Chapter XVIII: The Tre Fontane and S. Paolo

The Marmorata--Arco di S. Lazzaro--Protestant Cemetery--Pyramid of
Caius Cestius--Monte-Testaccio--Porta S. Paolo--Chapel of the
Farewell--The Tre Fontane (SS. Vincenzo ed Anastasio--Sta. Maria
Scala Cœli--S. Paolo alle Tre Fontane)--Basilica and Monastery
of S. Paolo.

Beyond the Piazza Bocca della Verità, the _Via della Marmorata_ is spanned by an arch which nearly marks the site of the _Porta Trigemina_, by which Marius fled to Ostia before Sylla in B.C. 88. Near this stood the statue erected by public subscription to Minucius, whose jealousy brought about the execution of the patriot Mælius, B.C. 440. Here also was the temple of Jupiter Inventor, whose dedication was attributed to the gratitude of Hercules for the restoration of his cattle, carried off by Cacus to his cave on the neighbouring Aventine.

It was at the Porta Trigemina that Camillus (B.C. 391), sent into exile to Ardea by the accusations of the plebs, stayed, and, stretching forth his hands to the Capitol, prayed to the gods who reigned there that if he was unjustly expelled, Rome might "one day have need of Camillus."

Passing the arch, the road skirts the wooded escarpment of the Aventine, crowned by its three churches--Sta. Sabina, S. Alessio, and the Priorato.

"De ce côté, entre l'Aventin et le Tibre, hors de la porte
Trigemina, étaient divers marchés, notamment le marché aux bois, le
marché à la farine et au pain, les _horrea_, magasins de blés. Le
voisinage de ces marchés, de ces magasins et de l'emporium,
produisait un grand mouvement de transport et fournissait de
l'occupation à beaucoup de portefaix. Plaute[363] fait allusion à
ces porteurs de sacs de la porte Trigemina. On peut en voir encore
tous les jours remplir le même office au même lieu."--_Ampère,
Hist. Rom._ iv. 75.

From the landing-place for modern Carrara marble, a new road on the right, planted with trees, leads along the river to the ancient _Marmorata_, discovered 1867--68, when many magnificent blocks of ancient marble were found buried in the mud of the Tiber. Recent excavations have laid bare the inclined planes by which the marbles were landed, and the projecting bars of stone with rings for mooring the marble vessels.

In the neighbouring vineyard are the massive ruins of the _Emporium_, or magazine for merchandise, founded by M. Æmilius Lepidus and L. Æmilius Paulus, the ædiles in B.C. 186. Upon the ancient walls of this time is engrafted a small and picturesque winepress of the fifteenth century. The neighbouring vineyard is much frequented by marble collectors.

A short distance beyond the turn to the Marmorata the main road is crossed by an ancient brick arch, called _Arco di S. Lazzaro_, or Arco della Salara, by the side of which is a hermitage.

About half a mile beyond this we reach the _Porta S. Paolo_, built by Belisarius on the site of the Ancient Porta Ostiensis.

It was here, just within the Ostian Gate, that the Emperor Claudius, returning from Ostia to take vengeance upon Messalina, was met by their two children, Octavia and Britannicus, accompanied by a vestal, who insisted upon the rights of her Order, and imperiously demanded that the empress should not be condemned undefended.

"Totila entra par la porte Asinaria et une autre fois par la porte
Ostiensis, aujourd'hui porte Saint-Paul; par la même porte,
Genséric, que la mer apportait, et qui, en s'embarquant, avait dit
à son pilote: 'Conduis-moi vers le rivage que menace la colère
divine.'"--_Ampère, Emp._ ii. 325.

