LXXI. and bloody. Every champion fucceffively en- CHAP. countered a wild bull; and the victory may be ascribed to the quadrupeds, fince no more than eleven were left on the field, with the lofs of nine wounded and eighteen killed on the fide of their adverfaries, fome of the nobleft families might mourn, but the pomp of the funerals in the churches of St.John Lateran and St.Maria Maggiore, afforded a fecond holiday to the people. Doubtless it was not in fuch conflicts that the blood of the Romans fhould have been fhed; yet, in blaming their rafhnefs, we are compelled to applaud their gallantry; and the noble volunteers, who display their magnificence, and riik their lives, under the balconies of the fair, excite a more generous fympathy than the thoufands of captives and malefactors who were reluctantly dragged to the scene of flaughter 59. This ufe of the amphitheatre was a rare, per- Injuries, haps a fingular, festival: the demand for the materials was a daily and continual want, which the citizens could gratify without restraint or remorfe. In the fourteenth century, a fcandalous act of concord fecured to both factions the privilege of extracting ftones from the free and common quarry of the Colifeum; and Poggius laments, that the greater part of these ftones had been burnt to lime by the folly of the 59 Muratori has given a feparate differtation (the xxixth)to the games of the Italians in the middle ages. 60 In a concise but instructive memoir, the Abbé Barthelemy (Memoires de l'Academie des Infcriptions, tom. xxviii. p. 585.) has mentioned this agreement of the factions of the xivth century, de Tiburtino faciendo in the Coliseum, from an original act in the archives of Rome. Romans. EE 4 LXXI. CHA P. Romans ". To check this abufe, and to prevent the nocturnal crimes that might be perpetrated in the vaft and gloomy recefs, Eugenius the Fourth furrounded it with a wall; and by a charter long extant granted both the ground and edifice to the monks of an adjacent convent 2. After his death, the wall was overthrown in a tumult of the people; and had they themfelves refpected the nobleft monument of their fathers, they might have juftified the refolve that it fhould never be degraded to private property. The infide was damaged; but in the middle of the fixteenth century, an æra of tafte and learning, the exterior circumference of one thoufand fix hundred and twelve feet was ftill entire and inviolate; a triple elevation of four-fcore arches, which rofe to the height of one hundred and eight feet. Of the prefent ruin, the nephews of Paul the Third are the guilty agents; and every traveller who views the Farnefe palace, may curfe the facrilege and luxury of these upftart princes 63. A fimilar re 61 Coliseum. . . . ob ftultitiam Romanorum majori ex parte ad calcem deletum, fays the indignant Poggius (p. 17.): but his expreffion, too ftrong for the prefent age, must be very tenderly applied to the xvth century. 62 Of the Olivetan monks, Montfaucon (p. 142.) affirms this fact from the memorials of Flaminius Vacca (N° 72.). They ftill hoped, on fome future occafion, to revive and vindicate their grant. 63 After measuring the prifcus amphitheatri gyrus, Montfaucon (p. 142.) only adds, that it was entire under Paul III.; tacendo clamat. Muratori (Annali d'Italia, tom. xiv. p. 371.) more freely reports the guilt of the Farnese pope, and the indignation of the Roman people. Against the nephews of Urban VIII. I have no other evidence than the vulgar faying, "Quod non fecerunt Barbari, fecere Barberini,” which was perhaps fuggested by the resemblance of the words, proach LXXI. proach is applied to the Barberini; and the repe- CHA P. tition of injury might be dreaded from every reign, till the Coliseum was placed under the fafeguard and confeof religion by the moft liberal of the pontiffs, cration of Benedict the Fourteenth, who confecrated a spot which perfecution and fable had ftained with the blood of fo many Chriftian martyrs **. 64 the Colife um. and barba When Petrarch firft gratified his eyes with a Ignorance view of those monuments, whofe fcattered frag-m of the ments fo far furpass the most eloquent defcrip- Romans. tions, he was aftonished at the fupine indifferences of the Romans themselves: he was humbled rather than elated by the discovery, that except his friend Rienzi and one of the Colonna, a ftranger of the Rhône was more converfant with these antiquities than the nobles and natives of the metropolis 7. The ignorance and credulity of the Romans are elaborately difplayed in the old furvey of the city which was compofed 64 As an antiquarian and a priest, Montfaucon thus deprecates the ruin of the Coliseum; Quôd fi non fuopte merito atque pulchritudine dignum fuiffet quod improbas arceret manus, indigna res utique in locum tot martyrum cruore facrum tantopere fævitum effe. 65 Yet the Statutes of Rome (1. iii. c. 81. p. 182.) impose a fine of 500 aurei on whofoever fhall demolish any ancient edifice, ne ruinis civitas deformetur, et ut antiqua ædificia decorem urbis perpetuo reprefentent. 