Chapter XI (1)

THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN.

The Cappuccini--S. Isidore--S. Niccolo in Tolentino--Via S.
Basilio--Convent of the Pregatrici--Villa Massimo Rignano--Gardens
of Sallust--Villa Ludovisi--Porta Salara--(Villa Albani--Catacombs
of Sta. Felicitas and Sta. Priscilla--Ponte Salara)--Porta
Pia--(Villa Torlonia--Sant' Agnese--Sta. Costanza--Ponte
Nomentana--Mons Sacer--S. Alessandro)--Villa Torlonia within the
walls--Via Macao--Pretorian Camp--Railway Station--Villa
Negroni--Agger of Servius Tullius--Sta. Maria degli
Angeli--Fountain of the Termini--Sta. Maria della Vittoria--Sta.
Susanna--S. Bernardo--S. Caio.

Opening from the left of the Piazza Barberini, is the small _Piazza of the Cappuccini_, named from a convent suppressed since the Sardinian occupation, but which was one of the largest and most populous in Rome.

The conventual church, dedicated to _Sta. Maria della Concezione_, contains several fine pictures. In the first chapel, on the right, is the magnificent _Guido_ of the Archangel Michael trampling upon the Devil,--said to be a portrait of Pope Innocent X., against whom the painter had a peculiar spite.

"Here the angel, standing, yet scarcely touching the ground, poised
on his outspread wings, sets his left foot on the head of his
adversary; in one hand he brandishes a sword, in the other he holds
the end of a chain, with which he is about to bind down the demon
in the bottomless pit. The attitude has been criticised, and
justly; the grace is somewhat mannered, verging on the theatrical;
but Forsyth is too severe when he talks of 'the air of a dancing
master': one thing, however, is certain, we do not think about the
attitude when we look at Raphael's St. Michael (in the Louvre); in
Guido's it is the first thing that strikes us; but when we look
farther, the head redeems all; it is singularly beautiful, and in
the blending of the masculine and feminine graces, in the serene
purity of the brow, and the flow of the golden hair, there is
something divine; a slight, very slight expression of scorn is in
the air of the head. The fiend is the worst part of the picture; it
is not a fiend, but a degraded prosaic human ruffian; we laugh with
incredulous contempt at the idea of an angel called down from
heaven to overcome such a wretch. In Raphael the fiend is human,
but the head has the god-like ugliness and malignity of a satyr;
Guido's fiend is only stupid and base. It appears to me that there
is just the same difference--the same _kind_ of difference--between
the angel of Raphael and the angel of Guido, as between the
description in Tasso and the description in Milton; let any one
compare them. In Tasso we are struck by the picturesque elegance of
the description as a piece of art, the melody of the verse, the
admirable choice of the expressions, as in Guido by the finished
but somewhat artificial and studied grace. In Raphael and Milton we
see only the vision of a 'shape divine.'"--_Jameson's Sacred Art_,
p. 107.

In the same chapel is a picture by _Gherardo della Notte_ of Christ in the purple robe. The third chapel contains a fresco by _Domenichino_ of the Death of St Francis, and a picture of the Ecstasy of St. Francis, which was a gift from the same painter to this church.

The first chapel on the left contains The Visit of Ananias to Saul, by _Pietro da Cortona_.

"Whoever would know to what length this painter carried his style
in his altar-piece should examine the Conversion of St. Paul in the
Cappuccini at Rome, which though placed opposite to the St. Michael
of Guido, cannot fail to excite the admiration of such judges as
are willing to admit various styles of beauty in art."--_Lanzi._

On the left of the high-altar is the tomb of Prince Alexander Sobieski, son of John III., king of Poland, who died at Rome in 1714.

The church was founded in 1624, by Cardinal Barberini, the old monk-brother of Urban VIII., who, while his nephews were employed in building magnificent palaces, refused to take advantage of the family elevation otherwise than to endow this church and convent. He is buried in front of the altar, with the remarkable epitaph--very different to the pompous, self-glorifying inscriptions of his brother--

"Hic jacet pulvis, cinis, et nihil."

This Cardinal Barberini possesses some historical interest from the patronage he extended to Milton during his visit to Rome in 1638.

"During his sojourn in Rome Milton enjoyed the conversation of
several learned and ingenious men, and particularly of Lucas
Holsteinius, keeper of the Vatican library, who received him with
the greatest humanity, and showed him all the Greek authors,
whether in print or MS.--which had passed through his correction;
and also presented him to Cardinal Barberini, who, at an
entertainment of music, performed at his own expense, waited for
him at the door, and taking him by the hand, brought him into the
assembly. The next morning he waited upon the Cardinal to return
him thanks for these civilities, and by the means of Holsteinius
was again introduced to his Eminence, and spent some time in
conversation with him."--_Newton's Life of Milton._[240]

Over the entrance is a cartoon (with some differences) for the Navicella of Giotto.

From this church is entered the famous cemetery of the Cappuccini (not subterranean), consisting of four chambers, ornamented with human bones in patterns, and with mummified bodies. The earth was brought from Jerusalem. As the cemetery was too small for the convent, when any monk died, the one who had been buried longest was ejected to make room for him. The loss of a grave was supposed to be amply compensated by the short rest in the holy earth which the body had already enjoyed. It is pleasant to read on the spot the pretty sketch in the "Improvisatore."

"I was playing near the church of the Capuchins, with some other
children who were all younger than myself. There was fastened on
the church door a little cross of metal; it was fastened about the
middle of the door, and I could just reach it with my hand. Always
when our mothers had passed by with us they had lifted us up that
we might kiss the holy sign. One day, when we children were
playing, one of the youngest of them inquired, 'why the child Jesus
did not come down and play with us?' I assumed an air of wisdom,
and replied that he was really bound upon the cross. We went to the
church door, and although we found no one, we wished, as our
mothers had taught us, to kiss him, but we could not reach up to
it; one therefore lifted up the other, but just as the lips were
pointed for the kiss, that one who lifted the other lost his
strength, and the kissing one fell down just when his lips were
about to touch the invisible child Jesus. At that moment my mother
came by, and when she saw our child's play, she folded her hands,
and said, 'You are actually some of God's angels, and thou art mine
own angel,' added she, and kissed me.

