The city of Aquileia, called by the Greeks Chrysopolis, because it was one of the largest and richest cities of the empire, is now represented by a cluster of houses, a cathedral, and a museum in which the greater part of the objects found by excavating are housed. It is easily reached by carriage from either Villa Vicentina or Cervignano, a pleasant drive of an hour or so; and it gives one some idea of the size of the ancient city to remember that the whole of the ground passed over, at least from Villa Vicentina, was originally included in its suburbs. The city stretched 16 miles along the shore, but the ground has sunk some five feet, and much of ancient Aquileia now lies beneath the lagoon. The inscriptions show that most of the inhabitants were foreigners. At present the environs are malarious; but at the time when the naval station was established here the climate must have been much more healthy; on account, probably, of the great pine-forest which stretched along the shore, and of which there are still some small remains towards the Belvedere. At that time the Natisone debouched close to the town, and there was ample anchorage for ships. In the eleventh century the great port and arsenal were at Morrano and S. Marco al Belvedere, which were then still islands. The sea-mouth was between Grado and S. Pietro d'Oro, where the pharos was.

The city was founded in 181 B.C., and its name is said to have originated in the appearance of an eagle which was seen while the plan was being laid out. It was the centre from which numerous roads diverged. Here Vespasian was hailed emperor by his legion. In 238 Maximin and his son were killed beneath its walls. Alaric besieged it, and Attila destroyed it in 452. Forty years later Theodoric took the lordship of Italy from Odoacer on the banks of the Isonzo, and in 552 the citizens who had returned were again driven away to the deltas of other rivers by Alboin, who was, it is said, called from Pannonia by Narses to wreak his vengeance on the son of Justinian.

Christianity was planted in Aquileia in apostolic times. According to tradition S. Mark was sent by S. Peter from Rome to the city, and there wrote or translated his gospel into Greek. S. Hermagoras, who was Aquileian by birth, followed him as overseer of the Church. He was consecrated the first bishop of Italy in Rome, the diocese ranking next to the Roman see as being the most ancient after that city. There is no doubt possible as to the existence of Christianity here at the end of the third century. There were churches in the time of Constantine, and a baptistery as early as 270, in the days of Aurelian. In Constantinian times it was a centre of Catholic life. SS. Jerome and Ambrose lived within its walls, and towards the end of the fourth century the bishops of Como, Venetia, Istria, Noricum, Pannonia, and even Augsburg, as some say, were under Valerian the bishop. Till Carolingian times the patriarchs were Italians, Greeks, or Friulians; but, with the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire, the patriarchs of Aquileia politically were attached to it, and were friends of the emperors, who often stayed in the city on their journeys to and from Italy. All the names are German from the end of the tenth century to the middle of the thirteenth. The patriarchate was exceedingly prosperous under Poppo (1019-1045), who had been chancellor to Henry II. He moved his seat back to Aquileia from Cividale, built a fine palace (of which the two isolated pillars and the ruined walls to the south of the cathedral remain) and the existing cathedral, using portions of an earlier one as material.

As at Parenzo, excavations have revealed the plan of earlier buildings upon and around the site of the cathedral. This was the Capitol of the ancient city, and probably a street ran between the baptistery and the cathedral. To the north lay the forum and the cattle-market, as inscriptions prove. The discovery of drains proves that there were dwelling-houses as well as temples near; but the wall of the original city was just east of the cathedral, and beyond it a branch of the Natisone flowed, affording additional protection. The river was canalised and navigable for seven miles. The piers of a bridge still remain near Monastero.

A large antique building of some kind, perhaps a prison or courts-of-law, connected with the martyrdom of SS. Hermagoras and Fortunatus, was used in the construction of the first cathedral, and portions of imperial work are to be seen in the lower parts of the eastern wall and the paving of the crypt. The baptistery, which rises to the west, also is on the base of a heathen temple. In the year 348 a new church was so far ready that a great meeting could be held in it, at which the emperor's brother was present, Athanasius tells us. It was finished in 381, when a council was held in it. The destruction wrought by Attila appears to have been complete, for no inscriptions have been found of his date, nor any Lombard objects, and at the time of the Lombard invasion the patriarch fled to Grado with all the church valuables, and moved his seat thither.

