"Cette Bouche-de-Vérité est une curieuse relique du moyen âge. Elle servait aux jugements de Dieu. Figurez-vous une meule de moulin qui ressemble, non pas à un visage humain, mais au visage de la lune: on y distingue des yeux, un nez et une bouche ouverte où l'accusé mettait la main pour prêter serment. Cette bouche mordait les menteurs; au moins la tradition l'assure. J'y ai introduit ma dextre en disant que le Ghetto était un lieu de délices, et je n'ai pas été mordu."—About, Rome Contemporaine.
On the other side of the portico is the tomb of Cardinal Alfanus, ob. 1150.
"The church was rebuilt under Calixtus II.; about A.D. 1128, by Alfanus, Roman Chancellor, whose marble sepulchre stands in the atrium, with his epitaph, along a cornice, giving him that most comprehensive title, 'an honest man,' vir probus. Some more than half-faded paintings, a Madonna and Child, angels, and two mitred heads, on the wall behind the canopy, give importance to this Chancellor's tomb. Though now disfigured exteriorly by a modern façade in the worst style, interiorly by a waggon-vault roof and heavy pilasters, this church is still one of the mediæval gems of Rome, and retains many olden details: the classic colonnades, probably left in their original place since the time of Adrian I.; and the fine campanile, one of the loftiest in Rome; also the sculptured doorway, the rich intarsio pavement, the high altar, the marble and mosaic-inlaid ambones, the marble episcopal throne, with supporting lions and a mosaic decoration above, &c.,—all of the twelfth century. But we have to regret the destruction of the ancient choir-screens, and (still more inexcusable) the white-washing of wall surfaces so as entirely to conceal the mediæval paintings which adorned them, conformably to that once almost universal practice of polychrome decoration in churches, prescribed even by law under Charlemagne. Ciampini (see his valuable history of this basilica) mentions the iron rods for curtains between the columns of the atrium, and those, still in their place, in the porch, with rings for suspending; also a small chapel with paintings, at one end of the atrium, designed for those penitents who were not allowed to worship within the sacred building—as such, an evidence of disciplinary observance, retained till the twelfth century. Over the portal are some tiny bas-reliefs, so placed along the inner side of the lintel that many might pass underneath without seeing them: in the centre, a hand blessing, with the Greek action, between two sheep, laterally; the four evangelistic emblems, and two doves, each pecking out of a vase, and one perched upon a dragon (more like a lizard), to signify the victory of the purified soul over mundane temptations."—Hemans' Christian Art.
Close to this church stood the Palace of Pope Gelasius II. (1118).
Opposite the church is a beautiful fountain, erected by one of the Medici, and beyond it the graceful round temple now called the Temple of Vesta, supposed by Canina to have been that of Mater Matuta, and by others to have been that of Hercules founded by Pompey. It is known to have existed in the time of Vespasian. It is very small, the circumference of the peristyle being only 156 feet, and that of the cella 26 feet,—the height of the surrounding Corinthian columns (originally twenty in number) 32 feet This temple was first dedicated as a church under the name of S. Stefano delle Carrozze; it is now called Sta. Maria del Sole.
This is not the Temple of Vesta (which was situated near the Church of Sta. Maria Liberatrice in the Forum) of which Horace wrote:—
The modern overhanging roof of the temple has been much objected to, as it replaces an entablature like that on the temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli; but artists admire the exquisite play of light and shade caused by its rugged tiles, and, finding it a perfect "subject," wish for no change.
"C'est auprès de la Bouche-de-Vérité, devant le petit temple de Vesta, que la justice romaine exécute un meurtrier sur cent. Quand j'arrivai sur la place, on n'y guillotinait personne; mais six cuisinières, dont une aussi belle que Junon, dansaient la tarantelle au son d'un tambour de basque. Malheureusement elles divinèrent ma qualité d'étranger, et elles se mirent à polker contre la mesure."—About.
Close to this—overhanging a little hollow way—is the Temple of Fortuna Virilis, built originally by Servius Tullius, but rebuilt during the republic, and, if the existing building is really republican, the most ancient temple remaining in Rome. It is surrounded by Ionic columns (one side being enclosed in other buildings), 28 feet high, clothed with hard stucco, and supporting an entablature adorned with figures of children, oxen, candelabra, &c. The Roman matrons had a great regard for this goddess, who was supposed to have the power of concealing their personal imperfections from the eyes of men. At the close of the tenth century this temple was consecrated to the Virgin, but has since been bestowed upon St. Mary of Egypt.
