STATISTICS OF ROME.

Having thus related at length the rise and progress, decline and fall, of the empire of Rome, we now proceed to give a topographical and statistical description of that famous city.

Rome, by the shortest route, Brighton, Dieppe, Paris, Geneva, Simplon, Milan, Bologna, Florence, and Sienna, is about 1169 English miles distant from London.

The hills of Rome are chiefly composed of volcanic granular tufa, but the greater part of the Capitoline is lithoid tufa, which resembles the peperine stone of Albano, and the same material is found in some parts of the Caelian and Aventine hills. The valleys among the hills are chiefly of siliceous-calcareous sand, but argillaceous substances are very prevalent in the soil of Rome. ^[1. Brocchi’s Description of the Soil of Rome; Burgess’s Antiquities of Rome, vol. i. ] The height, in English feet, of the principal hills above the sea, is as follows: Capitol, at west angle of Tarpeian rock, 151; at north end, 160; Palatine, 170; Aventine, 148; Caelian, 146; Esquiline, 180; Quirinal, at Pope’s palace, 150; Pincian, 206.

Modern Rome occupies a triangular space, each side of which is nearly two miles long. The ground upon which it is built covers about 1000 acres, or one mile and a half square; its walls form a circuit of fifteen miles, and embrace an area of 3000 acres. The greatest part of the population of Rome is now comprised within the limits of the Campus Martius. Three of the seven hills are covered with buildings, but are only thinly inhabited; the Transtiberine district, including the Borgo, contains the rest of the inhabitants. The ancient city, however, was more than treble the size of the modern, for it had very extensive suburbs beyond the walls. The greater portion of the city stands extremely low, being only from forty to fifty feet above the sea, though sixteen miles distant from it. The Tiber, where it enters the city, is only about twenty feet above the level of the sea.

According to the unanimous opinion of all ancient writers, Rome was originally confined to tile Palatine hill, ^[2. It is impossible to ascertain the precise limits of the city of Romulus, but an outline of it has been traced by Tacitus: “Igitur a Foro Boario, ubi acreum Tauri simulacrum adspicimus, quia id genus animalium aratro subditur, sulcus designandi oppidi coeptus, ut magnam Herculis aram amplecteretur. Inde certis spatiis interjecti lapides, per ima montis Palatini ad Aram Consi, mox ad Curias veteres, tum ad sacellum Larium: Forumque Romanum et Capitolium non a Romulo, sed a Tito Tatio additum urbi credidere.” Tacit. Ann. lib. xii. cap. 24- Compare also Dionysius, lib. ii. cap. 50; und Sextus Aurelius Victor in Romulo. ] and after the union of the Romans with the Sabines, the latter, with their king Tatius, had their abode on the Capitoline. After the death of Romulus, a temple to his honour, under the name of Quirinus, was erected by Numa on the Quirinal hill, to which it gave the name. ^[3. The Palatine was nearly a square, and hence Rome was sometimes called “Roma Quadrata." ]

The Caelian hill was added by Tullus Hostilius, who had his own dwelling there, and appropriated part of the mount for the residence of the conquered Albans. ^[4. “Et quis extiterit Romae regnare qundratae ?” ] The Aventine mount was annexed to Rome by Ancus Martius, the fourth king, who gave it for the accommodation of the Latins after his conquest of their country. ^[5. Ennius, ] He also surrounded mount Janiculum with a wall, and erected upon it a fort, lest this advantageous post should fall into the possession of an enemy. He likewise connected it with the city, by throwing across the Tiber the famous bridge called the Pons Sublicius. When the waters of the river are not above their usual level, the traveller may still see the foundations of this bridge, the scene of the heroic exploit of Horatius Codes. ^[6. “Tura ferant, placentque novum pia turba Quirinum. ] The city, which now contained four hills, the Palatine, the Capitol, the Caelian, and the Aventine, was enclosed with a stone wal! by Tarquinius Priscus; and his successor Servius Tullius having added the Quirinal, Viminal, and Esquiline hills, surrounded the whole city with a wall, built of large squares of peperine stone, and fortified it on the eastern side behind the Viminal hill, by his celebrated “Agger,” ^[7. Templa Deo fiunt, collis quoque dictus ab illo; ] which was finally completed by Tarquin the Proud. All around the wall, on both sides.

id non muro solum, sed etiam ob commoditatem itineris, ponte Sublicio tum primum in Tiberi facto, conjungi urbi placuit." Liv. lib. i-cap. 33.
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was a circle of ground, called the Pomoerium, consecrated by the augurs, and held sacred; and it was unlawful to build within its limits, or even to pass the plough over it. ^[8. Vide Tit. Liv. lib. i. cap. 44. ] This consecrated circle, however, was not necessarily preserved close to the walls, and it was frequently extended without any change being made in the walls themselves. But the boundaries of the city could only be enlarged by those who had made any acquisition of territory to the Roman state. ^[9. “Pomoerio autem nemini principum licet addere, nisi ei qui agri Barbarici aliqua parte Romanam rempublicam locupletaverit; addidit autem Augustus, addidit Trajanus, addidit Nero,” &c. Vopiscus in Aurelian, cap. 21. ] The first who took advantage of this privilege was Sylla, and bis example was followed by Augustus, Claudius, Nero, and Trajan. ^[10. “Et Pomoerium auxit Caesar, more prisco; quo iis, qui protulere imperium etiam terminos urbis propagare datur. Nec tamen duces Romani, quanquam magnis nationibus subactis, usurpaverant nisi L. Sulla et Divus Augustus.” Tacit. Annal, lib. xii. cap. 23. See also Dioiw Cassius—De August, lib. iv. cap. 6, tom. ii. p 776. ] All their improvements, however, consisted in restoring or enlarging the Pomoerium; and no change was made in the walls of Rome till the time of Aurelian, who built a wall round the city, and enlarged it so as to comprehend the Janiculum and the Pincian hill, with great part of the Campus Martius. ^[11. Vopiscus in Aurelian, cup. 21; Ovid, cap. 39; Aurelius, Victor. De Caesar, cap. 35; Roma Antica Nardini, lib. i. cap. 8. ] Various exaggerated accounts have been given of the walls of Aurelian, and antiquaries are much divided respecting them, but their probable compass appears to have been about twenty-one miles. The walls of Rome were repaired during the reign of the emperors Arcadius and Honorius. One-third of them was destroyed by Totila about the middle of the sixth century. His ravages were hastily restored with rude and dissimilar materials, by Belisarius, to stand the second siege. Since that period they have been so often shattered, repaired, and remodelled, that but little of their original structure can now remain.

The number and situation of the ancient gates of the city are involved in hopeless obscurity. Rome at present has sixteen gates, including the four of the Citta Leonina, but several of them have been walled up.

The Palatine mount is about a mile and a half in circuit, and is nearly square. The ruins of the successive edifices which have stood upon it have raised the soil around its base considerably above the ancient level. About one-half of the surface of it is called the Villa Famese, which occupies all the north-west side, and about one-half of the two sides contiguous, and is let and cultivated as a kitchen-garden. Adjoining, on the south, is the Villa Spada, which lies along a part of the west side overlooking the site of the Circus. Another part of the hill is covered by the upper and lower gardens. Roncioni, and the side opposite to the Caelian mount, is partly occupied by the convent and gardens of Saint Bonaventura. This celebrated spot, which contained the whole Roman people, till the destruction of the republic, was the site of the dwellings of her senators, and the temples of her gods. But the mansions of the Gracchi, of Hortensius, Crassus, Clodius, Catiline, Cicero, and many others, were all swept away, to make room for the palace of Augustus, ^[12. Vide Middleton’s Life of Cicero; Suetonius’ Life of Augustus. ] which is supposed to have stood on the north-west part of the Palatine, looking down on the pulchrum littus, “the beautiful shore” near the Tiber. His successor, Tiberius, erected a dwelling for himself on the north side of the Palatine, looking into the Velabrum. ^[13. ft should be stated, however, that when mention is made of the houses of the emperors, it does not mean that these were all separate ] Another was built on the north-east corner fronting the Capitol by Caligula, who joined the Palatium and the Capitol by a bridge thrown across the Forum. ^[14. buildings, but such parts of the imperial palace as the emperors added, and which bore their respective names. Vide Josep. Antiq. lib. xix. cap. i. sect. 15. ] But by far the most magnificent was the “Domus Aurea,” erected by Nero. The only description on record of this gorgeous palace is that of Suetonius, which we shall give in his own words: “In nothing was he so ruinous as in building. He erected a house extending from the Palatine as far as the Esquiliae. At first he called it his House of Passage; afterwards, when it had been destroyed by fire and restored again, he gave it the name of the Golden House. To form an idea of its extent and magnificence, it may suffice to state the following particulars. The vestibule admitted his colossal statue, which was 120 feet high. The building was on so large a scale that it had a triple portico a mile long, also an immense pool like a sea, enclosed by buildings, presenting the appearance of towns. There were moreover grounds laid out for tillage, and for vineyards, and for pasturage and woods, and stocked with a vast number of every description of cattle and wild animals. In other respects, every thing was overlaid with gold, embellished with gems, and with mother-of-pearl. The ceilings of the banqueting-rooms were fretted into ivory coffers, made to turn, that flowers might be showered down upon the guests, and were furnished with pipes for discharging perfumes. The principal banqueting-room was round, and by a perpetual motion, day and night, was made to revolve after the fashion of the universe. There vzere baths streaming with salt and sulphurous waters.” ^[15. Suet in vit. Caligul∙ cap. xxii. ] “On the ruins of his native country,” says Tacitus, ^[16. Suet, in vit. Néron, cap. xxxi. Vide Alexan. Ponct. de Urb. Vetera, lib. iii. apud Gravium, tom. iii. p. 68. Dr. Adam’s Roman ] “Nero erected a palace, in which the profusion of gold and precious stones did not raise the chief admiration, for these were ornaments that widely-diffused luxury had rendered common; but universal astonishment was excited by its spacious glades, and large artificial lakes, by its thick woods and shades, like vast wildernesses, by its ample lawns and avenues, and far extended prospects.” The successors of Nero made various alterations on the imperial palace. It suffered by fire for the third time under Commodus. ^[17. Tacit. Annul, lib. xv. cap. 42. ] The Goths and Vandals, in the fifth century, pillaged it of most of its treasures, but they do not appear to have rendered it uninhabitable; for even so late as the beginning of the seventh century He-raclius held a state ceremony in the palace of the Caesars. Its final destruction seems to have been in a great measure the work of the Farnese popes and princes, who carried off its materials to build their palaces and villas, and buried its magnificent halls beneath their wretched gardens. Many extensive chambers and halls have at different times been discovered, but after being rifled of their statues and ornaments, they have all been filled up again. The whole mount is now one mass of confused and undistinguishable ruins. The very soil is formed of crumbled brick-work. Nothing has been told, nothing can be told, to satisfy the belief of any but a Roman antiquary.

