Pagan and Christian Rome
by Rodolfo Amedeo Lanciani · English · Gutenberg #22153 · 683,544 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Pagan and Christian Rome
Author: Rodolfo Amedeo Lanciani
Release date: July 26, 2007 [eBook #22153]
Language: English
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Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Hillie Plantinga and the
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Transcriber's notes:
The following typographical errors have been corrected:
Page v, "Romana" changed to "Romano" (by Giulio Romano, Francesco
Penni,)
Page 59, "Bulletino" changed to "Bullettino" (in footnote [38]: See
Henzen, _Bullettino dell' Instituto_, 1863,)
Page 91, "Réceuil" changed to "Récueil" (in footnote [51]: Léon Rénier:
_Récueil des diplomes militaires_)
Page 120, "Ardentina" changed to "Ardeatina" (S. Petronilla on the Via
Ardeatina)
Page 131, "Venedetto" changed to "Benedetto" (the master-mason Benedetto
Drei, whose drawing,)
Page 147, "Winckelman" two times changed to "Winckelmann" (Fea and
Winckelmann assert and Winckelmann attributes their rapid
decay)
Page 185, "in" changed to "is" (the urn of Agrippina is kept in the
courtyard)
Page 208, "Emmanuele" changed to "Emanuele" (southwest corner of the
Piazza Vittorio Emanuele)
Page 273, "astrinum" changed to "ustrinum" (it was an _astrinum_ where
corpses were cremated)
Page 314, "Bulletino" changed to "Bullettino" (in footnote [148]:
_Bullettino di archeologia cristiana_)
Page 327, "Nicolas" changed to "Nicholas" (from the time of Pope
Nicholas I.)
Page 369, "Cèrceo" changed to "Circeo" (defeats the Saracens off Cape
Circeo)
Page 373, "Guilio" changed to "Giulio" (di Papa Giulio, 254;)
[Illustration: BATTLE BETWEEN CONSTANTINE AND MAXENTIUS
(_From a painting by Giulio Romano, Francesco Penni and Raffaellino
del Colle_)]
PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN
ROME
BY
RODOLFO LANCIANI
AUTHOR OF "ANCIENT ROME IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT DISCOVERIES"
_PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED_
[Illustration: The Riverside Press]
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
=The Riverside Press, Cambridge=
1893
Copyright, 1892,
BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
_All rights reserved._
_The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A._
Electrotyped and Printed by H.O. Houghton & Co.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER I.
THE TRANSFORMATION OF ROME FROM A PAGAN INTO A CHRISTIAN
CITY 1
CHAPTER II.
PAGAN SHRINES AND TEMPLES 51
CHAPTER III.
CHRISTIAN CHURCHES 107
CHAPTER IV.
IMPERIAL TOMBS 168
CHAPTER V.
PAPAL TOMBS 209
CHAPTER VI.
PAGAN CEMETERIES 253
CHAPTER VII.
CHRISTIAN CEMETERIES 306
LUDI SÆCULARES, INSCRIPTION EDITED BY MOMMSEN 362
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FULL-PAGE PLATES.
PAGE
BATTLE BETWEEN CONSTANTINE AND MAXENTIUS (from a painting
by Giulio Romano, Francesco Penni, and Raffaellino del Colle)
(_Heliotype_) _Frontispiece_
ARCH OF CONSTANTINE 20
THE TRANSLATION OF S. CYRIL'S REMAINS (fresco in S. Clemente,
done at the order of Maria Macellaria) 32
THE WESTERN SUMMIT OF THE CAPITOLINE HILL 86
PANEL FROM THE ARCH OF MARCUS AURELIUS (_Heliotype_) 90
PLAN OF SCHOLA ABOVE THE CATACOMBS OF CALLIXTUS (from
Nortet's _Les Catacombes Romaines_) 118
PLAN OF OLD S. PETER'S, SHOWING ITS RELATION TO THE
CIRCUS OF NERO 128
PLAN OF THE GRAVES SURROUNDING THAT OF S. PETER DISCOVERED
AT THE TIME OF PAUL V. (from a rare engraving
by Benedetto Drei, head master mason to the Pope. The site
of the tomb of S. Peter and the Fenestella are indicated by
the author) 132
S. PETER'S IN 1588 (from an engraving by Ciampini) 146
THE TWO BASILICAS OF S. PAUL (the original structure of
Constantine in black; that of Theodosius and Honorius shaded) 150
MAP SHOWING THE LOCATION OF PHAON'S VILLA 188
SARCOPHAGUS OF HELENA, MOTHER OF CONSTANTINE (_Heliotype_) 198
ROTUNDA AND OBELISK SOUTH OF OLD S. PETER'S (after Bonanni) 202
CRYPT OF POPE CORNELIUS 218
THE CLOISTERS OF THE LATERAN, AS NOW RESTORED (_Heliotype_) 238
TOMB OF INNOCENT VIII. (_Heliotype_) 242
TOMB OF PAUL III. (_Heliotype_) 246
FIGURE FROM THE TOMB OF CLEMENT XIII. (_Heliotype_) 250
INTERIOR OF A COLUMBARIUM IN THE VIGNA CODINI 260
DETAIL FROM THE CEILING OF THE HOUSE DISCOVERED IN
THE FARNESINA GARDENS 264
WORKS OF ART DISCOVERED IN THE TOMB OF SULPICIUS PLATORINUS
(_Heliotype_) 268
TOMB OF THE BOY Q. SULPICIUS MAXIMUS (_Heliotype_) 282
THE APPIAN WAY AND THE CAMPAGNA 286
OBJECTS FOUND IN THE GRAVE OF CREPEREIA TRYPHÆNA 302
CHRISTIAN MILITARY CEMETERY OF CONCORDIA SAGITTARIA 324
THE IDEAL ROMAN FIGURE OF CHRIST (_Heliotype_) 348
ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT.
TABLET OF ACILIUS GLABRIO 4
MAP OF THE VIA SALARIA 7
PORTRAIT BUST OF PHILIP THE YOUNGER 13
INSCRIPTION FOUND NEAR THE PORTA DEL POPOLO, 1877 15
INSCRIPTION IN A TOMB OF THE VIA SEVERIANA AT OSTIA 16
LAMP OF ANNIUS SER..., WITH FIGURE OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD 18
PICTURE OF ORPHEUS FOUND IN THE CATACOMBS OF PRISCILLA 23
THE FOUR SEASONS (from the Imperial Palace, Ostia) 24
ANCIENT CANDELABRUM IN THE CHURCH OF SS. NEREO ED
ACHILLEO 26
THE TEMPLUM SACRÆ URBIS (SS. COSMA E DAMIANO) 28
MOSAIC FROM THE CHURCH OF S. ANDREA 29
THE SHRINE AND ALTAR OF MERCURIUS SOBRIUS 34
KANTHAROS IN THE COURT OF S. CÆCILIA 39
SAMPLE OF A DRINKING-CUP 43
A GRANARY OF OSTIA 47
ENTABLATURE OF THE TEMPLE OF CONCORD 53
FAC-SIMILE FROM THE CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM LATINARUM 57
NEMI AND THE SITE OF THE TEMPLE OF DIANA 60
PORTRAIT BUST OF PERSON CURED AT NEMI 60
THE STERN OF THE SHIP OF THE ISLAND OF THE TIBER 61
FRAGMENT OF A LAMP INSCRIBED WITH THE NAME OF MINERVA 63
VOTIVE HEAD 63
THE CLIFFS UNDER THE CITADEL OF VEII (NOW CALLED PIAZZA
D'ARMI) 65
A PELASGIC HIERON, OR PLATFORM OF ALTAR, AT SEGNI 68
ROUND TEMPLE OF HERCULES IN THE FORUM BOARIUM 69
ARA OF AIUS LOCUTIUS ON THE PALATINE 72
PILLAR COMMEMORATING THE LUDI SÆCULARES 73
PLAN AND SECTION OF THE ALTAR OF DIS AND PROSERPINA 76
THE FAMILY OF AUGUSTUS (relief from the Ara Pacis, in the Gallery
of the Uffizi, Florence) 83
VIEW OF THE PLATFORM OF THE TEMPLE OF JUPITER 88
THE SPHINX OF AMASIS 94
OBELISK OF RAMESES THE GREAT 95
ONE OF THE PROVINCES FROM THE TEMPLE OF NEPTUNE 100
PLAN OF THE TEMPLE OF AUGUSTUS 103
REMAINS OF THE TEMPLE OF AUGUSTUS (from a sketch by Ligorio) 103
STATUE OF SEMO SANCUS 105
REMAINS OF THE HOUSE OF PUDENS, DISCOVERED IN 1870 114
PLAN OF POMPEIAN HOUSE 114
REMAINS OF THE HOUSE OF PUDENS: FRONT WALL, PIERCED BY
MODERN WINDOWS 115
THE COLONNA SANTA 133
VIEW OF A SECTION OF THE NAVE OF OLD S. PETER'S (SOUTH SIDE) 134
NAVE OF SAN LORENZO FUORI LE MURA 135
THE FOUNTAIN OF SYMMACHUS 136
THE CHAIR OF S. PETER (after photograph from original) 140
BRONZE STATUE OF S. PETER 142
STATUE OF S. HIPPOLYTUS 143
THE BURNING OF S. PAUL'S, JULY 15, 1823 (from an old print) 152
TOMBSTONE OF S. PAUL 157
STATUE OF CONSTANTINE THE GREAT 164
MILITARY FUNERAL EVOLUTIONS (from the base of the column
of Antoninus) 170
THE APOTHEOSIS OF AN EMPEROR (from the base of the column
of Antoninus) 171
THE CIPPUS OF AGRIPPINA THE ELDER, MADE INTO A MEASURE
FOR GRAIN 184
HEAD OF NERO, IN THE CAPITOLINE MUSEUM 186
THE PONTE NOMENTANO 187
PLAN OF THE ALTA SEMITA 191
REMAINS OF GETA'S MAUSOLEUM 196
THE TORRE PIGNATTARA 197
THE MAUSOLEUM OF S. CONSTANTIA 199
PLAN OF THE IMPERIAL MAUSOLEUM 200
PORTRAIT HEADS OF S. PETER AND S. PAUL 212
TOMBSTONE OF CORNELIUS 215
PORTRAIT OF POPE CORNELIUS (from a fresco near his grave) 219
THE ATRIUM OF OLD S. PETER'S 222
STATUE OF S. GREGORY THE GREAT 225
THE ANGEL ON THE MAUSOLEUM OF HADRIAN 228
MODERN FAÇADE OF THE MONASTERY OF S. GREGORY ON THE
CÆLIAN 230
INSCRIPTION OF VASSALECTUS 238
CANDELABRUM IN THE CHURCH OF S. PAOLO FUORI LE MURA 239
THE ANTINOUS OF THE BANCA NAZIONALE 241
ANCIENT HOUSE IN THE FARNESINA GARDENS 263
SPECIMEN OF OUTLINE DESIGNS IN THE ANCIENT HOUSE IN THE
FARNESINA GARDENS 265
THE JUDGMENT OF SOLOMON 271
PANEL FROM THE BRONZE DOOR OF S. PETER, BY FILARETE 272
TOMB OF HELIUS, THE SHOEMAKER 274
SARCOPHAGUS OF THE LEUKIPPIDES 280
TOMB OF ANNIA REGILLA (FRAGMENT) 291
THE SACRED GROVE AND THE TEMPLE OF CERES; NOW S. URBANO
ALLA CAFFARELLA 294
THE BODY OF A GIRL, FOUND IN 1485 298
ENTRANCE TO THE CRYPT OF THE FLAVIANS 316
CUBICULUM OF JANUARIUS 322
SANCTA VIATRIX 334
BASILICA OF NEREUS, ACHILLEUS, AND PETRONILLA 338
THE EXECUTION OF ACILLEUS 339
PETRONILLA AND VENERANDA 341
THE PORTRAIT HEAD OF JESUS IN THE SANCTA SANCTORUM 348
LANDSLIP IN THE CEMETERY OF CYRIACA 351
INSCRIPTION FROM THE TOMBSTONE OF A DENTIST 353
INSCRIPTION FROM THE GRAVE OF ALEXANDER, A DENTIST 353
SURGEON'S INSTRUMENTS (from a relief on a tombstone) 353
THE SYMBOLIC SUPPER 357
* * * * *
The drawings in this volume, with a few exceptions, are by Harold B.
Warren, of Boston, who also made the drawings for "Ancient Rome in the
Light of Recent Discoveries."
PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN ROME.
CHAPTER I.
THE TRANSFORMATION OF ROME FROM A PAGAN INTO A CHRISTIAN CITY.[1]
The early adoption of Christianity not confined to the poorer
classes.--Instances of Roman nobles who were Christians.--The
family of the Acilii Glabriones.--Manius Acilius the consul.--Put
to death because of his religion.--Description of his tomb,
recently discovered.--Other Christian patricians.--How was it
possible for men in public office to serve both Christ and
Cæsar?--The usual liberality of the emperors towards the new
religion.--Nevertheless an open profession of faith hazardous and
frequently avoided.--Marriages between Christians and
pagans.--Apostasy resulting from these.--Curious discovery
illustrating the attitude of Seneca's family towards
Christianity.--Christians in the army.--The gradual nature of the
transformation of Rome.--The significance of the inscription on
the Arch of Constantine.--The readiness of the early Church to
adopt pagan customs and even myths.--The curious mixture of pagan
and Christian conceptions which grew out of this.--Churches
became repositories for classical works of art, for which new
interpretations were invented.--The desire of the early
Christians to make their churches as beautiful as possible.--The
substitution of Christian shrines for the old pagan altars at
street corners.--Examples of both.--The bathing accommodations of
the pagan temples adopted by the Church.--Also the custom of
providing public standards of weights and measures.--These set up
in the basilicas.--How their significance became perverted in the
Dark Ages.--The adoption of funerary banquets and their
degeneration.--The public store-houses of the emperors and those
of the popes.--Pagan rose-festivals and their conversion into a
Christian institution.
It has been contended, and many still believe, that in ancient Rome
the doctrines of Christ found no proselytes, except among the lower
and poorer classes of citizens. That is certainly a noble picture
which represents the new faith as searching among the haunts of
poverty and slavery, seeking to inspire faith, hope, and charity in
their occupants; to transform them from things into human beings; to
make them believe in the happiness of a future life; to alleviate
their present sufferings; to redeem their children from shame and
servitude; to proclaim them equal to their masters. But the gospel
found its way also to the mansions of the masters, nay, even to the
palace of the Cæsars. The discoveries lately made on this subject are
startling, and constitute a new chapter in the history of imperial
Rome. We have been used to consider early Christian history and
primitive Christian art as matters of secondary importance, and hardly
worthy the attention of the classical student. Thus, none of the four
or five hundred volumes on the topography of ancient Rome speaks of
the basilicas raised by Constantine; of the church of S. Maria
Antiqua, built side by side with the Temple of Vesta, the two worships
dwelling together as it were, for nearly a century; of the Christian
burial-grounds; of the imperial mausoleum near S. Peter's; of the
porticoes, several miles in length, which led from the centre of the
city to the churches of S. Peter, S. Paul, and S. Lorenzo; of the
palace of the Cæsars transformed into the residence of the Popes. Why
should these constructions of monumental and historical character be
expelled from the list of classical buildings? and why should we
overlook the fact that many great names in the annals of the empire
are those of members of the Church, especially when the knowledge of
their conversion enables us to explain events that had been, up to the
latest discoveries, shrouded in mystery?
It is a remarkable fact that the record of some of these events should
be found, not in church annals, calendars, or itineraries, but in
passages in the writings of pagan annalists and historians. Thus, in
ecclesiastical documents no mention is made of the conversion of the
two Domitillæ, or Flavius Clemens, or Petronilla, all of whom were
relatives of the Flavian emperors; and of the Acilii Glabriones, the
noblest among the noble, as Herodianus calls them (2, 3). Their
fortunes and death are described only by the Roman historians and
biographers of the time of Domitian. It seems that when the official
_feriale_, or calendar, was resumed, after the end of the
persecutions, preference was given to names of those confessors and
martyrs whose deeds were still fresh in the memory of the living, and
of necessity little attention was paid to those of the first and
second centuries, whose acts either had not been written down, or had
been lost during the persecutions.
As the crypt of the Acilii Glabriones on the Via Salaria has become
one of the chief places of attraction, since its re-discovery in 1888,
I cannot begin this volume under better auspices than by giving an
account of this important event.[2]
In exploring that portion of the Catacombs of Priscilla which lies
under the Monte delle Gioie, near the entrance from the Via Salaria,
de Rossi observed that the labyrinth of the galleries converged
towards an original crypt, shaped like a Greek [Greek: G] (Gamma), and
decorated with frescoes. The desire of finding the name and the
history of the first occupants of this noble tomb, whose memory seems
to have been so dear to the faithful, led the explorers to carefully
sift the earth which filled the place; and their pains were rewarded
by the discovery of a fragment of a marble coffin, inscribed with the
letters: ACILIO GLABRIONI FILIO.
[Illustration: Tablet of Acilius Glabrio.]
Did this fragment really belong to the [Greek: G] crypt, or had it
been thrown there by mere chance? And in case of its belonging to the
crypt, was it an isolated record, or did it belong to a group of
graves of the Acilii Glabriones? The queries were fully answered by
later discoveries; four inscriptions, naming Manius Acilius ... and
his wife Priscilla, Acilius Rufinus, Acilius Quintianus, and Claudius
Acilius Valerius were found among the débris, so that there is no
doubt as to the ownership of the crypt, and of the chapel which opens
at the end of the longer arm of the [Greek: G].
The Manii Acilii Glabriones attained celebrity in the sixth century of
Rome, when Acilius Glabrio, consul in 563 (B. C. 191), conquered the
Macedonians at the battle of Thermopylai. We have in Rome two records
of his career: the Temple of Piety, erected by him on the west side of
the Forum Olitorium, now transformed into the church of S. Nicola in
Carcere; and the pedestal of the equestrian statue, of gilt bronze,
offered to him by his son, the first of its kind ever seen in Italy,
which was discovered by Valadier in 1808, at the foot of the steps of
the temple, and buried again. Towards the end of the republic we find
them established on the Pincian Hill, where they had built a palace
and laid out gardens which extended at least from the convent of the
Trinità dei Monti to the Villa Borghese.[3] The family had grown so
rapidly to honor, splendor, and wealth, that Pertinax, in the
memorable sitting of the Senate in which he was elected emperor,
proclaimed them the noblest race in the world.
The Glabrio best known in the history of the first century is Manius
Acilius, who was consul with Trajan, A. D. 91. He was put to death by
Domitian in the year 95, as related by Suetonius (_Domit._ 10): "He
caused several senators and ex-consuls to be executed on the charge of
their conspiring against the empire,--_quasi molitores rerum
novarum_,--among them Civica Cerealis, governor of Asia, Salvidienus
Orfitus, and Acilius Glabrio, who had previously been banished from
Rome."
The expression _molitores rerum novarum_ has a political meaning in
the case of Cerealis and Orfitus, both staunch pagans, and a religious
and political one in the case of Glabrio, a convert to the Christian
faith, called _nova superstitio_ by Suetonius and Tacitus. Other
details of Glabrio's fate are given by Dion Cassius, Juvenal, and
Fronto. We are told by these authors that during his consulship, A. D.
91, and before his banishment, he was compelled by Domitian to fight
against a lion and two bears in the amphitheatre adjoining the
emperor's villa at Albanum. The event created such an impression in
Rome, and its memory lasted so long that, half a century later, we
find it given by Fronto as a subject for a rhetorical composition to
his pupil Marcus Aurelius. The amphitheatre is still in existence, and
was excavated in 1887. Like the one at Tusculum, it is partly hollowed
out of the rocky side of the mountain, partly built of stone and
rubble work. It well deserves a visit from the student and the
tourist, on account of its historical associations, and of the
admirable view which its ruins command of the vine-clad slopes of
Albano and Castel Savello, the wooded plains of Ardea and Lavinium,
the coast of the Tyrrhenian, and the islands of Pontia and Pandataria.
Xiphilinus states that, in the year 95, some members of the imperial
family were condemned by Domitian on the charge of atheism, together
with other leading personages who had embraced "the customs and
persuasion of the Jews," that is, the Christian faith. Manius Acilius
Glabrio, the ex-consul, was implicated in the same trial, and
condemned on the same indictment with the others. Among these the
historian mentions Clemens and Domitilla, who were manifestly
Christians. One particular of the case, related by Juvenal, confirms
the account of Xiphilinus. He says that in order to mitigate the wrath
of the emperor and avoid a catastrophe, Acilius Glabrio, after
fighting the wild beasts at Albanum, assumed an air of stupidity. In
this alleged stupidity it is easy to recognize the prejudice so common
among the pagans, to whom the Christians' retirement from the joys of
the world, their contempt of public honors, and their modest behavior
appeared as _contemptissima inertia_, most despicable laziness. This
is the very phrase used by Suetonius in speaking of Flavius Clemens,
who was murdered by Domitian _ex tenuissima suspicione_, on a very
slight suspicion of his faith.
[Illustration: Map of the Via Salaria.]
Glabrio was put to death in his place of exile, the name of which is
not known. His end helped, no doubt, the propagation of the gospel
among his relatives and descendants, as well as among the servants and
freedmen of the house, as shown by the noble sarcophagi and the
humbler loculi found in such numbers in the crypt of the Catacombs of
Priscilla. The small oratory at the southern end of the crypt seems to
have been consecrated exclusively to the memory of its first occupant,
the ex-consul. The date and the circumstances connected with the
translation of his relics from the place of banishment to Rome are
not known.
Both the chapel and the crypt were found in a state of devastation
hardly credible, as though the plunderers had taken pleasure in
satisfying their vandalic instincts to the utmost. Each of the
sarcophagi was broken into a hundred pieces; the mosaics of the walls
and ceiling had been wrenched from their sockets, cube by cube, the
marble incrustations torn off, the altar dismantled, the bones
dispersed.
