MASTER NO. 91-80135-19 MICROFILMED 1991 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES/NEW YORK ii as part of the Foundations of Western Civilization Preservation Project" Funded by the NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES Reproductions may not be made without permission from Columbia University Library COPYRIGHT STATEMENT The copyright law of the United States - Title 17, United States Code - concerns the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material... Columbia University Library reserves the right to refuse to accept a copy order if, in its judgement, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of the copyright law. A UTHOR J TITLE: AT ME PLACE: N.L DA TE : 1892 Restrictions on Use: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES PRESERVATION DEPARTMENT Master Negative # BIBLIOGRAPHIC MICROFORM TARGET Original Material as Filmed - Existing Bibliographic Record p BKS/PROD Books FUL/BIB NYCG91-B56396 Record 1 of - Record added todav ST:p CSC:? QPC:? REP:? FRN: MOD: BIO:? CPI:? RR ID:NYCG9i-B56396 RTYP:a CC:9668 BLT:am OCF:? CP:nyu L:eng INT:? PC:r PD:1991/1892 MMD: OR: POL: DM: 040 NNCt-cNNC 100 10 Lanciani, Rodolfo. 245 14 The pageant at Rome in the year 17 B 260 Atlantic Monthly ,{:cl892. 300 145-153 p, LOG ORIG QD 06-06-91 Acquisitions MS: EL: SNR: ATC: FIC:? CON:??? FSI:? ILC:???? MEI: COL: EML: GEN: C.rhlfnicrof orm I . NYCG-PT AD:06-06-91 UD: 06- 06-91 II:? BSE: TECHNICAL MICROFORM DATA FILM SIZE:„iSmn2L REDUCTION RATIO: IMAGE PLACEMENT: lA CJlQ IB IIB r\ ^ DATE FILMED:„7Z3_Z|j_ INITIALS^_1L FILMED BY: RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS, INC WOODBRIDGE. CT M c Association for information and Image IManagement 1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite 1100 Silver Spring. Maryland 20910 301/587-8202 Centimeter 1 2 3 TTT ""■""■n"!""!'" [Imihmlm I I I Ti 4 5 liiiiliiiili 6 ilniiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiil I I I Inches 7 8 9 inliiiiliiiiliiiili m 10 11 iiiiliiiiliiiiliii TTT 1.0 m 2.8 i— |3. |3.2 ■ 63 It 36 ^ m tx •A ^ ■itteu. 1.4 2.5 ?? I.I 2.0 1.8 1.6 1.25 12 13 14 15 mm i[iili|iili[iili [iiliiiiliiii[iiii MQNUFfiCTURED TO flllM STRNDFIRDS BY RPPLIED IMfiGE- INC. THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY: 9 iHaga?inc of Literature, Science, art, auD l^oliticg. Vol. LXIX.^ FEBRUARY, 1892, — No, CCCCXfL THE PAGEANT AT ROME IN THE YEAR 17 B. C. Ix the eai ly days of Rome, the north- west section of the Ciiinpus Martins, bor- dering on the Tiber, was (•onsi)i('uoiis for traces of volcanic activity. There was a jmol, called Tarentuni, or Terentum, fed by hot snlphur si)rings, the hygienic effi- ciency of whidi is certified by the cure of Volesus 8abinus and his family, de- scribed by Valerius Maximus. Heavy vapors hung over these hot springs, and occasionally tongues of flame were seen issuing from the cracrks of the earth. It is no wonder tliat the superstition of the early inhabitants of the seven hills should have been aroused by these phenomena. The locality became known by the name of the Fiery Field (Campus Ignifer), and its relationship with the infernal realms was soon an established fact in folk lore. In progress of time the super- stition was transformed into an article of religion. An altar to the infernal gods was erected on the border of the jwol ; and the locality was selected for the cele- bration of the ludl SLvculares. The ori- gin and the liistory of these celebrations have been amply illustrated by Gesner,^ although his work is rather antiquated. Varro's account of the games, quoted by Censorinus, proves that, in republi- can times, they were held in honor of Dis and Proser])ina, on an altar sunk twenty feet below the level of the ground, and lasted tln-ee nights, the victims being a black bull and a black cow. Tradition attributed this arrangement of time and ^ De Aunis LiulLsqiie Ssecularibus Veterum Kumauunuu, 1717. ceremonial to Volesus himself, who, to show his gratitude for the miraculous recovery of his three children, offered sacrifices to Dis and Proserpina, spread lectktenda for the gods, and held fes- tive games for three successive nights, one for each cliild restored to health. In republican times they were called lud'i Tarentbii, from the name of the awe-inspiring pool, and they were cele- brated for the purpose of averting from the state the recurrence of some great calamity by which it had been afflict- ed. Tliese calamities being contingen- cies which no man could foresee, it is evident that the celebration of the ludi Tarentini was in no way connected with certain cycles of time, such as the sm- culum. Altliough there is considerable discrepancy among writers as to the dates and number of celebrations in republican times, the following