Chapter XII: The Esquiline (1)

Golden House of Nero--Baths of Titus and Trajan--S. Pietro in
Vincoli--Frangipani Tower--House of Lucrezia Borgia--S. Martino al
Monte--Sta. Lucia in Selce--Sta. Prassede--Santissimo
Redentore--Arch of Gallienus--Trophies of Marius--Sta.
Bibiana--Temple of Minerva Medica--S. Eusebio--S. Antonio
Abbate--Sta. Maria Maggiore.

The Esquiline, which is the largest of the so-called 'hills of Rome,' is not a distinct hill, but simply a projection of the Campagna. "The Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, and Cœlian stretch out towards the Tiber, like four fingers of a hand, of which the plain whence they detach themselves represents the vast palm. This hand has seized the world."[250]

Varro says that the name Esquiline was derived from the word _excultus_, because of the ornamental groves which were planted on this hill by Servius Tullius,--such as the Lucus Querquetulanus, Fagutalis, and Esquilinus.[251] The sacred wood of the Argiletum long remained on the lower slope of the hill, where the Via Sta. Maria dei Monti now is.

The Esquiline, which is still unhealthy, must have been so in ancient times, for among its temples were those dedicated to Fever, near Sta. Maria Maggiore--to Juno Mephitis,[252] near a pool which emitted poisonous exhalations--and to Venus Libitina,[253] for the registration of deaths, and arrangement of funerals. As the hill was in the hands of the Sabines, its early divinities were Sabine. Besides those already mentioned, it had an altar of the Sabine sun-god Janus, dedicated together with an altar to Juno by the survivor of the Horatii,[254] and a temple of Juno Lucina, the goddess of birth and light.

"Monte sub Esquilio multis incæduus annis
Junonis magnæ nomine lucus erat."

_Ovid, Fast._ ii. 435.

This hill has two heights. That which is crowned by Santa Maria Maggiore was formerly called _Cispius_, where Servius Tullius had a palace; that which is occupied by S. Pietro in Vincoli was formerly called _Oppius_, where Tarquinius Superbus lived. It was in returning to his palace on the former (and not on the latter height, as generally maintained) that Servius Tullius was murdered.

The most important buildings of the Esquiline, in the later republican and in imperial times, were on the slope of the hill behind the Forum, and near the Coliseum, in the fashionable quarter called Carinæ,--the "rich Carinæ,"

"Passimque armenta videbant
Romanoque Foro et lautis mugire Carinis."

_Virgil, Æn._ viii. 361.

of which the principal street probably occupied the site of the present Via del Colosseo. At the entrance of this suburb, where the fine mediæval Torre dei Conti now stands, was the house of Spurius Cassius (Consul B.C. 493), which was confiscated and demolished, and the ground ordained to be always kept vacant, because he was suspected of aiming at regal power. Here, however, or very nearly on this site, the _Ædes Telluris_, or temple of Tellus, was erected _c._ B.C. 269,[255]--a building of sufficient importance for the senate, summoned by Antony, to assemble in it. The quarter immediately surrounding this temple acquired the name of _In Tellure_, which is still retained by several of its modern churches.[256] Near this temple--"in tellure," lived Pompey, in a famous though small historical house, which he adorned on the outside with rostra in memory of his naval victories, and which was painted within to look like a forest with trees and birds, much probably as the chambers are painted which were discovered a few years ago in the villa of Livia.[257] Here Julia, the daughter of Julius Cæsar, and wife of Pompey, died. After the death of Pompey this house was bought by the luxurious Antony. The difference between its two masters is pourtrayed by Cicero, who describes the severe comfort of the house of Pompey contrasted with the voluptuous luxury of its second master, and winds up his oration by exclaiming, "I pity even the roofs and the walls under the change." At a later period the same house was the favourite residence of Antoninus Pius. Hard by, in the Carinæ, the favourite residence of Roman knights, lived the father of Cicero, and hence the young Tullius went to listen in the forum to the orators whom he was one day to surpass.[258] Also in the Carinæ, but nearer the site of the Coliseum, was the magnificent house of the wealthy Vedius Pollio, which he bequeathed to Augustus, who pulled it down, and built the portico of Livia on its site:

"Disce tamen, veniens ætas, ubi Livia nunc est
Porticus, immensæ tecta fuisse domûs.
Urbis opus domus una fuit; spatiumque tenebat,
Quo brevius muris oppida multa tenent.
Hæc æquata solo est, nullo sub crimine regni,
Sed quia luxuriâ visa nocere suâ.
Sustinuit tantas operum subvertere moles,
Totque suas heres perdere Cæsar opes."

_Ovid, Fast._ vi. 639.

At its opposite extremity the Carinæ was united to the unfashionable and plebeian quarter of the _Suburra_, occupying the valley formed by the convergence of the Esquiline, Quirinal, and Viminal--which is still crowded with a teeming population. In one of the small streets leading from the Vicus Cyprius (between the Esquiline and Viminal) towards the Carinæ, was the _Tigellum Sororis_, which was extant--repaired at the public expense--till the fifth century. This, "the Sister's Beam," commemorated the well-known story of the last of the Horatii, who, returning from the slaughter of the Curiatii, and being met by his sister, bewailing one of the dead to whom she was betrothed, stabbed her in his anger. He was condemned to death, but at the prayer of his father his crime was expiated by his passing under the yoke of "the Sister's Beam." On one side of the Tigellum Sororis was an altar to Juno Sororis; on the other an altar to Janus Curiatius.[259]

During the empire several poets had their residence on the Esquiline. Virgil lived there, near the gardens of Mæcenas, which covered the slopes between the Esquiline and Viminal. Propertius had a house there, as we learn from himself--

"I, puer, et citus hæc aliqua propone columna
Et dominum Esquiliis scribe habitare tuum."

