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Adrian's Mausoleum.

thus to profane it, and in after wars, the Goths, and other barbarians, with the contests of the Romans themselves, completed its destruction; the upper part being totally lost, and its beautiful marbles, and statues being either pounded into lime and mortar, or else shivered to pieces by being indiscriminately hurled down on the heads of the besiegers below.

As it is now considered the Citadel of Rome all uniformity is lost by the erection of various bastions, and ramparts, where the Papal flag daily waves, and centinels parade. On the present summit is a statue of the Angel Michael, with expanded wings, ordered to be cast in bronze by Gregory the First, and erected in commemoration of some prophetic vision.

That mournful, that melancholy association of ideas which in these days death, and the habitation of the cold grave, so generally inspires, prevailed not in classic realms. In ancient Italy the tomb was not in the damp, neglected, and ne'er trodden path; it was not deep in the cold, and clodded, senseless earth; but it was sometimes in the centre of the city, oftener in the most frequented spot, where recreation was sought, where festivals were solemnized, and where the spirits of the dead, even in the mausoleum which held the honored urn and ashes, might view, or mingle, unseen,

Adrian's Mausoleum.

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amid the throng, and in the joys they loved when

on earth.

Moreover, to deck these tombs art was lavished, and the imagination of the living was not dimmed by sorrowing for the dead, but rather kindled into a brighter glow at the monumental grandeurs that were evoked to eternise their memory.

Such was Adrian's Tomb. It was not the retreat of the pensive; it was not the lone spot where the sweet, and fleeting flowers flourished, and faded; and again planted by the hand of friendship, again bloomed, and vainly shed their balmy odors all around.

His monumental decorations were those of permanent sculptured beauty, and architectural grandeur which were to last till latest ages. Yet that very splendor and solidity has been the more fatal to its hallowed repose; and while the humble tomb has been spared, this kingly one has been made a fortress, and a place of sanguinary warfare; and grim death, not satisfied with his one regal captive, has here sent hecatombs of inferior victims down to the shades below.

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The Pons Sublicius.

CHAPTER XXIII,

BRIDGES-PONS SUBLICIUS-HORATIUS COCLES, AND MUTIUS SCÆVOLA—PONS TRIUMPHALIS-ROMAN TRIUMPH— BULLS OF CLITUMNUS-TRIUMPH OF PAULUS ÆMYLIUS-SACRED ISLE, AND TEMPLE OF ESCULAPIUS—CLAUDIAN AQUEDUCT —FOUNTAINS OF THE PIAZZA NAVONA—of L'acqua FELICE ―OF TREVI, AND MADAME DE STAEL'S CORINNE-AVENTINE HILL-HERCULES AND CACUS-CHURCH OF ST. PIETRO IN – MAMERTIME PRISON, OR TULLIANUM -THE SCALE GEMONIÆ-MIRACLE BY ST. PETER.

CARCERE

THE Pons Sublicius, or Æmylius. Of this ancient bridge, supposed to be the first ever thrown across the Tiber, very little now remains to tell of its glorious history, for it was here that Publius Horatius Cocles, when his country was invaded by Porsenna, himself first singly, afterwards supported but by two others, opposed the King with his army on this bridge till his countrymen had destroyed it. He then invoked the sacred Tiber to be propitious to him, and instantly, though wounded, leapt all armed as he was into its stream, and gained the shore. A brazen statue was decreed to him, and placed in the Temple of Vulcan; besides which he received a great contribution in money, and as much land as he could plough round in a day.*

*Livy, book ii. cap. 10. This act of Cocles, and another of Mutius Scævola, induced Porsenna to make peace with the

Roman Triumph.

433

Pons Triumphalis.-A few shattered vestiges. When a Triumph was decreed for a Roman General he passed over this bridge, and hence its name. When a warrior sought the glory of a Triumph, first he addressed the Senate, recapitulating his victories, and halting with his army, near the Temple of Bellona, ere he entered the city. If granted, at the dawn of day the warrior put on the Tunica Palmata, or Robe of Triumph, which was of purple, and gold, and crowned himself with laurel. The procession began with Senators, and their Lictors, on foot, displaying the Roman fasces, emblematical of their authority to punish, accompanied also by martial music. Carriages followed filled with the spoils of the enemy, weapons and

Romans. While this monarch was encamped before the walls of Rome, Mutius determined to make an effort to save his country, though aware he must perish in the attempt. He disguised himself, and made his way into the royal tent. By mistake he attacked the King's secretary instead of his master. Immediately seised, Porsenna began to question him, but Mutius gave no other reply than that he was one of 300 who had sworn to take the invader's life or lose their own. To Porsenna's threats he only said, "I am a Roman,” and, thrusting his hand into the fire on the altar, because it had miscarried of its enterprise, without uttering a word, he burnt it off. (Hence his appellation of Scævola, or Left-handed.) Porsenna, surprised at these instanees of valor, and patriotism, was proud to be allied to such a nation, and immediately concluded a lasting peace. The Romans, to honor the humanity he had shown to captives in war, raised a brazen statue to his glory. Livy, book ii. cap. 12.

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Roman Triumph.

implements of war, their choicest works of art, their treasures, and golden stores, with pictures and effigies, sometimes formed in silver, of their country, their productions, their scenery, their Deities.

The milk white Bulls, fed on the banks of Cli tumnus's sacred stream, with purple trappings, gilded horns, and wreaths of flowers, walked unconscious of the priests, and the axe carried with them, for their own approaching slaughter, and sacrifice to Jupiter Capitolinus.* The Kings, and the Conquerors who were conquered, came next, fettered with silver chains, and with shaven heads as a badge of slavery. After other ceremo¬ nials, and the procession of the foreign beasts of the distant conquered regions, the victor appear'd in his ivory chariot chased with gold, or sometimes entirely of silver; four or six horses abreast drew it, or, if he preferred them lions, tigers, elephants, or rein deer.

The Roman warrior, aloft in his car, had his children with him, while his relatives, and friends, bearing laurel, walked by his side. Lictors, and trumpets preceded his approach, whilst golden cen

The streams of the river Clitumnus, in Campania, were supposed to turn white the oxen which laved in them. Jupiter himself was worshipped as Jupiter Clitumnus, and to him were specially sacred in triumph those milk white steers, the Bull being the lordliest animal of the creation, and whose form Great Jove himself had assumed.