Chapter v.
After the excursion to the Capitol and the Forum, Corinne and Nelvillespent two days in visiting the Seven Hills. The Romans formerly observeda festival in honour of them. These hills, enclosed in her bosom, areone of the original beauties of Rome; and we may easily conceive whatdelight was experienced by feelings attached to their native soil, incelebrating this singularity.
Oswald and Corinne, having seen the Capitoline Hill the day before,began their walks by Mount Palatine; it was entirely occupied by thepalace of the Caesars, called _the golden palace_. This hill offersnothing to our view, at present, but the ruins of that palace. The foursides of it were built by Augustus Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero; but thestones, covered with fertile plants, are all that now remain of it:Nature has there resumed her empire over the labours of man, and thebeauty of the flowers consoles us for the destruction of the palace. Theluxury of the times of the kings and of the Republic only consisted inpublic edifices; private houses were very small, and very simple.Cicero, Hortensius, and the Gracchi, dwelt upon Mount Palatine, which,at the decline of Rome, was scarcely sufficient for the abode of asingle man. In the latter ages, the nation was nothing more than ananonymous crowd, merely designated by the era of its master. We look invain here for the two laurels planted before the door of Augustus, thelaurel of war, and that of the fine arts cultivated by peace; both havedisappeared.
There is still remaining, on Mount Palatine, some chambers of the Bathsof Livia; we are there shown the holes which contained the preciousstones that were then lavished upon ceilings, as a common ornament, andpaintings are to be seen there whose colours are yet perfectlyuntouched; the fragility of the colours adds to our astonishment atseeing them preserved, and seems to carry us back nearer to past ages.If it be true that Livia shortened the days of Augustus, it is in one ofthese rooms that the crime was conceived, and the eyes of the sovereignof the world, betrayed in his most intimate affections, were perhapsfixed upon one of those pictures whose elegant flowers still remain[16].What, in old age, were his thoughts upon his life and his pomp? Did herecall to mind his proscriptions or his glory? Did he hope, or did hefear a world to come? Does the last thought, which reveals everything toman; does the last thought of a master of the universe still wanderbeneath these vaults?
Mount Aventine offers more traces than any other of the first periods ofthe Roman History. Exactly opposite the Palace, raised by Tiberius, wesee the ruins of the Temple of Liberty, which was built by the father ofthe Gracchi. At the foot of Mount Aventine stood the temple dedicated tothe Fortune of men by Servius Tullius, to thank the gods for havingraised him from the condition of a slave to the rank of a king. Withoutthe walls of Rome we find also the ruins of a temple, which wasconsecrated to the Fortune of women when Veturia stopped the progress ofCoriolanus. Opposite Mount Aventine is Mount Janicula, on which Porsennaplaced his army. It was opposite this Mount that Horatius Cocles causedthe bridge leading to Rome to be cut away behind him. The foundation ofthis bridge is still to be seen; there stands on the bank of the river atriumphal arch, built of brick, as simple as the action which it recallswas grand; this arch having been raised, it is said, in honour ofHoratius Cocles. In the middle of the Tiber is perceived an islandformed of sheaves of corn gathered in the fields of Tarquin, which werea long time exposed on the river because the Roman people would not takethem, believing that they should entail bad fortune on themselves by sodoing. It would be difficult in our days to cast a malediction uponriches of any sort which could prevent everybody from seizing them.
On Mount Aventine were placed the temple of patrician, and that ofplebeian modesty. At the foot of this hill is seen the temple of Vesta,which yet remains whole, though it has been often menaced by theinundations of the Tiber. Not far from thence is the ruin of a prisonfor debt, where it is said a fine trait of filial piety was displayed,which is pretty generally known. It was also in this place that Cleliaand her companions, prisoners of Porsenna, crossed the Tiber in order torejoin the Romans. This Aventine Mount affords the soul repose after thepainful reflections which the other hills awaken, and its aspect is asbeautiful as the memories it recalls. The name of _Pulchrum Littus_,Beautiful Shore, was given to the banks of the river, which rolls at itsfoot, which was the walk of the Roman orators when they quitted theforum--it was there that Caesar and Pompey met like private citizens, andsought to captivate Cicero whose independent eloquence was then of moreimportance to them than even the power of their armies.
Poetry too lends its aid to embellish this retreat; Virgil has placedthe cavern of Cacus upon Mount Aventine, and the Romans, so great bytheir history, are still more so by the heroic fictions with which thebards have decorated their fabulous origin. Lastly, in returning fromthis mountain is seen the house of Nicholas Rienzi, who vainlyendeavoured to revive ancient times among the moderns, and this memento,feeble as it is, by the side of so many others, gives birth to muchreflection. Mount Caelius is remarkable because there we behold theremains of the Praetorian camp, and that of the foreign soldiers. Thisinscription has been found in the ruins of the edifice built for thereception of these soldiers:--"To the hallowed genius of foreign camps!"Hallowed indeed, for those whose power it maintained! What remains ofthese ancient barracks, enables us to judge that they were built afterthe manner of cloisters, or rather, that cloisters have been built upontheir model.
