Augustus J. C. Hare

Jewish Burial-ground—Sta. Sabina—S. Alessio—The Priorato—Sta. Prisca—The Vigna dei Gesuiti—S. Sabba—Sta. Balbina.

THE Aventine, which is perhaps the highest, and now—from its coronet of convents—the most picturesque of all the Roman hills, is of irregular form, and is divided into two parts by a valley; one side, the higher, is crowned by the churches of Sta. Sabina, S. Alessio, and the Priorato, which together form "the Capitol of the Aventine;" the other, known as the Pseudo-Aventine, is marked by the churches of S. Sabba and Sta. Balbina.

Virgil and Ovid allude repeatedly to the thick woods which once clothed the Aventine.[169] Dionysius speaks of the laurels or bays, an indigenous tree of ancient Rome, which grew there in abundance. Only one side of the hill, that towards the Tiber, now shows any of the natural cliff, but it was once remarkable for its rocks, and the Pseudo-Aventine obtained the name of Saxum from a huge solitary mass of stone which surmounted it.

The upper portion of the hill is of volcanic formation, and it is supposed that the legend of Cacus vomiting forth flames from his cave on the side of the Aventine had its origin in noxious sulphuric vapours emitted by the soil, as is still the case at the Solfatara on the way to Tivoli. The demi-god Faunus, who had an oracle at the Solfatara, had also an oracle on this hill.[171]

Some derive the name of Aventine from Aventinus-Silvius, king of Alba, who was buried here;[172] others from Avens, a Sabine river; while others say that the name simply means "the hill of birds," and connect it with the story of the foundation of the city. For when it became necessary to decide whether Romulus or Remus was to rule over the newly-built Rome, Romulus seated himself upon the Palatine to watch the auspices, but Remus upon the rock of the Pseudo-Aventine. Here Remus saw only six vultures, while Romulus saw twelve, but each interpreted the augury in his own favour, and Remus leapt across the boundary of the Palatine, whether in derision or war, and was slain by his brother, or by Celer, one of his followers. He was brought back and buried upon the Aventine, and the stone whence he had watched the vultures was thenceforth called the Sacred Rock. Ancient tradition places the tomb of Remus on the Pseudo-Aventine, but in the middle ages the tomb of Caius Cestus was believed—even by Petrarch—to be the monument of Remus.

Some authorities consider that when Remus was watching the vultures on the Pseudo-Aventine, that part of the hill was already occupied by a Pelasgic fortress called Romoria, but at this time and for long afterwards, the higher part of the Aventine was held by the Sabines. Here the Sabine king Numa dedicated an altar to Jupiter Elicius,[173] and the Sabine god Consus had also an altar here. Hither Numa came to visit the forest-gods Faunus and Picus at their sacred fountain:

By mingling wine and honey with the waters of their spring, Numa snared the gods, and compelled them to tell him how he might learn from Jupiter the knowledge of his will, and to reveal to him a charm against thunder and lightning.[175]

The Sabine king Tatius, the rival of Romulus, was buried on the Aventine "in a great grove of laurels," and, at his tomb, then called Armilustrum, it was the custom, every year, in the month of October, to hold a feast for the purification of arms, accompanied by martial dances. A horse was at the same time sacrificed to Janus, the Sabine war-god.[176]

Ancus Martius surrounded the Aventine by a wall,[177] and settled there many thousands of the inhabitants of Latin towns which he had subdued. This was the origin of the plebs, who were soon to become such formidable opponents of the first colonists of the Palatine, who took rank as patricians, and who at first found in them an important counterpoise to the power of the original Sabine inhabitants, against whom the little Latin colony of Romulus had hitherto been standing alone. The Aventine continued always to be the especial property and sanctuary of the plebs, the patricians avoiding it—in the first instance, it is supposed, from an impression that the hill was of evil omen, owing to the story of Remus. In B.C. 416, the tribune Icilius proposed and carried a law by which all the public lands of the Aventine were officially conferred upon the plebs, who forthwith began to cover its heights with houses, in which each family of the people had a right in one floor,—a custom which still prevails at Rome. At this time, also, the Aventine was included for the first time within the pomoerium or religious boundary of the city. Owing to its being the "hill of the people," the commons henceforth held their comitia and elected their tribunes here; and here, after the murder of Virginia, to whom the tribune Icilius had been betrothed, the army assembled against Appius Claudius.

