Chapter VI: The Palatine (2)

The house of Clodius naturally leads us to that of Cicero, which was also situated at this corner of the Palatine, whence he could see his clients in the Forum and go to and fro to his duties there. This house had been built for M. Livius Drusus, who, when his architect proposed a plan to prevent its being overlooked, answered, "Rather build it so that all my fellow-citizens may behold everything that I do." In his acts Drusus seemed to imitate the Gracchi; but he sought popularity for its own sake, and after being the object of a series of conspiracies was finally murdered in the presence of his mother Cornelia, in his own hall, where the image of his father was sprinkled with his blood. When dying he turned to those around him and asked, with characteristic arrogance, based perhaps upon conscious honesty of purpose, "when will the commonwealth have a citizen like me again?" After the death of Drusus the house was inhabited by L. Licinius Crassus the orator, who lived here in great elegance and luxury. His house was called from its beauty "the Venus of the Palatine," and was remarkable for its size, the taste of its furniture, and the beauty of its grounds. "It was adorned with pillars of Hymettian marble, with expensive vases, and triclinia inlaid with brass. His gardens were provided with fishponds, and some noble lotus-trees shaded his walks. Ahenobarbus, his colleague in the censorship, found fault with such corruption of manners,[127] estimated his house at a hundred million, or, according to Valerius Maximus,[128] six million sesterces, and complained of his crying for the loss of a lamprey as if it had been a daughter. It was a tame lamprey which used to come at the call of Crassus, and feed out of his hand. Crassus retorted by a public speech against his colleague, and by his great powers of ridicule, turned him into derision; jested upon his name,[129] and to the accusation of weeping for a lamprey, replied, that it was more than Ahenobarbus had done for the loss of any of his three wives."[130] Cicero purchased the house of Crassus a year or two after his consulate for a sum equal to about 30,000_l._, and removed thither from the Carinæ with his wife Terentia. His house was close to that of Clodius, but a little lower down the hill, which enabled him to threaten to increase the height, so as to shut out his neighbour's view of the city. Upon his accession to the tribuneship Clodius procured the disgrace of Cicero, and after his flight to Greece, obtained a decree of banishment against him. He then pillaged and destroyed his house upon the Palatine, as well as his villas at Tusculum and Formia, and obliged Terentia to take refuge with the Vestals, whose Superior was fortunately her sister. But in the following year, a change of consuls and revulsion of the popular favour led to the recall of Cicero, who found part of his house appropriated by Clodius, who had erected a shrine to Libertas (with a statue which was that of a Greek courtezan carried off from the tomb)[131] on the site of the remainder, which he had razed to the ground.[132]

"Clodius had also destroyed the portico of Catulus; in fact, he
appears to have been desirous of appropriating all this side of the
Palatine. He wanted to buy the house of the ædile Seius. Seius
having declared that so long as he lived, Clodius should not have
it, Clodius caused him to be poisoned, and then bought his house
under a feigned name! He was thus enabled to erect a portico three
hundred feet in length, in place of that of Catulus. The latter,
however, was afterwards restored at the public expense.

"Cicero obtained public grants for the restoration of his house and
of his Tusculan and Formian villas, but very far from enough to
cover the losses he had suffered. The aristocratic part of the
Senate appears to have envied and grudged the _novus homo_ to whose
abilities they looked for protection. He was advised not to rebuild
his house on the Palatine, but to sell the ground. It was not in
Cicero's temper to take such a course; but he was hampered ever
after with debts. Clodius, who had been defeated but not beaten,
still continued his persecutions. He organised a gang of street
boys to call out under Cicero's windows, 'Bread! Bread!' His bands
interrupted the dramatic performances on the Palatine, at the
Megalesian games, by rushing upon the stage. On another occasion,
Clodius, at the head of his myrmidons, besieged the Senate in the
temple of Concord. He attacked Cicero in the streets, to the danger
of his life; and when he had begun to rebuild his house, drove away
the masons, overthrew what part had been re-erected of Catulus'
portico, and cast burning torches into the house of Quintus Cicero,
which he had hired next to his brother's on the Palatine, and
consumed a great part of it."--_Dyer's City of Rome_, 152.

