(elected in 676) had before stripped the marble from a large pyramid between the Vatican and the castle of St. Angelo, vulgarly known by the name of the tomb of Scipio'. The spoil was laid on the floor of the atrium of St. Peter. The history of the middle ages cannot be supposed to have preserved many such precise records; but the times after the return of the Popes from Avignon are sufficiently eloquent. Paul II." employed the stones of the Coliseum to build a palace. Sixtus IV. took down a temple, supposed by Pomponius Lætus that of Hercules, near St. Maria, in Cosmedin3; and the same pontiff destroyed the remains of an ancient bridge to make 400 cannon balls for the castle of St. Angelo'. Alexander VI. threw down populi congruens multorumque lignorum struem incendens demolitus est." Anastas. in vit. St. Hadriani, I. p. 214. edit. citat. he repeats it in the next page. Nardini, Roma Ant. lib. vii. cap. xiii. See Donatus, Roma Vetus, lib. iv. cap. ix. for Paul II. who reigned from 1464 to 1470. 3 Donatus, &c. lib. 2. cap. 25. * Stephen. Infessura, Diar. Urb. Rom. says this happened in 1484. The bridge was called that of Horatius Cocles, 66 e le dette palle forono fabricate a marmorata dove fu finito di distruggere un ponte di travertino rotto, il quale si chiamava il ponte di Orazio Cocles." Scriptores Rer. Italic. tom. iii. part ii. p. 1178. * The pyramid was bigger than that of Cestius, was mentioned by Blondus, Fulvius, and Marlianus, and is seen on the the pyramid, which Donus had stripped, to make a way for his gallery between the Vatican and the castle of St. Angelo. Paul III. and his nephews laboured incessantly at the quarry of the Coliseum. This pope applied himself to the Theatre of Marcellus, to the Forum of Trajan, to a temple usually called of Pallas, opposite the Temple of Faustina, to that temple itself, to the Arch of Titus, and to a large mass of ancient work which he levelled to the ground in the Piazza del Popolo', and had not the excuse of piety for this wide devastation. Sixtus V. carried away the remains of the Septizonium of Severus for the service of St. Peter's, and a cotemporary positively mentions that he threw down certain statues still remaining in the Capitol. Urban VIII. took off the bronze doors of St. Peter's. Nardini. lib. vii. сар. xiii. Alexander reigned from 1490 to 1503. 'Venuti, Roma Moderna. Rione x. p. 353. tom. ii. Donatus, lib. iv. cap. ix. Dissertazione sulle rovine, &c. p. 399. Paul III. began to reign in 1533, and died in 1549. 2 Da Barga. Commentarius de Obelisco. ap. Græv. Antiq. Roman. in loc. citat. pag. 1931. He mentioned this to the honour of Sixtus, to whom he dedicated his commentary, and he' believed it an imitation of the conduct of Gregory the Great and others. "Quorum pietatem, Pius V. et Sixtus V. Pontifices Max. sic imitati sunt, ut eorum alter ex ædibus Vaticanis hujusmodi omnes statuas alio amandare cogitaverat, alter e turre capitolina incredibili sua cum laude dejici jùs bronze from the portico of the Pantheon' to make cannon for the castle of St. Angelo, and to construct the confessional of St. Peter. He took away also some of the base of the sepulchre of Cecilia Metella for the fountain of Trevi2. Paul V. removed the entablature and pediment of a structure in the Forum of Nerva for his fountain on the Janiculum, and transported the remaining column of the Temple of Peace to decorate the place before St. Maria Maggiore. Lastly, Alexander VII. took down the arch commonly called "di Portogallo" in order to widen the Corso 4. A little more taste and serit." See his Treatise on the Destroyers of Rome, &c. p. 1887. in loco citat. 1 See note on the Pantheon. * Echinard. Agro. Romano, p. 295. edit. 1750. Yet Mr. Gibbon says he has nothing else to allege against this pope than the punning saying, " Quod non fecerunt barbari fecerunt Barbarini." Cap. lxxi. p. 424. tom. xii. › Venuti Roma Moderna. Rione I. p. 47. tom. i. * The remains of this arch are seen in Donatus, fig. 32. He (lib. iii.) thought it of Drusus, but without reason. See Nardini, (lib. vi. cap. ix.) Alexander VII. was so proud of this destruction that he chose to record it by an inscription which is here given, because it is esteemed the best specimen of lapidary writing in Rome. Alex. VII. Pontif. Max. Viam latam feriatæ urbis hippodromum ingenuity might surely have preserved the monument and yet improved the modern street. The inferior clergy were, it is probable, much more guilty than the pontiffs, and a volume of no inconsiderable bulk has been composed by one of their own order to enumerate the pagan materials applied to the use of the church'. As long as the ancient monuments were considered the property of that church, it does not appear that any protection was granted to them, and a writer, who is in some degree an advocate for the clergy, has been obliged to confess that when the ruins were in possession of the modern senate and people, they were less subject to spoliation than in preceding periods. The superstition of the clergy and the people at large prevented them from attributing a proportionate value to objects not connected with their ecclesiastical legends; and when the relics of the ancient Qua procurrentibus deformatam Publicæ commoditati et ornamento, Anno. Sal. MDC. LXV. The bas reliefs on the arch are now in the Capitoline palace of the Conservatori. 1 Marangoni, delle cose gentilesche e profane trasporte ad uso e ornamento delle chiese; see also Fioravante Martinelli, Roma ex ethnica sacra. 2 The Abate Fea in his dissertation. city had begun to be regarded with somewhat less indifference, they seem to have been respectable from some pious fable' attached to their sites rather than by any antiquarian importance. Even the great Sixtus Quintus could not restore an obelisk without affixing an inscription devoted to the purposes of religious imposture. The very study of the ancient relics is perverted, and rendered subservient to church fable. Cardinal Baronius, for the sake of finding St. Peter's prison at St. Niccolas in carcere, distorted the position of the Roman Forum: and Nardini himself, in other respects so incredulous, affirms that there is a certain tradition of the confinement of that apostle in 1 See the above cited collection of designs, entitled Vedute degli Antichi Vestigj di Roma, di Alo Giovannili, drawn in the time of Paul V.: every picture is enlivened by a massacre of martyrs, or a miracle, or a dedication of a church. The Vestal with her. sieve, and Curtius leaping into the gulf, are the only heathen fictions or facts honoured with any notice. 2 Christum. Dominum Quem Augustus Nasciturum Vivens adoravit Seque deinceps Dominum Dici vetuit Adoro. |