Hard by, is a picturesque end of building, laden with rich but incongruous sculpture, at one time called "The House of Pilate," but now known as the House of Rienzi. It derives its present name from a long inscription over a doorway, which tallies with the bombastic epithets assumed by "The Last of the Tribunes" in his pompous letter of Aug. 1, 1347, when, in his semi-madness, he summoned kings and emperors to appear before his judgment-seat. The inscription closes:—
It is believed, from the inscription, that the house was fortified by Nicholas, son of Crescentius and Theodora, who gave it to David, his son; that the Crescentius alluded to was son of the famous patrician who headed the populace against Otho III.; and that, three centuries later, the house may have belonged to Cola di Rienzi, a name which is, in fact, only popular language for Niccola Crescenzo. It is, however, known that Rienzi was not born in this house, but in a narrow street behind S. Tommaso, in the Rione alla Regola, where his father Lorenzo kept an inn, and his mother, Maddalena, gained her daily bread as a washerwoman and water-carrier—so were the Crescenzi fallen!
Here is the entrance to a suspension-bridge, which joins the remaining arches of the Ponte Rotto, and leads to the Trastevere. On this site was the Pons Æmilius, begun, B.C. 180, by M. Æmilius Lepidus and Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, and finished by P. Scipio Africanus and L. Mummius, the censors, in B.C. 142. Hence the body of the Emperor Heliogabalus was thrown into the Tiber. The bridge has been three times rebuilt by different popes, but two of its arches were finally carried away in an inundation of 1598, and have never since been replaced. The existing remains, which only date from the time of Julius III., are highly picturesque.
"Quand on a établi un pont en fil de fer, on lui a donné pour base les piles du Ponte-Rotto, élevé au moyen âge sur les fondements du Pons Palatinus, qui fut achevé sous la censure de Scipion l'Africain. Scipion l'Africain et un pont en fil de fer, voilà de ces contrastes qu'on ne trouve qu'à Rome."—Ampère, Emp. ii. 209.
From this bridge is the best view of the Isola Tiberina and its bridges, and hence, also, the Temple of Vesta is seen to great advantage. Just below is the mouth of the Cloaca Maxima.
"Quand du Ponte-Rotto on considère le triple cintre de l'ouverture par laquelle la Cloaca Maxima se déchargeait dans le Tibre, on a devant les yeux un monument qui rappelle beaucoup de grandeur et beaucoup d'oppression. Ce monument extraordinaire est une page importante de l'histoire romaine. Il est à la fois la suprême expression de la puissance des rois étrusques et le signe avant-coureur de leur chute. L'on croit voir l'arc triomphal de la royauté par où devait entrer la république."—Ampère, Hist. Rom. ii. 233.
In the bed of the river a little lower down may be seen, at low water, some massive fragments of masonry. Here stood the Pons Sublicius, the oldest bridge in Rome, built by Ancus Martius (B.C. 639), on which Horatius Cocles and his two companions "kept the bridge" against the Etruscan army of Lars Porsenna, till—
The name "Sublicius" came from the wooden beams of its construction, which enabled the Romans to cut it away. The bridge was rebuilt by Tiberius and again by Antoninus Pius, each time of beams, but upon stone piers, of which the present remains are fragments, the rest having been destroyed by an inundation in the time of Adrian I.
On the Trastevere bank, between these two bridges, half hidden in shrubs and ivy (but worth examination in a boat), are two gigantic Heads of Lions, to which in ancient times chains were fastened, and drawn across the river to prevent hostile vessels from passing.
Near this we enter the Via S. Giovanni Decollato, decorated with numerous heads of John the Baptist in the dish, let into the walls over the doors of the houses. The "Confraternità della Misericordia di S. Giovanni Decollato," founded in 1488, devote themselves to criminals condemned to death. They visit them in prison, accompany them to execution, receive their bodies, and offer masses for their souls in their little chapel. Vasari gives the highest praise to two pictures of Francesco Salviati in the Church of S. Giov. Decollato, "before which all Rome stood still in admiration,"—representing the appearance of the angel to Zacharias, and the meeting of the Virgin and Elizabeth.
On the left is the Hospital of Sta. Galla, commemorating the pious foundation of a Roman matron in the time of John I. (523—526), who attained such celebrity, that she is still commemorated in the Roman mass by the prayer—
"Almighty and merciful God, who didst adorn the blessed Galla with the virtue of a wonderful love towards thy poor; grant us, through her merits and prayers, to practise works of love, and to obtain Thy mercy, through the Lord, &c. Amen."
On, or very near this site, stood the Porta Carmentalis, which, with the temple beside it, commemorated Carmenta, the supposed mother of Evander, a Sabine prophetess, who is made by Ovid to predict the future grandeur of Rome.[88] Carmenta was especially invoked by women in childbirth. The Porta Carmentalis was reached from the Forum by the Vicus Jugarius. It was by this route that the Fabii went forth to meet their doom in the valley of the Crimera. The Porta had two gates—one for those who entered, the other for those who left it, so that in each case the passenger passed through the "Janus," as it was called, upon his right. After the massacre of the Fabii, the road by which they left the city was avoided, and the Janus Carmentalis on the right was closed, and called the Porta Scelerata.