The celebrated Capitoline hill, the least of all in extent, but greatest in fame and importance, is 470 yards long and 185 broad, and contains about sixteen acres. It exhibits two summits separated by a valley, which is called by antiquaries the lntermontium. The height of this hill has been materially diminished, both by the ruins around its base, and by the repeated earthquakes that have shattered the

Antiq. p. 491.
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friable tufa of which it is composed, and have thus both lowered the actual height and filled up the base. On the summit of this famous mount

-the Capitol,

Above the rest, lifted his stately bead;

On the Tarpeian rock her citadel,

Impregnable.

Here also stood the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, and many other interesting objects. The temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus was one of the largest and most splendid of the ancient world. Its roof was of burnished gold, the pavement of the finest materials, the columns were of precious marbles, the doors of bronze overlaid with gold, the statues of ivory; and many other objects of surpassing costliness and art embellished the whole interior. ^[18. Vide ] In the centre of the temple was the statue of Jupiter Capitolinus seated on a throne of gold, with Juno on his left, and Minerva on his right side. This splendid edifice was destroyed during the civil wars between Marius and Sylla, but was shortly after rebuilt by the latter, who enriched it with the spoils of Greece. It was a second time destroyed by fire during the bloody conflict that took place in the Capitol between the partisans of Vitellius and Vespasian. ^[19. Tacit. Hist. lib. iii. cap. 71. ] The Capitol rose again from its ashes, with renewed splendour, and through the liberality of Vespasian, and especially of his son Domitian, it greatly surpassed its former magnificence. Its immense wealth appears to have remained untouched till the time of Honorius, when the necessities of that emperor forced him to lay hands upon the gold which ornamented it; and about seven years after his death, it was completely despoiled of its treasures by Genseric king of the Vandals. Of all the ancient splendours of the Capitoline hill, scarcely a vestige now remains. Its invulnerable citadel, its temples and golden statues, its triumphal arches and splendid porticos, all have been swept away, and its very name is now almost lost in the semi-barbarous appellation, Campidoglio. At present the Capitoline mount is covered with buildings, which, although not devoid of elegance, are unworthy of a spot which was once so august.

At the base of the northern and principal ascent to the Capitol, are two colossal lionesses of Egyptian porphyry, pouring a stream of water into spacious basins of marhle; and at the top of the ascent are two ancient colossal statues of Grecian marble, representing Castor and Pollux standing by the side of their horses. Here we enter the square, supposed with great probability to be the Intermontium, in the centre of which stands the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius. In front, and on each side, are three palaces, erected by Michael Angelo; that of the senators, the conservatori, and the statue gallery. The Museum Capitolinum contains a splendid collection of busts, statues, sarcophagi, &c., and the staircase is lined with an old plan of Rome, which formed originally the pavement of a temple in the forum, but unfortunately it is not entire. Beneath the senators’ palace are the remains of an ancient edifice, supposed to have been the Tabularium, where the laws and public records were suspended on tables of bronze; and in its stables, cellars, and gardens, are considerable remains of the ancient fortifications of the citadel. Near the base of the Capitoline hill are the remains of the Mamertine prisons, built (according to Livy) by Ancus Martius. A lower cell, called the Tullianum, was added by Servius Tullius. ^[20. Liv. lib. i. cap. 33; Varro de Ling. Lat. lib. iv. cap. 32. ] There are still two dungeons remaining, an upper and a lower; and in ancient times, prisoners who were condemned to be strangled, or to die of hunger, were thrust down into the lower cell by a circular aperture called Robus. It was in these dungeons that Jugurtha was suffered to die of hunger. ^[21. Sallust de Bello. Jugurt∙ ] Here the accomplices of Cataline, when, through the influence of Cicero’s eloquence, they were condemned to immediate death, were conducted from the senate house and strangled. ^[22. Sallust de Bello Catilin. cap. 55. ] Here too Sejanus, the minister of Tiberius, met the just punishment of his crimes; ^[23. Dion. Cassius, lib. lviii. p. 885; Tacit. Annal, lib v. cap. 9. ] here Perseus, the captive king of Macedonia, lingered in hopeless confinement; and here Simon, the bravest of the Jewish leaders, was put to death, while Titus ascended in triumph to the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. ^[24. Plutarch’s Life of Aemilius Paulus; Josephus de Bello, Jud. lib. vii. cap. 5. ] The northern and highest summit of the Capitoline mount is occupied by the church and monastery of Ara Caeli; and on that part of the hill which lies towards the river, is the steep Tarpeian,

The promontory whence the traitor’s leap Cured all ambition.

The Aventine, well known for the unpropitious augury of Remus, is the most western of the seven hills. It is separated from the Palatine by the valley of the Circus Maximus, and the Tiber flows round its northern base. It has two distinct summits, which are divided by a valley. On this mount stood the famous temple of Diana, erected in the joint names of all the Latin tribes. Here also stood the temple of Juno Regina; the temple of the Bona Dea; the temple, portico and library of Liberty, the first public library in Rome. ^[25. Pliny vii. 30. xxxv. 2.; Mart. xii. 3. 5. ] But of these, and many other magnificent and celebrated edifices, no traces now remain, nor is their place supplied by any buildings, even of modern times, except some decaying churches and half deserted convents.

The Caelian, which is the most southern of the seven hills, is of a triangular form, and is crossed by the lofty and ruinous arches of Nero’s aqueduct It is stated by Tacitus, that this mount was originally called Querquetulanus, from the quantity of oak trees that grew upon it; and that it received its name from Caelius Vibenna, an Etruscan chief, who inhabited some part of it when he came to the succour of Tarquinius Priscus. ^[26. Varro de Ling. Lat. lib. iv.; Tacit. Ann. lib. iv. cap. 65. ] Tiberius commanded that it should be called Mons Augustus, but the intention was never carried into effect. ^[27. Sueton. in vita. Tiberii, cap. 48. ] The name of Lateran has prevailed in modern times, derived from a senator named Lateranus, who had a splendid edifice upon it in the time of Nero. ^[28. Tacit. Annal, lib. xv. sect. 49, 60; Juv. Sat. x. 15. ] Deserted as it now is, the Caelian mount was once covered with temples and monuments of magnificence; but of these splendid buildings every trace has long since vanished, and the surface of the hill is strewed over with shapeless ruins, of which the date, the author, and the object, are alike unknown. The only buildings worthy of particular attention are the curious and interesting church of San Stephano Ro-tondo, which is universally admitted to be an ancient temple, though antiquaries are by no means agreed respecting the name of its tutelar god; and the sumptuous basilica of St. John Lateran, which stands on the eastern summit of the hill.

The Esquiline is more extensive than any of the rest, and more irregular in its form. It is partly covered with the buildings of modern Rome, and partly abandoned to desolation. The Esquiline hill was added to Rome by Servius Tullius, and it was in his flight from the senate-house, to his palace on the Esquiline, that he was murdered by the emissaries of Tarquin his son-in law. A street called Vicus
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Sceleratus, between the forum and the Esquiline, was the scene of his daughter’s horrible impiety, when she caused her chariot wheel to pass over the body of her father. ^[29. Liv. lib. i. cap. 48. ]

Before the Augustan age, the Esquiline mount was inhabited by the meanest of the Roman people; and in that part of it which was without the wall their unburied bodies were promiscuously deposited. ^[30. Vide ] Maecenas having received a present of the ground from Augustus, covered it with gardens and groves, and erected on its summit a palace. ^[31. Hor. Carm. iii. 29. ] On this mount Julius Caesar was born. Here also was the house of the younger Pliny, part of Nero’s golden house, and the palace and baths of the emperor Titus. Here Virgil also is said to have had a house, near the palace of his patron Maecenas. It is stated by Suetonius, that Horace was buried near the tomb of Maecenas, at the extremity of the hill. ^[32. Suet, in vita Horat. ] The Esquiline mount has two summits, the Cis-pius, on which stands the basilica of Santa Mari Maggiore, and which was supposed to have been anciently occupied with the temple of Juno Lucina; and the Oppius, crowned with the church of St. Pietro in Vincula, built upon a part of the extensive baths of Titus. Toward the extremity of the Esquiline, and not far from the Porta Maggiore, in a vineyard, stands a ruined edifice called the temple of Minerva Medica. Nothing now remains but the walls and part of the vaulted roof. Many beautiful statues have been found in the grounds that border it.

The Viminal hill, which probably derived its name from the osiers (vimines) that grew upon it, ^[33. “Viminalis a Jove Viminis quod ibi arae aunt ejus, aut quod ibi vimineta fuerunt.” Varro de Ling. Lat. lib. iv.; Juvenal, Sat. lib. ] lies between the Esquiline and the Quirinal, but the fall of the ruins from these hills has rendered it almost impossible to recognize it. The only conspicuous object upon it is the church of S. Lorenzo in Pane Perna, with its adjoining buildings and vineyards. Near the Viminal hill stood the celebrated praetorian camp, which forms such a distinguished object in the decline of the Roman empire.

The Quirinal hill was adorned in ancient times with the famous temple of Romulus Quirinus. On the opposite side, the magnificent temple of the Sun, built by Aurelian, is supposed to have stood. The Quirinal is the only one of the seven hills that is populous. It is covered with palaces, churches, streets, and fountains. But the only remains of antiquity that it can now boast, are the vestiges of the baths of Constantine, in that part of the Colonna gardens which overlooks the Piazza Pilotta, and a considerable part of the baths of Diocletian, one of the grandest remains of ancient splendour.