The indemnity which Cicero received from the state in order to rebuild his house on the Palatine, amounted to about 16,000_l._ The house of Quintus Cicero was rebuilt close to his brother's at the same time by Cyrus, the fashionable architect of the day.[133]

Among other noble householders on this part of the Palatine was Mark Antony,[134] whose house was afterwards given by Augustus to Agrippa and Messala, soon after which it was burnt down.

A small _Museum_ in this part of the garden contains some of the smaller objects which have been found in the excavations, and specimens of the different marbles and alabasters. There is nothing of any great importance. The fragments of statues and some busts which have been found (including Flavia Domitilla, wife of Vespasian, and Julia, daughter of Titus), have been sent to Paris, but casts have been left here.

We have now made the round of the French division of the Palatine.

* * * * *

It has been decided that some remains which exist in the garden of the Villa Mills (now a Convent of Visitandine Nuns) are those of the House of Hortensius, an orator, "who was second only to Cicero in eloquence, and who, in the early part at least of their lives, was his chief opponent."[135] Cicero himself describes the extraordinary gifts of his rival[136] as well as the integrity with which he fulfilled the duties of a quæstor.[137] In the latter portion of his public career Hortensius was frequently engaged on the same side with Cicero, and then always recognised his superiority by allowing him to speak last. Hortensius died B.C. 50, to the great grief of his ancient rival.[138] The splendid villas of Hortensius were celebrated. He was accustomed to water his trees with wine at regular intervals,[139] and had huge fishponds at Bauli, into which the salt-water fish came to be fed from his hand, and he became so fond of them, that he wept for the death of a favourite muræna.[140] But the house on the Palatine was exceedingly simple and had no decorations but plain columns of Alban stone.[141] This was the chosen residence of Augustus, until, upon its destruction by fire, the citizens insisted upon raising the more sumptuous residence in the hollow of the Palatine by public subscription. The subterranean chambers which have been discovered have some interesting remains of stucco ornament.

The villa, which is now turned into a convent, possessed some frescoes painted by Giulio Romano from designs of Raphael, but these have been destroyed or removed in deference to the modesty of the present inhabitants. The neighbouring church and garden of S. Sebastiano occupy the site of the _Gardens of Adonis_. (See Chap. IV.)

* * * * *

A large, and by far the most picturesque portion of the Palace of the Cæsars (the only part which was not imbedded in soil ten years ago), is now accessible either from the end of the lane of S. Buenaventura, or from a gate on the left of the Via dei Fienili just before reaching Sta. Anastasia. The excavations in the last-named quarter were begun by the Emperor of Russia, who purchased the site, but afterwards presented it to the city.

Behind Sta. Maria Liberatrice, in some farm buildings, are remains which probably belong to the Regia of Julius Cæsar.

Beyond this, against the escarpment of the Palatine, a part of the _Walls of Romulus_ has been discovered, built in large oblong blocks. Here also are fragments of bases of towers of republican times. Behind S. Teodoro are remains of an early concrete wall, behind which the tufa rock is visible. The wall is only built where the tufa is of a soft character.

"La système de construction est le même que dans les villes
d'Étrurie et dans la muraille bâtie à Rome par les rois étrusques.
Cependant l'appareil est moins régulier. Les murs d'une petite
ville du Latium fondée par un aventurier ne pouvaient être aussi
soignés que les murs des villes de l'Étrurie, pays tout autrement
civilisé. La petite cité de Romulus, bornée au Palatin, n'avait pas
l'importance de la Rome des Tarquins, qui couvrait les huit
collines.

"Du reste, la construction est étrusque et devait l'être. Romulus
n'avait dans sa ville, habitée par des pâtres et des bandits,
personne qui fût capable d'en bâtir l'enceinte. Les Étrusques,
grands bâtisseurs, étaient de l'autre côté du fleuve. Quelques-uns
même l'avaient probablement passé déjà et habitaient le mont
Cœlius. Romulus dut s'adresser à eux, et faire faire cet ouvrage
par des architects et des maçons étrusques. Ce fut aussi selon le
rite de l'Étrurie, pays sacerdotal, que Romulus, suivant en cela
l'usage établi dans les cités latines, fit consacer l'enceinte de
la ville nouvelle. Il agit en cette circonstance comme agit un
paysan romain, quand il appelle un prêtre pour bénir l'emplacement
de la maison qu'il veut bâtir.

