The law by which an alien alone could be chosen for senator, does not apply to those first on the list, who are specified as Romans, nor did it constantly obtain, in subsequent periods, until the reform of the statutes in 1580.

When Brancaleone was elected, in 1252, this was the usage, but in the next century the office was divided frequently between the Colonna and Orsini. Muratori1 mentions, that the custom of choosing foreigners for magistrates, was introduced into Italy before the year 1180. The choice of foreign arbitrators in the controversies of states and princes, seems to have been the fashion of the thirteenth century. Thus the English referred to Philip of France. Thus the kings of France and Arragon, and other princes-the Scotch for instance-submitted their claims to the judgment of King Edward I. 2

The ancient statutes have been traced back to the year 1364.

Every vestige of the popular government,

tom.

2

Dissertazione sopra le antichità Ital. diss. xlvi. p. 67.

iii.

* See-Hume, Hist. of England, Edw. I. cap. xiii.

3 For a short account of the statutes and government of Rome, see the Decline and Fall, cap. lxx. p. 380. tom. xii. oct. What has been said above, was inserted merely in explanation of the modern Fasti Consulares. The civil and criminal justice of Rome, previously to the late revolution was esteemed, and with reason, the most iniquitous in Italy

which those statutes were meant to preserve, has been gradually abolished; and the Senate and Roman people, after nearly seven centuries of feeble, dubious existence, are now at their last gasp. One of the operations of the Cardinal Gonsalvi's ministry has been to give an unity to the papal government, by depriving the Conservators of some feudal jursidictions which they still held at Viterbo. The senatorial palace of the Capitol has probably seen the last tribunal of the expiring magistrates.

The three

The pageant, however, remains. Conservators act certain parts in certain ceremonies they stand on the second step of the papal throne, and they have a right to carry the sacramental vessels between the high altar and his holiness, on Easter Sunday. The Senator of Rome bears a still more conspicuous part in these scenes of humiliation. When the Pope pontificates, the Senator stands amidst a seated assembly, but stands at the right hand of the hierarch, on a level with the throne, and a step above the Conservators. His cloak of golden brocade, and his depending rolls of borrowed hair, suit well with the meek ministerial attitude of the gentleman-usher; but they are dwindled into nothing amidst the purple of the cardinals,

The Cardinal Gonsalvi has attempted some reforms, since the restoration of the Pope appeared likely to revive all the defects of the old government.

and the seven-fold robes of the holy father: even his patient resignation is obscured by the incense and awful bustle of that pious pantomime.

The half-starved porters of the Campidoglio make their boast to strangers, that their Senator is placed for life, and cannot be degraded from his office, even by the Pope himself. But the pontiffs have shewn their conviction of his impotence, by dispensing with the statute which enacted that no one but an alien could be chosen. His present Holiness did not think it expedient to nominate a relation, as Rezzonico had done, but gave the idle title to the young Patrizzi, the representative of a noble Siennese family transplanted to Rome.

The eloquent initials of the S. P. Q. R. are still to be seen multiplied on all the escutcheons and inscriptions of the modern city; and the same ambitious formula has been imitated by the little tributary towns of the pontifical state. We read, on the stuccoed gateway at Tivoli, of a modern "Senate, and Tiburtine People."

Stanza CXLV.

While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand.

"Quandiu stabit Colysæus, stabit Roma; quando cadet Colysæus, cadet et Roma; quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus." These words

are quoted by Mr. Gibbon' as a proof that the Coliseum was entire when seen by the AngloSaxon pilgrims at the end of the seventh or the beginning of the eighth century. At the same time, as they extended their admiration to Rome, which was then partially destroyed, it is not impossible that the amphitheatre may have been in some degree dilapidated even in that early period. The fire which, about the year 219, destroyed the upper wooden works, in which, amongst other conveniences, there were brothels2, occasioned the repairs of Heliogabalus and Alexander Severus and Gordian; and the frequency of such restorations may be concluded from the different forms and materials lately discovered in the excavations of the substructures of the area. Mention is made of a fire

1

Cap. Ixxi. tom. xii. oct. p. 419. One of the most picturesque descriptions of the effect of the Coliseum is given by Ammian, who calls it a solid mass of stone-work, to whose summit the human eye can scarcely reach. "Amphitheatri molem solidatam lapidis Tiburtini compage, ad cujus summitatem ægre visio humana conscendit," lib. xvi. cap. x. p. 145; a structure where there was sitting room for 87,000 spectators, besides place for more than 22,000 others, was the first amphitheatre of the kind ever raised, for that of Statilius Taurus is not to be reckoned. Pompey's theatre, a hollowed mountain, was also the first theatre made of stone. The Romans in both these works rose at once to perfection; the effect was instantly discovered to be insurpassable. ⚫ Lampridius mentions this in his life of Caracalla.

under Decius'. It was certainly in all its glory in the reign of Probus, and the seven hundred wild beasts, and the six hundred gladiators which he exhibited at once, could not occupy a twelfth part of the arena. The number of wild beasts which might stand together in this arena has been calculated to be ten thousand seven hundred and seventy-nine2, so that it may be no exaggeration to say that Titus showed the Roman people five thousand in one day3, or that Probus, unica missione, exhibited four thousand ostriches, boars, deer, ibexes, wild sheep, and other graminivorous animals, amidst a forest which had been transplanted into the amphitheatre. Perhaps it is not to be understood that they were slain at once3.

The Coliseum was struck by lightning in the reign of Constantine, but repaired; for the laws for abolishing gladiatorial shows were not obseryed until the reign of Honorius; and even after that period, men fought with wild beasts, which

In the Eusebian Chronicle. See-Maffei. Verona. Illustrata. part iv. pp. 36, 37. edit. 1731.

2

By T. B. Nolli. See-delle memorie sacre e profane dell' anfiteatro Flavio dal Canonico, Giovanni Marangoni. Rom. 1746. pp. 33, 34.

3" Atque uno die quinque millia omne genus ferarum.” Sueton. in vit. Tit.

* Vopisc. in vit. Prob. p. 233. Hist. Aug. edit. 1519.

5 Marangoni, ibid. p. 41.

• See note to Stanza CXLI. in the notes to Childe Harold.