Just beyond the Porta Carmentalis was the district called Tarentum, where there was a subterranean "Ara Ditis Patris et Proserpinæ."
We now reach (left) the Church of S. Nicolo in Carcere. It has a mean front, with an inscription in honour of one of the Aldobrandini family, and is only interesting as occupying the site of the three Temples of Juno Matuta, Piety(?), and Hope, which are believed to mark the site of the Forum Olitorium. The vaults beneath the church contain the massive substructions of these temples, and fragments of their columns.
The central temple is believed to be that of Piety, built by M. Acilius Glabrio, the duumvir, in B.C. 165 (though Pliny says that this temple was on the site afterwards occupied by the theatre of Marcellus), in fulfilment of a vow made by his father, a consul of the same name, on the day of his defeating the forces of Antiochus the Great, king of Syria, at Thermopylæ. Others endeavour to identify it with the temple built on the site of the Decemviral prisons, to keep up the recollection of the famous story, called the "Caritas Romana,"—of a woman condemned to die of hunger in prison being nourished by the milk of her own daughter. Pliny and Valerius Maximus tell the story as of a mother; Festus only speaks of a father;[89]—yet art and poetry have always followed the latter legend. A cell is shown, by torchlight, as the scene of this touching incident.
A memorial of this story of a prison is preserved in the name of the church—S. Nicolo in Carcere. It was probably owing to this legend that, in front of the Temple of Piety, was placed the Columna Lactaria, where infants were exposed, in the hope that some one would take pity upon and nurse them out of charity.
A wide opening out of the street near this, with a pretty fountain, is called the Piazza Montanara, and is one of the places where the country people collect and wait for hire.
"Le dimanche est le jour où les paysans arrivent à Rome. Ceux qui cherchent l'emploi de leurs bras viennent se louer aux marchands de campagne, c'est-à-dire aux fermiers. Ceux qui sont loués et qui travaillent hors des murs viennent faire leurs affaires et renouveler leurs provisions. Ils entrent en ville au petit jour après avoir marché une bonne partie de la nuit. Chaque famille amène un âne, qui porte le bagage. Hommes, femmes, et enfants, poussant leur âne devant eux, s'établissent dans un coin de la place Farnèse, ou de la place Montanara. Les boutiques voisines restent ouvertes jusqu'à midi, par un privilège spécial. On va, on vient, on achète, on s'accroupit dans les coins pour compter les pièces de cuivre. Cependant les ânes se reposent sur leurs quatre pieds au bord des fontaines. Les femmes, vêtues d'un corset en cuirasse, d'un tablier rouge, et d'une veste rayée, encadrent leur figure hâlée dans une draperie de linge très-blanc. Elles sont toutes à peindre sans exception: quand ce n'est pas pour la beauté de leurs traits, c'est pour l'élégance naïve de leurs attitudes. Les hommes ont le long manteau bleu de ciel et le chapeau pointu; là-dessous leurs habits de travail font merveille, quoique roussis par le temps et couleur de perdrix. Le costume n'est pas uniforme; on voit plus d'un manteau amadou rapiécé de bleu vif ou de rouge garance. Le chapeau de paille abonde en été. La chaussure est très-capricieuse; soulier, botte et sandale foulent successivement le pavé. Les déchaussés trouvent ici près de grandes et profondes boutiques où l'on vend des marchandises d'occasion. Il y a des souliers de tout cuir et de tout âge dans ces trésors de la chaussure; on y trouverait des cothurnes de l'an 500 de la république, en cherchant bien. Je viens de voir un pauvre diable qui essayait une paire de bottes à revers. Elles vont à ses jambes comme une plume à l'oreille d'un porc, et c'est plaisir de voir la grimace qu'il fait chaque fois qu'il pose le pied à terre. Mais le marchand le fortifie par de bonnes paroles: 'Ne crains rien,' lui dit-il, 'tu souffriras pendant cinq ou six jours, et puis tu n'y penseras plus.' Un autre marchand débite des clous à la livre: le chaland les enfonce lui-même dans ses semelles; il y a des bancs ad hoc. Le long des murs, cinq ou six chaises de paille servent de boutique à autant de barbiers en plein vent. Il en coute un sou pour abattre une barbe de huit jours. Le patient, barbouillé de savon, regarde le ciel d'un œil résigné; le barbier lui tire le nez, lui met les doigts dans la bouche, s'interrompt pour aiguiser le rasoir sur un cuir attaché au dossier de la chaise, ou pour écorner une galette noire qui pend au mur. Cependant l'opération est faite en un tour de main; le rasé se lève et sa place est prise. Il pourrait aller se laver à la fontaine, mais il trouve plus simple de s'essuyer du revers de sa manche.
