mM^v^ / '^i-i .^N^- '"S-: * oX .^ ^ ,A^ ^s. ,xN^' ,0- ,.<'^ r-^ >. ^• ^^. v^' /■ s . ^^ :^ >■ .0- V V A^ >'/> -0^ « 1 A " \\ -/■ .^^^ ^, v•^' *>', ^-\.^- .# % i^)^^ .^>^^ ^^%, " * /*%- -r' ,X^^' ^ :■■'^'- '■ « .V ,.^^\ V Oq. -/i. -x^- .\> ^\^^' ■ V ROME AND POMPEII UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME. THE RIVIERA: Ancient and Modern, By Charles Lentheric. Translated by Charles West, M.D. With Maps and Plans. ^ ROME AND POMPEII Hrcb^oloaical IRamblee GASTON BOISSIER OF THE FRENCH ACADEMY TRANSLATED BY D. HAVELOCK FISHER / ' WITH MAPS AND PLANS NEW YORK G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 27 AND 29 West 23D St. 1896 1 ^'^^■^ \ \ /)4V /^- *) {^All rights resei-ved.'\ CONTENTS. CHAPTEE I. PAOES The Fohum ,1-50 I. Importance of the Forum down to the end of the Empire — Its condition at the beginning of the present century — Signor Pietro Rosa's excavations — M. Dutert's restoration essay — Signor Fiorelli's administration, 8-14 II. The Via Sacra between the Arch of Titus and the Forum — The Temple of Vesta — The dwelling of the Vestals {Atrium Vestcn) — The Vestals and the Christian nuns — View of the Palatine, . . . 15-40 III. The Forum of the Empire — How we have been enabled to recognise and designate its chief monuments — Statins and the statue of Domitian — The Temple of Caesar — The Basilica Julia — Temples of Saturn and Castor — Those of Vespasian and Concord — East side of the Forum — Centre of the Forum — The Clivus capitolinus .... 41-63 J) VI CONTENTS. PAGES IV. Impression first produced by the Forum — Absence of symmetry — Its small extent— The very different uses it served — Political assemblies — How- orators made themselves heard in it — How it held all the people who came together there, . . . 53-66 CHAPTEE II. The Palatine 67-137 I. How the excavations on the Palatine came to be undertaken — Roma quadrata and the walls of Romulus — The Temple of Jupiter Stator — Remains of the epoch of the Kings — Antiquity of writing among the Romans, and the consequences to be drawn from it — The Palatine under the Republic — Why excavations are always so prolific in Rome, . 71-86 II. The house of Augustus on the Palatine — How, little by little, it became a palace — What remains of it — Employment of marble in the Imperial epoch — New processes in the art of building — The Palace of Tiberius — That of Caligula — The cryptoporticus where Caligula perished — The house of Livia and its paintings — The Palace of Nero, 87-111 III. The Flavii and their policy — Description of Doniitian's palace — The palace of Severus — The Imperial box at the Great Circus — Lodgings of the soldiers and servants, .... 111-129 IV. Aspect of the hill in the third century — It contains the edifices of all times — Monuments of the Imperial epoch — Differences between the palaces of then and now — Beauty of the whole, . . 129-137 T-'^ CONTENTS. Vll CHAPTER III. PAGES The Catacombs 139-213 I. The importance which. Christians attached to sepulture — The Catacombs their work, and not old abandoned quarries — How they were induced to hollow them out — Hypogea of different religions in the Eoman Campagna — Rules adopted by the Church for burial, 142-152 II. First impression produced by a visit to the Catacombs — The immensity of these cities of the dead, and consequences to be drawn from it — Rapid diffusion of Christianity — Religion separates itself from the family and the country — The Catacombs the most ancient monument of Christianity at Rome — Mementoes of the times of persecution contained in them — Mementoes of the daj'^s of triumph, 152-161 III. The inscriptions and paintings in the Catacombs — Character of the most ancient inscrip- tions — The birth oc Christian art — The first sub- jects treated by the artists of the Catacombs — Imitation of antique types — Reproduction of Christian subjects — Symbolism— Origin of historical painting — To what extent the Christian artists adhered to antique art, 162-177 IV. The cemetery of Calixtus — Signer Rossi succeeds in finding it — The indications which enable him to discover the tombs of the martyrs— Works carried out after the time of Constantine in the celebrated crypts — Graffiti of pilgrims — Why the cemetery took the name of Calixtus — History of this Pope, according to the- PMlosophumena — Why the Popes of the third century were buried in the cemetery of Calixtus, and how it became the pro- perty of the Church — Discovery of the papal crji-pt, 177-192 Vlll CONTENTS. PACKS V. Chief results of Signor Rossi's discoveries — His new opinions on the origin and history of the Christian cemeteries — They begin by being private property — As such they are under the protection of the law — How they extended — How ih&y became the property of the Church — First relations of the Church with the civil authority — Character of these relations — The primitive Church and the great families — How advantage may be drawn from the acts of the martyrs, 192-213 CHAPTEE IV. Hadeian's Villa 215-292 I. The Emperor Hadrian — The different judg- ments passed on him — The prince and the man — The reasons why he was not loved — His liking for the Greeks — Travelling in ancient times — Hadrian's journeyings, 221-240 II. The site of Hadrian's villa — Magnificence of construction — The Emperor's purpose in building it — Parts which can be recognised — The Vale of Tempe — The Poecile — Canopus — The private dwelling — The Natatorium — The reception apart- ments — The Piazza d'oro — The Basilica — The theatres — The libraries — The public lecture-halls — Hell 241-268 III. Did the Romans understand and love Nature ? — The reasons they had for leaving the town — Horace at Tibur — Liking of everybody for the country — How Pliny the Younger lived there — His Adllas — His gardens — Sites preferred by the ancients — The view from the Poecile, . . 268-292 CONTEXTS. IX CHAPTEE V. PAGES OsTiA 293-334 I. Modem Ostia — Aspect of tlie plaiu by wliich ancient Ostia is covered — How tlie town came to be abandoned — The first excavations made there — Signor Visconti's labours — Discovery of the Street of Tombs — The house known as the Imperial Palace — The great temple and the street leading towards the Tiber — The shops situated along the river, 295-306 II. Why the port of Ostia was founded — The free distribution of corn in Eome — The difficulty of provisioning Rome — Creation of the port of Claudius — The port of Trajan — The Imperial Palace — The town of Partus — The magnificence of Ostia and Partus, 306-325 III. The religious monuments at Ostia — Intro- duction and swift progress of Christianity — The Xenodochium of Pammachius — Prelude to the Odavuis of Minutius Felix — Death of St Monica, 325-334 CHAPTEE VI. Pompeii 335-485 I. The excavations at Pompeii under Signor Fiorelli — Mementoes of its ancient history that have been found — What remains to be cleared — Ought the works that have been begun to be continued ? — Recent discoveries — The fresco of Orpheus — - Account-books of the Banker Jucundus — The new Fulloniea, 335-354 CONTEXTS. II. Pompeii's chief lesson to us — Country life in the Eoman Empire — The difficulty of acquainting ourselves with it — How Pompeii puts it before our eyes — The whole Empire repeats the customs of Borne — The aristocracj' of Pompeii— Cluiracter- istics of Pompeian houses, .... 354-369 III. The paintings of Pompeii, according to Doctor Helbig's works — The large number of mythological pictures — Character of these pictures — The paintings of Pompeii not original — ^Hiy critics of the first century treat the paintings of their time so severely — From what schools did Pompeian artists borrow the subjects of their pictures ? — Alexandrian or Hellenistic painting — Room pictures — (reneral character of Hellenistic painting — How far did Pompeian artists faithfully reproduce their models ? — What is the particular merit of the paintings at Pompeii ? . . . 370-398 IV. "Whence the resemblances come that are remarked between the paintings at Pompeii and the poetry of the Augustan age — The painters and the poets inspired by the same subjects — Latin literature imitates the poetic school of Alexandria — Catullus — Virgil — Propertius — Ovid — Ditferences between the painters of Pompeii and the Roman poets — Painting never became Roman — Repugnance of the Pompeian artists to handle subjects drawn from the history or the legends of Rome — Is Pompeii really a Greek town ?— National character of the poetry of the Augustan age, . . . 399-419 CONTENTS. XI PAGES V. The burghers of Pompeii —The poor — Where did they live ? — Inns and taverns — Occupations and pleasures common to the poor and the rich — The municipal elections — The shows — How may we become acquainted with the inner life of the Pompeiansl — The inscriptions and graffiti — The services they render us, 419-435 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES CHAPTEE I. THE FOEUM. I HAVE often heard it said that it is dangerous to return after long absence to persons and places one has much loved. We seldom find them again as we remember to have seen them. The charm flies with years, tastes and ideas change, the faculty of admiring wanes ; there is a danger of our remaining unmoved before what trans- ported us in our youth, and, it may be, that instead of the pleasure we sought, only a disappointment awaits us. This disenchantment is the more fatal in that it usually spreads from the present to the past. Do what we will, it ends by imparting itself to our old impres- sions, and taints those stores of memories which should be faithfully treasured in our hearts for life's decline. And this is the peril to which a traveller exposes himself who, not having seen Eome for many years, determines to go back there. How many things have happened in these few years ! Eome has changed masters; the old town of the Popes has become the A 2 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. capital of the kingdom of Italy. How has she lent her- self to the change ? What effect has this new order of things, so different from the old, produced upon her ? Has she lost anything by it, and shall we find her again as we left her ? This is the first question we ask our- selves on returning to Rome. It is difficult not to feel engrossed by it ; and directly the railway lands us upon the immense piazza of the Baths of Diocletian — once so calm, now so bustling and noisy — we cannot help looking round on all sides with uneasy curiosity. The first impression is not favourable, it must be owned. On leaving the terminus, we traverse a new quarter, which offends by its likeness to every other new quarter in the world. Is Eome, then, in peril of becoming a commonplace town ? "We see vulgarly ele- gant houses, like those we have seen in other cities ; we pass an immense building — a species of barracks, with- out character or style,, destined to become a public office, and which produces a pitiful effect beside the grand palaces of the sixteenth century ; and, as we go through broad streets and narrow lanes flooded with a burning sun, we remember that, even in the time of Nero, who rebuilt the old town on a vaster plan, boobies much admired the splendour of the new building, but sensible people could not help regretting the old narrow, crooked streets, where they always found so much shade and freshness.^ This is hardly an encouraging beginning, and what remains seems at first in keeping with it. On descending from the Quirinal to the Corso, we still find many striking changes. The Corso, with the streets that ^ Tacitus, Ann., XV. 43: Eranttamen qui crederent vcterem illam formam. salubritati magis conduxisse. THE FORUM. 6 cross it, from the piazza di Venezia to the piazza del Popolo, was always the most animated place in the town. It appears to me to have become still more animated, and that its population is no longer quite the same. Priests, and especially monks, are more rare, and the glance of those who remain does not seem to me so assured, nor their countenances so proud ; they evidently no longer feel themselves the masters. Among the people who have replaced them, one is surprised to see many who walk fast, and appear to have something to do, which used to be seldom the case. Nor do they belong to the old inhabitants of Kome. They are generally employes of the ministries, or public office clerks ; all come from outside, brinjrinfT with them new customs. At the verv hour when, according to the old saying, only dogs and Englishmen were seen in the streets, we meet these offi- cials, active, busy, elbowing those who are in their way, to the intense amazement of the old Romans, who cannot understand people going out at the hour of the siesta, or hurrying when it is hot. As evening approaches, the bustle increases. There is a moment, towards six o'clock, when the street belongs to the news-vendors. They deafen you with their cries ; they address you, they pursue you. Newspapers abound in Eome. There are journals of every size and shade of opinion — more violent than moderate, as usual — which bid for clients by the smallness of their price and the vivacity of their polemics. How far are we from the time when only that good, carefully expurgated Giornale di Eoma was!^ read — that friend of legitimate governments, which never knew of revolutions until several weeks after^ they had taken place ! Must we believe that 4 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. this race of sceptics and scoffers, accustomed and indifferent to everything, astonished and indignant at nothing, which used to answer the reformers of all parties with a che volete ? or a chi lo sa ? has suddenly gone raving mad over politics ? It is a change one has great difficulty in understanding. And it is impossible to master one's surprise when the very signboards are seen to contain professions of faith — the barbers pomp- ously styling themselves parruchiere nazionale — and when one reads the electoral appeals and the demo- cratic bombast with which the walls are covered. There are certainly many innovations which run great risk of not being to the taste of everybody. We cannot help asking ourselves what will be thought and said by those zealous admirers, whom Eome has possessed in all ages, who would have her remain stationary ; who say she is being spoilt when the least thing is changed ; and who already began to cry out that all was lost when a too zealous magistrate took it into his head to have the streets a little better swept, and to light them dimly with a few lamps. But let us hasten to reassure them. All is not so much overturned as they may think, and the change is more upon the surface than in the depths. The quarters of the people have nearly everywhere kept their old aspect. If, for example, after descending the Corso, you continue your walk beyond the piazza di Venezia, through the steep streets leading to the Forum, you find old Eome intact. These, indeed, are the same houses we used to see — as old and as dirty. The Madonnas have re- mained in their places above the doors, and in the evening a lantern is still piously lit before them. If THE FORUM. 5 you happen to raise your eyes higher, towards the wide, curtainless windows, you are sure to find enough rags spread out to content the most exigent friends of the picturesque and of local colour. In the cellar-like taverns, with their great open doors, players are still leaning carelessly with their elbows on the tables, beside flasks of Orvieto, with greasy cards in their hands. As for the ostcric which skirt the street, I do not think they can have much changed in appearance since the Eoman Empire ; and I muse, as I behold them, on those unctce popince whose rejoicing smell so gladdened the slave of Horace. So, with a little good-will, here we are in the very midst of antiquity. If we wish the illusion still more complete, if we desire to enjoy for a mo- ment what might be called the c^enuine sensation of Eome — that which our fathers felt in visiting it, and which was described by Chateaubriand and Goethe — let us go a little further, beyond the houses and the boundary: for, in order to insure a better understanding of it, it is as well to leave them behind us. If you like, we will pass through the Porta Pia, and follow the ancient Via Nomcntata. Saluting, as we go by, the basilica of St Agnes and the round temple that served for the sepulture of Constantine's daughter, we get to the Teverone, and cross it by a very curious bridge, still bearing traces of work dating from the Middle Ages. A few steps further on, to the right, rises a hill of small extent and height. It must be climbed with respect, since it bears a great name in history: it is the Holy Mountain. Here it was that, more than two thousand years 6 AHCIIiEOLOGICAL EAMBLES. gone -by, Democracy gained one of its first victories using, in order to obtain it, a means it is still very fond of employing — the strike. One fine day, the Eoman army — that is to say, all the sound-bodied population — leaving the camps to which the Consuls insisted on confining it, came and settled on this mountain, determined to remain there so long as its conditions should be refused. In order to win, it only had to wait. The Aristocracy, alarmed at its solitude, became weary of resistance, and allowed the people to institute the tribuneship. How many memories present themselves to the mind from the summit of this hill ! It was in this immense un- dulating plain which now strikes the eye that, according to the expression of an historian, the Eomans served their apprenticeship for the conquest of the world. Every year they had to fight the energetic little tribes peopling it, and furious battles took place there for the possession of a hovel or the sacking of a cornfield. There it was that, during a struggle of many centuries, they acquired experience of war, the habit of obedience, and ability to command. When they crossed those mountains which frame in the horizon on all sides, in order to spread themselves over the rest of Italy, their education was completed, and they possessed the virtues which enabled them to con- quer all. Since then, how many glorious events ! Since then, how many times have tho'se great roads, whose direction is still followed by the line of tombs that border them, witnessed the return of the triumph- ant legions ! How many illustrious names are recalled to the memory by those fragments of aqueducts, and THE FORUM. 7 those ruined monuments which cover the plain ! And we have here the advantage that, these great memories once revived, there is nothing to divert us from them. In fertile, well-peopled countries, full of bustle and move- ment, the present unceasingly snatches us away from the past. How can we muse and ponder, when the spectacle of human activity craves our attention at every moment, and from all sides the noises of life reach our ears ? Here, on the contrary, all is silence and contemplation. As far as the eye can range, nothing is seen but a naked plain, sparsely covered with thin grass, without trees, except some scattered parasol pines, and, beyond a few taverns for sportsmen, devoid of houses. The landscape only strikes as a whole. It is a general monotony, or rather harmony, where everything melts and blends. Nothing draws the attention ; no detail stands out with undue prominence, nor jars. I know no spot on earth where one can allow one's thoughts to carry one away more completely, and absolutely give Time the slip ; as Titus Livius so aptly expresses it : " Where it is easier for the soul to become antique and contempor- aneous with the monuments it gazes upon." The Eoman Campagna has kept this advantage in perfection, nor is it easy to foresee when it will lose it. Many projects are made to render it healthy and people it, but Death has entered so deeply into this exhausted soil, that he will probably not be dispossessed without trouble. In the meantime, let us enjoy the privilege which this country preserves of putting us, better than any other, in communication with the past. Whatever effort Kome may make to adorn and embellish herself, and be on a level with the fashion of the day, it is 8 AKCHiEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. Antiquity one goes there to seek above all things, and, thank God ! it is still to be found. With those great ruins with which she is strewn, and the vast deserted plains that surround her, she has not, nor will she, for a long time to come, be able to give herself as modern an air as she would desire. That she should have succeeded so little is happy for her and for us ; for we may apply to her what a poet of the Eenaissance said of Michael Angelo's " Night " — " 'Tis because she is dead she lives " (perche ha vita /). IMPORTANCE OF THE FORUM DOWN TO THE END OF THE EMPIRE — ITS CONDITION AT THE BEGINNING OF THE PRESENT CENTURY — SIGNOR PIETRO ROSA'S EXCAVA- TIONS — M. DUTERT'S RESTORATION ESSAY. Everything, in fact, invites people who visit Eome to busy themselves chiefly with Antiquity ; for up to the present moment it is Antiquity which seems to have profited most by the events of 1870. The new government owed much to ancient memories ; since a favourite expedient for emphasizing the right of Eome to be free and dispose of herself, and of Italy to claim the city as a capital, had been to appeal to the history of the Eepublic and the Empire, and to talk unceasingly of the Senate, the Forum, and the Capitol, the new pretensions gaining considerably by the protection of these great names. The Italian Government had thus contracted a debt with the past, which it set about paying as soon as it was installed in Eome. As early as the 8th November 1870, a decree of the king's locum THE FOKUM. 9 tenens instituted a superintendence of excavations, and charged therewith the skilful explorer of the Palatine, Signor Pietro Eosa. A week later the works in the Forum began. It is natural that attention should have first been turned in this direction. The Forum enjoyed the rare good fortune of remaining in all times the centre and heart of Eome. In nearly all our modern capitals the focus of activity and life changes with the centuries. In Paris it has passed successively from the left bank of the Seine to the right, and from one end of the town to the other. Eome proved more faithful to her ancient traditions. From the day when, according to Denys of Halicarnassus, Eomulus and Tatius, established the one on the Palatine and the Coelian, the other on the Capitoline and the Quirinal, decided to meet, for the discussion of common affairs, in the damp unwholesome plain stretching from the Capitoline to the Palatine,^ it never ceased to be the city's place of meeting and council. During the first years there was no other public place, and it served for every use. In the early morning all kinds of goods were sold there, throughout the day it was a court of justice, and, in the evening, people took their walks there. As time went on, public places multiplied, and there were special markets for cattle, for vegetables, and for fish {forum hoarium, olitorium, piscatorium) ; but the old Forum of Eomulus always retained its pre-eminence over all the others. Even the Empire, while changing so many things, did not deprive it of this privilege. Public places were ^ Denys, II. 50. 10 AECHJ^.OLOGICAL E AMBLES. built round about it, more vast, more regular, more sumptuous, but which were never otherwise looked upon than as the annexes and dependencies of what people persisted in calling the real Eoman Forum. It held out against the first disasters of the invasions, and survived the taking of Eome by the Visigoths and the Vandals. After each storm, the Eomans set about repairing it as best they could, and even the barbarians themselves, as in the case of Theodoric, sometimes took the trouble to restore the buildings they had ruined. The old place and its buildings still existed at the beginning of the seventh century, when it unhappily occurred to the Senate to consecrate to the abominable tyrant Phocas that column of which Gregorovius tells us, "the Nemesis of history has preserved it as a last monument of the baseness of the Eomans." From that moment ruins accumulate. Each war, each invasion, throws down some ancient monuments, and no trouble is taken to repair them. Temples, triumphal arches, that have been flanked with towers and crowned with battlements, like fortresses, attacked every day in the struggle of parties which divide Eome, and shattered by assaults, end by falling, and cover the soil with their ruins. Every century adds to this accumulation. When, in 1536, Charles the Fifth went through Eome on his way back from his expedition to Tunis, the Pope wished to make the avenger of Christianity pass beneath the Arches of Constantine, of Titus, and of Severus, and nothing was spared in order to provide him a finer road. "They demolished and pulled down more than two hundred houses and razed three or four churches, level with the ground," says Eabelais, who witnessed it. It is THE FOEUM. 11 said that a few years later, Sixtus V. had the debris of the building materials, which he was using else- where, transported to this desert spot. All antiquity found itself covered over and lost beneath more than 6 metres of rubbish. From that moment the Forum, now the Campo Vacchino, or cattle field, assumed the aspect which it kept until the beginning of this century. It was now only a dusty, open space, surrounded by mediocre churches, about which a few columns rose, half protected by the soil, a melancholy and forlorn spot, quite suited for reveries on the frailty of human grandeur and the vicissitudes of events. This is how Poussin represents it in his little picture in the Doria Gallery, and Claude Lorrain does the same in the landscape at the Louvre. One would think that these half-buried columns would have provoked the curiosity of the learned. How happens it, that since the Eenaissance not one of them has undertaken to excavate to their bases, in order to discover the soil they rest on ? This soil was that of the Forum ; it was known beyond a doubt that it would be found strewn with historical ruins ; and yet no thought was ever seriously entertained of under- taking works which might lead to the finest discoveries. It was only in the first years of this century that learned researches began ; but they were too often interrupted, and gave rise to more problems than they solved. The information they elicited was so incomplete, that fierce contests arose between the archseologists. Each gave a different name to the buildings that were brought to light, and each made for himself a special plan of the Forum. Neither its exact 12 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLKS. limits nor even its precise position were known. Some supposed it must extend from the Arch of Severus to that of Titus — that is to say, from north to south ^ — while others placed it in quite the contrary direction, viz. from St Adrian to St Theodore ; all believed they found in the ancient writers texts clearly confirmatory of their opinions. In order that this confusion might be dissipated, fresh excavations were indispensable. They were undertaken with the idea of this time carrying out a work which should be definite. It no longer sufficed to try a few soundings to touch the ancient soil here and there ; it was resolved to free it entirely from the rubbish that covered it, and lay it bare in every part. This was the means adopted finally to ascertain the truth respecting the enigmas of the Forum. Signor Eosa first resumed the excavation of the Julian basilica, which had been partially cleared under the late Government. This work ended, the whole of one side of the Forum was known and acquired, namely, that extending to the west from the slope of the Capitoline to the first spurs of the Palatine. The workmen were urged forward towards the east, and no stop was made until the churches of Santa Martina and St Adrian were reached. The municipal Council of Eome would not permit a farther advance, being ^ Although these designations are not quite exact, I call north side of the Forum that situated at the foot of the Capitoline, and south side, that which extends from St Lorenzo in Miranda (Temple of Antoninus) to St Maria Liberatrice. The east side is that bordering the churches of Sta Martina and St Adrian ; the west side, that stretching from the Via della Consolazione to the Palatine. THE FOKUM. 13 unwilling to allow the destruction of the streets joining the different quarters of the modern town. However vexing this check, one had to be content with what it had been possible to do. In justice to Signer Eosa it must be owned that the works directed by him were vigorously prosecuted. It was necessary to remove more than 120,000 cubic metres of earth, but, under it, many ancient monuments were found which were only known by name, and at several points the topography of the Forum has been fixed. It is to be regretted that the Eoman administration did not deem it necessary to publishadetailedjournalof these interesting excavations; but this gap has happily been filled in part by the work which a young member of the French school at Eome, M. Ferdinand Dutert, has published on the Forum, and of which I am about to make liberal use. ^ M. Dutert assisted at Signor Eosa's labours and followed their progress day by day, walking behind the workmen, gathering and copying the least remains of ornaments and smallest fragments of sculpture as they met with them on their way. His work not only shows the present state of the Forum to those who have not seen it, and recalls it to those who have, but he has tried to teach us what it was in ancient times. He restores the ruined temples he raises again the fallen columns, he replaces the statues upon their bases, and puts once more before our eyes those splendours of which but a few fragments are left. I know there is always much conjecture in works of this kind ; but ^ Le Forum romain par M. Ferd. Dutert, architece, ancien pensionnaire de France a Rome, Paris, chez A. Levy. 14 AROHiEOLOGICAL EAMBLES. M, Dutert's restoration, usually based on exact in- dications, is in general very probable. Only a few deficiencies and errors have been noted in it, which, in the present state of our knowledge, it was very difficult to avoid. To ensure more activity, and, at the same time, more unity in these explorations, the Italian Government instituted a Direction-General of Antiquities and Fine Arts at Eome, and placed it under the charge of Signor Fiorelli, who had made a great name for himself by the able manner in which he had conducted the explorations at Pompeii. Signor Fiorelli from the very first made up his mind not to waste his energies and his resources on isolated excavations, but determined to concentrate his efforts on the Forum and its environs. The work had been well begun, and had produced the happiest results ; the best thing to do was to follow it up. The large square lying between the Basilica of Constantine and the Palace of the Csesars was yet to be explored. This vast space did not form part of the Forum proper, but it was the natural entrance to it, and was connected with it by the monuments with which it was crowded ; so that it could not be set on one side. These explora- tions have taken ten years to accomplish ; they are now complete. The ground from the Arch of Titus to the Capitol, a length of nearly 500 metres, has been laid bare. Let us profit by this to explore it in its entirety, to study the buildings on it, and to awaken the memories of the past as we come across them on our way.^ ^ All the objects of our research may be studied on the Plan of the Forum, where they have been placed in their actual positions. -At'. i f1 3 YestaL ArcTiaeolotfical RamTjles PLAN OF THE FORUM Kactette ef C^*", THE FORUM. 15 II. THE VIA SACRA BETWEEN THE AECH OF TITUS AND THE FOEUM — THE TEMPLE OF VESTA — THE DWELLING OF THE VESTALS (ATRIUM VESTjE) — THE VESTALS AND THE CHRISTIAN NUNS — VIEW OF THE PALATINE. Visitors, as a rule, enter the Forum by the Temple of Castor, opposite the church of Santa Maria Liberatrice. Thus they find themselves at once in the very centre of the place. But for the better understanding of the arrangement of the Forum, I prefer to begin at the beginning and follow the road that used to be taken by the multitude. We will commence at the farthest extremity. I am supposing that we have just left the Colosseum, and that we are walking along the Palatine. We see stretched before us a wide ancient road, over the old flagstones of which the traffic of the modern town still rolls. This road rises straight before us over a fairly steep slope and under the Arch of Titus. We are on the Via Sacra. The position of the Via Sacra has been the subject of many disputes among archseologists. We must not be surprised to find this question a difficult one to answer, for the ancients themselves do not seem to have been very clear upon this point. The example of Pompeii shows us that streets were not then inscribed with their names, and, as the knowledge of these appellations only became very gradually known, there was often much uncertainty concerning them. It was on this account 16 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. that Varro and I'estus tell us that "the multitude were not very sure which road they ought to call the Via Sacra." They add, however, that everyone agreed to give that name to the road which led from the Temple of the Lares (near the Arch of Titus) to the Temple of Vesta. At the present day we know this road perfectly well ; we are able to traverse it in its whole length, thanks to the efforts of the excavators. On leaving the Arch of Titus, the road makes a sharp turn to the right, and follows the course of a large terrace, which is raised several steps above it. It was on this terrace that the Emperor Hadrian had built his Temple of Venus and his Temple of Eome, of which some very fine ruins still remain.^ After passing the Church of Santa Francesca Eomana, with its elegant clock tower, it turns to the left, close to the Basilica of Constantine, from which it is separated by some modern buildings; then it passes in front of the Temple of Eomulus (Church of SS. Cosmo and Damiano). This edifice, built by Maxentius in memory of his son who died young, was half buried in ruins. These have all been cleared away, and the door has been restored to its place ; of the four Cipolino marble columns which ornamented the sides of the facade, two have been set on their bases ; in fact, the little temple has been restored to its primitive elegance. The monuments on the other side of the road are neither so important nor so well preserved. On a level with the ground several bases of statues have been found. The right of placing ^ M. Laloux has published a restoration of this buUding in the Melanges d' Archceologie ct d'histoire of the school at Rome. THE FORUM. 17 one's statue by the side of a road so much frequented by the public was doubless a great honour and one much sought after ; it was a sure means of keeping oneself always before the populace, and ensured a greater chance of being remembered. By the side of these honorary pedestals the remains of an exhedron have been found ; that is to say, one of those semi- circular benches such as have been found at Pompeii, on vvhich loungers might sit and chat, or watch the passers-by.^ A little above and behind this first row, of which so little remains, the excavators have brought to light the whole of an ancient district composed of houses closely crowded together. This quarter must have become very dilapidated even in those early days ; under the basements of the most recently-built houses the foundations of older ones, running in a contrary direction, have been discovered. The incendiary fires, which were of such frequent occurrence at Eome, especially in the low-lying Forum, often totally changed its aspect. M. Jordan thinks that it must have been entirely reconstructed in the time of the Emperor Hadrian, when he built his Temples of Eome and Venus, and naturally wished them to be placed amid suitable surroundings, the better to set off his skill as an architect. Instead of following this road as far as the point where it joins the Forum, let us turn to the left for a moment. We will cross this block of houses whose foundations have been brought to light, and proceed ^ See No. 1 ou plan. B 18 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. towards the Palatine and the Church of Santa Maria Liberatrice. This place has played an important part in the history of ancient Rome. It was here that the first kings established the religious centre of Rome before Tarquin transferred it to the summit of the Capitol. The building of the Temple of Jupiter marks a new epoch in the religious life of the Romans. The period wliich had preceded it, and which is sometimes called the period of Numa, bore a very different stamp ; then religious rites were simpler, and the sacred build- ings less sumptuous ; no statues had as yet been raised to the deities, and cakes made of salted fiour were the only sacrifices. There still remained, in the days of the Empire, three monuments of this primitive age which time had respected, and which were situated close together. These were the Temple of Vesta, where burnt the eternal fire ; the Begia, or the dwelling of the king, w^ho, being both the spiritual head and the chief magistrate of the city, had to live in a central position ; and, lastly, the Atrium Vcstiv, where the vestals resided who assisted the king in his capacity of high priest, in the same way that, among private people, the daughters helped the father of the family in the service of the household gods. These are the three monuments which were beins: soucjht.^ 1 For an account of the discoveries which have been made on this side, the reader is referred to the work of Signor Lanciani, entitled the Atrio di Vesta, published in the Notizk dcgli seaid of 1883, and to that of M. Jordan in the Bullctino dclV instituto di correspotidema archccologica, of May 1884. THE FORUM. 19 The first discovery, tliat of the Temple of Vesta, was made several years ago. After the Basilica Julia had been cleared, the workmen, while digging at a short distance on the further side of the Temple of Castor, came upon a small round basement completely in ruins. Although so humble in appearance, there were archaeo- logists who did not hesitate to assert that these founda- tions must have supported the famous temple whose origin has been ascribed to Numa. At the time, this statement led to much discussion ; but no one has dared to dispute it since the dwelling of the vestals has been found quite close to it. Time is not altogether to blame for the fact that the only remains of this old temple should be a heap of earth and a few scattered stones. Time is less skilful than man in bringing about the ruin of ancient monuments ; and, among men, the most highly civilised are often those to be most feared. " The excavators of the sixteenth century," says Signer Lanciani, " have done more harm to the antiquities than all the barbarians of the Middle Ages." In 1549, some archaeologists, seeking for statues and other precious objects, discovered the Temple of Vesta, the ruins of which had been fairly well preserved under heaps of rubbish, but they lost no time in bringing about its entire destruction. They carried away, for edifices which they were building, marble facings, friezes, columns, and even blocks of volcanic stone which were used for foundations ; they made lime of the stones which they did not care to take away ; then, their devastations completed, they covered up all that was left with earth. Happily, a scientist of that time, Pavinio, 20 AECH^OLOGICAL EAMBLES. had made a sketch of the ruins. This sketch, with the help of one or two bas-reliefs, and a few coins on which the temple is depicted, gives us a slight idea of what it must have been. It is ridiculous to say that the monu- ment of which the ruins were found in the sixteenth century was not the one built by Numa ; it might have been rebuilt more than once in ten or eleven centuries ; but Ovid says that, in rebuilding it, it was altered as little as possible, and great care was taken that its ancient appearance should be preserved.^ It was a round building, surmounted by a small cupola covered with sheets of metal. The savants invented very learned reasons to account for the round shape which they in- sisted in giving it. " It is round," they said, " like the world, and the world must be represented in the shape of a globe, in the centre of which burns the fire which nourishes everything." " Vesta cadem est quce terra y subest vigil ignis utrique." These subtle explanations of the ancient philosophers have jiow been abandoned, and we do not ascribe any such refined ideas to the rude peasants who, six or seven centuries before our era, built the first Temple of Vesta. It is supposed that they constructed it on the plan of the houses in which they themselves lived. Probably they knew of no other way of building. This is why the monuments which date back to the founda- tion of Eome all bear so much resemblance to one another ; for example, the little hut of Eomulus on the 1 Ovid. Fast., VI. 267. THE FORUM. 21 Palatine, which has been preserved with such respect ; the Temple of the Penates on the lieights of Velia ; that of Hercules Victor in the Forum hoarium-, ail reproduce the shape of the round cabins which were the first dwellings of the Italian people.^ These ancient build- ings were afterwards very often repaired, and ev^ry time they were repaired they were enriched. Ovid says that marble had taken the place of the inter- woven rushes which had formed the walls, and that the thatched roof had become a dome of brass ; "^ but, as I have just said, a sort of instinct of preservation, which is peculiar to this people, caused them to retain the original dimensions, the same external shape and general aspect, so that in the midst of the splendours of the Empire they seem to have preserved some souA^enir and some image of remote antiquity'. The dwelling of the vestals is situated, as might be expected, quite close to the temple in which they minis- tered. If, in 1876, the excavations had been prosecuted a little further, it would soon have been discovered ; but they were directed towards another spot, and it was only after having excavated the whole length of the Via Sacra, from the Basilica of Constantino to the Arch of Titus, that the restorers returned to the Temple of Vesta. A very few blows of the pick were enough to disclose the walls of the house of the vestals : thanks to the activity with which the works have been carried on, it has now been entirely laid bare. This was, with- 1 See Helbig, Bull, dell' instit., 1878-9. " Ovid, Fast., VI. 261. 22 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. out doubt, the greatest discovery that had been made W for many years ; and, if we accept the Basilica Julia, it was the most important monument as yet found on the Forum. The entrance is by a small side-door of unimposing appearance, but, after having crossed several steps, a rectangular court 68 metres long by 20 wide is reached. This court corresponds to the peristyle in ordinary houses, but is of an obsolete style. It was surrounded by vast porticoes, decorated with statues of the vestales maxima'' (the presidents of the College). These statues were placed on pedestals bearing pompous inscriptions. Signor Lanciani supposes that, at the time when the edifice was intact, it must have contained a hundred of these statues, but time has marvellously diminished the number. Now we have the fragments of but eighteen, all more or less mutilated. The pedestals are a little better preserved. Some had already been obtained from the excavations of the sixteenth century ; ^ the later explorations had produced about twenty more, of which some are in a perfect state of preservation. They bear inscriptions which teach us much. They show us what consideration the vestals enjoyed, and how much they were mixed up in public affairs. It was considered such an honour to belong to their college that Tiberius, to console the daughter of Fonteius Agrippa, who had not been elected, is believed to have given her a million sesterces.^ The honour ^ The inscriptions which were known before these last excavations have been collected in the Corp. insc. lat., VI. 2127-2145. - Tacit, Ann., II. 86. THE FOEUM. 23 was reflected on the whole family, and among the statues of which the remains have been found in the Atrium Vestce, several have been raised by relatives who were proud of having a vestal in the family. Sometimes they were set up by people who wished to evince their gratitude to one of the priestesses for a favour they had received, and the nature of the benefit shows us how far the vestals' power extended. We are surprised to see that* they contributed to the nomina- tion of the Emperor's librarian ; ^ but there are cases in which their interference astonishes us even more. How did they manage to procure for someone the rank of military tribuie ? and what good office could they have rendered to those centurions appointed by their comrades to arrange at Eome the affairs of their legion ? 2 It is not astonishing that the gratitude of all these persons should have expressed itself in rather extrava- gant terms. We must doubtless discount a little the praises that are lavished on the vestals at the base of their statues ; but they have the merit at least of making us acquainted with the qualities that were expected of them. They are especially praised for the zeal and skill with which they perform their sacred duties. They are said to have watched devotedly day and night at the foot of the altars of the gods beside the eternal fire, and their prayers are supposed to have contributed much to the prosperity of the republic. Many of the 1 Ccrrp. insc. lat., VI. 2131. ^ Lanciani, No. 6. ^/ 24 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. virtues for which they are lauded, such as chastity, piety, strict observance of rules, devotion to duty, would have applied equally well to the Christian nuns, but a Christian would not have allowed the magniloquence and exaggeration of some of the compliments. She would have blushed to have it said of her that "she surpasses all women that have gone before her in devotion and goodness," or that " the goddess had reserved her for herself, and had chosen her out especially to be consecrated to her service." We can well believe that those who lavished such praises on the vestals made sure of not displeasing them, which proves that humility was not one of the virtues on which they prided themselves. We remark that one of them is said to have been renowned for her wonder- ful learning {doctrince, mirabilis). We know for a fact that the worship of Vesta was a very complicated affair, and a long initiation was necessary in order to be able to carry out the rites according to the prescribed forms. The thirty years for which a vestal bound herself were divided into three equal periods : during the first she learned her duties ; during the second she performed the service ; and during the third she taught the novices. Indeed, we see on one of the pedestals, which have been found in the Atrium Vcstcc, a young priestess thanking an older one for the good lessons which she had taught her. Another of these monuments presents a very remark- able peculiarity ; the name of the vestal to whom it has been raised has been so carefully obliterated that it is quite illegible. If so much trouble has been taken to efface- it, it must have been because the vestal was no THE FORUM. 25 longer considered worthy of the honour that had been done her ; and one immediately thinks that she must have broken her vow of chastity, which fault was always punished with great severity. Another, and more plausible idea, has been put forward. The pedestal bears the date of the consulship of Jovian and Varro, that is to say, almost immediately after the death of the Emperor Julian, just when the struggle between the two religious was most violent. Should the chief vestal have abjured her vows, the affair would have made a stir, and it might have been considered indis- creet to have made the matter public. So we are led to believe that her fault was one of another nature, and, as the poet Prudentius speaks of a vestal who about this very time was converted to Christianity, ^ we may reasonably suppose that it might be this one. If the conjecture is true, the rage of the followers of Vesta, and the care they took to destroy the name of the culprit, may easily be understood. The large court of the Atrium Vestce has been cleared, and it now presents a most curious aspect. All the fragments of statues which the excavations have brought to light have been arranged along the walls in the very places where the statues of the chief vestals stood when the place was intact. Thanks to these ruins, it becomes easy to repeople this desert peristyle in imagination, and to restore to these vast porticoes their ancient inhabitants. The portraits of the vestals which remain ^ Prnd., Peristeph. II. 527 : ^demquc, Laurenti, tuam Vesfalis intrat Claudia. 26 AUCHiEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. to US permit us, mutilated as they are, to get an idea of what they must have been like, as well as all the details of their severe and rich attire. We recognise the short hair, bound with the infula, from which hung short fillets, forming a sort of diadem round the head ; the cords which confined the tunic at the waist, and the round hulla which was worn on the breast in the same manner as that in which nuns wear the cross. M. Lanciani observes that this dress gave them quite a regal appearance, and we must confess that their dwell- ing was much more sumptuous than any of our modern convents. Let us not forget that the court which we are now visiting, and which must have been much frequented by them, was 68 metres long by 20 wide. When we think that the house was only occupied by six or seven vestals, these dimensions may well surprise us ; but M. Jordan accounts for them in a very ingenious way. According to him, certain indications seem to point out that a part of the peristyle was arranged like a grove, with trees, paths, and marble seats. This arrangement was not only to give pleasure to the vestals, and to make them more contented with their life, but it was really a necessity to them. " We must not forget," says M. Jordan, " that they belonged to the first families in Eome ; that the class from which they came were accustomed to pass the hot months in the country among the mountains or at the seaside ; they, on the contrary, having once entered the Atrium, found it difficult to get very far away from it again. Their duties kept them in the neighbourhood of the Temple of Vesta, and they had to say good-bye to Tibur, THE FORUM. 27 Preeneste, Tarentum, and Baiae. In early times this confinement was a little more endurable to them ; between the Nova Via and the Palatine, there was a sacred wood called hicus Vestas, which is mentioned by Cicero.^ But it soon disappeared ; in this part of Eome, which became every day more and more thickly popu- lated, there was not an inch of ground that was not built upon ; air and light became ever more scarce, and the poor vestals who were forced to live among this accumu- lation of walls endeavoured to procure at home what the neighbourhood could no longer provide for them. Thus it was that a spacious dwelling came to be made, where it was possible for them to obtain fresh air ; and a little garden was laid out to delight their eyes with its fresh verdure. It was not much ; but in this respect the ancients were content with little ; and the masters of the world, established close to them upon the Pala- tine, were themselves not much better off. A grove is not worth much without a fountain ; and one has been found in the Atrium Vestm. It is a basin 4.40 metres by 4.10 metres, which even now is lined with marble. It has caused much surprise to find that, neither in the basin itself nor in the environs, has any trace of an aqueduct been found which might have brought water to the fountain when it was necessary to fill it ; but M. Jordan has accounted very reasonably for this peculiarity. Pestus says that the vestals did not use any water that did not come from an absolutely pure source, and they were forbidden to avail themselves of ^ Cic. De divin., I. 45. 28 ARCH.-KOLOGICAL RAMBLKR. tliat which the water-pipes brought from outside.^ We must suppose, then, that every morning the numerous sLuos attaoheil to the house brouglit water from some neighbouring spring and poured it into the basin. A conduit has been found which permitted it to flow into a drain which passed under the buihhng. As was always the case in Konian houses, all the sitting- and bed-rooms were disposed round the court. According to custom, the reception room or tahlinum was placed at the end, opposite the basin. This is a ver}' large room, which nnist have been richly decorated ; it is surprising that it was not placed in the centre. This peculiarity can only be explained by the repairs that have been made to the monument at various times when the arrangements must have been changed. The other rooms are in ruins, and it is difficult to say to what purpose they were applied. It seems, however, that the vestals must have used some of them for work- rooms in which, for example, they made the wola tialsa ; others were reserved for their private use. These must have been the apartments arranged along the porticoes on tlie Palatine side. Some, a little better preserved than others, still retain their wall-facings of precious marbles with stucco friezes which have not lost their brilliant colours. While I was curiously examining them, and admiring the richness of their decoration, I could not avoid thinking of the famous quarrel between Symmachus and St Ambrose over the altar of Victory. Symmachus bitterly attacked tlie laws which the last 1 Festus, pp. 158-160. THE FORUM. 29 Emperors had made against tlie pagan priests. He pitied the vestals more than any ; he spoke with emotion of " those noble maidens who have consecrated their virginity to the welfare of the State," whose property had been taken from them, and of the treatment they had r(;ceived from the public Treasury. St Ambrose, in reply, insinuated tliat tliese " noble maidens " were not altogether worthy of the admiration which Sym- machus ex]>ressed for them. He recalled with yjleasure their privileges, tlieir fortune, the consideration with which they had been surrounded, the large allowance which the State had made them ; and hinted that tliere were only seven of them to share all these advantages. " All that we can call to mind about the Temple of Vesta is the honour of the fillets with which the vestals cover their heads, the splendour of tlieir purple vest- ments, the litter in which they are carried, the train of servants which follow them, the immunities granted them, their liberal allowance of money ; and, lastly, the right they have of not binding themselves for n)ore than a certain number of years ! " Witli these few great ladies, blessed with all the gifts of fortune and enjoying all the pleasures of life, he compares the Christian n,uns, so simph.*, so humble, and, at the same time, so numerous, whom he calls by the beautiful phrase 'plehem 'pudoria. " They have no rich fillets, l;ut wear an ugly veil over their faces. Instead of trying to enhance their beauty by all the tricks of dress, they afi'ect a most sim]}le attire. What they de.sire, what they seek, are not tlie pleasures of life ; it is fasting and poverty." He was certain that this contrast between 30 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. the Christian monasteries of this time and the aristo- cratic convent of these vestals would be a striking one. It seems to me that a visit to their sumptuous house as we know it since the last excavations have been made, and the sight of the apartments of which such beautiful fragments remain, must form a commentary to the words of St Ambrose. Let us leave this rich and vast peristyle where we have lingered so long. A staircase of twenty-six steps brings us on a level with the road, of which we can follow the course from the Church of St Maria Liberatrice to the Arch of Titus, and which passes close by the side of the Atrium VesUe. It is thought to be the Nova Via, mentioned more than once in Eoman history, and which bordered the Palatine Gate and the Temple of Jupiter Stator. It must be confessed that the seclusion of the vestals could not have been very strict on this side, and access might have been very easily gained by means of the low windows. A few more steps lead us to other rooms, of which the mosaic pavements are the only remains. Some of them must have been bath- rooms; brick pipes are still to be seen in the walls, which must have served to carry water into the marble baths. In the centre of these apartments, which appear to have been clumsily repaired in the last days of tlie Empire, are the fragments of another staircase, which proves that the rooms of the vestals could not have been lower than the second storey. It is from here that we get the best view of the Palatine, as it appears since the last excavations. Those who have not visited it for two or three years will have THE FORUM. 31 some difficulty in recognising it. Until lately the Palatine was separated from the Forum by a dusty road leading to the entrance to the Farnese Gardens. Then, when it had passed under the gate built by Vignolius, it ascended, terrace by terrace, to the Palace of the Caesars. This road is now a thing of the past. The mass of rubbish and earth that covered up the ancient houses has been removed, and the ruins that have been so long hidden have been brought to light. From the top to the bottom of the hill nothing is now seen but stone or brick walls of unequal height, and the framework of houses. This spectacle, I fear, will not be to the taste of everyone ; more than one artist will perhaps find fault with the archaeologists, and reproach them bitterly for having replaced the Farnese Gardens, from which such beautiful views were obtained over the Gampo Vacchino, by something which resembled the streets of Paris when it was half destroyed. Certainly, archseology cares very little as a rule for beauty — it is content with truth ; but truth has its charm too. Perhaps, on looking at the Palatine as the new excava- tions have left it, the eye is at first bewildered by the accumulation of ruins ; but imagination soon sets to work. It raises vanished houses on the shapeless ruins, it joins broken walls, it erects houses that have been destroyed, and soon shows us this quarter as it must have been towards the end of the Empire. "We have more than one lesson to learn from the curious spectacle which it presents. We see once more how little the ancients cared for the wide streets and open spaces which our modern towns could not do 32 AECH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. without. We are here at the foot of the Imperial palace, a short distance from the Forum — that is to say, in the heart of the great city ; and yet "we have before our eyes nothing but a mass of houses creeping up the hill, jostling each other to suffocation, and leav- ing no empty space between them. The two parallel roads which separate them, and which run along the side of ihe Palatine — the Nova Via, of which I have just spoken, and the Glivus Victoria;, a little higher up — were not enough to give the light and air of which this quarter was in such need. It was impossible to keep off the invasion of the houses which bordered them. These dwellings encroached little by little upon the foot- path ; then, after having almost met down below, their top stories were united by small arches thrown across the street from one roof to another, and on these arches were built aerial rooms ; so that in time the Nova Via and Clivus Viciorice became dark haunts for cut-throats. It struck me as I walked along it that it was doubtless in such a street that, in Sylla's time, Sextus Eoscius was killed by the assassins as he was returning from dinner. {Oceiditvr ad balneas palatinae rediens a cena}) The other observation, which the sight of this new quarter suggested to me, regards the palace of the Cfesars. Formerly, when the only entrance was through the Gate of Vignolius, when these grand ruins were separated from the Forum by fields and walls, this building gave one the idea of an isolated and closely secluded dwelling. It is the general idea that one ^ Cic, Pro. Bosc. Amer., VII. THE FORUM. 33 always has of a king's palace. But this is not so ; the new excavations show ns that we have made a mistake. The house of Caligula, who was perhaps the most superstitious of the Ctesars, almost touched the other houses on the hill. Thence a staircase, still almost intact, takes one down into the centre of the Clivtcs Vidorice ; then from the Clivus it continues as far as the Nova Via, which we know met the Forum ; in this way it was possible to ascend directly and in a very few minutes from the Via Sacra to the house of the prince. There is nothing here which resembles the dwellings of Eastern despots as Herodotus paints them for us, defended by their many enclosures and their entrenched camps. Nothing separates the houses of Augustus and Tiberius from the others ; they live in the midst of the people, and are not separated from the rest of the Eomans by moats and walls. This is done so as to make the people believe that they were citizens as well as themselves, to persuade people who judge by appearances — and the great majority do so — that the Cajsars must not be considered as kings, and that, under their rule, Eome was always a free city. So we possess two out of the three monuments which recall the most ancient religion of Eome — the temple where the sacred fire burnt, and the dwelling of the vestals. The third one alone remains to be discovered, the Begia, that is to say, the residence of the high priest, where Julius Csesar dwelt. Must we believe, with Sign or Lanciani, that the Eegia disappeared long before the ruin of the Empire ? or must we think with C 34 AKCH^OLOGICAL EAMBLES. M. Jordan that it will be found under the Church of St Maria Liberatrice ? The future alone can say. We have now arrived at the entrance to the Forum, whither the road debouching near the Temple of Antoninus, by whatever name it be called, leads us. Before entering and trying to describe it, I think it as well to detain the reader yet a moment on the threshold. There are a few important reflections to be made at the outset, if we would avoid serious disappointment. Let us not forget that the Forum we are about to visit is that of the Empire. Most of the monuments of the epoch of the kings or of the glorious times of the Eepub- lic, which we are tempted to seek before all the others, are no longer there. It has been so often reconstructed and altered, it has so many times changed its appearance that those ancient memories have left very little trace on it. They only exist for us in the texts of the old writers who tell us of them. But those texts, although obscure and rare, have been interpreted with so much sagacity by a learned criticism, that we are now able, without great trouble and with sufficient probability, to replace those poor monuments of Eome's earliest times upon the ground encumbered with buildings of another age.^ The aspect and natural configuration of the place 1 For the better understanding of what follows, I have reproduced, with a few slight modifications, the map given by M. Detlessen at the end of his work on the Comitium, in les Annales de V Institut de correspondence arcMologique (1860). Although only the primitive Forum is here in question, it was not possible to make the sites of the more ancient monuments intelligible without marking those of the following epoch, THE FORUM in tKe first years of the Republic TEMPLVM VESTAE ? S to. If ancx^ J^tbertxtr ice- After Detlefsen TPIE FORUM. 35 greatly help us in this. We have seen that, according to Deuys of Halicarnassus, Eomulus and Tatius used to meet in a certain part of the Forum in order to confer, and that at this spot, since called the Comitium (gachering), the citizens thenceforth held their assem- blies. But where was the site of the Comitium to be looked for ? For a long time it was customary to locate it a little everywhere— even in the lowest parts of the plain. Good sense, however, tells us that it must have been in a high place, safe from floods. The Forum in its primitive state, was a marsh.i Tarquin, by building the great drain discovered under the portico of the Basilica Julia, caused the stagnant waters of the Tiber to How off, and first rendered the bottom of the place practicable. Before his time, there could have been no question of establishing a place for public meetings there. We must therefore put the Comitium a little higher, on the slope of a hill, in a dry spot. The texts of the old authors prove that it was to the north-west of the Forum, towards the part where we now find the Arch of Severus and the churches of Santa Martina and St Adrian. It formed a square, raised a few steps surrounded by a balustrade, and sufficiently extensive tor the cunal Comitia to be held there. Above the Goimttum was built the Curia, where the Senate met. but. in order to avoid all confusion, they have been given in thinner lines and smaller letters. Of course, in an attempt to go back to such remote tnnes. of which scarcely anything remains, minlte etc i ude cannot be expected. Detlessen's map only tries to give us an approxT nmt« :dea of the Forum in the regal and republican epoch '' Ovxd, Fast., VI. 401: Hoc, nli nunc fora-sunt, J^ tenuere paludes 36 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. It is unanimously believed that it was situated at about the place covered by the church of St Adrian. A little higher than the Curia a somewhat extensive platform was occupied by different public monuments, notably by the Grtecostasis, where foreign ambassadors used to wait until the Senate should deign to receive them, and by the Temple of Concord, whose remains still exist, and serve to fix the position of all the rest.i So we can picture to ourselves the ancient Roman Forum, although scarcely anything now remains of it. Let us imagine, at the foot of the Capitol and of the citadel, a series of terraces rising one above the other. Lowest of all, we have a sort of swampy plain, the real Forum, where the plebeians meet ; a little higher is the Comitium, a square esplanade serving as a place of assembly for the nobles — that is to say, of the real citizens who govern Rome — while higher yet we find the Curia, where the senate holds its sittings, and of which the Coiiiitium is, so to speak, the vestibule :- so that the very configuration of the place is an exact image of the political constitution of the country, and thejvarious stages in which it is distributed represent different degrees of the social hierarchy, each class ascending higher as, in fact, it raises in power the nobles above the plebeians, and the Senate above all. This State, so severely kept, where all the classes of ^ Pliny, XXXIII. i. 6: ^dem Concordioe . . . in Qrcecostasi, quce tune supra comitium, erat. ' Titus Livius, XLV. 24 : Comitium vestibulum curix. THE FOEUM, 37 society are so well subordinated one with the other, is not, however, a despotic State. The Aristocracy, which holds the power and desires to keep it, does not resemble that of Venice, which deliberated in the dark and forbade liberty of speech. The gravest questions are handled in the Comitmm, in the light of day, and everything is carried on by word of mouth. In the place where public meetings are held, there is a tribune for the orators, and it is regarded as a sacred spot (templmn). It is a small terrace of some little height and breadth, and without any balustrade, where he who speaks is completely seen from all sides, which obliges him to drape himself becomingly and assume noble attitudes. The wall supporting it bears a singular ornament: the^iron prows (rostra) of the ships found by the Romans in the port of Antium, after the taking of the town, have been fixed there. They burnt the ships, not knowing what to do with them, and brought away the rosira as a trophy to decorate their Forum. The site of the tribune can be fixed with sufficient exactness. We are told it was close to the Curia : ^ the Senate, aware of the importance of speech, desired closely to supervise it. " It has its eye on the tribune," says Cicero, "and holds it in hand, to restrain it from rashness and keep it in bounds." 2 A passage in Pliny informs us that it must have been situated opposite the Grcccostasis, that is to say, on the 1 Asconius, Cic, Fro Mil. 5 : Himit enim tunc rostra nan eo loco quo nunc sunt, sed ad comifium, propejuncta curia:. aCic, Pro Flacco, 24: speculatur aique obsidei rostra vindex temeritatis et moderatrix officii curia. 38 ATICH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. other side of the church of St Adrian.^ llnally, we know that it was at the extreme limits of the Comitium. Thence the orator can be heard by everyone, and his voice reaches the different degrees of the Forum.- Only during the first centuries he is obliged to turn towards the Comitium when he speaks. He must preferably address the noble assembly which really governs the town. Later on, Licinius Grassus, or, according to other authors, the Gracchi, dared to violate this ancient usage, and first turned towards the Plebs. Sovereignty had changed place. The Forum being the most frequented place in the town, commerce naturally flowed thither. It is said to have been surrounded by shops as early as the period of the kings. The western side, opposite to the Comitium, offered more free space, and was thus the first to be built upon. There arose what were called the "old shops" {taherncc veteres). When ground failed on this side, they crossed over to the other, and on the space left vacant by the Comitium and the Curia erected the " new shops " {taherncc nova;). Very different trades must have been carried on in them, at least in the earliest times. > The school, to which Virginia was going when she was seized by the people of the triumvir Appius, was situated in the Forum. We are told that, when her father was forced to kill ^ Pliny, Nat. Hist., VII. 60. He says that in order to determine the hour of noon, they looked at the sun between the Grcccostasis and the rostra. The Grcecostasis being close to the Temple of Concord, to the right of the Curia, the rostra must have been placed to the left. - Dion Cassius, XLIII. THE FORUM. 39 her iu order to save her honour, he went to the new- shop and took a knife from a butcher's stall. Later on, the tradespeople, driven from the Forum by the fine buildings which were erected there, took refuge iu the vicinity. A great number of them settled in the quarter of the Fia Sacra. Beside the vendors of fruits and other eatables,^ there must have been more elegant shops — perfumers, goldsmiths, jewellers. Here about the time of Julius Ccesar — that is to say, before Christianity — lived that "jeweller of the Sacred Way," to whom, in his epitaph, is awarded the beautiful eulogy that he was compassionate and "loved the poor." ^ The old Forum, which had remained the same throughout five centuries, underwent a great change in 570, when Cato built the first basilica there. This preserver of ancient customs was often a revolutionist, who did not scruple to introduce new ones into the city ; and the enemy of the Greeks hesitated not to imitate them when he found it useful to do so. He desired, above all things, to please the populace, whose favourite candidate he was. The people, for its pleasiire or its business, frequented the Forum a great deal ; but the Forum was not always a very pleasant place. It is often extremely hot in Eome, and it not unfre- quently rains there. On the rainy and the hot days the busy and the idle knew not where to shelter themselves ^ The fruit vendors of the Via Sacra were renowned. See Varro, Ue re rust., and Ovid, Ars. am., II. 265, - Corp. insc. lat., I. 1027. 40 ARCH.^ilOLOGICAL l{A!^tl?LES. in this uncovoiod spot. It was in order to give them a place of refuge that Gate built his basilica. Monuments of the kind served, as is known, for many uses. Not only was it customary to buy and sell and render justice there; but people often assembled in the basili- cas without having anything to do ; merely to chat, and play, and laugh together. It was natural that this people, fond as they were of amusements, should be most grateful to those who provided them with such places of meeting and rendezvous.^ Unfortunately, this mode of pleasing them was not within the reach of all fortunes. A basilica could only be constructed after the purchase of the shops and houses of private persons, and these, situated in the finest quarter of the town, had assumed a great value. Cicero, who busied himself a great deal with the basilica which C;esar intended to build, relates that the ground cost oO,000,000 sesterces (12,000,000 francs). "The owners," he tells Atticus, " were unmanageable." - But the favour of the people brought so nnich with it, that it could never be purchased at too high a price. And this is why the Forum was, little by little, embellished with the superb monuments w^hose remains have been restored to us by recent excavations. ^Cicero, Ad. Alt., IV. 16: Xihil gratius iUo monnmcnto nihil glariosius. ■■^Cicero, Ad. Ait., IV. 16: Cum privatis'non 2>otcrat transigi miuoro pecxuua. (On tlio basilicas of Rome, seo Jordiiu, Top., II. 216.) V THE FORUM. 41 III. TJIE FORUM OF THE EMPIRE — HOW WE HAVE BEEN ENABLED TO RECOGNISE AND DESIGNATE ITS CHIEF MONUMENTS — STATIUS AND THE STATUE OF DOMI- TIAN — THE TEMPLE OF C^.SAR — THE BASILICA JULIA — TEMPLES OF SATURN AND CASTOR — THOSE OF VESPASIAN AND CONCORD — EAST SIDE OF THE FORUM — CENTRE OF THE FORUM — THE CLIVUS C'API- TOLINUS. We may now study it as it is, and, raising the ruins that cover it, picture to ourselves what it must have been at the end of the Empire. Let us go in by the newly-discovered road passing along the Temple of Eomulus and that of Antoninus. At the entrance, between the latter monument and the church of Santa Maria Liberatrice, situated at the foot of the Palatine, we meet with the ruins of a building of great extent. Only the substructions remain, but they suffice to show us that it must have been a temple. The faqade, which was turned towards the Capitol, presents a curious construction. The steps are not continuous, as is usually the case, the middle being occupied by a wall of peperino, rising between two narrow stairways.' This ' This arrangement is met with again at Pompeii. The flight of steps leading to the Temple of Jupiter, at the end of the Forum, exactly resembles that of the temple at Rome, of which we are speaking. 