"The truth-speaking pope, because he preached that the lapsed should weep for their crimes, was bitterly hated by all those unhappy ones. Hence followed fury, hatred, discord, contentions, sedition, and slaughter, and the bonds of peace were ruptured. For the crime of another, who in (a time of) peace had denied Christ, (the pontiff) was expelled the shores of his country by the cruelty of the tyrant. These things Damasus having learnt, was desirous to narrate briefly, that people might recognise the merit of Marcellus."[242]
Several of the paintings in this catacomb are remarkable; especially that of a woman with a child, claimed by the Roman Church as one of the earliest representations of the Virgin. The painting is thus described by Northcote:—
"De Rossi unhesitatingly says that he believes this painting of our Blessed Lady to belong almost to the apostolic age. It is to be seen on the vaulted roof of a loculus, and represents the Blessed Virgin seated, her head partially covered by a short light veil, and with the Holy Child in her arms; opposite to her stands a man, clothed in the pallium, holding a volume in one hand, and with the other pointing to a star which appears above and between the figures. This star almost always accompanies our Blessed Lady, both in paintings and in sculptures, where there is an obvious historical excuse for it, e. g., when she is represented with the Magi offering their gifts, or by the side of the manger with the ox and the ass; but with a single figure, as in the present instance, it is unusual. The most obvious conjecture would be that the figure was meant for St. Joseph, or for one of the Magi. De Rossi, however, gives many reasons for preferring the prophet Isaias, whose prophecies concerning the Messias abound with imagery borrowed from light."—Roma Sotterranea.
This catacomb is one of the oldest, Sta. Priscilla, from whom it is named, being supposed to have been the mother of Pudens, and a contemporary of the apostles. Her granddaughters, Prassede and Pudenziana, were buried here before the removal of their relics to the church on the Esquiline. With this cemetery is connected the extraordinary history of the manufacture of Sta. Filomena, now one of the most popular saints in Italy, and one towards whom idolatry is carried out with frantic enthusiasm both at Domo d'Ossola and in some of the Neapolitan States. The story of this saint is best told in the words of Mrs. Jameson.
"In the year 1802, while some excavations were going forward in the catacomb of Priscilla, a sepulchre was discovered containing the skeleton of a young female; on the exterior were rudely painted some of the symbols constantly recurring in these chambers of the dead; an anchor, an olive branch (emblems of Hope and Peace), a scourge, two arrows, and a javelin: above them the following inscription, of which the beginning and end were destroyed:—
——LUMENA PAX TE CUM FI——
"The remains, reasonably supposed to be those of one of the early martyrs for the faith, were sealed up and deposited in the treasury of relics in the Lateran; here they remained for some years unthought of. On the return of Pius VII. from France, a Neapolitan prelate was sent to congratulate him. One of the priests in his train, who wished to create a sensation in his district, where the long residence of the French had probably caused some decay of piety, begged for a few relics to carry home, and these recently discovered remains were bestowed on him; the inscription was translated somewhat freely, to signify Santa Philumena, rest in peace. Another priest, whose name is suppressed because of his great humility, was favoured by a vision in the broad noon-day, in which he beheld the glorious virgin Filomena, who was pleased to reveal to him that she had suffered death for preferring the Christian faith and her vow of chastity to the addresses of the emperor, who wished to make her his wife. This vision leaving much of her history obscure, a certain young artist, whose name is also suppressed, perhaps because of his great humility, was informed in a vision that the emperor alluded to was Diocletian, and at the same time the torments and persecutions suffered by the Christian virgin Filomena, as well as her wonderful constancy, were also revealed to him. There were some difficulties in the way of the Emperor Diocletian, which incline the writer of the historical account to incline to the opinion that the young artist in his wisdom may have made a mistake, and that the emperor may have been not Diocletian but Maximian. The facts, however, now admitted of no doubt; the relics were carried by the priest Francesco da Lucia to Naples; they were enclosed in a case of wood resembling in form the human body; this figure was habited in a petticoat of white satin, and over it a crimson tunic after the Greek fashion; the face was painted to represent nature, a garland of flowers was placed on the head, and in the hands a lily and a javelin with the point reversed to express her purity and her martyrdom; then she was laid in a half-sitting posture in a sarcophagus, of which the sides were glass, and, after lying for some time in state in the chapel of the Torres family in the Church of Sant' Angiolo, she was carried in grand procession to Mugnano, a little town about twenty miles from Naples, amid the acclamations of the people, working many and surprising miracles by the way.... Such is the legend of Sta. Filomena, and such the authority on which she has become within the last twenty years one of the most popular saints in Italy."—Sacred and Legendary Art, p. 671.
It is hoped that very interesting relics may still be discovered in this Catacomb.
