The Gladiatorial Combats. 403 affix them to his temple, when he retired from his toilsome career. The fencer Vejan, now grown weak with age } He, worsted, meanly begs his life at last.-Creech. These games thus continued with increasing popularity for 700 years, and gladiators were even introduced by the opulent at their supper feasts for the entertainment of their guests. But in the reign of Honorius they were utterly and finally abolished, and to the eternal honour of the benign spirit of Christianity is an incident recorded which mainly contributed to this happy abolition. An Asiatic Christian Monk, St. Telemachus, was at Rome in January 404, when the Coliseum held unnumbered thousands viewing the gladiatorial fights. He rushed alone into the Arena, and dared endeavour to part the combatants. By the orders of the Prætor Alypius he was instantly slain for his presumption; but the Emperor Honorius bowed to the Christian creed, and the Roman people lost their diversion.* The Public Baths of Rome are the next surprising proofs of grandeur of conception and execution. The remains of those of Caracalla are on the Aventine Hill. I describe them as they were; not as they are. * Suetonius, Vopiscus, Plutarch, Juvenal, Pliny. Their extent in length was more than 1800 feet, and in breadth above 1400; and though, professedly only Baths, yet such was the gratification the Romans experienced in this luxury of their genial climate that, besides accommodation, and marble seats for 1600 public bathers, there was a circular basin for the diversion of swimming; vestibules leading to detached Baths, cold, tepid, hot, or steam; walks shaded or exposed, adapted to the weather; with a Gymnasium for athletic sports. Here the people bathed for less than a farthing, and might command every additional luxury of having their skin smoothed either with the Strigil, or the Pumice-stone; of having superfluous hairs removed; paint, or odoriferous oils, &c. &c. (Perseus, Lucilius.) Some of the Bathing Vessels found are now in the Museum of the Vatican, and are of porphyry, basalt, and granite. Moreover, according to Pliny, to Seneca, and Statius, these public Baths were enriched with gold, silver, and mosaic decorations; with vases, sculpture, and painting. The Baths were also the rendezvous of Philosophers, Poets, and Orators, and for them, moreover, were erected Literary Halls, Temples, Porticoes, and Music Galleries. In the Baths of Caracalla was that Hall so magnificent, and so vaunted by the ancients, the Cella Solearis.* Religion was * Spartianus. not forgotten, and the temples of Apollo and Esculapius, on either hand, explain their own reference; the other two sacred to Hercules and Bacchus were there because these two divinities were supposed particularly to protect the fortunes of the founder, the Emperor, Antoninus Caracalla. The Baths of Diocletian contained accommodation for 3000 people; and here, with the aid of imagination, we may amuse ourselves in tracing the spacious Hall for walking, or wrestling, &c. the Xystum, or Pinacotheca; the Swimming Bath, or Natatoria; the Tennis Court, and place for the other various diversions with the Ball, the Sphæristerium; the adjacent parlours, or Diætæ; the different Baths, cold, tepid, &c. Frigidaria, Tepidaria, Caldaria, Laconica; the place of the great stove for heating the waters, or the Hypocaustum; the principal stripping room, or Apodyterium; and the Unctuarium, or chamber for Perfumes. Pope Pius IV employed Michael Angelo to convert one principal hall of these Thermæ into a church, that of Santa Maria degl' Angeli, which he has done in the form of a Greek Cross: suffice it to say that the modern arrangement is no disparagement of the ancient splendid Pinacotheca. The proportions of height have been destroyed by the necessity of raising the pavement six feet; and the eight massive, granite columns formed of one block, sixteen feet in circumference, and forty three high, are of course proportionately sunk ; but the length of the hall remains as at first, 340 feet, 75 broad, 85 high. The modern marbles, and pictures are of the first order, and were placed here by direction of Benedict XIV. The Baths of Titus are of less size than those I have mentioned, but presumed to have been more chaste and elegant in their style and decorations. They are built on the site, and with the materials, of Nero's Golden Palace. Seven vaulted rooms termed Le Sette Sale, of great extent and capacity, have here been discovered; doubtless Reservoirs, supposed also to have answered the double purpose of supplying the baths with water, and perhaps the Naumachia in the naval exhibitions of the adjacent Coliseum. Adjoining to these are the halls, and the parlours of the former palace of Mecenas; a name, and a spot which awake recollections dear to every classic mind. Such were originally the Baths. Now a heap of ruins, with barely enough left to trace their plan, which I have been sketching not so much from any researches on the spot, but from the records of those days. Nevertheless their solidity proves that they also might have lasted till now had not Gothic barbarity pointed their cannon to level them with the dust. Very few of the chambers are excavated; in those that are so, are yet to be seen by the light of tapers, on many parts of the ceiling and walls, arabesques, fruits, flowers and foliage, of exquisite design, and colours even yet fresh as when first created. Halls which the moderns love to explore, and ornaments which they wish to admire, because they are in some cases, even now, after a lapse of nearly 1800 years such as they were when Romans, Emperors, and Poets sat here, and gazed upon them. Here moreover have been found the finest relics of ancient sculpture. The Apollo Belvidere: the Flora: the Hercules Farnese; the Farnese Bull: the Laocoon. Many of these halls are impervious to the light, while many choicest marbles, finest vases, richest mosaics, and antique statues, were never seen by their possessors but by the more picturesque light of torches. Here day and night revolved, undistinguished; and the lapse of time was not counted except by the succession of pleasures. It has been also conjectured that the extreme heat of Rome in those days was another inducement to fly to subterranean recesses. If so, how beautifully appropriate is the language of their poets: the Darts of Apollo. Near here, and on the Esquiline Hill, were the villas of Mecenas, of Horace, Virgil and Propertius: and not far off is that Tower, still remaining, where Nero is said to have sat, and sung to |