_Propert. Eleg._ iv. 23.

It is believed, but without certainty, that Horace also lived upon the Esquiline. He was constantly there in the villa of Mæcenas, where he was buried, and which he has described in his poems both in its original state as a desecrated cemetery, and again after his friend had converted it into a beautiful garden.

"Nunc licet Esquiliis habitare salubribus, atque
Aggere in aprico spatiari, quo modo tristes
Albis informem spectabant ossibus agrum."

_Sat._ i.

The house of Mæcenas, the great patron of the poets of the Augustan age, probably occupied a site above the Carinæ, where the baths of Titus afterwards were. It was a lofty and magnificent edifice, and is described by Horace, who calls it--

"Fastidiosam desere copiam, et
Molem propinquam nubibus arduis:
Omitte mirari beatæ
Fumum et opes strepitumque Romæ."

_Od._ iii. 29.

Mæcenas bequeathed his villa to Augustus, and Tiberius at one time resided in it.

Another, though less well-known poet of this age, who lived upon the Esquiline, was Pedo Albinovanus, much extolled by Ovid, who lived at the summit of the Vicus Cyprius (probably the Via Sta. Maria Maggiore), in a little house:

"Illic parva tui domus Pedonis
Cælata est aquilæ minore penna."

_Martial_, x. _Ep._ 19.

Near this was the _Lacus Orphei_, a fountain, in the centre of which was a rock, &c., surmounted by a statue of Orpheus with the enchanted beasts around him. The house of Pedo was afterwards inhabited by Pliny. On _Septimius_, as the furthest slope of the Esquiline towards the Viminal was called, lived Maximus--of whom Martial says:--

"Esquiliis domus est, domus est tibi colle Dianæ,
Et tua Patricius culmina Vicus habet:
Hinc viduæ Cybeles, illinc sacraria Vestæ,
Inde Novum, Veterem prospicis inde Jovem."

_Mart._ vii. _Ep._ 72.

Only the northern side of the Esquiline is now inhabited at all; the southern, and by far the larger portion, is clothed with vineyards and gardens, sprinkled over with titanic masses of ruin. On most parts of the hill, one might imagine oneself far away in the country. According to Niebuhr, the dweller amid the vines of the Esquiline, when he descends into the city, still says, "I am going to Rome."

* * * * *

Nero (A.D. 54--68) purchased the site of the villa of Mæcenas, and covered the whole side of the hill towards the Carinæ with the vast buildings of his Golden House, which also swallowed up the Cœlian and a great part of the Palatine; but he did not destroy the buildings which already existed, and "the Golden House was still the old mansion of Augustus and the villa of Mæcenas connected by a long series of columns and arches."[260] Titus (A.D. 79--81) and Trajan (A.D. 98--117) used part of the same site for their baths, and the ruins of all these buildings are now jumbled up together, and the varying whims of antiquaries have constantly changed the names of each fragment that has been discovered.

The more interesting of these ruins are on the southern slope of the Esquiline towards the Coliseum, and are most easily approached from the Via Polveriera. They are shown now as the _Baths of Titus_, or Camere Esquiline, and occupy a space of about 1150 feet by 850. That the chambers which are now visible were to be seen in the time of Leo X. (1513--22) we learn from Vasari, who says that Raphael and Giovanni da Udine were wont to study there and copy the arabesques to assist their work in the Vatican Loggie. After this, neglect and the falling in of the soil caused these treasures to be lost till 1774, when they were again partially unearthed, but they were only completely brought to view by the French, who began to take the work in hand in 1811, and continued their excavations for three years.

The principal remains, which are now exhibited by the dim torch of a solitary cicerone, are those of nine chambers, extending for 300 feet, and having on the north a kind of corridor, or cryptoporticus, whose vault is covered with paintings of birds, griffins, and flowers, &c. In two of these halls are alcoves for couches, and in one is a cavity for a fountain with a trench round it, like that in the nymphæum of the Palace of the Cæsars. In one of the halls is a group representing Venus attended by two Cupids, with doves hovering over her. Near this a pedestal is shown as that occupied by the Laocoon, though it was really found in the Vigna de Fredis, between the Sette Sale and Sta. Maria Maggiore. A set of thirty engravings, published by Mirri, from drawings taken in 1776, show what the paintings were at that time, but very few now remain perfect. A group of Coriolanus and his mother, represented in Mirri's work, is now inaccessible. All the paintings are Pompeian in character, and for some time were considered the best remains of ancient pictorial art in Rome, but they are inferior to those which have since been discovered on the Latin way and at the Baths of Livia. The chambers which open beyond the nine outer halls are considered to be part of the Golden House. In one of these the Meleager of the Vatican was found. A small chapel, dedicated to Sta. Felicitas and her seven sons (evidently engrafted upon the pagan building in the sixth century), was discovered in 1813. It is like the chapels in the catacombs, and is decorated with the conventional frescoes of the Good Shepherd, Daniel in the lions' den, &c. There are also some faint remains of a fresco of the sainted patrons.

Behind the convent of S. Pietro in Vincoli, in the open vineyards, are other ruins called the _Sette Sale_, being remains of the reservoirs (in reality nine in number) for the Baths. In these vineyards also are three large circular ruins, adorned on the interior with rows of niches for statues. One of them is partly built into the Polveriera, or powder magazine. These have been referred alternately to the Baths of Titus and those of Trajan.

* * * * *

Immediately behind the forum of Nerva stands the colossal brick tower, known as the Torre dei Conti, and built by Innocent III. (1198--1216) as a retreat for his family, now extinct. Its architect was Marchione d'Arezzo, and it was so much admired by Petrarch that he declared it had "no equal upon earth;" he must have meant in height. Four of the Conti have mounted the papal throne, Innocent III., Gregory IX., Alexander IV., and Innocent XIII. The last-named pope (1721--24) boasted of having "nine uncles, eight brothers, four nephews, and seven great nephews;" yet--a century after--and not a Conti remained.