The site of the Roman Forum is between the Palatine and Capitoline hills. Its present surface is from fifteen to twenty feet above its ancient level, and various excavations are now making in it in the hope of discovering some relics of antiquity. “Here were held the comitia, or assemblies of the people; here stood the rostra from which the orators harangued them; the curia, or senate-house; the basilica, or courts of justice; the public tribunals, the statues and memorials of great men, and some of the most sacred temples of religion.” After the destruction of the republic, another forum was built by Julius Caesar; and his example was followed by Augustus, Nerva, Domitian, Trajan, Vespasian, and Antoninus Pius. The only remains of antiquity that now stand within the limits of the Roman forum are those commonly designated as the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus, the temple of Jupiter Tonans, the temple of Fortune, and the temple of Concord, and the solitary column dedicated by the Greek Exarch, Smaragdus, Ito the emperor Phocas, the ruined wall of the curia, and the three beautiful columns near the base of the Palatine hill, generally called “the disputed columns.” Of the immense number of other buildings of all kinds, temples, basilicas, columns, statues, which once stood here, not a vestige now remains, and their very situations are a matter of bitter dispute. At the north-east corner of the Forum is the church of Santa Martina and St. Luke, which is supposed, with some probability, to occupy the site of the beautiful temple of Mars the Avenger, erected by Augustus. Near it is the church of St. Adrian, called in tribus foris, from the Roman forum, and the forums of Julius Caesar and Augustus, of which it forms the connecting point. Behind these are three fluted Corinthian columns, and one pilaster of Parian marble, of the grandest and most perfect style of architecture, supposed to be the remains of the forum of Nerva. To the eastward, and at the base of the Quirinal hill, is the forum of Trajan, the centre of which has been excavated, down to the level of the ancient pavement, by the F rench. Here stood the famous equestrian statue of Trajan, which excited the admiration and envy of Constantine, ^[34. Arnmian Marcel. Hist. lib. xvi. ] and many other honorary statues of distinguished individuals; and here still stands the triumphal column of Trajan, the finest in the world. This superh pillar is of the finest white marble, about 128 feet in height, and is covered with sculptured figures representing the wars and triumphs of the emperor Trajan. The ascent to the summit is by a winding staircase of 185 steps of solid Parian marble. A little to the north is the triumphal column of Marcus Aurelius, formed of the same materials and workmanship, though inferior in the beauty and perfection of its sculpture to that of Trajan. These columns formerly supported each a colossal statue of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius, but they have long since disappeared, while bronze statues of the apostles Peter and Paul have been substituted in their stead. In a deserted spot, which was once the forum boarium, or cattle-market of Rome, there is a magnificent four-fronted arch, commonly called Janus quadrifrons, which is the only one now remaining of the many ancient Jani of ancient Rome. It is built of immense blocks of Grecian marble, now so darkened and discoloured by time, and covered with bushes and ivy, that it has a peculiarly picturesque and venerable appearance. Near this arch, by passing under some low brick vaults opposite the church of S. Giorgio in Velabro, the best view is obtained of the celebrated “Cloaca Maxima," unquestionably the most ancient of all the ruins of Rome, and the only remains of the work of her kings. This stupendous and useful work was executed by Tarquinius Superbus. ^[35. Livy, lib. i. cap. 56. ] In ancient times the arches were so large, that it is stated by Strabo and Pliny, that a waggon load of hay might pass through them. ^[36. Strabo, Geograph, lib. v.; Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xxxv. cap. 15. ] Though greatly choked up by the elevation of the soil of modern Rome, it still, after a lapse of 3000 years, serves as the common sewer of the city. Almost close to the cloaca maxima is the far-famed fountain of Juturna. ^[37. Vide ]

Proceeding along the Via Sacra, we come to some ruins which are supposed to be the remains of Vespasian’s temple of Peace, built at the close of the Jewish war. It was one of the most magnificent temples of antiquity, and within it were deposited the spoils taken from the temple of Jerusalem. Others maintain, however, that these ruins belonged to the basilica of Constantine. Crossing to the opposite side, and passing under the broken and defaced triumphal arch of Titus, we behold the majestic ruins of the mighty Coliseum. This stupendous building was erected by Vespasian and Titus, on the spot which had previously iii. 71.
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been covered with t∣ιe pools belonging to the “golden house of Nero.” Owing to the stability of its construction, it survived the era of barbarism, and was so perfect in the thirteenth century, that games were celebrated in it for the amusement of all the nobility of Italy. Its destruction was, in a great measure, the work of the Romans themselves, who carried off the materials to build their own dwellings.

-From its mass

Walls, palaces, half cities have been rear'd; till at length Benedict XIV. secured it from further dilapidation, by erecting a cross in the middle of the arena, and proclaiming it to be consecrated ground, hallowed by the blood of the martyrs. The form of the Coliseum is elliptical; the length measures 591¼ feet, and the breadth 508¾; it is 1683¾ feet in circumference, and 147 in height. The exterior elevation presents four divisions or storeys, of which the three lower are supported by half columns, and the uppermost by pilasters. The interior elevation, beginning from the arena, presented first the podium, a kind of covered gallery, destined for the use of the emperor and persons of the first description; then three successive orders of seats for the spectators, called collectively the cavea; and at the top the attic, with the velarium or awning. It has been calculated that the cavea, with the podium, could contain 80,000 persons seated; but taking into account the upper gallery, and the number of persons necessarily engaged about the arena, that not less than 100,000 souls have sometimes been contained within these walls. At the dedication, which lasted one hundred days, 5000 wild beasts were exhibited and slain. ^[38. Suet, in vita, Titi, cop. 7. Dion. lib. lxvi. tom. ii. ] The arena also was overflowed with water, and made the scene of a mock naval fight. The northern side is pretty entire; but on the south, the stupendous arches have been stripped of their external decorations. In the interior the destruction is more complete; the marble steps are all torn away, the steps and vomitories overthrown, and the sloping walls and broken arches are covered with weeds and shrubs. Around the arena the pictured representations of the fourteen stages of our Lord’s passion are placed at regular intervals. In the centre of it stands a huge black cross, which offers the liberal recompense of one hundred days’ indulgence to every person who devoutly kisses it. A broad pathway runs through the middle; the rest is covered with a smooth green sod. “Here,” says Mr. Forsyth, “sat the conquerors of the world, coolly to enjoy the tortures and death of men who had never offended them. Two aqueducts were scarcely sufficient to wash off the human blood which a few hours’ sport shed in this imperial shambles. Twice in one day came the senators and matrons of Rome to the butchery. A virgin always gave the signal for slaughter; and when glutted with bloodshed, those ladies sat down in the wet and steaming arena to a luxurious supper. Such reflections check our regret for its ruin. As it now stands, the Coliseum is a striking image of Rome itself, decayed, vacant, serious, yet grand, half grey and half green, erect on one side and fallen on the other, with consecrated ground in its bosom; inhabited by a beadsman, visited by every cast; for moralists, antiquaries, painters, architects, devotees, all meet here to meditate, to examine, to draw, to measure, and to pray.” ^[39. Forsyth’s Italy, p. 159. ]

Between the Aventine and Palatine hills stood the Circus Maximus, which occupied the whole valley; and though all traces of the building have disappeared, its form is still very apparent. This circus was first laid out by Tarquinius Priscus; ^[40. Livy, lib· i. cap. 35. Dion. Antiq. Rom. lib. iii. cap. 68. ] but it does not appear to have attained any great degree of splendour till the time of Julius Caesar, who enlarged the whole space, and rendered it capable of containing 150,000 spectators. Pliny states that in the time of Trajan it held 250,000. ^[41. Plin. Hist. Nat lib. xxxvi. cap. 15. ] It was the last place where games were celebrated in Rome. So late as the close of the fifth century, it was filled for the last time with spectators of the gladiatorial combats, when Telemachus, an Asiatic monk, having ineffectually tried remonstrance, descended into the arena to separate the combatants, and was stoned to death by the enraged people. But the sacrifice was not made in vain, for from that day Honorius abolished the combats of gladiators. The last remains of the Circus Maximus were removed by Paul III., “that universal destroyer of antiquities.” Attached to this circus were the shops or tabernoe, in which, during the reign of Nero, began the conflagration that consumed ten out of fourteen quarters of the city. Of all the circuses of ancient Rome, one only is sufficiently entire to shew what a circus was. It stands on the Via Appia, beside the tomb of Cecilia Metella, and is called the circus of Caracalla, though there is no reason for believing it to have been built by that emperor. It is still in excellent preservation.

On the outside of the Coliseum are the mouldering ruins of a building, supposed to have been that famous fountain the Meta Sudans, which existed even in the time of the republic. ^[42. Seneca, Op. 57. ]

One of the most attractive of the ancient edifices of Rome, is the Pantheon or Rotondo, “the pride of Rome.” That glorious combination of beauty and magnificence, which was erected by Agrippa, is 132 feet in height, the same in diameter, and 396 feet in circumference. It is generally believed that the body of the building is of earlier erection than the portico that it was built for a thermal hall, or something belonging to the baths of Agrippa, and that the portico was afterwards added in order to convert it into a temple. It has long been a matter of dispute to whom the Pantheon was dedicated. The popular belief is, that it was dedicated to Jupiter and all the gods of antiquity; but Pliny expressly says that it was dedicated to Jupiter the Avenger. ^[43. Pliny, Hist. Nat lib. xxxv. cap. 5. Dion. Cassius, lib. liv. tom. i. ] In the year 608, Pope Boniface IV. obtained permission of the emperor Phocas to consecrate it for a Christian church. It then received the title of St. Maria Rotondo, which it still preserves. About fifty years after its consecration, Constans II. stripped off the bronze covering of the roof, the bronze bassi relievi of the pediment, and the silver which adorned the interior of the dome, and carried away the spoil to send it to Constantinople; but being murdered at Syracuse on his return, these ornaments were afterwards conveyed by the Saracens to Alexandria. In 1632, Pope Urban VIII., one of the Bar-berini family, carried off all the bronze that was left, and moulded it into ornaments for St. Peter’s tomb in the Vatican, and cannon for the castle of St. Angelo. It has been calculated that upwards of forty· five millions of pounds weight of metal was taken away on that occasion. This gave rise to the pasquinade, “Quod non fecerunt Barbari Romae, fecerunt Barberini.” The same pope disfigured the building by placing before the dome two hideous belfries, as a perpetual monument of his wretched taste. As a sort of compensation, however, he replaced one of the three deficient columns of the portico The other two were restored by Pope Alexander VII. The portal has been pronounced to be “positively the most sublime result that was ever produced by so little architecture.” The original folding doors are said to have been carried off by Genseric; but the present gates are obviously ancient also, and are supposed to have been taken from some other Roman building. The four grand recesses in the interior, each [7:19:429]supported by two magnificent columns, and two pilasters of giallo antico are truly beautiful; but the niches in the intermediate spaces are wretchedly mean, and in bad taste. Behind the altars which crowd the principal recesses, are placed on shelves the busts of the most distinguished men of modern Italy. The pavement, which is supposed to be the work of Septimius Severus, is composed of porphyry and yellow marble, and of pavonazzetto, laid down in large slabs, alternately round and square. The splendid dome which rises over the whole is still uninjured.

