Ai ;:■ .'a^-'::V - .;;, ■:^;,.v:^ /'-^ 1/ ff^^i S FiFR^rCi City fe<>^ CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924082161229 -y jS The Castle and Bridge of San f Angela. Xtbe lEternal Clt^ ROME ITS RELIGIONS, MONUMENTS, LITERATURE AND ART IN TWO VOLUMES Vol. II. BY CLARA ERSKINE CLEMENT AUTHOR OF "legendary AND MYTHOLOGICAL ART," "PAINTERS SCULPTORS, ARCHITECTS, ENGRAVERS, AND THEIR WORKS" "THE QUEEN OF THE ADRIATIC," " NAPLES, THE CITY OF PARTHENOPE," " CONSTANTINOPLE THE CITY OF THE SULTANS," ETC. Illustratetr BOSTON ESTES AND LAURIAT PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1896, By Estes and Lauriat. All rights reserved. r ^ ' ©nibetsitg ^wss : John Wilson and Son, CAk;BRiDGE, U.S.A. TABLE OF CONTENTS. VOLUME II. Ghapteb Page X. Teiumphal Akchks and Honorary Columns . 423 XI. Bkidges, Aqueducts, Fountains, and Villas . 446 Xn. Roads, Walls, Gates, and Sewers .... 480 Xin. Roman Manners and Customs 516 XIV. Roman Education and Literature .... 570 XV. Roman Architecture 671 XVI. Roman Sculpture 715 XVn. Roman Painting and Mosaics 753 LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS. WOOD CUTS. VOLUME II. Paob Battering-Ram used by Hand 423 Legionary Bearing the Image 427 Jupiter causing Kaiu to fall on the Roman Army .... 429 Pack-Horse carrying Shields 431 An Honorary Column 433 A Vexillary, from Antonine Column 436 Battle 438 Soldier carrying his Baggage . . . • 440 German Family. From Antonine Column 444 Victory crowning a Warrior 445 Horatius Codes 447 Roman Bridge upon the Ostian Road 451 Aventine HiU and Remains of Ponte Rotto 457 Late Roman Bridge 463 Villa on the Seashore 467 Arch of the Aqueduct Anio Novus 471 Olive-Gathering 472 The Ploughman 475 Porta Maggiore, or Porta Nevia, at Rome 477 The Sacred Chickens 479 A Milestone 480 Stone-Cutters 482 A Slave under the Scourge 485 Golden Milestone 488 The Appian Gate, Restored 493 Fragments of the Wall of Servius Tullius 496 Hannibal 500 vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Page Wall of the Aventine 502 A Samnite Warrior ' 507 Pyramid of Cestius 513 Cloaca Maxima 515 A Ploughman 516 A Woman Spinning 518 Roman Matron 520 Gold-Beater 523 An Educated Slave Calculating before his Master .... 531 A Bird-Catcher 583 Roman Horseman 540 A Roman Family Travelling 545 Sailing Vessel 546 Dromedary Carrying Baggage 547 Julia, Daughter of Augustus 548 Seal of Augustus 549 The Young Tiberius 551 Vespasian 553 Domitian 555 Gratuitous Distribution to the People 563 Gold Coins of Antoninus '. 569 Cicero 573 Scene of a Comedy . 580 Terence 588 Hortensius 597 Julius Csesar 607 Pompey 610 Young Octavius 614 Isocrates 619 Fulvia, -with Attributes of Victory 625 Sallust 628 Tityrus, the Shepherd 633 Virgil 635 A Tempest. From the Vatican Virgil 638 Seneca 649 Tomb of Seneca. Restored by Canina 652 Pliny's Villa. Restored by Canina 669 Arrival of J5neas in Latium 670 Corinthian Capital from the Temple of Jupiter Stator . . 674 Frieze of the Temple of Concord 677 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. vii Paob Wall Painting from the House of Livia 681 Wall Painting from the House of Livia 685 Temple of Augustus 714 Sculptor 716 Venus of Capua 720 She-Wolf of the Capitol 723 The Biga of the Vatican 727 Eros 730 Dancer on a Bronze Lamp 734 The Empress Julia Pia Domna 788 Sophocles 741 Bust of Pope Innocent X. By Lorenzo Bernini 751 Sylvanus 752 Practice of Music. WaU. Decoration 754 Mosaic from S. Maria Maggiore 759 Cosmati Mosaic 762 Head of Roxana. H Sodoma 765 Group from a picture by Botticelli. In the Sistine Chapel . 771 The Angels with Abraham. Fresco by Raphael .... 781 Ornament from the Loggie 784 Grotesque from the Decoration of the Loggie 787 Saint Petronilla. By Guercino 793 Portrait of Cesare Borgia. By Raphael 797 Communion of Saint Jerome. By Domeniohino .... 803 Venus and Mars. By Annibale Caracci 805 The Arch of Septimius Severus 807 LIST OF PHOTO-ETCHINGS. VOLUME II. The Castle and Bridge of Sant' Angelo Frontispiece Facing page The Column of Trajan 442 The Campagna and Ruins of the Claudian Aqueduct . . . 468 The Gate of Saint Sebastian 494 The Gate of Saint John 524 The Aich of Constantine 556 The Fighting Gladiator. Ancient Sculpture 584 The Statue of Antoninus Pius 612 Bust of Antinous, in the Cortile del Belvedere of the Vatican 640 The Dying Gladiator. Ancient Sculpture 666 The Interior of S. Peter's 700 The Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius 724 The Moses of Michael Angelo, in the Church of S. Pietj-o in Vincoli 748 The Sistine Chapel, in the Vatican 768 A Sibyl from the Frescoes in the Sistine Chapel 790 CHAPTER X. TRIUMPHAL ARCHES AND HONORARY COLUMNS. 'T~"HE magnificent triumphal arches of Rome, known by the names of certain emperors, have stood through many centuries, imposing witnesses to the prowess and glory of these rulers, while at the same time they so commem- orated the triumphs of the Roman arms that the renown of these glorious achievements was constantly in the minds of succeeding geperations, exciting in them a national pride in the past and an ambition to rival the illustrious deeds of their ancestors. At least thirty-eight of these important monuments were erected ; many of them were standing at one and the same period, affording an admi- rable illustration of Roman architecture from a very early date to the latest years of Imperial Rome; in a cer- tain sense, a record in marble and stone of the Republic and the Empire. L. Stertinius, in 196 B.C., erected the first two trium- phal arches of which we have knowledge, out of the treas- ure which he brought from Spain. One of these stood in the Forum Boarium, the other in the Circus Maximus ; and Livy describes them as being surmounted by gilt statues, and adds BATTEKING-KAM USED BY HAND. FROM TKAJAN's column. 424 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. that L. Stertinius deposited in the public treasury fifty thousand pounds' weight of silver, all taken by him in Spain. Six years later an arch in honour of Scipio Africanus was erected on the road leading to the Temple of Jupiter Capi- tolinus, which was surmounted by seven statues and two horses in gilt bronze. This, like many others, has totally disappeared. The first arch erected in the Forum Eomanum was in honour of Quintus Fabius Maximus, and was dedicated in 121 B. c, in commemoration of his victories over the Gauls. This arch, spoken of by Horace, marked the southeast extrem- ity of the Forum and spanned the Via Sacra. The remaining fragments of this monument, as I have mentioned in describ- ing the Forum, lie near the Temple of Faustina, and consist chiefly in massive voussoirs, or the stones from the span of the arch. On account of his prowess in his war against the Allobroges, Fabius was given the honorary title of AUobrogicus, or Allobrox. He is also mentioned in history as being the first Roman who possessed silver plate to the value of five thousand dollars. Of the Arch of Augustus, erected in 30 B.C., after the victory at Actium, nothing remains save a part of the foun- dations, discovered in 1882, which show that it was a triple arch, the central opening being fourteen feet wide. This arch was destroyed by the civilised Vandals of the middle of the sixteenth century ; and in our walks in Rome we doubt- less admire portions of it in some Renaissance edifice with- out being aware of what we are approving. The Arch of Fabius was ruined by the same destroyers. The Arch of Tiberius, erected in 17 a.d., is said by Tacitus to have commemorated the success of Germanicus in recovering the Roman standards which had been lost in Germany by Varus. The historian places it on the slope of the Clivus Capitolinus; and as it was quickly constructed and dedicated — in one year — it could not have been very TRIUMPHAL ARCHES, HONORARY COLUMNS. 425 fine or elaborate. Another arch of Tiberius was erected by Claudius near the Theatre of Pompey ; and it is also said that Tiberius dedicated arches to both Germanicus and Drusus in the Forum of Augustus. There are fragments in Rome attributed to the Arch of Tiberius, but Mommsen expresses doubt of their genuineness. The Arch of Claudius which commemorated his so-called victories in Britain was erected in 43 a. d., and remained until the seventeenth century in excellent condition, when it was destroyed by Alexander VII. This arch spanned the Via Lata, — now theCorso, — and its foundations were dis- covered about fifteen years ago. In the Villa Borghese are two noble reliefs from this arch, which are, however, badly damaged. The Arch of Nero, erected in honour of" the victory over the Parthians, is only known from the representations of it on coins. Its position on the Capitoline Hill, between the two peaks, was most honourable. From its representations it appears to have been a single arch, very richly decorated with both statues and reliefs. It was surmounted by a triumphal chariot with statues of Victory and Abundance beside it ; smaller statues were placed on the corner projec- tions of the entablature, while in a niche on the end stood a colossal statue of Mars. The sides and top of the arch- way were elaborately decorated with reliefs, and handsome columns supported each corner. The First Brass of Nero is an unusually interesting coin, and displays all the features of this arch as perfectly as a large drawing could do. Perhaps the Arch of Titus is more interesting than any other in Rome, on account of the associations with it. Domitian erected it in honour of the conquest of Jerusalem, and of the Emperors Vespasian and Titus. The central part of the arch as it stands to-day is a portion of the original monument, and is eighteen hundred and fifteen years old. The sides belong to its restoration in 182.3 ; and the differ- 426 KOME, THE ETERNAL CITY. euce between the colour of the new portions and that of the ancient Pentelic marble is plainly discernible. The composite capitals on the engaged columns of this arch are the earliest examples of this style. Two most interesting reliefs on the inner jambs of the arch represent the grand triumphal procession of Titus, which I have described in connection with pagan temples. Titus is rep- resented in his chariot, the horses being led by the goddess Eoma, while Victory holds a crown above his head ; he is surrounded by lictors, and the procession is passing under a triumphal arch. But the most famous portion of this monument is the opposite relief, in which the spoils of the Temple of Solomon are represented, — the table for the shew- bread, the seven-branched candlestick, and the golden trum- pets. On this panel are two lovely female heads, crowned with laurel and executed in low relief. From the candle- stick this monument has frequently been called the " Arch of the Seven Lamps." On the sofHt of the arch the apotheosis of Titus is represented in the usual way, the Emperor ascend- ing, borne by an eagle. The external frieze has representa- tions of sacrificial scenes, while in various spaces winged Victories, bearing trophies, and reliefs of the goddesses Roma and Fortuna are seen. The Arch of Titus is of great interest in connection with the Jews in Rome. The horror and grief of this nation excited by the conduct of Titus still survives ; and no Jew, true to the religion and traditions of his race, will pass beneath this fatal arch. Many Jews who marched in chains in the triumph of their conquerors were forced to labour on the Colosseum, and even to lay the foundation-stones of this rery arch, which, through all the centuries, has emphasised the fame of the hated Titus. Vespasian compelled all Jews to pay as much into the Roman treasury as they had given to the Temple, — half a shekel each, — and Domitian drove them out beyond the TRIUMPHAL ARCHES, HONORARY COLUMNS. 427 precincts of Rome, where they endured a miserable existence until Alexander Severus permitted them to return to their old quarters, — the Ghetto, recently destroyed. When the Popes came to be supreme in Rome, they exacted certain obser- vances which were most humiliating to the Jews, especially upon the occa- sion of the installation of a Pope. On these festivals a deputation of this de- spised race met the Pope in his triumphal progress, sang songs in his praise, and presented him with a magnificent copy of the Pentateuch, bound in gold, which they offered on their knees, beseeching protec- tion for themselves and their people. His Holiness read a few sentences from the book and replied to their prayers in words like these: "We affirm the law ; but we curse the Hebrew people and their exposition of it ; for he of whom you said ' he will come,' has already come, our Lord Jesus Christ, as is taught and professed by the Church." This particular ceremony was abandoned by Adrian, but, in place of this homage, the Jews were obliged to cover a portion of the way over which the procession passed with LEGIONARY BEARING THE IMAGE. FROM Trajan's column. 428 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. rich and costly stuffs. They adorned the steps of the Capitol and the Arch of Septimius Severus when Gregory XIV. was installed ; but later they were sentenced to adorn the Arch of Titus on these occasions, as well as the road leading from it to the Colosseum. The late William Wetmore Story thus describes these decorations : — ■' These tapestries and hangings bore, upon a gold ground, em- broidered emblems designated by the Pope, with Latin texts taken from the Old and New Testaments. The emblem.s, generally twenty-five in number, and expressive of every sort of fantastic allegory, were woven by the Jews themselves in their dirty Ghetto, and doubtless had hatred and indignation enough wrought into their texture to give a Jetlatura to the Pope who passed over and under them. In course of time these scriptural allegories became confused with pagan devices. The Old Testament and Roman mythology intermarried and gave birth to designs absurd in sentiment and barocco in style, — Apollo, Moses, Minerva, the Virgin, Popes, donkeys, and heraldic animals, grouping amicably together, to illustrate texts from the Bible. . . . Some of these very tapestries, I doubt not, might even now be raked out of hidden chambers in the Ghetto, if any one had the wiU to purchase them." In the beginning of this present century. Pius VII. changed the offering of the Jews, to be made to a new Pope, from the decorations of the Arch of Titus to a book adorned with emblems exquisitely painted, dedicated to the Pope in Latin verses, and bound in a very costly style. The book of Gregory XVI. may now be seen in the Cathedral of Belluno, the birthplace of the Pope; it was also painted by a native of Belluno, Pietro Paoletti. The book presented to Pius IX. was very beautiful in design and execution, and cost about five hundred and fifteen dollars. The Arch of Marcus Aurelius, which was destroyed in 1563, was erected in the Via Flaminia, now the Corso. Six sculptured panels taken from it are on the walls of the stair- case of the Palazzo del Conservatori ; while still another 430 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. belongs to the family of the banker, Prince Torlonia. They are most interesting, not only as examples of the art of their era, but for their architectural backgrounds and the typographical information which they afford ; as, for example, that in which the Emperor offers a sacrifice before the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, in which the temple is admirably shown . Although the reign of Septimius Severus, beginning in 193 A. D., distinctly marks the period of the rapid decline of art, it was a time of great activity in building and the construction of ijublic works. During the reign of the two jVfricans, Septimius Severus and his son Caracalla, — a period of twenty-four years, — not only an enormous amount of reconstruction of the old was accomplished, on every stone of which they apparently affixed their names, but two characteristic monuments, quite their own, perpetuate their fame and afford them the remembrance which they coveted. The Arch of Severus and the Baths of CaracaUa have each proved more enduring than the last palace built on the Palatine with its aspiring Septizonium, already described. When Severus had been Emperor nine years, he erected his huge triumphal arch to the glory of himself and his sons, Caracalla and Geta. It was intended to commemorate his Parthian victories, and its inartistic sculptures represent scenes connected with these Eastern wars. This arch has three openings, the central one being much more lofty than the others. The attic was originally surmounted by a bronze chariot drawn by six horses, in which stood a statue of Severus being crowned by A^ictory, while statues of his sons were placed beside the chariot, and an equestrian statue decorated each angle. All these have long since perished. The four principal reliefs, although most insignificant as works of art, are interesting for their representations of TKIUMPHAL ARCHES, HONORARY COLUMNS. 