If we turn to the left close to this, we shall find, in a commanding position, the famous Church of _S. Pietro in Vincoli_, said to have been originally founded in A.D. 109 by Theodora, sister of Hermes, Prefect of Rome, both converts of the then pope, who was the martyr St. Alexander of the basilica in the Campagna. A bolder legend attributes the foundation to St. Peter himself, who is believed to have dedicated this church to his Divine Master. History, however, can assign no earlier foundation than that in 442, by the Empress Eudoxia, wife of Valentinian III., from whom the church takes its name of the _Eudoxican Basilica_, and who placed there one of the famous chains which now form its great attraction to Roman Catholic pilgrims.

"The chains, left in the Mamertine Prisons after St. Peter's
confinement there, are said to have been found by the martyr Sta.
Balbina, in 126, and by her given to Theodora, another sainted
martyr, sister to Hermes, Prefect of Rome, from whom they passed
into the hands of St. Alexander, first pope of that name, and were
finally deposited by him in the church erected by Theodora, where
they have since remained. Such is the legendary, but the historic
origin of this basilica cannot be traced higher than about the
middle of the fifth century, subsequent to the year 439, when
Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, presented to the Empress Eudoxia,
wife of Theodosius the younger, two chains, believed to be those of
St. Peter, one of which was placed by her in the basilica of the
apostles at Constantinople, and the other sent to Rome for her
daughter Eudoxia, wife of Valentinian III., who caused this church,
hence called Eudoxian, to be erected, as the special shrine of
Peter's chains."--_Hemans._

One chain had been sent to Rome by Eudoxia the elder, and the other remained at Constantinople, but the Romans could not rest satisfied with the possession of half the relic; and within the walls of this very basilica, Leo I. beheld in a vision the miraculous and mystical uniting of the two chains, since which they have both been exhibited here, and the day of their being soldered together by invisible power, August 1, has been kept sacred in the Latin Church!

The church is at present entered by an ugly atrium, which was the work of Fontana in 1705; but Bacio Pintelli had already done almost all that was possible to destroy the features of the old basilica, under the Cardinal Titular of the church, Giulio della Rovere, the same who, as Pope Julius II., destroyed the old St Peter's and eighty-seven tombs of his predecessors. By Pintelli the present capitals were added to the columns in the nave, and the horizontal architrave above them was exchanged for a series of narrow round-headed arches.

But, in spite of alterations, the interior is still imposing. Two long lines of ancient fluted Doric columns (ten on each side), relics of the Baths of Titus or Trajan, which once covered this site, lead the eye to the high altar, supposed to cover the remains of the seven Maccabean brothers, and to the tribune, which contains an ancient episcopal throne, and is adorned with frescoes by _Jacopo Coppi_, a Florentine of the sixteenth century, illustrative of the life of St. Peter. Beneath these is the tomb of G. Clovis, a miniature painter of the sixteenth century, and canon of this church.

On the left of the entrance is the tomb of Antonio Pollajuolo, the famous worker in bronze, and his brother Pietro. The fresco above, which is ascribed to Pollajuolo, refers to the translation of the body of St. Sebastian, as "Depulsor Pestilitatis," from the catacombs to this church,--one of the most picturesque stories of the middle ages. The great plague of A.D. 680 was ushered in by an awful vision of the two angels of good and evil, who wandered through the streets by night, side by side, when the one smote upon the door where death was to enter, unless arrested by the other. The people continued to die by hundreds daily. At length a citizen dreamt that the sickness would cease when the body of St. Sebastian should be brought into the city, and when this was done, the pestilence was stayed. In the fresco the whole story is told. In the background the citizen tells his dream to Pope Agatho, who is seated among his cardinals. On the right the angels of good and evil (the bad angel represented as a devil) are making their mysterious visitation, on the left a procession is bringing in the relics, and the foreground is strewn with the corpses of the dead. The general invocation of St. Sebastian in Italy, and the frequent introduction of his figure in art, have their origin in this story.

At the entrance of the left aisle is a fine bas-relief of St. Peter throned, delivering his keys to an angel, who acknowledges his supremacy by receiving them on his knees. This work was executed in 1465, and serves as a monument to the Cardinal de Cusa, Bishop of Brixen, whose incised gravestone lies beneath.

Over the second altar is a most interesting mosaic of 680, representing, in old age, the St. Sebastian whom we are accustomed to see as a beautiful youth, wounded with arrows,--which he survived:--

"A single figure in mosaic exists as an altar-piece in S. Pietro in
Vincoli. It is intended for St. Sebastian, who was removed to the
church by Pope Agathon, on occasion of the plague in 680, and
doubtless executed soon after this date. As a specimen of its kind
it is very remarkable. There is no analogy between this figure and
the usual youthful type of St. Sebastian which was subsequently
adopted. On the contrary, the saint is represented here as an old
man with white hair and beard, carrying the crown of martyrdom in
his hand, and dressed from head to foot in true Byzantine style. In
his countenance there is still some life and dignity. The more
careful shadowing also of the drapery shows that, in a work
intended to be so much exposed to the gaze of the pious, more pains
were bestowed than usual; nevertheless, the figure, upon the whole,
is very inanimate; the ground is blue."--_Kugler._

The first altar in the right aisle has a picture of St. Augustine by _Guercino_; then come tombs of Cardinals Margotti and Agucci, from designs of _Domenichino_, who has introduced a portrait of the former in his monument. At the end of this aisle is the beautiful picture of St. Margaret and the Dragon by _Guercino_; the saint is inspired, and displaying no sign of fear,--an earthly impulse only appearing in the motion of her hand, which seems pushing back the dragon.

