The heart of Maria Clementina Sobieski (buried in St. Peter's), wife of James III., called the First Pretender, is also preserved here, as is shown by a Latin inscription.

"Le roi d'Angleterre est devot a l'exces; sa matinee se passe en prieres aux Saints-Apotres, pres du tombeau de sa femme."--_De Brosses_, 1739.

In 1552 this church was remarkable for the sermons of the monk Felix Peretti, afterwards Sixtus V.

"Suivant un manuscrit de la bibliotheque Alfieri, un jour, pendant qu'il etait dans la chaire des Saints-Apotres, un billet cachete lui fut remis; Frere Felix l'ouvre et y lit, en face d'un certain nombre de propositions que l'on disait etre extraites de ses discours, ce mot ecrit en gros caracteres: MENTIRIS (tu mens). Le fougueux orateur eut peine a contenir son emotion; il termina son sermon en quelques paroles, et courut au palais de l'Inquisition presenter le billet mysterieux, et demander qu'on examinat scrupuleusement sa doctrine. Cet examen lui fut favorable, et il lui valut l'amitie du grand inquisiteur, Michael Ghislieri, qui comprit aussitot tout le parti qu'on pouvait tirer d'un homme dont les moindres actions etaient empreintes d'une inebranlable force de caractere."--_Gournerie._

In this church is buried the young Countess Savorelli, the story of whose love, misfortunes, and death, has been celebrated by About, under the name of _Tolla_ (the Lello of the story having been one of the Doria-Pamfili family).

"The convent which Tolla had sanctified by her death sent three embassies in turn to beg to preserve her relics: already the people spoke of her as a saint. But Count Feraldi (Savorelli) considered that it was due to his honour and to his vengeance to bear her remains with pomp to the tomb of his family. He had sufficient influence to obtain that for which permission is not granted once in ten years: the right of transporting her uncovered, upon a bed of white velvet, and of sparing her the horrors of a coffin. The beloved remains were wrapped in the white muslin robe which she wore in the garden on the day when she exchanged her sweet vows with Lello. The Marchesa Trasimeni, ill and wasted as she was, came herself to arrange her hair in the manner she loved. Every garden in Rome despoiled itself to send her its flowers; it was only necessary to choose. The funeral procession quitted the church of S. Antonio Abbate on Thursday evening at 7.30 for the Santi Apostoli, where the Feraldis are buried. The body was preceded by a long file of the black and white confraternities, each bearing its banner. The red light of the torches played upon the countenance of the beautiful dead, and seemed to animate her afresh. The piazza was filled with a dense and closely packed but dumb crowd; no discordant sound troubled the grief of the relations and friends of Tolla, who wept together at the Palazzo Feraldi....

"The Church of the Apostoli and the tomb of the poor loving girl, became at certain days of the year an object of pilgrimage, and more than one young Roman maiden adds to her evening litany the words, 'St. Tolla, virgin and martyr, pray for us.'"--_About._

Just beyond the church is the _Palazzo Muto-Savorelli_ (the home of Tolla, "Palazzo Feraldi") long the residence of Prince Charles Edward ("the last Pretender"), who died here in 1788. Hence the _Via delle Vergini_, with its dismal lines of latticed convent-windows, leads to the Fountain of Trevi.

Returning to the Corso, we pass (right) _Palazzo Buonaparte_, built by Giovanni dei Rossi in 1660. Here Laetitia Buonaparte--"Madame Mere"--the mother of Napoleon I., died February 2nd, 1836. The present head of the family is Cardinal Lucien-Louis Buonaparte, son of Prince Charles (son of Lucien) and of Princess Zenade, daughter of King Joseph of Spain.

His only surviving brother is Prince Napoleon Buonaparte.

This palace forms one corner of the _Piazza di Venezia_, which contains the ancient castellated _Palace_ of the Republic of Venice, built in 1468 by Giuliano da Majano (with materials plundered from the Coliseum) for Paul II., who was of Venetian birth. On the ruin of the republic the palace fell into the hands of Austria, and is still the residence of the Austrian ambassador, to whom it was specially reserved on the cession of Venice to Italy.

