i take the first opportunity of informing you of our arrival in this city. some of the principal objects which occurred on the road, with the sentiments they suggested to my mind, shall form the subject of this letter.
it is almost impossible to go out of the walls of rome, without being impressed with melancholic ideas. having left that city by st. john de lateran’s gate, we soon entered a spacious plain, and drove for several miles in sight of sepulchral monuments and the ruins of ancient aqueducts. sixtus the fifth repaired one of them, to bring water into that part of rome where[92] dioclesian’s baths formerly stood: this water is now called aqua felice, from felix, the name of that pontiff, while he was only a cordelier. having changed horses at the torre de mezzo via, so called from an old tower near the post-house, we proceeded through a silent, deserted, unwholesome country. we scarce met a passenger between rome and marino, a little town about twelve miles from the former, which has its name from caius marius, who had a villa there; it now belongs to the colonna family. while fresh horses were harnessing, we visited two churches, to see two pictures which we had heard commended; the subject of one is as disagreeable, as that of the other is difficult to execute. the connoisseur who directed us to these pieces, told me, that the first, the slaying of st. bartholomew, by guercino, is in a great style, finely coloured, and the muscles convulsed with pain in the sweetest manner imaginable; he could have gazed[93] at it for ever. “as for the other,” added he “which represents the trinity, it is natural, well grouped, and easily understood; and that is all that can be said for it.”
from marino, the road runs for several miles over craggy mountains. in ascending mons albanus, we were charmed with a fine view of the country towards the sea; ostia, antium, the lake albano, and the fields adjacent. the form and component parts of this mountain plainly shew, that it has formerly been a volcano. the lake of nemi, which we left to the right, seems, like that of albano, to have been formed in the cavity of a crater.
we came next to veletri, an inconsiderable town, situated on a hill. there is one palace here, with spacious gardens, which, when kept in repair, may have been magnificent. the staircase, they assured[94] us, is still worthy of admiration. the inhabitants of veletri assert, that augustus was born there. suetonius says, he was born at rome. it is certainly of no importance where he was born. perhaps it would have been better for rome, and for the world in general, that he never had been born at all. the veletrians are so fond of emperors, that they claim a connexion even with tiberius and caligula, who had villas in their neighbourhood. the ruins of otho’s palace are still to be seen about a mile from this city, at a place called colle ottone. of those four emperors, the last-mentioned was by much the best worth the claiming as a countryman. as for caligula, he was a mischievous madman. tiberius seems to have been born with wicked dispositions, which he improved by art. augustus was naturally wicked, and artificially virtuous; and otho seems to have been exactly the reverse. though educated in the most vicious[95] of courts, and the favourite and companion of nero, he still preserved, in some degree, the original excellence of his character; and, at his death, displayed a magnanimity of sentiment, and nobleness of conduct, of which the highly flattered augustus was never capable. “alii diutius imperium tenuerint,” says tacitus; “nemo tam fortiter reliquerit.” convinced that, if he continued the contest with vitellius, all the horrors of a civil war would be prolonged, he determined to sacrifice his life to the quiet of his country, and to the safety of his friends[3]. “to involve you in fresh calamities,” said this generous prince to the officers who offered still to support his cause, “is purchasing[96] life at a price beyond what, in my opinion, is its value. shall roman armies be led against each other, and the roman youth be excited to mutual slaughter, on my account? no! for your safety, and to prevent such evils, i die contented. let me be no impediment to your treating with the enemy; nor do you any longer oppose my fixed resolution. i complain not of my fate, nor do i accuse any body. to arraign the conduct of gods or men, is natural to those only who wish to live.”
though they are not to be compared in other respects, yet the death of otho may vie with that of cato; and is one of the strongest instances to be found in history, that a life of effeminacy and voluptuousness does not always eradicate the seeds of virtue and benevolence.
in the middle of the square of veletri, is a bronze statue of urban the eighth.[97] i think they told us it is the workmanship of bernini.