"Les écrivains publics alternent avec les barbiers. On leur apporte les lettres qu'on a reçues; ils les lisent et font la réponse: total, trois sous. Dès qu'un paysan s'approche de la table pour dicter quelque-chose, cinq ou six curieux se réunissent officieusement autour de lui pour mieux entendre. Il y a une certaine bonhomie dans cette indiscrétion. Chacun place son mot, chacun donne un conseil: 'Tu devrais dire ceci.'—'Non; dis plutôt cela.'—'Laissez-le parler,' crie un troisième, 'il sait mieux que vous ce qu'il veut faire écrire.'
"Quelques voitures chargées de galettes d'orge et de maïs circulent au milieu de la foule. Un marchand de limonade, armé d'une pince de bois, écrase les citrons dans les verres. L'homme sobre boit à la fontaine en faisant un aqueduc des bords de son chapeau. Le gourmet achète des viandes d'occasion devant un petit étalage, où les rebuts de cuisine se vendent à la poignée. Pour un sou, le débitant remplit de bœuf haché et d'os de côtelettes un morceau de vieux journal; une pincée de sel ajoutée sur le tout pare agréablement la denrée. L'acheteur marchande, non sur le prix, qui est invariable, mais sur la quantité; il prend au tas quelques bribes de viande, et on le laisse faire; car rien ne se conclut à Rome sans marchander.
"Les ermites et les moines passent de groupe en groupe en quêtant pour les âmes du purgatoire. M'est avis que ces pauvres ouvriers font leur purgatoire en ce monde; et qu'il vaudrait mieux leur donner de l'argent que de leur en demander; ils donnent pourtant, et sans se faire tirer l'oreille.
"Quelquefois un beau parleur s'amuse à raconter une histoire; on fait cercle autour de lui, et à mesure que l'auditoire augmente il élève la voix. J'ai vu de ces conteurs qui avaient la physionomie bien fine et bien heureuse; mais je ne sais rien de charmant comme l'attention de leur public. Les peintres du quinzième siècle ont dû prendre à la place Montanara les disciples qu'ils groupaient autour du Christ."—About, Rome Contemporaine.
An opening on the left discloses the vast substructions of the Theatre of Marcellus. This huge edifice seems to have been projected by Julius Caesar, but he probably made little progress in it. It was actually erected by Augustus, and dedicated (c. 13 B.C.) in memory of the young nephew whom he married to his daughter Julia, and intended as his successor, but who was cut off by an early death. The theatre was capable of containing 20,000 spectators, and consisted of three tiers of arches, but the upper range has disappeared, and the lower is very imperfect. Still it is a grand remnant, and rises magnificently above the paltry houses which surround it. The perfect proportions of its Doric and Ionic columns served as models to Palladio.
"Le mur extérieur du portique demi-circulaire qui enveloppait les gradins offre encore à notre admiration deux étages d'arceaux et de colonnes doriques et ioniques d'une beauté presque grecque. L'étage supérieur, qui devait être corinthien, a disparu. Les fornices, ou voûtes du rez-de chaussée, sont habitées encore aujourd'hui comme elles l'étaient dans l'antiquité, mais plus honnêtement, par de pauvres gens qui vendent des ferrailles. Au-dessous des belles colonnes de l'enceinte extérieure, on a construit des maisons modernes dans lesquelles sont pratiquées des fenêtres, et à ces fenêtres du théâtre de Marcellus, on voit des pots à fleurs, ni plus ni moins qu à une mansarde de la rue Saint Denis; des chemises sèchent sur l'entablement; des cheminées surmontent la ruine romaine, et un grand tube se dessine à l'extrémité.
"Dans les jeux célébrés à l'occasion de la dédicace du théâtre de Marcellus, on vit pour la première fois un tigre apprivoisé, tigrim mansuefactum. Dans ce tigre le peuple romain pouvait contempler son image."—Ampère, Emp. i. 256.
In the middle ages this theatre was the fortress of the great family of Pierleoni, the rivals of the Frangipani, who occupied the Coliseum; their name is commemorated by the neighbouring street, Via Porta Leone. The constant warfare in which they were engaged with their neighbours did much to destroy the building, whose interior became reduced to a mass of ruins, forming a hill, upon which Baldassare Peruzzi (1526) built the Palazzo Savelli, of which the entrance, flanked by the two armorial bears of the family, may be seen in the street (Via Savelli) which leads to the Ponte Quattro Capi.
