Part 9

The word _platea_ is likewise one of those which may mislead, and of which only vague notions are current. The general opinion, I believe, is, that platea signifies a broad street on account of its derivation from the Greek πλατεῖα; but it is something else; it is what we call _place_ or _piazza_. In the early times of Rome the name does not seem to have been used; it occurs only at a later period, when an intercourse was established with Greece. We have to understand by it a wide open space, such as we have in front of many large buildings; but not a market-place. The authority which has enabled me to establish this as the real meaning of the word, shows how necessary it is for an historical philologer not to limit his reading: for I know it from several passages of St. Augustin’s work, “De Civitate Dei.” St. Augustin, one of the greatest minds, ought to be recommended on account of his intellect, and independently of any historical information which his works may furnish; his genius is a mighty one, and was extremely developed in that agitated period, which forms the boundary line between the ancient and modern world. In his account of the conquest of Rome by the Goths, which he gives merely in passing, there are passages from which it is quite evident that _platea_ is a space such as I have described before. These are generally speaking, the only open spaces which Rome, after its rebuilding since the middle ages, now possesses, as, for example, the Piazza di Spagna below the Collis Hortulorum; a large place of the size of the market-place of Bonn is scarcely to be found at Rome.

The first _aqueduct_ was built by Appius Caecus during the second Samnite war; it was very low, and for the most part under ground. It led to the Aventine, and was intended to provide a supply of good water to the districts between that hill and the Tiber, which had scarcely any water but that of the river. Water is still derived in one place, and I believe even in two, from this aqueduct, without most people being aware of it. It was built under ground, because the enemies sometimes advanced to the very neighbourhood of Rome, and might, therefore, easily have cut off the supply of water. Afterwards the number of aqueducts at Rome rose to fourteen. Fresh water is a real blessing to the inhabitants of the south; one must have lived there in order to comprehend that these aqueducts were not a matter of luxury. The _Aqua Marcia_ led to the Capitol; of the _Aqua Virgo_ (now Acqua di Trevi) a large _specus_ is still visible. The greatest aqueduct was that of the emperor Claudius, which was preserved as late as the eighth century of the Christian era; it might easily have been restored; its arches were taken down gradually after the restoration of Rome in the sixteenth century, because people wanted the bricks to build their houses.

Rome had two great _Circuses_ which were destined for races, for these were the national games of the Romans from the earliest times. The most ancient, the _ludi magni Romani_, which were traced back to the time of Tarquinius Priscus, were established for the patrician burgesses; but besides these there existed, likewise, from very ancient times, _ludi plebeii_, a very remarkable instance of the manner in which in all Roman institutions the populus and the plebs stood by the side of each other. Down to the latest period, these two kinds of games were never held in the same place. In the early times the plebeians had no share whatever in the _ludi Romani_. In the Circus Maximus the places were assigned to the populus according to curiae, _ad spectacula facienda_,[27] as scaffoldings are still erected on both sides of the Corso at the time of the races. The _Circus Maximus_ may have had its present extent from the very first, for it could not be very small on account of the chariot races, but it was not as high as afterwards. A greater height became necessary when, instead of the small number of the populus and their clients, the whole Roman people took part in the spectacle; the plebeians may indeed not have been excluded in the early times, but they had no places assigned to them. This Circus between the Palatine and Aventine cannot have been laid out before the building of the Cloacae, and the carrying through of the Marrana, since previously the whole was a marsh. At present the sewers must be blocked up, for in digging to the depth of a few feet nothing but morass and marshy ground appears. The splendid obelisk which now stands before the church of the Lateran, was dug out there as late as the sixteenth century: and there can be no doubt that valuable treasures of art are still buried there. The Circus occupied the whole length of the valley, now la Via de’ Cerci. That form of it, of which we have a description, was planned and undertaken by Caesar, and probably completed by Augustus, for it is inconceivable that the short duration of Caesar’s dictatorship should have sufficed for it. It is said to have contained room for 300,000 men, the seats rising in terraces above one another as in the Colosseum. On the outside, it presented rows of porticoes one above the other, the lowest one being occupied by shops or stalls. In the middle ages, the Circus Maximus was used as a fortress.

The _Circus Flaminius_ must have been the place for the plebeian games: the plebs met for its deliberations and elections on the place of the _prata Flaminia_ even before the Circus was built, when after the abolition of the decemvirate the ancient order of things was restored; whence the locality appears to have been essentially plebeian. The traces of this Circus, which can still be recognised, are somewhat more numerous than those of the Circus Maximus, although here, too, every thing is built over; the ancient walls have been used as foundations only in cellars and a few houses, whence the houses there are built in a curve or crescent. In the middle ages, this Circus was used as a place for rope making, whence the church in that part is called _S. Catarina de’ funari_.

