_Byron, Childe Harold._

"I saw in the Palazzo Spada, the statue of Pompey: the statue at whose base Caesar fell. A stem, tremendous figure! I imagined one of greater finish: of the last refinement: full of delicate touches: losing its distinctness in the giddy eyes of one whose blood was ebbing before it, and settling into some such rigid majesty as this, as Death came creeping over the upturned face."--_Dickens._

"Caesar was persuaded at first by the entreaties of his wife Calpurnia, who had received secret warning of the plot, to send an excuse to the senate; but afterwards, being ridiculed by Brutus for not going, was carried thither in a litter.... At the moment when Caesar descended from his litter at the door of the hall, Popilius Laena approached him, and was observed to enter into earnest conversation with him. The conspirators regarded one another, and mutually revealed their despair with a glance. Cassius and others were grasping their daggers beneath their robes; the last resource was to despatch themselves. But Brutus, observing that the manner of Popilius was that of one supplicating rather than warning, restored his companions' confidence with a smile. Caesar entered; his enemies closed in a dense mass around him, and while they led him to his chair kept off all intruders. Trebonius was specially charged to detain Antonius in conversation at the door. Scarcely was the victim seated, when Tillius Cimber approached with a petition for his brother's pardon. The others, as was concerted, joined in the supplication, grasping his hands, and embracing his neck. Caesar at first put them gently aside, but, as they became more importunate, repelled them with main force. Tillius seized his toga with both hands, and pulled it violently over his arms. Then P. Casca, who was behind, drew a weapon, and grazed his shoulder with an ill-directed stroke. Caesar disengaged one hand, and snatched at the hilt, shouting, 'Cursed Casca, what means this?'--'Help,' cried Casca to his brother Lucius, and at the same moment the others aimed each his dagger at the devoted object.

Caesar for an instant defended himself, and even wounded one of his assailants with his stylus; but when he distinguished Brutus in the press, and saw the steel flashing in his hand also, 'What, thou too, Brutus!' he exclaimed, let go his hold of Casca, and drawing his robe over his face, made no further resistance. The assassins stabbed him through and through, for they had pledged themselves, one and all, to bathe their daggers in his blood. Brutus himself received a wound in their eagerness and trepidation. The victim reeled a few paces, propped by the blows he received on every side, till he fell dead at the foot of Pompeius' statue."--_Merivale_, ch. xxi.

The collection of pictures in this palace is little worth seeing. Among its other sculptures are eight grand reliefs, which, till 1620, were turned upside down, and used as a pavement in Sant' Agnese fuori Mura; and a fine statue of Aristotle.

"Aristote est a Rome, vous pouvons l'aller voir au palais Spada, tel que le peignent ses biographes et des vers de Christodore sur une statue qui etait a Constantinople, les jambes greles, les joues maigres, le bras hors du manteau, _exserto brachio_, comme dit Sidoine Apollinaire d'une autre statue qui etait a Rome. Le philosophe est ici sans barbe aussi bien que sur plusieurs pierres gravees; on attribuait a Aristote l'habitude de se raser, rare parmi les philosophes et convenable a un sage qui vivait a la cour.

Du reste, c'est bien la _le maitre de ceux qui savent_, selon l'expression de Dante, corps use par l'etude, tete petite mais qui enferme et comprend tout."--_Ampere_, _Hist. Rom._ iii. 547.

A little further, on the right, is the _Church of the Trinita dei Pellegrini_, built in 1614; the facade designed by Francesco de'

Sanctis. It contains a picture of the Trinity by _Guido_.

The hospital attached to this church was founded by S. Filippo Neri for receiving and nourishing pilgrims of pious intention, who had come from more than sixty miles' distance, for a space of from three to seven days. It is divided into two parts, for males and females. Here, during the Holy Week, the feet of the pilgrims are publicly washed, those of the men by princes, cardinals, &c., those of the women by queens, princesses, and other ladies of rank. In this case the washing is a reality, the feet not having been "prepared beforehand," as for the Lavanda at St Peter's.

An authentic portrait of S. Filippo Neri is preserved here, said to have been painted surreptitiously by an artist who happened to be one of the inmates of the hospital. When S. Filippo saw it, he said, "You should not have stolen me unawares."

