Here, also, is the bust of the late beloved Princess Doria (Lady Mary Talbot), which has always been veiled in crape since her death.

Near this, on the left, but separated from the piazza by a courtyard, is the vast Palazzo Colonna, begun, in the fifteenth century, by Martin V., and continued at various later periods. Julius II. at one time made it his residence, and also Cardinal (afterwards San Carlo) Borromeo. Part of it is now the residence of the French ambassadors. The palace is built very near the site of the ancient fortress of the Colonna family—so celebrated in times of mediæval warfare with the Orsini—of which one lofty tower still remains, in a street leading up to the Quirinal.

Hence we enter the Great Hall, a truly grand room, hung with mirrors and painted with flowers by Mario de' Fiori, and with genii by Maratta. The statues here are unimportant. The ceiling is adorned with paintings, by Coli and Gherardi, of the battle of Lepanto, Oct. 8, 1571, which Marc-Antonio Colonna assisted in gaining. The best pictures are the family portraits:—Federigo Colonna, Sustermanns; Don Carlo Colonna, Vandyke; Card. Pompeio Colonna, Lorenzo Lotto; Vittoria Colonna, Muziano; Lucrezia Colonna, Vandyke; Pompeio Colonna, Agostino Caracci; Giacomo Sciarra Colonna, Giorgione. We may also notice an extraordinary picture of the Madonna rescuing a child from a demon, by Niccolo d'Alunno, with a double portrait, by Tintoret, on the right wall, and a Holy Family of Palma Vecchio at the end of the gallery. Near the entrance are some glorious old cabinets, inlaid with ivory and lapis-lazuli. On the steps leading to the upper end of the hall is a bomb left on the spot where it fell during the siege of Rome in 1848.

Adjoining the Palazzo Colonna is the fine Church of the Santi Apostoli, founded in the sixth century, rebuilt by Martin V., in 1420, and modernized, c. 1602, by Fontana. The portico contains a magnificent bas-relief of an eagle and an oak-wreath (frequently copied and introduced in architectural designs).

In 1873 the traditional grave of St. Philip and St. James, the "Apostoli" to whom this church is dedicated, was opened during its restoration. Two bodies were found, enclosed in a sarcophagus of beautiful transparent marble, and have been duly enshrined. In the choir are monuments of the fifteenth century, to two relations of Pope Sixtus IV., Pietro Riario, and Cardinal Raffaelo Riario. To the right is the tomb of the Chevalier Girard, brother-in-law of Pope Julius II., and maître d'hôtel to Charles VIII. and Louis XII. of France. The tomb of Cardinal Bessarion was removed from the church, in 1702, to the cloisters of the adjoining Convent, which is the residence of the General of the Order of "Minori Conventuali" (Black Friars). The altar-piece represents the martyrdom of SS. Philip and James, by Muratori.

This palace forms one corner of the Piazza di Venezia, which contains the ancient castellated Palace of the Republic of Venice, built in 1468 by Giuliano da Majano (with materials plundered from the Coliseum) for Paul II., who was of Venetian birth. On the ruin of the republic the palace fell into the hands of Austria, and is still the residence of the Austrian ambassador, to whom it was specially reserved on the cession of Venice to Italy.

The end of the Corso—narrowed by a projecting wing of the Venetian Palace—is known as the Ripresa dei Barberi, because there the horses, which run in the races during the Carnival, are caught in large folds of drapery let down across the street to prevent their dashing themselves to pieces against the opposite wall.

From the Ripresa dei Barberi, a street passing under an arch on the right, leads to the back of the Venetian Palace, where is the Church of S. Marco, originally founded in the time of Constantine, but rebuilt in 833, and modernized by Cardinal Quirini in 1744. Its portico, which is lined with early Christian inscriptions, contains a fine fifteenth century doorway, surmounted by a figure of St. Mark. The interior is in the form of a basilica, its naves and aisles separated by twenty columns, and ending in an apse. The best pictures are S. Marco, "a pope enthroned, by Carlo Crivelli, resembling in sharpness of finish and individuality the works of Bartolomeo Viviani,"[18] and a Resurrection by Palma Giovane.