"Au dix-septième siècle, les Savelli exerçaient encore une jurisdiction féodale. Leur tribunal, aussi régulièrement constitué que pas un, s'appellait Corte Savella.[90] Ils avaient le droit d'arracher tous les ans un criminel à la peine de mort: droit de grâce, droit régalien reconnu par la monarchie absolue des papes. Les femmes de cette illustre famille ne sortaient point de leurs palais sinon dans un carosse bien fermé. Les Orsini et les Colonna se vantaient que pendant les siècles, aucun traité de paix n'avait été conclu entre les princes chrétiens, dans lequel ils n'eussent été nominativement compris."—About.
The palace has now passed to the family of Orsini-Gravina, who descended from a senator of A.D. 1200. The princes of Orsini and Colonna, in their quality as attendants on the throne (principi assistenti al soglio), take precedence of all other Roman nobles.
"Nicolovius will remember the Theatre of Marcellus, in which the Savelli family built a palace. My house is half of it. It has stood empty for a considerable time, because the drive into the courtyard (the interior of the ancient theatre) rises like the slope of a mountain upon the heaps of rubbish; although the road has been cut in a zig-zag, it is still a break-neck affair. There is another entrance from the Piazza Montanara, whence a flight of seventy-three steps leads up to the same story I have mentioned; the entrance-hall of which is on a level with the top of the carriage-way through the courtyard. The apartments in which we shall live are those over the colonnade of Ionic pillars forming the third story of the ancient theatre, and some, on a level with them, which have been built out like wings on the rubbish of the ruins. These enclose a little quadrangular garden, which is indeed very small, only about eighty or ninety feet long, and scarcely so broad, but so delightful! It contains three fountains—an abundance of flowers: there are orange-trees on the wall between the windows, and jessamine under them. We mean to plant a vine besides. From this story, you ascend forty steps, or more, higher, where I mean to have my own study, and there are most cheerful little rooms, from which you have a prospect over the whole country beyond the Tiber, Monte Mario, and St. Peter's, and can see over St. Pietro in Montorio, indeed almost as far as the Aventine. It would, I think, be possible besides to erect a loggia upon the roof (for which I shall save money from other things), that we may have a view over the Capitol, Forum, Palatine, Coliseum, and all the inhabited parts of the city."—Niebuhr's Letters.
Following the wall of the theatre, down a filthy street, we arrive at the picturesque group of ruins of the "Porticus Octaviæ," erected by Augustus, in honour of his sister (the unhappy wife of Antony), close to the theatre to which he had given the name of her son. The exact form of the building is known from the Pianta Capitolina,—that it was a parallelogram, surrounded by a double arcade of 270 columns, and enclosing the temples of Jupiter and Juno, built by the Greek architects, Batracus and Saurus.[91]
With regard to these temples, Pliny narrates a fact which reminds one of the story of the Madonna of Sta. Maria Nuova.[92] The porters having carelessly carried the statues of the gods to the wrong temples, it was imagined that they had done so from divine inspiration, and the people would not venture to remove them, so that the statues always remained where they had been placed, though their surroundings were utterly unsuitable.
The Portico of Octavia built by Augustus, occupied the site of an earlier portico—the Porticus Metelli—built by A. Cæcilius Metellus, after his triumph over Andriscus in Macedonia, in B.C. 146. Temples of Jupiter Stator and Juno existed also in this portico, one of them being the earliest temple built of marble in Rome. Before these temples Metellus placed the famous group of twenty-five bronze statues, which he had brought from Greece, executed by Lysippus for Alexander the Great, and representing that conqueror himself and twenty-four horsemen of his troop who had fallen at the Granicus.[93]
The existing fragment of the portico is the original entrance to the whole. The building had suffered from fire in the reign of Titus, and was restored by Septimius Severus, and of this time is the large brick arch on one side of the ruin.
"It was in this hall of Octavia that Titus and Vespasian celebrated their triumph over Israel with festive pomp and splendour. Among the Jewish spectators stood the historian Flavius Josephus, who was one of the followers and flatterers of Titus ... and to this base Jewish courtier we owe a description of the triumph."—Gregorovius, Wanderjahre in Italien.
Within the portico is the Church of S. Angelo in Pescheria. Here it was that Cola Rienzi summoned, at midnight—May 20, 1347—all good citizens to hold a meeting for the re-establishment of "the good estate;" here he kept the vigil of the Holy Ghost; and hence he went forth, bareheaded, in complete armour, accompanied by the papal legate, and attended by a vast multitude, to the Capitol, where he called upon the populace to ratify the Good Estate.