"The Capuchin monk, Fra Martino, was my mother's confessor. He made
very much of me, and gave me a picture of the Virgin, weeping great
tears, which fell, like rain-drops, down into the burning flames of
hell, where the damned caught this draught of refreshment. He took
me over with him into the convent, where the open colonnade, which
enclosed in a square the little potato-garden, with the two cypress
and orange-trees, made a very deep impression upon me. Side by
side, in the open passages, hung old portraits of deceased monks,
and on the door of each cell were pasted pictures from the history
of the martyrs, which I contemplated with the same holy emotions as
afterwards the masterpieces of Raphael and Andrea del Sarto.

"'Thou art really a bright youth,' said he; 'thou shall now see the
dead.' Upon this, he opened a little door of a gallery which lay a
few steps below the colonnade. We descended, and now I saw round
about me skulls upon skulls, so placed one upon another, that they
formed walls, and therewith several chapels. In these were regular
niches, in which were seated perfect skeletons of the most
distinguished of the monks, enveloped in their brown cowls, their
cords round their waists, and with a breviary or withered bunch of
flowers in their hands. Altars, chandeliers, bas-reliefs, of human
joints, horrible and tasteless as the whole idea. I clung fast to
the monk, who whispered a prayer, and then said to me, 'Here also I
shall some time sleep; wilt thou thus visit me?'

"I answered not a word, but looked horrified at him, and then round
about me upon the strange grizzly assembly. It was foolish to take
me, a child, into this place. I was singularly impressed with the
whole thing, and did not feel myself easy again until I came into
his little cell, where the beautiful yellow oranges almost hung in
at the window, and I saw the brightly coloured picture of the
Madonna, who was borne upwards by angels into the clear sunshine,
while a thousand flowers filled the grave in which she had
rested.....

"On the festival of All-Saints I was down in the chapel of the
dead, where Fra Martino took me when I first visited the convent.
All the monks sang masses for the dead, and I, with two other boys
of my own age, swung the incense-breathing censer before the great
altar of skulls. They had placed lights in the chandeliers made of
bones, new garlands were placed around the brows of the skeleton
monks, and fresh bouquets in their hands. Many people, as usual,
thronged in; they all knelt and the singers intoned the solemn
Miserere. I gazed for a long time on the pale yellow skulls, and
the fumes of the incense which wavered in strange shapes between me
and them, and everything began to swim round before my eyes; it was
as if I saw everything through a large rainbow; as if a thousand
prayer-bells rung in my ear; it seemed as if I was borne along a
stream; it was unspeakably delicious--more, I know not;
consciousness left me,--I was in a swoon."--_Hans Ch. Andersen._

The street behind the Piazza Cappuccini leads to the _Church of S. Isidoro_,[241] built 1622, for Irish Franciscan monks. The altar-piece, representing S. Isidore, is by _Andrea Sacchi_. This church contains several tombs of distinguished Irishmen who have died in Rome.

Opposite are the recently founded convent and small chapel of the _Pregatrici_--nuns most picturesquely attired in blue and white, and devoted to the perpetual adoration of the Sacrament, who sing during the Benediction service, like the nuns of the Trinità di Monti.

The _Via S. Niccolo in Tolentino_ leads by the handsome Church of that name, from the Piazza Barberini to the railway station. In this street are the hotels "Costanzi" and "Del Globo."

Parallel with, and behind this, the _Via S. Basilio_ runs up the hill-side. At the top of this street is the entrance of the _Villa Massimo Rignano_, containing some fine palm-trees. This site, with the ridge of the opposite hill, and the valley between, was once occupied by the _Gardens of Sallust_ (Horti Pretiosissimi), purchased for the emperors after the death of the historian, and a favourite residence of Vespasian, Nerva, and especially of Aurelian. Some vaulted halls under the cliff of the opposite hill, and a circular ruin surrounded by niches, are the only remains of the many fine buildings which once existed here, and which comprised a palace, baths, and the portico called Milliarensis, 1000 feet long. These edifices are known to have been ruined when Rome was taken by the Goths under Alaric (410), who entered at the neighbouring Porta Salara. The obelisk now in front of the Trinità di Monti, was removed from hence by Pius VI. The picturesque old casino of the Barberini, which occupied the most prominent position in the gardens, was pulled down in 1869, to make way for a house belonging to Spithover the librarian. The hill-side is supported by long picturesque buttresses, beneath which are remains of the huge masonry of Servius Tullius, whose _Agger_ may be traced on the ridge of the hill running towards the present railway station. Part of these grounds are supposed to have formed the Campus Sceleratus, where the vestal virgins suffered who had broken their vows of chastity.

"When condemned by the college of pontifices, the vestal was
stripped of her vittæ and other badges of office, was scourged, was
attired like a corpse, placed in a close litter, and borne through
the forum, attended by her weeping kindred with all the ceremonies
of a real funeral, to the Campus Sceleratus, within the city walls,
close to the Colline gate. There a small vault underground had been
previously prepared, containing a couch, a lamp, and a table with a
little food. The Pontifex Maximus, having lifted up his hands to
heaven and uttered a secret prayer, opened the litter, led forth
the culprit, and placing her on the steps of the ladder which gave
access to the subterranean cell, delivered her over to the common
executioner and his assistants, who conducted her down, drew up the
ladder, and having filled the pit with earth until the surface was
level with the surrounding ground, left her to perish deprived of
all the tributes of respect usually paid to the spirits of the
departed. In every case the paramour was publicly scourged to death
in the forum."--_Smith's Dict. of Antiquities._

"A Vignaiuolo showed us in the Gardens of Sallust a hole, through
which he said those vestal virgins were put who had violated their
vows of chastity. While we were listening to their story, some
pretty Contadini came up to us attended by their rustic swains, and
after looking into the hole, pitied the vestal
virgins--'_Poverine_,' shrugged their shoulders, and laughing,
thanked their stars and the Madonna, that poor Fanciulle were not
buried alive for such things now-a-days."--_Eaton's Rome._

A turn in the road now leads to the gate of the beautiful _Villa Ludovisi_, to which it has been very difficult to obtain admittance since the Sardinian occupation. The excellent proprietors, the Duke and Duchess Sora, have lived at Foligno in complete seclusion, since the change of government.

