LXXI. CHA P. ger of the Rhône was more converfant with these antiquities than the nobles and natives of the metropolis (67). The ignorance and credulity of the Romans are elaborately difplayed in the old furvey of the city which was compofed about the beginning of the thirteenth century; and, without dwelling on the manifold errors of name and place, the legend of the Capitol (68) may provoke a fmile 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 refid"ed 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 richest and most "curious carving. Below the citadel ftood a palace, of "gold for the greatest part, decorated with precious ftones, "and whofe value might be efteemed at one third of the "world itself. The ftatues of all the provinces were ar"ranged 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 statue "turned round to that quarter of the heavens, the bell rang, "the prophet of the Capitol reported the prodigy, and the fenate was admonished of the impending danger.' A fecond example of lefs importance, though of equal absurdity, may be drawn from the two marble horfes, led by two naked. youths, which have fince been transported from the baths of Conftantine to the Quirinal hill. The groundless application of the names of Phidias and Praxiteles may perhaps be excused; but these Grecian sculptors 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 philofophers or magicians, whofe nakedness was the fymbol of truth and knowledge, who revealed to the emperor (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. (68) After the defcription of the Capitol, he adds, ftatuæ erant quot funt mundi provinciæ; et habebat quælibet tintinnabulum ad coilum. Et erant ita per magicam artem dispositæ, ut quando aliqua regio Romano Imperio rebellis erat, ftatim imago illius provinciæ vertebat fe contra illam; undę 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-Persians (Anonym. in Montfaucon, p. 297, 298.) (69) The fame writer affirms, that Virgil captus a Romanis invifibiliter exiit, ivitque Neapolim. A Roman magician, in the xith century, is introduced by William of Malmsbury (de Gestis Regum Anglorum, 1, ii. p. 86. ); and in the time of Flaminius Vacca (No. 81, 103.) it was the vulgar belief that the ftrangers(the Goths)invoked the dæmons for the difcovery of hidden treasures. LXXI. emperor his moft fecret actions; and after refufing all pe- CHA P. cuniary recompenfe, folicited the honour of leaving this eternal monument of themselves (70). 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 (71). The Nile, which now adorns the Vatican, had been explored by fome labourers in digging a vineyard near the temple, or convent, of the Minerva; but the impatient proprietor, who was tormented by some vifits of cu riofity, reftored the unprofitable marble to its former grave (72). The discovery of a ftatue of Pompey, ten feet in length, was the occafion of a law-fuit. It had been found under a partition-wall: the equitable judge had pronounced, that the head should be feparated from the body to fatisfy the claims of the contiguous owners; and the fentence would have been executed, if the interceffion of a cardinal, and the liberality of a pope, had not rescued the Roman hero from the hands of his barbarous countrymen (73). ments of the But the clouds of barbarifm were gradually dispelled; Restoration and the peaceful authority of Martin the fifth and his fuc- and ornaceffors, restored the ornaments of the city as well as the city, order of the ecclefiaftical state. The improvements of A.D. 1420, Rome, fince the fifteenth century, have not been the fpon- &c. VOL. VI. ૨.૧ taneous (70) Anonymn. p. 289. Montfaucon (p. 191.) justly observes that if Alexander be reprefented, thefe ftatues cannot be the work of Phidias. (Olympiad lxxxiii.) or Praxiteles (Olympiad civ.), who lived before that conqueror (Plin. Hift. Natur. xxxiv. 19.). (71) William of Malmsbury (1.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 perforat ingens), &c. If this fable refts on the flightest foundation, we may pity the bodies, as well as the statues, that were exposed to the air in a barbarous age. (72) Prope porticum Minerva, ftatua eft recubantis, cujus caput integrâ effigie, tantæ magnitudinis, ut figna omnia excedat. Quidam ad plantandos arbores fcrobes faciens detexit. Ad hoc vifendum cum plures in dies magis concurrerent, ftrepitum adeuntium faftidiumque pertæsus, horti patronus congefta humo texit (Poggius de Varietate Fortunæ, p. 12.). (73) See the Memorials of Flaminius Vacca, No. 57. p. 11, 12. at the end of the Roma Antica of Nardini (1704, in 4to). LXXI. CHA P.taneous produce of freedom and industry. The first and moft natural root of a great city, is the labour and populoufnefs of the adjacent country, which fupplies the materials of fubfiftence, of manufactures, and of foreign trade. But the greater part of the Campagna of Rome is reduced to a dreary and defolate wildernefs: the overgrown eftates of the princes and the clergy are cultivated by the lazy hands of indigent and hopeless vaffals; and the fcanty harvests are confined or exported for the benefit of a monopoly. A fecond and more artificial caufe of the growth of a metropolis, is the refidence of a monarch, the expence of a luxurious court, and the tributes of dependent provinces. Thofe provinces and tributes had been loft in the fall of the empire and if fome ftreams of the filver of Peru and the gold of Brafil have been attracted by the Vatican; the revenues of the cardinals, the fees of office, the oblations of pilgrims