"St. Margaret was daughter of a priest of Antioch named Theodosius,
and was brought up as a Christian by her nurse, whose sheep she
watched upon the hills, while meditating upon the mysteries of the
gospel. The governor of Antioch fell in love with her and wished to
marry her, but she refused, and declared herself a Christian. Her
friends thereupon deserted her, and the governor tried to subdue
her by submitting her to horrible tortures, amid which her faith
did not fail. She was then dragged to a dungeon, where Satan, in
the form of a terrible dragon, came upon her with his inflamed and
hideous mouth wide open, and sought to terrify and confound her;
but she held up the cross of the Redeemer, and he fled before it.
She finally suffered death by decapitation. Her legend was
certainly known in the fifth century: in the fourteenth century she
was one of the favourite saints, and was specially invoked by women
against the pains of child-birth.

"'Mild Margarete, that was God's maide;
Maid Margarete, that was so meeke and milde.'"

See _Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art_, v. I.

Here is the glory of the church--the famous Moses of _Michael Angelo_, forming part of the decorations of the unfinished monument of Julius II.

"This pope, whom nature had intended for a conqueror, and destiny
clothed with the robe of a priest, takes his place by the side of
the great warriors of the sixteenth century, by the side of Charles
V., of Francis I., of Gonsalvo, of Cortes, of Alba, of Bayard, and
of Doria. It is difficult to imagine Julius II. murmuring prayers,
or saying mass in pontifical robes, and performing, in the midst of
all those unmanly functions and thousand passive forms, the
spirit-deadening part which is assigned to the popes, while his
soul was on fire with great-hearted designs, and while in the music
of the psalms he seemed to hear the thunder of cannon. He wished to
be a prince of the Church; and with the political instinct of a
prince he founded his state in the midst of the most difficult wars
against France, and unhesitatingly conquered and took possession of
Bologna, Piacenza, Parma, Reggio, and Urbino....

The greatest pope since Innocent III., and the creator of a new
political spirit in the papacy, he wished, as a second Augustus, to
glorify himself and his creation. He took up again the projects of
Nicholas V. Rome should become his monument. To carry out his
designs he found the genius of Bramante and Raphael, and, above
all, that of Michael Angelo, who belonged to him like an organ of
his being. St. Peter's, of which he laid the foundation-stone, the
paintings of the Sistine, the loggie of Bramante, the stanze of
Raphael, are memorials of Julius the Second."--_Gregorovius,
Grabmaler der Papste._

Most of all Julius II. sought immortality in his tomb, for which the original design was absolutely gigantic. Eighteen feet high, and twelve wide, it was intended to contain more than forty statues, which were to include Moses, St. Peter and St. Paul, Rachel and Leah, and chained figures of the Provinces, while those of the Heaven and the Earth were to support the sarcophagus of the pope. This project was cut short by the death of Julius in 1513, when only four of the statues were finished, and eight designed.[261] Of those which were finished, three statues, the Moses, the Rachel, and the Leah, were afterwards used for the existing memorial, which was put together under Paul III. by the Duke of Urbino, heir of Julius II.--in this church of which his uncle had been a cardinal.

"The eye does not know where to rest in this the masterpiece of
sculpture since the time of the Greeks. It seems to be as much an
incarnation of the genius of Michael Angelo, as a suitable allegory
of Pope Julius. Like Moses, he was at once lawgiver, priest, and
warrior. The figure is seated in the central niche, with
long-flowing beard descending to the waist, with horned head, and
deep-sunk eyes, which blaze, as it were, with the light of the
burning bush, with a majesty of anger which makes one tremble, as
of a passionate being, drunken with fire. All that is positive and
all that is negative in him is equally dreadful. If he were to
rise up, it seems as if he would shout forth laws which no human
intellect could fathom, and which, instead of improving the world,
would drive it back into chaos. His voice, like that of the gods of
Homer, would thunder forth in tones too awful for the ear of man to
support. Yes! there is something infinite which lies in the Moses
of Michael Angelo. Nor is his countenance softened by the twilight
of sadness, which is stealing from his forehead over his eyes. It
is the same deep sadness which clouded the countenance of Michael
Angelo himself. But here it is less touching than terrible. The
Greeks could not have endured a glance from such a Moses, and the
artist would certainly have been blamed, because he had thrown no
softening touch over his gigantic picture. That which we have is
the archetype of a terrible and quite unapproachable sublimity.
This statue might take its place in the cell of a colossal temple,
as that of Jupiter Ammon, but the tomb where it is placed is so
little suited to it, that regarded even only as its frame it is too
small."--_Gregorovius._

On either side of the principal figure are niches containing Michael Angelo's statues of Rachel and Leah,--emblematic of active and contemplative life. Those above, of the Prophet and the Sibyl, are by Raphael da Montelupo, his best pupil; on the summit is the Madonna with the Infant Jesus by Scherano da Settignano. The worst figure of the whole is that, by Maso dal Bosco, of the pope himself, who seems quite overwhelmed by the grandeur of his companions, and who lies upon a pitiful sarcophagus, leaning his head upon his hand, and looking down upon the Moses. He is represented with the beard which he was the first pope to reintroduce after an interval of many centuries,--and it is said to have been from his example that Francis I., Charles V., and others, adopted it also.

After all, Julius II. was not buried here, and the tomb is merely commemorative. He rests beneath a plain marble slab near his uncle Sixtus IV., in the chapel of the Sacrament at St. Peter's.