The villa was built early in the last century by Cardinal Ludovisi, nephew of Gregory XV., from whom it descended to the Prince of Piombino, father of Duke Sora. The grounds, which are of an extent extraordinary when considered as being within the walls of a capital, were laid out by Le Nôtre, and are in the stiff French style of high clipped hedges, and avenues adorned with vases and sarcophagi. Near the entrance is a pretty fountain shaded by a huge plane-tree; the Quirinal is seen in the distance.

To the right of the entrance is the principal casino of sculptures, a very beautiful collection (catalogues on the spot). Especially remarkable are,--the grand colossal head, known as the "Ludovisi Juno" (41);

"A Rome, une Junon surpasse toutes les autres par son aspect et
rappelle la Junon de Polyclète par sa majesté: c'est la célèbre
Junon Ludovisi que Goethe admirait tant, et devant laquelle dans un
accès de dévotion païenne,--seul genre de dévotion qu'il ait connu
à Rome,--il faisait, nous dit-il, sa prière du matin.

"Cette tête colossale de Junon offre bien les caractères de la
sculpture de Polyclète; la gravité, la grandeur, la dignité; mais
ainsi que dans d'autres Junons qu'on peut supposer avoir été
sculptées à Rome, l'imitateur de Polyclète, on doit le croire,
adoucit la sévérité, je dirai presque la dureté de l'original,
telle qu'elle se montre sur les médailles d'Argos, et celles
d'Elis."--_Ampère, Hist. Romaine_, iii. 264.

"No words can give a true impression of the colossal head of Juno
in the Villa Ludovisi: it is like a song of Homer."--_Goethe._

--the _Statue of Mars_ seated (I), with a Cupid at his feet, found in the portico of Octavia, and restored by Bernini;

"II y avait bien un Mars assis de Scopas, et ce Mars était à Rome;
mais un dieu dans son temple devait être assis sur un trône et non
sur un rocher, comme le prétendu Mars Ludovisi. On a donc eu
raison, selon moi, de reconnaître dans cette belle statue un
Achille, à l'expression pensive de son visage, et surtout à
l'attitude caractéristique que le sculpteur lui a donnée, lui
faisant embrasser son genou avec ses deux mains, attitude qui, dans
le langage de la sculpture antique, était le signe d'une méditation
douloureuse. On citait comme très-beau un Achille de Silanion,
sculpteur grec habile à rendre les sentiments violents. D'après
cela, son Achille pouvait être un Achille indigné; c'est de lui que
viendrait l'Achille de la villa Ludovisi. L'expression de dépit,
plus énergique dans l'original, eût été adoucie dans une admirable
copie.'--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 437.

--and No. 28;

"Le beau groupe auquel on avait donné le nom d'Arria et Pætus; il
fallait fermer les yeux à l'évidence pour voir un Romain du temps
de Claude dans ce chef barbare qui, après avoir tué sa femme, se
frappe lui-même d'un coup mortel. Le type du visage, la chevelure,
le caractère de l'action, tout est gaulois; la manière même dont
s'accomplit l'immolation volontaire montre que ce n'est pas un
Romain que nous avons devant les yeux; un Romain se tuait plus
simplement, avec moins de fracas. Le principal personnage du groupe
Ludovisi conserve en ce moment suprême quelque chose de triomphant
et de théâtral; soulevant d'une main sa femme affaissée sous le
coup qu'il lui a porté, de l'autre il enfonce son épée dans sa
poitrine. La tête haute, l'œil tourné vers le ciel, il semble
répéter le mot de sa race: 'Je ne crains qu'une chose, c'est que le
ciel tombe sur ma tête.'"--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 207.

At the end of the gardens, to the left, is another casino, from whose roof a most beautiful view may be obtained. Here are the most famous frescoes of _Guercino_. On the ceiling of the ground-floor, Aurora driving away Night and scattering flowers in her course, with Evening and Daybreak in the lunettes; and, on the first floor, "Fame" attended by Force and Virtue. Smaller rooms on the ground floor have landscapes by _Guercino_ and _Domenichino_, and some groups of Cupids by _T. Zucchero_; on the staircase is a fine bas-relief of two Cupids dragging a quiver.

"The prophets and sibyls of Guercino da Cento (1590--1666), and his
Aurora, in a garden pavilion of the Villa Ludovisi, at Rome, almost
attain to the effect of oil paintings in their glowing colouring
combined with the broad and dark masses of shadow."--_Kugler._

"In allegorising nature, Guercino imitates the deep shades of
night, the twilight grey, and the irradiations of morning, with all
the magic of _chiaroscuro_; but his figures are too mortal for the
region where they move."--_Forsyth._

In B.C. 82, the district near the Porta Collina, now occupied by the Villa Ludovisi, was the scene of a great battle for the very existence of Rome, between Sylla, and the Samnites and Lucanians under the Samnite general Pontius Telesinus, who declared he would raze the city to the ground if he were victorious. The left wing under Sylla was put to flight; but the right wing, commanded by Crassus, enabled him to restore the battle, and to gain a complete victory; fifty thousand men fell on each side.

The road now runs along the ridge of the hill to the Porta Salara, by which Alaric entered Rome through the treachery of the Isaurian guard, on the 24th of August, 410.

Passing through the gate and turning to the right along the outside of the wall, we may see, against the grounds of the Villa Ludovisi, the two round towers of the now closed _Porta Pinciana_, restored by Belisarius. This is the place where tradition declares that in his declining years the great general sat begging, with the cry, "Date obolum Belisario."

