IV. I have reserved for the last, the most potent and forcible cause of destruction, the domestic hostilities of the Romans themselves. Under the dominion of the Greek and French emperors, the peace of the city was disturbed by accidental, though frequent, seditions; it is from the decline of the latter, from the beginning of the tenth century, that we may date the licentiousness of private war, which violated with impunity the laws of the Code and the gospel; without respecting the majesty of the absent sovereign, or the presence and person of the vicar of Christ. In a dark period of five hundred years, Rome was perpe tually afflicted by the sanguinary quarrels of the nobles and the people, the Guelphs and Ghibelines, the Colonna and Ursini; and if much has escaped the knowledge, and much is unworthy of the notice, of history, I have exposed, in the two preceding chapters, the causes and effects of the public disorders. At such a time, when every quarrel was decided by the sword, and none could trust their lives or properties to the impotence of law, the powerful citizens were armed for safety or offence against the domestic enemies, whom they feared or hated. Except Venice alone, the same dangers and designs were common to all the free republics of Italy; and the nobles usurped the prerogative of fortifying their houses, and erecting strong towers that were capable of resisting a sudden attack. The cities were filled with these hostile edifices; and the example of Lucca, which contained three hundred towers, her law which confined tion of Rome at different periods are derived from an ingenious treatise of the physician Lancisi, de Romani Cœli Qualitatibus (p. 122). [Sir W. Gell (Topog. p. 498. edit. Bohn) notices the fluctuations in the number of inhabitants at Rome and their causes; he says: In the reign of pope Innocent III. (A.D. 1198–1216) the population was estimated at only 35,000; during the residence of the popes at Avignon (A.D. 1309-1378) it amounted, according to the Abbate Cancelliere, to no more than 17,000; after their return it quickly increased to 60,000. The cruel sack of the city in 1527, by the Constable de Bourbon, reduced it to 33,000. A hundred and fifty years later the number was quadrupled, and about the year 1700 amounted to 140,000. The resent population of Rome will be considered at the close of this chapter.-ED.] All the facts that relate to the towers at Rome, and in other free cities of Italy, may be found in the laborious and entertaining compilation of Muratori, Antiquitates Italia Medii Evi, dissertat. 20 (tom. ii. p. 493-496 of the Latin, tom. i. p. 446 of the Italian work). their height to the measure of fourscore feet, may be extended with suitable latitude to the more opulent and populous states. The first step of the senator Brancaleone in the establishment of peace and justice, was to demolish (as we have already seen) one hundred and forty of the towers of Rome; and, in the last days of anarchy and discord, as late as the reign of Martin the Fifth, forty-four still stood in one of the thirteen or fourteen regions of the city. To this mischievous purpose, the remains of antiquity were most readily adapted; the temples and arches afforded a broad and solid basis for the new structures of brick and stone; and we can name the modern turrets that were raised on the triumphal monuments of Julius Cæsar, Titus, and the Antonines.* With some slight alterations, a theatre, an amphitheatre, a mausoleum was transformed into a strong and spacious citadel. I need not repeat that the mole of Adrian has assumed the title and form of the castle of St. Angelo;t the Septizonium of Severus was capable of standing against a royal army; the sepulchre of Metella has sunk under its outworks; § the theatres of * As for instance, Templum Jani nunc dicitur, turris Centii Frangipanis; et sane Jano imposita turris lateritiæ conspicua hodieque vestigia supersunt. (Montfaucon, Diarium Italicum, p. 186.) The anonymous writer (p. 285) enumerates, arcus Titi, turris Cartularia; arcus Julii Cæsaris et Senatorum, turres de Bratis; arcus Antonini, turris de Cosectis, &c. + Hadriani molem . . . . magna ex parte Romanorum injuria . . . . disturbavit; quod certe funditus evertissent, si eorum manibus pervia, absumptis grandibus saxis, reliqua moles exstitisset. (Poggius de Varietate Fortunæ, p. 12.) Against the emperor Henry IV. (Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom. ix. p. 147.) § I must copy an important passage of Montfaucon: Turris ingens rotunda . . . . Cæciliæ Metellæ sepulchrum erat, cujus muri tam solidi, ut spatium perquam minimum intus vacuum supersit; et Torre di Bove dicitur, a boum capitibus muro inscriptis. Huic sequiori ævo, tempore intestinorum bellorum, ceu urbecula adjuncta fuit, cujus monia et turres etiamnum visuntur; ita ut sepulchrum Metellæ quasi arx oppiduli fuerit. Ferventibus in urbe partibus, cum Ursini atque Columnenses mutuis cladibus perniciem inferrent civitati, in utriusve partis ditioneun cederet magni momenti erat (p.142). [Lord Byron (Childe Harold, canto iv. stanza 99) describes the tomb of Metella as still existing: "There is a stern round tower of other days, Firm as a fortress What was this tower of strength ?—a woman's grave." And the inscription on it, C.ECILIE Q. CRETIOL F. METELLE CRASSI, Pompey and Marcellus were occupied by the Savelli and Ursini families; and the rough fortress has been gradually softened to the splendour and elegance of an Italian palace. Even the churches were encompassed with arms and bulwarks, and the military engines on the roof of St. Peter's were the terror of the Vatican and the scandal of the Christian world. Whatever is fortified will be attacked; and whatever is attacked may be destroyed. Could the Romans have wrested from the popes the castle of St. Angelo, they had resolved, by a public decree, to annihilate that monument of servitude. Every building of defence was exposed to a siege; and in every siege the arts and engines of destruction were laboriously employed. After the death of Nicholas the Fourth, Rome, without a sovereign or a senate, was abandoned six months to the fury of civil war. "The houses (says a cardinal and poet of the times) were crushed by the weight and velocity of enor mous stones; the walls were perforated by the strokes of the battering-ram; the towers were involved in fire and smoke; and the assailants were stimulated by rapine and revenge." The work was consummated by the tyranny of the laws; and the factions of Italy alternately exercised a blind and thoughtless vengeance on their adversaries, whose houses and castles they razed to the ground. § In comparing the days of foreign, with the ages of domestic is given by Hobhouse.