42 AECHyEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. wall supported a sort of platform, from which a fairly complete view of the Forum is obtained. Let us place ourselves on this convenient and central spot, and thence survey the spectacle which unfolds itself before our eyes.^ It would not surprise me were the first glance not to fulfil our expectation. In order to join the two quarters of the modern town, it has been necessary to leave an ugly road in the midst of the excava- tions, called the Bridge of Consolation. This divides the Forum into two parts, and allows no portion of it to be excavated in its entirety. It is impossible to imagine it as it must have been, without first mentally re- moving this inconvenient obstacle. This efii^brt accom- plished, another remains to be made. We have only ruins before us, often shapeless. These heaped-up frag- ments are somewhat unpleasing to the eye, and in order that they may move the imagination, we must be told to what building they belonged, and know their names and histories. After many groupings and uncertainties, this has at length been done, and the learned are now nearly agreed as regards the designation of the various monu- ments of the Forum. I shall content myself with giv- ing the most important texts on which these designations are based. In the reign of Domitian it occurred to the Senate, ^ See No. 1, on the plan of the Forum according to Sf. Dutert. It is the spot where I suppose the observer phiced to survey the Forum. TFFK KORUM. 43 who knew llioir lord to ])o;s,s(;.s8 a duiiiLy uppctite for lionour«, to raise a colossal statue to him, as had been done to Nero. It was placed in the midst of the Forum, and Statius, the conrtier-poet, sang its erection in verses, in which, setting modesty and truth at defiance, he congratulates Domitian, above all things, on his gcnthiuess, puts him far above Cajsar, and supposes that the old heroes of tin; Republic come to pay him com- pliments. Happily, in Uif; niid.st of these repulsive }>latitudes,he manages to render us a signal servic(;. In descril)ing tin; statue, Ik; (;numerat(!S the buildings round about it, telling us their nam(;s and tli(! places they occu[)y ; and he does this with so much ]jref;ision, that he enables us to know where we are in the midst of all these ruins. But in order to profit by the indica- tions he gives us, we must first know which way the statue faced. Statins informs us with much exactness. " Thy head," he tells the emperor, " exceeds tlie highest temples. Thou lookest to see if thy palace rises more glorious after the fire that consumed it, and whether the sacred fire has not ceased to burn in the solitary asylum where it must be kept alive." This moans, in other terms, that it was turned towards the Temple of Vesta and the I'alatine. There, now, are the monuments in whose midst it wns ])lac(;d. We shall see that it was diflicult to be more j^recise and clear. " Behind thee rises the Temple of V(;spasian thy father, and that of Concord ; on one side of thee thou hast the basilica of Julius, on the other that of Tl^vmilius. Opposite, thou gazest on the monument of him who first opened the heavenly road to our princes," — that is 44 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. to say, the temple raised to Julius Caesar after his apotheosis.^ So this building, situated opposite to the statue of Domitian, and which is just the one on which we have placed ourselves to look at the Forum, was the Temple of Cffisar. This monument has a curious history. Cresar had built a new tribune of harangues, doubtless pretending as a reason that the old one was badly placed, and that it was better to put it at one of the ends of the Forum than in the middle, in order that every- body miglit face the orator. In reality he wished to unroot eloquence from its wonted seat, desiring that it should lose its ancient habits and accustom itself to the order of things he was about to establish. This new tribune {rostra Jtdia) was the theatre of the terrible drama enacted after the death of the great dictator. Hither it was that the body was brought on the day of the funeral, when Antony, at the right moment uncover- ing the body and showing its bleeding wounds, carried the crowd away by his eloquence ; and it is here that the populace, maddened by grief and anger, burnt it with benches and seats taken from the neighbouring houses. On this same spot, a few days later, an altar and a column twenty feet high were raised to him, whither they came ^ Statins, Silvcs, I. 22. It is believed that the stone supports on which the Colossus of Domitian rested have been found in the middle of the Forum, near the column of Phoeas (see No. 2 on M. Dutert's plan). If this be true, we must suppose that when, on the emperor's death, the statue was overthrown, the pedestal was preserved, a thing hardly probable. M. Jordan is rather tempted to think that these layers of stone, which are still visible, belonged to the famous statue of Con stan tine. THE FOEUM. 45 to offer him sacrifices. When his party had triumphed, and he had been officially made a god, the altar became a temple, which was solemnly consecrated by Augustus. Only its foundations remain to us, and this platform on which we stand is perhaps all that is left of the tribune of Ctesar, from which Cicero declaimed his Philippics} To our left, along the road rising towards the Capitol, our attention is drawn to the ruins of a vast edifice, the finest yet discovered in the Forum. It still bears the name of Caesar, and is the Julian basilica {basilica Julia). It was begun by the dictator and finished by his nephew; but scarcely was it completed when it was destroyed by a fire, and had to be recommenced. Augustus took advantage of this to remake it larger and more beautiful. There now remains of it its marble pavement, raised several steps above the sur- rounding streets, and extending over a surface of 4,500 metres. As it has kept the trace of the columns and pillars that served to support the arched roof, we are able to restore its plan. The basilica was composed of a central hall, used as a court of justice. It was large enough to contain four tribunals, which dispensed justice together or separately.^ It is here that the ^We read in a passage of the Philippics, VI. 5 : Adspicitc a sinistra illmn equestrem statuam. This statue, Cicero saj's a little further on, was before the Temple of Castor. Well, when one was on the tribune of Cresar, the Temple of Castor was certainly to one's left, which seems to prove that this oration was delivered there. ^ Quintilian (XII. 5, 6) relates that when these four tribunals acted separately, and the basilica was full of noise, Trachalus, who spoke before one of them, managed to make himself heard, and was applauded from the others. 46 ARCH-^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. most important civil causes of the time were pleaded, aud where Quintilian, Pliny the Younger, and other famous advocates of that age, obtained their most brilliant successes. This great hall was surrounded by a double row of porticoes. Porticoes were then places much frequented by both sexes in order to walk and amuse themselves. Ovid strongly recommends a young man desirous " to fight his first battles " to repair thither in the heat of the day : the crowd is so numerous and so mixed, that he will easily find what he seeks. ^ Not only young people of fashion and light women in search of adventures pi'omenaded under the porticoes of the basilicas : many men of the people also came thither, together with the idle and the unem- ployed, of whom there were many in that great city where the prince and the rich undertook to feed and amuse the poor. They have left their traces on the fi.oor of the basilica. Its marble flagstones are scratched over with a multitude of circles and squares, usually crossed by straight lines dividing them into separate compartments. These were a sort of draughtboard used by the Eomans for their games. The rage for gaming among the unoccupied portion of the people was in- credible. It was not always obscure citizens who took part in it. Cicero, in his Philipi^ics, speaks of a man of some importance who did not blush to indulge in it in the open Forum." An attempt had been made, towards ' Ovid, Ars. am., I. 65 et seq. ^ Cicero, PhU., II. 23 : Hominem nequissimum, qui non dubritaret vel in faro cUea ludere. THE FOKUM. 47 the end of the Republic, to repress this mania by a law, but this law was not observed. They played through- out the Empire, and the quite fresh marks which furrow the soil of the Julian basilica show that they were siill playing in Eome's last moments.^ The basilica must have been of a considerable height. Above the first row of porticoes there was a second, accessible by means of a staircase, traces of which are still visible. From this gallery the whole place was commanded, and it was from here that Caligula threw money to the crowd, in order to have the pleasure of seeing people smother each other in endeavouring to pick it up.^ Hence, too, one could see all that was passing in the basilica, and follow the pleadings of the advocates, Pliny relates that in a serious case, where he was pleading for a daughter disinherited by her father, who at eighty years of age had fallen in love with a designing woman, the crowd was so great that not only did it fill the hall, but the upper galleries were thronged with men and women who had come to hear him.^ Having become acquainted with the basilica Julia, the names of the surrounding monuments are easily found out. The Emperor Augustus says, in the inscription ^ Some of these figures used by tlie players, and which are found in such great numbers on the pavement of ancient monuments, bear curious inscriptions. Here is one that has been read in the basilica Julia: Vincis, gaudes ; perdes, plangis. See Padre Bruzza's interesting article, entitled Tavole lusorie del castro pretorio {Bull. arch, munic. 1877). 2 Suet., Calig., 37. ^ Pliny, EpisL, VI. 33, 48 AKCHiEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. of Ancyrae : " I have finished the basilica begun by my father, which is situated between the Temple of Castor and that of Saturn." The surroundings of the monument, therefore, are here perfectly indicated. The Temple of Saturn, where the treasure of the State was kept, rises at the foot of the slope of the Capitol. Eight columns now remain of it, of somewhat coarse execution. They were repaired at the end of the Empire, between two invasions, and this work was done with such haste and carelessness that pieces of the shafts have in some cases been replaced up- side down. The other temple, near the Palatine, is that of Castor, or of the Dioscures, called by Cicero "most illustrious of monuments, the witness of all the political life of the Eomans."^ Three columns of it remain, which have ever been the study and admiration of artists. They are yet more striking now that the excavations allow of their being viewed from a lower level. Seen from the true ground of the Forum, they appear still more elegant and bold. To complete our knowledge of this side of the Forum, we should now only have to find the Temple of Vesta, with its dependent buildings — that is to say, tlie dwelling, or, if you will, the convent, of the Vestals and the house of the grand Pontifi", called the Rcgia. The foundations of some circular buildings have indeed been brought to light, towards the Palatine, but they did not seem to be sufficiently important for us to recognise in them the remains of the famous ^ Cic, Verr., V. 72, THE FORUM. 49 sanctuary where the sacred fire was kept.^ In any case, it could not be far distant, since we know from positive texts that it was near the Temple of Castor,'-^ and it is still hoped that its foundations will be discovered when it is permitted to pull down the mediocre church of Santa Maria Liberatrice. Opposite to us, at the end of the Forum, rises a large, modern, and very ugly wall, forming part of the municipal palace, and resting on ancient founda- tions. These foundations go back to the Eepublican period, and an inscription found there tells us they were the work of Lutatius Catullus, who finished the Capitol after the death of Sylla. They are the remains of an important monument where the state archives were kept, and called JErarium populi romani (treasure of the Eoman people) or Tdbularium. It was com- posed of a high basement of peperino, surmounted, according to M. Dutert, by two stages of porticoes. The whole building, which must have been lower than the modern wall and allowed the Capitol to be seen, closed the Eorum majestically to the north. Below, there are two temples, whose names, it will be remembered, Statius has told us. One is the Temple of Vespasian, built by his son, Domitian, quite close to that of Saturn ; three columns of it remain to us. The other is the Temple of Concord, entirely destroyed. ^ It is thought that one of these monuments was the tribunal of the Praetor, called Puteal Lihonis, where justice was administered. - Martial, I. 70 : Vicinum Castora cance Transihis Vcstac, virgin' eamquc domuni. 50 AKCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. It was a maguiiicent monument, which had been turned into a kind of museum. Masterpieces of the Greek artists, graven stones, and natural curiosities were to be found there. The custom of consecrating precious objects of gokl and silver to Concord, in order tc propitiate her, continued under the Empire. Some of these offerings were made in favour of the emperors by devoted subjects. An inscription has been found among the ruins of the temple, praying the goddess to prolong the days of Tiberius, in which he is called the best and most just of princes.^ So we are now acquainted with three sides of the Forum : that towards the east alone has not been cleared. It is covered by a quarter of New Eome, and in order to bring it to light again, it would be necessary to destroy all the houses from *S. Lorenzo in miranda (the Temple of Antoninus) to Santa Martina. It will doubtless soon be done, for the Municipal Council of Eome understands that it cannot leave its work imperfect. Happily, we know, approximately, what there is there. The texts of the ancient authors inform us of this with sufficient clearness, and a very curious discovery has nearly put it before our eyes. In the course of the excavations, made near the Column of Phocas, there were found, among works of the Middle Ages, two bas-reliefs, probably dating from the first century. Many disputes have arisen as to the subject they represent, but all admit the scene to be laid in the Forum, and that the artist meant ^ Jordan, Sylloge insc. Fori, No. 13 (daus VEphemcris cpigraphiea, III. p. 227). THE FORUM. 51 to represent its chief monuments. In one of them we easily recognise the Temples of Castor and of Saturn, and the basilica Julia, that is to say, the buildings on the western side. As the other was meant to be placed in front as its pendant, it must contain those bordering the Forum on the opposite side, the only one not yet laid bare. We recognise in it the ^milian basilica and the Curia of Caesar. Thus we now possess the elements needed for a knowledge of the whole Forum. It is not, however, exactly the Forum which we have thus far been endeavouring to describe, but only the sumptuous buildings that surround it. The ancients did not confound these with the Forum itself.^ They reserve the name for the interior space extending between these temples and basilicas. This place, of which, so long as it was covered with rubbish, it was diflScult to form an idea, is now known to us. A part of it has been restored to us by the excavations, ^ We have, then, in all, three tribunes of harangues : First, that of the Republic (rostra Vetera), near the church of St Adrian. It seems, indeed, to have still existed under the Empire, for Suetonius says that Tiberius pronounced the funeral oration of Auf:;ustus before the temple of Julius Caesar, and Drusus on the old tribune [bifariam laudatus est : pro wde Julii a Tibcrio, et pro rostrio veteribus a Driiso, Tiberii filio. — Suet., Aug., 100). The old tribune must have still retained the rostra of Antium, since Augustus caused the new one to be ornamented with the spurs taken at the battle of Actium. Secondly, the tribune of Caesar (rostra Julia), before the temple consecrated to him. Thirdly, finally, the one placed over against the Arch of Severus, and which some savants call the rostra capitolina. On what occasion and at what period this last tribune was constructed is not known, but Canina believed that he has found a reproduction of it in the bas- reliefs placed on the Arch of Constantine, which are of the time of Trajan. These are certainly the three tribunes of harangues {tre 52 ARCHiEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. and we can imagine the rest. It was quite shut in on every side, and surrounded by the streets on which the buildings of which I have just been speaking, looked. It is not quite an oblong, as was thought, but rather a species of trapezium, wider towards the Capitol than at the other extremity. On the slabs of peperino that cover it, rise large blocks of stone, the supports of the statues and columns by which we know the Forum to have been encumbered. Eight of them are counted along the road in front of the basilica Julia. Towards the top, by the Arch of Severus, a wall is remarked, still covered with a few marble slabs, and pierced with deep holes, of which a part is unfortun- ately buried in the mass of the Bridge of Consolation. This wall seems to have supported the platform of another tribune of harangues, and it is thought that the holes were made for the insertion, according to custom, of the spars of ships. Near this tribune, in front of the Temple of Saturn,^ Augustus erected the "golden milestone," the centre of the Koman world, where all the highways of the Empire took their begin- ning.2 At this spot all the roads of the Forum joined, to proceed together to the heights of the Capitol, and here it is, as I said farther back, that we are sure to rostra) wliicli used to be shown to strangers at the end of the Empire, and which are noted in the Curiostim urbis Ilomce. They are found in Detlefsen's map of the Forum of the Republican epoch, which we have reproduced further back. Let us add that orators frequently spoke elsewhere than at the tribune, and that demagogues have more than once stirred up the populace from the steps of the Temple of Castor (Dion., XXXXIIL 6). ^ Tacitus, Hist., 1. 2 : Milliarium aureum suboEdcm Saturni. • See No. 3 on the plan. THE FORUM. 53 find the Via Sacra again, by whatever way it passed. At the moment when the hero of the Triumph was about to enter upon this steep incline, known as the Clivus Capitolinus, a sinister train divided from the joyous troop following his chariot. It was the van- quished who had been led throughout the day behind the conqueror, exposed all along the streets of Eome to the insulting curiosity of the crowd. The festival over, they took him to the Mamertine prison to put him to death.i This is the fate suffered by the two noblest foes of Eome — Jugurtha and Vercingetorix, guilty of having bravely defended the independence of their country. Meanwhile, the victor, continuing his course, passed near the little terrace where we find the elegant portico of the " Dii Consentes," and what are believed to be the offices of the notaries. Thence he reached the famous Temple of Jupiter, situated near the Tarpeian rock, and of which the foundations have recently been discovered under the Palazzo Caffarelli. IV. IMPRESSION FIRST PRODUCED BY THE FORUM — ABSENCE OF SYMMETRY — ITS SMALL EXTENT — THE VERY DIFFERENT USES IT SERVED — POLITICAL ASSEMBLIES — HOW ORATORS MADE THEMSELVES HEARD IN IT — HOW IT HELD ALL THE PEOPLE WHO CAME TOGETHER THERE. Being now approximately acquainted with the sites and the histories of the chief edifices of the Forum, it is ^Cicero, Verr., V. 30: Cum de Foro in Capitolium currum flectere incipiunt, illos duci in carcerem julent. 54 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. easy for us, in imagination, to repair and restore all these ruins, and picture to ourselves what the place must have been like ere time had reduced it to the state in which we see it now. Let us seek to realise the impression it would make upon us, could we behold it as it was in the last days of the Empire, on the eve of the invasion of the barbarians, when it was still the admiration of visitors. I think that in order to be duly struck by it, we should make a slight concession, and begin, which is always a difficult matter, by forgetting for a moment our habits and our prejudices. We are wont to put first among the merits of a public place its symmetry, its regularity, and its extent. It must be owned that the Forum appears somewhat to lack these qualities. It has the defect of all things not constructed according to a fixed plan. No architect regulated its proportions in advance, and distributed the monuments round about it ; it may be said to have been formed by the centuries. We have seen that it originally consisted of different and unequal grades. Overlooking a swampy plain rose the Comitium, which had above it the Curia, and then the Vulcanal, whence one ascended by a steep slope to the Capitol. In course of time these differences of level were partially masked by the construction of large buildings, but these edifices, erected at haphazard, at very different epochs, are not always in keeping ; they are heaped together without much order, and crowded one against the other. The great personages who governed the Eepublic being all anxious to leave memorials of themselves in Eome's most famous spot, no space about it has remained empty. We find THE FOEUM. 55 several basilicas there, seven or eight temples, a palace for the Senate, three passages or janus for men of business, and five triumphal arches. Even the part lying between these edifices, and which should have been left vacant for the use of the public, was en- cumbered with trophies, shrines, columns, and, above all, with statues, which, to use Chateaubriand's expression, formed a whole dead nation amid a living one. Vanity had so multiplied them, that the Senate was occasionally obliged to have some removed. ^ Among the columns were some that must have taken up considerable room. They were surrounded by a balcony commanding all the Forum, and on days when a fortunate and grateful candidate gave the people a spectacle, the descendants of those in whose honour the columns had been raised had the right to come with their families to these species of tribunes, and watch from them the gladiators and the athletes. It is to be feared, then, that at first sight the Forum may strike us unfavourably ; that this accumulation of riches may weary the mind ; and that we may regret not to find a little more order, symmetry, and simplicity there. But such a first impression will hardly last, if we muse on the events and personages recalled by those edifices. There, in truth, may it be said with Cicero : " On whatever spot we tread, we awake a memory." ^ The Forum is not one of those public places found in all towns, and it would be unjust to apply ordinary rules 1 Pliny, XXXIV. 6, 14. ^ Cicero, Be Fin., V. 2 : Quacumaque ingredimur, in aliquam historiam ponimus. Cicero is here speaking of Athens. 56 ARCHiT.OLOGICAL KA.MBLES. to it. We must not require it exactly to resemble others in its general plan and its dimensions, since it possesses the peculiar character and the special beauty of comprising in itself the entire history of a country. The vast number of its monuments, which at iirst some- what surprised us. explains and justifies itself by that of the glorious deeds whose memory they preserve. This first aesthetic defect removed, I think that our eye will soon become accustomed to the somewhat con- fused spectacle, and that we shall even find in it a certain picturesqueness not met with in the solemn and cold regularity of our own great public places. It is rather more difficult to clear the Forum from another fault with which it has been reproached ; and it would seem, indeed, not without reason. "What strikes one at first, on viewing it as a whole, is that it does not appear very large. On observing its slight depth and extent, one asks oneself how it could have sufficed for all the uses it served. Ancient authors tell us that it was the most frequented spot in l\ome. Idlers, of whom there are always so many in large towns, made it their meeting-place. Horace relates that he was accustomed to walk there every evening. ^ He was strolling, as was his wont, along the Sacred Way, the day when he met that bore who dogged his steps, in spite of his protests, and insisted on being presented to Miiecenas.^ Curiosity there found plent}* to satisfy it. Not to speak of the quacks of all kinds, of whom there was no dearth, there were sometimes ^Horace, Sat., I. 6, 133. ^Snt., I. 9, 1 : Ibam forte via Sacra siciif 7ncns est ynos. THE FORUM. 57 genuine exhibitions of paintings. After the defeat of Greece, the masterpieces of her Art were often exposed beneath the porticoes, or in the temples, and amateurs crowded thither to see them. Occasionally victorious generals, as a device to heighten the effect of their victories, had the battles in which they had taken part painted by skilful artists, and exhibited them in the Forum. One of these, the Praitor Mancinus, carried complaisance so far as to stand beside the picture repre- senting his great deeds, to give explanations to those who should need them. This politeness charmed the people, who the following year named him consul.^ At the foot of the tribune, newsmongers and politicians met. They formed animated groups, eagerly discussing the latest event ; they spread alarming news ; they framed laws and plans of campaign, and they spared neither statesmen who had not the good fortune to be popular, nor generals who did not snatch \dctory at the first blow.- Near the same spot, below the first sundial erected in Rome, young men of fashion used to assemble, some carefully clean shaven, others with well- trimmed beards {aut imherles, aid lene harhati).^ Not far off, near the ^milian basilica, the exchange was held. The bankers had their offices along certain vaulted passages, called janus, where they were seen behind their tables, entering in their account-books the money people came to entrust to them, or that which they consented to lend on good security and at enor- 1 Pliny, XXXV. 47. ^They called them subrosirani. — Cicero, E'p.fam., VIII. 1. ^Cicero, Pro Quint., 18 : Non ad solarium, non in campo, 7ion in conviaiis versatus est. 58 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. mous interest. There, stewards of great houses, knights engaged in the farming of the public revenues, mer- chants, usurers, and borrowers met. Important business was transacted in the place — one got rich there quickly enough, but one got poor again more swiftly yet. How many fortunes, thought to be solid, came, as Horace says, and were shipwrecked between the two janus ! ^ The Forum was also occasionally used for popular spectacles, especially combats of gladiators. I need not say that it was very much crowded on those days. We learn from Cicero that this was the game preferred by the populace above all others, and to which it thronged with the greatest eagerness. In order to see it to greater advantage, people crowded not only the neighbourhood of the arena, but the steps of the temples, the terraces of the basilicas, and the streets rising to the Capitol and the Quirinal. The festival often lasted several days, and usually ended with a great repast, at which all present were regaled. Tables were raised on the open Forum, and who- ever chose came and sat down to them.^ In order that the people might see and eat more at their ease in spite of the solar heat, Caesar had the entire Forum covered with immense awnings (velaria), which sheltered everybody during the two or three days the festival continued.^ Dion tells us they were made of silk.* This magnificence soon became customary, and once, under Augustus, when the season was ^Sat. II. 3, 18. 2 Pliny, XIX. 1, 6. 3 Titus Livius, XXXIX. 46. ^Dion, LIII. 31. THE FORUM. 59 very hot, the awnings remained spread throughout the Slimmer.^ A spectacle yet more common than the gladiatorial combats was afforded the curious by the funerals of great personages. The procession always crossed the Forum. Players on the flute, the trumpet, or the clarion, were seen to pass, deafening all assembled ; female " weepers," tearing their faces and plucking forth their hair; the crowd of friends, clients, and servants which was always attached to great houses ; and finally, those cars, or litters, bearing the ancestral images, whose number was necessarily considerable when the family was ancient. At the funeral of Marcellus there were more than six hundred. What is somewhat difficult to understand, and must have made the incumbrance incredible, is the cir- cumstance that these funerals did not turn aside from the Forum even when it was occupied by other assemblies. This is known from a celebrated anecdote related by Cicero, which many others repeated after him. The orator Crassus was one day defending a friend of his against M. Brutus, a very bad man who dishonoured a great name, and who, after squandering his fortune, earned his living by following the trade of accuser. The affair was lively, for Brutus did not lack ability, and the ardour of his hates sometimes made him eloquent. Just on that day he had spoken with great cleverness, and loaded his opponent with the most biting railleries. All at once, while Crassus was replying, the Forum was crossed by a funeral train. It was a lady of the Brutus blood being borne to the iDion., LIX. 23. 60 AECH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. pyre, surrounded by all the images of her ancestors. Crassus, quick to seize the opportunity, turned to his rival : " What dost thou calmly seated there ? " he asked; "what tidings shall that aged woman give of thee unto th}^ father, to all those great ones whose portraits thou beholdest, and to that Lucius Brutus who freed the people from the yoke of kings ? In what work, what glory, what virtue, shall she say thou art busied ? " ^ And he went on to reproach the unworthy descendant of so great a family witli all his conduct, and with all his life. Thus did a great Koman orator find among the sights offered by the Forum to its frequenters the occasion for one of his finest rhetorical efforts. But what above all drew the crowd to the Forum were the political assemblies. Those which met there were of three kinds : Firstly, the legislative comitia, where laws were voted ; secondly, the ordinary meetings {condones), where there was nothing to vote, and which were convened by a magistrate who had some communication to make to the people ; thirdly, political suits, pleaded in the presence of everybody, before a jury drawn by lot and presided over by the ^ De oral. For this passage of Cicero, I have borrowed the trans- lation of M. A'^illemaiu. He has introduced the anecdote in his Tableau de la littiraturc du dix hnitiime sikle in a style slightly imaginative perhaps, but very interesting. His narration, which produced a great effect, commences thus : " Voyez d'ici le Forum tel qu'il ne I' est plus, cettc place immense, arine journalUre dupeuple roi," etc. There is more imagination than truth here, and we have just seen how far the Forum is from being "an immense place," etc. "What M. Villemain describes is not "the Forum as it is no more," but "the Forum such as it never was." THE FOEUM; &1 praetor. Of these three kinds of meetings, the first — that is to say the legislative comitia — were the most impor- tant, and they were also the most rare. However great the mania of free people to continually alter their legal systems, there cannot be laws to make or un- make every day.' I add that it was not perhaps the one to which people repaired with the greatest eager- ness. Those great serious speeches, in which general ideas are developed and interests of State discussed, are less suited to popular gatherings than to limited meetings, comprising only the enlightened. The multitude usually takes very little pleasure in them ; they are too calm and too cold for it. In Eome, in order to arouse it, a personal question must be mixed up with the debates ; and hence the importance given there to political suits. They were as frequent as at Athens, and men of state passed their lives in accusing each other and defending themselves. Parties had no other means of attack than reciprocally to bring their chiefs to justice. The scenes in which a great personage, surrounded by his weeping family, his clients, and his friends, came upon the Forum to defend his honour and his fortune were most dramatic, and so the crowd was very anxious to assist at them. It was not less numerous at the assemblies con- voked by the magistrates for the purpose of communing with the people. The democracy is everywhere very exigent and very suspicions ; and in Eome, as else- where, it required that all whom it had nominated to public charges should render it a strict account of their ' Of all Cicero's orations that have been preserved to us, only a very small number — two or three — were pronounced before the jieople in order to counsel it to vote a law or dissuade it from doin" so. 6'2 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. conduct. It was a duty in which they did not fail when they desired to retain its confidence. Cato, one of the most accomplished types of the popular magistrate, always kept himself in touch with his constituents. He assembled them continually to relate to them in detail what he had done ; above all things, he told them his opinion with that droll animation so pleasing to the people, and talked to them of others and of himself, without regard for his adversaries, whom he loved to call profligates and rogues, while he never tired of praising his own sobriety and disinterestedness. The people took great pleasure in these communications, which made it feel its sovereignty. In moments of public excitement, when it was known that a tribune was to speak against the Senate or handle some burn- ing question, artisans deserted their work, shops were closed, and from all the populous quarters they crowded down to the Forum. On these days the Forum, encumbered with people, must have seemed very contracted. This was still more the case when those legislative comitia assembled of which I have just spoken. It was then necessary to take certain precau- tions with regard to the vote, to divide the place into thirty-live separate compartments in which to enclose the tribes ; and to construct those narrow passages called bridges, where the citizens could only pass one at a time to deposit their voting-tickets in the baskets. When we cast our eyes over the Forum as it exists to-day, and see the small space it occupies, it is indeed difficult to understand how it should have sufficed for all those complicated arrangements and contained the assembled Eoman people. THE FOEUM. bo It is true, as we have already said, that this Torum which we have before our eyes is not quite the Forum of the Republic, but that of the Empire. It is sometimes supposed that its size was only diminished under the Empire, and it is added that it might then be so with- out inconvenience, the people no longer having laws to vote; but this supposition is not exact. With the exception of the columns and statues which continued to encumber the centre of the place more and more, and of the triumphal arches which narrowed the adjacent streets, the new buildings were constructed on ground belonging to private people, outside the limits of the real Eorum. Ear from diminishing its extent, Cicero distinctly says that they enlarged it.^ On days when the assemblage was numerous, the people could group themselves on the steps or in the vestibules of the temples.^ Those who had not been able to find room near the tribune, packed themselves together in the two stories of the basilicas. Hence they could see very well, and, strictly speaking, they could hear. It is there- fore a mistake to think that the monuments built about the Forum ever prevented popular assemblies from being held there, and that it contained more people before they were constructed. There is, moreover, a reason why it could never ^ Cic. , Ad Att., IV. 16 : TJtfomm laxaremus. ^ A very large number of citizens could place themselves on the steps of these temples, when, as in the case of the Temple of Castor, they were much raised above the ground. People of my age remember that in 1849, at one of the festivals celebrated by the Republic, all the pupils of the colleges of Paris — that is to say, more than 5000 children — were placed on the steps of the Madeleine, and people were much sur- prised at the little room they seemed to take up there. 64 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. have been so vast as our imagiuation loves to depict it. It was necessary that the orators should be able to make themselves heard in it. Whatever strength of lung we may suppose a Cicero or a Demosthenes to possess, it is impossible to picture them to ourselves pronouncing their orations on the Place de la Concorde. Ancient Eepublics found themselves in a great dilemma when constructing their public places. They had to make these large enough to contain a whole people, and, at the same time, small enough for the orator's voice not to be lost in them. Since the Eoman Forum was for many centuries the usual place of public assemblies, we must believe that it fulfilled both these conditions. It is a fact, and must be accepted, even though not very easy to understand. We must first admit, then, that orators could be heard there, even when not very well listened to, and that their voices dominated those noisy assemblies, sometimes compared to the waves of a troubled sea, and where people abused each other, spat in each other's faces, and flung stones and stools at each other's heads. It may well be thought that they did not attain to this without effort. They had to learn a particular mode of emitting the voice ; to sing their ora- tions as it were, and, above all, to accompany them with an expressive pantomime which made them more eas}'' to follow, hence the importance of rhythm and gesture in ancient eloquence. It is, thanks to these means, that they succeeded in making themselves heard. Perhaps, too, the situation of the Forum will help us to under- stand what at first appears to us a veritable prodigy. It is placed in a kind of hollow reached by steep slopes. Towards the Capitol, it is a genuine precipice. At the THE FORUM. 65 opposite end, towards the Arch of Titus, the incline is more gentle, but still very decided, while on all sides, as it was customary to say, one " descended " to the Forum. When we think that this configuration of the locality, the small extent of the place, the hills surrounding it, the buildings that shut it in, are very favourable for the voice, it becomes somewhat less astonishing that orators should have made themselves heard in it and produced those great effects which history has handed down to us. We must also admit, in spite of the surprise we feel, that this Forum, which appears to us so confined, might have contained all those who wished to be present at some important suit, or who came to exercise their suffrages on a voting day. Perhaps, after all, the number of these voters may have been less than we are tempted to think ; possibly the place only sufficed, because a portion of those who had the right to come there remained at home. Towards the end of the Eepublic, in proportion as the popular assemblies became more stormy, wise and moderate people, who in all countries are the most timid, got into the habit of shunning them. When it was seen that they usually ended in sanguinary brawls, persons who feared noise ceased to appear at them. Cicero complains bitterly of this desertion of the comitia, and speaks of certain laws passed by just a few citizens, who had not even the right to vote. This was what explains how so many Eomans so easily accepted the Empire. They cared little enough about being deprived of political rights which they had themselves renounced. Yet under the Empire, the Forum ended by appear- ing too small. The popular assemblies then no longer E 66 ARCH.'EOLOGICAL RAl^IBLES. existed, but the promenaders, the idlers, and the curious became more and more numerous, and strangers arrived from all the corners of the world. The ex- pedient was resorted to, not of enlarging the old Forum, which could not have been done without destroying ancient monuments, but of building others round about it. Ca3sar began, other princes imitated him, and, as each desired to eclipse his predecessors, the cost became each time more considerable and the constructions more handsome. Thus it was that they came to create, in the heart of this sovereign city, the finest assemblage of monuments and public places with which a town was ever honoured. A foreigner entering Eome by the riaminian Way, and who, after passing through the Forums of Trajan, of Nerva, of Vespasian, of Augustus, and of Cicsar, at length came to the ancient Roman Forum, where the beauty of the edifices was enhanced by the greatness of its memories, must have been strangely surprised at this sight. However great an idea he might have formed for himself in his own country of the marvels of Home, he was obliged to own his dreams far below the reality. He well felt that he was in the world's capital, and he went home full of an admiration that faded not for the town on which the whole universe had its eyes, and which, from the second century downward, was only spoken of as the " Sacred City." CHAPTER IT. THE PALATINE. The excavations of the Palatine, like those carried out on the Forum, have led to very curious discoveries. This hill, formerly occupied by the villas of great lords and the gardens of monasteries, v(rhere nobody might penetrate, has become one of the most interesting walks of Rome. I do not believe there is a spot where recollections of the past so crowd upon the memory, and where one more lives in mid-Antiquity. It must, however, be owned that this Antiquity was only given back to us in a very sorry plight, and persons allow- ing themselves to be beguiled by the tablet placed above the entrance to the Parnese Gardens, and believ- ing that they were really going to find the " Palace of the Caesars " again, would run the risk of being greatly surprised on seeing what really remains of it. There arc only a few ruins left, and, in order to see it such as it was, we must make a great effort of imagination. This effort is, however, necessary almost everywhere in Rome if one would feel some interest in visiting it. Everybody about to journey thither should be told this, in order to spare disappointment. Rome is not quite like other Italian towns — Venice, Naples, or Florence, 68 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. for example — which impress the visitor at ouce. It does not produce all its effect so quickly, aud, in order to fully enjoy it, a sort of initiation is indispensable. There are many reasons which prevent the great monuments it contains from at first corresponding to the idea we had of them. We hurry, on our first arrival, to see the ruins of which we have heard so much, but they are usually fixed into modern houses, and for the first moment this common sur- rounding prevents us from seizing all their beauty. We hasten to visit the old churches dating back to tlie iirst centuries of Christianity, but having been very often repaired and rejuvenated, they have lost much of their true character and primitive originality. One is not much struck by them on a cursory view, nor is this rapid glance enough to enable us to appreciate them as they deserve. It may be said that each year thousands of hasty travellers pass through Home who, not giving themselves time to see it, carry away only an incomplete impression. Some, the most courageous and most sincere, dare to own their disenchantment ; others admire on trust and from pre-intention, in order to do like everybody else, and thus not have lost their journey. Let us not follow their example ; let us be at the pains to see again, more than once, those fine ruins which at first left us indifferent ; let our imagination help our eyes to understand them ; let us. in thought, endeavour to isolate them from their dull, uninteresting surroundings ; let us encircle them with the great memories by which they are ennobled, and assuredly all will then change its aspect for us. To understand and know Eome is a study, then ; a THE PALATINE. 69 study requiring time and demanding some efforts, but this time is well employed, and these efforts promise us one of the greatest pleasures an intelligent man can give himself. Far from this pleasure being lessened by its postponement, we, on the contrary, find in it a special charm, because it is, so to speak, our work ; because we partly owe it to ourselves ; and because we are pleased with ourselves for what we did in order to win it. What completes it and lends it its finishing zest, is that it is coupled with a secret self-satisfaction and a certain feeling of pride that is liveliest in the most cultivated minds; that it calls for familiarity with the past and a full understanding of it ; and, finally, that dunces and fools can never more than imperfectly enjoy it. Other towns, even those we most love, only make us pleased with them; Eome possesses the unique privilege of at the same time delighting us with her and with ourselves. Let us add that, if the pleasure felt in visiting her does not come at once, it always grows with time. In studying all these monuments more nearly, we continually find new reasons for being struck with them. The more we view them, the greater charm we find in their sight, and we end by feeling the greatest difficulty in parting with them. Eome is the town of the world where curiosity and admiration least weary, and it has been remarked that those who have lived there longest are both the least inclined to leave it and the most desirous to return. Pope Gregory XVI., who was a clever man, always asked foreigners who came to take leave of him, how long they had stayed in Eome. When they had only remained a few weeks, he merely said : " Addio ! " i 70 ARCHi*;OLOGICAL RAMBLES. but when they had sojourned there several months, he always said : "-4 rivederci ! " These reflections, which apply to Rome generally, are, perhaps, still more appropriate with reference to the ruins of the Palatine than to all the others. It is there, especially, that the too hurried traveller is in danger of understanding nothing, and it is there that the curious lover of Antiquity, who takes time to learn, is sure to be largely repaid for his trouble. The Palatine, being the most ancient of the quarters of Eome, architectures of different epochs were more crowded together there than elsewhere. It had possessed great importance under each form of govern- ment, and the Kings, the Eepublic, and the Empire all left important monuments there, which for ten centuries were covered over with earth. Ptecent excavations have given them back to us, but, unfor- tunately, they have given them back all mixed up together. These edifices, having sunk one upon the other, re-appear simultaneously, and at first it appears as if one would never come to a clear understanding of them. But fortunately at Ptome each century had its particular manner of building, and each epoch used different materials. According as a wall is formed of peperino, of travertine, or of brick, or the work executed in what is called opus incertn7)i or opus rediculatum, one can approxiniatively tell its age. Moreover, in the manner of joining the bricks together, or laying the blocks, there are indications which do not deceive a practised archieologist. Lastly, one sometimes happens to find inscriptions on the leaden water pipes, and the bricks occasionally bear the THE PALATINE. 71 mark of the factory whence they came, or even the name of the consul under whom they were made, thus ending all doubts. It is thus we have been enabled to distinguish with great probability the age of the monuments discovered. Let us profit by these guides in order to arrive at an understanding of what remains of the Palace of the Caesars, and endeavour to ascertain what recent excavations, have restored to us of the various historical periods of the old Pala- tine.^ I. HOW THE EXCAVATIONS ON THE PALATINE CAME TO BE UNDERTAKEN — ROMA QUA DRAT A AND THE WALLS OF ROMULUS — THE TEMPLE OF JUPITER STATOR — REMAINS OF THE EPOCHS OF THE KINGS — ANTIQUITY OF WRITING AMONG THE ROMANS, AND THE CONSE- QUENCES TO BE DRAWN FROM IT — THE PALATINE UNDER THE REPUBLIC — WHY EXCAVATIONS ARE ALWAYS SO PROLIFIC IN ROME. The Palatine is a hill nearly 1800 metres in circum- ference and 35 metres in height, placed like a kind of island in the centre of those which, together with it, formed the Eternal City. Although the smallest of all, " the others," says a writer, " appear to surround it with their homage, as their sovereign."" And it was ^We are about to enumerate the chief monuments of the Palatine according to their age, and not in the order in which they present themselves to the traveller. ^A cut, come a sovrana,fan le altre sei corona. — Guattani, Mon ined., January, 1785. 72 AECH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. indeed this hill which held the greatest place in the existence of Eome. As it was natural to believe that it must contain fine mementoes of its glorious past, it has since the Eenaissance been several times excavated. According to the custom of the day, mosaics, statues, or other objects of art were sought, and the curiosity or the cupidity of the explorers once satisfied, the ruins for a moment brought to liglit were hurriedly covered up with earth again. Serious and continuous works were only begun in our time through the initiative of France. In 1861 it occurred to the Emperor, Napoleon III. — whose passion for Roman history, and, above all, for the history of the Ciesars, is well known — to buy of Francis II., King of Naples, the Farnese Gardens, occupy- ing the north of the Palatine.^ This project met with many obstacles on the part of the Eoman court, which did not care to see France become so near a neighbour. It raised a thousand difficulties, which were not to be overcome without much trouble. The great French epigraphist, M. Leon Renier, who knew the importance of the acquisition, and had counselled it, had the honour to conclude the negotiations. When they were finished, and the Palatine belonged to France, he made known to the Emperor the architect who appeared to him best fitted to undertake the great works which it ^ If a guide to the Palace of the Cffisars is needed, the one published by MM. C. L. Visconti and Lanciani, of which they have given a French edition {Guide du Palatin, Eome, Boeca), should be chosen. It is an excellent work, very clear, very learned, and very complete. As will be seen in the following work, I have used it a great deal. I have reproduced the map placed by ^IM. Visconti and Lanciani at the head of their book, almost exactly. PLAN OF THE PALATINE Scale TABLE I Clwas FciLoXirtLLS Z Portxay Muuioruiay 'iTernfiLe a/'Jufiiter Stcuc '^BaJJxs afZ,iuia. 5 Cryp.toportLco 6 House o£ Ltuioy 7 PoLSScxae/ 8 Imjx^r-uiUIerrujCLfclR in-isi 9 IjiTfterial box, in/the. Or, I QI'ra.etoruirv£ajTa,cke I I CLujuLs Victoj^-iee \ZI/otLse o£ thye, SoLoHers FOHVM BOWRIVM. TABLE r \ I 1 CIUJUS FiX-LlXtuXULS Z. FortayMLLOorua^ 3 TernfiZe. afJufhiter StcUor ^ 5 Cryp.top^T'tLco 6 Mouse- of LivicL/ 7 FcLSsixae/ 8 ImfXM'r'uxUlerruMijcle, irttheStCU^ 9 IjTif ureal box, irutJvBr Graiul CLtca ^^Tra.etoriaxv^arrajJzs ll ^^ II CliuLLS Victortse \2Mou^e of the, SoLdiers snuZ' SUujes THE PALATINE. 73 was proposed to carry out there. This was M. Pietro Rosa, known to the learned by his topographical studies on the Roman Carnpagna. M. Rosa at once set to work with ardour, and was not long in justifying, by the most important discoveries, the confidence shown in him.^ These discoveries were not limited to the Imperial epoch. While searching, especially for the Palace of the Cfiesars, they found remains of the old town of Romulus, which might have been thought for ever lost. It was well known to have been built on the Palatine. History relates how the first king, having called around him all the adventurers of the neigh- bourhood, marked out its boundary in accordance with the Etruscan rites. They say that he harnessed an ox and a cow to the plough, and guided it all round the hill, raising the share at the spots where the gates were to be, and marking by a deep furrow the circum- ference of the town whicli he desired to found. This furrow, or rather the space left free beyond the line traced, formed what was called the pomcerium (pone muros) or sacred enclosure of the town, within which it was forbidden to bury the dead or to introduce strange gods. Its limits were marked by stones placed from distance to distance along the Palatine. In the time of Tacitus it was believed to be still known, and its position was pointed out.^ This was " Square Rome" {Roma quadrata), so called from the shape of the hill on which it was seated, or rather because ^ Directly after the events of 1870 Italy bought back the Palatine of the Emperor Napoleon III., while he was still a prisoner in Germany. » Tacitus, Ann., XII. 24. 74 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. it had been founded according to the rules of art of the Augurs, and represented on the earth that ideal space {templum) which the Augur formed in the sky with his stafif. In spite of the lapse of so many centuries, and so many revolutions, all trace of this old Eome has not disappeared in our time. In different parts of the Palatine the remains of the walls, constructed by the first founders of the city, have been discovered, and may still be seen. These are large blocks of stone, drawn from the hill itself, and on which, later on, the Coesars rested the founda- tions of their palaces. When the imperial palaces fell, the old remains covered by them were brought to light again. Not only have we here and there identified the boundary of primitive Eome, but its chief entrance is believed to have been found. Towards the Arch of Titus a road leaves the Sacred Way and wends straight up the hill. It is neither broader nor less steep than the rest, and is only distinguished from all the others known to us by the large size of the slabs forming its pavement. This was the Palatine road or ascent (dims palatinus)} Scarcely do we enter upon it, when the still visible supports of a large gate are met with. A little further on, enormous blocks of stone detached from a wall have rolled to the ground. The wall was the very one attributed to Eomulus ; the gate is much less ancient, but it is believed to have replaced that which served as chief entrance to Roma quadrata. It was called Vctus porta or porta Mngonia^ and is said to have received the ^ See OD the plan, No. 1. ^ No. 2 on the plan. THE PALATINE. 75 latter name from the bellowing of the oxen which left it in the morning to pasture in the swamps that afterwards became the Forum. When the Emperors had established themselves on the Palatine, they had a new gate built, much finer than the first, which caused it to be forgotten. There were then no longer oxen nor swamps, but great lords and courtiers trod the Palatine road all day long on their way to see the master. It is, however, probable that the new gate was built quite close to the old one, and that the one shows us the site of the other. But this is not the only discovery made on this spot. Whilst excavating to the right of the gate, they soon found a mass of large stones, in which it was not difficult to recognise the foundations of a very ancient temple. It can scarcely be doubted that this is the Temple of Jupiter Stator, one of the most celebrated of Eome, which, for want of a true site, archaeologists have hitherto placed a little everywhere, accord- ing to their fancy. Titus Livius relates the occasion of its construction. The Sabines, after seizing the Capitol, had thence flung themselves on the soldiers of Eomulus. The Eomans fled dismayed. " Already," says the historian, " the army in disorder had reached the old gate of the Palatine, when Eomulus, whom the fugitives had hitherto borne along with them, stopped, and raising his eyes towards Heaven: 'Jupiter,' said he, ' it was thou who didst encourage me to throw the foundations of my town upon this hill. I pray thee, father of the gods and of men, turn the enemy from us, calm my soldiers' fear, stop their shameful flight, and I will build thee here a temple which shall 76 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. eternally recall to pcsterity that Eome was saved by thy help.'"! It is the remains of this temple, dedicated to the gOvd who stops all the flyers {Jupiter Stator), that have been found.2 This point once fixed, the old town of Eomulus is explored with tolerable ease. We have only to go over it in imagination, in order to find its chief monuments again. " Near Jupiter Stator," Titus Livius tells us, " lived Tarquin the Elder," and M. Rosa has placed a tablet on the spot where his house must have been. A little lower rose the Temple of Vesta, where the sacred fire burned, and its foundations are supposed to be still in existence under the church of Santa Maria Liberatrice. Behind St Theodore, on the slope of the hill opposite the Forum hoarium, is the spot where, down to the last days of the Empire, the curious and the devout were shown a little grotto shaded by a fig-tree, called the Lupercal. It is here that the she-wolf was said to have suckled the divine twins, so a bronze she-wolf, the work of an Etruscan artist, was placed there, and is believed to be the one found at the beginning of the fifteenth century, which now adorns the Capitoline museum. A little further on, just where the church of St Auastasia stands, was the great altar (Ara maxima) said to have been consecrated by Evandor, where, down to the end of the Empire, the victory of Hercules over Cacus was celebrated.^ Above, on the hill, was seen a monument 1 Titus Livius, I. 2. 2 gge ou the plan, No. 3. ^ Servius, Aen., VIII. 271 : Ara Herculis, sicut videmus kodie post januas circi maximi. THU PALATINE. 77 more venerable yet, and which a true Roman could not visit without emotion. This was the house, or rather the cabin of Eomulus, " where," says a poet, " two kings were content with a single hearth," ^ and which formed a strange contrast with the marble palaces surrounding it. It was preserved and repaired with such care that it still existed at the end of the fourth century. Not only can we picture it to ourselves from the descriptions given of it by ancient writers, but a recent discovery has almost put it before our eyes. In excavating an old necropolis, near Alba, cinerary urns of terra-cotta were found, rudely worked, and represent- ing a kind of small round edifice with a pointed roof. We know it to be the type of the ancient cottage of the Latin peasant, built of reeds and covered with straw. They were therefore accustomed to build their tombs in the image of their houses, and the abode oi the dead was made like that of the living. The most ancient temples — those of Hercules Victor and Vesta — were also built on this model, and it was natural that the habitation of the kings should resemble that of the gods." These monuments which used to cover the Palatine no longer exist, but we know where they must have been, and we run but slight risk of mistaking, when we recognise some of them in the ruins heaped together on different parts of the hill. Perhaps it may be thought that I am treating these old memories too seriously, and that to appear to believe what Titus Livius or Denys of Plalicarnassus tell ^ Prop. IV. 1, 10 : Unus erat fratrum maxima regna focus, " See on the Casa Eomuli, Rossi, Piantt di Roma, p. 1, << seq. 78 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. US of those remote times is to do them too much honour, but, as Ampere has already remarked, " if it is easy for a savant in his closet to laugh at Eomulus and his successors; to see in the tales told us of them only extravagant fables, or explain them as myths devoid of reality, one does not feel quite the same assurance when one has just visited Eome. There, that past which at first seems so far off, so doubtful, draws near to us ; it is touched and seen. It has left of itself such deep and vivid traces that it is impossible to deny it all belief. To be exact, had nothing remained of those ancient centuries, one might think that the Greek chroniclers who first unravelled the annals of Rome had amused themselves by inventing all sorts of fables, in order some way or other to fill up the gaps of history. But, impudent liars though we may suppose them, they were not free to imagine everything according to their caprice, since they found themselves face to face with memories they were bound to respect. These memories could not be lost, because they were attached to in- destructible monuments as old as the very beginnings of the city. Generations passed the names of their founders from one to the other, and their sight recalled the disasters or the victories which had been the occasion of their construction. Annalists of the sixth century doubtless added much to these traditions. The imagination of the Eomans was dry and short, and they lacked the art of embellishing their history with marvellous fictions like the Greeks. As time effaced the memory of the past, popular fancy did not know how to repair these losses by new and charming inventions. At the end of a few centuries, nothing THE PALATINE. ?9 remained of those ancient events but a few names and a few facts, on which it was easy to embroider a great many lies. But, if the lie covers all the surface, there must be a little truth beneath." Such are the ideas inevitably suggested by a visit to the Palatine. They possess the mind with peculiar force when one happens upon those great ruins of wall I have spoken of, which formed the wall of Eomulus. These walls are constructed on nearly the same system as those attributed to Servius, and can only be slightly anterior. Both are composed of blocks of tufa laid together, not united by cement, and kept in place by their weight alone. The arrangement of the layers is the same : the stones are placed alternately lengthways and endways. It is asserted that this manner of building belongs especially to the Etruscans, and that the Eomans had it from them. Such was their usual system. "They took everywhere," says Pliny, "what they thought worth taking {omnium utilitatum ra'pacissimi.)" But if this sensible race borrowed without scruple of its neighbours, or even of its subjects, whatever could be useful to it, it knew how to adapt what it imitated to itself. In introducing inventions from outside, the Eomans accommodated them to their peculiar genius ; they took full possession of them, as it were, modifying and renewing them accord- ing to their wants : they were pupils who soon became masters. Beule justly bids us remark that the Etruscans never produced great results in the grand art of building transmitted by them to the Eomans, and that it reached much higher perfection at Eome than among themselves. The Eomans gave it more 80 ARCHyEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. and more their own character, and when they applied it to works of public utility, such as bridges, drains, or aqueducts, or to edifices especially admitting of grandeur and majesty, such as amphitheatres or arches of triumph, they evolved masterpieces from it. What shall I say ? It seems to me enough to look on those fine walls, remaining to us from the royal epoch on the Palatine or elsewhere,^ in order to foresee and divine the impulse which architecture is about to take in Eome, and in what direction its development will be. Those who built them, whoever they were, could not have been barbarians. Such great works suppose them to have reached a certain stage of civilization. They had at their command powerful means of placing the stones one upon the other, and raising them to such great heights. They were imbued with the consciousness of their worth, and with that confidence in their own duration which makes great peoples. They were not, like savages, content hurriedly to construct a temporary shelter to protect their sleep for a few nights against unforeseen attacks ; they thought of the future, and worked for their descendants. In the midst of these swamps and these forests, they took care to raise defences which were to last thousands of years. " They were already beginning," says Montesquieu, " to build the Eternal City." I add that they not only ' The finest ruins remaining of the walls of Servius are on the Aventine, opposite the church of St Prisca, in the vigna Maccarani, now belonging to Prince Torlonia. A fragment of wall is found there 30 metres long and 10 high, wonderfully preserved, and which strikes one with surprise and admiration. All who desire to have an idea of these ancient buildings should go and see it without fail. THE PALATINE. 81 sought to make their walls solid. The manner in which those blocks are put together shows that they possessed, confusedly it may be, the instinct of grandeur, the feel- ing of proportion, and the taste for the kind of beauty which is born of strength. Assuredly, I repeat, they could not have been savages. An important discovery, made not long since, proves how well founded are these conjectures. The important works undertaken in different quarters of the town since 1870, and, above all, those near the Baths of Diocletian, have resulted in the finding of many remains of these fine walls of the epoch of the kings. On examining them more nearly than had hitherto been done, it was perceived that signs were inscribed on these large blocks of stone. They are sometimes rather lightly graven, and then it is very difficult to read them, but the workman has in most cases traced a deep furrow, which has resisted time, and is as visible now as on the day on which it was cut. These were pro- bably marks to indicate, sometimes the quarry whence the stones were taken, and sometimes the site for which they were destined. As they came from the neighbouring mountains, it was very necessary to inform those who conveyed them where they must be placed, in order to render any mistake impossible. These signs are very often letters, and most of those letters belong to the ancient Latin alphabet.^ This discovery, to tell the truth, was not quite a ' These characters were studied in a very interesting memoir of the learned Barnabite, Father Bruzza (Ann. de Vinst, arch., 1876). See also the discussion of M. Jordan, Topogr. I. p. 259, cl seq. ; Suetonius, Vespas,, 8. F 82 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. surprise for the learned. Otfried Miiller had indeed maintained that the first Romans did not know how to write, and that they only learned the art towards the time of the Decemvirs, when the twelve tables were promulgated ; but M. Mommsen long since refuted this opinion. No doubt is any longer possible now that letters have been found graven on walls of the royal epoch. Hence it ceases to be absolutely improbable that written monuments of those remote ages should have been left. It was formerly the fashion to laugh at Suetonius, because he seriously relates that at the burning of the Capitol, under Vitellius, 3000 tables of brass perished, containing laws {Senahis Consulta) and plebiscites from the birth of the town {pmne ah exordio urhis)} People would not admit that, in the time of Augustus, there could still exist copies of the treaties concluded by TuUus Hostillius with the Sabines, and by Tarquin with the inhabitants of Gabii, although Horace says that they were the delight of antiquarians. Doubtless, it must not be too readily believed without proof that all these documents were authentic; but, after all, they may have been. We have at least no longer any right to disdainfully condemn the distinct testimony of historians like Denys of Halicarnassus, who affirmed that they existed, and that he had read them, without doing them the honour of dis- cussion. For it is now certain that the founders of Eome knew and practised the art of writing, and that they employed it for the ordinary uses of life. It was not * Suetonius, Vespas., S. THE PALATINE. 83 with them the privilege of some classes of the nobles or the priests ; it was used by the undertakers of public works, and perhaps even by the workmen. It would certainly be ridiculous to pretend with Cicero that in the time of Eomulus science and literature already flourished at Kome, and picture to ourselves those senators, covered with the skins of beasts, as sages issued from the school of Pythagoras, and repeating its lessons ; but it would be a still greater error to make them downright savages, barbarians ignorant of all know- ledge and all the arts. Nor were they, on the other hand, quite epic heroes, as Niebuhr represents them. Ajaxes and Hectors came in a time when the exploits of [^warriors were only preserved in the songs of the rhapsodists ; for such hypotheses of legends and epic recitals found little room at a period when reading and writing were known. The city of Eomulus was not destined to remain long enclosed within the narrow boundary traced for it by its first king. It soon overflowed on every side, and ended by occupying all the surrounding hills. Thence- forth the Palatine was no longer Eome itself, as at first, but it always remained one of the chief quarters of the enlarged town. Celebrated temples were found there in great number — that of Jupiter Victor ; of the goddess Firiplaca, who reconciled households ; that of the mother of the gods, whence every year, on the 27th March, started the merry train of devotees and begging priests, who went through the streets of Eome singing light songs, to bathe the statue of the goddess in the little river Almo. There, also, some of the most illustrious citizens fixed their abode. They liked to lodge as near 84 ARCHiEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. as possible to the Forum and to places of public business. We know the exact position of the most illustrious of all these houses, that of Cicero, if it be true, as MM. Visconti and Lanciani think, that a large building, whose remains are seen at the corner of the Velabrum, belonged to the portico of Catullus. The house of Cicero, as we know, was quite close to it. He was very proud of living on the finest site in Eome (m pulcherrimo urMs loco). He tells us that he tlience commanded the Forum, and that his view extended over all the quarters of the town. This house was associated with the vicissitudes of his fate. During his exile Clodius got the people to decree that it should be razed to the ground, and that in its place a temple to Minerva should be consecrated. After his return the Senate decided to rebuild it at the public expense, and Cicero obtained 2,000,000 of sesterces (400,000 francs) for its reconstruction. Does not this read like a narrative of contemporary history ? Of all those private houses constructed during the Eepublic, which sometimes recall such great memories, only a few ruins remain, and the preservation of even these we owe to a strange chance. Those placed on the top of the hill were demolished in order to make way for the dwellings of the Ctesars ; but there were others situated in what is called by the barbarous term intermontium of the Palatine. The Palatine, like the Capitol, was originally divided into two by a narrow valley. It ran north and south, from the Arch of Titus to the grand Circus. This small valley was filled in by the emperors when they wished to extend and level the ground on which they were raising their palaces, THE PALATINE. 85 and the houses that had been constructed there fell under the weight of the piled-up earth. Some, however, resisted, and the excavations have brought their ruins to light again. In this connection it is as well that I should recall one of the reasons, the chief perhaps, which make the excavations at Eome always so prolific. This fecundity usually somewhat surprises those who are accustomed to our own modern towns, and to the process by which we see them renewed before our eyes. Eome, like all capitals, has in the course of its long existence been several times rebuilt; but the manner in which the Eomans set to work to rejuvenate their town was less fatal than ours to the old ruins of the past. We now demolish ; in those days they were content to bury them, "We aim, above all things, at making straight avenues, and in order to facilitate circulation for the numberless vehicles which traverse our streets, we level the heights, we suppress the hills. It may then be said that the soil of Paris is continually being hollowed out ; that of Eome, on tlie contrary, was constantly rising. The great Eoman lords who wished to gladden their eyes with a more extended view, or who merely sought to enjoy purer air, in this pestilential climate, were accustomed to build their houses on immense founda- tions. Even when a new quarter was to be made, they began by filling in the old one with earth brought from elsewhere, and built upon that. One is pretty certain, then, in raising this earth, to find the primitive soil again, and the remains of ancient buildings. This is what has happened on the Palatine, as every- 86 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. where/ and thus it is that under the palaces of the Csesars some houses of an anterior date have been dis- covered. There is one especially called, I know not why, the laths of Livia, and of which some chambers still remain in a sufficiently good state of preservation.