Scelus expendisse merentem Laocoonta ferunt; sacrum qui cuspide robur Læserit, et tergo sceleratam intorserit hastam." It has been doubted, whether the statue was taken from the poet's description, or the description from the statue. The latter is evident, since the artists who executed it lived some centuries before Virgil. For we are informed by Pliny, that Athenodorus was à scholar of Polycletus, who flourished about the 87th olympiad, that is, near the 320th year of Rome. The poet has not servilely copied the statue: he has given us progressively the whole action. We see the serpents advance gradually: they first seize the sons and then the father whereas the statuaries, confined to a single point of time, were obliged to make the serpents kill father and sons together. Such is the advantage the poet has over the statuary and painter! It is impossible to look upon this group without horror and compassion: we seem to hear their dying shrieks. "Clamores simul horrendos ad sidera tollit." • Near to the church of St. Martino, on this hill, was found, in the time of Leo X. the elegant statue, long preserved in the Belvidere of the Vatican, commonly reckoned to represent Antinous, but which the learned Visconti makes a Mercury. Scrambling among these ruins, I observed the remains of some ancient paintings. Indeed, sixteen rooms, or crypta, long concealed by earth and rubbish, have been lately discovered; and which were ornamented with paintings of various kinds. But I shall not enter into a detail of them, because they are now published by Mirri. • Whether Titus's baths were erected in the gardens of Mæcenas, as Piranesi supposes, or whether these gardens, and his celebrated tower, lay farther east on the hill, I shall not venture to determine. I cannot, however, but observe, that Maecenas's gardens stood in the campus Esquilinus, which was given him by Augustus, as well to beautify the city, as to free it from the stench of the bodies of the slaves and low people buried there. When employed as buryingground, this field was without the walls of the city." Puticulus, quo nunc cadavera projice solent, extra portam Esquilinam."-Now this field is generally reckoned to have lain towards the agger of Ser. vius, and the high ground in the villa Negroni. But is it probable that Mæcepas's gardens took up the whole length of the hill? The height of the tower, as well as its situation, made Horace say "Molem propinquam nubibus arduis." It was from hence that Nero had the cruel pleasure to behold Rome in flames; and, in his actor's habit, to sing the tragedy of the destruction of Troy. Among the ruins of Mecenas's gardens was found, about two hundred years ago, a picture, probably part of a cornice, representing the bedding of a new married pair. It is preserved in the villa Aldobrandini, and from that circumstance is known by the name of the Aldobrandini marriage. It is supposed to express the marriage of Thetis and Peleus. Be this as it may, it is, no doubt, the work of an able artist. The figures are elegant, and painted with much freedom: when seen at a proper distance, they produce a great effect, Struck with the beauty of this picture, Poussin made a fine copy of it, which is to be seen in the Pamphili palace. It is likewise engraved by Pietro Santi Bartoli, and published in the "Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum," No. 61.-Bellori calls this picture"unicum veteris artis exemplar et miraculum." The baths of Dioclesian on the Viminal hill were of far greater extent; and, in the minute account here given of them, Mr. L. has taken a wide and scientific view of the plan and arrangement of these stupendous edifices, which contributed so greatly to the health and luxury of the masters of the world. After having given us information relative to the forum of Trajan, the author adds, from various documents, a corrected detail of the famous historical column: Although none of these buildings have escaped the rage of barbarous hands, and all devouring time, yet the most remarkable monument of this forum still remains: viz. the historical column erected by the senate and people to the emperor, after his Dacian conquests; and on which the progress of both these wars are represented in basso-relievo. After many actions, and reduced to the last extremity, Decebalus, their king, put an end to his own life; and Trajan erected Dacia into a Roman province*. Over the door, in the pedestal, by which we enter into the co lumn, we read the following inscription: IMP. SENATVS. POPVLVSQVE. ROMANYS CAESARI. DIVI. NERVAE F. NERVAE MAXIMO TRIB. POT. XVII. IMP. VI. COS. VI. P.P AD. DECLARANDVM. QVANTAE. ALTITUDINIS MONS. ET. LOCVS, TANtis . operiвvs. SIT This inscription shows, that Trajan had caused part of the Quirinal hill to be cut down to give more extent to his forum; and that the height of his column was the measure of that level. The ground, indeed, is