Walks in Rome

by Augustus J. C. Hare

Under Nero—	St. Peter, crucified. St. Paul, beheaded. St. Vitale, buried alive. St. Thecla, tossed by a bull. St. Gervase, beaten to death. SS. Protasius, Processus, and Martinianus, beheaded. St. Faustus and others, clothed in skins of beasts and torn to pieces by dogs.
Under Domitian—	St. John, boiled in oil (which he survived) at the Porta Latina. St. Cletus, Pope, beheaded. St. Denis, beheaded (and carrying his head). St. Domitilla, roasted alive. SS. Nereus and Achilles, beheaded.
Under Trajan—	St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, eaten by lions in the Coliseum. St. Clement, Pope, tied to an anchor and thrown into the sea. St. Simon, Bishop of Jerusalem, crucified.
Under Hadrian—	St. Eustachio, his wife Theophista, and his childrenAgapita and Theophista, burnt in a brazen bull before the Coliseum. St. Alexander, Pope, beheaded.
Under Antoninus-Pius and Marcus Aurelius—	St. Sinforosa, drowned, and her seven sons martyred in various ways. St. Pius, Pope, beheaded. St. Felicitas and her seven sons martyred in various ways. St. Justus, beheaded. St. Margaret, stretched on a rack, and torn to pieces with iron forks.
Under Antoninus and Verus—	St. Blandina, tossed by a bull, in a net. St. Attalus, roasted on red-hot chair. St. Pothicus and others, burnt alive.
Under Septimius Severus and Caracalla—	SS. Perpetua and Felicitas, torn to pieces by lions in the Coliseum. SS. Victor and Zephyrinus, Leonida and Basil, beheaded. St. Alexandrina, covered with boiling pitch.
Under Alexander Severus—	St. Calixtus, Pope, thrown into a well with a stone round his neck. St. Calepodius, dragged through Rome by wild horses, and thrown into the Tiber. St. Martina, torn with iron forks. St. Cecilia, who, failing to be suffocated with hot water, was stabbed in the throat. St. Urban the Pope, Tibertius, Valerianus, and Maximus, beheaded.
Under Valerianus and Gallienus—	St. Pontianus, Pope, beheaded in Sardinia. St. Agatha, her breasts cut off. SS. Fabian and Cornelius, Popes, and St. Cyprian of Carthage, beheaded. St. Tryphon, burnt. SS. Abdon and Sennen, torn by lions. St. Apollonia, burnt, after all her teeth were pulled out. St. Stephen, Pope, burnt in his episcopal chair. St. Cointha, torn to pieces. St. Sixtus, Pope, killed with the sword. St. Venantius, thrown from a wall. St. Laurence the deacon, roasted on a gridiron. St. Hippolytus, torn by wild horses. SS. Rufina and Semula, drowned in the Tiber. SS. Protus and Hiacinthus, beheaded.
Under Claudius II.—	Three hundred Christians, burnt in a furnace. St. Tertullian, burnt with hot irons. St. Nemesius, beheaded. St. Sempronius, Olympius, and Theodulus, burnt. St. Marius, hung, with a huge weight tied to his feet. St. Martha, and her children, martyred in different ways. SS. Cyprian and Justinian, boiled. St. Valentine, killed with the sword.
Under Aurelian and Numerianus—	St. Agapitus (aged 15), hung head downwards over a pan of burning charcoal. Inscribed above are these words from Wisdom, 'Properavit ut educeret illum a seductionibus et iniquitatibus gentis suæ.'St. Christina, transfixed through the heart. St. Columba, burnt. SS. Chrysanthus and Daria, buried alive.
Under Diocletian and Maximianus—	St. Agnes, bound to a stake, afterwards beheaded. St. Caius, Pope, beheaded. St. Emerantia, stoned to death. Nearly the whole population of Nicomedia martyred in different ways. St. Erasmus, laid in a coffin, into which boiling lead was poured. St. Blaise, bound to a column, and torn to pieces. St. Barbara, burnt with hot irons. St. Eustrathius and his companions, martyred in different ways. St. Vincent, burnt on a gridiron. SS. Primus and Felicianus, torn by lions. St. Anastasia, thrown from a rock?SS. Quattro Incoronati, martyred in various ways. SS. Peter and Marcellinus, beheaded. St. Boniface, placed in a dungeon full of boiling pitch. St. Lucia, shut up in a well full of serpents. St. Euphemia, run through with a sword. SS. Vitus, Modestus, and Crescentius, boiled alive. St. Sebastian, shot with arrows (which he survived). SS. Cosmo and Damian, Pantaleon, Saturninus, Susanna, Gornius, Adrian, and others, in different ways.
Under Maxentius—	St. Catherine of Alexandria, and others, broken on the wheel. SS. Faustina and Porfirius, burnt with a company of soldiers. St. Marcellus, Pope, died worn out by persecution.
Under Maximinus and Licinius—	St. Simon and 1600 citizens cut into fragments. St. Peter, Bishop of Alexandra, and forty soldiers, left to die, up to their waists in a frozen lake.
Under Julian the Apostate—º	SS. John and Paul, beheaded. St. Artemius, crushed between two stones. St. Pigmenius, drowned in the Tiber. St. Bibiana, flogged to death, and thrown for food to dogs in the Forum.

