"The splendid palace of the Lateran reflected the rays of the evening sun, as Francis of Assisi with two or three of his disciples approached it to obtain the papal sanction for the rules of his new Order. A group of churchmen in sumptuous apparel were traversing with slow and measured steps its lofty terrace, then called 'the Mirror,' as if afraid to overtake him who preceded them, in a dress studiously simple, and with a countenance wrapped in earnest meditation. Unruffled by passion, and yet elate with conscious power, that eagle eye, and those capacious brows, announced him the lord of a dominion which might have satisfied the pride of Diogenes, and the ambition of Alexander. Since the Tugurium was built on the Capitoline, no greater monarch had ever called the seven hills his own. But, in his pontificate, no era had occurred more arduous than that in which Innocent III. saw the mendicants of Assisi prostrate at his feet. The interruption was as unwelcome as it was abrupt; as he gazed at the squalid dress and faces of his suitors, and observed their bare and unwashed feet, his lip curled with disdain, and sternly commanding them to withdraw, he seemed again to retire from the outer world into some of the deep recesses of that capacious mind. Francis and his companions betook themselves to prayer; Innocent to his couch. There (says the legend) he dreamed that a palm-tree sprouted up from the ground beneath his feet, and, swiftly shooting up into the heavens, cast her boughs on every side, a shelter from the heat, and a refreshment to the weary. The vision of the night dictated the policy of the morning, and assured Innocent that, under his fostering care, the Franciscan palm would strike deep her roots, and expand her foliage on every side, in the vineyard of the Church."—Stephens' St. Francis of Assisi.
The western façade of the basilica, built by Alessandro Galilei in 1734, has a fine effect at a distance, but the statues of Christ and the apostles which line its parapet are too large for its proportions.
The ancient Palace of the Lateran was the residence of the popes for nearly 1000 years. Almost all the events affecting the private lives of a vast line of ecclesiastical sovereigns happened within its walls. Plundered in each successive invasion, stricken with malaria during the autumn months, and often partially burnt, it was finally destroyed by the great enemy of Roman antiquities, Sixtus V. Among the scenes which occurred within its walls, perhaps the most terrible was that when John X., the completer of the Lateran basilica, was invaded here by Marozia, who was beginning to seize the chief power in Rome, and who carried the pope off prisoner to St. Angelo, after he had seen his brother Peter murdered before his eyes in the hall of the pontifical palace.
The only remnants preserved of this famous building are the private chapel of the popes, and the end wall of their dining-hall, known as the Triclinium, which contains a copy, erected by Benedict XIV., of the ancient mosaic of the time of Leo III. which formerly existed here, and the remains of which are preserved in the Vatican.
"In this mosaic, Hallam (Middle Ages) sees proof that the authority of the Greek Emperor was not entirely abrogated at Rome till long after the period of papal aggrandisement by Pepin and his son, but he is warranted by no probabilities in concluding that Constantine V., whose reign began A.D. 780, is intended by the emperor kneeling with St. Peter or Pope Sylvester."—Hemans' Ancient Christian Art.
Professor Bryce finds two paintings in which the theory of the mediæval empire is unmistakeably set forth; one of them in Rome, the other in Florence, (a fresco in the chapter-house of S. M. Novella).
"The first of these is the famous mosaic of the Lateran triclinium, constructed by Pope Leo III., about A.D. 800, and an exact copy of which, made by the order of Sixtus V., may still be seen over against the facade of St. John Lateran. Originally meant to adorn the state banqueting-hall of the popes, it is now placed in the open air, in the finest situation in Rome, looking from the brow of a hill across the green ridges of the Campagna to the olive groves of Tivoli and the glistering crags and snow-capped summits of the Umbrian and Sabine Apennine. It represents in the centre Christ surrounded by the apostles, whom He is sending forth to preach the gospel; one hand is extended to bless, the other holds a book with the words 'Pax vobis.' Below and to the right Christ is depicted again, and this time sitting: on His right hand kneels Pope Sylvester, on His left the Emperor Constantine; to the one He gives the keys of heaven and hell, to the other a banner surmounted by a cross. In the group on the opposite, that is, on the left side of the arch, we see the Apostle Peter seated, before whom in like manner kneel Pope Leo III. and Charles the Emperor; the latter wearing, like Constantine, his crown. Peter, himself grasping the keys, gives to Leo the pallium of an archbishop, to Charles the banner of the Christian army. The inscription is 'Beatus Petrus dona vitam Leoni P. Pet victoriam Carulo regi dona;' while round the arch is written, 'Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax omnibus bonæ voluntatis.'
