Books: The Old Roman World

J >> John Lord >> The Old Roman World

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[Sidenote: What a traveler would see in a walk.]

[Sidenote: The Via Sacra.]

[Sidenote: The Velabrum.]

[Sidenote: The Fora.]

[Sidenote: View from the summit of the Capitoline Hill.]

[Sidenote: Gardens of Lucullus.]

[Sidenote: The Subura.]

[Sidenote: Circus Maximus.]

[Sidenote: View of Rome from the Capitol.]

Such is a brief view of the progress of those architectural wonders
which made Rome the most magnificent city of antiquity, and perhaps the
grandest, in its public monuments, of any city in ancient or modern
times. What a concentration of works of art on the hills, and around the
Forum, and in the Campus Martins, and other celebrated quarters! There
were temples rivaling those of Athens and Ephesus; baths covering more
ground than the Pyramids, surrounded with Corinthian columns and filled
with the choicest treasures, ransacked from the cities of Greece and
Asia; palaces in comparison with which the Tuileries and Versailles are
small; theatres which seated more people than any present public
buildings in Europe; amphitheatres more extensive and costly than
Cologne, Milan, and York Minster cathedrals combined, and seating eight
times as many people as could be crowded into St. Peter's Church;
circuses where, it is said, three hundred and eighty-five thousand
spectators could witness the games and chariot-races at a time; bridges,
still standing, which have furnished models for the most beautiful at
Paris and London; aqueducts carried over arches one hundred feet in
height, through which flowed the surplus water of distant lakes; drains
of solid masonry in which large boats could float; pillars more than one
hundred feet in height, coated with precious marbles or plates of brass,
and covered with bass-reliefs; obelisks brought from Egypt; fora and
basilicae connected together, and extending more than three thousand
feet, in length, every part of which was filled with "animated busts" of
conquerors, kings, and statesmen, poets, publicists, and philosophers;
mausoleums greater and more splendid than that Artemisia erected to the
memory of her husband; triumphal arches under which marched in stately
procession the victorious armies of the Eternal City, preceded by the
spoils and trophies of conquered empires,--such was the proud capital--
a city of palaces, a residence or nobles who were virtually kings,
enriched with the accumulated treasures of ancient civilization. Great
were the capitals of Greece and Asia, but how preeminent was Rome, since
all were subordinate to her. How bewildering and bewitching to a
traveler must have been the varied wonders of the city! Go where he
would, his eye rested on something which was both a study and a marvel.
Let him drive or walk about the suburbs, there were villas, tombs,
aqueducts looking like railroads on arches, sculptured monuments, and
gardens of surpassing beauty and luxury. Let him approach the walls--
they were great fortifications extending twenty-one miles in circuit,
according to the measurement of Ammon as adopted by Gibbon, and forty-
five miles according to other authorities. Let him enter any of the
various gates which opened into the city from the roads which radiated
to all parts of Italy--they were of monumental brass covered with bass-
reliefs, on which the victories of generals for a thousand years were
commemorated. Let him pass up the Via Appia, or the Via Flaminia, or the
Via Cabra--they were lined with temples and shops and palaces. Let him
pass through any of the crowded thoroughfares, he saw houses towering
scarcely ever less than seventy feet--as tall as those of Edinburgh in
its oldest sections. Let him pass through the varied quarters of the
city, or wards as we should now call them, he finds some fourteen
regions, as constituted by Augustus, all marked by architectural
monuments, and containing, according to Lipsius, a population larger
than London or Paris, guarded and watched by a police of ten thousand
armed men. Most of the houses in which this vast population lived,
according to Strabo, possessed pipes which gave a never-failing supply
of water from the rivers which flowed into the city through the
aqueducts and out again through the sewers into the Tiber. Let him walk
