From Pole to Pole: A Book for Young People

by Sven Anders Hedin

At one time we are like pilgrims in the fine Church of St. Peter; at another we are strolling under the triumphal arch of Titus, erected in remembrance of the destruction of Jerusalem in the year A.D. 70.

The largest and grandest ruin in Rome is the Colosseum (Plate XXVI.), an amphitheatre which was built by the two Emperors, Vespasian and Titus, and which was finished eighty years after the birth of Christ. The outside walls are nearly 160 feet high. The tiers of benches, which could accommodate 85,000 spectators, were divided into four blocks, of which the outermost and highest was set apart for freedmen and slaves with their women. The tickets were of ivory, and indicated the different places so clearly that every one could easily find his way in the huge passages, colonnades, and staircases. The benches were covered with marble, and many statues of the same material adorned the upper walls of the amphitheatre. The spectacles were usually held in the daytime, and to abate the heat of the sun immense silken awnings were stretched over the arena and the auditorium. When the theatre was full, it presented a scene of dazzling splendour. In the best places sat senators in purple-bordered togas, the priests of the various temples, the Vestal virgins in black veils, warriors in gold-embroidered uniforms. There sat Roman citizens in white or coloured togas, bareheaded, beardless, and closely cropped, eagerly talking in a language as euphonious as French and Italian. All strangers who were staying in Rome were there, ambassadors from all the known countries of the world, statesmen, merchants, and travellers from Germany and Gaul, from Syria, Greece, and Egypt.

A circus or theatre of our day is a toy compared to the Colosseum. The old Romans were masters in the arrangement of spectacles to satisfy the rude cravings of the masses. Woods and rocks were set up, in which bloody contests were fought, and where gladiators hunted lions and tigers with spears. The immense show-ground could be quickly filled with water, and on the artificial lake deadly sea battles were fought; and the bodies of the slain and drowned lying on the bottom were invisible when the water was dyed red with blood. The arena could be drained at once by ingenious channels, slaves dragged out the corpses through the gate of the Goddess of Death, and the theatre was made ready for the night performance. Then the arena was lighted up with huge torches and fires, and troops of Christians were crucified in long rows or thrown to the lions and bears. When a Roman emperor celebrated the thousandth anniversary of the founding of Rome, two thousand gladiators appeared in the Colosseum, thirty-two elephants, and numbers of wild animals.

Not far from the Colosseum begins one of the oldest and most famous roads ever trodden by the foot of man—the Appian Way. Here emperors and generals marched into Rome after successful wars; here their remains were carried out to be burned on pyres and deposited in urns in mausoleums and tombs. Here the Christians came out at night in silent ranks to consign the remains of their co-religionists, torn to pieces in the arena, to the catacombs of underground Rome. Here also St. Paul made his entry into Rome, escorted by troops of Christians, as recorded in the last chapter of the Acts of the Apostles; and to-day we find on this road a small chapel which is called "Whither goest thou?" (Quo vadis?) at the point in the road where Peter saw his vision.

Pompeii

From Rome we go on to Naples, where to the east the regular volcanic cone of Vesuvius rears itself like a fire-breathing dragon over the bay, and where towns, villages, and white villas stand as thick on the shore as beads on a rosary. Our time is short; we drive rapidly through the lava-paved streets of Naples, and cannot feast our eyes long enough with the sight of these fine dark men in their motley dirty garments, and cannot hear enough of their melodious songs in honour of delightful Naples. Their warm affection for the famous city is quite natural, and one of their sayings, "See Naples and die," implies that life is worthless to any one who has not been there.

MAP SHOWING JOURNEY FROM PARIS TO ALEXANDRIA.

During our wanderings we come to the National Museum, and there we are lost to everything outside. There we forget the bustling life of the streets, the blue bay and the green gardens; for here we are in the presence of antiquity—an immense collection of artistic objects, statues, and paintings from Pompeii.

In the sixth century B.C. Pompeii was founded at the southern foot of Vesuvius, not far from the shore of the bay. About eighty years before our era Pompeii came under the rule of Rome, and during the succeeding 150 years it was changed into a genuine Roman town in all respects—in style of building, language, trade, and manner of life. A wall with towers enclosed this collection of streets and houses, and at night the eight town gates were closed and shut in 20,000 inhabitants. In its principal square, a place of popular assemblies and festivals, stood the Temple of Jupiter among porticoes, arcades, and rows of marble statues. In another square theatres were erected, and there also stood an old Greek temple.