Statue of Princess Pauline Borghese, sister of Napoleon I., by _Canova_, as Venus Victrix.

"Canova esteemed his statue of the Princess Borghese as one of his best works. No one else could have an opportunity of judging of it, for the prince, who certainly was not jealous of his wife's person, was so jealous of her statue, that he kept it locked up in a room in the Borghese Palace, of which he kept the key, and not a human being, not even Canova himself, could get access to it."--_Eaton's Rome._

Canova took Chantrey to see this statue by night, wishing, as was his wont, to show it by the light of a single taper. Chantrey, wishing to do honour to the artist, insisted upon holding the taper for the best light himself, which gave rise to Moore's lines:

"When he, thy peer in art and fame, Hung o'er the marble with delight; And while his ling'ring hand would steal O'er every grace the taper's rays, Gave thee, with all the generous zeal Such master-spirits only feel, The best of fame--a rival's praise!"

In the upper part of the grounds, not far from the walls of Rome, stood the Villa Olgiati, once the _Villa of Raphael_. It contained three rooms ornamented with frescoes from the hand of the great master. The best of these are now preserved in a room at the end of the gallery in the Borghese Palace. The villa was destroyed during the siege of Rome in 1849, when many of the fine old trees were cut down on this side of the grounds.

"The Casino of Raphael was unfurnished, except with casks of wine, and uninhabited, except by a _contadina_. The chamber which was the bedroom of Raphael was entirely adorned with the work of his own hands. It was a small pleasant apartment, looking out on a little green lawn, fenced in with trees irregularly planted. The walls were covered with arabesques, in various whimsical and beautiful designs--such as the sports of children; Loves balancing themselves on poles, or mounted on horseback, full of glee and mirth; Fauns and Satyrs; Mercury and Minerva; flowers and curling tendrils, and every beautiful composition that could suggest itself to a classic imagination in its most sportive mood. The cornice was supported by painted Caryatides. The coved roof was adorned with four medallions, containing portraits of his mistress, the Fornarina--it seemed as if he took pleasure in multiplying that beloved object, so that wherever his eyes turned her image might meet them. There were three other paintings, one representing a Terminus with a target before it, and a troop of men shooting at it with bows and arrows which they had stolen from unsuspecting Cupid, lying asleep on the ground. The second represented a figure, apparently a god, seated at the foot of a couch, with an altar before him, in a temple or rotunda, and from the gardens which appeared in perspective through its open intercolumniations, were seen advancing a troop of gay young nymphs, bearing vases full of roses upon their heads.[369] ... The last and best of these paintings represented the nuptials of Alexander the Great and Roxana."--_Eaton's Rome._

Just outside the Porta del Popolo, a small gate on the left of the Villa Borghese leads to the _Villa Esmeade_,--the property of an Englishman,--of considerable extent, and possessing beautiful views of Rome and the Sabine mountains from its heights, which are adorned with a few ancient statues and vases.

Unpleasantly situated near the gate of the Villa Borghese is the Pig-market. Fortunately the manner of pig-killing at Rome is not so noisy as that in northern countries. The throats of the animals are not cut, but they are pierced under the left shoulder with a long pointed bodkin, which kills them almost instantly--no blood flowing. In a very few minutes a whole pen-full of pigs can be stilettoed in this manner--indeed, for any one interested in farming matters, the slaughter of the Roman pigs is a sight worth seeing.

We now enter upon the ugly dusty road which leads in a straight line to the Milvian Bridge. By this road the last triumphal procession entered Rome--that of the Emperor Honorius and Stilicho (described by the poet Claudian) in A.D. 403--a whole century having then elapsed since the Romans had beheld their last triumph--that of Diocletian.

Under the line of hills (Monte Parioli) on the right of the road are the _Catacombs of St. Valentine_. On the other side, the same hills are undermined by the _Catacombs of SS. Gianutus and Basilla_.

Half a mile from the gate, rises conspicuously on the right of the road the _Casino of Papa Giulio_, with picturesque overhanging cornices and sculptured fountain. The courtyard has a quaint cloister. This is the "Villino," and, far behind, but formerly connected with it by a long corridor, is the _Villa of Papa Giulio_, containing several rooms with very richly decorated ceilings, painted by _Taddeo Zucchero_. Michael Angelo was consulted by the pope as to the building of this villa, and Vasari made drawings for it, but "the actual architect was Vignola, a modest genius, who had to suffer severely, together with all his fellow-workmen, from the tracasseries of the pope's favourite, the bishop Aliotti, whom the less-enduring Michael Angelo was wont to nickname Monsignor Tante Cose."

"The villa of Papa Giulio is still visited by the stranger.

