The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-11 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, APRIL 11, 180.

DISCOVERIES IN ROME.

(From the Builder )
The Church of St. Nicolo in Carcere has been closed for
repairs during about 17 years, but we are assured that the
elow advancing works are, at last, near to completion, and
that this ancient building amidst the quaint irregular
streets near the Tiber, where once stood the Forum
Olitorium (or vegetable market), beyond the line of
the Servian walls, will be re-opened, and restored in
a style of splendour, but preserving its leading features of
basilica architecture, within six months hence. All are
familiar with the story of " The Roman Daughter," and
the prison consecrated into a temple of piety to commemo-
rate the act by which she saved aparent's life—one example
of the reverence entertained for domestic virtue amidst
whatever corruption of manners in ancient Rome. But
arch asologists have destroyed the claims once admitted for a
spot supposed to be that story's theatre—the subterranean
cell below a temple of the republican period, included within
the St. Nicholas Church. That in this celebrated incident
the relationship of the personage was different from that
generally assumed, and often represented by art, a mother,
not a father and daughter, being the real actors in the
scene in which the life of one was saved by nourishment
from the other's breast, must be admitted on the credit
of the only reliable classic authorities by whom it is men
tioned—Pliny, " Hist Nat." vii. 36, and Valerious
Maximus, 1. v. c. 4. For the version which presents the
subject, more pictorially indeed, as a father's life thus
saved by a daughter, we have only the less trustworthy
report of Solinus, " Polyhist," and Festus, in
" Pietate ;" whilst Pliny states distinctly that the
temple dedicated to Piety on that prison site (a sacellum,
or chapel according to Sollinus) was, among several edifices,
swept away to make room for the theatre begun by Julius
Caesar and finished by Augustus, with dedication to Mar-
callus. The other Temple of Piety being in the immediate
vicinity, we may understand how the two became con-
founded, and one at least positively mistaken for the other
by ecclesiastical authorities, amidst the ignorance of Me-
diasval Rome in regard to all concerning her own antiquities.
Till the sth century of our era, it is supposed, this temple
still remained entire; and in the 9th century was raised
above its then ruined structure the church known as " St.
Nicholas in the Prison," a name expressing the popular
tradition—source, no doubt, of a special privilege possessed
by it from the time, it is said, of St. Damasus (who held
this cure before becoming pope), namely, that all the pri-
sons in Rome were subject to the jurisdiction of its clergy
as pastors of their parochial centre. A benefactor and re-
storer of this parish church was the Cardinal Borgia, who
became Pope Alexander VI. ; and in 1599 was built the
façade still standing, on an obscure piazza, from She design
of Giacomo della Porta. Certain it is, that on this site
stood the Temple of Piety, built, or at least founded, A.U.C.
573, in fulfilment of the vow made 10 years previously by
Acilius Glabro, on occasion of his victory over Antiochus,
the Syrian king, at Thermopylae ; but dedicated by that con-
queror's son, who placed before its front a guilt equestrian
statue of his father, mentioned by Livy (1., x., c. 34), as the
first "status aurata " seen in Rome. Earlier, about - the
end of the sth century, a temple to Hope near the same
spot, had been dedicated by Attilius Collatinus, who
triumphed over the Carthagenians in the year 497, and had
twice been consul. This, first restored after a fire in 640,
was rebuilt under Augustus, to be dedicated anew, after
his death, by Germanicus; and in its extant ruins Canina
points out ornamental features added on to the lonic of the
primitive building, in style evidently of the early imperial
period (see "Esposizione Topog. di Roma Antics"). The
third of the adjacent temples, here forming one group, was
dedicated to Juno Sospita by the Censor Cornelius Cathe-
gus, four years after he had vowed its erection previously
to engaging in battle with the Cisalpine Gauls and luau-
brians in the year of Rome 559. Of this last we have no
further record, save in the Catalogues of the Regionaries,
Victor and Rufus, showing that it still existed, probably
entire, about the end of the fourth century of our era.
The first excavations with the object of discovering these
ruins under the church by which all these temples had been
absorbed, buried beneath modern buildings, were, in 1808,
directed by the architect Valadier ; and the results led to
establishing beyond all doubt the fact that the three fanes
had stood parallel from east to west, the central being that
to Piety, and of largest dimensions, approached from the
Forum Olitorinm by 15 steps, its entire area measuring 105
feet by 50 feet. Surrounded by a Doric peristyle of fluted
columns in peperino, with six in double file along the front
and back, 11 in single file along each side, it was therefore
a hexastyle peendodipteros. A portion of the pedestal for
the equestrian figure of Acilius Glabro was dug up near its
front, so placed that it appeared to have divided the first 10
steps of the outer staircase into two branches; and along the
remains of a projecting basment or socle, adorning the fa.,
Bade, were found several quadrate niches between pilasters,
destined, as Niddy infers, for the bronze tablets of Fasti,
here displayed to public view on the forum. Opposite is
supposed to have stood the Columns Lectaria, a pillar at
which it was the inhuman practice of paganism to leave in-
fants exposed for the chance of being taken to nurse by
some compassionate stranger. The church of St. Nicholas
has arcades and columns, dividing nave and aisles under a
flat coppered ceiling, the Corinthian capitals and marble
shafts beingunequal, and from their irregularity manifestly
the spoils of sonic classic and splendid edifice. We descend
into the confessional, an elliptic chamber recently constructed
below the high altar, and thence pass through a spacious
modern vault, under the sanctnary,into a long dark corridor,
vaulted in modern brickwork, along each side of which runs
a substructure in enormous square blocks of travertine, in-
terrupted at irregular intervals by small quadrate cells,
whose walls are of peperino, alike massive, all of the same
dimensions, scarcely in any part ruinous, but without inclo-
sure or any remnant of walls in front; and this absence
both of masonry and doorways to guard the entrances cer-
tainly does not consist with the theory of imprisonment
being the destined purpose of these interiors. The old ens-
tode, whose one idea on the subject is continually dinged
into our ears, with repetition of the words "careers, car-
cere," improves indeed on the favourite version of the
" Roman Daughter" story, by converting the mother not
merely into a father, but a senator of Imperial Rome, who
was undoubtedly confined here I
The above-described travertine structure is surmounted at
regular intervals by the basements and shafts of a peperino
colonnade, here seen in very imperfect glimpse, the upper
part of all of the pillars being built up in the church wal