"The order and nature of the ideas here symbolized is sufficiently clear. First comes the revelation of the gospel, and the divine commission to gather all men into its fold. Next, the institution, at the memorable era of Constantine's conversion, of the two powers by which the Christian people is to be respectively taught and governed. Thirdly, we are shown the permanent Vicar of God, the apostle who keeps the keys of heaven and hell, re-establishing these same powers on a new and firmer basis. The badge of ecclesiastical supremacy he gives to Leo as the spiritual head of the faithful on earth, the banner of the Church militant to Charles, who is to maintain her cause against heretics and infidels."—J. Bryce, Holy Roman Empire, ch. vii. pp. 117, 118, 3rd ed., 1871.
In the building behind the Triclinium, attached to a convent of Passionist monks, and erected by Fontana for Sixtus V., is preserved the Santa Scala. This famous staircase, supposed to be that of the house of Pilate, ascended and descended by our Saviour, is said to have been brought from Jerusalem by Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, and has been regarded with especial reverence by the Roman Church for 1500 years. In 897 it was injured and partially thrown down by an earthquake, but was re-erected in the old Lateran palace, whence it was removed to its present site on the demolition of that venerable building. Clement XII. caused the steps to be covered by a wooden casing, which has since been repeatedly worn out by the knees of ascending pilgrims. Apertures are left, through which the marble steps can be seen; two of them are said to be stained with the blood of the Saviour!
At the foot of the stairs, within the atrium, are fine sculptures of Giacometti, representing the "Ecce Homo,"—and the "Kiss of Judas," purchased and placed here by Pius IX.
Between these statues the pilgrims kneel to commence the ascent of the Santa Scala. The effect of the staircase (especially on Fridays in Lent, and most of all on Good Friday), with the figures ascending on their knees in the dim light, and the dark vaulted ceiling covered with faded frescoes, is exceedingly picturesque.
"Reason may condemn, but feeling cannot resist the claim to reverential sympathy in the spectacle daily presented by the Santa Scala. Numerous indulgences have been granted by different popes to those who ascend it with prayer at each step. Whilst kneeling upon these stairs public penance used to be performed in the days of the Church's more rigorous discipline; as the saintly matron Fabiola there appeared a penitent before the public gaze, in sackcloth and ashes, A.D. 390.... There is no day on which worshippers may not be seen slowly ascending those stairs; but it is during Holy Week the concourse is at its height; and on Good Friday I have seen this structure completely covered by the multitude, like a swarm of bees settling on flowers!"—Hemans' Ancient Sacred Art.
"Brother Martin Luther went to accomplish the ascent of the Santa Scala—the Holy Staircase—which once, they say, formed part of Pilate's house. He slowly mounted step after step of the hard stone, worn into hollows by the knees of penitents and pilgrims. An indulgence for a thousand years—indulgence from penance—is attached to this act of devotion. Patiently he crept half-way up the staircase, when he suddenly stood erect, lifted his face heavenward, and, in another moment, turned and walked slowly down again.
"He said that, as he was toiling up, a voice as if from heaven, seemed to whisper to him the old, well-known words, which had been his battle-cry in so many a victorious combat,—'The just shall live by faith.'
"He seemed awakened, as if from a nightmare, and restored to himself. He dared not creep up another step; but, rising from his knees, he stood upright, like a man suddenly loosed from bonds and fetters, and with the firm step of a freeman, he descended the staircase, and walked from the place."—Schönberg-Cotta Chronicles.
"Did the feet of the Saviour actually tread these steps? Are these reliques really portions of his cross, crown of thorns, &c., or is all this fictitious? To me it is all one.
"'He is not here, he is risen!' said the angel at the tomb. The worship of the bodily covering which the spirit has cast off belongs to the soul still in the larva condition; and the ascending of the Scala Santa on the knees is too convenient a mode for obtaining the forgiveness of sins, and at the same time a hindrance upon the only true way."—Frederika Bremer.
Ascending one of the lateral staircases—no foot must touch the Santa Scala—we reach the outside of the Sancta Sanctorum, a chapel held so intensely sacred that none but the pope can officiate at its altar, and that it is never open to others, except on the morning before Palm Sunday, when the canons of the Lateran come hither to worship, in solemn procession, with torches and a veiled crucifix, and, even then, none but the clergy are allowed to pass its threshold. The origin of the sanctuary is lost in antiquity, but it was the private chapel of the mediæval popes in the old palace, and is known to have existed already, dedicated to St. Laurence, in the time of Pelagius I. (578—590), who deposited here some relics of St. Andrew and St. Luke. It was restored by Honorius III. in 1216, and almost rebuilt by Nicholas III. in 1277.
