emperors and others spell-bound in subterranean abodes, and equally authentic with the enchanted virgin of the Tarpejan rock. THE MUSEUMS OF THE CAPITOL-THE WOLF. Ancient Rome, like modern Sienna, abounded most probably with images of the foster-mother of her founder; but there were two she-wolves of whom history makes particular mention. One of these, of brass in ancient work, was seen by Dionysius* at the temple of Romulus, under the Palatine, and is universally believed to be that mentioned by Livy as having been made from the money collected by a fine on usurers, and as standing under the Ruminal fig-tree.† The other was that which Cicero has celebrated both in prose and verse, and * Χάλκια ποιήματα παλαιᾶς ἐργασίας.—Antig. Rom., lib. i. "Ad ficum Ruminalem simulacra infantium conditorum urbis sub uberibus lupæ posuerunt."-Liv. Hist., lib. x. cap. lxix. This was in the year U. C. 455, or 457. "Tum statua Nattæ, tum simulacra Deorum, Romulusque et Remus cum altrice bellua vi fulminis icti conciderunt.”—De Divinat., ii. 20. "Tactus est ille etiam qui hanc urbem condidit Romulus, quem inauratum in Capitolio parvum atque lactantem, uberibus lupinis inhiantem fuisse meministis."-In Catilin. iii. 8. "Hic silvestris erat Romani nominis altrix De Consulatu, lib. ii. (lib. i. de divinat. cap. ii.) which the historian Dion also records as having suffered the same accident as is alluded to by the orator.* The question agitated by the antiquaries is, whether the wolf now in the conservators' palace is that of Livy and Dionysius, or that of Cicero, or whether it is neither one nor the other. The earlier writers differ as much as the moderns: Lucius Faunus† says that it is the one alluded to by both, which is impossible, and also by * Εν γὰρ τῷ καπητωλιῳ ἀνδριάντες τὲ πολλοὶ ὑπὸ κεραυνῶν συνεχωνεύθησαν, καὶ ἀγάλματα ἄλλα τε, καὶ Διὸς ἐπὶ κίονος ἱδρυμένον, εἰκών τέ τις λυκάινης σὺν τε τῶ Ῥώμω καὶ σύν τῷ Ρωμύλω ἱδρυμένη ἔπεσε. Dion. Hist., lib. xxxvii. p. 37, edit. Rob. Steph. 1548. He goes on to mention that the letters of the columns on which the laws were written were liquified and become ảμvdpà. All that the Romans did was to erect a large statue to Jupiter, looking towards the east : no mention is afterwards made of the wolf. This happened in A. U. C. 689. The Abate Fea, in noticing this passage of Dion (Storia delle Arti, &c., tom. i. p. 202, note x.), says, "Non ostante, aggiunge Dione, che fosse ben fermata" (the wolf), by which it is clear the Abate translated the Xylandro-Leuclavian version, which puts quamvis stabilita for the original idpuμév, a word that does not mean ben-fermata, but only established, as may be distinctly seen from another passage of the same Dion—Ήβουλήθη μὲν οὖν ὁ Αγρίππας καὶ τὸν Αὔγουστον ἐνταῦθα ἱδρύσαι. Hist. lib. lvi. Dion says that Agrippa "wished to establish a statue of Augustus in the Pantheon." "In eadem porticu ænea lupa, cujus uberibus Romulus ac Remus lactantes inhiant, conspicitur: de hac Cicero et Virgilius semper intellexere. Livius hoc signum ab Ædilibus ex pecuniis quibus mulctati essent fœneratores, positum innuit. Antea in Comitiis ad Ficum Ruminalem, quo loco pueri fuerant expositi locatum pro certo est."-Luc. Fauni, de Antiq. Urb. Rom., lib. ii. cap. vii. ap. Sallengre, tom.. i p. 217. Virgil, which may be. Fulvius Ursinus calls it the wolf of Dionysius, and Marlianus † talks of it as the one mentioned by Cicero. To him Rycquius tremblingly assents.‡ Nardini is inclined to suppose it may be one of the many wolves preserved in ancient Rome; but of the two rather bends to the Ciceronian statue.