BATHS OF AGRIPPA.
[View larger image.]

The houses built amidst the ruins of the Baths of Agrippa at the back of the Pantheon have been demolished, and part of a large hall has been exposed to view. Nothing that has been discovered is new to those who have studied the subject. It has long been known that these houses were built on the old walls and vaults of the Thermæ. In fact, the sacristy of the Pantheon was made out of a vaulted chamber, a floor being inserted about half-way above its base. Besides the vaults and walls now cleared, pavements, pipes, and fragments of pavonazzetto columns have been found; also an earthenware jar containing 1,200 debased silver coins—provincial money of the thirteenth century, with the motto, Roma caput mundi. Portions of a beautiful frieze, formed with tridents, shells, dolphins, and acanthus leaves, blended harmoniously together, were found, and skilfully replaced in their ancient position. It is almost impossible to say for what purpose this hall was used, as nearly the whole of these baths are buried under the surrounding houses; but judging from its relative position to the circular hall, and from the plans of other thermæ, it was most probably the tepidarium. The hall was 150 feet long by 70 feet wide. Oriental marbles decorated the floor and walls, the latter being relieved with niches containing statues. Through the central apse was the original entry into the circular hall behind. The wall now exposed to view has a large apse in the centre, with the platform, on which stood a statue; and on either side are three niches for statues. Agrippa served his first consulship in A.U.C. 717. He was ædile in 719–20. In this service he built his baths. (Dion Cassius, in "Augustus;" Pliny, xxxvi. 24.) In 726 he was consul for the second time. In 727 he was consul for the third time, when the circular hall of his baths was turned into a temple, as we are informed by the inscription in situ.

These were the first large baths erected in Rome. Only small fragments of them remain, built into the houses at the back of the Pantheon, and so difficult to see. In the Via dell' Arco della Ciambella, some little distance back, are the remains of a circular hall.

The Via Minerva, to the left of the Pantheon, leads to the Piazza Minerva.

THE OBELISK,

standing upon an elephant, stood, with the one in the square of the Pantheon, in front of the Temple of Isis. The elephant upon which it stands is the work of Ercole Perrata, and of course had nothing to do originally with the obelisk. On the left is the

CHURCH OF S. MARIA SOPRA MINERVA,

so named from being on the site of the Temple of Minerva dedicated by Pompey. It is one of the few Gothic churches in Rome.

The interior is highly decorated in the Gothic style. Second chapel on right, tomb of Princess Colonna. Fourth, the Chapel of the Annunciation. Fifth, Aldobrandini Chapel. The Caraffa Chapel contains a slab to a son of the late Bishop of Winchester, who joined the Roman Catholic Church, and died at Albano in 1857. The pictures of the Annunciation over the altar, the S. Thomas, and the Assumption are fine.

The roof represents four sibyls surrounded by angels, by Raffaelino del Garbo. The Altieri Chapel contains an altar-piece by C. Maratta. Next is the tomb of Guillaume Durand, with a very fine mosaic. Interesting to English visitors is the tomb of Cardinal Howard, Great Almoner of England, who died at Rome in 1694. The body of S. Catherine of Sienna reposes beneath the high altar. On the right is Obicci's statue of S. John; and on the left Michael Angelo's celebrated statue of the Saviour (the bronze drapery is an addition). In the sacristy is a chapel formed from the walls of the room in which S. Catherine died (1380). The festivals of S. Thomas Aquinas (March 7th) and of the Annunciation (March 25th) are celebrated here with great ceremony.