At the end of the gardens, to the left, is another casino, from whose roof a most beautiful view may be obtained. Here are the most famous frescoes of _Guercino_. On the ceiling of the ground-floor, Aurora driving away Night and scattering flowers in her course, with Evening and Daybreak in the lunettes; and, on the first floor, "Fame" attended by Force and Virtue. Smaller rooms on the ground floor have landscapes by _Guercino_ and _Domenichino_, and some groups of Cupids by _T.

Zucchero_; on the staircase is a fine bas-relief of two Cupids dragging a quiver.

"The prophets and sibyls of Guercino da Cento (1590--1666), and his Aurora, in a garden pavilion of the Villa Ludovisi, at Rome, almost attain to the effect of oil paintings in their glowing colouring combined with the broad and dark masses of shadow."--_Kugler._

"In allegorising nature, Guercino imitates the deep shades of night, the twilight grey, and the irradiations of morning, with all the magic of _chiaroscuro_; but his figures are too mortal for the region where they move."--_Forsyth._

In B.C. 82, the district near the Porta Collina, now occupied by the Villa Ludovisi, was the scene of a great battle for the very existence of Rome, between Sylla, and the Samnites and Lucanians under the Samnite general Pontius Telesinus, who declared he would raze the city to the ground if he were victorious. The left wing under Sylla was put to flight; but the right wing, commanded by Crassus, enabled him to restore the battle, and to gain a complete victory; fifty thousand men fell on each side.

The road now runs along the ridge of the hill to the Porta Salara, by which Alaric entered Rome through the treachery of the Isaurian guard, on the 24th of August, 410.

Passing through the gate and turning to the right along the outside of the wall, we may see, against the grounds of the Villa Ludovisi, the two round towers of the now closed _Porta Pinciana_, restored by Belisarius.

This is the place where tradition declares that in his declining years the great general sat begging, with the cry, "Date obolum Belisario."

"A cote de la Porta Pinciana, on lit sur une pierre les paroles celebres: 'Donnez une obole a Belisaire'; mais cette inscription est moderne, comme la legende a laquelle elle fait allusion, et qu'on ne trouve dans nul historien contemporain de Belisaire.

Belisaire ne demanda jamais l'aumone, et si le cicerone montre encore aux voyageurs l'endroit ou, vieux et aveugle, il implorait une obole de la charite des passants, c'est que pres de ce lieu il avait, sur la colline du Pincio, son palais, situe entre les jardins de Lucullus et les jardins de Salluste, et digne probablement de ce double voisinage par sa magnificence. Ce qui est vrai, c'est que le vainqueur des Goths et des Vandales fut disgracie par Justinien, grace aux intrigues de Theodora. La legende, comme presque toujours, a exprime par une fable une verite, l'ingratitude si frequente des souverains envers ceux qui leur ont rendu lus plus grands services."--_Ampere, Emp._ ii. 396.

A short distance from the gate, along the Via Salara, is, on the right, the _Villa Albani_ (shown on Tuesdays by an order), built in 1760 by Cardinal Alessandro Albani,--sold in 1834 to the Count of Castelbarco, and in 1868 to Prince Torlonia, its present possessor. The scene from its garden terrace is among the loveliest of Roman pictures, the view of the delicate Sabine mountains--Monte Gennaro, with the Montecelli beneath it--and in the middle distance, the churches of Sant' Agnese and Sta. Costanza, relieved by dark cypresses and a graceful fountain.

The _Casino_, which is, in fact, a magnificent palace, is remarkable as having been built from Cardinal Albani's own designs, Carlo Marchionni having been only employed to see that they were carried out.

"Here is a villa of exquisite design, planned by a profound antiquary. Here Cardinal Albani, having spent his life in collecting ancient sculpture, formed such porticoes and such saloons to receive it as an old Roman would have done: porticoes where the statues stood free upon the pavement between columns proportioned to their stature; saloons which were not stocked but embellished with families of allied statues, and seemed full without a crowd. Here Winckelmann grew into an antiquary under the cardinal's patronage and instruction; and here he projected his history of art, which brings this collection continually into view."--_Forsyth's Italy._

The collection of sculptures is much reduced since the French invasion, when 294 of the finest specimens were carried off by Napoleon to Paris, where they were sold by Prince Albani upon their restoration in 1815, as he was unwilling to bear the expense of transport. The greater proportion of the remaining statues are of no great importance. Those of the imperial family in the vestibule are interesting--those of Julius and Augustus Caesar, of Agrippina wife of Germanicus, and of Faustina, are seated; most of the heads have been restored.

