CHAP. century, that we may date the licentiousness of LXXI. private war, which violated with impunity the laws of the Code and the Gospel, without respecting the majesty of the absent sovereign, or the presence and person of the vicar of Christ. In a dark period of five hundred years, Rome was perpetually afflicted by the sanguinary quarrels of the nobles and the people, the Guelphs and Ghibelines, the Colonna and Ursini; and if much has escaped the knowledge, and much is unworthy of the notice of history, I have exposed in the two preceding chapters, the causes and effects of the public disorders. At such a time, when every quarrel was decided by the sword, and none could trust their lives or properties to the impotence of law; the powerful citizens were armed for safety or offence, against the domestic enemies, whom they feared or hated. Except Venice alone, the same dangers and designs were common to all the free republics of Italy; and the nobles usurped the prerogative of fortifying their houses, and erecting strong towers that were capable of resisting a sudden attack. The cities were filled with these hostile edifices; and the example of Lucca, which contained three hundred towers; her law, which confined their height to the measure of fourscore feet, may be extended, with suitable latitude, to the more opulent and populous states. The first step of the senator Brancaleone in the establishment of peace and justice, was to demolish *All the facts that relate to the towers of Rome, and in other free cities of Italy, may be found in the laborious and entertaining compilation of Muratori, Antiquitates Italiæ medii Ævi, dissertat. xxvi. (tom. ii. p. 493-496. of the Latin, tom. i. p. 446. of the Italian work.). LXXI. demolish (as we have already seen) one hundred CHAP. and forty of the towers of Rome; and in the last days of anarchy and discord, as late as the reign of Martin the Fifth, forty-four still stood in one of the thirteen or fourteen regions of the city. To this mischievous purpose, the remains of antiquity were most readily adapted. The temples and arches afforded a broad and solid basis for the new structures of brick and stone; and we can name the modern turrets that were raised on the triumphal monuments of Julius Cæsar, Titus, and the Antonines *. With some slight alterations, a theatre, an amphitheatre, a mausoleum, was transformed into a strong and spacious citadel. I need not repeat, that the mole of Adrian has assumed the title and form of the castle of St Angelo ; the Septizonium of Severus was capable of standing against a royal army; the sepulchre of Metalla has sunk under its outworks; the theatres of Pompey and Marcellus * As for instance, Templum Jani nunc dicitur, turris Centii Frangapanis; et sane Jano impositae turris lateritiæ conspicua hodieque vestigia supersunt, (Montfaucon Diarium Italicum, p. 186.). The anonymous writer (p. 285.) enumerates, arcus Titi, turris Cartularia; arcus Julii Cæsaris et Senatorum, turres de Bratis; arcus Antonini, turris de Cosectis, &c. + Hadriani molem magna ex parte Romanorum injuria. . . . disturbavit: quod certe funditus evertissent, si eorum manibus pervia, absumptis grandibus saxis, reliqua moles exstitisset, (Poggius de Varietate Fortune, p. 12.). Against the Emperor Henry IV. (Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom. ix. p. 147.). I must copy an important passage of Montfaucon : Turris ingens rotunda .... Cæciliæ Metellæ . . . . sepulchrum erat, cujus muri tam solidi, ut spatium perquam minimum intus vacuum supersit et Torre di Bove dicitur, a boum capitibus muro inscriptis. Huic sequiori avo, tempore intesti norum CHAP. Marcellus were occupied by the Savelli and Ursini families; and the rough fortress has been gradually softened to the splendour and elegance of an Italian palace. Even the churches were encompassed with arms and bulwarks, and the military engines on the roof of St Peter's were the terror of the Vatican, and the scandal of the Christian world. Whatever is fortified will be attacked; and whatever is attacked may be destroyed. Could the Romans have wrested from the Popes the castle of St Angelo, they had resolved, by a public decree, to annihilate that monument of servitude. Every building of defence was exposed to a siege; and in every siege the arts and engines of destruction