Close to the Moses is the entrance to the chapel in which the chains are preserved, behind a bronze screen--the work of Pollajuolo. They are of unequal size, owing to many fragments of one of them (first whole links, then only filings) having been removed in the course of centuries by various popes and sent to Christian princes who have been esteemed worthy of the favour![262] The longest is about five feet in length. At the end of one of them is a collar, which is said to have encircled the neck of St. Peter. They are exposed on the day of the "station" (the first Monday in Lent) in a reliquary presented by Pius IX., adorned with statuettes of St. Peter and the angel--to whom he is represented as saying, "Ecce nunc scio vere."[263] On the following day a priest gives the chains to be kissed by the pilgrims, and touches their foreheads with them, saying, "By the intercession of the blessed Apostle Peter, may God preserve you from evil. Amen."

"Peter, therefore, was kept in prison: but prayer was made without
ceasing of the church unto God for him. And when Herod would have
brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two
soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door
kept the prison. And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him,
and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side,
and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell
off from his hands."--_Acts_ xii. 5--7.

Other relics preserved here are portions of the crosses of St. Peter and St. Andrew, and the body of Sta. Costanza.

The sacristy, opening out of this chapel, contains a number of pictures, including, very appropriately, the Deliverance of St. Peter from Prison, by _Domenichino_. Here, till a few years ago, was preserved the famous and beautiful small picture, known as the Speranza of _Guido_. It has lately been sold by the monks to an Englishman, and is replaced by a copy.

In this church Hildebrand was crowned pope as Gregory VII. (1073). Stephen IX. was also proclaimed here in 939. The adjoining convent was built from designs of Giuliano San Gallo. Its courtyard contains a picturesque well (with columns), bearing the arms of Julius II., by _Simone Mosca_. The arcades were decorated in the present century with frescoes by _Pietra Camosci_, as a votive offering for his recovery from cholera, to St. Sebastian, "depulsori pestilitatis."

Opposite S. Pietro in Vincoli is a convent of Maronite monks, in whose garden is a tall palm-tree, perhaps the finest in Rome. In the view from the portico of the church it forms a conspicuous feature, and the combination of the old tower, the palm-tree, and the distant capitol, standing out against the golden sky of sunset, is one very familiar to Roman artists.

The tall machicolated _Tower_ on the right was once a fortress of the Frangipani family, who obtained their glorious surname of "bread-breakers" from the generosity which they showed in the distribution of food to the poor during a famine in the thirteenth century. The tower is now used as a belfry to the adjoining Church of _S. Francesco di Paola_, being the only mediæval fortress tower applied to this purpose. The adjoining building is known as the _House of Lucrezia Borgia_, and the balcony over the gateway on the other side is pointed out as that in which she used to stand meditating on her crimes. Here Cæsar Borgia and his unhappy brother, the Duke of Gandia, supped with Lucrezia and their mother Vanozza, the evening before the murder of the duke, of which Cæsar was accused by popular belief. It is worth while to descend under the low-browed arch from the church piazza, and look back upon this lofty house, with its steep, dark, winding staircase,--a most picturesque bit of street architecture, which looks better the further you descend. The Via S. Francesco di Paola is considered by Ampère[264] to have been the place where the house of the Horatii and the Tigellum Sororis once stood.

Following the narrow lane behind S. Pietro, we reach, on the left, _S. Martino al Monte_, the great church of the Carmelites, which, though of uninviting exterior, is of the highest interest. It was built in A.D. 500 by S. Symmachus, and dedicated to the saints Sylvestro and Martino, on the site of an older church founded by St. Sylvester in the time of Constantine. After repeated alterations, it was modernised in 1650 by P. Filippini, General of the Carmelites. The nave is separated from the aisles by twenty-four ancient Corinthian columns. The aisles are painted with landscapes by _Gaspar Poussin_, having figures introduced by his brother Nicholas. The roof is an addition by S. Carlo Borromeo.

The pillars of different marbles are magnificent, and the effect of the raised choir, with winding staircases to the crypt below, is highly picturesque. On the walls are frescoes by _Cavaluccio_ (ob. 1795), who is buried in the left aisle. The collection of incised gravestones deserves attention, they comprise those of a knight in mail armour of 1349; Cardinal Diomede Caraffa, with a curious epitaph; and various generals and remarkable monks of the Carmelite Order. Beneath the high altar rest the bodies of Popes Sergius, Sylvester, Martin I., Fabian, Stephen I., Soter, Ciriacus, Anastasius, and Innocent I., with several saints not papal, removed hither from the catacombs. In the curious crypt, part of the Baths of Titus, the early Council of Sylvester and Constantine was held, as represented in the fresco in the left aisle of the upper church. The back of the ancient chair of Sylvester still remains, green with age and damp. In the chapel on the left, where St. Sylvester used to celebrate mass, is an ancient mosaic of the Madonna. In front of the papal chair is the grand sepulchral figure of a Carmelite, who was General of the Order in the time of Sta. Teresa. An urn contains the intestines of the "Beato," Cardinal Giuseppe-Maria de Tommasis, who died in 1713. His body is preserved beneath an altar in the left aisle of the upper church, and is dressed in his cardinal's robes.

"In 1650 was reopened, beneath SS. Martino e Sylvestro, the
long-forgotten oratory formed (according to Anastasius) by
Sylvester among the halls of Trajan's Thermæ--or, more probably, in
an antique palace adjacent to those imperial baths--and called by
Christian writers 'Titulus Equitii,' from the name of a Roman
priest then proprietor of the ground. Now a gloomy, time-worn, and
sepulchral subterranean, this structure is in form an extensive
quadrangle, under a high-hung vault, divided into four aisles by
massive square piers; the central bay of one aisle adorned with a
large red cross, painted as if studded with gems; and ranged round
this, four books, each within a nimbus, earliest symbolism to
represent the Evangelists. Among the much-faded and dim-seen
frescoes on these dusky walls, are figures of the Saviour between
SS. Peter and Paul, besides other saints, each crowned by a large
nimbus."--_Hemans' Ancient Sacred Art._

Here is preserved a mitre, probably the most ancient extant, and said to be that of St. Sylvester, who lived in the fourth century, and who was the first Latin bishop to wear the mitre originally worn by the priests of pagan temples. This ancient mitre is so low as to rise only just above the crown of the head.

