Augustus J. C. Hare

The Cappuccini—S. Isidore—S. Niccolo in Tolentino—Via S. Basilio—Convent of the Pregatrici—Villa Massimo Rignano—Gardens of Sallust—Villa Ludovisi—Porta Salara—(Villa Albani—Catacombs of Sta. Felicitas and Sta. Priscilla—Ponte Salara)—Porta Pia—(Villa Torlonia—Sant' Agnese—Sta. Costanza—Ponte Nomentana—Mons Sacer—S. Alessandro)—Villa Torlonia within the walls—Via Macao—Pretorian Camp—Railway Station—Villa Negroni—Agger of Servius Tullius—Sta. Maria degli Angeli—Fountain of the Termini—Sta. Maria della Vittoria—Sta. Susanna—S. Bernardo—S. Caio.

OPENING from the left of the Piazza Barberini, is the small Piazza of the Cappuccini, named from a convent suppressed since the Sardinian occupation, but which was one of the largest and most populous in Rome.

The conventual church, dedicated to Sta. Maria della Concezione, contains several fine pictures. In the first chapel, on the right, is the magnificent Guido of the Archangel Michael trampling upon the Devil,—said to be a portrait of Pope Innocent X., against whom the painter had a peculiar spite.

"Here the angel, standing, yet scarcely touching the ground, poised on his outspread wings, sets his left foot on the head of his adversary; in one hand he brandishes a sword, in the other he holds the end of a chain, with which he is about to bind down the demon in the bottomless pit. The attitude has been criticised, and justly; the grace is somewhat mannered, verging on the theatrical; but Forsyth is too severe when he talks of 'the air of a dancing master': one thing, however, is certain, we do not think about the attitude when we look at Raphael's St. Michael (in the Louvre); in Guido's it is the first thing that strikes us; but when we look farther, the head redeems all; it is singularly beautiful, and in the blending of the masculine and feminine graces, in the serene purity of the brow, and the flow of the golden hair, there is something divine; a slight, very slight expression of scorn is in the air of the head. The fiend is the worst part of the picture; it is not a fiend, but a degraded prosaic human ruffian; we laugh with incredulous contempt at the idea of an angel called down from heaven to overcome such a wretch. In Raphael the fiend is human, but the head has the god-like ugliness and malignity of a satyr; Guido's fiend is only stupid and base. It appears to me that there is just the same difference—the same kind of difference—between the angel of Raphael and the angel of Guido, as between the description in Tasso and the description in Milton; let any one compare them. In Tasso we are struck by the picturesque elegance of the description as a piece of art, the melody of the verse, the admirable choice of the expressions, as in Guido by the finished but somewhat artificial and studied grace. In Raphael and Milton we see only the vision of a 'shape divine.'"—Jameson's Sacred Art, p. 107.

In the same chapel is a picture by Gherardo della Notte of Christ in the purple robe. The third chapel contains a fresco by Domenichino of the Death of St Francis, and a picture of the Ecstasy of St. Francis, which was a gift from the same painter to this church.

The first chapel on the left contains The Visit of Ananias to Saul, by Pietro da Cortona.

"Whoever would know to what length this painter carried his style in his altar-piece should examine the Conversion of St. Paul in the Cappuccini at Rome, which though placed opposite to the St. Michael of Guido, cannot fail to excite the admiration of such judges as are willing to admit various styles of beauty in art."—Lanzi.

On the left of the high-altar is the tomb of Prince Alexander Sobieski, son of John III., king of Poland, who died at Rome in 1714.

The church was founded in 1624, by Cardinal Barberini, the old monk-brother of Urban VIII., who, while his nephews were employed in building magnificent palaces, refused to take advantage of the family elevation otherwise than to endow this church and convent. He is buried in front of the altar, with the remarkable epitaph—very different to the pompous, self-glorifying inscriptions of his brother—

"Hic jacet pulvis, cinis, et nihil."

This Cardinal Barberini possesses some historical interest from the patronage he extended to Milton during his visit to Rome in 1638.