431 Eastern warfare. They are overcrowded with figures, and instead of being separated and framed with mouldings, they are crowded against the columns and under the entablature, while the capitals and, indeed, the whole work is in a singu- larly debased style. The long inscription on the large panel of the attic is repeated on both sides and is most flattering PACK-HORSE CAERTIXG SHIELDS. FROM TKAJAN's COLTIMN. to Severus and Caracalla, who gave himself additional titles to fill in the spaces which had been previously devoted to his brother Geta. One relic of the work of Severus is far more interesting than his arch, — the marble plan of Rome, now affixed to the wall of the staircase in the Capitoline Museum. One must regret that it is not placed where it could be more conven- iently studied. The original plan, made by Vespasian, was partly or wholly destroyed by fire, and was restored by Severus; but, as some portions now remaining are much better executed than others, there is a possibUity that these are from the original model of Vespasian. The existing 432 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. remnants were found at the foot of the wall to which it had been affixed, and the iron clamps which held it are still in place, so that the manner of its arrangement can be per- fectly understood. The marble slabs on which the plan was engraved averaged five feet in height by three and a half in width, and were in nine rows. Many of the fragments of these slabs were found in 1560, and were fortunately copied, as portions of them were afterwards lost ; and when, in later excavations, other portions of the jDlan were discovered, by reproducing in marble, from the copies, the parts that were missing, it was possible to reconstruct it, as it is now seen. There are more than three hundred fragments, varying from tiny bits to those which are from two to three feet in size, at least. The work is not very fine, and the letters not well made ; but it is filled in with vermilion, and even the smallest parts are clear. If it were in a better position for study, its worth would be much increased ; but it of course fixes certain points which could not otherwise be determined, and is most valuable in connection with the study of Eoman topography. It is a curious fact that plans of this sort should have been made from the time of Agrippa, the century before the Christian era ; and the principal methods followed in making them in those ancient days differed but slightly from those of much more recent date. The ancient wall on which this plan was fixed is now included in the church of SS. Cosma and Damian. At the corner of the Via in Miranda, where there is a quadrangle with little work-shops and sheds, and a garden, — an humble but attractive scene, — this ancient wall makes one side of the enclosed space. Pope Felix IV. made it of use in his monastery ; and though windows have been cut through it in several stories, which, with their little curtains and window-gardens, make it to resemble many other walls, — not only in Rome, but in other cities, — it is still the TRIUMPHAL ARCHES, HONORARY COLUMNS. 433 roiginal wall that was once dec- orated with the marble plan of Septimius Severus. Another so-called Arch of Severus, in the Forum Boa- rium, is, in fact, a much-dec- orated gateway which led from the forum into the Velu- brum. Besides certain con- ventional rosettes and orna- ments of that sort, it has reliefs ; and from one of them, which originally repre- sented Caracalla and Geta offering a sacrifice, the figure of Geta has been cut away, as his name has been from the inscription. There is another relief with a portrait of Sev- erus, one with soldiers eon- ducting Oriental prisoners, and several small represen- tations of sacrifices, all in the debased manner in which the sculptures of Severus were executed. After his accession no meritorious sculpture was produced in Eome, and the rapidity of the decline seems inexplicable when we remem- ber the exquisite work of the time of Hadrian, only a little more than half a century earlier. This gateway was erected by the silversmiths or bankers 28 434 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. and merchants of the Forum Boarium, in 204 a. d. , in honour of Septimius Severus, Julia Domna, his wife, and his sons, Caracalla and Geta. The Arch of Constantiue, completed about 315 a. d., to commemorate the victory over Maxentius at the Pons Milvius in 312 is the most perfect triumphal arch remaining in Rome and is, for many reasons, of extreme interest. It is jjrobably copied from the Arch of Trajan in the general design and proportion, which are unusually fine. The origi- nal sculptures, belonging to the fourth century, are coarse and unworthy of their position in every respect, bearing witness as they do to the degraded condition of all art in Rome at the date when they were made. The inscription is interesting for several reasons. A part of it may be translated, " as he has reigned ten years, so may he reign twenty." The use of the title " Maximus " proves that his reign had reached the above-named limit, as it occurs on no coin of Constantine's until after his tenth year ; and the expression, "by divine inspiration," which replaces the customary reference to Jupiter as ' ' the greatest and best, " indicates that the Emperor desired thus publicly to acknowl- edge his adoption of the new faith. There is a question made by some authors as to wliether this inscription has not been changed since originally made ; but of this they give no proof. Clement YIll. removed one of the columns of giallo antico to the Lateran at the close of the sixteenth century ; but the white marble with which it was replaced has taken on the general colour of the whole, so that the difference in original tone and in variety is not easily distinguished. Clement XII. restored the arch with marbles from the ancient Temple of Neptune, and the heads of the Dacian captives on the architrave — which were at one time knocked off — have been carefully replaced; but these circumstances show that, while the barbarians and the spoilers have shown TRIUMPHAL ARCHES, HONORARY COLUMNS. 435 unusual respect for this monument, it lias suffered its abuses. There is but one bit of value in the sculptures on this arch belonging to the fourth century, which is a long tablet on the northern side of the arch; on this the Forum Eomanum is represented as it existed at that time, and the value of the sculpture is historical rather than artistic. The utter decadence of Eoman art is all the more noticeable here by reason of the beauty of the older reliefs, which were taken from the Arch of Trajan, and are placed in close contrast with the later sculptures. The intrinsic merit and beauty of the earlier works and their excellent preservation entitles them to be numbered with the finest examples of Grseco- Roman sculpture, although they are as late as the second century of our era, when the decline in art is already apparent. The sacrificial scenes in the circular medallions are espe- cially beautiful, and were rarely surpassed at any age ; and if one can overcome his indignation at the mutilation of the fine frieze, which has been cut into four parts, he will find it well worthy of his attention. It must have been most satis- factory when in its original form. It represents an attack on the Dacians by the Roman cavalry; the figure of the Emperor Trajan is more than once represented; and when this frieze with its continuous subject — all the figures being life-size — was in its proper place, and no doubt in the midst of appropriate surroundings, it was a noble memorial of the prowess of Trajan and his soldiers. It very probably made a portion of the decoration of the Temple of Trajan. The four medallions on the north side of the arch repre- sent, first, the Emperor and two attendants, all mounted, hunting a boar. Second, Trajan pouring a libation on to an altar before a. statue of Apollo, a graceful laurel-tree mak- ing the background of the upper portion of the circle ; one attendant stands behind the Emperor, and another holds his 436 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. horse. This is a difficult subject for the. circular space devoted to it, and is most skilfully managed. Third, Trajan and a number of attendants stand beside a lion that has been killed, probably by the Emperor. Fourth, Trajan, in sacrificial dress and veiled head, pours a libation on to an .iltar ; the usual two attendants are near him, as well as a small statue of Minerva, while .Jupiter appears in the clouds above him. On the south side are, first, Trajan, who is about to start for the chase, standing near his horse ; among his attendants is a youth whose beauty recalls that of Antinous. Second, Trajan offers a sacri- fice before a statue of Hercules. Third, the Emperor and his at- tendants pursue a bear. Fourth, Trajan pours a libation at an altar, before a statue of Diana, a thank- offering for success in hunting. The rectangular re- liefs on the attic, on the north side, tow- ards the Colosseum, represent, first, the Emperor received at the gates of the city by a stately figure of the goddess Roma. An arched gateway, decorated with flowers, and a temple are in the background, probably repre- senting the Porta Capena and the Temple of Mars. A VEXILLARY, FROM ANTONINE COLUMN. TRIUMPHAL ARCHES, HONORARY COLUMNS. 437 The second scene is probably outside the Porta Capena. Trajan is looking down on a half-nude youth reclining on the ground and holding a wheel ; near by is a man dressed as a civilian; while on one side are some armed men, one of whom holds a horse. This is a most interesting commemo- ration of the making of a road over the Pontine marshes in 110 A. D. The reclining youth with the wheel is the usual symbol of a road ; the civilian is probably the engineer of the undertaking, perhaps ApoUodorus himself. The third relief is also noteworthy. Trajan is seated on a throne on a lofty platform, and is surrounded by attend- ants ; the Emperor is addressing a group of people who are standing below him. Among them is a woman with a chUd, and the scene apparently commemorates the establishment, in 99 A. D., of an institution for the benefit of the children of the poor. Such a relief as this, or one in which Trajan raises a kneeling w'oman who symbolises a province, prob- ably made the foundation of Dante's lines in the tenth canto of the ' ' Purgatory " : — " There, was storied on a rock The exalted glorv of the Roman Prince, Whose mighty worth moved Gregory to earn His mighty coni)uest, Trajan the Kmperor. A widow at hi* l)ridle stood, attired In tears and mourning. Round about them troop'd Full throng of knights ; and overhead in gold The eagles floated, struggling with the wind. The wretch appear'd amid all these to say : ■ Grant vengeance, Sire ! for, woe beshrew his heart, My son is murder'd.' He replying seem'd : 'Wait now till I return.' And she, as one Made hasty by her grief : ' Sire ! if thou Dost not return 1 ' — ' Where I am, who then is May right thee.' — ' What to thee is other's good, If thou neglect thy own ■? ' ' Now comfort thee,' At length he answers. ' It beseemeth well My duty be perform'd, ere I move hence : So justice wills, and pity bids me stay.' " TRIUMPHAL ARCHES, HONORARY COLUMNS. 439 The fourth scene on this side presents a foreign prince offer- ing his homage to Trajan, who is on his throne, whUe a number of Roman soldiers, bearing standards and eagles, are behind. This prince is probably the King of Armenia, who was conquered in 115 a. d. On the south side the first relief again represents Trajan enthroned receiving a barbarian potentate. The second shows the Emperor receiving Decebalus, the Dacian king, and a number of Dacian captives, who are conducted by Roman soldiers. The third scene shows Trajan on a plat- form addressing the army; and in the fourth, Trajan is about to offer a sacrifice ; he is surrounded by soldiers and standard- bearers, while a bull, a ram, and a boar are being led for- ward toward a tripod altar. There are few objects remaining in Rome so suggestive of questioning as is the Trajan-Constantine arch, which con- tributes to the glory of the former, greatly to the disadvan- tage of the latter. Why did Constantine take the r61e of the spoiler before all ages ? and why fill it in so poor a fashion ? There are in Rome slight remains of other arches, like those of Gratian and G-allienus, but nothing about them demands or repays a visit. The Arch of Dolabella, as it is called, is, in fact, a gateway, which, as the inscription states, was erected in 10 a. d. , but for what reason or purpose, originally, is not known. It is on the Cselian Hill, and the portion of the Claudian aqueduct which Nero built passes over it. It is a plain arch, built of blocks of travertine, and may have opened into that Campus Martialis which was used for games when the Campus Martins was flooded. Honorary columns were frequently erected in Rome ; one of the earliest was that of Maenius, who fixed the bronze beaks to the Rostra in 338 b. c. The column set up in 260 B. c. by C. Duillius, in the Forum near the Rostra, com- memorated his victory over the Carthaginians. It was adorned with beaks from captured vessels ; and a portion of 440 KOME, THE ETERNAL CITY. its base — probably copied from the original — is in the Capitoline Museum. Such columns were frequently erected to commemorate naval victories; two reproductions now stand on the road from the Piazza del Popolo to the Pincian. They are called columnoe rostratce. An honorary column was erected to Julius Caesar, and one to Antoninus Pius, the pedestal of which is now in the Giardino della Pigna in the Vatican, as already mentioned; but the Column of Trajan, which fortunately has not been destroyed, is the finest example of this style of monument that was erected in Eome. This column is also called the Columnd, cochlis, from its wind- ing stairs ; and from its height of one hundred Roman feet it had a third name, which for the same reason was given to the Column of Marcus Aui-elius, both being known as the Co- lumnce Centenarim. One cannot consider this magnificent column without regretting that Trajan did not see it. He built his forum and went away to prose- cute the Parthian War, after which the Senate erected the SOLDIER CAKRTING HIS BAG&AGE. , • j! xi • FROM TRAJAN'S COLUMN. ^^^^^ ^^ ^"^ exprcssiou of their pride in him. It was dedicated in 114 A. D. ; but the war continued, and in 117 the Em- peror died in CUicia. History relates that the column made his tomb, his ashes being placed beneath it in a golden urn in which they were brought to Eome ; but this precious vase was too costly to be spared to posterity, and when search was made for it the chamber was empty. W/w TRIUMPHAL ARCHES, HONORARY COLUMNS. 