figures seem to come as near the truth as possible : — First Tarentine games Second Tarentine games Third Tarentine games . Fourth Tarentine games A. u. c. 245 ;J05 505 608 Totally different are the calculations made by the College of the Quindecim- viri Sacris Faciundis in the time of Au- gustus, according to which the games must have been held in tlie years 298, 408, 518, 628. The reason of these conflicting statements is evident. Not long after Augustus had assumed the supreme power, the Quindecimviri an- nounced that it was the will of the 146 The Pagpfnii (tt Rome in the Fear 17 B, C. [February, t^ods lliat luili s:rculares slumld hv pt'i- foiiiH'd ; and, inisiei»iest'iitini;- and dis- tortini; tlati's aiul events, tried to prove that tiie festival liad been held regular- ly at intervals of one luuuhed and ten years, which was tlie exact length of a sieculiim. The games of which the Qiiindeciniviri made tins assertion were the Tarentini, instituted, as shown above, for «iuite a different purpose. The sug- gestion of the Quindecimviri came at the right moment in the new order of things, and was too pleasing to Augustus and to the people to be despised. Setting aside all disputes about chronology and tradition, the celebration was ai)pointed for the summer of 7.' 57 a. u. c ; that is, 17 15. c. What was the exact location of the sulphur springs of the Tarentum and of the altar of the infernal gods ? I shall always consider the discovery of the al- tar of Dis and Proserpina as the most satisfactory I have made, especially be- cause I made it, in a certain sense, when away from Rome on a long leave of ab- sence. The discovery, of which I have given ample account in my book, LTtin- erario di Einsiedeln, page 108, took place in the winter of 1886-87, during my visit to America. At that time, the work of opening and draining the new Corso Yittorio Emmanuele had just reached a [dace which was considered terra incognita by the topographers, and marked by a blank spot in the archaeo- logical majjs of the city. I mean the district between the Vallicella (la Chiesa Nnova, the Palazzo Cesarini, etc.) and the banks of the Tiber, by S. Giovanni del Fiorentini. The reports of the su- Ijerintendents, pubhshed monthly in the Bullettino Archeologico, spoke vaguely of the discovery of five or six parallel walls built of blocks of peperino; of marble steps in the centre of tiiis sin- gular monument ; of doors with marble l)osts and architraves, serving as com- nmnication for tlie spaces between the six })arallel walls ; and finally, of a *' col- unm with the surface carved in leaf- work." On my return to Rome in the spring of 1887, every trace of the monu- ment liad disappeared under the em- bankment of the Corso Vittorio Em- niaimele. I questioned workmen and foremen ; I consulted the notebooks of contractors ; 1 visited every day the ex- cavations still going on, on each side of the Corso, for building the Villa, Caval- letti, and Bassi palaces; and lastly, I examined the *' colunm with the surface carved in leaf-work," which had been re- moved to the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitol. This fragment of marble, the only one saved from the excavations, gave me the clue to the mystery. It was not a column ; it was the pnlrbius, or volute, of a colossal marble altar, worthy of being compared in size and perfection of work with the altar of Peace discovered under the Pa- lazzo Fiano, witli the altar of the Anto- nines discovered under the Monte Cito- rio, and with other like structures of monumental size. There was no more hesitation in determining the nature of the discoveries made in the Corso Vitto- rio Enmianuele ; an altar had been found there, and this altar must have been the one sacred to Dis and Proserpina, as no other is mentioned in history as hav- ing a place in the northwest section of the Campus Martius. The designs which illustrate my ac- count of the find prove that the altar rose on a ])latform twelve feet square, approached on all sides by three or four marble steps; that i)latform and altar were inclosed by three lines of walls, at an interval of thirty-six feet from each other ; and that on the east side of the square ran a eurlpas, or channel, eleven feet wide and four deep, lined with stone blocks, the incline of which (about 1:100) is towards the Tiber. This last find proves that when the rough altar of Volesus Sabinus was succeeded by the present noble construction the pool was drained, and its feeding-sjnings were led 1892.] The Pageant at Rome hi the r.rn- 17 E. C. ...to the c.uri,,u,s, s„ tl^^t the patients seek- ing a cure for their ailments coukl bathe .n or dnnk the .nira,Je-vv„rking waters with greater ease. No attention whatever was paid to the discovery at the time