Page images
PDF
EPUB

428

The Cloaca Maxima.

conduits, while the latter asserts that a loaded cart could pass through the great arch without difficulty.

Agrippa cleansed them by effecting the passage of seven rivers through the subterranean, so that boats might thus navigate beneath the streets of Rome.

Yet so choked is the avenue, and so sluggish the stream, now, that instead of a loaded cart I should deem this vestige of the Cloaca Maxima would barely admit a hamper. Nevertheless, how admirably solidly must that tunnel have been originally constructed which, notwithstanding all the tremendous concussions of twenty ages, still hangs together as the architect first framed it, firm by its own simple construction and without any sort of cement. There were public officers appointed to take care of these sewers, termed Curatores Cloacarum Urbis.

The Bridges of Rome are more remarkable from their affinities with historical recollections than from their intrinsic beauty.

The Bridge of St. Angelo was built by the Emperor Hadrian, then called Pons Elius, and. was terminated by his Mausoleum, known as the Moles Hadriani. On the modern Bridge are ten angels of statuary, each bearing some record of the afflictions of Christ, such as the Thorns, the Cross, the Scourge, &c. &c. We then arrive at the Tomb

Castle of St. Angelo.

429

of Adrian, or the Castle of St. Angelo, which, if we can rely upon the plans, and drawings made in these days according to the ancient descriptions of it, must have been one of the most beautiful monuments of Rome.

Fancy then a quadrangular base of travertine stone 253 feet long, and high in proportion. Upon this, a circular tower 580 feet in circumference, formed of peperin stone, and cased with marble, having a circular portico upheld by forty-eight columns of violet marble, whose intercolumniations were adorned with the same number of statues, and also the entablature. Then arose a second circular story, equally adorned with Ionic pilasters and statues; the corners of the platform had also their sculptures, while surmounting all was the Cupola, or Dome, crowned with a Brazen Pine Apple.

Of this magnificent, and most splendid tomb, there remain but its square base, with part of the first circular tower, naked, and stripped of all its marbles, columns, and statues.

The sarcophagus of the Emperor is in one of the palaces of Rome, while the Pine ornaments the gardens of the Vatican. Whenever Rome was besieged the commanding position of this pile on the banks of the Tiber made it particularly eligible as a post of defence to any party that could obtain it. Hard necessity forced a Roman General, Belisarius,

430

Adrian's Mausoleum.

thus to profane it, and in after wars, the Goths, and other barbarians, with the contests of the Romans themselves, completed its destruction; the upper part being totally lost, and its beautiful marbles, and statues being either pounded into lime and mortar, or else shivered to pieces by being indiscriminately hurled down on the heads of the besiegers below.

As it is now considered the Citadel of Rome all uniformity is lost by the erection of various bastions, and ramparts, where the Papal flag daily waves, and centinels parade. On the present summit is a statue of the Angel Michael, with expanded wings, ordered to be cast in bronze by Gregory the First, and erected in commemoration of some prophetic vision.

That mournful, that melancholy association of ideas which in these days death, and the habitation of the cold grave, so generally inspires, prevailed not in classic realms. In ancient Italy the tomb was not in the damp, neglected, and ne'er trodden path; it was not deep in the cold, and clodded, senseless earth; but it was sometimes in the centre of the city, oftener in the most frequented spot, where recreation was sought, where festivals were solemnized, and where the spirits of the dead, even in the mausoleum which held the honored urn and ashes, might view, or mingle, unseen,

Adrian's Mausoleum.

431

amid the throng, and in the joys they loved when

on earth.

Moreover, to deck these tombs art was lavished, and the imagination of the living was not dimmed by sorrowing for the dead, but rather kindled into a brighter glow at the monumental grandeurs that were evoked to eternise their memory.

Such was Adrian's Tomb. It was not the retreat of the pensive; it was not the lone spot where the sweet, and fleeting flowers flourished, and faded; and again planted by the hand of friendship, again bloomed, and vainly shed their balmy odors all around.

His monumental decorations were those of permanent sculptured beauty, and architectural grandeur which were to last till latest ages. Yet that very splendor and solidity has been the more fatal to its hallowed repose; and while the humble tomb has been spared, this kingly one has been made a fortress, and a place of sanguinary warfare; and grim death, not satisfied with his one regal captive, has here sent hecatombs of inferior victims down to the shades below.

432

The Pons Sublicius.

CHAPTER XXIII.

BRIDGES-PONS SUBLICIUS-HORATIUS COCLES, AND MUTIUS SCÆVOLA-PONS TRIUMPHALIS—ROMÂN TRIUMPH-BULLS OF CLITUMNUS-TRIUMPH OF PAULUS AMYLIUS-SACRED ISLE, AND TEMPLE OF ÆESCULAPIUS-CLAUDIAN AQUEDUCT -FOUNTAINS OF THE PIAZZA NAVONA-OF L'ACQUA FELICE

OF TREVI, AND MADAME DE STAEL'S CORINNE AVENTINE HILL HERCULES AND CACUS-CHURCH OF ST. PIETRO IN CARCERE — MAMERTIME PRISON, OR TULLIANUM -THE SCALE GEMONIE-MIRACLE BY ST. PETER.

THE Pons Sublicius, or Emylius. Of this ancient bridge, supposed to be the first ever thrown across the Tiber, very little now remains to tell of its glorious history, for it was here that Publius Horatius Cocles, when his country was invaded by Porsenna, himself first singly, afterwards supported but by two others, opposed the King with his army on this bridge till his countrymen had destroyed it. He then invoked the sacred Tiber to be propitious to him, and instantly, though wounded, leapt all armed as he was into its stream, and gained the shore. A brazen statue was decreed to him, and placed in the Temple of Vulcan; besides which he received a great contribution in money, and as much land as he could plough round in a day.*

* Livy, book ii. cap. 10. This act of Cocles, and another of Mutius Scævola, induced Porsenna to make peace with the

« PreviousContinue »