"In an account preserved by St. Gregory of Tours, we are told that under Numerianus, the martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria were put to death in an arenaria, and that a great number of the faithful having been seen entering a subterranean crypt on the Via Salara, to visit their tombs, the heathen emperor caused the entrance to be hastily built up, and a vast mound of sand and stone to be heaped in front of it, so that they might be all buried alive, even as the martyrs whom they had come to venerate. St. Gregory adds, that when the tombs of these martyrs were re-discovered, after the ages of persecution had ceased, there were found with them, not only the relics of those worshippers who had been thus cruelly put to death, skeletons of men, women, and children lying on the floor, but also the silver cruets (urcei argentei) which they had taken down with them for the celebration of the sacred mysteries. St. Damasus was unwilling to destroy so touching a memorial of past ages. He abstained from making any of those changes by which he usually decorated the martyrs' tombs, but contented himself with setting up one of his invaluable historical inscriptions, and opening a window in the adjacent wall or rock, that all might see, without disturbing, this monument so unique in its kind—this Christian Pompeii in miniature. These things might still be seen in St. Gregory's time, in the sixth century; and De Rossi holds out hopes that some traces of them may be restored even to our own generation, some fragments of the inscription perhaps, or even the window itself through which our ancestors once saw so moving a spectacle, assisting, as it were, at a mass celebrated in the third century."—Roma Sotterranea, p. 88.
Returning to the Porta Salara, and following the walls, we reach the Porta Pia, built, as it is now seen, by Pius IX.—very ugly, but appropriately decorated with statues of St. Agnes and St. Alexander, to whose shrines it leads. The statues lost their heads in the capture of Rome in 1870 by the Italian troops, who entered the city by a breach in the walls close to this. A little to the right was the Porta Nomentana, flanked by round towers, closed by Pius IV. It was by this gate that the oppressed Roman people retreated to the Mons Sacer—and that Nero fled.
"Suivons-le du Grand-Cirque à la porte Nomentane. Quel spectacle! Néron, accoutumé à toutes les recherches de la volupté, s'avance à cheval, les pieds nus, en chemise, couvert d'un vieux manteau dont la couleur était passée, un mouchoir sur le visage. Quatre personnes seulement l'accompagnent; parmi elles est ce Sporus, que dans un jour d'indicible folie il avait publiquement épousé. Il sent la terre trembler, il voit les éclairs au ciel: Néron a peur. Tous ceux qu'il a fait mourir lui apparaissent et semblent se précipiter sur lui. Nous voici à la porte Nomentane, qui touche au Camp des Prétoriens. Néron reconnaît ce lieu où, il y a quinze ans, suivant alors le chemin qu'il vient de suivre, il est venu se faire reconnaître empereur par les prétoriens. En passant sous les murs de leur camp, vers lequel son destin le ramène, il les entend former des vœux pour Galba, et lancer des imprécations contre lui. Un passant lui dit: 'Voilà des gens qui cherchent Néron.' Son cheval se cabre au milieu de la route: c'est qu'il a flairé un cadavre. Le mouchoir qui couvrait son visage tombe; un prétorien qui se trouvait là le ramasse et le rend à l'empereur, qu'il salue par son nom. A chacun de ces incidents son effroi redouble. Enfin il est arrivé à un petit chemin qui s'ouvre à notre gauche, dans la direction de la voie Salara, parallèle à la voie Nomentane. C'est entre ces deux voies qu'était la villa de Phaon, à quatre milles de Rome. Pour l'attendre, Néron, qui a mis pied à terre, s'enfonce à travers un fourré d'épines et un champ de roseaux comme il s'en trouve tant dans la Campagne de Rome; il a peine de s'y frayer un chemin; il arrive ainsi au mur de derrière de la villa. Près de là était un de ces antres creusés pour l'extraction du sable volcanique, appelé pouzzolane, tels qu'on en voit encore de ce côté. Phaon engage le fugitif à s'y cacher; il refuse. On fait un trou dans la muraille de la villa par où il pénètre, marchant quatre pieds, dans l'intérieur. Il entre dans une petite salle et se couche sur un lit formé d'un méchant matelas sur lequel on avait jeté un vieux manteau. Ceux qui l'entourent le pressent de mourir pour échapper aux outrages et au supplice. Il essaye à plusieurs reprises de se donner la mort et n'y peut se résoudre; il pleure. Enfin, en entendant les cavaliers qui venaient le saisir, il cite un vers grec, fait un effort et se tue avec le secours d'un affranchi."—Ampère, Emp. ii. 65.
Immediately outside the Porta Pia is the entrance of the beautiful Villa Patrizi, whose grounds enclose the small Catacomb of St. Nicomedus. Then comes the Villa Lezzani, where Sta. Giustina is buried in a chapel, and where her festa is observed on the 25th of October.
