Augustus J. C. Hare

Golden House of Nero—Baths of Titus and Trajan—S. Pietro in Vincoli—Frangipani Tower—House of Lucrezia Borgia—S. Martino al Monte—Sta. Lucia in Selce—Sta. Prassede—Santissimo Redentore—Arch of Gallienus—Trophies of Marius—Sta. Bibiana—Temple of Minerva Medica—S. Eusebio—S. Antonio Abbate—Sta. Maria Maggiore.

THE Esquiline, which is the largest of the so-called 'hills of Rome,' is not a distinct hill, but simply a projection of the Campagna. "The Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, and Coelian stretch out towards the Tiber, like four fingers of a hand, of which the plain whence they detach themselves represents the vast palm. This hand has seized the world."[250]

Varro says that the name Esquiline was derived from the word excultus, because of the ornamental groves which were planted on this hill by Servius Tullius,—such as the Lucus Querquetulanus, Fagutalis, and Esquilinus.[251] The sacred wood of the Argiletum long remained on the lower slope of the hill, where the Via Sta. Maria dei Monti now is.

The Esquiline, which is still unhealthy, must have been so in ancient times, for among its temples were those dedicated to Fever, near Sta. Maria Maggiore—to Juno Mephitis,[252] near a pool which emitted poisonous exhalations—and to Venus Libitina,[253] for the registration of deaths, and arrangement of funerals. As the hill was in the hands of the Sabines, its early divinities were Sabine. Besides those already mentioned, it had an altar of the Sabine sun-god Janus, dedicated together with an altar to Juno by the survivor of the Horatii,[254] and a temple of Juno Lucina, the goddess of birth and light.

"Monte sub Esquilio multis incÆduus annis
Junonis magnÆ nomine lucus erat."
Ovid, Fast. ii. 435.

This hill has two heights. That which is crowned by Santa Maria Maggiore was formerly called Cispius, where Servius Tullius had a palace; that which is occupied by S. Pietro in Vincoli was formerly called Oppius, where Tarquinius Superbus lived. It was in returning to his palace on the former (and not on the latter height, as generally maintained) that Servius Tullius was murdered.

The most important buildings of the Esquiline, in the later republican and in imperial times, were on the slope of the hill behind the Forum, and near the Coliseum, in the fashionable quarter called CarinÆ,—the "rich CarinÆ,"

"Passimque armenta videbant
Romanoque Foro et lautis mugire Carinis."
Virgil, Æn. viii. 361.

of which the principal street probably occupied the site of the present Via del Colosseo. At the entrance of this suburb, where the fine mediÆval Torre dei Conti now stands, was the house of Spurius Cassius (Consul B.C. 493), which was confiscated and demolished, and the ground ordained to be always kept vacant, because he was suspected of aiming at regal power. Here, however, or very nearly on this site, the Ædes Telluris, or temple of Tellus, was erected c. B.C. 269,[255]—a building of sufficient importance for the senate, summoned by Antony, to assemble in it. The quarter immediately surrounding this temple acquired the name of In Tellure, which is still retained by several of its modern churches.[256] Near this temple—"in tellure," lived Pompey, in a famous though small historical house, which he adorned on the outside with rostra in memory of his naval victories, and which was painted within to look like a forest with trees and birds, much probably as the chambers are painted which were discovered a few years ago in the villa of Livia.[257] Here Julia, the daughter of Julius CÆsar, and wife of Pompey, died. After the death of Pompey this house was bought by the luxurious Antony. The difference between its two masters is pourtrayed by Cicero, who describes the severe comfort of the house of Pompey contrasted with the voluptuous luxury of its second master, and winds up his oration by exclaiming, "I pity even the roofs and the walls under the change." At a later period the same house was the favourite residence of Antoninus Pius. Hard by, in the CarinÆ, the favourite residence of Roman knights, lived the father of Cicero, and hence the young Tullius went to listen in the forum to the orators whom he was one day to surpass.[258] Also in the CarinÆ, but nearer the site of the Coliseum, was the magnificent house of the wealthy Vedius Pollio, which he bequeathed to Augustus, who pulled it down, and built the portico of Livia on its site:

"Disce tamen, veniens Ætas, ubi Livia nunc est
Porticus, immensÆ tecta fuisse domÛs.
Urbis opus domus una fuit; spatiumque tenebat,
Quo brevius muris oppida multa tenent.
HÆc Æquata solo est, nullo sub crimine regni,
Sed quia luxuri visa nocere suÂ.
Sustinuit tantas operum subvertere moles,
Totque suas heres perdere CÆsar opes."
Ovid, Fast. vi. 639.

At its opposite extremity the CarinÆ was united to the unfashionable and plebeian quarter of the Suburra, occupying the valley formed by the convergence of the Esquiline, Quirinal, and Viminal—which is still crowded with a teeming population. In one of the small streets leading from the Vicus Cyprius (between the Esquiline and Viminal) towards the CarinÆ, was the Tigellum Sororis, which was extant—repaired at the public expense—till the fifth century. This, "the Sister's Beam," commemorated the well-known story of the last of the Horatii, who, returning from the slaughter of the Curiatii, and being met by his sister, bewailing one of the dead to whom she was betrothed, stabbed her in his anger. He was condemned to death, but at the prayer of his father his crime was expiated by his passing under the yoke of "the Sister's Beam." On one side of the Tigellum Sororis was an altar to Juno Sororis; on the other an altar to Janus Curiatius.[259]

During the empire several poets had their residence on the Esquiline. Virgil lived there, near the gardens of MÆcenas, which covered the slopes between the Esquiline and Viminal. Propertius had a house there, as we learn from himself—

"I, puer, et citus hÆc aliqua propone columna
Et dominum Esquiliis scribe habitare tuum."
Propert. Eleg. iv. 23.