- Graceful ornaments are seen on its ceilings, groups, figures, arabesques thrown into relief by a gold ground, a whole set of decorations, at once sober and elegant, which give us a very admirable idea of Eoman art under the Eepublic. The Palatine, about the time of Cicero and CcEsar, must have been filled with such houses ; but this is the only one that has survived. ^ They had the same good fortune in the excavations which Avere made a few years since at San Clemente. Their history is widely known ; but I think it well to recall it, in order to show by a striking example what a wealth of discoveries may be expected in digging the soil of Rome. San Clemente is an admirable basilica of the twelfth century, containing fine frescoes of Masaccio. In carrying out some works there they brought to light, under the present basilica, a more ancient church, with curious paintings and columns of marble and granite. It went back to the time of Constantine, and had been used during seven centuries, down to the sack of Rome by Robert Guiscard. Encouraged by this success, they excavated more deeply, and were not long in finding, under the primitive church, a sanctuary of Mithras and some portions of a Roman house dating from the begin- ning of the Empire. Then, on going lower yet, constructions of tufa were discovered, certainly as old as the first years of the Republic, and perhaps even belonging to the period of the kings. Here, then, is a siiccession of monuments of all the epochs, and by descending a few steps one may have the spectacle of the entire history of Rome from its foundation down to the Renaissance. ^ See No. 4 on the plan. THE PALATINE. 87 II. THE HOUSE OF AUGUSTUS ON THE PALATINE — HOW, LITTLE BY LITTLE, IT BECAME A PALACE — WHAT REMAINS OF IT — EMPLOYMENT OF MARBLE IN THE IMPERIAL EPOCH — NEW PROCESSES IN THE ART OF BUILDING — THE PALACE OF TIBERIUS — THAT OF CALIGULA — THE CRYPTOPORTICUS WHERE CALIGULA PERISHED — THE HOUSE OF LIVIA AND ITS PAINTINGS — THE PALACE OF NERO. "With the Empire new destinies begin for the Palatine : it then becomes the dwellings of the Csesars, and, as Tacitus expressed it, the centre of the Eoman world {arx imperii). In his youth Augustus lived near the Forum ; a little later on, when he was still only one of the ambitious ones who coveted the succession of the great Dictator, he bought a somewhat modest house upon the Palatine which had belonged to the poet Hortensius. It contained neither marbles nor mosaics, and was only ornamented with commonplace porticoes sustained by stone columns. Yet it was the beginning of those imperial palaces which, continually spreading, ended by covering all the hill. The house of Augustus grew little by little with its master, and it is not uninter- esting to study the successive additions it received : for in the adroit manner in which, insensibly, and without shocking any one, he made the dwelling of a private individual into that of the chief of the State, I think we find the whole policy of this clever personage. In seeking a secret reason for all his actions, one 88 ARCHAEOLOGICAL EAMBLES. runs no risk of rashness. Even in his most intimate life it was his wont to leave nothing to chance, and he is known to have written his conversations with his wife beforehand, for fear of saying a little more than he wished to do. We must therefore believe that if he chose the Palatine above all the other quarters of Eome for the location of his abode, he had some motive for so doing, and these motives are not very difficult to find. It was on the Palatine that the ancient kings of Eome were said to have lived. Augustus was most anxious to put himself into their company, and when he determined to give up the name of Octavius, which the proscrip- tions had brought into disrepute, and to take a new one he was first tempted by that of Eomulus, and he would have preferred it to the others had not the violent end of the first king seemed an evil omen for his successor- It is certain, then, that in taking up his position on the hill which had been the seat of royalty, he hoped to inherit something of the respect by which those ancient memories were surrounded. So he, as well as those who came after him, took great care to preserve and repair all that remained on the Palatine of that distant past. It has been remarked that the imperial palaces often respectfully turn aside from ancient ruins, the precau- tions taken not to include them in the new construc- tions being still visible. It was doubtless thought that those venerable monuments of the ancient kings of Eome protected and consecrated the habitation of the new masters of the Empire. Augustus also made a great point of doing nothing hastily. His great art was to manage transitions with caution, to avoid scandal and surprise in all things, and THE PALATINE. 89 to accomplish the gravest changes without noise. He did not fail to proceed thus on the present occasion, although it was apparently of less importance. He knew that a monarch must have a palace, and that the master of the world could not lodge like a private individual. So he resolved to enlarge the house of Hortensius, which was no longer adequate to his fortune. After his victory over Sextus Pompey, when his power was acknowledged by all Italy, which he had just delivered from the fear of a servile war, he ordered his stewards to purchase a certain number of houses sur- rounding his own, and demolish them. As these demoli- tions might set suspicious minds thinking, he caused it to be given out that he was not working for himself alone, but in the public interest, and that he desired to consecrate part of the ground to religious edifices. And he really had the famous Temple of Apollo Palatinus built, together with the Greek and Latin libraries, of which mention is frequently made by writers of that time. The magnificence of these buildings alone attracted public attention, and it was scarcely noticed that at the same time the house of the prince was also growing larger, and changing its aspect. A short time afterwards the new palace was destroyed by fire. It was customary in Eome, after a misfortune of this kind, for the friends of him who had been its victim to club together and help him repair his losses, these voluntary con- tributions standing in lieu of our insurances. The fire on the Palatine was a natural occasion for showing how many friends Augustus possessed. All the citizens of Eome hastened to bring him their offerings ; but he would not accept them. He only took a trifling PO AKCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. sum, a denarius at most, per person, and rebuilt his house at his own expense — only he profited by the opportunity to rebuild it larger and more beautiful. When he was named Pontifex Maximus, instead of doing like his predecessors, and going to live in a special building near the Temple of Vesta, he remained in his own house and contented himself with raising a Temple of Vesta in it. Thus ancient usage seemed to be preserved, and the Pontifex Maximus was still near the divinity who protected Eome. In a curious and often- quoted passage, Ovid has taken pleasure in describing the house of Augustus for us, as it was towards the end of his reign. Exiled to the ends of the earth, and full of regrets for Eome, whither he was forbidden to return, the poor poet sent his verses to entreat for him. He represents them wandering in this city, where they have become strangers, obliged to ask their way of the passers-by, and seeking above all the dwelling of him who so cruelly punishes, but can also pardon. The directions they receive are so precise that we can still follow the road with them. There is first the Forum and the Sacred Way. " See," they are told, " here to the right is the gate of the Palatine, near the Temple of Jupiter Stator." ^ A little higher a house more beautiful than the others is seen, " and worthy of a god." It is surrounded by temples, adorned with arms and a shield ; an oak crown shades its entry, and laurels are planted at the two sides of the door. Those laurels, that crown, solemnly awarded to Augustus by the Senate " in the name of the citizens he had saved," announced the dwelling of the world's master. lOvid, Trist„lll. 1. THE PALATINE. 91 The works of these late years have not yet restored the palace of Augustus to light, but the verses we have just cited tell us where to seek it. It was near the Temple of Jupiter, above the Palatine gate, — that is to say, at the spot covered by the gardens of the Villa Mills. Excavations were made there in 1775 by the Abbe Eancoureil, to whom the ground belonged, and under the ruins heaped up from everywhere, a two- storied house was found, whose arrangements were easily recognised. The upper storey had naturally much suffered, but the lower one was almost entire. Some of the rooms were filled with rubbish ; others were empty, so that people could go through them and, what is more sad, could plunder them. They still kept their stucco, their precious pavements, and their marble linings attached to the walls by steel cramps. Charming pictures, much more delicate than those of Pompeii, adorned their ceilings. Admirable statues — among others the Apollo Sauroctonos, now in the Vatican — were found there intact. Great care was taken not to leave any object of art behind, from which any profit could be drawn. As for the remains of columns and pavements, they were care- lessly removed, loaded on several carts, and sold in the lump to a marble dealer in the Campo Vaccina. The owner, a jealous amateur, as well as a skilful trafficker, kept his discovery as close as he could. He would not let other archaeologists come near, and it is related that the celebrated Piranesi, who wished to see it, got into the garden by night like a thief, at the risk of being devoured by the dogs, and drew the ruins by moonlight. We still have 92 ARCHiEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. the plan which he hurriedly made of them in the course of his adventurous excursion, and, what is better still, that of the architect Barberi, who carried out the excavations under the direction of Ean- coureil.^ A glance at Barberi's plan suffices to show that this house, thought with much probability to be the palace of Augustus, resembled in its general arrange- ments all Eoman houses. It contained an interior court, or peristyle, on which the different apartments of the palace opened. These apartments comprised a series of round, square, and rectangular rooms, corre- sponding pretty exactly with each other, in which the architect has apparently sought to unite variety with symmetry.'* Two octagonal rooms, even, were found with forms so capricious that they recalled to those who saw them the fantastic constructions of Boronini. What at first caused some surprise, ^ Barberi's plan was reproduced by GuaLtaui iu 1785, in the Jilonumetiti antichi inediti cli Roma, with very curious drawings of the chief monuments then found, and which were afterwards scattered or destroyed. A reduction of Barberi's plan will be found on our map of the Palatine. This part of the hill cannot now be seen ; but it is said that it will shortly be opened to the public, and that the works destined definitely to give us back what remains of the palace of Augustus will ere long be resumed. Among the rooms found in the house of Augustus is one wanting (as we know) in the chateau of Versailles, and which I will designate by its Latin name of sterqinlinnom. It is a genuine monument. Guattani, who asks leave to speak of it (senza vcrgognct) describes it in detail, and takes occasion to bid us remark quanto gli miiichi fossero ingegnosi nclV invenzione eel ii^o delle commodita le piu indispensaMli e necessarie all' mnana vita. THE PALATIXE. 93 was to see that when these rooms and chambers are so numerous, they are generally very small, and that not one of them appears sufficiently extensive to serve for official receptions.^ But Augustus, as we know, affected to live at home like an ordinary citizen. He wished to pass for a man, orderly, econo- mical, and moderate in his tastes. He slept upon a low and hard bed ; he only wore clothes woven by his wife or his daughter, he never had more than three dishes served at his table, and he takes great care to tell us in one of his letters that he sometimes fasted in the morning " more scrupulously than a Jew keeping Sabbath." There is, however, something of hypocrisy in this simplicity which he so com- placently displays. Although he affected modest airs, his house inside, as we have just seen, was sumptuous. This prince, who always extolled ancient usages, nevertheless made a revolution in the manners and habits of his time. No one more than he assisted in the progress of the luxury he was in the habit of deploring. It is related that he caused to be read before the Senate and the people an old speech of Eutilius "against those who have the mania for building." He forgot that he had himself set the taste and the example by his magnificent construc- tions, and that a good part of the reproaches addressed by him to others recoiled upon himself. " I found Rome of brick," he sometimes said, " and ' AVhen Augustus, grown old, wished to assemble the Senate at a shorter distance from him, he convoked it in the Temple of Apollo Palatinus.-A. Gelle, Aug. 29th. 94 AECH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. I leave it of marble." M. Jordan rightly bids us remark that never was metaphor more a truth. Before Augustus, marble was seldom used in Eoman build- ings ; under the Empire it came into general use. Not princes alone adorned their dwellings with it; it was seen at Pompeii even in the shops of fullers and wine merchants. But it is on the Palatine that it especially abounds. Nowhere is it found in such quantities, and one has some difficulty in imagining how the architects who built the palaces of the Caesars could so easily manage to get these rare and precious marbles, which came from all parts of the world, if a discovery made some years age did not help one to understand. On the banks of the Tiber, not far from that strange Monte Testaccio, formed from the sherds of broken vases, was found in 1867 an ancient Eoman harbour. The rings which attached the vessels to the stone quay, the steps by which the freight was lowered or raised, are still visible. Around the harbour large magazines were built, in which merchandise was temporarily piled after its disembarkation. "When first discovered these still contained a large number of blocks of marble, on which the hewing process had been commenced. The inscriptions graven on these blocks, like those on the stones of the old walls of Servius, give us curious information con- cerning their origin and the manner in which they were brought to Eome.^ The most celebrated quarries in the entire world, those which produced the most 1 It is again the indefatigable Padre Bruzzi who has gathered these inscriptions and explained them in his memoir, entitled Iiiscrizioni dei marTTii grezzi. THE PALATINE. 95 renowned marbles, belonged to the Emperors, who reserved them for the monuments they caused to be erected. The works undertaken and the number of workmen that had to be employed on them, became so considerable under Trajan, that a special administra- tion {ratio marinorum) had to be formed which was doubtless dependent on that of the privy domain {ratio patrimonii). Each quarry was directed by a steward of the Emperor {procurator Ccesaris), who had under his orders all kinds of officials — secretaries, superintendents, and artists. The workmen were very numerous, and in great part composed of people con- demned to the mines by the tribunals of the Empire. These unfortunates, as a rule but little fitted for such rough labours, came to bury themselves alive in these detested caverns under the hard rule of slaves or freedmen. It was one of the severest punishments a judge could inflict, and during the persecutions it was very often applied to the Christians. To have hewed the marble from the quarry was not all — it had to be brought to Eome. Erom the ports of Greece and of Asia, of Alexandria and of Carthage, heavy ships were always starting, laden with enormous blocks, which crossed the sea with infinite trouble and exposed to all kinds of dangers. As large vessels could not ascend the Tiber, they unloaded at Ostia, so the Government had established an entire adminis- tration there, charged to receive the marbles and forward them to Eome. Medium-sized blocks were placed on barques of ordinary dimensions; but for monolith columns, colossal statues, or granite obelisks, special craft had to be constructed. Let the reader 96 AECH^OLOGICAL EAMBLES. imagine the expense involved in these complicated operations, and the money that must have been paid to these thousands of workmen, officials, and sailors. Let him picture to himself what the marble cost from the day it left the quarry to that on which it was brought to the studio of the artist who was to cut it. But it was necessary to strike the eye of the crowd, and always give it fresh marvels to admire ; it was indispensable that the public happiness, of which mention is so often made in inscriptions and in medals, should shine in the sight of all. In order that people might not be tempted to accuse the decrees of the Senate of mendacity — which at the accession of each prince celebrated the re-establish- ment of prosperity and the assurance of the peace of the Empire — in order to give manifest proofs of this prosperity festivals had unceasingly to be increased and monuments multiplied. And thus, from Augustus downward, magnificence became a political institution and a means of governing the world. This policy was singularly favoured by fortunate circumstances : at the very moment when the princes plunged into these magnificent constructions in order to busy and dazzle the people, a kind of revolution was being accomplished in the art of building, which rendered their prodigality more easy. During several centuries, M. Choisy tells us in his learned work,^ the Eomans had used for their monuments enormous blocks of stone, rough or cut, but always placed one upon the other without cement. They never quite ^ Jj'arl da baiir cliez les Homains, par A. Clioisy, Faris, 1873- THE PALATINE. ' 97 abandoned this mode of construction, in which each stone awoke the idea of a difficulty overcome, and gave the entire edifice an air of power and grandeur ; but as it was slow and costly, they of the Empire preferred another. Instead of composing the body of their monuments of large blocks painfully heaped up, they got into the habit of using irregular materials, put together in fragments and joined by mortar. This process, which they doubtless did not invent — I said just now that they rarely invented — but of which they first made a general and methodical use, offered wonderful advantages to people who wished to build cheaply and at small expense. "It allowed of their raising colossal vaults with the help of bricklayers alone, and without other materials than lime and pebbles." The source whence they had it, and the period of trials and gropings in the dark which tiiey passed through ere they learned how to use it, are not now known to us. M. Choisy bids us remark that the Pantheon is one of the most ancient, and, at the same time, the finest of the monuments built on this system. It was, therefore, under Augustus that it reached its perfection. It was so conformable to the practical sense of the Eomans, and so useful to their policy, that it lasted throughout the duration of the Empire. "Amidst the general decline of the arts," says M. Choisy, "the good traditions of Eoman building were perpetuated without alteration, and without progress. Under the Antonines, they did not build otherwise than under the Caesars." It was the employment of these economical and rapid processes, which were successfully used until almost the last G 98 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. day of Eorne, that rendered the great constructions of the Empire possible. Tiberius was not so prodigal as Augustus, nor was he so fond of building, yet there are some mementoes of him on the Palatine. It seems that he did not inhabit his predecessor's house, but had his palace apart, which was called by his name {Domus Tiberiana). It is several times mentioned in the accounts of the historians, and what they tell us makes the spot where it was situated known to us. Among these narratives there are some which it is impossible to forget. Tacitus relates that, on the 15th January 69, the Emperor Galba was making a sacrifice in the Temple of Apollo, near the palace of Augustus. He had at his side one of his friends Otho, who coveted the Empire. The gods seemed adverse ; the signs observed in the entrails of the victims were unfavourable ; and an aruspice announced to the emperor an imminent peril. Otho rejoiced ; for he was not unaware that the moment approached when the conspiracy hatched by his friends against the old emperor must break out. Suddenly one of his freed- men comes for him, and, on a word agreed upon, takes him away with him. Leaning upon his arm, Otho traverses " the house of Tiberius," descends thence on to the Velabrum, and, turning to the right towards the Forum, arrives near the Temple of Saturn, about the Golden Milestone, whence started all the roads of the Empire. There he meets twenty-three soldiers of the prsetorian guard, who proclaim him emperor, throw him into a litter, and take him to the camp, "while Galba," says Tacitus, "continued to weary with his prayers the gods of an Empire that no longer belonged I THE PALATINE. 99 to hini."^ The house of Tiberius must therefore have been placed to the north of the Palatine on the same side as the Velabrum. It was probably an old dwelling of his family, which he had caused to be enlarged, in order to put it on a level with his new fortune. Only a few small chambers now remain of it, which must have been the lodgings of slaves. Perhaps more will be found when the gardens still covering the ancient buildings have been excavated. The palace of Caligula was a little higher, near the angle of the Palatine, looking towards the Eorum. It is said to have been sumptuous, and that it was adorned with paintings and statues taken from all the famous temples of Greece. But the Palatine was not enough for Caligula; he pushed on his operations as far as the Forum, and turned the Temple of Castor into the vestibule of his house. By dint of hearing himself called a god, he had got to take his divinity seriously, and treated all the inhabitants of Olympus on a footing of equality. Not content with having had a temple raised for himself alone, where peacocks, parrots, and rare birds were sacrificed to him, he wished to take his share in the homage offered to the other gods, his colleagues. He often came to the Temple of Castor, seated himself gravely between the two Dioscuri, and thus yielded himself to the adoration of the nations. It is related that he one day saw among the crowd of devotees a shoemaker, who burst out laughing, and that he asked him, probably in order to give him an opportunity of repairing his fault, what effect he pro- 1 Tacitus, Hist., I. 27. too ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. duced on him. " The effect of a great fool," replied the shoemaker. What is somewhat surprising is, that Caligula forgave him the boldness of his reply. But he one day got angry with Jupiter Capitolinus, the great Eoman god, whom he doubtless accused of lack of con- sideration towards him. He was often seen, trans- ported with fury, to murmur menacing words in the ear of the wooden statue. " One of us must disappear," he repeated to him, and it was feared that he would have the head of the venerable image cut off, and replace it with his own, as he had done to so many other gods, when he suddenly calmed down. " Jupiter," he said, " had begged his pardon ; " and abruptly passing from fury to all the excesses of passionate affection, he would leave his new friend no more. In order to be nearer to him, and to be able to go and see him freely at every hour, he had a bold bridge built, which passed over the highest edifices of the Forum, and joined the Palatine to the Capitol. This bridge was destroyed at an early date, and we have kept nothing of it ; but the memory of Caligula is not therefore less lively on the Palatine. It remains attached to another ruin of the imperial dwelling which the excavations have given us back. Not far distant from the old Mugonia Gate, near the Temple of Jupiter Stator, there has been found one of those passages, called by the Komans cryptoporticos, which dived into the earth, and made it possible to pass from one habitation to another without crossing the streets or public places.^ This is one of the longest known. It begins quite close to the Clivus Falatinus, skirts the houses of Tiberius, See No, 5 on the plan. THE PALA-TINE. 101 and Caligula for more than 100 metres, and then, turning abruptly to the right, continues to the spot where it reached one of the palaces, now destroyed. It must have been carefully decorated, and received light from openings made in the roof. It is here, in this doubtful light, that, on the 24th January of the year 41, a terrible event occurred, of which the historian Josephus has related all the details for us.^ Caligula was at iirst so loved by all the Eomans that they are said, in three months, to have immolated more than 160,000 victims as thank-offerings to the gods for his accession. But three years sufficed to make himself feared and detested by the whole world ; so a conspiracy was formed, directed by the Military Tribune, Cassius Cherea, to deliver the Empire. Cherea, although no longer young, preserved certain habits of elegance in his dress and of affectation in his speech — an air of carelessness and softness — which made him thought less energetic than he was. But under this foppish appearance there was a soldier's soul; and he was, further, a Eepublican who remembered the old Govern- ment in the midst of a people eager to flatter the new. Caligula, as insolent as he was cruel, ceased not to load him with affronts. Every time the Tribune came, accord- ing to custom, to ask for the watchword, the prince, in order to ridicule his effeminate habits, delighted to give him some low or obscene word, which made Cherea the laughing-stock of the officers and soldiers. He also seemed to pick him out for disagreeable em- ployments. One day he was ordered to examine a female comedian, whose lover it was desired to ruin ; * Josephus, ArUiq. J%id., XIX. I, 15. 102 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. but the comedian, in spite of the most frightful suifer- ings, refused to say anything that could compromise him she loved. Cherea, displeased with himself and others, ashamed of the part he was made to play, and indignant at the affronts which he was forced to swallow, decided to slay the prince. After much hesitation, it was decided to carry out the project during the Palatine games that were given in honour of Augustus. These games were celebrated at the foot of the hill where, later on, the Arch of Titus rose. A temporary wooden theatre was built there, to which the crowd thronged during several days. That day it was more numerous than ever, for in the evening a strange spectacle was to be given — a representation of scenes in hell, by a troupe of Egyptians and Ethiopians. Towards noon the Emperor was in the habit of returning for a while to his palace to take a meal and rest. It is here that the conspirators awaited him. He left the theatre with his uncle Claudius and a few friends, preceded by the German soldiers who formed his usual guard. When he had passed the gate of the Palatine, he let his suite proceed by the road leading to the palace, and he him- self turned aside to follow the cryptoporticus. He wished to see the children of noble birth, whom he had sent for from Asia for the games which he intended to give the people. They were employed in this retired spot in singing hymns and dancing the Pyrrhic dance. Cherea, who was the Tribune on duty, darted behind Caligula. He took care to send away the curious and the courtiers, saying that the Emperor wished to be alone, and followed him with the conspirators ; then, approaching while he was talking to the young people, dealt him a sword-cut on THE PALATINE. 103 the head. Caligula, who was only wounded, rose with- out saying anything, and endeavoured to flee. But he was at once surrounded by the accomplices of Cherea, who stabbed him thirty times with their daggers. The soldiers of the guard ran up at the noise, and the con- spirators, who could no longer go back, because they would have met the Emperor's officers and the Ger- mans coming to avenge him, continued to follow the passage as far as the spot where, according to Josephus, was the house of Germanicus, and by this way it was easy for them to escape. The frightful tumult which followed the death of the Emperor should be read of in the historians. The Germans, who regretted him, killed all whom they found in their way round about the passage and the palace : the innocent and the guilty alike fell beneath their blows. Meanwhile the event began to be bruited in the theatre. No one dared to believe, although everybody wished it, and, says Suetonius, what well proves the terror under which people lived, is that it was imagined that the prince himself had set the news of his death going, in order to have the opportunity of punishing those who should seem to be glad of it. The strangest rumours circulated. People did not know what to do, and no one had the courage to display his feelings or to leave his place when the Germans arrived, more and more drunk with blood and anger, and seeing accomplices of the assassins everywhere, threatened to fling them- selves upon the unarmed crowd. They were quieted with great difficulty, and the spectators fled in the midst of frightful disorder. The crypto'porticus in which the tragic events occurred 104 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. is almost entirely preserved. It can be traversed in its whole length, and the imagination easily pictures to itself the terrible scene that passed in it eighteen centuries ago. We see again that prince, worn by excesses of all kinds, that old man of nine-and-twenty years, as Seneca and Tacitus have depicted him in indelible touches, with that little head upon an enormous body, those hollow eyes, that livid hue, that wild glance, that countenance which nature had made sinister, and which, by a strange coquetry, he took pleasure in rendering more terrible yet. We follow the assassins from the moment when they entered the passage with him, to that when they escaped by the house of Germanicus, seeking an asylum of the father after having killed the son. By a happy chance this house perhaps still exists, for some scholars think it the one found nearly intact at the extremity of the passage.^ It was discovered by Signor Eosa in 1869, and is certainly one of the most curious remains of the Palatine. There has been much discussion as to whom it could have belonged. Seeing it so close to the palace of Tiberius, it was natural to think it his family house, the one where he was born, and which his father bequeathed to him when dying. It was, indeed, the first name given to it ; but some time afterwards there was discovered in the foundations a leaden water-pipe, on which was read at intervals the words : Julicc Augustcc. This name, apparently that of the owner, was borne by many persons, and notably by Livia, the wife of Augustus, and M. Leon Eenier is convinced that ' See No. 6 on plan. THE PALATINE. 105 it is she who is in question.^ The house of the Palatine then, would be the one to which Livia retired on her husband's death. It is here, according to M. Eenier, that she passed in sadness and isolation the last years of her life, an object of hatred and jealousy to her son, who blushed to owe his greatness to her. On the other hand, to MM. Visconti and Lanciani, our little house appears to be the one spoken of by Josephus, by which the murderers escaped, so they do not hesitate to call it " the house of Germanicus." However it may be with regard to these two opinions, which it would not be impossible to reconcile, and of which the second perhaps results from a false popular designation, the house is certainly much older than the passage, various details of its construction showing that it dates from the end of the Eepublic or the first years of the Empire, It continued to exist amid all the changes undergone by the Palatine. More and more hidden and buried by the great palaces that were built round about it, it had the good fortune to survive them. All the lower storey is in perfect preservation. Around the atrium, reached by descending a few steps, are arranged four rooms, still covered by the finest paintings, and the most intact yet discovered in Eome. Along the cornices run elegant arabesques, garlands of leaves and flowers intertwined with winged genii, and fantastic landscapes in charming taste. In the middle of the panels are ^ M. Renier maintained tliis opinion in a memoir published by the Revue Archeologiqtie in 1871, to which M. Georges Perrot has added an important study on the paintings of the Palatine since then. M. Perrot has reproduced the work of M. Renier and his own in his Memoires d'Archeologie. 106 ARCHAEOLOGICAL PwAMBLES. seen five large frescoes forming distinct subjects. The two least important in size and merit are scenes of initiation and magic. Another, nearly 3 metres high, represents a street of Eome, supposed to be seen through a window. This was a manner of enlarging an apart- ment or enlivening it, and of giving the Roman houses those street views which they generally lack. The custom still exists in our time. "All who have travelled in Italy," says M. Perrot, " know what a taste the Italians have preserved for those ocular deceits, for those perspectives which their decorators employ with a rare ability. You enter a court, and on the wall at the back, instead of the dull grey colour of the dirty plaster, or the glaring whiteness of the whitewash, you perceive a street receding in the distance, bordered by fine buildings or a garden ; a coppice filled with birds flying about in the foliage ; a trellis with ripe grapes hanging from it. The eye, without being cheated, still feels a lively pleasure in this substitution, and the mind en- joys an illusion which may be more or less complete, according to the greater or lesser adroitness of the painter. From the artists who decorated the houses of the Campanian cities and of Imperial Rome, down to those in our days, who spread their distemper colours on the walls of the houses of Genoa, Milan, Padua, and Bologna, there is an unbroken tradition, a heritage faithfully passed on from century to century, through all political vicissitudes. The Palatine view represents a street, with houses on which at each storey there are seen, sometimes open terraces, and sometimes balconies, surmounted by a roof supported on columns, like a loggia of our days. Persons leaning at the windows THE PALATINE. 107 look at the passers-by, and a woman has just come out of her door. As she is accompanied by a young girl who holds in her hand one of those dishes in which the sacred cakes were placed, it may be supposed that they are both going to make some offering in a neighbour- ing temple. It is therefore a real landscape, a corner of ancient Eome exactly reproduced, where we find what is wanting at Pompeii — many storied houses. The two other pictures are mythological. In one of them Polyphemus is seen pursuing Galatea. The giant is half plunged in the waves, and to indicate that he is dominated by his passion, the painter has represented behind him a little wingless Cupid, standing on his shoulder, and holding him in leash with two ribands. Galatea, fleeing on a hippocampus, looks back towards the Cyclops. Her right hand rests on the croup of the sea horse, while the left, embracing its neck, supports a red mantle which falls to below the loins. The red drapery and the black mane of the hippocampus throw the whiteness of the nymph's flesh into high relief. In the background an arm of the sea is perceived, shut in by high bluffs. The hills are covered with trees, the water has kept its transparency. " I remember no ancient landscape," says M. Perrot, " in which a more happy and broader interpretation of Nature is found." The other fresco, the finest of all as regards its execution, represents lo at the moment when Hermes is about to deliver her from Argus. There can be nothing more elegant and more graceful than the attitude of the dis- consolate maiden, with eyes turned skywards, and in the disorder of her grief scarce holding upon her breast a mantle on the point of escaping. Behind her, Hermes 108 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. approaches in silence, hidden by a rock from the view of lo and her guard, while vigilant Argus takes not his eyes from his victim, and, all gathered together, seems ready to spring upon the dreaded liberator. " This picture," says one of the best judges of ancient painting. Professor Hellig, " reveals an extraordinarily skilful and sure hand. The outlines are very delicately graded and yet well defined. The colour scheme, pitched in relatively bright tones, produces an har- monious and eye-reposing expression. It would be difficult to find at Pompeii a figure equal to that of lo. On the Palatine the proportions are more slender and more delicate, the colouring more transparent, and softer, than with the Campanian painters. Must we explain this superior refinement of conception and execution by saying that the painters of Eome had many more opportunities of seeing and closely studying Greek originals than their brethren of the provinces ? Must we, above all, think of the influence which must have been exercised on Eoman artists by the realities that surrounded them, and by the elegance of the women of the world in the great city ? This I do not dare to decide." ' It seems very surprising that this elegant house, scarcely separated from the imperial palaces by passages and streets, should have been able to subsist without notable changes from the end of the Eepublic ^ At the Paris Jilcole des ieaux arts, we have a very exact copy of these paintings, the work of M. Leyrand, an inmate of the Academic de France at Rome. These pictures are placed in the vestibule of the hall where public exhibitions take place, on the side towards the q%iai Malaquais. THE PALATINE. 109 until the ruin of the Empire. Perhaps it was pro- tected by the memory of illustrious dwellers who inhabited it during its first years; perhaps, too, the Csesars who followed had a private reason for keeping- it and repairing it with such care.^ Whatever pleasure one may find in being an emperor or a king, there are moments when this enslaving vocation wearies, and one feels a want to descend a little from the heights. This official and public life would jade the most intrepid of the ambitious, were it not varied from time to time by a little solitude and shade. Louis XIV. himself, so made for this perpetual stage-playing, and accustomed to it from his youth, went to Marly, where etiquette was less strict, in order to escape from what Saint Simon calls " the mechanism of the court," and belong a little to himself. Who knows if this charming little house, so near the imperial palaces and yet so independent of them, where nothing recalls the supreme dignity, did not at times serve the princes, tried with the cares of Empire, as a retreat ? It was quite adapted to their relaxation ; it offered them a picture of private life, to which we always turn with some regret when we have left it. To my mind, setting aside the pleasure pro- duced by the beautiful paintings which cover the walls, the thought that princes like Vespasian or Titus, Trajan or Marcus Aurelius, often frequented it, passing pleasant hours there in sweet chats with their friends, augments the interest we feel in visiting it. Of Nero nothing remains on the Palatine. The taste 1 The inscriptions on leaden pipes found there prove that it was repaired under Domitian and under Septimus Severus. 110 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. for the gigantic being predouiinaut in him, his dream was to make a palace in which the whole town should be con- tained. The narrow hill, already covered with temples and houses that must be respected, afforded him no room for the edifices which he meditated, so he resolved to build his palace elsewhere. Caligula, in order to con- struct his, had already encroached upon the Forum. It occurred to Nero to equal the gardens of Maecenas across the broad plain separating the Palatine and the Coelian from the Esquiline. When the terrible ten days' conflagration had cleared the ground of the houses that encumbered it, Severus and Celer, Nero's architects, set to work. Their bold imagination, rich in unexpected combinations, was made to charm a prince whose morbid mind only loved new spectacles and extra- ordinary conceptions. They built him a palace such as had never been seen. The immense space at their disposal was filled with buildings of every kind. At the entry, near the spot where Hadrian afterwards raised the Temple of Eome, they placed a statue of the prince, a colossus 120 feet in height, which was subsequently made into an image of the sun. Towards the Esquiline, where the ground is so fertile, vast meadows, fields, and vineyards were spread out, and woods where wild animals roved. In the centre of the plain a pond was dug, which, according to Suetonius, was as large as a sea, and on whose shores rose pictur- esque buildings. As for the palace, properly so called, it was all resplendent with precious metals and rare stones encrusted in the walls ; so they named it the " Golden House." Immense porticoes were seen there ; ban- queting halls ^vith ivory tables ; water-jets pierced with THE PALATINE. Ill narrow holes, that spread upon the guests an impalpable rain of perfumes and precious spices ; and baths where, in the reservoirs, sea-water and all kinds of sulphurous waters were found in abundance. When Nero took possession of his new dwelling, he deigned to thank his architects, who had served him to his liking, and was heard to say that at length he was lodged. III. THE FLAVII AND THEIE POLICY — DESCEIPTION OF DOM- ITIAN'S palace — THE PALACE OF SEVERUS — THE IMPEEIAL BOX AT THE GEEAT CIECUS — LODGINGS OF THE SOLDIEES AND SEEVANTS. The dynasty of the Tlavii, who replaced the Ceesars, were bound to conduct themselves differently from them. Their ennoblement being recent and as yet unendowed with the authority that springs from ancient memories, it was necessary to base it upon public opinion, to listen to its complaints, and hold them in great account. Of all Nero's insensate undertakings, the building of the Golden House was perhaps that which had most irritated honest people. It recalled on e of the most terrible calamities of his reign, the burning of Kome, to which Nero was accused of having himself set fire, in order the more easily to obtain the ground he coveted. " The fire was scarcely extinguished," says an historian, "when he hastened to use the ruins of his country to build himself a rich palace. People were indignant to see those fields, those gardens, those meadows, which replaced so many poor houses, and, in 112 AECH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. the midst of a town overflowing with inhabitants, all this immense space filled with a single dwelling." " Eome," it was said in malicious verses, " will soon be nothing but a palace. Prepare yourselves yet, oli citizens, to emiorate to Veii, unless Veii itself be included in the house of Caesar." ^ Moreover, this magnificence cost very dearly : the Emperor's architects did not calculate ; the treasury was always empty, and, in order to replenish it, recourse was had, as usual, to confiscations and assassinations, so that the Golden House seemed to recall all the crimes it had entailed- Not only did the new emperors take good care not to finish it — they destroyed it. The vast grounds which it occupied were in part restored to the public, and only that was kept which was necessary for the erection of some sumptuous monuments. On the site of Nero's ponds, the Flavian amphitheatre was built, now called the Colosseum. On the Esquiline the baths were begun, which afterwards took the name of Titus, and at the post of the Via Palatina, on the Sacred Way, an elegant arch of triumph recalled to mind the taking of Jerusa- lem. These monuments, by means of which the new dynasty endeavoured to make itself popular, had the advantage over those of Nero, that the people profited by them. "Eome," said a poet, "is put into possession of herself again, thanks to thee, Ceesar. That which was the pleasure of a single man, serves for the delight of all." 2 So the Empire had returned to the Palatine, and 1 Suetonius, Nero, 39. ^MarHal, Dc Sped., 2-12. THE PALATINE. 113 this time, to leave it no more. Vespasian and Titus practised the policy of Augustus, sparing no outlay for monuments destined for the public, while they themselves lived simply, rather like private persons than princes. They managed, it appears, with the old imperial palaces, which, since the fire, had been repaired ; but this simplicity was not to the taste of their successor, Domitian. He had the mania, or, as Plutarch expresses it, the malady of building. Few princes have raised such magnificent edifices, and we are told that his palace was the finest of all. A man who caused himself to be worshipped, and who ordered that in petitions to him he should be addressed as " Master and God," could only dwell in a " sanctuary," for thus he himself called his house, and willed that it should be called. It was natural that he should endeavour to make himself a dwelling which should be worthy of such a name. This palace, the admiration of contemporaries, has been completely brought to light by recent excavations. It is not quite a discovery, for towards the beginning of the last century, Francis I., Duke of Parma, who possessed this part of the hill, had it excavated by the learned Bianchini, when a considerable quantity of ruins were found, and it was agreed, without hesitation, that they must belong to the palace of Domitian. It was then in a much better condition than now, and several rooms had preserved important remains of their primitive decoration. After everything that could be carried off had been taken to adorn the museums of the Farnese family, the ruins were covered up again with earth, and remained so for a century and a half. H 114 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. Signor Eosa has given them back to us definitely ; and, as they have this time been more completely cleared and disencumbered, as the general plan of the edifice is easy to reconstruct, and as it seems better to correspond to the idea we form of a palace, it is also the spot on the Palatine which strangers prefer to visit, and of which they keep the best recollection.^ Domitian's palace is still a Eoman house, built on the same plan as the others — yet with the difference that its proportions are vaster. It is reached by the steep incline {Clivns Falatinus) which, as I have said, leaves the Sacred Way near the Arch of Titus, and served the Eomans as their usual entrance to the Palatine, from the time of Eomulus. At the end of this road was the principal facade of the palace. Under a magnificent portico, raised on columns whose shafts have been found, three doors opened. That in the middle gave access to one of the largest and boldest rooms known to us. It was doubtless the reception hall, and Signor Eosa has retained its ancient name of tablinum. In it the prince gave his audiences ; it is there that he received the ambassadors of kings or of foreign peoples, and the deputations from the provinces which, on every anniversary, came to bring him the felicitations and good wishes of his most distant subjects. This hall is a living witness to the progress made by monarchical usages since the time of Augustus. At its end, opposite ^M. Ferdinand Dutert, who studied these ruins while in course of discovery, made a restoration essay, of which he published a summary in the Revue archeologique of January and February 1873. I am indebted to his kindness for a photographic proof of his restoration, which I reproduce iu the plate opposite this page. L TTiu. lier /W' THE PALATINE. 115 the entrance door, is seen a niche, doubtless destined to contain the Emperor's throne — for Domitian^ac? athrone, and it was he who introduced into the imperial court the etiquette of Oriental monarchies. Statins, his favourite poet, openly gave him the name of king, which Csesar had not dared to take, and he well knew that in apply- ing it to him, he did not risk his displeasure. The decoration of the hall was in keeping with its extent. Bianchini relates that, when he discovered it, he found admirable remains of its ancient splendour. Around walls, covered with the most precious marbles, rose sixteen Corinthian columns, twenty-eight feet in height, and marvellously worked. Eight large niches, sur- mounted by four pediments, like those of the Pantheon of Agrippa, contained eight colossal statues in basalt, two of which, a Bacchus and a Hercules, were found in their places. The entrance door was flanked by two columns of giallo antico, which were sold for 2000 sequins (£925). The threshold was formed of such an enormous piece of Greek marble that it was converted into the table of the high altar of a church. All these riches have been dispersed ; along the walls and on the pavements, there remain but a few fragments of the marble which covered them, and these relics no longer suffice to give us an idea of what must have been the magnificence of the hall. The tailiniun is placed between two other rooms of unequal size, opening, like itself, upon the entrance portico. The smaller of these was thought to be one of those household chapels where the divinities of the family were worshipped, and it has been named the Lararium, but whether this was its destination is 116 AKCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. somewhat uncertain. With regard to the other, however, there can be no doubt. It was a basilica, that is to say, one of those halls in which justice was administered. All its parts are clearly distinguished, and near the semicircular niche where the judges sat, there even remains a fragment of the balustrade which separated them from the bystanders. Here it was that the emperor judged the civil or criminal causes that were submitted to him. Domitian was very tenacious of this prerogative of his supreme power. He desired to assume the reputation of being a severe judge, and pitilessly chastised in others all the faults he so easily pardoned in himself. Behind these three halls, which take up the front of the palace, is the peristyle, a vast court of more than 3000 square metres in extent, surrounded by porticoes.^ The remains of the fluted columns of Carian marble, which supported the roof, and the slabs of Numidian marble which covered the walls, are still seen. At the end of the peristyle, facing the tablinum, a wide door leads to the triclinium, or refectory of the palace. Martial tells us that, before Domitian's time, the Palatine had no triclinium worthy of the Caesars, and congratulates him. on having built one, which to the poet appears as beautiful as the banqueting hall of Olympus. He declares "that the gods might drink nectar there, and receive from the hands of Ganymede the sacred cup." This comparison is bold, yet it must be owned that the hall must have 1 It was not possible to clear it all. A strip of ground imbedded under the terraces of the Villa Mills yet remains. THE PALATINE. 117 been very fine when it was intact. According to Eoman usage, it contained three tables. Two of these were ranged along the lateral walls, and the chief one was placed opposite the door of entry, in a kind of niche, magnificently decorated, which still preserves a portion of its pavement of porphyry, serpentine, and giallo antico. This was the one where sat the emperor and the greatest personages. The middle remained free for the service. On each side, five large windows, separated by columns of red granite, opened on two nym'p'hcea, in the middle of which the remains of a marble basin are still found, ornamented with little niches which must have contained statues. From the couches on which the guests reclined for the repast, they could see the water gushing from the fountain, and falling in a cascade from step to step in the midst of verdure, marble, and flowers. This elegant dining- room is often mentioned by the writers of the time. Domitian, who piqued himself on a love for letters, and who, in his youth, had written verses which his flatterers found divine, sometimes deigned to invite poets to his table. Statins, who obtained this envied honour, has described his joy to us in one of his Silves. It is a veritable delirium. He declares that on entering the Emperor's triclinium, he thought himself transported into the midst of the stars, and that he seemed to take his place at the table of Jupiter himself. " Is it indeed you whom I see," he says to the prince, "you, the vanquisher and father of the world subdued; you, the hope of men, and the care of the gods ? So I am near you ! In the midst of the goblets and the viands which cover the table, I 118 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. contemplate your countenance." And lie hastens to add : " I own that all the sumptuous appurtenances of the repast, these tables of oak supported on ivory columns, this army of slaves, allure not my looks. It is the Emperor alone I wished to see, and him alone I contemplate. I could not take my eyes from that calm countenance, which seemed to wish to temper the brilliancy of his fortune in an air of serene majesty. But he could not hide his greatness ; it shone in spite of him, upon his features. On seeing him, the most distant nations, the most barbarous hordes, would have recognised their master." ^ These com- pliments appear rather strong when we consider that Domitian was in question, but the honour which the prince had done Statins was of those which turned the heads of poets. Martial declares that if Jupiter and Domitian were to invite him to dinner on the same day, he would leave the master of the gods, and go to the Emperor. Of all these great halls we have now only marble pavements, bases of columns, and a few fragments of wall ; the rest is destroyed. But the testimony of contemporary authors is sufficient to give us an idea of what we have lost. They are unanimous in celebrat- ing the vast proportions of the edifice and describing its height. They say, in their hyperbolical language, " that in beholding it, one would think to see Pelion on Ossa ; that its roofs pierce the ether and see Olympus more closely ; that, from below, the eyes can hardly distinguish the roof, and that the golden pinnacle iStatius, Silv., IV. 2. THE PALATINE. Il9 confounds itself with the beaming brightness of the skies." They tell us of that infinite number of columns " that might uphold the celestial vault while Atlas reposes for a moment ; " they enumerate the marbles of all kinds that entered into the decoration of the walls, and they even persist with so much complaisance in these pompous descriptions that, against their intention, the thought occurs to us that there must be something of profusion and excess in all these ornaments. Simplicity was no longer loved in Domitian's time. The public taste and artistic talent had become less sure. Men no longer knew how to make beautiful, and sought to make rich. This is usual with all decadent arts. The prince, especially, was a passionate lover of this licentious magnificence, and a joker compared him to King Midas, who turned all he touched into gold.i This immense palace contains many other rooms less important than those we have just described, but all the apartments necessary to private life have not been discovered. So it only served for official repre- sentations, and in reality the princes lived elsewhere. ^ In several MSS. of the Middle Ages, the description of a palace is found, in which Signer Kosa has recognised the palace of Domitian (Piante di Roma, p. 123). This curious fragment shows, first of all, that the names given to the various rooms composing the palace are exact. They are found again in the Middle Age description. The reception hall is called salutatorium ; it has beside it the consistoHum, that is to say, the basilica, and further on the trichorum, or three- bedded dining-room {triclinium). It then shows that this beautiful palace subsisted until after the ruin of the Empire ; that it was always the centre of the Palatine, and that it continued in the imagination of all as the type of an imperial palace. 120 ARCH^OLOGICAL E AMBLES. Their true dwelling seems at all times to have been either the house of Augustus or that of Tiberius. In order to be able to pass from the latter to Domitian's palace without traversing the street, a subterranean gallery had been excavated, which still exists, com- municating with the cryptoporticus of which I have spoken.^ Thus the life of the emperors was, so to say, divided into two parts. The first, and doubtless the less agreeable portion, they spent in this magnificent palace, on whose door the emperor had inscribed Aedes puUicce, in order to make it understood that everybody had the right to come there and demand justice ; the rest of their time they had lived in an abode less sumptuous, but more retired, more convenient, more fitted for family life, where, after having accom- plished their business as emperors, they could, to use Antonine's fine expression, " enjoy the pleasure of being men." The Caesars had been living for a century — the best century of the Empire — in the old palaces, when it occurred to Septimus Severus to build a new one. Perhaps the opportunity was afforded him by the terrible fire which devastated the Palatine at the end of the reign of Commodus ; but he certainly had another reason for doing it. New dynasties always feel the need of striking the imagination of nations by some great enterprise. This one, especially, which followed the Antonines, and which had to earn forgiveness for its foreign origin, affected to concern itself greatly with Eome, its adornment and embel- 1 See No, 7 on the general plan of the Palatine. THE PALATINE. 121 lishment. Severus, like all who suddenly attain to high fortune, was always in fear lest his former situation should be recollected, and wished to obliterate its memory. It is related that when he returned to his country invested with a public function, one of his old / friends, happy to see him, having embraced him, he had him beaten with rods, in order to teach him to treat a magistrate of the Eoman people more ceremoniously. It doubtless appeared to him that, in rivalling his predecessors in magnificence, he showed himself worthy to succeed them. He desired to take possession of the imperial hill, by building there a palace which should bear his family name. The Palatine was beginning to be encumbered, and room for new constructions must have become scarce. Yet a space still remained free opposite the Coelian, along the Triumphal Way. It bad been less built upon than elsewhere, because it descends towards the plain by gentle slopes, and does not afford level ground on which a vast edifice could be erected. Yet Domitian's palace had somehow or other extended thither. From that peristyle of which I have spoken, and which covered so large a space, a series of rooms, still but little known, communicated with the house of Augustus, which Domitian had thus included in his vast palace. Beyond the house of Augustus he had constructed a stadmm, now entirely cleared. By the word stadium, was designated a kind of circus destined for foot races or athletic games. This was one of the favourite amusements of the Greeks. Nothing pleased that nation of artists more than to see a fine body display in varied exercises its strength 122 ARCHAEOLOGICAL tlAMBLES. and grace. The Eomans, who were only struck by the indecency and danger of these exercises, did not like them. They imbibed a taste for them, however, under the Empire, and it was Domitian, especially, who worked their acceptance. He constructed for these games a large circus in the Field of Mars, of which the Piazza Navona still preserves the form and plan. He liked to preside at them, clad in a Greek costume, his shoulders covered with a purple mantle, and a crown of gold upon his head. It is not surprising then that he should have chosen to have in his palace a stadium where he could give for himself and his friends alone the entertainment which in the Field of Mars he shared with all the Eomans. He doubtless liked to try, in the company of a few connoisseurs, the rapid runner or the skilful athlete whom he was afterwards to show to the people. The place where he gave these entertainments must have been very elegant ; ^ the imperial hemicycle has been found, composed of two rooms, one above the other, of which the highest seems also to have been the most beautiful.^ All around the circus were two tiers of porticoes supported on marble columns. The aspect which the place presented when the Emperor was seated in his box, and the courtiers, liappy to take their part in these imperial distractions, crowded beneath the porticoes, may be imagined. 1 In the library of the Ecolc dcs beaux arts there is a very interesting restoration essay of Domitian's stadium {Essai de restaura- Hon du stade de Domitian) by M. Pascal, late inmate of the Academie dc France, at Rome. 2 See No. 8 on plan. THE PALATINE. 123 It was beyond Uomitian's stadium, at the very angle of the hill, towards the east and south, that Severus built his palace. The expense of it must have been very considerable. Before constructing the palace itself, it was necessary, so to speak, to make the foundation on which it was to rise. We saw just now that the ground slopes gently downward towards the plain. They raised it by means of immense substructions, consisting of stone arcades superposed. These substructions still exist. The earth that covered them having disappeared, the arcades are seen on all sides, mounting one above the other, and forming strange groups. They are so high, and strike with such astonishment him who beholds them from the neighbouring roads, that people some- times do them the honour to take them for the palace of the emperor itself. They are only its foundations and underground supports, however ; the palace of Severus was built above them. A few still solid walls yet remain of it, the highest and best preserved found on the Palatine. One of them supported a magnificent staircase leading to the upper stories. But of all these imposing ruins, nothing equals in interest what remains of the imperial box on the Great Circus.'^ It was con- tiguous to the palace itself, so that the Emperor might be present at the chariot and horse races without leaving home. It consisted of a closed room, in which the Emperor and his family could take a little rest, and of a terrace whence the eye embraced the entire circus. The view enjoyed from it on a day when one of those great festivals was held, which brought together all the ^ See No. 9 on the plan. V2i ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. Roman people, imust have been admirablo. The long and close valley, extending between the Palatine and the Avoiitin(>, is to-day one of the saddest and poorest quarters of llonie. It was then an immense hippo- drome, adorned with oolumiis, ttbelisks, and statues, and surromided by rows of niiirblc seats, on which, (hiring tlie public games, nearly 400,000 spectators crowded. Nothing could equal the animation of this crowd when horses or charioteers beloved of the public were to run, " Tlie spectators," says Lactantius, " formed the strangest of spectacles. They were seen to follow with passion all the incidents of the race, to gesticulate, to cry, to howl, to jump upon their seats. Each of them took the i)art of one of the diCferent fiu'tions. They insulted, they applauded the drivers, clad in green or blue, white or red, who turned about the sphia. From the moment when the magistrate who presided at the festival gave the signal for starting by throwing a white handkerchief into the arena, to that when the nuxst fortunate chariot, after traversing a distance of seven kilometres and a half, touched the goal, a terrible noise which is said to have been heard at several leagues from Home, arose from all these spectators. The Emperors shared the general excitement. They also had their favourite horses and charioteers, and did not willingly accept their defeat. I imagine that it was here in this imjierial box, which a kind fate has preserved for us, that the strange scene took place related by Herodotus. Some of the spei'tators having ventured to hiss a driver of the blue faction, favoured by Caracalla, he ordered his guards to punish the cul- prits. The soldiers threw themselves on the seats THE PALATINE. 125 of the circus, and to save themselves the trouble of picking out the offenders, slew all whom they could reach. It was an indescribable scene of confusion and slaughter, at wliich the Emperor, who saw everything from his box, must have been much edified.^ Septimus Severus is tlie last of the emperors who had a new dwelling built. After him the Empire became too wretched for a prince to be able to allow himself such a luxury. I have therefore finished enumerating the palaces that were built on the Palatine ; but it contained other edifices besides the dwellings of the emperors. Near the prince his guards and his servants had to be lodged. Although these houses of soldiers and slaves were necessarily constructed with less care and at less cost, traces of them, nevertheless, ^ Another part of the palace of Severus continued very famous. At the bottom of the hill, facing the Coelian, he caused to be built along the Triumphal Way a three-storied portico, named the Septizonium. He desired to make it the chief entrance to the palace, but the Proefect of Rome, who was doubtless tenacious of ancient customs, prevented him, by causing the statue of the emperor to be placed at the spot where the door should have been. The Septizonium, there- fore, was no longer anything but a magnificent monument, serving no purpose. The malicious who saw it placed opposite the road from Africa, pretended that Severus, in constructing it, had wished to strike his countrymen with admiration on tlieir arrival. The Septizonium had the good fortune to pass through the whole of the Middle Ages without much accident. It was still nearly intact when it pleased Sixtus V. to destroy it and use the columns for some church he was restoring. "The Renaissance of the Arts," says M. Dutert, " was the signal for the mutilation and dispersion of the finest artistic works." The Popes often destroyed ancient monuments which tlie Ostrogoths had repaired. Was it not Paul V. who destroyed the admirable remains of the Temple of Pallas, in the Forum of Nerva, in order to decorate the PauUne fountain ? Fiu Goto de'Ooti I 126 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. remain on different portions of the hill. At the bottom of the Palatine road, near the Arch of Titus, the excava- tions brought to light a great number of rooms of unequal size.^ Signor Rosa supposes that they were occupied by the Praetorian cohort which guarded the Caesars, and it is indeed very natural to believe that the barracks were placed beside the principal entrance to the Palatine. It is hither, then, according to Tacitus, that the unfortunate Piso, just adopted by Galba, came at the first news of Otho's revolt, assembled the soldiers of the guard, and made them that honest, sad speech which was not destined to win the hearts of the Praetor- ians. But more curious than these formless ruins, whose destination, on the whole, is somewhat doubtful, are those found at the opposite extremity, towards the Velabrum. A road has been discovered there, almost entire, and pretty well preserved, in which what was called the Ascent of Victory (Clivus Victoria^ is thought to have been discovered." ^ It is another relic of Rome of the earliest times. It was entered by the " Roman Gate," one of those whose origin was said to go back to Romulus. Thence a narrow steep way went towards the top of the hill. The road, bordered on each side by high houses, could never have been very light, but it must have been darker still after Caligula had it partly covered, in order to extend his terraces. The right side of this road, that supported by the hill, certainly belonged to the dependencies of the imperial palaces. 1 See No. 10 on the plan. The ruins discovered on this spot seem to be of a very low epoch. MM. Visconti and Lanciani are tempted to believe that they belong to constructions of the Emperor Maximiau. " See No. 11 ou the plan. THE PALATINE. 127 On entering the half-fiUed-up chambers which still exist, when the eye begins to get accustomed to the darkness, one is surprised to see that these sombre apartments, which at first seemed scarcely suitable even for slaves, are sometimes decorated with great elegance. Many have preserved their stuccos and mosaics ; there are some whose walls are still decked with graceful paint- ings, and one of the balconies has kept its fine marble balustrade. If these houses, as it is natural to believe, were inhabited by the prince's servants, they must have been reserved for the most distinguished slaves and freedmen — for the aristocracy of the imperial domestics. There were doubtless among these people without country and without name, bought in the markets of Greece, some whose good graces were sought by the greatest lords, who dominated the Emperor, and who often governed the Empire. When they became important and rich, they submitted to live in these apartments without air and without light, in order not to be far from their master, as under Louis XIV., the most illustrious personages, possessors of great hotels and fine chateaux, crowded themselves into the tainted apartments of Versailles for the sake of always being before the eyes of the king. But if those slaves and freedmen felt themselves obliged to inhabit these dark chambers, they desired, as far as in them lay, to make them worthy to receive them. Such at least is the only way of explaining this luxury of paintings and marble, and this fine ornamentation lavished upon walls where they could scarcely be seen. On the other side of the Palatine, near the Great Circus, one of those ancient houses has been found, 128 AllCHiEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. which were preserved after the hill had been invaded by imperial palaces, and were devoted to the housing of the attendants.^ It perhaps contained soldiers and slaves at difterent periods. The rooms around the atrium are full of those inscriptions, scratched or scribbled with charcoal, called by the Italians graffiti. They are for the most part the work of soldiers calling themselves veterans of the Emperor (vctcranns domini nostri), and some are smart epigrams, in which the veteran complains of the small protit he has derived from his service.- There are others which seem to prove that at a certain epoch the school for young slaves (pa-daifogium) was established in this house, where were educated the children destined to serve the prince, to approach him, to bear him company, and cheer him with their conversation. Several of these children have left upon the walls inscriptions which seem to prove that the school did not greatly amuse them, and that they were glad to leave it. Here also was found the famous caricature, now in the Kirolier Museum, of which so much has been said. It represents a man with an ass's head stretched upon a cross. Below, a parson, roughly drawn, raises his hand to his mouth and gazes upon the crucified one. The scene is explained by a Greek inscription, in which we read the following words : " Alexamenus adores his cod." This is evidentlv a ' See No. 12 on the plan. - On the wall of one of these chambers wns seen a little .ass tnrning the wheel of a mill. Below it was written the following legend : — "Work, little ass, as I myself have worked, "twill do thee good" {Laboru txscllf, ijuomodo ftjo lahoravi et proderit iihi). This charming little drawing was recently destroyed by a storm. THE PALATINE. 129 pleasantry directed against a Christian. In the time of the Antonines it was believed, even in the most en- lightened society, that both the Christians and the Jews worshipped an ass. A soldier or a slave of the Emperor Alexamenus, having embraced the new doctrine, was the object of his comrades' railleries, but he bore them with courage, and in the midst of this hostile world he did not deny his faith. In 1870 M. Visconti found an inscription, in which he makes profession of it in the following words, probably graven by himself : ALEXAMENOS FIDELIS. Although Christianity early made its way into the house of the Caesars, this is the only memento of it remaining on the Palatine. IV. ASPECT OF THE HILL IN THE THIRD CENTURY — IT CON- TAINS THE EDIFICES OF ALL TIMES — MONUMENTS OF THE IMPERIAL EPOCH — DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE PALACES OF THEN AND NOW — BEAUTY OF THE WHOLE. However lengthy this study already, I think it useful to add to it yet a few more words. After having enum- erated in detail the edifices which each century saw rise upon the Palatine, we must endeavour to form an idea of the effect that must have been produced by the whole. Let us then suppose ourselves in the third century, about the time when Septimus Severus had just built the last of all the imperial palaces, and let us imagine that in one of those moments, becoming more X 130 AECHiEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. and more infrequent, when the Empire is calm and victorious, we pay a visit to the celebrated hill. At this moment it all belongs to the Ciesars; and their family, their soldiers, and their servants alone occupy it. It contains buildings of different ages, of which some go back to the very origin of Rome, but which are all kept up and repaired with the greatest care. No ruins sadden the eye ; the Cresars will suffer none anywhere. Nothing in their Empire must have an air of poverty and desolation to belie the prosperity of their rule. Is it not known that one of them went so far as to uncere- moniously abolish the companies that had been formed to purchase the great domains, and which, after drawing a good profit from the lands by cutting them up, did not take the pains to keep the houses in order when they could not find buyers for them ? The Emperor is indignant at this conduct, declaring in his edict that " this is a murderous commerce, inimical to the world's peace," and which insults the public happiness ; that, instead of covering the fields with ruins, it behoves so fortunate an age to build new houses, in order to make the happi- ness of the human race the more shine forth." ^ Of course these maxims were to be practised on the Pala- tine more than elsewhere. It was fitting that all should be maintained in good order around the imperial palaces ; so, in spite of the miseries of the Empire, nothing there was allowed to fall into ruin, and this is what explains how the most decayed old houses were preserved into the coming of the barbarians. ^This curious edict against "rings" among the Romans wcs published and commented on by M. Egger, in the Mcmoircsdi laSociiti dcs antiquaircs dc Frawe, 4th Series, Vol, III, THE PALATINE. 