"Les détails de la cérémonie par laquelle fut inaugurée la première
enceinte de Rome nous ont été transmis par Plutarque,[142] et, avec
un grand détail par Tacite,[143] qui sans doute avait sous les yeux
les livres des pontifes. Nous connaissons avec exactitude le
contour que traça la charrue sacrée. Nous pouvons le suivre encore
aujourd'hui.

"Romulus attela an taureau blanc et une vache blanche à une charrue
dont le soc était d'airain.[144] L'usage de l'airain a précédé à
Rome, comme partout, l'usage du fer. Il partit du lieu consacré par
l'antique autel d'Hercule, au-dessous de l'angle occidental du
Palatin et de la première Rome des Pelasges, et, se dirigeant vers
le sud-est, traça son sillon le long de la base de la colline.

"Ceux qui suivaient Romulus, rejetaient les mottes de terre en
dedans du sillon, image du Vallum futur. Ce sillon était l'Agger de
Servius Tullius en petit. A l'extrémité de la vallée qui sépare le
Palatin de l'Aventin, où devait être le grand cirque, et où est
aujourd'hui la rue des _Cerchi_, il prit à gauche, et, contournant
la colline, continua, en creusant toujours son sillon, à tracer
sans le savoir la route que devaient suivre un jour les triomphes,
puis revint au point d'où il était parti. La charrue, l'instrument
du labour, le symbole de la vie agricole des enfants de Saturne,
avait dessiné le contour de la cité guerrière de Romulus. De même,
quand on avait détruit une ville, on faisait passer la charrue sur
le sol qu'elle avait occupé. Par là, ce sol devenait sacré, et il
n'était pas plus permis de l'habiter qu'il ne l'était de franchir
le sillon qu'on creusait autour des villes lors de leur fondation,
comme le fit Romulus et comme le firent toujours depuis les
fondateurs d'une colonie; car toute colonie était une
Rome."--_Ampère, Hist. Rome_, i. 283.

Close under this, the northern side of the walls of Romulus, ran the _Via Nova_, down which Marcus Cædicius was returning to the city in the gloaming, when, at this spot, between the sacred grove and the temple of Vesta, he heard a supernatural voice, bidding him to warn the senate of the approach of the Gauls. After the Gauls had invaded Rome, and departed again, an altar and sanctuary recorded the miracle on this site.[145]

At the corner near Sta. Anastasia, are remains of a private house of early times built against the cliff. Near this were the steps called the _Stairs of Cacus_, leading up to the hut of Faustulus. On the other side the _Gradus Pulchri Littoris_, the κλη Ακτη of Plutarch, led to the river.[146]

Here a remarkable altar of republican times has been discovered, and remains _in situ_. It is inscribed SEI DEO SEI DIVAE SAC.--C SEXTIVS C T CALVINUS TR--DE SENATI SENTENTIA RESTITVIT. Some suppose this to be the actual altar mentioned above as erected to the Genius Loci, in consequence of the mysterious warning of the Gallic invasion. The father of the tribune, C. S. Calvinus, mentioned in the inscription, was consul with C. Cassius Longinus, B.C. 124, and is described by Cicero as an elegant orator of a sickly constitution.[147]

Beyond this a number of chambers have been discovered under the steep bank of the Palatine, and retain a quantity of _graffiti_ scratched upon their walls. The most interesting of these, found in the fourth chamber, has been removed to the museum of the Collegio Romano. It is generally believed to have been executed during the reign of Septimius Severus, and to have been done in an idle moment by one of the soldiers occupying these rooms, supposed to have been used as guard-chambers under that emperor. If so, it is perhaps the earliest existing pictorial allusion to the manner of our Saviour's death. It is a caricature evidently executed in ridicule of a Christian fellow-soldier. The figure on the cross has an ass's head, and by the worshipping figure is inscribed in Greek characters, _Alexamenos worships his God_.