It is believed, but without certainty, that Horace also lived upon the Esquiline. He was constantly there in the villa of MÆcenas, where he was buried, and which he has described in his poems both in its original state as a desecrated cemetery, and again after his friend had converted it into a beautiful garden.

"Nunc licet Esquiliis habitare salubribus, atque
Aggere in aprico spatiari, quo modo tristes
Albis informem spectabant ossibus agrum."
Sat. i.

The house of MÆcenas, the great patron of the poets of the Augustan age, probably occupied a site above the CarinÆ, where the baths of Titus afterwards were. It was a lofty and magnificent edifice, and is described by Horace, who calls it—

"Fastidiosam desere copiam, et
Molem propinquam nubibus arduis:
Omitte mirari beatÆ
Fumum et opes strepitumque RomÆ."
Od. iii. 29.

MÆcenas bequeathed his villa to Augustus, and Tiberius at one time resided in it.

Another, though less well-known poet of this age, who lived upon the Esquiline, was Pedo Albinovanus, much extolled by Ovid, who lived at the summit of the Vicus Cyprius (probably the Via Sta. Maria Maggiore), in a little house:

"Illic parva tui domus Pedonis
CÆlata est aquilÆ minore penna."
Martial, x. Ep. 19.

Near this was the Lacus Orphei, a fountain, in the centre of which was a rock, &c., surmounted by a statue of Orpheus with the enchanted beasts around him. The house of Pedo was afterwards inhabited by Pliny. On Septimius, as the furthest slope of the Esquiline towards the Viminal was called, lived Maximus—of whom Martial says:—

"Esquiliis domus est, domus est tibi colle DianÆ,
Et tua Patricius culmina Vicus habet:
Hinc viduÆ Cybeles, illinc sacraria VestÆ,
Inde Novum, Veterem prospicis inde Jovem."
Mart. vii. Ep. 72.

Only the northern side of the Esquiline is now inhabited at all; the southern, and by far the larger portion, is clothed with vineyards and gardens, sprinkled over with titanic masses of ruin. On most parts of the hill, one might imagine oneself far away in the country. According to Niebuhr, the dweller amid the vines of the Esquiline, when he descends into the city, still says, "I am going to Rome."

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Nero (A.D. 54—68) purchased the site of the villa of MÆcenas, and covered the whole side of the hill towards the CarinÆ with the vast buildings of his Golden House, which also swallowed up the Coelian and a great part of the Palatine; but he did not destroy the buildings which already existed, and "the Golden House was still the old mansion of Augustus and the villa of MÆcenas connected by a long series of columns and arches."[260] Titus (A.D. 79—81) and Trajan (A.D. 98—117) used part of the same site for their baths, and the ruins of all these buildings are now jumbled up together, and the varying whims of antiquaries have constantly changed the names of each fragment that has been discovered.

The more interesting of these ruins are on the southern slope of the Esquiline towards the Coliseum, and are most easily approached from the Via Polveriera. They are shown now as the Baths of Titus, or Camere Esquiline, and occupy a space of about 1150 feet by 850. That the chambers which are now visible were to be seen in the time of Leo X. (1513—22) we learn from Vasari, who says that Raphael and Giovanni da Udine were wont to study there and copy the arabesques to assist their work in the Vatican Loggie. After this, neglect and the falling in of the soil caused these treasures to be lost till 1774, when they were again partially unearthed, but they were only completely brought to view by the French, who began to take the work in hand in 1811, and continued their excavations for three years.

The principal remains, which are now exhibited by the dim torch of a solitary cicerone, are those of nine chambers, extending for 300 feet, and having on the north a kind of corridor, or cryptoporticus, whose vault is covered with paintings of birds, griffins, and flowers, &c. In two of these halls are alcoves for couches, and in one is a cavity for a fountain with a trench round it, like that in the nymphÆum of the Palace of the CÆsars. In one of the halls is a group representing Venus attended by two Cupids, with doves hovering over her. Near this a pedestal is shown as that occupied by the Laocoon, though it was really found in the Vigna de Fredis, between the Sette Sale and Sta. Maria Maggiore. A set of thirty engravings, published by Mirri, from drawings taken in 1776, show what the paintings were at that time, but very few now remain perfect. A group of Coriolanus and his mother, represented in Mirri's work, is now inaccessible. All the paintings are Pompeian in character, and for some time were considered the best remains of ancient pictorial art in Rome, but they are inferior to those which have since been discovered on the Latin way and at the Baths of Livia. The chambers which open beyond the nine outer halls are considered to be part of the Golden House. In one of these the Meleager of the Vatican was found. A small chapel, dedicated to Sta. Felicitas and her seven sons (evidently engrafted upon the pagan building in the sixth century), was discovered in 1813. It is like the chapels in the catacombs, and is decorated with the conventional frescoes of the Good Shepherd, Daniel in the lions' den, &c. There are also some faint remains of a fresco of the sainted patrons.

Behind the convent of S. Pietro in Vincoli, in the open vineyards, are other ruins called the Sette Sale, being remains of the reservoirs (in reality nine in number) for the Baths. In these vineyards also are three large circular ruins, adorned on the interior with rows of niches for statues. One of them is partly built into the Polveriera, or powder magazine. These have been referred alternately to the Baths of Titus and those of Trajan.

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Immediately behind the forum of Nerva stands the colossal brick tower, known as the Torre dei Conti, and built by Innocent III. (1198—1216) as a retreat for his family, now extinct. Its architect was Marchione d'Arezzo, and it was so much admired by Petrarch that he declared it had "no equal upon earth;" he must have meant in height. Four of the Conti have mounted the papal throne, Innocent III., Gregory IX., Alexander IV., and Innocent XIII. The last-named pope (1721—24) boasted of having "nine uncles, eight brothers, four nephews, and seven great nephews;" yet—a century after—and not a Conti remained.

