CHAP. LXXI. Prospect of the Ruins of Rome in the Fifteenth Century.... Four View and from the hill, A. D. 1430. IN the last days of pope Eugenius the fourth, two of CHAP. his servants, the learned Poggius1 and a friend, ascended LXXI. the Capitoline hill; reposed themselves among the ruins of columns and temples; and viewed from that commanding discourse spot the wide and various prospect of desolation. The of Poggius place and the object gave ample scope for moralising on the Capitoline vicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries empires and cities in a common grave; and it was agreed, that in proportion to her former greatness, the fall of Rome was the more awful and deplorable." Her primæval state, such as she might appear ❝ in a remote age, when Evander entertained the stranger "of Troy,' has been delineated by the fancy of Virgil. "This Tarpeian rock was then a savage and solitary thick"et: in the time of the poet, it was crowned with the gol"den roofs of a temple; the temple is overthrown, the gold "has been pillaged, the wheel of fortune has accomplished "her revolution, and the sacred ground is again disfigured "with thorns and brambles. The hill of the Capitol, on "which we sit, was formerly the head of the Roman em"pire, the citadel of the earth, the terror of kings; illus"trated by the footsteps of so many triumphs, enriched with "the spoils and tributes of so many nations. This spectacle "of the world, how is it fallen! how changed! how defaced! "the path of victory is obliterated by vines, and the benches "of the senators are concealed by a dung-hill. Cast your eyes on the Palatine hill, and seek among the shapeless 86 1 I have already (not. 50, 51. on chap. 65.) mentioned the age, character, and writing of Poggius; and particularly noticed the date of this elegant moral lecture on the varieties of fortune. 2 Consedimus in ipsis Tarpeix arcis ruinis, pone ingens portæ cujusdam, ut puto, templi, marmoreum limen, plurimasque passim confractas columnas, unde magnâ ex parte prospectus urbis patet, (p. 5). 3 Æneid viii. 97...369. This ancient picture, so artfully introduced, and so exquisitely finished, must have been highly interesting to an inhabitant of Rome; and our early studies allow us to sympathise in the feelings of a Ro man.. CHAP. "and enormous fragments, the marble theatre, the obelisks, LXXI. "the colossal statues, the porticoes of Nero's palace: sur His des the ruins. “ vey the other hills of the city, the vacant space is inter"rupted only by ruins and gardens. The forum of the Ro"man people, where they assembled to enact their laws and "elect their magistrates, is now enclosed for the cultivation " of pot-herbs, or thrown open for the reception of swine and "buffaloes. The public and private edifices, that were "founded for eternity, lie prostrate, naked, and broken, like "the limbs of a mighty giant; and the ruin is the more vi"sible, from the stupendous relics that have survived the "injuries of time and fortune."4 These relics are minutely described by Poggius, one of cription of the first who raised his eyes from the monuments of legendary, to those of classic, superstition. 1. Besides a bridge, an arch, a sepulchre, and the pyramid of Cestius, he could discern, of the age of the republic, a double row of vaults in the salt-office of the Capitol, which were inscribed with the name and munificence of Catulus. 2. Eleven temples were visible in some degree, from the perfect form of the Pantheon, to the three arches and a marble column of the temple of peace, which Vespasian erected after the civil wars and the Jewish triumph. 3. Of the number, which he rashly defines, of seven therma or public baths, none were suffi ciently entire to represent the use and distribution of the several parts; but those of Diocletian and Antoninus Caracalla still retained the titles of the founders, and astonished the curious spectator, who, in observing their solidity and extent, the variety of marbles, the size and multitude of the columns, compared the labour and expense with the use and importance. Of the baths of Constantine, of Alexander, of Domitian, or rather of Titus, some vestige might yet be found. 