DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63447#0036
20 THE HISTORICAL PAST OF ITALY.
few faint traces may yet be seen. These rose against the
deep blue sky, branching off from a common centre.
The central vertebra 1 of the city was formed by the
Aventine and Capitoline hills; on the latter the famous
Temple to Jupiter (first dedicated to that Deity by Numa)
displayed the glories of its golden roof and Corinthian
columns, harmonising in magnificence with the adjacent
forum. Its mighty gates of gilded bronze were peculiar
in their wealth of decorative beauty.
The castellated palace of the Caesars, vast in extent,
and also covered with a gilded roof, stood near. On this
great palace had been lavished every resource of art, in
statuary, in mosaic,2 in intarsic, and in carving. Under
the Palatine rose the vast Circus Maximus, where games
were publicly celebrated in honour of the Gods; beyond
that the wondrous Coliseum raised its gigantic crest.
In this vast area Philip had celebrated the Millennium
or thousandth anniversary of the existence of Pome, and
it had been recently restored (at the period of which we
treat) from the damages it had received from lightning.
Eising in four tiers of arches, studded with statues,
affording accommodation to eighty-seven thousand spec-
tators, the Coliseum might alone have been the wonder
of Eome !
Further, and away by the banks of the Tiber, ran
the great Flaminian Way, the Via Lata, decorated with
stately palaces and triumphal arches, as far as the Campus
Martins, where the military manoeuvres of the army in-
variably attracted a vast throng.
In the centre and heart of the city places of public
amusement abounded on every side. The Flaminian
Circus, Pompey’s Theatre, the Theatre of Marcellus,
were at hand, close to the Capitol. Different in style,
but stately in architectural bearing, rose, in quite another
direction, the vast circular dome of the Pantheon.
In every direction, the number of temples, pillars,
1 See Gregorovius. Geschichter der Stadt Rom.
2 Even now its remains, lately excavated, startle us with the scientific
and technical beauty of the “ details ” still extant.
few faint traces may yet be seen. These rose against the
deep blue sky, branching off from a common centre.
The central vertebra 1 of the city was formed by the
Aventine and Capitoline hills; on the latter the famous
Temple to Jupiter (first dedicated to that Deity by Numa)
displayed the glories of its golden roof and Corinthian
columns, harmonising in magnificence with the adjacent
forum. Its mighty gates of gilded bronze were peculiar
in their wealth of decorative beauty.
The castellated palace of the Caesars, vast in extent,
and also covered with a gilded roof, stood near. On this
great palace had been lavished every resource of art, in
statuary, in mosaic,2 in intarsic, and in carving. Under
the Palatine rose the vast Circus Maximus, where games
were publicly celebrated in honour of the Gods; beyond
that the wondrous Coliseum raised its gigantic crest.
In this vast area Philip had celebrated the Millennium
or thousandth anniversary of the existence of Pome, and
it had been recently restored (at the period of which we
treat) from the damages it had received from lightning.
Eising in four tiers of arches, studded with statues,
affording accommodation to eighty-seven thousand spec-
tators, the Coliseum might alone have been the wonder
of Eome !
Further, and away by the banks of the Tiber, ran
the great Flaminian Way, the Via Lata, decorated with
stately palaces and triumphal arches, as far as the Campus
Martins, where the military manoeuvres of the army in-
variably attracted a vast throng.
In the centre and heart of the city places of public
amusement abounded on every side. The Flaminian
Circus, Pompey’s Theatre, the Theatre of Marcellus,
were at hand, close to the Capitol. Different in style,
but stately in architectural bearing, rose, in quite another
direction, the vast circular dome of the Pantheon.
In every direction, the number of temples, pillars,
1 See Gregorovius. Geschichter der Stadt Rom.
2 Even now its remains, lately excavated, startle us with the scientific
and technical beauty of the “ details ” still extant.