"During his sojourn in Rome Milton enjoyed the conversation of several learned and ingenious men, and particularly of Lucas Holsteinius, keeper of the Vatican library, who received him with the greatest humanity, and showed him all the Greek authors, whether in print or MS.—which had passed through his correction; and also presented him to Cardinal Barberini, who, at an entertainment of music, performed at his own expense, waited for him at the door, and taking him by the hand, brought him into the assembly. The next morning he waited upon the Cardinal to return him thanks for these civilities, and by the means of Holsteinius was again introduced to his Eminence, and spent some time in conversation with him."—Newton's Life of Milton.[240]

Over the entrance is a cartoon (with some differences) for the Navicella of Giotto.

From this church is entered the famous cemetery of the Cappuccini (not subterranean), consisting of four chambers, ornamented with human bones in patterns, and with mummified bodies. The earth was brought from Jerusalem. As the cemetery was too small for the convent, when any monk died, the one who had been buried longest was ejected to make room for him. The loss of a grave was supposed to be amply compensated by the short rest in the holy earth which the body had already enjoyed. It is pleasant to read on the spot the pretty sketch in the "Improvisatore."

"I was playing near the church of the Capuchins, with some other children who were all younger than myself. There was fastened on the church door a little cross of metal; it was fastened about the middle of the door, and I could just reach it with my hand. Always when our mothers had passed by with us they had lifted us up that we might kiss the holy sign. One day, when we children were playing, one of the youngest of them inquired, 'why the child Jesus did not come down and play with us?' I assumed an air of wisdom, and replied that he was really bound upon the cross. We went to the church door, and although we found no one, we wished, as our mothers had taught us, to kiss him, but we could not reach up to it; one therefore lifted up the other, but just as the lips were pointed for the kiss, that one who lifted the other lost his strength, and the kissing one fell down just when his lips were about to touch the invisible child Jesus. At that moment my mother came by, and when she saw our child's play, she folded her hands, and said, 'You are actually some of God's angels, and thou art mine own angel,' added she, and kissed me.

"The Capuchin monk, Fra Martino, was my mother's confessor. He made very much of me, and gave me a picture of the Virgin, weeping great tears, which fell, like rain-drops, down into the burning flames of hell, where the damned caught this draught of refreshment. He took me over with him into the convent, where the open colonnade, which enclosed in a square the little potato-garden, with the two cypress and orange-trees, made a very deep impression upon me. Side by side, in the open passages, hung old portraits of deceased monks, and on the door of each cell were pasted pictures from the history of the martyrs, which I contemplated with the same holy emotions as afterwards the masterpieces of Raphael and Andrea del Sarto.

"'Thou art really a bright youth,' said he; 'thou shall now see the dead.' Upon this, he opened a little door of a gallery which lay a few steps below the colonnade. We descended, and now I saw round about me skulls upon skulls, so placed one upon another, that they formed walls, and therewith several chapels. In these were regular niches, in which were seated perfect skeletons of the most distinguished of the monks, enveloped in their brown cowls, their cords round their waists, and with a breviary or withered bunch of flowers in their hands. Altars, chandeliers, bas-reliefs, of human joints, horrible and tasteless as the whole idea. I clung fast to the monk, who whispered a prayer, and then said to me, 'Here also I shall some time sleep; wilt thou thus visit me?'

"I answered not a word, but looked horrified at him, and then round about me upon the strange grizzly assembly. It was foolish to take me, a child, into this place. I was singularly impressed with the whole thing, and did not feel myself easy again until I came into his little cell, where the beautiful yellow oranges almost hung in at the window, and I saw the brightly coloured picture of the Madonna, who was borne upwards by angels into the clear sunshine, while a thousand flowers filled the grave in which she had rested.....

"On the festival of All-Saints I was down in the chapel of the dead, where Fra Martino took me when I first visited the convent. All the monks sang masses for the dead, and I, with two other boys of my own age, swung the incense-breathing censer before the great altar of skulls. They had placed lights in the chandeliers made of bones, new garlands were placed around the brows of the skeleton monks, and fresh bouquets in their hands. Many people, as usual, thronged in; they all knelt and the singers intoned the solemn Miserere. I gazed for a long time on the pale yellow skulls, and the fumes of the incense which wavered in strange shapes between me and them, and everything began to swim round before my eyes; it was as if I saw everything through a large rainbow; as if a thousand prayer-bells rung in my ear; it seemed as if I was borne along a stream; it was unspeakably delicious—more, I know not; consciousness left me,—I was in a swoon."—Hans Ch. Andersen.