§ Montfaucon mentions it as a point without doubt. Of the latter writers the decisive Winkelmann¶ proclaims it as having been found at the church of Saint Theodore, where, or near where, was the temple of Romulus, and consequently makes it the wolf of Dionysius. authority is Lucius Faunus, who, however, only says that it was placed, not found, at the Ficus Ruminalis by the Comitium,** by which he does not seem to allude to the church of Saint Theodore. Rycquius was the His * Ap. Nardini Roma Vetus, lib. v. cap. iv. + Marliani. Urb. Rom. topograph., lib. ii. cap. ix. He mentions another wolf and twins in the Vatican, lib. v. сар. xxi. "Non desunt qui hanc ipsam esse putent, quam adpinximus, quæ è comitio in Basilicam Lateranam, cum nonnullis aliis antiquitatum reliquiis, atque hinc in Capitolium postea relata sit, quamvis Marlianus antiquam Capitolinam esse maluit a Tullio descriptam, cui ut in re nimis dubia, trepidè adsentimur."-Just. Rycquii de Capit. Roman. Comm., cap. xxiv. p. 250, edit. Lugd. Bat. 1696. § Nardini Roma Vetus, lib. v. cap. iv. "Lupa hodieque in capitolinis prostat ædibus, cum vestigio fulminis quo ictam narrat Cicero.”—Diarium Italic., tom. i. p. 174. Storia delle Arti, &c., lib. iii. cap. iii. § ii. note 10. Winkelmann has made a strange blunder in the note, by saying the Ciceronian wolf was not in the Capitol, and that Dion was wrong in saying so. **Luc. Fauni, ib., chap. xvii. first to make the mistake, and Winkelmann followed Rycquius. Flaminius Vacca tells quite a different story, and says he had heard the wolf with the twins was found* near the arch of Septimius Severus. The commentator on Winkelmann is of the same opinion with that learned person, and is incensed at Nardini for not having remarked that Cicero, in speaking of the wolf struck with lightning in the Capitol, makes use of the past tense. But, with the Abate's leave, Nardini does not positively assert the statue to be that mentioned by Cicero, and, if he had, the assumption would not perhaps have been so exceedingly indiscreet. The Abate himself is obliged to own that there are marks very like the scathing of lightning in the hinder legs of the present wolf; and, to get rid of this, adds that the wolf seen by Dionysius might have been also struck by lightning, or otherwise injured. Let us examine the subject by a reference to the words of Cicero. The orator in two places seems to particularize the Romulus and the Remus, especially the first, which his audience remembered to have been in the Capitol, as being struck with lightning. In his * "Intesi dire, che l' Ercolo di bronzo, che oggi si trova nella Sala di Campidoglio, fu trovato nel foro Romano appresso l'arco di Settimio; e vi fu trovata anche la lupa di bronzo che allata Romolo e Remo, e stà nella Loggia de' conservatori."-Vacca, Memorie, num. iii. p. 1, ap. Montfaucon dia. Ital. verses he records that the twins and wolf both fell, and that the latter left behind the marks of her feet. Cicero does not say that the wolf was consumed; and Dion only mentions that it fell down, without alluding, as the Abate has made him, to the force of the blow, or the firmness with which it had been fixed. The whole strength, therefore, of the Abate's argument hangs upon the past tense; which, however, may be somewhat diminished by remarking that the phrase only shows that the statue was not then standing in its former position. Winkelmann has observed that the present twins are modern; and it is equally clear that there are marks of gilding on the wolf, which might therefore be supposed to make part of the ancient group. It is known that the sacred images of the Capitol were not destroyed when injured by time or accident, but were put into certain underground depositaries called favissæ: It may be thought possible that the wolf had been so deposited, and had been replaced in some conspicuous situation when the Capitol was rebuilt by Vespasian. Rycquius, without mentioning his authority, tells that it was transferred from the Comitium to the Lateran, and thence brought to the Capitol. If it was found near the arch of Severus, it may have been one of the images which Orosius † says was thrown down in the Forum by lightning when Alaric took the city. * Luc. Faun. ibid. See previous notice of the Destruction of Roman Remains. |