SUPPLEMENTARY READING
HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT WORLD—G. W. Botsford.
(The Macmillan Co.) It includes a brief history of Rome.
TOPOGRAPHY AND MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT ROME—S. B. Platner.
(Second edition, Allyn & Bacon.) The best treatment of the subject in English.
RUINS AND EXCAVATIONS OF ANCIENT ROME—Rudolfo Lanciani.
(Houghton, Mifflin Co.) By the greatest living authority on Roman topography.
THE ROMAN FORUM—C. Huelsen.
(Stechert & Co.) By a great scholar.
THE ART OF THE ROMANS—H. B. Walters.
(The Macmillan Co.) Treatment of the elements by a well known authority.
ROME DESCRIBED BY GREAT WRITERS—Editor, Esther Singleton.
(Dodd, Mead & Co.) Instructive and inspiring sketches by Maeterlinck, Crawford, Dickens, and other famous authors who have visited Rome.
A SOURCE BOOK OF ANCIENT HISTORY—C. W. & L. S. Botsford.
(The Macmillan Co.) Extracts from ancient writers relating to the Romans.
THE MENTOR
ISSUED BY
The Mentor Association, INC.
381 Fourth Ave., New York, N. Y.
Volume 1 Number 46
Editorial
The present number of The Mentor is the last of the calendar year—not that of The Mentor year, for that will end in February next. The turn of the calendar year, however, brings with it the inevitable moment of retrospection. This is merely a habit of the human mind, for the New Year is only a human establishment. In a sense it may be said that every day is the beginning of a new year and the ending of an old year. The real new year for a human being, it seems to us, begins with his birthday, for that is the beginning of all things for him. Our new year will begin with the number of The Mentor on which we print for the first time Volume II—and that will be next February. But, indulging for a moment in the mood of retrospection that the season brings, we look back to that day last February when we sent out the first number of The Mentor to our readers. We had readers even then, for the mere announcement of the publication brought a gratifying response. Many thousands, attracted by the plan, invited The Mentor to their homes before the first number had been printed.
We thank these early readers, for they showed us that there was a public ready for The Mentor. These first friends have stayed by us from the beginning, and we hope that during the months gone by we have gained in their esteem. Their number has been many times doubled since our first number appeared, but our hearts are warm toward them, for they took our word for the plan before we had any publication to show. And it means a great deal to us to note that they have stayed with us through the weeks of our growth.
It means, too, a great deal in a practical way to us, for it shows that the interest in The Mentor plan is an enduring one. There has been so much enthusiasm over some of the beautiful gravure pictures that it was only natural to speculate at times as to the motive that impelled some to subscribe. We know now to our own great satisfaction that it is not simply a picture-loving public that takes The Mentor. The serious interest in the subjects that we have published, the earnest desire to know what subjects would be forthcoming, the intelligent suggestions that we receive concerning various subjects that might be included in The Mentor plan—all these, and then the numerous evidences in our mail that The Mentor is bringing something new into the home life, convince us that when we shaped our plans on the broad lines of a comprehensive, popular education we builded well.
This is the season for resolutions. We registered our resolution when we founded The Mentor Association. We could only re-affirm it now. So, at the turn of the year, instead of a resolution, we offer a promise. We will give during the year of 1914 a full measure of the interesting matter that has made friends for The Mentor in the past—and we will give more. We will add to the wealth of information that we have supplied in the fields of history, art, literature, travel, and science,—and we will broaden our scope so as to include articles that will be helpful as well as instructive.
We mean to make every number count in value and in interest. Our wish is that each member of our Association shall say, on laying down a number of The Mentor, that he is richer in the knowledge that cultivates or in the information that is helpful, and that he has at all times been interested and entertained.
May the year of 1914 be one of pleasure, profit and progress to the members of The Mentor Association!