The street behind the Piazza Cappuccini leads to the Church of S. Isidoro,[241] built 1622, for Irish Franciscan monks. The altar-piece, representing S. Isidore, is by Andrea Sacchi. This church contains several tombs of distinguished Irishmen who have died in Rome.

Opposite are the recently founded convent and small chapel of the Pregatrici—nuns most picturesquely attired in blue and white, and devoted to the perpetual adoration of the Sacrament, who sing during the Benediction service, like the nuns of the TrinitÀ di Monti.

The Via S. Niccolo in Tolentino leads by the handsome Church of that name, from the Piazza Barberini to the railway station. In this street are the hotels "Costanzi" and "Del Globo."

Parallel with, and behind this, the Via S. Basilio runs up the hill-side. At the top of this street is the entrance of the Villa Massimo Rignano, containing some fine palm-trees. This site, with the ridge of the opposite hill, and the valley between, was once occupied by the Gardens of Sallust (Horti Pretiosissimi), purchased for the emperors after the death of the historian, and a favourite residence of Vespasian, Nerva, and especially of Aurelian. Some vaulted halls under the cliff of the opposite hill, and a circular ruin surrounded by niches, are the only remains of the many fine buildings which once existed here, and which comprised a palace, baths, and the portico called Milliarensis, 1000 feet long. These edifices are known to have been ruined when Rome was taken by the Goths under Alaric (410), who entered at the neighbouring Porta Salara. The obelisk now in front of the TrinitÀ di Monti, was removed from hence by Pius VI. The picturesque old casino of the Barberini, which occupied the most prominent position in the gardens, was pulled down in 1869, to make way for a house belonging to Spithover the librarian. The hill-side is supported by long picturesque buttresses, beneath which are remains of the huge masonry of Servius Tullius, whose Agger may be traced on the ridge of the hill running towards the present railway station. Part of these grounds are supposed to have formed the Campus Sceleratus, where the vestal virgins suffered who had broken their vows of chastity.

"When condemned by the college of pontifices, the vestal was stripped of her vittÆ and other badges of office, was scourged, was attired like a corpse, placed in a close litter, and borne through the forum, attended by her weeping kindred with all the ceremonies of a real funeral, to the Campus Sceleratus, within the city walls, close to the Colline gate. There a small vault underground had been previously prepared, containing a couch, a lamp, and a table with a little food. The Pontifex Maximus, having lifted up his hands to heaven and uttered a secret prayer, opened the litter, led forth the culprit, and placing her on the steps of the ladder which gave access to the subterranean cell, delivered her over to the common executioner and his assistants, who conducted her down, drew up the ladder, and having filled the pit with earth until the surface was level with the surrounding ground, left her to perish deprived of all the tributes of respect usually paid to the spirits of the departed. In every case the paramour was publicly scourged to death in the forum."—Smith's Dict. of Antiquities.

A turn in the road now leads to the gate of the beautiful Villa Ludovisi, to which it has been very difficult to obtain admittance since the Sardinian occupation. The excellent proprietors, the Duke and Duchess Sora, have lived at Foligno in complete seclusion, since the change of government.

The villa was built early in the last century by Cardinal Ludovisi, nephew of Gregory XV., from whom it descended to the Prince of Piombino, father of Duke Sora. The grounds, which are of an extent extraordinary when considered as being within the walls of a capital, were laid out by Le NÔtre, and are in the stiff French style of high clipped hedges, and avenues adorned with vases and sarcophagi. Near the entrance is a pretty fountain shaded by a huge plane-tree; the Quirinal is seen in the distance.

To the right of the entrance is the principal casino of sculptures, a very beautiful collection (catalogues on the spot). Especially remarkable are,—the grand colossal head, known as the "Ludovisi Juno" (41);

—the Statue of Mars seated (I), with a Cupid at his feet, found in the portico of Octavia, and restored by Bernini;

—and No. 28;

At the end of the gardens, to the left, is another casino, from whose roof a most beautiful view may be obtained. Here are the most famous frescoes of Guercino. On the ceiling of the ground-floor, Aurora driving away Night and scattering flowers in her course, with Evening and Daybreak in the lunettes; and, on the first floor, "Fame" attended by Force and Virtue. Smaller rooms on the ground floor have landscapes by Guercino and Domenichino, and some groups of Cupids by T. Zucchero; on the staircase is a fine bas-relief of two Cupids dragging a quiver.