When did this wholesale destruction take place? In times much nearer
ours than the reader may imagine. I have been able to ascertain the
date, with the help of an anecdote related by Pietro Sante Bartoli in
§ 144 of his archæological memoirs: "Excavations were made under
Innocent X. (1634-1655), and Clement IX. (1667-1670), in the Monte
delle Gioie, on the Via Salaria, with the hope of discovering a
certain hidden treasure. The hope was frustrated; but, deep in the
bowels of the mound, some crypts were found, encrusted with white
stucco, and remarkable for their neatness and preservation. I have
heard from trustworthy men that the place is haunted by spirits, as is
proved by what happened to them not many months ago. While assembled
on the Monte delle Gioie for a picnic, the conversation turned upon
the ghosts who haunted the crypt below, when suddenly the carriage
which had brought them there, pushed by invisible hands, began to roll
down the slope of the hill, and was ultimately precipitated into the
river Anio at its base. Several oxen had to be used to haul the
vehicle out of the stream. This happened to Tabarrino, butcher at S.
Eustachio, and to his brothers living in the Via Due Macelli, whose
faces still bear marks of the great terror experienced that day."
There is no doubt that the anecdote refers to the tomb of the Acilii
Glabriones, which is cut under the Monte delle Gioie, and is the only
one in the Catacombs of Priscilla remarkable for a coating of white
stucco. Its destruction, therefore, took place under Clement IX., and
was the work of treasure-hunters. And the very nature of clandestine
excavations, which are the work of malicious, ignorant, and suspicious
persons, explains the reason why no mention of the discovery was made
to contemporary archæologists, and the pleasure of re-discovering the
secret of the Acilii Glabriones was reserved for us.
These are by no means the only patricians of high standing whose names
have come to light from the depths of the catacombs. Tacitus (_Annal._
xiii. 32) tells how Pomponia Græcina, wife of Plautius, the conqueror
of Britain, was accused of "foreign superstition," tried by her
husband, and acquitted. These words long since gave rise to a
conjecture that Pomponia Græcina was a Christian, and recent
discoveries put it beyond doubt. An inscription bearing the name of
[Greek: POMPONIOS GRÊKEINOS] has been found in the Cemetery of
Callixtus, together with other records of the Pomponii Attici and
Bassi. Some scholars think that Græcina, the wife of the conqueror of
Britain, is no other than Lucina, the Christian matron who interred
her brethren in Christ in her own property, at the second milestone of
the Appian Way.
Other evidence of the conquests made by the gospel among the
patricians is given by an inscription discovered in March, 1866, in
the Catacombs of Prætextatus, near the monument of Quirinus the
martyr. It is a memorial raised to the memory of his departed wife by
Postumius Quietus, consul A. D. 272. Here also was found the name of
Urania, daughter of Herodes Atticus, by his second wife, Vibullia
Alcia,[4] while on the other side of the road, near S. Sebastiano, a
mausoleum has been found, on the architrave of which the name
URANIOR[UM] is engraved.
In chapter vii. I shall have occasion to refer to many Christian
relatives of the emperors Vespasian and Domitian. Eusebius, in
speaking of these Flavians, and particularly of Domitilla the younger,
niece of Domitian, quotes the authority of the historian Bruttius. He
evidently means Bruttius Præsens, the illustrious friend of Pliny the
younger, and the grandfather of Crispina, the empress of Commodus. In
1854, near the entrance to the crypt of the Flavians, at Torre
Marancia (Via Ardeatina), a fragment of a sarcophagus was found, with
the name of Bruttius Crispinus. If, therefore, the history of
Domitilla's martyrdom was written by the grandfather of Bruttia
Crispina, the empress, it seems probable that the two families were
united not only by the close proximity of their villas and tombs, and
by friendship, but especially by community of religion.
I may also cite the names of several Cornelii, Cæcilii, and Æmilii,
the flower of Roman nobility, grouped near the graves of S. Cæcilia
and Pope Cornelius; of Liberalis, a _consul suffectus_,[5] and a
martyr, whose remains were buried in the Via Salaria; of Jallia
Clementina, a relative of Jallius Bassus, consul before A. D. 161; of
Catia Clementina, daughter or relative of Catius, consul A. D. 230, not
to speak of personages of equestrian rank, whose names have been
collected in hundreds.
A difficulty may arise in the mind of the reader: how was it possible
for these magistrates, generals, consuls, officers, senators, and
governors of provinces, to attend to their duties without performing
acts of idolatry? In chapter xxxvii. of the Apology, Tertullian says:
"We are but of yesterday, yet we fill every place that belongs to you,
cities, islands, outposts; we fill your assemblies, camps, tribes and
decuries; the imperial palace, the Senate, the forum; we only leave to
you your temples." But here lies the difficulty; how could they fill
these places, and leave the temples?
First of all, the Roman emperors gave plenty of liberty to the new
religion from time to time; and some of them, moved by a sort of
religious syncretism, even tried to ally it with the official worship
of the empire, and to place Christ and Jupiter on the steps of the
same _lararium_. The first attempt of the kind is attributed to
Tiberius; he is alleged to have sent a message to the Senate
requesting that Christ should be included among the gods, on the
strength of the official report written by Pontius Pilatus of the
passion and death of our Lord. Malala says that Nero made honest
inquiries about the new religion, and that, at first, he showed
himself rather favorable towards it; a fact not altogether improbable,
if we take into consideration the circumstances of Paul's appeal, his
absolution, and his relations with Seneca, and with the converts _de
domo Cæsaris_, "of the house of Cæsar." Lampridius, speaking of the
religious sentiments of Alexander Severus, says: "He was determined to
raise a temple to Christ, and enlisted him among the gods; a project
attributed also to Hadrian. There is no doubt that Hadrian ordered
temples to be erected in every city to an unknown god; and because
they have no statue we still call them temples of Hadrian. He is said
to have prepared them for Christ; but to have been deterred from
carrying his plan into execution by the consideration that the temples
of the old gods would become deserted, and the whole population turn
Christian, _omnes christianos futuros_."[6]
The freedom enjoyed by the Church under Caracalla is proved by the
_graffiti_ of the Domus Gelotiana, described in my "Ancient Rome."[7]
The one caricaturing the crucifixion, which is reproduced on p. 122 of
that volume, stands by no means alone in certifying to the spreading
of the faith in the imperial palace. The name of Alexamenos, "the
faithful," is repeated thrice. There is also a name, LIBANUS, under
which another hand has written EPISCOPUS, and, lower down, LIBANUS
EPI[SCOPUS]. It is very likely a joke on Libanus, a Christian page
like Alexamenos, whom his fellow-disciples had nicknamed "the bishop."
It is true that the title is not necessarily Christian, having been
used sometimes to denote a municipal officer;[8] but this can hardly
be the case in an assembly of youths, like the one of the Domus
Gelotiana; and the connection between the _graffiti_ of Libanus and
those of Alexamenos seems evident. In reading these _graffiti_, now
very much injured by dampness, exposure, and the unscrupulous hands of
tourists, we are really witnessing household quarrels between pagan
and Christian dwellers in the imperial palace, in one of which
Caracalla, when still young, saw one of his playmates struck and
punished on account of his Christian origin and persuasion.
Septimius Severus and Caracalla issued a constitution,[9] which
opened to the Jews the way to the highest honors, making the
performance of such ceremonies as were in opposition to the principles
of their faith optional with them. What was granted to the Jews by the
law of the empire may have been permitted also to the Christians by
the personal benevolence of the emperors.
When Elagabalus collected, or tried to collect, in his own private
chapel the gods and the holiest relics of the universe, he did not
forget Christ and his doctrine.[10] Alexander Severus, the best of
Roman rulers, gave full freedom to the Church; and once, the
Christians having taken possession of a public place on which the
_popinarii_, or tavern-keepers, claimed rights, Alexander gave
judgment in favor of the former, saying it was preferable that the
_place_ should serve for divine worship, rather than for the sale of
drinks.[11]
[Illustration: Portrait Bust of Philip the Younger.]
There can scarcely be any doubt that the emperor Philip the Arab
(Marcus Julius Philippus, A. D. 244), his wife Otacilia Severa, and
his son Philip the younger were Christians, and friends of S.
Hippolytus. Still, in spite of these periods of peace and freedom of
the Church, we cannot be blind to the fact that for a Christian
nobleman wishing to make a career, the position was extremely
hazardous. Hence we frequently see baptism deferred until mature or
old age, and strange situations and even acts of decided apostasy
created by mixed marriages.
The wavering between public honors and Christian retirement is
illustrated by some incidents in the life of Licentius, a disciple of
S. Augustine. Licentius was the son of Romanianus, a friend and
countryman of Augustine; and when the latter retired to the villa of
Verecundus, after his conversion, in the year 386, Licentius, who had
attended his lectures on eloquence at Milan, followed him to his
retreat. He appears as one of the speakers in the academic disputes
which took place in the villa.[12] In 396, Licentius, who had followed
his master to Africa, seduced by the hopes of a brilliant career,
determined to settle in Rome. Augustine, deeply grieved at losing his
beloved pupil, wrote to call him back, and entreated him to turn his
face from the failing promises of the world. The appeal had no effect,
and no more had the epistles, in prose and verse, addressed to him for
the same purpose by Paulinus of Nola. Licentius, after finishing the
course of philosophy, being scarcely a catechumen, and a very unsteady
one at that, entered a career for public honors. Paulinus of Nola
describes him as aiming not only at a consulship, but also at a pagan
pontificate, and reproaches and pities him for his behavior. After
this, we lose sight of Licentius in history, but a discovery made at
S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura in December, 1862, tells us the end of the
tale. A marble sarcophagus was found, containing his body, and his
epitaph. This shows that Licentius died in Rome in 406, after having
reached the end of his desires, a place in the Senate; and that he
died a Christian, and was buried near the tomb of S. Lorenzo. This
sarcophagus, hardly noticed by visitors in spite of its great
historical associations, is preserved in the vestibule of the
Capitoline Museum.
[Illustration: Inscription found near the Porta del Popolo, 1877.]
As regards mixed marriages, a discovery made in 1877, near the Porta
del Popolo, has revealed a curious state of things. In demolishing one
of the towers by which Sixtus IV. had flanked that gate, we found a
fragment of an inscription of the second century, containing these
strange and enigmatic words: "If any one dare to do injury to this
structure, or to otherwise disturb the peace of her who is buried
inside, because she, my daughter, has been [or has appeared to be] a
pagan among the pagans, and a Christian among the Christians" ... Here
followed the specification of the penalties which the violator of the
tomb would incur. It was thought at first that the phrase _quod inter
fedeles fidelis fuit, inter alienos pagana fuit_ had been dictated by
the father as a jocose hint of the religious inconsistency of the
girl; but such an explanation can hardly be accepted. A passage of
Tertullian in connection with mixed marriages leads us to the true
understanding of the epitaph. In the second book Ad Uxorem, Tertullian
describes the state of habitual apostasy to which Christian girls
marrying gentiles willingly exposed or submitted themselves,
especially when the husband was kept in ignorance of the religion of
the bride. He mentions the risks they would incur of betraying their
conscience by accompanying their husbands to state or civil
ceremonies, thus sanctioning acts of idolatry by the mere fact of
their presence. In the book De Corona, he concludes his argument with
the words: "These are the reasons why we do not marry infidels,
because such marriages lead us back to idolatry and superstition." The
girl buried on the Via Flaminia, by the modern Porta del Popolo, must
have been born of a Christian mother and a good-natured pagan father;
still, it seems hardly consistent with the respect which the ancients
had for tombs that he should be allowed to write such extraordinary
words on that of his own daughter.
We must not believe, however, that gentiles and Christians lived
always at swords' points. Italians in general, and Romans in
particular, are noted for their great tolerance in matters of
religion, which sometimes degenerates into apathy and indifference.
Whether it be a sign of feebleness of character, or of common sense,
the fact is, that religious feuds have never been allowed to prevail
among us. In no part of the world have the Jews enjoyed more freedom
and tolerance than in the Roman Ghetto. The same feelings prevailed in
imperial Rome, except for occasional outbursts of passion, fomented by
the official persecutors.
[Illustration: Inscription in a tomb of the Via Severiana at Ostia.]
An inscription was discovered at Ostia, in January, 1867, in a tomb of
the Via Severiana, of which I append an accurate copy.
The tomb and the inscription are purely pagan, as shown by the
invocation to the infernal gods, Diis Manibus. This being the case,
how can we account for the names of Paul and Peter, which, taken
separately, give great probability, and taken together give almost
absolute certainty, of having been adopted in remembrance of the two
apostles? One circumstance may help us to explain the case: the
preference shown for the name of Paul over that of Peter; the former
was borne by both father and son, the latter appears only as a surname
given to the son. This fact is not without importance, if we recollect
that the two men who show such partiality for the name of Paul belong
to the family of Anneus Seneca, the philosopher, whose friendship with
the apostle has been made famous by a tradition dating at least from
the beginning of the fourth century. The tradition rests on a
foundation of truth. The apostle was tried and judged in Corinth by
the proconsul Marcus Anneus Gallio, brother of Seneca; in Rome he was
handed over to Afranius Burro, prefect of the prætorium, and an
intimate friend of Seneca. We know, also, that the presence of the
prisoner, and his wonderful eloquence in preaching the new faith,
created a profound sensation among the members of the prætorium and of
the imperial household. His case must have been inquired into by the
philosopher himself, who happened to be _consul suffectus_ at the
time. The modest tombstone, discovered by accident among the ruins of
Ostia, gives us the evidence of the bond of sympathy and esteem
established, in consequence of these events, between the Annei and the
founders of the Church in Rome.
Its resemblance to the name of the Annei reminds me of another
remarkable discovery connected with the same city, and with the same
question. There lived at Ostia, towards the middle of the second
century, a manufacturer of pottery and terracottas, named Annius
Ser......, whose lamps were exported to many provinces of the empire.
These lamps are generally ornamented with the image of the Good
Shepherd; but they show also types which are decidedly pagan, such as
the labors of Hercules, Diana the huntress, etc. It has been surmised
that Annius Ser...... was converted to the gospel, and that the
adoption of the symbolic figure of the Redeemer on his lamps was a
result of his change of religion; but to explain the case it is not
necessary to accept this theory. I believe he was a pagan, and that
the lamps with the Good Shepherd were produced by him to order, and
from a design supplied to him by a member of the local congregation.
[Illustration: Lamp of Annius Ser......, with figure of the Good
Shepherd.]
Another question concerning the behavior of early Christians has
reference to their military service under the imperial eagles, and to
the cases of conscience which may have arisen from it. On this I may
refer the reader to the works of Mamachi, Lami, Baumgarten, Le Blant,
and de Rossi,[13] who have discussed the subject thoroughly. Speaking
from the point of view of material evidence, I have to record several
discoveries which prove that officers and men of the _cohortes
prætoriæ_ and _urbanæ_ could serve with equal loyalty their God and
their sovereign.
In November, 1885, I was present at the discovery of a marble
sarcophagus in the military burial-grounds of the Via Salaria,
opposite the gate of the Villa Albani. It bore two inscriptions,
one on the lid, the other on the body. The first defies
interpretation;[14] the second mentions the name of a little girl,
Publia Ælia Proba, who was the daughter of a captain of the ninth
battalion of the prætorians, and a lady named Clodia Plautia. They
were all Christians; but for a reason unknown to us, they avoided
making a show of their persuasion, and were buried among the gentiles.
Another stray Christian military tomb, erected by a captain of the
sixth battalion, named Claudius Ingenuus, was found, in 1868, in the
Vigna Grandi, near S. Sebastiano. Here also we find the intention of
avoiding an open profession of faith. A regular cemetery of Christian
prætorians was found in the spring of the same year by Marchese
Francesco Patrizi, in his villa adjoining the prætorian camp. It is
neither large nor interesting, and it seems to prove that the gospel
must have made but few proselytes in the imperial barracks.
* * * * *
We must not believe that the transformation of Rome from a pagan into
a Christian city was a sudden and unexpected event, which took the
world by surprise. It was the natural result of the work of three
centuries, brought to maturity under Constantine by an inevitable
reaction against the violence of Diocletian's rule. It was not a
revolution or a conversion in the true sense of these words; it was
the official recognition of a state of things which had long ceased to
be a secret. The moral superiority of the new doctrines over the old
religions was so evident, so overpowering, that the result of the
struggle had been a foregone conclusion since the age of the first
apologists. The revolution was an exceedingly mild one, the
transformation almost imperceptible. No violence was resorted to, and
the tolerance and mutual benevolence so characteristic of the Italian
race was adopted as the fundamental policy of State and Church.
The transformation may be followed stage by stage in both its moral
and material aspect. There is not a ruin of ancient Rome that does not
bear evidence of the great change. Many institutions and customs still
flourishing in our days are of classical origin, and were adopted, or
tolerated, because they were not in opposition to Christian
principles. Beginning with the material side of the question, the
first monument to which I have to refer is the Arch of Constantine,
raised in 315 at the foot of the Palatine, where the Via Triumphalis
diverges from the Sacra Via.
The importance of this arch, from the point of view of the question
treated in this chapter, rests not on its sculptured panels and
medallions,--spoils taken at random from older structures, from which
the arch has received the nickname of Æsop's crow (_la cornacchia di
Esopo_),--but on the inscription engraved on each side of the attic.
"The S. P. Q. R. have dedicated this triumphal arch to Constantine,
because _instinctu divinitatis_ (by the will of God), and by his own
virtue, etc., he has liberated the country from the tyrant [Maxentius]
and his faction." The opinion long prevailed among archæologists that
the words _instinctu divinitatis_ were not original, but added after
Constantine's conversion. Cardinal Mai thought that the original
formula was _diis faventibus_, "by the help of the gods," while Henzen
suggested _nutu Iovis optimi maximi_, "by the will of Jupiter."
Cavedoni was the first to declare that the inscription had never been
altered, and that the two memorable words--the first proclaiming
officially the name of the true God in the face of imperial
Rome--belonged to the original text, sanctioned by the Senate. The
controversy was settled in 1863, when Napoleon III. obtained from the
Pope the permission to make a plaster cast of the arch. With the help
of the scaffolding, the scholars of the time examined the inscription,
the shape of each letter, the holes of the bolts by which the
gilt-bronze letters were fastened, the joints of the marble blocks,
the color and quality of the marble, and decided unanimously that the
inscription had never been tampered with, and that none of its letters
had been changed.
[Illustration: ARCH OF CONSTANTINE]
The arch was raised in 315. Was Constantine openly professing his
faith at that time? Opinions are divided. Some think he must have
waited until the defeat of Licinius in 323; others suggest the year
311 as a more probable date of his profession. The supporters of the
first theory quote in its favor the fact that the pagan symbols and
images of gods appear on coins struck by Constantine and his sons; but
this fact is easily explained, when we consider that the coinage of
bronze was a privilege of the Senate, and that the Senate was pagan by
a large majority. Many of Constantine's constitutions and official
letters speak in favor of an early declaration of faith. When the
Donatists appealed to him from the verdict of the councils of Arles
and Rome, he wrote to the bishops: _Meum judicium postulant, qui ipse
judicium Christi expecto_: "They appeal to me, when I myself must be
judged by Christ." The verdict of the council of Rome against the
sectarians was rendered on October 2, 313, in the "palace of Fausta in
the Lateran;" the imperial palace of the Lateran, therefore, had
already been handed over to the bishop of Rome, and a portion of it
turned into a place of worship. The basilica of the Lateran still
retains its title of "Mother and head of all churches of Rome, and of
the world," ranking above those of S. Peter and S. Paul in respect to
age.
Such being the state of affairs when the triumphal arch was erected,
nothing prevents us from believing those two words to be original, and
to express the relations then existing between the first Christian
emperor and the old pagan Senate. At all events, nothing is more
uncompromising than these two words, because the titles of _Deus
summus, Deus altissimus, magnus, æternus_, are constantly found on
monuments pertaining to the worship of Atys and Mithras. "These
words," concludes de Rossi, "far from being a profession of
Christianity engraved on the arch at a later period, are simply a
'moyen terme,' a compromise, between the feelings of the Senate and
those of the emperor."[15]
Many facts related by contemporary documents prove that the change of
religion was, at the beginning, a personal affair with the emperor,
and not a question of state; the emperor was a Christian, but the old
rules of the empire were not interfered with. In dealing with his
pagan subjects Constantine showed so much tact and impartiality as to
cast doubts upon the sincerity of his conversion. He has been accused
of having accepted from the people of Hispellum (Spello, in Umbria),
the honor of a temple, and from the inhabitants of Roman Africa that
of a priesthood for the worship of his own family (_sacerdotium Flaviæ
gentis_). The exculpation is given by Constantine himself in his
address of thanks to the Hispellates: "We are pleased and grateful for
your determination to raise a temple in honor of our family and of
ourselves; and we accept it, provided you do not contaminate it with
superstitious practices." The honor of a temple and of a priesthood,
therefore, was offered and accepted as a political demonstration, as
an act of loyalty, and as an occasion for public festivities, both
inaugural and anniversary.
[Illustration: Picture of Orpheus found in the Catacombs of
Priscilla.]
In accepting rites and customs which were not offensive to her
principles and morality, the Church showed equal tact and foresight,
and contributed to the peaceful accomplishment of the transformation.
These rites and customs, borrowed from classical times, are nowhere so
conspicuous as in Rome. Giovanni Marangoni, a scholar of the last
century, wrote a book on this subject which is full of valuable
information.[16] The subject is so comprehensive, and in a certain
sense so well known, that I must satisfy myself by mentioning only a
few particulars connected with recent discoveries. First, as to
symbolic images allowed in churches and cemeteries. Of Orpheus playing
on the lyre, while watching his flock, as a substitute for the Good
Shepherd, there have been found in the catacombs four paintings, two
reliefs on sarcophagi, one engraving on a gem. Here is the latest
representation discovered, from the Catacombs of Priscilla (1888).
[Illustration: The Four Seasons, from the Imperial Palace, Ostia.]
