We Then Ascended The Steps That Lead To The Modern Capitol And Mounted On
The Campanile Of The Same, From Whence There Is A Superb Panoramic View
Of Rome.
On descending from the Campanile, we visited the Tarpeian rock,
which is now of inconsiderable height, the ground about it and heaps of
rubbish having filled up the abyss below.
We then entered the court yard of
the Capitol. The Capitol and building annexed to it form three sides of a
rectangle, the centre or corps de logis lying North and South, and the
wings East and West, the whole inclosing a court yard open on the South
side of the rectangle, from whence you descend into the street on the plain
below, by a most magnificent escalier or flight of steps. Of the Capitol,
the corps de logis or central building to which the Campanile belongs,
is reserved for the occupation and habitation of the Senator Romano, a
civil magistrate, corresponding something to the mayor in France or
Oberbuergermeister in the German towns, and who is chosen from among the
nobility and nominated by the Pope. The wings contain the Museum
Capitolinum of painting and sculpture. There is a great deal to call forth
the admiration of the traveller in the court yard of the Capitol. The most
prominent object is the famous bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius,
which cannot fail to rivet the attention of the least enthusiastic
spectator. I observed at each angle of the facade of the Capitol a colossal
statue of a captive King in a Phrygian dress; but still more striking than
these are the colossal statues of Castor and Pollux leading horses, which
stand a little in front of the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, and
nearer the escalier, the one on the right the other on the left.
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