Close to this, is the famous _Pyramid of Caius Cestius_. It is built of brick, coated with marble, and is 125 feet high, and 100 feet wide at its square basement. In the midst is a small sepulchral chamber, painted with arabesques. Two inscriptions on the exterior show that the Caius Cestius buried here was a prætor, a tribune of the people, and one of the "Epulones" appointed to provide the sacrificial feasts of the gods. He died about 30 B.C., leaving Agrippa as his executor, and desiring by his will that his body might be buried, wrapped up in precious stuffs. Agrippa, however, applied to him the law which forbade luxurious burial, and spent the money, partly upon the pyramid and partly upon erecting two colossal statues in honour of the deceased, of which the pedestals have been found near the tomb. In the middle ages this was supposed to be the sepulchre of Remus.

"Cette pyramide, sauf les dimensions, est absolument semblable aux
pyramides d'Égypte. Si l'on pouvait encore douter que celles-ci
étaient des tombeaux, l'imitation des pyramides égyptiennes dans un
tombeau romain serait un argument de plus pour prouver qu'elles
avaient une destination funéraire. La chambre qu'on a trouvée dans
le monument de Cestius était décorée de peintures dont quelques
unes ne sont pas encore effacées. C'était la coutume des peuples
anciens, notamment des Egyptiens et des Etrusques, de peindre
l'intérieur des tombeaux, que l'on fermait ensuite soigneusement.
Ces peintures, souvent très-considérables, n'étaient que pour le
mort, et ne devaient jamais être vues par l'œil d'un vivant. Il
en était certainement ainsi de celles qui décoraient la chambre
sépulchrale de la pyramide de Cestius, car cette chambre n'avait
aucune entrée. L'ouverture par laquelle on y pénètre aujourd'hui
est moderne. On avait déposé le corps ou les cendres avant de
terminer le monument, on acheva ensuite de la bâtir jusqu'au
sommet."--_Ampère, Emp._ i. 347.

"St. Paul was led to execution beyond the city walls, upon the road
to Ostia. As he issued forth from the gate, his eyes must have
rested for a moment on that sepulchral pyramid which stood beside
the road, and still stands unshattered, amid the wreck of so many
centuries, upon the same spot. That spot was then only the
burial-place of a single Roman; it is now the burial-place of many
Britons. The mausoleum of Caius Cestius rises conspicuously amongst
humbler graves, and marks the site where Papal Rome suffers her
Protestant sojourners to bury their dead. In England and in
Germany, in Scandinavia and in America, there are hearts which turn
to that lofty cenotaph as the sacred point of their whole horizon;
even as the English villager turns to the grey church tower, which
overlooks the grave-stones of his kindred. Among the works of man,
that pyramid is the only surviving witness of the martyrdom of St.
Paul; and we may thus regard it with yet deeper interest, as a
monument unconsciously erected by a pagan to the memory of a
martyr. Nor let us think they who lie beneath its shadow are indeed
resting (as degenerate Italians fancy) in unconsecrated ground.
Rather let us say, that a spot where the disciples of Paul's faith
now sleep in Christ, so near the soil once watered by his blood, is
doubly hallowed; and that their resting-place is most fitly
identified with the last earthly journey, and the dying glance of
their own patron saint, the apostle of the Gentiles."--_Conybeare
and Howson._

At the foot of the Pyramid is the _Old Protestant Cemetery_, a lovely spot, now closed. Here is the grave of Keats, with the inscription:

"This grave contains all that was mortal of a young English poet,
who, on his death-bed, in the bitterness of his heart at the
malicious power of his enemies, desired these words to be engraven
on his tombstone: 'Here lies one whose name was writ in water.'
February 24, 1821."

"Go thou to Rome--at once the paradise,
The grave, the city, and the wilderness;
And where its wrecks like shattered mountains rise,
And flowering weeds, and fragrant copses dress
The bones of desolation's nakedness,
Pass, till the spirit of the spot shall lead
Thy footsteps to a slope of green access,
Where, like an infant's smile, over the dead,
A light of laughing flowers along the grass is spread,

"And grey walls moulder round, on which dull Time
Feeds, like slow fire upon a hoary brand;
And one keen pyramid, with wedge sublime,
Pavilioning the dust of him who planned
This refuge for his memory, doth stand
Like flame transformed to marble; and beneath
A field is spread, on which a newer band
Have pitched in Heaven's smile their camp of death,
Welcoming him we lose with scarce extinguished breath."

