Part 21

On the marble plan of Rome, in the Capitoline Museum, a fragment shows Pompey's theatre, portico, and senate house. With the given remains of the theatre and the plan it is easy to find the site of the Curia, which is shown on the plan in the form of a basilica: this will bring the curve exactly at the apse of the Church of S. Andrew. Now, we are told that Cæsar was seated in the chair where in the morning Brutus dispensed justice, so he was, no doubt, seated on the tribunal; and as the tribunal of the church and curia exactly correspond,

HERE CÆSAR FELL!

The cupola of the church is one of the finest in Rome; the four evangelists, at the angles, are by Domenichino.

_From here we retrace our steps down the Via Chiavari, crossing the Via Giubbonari, passing, on our left, the_ MONTE DI PIETA (Uncle to Rome); _turn to left Via Pettinari; the first turning on the right leads to the Piazza Capo di Ferri._ On the left, decorated with statues, is the Spada Palace. In the vestibule of the law court, upstairs, is

THE STATUE OF POMPEY,

at whose feet great Cæsar fell.

"There was a statue of Pompey, and it was a work which Pompey had consecrated for an ornament to his theatre."

"Either by accident, or pushed hither by the conspirators, he expired at the pedestal of Pompey's statue, and dyed it with his blood" (Plutarch).

"Augustus removed the statue of Pompey from the senate house, in which Julius Cæsar had been killed, and placed it under a marble arch, fronting the curia attached to Pompey's theatre" (Suetonius, "Aug." xxxi.).

The statue is eleven feet high, and was found in 1553 in the Vicolo di Lentari; it was under two houses, and the proprietors could not agree as to whom it should belong, when Pope Julius II. gave them five hundred gold dollars for it, and presented it to Cardinal Capodifero. In 1798-99 the French carried this statue to the Colosseum, where they performed Voltaire's "Tragedy of Brutus" to the original statue. To facilitate moving it, they cut off the extended arm; hence the join.

THE SPADA PALACE GALLERY.

_Open every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday; fee, half lira each to Museum and Gallery._

_N.B._--The vestibule where the statue of Pompey stands is public, and is open all day. Resist the demands of the porter, who is generally very rude.

The MUSEUM on the ground-floor contains a good seated statue of Aristotle, and nine reliefs formerly used, reversed, as the pavement of S. Agnese outside the walls. 1. Paris on Mount Ida; 2. Bellerophon watering Pegasus; 3. Amphion and Zethus; 4. Ulysses and Diomedes robbing the Temple of Minerva; 5. Paris and Œnone; 6. Perseus and Andromeda; 7. Adonis; 8. Adrastus and Hypsipyla finding the body of Archemorus; 9. Pasiphæ and Dædalus.

The GALLERY upstairs contains few good pictures. Catalogues in each room.

FIRST ROOM.--32. Lanfranco's Cain and Abel; 45. Guercino's David.

SECOND ROOM.--9. Guido's Judith; 19. Poussin's Joseph and Brethren; 17. Leonardo da Vinci's Dispute with the Doctors; 32. S. John; 33. S. Lucia, by Guercino.

THIRD ROOM.--20. Rape of Helen, by Guido; 33. Vandyck; 48. Death of Dido, by Guercino.

COURT ROOM.--Frescoes by Luzio Romano.

_In coming out of the Palace, turn to the right, keep straight on down the_ VIA S. PAOLA ALLA REGOLA. Some little way down is the church of that name, on the right, said to have been built on the site where S. Paul had a school. _Just beyond_, on the right, is the Via degli Strengari; the house on the left, No. 2, is pointed out by Jewish tradition as

THE HIRED HOUSE OF S. PAUL.

"Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him."

"Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him."

Here, "Paul called the chief of the Jews together."

"When they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into _his_ lodging."

The construction of the lower part of the house is brick-work of the early empire. This agrees with the Jewish tradition, and we can well understand that S. Paul would lodge somewhere near his kinsmen the Jews. The doorway has one of its columns still; but it has been turned from a round headway into a square one. One of the windows on the left has still a round head; above this the house is medieval. The lower part of the other houses here are Roman.