441 The pedestal of the column is richly decorated with reliefs of trophies and armour taken from the Dacians, one side of it being devoted to the inscription, engraved on a tablet upheld by two Victories. Above the cornice of the pedestal, on each corner, is an eagle supporting a garland of flowers. Beneath the inscription is the entrance to the staircase, which winds around a central newel, and consists of one hundred and eighty-four steps, all in solid marble ; it is lighted by little slits in the column. The base of the shaft represents an enormous wreath of laurel, whUe its capital is better de- scribed as Doric than by any other architectural term, al- though it is not sti-ictly of that order. The sculptures on the column ascend in a spiral band and pass twenty-three times around the shaft, which is made of twenty-three courses of large marble blocks. The skill with which the depth of the spiral band is gradually increased from three feet at the bottom to four at the top, in order to give it the appearance of being of equal width for the entire height, is admirable, as well as the manner in which the reliefs are executed ; they contain twenty-five hundred and more figures, besides a wealth of accessories finished with infinite care. In truth, if they had been more boldly exe- cuted, their effect would have been much greater, and one can but feel that much of the labour lavished on them was in a sense wasted. However, we cannot say what difference was effected by the brilliant colouring and the gold with which they were originally decorated, which must have had an appearance as unusual and striking as that of the gopu- ras of Madura in the Madras Presidency. I ought here to say that authorities disagree about the colours on these reliefs. While Middleton speaks of them without qualifica- tion or doubt, Burn emphatically pronounces it an error to suppose that they were ever co'oured. However, it would not have been impossible for colours to be used here for the very purpose of making the designs clearer, somewhat after 442 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. the method in which they had been used by the Egyptians many centuries before the erection of Trajan's Column. The scenes represented in the reliefs were from the Dacian campaigns, which made so large a part of Trajan's fame and glory, — as in the defeat and death of King Decebalus, de- scribed by Dion Cassius. The impossibility of studying these reliefs closely makes the casts of the Villa de' Medici of value ; whereas those at the South Kensington Museum are so badly placed as to be of small account. Middleton says of these reliefs : " Though wanting in grace and refine- ment, they are fuU of dramatic vigour, and form a sort of encyclopaedia of Roman costumes, arms, and military engi- neering, and methods of advance and attack by land and river, in open field, and against walled cities, with the most wonderful fertility of design and careful attention to detail." The custom of placing statues at such a height as on top of this column was first practised, as it seems, by Romans in the time of the Empire. The Greeks placed statues on columns, but they did not raise them so high that their faces could not be seen. The statue of Trajau was of gilt bronze twenty feet in height, and how or when it disappeared is not known; perhaps it went with other bronzes that the Emperor Constans II. lost to the Saracens ; but Genseric had previously spent fourteen days in robbing Rome ; who can tell ? The statue held a globe in the hand, which is now in the Capitoline Museum. Certainly the orig- inal statue had been taken away centuries before Sixtus V. fiUed its place with the statue of Saint Peter holding the key in his extended hand. The column has suffered many injuries at the hands of Vandals of one nationality or another ; some of them may have been French, who turned the Bourbon guns upon it. In the twelfth century a papal decree forbade its injury on pain of death, and doubtless this did much for its preserva- tion, as until late in the sixteenth century it was quite out- The Column of Trajan. TRIUMPHAL ARCHES, HONORARY COLUMNS. 443 side the populous part of the city and surrounded with vineyards and farms. The Column of Marcus Aurelius in the Piazza Colonna, which so much resembles that of Trajan that it may be called a copy of it, is in good preservation, with the excep- tion of its lower pedestal ; it is the same height as the older column ; it has the appearance of being shorter, because the band of sculptures is broader — having life-size figures — and encircles the shaft three times less than the band passes around that of Trajan. The effect of this is to dwarf the Column of Marcus Aurelius in a sm-prising manner. It affords a striking example of what may be called the chief defect in Greek art ; which attained increase in size by ad- hering to the same plan used in a smaller edifice and enlarg- ing the same number of parts in an exact ratio ; producing, as we admit, an harmonious whole. But the mediteval archi- tecture is certainly superior in the multiplying, rather than the magnifying of parts. The addition of the clerestory and triforium is an expedient which imparts far more grandeur to an edifice than is attained by the Greek method. There was the same internal winding staircase in the later column as in the older, and, in fact, there are many resem- blances so exact as to make any especial description of it unnecessary. The reliefs illustrated the four campaigns against the Germans, and are much less artistic in design and execution than are those on the Column of Trajan. This column stood in the centre of a large portico in front of a temple dedicated to INIarcus Aurelius, all of which has disappeared, and even upon the pedestal of the column itself the name of another Antonine occupies the place of that of the most attractive and faultless of the whole line of the pagan emperors of Rome. This change was made in the last years of the sixteenth century, when Sixtus V. found it absolutely necessary to restore the base of the column ; when the name of Antoninus Pius was cut upon the new 444 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. GERMAN FAMILY. FROM ANTONINE COLUMN. marble, and the statue of Saint Paul was placed upon the summit, where that of Marcus Aurelius originally stood. It is impossible to speak or write the name of Marcus Aurelius without calling up the picture of this wonderful man, known to us chiefly by his "Meditations." Marcus Aurelius was no exception to the rule that men of strong individuality are ardently admired or vigorously condemned. Among the authors who are severely critical of this magnifi- cent Roman is Durny ; yet he acknowledges that if, accord- ing to the apologists and the doctors of the Church, it was possible for Christians, or men who were Christian in spirit, to exist before Jesus Christ, Marcus Aurelius was certainly TRIUMPHAL ARCHES, HONORARY COLUMNS. 445 such a man, with which opinion it would seem that all must agree. What man who is a Christian can more ardently desire to reach the summit of human perfection? The tablets which he wrote from day to day, and which were simply his communings with his own higher self, — writings which no human eye had read, and which he did not write to be seen of others, — afford us, as we read them in his " Medi- tations," a clear insight into his spiritual struggles. They reveal to us his questionings and his aims, than which few men have written anything more lofty in aspiration or more far-reaching towards the highest life that mortal can hope to live. His longing to attain to the likeness of the Divine; his rule — made for himself alone — • to abstain from the thought of evil ; to cherish no revenge and to sacrifice every personal wish and aim to the fulfilment of what he deemed to be his duty, — furnish a model that many a Christian man and woman have earnestly striven to imitate. We may well believe that Marcus Aurelius, pagan though he was, had reached a height from which he had a view of the glorious truths for which the martyrs of his reign were dying. Alas, that between him and them there was a veil that darkened their vision and forbade their seeing that they were all alike hungering and thirsting for righteousness ! VICTORY CROWNING A WAREIOR. CHAPTER XI. BEIDGES, AQTJEDTJCTS, FOUNTAINS, AND VILLAS. T^HE early Romans were greater as eugineers than as ■'- architects ; and among their important and most ancient officials were the six pontifices, -'bridge builders," whose office of building and destroying the bridge over the Tiber was not only politically important, but sacred as well. The origin of this religious office was the ancient belief that the building of a bridge was an act of impiety and an insult to the god of the river, since it robbed him of a certain number of victims, who, without the safety of the bridge, would lose their lives in crossing. Thus it was the most ancient and important duty of the Roman Pontifex to appease the wrath of Father Tiber by sacrifices, which at first consisted of living human beings, and later of thirty dummies made of straw, which were thrown into the river annually. Sacrifices were also offered when a bridge was repaired, during the primitive ages, and for centuries the religious rites connected with bridges were care- fully observed. The most ancient Roman bridge was the Pons Siiblicius, so called from the sublicce, modern beams, of which it was built, — another feature of the superstitions connected with bridges being that no metal could be used in their construction. The idea seems to have been that Father Tiber might pardon the erection of a bridge that appeared to 1)6 temporary, but that a stronger one, and especially if built of stone, would so anger him as to bring some dire calamity on Rome. This tradition was respected even in our era, and BRIDGES, AQUEDUCTS, FOUNTAINS, VILLAS. 447 no iron was used in the restoration of this bridge until after the fall of the Roman Empire. Of course this superstition belonged to prehistoric days ; and in later times one important reason for rebuilding this bridge in wood is believed to have been in order that it could be cut away to prevent the crossing of an enemy ; as had occurred when Ho- ratius, "the one-eyed," had held back the Etruscan army until the bridge could be destroyed. No doubt the thrilling tale of the bravery and prowess of Horatius Codes had but a slight, if it had any, foundation in truth ; but there is a probability that it was recited at the funerals of the Horatii for generations, and it still excites the tribute of admiration and sympathy which every story of self-sacri- ficing patriotism should arouse; and we can quite imagine thqt for centuries the picture of Macaulay's verse was a true one : — " And still his name sounds stirring Unto the men of Eome As the trumpet-blast that cries to them To charge the ^olscian home ; And wiyes still pray to Juno For boys with hearts as bold As his who kept the bridge so well In the brave days of old." HOKATIUS COCLES. This bridge was constructed for the purpose of connecting the city with the Servian fortress on the Janiculum. It was for a long period the only bridge across the Tiber ; and in later times, when the piers were built of stone, the bridge itself continued to be made of wood, and is spoken of as a wooden bridge even in the time of Augustus. Its site is not positively known ; but Middleton gives it as his opinion that 448 KOME, THE ETERNAL CITY. it led from the Forum Boarium not far from the existing circular temple. After the conquest of Etruria and the defeat of Hannibal had put an end to the fear of an invasion, a stone bridge was constructed and called the Pons ^milius, in honour of its founder; it was many years in course of construction, and was not complete until 142 b. c. It was also jsnown as the Pons Lapideus, on account of its being the only stone bridge in Rome for a considerable period. In 1886, during an excavation on the Tiber embankment, the starting-point of this bridge was exposed ; it was rebuilt in the Middle Ages, after a flood, and the existing remains are almost entirely of that date; again, in 1598, a flood did it much injury, and an iron bridge was built across the gap. The modern Ponte Eotto was erected on the site of the Pons ^milius and of the mediaeval bridge, of which but a single arch is left, and this stands alone in the middle of the river, a new bridge having been constructed a little lower down. The island of the Tiber now called that of S. Bartolommeo has long been united to the mainland by two bridges, — the Pons Fabricivs, which is connected with the left bank of the Tiber, and the Pons Cestius, which leads from the island to the Janiculum, or Trastevere quarter. The first of these was built about 60 B.C., and still Retains much of its ancient architecture ; it has an interesting inscription repeated on each side of the archway, a good part of which is stai legi- ble, in spite of its great age. The Pons Fabricius is built of the material usually seen in Roman bridges, peperino and tufa, faced with massive blocks of travertine on both sides. The Fabricius has but two arches, semicircular in form ; there is an opening for flood-water above the central pier. At the springing of the arches travertine corbels, or project- ing stones in the form of a basket, are built in as a support to the wooden centering. bridges; aqueducts, fountains, villas. 449 The Romans frequently adopted this device, which was especiaUy useful in making repairs ; and, in fact, in the lofty arches of aqueducts, and other constructions where it would have been too expensive or too difficult to support a center- ing with tall props resting on the ground, these corbels were introduced. An upright pUaster crowned by a Janus Quadrifrons, or four-faced head, stUl exists ; it made a part of the ancient screen or balustrade along the sides of the bridge, and from this head comes the modern name of the bridge, Ponte dei quattro ccqn. The pilasters were grooved to support an open-work bronze screen, which filled the spaces between these columns. During the Middle Ages the Pons Fabrieius was known as the Pons Judceus, by reason of its proximity to the quarter of the Jews, and is often mentioned by that name in old writings. The Pons Cestius, which unites the island of the Tiber to the Janiculum, or Trastevere quarter, was probably built in 40 B. c, and was restored in 370 a. d., as is recorded on 'one of the slabs of the parapet. This bridge has a single arch, with an opening for flood-water on each side. The bridge is now called by the present name of the island and the church on it, S. Bartolommeo; and on account of the widen- ing of the south branch of the river the bridge was lengthened in 1886. The Pons ^lius was for many reasons the most interest- ing of Roman bridges. It is now called the Ponte di S. Angela, and is as modern as its name sounds in contrast with that by which it was formerly known. The Pons ^lius was bnilt by Hadrian in 1.3.5 a. d., in order to connect his mausoleum with the Campus Martius. When new, it had more arches than now, and led directly to the central en- trance to the mausoleum, as is shown in ancient pictures of the castle and bridge. The original name of the bridge, 29 450 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. ^lius, was the prsenomen of Hadrian ; and it may have been thus named in memory of the son of the Emperor, who died before his father, and was the first to be interred in the roj'al tomb. Dante immortalised this bridge by comparing the throngs passing over it, at the time of the jubilee in 1300, with the sinners scourged by demons in the eighth circle of hell. Pope Boniface VIII. ordered a wooden barrier to be put up in the middle of the bridge, and so arranged that all the people on each side should be moving in one direction. " E'en thus the Romans, when the year returns Of Jubilee, with better speed to rid The thronging multitudes, their means devise For such as pass the bridge ; that on one side All front toward the castle and approach Saint Peter's fane, on the other towards the mount." The mount was probably the hill of the Lateran. Originally this bridge had arched gateways at each end, as was cus- tomary with Roman bridges ; and pictures of the Pons xElius such as were published by Mariano in 1890, in his very in- teresting " Castel Sant' Angelo," show these gateways as- they existed until medieval times. The three large arches of the centre are probably a part of the original structure of Hadrian's bridge. During the Middle Ages booths and shops occupied such a proportion of this bridge as to make it so narrow as to be dangerous when crowds were passing, and on the Augusta, by which the supply of water was doubled. The Marcian aque- duct was still further improved by Titus and Caracalla. This aqueduct entered the city near the Porta Capena, and supplied the Cselian Hill. Its remains can be easily examined where it passes over the present Porta S. Lorenzo, where its specus lies below those of two other aqueducts. 