now much raised here, the modern pavement being about twenty feet above the ancient; as appears from the excavation made to show the height of the column. This column stood in the centre of the forum, and was terminated with a statue of Trajan, as appears from a medal. Thus it served *Although the Getes were the people who inhabited the country, along the mouth of the Danube, yet the Greeks gave them the name of the Daces, that is, the Transilvanians, the Valakians, and the Moldavians. They were conquered by Trajan; in whose reign the Roman empire was in its greatest extent. To the north he added the country of the Dacii; and to the east he added Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria. He gave a king to Parthia, who acknowledged the Roman power. The letters tis and operi had been defaced in the barbarous ages, and are thus supplied.' for for a sepulchral monument to that great man; for it is generally sup posed that his ashes were put into a ball of metal, which he held in his hand. But Sixtus Quintus, in place of the statue of this respectable emperor, caused that of St. Peter to be erected on this imperial monument, and which can have no connection with the history of Trajan's wars, there represented. The height of this monument is 115 feet 10 inches Englishviz. the pedestal 20 fect 10 inches, and the shaft of the column 95 feet. Eutropius says, that this column is 144 feet high. To make up this measure in Roman feet, the historian probably included the height of the statue, and the base on which it stood. It is composed of thirty blocks of white statuary marble, which seems to be that of Carrara; and each block forms the diameter of the column: viz. eight for the pedestal, nineteen for the pillar, and three for the base of the statue of St. Peter. There is a staircase, consisting of one hundred and eighty-four steps, which leads to the top of the column, and which is lighted by forty-three narrow slits or windows. This staircase is cut out of the blocks of marble, which form the diameter of the column. On the four square sides of the pedestal, I observed the shields and arms of the Daci, the Sarmati, and their allies. They had been copied from the originals, brought to Rome by the emperor, and which he had displayed in his triumph. They are elegantly executed: nor had the sculptor occasion to embellish them; since Pausanias, mentioning a Sarmate cuirass, preserved in the temple of Esculapius, informs us, that the Sarmati excelled in the fine arts, and in this respect might be compared with the Greeks themselves. It is commonly said, that the basso-relievos on this monument increase in size as they approach towards the top, in order to appear the same to the eye of the beholder from below. But that this is not so, is evident from the plaister casts of this column; the general height of these figures being two fect and an inch English. That the eye might not be interrupted, in tracing the connection of the sculpture, the column is carried up, from the bottom to the top, in a spiral line or screw. Hence it is called Columna Cochlis. Besides the elegancy of the sculpture, executed at the period when that art was in high perfection at Rome, we may consider this wonderful monument as a system of antiquities. For here we remark the manners, dress, discipline, arms, marches, forages, and encampments of the soldiers of that age; the Roman standards, as well as those of the enemy; bridges, passing of rivers, and the form of their ships; sieges, battles, victories, congresses, and peace; adlocutions of the emperor, triumphs, sacrifices, libations, victims, altars, the dresses of the priests, and various religious rites.' In the baths of Constantine on the Quirinal hill, of which no vestige can be traced, the two Collossaan marble horses, each held by a man, now placed on and giving name to the • Monte Cavallo,' were originally found. As the works of Phidias and Praxiteles, or as the representation of Alexander and Bucephalus, their claim is combated by the proof of an anachronism, and their nearer resemblance to Castor and Pollux. The obelisk, set up as the gnomon of the meridian line which Augustus caused to be delineated in the Campus Martius, is particularly noticed; and it introduces some interesting observations on the Roman method of computing time. On the authority of Varro, Pliny informs us, that the first sundial set up for public use at Rome, was brought from Catania in Sicily, by the consul M. Valerius Messala, in the year U. C. 491, and was placed on a column near the rostra: but as this dial had been projected for a more southern latitude, it did not show the hours with exactness. However, such as it was, the Romans re gulated their time by it, for the space of ninety-nine years, when Q. Marcus Philippus, who was censor with L. Paulus, caused another dial, constructed for the latitude of Rome, to be erected near the old