The Via S. Niccolo in Tolentino leads by the handsome Church of that name, from the Piazza Barberini to the railway station. In this street are the hotels "Costanzi" and "Del Globo."
Parallel with, and behind this, the Via S. Basilio runs up the hill-side. At the top of this street is the entrance of the Villa Massimo Rignano, containing some fine palm-trees. This site, with the ridge of the opposite hill, and the valley between, was once occupied by the Gardens of Sallust (Horti Pretiosissimi), purchased for the emperors after the death of the historian, and a favourite residence of Vespasian, Nerva, and especially of Aurelian. Some vaulted halls under the cliff of the opposite hill, and a circular ruin surrounded by niches, are the only remains of the many fine buildings which once existed here, and which comprised a palace, baths, and the portico called Milliarensis, 1000 feet long. These edifices are known to have been ruined when Rome was taken by the Goths under Alaric (410), who entered at the neighbouring Porta Salara. The obelisk now in front of the Trinità di Monti, was removed from hence by Pius VI. The picturesque old casino of the Barberini, which occupied the most prominent position in the gardens, was pulled down in 1869, to make way for a house belonging to Spithover the librarian. The hill-side is supported by long picturesque buttresses, beneath which are remains of the huge masonry of Servius Tullius, whose Agger may be traced on the ridge of the hill running towards the present railway station. Part of these grounds are supposed to have formed the Campus Sceleratus, where the vestal virgins suffered who had broken their vows of chastity.
"When condemned by the college of pontifices, the vestal was stripped of her vittæ and other badges of office, was scourged, was attired like a corpse, placed in a close litter, and borne through the forum, attended by her weeping kindred with all the ceremonies of a real funeral, to the Campus Sceleratus, within the city walls, close to the Colline gate. There a small vault underground had been previously prepared, containing a couch, a lamp, and a table with a little food. The Pontifex Maximus, having lifted up his hands to heaven and uttered a secret prayer, opened the litter, led forth the culprit, and placing her on the steps of the ladder which gave access to the subterranean cell, delivered her over to the common executioner and his assistants, who conducted her down, drew up the ladder, and having filled the pit with earth until the surface was level with the surrounding ground, left her to perish deprived of all the tributes of respect usually paid to the spirits of the departed. In every case the paramour was publicly scourged to death in the forum."—Smith's Dict. of Antiquities.
"A Vignaiuolo showed us in the Gardens of Sallust a hole, through which he said those vestal virgins were put who had violated their vows of chastity. While we were listening to their story, some pretty Contadini came up to us attended by their rustic swains, and after looking into the hole, pitied the vestal virgins—'Poverine,' shrugged their shoulders, and laughing, thanked their stars and the Madonna, that poor Fanciulle were not buried alive for such things now-a-days."—Eaton's Rome.
A turn in the road now leads to the gate of the beautiful Villa Ludovisi, to which it has been very difficult to obtain admittance since the Sardinian occupation. The excellent proprietors, the Duke and Duchess Sora, have lived at Foligno in complete seclusion, since the change of government.
The villa was built early in the last century by Cardinal Ludovisi, nephew of Gregory XV., from whom it descended to the Prince of Piombino, father of Duke Sora. The grounds, which are of an extent extraordinary when considered as being within the walls of a capital, were laid out by Le Nôtre, and are in the stiff French style of high clipped hedges, and avenues adorned with vases and sarcophagi. Near the entrance is a pretty fountain shaded by a huge plane-tree; the Quirinal is seen in the distance.
To the right of the entrance is the principal casino of sculptures, a very beautiful collection (catalogues on the spot). Especially remarkable are,—the grand colossal head, known as the "Ludovisi Juno" (41);
"A Rome, une Junon surpasse toutes les autres par son aspect et rappelle la Junon de Polyclète par sa majesté: c'est la célèbre Junon Ludovisi que Goethe admirait tant, et devant laquelle dans un accès de dévotion païenne,—seul genre de dévotion qu'il ait connu à Rome,—il faisait, nous dit-il, sa prière du matin.
"Cette tête colossale de Junon offre bien les caractères de la sculpture de Polyclète; la gravité, la grandeur, la dignité; mais ainsi que dans d'autres Junons qu'on peut supposer avoir été sculptées à Rome, l'imitateur de Polyclète, on doit le croire, adoucit la sévérité, je dirai presque la dureté de l'original, telle qu'elle se montre sur les médailles d'Argos, et celles d'Elis."—Ampère, Hist. Romaine, iii. 264.
"No words can give a true impression of the colossal head of Juno in the Villa Ludovisi: it is like a song of Homer."—Goethe.