If we turn to the left close to this, we shall find, in a commanding position, the famous Church of S. Pietro in Vincoli, said to have been originally founded in A.D. 109 by Theodora, sister of Hermes, Prefect of Rome, both converts of the then pope, who was the martyr St. Alexander of the basilica in the Campagna. A bolder legend attributes the foundation to St. Peter himself, who is believed to have dedicated this church to his Divine Master. History, however, can assign no earlier foundation than that in 442, by the Empress Eudoxia, wife of Valentinian III., from whom the church takes its name of the Eudoxican Basilica, and who placed there one of the famous chains which now form its great attraction to Roman Catholic pilgrims.

"The chains, left in the Mamertine Prisons after St. Peter's confinement there, are said to have been found by the martyr Sta. Balbina, in 126, and by her given to Theodora, another sainted martyr, sister to Hermes, Prefect of Rome, from whom they passed into the hands of St. Alexander, first pope of that name, and were finally deposited by him in the church erected by Theodora, where they have since remained. Such is the legendary, but the historic origin of this basilica cannot be traced higher than about the middle of the fifth century, subsequent to the year 439, when Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, presented to the Empress Eudoxia, wife of Theodosius the younger, two chains, believed to be those of St. Peter, one of which was placed by her in the basilica of the apostles at Constantinople, and the other sent to Rome for her daughter Eudoxia, wife of Valentinian III., who caused this church, hence called Eudoxian, to be erected, as the special shrine of Peter's chains."—Hemans.

One chain had been sent to Rome by Eudoxia the elder, and the other remained at Constantinople, but the Romans could not rest satisfied with the possession of half the relic; and within the walls of this very basilica, Leo I. beheld in a vision the miraculous and mystical uniting of the two chains, since which they have both been exhibited here, and the day of their being soldered together by invisible power, August 1, has been kept sacred in the Latin Church!

The church is at present entered by an ugly atrium, which was the work of Fontana in 1705; but Bacio Pintelli had already done almost all that was possible to destroy the features of the old basilica, under the Cardinal Titular of the church, Giulio della Rovere, the same who, as Pope Julius II., destroyed the old St Peter's and eighty-seven tombs of his predecessors. By Pintelli the present capitals were added to the columns in the nave, and the horizontal architrave above them was exchanged for a series of narrow round-headed arches.

But, in spite of alterations, the interior is still imposing. Two long lines of ancient fluted Doric columns (ten on each side), relics of the Baths of Titus or Trajan, which once covered this site, lead the eye to the high altar, supposed to cover the remains of the seven Maccabean brothers, and to the tribune, which contains an ancient episcopal throne, and is adorned with frescoes by Jacopo Coppi, a Florentine of the sixteenth century, illustrative of the life of St. Peter. Beneath these is the tomb of G. Clovis, a miniature painter of the sixteenth century, and canon of this church.

On the left of the entrance is the tomb of Antonio Pollajuolo, the famous worker in bronze, and his brother Pietro. The fresco above, which is ascribed to Pollajuolo, refers to the translation of the body of St. Sebastian, as "Depulsor Pestilitatis," from the catacombs to this church,—one of the most picturesque stories of the middle ages. The great plague of A.D. 680 was ushered in by an awful vision of the two angels of good and evil, who wandered through the streets by night, side by side, when the one smote upon the door where death was to enter, unless arrested by the other. The people continued to die by hundreds daily. At length a citizen dreamt that the sickness would cease when the body of St. Sebastian should be brought into the city, and when this was done, the pestilence was stayed. In the fresco the whole story is told. In the background the citizen tells his dream to Pope Agatho, who is seated among his cardinals. On the right the angels of good and evil (the bad angel represented as a devil) are making their mysterious visitation, on the left a procession is bringing in the relics, and the foreground is strewn with the corpses of the dead. The general invocation of St. Sebastian in Italy, and the frequent introduction of his figure in art, have their origin in this story.

At the entrance of the left aisle is a fine bas-relief of St. Peter throned, delivering his keys to an angel, who acknowledges his supremacy by receiving them on his knees. This work was executed in 1465, and serves as a monument to the Cardinal de Cusa, Bishop of Brixen, whose incised gravestone lies beneath.

Over the second altar is a most interesting mosaic of 680, representing, in old age, the St. Sebastian whom we are accustomed to see as a beautiful youth, wounded with arrows,—which he survived:—

"A single figure in mosaic exists as an altar-piece in S. Pietro in Vincoli. It is intended for St. Sebastian, who was removed to the church by Pope Agathon, on occasion of the plague in 680, and doubtless executed soon after this date. As a specimen of its kind it is very remarkable. There is no analogy between this figure and the usual youthful type of St. Sebastian which was subsequently adopted. On the contrary, the saint is represented here as an old man with white hair and beard, carrying the crown of martyrdom in his hand, and dressed from head to foot in true Byzantine style. In his countenance there is still some life and dignity. The more careful shadowing also of the drapery shows that, in a work intended to be so much exposed to the gaze of the pious, more pains were bestowed than usual; nevertheless, the figure, upon the whole, is very inanimate; the ground is blue."—Kugler.

The first altar in the right aisle has a picture of St. Augustine by Guercino; then come tombs of Cardinals Margotti and Agucci, from designs of Domenichino, who has introduced a portrait of the former in his monument. At the end of this aisle is the beautiful picture of St. Margaret and the Dragon by Guercino; the saint is inspired, and displaying no sign of fear,—an earthly impulse only appearing in the motion of her hand, which seems pushing back the dragon.

