at the idea of an angel called down from
heaven to overcome such a wretch. In Raphael the fiend is human,
but the head has the god-like ugliness and malignity of a satyr;
Guido's fiend is only stupid and base. It appears to me that there
is just the same difference--the same _kind_ of difference--between
the angel of Raphael and the angel of Guido, as between the
description in Tasso and the description in Milton; let any one
compare them. In Tasso we are struck by the picturesque elegance of
the description as a piece of art, the melody of the verse, the
admirable choice of the expressions, as in Guido by the finished
but somewhat artificial and studied grace. In Raphael and Milton we
see only the vision of a 'shape divine.'"--_Jameson's Sacred Art_,
p. 107.
In the same chapel is a picture by _Gherardo della Notte_ of Christ in
the purple robe. The third chapel contains a fresco by _Domenichino_ of
the Death of St Francis, and a picture of the Ecstasy of St. Francis,
which was a gift from the same painter to this church.
The first chapel on the left contains The Visit of Ananias to Saul, by
_Pietro da Cortona_.
"Whoever would know to what length this painter carried his style
in his altar-piece should examine the Conversion of St. Paul in the
Cappuccini at Rome, which though placed opposite to the St. Michael
of Guido, cannot fail to excite the admiration of such judges as
are willing to admit various styles of beauty in art."--_Lanzi._
On the left of the high-altar is the tomb of Prince Alexander Sobieski,
son of John III., king of Poland, who died at Rome in 1714.
The church was founded in 1624, by Cardinal Barberini, the old
monk-brother of Urban VIII., who, while his nephews were employed in
building magnificent palaces, refused to take advantage of the family
elevation otherwise than to endow this church and convent. He is buried
in front of the altar, with the remarkable epitaph--very different to
the pompous, self-glorifying inscriptions of his brother--
"Hic jacet pulvis, cinis, et nihil."
This Cardinal Barberini possesses some historical interest from the
patronage he extended to Milton during his visit to Rome in 1638.
"During his sojourn in Rome Milton enjoyed the conversation of
several learned and ingenious men, and particularly of Lucas
Holsteinius, keeper of the Vatican library, who received him with
the greatest humanity, and showed him all the Greek authors,
whether in print or MS.--which had passed through his correction;
and also presented him to Cardinal Barberini, who, at an
entertainment of music, performed at his own expense, waited for
him at the door, and taking him by the hand, brought him into the
assembly. The next morning he waited upon the Cardinal to return
him thanks for these civilities, and by the means of Holsteinius
was again introduced to his Eminence, and spent some time in
conversation with him."--_Newton's Life of Milton._[240]
Over the entrance is a cartoon (with some differences) for the Navicella
of Giotto.
From this church is entered the famous cemetery of the Cappuccini (not
subterranean), consisting of four chambers, ornamented with human bones
in patterns, and with mummified bodies. The earth was brought from
Jerusalem. As the cemetery was too small for the convent, when any monk
died, the one who had been buried longest was ejected to make room for
him. The loss of a grave was supposed to be amply compensated by the
short rest in the holy earth which the body had already enjoyed. It is
pleasant to read on the spot the pretty sketch in the "Improvisatore."
"I was playing near the church of the Capuchins, with some other
children who were all younger than myself. There was fastened on
the church door a little cross of metal; it was fastened about the
middle of the door, and I could just reach it with my hand. Always
when our mothers had passed by with us they had lifted us up that
we might kiss the holy sign. One day, when we children were
playing, one of the youngest of them inquired, 'why the child Jesus
did not come down and play with us?' I assumed an air of wisdom,
and replied that he was really bound upon the cross. We went to the
church door, and although we found no one, we wished, as our
mothers had taught us, to kiss him, but we could not reach up to
it; one therefore lifted up the other, but just as the lips were
pointed for the kiss, that one who lifted the other lost his
strength, and the kissing one fell down just when his lips were
about to touch the invisible child Jesus. At that moment my mother
came by, and when she saw our child's play, she folded her hands,
and said, 'You are actually some of God's angels, and thou art mine
own angel,' added she, and kissed me.
"The Capuchin monk, Fra Martino, was my mother's confessor. He made
very much of me, and gave me a picture of the Virgin, weeping great
tears, which fell, like rain-drops, down into the burning flames of
hell, where the damned caught this draught of refreshment. He took
me over with him into the convent, where the open colonnade, which
enclosed in a square the little potato-garden, with the two cypress
and orange-trees, made a very deep impression upon me. Side by
side, in the open passages, hung old portraits of deceased monks,
and on the door of each cell were pasted pictures from the history
of the martyrs, which I contemplated with the same holy emotions as
afterwards the masterpieces of Raphael and Andrea del Sarto.
"'Thou art really a bright youth,' said he; 'thou shall now see the
dead.' Upon this, he opened a little door of a gallery which lay a
few steps below the colonnade. We descended, and now I saw round
about me skulls upon skulls, so placed one upon another, that they
formed walls, and therewith several chapels. In these were regular
niches, in which were seated perfect skeletons of the most
distinguished of the monks, enveloped in their brown cowls, their
cords round their waists, and with a breviary or withered bunch of
flowers in their hands. Altars, chandeliers, bas-reliefs, of human
joints, horrible and tasteless as the whole idea. I clung fast to
the monk, who whispered a prayer, and then said to me, 'Here also I
shall some time sleep; wilt thou thus visit me?'
"I answered not a word, but looked horrified at him, and then round
about me upon the strange grizzly assembly. It was foolish to take
me, a child, into this place. I was singularly impressed with the
whole thing, and did not feel myself easy again until I came into
his little cell, where the beautiful yellow oranges almost hung in
at the window, and I saw the brightly coloured picture of the
Madonna, who was borne upwards by angels into the clear sunshine,
while a thousand flowers filled the grave in which she had
rested.....
"On the festival of All-Saints I was down in the chapel of the
dead, where Fra Martino took me when I first visited the convent.
All the monks sang masses for the dead, and I, with two other boys
of my own age, swung the incense-breathing censer before the great
altar of skulls. They had placed lights in the chandeliers made of
bones, new garlands were placed around the brows of the skeleton
monks, and fresh bouquets in their hands. Many people, as usual,
thronged in; they all knelt and the singers intoned the solemn
Miserere. I gazed for a long time on the pale yellow skulls, and
the fumes of the incense which wavered in strange shapes between me
and them, and everything began to swim round before my eyes; it was
as if I saw everything through a large rainbow; as if a thousand
prayer-bells rung in my ear; it seemed as if I was borne along a
stream; it was unspeakably delicious--more, I know not;
consciousness left me,--I was in a swoon."--_Hans Ch. Andersen._
The street behind the Piazza Cappuccini leads to the _Church of S.
Isidoro_,[241] built 1622, for Irish Franciscan monks. The altar-piece,
representing S. Isidore, is by _Andrea Sacchi_. This church contains
several tombs of distinguished Irishmen who have died in Rome.
Opposite are the recently founded convent and small chapel of the
_Pregatrici_--nuns most picturesquely attired in blue and white, and
devoted to the perpetual adoration of the Sacrament, who sing during the
Benediction service, like the nuns of the Trinità di Monti.
The _Via S. Niccolo in Tolentino_ leads by the handsome Church of that
name, from the Piazza Barberini to the railway station. In this street
are the hotels "Costanzi" and "Del Globo."
Parallel with, and behind this, the _Via S. Basilio_ runs up the
hill-side. At the top of this street is the entrance of the _Villa
Massimo Rignano_, containing some fine palm-trees. This site, with the
ridge of the opposite hill, and the valley between, was once occupied by
the _Gardens of Sallust_ (Horti Pretiosissimi), purchased for the
emperors after the death of the historian, and a favourite residence of
Vespasian, Nerva, and especially of Aurelian. Some vaulted halls under
the cliff of the opposite hill, and a circular ruin surrounded by
niches, are the only remains of the many fine buildings which once
existed here, and which comprised a palace, baths, and the portico
called Milliarensis, 1000 feet long. These edifices are known to have
been ruined when Rome was taken by the Goths under Alaric (410), who
entered at the neighbouring Porta Salara. The obelisk now in front of
the Trinità di Monti, was removed from hence by Pius VI. The picturesque
old casino of the Barberini, which occupied the most prominent position
in the gardens, was pulled down in 1869, to make way for a house
belonging to Spithover the librarian. The hill-side is supported by long
picturesque buttresses, beneath which are remains of the huge masonry of
Servius Tullius, whose _Agger_ may be traced on the ridge of the hill
running towards the present railway station. Part of these grounds are
supposed to have formed the Campus Sceleratus, where the vestal virgins
suffered who had broken their vows of chastity.
"When condemned by the college of pontifices, the vestal was
stripped of her vittæ and other badges of office, was scourged, was
attired like a corpse, placed in a close litter, and borne through
the forum, attended by her weeping kindred with all the ceremonies
of a real funeral, to the Campus Sceleratus, within the city walls,
close to the Colline gate. There a small vault underground had been
previously prepared, containing a couch, a lamp, and a table with a
little food. The Pontifex Maximus, having lifted up his hands to
heaven and uttered a secret prayer, opened the litter, led forth
the culprit, and placing her on the steps of the ladder which gave
access to the subterranean cell, delivered her over to the common
executioner and his assistants, who conducted her down, drew up the
ladder, and having filled the pit with earth until the surface was
level with the surrounding ground, left her to perish deprived of
all the tributes of respect usually paid to the spirits of the
departed. In every case the paramour was publicly scourged to death
in the forum."--_Smith's Dict. of Antiquities._
"A Vignaiuolo showed us in the Gardens of Sallust a hole, through
which he said those vestal virgins were put who had violated their
vows of chastity. While we were listening to their story, some
pretty Contadini came up to us attended by their rustic swains, and
after looking into the hole, pitied the vestal
virgins--'_Poverine_,' shrugged their shoulders, and laughing,
thanked their stars and the Madonna, that poor Fanciulle were not
buried alive for such things now-a-days."--_Eaton's Rome._
A turn in the road now leads to the gate of the beautiful _Villa
Ludovisi_, to which it has been very difficult to obtain admittance
since the Sardinian occupation. The excellent proprietors, the Duke and
Duchess Sora, have lived at Foligno in complete seclusion, since the
change of government.
The villa was built early in the last century by Cardinal Ludovisi,
nephew of Gregory XV., from whom it descended to the Prince of Piombino,
father of Duke Sora. The grounds, which are of an extent extraordinary
when considered as being within the walls of a capital, were laid out by
Le Nôtre, and are in the stiff French style of high clipped hedges, and
avenues adorned with vases and sarcophagi. Near the entrance is a pretty
fountain shaded by a huge plane-tree; the Quirinal is seen in the
distance.
To the right of the entrance is the principal casino of sculptures, a
very beautiful collection (catalogues on the spot). Especially
remarkable are,--the grand colossal head, known as the "Ludovisi Juno"
(41);
"A Rome, une Junon surpasse toutes les autres par son aspect et
rappelle la Junon de Polyclète par sa majesté: c'est la célèbre
Junon Ludovisi que Goethe admirait tant, et devant laquelle dans un
accès de dévotion païenne,--seul genre de dévotion qu'il ait connu
à Rome,--il faisait, nous dit-il, sa prière du matin.
"Cette tête colossale de Junon offre bien les caractères de la
sculpture de Polyclète; la gravité, la grandeur, la dignité; mais
ainsi que dans d'autres Junons qu'on peut supposer avoir été
sculptées à Rome, l'imitateur de Polyclète, on doit le croire,
adoucit la sévérité, je dirai presque la dureté de l'original,
telle qu'elle se montre sur les médailles d'Argos, et celles
d'Elis."--_Ampère, Hist. Romaine_, iii. 264.
"No words can give a true impression of the colossal head of Juno
in the Villa Ludovisi: it is like a song of Homer."--_Goethe._
--the _Statue of Mars_ seated (I), with a Cupid at his feet, found in
the portico of Octavia, and restored by Bernini;
"II y avait bien un Mars assis de Scopas, et ce Mars était à Rome;
mais un dieu dans son temple devait être assis sur un trône et non
sur un rocher, comme le prétendu Mars Ludovisi. On a donc eu
raison, selon moi, de reconnaître dans cette belle statue un
Achille, à l'expression pensive de son visage, et surtout à
l'attitude caractéristique que le sculpteur lui a donnée, lui
faisant embrasser son genou avec ses deux mains, attitude qui, dans
le langage de la sculpture antique, était le signe d'une méditation
douloureuse. On citait comme très-beau un Achille de Silanion,
sculpteur grec habile à rendre les sentiments violents. D'après
cela, son Achille pouvait être un Achille indigné; c'est de lui que
viendrait l'Achille de la villa Ludovisi. L'expression de dépit,
plus énergique dans l'original, eût été adoucie dans une admirable
copie.'--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 437.
--and No. 28;
"Le beau groupe auquel on avait donné le nom d'Arria et Pætus; il
fallait fermer les yeux à l'évidence pour voir un Romain du temps
de Claude dans ce chef barbare qui, après avoir tué sa femme, se
frappe lui-même d'un coup mortel. Le type du visage, la chevelure,
le caractère de l'action, tout est gaulois; la manière même dont
s'accomplit l'immolation volontaire montre que ce n'est pas un
Romain que nous avons devant les yeux; un Romain se tuait plus
simplement, avec moins de fracas. Le principal personnage du groupe
Ludovisi conserve en ce moment suprême quelque chose de triomphant
et de théâtral; soulevant d'une main sa femme affaissée sous le
coup qu'il lui a porté, de l'autre il enfonce son épée dans sa
poitrine. La tête haute, l'œil tourné vers le ciel, il semble
répéter le mot de sa race: 'Je ne crains qu'une chose, c'est que le
ciel tombe sur ma tête.'"--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 207.
At the end of the gardens, to the left, is another casino, from whose
roof a most beautiful view may be obtained. Here are the most famous
frescoes of _Guercino_. On the ceiling of the ground-floor, Aurora
driving away Night and scattering flowers in her course, with Evening
and Daybreak in the lunettes; and, on the first floor, "Fame" attended
by Force and Virtue. Smaller rooms on the ground floor have landscapes
by _Guercino_ and _Domenichino_, and some groups of Cupids by _T.
Zucchero_; on the staircase is a fine bas-relief of two Cupids dragging
a quiver.
"The prophets and sibyls of Guercino da Cento (1590--1666), and his
Aurora, in a garden pavilion of the Villa Ludovisi, at Rome, almost
attain to the effect of oil paintings in their glowing colouring
combined with the broad and dark masses of shadow."--_Kugler._
"In allegorising nature, Guercino imitates the deep shades of
night, the twilight grey, and the irradiations of morning, with all
the magic of _chiaroscuro_; but his figures are too mortal for the
region where they move."--_Forsyth._
In B.C. 82, the district near the Porta Collina, now occupied by the
Villa Ludovisi, was the scene of a great battle for the very existence
of Rome, between Sylla, and the Samnites and Lucanians under the Samnite
general Pontius Telesinus, who declared he would raze the city to the
ground if he were victorious. The left wing under Sylla was put to
flight; but the right wing, commanded by Crassus, enabled him to restore
the battle, and to gain a complete victory; fifty thousand men fell on
each side.
The road now runs along the ridge of the hill to the Porta Salara, by
which Alaric entered Rome through the treachery of the Isaurian guard,
on the 24th of August, 410.
Passing through the gate and turning to the right along the outside of
the wall, we may see, against the grounds of the Villa Ludovisi, the two
round towers of the now closed _Porta Pinciana_, restored by Belisarius.
This is the place where tradition declares that in his declining years
the great general sat begging, with the cry, "Date obolum Belisario."
