ROME enjoy special privileges in the Vatican Library and museums and at all great church functions. There is also an American school of classical studies, under the auspices of the Institute of Archæology, whose work consists of archæo logical research and study, and whose investigations often lead the students as far as Greece or Egypt, accompanied by the faculty. The Irish College is the oldest in Rome. The Vatican Library - Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana-possesses more than 250,000 volumes and 34,000 manuscripts. Its priceless treasure is the Codex Vaticanus, containing all of the Bible as far as Hebrews ix, 14. Scholars regard it as probably the oldest vellum manuscript in existence. The Codex was entered in the first catalogue of the library, dated 1475. The most recent significant acquisition was the Biblioteca Barberiniana, at a cost of $100,000. This library is nominally in the charge of a cardinal, but the actual administration is by an under librarian and a prefect. The largest collection-more than 350,000 books and 6,200 manuscripts is the Biblioteca Vittorio Emanuele, in the Collegio Romano. It was formed in 1871 of the libraries of the Jesuits and suppressed convents, to which large additions are made annually. The Biblioteca Alessandrina, in the Università della Sapienza, possesses 160,000 volumes, the Biblioteca Casanatense, in the monastery adjoining S. Maria sopra Minerva, 112,000, and the Biblioteca Angelica, in Sant Agostina, 80,000. A half dozen private libraries are open to the public. Palaces. It is probably true, as claimed, that Roman palaces are unequaled elsewhere in the world for spaciousness and splendor. Their lofty portals, broad marble stairways, and great halls are matters of wonder. The description by Gibbon applies to-day: "The most costly monuments of elegance and servitude, the perfect arts of architecture, painting and sculpture have been prostituted in their services, and their galleries and gardens decorated with the most precious works of antiquity which taste and vanity have prompted them to collect." The Palazzo Barberini, on the Quirinal, was built by Urban VIII, almost wholly from materials taken from ancient buildings. In its small but excellent collection is the 'Beatrice Cenci' by Guido Reni - also valuable manuscript and some literary curiosities; the Palazzo Colonna near the centre of the city; the Palazzo Corsini in the Trastevere, once the residence of Queen Christina of Sweden, and containing precious manuscripts; the Palazzo Farnese, near the Tiber, was inherited by the kings of Naples, but now belongs to the French government, and is occupied by the ambassador. The Spada Palace is one of the finest examples of the late Renaissance; the Palace Rospigliosi, near the Palace of the Quirinal, contains valuable art treasures. On the ceiling of a casino in its gardens is the beautiful fresco of the 'Aurora of Guidothis is now the residence of the French Ambassador to the Pope; the Palazzo di Venezia is adjacent to the principal Jesuit church, Il Gesù. In the Corso Vittorio Emanuele is the splendid Palazzo della Cancelleria, the single palace in the city which the Pope is permitted to own. On a part of the site of the theatre of Pompey is the Palazzo Pio, and southwest of it the fine 16th century Palazzo Farnese. 661 Ancient Rome.- Counseled by the gods. the Greeks conquered Troy. Eneas, carrying his father on his shoulders and leading his son Ascanius, fled, and, guided by his mother Venus, reached Latium. In time Ascanium built a city on a hill, which he called Alba Longa, and his descendants reigned there as kings for 300 years, with all the Latin towns as vassals. But one of his descendants - Procas, king of Alba-dying, left two sons who quarreled over the throne. Amulius, the younger, seized the power, and made his brother Numitor's daughter, Rhea Silvia, a Vestal to avoid the birth of a claimant to the throne. The gods decreed otherwise. She was loved of Mars and bore twins, which Amulius the king ordered to be thrown into the Tiber. They were saved, and suckled by a wolf until they came under the care of Acca Laurentia, wife of the shepherd Faustulus, who reared them. In time they slew the usurping king, placed their grandfather Numitor on the throne, and went away from Alba to build a new city on one of the seven hills by the Tiber. Being twins, neither had the right of primogeniture, and a quarrel ensued over the naming and the governing of the city to be. They left the decision to the sacred birds, and awaited a sign, Romulus (q.v.) on the Palatine Hill and Remus on the Aventine. Remus saw the vultures first- six of them; but Romulus saw 12. Accordingly Romulus built the city, named it Rome for himself, drew a furrow around it with the sacred plow, and beside the furrow built a wall and dug a trench. Remus ridiculed his defenses, and leaped over the wall and