Books: The Old Roman World

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[Sidenote: Forum Julian.]

[Sidenote: Basilica Julia.]

His great rival however surpassed him in labors to ornament the capital.
Caesar enlarged the Forum, or rather added a new one, the ground of which
cost $2,500,000. It was called the Forum Julian, and was three hundred
and forty feet long by two hundred wide, containing a temple of Venus.
He did not live, however, to carry out his magnificent plans. He
contemplated building an edifice, for the assembly of the Comitia
Tributa, of marble, with a portico inclosing a space of a mile square,
and also the erection of a temple to Mars of unparalleled size and
magnificence. He commenced the Basilica Julia and the Curia Julia--vast
buildings, which were completed under the emperors.

[Sidenote: Rome under the Emperors.]

Such were the principal edifices of Rome until the imperial sway.
Augustus boasted that he found the city of brick and left it of marble.
It was not until the emperors embellished the city with amphitheatres,
theatres, baths, and vast architectural monuments that it was really
worthy to be regarded as the metropolis of the world. The great
improvements of Rome in the republican period were of a private nature,
such as the palaces of senatorial families. There were no temples equal
to those in the Grecian cities either for size, ornament, or beauty.
Indeed, Rome was never famous for temples, but for edifices of material
utility rather than for the worship of the gods; yet the Romans, under
the rule of the aristocracy, were more religious than the Corinthians or
Athenians.

[Sidenote: Works of Augustus.]

[Sidenote: The Subura.]

[Sidenote: Forum Romanum.]

[Sidenote: Its magnificence.]

[Sidenote: Surrounding buildings.]

[Sidenote: Temple of Castor and Pollux.]

[Sidenote: Basilica Julia.]

[Sidenote: Arch of Septimius Severus, and columns of Trajan.]

[Sidenote: Forum Julium.]

[Sidenote: Forum Augusti.]

[Sidenote: Forum of Trajan.]

[Sidenote: Basilica Ulpia.]