Beyond this is the ridiculous Villa Torlonia (shown with an order on Wednesdays from 11 to 4, but not worth seeing), sprinkled with mock ruins.
At little more than a mile from the gate the road reaches the Basilica of St' Agnese fuori le Mura, founded by Constantine at the request of his daughter Constantia, in honour of the virgin martyr buried in the neighbouring catacomb; but rebuilt 625—38 by Honorius I. It was altered in 1490 by Innocent VIII., but retains more of its ancient character than most of the Roman churches. The polychrome decorations of the interior, and the rebuilding of the monastery, were carried out at the expense of Pius IX., as a thank-offering for his escape, when he fell through the floor here into a cellar, with his cardinals and attendants, on April 15, 1855. The scene is represented in a large fresco by Domenico Tojetti, in a chamber on the right of the courtyard.
The approach to the church is by a picturesque staircase of forty-five ancient marble steps, lined with inscriptions from the catacombs. The nave is divided from the aisles by sixteen columns, four of which are of "porta-santa" and two of "pavonazzetto." A smaller range of columns above these supports the roof of a triforium, which is on a level with the road. The baldacchino, erected in 1614, is supported by four porphyry columns. Beneath is the shrine of St. Agnes surmounted by her statue, an antique of oriental alabaster, with modern head, and hands of gilt bronze. The mosaics of the tribune, representing St. Agnes between Popes Honorius I. and Symmachus, are of the seventh century. Beneath, is an ancient episcopal chair.
The second chapel on the right has a beautiful mosaic altar, and a relief of SS. Stephen and Laurence of 1490. The third chapel is that of St. Emerentiana, foster-sister of St. Agnes, who was discovered praying beside the tomb of her friend, and was stoned to death because she refused to sacrifice to idols.
"So ancient is the worship paid to St. Agnes, that next to the Evangelists and Apostles, there is no saint whose effigy is older. It is found on the ancient glass and earthenware vessels used by the Christians in the early part of the third century, with her name inscribed, which leaves no doubt of her identity. But neither in these images, nor in the mosaics, is the lamb introduced, which in later times has become her inseparable attribute, as the patroness of maidens and maidenly modesty."—Jameson's Sacred Art, p. 105.
St. Agnes suffered martyrdom by being stabbed in the throat, under Diocletian, in her thirteenth year (see Ch. XIV.), after which, according to the expression used in the acts of her martyrdom, her parents "with all joy" laid her in the catacombs. One day as they were praying near the body of their child, she appeared to them surrounded by a great multitude of virgins, triumphant and glorious like herself, with a lamb by her side, and said, "I am in heaven, living with these virgins my companions, near Him whom I have so much loved." By her tomb, also, Constantia, a princess sick with hopeless leprosy, was praying for the healing of her body, when she heard a voice saying, "Rise up, Constantia, and go on constantly ('Costanter age, Constantia') in the faith of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who shall heal your diseases,"—and, being cured of her evil, she besought her father to build this basilica as a thank-offering.[243]
On the 21st of January, a beautiful service is celebrated here, in which two lambs, typical of the purity of the virgin saint, are blessed upon the altar. They are sent by the chapter of St. John Lateran, and their wool is afterwards used to make the pallium of the pope, which is consecrated before it is worn, by being deposited in a golden urn upon the tomb of St. Peter. The pallium is the sign of episcopal jurisdiction.
"Ainsi, le simple ornement de laine que ces prélats doivent porter sur leurs épaules comme symbole de la brebis du bon Pasteur, et que le pontife Romain prend sur l'autel même de Saint Pierre pour le leur adresser, va porter jusqu'aux extrémités de l'Eglise, dans une union sublime, le double sentiment de la force du Prince des Apôtres et de la douceur virginale d'Agnes."—Dom Guéranger.
Close to St' Agnese is the round Church of Sta. Costanza. erected by Constantine as a mausoleum for his daughters Constantia and Helena, and converted into a church by Alexander IV. (1254—61) in honour of the Princess Constantia, ob. 354, whose life is represented by Marcellinus as anything but saintlike, and who is supposed to have been confused in her canonization with a sainted nun of the same name. The rotunda, seventy-three feet in diameter, is surrounded by a vaulted corridor; twenty-four double columns of granite support the dome. The vaulting is covered with mosaic arabesques of the fourth century, of flowers and birds, with scenes referring to a vintage. The same subjects are repeated on the splendid porphyry sarcophagus of Sta. Costanza, of which the interest is so greatly marred by its removal to the Vatican from its proper site, whence it was first stolen by Pope Paul II., who intended to use it as his own tomb.
