* Pompey and Marcellus were occupied by the Savelli and Ursini families; and the rough fortress has been gradually softened to the splendour and elegance of an Italian palace. Even the churches were encompassed with arms and bulwarks, and the military engines on the roof of St. Peter's were the terror of the Vatican and the scandal of the Christian world. Whatever is fortified will be attacked; and whatever is attacked may be destroyed. Could the Romans have wrested from the popes the castle of St. Angelo, they had resolved, by a public decree, to annihilate that monument of servitude. Every building of defence was exposed to a siege; and in every siege the arts and engines of destruction were laboriously employed. After the death of Nicholas the Fourth, Rome, without a sovereign or a senate, was abandoned six months to the fury of civil war. "The houses (says a cardinal and poet of the times)† were crushed by the weight and velocity of enormous stones; the walls were perforated by the strokes of the battering-ram; the towers were involved in fire and smoke; and the assailants were stimulated by rapine and revenge." The work was consummated by the tyranny of the laws; and the factions of Italy alternately exercised a blind and thoughtless vengeance on their adversaries, whose houses and castles they razed to the ground.§ In comparing the days of foreign, with the ages of domestic is given by Hobhouse.-ED.] *See the testimonies of Donatus, Nardini, and Montfaucon. In the Savelli palace, the remains of the theatre of Marcellus are still great and conspicuous. James, cardinal of St. George ad velum aureum, in his metrical Life of pope Celestine V. (Muratori, Script. Ital. tom. i. p. 3, p. 621, 1. 1, c. 1, ver. 132, &c.) Hoc dixisse sat est, Romam caruisse senatû Mensibus exactis heu sex; belloque vocatum (vocatos) In scelus, in socios fraternaque vulnera patres; Tormentis jecisse viros immania saxa; Ignibus; incensas turres, obscuraque fumo Muratori (Dissertazione sopra le Antichità Italiane, tom. i. p. 427 --431) finds, that stone bullets of two or three hundred pounds weight were not uncommon; and they are sometimes computed at twelve or eighteen cantari of Genoa, each cantaro weighing a hundred and fifty pounds. § The sixth law of the Visconti prohibits this common and mischievous practice; and strictly enjoins, that the houses of banished citizens should be preserved pro communi utilitate. hostility, we must pronounce that the latter have been far more ruinous to the city; and our opinion is confirmed by the evidence of Petrarch. "Behold (says the laureate) the relics of Rome, the image of her pristine greatness! neither time, nor the Barbarian, can boast the merit of this stupen dous destruction: it was perpetrated by her own citizens, by the most illustrious of her sons; and your ancestors (he writes to a noble Annibaldi) have done with the batteringram what the Punic hero could not accomplish with the sword." The influence of the last two principles of decay must in some degree be multiplied by each other; since the houses and towers, which were subverted by civil war, required a new and perpetual supply from the monuments of antiquity. These general observations may be separately applied to the amphitheatre of Titus, which has obtained the name of the COLISEUM,† either from its magnitude, or from Nero's colossal statue: an edifice, had it been left to time and nature, which might perhaps have claimed an eternal duration. The curious antiquaries, who have computed the numbers and seats, are disposed to believe, that above the upper row of stone steps, the amphitheatre was encircled and elevated with several stages of wooden galleries, which were repeatedly consumed by fire, and restored by the emperors. Whatever was precious, or portable, or profane, the statues of gods and heroes, and the costly ornaments of sculpture, 'Gualvaneus de la Flamma, in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, Nec te parva manet servatis fama ruinis, Perficit hic aries. The fourth part of the Verona Illustrata of the marquis Maffei, professedly treats of amphitheatres, particularly those of Rome and Verona, of their dimensions, wooden galleries, &c. It is from magnitude that he derives the name of Colosseum or Coliseum: since the same appellation was applied to the amphitheatre of Capua, without the aid of a colossal statue; since that of Nero was erected in the which were cast in brass, or overspread with leaves of silver and gold, became the first prey of conquest or fanaticism, of the avarice of the Barbarians or the Christians. In the massy stones of the Coliseum, many holes are discerned; and the two most probable conjectures represent the various accidents of its decay. These stones were connected by solid links of brass or iron; nor had the eye of rapine overlooked the value of the baser metals;* the vacant space was converted into a fair or market; the artisans of the Coliseum are mentioned in an ancient survey; and the chasms were perforated or enlarged to receive the poles that supported the shops or tents of the mechanic trades. Reduced to its naked majesty, the Flavian amphitheatre was contemplated with awe and admiration by the pilgrims of the North; and their rude enthusiasm broke forth in a sublime proverbial expression, which is recorded in the eighth century, in the fragments of the venerable Bede: "As long as the Coliseum stands, Rome shall stand; when the Coliseum falls, Rome will fall; when Rome falls, the world will fall." In the modern system of war, a situation commanded by three hills would not be chosen for a fortress; but the strength of the walls and arches could resist the engines of assault; a numerous garrison might be lodged in the enclosure; and while one faction occupied the Vatican and the Capitol, the other was intrenched in the Lateran and the Coliseum.§ court (in atrio) of his palace, and not in the Coliseum (p. 4, p. 15-19, 1. 