The building in front of this church is the _Monte di Pieta_, founded by the Padre Calvo, in the fifteenth century, to preserve the people from suffering under the usury of the Jews. It is a government establishment, where money is lent at the rate of five per cent. to every class of person. Poor people, especially "Donne di facenda," who have no work in the summer, thankfully avail themselves of this and pawn their necklaces and earrings, which they are able to redeem when the means of subsistence come back with the return of the forestieri. Many Roman servants go through this process annually, and though the Monte di Pieta is often a scene of great suffering when unredeemed goods are sold for the benefit of the establishment, it probably in the main serves to avert much evil from the poorer classes.

A short distance further, following the Via dei Specchi, surrounded by miserable houses (in one of which is a beautiful double gothic window, divided by a twisted column), is the small _Church of Sta. Maria in Monticelli_, which has a fine low campanile of 1110. Admission may always be obtained through the sacristy to visit the famous "miracle-working" picture called "Gesu Nazareno," a modern half-length of Our Saviour, with the eyelids drooping and half-closed. By an illusion of the painting, the eyes, if watched steadily, appear to open and then slowly to close again as if falling asleep,--in the same way that many English family portraits appear to follow the living bystanders with their eyes; but the effect is very curious. In the case of this picture, the pope turned Protestant, and disapproving of the attention it excited, caused its secret removal. Remonstrance was made, that the picture had been a "regalo" to the church, and ought not to be taken away, and when it was believed to be sufficiently forgotten, it was sent back by night. The mosaics in the apse of this obscure church are for the most part quite modern, but enclose a very grand and expressive head of the Saviour of the World, which dates from 1099, when it was ordered by Pope Paschal II.

A little to the left of this church is the _Palazzo Santa Croce_. This palace will bring to mind the murder of the Marchesa Costanza Santa Croce, by her two sons (because she would not name them her heirs), on the day when the fate of Beatrice Cenci was trembling in the balance, which brought about her condemnation--the then pope, Clement VIII., determining to make her terrible punishment "an example to all parricides."

Prince Santa Croce claims to be a direct descendant of Valerius Publicola, the "friend of the people," who is commemorated in the name of a neighbouring church, "Sancta Maria de Publicolis."

This is one of the few haunted houses in Rome: it is said that by night two statues of Santa Croce cardinals descend from their pedestals, and rattle their marble trains about its long galleries.

Hence a narrow street leads to the _Church of S. Carlo a Catinari_, built in the seventeenth century, from designs of Rosati and Soria. It is in the form of a Greek cross. The very lofty cupola is adorned with frescoes of the cardinal virtues by _Domenichino_, and a fresco of S.

Carlo, by _Guido_, once on the facade of the church, is now preserved in the choir. Over the high altar is a large picture by _Pietro da Cortona_, of S. Carlo in a procession during the plague at Milan. In the first chapel on the right, is the Annunciation, by _Lanfranco_; in the second chapel, on the left, the Death of St. Anna, by _Andrea Sacchi_.

On the pilaster of the last chapel on the right is a good modern tomb, with delicate detail. The cord which S. Carlo Borromeo wore round his neck in the penitential procession during the plague at Milan, is preserved as a relic here. The Catinari, from whom this church is named, were makers of wooden dishes, who had stalls in the adjoining piazza, or sold their wares on its steps. The street opening from hence (Via de Giubbonari) contains on its right the Palazzo Pio; at the back of which are the principal remains of _The Theatre of Pompey_, which was once of great magnificence. In the portico (of a hundred columns) attached to this theatre, Brutus sate as praetor, on the morning of the murder of Julius Caesar, and close by was the Curia, or senate-house, where:

----"In his mantle muffling up his face, Even at the base of Pompey's statue, Which all the while ran blood, great Caesar fell."[304]

Behind the remains of the theatre, perhaps on the very site of the Curia, rises the fine modern _Church of S. Andrea della Valle_,[305]

begun in 1591, by Olivieri, and finished by Carlo Maderno. The facade is by Carlo Rainaldi. The cupola is covered with frescoes by _Lanfranco_, those of the four Evangelists at the angles being by _Domenichino_, who also painted the flagellation and glorification of St. Andrew in the tribune. Beneath the latter are frescoes of events in the life of St.

Andrew by _Calabrese_.

"In the fresco of the Flagellation, the apostle is bound by his hands and feet to four short posts set firmly in the ground; one of the executioners, in tightening a cord, breaks it, and falls back; three men prepare to scourge him with thongs: in the foreground we have the usual group of the mother and her frightened children.