Behind the Palazzo Venezia is the vast Church of Il Gesù, begun in 1568 by the celebrated Vignola, but the cupola and façade completed in 1575 by his scholar Giacomo della Porta. In the interior is the monument of Cardinal Bellarmin, and various pictures representing events in the lives or deaths of the Jesuit saints,—that of the death of St. Francis Xavier is by Carlo Maratta. The high altar, by Giacomo della Porta, has fine columns of giallo-antico. The altar of St. Ignatius at the end of the left transept is of gaudy magnificence. It was designed by Padre Pozzi, the group of the Trinity being by Bernardino Ludovisi; the globe in the hand of the Almighty is said to be the largest piece of lapis-lazuli in existence. Beneath this altar, and his silver statue, lies the body of St. Ignatius Loyola, in an urn of gilt bronze, adorned with precious stones. A great ceremony takes place in this church on July 31st, the feast of St. Ignatius, and on December 31st a Te Deum is sung here for the mercies of the past year, in the presence of the pope, cardinals, and the people of Rome,—a really solemn and impressive service.

The Piazza del Gesù is considered to be the most draughty place in Rome. The legend runs that the devil and the wind were one day taking a walk together. When they came to this square, the devil, who seemed to be very devout, said to the wind, "Just wait a minute, mio caro, while I go into this church." So the wind promised, and the devil went into the Gesù, and has never come out again—and the wind is blowing about in the Piazza del Gesù to this day.

CHAPTER III.

THE CAPITOLINE.

Up to the time of the Tarquins, it bore the name of Mons Saturnus,[19] from the mythical king Saturn, who is reported to have come to Italy in the reign of Janus, and to have made a settlement here. His name was derived from sowing, and he was looked upon as the introducer of civilization and social order, both of which are inseparably connected with agriculture. His reign here was thus considered to be the golden age of Italy. His wife was Ops, the representative of plenty.[20]

Virgil represents Evander, the mythical king of the Palatine, as exhibiting Saturnia, already in ruins, to Æneas.

When Romulus had fixed his settlement upon the Palatine, he opened an asylum for fugitive slaves upon the then deserted Saturnus, and here, at a sacred oak, he is said to have offered up the spoils of the Cæcinenses, and their king Acron, who had made a war of reprisal upon him, after the rape of their women in the Campus Martius; here also he vowed to build a temple to Jupiter Feretrius, where spoils should always be offered. But in the mean time, the Sabines, under Titius Tatus, besieged and took the hill, having a gate of its fortress (said to have been on the ascent above the spot where the arch of Severus now stands) opened to them by Tarpeia, who gazed with longing upon the golden bracelets of the warriors, and, obtaining a promise to receive that which they wore upon their arms, was crushed by their shields as they entered. Some authorities, however, maintain that she asked and obtained the hand of king Tatius. From this time the hill was completely occupied by the Sabines, and its name became partially merged in that of Mons Tarpeia, which its southern side has always retained. Niebuhr states that it is a popular superstition that the beautiful Tarpeia still sits, sparkling with gold and jewels, enchanted and motionless, in a cave in the centre of the hill.

The site of this temple has always been one of the vexed questions of history. At the time it was built, as now, the hill consisted of two peaks, with a level space between them. Niebuhr and Gregorovius place the temple on the south-eastern height, but Canina and other authorities, with more probability, incline to the north-eastern eminence, the present site of Ara-Cœli, because, among many other reasons, the temple faced the south, and also the Forum, which it could not have done upon the south-eastern summit; and also because the citadel is always represented as having been nearer to the Tiber than the temple: for when Herdonius, and the Gauls, arriving by the river, scaled the heights of the Capitol, it was the citadel which barred their path, and in which, in the latter case, Manlius was awakened by the noise of the sacred geese of Juno.

The temple of Jupiter occupied a lofty platform, the summit of the rock being levelled to receive it. Its façade was decorated with three ranges of columns, and its sides by a single colonnade. It was nearly square, being 200 Roman feet in length, and 185 in width.[21] The interior was divided into three cells; the figure of Jupiter occupied that in the centre, Minerva was on his right, and Juno on his left. The figure of Jupiter was the work of an artist of the Volscian city of Fregellæ,[22] and was formed of terra-cotta, painted like the statues which we may still see in the Etruscan museum at the Vatican, and clothed with the tunica palmata, and the toga picta, the costume of victorious generals. In his right hand was a thunder-bolt, and in his left a spear.

At a later period the statue was formed of gold, but this figure had ceased to exist in the time of Pliny.[23] When Martial wrote, the statues of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, were all gilt.

In the wall adjoining the cella of Minerva, a nail was fastened every year, to mark the lapse of time.[24] In the centre of the temple was the statue of Terminus.

