Title: The Mentor: Among the Ruins of Rome, Vol. 1, Num. 46, Serial No. 46
Author: Botsford, George Willis
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.


*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Mentor: Among the Ruins of Rome, Vol. 1, Num. 46, Serial No. 46" ***


The Mentor, No. 46, Among the Ruins of Rome



AMONG THE RUINS OF ROME

By GEORGE WILLIS BOTSFORD

_Professor of History, Columbia University. Author of “The Story of
Rome,” “A History of Rome.”_

[Illustration: ONE OF THE CAMPAGNA AQUEDUCTS]

THE MENTOR

    SERIAL NO. 46      DEPARTMENT OF TRAVEL

[Illustration]

    MENTOR GRAVURES

    THE CAMPAGNA · THE FORUM TOWARD THE CAPITOL · THE FORUM FROM
    THE CAPITOL · THE COLOSSEUM · THE ARCH OF TITUS · THE TOMB OF
    HADRIAN

Entered as second-class matter March 10, 1913, at the postoffice at New
York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. Copyright, 1913, by The
Mentor Association, Inc., New York.


Shortly after sunset the express train, speeding north from Naples,
emerges from the mountains and begins winding its way down grade. The
expectant visitor to the Eternal City sees below him through the car
window a broad expanse of plain, sloping imperceptibly on the left to
the sea, in front to the Tiber River. It is an ocean of green, here
quietly level, there billowed in ridges or headed up in round hillocks.

[Illustration: EMPEROR CLAUDIUS]

This is the Campagna, the broad flat belt which borders the Tiber on
the left. At first sight it reveals to us its solitude. In early Roman
times it had swarmed with peasants who owned the lands they tilled.
As the city grew wealthy the district fell into the hands of lords,
who covered it with their luxurious villas, peopled by multitudes of
slaves. Still later, when Rome was declining, these villas fell to
ruins, the slaves disappeared, and Malaria stalked lonely and terrible
over the beautiful country she had made her own. Even now she rules it,
scarcely weakened by modern progress. The dwellings of her few wretched
tenants are miles apart. Herds of sheep and of fierce long-horned
cattle pasture on the abundant grass, and along the well-made roads
that span the plain an occasional ox-team wearily drags an awkward cart.

[Illustration: THE TEMPLE OF CASTOR AND POLLUX

The ruins of this famous temple stand in the Forum.]

But the Campagna has its attractions. It fascinates imaginative
tourists and draws them to its heart. Three or four together, their
knapsacks filled with food and drink, often take long trips through
this wild region, whose eternal quiet speaks peace to the weary
mind, whose delicate, ever-changing tints of sky and field appeal to
the taste for natural beauty, whose ruined villas and towns awaken
historical memories of the rise of Rome from a little settlement on the
Tiber to a worldwide power and a fame that cannot die.


THE APPIAN WAY

The most impressive features of the Campagna as we view it from the car
window or in a stroll along either the old Appian Way or the modern
Appian Way, are the ruins of aqueducts. The one here illustrated is the
Claudia, named after Emperor Claudius, who completed it. Its sources
were more than forty miles distant; while crossing the Campagna the
water flowed in a channel supported by a series of gigantic arches.
It provided Rome not only with her best water, but her most abundant
supply, amounting to more than 400,000 cubic meters daily. All the
aqueducts together poured into the city each day more fresh water than
the Tiber now empties into the sea.

As we view this work of great utility, we naturally wonder what sort of
man was the builder. At the time of his accession he was fifty years
old, and had devoted his earlier life zealously to study and writing.
Grotesque in manner and eccentric in his habits, he was generally
considered a learned fool; and yet he made an admirable ruler. When
acting as judge he often slept during the pleas of the lawyers, waking
at the close of the trial to give his decision in an equitable and
humane spirit. It was unfortunate for the case, however, if he chanced
to smell anything good cooking in a neighboring restaurant; for he
would adjourn court to refresh himself. He was far more liberal than
his predecessors in bestowing Roman citizenship on subject peoples.

To keep the city population supplied with cheap food, he subsidized and
insured grain ships at the cost of the government; and his activity
in erecting public works is illustrated by the completion of this
magnificent aqueduct. It is a fact of great importance that the early
emperors, whatever their private characters, almost uniformly devoted
themselves to the public good. Personal service to the empire was their
chief title to office and the basis on which successive rulers built up
their power.