_Shelley's Adonais._

Very near the grave of Keats is that of Augustus William Hare, the elder of the two brothers who wrote the "Guesses at Truth," ob. 1834.

"When I am inclined to be serious, I love to wander up and down
before the tomb of Caius Cestius. The Protestant burial-ground is
there, and most of the little monuments are erected to the
young--young men of promise, cut off when on their travels full of
enthusiasm, full of enjoyment; brides, in the bloom of their
beauty, on their first journey; or children borne from home in
search of health. This stone was placed by his fellow-travellers,
young as himself, who will return to the house of his parents
without him; that, by a husband or a father, now in his native
country. His heart is buried in that grave.

"It is a quiet and sheltered nook, covered in the winter with
violets; and the pyramid, that overshadows it, gives it a classic
and singularly solemn air. You feel an interest there, a sympathy
you were not prepared for. You are yourself in a foreign land; and
they are for the most part your countrymen. They call upon you in
your mother tongue--in English--in words unknown to a native, known
only to yourself: and the tomb of Cestius, that old majestic pile,
has this also in common with them. It is itself a stranger among
strangers. It has stood there till the language spoken round about
it has changed; and the shepherd, born at the foot, can read the
inscription no longer."--_Rogers._

The _New Burial Ground_ was opened in 1825. It extends for some distance along the slope of the hill under the old Aurelian Wall, and is beautifully shaded by cypresses, and carpeted with violets. Amid the forest of tombs we may notice that which contains the heart of Shelley (his body having been burnt upon the shore at Lerici, where it was thrown up by the sea), inscribed:

"Percy Bysshe Shelley, Cor Cordium. Natus IV. Aug. MDCCXCII. Obiit
VIII. Jul. MDCCCXXII.

'Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange.'"

Another noticeable tomb is that of Gibson the sculptor, who died 1868.

From the fields in front of the cemetery (_Prati del Popolo Romano_) rises the _Monte Testaccio_, only 160 feet in height, but worth ascending for the sake of the splendid view it affords. The extraordinary formation of this hill, which is entirely composed of broken pieces of pottery, has long been an unexplained bewilderment.

"Le Monte-Testaccio est pour moi des nombreux problèmes qu'offrent
les antiquités romaines le plus difficile à résoudre. On ne peut
s'arrêter à discuter sérieusement la tradition d'après laquelle il
aurait été formé avec les débris des vases contenant les tributs
qu'apportaient à Rome les peuples soumis par elle. C'est là
évidemment une légende du moyen âge née du souvenir de la grandeur
romaine et imaginée pour exprimer la haute idée qu'on s'en
faisait, comme on avait imaginé ces statues de provinces placées au
Capitole, et dont chacune portait au cou une cloche qui sonnait
tout-à-coup d'elle-même, quand une province se soulevait, comme on
a prétendu que le lit du Tibre était pavé en airain par les tributs
apportés aux empereurs romains. Il faut donc chercher une autre
explication."--_Ampère, Emp._ ii. 386.

Just outside the Porta S. Paolo is (on the right) a vineyard which belonged to Sta. Francesca Romana (born 1384, canonized 1608 by Paul V.).

"Instead of entering into the pleasures to which her birth and
riches entitled her, Sta. Francesca went every day, disguised in a
coarse woollen garment, to her vineyard, and collected faggots,
which she brought into the city on her head, and distributed to the
poor. If the weight exceeded her womanly strength, she loaded
therewith an ass, following after on foot in great
humility."--_Mrs. Jameson's Monastic Orders._

A straight road a mile and a half long leads from the gate to the basilica. Half way (on the left) is the humble chapel which commemorates the farewell of St. Peter and St. Paul on their way to martyrdom, inscribed:

"In this place SS. Peter and Paul separated on their way to
martyrdom.