This church was dedicated to St. Martin, the holy Bishop of Tours, within a hundred years after his death, showing the very early veneration with which that saint was regarded.

Leaving S. Martino by the other door, near the tribune, we emerge at the top of the steep street called _Sta. Lucia in Selci_, which is the same with that described by Martial in going to visit the younger Pliny as--

"Altum vincere tramitem Suburræ." _Lib._ x. _Ep._ 19, 5.

And again--

"Alto Suburrani vincenda est semita clivi." _Lib._ v. _Ep._ 23, 5.

Here is a whole group of convents. In the hollow is the convent of S. Francesco di Paola, with several others. Just above (in the Via Quattro Cantone) is the convent of the Oratorians, or S. Filippo Neri. At this point also are two mediæval towers, one enclosed within the convent walls of Sta. Lucia in Selci, the other on the opposite side of the street, supposed by some to be the tower of Mecænas, celebrated by Horace. On the left of the street is the house of Domenichino (Domenico Zampieri), whose residence here is commemorated by an inscription.

Mounting the street we soon reach, on the right, the picturesque tenth century west gate (a high narrow arch upon Ionic columns, modernized and plastered over under the Sardinian government) of the _Church of Sta. Prassede_, which leads into the atrium of the church. This is seldom open, but we can enter by a door in the north aisle.

Sta. Prassede was sister of Sta. Pudenziana, and daughter of Pudens and his wife Claudia, with whom St. Paul lodged, and who were among his first converts (see Ch. X., Sta. Pudenziana). She gave shelter in her house to a number of persecuted Christians, twenty-three of whom were discovered and martyred in her presence. She then buried their bodies in the catacombs of her grandmother, Sta. Priscilla, but, collecting their blood in a sponge, placed it in a well in her own house, where she was afterwards buried herself. An oratory is said to have been erected on the site by Pius I., A.D. 160, and was certainly in existence in A.D. 499, when it is mentioned in the acts of a Council. In A.D. 822 the original church was destroyed, and the present church erected by Pascal I., of whose time are the low tower, the porch, the terra-cotta cornices, and the mosaics. During the absence of the popes at Avignon, Sta. Prassede was one of the many churches which fell almost into ruin, and it has since suffered terribly from injudicious modernisations, first in the fifteenth century from Rosellini, under Nicholas V., and afterwards under S. Carlo Borromeo in 1564.

The interior is a basilica, the nave being separated from the aisles by sixteen granite columns, many of which have been boxed up in hideous stucco pilasters, decorated with frescoes of apostles; but their Corinthian capitals are visible, carved with figures of birds (the eagle, cock, and dove) in strong relief against the acanthus leaves. The nave is divided into four compartments by arches rising from the square pilasters; the roof is coffered.

In the right aisle is the entrance to the famous chapel, called, from its unusual and mysterious splendour, the _Orto del Paradiso_--originally dedicated to S. Zeno, then to the Virgin, with the invocation "Libera nos a pœnis inferi," and finally to the great relic which it contains. Females are never allowed to enter this shrine except upon Sundays in Lent, but can see the relic through a grating. Males are admitted by the door which is flanked by two columns of rare black and white marble, supporting a richly-sculptured marble cornice, above which are two lines of mosaic heads in circlets--in the outer, the Saviour and the twelve apostles; in the inner, the Virgin between St. Stephen and St. Laurence, with eight female saints; at the angles St. Pudens and St. Pastor. In the interior of the chapel four granite columns support a lofty groined vault, which, together with the upper part of the walls, is entirely covered with mosaic figures, which stand out distinctly from a gold ground.

"Here are SS. Peter and Paul before a throne, on which is the
cross, but no seated figure; the former apostle holding a single
gold key,[265] the latter a scroll; St. John the Evangelist, with a
richly-bound volume; SS. James and Andrew, the two daughters of
Pudens, and St. Agnes, all in rich vestments, and holding crowns;
the Virgin Mary (a veiled matronly figure), and St. John the
Baptist standing beside her; under the arch of a window, another
half-figure of Mary, with three other females, all having the
nimbus, one crowned, one with a square halo to indicate a person
still living; above these, the Divine Lamb on a hill, from which
the four rivers issue, with stags drinking of their waters; above
the altar, the Saviour, between four other saints,--figures in part
barbarously sacrificed to a modern tabernacle that conceals them.
On the vault a colossal half-figure of the Saviour, youthful but
severe in aspect, with cruciform nimbus, appears in a large
circular halo supported by four archangels, solemn forms in long
white vestments, that stand finely distinct in the dim light.
Within a niche over the altar is another mosaic of the Virgin and
Child, with the two daughters of Pudens, in which Rumohr
(Italienische Forsch.) observes ruder execution, indicating origin
later than the ninth century."--_Hemans' Ancient Christian Art._

The relic preserved here (one of the principal objects of pilgrimage in Rome) is the column to which our Saviour is reputed to have been bound, said to have been given by the Saracens to Giovanni Colonna, cardinal of this church, and legate of the crusade, because, when he had fallen into their hands and was about to be put to death, he was rescued by a marvellous intervention of celestial light. Its being of the rarest blood jasper is a reason against its authenticity; the peculiarity of its formation having even given rise to the mineralogical term, "Granito della Colonna." A disk of porphyry in the pavement marks the grave of forty martyrs collected by Paschal I. The mother of that pope is also buried here, and the inscription commemorating her observes an ancient ecclesiastical usage in allowing her the title of "episcopa:" "_Ubi utique benignissimæ suæ genitricis, scilicet Dominæ Theodoræ, Episcopæ corpus quiescit._" In this chapel Paschal I. saw the spirit of his nephew dragged to heaven by an angel, through the little window, while he was saying a mass for his soul.

