DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61893#0451
Ch. XII.
THROUGH ITALY.
423
public walks. These statues when of marble,
fortunately for their duration, were beheld by all
parties with indifference; and when not imme-
diately within the verge of warlike operations,
allowed to stand undisturbed on their pedestals,
or fall unsupported and forgotten into the mass of
rubbish around them. That this was the case
we may conclude, from the places where several
beautiful statues were found, such as the baths of
Titus aud Caracalla, where they stood for ages
exposed to depredation, and were only concealed
in latter times by the fall of the buildings around
them. The pillars met with a different fate;
some were conveyed by the Exarchs to Ravenna,
others transported by Charlemagne beyond the
Alps, and thousands have been employed in the
churches and palaces of the modern city. In re-
ality, ancient Rome has been for twelve centuries
a quarry ever open and never exhausted ; and
the stranger, as he wanders through the streets of
the modern city, is astonished to see, sometimes
thrown neglected into corners, and often collected
round the shops, or in the yards of stone-cutters,
shafts, capitals, parts of broken cornices, and in
short, blocks of the finest marbles, all dug out of
the ruins in the neighborhood.
Yet, notwithstanding the waste and havoc of
THROUGH ITALY.
423
public walks. These statues when of marble,
fortunately for their duration, were beheld by all
parties with indifference; and when not imme-
diately within the verge of warlike operations,
allowed to stand undisturbed on their pedestals,
or fall unsupported and forgotten into the mass of
rubbish around them. That this was the case
we may conclude, from the places where several
beautiful statues were found, such as the baths of
Titus aud Caracalla, where they stood for ages
exposed to depredation, and were only concealed
in latter times by the fall of the buildings around
them. The pillars met with a different fate;
some were conveyed by the Exarchs to Ravenna,
others transported by Charlemagne beyond the
Alps, and thousands have been employed in the
churches and palaces of the modern city. In re-
ality, ancient Rome has been for twelve centuries
a quarry ever open and never exhausted ; and
the stranger, as he wanders through the streets of
the modern city, is astonished to see, sometimes
thrown neglected into corners, and often collected
round the shops, or in the yards of stone-cutters,
shafts, capitals, parts of broken cornices, and in
short, blocks of the finest marbles, all dug out of
the ruins in the neighborhood.
Yet, notwithstanding the waste and havoc of