"Les enfants qui foulent le raisin, tels qu'on les voit dans les mosaïques de l'église de Sainte Constance, les bas-reliefs de son tombeau et ceux de beaucoup d'autres tombeaux chrétiens sont bien d'origine païenne, car on les voit aussi figurer dans les bas-reliefs où paraît Priape."—Ampère, Hist. Rom. iii. 257.
Behind the two churches is an oblong space, ending in a fine mass of ruin, which is best seen from the valley below. This was long supposed to be the Hippodrome of Constantine, but is now discovered to have belonged to an early Christian cemetery.
The Catacomb of St Agnese is entered from a vineyard about a quarter of a mile beyond the church. It is lighted and opened to the public on St. Agnes' Day. After those of St. Calixtus, this, perhaps, is the catacomb which is most worthy of a visit.
We enter by a staircase attributed to the time of Constantine. The passages are lined with the usual loculi for the dead, sometimes adapted for a single body, sometimes for two laid together. Beside many of the graves the palm of victory may be seen scratched on the mortar, and remains of the glass bottles or ampullæ, which are supposed to indicate the graves of martyrs, and to have contained a portion of their blood, of which they are often said to retain the trace. One of the graves in the first gallery bears the names of consuls of A.D. 336, which fixes the date of this part of the cemetery.
The most interesting features here are a square chamber hewn in the rock, with an arm-chair (sedia) cut out of the rock on either side of the entrance, supposed to have been a school for catechists,—and near this is a second chamber for female catechists, with plain seats in the same position. Opening out of the gallery close by is a chamber which was apparently used as a chapel; its arcosolium has marks of an altar remaining at the top of the grave, and near it is a credence-table; the roof is richly painted,—in the central compartment is our Lord seated between the rolls of the Old and New Testament. Above the arcosolium, in the place of honour, is our Saviour as the Good Shepherd, bearing a sheep upon his shoulders, and standing between other sheep and trees;—in the other compartments are Daniel in the lions' den, the Three Children in the furnace, Moses taking off his shoes, Moses striking the rock, and—nearest the entrance—the Paralytic carrying his bed. A neighbouring chapel has also remains of an altar and credence-table, and well-preserved paintings,—the Good Shepherd, Adam and Eve, with the tree between them, Jonah under the gourd, and in the fourth compartment a figure described by Protestants merely as an Orante, and by Roman Catholics as the Blessed Virgin.[244] Near this chapel we can look down through an opening into the second floor of the catacomb, which is lined with graves like the first.
In the further part of the catacomb is a long narrow chapel which has received the name of the cathedral or basilica. It is divided into three parts, of which the furthest, or presbytery, contains an ancient episcopal chair with lower seats on either side for priests—probably the throne where Pope St. Liberius (A.D. 359) officiated, with his face to the people, when he lived for more than a year hidden here from persecution. Hence a flight of steps leads down to what Northcote calls "the Lady Chapel," where, over the altar, is a fresco of an orante, without a nimbus, with outstretched arms,—with a child in front of her. On either side of this picture, a very interesting one, is the monogram of Constantine, and the painting is referred to his time. Near this chapel is a chamber with a spring running through it, evidently used as a baptistery.
At the extremity of the catacomb, under the basilica of St. Agnes, is one of its most interesting features. Here the passages become wider and more irregular, the walls sloping and unformed, and graves cease to appear, indicating one of the ancient arenaria, which here formed the approach to the catacomb, and beyond which the Christians excavated their cemetery.
The graves throughout almost all the catacombs have been rifled, the bones which they contained being distributed as relics throughout Roman Catholic Christendom, and most of the sarcophagi and inscriptions removed to the Lateran and other museums.
"Vous pourriez voir ici la capitale des catacombes de toute la chrétienté. Les martyrs, les confesseurs, et les vierges, y fourmillent de tous côtés. Quand on se fait besoin de quelques reliques en pays étrangers, le Pape n'a qu'à descendre ici et crier, Qui de vous autres veut aller être saint en Pologne? Alors, s'il se trouve quelque mort de bonne volonté, il se lève et s'en va."—De Brosses, 1739.
Half a mile beyond St' Agnese, the road reaches the willow-fringed river Anio, in which "Silvia changed her earthly life for that of a goddess," and which carried the cradle containing her two babes Romulus and Remus into the Tiber, to be brought to land at the foot of the Palatine fig-tree. Into this river we may also recollect that Sylla caused the ashes of his ancient rival Marius to be thrown. The river is crossed by the Ponte Nomentana, a mediæval bridge, partially covered, with forked battlements.