Conspicuous among the treasures of this villa, are the sarcophagus with reliefs of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, pronounced by Winckelmann to be one of the finest in existence; a head of aesop, supposed to be after Lysippus; and the bronze "Apollo Sauroctonos," considered by Winckelmann to be the original statue by Praxiteles described by Pliny, and the most beautiful bronze statue in the world,--it was found on the Aventine. But most important of all is the famous relievo of Antinous crowned with lotus, from the Villa Adriana (over the chimney-piece of the first room to the right of the saloon), supposed to have formed part of an apotheosis of Antinous:

"As fresh, and as highly finished, as if it had just left the studio of the sculptor, this work, after the Apollo and the Laocoon, is perhaps the most beautiful monument of antiquity which time has transmitted to us."--_Winckelmann, Hist. de l'Art_, vi.

ch. 7.

Inferior only to this, is another bas-relief, also over a chimney-piece,--the parting of Orpheus and Eurydice.

"Les deux epoux vont se quitter. Eurydice attache sur Orphee un profond regard d'adieu. Sa main est posee sur l'epaule de son epoux, geste ordinaire dans les groupes qui expriment la separation de ceux qui s'aiment. La main d'Orphee degage doucement celle d'Eurydice, tandis que Mercure fait de la sienne un leger mouvement pour l'entrainer. Dans ce leger mouvement est tout leur sort; l'effet le plus pathetique est produit par la composition la plus simple; l'emotion la plus penetrante s'exhale de la sculpture la plus tranquille."--_Ampere, Hist. Rom._ iii. 256.

The villa also contains a collection of pictures, of which the most interesting are the sketches of _Giulio Romano_ for the frescoes of the story of Psyche in the Palazzo del Te at Mantua, and two fine pictures by Luca Signorelli and Perugino, in compartments, in the first room on the left of the saloon. All the works of art have lately been rearranged. The _Caffe_ and the _Bigliardo_--(reached by an avenue of oaks, which, being filled with ancient tombstones, has the effect of a cemetery)--contain more statues, but of less importance.

Beyond the villa, the Via Salara (said by Pliny to derive its name from the salt of Ostia exported to the north by this route) passes on the left the site of Antemnae, and crosses the Anio two miles from the city, by the _Ponte Salara_, destroyed by the Roman government in the terror of Garibaldi's approach from Monte Rotondo, in 1867. This bridge was a restoration by Narses, in the sixth century, but stood on the foundations of that famous Ponte Salara, upon which Titus Manlius fought the Gaulish giant, and cutting off his head, carried off the golden collar which earned him the name of Torquatus.

"Manlius prend un bouclier leger de fantassin, une epee espagnole commode pour combattre de tres-pres, et s'avance a la rencontre du Barbare. Les deux champions, isoles sur le pont, comme sur un theatre, se joignent au milieu. Le Barbare portait un vetement bariole et une armure ornee de dessins et d'incrustations dorees, conforme au caractere de sa race, aussi vaine que vaillante. Les armes du Romain etaient bonnes, mais sans eclat. Point chez lui, comme chez son adversaire, de chant, de transports, d'armes agitees avec fureur, mais un cur plein de courage et d'une colere muette qu'il reservait tout entiere pour le combat.

"Le Gaulois, qui depassait son adversaire de toute la tete, met en avant son bouclier et fait tomber pesamment son glaive sur l'armure de son adversaire. Celui-ci le heurte deux fois de son bouclier, le force a reculer, le trouble, et se glissant alors entre le bouclier et le corps du Gaulois, de deux coups rapidement portes lui ouvre le ventre. Quand le grand corps est tombe, Manlius lui coupe la tete, et, ramassant le collier de son ennemi decapite, jette tout sanglant sur son cou ce collier, le _torques_, propre aux Gaulois, et qu'on peut voir au Capitole porte par celui qu'on appelle a tort le gladiateur mourant. Un soldat donne, en plaisantant, a Manlius le sobriquet de _Torquatus_, que sa famille a toujours ete fiere de porter."--_Ampere, Hist. Rom._ iii. 10.

Beyond the ruins of the bridge, is a huge tomb with a tower, now used as an Osteria. Hence, the road leads by the Villa of Phaon (Villa Spada) where Nero died, and the site of Fidenae, now known as Castel Giubeleo, to Monte Rotondo.