"A côté de la Porta Pinciana, on lit sur une pierre les paroles
célèbres: 'Donnez une obole à Bélisaire'; mais cette inscription
est moderne, comme la légende à laquelle elle fait allusion, et
qu'on ne trouve dans nul historien contemporain de Bélisaire.
Bélisaire ne demanda jamais l'aumône, et si le cicerone montre
encore aux voyageurs l'endroit où, vieux et aveugle, il implorait
une obole de la charité des passants, c'est que près de ce lieu il
avait, sur la colline du Pincio, son palais, situé entre les
jardins de Lucullus et les jardins de Salluste, et digne
probablement de ce double voisinage par sa magnificence. Ce qui est
vrai, c'est que le vainqueur des Goths et des Vandales fut
disgracié par Justinien, grâce aux intrigues de Théodora. La
légende, comme presque toujours, a exprimé par une fable une
vérité, l'ingratitude si fréquente des souverains envers ceux qui
leur ont rendu lus plus grands services."--_Ampère, Emp._ ii. 396.
* * * * *
A short distance from the gate, along the Via Salara, is, on the right,
the _Villa Albani_ (shown on Tuesdays by an order), built in 1760 by
Cardinal Alessandro Albani,--sold in 1834 to the Count of Castelbarco,
and in 1868 to Prince Torlonia, its present possessor. The scene from
its garden terrace is among the loveliest of Roman pictures, the view of
the delicate Sabine mountains--Monte Gennaro, with the Montecelli
beneath it--and in the middle distance, the churches of Sant' Agnese and
Sta. Costanza, relieved by dark cypresses and a graceful fountain.
The _Casino_, which is, in fact, a magnificent palace, is remarkable as
having been built from Cardinal Albani's own designs, Carlo Marchionni
having been only employed to see that they were carried out.
"Here is a villa of exquisite design, planned by a profound
antiquary. Here Cardinal Albani, having spent his life in
collecting ancient sculpture, formed such porticoes and such
saloons to receive it as an old Roman would have done: porticoes
where the statues stood free upon the pavement between columns
proportioned to their stature; saloons which were not stocked but
embellished with families of allied statues, and seemed full
without a crowd. Here Winckelmann grew into an antiquary under the
cardinal's patronage and instruction; and here he projected his
history of art, which brings this collection continually into
view."--_Forsyth's Italy._
The collection of sculptures is much reduced since the French invasion,
when 294 of the finest specimens were carried off by Napoleon to Paris,
where they were sold by Prince Albani upon their restoration in 1815, as
he was unwilling to bear the expense of transport. The greater
proportion of the remaining statues are of no great importance. Those of
the imperial family in the vestibule are interesting--those of Julius
and Augustus Cæsar, of Agrippina wife of Germanicus, and of Faustina,
are seated; most of the heads have been restored.
Conspicuous among the treasures of this villa, are the sarcophagus with
reliefs of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, pronounced by Winckelmann
to be one of the finest in existence; a head of Æsop, supposed to be
after Lysippus; and the bronze "Apollo Sauroctonos," considered by
Winckelmann to be the original statue by Praxiteles described by Pliny,
and the most beautiful bronze statue in the world,--it was found on the
Aventine. But most important of all is the famous relievo of Antinous
crowned with lotus, from the Villa Adriana (over the chimney-piece of
the first room to the right of the saloon), supposed to have formed part
of an apotheosis of Antinous:
"As fresh, and as highly finished, as if it had just left the
studio of the sculptor, this work, after the Apollo and the
Laocoon, is perhaps the most beautiful monument of antiquity which
time has transmitted to us."--_Winckelmann, Hist. de l'Art_, vi.
ch. 7.
Inferior only to this, is another bas-relief, also over a
chimney-piece,--the parting of Orpheus and Eurydice.
"Les deux époux vont se quitter. Eurydice attache sur Orphée un
profond regard d'adieu. Sa main est posée sur l'épaule de son
époux, geste ordinaire dans les groupes qui expriment la séparation
de ceux qui s'aiment. La main d'Orphée dégage doucement celle
d'Eurydice, tandis que Mercure fait de la sienne un léger mouvement
pour l'entraîner. Dans ce léger mouvement est tout leur sort;
l'effet le plus pathétique est produit par la composition la plus
simple; l'émotion la plus pénétrante s'exhale de la sculpture la
plus tranquille."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 256.
The villa also contains a collection of pictures, of which the most
interesting are the sketches of _Giulio Romano_ for the frescoes of the
story of Psyche in the Palazzo del Te at Mantua, and two fine pictures
by Luca Signorelli and Perugino, in compartments, in the first room on
the left of the saloon. All the works of art have lately been
rearranged. The _Caffè_ and the _Bigliardo_--(reached by an avenue of
oaks, which, being filled with ancient tombstones, has the effect of a
cemetery)--contain more statues, but of less importance.
Beyond the villa, the Via Salara (said by Pliny to derive its name from
the salt of Ostia exported to the north by this route) passes on the
left the site of Antemnæ, and crosses the Anio two miles from the city,
by the _Ponte Salara_, destroyed by the Roman government in the terror
of Garibaldi's approach from Monte Rotondo, in 1867. This bridge was a
restoration by Narses, in the sixth century, but stood on the
foundations of that famous Ponte Salara, upon which Titus Manlius fought
the Gaulish giant, and cutting off his head, carried off the golden
collar which earned him the name of Torquatus.
"Manlius prend un bouclier léger de fantassin, une épée espagnole
commode pour combattre de très-près, et s'avance à la rencontre du
Barbare. Les deux champions, isolés sur le pont, comme sur un
théâtre, se joignent au milieu. Le Barbare portait un vêtement
bariolé et une armure ornée de dessins et d'incrustations dorées,
conforme au caractère de sa race, aussi vaine que vaillante. Les
armes du Romain étaient bonnes, mais sans éclat. Point chez lui,
comme chez son adversaire, de chant, de transports, d'armes agitées
avec fureur, mais un cœur plein de courage et d'une colère
muette qu'il réservait tout entière pour le combat.
"Le Gaulois, qui dépassait son adversaire de toute la tête, met en
avant son bouclier et fait tomber pesamment son glaive sur l'armure
de son adversaire. Celui-ci le heurte deux fois de son bouclier, le
force à reculer, le trouble, et se glissant alors entre le bouclier
et le corps du Gaulois, de deux coups rapidement portés lui ouvre
le ventre. Quand le grand corps est tombé, Manlius lui coupe la
tête, et, ramassant le collier de son ennemi décapité, jette tout
sanglant sur son cou ce collier, le _torques_, propre aux Gaulois,
et qu'on peut voir au Capitole porté par celui qu'on appelle à tort
le gladiateur mourant. Un soldat donne, en plaisantant, à Manlius
le sobriquet de _Torquatus_, que sa famille a toujours été fière de
porter."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 10.
Beyond the ruins of the bridge, is a huge tomb with a tower, now used as
an Osteria. Hence, the road leads by the Villa of Phaon (Villa Spada)
where Nero died, and the site of Fidenæ, now known as Castel Giubeleo,
to Monte Rotondo.
The district beyond the Porta Salara, and that extending between the Via
Salara and the Monte Parioli, are completely undermined by catacombs
(see Ch. IX.). The most important are--1. Nearest the gate, the
_Catacomb of St. Felicitas_, which had three tiers of galleries, adorned
by Pope Boniface I., who took refuge there from persecution,--now much
dilapidated. Over this cemetery was a church, now destroyed, which is
mentioned by William of Malmesbury. 2. _The Catacomb of SS. Thraso and
Saturninus_, much decorated with the usual paintings. 3. _The Catacomb
of Sta. Priscilla_, near the descent to the Anio. This cemetery is of
great interest, from the number of martyrs' graves it contains, and from
its peculiar construction in an ancient _arenarium_, pillars and walls
of masonry being added throughout the central part, in order to sustain
the tufa walls. Here were buried--probably because the entrance to the
Chapel of the Popes at St. Calixtus was blocked up to preserve it in the
persecution under Diocletian--Pope St. Marcellinus (ob. 308), and Pope
St. Marcellus (ob. 310), who was sent into exile by Maxentius. On the
tomb of the latter was placed, in finely cut type, the following epitaph
by Pope Damasus:--
"Veredicus Rector, lapsos quia crimina flere
Prædixit, miseris fuit omnibus hostis amarus.
Hinc furor, hinc odium sequitur, discordia, lites,
Seditio, cædes, solvuntur fœdera pacis.
Crimen ob alterius Christum qui in pace negavit,
Finibus expulsus patriæ est feritate tyranni.
Hæc breviter Damasus voluit comperta referre,
Marcelli ut populus meritum cognoscere posset."
"The truth-speaking pope, because he preached that the lapsed
should weep for their crimes, was bitterly hated by all those
unhappy ones. Hence followed fury, hatred, discord, contentions,
sedition, and slaughter, and the bonds of peace were ruptured. For
the crime of another, who in (a time of) peace had denied Christ,
(the pontiff) was expelled the shores of his country by the cruelty
of the tyrant. These things Damasus having learnt, was desirous to
narrate briefly, that people might recognise the merit of
Marcellus."[242]
Several of the paintings in this catacomb are remarkable; especially
that of a woman with a child, claimed by the Roman Church as one of the
earliest representations of the Virgin. The painting is thus described
by Northcote:--
"De Rossi unhesitatingly says that he believes this painting of our
Blessed Lady to belong almost to the apostolic age. It is to be
seen on the vaulted roof of a _loculus_, and represents the Blessed
Virgin seated, her head partially covered by a short light veil,
and with the Holy Child in her arms; opposite to her stands a man,
clothed in the pallium, holding a volume in one hand, and with the
other pointing to a star which appears above and between the
figures. This star almost always accompanies our Blessed Lady, both
in paintings and in sculptures, where there is an obvious
historical excuse for it, _e. g._, when she is represented with the
Magi offering their gifts, or by the side of the manger with the ox
and the ass; but with a single figure, as in the present instance,
it is unusual. The most obvious conjecture would be that the figure
was meant for St. Joseph, or for one of the Magi. De Rossi,
however, gives many reasons for preferring the prophet Isaias,
whose prophecies concerning the Messias abound with imagery
borrowed from light."--_Roma Sotterranea._
This catacomb is one of the oldest, Sta. Priscilla, from whom it is
named, being supposed to have been the mother of Pudens, and a
contemporary of the apostles. Her granddaughters, Prassede and
Pudenziana, were buried here before the removal of their relics to the
church on the Esquiline. With this cemetery is connected the
extraordinary history of the manufacture of Sta. Filomena, now one of
the most popular saints in Italy, and one towards whom idolatry is
carried out with frantic enthusiasm both at Domo d'Ossola and in some of
the Neapolitan States. The story of this saint is best told in the words
of Mrs. Jameson.
"In the year 1802, while some excavations were going forward in the
catacomb of Priscilla, a sepulchre was discovered containing the
skeleton of a young female; on the exterior were rudely painted
some of the symbols constantly recurring in these chambers of the
dead; an anchor, an olive branch (emblems of Hope and Peace), a
scourge, two arrows, and a javelin: above them the following
inscription, of which the beginning and end were destroyed:--
----LUMENA PAX TE CUM FI----
"The remains, reasonably supposed to be those of one of the early
martyrs for the faith, were sealed up and deposited in the treasury
of relics in the Lateran; here they remained for some years
unthought of. On the return of Pius VII. from France, a Neapolitan
prelate was sent to congratulate him. One of the priests in his
train, who wished to create a sensation in his district, where the
long residence of the French had probably caused some decay of
piety, begged for a few relics to carry home, and these recently
discovered remains were bestowed on him; the inscription was
translated somewhat freely, to signify _Santa Philumena, rest in
peace_. Another priest, whose name is suppressed _because of his
great humility_, was favoured by a vision in the broad noon-day, in
which he beheld the glorious virgin Filomena, who was pleased to
reveal to him that she had suffered death for preferring the
Christian faith and her vow of chastity to the addresses of the
emperor, who wished to make her his wife. This vision leaving much
of her history obscure, a certain young artist, whose name is also
suppressed, perhaps because of his great humility, was informed in
a vision that the emperor alluded to was Diocletian, and at the
same time the torments and persecutions suffered by the Christian
virgin Filomena, as well as her wonderful constancy, were also
revealed to him. There were some difficulties in the way of the
Emperor Diocletian, which _incline_ the writer of the _historical_
account to incline to the opinion that the young artist in his
wisdom _may_ have made a mistake, and that the emperor may have
been not Diocletian but Maximian. The facts, however, now admitted
of no doubt; the relics were carried by the priest Francesco da
Lucia to Naples; they were enclosed in a case of wood resembling in
form the human body; this figure was habited in a petticoat of
white satin, and over it a crimson tunic after the Greek fashion;
the face was painted to represent nature, a garland of flowers was
placed on the head, and in the hands a lily and a javelin with the
point reversed to express her purity and her martyrdom; then she
was laid in a half-sitting posture in a sarcophagus, of which the
sides were glass, and, after lying for some time in state in the
chapel of the Torres family in the Church of Sant' Angiolo, she was
carried in grand procession to Mugnano, a little town about twenty
miles from Naples, amid the acclamations of the people, working
many and surprising miracles by the way.... Such is the legend of
Sta. Filomena, and such the authority on which she has become
within the last twenty years one of the most popular saints in
Italy."--_Sacred and Legendary Art_, p. 671.
It is hoped that very interesting relics may still be discovered in this
Catacomb.
"In an account preserved by St. Gregory of Tours, we are told that
under Numerianus, the martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria were put to
death in an _arenaria_, and that a great number of the faithful
having been seen entering a subterranean crypt on the Via Salara,
to visit their tombs, the heathen emperor caused the entrance to be
hastily built up, and a vast mound of sand and stone to be heaped
in front of it, so that they might be all buried alive, even as the
martyrs whom they had come to venerate. St. Gregory adds, that when
the tombs of these martyrs were re-discovered, after the ages of
persecution had ceased, there were found with them, not only the
relics of those worshippers who had been thus cruelly put to death,
skeletons of men, women, and children lying on the floor, but also
the silver cruets (_urcei argentei_) which they had taken down with
them for the celebration of the sacred mysteries. St. Damasus was
unwilling to destroy so touching a memorial of past ages. He
abstained from making any of those changes by which he usually
decorated the martyrs' tombs, but contented himself with setting up
one of his invaluable historical inscriptions, and opening a window
in the adjacent wall or rock, that all might see, without
disturbing, this monument so unique in its kind--this Christian
Pompeii in miniature. These things might still be seen in St.
Gregory's time, in the sixth century; and De Rossi holds out hopes
that some traces of them may be restored even to our own
generation, some fragments of the inscription perhaps, or even the
window itself through which our ancestors once saw so moving a
spectacle, assisting, as it were, at a mass celebrated in the third
century."--_Roma Sotterranea_, p. 88.
* * * * *
Returning to the Porta Salara, and following the walls, we reach the
_Porta Pia_, built, as it is now seen, by Pius IX.--very ugly, but
appropriately decorated with statues of St. Agnes and St. Alexander, to
whose shrines it leads. The statues lost their heads in the capture of
Rome in 1870 by the Italian troops, who entered the city by a breach in
the walls close to this. A little to the right was the _Porta
Nomentana_, flanked by round towers, closed by Pius IV. It was by this
gate that the oppressed Roman people retreated to the Mons Sacer--and
that Nero fled.
"Suivons-le du Grand-Cirque à la porte Nomentane. Quel spectacle!