The belief that the sibyls had prophesied the advent of Christ made
their images popular. The church of the Aracoeli is particularly
associated with them, because tradition refers the origin of its name
to an altar--ARA PRIMOGENITI DEI--raised to the son of God by the
emperor Augustus, who had been warned of his advent by the sibylline
books. For this reason the figures of Augustus and of the Tiburtine
sibyl are painted on either side of the arch above the high altar.
They have actually been given the place of honor in this church; and
formerly, when at Christmas time the _Presepio_ was exhibited in the
second chapel on the left, they occupied the front row, the sibyl
pointing out to Augustus the Virgin and the Bambino who appeared in
the sky in a halo of light. The two figures, carved in wood, have now
disappeared; they were given away or sold thirty years ago, when a new
set of images was offered to the _Presepio_ by prince Alexander
Torlonia. Prophets and sibyls appear also in Renaissance monuments;
they were modelled by della Porta in the Santa Casa at Loretto,
painted by Michelangelo in the Sistine chapel, by Raphael in S. Maria
della Pace, by Pinturicchio in the Borgia apartments, engraved by
Baccio Baldini, a contemporary of Sandro Botticelli, and "graffite" by
Matteo di Giovanni in the pavement of the Duomo at Siena.
The images of the Four Seasons are not uncommon on Christian
sarcophagi. The latest addition to this class of subjects is to be
found in the church of S. Paolo alle Tre Fontane. Four medallions of
polychrome mosaic, representing the _Hiems_, _Ver_, _Æstas_, and
_Autumnus_, discovered in the so-called imperial palace at Ostia, were
inserted in the pavement of this church by order of Pius IX. Galenus
and Hippokrates, manipulating medicines and cordials, were painted in
the lower basilica at Anagni, Hermes Trismegistos was represented in
mosaic in the Duomo of Siena, the labors of Hercules were carved in
ivory in the cathedra of S. Peter's. Montfaucon describes the tomb of
the poet Sannazzaro in the church of the Olivetans, Naples, as
ornamented with the statues of Apollo and Minerva, and with groups of
satyrs. In the eighteenth century the ecclesiastical authorities tried
to give a less profane aspect to the composition, by engraving the
name of David under the Apollo, and of Judith under the Minerva.
Another mixture of sacred and profane conceptions is to be found in
the names of some of our Roman churches,--as S. Maria in Minerva, S.
Stefano del Cacco (Kynokephalos), S. Lorenzo in Matuta, S. Salvatore
in Tellure, all conspicuous landmarks in the history of the
transformation of Rome.
I shall mention one more instance. The portrait bust of S. Paul, of
silver gilt, from the chapel of the Sancta Sanctorum, was loaded with
gems and intaglios of Greek or Græco-Roman workmanship, among which
was a magnificent cameo with the portrait-head of Nero, which had been
worn, most probably, by the very murderer of the apostle.[17]
[Illustration: Ancient Candelabrum in the church of SS. Nereo ed
Achilleo.]
In the next chapter I shall speak of ancient temples as museums of
statuary, galleries of pictures, and cabinets of precious objects. I
need not describe the acceptance and development of this tradition by
the Church. To it we are indebted for the inexhaustible wealth in
works of art of every kind, of which Italy is so proud. But in the
period which elapsed between the fall of the empire and the foundation
of the Cosmati school, the Christians were compelled, by the want of
contemporary productions, to borrow works of art and decorative
fragments from temples, palaces, and tombs. The gallery of the
Candelabra, in the Vatican museum, has been formed mostly of
specimens formerly set up in churches. The accompanying cut represents
the candelabrum still existing in the church of SS. Nereo ed Achilleo,
one of the most exquisite and delicate works of the kind. The Biga, or
two-horse chariot, in the Vatican, was used for centuries as an
episcopal throne in the choir of S. Mark's. In the church of the
Aracoeli there was an altar dedicated to Isis by some one who had
returned safely from a perilous journey. This bore the conventional
emblem of two footprints, which were believed by the Christians to be
the footprints of the angel seen by Gregory the Great on the summit of
Hadrian's tomb. Philip de Winghe describes them as those of a _puer
quinquennis_, a boy five years old.[18] This curious relic has been
removed to the Capitoline Museum.
The indifference with which these profane and sometimes offensive
works were admitted within sacred edifices is astonishing. The high
altar in the church of S. Teodoro was supported, until 1703, by a
round _ara_, on the rim of which the following words are now engraved:
"On this marble of the gentiles incense was offered to the gods."
Another altar, in the church of S. Michele in Borgo, was covered with
bas-reliefs and legends belonging to the superstition of Cybele and
Atys; a third, in the church of the Aracoeli, had been dedicated to
the goddess Annona by an importer of wheat. The pavement of the
basilica of S. Paul was patched with nine hundred and thirty-one
miscellaneous inscriptions; and so were those of S. Martino ai Monti,
S. Maria in Trastevere, SS. Giovanni e Paolo, etc. We have one
specimen left of these inscribed pavements in the church of SS.
Quattro Coronati on the Cælian, which may be called an epigraphic
museum.
[Illustration: The Templum Sacræ Urbis (SS. Cosma e Damiano).]
In the third chapter I shall have occasion to describe the
transformation of nearly all the great public buildings of imperial
Rome into places of Christian worship, but it falls within the scope
of this chapter to remark that, in many instances, the pagan
decorations of those buildings were not affected by the change. When
Felix IV. took possession of the _templum sacræ urbis_, and dedicated
it to SS. Cosma and Damianus, the walls of the building were covered
with incrustations of the time of Septimius Severus representing the
wolf and other profane emblems. Pope Felix not only accepted them as
an ornament to his church, but tried to copy them in the apse which he
rebuilt. The same process was followed by Pope Simplicius (A. D.
468-483), in transforming the basilica of Junius Bassus on the
Esquiline into the church of S. Andrea.[19] The faithful, raising
their eyes towards the tribune, could see the figures of Christ and
his apostles in mosaic; turning to the side walls, they could see
Nero, Galba, and six other Roman emperors, Diana hunting the stag,
Hylas stolen by the nymphs, Cybele on the chariot drawn by lions, a
lion attacking a centaur, the chariot of Apollo, figures performing
mysterious Egyptian rites, and other such profanities, represented in
_opus sectile marmoreum_, a sort of Florentine mosaic. This unique set
of intarsios was destroyed in the sixteenth century by the French
Antonian monks for a reason worth relating. They believed that the
glutinous substance by which the layer of marble or mother-of-pearl
was kept fast was an excellent remedy against the ague; hence every
time one of them was attacked by fever, a portion of those marvellous
works was sacrificed. Fever must have raged quite fiercely among the
French monks, because when this wanton practice was stopped, only
four pictures were left. Two are now preserved in the church of S.
Antonio, in the chapel of the saint; two in the Palazzo Albani del
Drago alle Quattro Fontane, on the landing of the stairs.[20]
[Illustration: Mosaic from the church of S. Andrea.]
Intarsios of the same kind have been seen and described in the
basilica of S. Croce in Gerusalemme, in the church of S. Stefano
Rotondo, in that of S. Adriano, etc. When the offices adjoining the
Senate Hall were transformed into the church of S. Martina, the side
walls were adorned with the bas-reliefs of the triumphal arch of M.
Aurelius, now in the Palazzo dei Conservatori (first landing, nos. 42,
43, 44). One of them, representing the emperor sacrificing before the
Temple of Jupiter, is given opposite page 90.
The decoration of the churches, like that of the temples, was mostly
done by private contributions and gifts of works of art. The laying
out of the pavement, for instance, or the painting of the walls was
apportioned to voluntary subscribers, each of whom was entitled to
inscribe his name on his section of the work. The pavement of the
lower basilica of Parenzo, in Dalmatia, is divided into mosaic panels
of various sizes, representing vases, wreaths, fish, and animals; and
to each panel is appended the name of the contributor:--
"Lupicinus and Pascasia made one hundred [square] feet.
"Clamosus and Successa, one hundred feet.
"Felicissimus and his relatives, one hundred feet.
"Fausta, the patrician, and her relatives, sixty feet.
"Claudia, devout woman, and her niece Honoria, made one hundred and
ten feet, in fulfilment of a vow."[21]
Theseus killing the Minotaur in the labyrinth of Crete, and labyrinths
in general, were favorite subjects for church pavements, especially
among the Gauls. The custom is very ancient, a labyrinth having been
represented in the church of S. Vitale at Ravenna as early as the
sixth century. Those of the cathedral at Lucca, of S. Michele Maggiore
at Pavia, of S. Savino at Piacenza, of S. Maria in Trastevere at Rome
(destroyed in the restoration of 1867), are of a later date. The image
of Theseus is accompanied by a legend in the "leonine" rhythm:--
_Theseus intravit, monstrumque biforme necavit._
The symbolism of the subject is explained thus: The labyrinth, so easy
of access, but from which no one can escape, is symbolical of human
life. At the time of the Crusades, church labyrinths began to be used
for a practical purpose. The faithful were wont to go over the
meandering paths on their knees, murmuring prayers in memory of the
passion of the Lord. Under the influence of this practice the classic
and Carolingian name--labyrinth--was forgotten; and the new one of
_rues de Jerusalem_, or _leagues_, adopted. The _rues de Jerusalem_ in
the cathedral at Chartres, designed in blue marble, were 666 feet
long; and it took an hour to finish the pilgrimage. Later the
labyrinths lost their religious meaning, and became a pastime for
idlers and children. The one in the church at Saint-Omer has been
destroyed, because the celebration of the office was often disturbed
by irreverent visitors trying the sport.[22]
In Rome we have several instances of these private artistic
contributions in the service of churches. The pavement of S. Maria in
Cosmedin is the joint offering of many parishioners; and so were those
of S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura and S. Maria Maggiore before their modern
restoration. The names of Beno de Rapiza, his wife Maria Macellaria,
and his children Clement and Attilia are attached to the frescoes of
the lower church of S. Clemente; and that of Beno alone to the
paintings of S. Urbano alla Caffarella. In the apse of S. Sebastiano
in Pallara, on the Palatine, and in that of S. Saba on the Aventine,
we read the names of a Benedictus and of a Saba, at whose expense the
apses were decorated.
We cannot help following with emotion the development of this artistic
feeling even among the lowest classes of mediæval Rome.[23] We read of
an Ægidius, son of Hippolytus, a shoemaker of the Via Arenula, leaving
his substance to the church of S. Maria de Porticù, with the request
that it should be devoted to the building of a chapel, "handsome and
handsomely painted, so that everybody should take delight in looking
at it." Such feelings, exceptional in many Italian provinces, were
common throughout Tuscany. When the triptych of Duccio Buoninsegna,
now in the "Casa dell' opera" at Siena, was carried from his studio to
the Duomo, June 9, 1310, the whole population followed in a triumphant
procession. Renzo di Maitano, another Sienese artist of fame, had the
soul of a poet. He was the first to advocate the erection of a church,
"grand, beautiful, magnificent, whose just proportions in height,
breadth, and length should so harmonize with the details of the
decoration as to make it decorous and solemn, and worthy of the
worship of Christ in hymns and canticles, for the protection and glory
of the city of Siena." So spoke the artists of that age, and their
language was understood and felt by the multitudes. Their lives were
made bright and cheerful in spite of the troubles and misfortunes
which weighed upon their countries. Think of such sentiments in our
age!
[Illustration: THE TRANSLATION OF S. CYRIL'S REMAINS (Fresco in S.
Clemente, done at the order of Maria Macellaria)]
But I am digressing from my subject. Another step of the religious and
material transformation of the city is marked by the substitution of
chapels and shrines for the old _aræ compitales_, at the crossings of
the main thoroughfares. The institution of altars in honor of the
_Lares_, or guardian genii of each ward or quarter, is ancient, and
can be traced to prehistoric times. When Servius Tullius enclosed the
city with his walls, there were twenty-four such altars, called
_sacraria Argeorum_. Two facts speak in favor of their remote
antiquity. The priestess of Jupiter was not allowed to sacrifice on
them, unless in a savage attire, with hair unkempt and untrimmed. On
the 17th of May, the Vestals used to throw into the Tiber, from the
Sublician bridge, manikins of wickerwork, in commemoration of the
human sacrifices once performed on the same altars.
When Augustus reorganized the capital and its wards, in the year 7
B. C., the number of street-shrines had grown to more than two hundred.
Two hundred and sixty-five were registered, A. D. 73, in the census
of Vespasian; three hundred and twenty-four at the time of
Constantine. A man of much leisure, and evidently of no occupation,
the cavaliere Alessandro Rufini, numbered and described the shrines
and images which lined the streets of Rome in the year 1853. As
modern civilization and indifference will soon obliterate this
historical feature of the city, I quote some results of Rufini's
investigations.[24] There were 1,421 images of the Madonna, 1,318
images of saints, ornamented with 1,928 precious objects, and 110
ex-votos; 1,067 lamps were kept burning day and night before them,--a
most useful institution in a city whose streets have not been
regularly lighted until recent years.
[Illustration: The Shrine and Altar of Mercurius Sobrius.]
As prototypes of a classical and Christian street-shrine,
respectively, we may take the _ædicula compitalis_ of Mercurius
Sobrius, discovered in April, 1888, near S. Martino ai Monti, and the
_immagine di Ponte_, at the corner of the Via dei Coronari and the
Vicolo del Micio. The shrine of Mercury near S. Martino was dedicated
by Augustus, in the year 10 B. C. The inscription engraved on the
front of the altar says: "The emperor Augustus dedicated this shrine
to Mercury in the year of the City, 744, from money received as a
new-year's gift, during his absence from Rome."
Suetonius (Chapter 57) says that every year, on January 1, all classes
of citizens climbed the Capitol and offered _strenæ calendariæ_ to
Augustus, when he was absent; and that the emperor, with his usual
generosity, appropriated the money to the purchase of _pretiosissima
deorum simulacra_, "the most valuable statues of gods," to be set up
at the crossings of thoroughfares. Four pedestals of these statues
have already been found: one near the Arch of Titus, at the beginning
of the sixteenth century; one, in 1548, near the Senate House; one, in
the same year, by the Arch of Septimius Severus. The fourth pedestal,
that recently discovered near S. Martino ai Monti, was raised at the
crossing of two important streets, the _clivus suburanus_ (Via di S.
Lucia in Selci), and the _vicus sobrius_ (Via dei Quattro Cantoni),
from which the statue was nicknamed _Mercurius Sobrius_, "Mercury the
teetotaller."
The _immagine di Ponte_, in the Via dei Coronari, the prototype of
modern shrines, contains an image of the Virgin in a graceful niche
built, or re-built, in 1523, by Alberto Serra of Monferrato, from
designs by Antonio da Sangallo. Its name is derived from that of the
lane leading to the Ponte S. Angelo (Canale di Ponte). The house to
which it belongs is No. 113 Via dei Coronari, and No. 5 Vicolo del
Micio.
Monumental crosses were sometimes erected instead of shrines. Count
Giovanni Gozzadini has called the attention of archæologists to this
subject in a memoir "Sulle croci monumentali che erano nelle vie di
Bologna del secolo XIII." He proves from the texts of historians,
Fathers, and councils that the practice of erecting crosses at the
junction of the main streets is very ancient, and belongs to the first
century of the freedom of the Church, when the faithful withdrew the
emblem of Christ from the catacombs, and raised it in opposition to
the street shrines of the gentiles. Bologna has the privilege of
possessing the oldest of these crosses. One bears the legend "In the
name of God; this cross, erected long since by Barbatus, was renewed
under the bishopric of Vitalis (789-814)." This class of monuments
abounds in Rome, although it belongs to a comparatively recent age.
Such are the crosses before the churches of SS. Sebastiano, Cesareo,
Nereo ed Achilleo, Pancrazio, Lorenzo, Francesco a Ripa, and others.
The most curious and interesting is perhaps the column of Henry IV. of
France, which was erected under Clement VIII. in front of S. Antonio
all' Esquilino, and which the modern generation has concealed in a
recess on the east side of S. Maria Maggiore. It is in the form of a
culverin--a long slender cannon of the period--standing upright. From
the muzzle rises a marble cross supporting the figure of Christ on one
side, and that of the Virgin on the other. It was erected by Charles
d'Anisson, prior of the French Antonians, to commemorate the
absolution given by Clement VIII. to Henry IV. of France and Navarre,
on September 17 of the year 1595. The monument has a remarkable
history. Although apparently erected by private enterprise, the kings
of France regarded it as an insult of the Curia, an official boast of
their submission to the Pope; and they lost no opportunity of showing
their dissatisfaction in consequence. Louis XIV. found an occasion for
revenge. The gendarmes who had escorted his ambassador, the duc de
Crequi, to Rome, had a street brawl with the Pope's Corsican
body-guards; and although it was doubtful which side was to blame,
Louis obliged Pope Alexander VII. to raise a pyramid on the spot where
the affray had taken place, with the following humiliating
inscription:--
"In denunciation of the murderous attack committed by the Corsican
soldiers against his Excellency the duc de Crequi, Pope Alexander VII.
declares their nation deprived forever of the privilege of serving
under the flag of the Church. This monument was erected May 21, 1664,
according to the agreement made at Pisa."
The revenge could not have been more complete; so bitter was it that
Alexander VII. drew a violent protest against it, to be read and
published only after his death. His successor, Clement IX., a favorite
with Louis XIV., obtained leave that the pyramid should be demolished,
which was done in June, 1668, with the consent of the French
ambassador, the duc de Chaulnes. Whether by stipulation or by the good
will of the Pope, the inscription of the column of Henry IV. was made
to disappear at the same time. We have found it concealed in a remote
corner of the convent of S. Antonio.[25] The column itself, and the
canopy which sheltered it, fell to the ground on Thursday, February
15, 1744; and when Benedict XIV. restored the monument in the
following year, he severed forever its connection with these
remarkable historical events, by dedicating it DEIPARÆ VIRGINI. Having
been dismantled in 1875, during the construction of the Esquiline
quarter, it was reërected in 1880, not far from its original place, on
the east side of S. Maria Maggiore,--not without opposition, because
there are always men who think they can obliterate history by
suppressing monuments which bear testimony to it.
One of the characteristics of ancient sanctuaries, by which the weary
pilgrim was provided with bathing accommodations, is also to be found
in the old churches of Rome. We are told in the "Liber Pontificalis"
that Pope Symmachus (498-514), while building the basilica of S.
Pancrazio, on the Via Aurelia, _fecit in eadem balneum_, "provided it
with a bath." Another was erected by the same Pope near the apse of
S. Paolo fuori le Mura, the supply of water of which was originally
derived from a spring; later from wheels, or noriahs, established on
the banks of the Tiber. Notices were written on the walls of these
bathing apartments, warning laymen and priests to observe the
strictest rules of modesty. One of these inscriptions, from the baths
annexed to the churches of SS. Sylvester and Martin, is preserved in
section II. of the Christian epigraphic museum of the Lateran. It ends
with the distich:--
NON NOSTRIS NOCET OFFICIIS NEC CULPA LABACRI
QUOD SIBIMET GENERAT LUBRICA VITA MALUM EST,--
"There is no harm in seeking strength and purity of body in baths; it
is not water but our own bad actions that make us sin." These verses
are not so good as their moral; but inscriptions like this prove that
the abandonment of such useful institutions must be attributed not to
the undue severity of Christian morality, but to the ruin of the
aqueducts by which fountains and baths were fed. However, even in the
darkest period of the Middle Ages we find the traditional "kantharos,"
or basin, in the centre of the quadri-porticoes or courts by which the
basilicas were entered. Such is the vase in the court of S. Cæcilia,
represented on the next page, and that in front of S. Cosimato in
Trastevere; and such is the famous _calix marmoreus_, which formerly
stood near the church of SS. Apostoli, mentioned in the Bull of John
III. (A. D. 570), by which the boundary line of that parish was
determined. This historical monument, a prominent landmark in the
topography of mediæval Rome, was removed to the Baths of Diocletian at
the beginning of last year.
In many of our churches visitors may have noticed one or more round
black stones, weighing from ten to a hundred pounds, which, according
to tradition, were tied to the necks of martyrs when they were thrown
into wells, lakes, or rivers. To the student these stones tell a
different tale. They prove that the classic institution of the
_ponderaria_ (sets of weights and measures) migrated from temples to
churches, after the closing of the former, A. D. 393.
[Illustration: Kantharos in the Court of St. Cæcilia.]
As the _amphora_ was the standard measure of capacity for wine, the
_metreta_ for oil, the _modius_ for grain, so the _libra_ was the
standard measure of weight.[26] To insure honesty in trade they were
examined periodically by order of the ædiles; those found _iniquæ_
(short) were broken, and their owners sentenced to banishment in
remote islands. In A. D. 167, Junius Rusticus, prefect of the city,
ordered a general inspection to be made in Rome and in the provinces;
weights and measures found to be legal were marked or stamped with the
legend "[Verified] by the authority of Q. Junius Rusticus, prefect of
the city." These weights of Rusticus are discovered in hundreds in
Roman excavations.[27]
The original standards were kept in the Temple of Jupiter on the
Capitol, and used only on extraordinary occasions. Official duplicates
were deposited in other temples, like those of Castor and Pollux, Mars
Ultor, Ops, and others, and kept at the disposal of the public, whence
their name of _pondera publica_. Barracks and market-places were also
furnished with them. The most important discovery connected with this
branch of Roman administration was made at Tivoli in 1883, when three
_mensæ ponderariæ_, almost perfect, were found in the portico or
peribolos of the Temple of Hercules, adjoining the cathedral of S.
Lorenzo. This wing of the portico is divided into compartments by
means of projecting pilasters, and each recess is occupied by a marble
table resting on "trapezophoroi" richly ornamented with symbols of
Hercules and Bacchus, like the club and the thyrsus. Along the edge of
two of the tables runs the inscription, "Made at the expense of Marcus
Varenus Diphilus, president of the college of Hercules," while the
third was erected at the expense of his wife Varena. The tables are
perforated by holes of conical shape, varying in diameter from 200 to
380 millimetres. Brass measures of capacity were fastened into each
hole, for use by buyers and sellers. They were used in a very
ingenious way, both as dry and liquid measures. The person who had
bought, for instance, half a modius of beans, or twenty-four
_sextarii_ of wine, and wanted to ascertain whether he had been
cheated in his bargain, would fill the receptacle to the proper line,
then open the valve or spicket below, and transfer the tested contents
again to his sack or flask.