In B.C. 82, the district near the Porta Collina, now occupied by the Villa Ludovisi, was the scene of a great battle for the very existence of Rome, between Sylla, and the Samnites and Lucanians under the Samnite general Pontius Telesinus, who declared he would raze the city to the ground if he were victorious. The left wing under Sylla was put to flight; but the right wing, commanded by Crassus, enabled him to restore the battle, and to gain a complete victory; fifty thousand men fell on each side.

The road now runs along the ridge of the hill to the Porta Salara, by which Alaric entered Rome through the treachery of the Isaurian guard, on the 24th of August, 410.

Passing through the gate and turning to the right along the outside of the wall, we may see, against the grounds of the Villa Ludovisi, the two round towers of the now closed Porta Pinciana, restored by Belisarius. This is the place where tradition declares that in his declining years the great general sat begging, with the cry, "Date obolum Belisario."

A short distance from the gate, along the Via Salara, is, on the right, the Villa Albani (shown on Tuesdays by an order), built in 1760 by Cardinal Alessandro Albani,—sold in 1834 to the Count of Castelbarco, and in 1868 to Prince Torlonia, its present possessor. The scene from its garden terrace is among the loveliest of Roman pictures, the view of the delicate Sabine mountains—Monte Gennaro, with the Montecelli beneath it—and in the middle distance, the churches of Sant' Agnese and Sta. Costanza, relieved by dark cypresses and a graceful fountain.

The Casino, which is, in fact, a magnificent palace, is remarkable as having been built from Cardinal Albani's own designs, Carlo Marchionni having been only employed to see that they were carried out.

The collection of sculptures is much reduced since the French invasion, when 294 of the finest specimens were carried off by Napoleon to Paris, where they were sold by Prince Albani upon their restoration in 1815, as he was unwilling to bear the expense of transport. The greater proportion of the remaining statues are of no great importance. Those of the imperial family in the vestibule are interesting—those of Julius and Augustus CÆsar, of Agrippina wife of Germanicus, and of Faustina, are seated; most of the heads have been restored.

Conspicuous among the treasures of this villa, are the sarcophagus with reliefs of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, pronounced by Winckelmann to be one of the finest in existence; a head of Æsop, supposed to be after Lysippus; and the bronze "Apollo Sauroctonos," considered by Winckelmann to be the original statue by Praxiteles described by Pliny, and the most beautiful bronze statue in the world,—it was found on the Aventine. But most important of all is the famous relievo of Antinous crowned with lotus, from the Villa Adriana (over the chimney-piece of the first room to the right of the saloon), supposed to have formed part of an apotheosis of Antinous:

Inferior only to this, is another bas-relief, also over a chimney-piece,—the parting of Orpheus and Eurydice.

The villa also contains a collection of pictures, of which the most interesting are the sketches of Giulio Romano for the frescoes of the story of Psyche in the Palazzo del Te at Mantua, and two fine pictures by Luca Signorelli and Perugino, in compartments, in the first room on the left of the saloon. All the works of art have lately been rearranged. The CaffÈ and the Bigliardo—(reached by an avenue of oaks, which, being filled with ancient tombstones, has the effect of a cemetery)—contain more statues, but of less importance.

Beyond the villa, the Via Salara (said by Pliny to derive its name from the salt of Ostia exported to the north by this route) passes on the left the site of AntemnÆ, and crosses the Anio two miles from the city, by the Ponte Salara, destroyed by the Roman government in the terror of Garibaldi's approach from Monte Rotondo, in 1867. This bridge was a restoration by Narses, in the sixth century, but stood on the foundations of that famous Ponte Salara, upon which Titus Manlius fought the Gaulish giant, and cutting off his head, carried off the golden collar which earned him the name of Torquatus.

Beyond the ruins of the bridge, is a huge tomb with a tower, now used as an Osteria. Hence, the road leads by the Villa of Phaon (Villa Spada) where Nero died, and the site of FidenÆ, now known as Castel Giubeleo, to Monte Rotondo.