It is permitted to gaze through a grating upon the picturesque glories of the interior, which are chiefly of the thirteenth century. The altar is in a recess, supported by two porphyry columns. Above it a beautiful silver tabernacle, presented by Innocent III. (1198-1216), to contain the great relic, which invests the chapel with its peculiar sanctity,—a portrait of our Saviour (placed here by Stephen III. in 752), held by the Roman Church as authentic,—to have been begun by St. Luke and finished by an angel, whence the name by which it is known, "Acheirotopeton," or, the "picture made without hands."
"The different theories as to the acheirotopeton picture, and the manner in which it reached this city, are stated with naïveté by Maroni—i.e., that the apostles and the Madonna, meeting after the ascension, resolved to order a portrait of the Crucified, for satisfying the desire of the faithful, and commissioned St. Luke to execute the task; that after three days' prayer and fasting, such a portrait was drawn in outline by that artist, but, before he had begun to colour, the tints were found to have been filled in by invisible hands; that this picture was brought from Jerusalem to Rome, either by St. Peter, or by Titus (together with the sacred spoils of the temple); or else expedited hither in a miraculous voyage of only twenty-four hours by S. Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople, who desired thus to save such a treasure from the outrages of the Iconoclasts; and that, about A.D. 726, Pope Gregory II., apprised of its arrival at the mouth of the Tiber by revelation, proceeded to carry it thence, with due escort, to Rome; since which advent it has remained in the Sancta Sanctorum."—Hemans' Mediæval Christian Art.
Above the altar is, in gilt letters, the inscription, "non est in tota sanctior urbe locus." Higher up, under gothic arches, and between twisted columns, are pictures of sainted popes and martyrs, but these have been so much retouched as to have lost their interest. The gratings here are those of the relic chamber, which contains the reputed sandals of Our Saviour, fragments of the true cross, &c. On the ceiling is a grand mosaic,—a head of Our Saviour within a nimbus, sustained by six-winged seraphim—ascribed to the eighth century. The sill in front of the screen is covered with money, thrown in as offerings by the pilgrims.
The chapel was once much larger. Its architect was probably Deodatus Cosmati. An inscription near the door tells us, "Magister Cosmatus fecit hoc opus."
Here, in the time when the Lateran palace was inhabited, the feet of twelve sub-deacons were annually washed by the pope on Holy Thursday. On the Feast of the Assumption the sacred picture used to be borne in triumph through the city, halting in the Forum, where the feet of the pope were washed in perfumed waters on the steps of Sta. Maria Nuova, and the "Kyrie Eleison" was chaunted a hundred times. This custom was abolished by Pius V. in 1566.
The Modern Palace of the Lateran was built from designs of Fontana by Sixtus V. In 1693 Innocent XII. turned it into a hospital,—in 1438 Gregory XVI. appropriated it as a museum. The entrance faces the obelisk in the Piazza di San Giovanni. The palace is always shown, but the terrible cold which pervades it makes it a dangerous place except in the late spring months, and a visit to it is often productive of fever.
The ground floor is the principal receptacle for antiquities, found at Rome within the last few years. It contains a number of very beautiful sarcophagi and bas-reliefs.
Entering under the corridor on the right, the most remarkable objects are:—
1st Room.—
Left Wall:
Relief of the Abduction of Helen.
Right Wall:
High relief of two pugilists, 'Dares and Entellus.'
Grand relief of Trajan followed by senators, from the Forum of Trajan.
The sacred oak of Jupiter, with figures.
Bust of Marcus Aurelius.
2nd Room.—
Beautiful architectural fragments, chiefly from the Forum of Trajan.
3rd Room.—
Entrance Wall:
Statue of Æsculapius.
Right Wall:
Statue of Antinous, called the Braschi, found at Palestrina.
Bought from the Braschi family by Gregory XVI for 12,000 scudi.
Wall of Egress:
Sarcophagus of a child, with a relief representing pugilists.
4th Room.—
Entrance Wall:
Greek relief of Medea and the daughters of Peleus.
Above (one of a number of busts), 762. Beautiful head of a Dryad.
Statue of Germanicus.
Right Wall:
Statue of Mars.
Wall of Egress:
Copy of the Faun of Praxiteles.
In the Centre:
A fine vase of Lumachella.
A passage is crossed to the
5th Room.—
In the Centre:
1. Sacrifice of Mithras.
2. A stag of basalt.
3. A cow.
Right Wall:
Sepulchral urn, with a curious relief representing children and cock-fighting.
6th Room.—
An interesting collection of statues, from Cervetri (Cære), including those of Tiberius and Claudius; between them Agrippina, sixth wife of Claudius,—and others less certain.
Between the Windows:
Drusilla, sister of Claudius, and, on the wall, part of her epitaph.
7th Room.—
Right Wall:
Faun dancing,—found near Sta. Lucia in Selce.
Facing the Entrance:
A grand statue of Sophocles (the gem of the collection), found at Terracina, 1838. Given by the Antonelli family.