above. Hence we pass into two other parallel corridors,
each lined, but only along one side, with similar cells con-
structed in peperino, opening from a projecting front of tra-
vertine. At one end of the corridor, running southwards,
we reach a flight of steps, antique, leading to a doorway,
and this egress opens on a narrow winding passage now
blocked up at a short distance by fallen masonry. The
walls each side of this doorway are reduced to mere rubble-
work, without any incrustation of hewn stone; and the
custode sagaciously assures us that this mysterious passage
leads as far as the basilica of St. Sebastian on the Appian
Way, at least three miles distant I A large chamber, in
masonry,similar to that of the cells, opens at the end of one
corridor, and another, still larger, is now only visible through
a gap in the modern walls, completely shut in by the re-
stored vaults under the church's tribune. The shaft and
Doric capital of one of the columns, imperfectly seen be-
low, is recognised, half embedded in a niche, after we have
zeturned to the aisle of the church; and opposite, in the
southern line of walls, are partly visible some other pepe-
rino columns, of which seven may be fully seen from a

narrow court external to the building on this side. In

another court off the northern side are several fragments
of architectural ornaments, some in marble, now set into

a wall for better display, their rich character in a few in-
stances contrasted with the simplicity distinguishing all

else in these ruins. More interesting is what we see after

ascending to a platform immediately under the old belfry,
where we stand between two files of walls and cornices—to

the north the Temple of Hope, to the south that of Piety,
alike built in peperino, one loftier than the other, with cor-
nice better preserved, the details of the egg-moulding 8011

clear, though not unworn by time, with a frieze below, along
i.vhichare numerous indentures, evidently the holes for nails,

by which were fastened letters of a varnished inscription.
The opposite lower cornice is less perfect and less strongly

marked in its relief details. Still higher, ascending to an:

other terrace, we see several courses of the masonry belong-
ing to the Temple of Piety ; and these terminate in a broken

arch of very massive structure, the complete span of which

must have been considerable.