4. The triumphal arches of Titus, Severus, and Con stantine, were entire, both the structure and the inscriptions; a falling fragment was honoured with the name of Trajan; and two arches, then extant, in the Flaminian way, have been ascribed to the baser memory of Faustina and Gallienus. 4 Capitolium adeo... immutatum ut vineæ in senatoram subsellia successerint, stercorum ac purgamentorum receptaculum factum. Respice ad Pala tinum montem... vasta rudera... cæteros colles perlustra omnia vacua ædificiis, ruinis vineisque oppleta conspicies (Poggius de Varietat. Fortunæ, p.21). 5 See Poggius, p. 8...22. LXXI. 5. After the wonder of the Coliseum, Poggius might have CHAP. overlooked a small amphitheatre of brick, most probably for the use of the prætorian camp: the theatres of Marcellus and Pompey were occupied in a great measure by public and private buildings; and in the Circus, Agonalis and Maximus, little more than the situation and the form could be investigated. 6. The columns of Trajan and Antonine were still erect; but the Egyptian obelisks were broken or buried. A people of gods and heroes, the workmanship of art, was reduced to one equestrian figure of gilt brass, and to five marble statues, of which the most conspicuous were the two horses of Phidias and Praxiteles. 7. The two mausoleums or sepulchres of Augustus and Hadrian could not totally be lost; but the former was only visible as a mound of earth; and the latter, the castle of St. Angelo, had acquired the name and appearance of a modern fortress. With the addition of some separate and nameless columns, such were the remains of the ancient city: for the marks of a more recent structure might be detected in the walls, which formed a circumference of ten miles, included three hundred and seventy-nine turrets, and opened into the country by thirteen gates. of Rome. This melancholy picture was drawn above nine hundred Gradual decay of years after the fall of the Western empire, and even of the Gothic kingdom of Italy. A long period of distress and anarchy, in which empire, and arts, and riches, had migrated from the banks of the Tyber, was incapable of restoring or adorning the city; and, as all that is human must retrograde if it do not advance, every successive age must have hastened the ruin of the works of antiquity. To measure the progress of decay, and to ascertain at each æra, the state of each edifice, would be an endless and useless labour, and I shall content myself with two observations, which will introduce a short enquiry into the general causes and effects. 1. Two hundred years before the eloquent complaint of Poggius, an anonymous writer composed a description of Rome." 6 Liber de Mirabilibus Romæ, ex Registro Nicolai Cardinalis de Arragoniâ, in Bibliothecâ St. Isidori Armario IV. No. 69. This treatise, with some short but pertinent notes, has been published by Montfaucon (Diarium Italicum, p. 283...301), who thus delivers his own critical opinion: Scriptor xiiimi circiter sæculi, ut ibidem notatur; antiquariæ rei imperitus, et, ut ab illo ævo, nugis et anilibus fabellis refertus: sed, quia monumenta quæ iis temporibus LXXI. CHAP. His ignorance may repeat the same objects under strange and fabulous names. Yet this barbarous topographer had eyes and ears, he could observe the visible remains, he could listen to the tradition of the people, and he distinctly enumerates seven theatres, eleven baths, twelve arches, and eighteen palaces, of which many had disappeared before the time of Poggius. It is apparent, that many stately monuments of antiquity survived till a late period, and that the principles of destruction acted with vigorous and encreasing energy in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. 2. The same reflection must be applied to the three last ages; and we should vainly seek the Septizonium of Severus,' which is celebrated by Petrarch, and the antiquarians of the sixteenth century. While the Roman edifices were still entire, the first blows, however weighty and impetuous, were resisted by the solidity of the mass and the harmony of the parts; but the slightest touch would precipitate the fragments of arches and columns, that already nodded to their fall. After a diligent enquiry, I can discern four principal causes of the ruin of Rome, which continued to operate in a period of more than a thousand years. I. The injuries of time