Néron, accoutumé à toutes les recherches de la volupté, s'avance à
cheval, les pieds nus, en chemise, couvert d'un vieux manteau dont
la couleur était passée, un mouchoir sur le visage. Quatre
personnes seulement l'accompagnent; parmi elles est ce Sporus, que
dans un jour d'indicible folie il avait publiquement épousé. Il
sent la terre trembler, il voit les éclairs au ciel: Néron a peur.
Tous ceux qu'il a fait mourir lui apparaissent et semblent se
précipiter sur lui. Nous voici à la porte Nomentane, qui touche au
Camp des Prétoriens. Néron reconnaît ce lieu où, il y a quinze ans,
suivant alors le chemin qu'il vient de suivre, il est venu se faire
reconnaître empereur par les prétoriens. En passant sous les murs
de leur camp, vers lequel son destin le ramène, il les entend
former des vœux pour Galba, et lancer des imprécations contre
lui. Un passant lui dit: 'Voilà des gens qui cherchent Néron.' Son
cheval se cabre au milieu de la route: c'est qu'il a flairé un
cadavre. Le mouchoir qui couvrait son visage tombe; un prétorien
qui se trouvait là le ramasse et le rend à l'empereur, qu'il salue
par son nom. A chacun de ces incidents son effroi redouble. Enfin
il est arrivé à un petit chemin qui s'ouvre à notre gauche, dans la
direction de la voie Salara, parallèle à la voie Nomentane. C'est
entre ces deux voies qu'était la villa de Phaon, à quatre milles de
Rome. Pour l'attendre, Néron, qui a mis pied à terre, s'enfonce à
travers un fourré d'épines et un champ de roseaux comme il s'en
trouve tant dans la Campagne de Rome; il a peine de s'y frayer un
chemin; il arrive ainsi au mur de derrière de la villa. Près de là
était un de ces antres creusés pour l'extraction du sable
volcanique, appelé _pouzzolane_, tels qu'on en voit encore de ce
côté. Phaon engage le fugitif à s'y cacher; il refuse. On fait un
trou dans la muraille de la villa par où il pénètre, marchant
quatre pieds, dans l'intérieur. Il entre dans une petite salle et
se couche sur un lit formé d'un méchant matelas sur lequel on avait
jeté un vieux manteau. Ceux qui l'entourent le pressent de mourir
pour échapper aux outrages et au supplice. Il essaye à plusieurs
reprises de se donner la mort et n'y peut se résoudre; il pleure.
Enfin, en entendant les cavaliers qui venaient le saisir, il cite
un vers grec, fait un effort et se tue avec le secours d'un
affranchi."--_Ampère, Emp._ ii. 65.
* * * * *
Immediately outside the Porta Pia is the entrance of the beautiful
_Villa Patrizi_, whose grounds enclose the small _Catacomb of St.
Nicomedus_. Then comes the _Villa Lezzani_, where Sta. Giustina is
buried in a chapel, and where her festa is observed on the 25th of
October.
Beyond this is the ridiculous _Villa Torlonia_ (shown with an order on
Wednesdays from 11 to 4, but not worth seeing), sprinkled with mock
ruins.
At little more than a mile from the gate the road reaches the _Basilica
of St' Agnese fuori le Mura_, founded by Constantine at the request of
his daughter Constantia, in honour of the virgin martyr buried in the
neighbouring catacomb; but rebuilt 625--38 by Honorius I. It was altered
in 1490 by Innocent VIII., but retains more of its ancient character
than most of the Roman churches. The polychrome decorations of the
interior, and the rebuilding of the monastery, were carried out at the
expense of Pius IX., as a thank-offering for his escape, when he fell
through the floor here into a cellar, with his cardinals and attendants,
on April 15, 1855. The scene is represented in a large fresco by
_Domenico Tojetti_, in a chamber on the right of the courtyard.
The approach to the church is by a picturesque staircase of forty-five
ancient marble steps, lined with inscriptions from the catacombs. The
nave is divided from the aisles by sixteen columns, four of which are of
"porta-santa" and two of "pavonazzetto." A smaller range of columns
above these supports the roof of a triforium, which is on a level with
the road. The baldacchino, erected in 1614, is supported by four
porphyry columns. Beneath is the shrine of St. Agnes surmounted by her
statue, an antique of oriental alabaster, with modern head, and hands of
gilt bronze. The mosaics of the tribune, representing St. Agnes between
Popes Honorius I. and Symmachus, are of the seventh century. Beneath, is
an ancient episcopal chair.
The second chapel on the right has a beautiful mosaic altar, and a
relief of SS. Stephen and Laurence of 1490. The third chapel is that of
St. Emerentiana, foster-sister of St. Agnes, who was discovered praying
beside the tomb of her friend, and was stoned to death because she
refused to sacrifice to idols.
"So ancient is the worship paid to St. Agnes, that next to the
Evangelists and Apostles, there is no saint whose effigy is older.
It is found on the ancient glass and earthenware vessels used by
the Christians in the early part of the third century, with her
name inscribed, which leaves no doubt of her identity. But neither
in these images, nor in the mosaics, is the lamb introduced, which
in later times has become her inseparable attribute, as the
patroness of maidens and maidenly modesty."--_Jameson's Sacred
Art_, p. 105.
St. Agnes suffered martyrdom by being stabbed in the throat, under
Diocletian, in her thirteenth year (see Ch. XIV.), after which,
according to the expression used in the acts of her martyrdom, her
parents "with all joy" laid her in the catacombs. One day as they were
praying near the body of their child, she appeared to them surrounded by
a great multitude of virgins, triumphant and glorious like herself, with
a lamb by her side, and said, "I am in heaven, living with these virgins
my companions, near Him whom I have so much loved." By her tomb, also,
Constantia, a princess sick with hopeless leprosy, was praying for the
healing of her body, when she heard a voice saying, "Rise up,
Constantia, and go on constantly ('Costanter age, Constantia') in the
faith of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who shall heal your
diseases,"--and, being cured of her evil, she besought her father to
build this basilica as a thank-offering.[243]
On the 21st of January, a beautiful service is celebrated here, in which
two lambs, typical of the purity of the virgin saint, are blessed upon
the altar. They are sent by the chapter of St. John Lateran, and their
wool is afterwards used to make the pallium of the pope, which is
consecrated before it is worn, by being deposited in a golden urn upon
the tomb of St. Peter. The pallium is the sign of episcopal
jurisdiction.
"Ainsi, le simple ornement de laine que ces prélats doivent porter
sur leurs épaules comme symbole de la brebis du bon Pasteur, et que
le pontife Romain prend sur l'autel même de Saint Pierre pour le
leur adresser, va porter jusqu'aux extrémités de l'Eglise, dans une
union sublime, le double sentiment de la force du Prince des
Apôtres et de la douceur virginale d'Agnes."--_Dom Guéranger._
Close to St' Agnese is the round _Church of Sta. Costanza_. erected by
Constantine as a mausoleum for his daughters Constantia and Helena, and
converted into a church by Alexander IV. (1254--61) in honour of the
Princess Constantia, ob. 354, whose life is represented by Marcellinus
as anything but saintlike, and who is supposed to have been confused in
her canonization with a sainted nun of the same name. The rotunda,
seventy-three feet in diameter, is surrounded by a vaulted corridor;
twenty-four double columns of granite support the dome. The vaulting is
covered with mosaic arabesques of the fourth century, of flowers and
birds, with scenes referring to a vintage. The same subjects are
repeated on the splendid porphyry sarcophagus of Sta. Costanza, of which
the interest is so greatly marred by its removal to the Vatican from its
proper site, whence it was first stolen by Pope Paul II., who intended
to use it as his own tomb.
"Les enfants qui foulent le raisin, tels qu'on les voit dans les
mosaïques de l'église de Sainte Constance, les bas-reliefs de son
tombeau et ceux de beaucoup d'autres tombeaux chrétiens sont bien
d'origine païenne, car on les voit aussi figurer dans les
bas-reliefs où paraît Priape."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 257.
Behind the two churches is an oblong space, ending in a fine mass of
ruin, which is best seen from the valley below. This was long supposed
to be the Hippodrome of Constantine, but is now discovered to have
belonged to an early Christian cemetery.
_The Catacomb of St Agnese_ is entered from a vineyard about a quarter
of a mile beyond the church. It is lighted and opened to the public on
St. Agnes' Day. After those of St. Calixtus, this, perhaps, is the
catacomb which is most worthy of a visit.
We enter by a staircase attributed to the time of Constantine. The
passages are lined with the usual _loculi_ for the dead, sometimes
adapted for a single body, sometimes for two laid together. Beside many
of the graves the palm of victory may be seen scratched on the mortar,
and remains of the glass bottles or _ampullæ_, which are supposed to
indicate the graves of martyrs, and to have contained a portion of their
blood, of which they are often said to retain the trace. One of the
graves in the first gallery bears the names of consuls of A.D. 336,
which fixes the date of this part of the cemetery.
The most interesting features here are a square chamber hewn in the
rock, with an arm-chair (_sedia_) cut out of the rock on either side of
the entrance, supposed to have been a school for catechists,--and near
this is a second chamber for female catechists, with plain seats in the
same position. Opening out of the gallery close by is a chamber which
was apparently used as a chapel; its _arcosolium_ has marks of an altar
remaining at the top of the grave, and near it is a credence-table; the
roof is richly painted,--in the central compartment is our Lord seated
between the rolls of the Old and New Testament. Above the arcosolium, in
the place of honour, is our Saviour as the Good Shepherd, bearing a
sheep upon his shoulders, and standing between other sheep and
trees;--in the other compartments are Daniel in the lions' den, the
Three Children in the furnace, Moses taking off his shoes, Moses
striking the rock, and--nearest the entrance--the Paralytic carrying his
bed. A neighbouring chapel has also remains of an altar and
credence-table, and well-preserved paintings,--the Good Shepherd, Adam
and Eve, with the tree between them, Jonah under the gourd, and in the
fourth compartment a figure described by Protestants merely as an
Orante, and by Roman Catholics as the Blessed Virgin.[244] Near this
chapel we can look down through an opening into the second floor of the
catacomb, which is lined with graves like the first.
In the further part of the catacomb is a long narrow chapel which has
received the name of the _cathedral_ or _basilica_. It is divided into
three parts, of which the furthest, or presbytery, contains an ancient
episcopal chair with lower seats on either side for priests--probably
the throne where Pope St. Liberius (A.D. 359) officiated, with his face
to the people, when he lived for more than a year hidden here from
persecution. Hence a flight of steps leads down to what Northcote calls
"the Lady Chapel," where, over the altar, is a fresco of an orante,
without a nimbus, with outstretched arms,--with a child in front of her.
On either side of this picture, a very interesting one, is the monogram
of Constantine, and the painting is referred to his time. Near this
chapel is a chamber with a spring running through it, evidently used as
a baptistery.
At the extremity of the catacomb, under the basilica of St. Agnes, is
one of its most interesting features. Here the passages become wider and
more irregular, the walls sloping and unformed, and graves cease to
appear, indicating one of the ancient _arenaria_, which here formed the
approach to the catacomb, and beyond which the Christians excavated
their cemetery.
The graves throughout almost all the catacombs have been rifled, the
bones which they contained being distributed as relics throughout Roman
Catholic Christendom, and most of the sarcophagi and inscriptions
removed to the Lateran and other museums.
"Vous pourriez voir ici la capitale des catacombes de toute la
chrétienté. Les martyrs, les confesseurs, et les vierges, y
fourmillent de tous côtés. Quand on se fait besoin de quelques
reliques en pays étrangers, le Pape n'a qu'à descendre ici et
crier, _Qui de vous autres veut aller être saint en Pologne?_
Alors, s'il se trouve quelque mort de bonne volonté, il se lève et
s'en va."--_De Brosses_, 1739.
Half a mile beyond St' Agnese, the road reaches the willow-fringed river
Anio, in which "Silvia changed her earthly life for that of a goddess,"
and which carried the cradle containing her two babes Romulus and Remus
into the Tiber, to be brought to land at the foot of the Palatine
fig-tree. Into this river we may also recollect that Sylla caused the
ashes of his ancient rival Marius to be thrown. The river is crossed by
the _Ponte Nomentana_, a mediæval bridge, partially covered, with forked
battlements.
"Ponte Nomentana is a solitary dilapidated bridge in the spacious
green Campagna. Many ruins from the days of ancient Rome, and many
watch-towers from the middle ages, are scattered over this long
succession of meadows; chains of hills rise towards the horizon,
now partially covered with snow, and fantastically varied in form
and colour by the shadows of the clouds. And there is also the
enchanting vapoury vision of the Alban hills, which change their
hues like the chameleon, as you gaze at them--where you can see for
miles little white chapels glittering on the dark foreground of the
hills, as far as the Passionist Convent on the summit, and whence
you can trace the road winding through thickets, and the hills
sloping downwards to the lake of Albano, while a hermitage peeps
through the trees."--_Mendelssohn's Letters._
The hill immediately beyond the bridge is the _Mons Sacer_ (not only the
part usually pointed out on the right of the road, but the whole
hillside), to which the famous secession of the Plebs took place in B.C.
549, amounting, according to Dionysius, to about 4000 persons. Here they
encamped upon the green slopes for four months, to the terror of the
patricians, who foresaw that Rome, abandoned by its defenders, would
fall before its enemies, and that the crops would perish for want of
cultivation. Here Menenius Agrippa delivered his apologue of the belly
and its members, which is said to have induced them to return to Rome;
that which really decided them to do so being the concession of
tribunes, to be the organs and representatives of the plebs as the
consuls were of the patricians. The epithet Sacer is ascribed by
Dionysius to an altar which the plebeians erected at the time on the
hill to Ζεὑς Δειμἁτιος.
A second secession to the Mons Sacer took place in B.C. 449, when the
plebs rose against Appius Claudius after the death of Virginia, and
retired hither under the advice of M. Duilius, till the decemvirs
resigned.
Following the road beyond the bridge past the castle known as _Casale
dei Pazzi_ (once used as a lunatic asylum) and the picturesque tomb
called Torre Nomentana,--as far as the seventh milestone--we reach the
remains of the unburied _Basilica of S. Alessandro_, built on the site
of the place where that pope suffered martyrdom with his companions
Eventius and Theodulus, A.D. 119, and was buried on the same spot by the
Christian matron Severina.[245] The plan of the basilica, disinterred
1856-7, is still quite perfect. The tribune and high altar retain
fragments of rich marbles and alabasters; the episcopal throne also
remains in its place.
The "Acts of the martyrs Alexander, Eventius, and Theodulus," narrate
that Severina buried the bodies of the first two martyrs in one tomb,
and the third separately--"Theodulum vero alibi sepelivit." This is
borne out by the discovery of a chapel opening from the nave, where the
single word "martyri," is supposed to point out the grave of Theodulus.
A baptistery has been found with its font, and another chapel adjoining
is pointed out as the place where neophytes assembled to receive
confirmation from the bishop. Among epitaphs laid bare in the pavement
is one to a youth named Apollo "votus Deo" (dedicated to the
priesthood?) at the age of 14. Entered from the church is the catacomb
called "ad nymphas," containing many ancient inscriptions and a few rude
paintings.
Mass is solemnly performed here by the Cardinal Prefect of the
Propaganda on the festival of St. Alexander, May 3, when the roofless
basilica--backed by the blue Sabine mountains and surrounded by the
utterly desolate Campagna--is filled with worshippers, and presents a
striking scene. Beyond this a road to the left leads through beautiful
woods to _Mentana_, occupying the site of the ancient Nomentum, and
recently celebrated for the battle between the papal troops and the
Garibaldians on Nov. 3, 1867. The conflict took place chiefly on the
hillside which is passed on the right before reaching the town. Two
miles further is _Monte Rotondo_, with a fine old castle of the
Barberini family (once of the Orsini), from which there is a beautiful
view. This place was also the scene of fighting in 1867. It is possible
to vary the route in returning to Rome from hence by the lower road
which leads by the (now broken) Ponte Salara.