The foundations show that there were two basilicas side by side, with a narthex common to both and a passage between them up to the transept. To the south the narthex terminated in an apse nearly 20 ft. across, and there was a hall, probably open to the sky, between the narthex and the baptistery, with others to the north and south of it. The basilica to the north of the present cathedral extended under the campanile and the graveyard, and mosaics of its floor have been found on two levels, sunken in part by the weight of the campanile. The lower mosaic has been found over a space of more than 120 ft., but the excavations could not be made complete owing to the ground being used as a cemetery. One pattern is purely geometrical; another has birds, dogs, hares, baskets of flowers, and floral scrolls in octagons and squares set diagonally between them; both marble and vitreous pastes are used, as well as gold tesserÆ. Inscriptions were also found in letters of the third or beginning of the fourth century: "***ore Felix hic crevisti hic Felix" and "Cyriacus vivas." The former is held to prove that there was a domestic basilica here at that period. The bottom of the wall was painted with geometrical patterns imitating marble plating. The mosaic runs right under the campanile. There is a door to the south, and two pillars parallel to the face of the wall, and one to the left, opposite the north angle. The upper building has a double row of bases of columns, nine or ten in number, with an external wall 19 ft. 6 in. from the present basilica, and with the western wall of the narthex level with the present narthex, beneath the piazza. Antique fragments were used in the foundations. The lower part of the wall of the existing building is of the same materials and thickness, and probably of the same date. The much simpler mosaic patterns of the floor are at the same level both inside and outside—viz. 2 ft. 9 in. below the present pavement. Near the round building in the north aisle a fish mosaic was found on which the sarcophagus of Poppo stood. Signs of a conflagration—fragments of charcoal, &c.—were also found on this pavement. The colours used in the mosaics are white, blue, grey, palish green-grey, yellow, brown, black, several blues and reds, and two greens. The finest fragment has a figure of a peacock with tail displayed, which was in the narthex in front of the door to the church, and is now in the museum. On the pavement coins were found, most of which belonged to the third and fourth centuries; but there were also one Greek coin of Marcianopolis, two so-called Consular coins, one Augustan, three of the second century, one Ostrogothic of Ravenna, and several Aquileian of 1400. In the eighteenth century sarcophagi were disinterred bearing fourth-century crosses, of an earlier date than Attila, at all events.

There appears to have been a restoration in the sixth century, probably under Narses; the use of super-abaci and the caps in the transept suggest this. Perhaps the council of 557 may have had something to do with it. Twin basilicas occur elsewhere in Istria, though they were not always of the same date, as at Trieste, S. Michele in Monte, Pola, and probably at Ossero, where the seven-naved basilica of which Mr. T.G. Jackson gives the plan would be easily explained by the supposition.

The original east end was square. The semicircular apse within it is of a later date, probably of the ninth century, of which period there are other remains—viz. the beautiful slabs of the choir now in the south transept, with the remains of the bases of the pillars of the screen above. Two of the patterns are exactly like some at Muggia Vecchia; others resemble ornamented pillars of the door of S. Ambrogio, Milan; others are very like the fragments preserved at S. Maria in Valle, Cividale; whilst a band of interlacings resembles one which occurs on an Assyrian cylinder, not only in its forms, but in its irregularities. A piece of antique fluted pilaster now does duty as a base. The ornament on the steps of the throne is also of this period, probably executed under either Paulinus (?802) or Maxentius (?833) by Comacines, who probably went on to Rome to work in S. Maria in Cosmedin. The Liber Pontificalis under Hadrian I. mentions the "tres apsides in ea constituens" of that church as if they were something new.