The district beyond the Porta Salara, and that extending between the Via Salara and the Monte Parioli, are completely undermined by catacombs (see Ch. IX.). The most important are--1. Nearest the gate, the _Catacomb of St. Felicitas_, which had three tiers of galleries, adorned by Pope Boniface I., who took refuge there from persecution,--now much dilapidated. Over this cemetery was a church, now destroyed, which is mentioned by William of Malmesbury. 2. _The Catacomb of SS. Thraso and Saturninus_, much decorated with the usual paintings. 3. _The Catacomb of Sta. Priscilla_, near the descent to the Anio. This cemetery is of great interest, from the number of martyrs' graves it contains, and from its peculiar construction in an ancient _arenarium_, pillars and walls of masonry being added throughout the central part, in order to sustain the tufa walls. Here were buried--probably because the entrance to the Chapel of the Popes at St. Calixtus was blocked up to preserve it in the persecution under Diocletian--Pope St. Marcellinus (ob. 308), and Pope St. Marcellus (ob. 310), who was sent into exile by Maxentius. On the tomb of the latter was placed, in finely cut type, the following epitaph by Pope Damasus:--

"Veredicus Rector, lapsos quia crimina flere Praedixit, miseris fuit omnibus hostis amarus.

Hinc furor, hinc odium sequitur, discordia, lites, Seditio, caedes, solvuntur fdera pacis.

Crimen ob alterius Christum qui in pace negavit, Finibus expulsus patriae est feritate tyranni.

Haec breviter Damasus voluit comperta referre, Marcelli ut populus meritum cognoscere posset."

"The truth-speaking pope, because he preached that the lapsed should weep for their crimes, was bitterly hated by all those unhappy ones. Hence followed fury, hatred, discord, contentions, sedition, and slaughter, and the bonds of peace were ruptured. For the crime of another, who in (a time of) peace had denied Christ, (the pontiff) was expelled the shores of his country by the cruelty of the tyrant. These things Damasus having learnt, was desirous to narrate briefly, that people might recognise the merit of Marcellus."[242]

Several of the paintings in this catacomb are remarkable; especially that of a woman with a child, claimed by the Roman Church as one of the earliest representations of the Virgin. The painting is thus described by Northcote:--

"De Rossi unhesitatingly says that he believes this painting of our Blessed Lady to belong almost to the apostolic age. It is to be seen on the vaulted roof of a _loculus_, and represents the Blessed Virgin seated, her head partially covered by a short light veil, and with the Holy Child in her arms; opposite to her stands a man, clothed in the pallium, holding a volume in one hand, and with the other pointing to a star which appears above and between the figures. This star almost always accompanies our Blessed Lady, both in paintings and in sculptures, where there is an obvious historical excuse for it, _e. g._, when she is represented with the Magi offering their gifts, or by the side of the manger with the ox and the ass; but with a single figure, as in the present instance, it is unusual. The most obvious conjecture would be that the figure was meant for St. Joseph, or for one of the Magi. De Rossi, however, gives many reasons for preferring the prophet Isaias, whose prophecies concerning the Messias abound with imagery borrowed from light."--_Roma Sotterranea._

This catacomb is one of the oldest, Sta. Priscilla, from whom it is named, being supposed to have been the mother of Pudens, and a contemporary of the apostles. Her granddaughters, Prassede and Pudenziana, were buried here before the removal of their relics to the church on the Esquiline. With this cemetery is connected the extraordinary history of the manufacture of Sta. Filomena, now one of the most popular saints in Italy, and one towards whom idolatry is carried out with frantic enthusiasm both at Domo d'Ossola and in some of the Neapolitan States. The story of this saint is best told in the words of Mrs. Jameson.

"In the year 1802, while some excavations were going forward in the catacomb of Priscilla, a sepulchre was discovered containing the skeleton of a young female; on the exterior were rudely painted some of the symbols constantly recurring in these chambers of the dead; an anchor, an olive branch (emblems of Hope and Peace), a scourge, two arrows, and a javelin: above them the following inscription, of which the beginning and end were destroyed:--