"Ponte Nomentana is a solitary dilapidated bridge in the spacious green Campagna. Many ruins from the days of ancient Rome, and many watch-towers from the middle ages, are scattered over this long succession of meadows; chains of hills rise towards the horizon, now partially covered with snow, and fantastically varied in form and colour by the shadows of the clouds. And there is also the enchanting vapoury vision of the Alban hills, which change their hues like the chameleon, as you gaze at them—where you can see for miles little white chapels glittering on the dark foreground of the hills, as far as the Passionist Convent on the summit, and whence you can trace the road winding through thickets, and the hills sloping downwards to the lake of Albano, while a hermitage peeps through the trees."—Mendelssohn's Letters.
The hill immediately beyond the bridge is the Mons Sacer (not only the part usually pointed out on the right of the road, but the whole hillside), to which the famous secession of the Plebs took place in B.C. 549, amounting, according to Dionysius, to about 4000 persons. Here they encamped upon the green slopes for four months, to the terror of the patricians, who foresaw that Rome, abandoned by its defenders, would fall before its enemies, and that the crops would perish for want of cultivation. Here Menenius Agrippa delivered his apologue of the belly and its members, which is said to have induced them to return to Rome; that which really decided them to do so being the concession of tribunes, to be the organs and representatives of the plebs as the consuls were of the patricians. The epithet Sacer is ascribed by Dionysius to an altar which the plebeians erected at the time on the hill to Ζεὑς Δειμἁτιος.
A second secession to the Mons Sacer took place in B.C. 449, when the plebs rose against Appius Claudius after the death of Virginia, and retired hither under the advice of M. Duilius, till the decemvirs resigned.
Following the road beyond the bridge past the castle known as Casale dei Pazzi (once used as a lunatic asylum) and the picturesque tomb called Torre Nomentana,—as far as the seventh milestone—we reach the remains of the unburied Basilica of S. Alessandro, built on the site of the place where that pope suffered martyrdom with his companions Eventius and Theodulus, A.D. 119, and was buried on the same spot by the Christian matron Severina.[245] The plan of the basilica, disinterred 1856-7, is still quite perfect. The tribune and high altar retain fragments of rich marbles and alabasters; the episcopal throne also remains in its place.
The "Acts of the martyrs Alexander, Eventius, and Theodulus," narrate that Severina buried the bodies of the first two martyrs in one tomb, and the third separately—"Theodulum vero alibi sepelivit." This is borne out by the discovery of a chapel opening from the nave, where the single word "martyri," is supposed to point out the grave of Theodulus. A baptistery has been found with its font, and another chapel adjoining is pointed out as the place where neophytes assembled to receive confirmation from the bishop. Among epitaphs laid bare in the pavement is one to a youth named Apollo "votus Deo" (dedicated to the priesthood?) at the age of 14. Entered from the church is the catacomb called "ad nymphas," containing many ancient inscriptions and a few rude paintings.
Mass is solemnly performed here by the Cardinal Prefect of the Propaganda on the festival of St. Alexander, May 3, when the roofless basilica—backed by the blue Sabine mountains and surrounded by the utterly desolate Campagna—is filled with worshippers, and presents a striking scene. Beyond this a road to the left leads through beautiful woods to Mentana, occupying the site of the ancient Nomentum, and recently celebrated for the battle between the papal troops and the Garibaldians on Nov. 3, 1867. The conflict took place chiefly on the hillside which is passed on the right before reaching the town. Two miles further is Monte Rotondo, with a fine old castle of the Barberini family (once of the Orsini), from which there is a beautiful view. This place was also the scene of fighting in 1867. It is possible to vary the route in returning to Rome from hence by the lower road which leads by the (now broken) Ponte Salara.
If we re-enter Rome by the Porta Pia, immediately within the gates we find another Villa belonging to the Torlonia family. The straight road from the gate leads by the Termini to the Quattro Fontane and the Monte Cavallo. On the left, if we follow the Via de Macao, which takes its strange name from a gift of land which the princes of Savoy made to the Jesuits for a mission in China, we reach a small piazza with two pines, where a gate on the left leads to the remains of the Pretorian Camp, established by Sejanus, the minister of Tiberius. It was dismantled by Constantine, but from three sides having been enclosed by Aurelian in the line of his city-wall, its form is still preserved to us. The Pretorian Camp was an oblong of 1200 by 1500 feet; its area was occupied by a vineyard of the Jesuits till 1861, when a "Campo Militare" was again established here, for the pontifical troops.
"En suivant l'enceinte de Rome, quand on arrive à l'endroit où elle se continue par le mur du Camp des prétoriens, on est frappé de la supériorité de construction que présente celui-ci. La partie des murs d'Honorius qui est voisine a été refaite au huitième siècle. Le commencement et la fin de l'empire se touchent. On peut apprécier d'un coup d'œil l'état de la civilisation aux deux époques: voilà ce qu'on faisait dans le premier siècle, et voilà ce qu'on faisait au huitième, après la conquête de l'empire Romain par les Barbares. Il faut songer toutefois que cette époque où l'on construisait si bien a amené celle où l'on ne savait plus construire."—Ampère, Emp. i. 421.
