The Monticellonian., 1915-12-30

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 chapter to the history of
 town which was mo mean city" in the great days Of imperial Rome. says Sir Martin Conway in Country Life
 Twenty-twe thousand spectators together in the stately amphitheater which still exists Diocletian built it about 290 A D4 of white and red Verona marble and all sorts of princes have caused 1T to be restored. Its royal platform has been occupied by who shall say how many famous person. ages. but none of them greater than Theodoric the Ostrogoth. who made this city one of his capitals. and took his name from il in medieval legend. Dietrich of Bern. The Veronese in- deed, ill taught by bigoted ehurehmen. scarcely held his memory in due honor. if they are rightly represented by the inscription on sculptured fig. ure Of him by the door of San Zeno's, where he is described as an Arian heretic (which he was1 and is said to be riding to hell on the horse given to him by Satan
 Other Roman memories are pre- served by the city in it's ruined theater and in remnants of Notifications and gates. The walls. as they now stand, belong to five different periods of building and rebuilding. and the earliest of these (temp. Gallienus1 were doubtless not the first Theo- Ioric's work comes next; considerable fragments of its courses of stone and aerringbone brick can be discovered 0y anyone who hunts for them. A later style is shown in the work as= cribed to Charlemagne: and after that come medieval and renaissance fortifi- cations, each marking a period Of pros perity in the citys fortunes. It is not, however, Roman Verona that people love and travel to see. but the Verona of the middle ages, the Verona Of Romeo and Juliet, of the Scaligers and the great artists-Pisanello and The rest-a city of the south in which the northern breezes also blow, and 3uEI6 DtlNEEA east anu vest A<CAAi7 5ardy and Venice. divergent ideals meet and sometimes mingle.
 lombards Were Active There.
 Theodoric and his 0strogoths be- longed by desire and in fact to the last 4ge Of Rome. but their successors the Eombards clearly ushered in the mid dle age. They came over the Alps as barbarians. but in time Italy civilized hem, and during that process Lom- 3ard architecture was born. Anywhere rom Cividale in the east to PaYia in he west. traces of their early activi- eies may still be found-barbarous at irst. presently growing nobler till Oy he seventh century they were capable 5s raising churches which are still de. ightful to men Of modern refinement. 1t Verona the Lombards were particu- arly active and, were it worth while. We might display the remnants of some or their very early efforts. Such fragments, however. are interesting only to antiquarians; but when we come to the great churches, San Zeno. for instance, or the cathedral. it is evident enough that these are works 9f architecture capable of far wider appeal
 San Zeno's. indeed, is perhaps of all purely Lombard churches the finest as work of art. It is simplicity it. self in form, but well proportioned and in every way agreeable to look Ipon. The existing church was built in the eleventh century. the nave re- built in 113S. and the choir in the if reenth century. The most noticeable sxterior feature is the great portal in he middle of the west end. It is a lain oblong opening. surmounted by gahled porch which is carried on a 3air of columns. themselves support d. each on the back of griffin. in raditional oriental fashion.
 Tombs of the ScaIieers.
 It would be easy enough to refer in urn to a number of other remarkable .hurches in Verona, with their mas sive colonnades. their dark erypts and other delightful features; but we are not making a guide book, nor in these