456 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. the Julia aud Tepula. Water is still brought to Kome through the Marcian aqueduct, now known as the Aqiia Pia. It was restored and solemnly inaugurated in 1870 by Pope Pius IX., — one of his last public acts in connection with his temporal power, as it preceded the entrance of the Italian army into Rome but a few days. The Marcian water was much esteemed for being unusually cold and pure. Tacitus relates that in the cold spring of the Marcian aqueduct Nero swam from shore to shore, desiring thus to profane the sacred waters. The consequence of this mad exploit was a rheumatic fever of which the young emperor almost — but unfortunately not quite — died. The water of the Aqua Tepula, on the contrary, was thus named from being warm. It was built in 127 b. c, its source being eleven or twelve miles out on the Via Latina, and, together with the Aqua Jidia, it was carried for a long distance on arches rebuilt by Augustus, as is seen by the gate of S. Lorenzo noticed above. Near the source of the Aqua Julia, about a mile above the Monastery of Grottaferrata, nine of the cippi, or mark- ing-posts, of Augustus have been found within a few years. The castella, or reservoirs, were a very important feature of the aqueducts, and besides one at the beginning of the aqueduct, and one at its end, there were usually others along its route for the purification of the water by retain- ing its sediment in the reservoirs ; necessary repairs could also be easily detected between any two of these points. The castella were also used for the purposes of irrigation for fields and gardens. The principal reservoir, at the termi- nation of the aqueduct, was naturally the largest and most solidly constructed, sometimes in a splendid style of architecture. The castellum built for the Aqua Julia, on the Esquiline, some portions of which still exist in the Piazza Vittorio Emmanuele, was a splendid example of these reservoirs. 458 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. It is shown on the medallions of Alexander Severus, sur- rounded with a series of fountains, basins for water, and miniature waterfalls, all of which are made in marble and decorated with sculptures and marble columns. This may perhaps be called a splendid fountain, rather than a reser- voir, for after the water from it had been disj^layed in orna- mental jets and cascades, it entered another reservoir from which it was distributed in service-pipes. In 1822 this was excavated, and drawings made from it, and again in 1877 it was completely exposed. The Aqua Virgo was begun by Agrippa in 33 b. c, its main object being to supply the Baths of Agrippa. There is a legend that its source was pointed out by a girl to some thii-sty soldiers, and hence its name. This aqueduct has been restored, and still supplies the Fountain of Trevi, as well as the fountains of the Piazza Navona and the Piazza di Spagna, besides ten smaller fountains and a goodly number of streets. Some of the arches buUt by Agrippa still exist, and portions of its water-course can also be seen. This aqueduct had eighteen reservoirs, the main ope being on the Pincian ; its water is especially pure and cool. The Romans employed a very perfect system for filtering water, and every large reservoir contained vaulted chambers for this purpose. The large baths and fine private residences had castella of their own, which were called domestic reservoirs, or cisterns. • The reservoir behind S. Pietro in Montorio, on the Jani- culum, built in the seventeenth century, is much like those of ancient days, and constantly pours a generous flood of water into a great basin. Augustus built the Aqua Alsietina for the special supply of his great NuumacJiia, where the sea-flghts were held. Its source was a lake near the fourteenth milestone on the Via Claudia. It was of a lower level than any other aqueduct, and the water was not fit to drink. What a labour to con- BRIDGES, AQUEDUCTS, FOUNTAINS, VILLAS. 459 struct first the Naumachia and then the aqueduct for so rare a use as that of these mock naval battles ! but this aque- duct was restored by Paul V. , and in the Tnistevere quarter is known as the Acqua Paolo, and has been very useful in turning the flour-mills on the Janiculum in modem days. The two magnificent aqueducts, the Claudia aud Anio Novus, were begun by Caligula in 38 a. d., and completed by Claudius fourteen years later. The Aqua Claudia is more than forty-five miles long, and its water-course rests for nine aud a half miles on lofty arches, while for three thousand feet its channel is sup- ported on solid masonry. The Anio Novus was sixty- two miles long, and also had nine and a half miles carried on splendid arches, some of which were one hundred and nine feet high. These two most magnificent aqueducts of Rome, in construction, length, aud the height of their arches, met about three miles outside the city, and their water-courses were carried on the same arches into Rome, while within the city the two waters were mingled. The ruins of these aqueducts are so often seen, not only when one goes to the Campagna, but from so many different points of view, that they come to seem like friends, and, like the most valued friends, grow more beautiful the more frequently they are seen. But few writers have so well de- picted their charm as has Story, when, seeing them from the heights of Caracalla's Baths, he says : — " Below you, stretching ofE towards the mountains amid broken towers, tombs, and castled ruins, that everywhere strew its rolling surface, behold that long line of arches, with here and there great gaps opening between lofty, ivy-covered fragments that seem like portions of grand porticoes, — that is the Claudian aqueduct. It domineers over all other ruins that you see, stretching its arches out and out till, ' fine by degTee.s and beautifully less,' they run away into the mountain's bosom. There it lies, like the broken vertebrse of some giant plesiosaurus, a ruined relic of a mighty age and a distant time. From the ' heart of the purple mountain,' 460 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. the shadow of trees, and the song of birds, it drew its waters to supply the baths of the Romans in this very ruin on whose height we stand ; and the sylvan stream that listened on the hill-tops to the nightingale, and was brushed by the morning butterfly, here leaping at last to light from its dark and narrow prison, heard suddenly the clash of gladiators' swords and the murmur of a Roman populace." The arch of an aqueduct under which a road passed was always built in a dignified and decorative style ; and the present Porta Maggiore, which is a fine piece of this double aqueduct, is an admirable example of these arches. The two water-courses are in excellent preservation, and the entire structure was especially well built, as two roads passed beneath. Splendid remains of the Claudian aqueduct still stretch for miles across the Campagna. Trajan built an aqueduct in 109 a. d., three years after death had deprived him of the valuable service of Frontinus. This Aqua Trajana was for the supply of the Transtiberine quarter of Rome, and its level was so high as to supply the summit of the Janiculan Hill. An inscription has been found recording the purchase by Trajan of a strip of land thii'ty feet wide, for the building of this aqueduct, on which no planting was to be done. A magnificent reservoir was built on the Janiculum, adorned with columns and statues, which is shown on coins of Trajan. The Gothic general Vitiges cut the aqueduct in 537 a. d., and Belisarius re- stored it; several popes have also repaired it, and it still continues to supply with a generous flood the fountains of S. Peter's and the great Fontana Paolina, as well as a large portion of the Transtiberine city. This, together with the Acqua Vergine, or Aqiia Virgo, the Acqua Pia, the ancient Aqua Marcia, and the Acqua Felice, are the four old aqueducts that still supply water to modern Rome. There is a difference among authorities about the Acqua Felice; some call it the ancient Claudian and others the BRIDGES, AQUEDUCTS, FOUNTAINS, VILLAS. 461 Alexandrina, which last was constructed by Severus Alex- ander, in 226 A. D., to supply his additions to the Baths of Nero. Among the fountains supplied by this water is that of Monte Cavallo iu front of the Quirinal Palace. This was the last aqueduct which was built in Eome, the whole number of eleven being sometimes increased to fourteen by speaking of what are but branches of these as main aqueducts. Augustus appointed Agrippa to the office of Superin- tendent of the Water AVorks of Rome in 33 b. c. ; aud Pliny relates that in one year he constructed for public use seven hundred basins or pools, five hundred fountains, and one hundred and thirty reservoirs, many of these being richly decorated ; three hundred statues in bronze and marble, and four hundred marble columns used in these works, all being made within the same year, according to this historian ; who, valuable as is the information he gives us, makes an unusually large demand upon our credulity in this statement. How- ever, the summing up of the amount of labour accomplished in the building of aqueducts, even by the most exact histo- rians and archieologists, affords a marvellous illustration of the courage to undertake herculean enterprises which the Romans displayed ; and of their ability to give form and prominence to their daring conceits. The waters of eighteen springs were brought into Rome by fourteen aqueducts. These springs were at various distances from the capital, the shortest being seven and a half, and the farthest forty-four miles away. The shortest aqueduct was about eleven miles long and the longest sixty-two. The length of all the fourteen aque- ducts above ground was fifty-five miles, the channel being carried on the tops of arcades. Some of these well merit the name of triumphal arches, since they are of great height for long distances, sometimes exceeding a hundred feet. The aggregate length under- 462 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. ground was three hundred and four miles, the entire distance traversed both above aud below ground thus being a little more than three hundred and fifty-nine miles. We can readily imagine the health, the joy, and the financial increase which this magnificent supply of water must have brought to the Romans. Aside from its benefit as a beverage and its purification of everything with which it came in contact, it was a mine of wealth in its uses for irrigation ; and no garden or farm needed to suffer from drought, nor any dumb beast from thirst, for, according to Frontinus, nearly one quarter of the entire distribution of water was without the gates. Within the gates an enormous quantity was enjoyed with- out money and without price, as there were five hundred and ninety-one open reservoirs, of greater or less size, scattered over the city, to which any one who chose could go with his bucket as frequently as he desired. It has been estimated that about eighteen million gallons fiowed into these reservoirs every twenty-four hours. It is not strange that with all this opportunity the Romans became the nation of bathers that they were; which habit, alas! they have so sadly lost. However, it is only the lower classes who are not clean ; and in what country do we find them more so ? Certainly not in England, where their filth and rags could not be surpassed ; and in many portions of the large cities of the United States, the poorest people, representatives of various nations as they are, all seem to be Anglomaniacs in this particular. The fountains of Rome are an unending delight. The sound of falling water and the sight of tossing spray is in every square. Does the sun shine, the waters sparkle like jewels and dance and laugh as if their duty of rolling aud tumbling were the superlative joy of all duty. Is the sky overcast and the day dark, they still roll on ; they are doing their work and tossing a pure white foam, but with a graver 464 KOME, THE ETERNAL CITY. and more sedate effect, as if they sympathise with us, who feel that Rome is not at its best spiritually when the sun does not shine. Until one makes a list of the splendid first-class fountains in Rome, he scarcely realises how many they are. Pie comes to take them as a gift of the same Providence that sends the rain upon " the just and the unjust," and forgets what it means to keep their enormous streams for ever full. The fountains of S. Peter's seem such a part of their surroundings that thej' quite lose themselves in the whole, — in what we really mean when we say S. Peter's. Old Neptune and his Tritons make more of a separate and individual impression in the Trevi, but scarcely as much as they merit, after all ; and in the Barberini Square, where the Triton dominates the dolphins and blows a fine artistic spray from his conch; in the Piazza Navona, where the three foun- tains seem like the extravagance of a Nero, and the four river-gods are chained as if they might have been spared from death at some Roman triumph ; in the Piazza, di Monte Cavallo, where the Horse-Tamers of Phidias and Prax- iteles never permit their restive steeds to drink from the basin of the Temple of Romulus when any human eye observes them ; in the Piazza Parnese, where the streams fresh from the mountains seem to be ever purifying the lahra in which the luxurious friends of Caracalla bathed ; on the Janiculum, where tlie Fontana Paolina pours itself out abundantly, and with a roar that well expresses the resent- ment it should feel against the Pope and architect who made so ugly a receptacle for its silvery flood, — in short, in all the grand squares of Rome, the music of falling waters is an ever-present antidote to weariness, and to the habitual rest- lessness of modern life. But it is not through the great fountains alone that the old aqueducts pour themselves most willingly. They seem to delight in filling the numberless gaping mouths stretched BRIDGES, AQUEDUCTS, FOUNTAINS, VILLAS. 465 open at every corner with their fresh, cool streams ; and if an old Egyptian lion stands in their path, they make no apology for finding the outer world through his solemn jaws. He would be an enterprising man who would undertake to count the wells in the courts of the houses, and the wash- ing cisterns, where these waters splash and gurgle, while the women gossip, and beat their linen, and spread it in the sun all day long. Even after one leaves the city and wanders on the Cam- pagna, he has not left the singing waters, which burst out here and there with their hospitality for man and beast, and trickle off in little streams, sometimes leaving but tiny green, mossy tracks to show where they have passed, and then again gathering in silver lines that sparkle like rivulets of diamonds as they stretch out and are lost to view. To be statistical on this charming theme, we have already mentioned the five hundred fountains with which M. Agrippa endowed Rome in a single year ; and in the ancient records as many as eighty fountains and basins of various size were credited to one quarter of the city, while in every direc- tion they were numerous. Very few of the ancient fountains remain in any form; and where they can be located there are usually found the brick and concrete foundations and centres alone, all their artistic beauty having disappeared. The great bronze cone in the Giardino delict Pigna of the Vatican is pierced with holes at the roots of the scales, through which the water poured in jets when it made the centre of the handsome fountain which Pope Symmachus, 498-514 A. D., placed in the centre of the open space before S. Peter's as it then existed, and is shown in an ancient fresco in the church of S. Martino di Monti. The private fountains in gardens and houses in ancient Rome were numerous and very beautiful. A favourite gar- den fountain, used also in courts, was placed in a niche lined with brilliantly coloured glass mosaics, bordered with shells ; a 30 466 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. statuette, a lion's head, or similar design was set in the mosaic in the back of the niche, and from this the water poured into a basin below. These fountains have also been found in Pompeii in a very perfect state. Around all out-of- door fountains it was customary to place flowers in pots, or growing in earth in a sort of trough that was made around the fountain-basin for the purpose ; and water-plants were much affected in these places. Other fountains were exquisite in their design and in the marbles and porphyries of which they were made. They were decorated with statues in both marble and bronze; and frequently a Cupid or Nymph held a shell or fish, or other like object, from which the water flowed. Sometimes the fountain was a little ediflce, the water bursting from it in all directions and running down over its steps into a basin. But perhaps the most elegant of all these was the beauti- fully proportioned, large, fluted basin, made from some ex- quisite marble and mounted on a slender support of Oriental alabaster, with a single jet of water springing from the middle of the basin. Naturally the amount of water con- ceded to a certain house was considered in the construc- tion of the fountain ; but if it did not permit a stream more than a quarter of an inch in diameter, the fountain was made accordingly, and even its little trickle was much prized. The interior fountains were often very delicate figures, which did not require a large body of water, which would have concealed the exquisite artistic work lavished ou them. In the theatres and places of amusement under the Empire, it was customary to have perfumed fountains that cooled the air with scented waters; and an almost imperceptible spray was sometimes thrown from the very top of an amphitheatre down into its midst. ^ The fountain of the Piazza dei Termini, with its basalt lions, is so ugly and so unsuited to be classed with other BRIDCxES, AQUEDUCTS, FOUNTAINS, VILLAS. 