It is said that one of the causes which most incited the indignation of Rienzi against the assumption and pride of the Roman families, was the fact of their painting their arms on the ancient Roman buildings, and thus in a manner appropriating them to their own glory. Remains of coats of arms thus painted may be seen on the front wall of the Portico of Octavia. It was also on this very wall that Rienzi painted his famous allegorical picture. In this painting kings and men of the people were seen burning in a furnace, with a woman half consumed, who personified Rome,—and on the right was a church, whence issued a white-robed angel, bearing in one hand a naked sword, while with the other he plucked the woman from the flames. On the church tower were SS. Peter and Paul, crying to the angel, "Aquilo, aquilo, succurri a l'albergatrice nostra,"—and beyond this were represented falcons (typical of the Roman barons) falling from heaven into the flames, and a white dove bearing a wreath of olive, which it gave to a little bird (Rienzi), which was chased by the falcons. Beneath was inscribed: "I see the time of great justice, do thou await that time."
Through the brick arch of the Portico we enter upon the ancient Pescheria, with the marble fish-slabs of imperial times still remaining in use. It is a striking scene—the dark, many-storied houses almost meeting overhead and framing a narrow strip of deep blue sky,—below, the bright groups of figures and rich colouring of hanging cloths and drapery.
"C'est une des ruines les plus remarquables de Rome, et une de celles qui offrent ces contrastes piquants entre le passé et le présent, amusement perpétuel de l'imagination dans la ville des contrastes. Le portique d'Octavie est, aujourd'hui, le marché aux poissons. Les colonnes et le fronton s'élèvent au milieu de l'endroit le plus sale de Rome; leur effet n'en est pas moins pittoresque, il l'est peut-être davantage. Le lieu est fait pour une aquarelle, et quand un beau soleil éclaire les débris antiques, les vieux murs sombres de la rue étroite où la poisson se vend sur des tables de marbre blanc, et à travers laquelle des nattes sont tendues, on a, à côté du monument romain, le spectacle d'un marché du moyen âge, et un peu le souvenir d'un bazar d'Orient."—Ampère, Emp. i. 179.
"Who that has ever been to Rome does not remember Roman streets of an evening, when the day's work is done? They are all alive in a serene and homelike fashion. The old town tells its story. Low arches cluster with life—a life humble and stately, though rags hang from the citizens and the windows. You realize it as you pass them—their temples are in ruins, their rule is over—their colonies have revolted long centuries ago. Their gates and their columns have fallen like the trees of a forest, cut down by an invading civilization."—Miss Thackeray.
Here we are in the centre of the Jews' quarter—the famous Ghetto.
The name "Ghetto" is derived from the Hebrew word chat, broken, destroyed, shaven, cut down, cast off, abandoned (see the Hebrew in Isaiah xiv. 12; xv. 2; Jer. xlviii. 25, 27; Zech. xi. 10—14; &c.). The first Jewish slaves were brought to Rome by Pompey the Great, after he had taken Jerusalem, and forcibly entered the Holy of Holies. But for centuries after this they lived in Rome in wealth and honour, their princes Herod and Agrippa being received with royal distinction, and finding a home in the Palace of the Cæsars,—in which Berenice (or Veronica), the daughter of Agrippa, presided as the acknowledged mistress of Titus, who would willingly have made her empress of Rome. The chief Jewish settlement in imperial times was nearly on the site of their present abode, but they were not compelled to live here, and also had a large colony in the Trastevere; and when St. Peter was at Rome (if the Church tradition be true), he dwelt, with Aquila and Priscilla, on the slopes of the Aventine. Julius, Augustus, and Tiberius Cæsar treated the Jews with kindness, but under Caligula they already met with ill-treatment and contempt,—that emperor being especially irritated against them as the only nation which refused to yield him divine honours, and because they had successfully resisted the placing of his statue in the Holy of Holies at Jerusalem. On the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, thousands of Jewish slaves were brought to Rome, and were employed on the building of the Coliseum. At the same time Vespasian, while allowing the Hebrews in Rome the free exercise of their religion, obliged them to pay the tax of half a skekel, formerly paid into the Temple treasury, to Jupiter Capitolinus,—and this custom is still kept up in the annual tribute paid by the Jews in the Camera Capitolina.
Under Domitian the Jews were banished from the city to the valley of Egeria, where they lived in a state of poverty and outlawry, which is described by Juvenal,[94] and occupied themselves with soothsaying, love-charms, magic-potions, and mysterious cures.[95]
During the reigns of the earlier popes, the Jews at Rome enjoyed a great amount of liberty, and the anti-pope Anacletus II. (ob. 1138) was even the grandson of a baptized Jew, whose family bore a leading part in Rome, as one of the great patrician houses. The clemency with which the Jews were regarded was, however, partly due to their skill as physicians,—and long after their persecutions had begun (as late as Martin V., 1417—31), the physician of the Vatican was a Jew. The first really bitter enemy of the Jews was Eugenius IV. (Gabriele Condolmiere, 1431—39), who forbade Christians to trade, to eat, or to dwell with them, and prohibited them from walking in the streets, from building new synagogues, or from occupying any public post. Paul II. (1468) increased their humiliation by compelling them to run races during the Carnival, as the horses run now, amidst the hoots of the populace. This custom continued for two hundred years. Sprenger's "Roma Nuova" of 1667, mentions that "the asses ran first, then the Jews—naked, with only a band round their loins—then the buffaloes, then the Barbary horses." It was Clement IX. (Rospigliosi), in 1668, who first permitted the Jews to pay a sum equivalent to 1500 francs annually instead of racing.