Among antiques appro-

priated to sacred use in the church is a sarcophagus of the
finest green porphyry, with two expressive Medusa heads
in low relief on each front, this being destined for the relics

under the high altar, to be surmounted by a canopy resting

on four columns of Oriental alabaster.

The excavations on the height immediately above the An-
tonine Therm are continuing, as has been the case during
the last six years, but now apparently rather in the object
of giving employment to the youths of the teformatory for
juvenile culprits located at this old convent than with any
expectation of great results. Several brick constructions,
in the style of the later imperial period, and a series of pa-
rallel arched chambers with entrances walled up, under one
wing of the inhabited buildings, attest the foundation of
some extensive edifice on this elevated ground. For some
time archaeologists were at a loss to divine further, still less
determine, when the discovery, in '59, of a few words on a
water-pipe, proved sufficient to identify beyond doubt--
ABI PRAEF VRB,
explaining the destination of this site for the palace of
Fabius Chilo, the Domus Cilonis of the Regionaries, its
master having been prefect at Rome, consul in the years

.98 and 204, and at one time preceptor of Antoninus Ca-

racella, who was on the point of sacrificing him, together

with the countless other victims put to death after the

murder of Geta, as suspected friends of that higher victim.
some of the brickwork ruins have been swept away since

the discovery here ; and we were sorry to observe the dila-
pidation of a more important structure in their vicinity, do-
sacroirab
,an—da ernemng raavnetdoifn
the declivity on which this convent stands now built into
their SleVrmvianGt'florrstifi"cia'toiponogs raapghayinostf
the inclosure wall on the side overlooking the valley be-
tween this and the Palatine Hill. Only two courses, in
large squared blocks of volcanic Alban stone, are left—con-
siderably less than appears in Gelrs pages.
Some time ago a proprietor of enterprise in such under-
takings, Signor Guidi, began other excavations not far frum
this spot, immediately below the southern end of the Anto-
nine Therrow, outside the great inclosed area of those ruins,

though within the quadrangle of porticoes and Chambers
once surrounding them, now, indeed, amok entirely lost
save on one side. Two stories of subterranean halls, appa-
rently independent of the baths, and belonging to some
splendid residence, were here uncovered (for the most part
within the last few weeks), both having pavements in black
and white mosaic, or gracefully designed floral and folial
subjects, but without figures or other representations. The
walls are covered with colour, mostly deep red, divided by
quadrate borders of different tints ; and within these com-
partments are figures, some well preserved, others scarce
traceable. Most of the mosaic pavement has fallen in from
the upper story, encumbering the floor below, to which we
can only descend by a ladder, no staircase remaining. But
the principal extent of halls is still subterranean, there be-
ing in this part but one story under the ground cultivated
as a garden immediately above. Here the wall paintings
are more perfect, and cover almost the entire surface ; but
as they became inaccessible, owing to the influx of water
from an inundation of the Tiber, shortly after their recent
discovery, and the works have been in consequence sus-
pended, we are unable to supply fuller report as to these in-
teriors in their present state.

The activity within the sphere of sacred archwologic
pursuits and research for their illustration under the
present pontificate has demanded a special record of re-
suite ; and this desideratum is promised satisfaction, with all
possible advantages of intelligent interpretation, by a
monthly issue from the pen of Di Rossi, first among living
authorities on Christian antiquity in Rome. His " Bulle-
tino di Archeologia Cristiana" began its welcome career last
January, in pamphlet form of ample contents, with fac-
simile epigraphs and outline engravings occasionally inter-
spersed over the text, and has hitherto proved indeed worthy
of its distinguished editor. The first number gives a full ac-
count of the discoveries under his direction in the catacombs
on the Appian Way, begun in 1848, and resulting, two
years later, in the opening of a crypt, at the foot of its an-
cient staircase, adorned by paintings, among the most im-
portant yet found in these Christian hypogees ; also, the
opening, in 1857, of another crypt belonging to the cata-
combs of Pratextatus, whose vaulted roof is covered with
paintings of much beauty, ascribable, as here shown, to the
period of the Antonine Emperors. The second number re •
ports with full details on the subterranean church of St.
Clemente, and its interesting archaic contents, some of its
paintings being ascribed by Di Rossi to the 9th, others to
the 10th and the latter years of the 11th century. Else-
where are described the frescoes lately found in the most an-
cient section of the S. Lorenzo basilica—tne Virgin and
Child, and the figures of five male and five female saints in
this grouping, are allowed claims to antiquity at least as
high as the 10th century. Besides this new periodical, we
have the Bulletin of the Archaeological Institute, conducted
by the Germans, to whom that association pertains; also
monthly, and very well compiled, but rather appropriated
to classic than sacred antiquity; nor is there any other re-
gular report of the archzeological researches in Rome save at
the sessions of " Accademie"—amidst which deficiencies we
have the greater reason to hail with pleasure the under-
taking of Di Rossi.