----LUMENA PAX TE CUM FI----

"The remains, reasonably supposed to be those of one of the early martyrs for the faith, were sealed up and deposited in the treasury of relics in the Lateran; here they remained for some years unthought of. On the return of Pius VII. from France, a Neapolitan prelate was sent to congratulate him. One of the priests in his train, who wished to create a sensation in his district, where the long residence of the French had probably caused some decay of piety, begged for a few relics to carry home, and these recently discovered remains were bestowed on him; the inscription was translated somewhat freely, to signify _Santa Philumena, rest in peace_. Another priest, whose name is suppressed _because of his great humility_, was favoured by a vision in the broad noon-day, in which he beheld the glorious virgin Filomena, who was pleased to reveal to him that she had suffered death for preferring the Christian faith and her vow of chastity to the addresses of the emperor, who wished to make her his wife. This vision leaving much of her history obscure, a certain young artist, whose name is also suppressed, perhaps because of his great humility, was informed in a vision that the emperor alluded to was Diocletian, and at the same time the torments and persecutions suffered by the Christian virgin Filomena, as well as her wonderful constancy, were also revealed to him. There were some difficulties in the way of the Emperor Diocletian, which _incline_ the writer of the _historical_ account to incline to the opinion that the young artist in his wisdom _may_ have made a mistake, and that the emperor may have been not Diocletian but Maximian. The facts, however, now admitted of no doubt; the relics were carried by the priest Francesco da Lucia to Naples; they were enclosed in a case of wood resembling in form the human body; this figure was habited in a petticoat of white satin, and over it a crimson tunic after the Greek fashion; the face was painted to represent nature, a garland of flowers was placed on the head, and in the hands a lily and a javelin with the point reversed to express her purity and her martyrdom; then she was laid in a half-sitting posture in a sarcophagus, of which the sides were glass, and, after lying for some time in state in the chapel of the Torres family in the Church of Sant' Angiolo, she was carried in grand procession to Mugnano, a little town about twenty miles from Naples, amid the acclamations of the people, working many and surprising miracles by the way.... Such is the legend of Sta. Filomena, and such the authority on which she has become within the last twenty years one of the most popular saints in Italy."--_Sacred and Legendary Art_, p. 671.

It is hoped that very interesting relics may still be discovered in this Catacomb.

"In an account preserved by St. Gregory of Tours, we are told that under Numerianus, the martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria were put to death in an _arenaria_, and that a great number of the faithful having been seen entering a subterranean crypt on the Via Salara, to visit their tombs, the heathen emperor caused the entrance to be hastily built up, and a vast mound of sand and stone to be heaped in front of it, so that they might be all buried alive, even as the martyrs whom they had come to venerate. St. Gregory adds, that when the tombs of these martyrs were re-discovered, after the ages of persecution had ceased, there were found with them, not only the relics of those worshippers who had been thus cruelly put to death, skeletons of men, women, and children lying on the floor, but also the silver cruets (_urcei argentei_) which they had taken down with them for the celebration of the sacred mysteries. St. Damasus was unwilling to destroy so touching a memorial of past ages. He abstained from making any of those changes by which he usually decorated the martyrs' tombs, but contented himself with setting up one of his invaluable historical inscriptions, and opening a window in the adjacent wall or rock, that all might see, without disturbing, this monument so unique in its kind--this Christian Pompeii in miniature. These things might still be seen in St.

Gregory's time, in the sixth century; and De Rossi holds out hopes that some traces of them may be restored even to our own generation, some fragments of the inscription perhaps, or even the window itself through which our ancestors once saw so moving a spectacle, assisting, as it were, at a mass celebrated in the third century."--_Roma Sotterranea_, p. 88.

Returning to the Porta Salara, and following the walls, we reach the _Porta Pia_, built, as it is now seen, by Pius IX.--very ugly, but appropriately decorated with statues of St. Agnes and St. Alexander, to whose shrines it leads. The statues lost their heads in the capture of Rome in 1870 by the Italian troops, who entered the city by a breach in the walls close to this. A little to the right was the _Porta Nomentana_, flanked by round towers, closed by Pius IV. It was by this gate that the oppressed Roman people retreated to the Mons Sacer--and that Nero fled.

"Suivons-le du Grand-Cirque a la porte Nomentane. Quel spectacle!

Neron, accoutume a toutes les recherches de la volupte, s'avance a cheval, les pieds nus, en chemise, couvert d'un vieux manteau dont la couleur etait passee, un mouchoir sur le visage. Quatre personnes seulement l'accompagnent; parmi elles est ce Sporus, que dans un jour d'indicible folie il avait publiquement epouse. Il sent la terre trembler, il voit les eclairs au ciel: Neron a peur.