"St. Margaret was daughter of a priest of Antioch named Theodosius, and was brought up as a Christian by her nurse, whose sheep she watched upon the hills, while meditating upon the mysteries of the gospel. The governor of Antioch fell in love with her and wished to marry her, but she refused, and declared herself a Christian. Her friends thereupon deserted her, and the governor tried to subdue her by submitting her to horrible tortures, amid which her faith did not fail. She was then dragged to a dungeon, where Satan, in the form of a terrible dragon, came upon her with his inflamed and hideous mouth wide open, and sought to terrify and confound her; but she held up the cross of the Redeemer, and he fled before it. She finally suffered death by decapitation. Her legend was certainly known in the fifth century: in the fourteenth century she was one of the favourite saints, and was specially invoked by women against the pains of child-birth.

"'Mild Margarete, that was God's maide;
Maid Margarete, that was so meeke and milde.'"
See Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art, v. I.

Here is the glory of the church—the famous Moses of Michael Angelo, forming part of the decorations of the unfinished monument of Julius II.

"This pope, whom nature had intended for a conqueror, and destiny clothed with the robe of a priest, takes his place by the side of the great warriors of the sixteenth century, by the side of Charles V., of Francis I., of Gonsalvo, of Cortes, of Alba, of Bayard, and of Doria. It is difficult to imagine Julius II. murmuring prayers, or saying mass in pontifical robes, and performing, in the midst of all those unmanly functions and thousand passive forms, the spirit-deadening part which is assigned to the popes, while his soul was on fire with great-hearted designs, and while in the music of the psalms he seemed to hear the thunder of cannon. He wished to be a prince of the Church; and with the political instinct of a prince he founded his state in the midst of the most difficult wars against France, and unhesitatingly conquered and took possession of Bologna, Piacenza, Parma, Reggio, and Urbino....

The greatest pope since Innocent III., and the creator of a new political spirit in the papacy, he wished, as a second Augustus, to glorify himself and his creation. He took up again the projects of Nicholas V. Rome should become his monument. To carry out his designs he found the genius of Bramante and Raphael, and, above all, that of Michael Angelo, who belonged to him like an organ of his being. St. Peter's, of which he laid the foundation-stone, the paintings of the Sistine, the loggie of Bramante, the stanze of Raphael, are memorials of Julius the Second."—Gregorovius, Grabmaler der Papste.

Most of all Julius II. sought immortality in his tomb, for which the original design was absolutely gigantic. Eighteen feet high, and twelve wide, it was intended to contain more than forty statues, which were to include Moses, St. Peter and St. Paul, Rachel and Leah, and chained figures of the Provinces, while those of the Heaven and the Earth were to support the sarcophagus of the pope. This project was cut short by the death of Julius in 1513, when only four of the statues were finished, and eight designed.[261] Of those which were finished, three statues, the Moses, the Rachel, and the Leah, were afterwards used for the existing memorial, which was put together under Paul III. by the Duke of Urbino, heir of Julius II.—in this church of which his uncle had been a cardinal.

"The eye does not know where to rest in this the masterpiece of sculpture since the time of the Greeks. It seems to be as much an incarnation of the genius of Michael Angelo, as a suitable allegory of Pope Julius. Like Moses, he was at once lawgiver, priest, and warrior. The figure is seated in the central niche, with long-flowing beard descending to the waist, with horned head, and deep-sunk eyes, which blaze, as it were, with the light of the burning bush, with a majesty of anger which makes one tremble, as of a passionate being, drunken with fire. All that is positive and all that is negative in him is equally dreadful. If he were to rise up, it seems as if he would shout forth laws which no human intellect could fathom, and which, instead of improving the world, would drive it back into chaos. His voice, like that of the gods of Homer, would thunder forth in tones too awful for the ear of man to support. Yes! there is something infinite which lies in the Moses of Michael Angelo. Nor is his countenance softened by the twilight of sadness, which is stealing from his forehead over his eyes. It is the same deep sadness which clouded the countenance of Michael Angelo himself. But here it is less touching than terrible. The Greeks could not have endured a glance from such a Moses, and the artist would certainly have been blamed, because he had thrown no softening touch over his gigantic picture. That which we have is the archetype of a terrible and quite unapproachable sublimity. This statue might take its place in the cell of a colossal temple, as that of Jupiter Ammon, but the tomb where it is placed is so little suited to it, that regarded even only as its frame it is too small."—Gregorovius.

On either side of the principal figure are niches containing Michael Angelo's statues of Rachel and Leah,—emblematic of active and contemplative life. Those above, of the Prophet and the Sibyl, are by Raphael da Montelupo, his best pupil; on the summit is the Madonna with the Infant Jesus by Scherano da Settignano. The worst figure of the whole is that, by Maso dal Bosco, of the pope himself, who seems quite overwhelmed by the grandeur of his companions, and who lies upon a pitiful sarcophagus, leaning his head upon his hand, and looking down upon the Moses. He is represented with the beard which he was the first pope to reintroduce after an interval of many centuries,—and it is said to have been from his example that Francis I., Charles V., and others, adopted it also.

After all, Julius II. was not buried here, and the tomb is merely commemorative. He rests beneath a plain marble slab near his uncle Sixtus IV., in the chapel of the Sacrament at St. Peter's.

Close to the Moses is the entrance to the chapel in which the chains are preserved, behind a bronze screen—the work of Pollajuolo. They are of unequal size, owing to many fragments of one of them (first whole links, then only filings) having been removed in the course of centuries by various popes and sent to Christian princes who have been esteemed worthy of the favour![262] The longest is about five feet in length. At the end of one of them is a collar, which is said to have encircled the neck of St. Peter. They are exposed on the day of the "station" (the first Monday in Lent) in a reliquary presented by Pius IX., adorned with statuettes of St. Peter and the angel—to whom he is represented as saying, "Ecce nunc scio vere."[263] On the following day a priest gives the chains to be kissed by the pilgrims, and touches their foreheads with them, saying, "By the intercession of the blessed Apostle Peter, may God preserve you from evil. Amen."