up the Via Sacra--that short street, scarcely half a mile in length--and
he passes the Flavian Amphitheatre, the Temple of Venus, and Rome, the
Arch of Titus, the temples of Peace, of Vesta, and of Castor, the Forum
Romanum, the Basilica Julia, the Arch of Severus, and the Temple of
Saturn, and stands before the majestic ascent to the Capitoline Jupiter,
with its magnificent portico and ornamented pediment, surpassing the
facade of any modern church. On his left, as he emerges from beneath the
sculptured Arch of Titus, is the Palatine Mount, nearly covered by the
palace of the Caesars, the magnificent residences of the higher nobility,
and various temples, of which that of Apollo was the most magnificent,
built by Augustus of solid white marble from Luna. Here were the palaces
of Vaccus, of Flaccus, of Cicero, of Catiline, of Scaurus, of Antonius,
of Clodius, of Agrippa, and of Hortensius. Still on his left, in the
valley between the Palatine and the Capitoline, though he cannot see it,
concealed from view by the great temples of Vesta and of Castor, and the
still greater edifice known as the Basilica Julia, is the quarter called
the Velabrum, extending to the river, where the Pons Aemilius crosses it--
a low quarter of narrow streets and tall houses where the rabble lived
and died. On his right, concealed from view by the Aedes Divi Julii and
the Forum Romanum, is that magnificent series of edifices extending from
the Temple of Peace to the Temple of Trajan, including the Basilica
Pauli, the Forum Julii, the Forum Augusti, the Forum Trajani, the
Basilica Ulpia, more than three thousand feet in length and six hundred
in breadth, almost entirely surrounded by porticoes and colonnades, and
filled with statues and pictures--on the whole the grandest series of
public buildings clustered together probably ever erected, especially if
we take in the Forum Romanum and the various temples and basilicas which
connected the whole together--a forest of marble pillars and statues. He
ascends the steps which lead from the Temple of Concord to the Temple of
Juno Moneta upon the Arx or Tarpeian Rock, on the southwestern summit of
the hill, itself one of the most beautiful temples in Rome, erected by
Camillus on the spot where the house of M. Manlius Capitolinus had
stood. Here is established the Roman mint. Near this is the temple
erected by Augustus to Jupiter Tonans and that built by Domitian to
Jupiter Gustos. But all the sacred edifices which crown the Capitoline
are subordinate to the Templum Jovis Capitolini, standing on a platform
of eight thousand square feet, and built of the richest materials. The
portico which faces the Via Sacra consists of three rows of Doric
columns, the pediment is profusely ornamented with the choicest
sculptures, the apex of the roof is surmounted by the bronze horses of
Lysippus, and the roof itself is covered with gilded tiles. The temple
has three separate cells, though covered with one roof; in front of each
stand colossal statues of the three deities to whom it is consecrated.
Here are preserved what was most sacred in the eyes of Romans, and it is
itself the richest of all the temples of the city. What a beautiful
panorama is presented to the view from the summit of this consecrated
hill, only mounted by a steep ascent of one hundred steps. To the south
is the Via Sacra extending to the Colosseum, and beyond it is the Appia
Via, lined with monuments as far as the eye can reach. Little beyond the
fora to the east is the Carinae, a fashionable quarter of beautiful shops
and houses, and still further off are the Baths of Titus, extending from
the Carinae to the Esquiline Mount. This hill, once a burial-ground, is
now covered with the house and gardens of Maecenas, and of the poets whom
he patronized. It is not rich in temples, but its gardens and groves are
beautiful. To the northeast are the Viminal and Quirinal hills, after
the Palatine the most ancient part of the city--the seat of the Sabine
population. Abounding in fanes and temples, the most splendid of which
is the Temple of Quirinus, erected originally to Romulus by Numa, but
rebuilt by Augustus, with a double row of columns on each of its sides,
seventy-six in number. Near by was the house of Atticus, and the gardens
of Sallust in the valley between the Quirinal and Pincian, afterwards
the property of the emperor. Far back on the Quirinal, near the wall of