The gates of the temple were of gilt bronze, and its pavement of mosaic;[25] in a vault beneath were preserved the Sibylline books placed there by Tarquin. The building of Tarquin lasted 400 years, and was burnt down in the civil wars, B.C. 83. It was rebuilt very soon afterwards by Sylla, and adorned with columns of Pentelic marble, which he had brought from the temple of Jupiter Olympus at Athens.[26] Sylla, however, did not live to rededicate it, and it was finished by Q. Lutatius Catulus, B.C. 62. This temple lasted till it was burnt to the ground by the soldiers of Vitellius, who set fire to it by throwing torches upon the portico, A.D. 69, and dragging forth Sabinus, the brother of Vespasian, murdered him at the foot of the Capitol, near the Mamertine Prisons.[27] Domitian, the younger son of Vespasian, was, at that time, in the temple with his uncle, and escaped in the dress of a priest; in commemoration of which, he erected a chapel to Jupiter Conservator, close to the temple, with an altar upon which his adventure was sculptured. The temple was rebuilt by Vespasian, who took so great an interest in the work, that he carried away some of the rubbish on his own shoulders; but his temple was the exact likeness of its predecessor, only higher, as the aruspices said that the gods would not allow it to be altered.[28] In this building Titus and Vespasian celebrated their triumph for the fall of Jerusalem. The ruin of the temple began in A.D. 404, during the short visit of the youthful Emperor Honorius to Rome, when the plates of gold which lined its doors were stripped off by Stilicho.[29] It was finally plundered by the Vandals, in A.D. 455, when its statues were carried off to adorn the African palace of Genseric, and half its roof was stripped of the gilt bronze tiles which covered it; but it is not known precisely when it ceased to exist,—the early fathers of the Christian Church speak of having seen it. The story that the bronze statue of Jupiter, belonging to this temple, was transformed by Leo I. into the famous image of St. Peter, is very doubtful.

Close beside this, the queen of Roman temples, stood the Temple of Fides, said to have been founded by Numa, where the senate were assembled at the time of the murder of Tiberius Gracchus, B.C. 133, who fell in front of the temple of Jupiter, at the foot of the statues of the kings: his blood being the first spilt in Rome in a civil war.[30] Near this, also, were the twin Temples of Mars and Venus Erycina, vowed after the battle of Thrasymene, and consecrated, B.C. 215, by the consuls Q. Fabius Maximus and T. Otacilius Crassus. Near the top of the Clivus was the Temple of Jupiter Tonans, built by Augustus, in consequence of a vow which he made in an expedition against the Cantabri when his litter was struck, and the slave who preceded him was killed by lightning. This temple was so near, that it was considered as a porch to that of Jupiter Capitolinus, and in token of that character, Augustus hung some bells upon its pediment.

On the Arx, or opposite height of the Capitol, was the Temple of Honour and Virtue, built B.C. 103, by Marius, with the spoils taken in the Cimbric wars. This temple was of sufficient size to allow of the senate meeting there, to pass the decree for Cicero's recall.[31] Here Nardini places the ancient Temple of Jupiter Feretrius, in which Romulus dedicated the first spolia opima. Here, on the site of the house of Manlius, was built the Temple of Juno Moneta, B.C. 345, in accordance with a vow of L. Furius Camillus.[32] On this height, also, was the Altar of Jupiter Pistor, which commemorated the stratagem of the Romans, who threw down loaves into the camp of the besieging Gauls, to deceive them as to the state of their supplies.[33]

It was probably also on this side of the hill that the gigantic Statue of Jupiter stood, which was formed out of the armour taken from the Samnites, B.C. 293, and which is stated by Pliny to have been of such a size that it was visible from the top of Monte Cavo.

Among the buildings upon the Intermontium, or space between the two heights, were the Tabularium, or Record Office, part of which still remains; a portico, built by Scipio Nasica,[34] and an arch which Nero built here to his own honour, the erection of which upon the sacred hill, hitherto devoted to the gods, was regarded even by the subservient senate as an unparalleled act of presumption.[35]

In mediæval times the revolutionary government of Arnold of Brescia established itself on this hill (1144), and Pope Lucius II., in attempting to regain his temporal power, was slain with a stone in attacking it. Here Petrarch received his laurel crown (1341); and here the tribune Rienzi promulgated the laws of the "good estate." At this time nothing existed on the Capitol but the church and convent of Ara-Cœli, and a few ruins. Yet the cry of the people at the coronation of Petrarch, "Long life to the Capitol and the poet!" shows that the scene itself was then still more present to their minds than the principal actor upon it. But, when the popes returned from Avignon, the very memory of the Capitol seemed effaced, and the spot was only known as the Goat's Hill,—Monte Caprino. Pope Boniface IX. (1389—94) was the first to erect on the Capitol, on the ruins of the Tabularium, a residence for the senator and his assessors, Paul III. (1544—50) employed Michael Angelo to lay out the Piazza del Campidoglio; when he designed the Capitoline Museum and the Palace of the Conservators. Pius IV., Gregory XIII., and Sixtus V. added the sculptures and other monuments which now adorn the steps and balustrade.[36]