This is a composition full of dramatic life and movement, but unpleasing."--_Jameson's Sacred Art_, p. 229.

In the second chapel on the left is the tomb of Giovanni della Casa, archbishop of Beneventum, 1556.

The last piers of the nave are occupied by the tombs of Pius II., Eneas Sylvius Piccolomini (1458--64), and Pius III., Todeschini (1503), removed from the old basilica of St. Peter's. The tombs are hideous erections in four stages, by Niccolo della Guardia and Pietro da Todi.

The epitaph of the famous Eneas Sylvius is as good as a biography.

"Pius II., sovereign pontiff, a Tuscan by nation, by birth a native of Siena, of the family of the Piccolomini, reigned for six years.

His pontificate was short, but his glory was great. He reunited a Christian Council (Basle) in the interests of the faith. He resisted the enemies of the holy Roman see, both in Italy and abroad. He placed Catherine of Siena amongst the saints of Christ.

He abolished the Pragmatic Sanction in France. He re-established Ferdinand of Arragon in the kingdom of Sicily. He increased the power of the Church. He established the alum mines which were discovered near Talpha. Zealous for religion and justice, he was also remarkable for his eloquence. As he was setting out for the war which he had declared against the Turks, he died at Ancona.

There he had already his fleet prepared, and the doge of Venice, with his senate, as companions in arms for Christ. Brought to Rome by a decree of the fathers, he was laid in this spot, where he had ordered the head of St. Andrew, which had been brought him from the Peloponnese, to be placed. He lived fifty-eight years, nine months, and twenty-seven days. Francis, cardinal of Siena, raised this to the memory of his revered uncle. MCDLXIV."

Pius III., who was the son of a sister of Eneas Sylvius, only reigned for twenty-six days. His tomb was the last to be placed in the old St.

Peter's, which was pulled down by his successor.

To the right, from S. Andrea della Valle runs the Via della Valle, on the right of which is the _Palazzo Vidoni_ (formerly called Caffarelli, and Stoppani), the lower portion of which was designed by Raphael, in 1513, the upper floor being a later addition. There are a few antiquities preserved here, among them the "Calendarium Praenestinum" of Verrius Flaccus, being five months of a Roman calendar found by Cardinal Stoppani at Palestrina. At the foot of the stairs is a statue of Marcus Aurelius. At one corner of the palace on the exterior is the mutilated statue familiarly known as the _Abbate Luigi_, which was made to carry on witty conversation with the Madama Lucrezia near S. Marco, as Pasquin did with Marforio.

To the left from St. Andrea della Valle runs the _Via S. Pantaleone_, on the right of which, cleverly fitting into an angle of the street, is the gloomy but handsome _Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne_, built _c._ 1526 by Baldassare Peruzzi. The semi-*circular portico has six Doric columns.

The staircase and fountain are peculiar and picturesque. In the loggia is a fine antique lion.

The palace is not often shown, but is a good specimen of one of the smaller Roman princely houses. In the drawing-*room, well placed, is the famous _Statue of the Discobolus_, a copy of the bronze statue of Myron, found in 1761, upon the Esquiline, near the ruined nymphaeum known as the Trophies of Marius. This is more beautiful and better preserved than the Discobolus of the Vatican, of which the head is modern.

"Le tete du discobole Massimi se retourne vers le bras qui lance le disque, apest?a???? e?? t?? d?s??f????. Cette tete est admirable, ce qui est encore une resemblance avec Myron, qui excellait dans les tetes comme Polyclete dans les poitrines et Praxitele dans les bras."--_Ampere_, iii. 271.

The entrance-hall has its distinctive dais and canopy adorned with the motto of the family "Cunctando Restituit," in allusion to the descent which they claim from the great dictator Fabius Maximus, who is described by Ennius as having "saved the republic by delaying."

"Napoleon interpella un Massimo avec cette brusquerie qui intimidait tant de gens: 'Est il vrai,' lui dit-il, 'que vous descendiez de Fabius-Maximus?'

"'--Je ne saurais le prouver,' repondit le noble romain, 'mais c'est un bruit qui court depuis plus de mille ans dans notre famille.'"--_About._

On the second floor is a chapel in memory of the temporary resuscitation to life by S. Filippo Neri of Paul Massimo, a youth of fourteen, who had died of a fever, March 16th, 1584.

