The Palazzo Barberini, built by Urban VIII., is a large and magnificent structure, but chiefly notable for a small picture-gallery, the gems of which are Raphael’s Fornarina, and Guido’s Beatrice Cenci. The library contains seven thousand manuscripts, many of which are rare.
Villa Medici (ma´de-che), was built in 1540, south of the Pincio, for Cardinal Ricci. About 1600 it came into the possession of the Medici family, and afterward into that of the grand dukes of Tuscany. Galileo was confined there 1630-1633. The French Academy of Art, founded by Louis XIV., was transferred to it in 1801, and it has a fine collection of casts.
Palaces of the Emperors.—On the western side of the Forum Romanum rises the Palatine Hill, its summit covered with the substructures of the Palaces of the Emperors, the Houses of Augustus, of Tiberius, of Livia, of Caligula, of Domitian, and of Hadrian. Most magnificent of all is the Palace of Septimius Severus, rising in seven stages of massive masonry, which form a southern extension of the Palatine Hill.
Besides these imperial palaces, the Palatine included a magnificent Stadium, the most perfect in existence, imperial reception halls, several temples, with gardens, baths, barracks for soldiers, and a basilica or hall of justice, in which St. Paul must have pleaded before the emperor.
The Golden House of Nero, built on the opposite side of the Forum, and occupying the greater portion of the Oppian Hill, was demolished to make room for the Colosseum and the Baths of Titus.
The Coliseum (or Colosseum), originally called the Flavian Amphitheatre, was begun by Vespasian in A. D. 72, and dedicated by Titus eight years later. It was built for gladiatorial exhibitions and for the combats of wild beasts. It is the largest structure of the kind ever built, being capable of seating from forty to fifty thousand spectators. Though scarcely a third of the [517] original edifice remains, it is by far the most imposing monument of antiquity that the Imperial City has to show.
The Pantheon is the most perfect of the ancient buildings in Rome. It was built B. C. 27 by M. Agrippa, and restored by Septimius Severus and Caracalla about A. D. 202, and has suffered much since. The vast round walls of brick, twenty feet thick, were once covered with marble. The portico (now below, but once above, the square) has sixteen huge monolithic columns of Oriental granite, thirty-nine feet high, with Corinthian capitals of famed beauty. Statues of Augustus and Agrippa once stood here. The circular interior is very impressive, and is lighted from a place twenty-eight feet across in the center of the dome, open to the sky.
This unrivalled dome is one hundred and forty feet high and one hundred and forty feet across. The gilded bronze roof-tiles were carried to Constantinople in 655; and all the other bronzes were used in making cannon for the citadel and the canopy in St. Peter’s. The seven niches in which statues of the gods stood are now occupied by altars. Raphael is buried here, near his betrothed, Cardinal Bibiena’s niece; and here is the tomb of King Victor Emmanuel of Italy.
The Capitol, which is one hundred and sixty feet above the sea level and is best approached by the grand staircase known as La Cordonnata. At its foot are two lions of Egyptian porphyry; at its head the ancient colossal statues of Castor and Pollux. Beyond these on either side are the sculptures misnamed “the Trophies of Marius” and the statues of Constantine and his son from the Baths of Constantine on the Quirinal. The open space here is the Piazza del Campidoglio, the ancient Intermontium, where Brutus harangued the people after the murder of Cæsar. In the center is the celebrated statue of Marcus Aurelius, “the only perfect ancient equestrian statue in existence.” It owes its preservation to the fact that it was long supposed to be a statue of Constantine. On the right is the Palace of the Conservatori, on the left the Museum of the Capitol, both designed by Michaelangelo; between the two, occupying the third side of the square, is the Palace of the Senator, on the site of the ancient Tabularium. The fountain at the foot of the stairs is adorned with statues of river-gods, the Tiber and the Nile. The tower contains the great bell which is rung only to announce the opening of the carnival or the death of a pope.
The Capitoline Museum contains some of the most famous sculptures extant, as the Dying Gladiator, the Venus of the Capitol, the Faun of Praxiteles, the Antinous, etc. There is also the rich collection of busts and statues of Roman emperors and empresses, statesmen, philosophers, etc., “perhaps the most interesting portrait gallery in the world.”