Part 11

It is thus mentioned by Marcellinus (xv. vii. 3):--"The Emperor Marcus built the Nymphæum, an edifice of great magnificence, near the well-known Septemzodium," which was built by Septimius Severus at the corner of the Palatine, where slight traces of it remain; it having been destroyed by Pope Sixtus V.

The spot now forms a pleasant terrace, from which a splendid prospect of the southern part of ancient Rome, the Campagna, and the distant Alban Hills may be enjoyed. In fact, a vast study is spread, like a map, before the visitor.

THE PALACE OF COMMODUS (25, 29)

stood on the south-east side of the hill. He constructed a passage from the Palatine to the arena of the Colosseum. He was strangled in his chamber; and his successor, Pertinax, was stabbed in the same palace. This was destroyed by fire, and on the top of the ruins was erected the Palace of Septimius Severus, Caracalla, and Alexander Severus. The remains consist of numerous chambers, corridors, and vaults, still retaining some of their mosaic pavements and stucco roofs, with walls built into them in a very confused manner, showing different alterations. The palace is to be cleared out.

THE PALACE OF THE CÆSARS.

After the death of Alexander Severus, A.D. 235, we have little or no history of buildings upon the Palatine, and there are no remains the construction of which shows a later date. Indeed the emperors reigned but a short time down to Diocletian, except Gallienus, who, we know, had a palace and gardens on the Esquiline. Fifty years after Alexander Severus died a great blow was struck at the grandeur of Rome; for the colleagues in empire, Diocletian and Maximian, made new capitals at Milan and Nicomedia, and thus divided the seat of power and empire. In A.D. 302, eighteen years after his declaration, Diocletian came to Rome for the first time, to celebrate his triumph, making a short stay of two months. The year 312 witnessed a great change. On October 28 the great Constantine, the first Christian emperor, and a Briton, made his entry into the imperial city, which for years had ceased to give rulers to the empire, and was now to be the seat of government no longer. Constantine did not make a long stay in the city; and, after he had secured his power, removed in 330 the capital of the empire to Byzantium, which was named Constantinople, to decorate which Rome was stripped of statues, marbles, and works of art. In 356 Constantius visited Rome, which had been abandoned by her rulers and denied the splendours of the imperial court. "After his entry he retired into the imperial palace, where he enjoyed the luxury he had wished for." "He quitted Rome on the thirtieth day after his entry (29th May)" (Marcellinus). The same historian informs us that, "on the night of the 18th of March 362, the Temple of Apollo, on the Palatine, was burned down." Theodosius, in 394, entered Rome in triumph. Honorius, his son, in 403 celebrated the grandest triumph since that of Diocletian, one hundred years before. Indeed, during this long period but four emperors had paid flying visits only to their ancient capital, and the Palace of the Cæsars was falling into decay, as Claudian, the last of the Roman poets, sings. Honorius for a short time revived the glories and memories of the past; the curule chairs once more surrounded the rostra, and their emperor's voice was once more heard by the _plebs_, whilst they gazed with awe at the lictors with their gilt fasces. After Honorius's departure, Alaric, and the barbarians that were with him, in 410, "took Rome itself, which they pillaged, burning the greatest part of the magnificent structures and other admirable works of art it contained" (Socrates, "E. H." v. 10). In 417 Honorius again entered Rome in triumph, and endeavoured to restore the city, and invited fugitives from all parts to people it. This benefactor of the city was buried near the supposed remains of S. Peter in the Vatican basilica. In 425 Valentinian III., whilst still a boy, received the imperial purple in the ancient Palace of the Cæsars, at the hands of an ambassador of Theodosius; and, although Ravenna was the seat of his government, he frequently visited Rome and inhabited the imperial palace. During one of these visits, in 454, Aetius, the general, fell in the imperial palace, stabbed by the hand of the licentious emperor, who drew his sword for the first time to kill the general who had saved his empire. In the following year, March 27, he was himself assassinated in the Campus Martius during a review; and Petronius Maximus was declared emperor, but was in his turn soon after murdered. The third day thereafter, Genseric and his Vandals entered Rome, and plundered it of everything they could carry off, from the seven-branched candlestick to the common utensils of Cæsar's Palace, which they completely stripped. Avitus, a Gaul, the successor of Petronius, visited Rome for a short time, and was murdered on his return to Auvergne. After the throne had been vacant for ten months, Majorianus was made emperor by Ricimer, 457. He published an edict from Ravenna against destroying the ancient monuments of Rome and using the materials for building. Severus Libius was his successor, and he was poisoned within the walls of the Palatine, August 465. Anthemius entered Rome in a triumphal procession in April 467, and revived the Lupercalia games; he was put to death in the palace by Ricimer, who captured Rome, July 11, 472. From 472 to 476 there were four emperors, the last of whom, Romulus Augustus, abdicated in presence of the senate, who proclaimed the extinction of the Western Empire.