"Sophocle, dans une pose aisée et fière, un pied en avant, un bras enveloppé dans son manteau qu'il serre contre son corps, contemple avec une majestueuse sérénité la nature humaine et la domine d'un regard sûr et tranquille."—Ampère, Hist. Rom. iii. 573.
8th Room.—
Statue of Neptune, from Porto—the legs and arms restored.
9th Room.—
Architectural fragments from the Via Appia and Forum.
10th Room.—
A series of interesting reliefs, found 1848, at the tomb of the Aterii at Centocellæ, representing the preparations for the funeral solemnities of a great Roman lady.
Entrance Wall:
The building of the sepulchre. A curious machine for raising heavy stones is introduced.
Right Wall:
The body of the dead surrounded by burning torches, the mourners tearing their hair and beating their breasts.
Wall of Egress:
Showing several Roman buildings which the funeral procession would pass,—among them the Coliseum and the Arch of Titus—inscribed, "Arcus in sacra via summa."
Signor Rosa has considered this last relief of great importance, as indicating by the different monuments the route which a well-ordered funeral procession ought to pursue.
A second passage is crossed to the
11th Room.—
Containing several fine sarcophagi.
12th Room.—
Entrance Wall:
Sarcophagus, with the story of Orestes.
Right Wall:
Sarcophagus decorated with Cupids bearing garlands, and supporting a head of Augustus.
Wall of Egress:
Sarcophagus representing the destruction of the children of Niobe.
13th Room.—
Entrance Wall:
Statue of C. Lælius Saturninus.
In the Centre:
Sarcophagus of P. Cæcilius Vallianus, representing a funeral banquet.
Left Wall:
Unfinished statue of a captive barbarian, with sculptor's marks remaining, to guide the workman's chisel.
15th Room.—
This and the next room are devoted to objects recently found in the excavations at Ostia.
Left Wall:
Mosaic in a niche.
16th Room.—
In the Centre:
Reclining statue of Atys.
Right Wall:
Frescoes of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, from a tomb at Ostia.
The Christian Museum, founded by Pius IX., and arranged by Padre Marchi and the Cavaliere Rossi, is of great interest. In the first hall is a statue of Christ by Sosnowsky, and in the wall behind it three mosaics,—two from the catacombs, that in the centre—of Christ with SS. Peter and Paul—from the old St. Peter's. Hence we ascend a staircase lined with Christian sarcophagi. At the foot are two statues of the Good Shepherd.
"Une des compositions de Calamis ne doit pas être oubliée à Rome, car ce sujet païen a été adopté par l'art chrétien des premiers temps. Les représentations du Bon Pasteur rapportant la brebis, expressions touchante de la miséricorde divine, ont leur origine dans le Mercure porte-bélier (Criophore). Quelquefois c'est un berger qui porte un bélier, une brebis ou un agneau; l'on se rapproche ainsi a l'idée du bon pasteur. En général, le bon pasteur, dans les monuments chrétiens, porte une brebis, la brebis égarée de l'Évangile; mais quelquefois aussi il porte un bélier; et alors le souvenir de l'original païen dans la composition chrétienne est manifeste."—Ampère, Hist. Rom. iii. 256.
The sarcophagus on the left, which tells the story of Jonah, is especially fine. The corridor above is also lined with sarcophagi. The best are on the left; of these the most remarkable are, the 1st, the marriage at Cana; 4th, the Good Shepherd repeated several times among vines, with cherubs gathering the grapes; 7th, a sarcophagus with a canopy supported by two pavonazzetto columns, and on the wall behind, frescoes of the Good Shepherd, &c. At the raised end of the corridor is the seated statue of Hippolytus, Bishop of Porto in the third century (the upper part a restoration), found in the Catacomb of Sta. Cyriaca, and moved hither from the Vatican Library; upon the chair is engraved the celebrated Paschal Calendar, which is supposed to settle the unorthodoxy of those early Christians who kept Easter at the same time as the Jews.
Hence, three rooms lined with drawings from the paintings in the different catacombs, lead to,—
The Picture Gallery.
1st Room.—
class="hang"Entrance Wall:
Cartoon of stoning of Stephen: Giulio Romano.
Below this is the celebrated mosaic called Asarotos, representing an unswept floor after a banquet. It is inscribed with the name of its artist, Heraclitus, but is a copy from one of the two famous mosaics of Sosus of Pergamus (the other is "Pliny's Doves"). It was found on the Aventine in 1833 in the gardens of Servilius, and "probably adorned a dining-room where Cæsar may have supped with Servilia, the sister of Cato, and mother of Brutus." A similar pavement is alluded to by Statius:—
Left Wall:
Christ and St Thomas—a cartoon: Camuccini.
