Entering through an avenue of cypresses, we arrive at the Odeum, the skeleton of which only remains; this was for musical performances. Following the path beyond the modern Casino, to the left, by the Nymphæum, then along the brink of the valley, we mount up to some chambers, formerly a reservoir from which the water poured in a cascade to the stream Peneas below. From the edge of this ruin we look down upon a valley, made in imitation of the Vale of Tempe. A stream runs through it, named, after the river in Thessaly, Peneas. On the opposite slope of the valley was the Latin Theatre. We now enter the Imperial Palace, with the ruins of the Temples of Diana and Venus adjoining; passing through which, at the farthest extremity, is the Temple of Castor and Pollux. Near this are some subterranean passages, called the Tartarus. Beyond were the Elysian Fields. Elysium, or the Elysian Fields, was the region where the souls of the dead were supposed to go to if they had been good. There, happiness was complete, and the pleasures were innocent and refined; the air was serene and temperate, the bowers ever green, and the meadows watered with perennial streams, and the birds continually warbled in the groves.
Tartarus was the region of punishment in the nether world of the ancients. On the farther side of Tartarus is the Roman Theatre; beyond was the Lyceum. Returning, we come upon the Academy. The Academy at Athens was an open meadow, given to the city by Academus, from whom it took its name. It was afterwards formed into a grove. It was the resort of Plato, and hence his disciples took the name of academic philosophers.
Beyond is the Serapeon of Canopus, with the Sacrarium of Jupiter Serapis at the end, built in imitation of the canal connecting Alexandria with Canopus, a city of Lower Egypt, twelve miles east of Alexandria, at the west or Canopic mouth of the Nile.
On the right are some remains of the Hippodrome; and towards the entrance of the Serapeon, the Baths. From here we reach the Stadium, where the foot races were held. We now come upon a lofty wall of opus reticulatum, nearly six hundred feet long. This was one of the walls of the Poecile Stoa, in imitation of the grand portico at Athens of that name, famed for its fresco-paintings of the battle of Marathon by Polygnotus, and as the seat of the school of Zeno the philosopher, who took the name Stoic from frequenting this portico. This portico was built on an artificial platform, and the wall can be traced all round; underneath are the Hundred Chambers of the Guards. From our right of the wall, we enter the Prytaneum, in imitation of the council hall of that name at Athens, where the fifty deputies of the republic lived and held office, each five weeks in turn. Through this we reach the Aquarium, a circular edifice with an octagonal platform in the centre, with openings for fountains and statues; to the left of this were the Greek and Latin Libraries.
Having now rambled over the extent of this famous villa, and picked up a memento of our visit, we may truly exclaim—"Sic transit gloria mundi."
The tramway back to Rome is taken from the end of the road leading from the villa.
PORTA ESQUILINÆ.
(Porta Maggiore.)
Here the Via Prænestina diverged from the Labicana; and Claudius, who was obliged to convey two new streams—the Aqua Claudia and the Anio Novus—over these roads, erected for this purpose a massive gateway, which spanned both roads at once with a double arch. This is the splendid monument afterwards taken into the Aurelian Wall, in the time of Honorius and Arcadius, and converted, by the erection of a mound in front, into a kind of bulwark. It now forms one of the city gates, under the name of the Porta Maggiore.