The cathedral was much damaged by the earthquake of 998, and Poppo began to rebuild it after the Latcran Council of 1027 had declared the see of Aquileia first in Italy after Rome, It was sufficiently finished in 1031 for it to be consecrated by him on the festival of the patron saint (July 13), two Roman cardinal-bishops and twelve bishops being present, as a later inscription states. Of this building the greater part remains, though with considerable alterations and additions made in the fourteenth century, after the earthquake of 1348, and in the fifteenth century. The twenty columns of the nave arcade, some of which are granite and some Istrian limestone, show by their different heights and thickness that they came from other buildings. Some of them are in more than one piece. The bases are Attic of different heights and are of Poppo's time, as the caps appear to be also. Two similar caps are in the churchyard; and one, hollowed out, is used as a holy-water basin. Some of the same character were found at Monastero under another basilica. The central nave is 39 ft. broad, and the aisles 26 ft. The transept is about 136 ft. long, with an apse 32 ft. 6 in. broad opening from it, 21 ft. deep. The exterior length of the building is 218 ft. The round arches from the aisles to the transepts are older than the nave arcade. The columns are antique; that on the south has also a Corinthian cap, but the base is Romanesque. The base of the northern column is a shapeless block; the cap is like those of the nave, but the super-abacus is plain. Across the transepts two round arches are thrown in a line with the aisle walls, resting on very thin columns of cipollino; that on the south is of several pieces not belonging to each other. The caps vary in design. North and south of these arches are the chapels, with their apses. The arch of the apse is round, with two antique granite columns; it had three small round windows in it. The bishop's throne is from the earlier church. Beneath the late-Gothic seats round the apse are the seats of Poppo's time, with remains of inscriptions: the pavement of marble slabs and mosaic patterns is also due to him.

In 1896 frescoes of the eleventh century were discovered beneath the rococo plaster-work in the semi-dome. In the centre is the Madonna and Child enthroned in a vesica above six saints, and surrounded by the symbols of the Evangelists. The saints to the spectator's right are SS. Hermagoras, Fortunatus, and Euphemia; to the left are SS. Mark, Hilarus, and Titianus. Among them are persons on a smaller scale—Poppo holding his church, the emperor (Conrad II.) and the empress, an unnamed person, and a boy "Einricus" (afterwards Henry III.); a border of medallions, with heads and peacocks alternately, surrounds the field. Below, between the three windows, are six more saints, three on each side. Two different hands can be traced. In the crypt are also paintings of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the difference in technique being marked. On the vaults are the legends of SS. Hermagoras and Fortunatus; in the lunettes the life of the Virgin, angels, Apostles, and saints, and on the soffits of the arches; and painted hangings in outline with figure-subjects upon them, on the lower part of the wall. There is one subject from the life of S. Mark. Two kinds of intonaco are used, one hard and white, the other grey and sandier. There are two rows of pillars in the crypt, six in the wall round the apse, and two (Renaissance) at the sides of the westward niche, which looks like a western apse with altar in front of it. The roof is a wagon vault pierced with cross-vaults, but not truly quadripartite, and the caps a curious combination of badly cut foliage and scrolls and round-arched arcading. Iron grilles of 1500 isolate the space within the columns where the sarcophagus stands. There were doorways to the triangular spaces left between the apse and the rectangular external form, which were walled up at a later date. The stairs to the crypt go through the side wings of the Renaissance tribune above with a crookedly set room on each side, with little windows in the walls, one of which is blocked by the marble sheeting, while those towards the crypt are also walled up, showing that the structure is early, and is probably Poppo's. The doors are of iron, with lions' heads on the south side and man-headed animals on the other.

The Patriarch Raimondo della Torre (who died in 1299) built the chapel of SS. Ambrogio and Margherita, which was used as the sepulchral chapel of the family. It opens to the nave, with two pointed arches with an oculus above. In the middle of the side wall, between two sarcophagi of white marble, is that of Allegranza di Rho, second wife of Moschino della Torre and mother of the Patriarch Gastone. She died July 23, 1300, and her sarcophagus is the only one of the five in the chapel inscribed. On the front are reliefs, and on the sloping cover her effigy. One of those at her side has a figure of a person in subdeacon's dress, with a key, no doubt Rainaldo della Torre, treasurer to the church and brother of Gastone. His will of March 31, 1332, gives a precise description of the monument he wished to have erected to him. There was to be an archivolt over it, but if it was erected it must have fallen in the earthquake of 1348, as there are no traces of it. One of red marble, with a patriarch fully robed, with pallium and mitre, standing on a dragon between a processional cross and a crozier, with censing angels on each side of the head, is that of either Raimondo or Pagano. It also bears a relief of the Annunciation. On the front of another are three circular plaques with the Agnus Dei in the centre and crosses in the others; in the spaces between are flatly treated towers, the arms of the family. In the north transept a sarcophagus front, or altar, stands against the wall supported on pillars. It has five ogee trefoil niches with saints within them, and a framing of late Gothic foliage, with half-lengths of angels in the spandrils. The central saint is accompanied by two small kneeling donors; the other four are the Aquileian virgins. In the south transept is a sarcophagus on four Romanesque columns with twisted pillars at the corners, and the sides of the central subject (S. Hermagoras, with the four virgins small, on their knees, and the hand of God above). The spaces between are inlaid with red marble. The caps appear to be of the fourteenth century, the period of the foliage cornice.