467 Roman fountains that its story should be told. It consists of three niches, the statues of Aaron and Gideon being in those at the sides of the central one, which contahis a colossal Moses, with hand outstretched to strike the Rock. Domenico Fontana made the design ; and a young sculptor then in Rome, Prospero da Brescia, was fired with a desire to obtain the commission for the JMoses, boldly declaring that he would produce a prophet far more excellent than that of Michael Angelo. He obtained the order; and, excluding every one, he locked himself in his studio, devoting his thought, talent, and energy to his work, until he proudly announced that all Rome could see his magnificent prophet. Alas ! the Romans greeted it with such scorn and jeers that the foolish Brescia went out and drowned himself. One wonders why the government finished it and put it in its place, unless it be for a warning to over-confident artists. But there it stands, bundled up in a great quantity of VILLA OX THE SEASHORE. most ungraceful drapery, with an absolutely savage ex- pression, which is emphasised by two large horns and an enormously heavy beard. As a prophet, the figure is so fantastic that it becomes ludicrous. When we try to imagine the beauty of the city of Rome under the Empire, — the fountains, gardens, porticoes, tri- umphal arches, palaces, temples, and forums, — it seems all too stately for " human nature's daily food ; " and, wondering 468 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. where and when the Romans escaped from this burdensome imperial atmosphere, we recall the delightful descriptions of the villas'scattered all over the vicinity of Rome, the shores of the Bay of Baise and other charming locations, — those lessons over which we laboured, and were well repaid, in our days of Latin translations. The minute details which Pliny gives of his villas and his farm mate one feel quite at home in them, since this author has the power to place one in the surroundings which he describes. One of his villas was at Laurentum, on the Mediterranean, to which he could easily ride towards evening after attending to his many im- portant duties at Rome, as he became possessed of this estate during the years of his heaviest public duties. At Laurentum the whole shore was crowded with summer resi- dences ; and that it was deemed a most healthful spot is proved by the fact that the physician of the Emperor ad- vised his going there for the summer to avoid an epidemic of pestilence then cursing Rome. One remark of Pliny's, that the bay-tree would not live through a winter at Laurentum or at Rome without shelter, shows what climatic changes have occurred since his day; we now see the bay and the olive flourishiug in all this country, and roses blooming out of doors in Rome in every month of the year. But undoubtedly the climate of Lauren- tum and neighbouring places, which we should not find warm for summer residence, was much cooler when the Tiber could be choked with ice ; when the snow lay seven feet where not drifted, and both men and animals froze to death, while famished wolves came into Rome and dragged a dead body into the Forum, where the snow was very deep. To all of which we have the testimony of Livy, Dionysius, and other authors. May it not be that this change of climate accounts for the unhealthfulness of the Campagna in modern times? Even the Pontine marshes were not unhealthy then. Pliny speaks of twenty-three cities situated on them ; and Livy ne Campagna and Ruins of the Claudian Aquedtict. BRIDGES, AQUEDUCTS, FOUNTAINS, VILLAS. 469 tells of their cultivation by the Romans, who regarded them as a granary in time of famine. In truth, the Campagna was thickly settled, covered with villas and farms, where a multitude of men and beasts lived and flourished. So many discoveries ha\'e been made here in recent years, that this city of buried homes can be spoken of with assurance. The villas were principally built on one plan, and rise in steps and terraces from the lowest to the highest point of land belonging to them. The terraces were supported by strong foundation walls, and were ornamented by statues, niches, and nymphaea, or areas decorated with statues of nymphs and water-deities, a fountain, and aquatic plants. On the lower terraces were gardens and orchards, while the dwelling-house was on the highest point. With such a plan, not only from the house, but from the upper terraces, the whole surrounding landscape could be seen, while the water supplied to each estate was made to do duty several times over, since the overflow of each height fell on the next below ; and great skill was attained in sup- plying numerous fountains and nymphsea with a compara- tively small body of water, of which there was no waste permitted. During the great prosperity of Eome at the close of the Republic and under the Empire, the wealthy patricians owned several villas suited in position and arrangement to spring, summer, and winter residences ; and according to the season for which they were intended, the exposure was made to the north or tf) the south. The Claudian, Valerian, Flavian, and other aristocratic families were possessed of villas suited to the varying seasons. The QuintUii were unfortunately fond of their villas, and successful in making them attractive. As a summer home, they had a villa at Tusculum, which was but seven miles from their magnificent winter house on the Appian Way. 470 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. They refused to sell the last to the Emperor Commodus, who simply murdered the two brothers and seized what he could not buy. Its ruins cover an area nearly a mile square. All this sounds very magnificent and extravagant, but it is not uncommon in England for a family to own and use their town-house, country-house, shooting-box, and fishing-pre- serves ; and even in the youthful United States there are not a few who find the need of the town, country, mountain, and seashore houses, with the addition of a yacht and pri- vate car. Who shall say that the best of the ancient Romans did not support responsibilities and cares enough to merit all the compensation that their delightful villas and well-tilled farms could give them? And what was true of the best ancient Romans is quite as true of the best Anglo-Saxons to-day. At all events, within a radius of from four to seven or even ten miles from the Capitoline HUl, the Campagna was literally covered with fine estates ; and the present knowledge of these matters inclines one to the belief that Rome itself extended, in closely settled quarters, over miles of country now desolate and uninhabited. Outside the streets, where houses were essentially in blocks, were districts with houses separated by small garden-plots; and, as one advanced, houses and gardens increased in size until such villas 'as I have described were reached; and a little further still were farms, each one of which was a hamlet within itself. Stones which have been discovered reveal that such w.is the condition of things in the now deserted regions of the Via Appia and Via Nomentana ; and the inscriptions found in these present wastes prove that here were large peasant gatherings for games, festivals, and meetings for many pur- poses. When we add to this busy and abundant life, which radiated over the Campagna, the constant processions of traffic on all the roads, as well as on the banks of the Tiber and on its stream, we find no lack of life and movement, — 472 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. neither among those who raised the produce which largely fed the city and carried it thither, nor iu the busy multitudes that are ever passing to and fro near all large centres. Here, too, were travellers and others, equestrians and those who rode in the carriages of the day, some of which w^ere piled up with luggage ; whUe ladies were borne along reclining in the lectica, carried by from two to eight hand- some slaves, in fine showy liveries, and preceded by one who OLIVE-GATHERING. cleared the way before them. Besides these were many pilgrims seeking the graves of their kindred to pour libations and scatter flowers in the numerous cemeteries, as well as the purposeless throngs who ever linger and loiter along beside those who do the work of the world. BKiDGES, AQUEDUCTST FOUNTAINS, \'ILLAS. 473 In the later and more luxurious days of the Empire, from the time of Nero to that of Honorius, at least, the Romans had splendid coaches, frequently of solid silver, the har- nesses of mules or horses being embossed with gold. >\'hen Saint Melauia returned to Rome, a few years before the invasion of the Barbarians, the Appian Way was cov- ered with the coaches of the nobles, who went out to meet her. Ammianus Marcelliuus speaks of some scenes on the road, and says that the nobles "measure their rank and conse- quence by the loftiness of their chariots and the mighty mag- nificence of their dress. Theii- long robes of silk and purple float in the wind ; and as they are agitated by art or acci- dent, they occasionally discover the under-garments, the rich tunics embroidered with figures of various animals. Followed by a train of fifty servants, and tearing up the pavement, they move along the streets with the same im- petuous speed as if they travelled with post-horses ; and the example of the senators is boldly Imitated by the matrons and ladies, whose covered carriages are continually driving around the immense space of the city and suburbs." The same author thus speaks of the removal of a family from the city to the villa home : " In these journeys into the country, the whole body of the household marches with their master. In the same manner as the cavalry and infantry, the heavy and the light armed troops, the advanced guard and the rear, are marshalled by the skill of their military leaders, so the domestic offleers, who bear a rod as an ensign of authority, distribute and aiTange the numerous train of slaves and attendants. The baggage and wardrobe move in front, and are immediately followed by a multitude of cooks and in- ferior ministers employed in the service of the kitchens and of the table. The main body is composed of a promiscuous crowd of slaves, increased by the accidental concourse of idle or dependent plebeians. The rear is closed by the 474 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. favourite band of eunuchs, distributed from age to youth according to the order of seniority." Seneca, who wrote much earlier than Ammianus, mentions some curious circumstances connected with the journeys of noble Romans of his time. He says they were preceded by a body of light-horse, and the cloud of dust thus raised gave warning of the approach of a person of importance ; their baggage-mules transported the most delicate and costly ves- sels of crystal, and mu7-ra, or Chinese and Japanese por- celain ; and the delicate faces of the young slaves were covered with a medicated crust to secure them from the effects of sun or frost. We must not forget that the beautiful processions of aqueduct arches which we now admire were not then in ruins ; the temples and shrines had not fallen down ; the cemeteries were filled with shining marbles, shaded by the ilex and the willow; and statues, ornaments, and roofs of glittering bronze were seen in all directions. We know of no such scene to-day as existed here in the Augustan Age ; and , the most fruitful imagination of the artist or the poet must fail to reconstruct with brush or pen the glories of the Campagna of Ancient Rome. And yet no flight of fancy could exceed the statements of exist- ing documents and the testimony of the archaeologists, who are bringing to light abundant proofs of all this and more. There is, however, one feature of the estates much praised by ancient writers which I suspect that we moderns should not unreservedly admire, — the gardens. They were as a rule — and the exceptions were very rare — entirely robbed of grace by the artificial setting and training of trees and shrubs, which were tortured into every conceivable form except those natural to them. The trees were counterfeits of beasts, birds, and reptiles, many of which could have been worshipped without sin, — as they resembled nothing " in heaven above, or in the earth BRIDGES, AQUEDUCTS, FOUNTAINS, VILLAS. 