Opposite this, on a line with the Corso, is the _Palazzo Torlonia_, built by Fontana in 1650, for the Bolognetti family.

"Nobility is certainly more the fruit of wealth in Italy than in England. Here, where a title and estate are sold together, a man who can buy the one secures the other. From the station of a lacquey, an Italian who can amass riches, may rise to that of duke.

Thus Torlonia, the Roman banker, purchased the title and estate of the Duca di Bracciano, fitted up the 'Palazzo Nuovo di Torlonia'

with all the magnificence that wealth commands; and a marble gallery, with its polished floors, modern statues, painted ceilings, and gilded furniture, far outshines the faded splendour of the halls of the old Roman nobility."--_Eaton's Rome._

"Un ancien domestique de place, devenu speculateur et banquier, achete un marquisat, puis une principaute. Il cree un majorat pour son fils aine et une seconde geniture en faveur de l'autre. L'un epouse une Sforza-Cesarini et marie ses deux fils a une Chigi et une Ruspoli; l'autre obtient pour femme une Colonna-Doria. C'est ainsi que la famille Torlonia, par la puissance de l'argent et la faveur du saint-pere, s'est elevee presque subitement a la hauteur des plus grands maisons nepotiques et feodales."--_About._

The most interesting of the antiquities preserved in this palace is a bas-relief, representing a combat between men and animals, brought hither from the Palazzo Orsini, and probably pourtraying the famous dedication of the theatre of Marcellus on that site, celebrated by the slaughter of six hundred animals.

The end of the Corso--narrowed by a projecting wing of the Venetian Palace--is known as the _Ripresa dei Barberi_, because there the horses, which run in the races during the Carnival, are caught in large folds of drapery let down across the street to prevent their dashing themselves to pieces against the opposite wall.

Close to the end of this street, built into the wall of a house in the Via di Marforio, is one of the few relics of republican times in the city,--a Doric _Tomb_, bearing an inscription which states that it was erected by order of the people on land granted by the Senate to Caius Publicius Bibulus, the plebeian aedile, and his posterity. Petrarch mentions in one of his letters that he wrote one of his sonnets leaning against the tomb of Bibulus.

This tomb has a secondary interest as marking the commencement of the Via Flaminia, as it stood just outside the Porta Ratumena from whence that road issued. There are some obscure remains of another tomb on the other side of the street. The Via Flaminia, like the Via Appia, was once fringed with tombs.

From the Ripresa dei Barberi, a street passing under an arch on the right, leads to the back of the Venetian Palace, where is the _Church of S. Marco_, originally founded in the time of Constantine, but rebuilt in 833, and modernized by Cardinal Quirini in 1744. Its portico, which is lined with early Christian inscriptions, contains a fine fifteenth century doorway, surmounted by a figure of St. Mark. The interior is in the form of a basilica, its naves and aisles separated by twenty columns, and ending in an apse. The best pictures are S. Marco, "a pope enthroned, by _Carlo Crivelli_, resembling in sharpness of finish and individuality the works of Bartolomeo Viviani,"[18] and a Resurrection by _Palma Giovane_.

"The mosaics of S. Marco, executed under Pope Gregory IV. (A.D.

827--844), with all their splendour, exhibit the utmost poverty of expression. Above the tribune, in circular compartments, is the portrait of Christ between the symbols of the Evangelists, and further below SS. Peter and Paul (or two prophets) with scrolls; within the tribune, beneath a hand extended with a wreath, is the standing figure of Christ with an open book, and on either side, S.

Angelo and Pope Gregory IV. Further on, but still belonging to the dome, are the thirteen lambs, forming a second and quite uneven circle round the figures. The execution is here especially rude, and of true Byzantine rigidity, while, as if the artist knew that his long lean figures were anything but secure upon their feet, he has given them each a separate little pedestal. The lines of the drapery are chiefly straight and parallel, while, with all this rudeness, a certain play of colour has been contrived by the introduction of high lights of another colour."--_Kugler._

This church is said to have been originally founded in honour of the Evangelist in 337 by Pope Marco, but this pope, being himself canonized, is also honoured here, and is buried under the high altar. On April 25th, St. Mark's Day, a grand procession of clergy starts from this church. It was for the most part rebuilt under Gregory IV. in 838.