the trench to show that the town might easily be taken. Romulus slew him, saying: "So be it with anyone who dares to cross these walls." And so Rome was founded 753 years before the birth of Christ. These stories of the founding of the Eternal Niebuhr, Mommsen and their successors have City, once given a certain value as history, dismissed to the limbo of myths that have no claim on the credulity of seekers after truth. Even Dionysius (i, 29) reported the skepticism of authorities before his day who claimed that there existed on the Palatine Hill, previous to the time of Romulus, a Siculian, Pelasgian or Tyrrhenian town whose name was probably Roma. And Microbius (Saturn iii. 9) avers that it was the belief of the Romans themselves that Rome, the city's name, was not Latin and that its Latin name was kept a sacred secret. Whenever and however Rome had its beginning, its inception was on the Palatine Hill, the centre of a group of eminences of slight elevation on the left bank of the Tiber. The Palatine was not a large stage for so vast a drama of world history as developed there, its circumference being less than a mile and its elevation above the Tiber but little more than a hundred feet. The area of the hill is less than a 20th of that of Central Park, N. Y. It was the home of the Ramnes, who were regarded as the original Romans; a tribe of uncertain origin, but probably of the Opican stock. The form of the so-called city of Romulus-that of a trapezium-forced upon it by the contour of the hill, procured for it the name Roma Quadrata. This early city was enclosed by the wall credited to Romulus, which began on the western edge of the Palatine opposite the S. Giorgio in Velabro, ran thence southward in such wise as to enclose the site of the church of S. Anastasia and the declivity of the valley of the Cerche under the southern slope of the Palatine, along the eastern edge of the Palatine opposite the Cælian Hill, then along the Sacra Via close to the Arch of Titus to the Forum Romanum near S. Marie Liberatrice, and thence to the beginning. Within this enclosure were the temples of the gods and the homes of the patricians; the commons lived beyond the walls with only incidental protection from the fortress within. There was little room for growth. Imperial expansion began with Augustus, who lived in the house of Hortensius until it was burned. Then the Romans, building him a palace worthy of his state- - it covered the sites of the houses of Cicero, Hortensius, Catiline and Clodius — really began the "Palace of the Cæsars," which spread over the entire hill, and, before the day of its decline, extended beyond the Romulan wall to two other hills, the Cælian and the Esquiline. Tiberius extended the palace toward the edge of the hill above Velabrum (the riverside marsh), Caligula toward the Forum Romanum, connecting it with the capitol by a bridge, and converted the temple of Castor and Pollux into a vestibule for it. Nero built it toward the Colosseum and filled the valley between the Cælian and the Palatine with the over-grown structure. The Cælian Hill, southeast of the Palatine, was inhabited by the Luceres, a tribe of supposed Greek origin. It was the site of the Campus Martialis, the playground of Rome whenever the Campus Martius was flooded by the Tiber. It is more than three times the size of the Palatine, and, because it was covered with oaks a part of which made the sacred wood of the Camena-it was known as Mons Querquetulanus. The Cælian figures, in the history of Rome, less than the other hills. Originally the home of a dense population, it was later long given up to the monks of the Camaldolese, Passionist and Redemptorist orders and the Augustinian nuns of the Incoronati. New streets have now been opened and settled. The Esquiline, Hill of the Beech,» a tree sacred to Jove, is directly north of the Cælian across the ancient Subura. It has two elevations or summits rising from a common plain -one summit, known as the Oppius, now occupied by the churches S. Pietro in Vincoli and S. Martino al Monte, and the other as the Cipius, now the site of S. Mary Major's. It is the largest of the Roman hills. Temples dedicated to Fever (near S. Maria Maggiore), Juno Mephitis (near a malarial pool), and to Venus Libitina for the registration of deaths, bear testimony to the insalubrity of the Esquiline. On the slope behind the Forum was the fashionable quarter called the Carinæ, on the site of the present Via del Colosseo. Near here the Senate sat occasionally in the Temple of Tullius. Pompey's home was here; and near this patrician quarter of the hill was the already mentioned Subura in the valley formed by the convergence of the Esquiline, the Quirinal and the Viminal- the plebeian quarter, to this day the scene of a crowded population. Virgil lived on the Esquiline, Maecenas, patron of Augustan poets, had his home where the baths of Titus