* * * * *
If we re-enter Rome by the Porta Pia, immediately within the gates we
find another Villa belonging to the Torlonia family. The straight road
from the gate leads by the Termini to the Quattro Fontane and the Monte
Cavallo. On the left, if we follow the _Via de Macao_, which takes its
strange name from a gift of land which the princes of Savoy made to the
Jesuits for a mission in China, we reach a small piazza with two pines,
where a gate on the left leads to the remains of the _Pretorian Camp_,
established by Sejanus, the minister of Tiberius. It was dismantled by
Constantine, but from three sides having been enclosed by Aurelian in
the line of his city-wall, its form is still preserved to us. The
Pretorian Camp was an oblong of 1200 by 1500 feet; its area was occupied
by a vineyard of the Jesuits till 1861, when a "Campo Militare" was
again established here, for the pontifical troops.
"En suivant l'enceinte de Rome, quand on arrive à l'endroit où elle
se continue par le mur du Camp des prétoriens, on est frappé de la
supériorité de construction que présente celui-ci. La partie des
murs d'Honorius qui est voisine a été refaite au huitième siècle.
Le commencement et la fin de l'empire se touchent. On peut
apprécier d'un coup d'œil l'état de la civilisation aux deux
époques: voilà ce qu'on faisait dans le premier siècle, et voilà ce
qu'on faisait au huitième, après la conquête de l'empire Romain par
les Barbares. Il faut songer toutefois que cette époque où l'on
construisait si bien a amené celle où l'on ne savait plus
construire."--_Ampère, Emp._ i. 421.
Hence a road, three-quarters of a mile long, leads--passing under an
arch of Sixtus V.--to the Porta S. Lorenzo (Ch. XIII.).
The road opposite the gateway leading to the Camp is bordered on the
left by the buildings belonging to the _Railway Station_, beyond which
is the entrance to the grounds of the _Villa Massimo Negroni_, which
possessed a delightful terrace, fringed with orange-trees--a most
agreeable sunny walk in winter--and many pleasant shady nooks and
corners for summer, but which has been mutilated and stripped of all its
beauties since the Sardinian rule. In a part of this villa beyond the
railway but still visible from hence, is a colossal statue of Minerva
(generally called "Rome"), which is a relic of the residence here of
Cardinal Felix Perretti, who as a boy had watched the pigs of his father
at Montalto, and who lived to mount the papal throne as Sixtus V. The
pedestal of the statue bears his arms,--a lion holding three pears in
its paw. Here, with her husband's uncle, lived the famous Vittoria
Accoramboni, the wife of the handsome Francesco Perretti, who had been
vainly sought in marriage by the powerful and ugly old Prince Paolo
Orsini. It was from hence that her young husband was summoned to a
secret interview with her brothers on the slopes of the Quirinal, where
he was cruelly murdered by the hired bravos of her first lover. Hence
also Vittoria went forth--on the very day of the installation of Sixtus
V.--to her strange second marriage with the murderer of her husband, who
died six months after, leaving her with one of the largest fortunes in
Italy--an amount of wealth which led to her own barbarous murder through
the jealousy of the Orsini a month afterwards.
Here, after the election of her brother to the papacy, lived Camilla,
the sister of Sixtus V., whom he refused to recognise when she came to
him in splendid attire as a princess, but tenderly embraced when she
reappeared in her peasant's wimple and hood. From hence her two
granddaughters were married,--one to Virginius Orsini, the other to
Marc-Antonio Colonna, an alliance which healed the feud of centuries
between the two families.
In later times the Villa Negroni was the residence of the poet Alfieri.
The principal terrace ends near a reservoir which belonged to the baths
of Diocletian.
"As one looks from the Villa Negroni windows, one cannot fail to be
impressed by the strange changes through which this wonderful city
has passed. The very spot on which Nero, the insane emperor-artist,
fiddled while Rome was burning, has now become a vast
kitchen-garden, belonging to Prince Massimo (himself a descendant,
as he claims, of Fabius Cunctator), where men no longer, but only
lettuces, asparagus, and artichokes, are ruthlessly cut down. The
inundations are not for mock sea-fights among slaves, but for the
peaceful purposes of irrigation. In the bottom of the valley, a
noble old villa, covered with frescoes, has been turned into a
manufactory for bricks, and part of the Villa Negroni itself is now
occupied by the railway station. Yet here the princely family of
Negroni lived, and the very lady at whose house Lucrezia Borgia
took her famous revenge may once have sauntered under the walls,
which still glow with ripening oranges, to feed the gold fish in
the fountain,--or walked with stately friends through the long
alleys of clipped cypresses, or pic-nicked _alla Giornata_ on lawns
which are now but kitchen-gardens, dedicated to San
Cavolo."--_Story's Roba di Roma._
The lower part of the Villa Negroni, and the slopes towards the
Esquiline, were once celebrated as the _Campus Esquilinus_, a large
pauper burial-ground, where bodies were thrown into pits called
_puticoli_,[246] as is still the custom at Naples. There were also tombs
here of a somewhat pretentious character: "those probably of rich
well-to-do burgesses, yet not great enough to command the posthumous
honour of a roadside mausoleum."[247] Horace dwells on the horrors of
this burial-ground, where he places the scene of Canidia's
incantations:--
"Nec in sepulcris pauperum prudens anus
Novemdiales dissipare pulveres."
_Epod._ xvii. 47.
'Has nullo perdere possum
Nec prohibere modo, simul ac vaga luna decorum
Protulit os, quin ossa legant, herbasque nocentes.
Vidi egomet nigrâ succinctam vadere pallâ
Canidiam, pedibus nudis passoque capillo,
Cum Saganâ majore ululantem; pallor utrasque
Fecerat horrendas aspectu,
* * * * *
Serpentes atque videres
Infernas errare canes; lunamque rubentem,
Ne foret his testis, post magna latere sepulcra."
_Hor. Sat._ i. 8'
The place was considered very unhealthy until its purification by
Mæcenas.
"Huc prius angustis ejecta cadavera cellis
Conservus vili portanda locabat in arcâ.
Hoc miseræ plebi stabat commune sepulcrum,
Pantolabo scurræ, Nomentanoque nepoti.
Mille pedes in fronte, trecentos cippus in agrum
Hîc dabat; heredes monumentum ne sequeretur.
Nunc licet Esquiliis habitare salubribus, atque
Aggere in aprico spatiari; quo modo tristes
Albis informem spectabant ossibus agrum."
_Hor. Sat._ i. 8.
"Post insepulta membra different lupi,
Et Esquilinæ alites."
_Hor. Ep._ v. 100.
"The Campus Esquilinus, between the roads which issued from the
Esquiline and Viminal gates, was the spot assigned for casting out
the carcases of slaves, whose foul and half-burnt remains were
hardly hidden from the vultures. The _accursed field_ was enclosed,
it would appear, neither by wall nor fence, to exclude the
wandering steps of man or beast; and from the public walk on the
summit of the ridge, it must have been viewed in all its horrors.
Here prowled in troops the houseless dogs of the city and the
suburbs; here skulked the solitary wolf from the Alban hills, and
here perhaps, to the doleful murmurs of the Marsic chaunt, the
sorceress compounded her philtres of the ashes of dead men's bones.
Mæcenas (B.C. 7) deserved the gratitude of the citizens, when he
obtained a grant of this piece of land, and transformed it into a
park or garden.... The Campus Esquilinus is now part of the gardens
of the Villa Negroni."--_Merivale, Romans under the Empire._
Within what were the grounds of the Villa Negroni until they were
encroached upon by the railway, but now only to be visited with a
"lascia passare" from the station master, are some of the best remains
of the _Agger of Servius Tullius_. In 1869--70, some curious painted
chambers were discovered here, but were soon destroyed,--and the foolish
jealousy of the authorities prevented any drawings or photographs being
taken. The Agger can be traced from the Porta Esquilina (near the Arch
of Gallienus), to the Porta Collina (near the Gardens of Sallust). In
the time of the empire it had become a kind of promenade, as we learn
from Horace.[248]
Opposite the station are the vast, but for the most part uninteresting,
remains of the _Baths of Diocletian_, covering a space of 440,000 square
yards. They were begun by Diocletian and Maximian, about A.D. 302, and
finished by Constantius and Maximinus. It is stated by Cardinal
Baronius, that 40,000 Christians were employed in the work; some bricks
marked with crosses have been found in the ruins. At the angles of the
principal front were two circular halls, both of which remain; one is
near the modern Villa Strozzi, at the back of the Negroni garden, and is
now used as a granary, the other is transformed into the Church of S.
Bernardo.
The Baths are supposed to have first fallen into decay after the Gothic
invasion of A.D. 410. In the sixteenth century the site was sold to
Cardinal Bella, ambassador of Francis I. at Rome, who built a fine
palace among the ruins; after his death, in 1560, the property was
re-sold to S. Carlo Borromeo. He sold it again to his uncle, Pope Pius
IV., who founded the monastery of Carthusian monks. These, in 1593, sold
part of the ruins to Caterina Sforza, who founded the Cistercian convent
of S. Bernardo.
About 1520, a Sicilian priest called Antonio del Duca came to Rome,
bringing with him from Palermo pictures of the seven archangels
(Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Santhiel, Gendiel, and Borachiel),
copied from some which existed in the Church of S. Angiolo. Carried away
by the desire of instituting archangel-worship at Rome, he obtained
leave to affix these pictures to seven of the columns still standing
erect in the Baths of Diocletian, which, ten years after, Julius II.
allowed to be consecrated under the title of Sta. Maria degli Angeli;
though Pius IV., declaring that angel-worship had never been sanctioned
by the Church, except under the three names mentioned in Scripture,
ordered the pictures of Del Duca to be taken away.[249] At the same time
he engaged Michael Angelo to convert the great oblong hall of the Baths
(Calidarium) into a church. The church then arranged was not such as we
now see, the present entrance having been then the atrium of the side
chapel, and the main entrance at first by what is now the right
transept, while the high altar stood in what is now the left transept.
In 1749, the desire of erecting a chapel to the Beato Nicolo Albergati,
led to the church being altered, under Vanvitelli, as we now see it.
The _Church of Sta. Maria degli Angeli_, still most magnificent, is now
entered by a rotunda (Laconicum) which contains four monuments of some
interest; on the right of the entrance is that of the artist Carlo
Maratta, who died 1713; on the left that of Salvator Rosa, who died
1673, with an epitaph by his son, describing him as "Pictorum sui
temporis nulli secundum, poetarum omnium temporum principibus parem!"
Beyond, on the right, is the monument of Cardinal Alciati, professor of
law at Milan, who procured his hat through the interest of S. Carlo
Borromeo, with the epitaph "Virtute vixit, memoria vivit, gloria
vivet,"--on the left, that of Cardinal Parisio di Corenza, inscribed,
"Corpus humo tegitur, fama per ora volat, spiritus astra tenet." In the
chapel on the right are the angels of Peace and Justice, by _Pettrich_;
in that on the left Christ appearing to the Magdalen, by _Arrigo
Fiamingo_. Against the pier on the right is the grand statue of S.
Bruno, by _Houdon_, of which Clement XIV. (Ganganelli) used to say, "He
would speak, if the rule of his Order did not forbid it."
The body of the church is now a perfect gallery of very large pictures,
most of which were brought from St. Peter's, where their places have
been supplied by mosaic copies. In what is now the right transept, on
the right, is the Crucifixion of St. Peter, _Ricciolini_; the Fall of
Simon Magus, a copy of _Francesco Vanni_ (the original in St. Peter's);
on the left, St. Jerome, with St. Bruno and St. Francis, _Muziano_
(1528--92) (the landscape by _Brill_); and the Miracles of St. Peter,
_Baglioni_. This transept ends in the chapel of the Beato Nicolo
Albergati, a Carthusian Cardinal, who was sent as legate by Martin V.,
in 1422, to make a reconciliation between Charles VI. of France and
Henry V. of England. The principal miracle ascribed to him, the
conversion of bread into coal in order to convince the Emperor of
Germany of his divine authority, is represented in the indifferent
altar-piece. In the left transept, which ends in the chapel of S. Bruno,
are: on the left, St. Basil by the solemnity of the Mass rebuking the
Emperor Valens, _Subleyras_; and the Fall of Simon Magus, _Pompeo
Battoni_;--on the right, the Immaculate Conception, _P. Bianchi_; and
Tabitha raised from the Dead, _P. Costanzi_.
In the tribune are, on the right, the Presentation of the Virgin in the
Temple, _Romanelli_; and the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, a grand fresco
of _Domenichino_, painted originally on the walls of St. Peter's, and
removed here with great skill by the engineer Zabaglia;--on the left,
the Death of Ananias and Sapphira, _Pomarancio_; and the Baptism of
Christ, _Maratta_.
On the right of the choir is the tomb of Cardinal Antonio Serbelloni; on
the left that of Pius IV., Giovanni Angelo Medici (1559-1565), under
whose reign the Council of Trent was closed,--uncle of S. Carlo
Borromeo, a lively and mundane pope, but the cruel persecutor of the
Caraffa nephews of his predecessor, Paul IV., whom he executed in the
Castle of S. Angelo.
Of the sixteen columns in this church (45 feet in height, 16 feet in
diameter), only the eight in the transept are of ancient Egyptian
granite; the rest are in brick, stuccoed in imitation, and were
additions of Vanvitelli. On the pavement is a meridian line, laid down
in 1703.
"Quand Dioclétien faisait travailler les pauvres chrétiens à ses
étuves, ce n'était pas son dessein de bâtir des églises à leurs
successeurs; il ne pensait pas être fondateur, comme il l'a été,
d'un monastère de Pères Chartreux et d'un monastère de Pères
Feuillants.... C'est aux dépens de Dioclétien, de ses pierres et de
son ciment qu'on fait des autels et des chapelles à Jesus-Christ,
des dortoirs et des réfectoires à ses serviteurs. La providence de
Dieu se joue de cette sorte des pensées des hommes, et les
événements sont bien éloignés des intentions quand la terre a un
dessein et le ciel un autre."--_Balzac._
The Carthusian convent behind the church (ladies are not admitted)
contains several picturesque fountains. That in the great cloister,
built from designs of Michael Angelò, is surrounded by a group of huge
and grand cypresses, said to have been planted by his hand.
"Il semble que la vie ne sert ici qu'à contempler la mort--les
hommes qui existent ainsi sont pourtant les mêmes à qui la guerre
et toute son activité suffirait à peine s'ils y étaient accoutumés.
C'est un sujet inépuisable de réflexion que les différentes
combinaisons de la destinée humaine sur la terre. Il se passe dans
l'intérieur de l'âme mille accidents, il se forme mille habitudes,
qui font de chaque individu un monde et son histoire."--_Madame de
Staël._
On a line with the monastery is a Prison for Women--then an Institution
for Deaf, Dumb, and Blind--then the ugly _Fountain of the Termini_
(designed by Fontana), sometimes called Fontanone dell' Acqua Felice,
(Felice, from Fra Felice, the name by which Sixtus V. was known before
his papacy,) to which the Acqua Felice was brought from Colonna 22 miles
distant in the Alban hills, in 1583, by Sixtus V. It is surmounted by a
hideous statue of Moses by _Prospero Bresciano_, who is said to have
died of vexation at the ridicule it excited when uncovered. The side
statues, of Aaron and Gideon, are by _Giov. Batt. della Porta_ and
_Flaminio Vacca_.
