"Dum bene dives ager, dum rami pondere nutant;
Adferat in calatho rustica dona puer.
Rure suburbano poteris tibi dicere missa;
Illa vel in Sacra sint licet empta Via."
Ovid, Art. Aman. ii. 263.
At the foot of the hill are the remains of the bason and the brick cone of a fountain called Meta Sudans, where the gladiators used to wash. Seneca, who lived in this neighbourhood, complains (Epist. lvi.) of the noise which was made by a showman who blew his trumpet close to this fountain.
On the right the Via Triumphalis leads to the Via Appia, passing under the Arch of Constantine. The lower bas-reliefs upon this arch, which are crude and ill-designed, refer to the deeds of Constantine; but the upper, of fine workmanship, illustrate the life of Trajan, which has led some to imagine that the arch was originally erected in honour of Trajan, and afterwards appropriated by Constantine. They were, however, removed from an arch of Trajan (whose ruins existed in 1430[69]), and were appropriated by Constantine for his own arch.
"Constantin a enlevé à un arc de triomphe de Trajan les statues de prisonniers daces que l'on voit au sommet du sien. Ce vol a été puni au seizième siècle, car, dans ce qui semble un accès de folie, Lorenzino, le bizarre assassin d'Alexandre de Médicis a décapité toutes les statues qui surmontaient l'arche Constantin, moins une, la seule dont la tête soit antique. Heureusement on a dans les musées, à Rome et ailleurs, bon nombre de ces statues de captifs barbares avec le même costume, c'est-à-dire le pantalon et le bonnet, souvent les mains liées, dans une attitude de soumission morne, quelque fois avec une expression de sombre fierté, car l'art romain avait la noblesse de ne pas humilier les vaincus; il ne les représentait point à genoux, foulés aux pieds par leurs vainqueurs; on ne donnait pas à leurs traits étranges un aspect qu'on eût pu rendre hideux; on les plaçait sur le sommet des arcs de triomphe, debout, la tête baissée, l'air triste."
"'Summus tristis captivus in arcu.'"
Ampère, Emp. ii. 169.
The arch was further plundered by Clement VIII., who carried off one of its eight Corinthian columns to finish a chapel at the Lateran. They were formerly all of giallo-antico. But it is still the most striking and beautiful of the Roman arches.
"L'inscription gravée sur l'arc de Constantin est curieuse par le vague de l'expression en ce qui touche aux idées religieuses, par l'indécision calculée des termes dont se servait un sénat qui voulait éviter de se compromettre dans un sens comme dans l'autre. L'inscription porte que cet arc a été dédié a l'empereur parcequ'il a délivré la république d'un tyran (on dit encore la république!) par la grandeur de son âme et une inspiration de la Divinité, instinctu Divinitatis. Il parait même que ces mots ont été ajoutés après coup pour remplacer une formule peut-être plus explicitement païenne. Ce monument, qui célèbre le triomphe de Constantin, ne proclame donc pas encore nettement le triomphe du Christianisme. Comment s'en étonner, quand sur les monnaies de cet empereur on voit d'un côté le monogramme du Christ et l'autre l'effigie de Rome, qui était une divinité pour les païens?"—Ampère, Emp. ii. 355.
We now turn to the Coliseum, originally called The Flavian Amphitheatre. This vast building was begun in A.D. 72, upon the site of the reservoir of Nero, by the Emperor Vespasian, who built as far as the third row of arches, the last two rows being finished by Titus after his return from the conquest of Jerusalem. It is said that 12,000 captive Jews were employed in this work, as the Hebrews in building the Pyramids of Egypt, and that the external walls alone cost a sum equal to 17,000,000 francs. It consists of four stories, the first Doric, the second Ionic, the third and fourth Corinthian. Its circumference is 1641 feet, its length is 287, its width 182, its height 157. The entrance for the emperor was between two arches facing the Esquiline, where there is no cornice. Here there are remains of stucco decoration. On the opposite side was a similar entrance from the Palatine. Towards S. Gregorio has been discovered the subterranean passage in which the Emperor Commodus was near being assassinated. The numerous holes visible all over the exterior of the building were made in the middle ages, to extract the iron cramps, at that time of great value. The arena was surrounded by a wall sufficiently high to protect the spectators from the wild beasts, who were introduced by subterranean passages closed by huge gates, from the side towards the Cœlian. The podium contained the places of honour reserved for the Emperor and his family, the Senate, and the Vestal virgins. The places for the other spectators who entered by openings called vomitoria, were arranged in three stages (caveæ), separated by a gallery (præcinctio). The first stage for knights and tribunes, had 24 steps, the second (for the common people) 16, the third (for the soldiery) 10. The women, by order of the emperor, sate apart from the men, and married and unmarried men were also divided. The whole building was probably capable of containing 100,000 persons. At the top, on the exterior, may be seen the remains of the consoles which sustained the velarium which was drawn over the arena to shelter the spectators from the sun or rain. The arena could on occasions be filled with water for the sake of naval combats.
Nothing is known with certainty as to the architect of the Coliseum, though a tradition of the Church (founded on an inscription in the crypt of S. Martino al Monte), ascribes it to Gaudentius, a Christian martyr, who afterwards suffered on the spot.[70]
"The name of the architect to whom the great work of the Coliseum was entrusted has not come down to us. The ancients seem themselves to have regarded this name as a matter of little interest; nor, in fact, do they generally care to specify the authorship of their most illustrious buildings. The reason is obvious. The forms of ancient art in this department were almost wholly conventional, and the limits of design within which they were executed gave little room for the display of original taste and special character.... It is only in periods of eclecticism and renaissance, when the taste of the architect has wider scope, and may lead the eye instead of following it, that interest attaches to his personal merit. Thus it is that the Coliseum, the most conspicuous type of Roman civilisation, the monument which divides the admiration of strangers in modern Rome with St. Peter's itself, is nameless and parentless, while every stage in the construction of the great Christian temple, the creation of a modern revival, is appropriated with jealous care to its special claimants.