_To the left_ of the house, take the VIA DI S. BARTOLOMEO DEI VACCINARI. On the right, some remains of the columns of the Theatre of Balbus have been built into a house, and remains exist under the houses all round. In this street Rienzi was born; the exact house is not known.

_Keeping straight on, the_ VIA DELLA FIUMARA is one of the dirtiest in the Ghetto. _At its extremity, on the right, is the_

PONS FABRICIUS,

now called Ponte dei Quattro Capi, from the four-headed Janus upon its balustrades. From the inscription, and from Dion Cassius (xxxvii. 45), we learn that it was erected, B.C. 61, by L. Fabricius, Curator Viarum. Horace (S. ii. 3) says that "Stertinius advised the would-be suicide Damasippus to return cheerfully from the Fabrician Bridge." It has two arches. The bridge leads to

THE ISLAND OF THE TIBER.

"The Tarquins had sacrilegiously converted the best part of the Campus Martius to their own use. When they were expelled, it happened to be harvest time, and the sheaves then lay upon the ground; but as it was consecrated, the people could not make use of it. A great number of hands, therefore, took it up in baskets and threw it into the river. The trees were also cut down and thrown in after it, and the ground left entirely without fruit or produce for the service of the god. A great quantity of different sorts of things being thus thrown in together, they were not carried far by the current, but only to the shallows, where the first heaps had stopped. Finding no further passage, everything settled there, and the whole was bound still firmer by the river; for that washed down to it a deal of mud, which not only added to the mass, but served as a cement to it, and the current, far from dissolving it, by its gentle pressure gave it the greater firmness. The bulk and solidity of this mass received continual additions, most of what was brought down by the Tiber settling there. It was now an island sacred to religious uses. Several temples and porticoes have been built upon it; and it is called in Latin _inter duos pontes_--the island between the two bridges" (Plutarch, in "Publicola").

The island in the Tiber is an alluvial formation, and thus far the legend is correct in ascribing its origin to the accumulation of rubbish and drifted sand. In remembrance of the vessel which bore the statue of Æsculapius from Epidaurus to Rome, the entire island was faced with stone, and made to assume the form of a ship, in which was placed the temple of the god.

Some of the immense blocks of travertine composing the facing, and representing the hull of the ship, may still be seen in the monastery garden of the Church of S. Bartolomeo in Isola. _Ladies are not admitted to the monastery._

"In the island of the Tiber, just prior to the death of Otho, the statue of Julius Cæsar turned from west to east, a circumstance said likewise to have happened when Vespasian took on him the empire" (Plutarch).

In the Piazza is a monument to SS. John, Francis, Bartholomew, and Paulinus. The interior of the church is embellished with fourteen ancient columns, and in the choir are the remains of an early mosaic.

The island on the farther side is connected with the mainland by

THE PONS CESTIUS,

now called Ponte S. Bartolomeo. It was erected, B.C. 45, by the Prætor Lucius Cestius; the inscription records its restoration, A.D. 367, by the Emperors Valentinian, Valens, and Gratian. It consists of a single arch. Over the bridge is TRASTEVERE, the inhabitants of which claim to be descended from the ancient Romans: their manners and customs are somewhat distinct from those of the inhabitants of the other side of the river.

_From the bridge_ (_retracing our steps_) _a street leads into the Piazza Montanara; turn to the right up the Via Montanara; on the right is the_ CHURCH OF S. NICOLO IN CARCERE, built over three temples.

_Entrance to see the substructions through the sacristy._

THE TEMPLES OF JUNO SOSPITA, PIETY, AND HOPE.

Three temples of the time of the republic, situated in one front, and forming a group. Not only many columns, but also considerable remains of the substructions have been preserved. The latter have been rendered accessible by the recent excavations.

The largest of these temples, Piety, situated in the middle, is of Ionic architecture. It is surrounded by a corridor, and is probably the same erected to Piety by the son of M. Acilius Glabrio ten years after the event, in fulfilment of a vow made by his father at the battle of Thermopylæ, A.U.C. 562, erected 572 (Livy, xl. 34). The _left hand_ temple is that of Juno Sospita (to keep in health), founded by Cethægus, B.C. 195 (Livy, xxxii. 30, xxxiv. 53). The Temple of Hope is _on the right_. It was erected by Atilius Calatinus during the first Punic War, B.C. 248 (Livy xxi. 62, xxv. 7).