On the destruction of the senatorial or constitutional party that had
ruled since the expulsion of the kings, and probably before, and the
peaceful accession of Augustus, B.C. 31, a great impulse was given to
the embellishments of the city. His long reign, his severe taste, and
his immense resources,--undisputed master of one hundred and fifty
millions of subjects,--enabled him to carry out the designs of Julius,
and to restore an immense number of monuments falling to decay. But Rome
was even then deficient in those things which most attract attention in
our modern capitals--the streets and squares. The longest street of Rome
was scarcely three fourths of a mile in length; but the houses upon it
were of great altitude. Moreover the streets were narrow and dark--
scarcely more than fifteen feet in width. But they were not encumbered
with carriages. Private equipages, which form one of the most imposing
features of a modern city, were unknown. There was nothing attractive in
a Roman street, dark, narrow, and dirty, with but few vehicles, and with
dingy shops, like those of Paris in the Middle Ages. The sun scarcely
ever penetrated to them. They were damp and cold. The greater part of
the city belonged to wealthy and selfish capitalists, like Crassus, who
thought more of their gains than the health or beauty of the city. The
Subura, the Sub Velia, and the Velabrum, built in the valleys, were
choked up with tall houses, frequently more, and seldom less, than
seventy feet in height. The hills alone were covered with aristocratic
residences, temples, and public monuments. The only open space, where
the poor people could get fresh air and extensive prospect, was Circus
Maximus and the Forum Romanum. The former was three fourths of a mile in
length and one eighth in breadth, surrounded with a double row of
benches, the lower of stone and the upper of wood, and would seat two
hundred and eighty-five thousand spectators. The Forum was the centre of
architectural splendor, as well as of life and business. Its original
site extended from the eastern part of the Capitoline to the spot where
the Velia begins to ascend, and was bounded on the south by the Via
Sacra, which extended to the arx or citadel. It was that consecrated
street by which the augurs descended when they inaugurated the great
festivals of the republic, and in which lived the Pontifex Maximus.
Although the Forum Romanum was only seven hundred feet by four hundred
and seventy, yet it was surrounded by and connected with basilicas,
halls, porticoes, temples, and shops. It was a place of great public
resort for all classes of people--a scene of life and splendor rarely if
ever equaled, and having some resemblance to the crowded square of
Venice on which St. Mark's stands. Originally it was a marketplace, busy
and lively, a great resort where might be seen "good men walking quietly
by themselves," [Footnote: _Plautus Cuve_, iv. 1. ] "flash men
strutting about without a denarius in their purses," "gourmands clubbing
for a dinner," "scandal-mongers living in glass houses," "perjured
witnesses, liars, braggarts, rich and erring husbands, worn-out
harlots," and all the various classes which now appear in the crowded
places of London or Paris. In this open space the people were assembled
on great public occasions, and here they were addressed by orators and
tribunes. Immediately surrounding the Forum Romanum, or in close
proximity to it, were the most important public buildings of the city in
which business was transacted--the courts of law, the administrative
bureaus, the senate chamber and the principal temples, as well as
monuments and shops. On the north side was the Comitium, an open space
for holding the Comitia Curiata and heavy lawsuits, and making speeches
to the assembled people. During the kingly government the temples of
Janus and Vesta and Saturn were erected, also the Curia Hostilia, a
senate-house, the Senaculum, the Mamertine Prison, and the Tabernae or
porticoes and shops inclosing the Forum. During the republic the temple
of Castor and Pollux, which served for the assembly of the Senate and
judicial business, was erected, not of the largest size, but very rich
and beautiful. The Basilica Portia, where the tribunes of the people
held their assemblies, was founded by Cato the Censor, and this was
followed by the Basilica Fulvia, with columns of Phrygian marble,
admired by Pliny for its magnificence, the Basilica Sempronia, the
Temple of Concord, and the Triumphal Arch of Fabius, to commemorate his
victories over the Allobroges. Under the empire, the magnificent
Basilica Julia was erected for the sittings of the law courts, and its
immense size may be inferred from the fact that one hundred and eighty
judges, divided into four courts, with four separate tribunals, with
seats for advocates and spectators, were accustomed to assemble.
Tiberius erected a triumphal arch near the Temple of Saturn. Domitian
built the Temple of Vespasian and Titus, and erected to himself a
colossal equestrian statue. Near it rose the temples of Divus-Julius and
of Antoninus and Faustina. Beside these were the Triumphal Arch of
Septimius Severus, still standing; the Columns of Phocas and Trajan, the
latter of which is the finest monument of its kind in the world, one
hundred and twenty-seven feet high, with a spiral band of admirable
reliefs containing two thousand five hundred human figures. Beside
these, new fora of immense size were constructed by various emperors,
not for political business so much as courts of justice. The Forum
Julium, which connected with the old Forum Romanum, was virtually a
temple of great magnificence. In front of it was the celebrated bronze
horse of Lysippus, and the temple was enriched with precious offerings
and adorned with pictures from the best Greek artists. It was devoted to
legal business. The Forum Augusti was still larger, and also inclosed a
temple, in which the Senate assembled to consult about wars and
triumphs, and was surrounded with porticoes in which the statues of the
most eminent Roman generals were placed, while on each side were the
triumphal arches of Germanicus and Drusus. More extensive and
magnificent than either of the old fora was the one which Trajan
erected, in the centre of which was the celebrated column of the
emperor, so universally admired, while the sides were ornamented with a
double colonnade of gray Egyptian marble, the columns of which were
fifty-five feet in height. This was one of the most gigantic structures
in Rome, covering more ground than the Flavian Amphitheatre, and built
by the celebrated Apollodorus of Damascus. It filled the whole space
between the Capitoline and Quirinal. The Basilica Ulpia was only one
division of this vast edifice, divided internally by four rows of
columns of gray granite, and paved with slabs of marble.

[Sidenote: Beauty of the Roman Forum.]

Nothing in Rome, or perhaps any modern city, exceeded the glory and
beauty of the Forum, with the adjoining basilica, and other public
buildings, filled with statues and pictures, and crowded with people.
The more aristocratic loungers sought the retired promenade afforded by
the porticoes near the Circus Flaminius, where the noise and clamor of
the crowded streets, the cries of venders, the sports of boys, and the
curses of wagoners, could not reach them. The Forum was the peculiar
glory of the republican period, where the Gracchi enlightened the people
on their political rights, where Cato calmed the passions of the mob,
where Cicero and Hortensius delivered their magnificent harangues.

[Sidenote: Works of Augustus.]

[Sidenote: Temple of Apollo.]

[Sidenote: Theatre of Marcellus.]