The district beyond the Porta Salara, and that extending between the Via Salara and the Monte Parioli, are completely undermined by catacombs (see Ch. IX.). The most important are—1. Nearest the gate, the Catacomb of St. Felicitas, which had three tiers of galleries, adorned by Pope Boniface I., who took refuge there from persecution,—now much dilapidated. Over this cemetery was a church, now destroyed, which is mentioned by William of Malmesbury. 2. The Catacomb of SS. Thraso and Saturninus, much decorated with the usual paintings. 3. The Catacomb of Sta. Priscilla, near the descent to the Anio. This cemetery is of great interest, from the number of martyrs' graves it contains, and from its peculiar construction in an ancient arenarium, pillars and walls of masonry being added throughout the central part, in order to sustain the tufa walls. Here were buried—probably because the entrance to the Chapel of the Popes at St. Calixtus was blocked up to preserve it in the persecution under Diocletian—Pope St. Marcellinus (ob. 308), and Pope St. Marcellus (ob. 310), who was sent into exile by Maxentius. On the tomb of the latter was placed, in finely cut type, the following epitaph by Pope Damasus:—

Several of the paintings in this catacomb are remarkable; especially that of a woman with a child, claimed by the Roman Church as one of the earliest representations of the Virgin. The painting is thus described by Northcote:—

This catacomb is one of the oldest, Sta. Priscilla, from whom it is named, being supposed to have been the mother of Pudens, and a contemporary of the apostles. Her granddaughters, Prassede and Pudenziana, were buried here before the removal of their relics to the church on the Esquiline. With this cemetery is connected the extraordinary history of the manufacture of Sta. Filomena, now one of the most popular saints in Italy, and one towards whom idolatry is carried out with frantic enthusiasm both at Domo d'Ossola and in some of the Neapolitan States. The story of this saint is best told in the words of Mrs. Jameson.

It is hoped that very interesting relics may still be discovered in this Catacomb.

Returning to the Porta Salara, and following the walls, we reach the Porta Pia, built, as it is now seen, by Pius IX.—very ugly, but appropriately decorated with statues of St. Agnes and St. Alexander, to whose shrines it leads. The statues lost their heads in the capture of Rome in 1870 by the Italian troops, who entered the city by a breach in the walls close to this. A little to the right was the Porta Nomentana, flanked by round towers, closed by Pius IV. It was by this gate that the oppressed Roman people retreated to the Mons Sacer—and that Nero fled.

Immediately outside the Porta Pia is the entrance of the beautiful Villa Patrizi, whose grounds enclose the small Catacomb of St. Nicomedus. Then comes the Villa Lezzani, where Sta. Giustina is buried in a chapel, and where her festa is observed on the 25th of October.

Beyond this is the ridiculous Villa Torlonia (shown with an order on Wednesdays from 11 to 4, but not worth seeing), sprinkled with mock ruins.

At little more than a mile from the gate the road reaches the Basilica of St' Agnese fuori le Mura, founded by Constantine at the request of his daughter Constantia, in honour of the virgin martyr buried in the neighbouring catacomb; but rebuilt 625—38 by Honorius I. It was altered in 1490 by Innocent VIII., but retains more of its ancient character than most of the Roman churches. The polychrome decorations of the interior, and the rebuilding of the monastery, were carried out at the expense of Pius IX., as a thank-offering for his escape, when he fell through the floor here into a cellar, with his cardinals and attendants, on April 15, 1855. The scene is represented in a large fresco by Domenico Tojetti, in a chamber on the right of the courtyard.

The approach to the church is by a picturesque staircase of forty-five ancient marble steps, lined with inscriptions from the catacombs. The nave is divided from the aisles by sixteen columns, four of which are of "porta-santa" and two of "pavonazzetto." A smaller range of columns above these supports the roof of a triforium, which is on a level with the road. The baldacchino, erected in 1614, is supported by four porphyry columns. Beneath is the shrine of St. Agnes surmounted by her statue, an antique of oriental alabaster, with modern head, and hands of gilt bronze. The mosaics of the tribune, representing St. Agnes between Popes Honorius I. and Symmachus, are of the seventh century. Beneath, is an ancient episcopal chair.