1, c. 4). * Joseph Maria Suarés, a learned bishop, and the author of a history of Præneste, has composed a separate dissertation on the seven or eight probable causes of these holes, which has been since reprinted in the Roman Thesaurus of Sallengre. Montfaucon (Diarium, p. 233) pronounces the rapine of the Barbarians to be the unam germanamque causam foraminum. + Donatus, Roma Vetus et Nova, p. 285. Quamdiu stabit Colyseus, stabit et Roma; quando cadet Colyseus, cadet Roma; quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus. (Beda in Excerptis seu Collectaneis apud Ducange, Glossar. med. et infimæ Latinitatis tom. ii. p. 407, edit. Basil.) This saying must be ascribed to the AngloSaxon pilgrims, who visited Rome before the year 735, the era of Bede's death; for I do not believe that our venerable monk ever passed the sea. § I cannot recover, in Muratori's original Lives of the Popes (Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. p. 1), the passage that attests this hostile partition, which must be applied to the end of the eleventh or the beginning of the twelfth century. The abolition at Rome of the ancient games must be understood with some latitude; and the carnival sports of the Testacean mount and the Circus Agonalis,* were regulated by the law or custom of the city. The senator presided with dignity and pomp to adjudge and distribute the prizes, the gold ring, or the pallium, as it was styled, of cloth or silk. A tribute on the Jews supplied the annual expense;§ and the races, on foot, on horseback, or in chariots, were ennobled by a tilt and tournament of seventy-two of the Roman youth. In the year 1332, a bull-feast, after the fashion of the Moors and Spaniards, was celebrated in the Coliseum itself; and the living manners are painted in a diary of the times. A convenient order of benches was restored; and a general proclamation, as far as Rimini and Ravenna, invited the nobles to exercise their skill and courage in this perilous adventure. The Roman ladies were marshalled in three squadrons, and seated in three balconies, which on this day, the 3d of September, were lined with scarlet cloth. The fair Jacova di Rovere led the matrons from beyond the Tiber, a pure and native race, who still T * Although the structure of the Circus Agonalis be destroyed, it still retains its form and name (Agona, Nagona, Navona); and the interior space affords a sufficient level for the purpose of racing. But the Monte Testaceo, that strange pile of broken pottery, seems only adapted for the annual practice of hurling from top to bottom some wagon loads of live hogs for the diversion of the populace. (Statuta Urbis Romæ, p. 186.) See the Statuta Urbis Romæ, 1. 3, c. 87-89, p. 185, 186. I have already given an idea of this municipal code. The races of Nagona and Monte Testaceo are likewise mentioned in the Diary of Peter Antonius, from 1404 to 1417. (Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. xxiv. p. 1124.) The Pallium, which Menage so foolishly derives from Palmarium, is an easy extension of the idea and the words, from the robe or cloak, to the materials, and from thence to their application as a prize. (Muratori, dissert. 33.) § For these expenses, the Jews of Rome paid each year eleven hundred and thirty florins, of which the odd thirty represented the pieces of silver for which Judas had betrayed his master to their ancestors. There was a foot-race of Jewish, as well as of Christian, youths. (Statuta Urbis, ibidem.) This extraordinary bull-feast in the Coliseum is described, from tradition rather than memory, by Ludovico Buonconte Monaldesco, in the most ancient fragments of Roman annals (Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. xii. p. 535, 536); and how. ever fanciful they may seem, they are deeply marked with the colours of truth and nature. "I represent the features and character of antiquity. The remainder of the city was divided as usual between the Colonna and Ursini; the two factions were proud of the number and beauty of their female bands; the charms of Savella Ursini are mentioned with praise; and the Colonna regretted the absence of the youngest of their house, who had sprained her ankle in the garden of Nero's tower. The lots of the champions were drawn by an old and respectable citizen; and they descended into the arena, or pit, to encounter the wild bulls on foot, as it should seem, with a single spear. Amidst the crowd, our annalist has selected the names, colours, and devices, of twenty of the most conspicuous knights. Several of the names are the most illustrious of Rome and the ecclesiastical State; Malatesta, Polenta, Della Valle, Cafarello, Savelli, Capoccio, Conti, Annibaldi, Altieri, Corsi; the colours were adapted to their taste and situation; the devices are expressive of hope or despair, and breathe the spirit of gallantry and arms. am alone like the youngest of the Horatii," the confidence of an intrepid stranger: "I live disconsolate," a weeping widower: I burn under the ashes," a discreet lover: "I adore Lavinia, or Lucretia," the ambiguous declaration of a modern passion: "My faith is as pure," the motto of a white livery: "Who is stronger than myself?" of a lion's hide: "If I am drowned in blood, what a pleasant death," the wish of ferocious courage. The pride or prudence of the Ursini restrained them from the field, which was occupied by three of their hereditary rivals, whose inscriptions denoted the lofty greatness of the Colonna name: "Though sad, I am strong:-Strong as I am great:-If I fall," addressing himself to the spectators, " you fall with me: "-intimating, says the contemporary writer, that while the other families were the subjects of the Vatican, they alone were the supporters of the Capitol. The combats of the amphitheatre were dangerous and bloody. Every champion successively encountered a wild bull; and the victory may be ascribed to the quadrupeds, since no more than eleven were left on the field, with the loss of nine wounded and eighteen killed on the side of their adversaries. Some of the noblest families might mourn, but the pomp of the funerals, in the churches of St. John Lateran and St. Maria Maggiore, afforded a second holiday to the people. Doubtless it was not in such |