[Illustration: HOW THE FORUM PROBABLY LOOKED

    Temple of Julius Cæsar      Palace of the Cæsars      Basilica Julia

    Temple of Vesta       Temple of Castor and Pollux]


THE FORUM

The city of Rome itself abounds in places and objects of interest more
easily reached than the Campagna. It requires at least a teaspoonful of
information to appreciate the features of Rome; and to those who are
mentally equipped no spot furnishes keener enjoyment than the Forum.
An impressive view can be had looking eastward from the Capitol, one
of the “seven hills” on which the early city sat. It can be seen that
the Forum lies in a valley nearly surrounded by hills. In the tenth and
ninth centuries B. C. these hilltops were occupied by villages and the
valleys between them were marshes. In the eighth century the villages
united to form one city,--Rome,--and the marshes were gradually drained
by means of sewers. The low area became at that time the Forum,
“marketplace” of the new city. It is an approximate oblong, on the
north side of which one of the kings marked off a space,--the comitium
(assembly-place),--in which all the citizens met to vote on questions
of public importance. Adjoining the comitium was the senate-house. King
(afterward two consuls), senate, and popular assembly constituted the
government. The Forum was therefore the political center of Rome, and
from this circumstance it derives all its interest. When one reflects
that for nearly five centuries after the downfall of the kings (509-27
B.C.) Rome was a republic, that during that time she conquered and
organized in her empire practically the whole Mediterranean basin,
we begin to understand that this spot must have been the scene of
stupendous political conflicts, the birthplace of far-reaching
legislative and administrative measures. Here worked the brain of the
best organized and most enduring empire the world has known.

[Illustration: CLOACA MAXIMA]

An essential feature of the Roman government was religion, which the
senate and magistrates well knew how to operate for practical ends. It
is not surprising, therefore, to find about the Forum the ruins of many
temples. There is the temple of Saturn, now only a group of columns.
It rests on an unusually high foundation. Within this basement were
chambers which contained the treasury of the state. It was largely
by the control of the treasury that the senate long maintained its
political supremacy.

A few steps from the temple is the pavement of a great oblong
building, of whose superstructure there are but scant remains. This
was the Basilica Julia, erected by Julius Cæsar, and rebuilt, after a
destructive fire, by Augustus. A basilica was used for law courts and
for business purposes. The style of building was borrowed from Greece;
but the architect at Rome wrought in the spirit of her people. He left
the exterior plain and unattractive, to devote his whole attention to
the interior. It is essentially a vast hall, with aisles separated
from nave by a row of arched piers in this case, in other basilicas by
colonnades. The designer molded, as it were, the interior space, so as
to express in the language of art the grandeur of the empire, and in
the severe harmony of the lines the orderliness and symmetry of Roman
law. No other architectural type so well embodied the imperial idea.

Of the other buildings connected with the Forum the most conspicuous is
the temple of Castor and Pollux, just beyond the Basilica Julia. The
ruins consist of three slender columns, standing on a high foundation
and supporting a fragment of the entablature. These remains belong to
the reconstruction of the temple under Augustus. The worship of the
twin gods, Castor and Pollux, patrons of cavalry, had been introduced
from Greece into Rome in the early republic. The front porch of the
temple often served as a platform for party leaders while addressing
the crowd in the Forum. On such occasions it sometimes became the
center of violent political conflicts out of keeping with the beauty
of the surroundings. This temple and nearly all others at Rome are of
the Corinthian order of architecture, distinguished by the capital
of clustered acanthus leaves surmounting the graceful fluted column.
It is one of the best of its class; and the three columns with their
entablature form the most beautiful architectural fragment still
preserved from classical Rome.

[Illustration: TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION ON THE ARCH OF TITUS]

[Illustration: EMPEROR TITUS]

The present level of the Forum is many feet lower than that of its
immediate surroundings. During the three thousand years that separate
us from the beginnings of the city the valleys have been gradually
filling through the accumulation of debris of ruined buildings, the
washings of earth from the surrounding hills, and various other means.
Recently scholars have excavated nearly the whole Forum down to the
earliest level, laying bare the lower parts of buildings, the earlier
pavements, altars, a primeval cemetery, and many other objects. Nearly
everything found has been identified and clothed in the historical
imagination with the associations of the time when it had a purpose and
a meaning. But the spot, once the abode of intense life, is now still;
it seems the burial place of a dead society and government; state
officials keep drowsy guard over the remains. Tourist and scholar walk
undisturbed through this sepulcher of a mighty empire, their senses
awakened to the ancient life only by the rush of waters through the
subterranean Cloaca Maxima, and to the life of our day by the roses,
geraniums, and wild Italian flowers that grow luxuriantly wherever a
bit of soil is left.


THE ARCH OF TITUS

Beyond the Forum and on the summit of the ridge known as the Velia is
the Arch of Titus. We can read the inscription: SENATUS POPULUSQUE
ROMANUS DIVO TITO DIVI VESPASIANI F. VESPASIANO AUGUSTO (The senate and
people of Rome (dedicated this arch) to the deified Titus Vespasianus
Augustus, son of the deified Vespasianus.) Consider this inscription.
Both the Greeks and the Romans propitiated the spirits of the dead with
sacrifice and prayer. The founder of a city or any specially great
benefactor of the community they venerated after death as a hero, a
being intermediate in dignity and power between man and the gods.