Servius, were the Baths of Diocletian, and still further to the east the
Pretorian Camp established by Tiberius, and included within the wall of
Aurelian. To the northeast the eye lights on the Pincian Hill covered by
the gardens of Lucullus, to possess which Messalina caused the death of
Valerius Asiaticus, into whose possession they had fallen. In the valley
which lay between the fora and the Quirinal was the celebrated Subura,--
the quarter of shops, markets, and artificers,--a busy, noisy, vulgar
section, not beautiful, but full of life and enterprise and wickedness.
The eye now turns to the north, and the whole length of the Via Flaminia
is exposed to view, extending from the Capitoline to the Flaminian gate,
perfectly straight, the finest street in Rome, and parallel to the
modern Corso. It is the great highway to the north of Italy. Monuments
and temples and palaces line this celebrated street. It is spanned by
the triumphal arches of Claudius and Marcus Aurelius. To the west of it
is the Campus Martius, with its innumerable objects of interest,--the
Baths of Agrippa, the Pantheon, the Thermae Alexandrinae, the Column of
Marcus Aurelius, and the Mausoleum of Augustus. Beneath the Capitoline
on the west, toward the river, is the Circus Flaminius, the Portico of
Octavius, the Theatre of Balbus, and the Theatre of Pompey, where forty
thousand spectators were accommodated. Stretching beyond the Thermae
Alexandrinae, near the Pantheon, is the magnificent bridge which crosses
the Tiber, built by Hadrian when he founded his Mausoleum, to which it
leads, still standing under the name of the Ponte S. Angelo. The eye
takes in eight or nine bridges over the Tiber, some of wood, but
generally of stone, of beautiful masonry, and crowned with statues. At
the foot of the Capitoline, toward the southwest, are the Portico of
Octavius and the Theatre of Marcellus, near the Pons Cestius. Still
further southwest, between the Capitoline and the Aventine, in a low
valley, are the Velabrum and the Forum Boarium, once a marsh, but now
rich in temples and monuments, among which are those of Hercules Fortuna
and Mater Matuta. There are no less than four temples consecrated to
Hercules in the Forum Boarium, one of the most celebrated places in
Rome, devoted to trade and commerce. Beyond still, in the valley between
the Palatine and the Aventine, is the great Circus Maximus, founded by
the early Tarquin. It is the largest open space inclosed by walls and
porticoes in the city. It seats three hundred and eighty-five thousand
people. How vast a city, which can spare nearly four hundred thousand of
its population to see the chariot-races! Beyond is the Aventine itself.
This also is rich in legendary monuments and in the palaces of the
great, though originally a plebeian quarter. Here dwelt Trajan, before
he was emperor, and Ennius the poet, and Paula, the friend of St.
Jerome. Beneath the Aventine, and a little south of the Circus Maximus,
west of the Appian Way, are the great baths of Caracalla, the ruins of
which, next to those of the Colosseum, made on my mind the strongest
impression of any thing that pertains to antiquity, though these were
not so large as those of Diocletian. The view south takes in the Caelian
Hill, the ancient residence of Tullus Hostilius. The beautiful Temple of
Divus Claudius, the Arch of Dolabella, the Macellum Magnum,--a market
founded by Nero,--the Castra Peregrina, the Temple of Isis, the Campus
Martialis, are among the most conspicuous objects of interest. This hill
is the residence of many distinguished Romans. It is covered with
palaces. Among them is the house of Claudius Centumalus--so high, that
the augurs command him to lower it. It towers ten or twelve stories into
the air. Scarcely inferior in size is the house of Mamura, whose
splendor is described by Pliny. Here also is the house of Annius Verus,
the father of Marcus Aurelius, surrounded with gardens. But grander than
any of these palaces is that of Plautius Lateranus, the _egregioe
Lateranorum oedes_, which became imperial property in the time of
Nero, and on whose site stands the basilica of St. John Lateran,--the
gift of Constantine to the bishop of Rome,--one of the most ancient of
the Christian churches, in which, for fifteen hundred years, daily
services have been performed.