The site of the ancient Aricia, but the highest point of
which is occupied by the modern village of that name, is
now being excavated by Signor Fortunati, to whose ex.
ploring energies we owe the discovery of the beautifully-
painted tombs and the St. Stephen basilica, on the Latin
Way. A private society for excavating purposes has lately
found the remains of an antique villa on the Campagna,
near a village named Prima Porta, on the Tiber; and close
to the little port on that river, within the city, was recently
disinterred a pedestal bearing the dedication, Dive Antonino,
Casts from all the reliefs referring to Trajan, on the Arch
of Constantine, have been executed for the Emperor of
France; and, thus reproduced, these noble sculptures may
be far better appreciated.

The Atrocious Assault by the Russians on a
British Subject.

IA letter dated Cracow, April 4, says :
The Secretary of the British Embassy at Vienna arrived
here a few days ago to inquire into the circumstances attend-
ing the attempted murder of Mr. Finkenstein, who, strange
to say, is recovering, and is now able to walk. The descrip-
tion of Mr. Finkenstein's passport, as entered in the books
of the frontier station at Baran, has been examined, and his
account of the onslaught made upon him by the Russian
soldiers taken down, read over to him, and duly attested. a
To my former narrative of this horrible affair I may now
add some particulars supplied to me (at my own request) by
M. Bielski, the proprietor of Gebutlow, the village where
the outrage was perpetrated. Mr. Finkenstein only knew
that after he had remained for some time in his carriage (on
Sunday morning, the day after his capture), guarded by a
Junker and four sentinels, four Poles were brought to his
side, and that immediately afterwards a furious attack was
made upon them and upon himself by the soldiers, against
which the efforts of the officers to save the prisoners proved
quite unavailing. It appears that for about an hour before

the massacre of the prisoners the Russians had been engaged
in searching and robbing the house of M. Bielski. The major
commanding the Russian column (composed of several com-
panies of the Smolensk Regiment of Infantry and the bri-
gade of shorpshooters, with a detachment of Cossacks and
dragoons) was present endeavouring, by a judicious use of

the revolver, to restrain the excesses of his men. In going
over the house to look R. arias the soldier° etola whatever
they could lay hands upon; they also assaulted and wounded
many of the servants, but in prim," of their determined
chief they were obliged to preservo a certain decorum, and
confine themselves to pocketing chimney ornaments and
other portable articles when his eyes were turned another
way.

An officer of Cossacks entered the room where M. Bieleki's
wife and daughters, with several other ladies, were col-
lected, wearing his cap, whey the major at once knocked it
off. With this one exception all the officers seem to have
done their duty as gentlemen end men of honour.
I asked M. Bielski why the Major, who was perpetually
exhibiting his revolver, did not make use of it and shoot
one soldier in order to discourage the others, "He was on
the point of doing so," wal'4 the reply, " but we entreated
him not to. It would have been the signal for a general
massacre of the officers. The major was the only one who
could enforce any sort of obedience; and yet, when he
menaced one of the men, and said to him, I. have a bullet
here for you,' the answer made to him was, And I have
two for you."'