These temples were situated in the Forum Olitorium, the great vegetable market of Rome, and outside the Servian wall. The custodian shows a cell which he points out as the scene of the "Caritas Romana." Visitor! "beware, beware! he's fooling thee." This is not that Temple of Piety erected on the site of the house of the Roman matron, or, according to some authorities, on the site of the Decemviral Prisons; for Pliny and Solinus tell us that the sites of the temple and prison were occupied by the Theatre of Marcellus. According to Valerius Maximus (v. 4) and Pliny ("Natural History," vii. 36), it was a daughter who thus saved her mother's life, and "they were henceforth provided for by the state." Festus says it was her father.

_Turn to the right, in coming out of the temple; a short distance on the right the Via di Ponte Rotto turns out to the right. A little way up on the right is_

THE HOUSE OF RIENZI.

"The Roman of Rome's least mortal mind;" The friend of Petrarch and liberty, Who died for Rome and Italy. Rienzi! the patriotic Roman, Close by whose house doth wind The Tiber, subservient to the will of no man.

It was built from the remains of one of those medieval towers used by the Romans as fortresses, and, as such, bore the name of the Torre di Monzone. It was demolished by Arlotto degli Stefaneschi, in the year 1313, in order to diminish the power of the Orsini, in whose possession it was. An inscription on the ruin states the founder to have been a certain Nicolas, the son of Crescentius and Theodora. Hence it has been supposed that the Crescentius here mentioned is identical with the celebrated consul who ruled over Rome A.D. 998; an opinion strengthened by the fact of his wife having really borne the name of Theodora. Rienzi is said to have been descended from them. Pope Leo XIII. was descended through his mother from Rienzi.

OLD RHYMING VERSE ON THE HOUSE OF RIENZI.

"First of the foremost, Nicolas, great from a low estate, Raised (_this_) to revive the glory of his fathers. There is placed the name of his father and mother, Crescentius and Theodora. This renowned roof, bore from (_a_) dear pledge: The father who displayed it assigned it to David."

Another line says,--

"In fair places ever remember the grave."

The neighbouring people call this ruin the Casa di Pilato, and the appellation of the Casa di Cola di Rienzi has been added since the last century. Rienzi died in 1354 A.D. _A step or two lead to_

THE PONTE ROTTO,

anciently the Pons Æmilius. This bridge, intended to unite the nearer bank of the river with Trastevere, but rendered impassable by the fall of several arches in 1598, whence its name of the Ponte Rotto, was commenced in the censorship of M. Æmilius Lepidus and M. Fulvius Nobilior, in the year of the city 573, and was completed by P. Scipio Africanus and L. Mummius. From the first of these it took its name. "Marcus Fulvius made contracts for piers for a bridge over the Tiber; on which piers Publius Scipio Africanus and Lucius Mummius, censors many years afterwards, caused the arches to be raised" (Livy, xl. 51). It is the same from which the body of Elagabalus was thrown with a stone attached to it, after having been dragged through the Circus.

In January 1886, to the eternal disgrace of the acting mayor, Duke Torlonia, and the municipal authorities of Rome, the remaining half of the oldest bridge over the Tiber was wantonly and unnecessarily destroyed in the works going on for the embankment of the river, the city fathers leaving one arch in the centre of the river as a monument of their folly. From this arch a suspension bridge is to be thrown to the Trastevere side. The Cloaca Maxima has been diverted into the Tiber below S. Paul's, in order to prevent the back-wash into the city. _A little lower down was_

THE SUBLICIAN BRIDGE,

in front of which Horatius displayed his valour. It was first erected, A.U.C. 114, by Ancus Martius. By appointment of the oracle it was built only of timber fastened with wooden pins; "for the Romans considered it as an execrable impiety to demolish the wooden bridge, which, we are told, was built without iron, and put together with pins of wood only, by the direction of some oracle. The stone bridge was built many ages after, when Æmilius was quæstor. Some, however, inform us that the wooden bridge was not constructed in the time of Numa, having the last hand put to it by Ancus Martius" (Plutarch, in "Numa").