131. So there were monuments of all ages upon the Palatine, and the great interest offered to a visitor was that within a restricted space it contained, as it were, the entire history of Eome. From the time " when the oxen of the Arcadian Evander came to repose there," down to that when the African and Oriental dynasty of Severus settled upon it, each century had left some memento. It held the dwelling of the first king and the palace of the first emperor ; the spot was shown upon it, where lived the great consuls of the Kepublic, and the best of the princes. All the transformations of the national worship could be followed : the Temple of Jupiter Stator, that of Apollo, and that of the mother of the gods successively recalled the epochs when liome was content with the divinities of Latium, when she admitted the gods of Greece, and, finally, when she sought the exalted creeds of the East, and prepared the way for Christianity. People came to visit all these move- ments, and the most ancient, although the most simple, were not made the least of. The Eomans were not like those parvenues who blush at the humbleness of their origin, and seek to hide it. They found in it, on the contrary, a cause for pride, because it enabled them the better to measure the greatness of the way they had traversed. No period of their history was excluded from their gratitude ; they knew tliat all the ages had worked for the glory of Rome ; neither X-""-'lit,ical hatreds nor party prejudices had power to make them unjust towards any one : however ardent disputes had been, time had appeased all, and nothing remained of the past but the ever-living i 132 ARCH-^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. memory of services rendered to the country. The patriotism of a Eoman of the third century was composed of an equal admiration for the heroes of the Eepublic and for the great emperors, and he visited with the same feelings of respect and pride the cabin of Eomulus, the house of Cicero, and the palace of Augustus. That, however, which predominated, that which had left the most mementoes on the Palatine, was the imperial epoch. It is not quite exact to pretend, in accordance with the inscription of the Farnese Gardens, that it contained the palace of the Caesars {Palazzo de Cesari), which would lead one to believe that only one vast habitation existed there, unceas- ingly enlarged and embellished like the Tuileries by the new Emperors who came to inhabit it.^ It was rather the palatial quarter. There were five different quarters which bore the names of the princes who had them built.- Nothing like it is seen in our modern capitals. In our days, when princes, from caprice or from vanity, chose to construct a new dwelling, it is always very far from the old one. Their desire is to change, and what they first seek are a different situation and new points of view. The two chief residences of the Popes, the Vatican and the Quirinal, 1 In Bianchini's time, it was believed. The restoration of the imperial palace, as he imagines it, should be seen in his work, entitled Palazzo da' Cesari. It is an immense construction, externally some- what like the Farnese Palace, where all is in keeping, and seems to be of the same time. Nothing less resembles the idea we now form of the Palatine. - At least, that of Tiberius seems always to have kept its name. See .Aulu Gelle, XIII. 19, and Hist. Aug. Frob., 2. l-HE PALATINE. 133 are placed at the two extremities of Eome. Here, on the contrary, all is gathered upon the same hill. It had become the home of the Empire, and it seemed as though a prince could not reside elsewhere. Dion says that the places where the Emperors sojourned during their travels took the name of Palatine.^ This accumulation of palaces must have greatly im- pressed visitors. Let us imagine an intelligent and curious provincial, of whom in those times there were many — a Gaul, a Spaniard, an African — who came to see this Eome, of which all the world was talking. Even after the imperial Forums had been traversed, and the marvels of the Capitol admired, the Palatine was still fraught with things to excite his wonder. "We can easily imagine the spectacle which met his eyes ; for the excavations made of late years allow us to recon- struct the typography of the hill exactly. On arriving by that Climis Falatinus, of which I have so often spoken, and passing under the old Gate of Eomulus, near the Temple of Jupiter Stator, he had before him the facade of Domitian's palace. This palace, which first met his eyes, was also the most important of all, and that which seemed most in keeping with the majesty of the Csesars. A space, believed to be the Area Palatina, situated to the right, divided the imperial palaces into two distinct groups. One of these groups included the houses of Tiberius aud of Caligula, built to the north of the hill, along the Velabrum and the Forum, while the other group was composed of three different palaces, having their own facades, entrances, 1 Dion, LIII. 1, 16. 134 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. and peculiar characteristics, which could communicate with each other, and, on certain solemn occasions, form a single palace. That of Domitian adjoined the house of Augustus, more retired towards the south, and occupying nearly the centre of the hill. In the same line, a little further on, was the palace of Severus, situated towards the southern angle of the Palatine. The remaining buildings, exclusive of temples and historical edifices, served for the housing of the Emperor's slaves and freedmen. I am somewhat tempted to believe that if we could see the Palatine as it was in the third century, we should, although much admiring it, still make a few reservations. Our taste has acquired certain habits, and has assumed certain requirements that would not be entirely satisfied. The approaches to and environs of the imperial palaces would probably seem mean to us. The Clivus Palatinus is not broad, the Clivus Vidorice is still more narrow, and the Area Palatina does not appear sufficiently vast. If Domitian's palace was as elevated as Statins pretends, we really scarcely know where we could place ourselves, in order to take in all its height. Inside, these magnificent dwellings would please us more. The halls, the courts, the porticoes, would excite our admiration. Yet I think we should be very much surprised not to find any gardens to them. When the Emperors wished to taste the pleasures of the fields, they went outside Eome. Quite close, on the Alban lake, and at Tibur, they possessed charming villas, which it was easy for them to visit when they chose. If they wished to enjoy the real country — the country rough and unadorned {rus THE PALATINE. 135 verum harharumque) — they went further. We know how happy Antonius was to gather the vintages of his great Latin domains. This sufficed them, and they seem never to have planted on the Palatine those luxurious gardens with which the rich of our days love to surround their houses.^ Nero alone anticipated our tastes, but perhaps less from love of the fields than in order to give himself "the proud pleasure of forcing nature." It doubtless appeared to him extraordinary and well worthy of a Caesar to bring woods into the midst of Eome and possess a pond of salt water ten leagues from the sea. These reservations made, we should, I think, be as much struck as the Romans by the beauty of the edifices built upon the Palatine. Although dating from different epochs, they could not have presented diversities offensive to a fastidious age. Fire — that chronic scourge of ancient Eome — had often overtaken them. Each time they were promptly rebuilt, for Eome, as Martial expressed it, was a Phoenix which grew younger by burning, and when they were raised again they were always har- monised a little with the fashion of the day. Thus inconsistencies, which might have shocked, had been effaced, and yet enough difference remained to attract by contrast the attention of visitors. Each of the ^Yet mention is made of the gardens of Adonis (Adonea) in Domitian's palace, but these must have been of very slight extent. By the word Adonea, the Syrians and Egyptians rather understood gardenets than real gardens. They were earthen vases in which, at the time of the feast of Adonis, plants were sown that grow and die in a few days. This hasty and brief vegetation was an image of the destiny of the hero whose premature death was celebrated. 136 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. palaces had its peculiar character and merits. That of Augustus must have been more simple and of a graver taste ; that of Domitian sumptuous to profusion ; that of Severus imbued with that relish for grandeur found again in the Baths of Caracalla. The interior of the apartments was adorned with incomparable magni- ficence, and their halls and porticoes resembled veritable museums, where the masterpieces of all ages had been gathered. Pliny already said that in his time the works of the most distinguished artists of Greece were seen there, and the Emperors who followed, especially Hadrian, that refined connoisseur and passionate lover of the Arts, must have enormously enriched the col- lection. In order that nothing might be wanting, rare and precious books had also been collected in abun- dance. The two libraries, Latin and Greek, of the portico of Apollo and of the house of Tiberius, were world-renowned. Let us finally add that the situation of the imperial palaces was in keeping with their beauty. Cicero says that the Palatine was the finest spot in Eome. Thence one commanded the whole town, and the eye embraced nearly all the famous monuments with which the Republic and the Empire had adorned it. " What more noble abode," says Claudian, " could the world's masters choose ? On this hill power is more majestic, and seems more conscious of its might. Here the palaces of the monarchs, raising their proud heads above the Forum, see at their feet the temples of the gods ranged round them in a circle, like outposts to protect them. Sublime sight ! Thence the eye perceives above the altars of thunderius Jove the ciaiits hancius on the THE PALATINE. 137 Tarpeian Eock, the chiselled gold of the doors of the Capitol, and on the pinnacles of the temples, which on all sides usurp the realms of the air, those statues which seem to move in the clouds. Further on are rostral columns covered with the brass of ships, those edifices built on the top of the highest hills, audacious works which the hand of man adds to the work of nature, and those innumerable triumphal arches, fraught with the spoils of nations. Everywhere the splendour of gold smites on the dazzled sight, and by its ceaseless gleaming tires the trembling eyeballs." ^ All these riches have passed away. Nothing but their foundation remains of those marble palaces, from whose height the poet viewed the gold-encrusted buildings of the Forum. To-day they are only ruins, from which the eye looks forth on other ruins. But if we feel it difficult to imagine what they must have been when entire, let us remember that those who visited them in the last years of the Western Empire were unable to believe that magnificence could go further, and that they seemed to them the ideal of a regal habitation. From the third century, the word •palace, derived from the name of the Palatine, designates in Latin and Greek the abode of a monarch. Thence it passed into modern language, like that of Caesar, which the barbarians piously gathered up at the very moment when they were destroying the Empire, in order to make it the finest title that could be given to supreme power. ^ Claudiau, in scxL eons. Honorii, 35. CHAPTEE III. THE CATACOMBS. The discoveries made for thirty years past in the Cata- combs 1 present two remarkable peculiarities. First of all, they are the work of a single man, and it may be said that Signor J. B. Eossi shares their glory with no one ; and then they have this characteristic — that chance has nothing to do with them, that they are the reward of a confident science which proceeds with order, and in accordance with fixed and certain rules. Signor Eossi never works at random. He knows what he is doing and whither he is going, and always announces in advance what he is about to find. Nothing shows better than the brilliant success of his excavations the advantage of a good method to works of this kind. The Catacombs, which had not been visited since the ninth century, and whose memory was almost lost, ^ ^ I call these monuments Catacombs, merely in order to conform to custom. In fact, only those of St Sebastian are so termed. The only name suited to them is that of cemeteries, and it is seen from a passage of Eusebius {Hist, eccles., VII. 11) that the name catacomb was reserved for Christian burial-places. 2 Signor Rossi found, however, in the Catacombs of St Calixtus, the names of Pomporius Lseto and other scholars of the fifteenth century, who style themselves antiquitatis pcrscrutatores et amatores. 140 ARCHiEOLOGTCAL E AMBLES. were found again by chance in 1578. Some years later, Bosio, an illustrious savant, undertook to study them, and having a clear-sighted, accurate mind, he at once found the means to render this study fruitful. He began by making himself familiar with the whole of Christian antiquity, so that, thanks to his immense reading, he was enabled to approach the Catacombs furnished with documents that would enable him to understand them. He purposed to explore them one after the other, to follow each regularly through the labyrinth of its galleries, and endeavour to find its name again and remake its history. Such a work demanded infinite erudition, a profound knowledge of the ecclesias- tical authors, and marvellous efforts of sagacity. Bosio was doubtless equal to it; his successors seemed terrified at the task, and abandoned it. They neglected more and more to busy themselves with the Catacombs themselves, in order to concentrate their attention on the monuments that were discovered there. In the visits which they made to them, they copied the inscriptions and the paintings, without indicating the spot where they had found them, taking away all that could be taken, and placing it in some museum, and there the work of art, isolated from its surroundings and detached from the walls for which it had been made, lost its character and its importance. These curiosities of detail, which should only be accessory, Being much suspected of recurring to paganism, and watched by the Popes, they hid their meetings in the Christian cemeteries, where they were sure of not being followed. Is it not singular that after having sheltered the first Christian assemblies, the Catacombs should serve as an asylum for the pagans of the Renaissance ? THE CATACOMBS. 141 caused the specific study of the cemeteries, which is the essential, to be neglected ; and the mine whence so many precious objects came was thus overlooked for the sake of the riches that were drawn from it. This, however, was the manner in which all ancient monuments were explored, and which proved so fatal to them, Signor Eossi resolutely changed this method. He dared to say that for two hundred years past the right road had been abandoned, that all his forerunners had been mistaken, and that it was necessary to get upon Bosio's track again, and resume the work where he had left it. He rightly maintained that, in order to draw more profit from the venerable remains of ancient Christianity, they must not be separated from the study of the spots where they were placed, and that if they deserve to be studied on account of the memories they recall, still more is it necessary to be well acquainted with the Catacombs themselves, which are the most astonishing work of budding Christianity. This is why he proposed, like Bosio, to study the dif- ferent Christian cemeteries successively ; to design their plan ; to search out the primitive extent of each, with the additions it has received ; to determine, as far as possible, the period when each gallery was hollowed out, which at the same time helps to determine the age of the monuments it contains; and, in a word, to discover the history and settle the topography of this immense subterranean city, as has been done with so much success for the one that was built above it. Such are Signor l^ossi's aim and the method he has 142 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. professed to follow. We are about to see the results of his labours.^ I. THE IMPORTANCE WHICH CHRISTIANS ATTACHED TO SEPUL- TURE — THE CATACOMBS THEIR WORK, AND NOT OLD ABANDONED QUARRIES — HOW THEY WERE INDUCED TO HOLLOW THEM OUT — HYPOGEA OF DIFFERENT RELIGIONS IN THE ROMAN CAMPAGNA — RULES ADOPTED BY THE CHURCH FOR BURIAL. The Catacombs are the place where the first Chris- tians buried their dead. In the last century some scholars held that they might have served as a common cemetery for the poor of all religions, but this is an opinion which it is now no longer possible to maintain. Eor thirty-five years past the works have been pushed on with vigour, and thousands of tombs have been dis- covered, yet in not a single instance was a pagan tomb met with. It may therefore be fearlessly affirmed that they were reserved for Christians alone. The Christians attached great importance to sepulture. The body being destined to come to life again, and share the soul's immortality, they thought that it should be taken care of after death, and given an ^ I am about to expound them rapidly, according to Signor Rossi's great work {La Roma sotterranea cristiana, 3 vols., 1864;-1878). Among the books in which Signor Rossi's researches have been pre- sented to Frenchman, I will cite the Noxivellcs etudes sur Ics catacombes, by M. Desbassyns de Richemont, and above all the translation of Messrs Northcote and Brownlow's book, published by M. Alard under the title Home soutcrrainc, Paris, Didier, 1872. THE CATACOMBS. 143 honourable asylum while waiting for the great awaken- ing. "Soon," said Prudentius in his burial hymn, " soon the time will come when heat shall revive these bones, when blood shall gush anew in these veins, when life shall resume this abode which it has left. These bodies, long inert, which lay in the dust of tombs, shall spring upward once again to join their former souls.'' And he added in admirable lines : " Earth, receive and keep in thy maternal breast this mortal spoil which we confide to thee : it was the dwelling of a soul created by the author of all things ; 'twas here a spirit lived, quickened by the wisdom of Christ. Cover this body which we place within thy breast. One day He who created it and fashioned it with His hands, will ask thee for His work again." No one being excluded from this hope, the Christians took equal care for the interment of all the faithful. They would have been horrified to imitate the pagans, and fling the bodies of poor people into common graves (putiadi) to rot. We see that it was forbidden among them to place two bodies one above the other. Each was to have its own place wherein to repose alone until the last day. We know from Tertullian that a priest assisted at burials ; ^ the religion consecrated tombs. At the time of the perse- cution of Decius, the Eoman clergy, writing to their brethren at Carthage, reminded them that there is no more important duty than to give sepulture to martyrs and other Christians.^ The treasury of the Church was spent in helping the poor to live, and in properly burying them. Finally, St Ambrose agreed fertuUian, De anima, 51, - St Cyprian, E^p., 8, 144 ARCH^OLOGICAL KAMBLES. that it was rightful to break, cause to be melted, and sell, the sacred vessels for the interment of the faithful. ^ These texts explain the construction of the Catacombs. Knowing the respect shown by the first Christians towards their dead, we are less astonished at the gigantic works which they undertook for their burial. But do these works in truth belong to them ? Are the Catacombs entirely the work of the Christians, or were they merely appropriated to their use? This question has given rise to great discussions. In the last century there was no lack of incredulous persons who denied the reality of Bosio's discoveries. When told that the first believers themselves dug out their cemeteries, they asked who had furnished a small and poor community with the means needed for the piercing of this tremendous number of underground galleries ; what could have been done with the earth drawn from them ; and how the members of a proscribed religion could have had the audacity thus to dig out the ground at the gates of Eome, and before the eyes of their per- secutors ? These objections seemed to the majority of scholars unanswerable, and troubled even the most intrepid defenders of the Catacombs. So, in reply, they thought it well to suppose them ancient quarries, whence the Eomans had for a long time du2 pozzolana. The Christians had found them deserted, and, in order to convert them into their cemeteries, they only had to hollow out horizontal niches for the reception of the dead. The existence of these quarries was not a hypothesis ; it is attested by ancient writers. 1 St Ambrose, Be off. II. 142, THE CATACOMBS. 145 Cicero speaks of a man who was in his time murdered in them,^ and Suetonius relates that when they tried to persuade Nero to take refuge there, he declared that he would not bury himself alive.^ Being a little-fre- quented place, where people wishing to hide themselves could find an asylum, they suited the Christians for the purpose of celebrating their mysteries and burying their dead. Bottari bids us remark that they might easily have been known to them. Their religion was first spread among poor people and slaves — that is to say, among the class employed in digging the quarries. These were so many guides, who could lead their brethren through the turnings of the deserted galleries. This opinion, therefore, appeared perfectly probable. It had the advantage, too, of silencing the incredu- lous, so it was religiously accepted by every one for two centuries, and down to our time was received without dispute. However, it does not hold good before an attentive examination of the Catacombs. Pere Marchi began to undermine it, and Signor Eossi toppled it down. He has no trouble in showing that chambers 3 or 4 metres square, and galleries 1 metre, at most, in width, would have been scarcely convenient for the extraction and transportation of jjozzolana. Ancient Eoman quarries exist, whose destination is not doubtful, and their appearance is very different from that of the Catacombs. The passages are wider, and the outlets multiplied. Every- thing about them appears more suited to the necessities of an industrial exploitation. Furthermore, Signor 1 Cic, Fro. Clucntio, 14. " Suet., Nero, 48. 146 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. Michaele Eossi^ on carefully studying the nature of the ground in which the cemeteries of Rome are dug, remarked that the workers systematically avoid the banks of friable pozzolana, preferring to bore where the stone is spongier and harder, and he declares roundly that never could materials suited for building have been dug from the Catacombs. This reason is decisive, and clears up the last possible doubts that could have existed. This does not mean that the Christians did not occasionally appropriate to their use some of those abandoned quarries called arenaricR. History says that they did so, and the researches made of late years prove it. I will say later, on what occasion and by what motives they were led to do so in very exceptional cases. In fine, in the twenty-five or thirty cemeteries hitherto visited, only five of these ancient quarries have hitherto been recognised, and there are probably not many more. All the rest were made by the hands of the Christians. Drawings of diggers at work are often seen in the Catacombs. They are represented, pick in hand, attacking the overhanging rock. The attitude given to them, represents the manner in which they proceeded. They advanced boldly, making themselves a way through the strata of granular tufa, of which the soil of the Eoman Cam- ^ Signor Michaele Rossi is the brother of Signer J. B. Eossi. He liad received the education of a lawyer, but became a geometrician from inclination. The desire to help his brother, who needed an associate to study the soil and design the plan of the galleries, developed in him a vocation which he did not know himself to possess. He soon made himself a name in this new science, and has even invented an ingenious machine to shorten the work of plan-raising, which took a medal at the London Exhibition. THE CATACOMBS. 147 pagna is composed ; they dug the rock before them, sus- tained by their faith, " living in the entrails of the earth, like the monk in his cell," and these interminable galleries, said to contain 6,000,000 tombs, are entirely their work. Where did the first Christians learn this mode of sepulture, which required such terrible labour ? It has long since been answered that they learnt it from the Jews. It should have been added that in this the Jews only followed the custom of most of the peoples of the East. There was no other mode of interment in Syria. Everywhere where the Syrians penetrated — in Malta, in Sicily, in Sardinia — similar burial-places are found. M. Beule has confirmed the existence of Catacombs at Carthage; M. Eenan saw them in Phoenicia : Asia Minor, Cyrenaica, and the Chersonese contain a great number, and they occur even among the Etruscans, to whom an Oriental origin is sometimes attributed. Lastly, they are found every day at Eome, and this must not surprise us. At the end of the Eepublic and the beginning of the Empire, Eome was, in a manner, invaded by the nations of the East. They brought to this great, tolerant, distracted town their beliefs and their customs. They were allowed to pray to their gods after their own fashion, and to bury their dead as they chose. Not only were they unmolested, but they were allowed to preach their doctrines, and did not fail to do so. I do not believe that any town, even Alexandria under the Ptolemies, offered to the world a more curious and animated spectacle than Eome at the beginning of the Empire. Not only was it the industrial and political capital of the world, it 148 AECHiEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. was also the spot where all the philosophies and all the religions of the world met. In the midst of enormous business activity, there reigned an activity of mind more remarkable yet. The weakening of ancient beliefs left the field open to new opinions, so that the Christians profited by the circumstance to agitate and spread, and made proselytes everywhere. The religions of the East especially attracted men's souls by the strangeness of their rites and the mysterious turn of their doctrines. Some quite yielded themselves up to them ; the greater number, without being entirely permeated by their spirit, at least imitated their com- monest practices. It is thus that many Eomans took to burying their dead in the manner of the Orientals. From the time of the Antonines, the custom of burn- ing the dead became less and less frequent, and at the time of Macrobius it scarcely existed at all.^ So the pagans at an early date possessed hypogea, like those of the nations of the East. I imagine that from the end of the second century the Eoman Campagna must have been dug in every direction. The Jews, the Phoenicians, the worshippers of Mithra and Sabazius, and, above all, the Christians, who were becoming so numerous, and sometimes the pagans, hollowed out the ground for their sepulchres. There was in these various religions a kind of interior and subterranean activity, corresponding with that outside. These sepulchre diggers sought to avoid each other,^ but they did not ^Macrobius, Sat., VIII. 7. - Signor Rossi shows that more than once the Christian galleries have abruptly turned aside in order not to touch somQhypogeum of another cult. THE CATACOMBS. 149 always succeed. In the heart of the Catacombs a cave is found where a priest of Sabazius and some of his disciples rest. The Christian workmen doiibtless came upon it suddenly, and it now communicates freely with the tombs of the martyrs. The num- ber of crypts that were then dug are incalculable. Fresh ones are discovered each day. Pagan liypogea are no longer rare. The names of more than forty Christian cemeteries are known. "We are acquainted with two Jewish Catacombs — that of Trastevere, which is anterior to Christianity, and that on the Via Appia, and it is to be hoped that more will be found that will teach us what we should so much like to know — the constitution and government of the synagogues at Eome. Perhaps, too, we may come upon those of the dissenting sects of Christianity. We know that they, too, had Catacombs, and that in order to give them some authority, they went and stole the bodies of the most respected martyrs from the orthodox Catacombs, and placed them with themselves. What light will not these discoveries throw upon the religious history of those times, if they are always directed by men of honesty and science, like Signer Rossi ? Among all those burial-places, which so much re- semble each other, the Christian cemeteries may be recog- nised by two signs. In the first place, they are much more extensive than the others. Nowhere have such a development of galleries and such an accumulation of tombs been found, and never did any religion or any nation seem to feel so strongly as the Christians the need to group together and unite in death. Then 150 akcHjEOLOGical rambles. the niches containing the bodies are open in the Jewish crypts and closed in the Christian Catacombs. This difference is connected with the habit which the Christians had of assiduously visiting the tombs of the martyrs. With the Jews, who only opened the sepulchre when some one was to be buried, it was not necessary to protect the body from the indiscreet curiosity of visitors ; it was enough to roll a great stone to the entrance of the cave. It was different with the Christians, and their cemeteries being open to the faithful, their tombs of necessity had to be shut. In all else their Catacombs exactly resembled those of the Jews and other peoples of the East, and a first glance suffices to show that they learned this mode of burying their dead from them. Yet it must not be thought that a fixed rule and constant custom existed in the primitive Church as regards burial. The only law accepted by all, was not to use for one's self or for one's relations the tombs of pagans, and not to admit pagans into the cemeteries where the Christians slept. " Let the dead bury their dead," harshly said St Hilary, and we know that in the time of Cyprian a forgetfulness of this law occasioned the deposition of a bishop. Beyond this, the faithful were free, and they used their liberty. So we sometimes see them use isolated tombs. The epitaph of two spouses has been found, who had a resting-place made for them in their garden (in hortidis nostris secessimus), and who do not appear to excuse themselves for doing so. Another grave- stone contains a selfish inscription, a strange mixture of pagan habits with Christian terms, by which the THE CATACOMBS. 151 possessor of the tomb cites before the judgment of the Lord whoever shall try to introduce another body into the grave he occupies or the grounds surrounding it. He wishes to have them all for himself alone. Yet the Christians were usually imbued with other feelings. As I said just now, they felt the need of rest- ing together. They desired to be united in death, as they had endeavoured to be united in life. From the first days they grouped themselves instinctively round the bishops and the martyrs, and in the whole of Chris- tendom those collections of tombs were soon formed, which received the name of places of repose or sleep {accuhitorium, xot/xT^Tr/ptov). Only, according to the country, these cemeteries were situated in the open air or hidden under ground. At Eome, subterranean burial was preferred. Was this because the Christians were there more in the sight of the governing powers and more feared their supervision ? More probably it was the order to remain faithful to the traditions of the newly-born Church, which, on leaving the Jewish community, had retained this of its customs. It was, above all, in order to imitate the tomb of Christ, whose life and death were the example of Christians. There can be no doubt that the sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea, "which had not been used, and which he had caused to be cut in the rock," with its horizontal niche surmounted, for sole ornament, by an arched roof,^ served as a model for ^ These niches hollowed out in the wall are called loculi. The arched roofs surmounting them have received the name of arcosolia. These are not found on all the tombs, but only above those of the most important personages. More ample details respecting these 152 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. the first Christian tombs. We are, therefore, certain that the Catacombs were the work of the Christians, and that they were dug by them and for them. It was necessary to be sure of it before beginning our study. This point established, we can enter and go through them. Only let us be careful to put our- selves under the guidance of Signer Eossi, for he is the best guide we can choose, if we would visit them with profit. 11. FIRST IMPRESSIONS PRODUCED BY A VISIT TO THE CATA- COMBS — THE IMMENSITY OF THE CITIES OF THE DEAD, AND CONSEQUENCES TO BE DRAWN FROM IT — RAPID DIFFUSION OF CHRISTIANITY — RELIGION SEPARATES ITSELF FROM THE FAMILY AND THE COUNTRY — THE CATACOMBS THE MOST ANCIENT MONUMENT OF CHRISTIANITY AT ROME — MEMENTOES OF THE TIMES OF PERSECUTION CONTAINED IN THEM — MEMENTOES OF THE DAYS OF TRIUMPH. A VISIT to the Catacombs, especially if prolonged for several hours, may possibly cause more surprise than pleasure to people unprepared for it by some preliminary words will be found in Abbe Martigny's Dictionnaire des Antiquitis chretiennes. I profit by the occasion to recommend this excellent work, which is indispensable to all who would study the principles of Christian archeeology, and useful to people of the world for the understanding of many words that are read and repeated without being more than half understood. On using it, they will be very grateful to the modest and distinguished man who has known how to put together so much solid knowledge in so convenient a form. THE CATACOMBS. 153 study. It will, perhaps, have but small effect on those to whom the history of the first years of Christianity is but little known. In any case it would lose much of its interest if one were not requested at every turn to remark certain particulars which of themselves scarce draw the attention, but which are, nevertheless, of great importance. At first all looks alike, and nothing seems particularly noticeable. We pass along narrow under- ground galleries, where it is difficult to walk two abreast, and we skirt walls pierced with parallel niches, very like great drawers placed one above the other, which were used for burial. When a body had been placed in one of them, the opening was closed by slabs of marble or bricks, on which the names of the deceased were inscribed. Almost all these bricks have been removed, and at the bottom of the niches the little heap of dust which, after fifteen centuries a decomposed body forms, is easily seen. From time to time we meet on our way more roomy and more ornate chambers for the dead of note. They usually contain paintings, nearly effaced, of which it is very difficult to seize even a few details by the doubtful light of the cerini, and which, when looked at rather hurriedly, appear to resemble each other very much. The galleries cut each other at right angles, forming a tangled labyrinth in which it is impossible to find one's way. When we have traversed one storey, staircases lead to a lower one, where the same spectacle is repeated, only the darkness seems to have doubled, breathing becomes more painful, and the heart is more and more oppressed as we plunge deeper into the earth and leave air and light farther and farther behind. 154 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. Having overcome this first impression, we begin to reason and reflect. First of all, it is difficult when the visit is prolonged not to be greatly struck with the great immensity of these cities of the dead. These superposed stories, these galleries added unceasingly to each other, these graves crowded more and more thickly along the walls, are a startling image of the rapidity with which Christianity spread in Eome. The first who buried their dead in the Catacombs do not seem to have expected such rapid progress. They were content to hollow out a few galleries close to the surface, and encumber them with huge sarcophagi placed against the wall. But soon, the ranks of the faithful augmenting, the number of the dead grew so considerable that it became impossible to take things so easily. It has often been asked whether there is not a great deal of exaggeration in those passages where the Fathers of the Church describe the mar- vellous development of Christianity to us, and show it to us from the end of the second century, filling "the cities, the islands, the castles, the camps, the tribes, the palaces, the Senate, the Forum, and only leaving to the pagans their temples." It must be owned that the indefinite increase of the cemeteries, with the necessity of constantly adding new galleries to the old, and of crowding the tombs one against the other, seems to prove them entirely in the right. The immense extent of the Catacombs ere long suggests another reflection, not devoid of importance. The pagan cemeteries, to which we cannot help com- paring them, were much less vast; they generally held but a single family. The largest are those THE CATACOMBS. 155 containing the freedmen of the same master, the members of the same college, or poor people who had joined together, in order to build themselves a common tomb at less expense. It was another bond that united those who chose to sleep together in the Catacombs. Their country, their birth, their fortune, were often very diverse ; they belonged to different families; they did not pursue the same calling; and perhaps some of them never met during their lifetime. Their only bond of union was religion, but this bond became so powerful that it replaced all others. "We have just seen that the Church did not impose common burial upon the faithful as a duty, and that there were some among the first Christians who caused private tombs to be constructed upon their domains, to which they did not admit their fellows ; ^ but those must have been very rare, and almost all chose to be buried with their brethren. When we reflect on it, we will see that this was a serious innovation, and a new manner of con- sidering religion. Among almost all ancient nations, religion did not separate itself from the family and the country. Christianity first divided that which all Antiquity had united. Henceforth domestic or national gods ceased to be worshipped, and religion had its own independent existence outside the family and the State, and above them. Many of those who are buried in 1 A few family tombs have also been found in the Catacombs, but they could not have been numerous. The earth dug from new galleries was generally used to fill up the old ones in which there was no more room. Thus it became impossible for a family to keep a tomb beyond one or two generations. 156 AKCHiEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. the Catacombs doubtless possessed domestic tombs elsewhere ; others might have been buried among people of their own condition with whom they had passed their lives, but all of them chose to rest in one of the great Christian cemeteries. They voluntarily renounced that neighbourhood of relations and friends, which until then had been regarded as one of the great consolations of death. They took their assigned place among strangers, who often came from the most distant countries, and to whom nothing attached them but their belief. Slaves, freedmen, and citizens ; Greeks, Eomans, and barbarians, forgot all these diversities of fortune and origin, and remembered only their common religion. Nothing was more opposed to ancient society than the separation which was then effected between the family or the State and religion. It is the work of Christianity, and it is in the Catacombs that it is most evidently manifested. Such are the reflections that first occur to the mind, even when we are content just to go rapidly through these long galleries. If we have time to look at them more closely, our interest and curiosity increase. Let us reflect that the Catacombs are the most ancient monument of Christianity at Eome. Tlie others only date from the fourth century — that is to say, from a time when the dogma was already fixed ; when the new religion had gained power and had found a language wherewith to express its tenets. In the Catacombs the history of primitive Christianity is almost complete, and in going over it we may follow all the vicissitudes of its agitated existence. These galleries which lead out freely upon THE CATACOMBS. 157 the great public ways, these openings destined to give a little air and light to the hypogea^ are of a time when the Christians were tolerated, and confided in the protec- tion of authority. These dark entrances, on the contrary, and these tortuous ways, recall the period of the per- secutions. It is then that those little chapels were constructed, where the faithful assembled when they could no longer worship in open day. They are usually composed of two chambers, crossed by the gallery of the Catacombs, so that they are separated from each other, yet at the same time near enough for it to be possible to follow the sacred services in both of them. They were destined for the two sexes who, in the primitive Church, were never united. At the end of one of the chambers is the stone seat on which the priest took his place to celebrate the holy mysteries and talk to the assembly. There it is that words of exhortation, such as we find in the works of the fathers, must often have been pronounced, to kindle those present and give them courage to brave death for their faith. Here the letters were read, addressed by one church to another, to communicate their fears and hopes, and spur each other on to endure and express their beliefs. Not one of them recalls the period of gropings and struggles ; not one of them has pre- served relics of the heroic age of the Church. Further- more, they have been too often restored and remade ; they have assumed too modern an air. What is there remaining about the basilicas of Constantine really antique ? What trouble do we not have to picture to ourselves what St Laurentius, St Praxedes, or St Agnes were like when just built ? The Catacombs are better 158 ARCHiEOLOGICAL K AMBLES. preserved. They have the good fortune to have been nearly forgotten and lost down to Bosio's time. If, since then, they have sometimes happened to be devastated by greedy amateurs or clumsy explorers, it has, at least, occurred to no one to rebuild, under pretence of repairing them. They are the most vener- able remains, the most authentic witness of the first centuries of Christianity, and there is no monument in Eome that better puts us in presence of those primitive times which are so little known to us and with which we so much desire to become acquainted. Everything now becomes interesting, and the least details now assume importance. We must raise with care these bricks which have been loosened from the tombs, and which travellers tread under foot ; for they may bear the mark of those who made them, and help to fix the date of the galleries. From time to time, our attention is called to a little niche in the sombre walls we are passing, or to a console jutting out ; here the clay-lamp was placed to light visitors. How many times have friends or relations passed before it, to pray and weep by a cherished tomb ! We pause a moment in those chambers, more roomy than the others, at the end of which we find a tomb disposed in the form of an altar. Signor Eossi tells us that they were used for family meetings. People gathered there on funeral anniversaries to implore the mercy of God for the departed : " To read together the holy books, and to sing hymns in honour of the dead who sleep in the Lord." It is easy to imagine the effect which such ceremonies must have produced upon pious souls. In the midst of this solemn silence, between these walls lined with THE CATACOMBS. 159 corpses, they seemed to live quite in the company of those they had lost. The emotion which seized them brought home more clearly that oneness of the dead with the living which paganism had recognised, and the Church made one of its dogmas. They felt so full of all these dear memories that it required no effort to believe that death cannot break the bonds which bind man to man, and that they continue to render each other mutual services beyond life — those who are no more profiting by the prayers of the Church, or, if they enjoy celestial beatitude, helping those who still live by their intercession.^ This is the sentiment expressed by the pious exclamations which visitors have traced on the wall with the point of a knife, and which Signer Eossi, not without great trouble, has succeeded in copying and making out. It was here, too, after those great persecutions which in- creased the number of the martyrs, that they took comfort together, encouraged each other to continue, and celebrated the memory of the dead, both glorifying them and glorying in them for the example they had given to the community of the faithful, " Happy our Church ! The Lord protects and honours it. It was, till now, shining white by the good works of our brothers. He vouchsafes it the glory of being reddened with the blood of the martyrs ; neither lilies nor roses are wanting in its crown ! "^ The epoch of the persecutions ^ These expressions are borrowed from one of tlie most ancient rituals of the Roman Church, cited by Signer Rossi : Dejundorum jidelium animoe quae ieatitudinc gaudent nobis opitulentur ; quae con- solationc indigent UcclesM precibuit absolvantvr. ' St Cyprian, EpisL, 10. 160 AUCH^OLOGICAL EAMBLES. seems to have remained more vividly impressed upon the Christian cemeteries than all the others, and Signor Eossi shows us traces of it everywhere. He points out how the old staircases were then demolished and the great galleries filled up, in order to shelter the tombs of the martyrs from profanation. New roads were hurriedly made, leading to those abandoned sand-pits {arenaricB) of which I spoke just now. That way they could go in and out without arousing suspicion; and they endeavoured to make even these secret issues impracticable for strangers and invaders. Signor Eossi found in the gallery of Callistus a staircase the steps of which are abruptly interrupted. It was only possible to proceed thence into the interior galleries by means of a ladder, placed by an accomplice at a given signal, and which he withdrew when all the faithful had entered. But these minute precautions did not always suffice to save the Christians. We know that there were spies and traitors among them who warned the police. "You know the days of our meetings," said Tertullian to the magistrates, " you have your eye upon us even in our most secret meetings ; so you often come to surprise and overwhelm us ! " The emperor's soldiers more than once penetrated into the Catacombs, interrupting the ceremonies, and striking down without pity all whom they could seize. Inscrip- tions, of which a few fragments have reached us, preserve the memory of these sanguinary executions. Perhaps one day that chamber will be found, where some unfortunate Christians, surprised in the act of celebrating their worship on the tomb of a martyr. THE CATACOMBS. 161 were walled up and left to die of hunger. Pope Damascus, in repairing the Christian cemeteries, wished that the spot that witnessed this terrible scene should be respected. He contented himself with opening in the wall a broad window, whence the faithful could see the bodies stretched upon the ground, just as death had smitten them. Beside these witnesses of proscription and mourning, the Catacombs retain traces of those days of triumph. Everywhere the remains of great works are seen, which were undertaken after peace came to the Church, in order to consolidate or embellish them. After Constantine, the practice of burying the dead in them was gradually discontinued, and henceforth they were only a monu- ment surrounded with veneration. Pilgrims came to visit them from all the countries of Christendom. All wished to see the sepulchres of famous martyrs; all desired to bear away some pious memento of their journey. There was even a queen who sent a priest on purpose to collect and bring away oil from the lamps which burnt before the tombs of the saints. The invasions of the barbarians interrupted this worship. ■ Alaric, Vitiges, Ataulf in turn devastated the Eoman Campagna. In order to shelter the holy relics from these ravages, they had reluctantly to take them from their tombs and bring them to Eome, where they were distributed among the different churches. Henceforth there was no longer any reason to visit the Catacombs, and down to the sixteenth century almost their very trace and memory were lost. 162 ARCHAEOLOGICAL E AMBLES. III. THE INSCRIPTIONS AND PAINTINGS IN THE CATACOMBS — CHARACTER OF THE MOST ANCIENT INSCRIPTIONS — THE BIRTH OF CHRISTIAN ART — THE FIRST SUBJECTS TREATED BY THE ARTISTS OF THE CATACOMBS — IMITATION OF ANTIQUE TYPES — REPRODUCTION OF CHRISTIAN SUBJECTS — SYMBOLISM — ORIGIN OF HIS- TORICAL PAINTING — TO WHAT EXTENT THE CHRIS- TIAN ARTISTS ADHERED TO ANTIQUE ART. It might be feared, at first sight, that history would not l3e able to derive much profit from these thousands of tombs, all resembling each other, and enclosing a whole nation of unknown dead. But these monuments are not so mute as they seem ; epitaphs are found on almost all, while some are ornamented with bas-reliefs or frescoes. These inscriptions and paintings seem to lend them a voice. All mutilated and incomplete though they be, they teach us something of the life and feelings of those who sleep in the Catacombs. The most ancient of the inscriptions are written in Greek. At the beginning of the third century this was still the official language of the Church. Latin only came later on. Among the epitaphs of the Popes, found by Signor Eossi in the cemetery of Calixtus, that of St Cornelius, who died in 252, is the only one in Latin. Greek appears only to have been abandoned little by little, and with regret. Some curious in- scriptions enable us to note the change from one language to the other, and they show us the scruple felt at leaving that which the Church had used almost THE CATACOMBS. 163 since its origin. In several of them the Latin words are written in Greek characters, and there are some in which the two tongues somewhat strangely mingle {Julia Clcmdiane in pace et irene). Only in the most recent galleries does Latin dominate almost exclusively. The characteristics of the most ancient epitaphs are great shortness and simplicity. Christian epi- graphy of the first times loved the garrulity of Greek inscriptions no more than it did the majestic solemnity of Eoman inscriptions. It was content to write one of the names of the dead (we know that under the Empire it was a sort of distinction to bear many), and it added thereto some pious exclama- tions, all signifying much the same thing: "Peace with thee ! " " Sleep in Christ ! " " May thy soul rest with the Lord ! " The time the deceased has lived and the date of his death are rarely mentioned ; what are these earthly memories to him who has taken posses- sion of eternity ? While the pagans took great care to inscribe on tombs the dignities filled by the deceased, and the rank which he held in life, they are never mentioned among the Christians. "With us," said Lactantius, "there is no difference between the poor and the rich, the slave and the free man. We call ourselves brothers, because we believe ourselves to be all equal." ^ Do what we may, equality always suffers ^ The Christians did not act thus in obedience to an express and imposed rule, but from a sort of common and spontaneous feeling. This is proved by the circumstance that in the crypt of Lucina, the most ancient part of the cemetery of Calixtus, mention is made of a freedman ; and although ecclesiastical dignities are usually no more recorded than others, we see that there were three priests, and 164 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. during life ; the brothers were at least resolved to pre- serve it in death. Their heroic humility is attended with some inconvenience so far as we are concerned, and the silence to which they condemned themselves deprives us of a mass of curious information. We learn much, however, from what they choose to tell us. Their epitaphs show us that certain opinions, which are sometimes thought new, existed in the Christian community from the end of the third century. They believed, for instance, in the efficacy of the prayers of the living for the dead. The exclamations I have just quoted are more than wishes — they contain requests made to God, which are supposed to be listened to. The intercession of the saints for those who pray to them was believed in. The faithful, who visited the tomb of a martyr with such fervour, indeed thought that he took an interest in their weal, and would help them to attain it. In one of the inscriptions gathered by Signor Eossi, a young maiden is addressed who has just died, and who is believed to be a saint, and they tell her : " Invoke God for Phcebe and for her husband (jtete pro Plicebe et p'o Virginia ejus." ^) Later on, this primitive simplicity of the inscriptions that one of them was at the same time a priest and a physician. It was not therefore absolutely forbidden to preserve the memory of social distinctions in Christians epitaphs, and the prevailing abstention from so doing was voluntary. ^ By virginis was meant a man who had no other wife. It is not, as might be thought, quite a Christian term. The pagans used it. If they did not condemn second marriages so severely as certain rigid Christians did, they at least desired to show respect and approval towards those who had not made a bad use of the facility of divorce. THE CATACOMBS. 165 underwent a change. Eegrets first appear, and it was difficult, indeed, for faith always to be strong enough to restrain them. Then a timid compliment to the dead was indulged in. Of a young girl it was said that she was an " innocent soul," or " a dove without bitterness ; " while a man was called " very holy," or even "incomparable." The number of years he had lived was noted, and the exact date of his burial, or, as they said, his deposition. At length these details were reproduced in like manner on all tombs. The style of Christian inscriptions was then fixed, or, in other words, formula and convention slipped into a place where only an impulse of the heart should ever have been found. I well understand that there would be some to whom this progress is not altogether pleasing. In presence of these inscriptions of the fourth century, so ordered and so regular, it is difficult not to regret the time when sorrow and faith were less disciplined, and when each expressed his regrets and his hopes as he felt them, without being care- ful to follow custom, and weep like every one else. The paintings are still more important than the inscriptions ; for they enable us to go back to the beginnings of Christian art. As it arose from the worship of the dead, its first attempts were naturally made in the Catacombs. The Christians were very anxious by every means to honour the sepulture of those they had lost, especially when they had died victims to some persecution. Doubtless, sculpture and painting must have seemed to them profaned by the every-day use which the pagans made of them ; yet they did not hesitate to adopt them for their cemeteries. 166 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. They psrhaps thought that by employing them to embellish the last abode of their brothers, they purified them. The first artists who were called upon to decorate the Christian tombs with frescoes or bas-reliefs, were in all probability very much embarrassed. What sub- jects should they represent ? For an art at its very beginning, the question was a grave one. As the Christian sect was proscribed, and their doctrine had to remain secret, they naturally at first used certain signs of which they alone knew the true meaning, in order to recognise each other. This was done in the pagan mysteries. We know that objects were distributed among the initiated which they were to keep, and which were to remind them of what they had seen during the ceremonies of initiation.^ It was the same with the first Christians. Clement of Alexandria reports that they had engraved upon their rings the image of the dove, of the fish, of the ship with sails spread, of the harp, of the anchor, etc.^ These were symbols which recalled to them the most secret truths of their religion. Almost all these symbols are found again in the Cata- combs ; but they are not alone there. Signs so dark and vague could not suffice the faithful, and the sculp- tors and painters whom they employed, and who were for the most part deserters from paganism, had to endeavour to represent their new beliefs in a manner more direct, more clear, and more strictly artistic. But everything here had to be created. Since the Jews offered no model in this respect, they were of necessity ^ Apuleius, De magia, 55. - Clement of Alex,, Pcedag., III. 11. THE CATACOMBS. 167 obliged to apply elsewhere, and take art where it was to be found, — that is to say, in the pagan schools. They did so without scruple, so long as only those simple ornaments were in question which had no real meaning, and were found everywhere. Tertullian him- self, the severe doctor, allowed them to do this. ^ In order to adorn the walls and roofs of their funeral chambers, they copied the graceful decorations com- monly used in the houses of the pagans. Ceilings of this kind are numerous enough in the Catacombs, and there are some in the cemetery of Calixtus which may be placed among the most pleasing that Antiquity has left us. ^ As at Pompeii, we see charming arabesques, birds, and flowers, and even those winged genii which seem to fly in space. Is it not strange that these marvels of grace and elegance, in which there breathes all the smiling art of Greece, should be found amid the dark galleries of an underground cemetery ? We must believe that the details and emblems of this decorative painting, by dint of being used in over-profusion, had lost all meaning for the mind. It remained only a pleasure for the eyes, and no one was scandalised or even surprised at seeing them reproduced above the tomb of a believer. But the Christian artists dared more. It being difficult for them suddenly to invent an original expression for their beliefs, they imitated some of the purest types of classic art, whenever they could be allegorically applied to the new religion. This imitation is seen already in " The Good Shepherd," which seems to have been inspired, at least as to its first idea 1 Tert., Adv. Marc, 11, 29. ^ jjoggj^ iJo?na sott, X. 18. 168 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. and general composition, by some ancient paintings.^ It is more evident yet in those fine frescoes where the Saviour is shown with the attributes of Orpheus. The singer of Thrace, drawing the beasts and the rocks by the sound of his lyre, might seem an image of Him whose word conquered the most barbarous nations and the lowest classes among civilized people. Three repro- ductions of this subject are known in the Catacombs. The sculptors do the same as the painters, and even go farther still. The painters worked in the Catacombs themselves, far from the indiscreet and the unbelieving, and their frescoes were imagined and executed in this silent city of the dead, where everything invited the artist to yield himself up to the ardour of his faith. The sarcophagi were worked in the studios, where all could see them, and this necessitated prudence. It is even probable that most often, when the Christians wanted a tomb of stone or marble, they took it ready made from the merchant, choosing that in which the figures were least shocking to their opinions. It is thus that some are found in the cemetery of Calixtus repre- senting the adventure of Ulysses with the Sirens, and the poetic story of Psyche and Cupid.- But Christian art was not long to live by borrowing. A doctrine so young, so full of sap and life, which took possession of the entire soul and transformed it, must ^ Kossi, Roma solt., I. 347 : In quanta per o alia comjjosizione artistica del grupj^o, nulla osta a credere che i primi piUori eristiani abbiano 2)otu.to imitare, per quanta al laro scapo si canfaceva, qualcke bel tipo d'un simile gruppo di antico e dassico stile. - As a matter of fact, the figures of tliis last sarcophagus had been covered with lime. But there are others concerning which the samo scruples had not existed. See on this subject, Collignon, Essai sur Ics monuments rclati/s an mythe du Psyche, p. 436, etc. THE CATACOMBS. 169 soon come to express itself in a manner of its own. We have already remarked that even when it borrows types not belonging to it, it fashions them in its own way, and seeks to appropriate them. The Orpheus of the cemetery of Calixtus, instead of drawing the beasts and the trees to him, as the fable relates, and as he is repre- sented at Pompeii, has only two sheep at his feet, which seem to listen to his songs. We see that he is in pro- cess of confusion with the Good Pastor. Soon the artists dared to draw their inspiration directly from their belief, and to represent events taken from the holy books. Prom the Old Testament there was " The Sacrifice of Isaac," " The Passage of the Eed Sea," the history of Jonah, of Daniel, of Susanna, of the Three Children in the Furnace ; from the New Testament : " The Christ Child visited by the Magi," " The Cure of the Paralytic," "The Eaising of Lazarus," and the " Multiplying of the Fishes." It has been remarked that they always abstain from recalling the painful circumstances of the Passion. Did they fear by repre- senting Christ dying an infamous death, to scandalise the weak, to give scoffers a subject for ridicule, or to fail in respect towards their God ? What is certain is, that they never represented the scenes which passed between the judgment of Pilate and the Piesurrection. It is not uninteresting to remark that, on the contrary, the artists of the Middle Ages delighted to treat those subjects which their predecessors so carefully avoided ; that they abounded in representations of the Flagellation and of the Crucifixion, and that these spectacles, by touching the faithful to the heart, served to give a wonderful impulse to popular devotion. 170 AECH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. Among the questions which present themselves to the mind when reviewing the work of Christian painters and sculptors in the Catacombs, there are two, especially, to which it does not seem easy to reply. These artists did not treat without distinction all the subjects furnished them by the holy books ; they only took a certain number of them, which they reproduced continually. Why did they prefer the former to the latter, and what was the reason of their choice ? They often unite different subjects in a way that appears quite arbitrary, and place, one after the other, scenes that do not seem to follow, and have no connection with each other. Did they act at random, or must we believe that for these strange groupings they had some motive which it were possible to guess ? Usually everything is explained by symbolism, and symbolism must certainly have played a great part in the begin- nings of Christian art. It is known that the doctors of the Church, above all in the East, often understood the Bible narratives in a figurative sense, and that they loved to see in them moral allegories or prophetic images of what was to come to pass under the new law. In doing so, they followed the example of Philo, who took much pains to give the Old Testament a philosophic meaning, and who professed to find in it the whole of Plato's doctrine. Philo himself imitated those pagan theologians who, desiring to be at the same time philo- sophers and devotees, and preserve their respect for ancient beliefs without too much humblincr their reason, regarded the legends of mythology as symbols or figures, hiding beneath a rude envelope deep and useful truths. Christianity inherited all this work THE CATACOMBS. 171 of exegesis, and may be said to have sometimes found the legacy rather burdensome. One of the causes of the fatigue we occasionally experience in reading the Fathers of the Church, is the effort they are continually making to find for everything figurative meanings; the mixture of subtle interpretations and sincere outbursts, of touching simplicity and refined pedantry, of naweU and scholasticism, of youthfulness with senility, which at every moment reminds us that Christianity was a new religion, born in an old epoch, and that even in the best works of its greatest doctors it has often two ages at the same time. Like contrasts are found again in the works of art of the first Christians. It is natural that these artists, who followed the taste of their period, should have often given a symbolic meaning to the scenes they represented in their paintings or their bas-reliefs. They seem even to have sometimes made a point of telling us this. A fresco in the Catacombs represents a sheep between two wolves. Below it we read the inscription : Susanna, seniores. So, by the two wolves and the sheep, the adventure of Susanna is figured. ISToah stretching his arm towards the dove who brings him the desired branch, was an image of the Christian arrived at the term of his voyage, saved from the perils of the world, and about to attain Heaven. And the proof of this is, that Noah is occasionally replaced on the sarcophagi by the deceased, irrespective of age or sex, so that, instead of the venerable patriarch, one is much surprised to see quite a young man, or even a young woman, coming out of the ark. It is then certain that among the paintings or bas- 172 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. reliefs of the Catacombs, there must be many containing images or symbols, and that, for instance, in the figure of Jonah cast forth by the whale, the paralytic cured, and Lazarus brought to life, the faithful of the early ages formed allusions confirmatory of their hopes of immortality. What they then easily recognised we have now great pains in divining. However, some experts have tried to give us the key of these allegories.^ In the cemetery of Calixtus two very ancient chambers were discovered, close to each other, which were built at the same time and decorated in the same spirit — perhaps by the same artists. They have represented a series of scenes drawn from the Old and New Testaments, believed to be entirely symbolical, and to contain in a consecutive and almost dogmatic form the most sacred doctrines of the Christians. Signer Eossi undertakes to give the sense of all these symbols, whether by comparing the two chambers with each other or by invoking the authority of the Fathers of the Church.^ He shows that the sacred books are here interpreted after the manner of Origines and his disciples. Nothing is more remarkable than to see how strangely allegory and truth are mixed up. The rapid succession, and even confusion of the sense proper and the imaged meaning shows how accustomed everybody then was to this subtle exegesis, and how easily the doctor or the artist was followed in his expository fancies. This personage striking the rock is now Moses and now St ^ These explanations have been carried much too far, and symbols and images discerned everywhere. M. Le Blant has shown the teme- rity of these attempts in his J^tude sur les sarcophages d' Aries p. 15, etc. ^ Rossi, Rovia sott., II. p. 331. THE CATACOMBS, 173 Peter ;i and the flowing water is not only that destined to refresh the Hebrews in the desert, it is the source of grace and life, which, a little further on, we see a priest use to regenerate a young man by baptising him ; it is also the immense sea of the world, into which the holy fisher of souls casts his nets. From one scene to another, and often in the same scenes, allegories follow, destroy, confuse, and replace each other. Here the fish represents the believer conquered to the faith ; elsewhere it is Christ Himself who, on the three-legged table, beside the mystic bread, offers Himself as susten- ance to His disciples. The vessel from which Jonah is flung into the sea has a cross on its mast ; it is at the same time the Church, which a contemporary of St Calixtus compares to a ship beaten by the waves, yet never sunk. If Signor Eossi's manner of explaining these paintings is the right one, it may be concluded that Eome did not remain so great a stranger as is supposed to those works of ingenious interpretation, of which the learned Church of Alexandria became the centre, and which for us is summed up in the great name of Origines. But at Eome the movement soon stopped. The Eoman mind could not have had much taste for these refined allegories and these bold subtleties in which the Greek genius delights. It rather prefers to take things in their historical and real sense than to lose itself in symbolic interpretations, into which there always enters a little imagination. A lover of light, of order, and of discipline, it always seeks to submit individual wills to the general sentiment. Thus it does ^ This allegory is certain. The name of St Peter is sometimes written above the personage striking the rock of Horeb to make the water gush forth. 174 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. not reject the formula which throws all ideas into a uniform mould, and affords it the spectacle — preferred by it to all others — the semblance of unity. The day when it became dominant in the Church it changed its character and its destinies. Perhaps, if the influence of the Jews and the Greeks had been stronger, it would have made it a community, and sometimes an anarchy of souls in search of the truth, discussing passionately the means to discover it, and seeking it by different ways. But, thanks to the Eoman spirit which took possession of the Church, it became above all things a government. Art, like everything else, felt this influence, and seems to enter upon new ways in proportion as the Eoman spirit gains the upper hand in the Church. Signer Eossi shows that in chambers of somewhat more recent date than those of which I have just spoken, the frescoes are still fine, but have no longer the same character. Allegories become more rare, and those we find are not treated with the same freedom and the same variety. The age of historical painting begins ; its birth is seen, as it were, in the Catacombs. Signer Eossi discovered a very curious picture there, and one which seems to represent an almost contemporaneous event. Erect upon a suggestum, a personage of grave and threatening look, dressed in the ijretexta, and wearing a crown, angrily addresses a young man placed in front of him. Behind them, a man also wearing a crown upon his head, and with his hand placed upon his chin, seems to retire in displeasure. Signer Eossi beholds in this picture a scene from the persecutions, and it is, according to him, the interrogation of a martyr. The examining magistrate, the emperor perhaps, is represented with THE CATACOMBS. 175 his usual attributes. The Christian has indeed the bear- ing of a man confessing his faith : his features breathe gentleness and resolution, and the artist has given his eyes a strange brightness. He looks at no one ; he does not appear to listen to what is said to him, and is evidently filled with other thouglits. As for the person who is retiring, he is doubtless a pagan priest who has not been able to induce the believer to sacrifice to the gods. This is probably the most ancient painting of a martyr that we possess. It is the beginning of a genre which, from the fourth and fifth centuries, was to become very much in vogue.^ The Catacombs, while acquainting us with the beginnings of Christian art, afford us some particulars — the only ones we possess — touching the artists who decorated them : humble artists, who worked with such devotion in silence and darkness for the honour of their brothers much more than for the glory of their own names ! Nothing has remained of them except their works ; but the work enables us to guess the workman. Need we say that they were pious Christians and sincere believers ? They must, indeed, have been so, to shut themselves up thus in these dark abodes, and paint pictures which no sunbeam was ever to illumine. But their piety did not induce them entirely to sacrifice their independence. They were not so much subdued by ecclesiastical influences as is thought, and it is not true to say, as has been asserted, that the Church held and guided their hands. The frequent mistakes they commit against the text of the sacred books shows that personal initiation, with all its errors and caprices, had 1 Prudentius, Pcrist., IX. and XI. 126. 176 ARCH-'EOLOGICAL RAMBLES. some part in their works.