The fury of the soldiers was so great at not being allowed
to pillage the house that I‘l. Bielski, for the sake of his
tamily and of a number of visitors who were staying with
him, offered to give it up to plunder. He also proposed to
constitute himself a prisoner, on condition of being allowed
to send the ladies away; but the major would hear of no-
thing of the kind, and said that, the search for arms finished,
the soldiers should go, and that no one shoulcr be injured.
When the troops were ordered to leave the chateau of
Gebultow they began to growl like beasts deprived of their
prey, and at the first command did not move a step. The
major repeated the order in a peremptory tone, and a cry
was then raised of 64 He's an insurgent I He's a Pole I He's
against the Emperor I"
M. Bielski's wife and daughter, a beautiful little girl of
six or seven years of ago, now retired to the chapel with
the ladies who were staying at the house, and went down
on their knees, expecting every moment to be assassinated.
Bielski remained with the major, who preserved all his
calmness, and: ultithately succeeded in driving the ruffians
out. They went into the court-yard cursing and blasphem-
ing, and muttering that they would burn the house down
before they had done with it.

_
The major was endeavouring to form the column, and
giving directions to the officers, who could not get the
men together, when a number of soldiers of the Smolensk
Regiment called out " Kill the prisoner," and rushed to-
wards Mr. Finkenstein's carriage, by the side of which four
tocers
knocked who happened
downand
Polish prisoners were standing under the guard of a Junker
tn how
they attitude
were
ultimatelyof w
and four sentinels. How the prisoners were saved for a mo-
mento be
ar,
b oy th,e and energetic
bayoneted, has already been told. You may remember that
three of the Poles were killed on the spot; the fourth, like
Mr. Finkenstein, was left for dead. •
M . Beilski saw the massacre from the door of his house,
and hastened to inform the major of it. The major struck
his forehead in despair when he heard that Mr. Finkenstein
had been murdered, and exclaimed, "My God, what a posi-
tion I am in I I did my best to save them all, but I gave
that one my solemn promise that nothing should happen to
him I"
The chateau of Gebultow was now surrounded by the sol-
diers, intoxicated and enraged by their own bloody work,
and " Burn it down I burn it down 1 " was roared out by
600 savages. A ltogether the place and all its inmates bad
been threatened with destruction for an hour and a half,
when the major at last got the column into movement. It
had not proceeded many paces when it halted, and many of
the men turned round and declared they would go back to
the house. The major assured them that the first who
tried the experiment might consider himself a dead man,
and the experiment was not tried. But the grumbling and
muttering still continued) and a noise like the growling of
600 bears was heard until the column was out of sight.
When it was last seen the soldiers were still hesitating and
refusing to march, and the major was still riding along the
side, picking out the most turbulent among the military
mob, and subduing them by his voice, his gestures,
and the presentation of the eternal revolver. It
would be unfair to this officer, who is an honour
to the Russian army, just as much as the Smolensk Regi-
ment in general is a disgrace and shame to it, and to the
whole country, not to mention that his name is Bentkowski
lie is no relation to the well-known Prussian-Polish De-
puty and chief of the staff under Lungiewiez of the same
name, but belongs to a thoroughly Russian family.
After the Russian troops bad disappeared, the members
of M.Bielski's fatally came out to see what could be done for
the prisoners, though they had every reason toi feati•nkthey
i‘
were already beyond the reach of assistance. F en -
•
stein's face was one red mass, and the first thing ho remem
hers after recovering his consciousness is Madame Bielski
leaning over him, and washing away the blood, which was
flowing profusely from a frightful wound in his forehead.
Sbe was disturbed in her charitable occupation by a cry
that the Russians were returning. This was an error, the
troops which were approaching were not those of a regular
Government pretending to be civilised, but of Langiewicz,
the insurgent chief, who, as the reader is already aware,

directed the stirgoon of his staff to attend Mr. Finkenstein
b his hotel at Cracow, and not to leave him until he was
Well. The one wounded Pale who still lived it all confided
to the care of another doctor, and was also removed to
Cracow, to the hospital of the Hotel de Sate. The journey
to Cracow must have been dreadfully trying, not only to the
patients, but also to their medical attendants; the roads
being so bad that the carriages en which the wounded men
were placed were constantly on the point of upsettiflg
Langiewicz' surgeon had to walk the last 20 miles (the
whole distance from Jcbultow to Cracow is about thirty)
holding the side of the carriage or cart in which the patient
was lying, propping him up from time to time, and et-
pecting every moment that the jolting would disarrange
the bandages and re-open one or more of the 32 wounds
inflicted upon him by the daring Regiment of Smolensk,