[Illustration: ARCH OF TITUS, BEFORE RECENT EXCAVATIONS.]

In A.D. 500 King Theodoric paid a visit of six months to Rome. After addressing the people from the Rostra ad Palmam, which stands at the head of the Forum, he took up his residence at the Palace of the Cæsars, and appointed officers to take care of the ancient monuments. After his death, Athalaric and his mother governed till the former's death in 534. Theodatus, his successor, was murdered on the Flaminian Way, as he was retreating before Belisarius, the general of the Eastern emperor Justinian, who fixed his quarters at the Pincian Palace. In 549 Totila captured the city, and resided in the Palace of the Cæsars, exhibiting games in the Circus Maximus for the last time. During the winter of 552-553 Narses, the Eastern general, took Rome, and resided there, Rome being again united to the Eastern Empire, governed by an exarch, who generally resided at Ravenna. The history of the Palatine is a blank till the time of Heraclius I. Though not present himself, a coronation ceremony was held with great pomp in the Palace of the Cæsars, 610. A great event for Rome took place in 663. Then, for the last time, she received within her walls her emperor, Constans II., who contemplated again making her the capital of the empire. He was received by Pope Vitalianus at the Porta Appia with a procession of priests with tapers, banners, and crosses,--a curious contrast with former usages. Constans was the last emperor who resided in the Palace of the Cæsars, which was even then in a dilapidated condition; and his time seems to have been occupied with church ceremonies. His visit lasted twelve days, when he carried off what plunder he could, besides the gilt bronze tiles of the roof of the Pantheon. A blank again occurs till Justinian II., in 709, created the first Duke of Rome, who was afterwards elected by Pope and people, and resided in the Palace of the Cæsars. For many years the power of the Church of Rome had been increasing, and in 772 Pope Adrian I. threw off the nominal sovereignty of the Eastern Empire, and, calling upon Charlemagne to free him from the Lombard kings, he entered Rome on Saturday, April 2, Easter eve. Charlemagne confirmed Pepin's gifts to the Holy See. He again visited it, and on Christmas day A.D. 800 Pope Leo III. crowned him emperor in S. Peter's, with the title of Emperor of the Romans. From thence commenced the Holy Roman Empire.

* * * * *

_Leaving the Palatine, we turn to the right, and by the newly-excavated Vicus Vestæ, on the north side of the hill, reach_

THE ARCH OF TITUS.

On the ridge of the Velia hill, which forms a continuation of the Palatine, and separates the hollow of the Forum from that of the Colosseum, a triumphal arch was erected (though not till after his death and deification) to Titus, the conqueror of Jerusalem. The reliefs, still preserved within the arch, are among the most remarkable of the kind existing in Rome as to the position they occupy in the history of art and of the world. We find here not only the emperor standing in the triumphal chariot in which he advanced to the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, but also the table of the shewbread, and the seven-branched candlestick, borne in this triumphal procession as the most precious spoils of the Jewish temple.

[Illustration: BAS-RELIEF ON THE ARCH OF TITUS.]