As a consequence of the earthquake of January 25, 1348, a good part of the church fell down on October 19. Constant wars prevented the patriarch from having money to spend on its restoration. A document of 1354 reveals a lamentable state of things—the population was but 100—worshippers did not come, and the clergy had fled to save themselves from sickness and death; no one came to the services of Holy Week because the roads were under water, &c.; with a final request that Udine might be named as the seat of the patriarchate. The rebuilding was commenced under Lodovico della Torre (1360) and finished under Marquard da Randeck (1365-1380), the architect being unknown. At this time the nave arcade was made pointed, and some of the super-abaci carved with Gothic foliage. After Venice had expropriated the patriarch (in 1420) money was spent upon the cathedral. In 1479 the choir seats were renewed. In 1493, under NicolÒ Donato, the winter choir was renewed. In 1495 the high-altar was erected, upon which Antonio di Osteno, Bernardino di Bissone, and Domenico di Udine were employed. Work was also done in the crypt, in connection with the better preservation of the relics of some saints. In 1498 the tribune appears to have been made, under Domenico Grimani. This is a very decorative arrangement, with a central feature, flanked by two flights of steps, and side platforms furnished with a balustrade, which project some way into the transepts, and are carved elaborately with graceful arabesques. In the centre below is a niche with shell-head and grated window, through which the inside of the crypt is visible. To the right is a ciborium altar, with a relief of Christ in the tomb half-length, supported by the Virgin and S. John, flanked by two scroll-bearing angels. An inscription describes it as an oratory, where relics of the saints are venerated. The pillars bear an architrave—a shell-he ad beneath, an arch above, and a gable termination of early Renaissance shape—above a shallow cornice. The effect is heavy. The left side was used as a singing-gallery. In the apse hangs a picture by Pellegrino di S. Daniele (which was put up in 1503), a good deal repainted—a Risen Christ with SS. Peter and Herniagoras. The fine frame was carved by Giovanni Pietro di Udine in 1500, and gilded two years later by Antonio de' Tironi of Bergamo. Before 1484 the floor was of beaten earth; at that time a pavement of red Veronese marble was commenced, completed in 1544. The aisles are at a slightly higher level than the nave. The Gothic roof was remade on the pattern of those of SS. Zeno and Fermo, Verona, in 1526 (signed Giuliano q Vivente of Udine), and restored in 1560. It is now painted in chequers. Beams resting on corbels beneath the windows cross the nave, while the aisles have a flat panelled roof, with bosses at the intersections of the framing.

The font is supported by four small pillars surrounding a larger central one. In the north aisle is a circular building with a conical wooden roof supported upon a little colonnade—work of the fifteenth century in its present form. There was, however, a "sepolcro"—a copy of the Holy Sepulchre—here, with a flat cupola, mentioned in 1077, and described as being near the grave of Patriarch Sigeard, and in 1085 an altar was consecrated within it by Patriarch Frederick II. The ceremony of carrying the Host thither on Good Friday and locking and sealing the door, from which it was brought out on Easter Day, lasted till the suppression of the patriarchate in 1751.