Hence a road, three-quarters of a mile long, leads—passing under an arch of Sixtus V.—to the Porta S. Lorenzo (Ch. XIII.).
The road opposite the gateway leading to the Camp is bordered on the left by the buildings belonging to the Railway Station, beyond which is the entrance to the grounds of the Villa Massimo Negroni, which possessed a delightful terrace, fringed with orange-trees—a most agreeable sunny walk in winter—and many pleasant shady nooks and corners for summer, but which has been mutilated and stripped of all its beauties since the Sardinian rule. In a part of this villa beyond the railway but still visible from hence, is a colossal statue of Minerva (generally called "Rome"), which is a relic of the residence here of Cardinal Felix Perretti, who as a boy had watched the pigs of his father at Montalto, and who lived to mount the papal throne as Sixtus V. The pedestal of the statue bears his arms,—a lion holding three pears in its paw. Here, with her husband's uncle, lived the famous Vittoria Accoramboni, the wife of the handsome Francesco Perretti, who had been vainly sought in marriage by the powerful and ugly old Prince Paolo Orsini. It was from hence that her young husband was summoned to a secret interview with her brothers on the slopes of the Quirinal, where he was cruelly murdered by the hired bravos of her first lover. Hence also Vittoria went forth—on the very day of the installation of Sixtus V.—to her strange second marriage with the murderer of her husband, who died six months after, leaving her with one of the largest fortunes in Italy—an amount of wealth which led to her own barbarous murder through the jealousy of the Orsini a month afterwards.
Here, after the election of her brother to the papacy, lived Camilla, the sister of Sixtus V., whom he refused to recognise when she came to him in splendid attire as a princess, but tenderly embraced when she reappeared in her peasant's wimple and hood. From hence her two granddaughters were married,—one to Virginius Orsini, the other to Marc-Antonio Colonna, an alliance which healed the feud of centuries between the two families.
In later times the Villa Negroni was the residence of the poet Alfieri.
The principal terrace ends near a reservoir which belonged to the baths of Diocletian.
"As one looks from the Villa Negroni windows, one cannot fail to be impressed by the strange changes through which this wonderful city has passed. The very spot on which Nero, the insane emperor-artist, fiddled while Rome was burning, has now become a vast kitchen-garden, belonging to Prince Massimo (himself a descendant, as he claims, of Fabius Cunctator), where men no longer, but only lettuces, asparagus, and artichokes, are ruthlessly cut down. The inundations are not for mock sea-fights among slaves, but for the peaceful purposes of irrigation. In the bottom of the valley, a noble old villa, covered with frescoes, has been turned into a manufactory for bricks, and part of the Villa Negroni itself is now occupied by the railway station. Yet here the princely family of Negroni lived, and the very lady at whose house Lucrezia Borgia took her famous revenge may once have sauntered under the walls, which still glow with ripening oranges, to feed the gold fish in the fountain,—or walked with stately friends through the long alleys of clipped cypresses, or pic-nicked alla Giornata on lawns which are now but kitchen-gardens, dedicated to San Cavolo."—Story's Roba di Roma.
The lower part of the Villa Negroni, and the slopes towards the Esquiline, were once celebrated as the Campus Esquilinus, a large pauper burial-ground, where bodies were thrown into pits called puticoli,[246] as is still the custom at Naples. There were also tombs here of a somewhat pretentious character: "those probably of rich well-to-do burgesses, yet not great enough to command the posthumous honour of a roadside mausoleum."[247] Horace dwells on the horrors of this burial-ground, where he places the scene of Canidia's incantations:—
The place was considered very unhealthy until its purification by Mæcenas.
"The Campus Esquilinus, between the roads which issued from the Esquiline and Viminal gates, was the spot assigned for casting out the carcases of slaves, whose foul and half-burnt remains were hardly hidden from the vultures. The accursed field was enclosed, it would appear, neither by wall nor fence, to exclude the wandering steps of man or beast; and from the public walk on the summit of the ridge, it must have been viewed in all its horrors. Here prowled in troops the houseless dogs of the city and the suburbs; here skulked the solitary wolf from the Alban hills, and here perhaps, to the doleful murmurs of the Marsic chaunt, the sorceress compounded her philtres of the ashes of dead men's bones. Mæcenas (B.C. 7) deserved the gratitude of the citizens, when he obtained a grant of this piece of land, and transformed it into a park or garden.... The Campus Esquilinus is now part of the gardens of the Villa Negroni."—Merivale, Romans under the Empire.
