the figure of which is sculptured beneath the moulding, and is the only authentic representation extant of that interesting relic of the great temple. How replete with engrossing interest are those venerable memorials of classic ages to the scholar, the historian, and the antiquarian! Outside the walls stand the ruins of the aqueducts. Many a phlegmatic visitor deems them worthy of no greater amount of observation, than as a lengthened range of mouldering bricks; yet there they are, those gigantic ducts, which had been supported, in some instances for a distance of forty miles, by continuous pillars and arches-those prodigious channels, which every day conveyed artificially to Rome floods of limpid, salutary waters, equally copious as the yellow rapids, which we see now daily flowing naturally, between the river banks of the Tiber. We visit the tombs of Adrian, and of Scipio, and others of the mighty dead!-we almost expect to grasp their hands, and aspire to become associates with those potentates who lived beyond a thousand years ago! But no! the marble or the adamantine sarcophagus is still there, but the ashes are dissipated!—and the feeble effort which vanity employed to preserve their remains, elicits a smile from the reflecting philosophic visitor. "How smiles the gazer's eye with philosophic mirth, To view the huge design which sprung from such a birth !" If we extend our walk beyond the circus of Romulus, two miles from the gate of St. Sebastian, on the Appian Way, we arrive at the massive tower erected as the mausoleum of Cecilia Metella, where, near two thousand years ago, her remains were "Tombed in a palace !" The mighty mole teaches us the same salutary lesson ! -who was she?—where are her ashes?—what is her his tory? “Was she chaste and fair? What daughter of her beauties was the heir? How lived-how loved-how died she? Was she not So honoured, and conspicuously there, Where meaner relics must not dare to rot, Placed to commemorate a more than mortal lot? -but whither would conjecture stray? Thus much alone we know—Metella died, The wealthiest Roman's wife. Behold his love or pride !” The noble sarcophagus of Peperino, on the Appian Way also, which once contained the remains of Scipio, suggests similar reflections to a contemplative visitor. It stands within the thickets of a shady vineyard. The solemn silence; the quietude and stillness, remote from the deafening din of the tumultuous capital; the retirement of the secluded spot; the solitary cypress tree which stands beside it; the twining vines and mantling ivy, "the garland of eternity”, seemed to indicate that the genius of ancient Rome, who in days of yore was inflated with pride at the glory and celebrity of her citizens, her senators, and her heroes, blushing at the vain efforts of fame, to immortalize the memory of her heroic children, and to transmit their ashes to posterity, now desired to cover them in seclusion, and screen them from the scathing smile of the Christian philosopher:— "The Scipios' tomb contains no ashes now: Of their heroic dwellers: dost thou flow, Old Tiber, through a marble wilderness? Rise with thy yellow waves and mantle her distress”. Then there is that mighty fabric of the Coliseum, founded by Vespasian, so early as the year of our Lord 72, and 14 NERO'S GOLDEN HOUSE. once capable of accommodating 90,000 spectators, and now alike challenging the amazement of the historian, the architect, and the religionist. There it stands, the earliest garden of holy Church, in which the blood of martyrs was sown, and became the seed of Christians, which grew up into a great trée, that extended its branches to the uttermost ends of the earth, and bore most abundant fruits of sanctity. Here the gladiator Butchered to make a Roman holiday". Visitor who have travelled here from the ends of the earth, are these objects which possess no interest for you? Then, tasteless traveller, return whence you came-opportunities afforded you are uselessly conferred "Et quæ tanta fuit Romam tibi causa videndi ?" What business had you to come to see Rome? · and See, there are the remains of Nero's Golden House, on yonder hill stand the mouldering remains of the palace of the Cæsars, some idea of the extent, and gorgeous character of which may be formed, when it is known that the front was approached through a triple avenue, or portico of a thousand columns; and beyond that towering dome, observe the extensive palace of the Galilean fisherman— contrast its present splendors with the faded glories of the former-and learn, that there is a God who employs the weak things of this world to confound the strong! The obelisks also have ever commanded the most minute observation of the visitor to Rome, and more especially that of the antiquarian. They are so ancient, drawn from such obscure antiquity, that all the light which shone since then, has failed as yet to illustrate their history. A visit to the Forum recalls the most thrilling reminiscences; the Forum which echoed to classic accents! "The Forum, where the immortal accents glow, In conclusion, I shall allude to one more, that of the Pantheon. It was built by Agrippa, twenty-six years before the Christian era, and is one of the most admired of all the antiquities of Rome, as being a perfect model of symmetry, accuracy of proportions, and general architectural beauty—it is one which is still in the highest state of preservation, and is one also which presents the most forcible proof that Rome should claim the title of the "eternal city". It has been frequently and fiercely assailed by storm, fire, and flood, as well as by the ravages. of nearly two thousand years of time; yet there it stands, though partially despoiled and wounded, substantially uninjured, smiling at the futile efforts of its assailants, seated in tranquil majesty amidst the wreck, and mouldering debris, of all its former nodding cotemporaries. 66 Looking tranquilly, while falls or nods Arch, empire, each thing round thee, and man plods His way through thorns to ashes-glorious dome, Of art and piety-Pantheon ! pride of Rome!" I adduce the foregoing, merely as a few illustrations of the engrossing interest, historical associations, and intellectual enjoyments, which the antiquities of Rome elicit, in the minds of the erudite, and of visitors of taste. The most comprehensive view of the ruins of Ancient Rome, and the most convincing evidences of the devastating influence of time on her former greatness, will be presented to the visitor on the Campo Vaccino, or to speak more classically, the Roman Forum. On this spot, the eye is presented the most convincing testimony of the dominion of time over human greatness, in the cluster of nodding, crumbling ruins, which constituted the glories of Ancient Rome. One view circumscribes the site of the ancient Via Sacra, the Lacus Curtius, the ruins of the Coliseum, the Arch of Constantine, the Palace of the Cæsars, the Temple of Antoninus, the Temple of Peace, the Arch of Septimius Severus, the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, the Capitol, the Comitium, the Arch of Titus, the Palatine, the three beautiful Corinthian columns of the ancient Temple of Jupiter Tonans, the Temple of Fortune, the Mamertine Prison, the Temple of Mars, the Temple of Venus, the Meta Sudans; that gem of architectural perfection, the solitary pillar "The nameless column with the buried base". Look around you, and be convinced of the evanescent character of temporal things, and the vanity of even Roman greatness! 66 'Cypress and ivy, weed and wall-flower grown, Matted and massed together, hillocks heaped, On what were chambers, arch crushed, columns strown Her old temples, baths, halls, statues,-all, all are extant records of her former glories, and her fallen greatness, and of the widowed solitude of her who generated dynasties, is now childless, and has survived them. Rome!. in that one word is comprised the congested history of ages |