The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1827-04-25

L
Quirinal are fully occupied by the modern
city. None of them have that prominence.
winch the traveller might nationally expect
to lind, and which they in fact once had.
Inc cause is obvious. While the ruins of
the city, piled stratum above stratum, have
Il elevated its level twenty; thirty, and some-
times forty feet above the ancient pave
ment, nc addition has been made to the
/ height OF the hills. On the contrary. a
portion Of their submits, loosened by til
lage and swept dowa by rains, forms a part
OF the Heterogeneous alluvian, on which
modern Rome is seated.
The Aventine is one of the largest and
highest of the group. The verdant sum-
NIT of this HILL the aerial tomb of Remus,
and where once rose fanes to Juno, Diana.
Victory, Liberty, and other diyinities, ie
now much the haunt or DlrCls, as IL was
IN the days OF the soothsayers, and old
Hercules might find better pasturage for
his stolen cattle, than he did in the age Of
| Cacus.f
| But Of all the Roman Hills, the Palatine
IS infinitely the most interesting both from
Its associations and its present picturesque
appearance. Here was the cradle of en-
plre; here rose the first humble walls,
here was established the Court from the
thatched cottage of old Romulus to the
Golden Palace of Nero; here stood the
shrine consecrated to Apollo and the
Muses;t here Cicero lived and Horace
sung The Palatine mount is Immediate
~ under the eye of the spectator, as he
! STANDS upon the tower on the CapiJollne.
We have raEbled over it again and again.
1t is the very image of desoiation. "The
fox looks out of the Window and the owl
hoots amidst the ruins of IFS palaces and
temples. Nearly its whole circumference
is giTt with q series of subterranean baths.
sweeping round in dark line, under the
brow of the hill, and opening into its sides
like gloomy caverns.
i On the cliffs. at the southwestern ex-
tremity, stand all that remains of the Pal
ace of the Caesars and the splendid temple
OF Apollo, consisting of few damp and
dreary arches still exhibiting traces of fres-
co ceilings. Of the palace, which once
covered the whole hill, the composition
! floor of the terrace is in good preservation,
bordering upon the cliff, where Nero used
to sit at his window, and drop his handker-
chief, as signal for the games to begin,
IN the Circus MaximusN below. Of the
temple, nothing save its foundation is left.
Fragments of its Corinthian capitals and
trlezes OF Purian marble are strewed I'M
der grove of lex on the brow of the hill,
mantled by the matted grass and leaves of
the acanthus, whence the order derives an
9TgP ahs region II t5e 5S1Se28 81 tMRffFf
wild shrubbery, in which persons are eff
fectually concealed, as they Iamble along
the foot paths. The solitude is absolutely
appalling. Some memorials of Nero's
, crimes are yet preserved. 4 bath is shown,
! IN which the veins of Seneca were pricked
by the order of the Emperor; and by turn
! ing the eye to the left, it rests on the old
tower, upon which he is said to have fid-
died, while Rome was burning. His Gold
en- House extended from the Palace of the
Cesars to the Caelian and Esquiline hills, a
distance of about half mile or more
The Forum, the Roman Forum! It.
spreads at my feet Could any mortal re.
cognize the place, once surrounded by
splendid porticoes and temples of the gods !:
where stood the Curia, the Comitium, the
Tribunal, and the Rostrmn; where the
Commons applauded as FULLY spoke? Like
the Palatine Mount, and the Capitoline
Hill, between which it lies Graded, the
centre of Roman power and of Roman
liberty IS shorn of its glories, and cattle
again low, as they did in the days of Evan
gave law to the world! The Forum is
now called u Campo Vacino-an applica-.
ton so mean as scarcely to admit of a de-
cent translation. But what is the vulgar.
4 ty of its name, (Anglice co,c-yard) compar-
ed with the vile uses to which it is degraC-
ed At the time of our visit it was Gov
cred with carts, from which the teams of
, oxen were embarrassed and quietly rum
mating, as they reclined in pairs. Near
, ore corner of the slight and rude wooden
fence, which encloses the central portion,
a cobler was seated upon the fragment of
a Grecian column, busy at his work in the
open air; and by his side, an old woman, a
descendant perchance of Cornelia or IIu-
cretia, sat knitting, thus furnishing, like
her illustEious ancestors, a public exam
pie of female industry and domestic vir-
tue! Objects even too disgusting for de.
scription, defle the Campo Vacino.-
Swarms of lizards literally cover the
ground, and the rats and mice have be-
come so impudent by long and undis-
puted possession, as to sally forth from
their homes into open day, in the presence
of the spectator, shaking the rank weeds
above them, as they chase each other in
: their gambols.
Can this be the FORUM Yea, verify, it
is the Roman Forum; Tor beneath us, tri-
umphal arches and porticoes, and insulat-
, ed columns, piercing strata of rubbish
heaped upon the old pavement to the depth
Of twenty or thirty feet, left their GreciaIt
capitals and shattered cornices above the
scene of desolation, coming like tell-tale
messengers from the world below. Near
est the base OF tho Capitoline, are three
columns Of the temple Of the Jupiter To-
mans, erected by Augustus as avotive fame
for having been preserved from q bolt of
the Thunderar which fell near his head
At the distance of q few PAGES, stand eight
-