"Peter, therefore, was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison. And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands."—Acts xii. 5—7.

Other relics preserved here are portions of the crosses of St. Peter and St. Andrew, and the body of Sta. Costanza.

The sacristy, opening out of this chapel, contains a number of pictures, including, very appropriately, the Deliverance of St. Peter from Prison, by Domenichino. Here, till a few years ago, was preserved the famous and beautiful small picture, known as the Speranza of Guido. It has lately been sold by the monks to an Englishman, and is replaced by a copy.

In this church Hildebrand was crowned pope as Gregory VII. (1073). Stephen IX. was also proclaimed here in 939. The adjoining convent was built from designs of Giuliano San Gallo. Its courtyard contains a picturesque well (with columns), bearing the arms of Julius II., by Simone Mosca. The arcades were decorated in the present century with frescoes by Pietra Camosci, as a votive offering for his recovery from cholera, to St. Sebastian, "depulsori pestilitatis."

Opposite S. Pietro in Vincoli is a convent of Maronite monks, in whose garden is a tall palm-tree, perhaps the finest in Rome. In the view from the portico of the church it forms a conspicuous feature, and the combination of the old tower, the palm-tree, and the distant capitol, standing out against the golden sky of sunset, is one very familiar to Roman artists.

The tall machicolated Tower on the right was once a fortress of the Frangipani family, who obtained their glorious surname of "bread-breakers" from the generosity which they showed in the distribution of food to the poor during a famine in the thirteenth century. The tower is now used as a belfry to the adjoining Church of S. Francesco di Paola, being the only mediÆval fortress tower applied to this purpose. The adjoining building is known as the House of Lucrezia Borgia, and the balcony over the gateway on the other side is pointed out as that in which she used to stand meditating on her crimes. Here CÆsar Borgia and his unhappy brother, the Duke of Gandia, supped with Lucrezia and their mother Vanozza, the evening before the murder of the duke, of which CÆsar was accused by popular belief. It is worth while to descend under the low-browed arch from the church piazza, and look back upon this lofty house, with its steep, dark, winding staircase,—a most picturesque bit of street architecture, which looks better the further you descend. The Via S. Francesco di Paola is considered by AmpÈre[264] to have been the place where the house of the Horatii and the Tigellum Sororis once stood.

Following the narrow lane behind S. Pietro, we reach, on the left, S. Martino al Monte, the great church of the Carmelites, which, though of uninviting exterior, is of the highest interest. It was built in A.D. 500 by S. Symmachus, and dedicated to the saints Sylvestro and Martino, on the site of an older church founded by St. Sylvester in the time of Constantine. After repeated alterations, it was modernised in 1650 by P. Filippini, General of the Carmelites. The nave is separated from the aisles by twenty-four ancient Corinthian columns. The aisles are painted with landscapes by Gaspar Poussin, having figures introduced by his brother Nicholas. The roof is an addition by S. Carlo Borromeo.

The pillars of different marbles are magnificent, and the effect of the raised choir, with winding staircases to the crypt below, is highly picturesque. On the walls are frescoes by Cavaluccio (ob. 1795), who is buried in the left aisle. The collection of incised gravestones deserves attention, they comprise those of a knight in mail armour of 1349; Cardinal Diomede Caraffa, with a curious epitaph; and various generals and remarkable monks of the Carmelite Order. Beneath the high altar rest the bodies of Popes Sergius, Sylvester, Martin I., Fabian, Stephen I., Soter, Ciriacus, Anastasius, and Innocent I., with several saints not papal, removed hither from the catacombs. In the curious crypt, part of the Baths of Titus, the early Council of Sylvester and Constantine was held, as represented in the fresco in the left aisle of the upper church. The back of the ancient chair of Sylvester still remains, green with age and damp. In the chapel on the left, where St. Sylvester used to celebrate mass, is an ancient mosaic of the Madonna. In front of the papal chair is the grand sepulchral figure of a Carmelite, who was General of the Order in the time of Sta. Teresa. An urn contains the intestines of the "Beato," Cardinal Giuseppe-Maria de Tommasis, who died in 1713. His body is preserved beneath an altar in the left aisle of the upper church, and is dressed in his cardinal's robes.

Here is preserved a mitre, probably the most ancient extant, and said to be that of St. Sylvester, who lived in the fourth century, and who was the first Latin bishop to wear the mitre originally worn by the priests of pagan temples. This ancient mitre is so low as to rise only just above the crown of the head.

This church was dedicated to St. Martin, the holy Bishop of Tours, within a hundred years after his death, showing the very early veneration with which that saint was regarded.

Leaving S. Martino by the other door, near the tribune, we emerge at the top of the steep street called Sta. Lucia in Selci, which is the same with that described by Martial in going to visit the younger Pliny as—

"Altum vincere tramitem SuburrÆ." Lib. x. Ep. 19, 5.

And again—

"Alto Suburrani vincenda est semita clivi." Lib. v. Ep. 23, 5.

Here is a whole group of convents. In the hollow is the convent of S. Francesco di Paola, with several others. Just above (in the Via Quattro Cantone) is the convent of the Oratorians, or S. Filippo Neri. At this point also are two mediÆval towers, one enclosed within the convent walls of Sta. Lucia in Selci, the other on the opposite side of the street, supposed by some to be the tower of MecÆnas, celebrated by Horace. On the left of the street is the house of Domenichino (Domenico Zampieri), whose residence here is commemorated by an inscription.

Mounting the street we soon reach, on the right, the picturesque tenth century west gate (a high narrow arch upon Ionic columns, modernized and plastered over under the Sardinian government) of the Church of Sta. Prassede, which leads into the atrium of the church. This is seldom open, but we can enter by a door in the north aisle.