[Sidenote: Population.]

[Sidenote: Number of houses.]

Such are the objects of interest and grandeur which strike the eye as it
is turned toward the various quarters of the city. But these are only
the more important. The seven hills, appearing considerably higher than
at the present day, as the valleys are raised fifteen or twenty feet
above their ancient level, are covered with temples, palaces, and
gardens; the valleys are densely crowded with shops, houses, baths, and
theatres. The houses rise frequently to the tenth platform or story. The
suburban population, beyond the walls, is probably greater than that
within. The city, virtually, contains between three and four millions or
people. Lipsius estimates four millions as the population, including
slaves, women, children, and strangers. Though this estimate is regarded
as too large by Merivale and others, yet how enormous must have been the
number of the people when there were nine thousand and twenty-five
baths, and when those of Diocletian could accommodate three thousand two
hundred people at a time. The wooden theatre of Scaurus contained eighty
thousand seats; that of Marcellus would seat twenty thousand; the
Colosseum would seat eighty-seven thousand, and give standing space for
twenty-two thousand more. The Circus Maximus would hold three hundred
and eighty-five thousand spectators. If only one person out of four of
the free population witnessed the games and spectacles at a time, we
thus must have four millions of people altogether in the city. The
Aurelian walls are now only thirteen miles in circumference, but Lipsius
estimates the circumference at forty-five miles, and Vopiscus nearly
fifty. The diameter of the city must have been eleven miles, since
Strabo tells us that the actual limit of Rome was at a place between the
fifth and sixth milestone from the column of Trajan in the Forum--the
central and most conspicuous object in the city except the
capitol. [Footnote: Strabo, lib. v. ch. 3.] Even in the sixth century,
after Rome had been sacked and plundered by Goths and Vandals, Zacharia,
a traveler, asserts that there were three hundred and eighty-four
spacious streets, eighty golden statues of the gods; sixty-six large
ivory statues of the gods; forty-six thousand six hundred and three
houses; seventeen thousand and ninety-seven palaces; thirteen thousand
and fifty-two fountains; three thousand seven hundred and eighty-five
bronze statues of emperors and generals; twenty-two great horses in
bronze; two colossi; two spiral columns; thirty-one theatres; eleven
amphitheatres; nine thousand and twenty-six baths; two thousand three
hundred shops of perfumers; two thousand and ninety-one
prisons. [Footnote: St. Ampere, _Hist. Romaine a Rome_.] This seems
to be incredible. "But," says Story, "Augustus divided the city into
eighteen regions: each region contained twenty-two vici; each vicus
contained about two hundred and thirty dwelling-houses, so that there
must have been seventy-five thousand houses; of these houses, seventeen
thousand were palaces, or domus. If each contained two hundred persons,
(and four hundred slaves were maintained in a single palace,) reckoning
family, freedmen, and slaves, we have three millions four hundred
thousand people, and supposing the remaining fifty-eight thousand houses
to have contained twenty-five persons each, we have in them one million
four hundred and fifty thousand, which would give an entire population
of four millions eight hundred and fifty thousand." If Mr. Merivale's
estimate of seven hundred thousand is correct, then the Colosseum would
hold nearly one in six of the whole population, which is incredible.
Indeed, it is probable that even four millions was under than above the
true estimate, which would make Rome the most populous city ever seen
upon our globe. Nor is it extravagant to suppose this. The city
numbered, according to the census, eighty thousand people in the year
197; and in 683 it had risen to four hundred and fifty thousand. Is it
strange it should have numbered four millions in the time of Augustus,
or even six millions in the time of Arelian, when we bear in mind that
it was the political and social centre of a vast empire, and that empire
the world? If London contains three millions at the present day, and
Paris two millions, why should not a capital which had no rival, and
which controlled at least one hundred and twenty millions of people? So
that Pliny was not probably wrong when he said, "_Si quis altitudinem
tectorum addat, dignam profecto oestimationem concipiat, fateatur qui
nullius urbis magnitudinem potuisse ei comparare._" "If any one
considers the height of the roofs, so as to form a just estimate, he
will confess that no city could be compared with it for magnitude."

[Sidenote: The monuments which survive.]

[Sidenote: Games of Titus.]

Modern writers, taking London and Paris for their measure of material
civilization, seem unwilling to admit that Rome could have reached such
a pitch of glory and wealth and power. To him who stands within the
narrow limits of the Forum, as it now appears, it seems incredible that
it could have been the centre of a much larger city than Europe can now
boast of. Grave historians are loth to compromise their dignity and
character for truth, by admitting statements which seem, to men of
limited views, to be fabulous, and which transcend modern experience.
But we should remember that most of the monuments of ancient Rome have
entirely disappeared. Nothing remains of the Palace of the Caesars, which
nearly covered the Palatine Hill; little of the fora which, connected
together, covered a space twice as large as that inclosed by the palaces
of the Louvre and Tuileries with all their galleries and courts; almost
nothing of the glories of the Capitoline Hill; and little comparatively
of those Thermae which were a mile in circuit. But what does remain
attests an unparalleled grandeur--the broken pillars of the Forum; the
lofty columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius; the Pantheon, lifting its
spacious dome two hundred feet into the air; the mere vestibule of the
Baths of Agrippa; the triumphal arches of Titus and Trajan and
Constantine; the bridges which span the Tiber; the aqueducts which cross
the Campagna; the Cloaca Maxima, which drained the marshes and lakes of
the infant city; but above all, the Colosseum. What glory and shame are
associated with that single edifice! That alone, if nothing else
remained of Pagan antiquity, would indicate a grandeur and a folly such
as cannot now be seen on earth. It reveals a wonderful skill in masonry,
and great architectural strength; it shows the wealth and resources of
rulers who must have had the treasures of the world at their command; it
indicates an enormous population, since it would seat all the male
adults of the city of New York; it shows the restless passions of the
people for excitement, and the necessity on the part of government of
yielding to this taste. What leisure and indolence marked a city which
could afford to give up so much time to the demoralizing sports! What
facilities for transportation were afforded, when so many wild beasts
could be brought to the capital from the central parts of Africa without
calling out unusual comment! How imperious a populace that compels the
government to provide such expensive pleasures! The games of Titus, on
its dedication, last one hundred days, and five thousand wild beasts are
slaughtered in the arena. The number of the gladiators who fought
surpasses belief. At the triumph of Trajan over the Dacians, ten
thousand gladiators were exhibited, and the emperor himself presides
under a gilded canopy, surrounded by thousands of his lords. Underneath
the arena, strewed with yellow sand and sawdust, is a solid pavement so
closely cemented that it can be turned into an artificial lake on which
naval battles are fought. But it is the conflict of gladiators which
most deeply stimulates the passions of the people. The benches are
crowded with eager spectators, and the voices of one hundred thousand
are raised in triumph or rage as the miserable victims sink exhausted in
the bloody sport.