Very little remains of the numerous temples which once adorned the hill, but their sites are tolerably well ascertained. We still ascend the Aventine by the ancient Clivus Publicius, originally paved by two brothers Publicii, who were Ædiles at the same time, and had embezzled a public sum of money, which they were compelled to expend thus—

At the foot of this road was the temple of Luna, or Jana, in which Tatius had also erected an altar to Janus or the Sun.

It was up this road that Caius Gracchus, a few hours before his death, fled to take refuge in a small Temple of Diana, which stood somewhere near the present site of S. Alessio, where, kneeling before the statue of the goddess, he implored that the people who had betrayed him might never be free. Close by, singularly enough, rose the Temple of Liberty, which his grandfather Sempronius Gracchus had built. Adjoining this temple was a hall where the archives of the censors were kept, and where they transacted business; this was rebuilt by Asinius Pollio, who added to it the first public library established in Rome.

In the same group stood the famous sanctuary of Juno Regina, vowed by Camillus during the siege of Veii, and to which the Juno of the captured city was removed after she had given a verbal consent when asked whether she wished to go to Rome and inhabit a new temple, much as the modern queen of heaven is apt to do in modern times at Rome.[181] The Temples of Liberty and Juno were both rebuilt under Augustus; some imagine that they were under a common roof. If they were distinct buildings, nothing of the former remains; some beautiful columns built into the church of Sta. Sabina are all that remain of the temple of Juno, though Livy thought that her reign here would be eternal—

... in Aventinum, Æternam sedem suam.[182]

Also belonging to this group was a Temple of Minerva.

Here the dramatist Livius Andronicus, who lived upon the Aventine, was honoured after his death by a company of scribes and actors. Another poet who lived upon the Aventine was Ennius, who is described as inhabiting a humble dwelling, and being attended by a single female slave. The poet Gallus also lived here.

On the other side of the Aventine (above the Circus Maximus), which was originally covered with myrtle—a shrub now almost extinct at Rome—on the site now occupied by Sta. Prisca, was a more important Temple of Diana, sometimes called by the Sabine name of Murcia,—built in imitation of the temple of Diana at Ephesus. Propertius writes—

and Martial—

Here till the time of Dionysius was preserved the pillar of brass on which was engraved the law of Icilius.

Near this were the groves of Simila, the retreat of the infamous association discovered and terribly punished at the time of the Greek wars; and—in the time of the empire—the gardens of Servilia, where she received the devotion of Julius CÆsar, and in which her son Brutus is said to have conspired his murder, and to have been interrogated by his wife Portia as to the mystery, which he refused to reveal to her, fearing her weakness under torture, until, by the concealment of a terrible wound which she had given to herself, she had proved to him that the daughter of Cato could suffer and be silent.

The Aventine continued to be inhabited, and even populous, until the sixth century, from which period its prosperity began to decline. In the eleventh century it was occupied by the camp of Henry IV. of Germany, when he came in war against Gregory VII. In the thirteenth century Honorius III. made a final effort to re-establish its popularity; but with each succeeding generation it has become—partly owing to the ravages of malaria—more and more deserted, till now its sole inhabitants are monks, and the few ague-stricken contadini who look after the monastic vineyards. In wandering along its desolate lanes, hemmed in by hedges of elder, or by walls covered with parasitical plants, it is difficult to realize the time when it was so thickly populated; and except in the quantities of coloured marbles with which its fields and vineyards are strewn, there is nothing to remind one of the 16 ÆdiculÆ, 64 baths, 25 granaries, 88 fountains, 130 of the larger houses called domus, and 2487 of the poorer houses called insulÆ, which occupied this site.