Opposite this, in the Via della Porta Pia, is the _Church of Sta. Maria
della Vittoria_, built in 1605, by Carlo Maderno, for Paul V. Its façade
was added from designs of Giov. Batt. Soria, by Cardinal Borghese, in
payment to the monks of the adjoining Carmelite convent, for the statue
of the Hermaphrodite, which had been found in their vineyard.
The name of the church commemorates an image of the Virgin, burnt in
1833, which was revered as having been instrumental in gaining the
victory for the Catholic imperial troops over the Protestant Frederick
and Elizabeth of Bohemia, at the battle of the White Mountain, near
Prague. The third chapel on the left contains the Trinity, by
_Guercino_; a Crucifixion, by _Guido_; and a portrait of Cardinal
Cornaro, _Guido_. The altar-piece of the second chapel on the right,
representing St. Francis receiving the Infant Christ from the Virgin, is
by _Domenichino_, as are two frescoes on the side walls. In the left
transept, above an altar adorned with a gilt bronze-relief of the Last
Supper, by Cav. d'Arpino, is a group representing Sta. Teresa transfixed
by the dart of the Angel of Death, by _Bernini_. The following
criticisms upon it are fair specimens of the contrast between English
and French taste.
"All the Spanish pictures of Sta. Theresa sin in their materialism;
but the grossest example--the most offensive--is the marble group
of Bernini, in the Santa Maria della Vittoria at Rome. The head of
Sta. Theresa is that of a languishing nymph, the angel is a sort of
Eros; the whole has been significantly described as 'a parody of
Divine love.' The vehicle, white marble,--its place in a Christian
church,--enhance all its vileness. The least destructive, the
least prudish in matters of art, would here willingly throw the
first stone."--_Mrs. Jameson's Monastic Orders_, p. 421.
"La sainte Thérèse de Bernin est adorable! couchée, évanouie
d'amour les mains, les pieds nus pendants, les yeux demiclos, elle
s'est laissée tomber de bonheur et d'extase. Son visage est maigri,
mais combien noble! C'est la vraie grande dame qui a séché dans les
feux, dans les larmes, en attendant celui qu'elle aime. Jusqu'aux
draperies tortillées, jusqu'à l'allanguissement des mains
défaillantes, jusqu'au soupir qui meurt sur ses levres
entr'ouvertes, il n'y a rien en elle ni autour d'elle qui n'exprime
l'angoisse volupteuse et le divin élancement de son transport. On
ne peut pas rendre avec des mots une attitude si enivrée et si
touchante. Renversée sur le dos, elle pâme, tout son être se
dissout; le moment poignant arrive, elle gémit; c'est son dernier
gémissement, la sensation est trop forte. L'ange cependant, un
jeune page de quatorze ans, en légère tunique, la poitrine
découverte jusqu'au dessous du sein, arrive gracieux, aimable;
c'est le plus joli page de grand seigneur qui vient faire le
bonheur d'une vassal trop tendre. Un sourire demi-complaisant,
demi-malin, creuse des fossettes dans ses fraîches joues luisantes;
sa flêche d'or à la main indique le tressaillement délicieux et
terrible dont il va secouer tous les nerfs de ce corps charmant,
ardent, qui s'étale devant sa main. On n'a jamais fait ce roman si
séduisant et si tendre."--_Taine, Voyage en Italie._
Close by is the handsome _Church of Sta. Susanna_, rebuilt by _Carlo
Maderno_, for Sixtus V., on the site of an oratory founded by Pope Caius
(A.D. 283), in the house of his brother Gabinus, who was martyred with
his daughter Susanna because she refused to break her vow of virginity
by a marriage with Maximianus Galerus, adopted son of the Emperor
Diocletian, to whom this family were related. The bodies of these
martyrs are said to rest beneath the high altar. The side chapel of St.
Laurence was presented by Camilla Peretti, the sister of Sixtus V.,
together with a dowry of fifty scudi, to be paid every year to the nine
best girls in the parish, on the festival of Sta. Susanna. The frescoes
of the story of Susanna and the Elders, painted here on the side walls,
from the analogy of names, are by _Baldassare Croce_; those in the
tribune are by _Cesare Nebbia_.
Opposite this, is the Cistercian convent and _Church of S. Bernardo_, a
rotunda of the Baths of Diocletian, turned into a church in 1598, by
Caterina Sforza, Contessa di Santa Fiora.
Hence the Via della Porta Pia leads to the Quattro Fontane. On the left
is the small _Church of S. Caio_, which encloses the tomb of that pope,
inscribed "Sancti Caii, Papæ, martyris ossa." Further, on the left, is
the great recently suppressed convent of the Carmelites, and the _Church
of Sta. Teresa_. The right of the street is bordered by the
orange-shaded wall of the Barberini garden.
Between S. Caio and Sta. Teresa, is the _Studio of Overbeck_, the
venerable German devotional painter, who died 1869. His daughter allows
visitors to be admitted on Sunday afternoons.
CHAPTER XII.
THE ESQUILINE.
Golden House of Nero--Baths of Titus and Trajan--S. Pietro in
Vincoli--Frangipani Tower--House of Lucrezia Borgia--S. Martino al
Monte--Sta. Lucia in Selce--Sta. Prassede--Santissimo
Redentore--Arch of Gallienus--Trophies of Marius--Sta.
Bibiana--Temple of Minerva Medica--S. Eusebio--S. Antonio
Abbate--Sta. Maria Maggiore.
The Esquiline, which is the largest of the so-called 'hills of Rome,' is
not a distinct hill, but simply a projection of the Campagna. "The
Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, and Cœlian stretch out towards the
Tiber, like four fingers of a hand, of which the plain whence they
detach themselves represents the vast palm. This hand has seized the
world."[250]
Varro says that the name Esquiline was derived from the word _excultus_,
because of the ornamental groves which were planted on this hill by
Servius Tullius,--such as the Lucus Querquetulanus, Fagutalis, and
Esquilinus.[251] The sacred wood of the Argiletum long remained on the
lower slope of the hill, where the Via Sta. Maria dei Monti now is.
The Esquiline, which is still unhealthy, must have been so in ancient
times, for among its temples were those dedicated to Fever, near Sta.
Maria Maggiore--to Juno Mephitis,[252] near a pool which emitted
poisonous exhalations--and to Venus Libitina,[253] for the registration
of deaths, and arrangement of funerals. As the hill was in the hands of
the Sabines, its early divinities were Sabine. Besides those already
mentioned, it had an altar of the Sabine sun-god Janus, dedicated
together with an altar to Juno by the survivor of the Horatii,[254] and
a temple of Juno Lucina, the goddess of birth and light.
"Monte sub Esquilio multis incæduus annis
Junonis magnæ nomine lucus erat."
_Ovid, Fast._ ii. 435.
This hill has two heights. That which is crowned by Santa Maria Maggiore
was formerly called _Cispius_, where Servius Tullius had a palace; that
which is occupied by S. Pietro in Vincoli was formerly called _Oppius_,
where Tarquinius Superbus lived. It was in returning to his palace on
the former (and not on the latter height, as generally maintained) that
Servius Tullius was murdered.
The most important buildings of the Esquiline, in the later republican
and in imperial times, were on the slope of the hill behind the Forum,
and near the Coliseum, in the fashionable quarter called Carinæ,--the
"rich Carinæ,"
"Passimque armenta videbant
Romanoque Foro et lautis mugire Carinis."
_Virgil, Æn._ viii. 361.
of which the principal street probably occupied the site of the present
Via del Colosseo. At the entrance of this suburb, where the fine
mediæval Torre dei Conti now stands, was the house of Spurius Cassius
(Consul B.C. 493), which was confiscated and demolished, and the ground
ordained to be always kept vacant, because he was suspected of aiming at
regal power. Here, however, or very nearly on this site, the _Ædes
Telluris_, or temple of Tellus, was erected _c._ B.C. 269,[255]--a
building of sufficient importance for the senate, summoned by Antony, to
assemble in it. The quarter immediately surrounding this temple acquired
the name of _In Tellure_, which is still retained by several of its
modern churches.[256] Near this temple--"in tellure," lived Pompey, in a
famous though small historical house, which he adorned on the outside
with rostra in memory of his naval victories, and which was painted
within to look like a forest with trees and birds, much probably as the
chambers are painted which were discovered a few years ago in the villa
of Livia.[257] Here Julia, the daughter of Julius Cæsar, and wife of
Pompey, died. After the death of Pompey this house was bought by the
luxurious Antony. The difference between its two masters is pourtrayed
by Cicero, who describes the severe comfort of the house of Pompey
contrasted with the voluptuous luxury of its second master, and winds up
his oration by exclaiming, "I pity even the roofs and the walls under
the change." At a later period the same house was the favourite
residence of Antoninus Pius. Hard by, in the Carinæ, the favourite
residence of Roman knights, lived the father of Cicero, and hence the
young Tullius went to listen in the forum to the orators whom he was one
day to surpass.[258] Also in the Carinæ, but nearer the site of the
Coliseum, was the magnificent house of the wealthy Vedius Pollio, which
he bequeathed to Augustus, who pulled it down, and built the portico of
Livia on its site:
"Disce tamen, veniens ætas, ubi Livia nunc est
Porticus, immensæ tecta fuisse domûs.
Urbis opus domus una fuit; spatiumque tenebat,
Quo brevius muris oppida multa tenent.
Hæc æquata solo est, nullo sub crimine regni,
Sed quia luxuriâ visa nocere suâ.
Sustinuit tantas operum subvertere moles,
Totque suas heres perdere Cæsar opes."
_Ovid, Fast._ vi. 639.
At its opposite extremity the Carinæ was united to the unfashionable and
plebeian quarter of the _Suburra_, occupying the valley formed by the
convergence of the Esquiline, Quirinal, and Viminal--which is still
crowded with a teeming population. In one of the small streets leading
from the Vicus Cyprius (between the Esquiline and Viminal) towards the
Carinæ, was the _Tigellum Sororis_, which was extant--repaired at the
public expense--till the fifth century. This, "the Sister's Beam,"
commemorated the well-known story of the last of the Horatii, who,
returning from the slaughter of the Curiatii, and being met by his
sister, bewailing one of the dead to whom she was betrothed, stabbed her
in his anger. He was condemned to death, but at the prayer of his father
his crime was expiated by his passing under the yoke of "the Sister's
Beam." On one side of the Tigellum Sororis was an altar to Juno Sororis;
on the other an altar to Janus Curiatius.[259]
During the empire several poets had their residence on the Esquiline.
Virgil lived there, near the gardens of Mæcenas, which covered the
slopes between the Esquiline and Viminal. Propertius had a house there,
as we learn from himself--
"I, puer, et citus hæc aliqua propone columna
Et dominum Esquiliis scribe habitare tuum."
_Propert. Eleg._ iv. 23.
It is believed, but without certainty, that Horace also lived upon the
Esquiline. He was constantly there in the villa of Mæcenas, where he was
buried, and which he has described in his poems both in its original
state as a desecrated cemetery, and again after his friend had converted
it into a beautiful garden.
"Nunc licet Esquiliis habitare salubribus, atque
Aggere in aprico spatiari, quo modo tristes
Albis informem spectabant ossibus agrum."
_Sat._ i.
The house of Mæcenas, the great patron of the poets of the Augustan age,
probably occupied a site above the Carinæ, where the baths of Titus
afterwards were. It was a lofty and magnificent edifice, and is
described by Horace, who calls it--
"Fastidiosam desere copiam, et
Molem propinquam nubibus arduis:
Omitte mirari beatæ
Fumum et opes strepitumque Romæ."
_Od._ iii. 29.
Mæcenas bequeathed his villa to Augustus, and Tiberius at one time
resided in it.
Another, though less well-known poet of this age, who lived upon the
Esquiline, was Pedo Albinovanus, much extolled by Ovid, who lived at the
summit of the Vicus Cyprius (probably the Via Sta. Maria Maggiore), in a
little house:
"Illic parva tui domus Pedonis
Cælata est aquilæ minore penna."
_Martial_, x. _Ep._ 19.
Near this was the _Lacus Orphei_, a fountain, in the centre of which was
a rock, &c., surmounted by a statue of Orpheus with the enchanted beasts
around him. The house of Pedo was afterwards inhabited by Pliny. On
_Septimius_, as the furthest slope of the Esquiline towards the Viminal
was called, lived Maximus--of whom Martial says:--
"Esquiliis domus est, domus est tibi colle Dianæ,
Et tua Patricius culmina Vicus habet:
Hinc viduæ Cybeles, illinc sacraria Vestæ,
Inde Novum, Veterem prospicis inde Jovem."
_Mart._ vii. _Ep._ 72.
Only the northern side of the Esquiline is now inhabited at all; the
southern, and by far the larger portion, is clothed with vineyards and
gardens, sprinkled over with titanic masses of ruin. On most parts of
the hill, one might imagine oneself far away in the country. According
to Niebuhr, the dweller amid the vines of the Esquiline, when he
descends into the city, still says, "I am going to Rome."
* * * * *
Nero (A.D. 54--68) purchased the site of the villa of Mæcenas, and
covered the whole side of the hill towards the Carinæ with the vast
buildings of his Golden House, which also swallowed up the Cœlian and
a great part of the Palatine; but he did not destroy the buildings which
already existed, and "the Golden House was still the old mansion of
Augustus and the villa of Mæcenas connected by a long series of columns
and arches."[260] Titus (A.D. 79--81) and Trajan (A.D. 98--117) used
part of the same site for their baths, and the ruins of all these
buildings are now jumbled up together, and the varying whims of
antiquaries have constantly changed the names of each fragment that has
been discovered.
The more interesting of these ruins are on the southern slope of the
Esquiline towards the Coliseum, and are most easily approached from the
Via Polveriera. They are shown now as the _Baths of Titus_, or Camere
Esquiline, and occupy a space of about 1150 feet by 850. That the
chambers which are now visible were to be seen in the time of Leo X.
(1513--22) we learn from Vasari, who says that Raphael and Giovanni da
Udine were wont to study there and copy the arabesques to assist their
work in the Vatican Loggie. After this, neglect and the falling in of
the soil caused these treasures to be lost till 1774, when they were
again partially unearthed, but they were only completely brought to view
by the French, who began to take the work in hand in 1811, and continued
their excavations for three years.
The principal remains, which are now exhibited by the dim torch of a
solitary cicerone, are those of nine chambers, extending for 300 feet,
and having on the north a kind of corridor, or cryptoporticus, whose
vault is covered with paintings of birds, griffins, and flowers, &c. In
two of these halls are alcoves for couches, and in one is a cavity for a
fountain with a trench round it, like that in the nymphæum of the Palace
of the Cæsars. In one of the halls is a group representing Venus
attended by two Cupids, with doves hovering over her. Near this a
pedestal is shown as that occupied by the Laocoon, though it was really
found in the Vigna de Fredis, between the Sette Sale and Sta. Maria
Maggiore. A set of thirty engravings, published by Mirri, from drawings
taken in 1776, show what the paintings were at that time, but very few
now remain perfect. A group of Coriolanus and his mother, represented in
Mirri's work, is now inaccessible. All the paintings are Pompeian in
character, and for some time were considered the best remains of ancient
pictorial art in Rome, but they are inferior to those which have since
been discovered on the Latin way and at the Baths of Livia. The chambers
which open beyond the nine outer halls are considered to be part of the
Golden House. In one of these the Meleager of the Vatican was found. A
small chapel, dedicated to Sta. Felicitas and her seven sons (evidently
engrafted upon the pagan building in the sixth century), was discovered
in 1813. It is like the chapels in the catacombs, and is decorated with
the conventional frescoes of the Good Shepherd, Daniel in the lions'
den, &c. There are also some faint remains of a fresco of the sainted
patrons.
