History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Volume 6 Part 41

[Footnote 32: Yet Charlemagne washed and swam at Aix la Chapelle with a hundred of his courtiers, (Eginhart, c. 22, p. 108, 109,) and Muratori describes, as late as the year 814, the public baths which were built at Spoleto in Italy, (Annali, tom. vi. p. 416.)]

[Footnote 33: See the Annals of Italy, A.D. 988. For this and the preceding fact, Muratori himself is indebted to the Benedictine history of Pere Mabillon.]

[Footnote 34: Vita di Sisto Quinto, da Gregorio Leti, tom. iii. p. 50.]

[Footnote 341: From the quotations in Bunsen's Dissertation, it may be suspected that this slow but continual process of destruction was the most fatal. Ancient Rome eas considered a quarry from which the church, the castle of the baron, or even the hovel of the peasant, might be repaired.--M.]

[Footnote 35: Porticus aedis Concordiae, quam c.u.m primum ad urbem accessi vidi fere integram opere marmoreo admodum specioso: Romani postmodum ad calcem aedem totam et porticus partem disjectis columnis sunt demoliti, (p. 12.) The temple of Concord was therefore _not_ destroyed by a sedition in the xiiith century, as I have read in a MS. treatise del'

Governo civile di Rome, lent me formerly at Rome, and ascribed (I believe falsely) to the celebrated Gravina. Poggius likewise affirms that the sepulchre of Caecilia Metella was burnt for lime, (p. 19, 20.)]

[Footnote 36: Composed by aeneas Sylvius, afterwards Pope Pius II., and published by Mabillon, from a MS. of the queen of Sweden, (Musaeum Italic.u.m, tom. i. p. 97.)

Oblectat me, Roma, tuas spectare ruinas: Ex cujus lapsu gloria prisca patet.

Sed tuus hic populus muris defossa vetustis Calcis in obsequium marmora dura coquit.

Impia tercentum si sic gens egerit annos Nullum hinc indicium n.o.bilitatis erit.]

[Footnote 37: Vagabamur pariter in illa urbe tam magna; quae, c.u.m propter spatium vacua videretur, populum habet immensum, (Opp p. 605 Epist.

Familiares, ii. 14.)]

[Footnote 38: These states of the population of Rome at different periods are derived from an ingenious treatise of the physician Lancisi, de Romani Cli Qualitatibus, (p. 122.)]

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 perpetually afflicted by the sanguinary quarrels of the n.o.bles 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 n.o.bles usurped the prerogative of fortifying their houses, and erecting strong towers, [39] 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 their height to the measure of fourscore feet, may be extended with suitable lat.i.tude 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 Caesar, t.i.tus, and the Antonines. [40]

With some slight alterations, a theatre, an amphitheatre, a mausoleum, was transformed into a strong and s.p.a.cious citadel. I need not repeat, that the mole of Adrian has a.s.sumed the t.i.tle and form of the castle of St. Angelo; [41] the Septizonium of Severus was capable of standing against a royal army; [42] the sepulchre of Metella has sunk under its outworks; [43] [431] the theatres of Pompey and Marcellus were occupied by the Savelli and Ursini families; [44] and the rough fortress has been gradually softened to the splendor and elegance of an Italian palace.

Even the churches were encompa.s.sed 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, [45] "were crushed by the weight and velocity of enormous stones; [46] the walls were perforated by the strokes of the battering-ram; the towers were involved in fire and smoke; and the a.s.sailants 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. [47] In comparing the _days_ of foreign, with the _ages_ of domestic, hostility, we must p.r.o.nounce, 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 ill.u.s.trious of her sons; and your ancestors (he writes to a n.o.ble Annabaldi) have done with the battering-ram what the Punic hero could not accomplish with the sword." [48] The influence of the two last principles of decay must in some degree be multiplied by each other; since the houses and towers, which were subverted by civil war, required by a new and perpetual supply from the monuments of antiquity. [481]

[Footnote 39: 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 Italiae Medii aevi, dissertat. xxvi., (tom. ii. p. 493--496, of the Latin, tom.. p. 446, of the Italian work.)]

[Footnote 40: As for instance, templum Jani nunc dicitur, turris Centii Frangipanis; et sane Jano impositae turris lateritiae conspicua hodieque vestigia supersunt, (Montfaucon Diarium Italic.u.m, p. 186.) The anonymous writer (p. 285) enumerates, arcus t.i.ti, turris Cartularia; arcus Julii Caesaris et Senatorum, turres de Bratis; arcus Antonini, turris de Cosectis, &c.]

[Footnote 41: Hadriani molem.... magna ex parte Romanorum injuria....

disturbavit; quod certe funditus evertissent, si eorum manibus pervia, absumptis grandibus saxis, reliqua moles exstisset, (Poggius de Varietate Fortunae, p. 12.)]

[Footnote 42: Against the emperor Henry IV., (Muratori, Annali d'

Italia, tom. ix. p. 147.)]