The last picture represents the reunion of eminent martyrs (in which the Roman Church includes English sufferers under Elizabeth), and above is inscribed this verse from Isaiah xxv., "Laudabit populus fortis, civitas gentium robustarum."

"Au-dessus du tableau de la Crucifixion se trouve cette inscription: 'Roi glorieux des martyrs, s'il donne sa vie pour racheter la péché, il verra une postérité sans fin.' Et quelle postérité! Hommes, femmes, vieillards, jeunes hommes, jeunes filles, enfants! Comme tous accourent, comme tous savent mourir."—Une Chrétienne à Rome.

"Les païens avaient divinisé la vie, les chrétiens divinisèrent la mort."—Madame de Stael.

"S. Stefano Rotondo exhibits, in a series of pictures all round the church, the martyrdoms of the Christians in the so-called persecutions, with a general picture of the most eminent martyrs since the triumph of Christianity. No doubt many of the particular stories thus painted will bear no critical examination; it is likely enough, too, that Gibbon has truly accused the general statements of exaggeration. But this is a thankless labour, such as Lingard and others have undertaken with regard to the St. Bartholomew massacre, and the Irish massacre of 1642. Divide the sum total of reported martyrs by twenty,—by fifty, if you will,—but after all you have a number of persons of all ages and sexes suffering cruel torments and death for conscience' sake and for Christ's, and by their sufferings manifestly, with God's blessing, ensuring the triumph of Christ's gospel. Neither do I think that we consider the excellence of this martyr-spirit half enough. I do not think pleasure is a sin: the stoics of old, and the ascetic Christians since, who have said so (see the answers of that excellent man, Pope Gregory the Great, to Augustine's questions, as given at length by Bede), have, in saying so, outstepped the simplicity and wisdom of Christian truth. But, though pleasure is not a sin, yet surely the contemplation of suffering for Christ's sake is a thing most needful to us in our days, from whom, in our daily life, suffering seems so far removed. And, as God's grace enabled rich and delicate persons, women, and even children, to endure all extremities of pain and reproach in times past, so there is the same grace no less mighty now, and if we do not close ourselves against it, it might in us be no less glorified in a time of trial. And that such times of trial will come, my children, in your times, if not in mine, I do believe fully, both from the teaching of man's wisdom and of God's. And therefore pictures of martyrdom are, I think, very wholesome—not to be sneered at, nor yet to be looked on as a mere excitement,—but as a sober reminder to us of what Satan can do to hurt, and what God's grace can enable the weakest of His people to bear. Neither should we forget those who, by their sufferings, were more than conquerors, not for themselves only, but for us, in securing to us the safe and triumphant existence of Christ's blessed faith—in securing to us the possibility, nay, the actual enjoyment, had it not been for the Antichrist of the priesthood—of Christ's holy and glorious ἑκκλησια, the congregation and commonwealth of Christ's people."—Arnold's Letters.

"On croit que l'église de Saint-Etienne-le-Rond est bâtie sur l'emplacement du Macellum Augusti. S'il en est ainsi, les supplices des martyrs, hideusement représentés sur les murs de cette église, rappellent ce qu'elle a remplacé."—Ampère, Emp. i. 270.

The first chapel on the left, dedicated to SS. Primus and Felicianus, contains some delicate small mosaics.

"The mosaics of the small altar of S. Stefano Rotondo, are of A.D. 642—649. A brilliantly-decorated cross is represented between two standing figures of St. Primus and St. Felicianus. On the upper end of the cross (very tastefully introduced) appears a small head of Christ with a nimbus, over which the hand of the Father is extended in benediction."—Kugler.

In the next chapel is a very beautiful tomb of Bernardino Capella, Canon of St. Peter's, who died 1524.

In a small house, which formerly stood among the gardens in this neighbourhood, Palestrina lived and wrote.