475 beneath, or in the water under the earth ; " while other wretched shrubs were made unblushingly to announce the name, not only of the owner of these horrors, but also of the man who had designed them. The manner in whicli vines and certain trees were trained on the terraces and over THE PLOLOHMAN. the trellises which shaded the paths was more acceptable ; and the love for roses which the Eomans cherished is a boniJi>^y5-- KOMAN MATRON, ROMAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 521 Meantime, foreign divinities were introduced, and great numbers of Romans were devoted to the service of Apollo, — not as the inspirer of poetry, but as a practical deity who would ward off diseases! It was in his office of " the god who saves " that a temple was dedicated to him outside the gates, — as he was a foreign deity, — and the Apollinarian games instituted in his honour. Apollo was but one of the borrowed divinities in whose service the Romans sought for something more than their own gods gave them. In primitive Rome, when agriculture was the chief pursuit, the day was di%ided as has been customary with farmers in all ages and all lands: early rising and labour until the heat of the day, a nooning, another time for work, supper, and early to bed, was the order of all days except holidays, and these were observed without dissipation. But all this was gradually changed; and as the maxim that he who could should shun the life of slaves, gained followers, the upper classes cultivated the most artificial habits, and instituted many customs which now obtain in fashionable life in all countries. The Roman was, however, fond of early rising ; and the schools, courts, and shops were opened betimes, while the meetings of the Senate, and voting on election days, began early and continued until sunset. The Roman was abstemious, too, taking a simple first meal, a plain but hearty dinner, a midday sleep, and a wholesome supper, both in town and country life ; it was not until late in what we term " the time of the Romans " that the inconceivable eating and drinking that I shall relate came into vogue. The great event of the day to the Roman was his bath ; and much time was spent in the luxurious establishments already described, as well as in the porticoes, gardens, libraries, etc., where he met and gossiped with friends of both sexes. At the principal meal of the day, after wealth and luxury had changed the personal habits of the upper classes, there 622 liOME, THK ETERNAL Cixr. were many customs which are still observed. The great difference between then and now at the dinner-table was in the position of the men, who reclined on couches and had but one hand at command. The tables were usually- square, and the couches were on but three sides, leaving the fourth clear for convenience in serving. At one period round tables were in use and were enormously costly, being made of the rarest woods, and supported by pedestals of solid ivory. The couches were covered in rich stuffs and mounted on silver feet; the cushions on which the men leaned were in beautiful colours ; the walls of the room were frequently hung with rich embroideries ; and in houses where the greatest elegance prevailed, the ceilings were so made that through openings flowers were scattered on the tables, perfumed sprays delicately showered, and even gifts for the guests dropped down before them. Napkins were in use much earlier than tablecloths ; indeed, the guests sometimes brought their own, their method of eating making them absolutely requisite. The sideboards, decorated with gold, silver, and glass, were equivalent to those of the present; while the butlers and other attendants performed the same duties as now. One especial feature of the Roman table was the massive silver salt-ceUar. This was in the centre of the table at each meal, — a custom not confined to any class ; and a man was very badly off who did not have this one piece in silver. There was a religious significance attached to the salt-cellar, which contained the sacrificial cakes offered to the Lares, as well as the salt. The carving was done at the side-table, and the dinner served in courses. An elegant dinner was divided into three parts, each one consisting of several dishes. The first division was made up of a great variety of hors d'oeuvres, and was intended to excite the appetite; the second part comprised the more solid dishes of the feast, and was agam ROMAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 523 divided iato three parts. Much of the food was highly seasoned. The fish was served with an imported sauce, made with salt water, and very costly. Some dishes were extremely hot, others almost frozen. After the great variety of this portion of the dinner had been served, there was a pause, during which the sacrificial cakes were offered to the Lares. The dessert, or last course, consisted of pastry, con- fectionery, and fruits, as in our day ; and until after this had been served, but little wine was taken. If the Greek customs were fol- lowed, the diners were now crowned with gar- lands and perfumed ; the wine was served from a large vessel and ladled out by the servants, and the feast was often en- livened by musicians, dancers, and pautomi- mists. Such an occasion as this was quite differ- ent from the late suppers of the ultra-luxurious, which were essentially drinking bouts, and fre- quently ended in most indecent revels. The table furniture of the Romans, as has been already mentioned, was largely of gold and silver, and very mas- sive; even jewelled vessels were not uncommon. There were also certain objects of great delicacy and beauty ; this was especially true of the wine-cups, which were made in several shapes, usually quite shallow, having double handles. ,^Je^diu/t, OM' GOLD-BEATER. 524 ROME, THE ETERISTAL CITY. These were used during the meal, and later, after dessert, were replaced by cyathi, with single handles, and frequently of exquisite workmanship. It was probably poverty, rather than any exalted principle, that induced the simplicity and austerity of life of the early Eomans, which has been so often praised and held up as an example worthy of imitation. Do not all nations — our own as well as others — live simply and make a virtue of it until wealth increases ? And what people do not forego simplicity when this increase enables them to be luxurious? Already in the first half of the second century b. c, Cato wrote, "See this Eoman ! he de- scends from his chariot, he pirouettes, he recites buffooneries and jokes and vile stories, then sings or declaims Greek verses, and then resumes his pirouettes." " Most of the Eomans," says Polybius, "live in strange dissipation. The young allow themselves to be carried away in the most shameful excesses. They are given to shows, to feasts, to luxury and disorder of every kind, which it is too evident they have learned from the Greeks during the war with Perseus." Not only so, but men who a few decades earlier would have scorned to give attention to such matters, now rivalled each other in inventing new dishes, and put in counter- claims to the distinction of having discovered strange combi- nations and seasonings which commended themselves to high livers. Having first served peacocks at his table was an honour gravely claimed and much prized by Hortensius ; while many Eomans of this class were famous for having originated other equally unimportant customs. Poems were written on the art of good eating, in which were introduced lists of aU sorts of esteemed edibles. The prices paid for certain fishes and vegetables were almost past belief, while the costly wines of Greece were soon much in fashion. A barrel of anchovies from Pontus cost eighty The Gate of Saint John. yLli ROMAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 525 dollars ; and when a man had obtained such a prize, he made a supper at a large additional expense. Much wine was provided ; the drinking was followed by gambling, with which the government was forced to interfere. These feasts, which were also enlivened with such songs and other enter- tainments as cannot be decently described, rapidly demoral- ised the young Romans who affected them. What horror must have possessed the souls of Cato and the large class of men who believed with him, as they saw the beginning of the end in this complete change of thought and life ! In spite of Cato's severity, he appeals to us and excites our admiration. He was ambitious to make the most of himself, and was active as a statesman, advocate, and author. Yet he declared that it was better to be a good husband than a great senator. What must he have thought of the increasing frequency of divorce and the trivial excuses upon which it was often based? He loved his children intensely, and watched over them with great faithfulness. He declared himself to be as care- ful of his language in the presence of his children as if they were all Vestal Virgins ; and he never embraced their mother in the presence of his daughters except when she was in ter- ror from a thunder-storm ! Cato even came to the conclusion that the time had come when a Eoman should be more than a farmer. He was un- willing to give a slave authority over his son, as a teacher, although this was the accepted custom with Eoman patricians. Therefore Cato fitted himself to teach his son all that he considered it proper or necessary for him to study. He laid the foundation with instruction in Eoman law, after the boy had learned to read and write. In his literary work he had his son constantly in mind, and in reality wrote historical books for the boy's benefit, using large, distinct letters, all of which he did with his own hand. Quite late in life he 526 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. gave Ms attention to Hellenic culture and persevered in that study until he was able to give to Ms son in Latin whatever he considered it best for him to know of Greek authors. When we consider the degeneracy of the Romans under foreign influences, this old burgess stands out in bold and admirable contrast to the Romanised Greek indolence and immorality, which apparently hesitated at no indecencies, and ere long at no crimes ; when poisoning became a quick and easy remedy for the inconveniences and disagreements in families of the highest station. The great change in the position of women, coming sud- denly as it did, without a proper education, either moral or intellectual, wrought a complete revolution in their life and manners, which was in many ways most undesirable. Wish- ing to manage their own estates, they made mock marriages in order to free themselves from guardians, and committed many questionable acts when already legally married. Cato thought that in public affairs they were goo powerful and as- pired ' ' to rule the rulers ot the world. " In some Roman provinces public statues were erected to women, and much flattery lavished on them. The dress and ornaments of the Roman ladies became un- reasonably expensive and luxurious. After succeeding in obtaining the repeal of certain sumptuary laws, by which they had been prohibited from chariots, variegated garments, and gold ornaments, the apparel of ladies at once became extremely showy. Even attalic dresses, as those of cloth of gold were called, were not uncommon ; while their apart- ments were decorated with gold brocades and rich Oriental carpets from the moment when all these foreign luxuries could be obtained. The frequency of holidays and amusements was largely increased ; new games and foreign ceremonies were intro- duced ; busy idling became the business of life among the wealthy; and some place of amusement was provided for killing time at each hour of every day. ROMAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 527 Naturally, this extravagance increased the cost of liviuo- ; rents became enormously high : and the foreign luxuries which became articles of general trade were extremely costly. Money was the one thing to be desired, and so abso- lutely necessary was it esteemed that men had aj^parently little conscience regarding the means they used to obtain it. The only man who was esteemed fortunate was he who, by almost any means, became rich quickly. The demoralisation consequent upon this phase of thought and the superlative consideration given to money was almost indescribable. Marriage became a mercantile operation ; and this view of it was taken by both parties to the bargain, as the women were no less mercenary than the men. Pure friendships and un- selfish moral relations were so rare that they could scarcely be said to exist; cheating, usury, begging, — in short, every means that could bring a man money — was unhesitatingly adopted ; aud the perpetrators of frauds, if successful, were not tabooed in business circles nor in polite society. This criminal greed and pursuit of money soon blunted aU moral perception in such a way that crimes which had no re- lation to the acquirement of riches lost their repulsiveness in many minds ; and at length the authorities discovered plans for incendiary fires on all sides of the city. Loss of moral perception inevitably makes a man despicable ; and if he es- capes becoming a criminal, it is his rare good fortune. It is doubtless true that the enormous wealth acquired by the subjugation of her enemies doomed Rome to the penalty that seems to have been affixed by an immutable law to ill- acquired fortunes ; they go as easily as tliey come, leaving moral ruin behind. During two and a half centuries Rome suffered from this cause, until, at about the close of the first century of the Christian era, a better ruling class came into power, and a provincial aristocracy replaced the profligates to whom Juvenal referred in saying, " Since Rome has lost her noble poverty, Sybaris and Rhodes, Miletus and Taren- 528 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. turn, crowned with roses and scented with perfumes, have entered within our walls." When Sulla died, in 18 b. c, Eome was in a most inglori- ous condition politically ; and although political history is not within the province of this volume, I hazard a reference to it. The time had come when the whole body of the venerable Commonwealth of Rome was fatally diseased. Roman power was on the decline at home and abroad ; the first dull grum- blings of the great northern storm which was to sweep over this proud city were distinctly heard at Aquse Sixtise, in 102 B. c, where the Roman conquerors might well have appre- hended that for every Barbarian slain, or sold as a slave in Eome, a hundred avengers would arise. It is easy to perceive the dangers which threatened Rome at this epoch now, when we profit by the knowledge of what followed, but even then there were Romans who believed that they foresaw and prophesied, like the Patriarchs of the Hebrews, the destruction that their folly must surely bring. They could only wait, hoping that a regenerator would be raised up, and the last disasters be averted. As externally, so internally, the degeneration of Rome was apparent ; there was no prosecution of public improve- ments ; and the plans spoken of from time to time for bridges, roads, and drainage, were not put in execution . In the wars with Hannibal, the public reserve was not encroached on until the tenth year of the struggles : in the Social war the expenses were paid from the public funds from the beginning ; and when these were exhausted, the public sites in Rome were sold, and the treasures in the temples expended in pref- erence to taxing the Romans. What could better witness to their degeneration than these facts ? The great financial crisis about 90 b. c. resulted in a large migration of the middle and business class of young men, who spent the best years of life abroad in mercantile pur- suits ; and the foreigners who flocked to Rome as diplomats, ROMAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 529 priests, physicians, schoolmasters, etc., were substitutes of a doubtful worth for the young men of Roman birth and Roman parentage. Meantime, not only the patricians, but the mid- dle classes also, had increased the expense of living, and aped the habits of those socially above them, in their extrava- gance, luxurj', and pursuit of amusement. What must the standard of expenditures have been when Marcus ^Emilius Lepidus, as early as 152 b. c., desired his heirs to expend no more than twenty thousand dollars on his funeral rites ? — as, in his opinion, the true last honours con- sisted not in vain show, but in cherishing the personal re- membrance of the dead, and in the faithful performance of the ancestral services. The town-houses, as well as the country and seaside vil- las, were costly ; and the shores of the Bay of Naples, in the fashionable season, were crowded with those whose profession was elegant idleness, whose gambling and other vices afforded the gossip of the Roman world. Sumptuary laws had made lit- tle difference in the lavish expenditure of the Roman women, whose extravagance in foreign perfumes amounted to the mar- vellous ; while they discarded heavier and less costly fabrics, and dressed in Oriental gauzes, which provokingly displayed, rather than concealed, the voluptuous lines of the figure. Laws were made for curtailing the expenditures for cooks, for expensive edibles and wines, and the enormous outlays for silver plate ; but they were largely ineffectual, as is proved by the fact that in Sulla's time there were one hundred silver state dishes in Rome, weighing one hundred pounds each. So profuse and fine was the work lavished in their decora- tion that fifteen and eighteen times the worth of the silver by weight was paid for it when fashioned into these splen- did objects. In fact, there was no one avenue for the spend- ing of money in luxurious display that was not crowded by Romans tumbling over one another in their mad desire to excel as spendthrifts and fools. 