Sta. Prassede was sister of Sta. Pudenziana, and daughter of Pudens and his wife Claudia, with whom St. Paul lodged, and who were among his first converts (see Ch. X., Sta. Pudenziana). She gave shelter in her house to a number of persecuted Christians, twenty-three of whom were discovered and martyred in her presence. She then buried their bodies in the catacombs of her grandmother, Sta. Priscilla, but, collecting their blood in a sponge, placed it in a well in her own house, where she was afterwards buried herself. An oratory is said to have been erected on the site by Pius I., A.D. 160, and was certainly in existence in A.D. 499, when it is mentioned in the acts of a Council. In A.D. 822 the original church was destroyed, and the present church erected by Pascal I., of whose time are the low tower, the porch, the terra-cotta cornices, and the mosaics. During the absence of the popes at Avignon, Sta. Prassede was one of the many churches which fell almost into ruin, and it has since suffered terribly from injudicious modernisations, first in the fifteenth century from Rosellini, under Nicholas V., and afterwards under S. Carlo Borromeo in 1564.

The interior is a basilica, the nave being separated from the aisles by sixteen granite columns, many of which have been boxed up in hideous stucco pilasters, decorated with frescoes of apostles; but their Corinthian capitals are visible, carved with figures of birds (the eagle, cock, and dove) in strong relief against the acanthus leaves. The nave is divided into four compartments by arches rising from the square pilasters; the roof is coffered.

In the right aisle is the entrance to the famous chapel, called, from its unusual and mysterious splendour, the Orto del Paradiso—originally dedicated to S. Zeno, then to the Virgin, with the invocation "Libera nos a poenis inferi," and finally to the great relic which it contains. Females are never allowed to enter this shrine except upon Sundays in Lent, but can see the relic through a grating. Males are admitted by the door which is flanked by two columns of rare black and white marble, supporting a richly-sculptured marble cornice, above which are two lines of mosaic heads in circlets—in the outer, the Saviour and the twelve apostles; in the inner, the Virgin between St. Stephen and St. Laurence, with eight female saints; at the angles St. Pudens and St. Pastor. In the interior of the chapel four granite columns support a lofty groined vault, which, together with the upper part of the walls, is entirely covered with mosaic figures, which stand out distinctly from a gold ground.

The relic preserved here (one of the principal objects of pilgrimage in Rome) is the column to which our Saviour is reputed to have been bound, said to have been given by the Saracens to Giovanni Colonna, cardinal of this church, and legate of the crusade, because, when he had fallen into their hands and was about to be put to death, he was rescued by a marvellous intervention of celestial light. Its being of the rarest blood jasper is a reason against its authenticity; the peculiarity of its formation having even given rise to the mineralogical term, "Granito della Colonna." A disk of porphyry in the pavement marks the grave of forty martyrs collected by Paschal I. The mother of that pope is also buried here, and the inscription commemorating her observes an ancient ecclesiastical usage in allowing her the title of "episcopa:" "Ubi utique benignissimÆ suÆ genitricis, scilicet DominÆ TheodorÆ, EpiscopÆ corpus quiescit." In this chapel Paschal I. saw the spirit of his nephew dragged to heaven by an angel, through the little window, while he was saying a mass for his soul.

The high altar covers the entrance to a small crypt, in which are two ancient sarcophagi, containing the remains of the sainted sisters Prassede and Pudenziana. An altar here, richly decorated with mosaic, is shown as that which existed in the house of Prassede. Above is a fresco, referred to the twelfth century, representing the Madonna between the sainted sisters. At the end of the left aisle is a large slab of granite (nero-bianco), upon which Sta. Prassede is said to have slept, and above it a picture of her asleep. In the centre of the nave is the well where she collected the blood, with a hideous statue of her squeezing it out of a sponge.

The chapel at the end of the left aisle is that of S. Carlo Borromeo, who was cardinal of this church, and contains his episcopal throne (a wooden chair) and a table, at which, like St. Gregory, he used to feed and wait upon twelve poor men daily. The pictures in this chapel, by Louis Stern, represent S. Carlo in prayer, and in ecstasy before the Sacrament. In the cloister is an old orange-tree which was planted by him, but is still flourishing.

Opposite the side entrance of the Orto del Paradiso is the tomb of Cardinal Cetive (1474), with his sleeping figure and statuettes of SS. Peter and Paul, Sta. Prassede, and Sta. Pudenziana. This will recall Browning's quaint forcible poem of 'The Bishop who orders his tomb at Saint Praxed's church.'

Other tombs of interest are those of Cardinal Ancherus, assassinated in 1286 outside the Porta S. Giovanni, and of Monsignor Santoni, a bust, said to have been executed by Bernini when only ten years old.

Two pictures in side chapels are interesting in a Vallombrosan church, as connected with saints of that order,—one representing S. Pietro Aldobrandini passing through the furnace at Settimo; and another the martyrdom of Cardinal Beccaria, put to death at Florence (whither he was sent by Alexander IV. to make peace between the Guelfs and Ghibellines)—and consigned to hell by Dante.

Steps of magnificent rosso-antico lead to the tribune, which is covered with mosaics of A.D. 817-824. Those on the arch represent the heavenly Jerusalem; within is the Saviour with a cruciform halo—the hand of the first person of the Trinity holding a crown over his head—and St. Peter and St. Paul bringing in the sainted sisters of the church; on the right, Pope Paschal I.,[266] with a model of his church; on the left, St. Zeno (?). Above these figures, is the Adoration of the spotless Lamb, and beneath their feet the Jordan; below all is the Lamb again, with the twelve sheep issuing from the mystic cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and verses recording the work of Paschal I.