The second chapel on the right has a beautiful mosaic altar, and a relief of SS. Stephen and Laurence of 1490. The third chapel is that of St. Emerentiana, foster-sister of St. Agnes, who was discovered praying beside the tomb of her friend, and was stoned to death because she refused to sacrifice to idols.

St. Agnes suffered martyrdom by being stabbed in the throat, under Diocletian, in her thirteenth year (see Ch. XIV.), after which, according to the expression used in the acts of her martyrdom, her parents "with all joy" laid her in the catacombs. One day as they were praying near the body of their child, she appeared to them surrounded by a great multitude of virgins, triumphant and glorious like herself, with a lamb by her side, and said, "I am in heaven, living with these virgins my companions, near Him whom I have so much loved." By her tomb, also, Constantia, a princess sick with hopeless leprosy, was praying for the healing of her body, when she heard a voice saying, "Rise up, Constantia, and go on constantly ('Costanter age, Constantia') in the faith of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who shall heal your diseases,"—and, being cured of her evil, she besought her father to build this basilica as a thank-offering.[243]

On the 21st of January, a beautiful service is celebrated here, in which two lambs, typical of the purity of the virgin saint, are blessed upon the altar. They are sent by the chapter of St. John Lateran, and their wool is afterwards used to make the pallium of the pope, which is consecrated before it is worn, by being deposited in a golden urn upon the tomb of St. Peter. The pallium is the sign of episcopal jurisdiction.

Close to St' Agnese is the round Church of Sta. Costanza. erected by Constantine as a mausoleum for his daughters Constantia and Helena, and converted into a church by Alexander IV. (1254—61) in honour of the Princess Constantia, ob. 354, whose life is represented by Marcellinus as anything but saintlike, and who is supposed to have been confused in her canonization with a sainted nun of the same name. The rotunda, seventy-three feet in diameter, is surrounded by a vaulted corridor; twenty-four double columns of granite support the dome. The vaulting is covered with mosaic arabesques of the fourth century, of flowers and birds, with scenes referring to a vintage. The same subjects are repeated on the splendid porphyry sarcophagus of Sta. Costanza, of which the interest is so greatly marred by its removal to the Vatican from its proper site, whence it was first stolen by Pope Paul II., who intended to use it as his own tomb.

Behind the two churches is an oblong space, ending in a fine mass of ruin, which is best seen from the valley below. This was long supposed to be the Hippodrome of Constantine, but is now discovered to have belonged to an early Christian cemetery.

The Catacomb of St Agnese is entered from a vineyard about a quarter of a mile beyond the church. It is lighted and opened to the public on St. Agnes' Day. After those of St. Calixtus, this, perhaps, is the catacomb which is most worthy of a visit.

We enter by a staircase attributed to the time of Constantine. The passages are lined with the usual loculi for the dead, sometimes adapted for a single body, sometimes for two laid together. Beside many of the graves the palm of victory may be seen scratched on the mortar, and remains of the glass bottles or ampullÆ, which are supposed to indicate the graves of martyrs, and to have contained a portion of their blood, of which they are often said to retain the trace. One of the graves in the first gallery bears the names of consuls of A.D. 336, which fixes the date of this part of the cemetery.

The most interesting features here are a square chamber hewn in the rock, with an arm-chair (sedia) cut out of the rock on either side of the entrance, supposed to have been a school for catechists,—and near this is a second chamber for female catechists, with plain seats in the same position. Opening out of the gallery close by is a chamber which was apparently used as a chapel; its arcosolium has marks of an altar remaining at the top of the grave, and near it is a credence-table; the roof is richly painted,—in the central compartment is our Lord seated between the rolls of the Old and New Testament. Above the arcosolium, in the place of honour, is our Saviour as the Good Shepherd, bearing a sheep upon his shoulders, and standing between other sheep and trees;—in the other compartments are Daniel in the lions' den, the Three Children in the furnace, Moses taking off his shoes, Moses striking the rock, and—nearest the entrance—the Paralytic carrying his bed. A neighbouring chapel has also remains of an altar and credence-table, and well-preserved paintings,—the Good Shepherd, Adam and Eve, with the tree between them, Jonah under the gourd, and in the fourth compartment a figure described by Protestants merely as an Orante, and by Roman Catholics as the Blessed Virgin.[244] Near this chapel we can look down through an opening into the second floor of the catacomb, which is lined with graves like the first.