[Footnote 43: I must copy an important pa.s.sage of Montfaucon: Turris ingens rotunda.... Caeciliae Metellae.... 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 aevo, tempore intestinorum bellorum, ceu urbecula adjuncta fuit, cujus mnia et turres etiamnum visuntur; ita ut sepulchrum Metellae quasi arx oppiduli fuerit. Ferventibus in urbe partibus, c.u.m Ursini atque Columnenses mutuis cladibus perniciem inferrent civitati, in utriusve partis ditionem cederet magni momenti erat, (p. 142.)]

[Footnote 431: This is inaccurately expressed. The sepulchre is still standing See Hobhouse, p. 204.--M.]

[Footnote 44: See the testimonies of Donatus, Nardini, and Montfaucon.

In the Savelli palace, the remains of the theatre of Marcellus are still great and conspicuous.]

[Footnote 45: James, cardinal of St. George, ad velum aureum, in his metrical life of Pope Celestin V., (Muratori, Script. Ital. tom. i. P.

iii. p. 621, l. i. c. l. ver. 132, &c.)

Hoc dixisse sat est, Romam caruisee Senatu Mensibus exactis heu s.e.x; belloque vocatum (_vocatos_) In scelus, in socios fraternaque vulnera patres; Tormentis jecisse viros immania saxa; Perfodisse domus trabibus, fecisse ruinas Ignibus; incensas turres, obscuraque fumo Lumina vicino, quo sit spoliata supellex.]

[Footnote 46: Muratori (Dissertazione sopra le Antiquita 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 xii. or xviii _cantari_ of Genoa, each _cantaro_ weighing 150 pounds.]

[Footnote 47: The vith law of the Visconti prohibits this common and mischievous practice; and strictly enjoins, that the houses of banished citizens should be preserved pro communi utilitate, (Gualvancus de la Flamma in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. xii. p. 1041.)]

[Footnote 48: Petrarch thus addresses his friend, who, with shame and tears had shown him the mnia, lacerae specimen miserable Romae, and declared his own intention of restoring them, (Carmina Latina, l. ii.

epist. Paulo Annibalensi, xii. p. 97, 98.)

Nec te parva manet servatis fama ruinis Quanta quod integrae fuit olim gloria Romae Reliquiae testantur adhuc; quas longior aetas Frangere non valuit; non vis aut ira cruenti Hostis, ab egregiis franguntur civibus, heu! heu'

--------Quod _ille_ nequivit (_Hannibal_.) Perficit hic aries.]

[Footnote 481: Bunsen has shown that the hostile attacks of the emperor Henry the Fourth, but more particularly that of Robert Guiscard, who burned down whole districts, inflicted the worst damage on the ancient city Vol. i. p. 247.--M.]

Chapter LXXI: Prospect Of The Ruins Of Rome In The Fifteenth Century.--Part II

These general observations may be separately applied to the amphitheatre of t.i.tus, which has obtained the name of the Coliseum, [49] 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 G.o.ds and heroes, and the costly ornaments of sculpture which were cast in bra.s.s, 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 ma.s.sy 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 bra.s.s or iron, nor had the eye of rapine overlooked the value of the baser metals; [50] the vacant s.p.a.ce 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. [51] 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." [52] 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 a.s.sault; 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. [53]

[Footnote 49: The fourth part of the Verona Ill.u.s.trata 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 court (_in atrio_) of his palace, and not in the Coliseum, (P. iv. p.

15--19, l. i. c. 4.)]

[Footnote 50: Joseph Maria Suares, a learned bishop, and the author of a history of Praeneste, 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) p.r.o.nounces the rapine of the Barbarians to be the unam germanamque causam foraminum. * Note: The improbability of this theory is shown by Bunsen, vol. i. p. 239.--M.]

[Footnote 51: Donatus, Roma Vetus et Nova, p. 285.

Note: Gibbon has followed Donatus, who supposes that a silk manufactory was established in the xiith century in the Coliseum. The Bandonarii, or Bandererii, were the officers who carried the standards of their _school_ before the pope. Hobhouse, p. 269.--M.]

[Footnote 52: Quamdiu stabit Colyseus, stabit et Roma; quando cadet Coly seus, cadet Roma; quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus, (Beda in Excerptis seu Collectaneis apud Ducange Glossar. Med. et Infimae Latinitatis, tom. ii. p. 407, edit. Basil.) This saying must be ascribed to the Anglo-Saxon pilgrims who visited Rome before the year 735 the aera of Bede's death; for I do not believe that our venerable monk ever pa.s.sed the sea.]

[Footnote 53: I cannot recover, in Muratori's original Lives of the Popes, (Script Rerum Italicarum, tom. iii. P. i.,) the pa.s.sage that attests this hostile part.i.tion, which must be applied to the end of the xiith or the beginning of the xiith century. * Note: "The division is mentioned in Vit. Innocent. Pap. II. ex Cardinale Aragonio, (Script.

Rer. Ital. vol. iii. P. i. p. 435,) and Gibbon might have found frequent other records of it at other dates." Hobhouse's Ill.u.s.trations of Childe Harold. p. 130.--M.]