it took place. In- stead of reaching the antique level, the excavation for the main sewer of the Corso Vittorio Emmanuele was stopped at the wrong place, within three feet of the pavement ; and consequently, wliat- ever fragments of the altar, of inscrip- tions of works of art, were lying on the marble floor will lie tliere forever, as the building of palaces on each side of t^ie Corso, and the construction of the Corso itself, with its costly sewers, side- walks, etc., have made further research impossible, at least with our present means. TJie discovery of the altar of Dis and Proserpina has been confirmed by an- other find. Zosimus locates it in the Campus Martius, near the field called Irigaruim, in which wild horses were tamed and trained to run three abreast ^trigm) Where was the Trigarium then? Preller places it near the Pa- ^zzo della Cancellaria, Canina near the Pantheon, others near the Monte Cito- no ; all wrongly, as proved by the fol- lowing discovery. In August, 1887, the engineers of the riber brought to light a stone cippus. lying on the left bank of the river, near the church of S. Biagio della Pagnotta, withm three hundred yards of the al- tar of Dis and Proserpina. The work- men, supposing it to be a worthless block of travertine, broke it into many pieces ; and when an inscription of the highest importan(.e was finally discovered on the surface of the block facing the ground some fragments were already missing! The inscription, which can be easily sup- phed m the lost portions, relates how, in the year 47 A. d., a committee of five eminent men, of which Paullus Fabius Persicus, ex-consul, was the chairman, had been directed by the Emperor Clau- 147 dius to verify and nmrk with rjppl the boundary h'ne between public and private property on tlie left bank of the Tiber • and how they had fulfilled their mis! sion cippls positls a Trlgario ad pontem Agrvppm (by raising terminal stones be- tween the Trigarium and the bridge of Agrippa) } It is evident, therefore, that the locality indicated as a terminus a quo was very near the place in which the cippus was found, and in close prox- imity to the altar of the infernal gods and the hot springs, as stated by Zosi- mus. This beautiful series of discoveries, in which each so well fits into the others has been completed by a later one, thj importance of which far exceeds our most ardent hopes. On the 20th of Sei)tember, 1890, the anniversary day of the annexation of Kome to the kingdom, the workmen em- ployed m the construction of the main sewer, on the left bank of the Tiber be- tween tlie Ponte S. Angelo and the church ot S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini, found a mediaeval waU, built from materials of every kind and description, collected at random from the neighboring ruins. Among them there were irregular blocks of marble, bearing fragments of one or more inscriptions which described the celebration of the ludi sseculares in impe- rial times. By the end of the day seven- teen pieces had been recovered, seven of which belonged to a record of the games celebrated under Augustus in the year 17 B. c, the others to those celebrated under Septimius Severus and Caracalla in the year 204 a. d. Later researches led to the discovery of ninety-six more fragments, making a total of one hun- dred and thirteen, of which eight are of the time of Augustus, the rest of tlie time of Severus. The fragments of the year 17 b. c. fit together so as to make a block three me- ^ Remains of this bridg-e have been discov- ered n, the bed of the river 100 metres above the modern Ponte Sisto. 148 Thi' PiU/eant at Rtmie hi the Vcar 17 />. T. [February, 1892.] Thv Payed nt at Home in the Fear 17 B. C. 149 ties hiuh, containiiii'- one humlred and sixty-eight lines of miimte writing. The monument has the .shai)e of a square pil- hir inelosed hy a [nujeeting frame, witli hase and capital of the Tuscan order ; it measured, when entire, four metres in heiiilit and one and twelve hunch'edths in widtli. The form of the letters is ex- <-ellent. as hecomes the golden Augustan age. The text lias heen admiraldy edited l)y Professor Mommsen, at the request of the Italian government.