The Irish standard., 1891-10-03
MINNEAPOLIS PAUL. SATURDAY. OCTOBER 8,

petual feast to the eyes, until inall'
the sky flames in the horizon, and th'
weird shadows of night blot out the
dreamlike beauty of the scene.
! To most people the thoughts associ
ated with the ancient memories O
the site are, naturally, the most inter.
esting. No modern possessor, how
ever prominent his name might be
could wholly extinguish the memory
of the associations Of this place. Most
people of intelligence will feel a Ger
tain surprised emotion in recalling tc
mind here the name of the prominent
conspirator who instigated all those
who wavered to complete the destruc-
tion Of "the foremost man Of this
world" That Caius Cassisus hould
have lived here; that he may have cher
ished his envy of and hatred to Caesar
ON. this spOt-where a few fOrmless
ruins mark the site of his sumptuous
VILLAS consideration which brings
the distant past so near to us that we
almost become in Imagination contem-
pora1ies OF the event, and seek to en-
ter into the feelings and emotions of
the makers of that history. We see
Cassius as Caesar saw him, when, as
Plutarch tells, Caesar; & They be not
those fat fellows and fine combed men
that I fear, but 1 mistrust rather these
pale and lean men. nearing by that
Brutus and Cassius, who afterwards
conspired bis death and slew him" or,
as Shake spere puts it,
''Let me have men about me that are fat.
Sleek headed men and sucn as sleep o'nights;
Yond Cassius has lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much; such men are dangerous
1t is always interesting to trace out
the resemb!ances between the portraits
of the men of that period as de,
sc1ibed by the historian and by
the artist. OF Caesar we have portraits
innumerable, and few years ago MIR.
j. c. Ropes described the more celebra-
ted OF them in ocribner's Magazine.
OF Brutus though his busts were des-
troyed after his death-we have amongst
several, shat most remarkable, llfe-like,
thoughtful, rem orseful- looking sem
blence in Pentelie marble In the Capt.
toline Museum which, in the time OF
the French Revolution. was brought TO
France to serve as a sorE OF tutelarV
deity to the Revoluttonists Of Paris!
Mark Antony, "the curled Antony" is
to be seen in the Braccio Nuovo at tine
Vatican, and the curley locks that COW
er his head. and his broad pleasant
face are such as are described by
Shakespeare.
LEAN AND HUNGRY CAssIUs.
Cassius. however, has Jared i'll III
portraits, or at least in this, that few
have come down to posterity. The
only one that I know of, after a long
search, is the representation Of stat
ue Of him reproduced in Duruy's ellis
toire des Romains." Vol, Nv. p. IT'S. 1t
is described as statue Of good style
and we'll preserved. The plinth bears
the name of Cassius. Villa Massimi."
It is probable that the author had not
seen the statue, as the engraving is re-
produced from Clarac's ''Musee de Soul
ture.'' Nevertheless the work bears
out the distinctive characteristics OF
the facial expression attributed to Cas-
sius. The eyes look out anxiously
from under straight lowering brows;
the nose is long, hooked. and thin; the
corners of the mouth are drawn down
as if through physical pain or men
tai anxiety; the drapery is arranged IN
artistic folds, a heavy mantle being
thrown over the sholder. The head Is
almost bald. the forehead rising broad
ly, rather than high. Such is the out
ward semblance Of the celebrity whose
villa stood on the site now occupied by
the summer residence of Irish stu
dents.
Here, as in so many other parts OF
this land, parcelled out and inhabited
so very long ago, RUNS mark the dwell
ing place of men, and close examlna-
tion and study of these ruins enable
the men of today to reconstruct-at
least on paper-the grandiose reslden-
ces of the Romans at the end OF the Re-
public andduring the sway of theEmpire.
The remains in this spot are innumera-
BILE, and are scattered here and there
on the slope of the hill. At first sight
they present but very confused spec
tacle and do not furnish much ass1s-
tance to the conceptions of extension
and grandeur associated with the Villa
of Cassius. It soon becomes evident
that there, as nearly all the other an
cient villas Of the Roman Campagna.
there was series of terraces or plat.
forms rising one above the other, and
turned towards the South and West.
Professor Lancieni tells us the reasons
for such an arrangement: ''First, be.
because from the edge Of each platform
the eye could freely command every