Window Wall:
The first sketch for the famous fresco of the Descent from the
Cross at the Trinità de' Monti: Daniele da Volterra.
On the right is the entrance of the
2nd Room.—
class="hang"Entrance Wall:
Annunciation: Cav. d' Arpino.
Right Wall:
George IV. of England (most strangely out of place): Lawrence.
Wall of Egress:
Assumption of the Virgin: After Guercino.
From the corner of this room, on the right, a staircase leads to a gallery, whence one may look down upon the huge and hideous mosaic pavement—with portraits of twenty-eight athletes—found in the Baths of Caracalla in 1822.
"Les gladiateurs de la mosaïque de Saint Jean de Latran ont reçu la forte alimentation qu'on donnait à leurs pareils; ils ont bien cet air de résolution brutale que devaient avoir ceux qui prononçaient ce féroce serment que nous a conservé Pétrone: 'Nous jurons d'obéir à nôtre maître Eumolpe, qu'il nous ordonne de nous laisser brûler, enchaîner, frapper, tuer par le fer ou autrement; et comme vrais gladiateurs, nous dévouons à notre maître nos corps et nos vies.'"—Ampère, Hist. Rom. iv. 33.
On the left of 1st room is the
3rd Room.—
Entrance Wall:
Madonna with SS. Peter, Dominic, and Anthony on the right, and SS. John Baptist, Laurence, and Francis on the left: Marco Palmezzano di Forli, 1537.
In the Left Corner:
Madonna and Saints: Carlo Crivelli, 1482.
Left Wall:
St. Thomas receiving the girdle of the Virgin (the Sacra Cintola of Prato)—with a predella: Benozzo Gozzoli.
Wall of Egress:
Madonna with St. John Baptist and St. Jerome: Palmezzano.
4th Room.—
Entrance Wall:
Sixtus V. as Cardinal: Sassoferrato.
Madonna: Carlo Crivelli, 1482—very highly finished.
Left Wall:
Sixtus V. as Pope: Domenichino(?).
Two Gobelins from pictures of Fra Bartolommeo at the Quirinal.
Wall of Egress:
Christ with the Tribute Money: Caravaggio.
5th Room.—
Entrance Wall:
Entombment: Venetian School.
Left Wall:
Greek Baptism: Pietro Nocchi, 1840.
Wall of Egress:
Holy Family: Andrea del Sarto.
6th Room.—
Entrance Wall:
Baptism of Christ: Cesare da Sesto.
Left Wall:
SS. Agnes and Emerentiana: Luca Signorelli; Annunciation: F. Francia; SS. Laurence and Benedict (very peculiar, as scarcely showing their faces at all, but magnificent in colour): Luca Signorelli.
Wall of Egress:
Coronation of the Virgin, with wings, of saints, angels, and doves: F. Filippo Lippi.
Between the Windows: S. Jerome, in tempera: Giovanni Sanzio, father of Raphael.
7th Room.—
Entrance Wall:
Pagan sacrifice: Caravaggio (?).
Left Wall:
Altar-piece by Antonio da Murano, 1464.
Wall of Egress:
Christ at Emmaus: Caravaggio.
8th Room.—
An oil copy of the fresco of the Flagellation of St. Andrew by Domenichino, at S. Gregorio.
9th Room.—
A set of beautiful terracotta busts and reliefs by Pettrich, illustrative of North American Indian life. This room is called the Hall of Council, and is surrounded by fresco portraits of popes, and pictures allegorical of their arms, &c.
The walls of the open galleries on this floor of the palace have been covered with early Christian inscriptions from the catacombs, which have been thus arranged in arches:—
1—3. Epitaphs of martyrs and others of temp. Damasus I. (366 to 384).
4—7. Dated inscriptions from 238 to 557.
8—9. Inscriptions relating to doctrine.
10.—Inscriptions relating to popes, presbyters, and deacons.
11—12. Inscriptions relating to simple ecclesiastics.
13.—Inscriptions of affection to relations and friends.
14—16. Symbolical.
17.—Simple epitaphs from different catacombs.
On the third floor of the palace are casts from the bas-reliefs on the column of Trajan.
Before leaving the Lateran altogether, we must notice amongst its early institutions, the famous school of music which existed here throughout the middle ages.
"Gregory the Great, whose object it seems to have been to render religion a thing of the senses, was the founder of the music of the Church. He instituted the school for it in the Lateran, whence the Carlovingian monarchs obtained teachers of singing and organ-playing. The Frankish monks were sent thither for instruction."—Dyer's Hist. of the City of Rome.
Opposite the palace is the entrance of the Villa Massimo Arsoli, to which admission may be obtained by a permesso given at the Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne. There is little to see here, however, except a casino beautifully decorated with scenes taken from the great Italian poets by the modern German artists, Schnorr, Kock, Ph. Veit, Overbeck, and Führich.