A large circular aperture at the top, surrounded with a girth of metal, admits a flood of light sufficient to illuminate the whole building. The remains of Raphael are interred in the Pantheon, together with many of those whose names reflected lustre on modern Italy in her proudest days. The situation of the Pantheon is extremely unfavourable. It is sunk in the dirtiest part of modem Rome. The congregated filth of the pavement, the incessant uproar, and the crowds of clamorous beggars, tend materially to lessen the enthusiasm with which the spectator gazes upon this monument of the taste and magnificence of antiquity. Yet in spite of all this, and of the dilapidations which it has suffered from the lapse of eighteen centuries, and the rapacity of barbarians, still, under every disadvantage, it is pre-eminently beautiful. “The pure and perfect architecture, the greatness of design, the harmony, the simplicity, and the imposing majesty of the whole, command our never satiated admiration, our approbation, and our praise.” “Though plundered of all its brass, except the ring which preserves the aperture above; though it has been twice the prey of fire; though it is always open to the rain, and is sometimes flooded by the river, yet no monument of equal antiquity is so well preserved as this rotondo.” ^[44. Rome in the 19th Century. Forsyth’s Italy, p. 147. ]

Near the Tiber there is a beautiful little temple, popularly called the temple of Vesta, though no satisfactory reason can be given for the designation. Its form and elegance have been much admired; and bronze models of the “little temple of Vesta” are dispersed over most of Europe. It is entirely built of Parian marble, and its porticois composed of a circular colonnade of twenty fluted Corinthian columns. Of these only one is wanting; but all the architrave is lost. The small circular cell within the colonnade is now converted into a chapel, dedicated to “La Madonna dell’ Sole,” (the virgin of the sun.)

Opposite to this beautiful building, stands the church of St. Maria in Cosmedin, built by Adrian I. on the ruins of an ancient temple, the name of which is unknown. It appears, like the Pantheon, to have eight columns, and fifteen at the sides. Six of the front columns of the most beautiful Parian marble may still be traced, built up into this hideous compound of deformity and bad taste. The church of S. Maria Egizziaca has been formed out of another ancient temple, which is usually called by the name of Fortuna Virilis. On that ruin-covered spot, which now bears the name of the Roman Forum, but without its ancient limits, stands the temple of Antoninus and Faustina. It is a fine specimen of ancient architecture. Its noble portico which, though entire, has evidently suffered from fire, is composed of six Corinthian columns of Cippol-lino marble in front, and two on each side. The exquisite chiseling of the friese and cornice, the sculptured griffins, candelabros, vases, &c. which form the ornaments, are scarcely equalled in any Roman monument of the kind in existence. A little farther on is the church of the saints Cosmo and Damiano, supposed to be the double temple of Romulus and Remus. Near the Coliseum are the remains of Hadrian’s magnificent temple of Venus and Rome. ^[45. Vide Dion. Cassius, Hist. Rom., lib. btix∙ p. 1153. ] Some striking ruins of the interior of the fabric still exist in the middle of the site. Pope Honorius I. covered the whole of St. Peter’s basilica with bronze tablets which he took from the roof of this temple.

Many other ruins of the magnificent temples of ancient Rome are scattered throughout the city, but their remains are so scanty that it is impossible to obtain any information respecting their origin or extent.

Various temporary theatres seem to have been erected at different times in Rome, but the first that was built of stable materials in this city was the theatre of Pompey. It was rebuilt by Tiberius, and again by Claudius, but there is not a single vestige of it now remaining. The theatre of Marcellus was built by Augustus, who named it after his nephew, whose death has been commemorated by Virgil in such pathetic strains. ^[46. Aen. lib. vi. 861. ] Of this once magnificent edifice nothing now remains except a very small portion of the two lower arcades, which are considered models of architecture.

Ancient Rome possessed a number of noble portico, but all that now remains of these is a fragment of the porticoof Octavio. It originally consisted of a double line of marble columns covered width a roof, so as to afford shelter to those who walked within it. In the open square stood the temples of Jupiter and Juno, the first in Rome that were built of marble. Here were exhibited many splendid paintings and statues; and this porticocontained one of the three public libraries which Rome possessed in the Augustan age. The only remains of this magnificent building are four Corinthian columns, and three pilasters of beautiful marble, with a part of the ancient pediment. They stand in what a modem traveller has pronounced the “filthiest spot upon the whole face of the globe—the pescheria or fishmarket, the crowded quarter where the Jews are condemned to reside.”

It has been justly said that no monument of ancient architecture is calculated to inspire such an exalted idea of Roman magnificence, as the ruins of their thermae, or baths. These magnificent structures were not, however, erected for bathing alone; but in them there were rooms for almost every kind of athletic exercises; walks shaded by rows of trees; fountains adorned with statues and precious marbles; libraries; spacious halls and vestibules decorated with the finest objects of art, where poets recited, orators declaimed, and philosophers lectured. A splendid description has been given by Pliny of the sculptures and paintings, the magnificent seats of solid silver, the silver pipes and baths, the polished vases, the pavements of precious stones, and all the sumptuous decorations of these magnificent buildings dedicated to the luxury and idleness of the Romans. ^[47. Pliny, lib. xxxiii. cap. 12. Rome in the 19th Century, vol. ii∙ p. 83. Seneca. Epist. 86. Statius. ] The thermae of ancient Rome are known to have stood in all their original magnificence so late as the fourth century, and their destruction seems to have been almost entirely owing to the rapacity of the modern Romans. Of all the thermae that adorned imperial Rome, the ruins of those of Titus, Diocletian, and Caracalla, are all that now remain in any considerable degree of preservation. The thermae of Caracalla are situated at the base of Mount Aventine, on the Via Appia. They were left incomplete by Caracalla, and were finished by Heliogabalus, and by Alexander Severus. ^[48. Vide Spartian. in M. Aurel. Caracall. cap. 9. Aelius Lampridius in Art. Heliogβb. cep. 17. Ibid, in Alex. Sever, cep. 25. Eutrop. in Caracall. de Rom. Rev. lib. viii. ] These baths, together with the outworks, were one mile in circumference, and their ruins still cover a vast extent of ground; but it is impossible to form from them any idea of the peculiar destination of the particular parts. They form a succession of immense [7:19:430]halls, in the midst of which some aged trees have taken root in the soft green turf which now supplies the place of the pavement of costly marble and rich mosaic. One of these halls, the famous Cella Soleares, held 1600 seats of polished marble, ^[49. Olympiodorus in Bibliothec. Pbotii, p. 114. ] and was entirely covered with a flat roof of stone, supported by cancellated work of brass or copper, which, from the resemblance to the lacing of a sandal, is supposed to have given the hall its designation. On the western side of the ruins there are the remains of a rotondo, and a great number of smaller divisions of all sizes and forms. This enormous fabric was adorned with an immense number of statues and paintings. The celebrated Farnese Hercules, the Glycon, the bull, now in the museum at Naples, the Torso Belvidere, the Flora, the Cal-lypigean Venus, together with many other statues, columns, bas reliefs, &c., were all found in these ruins. The thermae and palace of Titus were built with the materials, and on the site of the buildings and pleasure grounds, of Nero’s golden house. They were finished or enlarged by Trajan, and afterwards repaired and embellished by Hadrian. They appear to have been of remarkable extent and magnificence. Part of the theatre of one of the temples, and of one of the great halls, still remains above, and many vaults and long galleries under ground. Some of these subterraneous apartments are curiously painted, and the ceiling of one of them contains some most exquisite specimens of paintings in arabesque, which afforded a model to the genius of Raphael, and enabled him to restore an art which had been lost for so many centuries. ^[50. Eustace’s Classical Tour, p. 388. Rome in the 19th Century, vol. ii. p. 99. ] In the time of Leo X. some excavations were made, and the famous group of the Laocoon was discovered in one of the halls, and several pillars of granite, alabaster, and porphyry, have since been found in various partial researches. In another part of the Esquiline Hill stand the Sette Salle, nine halls of one hundred feet in length, by fifteen in breadth, and twenty in depth, which have evidently been immense reservoirs of water, to supply the baths of Titus, and occasionally the enormous arena of the Coliseum, when naval engagements were represented.

The thermae of Diocletian, which are scattered over the summit of the Quirinal and Viminal hills, are said to have surpassed all the thermae of ancient Rome in extent and splendour. One of the circular halls has been converted into a granary, another into the church of St. Bernard. The xystum penacotheca, or great covered hall of the thermae, has been transformed into the church of St. Maria degli angeli, and still retains much of its original grandeur. It is 350 feet in length, 80 in breadth, and 90 in height. It was paved and incrusted with the finest marble by Benedict XIV. The vaulted roof is supported by sixteen Corinthian columns, eight of which are ancient, and are formed of one vast piece of Egyptian granite. This noble edifice is adorned with a variety of paintings; among others, with the martyrdom of St. Sebastian, by Domeni-chino; and the circular vestibule contains the monuments of Salvator Rosa and Carlo Maratti.

Seven bridges formerly conducted over the Tiber to the Janiculum and the Vatican Mount. Three of these, the Pons Sublicius, the Pons Palatinus, and the Pons Triumphalis, were long ago destroyed. Those which now remain are the Bridges of the Island, the Ponte Sisto, and the Ponte San Angelo. Out of Rome there is only one bridge over the Tiber, the famous Milvian or Aemilian bridge, now corrupted into Ponte Molle. Here the ambassadors of the Allobroges were seized by the vigilance of Cicero; ^[51. Sallust, Bell. Catil. ] and here was fought the eventful battle in which Constantine defeated Maxentius. About three miles from

Rome, the Anio, now the Te verone, is crossed by the Ponte Lamentano, formerly the Pons Nomentanus, beyond which rises the broad green height of Monte Sagro, the famous Mons Sacer, to which the Roman army and people twice retired from the tyranny of the Patricians. ^[52. Livy, lib. ii. cap. 32. ] The Ponte Salario, a very singular and picturesque structure, which also crosses the Anio, about three miles beyond the gate of the same name, was the scene of the celebrated combat between Manlius Torquatus and the gigantic Gaul. ^[53. Ibid. lib. vii. cap. 10. ] The ground on the other side of it is supposed to be that on which Hannibal encamped during the few days he remained before Rome.

Rome contains the ruins of a number of triumphal arches. The most important of these are the arches of Titus, of Septimius Severus, and of Constantine. The arch of Titus is the oldest triumphal arch now existing in Rome. It is peculiarly rich in sculpture. The interior is decorated with two fine bas reliefs, representing on one side Titus in his car of triumph, and, on the other, the spoils of the temple of Jerusalem and the captive Jews. It was greatly mutilated, but has been recently restored. The arch of Severus, though more entire, is much less beautiful. The arch of Constantine is thought by far the most noble of the triumphal arches of Rome, but its columns, its beautiful sculptured medallions and bas reliefs, have evidently been pilfered from one of the triumphal arches of Trajan.

