Martinsburg gazette and public advertiser. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1826-1833, 1833-10-10


ultaneously with the moral. II il =
poetical thought, and wrought out with
great truth and skill.
| Our eyes aching, and our attention
exhausted with pictures, we drove from,
the Sciarra to the ruined palaces of the
Caesars. Here, on an eminence above
the Iiber, with the Forum beneath u.
on one side, the Coliseum on the other
and all the towers and spires Of mod.
ern and Catholic Rome arising on hei
many hills beyond, we seated ourselves
on fragments of marble, half buried in
the grass, and unused away the hours
till sunset. On this spot Romulus
founded Rome. The prineely Angus.
tus, in the last days of her glory, laid
here the foundations Of his imperial pa
lace, which, continued by Caligula and
Tiberius, and completed by Domitian,
covered the hill, like small city. 1t
was a labyrinth Of temples, baths, pa.
vilions, fountains, and gardens, with a
large theatre at the western extremity;
and adjoining to the Temple Of Apollo,
was a library filled with the best au.
thors, and ornamented with colossal
bronzed statue of Apollo, 'of excellent
Etruscan workmanship Statues of
the fifty daughters of Danaus Siuram-
dert, surrounded the portico." (or this
same temple "and opposite them were
equestrian statues of their husbands. !"
About a hundred years ago, accident
discovered, in the gardens, buried in
rubbish, a magnificent hall, two hun
dred feet in length, and one hundred
and thirty.two in breadth, supposed to
have been built by Domitian. II was
richly ornamented with statues and
columns Of precious marbles, and near
it were baths in excellent preservation.
"But," says Stark, ''immcnse and SUI
perb as was this first built palace of
the Caesars, Nero, whose extravaganza
and passion for architecture knew no
limits, thought il much too small for
him, and extended its cdifices and gar
dens from the palatine to the Esqulline.
After the destruction of the whole, by
fire, sixty-hve years after Christ, he
added to il his celebrated "Golden
House," which extended from one ex-
tremity to the other Of the Cnlian
HILL"
The ancient walls, which made the
whole Of the Mount Palatine fortress,
still hold together its earth and its ru-
ms. 1t is broad tabular eminence,
worn into footpaths which wind at ev-
cry moment around broken shafts of
marble, fragments of statuary, or bro
ken and ivy covered fountains. Part
of it is cultivated as vineyard by the
degenerate modern Romans, and the
baths, into which the water still pours
from aqueducts cncrusted with aged
stalactites, are public washing places
for the contadini, eight or ten of whom
were splashing away in their red jack
cts, with gold bodkins in their hair,
while we were moralizing on their
worthier progenitors Of eighteen GEN.
tries ago.
1t is beautiful spot of itself, and,
with the delicious, soft sunshine of an
Italian spring, the tall green grass be-
meath our feet, and an air as soft as
June, just stirring the myrtles and jas
mines growing wild wherever the ruins
gave them place, our enjoyment of the
overpowerIng associations Of the spot
was ample and untroubled. ] could
wish every refined spirit in the world
had shared our pleasant hour upon the
Palatine.
$50 called in the catalogue. The custode how