Part 20

1. Jupiter, in black marble. 2, 4. Cloud-born Centaurs, found at Hadrian's Villa, the joint work of Aristeas and Papias, sculptors of Aphrodisium, in bigio-morato marble. Pliny says he saw a Centaur that had been embalmed in honey, which had been brought from Egypt to Rome in the time of Claudius. 3. The infant Hercules, in green basalt, found on the Aventine. 5. Æsculapius, in black marble. _On left of entry._ 29. Hygeia. 31. Young Apollo. 33. Wounded Amazon. 34. Venus and Mars, found in the Isola Sacra near Ostia. 36. Minerva. 6. Faun. 7. Apollo. 9. Trajan. 10. Augustus. Two columns of Porta Santa. 17. Minerva, an archaic statue, B.C. 450. 21. A teacher imparting instruction, found in Hadrian's Villa. 22. Præfica: a hired mourner at funerals; a tear-bottle will be noticed in her hand. 28. Harpocrates, found at Hadrian's Villa. 27. A hunter, by Polytimus.

HALL OF ILLUSTRIOUS MEN,

containing busts of great men arranged round the room on shelves, many of doubtful identity. The most important are,--

1. Virgil. 4, 5, 6. Socrates. 7, 35. Alcibiades. 10. Seneca. 16. Marcus Agrippa. 20. Marcus Aurelius. 21. Diogenes. 22. Archimedes. 27. Pythagoras. 28. Alexander the Great. 30. Aristophanes. 31, 32. Demosthenes. 33, 34. Sophocles. 37. Hippocrates. 41 to 43. Euripides. 44 to 47. Homer. 48. Domitius Corbulo. 49. Scipio Africanus the elder. Pompey the Great. 60. Thucydides. 63. Double Hermes of Epicurus and Metrodorus, friends and philosophers. 72. Julian. 74. Ahenobarbus, father of Nero. 75. Cicero (?). 76. Terence.

The walls are adorned with bas-reliefs. The seated figure in the centre of the room is supposed to be Marcus Claudius Marcellus, the great general of the republic, who died B.C. 208.

HALL OF THE EMPERORS.

and their wives, whose ancient authentic busts are arranged round the room in chronological order:--

1. Julius Cæsar. 2. Augustus. 4. Tiberius. 6. Drusus, sen. 7. Drusus, jun. 8. Antonia. 9. Germanicus. 10. Agrippina, sen. 11. Caligula. 12. Claudius. 13. Messalina. 14. Agrippina, jun. 16. Nero. 17. Poppæa Sabina. 18. Galba. 19. Otho. 20. Vitellius. 21. Vespasian. 22. Titus. 23. Julia. 24. Domitian. 25. Domitia Longina. 27. Trajan. 28. Plotina. 31. Hadrian. 33. Julia Sabina. 35. Antoninus Pius. 36. Faustina, sen. 38. Marcus Aurelius. 39. Faustina, jun. 43. Commodus. 44. Crispina. 45. Pertinax. 46. Didius Julianus. 47. Manlia Scantilla. 50. Septimius Severus. 52. Julia Pia. 53. Caracalla. 54. Geta. 55. Macrinus. 57. Elagabalus. 60. Alexander Severus. 62. Maximinus. 64. Gordianus I. 65. Gordianus II. 66. Pupienus. 67. Balbinus. 68. Gordianus III. 69. Philip. 70. Decius. 72. Hostilianus. 73. Gallus. 76. Gallienus. 77. Salonina. 80. Diocletian. 81. Chlorus. 82. Julian, the philosopher. 83. Magnus Decentius.

There are several bas-reliefs round the room. Seated in the centre is Agrippina, "the glory of the Roman matrons;" daughter of M. V. Agrippa and Julia, daughter of Augustus; wife of Germanicus, and mother of Caligula. "It is a statue combining an expression of moral dignity and of intellectual force, with as much beauty and poetical grace as the genius of sculpture ever borrowed from breathing nature to work out its own miracles of art. This statue--a history and an epic in itself--represents a woman in the prime of life seated in a chair of state, and in the deep repose of meditative thought. The statue is lofty, her brow of high capacity, her mouth expressive of love and wit, and all her features are harmonized by that regularity which is ever denied to defective organizations. Over the whole of this simply-draped and noble figure there is an air of tranquil majesty, which, in its solemn influence, likens it to the statues of the gods" (Lady Morgan). It may have originally stood on the cinerary base in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori.

