The Portland daily press., 1900-08-22
ROME'S PANTHEON.
King Humbert's IlIustriOus COmpan-
ions and Their Splendid sePulchre.
(From The London Telegraph

(From The London Telegraph
1t has been decided that the mortal re-
mains of the murdered King of Italy
shall be deposited in the Pantheon at
Rome. Beyond doubt the resolution is a
noble and a worthy one. The illustrious
victim deserves no meaner resting place,
and the ancient building, where Italy
will give him splendid sculpture, may be
said to embody and to perpetuate the en-
tire history of Rome, from the Caesars
to the Amadei, Agrippa reared, twenty
seven years before Christ, the wonderful
editice where King Umberto's relics are
to repose, yet it stands, almost un-
changed, older than the Christian era,
and by turns a vast calidarium Of the
great Agrippaean baths, a temple of
Mars and Venus, meeting place for the
Fratres Arvales, about whom Henzen
writes SO learnedly-and, in after years,
a Christian church, given as such by
Phocas to Boniface ". 1t seems to have
been always called the Pantheon-a tenn
pie of all the gods. The wealthy and
artistic Rome OF Augustus Iavished upon
the structure all that art could bring,
or gold and silver pay for. The Athenian
sculptor, Diogenes, adorned 1t with his
finest labors. The capitals of it's pillars,
It's dome covering, and the ceiling of Its
porticO, were all of Syracusan bronze,
borne up by massive tubular gir0ers of
the same materiaI-wh1ch, by the way,
were melted down by Pope Urban VIII,
co. ooIy Ii.
brasures and the bronze baldacchino In
St. PETERS,.
The bronze tiles of the dome were
stripped away and plundered to bedeck
Constantinople, but thu Saracens waylaid
the noble loot which now roofs some
moldering palace Of the East. The col
umns were of white and c0lored marbles;
Its tympanum glowed with the battles of
the gods and giants done In ruddy
bronze; it's interior was lined with
mighty slabs Of porphyry and syonite and
alabaster and agate, which, like its
metal work, were all ruthlessly pillaged
age after age But Agrippa's work was
like mountain for solidity and endur-
ance. With walls twenty feet thick of
tufa concrete, faced with brick, and a
roof which was a wonder OF the worlds
masonry, being constructed in one mass
OF pum1ce-St9ne and pOZZOlana, the plum
derers could not destrOy-cOuld, indeed,
hardly InJure or alter, the strpendOus
and eternal fabric. 1t comes down to
modern times very much as Hadrian and
Severus witnessed it, if not as its mag
nificent designer first created the grand
temple Of all the gods; and no sight is
stranger or finer, even In Rome, than
when for the first time the pilgrim turns
aside from the COrsO to the Piazza di RO-
fonda and behOlds with what nobleness
Of purpose and material the old Romans
housed their deities, and gloritied their
City with edltces which twenty centuries
have failed to ruin, Nay, the very gate
way through which all that was mortal
of the good and loyal King UmbertO will
soon be carried is actually the same as
that originally PIT up by Agrippa. The
Pantheon still possesses It's original doors
between two huted pilasters, and over
these an open ScrG9nWOrk, all of bronze.
Rome has certainly good reason to boast
herself the immortal city, when Italy can
prepars to lay her latest ruler in the
glorious fame built before ChristendOm
began, with fair hope that the structure
will stand for a thousand years to come,
as changeless as Mount SOTacte herself,
or the Alban hills.
The family mausoleum OF the royal
house of Savoy and Sardin1a-now OF
Italy-is, we believe, in Piedmont, at
Superga But King Victor Emmanuel,
the father Of the murdered sovereign, and
first constitutional monarch Of the new
kingdom. was entom bed at the Pantheon
on his death at Rome from fever, in 1878.
4 hencetorward the ancient temple has
become the natural burial place for the
Kings and Queens of Italy, and it was a
matter of course that UmbertO would be
laid where that great soldier, his father,
was inferred Already, indeed, the Pan
theOn had been cODsecrated by dust which
would ennoble any locality and any
shrine. When the Emperor PhOcas pre-
sented it for q Christian church to Pope
BOniface ~ his Holiness rechristened
the building as "Santa Maria ad Mar
tyres, and under that title it has been
so we'll and carefully preserved, with
such depredations as have been men
toned. The circular interior, which
measures in diameter 142 feet, the same
as from the floor to the great ring in the
dome, admitting light and air, has seven
large recessss, between which altars have
been established. Behind the third
chapel, to the left, lie the bones Of Ra-
pahel, Prince of Painters, in an antique
marble sarcophagus, the gift Of the Vati.
can. Aniable Caracci has also his toni
there, and Zucchero, together with Bald
assure Peruzzi, Del Vaga, Da Undine,
and other famous artists. Other re-
nOwned names adOrn the antique walls
making fit company for Italian kings fo1
the glOries Of Italian art and history; but
more and more must the temple of the
great consul, Marcus Agrippa, hencefortH
become and be looked upon as the maus-
oleum Of the royal line of modern Rome
and Italy.
10 place the remains of the son of Vic
tor Emmanuel by the fathers side estab
fishes and dedicates the glorious building
forever to It's betitting use as a sepuIchrt
for the dynasty. We will not doubt
however, that modern Italy has among
her artistic sons such as VIII De capable
OF adorn1ng and cOmmemoraGing the
sleeping place Of the Inflated SOVEREIGN
with monumental work worthy OF the
spot and of the subject-and higher in.
SEPARATIONS certainly no sculptor could
desire. 1t is said by architects that the
portico of the Pantheon is the most per-
feet piece Of building in the world En-
thUSfaSi6C critics have STYLED IT Fs,,,ovc