stood later. To-day only the northern side of the hill is inhabited; the southern is covered with vineyards and gardens and ruins. The Capitoline, the smallest of the seven hills, is less than five minutes from the Palatine, in a northwesterly direction. It had but one building devoted to secular affairs, the record office (Tabularium), but many pagan temples. It was the home of Saturn, the predecessor of Jupiter in the city's legendary story, and was called successively Saturnium, Mons Tarpeius and Capitolium, or Mons Capitolinus, the Hill of the Skull. There were two summits; one the citadel or Arx, the other the site of the earliest temple mentioned by any classic author -that of Jupiter Capitolinus, built under Tarquinius Superbus, 535 B.C., with money taken from the Volscians in war. This sumptuous fane had peculiar claims on the veneration of Roman citizens-it was citadel and shrine combined. The Sybilline books were preserved there. There both Titus and Vespasian celebrated their triumph over the fall of Jerusalem. It was later robbed of its treasures during invasions of the Vandals. Near it stood the temple of Fides and the twin temples of Mars and Venus Erycina. The temple of Jupiter Tonans was built by Augustus; the temple of Honor and Virtue by Marius in 103 B.C., with spoils taken in the Cimbric wars. There were still other notable temples, and the Altar of Jupiter Pistor, commemorating the stratagem of the Romans, who threw down loayes into the camp of the besieging Gauls to deceive them as to the state of their supplies. On this hill Petrarch received his laurel crown, and the tribune Rienzi promulgated new laws. Michelangelo designed the present museum and palace of the conservatories. The Museo Capitolino contains one of the finest collections of statuary and painting, and the famous mosaic, Pliny's Doves, found in the ruins of Hadrian's Villa near Tivoli. In "The Reserved Cabinet" stands the exquisite Greek statue Venus of the Capitol, found immured in a wall upon the Quirinal. In the Hall of the Emperors is the imposing seated statue of Agrippina (grand-daughter of Augustus) and 83 busts of Roman emperors, empresses and their families, a character study. The Hall of Illustrious Men is interesting, as is also the Hall of the Faun, from the Faun found at Hadrian's Villa. The statue of the Faun is highly graceful and artistic. The three gems of the collection are found in the Hall of the Dying Gladiator, the Dying Gladiator, the Antinous of the Capitol and the Faun of Praxiteles. The Palace of the Conservatories contains busts of artists by Canova, the restoration of a column of Michelangelo, many fine frescoes and reliefs by Bernini and other masters; the Apollo Belvedere and the famous Bronze Wolf of the Capitol, of unknown antiquity. Near the wolf is the well-known and beautiful figure of the boy extracting a thorn from his foot. The Picture Gallery of the Capitol contains few good works: a beautiful Saint Sebastian by Guido and several others by Guercino. The Capitoline was the seat of administration -the Capitol. State acts, deeds, documents, etc., were advertised there by hanging or "posting copies, engraved on bronze, on a statue or shrine. The Quirinal, the northernmost of the seven summits, is a long narrow eminence beginning at the Forum of Trajan, at the base of the Capitoline and stretches northeastward toward ROME the Porta Pia. It was the site of the Temple Janus Quirinus (a Sabine god) surrounded by a sacred grove. Here Martial, the epigrammatist, lived in a third floor apartment in a narrow street and greater folk had their palaces the Flavii and the Cornelii at some number in the Vicus Corneliorum. In Trajan's time the Quirinal was joined to the Capitoline by a steep, high ridge which sloped to the Forum Romanum on the southeastern side and to the Campus Martius in the opposite direction. Trajan cut it away. The building of chief importance on this hill is the Quirinal Palace erected to be a summer residence of the popes. It is now the palace of the king. The Viminal, like the Esquiline, was outside the Servian wall, adjacent to the Quirinal and in appearance a part of it, except when viewed from near S. Maria Maggiore. It extends to the Esquiline and gets its name from the water willows (vimina) once abundant there. The line of separation between the bases of the Quirinal and the Viminal was marked by the massive Tower of Nero (the Torre Milizie) and the walls of the Forum of Augustus. The most striking remains on the Viminal are the ruins of the Baths of Diocletian near the railway station. The great baths of Thermæ were peculiar features of the city and were used not only for bathing purposes, but for games and athletic sports and contained assembly rooms, libraries, promenades, etc. thermæ of Caracalla, Titus and Diocletian were the most magnificent and largest. The The Aventine Hill takes its rise