These two Circuses were destined for chariot races, as the _Circus Agonalis_ was for Greek games or contests. This latter Circus was situated on the place now called Piazza Navona. It was built by Alexander Severus, in the form of a Greek Stadium, which was in reality not very different from that of a Roman Circus. All the houses there have the strong ancient walls for their foundations, whence the form of the Circus is preserved, whereas in the case of the Circus Flaminius it is lost, buildings having been erected right across it.

_Theatres_, in the Greek sense of the term, were not numerous at Rome. In early times there even existed a censorial interdict forbidding the erection of a permanent theatre for plays; and when about the end of the sixth century an attempt was made to break through this regulation, the censors ordered a theatre, which had been built, to be pulled down. This was a terrible piece of pedantry, and a scrupulous adherence to ancient customs for which there was no good reason at all. Plays, therefore, were performed before the people in the Circus or in the Forum on temporary stages, which were erected with the greatest extravagance; the aediles were obliged to give spectacles in order to gain popularity, and the actors had to be paid. Subsequently the first and almost only theatre was built by Augustus, and called after young Marcellus, his sister’s son. Pompey had indeed erected a theatre a few years before, but it does not appear to have been kept for the purpose for which it was built. About one-third of the theatre of Marcellus became the property of the house of Savelli, who made it a fortress; it was then pulled down and rebuilt as a palace. When the family of the Savelli became impoverished, the palace passed into the hands of the Orsini. I have lived in it for six years, and know every corner of it well: the Doric story below and the Ionic above still exist, but upon them enormous blocks of stone and rubbish are accumulated; the cellars still exist with their vaults and are inhabited. By the side of it there is an immense mound of rubbish, and close by my residence seventy-two steps led up to a garden, which is at the top. The house contains rooms built in the ancient fashion of about the end of the sixteenth century.

The idea of _amphitheatres_ arose in Italy at an early period. Until then, all gymnastic games, and even the contests of gladiators and wild beasts (of which the humane Greeks knew nothing) were held in the same locality in which also the more national chariot-races and the Hellenic games took place, that is, in the Circus. But this was connected with great disadvantages and inconveniences: the form of the Circus was very well adapted to races, for in them it made no difference where a person sat, whether at the beginning or at the end of the course, for the starting as well as the arrival at the goal had its interest for the connoisseur. But when a contest took place on a definite spot, the immense length of the Circus rendered it a matter of importance as to where a person sat. The Circus can scarcely be said to have formed an ellipsis, it was in reality an irregular figure, which cannot be described with mathematical precision, the length being disproportionately great in comparison with the breadth. The idea then occurred to the Romans to supply in some measure the place of a Greek theatre by combining two theatres in the form of an ellipsis, so that persons could see round the whole building, a thing for which the Greeks had no occasion. This combination produced the amphitheatres, which were not built at Rome before the time of Caesar. That they are a late invention is clear from the fact, that, in all the provincial towns of Italy, they are, without exception, not within the walls, but outside of them. This observation has not yet been made by any one; and I believe I was led to it by Lami, the excellent dean of Florence, though I may have made it without any hint. At Rome, too, the amphitheatres were not within the ancient city; the _amphitheatrum Flavium_ alone (the Colosseum, now called Coliseum), which was built by Vespasian, was situated close to the Velia, and required the purchase of a whole district. The amphitheatre of Statilius Taurus was situated by the river-side, where enormous ruins still exist, and where the family of the Cenci has a palace.