"The lowest orders of the populace were as intelligently hostile to
it [the worship of the Crucified] as were the philosophers. Witness
that remarkable caricature of the adoration of our crucified Lord,
which was discovered some ten years ago beneath the ruins of the
Palatine palace. It is a rough sketch, traced, in all probability,
by the hand of some pagan slave in one of the earliest years of the
third century of our era. A human figure with an ass's head is
represented as fixed to a cross, while another figure in a tunic
stands on one side. This figure is addressing himself to the
crucified monster, and is making a gesture which was the customary
pagan expression of adoration. Underneath there runs a rude
inscription: _Alexamenos adores his God_. Here we are face to face
with a touching episode of the life of the Roman Church in the days
of Severus or of Caracalla. As under Nero, so, a century and a half
later, there were worshippers of Christ in the household of Cæsar.
But the paganism of the later date was more intelligently and
bitterly hostile to the Church than the paganism which had shed the
blood of the apostles. The Gnostic invective which attributed to
the Jews the worship of an ass, was applied by pagans
indiscriminately to Jews and Christians. Tacitus attributes the
custom to a legend respecting services rendered by wild asses to
the Israelites in the desert; 'and so, I suppose,' observes
Tertullian, 'it was thence presumed that we, as bordering upon the
Jewish religion, were taught to worship such a figure.' Such a
story, once current, was easily adapted to the purposes of a pagan
caricaturist. Whether from ignorance of the forms of Christian
worship, or in order to make his parody of it more generally
intelligible to its pagan admirers, the draughtsman has ascribed to
Alexamenos the gestures of a heathen devotee. But the real object
of his parody is too plain to be mistaken. Jesus Christ, we may be
sure, had other confessors and worshippers in the Imperial palace
as well as Alexamenos. The moral pressure of the advancing Church
was felt throughout all ranks of pagan society; ridicule was
invoked to do the work of argument; and the moral persecution which
crowned all true Christian devotion was often only the prelude to a
sterner test of that loyalty to a crucified Lord, which was as
insensible to the misrepresentations, as Christian faith was
superior to the logic, of heathendom."[148]--_Liddon, Bampton
Lectures of 1866_, lect. vii. p. 593.

These chambers acquire a great additional interest from the belief which many entertain that they are those once occupied by the Prætorian Guard, in which St. Paul was confined.

"The close of the Epistle to the Ephesians contains a remarkable
example of the forcible imagery of St. Paul. Considered simply in
itself, the description of the Christian's armour is one of the
most striking passages in the sacred volume. But if we view it in
connection with the circumstances with which the Apostle was
surrounded, we find a new and living emphasis in his enumeration of
all the parts of the heavenly panoply,--the belt of sincerity and
truth, with which the loins are girded for the spiritual war,--the
breast-plate of that righteousness, the inseparable links whereof
are faith and love,--the strong sandals, with which the feet of
Christ's soldiers are made ready, not for such errands of death and
despair as those on which the Prætorian soldiers were daily sent,
but for the universal message of the gospel of peace,--the large
shield of confident trust, wherewith the whole man is protected,
and whereon the fiery arrows of the Wicked One fall harmless and
dead,--the close-fitting helmet, with which the hope of salvation
invests the head of the believer,--and finally the sword of the
Spirit, the Word of God, which, when wielded by the Great Captain
of our Salvation, turned the tempter in the wilderness to flight,
while in the hands of His chosen Apostle (with whose memory the
sword seems inseparably associated), it became the means of
establishing Christianity on the earth.

"All this imagery becomes doubly forcible if we remember that when
St. Paul wrote the words he was chained to a soldier, and in the
close neighbourhood of military sights and sounds. The appearance
of the Prætorian Guards was daily familiar to him; as his 'chains,'
on the other hand (so he tells us in the succeeding Epistle),
became well known throughout the whole _Prætorium_! (Phil. i. 13).
A difference of opinion has existed as to the precise meaning of
the word in this passage. Some have identified it, as in the
authorised version, with the house of Cæsar on the Palatine: more
commonly it has been supposed to mean that permanent camp of the
Prætorian Guards, which Tiberius established on the north of the
city, outside the walls. As regards the former opinion, it is true
that the word came to be used, almost as we use the word 'palace,'
for royal residences generally or for any residences of princely
splendour. Yet we never find the word employed for the imperial
house at Rome: and we believe the truer view to be that which has
been recently advocated, namely, that it denotes here, not the
palace itself, but the quarters of that part of the imperial
guards, which was in immediate attendance upon the emperor. The
emperor was _prætor_ or commander-in-chief of the troops, and it
was natural that his immediate guard should be in _prætorium_ near
him. It might, indeed, be argued that this military establishment
on the Palatine would cease to be necessary, when the Prætorian
camp was established: but the purpose of that establishment was to
concentrate near the city those cohorts, which had previously been
dispersed in other parts of Italy: a local body-guard near the
palace would not cease to be necessary: and Josephus, in his
account of the imprisonment of Agrippa, speaks of a 'camp' in
connection with the 'royal house.' Such we conceive to have been
the barrack immediately alluded to by St. Paul: though the
connection of these smaller quarters with the general camp was such
that he would naturally become known to '_all the rest_' of the
guards, as well as those who might for the time be connected with
the imperial household.