The abolition at Rome of the ancient games must be understood with some lat.i.tude; and the carnival sports, of the Testacean mount and the Circus Agonalis, [54] were regulated by the law [55] or custom of the city. The senator presided with dignity and pomp to adjudge and distribute the prizes, the gold ring, or the _pallium_, [56] as it was styled, of cloth or silk. A tribute on the Jews supplied the annual expense; [57] and the races, on foot, on horseback, or in chariots, were enn.o.bled by a tilt and tournament of seventy-two of the Roman youth. In the year one thousand three hundred and thirty-two, a bull-feast, after the fas.h.i.+on of the Moors and Spaniards, was celebrated in the Coliseum itself; and the living manners are painted in a diary of the times. [58] A convenient order of benches was restored; and a general proclamation, as far as Rimini and Ravenna, invited the n.o.bles to exercise their skill and courage in this perilous adventure. The Roman ladies were marshalled in three squadrons, and seated in three balconies, which, on this day, the third of September, were lined with scarlet cloth. The fair Jacova di Rovere led the matrons from beyond the Tyber, a pure and native race, who still represent the features and character of antiquity. The remainder of the city was divided as usual between the Colonna and Ursini: the two factions were proud of the number and beauty of their female bands: the charms of Savella Ursini are mentioned with praise; and the Colonna regretted the absence of the youngest of their house, who had sprained her ankle in the garden of Nero's tower. The lots of the champions were drawn by an old and respectable citizen; and they descended into the arena, or pit, to encounter the wild bulls, on foot as it should seem, with a single spear. Amidst the crowd, our annalist has selected the names, colors, and devices, of twenty of the most conspicuous knights. Several of the names are the most ill.u.s.trious of Rome and the ecclesiastical state: Malatesta, Polenta, della Valle, Cafarello, Savelli, Capoccio, Conti, Annibaldi, Altieri, Corsi: the colors were adapted to their taste and situation; the devices are expressive of hope or despair, and breathe the spirit of gallantry and arms. "I am alone, like the youngest of the Horatii," the confidence of an intrepid stranger: "I live disconsolate," a weeping widower: "I burn under the ashes," a discreet lover: "I adore Lavinia, or Lucretia," the ambiguous declaration of a modern pa.s.sion: "My faith is as pure," the motto of a white livery: "Who is stronger than myself?" of a lion's hide: "If am drowned in blood, what a pleasant death!" the wish of ferocious courage. The pride or prudence of the Ursini restrained them from the field, which was occupied by three of their hereditary rivals, whose inscriptions denoted the lofty greatness of the Colonna name: "Though sad, I am strong:" "Strong as I am great:" "If I fall,"

addressing himself to the spectators, "you fall with me;"--intimating (says the contemporary writer) that while the other families were the subjects of the Vatican, they alone were the supporters of the Capitol.

The combats of the amphitheatre were dangerous and b.l.o.o.d.y. Every champion successively encountered a wild bull; and the victory may be ascribed to the quadrupeds, since no more than eleven were left on the field, with the loss of nine wounded and eighteen killed on the side of their adversaries. Some of the n.o.blest families might mourn, but the pomp of the funerals, in the churches of St. John Lateran and St. Maria Maggiore, afforded a second holiday to the people. Doubtless it was not in such conflicts that the blood of the Romans should have been shed; yet, in blaming their rashness, we are compelled to applaud their gallantry; and the n.o.ble volunteers, who display their magnificence, and risk their lives, under the balconies of the fair, excite a more generous sympathy than the thousands of captives and malefactors who were reluctantly dragged to the scene of slaughter. [59]

[Footnote 54: Although the structure of the circus Agonalis be destroyed, it still retains its form and name, (Agona, Nagona, Navona;) and the interior s.p.a.ce affords a sufficient level for the purpose of racing. But the Monte Testaceo, that strange pile of broken pottery, seems only adapted for the annual practice of hurling from top to bottom some wagon-loads of live hogs for the diversion of the populace, (Statuta Urbis Romae, p. 186.)]

[Footnote 55: See the Statuta Urbis Romae, l. iii. c. 87, 88, 89, p. 185, 186. I have already given an idea of this munic.i.p.al code. The races of Nagona and Monte Testaceo are likewise mentioned in the Diary of Peter Antonius from 1404 to 1417, (Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom.

xxiv. p. 1124.)]

[Footnote 56: The _Pallium_, which Menage so foolishly derives from _Palmarius_, is an easy extension of the idea and the words, from the robe or cloak, to the materials, and from thence to their application as a prize, (Muratori, dissert. x.x.xiii.)]

[Footnote 57: For these expenses, the Jews of Rome paid each year 1130 florins, of which the odd thirty represented the pieces of silver for which Judas had betrayed his Master to their ancestors. There was a foot-race of Jewish as well as of Christian youths, (Statuta Urbis, ibidem.)]

[Footnote 58: This extraordinary bull-feast in the Coliseum is described, from tradition rather than memory, by Ludovico Buonconte Monaldesco, on the most ancient fragments of Roman annals, (Muratori, Script Rerum Italicarum, tom. xii. p. 535, 536;) and however fanciful they may seem, they are deeply marked with the colors of truth and nature.]