34 530 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. Metellus Macedonicus was admired of his contemporaries for his exemplary domestic life and his large family ; and yet it was he who, in a public address, thus expressed Ms views of marriage: "If we could, citizens, we should indeed all keep clear of this burden. But, as nature has so arranged it that we cannot either live comfortably with wives or live at all without them, it is proper to have regard rather to the permanent weal than to our own brief comfort." When a man who commanded unusual respect advocated such views, we cannot wonder that a dissolute Roman, when reproached for shedding tears over the death of the most costly inhabitant of his fish-pond, should assert his courage by declaring that he had buried three wives, all of which had not cost him a tear ! We search in vain for any standard concerning marriage that commands respect. We admire Julius Caesar when he refuses to send a divorce to Cornelia at the bidding of the dictator ; but the same Caesar asked Pompey for the hand of his daughter when she was the wife ■ of Faustus Sulla. As in every couutrj' where it exists, slavery is a curse, so was it in Rome. During the century preceding the Christian era, the number of slaves had increased so enormously that all other labour was driven from the field. Rome was filled with men having no occupation. They hung about the doors of the wealthy, ready to sell their votes, their testimony, their very being, for the sake of passing a miserable exist- ence in the midst of city life. They thought themselves re- paid for any degradation by listening to the orations in the Forum, witnessing the various games, which lasted for days, and attending the theatres, which were free to all, — in short, to so live as to become the least as men that it was possible to be. In families slaves filled every position. There were slave cooks, weavers, embroiderers, physicians; and tutors, devoted to the service of each wealthy family. Slaves alone suc- ceeded as blacksmiths, carpenters, painters, gilders, and even 532 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. architects, as their masters had given them proper instructors in their various trades, and had then established them in work- shops, the profits of which went, of course, to the masters. During the first Punic War eighty-four thousand slaves were brought to Rome. Many of these, in the course of a few years, became freedmen, but not Eomans ; in the spirit and habits of their life, the Romans of the later Republic were so unlike their ancestors that it was as if patriotism and probity were dead, and religion had never been con- sidered as a part of life. The outlook at this time, to the few Romans who retained an appreciation of the noble qualities which their progenitors had cultivated, must have been one of utter discouragement and inexpressible sadness. They could not know, as we now do, that the greatest evils from which they suffered were rapidly destroying the whole fabric of the Republic, which must come to an end before anything better could replace it. They could not anticipate a time when internal order and a long reign of peace should raise commerce to a height of which they had not even dreamed ; should put a stop to the introduction of slaves by tens of thousands, and create a standard by which industry and free labour should be raised to their proper estimate in the minds of Romans of all ranks, and a prosperity reign in Rome such as had not before been known. In this new era of which we read the history, men would commit crimes which cause us to shudder even to-day, and the blood-tragedies of the Empire would make the Senate-house and palaces to seem like shambles; but for the masses there would be a prosperity far in excess of any hopes which they had thus far cherished. When Julius Csesar became the sovereign of Rome in all save the title, the condition of society, its manners and customs, were such as I have outlined, — not by any means described. There were two classes, — the rich and the poor, between whom a great gulf was fixed, there being no middle KOMAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 533 class to fill it. The class that we denote as such cannot exist in a slave state ; and while there were, in Rome, men of business, their prosperity enabled them, as a rule, to live the life of the wealthy and idle, in connection with their transactions. A really fashionable man now required a town-house, a mountain villa, and another on the seashore for the various seasons ; a garden out- side Rome ; and a splen- did tomb in which his ashes should be as luxu- riously housed as he had been in life ; horses, dogs, fine furniture, rich dress, jewels, and pearls, and the most costly table luxury of every sort at inconceivable cost : all these — and more — were absolute necessities. A delightful rivalry was also in order in the raising of fruits and the cultivation of flowers. The villa-gar- dens for both trees and vegetables, the beds of roses and violets, the vine- covered hills and the dark olive-trees, are ail sweetly and truthfully pictured for us by the poets who saw and loved them. The bill of fare of a banquet at which Caesar and the Vestal Virgins, as well as other priests and ladies, assisted has been preserved. Before the actual dinner there were sea-hedgehogs, whatever those may have been ; fresh oys- ters, as many as the guests ivished ; large mussels ; sphondyli; A BIED-CATCHER. 534 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. fieldfares with asparagus ; fattened fowls ; oyster and mussel pasties ; black and white sea-acorns ; sphondyli again ; glycy- merides ; sea-nettles ; beccaficoes ; roe-ribs ; boar's ribs ; fowls dressed with flour ; beccaficoes ; pmple shell-fish of two sorts. The dinner itself was of sow's udder; boar's head; fish- pasties ; boar-pasties ; ducks ; boiled teals ; hares ; roasted fowls ; starch pastry ; Pontic pastry. Varro complained that such banquets increased the cost of all delicacies, and in a sath'e gives the following list of the foreign edibles affected by the Romans: " Peacocks from Samos ; grouse from Phrygia ; cranes from Melos ; kids from Ambracia; tanny-fishes from Chalcedon; mursenas from the Straits of G-ades ; aselli from Pessinus ; oysters and scallops from Tarentum ; sturgeons from Rhodes ; scarus fishes from Cilicia ; nuts from Thaos ; dates from Egypt ; acorns from Spain." We do not wonder that it became quite the usual thing — at least created no remark — for a guest to take an emetic after a banquet, and Was counted a compliment to his host to take one previously, in order to eat more freely. De- bauchery of all kinds was reduced to a system, and had its professors, who initiated Roman youths into the practical methods of various vices. Colossal fortunes simply melted away under this order of expenditure ; and if, in addition to high living, a man went in for office, the most princely estates were quite insufficient, and the only resource for such a man was to owe all that he could borrow. In 62 b. c, Ctesar owed, above his assets, about one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. When Mark Antony was twenty-four years old, he owed three hundred thousand dollars, which he increased in four- teen years to two millions ; and many others were equally in debt. On one occasion so much money was borrowed by those who wished to buy the consulship that the rate of interest, four per cent a month, was doubled. ROMAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 535 All morality was thrown over ; to be poor was the only crime, and nothing existed that was not sold for money. Ladies of rank even sold their personal purity; and the trials of certain criminal cases revealed the most inexpres- sible conditions in families of repute. All this immorality and crime flowed in a deep, dark stream beneath a surface of calm and polished seeming. The manners of society in public appeared to be the ex- pression of universal good feeling. Visits were industriously made ; letters of courtesy were carried to an extreme ; and all occasions, even those that would most properly have been but family affairs, were made excuses for public parades, while, in order to die becomingly, one must give a memento to each of his numberless friends. The love-affaii-s of actresses, ballet-dancers, and the like were unnoticed, as the intrigues of ladies of quality were more interesting ; but even these became such a matter of course that one needed to be most unusual in its history to create a scandal. Such resorts as Puteoli, Baise, etc., became notorious for the freedom of life they made possible. Not only love-intrigues, but political schemes were conducted by Roman women, whose boldness and energy in carrying out their plans were in such contrast to the effeminacy of the fops who followed their lead that it did not seem in the least undesirable that women should rule the world. The case of Marcus Cato, who divorced his wife as a favour to a friend who wished to marry her, and later, after the friend died, married the woman a second time, is re- ferred to as an extreme example of Roman inability to perceive the immorality which everywhere prevailed. But there were so many notable instances that were recorded — and how many were not? — of the perfect recognition of right and wrong, with the full determination to do the wrong, that it is impossible to accord the grace of " invincible igno- rance " to the Romans of that day. 536 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. The conquests of Eome necessitated the mahitenance of Roman officials in so many foreign countries that the best men of the capital were largely sent to protect Roman interests elsewhere. Many others, possessing' energy and brains, were absentees, seeking to acquire fortunes by specu- lation ; and through long residence abroad these men lost their attachment to Rome, and frequently became wholly estranged from her. For these losses there was small compensation in the traders and artisans, the slaves and freedmen, the only classes that were added to the Roman population. In many places in the Empire the complaint of Varro was realised : "The once populous cities of Italy stood desolate." Ceesar made sumptuary laws, which fixed a limit to the cost of sepulchral monuments. He also attempted to reform the immoderate expenditure for the table, strictly prohibit- ing certain extravagant dishes, etc. Such laws had here- tofore proved utterly ineffectual, and would have been so now, had not C;i;sar inaugurated a perfect system of espionage. The markets were superintended by his over- seers, and the tables of the wealthy overlooked, the for- bidden dishes being confiscated when found. The use of purple robes and pearls was largely restricted, being permitted to certain classes, ages, and occasions only, and totally prohibited to grown men. The Romans were acquainted with and used all the costly precious stones, but gave the preference to pearls ; for these enormous sums were paid, especially for single pearls of large size, which were woru as ear-jewels, or suspended in the centre of the forehead. Suetonius relates that Julius Csesar gave to the mother of Marcus Brutus a single pearl, for which he paid two hundred and sixty-two thousand five hundred dol- lars. Lollia Paulina — she of the gardens of which we have spoken — possessed pearls and emeralds set in all kinds of ornaments, and of enormous value. These had ROMAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 537 been acquired by her grandfather in his Eastern campaigns in 2 B.C. Many uses were found for seed-pearls. Slippers embroid- ered with them were very effective; they were much worn by the wealthy, and coveted by those who could not afford to buy them. We do not wonder that so great a man as Julius C'tesar gave his attention to the dress of his people when we learn all the horrors that had come to be the mode. The Roman women painted their faces as freely as do many of the present day ; their artificial teeth are easily pardoned, but one hesitates to approve eyebrows that are bought in shops; and when the wigs and the Roman methods of arranging artificial hair are in question, one feels like using the most condemnatory words at command. Brunettes wore blond wigs imported from Germany at great cost; and doubtless Juvenal spoke of what he knew when he said, " You have your hair curled, Galla, at a hairdresser's in Subura Street, and your eyebrows are brought to you every morning. At night you remove your teeth as you do your dress. Yom- charms are enclosed in a hundred different pots, and your face does not go to bed with you." Gradually C«sar did, indeed, produce a slight effect upon the manners and morals of the Romans, by his measures to check long absences in other countries, by his rewards to fathers of large famOies, and his severity in cases of divorce and adultery; but it is easier for individuals and for nations to retrograde than to recover themselves, and the latter process is almost unattainable with a. people of no religious or moral sense, who prefer the luxury of the hour before any other consideration. No one can study the decadence of the Roman Republic and not accept Mommsen's conclusion that " it is a dreadful picture," and be grateful to this author for his masterly 538 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. presentation of his subject, in which, among other causes, he gives prominence to the dire effects upon a nation of slavery, and of the lack of a middle class. No one can object to his severest arraignment of these and other con- ditions in Rome at this period. But why did he close one of his fine summaries — in which he compares the Rome of the century before the Christian era to the Greece of the time of Poly bins and the Carthage of Hannibal — with a sentence like the following ? — "All the arrant sins that capital has been guilty of against nation and civilisation in the modern world remain as far inferior to the abominations of the ancient capital states as the free man, be he ever so poor, remains superior to the slave ; and not until the dragon seed of North America ripens, will the world have again similar fruits to reap ."' ^ Did the learned gentleman think that we still have slavery and have no middle class? Had he no gratitude for the opportunity that we have given his own countrymen — who come to us as beggars — to become farmers and landholders, such as he admires among the early Romans; an opportunity to become middle-class men and millionaires, and, in fact, to attain to any height in any walk of life — except the Presidency — to which their brains and their ambition are equal ? I have stated that the earlier Romans, in their parsimony, did not favour the reception of guests, and have spoken of the extravagant entertainments of the later Republic. However, there existed a hospitality in Rome quite different from these extremes of parsimony and lavishness; in fact, there was aji established and well-regulated system for both the private and public reception and entertainment of strangers. In the former, the tie between host and guest was almost sacred : it was established by gifts or by the offices of a third person ; and when the relation was formed, the 1 These remarks are repeated in the latest editions of the " History of Rome." ROMAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 539 host and guest divided betiveen them a ticket of hospitalitj'. Either they or their descendants — for this bond was heredi- tary — coukl recognise each other by this pledge. If a hospitality thus established was broken, it must be done by a formal renunciation of the bond and the destruction of the tessera, or ticket, which probably bore an image of Jupiter as the god of hospitality, thus imparting a religious significance to the bond between the host and his guest. The usual private hospitality' was thus conducted; but beyond this there was a hospitality which was governed by no formalities, and the reception of distinguished guests was regarded as both a duty and an honour. The duties of private hospitality required that on arrival the guest should at once have an apartment assigned him, a bath and a meal provided, an offering made for him at the family altar, and the same care and privileges bestowed on him as if he were one of the household. These duties were much esteemed by the Romans ; and statesmen endeavoured to entertain numerous guests, and looked well to their comfort and enjoyment, as bj' these means they gained influence in the Roman provinces and in other countries. Naturally, there were travellers who preferred independence, and, like Cicero on his journey to Cilicia, would not accept hospitality from private in- dividuals. Public hospitality in Rome is first directly mentioned as being established with Caere in recognition of the services of its citizens in aid of the capital. Public hospitalitj' was decreed to distinguished guests by the Senate, and this privilege was hereditary in the family of the man to whom it was granted. The record of this hospitalitj' between two cities was engraved on copper or bronze tablets and pre- served, in Rome, in the ^-Edos fidei popuK Romani, and in some temple or sacred place in the second city concerned in the covenant. 