The Place Is Well Built, Adorned
With Public Fountains, And A Great Number Of Churches And
Convents; Yet Far From Being Populous, The Whole Number Of
Inhabitants, Not Exceeding Fifteen Thousand.
The post-house is
one of the worst inns I ever entered.
After having passed this mountain, the Cyminus of the antients,
we skirted part of the lake, which is now called de Vico, and
whose banks afford the most agreeable rural prospects of hill and
vale, wood, glade and water, shade and sun-shine. A few other
very inconsiderable places we passed, and descended into the
Campania of Rome, which is almost a desert. The view of this
country in its present situation, cannot but produce emotions of
pity and indignation in the mind of every person who retains any
idea of its antient cultivation and fertility. It is nothing but
a naked withered down, desolate and dreary, almost without
inclosure, corn-field, hedge, tree, shrub, house, hut, or
habitation; exhibiting here and there the ruins of an antient
castellum, tomb, or temple, and in some places the remains of a
Roman via. I had heard much of these antient pavements, and was
greatly disappointed when I saw them. The Via Cassia or Cymina is
paved with broad, solid, flint-stones, which must have greatly
incommoded the feet of horses that travelled upon it as well as
endangered the lives of the riders from the slipperiness of the
pavement: besides, it is so narrow that two modern carriages
could not pass one another upon it, without the most imminent
hazard of being overturned. I am still of opinion that we excel
the ancient Romans in understanding the conveniences of life.
The Grand Tour says, that within four miles of Rome you see a
tomb on the roadside, said to be that of Nero, with sculpture in
basso-relievo at both ends. I did see such a thing more like a
common grave-stone, than the tomb of an emperor. But we are
informed by Suetonius, that the dead body of Nero, who slew
himself at the villa of his freedman, was by the care of his two
nurses and his concubine Atta, removed to the sepulchre of the
Gens Domitia, immediately within the Porta del Popolo, on your
left hand as you enter Rome, precisely on the spot where now
stands the church of S. Maria del Popolo. His tomb was even
distinguished by an epitaph, which has been preserved by
Gruterus. Giacomo Alberici tells us very gravely in his History
of the Church, that a great number of devils, who guarded the
bones of this wicked emperor, took possession, in the shape of
black ravens, of a walnut-tree, which grew upon the spot;
from whence they insulted every passenger, until pope Paschal II.,
in consequence of a solemn fast and a revelation, went thither
in procession with his court and cardinals, cut down the tree,
and burned it to ashes, which, with the bones of Nero, were
thrown into the Tyber: then he consecrated an altar on the
place, where afterwards the church was built. You may guess
what I felt at first sight of the city of Rome, which,
notwithstanding all the calamities it has undergone, still
maintains an august and imperial appearance. It stands on
the farther side of the Tyber, which we crossed at the Ponte
Molle, formerly called Pons Milvius, about two miles from the
gate by which we entered. This bridge was built by Aemilius
Censor, whose name it originally bore. It was the road by which
so many heroes returned with conquest to their country; by which
so many kings were led captive to Rome; and by which the
ambassadors of so many kingdoms and states approached the seat of
empire, to deprecate the wrath, to sollicit the friendship, or
sue for the protection of the Roman people. It is likewise famous
for the defeat and death of Maxentius, who was here overcome by
Constantine the Great. The space between the bridge and Porta del
Popolo, on the right-hand, which is now taken up with gardens and
villas, was part of the antient Campus Martius, where the
comitiae were held; and where the Roman people inured themselves
to all manner of exercises: it was adorned with porticos,
temples, theatres, baths, circi, basilicae, obelisks, columns,
statues, and groves. Authors differ in their opinions about the
extent of it; but as they all agree that it contained the
Pantheon, the Circus Agonis, now the Piazza Navona, the Bustum
and Mausoleum Augusti, great part of the modern city must be
built upon the ancient Campus Martius. The highway that leads
from the bridge to the city, is part of the Via Flaminia, which
extended as far as Rimini; and is well paved, like a modern
street. Nothing of the antient bridge remains but the piles; nor
is there any thing in the structure of this, or of the other five
Roman bridges over the Tyber, that deserves attention. I have not
seen any bridge in France or Italy, comparable to that of
Westminster either in beauty, magnificence, or solidity; and when
the bridge at Black-Friars is finished, it will be such a
monument of architecture as all the world cannot parallel. As for
the Tyber, it is, in comparison with the Thames, no more than an
inconsiderable stream, foul, deep, and rapid. It is navigable by
small boats, barks, and lighters; and, for the conveniency of
loading and unloading them, there is a handsome quay by the new
custom-house, at the Porto di Ripetta, provided with stairs of
each side, and adorned with an elegant fountain, that yields
abundance of excellent water.
We are told that the bed of this river has been considerably
raised by the rubbish of old Rome, and this is the reason usually
given for its being so apt to overflow its banks. A citizen of
Rome told me, that a friend of his lately digging to lay the
foundation of a new house in the lower part of the city, near the
bank of the river, discovered the pavement of an antient street,
at the depth of thirty-nine feet from the present surface of the
earth.
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