of republishing Nardini.* What has been said of the embarrassment of a stranger at Rome must appear more singular when it is recollected that besides the casual efforts of natives and foreigners there is an archæological society constantly at work upon the antiquities of the city and neighbourhood, and that not a few persons of liberal education are in the exercise of a lucrative profession, having for object the instruction and conduct of travellers amidst the wrecks of the old town and the museums of the new. It has been undertaken by Mr. Nibby, a respectable young man, one of the professional antiquaries of Rome, who is likewise employed on a translation of Pausanias. The volume on the Basilica of St. Paul, under the name of Monsignor Niccolai, is by this gentleman. Nibby afterwards published his edition of Nardini, a volume on the Forum, and a work in four volumes called 'Rome in 1838,' divided into Ancient Rome and Modern Rome, besides other topographical essays. He became official antiquary to his Holiness, and acquired other honours, the titles of which stretch through several lines in the title-page of his last work. He is dead (1860). Dr. Smith's article " Rome," by Mr. Dyer, gives a short sketch of recent writers. CHAPTER VIII. Few remains of Republican Rome Uncertainty of Roman antiquities The walls of Rome - Their ancient and modern measurement-Various names at different times given to the same remains Tomb of the Scipios Destruction of ancient sepulchres. FEW REMAINS OF REPUBLICAN ROME. It was one of the complaints of Poggio * that he saw almost nothing entire, and but very few remains, of the free city; and, indeed, the principal disappointment at Rome arises from finding such insignificant vestiges of the first ages and of the republic. Something, perhaps, might be added to the lists of them given by Mr. Forsyth; but not much. We have seen how soon those works disappeared; but we might still have expected to find something more than a sewer, a prison, a row of vaults, a foundation wall, a pavement, a sepulchre, a half-buried fragment of a theatre and circus. The artist may be comparatively indif "Nam ex publicis aut privatis operibus liberæ quondam civitatis interrupta quædam et ea parva vestigia visuntur."-De Varietate, &c. ferent to the date and history, and regard chiefly the architectural merit of a structure; but the Rome which the Republican Florentine regretted, and which an Englishman must wish to find, is not that of Augustus and his successors, but of those greater and better men of whose heroic actions his earliest impressions are composed. We have heard too much of the turbulence of the Roman democracy and of the Augustan virtues. No civil tranquillity can compensate for that perpetual submission, not to laws but persons, which must be required from the subjects of the most limited monarchy. The citizens of the worst regulated republic must feel a pride and may indulge a hope superior to all the blessings of domestic peace, and of what is called established order, another word for durable. servitude. The struggles for supreme though temporary power amongst those of an equal condition give birth to all the nobler energies of the mind, and find space for their unbounded exertion. Under a monarchy, however well attempered, the chief motive for action must be altogether wanting, or feebly felt, or cautiously encouraged. Duties purely ministerial, honours derived from an individual, may be meritoriously performed, may be gracefully worn; but, as an object of ambition, they are infinitely below the independent control of our fellow-citizens, and, perhaps, scarcely furnish a compensation for entire repose. The natural love of distinction on any terms may push us into public life; but it palsies our efforts, it mortifies our success, perpetually to feel that in such a career, although a failure is disgraceful, a victory is inglorious : "Vincere inglorium-atteri sordidum.” These are the sentiments of Agricola and the words of Tacitus, and bespeak the real value of the subordinate dignity which is all that can be obtained under a Domitian or under a Trajan, under the worst or under the best of princes. As those glorious institutions which subdued and civilized the world have long seemed incompatible with the altered condition of mankind, we recur with the greater eagerness to every memorial of their former existence; and hence our regret at finding so little of the early city. The courtly and melodious muses that graced the first age of the monarchy have, indeed, affixed an imperishable interest to every site and object connected with their patrons or their poetry; and in default of republican relics we are content with looking on the floorings of the Esquiline palace and at the fabric dedicated to him who has found a more durable monument in the verses of Virgil. The house of Mæcenas and the theatre of Marcellus can boast no other attraction. It is not to be denied but that by good fortune the most virtuous of the Roman sovereigns have left the most conspicuous monuments, and that we are thus perpetually recalled to an age in which mankind are supposed to have been more happy and content than during any other period of history. We may look at the Coliseum, the temples of Vespasian and Antoninus, the arch of Titus, and the historical columns, without cursing the usurpation of Augustus. But it is not to worship at the shrine of the Flavian princes, nor to do homage to the forbearance of Trajan (the word is not used at random),* or to the philosophy of Aurelius, that we undertake the pilgrimage of Rome. The men whose traces we would wish to discover were cast in another mould, and belonged to that order of beings whose superior qualities were, by the wisest of their immediate successors, as well as by the slaves of the last emperors, acknowledged to have expired with the republic. It is with the builders, and not the dilapidators, of the Roman race that we would hope to meet in the Capitol. Our youthful pursuits inspire us with no respect or affection for this nation independent of their republican virtues. It is to refresh our recollection of those virtues that we explore the ruins of Νῦν δὲ τοῦ τε οἴνου διακόρως ἔπινε, καὶ νήφων ἦν, ἔν τε τοῖς maidikoîs ovdéva éλúñŋσev.—Dion. Hist. Rom., lib. lxviii. tom. ii. p. 1125, edit. Hamb., 1750. It may be recollected why Julian excluded Trajan from the banquet of the Cæsars. "Postquam bellatum apud Actium, atque omnem potentiam ad unum conferri pacis interfuit; magna illa ingenia cessere."Tacit. Hist., lib. i. cap. i. "Postquam jura ferox in se communia Cæsar Transtulit; et lapsi mores; desuetaque priscis -Claud. de Bello Gildonico. |