The daily gazette., 1877-09-19
HOME OFsTHE GESARS
THE EXCAVATIONS ON THE PAL
y ATINE HILL-THE WORK BY
- LOUIS NAPOLEON BEGITN

Evening Post, writing from Rome, says =.
The ancient and majestic ruins of the
palaces of the Cpsars on the Palatine
Hill have not yet been entirely freed
from the accumulations of centuries.
New excavations have been recently be-
gun in the western part of the hill, which
1t Is thought it will bring to light the
house OF Augustus. Senator Rosa is con-
WINGED that this exists under the convent
which cuts the Palatine in two and which
the Government has been unable to dis
turb until now. There ~ hope also of find
ing the temple ofApollo, which Augustus
built to eommemorat the battle of Ac-
tlum. The temple, which is often nen-
toned IN the classic poets as existing on
the Palatine, has never yet been dis
covered.
About forty years ago Napoleon III,
then an ambitious youth, aspiring even
to initiate the Ca sars, was in Rome, and
often visited the imperial mount where
the Roman Emperors had We'd with
each other in magnificence and In crime.
The ruin into (which these wonderful
monuments of past glory had fallen at
tracted and impressed his imagination,
aud long afterwards, when he became
Emperor ofthe French, he remembered
the neglected garden overgrown with
lex trees and ivy on the Palatine Hill.
He bought it for $50, 900 of the King of
Naples, anu placed Hietro Rosa, an in-
telhgent and enterSrising archaologist,
at the head of the excavations, assigning
an annual sum of $4,000 francs for the
expenses.
The excavations of the Palatine, which
had been so interesting to him in pros
peri,y, were not forgotten when he was
an exile and sick in England. He occu-
pied himself with their future, and per-
suaded the Government of Italy to buy
them at the same price which he had
paid, with the addition of the money he
had already spent upon them. He pre-
senteu the museum of objects found
upon the PalatIne to the Government,
and stipulated that Commentators Rosa,
who is a lineal descendant of Salvador
Rosa, should continue in charge of the
excavations.
To this arcb9ologists are due some of
the most important discoveries made in
Rome and under his direction, for he
seemed to possess sort OF instinct for
discovering the points where to dig
The entire topography of the Palantine
would long since have been known if the
Government had not hesi tated to remove
the nuns in the convent and small
church at one extremely of the hill. The
secret of Rosa's success was his belief in
the accuracy of the descriptions of Rome
found in the works of the ancient poets
and historians. These then took the
place of our modern inventions of news
papers and photographs, which render
all other descriptions OF events, objects,
and places superfluous. With Virgil,
Ovid, 'Tacitus, Livy, or Varrone in hand,
Rosa studied the mysterious rains of the
Palatine Hill, anu following their de-
scri ptionshe exeaVated here aud there,
and generally found the very object he
expected
first had two summits-one inhabited
called Germalus, and the other used for
the grazing of cattle, called Velia. There
were two gates-one on the north, called
Bomana, and the other .Porta Mugonlai
on the south one overlooked the Vela'
bro and the other the Via Sacra. Fol.
lowing this famous street, which led
from the Forum to the Palatine, one
would see the various edifices mentioned
in the Tristia of Ovid, book in writing
which he consoled, himself in exile. He
describes all the buildings of his native
city, and recalls those which his book
would pass when carried from the Forum
to the palace of the Emperor on the Pal
atine. The indications given in this
work have been more useful than any
others 10 aiding the search for toe an.
cient editices.
DR.. Schliemann, who visited Senator
Rosa some years ago aud studied his sys-
tenn of excavating, has initiated 1t IN his
Greek excavations with remarkable sue
cess.
Between the two original SUBMITS OF
the Palatine, in the valley called Inter
ont;,u, xuara tba paIa ntiA miserable
huts of the sheperds, where Saturn aud
Evander, the leaders of the people, set,
tlei in the mystic times 5000 or 4,OOC
years ago. The only relic of the Pelas.
gic fortress which remain is the word
"Rome," meaning force, but even this is
probematical. Here R1mulus afterwards
constructed his city, which, according to
the Etruscan fashion, he traced around
the foot of the hill with plough drawn
by bull and a heifer, the furrow being
carefully made to fall inward and the
helfer yoked to the inner side. This signl'
fled that strength and courage were re-
uuired without and obedience within the
city. The solid rock upon which Romu'
lus built was 800, yards long and 400 yards
wide. This was the Roma. Quadrata, a
fortress of which some of the walls are
sti II existing.
In the year 1845 the Emperor of Russia
was in Home, and. excited by the spirit
of exploration, bought a small part OF
the Pdlatine, and began to eXcavate'
He hoped to find some rare work OF art
which he could carry away with him to
the North, but discovered only an ancient
wall of very solid construction, which
was afterwards decided to be part OF
the ancient wall built by Romulus, Dis
couraged in his attempt, he presented
his excavations to the Pohtlical Govern
ment. which continued them in the direc-
tion of the wall, and soon discovered the
barracks or rooms anciently used by the
soldiers of C8sar's household. Some OF
these were Christians, as the small bias
nhemous cutting in the stucco of the wall
now in the MuSeo Kircheriano, proves
IL was evidently cant to deride the re-
lipiop of one of the soldiers there, as un-
der the blasphemous image roughly cut
with a nail or knife in thewall is written,
aAlexander worshlps his Gud."
Not long agoI went over the Palatine
with Sign0r Rosa aud listened to this en-
tbnsiastic conversation on the wonderful
runs. They are the passions OF ms life,
and he becomes eloquent In describing
and explaining them when he has an at
tenti We listenhr. "This, said he, "is the
noint where the emperors came to watch
tha games, There, when the nuns leave.
we will excavate to find the house of
Augustus"
The descriptions gwen by writers at
different periods indicate the gradual de
struction of the palaces on the Palatine.
The writer's of the earlier centuries speak
antbnsi astical of its glories, but as time