The amphitheatres, moreover, do not belong to the ancient kind of architecture, but show their late origin also by a somewhat different style. Imagine the amphitheatre intersected and composed of a large number of segments, which are broad at the periphery but narrow towards the interior, running in the direction of an acute angle: the interior is on all sides surrounded by these segments. Between them are steps, by which, from the interior, persons reached their seats; the steps are high, though not too much so, and lead to the different terraces. At present a person may get down even without these steps, but it is necessary to leap from bench to bench. Great as is the perfection of ancient buildings, yet their stairs were essentially bad, the steps being too narrow and too high, which arose from a desire to save space. The segments separated by the steps were called _cunei_; the interior, or the real scene, bore the name of _arena_. In some amphitheatres, the arena consisted of a permanent and solid floor, whereas in others, as, for example, in the Colosseum, the floor was not fixed: several walls traversed it in different directions, so that boards covered with sand could be laid upon them, in order to absorb the blood of the gladiators: hence the name arena. After an exhibition the boards were taken away, and renewed at the next. Sometimes water was let in or trees were planted in the ground, so that the place of the arena presented the appearance of a forest: in short, a thousand artifices were contrived. It is a circumstance which must be borne in mind, that the arena, at least in the Colosseum and probably in all the larger amphitheatres of all great cities also, was moveable. Next to the arena was the first place for persons of rank, and in front of this first row of seats there was a canal full of water and steep embankments to prevent the animals rushing among the spectators. In addition to this, iron spikes were planted before the first seat, so that even if a wild beast had leapt across the canal, it would have run itself through with the pointed irons. This first row of seats, which went all round, was called _podium_, a word which, besides this technical application, occurs only in the middle ages and in the languages derived from the Latin, in the sense of “a hill” (Italian, _poggio_; Catalonian, _puig_; Provençal, _puy_, as also in _Puycerda_, hill of Cerda). This row contained the seats of the emperor and the imperial family, of the nobles and the senators, for it was spacious enough to afford room for the whole senate. We can still with tolerable certainty determine the place containing the imperial box.

These are the most essential points in the structure of an amphitheatre. Many things connected with the arrangements, however, still remain obscure, and the lower part of the Colosseum has not yet been sufficiently excavated. It is, for example, still uncertain in what manner it was contrived to introduce the wild beasts into the arena. All the explanations which have been proposed are unsatisfactory. Excavations have indeed been made, but have been discontinued partly from a fear of weakening the building, which point certainly is not to be overlooked, on account of the many earthquakes, and partly on account of erroneous suppositions, because people could not understand that the arena was moveable. Another reason why the excavations are not continued, is the belief that at one time there was an altar in the arena, and that accordingly the ground is sacred through the blood of the martyrs. Such perverse notions are obstacles to the discovery of truth.

Another amphitheatre, the _amphitheatrum castrense_, was close to the wall; Procopius calls it _Vivarium_.

I shall now proceed to speak of the _thermae_. Public baths existed at Rome from the earliest times. Southern countries really require them, and they were universally used until late in the middle ages. Under Gregory I., one of the greatest and most excellent men of his period, whose government was distinguished for its beneficial measures, though he did not reign as a sovereign, Rome was already quite deserted; still, from one of his letters, I have learned that the use of baths was then quite common. Pope Hadrian I.,[28] likewise a very great man, restored the Aqua Claudia, which had been neglected, for the purpose of supplying the baths with water. Gregory I. states, that in his time many people considered it sinful to bathe on a Sunday; but he himself, who was more clear-sighted than his flock, issued a proclamation[29] advising the people not to be so foolish as to allow themselves to be prevented by such a prejudice. This is a proof that baths were then still in general use. In Germany, too, they were more common in the middle ages than they are now. Such _balnea_ or _balneae_ were very popular in ancient Rome even before the manners of the Greeks had commenced exercising their influence. _Thermae_ (θερμαί) were first built under Augustus; but we must not infer from this, that previously people bathed in cold water in the city, for whenever they wished to do this, they plunged into the Tiber. I explain the name _thermae_ in the following manner:—It had become customary at Baiae and other watering places to combine warm baths with the use of the mineral waters and with sea-bathing: the life in those places was like that in our watering-places: people frequented them for the purpose of diverting their minds and taking care of their bodies. Greeks (commonly called _Graeculi_) were not wanting to provide amusements of every description with the same industry which Italians and Frenchmen display in German watering-places. People there threw off all cares and put aside every kind of work, whence the Roman nobles repaired to such places every spring. This, however, required a large fortune, for those who had to maintain themselves by their own industry could not afford to go to Baiae and stay there for a month. For this reason, Augustus and Agrippa, whose object was to keep the great body of the population in comfort and good humour, built artificial baths as a place in the capital itself, where the people, without travelling to Baiae, might have similar enjoyments; just as at present mineral waters may be enjoyed at a great distance from the springs. To these places, then, every one who wished it, could go and take a bath; they contained sulphureous baths, vapour-baths, etc., and people might lounge there without the fatigue of a journey. The most magnificent buildings, most luxuriously furnished, were erected for this purpose: besides the bath-rooms, there were others, in which all kinds of amusements were provided, such as places for the games of the time, for games at ball, drafts, and the like, nay, even a library existed there, as at present newspapers are kept in the Cafés. They were accordingly, in reality, institutions to while away leisure hours in ease and comfort, and were peculiarly fitted to extinguish the mutinous spirit of the people, and to tame them by the enjoyments of life. These thermae became extremely popular, whence one emperor after another contributed one to the number already existing to prevent people being obliged to go to a distant part of the city, and to provide each quarter with its own. The thermae of Agrippa were outside the city, near the Campus Martius and the Pantheon, for he would not disturb any part of the city with his new institution: he took care, by irrigation, that everything was green in the Campus Martius during the summer, and near to the Pantheon he ordered avenues of trees to be planted. The thermae of Titus bear this name unjustly; the earlier antiquarians, even as late as the fifteenth century, called them thermae of Trajan; they existed in the Carinae and were of quite a monstrous extent. In the middle ages the building was called Curia Vecchia. The thermae of Caius and Lucius Caesar in the eastern part of the city are now quite foolishly called _templum Minervae Medicae_. The building which now bears this name, was nothing else than a large portico belonging to the Thermae. There also existed thermae of Nero, Titus, Septimius Severus, Caracalla, Alexander Severus (near those of Agrippa), Decius, Diocletian, and Constantine, so that we can scarcely understand how all these colossal buildings had room within the circumference of Rome. In these thermae some of the choicest specimens of ancient art have been discovered; they contained excellent galleries of paintings, and the most beautiful statues were set up there in the most suitable places. If the group of the Laocoon were still standing in the thermae of Titus, where it originally stood, it would have a far more appropriate place than that which it occupies at present.

