CHA P. of fome Barbarian chief; but the groffer multitude, regardLXXI. lefs of the form, was tenacious only of the substance; and the melted ingots might be readily divided and ftamped into the current coin of the empire. The lefs active or lefs fortunate robbers were reduced to the bafer plunder of brass, lead, iron, and copper: whatever had escaped the Goths and Vandals was pillaged by the Greek tyrants; and the emperor Conftans, in his rapacious vifit, ftripped the bronze tiles from the roof of the Pantheon (28). The edifices of Rome might be confidered as a vast and various mine; the first labour of extracting the materials was already performed; the metals were purified and caft; the marbles were hewn and polished; and after foreign and domestic rapine had been fatiated, the remains of the city, could a purcha fer have been found, were ftill venal. The monuments of antiquity had been left naked of their precious ornaments, but the Romans would demolifh with their own hands the arches and walls, if the hope of profit could surpass the coft of the labour and exportation. If Charlemagne had fixed in Italy the feat of the Western empire, his genius would have afpired to restore, rather than to violate, the works of the Cæfars: but policy confined the French monarch to the forefts of Germany; his tafte could be gratified only by deftruction; and the new palace of Aix la Chapelle was decorated with the marbles of Ravenna (29) and Rome (30). Five hundred years after Charlemagne, a king of Sicily, Robert, the wifeft and moft liberal fovereign of the age, was fupplied with the fame materials by the eafy navigation of the Tyber and the fea; and Petrarch fighs an indignant com plaint, that the ancient capital of the world fhould adorn from her own bowels the flothful luxury of Naples (31). But (28) Omnia quæ erant in ære ad ornatum civitatis depofuit: fed et ecclefiam B. Mariæ ad martyres quæ de tegulis æreis cooperta difcooperuit (Anast. in Vitalian, p. 141.). The bafe and facrilegious Greek had not even the poor pretence of plundering an heathen temple; the Pantheon was already a Catholic church. (29) For the fpoils of Ravenna (mufiva atque marmora) fee the original grant of pope Adrian 1. to Charlemagne (Codex Carolin. epift. lxvii, in Muratori, Script, Ital, tom, iii, P. ii. p. 223.). (30) 1 fhall quote the authentic teftimony of the Saxon poet (A. D. 887 899), de Rebus geftis Caroli magni, 1. v. 437-440. in the Hiftorians of France (tom. v. p. 180.): Ad quæ marmoreas præftabat RoMA columnas, De tam longinquâ poterit regione vetuftas And I fhall add, from the Chronicle of Sigebert (Hiftorians of France, tom. 537. But these examples of plunder or purchase were rare in the CHAP. darker ages; and the Romans, alone and unenvied, might LXXI. have applied to their private or public ufe the remaining ftructures of antiquity, if in their prefent form and fituation they had not been useless in a great meafure to the city and its inhabitants. The walls ftill defcribed the old circumference, but the city had defcended from the feven hills into the Campus Martius; and fome of the nobleft monuments which had braved the injuries of time were left in a defert, far remote from the habitations of mankind. The palaces of the fenators were no longer adapted to the manners or fortunes of their indigent fucceffors: the ufe of baths (32) and porticoes was forgotten: in the fixth century, the games of the theatre, amphitheatre, and circus, had been interrupted: fome temples were devoted to the prevailing worhip; but the Chriftian churches preferred the holy figure of the cross; and fashion, or reafon, had diftributed after a peculiar model the cells and offices of the cloyfter. Under the ecclesiastical reign, the number of these pious foundations was enormously multiplied, and the city was crowded with forty monafteries of men, twenty of women, and fixty chapters and colleges of canons and priests (33), who aggravated, instead of relieving, the depopulation of the tenth century. But if the forms of ancient architecture were difregarded by a people infenfible of their use and beauty, the plentiful materials were applied to every call of neceflity or fuperftition; till the fairest columns of the Ionic and Corinthian orders, the richeft marbles of Paros and Numidia, were degraded, perhaps to the fupport of a convent or a stable. The daily havock which is perpetrated by the Turks in the cities of Greece 537. in Epiftolâ hortatoriâ ad Nicolaum Laurentium); it is fo ftrong and full to the point: Nec pudor aut pietas continuit quominus impii fpoliata Dei templa, occupatas arces, opes publicas, regiones urbis, atque honores magiftratuum inter fe divifos; (babeant ?) quam unâ in re, turbulenti ac feditiofi homines et totius reliquæ vitæ confiliis et rationibus difcordes, inhumani foederis ftupendâ focietate