UPPER CORRIDOR.

_In our order of visiting the Museum the subjects in this Corridor commence at the highest number._

Vase of white marble, found near the tomb of Cecilia Metella; it is decorated with vine leaves and fruit. The pedestal is a very interesting Grecian marble well head; on it are the twelve principal deities. 29. Minerva. 28. Bust of Marcus Aurelius. 25. Jupiter standing on the altar of Cybele, dedicated in memory of Claudia drawing the galley up to Rome, which is shown in relief. _Entrance to Cabinet of Venus._ 20. Psyche. 46. Sarcophagus illustrating the birth of Bacchus. 47. Jupiter. 49. Juno. 30. Gladiator restored from a Discobolus. 52. Euterpe. 10. Cinerary urn. 54. Sarcophagus representing the Rape of Proserpine. 54_a._ Infant Hercules strangling a serpent. 56. Female statue. 8. Drunken Baccante. _Entrance to Hall of Doves._ 5. Cupid. 3. A lion. 63. Marcus Aurelius.

CABINET OF VENUS.

The celebrated Venus of the Capitol, found in a walled-up chamber on the Viminal, is rather the statue of a beautiful woman in full maturity than of Venus as a goddess. Cupid and Psyche, found on the Aventine--a beautiful little group. Leda and the Swan.

HALL OF THE DOVES.

So called from the beautiful mosaic set _in the wall on the right in entering_, mentioned by Pliny as the work of Sosus existing at Pergamos,--"There is a dove greatly admired in the act of drinking, and throwing the shadow of its head upon the water, while other birds are to be seen sunning and pluming themselves on the margin of a drinking bowl." It was found in Hadrian's Villa. Beyond is also a mosaic representing two scenic masks, found on the Aventine. In the windows are glass cases containing styli, coins, and lamps. 83. Fixed on the side of the farther window, the Iliac Table representing the Fall of Troy as described by Virgil; to each group is attached an explanatory inscription in Greek: found at Bovillæ. 49. Diana of Ephesus. 37. Sarcophagus of Gerontia, representing the fable of Endymion. 13. The Prometheus sarcophagus. On shelves round the room are placed numerous busts, but these are not of much interest.

_On coming out of the Museum_ cross the square and turn to the left, by the side of the Tabularium (note the paving-stones at the end of the Sacra Via), then turn to the right, Via Monte Tarpeia, proceed along this street, and keep straight on down the steps.

THE TRAITORS' LEAP.

By descending the _Centum Gradus_, and turning to the left, we see the rock, within the space closed off by the rails. The house on the top will roughly represent the original height of the rock. If we then add forty feet to the depth, we shall have some idea of the traitors' leap, which cured all ambition.

THE TEMPLE OF OPS.

The municipal authorities have lately pulled down a house on the Vicus Jugarius which obstructed the view of the far end of the Tarpeian Rock from the Forum. We use the title Tarpeian Rock as applied to the place of execution and not to the whole hill. They have exposed to view not only the rock, but likewise one side of the Temple of Ops, composed of large blocks of tufa stone surmounted by later brick structures. The earliest mention we have of this temple is in B.C. 183, when Livy says (xxxix. 22): "By order of the pontiffs a supplication, of one day's continuance, was added on account of the Temple of Ops, near the Capitol, having been struck by lightning." This temple is also mentioned by Cicero, from whom we learn that it was where the clerks kept the accounts of the treasury: "Would that the money remained in the Temple of Ops! Bloodstained, indeed, it may be, but still needful at these times, since it is not restored to those to whom it really belongs" (First "Philippic," 7). "Who delivered yourself from an enormous burden of debt at the Temple of Ops; who, by your dealings with the account-books there, squandered a countless sum of money" (Second, 14). "Where are the seven hundred millions of sesterces which were entered in the account-books which are in the Temple of Ops? A sum lamentable indeed as to the means by which it was procured, but still one which, if it were not restored to those to whom it belonged, might save us from taxes" (Second, 37). "And that accounts of the money in the Temple of Ops are not to be meddled with. That is to say, that those seven hundred millions of sesterces are not to be recovered from him; that the Septemviri are to be exempt from blame or from prosecution for what they have done" (Eighth, 9).