^ The difti- eulty and extent of the task, and the time necessary for preparing the twelve plates, explain the reason why an in- s<-ription of such inijxn'tance, discovered on September 20, 1890, was not made known to students until thirteen months later. I believe that no epigraj)li, among the thirty tliousand collected in Volume VI. *»f the Corpus Inscrijitionum Lathiarum, makes a more Drotound inrinession on tlie mintl, or appeals more to the feel- ings, tlian this ollicial report of a state ceremony wliich took jdace 190S years ago, and was attended by the most illus- trious men of the age. We possessed, no doubt, ample information about the event. Tlie oracle of the Sibvl referred to by Phlegon and Zosinms, the hymn of Horace, the legends and designs of the medals struck for the occasion, the account of Augustus himself on the An- cyran moiumient, tlie descri])tions of Suetonius, of Dion Cassius, of Censori- nus, had made us acquainted with the leading particulars ; but this official re- port, engraved by decree of the Sen- ate, immediately after the close of the festivities, on a pillar i-aised upon the very spot where they took place, gives an altogether different inqu'ession : it enables us to take a personal share in the pageant, and permits us to follow with raj)ture Horace leading a chorus of fifty -four young men and girls of ^ I Comuientaiii dei Ijiidi Secolan Aiigustei e Stntriaiii stoperti iii Iloina suUa spoiida del patrician birtli, singing the carmen s(V- fiihirr. There is such a note of simi)licity, common sense, order, and mutual re- spect in the official transactions between Augustus, the Senate, and the College of the Quindecimviri, which preceded, attended, and followed the celebration ; in the resolutions passed by the several bodies ; in tlie ])roclamations addressed to the people ; in the material arrange- ment of the festivities, which a mass of one million or more spectators was ex- pected to attend, that a lesson in civic dipuitv could be learned from this report by modern governments and corpora- tions. There is no doubt that the celebration of the games had been pro})osed and dis- cussed at least two years before by those who wished to impart a solemn religious sanction to the new order of things estab- lishetl by Augustus. The well-known verses of the j'Eneid VI. 792, 793, " AiigiLstus Cjesar, Divi genus, aiirea eoiidet Si ec Ilia," contain a direct allusion to it, although Virgil died in 19 li. c. It is probable that a great deal of time was lost in trying to settle the difficulty about the secular cycle. Once admitted, in spite of historical evidence, that the ludi Ta- rentini had been instituted, not to avert unexi)ected calamities, but to solemnize the coini)letioii of a saeculum in the life of Rome, it became necessary to alter the duration of an *' age," and make it to consist of one hundred and ten years. Whether in a spirit of flattery or cre- dulity, the high priests, the Senate, the Emperor, the poet laureate, the people, all agreed upon the new chronology, and the ludi were ordered for the year 737 A. u. €. ; tliat is, 17 B. c. The official report begins, or rather began (the first lines are missing), with the request presented by the Quinde- cimviri to the Senate to take their pro- THVt'ic. con una Illiistrazioiie di Teodoro >h)miii- seii. Itoiiia: Tipoi^iafiu Salviiicci. l.SI»l. posals into consideration ; followed by a tlecree of the Senate, inviting Augustus to assume the direction of the celebra- tion and arrange its details. The in- tervention of the Senate was a necessi- ty ; no money could be obtained for the purpose from the treasury without the sanction of that body. Hence, in the record of the games under Domitian, we read the formula ex Senatus consulto, the meaning of which is purely finan- cial. In this case, tlie request w^as ad- dressed to the house on the 17th of Feb- ruary by jMarcus Agrippa, president of the Quindecimviri {marjlster conlegU), standing before the seat of the consuls.^ What a scene to behold ! We can pic- ture to the mind the two consuls. Gains Furnius and Junius Silanus, clad in their state robes, listening to the speech of the great statesman, who was su|)ported by twenty colleagues, all ex-consuls, and chosen among the noblest, the richest, the most gallant patricians of the age. There were present : Q. ^Hus Tul)ero, who was the first to draw up a maritime code, the principles of which still liold good ; Lucius Arruntius, whose career is described on a pedestal discovered at Atina, which town he had drained and paved at his own expense : - C. Asinius Gallus, consul 746 a. u. c. ; M. Valerius Messalla Messallinus, to whom Tibullus addressed a congratulatory poem on his election to the Quindecimvirate in 735. The Senate agrees that the preparations for the festival, the building of temporary stages, hippodromes, tribunes, scaffold- ings, should be carried out by contrac- tors (redemptores), and that the treasury officials should provide the necessary funds. Lines 1-23 contain a letter addressed by Augustus to the Quindecimviri, detail- ing the programme of the performance, the number and quality of persons who had to take an official part in it, the * The report of the year 204 A. d. describes how the ''.rr /•//•/ sarris fan'nnf/is ante suygpstum amplissimorum ronmlnm constiterunt.'' dates of days and