Just beyond the end of the Corso, the Via della Pedacchia turns to the right, under a quaint archway in the secret passage constructed as a means of escape for the Franciscan Generals of Ara-Cœli to the Palazzo Venezia, as that in the Borgo is for the escape of the popes to S. Angelo. In this street is a house decorated with simple but elegant Doric details, and bearing an inscription over the door which shows that it was that of Pietro da Cortona.

The street ends in the sunny open space at the foot of the Capitol, with Ara-Cœli on its left, approached by an immense flight of steps, removed hither from the Temple of the Sun, on the Quirinal, but marking the site of the famous staircase to the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, which Julius Cæsar descended on his knees, after his triumph for his Gallic victories.[37]

The grand staircase, "La Cordonnata," was opened in its present form on the occasion of the entry of Charles V., in 1536.[38] At its foot are two lions of Egyptian porphyry, which were removed hither from the Church of S. Stefano in Cacco, by Pius IV. It was down the staircase which originally existed on this site, that Rienzi the tribune fled in his last moments, and close to the spot where the left-hand lion stands, that he fell, covered with wounds, his wife witnessing his death from a window of the burning palace above. A small space between the two staircases has lately been transformed into a garden, through which access may be obtained to four vaulted brick chambers, remnants of the substructions of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. A living wolf is kept here in commemoration of the nurse of Romulus and Remus.

At the head of the stairs are colossal statues of the twin heroes, Castor and Pollux (brought hither from the Ghetto), commemorating the victory of the Lake Regillus, after which they rode before the army to Rome, to announce the joyful news, watered their horses at the Aqua Argentina, and then passed away from the gaze of the multitude into celestial spheres. Beyond these, on either side, are two trophies of imperial times discovered in the ruin on the Esquiline, misnamed the Trophies of Marius. Next come statues of Constantine the Great and his son Constantine II., from their baths on the Quirinal. The two ends of the parapet are occupied by ancient Milliaria, being the first and seventh milestones of the Appian Way. The first milestone was found in situ, and showed that the miles counted from the gates of Rome, and not, as was formerly supposed, from the Milliarium Aureum, at the foot of the Capitol.

We now find ourselves in the Piazza del Campidoglio, occupying the Intermontium, where Brutus harangued the people after the murder of Julius Cæsar. In the centre of the square is the famous Statue of Marcus Aurelius, the only perfect ancient equestrian statue in existence. It was originally gilt, as may still be seen from marks of gilding upon the figure, and stood in front of the arch of Septimius-Severus. Hence it was removed by Sergius III. to the front of the Lateran, where, not long after, it was put to a singular use by John XIII., who hung a refractory prefect of the city from it by his hair.[39] During the rejoicings consequent upon the elevation of Rienzi to the tribuneship in 1347, one of its nostrils was made to flow with water and the other with wine. From its vicinity to the Lateran, so intimately connected with the history of Constantine, it was supposed during the middle ages to represent that Christian emperor, and this fortunate error alone preserved it from the destruction which befell so many other ancient imperial statues. Michael Angelo, when he designed the buildings of the Capitoline Piazza, wished to remove the statue to its present site, but the canons of the Lateran were unwilling to part with their treasure, and only consented to its removal upon an annual acknowledgment of their proprietorship, for which a bunch of flowers is still presented once a year by the senators to the chapter of the Lateran. Michael Angelo, standing in fixed admiration before this statue, is said to have bidden the horse "Cammina." Even until late years an especial guardian has been appointed to take care of it, with an annual stipend of ten scudi a year, and the title of "Il custode del Cavallo."

The building at the back of the piazza is The Palace of the Senator, originally built by Boniface IX. (1389), but altered by Michael Angelo to correspond with his buildings on either side. The fountain at the foot of the double staircase was erected by Sixtus V., and is adorned with statues of river gods found in the Colonna Gardens, and a curious porphyry figure of Minerva—adapted as Rome. The body of this statue was found at Cori, but the head and arms are modern additions.