"A côté de la Porta Pinciana, on lit sur une pierre les paroles
célèbres: 'Donnez une obole à Bélisaire'; mais cette inscription
est moderne, comme la légende à laquelle elle fait allusion, et
qu'on ne trouve dans nul historien contemporain de Bélisaire.
Bélisaire ne demanda jamais l'aumône, et si le cicerone montre
encore aux voyageurs l'endroit où, vieux et aveugle, il implorait
une obole de la charité des passants, c'est que près de ce lieu il
avait, sur la colline du Pincio, son palais, situé entre les
jardins de Lucullus et les jardins de Salluste, et digne
probablement de ce double voisinage par sa magnificence. Ce qui est
vrai, c'est que le vainqueur des Goths et des Vandales fut
disgracié par Justinien, grâce aux intrigues de Théodora. La
légende, comme presque toujours, a exprimé par une fable une
vérité, l'ingratitude si fréquente des souverains envers ceux qui
leur ont rendu lus plus grands services."--_Ampère, Emp._ ii. 396.

* * * * *

A short distance from the gate, along the Via Salara, is, on the right, the _Villa Albani_ (shown on Tuesdays by an order), built in 1760 by Cardinal Alessandro Albani,--sold in 1834 to the Count of Castelbarco, and in 1868 to Prince Torlonia, its present possessor. The scene from its garden terrace is among the loveliest of Roman pictures, the view of the delicate Sabine mountains--Monte Gennaro, with the Montecelli beneath it--and in the middle distance, the churches of Sant' Agnese and Sta. Costanza, relieved by dark cypresses and a graceful fountain.

The _Casino_, which is, in fact, a magnificent palace, is remarkable as having been built from Cardinal Albani's own designs, Carlo Marchionni having been only employed to see that they were carried out.

"Here is a villa of exquisite design, planned by a profound
antiquary. Here Cardinal Albani, having spent his life in
collecting ancient sculpture, formed such porticoes and such
saloons to receive it as an old Roman would have done: porticoes
where the statues stood free upon the pavement between columns
proportioned to their stature; saloons which were not stocked but
embellished with families of allied statues, and seemed full
without a crowd. Here Winckelmann grew into an antiquary under the
cardinal's patronage and instruction; and here he projected his
history of art, which brings this collection continually into
view."--_Forsyth's Italy._

The collection of sculptures is much reduced since the French invasion, when 294 of the finest specimens were carried off by Napoleon to Paris, where they were sold by Prince Albani upon their restoration in 1815, as he was unwilling to bear the expense of transport. The greater proportion of the remaining statues are of no great importance. Those of the imperial family in the vestibule are interesting--those of Julius and Augustus Cæsar, of Agrippina wife of Germanicus, and of Faustina, are seated; most of the heads have been restored.

Conspicuous among the treasures of this villa, are the sarcophagus with reliefs of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, pronounced by Winckelmann to be one of the finest in existence; a head of Æsop, supposed to be after Lysippus; and the bronze "Apollo Sauroctonos," considered by Winckelmann to be the original statue by Praxiteles described by Pliny, and the most beautiful bronze statue in the world,--it was found on the Aventine. But most important of all is the famous relievo of Antinous crowned with lotus, from the Villa Adriana (over the chimney-piece of the first room to the right of the saloon), supposed to have formed part of an apotheosis of Antinous:

"As fresh, and as highly finished, as if it had just left the
studio of the sculptor, this work, after the Apollo and the
Laocoon, is perhaps the most beautiful monument of antiquity which
time has transmitted to us."--_Winckelmann, Hist. de l'Art_, vi.
ch. 7.

Inferior only to this, is another bas-relief, also over a chimney-piece,--the parting of Orpheus and Eurydice.

"Les deux époux vont se quitter. Eurydice attache sur Orphée un
profond regard d'adieu. Sa main est posée sur l'épaule de son
époux, geste ordinaire dans les groupes qui expriment la séparation
de ceux qui s'aiment. La main d'Orphée dégage doucement celle
d'Eurydice, tandis que Mercure fait de la sienne un léger mouvement
pour l'entraîner. Dans ce léger mouvement est tout leur sort;
l'effet le plus pathétique est produit par la composition la plus
simple; l'émotion la plus pénétrante s'exhale de la sculpture la
plus tranquille."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 256.

The villa also contains a collection of pictures, of which the most interesting are the sketches of _Giulio Romano_ for the frescoes of the story of Psyche in the Palazzo del Te at Mantua, and two fine pictures by Luca Signorelli and Perugino, in compartments, in the first room on the left of the saloon. All the works of art have lately been rearranged. The _Caffè_ and the _Bigliardo_--(reached by an avenue of oaks, which, being filled with ancient tombstones, has the effect of a cemetery)--contain more statues, but of less importance.

Beyond the villa, the Via Salara (said by Pliny to derive its name from the salt of Ostia exported to the north by this route) passes on the left the site of Antemnæ, and crosses the Anio two miles from the city, by the _Ponte Salara_, destroyed by the Roman government in the terror of Garibaldi's approach from Monte Rotondo, in 1867. This bridge was a restoration by Narses, in the sixth century, but stood on the foundations of that famous Ponte Salara, upon which Titus Manlius fought the Gaulish giant, and cutting off his head, carried off the golden collar which earned him the name of Torquatus.

"Manlius prend un bouclier léger de fantassin, une épée espagnole
commode pour combattre de très-près, et s'avance à la rencontre du
Barbare. Les deux champions, isolés sur le pont, comme sur un
théâtre, se joignent au milieu. Le Barbare portait un vêtement
bariolé et une armure ornée de dessins et d'incrustations dorées,
conforme au caractère de sa race, aussi vaine que vaillante. Les
armes du Romain étaient bonnes, mais sans éclat. Point chez lui,
comme chez son adversaire, de chant, de transports, d'armes agitées
avec fureur, mais un cœur plein de courage et d'une colère
muette qu'il réservait tout entière pour le combat.