Ops was the daughter of Cœlus and Terra, and the wife of Saturn; hence her connection with the treasury. The temple was turned into a church, and called S. Salvatore in Ærario, or in Statera (the Saviour in the Treasury), which lapsed into S. Maria in Portico. It has now become a fruit shop; and a small fresco of the Crucifixion, very much obliterated, marks its former use. The west wall of the temple has been exposed in the recent changes, and part of the eastern wall can be seen by entering the court-yard by the flight of steps through the wall, No. 57, opposite the end of S. Maria di Consolazione.

_The Via Consolazione and the Via Montanara to the right bring us to_

THE THEATRE OF MARCELLUS.

The design of erecting a stone theatre in this quarter had been entertained by Julius Cæsar (Suetonius, "Cæsar," xliv.), but the carrying out of his adopted father's plan was reserved for Augustus (_ibid._, "Aug." xxix.). He did not, however, appropriate the honour of so great a work to himself, but transferred it to his beloved son-in-law, Marcellus. Great part of the outer walls of this large and splendid building still exists. Against these leaned the arches, supporting the tier of seats destined for the spectators. The greater portion of the vast halls have also been preserved; but being now converted into offices belonging to the Palace of the Orsini, which has insinuated itself into these ruins, they are not accessible to strangers. The lower story is in the Doric, the second in the Ionic, and the third was probably in the Corinthian order. It held 20,000 people.

THE DECEMVIRAL PRISONS.

Built by Appius Claudius for common offenders, _near_ the Forum Olitorium, and which site was afterwards occupied by the Theatre of Marcellus (Pliny, vii. 37). We have identified this prison, remains of which can still be seen under the theatre, consisting of chambers constructed in _opus reticulatum_. There are two splendid open archways of the same material leading into two large chambers, in the vaults of which are holes for letting the prisoners down. This we believe to have been the Decemviral Prisons and the scene of _Caritas Romana_.

"Here youth offered to old age the food, The milk of his own gift."

Byron visited the chambers under S. Nicola in Carcere, when he was moved to compose his beautiful lines. He had before him the scene, though not the site; his words are more applicable to these dungeons, and we may say with him,--

"There is a dungeon, in whose dim, drear light What do I gaze on?--Nothing."

_Passing the Theatre, a narrow lane on the left leads to the remains of_

THE PORTICO OF OCTAVIA.

Dedicated to Octavia by her brother Augustus (Suetonius, "Aug." xxix.). The principal portion still existing belonged to the great portal leading to the open space surrounded by corridors which gave the people shelter during rain. In this stood two temples, the one dedicated to Jupiter, the other to Juno. Pillars belonging to the latter may be seen in a house in the Via Pescheria, and remains of the Portico of Octavia at No. 12 Via Teatro di Marcello. The inscription on the architrave states that the building was restored by Septimius Severus and Caracalla.

On the removal of two of the columns on which the pediment rested, their place was supplied by an arch of brickwork, thus preventing the building from falling in.

Four columns and two piers are still standing of the inner row; of the outside only two columns remain, in addition to the two piers. The capitals are ornamented with eagles bearing thunderbolts. A flight of steps led up to this vestibule.

The stumps of columns built into the walls of several houses in the vicinity in all probability belonged to the same edifice, which must originally have presented a most magnificent appearance.

The Portico was ornamented with many statues; and besides the two temples, there were libraries. It was originally erected by Metellus, B.C. 146 (Paterculus, i. 11). The temples were built by Mr. Lizard and Mr. Frog; but the senate would not allow them to put their names on the buildings, and so to hand down their work they sculptured on the spirals of the columns lizards and frogs (Pliny, xxxvi. 4). This can still be seen in the Church of S. Lorenzo on the road to Tivoli, the columns being taken there from here. The same authority (xxxiv. 15) gives particulars of the many statues; and amongst others one to Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, the base of which was found here in 1878, and is now in the courtyard of the new Museum of the Capitol. Pliny also tells us that when they dedicated the temples they by mistake carried the god into the goddess's temple, and so they let them remain as the will of the gods.

_On the right_ is the CHURCH OF S. ANGELO IN PESCHERIA. Here Rienzi, on May 20, 1347, held his meeting for the re-establishment of "the good estate;" and here he exhibited his allegorical picture, and thence marched to the Church of S. George to fix up the proclamation.