hours, the number and quality of the victims. The pro- gramme was very likely drawn up by C. Ateius Capito, the eminent jurist and founder of a school of jurisprudence, who was considered at the same time the leading authority on religious ceremo- nials. Two clauses are especially notewor- thy in the imperial manifesto: First, that during the tr'iduum of June 1-3 the court-houses should be closed, and judges should not sit on their benches. '* Dili- genter memineritis litibus per eos dies non esse praestandam audientiam ! " Sec- ond, the invitation addressed to the la- dies in mourning requests them to give up for this occasion that sign of grief. The date of the manifesto is lost, bat can be indirectly fixed at March 24. Upon the receipt of tliis document the College of the Quindecimviri meets, and, acting on the instructions therein contained, decides that one or more cop- ies shall be exhibited in public {albojiro- posltce), so that the regulations for the ceremonies may be made known not only to tliose members of the college who had been prevented from attending the meeting, but to the general public. The same day the college decides tlie partic- ulars concerning tw^o ceremonies, called respectively dlstrlbutlo svffimentontm and acceptio frugiim. In the first, the Quindecimviri were wont to distribute among the Roman citizens torches, sul- phur, and bitumen, by means of which they were to purify themselves. I be- lieve that these materials were used chiefly in illuminating the city, and espe- cially the neighborhood of the Taren- tum, where scenic plays were performed at night on a temporary stage. The second relates to the distribution of wheat, barley, and beans, which were to be offered to the Fates or to the actors in the dramatic representations. These ^ '*^ee Corpus Inscriptioniim Latiiiaruni, vol. x. 505."). 150 The Pafjcmtt at Home In ike reur 17 B, C. [February, 1892.] distributions were to be made to enor- mous masses of people; and although Roman crowds were, as a rule, models of behavior, it was necessary to make arrangements by which as little time as possible should be consumed. Four places of distribution are established, therefore, instead of one, and three morn- ings are appointed, the 26th, 27th, and 28th of May. May 29, 30, and 31 are named as days for tlie frugum acceptio. Each centre of distribution is placed un- der tlie supervision of four members of the college, a total of sixteen delegates. The places indicated in the programme are: (a) the platform in front of the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitol; (h) the area in front of the temple of Jupiter Tonans, near tlie gates of the Capitol ; (e) the portico of the Dan aids, in front of the tem})le of Apollo on the Palatine ; (d) the temple of Diana on the Aventine. The third distributing station, which in the report of the year 17 b. c. is described as in Palatlo (tnte ivdem ApoIUnis ui porflru elus, in the report of 204 A. i). is called ad Romam Qifudratam. The impor- tance of this term will be duly appre- ciated by students of Roman topogra- phy. It is an established fact that the Roma Quadrata had, strictly speaking, nothing to do with the city itself and with its primitive shape.' The Roma Quadrata was an altar, made of roughly sqiiare!>l. I believe the last word lias not yet been said. The PdfjetnU at llamc in the Fef/r 17 IL (7. 151 the (^elebiation of the year 17 was twen- ty-one. The old Sibylline books were destroyed in the fire which wasted the Capitol in ()71 A. u. C. During the dictatorship of Sulla deputies were sent to Asia Minor to collect whatever verses tradition at- tributed to the Sibylla Erythraea, which were almost a thousand in number. Augustus gathered from the same re- gion, from the islands, of the ^gean Sea, and from Africa more than two thousand volumes of Greek and Latin verses which passed under the names of the Sibyls. They were carefully exam- ined one by one : those apocryphal were given up to the pnHor ui^anus and burnt in public; those considered gen- uine were deposited in two gilt cases in a recess of the temple of Apollo, imme- diately under the pedestal of the statue. The safe-keeping of the precious books was entrusted again to the Quindecim- viri. The last account we find of them belongs to the year 363 A. d. In tlie night between the 18tli and 19th of March the temple of Apollo was de- stroyed by fire. The only objects which the firemen, led by Apronianus, prefect of the city, could rescue from the wreck were the Sibylline books. Their final destruction is attributed to Honorius antl Stilicho. There is no doubt that the recess in which they had been safely kept for four centuries was rediscovered in the seventeenth century. Pietro Sante Bar- toli describes it in his