New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-12-02


! II the greed OF the modern Italian nobility hns
been instrumental in this change, it must be said
| that the rand growth of the city's population
rendered il unavoidable. Room was demanded
| for hundreds Of thousands of new residents. The
| price Of land went up. The owners were poor
| md the formation was too much for them. They
| sold their villas and gardens. But in digging
| foundations for the new quarters all manner Oh
| valuable things have been discovered ana thaC u
the satisfactory side of the situation while WITHIN
and without the city wonderful additions have
been made to the stock Of antiquarian KNOWLEDGE
1t is not possible to follow Professor Lanciani
throuob his dissertations on the various fora which
have been unearthed; on the Palace OF the Caesars
on the Baths and the PorticoeS, on the AqueductS
and the Temples on the Villas and life In the
Campagna Each and all OF these sub ccts are
treated by him Interestingly, and upon each ana
all new light is thrown. What will perhaps most
attract the average modern is the hkenesscs ana
differences exhibited between the old and the
new civilization.
1t is very curious fact that the Romans, after
they had attained a high culture, when they had
filed their city with noble architecture, sculpture
engineering, monuments, and other accompahi-
! ments of maturity had no system OF street nght-
| ing Not trace of anything OF the l<ind mas
| been discovered 1t is referred to in no eXtant
books 1t u.s. in short, as certain as anything can
be, short of absolute demonstration, that inc
| masters of the world endured dark streets to the
end They had plenty OF good oil lamps IN thelr
houses They even invented mechanical lamps,
something like the Carcel burners for use in their
libraries But after sunset it was always danger
Gus to walk the streets OF Rome. and the Roman
police who were called cops" in the slang OF the
period and didn't like it any better than New
Yorks finest do had enough to 40 In 1act
they had more than enough to do, for they com
bined the functions of police and hremen Rome
had regular body of police, some nine thousand
strong Soldiers were never treated with the
protection Of the public press. As for the Prae-
torian Guards they were themselves chronic
rioters and law-breakers and truculent DulheS'
and the Government found it hard to keep them
to their barracks The police were we'll treated
if they were worked hard. Their quarters were
splendid palaces of marble and stone; spacious,
airy, furnished with everything which could con-
duce to the comfort and even luxury OF the IN
mates Those old Roman roundsmen and patrol
men we're like all the ancient ltahans lsee Iom-
neil for example, grently addicted TO scrlophhs OH
the walls These scribblings, after being purled
rcr twelve or fifteen hundred years or So are now
beine uncovered and deciphered. They are called
grof,it and from them many intimate details of
|
ancient Rome were very human. They set down
their complaints and their opinions of their cap
tains and snperintendents their poor Jokes funny
enonph TO them no doubt and all their little
| affairs.
Az fremcn they were not idle for Rome seems
"a have harbored many incendaries and
! 10 have been singularly infammable even
after most of the buildings Of stone or marhlc
! There were no insurance companies In those DAYS
| 10 tempt to arson but there was system Whch
| oncrotcd in the same way. When citizen was
burned out il was the custom Of all his TRENDS
to make him handsome presents and so 1t happened
that a poor man might easily iind his fortunes IN
| proved by the destruction of his dwelling Such
custom, of course, was absurd ana ms alone
| led to the appointment of officers who appear 10
have exercised functions closely akin to those OF
| our fre-marshals. Professor Lanclani is puzzied
! by the burning of many OF the Roman temples ana
public buildings, in the construction OF when no
wood was used, and he instances the destruction OF
| the Temple of Apollo Possibly some phenomeha
of the great fires in Chicago and Boston might
helm to clear up this mystery. 1t was shown in
those con fagratons that when body OF herce
heat has been created by the burning of naturally
inGammable structures those which were thought
freproof NAV then take fire and burn, and quite
possibly this is what happened in Rome. No doubt
! il was the case on the memorable occasion when
Nero desiring to secure more land for his palaces
and 10 reconstruct the city, caused it TO be set ON
fire in several places at once after having Thought
fully provided quantity Of wooden booths for the
shelter of the citizens he had resolved TO burn out
Great fires in those unlighted streets must have
| been enjoyed far more by the Roman thieves than
by the Roman policc-firemen. How the latter
fought the fires is not known, save that they had
no steam fire engines. Plenty of water they GER
tainly did have, for no city was ever so magnln-
Gently supplied by aqueducts as Homeland yet
| she used the 1iber as sewer. Speaking OF that
historic river reminds us that the future eXplora-
ton of its bed is expected to yield marvellous re-
suits 1t has been found that contrary to antlci-
nation. the rivcr-bed is really full of antiquities
Of the most valuable and interesting kind. In a
sort of experimental dredging of very small area
under an arch of an old bridge, the finds were as
tonishing Among them was "A striking Bacchus.
The Door fellow was discovered standing on his head
in the mud and in that awkward position he had
doubtless remained for a thousand years. The
Jews. as most readers will remember, have always
maintained that the golden oandclebra and other
treasures from the Temple at Jerusalem, taken by
Titus. were thrown into the Tbcr. Some years
ago they asked permission TO dredge for these
precious objects, but were refused. Now the
strong belief Of archaeOloGsts in the wealth of the
river-bed will probably create sentiment certain
in short time to bring abon! the exploration from
which so much is expected
Some superb bronzes, Of which several are figured
in this volume by admirable photographs, have
rewarded recent research; of these the sitting
boxer is by far the finest, though that of
the supposed athlete is undeniably noble in pro-
portions and attitude Professor Lancani has a
charming chapter on the Campagna, now so desc
late and blasted once full of life so busy though
unwholesome an outlying district of Rome, studded
with the villas Of the patrc.ans, to-day lcvelled
with the plain The book is well and fully il
Illustrated, it is written with animation and in a
thoroughly pleasing style and it conveys so much
new and interesting information so attractvely