Within what were the grounds of the Villa Negroni until they were encroached upon by the railway, but now only to be visited with a "lascia passare" from the station master, are some of the best remains of the Agger of Servius Tullius. In 1869—70, some curious painted chambers were discovered here, but were soon destroyed,—and the foolish jealousy of the authorities prevented any drawings or photographs being taken. The Agger can be traced from the Porta Esquilina (near the Arch of Gallienus), to the Porta Collina (near the Gardens of Sallust). In the time of the empire it had become a kind of promenade, as we learn from Horace.[248]
Opposite the station are the vast, but for the most part uninteresting, remains of the Baths of Diocletian, covering a space of 440,000 square yards. They were begun by Diocletian and Maximian, about A.D. 302, and finished by Constantius and Maximinus. It is stated by Cardinal Baronius, that 40,000 Christians were employed in the work; some bricks marked with crosses have been found in the ruins. At the angles of the principal front were two circular halls, both of which remain; one is near the modern Villa Strozzi, at the back of the Negroni garden, and is now used as a granary, the other is transformed into the Church of S. Bernardo.
The Baths are supposed to have first fallen into decay after the Gothic invasion of A.D. 410. In the sixteenth century the site was sold to Cardinal Bella, ambassador of Francis I. at Rome, who built a fine palace among the ruins; after his death, in 1560, the property was re-sold to S. Carlo Borromeo. He sold it again to his uncle, Pope Pius IV., who founded the monastery of Carthusian monks. These, in 1593, sold part of the ruins to Caterina Sforza, who founded the Cistercian convent of S. Bernardo.
About 1520, a Sicilian priest called Antonio del Duca came to Rome, bringing with him from Palermo pictures of the seven archangels (Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Santhiel, Gendiel, and Borachiel), copied from some which existed in the Church of S. Angiolo. Carried away by the desire of instituting archangel-worship at Rome, he obtained leave to affix these pictures to seven of the columns still standing erect in the Baths of Diocletian, which, ten years after, Julius II. allowed to be consecrated under the title of Sta. Maria degli Angeli; though Pius IV., declaring that angel-worship had never been sanctioned by the Church, except under the three names mentioned in Scripture, ordered the pictures of Del Duca to be taken away.[249] At the same time he engaged Michael Angelo to convert the great oblong hall of the Baths (Calidarium) into a church. The church then arranged was not such as we now see, the present entrance having been then the atrium of the side chapel, and the main entrance at first by what is now the right transept, while the high altar stood in what is now the left transept. In 1749, the desire of erecting a chapel to the Beato Nicolo Albergati, led to the church being altered, under Vanvitelli, as we now see it.
The Church of Sta. Maria degli Angeli, still most magnificent, is now entered by a rotunda (Laconicum) which contains four monuments of some interest; on the right of the entrance is that of the artist Carlo Maratta, who died 1713; on the left that of Salvator Rosa, who died 1673, with an epitaph by his son, describing him as "Pictorum sui temporis nulli secundum, poetarum omnium temporum principibus parem!" Beyond, on the right, is the monument of Cardinal Alciati, professor of law at Milan, who procured his hat through the interest of S. Carlo Borromeo, with the epitaph "Virtute vixit, memoria vivit, gloria vivet,"—on the left, that of Cardinal Parisio di Corenza, inscribed, "Corpus humo tegitur, fama per ora volat, spiritus astra tenet." In the chapel on the right are the angels of Peace and Justice, by Pettrich; in that on the left Christ appearing to the Magdalen, by Arrigo Fiamingo. Against the pier on the right is the grand statue of S. Bruno, by Houdon, of which Clement XIV. (Ganganelli) used to say, "He would speak, if the rule of his Order did not forbid it."
The body of the church is now a perfect gallery of very large pictures, most of which were brought from St. Peter's, where their places have been supplied by mosaic copies. In what is now the right transept, on the right, is the Crucifixion of St. Peter, Ricciolini; the Fall of Simon Magus, a copy of Francesco Vanni (the original in St. Peter's); on the left, St. Jerome, with St. Bruno and St. Francis, Muziano (1528—92) (the landscape by Brill); and the Miracles of St. Peter, Baglioni. This transept ends in the chapel of the Beato Nicolo Albergati, a Carthusian Cardinal, who was sent as legate by Martin V., in 1422, to make a reconciliation between Charles VI. of France and Henry V. of England. The principal miracle ascribed to him, the conversion of bread into coal in order to convince the Emperor of Germany of his divine authority, is represented in the indifferent altar-piece. In the left transept, which ends in the chapel of S. Bruno, are: on the left, St. Basil by the solemnity of the Mass rebuking the Emperor Valens, Subleyras; and the Fall of Simon Magus, Pompeo Battoni;—on the right, the Immaculate Conception, P. Bianchi; and Tabitha raised from the Dead, P. Costanzi.