-ED.] See the testimonies of Donatus, Nardini, and Montfaucon. In the Savelli palace, the remains of the theatre of Marcellus are still great and conspicuous. James, cardinal of St. George ad velum aureum, in his metrical Life of pope Celestine V. (Muratori, Script. Ital. tom. i. p. 3, p. 621, L 1, c. 1, ver. 132, &c.) Hoc dixisse sat est, Romam caruisse senatû Mensibus exactis heu sex; belloque vocatum (rocatos) Tormentis jecisse viros immania saxa; Ignibus; incensas turres, obscuraque fumo Muratori (Dissertazione sopra le Antichità Italiane, tom. i. p. 427 --431) finds, that stone bullets of two or three hundred pounds weight were not uncommon; and they are sometimes computed at twelve or eighteen cantari of Genoa, each cantaro weighing a hundred and fifty pounds. § The sixth law of the Visconti prohibits this common and mischievous practice; and strictly enjoins, that the houses of banished citizens should be preserved pro commuri utilitate hostility, we must pronounce that the latter have been far more ruinous to the city; and our opinion is confirmed by the evidence of Petrarch. "Behold (says the laureate) the relics of Rome, the image of her pristine greatness! neither time, nor the Barbarian, can boast the merit of this stupendous destruction: it was perpetrated by her own citizens, by the most illustrious of her sons; and your ancestors (he writes to a noble Annibaldi) have done with the batteringram what the Punic hero could not accomplish with the sword." The influence of the last two principles of decay must in some degree be multiplied by each other; since the houses and towers, which were subverted by civil war, required a new and perpetual supply from the monuments of antiquity. These general observations may be separately applied to the amphitheatre of Titus, which has obtained the name of the COLISEUM,† either from its magnitude, or from Nero's colossal statue: an edifice, had it been left to time and nature, which might perhaps have claimed an eternal duration. The curious antiquaries, who have computed the numbers and seats, are disposed to believe, that above the upper row of stone steps, the amphitheatre was encircled and elevated with several stages of wooden galleries, which were repeatedly consumed by fire, and restored by the emperors. Whatever was precious, or portable, or profane, the statues of gods and heroes, and the costly ornaments of sculpture, Gualvaneus de la Flamma, in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, Nec te parva manet servatis fama ruinis, Perficit hic aries. The fourth part of the Verona Illustrata of the marquis Maffei, professedly treats of amphitheatres, particularly those of Rome and Verona, of their dimensions, wooden galleries, &c. It is from magnitude that he derives the name of Colosseum or Coliseum: since the same appellation was applied to the amphitheatre of Capua, without the aid of a colossal statue; since that of Nero was erected in the which were cast in brass, or overspread with leaves of silver and gold, became the first prey of conquest or fanaticism, of the avarice of the Barbarians or the Christians. In the massy stones of the Coliseum, many holes are discerned; and the two most probable conjectures represent the various accidents of its decay. These stones were connected by solid links of brass or iron; nor had the eye of rapine overlooked the value of the baser metals; the vacant space was converted into a fair or market; the artisans of the Coliseum are mentioned in an ancient survey; and the chasms were perforated or enlarged to receive the poles that supported the shops or tents of the mechanic trades.t Reduced to its naked majesty, the Flavian amphitheatre was contemplated with awe and admiration by the pilgrims of the North; and their rude enthusiasm broke forth in a sublime proverbial expression, which is recorded in the eighth century, in the fragments of the venerable Bede: "As long as the Coliseum stands, Rome shall stand; when the Coliseum falls, Rome will fall; when Rome falls, the world will fall." In the modern system of war, a situation commanded by three hills would not be chosen for a fortress; but the strength of the walls and arches could resist the engines of assault; a numerous garrison might be lodged in the enclosure; and while one faction occupied the Vatican and the Capitol, the other was intrenched in the Lateran and the Coliseum.§ court (in atrio) of his palace, and not in the Coliseum (p. 4, p. 15-19, 1. 1, c. 4). * Joseph Maria Suarés, a learned bishop, and the author of a history of Præneste, has composed a separate dissertation on the seven or eight probable causes of these holes, which has been since reprinted in the Roman Thesaurus of Sallengre. Montfaucon (Diarium, p. 233) pronounces the rapine of the Barbarians to be the unam germanamque causam foraminum. + Donatus, Roma Vetus et Nova, p. 285. ‡ Quamdiu stabit Colyseus, stabit et Roma; quando cadet Colyseus, cadet Roma; quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus. (Beda in Excerptis seu Collectaneis apud Ducange, Glossar. med. et infimæ Latinitatis tom. ii. p. 407, edit. Basil.) This saying must be ascribed to the AngloSaxon pilgrims, who visited Rome before the year 735, the era of Bede's death; for I do not believe that our venerable monk ever passed the sea. § I cannot recover, in Muratori's original Lives of the Popes (Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. p. 1), the passage that attests this hostile partition, which must be applied to the end of the eleventh or the beginning of the twelfth century. |