"Le Gaulois, qui dépassait son adversaire de toute la tête, met en
avant son bouclier et fait tomber pesamment son glaive sur l'armure
de son adversaire. Celui-ci le heurte deux fois de son bouclier, le
force à reculer, le trouble, et se glissant alors entre le bouclier
et le corps du Gaulois, de deux coups rapidement portés lui ouvre
le ventre. Quand le grand corps est tombé, Manlius lui coupe la
tête, et, ramassant le collier de son ennemi décapité, jette tout
sanglant sur son cou ce collier, le _torques_, propre aux Gaulois,
et qu'on peut voir au Capitole porté par celui qu'on appelle à tort
le gladiateur mourant. Un soldat donne, en plaisantant, à Manlius
le sobriquet de _Torquatus_, que sa famille a toujours été fière de
porter."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 10.

Beyond the ruins of the bridge, is a huge tomb with a tower, now used as an Osteria. Hence, the road leads by the Villa of Phaon (Villa Spada) where Nero died, and the site of Fidenæ, now known as Castel Giubeleo, to Monte Rotondo.

The district beyond the Porta Salara, and that extending between the Via Salara and the Monte Parioli, are completely undermined by catacombs (see Ch. IX.). The most important are--1. Nearest the gate, the _Catacomb of St. Felicitas_, which had three tiers of galleries, adorned by Pope Boniface I., who took refuge there from persecution,--now much dilapidated. Over this cemetery was a church, now destroyed, which is mentioned by William of Malmesbury. 2. _The Catacomb of SS. Thraso and Saturninus_, much decorated with the usual paintings. 3. _The Catacomb of Sta. Priscilla_, near the descent to the Anio. This cemetery is of great interest, from the number of martyrs' graves it contains, and from its peculiar construction in an ancient _arenarium_, pillars and walls of masonry being added throughout the central part, in order to sustain the tufa walls. Here were buried--probably because the entrance to the Chapel of the Popes at St. Calixtus was blocked up to preserve it in the persecution under Diocletian--Pope St. Marcellinus (ob. 308), and Pope St. Marcellus (ob. 310), who was sent into exile by Maxentius. On the tomb of the latter was placed, in finely cut type, the following epitaph by Pope Damasus:--

"Veredicus Rector, lapsos quia crimina flere
Prædixit, miseris fuit omnibus hostis amarus.
Hinc furor, hinc odium sequitur, discordia, lites,
Seditio, cædes, solvuntur fœdera pacis.
Crimen ob alterius Christum qui in pace negavit,
Finibus expulsus patriæ est feritate tyranni.
Hæc breviter Damasus voluit comperta referre,
Marcelli ut populus meritum cognoscere posset."

"The truth-speaking pope, because he preached that the lapsed
should weep for their crimes, was bitterly hated by all those
unhappy ones. Hence followed fury, hatred, discord, contentions,
sedition, and slaughter, and the bonds of peace were ruptured. For
the crime of another, who in (a time of) peace had denied Christ,
(the pontiff) was expelled the shores of his country by the cruelty
of the tyrant. These things Damasus having learnt, was desirous to
narrate briefly, that people might recognise the merit of
Marcellus."[242]

Several of the paintings in this catacomb are remarkable; especially that of a woman with a child, claimed by the Roman Church as one of the earliest representations of the Virgin. The painting is thus described by Northcote:--

"De Rossi unhesitatingly says that he believes this painting of our
Blessed Lady to belong almost to the apostolic age. It is to be
seen on the vaulted roof of a _loculus_, and represents the Blessed
Virgin seated, her head partially covered by a short light veil,
and with the Holy Child in her arms; opposite to her stands a man,
clothed in the pallium, holding a volume in one hand, and with the
other pointing to a star which appears above and between the
figures. This star almost always accompanies our Blessed Lady, both
in paintings and in sculptures, where there is an obvious
historical excuse for it, _e. g._, when she is represented with the
Magi offering their gifts, or by the side of the manger with the ox
and the ass; but with a single figure, as in the present instance,
it is unusual. The most obvious conjecture would be that the figure
was meant for St. Joseph, or for one of the Magi. De Rossi,
however, gives many reasons for preferring the prophet Isaias,
whose prophecies concerning the Messias abound with imagery
borrowed from light."--_Roma Sotterranea._

This catacomb is one of the oldest, Sta. Priscilla, from whom it is named, being supposed to have been the mother of Pudens, and a contemporary of the apostles. Her granddaughters, Prassede and Pudenziana, were buried here before the removal of their relics to the church on the Esquiline. With this cemetery is connected the extraordinary history of the manufacture of Sta. Filomena, now one of the most popular saints in Italy, and one towards whom idolatry is carried out with frantic enthusiasm both at Domo d'Ossola and in some of the Neapolitan States. The story of this saint is best told in the words of Mrs. Jameson.

"In the year 1802, while some excavations were going forward in the
catacomb of Priscilla, a sepulchre was discovered containing the
skeleton of a young female; on the exterior were rudely painted
some of the symbols constantly recurring in these chambers of the
dead; an anchor, an olive branch (emblems of Hope and Peace), a
scourge, two arrows, and a javelin: above them the following
inscription, of which the beginning and end were destroyed:--