Recollections of Roman Discoveries in the following words : — *'In the garden of Duke Mattel on the Palatine [which contains the ruins of Apollo's temple], in the course of the excavations made under the pontificate ^ "O Goddess, whether you choose the title of Liicina or (lenit^ilis, multiply our offspring, and prosper the (/rrrces of the Senate in relation to the joininp^ of women in we Auj^ustus revived the old Roman the proi^ranime is speci- fied in its last details. It is divided into six ])arts. as follows : — First nioht. l)etween May 31 and Jmie 1 . to l)e sacred to the Fates, Motpat ; first day to Jupiter Optinuis Maxinms. Second night to the Ilithyia?, dau<;hters of Hera; second day to Juno Regina. Third night to Mother Earth ; third day to Apollo and Diana. The celebration, in the strict sense of the word, l)egan al the second liour of the niglit of i\Iay .*>1. Sacrifices were offered to tlie Fates, on altars erected between the Tarentnni and tlie banks of the Tiber, where S. Giovanni dei Fio- rentini now stands, and other ceremo- nies were performed on a wooden stage ilhnninated l>y lights and fires. Tins teni|)orary theatre was nnpro\'ided with seats ; tlie re})()rt calls it ''a stage without a theati'e '" (sctena, (pn)i thef/tn/nt atj- leeiini) /lofifidf, rrt/llis j)fisifis se(h'Ifh//s). Ill tlie next day's ])erforniances. and those of June 2 and 3, which took place on the Capitol and on the Palatine, by tlie teni])les of Jui)iter anit of 2(M \. o., two Vestals. Nii- inisia Maxiinillii and Teroiiti.i Flavula, ar»' dis- lini-tly miMitioiKMl as standint;- noar thn Ktiipress .lalia Doimia. Tlioir statues and cidojuies were iliseovored in isS-'i. in the Atriinii Vesta>. Tlie datf inserihed ou Xuniisia's jiedestal is the year 2'\\. Slie piesided over llie sisteiluHHl at were years in the sjeculum. selected from among the most exemjdary /a at res fa- mUianmi above twenty -five years of age. Twenty - seven boys and twenty-seven girls of patrician descent, with both par- ents living {patrhtil et matrlmi), were enrolled on June 3 to sing the hymn composed expressly by Horace: carmkx COMPOSITIT Q. HOKATIUS FLACCUS. So the report says in line 149. The first stanzas of the beautiful canticle were sung when the ])rocession was on its way from Apollo's temple to the Cai)itol. the middle ones Ijefore Jupiter's temple, the last on the way l)ack to the Palatine. This is. at least, the interpretation given by Monmisen to lines 147-149 of the report, which, taken literally, would sig- nify that the whole hymn was sunir twice, once on the Palatine, again on the Capitcd. Tliis seems hardly possible. In the first jdace, the canticle is addressed to *vPhcebus silvarumque ])otens Di- ana." and it would have sounded out of place if sung entire before Jupiter's al- tar ; in the second place, it is too long (seventy-six verses) to have admitted of a re])etition the same day. I'lie accom- paniments were played by the orchestra and the trumpeters of the official choir (ffluriftPS et fidiehies qui sarris j)nbliris p/'(tsto s/uft'-). I wish these lines might fall under the eyes of my illustrious friend Alma Tadema, and give hini an ins])iration foi- one of liis masterpieces. The scene of magnificence and beauty which the Ro- man citizens beheld on the morning of June 3, 17 b. c, can be felt and seen as in a dream, but baffles descrij)tion. Ima- gine the grouj) of fifty-four young patri- cians, clad in snow-white tunics, crowned with flowers, and waving branches of laur(d, led by Horace down the Vicus least fourteen yeai-s. and was succeeded by Terentia Flavola in 21."). - Tlie rolumharid of these tthin'ms and Ji(fi- cirns weie discovered in 1.S7-I, under my super vision, near the ehureh of S. Eusehio on tlie Escjniline. iVpoUinis, the street which led from the Summa Sacra Via to the middle of the Palatine, and the Sacra Via, to sinjr the praises of the immortal gods, " Quibus septem placuere collesi " In these three days and nights Augus- tus gave evidence of a truly remarkable strength of mind and body, never miss- ing a ceremony, and performing himself the sacrifice of the victims. Nine lambs and nine goats were slain the first night, in honor of the Fates ; a bull the fol- lowing morning, in honor of Jupiter. The second night he offered twenty-seven cakes to the Ilithyiae. These cakes, as well as those offered to Apollo and Di- ana at the close of the triduum, were of three kinds. The first, called llbifm, was (H)mposed of flour and grated cheese ; the recape is given by Cato (De Re Rustica, 75 ) . The second, called popanus. was an old (ireek concoction, not unlike Cato's cake. The recipe of the third, called OoU, is given by Athenteus, a mixture of •rated cheese, honey, and aniseed sifted g tlirough a copper sieve and