Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/210

 ROME

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ROME

Janiculum (Paul V^: the Piazza S. Pictro fountain, the Tartarughc vRaphaol^ the Fontana del Tntone (.Bemini\ and. most magnificent of all. the Trevi (Clement XII. Nicola Salvi).

Principal ancient Edifices and Monuments.— The Flavian Amphitheatre, or Coloj^seum, begun by \'es- pasian. Much of its material, particularly on the south side, has been pilfered, this destructive practice having been cfTectivelv stopped only in the eighteenth centurj-. The Arch of Const ant ine was erected in 312 to commemorate the victory- over Maxentius, the decorations being, in part, taken from the Arch of Trajan. That of Marcus Aurelius, on the Flamin- ian Way (Corso), was removed by Alexander MI; its decorations are preserved in the Capitol. That of Septimius Severus (203) is richly decorated with Btatues and bas-rehefs; that of Titus, commemorating his victory- over the Jews, has the celebrated bas- rehef representing objects taken from the Temple of Jerusalem; that of Dnisus (Trajan?) is near the Porta S. Sebastiano. The Arch of Dolabella (a. D. 10) is surmounted by three conduits taken from a branch of the Aqua Claudia. The Arch of Gallienus dates from a. d. 262. The secular basilicas are the iEmilian, or Fulvian (167 b. c), the Julian (54 b. c), the Basilica of Constantine (a. d. 306-10), and the Ulpian, on the Forum of Trajan, with which a library was once connected.

For Christian catacombs see Catacombs, Roman. The most important catacombs of the Hebrews are those of \'igna Randanini, on the Appian Way.

The Circuses are: that of Domitian, now the Piazza Navona; the Flaminian (the Palazzo Mattei); the Circus Maximus, the oldest of all, erected in the Murcian Valley, between the Palatine and the Aven- tine, where, even in the days of Romulus, races and other pubhc amu.sements used to be held (as on the occasion of the Rape of the Sabines); that of Nero, near St. Peter's, where the Apostle was martyred; that of Maxentius, outside the citj^ near the Via Appia. Trajan's Cr'umn, on the forum of the same name, with a spiral design of the emperor's warlike exploits, is 100 Roman feet (about 97 English feet) in height, erected by the senate and people a. d. 113. That of Marcus Aurelius, with reliefs showing the wars with the Marcomanni, Quadi, Sarmati, etc. (172-75), is interesting for its representation of the miraculous rainfall which, as earlj' as TertuUian's time, was attributed to the prayers of the Christian Bfjldiers. This column bears a bronze statue of St. Paul, as Trajan's Ls crowned with a statue of St. Pet«r (Sixtus \', 1589). That of Phocas was erected in 608 by the exarch Smaragdus. The Roman pVjrum was originally the swampy valley between the Palatine, Capitoline, and Esquiline, which became a market and a meeting-place for the transaction of public buKiness. Sfxin it was surrounded with fihops and public buildings — basilicas, the Curia HoHtilia, the R/Jstra, or platform for public speakers, and various tempU^. Other forums were those of Augustus, of I'eace, of Nero, the JuHan, and Trajan's, all in the HUTnc. neighbourhfK)d.

The Mauwileum of Augustus, between the Corso and the \'ia Rip<'tta, is now a concert hall. The Mauso- leum of Harlrian (Castle of S. Angelo) was used as a forlrfjHH by fioths and Romans as early as the sixth cx;ntur>'; in the t^-nth and following centuries it often Hf-rve/l a« a urmm, voluntary' or compulsory, for the pt)j>(*\ li^jnilacf; IX, Alexander VI, and Urban \'I1I were the popes who did most U) restore and trans- form it. The Tomb of Ca-cilia Metella, on the Via Appia, still fairly well prfKer\ed, was a stronghfild of^ the Caxjtani in the Middle Ages, and from them pnuMf] to fheRavelli and theC'olonna. The Pyramid f»f C'aiuH f'a-Htius (\\m<- of Augustus) is more than 120 fi->-\ in h'-ight. The tomb of Eurysac/'S, outside lhf> Porta Maggiorc, hae interesting bas-reliefs showing