[Illustration: THE COLOSSEUM FROM THE NORTH]

It was with this idea that the senate by decree deified (more strictly,
heroized) a deceased emperor who seemed to that body to have been a
specially worthy ruler. Thus they had deified Vespasian, and after him
his son and successor Titus. This arch, therefore, was dedicated by the
senate and people to the memory of Emperor Titus after his death. A
monument of the kind commemorated a victory so great as to entitle the
general to a triumph,--a procession of the victorious commander and his
army along the Sacred Way, past the Forum, and up the Capitol to the
temple of Jupiter on the summit. The spoils of war were carried in the
procession, while games and other festivities rejoiced the hearts of
the populace.

This arch is a memorial of the war waged by Titus against the Jews, in
which he besieged and destroyed Jerusalem, their holy city. During the
conflict the Jews resisted with superhuman energy; and when everything
was lost they killed one another and their wives and children as the
lot determined, in order not to be slaves. The fame of their heroism is
as imperishable as the military renown of the conqueror. The triumphal
arch, accordingly, represents the slaughter of innocent people, the
crushing of national liberty, the brutal sacking of cities, the
merciless sale of captives into slavery. While casting this gloomy
shadow, it reflects on the sunlit side the glory of victory and the
extension and solidification of Roman power.


THE COLOSSEUM

This immense amphitheater was built by Vespasian and dedicated by
Titus. It is a gigantic oval four stories in height. From the north
side, which is still nearly intact, the first three stories present
simply a series of arcades; the fourth story is a closed wall. Four
entrances lead into the arena; seventy-six others into vaulted
corridors, whence the spectators passed up various stairways to their
seats, which extended in tiers from near the floor to the top of the
highest story. The seats have disappeared, but careful measurement
places the capacity at 45,000, with standing room for perhaps 5,000
more. Hidden from view were the cages of wild beasts and the cells for
gladiators, and beneath the arena were machines for elevating animals
to the surface.

[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE COLOSSEUM ON A FÊTE DAY]

The dedication in 80 A. D. was accompanied with games lasting through a
hundred days. A Roman “game” involved a contest; and those offered by
Titus at the dedication included the baiting and slaughter of savage
beasts, fights of gladiators, and a sham naval battle, the arena being
flooded for the purpose. It is difficult to understand how a ruler such
as Titus, who abhorred bloodshed and would condemn no man to death
during his administration, provided the city populace with this bloody,
brutalizing sport. But love of popularity has always been a powerful
motive among men; and some emperors and patriotic citizens tried to
excuse the sport on the foolish supposition that it fostered the
military spirit. As a matter of fact, the populace who attended these
shows grew more and more unwilling and unfit to defend their country
and homes against invading barbarians.

[Illustration: THE BASILICA JULIA

A drawing showing the reconstructed interior of this building, which
formerly stood in the Forum.]

It was not till some years after Titus that the spectators began to
experience a new kind of pleasure in seeing Christians thrown living
to the wild beasts of the arena. Many thus perished as witnesses of
a better faith and a higher morality. When, however, Christianity
triumphed and became the religion of the empire, an effort was
instituted, first by Constantine, to stop the degrading shows. But
the people were so frantically addicted to them that they were
scarcely abated by government edicts till Emperor Honorius succeeded
in abolishing gladiatorial fights in 404. Long afterward the hunting
of wild beasts continued. The massive structure remained scarcely
impaired by time till about the middle of the fourteenth century, when
the greater part of the southern half collapsed, probably through an
earthquake. The ruin piled up a “mountain of stone,” which for the next
five centuries served the Roman nobles as a quarry.


THE GRANDEUR OF THE COLOSSEUM

Some of the most imposing palaces which lend dignity to the modern city
have been built with this material. Although fully half the stone has
been thus removed, the part of the structure which still remains is
the most impressive of all the ruins of the city--a monument of the
grandeur and of the moral degradation of Rome. It is an especially
rich experience to visit the Colosseum by moonlight, where, seated on
a stone at the edge of the arena, we may in imagination, with the aid
of the tranquil light, reconstruct the vast interior and repeople it
with a Roman multitude breathlessly awaiting the opening of the games
or exulting over the triumph of a popular favorite. On certain nights
the municipal authorities illuminate the interior with colored lights,
whose weird spell awakens the imagination to sights of bloody conflict
amid a yelling, savage mob.

[Illustration: THE BASILICA OF TRAJAN

One of the buildings of the Forum of Trajan. The interior as it looked
in the days of ancient Rome.]