Behind the convent of S. Pietro in Vincoli, in the open vineyards, are
other ruins called the _Sette Sale_, being remains of the reservoirs (in
reality nine in number) for the Baths. In these vineyards also are three
large circular ruins, adorned on the interior with rows of niches for
statues. One of them is partly built into the Polveriera, or powder
magazine. These have been referred alternately to the Baths of Titus
and those of Trajan.
* * * * *
Immediately behind the forum of Nerva stands the colossal brick tower,
known as the Torre dei Conti, and built by Innocent III. (1198--1216) as
a retreat for his family, now extinct. Its architect was Marchione
d'Arezzo, and it was so much admired by Petrarch that he declared it had
"no equal upon earth;" he must have meant in height. Four of the Conti
have mounted the papal throne, Innocent III., Gregory IX., Alexander
IV., and Innocent XIII. The last-named pope (1721--24) boasted of having
"nine uncles, eight brothers, four nephews, and seven great nephews;"
yet--a century after--and not a Conti remained.
If we turn to the left close to this, we shall find, in a commanding
position, the famous Church of _S. Pietro in Vincoli_, said to have been
originally founded in A.D. 109 by Theodora, sister of Hermes, Prefect of
Rome, both converts of the then pope, who was the martyr St. Alexander
of the basilica in the Campagna. A bolder legend attributes the
foundation to St. Peter himself, who is believed to have dedicated this
church to his Divine Master. History, however, can assign no earlier
foundation than that in 442, by the Empress Eudoxia, wife of Valentinian
III., from whom the church takes its name of the _Eudoxican Basilica_,
and who placed there one of the famous chains which now form its great
attraction to Roman Catholic pilgrims.
"The chains, left in the Mamertine Prisons after St. Peter's
confinement there, are said to have been found by the martyr Sta.
Balbina, in 126, and by her given to Theodora, another sainted
martyr, sister to Hermes, Prefect of Rome, from whom they passed
into the hands of St. Alexander, first pope of that name, and were
finally deposited by him in the church erected by Theodora, where
they have since remained. Such is the legendary, but the historic
origin of this basilica cannot be traced higher than about the
middle of the fifth century, subsequent to the year 439, when
Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, presented to the Empress Eudoxia,
wife of Theodosius the younger, two chains, believed to be those of
St. Peter, one of which was placed by her in the basilica of the
apostles at Constantinople, and the other sent to Rome for her
daughter Eudoxia, wife of Valentinian III., who caused this church,
hence called Eudoxian, to be erected, as the special shrine of
Peter's chains."--_Hemans._
One chain had been sent to Rome by Eudoxia the elder, and the other
remained at Constantinople, but the Romans could not rest satisfied with
the possession of half the relic; and within the walls of this very
basilica, Leo I. beheld in a vision the miraculous and mystical uniting
of the two chains, since which they have both been exhibited here, and
the day of their being soldered together by invisible power, August 1,
has been kept sacred in the Latin Church!
The church is at present entered by an ugly atrium, which was the work
of Fontana in 1705; but Bacio Pintelli had already done almost all that
was possible to destroy the features of the old basilica, under the
Cardinal Titular of the church, Giulio della Rovere, the same who, as
Pope Julius II., destroyed the old St Peter's and eighty-seven tombs of
his predecessors. By Pintelli the present capitals were added to the
columns in the nave, and the horizontal architrave above them was
exchanged for a series of narrow round-headed arches.
But, in spite of alterations, the interior is still imposing. Two long
lines of ancient fluted Doric columns (ten on each side), relics of the
Baths of Titus or Trajan, which once covered this site, lead the eye to
the high altar, supposed to cover the remains of the seven Maccabean
brothers, and to the tribune, which contains an ancient episcopal
throne, and is adorned with frescoes by _Jacopo Coppi_, a Florentine of
the sixteenth century, illustrative of the life of St. Peter. Beneath
these is the tomb of G. Clovis, a miniature painter of the sixteenth
century, and canon of this church.
On the left of the entrance is the tomb of Antonio Pollajuolo, the
famous worker in bronze, and his brother Pietro. The fresco above, which
is ascribed to Pollajuolo, refers to the translation of the body of St.
Sebastian, as "Depulsor Pestilitatis," from the catacombs to this
church,--one of the most picturesque stories of the middle ages. The
great plague of A.D. 680 was ushered in by an awful vision of the two
angels of good and evil, who wandered through the streets by night, side
by side, when the one smote upon the door where death was to enter,
unless arrested by the other. The people continued to die by hundreds
daily. At length a citizen dreamt that the sickness would cease when the
body of St. Sebastian should be brought into the city, and when this was
done, the pestilence was stayed. In the fresco the whole story is told.
In the background the citizen tells his dream to Pope Agatho, who is
seated among his cardinals. On the right the angels of good and evil
(the bad angel represented as a devil) are making their mysterious
visitation, on the left a procession is bringing in the relics, and the
foreground is strewn with the corpses of the dead. The general
invocation of St. Sebastian in Italy, and the frequent introduction of
his figure in art, have their origin in this story.
At the entrance of the left aisle is a fine bas-relief of St. Peter
throned, delivering his keys to an angel, who acknowledges his supremacy
by receiving them on his knees. This work was executed in 1465, and
serves as a monument to the Cardinal de Cusa, Bishop of Brixen, whose
incised gravestone lies beneath.
Over the second altar is a most interesting mosaic of 680, representing,
in old age, the St. Sebastian whom we are accustomed to see as a
beautiful youth, wounded with arrows,--which he survived:--
"A single figure in mosaic exists as an altar-piece in S. Pietro in
Vincoli. It is intended for St. Sebastian, who was removed to the
church by Pope Agathon, on occasion of the plague in 680, and
doubtless executed soon after this date. As a specimen of its kind
it is very remarkable. There is no analogy between this figure and
the usual youthful type of St. Sebastian which was subsequently
adopted. On the contrary, the saint is represented here as an old
man with white hair and beard, carrying the crown of martyrdom in
his hand, and dressed from head to foot in true Byzantine style. In
his countenance there is still some life and dignity. The more
careful shadowing also of the drapery shows that, in a work
intended to be so much exposed to the gaze of the pious, more pains
were bestowed than usual; nevertheless, the figure, upon the whole,
is very inanimate; the ground is blue."--_Kugler._
The first altar in the right aisle has a picture of St. Augustine by
_Guercino_; then come tombs of Cardinals Margotti and Agucci, from
designs of _Domenichino_, who has introduced a portrait of the former in
his monument. At the end of this aisle is the beautiful picture of St.
Margaret and the Dragon by _Guercino_; the saint is inspired, and
displaying no sign of fear,--an earthly impulse only appearing in the
motion of her hand, which seems pushing back the dragon.
"St. Margaret was daughter of a priest of Antioch named Theodosius,
and was brought up as a Christian by her nurse, whose sheep she
watched upon the hills, while meditating upon the mysteries of the
gospel. The governor of Antioch fell in love with her and wished to
marry her, but she refused, and declared herself a Christian. Her
friends thereupon deserted her, and the governor tried to subdue
her by submitting her to horrible tortures, amid which her faith
did not fail. She was then dragged to a dungeon, where Satan, in
the form of a terrible dragon, came upon her with his inflamed and
hideous mouth wide open, and sought to terrify and confound her;
but she held up the cross of the Redeemer, and he fled before it.
She finally suffered death by decapitation. Her legend was
certainly known in the fifth century: in the fourteenth century she
was one of the favourite saints, and was specially invoked by women
against the pains of child-birth.
"'Mild Margarete, that was God's maide;
Maid Margarete, that was so meeke and milde.'"
See _Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art_, v. I.
Here is the glory of the church--the famous Moses of _Michael Angelo_,
forming part of the decorations of the unfinished monument of Julius II.
"This pope, whom nature had intended for a conqueror, and destiny
clothed with the robe of a priest, takes his place by the side of
the great warriors of the sixteenth century, by the side of Charles
V., of Francis I., of Gonsalvo, of Cortes, of Alba, of Bayard, and
of Doria. It is difficult to imagine Julius II. murmuring prayers,
or saying mass in pontifical robes, and performing, in the midst of
all those unmanly functions and thousand passive forms, the
spirit-deadening part which is assigned to the popes, while his
soul was on fire with great-hearted designs, and while in the music
of the psalms he seemed to hear the thunder of cannon. He wished to
be a prince of the Church; and with the political instinct of a
prince he founded his state in the midst of the most difficult wars
against France, and unhesitatingly conquered and took possession of
Bologna, Piacenza, Parma, Reggio, and Urbino....
The greatest pope since Innocent III., and the creator of a new
political spirit in the papacy, he wished, as a second Augustus, to
glorify himself and his creation. He took up again the projects of
Nicholas V. Rome should become his monument. To carry out his
designs he found the genius of Bramante and Raphael, and, above
all, that of Michael Angelo, who belonged to him like an organ of
his being. St. Peter's, of which he laid the foundation-stone, the
paintings of the Sistine, the loggie of Bramante, the stanze of
Raphael, are memorials of Julius the Second."--_Gregorovius,
Grabmaler der Papste._
Most of all Julius II. sought immortality in his tomb, for which the
original design was absolutely gigantic. Eighteen feet high, and twelve
wide, it was intended to contain more than forty statues, which were to
include Moses, St. Peter and St. Paul, Rachel and Leah, and chained
figures of the Provinces, while those of the Heaven and the Earth were
to support the sarcophagus of the pope. This project was cut short by
the death of Julius in 1513, when only four of the statues were
finished, and eight designed.[261] Of those which were finished, three
statues, the Moses, the Rachel, and the Leah, were afterwards used for
the existing memorial, which was put together under Paul III. by the
Duke of Urbino, heir of Julius II.--in this church of which his uncle
had been a cardinal.
"The eye does not know where to rest in this the masterpiece of
sculpture since the time of the Greeks. It seems to be as much an
incarnation of the genius of Michael Angelo, as a suitable allegory
of Pope Julius. Like Moses, he was at once lawgiver, priest, and
warrior. The figure is seated in the central niche, with
long-flowing beard descending to the waist, with horned head, and
deep-sunk eyes, which blaze, as it were, with the light of the
burning bush, with a majesty of anger which makes one tremble, as
of a passionate being, drunken with fire. All that is positive and
all that is negative in him is equally dreadful. If he were to
rise up, it seems as if he would shout forth laws which no human
intellect could fathom, and which, instead of improving the world,
would drive it back into chaos. His voice, like that of the gods of
Homer, would thunder forth in tones too awful for the ear of man to
support. Yes! there is something infinite which lies in the Moses
of Michael Angelo. Nor is his countenance softened by the twilight
of sadness, which is stealing from his forehead over his eyes. It
is the same deep sadness which clouded the countenance of Michael
Angelo himself. But here it is less touching than terrible. The
Greeks could not have endured a glance from such a Moses, and the
artist would certainly have been blamed, because he had thrown no
softening touch over his gigantic picture. That which we have is
the archetype of a terrible and quite unapproachable sublimity.
This statue might take its place in the cell of a colossal temple,
as that of Jupiter Ammon, but the tomb where it is placed is so
little suited to it, that regarded even only as its frame it is too
small."--_Gregorovius._
On either side of the principal figure are niches containing Michael
Angelo's statues of Rachel and Leah,--emblematic of active and
contemplative life. Those above, of the Prophet and the Sibyl, are by
Raphael da Montelupo, his best pupil; on the summit is the Madonna with
the Infant Jesus by Scherano da Settignano. The worst figure of the
whole is that, by Maso dal Bosco, of the pope himself, who seems quite
overwhelmed by the grandeur of his companions, and who lies upon a
pitiful sarcophagus, leaning his head upon his hand, and looking down
upon the Moses. He is represented with the beard which he was the first
pope to reintroduce after an interval of many centuries,--and it is said
to have been from his example that Francis I., Charles V., and others,
adopted it also.
After all, Julius II. was not buried here, and the tomb is merely
commemorative. He rests beneath a plain marble slab near his uncle
Sixtus IV., in the chapel of the Sacrament at St. Peter's.
Close to the Moses is the entrance to the chapel in which the chains are
preserved, behind a bronze screen--the work of Pollajuolo. They are of
unequal size, owing to many fragments of one of them (first whole links,
then only filings) having been removed in the course of centuries by
various popes and sent to Christian princes who have been esteemed
worthy of the favour![262] The longest is about five feet in length. At
the end of one of them is a collar, which is said to have encircled the
neck of St. Peter. They are exposed on the day of the "station" (the
first Monday in Lent) in a reliquary presented by Pius IX., adorned with
statuettes of St. Peter and the angel--to whom he is represented as
saying, "Ecce nunc scio vere."[263] On the following day a priest gives
the chains to be kissed by the pilgrims, and touches their foreheads
with them, saying, "By the intercession of the blessed Apostle Peter,
may God preserve you from evil. Amen."
"Peter, therefore, was kept in prison: but prayer was made without
ceasing of the church unto God for him. And when Herod would have
brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two
soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door
kept the prison. And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him,
and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side,
and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell
off from his hands."--_Acts_ xii. 5--7.
Other relics preserved here are portions of the crosses of St. Peter and
St. Andrew, and the body of Sta. Costanza.
The sacristy, opening out of this chapel, contains a number of pictures,
including, very appropriately, the Deliverance of St. Peter from Prison,
by _Domenichino_. Here, till a few years ago, was preserved the famous
and beautiful small picture, known as the Speranza of _Guido_. It has
lately been sold by the monks to an Englishman, and is replaced by a
copy.
In this church Hildebrand was crowned pope as Gregory VII. (1073).
Stephen IX. was also proclaimed here in 939. The adjoining convent was
built from designs of Giuliano San Gallo. Its courtyard contains a
picturesque well (with columns), bearing the arms of Julius II., by
_Simone Mosca_. The arcades were decorated in the present century with
frescoes by _Pietra Camosci_, as a votive offering for his recovery from
cholera, to St. Sebastian, "depulsori pestilitatis."
Opposite S. Pietro in Vincoli is a convent of Maronite monks, in whose
garden is a tall palm-tree, perhaps the finest in Rome. In the view from
the portico of the church it forms a conspicuous feature, and the
combination of the old tower, the palm-tree, and the distant capitol,
standing out against the golden sky of sunset, is one very familiar to
Roman artists.
The tall machicolated _Tower_ on the right was once a fortress of the
Frangipani family, who obtained their glorious surname of
"bread-breakers" from the generosity which they showed in the
distribution of food to the poor during a famine in the thirteenth
century. The tower is now used as a belfry to the adjoining Church of
_S. Francesco di Paola_, being the only mediæval fortress tower applied
to this purpose. The adjoining building is known as the _House of
Lucrezia Borgia_, and the balcony over the gateway on the other side is
pointed out as that in which she used to stand meditating on her crimes.
Here Cæsar Borgia and his unhappy brother, the Duke of Gandia, supped
with Lucrezia and their mother Vanozza, the evening before the murder of
the duke, of which Cæsar was accused by popular belief. It is worth
while to descend under the low-browed arch from the church piazza, and
look back upon this lofty house, with its steep, dark, winding
staircase,--a most picturesque bit of street architecture, which looks
better the further you descend. The Via S. Francesco di Paola is
considered by Ampère[264] to have been the place where the house of the
Horatii and the Tigellum Sororis once stood.
Following the narrow lane behind S. Pietro, we reach, on the left, _S.
Martino al Monte_, the great church of the Carmelites, which, though of
uninviting exterior, is of the highest interest. It was built in A.D.