one. But as a sun-dial did not serve in cloudy weather, Scipio Nasica, five years after, remedied this defect, by introducing a method of dividing the night as well as the day into hours, by means of a water machine, a clepsidra, which Pliny calls an horo logium. I do not indeed conceive how a sun-dial, or any other instrument, could point out the various hours, as time was computed by the ancient Romans. The time the earth takes to revolve once ronnd its axis, or the space between the rising of the sun till its next rising, which makes a day and a night, divided into twenty-four equal parts, we call hours. Now, the Romans divided the day and the night into twenty-four hours. Twelve of these, from the rising of the sun to its setting, constituted their day; and the other twelve, from the setting of the sun to its rising, constitute their night. Thus a the seasons changed, the length of their hours must have varied. In winter the twelve hours of the day were short, and those of the night long; in summer they were the reverse. How then could these hours, of an unequal length, and which daily varied, be measured by an instrument? I have not been able to discover any method by which this could be done. However, they had two fixed points, viz. mid-day and mid-night, which they called the sixth hour. So that a meridian line would always point out the sixth hour, or mid-day. Neither have I been able to discover when the modern Romans changed this method of computing time. In the course of the day and night they reckon twenty-four hours, which are all of an equal length in every season of the year. No inconvenience can arise in reckoning twenty-four hours, in place of twelve and twelve, as we do. Perhaps so far the modern Roman method is preferable to ours. But the difficulty is, that they do not begin to reckon their hours from a fixed point, viz. from mid-day, when the sun crosses the same meridian line every day in the year. Thus they call half an hour after sun set the twenty-fourth hour, and an hour and an half after sun set the first hour, or one o'clock *. Hence the nominal hour * To reckon time from the setting of the sun was a very ancient custom: it was practised particularly by the Germans and Gauls: it seems hour of mid-day constantly changes with them: in June it is called sixteen, and in December nineteen o'clock. To regulate, therefore, a time-piece, by this method of computing, it must be daily altered.' We might be considered as too diffuse in our excerpts, if the very judicious and most perfect account of the Pantheon were transcribed at length; and, as it might suffer from abridgment, we must omit it, though with regret; as it is the best specimen that we could offer of the spirit and ability with which these investigations have been pursued.—we refer our readers to the work at large. Near the portico erected by Augustus in honour of his sister. Octavia, the Venus de Medicis, so called as being now preserved in the Medicean gallery at Florence, was first discovered. Mr. L. gives his opinion that it is the statue mentioned by Pliny, 1. 1. c. 14. and L. 36. c. 5., and executed by Phidias. It cannot be supposed that any objects of curiosity so remarkable as the theatre of Marcellus, the triumphal arches of Septimius Severus, Titus, and Constantine, or the Circus Maximus, should have been dismissed by our intelligent author without an accurate inquiry. They are investigated with equal success, The Collossio or amphitheatre of Vespasian, the wonder even of the most inattentive observer, is well examined. Although the terms theatre and amphitheatre have been often used without distinction, by writers both ancient and modern, yet the difference of their form, as well as their use, is well known. The first was half of a circle or oval, and served for the representation of dramatic compositions: whereas the second was an entire circle, or oval, and appropriated for exhibiting the combats of gladiators, the hunting of wild beasts, and sometimes for those naval fights called naumachia. Hence the amphitheatre was a double theatre, Both were admirably contrived for these different uses.' Some new and useful information may be collected from the author's architectural details: but for these we must refer to the work, as the extract would be too large for our limits. Another equally splendid monument of the magnificence of Vespasian was the Temple of Peace, built in the year of Christ 71, at the general pacification after the conquest of Judæa. It was the largest of the Roman temples, and of a quadrangular form, three hundred feet long, and two hundred feet wide. It consisted of three naves, with as many niches or tribunes on seems to be connected with the ideas which establish the existence of a chaos or night, before the world or day. See "Recherches sur l'origine et les progrès des arts de la Grèce, par M, d'Hankerville," 1. 1. c. 2. p. 131.' |