Behind the Palazzo Venezia is the vast _Church of Il Gesu_, begun in 1568 by the celebrated Vignola, but the cupola and facade completed in 1575 by his scholar Giacomo della Porta. In the interior is the monument of Cardinal Bellarmin, and various pictures representing events in the lives or deaths of the Jesuit saints,--that of the death of St. Francis Xavier is by _Carlo Maratta_. The high altar, by Giacomo della Porta, has fine columns of giallo-antico. The altar of St. Ignatius at the end of the left transept is of gaudy magnificence. It was designed by Padre Pozzi, the group of the Trinity being by Bernardino Ludovisi; the globe in the hand of the Almighty is said to be the largest piece of lapis-lazuli in existence. Beneath this altar, and his silver statue, lies the body of St. Ignatius Loyola, in an urn of gilt bronze, adorned with precious stones. A great ceremony takes place in this church on July 31st, the feast of St. Ignatius, and on December 31st a Te Deum is sung here for the mercies of the past year, in the presence of the pope, cardinals, and the people of Rome,--a really solemn and impressive service.

The _Convent of the Gesu_ is the residence of the General of the Jesuits ("His Paternity"), and the centre of religious life in their Order. The rooms in which St. Ignatius lived and died are of the deepest historic interest. They consist of four chambers. The first, now a chapel, is that in which he wrote his "Constitutions." The second, also a chapel, is that in which he died. It contains the altar at which he daily celebrated mass, and the autograph engagement to live under the same laws of obedience, poverty, and chastity, signed by Laynez, Francis Xavier, and Ignatius Loyola. On its walls are two portraits of Ignatius Loyola, one as a young knight, the other as a Jesuit father, and portraits of S. Carlo Borromeo and S. Filippo Neri. It was in this chamber also that St. Francis Borgia died. The third room was that of the attendant monk of St. Ignatius; the fourth is now a kind of museum of relics containing portions of his robes and small articles which belonged to him and to other saints of the Order.

Facing the Church of the Gesu is the _Palazzo Altieri_, built by Cardinal Altieri in 1670, from designs of Giov. Antonio Rossi.

"Quand le palais Altieri fut acheve, les Altieri, neveux de Clement X., inviterent leur oncle a le venir voir. Il s'y fit porter, et d'aussi loin qu'il apercut la magnificence et l'etendue de cette superbe fabrique, il reboussa chemin le cur serre, sans dire un seul mot, et mourut peu apres."--_De Brosses._

"On the staircase of the Palazzo Altieri, is an ancient colossal marble _finger_, of such extraordinary size, that it is really worth a visit."--_Eaton's Rome._

This palace was the residence of the late noble-hearted vicar-general, Cardinal Altieri, who died a martyr to his devotion to his flock (as Bishop of Albano) during the terrible visitation of cholera at Albano in 1867.

The _Piazza del Gesu_ is considered to be the most draughty place in Rome. The legend runs that the devil and the wind were one day taking a walk together. When they came to this square, the devil, who seemed to be very devout, said to the wind, "Just wait a minute, mio caro, while I go into this church." So the wind promised, and the devil went into the Gesu, and has never come out again--and the wind is blowing about in the Piazza del Gesu to this day.

CHAPTER III.

THE CAPITOLINE.

The Story of the Hill--Piazza del Campidoglio--Palace of the Senator--View from the Capitol Tower--The Tabularium--The Museo Capitolino--Gallery of Statues--Palace of the Conservators--Gallery of Pictures--Palazzo Caffarelli--Tarpeian Rock--Convent and Church of Ara-Cli--Mamertine Prisons.

The Capitoline was the hill of the kings and the republic, as the Palatine was of the empire.

Entirely composed of tufa, its sides, now concealed by buildings or by the accumulated rubbish of ages, were abrupt and precipitous, as are still the sides of the neighbouring citadels of Corneto and Cervetri. It was united to the Quirinal by an isthmus of land cut away by Trajan, but in every other direction was isolated by its perpendicular cliffs:--

"Arduus in valles et fora clivus erat."