"And Paul said to Peter, 'Peace be with thee, Foundation of the
Church, Shepherd of the flock of Christ.'

"And Peter said to Paul, 'Go in peace, Preacher of good tidings,
and Guide of the salvation of the just.'"[364]

Passing the basilica, which looks outside like a very ugly railway station, let us visit the scene of the martyrdom, before entering the grand church which arose in consequence.

The road we now traverse is the scene of the legend of Plautilla.

"St. Paul was beheaded by the sword outside the Ostian gate, about
two miles from Rome, at a place called the Aqua Salvias, now the
'Tre Fontane.' The legend of his death relates that a certain Roman
matron named Plautilla, one of the converts of St. Peter, placed
herself on the road by which St. Paul passed to his martyrdom, to
behold him for the last time; and when she saw him she wept
greatly, and besought his blessing. The apostle then, seeing her
faith, turned to her, and begged that she would give him her veil
to blind his eyes when he should be beheaded, promising to return
it to her after his death. The attendants mocked at such a promise,
but Plautilla, with a woman's faith and charity, taking off her
veil, presented it to him. After his martyrdom, St. Paul appeared
to her, and restored the veil stained with his blood.

"In the ancient representations of the martyrdom of St. Paul, the
legend of Plautilla is seldom omitted. In the picture by Giotto in
the sacristy of St. Peter's, Plautilla is seen on an eminence in
the background, receiving the veil from the hands of St. Paul, who
appears in the clouds above; the same representation, but little
varied, is executed in bas-relief on the bronze doors of St.
Peter's."--_Jameson's Sacred Art._

The lane which leads to the Tre Fontane turns off to the left a little beyond S. Paolo.

"In all the melancholy vicinity of Rome, there is not a more
melancholy spot than the Tre Fontane. A splendid monastery, rich
with all the offerings of Christendom, once existed there: the
ravages of that mysterious scourge of the Campagna, the malaria,
have rendered it a desert; three ancient churches and some ruins
still exist, and a few pale monks wander about the swampy dismal
confines of the hollow in which they stand. In winter you approach
them through a quagmire; in summer, you dare not breathe in their
pestilential vicinity; and yet there is a sort of dead beauty about
the place, something hallowed as well as sad, which seizes on the
fancy."--_Jameson's Sacred Art._

The convent was bestowed in 1867 by Pius IX. upon the French Trappists, and twelve brethren of the Order went to reside there. Entering the little enclosure, the first church on the right is _Sta. Maria Scala Cœli_, supposed to occupy the site of the cemetery of S. Zeno, in which the 12,000 Christians employed in building the Baths of Diocletian were buried. The present edifice was the work of Vignola and Giacomo della Porta in 1582. The name is derived from the legend that here St. Bernard had a vision of a ladder which led to heaven, its foot resting on this church, and of angels on the ladder leading upwards the souls whom his prayers had redeemed from purgatory. The mosaics in the apse were the work of _F. Zucchero_, in the sixteenth century, and are perhaps the best of modern mosaics. They represent the saints Zeno, Bernard, Vincenzo, and Anastasio, adored by Pope Clement VIII. and Cardinal Aldobrandini, under whom the remodelling of the church took place.

The second church is the basilica of _SS. Vincenzo ed Anastasio_, founded by Honorius I. (625), and restored by Honorius III. (1221), when it was consecrated afresh. It is approached by an atrium with a penthouse roof, supported by low columns, and adorned with decaying frescoes, among which the figure of Honorius III. may be made out. The interior, which reeks with damp, is almost entirely of the twelfth century. The pillars are adorned with coarse frescoes of the apostles.