"Les sujets sont tirés de Dante, de l'Arioste, et du Tasse. Dante a été confide à Cornélius, l'Arioste à Schnorr, le Tasse à Overbeck, les trois plus célèbres noms de cette école qui croit pouvoir remonter par une imitation savante à la naïveté du XVe. siècle."—Ampère, Voyage Dantesque.
Leading from the Piazza di San Giovanni to Sta. Maria Maggiore is the Via Immerulana, where, in the hollow, is the strange-looking Church of SS. Pietro e Marcellino, in which is preserved a miraculous painting of the Crucifixion; the figure upon the cross is supposed to move the eyes, when regarded by the faithful. This picture, a small replica of the magnificent Guido at S. Lorenzo in Lucina, is shown, behind a grille, by a nun of Sta. Theresa, veiled from head to foot in blue, like an immovable pillar of blue drapery.
"SS. Pietro e Marcellino stands in the valley behind the Esquiline, in the long, lonely road between Sta. Maria Maggiore and the Lateran. SS. Peter Exorcista and Marcellinus are always represented together in priestly habits, bearing their palms. Their legend relates, that in the persecution under Diocletian they were cast into prison. Artemius, keeper of the dungeon, had a daughter named Paulina, and she fell sick; and St. Peter offered to restore her to health, if her father would believe in the true God. And the jailer mocked him, saying, 'If I put thee into the deepest dungeon, and load thee with heavier chains, will thy God deliver thee? If he doth, I will believe in him.' And Peter answered, 'Be it so, not out of regard to thee; for it matters little to our God whether such an one as thou believe in him or not, but that the name of Christ may be glorified, and thyself confounded.'
"And in the middle of the night Peter and Marcellinus, in white shining garments, entered the chamber of Artemius as he lay asleep, who, being struck with awe, fell down and worshipped the name of Christ; and he, his wife, daughter, and three hundred others, were baptized. After this the two holy men were condemned to die for the faith, and the executioner was ordered to lead them to a forest three miles from Rome, that the Christians might not discover their place of sepulture. And when he had brought them to a solitary thicket overgrown with brambles and thorns, he declared to them that they were to die, upon which they cheerfully fell to work and cleared away a space fit for the purpose, and dug the grave in which they were to be laid. Then they were beheaded (June 2), and died encouraging each other.
"The fame of SS. Pietro e Marcellino is not confined to Rome. In the reign of Charlemagne they were venerated as martyrs throughout Italy and Gaul; and Eginhard, the secretary of Charlemagne who married his daughter Emma, is said to have held them in particular honour. Every one, I believe, knows the beautiful story of Eginhard and Emma,—and the connection of these saints with them, as their chosen protectors, lends an interest to their solitary deserted church. In the Roma Sotterranea of Bosio, p. 126, there is an ancient fragment found in the catacombs, which represents St. Peter Exorcista, St. Marcellinus, and Paulina, standing together."—Mrs. Jameson.
Behind the Santa Scala, a narrow lane leads to the Villa Wolkonski (a "permesso" may be obtained through your banker), a most beautiful garden, running along the edge of the hill, intersected by the broken arches of the Aqua Claudia, and possessing exquisite views over the Campagna, with its lines of aqueducts to the Alban and Sabine mountains. No one should omit to visit this villa.
"Where the aqueducts, just about to enter the city, most nearly converge, and looking across the Campagna—which their arches only seem able to span—towards Albano and the hills, stands the Villa. Embosomed in olive and in ilex trees, it is rich in hoar cypresses, in urns, and in those pathetic fragments of old workmanship which an undergrowth of violets and acanthus half hides, and half reveals."—Vera.
About a mile beyond the Porta S. Giovanni, a road branches off on the left to the Porta Furba, an arch of the Aqua Felice, founded on the line of the Claudian and Marcian aqueducts. Artists may find a picturesque subject here in a pretty fountain, with a portion of the decaying aqueduct. Beyond the arch is the mound called Monte del Grano, which has been imagined to be the burial-place of Alexander Severus. Beyond this, the road (to Frescati) passes on the left the vast ruins, called Sette Bassi.
The direct road—which leads to Albano—reaches, about two miles from the gate, a queer building, called the Casa del Diavolo, on the outside of which some rude frescoes testify to the popular belief as to its owner. Just beyond this a field track on the left leads to the Via Latina, of which a certain portion, paved with huge polygonal blocks of lava, is now laid bare. Here are some exceedingly interesting and well-preserved tombs, richly ornamented with painting and stucco. The view, looking back upon Rome, or forward to the long line of broken arches of the Claudian aqueduct, seen between these ruined sepulchres, is most striking and beautiful.