descending from that town by a rough road, bordered by vineyards and fruit-trees, we traversed an unsalubrious plain to sermonetta; between which, and the post-house, called casa nuova, a little to the left of the highway, are some vaults and ruins, not greatly worthy of the notice of the mere antiquarian. yet passengers of a singular cast of mind, who feel themselves as much interested in the transactions recorded in the new testament, as men of taste are in paintings or heathen antiquities, stop a little here to contemplate the tres tabern?, which are said to be the three taverns mentioned in the acts of the apostles, where the christian brethren from rome came to meet st. paul, when he was on his journey to that city. i have seen, however, some christian travellers, who, without being connoisseurs, were of opinion, that old ruined houses derived little value from the circumstance[98] above mentioned, and who preferred a good modern inn to all the antiquities, sacred or profane, that they met with on their grand tours. without presuming to blame any set of men for their particular taste, i may venture to say, that a traveller, who loves always to see a well-peopled and well-cultivated country, who insists on good eating every day, and a neat comfortable bed every night, would judge very wisely in never travelling out of england.—i am certain he ought not to travel between rome and naples; for on this road, especially the part which runs through the ecclesiastical state, the traveller’s chief entertainment must arise from a less substantial foundation; from the ideas formed in the mind, at sight of places celebrated by favourite authors; from a recollection of the important scenes which have been acted there; and even from the thought of treading the same ground, and viewing the same objects, with certain persons who lived there fifteen hundred or[99] two thousand years ago. strangers, therefore, who come under the first description, whose senses are far more powerful than their fancy, when they are so ill advised as to come so far from home, generally make this journey in very ill humour, fretting at italian beds, fuming against italian cooks, and execrating every poor little italian flea that they meet with on the road. but he who can put up with indifferent fare cheerfully, whose serenity of temper remains unshaken by the assaults of a flea, and who can draw amusement from the stores of memory and imagination, will find the powers of both wonderfully excited during this journey. sacred history unites with profane, truth conspires with fable, to afford him entertainment, and render every object interesting.
proxima circe? raduntur littora terr?.
driving along this road, you have a fine view of monte circello, and
——the ??an bay,
where circe dwelt, the daughter of the day;
[100]
goddess and queen, to whom the powers belong
of dreadful magic and commanding song.
this abode of the enchantress circe has been generally described as an island; whereas it is, in reality, a promontory, united to the continent by a neck of land. the adventures of ulysses and his companions at this place, with all the extraordinary things which homer has recorded of circe, must serve to amuse you between casa nuova and piperno; the road affords no other.
at piperno, anciently privernum, you quit circe, for virgil’s camilla, a lady of a very different character, whose native city this is[4].
near to piperno, an abbey, called fossa nuova, is situated on the ruins of the little town of forum appii, the same of[101] which mention is made in the acts of the apostles, and by horace, in his account of his journey to brundusium.
——inde forum appi
differtum nautis, cauponibus atque malignis.
the abbey of fossa nuova is said to have made a very valuable acquisition of late, no less than the head of st. thomas aquinas. we are told, in the memoirs of that saint, that he was taken ill as he passed this way, and was carried to this convent, where he died. his body was afterward required by the king of france, and ordered to be carried to thoulouse; but before the remains of this holy person were removed from the convent, one of the monks, unwilling to allow the whole of such a precious deposite to be carried away, determined to retain the most valuable part, and actually cut off the saint’s head, substituting another in its stead, which was carried to thoulouse, very nicely stitched to the body of the saint. the monk, who[102] was guilty of this pious fraud, hid the true head in the wall of the convent, and died without revealing the secret to any mortal. from that time the supposititious head remained unsuspected at thoulouse; but as impostures are generally detected sooner or later, the venerable brethren of fossa nuova (this happened much about the time that the cock-lane ghost made such a noise in london) were disturbed with strange knockings and scratchings at a particular part of the wall.—on this noise being frequently repeated, without any visible agent, and the people of the neighbourhood having been often assembled to hear it, the monks at length agreed to pull down part of the wall at the place where the scratching and knocking were always heard. this was no sooner done, than the true head of st. thomas aquinas was found as fresh as the day it was cut off;—on the vessel in which it was contained was the following inscription:
caput divi thom? aquinatis.
[103]
and near it a paper, containing a faithful narrative of the whole transaction, signed by the monk who did the deed.
some people, not making a proper allowance for the difference between a saint’s head and their own, say, this cannot possibly be the head of thomas aquinas, which must have putrified some centuries ago; they say, the paper is written in a character by much too modern; they say, the monks contrived the whole affair, to give an importance to their convent; they say—but what signifies what they say? in this age of incredulity, some people will say any thing. we next came to terracina, and here i must finish my letter; in my next i shall carry you to naples.
[3] hunc animum, hanc virtutem vestram, ultra periculis objicere, nimis grande vit? me? pretium puto. an ego tantum roman? pubis, tot egregios exercitus, sterni rursus et republica eripi patiar? este superstites, nec diu moremur; ego incolumitatem vestram, vos constantiam meam. de nemine queror, nam incusare deos vel homines, ejus est, qui vivere velit. tacit. hist. lib. ii.
hos super advenit volsca de gente camilla,
agmen agens equitum et florentes ?re catervas,
bellatrix: non illa colo calathisve minerv?
f?mineas assueta manus; sed pr?lia virgo
dura pati, cursuque pedum pr?vertere ventos.
?neid. lib. vii.