The _Palatine_ was originally nothing but an inhabited district like the other hills. Cicero’s house stood upon it, and coming from the Via Sacra, one may still approximately determine the spot where it stood. Augustus, too, lived on the Palatine, but only as a private person. Tiberius built another house for himself by the side of that of Augustus, and probably inhabited it before his accession. Caligula built a palace there in another part; but notwithstanding this, the whole of the Palatine was full of private dwelling-houses, and there was no other public building on it except temples. The conflagration under Nero destroyed all the buildings on this hill. Nero then erected a palace on the Palatine; but not satisfied with this, he continued it down to the Esquiliae and even up the Esquiliae. The so-called golden house was situated between the two hills, on a splendid spot, and extremely well chosen. But, at a later time, we see that the imperial palace occupied the whole of the Palatine. We must not imagine this to have been one homogeneous and regular building, constructed on one plan, with a large front, like our royal palaces. Nothing is more senseless than the restorations which the old Italian antiquarians, such as Bianchini and Panvini, have made of this golden house: the latter has drawn an outline of a building which never existed at all. It is only now that the eyes of antiquarians have been opened in regard to this subject. The whole of the Palatine hill is covered with ruins, which have raised its height. The lower part of the building is completely filled with earth; and if a person wishes to investigate it, he must break through the ground until he reaches these vaults. They are a real labyrinth; I have been successful in many points of the topography of Rome, but I have not been able to form an idea of the imperial palace. The excavations which were made in 1724 extended only over a small part, but the _aula Domitiani_ was then brought to light; the outlines of an enormous hall and splendid columns, partially preserved, belonged to this aula, and can easily be made out; but there is also a great number of I know not what kind of chambers: I can give you no information about them. It would be desirable to see systematic excavations made there. The whole district is the private property of the king of Naples, whence the pope cannot order excavations to be made; the ambassador of the king had permission to do so, but he was recalled from Rome. The palace must have existed as late as the middle ages, perhaps until the 11th or 12th century; it was then reduced to ashes, as is attested by the excavations, which have shown traces of a great conflagration. In a ritual of the coronation of the emperors belonging to the end of the 11th century, which has been printed from the original of Cencius Camerarius,[30] we read—“When the emperor is crowned in St. Peter, he and the empress proceed to the _palatium Romanum_, the emperor entering the apartment of Augustus, and the empress that of Livia.” These apartments are correct and have been found, and the statement shows that they were inhabited. Some fifty years ago a French dealer in works of art made excavations there, on which occasion many things are said to have been found, but the place was pillaged in a most disgraceful manner. Traces of a magnificence appeared which surpass all our conceptions: the walls of the rooms were covered with silver plate, and large pieces of silver texture served as tapestry; in other palaces the walls were covered with ordinary tapestry (_aulaea_), but here silver was employed instead. The treasures among the ruins were so numerous, that even after the pillage some things still remained.