"S. Vincenzo alle Tre Fontane so far deviates from the usual
basilican arrangement as almost to deserve the appellation of
gothic. It has the same defect as all the rest--its pier arches
being too low, for which there is no excuse here; but both
internally and externally it shows a uniformity of design, and a
desire to make every part ornamental, that produces a very pleasing
effect, although the whole is merely of brick, and ornament is so
sparingly applied as only just to prevent the building sinking to
the class of mere utilitarian erections."--_Fergusson's Handbook of
Architecture,_ vol. ii.

The two saints whose relics are said to repose here were in no wise
connected in their lifetime. S. Vincenzo, who suffered A.D. 304,
was a native of Saragossa, cruelly tortured to death at Valencia,
under Dacian, by being racked on a slow fire over a gridiron, "of
which the bars were framed like scythes." His story is told with
horrible detail by Prudentius. Anastasius, who died A.D. 628, was a
native of Persia, who had become a Christian and taken the monastic
habit at a convent near Jerusalem. He was tortured and finally
strangled, under Chosroes, at Barsaloe, in Assyria. He is not known
to be represented anywhere in art, save in the almost obliterated
frescoes in the atrium of this church.

The third church, _S. Paolo alle Tre Fontane_, was built by Giacomo della Porta for Cardinal Aldobrandini in 1590. It contains the pillars to which St. Paul is said to have been bound, the block of marble upon which he is supposed to have been beheaded, and the three fountains which sprang forth, wherever the severed head struck the earth during three bounds which it made after decapitation. In proof of this story, it is asserted that the water of the first of these fountains is still warm, of the second tepid, of the third cold. Three modern altars above the fountains are each decorated with a head of the apostle in bas-relief.

"A la première, l'âme vient à l'instant même de s'échapper du
corps. Ce chef glorieux est plein de vie! A la seconde, les ombres
de la mort couvrent déjà ses admirables traits; à la troisième, le
sommeil éternel les a envahis, et, quoique demeurés tout rayonnants
de beauté, ils disent, sans parler, que dans ce monde ces lèvres ne
s'entr'ouvriront plus, et que ce regard d'aigle s'est voilé pour
toujours."--_Une Chrétienne à Rome._[365]

The pavement is an ancient mosaic representing the Four Seasons, brought from the excavations at Ostia. The interior of this church has been beautified at the expense of a French nobleman, and the whole enclosure of the Tre Fontane has been improved by Mgr. de Merode.

"As the martyr and his executioners passed on (from the Ostian
gate), their way was crowded with a motley multitude of goers and
comers between the metropolis and its harbour--merchants hastening
to superintend the unlading of their cargoes--sailors eager to
squander the profits of their last voyage in the dissipations of
the capital--officials of the government charged with the
administration of the provinces, or the command of the legions on
the Euphrates or the Rhine--Chaldean astrologers--Phrygian
eunuchs--dancing-girls from Syria, with their painted
turbans--mendicant priests from Egypt, howling for Osiris--Greek
adventurers, eager to coin their national cunning into Roman
gold--representatives of the avarice and ambition, the fraud and
lust, the superstition and intelligence, of the Imperial world.
Through the dust and tumult of that busy throng, the small troop of
soldiers threaded their way silently, under the bright sky of an
Italian midsummer. They were marching, though they knew it not, in
a procession more really triumphal than any they had ever followed,
in the train of general or emperor, along the Sacred Way. Their
prisoner, now at last and for ever delivered from captivity,
rejoiced to follow his Lord 'without the gate.' The place of
execution was not far distant, and there the sword of the headsman
ended his long course of sufferings, and released that heroic soul
from that feeble body. Weeping friends took up his corpse, and
carried it for burial to those subterranean labyrinths, where,
through many ages of oppression, the persecuted Church found refuge
for the living, and sepulchres for the dead.