The high altar covers the entrance to a small crypt, in which are two ancient sarcophagi, containing the remains of the sainted sisters Prassede and Pudenziana. An altar here, richly decorated with mosaic, is shown as that which existed in the house of Prassede. Above is a fresco, referred to the twelfth century, representing the Madonna between the sainted sisters. At the end of the left aisle is a large slab of granite (nero-bianco), upon which Sta. Prassede is said to have slept, and above it a picture of her asleep. In the centre of the nave is the well where she collected the blood, with a hideous statue of her squeezing it out of a sponge.

The chapel at the end of the left aisle is that of S. Carlo Borromeo, who was cardinal of this church, and contains his episcopal throne (a wooden chair) and a table, at which, like St. Gregory, he used to feed and wait upon twelve poor men daily. The pictures in this chapel, by _Louis Stern_, represent S. Carlo in prayer, and in ecstasy before the Sacrament. In the cloister is an old orange-tree which was planted by him, but is still flourishing.

Opposite the side entrance of the Orto del Paradiso is the tomb of Cardinal Cetive (1474), with his sleeping figure and statuettes of SS. Peter and Paul, Sta. Prassede, and Sta. Pudenziana. This will recall Browning's quaint forcible poem of 'The Bishop who orders his tomb at Saint Praxed's church.'

"Saint Praxed's ever was the church for peace.

* * * * *

And there how I shall lie through centuries,
And hear the blessed mutter of the mass,
And see God made and eaten all day long,
And feel the steady candle flame, and taste
Good strong thick stupefying incense-smoke!"

Other tombs of interest are those of Cardinal Ancherus, assassinated in 1286 outside the Porta S. Giovanni, and of Monsignor Santoni, a bust, said to have been executed by Bernini when only ten years old.

Two pictures in side chapels are interesting in a Vallombrosan church, as connected with saints of that order,--one representing S. Pietro Aldobrandini passing through the furnace at Settimo; and another the martyrdom of Cardinal Beccaria, put to death at Florence (whither he was sent by Alexander IV. to make peace between the Guelfs and Ghibellines)--and consigned to hell by Dante.

----"Quel di Beccaria
Di cui segò Fiorenza la gorgiera."

_Inferno_, xxxii.

Steps of magnificent rosso-antico lead to the tribune, which is covered with mosaics of A.D. 817-824. Those on the arch represent the heavenly Jerusalem; within is the Saviour with a cruciform halo--the hand of the first person of the Trinity holding a crown over his head--and St. Peter and St. Paul bringing in the sainted sisters of the church; on the right, Pope Paschal I.,[266] with a model of his church; on the left, St. Zeno (?). Above these figures, is the Adoration of the spotless Lamb, and beneath their feet the Jordan; below all is the Lamb again, with the twelve sheep issuing from the mystic cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and verses recording the work of Paschal I.

"The arrangement of saints at Sta. Prassede (817) is altogether
different from that at Ravenna, but equally striking. Over the
grand arch which separates the choir from the nave is a mosaic,
representing the New Jerusalem, as described in the Revelations. It
is a walled enclosure, with a gate at each end, guarded by angels.
Within is seen the Saviour of the World, holding in his hand the
orb of sovereignty, and a company of blessed seated on thrones:
outside, the noble army of martyrs is seen approaching, conducted
and received by angels. They are all arrayed in white, and carry
crowns in their hands. Lower down, on each side, a host of martyrs
press forward with palms and crowns, to do homage to the Lamb,
throned in the midst. None of the martyrs are distinguished by
name, except those to whom the church is dedicated--Sta. Prassede
and her sister Pudenziana."--_Mrs. Jameson._

While Pope Gelasius II. was celebrating mass in this church, he was attacked by armed bands of the inimical houses of Leone and Frangipani, and was only rescued by the assistance of his nephew Gaetano, after a conflict of some hours. Hence in 1630, Moriandi, abbot of Sta. Prassede, was suddenly carried off and put to fearful tortures, which resulted in his death, ostensibly on account of irregularities in his convent, but really because he had been heard to speak against Urban VIII.[267]

In the sacristy is preserved a fine picture by Giulio Romano of the Flagellation--especially appropriate in the church of the Colonna.

Hence the curious campanile of the old church (built 1110) may be entered, and a loggia whence the great relics of the church are exhibited at Easter, including: portions of the crown of thorns, of the sponge, of the Virgin's hair, and a miniature portrait of our Saviour which is said to have belonged to St. Peter and to have been left by him with the daughters of Pudens.

The _Monastery_ attached to the church, founded by Paschal I., was first occupied by Basilian, but since 1198 has belonged to Vallombrosan monks. Nothing remains of the mosaic-covered chapel of St. Agnes, built by the founder within its walls.

Where the Via Sta. Prassede crosses the road leading from Sta. Maria Maggiore to the Lateran, is the modern gothic church of _Il Santissimo Redentore_, built by Father Douglas within the last few years.

A little beyond this, attached to the Church of S. Vito, from which it has sometimes been named, is the _Arch of Gallienus_ (supposed to occupy the site of the Esquiline gate in the wall of Servius), dedicated to Gallienus (A.D. 253--260) and his Empress Salonina, by Marcus Aurelius Victor, evidently a court-flatterer of the period, who was prefect of Rome, and possessed gardens on this spot. It is of very inferior execution; the original plan had three arches; only that in the centre remains, but traces of another may be seen on the side next the church. Gallienus was a cruel and self-indulgent emperor, who excited the indignation of the Romans by leaving his old father, Valerian, to die a captive in the hands of the Persians, so that the inscription, "_Clementissimo principi cuius invicta virtus sola pietate superata est_," is singularly false, even for the time.