Of all the stupendous aqueducts of ancient Rome, two alone remain even in ruins, the Martian and the Claudian. The former, which was built by Quintus Martius Rex the praetor, 125 years b. c., conveyed to Rome three different waters in three distinct channels; the latter was built by the emperor Claudius, and conveyed two waters to Rome, the aqua Claudia, and the Anio vetus. The first was conveyed a distance of thirty-five, the last of sixty-two miles. There is reason to believe that the aqueducts were destroyed by Totila, but notwithstanding their destruction, Rome is still the city in the world the best supplied with water, three popes having conducted to it three noble streams. ^[54. Rome in 19th century, vol. ii. p. 150. ]

Rome alone, of all the cities of the world, boasts those sublime monuments of antiquity, the obelisks of Egypt. ^[55. Ibid. p. 158—165. ] The most important of these are the obelisk that stands in the Piazza del Popolo; it was the first ever seen in Rome, and was brought from Egypt by Augustus, and placed in the Circus Maximus, where it served as the gnomon of a dial; the obelisk in the grand piazza of St. Peter’s, brought from Egypt by Caligula; the obelisk in front of the Lateran church, the largest of them all, transported from Egypt by Constantius; the obelisk mentioned by Pliny, which was brought to Rome by Augustus, and erected in the Campus Martius; it now stands on Monte Citorio; and the obelisk which stood in the circus of Sallust, and now crowns the lofty summit of the Pincian hill.

The Roman tombs were distinguished by their impressive grandeur and magnificence. All along the long line of the Appian way are the mouldering remains of the ruined and blackening sepulchres,

“Where Caesars, heroes, peasants, hermits lie,

Blended in dust together.”

But among the immense number of proud sepulchres of the most distinguished Romans which crowded that “Queen of ways,” all, with a very few exceptions, are unknown. About sixty years ago the tomb of the Scipios was brought to light, but “the Scipios tomb contains no ashes now.” Exactly on the opposite side of the road to it is the sepulchre of the Maniglia family. The tomb of Cecilia Metella, the daughter of Metellus, and “the wealthiest Roman’s [7:19:431]wife,” is generally acknowledged to be a most beautiful sepulchral monument. ^[56. There is a stem round tower of other days, Firm as a fortress with its fence of stone, Such as an enemy’s baffled strength delays, Standing with half its battlements alone, And with two thousand years of ivy grown,-- The garland of eternity, which waves The green leaves over all by time o'erthrown. What was this tower of strength? Within its cave What treasure lay so lock'd, so hid? A woman’s grave. Childe Harold, c. iv. st. 100. ] It consists of a round tower formed of immense blocks of Tiburtine stone fixed together without cement, and adorned with a Doric marble frieze finely sculptured. This beautiful tower was at one time turned into a fortress by the family of the Gaetani. In the sepulchral vault was found the beautiful marble sarcophagus of Cecilia Metella, now in the Palazzo Farnese. Near the Porta San Paolo, in the “Prati del Popolo Romano,” (“the meadows of the Roman people,”) stands the grey pyramid of Caius Cestius. It rises about a hundred and twenty feet in height, and is entirely built of marble. Its form is graceful, and its appearance very picturesque. The “Prati del Romano” are planted round with mulberry trees, and now form the burial place of foreigners, excluded by their religion from the other cemeteries. By far the greater part of the strangers interred here are English.

The extensive catacombs found about Rome owe their origin to the large excavations which were made by the Romans for obtaining pozzolano, an immense quantity of which they used, and exported for sand and mortar, and other purposes. These subterraneous labyrinths branch out many miles in various directions. Those under the church of St. Sébastian alone are said to have been explored to the extent of above fifteen miles. Those dreary regions afforded shelter to the first Christians during the dreadful persecutions which they suffered under the emperors. They were also used as sepulchres, but all the bones which they once contained have bcεn carried off as precious relics. The chambers are all square, with arched recesses, and rectangular gaps, both in the walls and flooring, to receive coffins.

It has been said that perhaps no city in the world abounds with such numbers of churches as Rome, or with fewer handsome ones as respects their architecture. Many of the old churches of Rome are still called basilica, ^[57. “A basilica seems at first to have been part of a palace. It is sometimes represented as a simple portico It then included the buildings which were afterwards annexed. Some of these buildings which had served as basilica for law and trade, became places of worship to the primitive Christians, and the first churches that were erected expressly for that worship, erected perhaps on the site of some ancient basilics, retained the same name."— Forsyth’s Italy, p. 87. ] but that title properly belongs to the following seven, St. Peter’s, St. John Lateran’s, Santa Maria Maggiore’s, S. Paolo fuori le muro, Sante Croce in Gierusalemme, S. Sebastiano, and S. Lorenzo fuori le muro. St. Peter’s is the finest church in the world, excelling all others, not only in magnitude but in beauty. It was projected by Pope Nicholas V. in the middle of the fifteenth century; it was not, however, till the pontificate of Julius II. in 1506, that the first stone of the edifice was laid, and the whole building was not finished till the year 1621, during the pontificate of Paul V. No fewer than twenty-four popes, counting from Nicholas V., assisted in the erection of this magnificent structure. It is said to cover twenty acres, and to have cost many millions sterling. It is entirely built of Travertine stone, which looks as bright and fresh as if newly finished. The length of the building is 609 feet, and of the transept 500 feet, the height of the dome is 440 feet, the height of the nave 154, and its breadth 90 feet. The plan of the building was frequently changed. The original architect was Braemante, but the greater part was from the design of Michael Angelo, which, however, has unfortunately been marred by Paul V. and Carlo Moderni, justly stigmatized as “a wretched plasterer from Como, who broke the sacred unity of the master-idea, and whom we must execrate for the Latin cross, the aisles, the attic, and the front.” ^[58. Ibid. p. 195. ] From the front of the church on either side, a grand semicircular colonnade, composed of four rows of columns, sweeps round and encloses the immense circular area, in the centre of which stands a noble Egyptian obelisk of red granite, between two most beautiful fountains. The general effect is greatly injured by the Vatican Palace, which is built on one side of St. Peter’s, overlooking the top of the colonnade, and destroying its uniformity. A covered portico extends along the whole breadth of the building, vaulted with gilt stuccos, and paved with various marbles. It lengthens on the eye by a grand succession of doors, niches, statues, and fountains, till the perspective terminates with the equestrian statue of Charlemagne. The nave is infinitely grand and sublime, and is impannelled with the rarest and richest marbles, and adorned with every art of sculpture and of taste.

The splendid canopy of the great altar, and the wreathed columns which support it, were formed out of the bronze taken from the Pantheon by Urban VIII. A double marble staircase leads down to the confessional or tomb of St. Peter, illuminated by more than a hundred never-dying lamps. His sepulchre is surrounded by a circular vault, which is lined with the tombs of popes, saints, emperors, and deposed or abdicated princes, among whom are the last of the Stuart family, the emperor Otho, &c.

The stupendous dome, viewed in its design, its altitude, or even its decoration, is altogether unrivalled, and has justly been pronounced the triumph of modern architecture. A broad paved road leads up to the top of the church, and from thence the dome may be ascended by a succession of ingeniously contrived staircases. From the top an extensive prospect may be obtained of the beautiful amphitheatre of hills which encloses the Campagna. The summits of the loftier Apennines behind, wreathed with snow; the Tiber in its sinuous windings through the waste; in the distance the blue waters of the Mediterranean gleaming in the sunbeams; and, far beneath, Rome, with her churches, her palaces, her dark and distant ruins, the rich verdure, and golden fruit of the orange gardens of her convents, contrasting with the deep shade of their mournful cypresses. ^[59. Rome in 19th Century, vol. ii. p. 277. ]

The church or basilica of St. John Lateran was built by Constantine, and during many ages before the erection of St. Peter’s church, was regarded as the mother of churches, and head of the Christian world. It derived its name from Plautius Lateranus, the leader of the first and unsuccessful conspiracy against Nero. ^[60. Tacit. Ann. 15. Juvenal. Sat x. 17. ] This church has been frequently rebuilt, enlarged, and improved, and the old architecture now lies completely concealed in the modern. It is a very large but by no means handsome building, and its architecture is deformed by many glaring defects.

The old basilica of St. Paul, founded by Constantine, and rebuilt by Honorius, contained a hundred and twenty pillars [7:19:432] of the rarest marble and granite, the spoils of some of the noblest edifices of antiquity. A few years ago this church was destroyed by fire, but it is now rebuilding in a style of great magnificence.

The church of St. Clements on the slope of the Esquiline has the reputation of being the oldest existing church in the world. The churches of the Jesuits and of St. Ignatius are distinguished for their riches, and the immense number of ornaments which they contain. The church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, built on the site of Pompey’s temple of Minerva, contains the celebrated Christ of Michael Angelo, and in the church of St. Pietro in Vincoli, is the famous statue of Moses by the same artist. Many of the churches of Rome are adorned with fine paintings by the greatest masters, but their beauty and colouring has generally suffered much from time, neglect, dirt, and damp. In the church of Santa Maria della Pace are the four Sibyls of Raphael, and the church of the Augustines contains his inimitable fresco of Isaiah. A number of admirable paintings in fresco by Domenichino adorn a chapel in the church of San Liugi de Francesi. The church of the Capuchins possesses Guido’s celebrated painting of the archangel Michael trampling upon Satan. Domenichino’s ecstacy of St. Francis and a fresco of Giotto representing St Peter walking upon the waves, also adorn this church. Daniel da Volterra’s deposition from the cross, which Nicholas Poussin pronounced to be the third picture in the world, once enriched the church of the S. S. Trinité de Monti, but it was totally destroyed by the French in their clumsy attempt to remove it Here is the tomb of Claud Lorraine, and his house stands beside the church; on the opposite side of the way is the house of Nicholas Poussin, and close by it a house once inhabited by Salvator Rosa. The church of San Andrea della Valle is built upon the spot where the curia of Pompey once stood, in which Caesar fell. It contains some fine paintings in fresco by Domenichino. In the church of Sant' Onofrio the remains of Tasso repose. A number of the churches have been formed out of heathen temples, and it is curious to observe the striking resemblance which the modern Catholic churches bear to the ancient pagan temples in their plan and decoration, pictures, statues, worship of images, holy places, altars, and votive offerings, multiplied ceremonies, and pompous processions. ^[61. Rome in 19th Century, vol. ii. p. 370. Middleton’s Letter from Rome. Blunt’s Vestiges of Ancient Manners in Italy and Sicily. ]

There are in Rome
54 parishes, and 300 churches,
154 churches served by secular clergy,
130-by regular clergy (monks,)
64 monasteries and convents for men,
50--for women. ^[62. Melchiori’s Guide Méthodique de Rome. ]

Nothing strikes a stranger with more admiration on his arrival in Rome than the immense number of fountains which pour forth on every side an inexhaustible supply of the finest water. They shew a great variety in their composition. Some of them are beautiful, one or two grand, but they are all, generally speaking, deficient in simplicity, and several of them, such as the renowned fountain of Trevi, are completely overloaded with mythological sculpture. The water of this fountain, which is the chief supply of modern Rome, is the delicious Aqua Vergine, the same that flowed into Rome in the age of Augustus.