In the tribune are, on the right, the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, Romanelli; and the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, a grand fresco of Domenichino, painted originally on the walls of St. Peter's, and removed here with great skill by the engineer Zabaglia;—on the left, the Death of Ananias and Sapphira, Pomarancio; and the Baptism of Christ, Maratta.
On the right of the choir is the tomb of Cardinal Antonio Serbelloni; on the left that of Pius IV., Giovanni Angelo Medici (1559-1565), under whose reign the Council of Trent was closed,—uncle of S. Carlo Borromeo, a lively and mundane pope, but the cruel persecutor of the Caraffa nephews of his predecessor, Paul IV., whom he executed in the Castle of S. Angelo.
Of the sixteen columns in this church (45 feet in height, 16 feet in diameter), only the eight in the transept are of ancient Egyptian granite; the rest are in brick, stuccoed in imitation, and were additions of Vanvitelli. On the pavement is a meridian line, laid down in 1703.
"Quand Dioclétien faisait travailler les pauvres chrétiens à ses étuves, ce n'était pas son dessein de bâtir des églises à leurs successeurs; il ne pensait pas être fondateur, comme il l'a été, d'un monastère de Pères Chartreux et d'un monastère de Pères Feuillants.... C'est aux dépens de Dioclétien, de ses pierres et de son ciment qu'on fait des autels et des chapelles à Jesus-Christ, des dortoirs et des réfectoires à ses serviteurs. La providence de Dieu se joue de cette sorte des pensées des hommes, et les événements sont bien éloignés des intentions quand la terre a un dessein et le ciel un autre."—Balzac.
The Carthusian convent behind the church (ladies are not admitted) contains several picturesque fountains. That in the great cloister, built from designs of Michael Angelò, is surrounded by a group of huge and grand cypresses, said to have been planted by his hand.
"Il semble que la vie ne sert ici qu'à contempler la mort—les hommes qui existent ainsi sont pourtant les mêmes à qui la guerre et toute son activité suffirait à peine s'ils y étaient accoutumés. C'est un sujet inépuisable de réflexion que les différentes combinaisons de la destinée humaine sur la terre. Il se passe dans l'intérieur de l'âme mille accidents, il se forme mille habitudes, qui font de chaque individu un monde et son histoire."—Madame de Staël.
On a line with the monastery is a Prison for Women—then an Institution for Deaf, Dumb, and Blind—then the ugly Fountain of the Termini (designed by Fontana), sometimes called Fontanone dell' Acqua Felice, (Felice, from Fra Felice, the name by which Sixtus V. was known before his papacy,) to which the Acqua Felice was brought from Colonna 22 miles distant in the Alban hills, in 1583, by Sixtus V. It is surmounted by a hideous statue of Moses by Prospero Bresciano, who is said to have died of vexation at the ridicule it excited when uncovered. The side statues, of Aaron and Gideon, are by Giov. Batt. della Porta and Flaminio Vacca.
Opposite this, in the Via della Porta Pia, is the Church of Sta. Maria della Vittoria, built in 1605, by Carlo Maderno, for Paul V. Its façade was added from designs of Giov. Batt. Soria, by Cardinal Borghese, in payment to the monks of the adjoining Carmelite convent, for the statue of the Hermaphrodite, which had been found in their vineyard.
The name of the church commemorates an image of the Virgin, burnt in 1833, which was revered as having been instrumental in gaining the victory for the Catholic imperial troops over the Protestant Frederick and Elizabeth of Bohemia, at the battle of the White Mountain, near Prague. The third chapel on the left contains the Trinity, by Guercino; a Crucifixion, by Guido; and a portrait of Cardinal Cornaro, Guido. The altar-piece of the second chapel on the right, representing St. Francis receiving the Infant Christ from the Virgin, is by Domenichino, as are two frescoes on the side walls. In the left transept, above an altar adorned with a gilt bronze-relief of the Last Supper, by Cav. d'Arpino, is a group representing Sta. Teresa transfixed by the dart of the Angel of Death, by Bernini. The following criticisms upon it are fair specimens of the contrast between English and French taste.
"All the Spanish pictures of Sta. Theresa sin in their materialism; but the grossest example—the most offensive—is the marble group of Bernini, in the Santa Maria della Vittoria at Rome. The head of Sta. Theresa is that of a languishing nymph, the angel is a sort of Eros; the whole has been significantly described as 'a parody of Divine love.' The vehicle, white marble,—its place in a Christian church,—enhance all its vileness. The least destructive, the least prudish in matters of art, would here willingly throw the first stone."—Mrs. Jameson's Monastic Orders, p. 421.