otism; where slave-drivers bellowed for liberty, Atheists appealed to their gods, and Priests imbrued their hands in human gore!* True, the eloquence of Cicero thundered here-but senatorial eloquence-nay, the Senate itself, was as purchaseable as a flock of sheep;†-and here, also, the lives of individuals and the liberties of cities, states, or even nations, were bought and sold, like droves of oxen, for sordid gold !‡ Such was the ROMAN FORUM, whose bosom is now, not ploughed but planted, by the same Gauls that twice sacked the Eternal City-under BRENNUS and BONAPARTE! Yon shady grove and gravelled walk in the centre of the deserted Forum, bear not the impression of Roman footsteps-they suit not the meditation of Roman hearts! The stranger only is seen slowly pacing this sepulchral path, contemplating the ruins of empires that are congregated around him, and drawing from the mournful scene the subject of many a moral reflexion! * Instance the horrid scene, where the consuls, the decemviri, and the priests ordered two innocent Greeks and two Gauls to be buried alive in the Forum, under pretence of fulfilling an old prophecy that Rome was to be possessed by Gauls and Greeks! + See the briberies of Jugurtha. On turning his back on Rome, he exclaimed, "O venal city, ripe for destruction, and ready to sell thyself whenever there shall be found a purchaser." "Now (says Sallust) the nobility began to turn their dignity into tyranny -the people their liberty into licentiousness :—and each individual, considering only himself, studied nothing but to gain wealth by every means possible." This was 100 years before the Christian æra! And Sallust himself took care to plunder Numidia to enrich his private palace! But then it was here that the divine Cicero denounced, with irresistible eloquence, the conspiracy, the crimes, the villanies of Cataline! It was here that he asked, "what poisoner, gladiator, robber, cut-throat, parricide, adulterer, strumpet, did not live in intimate familiarity with Cataline?" Granted. Yet it was also here, that the same Cicero offered to defend the cause of the same Cataline, and enter into partnership with him-but was refused! It was here, say the idolators of the ancient Romans, that the stern, the incorruptible, the virtuous CATO brought to trial, for bribery and corruption, the Consul Muræna-and not for bribery and corruption only, but for the still more unpardonable offence of having been seen DANCING!! True. But then this inflexible CENSOR connived at the same crimes committed by the other consul SILANUS-who had married Cato's sister! COLUMN OF PHOCAS. 137 COLUMN OF PHOCAS. Nearly in the centre of the Forum rises a solitary fluted marble column of the Corinthian order-and imagination would fain attribute its preservation, in lonely and upright pride, to some honourable motive or memorable event connected with its erection, or name. But disappointment is our portion on earth. It is not very gratifying to the pride of rulers that a trophy should yet stand in the Roman Forum, of a mean Centurion, diminutive in size, deformed in person, ignorant of laws, letters, or arms; and supreme only in lust and drunkenness-whose savage temper was "inflamed by passion, hardened by fear, and exasperated by resistance,”—who dragged the Christian and pious Emperor MAURICE, with his five sons, from their sanctuary at Chalcedon, and murdered them separately in the sight of each other, throwing their bodies into the sea, and exposing their heads to the insults or pity of the Byzantine multitude-who immolated thousands of his victims without the forms of trial; and embittered their deaths by the refinements of cruelty; piercing their eyes, tearing out their tongues, amputating their limbs, scourging their bodies with thongs, consuming them with slow fires, or transfixing them with numberless arrows!! Such was the usurper PHOCAS, to whom yon column was erected (being first stolen) by the sycophant Smaragdus-a usurper and tyrant whose piety and benignity were eulogized by the successor of the Apostles, of that day, who prayed that the assassin's hands might be strengthened against his enemies, and that, after a long reign, he might be translated from a temporal to an everlasting kingdom! Lotentur Cœli (says the obsequious Pope Gregory) et exultet terra, et de vestris benignis actibus universæ Reipublicæ populus hilarescat! Whether that part of the pious Gregory's prayer, which relates to the "everlasting kingdom," was realized, it is not for man to say; but history assures us that eight years was the extent of this monster's T reign on earth; and that, in his turn, he was exposed to every variety of insult and torture-his head severed from his bodyand the mangled trunk cast into the flames! Look, READER, at that Column of Phocas, and if this short memorial of its history does not excite some vivid emotions in your mind, your heart is as cold and as hard as the Grecian marble of which its pedestal is composed. JUPITER STATOR. If brass and marble bear any records of truth, JUPITER held no sinecure among the Greeks and Romans. It must be confessed, too, that his moral and regal character will not bear a very