THE TOMB OF HADRIAN

The most versatile and perhaps the ablest of all the emperors--an
artist, poet, philosopher, general, and statesman--- was Hadrian.
Two-thirds of his reign of twenty-one years (117-138 A. D.) he devoted
to travel throughout his vast empire. The object of these journeys was
not, like that of our presidents, to explain policies and secure votes
for reëlection to a second term; for the emperor’s lease of power was
lifelong. His purpose was rather to discover and meet the needs of his
people. We find him accordingly improving the organization, equipments,
and discipline of the army, fortifying exposed points of the frontier,
negotiating treaties of alliance with border states, building roads,
providing the cities he visited with temples, theaters, and aqueducts,
carefully overseeing the complex system of administrative officers,
or finding relaxation in conversation with architects, authors, and
philosophers.

[Illustration: HADRIAN’S TOMB

Now known as the Castle Sant’ Angelo.]

[Illustration: EMPEROR HADRIAN]

In the period of the decline the tomb was converted into a fortress,
and this character it has retained to the present day. During the
Middle Ages and early modern times, a period of fifteen hundred years,
it was the center of nearly all the factional strife and of the civil
and foreign wars that raged in and about the city. During this time
it experienced the greatest changes in appearance by the removal of
decorations and facings and the substitution of ramparts, turrets, and
other elements of military defense.

Its present name, Castle of Sant’ Angelo, was given it in the time of
Pope Gregory the Great. The story is told that in 590, when leading a
procession to Saint Peter’s in an attempt to check by prayer a dreadful
pestilence, “as he was crossing the bridge, even while the people were
falling dead around him, he looked up at the mausoleum and saw an angel
on its summit, sheathing a bloody sword, while a choir of angels around
chanted with celestial voices the anthem since adopted by the Church in
her vesper service.” In commemoration of the miracle a statue of the
Holy Angel Michael stands on the summit with wings outspread.

This castle unites the memories of nearly two thousand past years with
the living present. Having stood as a fitting tomb of a noble emperor,
and again as the storm center of divisional strife, let it bide
henceforth as a durable monument of Italian unity and freedom.

[Illustration: THE APPIAN WAY

Showing the Ruined Roman Tombs.]


SUPPLEMENTARY READING

    HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT WORLD--_G. W. Botsford._

    (The Macmillan Co.) It includes a brief history of Rome.

    TOPOGRAPHY AND MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT ROME--_S. B. Platner._

    (Second edition, Allyn & Bacon.) The best treatment of the
    subject in English.

    RUINS AND EXCAVATIONS OF ANCIENT ROME--_Rudolfo Lanciani._

    (Houghton, Mifflin Co.) By the greatest living authority on
    Roman topography.

    THE ROMAN FORUM--_C. Huelsen._

    (Stechert & Co.) By a great scholar.

    THE ART OF THE ROMANS--_H. B. Walters._

    (The Macmillan Co.) Treatment of the elements by a well known
    authority.

    ROME DESCRIBED BY GREAT WRITERS--_Editor, Esther Singleton._

    (Dodd, Mead & Co.) Instructive and inspiring sketches by
    Maeterlinck, Crawford, Dickens, and other famous authors who
    have visited Rome.

    A SOURCE BOOK OF ANCIENT HISTORY--_C. W. & L. S. Botsford._

    (The Macmillan Co.) Extracts from ancient writers relating to
    the Romans.



THE MENTOR

ISSUED BY

The Mentor Association, INC.

381 Fourth Ave., New York, N. Y.

    Volume 1      Number 46


_Editorial_

The present number of The Mentor is the last of the calendar year--not
that of The Mentor year, for that will end in February next. The turn
of the calendar year, however, brings with it the inevitable moment
of retrospection. This is merely a habit of the human mind, for the
New Year is only a human establishment. In a sense it may be said that
every day is the beginning of a new year and the ending of an old year.
The real new year for a human being, it seems to us, begins with his
birthday, for that is the beginning of all things for him. Our new year
will begin with the number of The Mentor on which we print for the
first time Volume II--and that will be next February. But, indulging
for a moment in the mood of retrospection that the season brings, we
look back to that day last February when we sent out the first number
of The Mentor to our readers. We had readers even then, for the mere
announcement of the publication brought a gratifying response. Many
thousands, attracted by the plan, invited The Mentor to their homes
before the first number had been printed.

       *       *       *       *       *

We thank these early readers, for they showed us that there was a
public ready for The Mentor. These first friends have stayed by us
from the beginning, and we hope that during the months gone by we have
gained in their esteem. Their number has been many times doubled since
our first number appeared, but our hearts are warm toward them, for
they took our word for the plan before we had any publication to show.
And it means a great deal to us to note that they have stayed with us
through the weeks of our growth.