----LUMENA PAX TE CUM FI----

"The remains, reasonably supposed to be those of one of the early
martyrs for the faith, were sealed up and deposited in the treasury
of relics in the Lateran; here they remained for some years
unthought of. On the return of Pius VII. from France, a Neapolitan
prelate was sent to congratulate him. One of the priests in his
train, who wished to create a sensation in his district, where the
long residence of the French had probably caused some decay of
piety, begged for a few relics to carry home, and these recently
discovered remains were bestowed on him; the inscription was
translated somewhat freely, to signify _Santa Philumena, rest in
peace_. Another priest, whose name is suppressed _because of his
great humility_, was favoured by a vision in the broad noon-day, in
which he beheld the glorious virgin Filomena, who was pleased to
reveal to him that she had suffered death for preferring the
Christian faith and her vow of chastity to the addresses of the
emperor, who wished to make her his wife. This vision leaving much
of her history obscure, a certain young artist, whose name is also
suppressed, perhaps because of his great humility, was informed in
a vision that the emperor alluded to was Diocletian, and at the
same time the torments and persecutions suffered by the Christian
virgin Filomena, as well as her wonderful constancy, were also
revealed to him. There were some difficulties in the way of the
Emperor Diocletian, which _incline_ the writer of the _historical_
account to incline to the opinion that the young artist in his
wisdom _may_ have made a mistake, and that the emperor may have
been not Diocletian but Maximian. The facts, however, now admitted
of no doubt; the relics were carried by the priest Francesco da
Lucia to Naples; they were enclosed in a case of wood resembling in
form the human body; this figure was habited in a petticoat of
white satin, and over it a crimson tunic after the Greek fashion;
the face was painted to represent nature, a garland of flowers was
placed on the head, and in the hands a lily and a javelin with the
point reversed to express her purity and her martyrdom; then she
was laid in a half-sitting posture in a sarcophagus, of which the
sides were glass, and, after lying for some time in state in the
chapel of the Torres family in the Church of Sant' Angiolo, she was
carried in grand procession to Mugnano, a little town about twenty
miles from Naples, amid the acclamations of the people, working
many and surprising miracles by the way.... Such is the legend of
Sta. Filomena, and such the authority on which she has become
within the last twenty years one of the most popular saints in
Italy."--_Sacred and Legendary Art_, p. 671.

It is hoped that very interesting relics may still be discovered in this Catacomb.

"In an account preserved by St. Gregory of Tours, we are told that
under Numerianus, the martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria were put to
death in an _arenaria_, and that a great number of the faithful
having been seen entering a subterranean crypt on the Via Salara,
to visit their tombs, the heathen emperor caused the entrance to be
hastily built up, and a vast mound of sand and stone to be heaped
in front of it, so that they might be all buried alive, even as the
martyrs whom they had come to venerate. St. Gregory adds, that when
the tombs of these martyrs were re-discovered, after the ages of
persecution had ceased, there were found with them, not only the
relics of those worshippers who had been thus cruelly put to death,
skeletons of men, women, and children lying on the floor, but also
the silver cruets (_urcei argentei_) which they had taken down with
them for the celebration of the sacred mysteries. St. Damasus was
unwilling to destroy so touching a memorial of past ages. He
abstained from making any of those changes by which he usually
decorated the martyrs' tombs, but contented himself with setting up
one of his invaluable historical inscriptions, and opening a window
in the adjacent wall or rock, that all might see, without
disturbing, this monument so unique in its kind--this Christian
Pompeii in miniature. These things might still be seen in St.
Gregory's time, in the sixth century; and De Rossi holds out hopes
that some traces of them may be restored even to our own
generation, some fragments of the inscription perhaps, or even the
window itself through which our ancestors once saw so moving a
spectacle, assisting, as it were, at a mass celebrated in the third
century."--_Roma Sotterranea_, p. 88.

* * * * *

Returning to the Porta Salara, and following the walls, we reach the _Porta Pia_, built, as it is now seen, by Pius IX.--very ugly, but appropriately decorated with statues of St. Agnes and St. Alexander, to whose shrines it leads. The statues lost their heads in the capture of Rome in 1870 by the Italian troops, who entered the city by a breach in the walls close to this. A little to the right was the _Porta Nomentana_, flanked by round towers, closed by Pius IV. It was by this gate that the oppressed Roman people retreated to the Mons Sacer--and that Nero fled.

"Suivons-le du Grand-Cirque à la porte Nomentane. Quel spectacle!
Néron, accoutumé à toutes les recherches de la volupté, s'avance à
cheval, les pieds nus, en chemise, couvert d'un vieux manteau dont
la couleur était passée, un mouchoir sur le visage. Quatre
personnes seulement l'accompagnent; parmi elles est ce Sporus, que
dans un jour d'indicible folie il avait publiquement épousé. Il
sent la terre trembler, il voit les éclairs au ciel: Néron a peur.
Tous ceux qu'il a fait mourir lui apparaissent et semblent se
précipiter sur lui. Nous voici à la porte Nomentane, qui touche au
Camp des Prétoriens. Néron reconnaît ce lieu où, il y a quinze ans,
suivant alors le chemin qu'il vient de suivre, il est venu se faire
reconnaître empereur par les prétoriens. En passant sous les murs
de leur camp, vers lequel son destin le ramène, il les entend
former des vœux pour Galba, et lancer des imprécations contre
lui. Un passant lui dit: 'Voilà des gens qui cherchent Néron.' Son
cheval se cabre au milieu de la route: c'est qu'il a flairé un
cadavre. Le mouchoir qui couvrait son visage tombe; un prétorien
qui se trouvait là le ramasse et le rend à l'empereur, qu'il salue
par son nom. A chacun de ces incidents son effroi redouble. Enfin
il est arrivé à un petit chemin qui s'ouvre à notre gauche, dans la
direction de la voie Salara, parallèle à la voie Nomentane. C'est
entre ces deux voies qu'était la villa de Phaon, à quatre milles de
Rome. Pour l'attendre, Néron, qui a mis pied à terre, s'enfonce à
travers un fourré d'épines et un champ de roseaux comme il s'en
trouve tant dans la Campagne de Rome; il a peine de s'y frayer un
chemin; il arrive ainsi au mur de derrière de la villa. Près de là
était un de ces antres creusés pour l'extraction du sable
volcanique, appelé _pouzzolane_, tels qu'on en voit encore de ce
côté. Phaon engage le fugitif à s'y cacher; il refuse. On fait un
trou dans la muraille de la villa par où il pénètre, marchant
quatre pieds, dans l'intérieur. Il entre dans une petite salle et
se couche sur un lit formé d'un méchant matelas sur lequel on avait
jeté un vieux manteau. Ceux qui l'entourent le pressent de mourir
pour échapper aux outrages et au supplice. Il essaye à plusieurs
reprises de se donner la mort et n'y peut se résoudre; il pleure.
Enfin, en entendant les cavaliers qui venaient le saisir, il cite
un vers grec, fait un effort et se tue avec le secours d'un
affranchi."--_Ampère, Emp._ ii. 65.