"On the first Saturday in Carnival, it was the custom for the heads of the Jews in Rome to appear as a deputation before the Conservators in the Capitol. Throwing themselves upon their knees, they offered a nosegay and twenty scudi with the request that this might be employed to ornament the balcony in which the Roman Senate sate in the Piazza del Popolo. In like manner they went to the senator, and, after the ancient custom, implored permission to remain in Rome. The senator placed his foot on their foreheads, ordered them to stand up, and replied in the accustomed formula, that Jews were not adopted in Rome, but allowed from compassion to remain there. This humiliation has now disappeared, but the Jews still go to the Capitol, on the first Saturday of Carnival, to offer their homage and tribute for the pallii of the horses, which they have to provide, in memory that now the horses amuse the people in their stead."—Gregorovius, Wanderjahre.
The Jews were first shut up within the walls of the Ghetto by the fanatical Dominican pope, Paul IV. (Gio. Pietro Caraffa, 1555—59), and commanded never to appear outside it, unless the men were in yellow hats, or the women in yellow veils. "For," says the Bull Cum Nimis,
"It is most absurd and unsuitable that the Jews, whose own crime has plunged them into everlasting slavery, under the plea that Christian magnanimity allows them, should presume to dwell and mix with Christians, not bearing any mark of distinction, and should have Christian servants, yea, even buy houses."
The Ghetto, or Vicus Judæorum, as it was at first called, was shut in by walls which reached from the Ponte Quattro Capi to the Piazza del Pianto, or "Place of Weeping," whose name bears witness to the grief of the people on the 26th July, 1556, when they were first forced into their prison-house.
"Those Jews who were shut up in the Ghetto were placed in possession of the dwellings of others. The houses in that quarter were the property of Romans, and some of them were inhabited by families of consideration, such as the Boccapaduli. When these removed they remained the proprietors and the Jews only tenants. But as they were to live for ever in these streets, it was necessary that the Jews should have a perpetual lease to defend them against a twofold danger,—negligence on the part of the owner to announce to his Jewish tenant when his possession expired, or bankruptcy if the owner raised his rent. Thus originated a law which established that the Romans should remain in possession of the dwellings let to the Jews, but that the latter should hold the houses in fee farm; that is, the expiration of the contract cannot be announced to a Jewish tenant, and so long as he pays the lawful rent, the rent can never be raised; the Jew at the same time may alter or enlarge his house as he chooses. This still existing privilege is called the Jus Gazzaga. By virtue of it a Jew is in hereditary possession of the lease, and can sell it to his relations or others, and to the present day it is a costly fortune to be in possession of a Jus Gazzaga, or a hereditary lease. Highly extolled is the Jewish maiden who brings her bridegroom such a dowry. Through this salutary law the Jew became possessed of a home, which to some extent he may call his own."—Gregorovius.
The Jews were kindly treated by Sixtus V. on the plea that they were "the family from whom Christ came," and he allowed them to practise many kinds of trades, and to have intercourse with Christians, and to build houses, libraries, and synagogues, but his mild laws were all repealed by Clement VIII. (Aldobrandini, 1592—1605), and under Clement XI. and Innocent XIII. all trade was forbidden them, except that in old-clothes, rags, and iron, "stracci feracci." To these Benedict XIV. (Lambertini) added trade in drapery, with which they are still largely occupied. Under Gregory XIII. (Buoncompagni, 1572—85) the Jews were forced to hear a sermon every week in the church, first of S. Benedetto alla Regola, then in S. Angelo in Peschiera, and every Sabbath police-agents were sent into the Ghetto to drive men, women, and children into the church with scourges, and to lash them while there if they appeared to be inattentive.
"Now was come about Holy Cross Day, and now must my lord preach his first sermon to the Jews: as it was of old cared for in the merciful bowels of the Church, that, so to speak, a crumb at least from her conspicuous table here in Rome, should be, though but once yearly, cast to the famishing dogs, undertrampled and bespitten upon beneath the feet of the guests; and a moving sight in truth this, of so many of the besotted, blind, restive, and ready-to-perish Hebrews! now maternally brought—nay (for He saith, 'Compel them to come in'), haled, as it were, by the head and hair, and against their obstinate hearts, to partake of the heavenly grace...."—Diary by the Bishop's Secretary, 1600.