"St. Paul tells us (in the Epistle to the Philippians) that
throughout the Prætorian quarter he was well known as a prisoner
for the cause of Christ, and he sends special salutations to the
Philippian Church from the Christians of the imperial household.
These notices bring before us very vividly the moral contrasts by
which the Apostle was surrounded. The soldier to whom he was
chained to-day might have been in Nero's body-guard yesterday; his
comrade who next relieved guard might have been one of the
executioners of Octavia, and might have carried her head to Poppæa
a few weeks before.

"History has few stronger contrasts than when it shows us Paul
preaching Christ under the walls of Nero's palace. Thenceforward
there were but two religions in the Roman world; the worship of the
emperor, and the worship of the Saviour. The old superstitions had
long been worn out; they had lost all hold on educated minds....
Over against the altars of Nero and Poppæa, the voice of a prisoner
was daily heard, and daily woke in grovelling souls the
consciousness of their divine destiny. Men listened, and knew that
self-sacrifice was better than ease, humiliation more exalted than
pride, to suffer nobler than to reign. They felt that the only
religion which satisfied the needs of man was the religion of
sorrow, the religion of self-devotion, the religion of the
cross."--_Conybeare and Howson._

Hence, we may ascend through some gardens beneath the Villa Mills, to the terrace which surmounts the grand ruins at the end of the Palace of the Cæsars, supposed to be remains of the _Palace of Nero_, but as no inscriptions have been discovered, no part of it can be identified.[149] These are by far the most picturesque portions of the ruins, and few compositions can be finer than those formed by the huge masses of stately brick arches, laden with a wealth of laurustinus, cytizus, and other flowering shrubs, standing out against the soft hues and delicate blue and pink shadows of the distant Campagna. Beneath the terrace is a fine range of lofty chambers, with a broken statue at the end, through which there is a striking view. One of these ruined halls has been converted into a kind of museum of architectural fragments found in this part of the palace, many of them of great beauty. This was the portion of the palace which longest remained entire, and which was inhabited by Heraclius in the seventh century. Some consider that these ruins were incorporated into the

_Septizonium of Severus_, so called from its seven stories of building, erected A.D. 198, and finally destroyed by Sixtus V., who carried off its materials for the building of St Peter's. It was erected by Severus at the southern corner of the palace, in order that it might at once strike the eyes of his African compatriots,[150] on their arrival in Rome. He built two other edifices which he called Septizonium, one on the Esquiline near the baths of Titus, and the other on the Via Appia, which he intended as the burial-place of his family, and where his son Geta was actually interred.

The remaining ruins on this division of the hill, supposed to be those of a theatre, a library, &c., have not yet been historically identified. They probably belong to the _Palace of Domitian_ (Imp. A.D. 81--96), who added largely to the buildings on the Palatine. The magnificence of his palace is extolled in the inflated verses of Statius, who describes the imperial dwelling as exciting the jealousy of the abode of Jupiter--as losing itself amongst the stars by its height, and rising above the clouds into the full splendour of the sunshine! Such was the extravagance displayed by Domitian in these buildings, that Plutarch compares him to Midas, who wished everything to be made of gold. This was the scene of many of the tyrannical vagaries of Domitian.