Mount Esquiline was called the _Poets' Mount_, because Mecenas havinghis palace on this hill, Horace, Propertius and Tibullus dwelt therealso. Not far from here are the ruins of the Thermae of Titus, and ofTrajan. It is believed that Raphael took the model of his arabesquesfrom the fresco paintings of the Thermae of Titus. It is there, also,that was discovered the group of the Laocoon. The freshness of wateraffords such pleasure in hot countries that delight is taken inassembling together all the pomp of luxury, and every enjoyment of theimagination, in the places appropriated for bathing. It was there thatthe Romans exposed their masterpieces of painting and of sculpture. Theywere seen by the light of lamps, for it appears by the construction ofthese buildings, that daylight never entered them: they wished thus topreserve themselves from the rays of the sun, so burning in the south:the sensation they produce must certainly have been the cause of theancients calling them the darts of Apollo. It is reasonable to suppose,from observing the extreme precaution of the ancients to guard againstheat, that the climate was then more burning than it is in our days. Itis in the Thermae of Caracalla, that were placed the Hercules Farnese,the Flora, and the group of Dirce. In the baths of Nero near Ostia wasfound the Apollo Belvedere. Is it possible to conceive that incontemplating this noble figure Nero did not feel some generousemotions?
The Thermae and the Circuses are the only kind of buildings appropriatedto public amusements of which there remain any relics at Rome. There isno theatre except that of Marcellus whose ruins still exist. Plinyrelates that there were three hundred and sixty pillars of marble, andthree thousand statues employed in a theatre, which was only to last afew days. Sometimes the Romans raised fabrics so strong that theyresisted the shock of earthquakes; at others they took pleasure indevoting immense labour to buildings which they themselves destroyed assoon as their feasts were over; thus they sported with time in everyshape. Besides, the Romans were not like the Greeks--influenced by apassion for dramatic representations. It was by Grecian work, andGrecian artists, that the fine arts flourished at Rome, and Romangreatness expressed itself rather by the colossal magnificence ofarchitecture than by the masterpieces of the imagination. This giganticluxury, these wonders of riches, possess great and characteristicdignity, which, though not the dignity of liberty, is that of power. Themonuments appropriated for public baths, were called provinces; in themwere united all the divers productions and divers establishments which awhole country can produce. The circus (called _Circus Maximus_) of whichthe remains are still to be seen, was so near the palace of the Caesarsthat Nero could from his windows give the signal for the games. Thecircus was large enough to contai
n three hundred thousand persons. Thenation almost in its entirety was amused at the same moment, and theseimmense festivals might be considered as a kind of popular institution,which united every man in the cause of pleasure as they were formerlyunited in the cause of glory.
Mount Quirinal and Mount Viminal are so near each other that it isdifficult to distinguish them: it was here that the houses of Sallustand of Pompey, formerly stood; it is here also that the Pope has nowfixed his abode. We cannot take one step in Rome without bringing thepresent near to the past, and different periods of the past near to eachother. But we learn to reconcile ourselves to the events of our owntime, in beholding the eternal mutability of the history of man; and wefeel ashamed of letting our own lot disturb us in the presence of somany ages, which have all overthrown the work of the preceding ones.
By the side of the Seven Hills, on their declivities or on theirsummits, are seen a multitude of steeples, and of obelisks; Trajan'scolumn, the column of Antoninus, the Tower of Conti (whence it is saidNero beheld the conflagration of Rome), and the Dome of St Peter's,whose commanding grandeur eclipses that of every other object. Itappears as if the air were peopled with all these monuments, whichextend towards Heaven, and as if an aerial city were majesticallyhovering over the terrestrial one.
On entering Rome again Corinne made Oswald pass under the portico ofOctavia, she who loved so well, and suffered so much; then theytraversed the _Path of Infamy_, by which the infamous Tullia passed,trampling her father's corpse beneath the feet of her horses. At adistance from this spot is seen the temple raised by Agrippina in honourof Claudius whom she caused to be poisoned. And lastly we pass the tombof Augustus, whose enclosure now serves as an amphitheatre for thecombats of beasts.
"I have caused you to run over very rapidly," said Corinne to LordNelville, "some traces of ancient history; but you will comprehend thepleasure to be found in these researches, at once learned and poetic,which speak to the imagination as well as to the mind. There are in Romemany distinguished men whose only occupation is to discover some newrelation between history and the ruins." "I know no study that wouldmore captivate and interest me," replied Lord Nelville, "if I feltsufficiently at rest to give my mind to it: this species of erudition ismuch more animated than that which is acquired from books: one would saythat we make what we discover to live again, and that the pastre-appears from beneath the dust in which it has been buried.""Undoubtedly," said Corinne, "this passion for antiquity is not a vainprejudice. We live in an age when personal interest seems to be the onlyprinciple of all the actions of men, and what sympathy, what emotion,what enthusiasm, can ever result from such a principle? It is sweeter todream of those days of devotion, of personal sacrifice and heroism,which however, have existed, and of which the earth still bears somehonourable testimonies."
FOOTNOTE:
[16] Augustus died at Nola, on his way to the waters of Brindisi, whichhad been prescribed him; but he left Rome in a dying state.