Tous ceux qu'il a fait mourir lui apparaissent et semblent se precipiter sur lui. Nous voici a la porte Nomentane, qui touche au Camp des Pretoriens. Neron reconnait ce lieu ou, il y a quinze ans, suivant alors le chemin qu'il vient de suivre, il est venu se faire reconnaitre empereur par les pretoriens. En passant sous les murs de leur camp, vers lequel son destin le ramene, il les entend former des vux pour Galba, et lancer des imprecations contre lui. Un passant lui dit: 'Voila des gens qui cherchent Neron.' Son cheval se cabre au milieu de la route: c'est qu'il a flaire un cadavre. Le mouchoir qui couvrait son visage tombe; un pretorien qui se trouvait la le ramasse et le rend a l'empereur, qu'il salue par son nom. A chacun de ces incidents son effroi redouble. Enfin il est arrive a un petit chemin qui s'ouvre a notre gauche, dans la direction de la voie Salara, parallele a la voie Nomentane. C'est entre ces deux voies qu'etait la villa de Phaon, a quatre milles de Rome. Pour l'attendre, Neron, qui a mis pied a terre, s'enfonce a travers un fourre d'epines et un champ de roseaux comme il s'en trouve tant dans la Campagne de Rome; il a peine de s'y frayer un chemin; il arrive ainsi au mur de derriere de la villa. Pres de la etait un de ces antres creuses pour l'extraction du sable volcanique, appele _pouzzolane_, tels qu'on en voit encore de ce cote. Phaon engage le fugitif a s'y cacher; il refuse. On fait un trou dans la muraille de la villa par ou il penetre, marchant quatre pieds, dans l'interieur. Il entre dans une petite salle et se couche sur un lit forme d'un mechant matelas sur lequel on avait jete un vieux manteau. Ceux qui l'entourent le pressent de mourir pour echapper aux outrages et au supplice. Il essaye a plusieurs reprises de se donner la mort et n'y peut se resoudre; il pleure.

Enfin, en entendant les cavaliers qui venaient le saisir, il cite un vers grec, fait un effort et se tue avec le secours d'un affranchi."--_Ampere, Emp._ ii. 65.

Immediately outside the Porta Pia is the entrance of the beautiful _Villa Patrizi_, whose grounds enclose the small _Catacomb of St.

Nicomedus_. Then comes the _Villa Lezzani_, where Sta. Giustina is buried in a chapel, and where her festa is observed on the 25th of October.

Beyond this is the ridiculous _Villa Torlonia_ (shown with an order on Wednesdays from 11 to 4, but not worth seeing), sprinkled with mock ruins.

At little more than a mile from the gate the road reaches the _Basilica of St' Agnese fuori le Mura_, founded by Constantine at the request of his daughter Constantia, in honour of the virgin martyr buried in the neighbouring catacomb; but rebuilt 625--38 by Honorius I. It was altered in 1490 by Innocent VIII., but retains more of its ancient character than most of the Roman churches. The polychrome decorations of the interior, and the rebuilding of the monastery, were carried out at the expense of Pius IX., as a thank-offering for his escape, when he fell through the floor here into a cellar, with his cardinals and attendants, on April 15, 1855. The scene is represented in a large fresco by _Domenico Tojetti_, in a chamber on the right of the courtyard.

The approach to the church is by a picturesque staircase of forty-five ancient marble steps, lined with inscriptions from the catacombs. The nave is divided from the aisles by sixteen columns, four of which are of "porta-santa" and two of "pavonazzetto." A smaller range of columns above these supports the roof of a triforium, which is on a level with the road. The baldacchino, erected in 1614, is supported by four porphyry columns. Beneath is the shrine of St. Agnes surmounted by her statue, an antique of oriental alabaster, with modern head, and hands of gilt bronze. The mosaics of the tribune, representing St. Agnes between Popes Honorius I. and Symmachus, are of the seventh century. Beneath, is an ancient episcopal chair.

The second chapel on the right has a beautiful mosaic altar, and a relief of SS. Stephen and Laurence of 1490. The third chapel is that of St. Emerentiana, foster-sister of St. Agnes, who was discovered praying beside the tomb of her friend, and was stoned to death because she refused to sacrifice to idols.

"So ancient is the worship paid to St. Agnes, that next to the Evangelists and Apostles, there is no saint whose effigy is older.

It is found on the ancient glass and earthenware vessels used by the Christians in the early part of the third century, with her name inscribed, which leaves no doubt of her identity. But neither in these images, nor in the mosaics, is the lamb introduced, which in later times has become her inseparable attribute, as the patroness of maidens and maidenly modesty."--_Jameson's Sacred Art_, p. 105.

St. Agnes suffered martyrdom by being stabbed in the throat, under Diocletian, in her thirteenth year (see Ch. XIV.), after which, according to the expression used in the acts of her martyrdom, her parents "with all joy" laid her in the catacombs. One day as they were praying near the body of their child, she appeared to them surrounded by a great multitude of virgins, triumphant and glorious like herself, with a lamb by her side, and said, "I am in heaven, living with these virgins my companions, near Him whom I have so much loved." By her tomb, also, Constantia, a princess sick with hopeless leprosy, was praying for the healing of her body, when she heard a voice saying, "Rise up, Constantia, and go on constantly ('Costanter age, Constantia') in the faith of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who shall heal your diseases,"--and, being cured of her evil, she besought her father to build this basilica as a thank-offering.[243]