In the further part of the catacomb is a long narrow chapel which has received the name of the cathedral or basilica. It is divided into three parts, of which the furthest, or presbytery, contains an ancient episcopal chair with lower seats on either side for priests—probably the throne where Pope St. Liberius (A.D. 359) officiated, with his face to the people, when he lived for more than a year hidden here from persecution. Hence a flight of steps leads down to what Northcote calls "the Lady Chapel," where, over the altar, is a fresco of an orante, without a nimbus, with outstretched arms,—with a child in front of her. On either side of this picture, a very interesting one, is the monogram of Constantine, and the painting is referred to his time. Near this chapel is a chamber with a spring running through it, evidently used as a baptistery.

At the extremity of the catacomb, under the basilica of St. Agnes, is one of its most interesting features. Here the passages become wider and more irregular, the walls sloping and unformed, and graves cease to appear, indicating one of the ancient arenaria, which here formed the approach to the catacomb, and beyond which the Christians excavated their cemetery.

The graves throughout almost all the catacombs have been rifled, the bones which they contained being distributed as relics throughout Roman Catholic Christendom, and most of the sarcophagi and inscriptions removed to the Lateran and other museums.

Half a mile beyond St' Agnese, the road reaches the willow-fringed river Anio, in which "Silvia changed her earthly life for that of a goddess," and which carried the cradle containing her two babes Romulus and Remus into the Tiber, to be brought to land at the foot of the Palatine fig-tree. Into this river we may also recollect that Sylla caused the ashes of his ancient rival Marius to be thrown. The river is crossed by the Ponte Nomentana, a mediÆval bridge, partially covered, with forked battlements.

The hill immediately beyond the bridge is the Mons Sacer (not only the part usually pointed out on the right of the road, but the whole hillside), to which the famous secession of the Plebs took place in B.C. 549, amounting, according to Dionysius, to about 4000 persons. Here they encamped upon the green slopes for four months, to the terror of the patricians, who foresaw that Rome, abandoned by its defenders, would fall before its enemies, and that the crops would perish for want of cultivation. Here Menenius Agrippa delivered his apologue of the belly and its members, which is said to have induced them to return to Rome; that which really decided them to do so being the concession of tribunes, to be the organs and representatives of the plebs as the consuls were of the patricians. The epithet Sacer is ascribed by Dionysius to an altar which the plebeians erected at the time on the hill to ?e?? ?e??t???.

A second secession to the Mons Sacer took place in B.C. 449, when the plebs rose against Appius Claudius after the death of Virginia, and retired hither under the advice of M. Duilius, till the decemvirs resigned.

Following the road beyond the bridge past the castle known as Casale dei Pazzi (once used as a lunatic asylum) and the picturesque tomb called Torre Nomentana,—as far as the seventh milestone—we reach the remains of the unburied Basilica of S. Alessandro, built on the site of the place where that pope suffered martyrdom with his companions Eventius and Theodulus, A.D. 119, and was buried on the same spot by the Christian matron Severina.[245] The plan of the basilica, disinterred 1856-7, is still quite perfect. The tribune and high altar retain fragments of rich marbles and alabasters; the episcopal throne also remains in its place.

The "Acts of the martyrs Alexander, Eventius, and Theodulus," narrate that Severina buried the bodies of the first two martyrs in one tomb, and the third separately—"Theodulum vero alibi sepelivit." This is borne out by the discovery of a chapel opening from the nave, where the single word "martyri," is supposed to point out the grave of Theodulus. A baptistery has been found with its font, and another chapel adjoining is pointed out as the place where neophytes assembled to receive confirmation from the bishop. Among epitaphs laid bare in the pavement is one to a youth named Apollo "votus Deo" (dedicated to the priesthood?) at the age of 14. Entered from the church is the catacomb called "ad nymphas," containing many ancient inscriptions and a few rude paintings.

Mass is solemnly performed here by the Cardinal Prefect of the Propaganda on the festival of St. Alexander, May 3, when the roofless basilica—backed by the blue Sabine mountains and surrounded by the utterly desolate Campagna—is filled with worshippers, and presents a striking scene. Beyond this a road to the left leads through beautiful woods to Mentana, occupying the site of the ancient Nomentum, and recently celebrated for the battle between the papal troops and the Garibaldians on Nov. 3, 1867. The conflict took place chiefly on the hillside which is passed on the right before reaching the town. Two miles further is Monte Rotondo, with a fine old castle of the Barberini family (once of the Orsini), from which there is a beautiful view. This place was also the scene of fighting in 1867. It is possible to vary the route in returning to Rome from hence by the lower road which leads by the (now broken) Ponte Salara.