The glory of the Augustan age was more seen in the magnificent buildings
which arose upon the hills, although he gave attention to the completion
of many works of utility or beauty in other parts of the city. He
restored the Capitoline temple and the theatre of Pompey; repaired
aqueducts; finished the Forum and Basilica Julia; and entirely built the
Curia Julia. He founded, on the Palatine, the Imperial Palace,
afterwards enlarged by his successors until it entirely covered the
original city of Romulus. Among the most beautiful of his works was the
Temple of Apollo, the columns of which were of African marble, between
which were the statues of the fifty Danaids. In the temple was a
magnificent statue of Apollo, and around the altar were the images of
four oxen--the work of Miron, so beautifully sculptured that they seemed
alive. The temple was of the finest marble; its gates were of ivory,
finely sculptured. Attached to this temple was a library, where the
poets, orators, and philosophers assembled, and recited their
productions. The Forum Augusti was another of the noblest monuments of
this emperor, in order to provide accommodation for the crowds which
overflowed the Forum Romanum. He also built the theatre of Marcellus,
capable of holding twenty thousand spectators.

[Sidenote: Pantheon.]

[Sidenote: Thermae Agrippae.]

[Sidenote: Campus Martius.]

[Sidenote: Works of the Nobles.]

Nor was Augustus alone the patron of the arts. His son-in-law, and prime
minister, Agrippa, adorned the city with many noble structures, of which
the Pantheon remains to attest his munificence. This temple, the best
preserved of all the monuments of ancient splendor, stood in the centre
of the Campus Martius, and contained only the images of the deities
immediately connected with the Julian race and the early history of
Rome. Agrippa was the first to establish those famous baths, which
became the most splendid monuments of imperial munificence. The Thermae
Agrippae stood at the back of the Pantheon. It was fed by the Aqua Virgo,
an aqueduct which Agrippa purposely constructed to furnish water for his
baths. Many other architectural monuments marked the public spirit of
this enlightened and liberal minister, especially in the quarter of the
Circus Flaminius and the Campus Martius. This quarter was like a
separate town, more magnificent than any part of the ancient city. It
was adorned with temples, porticoes, and theatres, and other buildings
devoted to amusement and recreation. It had not many private houses, but
these were of remarkable splendor. Other courtiers of Augustus followed
his example for the embellishment of the city. Statilius Taurus built
the first permanent amphitheatre of stone in the Campus Martius. L.
Cornelius Balbur built at his own expense a stone theatre. L. Marcius
Philippus rebuilt the temple of Hercules Musarum, and surrounded it with
a portico. L. Cornificius built a temple of Diana. Asininius Pollio an
Atrium Libertatis; and Munatius Plaucus a temple of Saturn. Maecenas, who
lived upon the Esquiline, converted the Campus Esquilinus, near the
Subura, a pauper burial-ground offensive to both sight and health, into
beautiful gardens, called the Horti Maecenatis.

Nunc licet esquiliis habitare salubribus atque,
Aggere in Aprico Spatiari, quo modo tristes.
Albis informem spectabant ossibtis agrum.

[Footnote: Horace _Sat._ i. 8.]

Near these gardens Virgil lived, also Propertius, and probably Horace.
The Esquiline, once a plebeian quarter, seems to have been selected by
the literary men, who sought the favor of Maecenas, for their abode. Ovid
lived near the capitol, at the southern extremity of the Quirinal.

[Sidenote: Mausoleum of Augustus.]

Among the other buildings which Augustus erected, should not be omitted
the magnificent Mausoleum, or the tomb of the imperial family at the
northern part of the Campus Martius, near which lay the remains of Sulla
and of Caesar, and which remained the burial-place of his family down to
the time of Hadrian. [Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote relocated to
chapter end.] He also brought from Egypt the obelisk which now stands on
Mount Citorio, and which was placed in that receptacle for
monuments--the Campus Martius.

[Sidenote: Imperial palace.]

Tiberius did but little for the improvement of his capital beyond
erecting a triumphal arch, in commemoration of the exploits of
Germanicus, on the Via Sacra, and establishing the Praetorian Camp near
the Servian Agger. Caligula extended the imperial palace, and began the
Circus Neronis in the gardens of Agrippa, near where St. Peter's now
stands.

[Sidenote: Claudian aqueduct.]

Claudius constructed the two noble aqueducts, the Aqua Claudia and Arno
Novis,--the longest of all these magnificent Roman monuments,--the
latter of which was fifty-nine miles in length, and some of its arches
were one hundred and nine feet in height.

Nero still further extended the precincts of the imperial palace, and
included the Esquiline. The great fire which occurred in his reign, A.D.
65, and which lasted six days and seven nights, destroyed some of the
most ancient of the Roman structures surrounding the Palatine, and very
much damaged the Forum, to say nothing of the statues and treasures
which perished. But the city soon arose from her ashes more beautiful
than before. The streets were laid out on a more regular plan and made
wider, the houses were built lower, and brick was substituted for wood.

