LXXI. CHAP. 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 fome vifits of curiofity, reftored the unprofitable marble to its former grave. The difcovery 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 fhould 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 refcued the Roman hero from the hands of his barbarous countrymen 73 Reftoration and orna A. D. 1420, &c. But the clouds of barbarism were gradually dif pelled; and the peaceful authority of Martin the ments of fifth and his fucceffors, restored the ornaments of the city, the city as well as the order of the ecclefiaftical ftate. The improvements of Rome, fince the fifteenth century, have not been the fpontaneous produce of freedom and industry. The firft and moft natural root of a great city, is the labour and populousness of the adjacent country, which 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 ftatues, that were expofed to the air in a barbarous age. .72 Prope porticum Minerve, ftatua eft recubantis, cujus caput Integrâ effigie, tantæ magnitudinis, ut figna omnia excedat, Quida nad plantandos arbores ferobes faciens detexit. Ad hoc vilendum cum plures in dies magis concurrerent, ftrepitum adeuntium faftidiumque pertæfus, horti patronus congeftâ humo texit (Poggins 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 419). fupplies LXXI. fupplies the materials of fubfiftence, of manufac- CHAP. tures, 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 scanty harvefts 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 luxu rious court, and the tributes of dependent provinces. Those 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 fupply, which maintains however the idlenefs 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 feventy thousand inhabitants 74; and within the fpacious inclofure of the walls, the largest portion of the feven hills is overspread with vineyards and ruins. The beauty and fplendour of the modern city may be afcribed to the abufes of the government, to the influence of fuperftition. Each reign (the exceptions are rare) 74 In the year 1709, the inhabitants of Rome (without including eight or ten thousand 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 cons tinued in a progreffive state. has 1 LXXI. CHAP. 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 most costly monuments of elegance and fervitude; the perfect arts of architecture, painting, and sculpture, have been prostituted in their service, 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 it is fuperfluous to enumerate their pious foundations of altars, chapels, and churches, fince these leffer stars are eclipfed by the fun of the Vatican, by the dome of St. Peter, the most glorious ftructure 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 superior merit of Bramante and Fontana, of Raphael and Michael-Angelo: and the fame munificence which had been displayed in palaces and temples, was directed with equal zeal to revive and emulate the labours of antiquity. Prof trate obelisks were raised from the ground, and erected in the most confpicuous places; of the eleven aqueducts of the Cæfars and confuls, three were restored; the artificial rivers were conducted over a long series of old, or of new, arches, to discharge into marble basins a flood of falubrious and refreshing waters: and the fpectator, impatient to ascend the steps of St. Peter's, is detained by a column of Egyptian granite, which LXXI. rifes between two lofty and perpetual fountains, CHAP. 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" and the footsteps of heroes, the relics, 'not of fuperstition, but of empire, are devoutly vifited by a new race of pilgrims from the remote, and once favage, countries of the North. clufion. Of these pilgrims, and of every reader, the at- Final contention will be excited by an hiftory of the decline and fall of the Roman empire; the greatest, perhaps, and most awful scene, in the history of mankind. The various caufes and progreffive effects are connected with many of the events 75 The Pere Montfaucon diftributes his own obfervations into twenty days, he should have styled 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 topogra phers of ancient Rome; the firft 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 ftudy of inscriptions, and the places where they were found. 3. The investigation of all the acts, charters, diaries of the middle ages, which name any spot or building of Rome. The laborious work, fuch as Mountfaucon defired, must be promoted by princely or public munificence: but the great modern plan of Nolli (A. D. 1748) would furnish a solid and accurate basis for the ancient topography of Rome. moft CHAP. most interesting in human annals: the artful poLXXI. licy of the Cæfars, who long maintained the name and image of a free republic; the diforders of military defpotism; the rise, establishment, and fects of Christianity; the foundation of Constantinople; the division of the monarchy; the invafion and fettlements 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 reftoration and decay of the Western empire of Charlemagne; the crufades of the Latins in the Eaft; the conquefts of the Saracens and Turks ; the ruin of the Greek empire; the state and revolutions of Rome in the middle age. The hiftorian may applaud the importance and variety of his fubject; but, while he is conscious of his own imperfections, he must often accufe the deficiency of his materials. It was among the ruins of the Capitol, that I first conceived the idea of a work which has amufed and exercised near twenty years of my life, and which, however inadequate to my own wifhes, I finally deliver to the curiofity and candour of the Public. LAUSANNE, June 27, 1787. GENERAL |