rigid scrutiny. The KING of HEAVEN was a faithless husband, a corrupt judge, and a ruthless tyrant. Some of the rulers of the earth, therefore, might cite divine precedent for all their peccadillos. A little beyond and to the right of the solitary Column of Phocas, stand three beautiful fluted Corinthian columns of Pentelic marble, supporting a majestic entablature of exquisite workmanship, the whole still forming a model and canon for the Corinthian order of architecture. They are mute as the grave; and refuse to answer the interrogatories of the antiquary, or the tortures of the monumental inquisitor. They may have belonged to CASTOR and POLLUX-to the Comitium-to the GRÆCOSTASIS-or to JUPITER STATOR, Constituting an impious bribe to the gods for a temple-worth of courage in a dastardly retreat! The head of Romulus having come in contact with a stone from the Sabine troops, the GENERAL was stunned, and, the Romans taking to their heels, were closely pursued to the very gates of the capitol. At this critical moment, Romulus recovered his senses, and bribed the King of Heaven, by the promise of a temple, for an infusion of courage into his flying soldiers. JUPITER, like a cunning Jew, was ever ready to take advantage of the distresses of mankind, and dole out his assistance to the highest bidder. JUSTICE was out of the question. TEMPLE OF ANTONINUS. 139 The Romans, who had violated every principle of hospitality, and seized the daughters of their Sabine guests, with as little ceremony and humanity as their descendant banditti would pounce upon the unprotected traveller, became, as a matter of course, or at least of contract, the victorious party-and then rose the temple of JUPITER STATOR-to commemorate at once the venality of the gods, and the cowardice of men! TEMPLE TO ANTONINUS AND FAUSTINA. From this central glance over the few remaining monuments that totter in the middle of the FORUM, let us sweep the eye round its boundaries. Starting from the arch of Septimius, we range along a series of buildings, on the left, presenting a strange medley of Heathen temples converted into Christian churches -and of regal palaces changed into sordid workshops! One of the most prominent features in this memorable line of ruins is the remains of a temple (now the church of St. Lorenzo) dedicated to the GOD Antoninus, and the GODDESS Faustina!! Six majestic columns, in front, of Cepolline marble, sustain a magnificent entablature composed of enormous blocks of the same, on whose frieze are seen, in bas relief, griffons, candelabras, vases, &c. beautifully sculptured. The names of the god and goddess are almost as plain as when they were first hollowed out by the chissel, some seventeen hundred years ago. To the deification of Marcus Antoninus, whose only fault (for it could not be called a crime) was blindness to the debaucheries of his wife, no man-nor woman, will object in these days. But that the SENATE of Rome should deify, and dedicate a temple to one of the greatest strumpets of the age in which she lived, is one of the signs of those times, which may furnish food for reflection in our own days! It has been made matter of scandal against modern Romans by impudent heretics, that they worship God through the intervention of saints; but what shall we say to the ancients who worshipped the devil through the medium of his most active agents on earth! The Senate of Marcus was not perhaps more obsequious than those of some modern emperors. Napoleon's Senate would have deified the devil, had their master given the least intimation of such a wish; and if MARcus lived happy and contented with his abandoned Faustina for thirty years-promoted her lovers, some of them not of the most respectable description*-thanked the gods for bestowing on him a wife so faithful, so gentle-and ultimately requested the complying Senate to declare Faustina a goddess—we cannot wonder so much at the impiety of the Senators as at the blindness of the Prince! Marcus has verified the celebrated adage of Madam Dacier, that—" the husband will always be deceived if the wife condescends to dissemble." Be this as it may, the "holy water" of mother church has long since washed away the pollutions of Faustina, though the record of her debaucheries cannot so easily be effaced from the page of history. In the original temple she was represented with the attributes of Juno, Venus, and Ceres-and it was decreed that the youth of both sexes, should sacrifice before the altar of their chaste patroness on the day of their nuptials! What a happy association of ideas for those who now count their beads, and repeat their Pater Nosters in the Temple of Faustina ! RUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF PEACE. When Peace and Mercy, banish'd from the plain, Passing over the dwarfish Temple of REMUS, fit emblem of the humble origin of Rome itself, the attention is rivetted on three gigantic arches that would appear to belong to Brobdignag! The antiquary distracts the meditations of the philosopher as effectually as the sceptic dispels the hopes of the Christian * Faustinam satis constat apud cayetam, conditiones sibi nauticas et gladitorias, elegisse !! |