Restored to the presence of those times, he ascends the spacious steps to the gallery, whence he overlooks the whole extent of Rome, from Monte Mario, with all the windings of the Tiber. The building of this palace, the laying out of its gardens, were the daily occupation of Pope Julius III. The place was designed by himself, but was never completed: every day brought with it some new suggestion or caprice, which the architects must at once set themselves to realize. This pontiff desired to forward the interests of his family; but he was not inclined to involve himself in dangerous perplexities on their account. The pleasant blameless life of his villa was that which was best suited to him. He gave entertainments, which he enlivened with proverbial and other modes of expression, that sometimes mingled blushes with the smiles of his guests. In the important affairs of the Church and State, he took no other share than was absolutely inevitable. This Pope Julius died March 23, 1555."--_Ranke's Hist. of the Popes._

"C'est uniquement comme protecteur des arts et comme prince magnifique que nous pouvons envisager Jules III. Sa mauvaise sante lui faisait rechercher le repos et les douceurs d'une vie grande et libre. Aussi avait-il fait edifier avec une sorte de tendresse paternelle cette belle _villa_, qui est celebre, dans l'histoire de l'art, sous le nom de Vigne de pape Jules. Michel-Ange, Vasari, Vignole en avaient dessine les profils; les nymphees et les fontaines etaient d'Ammanati; les peintures de Taddeo Zuccari. Du haut d'une galerie elegante on decouvrait les sept collines, et d'ombreuses allees, tracees par Jules III., egaraient les pas du vieillard dans ce dedale de tertres et de vallees qui separe le pont ou perit Maxence de la ville eternelle."--_Gournerie, Rome Chretienne_, ii. 172.

Pope Julius used to come hither, with all his court, from the Vatican by water. The richly-decorated barge, filled with venerable ecclesiastics, gliding between the osier-fringed banks of the yellow Tiber, with its distant line of churches and palaces, would make a fine subject for a picture.

Nearly opposite the Casino Papa Giulio, on the further bank of the Tiber, is the picturesque classic _Villa of Claude Lorraine_, whither he was wont to retire during the summer months, residing in the winter in the Tempietto at the head of the Trinita steps. This villa is best seen from the walk by the river-side, which is reached by turning at once to the left on coming out of the Porta del Popolo. Hence it makes a good foreground to the view of the city and distant heights of the Janiculan.

"This road is called 'Poussin's Walk,' because the great painter used to go along it from Rome to his villa near Ponte Molle. One sees here an horizon such as one often finds in Poussin's pictures."--_Frederika Bremer._

Close to the Villa Papa Giulio is the tunnel called _Arco Oscuro_, passing which, a steep lane with a beautiful view towards St. Peter's, ascends between the hillsides of the Monte Parione, and descends on the other side (following the turn to the right) to the Tiber bank, about two miles from Rome, where is situated the _Acqua Acetosa_, a refreshing mineral spring like seltzer water, enclosed in a fountain erected by Bernini for Alexander VII. There is a lovely view from hence across the Campagna in the direction of Fidenae (Castel Giubeleo) and the Tor di Quinto.

"A green hill, one of those bare table-lands so common in the Campagna, rises on the right. Ascend it to where a broad furrow in the slope seems to mark the site of an ancient road. You are on a plateau, almost quadrangular in form, rising steeply to the height of nearly two hundred feet above the Tiber, and isolated, save at one angle, where it is united to other high ground by a narrow isthmus. Not a tree--not a shrub on its turf-grown surface--not a house--not a ruin--not one stone upon another, to tell you that the site had been inhabited. Yet here once stood Antemnae, the city of many towers,[370] one of the most ancient of Italy![371] Not a trace remains above ground. Even the broken pottery, that infallible indicator of bygone civilisation, which marks the site and determines the limits of habitation on many a now desolate spot of classic ground, is here so overgrown with herbage that the eye of an antiquary would alone detect it. It is a site strong by nature, and well adapted for a city, as cities then were; for it is scarcely larger than the Palatine Hill, which, though at first it embraced the whole of Rome, was afterwards too small for a single palace. It has a peculiar interest as one of the three cities of Sabina,[372] whose daughters, ravished by the followers of Romulus, became the mothers of the Roman race. Antemnae was the nearest city to Rome--only three miles distant--and therefore must have suffered most from the inhospitable violence of the Romans."--_Dennis'

Cities of Etruria_, ch. iii.

There is a walk--rather dangerous for carriages--by the river, from hence, to the Ponte Molle. Here Miss Bathurst was drowned by being thrown from her horse into the Tiber.

The river bank presents a series of picturesque views, though the yellow Tiber in no way reminds us of Virgil's description:

"Caeruleus Tybris clo gratissimus amnis."

_aen._ viii. 64.

Continuing to follow the main road, on the left is the round _Church of St. Andrew_, with a Doric portico, built by Vignola, in 1527, to commemorate the deliverance of Clement VII. from the Germans.