The institution was accepted by the Church, and _ponderaria_ were set
up in the principal basilicas. The best set which has come down to us
is that of S. Maria in Trastevere, but there is hardly a church
without a "stone" weighing from five or ten to a hundred pounds. The
popular superstition by which these practical objects were transformed
into relics of martyrdoms is very old. Topographers and pilgrims of
the seventh century speak of a stone exhibited in the chapel of SS.
Abundius and Irenæus, under the portico of S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura,
"which, in their ignorance, pilgrims touch and lift." They mention
also another weight, exhibited in the church of S. Stephen, near S.
Paul's, which they believed to be one of the stones with which the
martyr was killed.
In 1864 a _schola_ (a memorial and banqueting hall) was discovered in
the burial grounds adjoining the prætorian camp, which had been used
by members of a corporation called the _sodalium serrensium_, that is,
of the citizens of Serræ, a city of Samothrake, I believe. Among the
objects pertaining to the hall and its customers were two measures for
wine, a _sextarium_, and a _hemina_, marked with the monogram of
Christ and the name of the donor.[28] They are now exhibited in the
_sala dei bronzi_ of the Capitoline museum.
The hall of the citizens of Serræ, discovered in 1864, belongs to a
class of monuments very common in the suburbs of Rome. They were
called _cellæ, memoriæ, exedræ_, and _scholæ_, and were used by
relatives and friends of the persons buried under or near them, in the
performance of expiatory ceremonies or for commemorative banquets, for
which purpose all the necessaries, from the table-service to the
festal garments, were kept on the spot, in cabinets entrusted to the
care of a watchman. This practice--save the expiatory offerings--was
adopted by the Christians. The _agapai_, or love-feasts, before
degenerating into those excesses and superstitions so strongly
denounced by the Fathers of the Church, were celebrated over or near
the tombs of martyrs and confessors, the treasury of the local
congregation supplying food and drink, as well as the banqueting
robes. In the inventory of the property confiscated during the
persecution of Diocletian, in a house at Cirta (Constantine, Algeria),
which was used by the faithful as a church, we find registered,
chalices of gold and silver, lamps and candelabras, eighty-two female
tunics, sixteen male tunics, thirteen pairs of men's boots,
forty-seven pairs of women's shoes, and so on.[29] A remarkable
discovery, illustrating the subject, has been lately made in the
Catacombs of Priscilla; that of a _graffito_ containing this sentence:
"February 5, 375, we, Florentinus, Fortunatus, and Felix, came here AD
CALICE[M] (for the cup)." To understand the meaning of this sentence,
we must compare it with others engraved on pagan tombs. In one, No.
25,861 of the "Corpus," the deceased says to the passer-by: "Come on,
bring with you a flask of wine, a glass, and all that is needed for a
libation!" In another, No. 19,007, the same invitation is worded: "Oh,
friends (_convivæ_), drink now to my memory, and wish that the earth
may be light on me." We are told by S. Augustine[30] that when his
mother, Monica, visited Milan in 384, the practice of eating and
drinking in honor of the martyrs had been stopped by S. Ambrose,
although it was still flourishing in other regions, where crowds of
pilgrims were still going from tomb to tomb with baskets of provisions
and flasks of wine, drinking heavily at each station. Paulinus of Nola
and Augustine himself strongly stigmatized the abuse. The faithful
were advised either to distribute their provisions to the poor, who
crowded the entrances to the crypts, or to leave them on the tombs,
that the local clergy might give them to the needy. There is no doubt
that the record _ad calicem venimus_, scratched by Florentinus,
Fortunatus, and Felix on the walls of the Cemetery of Priscilla,
refers to these deplorable libations.
[Illustration: Sample of a Drinking-cup.]
Many drinking-cups used on these occasions have been found in Rome, in
my time. They are generally works of the fourth century of our era,
cut in glass by unskillful hands, and they show the portrait-heads of
SS. Peter and Paul, in preference to other subjects of the kind. This
fact is due not only to the special veneration which the Romans
professed for the founders of their church, but also to the habit of
celebrating their anniversary, June 29, with public or domestic
_agapai_. S. Peter's day was to the Romans of the fourth century what
Christmas is to us, as regards joviality and sumptuous banquets. On
one of these occasions S. Jerome received from his friend Eustochio
fruit and sweets in the shape of doves. In acknowledging the kind
remembrance, S. Jerome recommends sobriety on that day more than on
any other: "We must celebrate the birthday of Peter rather with
exaltation of spirit, than with abundance of food. It is absurd to
glorify with the satisfaction of our appetites the memory of men who
pleased God by mortifying theirs." The poorer classes of citizens were
fed under the porticoes of the Vatican basilica. The gatherings
degenerated into the display of such excesses of drunkenness that
Augustine could not resist writing to the Romans: "First you
persecuted the martyrs with stones and other instruments of torture
and death; and now you persecute their memory with your intoxicating
cups."
The institution of public granaries (_horrea publica_) for the
maintenance of the lower classes was also accepted and favored by
Christian Rome. On page 250 of my "Ancient Rome," I have spoken of the
warehouses for the storage of wheat, built by Sulpicius Galba on the
plains of Testaccio, near the Porta S. Paolo, named for him _horrea
galbana_, even after their purchase by the state. These public
granaries originated at the time of Caius Gracchus and his grain laws.
Their scheme was developed, in course of time, by Clodius, Pompey,
Seianus, and the emperors, to such an extent that, in 312 A. D., there
were registered in Rome alone two hundred and ninety granaries. They
may be divided into three classes: In the first, and by far the most
important, a plentiful supply of breadstuffs was kept at the expense
of the state, to meet emergencies of scarcity or famine, and the wants
of a population one third of which was fed gratuitously by the
sovereign. The second was intended especially for the storage of paper
(_horrea chartaria_), candles (_horrea candelaria_), spices (_horrea
piperataria_), and other such commodities. The third class consisted
of buildings in which the citizens might deposit their goods, money,
plate, securities, and other valuables for which they had no place of
safety in their own houses. There were also private _horrea_, built on
speculation, to be let as strong-rooms like our modern vaults,
storage-warehouses, and "pantechnicons."
The building of the new quarter of the Testaccio, the region of
_horrea_ par excellence, has given us the chance of studying the
institution in its minutest details. I shall mention only one
discovery. We found, in 1885, the official advertisement for leasing a
_horrea_, under the empire of Hadrian. It is thus worded:--
"To be let from to-day, and hereafter annually (beginning on December
13): These warehouses, belonging to the Emperor Hadrian, together with
their granaries, wine-cellars, strong-boxes, and repositories.
"The care and protection of the official watchmen is included in the
lease.
"Regulations: I. Any one who rents rooms, vaults, or strong-boxes in
this establishment is expected to pay the rent and vacate the place
before December 13.
"II. Whoever disobeys regulation No. I., and omits to arrange with the
_horrearius_ (or keeper-in-chief) for the renewal of his lease, shall
be considered as liable for another year, the rent to be determined by
the average price paid by others for the same room, vault, or
strong-box. This regulation to be enforced in case the _horrearius_
has not had an opportunity to rent the said room, vault, or strong-box
to other people.
"III. Sub-letting is not allowed. The administration will withdraw the
watch and the guarantee from rooms, vaults, or strong-boxes which
have been sub-let in violation of the existing rules.
"IV. Merchandise or valuables stored in these warehouses are held by
the administration as security for payment of rental.
"V. The tenant will not be reimbursed by the administration for
improvements, additions, and other such work which he has undertaken
on his own account.
"VI. The tenant must give an assignment of his goods to the
keeper-in-chief, who shall not be held responsible for the
safe-keeping of merchandise or valuables which have not been duly
declared. The tenant must claim a receipt for the said assignment and
for the payment of his rental."[31]
The granaries of the Church were intended only for the storage of
corn. The landed estates which the Church owned in Africa and Sicily
were administered by deputies, whose special duty it was to ship the
produce of the harvest to Rome. During the first siege of Totila, in
546, Pope Vigilius, then on his way to Constantinople, despatched from
the coast of Sicily a fleet of grain-laden vessels, under the care of
Valentine, bishop of Silva Candida. The attempt to relieve the city of
the famine proved useless, and the vessels were seized by the
besiegers on their landing at Porto. In 589 an inundation of the
Tiber, described by Gregoire de Tours, carried away several thousand
bushels of grain, which had been stored in the _horrea ecclesiæ_, and
the granaries themselves were totally destroyed.
The "Liber Pontificalis," vol. i. p. 315, describes the calamities
which befell the city of Rome in the year 605; King Agilulf trying to
enter the city by violence; heavy frosts killing the vines; rats
destroying the harvest, etc. However, as soon as the barbarians were
induced to retire by an offer of twelve thousand _solidi_, Pope
Sabinianus, who was then the head of the Church, _iussit aperiri
horrea ecclesiæ_ (threw open the granaries), and offered their
contents at auction, at a valuation of one _solidus_ for thirty
_modii_.
[Illustration: A Granary of Ostia.]
The grain was not intended to be sold, but to be distributed among the
needy; the act of Sabinianus was, therefore, strongly censured, as
being in strong contrast to the generosity of Gregory the Great. A
legend on this subject is related by Paulus Diaconus in chapter xxix.
of the Life of Gregory. He says that Gregory appeared thrice to
Sabinianus, in a vision, entreating him to be more generous; and
having failed to move him by friendly advice, he struck him dead. The
price of one _solidus_ for thirty _modii_ is almost exorbitant; grain
cost exactly one half this at the time of Theodoric.
The institution has outlived all the vicissitudes of the Middle Ages.
Gregory XIII., in 1566, Paul V., in 1609, Clement XI., in 1705,
re-opened the _horrea ecclesiæ_ in the ruined halls of the Baths of
Diocletian; and Clement XIII. added a wing to them, for the storage of
oil. These buildings are still in existence around the Piazza di
Termini, although devoted to other purposes.
It would be impossible to follow in all its manifestations the
material and moral transformation of Rome from the third to the sixth
centuries, without going beyond the limits of a single chapter.
The customs and practices of the classical age were so deeply rooted
among the citizens that even now, after a lapse of sixteen centuries,
they are noticeable to a great extent. When we read, for instance, of
Popes elected by the people assembled at the Rostra,[32] such as
Stephen III., in 768, we must regard the circumstance as caused by a
remembrance of past ages. Under the pontificate of Innocent II.
(1130), of Eugenius III. (1145-1150), and of Lucius III. (1181-1185)
the senators, or municipal magistrates, used to sit and administer
justice in S. Martina and S. Adriano, that is, in the classic Roman
Curia. Many other details will be incidentally described in the
following chapters. I close the present one by referring to a graceful
custom, borrowed likewise from the classic world,--the use of roses in
church or funeral ceremonies and in social life.
The ancients celebrated, in the month of May, a feast called
_rosaria_, in which sepulchres were profusely decorated with the
favorite flower of the season. Roses were also used on occasions of
public rejoicing. A Greek inscription, discovered by Fränkel at
Pergamon, mentions, among the honors shown to the emperor Hadrian, the
_Rhodismos_, which is interpreted as a scattering of roses. Traces of
the custom are found in more recent times. In the Illyrian peninsula,
and on the banks of the Danube, the country people, still feeling the
influence of Roman civilization, celebrated feasts of flowers in
spring and summer, under the name of _rousalia_. In the sixth century,
when the Slavs were vacillating between the influence of the past and
the present, the celebration of the Pentecost was mixed up with that
of the half-pagan, half-barbarous _rousalia_. Southern Russians
believe in supernatural female beings, called _Rusalky_, who bring
prosperity to the fields and forests, which they have inhabited as
flowers.
The early Christians decorated the sepulchres of martyrs and
confessors, on the anniversary of their interment, with roses,
violets, amaranths, and evergreens; and they celebrated the
_rosationes_ on the name-days of churches and sanctuaries. Wreaths and
crowns of roses are often engraved on tombstones, hanging from the
bills of mystic doves. The symbol refers more to the joys of the just
in the future life than to the fleeting pleasures of the earth. The
Acts of Perpetua relate a legend on this subject; that Saturus had a
vision in the dungeon in which he was awaiting his martyrdom, in which
he saw himself transported with Perpetua to a heavenly garden,
fragrant with roses, and turning to his fair companion, he exclaimed:
"Here we are in possession of that which our Lord promised!"
Roses and other flowers are painted on the walls of historical
cubiculi. In a fresco of the crypts of Lucina, in the Catacombs of
Callixtus, are painted birds, symbolizing souls who have been
separated from their bodies, and are playing in fields of roses around
the Tree of Life. As the word _Paradeisos_ signifies a garden, so its
mystic representation always takes the form of a delightful field of
flowers and fruit. Dante gives to the seat of the blessed the shape of
a fair rose, inside of which a crowd of angels with golden wings
descend and return to the Lord:--
"Nel gran fior discendeva, che s'adorna
Di tante foglie: e quindi risaliva,
Là dove lo suo amor sempre soggiorna."[33]
_Paradiso_, xxxi. 10-12.
Possibly it is from this allegory of paradise that the rite of the
"golden rose" which the Pope blesses on Quadragesima Sunday is
derived. The ceremony is very ancient, although the first mention of
it appears only in the life of Leo IX. (1049-1055); and I may mention,
as a curious coincidence, that the kings and queens of Navarre, their
sons, and the dukes and peers of the realm, were bound to offer roses
to the Parliament at the return of spring.
Roses played such an important part in church ceremonies that we find
a _fundus rosarius_ given as a present by Constantine to Pope Mark.
The _rosaria_ outlived the suppression of pagan superstitions, and by
and by assumed its Christian form in the feast of Pentecost, which
falls in the month of May. In that day roses were thrown from the
roofs of churches on the worshipers below. The Pentecost is still
called by the Italians _Pasqua rosa_.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The relations between the Empire, the Christians, and the Jews
have been discussed by really numberless writers, beginning with the
Fathers of the Church. I have consulted, among the moderns: Mangold:
_De ecclesia primæva pro cæsaribus et magistratibus romanis preces
fundente._ Bonn, 1881.--Bittner: _De Græcorum et Romanorum deque
Judæorum et christianorum sacris jejuniis._ Posen, 1846.--Weiss: _Die
römischen Kaiser in ihrem Verhältnisse zu Juden und Christen._ Wien,
1882.--Mourant Brock: _Rome, Pagan and Papal._ London, Hodder & Co.
1883.--Backhouse and Taylor: _History of the primitive Church._
(Italian edition.) Rome, Loescher, 1890.--Greppo: _Trois mémoires
relatifs à l'histoire ecclésiastique._--Döllinger: _Christenthum und
Kirche._--Champagny (Comte de): _Les Antonins_, vol. i.--Gaston
Boissier: _La fin du paganisme_, etc., 2 vols. Paris, Hachette,
1891.--Giovanni Marangoni: _Delle cose gentilesche trasportate ad uso
delle chiese._ Roma, Pagliarini, 1744.--Mosheim: _De rebus Christianis
ante Constantinum._--Carlo Fea: _Dissertazione sulle rovine di Roma_,
in Winckelmann's _Storia delle arti._ Roma, Pagliarini, 1783, vol.
iii.--Louis Duchesne: _Le liber pontificalis._ Paris, Thorin,
1886-1892.--G. B. de Rossi: _Bullettino di archeologia cristiana._
Roma, Salviucci, 1863-1891.
[2] See de Rossi: _Bullettino di archeologia cristiana_, 1888-1889, p.
15; 1890, p. 97.--Edmond Le Blant: _Comptes rendus de l'Acad. des
Inscript._, 1888, p. 113.--Arthur Frothingham: _American Journal of
Archæology_, June, 1888, p. 214.--R. Lanciani: _Gli horti Aciliorum
sul Pincio_, in the _Bullettino della commissione archeologica_, 1891,
p. 132; _Underground Christian Rome_, in the _Atlantic Monthly_, July,
1891.
[3] See Ersilia Lovatelli: _Il Monte Pincio_, in the _Miscellanea
archeologica_, p. 211.--Rodolfo Lanciani: _Su gli orti degli Acili sul
Pincio_, in the _Bullettino di corrispondenza archeologica_, 1868, p.
132.
[4] A description of the beautiful villa of Herodes, adjoining the
Catacombs of Prætextatus, will be found in chapter vi. pp. 287 sqq.
[5] A _consul suffectus_ was one elected as a substitute in case of
the death or retirement of one of the regular consuls.
[6] Lampridius, in _Sev. Alex._, c. 43.
[7] In chapter v., p. 122, of _Ancient Rome_, I have attributed these
_graffiti_ to the second half of the first century; but after a
careful examination of the structure of the wall, on the plaster of
which they are scratched, I am convinced that they must have been
written towards the end of the second century.
[8] Orelli, 4024, _Digest L._, iv. 18, 7.
[9] See Ulpian: _De officio Procons._, i. 3.
[10] Lampridius, _Heliog._, 3.
[11] See Greppo: _Mémoire sur les laraires de l'empereur Alexandre
Sevère_.
[12] The name of the villa was _Cassiacum_; its memory has lasted to
the present age. See the memoir of Luigi Biraghi, _S. Agostino a
Cassago di Brianza._ Milano, 1854.
[13] See _Bullettino di archeologia cristiana_, 1865, p. 50.
[14] It contains the words PETRO LILLVTI PAVLO. They are surely
genuine and ancient. I examined them in company with Mommsen, Jordan,
and de Rossi, and they attributed them to the beginning of the third
century of our era. The best suggestion regarding their origin is that
they belong to a person, probably Christian, who used the name Petrus
as _gentilitium_, and Paulus as _cognomen_, and who was the son of
Lillutus, however barbaric this last name may sound.
[15] See de Rossi: _Bullettino di archeologia cristiana_, 1863, p.
49.--Rohault de Fleury: _L'arc de triomphe de Constantin_, in the
_Révue archéologique_, Sept. 1863, p. 250.--W. Henzen: _Bullettino
dell' Instituto_, 1863, p. 183.
[16] See Bibliography, p. 1. The title of the book may be translated
thus: _On the pagan and profane objects transferred to churches for
their use and adornment_.
[17] The two busts of S. Peter and S. Paul, described in Cancellieri's
book, _Memorie storiche delle sacre teste dei santi apostoli Pietro e
Paolo_, Roma, Ferretti, 1852 (second edition), were stolen by the
French revolutionists in 1799.
[18] See _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, part VI., No. 351.
[19] In the Byzantine period this church and the adjoining monastery
were called _casa Barbara patricia_. They are now comprised within the
cloisters of S. Antonio all' Esquilino, on the left side of S. Maria
Maggiore.
[20] These incrustations, and the basilica to which they belong, have
been illustrated by Ciampini: _Vetera monumenta_, vol. i. plates
xxii.-xxiv.--D'Agincourt: _Histoire de l'art, Peinture_, pl. xiii.
3.--Minutoli: _Ueber die Anfertigung und die Nutzanwendung der
färbigen Gläser bei den Alten_, pl. iv.--De Rossi: _La basilica di
Giunio Basso_, in the _Bullettino di archeologia cristiana_, 1871, p.
46.
[21] See Andrea Amoroso: _Le basiliche cristiane di Parenzo._ Parenzo,
Coana, 1891.--Mommsen: _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, vol. v. part
i. nos. 365-367.
[22] See Lovatelli: _I labirinti e il loro simbolismo nell' età di
mezzo_, in the _Nuova Antologia_, 16 Agosto, 1890.--Arné: _Carrelages
émaillés du moyen âge_.--Eugène Müntz: _Etudes iconographiques et
archéologiques sur le moyen âge_.
[23] See Pietro Pericoli: _Lo spedale di S. Maria della Consolazione_.
Imola Galeati, p. 64.
[24] Published in two volumes with the title: _Indicazione delle
immagini di Maria, collocate sulle mura esterne di Roma._ Ferretti,
1853.
[25] The inscription, after all, was very mild in comparison with the
violent formula imposed upon Alexander VII. It read: "In memory of the
absolution given by Clement VIII. to Henry IV. of France and Navarre,
September 17, 1595."
[26] The amphora corresponds to 26.26 litres; the metreta to 39.39
litres; the modius to 8.75 litres. The pound, divided into twelve
ounces, corresponds to 327.45 grammes, a little more than 11½
English ounces.
[27] See _Antichi pesi inscritti del museo capitolino_, in the
_Bullettino della commissione archeologica comunale di Roma_, 1884, p.
61, pls. vi., vii.
[28] See de Rossi: _Bullettino di archeologia cristiana_, 1864, p. 57.
[29] See _Acta purgationis Cæciliani_, post Optati opp. ed Dupin, p.
168.
[30] _Confess._ vi. 2.
[31] See Gaetano Marini: _Iscrizioni doliari_, p. 114, n.
279.--Giuseppe Gatti: _La lex horreorum_, in the _Bullettino della
commissione archeologica comunale di Roma_, 1885, p. 110.
[32] The place was called _in tribus fatis_, from the three statues of
sibyls described by Pliny, _H.N._ xxxiv. See _Goth._ i. 25.
[33]
"Sank into the great flower, that is adorned
With leaves so many, and thence reascended
To where its love abideth evermore."
_Longfellow's Translation._
CHAPTER II.
PAGAN SHRINES AND TEMPLES.
Ancient temples as galleries of art.--The adornment of statues
with jewelry, etc.--Offerings and sacrifices by
individuals.--Stores of ex-votos found in the _favissæ_ or vaults
of temples.--Instances of these brought to light within recent
years.--Remarkable wealth of one at Veii.--The altars of ancient
Rome.--The _ara maxima Herculis_.--The _Roma Quadrata_.--The
altar of Aius Locutius.--That of Dis and Proserpina.--Its
connection with the Sæcular Games.--The discovery of the
inscription describing these, in 1890.--The _ara pacis
Augustæ_.--The _ara incendii Neroniani_.--Temples excavated in my
time.--That of Jupiter Capitolinus.--History of its ruins.--The
Capitol as a place for posting official announcements.--The
Temple of Isis and Serapis.--The number of sculptures discovered
on its site.--The Temple of Neptune.--Its remains in the Piazza
di Pietra.--The Temple of Augustus.--The _Sacellum Sanci_.