At that time the treasure and archives were divided between the bishoprics of GÖrz and Udine. The precious objects were stolen from Udine, and have disappeared, but at GÖrz there still remain several. There is a bishop's crozier of the end of the twelfth century, Romanesque in style, decorated with seven pieces of rock-crystal arranged diagonally, and with a knop of the same, set at a later date. The crook is set with precious stones, rubies, turquoises, aquamarine, and lapis lazuli. Within is the Lamb holding a cross; under it the whorl finishes with a dragon. A much older bishop's staff is of worm-eaten wood—set in metal at a later date to preserve it from destruction—said to have been given to S. Hermagoras by S. Peter or S. Mark. There is also a great crucifix of gilded silver on a wood basis worked with a rough naturalism free from Byzantine influence. The cross is made into a tree, from which grapes hang; the nimbus is set with large amethysts and small rubies. Of the same period is a fine book-cover of gilded silver with the subject of the Ascension. Christ enthroned in a vesica is supported by two angels; below is the Madonna as orante, surrounded by the Apostles. The border consists of fine leaf-scrolls, late twelfth century in character. A silver statuette of the Madonna and Child is of the fourteenth century. The Child is nude, tall, and thin, and wears a crown decorated with pearls and trefoils. The naked portions are matt silver, the draperies are gilded. It stands on a pedestal of three ornamented steps. The fate of the precious objects is reversed in the case of the documents. Those sent to GÖrz have disappeared, whilst Udine still preserves a considerable number. At Aquileia the only object remaining from the treasury is a statue of the Madonna and Child, of Istrian marble, heavily painted. The work resembles in style the carving at S. Giovanni in Fonte, Verona.

The campanile must have been built by Poppo, although the base looks like Roman masonry, since the mosaics go right under it, but it was added to later, and the octagonal bell-chamber is inscribed: "MD · XLVIII TADEVS · LVRANVS · HOC · O · FECIT." It is 39 ft. square and the walls are over 7 ft. thick. The entrance is approached by 27 steps. It is 70 ft. to the floor of the bell-chamber.

The narthex has three thick antique pillars, part granite and part marble, with heavy early Christian Corinthian caps and super-abaci with crosses upon them. The baptistery lies to the west of the narthex, united to it by a building known as the Chiesa dei Pagani. This consists of three bays with a descent of three steps from the first, over which there was once a cupola. The other bays are cross-vaulted, and there are several round-headed windows. In the pavement is a curious pierced stone. It has a cross with the Agnus Dei in the centre (pierced), and four little window shapes in the angles with round-headed tympana and oblong piercings below. There was a second story; part of the wall of this remains, constructed of ancient tiles, which were much used in Aquileia in the Middle Ages; an inscription records a restoration in 1738. The baptistery was originally a Roman building, square externally and octagonal within, with four niches, one of which is partially preserved. Remains of the others have been found outside the octagon. There was an hexagonal font in the centre, and in the angles of the walls are the springings of vaults; there are also six pillar-stumps of different thicknesses. Most of the present building is modern, the result of several restorations. On each side of the baptistery and Chiesa dei Pagani were halls with mosaic floors of the Christian period, of which that to the south was least damaged when discovered; it had three patterned fields, with borders. The open hall between was stone-paved—a bit of the paving was found a foot deeper than the original floor of the baptistery.

The museum contains a quantity of exceedingly interesting objects, the fruit of excavations, which the director, Signor Maionica, most kindly piloted me through, calling attention to the various objects of special interest and giving me details about them of which otherwise I should have been ignorant. The collection of objects in amber, many of them stained a fine red, is the finest in existence, though the most splendid examples have gone to the British Museum, to Udine and GÖrz. The sculptured objects include a very beautiful youthful Venus, a girl apparently of about 17, a draped statue of the Emperor Claudius in Greek costume, one of Tiberius as Pontifex Maximus (both found near the theatre), one of Livia, showing the arrangement of the back hair, and marble wigs to place upon the heads of statues to keep them in the fashion. There is also a draped Venus with a Cupid hiding beneath her robe, a copy of the Aura (Spring-rain) of Scopas, of which another is in the museum at Trieste, and a most interesting sculptor's model for use in the studio, showing how arms and legs of other pieces of marble were affixed to statues. A pedestal shows the life of Priapus, from his birth in the spring to his winter's inactivity; others have winged Cupids bearing torches and bestriding dolphins, the idea being of a voyage to the Islands of the Blest. A panel shows Bacchanalian Cupids; one desires to drink, one is drinking from a crater, another, supported away, inebriated; the robed master of the feast bears a sceptre and is playing the Pan-pipes. Another relief represents a banquet in a triclinium. One man sounds a double pipe, another carries food to the guests, one of whom is singing an obscene song, which disgusts the women, who make the sign of displeasure at him. In a relief of the time of Heliogabalus a meteoric stone is seen carried in procession, preceded by duumvirs, lictors, &c.—an evidence of an Oriental cult practised in Aquileia. Five great medallions from the same building show busts in very high relief of Jupiter, Mercury, Vulcan, Venus, and Minerva. A stone table with a sundial and windrose engraved upon it has a low seat on three sides, but the fourth free, so that the hour may be seen at all times of the day without the annoyance of dodging one's shadow. The letters of the inscription point to the second century A.D. as the date of its production. Many sarcophagi come from the north-east of Aquileia near Columbara, where a monument was found much resembling those of Petra and Baalbek in its forms. Inscriptions name clothiers, fullers, joiners, linen-weavers, builders and servants, purple-dyers, pikesmiths, a silver-worker, an Oriental pearl merchant with a sign of the city of Rome, &c. In the eighteenth century the Mint was discovered, with bars of silver and baskets of coin. A fine plate of beaten silver, with the story of Triptolemus, found here is now at Vienna.