540 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. These contracts entitled guests not only to board and lodging, but to medical attendance if ill, and to a decent burial in case of death. Contracts of this nature existed between Rome and certain Greek cities, which in the days of the Empire became a heavy tax on the Greeks, as the Romans became habitual travellers. I have already spoken of the many roads that led from Rome, and of the rapidity of certain journeys, like that of KOMAN HORSEMAN. Csesar to the Rhone. Government couriers, too, travelled with great rapidity, while the foot-runners with letters made but twenty-five miles in a day. For all bearers of despatches and government employees there were night quarters about twenty-five miles apart, and for the Emperor and high ROMAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 541 officials more luxurious arrangements were made. But for the ordinary traveller pm-suing his business or pleasure, there was no public accommodation beyond the provision of conveyances ; and as it was most unusual to drive within the city, carriages and horses, or mules, for hire, were found outside the principal city gates. Towards the end of the Eepublic, wealthy travellers affected a luxury which corresponded to that of city life ; and if we credit the writers of that day, we should estimate the travel- ling arrangements of a private gentleman as sufficient for a royal progress. Seneca writes, "' Everybody who now travels is preceded by a troop of Numidian cavalry, and even sends out scouts before these; their pack mules are laden with costly and delicate vessels of glass and murrha, produced by the most skilful craftsmen, and a man would find it undig- nified to load his beasts with objects that are suited to rough ways." Xero required a train of a thousand waggons. Poppaa had her horses shod with gold-tipped shoes, while five hun- dred she-asses were in her train, that she might have a bath in their milk each daj-. Cicero describes the journey of a Sicilian governor, who only travelled in the season of roses. " He had himself conveyed, as was the custom with the kings of Bithynia, in a litter with eight bearers, sitting on a cushioii of Maltese gauze stuffed with rose-leaves, with one garland on his head and a second twined round his neck, applying to his nose a little smelling-bag of fine linen, with minute meshes, filled with roses ; and thus he had himself carried even to his bed-chamber." It was not possible for such travellers, or indeed, for per- sons of even decent habits of life, to frequent the inns, and they were avoided altogether. If travellers owned no villas and had no friends dwelling on their route who would make them welcome, they frequently took tents and a camp equi- page along and made themselves comfortable, quite indepeu- 542 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. dent of other provisions. It is certain, however, that places of public entertainment existed with reasonable frequency on the most frequented roads of the Empire ; and it was the duty of certain officials to see that they were maintained from the public treasury, if necessary. There was certainly a differ- ence in the inns, there being rival establishments in some localities. Restaurants also existed. In some of these, tables were spread, and in cheaper places people stood while eating. The charges at public houses were absurdly small, and ex- aggerated suspicions of crimes committed by innkeepers are recorded in more than one Roman account of travel. Saint Augustine confesses to their extraordinarily bad reputation ; they were said to murder rich travellers, quite as a matter of course, and even to eat their flesh. All this, taken together with the weU-attested fact that highway robbers were a con- stant danger on all roads at any considerable distance from Rome, makes a journey in those days appear to have been far from an unadulterated delight. However, there were some routes, like that from Rome to Naples, so well travelled that the numbers to be encountered, especially in the caravans of the wealthy, were alarming, even to highwaymen, and this road was comparatively safe. There are some romances connected with the robbers of those days, far less commonplace than the tale of Fra Diavolo ; and although when caught they were thrown to the beasts of the amphitheatre, even this did not serve to discourage them; the riclily housed mules and horses, with gold-trimmed har- nesses, and carriages decorated without with gold and silver, and rich with treasure within, proved a temptation too strong to be withstood. Then, as now, travellers entertained themselves with read- ing, playing games with dice, and writing ; and the elder Pliny was accompanied by an amanuensis and lost little time when on the road. ROMAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 543 In the winter a journey by boat was most undesirable; but in the warmer seasons many preferred to make eight miles an hour on the Tiber rather than five miles on the dusty road ; and the crossing from Briudisi to Durazzo, which occupied twenty-four hours in good weather, seems to have been a favourite journey. We know that there were cabins, and that a sort of tent was used for sleeping on deck, but of the details of making one's self comfortable on board the coast- ing vessels, we are quite ignorant. They were propelled by both sails and oars, and made from six to eight miles an hour. Besides the journeys on government affairs and the pleasure travelling, there were educational journeys and commercial journeys. Of the former great account was made in the education of the sons of wealthy families. The journey to Greece was preferred, but in some cases different cities of Italy were visited. It was not unusual for a youth to follow some teacher or philosopher from place to place in order to profit by his instruction ; and these young men encountered a great variet}' of persons, as well as many adventures, in the course of a year of student travel. Artists and skilled artisans, bands of musicians, actors and athletes, rhetoricians and poets, and many invalids were met in all sorts of places ; and even physicians, both quacks and edu- cated men, were usually at hand on all routes of travel. For then, as now, it was the custom to prescribe a sea voyage and change of climate, especially that of Egypt, to those who were not well at home. The ancient medicated springs were of great renown; while grape-cures, milk-cures, and pine woods were all highly esteemed for the alleviation of certain maladies. Pilgrimages to famous temples and to oracles of great re- nown were made by immense numbers of persons of all classes ; the poor even managing to go where their supersti- tions led them to hope for great benefits. 544 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. Greeks flocked to Rome on the occasions of unusual spec- tacles; while the Romans crowded to G-reece for the Olympic games, and, when once there, rarely returned to Rome before visiting many temples and shrines. These were, to the trav- eller, rare museums of art as well as splendid centres of impressive religious rites. The Roman youth could profit greatly from these travels, as there were educated guides — men cultivated and proficient in science and archaeology — ready to explain all that was worthy attention. Horace poetically describes the matter-of-fact business journey when he alludes to the commercial traveller who ' ' tempts the wintry sea, moving continually to and fro be- tween the equator and the pole ; " and we must admit that a vast amount of aesthetic pleasure might have been enjoyed by men whose thoughts were free from the pursuit of the almighty sesterces ; but I fear me that these commercial gentlemen were scarcely aware of the beauties that surrounded them when they were eagerly hastening to a soldier's camp, fearful lest some other man with wares like theirs had pre- ceded them ; or entering a city where they hoped to make good bargains in their purchases. The extent of these merchant journeys was very great, and money-seekers pierced to the heart of the Orient, as well as to Spain, France, and England. After the conquest of Egypt the Roman trader went from Alexandria up the Nile, packed his goods on camels, and, crossing the desert by night jour- neys, the days being too hot, in a fortnight he reached the Red Sea, and there took ship for Arabian and Indian ports. Many dangers attended these travels ; but if successful, the weary trader reached Rome again after eight or nine months of absence, bringing with him the much-coveted gold, ivory, gems, pearls, spices, silk, and the greatly valued amber. Foreign merchants also came from north and south to Italy, bringing quince marmalade from Spain, glass and paper from Alexandria, the choicest linens from Beyrout, 546 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. and the costly fish sauces from Antibes. Thus the Romans penetrated to the ends of the earth and brought to their Eternal City the treasures thereof. In the year 7 b. c, Augustus had successfully encountered and overcome the dangers and trials which attended his as- SAILING VESSEL. sumption of the imperial power, and the history of Rome now assumes a new phase. Maecenas had died : he seemed like the last link with the Republic to those whose memories extended to that time ; and no great men had arisen, or would arise, during the long reign of the new Emperor. The stir and bustle of the Forum, the Comitia, and the tribunals were things of the past ; indeed, the chief occupation of the upper classes of Rome at this period was that of killing time in social life. The first place in the minds of Romans was held by the imperial family, composed of an irritable, conceited Emperor, his intriguing wife, his two grandsons, his rival heirs, and a ROMAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 547 daughter on whom he lavished his deepest affections. To her faults, clearly manifest to others, he remained blind un- til she became so notorious that even the Emperor must know the depth of his disgrace through the conduct of his beloved Julia. That she had not always met with his approbation is proved by anecdotes like the following, which have been handed down through the cen- turies. One day her dress was much too showy to please Augustus, but he said noth- ing untU the next day, when, seeing her in a more quiet costume, he approved it as being suitable to Caesar's daughter ; to which she quickly replied, ' ' To-day I am dressed to please my father : yesterdav I thought •' "^ DKOMEDAKY CAERTINS BAGGAGE. to please my husband." Again, when he criticised a bevy of her young followers, gay and dissolute in appearance, she quieted him by saying, " But these young men will grow old along with me." It was the grace with which she playfully said such common- place things, and the love which Augustus bore her, that led him to regard her with fond approbation, at times apparently believing her a model of all womanly virtues, and again complaining that he had a troublesome daughter. The re- strictions that her father would have imposed on her were most distasteful to Julia, who was beautiful, clever, highly educated, a woman of letters even, accomplished in music and dancing, fascinating to men, proud of her position, and utterly immoral. To some one who criticised her want of her father's sim- plicity, she replied, "He forgets that he is Caesar; I cannot 548 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. but remember that I am Caesar's daughter," the subtle com- pliment of which reply could but flattei- the Emperor. Augustus had believed that he ought not to permit her to re- main a widow, and had married her to Tiberius, — an alliance detested by both, as he was forced to put away a wife who JULIA, DAUGHTER 0"F AUGUSTUS. pleased him to marry one whom he could not trust, as he well knew. She despised him; she bore a child who died; and Tiberius being much in the provinces, Julia lived in the palace, evaded the watchfulness of her father, and plunged into the very depths of Roman dissipations until her name was a common jest throughout the capital. But the time came, and not too soon, when Augustus ROMAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 549 knew the truth, and boldly followed the only course open to him. He had devoted himself to the reformation of public manners in vain, and iu vain had he simulated in his own life the ancient virtues, if one of his own house — his only child — could be pardoned for such conduct as hers. Julia was banished, as were many of the men who had shared her dissipations. Some of them bore the noblest names in Rome, but they were exUed ; while Julius Antonius, to whose other sins the crime of treason was added, was condemned to death. Julia was permitted no alleviation from the most rigorous treatment on the Island of Pandataria during five years. She was then transferred to the extreme point of the Italian continent, where she was carefuUy guarded from friends and foes alike, until, a few months after her father's death, in 14 a. d., during the earliest triumphs of her husband, now Em- peror, and of the stepmother whom she hated, she suc- cumbed under her sorrows and privations and died in her isolation. She had, indeed, lived too long, — had lived to know that her father and her sons were dead, and that Livia was now the Empress-mother, as she herself had hoped to be. Tiberius was not content until Sempronius Gracchus, one of Julia's noble lovers, who had been confined to an island off the coast of Africa during the life of the old Emperor, was slain by his order; and, indeed, the only gentleness shown by the new Emperor was for his mother, to whom he accorded all possible respect, whUe he carefully excluded her from SEAL OF AUGUSTUS. 550 ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY. public affairs, and denied her the honours that the Senate would have accorded her. Nevertheless, Livia exercised a wonderful influence over her son, which was apparent to those who came near the imperial pair in their private life. The old Empress was now enjoying the fruits of her life-labour. Her son was in the place she had so coveted for him that both intentionally and unconsciously every important act of her life had been di- rected to this end. Her own position in Eome was also such as contented her ; she was regarded as the power next the Emperor; while the Empress-consort seemed to have no influence in any direction. Livia admitted but few persons to her intimate friendship ; but to these unusual privileges were accorded, and their dis- regard and even defiance of certain laws passed unpunished. Nevertheless, Tiberius did not succeed in disguising the anger and disgust which he experienced under the disregard of his will which was displayed by the Empress-mother. He gradually became impatient of Livia's power over him, and did not hesitate to speak to her and of her in a manner which, if she loved him, must have made her feel that she had lived too long ; and at length, when she died, in 28 a. d. , at the age of eighty-six, the son so far forgot, not only his duty to his mother, but his own dignity, as to absent himself from her funeral and forbid the Senate to accord her the divine honours which they considered her due. While it may be true that Livia afforded, as Merivale writes, "a memorable example of successful artifice, having attained in succession, by craft if not by crime, every object she could desire in the career of female ambition," it is still unpossible not to respect and admire her for what she did not do. She lived through the most debased years of Rome's decadence, almost the only woman of prominence whose maternal in- stinct was the ruling motive of her life, and a rare example of fidelity to her marriage vows. ROMAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 561 She counselled Augustus to mildness and dared to protect those who had cause to fear the persecutions of Tiberius and the cruelties of Sejanus, the demon y'^'f^S^^^'^W^ who worked the Em- ^-