Ancient guide-books of Rome, published in the middle of the fourth
century,[34] mention four hundred and twenty-four temples, three
hundred and four shrines, eighty statues of gods, of precious metal,
sixty-four of ivory, and three thousand seven hundred and eighty-five
miscellaneous bronze statues. The number of marble statues is not
given. It has been said, however, that Rome had two populations of
equal size, one alive, and one of marble.
I have had the opportunity of witnessing or conducting the discovery
of several temples, altars, shrines, and bronze statues. The number of
marble statues and busts discovered in the last twenty-five years,
either in Rome or the Campagna, may be stated at one thousand.
Before beginning the description of these beautiful monuments, I must
allude to some details concerning the management and organization of
ancient places of worship, upon which recent discoveries have thrown a
considerable, and in some cases, unexpected light.
Roman temples, like the churches of the present day, were used not
only as places of worship, but as galleries of pictures, museums of
statuary, and "cabinets" of precious objects. In chapter v. of
"Ancient Rome," I have given the catalogue of the works of art
displayed in the temple of Apollo on the Palatine. The list includes:
The Apollo and Artemis driving a quadriga, by Lysias; fifty statues of
the Danaids; fifty of the sons of Egypt; the Herakles of Lysippos;
Augustus with the attributes of Apollo (a bronze statue fifty feet
high); the pediment of the temple, by Bupalos and Anthermos; statues
of Apollo, by Skopas; Leto, by Kephisodotos, son of Praxiteles;
Artemis, by Timotheos; and the nine Muses; also a chandelier, formerly
dedicated by Alexander the Great at Kyme; medallions of eminent men; a
collection of gold plate; another of gems and intaglios; ivory
carvings; specimens of palæography; and two libraries.
[Illustration: Entablature of the Temple of Concord.]
The Temple of Apollo was by no means the only sacred museum of ancient
Rome; there were scores of them, beginning with the Temple of
Concord, so emphatically praised by Pliny. This temple, built by
Camillus, at the foot of the Capitol, and restored by Tiberius and
Septimius Severus, was still standing at the time of Pope Hadrian I.
(772-795), when the inscription on its front was copied for the last
time by the _Einsiedlensis_. It was razed to the ground towards 1450.
"When I made my first visit to Rome," says Poggio Bracciolini, "I saw
the Temple of Concord almost intact (_ædem fere integram_), built of
white marble. Since then the Romans have demolished it, and turned the
structure into a lime-kiln." The platform of the temple and a few
fragments of its architectural decorations were discovered in 1817.
The reader may appreciate the grace of these decorations, from a
fragment of the entablature now in the portico of the Tabularium, and
one of the capitals of the cella, now in the Palazzo dei Conservatori.
The cella contained one central and ten side niches, in which eleven
masterpieces of Greek chisels were placed, namely, the Apollo and
Hera, by Baton; Leto nursing Apollo and Artemis, by Euphranor;
Asklepios and Hygieia, by Nikeratos; Ares and Hermes, by Piston; and
Zeus, Athena, and Demeter, by Sthennis. The name of the sculptor of
the Concordia in the apse is not known. Pliny speaks also of a picture
by Theodoros, representing Cassandra; of four elephants, cut in
obsidian, a miracle of skill and labor, and of a collection of
precious stones, among which was the sardonyx set in the legendary
ring of Polykrates of Samos. Most of these treasures had been offered
to the goddess by Augustus, moved by the liberality which Julius Cæsar
had shown towards his ancestral goddess, Venus Genetrix. We know from
Pliny, xxxv. 9, that Cæsar was the first to give due honor to
paintings, by exhibiting them in his Forum Julium. He gave about
$72,000 (eighty talents), for two works of Timomachos, representing
Medea and Ajax. At the base of the Temple of Venus Genetrix he placed
his own equestrian statue, the horse of which, modelled by Lysippos,
had once supported the figure of Alexander the Great. The statue of
Venus was the work of Arkesilaos, and her breast was covered with
strings of British pearls. Pliny (xxxvii. 5), after mentioning the
collection of gems made by Scaurus, and another made by Mithradates,
which Pompey the Great had offered to Jupiter Capitolinus, adds:
"These examples were surpassed by Cæsar the dictator, who offered to
Venus Genetrix six collections of cameos and intaglios."
A descriptive catalogue of these valuables and works of art was kept
in each temple, and sometimes engraved on marble. The inventories
included also the furniture and properties of the sacristy. In 1871
the following remarkable document was discovered in the Temple of
Diana Nemorensis. The inventory, engraved on a marble pillar three
feet high, is now preserved in the Orsini Castle at Nemi. It has been
published by Henzen in "Hermes," vol. vi. p. 8, and reads as follows,
in translation:--
Objects offered to [or belonging to] both temples [the temple of Isis
and that of Bubastis]:--Seventeen statues; one head of the Sun; four
silver images; one medallion; two bronze altars; one tripod (in the
shape of one at Delphi); a cup for libations; a patera; a diadem [for
the statue of the goddess] studded with gems; a sistrum of gilded
silver; a gilt cup; a patera ornamented with ears of corn; a necklace
studded with beryls; two bracelets with gems; seven necklaces with
gems; nine ear-rings with gems; two nauplia [rare shells from the
Propontis]; a crown with twenty-one topazes and eighty carbuncles; a
railing of brass supported by eight _hermulæ_; a linen costume
comprising a tunica, a pallium, a belt, and a stola, all trimmed with
silver; a like costume without trimming.
[Objects offered] to Bubastis:--A costume of purple silk; another of
turquoise color; a marble vase with pedestal; a water jug; a linen
costume with gold trimmings and a golden girdle; another of plain
white linen.
The objects described in this catalogue did not belong to the Temple
of Diana itself, one of the wealthiest in central Italy; but to two
small shrines, of Isis and Bubastis, built by a devotee within the
sacred enclosure, on the north side of the square.
The ancients displayed remarkably bad taste in loading the statues of
their gods with precious ornaments, and in spoiling the beauty of
their temples with hangings of every hue and description. A document
published by Muratori[35] speaks of a statue of Isis which was
dedicated by a lady named Fabia Fabiana as a memorial to her deceased
granddaughter Avita. The statue, cast in silver, weighed one hundred
and twelve and a half pounds, and was muffled in ornaments and jewelry
beyond conception. The goddess wore a diadem in which were set six
pearls, two emeralds, seven beryls, one carbuncle, one _hyacinthus_,
and two flint arrow-heads; also earrings with emeralds and pearls, a
necklace composed of thirty-six pearls and eighteen emeralds, two
clasps, two rings on the little finger, one on the third, one on the
middle finger; and many other gems on the shoes, ankles, and wrists.
Another inscription discovered at Constantine, Algeria, describes a
statue of Jupiter dedicated in the Capitol of that city. The devotees
had placed on his head an oak-wreath of silver, with thirty leaves and
fifteen acorns; they had loaded his right hand with a silver disk, a
Victory waving a palm-leaf, and a crown of forty leaves; and in the
other had fastened a silver rod and other emblems.
The hangings and tinsel not only disfigured the interior of temples,
but were a source of danger from their combustibility. When we hear of
fires destroying the Pantheon in A. D. 110, the Temple of Apollo in
363, that of Venus and Rome in 307, and that of Peace in 191, we may
assume that they were started and fed by the inflammable materials
with which the interiors were filled. There is no other explanation to
be given, inasmuch as the structures were fire-proof, with the
exception of the roof. As for the disfiguration of sacred buildings
with all sorts of hangings, it is enough to quote the words of Livy
(xl. 51). "In the year of Rome, 574, the censors M. Fulvius Nobilior
and M. Æmilius Lepidus restored the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol.
On this occasion they removed from the columns all the tablets,
medallions, and military flags _omnis generis_ which had been hung
against them."
The right of performing sacrifices was sometimes granted to
civilians, on payment of a fee. An inscription discovered among the
ruins of the Temple of Malakbelos, outside the Porta Portese, on the
site of the new railway station, relates how an importer of wine,
Quintus Octavius Daphnicus, having built at his own expense a
banqueting hall within the sacred enclosure, was rewarded with the
_immunitas sacrum faciendi_, that is, the right of performing
sacrifices without the assistance of priests. The performances were
regulated by tariffs, which specified a price for every item; and one
of these has actually survived to our day.[36]
D
PRO·SANGVINE (_nomen animalis_)
ET·CORIVM
SI·HOLOCAVSTVM·[Symbol: -X] X
PRO·SANGVINE·AGNI·ET·PELLE [Symbol: -X] IS
SI·HOLOCAVSTVM·[Symbol: -X]·II[Greek: S]
PRO·GALLO HOLOCAVSTO [Symbol: -X] I[Greek: S]
PRO·SANGVINE· A·XIII
PRO·CORONA· A·IIII
PRO·CALIDAM·IN·HOMINEM·A·II
D....
For the blood of ---- (perhaps a bull) ----
And for its hide ----
If the victim be entirely burnt xxv asses.
For the blood and skin of a lamb iv asses.
If the lamb be entirely burnt vi½ asses.
For a cock (entirely burnt) iii½ asses.
For blood alone xiii asses.
For a wreath iv asses.
For hot water (per head) ii asses.
The meaning of this tariff will be easily understood if we recall the
details of a Græco-Roman sacrifice, in regard to the apportionment of
the victim's flesh. The parts which were the perquisite of the priests
differ in different worships; sometimes we hear of legs and skin,
sometimes of tongue and shoulder. In the case of private sacrifices
the rest of the animal was taken home by the sacrificer, to be used
for a meal or sent as a present to friends. This was, of course,
impossible in the case of "holocausts," in which the victim was burnt
whole on the altar. In the Roman ritual, hides and skins were always
the property of the temple.[37] In the above tariff two prices are
charged: a smaller one for ordinary sacrifices, when only the
intestines were burnt, and the rest of the flesh was taken home by the
sacrificer; a larger one for "holocausts," which required a much
longer use of the altar, spit, gridiron, and other sacrificial
instruments. Four asses are charged for each crown or wreath of
flowers, half that amount for hot water.
The site of a sanctuary can be determined not only from its actual
ruins, but, in many cases, from the contents of its _favissæ_, or
vaults, which are sometimes collected in a group, sometimes spread
over a considerable space of ground. The origin of these deposits of
terra-cotta or bronze votive objects is as follows:--
Each leading sanctuary or place of pilgrimage was furnished with one
or more rooms for the exhibition and safe-keeping of ex-votos. The
walls of these rooms were studded with nails on which ex-voto heads
and figures were hung in rows by means of a hole on the back. There
were also horizontal spaces, little steps like those of a _lararium_,
or shelves, on which were placed those objects that could stand
upright. When both surfaces were filled, and no room was left for the
daily influx of votive offerings, the priests removed the rubbish of
the collection, that is, the terra-cottas, and buried them either in
the vaults (_favissæ_) of the temple, or in trenches dug for the
purpose within or near the sacred enclosure.
During these last years I have been present at the discovery of five
deposits of ex-votos, each marking the site of a place of pilgrimage.
The first was found in March, 1876, on the site of a temple of
Hercules, outside the Porta S. Lorenzo; the second in the spring of
1885, on the site of the Temple of Diana Nemorensis; the third in
1886, near the Island of Æsculapius (now of S. Bartolomeo); the fourth
in 1887, near the shrine of Minerva Medica; the last in 1889, on the
site of the Temple of Juno at Veii.
The existence of a temple of Hercules, outside the Porta S. Lorenzo,
within the enclosure of the modern cemetery, was first made known in
1862, in consequence of the discovery of an altar raised to him by
Marcus Minucius, the "master of the horse" or lieutenant-general of Q.
Fabius Maximus (217 B. C.). This altar is now exhibited in the
Capitoline Museum.[38] Fourteen years later, in 1876, the _favissæ_ of
the temple were found in the section of the cemetery called the
Pincio. There were about two hundred pieces of terra-cotta, vases of
Etruscan and Italo-Greek manufacture; several statuettes of bronze,
and pieces of _æs rude_, and _æs grave librale_, one of them from the
town of Luceria. This deposit seems to have been buried at the
beginning of the sixth century of Rome.
[Illustration: Nemi and the site of the Temple of Diana. _A_ Platform
of the Temple of Diana. _B_ Village of Nemi and Castle of the
Orsinis.]
[Illustration: Portrait Bust of Person cured at Nemi.]
The excavation of the temple of Diana Nemorensis was undertaken in
1885, by Sir John Savile Lumley, now Lord Savile of Rufford, the
English ambassador at Rome, with the kind consent of the Italian
government. It seems that this _Artemisium Nemorense_ was not only a
place of worship and devotion, but also a hydro-therapeutic
establishment. The waters employed for the cure were those which
spring from the lava rocks at Nemi, and which, until a few years ago,
fell in graceful cascades into the lake, at a place called "Le Mole."
They now supply the city of Albano, which has long suffered from
water-famine. I can vouch for their therapeutic efficiency from
personal experience; in fact I could honestly put up my votive
offering to the long-forgotten goddess, having recovered health and
strength by following the old cure. Diana, however, was chiefly
worshipped in this place as Diana Lucina. I need not enter into
particulars on this subject. The ex-votos collected in large quantity
by Lord Savile, representing young mothers nursing their first-born,
and other offerings of the same nature, testify to the skill of the
priests. Perhaps they practised other branches of surgery, because,
among the curiosities brought to light in 1885, are several figures
with large openings on the front, through which the intestines are
seen. Professor Tommasi-Crudeli, who has made a study of this class of
curiosities, says that they cannot be considered as real anatomical
models, because the work is too rough and primitive to enable us to
distinguish one intestine from the other. The number of objects
collected by Lord Savile may be estimated at three thousand.
[Illustration: The stern of the ship of the Island of the Tiber.]
Characteristic objects of a like nature--breasts cut open and showing
the anatomy--have been found in large numbers in and near the island
of the Tiber, where the Temple of Æsculapius stood, at the stern of
the marble ship. It seems that the street leading from the Campus
Martius to the Pons Fabricius, and across it to the temple, was lined
with shops and booths for the sale of ex-votos, as is the case now
with the approaches to the sanctuaries of Einsiedeln, Lourdes,
Mariahilf, and S. Jago. In the foundations of the new quays of the
Tiber, above and below the bridge, the ex-votos have been found in
regular strata along the line of the banks, whereas in the island
itself they have come to light in much smaller quantities. As the
votive objects deposited in this sanctuary, from the year 292 before
Christ to the fall of the Empire, may be counted not by thousands, but
by millions of specimens, I believe that the bed of the Tiber must
have been used as a _favissa_.
The name of Minerva Medica is familiar to students and visitors of old
Rome;[39] but the monument which bears it, a nymphæum of the gardens
of the Licinii, near the Porta Maggiore, has no connection whatever
with the goddess of wisdom. Minerva Medica was the name of a street on
the Esquiline, so called from a shrine which stood at the crossing, or
near the crossing, with the Via Merulana, not far from the church of
SS. Pietro e Marcellino. Its foundations and its deposit of ex-votos
were discovered in 1887. The shape and nature of the offerings bear
witness to numberless cases of recovery performed by the merciful
goddess, the Athena Hygieia or Paionia of the Greeks. There is a
fragment of a lamp inscribed with her name, which leaves no doubt as
to the identity of the deposit. There is also a votive head, not cast
from the mould, but modelled _a stecco_, which alludes to Minerva as a
restorer of hair. The scalp is covered with thick hair in front and on
the top, while the sides are bald, or showing only an incipient
growth. It is evident, therefore, that the woman whose portrait-head
we have found had lost her curls in the course of some malady, and
having regained them through the intercession of Minerva, as she
piously believed, offered her this curious token of gratitude. This,
at least, is Visconti's opinion. Another testimonial of Minerva's
efficiency in restoring hair has been found at Piacenza, a votive
tablet put up MINERVÆ MEMORI by a lady named Tullia Superiana,
RESTITUTIONE SIBI FACTA CAPILLORUM (for having restored her hair).
[Illustration: Fragment of a Lamp inscribed with the name of
Minerva.]
[Illustration: Votive Head.]
As regards the multitude of ex-votos, no other temple or deposit
discovered in my time can be compared with the _favissæ_ of the Temple
of Juno at Veii. In Roman traditions this temple was regarded as the
place where Camillus emerged from the _cuniculus_, or mine, on the day
of the capture of the city. The story runs that Camillus, having
carried his _cuniculus_ under the Temple of Juno within the citadel,
overheard the Etruscan _aruspex_ declare to the king of Veii that
victory would rest with him who completed the sacrifice. Upon this,
the Roman soldiers burst through the floor, seized the entrails of the
victims, and bore them to Camillus, who offered them to the goddess
with his own hand, while his followers were gaining possession of the
city. The account is certainly more or less fabricated; but, as Livy
remarks, "it is not worth while to prove or disprove these things." We
are content to know that within the citadel of Veii, the "Piazza d'
Armi" of the present day, there was a temple of great veneration and
antiquity, and that it was dedicated to Juno. Both points have been
proved and illustrated by modern discoveries.
[Illustration: The Cliffs under the Citadel of Veii (now called
Piazza d' Armi).]
The ex-votos of the Latin sanctuaries were, as I have just remarked,
buried in the _favissæ_; but at Veii, because of the danger and the
difficulty of excavating them within the citadel, and in solid rock,
the ex-votos were carted away and thrown from the edge of the cliff
into the valley below. The place selected was the north side of the
rocky ridge connecting the citadel with the city, which ridge towers
one hundred and ninety-eight feet above the cañon of the Cremera. The
mass of objects thrown over here in the course of centuries has
produced a slope which reaches nearly to the top of the cliff. The
reader will appreciate the importance of the deposit from the fact
that the mine has been exploited ever since the time of Alexander VII.
(1655-1667); and in the spring of 1889, when the most recent
excavations were made, by the late empress Theresa of Brazil, the mass
of terra-cottas brought to the surface was such that work had to be
given up after a few days, because there was no more space in the
farmhouse for the storage of the booty. Pietro Sante Bartoli left an
account of the excavations made on the same spot by cardinal Chigi,
during the pontificate of Alexander VII. Modern topographers do not
seem to be aware of this fact; it is not mentioned by Dennis, or Gell,
or Nibby, although it is the only evidence left of the discovery of
the famous sanctuary. "Not far from the Isola Farnese a hill [the
Piazza d' Armi], rises from the valley of the Cremera, on the plateau
of which cardinal Chigi has discovered a beautiful temple with fluted
columns of the Ionic order. The frieze is carved with trophies and
panoplies of various kinds; the reliefs of the pediment represent the
emperor Antoninus[?] sacrificing a ram and a sow, and although the
panels lie scattered around the temple, and the figures are broken,
apparently no important piece is missing. There is also an altar four
feet high, with figures of Etruscan type, which was removed to the
Palazzo Chigi [now Odescalchi]. The columns and marbles of the temple
were bought by cardinal Falconieri to build and ornament a chapel in
the church of S. Giovanni de' Fiorentini.... Not far from the temple a
stratum of ex-votos has been found, so rich that the whole of Rome is
now overrun with terra-cottas. Every part of the human body is
represented,--heads, hands, feet, fingers, eyes, noses, mouths,
tongues, entrails, lungs, symbols of fecundity, whole figures of men
and women, horses, oxen, sheep, pigs,--in such quantities as to make
several hundred cartloads. There were also bronze statuettes, sacred
utensils, and mirror-cases, which were all stolen or destroyed. I have
known of one workman breaking marvellous objects (_cose insigni_) into
small fragments to melt them into handles for knives."
When the farms of Isola Farnese and Vaccareccia, in which the remains
of Veii and of its extensive cemeteries are situated, were sold, a few
years ago, by the empress of Brazil to the marchese Ferraioli, the
parties concerned agreed that the right of excavating and the objects
discovered should belong to her, for a limited number of years, up to
1891, I believe. The first campaign, opened January 2, 1889, and
closed in June, must be considered as one of the most valuable
contributions to the study of Etruscan civilization which have been
supplied of late to students, either by chance or by design. Had the
empress been able to carry out her plans for two or three years more,
the whole city and necropolis would have been explored, surveyed, and
illustrated, in the most strictly scientific manner. Political events
and the death of this noble woman brought the enterprise to a close.
To come back, however, to the bed of votive objects in terra-cotta and
bronze, I was able to make a rough estimate of its dimensions, which
are two hundred and fifty feet in length, fifty feet in width, and
from three to four in depth; nearly forty-four thousand cubic feet.
The objects collected in two weeks number four thousand; the fragments
buried again as worthless, double that number. The heads of veiled
goddesses alone amount to four hundred and forty-seven, of which three
hundred and seventy are full-faced, the rest in profile. The vein
contains fifty-two varieties of types; to Bartoli's list, we must add
busts, masks, arms, breasts, wombs, spines, bowels, lungs, toes,
figures cut open across the breast and showing the anatomy, figures
approximately human, or male and female embryos ending like the trunk
of a tree with stumps corresponding to the feet, figures of
hermaphrodites, human torsos modelled purposely without heads, arms
without hands, legs without feet, hands holding apples or
jewel-caskets, figurines of mothers nursing twins, beautiful
life-sized statues of draped women, with movable hands and feet, rats,
wild boars, sucking pigs, cows, rams, apples and other fruits, and
"marbles."