"Rome was in great danger of being taken, when Horatius Cocles, and with him two others of the first rank--Herminius and Spurius Lartius--stopped them at the bridge.... This man [Horatius], standing at the head of the bridge, defended it against the enemy till the Romans broke it down behind him. Then he plunged into the Tiber, armed as he was, and swam to the other side, but was wounded in the hip with a Tuscan spear" (Plutarch, in "Publicola"). Livy (ii. 10) gives his prayer before plunging in: "Holy father Tiber, I beseech thee to receive these arms, and this thy soldier, into thy propitious stream." And

"Still is the story told How well Horatius kept the bridge In the brave days of old."

Near this spot Clœlia swam across the Tiber on horseback, when escaping from Lars Porsena.

"While Cocles kept the bridge and stemmed the flood, The captive maids there tempt the raging tide, 'Scaped from their chains, with Clœlia for their guide."--VIRGIL.

_Returning from the bridge, turn to the right. On our left is_

THE TEMPLE OF PUDICITIA PATRICIA.

The Temple of Patrician Chastity stood inside the wall of Servius in the Forum of the Cattle-dealers. Livy (x. 23) says: "In the year A.U.C. 456, a quarrel broke out among the matrons in the Temple of Patrician Chastity, which stands in the cattle-market, near the Round Temple of Hercules."

It was converted in 880 into the Church of S. MARIA EGIZIACA. It has four Ionic columns at the front, with four apparent columns at the end, and seven on one side. A frieze of stucco, representing heads of oxen, candelabra, and wreaths of flowers borne by children, is on the entablature; it is 100 feet long by 50 wide. When it was turned into a church the wall dividing the portico from the cella was pulled down, and the columns of the portico were filled in to make it longer for a church. It is the best specimen we have of a republican temple.

_Going down by the side of the temple, we come to_

THE ROUND TEMPLE OF HERCULES.

This is the temple mentioned above by Livy, and we see the positions agree with his statements. It is formed of twenty beautiful Corinthian columns, only one of which, on the right side, is missing. Its circumference is only 156 feet, and that of the cella 26 feet, and the height of the columns 32 feet. The walls within the portico are of white marble (much of which still remains), and the pieces of it were put together so as to have the appearance of one mass. The temple stands on a base of tufa, showing early construction, but is a restoration of the time of Vespasian.

[Illustration: ROUND TEMPLE OF HERCULES AND TEMPLE OF PATRICIAN CHASTITY.]

This was probably the Temple of Hercules which Vitruvius (iii. 3) says was erected by Pompey. Pliny (xxxiv. 19) says Myron made the statue of Hercules which is in the Ædes Herculis, built by Pompey the Great, near the Circus Maximus. Again (xxxv. 7) he speaks of "the paintings of the poet Pacuvius, in the Temple of Hercules, situated in the cattle-market."

THE GRAND TEMPLE OF HERCULES.

There were other temples to Hercules in the Forum Boarium, of which we have some travertine remains behind the Church of S. Maria in Cosmedin opposite. "The Romans afterwards built a magnificent temple near the river Tiber, in honour of Hercules, and instituted sacrifices to him out of the tenths" (Diodorus, iv. 1). "In A.U.C. 534 a supplication was ordered to be performed by individuals at the Temple of Hercules" (Livy, xxi. 62). This was destroyed by Pope Adrian I., A.D. 772-795. "By the infinite labour of the people, employed during a whole year, Adrian threw down an immense structure of Tiburtine stone to enlarge the Church of S. Maria in Cosmedin" (Anastasias).

THE CHURCH OF S. MARIA IN COSMEDIN

is on the site of a temple to Ceres and Proserpine. "Spurius Cassius consecrated the Temple of Ceres, Bacchus, and Proserpine, which stands at the end of the great circus, and is built over the starting-places, and which Aulus Postumius, the dictator, had vowed when upon the point of engaging the Latins," A.U.C. 258 (Dionysius, vi. 94). "It was restored by Augustus, and consecrated by Tiberius" (Tacitus, "Annals," ii. 49). The temple fronted north, and in the left-hand aisle of the church are three of the columns of the portico _in situ_; three of the side columns are in the portico of the church, and three others in the sacristy, where there is part of a mosaic from old S. Peter's, A.D. 705.