THE CAMPAGNA, ROME
THE RUINS OF ROME
The Campagna
ONE
The Roman Campagna was the cradle of a mighty race. How did the little handful of men who founded Rome, and their descendants, become masters of the world? Livy, the great Roman historian, believes it was due to the location of the city of Rome. “Not without reason,” he says, “did gods and men choose this site for Rome: healthy hills, a river equally adapted for inland and maritime trade, the sea not too far distant, … a site in the middle of the Peninsula, made, as it were, on purpose to allow Rome to become the greatest city in the world.”
However healthy the climate of the Campagna may have been in those times, today it is about the most unhealthy in the world. It is a district containing a great many closed valleys and depressions in the soil, without outlet for the waters that accumulate. Natural watercourses are impeded: Under the top soil are marl and stiff clay, which hold the water after it has filtered through the soil, and let it ooze out to the lower parts of the country, where it is mixed with rotting vegetable matter. Barriers of hills prevent movement of the air. Malaria runs rampant.
But this could not have been so formerly. In the early history of the Campagna towns were scattered over its surface. Later these towns disappeared, and the great estates, worked by crowds of slaves, occupied the land. Then the great villas, whose ruins now strew the ground everywhere in the neighborhood of Rome, were built. The ancient Roman nobility lived in great numbers in the very places now found so deadly. Their summer homes were placed not only on the sea-shore, but all through the country.
Huge aqueducts supplied Rome with water and irrigated the farms on the Campagna. These are the most conspicuous ruins on the Campagna today. The Gothic army at the siege of Rome in 536 destroyed nearly all the aqueducts, and later on the great country seats were demolished.
Six miles from Rome on the Flaminian Road, at the spot now called the Prima Porta, Empress Livia had a country house, which has been excavated. It was well decorated and comfortable. There were found in the house a statue of Emperor Augustus and the busts of several members of the royal family.
The ruins of many tombs are found on the Campagna. Roman family vaults contained a funeral banquet hall, on a level with the road, and a crypt below, where the ashes were kept in urns, or the bodies laid to rest in sarcophagi.
The sites of the cities of Veii, Fidenæ, and Gabii, once the rivals and equals of Rome, are now almost deserted. In sea-coast towns of Ardea, Laurentum, Lavinium, and Ostia, at one time well populated, are practically empty. The inhabitants are haggard and fever stricken. The children are gaunt, hollow cheeked, and sallow in complexion. Men who work there in the fields fear to pass the night in the country because of the fever. They return to Rome every evening. Forsaken towers and buildings, which stand rotting everywhere about the Campagna, tell the same story of a pestilence-stricken district. Now for the most part only foxes, bears, and other wild animals tenant the ragged pastures and wild jungles of the Campagna.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 45, SERIAL No. 46
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
FORUM TOWARD THE CAPITOL, ROME
THE RUINS OF ROME
The Capitoline Hill
TWO
When Rome was founded by Romulus and his handful of comrades they soon saw that if the city was to grow and prosper they would need wives. How to get them was the question. Near Rome was a nation called the Sabines. So the Romans enticed the women of this nation to the new city and kept them there. It is recorded that these early Romans were pretty fine looking men, and that the efforts of the Sabine women to escape were not very strenuous.
But naturally the Sabine men were not pleased to be thus deprived of their wives. They started a war with Rome, and besieged the city.
The Capitoline Hill was the most important of the seven hills on which Rome was built. So Romulus fortified it strongly, and gave it into the care of one of his bravest generals, Tarpeius. But Romulus reckoned without Tarpeia, the daughter of Tarpeius.
The Sabine men had a custom of wearing heavy gold and silver bracelets on their left arms. Tarpeia saw these and was dazzled by them. She planned to get possession of them all. One night she crept down to the gate and promised the leader of the Sabines that she would open it and give up the hill to them, if they would give her what they wore on their left arms.
The Sabines agreed to this, and Tarpeia opened the gate. The Sabines seem to have been brave, honorable men, and although they believed all was fair in war, yet they hated a traitor. Besides the bracelets they carried their shields on their left arms; so they kept their promise to Tarpeia by throwing these shields on the girl and crushing her to death.