* * * * *
The first structures dedicated to the gods in Rome were called _aræ_,
and had the shape of a cube of masonry, in the centre of a square
platform. They were modelled, in a measure, on the pattern of the
Pelasgic _hierones_, in which the territory of Tibur and Signia is
especially abundant. The _aræ_ best known in Roman history and
topography are six in number, namely, the _ara maxima Herculis_; the
_Roma quadrata_; the _ara Aii Locutii_; the _ara Ditis et
Proserpinæ_; the _ara pacis Augustæ_; and the _ara incendii
Neroniani_. The oldest of these were built of rough stones; those of
later periods took the characteristic shape of the altar of Verminus,
represented on page 52 of my "Ancient Rome," and of the altar raised
to Vedjovis by the members of the Julian family, at Bovillæ, their
birthplace, where it was found by the Colonnas in 1823. It is now in
the villa of that family on the Quirinal.[40] In imperial times the
conventional shape was preserved, with the addition of two _pulvini_,
or volutes, on the opposite edges of the cornice, as represented in
the illustration on page 35 of "Ancient Rome" (a marble altar found at
Ostia).
[Illustration: A Pelasgic hieron, or platform of altar, at Segni.]
[Illustration: Round Temple of Hercules in the Forum Boarium.]
THE ARA MAXIMA HERCULIS. This altar, the oldest in Rome, was raised in
memory of the visit of Hercules to our country. Tacitus and Pliny
attribute its construction to Evander the Arcadian, forgetting that in
prehistoric times the tract of land on which the altar stood, between
the Forum Boarium and the Circus Maximus, was submerged by the waters
of the Velabrum. It was at all events a very ancient structure, held
in great veneration. Its rough shape and appearance were never
changed, as shown by a precious--yet unpublished--sketch by
Baldassarre Peruzzi which I found among his autographs in Florence. A
round temple was built near the altar, in later times, of which we
know two particulars: first, that it had a mysterious power of
repulsion for dogs and flies;[41] second, that it contained, among
other works of art, a picture by the poet Pacuvius, next in antiquity
and value to the one painted by Fabius Pictor, in the Temple of
Health, in 303 B. C.[42] The Temple of Hercules, the Ara Maxima, and
the bronze statue of the hero-god were discovered, in a good state of
preservation, during the pontificate of Sixtus IV., between the apse
of S. Maria in Cosmedin (the Temple of Ceres), and the Circus Maximus.
We have a description of the discovery by Pomponio Leto, Albertini,
and Fra Giocondo da Verona; and excellent drawings by Baldassarre
Peruzzi.[43]
Except the bronze statue, and a few votive inscriptions, which were
removed to the Capitoline Museum, everything--temple, altar, and
platform--was levelled to the ground by the illustrious Vandals of the
Renaissance.
THE ROMA QUADRATA. According to the ancient ritual, the founder of a
city, after tracing the _sulcus primigenius_ or furrow which marked
its limits, buried the plough, the instruments of sacrifice, and other
votive offerings, in a round hole, excavated in the centre of the
marked space. The round hole was called _mundus_, and its location was
indicated by a heap of stones, which in course of time took the shape
of a square altar. The _mundus_ of ancient Rome was located in the
very heart of the Palatine, in front of the Temple of Apollo, and the
altar upon it was named the _Roma Quadrata_. This name has been much
discussed, and it has even been applied to the Palatine city itself,
although it is an established fact that there is, strictly speaking,
no connection between the two. The controversy has been resumed lately
by Professor Luigi Pigorini in a paper still unpublished which was
read at the sitting of the German Institute, December 17, 1890; and by
Professor Otto Richter in his pamphlet _Die älteste Wohnstätte des
römischen Volks_, Berlin, 1891.
In view of the ignorance of ancient writers on this subject, and the
almost absurd definitions they give of the word, we had come to the
conclusion that the altar had been removed or concealed by Augustus,
when he built the Temple of Apollo and the Portico of the Danaids, in
28 B. C. A remarkable inscription discovered September 20, 1890 (to
which I shall refer at length later), by mentioning the Roma Quadrata
as existing A. D. 204, shows that our opinion was wrong, and that the
old altar, the most venerable monument of Roman history, had survived
the vicissitudes of time, and the transformation of the Palatine from
the cradle of the city into the palace of the Cæsars.
In December, 1869, when the nuns of the Visitation were laying the
foundations of a new wing of their convent on the area of the Temple
of Apollo,[44] I saw a line of square pilasters at the depth of
forty-one feet below the pavement of the Portico of the Danaids, and
in the centre of the line a heap of stones, either of tufa or
peperino, roughly squared. It is more than probable that, in 1869, I
did not think of the Roma Quadrata, and of its connection with those
remains, so deeply buried in the heart of the hill; but I am sure that
a careful investigation of that sacred spot would lead to very
important results.
THE ARA OF AIUS LOCUTIUS. In 1820, while excavations were proceeding
near the western corner of the Palatine (at the spot marked No. 7, on
the plan, page 106, of "Ancient Rome"), an altar was discovered, of
archaic type, inscribed with the following dedication: "Sacred to a
Divinity, whether male or female. Caius Sextius Calvinus, son of
Caius, praetor, has restored this altar by decree of the Senate."
Nibby and Mommsen believe Calvinus to be the magistrate mentioned
twice by Cicero as a candidate against Glaucias in the contest for the
praetorship of 125 B. C. They also identify the altar as (a
restoration of) the one raised behind the Temple of Vesta, in the
"lower New Street," in memory of the mysterious voice announcing the
invasion of the Gauls, in the stillness of the night, and warning the
citizens to strengthen the walls of their city. The voice was
attributed to a local Genius, whom the people named Aius Loquens or
Locutius. As a rule, the priests refrained from mentioning in public
prayers the name and sex of new and slightly known divinities,
especially of local Genii, to which they objected for two reasons:
first, because there was danger of vitiating the ceremony by a false
invocation; secondly, because it was prudent not to reveal the true
name of these tutelary gods to the enemy of the commonwealth, lest in
case of war or siege he could force them to abandon the defence of
that special place, by mysterious and violent rites. The formula _si
deus si dea_, "whether god or goddess," is a consequence of this
superstition; its use is not uncommon on ancient altars; Servius
describes a shield dedicated on the Capitol to the Genius of Rome,
with the inscription: GENIO URBIS ROMÆ SIVE MAS SIVE FEMINA, "to the
tutelary Genius of the city of Rome, whether masculine or feminine."
The Palatine altar, of which I give an illustration, cannot fail to
impress the student, on account of its connection with one of the
leading events in history, the capture and burning of Rome by the
Gauls, 390 B. C.
[Illustration: Ara of Aius Locutius on the Palatine.]
THE ARA DITIS ET PROSERPINÆ. On the 20th of September, 1890, the
workmen employed in the construction of the main sewer on the left
bank of the Tiber, between the Ponte S. Angelo and the church of S.
Giovanni dei Fiorentini, found a mediæval wall, built of materials
collected at random from the neighboring ruins. Among them were
fragments of one or more inscriptions which described the celebrations
of the _Ludi Sæculares_ under the Empire. By the end of the day,
seventeen pieces had been recovered, seven of which belonged to the
records 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 other fragments, making a total of one hundred and
thirteen, of which eight are of the time of Augustus, two of the time
of Domitian, and the rest date from Severus.
[Illustration: Pillar commemorating the _Ludi Sæculares_.]
The fragments of the year 17 B. C., fitted together, make a block
three metres high, containing one hundred and sixty-eight minutely
inscribed lines. This monument, now exhibited in the Baths of
Diocletian, was in the form of a square pillar enclosed by a
projecting frame, with base and capital of the Tuscan order, and it
measured, when entire, four metres in height. I believe that there is
no inscription among the thirty thousand collected in volume vi. of
the "Corpus" which makes a more profound impression on the mind, or
appeals more to the imagination than this official report of a state
ceremony which took place over nineteen hundred years ago, and was
attended by the most illustrious men of the age.
The origin of the sæcular games seems to be this: In the early days of
Rome the northwest section of the Campus Martius, bordering on the
Tiber, was conspicuous for traces of volcanic activity. There was a
pool here called Tarentum or Terentum, fed by hot sulphur springs, the
efficiency of which is attested by the cure of Volesus, the Sabine,
and his family, described by Valerius Maximus. Heavy vapors hung over
the springs, and tongues of flame were seen issuing from the cracks of
the earth. 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. An altar to the infernal gods
was erected on the borders of the pool, and games were held
periodically in honor of Dis and Proserpina, the victims being a black
bull and a black cow. Tradition attributed this arrangement of time
and ceremony to Volesus himself, who, grateful for the recovery of his
three children, offered sacrifices to Dis and Proserpina, spread
_lectisternia_, or reclining couches, for the gods, with tables and
viands before them, and celebrated games for three nights, one for
each child which had been restored to health. In the republican epoch
they were called _Ludi Tarentini_, from the name of the pool, and were
celebrated for the purpose of averting from the state the recurrence
of some great calamity by which it had been afflicted. These
calamities being contingencies which no man could foresee, it is
evident that the celebration of the _Ludi Tarentini_ was in no way
connected with definite cycles of time, such as the _sæculum_.
Not long after Augustus had assumed the supreme power, the
_Quindecemviri sacris faciundis_ (a college of priests to whom the
direction of these games had been intrusted from time immemorial)
announced that it was the will of the gods that the _Ludi Sæculares_
should be performed, and misrepresenting and distorting events and
dates, tried to prove that the festival had been held regularly at
intervals of 110 years, which was supposed to be the length of a
_sæculum_. The games of which the Quindecemviri made this assertion
were the Tarentini, instituted for quite a different purpose, but
their suggestion was too pleasing to Augustus and the people to be
despised. Setting aside all disputes about chronology and tradition,
the celebration was appointed for the summer of the year 17 B. C.
[Illustration: Plan and section of the Altar of Dis and Proserpina.]
What was the exact location of the sulphur springs, the Tarentum, and
the altar of the infernal gods? I have reason to regard the discovery
of the Altar of Dis and Proserpina as the most satisfactory I have
made, especially because I made it, if I may so express myself, when
away from Rome on a long leave of absence. It took place in the winter
of 1886-87, during my visit to America. At that time the work of
opening and draining the Corso Vittorio Emanuele had just reached a
place which was considered _terra incognita_ by the topographers, and
indicated by a blank spot in the archæological maps of the city. I
mean the district between the Vallicella (la Chiesa Nuova, the Palazzo
Cesarini, etc.) and the banks of the Tiber near S. Giovanni dei
Fiorentini. The reports spoke vaguely about the discovery of five or
six parallel walls, built of blocks of peperino, of marble steps in
the centre of this singular monument, of gates with marble posts and
architraves, leading to the spaces between the six parallel walls, and
finally, of a column with foliage carved upon its surface. On my
return to Rome, in the spring of 1887, every trace of the monument had
disappeared under the embankment of the Corso Vittorio Emanuele. I
questioned foremen and workmen, I consulted the notebooks of the
contractors, every day I visited the excavations which were still in
progress, on each side of the Corso, for building the Cavalletti and
Bassi palaces, and lastly, I examined the "column with foliage carved
upon its surface," which in the mean time had been removed to the
courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitol. This marble
fragment, the only one saved from the excavations, gave me the clue to
the mystery. It was not a column, it was a _pulvinus_, 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
Palazzo Fiano, with that of the Antonines discovered under the Monte
Citorio, and with other such monumental structures. There was then no
hesitation in determining the nature of the discoveries made in the
Corso Vittorio Emanuele; 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 in the northwest section of the Campus Martius.
The drawings which illustrate my account of the discovery[45] prove
that the altar rose from a platform twelve feet square, approached on
all sides by three or four marble steps, that platform and altar were
enclosed by three lines of wall at an interval of thirty-six feet from
one another, and that on the east side of the square ran a _euripus_,
or channel, eleven feet wide, and four feet deep, lined with stone
blocks, the incline of which towards the Tiber is about 1:100. This
last detail proves that when the rough altar of Volesus Sabinus was
succeeded by the later noble structure, the pool was drained, and its
feeding springs were led into the _euripus_, so that the patients
seeking a cure for their ailments could bathe in or drink the
miracle-working waters with greater ease. No attention whatever was
paid to the discovery at the time it took place. Instead of reaching
the ancient level, the excavation for the main sewer of the Corso
Vittorio Emanuele was stopped at the wrong place, within three feet of
the pavement; consequently whatever fragments of the altar, of
inscriptions, or of works of art, were lying on the marble floor will
lie there forever, as the building of the palaces on either side of
the Corso, and the construction of the Corso itself, with its costly
sewers, sidewalks, etc., have made further research impossible, at
least with our present means.
Concerning the celebration which took place around this altar in the
year 17 B. C., we already possessed ample information from such
materials as the oracle of the Sibyl, referred to by Zosimus, the
_Carmen Sæculare_ of Horace, and the legends and designs on the medals
struck for the occasion; but the official report, discovered September
20, 1890, produces an altogether different impression; it enables us
actually to take part in the pageant, to follow with rapture Horace as
he leads a chorus of fifty-four young men and girls of patrician
birth, singing the hymn which he composed for the occasion.[46]
There is such a tone of simplicity and common-sense, such a display of
method and mutual respect between Augustus, the Senate, and the
Quindecemviri, in the official transactions which preceded, attended
and followed the celebration, in the resolutions passed by the several
bodies, in the proclamations addressed to the people, and in the
arrangements for the festivities, which a mass of a million or more
spectators was expected to attend, that a lesson in civic dignity
could be learned from this report by modern governments and
corporations.
The official report begins, or rather began (the first lines are
missing), with the request presented by the Quindecemviri to the
Senate to take their proposal into consideration, and grant the
necessary funds, followed by a decree of the Senate accepting the
proposal and inviting Augustus to take the direction of the
festivities. The request was addressed to the Senate on February 17,
by Marcus Agrippa, president of the Quindecemviri, standing before the
seat of the consuls. What a scene to witness! We can picture to
ourselves the two consuls, Gaius Furnius and Junius Silanus, clad in
their official robes, listening to the speech of the great statesman,
who is supported by twenty colleagues, all ex-consuls, and chosen
among the noblest, richest, and most gallant patricians of the age.
The Senate agrees that the preparations for the festival, the building
of the temporary stages, hippodromes, tribunes, and scaffoldings shall
be executed by the contractors (_redemptores_), and that the treasury
officials shall provide the funds.
Lines 1-23 contain a letter from Augustus to the Quindecemviri
detailing the programme of the ceremonies, the number and quality of
persons who shall take part in it, the dates and hours, and the number
and character of the victims. Two clauses of the imperial manifesto
are especially noteworthy. First, that during the three days, June
1-3, the courthouses shall be closed, and justice shall not be
administered. Second, that ladies who are wearing mourning shall lay
aside that sign of grief for this occasion. The date of the manifesto
is March 24.
Upon the receipt of this document the Quindecemviri meet and pass
several resolutions: that the rules regarding the ceremonies shall be
made known to the public by advertisement (_albo propositæ_); that the
mornings of May 26, 27, and 28, shall be set apart for the
_distributio suffimentorum_, in which the Quindecemviri were wont to
distribute among the citizens torches, sulphur and bitumen, for
purification; and the mornings of May 29, 30, and 31, for the _frugum
acceptio_, or distribution of wheat, barley, and beans. To avoid
overcrowding, four centres of distribution are named, and each of them
is placed under the supervision of four members of the college, making
a total of sixteen delegates. The places indicated in the programme
are the platform of the Capitolium, the area in front of the Temple of
Jupiter Tonans, the Portico of the Danaids on the Palatine, and the
Temple of Diana on the Aventine.
On May 23 the Senate meets in the Septa Julia--the ruins of which
still exist, under the Palazzo Doria and the church of S. Maria in Via
Lata--and passes two resolutions. Horace's hymn, vv. 17-20, alludes to
the first: "O Goddess, whether you choose the title of Lucina or of
Genitalis, multiply our offspring, and prosper the decree of the
Senate in relation to the giving of women in wedlock, and the
matrimonial laws." Among the penalties imposed on men and women who
remained single between the ages of twenty and fifty years, was the
prohibition against attending public festivities and ceremonies of
state. The Senate, considering the extraordinary case of the _Ludi
Sæculares_, which none among the living had seen or would ever see
again, removes this prohibition. The second resolution provides for
the erection of two commemorative pillars, one of bronze, the other of
marble, upon which the official report of the celebration shall be
engraved. The bronze pillar is probably lost forever, but the marble
one is that recovered on the banks of the Tiber, September 20, 1890,
the inscription on which I am endeavoring to explain.
The celebration in the strict sense of the word began at the second
hour of the night of May 31. Sacrifices were offered to the Fates, on
altars erected between the Tarentum and the banks of the Tiber, where
S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini now stands; and the other ceremonies were
performed on a wooden stage which was illuminated by lights and fires.
This temporary theatre was not provided with seats, and the report
calls it "a stage without a theatre." In the performances of the next
day and in those of June 2 and 3, which took place on the Capitol and
the Palatine, the following order was observed in the ceremonial
pageant; first came Augustus as Emperor and Pontifex Maximus, next the
Consuls, the Senate, the Quindecemviri and other colleges of priests,
then followed the Vestal Virgins, and a group of one hundred and ten
matrons (as many as there were years in the _sæculum_) selected from
among the most exemplary _matres familiæ_ above twenty-five years of
age.
Twenty-seven boys and twenty-seven girls of patrician descent whose
parents were both living (_patrimi et matrimi_) were enlisted on June
3, to sing the hymn composed expressly by Horace. "Carmen composuit Q.
Horatius Flaccus," so the report says (line 149). The first stanzas of
the beautiful canticle were sung when the procession was marching from
the Temple of Apollo to that of Jupiter Capitolinus, the middle
portion on the Capitol, and the last on the way back to the Palatine.
The accompaniments were played by the orchestra and the trumpeters of
the official choir (_tibicines et fidicines qui sacris publicis præsto
sunt_). The wealth of magnificence and beauty which the Romans beheld
on the morning of June 3, 17 B. C., we can see as in a dream, but it
baffles description. Imagine the group of fifty-four young patricians
clad in snow-white tunics, crowned with flowers, and waving branches
of laurel, led by Horace down the Vicus Apollinis (the street which
led from the Summa Sacra Via to the house of Augustus on the
Palatine), and the Sacra Via, singing the praises of the immortal
gods:--
"Quibus septem placuere colles!"
During those days and nights Augustus gave evidence of a truly
remarkable strength of mind and body, never missing a ceremony, and
himself performing the sacrifices. Agrippa showed less power of
endurance than his friend and master. He appeared only in the daytime,
helping the emperor in addressing supplications to the gods, and in
immolating the victims.
ARA PACIS AUGUSTAE. Among the honors voted to Augustus by the Senate
in the year 13 B. C., on the occasion of his triumphal return from the
campaigns of Germany and Gaul, was the erection of a votive altar in
the Curia itself. Augustus refused it, but consented that an altar
should be raised in the Campus Martius and dedicated to Peace. Judging
from the fragments which have come down to us, this _ara_ was one of
the most exquisite artistic productions of the golden age of Augustus.
It stood in the centre of a triple square enclosure, on the west side
of the Via Flaminia, the site of the present Palazzo Fiano. Twice its
remains have been brought to light; once in 1554, when they were drawn
by Giovanni Colonna,[47] and again in 1859, when the present duke of
Fiano was rebuilding the southern wing of the palace on the Via in
Lucina. Of the panels and basreliefs found in 1554, some were removed
to the Villa Medici and inserted in the front of the casino, on the
garden side; others were transferred to Florence; those of 1859 have
been placed in the vestibule of the Palazzo Fiano. They are well worth
a visit.
[Illustration: The family of Augustus. Relief from the Ara Pacis, in
the Gallery of the Uffizi, Florence.]
ARA INCENDII NERONIANI. In the month of July, A. D. 65, half Rome was
destroyed by the fire of Nero. The citizens, overwhelmed by the
greatness of the calamity, and ignorant of its true cause, made a vow
for the annual celebration of expiatory sacrifices, on altars
expressly constructed for the purpose in each of the fourteen regions
of the metropolis. The vow was, however, forgotten until Domitian
claimed its fulfilment some twenty or twenty-five years later. One of
these altars, which adjoined Domitian's paternal house on the
Quirinal, has just been found near the church of S. Andrea del
Noviziato, in the foundations of the new "Ministero della Casa
Reale."
The altar, six metres long by three wide, built of travertine with a
coating of marble, stands in the middle of a paved area of
considerable size. The area is lined with stone cippi, placed at an
interval of two and a half metres from one another. The following
inscription has been found engraved on two of them: "This sacred area,
marked with stone cippi, and enclosed with a hedge, as well as the
altar which stands in the middle of it, was dedicated by the emperor
Domitian in consequence of an unfulfilled vow made by the citizens at
the time of the fire of Nero. The dedication is made subject to the
following rules: that no one shall be allowed to loiter, trade, build,
or plant trees or shrubs within the line of terminal stones; that on
August 23 of each year, the day of the Volkanalia, the magistrate
presiding over this sixth region shall sacrifice on this altar a red
calf and a pig; that he shall address to the gods the following prayer
(text missing)." The inscription has been read twice: once towards the
end of the fifteenth century, when the cippus containing it was
removed to S. Peter's and made use of in the new building, and again
in 1644, when Pope Barberini was laying the foundations of S. Andrea
al Quirinale, one of the most graceful and pleasing churches of modern
Rome.
* * * * *
Let us now turn our attention to more imposing structures. The first
temple in the excavation of which I took part was that of Jupiter
Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill.[48] Its discovery was due more
to an intuition of the truth, than to actual recognition of existing
remains. On November 7, 1875, while digging for the foundation of the
new Rotunda in the garden which divides the Conservatori palace from
that of the Caffarellis,--the residence of the German ambassador,--our
workmen came upon a piece of a colossal fluted column of Pentelic
marble, lying on a platform of squared stones, which were laid without
mortar, in a decidedly archaic style. Were we in the presence of the
remains of the famous Capitolium, or of one of the smaller temples
within the Arx? To give this query a satisfactory answer, we must
remember that the Capitoline Hill had two summits, one containing the
citadel, or Arx, the other the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, the
Capitolium. Ancient writers never use the two names promiscuously, or
apply them indifferently to either summit or to the whole hill. The
name of the hill is the _Capitoline_; not the _Capitol_, which means
exclusively the portion occupied by the great temple. Suffice it to
quote Livy's evidence (vi. 20), _ne quis in Arce aut Capitolio
habitaret_, and also the passage of Aulus Gellius (v. 12) in which the
shrine of Vedjovis is placed between the Arx and the Capitolium.