* * * * *

Immediately outside the Porta Pia is the entrance of the beautiful _Villa Patrizi_, whose grounds enclose the small _Catacomb of St. Nicomedus_. Then comes the _Villa Lezzani_, where Sta. Giustina is buried in a chapel, and where her festa is observed on the 25th of October.

Beyond this is the ridiculous _Villa Torlonia_ (shown with an order on Wednesdays from 11 to 4, but not worth seeing), sprinkled with mock ruins.

At little more than a mile from the gate the road reaches the _Basilica of St' Agnese fuori le Mura_, founded by Constantine at the request of his daughter Constantia, in honour of the virgin martyr buried in the neighbouring catacomb; but rebuilt 625--38 by Honorius I. It was altered in 1490 by Innocent VIII., but retains more of its ancient character than most of the Roman churches. The polychrome decorations of the interior, and the rebuilding of the monastery, were carried out at the expense of Pius IX., as a thank-offering for his escape, when he fell through the floor here into a cellar, with his cardinals and attendants, on April 15, 1855. The scene is represented in a large fresco by _Domenico Tojetti_, in a chamber on the right of the courtyard.

The approach to the church is by a picturesque staircase of forty-five ancient marble steps, lined with inscriptions from the catacombs. The nave is divided from the aisles by sixteen columns, four of which are of "porta-santa" and two of "pavonazzetto." A smaller range of columns above these supports the roof of a triforium, which is on a level with the road. The baldacchino, erected in 1614, is supported by four porphyry columns. Beneath is the shrine of St. Agnes surmounted by her statue, an antique of oriental alabaster, with modern head, and hands of gilt bronze. The mosaics of the tribune, representing St. Agnes between Popes Honorius I. and Symmachus, are of the seventh century. Beneath, is an ancient episcopal chair.

The second chapel on the right has a beautiful mosaic altar, and a relief of SS. Stephen and Laurence of 1490. The third chapel is that of St. Emerentiana, foster-sister of St. Agnes, who was discovered praying beside the tomb of her friend, and was stoned to death because she refused to sacrifice to idols.

"So ancient is the worship paid to St. Agnes, that next to the
Evangelists and Apostles, there is no saint whose effigy is older.
It is found on the ancient glass and earthenware vessels used by
the Christians in the early part of the third century, with her
name inscribed, which leaves no doubt of her identity. But neither
in these images, nor in the mosaics, is the lamb introduced, which
in later times has become her inseparable attribute, as the
patroness of maidens and maidenly modesty."--_Jameson's Sacred
Art_, p. 105.

St. Agnes suffered martyrdom by being stabbed in the throat, under Diocletian, in her thirteenth year (see Ch. XIV.), after which, according to the expression used in the acts of her martyrdom, her parents "with all joy" laid her in the catacombs. One day as they were praying near the body of their child, she appeared to them surrounded by a great multitude of virgins, triumphant and glorious like herself, with a lamb by her side, and said, "I am in heaven, living with these virgins my companions, near Him whom I have so much loved." By her tomb, also, Constantia, a princess sick with hopeless leprosy, was praying for the healing of her body, when she heard a voice saying, "Rise up, Constantia, and go on constantly ('Costanter age, Constantia') in the faith of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who shall heal your diseases,"--and, being cured of her evil, she besought her father to build this basilica as a thank-offering.[243]

On the 21st of January, a beautiful service is celebrated here, in which two lambs, typical of the purity of the virgin saint, are blessed upon the altar. They are sent by the chapter of St. John Lateran, and their wool is afterwards used to make the pallium of the pope, which is consecrated before it is worn, by being deposited in a golden urn upon the tomb of St. Peter. The pallium is the sign of episcopal jurisdiction.

"Ainsi, le simple ornement de laine que ces prélats doivent porter
sur leurs épaules comme symbole de la brebis du bon Pasteur, et que
le pontife Romain prend sur l'autel même de Saint Pierre pour le
leur adresser, va porter jusqu'aux extrémités de l'Eglise, dans une
union sublime, le double sentiment de la force du Prince des
Apôtres et de la douceur virginale d'Agnes."--_Dom Guéranger._

Close to St' Agnese is the round _Church of Sta. Costanza_. erected by Constantine as a mausoleum for his daughters Constantia and Helena, and converted into a church by Alexander IV. (1254--61) in honour of the Princess Constantia, ob. 354, whose life is represented by Marcellinus as anything but saintlike, and who is supposed to have been confused in her canonization with a sainted nun of the same name. The rotunda, seventy-three feet in diameter, is surrounded by a vaulted corridor; twenty-four double columns of granite support the dome. The vaulting is covered with mosaic arabesques of the fourth century, of flowers and birds, with scenes referring to a vintage. The same subjects are repeated on the splendid porphyry sarcophagus of Sta. Costanza, of which the interest is so greatly marred by its removal to the Vatican from its proper site, whence it was first stolen by Pope Paul II., who intended to use it as his own tomb.

"Les enfants qui foulent le raisin, tels qu'on les voit dans les
mosaïques de l'église de Sainte Constance, les bas-reliefs de son
tombeau et ceux de beaucoup d'autres tombeaux chrétiens sont bien
d'origine païenne, car on les voit aussi figurer dans les
bas-reliefs où paraît Priape."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iii. 257.

Behind the two churches is an oblong space, ending in a fine mass of ruin, which is best seen from the valley below. This was long supposed to be the Hippodrome of Constantine, but is now discovered to have belonged to an early Christian cemetery.

_The Catacomb of St Agnese_ is entered from a vineyard about a quarter of a mile beyond the church. It is lighted and opened to the public on St. Agnes' Day. After those of St. Calixtus, this, perhaps, is the catacomb which is most worthy of a visit.