Further, on the right, is another _Chapel in honour of St. Andrew's Head_.

"One of the most curious instances of relique worship occurred here in the reign of aeneas Sylvius, Pope Pius II. The head of St. Andrew was brought in stately procession from the fortress of Narni, whither, as the Turks invaded the Morea, it had been brought for safety from Patras. It was intended that the most glorious heads of St. Peter and St. Paul should go forth to meet that of their brother apostle. But the mass of gold which enshrined, the cumbrous iron which protected these reliques, was too heavy to be moved; so, without them, the pope, the cardinals, the whole population of Rome, thronged forth to the meadows near the Milvian Bridge. The pope made an eloquent address to the head, a hymn was sung entreating the saint's aid in the discomfiture of the Turks. It rested that day on the altar of Santa Maria del Popolo, and was then conveyed through the city, decorated with all splendour, to St. Peter's. Cardinal Bessarion preached a sermon, and the head was deposited with those of his brother apostles under the high-altar_."--Milman's Latin Christianity._

A mile and a half from the gate, the Tiber is crossed by the _Ponte Molle_, built by Pius VII. in 1815, on the site and foundations of the Pons Milvius, which was erected B.C. 109 by the Censor M. aemilius Scaurus. It was here that, on the night of December 3, B.C. 63, Cicero captured the emissaries of the Allobrogi, who were engaged in the conspiracy of Catiline. Hence, on October 27, A.D. 312, Maxentius was thrown into the river and drowned after his defeat by Constantine at the Saxa Rubra. It was on this occasion that the seven-branched candlestick of Jerusalem was dropped into the river, where it has probably ever since been embedded. The statues of Our Saviour and John the Baptist, at the further entrance of the bridge, are by _Mochi_.

Here are a number of taverns and _Trattorie_, much frequented by the lower ranks of the Roman people, and for which especial open omnibuses run from the Porta del Popolo. Similar places of public amusement seem to have existed here from imperial times. Ovid describes the people coming out hither in troops by the Via Flaminia to celebrate the fete of Anna Perenna, an old woman who supplied the plebs with cakes during the retreat to the Mons Sacer, but who afterwards, from a similitude of names, was confounded with Anna, sister of Dido.

"Idibus est Annae festum geniale Perennae, Haud procul a ripis, advena Tibri, tuis.

Plebs venit, ac virides passim disjecta per herbas Potat; et accumbit cum pare quisque sua.

Sub Jove pars durat; pauci tentoria ponunt; Sunt, quibus e ramo frondea facta casa est: Pars, ubi pro rigidis calamos statuere columnis, Desuper extentas imposuere togas.

Sole tamen vinoque calent; annosque precantur, Quot sumant cyathos, ad numerumque bibunt.

Inventes illic, qui Nestoris ebibat annos: Quae sit per calices facta Sibylla suos.

Illic et cantant, quidquid didicere theatris, Et jactant faciles ad sua verba manus: Et ducunt posito duras cratere choreas, Multaque diffusis saltat amica comis.

Quum redeunt, titubant, et sunt spectacula vulgo, Et fortunatos obvia turba vocat.

Occurri nuper. Visa est mihi digna relatu Pompa: senem potum pota trahebat anus."

_Fast._ iii. 523.

Here three roads meet. That on the right is the old Via Flaminia, begun B.C. 220 by C. Flaminius the censor. This was the great northern road of Italy, which, issuing from the city by the Porta Ratumena, which was close to the tomb of Bibulus, followed a line a little east of the modern Corso, and passed the Aurelian wall by the Porta Flaminia, near the present Porta del Popolo. It extended to Ariminum (Rimini), a distance of 210 miles.[373]

(Following this road for about 1 mile, on the left are the ruins called _Tor di Quinto_. A little further on the right of the road are some tufa-rocks, with an injured tomb of the Nasones. Following the valley under these rocks to the left we reach (1 mile) the fine _Castle of Crescenza_, now a farm-*house, picturesquely situated on a rocky knoll,--once inhabited by Poussin, and reproduced in the background of many of his pictures. In the interior are some remains of ancient frescoes.

On this road, seven miles from Rome, is Prima Porta, where are the ruins of the _Villa of Livia_, wife of Augustus, and mother of Tiberius. When first opened, several small rooms in the villa, supposed to be baths, were covered with frescoes and arabesques in a state of the most marvellous beauty and preservation, but they are now greatly injured by damp and exposure. From the character of the paintings, a trellis-*work of fruit and flowers, amid which birds and insects are sporting, it is supposed that they are the work of Ludius, described in Pliny, who "divi Augusti aetate primus instituit amnissimam parietum picturam, villas et porticus ac topiaria opera, lucos, nemora ... blandissimo aspectu minimoque impendio." It was here that the magnificent statue of Augustus, now in the Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican, was discovered in 1863.