The hill was afterward spoken of as “Mons Tarpeius,” meaning the “Hill of Tarpeia.” It was after this traitorous girl also that the rock from which traitors were hurled was named the “Tarpeian Rock.”
The Sabines held Capitoline Hill for a time; but finally decided to unite with the Romans, and the women were divided between the two nations by lot.
The Capitol was in reality that part of Capitoline Hill occupied by the Temple of Jupiter; but included the Piazza del Campidoglio, with the palaces that face it on three sides. In this depression was situated the “Asylum” of Romulus. In the early days of Rome the founders wished to attract people to settle there, and they issued invitations to all neighboring cities; but not many accepted. So Romulus conceived the brilliant idea of receiving all fugitives from other towns as citizens of Rome and guaranteeing them protection. For this purpose he converted the depression in Capitoline Hill into a place of refuge, or “Asylum.” In this way the new city was peopled.
Capitoline Hill has been the scene of many historical events. In 1251, during the senatorship of Brancaleone, who destroyed 140 private castles in Rome, the Capitol was besieged and taken by the partizans of the pope and the nobility. Petrarch was crowned poet laureate there in 1341.
The entire Capitoline Hill is undermined with large and excessive artificial caverns. These caverns are apparently ancient and mostly the work of medieval quarry men.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 45, SERIAL No. 46
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
THE FORUM FROM THE CAPITOL, ROME
THE RUINS OF ROME
The Roman Forum
THREE
So many statues crowded the streets of the Forum at one time that Rome was said to have two equal populations, one in flesh and blood, the other in bronze and marble. This was almost literally true. The Forum was the center of Rome. It was the political and business meeting ground of the citizens. Situated in the valley between the seven hills of the city, it was the common property of the people of all the hills. So when anyone wanted to erect a statue or a gallows, a temple or a shop, he put it in the Forum. Naturally, the Forum became overcrowded.
The Forum Romanum was in the shape of an oblong, 690 feet long and 240 feet wide. It does not seem to be this large, however, since the space is so taken up by monuments.
In the beginning the Forum was the marshy battlefield of the early inhabitants of the Capitoline and Palatine Hills. When the ground was drained by great ditches it became under a united rule the most convenient place for political meetings, for business affairs, for the pageants of rich men’s funerals, for plays, and for gladiatorial games. For these purposes a central space, though but a small one was kept clear of buildings. Gradually even this space became filled with the ever growing crowd of statues and other honorary monuments.
Awnings were probably spread over this central space of the Forum, since square holes are found in the pavement which held masts on which the awnings could be suspended. Beneath the pavement also a network of passages was discovered. These passages were three feet below the surface, and eight feet high and five wide. They were probably used for scenic purposes when games and plays were given in the Forum.
The rostra stood in the Forum. This was a platform from which speakers addressed the people. It was decorated with the prows of captured ships. Thus, the platform was called the rostra, or beaks.
There is a story that one night in 362 A. D. a monstrous chasm opened in the Forum. The Romans were dumbfounded. The chasm must be closed before business could go on. The oracles said that the gulf would never close until Rome’s most valuable possession had been thrown into it. What was the most valuable possession of Rome? Some said one thing, some another. Then Marcus Curtius, a young man of noble family, announcing that nothing was more precious to Rome than her sons, leaped fully armed and on horseback into the chasm. The gulf closed immediately. Later the spot was covered by a marsh called Lake Curtius, and later still when the marsh had been drained, an inclosed space containing an altar marked the place.
Once the center of the civilized world, the heart of the Roman empire, the Forum is now but a mass of crumbling ruins; and the walls that long ago looked down upon streets crowded with the rulers of the world now see only the occasional tourist.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 45, SERIAL No. 46
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
THE COLOSSEUM, ROME
THE RUINS OF ROME
The Colosseum
FOUR
“While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand;
When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall.”
Thus ran the ancient prophecy made by two English pilgrims to Rome in the eighth century. And although only about one-third of the original Colosseum is left, Rome still stands; not in its former power and majesty, however. The Colosseum is the amphitheater where the Romans held gladiatorial fights. Later they added to the program the slaughter of Christians by wild beasts. A lion or tiger was starved for a week or so, and then turned loose on a crowd of naked Christians in the arena. These spectacles were a source of great amusement to the Romans.