and clients, and the remnant of ecclefiaftical taxes, afford a poor and precarious fapply, which maintains however the idleness of the court and city. The population of Rome, far below the meafure of the great capitals of Europe, does not exceed one hundred and seventy thoufand inhabitants (74); and within the spacious inclosure of the walls, the largest portion of the feven hills is overfpread with vineyards and ruins. The beauty and fplen dour of the modern city may be afcribed to the abuses of the government, to the influence of fuperftition. Each reign (the exceptions are rare) has been marked by the rapid elevation of a new family, enriched by the childless pontiff at the expence of the church and country. The palaces of these fortunate nephews are the moft coftly monuments of elegance and fervitude; the perfect arts of architecture, painting, and sculpture, have been prostituted in their fervice, and their galleries and gardens are decorated with the most precious works of antiquity, which tafte or vanity has prompted them to collect. The ecclefiaftical revenues were more decently employed by the popes themselves in the pomp of the Catholic worship; but (74) In the year 1709, the inhabitants of Rome (without including eight or ten thoufand Jews) amounted to 138,568 fouls (Labat, Voyages en Efpagne et en Italie, tom. iii. p. 217, 218.). In 1740 they had increased to 146,080; and in 1765, I left them, without the Jews, 161,899. I am ignorant whether they have fince continued in a progressive state. T LXXI. but it is fuperfluous to enumerate their pious foundations CHAP. of altars, chapels, and churches, fince thefe leffer ftars are eclipsed by the fun of the Vatican, by the dome of St. Peter, the moft glorious structure that ever has been applied to the ufe of religion. The fame of Julius the fecond, Leo the tenth, and Sixtus the fifth, is accompanied by the fuperior merit of Bramante and Fontana, of Raphael and Michael-Angelo; and the fame munificence which had been difplayed in palaces and temples, was directed with equal zeal to revive and emulate the labours of antiquity. Proftrate obelifks were raised from the ground, and erected in the moft confpicuous places; of the eleven aqueducts of the Cæfars and confuls, three were restored; the artificial rivers were conducted over a long feries of old, or of new, arches, to discharge into marble basins a flood of falubrious and refreshing waters: and the fpectaror, impatient to afcend the fteps of St. Peter's, is detained by a column of Egyptian granite, which rifes between two lofty and perpetual fountains, to the height of one hundred and twenty feet. The map, the description, the monuments of ancient Rome, have been elucidated by the diligence of the antiquarian and the ftudent (75): and the footsteps of heroes, the relics, not of fuperftition, but of empire, are devoutly vifited by a new race of pilgrims from the remote, and once favage, countries of the North. Of thefe pilgrims, and of every reader, the attention Final conwill be excited by an history of the decline and fall of the clufion. ९ 9 3 Roman (75) The Pere Montfaucon diftributes his own obfervations into twenty days, he fhould have ftyled them weeks, or months, of his vifits to the different parts of the city (Diarium Italicum, c. 8-20. p. 104-301.). That learned Benedictine reviews the topographers of ancient Rome; the first efforts of Blondus, Fulvius, Martianus, and Faunus, the fuperior labours of Pyrrhus Ligorius, had his learning been equal to his labours; the writings of Onuphrius Panvinius, qui omnes obfcuravit, and the recent but imperfect books of Donatus and Nardini. Yet Montfaucon ftill fighs for a more complete plan and description of the old city, which must be attained by the three following methods: 1. The measurement of the space and intervals of the ruins. 2. The study of infcriptions, and the places where they were found. 3. The investigation of all the acts, charters, diaries of the middle ages, which name any fpot or building of Rome. The laborious work, fuch as Montfaucon defired, must be promoted by princely or public munificence: but the great modern plan of Nolli (A. D. 1748.) would furnith a solid and accurate bafis for the ancient topography of Rome. CHAP. Roman empire; the greateft, perhaps, and most awful LXXI. fcene, in the hiftory of mankind. The various causes and progreffive effects are connected with many of the events most interesting in human annals: the artful policy of the Cæfars, who long maintained the name and image of a free republic; the disorders of military defpotism; the rife, establishment, and fects of Christianity; the founda tion of Conftantinople; the divifion of the monarchy; the invasion and settlement of the Barbarians of Germany and Scythia; the inftitutions of the civil law; the character and religion of Mahomet; the temporal fovereignty of the popes; the restoration and decay of the Weftern empire of Charlemagne; the crufades of the Latins in the East; the conquefts of the Saracens and Turks; the ruin of the Greek empire; the ftate and revolutions of Rome in the middle age. The hiftorian may applaud the importance and variety of his fubject; but, while, he is confcious of his own imperfections, he must often accule the deficiency of his materials. It was among the ruins of the Capitol, that I first conceived the idea of a work which has amused and exercised near twenty years of my life, and which, however inadequate to my wifhes, I finally deliver to the curiofity and candour of the Public. LAUSANNE, |