66 In his first visit to Rome (A. D. 1337. See Memoires fur Petrarque, tom. i. p. 322, &c.) Petrarch is ftruck mute miraculo rerum tantarum, et ftuporis mole obrutus .... Prefentia vero, mirum dictû, nihil imminuit: vere major fuit Roma majorefque funt reliquiæ quam rebar. Jam non orbem ab hâc urbe domitum, fed tam fero domitum, miror (Opp. p. 605. Familiares, ii. 14. Joanni Columnæ). 67 He excepts and praises the rare knowledge of John Colonna. Qui enim hodie magis ignari rerum Romanarum, quam Romani cives? Invitus dico nufquam minus Roma cognofcitur quam Romæ. about CHAP. about the beginning of the thirteenth century; LXXI., and without dwelling on the manifold errors of name and place, the legend of the Capitol 68 may provoke a fimile of contempt and indignation. "The Capitol," fays the anonymous writer, "is "fo named as being the head of the world; where "the confuls and fenators formerly refided for "the government of the city and the globe. The "ftrong and lofty walls were covered with glafs "and gold, and crowned with a roof of the "richeft and moft curious carving. Below the "citadel flood a palace, of gold for the greatest "part, decorated with precious ftones, and whose "value might be efteemed at one-third of the "world itfelf. The ftatues of all the provinces "were arranged in order, each with a fmall bell fufpended from its neck; and fuch was the "contrivance of art magic 69, that if the province "rebelled against Rome, the ftatue turned round "to that quarter of the heavens, the bell rang, 6 After the description of the Capitol, he adds, ftatuæ erant quot funt mundi provinciæ; et habebat quælibet tintinnabulum ad collum. Et erant ita per magicam artem difpofitæ, ut quando aliqua regio Romano Imperio rebellis erat, ftatim imago illius provinciæ vertebat se contra illam ; unde tintinnabulum refonabat quod pendebat ad collum; tuncque vates Capitolii qui erant cuftodes fenatui, &c. He mentions an example of the Saxons and Suevi, who after they had been fubdued by Agrippa, again rebelled: tintinnabulum fonuit; facerdos qui erat in fpeculo in hebdomadâ fenatoribus nuntiavit; Agrippa marched back and reduced the -Perfians (Anonym. in Montfaucon, p. 297, 298.). 69 The fame writer affirms, that Virgil captus a Romanis invisibiliter exiit, ivitque Neapolim. A Roman magician, in the xith century, is introduced by William of Malmsbury (de Geftis Regum Anglorum, 1. ii. p. 86.); and in the time of Flaminius Vacca (N° 81. 103.) it was the vulgar belief that the strangers (the Goths) invoked the dæmons for the discovery of hidden treasures. "the "the prophet of the Capitol reported the pro- c H A P. digy, and the fenate was admonished of the im"pending danger." A fecond example of lefs importance, though of equal abfurdity, may be drawn from the two marble horses, led by two naked youths, which have fince been transported from the baths of Conftantine to the Quirinal hill. The groundless application of the name of Phidias and Praxiteles may perhaps be excufed; but thefe Grecian fculptors fhould not have been removed above four hundred years from the age of Pericles to that of Tiberius: they fhould not have been transformed into two phi. lofophers or magicians, whofe nakedness was the fymbol of truth and knowledge, who revealed to the Emperor his moft fecret actions; and after refufing all pecuniary recompence, folicited the honour of leaving this eternal monument of themfelves". Thus awake to the power of magic, the Romans were infenfible to the beauties of art: no more than five ftatues were visible to the eyes of Poggius; and of the multitudes which chance or defign had buried under the ruins, the refurrection was fortunately delayed till a fafer and more enlightened age". The Nile, which now adorns the Vatican, had been explored 7o Anonym. p. 289. Montfaucon (p. 191.) juftly observes, that if Alexander be represented, these ftatues cannot be the work of Phidias (Olympiad lxxxiii.) or Praxiteles (Olympiad civ.) who lived before that conqueror (Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiv. 19.). 71 William of Malmsbury (l. ii. p.86, 87.) relates a marvellous difcovery (A. D. 1046) of Pallas, the fon of Evander, who had been slain by Turnus: the perpetual light in his fepulchre, a Latin epitaph, the corpfe, yet entire, of a young giant, the enormous wound in his breaft (pectus LXXI. |