DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61894#0028
IS
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. I.
between the columns; an equal number rose
above the entablature; and a proportional series
occupied the niches of the second story between
the pilasters. It is superfluous to observe that
the whole fabric was cased with marble, or that
the statues were the works of the best masters;
and it is almost unnecessary to add that this
monument was considered as the noblest sepul-
chral edifice ever erected, and one of the proudest
ornaments of Rome, even when she shone in all
her imperial magnificence.
Yet the glory of this mausoleum was transi-
tory ; its matchless beauty claimed in vain the
attention of absent Emperors; the genius of
Hadrian, the manes of the virtuous Antonini,
names so dear to the Roman world, pleaded in
vain for its preservation. The hand of time
daily defaced its ornaments, the zeal of Ilono-
rius stripped it of its pillars, and the military
skill of Belisarius turned it into a temporary
fortress. The necessity of such a protection
became from this period daily more visible.
Threatened first by the Lombards, then by the
German Emperors, and in the progress of time
by its own lawless nobles, the government saw
the necessity of securing a permanent post, and
found none more defensible by situation and by
structure than the Moles Hadriani, w hich com-
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. I.
between the columns; an equal number rose
above the entablature; and a proportional series
occupied the niches of the second story between
the pilasters. It is superfluous to observe that
the whole fabric was cased with marble, or that
the statues were the works of the best masters;
and it is almost unnecessary to add that this
monument was considered as the noblest sepul-
chral edifice ever erected, and one of the proudest
ornaments of Rome, even when she shone in all
her imperial magnificence.
Yet the glory of this mausoleum was transi-
tory ; its matchless beauty claimed in vain the
attention of absent Emperors; the genius of
Hadrian, the manes of the virtuous Antonini,
names so dear to the Roman world, pleaded in
vain for its preservation. The hand of time
daily defaced its ornaments, the zeal of Ilono-
rius stripped it of its pillars, and the military
skill of Belisarius turned it into a temporary
fortress. The necessity of such a protection
became from this period daily more visible.
Threatened first by the Lombards, then by the
German Emperors, and in the progress of time
by its own lawless nobles, the government saw
the necessity of securing a permanent post, and
found none more defensible by situation and by
structure than the Moles Hadriani, w hich com-