Fifty thousand people could be seated in the Colosseum. The lowest seats were the most honorable, the upper galleries being occupied by the lower classes, where the seats were often free. An awning was stretched over the seats, and to provide further for the comfort of the audience jets of water cooled the air, and fragrant perfumes scented it.
The Colosseum was oval in shape, and had four tiers of seats, surrounding the arena. Arena means sand in Latin, and as the place where the contests took place was covered with sand to keep the gladiators from slipping in the blood, so it received this name. The arena is about 94 yards long by 54 yards wide. The podium—which was long ago removed—was a raised platform 12 feet high at the base of the seats, on which sat the emperor, the senators, and the vestal virgins. Each person on the platform had a thronelike seat. The emperor’s was raised above the others, and had a canopy over it.
When the Colosseum was dedicated in 80 A. D. by Emperor Titus there was a celebration that lasted almost one hundred days. Five thousand wild animals were slaughtered in the arena.
Before the Colosseum was built the gladiatorial contests were held in the Forum. Vespasian began the construction of the amphitheater in 72 A. D. The Flavian Amphitheater was the name first given to the building, from the family name, Flavium, of the emperors who built it.
Earthquakes destroyed the arena and podium in 442 and 580; but it was not until the reign of Justinian in the sixth century that the shedding of human blood ended. A bull fight was held in the building as late as 1332.
The Roman popes and princes used the Colosseum as a place from which to get building material. These barbarous nobles of the Middle Ages treated this historic building shamefully.
Passion Plays were given in the Colosseum in the seventeenth century. It was used as a manufacturing place for saltpeter in 1700. Half a century later Pope Benedict XIV consecrated the building to the memory of the Christian martyrs who had died there.
The chief characteristics of the Colosseum are strength and solidity. The historic memories that cluster round its walls, of mighty emperors and blood-thirsty mobs, of screams of death or triumph, of gorgeous pageants and heroic martyrdom, combine to render the Colosseum the most imposing ruin in the whole world.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 45, SERIAL No. 46
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
THE ARCH OF TITUS, ROME
THE RUINS OF ROME
The Arch of Titus
FIVE
Through tiers of crowded seats that flanked their line of march, Titus and Vespasian rode in their triumphal procession in 70 A. D. Jerusalem had been conquered, and the Temple burned and destroyed. This celebration was called the “Triumph,” which was given by Rome to all her successful generals on their return from campaigns. It had been a hard task for Titus to conquer rebellious Jerusalem. Oppression and extortion by the Roman rulers had risen to such a height that the Jews were driven at last into desperate resistance to the overwhelming power of Rome. Vespasian was sent by Emperor Nero to subdue them. All Galilee was soon subjugated, and only Jerusalem remained unconquered.
When Vespasian returned to Rome and became Emperor, he sent his son Titus to subdue Jerusalem. Titus arrived upon the heights near Jerusalem and began to besiege the city. He captured the first and second walls. Then he built a wall round the city, and soon had it in a state of famine.
At length all the city was captured but the Temple. Here the Jews made their last stand. Titus wished to save the Temple; but his soldiers set fire to it and plundered it. A terrible massacre of all the inhabitants of Jerusalem followed. Then the prisoners and spoils were borne to Rome.
The next year Titus and Vespasian had their Triumph. The Senate and other chief men led the procession. Then came the spoils, with persons bearing title boards or placards, from which the spectators might find out the history of all the objects that passed before them. There were silver, gold, and ivory in all kinds of forms, gems set and unset, tapestries of the rarest Babylonian embroidery; there were various foreign animals dressed in gorgeous trappings.
But what interested the spectators the most was the large, high platforms, on which were exhibited parts of the campaign,—models of cities, temples, fortresses, assaulted, captured, in ruins or in flames, representations of the hostile armies in all the different forms of war. Then came the models of captured ships. Priests with bulls for sacrifice followed.