       *       *       *       *       *

It means, too, a great deal in a practical way to us, for it shows that
the interest in The Mentor plan is an enduring one. There has been so
much enthusiasm over some of the beautiful gravure pictures that it
was only natural to speculate at times as to the motive that impelled
some to subscribe. We know now to our own great satisfaction that it is
not simply a picture-loving public that takes The Mentor. The serious
interest in the subjects that we have published, the earnest desire to
know what subjects would be forthcoming, the intelligent suggestions
that we receive concerning various subjects that might be included in
The Mentor plan--all these, and then the numerous evidences in our mail
that The Mentor is bringing something new into the home life, convince
us that when we shaped our plans on the broad lines of a comprehensive,
popular education we builded well.

       *       *       *       *       *

This is the season for resolutions. We registered our resolution when
we founded The Mentor Association. We could only re-affirm it now. So,
at the turn of the year, instead of a resolution, we offer a promise.
We will give during the year of 1914 a full measure of the interesting
matter that has made friends for The Mentor in the past--and we will
give more. We will add to the wealth of information that we have
supplied in the fields of history, art, literature, travel, and
science,--and we will broaden our scope so as to include articles that
will be helpful as well as instructive.

       *       *       *       *       *

We mean to make every number count in value and in interest. Our
wish is that each member of our Association shall say, on laying
down a number of The Mentor, that he is richer in the knowledge that
cultivates or in the information that is helpful, and that he has at
all times been interested and entertained.

       *       *       *       *       *

May the year of 1914 be one of pleasure, profit and progress to the
members of The Mentor Association!



[Illustration: THE CAMPAGNA, ROME]



_THE RUINS OF ROME_

_The Campagna_

ONE


The Roman Campagna was the cradle of a mighty race. How did the little
handful of men who founded Rome, and their descendants, become masters
of the world? Livy, the great Roman historian, believes it was due to
the location of the city of Rome. “Not without reason,” he says, “did
gods and men choose this site for Rome: healthy hills, a river equally
adapted for inland and maritime trade, the sea not too far distant, …
a site in the middle of the Peninsula, made, as it were, on purpose to
allow Rome to become the greatest city in the world.”

However healthy the climate of the Campagna may have been in those
times, today it is about the most unhealthy in the world. It is a
district containing a great many closed valleys and depressions in
the soil, without outlet for the waters that accumulate. Natural
watercourses are impeded: Under the top soil are marl and stiff clay,
which hold the water after it has filtered through the soil, and let
it ooze out to the lower parts of the country, where it is mixed with
rotting vegetable matter. Barriers of hills prevent movement of the
air. Malaria runs rampant.

But this could not have been so formerly. In the early history of the
Campagna towns were scattered over its surface. Later these towns
disappeared, and the great estates, worked by crowds of slaves,
occupied the land. Then the great villas, whose ruins now strew the
ground everywhere in the neighborhood of Rome, were built. The ancient
Roman nobility lived in great numbers in the very places now found so
deadly. Their summer homes were placed not only on the sea-shore, but
all through the country.

Huge aqueducts supplied Rome with water and irrigated the farms on the
Campagna. These are the most conspicuous ruins on the Campagna today.
The Gothic army at the siege of Rome in 536 destroyed nearly all the
aqueducts, and later on the great country seats were demolished.

Six miles from Rome on the Flaminian Road, at the spot now called
the Prima Porta, Empress Livia had a country house, which has been
excavated. It was well decorated and comfortable. There were found in
the house a statue of Emperor Augustus and the busts of several members
of the royal family.

The ruins of many tombs are found on the Campagna. Roman family vaults
contained a funeral banquet hall, on a level with the road, and a crypt
below, where the ashes were kept in urns, or the bodies laid to rest in
sarcophagi.

The sites of the cities of Veii, Fidenæ, and Gabii, once the rivals
and equals of Rome, are now almost deserted. In sea-coast towns of
Ardea, Laurentum, Lavinium, and Ostia, at one time well populated, are
practically empty. The inhabitants are haggard and fever stricken. The
children are gaunt, hollow cheeked, and sallow in complexion. Men who
work there in the fields fear to pass the night in the country because
of the fever. They return to Rome every evening. Forsaken towers and
buildings, which stand rotting everywhere about the Campagna, tell the
same story of a pestilence-stricken district. Now for the most part
only foxes, bears, and other wild animals tenant the ragged pastures
and wild jungles of the Campagna.

    PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
    ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 45, SERIAL No. 46
    COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.