For many generations topographers tried to discover which summit was
occupied by the citadel, and which by the temple. The Italian school,
save a few exceptions, had always identified the site of the
Aracoeli with that of the temple, the Caffarelli palace with that of
the citadel. The Germans upheld the opposite theory. In these
circumstances it is not surprising that the discovery made November
7, 1875, should have excited us; because we saw at once our chance of
settling the dispute, not theoretically, but with the evidence of
facts.
The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, designed by Tarquinius Priscus,
built by Tarquinius Superbus, and dedicated in 509 B. C. by the consul
M. Horatius Pulvillus, stood on a high platform 207½ feet long, by
192½ feet broad. The front of the edifice, ornamented with three
rows of columns, faced the south. The style of the architecture was
purely Etruscan, and the intercolumniations were so wide as to require
architraves of timber. The cella was divided into three sections, the
middle one of which was sacred to Jupiter, that on the right to
Minerva, that on the left to Juno Regina; the top of the pediment was
ornamented with a terra-cotta quadriga. Of the same material was the
statue of the god, with the face painted red, and the body dressed in
a _tunica palmata_ and a _toga picta_, the work of an Etruscan artist,
Turianus of Fregenæ.
In 386 B. C. it was found necessary to enlarge the platform in the
centre of which the temple stood; and as the hill was sloping, even
precipitous, on three sides, it was necessary to raise huge foundation
walls from the plain below to the level of the platform, a work
described by Pliny (xxxvi. 15, 24) as prodigious, and by Livy (vi. 4)
as one of the wonders of Rome.
On July 6, 83 B. C., four hundred and twenty-six years after its
dedication by Horatius Pulvillus, an unknown malefactor, taking
advantage of the abundance of timber used in the structure, set fire
to it, and utterly destroyed the sanctuary which for four centuries
had presided over the fates of the Roman Commonwealth. The incendiary,
less fortunate than Erostratos, remained unknown, the suspicions cast
at the time against Papirius Carbo, Scipio, Norbanus and Sulla
having proved groundless. He probably belonged to the faction of
Marius, because we know that Marius himself laid hands on the
half-charred ruins of the temple, and pillaged several thousand pounds
of gold.
[Illustration: _R. Lanciani del._
THE WESTERN SUMMIT OF THE CAPITOLINE HILL]
Sulla the dictator undertook the reconstruction of the Capitolium, for
which purpose he caused some columns of the temple of the Olympian
Jupiter to be removed from Athens to Rome. Sulla's work was continued
by Lutatius Catulus, and finished by Julius Cæsar in 46 B. C. A second
restoration took place in the year 9 B. C. under Augustus, a third A.
D. 74 under Vespasian, and the last in the year 82, under Domitian. It
was therefore evident that, if the temple had not been literally
obliterated since that time, its remains would show the
characteristics of the age of Domitian, who is known to have made use
of Pentelic marble in his reconstruction. We should also find these
remains in the middle of a platform of the time of the kings,
surrounded by foundation walls of the time of the republic. The
accompanying plan shows how perfectly the remains discovered on the
southwestern summit of the Capitoline Hill corresponded to this
theory.
The platform, in the shape of a parallelogram, 183 feet broad and a
few feet longer, is built of roughly squared blocks of _capellaccio_,
exactly like certain portions of the Servian walls. Its area and
height were reduced by one third, when the Caffarellis built their
palace, in 1680. A sketch taken at that time by Fabretti and published
in his volume "De Columna Trajana" shows that fourteen tiers of stone
have disappeared. A portion of the same platform, discovered in 1865,
by Herr Schloezer, Prussian minister to Pius IX., is represented on
the next page.
The foundation walls, which Pliny and Livy enumerate among the wonders
of Rome, have been, and are still being, discovered on the three
sides of the hill which face the Piazza della Consolazione, the Piazza
Montanara, and the Via di Torre de' Specchi. They are built of blocks
of red tufa, with facing of travertine. The travertine facing is
covered with inscriptions set up in honor of the great divinity of
Rome by the kings and nations of the whole world. One cannot read
these historical documents[49] without acquiring a new sense of the
magnitude and power of the city.
[Illustration: View of the Platform of the Temple of Jupiter.]
These inscriptions are found mostly at the foot of the substructure,
on the side towards the Piazza della Consolazione. The latest, found
in the foundations of the Palazzo Moroni, contain messages of
friendship and gratitude from kings Mithradates Philopator and
Mithradates Philadelphos, of Pontus, from Ariobarzanes Philoromæus of
Cappadocia and Athenais his queen, from the province of Lycia, from
some townships of the province of Caria, etc.
As for the remains of the temple itself, the colossal column
discovered November 7, 1875, in the Conservatori garden, is not the
only one saved from the wreck. Flaminio Vacca, the sculptor and
amateur-archæologist of the sixteenth century, says: "Upon the
Tarpeian Rock, behind the Palazzo de' Conservatori, several pillars of
Pentelic marble (_marmo statuale_) were lately found. Their capitals
are so enormous that out of one of them I have carved the lion now in
the Villa Medici. The others were used by Vincenzo de Rossi to carve
the prophets and other statues which adorn the chapel of cardinal Cesi
in the church of S. Maria della Pace. I believe the columns belonged
to the Temple of Jupiter. No fragments of the entablature were found:
but as the building was so close to the edge of the Tarpeian Rock, I
suspect they must have fallen into the plain."
The correctness of this surmise is shown not only by the discovery of
the dedicatory inscriptions, in the Piazza della Consolazione, just
alluded to, but also from what took place in 1780, when the duca Lante
della Rovere was excavating the foundations of a house, No. 13, Via
Montanera. The discoveries are described by Montagnani as "marble
entablatures of enormous size and beautiful workmanship, with festoons
and _bucranii_ in the frieze. No one took the trouble to sketch them;
they were destroyed on the spot. I have no doubt that they belonged to
the temple seen by Vacca on the Monte Tarpeo, one hundred and
eighty-six years ago."
All these indications, compared with the discovery of the platform,
the substructure, and the column of Pentelic marble in the
Conservatori garden, leave no doubt as to the real position of the
Temple of Jupiter. To that piece of marble we owe the opportunity and
the privilege of settling a dispute on Roman topography which had
lasted at least three centuries.
The temple, rebuilt by Domitian, stood uninjured till the middle of
the fifth century. In June, 455, the Vandals, under Genseric,
plundered the sanctuary, its statues were carried off to adorn the
African residence of the king, and half the roof was stripped of its
gilt bronze tiles. From that time the place was used as a stone-quarry
and lime-kiln to such an extent that only the solitary fragment of a
column remains on the spot to tell the long tale of destruction.
Another piece of Pentelic marble was found January 24, 1889, near the
Tullianum (S. Pietro in Carcere). It belongs to the top of a column,
and has the same number of flutings,--twenty-four. This fragment seems
to have been sawn on the spot to the desired length, seven feet, and
then dragged down the hill towards some stone-cutter's shop. Why it
was thus abandoned, half way, in a hollow or pit dug expressly for it,
there is nothing to show.
The Temple of Jupiter is represented in ancient monuments of the class
called pictorial reliefs. I have selected for my illustration one of
the panels from the triumphal arch of Marcus Aurelius, near S.
Martina, because it contains a good sketch of the reliefs of the
pediment, with Jupiter seated between Juno and Minerva. The temple
itself is most carelessly drawn, the number of columns being reduced
by one half, that is, from eight to four.[50]
[Illustration: PANEL FROM THE ARCH OF MARCUS AURELIUS]
There is one interesting feature of the Capitolium, which is not well
known among those who do not make a profession of archæology. It was
used as a place for advertising State acts, deeds, and documents, in
order that the public might take notice of them and be informed of
what was going on in the administrative, military, and political
departments. This fact is known from a clause appended to imperial
letters-patent by which veterans were honorably discharged from the
army or navy, and privileges bestowed on them in recognition of their
services. These deeds, known as _diplomata honestæ missionis_, were
engraved on bronze tablets shaped like the cover of a book, the
original of which was hung somewhere in the Capitolium, and a copy
taken by the veteran to his home. The originals are all gone, having
fallen the prey of the plunderers of bronze in Rome, but copies are
found in great numbers in every province of the Roman empire from
which men were drafted.[51] These copies end with the clause:--
"Transcribed (and compared or verified) from the original bronze
tablet which is hung in Rome, in the Capitolium"--and here follows the
designation of a special place of the Capitolium, such as,--
"On the right side of the shrine of the _Fides populi romani_"
(December 11, A. D. 52).
"On the left side of the _ædes Thensarum_" (July 2, A. D. 60).
"On the pedestal of the statue of Quintus Marcius Rex, behind the
temple of Jupiter" (June 15, 64).
"On the pedestal of the _ara gentis Iuliæ_, on the right side,
opposite the statue of Bacchus" (March 7, 71).
"On the vestibule, on the left wall, between the two archways" (May
21, 74).
"On the pedestal of the statue of Jupiter Africus" (December 2, 76).
"On the base of the column, on the inner side, near the statue of
Jupiter Africus" (September 5, 85).
"On the tribunal by the trophies of Germanicus, which are near the
shrine of the _Fides_" (May 15, 86).
Comparing these indications of localities with the dates of the
diplomas,--there are sixty-three in all,--it appears that they were
not hung at random, but in regular order from monument to monument,
until every available space was covered. In the year 93 there was not
an inch left, and the Capitol is mentioned no more as a place for
exhibiting or advertising the acts of Government. From that year they
were hung "_in muro post templum divi ad Minervam_," that is, behind
the modern church of S. Maria Liberatrice.
THE TEMPLE OF ISIS AND SERAPIS. In the spring of 1883, in surveying
the tract of ground between the Collegio Romano and the Baths of
Agrippa, formerly occupied by the Temple of Isis and Serapis, and in
collecting archæological information concerning it, I was struck by
the fact that, every time excavations were made on either side of the
Via di S. Ignazio for building or restoring the houses which line it,
remarkable specimens of Egyptian art had been brought to light. The
annals of discoveries begin with 1374, when the obelisk now in the
Piazza della Rotonda was found, under the apse of the church of S.
Maria sopra Minerva, together with the one now in the Villa Mattei von
Hoffman. In 1435, Eugenius IV. discovered the two lions of Nektaneb I.
which are now in the Vatican, and the two of black basalt now in the
Capitoline Museum. In 1440 the reclining figure of a river-god was
found and buried again. The Tiber of the Louvre and the Nile of the
Braccio Nuovo seem to have come to light during the pontificate of Leo
X.; at all events it was he who caused them to be removed to the
Vatican. In 1556 Giovanni Battista de Fabi found, and sold to cardinal
Farnese, the reclining statue of Oceanus now in Naples. In 1719 the
Isiac altar now in the Capitol was found under the Biblioteca
Casanatense. In 1858 Pietro Tranquilli, in restoring his house,--the
nearest to the apse of la Minerva,--came across the following-named
objects: a sphinx of green granite, the head of which is a portrait of
Queen Haths'epu, the oldest sister of Thothmes III., who was famous
for her expedition to the Red Sea, recently described by
Dümmichen;[52] a sphinx of red granite, believed to be a Roman
replica; a group of the cow Hathor, the living symbol of Isis, nursing
the young Pharaoh Horemheb; the portrait statue of the grand dignitary
Uahábra, a good specimen of Saïtic art; a column of the temple,
covered with high reliefs, which represented a procession of
bald-headed priests holding canopi in their hands; a capital, carved
with papyrus leaves and lotus flowers; and a fragment of an Egyptian
basrelief in red granite, with traces of polychromy.
In 1859 Augusto Silvestrelli, the owner of the next house, on the same
side of the Via di S. Ignazio, found five capitals of the same style
and size, which, I believe, are now in the Museo Etrusco Gregoriano.
Inasmuch as no excavation had ever been made under the pavement of the
street itself, which is public property, and as there was no reason
why that strip of public property should not contain as many works of
art as the houses about it, I asked the municipal authorities to try
the experiment, and my proposal was accepted at once.
The work began on Monday, June 11, 1883. It was difficult, because we
had to dig to a depth of twenty feet between houses of very doubtful
solidity. First to appear, at the end of the third day, was a
magnificent sphinx of black basalt, the portrait of King Amasis. It is
a masterpiece of the Saïtic school, perfected even in the smallest
details, and still more impressive for its historical connection with
the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses.
[Illustration: The Sphinx of Amasis.]
The cartouches bearing the king's name appear to have been purposely
erased, though not so completely as to render the name illegible. The
nose, likewise, and the _uræus_, the symbol of royalty, were hammered
away at the same time. The explanation of these facts is given by
Herodotos. When Cambyses conquered Saïs, Amasis had just been buried.
The conqueror caused the body to be dragged out of the royal tomb,
then flogged and otherwise insulted, and finally burnt, the maximum of
profanation, from an Egyptian point of view. His name was erased from
the monuments which bore it, as a natural consequence of the _memoriæ
damnatio_. This sphinx is the surviving testimonial of the eventful
catastrophe. When, six or seven centuries later, a Roman governor of
Egypt, or a Roman merchant from the same province, singled out this
work of art, to be shipped to Rome as a votive offering for the Temple
of Isis, ignorant of the historical value of its mutilations, he had
the nose and the _uræus_ carefully restored. Now both are gone again,
and there is no danger of a second restoration. I may remark, as a
curious coincidence, that, as the name of Amasis is erased from the
sphinx, so that of Hophries, his predecessor, is erased from the
obelisk discovered in the same temple, and now in the Piazza della
Minerva. In these two monuments of the Roman Iseum we possess a
synopsis of Egyptian history between 595 and 526 B. C.
[Illustration: Obelisk of Rameses the Great.]
The second work, discovered June 17, was an obelisk which was
wonderfully well preserved to the very top of the pinnacle, and
covered with hieroglyphics. It was quarried at Assuan, from a richly
colored vein of red granite, and was brought to Rome, probably under
Domitian, together with the obelisk now in the Piazza del Pantheon.
The two monoliths are almost identical in size and workmanship, and
are inscribed with the same cartouches of Rameses the Great. The one
which I discovered was set up, in 1887, to the memory of our brave
soldiers who fell at the battle of Dogali. The site selected for the
monument, the square between the railway station and the Baths of
Diocletian, is too large for such a comparatively small shaft.
Two days later, on the 19th, we discovered two _kynokephaloi_ or
_kerkopithekoi_, five feet high, carved in black porphyry. The
monsters are sitting on their hind legs, with the paws of the forearms
resting on the knees. Their bases contain finely-cut hieroglyphics,
with the cartouche of King Necthor-heb, of the thirtieth Sebennitic
dynasty. One of these _kynokephaloi_, and also the obelisk, were
certainly seen in 1719 by the masons who built the foundations of the
Biblioteca Casanatense. For some reason unknown to us, they kept their
discovery a secret. Many other works of art were discovered before the
close of the excavations, in the last days of June. Among them were a
crocodile in red granite, the pedestal of a candelabrum, triangular in
shape, with sphinxes at the corners; a column of the temple, with
reliefs representing an Isiac procession; and a portion of a capital.
From an architectural point of view, the most curious discovery was
that the temple itself, with its colonnades and double cella, had been
brought over, piece by piece, from the banks of the Nile to those of
the Tiber. It is not an imitation; it is a purely original Egyptian
structure, shaded first by the palm-trees of Saïs, and later by the
pines of the Campus Martius.
The earliest trustworthy account we have of its existence is given by
Flavius Josephus. He relates how Tiberius, after the assault of Mundus
against Paulina,[53] condemned the priests to crucifixion, burned the
shrine, and threw the statue of the goddess into the Tiber. Nero
restored the sanctuary; it was, however, destroyed again in the great
conflagration, A. D. 80. Domitian was the second restorer; Hadrian,
Commodus, Caracalla, and Alexander Severus improved and beautified the
group, from time to time. At the beginning of the fourth century of
our era it contained the _propylaia_, or pyramidal towers with a
gateway, at each end of the _dromos_; one near the present church of
S. Stefano del Cacco, one near the church of S. Macuto. They were
flanked by one or more pairs of obelisks, of which six have been
recovered up to the present time, namely, one now in the Piazza della
Rotonda, a second in the Piazza della Minerva, a third in the Villa
Mattei, a fourth in the Piazza della Stazione, a fifth in the
Sphæristerion at Urbino, and fragments of a sixth in the Albani
collection.
From the propylaia, a _dromos_, or sacred avenue, led to the double
temple. To the dromos belong the two lions in the Museo Etrusco
Gregoriano, the two lions in the Capitoline Museum, the sphinx of
Queen Hathsèpu in the Barracco collection, the sphinx of Amasis and
the Tranquilli sphinx in the Capitol, the cow Hathor and the statue of
Uahábra in the Museo Archeologico in Florence, the _kynokephaloi_ of
Necthor-heb, the _kynokephalos_ which gave the popular name of _Cacco_
(ape) to the church of S. Stefano, the statue formerly in the Ludovisi
Gallery, the Nile of the Braccio Nuovo, the Tiber of the Louvre, the
Oceanus at Naples, the River-God buried in 1440, the Isiac altars of
the Capitol and of the Louvre, the tripod, the crocodile and sundry
other fragments which were found in 1883. Of the temple itself we
possess two columns covered with mystic bas-reliefs, seven
capitals,--one in the Capitol, the others in the Vatican,--and two
blocks of granite from the walls of the cella, one in the Barberini
gardens, one in the Palazzo Galitzin.
The last historical mention we possess of this admirable Egyptian
museum of ancient Rome was found by Delille in the "Cod. Parisin."
8064, in which the attempt by Nicomachus Flavianus to revive the pagan
religion in 394 A. D. is minutely described.[54] The reaction caused
by this final outburst of fanaticism must have been fatal to the
temple. The masterpieces of the dromos were upset, and otherwise
damaged, the faces of the _kynokephaloi_ and the noses and paws of the
sphinxes were knocked off, and statues of Pharaohs, gods, priests,
dignitaries, and Pastophoroi were hurled from their pedestals, and
broken to pieces. When this wholesale destruction took place, the
pavement of the temple was still clear of the rubbish and loose soil.
The sphinx of Amasis, found June 14, was lying on its left side on the
bare pavement; the two apes had fallen on their backs. No attempt,
however, was made to overthrow the obelisks, at least the one which I
discovered. When the monolith fell, in the eighth or ninth century,
the floor of the Iseum was already covered with a bed of rubbish five
feet thick. To this fact we owe the wonderful preservation of the
obelisk, the soft, muddy condition of the soil having eased the weight
of the fall.
Students have wondered at the existence, in our time, of such a mine
of antiquities in this quarter of the Campus Martius, where it appears
as if, in spite of the feverish search for ancient marbles, this spot
had escaped the attention of the excavators of the past four or five
centuries. It did not escape their attention. The whole area of the
Iseum, save a few recesses, has been explored since the Middle Ages,
but the search was made to secure marble, which could be burnt into
lime, or turned into new shapes. Of what use would porphyry, or
granite, or basalt be for such purposes? These materials are useless
for the lime-kiln, and too hard to be worked anew, and accordingly
they were left alone. In the excavations of 1883 I found the best
evidence that such was the case. The obelisk is of granite; its
pedestal of white marble. The obelisk escaped destruction, but the
pedestal was split, and made ready for the lime-kiln.
THE TEMPLE OF NEPTUNE. The discoveries made in 1878 in the Piazza di
Pietra, on the site of the Temple of Neptune, rank next in importance
to those just described. In repairing a drain which runs through the
Via de' Bergamaschi to the Piazza di Pietra, the foundations of an
early mediæval church, dedicated to S. Stephen (Santo Stefano del
Trullo) were unearthed, together with historical inscriptions, pieces
of columns of _giallo antico_, and other architectural fragments. On a
closer examination of the discoveries, I was able to ascertain that
the whole church had been built with spoils from the triumphal arch of
Claudius in the Piazza di Sciarra, and from the Temple of Neptune in
the Piazza di Pietra. To enable the reader to appreciate the value of
the discovery, I must begin with a short description of the temple
itself.
Dio Cassius (liii. 27) states that, in 26 B. C., Marcus Agrippa built
the Portico of the Argonauts, with a temple in the middle of it,
called the Poseidonion ([Greek: POSEIDÔNION]), in token of his
gratitude to the god of the seas for the naval victories he had gained
over the foes of the commonwealth; but the beautiful ruins still
existing in the Piazza di Pietra do not belong to Agrippa's work, nor
to the golden age of Roman art. They belong to the restoration of the
temple which was made by Hadrian after the great fire of A. D. 80, by
which the Neptunium, or Poseidonion, was nearly destroyed. The
characteristic feature of the temple was a set of thirty-six
bas-reliefs representing the thirty-six provinces of the Roman Empire
at the beginning of the Christian era. These reliefs were set into the
basement of the temple, so as to form the pedestals of the thirty-six
columns of the peristyle, while the intercolumniations, or spaces
between the pedestals, were occupied by another set of bas-reliefs
representing the military uniforms, flags and weapons which were
peculiar to each of the provinces. The fifteen provinces and fourteen
trophies belonging to the colonnade of the Piazza di Pietra, that is,
to the north side of the temple, have all been accounted for. Four
provinces were found during the pontificate of Paul III. (1534-50),
two during that of Innocent X. (1644-55), two during that of Alexander
VII. (1655-1667), three in our excavations of 1878, and four either
are still in the ground or have perished in a lime-kiln. Here again we
have an instance of the shameful dispersion of the spoils of ancient
Rome. We have this wing of the temple still standing in all its glory,
in the Piazza di Pietra; we have eleven pedestals out of fifteen, and
as many panels for the intercolumniations; the others are _probably_
within our reach, and we have beautiful pieces of the entablature with
its rich carvings. The temple, entablature, and nearly all the
trophies and provinces are public property; nothing would be easier
than to restore each piece to its proper place, and make this wing of
the Neptunium one of the most perfect relics of ancient Rome. Alas!
three provinces and two trophies have emigrated to Naples with the
rest of the Farnese marbles, one has been left behind in the portico
of the Farnese palace in Rome, five provinces and four trophies are in
the Palazzo dei Conservatori, two are in the Palazzo Odescalchi, one
is in the Palazzo Altieri, two pieces of the entablature are used as
a rustic seat in the Giardino delle Tre Pile on the Capitol, and
another has been used in the restoration of the Arch of Constantine.