While Pope Gelasius II. was celebrating mass in this church, he was attacked by armed bands of the inimical houses of Leone and Frangipani, and was only rescued by the assistance of his nephew Gaetano, after a conflict of some hours. Hence in 1630, Moriandi, abbot of Sta. Prassede, was suddenly carried off and put to fearful tortures, which resulted in his death, ostensibly on account of irregularities in his convent, but really because he had been heard to speak against Urban VIII.[267]

In the sacristy is preserved a fine picture by Giulio Romano of the Flagellation—especially appropriate in the church of the Colonna.

Hence the curious campanile of the old church (built 1110) may be entered, and a loggia whence the great relics of the church are exhibited at Easter, including: portions of the crown of thorns, of the sponge, of the Virgin's hair, and a miniature portrait of our Saviour which is said to have belonged to St. Peter and to have been left by him with the daughters of Pudens.

The Monastery attached to the church, founded by Paschal I., was first occupied by Basilian, but since 1198 has belonged to Vallombrosan monks. Nothing remains of the mosaic-covered chapel of St. Agnes, built by the founder within its walls.

Where the Via Sta. Prassede crosses the road leading from Sta. Maria Maggiore to the Lateran, is the modern gothic church of Il Santissimo Redentore, built by Father Douglas within the last few years.

A little beyond this, attached to the Church of S. Vito, from which it has sometimes been named, is the Arch of Gallienus (supposed to occupy the site of the Esquiline gate in the wall of Servius), dedicated to Gallienus (A.D. 253—260) and his Empress Salonina, by Marcus Aurelius Victor, evidently a court-flatterer of the period, who was prefect of Rome, and possessed gardens on this spot. It is of very inferior execution; the original plan had three arches; only that in the centre remains, but traces of another may be seen on the side next the church. Gallienus was a cruel and self-indulgent emperor, who excited the indignation of the Romans by leaving his old father, Valerian, to die a captive in the hands of the Persians, so that the inscription, "Clementissimo principi cuius invicta virtus sola pietate superata est," is singularly false, even for the time.

Close to this Gallienus had ordered a statue of himself to be erected, which was to be double the height of the colossus of Nero, but it was unfinished at the time of his death, and destroyed by his successor. From the centre of the arch hung, from the thirteenth century, the chain and keys of the gates of Viterbo, removed at the same time as the great bell of the Capitol. These interesting memorials of middle-age warfare were taken down in 1825.

Passing under the arch we enter upon the Via Maggiore, the main artery leading to Santa Croce. On the left is the humble convent of the Monache Polacche, where the long-suffering Madre Makrena, the sole survivor of the terrible persecution of the nuns of Minsk, has lived in the closest retirement since her escape in 1845.

Nearly opposite this convent is the picturesque ruin of a nymphÆum, probably of the time of Septimius Severus, erroneously called The Trophies of Marius, from the trophies, now on the terrace in front of the Capitol, which were found here.

Beyond this, on the right, is the entrance of the Villa Palombara, occupying a great part of the site of the Baths of Titus.

Though the existing ruin is misnamed, the trophies erected in honour of the victories which Marius gained over the Cimbri were really set up near this; and, curiously enough, on this site also Marius was defeated at the "Forum Esquilinum" by Sylla, who suddenly descended upon Rome from Nola with six legions, and entering by the Porta Esquilina, met his adversary here, and forced him to fly to Ostia.

Behind the Trophies of Marius a lane branches off on the left to the desolate Church of Sta. Bibiana.

The church, founded in the fifth century by Olympia, a Roman matron, was modernised by Bernini for Urban VIII., and has no external appearance of antiquity. The interior is adorned with frescoes; those on the right are by Agostino Ciampelli, those on the left are considered by Lanzi as the best works of Pietro da Cortona. They pourtray in detail the story of the saint:—

1. Bibiana refuses to sacrifice to idols.
2. The death of Demetria.
3. Bibiana is scourged at the column.
4. The body of Bibiana is watched over by a dog.
5. Olympia founds the church, which is dedicated by Pope Simplicius.

The statue of the saint at the high altar is considered the masterpiece of Bernini. It is dignified and graceful, and would hardly be recognised as his work.

The remains of the saint are preserved beneath the altar, in a splendid sarcophagus of oriental alabaster, adorned with a leopard's head. A column of rosso-antico is shown as that to which Sta. Bibiana was bound during her flagellation. The fÊte of the martyred sisters is observed with great solemnity on December 2.

On or near this site were the Horti Lamiani, in which the Emperor Caligula was hastily buried after his assassination, A.D. 41, though his remains were shortly afterwards disinterred by his sisters and burnt. These gardens were probably the property of Ælius Lamia, to whom Horace addressed one of his odes.[269] At an earlier period Elius Tubero lived here, celebrated for his virtue, his poverty, and his little house, where sixteen members of the Elian Gens dwelt harmoniously together.[270] He married the daughter of L. Emilius Paulus, "who," says Plutarch, "though the daughter of one who had twice been consul and twice triumphed, did not blush for the poverty of her husband, but admired the virtue which had made him poor."

On the other side of the Trophies of Marius, the Via Porta Maggiore leads to the gate of that name (see Ch. XIII.). Approached by a gate on the left of this road, most desolate, until the making of the railway amid its vineyards and gardens, and crowned with lentiscus and other shrubs, is the picturesque ruin generally called the Temple of Minerva Medica, from a false impression that the Giustiniani Minerva, now in the Vatican, had been found here.[271] It is now generally decided to be a remnant of the bath built by Augustus in honour of his grandsons Caius and Lucius CÆsar (sons of Agrippa and Julia). It is a decagon, with a vaulted brick roof, and nine niches for statues; those of Æsculapius, Antinous, Hercules, Adonis, Pomona, and (the Farnese) Faun, have been found on the site.