were laboriously employed. After the death of Nicholas the Fourth, Rome, without a fovereign or a fenate, was abandoned six months to the fury of civil "The houfes," fays a cardinal and poet of the timest," were crufhed by the weight and "velocity norum bellorum, ceu urbecula adjuncta fuit, cujus monia et turres etiamnum visuntur; ita ut sepulchrum Metellæ quasi arx oppiduli fuerit. Ferventibus in urbe partibus, cum Ursini atque Columnenses mutuis cladibus perniciem inferrent civitati, in utriusve partis ditionem cederet magni momenti erat, (p. 142.). * See the testimonies of Donatus, Nardini, and MontfauIn the Savelli palace, the remains of the theatre of Marcellus are still great and conspicuous. con. +James, Cardinal of St George, ad velum aureum, in his metrical Life of Pope Celestin V. (Muratori, Script. Ital. 621. 1. i. c. 1. ver. 132, &c.). tom. i. p. iii. P. Hoc dixisse sat est, Romam caruisse Senatu Mensibus exactis heu sex ; belloque vocatum (vocatos) Tormentis jecisse viros immania saxa; LXXI. velocity of enormous stones; the walls were CHAP. perforated by the strokes of the battering-ram; "the towers were involved in fire and smoke; "and the assailants were stimulated by rapine and 66 revenge." The work was consummated by the tyranny of the laws; and the factions of Italy alternately exercised a blind and thoughtless vengeance on their adversaries, whose houses and castles they razed to the ground f. In comparing the days of foreign, with the ages of domestic, hostility, we must pronounce, that the latter have been far more ruinous to the city; and our opinion is confirmed by the evidence of Petrarch. "Be-. "hold," says the laureat, "the relics of Rome, "the image of her pristine greatness! neither "time, nor the Barbarian, can boast the merit of "this stupendous destruction: it was perpetrated "by her own citizens, by the most illustrious of "her sons; and your ancestors (he writes to a "noble Annibaldi) have done with the battering❝ram, what the Punic hero could not accomplish "with the sword t." The influence of the two last. principles of decay must, in some degree, be mulVOL. XII. tiplied Ee * Muratori (Dissertazione sopra le Antiquitá Italiane, tom. i. P. 427-431.) finds, that stone bullets, of two or three hundred pounds weight, were not uncommon; and they are sometimes computed at xii or xviii cantari of Genoa, each cantaro weighing 150 pounds. + The vith law of the Visconti prohibits this common and mischievous practice; and strictly enjoins, that the houses of banished citizens should be preserved pro communi utilitate Gualvaneus de la Flamma, in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. xii. p. 1041.). Petrarch thus addresses his friend, who, with shame and tears, had shewn him the monja, lacere specimen miserabile Romæ, LXXI. CHA P. tiplied by each other; since the houses and towers, which were subverted by civil war, required a new and perpetual supply from the monuments of antiquity. The Coli seum or amphitheatre of Titus. These general observations may be separately applied to the amphitheatre of Titus, which has obtained the name of the COLISEUM *, either from its magnitude, or from Nero's colossal statue: an edifice, had it been left to time and nature, which might, perhaps, have claimed an eternal duration. The curious antiquaries, who have computed the numbers and seats, are disposed to believe, that above the upper row of stone steps, the amphitheatre was encircled and elevated with several stages of wooden galleries, which were repeatedly consumed by fire, and restored by the emperors. Whatever was precious, or portable, or profane, the statues of gods and heroes, and the costly ornaments of sculpture, which were cast in brafs, or overspread with leaves of silver and gold, Roma, and declared his own intention of restoring them, (Car Perficit hic aries. *The fourth part of the Verona Illustrata of the Marquis Maffei, professedly treats of amphitheatres, particularly those of Rome and Verona, of their dimensions, wooden galleries, &c. It is from magnitude that he derives the name of Colosseum, or Coliseum since the same appellation was applied to the amphi theatre of Capua, without the aid of a colossal statue; since that of Nero was erected in the court (in atrio) of his palace, and not in the Coliseum, (P. iv. p. 15-19. l. i. c. 4.). |