RAMBLES IN ROME.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10230, 8 January 1927, Page 10

RAMBLES IN ROME.

MONUMENTS OF THE PAST. A CITY OF TREASURES. Specially written for the Gisborne Times, (By Frederick Stubbs, F.R.G.S.) • .“Rome! Rome! Was not that the place where I got the good cigars?” (Memoirs of a ti'aveller.)

Rome would not be considered the best place to buy cigars to-day, but it is certainly the best place in the world to study antiquity. I defy anyone to name another city that contains so many splendid monuments of the past. Athens has its Pantheon, Egypt its pyramids and tombs, Thebes and Kainak the mighty columns that once supported the roofs of gigantic temples; the remains and past splendors may be found in a score of different countries. But Rome ! This single city is full from end to end of architectural and artistic treasures.

THE PANTHEON. Take the Pantheon, e.g., the noblest and best preserved structure of ancient Rome, a vast circular building with a huge aperture 30ft in diameter in the roof, like that in some modern theatres, but with this difference that it is never closed. In fine weather the sunlight pours in from this open roof, through which may be seen the blue sky, with white clouds moving slowly across it, while in wet weather the rain pours in on the marble floor where, by a simple contrivance it is quickly drained away. It was built in B.C. 27 by a wealthy senator named Agrippa, who intended it to form part of his spacious baths, but ,wishing to please his son-in-law the Emperor Augustus, afterwards turned it into a temple and when the whole circle of Olympus came to be worshipped there it was called the Pantheon, as belonging to all the gods. In the year GOB it became a Christian church. No temple in the world exceeded it in size and ■magnificence. It was approached by an ample portico supported by granite colums; the walls were lined with precious marbles; the iloor laid with a pavement of marble and porphrv ; the roof, supported by beams ot bronze, glittered with ornaments of silver on a background of gold, while innumerable statues ornamented the walls. The dome, resplendent with gilt bronze, was only two feet in diameter less than the cupola of St. Peter’s —indeed, it was this Pagan dome that gave the Italians the ideas of the domes of both Rome and Florence. It is marvellous that such an edifice should have been erected at the cost of a single individual. The magnates of Rome, like those of America and Europe to-day, must have been enormously rich. It is related that this same Agrippa was in the habit of throwing lottery tickets among the people, entitling the finders to costly gifts, and that during the games he paid barbers to shave every Roman gratis. During the Christia‘n centuries the Pantheon lost much of its early splendor; the precious metals especially disappeared while the bronzes were taken by Pope Urban Vlll. to make cannon. But it still preserves its majestic portico, its .splendid dome, its fluted columns, its marble pavement. Unce the temple of all gods, it is now a sort of (inferior) Westminister Abbey, where only kings may be interred. I saw the tombs of the present Italian King’s father and grandfather there last year. The latter Humbert 1., it may "bo remembered, was assassinated in 1900. Both tombs were covered with flowers, and along with a number of Italian natriots I myself, with bared head, paid tribute to the memory of these two great men. I wonder if it is destined to shelter the banes ot Mussolini, who rules, if he does not reign, in Rome.

THE FORUM. The ruins of the Great i'uruin are well-known to all visitors to the Italian capital. They arc situated in a valley at the foot of the Capitolinc Hill and extend to the Palatine shore where the Emperors lived. Here Justice was administered, public questions discussed, political meetings held, the gods worshipped, business transacted. " It was on this spot that Virginibus stabbed his daughter to save her honor, and Mark Anthony delivered his wonderful oration. Here also in the early days the principal shops were .situated. The Forum, indeed, was the very heart of Rome, whence energy streamed in all directions. At "the upper end the Arch of Titus comes into view, with its famous sculptures commemorating the defeat of Hie Jews by Titus and the sacking of Jerusalem. The basreliefs, which are still perfect after the lapse of nearly 3 900 years, exhibit the Table of Shewbread and the Sev-en-Branched Candlesticks* that v ere found in the Temple. The beautiful Arch of Constantine, erected in 31is also near this pot, as arc the Arch of Sevcrus and the cell where Peter and Paul are said to have been imprisoned. In the latter I was shown •m impression upon the stone which St Paul’s head had struck when lie was roughly pushed down the steps bv a brutal iailor. Assuming tins legend to be true, the Apostle’s head must have been phenomenally hard or the stone uncommonly soft. At a church near the Forum, I remember being taken round by a good matured English-speaking priest many years og o ' who showed me a stone built in the wall on which was the imprint of a lume foot. This stone, lie said bad been taken from the Apnian May where, according to the legend Christ had stopped Peter as he fled from Nero, and while lie stood there embarrassed by liis Master s rebuke, his foot had made this impression on the stone. “And do you really believe this to be true?” I asked with some astonishment. “Well, it is true for those who believe it,” the young priest humorously and wisely replied, is it no so indeed, with many thorns 2 Whether true historically or not, "they are true to those who believe them, and affect human lives and conduct to an astonishing degree

THE COLOSSEUM. The gigantic remains of the Colos-smini-are also in this neighborhood. It was the most impressive theatre ever built, was constructed of huge blocks of stone, and seated oO,OW people. It is said to have been built like the Great Pyramid, by a forced labor of Jewish captives. As its inauguration 5000 innocent animals from the wilds of Africa and Asia, as well a hundreds of human* beings, were slain “to make a Roman .holidav.” Gne wonders how human, not to say humane, beings could have found pleasure in such bloody spectacles. Here, too. there can he little doubt the cry “Christian! ad Icons was often heard Our age, Wlt,i its faults is surely better than that. The (Radiator, once viewed as of the vilest" class, came to he regarded as a hero, just as a brilliant tennis-play-er or foot-baller is regarded {with better reason) to-day and was feasted and petted whereever he vent, at was hot infrequently employed on errands of vengeance and crime.

THE CAPITOL. As the other end of the (Forum . is the Caoitol, which the Italian Government is seeking to make once more the centre, of. Keme ,_Here is situated the splendid Capitolme Museum where the famous Dying Gaul "nnd" the Faun of Prnziteles. are. exv» ••; -i;>■ n'-, : C-s h the• Tnrpeinn

Rock, .'from which criminals were thrown and the depository of the Sybolline Books, while, fronting the Museum, is the splendid statue of Marcus Aurelius seated on a bronze horse. Of all the ancient equestrian statues in Rome, this alone survived the fanaticism of the Christians of that age, who, taking this to he the statue of the Christian Emperor Constantine permitted it to- remain. Here, also, at the head of the finest flight of steps in the world is the gigantic monument in white marble (the largest of its kind in the world) with its enormous equestrian stature of Victor Emmanuel 11. which has been erected to commemorate the unification of Italy. The horse is so largo that a dinner-party has _ been given inside it. It is a splendid and 'very costly monument, occupying a line position at the top of the Corso, but it has been much criticised even in Italy on account of its cost, and by artists as, regards its artistic merits. It may certainly be questioned whether this is the best form m which a great national-event can be commemorated. Cne thinks of the millions spent oh useless monuments after the recent war. A philanthropic institution, a hospital or a park, may commemorate an event or honor a memory just as well as a statue. I will conclude with an amusing story told me by a friend. He was walking up the steps of the Capitol where, in an enclosure on the left, two wolves are kept (the traditional animal that sucked the founders ot Romo). and also two eagles. My friend observed some expensively dressed American ladies in front of him and heard one of them exclaim, “Oh! look at those two dogs, and the parrots in the cage!’’