"Il arrivait à Gallien de faire tuer trois ou quatre mille soldats
en un jour, et il écrivait des lettres comme celle-ci, adressée à
un de ses généraux: 'Tu n'auras pas fait assez pour moi, si tu ne
mets à mort que des hommes armés, car le sort de la guerre aurait
pu les faire périr. Il faut tuer quiconque a eu une intention
mauvaise, quiconque a mal parlé de moi. Déchire, tue, extermine:
_lacera, occide, concide_.' Entré dans Byzance en promettant leur
pardon aux troupes qui avaient combattu contre lui, il les fit
égorger, et les soldats ravagèrent la ville au point qu'il n'y
resta pas un habitant. Voilà pour la clémence. Tandis que Valérien,
son père, était prisonnier du roi des Perses Sapor, qui pour monter
à cheval se servait du dos du vieil empereur comme d'un marchepied,
en attendant qu'il le fit empailler, l'indigne fils de Valérien
vivait au sein des plus honteuses voluptés, et ne tentait pas un
seul effort pour le délivrer. Voilà pour la vaillance et la
piété."--_Ampère, Emp._ ii. 334.

Close to this Gallienus had ordered a statue of himself to be erected, which was to be double the height of the colossus of Nero, but it was unfinished at the time of his death, and destroyed by his successor. From the centre of the arch hung, from the thirteenth century, the chain and keys of the gates of Viterbo, removed at the same time as the great bell of the Capitol. These interesting memorials of middle-age warfare were taken down in 1825.

Passing under the arch we enter upon the Via Maggiore, the main artery leading to Santa Croce. On the left is the humble convent of the _Monache Polacche_, where the long-suffering Madre Makrena, the sole survivor of the terrible persecution of the nuns of Minsk, has lived in the closest retirement since her escape in 1845.

The story of the cruel sufferings of the Polish-Basilian nuns of
Minsk reminds one of the worst persecutions of the early
Christians, under Nero and Diocletian. Makrena Miaczylslawska was
abbess of a convent of thirty-eight nuns, whom the apostate bishop
Siemasko first tried to compel to the Greek faith in the summer of
1838. Their refusal led to their being driven, laden with chains,
to Witepsk, in Siberia, where they were forced to hard labour, many
of them being beaten to death, one roasted alive in a hot stove,
and another having her brains beaten out with a stake by the abbess
of the Czernice (apostate nuns), on their persisting in their
refusal to change their religion. In 1840 the surviving nuns were
removed to Polock, where they were forced to work at building a
palace for the bishop Siemasko, and where nine of them perished by
a falling scaffold, and many others expired under the heavy weights
they were compelled to carry, or under the lash. In 1842 their
tortures were increased tenfold, eight of the sisters having their
eyes torn out, and others being trodden to death. In 1843 those who
still survived were removed to Miadzioly, where the "protopope
Skrykin" said that he would "drown them like puppies," and where
they were dragged by boats through the shallows of the half-frozen
Dwina, up to their necks in water, till many died of the cold. In
the spring of 1845, Makrena, with the only three nuns who survived
with the use of their limbs (Eusebia Wawrzecka, Clotilda Konarska,
and Irene Pomarnacka,) scaled the walls of their prison, while the
priests and nuns who guarded them were lying drunk after an orgie,
and, after wandering for three months in the forests of Lithuania,
made good their escape. The nuns remained in Vienna; the abbess,
after a series of extraordinary adventures, arrived in Rome, where
she was at first lodged in the convent of the Trinità de' Monti.
The story of the nuns of Minsk was taken down from her dictation at
the same time by a number of eminent ecclesiastics, authorized by
the pope, and the authenticity of her statements verified; after
which she retired into complete seclusion in the Polish convent on
the Esquiline, where she has long filled the humble office of
portress. Her legs are eaten into the bone by the chains she wore
in her prison life. The story of the persecution at Minsk may be
read in "Le Récit de Makrena Miaczylslawska," published at Paris,
by Lecoffre, in 1846; in a paper by Charles Dickens, in the
"Household Words," for May, 1854; and in "Pictures of Christian
Heroism," 1855.

Nearly opposite this convent is the picturesque ruin of a nymphæum, probably of the time of Septimius Severus, erroneously called _The Trophies of Marius_, from the trophies, now on the terrace in front of the Capitol, which were found here.

Beyond this, on the right, is the entrance of the _Villa Palombara_, occupying a great part of the site of the Baths of Titus.

"This villa once belonged to Queen Christina of Sweden, who has
left upon the little doorway exactly opposite the ruin called the
Trophies of Marius, a curious record of her credulity. It consists
of a collection of unintelligible words, signs, and triangles,
given her by some alchymist, as the rule to make gold, and which,
no doubt, he had found successful, having obtained from her, and
probably from many other votaries, abundance of that precious metal
in exchange for it. But as she could make nothing of it, she caused
it to be inscribed here, in case any passenger, wiser than herself,
should be able to develope the mystic signs of this golden
secret."--_Eaton's Rome._

Though the existing ruin is misnamed, the trophies erected in honour of the victories which Marius gained over the Cimbri were really set up near this; and, curiously enough, on this site also Marius was defeated at the "Forum Esquilinum" by Sylla, who suddenly descended upon Rome from Nola with six legions, and entering by the Porta Esquilina, met his adversary here, and forced him to fly to Ostia.

Behind the Trophies of Marius a lane branches off on the left to the desolate _Church of Sta. Bibiana_.