rolled to- gether. On the morning of the second day a cow was sacrificed to Juno, and the next night a pregnant sow to Mother Earth. Agrippa shows less power of en- durance than his friend and master, Au- gustus ; he appears only in the daytime, helping the Emperor in addressing sui> plications to the gods and inunolating the victims. I cannot close this article in a better way than by quoting the text of these supplications, truly admirable in their simplicity : — " O F'ates [or Jui)iter, Juno, etc.], as it is written in those books [meaning the Siby nines], I have duly offered to you a sacrifice. ... I entreat you to increase the power and majesty of the Roman people, both at home and abroad ; to protect forever the Latin name ; to give to the Roman ^^eople immunity from evils, victory, health. Be merciful and benevolent to the Roman people and their legions, to the College of the Quindecim- viri, to myself, to my house and family." Rodolfo LancianL WITH 'THE NIGHT. O DOUBTS, dull passions, and base fears. That harassed and oppressed the day. Ye poor remorses and vain tears, That shook this house of clay : All heaven to the western bars Is glittering with the darker dawn ; Here with the earth, the night, the stars. Ye have no place : begone ! A rch ibald Lampnmn. 164 Dijit Ormm, [February, DON ORSINO. IV. The rage of speculation was at its height in Kome. Thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of persons were embarked in enterprises which soon af- terwards ended in total ruin to them- selves, and in very serious injury to many of the strongest financial bodies in the country. Yet it is a fact worth recording that the general principle upon which affairs were conducted was an honest one. The land was a fact, the buildings put up were facts, and there was actually a certain amount of capital, of genuine ready money, in use. The whole matter can be explained in a few words. The population of Rome had increased considerably since the Itfilian occupation, and house-room was needed for the new- comers. Then the partial execution of the scheme for beautifying the city had destroyed great numbers of dwellings in the most thickly populated parts, and more house-room was needed to compen- sate the loss of habitations, while exten- sive lots of land were suddenly set free and offered for sale upon easy conditions in all parts of the town. Those who availed themselves of these opportunities before the general rnsli be- gan realized immense i)rofits, especially when they had some capital of their own to begin with. But capital was not in- dispensable. A man could buy his lot on credit ; the banks were ready to ad- vance him money on notes of hand, in small amounts at high interest, where- with to build his house or houses. When the building was finished, the bank took a first mortgage upon the property ; the owner let the house, paid the interest on tlie mortgage out of the rent, an.l pock- eted the difference as clear gain. In the majority of cases it was the bank itself which sold the lot of land to the specula- tor. It is clear, therefore, that the only money which actually changed hands was that advanced in small sums by the bank itself. As speculation increased, the banks could not afford to lock up all the small notes of hand they received from vari- ous quarters. This paper became a cir- culating medium as far as Vienna, Paris, and even London. The crash came when Vienna, Paris, and London lost faith in the paper, owing, in the first instance, to one or two small failures, and returned it upon Rome. The banks, unable to obtain cash for it at any price, and be- ing short of ready money, could then no longer discount the speculator's further notes of hand ; so that the speculator found himself with half-built houses upon his hands, which he could neither let, nor finish, nor sell, and owing money upon bills which he had expected to meet by giving the bank a mortgage on the now valueless property. That is what took place in the majority of cases, and it is not necessary to go into further details, though of course chance played all the usual variations upon the theme of ruin. Wliat distinguishes tlie period of spec- ulation in Rome from most other mani- festations of the kind in Europe is the prominent part played in it by the old landholding families, a number of which ruined themselves in wild schemes which no sensible man of business would have touched. This was more or less the re- sult of recent changes in the laws regu- lating the power of persons making a will. Previous to 1870 the law of primo- geniture was as much respected in Rome as in England, and was carried out with considerably greater strictness. The heir got everytliing ; the other children got practically nothing but the smallest