"There was a golden table, which weighed many talents; also a golden candlestick, which was constructed upon a different principle from anything in use amongst us now. In the middle was the main stem, which rose out of the base; from this proceeded smaller branches, very much resembling the form of a trident; and on the top of them was a lamp, worked in brass. There were seven such in all, emblematic of the seven days of the Jewish week. The Law of the Jews was the last of those spoils in the procession" (Josephus, "Wars of the Jews," viii. v. 5). "The legs of the table were perfectly finished in the lower half, like those the Dorians put upon their couches, but the upper half of them was worked square" (Josephus, "Antiquities of the Jews," iii. vi. 6).

Two censers were placed upon the table; in front of the table are two trumpets crossed. (See Exodus xxv. 26).

These spoils were deposited by Vespasian in the Temple of Peace. After the sack of Rome, A.D. 455, the Vandal king Genseric carried them to Carthage. Belisarius recovered them, A.D. 535, and took them to Constantinople; and they were transferred from there to the Christian Church in Jerusalem (Procopius, "De Bell. Vand.," i. 5 and ii. 4).

Evagrius (iv. 17) relates that when Khosroes, king of Persia, took Jerusalem in 614, they passed into his hands; and all trace of them has been lost since then. It is altogether erroneous to suppose they were thrown into the Tiber.

_On the opposite side_ is the Emperor Titus in a chariot drawn by four horses, preceded by Romans wearing laurel wreaths and carrying the fasces. Behind the chariot, Victory is in the act of placing a crown on the emperor's head. The vault is ornamented with square coffers and roses, and in the centre the apotheosis of Titus, in square relief.

At this point the Via Sacra was sometimes called the Clivus Palatinus, as it led up to the Palatine, _on the right_.

"Clœlia had her statue in the Via Sacra, as you go up to the Palatine" (Plutarch, in "Publicola").

_Passing through the Arch of Titus,_

_On our right_ are some remains of the Frangipani fortress, a tower of the middle ages; a piece of the second wall of Rome; some substructions and walls, as it were supporting the Palatine Hill; and remains of the Baths and

TEMPLE OF THE SUN,

"built by Elagabalus, on the slopes of the Palatine, for the worship of the Syro-Phœnician sun-god, which was represented by a black conical stone, set with gems. Elagabalus broke into the Temple of Vesta, intending to remove the Palladium to his Temple of the Sun, but the virgins, by a pious fraud, defeated his object, on discovering which he broke into their sanctuary, and carried off one of the virgins to add to his list of wives" (Lampridius).

[Illustration: ARCH OF TITUS, WITH THE META SUDANS, AND BASILICÆ OF THE FORUM OF CUPID.]

The temple was built for the worship of the Sun. Around it was the Lavacrum, or gratuitous baths, A.D. 218-222. The temple was converted in A.D. 800 into the Church of S. Maria, by Pope Leo III. The remains of the altar can be seen at the east end; at the west end is the baptistery, in the form of a Greek cross, with an apse at the top containing the raised platform with the depressed basin of the font in which the person about to be baptized stood, whilst the minister occupied the platform above it and poured the water over his head.

_On our left is_

THE FORUM OF CUPID AND ITS BASILICÆ,

miscalled the Temple of Venus and Rome. The platform upon which it stands is partly the Velia ridge and partly artificial.

When a building was inaugurated after consecration it was called a _templum_. A _delubrum_ was an isolated building, surrounded with an area, dedicated to religious purposes. This--because it was double, having two aspects, two distinct apses or tribunals--we call, in the plural number, _delubra_, or the double basilica.

The remains consist of two large tribunals, back to back, with a portion of the lateral walls and vaults. The wall in the monastery gardens is apsidal, the other is rectangular.

The name of this building is entirely lost. All we know about it is, that it is of the time of Maxentius and Constantine, A.D. 306-337, the construction showing it to be of that time; besides, Nibby found in the walls bricks stamped with the name of Maxentius.

Nearly all late authorities have called this ruin the Temple of Venus and Rome. Now, it could not possibly be that temple, for we are told distinctly, as we have related, by Apollodorus, that the Temple of Rome was NOT built on a platform. Again, the Temple of Rome was built by Hadrian, A.D. 118-138, and these remains are of the time of Maxentius and Constantine, A.D. 306-337; besides, Roman temples had no tribunals or apses.

