Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 7 | Page 8

see why such a design
might not be executed now with as little danger as in Augustus's time,
were there as many hands employed upon it. The city of Rome would
receive a great advantage from the undertaking, as it would raise the
banks and deepen the bed of the Tiber, and by consequence free them
from those frequent inundations to which they are so subject at present;
for the channel of the river is observed to be narrower within the walls
than either below or above them.
Next to the statues, there is nothing in Rome more surprizing than that
amazing variety of ancient pillars of so many kinds of marble. As most
of the old statues may be well supposed to have been cheaper to their
first owners than they are to a modern purchaser, several of the pillars
are certainly rated at a much lower price at present than they were of
old. For not to mention what a huge column of granite, serpentine, or
porphyry must have cost in the quarry, or in its carriage from Egypt to
Rome, we may only consider the great difficulty of hewing it into any
form, and of giving it the due turn, proportion, and polish. The most

valuable pillars about Rome, for the marble of which they are made, are
the four columns of oriental jasper in St. Paulina's chapel at St. Maria
Maggiore; two of oriental granite in St. Pudenziana; one of transparent
oriental jasper in the Vatican library; four of Nero-Bianco, in St.
Cecilia Transtevere; two of Brocatello, and two of oriental agate in Don
Livio's palace; two of Giallo Antico in St. John Lateran, and two of
Verdi Antique in the Villa Pamphilia. These are all entire and solid
pillars, and made of such kinds of marble as are nowhere to be found
but among antiquities, whether it be that the veins of it are
undiscovered, or that they were quite exhausted upon the ancient
buildings. Among these old pillars, I can not forbear reckoning a great
part of an alabaster column, which was found in the ruins of Livia's
portico. It is of the color of fire, and may be seen over the high altar of
St. Maria in Campitello; for they have cut it into two pieces, and fixt it
in the shape of a cross in a hole of the wall that was made on purpose to
receive it; so that the light passing through it from without, makes it
look, to those who are in the church, like a huge transparent cross of
amber.

THE PALACE OF THE CÆSARS[6]
BY RODOLFO LANCIANI
The Palatine hill became the residence of the Roman emperors, and the
center of the Roman Empire, not on account of its historical and
traditional associations with the foundation and first growth of the city,
nor because of its central and commanding position, but by a mere
accident. At daybreak on September 21st, of the year 63 B.C.,
Augustus was born in this region, in a modest house, opening on the
lane called "ad capita bubula," which led from the valley, where now
the Coliseum stands, up the slopes of the hill toward the modern church
and convent of St. Bonaventura.
This man, sent by God to change the condition of mankind and the state
of the world, this founder of an empire which is still practically in
existence,[7] never deserted the Palatine hill all through his eventful

career. From the lane "ad capita bubula" he moved to the house of
Calvus, the orator, at the northeast corner of the hill overlooking the
forum; and in process of time, having become absolute master of the
Roman Commonwealth, he settled finally on the top of the hill, having
purchased for his residence the house of Hortensius, a simple and
modest house, indeed, with columns of the commonest kind of stone,
pavements of rubble-work, and simple whitewashed walls.
Whether this selection of a site was made because the Palatine had long
before been the Faubourg St. Honoré, the Belgravia of ancient Rome, is
difficult to determine. We know that the house of Hortensius, chosen
by Augustus, was surrounded by those of Clodius, Scaurus, Crassus,
Caecina, Sisenna, Flaccus, Catiline, and other members of the
aristocracy. I am persuaded, however, that the secret of the selection is
to be found in the simplicity, I will even say in the poverty, of the
dwelling; in fact, such extreme modesty is worthy of the good sense
and the spirit of moderation shown by Augustus throughout his career.
He could very well sacrifice appearances to the reality of an unbounded
power. It is just, at any rate, to recognize that even in his remotest
resorts for temporary rest and retirement from the cares of government,
he led the