convenerant, in pontes et menia atque immeritos lapides defavirent. Denique poft vi vel fenio collapfa palatia, quæ quondam ingentes tenuerunt viri, poft diruptos arcus triumphales (unde majores horum forfitan corruerunt), de ipfius vetuftatis ac propriæ impietatis fragminibus vilem queftum turpi mercimonio captare non puduit. Itaque nunc, heu dolor! fcelus indignum! de veftris marmoreis columnis, de liminibus templorum (ad quæ nuper ex orbe toto concurfus devotiffimus fiebat), de imaginibus fepulchrorum fub quibus patrum veftrorum venerabilis civia (cinis?) erat, ut reliquas fileam, defidiofa Neapolis adornatur, Sic paullatim ruinæ ipfæ deficiunt. Yet king Robert was the friend of Petrarch. (32) Yet Charlemagne washed and fwam at Aix la Chapelle with an hundred of his courtiers (Eginhart, c. 22. p. 108, 109.), and Muratori defcribes as late as the year 814, the public baths which were built at Spoleto in Italy (Annali. tom. vi. p. 416.). (33) See the Annals of Italy, A. D. 988. For this and the preceding fact, Muratori himself is indebted to the Benedictine history of Pére Mabillon. CHAP. Greece and Afia, may afford a melancholy example; and LXXI. in the gradual deftruction of the monuments of Rome, Six IV. The domeftic quarrels of the Ro mans. tus the fifth may alone be excused for employing the stones of the Septizonium in the glorious edifice of St. Peter's (34) A fragment, a ruin, howfoever mangled or profaned, may be viewed with pleasure and regret; but the greater part of the marble was deprived of fubftance, as well as of place and proportion; it was burnt to lime for the purpose of cement. Since the arrival of Poggius, the temple of Concord (35), and many capital structures, had vanished from his eyes; and an epigram of the fame age expreffes a juft and pious fear, that the continuance of this practice would finally annihilate all the monuments of antiquity (36). The fmallness of their numbers was the fole check on the demands and depredations of the Romans. The imagination of Petrarch might create the presence of a mighty people (37); and I hesitate to believe, that, even in the fourteenth century, they could be reduced to a contemptible lift of thirtythree thousand inhabitants. From that period to the reign of Leo the tenth, if they multiplied to the amount of eightyfive thousand (38), the encrease of citizens was in fome degree pernicious to the ancient city. IV. I have reserved for the laft, the most potent and forcible cause of deftruction, the domeftic hoftilities of the Romans themselves. Under the dominion of the Greek and French emperors, the peace of the city was disturbed by accidental, though frequent, feditions: it is from the decline of the latter, from the beginning of the tenth century, that we (34) Vita di Sisto Quinto, da Gregorio Leti, tom. iii. p. 50. (35) Porticus ædis Concordiæ, quam cum primum ad urbem acceffi vidi fere integram opere marmoreo admodum fpeciofo: Romani poftmodum ad calcem ædem totam et porticûs partem disjectis columnis funt demoliti (p. 12.). The temple of Concord was therefore not deftroyed by a fedition in the 13th century, as I have read in a MS. treatife del' Governo civile di Roma, lent me formerly at Rome, and afcribed (I believe falfely) to the celebrated Gravina. Poggius likewife affirms, that the fepulchre of Cæcilia Metella was burnt for lime (p. 19, 20.). (36) Compofed by Æneas Sylvius, afterwards pope Pius II. and published by Mabillon from a MS. of the queen of Sweden (Museum Italicum, tom. i, P. 97.). Oblecat me, Roma, tuas spectare ruinas ; Ex cujus lapsû gloria prifca patet. (37) Vagabamur pariter in illâ urbe tam magnâ; quæ, cum propter fpatium vacua videretur, populum habet immenfum (Opp. p. 605. Epist. Familiares ii 14.). (38) Thefe ftates of the population of Rome at different periods, are derived from an ingenious treatife of the physician Lancifi, de Romani Coli Qualitatibus (p. 122.), we may date the licentioufnefs of private war, which violated CHA P. with impunity the laws of the Code and the Gofpel; with LXXI. out refpecting the majefty of the abfent fovereign, or the prefence and perfon of the vicar of Chrift. In a dark périod of five hundred years, Rome was perpetually afflicted by the fanguinary quarrels of the nobles, and the people, the Guelphs and Ghibelines, the Colonna and Urfini; and if much has escaped the knowledge, and much is unworthy of the notice, of hiftory, I have expofed in the two preceding chapters, the caufes and effects of the public diforders. At fuch a time, when every quarrel was decided by the fword; and none could truft their lives or properties to the impotence of law; the powerful citizens were armed for fafety or offence, again't the domestic enemies, whom they feared or hated. Except Venice alone, the fame dangers and defigns were common to all the free republics of