_From the right-hand corner of this square a little alley leads to the Via Rua, the principal street of_

THE GHETTO,

or Jews' Quarter. The word "Ghetto" comes from the Hebrew word _chat_, broken or dispersed. The Jews first settled here in the time of Pompey the Great; but it was not till 1556 that the Ghetto was enclosed by Pope Paul IV. putting gates across the streets. The Jews were not allowed to be out after sunset or before sunrise, and he compelled the men to wear yellow hats and the women yellow veils. The old inhabitants, who were not Jews, were turned out, and obliged to give up their houses to the Jews on perpetual copy-hold leases, which are handed down in the families to the present day. Pius IX. abolished the gates, but it was not till the Italian troops entered Rome that the Jews obtained full liberty like their fellow-citizens. The lower part of the houses in the Ghetto are of Roman construction, and there is very little accumulation of soil there. There are about four thousand Jews in Rome, and notwithstanding the closeness with which they are packed and the dirt in which they live, the district is entirely free from fever.

_Proceeding along_ the Via Rua, we enter the Piazza di S. Maria del Pianto, the Square of Tears. On the right are several old Roman houses, with the upper part rebuilt, and the following medieval inscription, put up in the two thousand two hundred and twenty-first year of Rome, recording that here was the Forum Judæorum:--

VRBE . ROMA . INPRISTINAM . FORMA ENASCENTE . LAVR . MANLIVS . RARITAE . ERC . A . PATRI EDIS SV . NOMNE . MAN II AN . AS . PRO PORT AR . MEDIOCRITAE . AD . FOR . IVDEOR SIBI . POSTERISQ . AB . VRB . CON . M. M. CCXXI . L. AN . M. III . D. PRI . CAL. AVG.

_A short alley on the left leads to the Piazza Scuole. On the right is_

THE CENCI PALACE,

(_Palazzo Cenci_,)

the scene of the persecution of Beatrice, which led to her execution through the murder of her father at Petrella.

"The story is, that an old man having spent his life in debauchery and wickedness, conceived at length an implacable hatred towards his children, which showed itself towards one daughter under the form of an incestuous passion, aggravated by every circumstance of cruelty and violence. This daughter, after long and vain attempts to escape from what she considered a perpetual contamination both of body and mind, at length plotted with her mother-in-law and brother to murder their common tyrant" (Shelley).

"The Cenci Palace is of great extent; and though in part modernized, there yet remains a vast and gloomy pile of feudal architecture, in the same state as during the dreadful scenes which are the subject of this tragedy--'The Cenci.' The palace is situated in an obscure corner of Rome, near the quarter of the Jews, and from the upper windows you see the immense ruins of Mount Palatine, half hidden beneath the profuse undergrowth of trees. There is a court in one part of the palace (perhaps that in which Cenci built the chapel to S. Thomas) supported by granite columns, and adorned with antique friezes of fine workmanship, and built up, according to the ancient Italian fashion, with balcony over balcony of open work. One of the gates of the palace, formed of immense stones, and leading through a passage dark and lofty, and opening into gloomy subterranean chambers, struck me particularly" (Shelley).

From an old manuscript recently brought to light, and the reports of the trial which have been recently published, the story of Beatrice Cenci appears divested of the fiction of a historical novel; and these papers prove her to have been anything but the innocent victim she is represented in the romantic stories we have all read.

_On the left of the Piazza_ is the Jewish Synagogue, once a Christian church, dedicated to S. Lorenzo in Damaso, and sold to the Jews by Pope Sixtus V. when he was in need of money.

The Cenci Palace stands upon the substructions of

THE THEATRE OF BALBUS.

Erected B.C. 12, as a compliment to Augustus, by L. Cornelius Balbus (Suetonius, "Aug." xxix.), being the third permanent theatre erected in Rome. It held twelve thousand spectators. Pliny (xxxiv. 12) says: "Cornelius Balbus erected four small pillars of onyx in his theatre as something marvellous." At No. 23 Via Calderari, _to the right of the Cenci Palace_, some remains can be seen of the PORTICO of the Theatre of Balbus, which was two stories high. Built into the house are two Doric columns of travertine stone, supporting an architrave, which is interspersed with brickwork repairs, by Septimius Severus, after a fire. Opposite are three pilasters supporting a vault.

