DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61894#0042
32 CLASSICAL TOUR CA. I.
In an antichamber of the Palazzo Spada,
stands the celebrated statue of Pompey; at the
foot of which Caesar is supposed to have fallen.
The history of this statue deserves to be in-
serted. It was first placed during Pompey’s
life, in the senate house which he had erected;
and when that edifice was shut up, it was raised
by order of Augustus on a double arch or gate-
way of marble, opposite the grand entrance of
Pompey’s theatre. It was thrown down, or fell,
during the convulsion of the Gothic wars, and
for many ages it lay buried in the ruins. It
was at length discovered, I believe about the
beginning of the seventeenth century, in a par-
tition wall between two houses. After some
altercation, the proprietors of the two houses
agreed to cut the statue asunder, and to divide
the marble; when fortunately the Cardinal de
Spada beard the circumstance, and by a timely
purchase prevented the accomplishment of the
barbarous agreement, and the destruction of one
of the most interesting remnants of Roman an-
tiquity.
Another danger awaited Pompey’s statue at
a much later period, and from an unexpected
quarter. While the French occupied Rome in
the years 1798-99, &c. they erected in the centre
of the Coliseum a temporary theatre, where they
In an antichamber of the Palazzo Spada,
stands the celebrated statue of Pompey; at the
foot of which Caesar is supposed to have fallen.
The history of this statue deserves to be in-
serted. It was first placed during Pompey’s
life, in the senate house which he had erected;
and when that edifice was shut up, it was raised
by order of Augustus on a double arch or gate-
way of marble, opposite the grand entrance of
Pompey’s theatre. It was thrown down, or fell,
during the convulsion of the Gothic wars, and
for many ages it lay buried in the ruins. It
was at length discovered, I believe about the
beginning of the seventeenth century, in a par-
tition wall between two houses. After some
altercation, the proprietors of the two houses
agreed to cut the statue asunder, and to divide
the marble; when fortunately the Cardinal de
Spada beard the circumstance, and by a timely
purchase prevented the accomplishment of the
barbarous agreement, and the destruction of one
of the most interesting remnants of Roman an-
tiquity.
Another danger awaited Pompey’s statue at
a much later period, and from an unexpected
quarter. While the French occupied Rome in
the years 1798-99, &c. they erected in the centre
of the Coliseum a temporary theatre, where they