[Illustration: One of the Provinces from the Temple of Neptune.]
THE TEMPLE OF AUGUSTUS. It is a remarkable fact that, at the beginning
of archæological research in the Renaissance, there was great
enthusiasm over a few strange monuments of little or no interest, the
existence of which would have been altogether unknown but for an
occasional mention in classical texts. As a rule, the cinquecento
topographers give a prominent place in their books to the _columna
Mænia_, the _columna Lactaria_, the _senaculum mulierum_, the _pila
Tiburtina_, the _pila Horatia_ and other equally unimportant works
which, for reasons unknown to us, had forcibly struck their fancy. The
fashion died out in course of time, but never entirely. Some of these
more or less fanciful structures still live in our books, and in the
imagination of the people. The place of honor, in this line, belongs
to Caligula's bridge, which is supposed to have crossed the valley of
the Forum at a prodigious height, so as to enable the young monarch to
walk on a level from his Palatine house to the Temple of Jupiter on
the Capitol. This bridge is not only mentioned in guide-books, and
pointed out to strangers on their first visit to the Forum, but is
also drawn and described in works of a higher standard,[55] in which
the bridge is represented from "remains concealed under a house, which
have been carefully examined and measured, as well as drawn by
architectural draughtsmen of much experience."
The bridge never existed. Caligula made use of the roofs of edifices
which were already there, spanning only the gaps of the streets with
temporary wooden passages. This is clearly stated by Suetonius in
chapters xxii. and xxxvii. and by Flavius Josephus, "Antiq. Jud." xix.
1, 11. From the palace at the northeast corner of the Palatine, he
crossed the roof of the _templum divi Augusti_, then the _fastigium
basilicæ Juliæ_, and lastly the Temple of Saturn close to the
Capitolium. The Street of Victory which divided the emperor's palace
from the Temple of Augustus, the Street of the Tuscans which divided
the temple from the basilica, and the Vicus Iugarius between the
basilica and the Temple of Saturn, were but a few feet wide and could
easily be crossed by means of a _passerelle_. We are told by Suetonius
and Josephus how Caligula used sometimes to interrupt his aerial
promenade midway, and throw handfuls of gold from the roof of the
basilica to the crowd assembled below. I have mentioned this bridge
because the words of Suetonius, _supra templum divi Augusti ponte
transmisso_, gave me the first clew towards the identification of the
splendid ruins which tower just behind the church of S. Maria
Liberatrice, between it and the rotunda of S. Teodoro.
The position of Caligula's palace at the northeast corner of the
Palatine being well known, as also the site of the Basilica Julia, it
is evident that the building which stands between the two must be the
Temple of Augustus. This conclusion is so simple that I wonder that no
one had mentioned it before my first announcement in 1881. The last
nameless remains adjoining the Forum have thus regained their place
and their identity in the topography of this classic quarter.
[Illustration: Plan of the Temple of Augustus.]
[Illustration: Remains of the Temple of Augustus, from a sketch by
Ligorio.]
The construction of a temple in honor of the deified founder of the
empire was begun by his widow Livia, and Tiberius, his adopted son,
and completed by Caligula. An inscription discovered in 1726, in the
Columbaria of Livia on the Appian Way, mentions a C. Julius Bathyllus,
sacristan or keeper of the temple. Pliny (xii. 19, 42) describes,
among the curiosities of the place, a root of a cinnamon-tree, of
extraordinary size, placed by Livia on a golden tray. The relic was
destroyed by fire in the reign of Titus. Domitian must have restored
the building, because the rear wall of the temple, the _murus post
templum divi Augusti ad Minervam_, is mentioned in contemporary
documents as the place on which state notices were posted. It has been
excavated but once, in June, 1549, when the Forum, the Sacra Via and
the Street of the Tuscans were ransacked to supply marbles and lime
for the building of S. Peter's. Two documents show the wonderful state
of preservation in which the temple was found. One is a sketch, taken
in 1549, by Pirro Ligorio, which, through the kindness of Professor T.
H. Middleton,[56] I reproduce from the original, in the Bodleian
Library; the other is a description of the discovery by Panvinius.[57]
The place was in such good condition that even the statue and altar
of Vortumnus, described by Livy, Asconius, Varro and others, were
found lying at the foot of the steps of the temple.
THE SACELLUM SANCI, or Shrine of Sancus on the Quirinal.[58] The
worship of _Semo Sancus Sanctus Dius Fidius_ was imported into Rome at
a very early period, by the Sabines who first colonized the Quirinal
Hill. He was considered the Genius of heavenly light, the son of
Jupiter _Diespiter_ or _Lucetius_, the avenger of dishonesty, the
upholder of truth and good faith, whose mission upon earth was to
secure the sanctity of agreements, of matrimony, and hospitality.
Hence his various names and his identification with the Roman
Hercules, who was likewise invoked as a guardian of the sanctity of
oaths (_me-Hercle_, _me-Dius Fidius_). There were two shrines of Semo
Sancus in ancient Rome, one built by the Sabines on the Quirinal, near
the modern church of S. Silvestro, from which the _Porta Sanqualis_ of
the Servian walls was named, the other built by the Romans on the
Island of the Tiber (S. Bartolomeo) near the Temple of Jupiter
Jurarius. Justin, the apologist and martyr, laboring under the
delusion that Semo Sancus and Simon the Magician were the same,
describes the altar on the island of S. Bartolomeo as sacred to the
latter.[59] He must have glanced hurriedly at the first three names of
the Sabine god,--SEMONI SANCO DEO,--and translated them [Greek: SIMÔNI
DEÔ SANKTÔ]. The altar on which these names were written, the very one
seen and described by S. Justin, was discovered on the same island, in
July, 1574, during the pontificate of Gregory XIII. The altar is
preserved in the Galleria Lapidaria of the Vatican Museum, in the
first compartment (_Dii_).
The shrine on the Quirinal is minutely described by classical writers.
It was hypæthral, that is, without a roof, so that the sky could be
seen by the worshippers of the "Genius of heavenly light." The oath
_me-Dius Fidius_ could not be taken except in the open air. The chapel
contained relics of the kingly period, the wool, distaff, spindle, and
slippers of Tanaquil, and brass _clypea_ or medallions, made of money
confiscated from Vitruvius Vaccus.
[Illustration: Statue of Semo Sancus.]
Its foundations were discovered in March, 1881, under what was
formerly the convent of S. Silvestro al Quirinale, now the
headquarters of the Royal Engineers. The monument is a parallelogram
in shape, thirty-five feet long by nineteen feet wide, with walls of
travertine, and decorations of white marble; and it is surrounded by
votive altars and pedestals of statues. I am not sure whether the
remarkable work of art which I shall describe presently was found in
this very place, but it is a strange coincidence that, during the
progress of the excavations at S. Silvestro, a statue of Semo Sancus
and a pedestal inscribed with his name should have appeared in the
antiquarian market of the city.
The statue, reproduced here from a heliogravure, is life-sized, and
represents a nude youth, of archaic type. His attitude may be compared
to that of some early representations of Apollo, but the expression of
the face and the modelling of some parts of the body are realistic
rather than conventional. Both hands are missing, so that it is
impossible to state what were the attributes of the god. Visconti
thinks they may have been the _avis Sanqualis_ or _ossifraga_, and the
club of Hercules. The inscription on the pedestal is very much like
that seen by S. Justin:--
SEMONI. SANCO. DEO. FIDIO. SACRUM. DECURIA. SACERDOT[UM] BIDENTALIUM.
According to Festus, _bidentalia_ were small shrines of second-rate
divinities, to whom _bidentes_, lambs two years old, were sacrificed.
For this reason the priests of Semo were called _sacerdotes
bidentales_. They were organized, like a lay corporation, in a
_decuria_ under the presidency of a _magister quinquennalis_. Their
residence, adjoining the chapel, was ample and commodious, with an
abundant supply of water. The lead pipe by which this was distributed
through the establishment was discovered at the same time and in the
same place with the bronze statues of athletes described in chapter
xi. of my "Ancient Rome."
The pipe has been removed to the Capitoline Museum, the statue and its
pedestal have been purchased by Pope Leo XIII. and placed in the
Galleria dei Candelabri, and the foundations of the shrine have been
destroyed.
FOOTNOTES:
[34] On the almanacs (_Notitia, Curiosum_), containing catalogues and
statistics of Roman buildings in the fourth century, see Mommsen:
_Chronograph von 354_, etc., in the _Abhandlungen der Sächsischen
Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften_, vols. ii. 549; iii. 269; viii.
694.--Preller: _Die Regionen der Stadt Rom_. Jena: Hochhausen,
1846.--Jordan: _Topographie der Stadt Rom_. Berlin: Weidmann, ii., pp.
1 & 178.--Richter: _Topographie der Stadt Rom_, 1889, p. 5; id.:
_Hermes_, xx., p. 91.--De Rossi: _Piante iconografiche e prospettiche
di Roma anteriori al sec. XVI_. Roma: Salviucci, 1879.--Guido: _Il
testo siriaco della descrizione di Roma_, etc., in the _Bullettino
Comunale_, 1884, p. 218; and 1891, p. 61.--Lanciani: _Ricerche sulle
XIV regioni urbane_; in the _Bullettino comunale_, 1890, p. 115.
[35] _Inscript._ 139, i.
[36] The fac-simile here presented is from the _Corpus Inscriptionum
Latinarum_, vi. 820.
[37] The sale of skins of victims sacrificed at Athens in the year 334
B. C., in state sacrifices only, brought a revenue of 5,500 drachmas.
[38] See Henzen, _Bullettino dell' Instituto_, 1863, p. 58.--Mommsen:
_Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, vol. i. no. 1503.
[39] See Cicero: _De Divinatione_, ii. 59, 123.--Preller: _Die
Regionen_, p. 133.--Nibby: _Roma Ant._, ii. p. 334.--Beckner:
_Topogr._, p. 539.--Cavedoni: _Bull. dell' Inst._ 1856, p.
102.--Visconti: _Bullettino Comunale_, 1887, p. 154, 156.--Middleton:
_The Remains of Ancient Rome_, ed. 1892, vol. ii. p. 233.
[40] Concerning this celebrated monument, see Tambroni and Poletti:
_Giornale arcadico_, vol. xviii., 1823, p. 371-400.--Gell: _Rome and
its Vicinity_, i. p. 219.--Klausen: _Æneas_, ii. p. 1083.--Canina:
_Via Appia_, i. p. 209-232.--Mommsen: _Corpus Inscriptionum
Latinarum_, vol. i. p. 207, no. 807.
[41] Pliny, _N. H._, x. 29, 41.
[42] A copy of this celebrated picture, dating from the second century
B. C., has been found in a tomb on the Esquiline. It was published in
facsimile and illustrated by Visconti in the _Bullettino Comunale_,
1889, p. 340, tav. xi.-xii.
[43] See the _Annali dell' Instituto_, 1854, p. 28.
[44] The convent and its garden occupy the sites of the house of
Augustus, the temples of Vesta and Apollo, the Greek and Latin
libraries, and the Portico of the Danaids, described in _Ancient
Rome_, ch. v., p. 109. The estate has been owned successively by the
Mattei, Spada, and Ronconi families, and by Charles Mills. Its finest
ornament is a portico built by the Matteis in the sixteenth century
from the designs of Raffaellino del Colle. This pupil of Raphael was
also the painter of the exquisite frescoes representing Venus and
Cupid, Jupiter and Antiope, Hermaphrodite and Salmace, and other
subjects engraved by Marcantonio and Agostino Veneziano. These
frescoes, greatly injured by age and neglect, were restored in 1824,
by Camuccini, at the expense of Mr. Charles Mills.
[45] See Lanciani: _L' itinerario di Einsiedlen_, in the _Monumenti
antichi pubblicati dalla Accademia dei Lincei._ 1891.
[46] This inscription is of such exceptional interest that it is
given, as edited by Mommsen, at the close of this volume.
[47] _Codex Vatic._ 7,721, f. 67.
[48] See Rycquius: _De Capitolio romano_. Leyden, 1669.--Bunsen:
_Beschreibung der Stadt Rom_, iii. A, p. 14.--Hirt: _Der
capitolinische Jupitertempel_, in the _Abhandlungen der Berliner
Akademie_, 1813.--Dureau de la Malle: _Mémoire sur la position de la
roche tarpeienne_, in the _Mémoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions_,
1819.--Niebuhr: _Römische Geschichte_, i. 5,588.--Mommsen: _Bullettino
dell' Instituto_, 1845, p. 119.--Lanciani: _Il tempio di Giove Ottimo
Massimo_, in the _Bullettino comunale_, 1875, p. 165, tav.
xvi.--Jordan: _Osservazioni sul_ _tempio di Giove Capitolino_. Lettera
al sig. cav. R. Lanciani, Roma, 1876.--Hülsen: _Osservazioni sull'
architettura del tempio di Giove Capitolino_, in the _Mittheilungen
des deutschen archäologischen Instituts, römische Abtheilung_, 1888,
p. 150.--Audollent: _Dessin inédit d'un fronton du temple de Jupiter
Capitolin_, in the _Mélanges de l'Ecole française_, 1889, Juin.
[49] See _Bullettino Comunale_, 1886, p. 403; 1887, p. 14, 124, 251;
1888, p. 138.--Mommsen: _Zeitschrift für Numismatik_, xv. p. 207-219.
[50] The same illustration has been selected by Middleton: _The
Remains of Ancient Rome_, vol. i. p. 363.--The reliefs of the pediment
are also well shown in a sketch by Pierre Jacques, dated 1576, and
published by Audollent in the _Mélanges_, 1889, planche ii.
[51] See Clemente Cardinati: _Diplomi imperiali di privilegi_.
Velletri, 1835.--Joseph Arneth: _Zwölf römische Militärdiplome_, Wien,
1843.--Mommsen: _Bullettino dell' Instituto_, 1845, p. 119; _Annali
dell' Instituto_, 1858, p. 198; _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, vol.
iii. part ii. p. 843.--Léon Rénier: _Récueil des diplomes militaires_,
première livraison, Paris, 1876.
[52] _Die Flotte einer ägyptischen Königin aus dem siebzehnten
Jahrhundert._
[53] See Flavius Josephus, _Ant. Ind._, xviii. 4.
[54] See Morel: _Révue Archéologique_, 1868.--De Rossi: _Bullettino di
archeologia cristiana_, 1868.
[55] See Parker's _Forum Romanum_, London, 1876, plates xxiii. and
xxiv.
[56] It has since been published by Middleton himself in his _Remains
of Ancient Rome_, vol. i. p. 275, fig. 35, from a heliogravure of the
original.
[57] In the _Cod. Vat._, 3,439, f. 46.
[58] See Dressel: _Bullettino dell' Instituto_, 1881, p.
38.--Lanciani: _Bullettino Comunale_, 1881, p. 4.--Visconti: _Un
simulacro di Semo Sancus_, Roma, 1881.--Preller: _Römische
Mythologie_, p. 637.
[59] _Apolog._ 26.
CHAPTER III.
CHRISTIAN CHURCHES.
The large number of churches in Rome.--The six classes of the
earliest of these.--I. Private oratories.--The houses of Pudens
and Prisca.--The evolution of the church from the private
house.--II. Scholæ.--The memorial services and banquets of the
pagans.--Two extant specimens of early Christian scholæ.--That in
the Cemetery of Callixtus.--III. Oratories and churches built
over the tombs of martyrs and confessors.--How they came to be
built.--These the originals of the greatest sanctuaries of modern
Rome.--S. Peter's.--The origin of the church.--The question of S.
Peter's residence and execution in Rome.--The place of his
execution and burial.--The remarkable discovery of graves under
the _baldacchino_ of Urban VIII.--The basilica erected by
Constantine.--Some of its monuments.--The chair and statue of S.
Peter.--The destruction of the old basilica and the building of
the new.--The vast dimensions of the latter.--Is S. Peter's body
really still under the church?--The basilica of S. Paul's outside
the walls.--The obstacles to its construction.--The fortified
settlement of Johannipolis which grew up around it.--The grave of
S. Paul.--IV. Houses of confessors and martyrs.--The discoveries
of padre Germano on the Cælian.--The house of the martyrs John
and Paul.--V. Pagan monuments converted into churches.--Every
pagan building capable of holding a congregation was thus
transformed at one time or another.--Examples of these in and
near the Coliseum.--VI. Memorials of historical events.--The
chapel erected to commemorate the victory of Constantine over
Maxentius.--That of Santa Croce a Monte Mario.
Rome, according to an old saying, contains as many churches as there
are days in the year. This statement is too modest; the "great
catalogue" published by cardinal Mai[60] mentions over a thousand
places of worship, while nine hundred and eighteen are registered in
Professor Armellini's "Chiese di Roma." A great many have disappeared
since the first institution, and are known only from ruins, or
inscriptions and chronicles. Others have been disfigured by
"restorations." Without denying the fact that our sacred buildings
excel in quantity rather than quality, there is no doubt that as a
whole they form the best artistic and historic collection in the
world. Every age, from the apostolic to the present, every school,
every style has its representatives in the churches of Rome.
The assertion that the works of mediæval architects have been
destroyed or modernized to such an extent as to leave a wide gap
between the classic and Renaissance periods, must have been made by
persons unacquainted with Rome; the churches and the cloisters of S.
Saba on the Aventine, of SS. Quattro Coronati on the Cælian, of S.
Giovanni a Porta Latina, of SS. Vincenzo e Anastasio alle Tre Fontane,
of S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura, are excellent specimens of mediæval
architecture. Let students, archæologists, and architects provide
themselves with a chronological table of our sacred buildings, and
select the best specimens for every quarter of a century, beginning
with the oratory of Aquila and Prisca, mentioned in the Epistles, and
ending with the latest contemporary creations; they cannot find a
better subject for their education in art and history.
From the point of view of their origin and structure, the churches of
Rome of the first six centuries may be divided into six classes:--
I. Rooms of private houses where the first prayer-meetings were held.
II. Scholæ (memorial or banqueting halls in public cemeteries),
transformed into places of worship.
III. Oratories and churches built over the tombs of martyrs and
confessors.
IV. Houses of confessors and martyrs.
V. Pagan monuments, especially temples, converted into churches.
VI. Memorials of historical events.
In treating this subject we must bear in mind that early Christian
edifices in Rome were never named from a titular saint, but from their
founder, or from the owner of the property on which they were
established. The same rule applies to the suburban cemeteries, which
were always named from the owner of the ground above them, not from
the martyrs buried within. The statement is simple; but we are so
accustomed to calling the Lateran basilica "S. Giovanni," or the
oratory of Pudens "S. Pudentiana," that their original names (Basilica
Salvatoris, and Ecclesia Pudentiana) have almost fallen into oblivion.
I shall select from each of the six classes such specimens as I
believe will convey an impression of its type to the mind of the
reader.
I. PRIVATE ORATORIES. "In the familiar record of the first days of the
Christian church we read how the men of Galilee, who returned to
Jerusalem after the ascension, 'went up into the upper chamber,' which
was at once their dwelling-place and their house of prayer and of
assembly. There, at the first common meal, the bread was broken and
the cup passed around in remembrance of the last occasion on which
they had sat at table with Christ. There too they assembled for their
first act of church government, the election of a successor to the
apostate Judas. All is simple and domestic, yet we have here the
beginnings of what became in time the most wide-reaching and highly
organized of human systems. An elaborate hierarchy, a complicated
theology were to arise out of the informal conclave, the memorial
meal; and in like manner, out of the homely meeting-place of the
disciples would be developed the costly and beautiful forms of the
Christian temple."[61]
Rome possesses authentic remains of the "houses of prayer" in which
the gospel was first announced in apostolic times. Five names are
mentioned in connection with the visit of Peter and Paul to the
capital of the empire, and two houses are mentioned as those in which
they found hospitality, and were able to preach the new doctrine. One
of these, belonging to Pudens and his daughters Pudentiana and
Praxedes, stands halfway up the Vicus Patricius (Via del Bambin Gesù)
on the southern slope of the Viminal; the other, belonging to Aquila
and Prisca (or Priscilla), on the spur of the Aventine which overlooks
the Circus Maximus. Both have been represented through the course of
centuries, and are represented now, by a church, named from the owner
the _Titulus Pudentis_, and the _Titulus Priscæ_. Archæologists have
tried to trace the genealogy of Pudens, the friend of the apostles;
but, although it seems probable that he belonged to the noble race of
the Cornelii Æmilii, the fact has not yet been clearly proved. Equally
doubtful are the origin and social condition of Aquila and his wife
Prisca, whose names appear both in the Acts and in the Epistles. We
know from these documents that, in consequence of the decree of
banishment which was issued against the Jews by the emperor Claudius,
Aquila and Prisca were compelled to leave Rome for a while, and that
on their return they were able to open a small oratory--_ecclesiam
domesticam_--in their house. This oratory, one of the first opened to
divine worship in Rome, these walls which, in all probability, have
echoed with the sound of S. Peter's voice, were discovered in 1776
close to the modern church of S. Prisca; but no attention was paid to
the discovery, in spite of its unrivalled importance. The only
memorandum of it is a scrap of paper in Codex 9697 of the Bibliothèque
Nationale in Paris, in which a man named Carrara speaks of having
found a subterranean chapel near S. Prisca, decorated with paintings
of the fourth century, representing the apostles. A copy of the
frescoes seems to have been made at the time, but no trace of it has
been found. I cannot understand how, in an age like ours, so
enthusiastically devoted to archæological, historical, and religious
r
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