The present interest of the hill is almost wholly ecclesiastical, and centres around the story of St. Dominic, and the legends of the saints and martyrs connected with its different churches.

The best approach to the Aventine is behind the Church of Sta. Maria in Cosmedin, where the Via Sta. Sabina, once the Clivus Publicius (available for carriages), turns up the hill.

A lane on the left leads to the Jewish burial-ground, used as a place of sepulture for the Ghetto for many centuries. A curious instance of the cupidity attributed to the Jewish race may be seen in the fact, that they have, for a remuneration of four baiocchi, habitually given leave to their neighbours to discharge the contents of a rubbish cart into their cemetery, a permission of which the Romans have so abundantly availed themselves, that the level of the soil has been raised by many yards, and whole sets of older monuments have been completely swallowed up, and new ones erected over their heads.

After we turn the corner at the hill top, with its fine view over the Palatine, and cross the trench of fortification formed during the fear of a Garibaldian invasion in 1867, we skirt what appears to be part of a city wall. This is in fact the wall of the Honorian city, built by Pope Honorius III., of the great family of Savelli, whose idea was to render the Aventine once more the populous and favourite portion of the city, and who began great works for this purpose. Before his arrangements were completed St. Dominic arrived in Rome, and was appointed master of the papal household, and abbot of the convent of Sta. Sabina, where his ministrations and popularity soon formed such an attraction, that the pope wisely abandoned his design of founding a new city which should commemorate himself, and left the field to St. Dominic,—to whom he made over the land on this side of the hill. Henceforward the convent of Sta. Sabina and its surroundings have become, more than any other spot, connected with the history of the Dominican Order,—there, all the great saints of the Order have received their first inspiration,—have resided,—or are buried; there St. Dominic himself received in a beatific vision the institution of the rosary; there he was ordered to plant the famous orange-tree, which, being then unknown in Rome, he brought from his native Spain as the only present which it was suitable for the gratitude of a poor monk to offer to his patron Honorius, who was himself one of the great botanists of his time,—an orange-tree which still lives, and which is firmly believed by the monks to flourish or fail with the fortunes of the Order, so that it has lately been greatly the worse for the suppression of the convents in Northern Italy, though the residence of PÈre Lacordaire within the convent proved exceedingly beneficial to it, and his visit even caused a new sucker to sprout.

The Church of Sta. Sabina was built on the site of the house of the saint—in which she suffered martyrdom under the Emperor Hadrian,[187] in A.D. 423—by Peter, a priest of Illyria, "rich for the poor, and poor for himself" (pauperibus locuples, sibi pauper), as we read by the mosaic inscription inside the principal entrance. St. Gregory the Great read two of his homilies here. The church was rebuilt in 824, and restored and reconsecrated by Gregory IX. in 1238. Much of its interest,—ancient pavements, mosaics, &c.,—was destroyed in 1587 by Sixtus V., who took the credit of discovering the relics of the martyrs who are buried beneath the altar.

On the west is a covered corridor containing several ancient inscriptions. It is supported on one side by ancient spiral columns of pavonazzetto, on the other these have been plundered and replaced by granite. Hence, through a window, ladies are allowed to gaze upon the celebrated orange-tree, 665 years old, which they cannot approach; a rude figure of St. Dominic is sculptured upon the low wall which surrounds it. The west door, of the twelfth century, in a richly sculptured frame, is cited by Kugler as an instance of the extinction of the Byzantine influence upon art. Its panels are covered with carvings from the Old and New Testament, referred by Mamachi to the seventh, by Agincourt to the thirteenth century. Some of the subjects have been destroyed; among those which remain are the Annunciation, the Angels appearing to the Shepherds, the Angel and Zachariah in the Temple, the Magi, Moses turning the rods into serpents, the ascent of Elijah, Christ before Pilate, the denial of Peter, and the Ascension. Within the entrance are the only remains of the magnificent mosaic, erected in 431, under Celestine I., which entirely covered the west wall till the time of Sixtus V., consisting of an inscription in large letters, with a female figure on either side, that on the left bearing the name "Ecclesia cum circumcisione," that on the right, "Ecclesia ex gentibus." Among the parts destroyed were the four beasts typical of the Evangelists, and St. Peter and St. Paul. The church was thus gorgeously decorated, because in the time of the Savelli popes, it was what the Sistine is now, the Chiesa Apostolica.