We enter by a staircase attributed to the time of Constantine. The passages are lined with the usual _loculi_ for the dead, sometimes adapted for a single body, sometimes for two laid together. Beside many of the graves the palm of victory may be seen scratched on the mortar, and remains of the glass bottles or _ampullæ_, which are supposed to indicate the graves of martyrs, and to have contained a portion of their blood, of which they are often said to retain the trace. One of the graves in the first gallery bears the names of consuls of A.D. 336, which fixes the date of this part of the cemetery.

The most interesting features here are a square chamber hewn in the rock, with an arm-chair (_sedia_) cut out of the rock on either side of the entrance, supposed to have been a school for catechists,--and near this is a second chamber for female catechists, with plain seats in the same position. Opening out of the gallery close by is a chamber which was apparently used as a chapel; its _arcosolium_ has marks of an altar remaining at the top of the grave, and near it is a credence-table; the roof is richly painted,--in the central compartment is our Lord seated between the rolls of the Old and New Testament. Above the arcosolium, in the place of honour, is our Saviour as the Good Shepherd, bearing a sheep upon his shoulders, and standing between other sheep and trees;--in the other compartments are Daniel in the lions' den, the Three Children in the furnace, Moses taking off his shoes, Moses striking the rock, and--nearest the entrance--the Paralytic carrying his bed. A neighbouring chapel has also remains of an altar and credence-table, and well-preserved paintings,--the Good Shepherd, Adam and Eve, with the tree between them, Jonah under the gourd, and in the fourth compartment a figure described by Protestants merely as an Orante, and by Roman Catholics as the Blessed Virgin.[244] Near this chapel we can look down through an opening into the second floor of the catacomb, which is lined with graves like the first.

In the further part of the catacomb is a long narrow chapel which has received the name of the _cathedral_ or _basilica_. It is divided into three parts, of which the furthest, or presbytery, contains an ancient episcopal chair with lower seats on either side for priests--probably the throne where Pope St. Liberius (A.D. 359) officiated, with his face to the people, when he lived for more than a year hidden here from persecution. Hence a flight of steps leads down to what Northcote calls "the Lady Chapel," where, over the altar, is a fresco of an orante, without a nimbus, with outstretched arms,--with a child in front of her. On either side of this picture, a very interesting one, is the monogram of Constantine, and the painting is referred to his time. Near this chapel is a chamber with a spring running through it, evidently used as a baptistery.

At the extremity of the catacomb, under the basilica of St. Agnes, is one of its most interesting features. Here the passages become wider and more irregular, the walls sloping and unformed, and graves cease to appear, indicating one of the ancient _arenaria_, which here formed the approach to the catacomb, and beyond which the Christians excavated their cemetery.

The graves throughout almost all the catacombs have been rifled, the bones which they contained being distributed as relics throughout Roman Catholic Christendom, and most of the sarcophagi and inscriptions removed to the Lateran and other museums.

"Vous pourriez voir ici la capitale des catacombes de toute la
chrétienté. Les martyrs, les confesseurs, et les vierges, y
fourmillent de tous côtés. Quand on se fait besoin de quelques
reliques en pays étrangers, le Pape n'a qu'à descendre ici et
crier, _Qui de vous autres veut aller être saint en Pologne?_
Alors, s'il se trouve quelque mort de bonne volonté, il se lève et
s'en va."--_De Brosses_, 1739.

Half a mile beyond St' Agnese, the road reaches the willow-fringed river Anio, in which "Silvia changed her earthly life for that of a goddess," and which carried the cradle containing her two babes Romulus and Remus into the Tiber, to be brought to land at the foot of the Palatine fig-tree. Into this river we may also recollect that Sylla caused the ashes of his ancient rival Marius to be thrown. The river is crossed by the _Ponte Nomentana_, a mediæval bridge, partially covered, with forked battlements.

"Ponte Nomentana is a solitary dilapidated bridge in the spacious
green Campagna. Many ruins from the days of ancient Rome, and many
watch-towers from the middle ages, are scattered over this long
succession of meadows; chains of hills rise towards the horizon,
now partially covered with snow, and fantastically varied in form
and colour by the shadows of the clouds. And there is also the
enchanting vapoury vision of the Alban hills, which change their
hues like the chameleon, as you gaze at them--where you can see for
miles little white chapels glittering on the dark foreground of the
hills, as far as the Passionist Convent on the summit, and whence
you can trace the road winding through thickets, and the hills
sloping downwards to the lake of Albano, while a hermitage peeps
through the trees."--_Mendelssohn's Letters._

The hill immediately beyond the bridge is the _Mons Sacer_ (not only the part usually pointed out on the right of the road, but the whole hillside), to which the famous secession of the Plebs took place in B.C. 549, amounting, according to Dionysius, to about 4000 persons. Here they encamped upon the green slopes for four months, to the terror of the patricians, who foresaw that Rome, abandoned by its defenders, would fall before its enemies, and that the crops would perish for want of cultivation. Here Menenius Agrippa delivered his apologue of the belly and its members, which is said to have induced them to return to Rome; that which really decided them to do so being the concession of tribunes, to be the organs and representatives of the plebs as the consuls were of the patricians. The epithet Sacer is ascribed by Dionysius to an altar which the plebeians erected at the time on the hill to Ζεὑς Δειμἁτιος.

A second secession to the Mons Sacer took place in B.C. 449, when the plebs rose against Appius Claudius after the death of Virginia, and retired hither under the advice of M. Duilius, till the decemvirs resigned.

Following the road beyond the bridge past the castle known as _Casale dei Pazzi_ (once used as a lunatic asylum) and the picturesque tomb called Torre Nomentana,--as far as the seventh milestone--we reach the remains of the unburied _Basilica of S. Alessandro_, built on the site of the place where that pope suffered martyrdom with his companions Eventius and Theodulus, A.D. 119, and was buried on the same spot by the Christian matron Severina.[245] The plan of the basilica, disinterred 1856-7, is still quite perfect. The tribune and high altar retain fragments of rich marbles and alabasters; the episcopal throne also remains in its place.