Close by have been discovered remains of a villa of the Servilii, which afterwards belonged to the Asinarii. Here also, in 1858 (on the left of the Via Latina), Signor Fortunati discovered the long buried and forgotten Basilica of S. Stefano. It is recorded by Anastasius that this basilica was founded in the time of Leo I. (440—461) by Demetria, a lady who escaped from the siege by the Goths, with her mother, to Carthage, where she became a nun. It was restored by Leo III. at the end of the eighth century. The remains are interesting, though they do little more than show perfectly the substruction and plan of the ancient building. An inscription relating to the foundation of the church by Demetria has been found among the ruins.
Not far from this is the Catacomb of the Santi-Quattro.
Three and a half miles from Rome is the Osteria of Tavolato, near which is one of the most striking and picturesque portions of the Claudian Aqueduct. It is on the rising ground between this aqueduct and the road, that the Temple of Fortuna Muliebris is believed to have stood. This was the temple which Valeria, the sister of Publicola, and Volumnia, the mother of Coriolanus, claimed to erect at their own expense, when the senate asked them to choose their recompense for having preserved Rome by their entreaties.
"As Valeria, sister of Publicola, was sitting in the temple, as a suppliant before the image of Jupiter, Jupiter himself seemed to inspire her with a sudden thought, and she immediately rose, and called upon all the other noble ladies who were with her, to arise also, and she led them to the house of Volumnia, the mother of Caius (Coriolanus). There she found Virgilia, the wife of Caius, with his mother, and also his little children. Valeria then addressed Volumnia and Virgilia, and said, 'Our coming here to you is our own doing; neither the senate nor any mortal man have sent us; but the god in whose temple we were sitting as suppliants put it into our hearts, that we should come and ask you to join with us, women with women, without any aid of men, to win for our country a great deliverance, and for ourselves a name, glorious above all women, even above those Sabine wives in the old time, who stopped the battle between their husbands and their fathers. Come, then, with us to the camp of Caius, and let us pray to him to show us mercy.' Volumnia said, 'We will go with you:' and Virgilia took her young children with her, and they all went to the camp of the enemy.
"It was a sad and solemn sight to see this train of noble ladies, and the very Volscian soldiers stood in silence as they passed by, and pitied them and honoured them. They found Caius sitting on the general's seat, in the midst of the camp, and the Volscian chiefs were standing round him. When he first saw them he wondered what it could be; but presently he knew his mother, who was walking at the head of the train, and then he could not contain himself, but leapt down from his seat, and ran to meet her, and was going to kiss her. But she stopped him, and said, 'Ere thou kiss me, let me know whether I am speaking to an enemy or to my son; whether I stand in thy camp as thy prisoner or thy mother?' Caius could not answer her; and then she went on and said, 'Must it be, then, that had I never borne a son, Rome never would have seen the camp of an enemy; that had I remained childless, I should have died a free woman in a free city? But I am too old to bear much longer either thy shame or my misery. Rather look to thy wife and children, whom, if thou persistest, thou art dooming to an untimely death, or a long life of bondage.' Then Virgilia and his children came up to him and kissed him, and all the noble ladies wept, and bemoaned their own fate and the fate of their country. At last Caius cried out, 'O mother, what hast thou done to me?' and he wrung her hand vehemently, and said, 'Mother, thine is the victory; a happy victory for thee and for Rome, but shame and ruin to thy son.' Then he fell on her neck and embraced her, and he embraced his wife and his children, and sent them back to Rome; and led away the army of the Volscians, and never afterwards attacked Rome any more. The Romans, as was right, honoured Volumnia and Valeria for their deed, and a temple was built and dedicated to 'Woman's Fortune' just on the spot where Caius had yielded to his mother's words; and the first priestess of the temple was Valeria, into whose heart Jupiter had first put the thought to go to Volumnia, and to call upon her to go out to the enemy's camp and entreat her son."—Arnold's Hist. of Rome, vol. i.
"Il y a peu de scènes dans l'histoire plus émouvantes que celle-là, et elle ne perd rien à la décoration du théâtre; en se plaçant sur un tertre à quatre milles de Rome, près de la voie Latine, dans un lieu où il n'y a aujourd'hui que des tombeaux et des ruines, on peut se figurer le camp des Volsques, dont les armes et les tentes étincellent au soleil. Les montagnes s'élèvent à l'horizon. A travers la plaine ardente et poudreuse défile une foule voilée dont les gémissements retentissent dans le silence de la campagne romaine. Bientôt Coriolan est entouré de cette multitude suppliante dont les plaintes, les cris, devaient avoir la vivacité des démonstrations passionées des Romaines de nos jours. Coriolan eût ré sisté à tout ce bruit, il eût peut-être résisté aux larmes de sa femme et aux caresses de ses enfants; il ne résista pas à la sévérité de sa mère.
