The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-04-23
Correspondence Of The Cincinnati Gazette


IConespcndence Of the Cincinnati Gszettel
II Won prefer drive on the Appian Way, this
Is Away open. And there you first pass BY the
ancient Forum with its beautiful ruins, the re-
mains Of former greatness. You pass under the
arch which Titus raised to commemorate ms vi
umph over the jews, and see upon It's SIDES me
sculptured figures of the 4" ark OF the covenant
and the seven branched golden candlestick y OF
the ewish temple. You pass the ruins OF the
palace of the Caesars, where Napoleon III, the
modern 0ctavus, Is now making excavations.
You brush the shadow OF the bulky Coliseum,
and drive beneath the arch Of Constantine, which
alone of all trumphal arches still stands I'M
broken. Then out upon the I" Via Triumphals,"
over which the victorious generals OF kone USED
to ride in triumphal procession with their INCUR
thss and Zenobias, their Dacians and Lybians. as
captives, and the spoils of war as trophies. Then
beneath the slopes of the C@lian hill for little
distance, and you strike the Regina Viarum."
the queen of roads, the .Appisn itself. BY
soldiers have tramped forth to fight carrying the
eagles of the empire TO the far limits Of the civ
ized world They went conquering aud to con-
quer to kill without scruple and TO subju
without right full of greed. ambition and cruelty.
When nothing was lett without to engage their
swords they turned them upon their own citizens,
and Rome's victims were avenged In the blood Of
Rome's noblest children slain by her own inssti-
| able legionaries.
At present the beginnings Of the Appian road,
! like other ways out OF Rome, lie between high
| stone walls, over which II Is quite impossible TO
| see. Only huge runs are visible on either side,
| among which the baths OF Caracaa, with their
| lofty and massive arches, occupy the most con-
spicuous place. Beyond these is the entrance to
the catacombs, and on the other side 70 the tomb
of the Scipios, who are TO be counted among the
| foremost even of Romans. Then you reach the
| only tomb still remaining Ia any kind OF perfec-
ton, the sepulchre Of Cecilia Metalla, wife OF the
| Trumvir Crassus. Now, Crassus was enor-
| mously rich, and built this magnificent me-
| mortal to his wife, Of hewn stone, SO
| solidly that il remains even to this day. IL
| is a landmark to all the region roundabout, and
shows not what virtue, but what wealth can do to
keep alive the obscurest names. Beyond this the
Appian Is one line Of ruined tombs. Vast piles OF
brick succeeded each other for miles, the wayside
| is strewn with broken columns, headless statues,
| fragments Of arms and legs, feet and hands, and
| bodies Of marble, llegible Inscriptions, bits OF
marble arabesque, where every curve Is full
of grace fractured bias reliefs urns, cornices and
| whatever was used by the ancients TO preserve
and honor the names Of the mighty dead. No
sight can be more pathetic than these multtudin"
| Gus memorials of extinct race, themselves also
| half extinct. And beyond on the one side, are
the broken arches of the great aqueducts, stretch
| ing far across the plain, like the wreck OF some
giant temple now all gone TO mere tradition, like
the religion IL was meant to perpetuate. Behind
these, the enduring heights of the Alban and
| Sabine mountains hit themselves as fresh and
strong as when Romulus struck Remus dead on
the Palatine, or when Brutus slew Caesar in the
capitol. Gods work alone is stable.
From the Appisn the eye also ranges over the
Campagna far and wide. The landscape is like the
| sea. No other in the world is like it. except
| the sea itself, and you can scarcely keep from
| looking for ships on the deceitful horizon. To-
| ward Rome you see st. Peters dome and the sides
of historic Jaminius and then the rest OF the city
| in its still grand features. Altogether, day
spent upon this way is full Of interest, and i'm
| presses the mind with sense of Roman greatness
| such as even the most famous ruins fail to con-
| vey. The resources of o people who built cas-
| ties and palaces for mere monuments TO their
dead and constructed them carefully as 10 defy
all that "time and spite" have done to obliterate
| them, must have been even beyond our concep-
ton of than.