500 by S. Symmachus, and dedicated to the saints Sylvestro and Martino,
on the site of an older church founded by St. Sylvester in the time of
Constantine. After repeated alterations, it was modernised in 1650 by P.
Filippini, General of the Carmelites. The nave is separated from the
aisles by twenty-four ancient Corinthian columns. The aisles are painted
with landscapes by _Gaspar Poussin_, having figures introduced by his
brother Nicholas. The roof is an addition by S. Carlo Borromeo.
The pillars of different marbles are magnificent, and the effect of the
raised choir, with winding staircases to the crypt below, is highly
picturesque. On the walls are frescoes by _Cavaluccio_ (ob. 1795), who
is buried in the left aisle. The collection of incised gravestones
deserves attention, they comprise those of a knight in mail armour of
1349; Cardinal Diomede Caraffa, with a curious epitaph; and various
generals and remarkable monks of the Carmelite Order. Beneath the high
altar rest the bodies of Popes Sergius, Sylvester, Martin I., Fabian,
Stephen I., Soter, Ciriacus, Anastasius, and Innocent I., with several
saints not papal, removed hither from the catacombs. In the curious
crypt, part of the Baths of Titus, the early Council of Sylvester and
Constantine was held, as represented in the fresco in the left aisle of
the upper church. The back of the ancient chair of Sylvester still
remains, green with age and damp. In the chapel on the left, where St.
Sylvester used to celebrate mass, is an ancient mosaic of the Madonna.
In front of the papal chair is the grand sepulchral figure of a
Carmelite, who was General of the Order in the time of Sta. Teresa. An
urn contains the intestines of the "Beato," Cardinal Giuseppe-Maria de
Tommasis, who died in 1713. His body is preserved beneath an altar in
the left aisle of the upper church, and is dressed in his cardinal's
robes.
"In 1650 was reopened, beneath SS. Martino e Sylvestro, the
long-forgotten oratory formed (according to Anastasius) by
Sylvester among the halls of Trajan's Thermæ--or, more probably, in
an antique palace adjacent to those imperial baths--and called by
Christian writers 'Titulus Equitii,' from the name of a Roman
priest then proprietor of the ground. Now a gloomy, time-worn, and
sepulchral subterranean, this structure is in form an extensive
quadrangle, under a high-hung vault, divided into four aisles by
massive square piers; the central bay of one aisle adorned with a
large red cross, painted as if studded with gems; and ranged round
this, four books, each within a nimbus, earliest symbolism to
represent the Evangelists. Among the much-faded and dim-seen
frescoes on these dusky walls, are figures of the Saviour between
SS. Peter and Paul, besides other saints, each crowned by a large
nimbus."--_Hemans' Ancient Sacred Art._
Here is preserved a mitre, probably the most ancient extant, and said to
be that of St. Sylvester, who lived in the fourth century, and who was
the first Latin bishop to wear the mitre originally worn by the priests
of pagan temples. This ancient mitre is so low as to rise only just
above the crown of the head.
This church was dedicated to St. Martin, the holy Bishop of Tours,
within a hundred years after his death, showing the very early
veneration with which that saint was regarded.
Leaving S. Martino by the other door, near the tribune, we emerge at the
top of the steep street called _Sta. Lucia in Selci_, which is the same
with that described by Martial in going to visit the younger Pliny as--
"Altum vincere tramitem Suburræ." _Lib._ x. _Ep._ 19, 5.
And again--
"Alto Suburrani vincenda est semita clivi." _Lib._ v. _Ep._ 23, 5.
Here is a whole group of convents. In the hollow is the convent of S.
Francesco di Paola, with several others. Just above (in the Via Quattro
Cantone) is the convent of the Oratorians, or S. Filippo Neri. At this
point also are two mediæval towers, one enclosed within the convent
walls of Sta. Lucia in Selci, the other on the opposite side of the
street, supposed by some to be the tower of Mecænas, celebrated by
Horace. On the left of the street is the house of Domenichino (Domenico
Zampieri), whose residence here is commemorated by an inscription.
Mounting the street we soon reach, on the right, the picturesque tenth
century west gate (a high narrow arch upon Ionic columns, modernized and
plastered over under the Sardinian government) of the _Church of Sta.
Prassede_, which leads into the atrium of the church. This is seldom
open, but we can enter by a door in the north aisle.
Sta. Prassede was sister of Sta. Pudenziana, and daughter of Pudens and
his wife Claudia, with whom St. Paul lodged, and who were among his
first converts (see Ch. X., Sta. Pudenziana). She gave shelter in her
house to a number of persecuted Christians, twenty-three of whom were
discovered and martyred in her presence. She then buried their bodies in
the catacombs of her grandmother, Sta. Priscilla, but, collecting their
blood in a sponge, placed it in a well in her own house, where she was
afterwards buried herself. An oratory is said to have been erected on
the site by Pius I., A.D. 160, and was certainly in existence in A.D.
499, when it is mentioned in the acts of a Council. In A.D. 822 the
original church was destroyed, and the present church erected by Pascal
I., of whose time are the low tower, the porch, the terra-cotta
cornices, and the mosaics. During the absence of the popes at Avignon,
Sta. Prassede was one of the many churches which fell almost into ruin,
and it has since suffered terribly from injudicious modernisations,
first in the fifteenth century from Rosellini, under Nicholas V., and
afterwards under S. Carlo Borromeo in 1564.
The interior is a basilica, the nave being separated from the aisles by
sixteen granite columns, many of which have been boxed up in hideous
stucco pilasters, decorated with frescoes of apostles; but their
Corinthian capitals are visible, carved with figures of birds (the
eagle, cock, and dove) in strong relief against the acanthus leaves. The
nave is divided into four compartments by arches rising from the square
pilasters; the roof is coffered.
In the right aisle is the entrance to the famous chapel, called, from
its unusual and mysterious splendour, the _Orto del
Paradiso_--originally dedicated to S. Zeno, then to the Virgin, with the
invocation "Libera nos a pœnis inferi," and finally to the great
relic which it contains. Females are never allowed to enter this shrine
except upon Sundays in Lent, but can see the relic through a grating.
Males are admitted by the door which is flanked by two columns of rare
black and white marble, supporting a richly-sculptured marble cornice,
above which are two lines of mosaic heads in circlets--in the outer, the
Saviour and the twelve apostles; in the inner, the Virgin between St.
Stephen and St. Laurence, with eight female saints; at the angles St.
Pudens and St. Pastor. In the interior of the chapel four granite
columns support a lofty groined vault, which, together with the upper
part of the walls, is entirely covered with mosaic figures, which stand
out distinctly from a gold ground.
"Here are SS. Peter and Paul before a throne, on which is the
cross, but no seated figure; the former apostle holding a single
gold key,[265] the latter a scroll; St. John the Evangelist, with a
richly-bound volume; SS. James and Andrew, the two daughters of
Pudens, and St. Agnes, all in rich vestments, and holding crowns;
the Virgin Mary (a veiled matronly figure), and St. John the
Baptist standing beside her; under the arch of a window, another
half-figure of Mary, with three other females, all having the
nimbus, one crowned, one with a square halo to indicate a person
still living; above these, the Divine Lamb on a hill, from which
the four rivers issue, with stags drinking of their waters; above
the altar, the Saviour, between four other saints,--figures in part
barbarously sacrificed to a modern tabernacle that conceals them.
On the vault a colossal half-figure of the Saviour, youthful but
severe in aspect, with cruciform nimbus, appears in a large
circular halo supported by four archangels, solemn forms in long
white vestments, that stand finely distinct in the dim light.
Within a niche over the altar is another mosaic of the Virgin and
Child, with the two daughters of Pudens, in which Rumohr
(Italienische Forsch.) observes ruder execution, indicating origin
later than the ninth century."--_Hemans' Ancient Christian Art._
The relic preserved here (one of the principal objects of pilgrimage in
Rome) is the column to which our Saviour is reputed to have been bound,
said to have been given by the Saracens to Giovanni Colonna, cardinal of
this church, and legate of the crusade, because, when he had fallen into
their hands and was about to be put to death, he was rescued by a
marvellous intervention of celestial light. Its being of the rarest
blood jasper is a reason against its authenticity; the peculiarity of
its formation having even given rise to the mineralogical term, "Granito
della Colonna." A disk of porphyry in the pavement marks the grave of
forty martyrs collected by Paschal I. The mother of that pope is also
buried here, and the inscription commemorating her observes an ancient
ecclesiastical usage in allowing her the title of "episcopa:" "_Ubi
utique benignissimæ suæ genitricis, scilicet Dominæ Theodoræ, Episcopæ
corpus quiescit._" In this chapel Paschal I. saw the spirit of his
nephew dragged to heaven by an angel, through the little window, while
he was saying a mass for his soul.
The high altar covers the entrance to a small crypt, in which are two
ancient sarcophagi, containing the remains of the sainted sisters
Prassede and Pudenziana. An altar here, richly decorated with mosaic, is
shown as that which existed in the house of Prassede. Above is a fresco,
referred to the twelfth century, representing the Madonna between the
sainted sisters. At the end of the left aisle is a large slab of granite
(nero-bianco), upon which Sta. Prassede is said to have slept, and above
it a picture of her asleep. In the centre of the nave is the well where
she collected the blood, with a hideous statue of her squeezing it out
of a sponge.
The chapel at the end of the left aisle is that of S. Carlo Borromeo,
who was cardinal of this church, and contains his episcopal throne (a
wooden chair) and a table, at which, like St. Gregory, he used to feed
and wait upon twelve poor men daily. The pictures in this chapel, by
_Louis Stern_, represent S. Carlo in prayer, and in ecstasy before the
Sacrament. In the cloister is an old orange-tree which was planted by
him, but is still flourishing.
Opposite the side entrance of the Orto del Paradiso is the tomb of
Cardinal Cetive (1474), with his sleeping figure and statuettes of SS.
Peter and Paul, Sta. Prassede, and Sta. Pudenziana. This will recall
Browning's quaint forcible poem of 'The Bishop who orders his tomb at
Saint Praxed's church.'
"Saint Praxed's ever was the church for peace.
* * * * *
And there how I shall lie through centuries,
And hear the blessed mutter of the mass,
And see God made and eaten all day long,
And feel the steady candle flame, and taste
Good strong thick stupefying incense-smoke!"
Other tombs of interest are those of Cardinal Ancherus, assassinated in
1286 outside the Porta S. Giovanni, and of Monsignor Santoni, a bust,
said to have been executed by Bernini when only ten years old.
Two pictures in side chapels are interesting in a Vallombrosan church,
as connected with saints of that order,--one representing S. Pietro
Aldobrandini passing through the furnace at Settimo; and another the
martyrdom of Cardinal Beccaria, put to death at Florence (whither he was
sent by Alexander IV. to make peace between the Guelfs and
Ghibellines)--and consigned to hell by Dante.
----"Quel di Beccaria
Di cui segò Fiorenza la gorgiera."
_Inferno_, xxxii.
Steps of magnificent rosso-antico lead to the tribune, which is covered
with mosaics of A.D. 817-824. Those on the arch represent the heavenly
Jerusalem; within is the Saviour with a cruciform halo--the hand of the
first person of the Trinity holding a crown over his head--and St. Peter
and St. Paul bringing in the sainted sisters of the church; on the
right, Pope Paschal I.,[266] with a model of his church; on the left,
St. Zeno (?). Above these figures, is the Adoration of the spotless
Lamb, and beneath their feet the Jordan; below all is the Lamb again,
with the twelve sheep issuing from the mystic cities of Jerusalem and
Bethlehem, and verses recording the work of Paschal I.
"The arrangement of saints at Sta. Prassede (817) is altogether
different from that at Ravenna, but equally striking. Over the
grand arch which separates the choir from the nave is a mosaic,
representing the New Jerusalem, as described in the Revelations. It
is a walled enclosure, with a gate at each end, guarded by angels.
Within is seen the Saviour of the World, holding in his hand the
orb of sovereignty, and a company of blessed seated on thrones:
outside, the noble army of martyrs is seen approaching, conducted
and received by angels. They are all arrayed in white, and carry
crowns in their hands. Lower down, on each side, a host of martyrs
press forward with palms and crowns, to do homage to the Lamb,
throned in the midst. None of the martyrs are distinguished by
name, except those to whom the church is dedicated--Sta. Prassede
and her sister Pudenziana."--_Mrs. Jameson._
While Pope Gelasius II. was celebrating mass in this church, he was
attacked by armed bands of the inimical houses of Leone and Frangipani,
and was only rescued by the assistance of his nephew Gaetano, after a
conflict of some hours. Hence in 1630, Moriandi, abbot of Sta.
Prassede, was suddenly carried off and put to fearful tortures, which
resulted in his death, ostensibly on account of irregularities in his
convent, but really because he had been heard to speak against Urban
VIII.[267]
In the sacristy is preserved a fine picture by Giulio Romano of the
Flagellation--especially appropriate in the church of the Colonna.
Hence the curious campanile of the old church (built 1110) may be
entered, and a loggia whence the great relics of the church are
exhibited at Easter, including: portions of the crown of thorns, of the
sponge, of the Virgin's hair, and a miniature portrait of our Saviour
which is said to have belonged to St. Peter and to have been left by him
with the daughters of Pudens.
The _Monastery_ attached to the church, founded by Paschal I., was first
occupied by Basilian, but since 1198 has belonged to Vallombrosan monks.
Nothing remains of the mosaic-covered chapel of St. Agnes, built by the
founder within its walls.
Where the Via Sta. Prassede crosses the road leading from Sta. Maria
Maggiore to the Lateran, is the modern gothic church of _Il Santissimo
Redentore_, built by Father Douglas within the last few years.
A little beyond this, attached to the Church of S. Vito, from which it
has sometimes been named, is the _Arch of Gallienus_ (supposed to occupy
the site of the Esquiline gate in the wall of Servius), dedicated to
Gallienus (A.D. 253--260) and his Empress Salonina, by Marcus Aurelius
Victor, evidently a court-flatterer of the period, who was prefect of
Rome, and possessed gardens on this spot. It is of very inferior
execution; the original plan had three arches; only that in the centre
remains, but traces of another may be seen on the side next the church.
Gallienus was a cruel and self-indulgent emperor, who excited the
indignation of the Romans by leaving his old father, Valerian, to die a
captive in the hands of the Persians, so that the inscription,
"_Clementissimo principi cuius invicta virtus sola pietate superata
est_," is singularly false, even for the time.
"Il arrivait à Gallien de faire tuer trois ou quatre mille soldats
en un jour, et il écrivait des lettres comme celle-ci, adressée à
un de ses généraux: 'Tu n'auras pas fait assez pour moi, si tu ne
mets à mort que des hommes armés, car le sort de la guerre aurait
pu les faire périr. Il faut tuer quiconque a eu une intention
mauvaise, quiconque a mal parlé de moi. Déchire, tue, extermine:
_lacera, occide, concide_.' Entré dans Byzance en promettant leur
pardon aux troupes qui avaient combattu contre lui, il les fit
égorger, et les soldats ravagèrent la ville au point qu'il n'y
resta pas un habitant. Voilà pour la clémence. Tandis que Valérien,
son père, était prisonnier du roi des Perses Sapor, qui pour monter
à cheval se servait du dos du vieil empereur comme d'un marchepied,
en attendant qu'il le fit empailler, l'indigne fils de Valérien
vivait au sein des plus honteuses voluptés, et ne tentait pas un
seul effort pour le délivrer. Voilà pour la vaillance et la
piété."--_Ampère, Emp._ ii. 334.
Close to this Gallienus had ordered a statue of himself to be erected,
which was to be double the height of the colossus of Nero, but it was
unfinished at the time of his death, and destroyed by his successor.