the various operations of baking bread. That of the Scipios. near the Gate of St. Sebastian, was discovered in 1780, with the sarcophagus of Scipio Barbatus, consul in 298, which is now in the Vatican Mu.'^eum. The Appian Way was lined with numbers of sepul- chral monuments; among these mention may be made here cf the columhario, or grottoes where' a family or an association was wont to deposit in niches the cinerarj' urns of its members. The most important of these arc in the ^■igna Codini and near S. Giovanni in Oleo.

With Septimius Severus a new architectural period was inaugurated, which was continued by Ilelioga- balus and .\lexander Severus. The house of Augustus, that of Tiberius, the hippodrome, the library, the house of Livia, the pcrdagogium, or quarters of the imperial pages (where the celebrated drawing of a certain Alexamenos adoring a crucified ass was dis- covered) — all these are still clearly distinguishable. There were also a temple of the Great Mother (205 B. c), one of Jupiter Victor (295 b. c. — com- memorating the victory of Sentinum), and one of Apollo, surrounded by a great portico in the enclosure of which now stands the Church of S. Sebastiano in Palladio. In the substructures of the palace of Caligula was discovered some years ago the ancient basilica of S. Maria Antiqua, probably dating from the fourth centurj-, in which frescoes of the eighth and ninth centuries (including a portrait of Po]h' St. Zacharias, then living) were found. It is evident at certain points, where the paintings have been broken, that two other layers of painting lie beneath. Gther temples are those of Concordia, three columns of which are still standing in the Roman Forum, built in 388 b. c. for the ])eace between the Patricians and the Plebeians, and in which the Senate often assembled; of the Deus Rediculus, outside the city, near the Appian Way, on the spot where' Hannibal, alarmed by a vision, resolved to retire without besieging Rome; of Castor and Pollux, built in 484 b. c. to com- memorate the victory of Lake Regillus, over the Lat- ins, and restored in 117 (three columns remaining); of Faustina and Antoninus (S. Lorenzo in Miranda); of Fortuna Virilis (second century b. c; now the Church of St. Marj' of Egypt); of Julius Casar, erected by Augustus in the Forum, on the spot where Ca?sar's body was burned; of Jupiter Capitolinus, now the German Emba.'^sy; of Mars I'ltor (the Avenger) erected in the Forum of Augustus to ful- fil his vow made at the battle of Philippi. where he avenged the assassination of Caesar; of Minerva Medica, which is, indeeil, rather a nympha-um, or re- servoir for distributing the water su])ply; of Neptune, with its stone piazza, now the Exchange; of Peace, b)iilt by Vespasian after his victory over the Jews; of Romulus (the son of Maxentius), which now, like Sacrse Urbis temple (of the Holy City), forms part of Santi Cosmo c Damiano; of Saturn, in theFonmi. The two temples of \'enus and Rome ha\e their apses touching each other, and were surrounded by a common peristyle, a i)lan designed by the Emperor Hadrian hnnself; to the temple of \'esta, below the Palatine, is annexed the house of the Vestals: the small round temjile of the Mater Matuba, in the Forum Boarium, h;is been commonly called Vesta's.

Characteristic of Rome are the lofty brick towers, generally square, with few windows, which may still be seen here and tlicre throughout, the city. They were built, for the most part, in the twelfth and thir- teenth centurifs, and are monuments of the discard between the most powerful families of Rome. 'Ihe most important of them are: the Torre .\nguill;ira in Tnifitevere, adjoining the piilace of the Anguillara family, reconstructed and iised as a medieval museum; the two Capocci towers, in the Via Giovanni Lanz.-i; th:it of the Conti, onrc the largest and strongest, built by Riccardo, brother of Innocent III; that of