"Thus died the apostle, the prophet, and the martyr, bequeathing to
the Church, in her government, and her discipline, the legacy of
his apostolic labours; leaving his prophetic words to be her living
oracles; pouring forth his blood to be the seed of a thousand
martyrdoms. Thenceforth, among the glorious company of the
apostles, among the goodly fellowship of the prophets, among the
noble army of martyrs, his name has stood pre-eminent. And
wheresoever the holy Church throughout all the world doth
acknowledge God, there Paul of Tarsus is revered, as the great
teacher of a universal redemption and a catholic religion--the
herald of glad tidings to all mankind."--_Conybeare and Howson_.

Let us now return to the grand Basilica which arose to commemorate the martyrdom on this desolate site, and which is now itself standing alone on the edge of the Campagna, entirely deserted except by a few monks who linger in its monastery through the winter months, but take flight to St. Calisto before the pestilential malaria of the summer,--though in the middle ages it was not so, when S. Paolo was surrounded by the flourishing fortified suburb of Joanopolis (so called from its founder, John VIII.), whose possession was sharply contested in the wars between the popes and anti-popes.[366]

The first church on this site was built in the time of Constantine, on the site of the vineyard of the Roman matron Lucina, where she first gave a burial-place to the apostle. This primal oratory was enlarged into a basilica in 386 by the emperors Valentinian II. and Theodosius. The church was restored by Leo III. (795--816), and every succeeding century increased its beauty and magnificence. The sovereigns of England, before the Reformation, were protectors of this basilica--as those of France are of St. John Lateran, and of Spain of Sta. Maria Maggiore--and the emblem of the Order of the Garter may still be seen amongst its decorations.

"The very abandonment of this huge pile, standing in solitary
grandeur on the banks of the Tiber, was one source of its value.
While it had been kept in perfect repair, little or nothing had
been done to modernize it, and alter its primitive form and
ornaments, excepting the later addition of some modern chapels
above the transept; it stood naked and almost rude, but
unencumbered with the lumpish and tasteless plaster encasement of
the old basilica in a modern Berninesque church, which had
disfigured the Lateran cathedral under pretence of supporting it.
It remained genuine, though bare, as S. Apollinare in Classe, at
Ravenna, the city eminently of unspoiled basilicas. No chapels,
altars, or mural monuments softened the severity of its out-*lines;
only the series of papal portraits, running round the upper line of
the walls, redeemed this sternness. But the unbroken files of
columns along each side, carried the eye forward to the great
central object, the altar and its 'Confession;' while the secondary
row of pillars, running behind the principal ones, gave depth and
shadow, mass and solidity, to back up the noble avenue along which
one glanced."--_Cardinal Wiseman._

On the 15th of July, 1823, this magnificent basilica was almost totally destroyed by fire, on the night which preceded the death of Pope Pius VII.

"Quelque-chose de mystérieux s'est lié dans l'esprit des Romains à
l'incendie de St. Paul, et les gens à l'imagination de ce peuple
parlent avec ce sombre plaisir qui tient à la mélancolie, ce
sentiment si rare en Italie, et si fréquent en Allemagne. Dans le
grand nef, sur le mur, au dessus des colonnes, se trouvait la
longue suite des portraits de tous les papes, et le peuple de Rome
voyait avec inquiétude qu'il n'y avait plus de place pour le
portrait du successeur de Pie VII. De là les fruits de la
suppression du saint-siège. Le vénérable pontife, qui était presqu'
un martyre aux yeux de ses sujets, touchait à ses derniers moments
lorsqu'arriva l'incendie de Saint-Paul. Il eut lieu dans la nuit du
15 au 16 Juillet, 1823; cette même nuit, le pape, presque mourant,
fut agité par un songe, qui lui présentait sans cesse un grand
malheur arrivé à l'église de Rome. Il s'éveilla en sursaut
plusieurs fois, et demanda s'il n'était rien arrivé de nouveau. Le
lendemain, pour ne pas aggraver son état, on lui cacha l'incendie,
et il est mort après sans l'avoir jamais su."--_Stendhal_, ii. 94.