from where the old Sublician bridge spanned the Tiber and extends to the Circus Maximus, which separated it from the Palatine. The name was derived from King Aventinus Silvius, according to the most credited but still disputed etymol ogy. It is the highest and most picturesque of the hills. The Roman home of Saint Paul's friend Aquila was on the Aventine and over looked the Circus Maximus. Here, tradition says, Peter and Paul taught the Christian faith in an oratory discovered in 1776 near the present church of S. Prisca. Aquila and Priscilla were buried in the cemetery of Priscilla, which was also the burial place of Pudens, whose house was on the southern slope of the Viminal, where its remains were discovered in 1870. The Liber Pontificalis confirms the tradition that pieces of furniture used by Saint Peter were long preserved in the house and church of Pudens. There were other hills of profound interest to students of the history of the imperial city. The Janiculum was the chief of these, rising abruptly on the right bank of the Tiber and declining gently into the Campagna in the direction of Civita Vecchia, the ancient Centum Vellae. Ancus Marcius, fourth of the Roman kings, connected it with the rest of the city by means of the Pons Sublicius, the first bridge over the Tiber and the scene of the defense of Rome by Horatius Cocles, who kept the bridge against Tarquinius Superbus and his Etrurian ally, Lars Porsena. The Ramnes settled the Palatine, the Luceres the Cælian and the Sabines all the other eminences. These tribes were the three chief racial ingredients of the Roman people. The Servian wall enclosed all these hills except the 663 Esquiline, the Viminal and the Janiculum. The Aurelian was built to extend still further the defenses of Rome, then threatened by the northern tribes. The menace of the Goth was responsible for the purpose to enclose not only the city proper, but a part of the suburbs beyond the Tiber, as a military necessity. The suburbs were at the mercy of the barbarians who had already overspread whole provinces and devastated as far as Rome, which had now descended its hills to the unenclosed Campus Martius. Aurelian, with the support of the senate, commenced the wall which bears his name in 271. The Einsiedeln Manuscripts (9th century) enumerate 383 towers, some of which remained until near the end of the last century, notably near the site of the Ludovisi Gardens. It also records the names of the 14 gates in this wall, of which six are in use now: Porta Flaminia, now Porta del Popolo; Porta S. Lorenzo (the ancient P. Tiburtina), Porta Maggiore (P. Praenestina), Porta S. Sebastiano (P. Appia), Porta G. Paolo (P. Ostiensis); on the Janiculum, Porta Aurelia. These gates, which disclose the course of the wall, date generally from the time of Honorius (379–395). The population of ancient Rome has been estimated in several ways-by the extent of the area within the city wall, by the amount of corn consumed in a year, by the number of habitations, etc. What the area was is uncertain, the extent of the walls being a matter of controversy. In the Augustan period, at the beginning of our era, the consumption of corn -60,000,000 bushels in a year-indicated a population of 1,950,000. To have housed this number-allowing 40 persons to the housewould have required 48,750 habitations; but of the actual number of domiciles at this time there is no record. Four hundred years later, in the reign of Theodosius (395-425), we have the first record of the kind, 48,382 houses. Juvenal advised the poor to emigrate from the miserable, dark lodgings, the smoke and other hardships of the city to better homes at the same price in the Italian villages. Houses were built to dangerous heights in order to accommodate the body of the Roman people and the estimate of 40 persons to each habitation may not be too large. The fact that there were no more houses in Rome at the end of the 4th century than there were at the beginning of the first should be pondered in the light of the sharp fluctuations of population which, for one reason and another, took place in the early centuries of the Christian era. Merivale's guess at the population was 300,000, Dureau Lamalle's 500,000, Gibbon's 1,200,000 and Donovan's 1,950,000. For an interesting discussion of Roman population, consult Story, 'Roba di Roma, ch. xxi. Public edifices rather than private, life in public in preference to domestic pursuits in the home, were bents characteristic of the Roman genius which developed a political system of collectivism — centralization, state initiative and domination. The Athenian emphasis on the individual was reversed in Rome. There the unit counted for nothing; the utilities were for the populace. Under this system a wonderful city came into being, the greatest instrument of popular service that was created before the Christian era. At the beginning of the 4th |