In the lane opposite, the Palace of the Cenci can best be seen; this part has not been restored. _Passing under the archway_, on our left, is the gateway spoken of by Shelley.

_The first turning on the right, in the Via Calderari, leads to the Via Catinari; turn to the left, follow the second street on the right past the church, then take the first turning on the left._ It will be noticed that the fronts of the houses and the street are circular; they are built on the ruins of the circular part of

THE THEATRE OF POMPEY.

"Pompey also built that magnificent theatre, which is standing at this day, at whose dedication five hundred lions were killed in five days, and eighteen elephants having fought against armed men, part of them died upon the place, and the rest soon after" (Dion Cassius, "Cæsar"). Plutarch relates the same. The same author, in his "Life of Nero," speaking of the reception of Tiridates, says: "There was a great assembly in the Theatre of Pompey by order of the senate. Not only the scene, but all the inside of the theatre, and everybody that came into it, were covered with gold, which made that day be named Golden Day. The covering which was spread over it to defend the spectators from the heat of the sun, was of rich stuff, the colour of purple, representing the heavens, in the midst of which was Nero driving a chariot." (See Pliny, xxxiii. 16.) "Tiberius undertook to restore the Theatre of Pompey" (Suetonius, "Tiberius," xlvii.). "Tiberius undertook to rebuild the Theatre of Pompey, which was accidentally burned, because none of the family was equal to the charge; still, however, to be called by the name of Pompey" (Tacitus, "Ann." iii. 72). "Caligula completed it" (Suetonius, "Caligula," xxi.). It was burned; and again rebuilt by Caracalla, as we learn from an inscription found at Ostia in 1881. "In the games which Claudius presented at the dedication of Pompey's theatre, which had been burned down, and was rebuilt by him, he presided upon a tribunal erected for him in the orchestra; having first paid his devotions in the temple above, and then coming down through the centre of the circle, while all the people kept their seats in profound silence" (Suetonius, "Claudius," xxi.). It accommodated forty thousand (Pliny, xxxvi. 24). It was built B.C. 55, "in his second consulship" (Vel. Paterculus, ii. 48); but afraid of the criticism of the people, he erected at the top of the seats a temple to Venus.

THE SPOT WHERE CÆSAR FELL.

In the neighbourhood of his theatre Pompey built a house for himself (Plutarch); and from the back of the stage a portico (Vitruvius), which, according to Propertius (ii. 32), must have been a beautiful place.

"Pompey's portico, I suppose, with its shady columns, and magnificently ornamented with purple curtains, palls upon you; and the thickly-planted, even line of plane-trees, and the waters that fall from a sleeping Maro, and in streams lightly bubbling all over." In the centre of this portico Pompey erected a large hall, which he presented to the Roman people for the use of the senate. At the time of Cæsar's assassination the senate house on the Forum was being rebuilt. Suetonius ("Cæsar," lxxx.), says: "Public notice had been given, by proclamation, for the senate to assemble upon the ides of March (15th) in the senate house built by Pompey: the conspirators approved both time and place as most fitting for their purpose." "They killed him in the hall of Pompey, giving him twenty-three wounds" (Livy, "Ep." cxvi.). "The conspirators having surrounded him in Pompey's senate house, fell upon him all together, and killed him with several strokes" (Dion Cassius, "Cæsar." See Suetonius, "Cæsar," lxxxii.).

"The place, too, where the senate was to meet seemed providentially favourable for their purpose. It was a portico adjoining the theatre; and in the midst of a saloon, furnished with benches, stood a statue of Pompey, which had been erected to him by the commonwealth when he adorned that part of the city with those buildings. The senate being assembled, and Cæsar entering, the conspirators got close about Cæsar's chair. Cassius turned his face to Pompey's statue, and invoked it, as if it had been sensible of his prayers" (Plutarch. See Florus, iv. 2).

"The senate house in which he was slain was ordered to be shut up, and a decree was made that the ides of March should be called parricidal, and that the senate should never more assemble on that day" (Suetonius, "Cæsar," lxxxviii.).

_After making the circuit of the seats of the theatre, the Via Chiavari leads to the_ CHURCH OF S. ANDREA DELLE VALLE, built on the site of Pompey's senate house.