"Not a word was said to the dying Pius VII. of the destruction of
St. Paul. For at St. Paul's he had lived as a quiet monk, engaged
in study and in teaching, and he loved the place with the force of
an early attachment. It would have added a mental pang to his
bodily sufferings to learn the total destruction of that venerable
sanctuary, in which he had drawn down by prayer the blessings of
heaven on his youthful labour."--_Wiseman, Life of Pius VII._

The restoration of the basilica was immediately begun, and a large contribution levied for the purpose from all Roman Catholic countries. In 1854 it was re-opened in its present form by Pius IX. Its exterior is below contempt; its interior, supported by eighty granite columns, is most striking and magnificent, but it is cold and uninteresting when compared with the ancient structure, "rich with inestimable remains of ancient art, and venerable from a thousand associations."[367]

If we approach the basilica by the door on the side of the monastery, we enter, first, a portico, containing a fine statue of Gregory XVI., and many fragments of the ancient mosaics, collected after the fire;--then, a series of small chapels which were not burnt, from the last of which ladies can look into the beautiful _cloister_ of the twelfth century, which they are not permitted to enter, but which men may visit (through the sacristy), and inspect its various architectural remains, and a fine sarcophagus, adorned with reliefs of the story of Apollo and Marsyas.

The church is entered by the south end of the transept. Hence we look down upon the nave (306 feet long and 222 wide) with its four ranges of granite columns (quarried near the Lago Maggiore), surmounted by a mosaic series of portraits of the popes, each five feet in diameter,--most of them of course being imaginary. The grand triumphal arch which separates the transept from the nave is a relic of the old basilica, and was built by Galla-Placidia, sister of Honorius, in 440. On the side towards the nave it is adorned with a mosaic of Christ adored by the twenty-four elders, and the four beasts of the Revelation;--on that towards the transept by the figure of the Saviour, between St Peter and St. Paul.

It bears two inscriptions, the first:

"Theodosius cœpit,--perfecit Honorius aulam
Doctoris mundi sacratam corpore Pauli."

The other, especially interesting as the only inscription commemorating the great pope who defended Rome against Attila:

"Placidiæ pia mens operis decus homne (_sic_) paterni
Gaudet pontificis studio splendere Leonis."

The mosaics of the tribune, also preserved from the fire, were designed by _Cavallini_, a pupil of Giotto, in the thirteenth century, and were erected by Honorius III. They represent the Saviour with St. Peter and St Andrew on the right, and St Paul and St Luke on the left,--and beneath these twelve apostles and two angels. The Holy Innocents (supposed to be buried in this church!) are represented lying at the feet of our Saviour.

"In the mosaics of the old basilica of S. Paolo the Holy Innocents
were represented by a group of small figures holding palms, and
placed immediately beneath the altar or throne, sustaining the
gospel, the cross, and the instruments of the passion of our Lord.
Over these figures was the inscription, H. I. S.
INNOCENTES."--_Jameson's Sacred Art._

Beneath the triumphal arch stands the ugly modern baldacchino, which encloses the ancient altar canopy, erected, as its inscription tells us, by Arnolphus and his pupil Petrus, in 1285. In front is the "Confession," where the Apostle of the Gentiles is believed to repose. The baldacchino is inscribed:

"Tu es vas electionis,
Sancte Paule Apostole,
Prædicator veritatis
In universo mundo."

It is supported by four pillars of Oriental alabaster, presented by Mehemet Ali, pasha of Egypt. The altars of malachite, at the ends of the transepts, were given by the Emperor Nicholas of Russia.