The nave is lined by twenty-four Corinthian columns of white marble, relics of the temple of Juno Regina, which once stood here. Above, is an inlaid frieze of pietradura, of A.D. 431, which once extended up to the windows, but was destroyed by Sixtus V., who at the same time built up the windows which till then existed over each pier. In the middle of the pavement near the altar, is a very curious mosaic figure over the grave of Munoz de Zamora, a General of the Dominican Order, who died in 1300. Nearer the west door are interesting incised slabs representing a German bishop and a lady, benefactors of this church, and (on the left) a slab with arms in mosaic, to a lady of the Savelli family. In the left aisle is another monument of 1312, commemorating a warrior of the imperial house of Germany. The high altar covers the remains of Sabina and Seraphia, Alexander the Pope, Eventius and Theodulus, all martyrs. In the chapel beneath St. Dominic is said to have flagellated himself three times nightly, "perchÉ uno colpo solo non abbastava per mortificare la carne."

At the end of the right aisle is the Chapel of the Rosary, where a beautiful picture of Sassoferrato, called "La Madonna del Rosario," commemorates the vision of St. Dominic on that spot, in which he received the rosary from the hands of the Virgin.

Few Roman Catholic practices have excited more animadversion than the "vain repetition" of the worship of the Rosary. The PÈre Lacordaire (a Dominican) defended it, saying—

Grouped around this chapel are three beautiful tombs,—a cardinal, a bishop, and a priest of the end of the fifteenth century. That of the cardinal (which is of the well-known Roman type of the time), is inscribed "Ut moriens viveret, vixit est moriturus;" the others are incised slabs. At the other end of this aisle is a marble slab, on which St. Dominic is said to have been wont to lie prostrate in prayer. One day while he was lying thus, the Devil in his rage is said to have hurled a huge stone (a round black marble, pietra di paragone,) at him, which missed the saint, who left the attack entirely unnoticed. The devil was frantic with disappointment, and the stone, remaining as a relic, is preserved on a low pillar in the nave. A small gothic ciborium, richly inlaid with mosaic, remains on the left of the tribune.

Opening from the left aisle is a chapel built by Elic of Tuscany—very rich in precious marbles. The frame of the panel on the left is said to be unique.

It was in this church, in 1218, that St. Hyacinth, struck by the preaching of St. Dominic, and by the recollection of the barbarism, heathenism, and ignorance which prevailed in many parts of his native land of Silesia, offered himself as its missionary, and took the vows of the Dominican Order, together with his cousin St. Ceslas. Hither fled to the monastic life St. Thomas Aquinas, pursued to the very door of the convent by the tears and outcries of his mother, who vainly implored him to return to her. One evening, a pilgrim, worn out with travel and fatigue, arrived at the door of this convent mounted upon a wretched mule, and implored admittance. The prior in mockery asked, "What are you come for, my father? are you come to see if the college of cardinals is disposed to elect you as pope?" "I come to Rome," replied the pilgrim Michele Ghislieri, "because the interests of the Church require it, and I shall leave as soon as my task is accomplished; meanwhile I implore you to give me a brief hospitality and a little hay for my mule." Sixteen years afterwards Ghislieri mounted the papal throne as Pius V., and proved, during a troubled reign, the most rigid follower and eager defender of the institutions of St. Dominic. One day as Ghislieri was about to kiss his crucifix in the eagerness of prayer, "the image of Christ," says the legend, retired of its own accord from his touch, for it had been poisoned by an enemy, and a kiss would have been death. This crucifix is now preserved as a precious relic in the convent, where the cells both of St. Dominic and of St. Pius V. are preserved, though, like most historical chambers of Roman saints, their interest is lessened by their having been beautified and changed into chapels. In the cell of St. Dominic is a portrait by Bazzani, founded on the records of his personal appearance; the lily lies by his side,—the glory hovers over his head,—he is, as the chronicler describes him, "of amazing beauty." In this cell he is said frequently to have passed the night in prayer with his rival St. Francis of Assisi. The refectory is connected with another story of St. Dominic:—