The streets of Rome are narrow, crooked, badly lighted, and dirty. The best street is the Corso, so named from being used for the course or promenade of carriages at the Canlival. Part of it is the ancient via lata, the rest follows the line of the Via Triumphalis. It is almost the only street that has the merit of being straight, and that can boast of trottoirs for foot passengers. It ex tends a mile in length, but is scarcely fifty feet in breadth. This, and all the other parts of the city, consist of buildings from three to five stories in height, built of stone, and plastered over. Every considerable tenement has a bust or portrait of the Virgin stuck upon one corner of it, at the second story, with a lamp in front at night, and an ornamental plaster moulding round it, into which are generally wrought some figures of angels or saints. Rome has no squares, and of the piazzas, the Piazzo del Popolo, and that in front of St Peter's, are the only two that deserve notice. Both are adorned wlth obelisks, statues, and fountains. Gas light is unknown in Rome, and the lamps attached to the shrines of the Virgin were the only street lights until the French came and introduced the “reverberes” used in Paris. Rome contains 500 streets, 275 lanes, 148 places, and 5500 shops.

Rome has about 335 palaces, or noblemen’s houses. Of these, about fifty or sixty are of a superior kind, uniting in their external appearance something of the fortress, the prison, and the palace. Many of the families to which these buildings once belonged have sunk into poverty, and their residences are now turned into ecclesiastical colleges or hotels, or let to foreign ambassadors or consuls. In the others which have escaped this fate, the lower storey is sometimes let for shops, sometimes retained for stables, coach-houses, and servant’s rooms. The second storey is generally a picture gallery, consisting of a suite of rooms all opening into one another, and richly adorned with marble columns and painted ceilings. The owner of the building and of these precious works of art, lives in the third or highest story, and generously throws open the gallery to artists and to all who choose to give two or three paoli to the servants. The exterior of these palaces is lamentably destitute of architectural beauty, and in the interior, notwithstanding the magnitude of the apartments, and the magnificence of the decorations, they are, generally speaking, exceedingly incommodious and uncomfortable dwellings, and all of them are deficient in cleanliness and order. It is no uncommon thing for an Italian nobleman to reside in the attics of his own palace, and to let the principal apartments to lodgers. Over the gates of the palace are the escutcheons of the family, and as if in mockery, the initials S. P. Q. R. (Senatus Populusque Romanus.) The immense palaces of the Doria, the Colonna, and the Borghese, are still occupied only by their own families and dependants. The Doria palace contains the largest collection of paintings in Rome, among which are found some of the finest specimens of the ancient masters. The princely house of Colonna has produced more illustrious men, and can boast a nobler descent, than any in Rome. The gallery of their palace, which is by far the grandest in the city, once contained a number of celebrated paintings, but the finest have been sold. The palace garden, which hangs on the steep side of the Quirinal hill, contains the picturesque remains of a magnificent ancient edifice, the name of which is unknown. The palace of the Barberini family formerly contained that celebrated museum of ancient sculpture, vases, gems, medals, &c., which was so long the wonder and admiration of Europe, but it is now sold and dispersed. the famous Portland vase was brought from this museum. The palace of the Borghese once contained a fine museum of sculpture, and it still possesses the best collection of paintings in Rome. In the Palazzo Mas-sirai is the famous Discobalus, the finest in the world, found in the grounds of the Villa Palombari on the Esquiline hill. The Palazzo Spada contains the celebrated statue of Pompey, at the foot of which Caesar fell. In the palace of the Braschi stands the beautiful colossal statue of Antinous, which was dug up on the site of the ancient Gabii.
[7:19:433]

The palace of Lucien Bonaparte possesses a small collection, but entirely composed of masterpieces, and kept in beautiful preservation. The Palazzo Nuovo di Torlonia, the residence of Torlonia the Roman banker, who has purchased the title and estate of the Duca di Bracciano, is fitted up with all the magnificence that wealth can command. The gallery is adorned with Canova’s colossal group of Hercules and Lychas. The Farnese palace contains the far-famed gallery painted in fresco by Annibal Caracci.

The Vatican has long been celebrated for its unrivalled splendour and magnificence. Its ceilings richly painted in fresco; its pictured pavements of ancient mosaic; its magnificent gates of bronze; its polished columns of ancient porphyry, the splendid spoils of the mins of imperial Rome; its endless accumulation of Grecian marble, Egyptian granites, and Oriental alabasters; its bewildering extent and prodigality of magnificence; but, above all, its amazing treasures of sculpture, far surpass even the gorgeous dreams of Eastern magnificence. ^[63. Rome in 19th Century, vol. i. p. 144—178. ] In common with all the other collections of the fine arts in Rome, the Vatican suffered materially from the rapacity of the French, but on the downfall of Bonaparte the stolen treasures were restored to their rightful owners. The Vatican contains a museum filled with the most splendid specimens of ancient sculpture;—the tapestry chambers hung with tapestry woven in the looms of Flanders, and copied from the cartoons of Raphael ;—a picture gallery, filled with the masterpieces of painting ;—the Camere and Loggie of Raphael, painted in fresco by himself and his pupils ;—the Sistina and Paolina chapels, painted in fresco by Michael Angelo ;—and the library, the halls and galleries of which alone are more than thirteen hundred feet in length. The view from the balcony in front of the windows gave the name of Belvidere to the museum, and in consequence to the matchless statue of Apollo Belvidere, pronounced by universal consent to be the finest statue in the world. It was found near Antium, in the ruins of a Roman villa, supposed to have originally belonged to Nero. The name of its artist is unknown. Here, also, is the celebrated group of the Laocoon, which Pliny states to have been executed by Agesander the Rhodian, and Athenodorus and Polidorus, who are believed to have been his sons. ^[64. Pliny, lib. xxxiv. cap. 8. ] This wonderful masterpiece was found in the palace of Titus, on the very spot where it is described by Pliny to have stood, and every successive generation that has passed since it was formed, has gazed with admiration on its matchless sublimity. The Vatican also contains the two finest paintings in the world, the Transfiguration by Raphael, and Domenichino’s Communion of St. Jerome. The library contains a splendid collection of books, and is peculiarly rich in rare and valuable manuscripts. But a minute account of the immense treasures of art accumulated in this magnificent building would occupy too much of our space.

Another of the Pope’s palaces, the Lateran, has been converted into an hospital.

The museum of the Capitol contains a very extensive collection of specimens of ancient sculpture. The finest works in it are the famous statue called the Dying Gladiator, found at Antium in the same spot with the Apollo Belvidere and the Fighting Gladiator; the two Furietti Centaurs; the old shrivelled crone, which some have called the Praefica, others a Sybil, others Hecuba; the group of Cupid and Psyche; Cupid bending his bow; the Osiris and Isis; the professor of the gymnastic art; the noble seated statue of Agrippina, the wife of Germanicus; the Camillus; the child playing with a swan; the bronze urn which bears the name of Mithridates; the four doves, a mosaic, which must be either the original or a copy of the famous mosaic of Sosus, in the temple of Pergamus, described by Pliny; and the bas-reliefs of the dispute between Agamemnon and Achilles; the Nine Muses; and the battle of the Amazons. ^[65. Rome in 19th Century,· vol. ii. p. 428—450. Forsyth s Italy, p. 229. ] The Capitol contains also a museum of painting, but it is of very inferior interest.

The academy of St. Luke, in the Forum, contains Raphael’s famous picture of St. Luke painting the Virgin’s portrait. Here is preserved the skull of Raphael under a glass case.

Rome contains eleven public libraries, some of which are excellent. In the Augustine convent there is one containing upwards of one hundred thousand volumes, which is open to the public.

There are a great many villas in the immediate vicinity of Rome, and even within its walls. Every villa has at least one building, called a casino, containing a suite of entertaining rooms, fitted up with all the luxury of painting and sculpture. The villa and garden of the Borghese, which are by far the most beautiful pleasure grounds at Rome, arc open as a common drive to the whole metropolis. The villa Lu-dovisi, within the walls of the city, is nearly two miles in circuit. It contains an invaluable collection of celebrated pieces of ancient statuary, of which no copies are known to exist. The magnificent villa Medici, on the Pincian hill, is now converted into the French academy, where a number of young artists of promise are supported at the charge of the French government, with the view of enabling them to enjoy the advantages of a few years study at Rome. The villa Albani is enriched with the most precious collection of ancient sculpture that any private cabinet ever contained. The finest specimens of this collection are the famous Apollo Sauroctonos, the most beautiful bronze statue now left in the world, and which, in the judgment of Winkelman, is the original of Praxiteles, described by Pliny; the statue of Minerva, which is pronounced by Winkelman to be the only monument now existing at Rome of the sublime age of art that lasted from the age of Phidias to that of Praxiteles; and the far-famed relievo of Antinous, which, says’ Winkelman, “after the Apollo and the Laocoon, is perhaps the most beautiful monument of antiquity which time has transmitted to us.” ^[66. Winkelman, Hist de l’Art, liv. vi. chap. 7. sect. 28. Rome in 19th Century, vol. iii. p. 109—116. ]

The castle of St. Angelo, “the mole which Hadrian rear’d on high,” was originally called “Moles Adriani,” from the name of its founder, who destined it to hold his remains for ever. It is a circular building, and was formerly reckoned very strong; it has stood many sieges, but as a fortress it is wholly untenable against modern tactics. It has been so often taken and retaken, repaired and altered, that but little of the original structure now remains, except the walls. It communicates with the Vatican by a long covered gallery, made by Pope Alexander VI., to afford him a way of escape from the just fury of his subjects. The castle of St. Angelo is now used as a place of confinement for prisoners sentenced to the galleys. The upper part of it also serves as a state prison for criminals of rank, and those who fall under the suspicion and displeasure of the Pope.

The population of Rome, which in 1800 amounted to 153,004, gradually diminished till it was only 117,882 in 1813. Since that period, however, it has progressively increased, and in 1836 consisted of 153,678, exclusive of Jews, who amount to 3700. On the dismemberment of the Pontifical territory in 1800, the population of those parts which now form the government was 2,400,000, in 1829 that population had increased to 2,679,524, being an augmentation of about one-eighth.

The population returns for the city of Rome in 1836, are thus given by the authorities ;—
[7:19:434]
[table]

The increase of population from 1835 is 1221; the births are as 1 to 35; the deaths as 1 to 47.

The following is a correct statement of the extent of the surface of the different districts in the Roman States. A third part of the surface is cultivated:
[table]

The principal productions of the country are corn, such as wheat and maize, vegetables, rice, hemp, wines, vinegar, brandy, tartar, wine lees, oil, timber, charcoal, tobacco. The produce of secondary importance is fruit, potatoes, flax, seeds, and oleaginous vegetables, dye-woods, and barks of the cork and other trees, potash, soda, hay, mulberry-trees, aniseed, &c. The main agricultural products are cattle, both large and small, with their secondary productions, such as wool, cheese, butter, hides, bacon, &c.; silks, wax, honey, tallow, horns and bones, parchment, &c. Buffalos, goats, mules, and other animals for carriage, are found, but not in large numbers. Domestic fowls, and game of all sorts, are in abundance.