"Les schismatiques et les mussulmans eux-mêmes sont venus rendre
hommage à ce souverain de la parole, qui entraînait les peuples au
martyre et subjuguait toutes les nations."--_Une Chrétienne à
Rome._

In a building so entirely modern, there are naturally few individual objects of interest. Among those saved[368] from the old basilica, is the magnificent paschal candlestick, covered with sculpture in high-relief. The altar at the south end of the transept has an altar-piece representing the Assumption, by _Agricola_, and statues of St. Benedict, _Baini_, and Sta. Scholastica, by _Tenerani_. Of the two chapels between this and the tribune, the first has a statue of St. Benedict by _Tenerani_; the second, the Cappella del Coro, was saved from the fire, and is by _Carlo Maderno_.

The altar at the north end of the transept is dedicated to St. Paul, and has a picture of his conversion, by _Camuccini_. At the sides are statues of St. Gregory by _Laboureur_ and of S. Romualdo by _Stocchi_. Of the chapels between this and the tribune, the first, dedicated to St. Stephen, has a statue of the saint, by _Rinaldi_; the second is dedicated to St. Bridget (Brigitta Brahe), and contains the famous crucifix of Pietro Cavallini, which is said to have spoken to her in 1370.

"Not far from the chancel is a beautiful chapel, dedicated to St.
Bridget, and ornamented with her statue in marble. During her
residence in Rome, she frequently came to pray in this church; and
here is preserved, as a holy relic, the cross from which, during
her ecstatic devotion, she seemed to hear a voice
proceeding."--_Frederika Bremer._

The upper walls of the nave are decorated with frescoes by _Galiardi_, _Podesti_, and other modern artists.

The two great festivals of St. Paul are solemnly observed in this basilica upon January 25 and June 30, and that of the Holy Innocents upon December 28.

Very near S. Paolo, the main branch of the little river Almo, the "cursuque brevissimus Almo" of Ovid, falls into the Tiber. This is the spot where the priests of Cybele used to wash her statue and the sacred vessels of her temple, and to raise their loud annual lamentation for the death of her lover, the shepherd Atys:

"Est locus, in Tiberim quo lubricus influit Almo,
Et nomen magno perdit ab amne minor,
Illic purpurea canus cum veste sacerdos,
Almonis dominam sacraque lavit aquis."

_Ovid, Fast._ iv. 337.

"Phrygiæque matris Almo quà levat ferrum."

_Martial, Ep._ iii. 472.

"Un vieux prêtre de Cybèle, vêtu de pourpre, y lavait chaque année
la pierre sacrée de Pessinunte, tandis que d'autres prêtres
poussaient des hurlements, frappaient sur le tambour de basque
qu'on place aux mains de Cybèle, soufflaient avec fureur dans les
flûtes phrygiennes, et que l'on se donnait la discipline,--ni plus
ni moins qu'on le fait encore dans l'église des _Caravite_,--avec
des fouets garnis de petits cailloux ou d'osselets."--_Ampère,
Hist. Rom._ iii. 145.

The Campagna on this side of Rome is perhaps more stricken by malaria than any other part, and is in consequence more utterly deserted. That this terrible scourge has followed upon the destruction of the villas and gardens which once filled the suburbs of Rome, and that it did not always exist here, is evident from the account of Pliny, who says:

"Such is the happy and beautiful amenity of the Campagna that it
seems to be the work of a rejoicing nature. For truly so it appears
in the vital and perennial salubrity of its atmosphere (_vitalis ac
perennis salubritatis cœli temperies_), in its fertile plains,
sunny hills, healthy woods, thick groves, rich varieties of trees,
breezy mountains, fertility in fruits, vines, and olives, its noble
flocks of sheep, abundant herds of cattle, numerous lakes, and
wealth of rivers and streams pouring in upon its many seaports, in
whose lap the commerce of the world lies, and which run largely
into the sea as it were to help mortals."

Under the emperors, the town of Ostia (founded by Ancus Martius) reached such a degree of prosperity, that its suburbs are described as joining those of Rome, so that one magnificent street almost united the two. There is now, beyond S. Paolo, a road through a desert, only one human habitation breaking the utter solitude.