Quadrifrons probably had rows of Corinthian columns between its niches, and the small gateway near it has decorative pilasters with Composite capitals. On the other hand, the Arch of Dolabella on the Cælian, which has a single line as cornice, and the Porta S. Lorenzo are examples of the striking effect of a simple arch without Greek ornament. The unmeaning pediments and tasteless columns with which most of these arches are adorned, remind us of Pope’s recipe for the front of a villa, “Clap four slices of pilaster on’t; that, laid with bits of rustic, makes a front.”

Fig. 5.

Colossal columns were as genuine a creation of Imperial Rome as triumphal arches. In both the sculpture had become subordinate to the pedestal. The idea of placing a statue upon the top of a column was probably unknown to the Greeks, or at least, never carried out on the immense scale of the two great Roman Columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius. It must not, however, be forgotten, that the Column of Trajan, and probably also that of Marcus Aurelius, was enclosed within a narrow court, and that the bas-reliefs were intended to be seen from the roofs and windows of the surrounding buildings.

Fig. 6.

Some of the most characteristic remains of the Roman national taste in architecture are the Mausoleum of Hadrian, and the Tombs of Cæcilia Metella and of Plautius. The ponderous walls of these massive and indestructible marvels of masonry were essentially Roman, but in their external decorations we find a strange combination of foreign designs. The Mausoleum of Hadrian was dressed up with an array of pilasters, columns, and statues, and the Mausoleum of Augustus was covered with terraces and trees, in imitation of the Temple of Belus at Babylon.

The most conspicuous among the Roman appropriations of foreign monumental designs were the oriental obelisks which were brought from Egypt, and erected in the Circi at Rome and in front of some of the buildings, and some of which still stand in the piazzas of modern Rome. The remains of eleven of these have been found. The Romans often misused them by placing them alone, and not following the Egyptian method of always setting them in pairs.

Fig. 7.

The huge vaulted arches of brick-work and concrete which remain in the Baths of Caracalla, and the Basilica of Constantine, and the massive arches of the Claudian Aqueduct, are the glory of Roman architecture. For the Coliseum, astounding as are its durability and massive grandeur, is not so illustrative of the special Roman development of the use of the arch and of brick-work as are the other great ruins just mentioned. We see embodied in them the indomitable energy which bridged the valleys and tunnelled through the hills, but which possessed no eye for fine proportion of outline or symmetrical and harmonious combination of details. Brickwork was the material in which the characteristic Roman ruins were executed. The Coliseum and the Theatre of Marcellus are dressed in Greek robes, while the brick arches of the aqueducts, and the massive structure of the Baths of Caracalla reflect the peculiar genius and character of the Roman imperial power.

Fig. 8.

CHAPTER I.

THE PALATINE AND VELIA.

The entrance to the ruins on the Palatine Hill is now made through a gateway opposite to the Basilica of Constantine. This gateway was erected by the architect Vignola in the sixteenth century as an approach to the Farnese Gardens, which formerly occupied the north-western part of the Palatine Hill. On the right and left hand of the gateway are placed two ancient pedestals, which were discovered near the Arch of Septimius Severus in 1547. One of these, which stands on the right hand, supported an equestrian statue of Constantius, erected by Neratius Cerealis, prefect of the city in A.D. 353, in commemoration of the expulsion from Italy and death of Maxentius.[1] On the left side pedestal, a representation of the Suovetaurilia is sculptured in bas-relief, and the decennalia vota, or ten years’ good wishes to Constantius and Galerius are mentioned. The side of the hill at the back of the gateway of Vignola is terraced at several levels, on the third of which ascending from the entrance, a part of the pavement of an old road, probably the Clivus Victoriæ, leads to the right. The line of this clivus is represented in the marble plan now on the staircase of the Capitoline Museum which plan was made in the time of Septimius Severus.

INDEX TO THE PLAN OF THE PALATINE RUINS.

To face Plan on p. 14.