[Illustration: FORUM TOWARD THE CAPITOL, ROME]



_THE RUINS OF ROME_

_The Capitoline Hill_

TWO


When Rome was founded by Romulus and his handful of comrades they soon
saw that if the city was to grow and prosper they would need wives.
How to get them was the question. Near Rome was a nation called the
Sabines. So the Romans enticed the women of this nation to the new city
and kept them there. It is recorded that these early Romans were pretty
fine looking men, and that the efforts of the Sabine women to escape
were not very strenuous.

But naturally the Sabine men were not pleased to be thus deprived of
their wives. They started a war with Rome, and besieged the city.

The Capitoline Hill was the most important of the seven hills on which
Rome was built. So Romulus fortified it strongly, and gave it into the
care of one of his bravest generals, Tarpeius. But Romulus reckoned
without Tarpeia, the daughter of Tarpeius.

The Sabine men had a custom of wearing heavy gold and silver bracelets
on their left arms. Tarpeia saw these and was dazzled by them. She
planned to get possession of them all. One night she crept down to the
gate and promised the leader of the Sabines that she would open it and
give up the hill to them, if they would give her what they wore on
their left arms.

The Sabines agreed to this, and Tarpeia opened the gate. The Sabines
seem to have been brave, honorable men, and although they believed all
was fair in war, yet they hated a traitor. Besides the bracelets they
carried their shields on their left arms; so they kept their promise to
Tarpeia by throwing these shields on the girl and crushing her to death.

The hill was afterward spoken of as “Mons Tarpeius,” meaning the “Hill
of Tarpeia.” It was after this traitorous girl also that the rock from
which traitors were hurled was named the “Tarpeian Rock.”

The Sabines held Capitoline Hill for a time; but finally decided to
unite with the Romans, and the women were divided between the two
nations by lot.

The Capitol was in reality that part of Capitoline Hill occupied by the
Temple of Jupiter; but included the Piazza del Campidoglio, with the
palaces that face it on three sides. In this depression was situated
the “Asylum” of Romulus. In the early days of Rome the founders wished
to attract people to settle there, and they issued invitations to all
neighboring cities; but not many accepted. So Romulus conceived the
brilliant idea of receiving all fugitives from other towns as citizens
of Rome and guaranteeing them protection. For this purpose he converted
the depression in Capitoline Hill into a place of refuge, or “Asylum.”
In this way the new city was peopled.

Capitoline Hill has been the scene of many historical events. In 1251,
during the senatorship of Brancaleone, who destroyed 140 private
castles in Rome, the Capitol was besieged and taken by the partizans of
the pope and the nobility. Petrarch was crowned poet laureate there in
1341.

The entire Capitoline Hill is undermined with large and excessive
artificial caverns. These caverns are apparently ancient and mostly the
work of medieval quarry men.

    PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
    ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 45, SERIAL No. 46
    COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.



[Illustration: THE FORUM FROM THE CAPITOL, ROME]



_THE RUINS OF ROME_

_The Roman Forum_

THREE


So many statues crowded the streets of the Forum at one time that Rome
was said to have two equal populations, one in flesh and blood, the
other in bronze and marble. This was almost literally true. The Forum
was the center of Rome. It was the political and business meeting
ground of the citizens. Situated in the valley between the seven hills
of the city, it was the common property of the people of all the hills.
So when anyone wanted to erect a statue or a gallows, a temple or a
shop, he put it in the Forum. Naturally, the Forum became overcrowded.

The Forum Romanum was in the shape of an oblong, 690 feet long and 240
feet wide. It does not seem to be this large, however, since the space
is so taken up by monuments.

In the beginning the Forum was the marshy battlefield of the early
inhabitants of the Capitoline and Palatine Hills. When the ground
was drained by great ditches it became under a united rule the most
convenient place for political meetings, for business affairs, for the
pageants of rich men’s funerals, for plays, and for gladiatorial games.
For these purposes a central space, though but a small one was kept
clear of buildings. Gradually even this space became filled with the
ever growing crowd of statues and other honorary monuments.

Awnings were probably spread over this central space of the Forum,
since square holes are found in the pavement which held masts on which
the awnings could be suspended. Beneath the pavement also a network
of passages was discovered. These passages were three feet below the
surface, and eight feet high and five wide. They were probably used for
scenic purposes when games and plays were given in the Forum.

The rostra stood in the Forum. This was a platform from which speakers
addressed the people. It was decorated with the prows of captured
ships. Thus, the platform was called the rostra, or beaks.

There is a story that one night in 362 A. D. a monstrous chasm opened
in the Forum. The Romans were dumbfounded. The chasm must be closed
before business could go on. The oracles said that the gulf would
never close until Rome’s most valuable possession had been thrown
into it. What was the most valuable possession of Rome? Some said one
thing, some another. Then Marcus Curtius, a young man of noble family,
announcing that nothing was more precious to Rome than her sons,
leaped fully armed and on horseback into the chasm. The gulf closed
immediately. Later the spot was covered by a marsh called Lake Curtius,
and later still when the marsh had been drained, an inclosed space
containing an altar marked the place.