Italy; and the nobles ufurped the prerogative of fortifying their houses, and erecting ftrong towers (39) that were capable of refifting a fudden attack. The cities were filled with these hoftile 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 fuitable latitude to the more opulent and populous ftates. The first step of the fenator Brancaleone in the establishment of peace and justice, was tó demolish as we have already feen) one hundred and forty of the towers of Rome; and, in the laft days of anarchy and difcord, as late as the reign of Martin the fifth, forty four ftill ftood 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 ftructures of brick and ftone; and we can name the modern turrets that were raised on the triumphal monuments of Julius Cæfar, Titus, and the Antonines (40). With fome flight alterations, a theatre, an amphitheatre, a mausoleum, was transformed into a ftrong and fpacious citadel. I need not repeat, that the mole of Adrian has affumed the title and form of the castle of St. Angelo (41); the Septizonium of (39) All the facts that relate to the towers at Rome, and in other free cities of Italy, may be found in the laborious and entertaining compilation of Muratori, Antiquitates Italiæ medii Ævi, differtat. xxvi. (tom. ii. p. 493496. of the Latin, tom, i. p. 446. of the Italian work. : (40) As for instance, Templum Jani nunc dicitur, turris Centii Frangipanis et fane Jano impofitæ turris lateritiæ confpicua hodieque vestigia superfunt (Montfaucon Diarium Italicum, p. 186.). The anonymous writer p. 285.) enumerates, arcus Titi, turris Cartularia; Arcus Julii Cæfaris en Senatorum, turres de Bratis; arcus Antonini, turris de Cofectis, &c. (41) Hadriani molem... magna ex parte Romanorum injuria .... disturbavit; quod certè funditus evertiffent, fi eorum manibus pervia, abfump tis CHAP, of Severus was capable of ftanding against a royal army (42) LXXI. the fepulchre of Metella has funk under its outworks (43); the theatres of Pompey and Marcellus were occupied by the Savelli and Urfini families (44); and the rough fortress has been gradually foftened to the fplendour and elegance of an Italian palace. Even the churches were encompaffed with arms and bulwarks, and the military engines on the roof of St. Peter's were the terror of the Vatican and the fcandal of the Chriftian world. Whatever is fortified will be attacked; and whatever is attacked may be destroyed. Could the Romans have wrefted from the popes the castle of St. Angelo, they had refolved by a public decree to annihilate that monument of fervitude. Every building of defence was expofed to a fiege; and in every fiege the arts and engines of deftruction were laboriously employed. After the death of Nicholas the fourth, Rome, without a fovereign or a fenate, was abandoned fix months to the fury of civil war. "The houfes," fays a cardinal and poet of the times (45), s were crushed by the weight and velocity of enormous "ftones (46); the walls were perforated by the ftrokes of "the battering-ram; the towers were involved in fire and "fmoke; and the affailants were stimulated by rapine and "revenge." The work was confummated by the tyranny of tis grandibus faxis, reliqua moles exftitiffet (Poggius de Varietate Fortunæ, P. 12.). (42) Against the emperor Henry IV. (Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom, ix. P. 147.). (43) I must copy an important paffage of Montfaucon; Turris ingens rotunda.... Cæciliæ Metellæ....fepulchrum erat, cujus muri tam folidi, ‹ ut fpatium perquam minimum intus vacuum fuperfit ; et Torre di Bove dici. tur, a boum capitibus muro inscriptis. Huic fequiori ævo, tempore intestinorum bellorum, ceu urbecula adjuncta fuit, cujus monia et turres etiamnum vifuntur; ita ut fepulchrum Metellæ quafi arx oppiduli fuerit. Ferventibus in urbe partibus, cum Urfini atque Columnenfes mutuis cladibus perni- ciem inferrent civitati, in utriusve partis ditionem cederet magni momenti erat (P. 142.). (44) See the teftimonies of Donatus, Nardini, and Montfaucon. In the Savelli palace, the remains of the theatre of Marcellus are still great and confpicuous. (45) James cardinal of St. George, ad velum aureum, in his metrical life of pope Celeftin V. (Muratori, Script. Ital. tom. 1. P. iii. p. 621. 1. ì, c. I. ver. 132. &c.) Hoc dixiffe fat eft, Romam caruiffe Senatû Menfibus exactis heu fex ; belloque vocatum (vocatos) In fcelus, in focios fraternaque vulnera patres; Tormentis jeciffe viros immania faxa; Perfodiffe domus trabibus, feciffe ruinas Ignibus; incenfas turres, obfcurataque fumo Lumina vicino, quo fit fpoliata fupellex, (46) Muratori (Differtazione fopra le Antichità Italiane, tom. i. p. 427431) finds, that stone bullets of two or three hundred pounds weight were not uncommon; and they are fometimes computed at xii or xviii cantari of Genoa, each cantaro weighing 150 pounds. |