CHAPTER XIV.
IN THE CAMPUS MARTIUS.
S. Antonio dei Portoguesi—Torre della Scimia—S. Agostino—S. Apollinare—Palazzo Altemps—Sta. Maria dell' Anima—Sta. Maria della Pace—Palazzo del Governo Vecchio—Monte Giordano and Palazzo Gabrielli—Sta. Maria Nuova—Sta. Maria di Monserrato—S. Girolamo della Carità—Sta. Brigitta—S. Tommaso degl' Inglese—Palazzo Farnese—Sta. Maria della Morte—Palazzo Falconieri—Campo di Fiore—Palazzo Cancelleria—SS. Lorenzo e Damaso—Palazzo Linote—Palazzo Spada—Trinità dei Pellegrini—Sta. Maria in Monticelli—Palazzo Santa Croce—S. Carlo a Catinari—Theatre of Pompey—S. Andrea della Valle—Palazzo Vidoni—Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne—S. Pantaleone—Palazzo Braschi—Statue of Pasquin—Sant' Agnese—Piazza Navona—Palazzo Pamfili—S. Giacomo degli Spagnuoli—Palazzo Madama—S. Luigi dei Francesi—The Sapienza—S. Eustachio—Pantheon—Sta. Maria sopra Minerva—Il Piè die Marmo.
THE Campus Martius, now an intricate labyrinth of streets, occupying the wide space between the Corso and the Tiber, was not included within the walls of ancient Rome, but even to late imperial times continued to be covered with gardens and pleasure-grounds, interspersed with open spaces, which were used for the public exercises and amusements of the Roman youth.
"Tunc ego me memini ludos in gramine Campi
Aspicere, et didici, lubrice Tibri, tuos."
Ovid, Fast. vi. 237.
"Tot jam abiere dies, cum me, nec cura theatri,
Nec tetigit Campi, nec mea musa juvat."
Propert. ii. El. 13.
The vicinity of the Tiber afforded opportunities for practice in swimming.
"Quamvis non alius flectere equum sciens
Æque conspicitur gramine Martio."
Hor. iii. Od. 7.
"Altera gramineo spectabis Equiria campo,
Quem Tiberis curvis in latus urget aquis."
Ovid, Fast. iii. 519.
"Once, upon a raw and gusty day,
The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores,
Cæsar said to me, 'Dar'st thou, Cassius, now
Leap in with me into this angry flood,
And swim to yonder point?' Upon the word,
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in,
And bade him follow,—so, indeed, he did:
The torrent roared; and we did buffet it
With lusty sinews; throwing it aside,
And stemming it with hearts of controversy."
Shakspeare, Julius Cæsar.
It was only near the foot of the Capitol that any buildings were erected under the republic, and these only public offices; under the empire a few magnificent edifices were scattered here and there over the plain. In the time of Cicero, the Campus was quite uninhabited; it is supposed that the population were first attracted here when the aqueducts were cut during the Lombard invasion, which drove the inhabitants from the hills, and obliged them to seek a site where they could avail themselves of the Tiber.