[Sidenote: Roman triumphs.]

But it is not the gladiatorial sports of the amphitheatre which most
strikingly attest the greatness and splendor of the city; nor the
palaces, in which as many as four hundred slaves are sometimes
maintained as domestic servants, twelve hundred in number according to
the lowest estimate, but probably five times as numerous, since every
senator, every knight, and every rich man was proud to possess a
residence which would attract attention; nor the temples, which numbered
four hundred and twenty-four, most of which were of marble, filled with
statues, the contributions of ages, and surrounded with groves; nor the
fora and basilicae, with their porticoes, statues, and pictures, covering
more space than any cluster of public buildings in Europe, a mile and a
half in circuit; nor the baths, nearly as large, still more completely
filled with works of art; nor the Circus Maximus, where more people
witnessed the chariot races at a time than are nightly assembled in all
the places of public amusement in Paris, London, and New York combined--
more than could be seated in all the cathedrals of England and France;
it is not these which most impressively make us feel that Rome was the
mistress of the world and the centre of all civilization. The triumphal
processions of the conquering generals were still more exciting to
behold, for these appeal more directly to the imagination, and excite
those passions which urged the Romans to a career of conquest from
generation to generation. No military review of modern times equaled
those gorgeous triumphs, even as no scenic performance compares with the
gladiatorial shows. The. sun has never shone upon any human assemblage
so magnificent and so grand, so imposing and yet so guilty. And we
recall the picture of it with solemn awe as it moves along the Via Sacra
and ascends the Capitoline Hill, or passes through the theatres of
Pompey and Marcellus, that all the people might witness the brilliant
spectacle. Not only were displayed the spoils of conquered kingdoms, and
the triumphal cars of generals, but the whole military strength of the
capital. An army of one hundred thousand men, flushed with victory,
follows the gorgeous procession of nobles and princes. The triumph of
Aurelian, on his return from the East, gives us some idea of the
grandeur of that ovation to conquerors. "The pomp was opened by twenty
elephants, four royal tigers, and two hundred of the most curious
animals from every climate, north, south, east, and west. These were
followed by one thousand six hundred gladiators, devoted to the cruel
amusement of the amphitheatre. Then were displayed the arms and ensigns
of conquered nations, the plate and wardrobe of the Syrian queen. Then
ambassadors from all parts of the earth--all remarkable in their rich
dresses, with their crowns and offerings. Then the captives taken in the
various wars, Goths, Vandals, Samaritans, Alemanni, Franks, Gauls,
Syrians, and Egyptians, each marked by their national costume. Then the
Queen of the East, the beautiful Zenobia, confined by fetters of gold,
and fainting under the weight of jewels, preceding the beautiful chariot
in which she had hoped to enter the gates of Rome. Then the chariot of
the Persian king. Then the triumphal car of Aurelian himself, drawn by
elephants. Finally the most illustrious of the Senate, the people, and
the army closed the solemn procession, amid the acclamations of the
people, and the sound of musical instruments. It took from dawn of day
until the ninth hour for the procession to pass to the capital, and the
festival was protracted by theatrical representations, the games of the
circus, the hunting of wild beasts, combats of gladiators, and naval
engagements. Liberal donations were presented to the army, and a portion
of the spoils dedicated to the gods. All the temples glittered with the
offerings of ostentatious piety, and the Temple of the Sun received
fifteen thousand pounds of gold. The soldiers and the citizens were then
surfeited with meat and wine. The disbanded soldiery thronged the
amphitheatre, and yelled their fiendish applause at the infernal games,--
the gorged robbers of the world, drunk in a festival of hell,"
[Footnote: Henry Giles.]--a representation of war as terrible as war
itself, compensating to the Roman people the massacres which they could
not see.