Once the center of the civilized world, the heart of the Roman empire,
the Forum is now but a mass of crumbling ruins; and the walls that long
ago looked down upon streets crowded with the rulers of the world now
see only the occasional tourist.

    PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
    ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 45, SERIAL No. 46
    COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.



[Illustration: THE COLOSSEUM, ROME]



_THE RUINS OF ROME_

_The Colosseum_

FOUR


    “While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand;
    When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall.”

Thus ran the ancient prophecy made by two English pilgrims to Rome in
the eighth century. And although only about one-third of the original
Colosseum is left, Rome still stands; not in its former power and
majesty, however. The Colosseum is the amphitheater where the Romans
held gladiatorial fights. Later they added to the program the slaughter
of Christians by wild beasts. A lion or tiger was starved for a week or
so, and then turned loose on a crowd of naked Christians in the arena.
These spectacles were a source of great amusement to the Romans.

Fifty thousand people could be seated in the Colosseum. The lowest
seats were the most honorable, the upper galleries being occupied by
the lower classes, where the seats were often free. An awning was
stretched over the seats, and to provide further for the comfort of the
audience jets of water cooled the air, and fragrant perfumes scented it.

The Colosseum was oval in shape, and had four tiers of seats,
surrounding the arena. Arena means sand in Latin, and as the place
where the contests took place was covered with sand to keep the
gladiators from slipping in the blood, so it received this name. The
arena is about 94 yards long by 54 yards wide. The podium--which was
long ago removed--was a raised platform 12 feet high at the base of the
seats, on which sat the emperor, the senators, and the vestal virgins.
Each person on the platform had a thronelike seat. The emperor’s was
raised above the others, and had a canopy over it.

When the Colosseum was dedicated in 80 A. D. by Emperor Titus there was
a celebration that lasted almost one hundred days. Five thousand wild
animals were slaughtered in the arena.

Before the Colosseum was built the gladiatorial contests were held
in the Forum. Vespasian began the construction of the amphitheater
in 72 A. D. The Flavian Amphitheater was the name first given to the
building, from the family name, Flavium, of the emperors who built it.

Earthquakes destroyed the arena and podium in 442 and 580; but it was
not until the reign of Justinian in the sixth century that the shedding
of human blood ended. A bull fight was held in the building as late as
1332.

The Roman popes and princes used the Colosseum as a place from which
to get building material. These barbarous nobles of the Middle Ages
treated this historic building shamefully.

Passion Plays were given in the Colosseum in the seventeenth century.
It was used as a manufacturing place for saltpeter in 1700. Half a
century later Pope Benedict XIV consecrated the building to the memory
of the Christian martyrs who had died there.

The chief characteristics of the Colosseum are strength and solidity.
The historic memories that cluster round its walls, of mighty emperors
and blood-thirsty mobs, of screams of death or triumph, of gorgeous
pageants and heroic martyrdom, combine to render the Colosseum the most
imposing ruin in the whole world.

    PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
    ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 45, SERIAL No. 46
    COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.



[Illustration: THE ARCH OF TITUS, ROME]



_THE RUINS OF ROME_

_The Arch of Titus_

FIVE


Through tiers of crowded seats that flanked their line of march,
Titus and Vespasian rode in their triumphal procession in 70 A. D.
Jerusalem had been conquered, and the Temple burned and destroyed. This
celebration was called the “Triumph,” which was given by Rome to all
her successful generals on their return from campaigns. It had been a
hard task for Titus to conquer rebellious Jerusalem. Oppression and
extortion by the Roman rulers had risen to such a height that the Jews
were driven at last into desperate resistance to the overwhelming power
of Rome. Vespasian was sent by Emperor Nero to subdue them. All Galilee
was soon subjugated, and only Jerusalem remained unconquered.

When Vespasian returned to Rome and became Emperor, he sent his
son Titus to subdue Jerusalem. Titus arrived upon the heights near
Jerusalem and began to besiege the city. He captured the first and
second walls. Then he built a wall round the city, and soon had it in a
state of famine.

At length all the city was captured but the Temple. Here the Jews made
their last stand. Titus wished to save the Temple; but his soldiers set
fire to it and plundered it. A terrible massacre of all the inhabitants
of Jerusalem followed. Then the prisoners and spoils were borne to Rome.

The next year Titus and Vespasian had their Triumph. The Senate and
other chief men led the procession. Then came the spoils, with persons
bearing title boards or placards, from which the spectators might find
out the history of all the objects that passed before them. There were
silver, gold, and ivory in all kinds of forms, gems set and unset,
tapestries of the rarest Babylonian embroidery; there were various
foreign animals dressed in gorgeous trappings.