From the centre of the arch hung, from the thirteenth century, the chain
and keys of the gates of Viterbo, removed at the same time as the great
bell of the Capitol. These interesting memorials of middle-age warfare
were taken down in 1825.
Passing under the arch we enter upon the Via Maggiore, the main artery
leading to Santa Croce. On the left is the humble convent of the
_Monache Polacche_, where the long-suffering Madre Makrena, the sole
survivor of the terrible persecution of the nuns of Minsk, has lived in
the closest retirement since her escape in 1845.
The story of the cruel sufferings of the Polish-Basilian nuns of
Minsk reminds one of the worst persecutions of the early
Christians, under Nero and Diocletian. Makrena Miaczylslawska was
abbess of a convent of thirty-eight nuns, whom the apostate bishop
Siemasko first tried to compel to the Greek faith in the summer of
1838. Their refusal led to their being driven, laden with chains,
to Witepsk, in Siberia, where they were forced to hard labour, many
of them being beaten to death, one roasted alive in a hot stove,
and another having her brains beaten out with a stake by the abbess
of the Czernice (apostate nuns), on their persisting in their
refusal to change their religion. In 1840 the surviving nuns were
removed to Polock, where they were forced to work at building a
palace for the bishop Siemasko, and where nine of them perished by
a falling scaffold, and many others expired under the heavy weights
they were compelled to carry, or under the lash. In 1842 their
tortures were increased tenfold, eight of the sisters having their
eyes torn out, and others being trodden to death. In 1843 those who
still survived were removed to Miadzioly, where the "protopope
Skrykin" said that he would "drown them like puppies," and where
they were dragged by boats through the shallows of the half-frozen
Dwina, up to their necks in water, till many died of the cold. In
the spring of 1845, Makrena, with the only three nuns who survived
with the use of their limbs (Eusebia Wawrzecka, Clotilda Konarska,
and Irene Pomarnacka,) scaled the walls of their prison, while the
priests and nuns who guarded them were lying drunk after an orgie,
and, after wandering for three months in the forests of Lithuania,
made good their escape. The nuns remained in Vienna; the abbess,
after a series of extraordinary adventures, arrived in Rome, where
she was at first lodged in the convent of the Trinità de' Monti.
The story of the nuns of Minsk was taken down from her dictation at
the same time by a number of eminent ecclesiastics, authorized by
the pope, and the authenticity of her statements verified; after
which she retired into complete seclusion in the Polish convent on
the Esquiline, where she has long filled the humble office of
portress. Her legs are eaten into the bone by the chains she wore
in her prison life. The story of the persecution at Minsk may be
read in "Le Récit de Makrena Miaczylslawska," published at Paris,
by Lecoffre, in 1846; in a paper by Charles Dickens, in the
"Household Words," for May, 1854; and in "Pictures of Christian
Heroism," 1855.
Nearly opposite this convent is the picturesque ruin of a nymphæum,
probably of the time of Septimius Severus, erroneously called _The
Trophies of Marius_, from the trophies, now on the terrace in front of
the Capitol, which were found here.
Beyond this, on the right, is the entrance of the _Villa Palombara_,
occupying a great part of the site of the Baths of Titus.
"This villa once belonged to Queen Christina of Sweden, who has
left upon the little doorway exactly opposite the ruin called the
Trophies of Marius, a curious record of her credulity. It consists
of a collection of unintelligible words, signs, and triangles,
given her by some alchymist, as the rule to make gold, and which,
no doubt, he had found successful, having obtained from her, and
probably from many other votaries, abundance of that precious metal
in exchange for it. But as she could make nothing of it, she caused
it to be inscribed here, in case any passenger, wiser than herself,
should be able to develope the mystic signs of this golden
secret."--_Eaton's Rome._
Though the existing ruin is misnamed, the trophies erected in honour of
the victories which Marius gained over the Cimbri were really set up
near this; and, curiously enough, on this site also Marius was defeated
at the "Forum Esquilinum" by Sylla, who suddenly descended upon Rome
from Nola with six legions, and entering by the Porta Esquilina, met his
adversary here, and forced him to fly to Ostia.
Behind the Trophies of Marius a lane branches off on the left to the
desolate _Church of Sta. Bibiana_.
In the time of Julian the Apostate, there dwelt in Rome a Christian
unity, consisting of Flavian, his wife Dalfrosa, and his two
daughters, Bibiana and Demetria. All these died for their faith.
Flavian was exiled, and died of starvation; Dalfrosa was beheaded;
the sisters were imprisoned (A.D. 362) and scourged, and Demetria
died at once under the torture. Bibiana glorified God by longer
sufferings. Apronius, the prefect of the city, astonished by her
beauty, conceived a guilty passion for her, and placed her under
the care of one of his creatures named Rufina, who was gradually to
bend her to his will. But Bibiana repelled his proposals with
horror, and her firmness excited him to such fury, that he
commanded her to be bound to a column, and scourged to compliance.
"The order was executed with all imaginable cruelty, rivers of
blood flowed from each wound, and morsels of flesh were torn away,
till even the most barbarous spectators were stricken with horror.
The saint alone continued immoveable, with her eyes fixed upon
heaven, and her countenance radiant with celestial peace,--until
her body being torn to pieces, her soul escaped to her heavenly
bridegroom, to receive the double crown of virginity and
martyrdom."[268]
After the death of Bibiana, her body was exposed to dogs for three
days in the Forum Boarium, but remained unmolested; after which it
was stolen at night by John the priest, who buried it here.
The church, founded in the fifth century by Olympia, a Roman matron, was
modernised by Bernini for Urban VIII., and has no external appearance of
antiquity. The interior is adorned with frescoes; those on the right are
by _Agostino Ciampelli_, those on the left are considered by Lanzi as
the best works of _Pietro da Cortona_. They pourtray in detail the story
of the saint:--
1. Bibiana refuses to sacrifice to idols.
2. The death of Demetria.
3. Bibiana is scourged at the column.
4. The body of Bibiana is watched over by a dog.
5. Olympia founds the church, which is dedicated by Pope Simplicius.
The statue of the saint at the high altar is considered the masterpiece
of _Bernini_. It is dignified and graceful, and would hardly be
recognised as his work.
"This statue is one of his earliest works; and it is said that when
Bernini, in advanced life, returned from France, he uttered, on
seeing it, an involuntary expression of admiration. 'But,' added
he, 'had I always worked in this style, I should have been a
beggar.' This would lead us to conclude, that his own taste led him
to prefer simplicity and truth, but that he was obliged to conform
to the corrupted predilection of the age."--_Eaton's Rome._
The remains of the saint are preserved beneath the altar, in a splendid
sarcophagus of oriental alabaster, adorned with a leopard's head. A
column of rosso-antico is shown as that to which Sta. Bibiana was bound
during her flagellation. The _fête_ of the martyred sisters is observed
with great solemnity on December 2.
"Il est touchant de voir, le jour de la fête, le Chapitre entier de
la grande et somptueuse basilique de Sainte-Marie-Majeure venir
processionellement à cette modeste église et célébrer de
solennelles et pompeuses cérémonies en l'honneur de ces deux
vierges et leur mère: C'est que si ces trois femmes étaient faibles
et ignorées selon le monde, elles sont devenues par leur foi,
fortes et sublimes; et l'Église ne croit pouvoir trop faire pour
glorifier une pareille grandeur."--_Impressions d'une Catholique à
Rome._
On or near this site were the _Horti Lamiani_, in which the Emperor
Caligula was hastily buried after his assassination, A.D. 41, though his
remains were shortly afterwards disinterred by his sisters and burnt.
These gardens were probably the property of Ælius Lamia, to whom Horace
addressed one of his odes.[269] At an earlier period Elius Tubero lived
here, celebrated for his virtue, his poverty, and his little house,
where sixteen members of the Elian Gens dwelt harmoniously
together.[270] He married the daughter of L. Emilius Paulus, "who," says
Plutarch, "though the daughter of one who had twice been consul and
twice triumphed, did not blush for the poverty of her husband, but
admired the virtue which had made him poor."
On the other side of the Trophies of Marius, the Via Porta Maggiore
leads to the gate of that name (see Ch. XIII.). Approached by a gate on
the left of this road, most desolate, until the making of the railway
amid its vineyards and gardens, and crowned with lentiscus and other
shrubs, is the picturesque ruin generally called the _Temple of Minerva
Medica_, from a false impression that the Giustiniani Minerva, now in
the Vatican, had been found here.[271] It is now generally decided to be
a remnant of the bath built by Augustus in honour of his grandsons Caius
and Lucius Cæsar (sons of Agrippa and Julia). It is a decagon, with a
vaulted brick roof, and nine niches for statues; those of Æsculapius,
Antinous, Hercules, Adonis, Pomona, and (the Farnese) Faun, have been
found on the site.
Near this is a curious _Columbarium of the Arruntia Family_, and a
brick-lined hollow, supposed to be part of the Naumachia which Dion
Cassius says that Augustus constructed "in the grove of Caius and
Lucius."
Just where the lane turns off to Sta. Bibiana is the entrance to the
courtyard of the _Church and Monastery of S. Eusebio_, built upon the
site of the house of the saint, a priest of noble family, martyred by
starvation under Constantius, A.D. 357. His body rests under the high
altar, with that of St. Orosus, a Spanish priest, who suffered at the
same time. The ceiling of the church is painted by _Mengs_, and
represents the apotheosis of the patron saint. The campanile dates from
1220. In this convent (which was conceded to the Jesuits in 1825 by Leo
XII.) English clergymen about to join the Roman Catholic Church
frequently "make a retreat" before their reception; Archdeacon
Wilberforce is one of many converts who have been received here.
Turning towards Sta. Maria Maggiore, on the left is a _Cross_ on a
pedestal formed by a cannon reversed, and inscribed "In hoc signo
vinces,"--a memorial of the absolution given by Clement VIII. in 1595 to
Henry IV. of France on his being received into the Roman Catholic
Church.
Opposite this is a peculiar round arched doorway--unique in
Rome--forming the entrance to the _Church of S. Antonio Abbate_, said to
occupy the site of a temple of Diana. The church is decorated with very
coarsely-executed frescoes of the life of the saint,--his birth, his
confirmation by a bishop who predicted his future saintship, and his
temptation by the devil in various forms.
"S. Antonio, called 'the patriarch of monks,' became a hermit in
his twentieth year, and lived alone in the Egyptian desert till his
fifty-fifth year, when he founded his monastery of Phaim, where he
died at the age of 105, having passed his life in perpetual prayer,
and often tasting no food for three days at a time. In the desert
Satan was permitted to assault him in a visible manner, to terrify
him with dismal noises; and once he so grievously beat him that he
lay almost dead, covered with bruises and wounds. At other times
the fiends attacked him with terrible clamours, and a variety of
spectres, in hideous shapes of the most frightful wild beasts,
which they assumed to dismay and terrify him; till a ray of
heavenly light breaking in upon him, chased them away, and caused
him to cry out, 'Where wast thou, my Lord and Master? Why wast thou
not with me?' And a voice answered, 'Anthony, I was here the whole
time; I stood by thee, and beheld thy combat: and because thou hast
manfully withstood thy enemies I will always protect thee, and will
render thy name famous throughout the earth.'"--_Butler's Lives of
the Saints._
"Surely the imagery painted on the inner walls of Egyptian tombs,
and probably believed by Anthony and his compeers to be connected
with devil-worship, explains his visions. In the 'Words of the
Elders' a monk complains of being troubled with 'pictures, old and
new.' Probably, again, the pain which Anthony felt was the agony of
a fever, and the visions which he saw its delirium."--_Kingsley's
Hermits._
In the chapel of S. Antonio is a very ancient mosaic, representing a
tiger tearing a bull.
"Le tigre en mosaïque conservé dans l'église de St. Antoine, patron
des animaux, est, selon toute apparence, le portrait d'un acteur
renommé."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iv. 28.
Hither, on the week following the feast of St. Anthony (January 17),
horses, mules, and cows are brought to be blest as a preservative
against accidents for the year to come. On the 23rd, the horses of the
pope, Prince Borghese, and other Roman grandees (about 2½ P.M.) are
sent for this purpose. All the animals are sprinkled with holy water by
a priest, who receives a gift in proportion to the wealth of their
master, and recites over each group the formula,--
"Per intercessionem beati Antonii Abbatis, hæc animalia liberantur
a malis, in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen!"
"Les bergers romains faisaient la _lustration_ de leurs taureaux;
ils purifiaient leurs brebis à la fête de Pales (pour écarter d'eux
toute influence funeste), comme ils les font encore asperger d'eau
bénite à la fête de Saint Antoine."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ ii.
329.[272]
"'Long live St. Anthony,' writes Mabillon (in the 17th century) as
he describes the horses, asses, and mules, all going on the saint's
festival to be sprinkled with holy water, and receive the
benediction of a reverend father. 'All would go to ruin,' say the
Romans, 'if this act of piety were omitted.' So nobody escapes
paying toll on this occasion, not even Nostro Signore
himself."--_Stephens' French Benedictines._
"S. Antonio Abbate is the patron of the four-footed creation, and
his feast is a saturnalia for the usually hard-worked beasts and
for their attendants and drivers. Gentlefolks must be content on
this day to stay at home or go on foot, for there are not wanting
solemn tales of how the unbelievers who had obliged their coachmen
to drive out on this day have been punished by great misfortunes.
The church of S. Antonio stands in a large piazza, usually looking
like a desert; but to-day it was enlivened by a varied throng:
horses and mules, with tails and manes splendidly interlaced with
ribbons, are brought to a small chapel standing somewhat apart from
the church, where a priest armed with a large asperge plentifully
besprinkles the animals with the holy water which is placed before
him in tubs and pails, sometimes apparently with a sly wish to
excite them to gambols. Devout coachmen bring larger or smaller
wax-tapers, and their masters send alms and gifts, in order to
secure to their valuable and useful animals a year's exemption from
disease and accident. Horned cattle and donkeys, equally precious
and serviceable to their owners, have their share in the
blessing."--_Goethe, Romische Briefe._
"At the blessing of the animals, an adventure happened, which
afforded us some amusement. A countryman, having got a blessing on
his beast, putting his whole trust in its power, set off from the
church door at a grand gallop, and had scarcely cleared a hundred
yards before the ungainly animal tumbled down with him, and over
its head he rolled into the dirt. He soon got up, however, and
shook himself, and so did the horse, without either seeming to be
much the worse. The priest seemed not a whit out of countenance at
this; and some of the standers-by exclaimed, with laudable
steadfastness of faith, 'That but for the blessing, they might have
broken their necks.'"--_Eaton's Rome._
"Un postilion Italien, qui voyait mourir son cheval, priait pour
lui, et s'écriait: O, Sant' Antonio, abbiate pietà dell' anima
sua!"--_Madame de Staël._
"The hog was the representative of the demon of sensuality and
gluttony, which Anthony is supposed to have vanquished by the
exercise of piety and by the divine aid. The ancient custom of
placing in all his effigies a black pig at his feet, or under his
feet, gave rise to the superstition, that this unclean animal was
especially dedicated to him and under his protection. The monks of
the Order of St. Anthony kept herds of consecrated pigs, which were
allowed to feed at the public charge, and which it was a
profanation to steal or kill; hence the proverb about the fatness
of a 'Tantony pig.'"--_Jameson's Sacred Art_, p. 750.
We now enter the Piazza of Sta. Maria Maggiore, in front of which stands
a beautiful Corinthian column, now called _Colonna della Vergine_. This
is the last remaining column of the Basilica of Constantine, and is
forty-seven feet high without its base and capital. It was brought
hither by Paul V. in 1613. The figure of the Virgin on the top is by
Bertelot.