[Sidenote: The Imperial Palace.]

The great work of Nero was the construction of the Imperial Palace on
the site of the buildings which had been destroyed by the fire. He gave
it the name of Aurea Domus, and, if we may credit Suetonius, [Footnote:
Suet. _Ner_., 31.] its richness and splendor surpassed any other
similar edifice in ancient times. It fronted the Forum and Capitol, and
in its vestibule stood a colossal statue of the emperor, one hundred and
twenty feet high. The palace was surrounded by three porticoes, each one
thousand feet in length. The back front of the palace looked upon the
artificial lake, afterwards occupied by the Flavian Amphitheatre. Within
the area were gardens and vineyards. It was entirely overlaid with gold,
and adorned with jewels and mother-of-pearl. The supper rooms were
vaulted, and the compartments of the ceiling, inlaid with ivory, were
made to revolve and scatter flowers upon the banqueters below. The chief
banqueting-room was circular, and perpetually revolved in imitation of
the motion of the celestial bodies. There are scarcely no remains of
this extensive palace, which engrossed so large a part of the city, and
which covered the site of so many famous temples and palaces, and which
exhausted even the imperial revenues, great as they were, even as
Versailles taxed the magnificent resources of Louis XIV., and St.
Peter's obliged the Popes to appeal to the contributions of Christendom.

[Sidenote: Temple of Peace.]

The next great edifice which added to the architectural wonders of the
city, was the temple built by Vespasian after the destruction of
Jerusalem, which he called the Temple of Peace. It was adorned with the
richest sculptures and paintings of Greece, taken from Nero's palace,
which Vespasian demolished as a monument of insane extravagance. In this
temple were deposited also the Jewish spoils, except the laws and veil
of the temple.

[Sidenote: Falvian Amphitheatre.]

[Sidenote: The Colosseum.]

But the great work of this emperor, and the greatest architectural
wonder of the world, was the amphitheatre, which he built on the ground
covered by Nero's lake, in the middle of the city, between the Velia and
the Esquiline. For magnitude it can only be compared with the pyramids
of Egypt, and its remains are the most striking monument we have of the
material greatness of the Romans. Though not the first of the
amphitheatres which were erected, its enormous size rendered the
erection of subsequent ones unnecessary. It was here that emperors,
senators, generals, knights, and people, met together to witness the
most exciting and sanguinary amusements ever seen in the world. It was
built in the middle of the city, with a perfect recklessness of expense,
and could accommodate eighty-seven thousand spectators, round an arena
large enough for the combats of several hundred animals at a time. It
was a building of an elliptical form, founded on eighty arches, and
rising to the height of one hundred and forty feet, with four successive
orders of architecture, six hundred and twenty feet by five hundred and
thirteen, inclosing six acres. It was built of travertine, faced with
marble, and decorated with statues. The eighty arches of the lower story
formed entrances for the spectators. The seats were of marble covered
with cushions. The spectators were protected from the sun and rain by
ample canopies, while the air was refreshed by scented fountains. The
nets designed as a protection from the wild beasts were made of golden
wire. The porticoes were gilded; the circle which divided the several
ranks of spectators was studded with a precious mosaic of beautiful
stones. The arena was strewed with the finest sand, and assumed, at
different times, the most different forms. Subterranean pipes conveyed
water into the arena. The furniture of the amphitheatre consisted of
gold, silver, and amber. The passages of ingress and egress were so
numerous that the spectators could go in and out without confusion. Only
a third part of this wonderful structure remains, and whole palaces have
been built of its spoils. [Footnote: Dyer, _Hist. of the City of
Rome_, p. 245. Gibbon, chap. 12. Montaigne, _Essays_, in. 6.
Lipsius, _de Amphitheatro_.]

[Sidenote: Rebuilding of the Capitol.]

[Sidenote: Arch of Titus.]

Another great fire which took place A.D. 80,--the same in which Titus
dedicated the Colosseum,--and which raged three days and nights,
destroyed the region of the Circus Flaminius, including some of the
finest temples of the city, and especially on the Capitoline, and
created the necessity for new improvements. These were made by Domitian,
who rebuilt the Capitol itself with greater splendor on its old site,
and erected several new edifices. Martial speaks with peculiar
admiration of the Temple of the Gens Flavia. [Footnote: Martial,
_L_., ix. Ep. 4, 35. ] He also erected that beautiful arch to his
brother Titus which still remains one of the finest monuments of the
imperial city. The Odeum, a roofed theatre, was erected by him, capable
of holding twelve thousand people. He also made many additions to his
palace on the Palatine--so lofty, that Martial, his flatterer,
described it as towering above the clouds, and Statius compared the
ceiling to the cope of heaven.