But what interested the spectators the most was the large, high
platforms, on which were exhibited parts of the campaign,--models
of cities, temples, fortresses, assaulted, captured, in ruins or in
flames, representations of the hostile armies in all the different
forms of war. Then came the models of captured ships. Priests with
bulls for sacrifice followed.

Seven hundred Hebrew youths as prisoners marched next. Then came the
spoils from the Temple of Jerusalem,--the Golden Table, the Golden
Candlestick, and last of all the Book of the Law.

Emperor Vespasian, followed by Titus, each in a separate chariot, rode
next in the procession, with Domitian, who was the younger son of
Vespasian, and consul, on horseback. After them came the soldiers who
had been in the war, crowned with laurel leaves and shouting songs of
victory. Thus the triumphal procession went along the Sacred Way.

When they came to the Temple, Simon, the general of the Hebrews, was
put to death, according to custom. The leader of the conquered army
was always killed at the Triumph of the conquering general. The other
prisoners were made either gladiators or slaves. After Simon had been
put to death sacrifices were offered to the gods, and all departed to
the waiting banquets.

The Arch of Titus was built on the Sacred Way to commemorate this
Triumph. It was one of the earliest of those twenty-one arches with
which Rome was once adorned. The exact date of erection is not known;
but it must have been after the death of Titus, for on the ceiling of
the vault of the arch Titus is represented as sitting astride an eagle.
At the funeral of a Roman emperor an eagle was released, on whose back
the soul of the emperor was supposed to mount to Heaven, there to dwell
among the gods forever.

    PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
    ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 45, SERIAL No. 46
    COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.



[Illustration: THE TIBER AND HADRIAN’S TOMB, ROME]



_THE RUINS OF ROME_

_Hadrian’s Tomb_

SIX


Emperor Hadrian was a great traveler. He spent the eight years from
119 to 127 A. D. in journeying round the Roman empire just to get
acquainted with the state of the provinces. When he was in England he
built the famous wall that extends from the Solway to the Tyne. He
fully deserved the title “Father of his Country” which was given him on
his return to Rome.

Hadrian was also a famous builder. In addition to the great Roman
Wall in England he erected many beautiful and expensive structures in
Athens, and a villa at Tivoli which was noted for its beauty. But his
most famous building is Hadrian’s Tomb, now called Castle Sant’ Angelo,
which was constructed in 130 A. D. The last vacant niche in the Tomb
of Augustus was occupied, and so Hadrian determined to build one for
himself and his successors, which should have no rival in the world.
Hadrian died before it was finished; but Antoninus Pius, his successor,
completed it and buried Hadrian there.

“Hadrian’s Tomb” is a large circular tower, 230 feet in diameter. It
was originally built of Parian marble. Some time in the fifth century,
however, it was converted into a fort, and when the Goths under Vitiges
besieged it in 537 the defenders tore the statues from their pedestals
and hurled them down upon the attackers. Two of these were found during
the seventeenth century in the moat surrounding the tomb.

In 590 there was a great plague in Rome. Pope Gregory the Great was
leading a procession to Saint Peter’s Cathedral to pray for deliverance
from the pestilence, when it is said the Destroying Angel appeared on
the summit of the Tomb of Hadrian. The angel was sheathing his sword to
signify that the plague was stopped. Since that time the building has
been known as the Castle Sant' Angelo.

In 610 Pope Boniface IV erected on the summit of the tomb the Chapel of
St. Angelo inter Nubes in commemoration of this event. Several statues
of the Archangel succeeded this. The present one was put there in 1743.

Marozia, daughter of Theodora, held the tomb as a fort in the tenth
century, and had Pope John X suffocated in a dungeon. A few years later
Pope Benedict VI met a similar fate at the hands of Crescenzio, son of
Theodora.

In the latter part of the tenth century Crescentius, the consul, had a
quarrel with the Pope and seized the fort. He held it bravely against
Emperor Otto III who had marched into Rome in defense of the pope.

Emperor Hadrian was an able military leader, and a just and wise civil
ruler. His full name was Publius Ælius Hadrianus, and he was born at
Rome on January 24, 76 A. D. He was such an ardent student of Greek
that he was nicknamed Græculus, the “Greek.” He served in the campaign
against the Dacians under his uncle, Emperor Trajan. At the latter’s
death he became emperor. Hadrian died at Baiæ on July 10, 138. His
remains were carried to Puteoli, from which place they were afterward
taken to Rome.

    PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
    ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 45, SERIAL No. 46
    COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.





*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Mentor: Among the Ruins of Rome, Vol. 1, Num. 46, Serial No. 46" ***

Copyright 2023 LibraryBlog. All rights reserved.