Near this is a curious Columbarium of the Arruntia Family, and a brick-lined hollow, supposed to be part of the Naumachia which Dion Cassius says that Augustus constructed "in the grove of Caius and Lucius."

Just where the lane turns off to Sta. Bibiana is the entrance to the courtyard of the Church and Monastery of S. Eusebio, built upon the site of the house of the saint, a priest of noble family, martyred by starvation under Constantius, A.D. 357. His body rests under the high altar, with that of St. Orosus, a Spanish priest, who suffered at the same time. The ceiling of the church is painted by Mengs, and represents the apotheosis of the patron saint. The campanile dates from 1220. In this convent (which was conceded to the Jesuits in 1825 by Leo XII.) English clergymen about to join the Roman Catholic Church frequently "make a retreat" before their reception; Archdeacon Wilberforce is one of many converts who have been received here.

Turning towards Sta. Maria Maggiore, on the left is a Cross on a pedestal formed by a cannon reversed, and inscribed "In hoc signo vinces,"—a memorial of the absolution given by Clement VIII. in 1595 to Henry IV. of France on his being received into the Roman Catholic Church.

Opposite this is a peculiar round arched doorway—unique in Rome—forming the entrance to the Church of S. Antonio Abbate, said to occupy the site of a temple of Diana. The church is decorated with very coarsely-executed frescoes of the life of the saint,—his birth, his confirmation by a bishop who predicted his future saintship, and his temptation by the devil in various forms.

In the chapel of S. Antonio is a very ancient mosaic, representing a tiger tearing a bull.

Hither, on the week following the feast of St. Anthony (January 17), horses, mules, and cows are brought to be blest as a preservative against accidents for the year to come. On the 23rd, the horses of the pope, Prince Borghese, and other Roman grandees (about 2½ P.M.) are sent for this purpose. All the animals are sprinkled with holy water by a priest, who receives a gift in proportion to the wealth of their master, and recites over each group the formula,—

We now enter the Piazza of Sta. Maria Maggiore, in front of which stands a beautiful Corinthian column, now called Colonna della Vergine. This is the last remaining column of the Basilica of Constantine, and is forty-seven feet high without its base and capital. It was brought hither by Paul V. in 1613. The figure of the Virgin on the top is by Bertelot.

The Basilica of Sta. Maria Maggiore, frequently named from its founder the Liberian Basilica, was founded A.D. 352, by Pope Liberius, and John,[273] a Roman patrician, to commemorate a miraculous fall of snow, which covered this spot of ground and no other, on the 5th of August, when the Virgin appearing in a vision, showed them that she had thus appropriated the site of a new temple.[274] This legend is commemorated every year on the 5th of August, the festa of La Madonna della Neve, when, during a solemn high mass in the Borghese chapel, showers of white rose-leaves are thrown down constantly through two holes in the ceiling, "like a leafy mist between the priests and worshippers."

This church, in spite of many alterations, is in some respects internally the most beautiful and harmonious building in Rome, and retains much of the character which it received when rebuilt between 432 and 440, by Sixtus III., who dedicated it to Sta. Maria Mater Dei, and established it as one of the four patriarchal basilicas, whence it is provided with the "porta santa," only opened by the pope, with great solemnity, four times in a century.

The west front was added under Benedict XIV. (Lambertini) in 1741, by Ferdinando Fuga, destroying a portico of the time of Eugenius III., of which the only remnant is an architrave, inserted into which is an inscription, quoted by its defenders in proof of the existence of Mariolatry in the twelfth century:—

In this portico is a statue of Philip IV. of Spain by Lucenti. In the upper story are preserved the mosaics which once decorated the old faÇade, some of them representing the miracle which led to the foundation of the church.

Five doors, if we include the walled-up Porta Santa, lead into the magnificent nave (280 feet long, 60 broad), lined by an avenue of white marble columns, surmounted by a frieze of mosaic pictures from the Old Testament, of A.D. 440—unbroken, except where six of the subjects have been cut away to make room for arches in front of the two great side chapels. The mosaics increase in splendour as they approach the tribune, in front of which is a grand baldacchino by Fuga, erected by Benedict XIV., supported by four porphyry columns wreathed with gilt leaves, and surmounted by four marble angels by Pietro Bracci. The pavement is of the most glorious opus-alexandrinum, and its crimson and violet hues temper the white and gold on the walls. The flat roof (by Sangallo), panelled and carved, is gilt with the first gold brought to Spain from South America, and presented to Alexander VI. by Ferdinand and Isabella.

The vault of the tribune is covered with mosaics by Jacopo da Turrita, the same who executed those at the Lateran basilica.

"A general affinity with the style of Cimabue is observable in some mosaics executed by contemporary artists. Those in Sta. Maria Maggiore are inscribed with the name of Jacobus Torriti, and executed between 1287 and 1292. They are surpassed by no contemporary work in dignity, grace, and decorative beauty of arrangement. In a blue, gold-starred circle is seen Christ enthroned with the Virgin; on each side are adoring angels, kneeling and flying, on a gold ground, with St. Peter and St. Paul, the two St. Johns, St. Francis, and St. Anthony (the same in size and position as at St. J. Lateran), advancing devoutly along. The upper part is filled with graceful vine-branches, with symbolical animals among them. Below is Jordan, with small river gods, boats, and figures of men and animals. Further below are scenes from the life of Christ in animated arrangement. The group in the centre of the circle, of Christ enthroned with the Virgin, is especially fine: while the Saviour is placing the crown on His mother's head, she lifts up her hands with the expression both of admiration and of modest remonstrance.[275] The forms are very pure and noble; the execution careful, and very different from the Roman mosaics of the twelfth century."—Kugler.