^ The resemblances remarked between them are less the effect of a command given or a direction received, than of a certain sterility of invention ; the diversities, however slight they may be, prove that they did not work according to a unique and imposed model. Neither did they forget that they were artists as well as Christians. They did not think them- selves free to withdraw from the eternal conditions of art, under pretext that they were working for a new religion. Their devotion did not alieuate them from all professional care, and they did not consider it an impiety to conform to the rules of taste and compose a picture with which the eye should be charmed. Some indications show that, in the arrangement of their frescoes and their bas-reliefs, they had not always the deep intentions and mysterious designs attributed to them ; that they simply let themselves be guided by reasons of order and symmetry ; that they put certain subjects in certain places because they formed a pleas- ing spectacle, and that they placed opposite to each other scenes which, either on account of subject or date, ought to have been placed far apart; but the composition and arrangement of which seemed to have marked them out as pendants to each other.- Although antique art had placed itself so completely at the service of paganism, they studied its masterpieces and strove to imitate them. We have seen that in the early ages, when their faith was more fervent, they did not scruple to borrow from it images by which they represented their God. Of a truth, these loans never ^ See, on these errors,Le Blaut, £tude sur Ics sarcophages d'Arl^, p. 8. ' Le Blaut, Sarcophages, p. 13. THE CATACOMBS. 177 entirely ceased, and even in the works most directly inspired by the new religion, details are often found recalling the ancient legends and the art which so often reproduced them.^ Thus, in becoming Christians, these artists did not abjure their understanding and love of the beautiful works of the painters and sculptors of Greece. They did not think themselves bound to con- demn and proscribe them, since, on the contrary, they endeavoured to appropriate them to their religion. If it is true to say that the Eenaissance had, above all, for its principle to clothe new ideas with the forms of ancient Art, the Eenaissance began at the Catacombs. IV. THE CEMETERY OF CALIXTUS — SIGNOR ROSSI SUCCEEDS IN FINDING IT — THE INDICATIONS WHICH ENABLE HIM TO DISCOVER THE TOMBS OF THE MARTYRS — WORKS CARRIED OUT AFTER THE TIME OF CON- STANTINE IN THE CELEBRATED CRYPTS — GRAFFITI OF PILGRIMS — WHY THE CEMETERY TOOK THE NAME OF CALIXTUS — HISTORY OF THIS POPE, ACCORDING TO THE PHILOSOPHUMENA — WHY THE POPES OF THE THIRD CENTURY WERE BURIED IN THE CEMETERY OF CALIXTUS, AND HOW IT BECAME THE PROPERTY OF THE CHURCH — DISCOVERY OF THE PAPAL CRYPT. We have thus far been content to study the Catacombs in general : we have sought to ascertain their destination, ^ Thus the monster which swallowed Jonah is represented just like the one which threatens Andromache ; dead Lazarus is placed in a pagan herotcm ; and Noah's ark is an exact reproduction of the chest in which Danae is exposed on the waves, etc. M 178 AECH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. have described the aspect they present to the visitor, and have spoken of the inscriptions and paintings they contain. On all these subjects Signer Eossi has shed much light; but he has done more — or rather he has done something else. He continually repeats that his method is altogether analytic. He will not begin, like so many others, by general views, and, with him, genera- lities only result from the study of the details. It is these minute researches which he regards as the most important, and on which he especially prides himself. They must not, therefore, be forgotten when we under- take to make known his labours to the public. In order that their character and results may be quite understood, let us show him at work. By following him for a moment, and walking step for step behind him, we shall be able to understand the sureness of his method and the greatness of his discoveries. Signer Eossi, being resolved to proceed systematically, decided to study the different Christian cemeteries in order of their importance. He should therefore have begun with the crypts of the Vatican. St Peter was buried there, and for two centuries his successors chose to rest near his tomb. But these crypts have been crushed, as it were, under the foundations of the immense basilica built above them, and nothing of them now remains. After the cemetery of the Vatican, which was inaccessible, hierarchical order designated that bearing the name of Calixtus, said to contain the sepulchres of the Popes of the third century. It is on this side that Signer Eossi directed his researches. It was first of all necessary to find its site, which was no easy matter, for there was never a cemetery THE CATACOMBS. 179 concerning whose position there had been so much discussion. That it must be along the Appian Way- was well known; but some confounded it with the Catacomb of St Pretaxtatus, others with that of St Sebastian. In the latter, marble slabs were even placed, which still exist, solemnly informing visitors " that they were in the place where St Cecilia was interred, and where rest the fifty Popes," that is to say, in the cemetery of St Calixtus. But this bold assump- tion of possession did not intimidate Signer Eossi. These slabs were placed in position in the fifteenth century, that is to say, when the Catacombs had been almost forgotten, and in his researches Signer Eossi was resolved only to decide by means of documents, going back to the period when they were known and visited, and when the name of each was accurately known, together with the martyrs it contained. First among those documents must be put a species of writings whose whole importance had hitherto not been recognised. The ancients, like ourselves, had "guide-books," and, indeed, in a town like Eome, where all the world congregated, it would have been difficult to do with- out them. Those preserved to us belong to the last period of the Empire. Usually an enumeration of the wonders of Eome is found in them — the squares, the palaces, the theatres, the porticoes, etc. They also contain itineraries, such as are found in the guide- books of our time, in which the traveller is conducted from one end of Eome to the other, telling him all the buildings he will meet with on his way. The old editions of these itineraries are short and dry, but in the more recent ones the need of interesting the reader 180 AUCH.'EOLOGICAL RAMBLES. is felt, and he is told a crowd of extraordinary legends, in order to make him feel more pleasure in the curiosities he is shown. M. Jordan is even tempted to believe that they were sometimes adorned with illustrations, representing the more curious monuments;^ so that nothing was wanting which conduces to the success of our own guide-books. Their use was still frequent, even in the Middle Ages, and we possess itineraries of the sixth and seventh centuries, which guided pilgrims to the tombs of the martyrs. They may be said to have rendered Signor Eossi the same service, and shown him the way among the most celebrated Catacombs. Two of these itineraries especially, discovered at Salzburg in 1777, enumerate with a sufficiency of detail the Catacombs of the Appian Way. It is, thanks to them, that Signor Eossi was enabled to find the site of the cemetery of Calixtus again. The cemetery discovered, and the entrance to the underground galleries cleared, much still remained to be done. The itineraries informed Signor Eossi what tombs pilgrims of the seventh century went to visit there ; but they still had to be found. This was not an easy work. How was he to know where he was, and find his way amid those hundreds of galleries and thousands of tombs ? How could he be sure that he was taking the road leading to the famous crypts? Happily, here also precious indications were about to guide his researches. These indications were furnished to Signor Eossi by the works carried out in the cemeteries at the peace- ^ Jordan, Topogr., I, 50. THE CATACOMBS. 181 ful period of the Church, and of which the remains are still easily distinguishable at the present time. Triumphant Christianity honoured the asylum of its evil days, but, as the Catacombs had suffered much during the persecutions, and everything could not be repaired, especial care was directed to the crypts where the chief martyrs reposed. They were strengthened and embellished; new and finer entrances and more convenient staircases to descend into them were con- structed. "Wells {lucernaria) were also dug to give them light. The poet Prudentius, who saw the Catacombs under Theodosius, has described for us, in beautiful verses, the state they were then in, and the ever-flow- ing stream of pilgrims who visited them.^ He com- placently depicts the holes made in the roof to light the more important crypts ; he shows the darkness of the galleries interrupted from time to time by kind of islets of brightness, and those alternations of dark- ness and light which filled the soul with a religious awe. Xear the tombs of the saints the walls are covered with marble, or lined with plates of silver " which shine like a mirror." It was thither people repaired from all sides when the feast of some famous martyr came round. They come from Eome, and the imperial city pours forth the flood of its citizens. " They come also from the neighbouring lands. The peasants hasten in a crowd from the villages of Etruria and the Sabine." Each one sets gaily forth with his children and his wife. They hie them forward as swiftly as they may. The fields are too small to hold this ^Prudentius, Perist., XL 155, etc. 182 AKCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. joyous folk, and on the road, vast though it be, the huge crowd is seen to stop. " It is the same people who, in our days, willingly leaves its marshes or descends from its mountains in order to visit the miraculous Madonnas or the Bambino of Arc Cceli. Arrived at the tomb of the martyr, they all yield themselves up to that expressive and clamorous devotion of which the Italians have not lost the habit. From early morn they crowd to salute the saint. The throng who come to adore him pass and pass again till eventide. They kiss the shining silver plate which covers the tomb, they scatter perfumes there, and tears of tenderness flow from every eye." The pilgrims spoken of by Prudentius have left in the Catacombs traces of their passage. They were in the habit of writing their names, with some prayer, along the staircases and at the entrance of the crypts. Time has not altogether effaced these graffiti, which are found especially near the most frequented tombs. Signer Eossi faithfully copied all that he was able to read, and his trouble was not wasted. How many curious particulars are revealed to us by those few words which rude peasants of the fifth or sixth century traced upon the walls ! Among other strange revela- tions they acquaint us with one of those thousand links by which Christian devotion is attached to earlier beliefs. When we look from afar off, these delicate connections escape us, and it seems to us as if an abyss separated Christianity from the religions that preceded it ; but science, which studies things closely and neglects no detail, without entirely bridging the distance, at least re-establishes the transitions. It was a pious THE CATACOMBS. 183 custom of the Greeks and Eomans, on visiting some famous temple, or even some monument that struck them with admiration, to recall their relations or their friends to mind, whether in order to recommend them to the god to whom the temple was consecrated, or to associate them in the pleasure produced in themselves by a fine sight. These acts of adoration or proscynemes, as they were called, in which the traveller associates with his personal impressions the names of those who are dear to him, occur frequently in Greece, and, above all, in Egypt. They are usually somewhat short, and little varied in their form. " Serapion, son of Aristom- mache, is come near unto the great Isis of Phile, and, moved by piety, remembered his parents." " I, PanoUios of Heliopolis, have visited the tombs of the kings, and thought of all my kindred." Yet all are not so simple and so cold, and we sometimes find veritable feeling in them. A Eoman lady, visiting the pyramids, remembers the brother she has lost, and writes these touching words : " I have seen the pyramids without thee, and the sight filled me with sadness. All I could do was to shed tears for thy fate ; then, faithful to the memory of my grief, I was fain to write this plaint." Signor Eossi, therefore, was not quite right in saying that the pagan proscynemes never contained anything more "than a cold and sterile formula," but Christianity certainly put more warmth and passion into them. What interests us above all in them is that they are natural and spontaneous. There is nothing official or conventional about them, as in the great inscriptions graven on marble. They are less pompous and less magnificent, but the impulse of the heart is much 184 ARCH/EOLOGICAL RAMBLES. better felt. Sometimes the pilgrim simply writes his name, humbly asking some boon for himself, and uttering a few pious wishes for others. — Eustathius, humilis peccator ; tu qui legis, ora pro me, et habeas Dominum protectorem. At others, he implores the saint for himself or for the persons whom he loves : " Holy Martyrs, remember Dionysius ! " " Ask that Verecundus and his people may have a happy voyage." " Obtain repose for my father and for my brothers." But most often he is content to use this short formula, " Live ! " or, "May he live in God!" At the entrance to the crypt of Lucina are found these words, several times repeated : " Sofronia, live in God ! " {Sofroniam vivas ! ) Doubtless, after writing these words, the traveller went into the crypt, knelt down, and prayed at the foot of the martyr's tomb ; and confidence entered his heart with prayer. This is proved by the following inscrip- tion, traced by the same hand on the exit side : " My dear Sofronia, thou shalt live for ever ; yes, thou shalt live in the Lord ! " {Sofronia dulcis, semper vives Deo. Sofronia, vives ! ) Signer Rossi does not so carefully gather the mementoes, left by the period of Constantine and of Theodosius in the Catacombs, from mere curiosity. They have for him quite another importance, since they put him on the track of the historical crypts. As it was for them alone that, after the triumph of the Church, these broad staircases were built and these large light-holes dug, he is warned, when he comes across them, that some illustrious tomb is not far off. In order to find it, he has only to put himself in the footsteps of the pilgrims, of whom I have just THE CATACOMBS. 185 spoken. Their graffiti guide him ; he walks as it were with them, and by the increasing warmth of their prayers, he can guess that he is nearing his goal. Once in the crypt, a hundred details, which he care- fully notes and compares with information furnished by the ancient historians, now informs him what martyr or confessor it is whose sepulchre they thus came to honour, and whose help they invoked. If it is a renowned saint, he rarely fails to discover, by diligent search, some remains of an inscription by St Damasus. This Pope was a great admirer, or rather a great devotee, of the Catacombs. He passed his life in repairing and embellishing them. He even composed little pieces of verse, to be placed above the tombs of saints, and recall their actions to the faithful. For their engraving on marble, Furius Filocalus, a renowned caligrapher, who styles himself the admirer and friend of Pope Damasus {Damasi 'pwpae cultor atque amator), imagined a special alphabet, whose letters have at their extremities certain orna- ments which enable them to be easily recognised. As they were never used except for the verses of the Pope-poet, one is certain, on beholding one of these letters on a piece of broken marble, that one has in hand a fragment of an inscription by Damasus, and that one is consequently near the tomb of some great personage. It is by such means that Signer Kossi succeeds in finding his way almost with certainty in this labyrinth, and how, in so few years, he has discovered again so many famous tombs. Yet there was a sepulchre which he still lacked, and it was just the 186 AECH^OLOGlCAL RAMBLES. one most necessary for him to discover. The opinions expressed by him respecting the position of the ceme- tery of St Calixtus had the disadvantage of newness. The many people who never pardon novelty are wrong. Under a government of priests, in a country where immobility was a physical need and a religions dogma, to change the least thing in received opinions was regarded as a crime. In order to obtain forgiveness for his innovations, to open the eyes of the incredulous, and to victoriously demonstrate that he was really in the cemetery of St Calixtus, it was requisite to find the sepulchre of the Popes of the third century. The question which Signor Eossi was trying to solve was full of obscurities. Why had this sepulchre of the Popes, which on the faith of ancient documents he was obstinately seeking in the cemetery of St Calixtus, been transported thither ? How came it that the Bishops of Eome had chosen to rest elsewhere than beside St Peter, in the glorious crypt of the Vatican ? No one had been able to find the reason. Nor was this the only subject of uncertainty and doubt presented by the study which Signor Eossi had undertaken. From the very beginning of his explorations, he perceived that the cemetery of Calixtus is much more ancient than the name under which it is known led one to believe. The character of the paintings in the chambers and galleries first excavated ; the arrangement of the tombs, with the character of the inscriptions found in them, all recalled the second half of the second century. A still more decisive argument is, that the bricks used in their construc- tion and which, according to Eoman custom, bear the THE CATAGOMBS. 187 maker's mark, were all made under Marcus Aurelius. These works are therefore anterior to Zephyrimus and Calixtus, who lived under Severus. Certain indications seemed to prove to Signor Eossi that this first hypogeum really belonged to the second century, and that it was given to the Church by a member of the illustrious family of the Csecilii. Why, then, did it not keep its first name, and how comes it that it bears that of Calixtus ? This is what we are beginning to know or foreshadow since the discovery and publication of a curious polemi- cal work, written in the third century by an unknown theologian, and called the Fhilosophumena. This work, which, until our day, had remained hidden in the library of a Greek convent, caused, on its appearance, intense surprise and great scandal. It certainly very much upset accepted opinions. Above all, it described the life of this Calixtus, whom the faithful made Pope, and whom, later on, the Church made a saint, in a very unexpected manner. If the unknown author of Philo- sophumena is to be credited, this Pope and saint was merely a former slave who entered into banking with the money of his master, Carpophorous, and whom the too credulous Christians charged to keep the revenues of the Church. He succeeded badly in his operations, and dissipated the money which had been confided to him. In order to dispense himself from rendering his accounts, and by an exploit to reconquer his popularity, which his financial disasters had shaken, he bethought himself to go and make a noise in the synagogue of the Jews, and disturb their ceremonies. Exiled to Sardinia for this act of intolerance, and afterwards recalled to 188 ABCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. Italy by the influence of Marcia, the mistress of Commodus, who protected the Christians, he became, it is not known how, the favourite and successor of Pope Zephyrinus. His character did not change with his fortune. He had been an unfaithful slave and a fraudulent banker : as Bishop of Eome, he was heretical, corrupt, simoniacal, '^and by his example taught adultery and murder." This is certainly a not very edifying history for a Pope and a saint; and, happily, it is not at all credible. Signor Eossi has no difficulty in showing that the violence of this libel weakens its authority,^ and that the accusations contained in it are entirely wanting in probability. The author himself is at pains to inform us that they are only an isolated protest, when he tells us that Calixtus has seduced everybody, and that he is alone in resisting him. But it is none the less certain that if, in writing for contemporaries, he perverted facts, he did not entirely imagine them. Signor Eossi thinks there must be truth at the bottom of the narrative, and that, for example, we must believe what it tells us of the origin of Calixtus and his first calling. So he was a former slave, and had long carried on banking on the Forum, Is it not significant that at this moment, scarcely two hundred years after the death of Christ, the Christian community of Eome, standing in need of a chief, should seek out an ex-banker ? This means that it had already become rich, and was beginning to have a care for its temporal interests. It was no longer enough for him who directed it to be capable of govern- ^ He has specially studied this question in his Btdlettino di archeo- logia cristiana of 1866. THE CATACOMBS. 189 ing souls ; he must also be capable of directing business. And it seems that, in choosing Calixtus, the Christians were not deceived. We gather from the involuntary avowals of the author of the Philosophumena that this Pope was a skilful organiser — a sort of liberal and enlightened man of State, who made useful regulations for the discipline of the Church. The people of Kome continued to remember his name long after the memory of his acts had been lost, and Signor Eossi rightly sees in this persistence a far-off remembrance of the great part which Calixtus had played. We find in this violent pamphlet a very singular expression, which attracted Signor Eossi's attention first of all. It is said that, when Zephyrinus had been named Bishop of Eome, he sent for Calixtus from Antium, whither he had been exiled since his return from Sardinia, and gave him charge of the cemetery. The cemetery on the Appian Way which has kept his name, is doubtless the one in question. But how must we explain this strange manner of designating it ? The Christians then possessed a great number. They had more ancient ones ; for example, that of Domitilla, dating from the first century. They had more celebrated ones — as the crypt of the Vatican, where the first Popes were interred. Why, then, is the one on the Appian Way called the cemetery, as if it were alone ? Signor Eossi, as we shall presently see, believes that the first hypogea possessed by the faithful were due to the liberality of some great lords converted to the new faith, and that, in the eyes of the law, they continued to be the property of the families who had conceded them ; but he supposes that, later, the Christians pro- 190 AKCH^OLOGICAL KAMBLES. fited by the protection which the emperors accorded to funeral associations, and succeeded in becoming legiti- mate and recognised proprietors of their burying- grounds, like the otliers. It is then probable that the cemetery of the Appian Way was the first, and perhaps for some time the only one, that enjoyed this privilege. Thence we understand how the ancient hypogeum of the Cfficilii, enlarged, embellished, and placed on a par with its new fortunes, should have become, above all others, the cemetery, and how they should have become accustomed to give it the name of Calixtus, who doubtless directed the works. And this is also why all the Bishops of Eome, from Zephyrinus down- ward, were buried there. They preferred the cemetery of Calixtus to all others, because it was the first of which the State had assured them the possession ; they chose to be buried in the bosom of this earth which belonged to them, and in the domains of the Church. And Signer Eossi believed himself certain of finding this sepulchre where they rested. Since ancient itineraries mentioned it, and pilgrims of the seventh century came to pray there, he could not fail to find it some day or another. He, in fact, succeeded in doing so in the month of March 1854, after five years of seeking, and by applying his ordinary methods. A considerable mass of ruins near the Appian Way had attracted his notice. And, sure enough, there was one of the large wells, or lucernaria, which had been dug after Constan- tine's time, in order to give light to the Catacombs. The workmen penetrated by this well into a chamber of medium extent (3.54 in length by 4.50 in breadth), but which must have been decorated with great magni- THE CATACOMBS. 191 ficence. Successive restorations had covered the walls with delicate paintings, and then with slabs of marble. Unhappily, Signer Eossi had been forestalled in his researches. Devastators had got in, it is not known when, had finished the ruin begun by time, and, in order to obtain the marble, had destroyed a part of the inscriptions. But they had been unable to take all. The crypt being half-full of heaped-up materials, they could not reach the ground, and there was hope that among the rubbish which filled it some discovery might be made. So they set courageously to work to clear it out. As the walls reappeared, they were found covered with those graffiti, which never fail in impor- tant crypts. As always, they were the work of pilgrims addressing the martyr whose tomb they were visiting, and asking him for a happy passage for them and their families {ut Verecundus cum suis bene navigd). But who could this saint be to whom their prayers were addressed ? It fortunately so happened that one of them had named him. In one of these inscriptions a name may be read, several times repeated : Sancte Suste libera .... Sancte Suste, in mente habeas, so that one of the greatest Popes of the third century was in question, beheaded in the Catacombs themselves, where he was celebrating the holy mysteries in spite of the Emperor's prohibition. They were therefore pro- bably in the papal crypt where St Systus was buried with his colleagues after his martyrdom. But it was necessary to find more certain proofs. Signer Eossi has related with what anxiety he followed the work of his labourers, searching the rubbish as it was brought out of the crypt, without passing over the slightest frag- 192 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. ments. At last, by putting pieces of broken marble together, he succeeded in recomposing the inscriptions placed on the tombs of four Popes. These epitaphs are remarkable for their simplicity. They contain neither praise nor regret, only these words are read: Anieros hishop ; Eutychianus, bishop. On that of Fabian, another hand added, later on, the word " martyr." ^ No doubt was longer possible. All Signer Eossi's assertions found themselves confirmed by this brilliant discovery. It was indeed the papal crypt that had been found after fifteen centuries, and on the 11th May 1854, Pope Pius IX. came to visit the tomb of his distant predecessors. CHIEF RESULTS OF SIGNOR ROSSI S DISCOVERIES — HIS NEW OPINIONS ON THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CEMETERIES — THEY BEGIN BY BEING PRIVATE PROPERTY — AS SUCH THEY ARE UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE LAW — HOW THEY EX- TENDED — HOW THEY BECAME THE PROPERTY OF THE CHURCH — FIRST RELATIONS OF THE CHURCH WITH THE CIVIL AUTHORITY — CHARACTER OF THESE RELATIONS — THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH AND THE GREAT FAMILIES — HOW ADVANTAGE MAY BE DRA^VN FROM THE ACTS OF THE MARTYRS. We now know how Signer Eossi proceeds in the excavations which he undertakes. Seeing him working 1 Signer Rossi thinks he may conclude from this that the title of martyr was only granted after a deliberation of the Church, THE CATACOMBS. 193 at St Calixtus, we understand his method. Instead of following him in the details of his other discoveries, I think it will be better, in finishing, to show the conse- quence which he drew from them. Of course, I do not pretend to enumerate all the obscure problems which he has solved ; I limit myself to the most important. I will simply recall some of the new ideas with which he has enriched history, and the definitive conquests which Christian archaeology owes to him. First of all he has explained, better than has been done before him, the origin of the Christian cemeteries, and the phases through which they have passed. In this connection he has changed received opinions, and illumined with a new light that delicate question, the relations of the rising Church to the civil power. In speaking of the Catacombs, underground places are usually imagined whose entrance is only known to a few initiated persons, and in which a proscribed religion carefully hides itself from its persecutors. This is an idea that must be got rid of — at least, as regards the two first centuries. It is now certain that, in the beginning, the Christians did not seek to conceal the existence of their cemeteries ; that the authorities knew of them ; and that until the persecution of Decius they never forbade access to them. In the year 1864 the entrance to one of the oldest cemeteries of Eome was discovered — that of Domitilla. It was located along one of the most frequented ways — the Via Ardeatina. The door opened directly upon the road, and above the pediment is found the place of an inscription, which has disappeared, but which, as usual, told to whom the hypogeum belonged. Beyond 194 AKCH.SOLOGICAL RAMBLES. the vestibule, a long gallery opens, whose roof is adorned with graceful paintings, representing a vine, with birds and genii. On the wall is seen the trace of more important frescoes, in one of which the subject of Daniel in the den of lions, afterwards to become so popular, is represented. All this first storey rose above the ground : it struck the eyes of all ; it was impossible not to remark it. This is because the cemetery had at that time really nothing to hide. The person to whom it belonged, Domitilla or another, had a right to admit whom he chose to it. Have we not thousands of tombs whose owner tells us that he has built them for himself and his family, for his friends, for his freedmen and freedwomen, for those who form part of the same college ? We have one even where he expressly mentions the people who belong to the same religion as himself, as destined to share his sepulture {qui sint ad rdigionem pertinentes meam}) Signor Eossi, relying upon this usage, thinks that the Catacombs were originally the private tombs of rich Christians, and that instead of admitting their freedmen to them, they admitted their brethren. What lends sufficient probability to this opinion is the manner in which they are designated in the most ancient documents. They are usually called by a proper name, which is not that of martyrs or confessors buried in them. It is probably the name of the first proprietor of the tomb, of him who paid for the ground, and had the crypt constructed. Under these circumstances, it is easily conceivable that the construction of the first Catacombs should neither ^ Rossi, Bull, di arch. crisL, 1865, No. 12. THE CATACOMBS. 195 have caused any surprise in the pagan world nor have been opposed by the powers. Pious women, who from the very first were the most fervent adepts of the new worship, — Domitilla, Lucina, Commodilla ; rich and generous people like Calepodius, Pretextatus, or Thrason, had sumptuous tombs raised for themselves in advance ; nothing was more natural ; everybody did the same. They did not build them for themselves alone ; this was still a very common usage. They chose to rest there with those who shared their beliefs: this was more unusual, but not without example. This tomb, into which so many people were received, did not, therefore, the less belong to Thrason or to Com- modilla. It was still a private property, and, like others, was guaranteed by law. The respect of the Eomans for tombs is well known. The spot where any person was buried, even a stranger or a slave, at once became sacred (locus religiosus). The law took it under its protection, and defended it from all outrage. The Christians profited by this protection, like everybody else ; for there was no reason to deprive them of a common right. Even when, under JSTero and Domitian, authority persecuted them, it is not seen that the persecution was extended to their cemeteries. The Eoman law did not refuse sepulture to the criminals it had punished, and the tomb of a person who had been executed was as inviolable as the others. Yet let us add that, even under these circumstances, the Christians were only sure of escaping lawsuits and chicanery on condition that the surface of the ground in which they dug their cemeteries belonged to them. The inalienable possession of the upper earth was the 196 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. guarantee of the inviolability of the underground tombs. The law which declared sacred the spot where a man was buried, not only protected the tomb, — it also included its dependencies. These were regarded as in- separable from the tomb itself, and they profited by its privileges. Under the head ground contiguous to the sepulchre {area cedens sepulchro), they became, like it, inalienable. Now, these dependencies were often very considerable. The sumptuousness of their tombs was the first luxury of rich people. They loved, first of all, to surround the monument where they were to repose with a rather extensive space, where they had various edifices built, and which was sometimes bordered with large trees. Behind these trees, orchard, vines, and gardens extended, and often, behind the gardens, cul- tivated fields. They took great care to mark on their epitaphs the exact extent of the soil, which at times was no less than three jugera. They said that they reserved it for themselves alone ; that they formally excepted it from their inheritance, and that they would not have it cut up or sold. If they had happened to have a vault constructed, they did not forget this cir- cumstance, and we see a certain number of funeral inscriptions expressly mentioned among the things of which the deceased reserves to himself the indefinite possession — the monument and its hypogcum {monu- mentum cum hypogm). These usages afforded the Christians the opportunity to acquire the land needed for their burying-grounds, however extensive it might be, without causing surprise to any one. They also gave them the hope of posses- sing them always, without fear of its falling into pro- THE CATACOMBS. 197 fane hands. That they profited by them there can scarcely be a doubt. It may then be affirmed that, before constructing their crypts, they assured them- selves the possession of the upper soil ; that they made it, to use the consecrated term, " a ground contiguous to the sepulchre," and that, by some inscription which will perhaps be recovered, they placed the monument and its Tiypogeum under the guardianship of the law. Signer Kossi, in drawing up the plan of the different cemeteries, made an important observation. He remarks that, if reduced to their primitive elements, leaving out those works which are evidently posterior, only a few isolated groups remain, each of which forms a regular geometrical figure of slight extent. These respected limits, this anxious care taken to dig within a narrow space, instead of spreading at large, and this regularity of form which has been held to, are only satisfactorily explained by the assumption that in this underground work it has been sought not to overstep the bounds of a field possessed on the surface. Each of these groups is therefore the exact reproduction of that field, and they represent those little primitive hypogea given to the Church by rich protectors, or which it bought with its own funds. By transporting them, in thought, to the soil, and replacing the trees that were planted, and the funeral monuments that were built there, and by shutting them in with gravestones and walls, we may form some idea of those species of islets which the Christian cemeteries must have formed during the second century in the Eoman Campagna, between the properties of the rich and the tombs of the different religions. 198 AllCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. The primitive Catacombs had therefore but very slight extent, but ere long they necessarily grew. In the first galleries that were constructed, the niches for the dead were broad and far from each other, and there was much room lost. The number of the faithful con- tinually augmenting, it soon became necessary to crowd the tombs and fill up the empty spaces. This means did not long suffice, and they were obliged to decide on the piercing of new galleries ; but, in order to respect the law, care was taken not to exceed the limits of the field possessed, and there were sometimes as many as five stages of galleries superposed in the same crypt. The first was 7 or 8 metres from the soil — the last attained a depth of 25 metres. These enlargements of course yielded a great deal of room. According to Signer Eossi's calculations, ground with a length of but 125 Eoman feet could furnish, with only three stories, nearly 700 metres of galleries. It must have sufficed the community of Christians for some time. Yet, as the number of the faithful constantly increased, it at length became absolutely necessary to leave the ancient boundary, which would contain no more dead. These small hypogca were often near together ; they pushed ramifications towards each other, and several of them, by joining, formed a cemetery. The cemeteries, therefore, are only the union of these originally isolated crypts, and if they have now such a large number of openings, it is because each crypt had its own, and kept it. Must we go further and believe with some of the learned that, later on, all these cemeteries united to compose a single underground Christendom ? One would fain suppose so, since the THE CATACOMBS. 199 imagination would be pleased by the idea that the faithful, who, during their lifetime so ardently aspired to form but a single fold, at least attained to this after their death ; but it is impossible to believe it, since the nature of the soil opposed too many obstacles to such a union. The cemeteries are often separated one from the other by deep valleys and swamps, where the water collects after storms, and the galleries under these marshes would never have been practicable. The Christians well knew it, so they only constructed their cemeteries on the slopes of hills, and whatever desire we may suppose them to have to meet together after death, it is not possible to admit that they ever attempted to cross the valleys. After all, the Christian cemeteries, although separated one from the other, still present a unity of labours sufficiently grand to satisfy the most exigent of imaginations. It is thus that, little by little, these primitive hypogca which the Church owed to the generosity of a few Christians, increased in size. In a century they took such vast proportions that it became difficult to continue to treat them in the same way, and for the law still to consider them as the property of families who had ceded them to the faithful. In fact, Signer Eossi thinks that they then changed their position, and in support of this he relies upon the following con- siderations. He bids us remark that Constantine, in the edict of Milan, orders to be returned to the Christians " The properties belonging, not to individuals, but to the entire community " (ad jus coiyoris eorum non homimon singulorum 2^erti7ientia), and we know that the cemeteries formed part of those common properties which were 200 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. restored to them. Before Constantine, therefore, the Church must have obtained from the Emperors the same privileges as the corporations recognised by the State, which had the right to possess property, and by this title have been the legitimate proprietor of its cemeteries. But at what point did it obtain this important right which the Emperors were so chary of granting ? Doubtless, before the period of Decius and Valerian, when it was the object of such cruel persecutions. Now, in the reign of Severus, a notable change took place in Eoman legis- lation, by which it seems natural that the Christians should have profited. The Empire, in the first and second centuries, was overspread with burying associa- tions {collegia funeraticia). These were societies which, in return for the payment of a moderate sum monthly, undertook to provide their members with a proper burial and decent obsequies. The success of them is explained by the fear then felt that the soul would be wandering and miserable in the other life if the body did not rest in a fixed sepulchre, or if it had not been interred according to the rites. The Emperors, who in general mistrusted societies, and vouchsafed them but scant toleration, made an exception for these. Perhaps, as they were exclusively composed of poor people, they seemed to them less to be feared, and they hoped to increase their popularity by taking them under their protection. A senatus consultuni authorised in advance all the burial societies that should be founded in the Empire, so that, in order to acquire legal existence, it was sufficient for them to get themselves inscribed under this heading in the registers of the magistrates. Once authorised, they had a right to THE CATACOMBS. 201 possess a common exchequer, fed by the subscriptions of their members and the liberality of their protectors, and they could meet once a month for ordinary business, or as often as they chose, in order to celebrate the festivals of the association. It must be owned that this senatus consultum offered the Christians extraordinary facilities which must have greatly tempted them. It asked no sacrifice of their beliefs, it required no lie of them. This being so, Christians could well affirm that they also formed a "burial association," since they regarded it as their first duty to give an honourable sepulchre to their dead of every condition. In getting themselves recognised by the State, which coiild scarcely refuse them what it granted to every one, they not only became lawful proprietors of their cemeteries, but they acquired the right to meet together without being troubled, and to possess a common treasury. It was a great advantage ; TertuUian's manner of expressing himself, the terms he uses in speaking of Christian associations,^ and, still more, reason and good sense bid us believe that they would not voluntarily deprive them- selves of it. If, indeed, the Christian community got itself accepted by the State as one of those collegia fiLneraticia which covered the Empire, the Bishop must naturally have been regarded as the responsible chief of the society, and doubtless, passed in the eyes of the magis- trates for the president of the association. The deacon, ^ Signer Rossi bids us remark that the expressions used by TertuUian in speaking of the quota collected each month in the assemblies of the Christians : Modicam unusquisque stipem menstrua die opponit, recall the terms of the senatus consxdtum qui stipem menstruam conferre volcnt, etc. 202 ARCH^OLOGICAL EAMBLES. who was charged with the administration of the ceme- tery, played the part of the person who, under the name of actor or syndicus, managed common properties. It follows that the name of the bishop and that of the deacon were known to the authorities, who doubtless had frequent intercourse with them. It was necessary to inform them when the Bishop was dead, and to give them the name of him who had been appointed in his place. Signer Eossi even thinks he has discovered, by certain indications, that some of the lists of the Popes possessed by us come, not from the archives of the Church, but from those of the prefecture of Eome, where they were preserved with care, and whither the copyists went to seek them, in order to be sure of having an authentic document. Here, then, is the State for the first time in relationship with the Church, which had hitherto escaped it. They will henceforth take the habit of working together, and will unite so strongly that they will think themselves no longer able to separate and live without each other. We have arrived at the moment when those bonds are formed which will soon become so close, but it must be owned that, if the Church thought to gain greater security and more rest by these relations, it was mistaken. This protection which it asked from the State, and which it was so glad to have obtained, brought it little and cost it dear. Henceforth the Emperors know it better and have their hand more directly upon it ; when they strike they will hit straight. Instead of deviating to the insignificant among the believers, they will unhesitat- ingly smite the chief of the community. They know his name and his abode, they seize him when they will, THE CATACOMBS. 203 they exile or kill him according to their caprice, and, having got rid of him, they prevent another from being appointed. The position of the cemeteries is also changed. When they were a private property, and belonged, at least in appearance, to some great family, no one dared to touch them. But once become the common property of the Church, they followed its destiny. They were seized by the agents of the fiscus, pillaged by the soldiers of the Emperor, and the Christians were often obliged to destroy and fill them up themselves in order to save them from the ravages of the enemy. Signer Eossi's manner of explaining the origin of the Catacombs and their legal position has the advantage of explaining facts which till now seemed very obscure. It was not understood how the Christians could accomplish such great works in their cemeteries, introduce their workmen to dig the galleries and take out the rubbish from them, without arousing the attention of the imperial police. Our surprise ceases from the moment we know that they did it quite openly, and with the assent of the authorities. This theory also allows of a better explanation, than was formerly the case, of the alternations which the Church passed through during the first two centuries. Its position was then a double one, and it was possible to be indulgent or severe towards it, according to the side from which it was regarded. As a new religion, it was to be interdicted. The law was precise, and forbade all foreign religions that had not been accepted by a decree of the Senate, but as " a funeral association " it was authorised. Hence a kind of hesitation of the 204 ARCHiOilOLOGICAL RAMBLES. authorities in their dealings with the Church, and the vicissitudes through which they caused it to pass. From time to time popular fury, always excited against the Christians, leads the magistrates of cities, the governors of provinces, and the Emperor himself to persecute the people who preach a new god. They had the legal right to do so, and, whatever apologists may say, the prosecutions are regular and lawful. But this effervescence of anger once calmed down, the rigours cease. It is affected no longer to regard the corpora- tion of the "brethren," the adorers of the Word, as anything but one of those societies, half religious and half civil (cultores Jovis, culiores Diancc, etc.) which have been instituted to give sepulture to their members, and they are allowed the same tolerance that is granted to others. Signer Eossi bids us remark that this tolerance was rendered more easy by the care taken by the Church not to offend common usages when it found nothing to reprove in them, and to conform itself as much as possible to the customs of the ordinary associations. A pagan, who, in passing along the Via Ardcatina had been tempted to visit the cemetery of Domitilla, would have found nothing there to surprise him so much as we are inclined to believe. The charming arabesques adorning the roof of the entrance corridor, those vine branches so gracefully intertwined, those vintage scenes, and, elsewhere, those birds and those winged genii fluttering about in empty space, would have recalled to him what he had before his eyes every day in the apartments of rich people. The epitaphs, if he stopped to read them, might doubtless appear different THE CATACOMBS. 205 enough from usual inscriptions; yet they contained hardly anything that might not be found elsewhere. Even the wishes, " Peace and refreshment," which seem to us the most original part of them, are borrowed from certain Oriental creeds that had been long since acclimatized in Eome. The Christian obsequies, too, at first sight, and to a hurried observer, must have greatly resembled others. Prudentius says that they bestrewed the tomb with leaves and flowers, and that they poured libations of perfumed wine upon the marble. Above all, the custom of celebrating funeral anniversaries by banquets had been preserved. Beside the entrance to the cemetery of Domitilla, the dining- room is still found, where the brothers met to celebrate the memory of their dead. Signer Eossi shows, by curious examples, how given they were to reproduce, at least to outward appearance, what passed in the triclinia of other associations ; so that a pagan, as- sisting at these repasts, would have thought himself in one of those fine burial places possessed by great families and important associations along the Appian or the Latin "Way. Other historians have been chiefly struck by the radical differences which separated Christianity from the different religions in the midst of which it established itself. Signor Eossi shows us the chance or intentional resemblances which it had to them. These resemblances made the transition from one religion to the other the more easy, which was doubtless not without profit to the rapid propagation of Christianity. Another advantage of the explanations given by Signor Eossi is, that they enable us better to under- 206 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. stand the relations of the tirst Christians to the authorities. People are fond of picturing Christianity to themselves as a kind of uncompromising sect which held civil society in horror, and would at no cost have anything to do with it; but there is a great deal of exaggeration in this opinion. The Church, on the contrary, during the first three centuries, made many efforts to live at peace w"ith the ruling powers. Instead of putting itself in open revolt against tlie laws, it tried to benefit by those which were favourable to it, and even to gain admission to the class of the regular institutions of the Empire. These facts do not surprise us; we might have suspected them ; but we had no such evident proofs as those which Signer Eossi gives us. Christianity is known to have been one of the rare Jewish sects of its age that were not at the same time a political insurrection and a religious reform. It declared from the very beginning that it could ac- commodate itself to all governments and live in all surroundings. Its founder preached submission to Ctesar in a country trembling with excitement and already almost in a state of rebellion. The Apostles, faithful to the doctrine of the Master, require obedience to all raised in authority. St Paul, in particular, seems to have taken much pains in order that the new religion might succeed in living with the old society. He does not choose that it should bring any dissension into the family or into the State ; he forbids Christians who have infidel wives to separate from them, and he commands them to remain in the same position in which they were when they were called, and to main- tain themselves in it before the Lord. His principle THE CATACOMBS. 207 concerns the slave as well as the free man. They must all respect the social hierarchy, and render unto each his due. " Tribute to whom tribute is due, fear to whom fear ! " They must, above all, be submissive to the prince, " who is the minister of God to favour the faithful in good." The Christians afterwards rigor- ously carried out these precepts of the Apostle. Even the persecutions themselves did not make rebels of them. In spite of the cruel manner in which they were treated, and which could not have disposed them to submission, we do not find them anywhere openly mixed up in the troubles of the Empire. Tertullian says that they prayed for the Emperor who persecuted them, and asked God to give him "a long life, a respected power, a happy family, valiant armies, a faith- ful Senate, an obedient people, and the repose of the universe." Signer Eossi renders these dispositions of the Christian community more evident, and makes us better understand the care which it took to avoid all conflicts and put itself straight with the powers, when he en- deavours to prove that it profited by the privileges granted by the Empire to popular associations, and that it must have got itself authorized like other funeral associations, and kept up regular intercourse with the prefecture of Eome.^ He also introduced, in the history of the origin of Christianity, other opinions which were not quite ac- 1 Apro2'>os of the money which some churches cousented to pay, in order to avoid the persecutions, Tertullian confirms that the Christians were on the registers of the police, and were there in very bad com- pany : Inter tabernarios et lanios etfures balneorum et alcones et lenones christiani quoquevectigalescontinentur. — Defugainpers., XII. andXIII. 208 ARCH.'EOLOGICAL UAMRLES. credited before his time, and which I will content myself with rapidly pointing out. It has been often said that Christianity at first only spread among the wretched classes. It was poor Jews and " little Greeks," freed- men and slaves, weavers, shoemakers, and fullers, who were its first converts. From the height of his rich philosophy Celse laughed much at this mob of souls, simple and ignorant, of minds narrow and unculti- vated, for whom the Christian doctors mounted their pulpits. It cannot, indeed, be denied that poor people were for a long time the most numerous among the faithful; but did the Church consist exclusively of them, even in the first years ? Signer Eossi thinks not. He was struck to see that the most ancient Catacombs are also the richest and best ornamented. He asks himself whether it was possible for a corporation con- taining only " weavers and shoemakers " to produce the vestibule of the cemetery of Domitilla, with the elegant paintings that decorate the roof ? And it at once occurs to him that, among those slaves, those freedmen, and those workmen, there must have been more important and more opulent personages who bore the expense of these buildings. This, however, is only what happened in the poorer associations, which took great care to choose protectors to help them with their influence and their fortune. Is it not likely that some- thing of the kind existed in the association of the brethren ? The excavations have seemed to confirm these suppositions. On the tombs discovered by him, Signer Eossi has occasionally read the most glorious names of ancient Eome — the Cornelii, the ^milii, the Ccecillii, etc. He concludes that some members of THE CATACOMBS. 209 these great families very early knew and practised the new doctrine. Preached by St Paul "in the house of Cffisar," that is to say, among the Eastern slaves and freedmen of the prince, it had about the same time won over the noble Pomponia Gr^cina, wife of the Consul Plautius, the conqueror of Britain. She was accused, under Nero, of "foreign superstition," which could then only mean Judaism or Christianity, and as her descendants have been found in the cemetery of Calixtus, we may with much probability suppose that she was indeed a Christian. Some years later, the new faith made its way into the very family of the Emperors, if it be true, as there is every kind of reason to believe, that Domitilla and her husband Flavins Clemens, the nearest relations of Domitian and of Titus, were Christians, like Pomponia Gracina. Clemens and Domitilla could not have been alone for an example in such high quarters is rarely un- imitated by other personages. So it may be sup- posed that Christianity, even in its first years, made some important conquests among the aristocracy of birth and money which governed the Empire. Those great personages which it drew to it must, in the first place, have helped it by their position, and perhaps they more than once stopped the blows that were being pre- pared for it, like that Marcia, mistress of Commodus, " who feared the Lord," and protected the bishops. Above all, they must, by their liberalities, have enriched the common chest, which, from the period of the Antonines, was so important, and soon allowed the Church of Eome to extend its alms over nearly the whole world. The Catacombs have already revealed to us the names 210 ARCHAEOLOGICAL E AMBLES. of some of those great lords who early became Chris- tians, and when there was peril in so doing, and they will doubtless acquaint us with many others. They were perhaps a somewhat feeble element in that budding society, but one that must be taken into account. If we neglect it, it is less easy to understand how Chris- tianity sustained the attacks of its enemies, and succeeded in vanquishing them. Another question, perhaps more important yet, which is far from being settled, but which the study of the Catacombs has made a little clearer, is that of the amount of confidence deserved by the " Lives of the Saints" and the "Acts of the Martyrs." These documents are much discredited, not only among sceptics, but among pious people, like Tillemont, when they do not think that devotion renders absten- tion from criticism a duty. In the form that they have reached us, they deserve very little credence. In the centuries following the peace of the Church ridiculous legends got mixed up with them. "When read on the feasts of the saints for the edification of the faithful, anything that could strike the imagina- tion or touch the heart was added without scruple. Ehetoric, above all — the bad rhetoric of the seventh and eighth centuries — has quite spoilt them. Yet it must be owned that wliatever distrust they may awaken, they must not, after the excavation of the Catacombs, be any longer rejected without examina- tion. All in these narratives is not imaginary, since the graves of those whose ' history they narrate have been found in the galleries of the cemeteries. So, in the fourth century, their tombs were really THE CATACOMBS. 211 believed to be extant ; their names were read on their epitaphs, and people came to pray before their remains. The account of the facts may be very legendary, but it is difficult to doubt the reality of the names of the personages. Even in these very narratives, in the midst of many ridiculous errors, probable or certain details are remarked. Some are confirmed by the ancient inscriptions or paintings in the Catacombs ; others imply a perfect knowledge of places which people of the eighth or ninth centuries certainly visited no longer. Signor Eossi very legitimately concludes from this, that the new, amplified and corrupted edition supposes the existence of an edition more ancient, more sober, and more truthful. So he is of opinion that, instead of rejecting the whole narrative on account of a few absurdities con- tained in it, we should strip it of all these lamentable accretions, and try to find the original truth under the sophisticated copy. It is delicate work, into which there always enters a little divination and hypothesis, yet one not impossible to a practised criticism, and which is accomplished every day in the restitution of classic texts. Signor Rossi has done it very cleverly for the " Acts of St Cecilia," and M. Le Blant is attempting it for many others. If, as is scarcely doubtful, the undertaking succeeds, it will greatly increase the number of documents at our disposal, and make us better acquainted with the heroic struggle sustained by the Church against its persecutors. We shall perhaps thereby gain a few additional martyrs, but this does not appear to me so very great an evil. I must own that I have never been able to under- 212 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. stand the animosity with which historians of the eighteenth century systematically denied the persecu- tions, or sought to attenuate their effects. Voltaire, in treating the martyrs as enemies, did not perceive that he struck at allies. The men whom he pursued with his implacable railleries defended tolerance like himself. They proclaimed, like him, that no human power can touch the independence of the soul. Come, tormentor," Prudentius makes a Christian girl say, " burn and tear ! Divide the members formed of dust ! " 'Tis easy for thee to destroy this frail assem- blage. As for my soul, in spite of all thy tortures, thou shalt not reach it." ^ And, indeed, they did not reach it. Executions were useless, and Christianity gave the world the most moral of all spectacles, — that of the powerlessness of force. The Church is indeed right to honour the memories of those who died for her, and to glory in their courage ; but they are not the only heroes of a particular opinion. All those who think, like them, that belief must be free, and that a religion has not the right to impose itself by force, may shelter themselves under their name. It is therefore by no means to our interest to limit the number of the martyrs or to contest their merits ; nor is it to our purpose to throw a shadow over that heroic epoch which gave so great an example to the world, and those who, like Signor Eossi, seek to make us better acquainted with it, whatever their personal con- victions may be, have a right to the sympathies of iPrudeutius, Fcrist., III. 90, THE CATACOMBS. 213 all. We should earnestly hope that the excavations directed by him will always be as productive, and that he will have time to finish this work, so valiantly begun. Were he to give us a few more saints and confessors than were acknowledged by Tillemont, we should have no reason to complain. By multiplying the victims he renders the executions more hateful ; makes us the more detest that insolent intervention of force, which pretends to rule and regulate faith, and causes us to be more attached to those precious treasures conquered at the price of so many sufferings — Tolerance and Liberty. CHAPTEE IV. HADRIAN 'S VILLA. No one who sojourns for any length of time in Eome fails to go and see Tivoli : the Cascatelle and the Temple of the Sibyl are almost as well known as the Colosseum or the Pantheon. Yet very few consent to turn aside for a moment from the accustomed track, to visit on their way what remains of the Tiburtine villa built by the Emperor Hadrian. Nevertheless, it is an excursion worth making, and one which can teach much to the lovers of antiquity. The monuments of Eome enable us to behold the Caesars in the exercise of their sovereign functions, and preserve the memory of their official life. Hadrian's villa shows them to us during those moments of distraction and repose, which must needs be taken from time to time when one has the world to govern. It may also give us some precious hints as to their notions respecting the pleasures of the country, and inform us how that society understood and enjoyed nature — a subject well de- serving of a moment's study. On our way from Eome to Tivoli, we first pass, in all 216 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. its length, that desolate Campagna by which the Eternal City is on every side surrounded. After five or six leagues of veritable desert, where nothing is met with but a few wretched osterie, and herds of oxen or horses grazing on the scant grass, the ground begins to rise. Some clumps of trees announce the approach of the Anio, which we pass by the j^o^itc Zucano. At this spot an ancient ruin of great interest rises, the tomb of the Plautian family. Here lies buried the Consul Ti. Plautius Silvanus, one of those brave officers and intelligent administrators who maintained the honour of the Empire under the worst princes, and were the salvation of Eome. The inscription placed on the mausoleum contains the account of his services, and the enumeration of the honours obtained by him. Under Tiberius, he commanded a legion of the army of Germany : he accompanied Claudius in the expedi- tion to Britain, under Nero : he governed Msesia, one of the provinces most threatened by the barbarians. The inscription relates how he stopped an insurrection of the Sarmatians, obliging the hostile kings to cross the Danube and come to his camp and bow down before the Eoman eagles. These services met with but scant requital until the day when Vespasian, himself an old soldier, set to work to make good to his comrades the injustices of preceding reigns. He recalled Silvanus from his province, had him granted the triumphal decorations, and named him prefect of Eome. From the tomb of Silvanus the road divides. To the left it enters those delightful olive woods that lead to Tivoli ; to the right it crosses the plain, and brings one in twenty minutes to Hadrian's villa. Hadrian's villa. 217 To-day that villa is little more than a heap of ruins Over an extent of several kilometres nothing is met with but immense substructions, shafts of columns great scattered blocks, with here and there some fragments of wall still upright. These ruins are so considerable that they were for a long time taken for the remains of a town. It was imagined that Tibur before climbing the hill, had been built in the plain' and that here one had the last vestiges of the ancient city before one's eyes. So in the country round about they had received the name of Tivoli veccMo. It was easy to show this to be a mistake: the testimony of ancient authors and the inscriptions on tiles proved that It was Hadrian's villa. This country-house, con- sidered as a wonder by contemporaries, and which was the favourite creation of an Emperor friendly to the arts, does not appear to have been much dwelt in by his successors. History, at least, says nothing about it and scarcely anything has been found in these ruins attributable to another epoch. It has therefore had the rare good fortune not to have, been too much modified, and to have passed through the centuries bearing the special mark of the prince who built it and of the epoch in which it was raised. The riches of all kinds found in the rubbish led to the supposition that It had not been pillaged so long as the Empire lasted • yet It must doubtless have greatly suffered when Totila ravaged the environs of Tibur, took the town by assault, and massacred its inhabitants. From that moment, its fate was sealed. The great halls fell in the plough passed over the avenues, and the oardens became cornfields. Nevertheless, in the fifteenth cen- 218 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. tuiy, important ruins still remained. The illustrious Pope Pius II., who visited it, speaks admiringly of the vaults of the temples, of the columns of the peristyles, of the porticoes, and of the 'piscinm, which could still he distinguished. "Age deforms all things sadly," he added. "The ivy climbs to-day along these walls, covered of yore with paintings and with golden stuffs ; brambles and thorns grow where sat the tribunes clad in purple, and snakes inhabit the chambers of the prmcipes. Such is the fortune of mortal things ! " Even these ruins themselves were fated to disappear. To Hadrian's villa, as to most ancient monuments, the Eenaissance was more fatal than barbarism. During the Middle Ages it had been allowed to decay ; from the sixteenth century it was systematically destroyed. According to custom, excavations were made to search for the statues, the mosaics, and the paintings which it might contain, and in these hunts the walls that still remained standing finally fell in. Unfortunately for it, Hadrian's villa turned out to be much richer in such things than all the other ruins that had been excavated. It became for three centuries a kind of inexhaustible mine which furnished masterpieces to all the museums of the world. Thence, for example, came the Faun in rosso antico, the Centaurs in grey marble, and the Harpocrates of the Capitol ; the Muses and the Flora of the Vatican, the bas-relief of AntinoUs of the villa Albani, and the admirable mosaic of the doves, so often reproduced by modern art. Of course, an edifice whence so many marvels were drawn was more conscientiously devastated than all the others. The pillage lasted down to our days, and, only a few Hadrian's villa. 219 years since, the Braschi family, who possessed a part of the ground, made over the right to exploit these ruins to a company, and how the company, who wished to recoup itself as soon as possible, went to work, may be imagined. Happily, the Government has put an end to this scandal by purchasing the villa Braschi. In the state into which all these devastations have made it, Hadrian's villa is, for most visitors, a riddle, and if archaeologists and architects did not come to our aid, it would be extremely difficult for us to find our way among these heaped-up ruins. Archaeology has long been working to find out the destination of these blocks of stone and these masses of bricks, and to give us a plan more or less exact of the imperial dwelling. The first who busied himself with some success to this end was a Neapolitan architect of the fifteenth century, the famous Pirro Ligorio, the same who made himself so bad a reputation among the epigraphists by inventing entire volumes of false inscriptions. This great forger was certainly a very clever man. In his works on Hadrian's villa, he gave proof of great sagacity, and most of his conjectures have been adopted by the scholars who followed him. Piranesi and Canina have done little else than develop his views and exaggerate his errors. Mbby, who came after, contented himself with choosing the most plausible opinions set forth by others before him, and supporting them by his know- ledge of texts and great experience of antiquities. The interesting book published by him in the year 1827, under the title Bescrizione delta villa Adriana^ might ^ Essai de restauration de la villa d' Hadrian. 220 ARCH.^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. have passed for the last word that science had to say on the subject, when new studies were undertaken by one of the most distinguished architects of the French school at Eome. M. PaumeL In order to be more sure of the accuracy of his work, M. Daimiet begim by circum- scribing it He only busied himself with a portion of the villa — that which was known as the imperial palace. It offers many difficulties for solution, but also preserves the most curious remains. M. Daumet studied its least fragments with the greatest care ; made excavations, when allowed to do so, endeavoured to ascertain the meaning of the smallest layers of stone, and put back in their places all the pieces of marble ornament or mosaic that he could find. The result of aU these labours was a restoration essay on Hadrian's villa, con- sidered one of the best and most complete works of the school at Eome, The excavations made since IS 70, which have been very incomplete and intermittent^ have sometimes confirmed M. Daumet's opinions and some- times contradicted them. The work is far from being complete, and claims the expenditure of much additional time and effort, but. while awaiting its completion and the entire clearing of these ruins, it is, I tliink, useful to give an idea of what the works, carried out for three centuries past by dL^tinguished archi^eologists and archi- tects, have taught us most worthy of belief concerning this great curiosity of the past. hadi'jan's villa. 221 I. THE EMPEROR HADRIAN — THE DIFFEIiENT JUDGMENTS PASSED ON HIM — THE PRINCE AND THE MAN — THE REASONS WHY HE WAS NOT LOVED — HIS LIKING FOR THE GREEKS — TRAVELLING IN ANCIENT TIMES — itadrlan's JOURNEYINGS. Hadrian's villa has the peculiar characteristic of being the work and the personal concejjtion of a man who was one of the most curious figures of his time : it was horn of certain circumstances of his life, and bears everywhere the impress of his mind. We can only hope to understand it by first becoming acquainted with him who caused it to be built. We must there- fore study the artist before the work, and strive to know both what he was and how the thought occurred to him to construct this country house, which filled all his contemporaries with wonder. The Emperor Hadrian was descended from an Italian family that had been for a long time settled in Spain. His birth did not seem to predestine him for the Empire. He was half-cousin to Trajan who, after much hesita- tion, ended by adopting him on his death-bed. It was singularly fortunate for the Eoman Empire that ISTerva and the three princes who came after him were without male heirs, and were obliged to provide themselves suc- cessors by adoption. This absence of direct heredity is usually regarded in monarchies as the greatest of misfortunes, and it is now a principle adopted by all that, in order to insure the security of states, it is good for the son to succeed his father. The liomans had 222 AECH^OLOGICAL EAMBLES. very different ideas, and even under the Empire pre- served the remains of republican prejudices which rendered them little favourable to hereditary royalty. Their experience of it under the Cffisars and the Flavii had not reconciled them to it. After the fall of Domitian, they declared that they would not be the heritage of a family. " It appeared to them better for a prince to elect his successor than for him to be received at the hands of nature." " To be born of royal blood," said Tacitus, " is a chance before which all examination stops. On the contrary, he who adopts is judge of what he does ; if he desires to choose the most worthy, he has only to listen to the public voice." ^ What is certain is that adoption gave the world a succession of four great princes, and that Eome was quite happy until the day when Marcus Aurelius was so ill-fated as to have a son and leave him the Empire. I have just unhesitatingly put Hadrian among the great emperors, beside Trajan and Marcus Aurelius," but this is not, however, the opinion of all historians. His reputation is not one of those concerning which perfect agreement has been arrived at, and there are great differences in the manner of judging him. These difficulties go back very far — to the very epoch in which Hadrian lived, and his contemporaries probably agreed no better concerning him than we do. Dion and Spartianus, the clironiclers who have related his life, speak of him in a very odd manner. They at the same time say a great deal of good and of bad of him, so that tlie means of attacking or defending him may both be 1 Tacitus, Hist., I, 16. hadman's villa. 