[Sidenote: Forum Trajanum.]

[Sidenote: Basilica Ulpia.]

No great improvements were made in the city until Trajan commenced his
beneficent and splendid reign. His greatest work was the Forum which
bears his name, to which allusion has been made, eleven hundred feet
long, in the centre of which was that beautiful pillar, one hundred and
twenty-eight feet high, which is still standing. The Forum, the Basilica
Ulpia, and the temple dedicated by Hadrian to Trajan, were all parts of
this magnificent structure, one of the most imposing ever built, filled
with colossal statues and surrounded with colonnades.

[Sidenote: Temple of Venus and Rome.]

[Sidenote: Mausoleum of Hadrian.]

[Sidenote: Hadrians Villa.]

None of the Roman emperors had so great a passion for building as
Hadrian, who succeeded Trajan A.D. 117. He erected a vast number of
edifices, and in his reign Rome attained its greatest height of
architectural splendor. The most remarkable among the edifices which he
built was the Temple of Venus and Rome, facing on one side the
Colosseum, and the other the Forum, on the site of the Atrium, or the
golden house of Nero. This seems to have been one of the largest of the
Roman temples, erected on an artificial terrace five hundred feet long
and three hundred broad. It was surrounded with a portico four hundred
feet by two hundred, and another portico of four hundred columns
inclosed the terrace on which the temple was built, the columns of which
were forty feet in height. The roof was covered with bronze tiles.
Ammianus Marcellinus classes this magnificent temple with the Capitoline
Temple, the Flavian Amphitheatre, and the Pantheon. The next greatest
work of Hadrian was the Mausoleum, which is now converted into the
Castle of St. Angelo, built on a platform of which each side was two
hundred and fifty-three feet in length. From the magnificent colonnade
which supported the platform on which it was built, and the successive
stories supported by arches and pillars, between which were celebrated
statues, this circular edifice, one hundred and eighty-eight feet in
diameter, must have been one of the most imposing edifices in the city.
After eighteen centuries, it still remains a monument of architectural
strength, and it served for one of the strongest fortresses in Italy
during the Middle Ages. I pass by, without notice, the villa this
emperor erected at Tivoli, the ruins of which are among the most
interesting which remain of that great age.

[Sidenote: Column of Marcus Aurelius.]

[Sidenote: Arch of Septimius Severus.]

[Sidenote: Baths of Caracalla.]

Under Hadrian Rome attained its greatest splendor, and after him, there
was a progressive decline in the arts, since the public taste was
corrupted. Still successive emperors continued to adorn the city. Marcus
Aurelius, the wisest and best of all the emperors, erected a column
similar to that of Trajan, to represent his wars with the Germanic
tribes, and this still remains; he also built a triumphal arch.
Septimius Severus erected the most beautiful of the triumphal arches, of
which the Arc de Triumph in Paris is an imitation; and Caracalla built
one of the greatest of the Roman baths, which, with the porticoes which
surrounded it, formed a square of eleven hundred feet on each side--so
enormous were these structures of luxury and utility, designed not only
for the people as a sanitary measure, but for places of gymnastic
exercises, popular lectures, and the disputations of philosophers. The
Pantheon was merely an entrance to the baths of Agrippa. The baths of
Trajan covered an area nearly as great. But those of Caracalla surpassed
them all in magnificence. Nothing was more striking to a traveler than
the painted corridors, the arched ceilings, the variegated columns, the
elaborate mosaic pavements, the immortal statues, and the exquisite
paintings which ornamented these places of luxury and pleasure. From
amid their ruins have been dug out the most priceless of the statues
which ornament the museums of Italy--the Farnese Hercules, the colossal
Florae, the Torso Farnese, the Torso Belvidere, the Atreus and Thyestes,
the Laocoon, beside granite and basaltic vases beautifully polished,
cameos, bronzes, medals, and other valuable relics of ancient art. To
supply these baths new aqueducts were built, and the treasures of the
empire expended. Those subsequently erected by Diocletian contained
three thousand two hundred marble seats, and the main hall now forms one
of the most splendid of the Roman churches.

[Sidenote: Temples and Palaces.]

[Sidenote: General aspect of the city.]