If we re-enter Rome by the Porta Pia, immediately within the gates we find another Villa belonging to the Torlonia family. The straight road from the gate leads by the Termini to the Quattro Fontane and the Monte Cavallo. On the left, if we follow the Via de Macao, which takes its strange name from a gift of land which the princes of Savoy made to the Jesuits for a mission in China, we reach a small piazza with two pines, where a gate on the left leads to the remains of the Pretorian Camp, established by Sejanus, the minister of Tiberius. It was dismantled by Constantine, but from three sides having been enclosed by Aurelian in the line of his city-wall, its form is still preserved to us. The Pretorian Camp was an oblong of 1200 by 1500 feet; its area was occupied by a vineyard of the Jesuits till 1861, when a "Campo Militare" was again established here, for the pontifical troops.

Hence a road, three-quarters of a mile long, leads—passing under an arch of Sixtus V.—to the Porta S. Lorenzo (Ch. XIII.).

The road opposite the gateway leading to the Camp is bordered on the left by the buildings belonging to the Railway Station, beyond which is the entrance to the grounds of the Villa Massimo Negroni, which possessed a delightful terrace, fringed with orange-trees—a most agreeable sunny walk in winter—and many pleasant shady nooks and corners for summer, but which has been mutilated and stripped of all its beauties since the Sardinian rule. In a part of this villa beyond the railway but still visible from hence, is a colossal statue of Minerva (generally called "Rome"), which is a relic of the residence here of Cardinal Felix Perretti, who as a boy had watched the pigs of his father at Montalto, and who lived to mount the papal throne as Sixtus V. The pedestal of the statue bears his arms,—a lion holding three pears in its paw. Here, with her husband's uncle, lived the famous Vittoria Accoramboni, the wife of the handsome Francesco Perretti, who had been vainly sought in marriage by the powerful and ugly old Prince Paolo Orsini. It was from hence that her young husband was summoned to a secret interview with her brothers on the slopes of the Quirinal, where he was cruelly murdered by the hired bravos of her first lover. Hence also Vittoria went forth—on the very day of the installation of Sixtus V.—to her strange second marriage with the murderer of her husband, who died six months after, leaving her with one of the largest fortunes in Italy—an amount of wealth which led to her own barbarous murder through the jealousy of the Orsini a month afterwards.

Here, after the election of her brother to the papacy, lived Camilla, the sister of Sixtus V., whom he refused to recognise when she came to him in splendid attire as a princess, but tenderly embraced when she reappeared in her peasant's wimple and hood. From hence her two granddaughters were married,—one to Virginius Orsini, the other to Marc-Antonio Colonna, an alliance which healed the feud of centuries between the two families.

In later times the Villa Negroni was the residence of the poet Alfieri.

The principal terrace ends near a reservoir which belonged to the baths of Diocletian.

"As one looks from the Villa Negroni windows, one cannot fail to be impressed by the strange changes through which this wonderful city has passed. The very spot on which Nero, the insane emperor-artist, fiddled while Rome was burning, has now become a vast kitchen-garden, belonging to Prince Massimo (himself a descendant, as he claims, of Fabius Cunctator), where men no longer, but only lettuces, asparagus, and artichokes, are ruthlessly cut down. The inundations are not for mock sea-fights among slaves, but for the peaceful purposes of irrigation. In the bottom of the valley, a noble old villa, covered with frescoes, has been turned into a manufactory for bricks, and part of the Villa Negroni itself is now occupied by the railway station. Yet here the princely family of Negroni lived, and the very lady at whose house Lucrezia Borgia took her famous revenge may once have sauntered under the walls, which still glow with ripening oranges, to feed the gold fish in the fountain,—or walked with stately friends through the long alleys of clipped cypresses, or pic-nicked alla Giornata on lawns which are now but kitchen-gardens, dedicated to San Cavolo."—Story's Roba di Roma.