Seven hundred Hebrew youths as prisoners marched next. Then came the spoils from the Temple of Jerusalem,—the Golden Table, the Golden Candlestick, and last of all the Book of the Law.
Emperor Vespasian, followed by Titus, each in a separate chariot, rode next in the procession, with Domitian, who was the younger son of Vespasian, and consul, on horseback. After them came the soldiers who had been in the war, crowned with laurel leaves and shouting songs of victory. Thus the triumphal procession went along the Sacred Way.
When they came to the Temple, Simon, the general of the Hebrews, was put to death, according to custom. The leader of the conquered army was always killed at the Triumph of the conquering general. The other prisoners were made either gladiators or slaves. After Simon had been put to death sacrifices were offered to the gods, and all departed to the waiting banquets.
The Arch of Titus was built on the Sacred Way to commemorate this Triumph. It was one of the earliest of those twenty-one arches with which Rome was once adorned. The exact date of erection is not known; but it must have been after the death of Titus, for on the ceiling of the vault of the arch Titus is represented as sitting astride an eagle. At the funeral of a Roman emperor an eagle was released, on whose back the soul of the emperor was supposed to mount to Heaven, there to dwell among the gods forever.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 45, SERIAL No. 46
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
THE TIBER AND HADRIAN’S TOMB, ROME
THE RUINS OF ROME
Hadrian’s Tomb
SIX
Emperor Hadrian was a great traveler. He spent the eight years from 119 to 127 A. D. in journeying round the Roman empire just to get acquainted with the state of the provinces. When he was in England he built the famous wall that extends from the Solway to the Tyne. He fully deserved the title “Father of his Country” which was given him on his return to Rome.
Hadrian was also a famous builder. In addition to the great Roman Wall in England he erected many beautiful and expensive structures in Athens, and a villa at Tivoli which was noted for its beauty. But his most famous building is Hadrian’s Tomb, now called Castle Sant’ Angelo, which was constructed in 130 A. D. The last vacant niche in the Tomb of Augustus was occupied, and so Hadrian determined to build one for himself and his successors, which should have no rival in the world. Hadrian died before it was finished; but Antoninus Pius, his successor, completed it and buried Hadrian there.
“Hadrian’s Tomb” is a large circular tower, 230 feet in diameter. It was originally built of Parian marble. Some time in the fifth century, however, it was converted into a fort, and when the Goths under Vitiges besieged it in 537 the defenders tore the statues from their pedestals and hurled them down upon the attackers. Two of these were found during the seventeenth century in the moat surrounding the tomb.
In 590 there was a great plague in Rome. Pope Gregory the Great was leading a procession to Saint Peter’s Cathedral to pray for deliverance from the pestilence, when it is said the Destroying Angel appeared on the summit of the Tomb of Hadrian. The angel was sheathing his sword to signify that the plague was stopped. Since that time the building has been known as the Castle Sant' Angelo.
In 610 Pope Boniface IV erected on the summit of the tomb the Chapel of St. Angelo inter Nubes in commemoration of this event. Several statues of the Archangel succeeded this. The present one was put there in 1743.
Marozia, daughter of Theodora, held the tomb as a fort in the tenth century, and had Pope John X suffocated in a dungeon. A few years later Pope Benedict VI met a similar fate at the hands of Crescenzio, son of Theodora.
In the latter part of the tenth century Crescentius, the consul, had a quarrel with the Pope and seized the fort. He held it bravely against Emperor Otto III who had marched into Rome in defense of the pope.
Emperor Hadrian was an able military leader, and a just and wise civil ruler. His full name was Publius Ælius Hadrianus, and he was born at Rome on January 24, 76 A. D. He was such an ardent student of Greek that he was nicknamed Græculus, the “Greek.” He served in the campaign against the Dacians under his uncle, Emperor Trajan. At the latter’s death he became emperor. Hadrian died at Baiæ on July 10, 138. His remains were carried to Puteoli, from which place they were afterward taken to Rome.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 45, SERIAL No. 46
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.