These basilicas were surrounded by a colonnade of gray granite, numerous fragments of which still lie about, and there was probably originally a forum or market-place for the sale of fruit and toys.

Varro (L. L. 532, R. R. i. 2), Ovid (A. A. ii. 265), Propertius (iii. xvii. 11), Terence, Eunuchus, contemporary writers, all speak of a macellum and forum of Cupid upon the Via Sacra.

Festus, who lived in the fourth century, speaks of them under the same name; so we may conclude that the ruins before us are the basilicas of the Forum of Cupid, restored by Maxentius, and dedicated by Constantine.

The front of this platform, towards the Colosseum, was discovered in 1828 to have been used during the middle ages as a cemetery, several coffins of terra cotta being exhumed.

At the corners are the remains of steps which led from below up to the delubra. Near the left-hand steps, in descending, are the remains of the

PEDESTAL OF NERO'S COLOSSUS,

which, as we have seen, first stood in the vestibule of his house; then where the atrium was; thence it was removed by Hadrian with twenty-four elephants to this spot, as is shown on a coin of Alexander Severus. It was 120 feet high. Vespasian radiated the head to make it represent the sun; Commodus took off Nero's head, and replaced it with his own. The popular quotation from Bede refers to this Colossus, not to the Colosseum.

_In a line with Nero's Pedestal is the_

META SUDANS,

the remains of a fountain, erected by Titus, and repaired by Domitian and Gordianus, which stood in the centre of a large circular basin. Popular tradition narrates that the gladiators used to wash here after combat: it is certainly possible, but not very probable, that they would come outside to wash at an open fountain. The epithet Meta Sudans, or "sweating-goal," is supposed to be taken from the perpetual issue of foaming water, or because it contributed to satisfy the thirst of the audience at the Colosseum; or _meta_, because it was built in the form of a goal, and _sudans_, because the water trickled out.

_To the right is_

THE ARCH OF CONSTANTINE,

dedicated by the senate and people of Rome to commemorate the victories of the first Christian emperor, to do which they took reliefs from the Arch of Trajan, and built them into an attic which they erected upon the top of the Arch of Isis, re-dedicating the conglomeration as the Triumphal Arch of Constantine. The reliefs which refer to Trajan can be easily distinguished from those of Constantine (which are very bad) owing to their superior style and the subjects represented.

[Illustration: ARCH OF CONSTANTINE.]

The designs commence, _on the left side_, with the triumphal entrance of Trajan by the Porta Capena, after the first Dacian war; then, secondly, commemorate his services in carrying the Appian Way through the Pontine Marshes; thirdly, founding an asylum for orphan children; fourthly, his relations with Parthamasiris, king of Armenia. _On the opposite side_, dedication of the aqueduct built by Trajan (_seen on the left_); secondly, audience with the Dacian king Decebalus, whose hired assassins are brought before him; thirdly, with a representation of the emperor haranguing his soldiers; and, fourthly, the emperor offering the _suovetaurilia_ sacrifice of a boar, ram, and bull.

Corresponding with these reliefs, two medallions, representing the private life of the emperor in simple and graceful compositions, are introduced over each of the side arches. The first represents his starting for the chase; the second, a sacrifice to Silvanus, the patron of silvan sports; the third displays the emperor on horseback at a bear-hunt; and the fourth a thank-offering to the goddess of hunting. On the side facing the Colosseum, a bear-hunt, a sacrifice to Apollo, a group contemplating a dead lion, and lastly a consultation of an oracle. Most of these refer to Trajan; we think some refer to Hadrian, because on one of them Antinoüs is represented. On the inside of the arch is a battle-piece, assigned to Constantine by the inscriptions, "To the founder of peace," "To the deliverer of the city." They are older than his time. Over the side arches are some narrow reliefs referring to Constantine, one of which is peculiarly interesting, as it represents that emperor addressing the people from the Rostra ad Palmam, with some of the principal monuments in the Forum in the background.

THE COLOSSEUM.