The cultivation of rice, vegetables, potatoes, hemp, olives, mulberry-trees, silk worms, horned cattle and sheep, with cheese and wool, is on the increase, while, on the contrary, corn, firewood, charcoal, wood, pine-kernels, horses, and the salted sardinias of the Adriatic are diminishing. The fishing-trade generally is declining or almost extinct. Other produce is nearly stationary.

With respect to the mineral productions of the Pontifical

States, but little information can be given. They possess excellent earths, argillaceous and others, fit for various manufactures, and especially for earthenware. Pozzolano is found at Rome and elsewhere; travertine, peperine, and other building stones, at Tivoli, Albano, &c. Millstones, siliceous and fire-stones, fuller’s earth, alabaster, are also found. In some parts are marbles, variegated and sculp-tuary. Rock crystals are found at Tolfa, and elsewhere. They produce also salts and bitumens, alum, vitriol, fossil coal, pitch and naphtha. They have no fossil, but abundance of marine salt, the annual produce of which is 76,000,000 lbs. There are many salt-springs in Romagna and the frontiers, and abundance of salubrious mineral springs, both hot and cold. Of metals there are indices of gold and silver in various places, but the quantities are small. Iron ore is believed to exist in the territory of Terni, Viterbo, Bologna, and elsewhere, but no sufficient trial has been made to enable a correct estimate to be formed of the probable produce. Copper ores, quicksilver, marcasite and lead, have also been found. Pozzo-lana is employed for subaquatic works, and is exported to some extent. The Viterbo vitriol mines produce more than 100,000 lbs., one-half of which is exported. There are many mines of fossil coal, which were worked with great success, and the coal was found most abundant and excellent, but they have of late been utterly neglected. About four million lbs. of sulphur are dug in Romagna, Pesaro, and Tor-mignano. The government works only the alum mines, all the rest are private undertakings.

Roman agriculture is by no means in a flourishing state. Most of the lands in the Agro Romano, and generally in the Maremme, extending from the confines of Tuscany to those of Naples, are divided into large properties. The extent varies much, some containing no less than 8000 hectares, and others not exceeding a few hundred hectares; but, generally speaking, the landed properties vary from 500 to 1000 hectares. All the tract of country from the Apennines to the Mediterranean, with the exception of the suburban districts near the towns and villages, is divided into possessions of considerable size. But the number of wealthy proprietors is very small, perhaps there are not twenty landholders of ample fortune. The great majority of them are poor, a few of them are tolerably well off, but the opulent are rare indeed. The value of land is almost infinitely various; the rent in the Maremme varies from a half to four crowns per hectare. Beyond the Maremme it is sometimes let at twenty crowns per hectare (L.4) per annum, and in some cases the rental exceeds that sum. Lands do not ordinarily render more than two and a-half or three per cent. In the neighbourhood of the large towns of the State, land readily sells for forty years’ purchase. The agricultural labourers are grossly ignorant, and they have no means of acquiring education, though they are neither indolent nor unwilling to better their condition. They in general live badly, using, for the most part, maize bread and polenta, beans and pulse, and other vegetables, but they seldom are able to obtain animal food. In winter their beverage isjoic- chetta, a mixture of wine and water, and in summer wine alone. In the populous districts, wages vary from one to two pauls (5d. to 10d.) and in the Maremme from two to four pauls per day, according to the employment, the season, and the locality.

In the most populous and best cultivated districts, there is usually an annual change from spring grasses to corn produce, but in the Maremme the soil is often left to repose for from three to seven years. No operations on a large scale can be carried on there in summer, owing to the state of the climate. In the summer season, the animals are driven [7:19:435]from the plains to the mountains, and after the gathering of the harvest, the Maremme are abandoned, on account of the malaria The leases in these districts are sometimes subset to smaller cultivators, and even subdivided into small fractions. But in other parts of the country leases are rarely granted; land is almost all colonized, that is, farmed on the mezzeria principle, a system which is productive of the worst results. The general arrangement is, that the landowner shall receive from the coloni half the produce of the soil; but there are many cases in which the amount received is not one-sixth of the produce. The coloni are generally in debt to their landlords, and are often in a state of insolvency.

The Roman states produce a supply of cattle sufficient for the ordinary consumption. Horses are exported, and there is a small importation of oxen and swine. The breed of sheep is improving, and the export of wool is considerable, and is rapidly increasing. Olive plantations were long one of the most productive investments; but they are now less so than the cultivation of the white mulberry, which would spread widely were capital abundant. Vineyards have been too extensively planted, and now yield no return equivalent to the outlay. The culture of the wheat has diminished solely from the absence of external demand, and the consequent decline of prices. The instruments of husbandry employed are of the rudest kind. The heavy customs have prevented the introduction of improved implements, and the arts are too little advanced to allow their production at home. The principal impediments in the Roman states to agricultural improvements are, the political situation of the country; the protecting system, which keeps all the producing powers in backwardness; the want of capital; the want of population in the Maremme, and the mezzeria system elsewhere; the want of knowledge, and more especially of agricultural knowledge; the extreme difficulty proprietors have in finding managers for their estates who are able and willing to introduce the improvements that have been adopted elsewhere; mortmain, the heavy burden of taxation falling particularly on proprietors, agriculturists, and their productions, and the difficulty of sales from restricted relations. ^[68. See the communication of one of the largest landed proprietors in the Roman States, in Dr. Bowring’s Report, &c. p. 78, 79. ]

The population of the Roman states in general is rather agricultural than manufacturing, and their manufactures serve only for the home consumption. There is little demand for them abroad. The papal government has made enormous sacrifices, by protections, prohibitions, and premiums, for the encouragement of what is called native industry; but these measures, so far from increasing and improving manufacturing produce, have been the main causes of decline and decay. Their only effect has been to reward and to render permanent the most rude and ignorant processes of manufacture. Scarcely a valuable discovery has been introduced into their manufactories, and the looms are still such as were generally employed in the fourteenth century. Many a town in Great Britain, consisting only of 30,000 souls, produces a greater quantity of manufactured articles than the three million inhabitants of the pontifical states. The principal manufacture is that of woollens of ordinary quality. Rome is the chief seat of this manufacture, and the value of the fabrics produced annually, is calculated at 300,000 crowms, (L.60,000.) Next to woollens stands the manufacture of hats. They are well made every where, but especially at Rome, and to the amount of 200,000 crowns, (L.40,000.) There are silk manufactories in Rome, Bologna, Camerino, and Brugia; but the trade is declining. Next in importance to woollen and silk manufactories, are those of tanned and dressed leather. Gloves are made in Rome and Bologna, to the extent of from 90,000 to 100,000 pairs annually. Roman musical strings enjoy a very ancient and deserved reputation. The annual quantity made amounts in value to 10,000 crowns. There are scarely any manufactories of cotton goods. The government has made great sacrifices to maintain an establishment at the Diocletian baths, but without success. The fabrics of hemp and flax are more numerous than those of cotton, but there are no factories; all the goods produced are manufactured either in public schools, orphan asylums, or private houses. The other articles of manufacture are ropes and cordage, wax and tallow candles, paper, cream of tartar, liquorice juice, pig iron, copper manufactures, earthenware, and glass. An extensive trade was formerly carried on in alum, which was dug in large quantities in the mountains of Tolfa, but the introduction of artificial alum, by lowering the prices, has greatly diminished this trade. Raw sulphur is found in large quantities and of excellent quality. After supplying the home consumption, both raw and refined sulphur are exported to the amount of four million lbs. giving an annual proceed of 120,000 crowns. The sulphuric manufactures of Bologna produce annually 50,000 lbs. of sulphuric, and 10,000 lbs. of nitric acid.

The trade of the Roman states is far from extensive or flourishing. The principal exports are corn from Romagna and the frontier districts; but this trade is diminishing. Sheep 50,000 yearly, swine 40,000, oxen 10,000. The export to England of Roman wool is become very considerable, and is increasing rapidly. The provinces on the west of the Apennines export from 800,000 to 900,090 lbs. of wool for Piedmont and France. A million lbs. of cheese go to Tuscany and Sardinia; of lambs skins, about 400,000 lbs. are shipped to England, Piedmont, and Naples. Of horns and bones, there is an export of 15,000 lbs.; of honey, 10,000 lbs.; of skins, 100,000 lbs.; of tallow, 200,000 lbs.; of lard and fat, 150,000 lbs.; of hemp, 30 millions of lbs.; of white and brown rags, 3 millions lbs.; of oil, 1 million lbs.; of tobacco, 300,000 lbs., but the government monopoly is a great impediment to the extended cultivation of a plant to which the soil is well adapted. There is a large export of planks to Spain, America, and France, besides other articles.

The imports are to some extent affected by the circumstance, that a chain of mountains traverses the country, making the north-west almost inaccessible to the south, so that while one part of the state is exporting, another is im porting the same article. Colonial produce is received principally from England and France; and the consumption is, of raw sugar, 10,000,000 lbs.; coffee, 1,600,000 lbs.; pepper, 1,000,000 lbs.; cocoa, 50,000 lbs.; cinnamon, 40,000 lbs.; cloves, 35,000 lbs.; and raw cotton, 150,000 lbs. Of other principal articles, the yearly imports are, from 40,000 to 50,000 sheep; from 12,000 to 13,000 calves or oxen; 8000 to 9000 swine; 16,000 to 1.8,000 cows; some costly horses, principally for the capital; hides, about 1,200,000 lbs.; raw skins, 50,000 lbs.; coarse wool for mattresses, 1,000,000 lbs.; cheese, 1,300,000 lbs.; butter, 70,000 lbs.; wax, 700,000 lbs.; cochineal and kernes, salt fish from England, 8,700,000 lbs.; about 3,000,000 lbs. more of pilchards, Sardinian salmon, &c. are brought from Spain, France, Sicily, and Russia.

The tariff which regulates the import and export duties of the Pontifical states, is dated 28th April 1830. ^[69. Report on the Statistics of the Roman States, by Dr. Bowring. 1837. ]

The prohibitions in the Roman states are not numerous. On imports they include the articles farmed, as salt, tobacco, alum, vitriol, playing cards, pictures, engravings, &c.
[7:19:436]
[table]

A similar legislation is applied to bread, maize, beans, peas, potatoes, and chesnuts; but rice is subject to an export duty of one bajocco per 100 lbs.