Other saints who sojourned for a time in this convent were St. Norbert, founder of the Premonstratensians (ob. 1134), and St. Raymond de Penaforte (ob. 1275), who left his labours in Barcelona for a time in 1230 to act as chaplain to Gregory IX.

In 1287 a conclave was held at Sta. Sabina for the election of a successor to Pope Martin IV., but was broken up by the malaria, six cardinals dying at once within the convent, and all the rest taking flight except Cardinal Savelli, who would not desert his paternal home, and survived by keeping large fires constantly burning in his chamber. Ten months afterwards his perseverance was rewarded by his own election to the throne as Honorius IV.

In the garden of the convent are some small remains of the palace of the Savelli pope, Honorius III. Here, on the declivity of the Aventine, many important excavations were made in 1856—57, by the French Prior Besson, a person of great intelligence, and he was rewarded by the discovery of an ancient Roman house—its chambers paved with black and white mosaic, and some fine fragments of the wall of Servius Tullius, formed of gigantic blocks of peperino. In the chambers which were found decorated in stucco with remnants of painting in figures and arabesque ornaments, "one little group represented a sacrifice before the statue of a god, in an Ædicula. Some rudely scratched Latin lines on this surface led to the inference that this chamber, after becoming subterranean and otherwise uninhabitable, had served for a prison; one unfortunate inmate having inscribed curses against those who caused his loss of liberty; and another, more devout, left record of his vows to sacrifice to Bacchus in case of recovering that blessing."[188]

Since the death of Prior Besson[189] the works have been abandoned, and the remains already discovered have been for the most part earthed up again. A nympheum, a well, and several subterranean passages, are still visible on the hillside.

Just beyond Sta. Sabina is the Hieronymite Church and Convent of S. Alessio, the only monastery of Hieronymites in Italy where meat was allowed to be eaten,—in consideration of the malaria. The first church erected here was built in A.D. 305 in honour of St. Boniface, martyr, by Aglae, a noble Roman lady, whose servant (and lover) he had been. It was reconsecrated in A.D. 401 by Innocent I., in honour of St. Alexis, whose paternal mansion was on this site. This saint, young and beautiful, took a vow of virginity, and being forced by his parents into marriage, fled on the same evening from his home, and was given up as lost. Worn out and utterly changed he returned many years afterwards to be near those who were dear to him, and remained, unrecognised, as a poor beggar, under the stairs which led to his father's house. Seventeen years passed away, when a mysterious voice suddenly echoed through the Roman churches, crying, "Seek ye out the man of God, that he may pray for Rome." The crowd was stricken with amazement,—when the same voice continued, "Seek in the house of Euphemian." Then, pope, emperor, and senators rushed together to the Aventine, where they found the despised beggar dying beneath the doorstep, with his countenance beaming with celestial light, a crucifix in one hand, and a sealed paper in the other. Vainly the people strove to draw the paper from the fingers which were closing in the gripe of death, but when Innocent I. bade the dying man in God's name to give it up, they opened, and the pope read aloud to the astonished multitude the secret of Alexis; and his father Euphemian and his widowed bride, regained in death the son and the husband they had lost.