In the portico is a large mask of stone called the Bocca della Verità (Mouth of Truth). A suspected person, on making an affirmation, was required to put his hand in the mouth of this mask, in the belief that if he told an untruth the mouth would close upon his hand. Several columns of the old temple are immured in the walls, and the aisles are formed by twenty ancient marble columns; the pavement is of beautiful _opus Alexandrinum_. _Behind_ the altar is a fine bishop's chair, and a Greek picture of the Virgin and Child, also some old frescoing behind a panel on the left. _Opposite_ the church is a beautiful fountain of Tritons supporting a basin.

_Resuming our ramble down the_ VIA MARMORATA, _turn left coming out of the church, passing under_ an archway, the remains of the Porta Trigemina in the Servian Wall. _The road runs for a short distance by the Tiber, on the opposite side of which is the_ RIPA GRANDE, _or quay. Taking the road to the right, past a stone-yard, Marmorata, by the river, brings us to_

THE EMPORIUM,

another important building of the time of the Republic, of which we have considerable remains. The exact date of its foundation is not recorded, but a porticus, or arcade, was made to it, and it was paved about the year 560 of Rome, or 193 B.C. It was the great warehouse for the port of Rome for merchandise brought by vessels coming from the sea. There was another port at the Ripetta for provisions brought _down_ the river in boats.

The Emporium was to ancient Rome what the docks are to London and Liverpool. This great building formed three sides of a quadrangle, the fourth being open to the quay on the bank of the Tiber, with a zigzag path down the face of the cliff and surface of the quay. This was excavated by the Pontifical Government, under the direction of Baron Visconti. It was remarkably perfect; the walls against the cliff were faced with _opus reticulatum_ of the time of Hadrian, and a large number of blocks of valuable marbles were found here. A little further up the river an _amphora_ is cut in the wall of the quay, to indicate the place for landing wine and oil. The portion of the Emporium now remaining belongs to the portico or arcade. There are said to be extensive cellars under the other remains, forming a lower story of the buildings. A new quarter is in course of erection here.

The Emporium, and the quay by the side of it, called the MARMORATA, or Marble Wharf, are situated at the lower end of the great Port of Rome for sea-going vessels, which port extended about half a mile up the river, with the Salaria, or Salt Wharf, near the middle of it. Above this, and nearly opposite the point where the Almo falls into the Tiber, a little below the Temple of Hercules, are several large stone corbels with holes through them, through which a pole was passed for the purpose of fastening a chain across the river for holding vessels against the force of the stream. There are similar corbels in the wall of the Marmorata for the same purpose, only these corbels are left plain; those at the upper end of the port are carved in the form of lions' heads of the early character called Etruscan. These corbels at the two ends mark the extent of the Port of Rome, made originally in the year 577 of Rome, and were discovered by Mr. J. H. Parker, C.B.

_Regaining the main road, at a little distance we pass under an arch of the aqueduct which supplied the Emporium with water. It is called the_ ARCO DI S. LAZARO. _We next turn off to the right, and ascend_

MONS TESTACCIO,

formed of fragments of earthenware, chiefly of amphoræ. We know from those remaining at Pompeii that the amphoræ which formed that branch of commerce were often six feet high. Great numbers of these got broken in landing, and all were thrown on this heap, as they were not allowed to be thrown into the Tiber. There is also said to have been a manufactory of amphoræ and other earthenware at this spot, many of the fragments found here being the refuse of a great manufactory. This is supposed to have been the great manufactory of earthenware for the city of Rome for several centuries; and this supposition may account for the enormous quantity of such refuse that has accumulated on the spot, so as to form a hill. Tombs proving its comparatively recent origin were discovered beneath it in the year 1696. It is 110 feet high, and surmounted by a cross. The view from the top is very fine. _Close by is the_

PROTESTANT CEMETERY.