"Le soir, par un glorieux coucher du soleil de Rome qui éclaire leur joie, la procession triomphante s'éloigne en adressant un chant de reconnaissance aux dieux, et lui se retire dans sa tente, étonné d'avoir pu céder."—Ampère, Hist. Rom. ii. 402.
The return drive to Rome may be varied by turning to the right about a mile beyond this, into a lane which leads past the so-called temple of Bacchus to the Via Appia Vecchia.
We may now follow the lines of white mulberry-trees across the open space in front of St. John Lateran, which is a continuation of the ancient papal promenade of "the Mirror," to Sta. Croce. The sister basilicas look at each other, and at Sta. Maria Maggiore, down avenues of trees. On the left are the walls of Rome, upon which run the arches of the Aqua Marcia.
"Few Roman churches are set within so impressive a picture as Santa Croce, approached on every side through these solitudes of vineyards and gardens, quiet roads, and long avenues of trees, that occupy such immense extent within the walls of Rome. The scene from the Lateran, looking towards this basilica across the level common, between lines of trees, with the distance of Campagna and mountains, the castellated walls, the arcades of the Claudian aqueduct, amid gardens and groves, is more than beautiful, full of memory and association. The other approach, by the unfrequented Via di Sta. Croce, presents the finest distances, seen through a foliage beyond the dusky towers of the Honorian walls, and a wide extent of slopes covered with vineyards, amid which stand at intervals some of those forlorn cottage farms, grey and dilapidated, that form characteristic features in Roman scenery. The majestic ruins of Minerva-Medica, the so-called temple of Venus and Cupid, the fragments of the Baths of St. Helena, the Castrense Amphitheatre, the arches of the aqueduct, half concealed in cypress and ivy, are objects which must increase the attractions of a walk to this sanctuary of the cross. But the exterior of the church is disappointing and inappropriate, retaining nothing antique except the square Lombardic tower of the twelfth century, in storeys of narrow-arched windows, its brickwork ornamented with disks of coloured marble, and a canopy, with columns, near the summit, for a statue no longer in its place."—Hemans' Catholic Italy, vol. i.
The site of the Basilica of Sta. Croce in Gerusalemme was once occupied by the garden of Heliogabalus, and afterwards by the palace of the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine, whose residence here was known as the Palatium Sessorianum, whence the name of Sessorian, sometimes given to the basilica.
The church was probably once a hall in the palace of Helena, to which an apse was added by Constantine, in whose reign it was consecrated by Pope Sylvester. It was repaired by Gregory II. early in the eighth century; the monastery was added by Benedict VII. about 975, and the whole was rebuilt by Lucius II. in 1144. The church was completely modernized by Benedict XIV. in the last century, and scarcely anything, except the tower, now remains externally, which is even as old as the twelfth century. The fine columns of granite and bigio-lumachellato, which now adorn the façade, were plundered from the neighbouring temple in 1744.
The interior of the church is devoid of beauty, owing to modernizations. Four out of twelve fine granite columns, which divided its nave and aisles, are boxed up in senseless plaster piers. The high altar is adorned with an urn of green basalt, sculptured with lions' heads, which contains the bodies of SS. Anastasius and Cæsarius. Two of the pillars of the baldacchino are of breccia-corallina. The fine frescoes of the tribune by Pinturicchio have been much retouched. They were executed under Alexander VI., on a commission from Cardinal Carvajal, who is himself represented as kneeling before the cross, which is held by the Empress Helena.
"The very important frescoes of the choir apsis of Sta. Croce (now much over-painted) are of Pinturicchio's better time. They represent the finding of the Cross, with a colossal Christ in a nimbus among angels above,—a figure full of wild grandeur."—Kugler.
"Near the entrance of the church is a valuable monument of the papal history of the tenth century, in a metrical epitaph to Benedict VII., recording his foundation of the adjoining monastery for monks, who were to sing day and night the praises of the Deity; his charities to the poor; and the deeds of the anti-pope Franco, called by Baronius (with play upon his assumed name Boniface) Malefacius, who usurped the Holy See, imprisoned and strangled the lawful pope, Benedict VI., and pillaged the treasury of St. Peter's, but in one month was turned out and excommunicated, when he fled to Constantinople. The chronology of this epitaph is by the ancient system of Indictions, the death of the pope dated XII. Indiction, corresponding to the year 984: and the Latin style of the tenth century is curiously exemplified in lines relating to the anti-pope:
The consecration of the Golden Rose, formerly sent to foreign princes, used to take place in this church. The principal observances here now are connected with the exhibition of the relics, of which the principal is the Title of the True Cross.