The exports to Èngland are few, and consist mainly of grain, raw hemp, rags, raw and refined sulphur, silk, cream of tartar, wood, lamb and kid skins, cork, &c. English vessels load goods at Civita Vecchia, but the major part of the above articles are shipped for England from Leghorn, Genoa, and Marseilles.

Rome receives from England colonial produce, fish, medicines, drugs, and dye-stufls, metals, cotton-twist, piece goods of all sorts, hardware, and iron and steel goods, jewellery, glass, earthenware, porcelain, &c.

The roads of the Pontifical states are, generally speaking, well kept. They are best at â distance from the capital, and worst in its immediate neighbourhood, from the want of siliceous material for repairs. Ever from the time of the ancient Romans, the roads have been divided into the three classes of consular, provincial, and communal. By a decree of the 23d October 1817, this arrangement was regulated, and a board nominated to the charge of the roads; and it was determined to levy a tenth part of the praedial impost for the consular roads, a variable quota from the provinces for the provincial roads, and another at the charge of the municipalities for the communal roads.

The bankers Torlonia recently proposed a scheme of great utility, that of introducing steam navigation on the Tiber, establishing a port on its mouth, extending steam communication from it to Naples, Leghorn, and all the adjoining coast. But after the steam vessels and omnibuses were contracted for, and nearly ready, the government took alarm, and put an interdict on the scheme. In the stage coaches travellers pay 35 bajocchi per post, (somewhat less than 2d. per mile, English). Money, jewels, and effects of small bulk and large value, are conveyed from one end to the other of the Roman states, if under 100 crowns, at 2 per cent; from 100 to 500 at 1 per cent, &c. The government messengers have the privilege of conveying travellers for their own account, and their general charge is 60 bajocchi per post, (somewhat more than 3d. per mile), half of which they are required to pay to government. The price of travelling in ordinary vehicles averages at from 3 to 3½ crowns per 100 miles per individual, comprising one meal to be furnished by the vetturino. By carriage or carts the general charge for the carriage of goods is 1 crown per 100 miles.

Wages in the Roman states are low; and in general it may be stated, that the services which in England cost a shilling, in France a franc, in the Papal states cost a paul, (54 centimes, or about 5½d. sterling). A day’s labour in summer costs 30 bajocchi, ( 14d. sterling), but in winter only 15 to 20 bajocchi, (7d. to 10d. sterling); and the prices of the ordinary articles of consumption vary much in the different parts of the Roman states. There is a very great difference between those in the capital and those on the two sides of the Apennines. The rate of wages paid in town and country are as follows :—
[table]

The monthly expenses of maintaining a family in the country, composed of six individuals, are, (including rent,) 17 crowns, 10 bajs., making 2-85 crowns per person, without calculating medical charges, so that, according to the above estimate, a family of six person living in the country can subsist on 17s. a-week, or about L.4l per annum. But in Rome, the monthly expenses of a family of the middling classes, composed of six individuals, would be 52 crowns, 33; that is to say, 8∙72 per individual, about L.2, 12s. 6d. per week, or about L.125 a-year, for the expenditure of a family of the trading classes.

Prices of ordinary articles of consumption in the markets of Rome.
[table]

Wages paid for different classes of labour :—
[table]
[7:19:437]

The civil government is in the hands of the College of Cardinals, and the executive is administered by the Cardinal Vicarius, who is a kind of prime minister. It has been defined to be “a government administered by monks, who conduct the affairs of a nation by the rules of a convent, and apply the maxims of the twelfth century to the business of the nineteenth ;” and the apathy and timidity, the dread of independent thinking and of free inquiry which it manifests, fully justify the statement. Such is the dread of innovation, that even vaccination is not permitted in Rome. The press is held in rigid durance, and all the best works on mental philosophy are prohibited. As might have been expected, these restrictions have proved in the highest degree injurious to the prosperity of literature. The state of science in Rome is still less flourishing, for it has been the constant policy of the papal government from the days of Galileo to the present time, to discourage as much as possible the research after truth. Rome, therefore, has not one eminent man of science; there are very few who take even any interest in the matter; nor is there a single museum of natural history, public or private, worth notice. The constitution of society, too, is so framed as to hold every man in the situation in which he is born. However meritorious or enterprising he may be, he can scarcely ever expect by his own personal exertion to raise himself to a higher station, for there are barriers he can never pass.

The clergy constitute the nobility of Rome; they form the court of the sovereign, and fill all civil offices as well as ecclesiastical. The persons styled Roman princes are few in number, and, with two or three exceptions, very poor, and totally destitute of power or authority.

The inhabitants of the papal states, with very few exceptions, profess the Romish faith. According to the official returns the number of Jews in Rome is 3700; of heretics and Turks, 201. The Jews are compelled to reside in one particular quarter of the city. There is now a Protestant place of worship in Rome, in which an English clergyman regularly officiates, but this is rather connived at than openly tolerated. Of late years there has been a considerable increase in the number of the clergy. In 1825 they amounted to 4938; in 1835, to 5273. According to the official statement, there were, in 1836, 37 bishops, 1468 priests, 2023 monks, 1384 nuns, and in houses of education, 698. There is thus in Rome one clergyman for every ten families; but it is supposed that the real number considerably exceeds the official return. The state of morals, both among clergy and laity, is far from satisfactory.

The absence of statistical accounts makes it impossible to state what is the number of children in the schools of the Roman territory. According to the calculation of the government, it is about 1 in 50 of the population. A bull was issued on this subject by Pope Leo XII., which was followed by a “Reglamento degli Studj,” erecting a board intended to have the general direction of the business of education, the control of all universities and schools, and consists of certain cardinals in official stations, and others, to be nominated by the pope. It established two primary universities, Rome and Bologna, and six secondary universities. The universities have four faculties, theology, law, medicosurgery, and philosophy. But of this Reglamento only a very small portion refers to public schools. They are placed almost entirely under the control of the bishop. The teachers are elected by the communal council, but the bishop must confirm the nomination, and he possesses a perpetual power of dismissal without reference to the local authorities. But the business of education is almost universally neglected. The elementary schools in Rome are 872; the number of masters, 482, and of scholars, 14,099; that is to say, in the infant schools, 4800; in the gratuitous elementary schools for boys, 2694; for girls, 287; in the schools where a small sum is paid for instruction, 2115 boys, and 1600 girls. Many parts of Rome, however, as Trasta-vere and the Borgo, are very ill supplied. Rome contains four ecclesiastical boarding-schools, two seminaries, seven ecclesiastical colleges, five secular colleges, two universities, nine gratuitous parish schools, and sixty regionary; seven schools kept by monks, one for the deaf and dumb, five pious places of education for males, and fourteen for females.

Two banks for savings have lately been established, one in Rome, the other in Spoleto; that of Rome has been very successful, and in six months has received 50,000 crowns in deposits. The Monte di Pietà of Rome has existed for nearly three centuries. It has passed through many vicissitudes, and has now a circulating capital of about 230,000 crowns advanced on about 200,000 pledges. It is proposed to associate this establishment with the savings bank, which is now attached to the lottery office.
[table]

Thus the net receipts exhibit 7,080,000 crowns, and the net expenditure 7,934,000 crowns, showing a deficit of 854,000 crowns.

The average cost of collection appears to be nearly one-fourth of the gross revenue. That of the predial imposts, 23 per cent.; of the customs. &c., 11 per cent.; stamps,
[7:19:438]

&c., 16 per cent.; post-office, 60 per cent.; lotteries, 69 per cent. The interest on the national debt absorbs about ’ 38 per cent, of the net revenue.

If the population of the Roman states be estimated at

2,800,000,and the average expenditure at 9,000,000 crowns, the amount of taxation per individual would be about 12s. 10d. per annum.

The principal taxes levied are,—

1. Tax on consumption (exclusive of that on flour) which, if estimated on the whole of the male population above the the age of 16, would give 60 bajocchi per head, (2s. 6d. sterling.)

2. The personal tax which is levied according to the classification of the payers, with a reference to their wealth. If averaged upon the males above 16 years, its amount would be 40 bajocchi each, (Is. 7d. sterling.)

3. Additional impost on the value of the cadastral survey.

4. Various taxes of localities, markets, offices, &c., as on weights and measures; on fishing and hunting, &c.

The papal troops consist of

Polizia.....................4000

Custom-house officers....1500

Armed functionaries 5500

Artillery....................1000

Cavalry.....................1000

Infantry..................12000

Regulars............14000

And about 15,000 militia, who are not in active service. It is a boast of the Romans that in no city is so large a sum devoted to public charity in proportion to the population. The proportional payments of Rome for charitable purposes are about double those of Paris. Rome has a yearly revenue from charitable funds of 1,900,000 francs; and the state grants annually 2,200,000, making a yearly revenue of 4,100,000 francs. But of the immense number of benevolent establishments in Rome, a great proportion are of doubtful, ill-directed, and even pernicious charity; and in spite of the liberality with which money is scattered, nowhere is more mendicity, wretchedness, idleness, and' want.

Besides the foundling hospitals, which are very numerous, there are thirteen societies for giving dowries to girls on their marrying, and pecuniary gifts on their taking the veil. Of 1400 women who are married at Rome annually, no less than 1000 receive dowries from the public purse, the annual payment for this object being 32,000 crowns, or L.8000 sterling. Independently of public institutions, there is much private almsgiving. There are in Rome twenty-two establishments for the diseased, the insane, and the convalescent, of which eight are public, eleven are private hospitals, two are institutions for visiting the sick in their houses, and one is for the burial of the dead. These hospitals can accommodate about 4000 persons. The maximum of deaths is 11.60 per cent, the minimum 5.43. The average cost of ordinary patients is two pauls per day, (10d.)

Rome is one of the great recipients for abandoned children, which are brought thither from remote provinces, and even from the kingdom of Naples. In St. Spirito 800 boys are annually received; the Conservatory receives ordinarily 800 girls; five other hospitals have 544 boys and 670 girls. At the end of 1838, there were 1672 children in the St. Spirito asylum; 804 were deposited in that year, 684 had departed, and 1552 remained from the former year. No less than 5S0 children died in the year, being a mortality of 72 per cent

The latest official document respecting the administration of justice is that of 1832 The number of condemned persons in that year was 2708, but about 8000 more must be added to these for criminals already in prison, so that the number of prisoners is generally about 6000. Criminal proceedings in the Papal States are very dilatory. The prisons receive all offenders, whether of correctional or criminal police; and as there is no liberation of the accused on bail, there is necessarily a considerable aggregation of offenders. (b. q.)
[table]

Burgess’s Antiquities of Rome; Rome in the Nineteenth Century; Eustace’s Classical Tour; Forsyth’s Italy; Melchiorr., Guide Méthodique de Rome; Dr. Bowring’s Report of the Statistics of the Pontifical States.