223 drawn from their works. This is because he was really a very complicated being — varius, multiplex, multiformis) says his historian, gentle or severe, according to the occasion, economical and prodigal by turns, jocose or grave, a good-natured friend or a cruel railler. His life contained contrasts which could not be explained- Although an excellent general, he detested war, and always avoided it. He passed his time in exercising his legions, that were never to be led before the enemy. This scholar, this artist, this squeamish exquisite, did not hesitate when needful to enter into the most trivial details of common business, and the effeminate fop, who made little verses on tooth-powder, was capable of the most energetic resolutions. He had sumptuous palaces built for him, in which all the elegancies of luxury and all the refinements of comfort had been brought together, yet he willingly lived in a tent, satisfied with bacon and cheese, like the common soldiers, drinking only vinegar mixed with water, and marching bareheaded at the head of his troops, amid the snows of Britain and under the Egyptian sun. It is easy to understand that these contrasts should have troubled chroniclers not endowed with a very perspicacious mind, and that, in the presence of a prince in whom contrary qualities seemed to unite, they should have swayed undecidedly between opposite opinions, unable to take upon them- selves to give us a precise idea of him. What stands out most clearly in their accounts is that there were in Hadrian two personages who did not always agree very well together — the man and the emperor. The emperor only deserves praise, and may be placed among the greatest and the best : the man, on 224 AKCH^.OLOGICAL EAMBLES. the contrary, was often unpleasant and petty. Con- temporaries, who were placed too near, and did not always know how properly to distinguish, sometimes by their unjust judgments made the prince pay for the caprices and weaknesses of the man. They were assuredly wrong, and all their gossip must not prevent us from believing Hadrian to have been a great prince. If any doubt still remained on this point, I should appeal to the brilliant picture of his reign recently drawn by M. Duruy.^ The services of every kind rendered by Hadrian to the Empire are eminent and incontestable. He first gave his states external security, and, in order to maintain the discipline of the armies, he made regulations so wide that no need was ever found to change anything in them, and they lasted as long as the Eoman domination. He strengthened the frontiers by garrisoning them with troops and by fur- nishing them with formidable retrenchments, thus shutting the door against the barbarians, who were becoming more formidable every day. Within this belt of ramparts, of fortresses, of deep dykes and of en- trenched camps, skilfully disposed along its immense ^ In the third volume of his Histoire des llomains. I am happy to refer the reader to this work, in which M. Duruy, returning to the labours of his youth, after a long interval and important services rendered to the country, sketches, in a manner at once learned and lively, the history of the Empire. Even when he does not succeed in quite converting the reader to his ideas, he still knows how to interest and instruct him. M. Renan, in the sixth volume of his Histoire des origines die christianisme, also speaks of Hadrian. He does not dissimilate his faults, but he at the same time gives pro- minence to his great qualities, and has traced of the prince one of those portraits which are not forgotten. HADRIAN'S VILLA. 225 frontiers, the Empire could breathe in peace. Inside, tranquillity was maintained with a firm hand, abuses reformed, legislation softened, and a great impetus everywhere given to public works. Under this vigor- ous impulsion, and, thanks to the peace enjoyed by the world, the towns would adorn themselves with those splendid monuments which still excite our admiration. Thus much is undeniable. Hadrian was certainly one of the most able administrators that had governed the world since Augustus, and he perhaps contributed, more than anybody, to that incredible development of the public prosperity which made the century of the Antonines one of the happiest periods of humanity. "When the glory of princes is measured by the happiness they have given their peoples," says M. Duruy, " Hadrian will be first of the Eomau Emperors." How comes it that, having served the Empire so well, he was so unfavourably judged ? These severities of opinion are usually explained by recalling the per- sistent bad humour with which the great families and the Senate regarded the imperial rule ; but this is truly a somewhat too convenient means of justifying all the Caesars without distinction, and, even if such reasons might still serve for the period of Nero and Tiberius, it seems to me scarcely possible to continue to use them when we get to the Antonines. The Empire had then long since been excepted by all. Time had wakened old republican rumours, and, at any rate, it can scarcely be understood how, after Trajan had been spared them, they should have been resuscitated against Hadrian. If Hadrian, with all his great qualities, could not make 226 AKCH.EOLOGICAL RAMBLES. himself better loved, we must think it his own fault, and that there was in his person and in his character some- thing which estranged hearts from him. So Fronto, who was a rather bad writer, but a very good sort of a man, and the most submissive of subjects, later on gave Marcus Aurelius to understand, with an infinity of delicate precaution. " In order to love anybody," he said, " we must be able to approach him with confidence, and feel at our ease with him. This is what didn't happen to me with Hadrian. Confidence failed me, and the very respect with which I was inspired repelled affection."^ We may see all that is hidden beneath those polite words. Neither does Trajan, although his kinsman, seem to have felt any great attraction towards him. Yet we know that Hadrian, who expected every- thing at his hands, neglected nothing in order to please him. He sought to flatter his tastes in every way, even the least honourable, and he himself relates that, know- ing him to be a hardened drinker, he set himself to drink, in order by this means to get into his good graces. Moreover, he had other qualities to which Trajan attached the highest importance. A devoted soldier, an exact lieutenant, a skilful organizer, a scru- pulous administrator, he accomplished carefully and with success all the missions with which he was charged. Yet his advancement was not very rapid. An inscrip- tion, found in the theatre of Athens, shows that he went through the whole hierarchy of public dignities, step by step, without being spared a single grade. In spite of his acknowledged merits and the services rendered by 1 Fronto, Ad. M. Cobs., II. 1 (p. .25, Naber). hadkian's villa. 227 him, Trajan waited until his last day before adopting him. It is even pretended that death forestalled him before he had come to a decision ; that the adoption was only a comedy scene, imagined in order to deceive the world, and that a man concealed behind the hangings murmured a few words in a dying voice, in place of the deceased Emperor. What might give some pro- bability to such a tale is Trajan's apparently slight alacrity to accept him as his heir. Not only did he not associate him in the Empire during his lifetime, as Nerva had done for himself, but he would not confer upon him any of those exceptioual honours which would have designated him in advance as his successor. May it not hence be concluded, that, while appreciating in him the administrator and the soldier, he felt for the man a sort of repugnance, which he had difficulty in overcoming ? Once Emperor, Hadrian had many friends ; it is not difficult to have them when one is master of the world. He was very liberal towards them. " Never," says Spartianus, " did he refuse what they asked, and he often even forestalled their desires," but, at the same time, he irritated them by his railleries and wounded them by his suspicions. Unequal and fantastic as an artist, easily set against those who were attached to him, he listened to what was said against them, and often had them watched. He had his secret police, who penetrated into families and reported to him what it had heard said. No friendship whatsoever is proof against such mistrust. Spartianus remarks that those whom he had best loved and most loaded with honours all ended by becoming hateful to him. Several were sent 228 AKCH^OLOGICAL EAMBLES. away from Eome, others lost their fortunes, and there were some among them whose lives were taken. I do not believe that Hadrian was by nature cruel, and he even gave some fine examples of clemency. But it has been said that the sovereign power, devoid of any precise char- acter and without fixed limit, would trouble the best heads. Few princes have quite escaped the intoxication of authority — that giddiness produced at once by pride and fear, which influenced bad instincts and perverted their souls. Honest Mark Aurelius one day said to him- self in a tone of terror : '' Become not too much Csesar." We are forced to believe that Hadrian occasionally became so, in spite of himself. At the beginning of his reign, ere yet he felt himself firmly settled, he shed, or caused to be shed, the blood of some great personages accused of treason. He shed it again at the end of his life, and this time his brother-in-law, an old man of ninety years, was among the victims, and his nephew, who was not yet twenty. I am willing to believe that they were both guilty, and that the Emperor believed his rigour necessary, yet public opinion revolted at it. It was remembered that Trajan, to whom the Senate solemnly decreed the surname of excellent prince {optiinus 'princeps), never had recourse to such lamentable necessities, and it was found that Hadrian resigned Jiimself to them too readily. These executions, ordered by a dying prince, like a last rancour which he desired to sate, made good people indignant " He died," says Spartianus, " hated by all." I know that the enemies of sentimental politics will maintain that it was wrong to hate him. It will hadeia:n's villa. 229 ^be said that these family strifes scarcely interest the world, and that too much importance must not be attached to them. What matters it to obscure citizens, who form the great majority of a country, that a prince be unpleasant and make those about him suffer ? If he governs his state well, if he preserves it from outside enemies, if he gives it peace within, ought we not to shut our eyes to his caprices, and allow him to deliver himself as he chooses of the friends who bore, and the relations who inconvenience him ? "What evil comes of it to his people ? Certainly, if subjects were reasonable, they would judge their sovereign by the good he does to all, and not by the severity which only affects a few persons, and he would seem to them most worthy to be loved who made the happiness of the largest number. But love does not always reason, and affection includes other elements besides interest. So it is not uncommon to see sovereigns, under whose rule it is advantageous to live, who do not succeed in making themselves beloved. Hadrian was of the number. Even at this distance of time, we cannot quite overcome the sentiments with which he inspired people of his time, and we are obliged to make a kind of effort over ourselves, in order to esteem him as much as he deserves. However con- vincingly M. Duruy may prove to us that he rendered more service to the world than Trajan or Marcus Aurelius, we shall find it difficult to blame his con- temporaries who loved Marcus Aurelius and Trajan better than him. To these general reasons which the Eomans might have for not loving him, may be added others more peculiar to themselves. Perhaps a little resentment 230 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. may have entered into their severity against a prince who took pleasure in braving their prejudices, and who openly sacrificed them to their eternal enemies. The influence of Greece was then stronger than ever in Eome. It at the same time seized society by two extreme points. Upon the rich, upon the great lords, and upon people of the world it forced itself by edu- cation and by the sovereign charm of the Arts and of Letters. In those sumptuous palaces of the Esquiline, in those magnificent villas of Tusculum or Tibur, where reproductions of the masterpieces of Praxiteles or of Lysippus courted the eye, and where Menander and Anacreon were read with such pleasure, people had become more than half Greek. In the popular quarters they had grown so entirely. There a continuous immigration brought from all parts of the Orient people who found it difficult to live at home. It was a stream which, for many centuries, had never stopped. What would old Cato have said, could he have seen Greece and the East thus established on the Aventine, and that race he so despised nearly mistress of Eome ? It was shame and danger that faced the old Komans, and they naturally found that it was an emperor's duty to combat them.^ Hadrian, on the contrary, put himself on the side of the Greeks. He had devoured their great writers from his earliest years, and so delighted in their language that it became difficult for him to speak any other. One day. ^ The violent expression of these sentiments will be found in Juvenal's third satire. Hadrian's villa. 231 when, in his capacity of qu&stor, he had to read a message from Trajan, he spoke Latin so badly that the Senate laughed at him. To admire Greek art did not suffice him ; he chose to be an artist himself, and in every branch of the art. He became at the same time a musician, a sculptor, a painter, and an architect ; he prided himself on singing well ; he danced with grace ; and he knew geometry, astrology, and enough of medicine to invent a collyrium and an antidote. The Greeks had not praises sufficiently hyperbolical for a prince who excelled in so many different things ; but the Eomans, on the contrary, were inclined to laugh at him. The more sensible owned that it is certainly not a crime to know how to make statues and to paint ; but they added, neither is it of much use, when one has the world to govern. It seemed to them that this great business admitted of no other in addition, and that it claimed the whole of a prince's activity. They remem- bered, too, that those Emperors who had too much loved the Greeks, and who had made it their glory to imitate their customs and win their praise — Nero and Domitian, for example — had been abominable tyrants, and these recollections were not calculated to make them favourable to Hadrian's hobbies. What irritated them still more was to see the im- portant part taken by Greece in the political affairs of Eome. For a long time she had been content to rule in intellectual matters, and to furnish Eome with grammarians and artists ; but from Hadrian's time she openly invades what had hitherto seemed forbidden to her and reserved for the victorious race. She slips into the armies, takes a place in the Senate, and governs 232 AKCHiEOLOGICAL KAMBLES. the provinces. We see among the generals of that period the names Arrienos and Xenophon. Of course the Greeks were very much flattered at this. Their gratitude knew no bounds, and, in accordance with their wont, they expressed it in a base and servile manner. In their most important cities magnificent temples arose in honour "of the new Jupiter, of the Olympian god," and his worthless favourite, the beautiful Antinoiis, also a Greek, received after his death the most extravagant honours. But it is not unnatural that the old Eomans who remained should have been indignant. It will perhaps be said that they were wrong, and that there was nothing in Hadrian's conduct to excite surprise, or anything contrary to the institutions and the principle of the Empire. The Empire having called upon the provinces to share the sovereign authority, the turn of Greece and of the East must one day come, and it was not very surprising to see Greek generals and proconsuls under Spanish Emperors. But a distinction must be made. While the provincials of the West, admitted by Eome into its armies and destined for public dignities, adopted the language and the customs of their new country, assumed its spirit and its ancient maxims, and became frankly Eoman, the Greeks remained Greek. Nothing could ever modify this supple and tough race, which passed unchanged through the Eoman domination, and survived it. It kept its pride even in its servility, and, while flattering the barbarians, frankly despised them. So it had no difficulty in keeping itself from all imitation of their customs, or from fusion with them. I do not believe that any Greek ever became quite Eoman, but, on the other Hadrian's villa. 233 hand, many Eomans became entirely Greek, Even in Hadrian's time we see Favorinus the Gaul, who was born at Aries, and the Italian Elienus of Pmeneste, abandoning their native language for that of Greece. That this invasion of a foreign spirit should have wounded serious Eomans cannot excite surprise. They were quite right in thinking that Eome had everything to lose by it. The different nations who entered into the Eoman unit brought their national qualities and rejuvenated the Empire, whereas the Greeks only com- municated their faults to it. By favouring the invasion of this new spirit, therefore, Hadrian was at least guilty of imprudence ; he unconsciously worked at hastening the hour of the lower Empire. Such, with his singular admixture of great qualities and defects, was this Emperor, half Eoman and half Greek, the originator, and perhaps even the architect of the villa at Tibur. It remains for us to ascertain the occasion of his building it. Historians tell us that, at least, the greater part was constructed in consequence of his travels, and in order to preserve their memory. It is known that Hadrian lived very little in his capital, and passed nearly all his reign in travelling over his vast Empire. Nothing so much struck the world as this active life and these endless journey ings. The popu- lations who saw him so often go by, retained the memory of an indefatigable traveller who was un- ceasingly passing from one end of the universe to the other. "There never was a prince," says his biographer, " who so rapidly visited so many different countries." Not that travelling was then so uncommon as is usually supposed. People no more liked stopping in 234 Archaeological rambles. one place in ancient times than they do in our own days. Seneca was so struck by this craving for movement and change of place by which men are tormented, that he tried to give a philosophical ex- planation of it. He attributes its origin to that divine part which is in us, and which comes to us from the stars and the sky. " It is the nature of celestial things," he says, " to be always in motion." ^ Since the Empire had given peace to the world, travelling, being safer, had also become more frequent. Those narrow roads, solidly paved with large slabs, which led from Eome to the ends of the world, were constantly traversed by the chariots of knights and by pedestrians. People of all fortunes were seen to pass along, from him who, like Horace, only mounted a poor mule, short of tail and heavy of gait, to those great lords stretched in their comfortable litters, where one could read, write, sleep, and play at dice, preceded by Lybian couriers and followed by a whole train of slaves and clients. All these people found more facilities for making the journey than we are inclined to think. The Imperial post had just been established, and provided all those furnished with an authorization from the Emperor with horses and carriages, which made about 8 kilometres an hour.^ It is true that these permits were reserved for functionaries or ^ Seneca, Cons, ad Helviam, 6. ^ See Histoirc des moeurs romaines d'Auguste aux Anionins, by M. Friedlaeiidar, translated by M. Vogel into French. This excellent work, full of curious facts skilfully presented, contains an entire long chapter concerning journeys among the Romans. In it all those details will be found which I cannot give here. Hadrian's villa. 235 couriers of state. It is rather surprising that it did not occur to this practical people, who so quickly seized the utility of things, to authorise private individuals to use the official post on payment, which would have rendered communication more rapid, and more closely bound the different parts of the Empire together. But authority was probably tenacious of its privileges, and stopped by a fear of diminishing its prerogatives. In the absence of the post, private persons furnished those who wished it with sufficiently con- venient means of travel. At the gates of towns near the hostelries, which then as now bare a cock, an eagle, or a crane for their signs, and which endeavoured to attract passers-by with all kinds of engaging promises, it was easy to find carriages of every sort for hire, or to provide oneself with a horse or mule, by addressing those rich societies {collegia jumcntariorum) which always had them at the disposal of the public. With these horses and these carriages one could go fast if one cared to do so. Suetonius informs us that Ctesar thus got over 100 inillia (150 kilometres) per day. But usually people were not in such a hurry ; they went by short stages, lingering at good spots; they stopped when they were tired, and admired nature at their ease. A few years ago, this was still the way people used to travel in Italy. Some think there was none more pleasant, and regret that it has been given up During the first century of the Empire there was no lack of reasons for travelling. Many of the people who were to be met with on the highways were function- aries on their way to rule distant provinces. Eome had conquered the world, and had to govern it. She sent 236 AKCHiEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. her proconsuls and her proprietors everywhere, and they took with them their lieutenants, their quaestors, their secretaries, their apparitors, their freedmen, and their slaves — a whole world, who were often on their way to live at the expense of the provincials. In the footsteps of the governor, and often in advance of him, travelled the farmers of the public tax, with their scribes and their agents, and those merchants who so well knew how to exploit a vanquished country. There were also, and in great number, students repairing to well-known professors in towns where learning flourished ; invalids attracted by famous physicians, sulphurous waters, or healthy climates ; devotees visiting, one after the other, all the important sanctuaries, and always with some question to put to renowned oracles ; and then, people who had not found fortune at home, and were seeking it elsewhere. " All the wretches," says Seneca, " who hope to turn their beauty or their talents to account, stream into those great towns where virtue and vice are paid for more dearly than elsewhere." After those who travelled as a duty or from necessity, came those who travelled for pleasure. The taste for becoming acquainted with countries which contained fine monuments or recalled great memories, arose early. Greece first attracted the lettered, and thence they passed into the East. After Pharsalus, Ca?sar does not fail to go and see the " fields where Troy was." Ger- manicus traverses Asia and Egypt, whose curiosities and hieroglyphics he makes the priests explain and read to him. It may be supposed that among these sincere admirers of the past, who piously visited its remains. HADRIAN'S VILLA. 237 there were persons who travelled for fashion and appearance, to do like all the world. There were some, too, as we know, who only undertook these long journeys in order not to remain at home. Great refined civilisations, which create so many wants in man, by habituating him to satisfy all his desires, and constantly stimulate the soul without contenting it, often bring with them a tiresome companion — ennui ! " which," says Lucretius, " Hows from the same source as pleasure," and suffices to render life unbearable. One always fancies that the best means of escaping it is change of place, and one hastens to leave one's home and one's country. In vain had the ancient philo- sophers repeated that we do not thus rid ourselves of our cares, that they faithfully follow us in all our excursions, and "ride on horseback behind us"; the philosophers convinced no one, and the ennuy^s of the second century, like those of our own day, continued to seek everywhere for unknown sights and new plea- sures capable of affording a moment's distraction. Hadrian had all these reasons at once for running about the world. The most important and best of all of them was his desire to personally ascertain the state of the Empire. An administrator of his stamp was not unaware that it is good for the master to see everything with his own eyes. It was his custom to stop at the large towns which were on his line of route. He demanded an account of the manner in which they were governed, minutely studied their resources and their wants, and his passage was rarely unmarked by the construction of bridges, roads, and aqueducts which he had deemed necessary. Being also very fond of 238 AECH^OLOGICAL EAMBLES. magnificence, after having busied himself with useful works, he did not neglect the monuments that serve for the decoration of a great country. He re- paired the theatres and the basilicas ; he had ancient temples rebuilt and raised new ones. So he always left the provinces full of admiration and gratitude. We have preserved the medals struck by them on the occasion of these imperial visits. They call Hadrian the restorer, the benefactor, the genius of the cities he had passed through, and decree him in advance the apotheosis he could not escape on his death. When he arrived on the frontiers of the Empire, he naturally redoubled his care and vigour. Nothing was forgotten. He saw that the fortresses, the dykes and the retrenchments were in good condi- tion : he listened to the officers, consulted the engineers, inspected the legions, made them manceuvre before him, and, if he was satisfied with their evolutions, addressed to them one of those oratorical orders of the day of which so curious an example remains to us in the inscriptions of the third legion at Lambsesas. But Hadrian did not travel solely in order to be useful to the Empire ; he also thought of himself. This zealous administrator was at the same time a lover of art, a scholar, and a man of letters. When the town which he came to was one of those possessing fine monuments of the past, he liked to remain longer in it, showed it more kindness, and took occasion to return to it. His sojourn at Athens enraptured him: nowhere did he feel so happy, and there is no town so loaded by him with benefits, and where he built more monuments. His curiosity did not forget any of the spots recalling great Hadrian's villa. 239 memories. He, too, made his pilgrimage to Troy, and restored the tomb of Ajax, to whom he paid great honours. At Mantinea he went to see the tomb where Epaminondas rested, and composed for the Theban hero an inscription full of enthusiasm. In Egypt, he pre- sided over the assembly of the learned in the museum, and took pleasure in embarrassing them by his captious questions. He also went to see the Pyramids, the Colossus of Memnon, and probably all the other wonders of the time of the Pharaohs as well. In these visits he did not think himself obliged to observe that cold and formal air which old Eomans were care- ful to assume when from Eome, in order to appear more grave and dignified. He spoke the language of the nations whose guest he was, donned their dress, and did not disdain their usages. He doubtless thought that in order fully to enjoy a country and understand a people, one must enter into its manners and live like them. At Eleusis he had himself initiated into the mysteries ; at Athens he presided over the feasts of Bacchus in the garb of an archon. This behaviour must have shocked people who held to the ancient usages. One of these malcontents, the poet Julius Florus, made some little malicious verses against the travelling prince, which must have been read with pleasure by all those who could not make up their minds to lose sight of the seven hills. " I would not be Ceesar," said he, " to hurry off to the Britons, and bear the snows of Scythia," etc. To which Hadrian replied in the same tone and in the same metre : " I would not be Florus, to walk about in the shops, rot in the taverns, and be eaten up by the gnats there : " and without any more 240 ARCH^OLOGICAL EAMBLES. care for opinion, he continued his roamings. He occa- sionally ' even made veritable innovations, and sought after spectacles which had hitherto been neglected. A poet of the first century who has left us an interest- ing description of ^tna, is much surprised at the in- difference of his contemporaries for the sights of nature. " They pass over lands, they pass over seas," he says, "in order to visit great cities and fine monuments. They go to see famous pictures — a Venus whose tresses seem to wave like a river, or the children of Medea playing quite close to their cruel mother, or the Greeks who sadly surround Iphigenia and drag her to the altar, while a veil covers her father's countenance : they admire the statues which have made the glory of Myron and others, while they do not deign to look at the works of Nature, who is a much greater artist than they." ^ Hadrian deserves not this reproach. His passionate taste for the masterpieces of ancient art did not prevent him from being sensible of the great scenes of nature, and he is nearly the only person of his time of whom we are told that he travelled in order to con- template them. He climbed ^tna, and we are still shown the ruins of an old house said to have been made there to receive him. He went up Mount Casius by night to see the rising of the sun, and was there witness of a terrible tempest. So he loved nature as much as he enjoyed the arts. This admiration of art and this love of nature will be seen again in the villa at Tibur. ^ Lucilius, ^tna, 587. TABLE OF REFERENCE VILLA ( ..^P* I Gr-c-ak T/he £|^^l ? .5 ^ OSTIA. 317 engaged in a kind of crazy, or furious bacchanal, one of them, for a drunken freak, climbed up a high tree, and when the others asked him what he saw, replied that there was a dreadful storm coming from Ostia.^ It was the husband, who, warned a little late, came to trouble the feast. The port of Claudius still exists,^ only, owing to the progress of the sand, it is now quite inland. Its form can, however, be distinguished, and its extent measured. It was dug at some distance from Ostia, and above the mouth of the Tiber, perhaps with the idea of preventing it from being silted up. It was shut in to the right and to the left by two solid jetties, " like two arms," says Juvenal, "stretched out in the middle of the waves." ^ The one to the right, sheltered by its position from tempests, was formed of arches, which allowed the water of the sea to enter, while that to the left was of solid, stout masonry. It had to be strong enough to resist the billows, when raised by the south wind. Between the ends of the two jetties the enormous vessel on which one of the largest obelisks of Egypt had just been brought over, was sunk full of stone. It became a kind of islet, protecting the harbour, and only leaving on either side two narrow passages, furnished with iron chains.* On this little 1 Tacitus, ^7171., XI. 31. 2 For the plan of the ports of Ostia the map published by Canina has been used {Atti delta Pmit ace. di arch., VIII. ). But as regards the port of Trajan, care has been taken to correct Canina's plan by that of Signor Lanciani, which is more exact {Monum. del 1st, VIII. 9. * Juvenal, XII. 77. See No. 2 on plan. ^ See No. 1 on plan. 318 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. island a lighthouse was raised — that is to say, a tower of several stories, ornamented with columns and pilasters, like the one that lit the port of Alexandria. By the light of the rays thrown by the beacon upon the waters, the ships would direct themselves at night, and enter the port at all hours and in all weathers. Although, according, to M. Texier, the harbour of Claudius measured 70 superficial hectares, it soon became too small, and, under Trajan, it was found necessary to enlarge it. That indefatigable prince, who filled the world with buildings of all kinds, and especi- ally useful ones, had given great thought to maritime constructions. He had repaired the harbour of Acona, and founded that of Centumcellce {Civita VeccMa). At Ostia, instead of being content to extend the harbour of Claudius, he had a new one dug, which, like the other, is still visible inland, and whose form and outlines continue to be visible by the undulations of the ground. It was a hexagonal basin, nearly 40 hectares in extent, lined on all sides by a quay 12 metres broad, with granite posts to moor the ships to. These are still in their places. The new port formed a continuation of the old one, to which it was joined by a canal 118 metres broad. In order to put them in communication with the Tiber, and, by the Tiber, with Eome, another canal (fossa Trajana) was dug, which has in course of time become a new arm of the river, the only one now navigable, and known to us as the Fiumicino. Ships, therefore, entered the harbour of Claudius, and thence passed into that of Trajan, which formed a sort of inner basin. There, if too large to navigate the Tiber, their merchandise was unloaded and transported on OSTIA. 319 smaller craft. A curious painting, found at Ostia itself, in the tomb of a rich shipowner, shows us how the operation was effected. This painting represents one of those vessels used for the navigation of the Tiber, and called naves caudicarice. Each of them, like those of to-day, had its name by which it was called, and which was inscribed in red or in black on some conspicuous part of it. This one had received the name of a divinity, to which, in order to avoid con- fusion, had been added that of the proprietor. It was called the Isis of Geminius {Isis Geminiana). On the poop, above a little cabin, the pilot Pharnaces grasps the helm. Towards the middle, the captain Abascantus is overlooking the workmen. On the shore, porters, bending beneath the weight of sacks of corn, proceed towards a small plank, which joins the ship to the shore. One of them has already arrived, and is pouring the contents of his sack into a large measure (modius), while in front of him the mensor frum cntarius, charged with the interests of the department, is intent on seeing the measure well filled, and holds the sack by its edges, in order that nothing may be lost. A little further, another porter, whose sack is empty, is sitting down to rest, and his whole face breathes an air of satisfaction, explained by the word written by the painter above his head, " I have finished " {feci). It is a scene of striking variety, like those every day witnessed in our seaports. The vessel, thus laden, proceeded by the fossa Trajana towards the Tiber, and followed the river to Eome. With the new ports a new town came into existence. It was called, from the name of its founders. Partus Trajani, or simply Furtus (now Porto). It must have 320 AECH.EOLOGICAL RAMBLES. been inhabited eliietiy by mercliants and officials of the Anno7ui, Signor Laneiani atiinus that luoiv than two- tliirds of the houses of which any remains are h^ft were warehouses. They stretch in sever;il rows around the ba$in in h">ug regvdar lines, and appear to have been coustrueted at tlie s;mie time and upon the same model. They must have had two floors, the lower one, where corn. wine, and oil were stored, and the upper one, now destroyed, doubtless containing the lodgings of the work- men and the officials. The corn stores are still iv- cognised by the thickness of their walls and by the care taken to line them with a strong plastering, to preserve them from the damp, which was so much to be feaivd in such a mai"shy country.^ It is thought that the warehouses of the wine mercliants were situated near the Temple of Bacchus, remains of whicli have been recovered.- There must have been others for oil and marble, since there was a gi*eat commerce in them at Ostia. Besides these lai-ge depots, indispensable to a seaport, Ti-ajau did not omit to erect edifices destined for the embellishment of the town — baths, porticoes, and temples.^ L;\stly, being proud of his work, and having often to visit it, he built for himself a magnificent palace in greuuds separating his harbour from tliat of Claudius.* Had this palace been cleared in an in- telligent manner, and care been taken to preserve its * See Xo. i on plan. All these details aw drawn from the work of Siguor L;moi.'uu. cited alcove. ' See Xo. 5 on plan. * At the entrance of the town the ruins of a temple of Portumnus are thought to have been njcoguised. See Xo. 6 on plan. * See Xo. 3 on plan. OSTIA. 321 remainH, it would doubtless have been one of the most curious remains of Roman antiquity. M. Texier, in an interestin;^ article, relates how he came upon it, where its existence was almost unknown.^ A workman in pursuit of a badger, seeing the animal enter a hole, pushed in a stick in order to reach it. He soon perceived that the opening could be easily enlarged, and when he had re- moved a few great stones, he saw that it gave access to a spacious hall. M. Texier, on being apprised of what had occurred, was the first to enter, and witnessed a fine spec- tacle. Within this first ray of light, penetrating depths where darkness had reigned for centuries, fluttered a whole world of insects who had taken up their abode there ; it illumined the bindweeds and the stalactites hanging from the roof, and the little pools of water shining on the floor. This hall led to another, and that to others again. There were so many, says M. Texier, and they were so vast, that, in order to find one's way in the darkness, it was necessary to guide oneself by means of a compass, as one does in a virgin forest. From this time forth excavations were executed in the palace of Trajan, by order of Prince Torlonia, to whom all the land belongs; but, unfortunately, not in a scientific interest. As only objects of art were sought after, to en- rich the museum of the Lungara, the excavating was done in great hurry and secrecy. The harvest once reaped, they hastened, according to ancient custom, to cover up again what had been brought to light. Signer Lanciani, ' This article was published in the Revue fjenerale d'arehiteetare de Daly, XV. M. Texier was charged by the French Government to study the alluvium of the great rivers of the Mediterranean, X 322 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. who was allowed as a great favour to inspect these fine ruins, had not even leisure to design their plan. He tells us of baths, of temples, of splendid halls, and of a small theatre, completely visible, where Trajan doubt- less came to refresh himself with the sight of the pan- tomime which he was accused of being too fond of ; and, lastly, of an immense portico, whose columns, still in their places, caused the whole palace to be called in the country round, the Palazzo clelle cento Golonne. These remains were so fine that they drew cries of admiration from the rough peasant who guided Signer Lanciani, After having escaped the barbarians of the Middle Ages, and the amateurs of the Eenaissance — often more terrible than the barbarians — they ended by perishing obscurely in our own days, by the order of a great lord, clumsily enamoured of antiquities. Quod non fccerunt harhari feceritn t Barherini. It was not only the emperor's palace which displayed such magnificence; we know that the two cities, Ostia and Portus, were rich and sumptuous. This is sufficiently shown by the fine columns and the admir- able statues found there. Tacitus relates that, after the burning of Eome, under Nero, temporary shelters were hurriedly run up in the Field of Mars and the public gardens for the crowd of people who had no longer an asylum. These had to be provided, as quickly as pos- sible, with furniture, and it was sent for from Ostia.^ The town, therefore, possessed much more than was needed for the use of the inhabitants. After Nero's death, its prosperity increased still further. Independently of 1 Tacitus, Ann., XV. 39, osTiA. 323 the great works of Trajan, of whicli I have spoken, Hadrian and Antoninus embellished Ostia with magni- ficent monuments ; Aurelian had a new Forum built there, and the weak Emperor Tacitus gave it, out of his private fortune, one hundred columns of ISTumidian marble, twenty-three feet in height^ — a very extra- ordinary piece of liberality at so unfortunate a time. As happens in all great industrial towns, corporations were very numerous in Ostia. The commercial world was divided into trade associations, having their places of meeting, their treasury, and their magistrates, and among these societies there were some which appear to Iiave been very important. Naturally, very large fortunes were made, and some of those fortunate merchants, who were enriched by their dealings in corn or oil, chose to leave great mementoes of themselves. After winning opulence, they desired to obtain con- sideration, and displayed fabulous generosity in the embellishment of their city or the amusement of their fellow-burghers. Of such was that Liicilius Gamala, who probably lived under the Antoniues, and of whose liberalities certain inscriptions inform us.^ He was of an ancient family, and his ancestors during several centuries filled the most honourable functions at Ostia. So they had made him a decurion or municipal councillor from his cradle. Later, he became pontiff, ^ Hist. Aug. Aurel. 45, Tac. 10. ^ Such is, at least, the opmioii of M. Mommsen, the last authority by whom the two large inscriptions concerning Gamala have been studied (Ephemeris cpigr., III. p. 319). MM. Visconti, Wilmanns, and HomoUe had raised doubts as to one of them ; M. Mommsen thinks them both authentic. 324 AECHiEOLOGICAL KAMBLES. quEestor, edile, duumvir — in fine, everything it was possible to be in a Eoman colony. After his death, he was decreed a public funeral, and statues were raised to him; but, on the other hand, by how many benefits had he not paid in advance for the honours with which they loaded him ? The list, doubtless incomplete, is truly incredible ; he had given public games, gladiatorial combats, finer and more costly than was usual, without choosing to accept the sum of money allowed by the city to the magistrate in order to help him out with his expenses. He had twice invited all the inhabitants of Ostia to dinner, and on one occasion he had even feasted them in 117 dining-rooms.^ He had at his own expense paved a street near the Forum, in the space extending between two triumphal arches ; he had repaired the temples of Vulcan, of the Tiber, and of the Castors, and had rebuilt those of Venus, of Fortune, of Ceres, and of Hope ; he had presented public weights to the market and the wine exchange, and raised a marble tribunal in the Forum, and he had built an entire arsenal and restored the baths of Antoninus, which had been destroyed by fire. Finally, when in a moment of distress the city, which had undertaken to furnish the State Treasury with a considerable sum, found it difficult to keep its engagements, and was forced to sell com- munal property, Gamala came to its assistance, and gave it, in a single donation, 3,000,000 sesterces (600,000 francs). What an immense fortune do these liberalities ^ Plutarch informs us that Caesar, after his triumph, dined the people of Rome in 1022 dining-rooms. We thus see that Gamala imitated great examples. OSTIA. 325 imply ? Such are the personages who lived in the fine houses which we discover at Ostia. It is not difficult to understand that they should have made them so magnificent and filled them with such fine works. III. THE RELIGIOUS MONUMENTS AT OSTIA — INTRODUCTION AND SWIFT PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY — THE " XENODOCHIUM OF PAMMACHIUS " — PRELUDE OF THE OCTAVIUS OF MINUTIUS FELIX — DEATH OF ST MONICA. A CIRCUMSTANCE which strikes all who busy them- selves with the antiquities of Ostia is the great number of temples and sanctuaries of every sort that were built there. Historians and inscriptions mention a great number of them, and some have been found again in excavations lately made. Ostia was evidently a devout city. It had a local cultus, to which it appears to have been much attached — that of Vulcan. In Ostia the pontiffs of Vulcan are chiefs in religious matters. They supervise other worships, and grant private persons who desire it leave to raise monuments in the sacred edifices. But Vulcan is not the only god worshipped there. The others are also devoutly prayed to, and especially Fortune and Hope, genuine traders' divinities ; Castor and Pollux, protectors of seamen ; and Ceres, who must have counted many adorers in a city enriched by traffic in corn. Foreigners, who formed a great part of the population, naturally brought their deities with them, and these enjoyed great credit. Intercourse with Egypt being very frequent, altars and 326 ARCITiEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. statues were raised to Isis and Serapis. The Asiatic worship of the Mother of the Gods was also in great esteem, and the inhabitants of Ostia once enjoyed the sight of one of those solemn sacrifices, called Taurobolia, in which an important personage of the town, placed in a sort of cellar whose ceiling was pierced with a number of holes, had himself sprinkled with the blood of a bull immolated above him, which was to purify him of his sins, and assure the welfare of his family and of his city. We have still the inscription destined to preserve the memory of this religious festival. One of the most curious discoveries resulting from the excavations of recent years is that of the temple of the Mother of the Gods, beside which was found the hall of meeting of the religious corporation of the Dendropliori} Mithra, the invincible sun, the un- seizable god {deus indejjrehensihilis), as his adorers at Ostia called him, was also the object of great homage. It is known that this worship, which excited piety by its secret associations and its mysterious sacrifices, in the last days of the Empire attained to great import- ance, and that all the vitality of paganism seems then to have been gathered up in it, in order to combat the new religion. Not only have numerous remains of Mithraic monuments been discovered at Ostia, but a temple consecrated to the Persian divinity. It is a species of domestic chapel in the fine house of which I spoke further back,'' It is divided into three parts — ^ See No. 4 on plan of the excavations of Ostia. This temple to the Mother of the Gods, or Cybele, was the subject of a long work by Signer C. L. Visconti in the Annales de corresp. arch., 1868, p. 362. ^ See No. 11 on plai)s of the ruins of Ostia. OSTIA. 327 not by columns, as in the case of Christian basilicas, but by differences of level. Each of these was doubtless reserved for the faithful of a different rank, and such a kind of classification was natural in a religion where the hierarchy had so much importance. The chapel must have been very elegant, if we may judge from the precious marbles with which it was paved. Facing the entrance door was the altar, raised four steps above the ground, with the genii who represent the two equinoxes,. one holding a torch upright, and the other a torch reversed. Above the altar was placed, according to- custom, the image of a young god with the Phrygian cap on his head sacrificing the bull. Some fragments. of it were found on the ground. An inscription informs- us that the decoration of the altar was executed at the cost of C. Cselius Hermeros, priest of this sanctuary. Ostia therefore appears to have been a soil quite prepared in advance for Christianity. It is known that the most religious countries are those where it most quickly established itself. Seaports, transit and trading towns, where people of all countries met, where temples rose to all the gods, and where the religion of the East counted most believers, were particularly favour- able to it, so its progress was probably very rapid at Ostia.'' It soon possessed two episcopal sees, one at ^The Jews, who slipped in everywhere, must have been very numerous at Ostia and Portus. Several Greek inscriptions have teen found, bearing the seven-branched candlestick and the formula " 'Ev eiprjvrj." One of them mentions the chief of a community, to whom it gives the name of "Father of the Hebrews." The presence of the Jews at Ostia also explains why Christianity spread there so quickly. 328 ARCH^OLOGICAL KAMBLES. Ostia itself and the other at Forhis Trajani, which was rendered illustrious by St Hippolytus. About the time of Theodosius, a friend of St Jerome, the rich and noble Pammachius, conceived the generous idea of building at Portus a refuge for poor travellers. People who had come from Eome and were await- ing a favourable wind were received, as were those proceeding from all parts to the great city to transact their business and seek their fortune. They were so happy to find an asylum where they could rest a few days after the fatigues of their voyage, that the fame of the refuge of Pammachius soon spread throughout the entire world. St Jerome says that Britain heard of it, and that it was spoken about by the Egyptian and the Parthian.^ Signer Eossi thinks he has found it again among the ruins of Portus.^ Considerable remnants remain, among which a basilica and a large court, surrounded by columns taken from other monuments, are distinctly recognisable. In the fourth and fifth centuries this was the usual manner of building, and the only way of making new edifices yet known was by despoiling the old ones. As happens in the cloisters of the Middle Ages, in the centre of the court there was a kind of cistern or well, which bore an inscription, now much mutilated, but in which these words may be read: "Let him who thirsteth come hither and slake his thirst." ^ For us the Christianity of Ostia remains associated with two important 1 St Jerome, EpisL, 77. 10. - See No. 7 on plan of imperial harbours. ^ Kossi, £uU. di arch, crist., 1866. OSTIA. 329 memories which, when visiting these ruins, it is impossible to forget : the Prelude of the Octavius and the death of St Monica. The Octavius is the first attempt at a Christian apology, written by a Eoman in the language of Eome, and is to-day still one of the most interesting works that can possibly be read. Its author, Minutius Felix, was a lawyer and a man of the world, who doubtless lived, and must have enjoyed himself, in an elegant society. He addresses the lettered and the worldly, and desires to make himself heard; so he takes care not to present his opinions in an arid, dogmatic form that might repel the indifferent. He gives them an agreeable turn, and seeks to pique the curiosity of his readers by a dramatic setting. His book is a dialogue, in which he pits against each other, not theological contro- versialists, but honest folk amusing themselves on a day of leisure. He supposes that one of his old friends Octavius, a Christian like himself, comes to see him after a long absence, and that, in order to be freer, and belong to each other more, they leave Eome for a few days, in company with a mutual friend, Csecilius, who has remained a pagan. This is during the vintage holidays, a time when, the tribunals being closed, lawyers are in vacation. So all three start for Ostia, " a charming spot," where the mind enjoys repose and the body finds health again. One morning, as they are wending their way towards the sea, "yielding themselves up to the pleasure of treading the sand, which gives beneath their feet, and of breathing that light breeze which restores vigour to the tired limbs," Caecilius, the pagan, seeing a statue of Serapis, salutes 330 AKCH-EOLOGICAL RAMBLES. it, according to custom, by raising liis hand to liis lips. This religious act wounds Octavius, who cannot forbear saying to the other Christian : " It is ill, my brother, to leave a faithful friend in this gross error. Will you allow him to throw kisses to statues of stone, which do not deserve this honour, all covered though they be with garlands and sprinkled with oil ? " At first no one answers, and the walk is continued. Wlien one has visited the beach at Ostia, it is easy to re-tread in thought the way the friends must have pursued together. They doubtless traversed that long street skirting the Tiber, or some other parallel to it. Then, having reached the spot where the houses left off and nothing restricted the view, they enjoyed the sight of the immense horizon. They walked on the wet sand along the shore, among the boats that had been drawn up upon the beach, beside children amusing themselves by making pebbles rebound upon the water. The two Christians, whose souls are tranquil, give themselves up entirely to the pleasure of these sights ; but Caecilius looks at nothing ; he is silent, sombre, and preoccupied ; the few words he has just heard trouble him ; he wishes for an explanation ; he asks to be enlightened. Then all three sat down on the great stones that protect the jetty, and, facing this calm sea, under this bright sun, they begin to commune together of those great questions which were troubling the world. Is Minutius indeed telling us a romance ? In any case it is a romance much resembling truth. I doubt not but that many a conquest made by Christianity in the second century was brought about by similar incidents, and that often a word, flung as it were by OSTIA. 331 chance, touched a well-inclined soil, which finally surrendered after a few conversations such as those that took place on the beach at Ostia, and have been reported for us by Minutius. The death of St Monica is the other great memory recalled by the ruins of Ostia. St Augustine has related the circumstances of it in one of the finest passages of his Confessions. Brought back, after terrible struggles, to the faith of his mother and of his youth, he had just received baptism at the hands of St Ambrose. Being resolved to break altogether with the world, and wishing to leave for ever that chair of rhetoric he had been at first so proud of, he had warned the Milanese " to seek for their children another vendor of words." He was returning to Africa with his mother, and waiting at Ostia for favourable weather for the passage. Augustine, who was poor, had probably taken lodgings in some inferior hostelry in the middle of the old town. Maybe it was only the rich who could have their dwellings built in the favoured sites skirting the shore. He only speaks to us of a window looking out upon a peaceful garden. It is there that the memorable scene took place, since immortalized by a great painter, and which will never be forgotten by all those who, whatever they may be told, cannot imagine that these anxious preoccupations as to the future are idle trifles. Seated near this window, and gazing heavenward, the mother and son, seeming to feel their parting near, were communing together of those hopes of another life then engrossing the minds of all. " They conversed," says St Augustine, " with ineflable sweetness, forgetful of the past, turned 332 AECH^OLOGICAL E AMBLES. to the future, and with lips stretched toward that immortal spring where the weary soul finds refresh- ment. Separating themselves by degrees from the things of the body, and rising more and more in thought towards that life which endeth not, ' at length with a bound of the heart, they touched it.' " A few days after this conversation Monica died, and, in dying, gave the last and strongest proof of the change wrought in her by the ardour of her beliefs. Her son tells us that hitherto, like all persons of her time and country, she had been very anxious as to her sepulture. She had prepared a tomb near that of her husband, and her greatest consolation was to think that death would unite her again to him whose inseparable companion she had been during life. Yet, when she felt herself dying, she, of her own accord, renounced it. " You will bury your mother here," she told her children, and when asked whether she did not dread to leave her body so far from her country, she replied : " Nothing is far from God, and it is not to be feared that at the end of the ages He should be unable to find the place where He must raise me to life again." Augustine did as his mother requested, and buried the holy woman in one of the churches of Ostia. In these days it requires a violent eSbrt to re-awaken those great memories upon the silent shore. All is so changed, all seems so calm, so dead, that it is hard to picture the time when it was animated by the move- ment of life and the stir of business. And yet this solitude contained one of the most bustling towns of the world, and the place of this desert was filled by fertile fields. Where now only arid sands are seen, osTiA. 333 there used to be delightful shades and gardens growing luscious fruits. It is related that the Emperor Albinus, who passed for a refined epicure, held the melons of Ostia in high esteem. Pliny the Younger has vaunted the beauty of this shore, thronged with pleasure-houses as large as towns and rich as palaces ; now one scarcely sees at far distances apart a few miserable cabins. In our days there is not a Eoman who would consent to stay for one short hour after sundown upon these plague- stricken shores. "We have just seen in the Octavhts that, in the second century, people came hither from Eome to seek repose and health. The isola sacra, where a few scanty herds of buffaloes pasture, was one of the most lovely spots on earth, so full of verdure and flowers that it was looked on as one of the best-loved abodes of Venus. At Eome I have often heard it said that this ancient prosperity might return ; that by better cultivation the country would be rendered healthy ; that it would be easy to drive away the fever by draining off the stagnant waters, and that one might succeed in reclaiming a whole large useless territory. It seems to me that this ambition is of a nature to tempt Italy. The Italians have this good fortune, in addition to so many others, that, in order to spread, they have no need to attack their neighbours, and may make conquests without leaving home. They are quite right in affirming that they have not yet redeemed all their ancestral heritage ; but this part of themselves of which they have not resumed possession, this Italia irredenta which absorbs and impassions them, is at home, in their country, at their doors. Near their "reat towns so fraught with 334 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. life and beauty, they will find, if they choose, dead cities to revive. Instead of maintaining that martial state which exhausts them, and listening for the least sounds of external discord, in order to turn them to account, they may busy themselves with repeopling their deserts, in tilling their sterile lands — in short, in giving back to Italy all those rich domains which the negligence or barbarity of preceding ages has lost her. This is an enterprise that will expose them to no risks, and which the world will applaud. CHAPTEIl VI. POMPEII. THE EXCAVATIONS AT POMPEII UNDER SIGNOR FIORELLI — MEMENTOES OF ITS ANCIENT HISTORY THAT HAVE BEEN FOUND — WHAT REMAINS TO BE CLEARED — OUGHT THE WORKS THAT HAVE BEEN BEGUN TO BE CON- TINUED ? — RECENT DISCOVERIES — THE FRESCO OF ORPHEUS — ACCOUNT BOOKS OF THE BANKER JUCUN- DUS — THE NEW " FULLONICA." Although Pompeii has been much spoken about, much remains to be said of it. The excavations continue, and have not ceased to be fruitful. They have, since 1863, been directed by Signer FiorelK, one of Italy's most distinguished archseologists, a piece of rare good fortune which has produced the most happy results. Persons who have not been to Pompeii for some years past ynW be struck to see the new aspect assumed by the ancient town. Not only does everything appear better ordered, and the work carried on in a more regular manner, but when one walks along the streets, enters the houses by the open doors, and goes over a quarter entirely cleared, one feels that the illusion has become easier and more complete, and 336 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES, that one may enter into the life of ancient times with even greater facility than was formerly the case. This progress is due to Signor Fiorelli, and to the resolution made by him to break with old routine and proceed by new methods. We must again repeat that the old-fashioned mode of excavation has been entirely discarded by him. The people who, on the 1st April 1 748, began to turn over the ashes that for seven- teen centuries had covered Pompeii, had only oneobject — the desire to find masterpieces to enrich the king's museums. Hence, the way in which the works were carried on, is easily explained. Excavation proceeded by chance, and at various places at once, according to the hope that existed of some piece of good fortune. If nothing was found, the excavation, after a little searching, was abandoned, and they went elsewhere. "When the litter became troublesome it was carelessly thrown on the houses already laid bare, which were thus given back to the darkness whence they had just been drawn. As for those left in the light of day, no care was taken to preserve them. The frescoes that had not been judged worthy of transference to the museum of Portici or of Naples remained exposed to the wind and the sun, which quickly effaced their colours. The destruction of the mosaics was completed by the feet of travellers and workmen : the walls became cracked, and ended by falling. A few men of knowledge and understanding, like the Abb^ Barthelemy, indeed, complained of the deplorable manner in which the excavations were conducted ; but since, after all, they produced master- pieces, and, thanks to them, the museum at Naples had POMPEII. 337 become one of the richest iu the world, the malcon- tents were not listened to. As a matter of fact, and despite the slight increase of care induced by course of time, this barbarous system lasted down to our own days. Signor Fiorelli changed all this. In his reports he said, and repeated, that the chief interest of the excavations of Pompeii was Pompeii itself; that the discovery of works of art must only be considered as secondary to it ; that they were seeking above all things to resuscitate an ancient Eoman city which should give us back the life of former times ; that, for its teachings to be complete, it must be seen entire and with its meanest old houses ; and that they sought to know, not only the dwellings of the rich, adorned with their elegant frescoes, and lined with their rich marbles, but also the abodes of the poor, with their common utensils and coarse caricatures. With this aim in view, all became important, and it was no longer allowable to neglect anything. So Signor Fiorelli decided, before pushing the works further, to go over those of his predecessors. Treading every- where in their footsteps, he had the walls which threat- ened to fall propped up and supported, raised those that were already down, protected the frescoes and the mosaics, and, at the same time, busied himself with the definitive clearing of all that had been covered up again with rubbish, or had not been excavated. This was a tiresome and apparently unprofitable undertaking, for he was certain not to find much that was new in ground which had already been explored. But in order to know the city as a whole, it was necessary that y 338 ARCHAEOLOGICAL EAMBLES. everything should be cleared and brought to light. Sigaor Fiorelli therefore decided not to dazzle public opinion by the announcement of unexpected discoveries for some time to come/ and to prosecute in silence a task more useful than brilliant. It took him twelve years to accomplish this seemingly ungrate- ful work; but the result amply repaid him for all the time and labour spent upon it. He who formerly visited Pompeii was stopped at every moment by mountains of cinders and islands of rubbish which hindered locomotion, blocked the streets, and inter- rupted his walks. Even about the Forum and quite close to the theatre, houses remained which had not been excavated. These breaks have now disappeared. The discovered part of Pompeii is entire. It is all spread out before our eyes, with its smallest alleys, its meanest houses, and its most humble shops, and walking through it one may obtain a very true and complete idea of life in ancient times. It must be owned that such a result deserved purchasing with some years of obstinate toil. This labour of patience and detail led Signer Fiorelli to make some curious discoveries, of which a word must ^ Yet it must not be forgotten tliat it was Signor Fiorelli who thought of running plaster into the void left by the bodies of the Pompeians in decaying. On completion of the operation the plaster gives the image of the dead exactly. It is, in fact, conceivable that when the damp ash which was spread over Pompeii became cool, it should have preserved the forms of the objects which it covered over, like a mould. Thus it is that it has been found possible to assemble in the little museum, placed at the entrance of the town, several people who are reproduced just as they were when death struck them ; some wrestling against it in despair, others yielding without resistance. It is a striking sight, and one of the greatest curiosities of Pompeii, POMPEII. 339 be said. Pompeii, at first sight, produces the effect of a new and improvised town. Everything in it seems to be of the same character and the same period. It is, in fact, known that after the earthquake of the year 63, which greatly damaged it, its reconstruction was commenced, and that it was very far advanced when, sixteen years later, the town was covered up by Vesuvius. It was the age of Nero, a terrible artist, who had a furious taste for building, who wished to renew everything, and who, it is said, set fire to Eome in order to have the pleasure of re-making it again, according to the fashion of the day. The manias of the master, even when he was called Nero, were the Empire's law, and since the Pompeians had to repair their city, the occasion was used to change and rejuvenate everything. The temples were enlarged, the old buildings adorned with new fagades, the walls covered with stucco or incrusted with marbles, and pillars of tufa were replaced by columns of travertine. " In short," says M. Mssen, " they were about to quite modernise the town, as during the old regime they used to disfigure venerable cathedrals under pretence of repairing them, and as the second Empire rebuilt Paris and the old towns of Prance according to line." ^ It is these restorations which now especially strike visitors. Passing quickly along, they only perceive stucco or marMe linings and the solemn faqades hastily erected in the time of Nero, without having time to see that the new buildings have covered up old foundations, without destroying them. Signer Piorelli, who looked at everything closely, reached those \ Nissen, Pompeianischen Stvdien, 360, 340 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. solid basements that survived the earthquake and re- sisted the eruption of Vesuvius. Beneath the town of the second century he finds at least two yet more ancient ones, whose history he traces out for us. The oldest goes back to the sixth century before the Christian era. At that time some families, come from no one knows where, took possession of the ground extending from the Sarnus to the sea. They enclosed this ground with walls formed of enormous blocks, taken from the neighbouring mountains, and placed one upon the other, without cement. In this space, too vast for them, the new inhabitants settled at their ease. Their houses, whose foundations still exist, consisted only of a covered court, around which were distributed the apart- ments. Each habitation was placed in the midst of a small plot of ground {hceredium) tilled by the family. The town, therefore, was not at that time an agglomera- tion of houses crowded one against the other, but an assemblage of families living on their lands under the shelter of a common wall.^ Two centuries later, the Samnites came. They were an intelligent and civilised people, and soon allowed themselves to be won over to the arts of Greece. They built a real town, with very fine monuments, of which some still exist, together with the inscriptions placed on them by the magistrates. Pompeii then attained a high degree of wealth and culture. M. Nissen bids us remark that she imitated ^ Signor Fiorelli has summarised his ideas on the first times of Pompeii and on its history in the introduction to his Dcscrizione di Poinpeii. His opinions are discussed and completed by M. Nissen in his Pompeianischen Studien and in the Pompdanisehcn Sdtrdge of M, Mau. POMPEII. * 341 the Greeks much more frankly than Eome ventured to do at the same period. Thus, she had a palestra, where her young men came to exercise themselves, like those of Sparta or of Athens ; she had a stone theatre, while as yet the Eomans only built wooden stages that did not survive the games given upon them ; and she openly raised a temple to Isis, who was only ofl&cially admitted to Eome at the period of the Flavii. It was, then, at this point of time, and long before she had become Eoman, that Greek civilisation planted itself so deeply there. The loans which the little town so will- ingly contracted with foreign lands did not prevent it from highly cherishing its independence, which it de- fended bravely against the Eomans during the social war, and Scylla had great trouble to subdue it. When it had been conquered, he sent three cohorts of veterans with their families thither, who formed a colony bear- ing his name (Colonia Cornelia). Its prosperity did not suffer from the new regime, which it accepted with a good grace. Some years later, Cicero, eulogising Cam- pania, said the towns there were so elegant, so rich, and so well built, that the inhabitants had a right to laugh at the poor old cities of Latium ; and among the beauti- ful towns, of which the Latins had cause to be jealous, he placed Pompeii.^ Since the preliminary works of Signer Fiorelli have been finished, and we have a more exact and complete plan of the quarters excavated up to the present time, it has been possible to recognise better than was formerly the case, that the town is regularly built, '' Cic, De lege agrar., II. 35. Note that he does not speak of Herculaneum. 342 Technological rambles. and that, in general, its streets are well outlined and cut each other at right angles. It must not be thought that this regularity was introduced into Pompeii by the architects who rebuilt it after its first disaster. Signor Fiorelli thinks that it already existed in the primitive town. The old Italians who first settled on the banks of the Sarnus had a particular method of constructing their towns, and usually built them on the same plan. After forming the boundary, they traced two perpendi- cular lines, the one from north to south, called the cardo, the other from east to west, called the decumanus : these were the two main streets, on which, later on, the others came to be branched. At Pompeii the decumanus and the cardo are still visible, and their direction being settled, and it being certain that the regularity re- marked in the discovered quarters was repeated in the others, it is possible, with the help of the past known to us, to form an idea of the past which we do not know. Thus, Signor Fiorelli could approximately imagine a sort of plan of the whole. According to the extent of the ground and the direction of the streets, he divides it into nine quarters, or, as the Eomans used to term it, into nine regions. Of these nine regions three are entirely cleared, three entirely covered up, and of the three others only a small part is known. Striking a balance, therefore, the part of Pompeii still to be dis- covered, and whose disinterment is being vigorously pushed forward, amounts to rather more than half.^ But is it well to do so ? Would it not be better, ^ According to Signor Ruggiero, the entire surface of Pompeii must be about 662,000 square metres. Of these, 264,424 have been cleared. POMPEII. 343 instead of entering upon fresh excavations, to stop and divert this vigorous effort of research to newer and richer grounds ? This is what Beule maintained, with great energy, in one of the best books ever written by him.i Beule was even more an artist than an archseologian. Obscure finds that only serve to solve some historical problem, and render the past more Kving, gave him much less pleasure than the discovery of the statues, the mosaics, and the fine friezes which charmed his delicate taste. Now, he remembered that every time they had dug under Portici, or in the depths that conceal Herculaneum, they had returned with admirable works of art. " It is there, then, that you must dig," said he; "you must concentrate your efforts and your resources upon these untouched ruins which promise so many treasures." And with the ardour which he was wont to display in the propagation of his opinions, he invited all the friends of the Arts and all the rich amateurs of Europe to unite in order to cover the expenses of these fruitful excavations. Should this appeal be ever heard, and bankers and antiquaries bring Signer Fiorelli the wherewithal to resume the costly works at Herculaneum, I believe he will right willingly accept the generous offering, and be glad to direct part of his workmen to this side.^ 1 Le dravie du Visuve. 