and nature. II. The hostile attacks of the Barbarians and Christians. III. The use and abuse of the materials. And, IV. The domestic quarrels of the Romans. Four causes of destruction: I. The injuries of nature; I. The art of man is able to construct monuments far more permanent than the narrow span of his own existence: yet these monuments, like himself, are perishable and frail; and in the boundless annals of time, his life and his labours must equally be measured as a fleeting moment. Of a simple and solid edifice, it is not easy however to circumscribe the duration. As the wonders of ancient days, the pyramids attracted the curiosity of the ancients: an hundred genera Romæ supererant pro modulo recensit, non parum inde lucis mutuabitur qui 7 The Pere Mabillon (Analecta, ton. iv. p. 502.) has published an anonymous pilgrim of the ninth century, who, in his visit round the churches and holy places of Rome, touches on several buildings, especially porticoes, which had disappeared before the thirteenth century. 8 On the Septizonium, see the Memoires sur Petrarque (tom. i. p. 325), Donatus (p. 338), and Nardini (p. 117.414). 9 The age of the pyramids is remote and unknown, since Diodorus Siculus (tom. i. 1. i. c. 44. p. 72) is unable to decide whether they were constructed 1000, or 3400, years before the clxxxth Olympiad. Sir John Marsham's contracted scale of the Egyptian dynasties would fix them about 2000 years before Christ (Canon. Chronicus, p. 47). and earth quakes i tions, the leaves of autumn,10 have dropt into the grave; and CHAP. after the fall of the Pharaohs and Ptolemies, the Cæsars and LXXI. caliphs, the same pyramids stand erect and unshaken above the floods of the Nile. A complex figure of various and minute parts is more accessible to injury and decay; and the silent lapse of time is often accelerated by hurricanes and hurricanes earthquakes, by fires and inundations. The air and earth have doubtless been shaken; and the lofty turrets of Rome have tottered from their foundations; but the seven hills do not appear to be placed on the great cavities of the globe; nor has the city, in any age, been exposed to the convulsions of nature, which, in the climate of Antioch, Lisbon, or Lima, have crumbled in a few moments the works of ages into dust. Fire is the most powerful agent of life and death: the fires; rapid mischief may be kindled and propagated by the industry or negligence of mankind; and every period of the Roman annals is marked by the repetition of similar calamities. A memorable conflagration, the guilt or misfortune of Nero's reign, continued, though with unequal fury, either six, or nine days.11 Innumerable buildings, crowded in close and crooked streets, supplied perpetual fuel to the flames; and when they ceased, four only of the fourteen regions were left entire; three were totally destroyed, and seven were deformed by the relics of smoking and lacerated edifices.12 In the full meridian of empire, the metropolis arose with fresh beauty from her ashes; yet the memory of the old deplored their irreparable losses, the arts of Greece, the trophies of victory, the monuments of primitive or fabulous antiquity. In the days of distress and anarchy, every wound is mortal, every fall irretrievable; nor can the damage be 10 See the speech of Glaucus in the Iliad (z. 146). This natural but melancholy image is familiar to Homer. 11 The learning and criticism of M. des Vignoles (Histoire Critique de la Republique des Lettres, tom. viii. p. 74...118. ix. p. 172...187.) dates the fire of Rome from. A. D. 64, July 19, and the subsequent persecution of the Christians from November 15, of the same year. 12 Quippe in regiones quatuordecim Roma dividitur, quarum quatuor integræ inanebant, tres solo tenus dejectæ: septem reliquis pauca tectorum vestigia supererant, lacera et seniusta. Among the old relics that were irreparably lost, Tacitus enumerates the temple of the moon of Servius Tullius; the fane and altar consecrated by Evander præsenti Herculi; the temple of Jupiter Stator, a vow of Romulus; the palace of Numa; the temple of Vesta cum Penatibus populi Romani. He then deplores the opes tot victoriis quæsitæ et Græcarum artium decora . . . . muita quæ seniores meminerant, quæ reparari nequibant (Annal. xv. 40, 41). |