The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-03-09
Letter from DR.. Goldsmith.
ROME, Feb. 10th, 1875.
Editor Rutland Globe.

Mecca-wards to the cradle of his faith, or
civilization. If you reach 1t at night, and
10 through the badly lit streets to your ho-
tel, your first exclamation, when you look
out of the window IN the morning, will be,
''And is this Rome ?" That exclamation is
the utterance of surprise, and complete
disenchantment for In what you see there
is much that is shabby, and nothing that is
augusta dirty modern town, with narrow
streets, filled with beggars, addressed
peasants, and the greatest collec-
ton of crow-bat cab-horses one ever
dreamed of, nor does much of modern
Rome do anything to change this impress
sion.
The first objects of interest are the ruins
of the old city, and the churches, and the
galleries of the new. Of these you have
often read, and almost every historical
monument of the city is so grown upon
your Imagination that you recognize each
as you see it. To me these monuments,
old and new, derive their chief interest in
the story they tell of the civilization out of
which they sprang.
OF republican Rome there is no authen-
tic trace worth the mentioning Very much
of the topography of imperial Rome is,
after the greatest research, to-day matter
of donbt. Modern investigations seem to
show that the account, which Livy wrote,
an account which since Neibur's time,
has generally been considered fabulous, is,
on the whole, the most reliable of any
thing which has been written. If your
readers will imagine walled city, in
which the houses were built four or five
stories high, closely packed together, with
narrow streets not over ten feet wide, with
every available space occupied, so as to
crowd all the people within the protection
of the walls, and that these houses were
built of brick, or stone, every partition in
the house being of brick or stone,
and these walls from two to three
feet thick, he will be able to under
stand that in the case of the destruction of
such a city, what, with the detritus of
crumbling walls, and other things, the
streets would be filed, and the whole sur
face of the city would he raised a number
of feet above the original level of the land.
If he will still imagine that, in some parts
of this demolish,d City, centuries elapsed
before restoration took place, he can an
derstand that beneath the grass-coyered
and undulating pastures before HIM,
lies ruined city, with all the
treasures of dwelling and temple,
which, by reason of the material
out of which they were composed could
not decay. Let him imagine second era
of destruction in part at least, of the city,
| and second restoration, and he will under
stand that under the streets, where he now
rides along in his cab, there are two buried
cities, and if he were to dig down under
his feet he might flnd as has been done
here, at the depth of forty or fifty feet, and
under the ruins of another house, the ala
baster pavements of an old patrician villa
Just such excavations have been gong
on here for years, and all the galleries OF
the great cities of Europe are enrlched WIN
| the spoils of these excavations. The tenn
| ples and palaces have been eXumed. Inc
church, which followed the Caesars in the
| domination of Rome, had of course the
first digging, the first handling of the
gathered, and garnered loot of the king
doms of the world. In time they parcelled
out the area IN so many feet claims like
a California gulch, aud hither flocked all
the royal vuturcs of the continent to rip
open the carcass of dead Rome, to fitch,
or foul her olden glory not all, for there
stands yet few gigantic works out of
which there was nothing to be got by gut
ting, works so great, so vast, so enduring,
that the vandalism of the church, the rob-
berries of kings, and tho erosions of the
seasons have barely succeeded in dismant'
ling them. 1t must be borne IN mind, that
the early christian church suffered much II
martyrdom from the religious orders of OLD
Rome, and therefore held the emblems Of
the prosecuting faith in Ito special love, Oh
reverence. This, with the spirit of gilt
Offering coming SO legitmately from thu
old to the new dispensation, seemed tt
bring into existence sort fleeing that thu
Jewels of the old and fallen faith, were thu
most welcome offerings at the affairs OF thu
new. Hence it is you see such incongru
GUS mixtures of the two eras IN to-day
monuments.
In one place you see column towering
above the surrounding temples, and from
base TO summit professions of warriors
, chariots, brave men led captive in thu
manaces of slaves, maidens, and womel
torn from distant homes, jewels, gold
treasures, every loot of piracy, war, ra
pre and theft. The cmblems of ever,
cruelty possible to brutal conquest, slowl.
ascending in winding spirals to the feet o
Imperial Caesar atop. The monument, tn
triumphal efligy, but the gathered emblem
of all that which Christ came to banis
> from the world has not now atop the bar
\ barrie conqueror, who used to stand there
but one of the fishermen of Galllee, a low
y ly apostle of him, who summed up hi
= ministry In ''peace on earth, good will
men.
. Sarcophagi, your readers know, ar
collins carved from marble, or stone, @
> moulded in terra Gotta. They look lik
L big bath tubs, when the lids are off.
IS one of the churches lid of a sarcophagu
It now plays the part of q baptismal font
In another the baptismal font, holding tn
q water with which men and children ar
&c baptised with all the formula of that angus
ceremony, was formerly vase in Hadr
ans villa, vase which, Judging from il