S. Alessio is entered through a courtyard.

In the portico of the church is a statue of Benedict XIII. (Pietro Orsini, 1724). The west door has a rich border of mosaic. The church has been so much modernised as to retain no appearance of antiquity. The fine Opus-Alexandrinum pavement is preserved. In the floor is the incised gothic monument of Lupi di Olmeto, General of the Hieronymites (ob. 1433). Left of the entrance is a shrine of S. Alessio, with his figure sleeping under the staircase—part of the actual wooden stairs being enclosed in a glass case over his head. Not far from this is the ancient well of his father's house. In a chapel which opens out of a passage leading to the sacristy is the fine tomb of Cardinal Guido di Balneo, of the time of Leo X. He is represented sitting, with one hand resting on the ground—the delicate execution of his lace in marble is much admired. The mosaic roof of this chapel was burst open by a cannon-ball during the French bombardment of 1849, but the figure was uninjured. The baldacchino (well known from Macpherson's photographs) is remarkable for its perfect proportions. Behind, in the tribune, are the inlaid mosaic pillars of a gothic tabernacle. No one should omit to descend into the Crypt of S. Alessio, which is an early church, supported on stunted pillars, and containing a marble episcopal chair, green with age. Here the pope used to meet the early conclaves of the Church in times of persecution. The pillar under the altar is shown as that to which St. Sebastian was bound when he was shot with the arrows.

The cloister of the convent, from which ladies are excluded, blooms with orange and lemon trees. There are only six Hieronymite brethren here now. The convent was at one time purchased by the ex-king Ferdinand of Spain, who intended turning it into a villa for himself.

A short distance beyond S. Alessio is a sort of little square, adorned with trophied memorials of the knights of Malta, and occupying the site of the laurel grove (Armilustrum) which contained the tomb of Tatius. Here is the entrance of the Priorato garden, where is the famous View of St. Peter's through the Keyhole, admired by crowds of people on Ash-Wednesday, when the "stazione" is held at the neighbouring churches. Entering the garden (which can always be visited) we find ourselves in a beautiful avenue of old bay-trees framing the distant St. Peter's. A terrace overhanging the Tiber has an enchanting view over the river and town. In the garden is an old pepper-tree, and in a little court a picturesque palm-tree and well. From hence we can enter the church, sometimes called S. Basilio, sometimes Sta. Maria Aventina, an ancient building modernized by Cardinal Rezzonico in 1765, from the very indifferent designs of Piranesi. It contains an interesting collection of tombs, most of them belonging to the Knights of Malta; that of Bishop Spinelli is an ancient marble sarcophagus, with a relief of Minerva and the Muses. A richly sculptured ancient altar contains relics of saints found beneath the pavement of the church.

The Priorato garden, so beautiful and attractive in itself, has an additional interest as that in which the famous Hildebrand (Gregory VII., 1073—80) was brought up as a boy, under the care of his uncle, who was abbot of the adjoining monastery. A massive cornice in these grounds is one of the few architectural fragments of ancient Rome existing on the Aventine. It may perhaps have belonged to the smaller temple of Diana in which Caius Gracchus took refuge, and in escaping from which, down the steep hillside, he sprained his ankle, and so was taken by his pursuers. Some buried houses were discovered and some precious vases brought to light, when Urban VIII. built the stately buttress walls which now support the hillside beyond the Priorato.

The cliff below these convents is the supposed site of the cave of the giant Cacus, described by Virgil.

Hercules brought the oxen of Geryon to pasture in the valley between the Aventine and Palatine. Cacus issuing from his cave while their owner was asleep, carried off four of the bulls, dragging them up the steep side of the hill by their tails, that Hercules might be deceived by their foot-prints being reversed. Then he concealed them in his cavern, and barred the entrance with a rock. Hercules sought the stolen oxen everywhere, and when he could not find them, he was going away with the remainder. But as he drove them along the valley near the Tiber one of his oxen lowed, and when the stolen oxen in the cave heard that, they answered; and Hercules, after rushing three times round the Aventine boiling with fury, shattered the stone which guarded the entrance of the cave with a mass of rock, and, though the giant vomited forth smoke and flames against him, he strangled him in his arms. Thus runs the legend, which is explained by AmpÈre.