2 Public attention has lately been recalled to tbe excavations at Herculaneum in a somewhat unforeseen manner. At Pompeii, a kind of commemoration was being celebrated of the catastrophe which took place in 79, that is to say, eighteen hundred j'ears jireviously. On that occasion the excavation committee published a volume of notices and memoirs, entitled Fompcii e la regions sotterrata dal Vesiivio 344 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. But I doubt whether, even in such a case, he would be induced entirely to give up Pompeii — that is to say, perhaps modest, but certain and easy success, for difficulties and risks. Why, indeed, should he consent to this, and by what reason could the abandonment be justified ? Pompeii, says Beule, has yielded about all that can be expected of it. In this new town, rebuilt and decorated in sixteen years by the same artists, everything is alike. Supposing the excavations to be as fortunate in the future as in the past, only the same house will always be met with, built of the same materials, divided in the same manner, with its atrium and its peristyle, its rooms for the slaves and for the masters, its apartments private and public. He adds that even this house itself, studied so many times, this elegant house in which there was always the hope of coming upon some precious piece of furniture, will not be found again. The rich quarters, i.e. those sur- rounding the Forum and the theatres, have been ex- iieir anno LXXIX. Among these memoirs is a very curious one by Signor Comparetti, concerning the villa of Herculaneum, where the famous Greek and Latin papyri were found, and which he thinks belonged to a rich Roman, L. Piso Cffisarinus, Ctesar's father-in-law. We know that this villa was full of marvellous works of art, and that the finest bronze busts which we admire in the Museum of Naples were discovered there. In another memoir, quickly following that of Signor Comparetti, Signor de Petra, studying the reports of the engineers who directed the excavations in 1750, proved that only part of the villa was then cleared, so that, by taking up the works again, we should have some chance of perhaps also reaping a rich harvest. It must be confessed that the hope of finding some bronze or marble statue, like the Drunken Faun or the .ffischines, is tempting enough to induce the resumption of the excavations so unfortunately inter- rupted. POMPEII. 345 cavated, and there is now little chance of finding any houses but poor ones : is it worth while to spend time and money for the sake of tumbledown hovels ? Signor Fiorelli might reply that, after all, these hovels too have their interest. We know the rich classes of antiquity pretty well. It is especially of them that history tells us, acquainting us with their ways of thought and living. On the other hand, neither poets nor historians have busied themselves much with the poor. What a service Pompeii would render us by putting before our eyes a sort of living picture of the popular classes of the Empire ! Thus, even if the certainty existed that only poor habitations remain, it would not be a reason for suspending the excavations. But M. Beule's prediction has not been fulfilled. We have gone on finding as many elegant houses in the new quarters of Pompeii as in the old ones, and within the last few years discoveries have been made as curious as those of former times. No better answer can be made to those who are inclined to think Pompeii an exhausted mine, and who seem to believe that it can no longer repay us for our trouble, than to show them by some examples^ that the latest excavations there have not been less fortunate than the others. Firstly, they have not left off finding interesting paintings. There is scarcely a house but contains one, and the catalogue drawn up by Signor Sogliano of all those discovered within twelve years ^ includes ^ Signor Sogliano's memoir is contained in the work I have just spoken of, and which was published on the occasion of the com- memoration of the destruction of Pompeii. 346 AECH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. over eight hundred, some of which are very curious. Space being limited, I will only instance the fresco of Orpheus, not that it is more remarkable than the rest, but because a picture much resembling it was found in one of the Christian cemeteries at Eome. The two differ little, except as to their dimensions. That of Pompeii measures about 2h metres. Consequentl}^ the details are better marked and more visible than in the painting of the Catacombs, which is smaller, and has been much effaced by time, yet the general aspect of which is the same. Orpheus is represented sitting, a light chlamys falls from his shoulders over his limbs, he plays with the plectrum upon the nine- stringed lyre. At his feet the Pompeian painter has crowded very different kinds of animals — a lion, a tiger, a panther, a boar, a deer, and a hare. Further on, there are trees and rocks drawn by the charm of his voice, and a brook which stops in its course to listen the longer. The Christian artist has suppressed all these animals and replaced them by two sheep. He doubtless wished to recall the memory of the Good Shepherd, who was the usual, and, as it were, official image of Christ, in the first times of the Church, But as a whole, he had reproduced the pagan fresco. He could do so without scruple ; that beautiful face, so grave, so sweet, which seems wholly engrossed with the subject of the songs, without percei^dng the strange effects they produce, has in itself something religious ; Christianity had nothing to change, in order to adapt it to its worship and its dogmas, so, as we have already seen, it did not hesitate to represent Christ under the same forms as the pagans had given to the singer of POMPEII. 347 Thrace. Comparison of the Pompeian Orpheus with that of the Catacombs shows manifestly with what facility the rising Church borrowed antique types, and the importance which must be given to the imitation of Greek models in the birth of Christian art. We must linger somewhat longer over a very curious and unforeseen discovery, made in the house of the banker L. Csecilius Jucundus. At first sight this house does not appear much better than others ; on the contrary, it is built in a rather narrow street, and is of modest appearance. Jucundus does not care for ex- teriors, and perhaps even, like a prudent man, he was glad not to blazon his fortune too much. But on entering we soon perceive that we are in the house of a rich man. The reception-hall is adorned with mythological pictures, and in the peristyle a great hunt is depicted. This painting is not, however, the most curious thing found in the peristyle. In searching above the embrasure of a door they found, in a well- hidden spot, the Pompeian banker's account-books. This was a great novelty, for books seem to have been very rare in Pompeii; while at Herculaneum, where only a few houses are known, a library was discovered almost at once. During all the time (more than a cen- tury) that Pompeii has been in course of excavation, neither waxen tablets, rolls of papyrus, books of parch- ment, nor archives of any kind have been found. This is not easy to explain.^ Doubtless, Pompeii was not a ^ The most likely explanation is that the hot ash which covered up Pompeii consumed the papyri, whereas the torrent of mud that flowed over Herculaneum, and which rose to a height of 20 metres above the town, preserved them. 34S ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. seat of study, and the learned could not have been numerous there. Yet books are not out of place, even in pleasure towns. If one of our beautiful sea or thermal-spring residences, whither one does not go to study, were to be swallowed up by a cataclysm, I suppose that, on bringing it to light again, not many works of science, but a good collection of novels and newspapers, would be found. Supposing there were no philosophical books at Pompeii, as at Herculaneum, the poets who sang of love must at least have been read there, since their verses are everywhere pencilled on the walls, and it would seem as if one ought long since to have found some copies of the elegies of Propertius or of 0\dd's Art of Love, but all has been lost. The only indication pointing to the conclusion that the Pom- peians sometimes bought books, and that, consequently, they must have had them in their houses, is the sign of a bookseller's shop, near the Stabian gate, which appears to have been carried on by four partners. Unfortunately, if the shop remains, the books have disappeared. So the joy which was felt may be easily understood when, on ord July 1875, it was seen that not a real library, but what might be called the pocket-book of Banker Jucundus, had been discovered. It was a rather large box, placed in a sort of niche above a door, and containing a large number of the tablets (tabulce) on which the Eomans wrote the rough copies of their business papers, their little unimportant notes, the first draft of the books they composed — in short, all their current writings, reserving parchment and papyrus for what they desired definitively to preserve. poMPEn. 349 These tablets usually consisted of two or three thin slips of wood, joined together like book covers, and spread over inside with a light coating of wax. This was written on with an iron stylet. Yet it is a thing so frail, so delicate, so little made to endure, that has sur- vived accidents of every kind which marble and iron could scarcely resist. One asks oneself by what miracle — in the midst of a city submerged and engulfed under that rain of stones and ashes which covered all the houses — this wood and this wax have not been destroyed, and one is still more astonished that, after so terrible an adventure, they should have been able to pass through eighteen centuries of darkness and damp without finally perishing. As a matter of fact, the Pompeian tablets reached us in a very sorry plight. When found, nothing was left but an assemblage of calcined cinders, and scarcely were they touched by the rays of that sun which they had not seen for eighteen hundred years, when they were seen to split on every side and fall into crumbs on contact with the air. The transport of these precious remains to Naples had to be effected with infinite precautions. There, in those work-rooms where, with admirable patience, the un- rolling and reading of the papyri of Herculaneum are carried on, they set to work to separate the tablets one from the other, to join the scattered fragments, to open them out, and, when fortunately the wax was not melted, to decipher the traces left in it by the iron stylet. Thanks to Signor de Petra, the clever and learned Director of the Museum at Naples, the success attained was greater than had been hoped for. He superintended the work, and, when it was 350 ARCHAEOLOGICAL EAMBLES. accomplished, first made known its results to the public.^ Are these results commensurate with the trouble they cost? It must be remarked that discoveries of this kind have always been followed by disappointment. We begin by expecting too much, and very naturally the reality falls short of our hopes. After all, it was not to be supposed that a banker's house should con- tain many works of first-class literature, and it is not at all surprising that account-books should have been found there. The box of Jucundus contained 132 signed receipts, and of which 127 have been de- ciphered, wholly or in part. Almost all these receipts have reference to sales by auction, and complete our knowledge of its mechanism. Sales by auction {audio), which now serve us for the purpose of getting rid of our books, our furniture, and our pictures, after having been reserved among the Eomans for forced sales — that is to say, those which the State made of the goods of the condemned, or creditors of those of their debtors — had finished by being used for every other kind of sale. Signer de Petra remarks that this method of selling had become so general that the words auctionari or auctionem facere were regarded as mere synonyms of vendere. In important towns there were large halls with courts and porticoes expressly built ^ Signer de Petra's memoir, entitled Le tavolette cerate di Pow.pei, first appeared in the collection of the Academy of the Lineei. Since then, M. Mommsen has studied the tablets, especially from the juridical point of view, in an important article in the Hermes, XII. p. 88. In France M. Caillemer has busied himself with it in the Hevue historique de droit fran<^ais (July 1877). POMPEII. 351 for sales of this kind, called atria auctionaria. He who presided at the sale — the chief auctioneer, as we should call him — had to know how to keep accounts and draw up a regular report, so a professional banker was often appointed to the office. This is how, at Pompeii, Caecilius Jucundus came to be charged with it. The presidency of the banker had, besides, another advan- tage. When the buyer, who was obliged to settle at once, had not the needful sum at his disposal, the banker advanced it. So in transactions of this nature he made two kinds of profits — first, the commission levied on the total proceeds of the sale in payment of his trouble, and then the interest required of the buyer for the money lent to him. Our tablets which, with a few unimportant differences, are all written the same way, contain the receipt of the seller to the banker who furnishes the funds, and represents the real buyer of whom he is the intermediary. These documents have especial interest for lawyers. Others, unfortunately in too small numbers, give us curious information touching the finances of Roman muni- cipalities, and the way in which they administered their properties. They are signed by the town trea- surer, and show us that Csecilius, who was not satisfied with the emolument accruing to him from sales by auction, also undertook to manage the communal estates. He had thus taken farm pastures, a field, and a fuller's shop belonging to the municipality, per- haps either sub-letting or working them himself. Such were the means hit upon by the banker of a small town in order to enrich himself. The receipts of Jucundus enable us to seize in its essence a profession of which 352 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. we know but little. They do not, therefore, lack im- portance, but, above all, they have revived in the learned world the almost lost hope of one day finding among the ruins of Pompeii some library, or at least some archive a little richer and more lettered than that of the banker Jucundus. Facing the banker's house, a fullonica, or fuller's shop, was brought to light. Several others were already known, and especially one celebrated on account of the interesting paintings that were found in it, represent- ing in a very clever, spirited manner all the operations of the trade. This trade was then very important. In the capital and in the provinces all Eoman citizens who respected themselves wore the toga. It was the garment of elegance, the official and ceremonial dress, which char- acterised and distinguished the masters of the world — " Bomanos rerum dominos gentemque togatam." But if the majestic fulness of the toga, the elegance of its folds, and the brilliancy of its whiteness, above all, when cast into relief by a purple band, made it one of the finest dresses ever worn, by men, it had the double disadvantage of being inconvenient and of easily getting soiled. When it was desired that it should be cleaned, and do honour to him who was to wear it, they sent it to the fuller's. There they began by throwing it into tubs full of water, chalk, and other ingredients. Then it was washed, not as it is now done, with the hands, but by treading (Joulant) it with the feet. The work- men charged with this task performed in the tub a sort of trois temps movement {tripudium), like that of the wine-maker pressing the grape. By a strange POMPEII. 353 accident the tripudium became the religious and national dance of the ancient Eomans. This it was which the brothers Arvales executed while singing that song to the Lares, preserved to us by a chance, or the Salii performed when, in the month of March, they passed through the streets of Eome, beating with their little swords upon their brazen shields. When the linen was thus washed, they spread it upon a wicker cage, where it was exposed to the fumes of sulphur. Then they stretched it, carded it with a long brush, and finally placed it under a press very like those used in the vintages. The more it was pressed, the whiter and brighter it came out.^ These various operations required large premises and numerous workmen. So in ancient towns there were fullers in great number. They passed for jovial, pleasure-loving, jocular folk, and Eoman popular comedy therefore loved much to busy itself with them, and to put them upon the stage. The sight of the "jolly fullers" (fidlones feriati) was privileged to amuse the people. The dis- covery of the new fullonica proves to us that the fullers of Pompeii resembled those of Eome. On the wall of the portico where they washed the wool the remains of a large painting were found, unfortunately much effaced, but which appears to have been drawn with much comic power. It is thought to represent the ^ In the new fullonica, the room which served the workmen &a a ■workshop is in wonderful preservation. One would thiuk work had only just been left off. The basins into which the washing was thrown are intact, and one would think that the iron taps, which have remained in their places, were about to pour the water of Sarnus into them. In a corner is seen an urn full of the chalky matter put into it the evening or the day before the eruption. Z 354 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. feast of Minerva (quinquatrus), also that of the fullers. In it persons are seen yielding themselves up to joy with such violence that their games sometimes end in blows, and one of them, who has been beaten until blood flowed, comes to appeal to the law. But gay scenes prevail. There are dances and feasts where the guests are depicted in grotesque or obscene attitudes which Kabelais alone would dare to describe. This freedom of brush reminds us that we are in the land where the atellana was created. A thing to be noted is that the new fullonica, the house of Jucundus, and that which contained the Orpheus, are near each other. If we have been able to find so many curiosities nearly at the same time in a single corner of the town, must it not be concluded from this that we do well to continue the works, and that in prosecuting them still more happy discoveries may be expected ? II. Pompeii's chief lesson to us — country life in the ROMAN empire — THE DIFFICULTY OF ACQUAINTING ourselves with it — HOW POMPEII PUTS IT BEFORE OUR EYES — THE WHOLE EMPIRE REPEATS THE CUSTOMS OF ROME — ^THE ARISTOCRACY OF POMPEII — CHARACTERISTICS OF POMPEIAN HOUSES. These new discoveries, added to those made in the course of the previous century and a half, certainly make Pompeii one of the most interesting places in the world. By a rare privilege one instructs as much POMPEH. 355 as one amuses oneself, and this journey, which delights the curious, is a source of still greater pleasure to people who wish to learn. Now that nearly half the town has been cleared, and it has become so easy to go over it, it is reasonable to ask ourselves what particular kind of profit may be drawn from visiting it, and, above all, what it teaches serious minds who make it their study. It appears to me that the great use of Pompeii for us is to teach us what provincial life was like in the Roman Empire. We know very well how time was passed at Eome, ancient authors being full of precise information on the subject. In Cicero's letters we can live the day of a statesman over again. Horace's satires paint for us to the very life the existence of a lounger whose chief occupations were to walk in the Forum or along the Sacred Way, to look at the ball-players in the Eield of Mars, to chat with the corn or vegetable merchants, and in the evening to listen to the quacks and the fortune-tellers. Juvenal, more indiscreet, allows us a peep into the interior of a dreadful tavern, the trysting-place of sailers, robbers, and fugitive slaves, at the end of which the officials of the funereal pomps sleep side by side with the begging priests of the Great Goddess. What escapes us is provincial life.^ We should probably know it better had the whole of the Latin theatre been preserved to us. Since the inhabitants of large towns rather like ^ I here use the word provincial in the French sense for all that was not Roman, and, consequently, for Italy as well as for Gaul or Spain. The Romans made a distinction, and did not include Italy in what they called the irrovinces. 356 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. to joke at the absurdity of small ones, it may be supposed that the authors of the mimes and of the atellancB ^ did not fail to turn them into ridicule. This is proved, too, by the titles of some of their pieces, and the short fragments we have preserved of them. Pomponius and Novius more than once amused them- selves in describing the misadventures of a candidate. Doubtless the elections of some small municipality were in question, for the Romans would not have suffered those of Rome to be laughed at. In a piece entitled the " Setinian," the poet Titinius put upon the stage one of those inveterate provincial dames who picture to themselves the entire world as turning round the axis of their village. They bring everything into connection with it, and believe that all is made for it. This one, while they show her Rome, only thinks of her dear Setia. " All," she replies to those who point out the Tiber to her, " what a service would be rendered to the territory of Setia if it could be made to flow there ! " Unfortunately, only very short fragments are extant. These pieces have been almost entirely lost, and the little that remains only excites our curiosity without satisfying it. If we turn to the writers who have come to us entire, we are scarcely less fortunate. As a rule, they only speak to us of the provinces, in order to tell us the deep repugnance they feel for them. Among ^ From Atella, a town in Oscan Campania, where they were invented. An atdlana was originally a species of pantomimic farce, composed of tricks, grimaces, cuffs, and contortions. Its character was, however, greatly modified in the hands of Roman writers, whose atellance much resemble other contemporary comedies, — Translator. POMPEII. 357 the lettered and the witty, they were no more fashion- able then than now ; all agreed in declaring that it was not possible to live out of Eome. Doubtless they were obliged to own it to be one of the most unhealthy abiding-places in the world. Fever had its altars there, even from the days of Numa, nor had it been decreased by the prayers made from such ancient times downward. Seneca owns that, in order to feel better, it was enough to quit this heavy, dusty, smoky atmosphere for a moment — yet it was never willingly left. Cicero, while quietly living there in it, did not scruple to say, even in his public speeches, that it was a very ugly, ill-built city ; that the houses there were too high and the streets too narrow.^ Yet he changed his mind directly he was out of it. " How beautiful it is ! " he exclaimed. It sufficed him to have been banished from it only a few months in order to find it admir- able.2 He left it, however, a few years later, in order to govern Cilicia, but this time he began regretting it as soon as it was out of sight. He was thinking of the means of returning thither, even before he had reached his province. While administering lands more vast than kingdoms, commanding armies, and receiving the com- pliments of the Senate for his victories, he could not console himself for being so far from the Capitol, and wrote to his friend Coelius disconsolate letters, advising him never to leave Eome, and always to live in its light : Urhem, urbem, mi Rufe, cole et in hac luce vive? ^ Cicero, De legeagr., II., 35. ^ Id. Post red., ad pop., 1. 3 Id., Ad/am., II., 12. 358 ARCHiEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. Strictly speaking, it is conceivable that a statesman should not care to lose sight of the Forum, since it was so much to his interest not to absent himself from it. What is more surprising is that even poor people, for whom life in Eome was so dear and so difficult, persisted in remaining there too. Juvenal has most eloquently described to what wretchedness a poor client like himself was every day exposed. In order to gather courage to leave it, he vaunts to himself life at Sora, at Fabrateria, and at Frusino, charming towns, where there is no danger of being crushed in the morning by vehicles, and murdered in the evening by robbers ; where a house and a garden may be bought at the cost of the annual rent of a dark lodging in Eome. " Ah," he says to himself with an emotion at which we cannot help feeling touched, " it is there thou must live, enamoured of thy spade, and tending well thy little plot, which will bring thee vegetables enough to feast a hundred Pathagoricians. It is some- thing to be an owner, no matter where, no matter in what corner, even of a lizard hole." ^ Yet Juvenal did not succeed in convincing himself. He remained at Eome, where Martial shows him to us in the morning, wearily climbing the slopes of the great and little Cselian, on his way to pay his court to the rich who protected him. Statins, at least, showed more resolu- tion. He saw his reputation increase without his fortune augmenting. He was the first poet in Eome, yet one of the poorest, and, in order to live, he was forced to sing the amours of the rich and celebrate the i Juvenal, III. 228. POMPEII. 359 virtues of Domitian in every key. What troubled him most was that he had a grown-up daughter to marry, a girl full of talent, who played upon the lyre and sang her father's verses ravishingly. Unhappily he had no dowry to give her, and " her beautiful youth was flowing away barren and lonely." ^ He resolved to return to Naples, his birth-place, where he hoped to find an easier existence and less exigent sons-in-law, but his wife refused to follow him. She was one of those obstinate Eoman ladies who thought it impossible to live elsewhere than on one of the seven hills. At thought of leaving Eome she emitted deep sighs and passed sleepless nights. In vain did Statins describe to her, in delightful verses, the marvels of Puteoli and Baise, that enchanting country, " where all unites to lend life charm, where the summers are cool and the winters mild, where the sea comes peacefully to die upon those shores which it caresses." She only thought of Suburra and the Esquilise. She was a woman capable of regretting the brooks of Eome in presence of the sea of Naples. This repugnance felt by Eoman men of letters for the provinces explains their silence concerning them. One does not care to speak of things which displease one, so they mention it as little as they can help, and what they say teaches us nothing precise or new. We should therefore now be very much embarrassed to divine how life used to pass in a little town of the Eoman Empire, if one had not fortunately been found. The discovery of Pompeii quite consoles us for the 1 Statins, Silvce, III. 5, 60. 360 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. silence of ancient writers. In order to know how people lived outside Eome, we need no longer with great trouble gather trivial and doubtful texts, for a short walk in Pompeii teaches us infinitely more. We may make up our minds, before entering, not to find ourselves so far away from home as we might have been tempted to expect. Everywhere where an important capital exists, it exercises a sovereign attrac- tion upon other towns ; its monuments are imitated, its fashions are copied, its language is reproduced, its life is lived. In the first century the whole universe had its eyes, turned towards Eome, whose usages had pene- trated everywhere. Only Greek civilisation still re- sisted. The East defended itself energetically against what it called an invasion of barbarians, but in the West the most vigorous and rebellious nationalities had let themselves be subdued. Spain, Gaul, and Britain were subjected to the customs as well as to the laws of the victors. As our friends beyond the Ehine say, the world had become Romanised. Eoman influence insinuated itself into the most distant countries from several sides at once. While the legions, crossing the Empire on their way to their frontier camps, caused it to penetrate among the ranks of the populace, by that natural affinity which every- where links the people with the soldiery, or even the traders who settled after the armies communicated, imposed their customs and their language upon the merchants, the agriculturists, and all those who had dealings with them, either for the sale of their own products or the purchase of those of Eome. As for the upper classes, they were in contact with the intendants POMPEII. 361 (procurator es), the proprietors, and the proconsuls whom the Emperor and the Senate sent to govern the provinces. These were always people of the best society, knights or senators, accustomed to frequent the palace of Caesar, and who brought, as it were, an air of Eome into these distant countries. They were often accompanied by their wives, and always brought with them sons of great families, who came to instruct themselves in business by their example, and freedmen who served them as secretaries. These formed a kind of court, on which the good society of the towns where they resided modelled itself. By this daily contact with merchants, soldiers, and governors, the provinces had become Roman. Tacitus says that people there carefully read the journals of Eome in order to keep themselves informed of the least events that passed in the Senate or the Forum ; ^ they repeated the jokes against the masters of the moment, and were anxious to know the fine phrases and brilliant thoughts of renowned orators. The new works of fashionable authors were read everywhere. The librarians of Lyons advertised the latest pleadings of Pliny; those of Vienna sold Martial's epigrams, and this poet proudly tells us that his verses were sung as far as Roman sway extended. Even among the peoples little known and incompletely subdued, Rome penetrated as much by her arts and her literature as by her arms. " Gaul," says Juvenal, " has educated British lawyers, and it is said that Thule thinks of getting a professor of public eloquence." ^ Juvenal means to joke, but he does not 1 Tacitus, Ann., XVI. 22. ^ Juvenal, XV. 110. 362 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. exaggerate so much as he thinks. Britain was one of the Empire's last conquests, and apparently one of the least stable ; yet how great was its anguish when at the moment of the invasions it was forced to sever from Eome is well known. It is therefore probable that these distant provinces, these remote lands, held many a surprise in store for the Eoman visiting them. He must have been greatly astonished not to feel him- self so very much abroad. He even sometimes found there what is most difficult to transport from one country to another — that elegance of manners, that refinement of speech, that particular turn of raillery — in short, all those delicate qualities which the Eomans understood by the word ".urbanity," because they believed them bound up with life in the great city. When Martial came to Bilbilis, in the heart of Spain, he believed himself in a country of savages, and groaned at the thought of being there. But what was his surprise at finding a veritable Eoman lady in the place ! Even making allowance for politeness, his praises of Marcella show that urbanity had penetrated even as far as Bilbilis. " Speak but a single word," he tells her, " and the Palatine will think that thou belongest to it. None of the women born in Suburra, or who dwell on the slopes of the Capitol, can rival thee. Thou alone softenest my regrets at having left the mistress city. Alone thou sufficest to make it quite live again for me ! " ^ If the fine manners of the Capitol and the Palatine were found again in the heart of Spain, if rhetoric was 1 Martial, XII. 21. POMPEII. 363 studied at Thule, if the customs, the fashions, and the manner of speaking and living of the Eomans were faithfully reproduced at the ends of the world, it is clear that this imitation must have been much more visible in an Italian city, and, above all, at Pompeii — that is to say, at the gates of Baiae and Naples, whither the elegant youth of Eome went every year " to enjoy the warm baths and the enchanting spectacle of the sea." ' These distinguished visitors spread the habits of the great town around them, and the inhabitants of Pompeii could grow familiar with them while scarcely leaving home. This influence must have made itself felt by everybody, but it was especially the rich, those forming the country aristocracy, who had before their eyes models whom they gladly sought to reproduce. There was in every age an important aristocracy at Pompeii, but that which governed the little town at the moment of its destruction does not appear to have been very ancient. It has been remarked that inscriptions anterior to the Empire contain names of magistrates which do not re-appear later on. The families of these personages seem subsequently to have vanished or to have become obscure. With the first Cgesars, the Holconii, the Pansse, etc., appear in their stead. Are we to believe that the great events which then took place were not without bearing on their sudden fortune ? Their generosity proves to us that they were very rich, and wealth only comes thus suddenly to skilful work- men, bold merchants, and fortunate speculators. Let ^ Propter aquas ealidas deliciasque maris. This is a line from an epitaph found at Ostia. 364 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. US not forget that Pompeii, which appears only to have been a pleasure resort, was also a town of commerce. Strabo affirms that it served as a port of Acerra, Noise, and of Nocera, so it was a kind of industrial centre for all this part of Campania. It is very possible that the impulse given to business by the establishment of the Empire, the peace and safety restored to the world after so many troubles, together with the increase of public well-being and opulence, which were their natural result, suddenly brought to the first rank families whose posi- tion had hitherto been more modest, and founded those great houses which were to predominate in the city for the ensuing century. That this aristocracy should have taken pleasure in imitating the manners of the Eoman nobility whom it occasionally saw upon its shores is not to be wondered at, its position in the little town being nearly that of great personages at Eome. Like them, it filled all public offices, and, like them, too, it won and paid for the favours of the people by incredible liberali- ties. The two brothers Holconius rebuilt the whole of a theatre at their own expense. The inscriptions on monuments constructed by them, or which were raised in their honour, inform us concerning their public life ; what their private existence was is less easy to ascertain. Until we have the good fortune to lay our hands on their account-books, as happened in the case of the banker Jucundus, some idea of their mode of life may best be gathered from the richness and beauty of their dwellings. If we would appreciate the beautiful houses of Pompeii as they deserve, and properly understand the charms they must have had for their owners, we must lay aside POMPEII. 365 a few prejudices. The dwellers in this charming town appear above all things to have anxiously sought their well-being, but they did not place it where we do. Each century possesses its opinions and its preferences in this respect, and the way to be happy has its fashions like everything else. Were we to allow ourselves to be dominated by that tyranny of habit which forbids us to believe it possible to live otherwise than we do, the houses of Pompeii would perhaps appear small and in- convenient to us, but if we for a moment forget our ideas and our habits, and make ourselves Eomans in thought, we shall find that those who lived in them made them very well for themselves, and that they were perfectly adapted to all their tastes and all their wants. In our great towns it is now difficult, even for the rich, to possess a house for themselves alone. They mostly lodge in houses which they share with many others. Their apartments are composed of a series of large airy rooms, with broad windows that take in air and light from the streets and squares. There is nothing similar at Pompeii. The number of houses there occupied by single families is very considerable. The chief rooms are all on the ground floor.^ The richest have built themselves houses situated between four ^ The upper stories must have heen reserved for less important rooms. They are reached by steep and narrow stairs. There is no- thing like the main staircase of modern houses, which gives admittance to all the stories, and is common to every apartment. In Nissen {Pompeian. Stud., p. 602) will be found some very astute observations on the part played in our dwellings by the staircase, and the character it has given them. Of all the parts of a modern house, it is that which a Pompeian would have least understood. 366 ARCILEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. streets, and occupying what was called an entire "island." If chary of their fortune, they parcel out a portion of this great space for shops, to be let out at high rents. These shops sometimes take up all the outside frontage of a dwelling. While we carefully reserve the facade for the finest apartments, at Pompeii it is given up to trade, or shut in by thick walls without openings. The entire house, instead of looking on the street, is faced towards the interior. It only communicates with the outside by the entrance door, rigorously shut and guarded. There are but few windows, and these only in the upper stories. They like to live at home, far from the in- different and from strangers. Now, what we term domestic life belongs in great measure to the public. The world has easy access to us, and when it does not come, we desire at least to see it through our widely- opened windows. Among the ancients, private life was more retired, more truly secluded, than with us. The master of the house did not care to look into the streets, and, above all, he did not want the street to look into him. He has even divisions and distinctions in his house itself. The part where he receives strangers is not that whither he retires with his family, nor is it easy to penetrate this sanctuary, divided from the rest by corridors, shut off by doors and hangings, and guarded by door-keepers. The master receives when he will, he shuts himself up when he chooses, and if in the vestibule some client more than usually troublesome or persistent awaits his coming forth, he has a back door (posticum) on a narrow street that allows him to escape. To those who find the rooms of the Pompeian houses somewhat too small for their taste, it has already been POMPEII. 367 replied that the inhabitants passed a great portion of their day from home, under the portico of the Forum or of the theatres. It may be added that if the chambers are not large, they are numerous. The Eoman does with his rooms as with his slaves ; he has different rooms for all the incidents of the day, as he possesses servants for all the various necessities of life. With him, each room is made exactly for the use it is to be put to. He is not, like us, satisfied with a single dining- room ; he has some of different sizes, changing them according to the season and the number of friends he chooses to regale. The room where he takes his siesta in the day-time, and that where he retires at night to sleep, are very small, and only receive light and air by means of the door. This is not an inconvenience in the south, where shade brings coolness. Besides, he only stays there just as long as he sleeps. For the remainder of the time he has a court shut in, or nearly »so, called the atrium, together with an open court or peristyle. Here it is that he likes to remain best when at home. He is there not only with his wife and children, but in view of his servants, and sometimes in their society. In spite of his taste for retirement and isolation, of which I have spoken, he does not shun their company. This is because the family of antiquity is more extended than ours, including in a lower degree the slave and the freedman, so that the master, in living with them, still considers himself among his own. These open and closed courts where the family pass their lives are found in all Pompeian houses without exception. They are indispensable for the purpose of affording light to all the rest of the premises. So even 368 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. among the less rich, pleasure is taken in ornament- ing them tastefully, and sometimes profusely. If the ground allows of it, a few shrubs are planted there, or some flowers are grown. Moralists ^ and men of the world laugh at these miniature gardens between four walls. Those who own magnificent villas, with large trees and arbours hung upon elegant columns, discourse of them very much at their ease. Each does as he is able, and I own that I could not be severe on those poor people who were determined to put a little greenery before their eyes. I am more inclined to find fault with them on account of their love for those brooklets which they pompously dubbed euripus, or for those grottoes of rock or shell work which are only so many pretentious toys. Their excuse is that this odd taste has been shared by the citizen classes of all countries and of all times. Those of Pompeii, at least, excel all others in their determination not to look on any displeasing object. They possess fine mosaics, brilliant stuccoes, and incrustations of marble on which their eyes may repose with pleasure. The fatiguing glare of the white stones has everywhere been softened by pleasing tints. The walls are painted grey or black, the columns toned with yellow or red. Along the cornices run graceful arabesques, composed of inter- twining flowers, mingled at times with birds that never existed or landscapes which have nowhere been seen. These aimless fancies please the eye and do not exercise the mind. Now and then, upon some larger panel, a 1 See what Fabianus says on this head (Seneca rhetor., CoTitrov,, II. pref. ). POMPEII. 369 mythological scene, painted unpretentiously and in broad strokes, recalls to the master some chef d'oe.iLvre of antique art, and enables him to enjoy it from memory. Occasionally this humble citizen is so fortunate as to possess a bronze imitation of one of the finest works of Greek sculpture — a dancing satyr, a fighting athletic, a god, a goddess, a cithern player, etc."" He knows its worth, he understands its beauty, and has placed it on a pedestal in his atrium or his peristyle, to greet it with a look each time he passes out or enters in. Those rich Pompeians were happy folk. They knew how to beautify their lives with all the charms of well-being, to quicken it by the enjoyment of the arts, and I believe that many important personages of our largest towns would be tempted to envy the fate of the obscure citizens of this little municipality. ^ It is from Pompeii and Herculaneum — that is to say, from two towns of the second order — that the fine bronzes of the Naples Museum come, which are the admiration of strangers. Among the citizens of our provincial towns nothing of the kind would be found. It must be added that the most beautiful things in Pompeii did not remain there. "We know that after the catastrophe the inhabitants came and excavated for the purpose of carrying away their most precious things. Now, therefore, we have only what they could not find, or neglected to take. 2 A 370 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. III. THE PAINTINGS OF POMPEII ACCORDING TO DOCTOR HELBIG'S WORKS — THE LARGE NUMBER OF MYTHOLOGICAL PICTURES — CHARACTER OF THESE PICTURES — THE PAINTINGS OF POMPEII NOT ORIGINAL — WHY CRITICS OF THE FIRST CENTURY TREAT THE PAINTINGS OF THEIR TIME SO SEVERELY — FROM WHAT SCHOOLS DID POMPEIAN ARTISTS BORROW THE SUBJECTS OF THEIR PICTURES — ALEXANDRIAN OR HELLENISTIC PAINTING — ROOM PICTURES — GENERAL CHARACTER OF HELLEN- ISTIC PAINTING — HOW FAR DID POMPEIAN ARTISTS FAITHFULLY REPRODUCE THEIR MODELS — WHAT IS THE PARTICULAR MERIT OF THE PAINTINGS AT POMPEII ? "What seems to us especially worthy of envy in these charming houses are the paintings which cover nearly all their walls. They are the surprise and admiration of all who visit Pompeii. But it is not enough to look at them in passing, as is usually done. If we would carry away anything more than a fugitive impression of them, we must inquire of those who have made them their special occupation, and whom anterior studies pre- pared to understand them. By taking an enlightened connoisseur for our guide, we shall learn to appreciate them better, we shall have a more complete comprehen- sion of them, and we shall succeed in acquiring from them a few correct ideas concerning the character and history of ancient art. Professor W. Helbig is just one of those critics whose competence no one disputes, and who may be safely trusted. No one has studied the paintings of Hercu- POMPEII. 371 laneum and Pompeii more thoroughly than he, and he has written two learned works about them, one of which forms the sequel to the other. The first gives us a minutely detailed catalogue of these paintings, with descriptions as precise as possible, and classifies them according to their subjects whenever these have fortunately been discovered.^ In the other, the author handles all the questions raised by these paintings, seeking, above all, to ascertain how far the subjects are original, and whether the school to which they belong may be known.^ Of these two books the second is naturally the most pleasant reading, but the first, although drier in appear- ance, is perhaps of still greater utility. Even apart from the other work, which serves it as a commentary, this catalogue is full of the most curious instruction. I think that an age may be judged, not only by the books which it delights to read, but also by the pictures it most loves to look at. This is an indication as to its character and its tastes that can hardly deceive. Let ^^s apply this rule to Professor Helbig's catalogue. Of 1968 paintings classified and described by him, there are rather more than 1400 — nearly three-quarters — in some way or another connected with mythology, — that is to say, they represent the adventures of the gods or the legends of the heroic age. This figure shows the place held by the religious memories of the past in the minds of all during the first century. Even the in- credulous and the indifferent felt their influence. When ^ W andgevidldc der vom Vesuv verschiitteten Stadte Campanicns, Leipzig. ^ Untersuclmngen ilber die campanische Wandmalerei, Leipzig. 372 ARCHAEOLOGICAL EAMBLES. conscience escaped them, they still held sway over the imagination. This is a reflection which has often forced itself on students of the art or the literature of this period, but nowhere does it strike one more forcibly than at Pompeii. It is necessary to insist on this, if we reflect that, at the very moment when artists were profusely decorating Campanian towns with the images of gods and heroes, Christianity was beginning to spread in the Empire. St Paul had just passed quite close to these shores, on his way from Puteoli to Eome, and there are reasons to believe that the coquettish and voluptuous town about to be engulfed by Vesuvius had been visited by some Christians.^ They preached their doctrine and celebrated their mysteries in these houses whose walls at every moment reminded them of a hostile worship. The multitude of these paintings gives us an idea of the obstacles which Christianity had to overcome. The religion against which it struggled had taken possession of men's entire existence. It was very difficult for a pagan to forget his gods ; he came upon them everywhere, not only in the temples and public places of resort, which were fiUed with their images, but in his private dwelling, on the walls of those halls and chambers where he lived with his family, so that they seemed bound up with all the acts of his private life, and he who abandoned them appeared at the same time to break with all the memories and affections of the past. It was on these pictures that the child's first glances rested ; he admired ere he understood them ; A word, thought to be Christianus, was found written with char- coal on a white wall {Corp. insc. laL, IV. 679). POMPEII. 373 they entered his memoiy and became mingled with those youthful impressions which are never forgotten. The Fathers of the Church are therefore right in remarking that what then gave so many partisans to mythology was that it took possession of everybody in their cradles, and almost before their birth. So Turtul- lian said with as much vigour as truth : Omnes idolola- tria dbstetrice nascimur. Here we are then well informed, by the sight presented by the paintings of Pompeii, of the importance which mythology still retained, if not in the beliefs, at least in the habits of life. But what was the character of this mythology ? How were these gods and heroes presented to their adorers, and in what adventures ? Here again Professor Helbig's catalogue is very instruc- tive. He shows us that what the painters prefer above all else are love stories. Jupiter appears engaged in seducing Danse, lo, or Leda, and in carrying off Europa. The pursuit of Daphne by Apollo is the subject of twelve pictures, while Venus is represented fifteen times in the arms of Mars, and sixteen times with handsome Adonis. It is the same with the other divinities, and in all these pictures little else is thought of but their gallantries. This is what an elegant and trivial world had made out of an ancient and grave mythology. It is true that it had not offered much resistance. One of the greatest strengths of those ancient religions which possessed no sacred books, and were not fixed and held together by doctrines, was their ability to accommodate themselves easily to the opinions and tastes of each successive age. That of Greece sufficed for everything during centuries, and 374 ARCH^OLOGICAL KAMBLES. this is why it lived so long. From. Homer down to the ISTeo-Platonians, it was able to take all forms — serious at times, at others sportive, always poetic — it served the poets for the purpose of expressing their most varied ideas and their most contrary sentiments, and allowed philosophers to clothe their most profound doctrines in brilliant colours. At the moment with which we are busied, it bent, with its usual suppleness and fertility of resource, to the caprices of a society fond of repose and pleasure, rich, happy, and assured of the morrow by a dreaded power, freed from serious political cares, and only left with that of passing life gaily, and which loved to represent itself under the image of its gods, and idealise their pleasures by attributing them to the inhabitants of Olympus. Thus we find another attraction in the paintings of Pompeii, when we reflect that they are the image of an epoch, and aid us to understand it. But since I just now spoke of Chris- tianity, and showed that the strong affection remaining for mythology must be an obstacle to its progress, it should be added that it might render this obstacle less serious by showing what mythology had become, and that it was now nothing more than a school of im- morality. It may well be thought that this was not neglected. Learned critics of our days have accused the Fathers of the Church of ignorance or calumny when they laugh at the gods and affirm that all the adventures attributed to them are only the glorification of the most shameful passions of men. They reply that these fables have a deeper sense, that they cloak great truths, and that they are, in reality, only an allegorical explanation of the most important phenomena of nature. POMPEII. 375 They are doubtless right, provided we only bear the mythology of primitive ages in mind ; but it is certain that the mythology of the first century, at least in the minds of people of the world, had no longer this character. People who had the loves of Jupiter for Danse or Ganymede painted in their houses were not sages desirous of expressing some cosmogonic thought ^ they were voluptuaries who wished to incite to pleasure or rejoice their eyes with an agreeable image. There is no longer the slightest intention of myth or allegory in them; only human life is represented, and the painter's thought does not go beyond the reproduction of love-scenes for the greater delight of the amorous. So when the Christian doctors so violently attacked the immorality of mythology, it was not possible to refute them, and they who listened to their invectives only had to raise their eyes to the walls of their houses in order to convince themselves that at the bottom they were not wrong. The, other paintings are either reproductions of animals and still life, landscapes, or character paintings.^ These latter have a great interest for us,, and render us many services. It is they which are looked at with the greatest curiosity in going over ^ Among the character paintings, Professor Helbig distinguishes two different classes. There are first those in which a certain mixture of the real and the ideal is remarked, which, for example, represent Eros hunting, Cupids angling or grape-gathering, women engaged in their toilet with little Loves who help them, etc., and those quite realistic, which reproduce scenes of ordinary Pompeian life, without seeking to embellish them. It is these latter, especially, that will be meant when I talk of character pictures. 376 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. Pompeii. Eepresenting real scenes and living person- ages, they seem to animate the desert town and give it back the inhabitants it has lost. But none of these various classes into which the Pompeian paintings may be divided can be compared, either as regards the talent of the painters or the number of the pictures, with that which contains only mythological subjects. The first and most important question one asks oneself concerning the pictures at Pompeii is that of their origin. "Whence came the painters who did them ? Were they original artists who invented the subjects of their works ? And if they were only imitators, to what school did their originals belong, and in what century did they live ? As ancient writers give us no information on this point, we are forced to interrogate the paintings themselves, and draw all our knowledge from them. With regard to the character pictures of which I have just spoken, the question is easy to solve. They represent local scenes and personages of the country, and were therefore created in the land itself, and taken from reality. If the master of the house which the artist had to decorate was one of those mad lovers of the amphitheatre or the circus, who wished to have their presentments always before his eyes, or if he merely liked everyday scenes, the artist pleased him by copying them exactly. He went to see the gladiators go through their exercises in the great barracks that have been found near the theatre, and reproduced them as he had seen them, and without more ceremony he transferred to his pictures the personages who fre- quented the Porum or the streets of the little town. POMPEII. 377 We may be assured that the fullers, the tavern- keepers, the bakers, and the fishmongers, seen on the walls of Pompeian houses, lived in the shops where their tools are still found. These half-naked women, with their hair raised above their brows in so strange a manner, are the same who sold their favours at a very low price in those narrow cells, which not everybody is allowed to visit, and which contain such gross drawings and brutal inscriptions. The painter had himself watched these peasants and workmen, in their monk-like hooded tunics, seated at a table before a glass of wine, whom he has rendered in a manner so true to life ; he had seen with his own eyes this soldier, with his tawny complexion, full boots, and ample garment, saying gaily to mine host, who offers him a glass : " Come, a little fresh water " {Da fridam pusillum). What proves that the artist reproduced people of the country is, that they still strike by their resemblance to the people we have met on the piazza and in the shops of Naples. So the origin of these pictures is easily found. The artists who composed them faith- fully imitated what they had before their eyes — they were done at Pompeii itself, and for Pompeii. But it must be remarked that they were very few (a score, at most) and generally of very slight dimensions. For the others, it is a different question. It does not seem to me possible to suppose the 1480 mythological pictures, which are often large works, and reveal a high talent for composition, are the work of original artists who painted them expressly to adorn the houses where they are now seen. Herculaneum and Pompeii were small towns, and scarcely deserved that 378 ARCH^,OLOGICAL RAMBLES. a painter should go to so much inventive trouble for them. Besides, what proves that these pictures were not destined solely for them, is that they have been found in other places. Elsewhere, and especially at Eome, the remains of dwellings have been discovered, decorated exactly like those of the towns of the Campania.^ The walls of these houses are painted with character pictures resembling those we admire in the museum at Naples, and with the same mythological subjects treated in the same manner : for example, lo, guarded by Argus and delivered by Mercury, seen in the house of Livia, in the palace of the Csesars, exactly resembles six or seven compositions representing the same adventure at Pompeii. Does this not prove that these artists had prepared a certain number of pictures beforehand, had practised painting them, and reproduced them on every occasion when their services were required ? But they were not really the creators of these pictures at Eome ■^ While digging along the Tiber shore, in order to widen the bed of the river, they found, opposite the Farnese Gardens, the remains of a charming Roman dwelling. It was composed of long corridors, and a few rooms, of which one especially had been very remarkably decorated. When freed from the wet mud that had filled it for perhaps eighteen centuries past, the colours had an extraordinary brilliancy. As usual, architectural motives were observed, painted with great elegance, figures very boldly drawn, columns bound together with garlands and arabesques, and, in the midst, medallions containing scenes from common life — repasts, concerts, and sacrifices. This system of decoration is, on the whole, like that of the Pompeian houses, only more careful, and treated by artists of greater skill. These fine paintings, threatened with being again covered by the Tiber, were carefully removed and placed in the museum of the Lungara. POMPEII. 379 any more than at Pompeii. They neither imagined the subjects nor their arrangement. What allows us to affirm this is, that in scenes of any importance the conception is always superior to the execution. It exhibits a power of invention, a skill in composition — a talent, in fine, which seems above that of the obscure artist who did the fresco. It is, I think, natural to conclude from this that the painting was not executed by the same person who imagined the subject, and that the Pompeian artists, instead of taking the trouble to invent, were for the most part content to reproduce known paintings, adapting them to the places for which they were intended. The rapidity and inex- haustible fertility of their work are thus explained. Having in their memories, and, so to speak, at the end of their brushes, a crowd of brilliant subjects taken from illustrious masters, they could finish off the decoration of a house expeditiously and cheaply. They did not, therefore, paint from inspiration, but from memory ; they were not inventors, but copyists. This is probably why connoisseurs and critics of the first century treat the painting of their time so severely. We have on this subject the opinion of a clever man, an enlightened lover of letters and of arts, a person strange and full of contrasts, very light in his conduct and very serious in his judgments, who lived like the people of his period, and affected to think like those of former times. Petronius, in his satirical romance, imagines his heroes genuine adventurers, walking one day beneath a portico ornamented as usual with rare paintings. They look at them with great pleasure, desire to know their date, seek to understand their subject, and enter 380 AECH^OLOGICAL EAMBLES. into a discussion. The past, as general!}^ happens, swiftly brings them back to the present, and they soon begin to converse about contemporary art. They speak of it very severely, and the admiration they feel for the ancient artists renders them very hard towards those of their own age. They find that the arts are in full decadence, and that it is the love of money which has ruined them. In this connection follow the laments which have since then so often been repeated. " The past was the golden age, the arts shone in them with all their glory, because bare merit alone was loved. It is not surprising that they should have fallen off, when gods and men are seen by far to prefer an ingot of gold to all the statues and all the pictures which those poor Greeks, those madmen, Phidias and Apelles, took the trouble to make." ^ The conclusion is, that painting is dead, and that not even a trace of it remains. This opinion is almost that of Pliny the Elder, a less pre- judiced and, in general, a more equitable judge. He somewhere asserts " that painting is about to perish," and in another place, " that it has already ceased to exist," ^ These are very rigorous verdicts, and people who have just visited Pompeii have some difficulty in subscribing to them. When they recall those scenes so skilfully composed, those figures so elegant and so graceful, and when they consider that these pictures were exe- cuted in so short a time by unknown artists for country towns, they find it impossible to believe that art was in such a desperate state as Pliny and Petronius affirm. But all is accounted for if we remember that those I Petronius, Sat., 2 and 88. ^ Pliny, XXXV. 29 and 50. POMPEII. 381 charming copies were, after all, but copies. They have not the merit of invention, and it is in invention that Pliny and Petronius, who pride themselves on being classic, made the greatness of painting chiefly consist. Since it no longer itself creates, and only lives by imitation, they consider it dead. Hence their severity. We are no longer in the same position as they were. Since the originals have now ceased to exist, they cannot by comparison depreciate the merit of the imitations that were made of them. We no longer descend from the originals to the copies, which is always very danger- ous for them ; it is, on the contrary, the copies which enable us to soar to the lost originals, and picture to ourselves what they must have been. This service which they render us disposes us favourably towards them at starting. Par from complaining that the Pompeian painters were not inventive geniuses, we are almost tempted to be grateful to them for not having drawn upon themselves for anything. By being content to reproduce the creations of others, they carry us back towards those great epochs of ancient art which with- out them would be unknown to us. But what, exactly, was the age in which the Pompeian artists sought these originals, and is it possible to ascer- tain with precision to what epoch of history and to what period of art the masters belonged from whom they drew their inspiration ? First of all, did they confine themselves to copying the pictures of a single school, and were they not of those eclectics who seek their advantage everywhere, reproducing the works of all times ? They must doubt- lessly have sometimes done so. Works are found 382 ARCH^OLOGICAL KAMBLES. among them differing from the rest, and which do not seem to belong to their usual manner. Such for example is the famous picture of the "Sacrifice of Iphigenia," one of the finest discovered at Pompeii, and which by a rare good fortune also happens to be one of the best preserved. In the centre, Iphigenia, in tears and with hands raised heavenwards, is brought to the altar by Ulysses and Diomedes. At one extremity Agamemnon covers his face in order not to see his daughter's death, and at the other Calchas, grasping the knife, seems sadly to prepare himself for his cruel part of sacrificer. Above, Diana appears in a light cloud, with the hind that is to be offered in place of the young girl. It appears to Professor Helbig, an expert judge in such a matter, that the regular arrange- ment of the picture, the symmetrical correspondence of the personages, the colouring of the background, and the folds of the garments, recall a somewhat ancient epoch of art. He draws attention to the circumstance that the figures are so arranged that the picture might be made into a bas-relief with scarcely any trouble. What is more characteristic yet is that Diomedes and Ulysses are represented smaller than Agamemnon and Calchas, in accordance with that somewhat naive antique rule that the importance of the personages must be recognised by their height. While making all these curious observations. Professor Helbig does not go so far as to pretend that this fine picture belongs to a very remote age. In all times there are artists who love to turn back and resume old methods and processes. Pliny, speaking of two famous painters who worked at the temple of Honour and of Virtue, which POMPEII. 383 Vespasian was having rebuilt, says of one of them that he more resembled the ancients : Prisciis antiquis similior} The author of the " Sacrifice of Iphigenia " was doubtless an artist of this kind. Being a lover of archaism, he conceived and executed his picture in the antique manner, and the Pompeian artists, in accord- ance with their custom, faithfully reproduced it. But these archaic fancies are rare at Pompeii. On the contrary, nearly all the pictures are very like each other, the subjects are usually conceived and carried out in the same way, and they appear to belong to the same school. Professor Helbig has no trouble in settling that it was the one which flourished at the court of the successors of Alexander. It was there- fore Alexandrian or Hellenistic ^ art which the Pompeian artists imitated, and of which their paintings may afford us some image. Although G-reece was then in decadence, taste for the arts had not ceased to be as lively there as formerly. Alexander had honoured himself with the friendship of Lysippus and of Apelles ; his successors, continuing the tradition, loved to gather artists around them, and sometimes became artists themselves. Attains III., the last king of Pergamus, modelled in wax and chiselled bronze. Antiochus Epiphanes rested from the fatigues of royalty in a sculptor's studio. They grudged no- 1 Pliny, XXXV. 120. 2 German critics call Hellenic the literature wliicli flourished prior to Alexander, and Hellenistic that which came afterwards. This designation is more correct than that of Alexandrian literature, for, under the successors of Alexander, there were very brilliant literary schools at Pergamus and Antioch, as well as at Alexandria. 384 AECH^.OLOGICAL RAMBLES. thing in order to obtain statues or pictures that had charmed them. They paid artists insane sums. One of these princes proposed to the Cnidians, who were head over ears in debt, to undertake all their liabilities on condition of their ceding him the " Venus Aphrodite " of Praxiteles. Another, in the sale which Mummius made of the booty of Corinth, ran up the " Bacchus " of Aristides to the price of 100 talents (500,000 francs). Mummius, who could scarcely believe his ears, judged that a picture which people were willing to pay so dearly for must be a marvel, and kept it for Eome. The mad passions of these crowned amateurs knew neither bounds nor obstacles. Nothing was sacred in their eyes when it was a question of getting hold of a fine work. It is they who taught the Eoman pro- consuls the way to form a rich gallery for themselves at the expense of the most respected divinities. They were, in reality, the teachers of Verres. In their con- stant wars with each other, the treasures of the gods were no safer than those of kings. When Prusias I. invaded the territory of Pergamus, he did not in the least scruple to take from a venerated sanctuary the statue of Vulcan, a renowned work of Phyromacus. Ptolemy Evergetes, in his Asiatic expedition, under pretence of retaking the sacred images which Cambyses had carried off from Egypt, broke into the temples and seized all the works of art contained in them. Thus it came about that so many masterpieces were heaped together in the palaces of Pergamus, Antioch, and Alexandria. They were, however, not fated to remain there, for the Koman generals, taught by the example of the Greek kings, in their turn laid hands upon this POMPEII. 385 rich booty, and carried it off to Eome, to adorn their triumphs. From princes and kings, this taste soon descended to private individuals. The succession of Alexander, as we know, was the cause of trouble and wars without end. Never was power disputed with greater ardour, never more easily won and sooner lost than then. In such unquiet times great fortunes are quickly made and unmade. So these upstarts who remembered yesterday and feared to-morrow made haste to enjoy their ephemeral wealth. Menander's " Comic Muse " has popularised the type of those soldiers of fortune who came to squander in a few days with Athenian courtesans the money which they had gained in the courts of the sovereigns of the West. They love to show them, welcomed by their mistresses and flattered by their parasites as long as their golden Darics or Philips last, and then discarded and mocked, when they have nothing more in their purses. Among these parvenus were some who turned their fortunes to a better use. They imitated their masters by buying pictures and statues to adorn their houses. It was a novelty : Professor Helbig thinks that, in the great age of art, artists scarcely worked for private individuals. Doubtless we are told that Agatharchus decorated the house of Alcibiades ; but Alcibiades could not pass for an ordinary citizen. Painters usually kept their talents for the public. They covered the spacious walls of the porticoes with scenes taken from the ancient legends and the poems of Homer, or they composed pictures to be placed in the temples. Perhaps they may have thought that to make art subserve the pleasure of a 2b 386 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. single man would have been to degrade it. Pliny, at least, implies this, and he adds in magnificent terms that their pictures, instead of being shut up in a house, where at most a few privileged persons could enter, had the whole town for their dwelling ; that everybody could contemplate them, and that a painter then be- longed to all the universe : Pidor res communis terrarum erat} But it appears that when, under Alexander, the Greek cities lost their freedom, their inhabitants became in some degree estranged from them. They felt less bound towards the Eepublic, since it no longer gave the citizens the same right, and they intervened less directly in its affairs. They were less proud of it, no longer cared so much to beautify it ; in short, they thought less of it and more of themselves. They kept the money which was no longer destined for public monuments to decorate their own houses, which they made the centre of their existence. Painters naturally flattered a new taste certain to redound to their profit. " Two chief points," says Letronne,^ "may be distinguished in the history of Greek art ; that during which it was exclusively con- secrated to keeping alive religious faith by images of the gods and paintings of their benefits, to awakening the patriotism of citizens by the ever-living spectacle of the great deeds of their ancestors, where, consequently, each work of the artist had its destination and its place marked in advance ; and that in which art, so to speak, could no longer be had except by ordering, in which its productions became objects of luxury, were put in the rank of rarities, assimilated to industrial products, ^ Pliny, XXXV. 118. ^In his Lettres d'un antiquaire a un artiste. POMPEII. 387 sought after less for their beauty than their price, and heaped together in the palaces of kings and of the wealthy for the vain pleasure of the eyes." Thence- forth the artist lost his taste for those large paintings which were made for a given monument, which had to correspond to the destination and architecture of the edifice, and which reproduced the character of the place they filled, and are only understood there. He worked in his studio according to his caprice upon subjects of his choice, without troubling himself as to what would become of his pictures, or, rather, certain in advance that a rich amateur would be found, ready to pay for them dearly and make them the ornament of his dwelling. Thus it was that, instead of large frescoes and vast canvases destined for public monuments, they began to paint what Professor Helbig rightly calls " room pictures " (Gahinetshilder) in the same way that we say " chamber music," as opposed to that of the theatre or the church. They were to be hung along the walls in private houses, and became a kind of want, or, as it were, an indispensable luxury for those who were called the happy ones of the world.^ Professor Helbig has very well shown, in what is perhaps the best part of his book, that the Pompeian system of decoration proceeds from this custom. What- ever may have been pretended, it has nothing in common with the great monumental painting applied to the walls of temples or porticoes in the first period of Greek art. In order to convince oneself of this, it ^ See a passage of Artistotle, quoted by Cicero {De nat. Deorum, II. 37). 