Though what the Jews really said, on thus being driven to church, was rather to this effect:—
This custom of compelling Jews to listen to Christian sermons was renewed by Leo XII., and was only abolished in the early years of Pius IX. The walls of the Ghetto also remained, and its gates were closed at night until the reign of the present pope, who removed the limits of the Ghetto, and revoked all the oppressive laws against the Jews. The humane feeling with which he regarded this hitherto oppressed race is said to have been first evinced,—when, on the occasion of his placing a liberal alms in the hand of a beggar, one of his attendants interposed, saying, "It is a Jew!" and the pope replied, "What does that matter, it is a man?"
"The present population of the Ghetto is estimated at 3800, a number out of all proportion, considering the small size of the Ghetto, which covers less space than the fifth part of any small town of 3000 inhabitants. The Jews are under the chief congregation of the Inquisition, and their especial magistrate for all civil and criminal processes is the Cardinal Vicar. The tribunal which governs them consists of the Cardinal Vicar, the Prelato Vicegerente, the Prelato Luogo-tenente Civile, and the Criminal Lieutenant. In police matters, the President of the Region of S. Angelo and Campitelli exercises the local police magistracy. The Jewish community has itself the right of regulating its internal order by the so-called Fattori del Ghetto, chosen every half-year. The common tribute of the Ghetto to the state, and to various religious bodies, amounts to about 13,000 francs."
Opposite the gate of the Ghetto near the Ponte Quattro Capi a converted Jew erected a church, which is still to be seen, with a painting of the Crucifixion on its outside wall (upon which every Jew must look as he comes out of the Ghetto), and underneath an inscription in large letters of Hebrew and Latin from Isaiah, lxv. 2:—"All day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people." The lower streets of the Ghetto, especially the Fiumara, which is nearest to the banks of the Tiber, are annually overflowed during the spring rains and melting of the mountain snows, which is productive of great misery and distress. Yet in spite of this, and of the teeming population crowded into its narrow alleys, the mortality was less here during the cholera than in any other part of Rome, and malaria is unknown here, a freedom from disease which may perhaps be attributed to the Jewish custom of whitewashing their dwellings at every festival. There is no Jewish hospital, and if the Jews go to an ordinary hospital, they must submit to a crucifix being hung over their beds. It is remarkable that the very centre of the Jewish settlement should be the Portico of Octavia, in which Vespasian and Titus celebrated their triumph after the fall of Jerusalem. Here and there in the narrow alleys the seven-branched candlestick may be seen carved on the house walls, a "yet living symbol of the Jewish religion."
Everything may be obtained in the Ghetto: precious stones, lace, furniture of all kinds, rich embroidery from Algiers and Constantinople, striped stuffs from Spain,—but all is concealed and under cover. "Cosa cercate," the Jew shopkeepers hiss at you as you thread their narrow alleys, and try to entice you into a bargain with them. The same article is often passed on by a mutual arrangement from shop to shop, and meets you wherever you go. On Friday evening all shops are shut, and bread is baked for the Sabbath, all merchandise is removed, and the men go to the synagogue, and wish each other "a good Sabbath," on their return.[96]
In the Piazza della Scuola are five schools under one roof—the Scuola del Tempio, Catilana, Castigliana, Siciliana, and the Scuola Nuova, "which show that the Roman Ghetto is divided into five districts or parishes, each of which represents a particular race, according to the prevailing nationality of the Jews, whose fathers have been either Roman-Jewish from ancient times, or have been brought hither from Spain and Sicily; the Temple-district is said above all others to assert its descent from the Jews of Titus." In the same piazza, is the chief synagogue, richly adorned with sculpture and gilding. On the external frieze are represented in stucco the seven-branched candlestick, David's harp, and Miriam's timbrel. The interior is highly picturesque and quaint, and is hung with curious tapestries on festas. The frieze which surrounds it represents the temple of Solomon with all its sacred vessels. A round window in the north wall, divided into twelve panes of coloured glass, is symbolical of the twelve tribes of Israel, and a type of the Urim and Thummim. "To the west is the round choir, a wooden desk for singers and precentors. Opposite, in the eastern wall, is the Holy of Holies, with projecting staves (as if for the carrying of the ark) resting on Corinthian columns. It is covered by a curtain, on which texts and various devices of roses and tasteful arabesques in the style of Solomon's temple are embroidered in gold. The seven-branched candlestick crowns the whole. In this Holy of Holies lies the sealed Pentateuch, a large parchment roll. This is borne in procession through the hall and exhibited from the desk towards all the points of the compass, whereat the Jews raise their arms and utter a cry."