We must retrace our steps, as far as the summit of the hill towards the Palatine, and then turn to the right in order to reach the ugly obscure-looking Church of Sta. Prisca, founded by Pope Eutychianus in A.D. 280, but entirely modernised by Cardinal Giustiniani from designs of Carlo Lombardi, who encased its fine granite columns in miserable stucco pilasters. Over the high altar is a picture by Passignano of the baptism of the saint, which is said to have taken place in the ancient crypt beneath the church, where an inverted Corinthian capital,—a relic of the temple of Diana which once occupied this site,—is shown as the font in which Sta. Prisca was baptized by St. Peter.

Opening from the right aisle is a kind of terraced loggia with a peculiar and beautiful view. In the adjoining vineyard are three arches of an aqueduct.

Opposite the door of this church is the entrance of the Vigna dei Gesuiti, a wild and beautiful vineyard occupying the greater part of this deserted hill, and extending as far as the Porta S. Paolo and the pyramid of Caius Cestius. Several farm-houses are scattered amongst the vines and fruit trees. There are beautiful views towards the Alban mountains, and to the Pseudo-Aventine with its fortress-like convents. The ground is littered with fragments of marbles and alabaster, which lie unheeded among the vegetables, relics of unknown edifices which once existed here. Just where the path in the vineyard descends a slight declivity towards S. Paolo, are the finest existing remains of the Walls of Servius Tullius,[190] formed of large quadrilateral blocks of tufa, laid alternately long and cross-ways, as in the Etruscan buildings. The spot is beautiful, and overgrown by a luxuriance of wild mignonette and other flowers in the late spring.

Descending to the valley beneath Sta. Prisca, and crossing the lane which leads from the Via Appia to the Porta S. Paolo, we reach, on the side of the Pseudo-Aventine, the Church of S. Sabba, which is supposed to mark the site of the Porta Randusculana of the walls of Servius Tullius. Its position is very striking, and its portico, built in A.D. 1200, is picturesque and curious.

This church is of unknown origin, but is known to have existed in the time of St. Gregory the Great, and to have been one of the fourteen privileged abbacies of Rome. Its patron saint was St. Sabbas, an abbot of Cappadocia, who died at Jerusalem in A.D. 532.

The interior of St. Sabba is in the basilica form. It retains some fragments of inlaid pavements, some handsome inlaid marble panels on either side of the high altar, and an ancient sarcophagus. The tribune has rude paintings of the fourteenth century—the Saviour between St. Andrew and St. Sabbas the Abbot; and below the Crucifixion, the Madonna and the twelve Apostles. Beneath the tribune is a crypt,—and over its altar a beautifully ornamented disk with a Greek cross in the centre.

Behind St. Sabbas is another delightful vineyard, but it is difficult to gain admittance. Here Flaminius Vacca describes the discovery of a mysterious chamber without door or window, whose pavement was of agate and cornelian, and whose walls were plated with gilt copper; but of this nothing remains.[191]

To reach the remaining church of the Aventine, we have to turn to the Via Appia, and then follow the lane which leads up the hillside from the Baths of Caracalla to the Church of Sta. Balbina, whose picturesque red brick tower forms so conspicuous a feature, as seen against the long soft lines of the flat Campagna, in so many Roman views. It was erected in memory of Sta. Balbina, a virgin martyr (buried in Sta. Maria in Domenica), who suffered under Hadrian, A.D. 132. It contains the remains of an altar erected by Cardinal Barbo, in the old basilica of St. Peter's, a splendid ancient throne of marble inlaid with mosaics, and a fine tomb of Stefano Sordi, supporting a recumbent figure, and adorned with mosaics by one of the Cosmati.

Adjoining this church Monsignor de MÉrode established a house of correction for youthful offenders, to avert the moral result of exposing them to communication with other prisoners.