388 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. is enough to study the manner in which the mytho- logical or other scenes which ornament the Campanian houses are arranged upon the walls. They generally cover only a part of them, are placed amidst architec- tural decoration destined to set them off, distributed in regular compartments, and very often surrounded by a frame which seems to lean upon the wainscoat or rest upon consoles. The artist has evidently tried to produce a kind of ocular deception, and give to those looking at them the impression that these paintings are real scenes. The system of decoration can only be explained if we think of the habits and tastes of the Alexandrian epoch of which we have just spoken. We have seen that it had become a sort of mania among great personages to hang precious pictures on the walls of their houses. But the luxury is an expensive one, and not everybody could indulge in such costly fancies. It was necessary to be king of Egypt or of Syria, or at least a powerful minister or dreaded general, to have long oppressed the nations or unscrupulously pillaged neighbouring countries, in order to have these immense halls built, which historians describe with admiration, upheld by a hundred pilasters or a hundred marble columns, with marvellous statues before them, and pictures of the masters in the intervals. Citizens managed more cheaply. They had false pilasters painted in fresco^ on their walls, framing false paint- ings, and in their small houses, when looking at the ^ I have used the word "fresco" here and elsewhere, although certain savants consider it quite improper. Letronne denied absolutely that the ancient pictures were real frescoes, in the sense in which we now understand the word. M. Otto Donner, on the contrary, in a study POMPEII. ?.89 walls of their peristyle doubtless felt a pleasure like that of the kings and the great lords, when they walked in their palaces in the midst of masterpieces. Fresco was therefore an economical means, at the disposal of small folk, for imitating the example of the rich. As it requires rapidity of execution and allows of imperfections of detail, artists took advantage of it in order to work more quickly. They could work cheaper, and art became an industry. Petronius says : " That it was the audacity of the Egyptians which first invented the abridgment of the great art" {JEgypiiorum audacia tarn magnce artis compendiariam invenit)^ and this opinion is very probable. It is natural that the country where people had the spectacle of the irritating luxury of great personages incessantly before their eyes, should also have been that where they sought more cheaply to procure themselves some of their enjoyments. Petronius adds that the employment of this cheap process ruined painting. This is also easy to understand. The poor, or, if you will, the less well- off, sought by some means or other to imitate the ex- ample of the rich ; the rich, in their turn, were not long in borrowing from the poor. As the fresco painters usually attained from habit a sujfficiently satisfactory execution, they ended by contenting themselves with the copies of famous pictures, and original painting was preceding Professor Helbig's Wandgemalde, proves that the greater portion of the pictures that decorate the towns of Campania are painted in fresco. "Without joining in the debate, Avhich is not within my province, I consider myself authorised by M. Conner's conclusions to designate the Pompeian paintings by the name of frescoes. ^ Petronius, Sat. 2. Professor Helbig has been the first to explain this phrase of Petronius satisfactorily. 390 ARCHiEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. no longer encouraged: hence the anger of critics and connoisseurs. Professor Helbig remarks that Pliny and Petronius express themselves on the subject of " this Egyptian invention " in the same tone in which certain amateurs of our day speak of photography, which they accuse of having ruined true art. Everything, however, confirms the origin which Pro- fessor Helbig attributes to the paintings of Herculaneum and Pompeii. The pictures of which they are copies must indeed have belonged to the time of the successors of Alexander. They plainly bear the stamp of that epoch, and have all its characteristics. One of the great changes which then took place in the Greek world was that Monarchy almost everywhere replaced the Eepublic. Around the monarch and his wife, officers, ministers, servants, poets, and artists gathered — in short, a court was formed, and, as always happens, the influ- ence of the court soon made itself felt in public manners. They became more polished, elegant, and refined. Distinction of manner, charm of mind, con- versational refinement, and the delicate pleasures of society, were prized above all things. In great worldly assemblages where the two sexes meet, love naturally becomes the main interest, and so it assumed great importance in the society and consequently in the literature of that time. Poetry is henceforth to live upon it, and poetry will be imitated by the arts. But love, as usual, painted by the Alexandrian artists is not that mad passion which Euripides has represented it in his Phcedra. Professor Helbig is right in saying that their painting no longer draws its inspiration from the Epics, like that of Polygnotus, or even from the POMPEII. 391 ancient tragic theatre ; it rather borrows its subjects from the idyll and the elegy, the favourite forms of Hellenistic poetry. With them, love is a mixture of gallantry and sentimentalism. They delight to repre- sent goddesses and heroines afflicted by some amorous fortune. (Enone deserted by Paris, Ariadne on the shores of Naxos, gazing after the ship which bears away her lover, or Venus watching the hunter Adonis die in her arms. But they are careful that the grief of these beautiful deserted ones shall not impair their loveliness. Their despair has assumed very elegant attitudes ; they are disconsolate, but adorned ; they wear necklaces and double bracelets, and their tresses are fastened with golden nets. Besides, there is rarely wanting, in a corner of the picture, some little Cupid, to lend a more genial air to the scene when it threatens to become too severe. In the frescoes of Pompeii, Cupids are still more numerous than in the pictures of Watteau, Boucher, and other painters of our eighteenth century. They form the usual train of Venus, help her to adorn herself, hand her her gems, and hold the mirror in which she gazes. They bring her to Mars, who awaits her ; they surround wounded Adonis, draw aside his garments, and bear his crook and his spear. It is again a Cupid who leads Diana into the cave of Endymion and shows her the beautiful youth asleep. When CEnone seeks by her despair to detain her faithless spouse who is about to leave her, Paris is indifferent to her reproaches, and seems scarcely to listen to them : and with good reason, indeed, for the artist has represented behind him a Cupid bending caressingly towards his ear, and doubtless discoursing to him of his new passion. In 392 AKCH^OLOGICAL EAMBLES. these different paintings the Cupids are only accessories, but there are others where they form the entire picture. We are shown them all alone, and engaged in occupa- tions which are usually the lot of man. They dance, they sing, they play, they feast ; with whip upraised, they drive a chariot drawn by swans, or endeavour with great pains to guide a team of lions. They gather grapes and grind corn in a mill, aided by little donkeys, which they lead with garlands of flowers. They sell, they buy, they hunt, they angle ; and this last amuse- ment appears to our artist so divine a recreation, that they several times attribute it to Venus herself. One of the most pleasing pictures, and the best known, in this fanciful and coquettish style is the Cupid-seller. An old woman has just caught a little Cupid in a cage, and, holding him up by his wings, offers him to a young girl, who desires to buy him. The latter does not seem to be entirely a beginner, for she already holds another Cupid upon her knees. She, nevertheless, looks with great curiosity at the one she is going to buy, and who stretches his hands joyously towards his new mistress. 1 have already said a word about what became of mythology in the new school of painting. We saw that the old myths lost their deep and serious meaning. One of the usual processes of these painters, when they take up subjects to which ancient art had lent an ideal size, is to reduce them, as far as they can, to human propor- tions. They like to entirely efface the distance separat- ing gods from men, and to treat heroic legends like adventures of everyday life. It is evident that, in painting the loves of the gods, the artist always had POMPEII. 393 before his eyes what passed at the courts of the Seleucides or of the Ptolemies, In the famous "Judg- ment," Venus, who wishes to be preferred, coquets with Paris like a woman of the world ; while Polyphemus, seated on the sea-shore, sings his sorrow to his lyre, a Cupid is seen arriving on a dolphin, with a letter to him from Galatea. Mars and Venus are prudent lovers who would fain not be discovered while engaged in their sweet encounters. They are shown by a Pompeian painter cautiously guarded by a dog, in order that they may be warned of the approach of the indiscreet. This is indeed a very vulgar way of introducing real life into heroic legends. The character of these paintings clearly shows their age ; it is truly Alexandrian art which we have before our eyes, but is it certain that this art was faithfully reproduced in the Pompeian frescoes, and how far may they be used as a means of judging it ? This is a delicate question which Professor Helbig has handled in a very interesting manner. The first shows, by a study of the very conditions of painting at Pompeii, that there must be inevitable differences between the originals and the copies. The Pompeian houses are usually small ; the space which the architect gave over to the painter was not, as a rule, of great extent, and was little suited for what the Greeks styled " megalo- graphy." In the arts, dimension has much importance, and often great subjects, when confined within too small a frame, become character pictures. This is what happens at Pompeii, where the frescoes are generally nothing more than reproductions of larger and more extensive compositions. Let us add that if these 394 AHCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. frescoes appear to us somewhat lacking in variety, the fault was not altogether imputable to the Alexandrian school, whence they proceed. Among the innumerable subjects offered to them by this school, the Pompeian artists were forced to make a choice. They took, in preference, cheerful and gay scenes, avoiding those which appeared to them too mournful. " A violent picture overwhelms the soul," said Seneca,^ These good townsfolk who desired to live joyously in this happy country, at the foot of the verdant slopes of Vesuvius, would not have liked all the horrors of ancient mythology to be presented to their gaze. The crimes of the family of Agamemnon, the death of Hippolytus, torn by the thorns of the way, had, as we know, given rise to famous pictures of the Alexandrian artists. We do not find them again at Pompeii. They were not in their place in the halls reserved for calm family joys. When Pompeian artists ventured to paint some less pleasing scene, they, for the most part, modi- fied it. Circe bound to a furious bull, and Actseon devoured by his dogs, are with them only pretexts for studies of nude women and agreeable landscapes. In reproducing a picture in a fresco, it is inevitably per- verted. Fresco does not in the same degree allow of that refinement of touch and perfection of detail which were the chief qualities of the Alexandrian masters. These, too, were not the qualities mainly sought after by the Pompeian painters, and it may even be main- tained that they did not need them. Now that the houses of Pompeii have no longer roofs, we see them ^Seneca, Deira., II. 2. POMPEII. 395 illumined by a dazzling sun which brings out their least defects, but they were not made for this glare. The halls where they are placed were usually only lighted by the door, and precautions were even taken that all the glow which flooded the atrium should not enter by this one opening. Awnings stretched from one column to the other made a shade before these chambers, where the inhabitants passed the hot hours of the day. • In this half-darkness, imperfection of detail did not appear, and the artists could, without impropriety, neglect some of the merits of the models they copied. In spite of these reserves, which are indispensable, it may be admitted without rashness that the frescoes of Herculaneum and Pompeii give a sufficiently correct idea of Alexandrian painting. Professor Helbig is so convinced of this that he would fain identify again, in these incomplete copies, some of those renowned paint- ings whose beauty has been extolled by ancient critics. This is an undertaking which may at first sight appear somewhat hazardous, but it must not be forgotten that if these pictures are now lost, we at least retain some mementoes of them. They are mentioned in the writers who have handed us down the history of ancient paint- ing ; the poets, and especially those of the Anthologij, have rarely omitted to devote a few lines to a descrip- tion of them ; more or less exact copies of them are found in bas-reliefs, and on vases ; and, in fine, what is most important, they must have been often reproduced on the walls of the Campanian towns. On comparing these different copies, and controlling them by the information afforded us by critics and poets, we perceive 396 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. what each artist has taken from the originals, and we get to reconstruct it, at least so far as regards its entirety and its great lines. Thus it is that, by an effort of science and sagacity, Professor Helbig gives us back two famous pictures of Nicias, his " Andromeda " and his " lo." The first is twice reproduced at Pompeii, in proportions that are not usual there ; the other only appears once, but has fortunately been found again in the house of Livia, on the Palatine. They are two fine pictures which appear made to match each other, and are sufficiently alike for us to think them by the same hand. The copyists must have adhered to the general arrangement and chief qualities of the original, and they therefore allow us to picture to ourselves what those two works of the Athenian artist must have been, who, according to Pliny, excelled in painting women. This is also what happens in connection with a picture still more famous than those of Nicias. Two small frescoes at Pompeii represent Medea about to slay her children. Scholars agree in admitting that they are imitations of a masterpiece of Timomachus, but rather imperfect imita- tions. Beside Medea, the painters have placed her two sons, playing a dice, under the supervision of their tutor. This dramatic detail, this striking contrast between the careless joy of the children and the terrible preoccupa- tion of the mother, evidently belong to the original picture. The remainder, in the Pompeian frescoes, is less happy, Medea's face, especially, being wanting in character. Fortunately, a " Medea " was found at Her- culaneum of larger dimensions, and which displays a more assured talent. This time she is represented alone, without her children, with mouth half open and POMPEII. 397 eyes distraught.^ Her fingers clutch the hilt of the sword with a convulsive movement, she appears to be torn by unspeakable sorrow. This figure, one of the finest that remain to us from antiquity, is certainly by a painter of genius. It is a thing the Pompeian copy- ists would not have imagined ; the hand of a master is found in it. Thus, by placing the group of children from the Pompeian frescoes beside the Medea of Herculaneum, we are sure to have all the picture of Timomachus.^ It is therefore the whole of an important epoch of Greek art which has been preserved for us in this corner of Italy. The pleasure we feel in looking on] these pictures increases when we reflect that they alone represent a great school of painting, but this certainly does not mean that they only interest us because they recall lost masterpieces, and that they are unworthy of being studied for themselves. I fear, lest by dint of repeating the words "imitators" and "copyists," we may have unduly depreciated the merit of these unknown artists. To be content to call them decorators is not to them justice. They doubtless imitated, yet with certain independence. They were not wholly the slaves of their models, but interpreted them freely, modifying them according to the conditions of the places they were to paint, or the humour of the master they had to please. What proves this beyond doubt is that a great number of replicas ^ Ovid {Trist. II. 526) seems to recall the picture of whicli we speak when he says : Inque oculos f acinus harhara inater habet. 2 We have the proof that the Medea of Herculaneum, which decorated a very narrow space of wall, was detached from a larger fresco. The picture of which it originally fgrined part very prohably contained the children and their tutor. 398 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. are found at Pompeii, evidently from the same originals but never alike. So something personal entered into the work of these artists, which fostered their talents, prevented them from being mere artisans, and made them veritable painters. It was this which enabled them to invent for themselves when needful. They rarely did so, being forced to work quickly, and finding it more expeditious to borrow from others than to take the pains to create. We have remarked, however, that they sometimes took their inspirations from scenes of which they had been witnesses, and painted char- acter pictures of inimitable truthfulness. But, whether imitating or inventing, they do all with an ease and grace, rapidity of execution and sureness of hand, which we cannot help admiring. Our admiration in- creases when we remember that they worked for the burghers of a small town, and, above all, when we reflect that in all the Koman world there must have been the same tastes as at Pompeii, and that there must have been artists everywhere capable of the same work. This is what astonishes and confuses our minds. Historians tell us that there were no longer painters of genius at that time, but the paintings of Pompeii show us that painters of talent were never more numerous. In our days, we boast that we put ease within the reach of the greatest number, and popularise well-being. This is a great boon. In the first century, something of the kind had been done for the arts. Thanks to these convenient processes, which permitted masterpieces to be disseminated, they had ceased to be the privilege of the few, in order to become the pleasure of all. POMPEII. 399 IV. WHENCE THE EESEMBLANCES COME THAT ARE EEMARKED BETWEEN THE PAINTINGS AT POMPEII AND THE POETRY OF THE AUGUSTAN AGE — THE PAINTERS AND THE POETS INSPIRED BY THE SAME SUBJECTS — LATIN LITERATURE IMITATES THE POETIC SCHOOL OF ALEXANDRIA — CATULLUS — VIRGIL — PROPERTIUS — OVID — DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE PAINTERS OF POMPEII AND THE ROMAN POETS — THE PAINTING NEVER BECAME ROMAN — REPUGNANCE OF THE POMPEIIAN ARTISTS TO HANDLE SUBJECTS DRAWN FROM THE HISTORY OR THE LEGENDS OF ROME — IS POMPEII REALLY A GREEK TOWN ?— NATIONAL CHAR- ACTER OF THE POETRY OF THE AUGUSTAN AGE. On closely studying the Pompeian paintings, we are forcibly struck by the resemblance they bear to certain poems of the great epoch of Latin letters, and, above all, to those of the elegiacs or didactics who sing of mythology or of love. Among the poets, as among the painters, the sa,me subjects are incessantly reproduced, and they are treated in nearly the same manner. They both love to express the same feelings, affect the same qualities, and omit to avoid the same effects. Must we conclude from this that the painters were inspired by the poets, and took the subjects of their pictures from their works ? We shall presently see that this was not so, and that it is easy to demonstrate that they remained almost entirely strangers to the litera- ture of Eome. Must we believe, on the contrary, that it wq,s the poets who imitated the painters ? Thi§ 400 ARCFJi:OLOGTCAL RAMBLES. supposition would scarcely be more probable, and, at any rate, it is needless. We have a very simple means of explaining all. If they resemble each other, it is because they drew from the same source. Painters and poets worked both from the same models. They were pupils of the masters of Alexandria, and this is how they might happen to meet, without even being acquainted with each other. We know that the Eomans do not j)Ossess a truly original literature, and that they always lived by borrowing. They began by imitating the classic poetry of Greece, i.e. that which flourished from Homer down to the time of Alexander. This, it must be owned, was to choose their models well, yet I do not think they must be allowed too much credit for their preference. In those remote times they were scarcely in a condition to distinguish ancient from modern Greek literature, the writers of the Periclean age from those who flourished at the court of the Ptolemies. The choice they then made is explained less by the refine- ment of their taste than by existent circumstances. The old Greek poets, although in society somewhat thrown into the shade by the glory of new writers, continued to reign in the schools with undivided sway. The grammarians explained them to their pupils and made them the foundation of public education. As the Eomans first knew Greece through the inter- mediary of the professors who came to educate their children, they were naturally led to admire and imitate the writers who were admired in the schools, that is to say, those of the classic age. It must also be said that these old poets, by their grandeur and their POMPEII. 401 simplicity, suited an energetic and youthful race about to conquer the world. Unhappily, the virile virtues of the first Eomans were not proof against their fortunes, and at the moment when the former began to wane, the very progress of their conquests brought them into a more direct contact with the Greeks. Having become acquainted with Greece in the schools and by means of books, they were about to see it at home and to frequent it habitually. At Athens, at Pergamus, and at Alexandria, those great towns they so delighted to visit, and of which several had been the capitals of powerful kingdoms, they found an enlightened, polished, and witty society, in whose midst they were happy to live with a literature differing from that taught them by their masters, and which charmed them at once. In vain friends of the past resisted. Cicero complained bitterly of " these lovers of Euphorion " who dared to banter Ennius and pre- ferred a wit of Alexandria to him. Lucretius also remained faithful to Ennius and the ancient poets, acknowledged them for his masters, and loved to imitate their vigorous and sober verses ; but the new school had on, its side what brings success, youth and women. Those beautiful freed women, who reigned in fashionable assemblies and governed political men, loved to repeat the verses of Calvus and Catullus. Thenceforth the imitation of the Alexandrians slips in among nearly all the poets, and it especially prevails in Ovid and in Propertius, who proclaims himself, without ambiguity, the pupil of Callimachus and of Philetas. This is why the Eoman elegiacs have so often come 2c 402 AECH^OLOGICAL EAMBLES. face to face with the painters of Pompeii. These resemblances are not simply curiosities, agreeable to remark in passing. Professor Helbig thinks that a serious interest attaches to them, and that they may help us to a knowledge of the literature of the Augustan age. The poets of Alexandria being lost, it is difficult to say how far those of Eome faithfully produced them, and to distinguish what they borrowed from what is really their own. In order to ascertain this, let us compare them with the painters of Pompeii. When their descriptions faithfully recall some Pom- peian picture, we shall conclude that the painter and the poet had a common model before them, and that they are both imitators. "We do not know to whom Catullus owes the most beautiful of his poems, that in which he represents Ariadne deserted by Theseus and consoled by Bacchus. M. Eiese thinks that he translated it from Callimachus,^ but he has given no positive proof of this. What is certain is, that this subject is often found reproduced on the walls of Herculaneum and Pompeii, and that, consequently, it must have been very common among the poets of Alexandria. Furthermore, Catullus has certainly treated it in the Alexandrian manner. Mixing with strokes of deep passion many graceful diminutives, he does not, in this terrible moment, neglect to describe his heroine's toilette; to speak to us, by the way, about her fair hair and her charming little eyes ; and lastly, to tell us that when she advances into the waves to try and follow her ^ JiJicin Museum, XXII. p. 498. POMPEII. 403 fleeing lover, she is careful to raise her dress to her knees — " Mollia nudatce tollentem tegmina surce." Virgil also began by yielding to the taste of the moment and imitating the Alexandrians. This is what explains the defects imputed to his first works. In his Bucolics some blemishes are found surprising in a mind so exact and subtle. The Arcadian shepherds who inhabit the shores of the Mincio, the statesmen become graziers, who weave reed baskets in solitary caves, and play upon a rustic pipe, to console them- selves for the infidelities of an actress who has followed an officer, this manner of transferring to the country the events of the town, and of putting political allusions among pastoral discussions, reminds Doctor Helbig of the strange fancies of certain Pompeian landscapes, where town and country are found oddly mingled to- gether, — elegant porticoes in the solitude where Poly- phemus leads his flock to pasture, and an Ionian temple, crowned with garlands on the heights of Caucasus, near the vulture who devours Prometheus. In Propertius, the influence of the Alexandrians is yet more visible still, and his elegies show more points of resemblance with the paintings of Pompeii than do Virgil's Eclogues. Of mythology it is brimful. Whether sad or joyous, all his sentiments are expressed by allusions to the ancient legends. He has no more delicate eulogy for his mistress than to compare her with the heroines of ancient times. If he one day surprises her asleep with her head leant upon her arm, she immediately reminds him of Ariadne stretched upon the shore of Naxos, 464 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. Andromeda after her wondrous deliverance, or the exhausted Bacchante who falls overcome by invincible sleep on the plains of Thessaly. These are personages well known to those who have visited the Campanian towns, for they are found there everywhere. When Cynthia, after a long resistance which has much dis- tressed the poet, at length yields to his love, he celebrates his victory by an explosion of mythology : " No, the son of Atrseus was not more joyful when he saw the fortress of Troy fall at his feet. Ulysses, after all his journeying, did not land with so much pleasure on the shores of his cherished isle. Electra, when she beheld her brother, whose ashes she thought she held in lier hands, or the daughter of Minos, on seeing Theseus, whom she had just delivered from the laby- rinth, did not feel as much happiness as I knew last night. Let her but once again grant me her favours, and I shall hold myself immortal ! " ^ The little Cupids we have so often found in the Pompeian paint- ings are not wanting in the poetry of Propertius either. When he decrees himself a sort of triumph for having acquainted the Eomans with the Alexandrian elegy in all its beauty, he joins the Cupids in it, and wills that they shall take their places in the same car as himself. " Et mec'iim incurruparvi vedantur A mores." ' In one of his most pleasing pieces, imitated by Andre Chenier, he relates that one night, after a debauch, he wandered alone with unsteady steps about the sleeping own in search of some guilty love adventure. Suddenly, he falls into the midst of a troop of little children ' Propertius, II. 14. == lb., III. i. 11. POMPEII. 405 whom his fright prevents him from counting. " Some carried tiny torches, others held arrows, and others again seemed to be preparing bonds to bind me. All were naked. Anon, one of them, more resolute, cried : ' There he is ! seize him ; you know him well ; him it is that an angry woman has charged us to give her back." He spoke, and already I felt a knot press my neck ; the rest approach : ' Chain him, scold him, and take him back repentant and happy to Cynthia's house."! Is this not the subject for a charming picture which might be placed opposite the " Cupid-seller " ? But it is Ovid especially who seems most to have profited by the poets of Alexandria, so it is also he who most frequently recalls the Pompeian paintings. It would be easy to choose among these pictures a certain number which might serve as it were for illustrations to his works, so much the poet and the painter at times resemble each other. They represent lo delivered by Mercury, Hercules spinning with Omphale, Paris carving (Enone's name on the trunks of trees, Europa " holding the bull's horn with one hand and resting the other on his back, while the wind shakes and swells her garments." Further back I have mentioned the picture where the disconsolate Polyphemus receives a letter from Gralatea, brought to him by a Cupid mounted upon a dolphin. This strange invention at once sets one thinking of Ovid's Hero'ides. These are love-letters which lead us to suppose not only that people knew how to write, and wrote much, at the time of the Trojan war, but that there were then means of forwarding epistles ' Propertius, II. 29. 406 ARCH^OLOGICAL E AMBLES. even when addressed to persons whose whereabouts were unknown, or when one was consigned to some desert isle. These ways are little in keeping with such far-off times. For it to be conceivable that women should write such long letters, fraught with= such bril- liant thoughts and so much knowledge of the human heart, it must be supposed that great pains were taken to bring them up well. So the poet says in express terms that they had had masters, and that they had been taught the arts which are the ornament of infancy.^ " In reality, they are only contemporaries of Corinna," who had frequented good society and learned the usages of gallantry in "The Art of Loving." It is Ovid's usual system as much as possible to rejuvenate this ancient mythology, and the gods do not escape any more than the heroes. With him they quite lose that antique air which rendered them venerable. He makes men of them, and men like those among whom he passed his life. Hercules is no longer anything more than a common athlete who fights Achelotis after the same fashion as those shown to the people in the public games.2 When Minerva defies Arachne, she sets to work like a buxom workwoman, tucking up her gown in order to be less encumbered, and setting her shuttle flying among the threads with an ardour that makes her forget her grief.^ Jupiter's household is entirely wanting in gravity, and Juno is continually busied in looking after her husband, who gives her great cause for jealousy. This custom of representing the gods quite like men, and giving antique mythology lOvid, Met., IX. 717. ^ jh IX. 36. ^ lb., VI. 60. POMPEII. 407 a modern air in order to render it lifelike, we have also remarked in the paintings of Pompeii. It is a proof that it already existed among the poets of Alexandria. But Ovid goes much further than his masters. He mingles with everything a species of humour and buffoonery not at all in keeping with the spirit of the Alexandrians. While imitating, he has deeply changed them. M. Eohde, in his book on Greek romance, remarks that if he owes them the foundation of his works, he differs from them in the execution.^ The Alexandrians were for the most part scrupulous and exact, critics as much as poets, very severe towards others and towards themselves, who, desiring to please people of the world, expended great care on their verses, polished and chiselled their phrases, strove to put in wit or knowledge everywhere, and consequently produced but little. They certainly had a pupil in that Helvius Cinna, the friend of Catullus, who took nine years to finish a poem, and by dint of working at it, rendered it so obscure that he immediately had com- mentators, and to understand it came to be considered a glory. Ovid was not one of those syllable- scrapers, one of those fastidious ones who are never content with themselves. He was quick of thought and swift of hand, and his pleasure and his talent were to improvise. He charmed the society in which he moved, not only by following its tastes and flattering its caprices, but by continvially dazzling it with new works. It may also be said of him that he supplies the place of those " room pictures " of the Alexandrian school — so careful, ^ E. Rohde, Der GriecMsche Roman, p. 125. 408 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. SO finished by bold frescoes, full of unpleasing negli- gences and defects — but in which we find a^fertility of resource, a wealth of detail, and a rapidity of execution that charm even those most inclined to be critical. This is one resemblance more with the painters of Pompeii. But these painters and poets do not always resemble each other. Some differences also exist, to be noted with care, since they complete our knowledge of them. I do not mean only those arising from the varied con- ditions of their arts : these could not be escaped, and recur everywhere. When Horace says that poetry is like painting, he does not mean to express an absolute truth subject to no exception. That acute critic well knew that if their aim is identical, they follow different ways in order to reach it. Painting, which works directly for the eyes, is forced indeed to give its per- sonages fine attitudes. It can present nothing'to the view that would shock it, for the image does not become effaced; the impression would remain and grow more irksome from its very duration. The poet, on the contrary, who appeals to the imagination, and paints with a stroke, may allow himself vagaries which would not be allowed in a painter. I will only instance a single example. The legend relates that lo changed into a cow, and it is under this form that she is pursued by the anger of Juno, who confides her to the watchful guard of Argus, the shepherd with the hundred eyes. Ovid accepts the legend as it is, changing nothing and concealing nothing. On the contrary, it amuses and pleases him, and its oddity is just what he develops with greatest zest. He depicts the unhappy lo still unconscious of her meta- POMPEII. 409 morphosis. "She would fain implore her keeper and stretch forth her hands to him," but no longer finds an arm to stretch.^ She strives to speak, but her words are bellowings which frighten her. She approaches a fountain where, in happier times, she was wont to mirror herself, but directly she sees her horns she flies, terror- stricken, before her image. All this is said delicately, with a tone of pleasing irony, without taking into account that lo's father himself, in spite of his grief, cannot refrain from a comic reflection. " And I," says he, " who sought thee a spouse, and thought to give myself a son-in-law and grand-children, it is in my herd that I must choose thee a husband, it is in my herd that I must look for grand-children." A painter could not permit himself these pleasantries. It would be difficult for him to excite our compassion for a cow, to interest us in its misfortune, and make us desire its well-being. Therefore, in spite of Juno, lo will remain for him a beautiful young captive girl, watched over by a wicked gaoler, who raises her eyes and stretches her arms towards heaven to invoke a deliverer. AtHhe very utmost, the most scrupulous artists, determined at any cost to respect the tradition, will draw upon her charming brow two little horns, half concealed by her tresses, and this is the only memento that the meta- morphosis of the daughter of Inachus will leave in a picture. It is the same with respect to her keeper. The hundred eyes bestowed on him by the legend ^ " nia etiam supplex Argo quum brachia vellet, Tendere, non habuit qua brachia tcnderet Argo." —Ovid, Met., I. 629. 410 ARCHAEOLOGICAL EAMBLES. greatly exhilarate Ovid, who congratulates him on being able to turn about as he lists without losing sight of his victim — "Ante oculos To, quamvis aversus, habehat." Let us suppose the painter resolved to adhere faith- ful to the legend, he will never produce anything but a grotesque figure. He escapes the difficulty by making Argus like an ordinary shepherd, and contenting him- self with putting upon his shoulder a leopard skin, whose spots must represent in the eyes of a complacent spectator the hundred eyes of Argus. This is how the painter grapples with difficulties non-existent for the poet, but which sometimes oblige the former to treat the same subject in a diffiirent manner. These difficulties, I repeat, were inevitable, since they are inherent in the very conditions of the two arts, which cannot be changed, so it is needless further to insist upon them. But there is another more important, and which deeply separates the painters of Pompeii from the Latin poets. The other arts which Greece gave to Eome seem to have made some effort to acclimatise themselves in their new country, and to have in some degree adopted its qualities and its character, but painting never became Eoman. Not that it had more cause than the other arts to complain of the welcome received from the Eomans. From the day when Paulus CEmilius sent for Metrodorus from Athens to paint the pictures that were to adorn his triumph, and charged him to educate his children, great artists found consideration and fortune in Rome. Fine pictures were paid for at as high a price as the POMPEII. 411 statues of the masters, and if they were very anxious to fill the public places and the porticoes with marble or brazen images of the gods or of great men, they were not less so to adorn public or private monuments with frescoes, and the example of Pompeii shows how general this taste became. What proves that painting was not without honour in Rome, even in the most ancient times, is that it was one of the first arts practised by the Eomans themselves. Before the time of the Punic Wars, a patrician, a man belonging to an ancient and illustrious race, did not disdain to become a pupil of the Greek artists, and decorate a temple with his own hand. His talent made him so renowned that thence- forth he was only called Pabius the Painter {Fabius Pidor), and his family kept the name. From that moment downward, Romans are not wanting in the lists of painters who made themselves famous, and among those whose memory Pliny has preserved for us, there is one who was so proud of his country that he never quitted the toga, even when he had to climb some scaffolding,^ much in the same way that Buffon is said to have donned court dress while composing his great work. But whether he wore the toga or the pallium, the artist remained Greek, Greek painting did not change its method on settling in Italy, modified its habits in nothing, and sought its inspirations only in the memories of its former country. Letronne is right in saying " that it was a plant which flourished everywhere as on its native ground, scarcely feeling the influence of the change of soil and climate." 'Pliny, XXXV. 37. 412 ARCHiEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. It is indeed thus that it appears to us at Pompeii. It is surprising to see to what a degree painters who worked in an Italian town, for people who delighted in nothing more than to be called Eoman citizens, and at a time when the sentiment of national glory was more alive than ever, remained unaffected by the influence of Eome. While, by their side, sculptors, also Greek in origin, delighted to people the public places with images of the imperial family, they never thought of painting in the temples decorated by them, the exploits of Augustus or of his successors. The history of Eome — that glorious history which astonished all the world — never inspired them. In their mytho- logical paintings, the subjects are always borrowed from Greek traditions and legends. Above all, there was at this time a great Eoman poem, consecrated by public admiration, which all the world knew by heart, at Pompeii as much as elsewhere, for we have proofs of it — Virgil's ^neid. This work, in so many ways connected with the Homeric Epos, was not of a kind to displease Greek artists. They did not find themselves abroad in a poem in which Greece is everywhere present, and whose heroes are borrowed from the Iliad. Yet among all the paintings of Pompeii, only five or six pictures have been found whose subjects were taken from the j^neid, and even of these one is a caricature. It represents a young long-tailed monkey, covered with a coat of mail, encumbered with a sword, carrying an old monkey on his shoulders, and dragging a young one along by the hand : it is .^ueas, leaving Troy with his father and his child. Of all the rest, a single one has some importance. This is a very faithful imitation of POMPEII. 413 a scene from the twelfth book of the ^neid. ^neas, struck in the course of the battle by an arrow, leans one hand upon his javelin and the other on the shoulder of his weeping son, yielding his leg to the physician, old lapyx, who endeavours to draw the dart from the wound. Above him, Venus, his mother, descending from the sky, brings the dittany that is to cure him. It is not a good picture. The attitudes of the personages are awkward, the whole is wanting in ease, and it is seen that the subject not being familiar to the artist, he did not treat it with pleasure. The adventure of Dido, which appears made in order to tempt a painter of talent, has only been two or three times represented at Pompeii. This is little, indeed, it must be owned, especially if we reflect that the story of Ariadne de- serted by Theseus, which so resembles that of Dido, has given rise to more than thirty works, some of them of large dimensions and remarkable execution. It has, it is true, sometimes been said that Pompeii was more a Greek than a Roman town, and that in excavating for its works inspired by the legions and traditions of Greece, the artists followed its taste. But this opinion, although it has been widely spread,^ is none the less very incorrect. From the time when they received the right of citizenship, the inhabitants of Pompeii considered themselves Eomans, Latin is not only their official language, used by magistrates ^ Mazois said at the beginning of his second vohime : "It will perhaps cause surprise that I class the houses of Pompeii with Roman dwellings, for this kind of Greek taste which prevails in the ruins seems to have accustomed everybody to look upon the houses of the town as Greek." 414 AKCHJilOLOGICAL RAMBLES. in decrees — it is the common idiom, that of the poor as well as of the rich; not only of peasants but of townspeople, used no less in private than in public life. Children who chalk their jokes on the walls, young folk addressing a salutation to their mistresses, idlers who celebrate their favourite gladiator on leaving the public games, and frequenters of taverns or of question- able resorts who want to describe their impressions, do it in Latin almost exclusively, Oscan and Greek being always the exception. The Pompeians not only speak the language of their masters, but share all their feelings. The Emperor has no more devoted subjects, and they were the first to adopt the worship of Augustus. Doubtless we are not surprised that official inscriptions should be full of expressions of respect and affection for the sovereign and his family. What astonishes us more is to see that those chalked upon the walls by men of the people, who can be less suspected of flattery and untruth, often contain similar protesta- tions. Thus we often find the cry of "Life to the Emperor " {Augusto feliciter), and one of those who writes upon the wall adds this thought: "That the health of princes makes the happiness of their subjects " (Vohis salvis felices sumus jpertetuo)} Another must needs send to Eome, the former enemy, a distant salutation : " Roma vale." ^ If the masterpieces of Greek literature are not unknown at Pompeii, Eoman literature is still more current there. Cicero is sufficiently read for him to be parodied,^ while 1 Corp. insc. lat., IV. No. 1174. "^Ih., No. 1745. ' It is impossible not to recognise in a very light inscription {Corp. insc, lat., IV. No. 1261) a parody on a famous passage of the Verrines. POMPEII, 415 Propertius, Ovid, and even Lucretius, are quoted continually. But it is especially the ^neid that appears to have been the pleasure and the study of all. Virgil had interested the whole of Italy in his work by singing all its memories and all its glories. From Pompeii that point of Misenum was visible, the tomb of one of the companions of ^neas, which the poet had mentioned in his works, and it was near those Phlegrean fields where he had placed the entrance to Hell. Thus the knowledge of the JEneid was very widely spread among the Pompeians of all classes. What well shows this is that inscriptions scribbled upon the walls, which can only be the work of school- boys or men of the people, often contain verses of it. It was known by heart, people loved to quote it, and even the unlettered had some acquaintance with it. But it is probable that in a town where Virgil seems to have been so popular, people would have liked to have some of the scenes described by him represented upon the walls of their houses. If the painters have hardly ever done so, if they have rarely placed before the Pompeians subjects borrowed from their favourite poet, or mementoes of their natural history, it is because the art which they practised had remained Greek, that it was known to be shut up in its traditions and its habits, and nobody required it to leave them. With poetry it was not the same, and it is this which distinguishes it from painting. Although it also came from Greece, it consented with a good grace, and almost at once, to become Eoman. Nsevius uses the forms of the Homeric Epos for the purpose of celebrating the heroes of ancient Kome, while the 416 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. tragic method of Sophocles lends itself to sing the exploits of Decius, of Paulus ^milius, and of Brutus. This mixture reached its perfection in Virgil's jEneicl. Nowhere did the traditions of the two countries, the genius of the two peoples, and their two antiquities, more harmoniously blend them in Virgil's poem, and this it is which makes its admirable beauty. At that moment Eome appears prouder than ever of her past, and more busied with her history. The Emperor, who has taken away its freedom, stimulates its national pride. In order to fill its imagination and assuage its regrets, he constantly shows it the immensity of its territory, extending to the limits of the civilized world, and recalls the heroic manner of its conquest. In order to dissimulate the newness of its insti- tutions he surrounds himself with the great men of ancient times, puts himself in their company, and boldly presents himself as their follower. A kind of watchword then went forth to all the poets to unite in the eulogy of the prince that of the heroes of the Eepublic and the memories of ancient Eome. Not one of them neglected to do so. Even the most trivial, who had never busied themselves with aught save their amours, assumed a grave tone, and mingled their light verses with patriotic songs. Propertius, a prudent man, had settled the employment of all his life in advance. He purposed : " When age should have chased away pleasures and sown his head with white hairs, to enquire out the laws of nature, find how this great house of the world is governed, study the principles which direct the course of the moon, whence come eclipses and storms, why the rainbow drinks the waters POMPEII. 417 of the rain, and what is the cause of the underground agitations which make the high mountains tremble." ^ In other terms, he meant to remain a true Alexandrian to the end of his days, only proposing to pass with age from the elegies of Callimachus to the didactic poetry of Aratus. Yet he did not withstand the solicitations of Maecenas, and he, too, ended by celebrating the ancient traditions of Eome, " and putting all the breath that issued from his feeble bosom at the service of his country." Thus it is that the elegy — that is to say, the species of poetry which the Eomans had most directly borrowed from the Alexandrians — at length mixed novelties with its imitations, and by dint of celebrating the great memories of the national history, became Eoman in its turn. So it may be said, with perfect truth, that the Latin poetry of the great age is best appreciated by compari- son with contemporary painting. They issued from the same source, but they took different ways, and they elucidate each other both by their relations and their differences. When we see with what obstinacy painting remained entirely Greek, we render better justice to the efforts made by poetry to adapt itself to the country into which it had come to settle. These efforts gave it an element of strength and life which it is not possible to mistake. By becoming Eoman, by flatter- ing the national pride, and by endeavouring to respond to popular feeling, it rendered its action upon the crowd more potent. In this respect it was original and owed nothing to the school of Alexandria, which 1 Propertius, III. 5, 23. 2d 418 AKCHiEOLOGICAL RAMBLES. never had these patriotic impulses. As for all that mythology which it too easily borrowed, and which we now find so fiat and obscure, the Eomans must assuredly have taken less interest in it than the Greeks, with whom it was born ; but to think it was quite indifferent or unknown to them, were to mistake. Painting had long since popularised it among them. It is impossible to ascertain at what point of time Greek artists entered Eome and began to exercise their calling there, but it must have been early. Plautus tells us of pictures which in his time adorned private houses, and which represented Venus with Adonis, or the eagle carrying off Ganymede.^ In Terence, a lover who hesitated to commit a very bad action, relates that he lost all his scruples after seeing on the walls of a temple Jupiter seducing Danse.^ These are the sub- jects most often found in the towns of Campania. Thus, for several centuries, painters had ornamented public and private buildings with them ; the eye and the mind had become accustomed to see them ; even the ignorant and unlettered were grown insensibly familiar with them, and poetry, which was to take them up in its turn, found a public already prepared in advance, and much more extensive than is believed. Then something happened much like what took place with us, when the tragic poets of the seventeenth century put Augustus or Agamemnon upon the stage. These Greek and Eoman personages were not strangers to the spectators. Classical education, on which all 1 Plautus, Menaxhmi., 1, 2, 34. Merc, 2, 2, 42. 2 Terence, Eun. , 3, 5, 36. * POMPEII. 419 France was formed, rendered these names familiar to those who frequented the theatre. The clerk who for fifteen sous purchased the right to kiss Corneille was as well acquainted with them as the magistrates and the great lords. People knew their history better than that of the heroes of ancient France, and were more familiar with them. Some critics imagine that by treat- ing subjects taken from antiquity, our poets condemned themselves to work for a small number of persons^ This is a great mistake : they addressed all. The schools had made them a vast public, prepared to understand and disposed to applaud. V. THE BURGHEES OF POMPEII — THE POOR — WHERE DID THEY LIVE ? — INNS AND TAVERNS — OCCUPATIONS AND PLEASURES COMMON TO THE POOR AND THE RICH — THE MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS — THE SHOWS — HOW MAY WE BECOME ACQUAINTED WITH THE INNER LIFE OF THE POMPEIANS ? — THE INSCRIPTIONS AND " GRAFFITI " — THE SERVICES THEY RENDER US. From these general considerations, which have in some measure turned us aside from our subject, let us go back to Pompeii and its inhabitants. The paintings which I have just been studying at such length, and which teach us so many things concerning ancient art, also give us some curious information about the city where they were found. Although it may be said that painters were then extremely numerous, and worked very cheaply, it is still clear that in order to think of having one's apartments decorated with elegant frescoes, 420 ARCHiEOLOGlCAL RAMBLES. it was necessary to be in the enjoyment of a certain ease. On this reckoning, there must have been a great many well-to-do people at Pompeii. The considerable number of houses containing interesting paintings proves how fortune was spread there. Moreover, all the studies hitherto made lead to this conclusion. M. Mssen, the patient investigator of these ruins, has confirmed that from the time of the Empire the taste for luxury at Pompeii seems to grow year by year. Private houses become more and more beautiful and ornate, while public buildings are continually enlarged. What he called the monument fever (DenJcmalsJieher), " one of the chronic maladies of ancient democracies," pro- gressed there every day.^ Parvenus desired to display their sudden fortunes by building or reiDairing temples, and they caused statues to be decreed to them by the councils of the town, or the corporations whom they protected. Beside the ancient nobility, there rose a citizen class, rich, important, jealous of consideration, partial to splendour and pomp, and, above all, very numerous, which lived freely, loved well-being, and was desirous to allow itself some of those enjoyments and privileges hitherto reserved for the great families. And the poor ? they doubtless existed at Pompeii, as elsewhere — more than elsewhere, perhaps. It was, as we have seen, an industrious town, and one which did a great deal of business. Independently of its maritime commerce, it produced in abundance wine and fruit, which it exported to the other towns of Italy. Pliny and Columella tell us that, especially, its cabbages were ^ Pompeianischen Stvdien., p. 373. POMPEII. 421 famous. A kind of sauce or seasoning called garum was also made there, with salted fish, which was the delight of epicures. It is natural that in a commercial town there should have been a great number of work- men. At Pompeii, as everywhere else, they had their regulations, their feasts, and their places of meeting. We know those of the goldsmiths, the wood merchants, and the muleteers, who take part in the elections and recommend their candidates.^ It has also been conjec- tured that the cloth factories, fuUeries, and dyeing- houses had also attained a certain importance there. Below this highest stratum of commerce, all those small industries were carried on, which then, as in our days, filled Italian streets with movement and noise. There were sellers of cakes, of sausages, of frutti di mare, who each, as Seneca tells us, advertised his wares in a particular tone and with a different cry.^ They were called at Pompeii, people of the Forum (forenscs) because they stand in public places. A curious picture shows us a cook, who has taken up his position in the open air, near his boiling saucepan, and is surrounded by a crowd of people who appear drawn by the savoury smell of his cooking. At the end of a stick he has a little copper cup, with which he draws from his sauce- pan what he sells to his customers.^ This is a scene ^ Some of these corporations, which did not include workmen of the same industry, but simply people who wished to live gaily together, bore strange names, like those which the Academicians of the Renais- sance gave themselves. There is the society of sleepers {dormientes), that of late drinkers (seribibi), and even that of cut-purses {/urunculi). 2 Seneca, Epist. 56, 2. 3 See Otto Jahn, Ueber Darstell. dcs Haiidwerks, etc., plate 3, No. 8. 422 AKCH^OLOGICAL EAMBLES. that may be enjoyed every day in the markets of Naples. The quarters where all these poor people dwelt have not yet been discovered. The smallest and most simply decorated houses yet excavated are not quite what we call houses of the poor. Perhaps some of them lived in those upper floors with terraces {ccenacula cum j)crgidis) which are occasionally mentioned in letting-bills. Unfortunately, only the ground floors of the Pompeian houses have been preserved ; the rest has disappeared almost everywhere. Until the popular quarters are reached, the presence and habits of the lower orders can scarcely be revealed by anything except the places they delighted to frequent — here, as everywhere, the public-houses and taverns. At Pompeii there is no lack of these. At the entrance of the town are found hostelries intended for the peasants of the neighbourhood when they came to sell their wares or buy what they needed. Before the doors the pavement is lowered, in order that the cars may be able to enter the stables. It would have been inconvenient for them to circulate in the narrow streets of the town, where two vehicles would have found it difficult to pass abreast, so it was found more simple to leave them at the inn. These hostelries contain very small chambers, where travellers passed the night when obliged to pro- long their stay. In some cases they have left their names upon the wall, with reflections which do not lack interest. It may well be thought that they are not great personages who content themselves with such poor lodgings. Among the number there are a Prae- torian soldier on furlough, pantomimists come to give POMPEII. 423 exhibitions, an inhabitant of Puteoli, who profits by the occasion to wish all kinds of prosperity to his native land {Colonice Glaudice Neronensi Puteolance; feliciter /), and a lover, who informs us that he has passed the night all alone, and that he has pined much for his charmer ( Vihius Beditutus hie solus dormivit et Urbanam suam desiderahat)} So here we are evidently in the company of very in- significant people. Those who haunted the taverns could scarcely have been more distinguished. At Pompeii the houses where hot drinks {thermopolia) were sold are very numerous. As with us, they are usually found at the places where there are most passers, and especially at the corners made by the junction of two streets. Before the door is placed a marble counter, with round openings, in which the vessels containing the drinks were placed, and little shelves on which glasses of different forms and sizes were to be ranged. This was for people in a hurry, who had not time to enter the shop, and desired to drink without stopping. If they were at leisure, and wished to be more at their ease, they went and sat down at the tables, in other rooms beyond the shops. Just such a shop as this was discovered a few years ago. It was decorated with curious paintings, well indicating both what kind of public frequented it, and that it was at the same time a gaming-house and a place of evil resort. One of these paintings shows the female servants of the tavern amusing themselves with the customers, pursuing them, embracing them, and inciting them to drink. Another 1 Corp. insc. lat, IV. 2146. 424 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. represents two bearded men with a gaming-table on their knees, and playing at dice. Both appear very animated. One seems triumphant at the good stroke he has just made, while the other shakes the dice in the box, in hopes of making a better stroke yet. In the next picture we have two players disputing. They load each other with gross abuse, reproduced by an inscription placed above their heads. At the noise the tavern keeper runs up, and with great politeness and in a respectful posture, begs them " to go and fight outside the door." The various classes of Pompeian society of whom we have just made separate studies, did not always live apart from each other. There were frequent occupa- tions and pleasures which brought them together. First of all, they were assembled by the care of public affairs and the election of magistrates. In these, all bore their parts, and after what would at first sight appear to be a very active fashion. While going over Pompeii, one's eyes are at every movement attracted by electoral posters ; there is hardly a street in which one is not met with. In Paris the authorities take the trouble to have them torn down when the elections are over, but there are country towns where they remain for a long time upon the walls. This is what happened at Pompeii, and there are some several years behind-hand. They do not, like ours, contain pro- fessions of faith, in which the candidate sets forth his opinions. It is his neighbours, his friends, his proteges, who recommend him to the electors, affirming that he is a very good man and worthy of the functions to which he aspires. To read these numerous announce- POMPEII. 425 ments, and observe the eagerness of so many persons to extol their candidates, one were tempted to think that the elections must have been very animated, and that the public offices of these small towns were com- peted for with ardour. This, doubtless, must often have been the case, but in certain election advertisements of Pompeii more of politeness is found than of politics. Some are the work of important personages who were candidates in preceding years, or soon will be such, and who wish either to requite a service or prepare them- selves support. This exchange of good offices is dis- played in quite a visible manner. A kind friend, who desires to gain someone over for the candidature which he is backing, tells him without ceremony : " Proculus, name Sabinus asdile; afterwards he will name thee thyself." ^ But oftener it is more humble folks — clients, people under an obligation, who would fain testify their gratitude and pay their debt after this clamorous fashion. The public offices cost so dearly that can- didates could not always have been very numerous. It was, perhaps, because they had few competitors and their election was not doubtful, that they desired that it should at least appear to be the expression of the general will. The honour for them was less in the feebly-contested election itself, than in these manifesta- tions which heightened its Mat and made its value. This is why the citizens thought themselves obliged to recommend themselves so vigorously to each other, although everybody was disposed to appoint them. ^ Corp. insc. lat., IV. 645 : Sdbinum osdilevi, Prociile fac, et ille te faciei. 426 ARCH^-OLOGICAL RAMBLES. When the impulse had seemedgeneral,and opinion had de- clared itself noisily, the duumvir or the ccdile was prouder of his success, and more disposed to acknowledge the good-will of his fellow-citizens by enormous liberalities. Among these liberalities, those most pleasing to the people were the public games with which they were regaled. They had always been much loved in Eome, and were still more in favour in the country towns, where pleasures were fewer and life more monotonous. There were several kinds of them. First the scenic, for which two theatres were built at Pompeii, still in existence, I do not know whether many tragedies and comedies were acted in them, but certainly mimes must have been played. This little refined species of entertainment, which did not call for much literature, and was within the grasp of all, met with a good re- ception everywhere. Young people, especially, took pleasure in them, because, contrary to the general custom of the stage, the female parts were iilled by women, these women being of easy morals, and an intrigue with a pretty actress a marvellous way of en- livening country life. Cicero said of one of his clients, whose youth had not been irreproachable : " He is accused of having carried off an actress ; this is an amusement sanctioned by custom, especially in the municijjia." ^ So pantomime was very much in vogue. It must have pleased at Pompeii, as elsewhere, and we know that Pylades, the great actor of Eome, came to give a few performances there, in the theatre erected by Holconius, ^ Cicero, Pro. Plane, 12. POMPEII. 429 who thus enriched the walls with their masterpieces. Children who were allowed to get hold of a piece of charcoal or chalk sketched a gladiator, as they now draw a soldier, and it is curious to remark that the manner in which those young hands proceed has not changed. The method is the same, and soldiers and gladiators resemble each other; the forehead and the nose always being represented by a line more or less straight, while two dots do duty for the eyes. How- ever, some of these unfashioned sketches are not devoid of a certain comic meaning. I recommend to those who may have the plates of Father Garrucci before them, the arrogant attitude and bullying mien of Asteropoeus the Neronian, doubtless proud of his 106 victories (p. 11), and, above all, the stoutness of Achilles, surnamed the invincible (p. 12), whose sleek condition shows us that one did not always grow thin in this terrible trade. Thus far, only the exterior life of the Pompeians has been in question, and it is that which, from the distance, is best seen. We follow them easily enough to the JForum and the theatre ; it is less easy to pene- trate into their homes. After the lapse of several centuries, it is always rather difficult to insinuate oneself into the private life of nations, to guess their intimate sentiments, their mutual relationship, their hates, their affections, their joys and their secret sorrows — all that the novel alone preserves and teaches to posterity. Yet we are much more fortunate at Pompeii than elsewhere. The abundance of the inscriptions discovered there enables us at least to divine what we cannot quite get to know, and enables 430 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. US to sketch a few little broken-off romances which our fancy finishes and with which our curiosity is charmed. Inscriptions were the only means of information and publicity then possessed, so they were very numerous in ancient cities. At Pompeii, three different kinds of them are found. Firstly, those graven on marble or stone, sometimes on the pediments of temples to inform us who built them, at others on the bases of statues, to tell us the names of the personages they represent, and the offices they filled. These inscriptions were designed to live as long as the monuments which bore them, and chance, in pre- serving them for us, has committed no indiscretion. Then there were those painted with a brush on the walls of houses or porticoes. These, much more curious than the former, played the part of the bills of our time. We have already spoken of those used to recommend candidates to the choice of the electors, or to announce the da}'- and the programme of the spectacles. It is by means of them, also, that a landlord informed the public that he had an apart- ment to let for the Calends of July or the Ides of August, and that an innkeeper invited travellers to lodge with him, promising them a good dinner and all kinds of comforts (pninia commoda pi-cestantia), and they are also used to advertise things stolen or lost, and to offer a decent reward to him who shall cause their recovery. " An urn of wine has disappeared from the shop ; he who brings it back shall receive 65 sesterces (13 francs) ; if he brings the thief, he will be given double." The third species of inscriptions contains POMPEII. 431 those which were simply traced in charcoal or graven with the point of a nail or a knife, either by the amorous who indulged in the pleasure of saluting their sweethearts by the way, or by some joker whom it pleases to inform us that he has the phlegm, or who unceremoniously treats as barbarians those who are so ill-bred as not to invite him to dinner, or by some wags, from whom we gather that Epaphra is a debauchee ; that Sua vis, the female wine merchant, is always athirst, and that Oppius is a thief. These graffiti, as they are called in Italy, were not made to come down to our days. The destruction of Pompeii has preserved them for us, and this is a great piece of good fortune. Truly, one little thinks how many things those scraps of boyish mischief, which garnish the walls where the police are tolerant, might teach posterity, if they got so far. It is without any doubt they which enable us to enter most deeply into the private life of the Pompeians. In the graffiti of Pompeii a little of everything is found, even down to a washing-bill ; ^ but what oftenest comes up is love. The goddess Venus was the patroness of the town ; a patroness much respected, and invoked on all occasions. The people who ask you to vote for their candidate are careful to promise you the protection of Venus.2 One of those impromptu artists of whom I have spoken, who chalked gladiators everywhere, finds no better means of protecting his drawing than to devote to the anger of the Pompeian Venus him who shall venture to touch it (Ahiat Venere Pompeiana iratam qui hoc 1 Cwp. i'lisc. lat., IV. 1393. =^ lb., 25. 432 ARCHiEOLOGICAT, RAMCLES. loBserit)} Lucian informs us that it was then customary to write declarations of love upon the walls. There are many of them at Pompeii, and their orthography being very varied, we may conclude from this that they were written by people belonging to different classes of society. Some, in order to celebrate their beloved one, are content to borrow lines from authors of renown, and, above all, from Propertius and Ovid. He was " the poet of light loves," and among young people none was more in vogue. At other times, the verses are drawn from writers now lost. A few even seem to be composed expressly for the occasion, and some of these are not badly turned for country verses. " May I die," says the happy lover, "if I would wish to be a god without thee ! " {Ah ! peream sine te si deus esse vdim ! ) " Hither to me, enamoured ones ! " says the irritated swain. " I mean to break Venus's ribs." [Qiiisquis amat veniat, Veneri volo rumpere costas.)^ Some very pretty ones were found not long ago, certainly by a genius of the country. A lover is addressing the coachman who drives him. " Muleteer," he tells him, " if thou felt the fires of love, thou wouldst haste thee more to join thy adored one. Prithee, quicken thy pace ; come, thou hast drunk well, take thy whip and wield it, bring me swiftly to Pompeii, where my dear amours await me!"^ More often, the declarations are in prose. Sometimes it is the lover who gently supplicates. " My dear Sava, ^ Corp. insc. Za^.,538. I change nothing ofthis barbarous Latin. 2 Corp. insc. kit., 1928 and 1824. ' Bull. dell, instit. di corr. arch., 1877, Nov. POMPEIL 433 love me, I pray thee ! '' At others it is the loved one who answers : " Nonia salutes her friend Pagurus." These lovers have at times a delicacy of expression, and even something of refinement, which reminds us that we are in the age of Petronius. " My little doll, who art so pretty, he who belongs to thee entirely sends me to thee." ^ I prefer this more simple declaration, in which the heart appears to me to speak with greater frankness: "Methea, the player of Atellante, loves Chrestus with all her heart. May Venus favour them, and may they ever live in amity ! " '^ And let us not forget this dismissal, given in due form to a wretched lover, and quite unanswerable : " Virgula, to her friend Tertius : thou art too ugly ! " ( Virgula Tertio SILO : indecens es !) ^ Of course I cannot quote all. I desire not to avail myself too freely of the permission granted to Latin to brave decency. If I dared put before my reader's eyes those libertine inscriptions which agree so well with the paintings of the secret museum, I should give him I fear, a very bad idea of the morality of the in- habitants of Pompeii, and, unhappily, this idea would be a true one. It was then generally pretended that morals were much better in the country than in Eome. Tacitus and Pliny everywhere delight to extol the decent and frugal life of the Italian municipia, and, to hear them, it would appear as though Eome were the rendezvous of all the vices, and virtue began just beyond the walls of Servius. I am very much afraid 1 C'orjo. insc. laU, IV. 1134. "^ lb., 2457. '^ lb., 18S1. 2e 434 ARCH^OLOGICAL RAMBLES. that there must be in this opinion a little of that illusion which makes us think we should be far better off everywhere where we are not. At any rate, it was not true of the town we are just studying. Possibly virtue was not found in Eome, but it is certain that Pompeii was not the place to look for it. This charming town was situated in an enchanting country, where everything inclines to voluptuousness : " Where the velvet-like sheen of the fields, the tepid warmth of the air, the rounded outlines of the mountains, the soft windings of the rivers and the valleys, are so many seductions for the senses, which everything lulls to repose, and upon which nothing jars." It was near Naples, already called lazy Naples (otiosa Neapolis), which so well justifies the proverb that idleness is the mother of all the vices. It lay opposite to Baise — the most beautiful place in the world, but one of the most corrupted — to Baite, of which Martial says that the Penelopes who were so unfortunate as to venture thither became Helens.^ All therefore combined to make of this country a sojourn dangerous to virtue, and in- scriptions as well as monuments prove to us that Pompeii had not resisted these powerful seductions of climate and example. We see what services we gather from these election- bills, these gay or serious advertisements, these jokes chalked up in passing by school-boys for fun, these simple or gross reflections of lovers or libertines. We possess the streets and houses of Pompeii, but empty and mute ; the inscriptions and the graffiti seem to give 1 Martial, I. 63. POMPEII. 435 us back the inhabitants. Pompeii comes to life again and is repeoplecl as we read them. We are no longer in the midst of ruins drawn with great difficulty from the ashes which had covered them during eighteen hundred years, but in a living town ; and, as we pass through it, it teaches us, much better than books, what was done, what was thought, and how life passed in a country town in the first century of our era. THE END. '^^^. .i.^ ^ * ^ \^ ^^' ^-^ o ^0 O, " ^'._ '°'l^ * .0 N - \V ^ .A^' .0- V ^^^ "'^ ,x^- ^Ni , » <, , <^ a s o , \ . .^^■ -^^'^.s:^^ ^-^ % . ,^^ ■s"^-^. .0^ „c "_ ■■ ^^ -^P^ ,^>?s ^ c ^ ■<. OO ^^.. ^ .^ ^ -^ -1 ^ ^M-J-- « .-. c*u. *- ■i\- '/ o ■ 0^ .^* 0o ■^^ ■^■^ .^'^^■% xV' * V ■ -p >p°^. v\ ' V 1 ', -^^ <^ :".»<: ^/- V ^0 „ ziJ: « ■^- ,^^^ .v\-'' -"^r- '<, ''^<. ^>, .0^ ^\ = .r^ V ^^^ -^^^ .<^--''t.. , s ' ' / 3 A^- '-^v. -v N C ^ <^ ■> ^' ■ . '''^i^' ■^ '- A^^ .■A ■V^ s \' ^ 3 -X^ ^ %. .c'^' '^sfe^FJ^>J«^'' ■* ,^:~ '-^ '^ ,^\\^ -x^' --^ J 1, t, '^ \^ ' V *> ,N-C^ ■'''^>