"S. Filippo Neri was the spiritual director of the Massimo family; it is in his honour that the Palazzo Massimo is dressed up in festal guise every 16th of March. The annals of the family narrate, that the son and heir of Prince Fabrizio Massimo died of a fever at the age of fourteen, and that St. Philip, coming into the room amid the lamentations of the father, mother, and sisters, laid his hand upon the brow of the youth, and called him by his name, on which he revived, opened his eyes, and sate up--'Art thou unwilling to die?'

asked the saint. 'No,' sighed the youth. 'Art thou resigned to yield thy soul to God?' 'I am.' 'Then go,' said Philip. 'Va, che sii benedetto, e prega Dio per noi.'--The boy sank back on his pillow with a heavenly smile on his face and expired."--_Jameson's Monastic Orders._

The back of the palace towards the Piazza Navona is covered with curious frescoes in distemper by _Daniele di Volterra._

In buildings belonging to this palace, Pannartz and Schweinheim established the first printing-office in Rome in 1455. The rare editions of this time bear in addition to the name of the printers, the inscription, "In aedibus Petri de Maximis."

"Conrad Sweynheim et Arnold Pannartz s'etablirent pres de Subiaco, au monastere de Sainte-Scholastique, qui etait occupe par les Benedictins de leur nation, et publierent successivement, avec le concours des moines, les _uvres de Lactance_, la _Cite de Dieu_ de saint Augustin, et le traite _de Oratore_ de Ciceron. En 1467, ils se transporterent a Rome, au palais Massimi, ou ils s'associerent Jean Andre de Bussi, eveque d'Aleria, qui avait etudie sous Victorin de Feltre, et dont la science leur fut d'une haute utilite pour la correction de leurs textes. Le savant eveque leur donnait son temps, ses veilles:--'Malheureux metier,'

disait-il, 'qui consiste non pas a chercher des perles dans le fumier, mais du fumier parmi les perles!'--Et cependant il s'y adonnait avec passion, sans meme y trouver l'aisance. Les livres, en effet, se vendirent d'abord si mal que Jean-Andre de Bussi n'avait pas toujours de quoi se faire faire la barbe. Les premiers livres qu'il publia chez Conrad et Arnold furent la _Grammaire de Donatus_, a trois cents exemplaires, et les _epitres familieres de Ciceron_, a cinq cent cinquante."--_Gournerie_, _Rome Chretienne_, ii. 79, 1.

Further, on the right, is the modernized _Church of S. Pantaleone_, built originally in 1216 by Honorius III., and given by Gregory XV., in 1641, to S. Giuseppe Calasanza, founder of the Order of the Scolopians, and of the institution of the Scuola Pia. He died in 1648, and is buried here in a porphyry sarcophagus.

Adjoining this, is the very handsome _Palazzo Braschi_, the last result of papal nepotism in Rome,--built at the end of the last century by Morelli, for the Duke Braschi, nephew of Pius VI. The staircase, which is, perhaps, the finest in Rome, is adorned with sixteen columns of red oriental granite. Annual subscription balls for charities are held in this palace.

At the further corner of the Braschi palace stands the mutilated but famous statue called Pasquino, from a witty tailor, who once kept a shop opposite, and who used to entertain his customers with all the clever scandal of the day. After the tailor's death his name was transferred to the statue, on whose pedestal were appended witty criticisms on passing events, sometimes in the form of dialogues which Pasquino was supposed to hold with his friend Marforio, another statue at the foot of the Capitol. From the repartees appended to this statue the term Pasquinade is derived.

Pasquin has naturally been regarded as a mortal enemy by the popes, who, on several occasions, have made vain attempts to silence him. The bigoted Adrian VI. wished to have the statue burnt and then thrown into the Tiber, but it was saved by the suggestion of Ludovico Suessano, that his ashes would turn into frogs, who would croak louder than he had done. When Marforio, in the hope of stopping the dialogues, was shut up in the Capitoline museum, the pope attempted to incarcerate Pasquino also, but he was defended by his proprietor, Duke Braschi. Among offensive Pasquinades which have been placed here are:

"Venditur hic Christus, venduntur dogmata Petri, Descendam infernum ne quoque vendar ego."

Among the earliest Pasquinades were those against the venality and evil life of Alexander VI. (Rodrigo Borgia, 1492--1503):

"Vendit Alexander claves, altaria, Christum: Emerat ille prius, vendere jure potest."

and,

"Sextus Tarquinius, Sextus Nero--Sextus et iste; Semper sub Sextis perdita Roma fuit."