"What Augustus's affection for Livia was, is well known. 'Preserve the remembrance of a husband who has loved you very tenderly,' were the last words of the emperor, as he lay on his death-bed. And when asked how she contrived to retain his affection, Dion Cassius tells us that she replied, 'My secret is very simple: I have made it the study of my life to please him, and I have never manifested any indiscreet curiosity with regard to his public or private affairs.'"--_Weld._

Just beyond this, the Tiber receives the little river _Valca_, considered to be identical with the Crimera. Hither the devoted clan of the Fabii, 4000 in number, retired from Rome, having offered to sustain, at their own cost and risk, the war which Rome was then carrying on against Veii. Here, because they felt a position within the city untenable on account of the animosity of their fellow-patricians, which had been excited by their advocacy of the agrarian law, and their popularity with the plebeians, they established themselves on a hillock overhanging the river, which they fortified, and where they dwelt for three years. At the end of that time the Veiientines, by letting loose herds of cattle like the _Vaccine_, which one still sees wandering in that part of the Campagna, drew them into an ambuscade, and they were all cut off to a man. According to Dionysius, a portion of the little army remained to guard the fort, and the rest fled to another hill, perhaps that now known as Vaccareccia. These were the last to be exterminated.

"They fought from dawn to sunset. The enemy slain by their hand formed heaps of corpses which barred their passage."--They were summoned to surrender, but they preferred to die.--"The people of Veii showered arrows and stones upon them from a distance, not daring to approach them again. The arrows fell like thick snow. The Fabii, with swords blunted by force of striking, with bucklers broken, continued to fight, snatching fresh swords from the hands of the enemy, and rushing upon them with the ferocity of wild beasts."--_Dionysius_, ix. 21.

A little beyond this, ten miles from Rome, is the stream _Scannabecchi_, which descends from the Crustuminian Hills, and is identical with the Allia, "infaustum Allia nomen," where the Romans were (B.C. 390) entirely defeated with great slaughter by the Gauls, before the capture of the city, in which the aged senators were massacred at the doors of their houses.

It was in the lands lying between the villa of Livia and the Tiber that _Saxa Rubra_[374] was situated, where Constantine (A.D. 312) gained his decisive victory over Maxentius, who, while attempting to escape over the Milvian Bridge, was pushed by the throng of fugitives into the Tiber, and perished, engulfed in the mud. The scene is depicted in the famous fresco of Giulio Romano, in the stanze of the Vatican.

On the opposite side of the river, Castel Giubeleo, on the site of the Etruscan Fidenae, is a conspicuous object.)

(The direct road from the Ponte Molle is the ancient _Via Cassia_, which must be followed for some distance by those who make the interesting excursions to Veii, Galera, and Bracciano, each easily within the compass of a day's expedition. On the left of this road, three miles from Rome, is the fine sarcophagus of Publius Vibius Maximus and his wife Regina Maxima, popularly known as "Nero's Tomb.")

Following the road to the left of the Ponte Molle, we turn up a steep incline to the deserted _Villa Madama_, built by Giulio Romano, from designs of Raphael for Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, afterwards Clement VII. It derives its name from Margaret of Austria, daughter of Charles V., and wife, first of Alessandro de' Medici, and then of Ottavio Farnese, duke of Parma; from this second marriage, it descended through Elisabetta Farnese, to the Bourbon kings of Naples. The neglected halls contain some fresco decorations by _Giulio Romano_ and _Giovanni da Udine_.

"They consist of a series of beautiful little pictures, representing the sports of Satyrs and Loves; Juno, attended by her peacocks; Jupiter and Ganymede; and various subjects of mythology and fable. The paintings in the portico have been of first-rate excellence; and I cannot but regret, that designs so beautiful should not be engraved before their last traces disappear for ever.

A deep fringe on one of the deserted chambers, representing angels, flowers, Caryatides, &c., by Giulio Romano; and also a fine fresco on a ceiling, by Giovanni da Udine, of Phbus driving his heavenly steeds, are in somewhat better preservation.

"It was in the groves that surrounded Villa Madama, that the Pastor Fido of Guarini was represented for the first time before a brilliant circle of princes and nobles, such as these scenes will see no more, and Italy itself could not now produce."--_Eaton's Rome._

The frescoes and arabesques executed here by Giovanni da Udine were considered at the time as among the most successful of his works. Vasari says that in these he "wished to be supreme, and to excel himself."

Cardinal de' Medici was so delighted with them that he not only heaped benefits on all the relations of the painter, but rewarded him with a rich canonry, which he was allowed to transfer to his brother.

One can scarcely doubt from the description of Martial that this villa occupies the site of that in which the poet came to visit his friend and namesake.