ascribes the misapplication. The sarcophagus, a huge cubic stone, is standing in the court of the conservators' palace in the capitol, and is at this time perhaps scarcely preserved with so much care as might be claimed by a memorial of the only virtuous female of the Julian race. The pilgrim of the XIIIth century tells us that he saw these words over one of the cells of the mausoleum of Augustus, "These are the bones and ashes of Nerva, the Emperor'.'

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The bones and ashes of emperors have been dispersed in the ruins of this great sepulchre, which, from being choked up as a fortress, was hollowed out for a vineyard, and, having at last become a circus, serves for the bull-feasts of the summer festivals. Some less illustrious ashes have been preserved, or supplied in the columbaria of the two families, whose vaults are shewn in the garden in which stands the ruin called Minerva Medica". But when the tombs were above ground, the cells were soon rifled and stripped of their ornaments. In later In later ages the pyramid of Cestius was broken and ransacked

"Hæc sunt ossa et cinis Nervæ Imperatoris." Liber de mirabilibus Romæ. ap. Montfaucon. Diarium Italicum, p. 292.

2 The freedmen of Lucius Arruntius, consul in the reign of Tiberius, and those of some nameless or unknown family.

for gold'. The tombs of the "happy dead" are become the huts of the wretched living, and the Appian Way may now humble the pride, but will hardly contribute to the consolations of philosophy 2.

The museums have stripped these populous cemeteries of their memorials. The six thousand freedmen of the Augustan household have been transferred, at least some of their obscure names, to the Capitol. A more judicious plan has lately been adopted at the instance of the Marquis Canova, who has adjusted some of the fragments, and

I

Aringhi, Roma Subterranea, lib. iii. cap. i. num. 7. tom. i. p. 405, tells the story as a fact, or a conjecture, from Bosius, who has also made a thick volume on subterranean Rome. That volume and the two folios of Aringhi, connecting the history of Rome with that of martyrdom, may serve to show what was likely to become of the monuments in the hands of those who thought all that was worth looking for was under ground, and spurning the triumphal arches and columns of Pagan heroes, dived into cemeteries and catacombs in search of the founders of the city of God.

2" An tu egressus Porta Capena cum Calatini, Scipionum, Serviliorum, Metellorum sepulchra vides, miseros putas illos?" Tuscul. Qu. lib. i.

3 The three sepulchral chambers containing the urns of the household of Augustus were discovered opposite the first milestone on the Appian Way, and that of the family of Livia was opened in 1726, a little beyond. See Ant. Franc.. Gori. de libertor. columbario. ap. Poleno. tom. iii.

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the inscription of the sepulchre of the Servilian family', and raised them where they were found. It may be observed that the great approaches to the cities were not marked by tombs alone, but partly by suburban villas, and tradesmen's houses, and semicircular seats. Thus they were frequented as public walks, and the beauty of the sepulchres, together with the religion of the people, and the wisdom of the higher orders, prevented any melancholy reflections from being suggested by the receptacles of the dead. Those who have seen the street of the tombs at Pompej will feel the truth of this observation. The Appian sepulchres extend, at short intervals, for several miles-let us fill the intermediate spaces with handsome edifices-restore the despoiled marbles to the tombs themselves-then imagine that the same decorations adorned all the other thirty great roads which branched off from the capital; add to this also the banks of the Tyber, shaded with villas from as far as

2

Fragmenta ad sepulc. hoc. AN. D. 1808, a Canova. reperta ac donata. PIVS. VII. P. M. ita in perpet. servanda consuluit."

2 There were twenty-nine according to one account, and thirty-one according to another. Fam. Nardini. Roma Vetus, lib. viii. cap. i.

Otricoli' on the Sabine side to the port of Ostia, -with these additions, which it appears may be fairly supplied from ancient notices, we shall account for the immense space apparently occupied by the city and suburbs of old Rome.

Stanza LXXXI.

we but feel our way to err.

The greater share of satisfaction at Rome will come to the portion of those travellers who find, like Dante, a pleasure in doubting. The stranger, when he has entered the modern city, would, at least, wish to assure himself that he knows the site of ancient Rome. He has, however, to clear his ground of some of the conjectures of the learned, even before he can persuade himself thoroughly of this fact. He soon will believe that the circuit of the present walls is somewhat bigger than the region of the old Esquiliæ, and more than a two hundredth part of the Augustan city2.

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'Otricoli, the ancient Otriculum, is xxxvi. M. P. from Rome. Some writers thought the town stretched as far as this, but even Vossius gives up this absurdity, (De magnit. Romæ Vet. cap. v. ap. Græv. Antiq. Rom. tom. iv.) the villas however might. See Nardini Roma Vetus, lib. viii. cap. ii. Donatus de urbe Roma, lib. i. cap. xvi.

2 "Vel solæ Esquiliæ majores erant, quam sit totum illud quod hodiernis includitur muris spatium." Isa. Vossii de

But he will not find it quite so easy to reconcile the various measurements with the actual appearance of the walls, or to understand how, as Mr. Gibbon tells us, "their circumference, except in the Vatican, has been invariably the same, from the triumph of Aurelian to the peaceful but obscure reign of the Popes"." If so it was the same, first, when Alaric took Rome; secondly, when the dominion of the Popes was established; thirdly, at this day.

The circuit, diminished from the fifty miles of Vopiscus," is reduced by accurate measurement, to about twenty-one miles," says Mr. Gibbon, in his eleventh chapter. This gives his measurement for the first period. But when Poggio saw them, "they formed a circumfer

magnit. Rom. Veteris, p. 1507. ap. Græv. tom. iv. To have a perfect notion of the logic of learning, it is sufficient to read this insane treatise, which spreads the walls to 72 miles, and the inhabitants to 14 millions. There is scarcely an incontrovertible position in all his seven chapters. Lipsius is not quite so paradoxical in his conclusions, and he is much more ingenious in his array of authorities-his Rome is 23 miles.

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2

Decline and Fall, cap. xli. vol. vii. oct. p. 228.

"When

Ibid. vol. ii. oct. p. 28. See also another place. the capital of the empire was besieged by the Goths, the circuit of the walls was accurately measured by Ammonius the mathematician, who found it equal to twenty-one miles." Cap. xxxi. tom. xii. oct. p. 287.