_Ovid, Fast._ i. 264.

Up to the time of the Tarquins, it bore the name of Mons Saturnus,[19]

from the mythical king Saturn, who is reported to have come to Italy in the reign of Janus, and to have made a settlement here. His name was derived from sowing, and he was looked upon as the introducer of civilization and social order, both of which are inseparably connected with agriculture. His reign here was thus considered to be the golden age of Italy. His wife was Ops, the representative of plenty.[20]

"C'est la tradition d'un age de paix represente par le regne paisible de Saturne; avant qu'il y eut une _Roma_, ville de la force, il y eut une _Saturnia_, ville de la paix."--_Ampere, Hist.

Rom._ i. 86.

Virgil represents Evander, the mythical king of the Palatine, as exhibiting Saturnia, already in ruins, to aeneas.

"Haec duo praeterea disjectis oppida muris, Reliquias veterumque vides monumenta virorum.

Hanc Janus pater, hanc Saturnus condidit arcem: Janiculum huic, illi fuerat Saturnia nomen."

_aen._ viii. 356.

When Romulus had fixed his settlement upon the Palatine, he opened an asylum for fugitive slaves upon the then deserted Saturnus, and here, at a sacred oak, he is said to have offered up the spoils of the Caecinenses, and their king Acron, who had made a war of reprisal upon him, after the rape of their women in the Campus Martius; here also he vowed to build a temple to Jupiter Feretrius, where spoils should always be offered. But in the mean time, the Sabines, under Titius Tatus, besieged and took the hill, having a gate of its fortress (said to have been on the ascent above the spot where the arch of Severus now stands) opened to them by Tarpeia, who gazed with longing upon the golden bracelets of the warriors, and, obtaining a promise to receive that which they wore upon their arms, was crushed by their shields as they entered. Some authorities, however, maintain that she asked and obtained the hand of king Tatius. From this time the hill was completely occupied by the Sabines, and its name became partially merged in that of _Mons Tarpeia_, which its southern side has always retained. Niebuhr states that it is a popular superstition that the beautiful Tarpeia still sits, sparkling with gold and jewels, enchanted and motionless, in a cave in the centre of the hill.

After the death of Tatius, the Capitoline again fell under the government of Romulus, and his successor, Numa Pompilius, founded here a Temple of Fides Publica, in which the flamens were always to sacrifice with a fillet on their right hands, in sign of fidelity. To Numa also is attributed the worship of the god Terminus, who had a temple here in very early ages.

Under Tarquinius Superbus, B.C. 535, the magnificent _Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus_, which had been vowed by his father, was built with money taken from the Volscians in war. In digging its foundations, the head of a man was found, still bloody, an omen which was interpreted by an Etruscan augur to portend that Rome would become the head of Italy. In consequence of this, the name of the hill was once more changed, and has ever since been _Mons Capitolinus_, or Capitolium.

The site of this temple has always been one of the vexed questions of history. At the time it was built, as now, the hill consisted of two peaks, with a level space between them. Niebuhr and Gregorovius place the temple on the south-eastern height, but Canina and other authorities, with more probability, incline to the north-eastern eminence, the present site of Ara-Cli, because, among many other reasons, the temple faced the south, and also the Forum, which it could not have done upon the south-eastern summit; and also because the citadel is always represented as having been nearer to the Tiber than the temple: for when Herdonius, and the Gauls, arriving by the river, scaled the heights of the Capitol, it was the _citadel_ which barred their path, and in which, in the latter case, Manlius was awakened by the noise of the sacred geese of Juno.

The temple of Jupiter occupied a lofty platform, the summit of the rock being levelled to receive it. Its facade was decorated with three ranges of columns, and its sides by a single colonnade. It was nearly square, being 200 Roman feet in length, and 185 in width.[21] The interior was divided into three cells; the figure of Jupiter occupied that in the centre, Minerva was on his right, and Juno on his left. The figure of Jupiter was the work of an artist of the Volscian city of Fregellae,[22]

and was formed of terra-cotta, painted like the statues which we may still see in the Etruscan museum at the Vatican, and clothed with the tunica palmata, and the toga picta, the costume of victorious generals.