"A noble wreck in ruinous perfection."--BYRON.

The vast amphitheatre erected in the centre of ancient Rome by Vespasian was known to the ancient Romans as the Flavian Amphitheatre. It was begun by the Flavian emperors A.D. 72, and dedicated A.D. 80. It is 157 feet high, and is 1900 feet in circumference, and was built by the captive Jews after the fall of Jerusalem. Originally the upper story was of wood, but this was burned down, and it was rebuilt with travertine stone like the rest of the edifice. Martial tells us that its site was formerly occupied by the artificial lakes of Nero; and Marcellinus (xvi. x. 14) says, "The vast masses of the amphitheatre so solidly erected of Tiburtine stone, to the top of which human vision can scarcely reach." All the brickwork we now see are repairs at various dates after the dedication; but there is enough travertine left at different points to show that it was originally built of this stone, as recorded by the historian. For nearly five hundred years it was the popular resort of the Roman populace and their betters. There were eighty arches of entrance, and it held one hundred thousand people, and could be emptied in ten minutes; such were the order kept and regulations observed that there was no confusion. It was devoted to the exhibition of wild beasts, their fighting together, gladiators fighting together, or with beasts, and naval fights. On these latter displays the stage or arena was moved, water let in, and naval fights represented in real earnest.

Suetonius ("Vespasian," vii.), says, "He began an amphitheatre in the middle of the city, upon finding that Augustus had projected such a work." _Ibid._ ("Titus," vi.): "He entertained the people with most magnificent spectacles, and in one day brought into the amphitheatre five thousand wild beasts of all kinds."

The last display was given by Theodoric in 523; and in 555 the lower part was destroyed by a flood from the Tiber, when the whole of Rome was under water for seven days. From then we must date the ruin of the Flavian Amphitheatre--the Romans themselves hastening on the work, using the material for building purposes.

"Which on its public shows unpeopled Rome, And held uncrowded nations in its womb."--JUVENAL.

It is held by the Roman Church, on the authority of an inscription found in the Catacombs, that the architect of the Colosseum was one Gaudentius; but that inscription only says that he was employed there. We believe the architect to have been Aterius, whose monument is now in the Lateran, and upon which several buildings are represented of which he was no doubt the architect, also the machine used to raise the stones into their places. He flourished at the end of the first century, and, no doubt, these buildings shown in relief upon his tomb were erected by him, the dates agreeing; for if not, why should they be there represented?

First, we have an arch which says on it, "Arcus ad Isis." Now if we compare this with the Arch of Constantine, we find it is the same without the attic. Then we have the amphitheatre without the upper story; then an arch (query, Arch of Domitian?). Then another arch with the words, "Arcus in Sacra Via Summa:" compare this with the Arch of Titus, and, minus the restorations, it will be found to be the same. Then there is a temple agreeing with the descriptions of that of Jupiter Stator upon the Palatine. All these buildings were erected or rebuilt about this time, and from being recorded on this monument of the Aterii, tend to show that Aterius was the architect of them.

When perfect, the Colosseum consisted of four stories--the lowest, of the Doric order, 30 feet high; the second, Ionic, 38 feet high; the third, Corinthian, about the same height; and the fourth, also Corinthian, 44 feet high. The holes in the cornice with the corbels below them were to receive the masts that supported the _velaria_ on the outside.

The numerous holes in the stone were made in the middle ages for the purpose of extracting the iron cramps that kept the stones from shifting. The long diameter is 658 feet, the shorter 558 feet; the arena is 298 feet by 177 in its widest part.

The last performance was a bull-fight, held at the expense of the Roman nobles, in the year 1332. Many martyrs are said to have perished in the Colosseum during the persecutions of the early Christians, and among others S. Ignatius, who was brought from Antioch to be devoured by wild beasts. Benedict XIV. consecrated the building to the Christian martyrs, A.D. 1750.

In excavating the Basilica of S. Clement, the Rev. Father Mullooly found (1870) the remains of S. Ignatius, and had them carried with great ceremony over the scene on the anniversary of his martyrdom.