Many pieces of ornament are preserved, often very finely modelled and also with traces of colour. The larger pieces, many of which are coarse in workmanship, are housed under a long shed in the open; among them are slabs of ninth-century ornament, lead coffins, and pipes with pointed covers to keep the sand out, urns for ashes, &c. There appears to have been a Roman rococo at Aquileia, earlier than at Spalato or Florence. Here, too, are some of the early Christian mosaics found during the excavations in and around the cathedral. Especially beautiful are the fragments with peacocks and other birds, and lambs, with freely growing scrolls of vine. An asbestos net, found at Monastero, used to wrap round the body during cremation and so keep the bones together, is interesting, as are lachrymatories misshapen by the flames, small bottles of rock-crystal beautifully cut, a few enamelled objects and carvings in ivory, principally children's toys. Rings set with gems were made of gold for the nobles and of iron for the citizens, who at a later period used silver and even gold. Over 40,000 coins have been found in the course of the excavations, and lamps bearing no less than 800 different makers' marks. The marks are the same as those found all through Istria, Dalmatia, and the islands, proving a large export trade. The most important were those of C. Vibio Pansa, whose stamp (or those of his successors) is found in conjunction with imperial names till the time of Constantine. In the delta of the Isonzo, near Monfalcone, a portion was called "Insula Pansiana" even in the Middle Ages. A river in the bay of Monfalcone is still called Panzano, and near there is a place of the same name. There were also glass works at S. Stefano, Aquileia, where fragments of coloured glass have been found.

Ruskin refers to a curious ceremony, instituted in the twelfth century, which was observed in Venice till 1549 "in memorial of the submission of Woldaric, patriarch of Aquileia, who, having taken up arms against the patriarch of Grado, and being defeated and taken prisoner by the Venetians, was sentenced, not to death, but to send every year on 'Giovedi Grasso' sixty-two large loaves, twelve fat pigs, and a bull, to the Doge; the bull being understood to represent the patriarch and the twelve pigs his clergy; and the ceremonies of the day consisting in the decapitation of these representatives, and a distribution of their joints among the senators; together with a symbolic record of the attack on Aquileia, by the erection of a wooden castle in the rooms of the Ducal Palace, which the Doge and the Senate attacked and demolished with clubs." Mutinelli quotes the decree.

The patriarchate reached the zenith of its power under Volfkertis of Cologne, known to the Italians as Volchero. He was elected in 1204, and ruled till 1218. His dioceses included seventeen bishoprics of Venice on terra firma, stretching as far as Como and Trent, and six in Istria. The Venetian island bishoprics, by the convention of 1180, were under the Patriarch of Grado. In 1208 his dominions were so much increased that they almost exceeded those of the Pope in extent. He held the duchies of Carniola and Friuli, as well as the marquisate of Istria. He struck his own coins, of which there are two types, one closely resembling those of Aix-la-Chapelle and Cologne, and governed constitutionally with the assistance of a parliament of three estates.