"'Having once made a great feast for the citizens, he proposed,'
says Dion, 'to follow it up with an entertainment to a select
number of the highest nobility. He fitted up an apartment all in
black. The ceiling was black, the walls were black, the pavement
was black, and upon it were ranged rows of bare stone seats, black
also. The guests were introduced at night without their attendants,
and each might see at the head of his couch a column placed, like a
tomb-stone, on which his own name was graven, with the cresset lamp
above it, such as is suspended in the tombs. Presently there
entered a troop of naked boys, blackened, who danced around with
horrid movements, and then stood still before them, offering them
the fragments of food which are commonly presented to the dead. The
guests were paralysed with terror, expecting at every moment to be
put to death; and the more, as the others maintained a deep
silence, as though they were dead themselves, and Domitian spake of
things pertaining to the state of the departed only.' But this
funeral feast was not destined to end tragically. Cæsar happened to
be in a sportive mood, and when he had sufficiently enjoyed his
jest, and had sent his visitors home expecting worse to follow, he
bade each to be presented with the silver cup and platter on which
his dismal supper had been served, and with the slave, now neatly
washed and apparelled, who had waited upon him. Such, said the
populace, was the way in which it pleased the emperor to solemnise
the funereal banquet of the victims of his defeats in Dacia, and of
his persecutions in the city."--_Merivale_, ch. lxii.

It was in this palace that the murder of Domitian took place:

"Of the three great deities, the august assessors in the Capitol,
Minerva was regarded by Domitian as his special patroness. Her
image stood by his bedside: his customary oath was by her divinity.
But now a dream apprised him that the guardian of his person was
disarmed by the guardian of the empire, and that Jupiter had
forbidden his daughter to protect her favourite any longer. Scared
by these horrors he lost all self-control, and petulantly cried,
and the cry was itself a portent: 'Now strike Jove whom he will!'
From supernatural terrors he reverted again and again to earthly
fears and suspicions. Henceforward the tyrant allowed none to be
admitted to his presence without being previously searched; and he
caused the ends of the corridor in which he took exercise to be
lined with polished marble, to reflect the image of any one behind
him; at the same time he inquired anxiously into the horoscope of
every chief whom he might fear as a possible rival or successor.

"The victim of superstition had long since, it was said,
ascertained too surely the year, the day, the hour which should
prove fatal to him. He had learnt too that he was to die by the
sword.... The omens were now closing about the victim, and his
terrors became more importunate and overwhelming. 'Something,' he
exclaimed, 'is about to happen, which men shall talk of all the
world over.' Drawing a drop of blood from a pimple on his forehead,
'May this be all,' he added. His attendants, to reassure him,
declared that the hour had passed. Embracing the flattering tale
with alacrity, and rushing at once to the extreme of confidence, he
announced that the danger was over, and that he would bathe and
dress for the evening repast. But the danger was just then ripening
within the walls of the palace. The mysteries there enacted few,
indeed, could penetrate, and the account of Domitian's fall has
been coloured by invention and fancy. The story that a child, whom
he suffered to attend in his private chamber, found by chance the
tablets which he had placed under his pillow, and that the empress,
on inspecting them, and finding herself, with his most familiar
servants, designated for execution, contrived a plot for his
assassination, is one so often repeated as to cause great
suspicion. But neither can we accept the version of Philostratus,
who would have us believe that the murder of Domitian was the deed
of a single traitor, a freedman of Clemens, named Stephanus, who,
indignant at his patron's death, and urged to fury by the sentence
on his patron's wife, Domitilla, rushed alone into the tyrant's
chamber, diverted his attention with a frivolous pretext, and smote
him with the sword he bore concealed in his sleeve. It is more
likely that the design, however it originated, was common to
several of the household, and that means were taken among them to
disarm the victim, and baffle his cries for assistance. Stephanus,
who is said to have excelled in personal strength, may have been
employed to deal the blow; for not more, perhaps, than one
attendant would be admitted at once into the presence. Struck in
the groin, but not mortally, Domitian snatched at his own weapon,
but found the sword removed from its scabbard. He then clutched the
assassin's dagger, cutting his own fingers to the bone; then
desperately thrust the bloody talons into the eyes of his
assailant, and beat his head with a golden goblet, shrieking all
the time for help. Thereupon in rushed Parthenius, Maximus, and
others, and despatched him as he lay writhing on the
pavement."--_Merivale_, ch. lxii.

Trajan stripped the palace of his predecessors of all its ornaments to adorn the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus,[151] but it was restored by Commodus, after a fire which occurred in his reign,[152] and enriched by Heliogabalus,[153] and almost every succeeding emperor, till the time of Theodoric.[154]

"'Brickwork I found thee, and marble I left thee!' their Emperor vaunted;
'Marble I thought thee, and brickwork I find thee!' the Tourist may
answer."

_A. H. Clough._