1850.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



153 



THE MAUSOLEUM OF HADRIAN. 



On thfi Mausnlenm of Hadrian, nnw the Forte St. Angeh, at Borne. 

 By the Rev. Richard ISlkuess, 15. D. — (Paper read at the Royal 

 Institute of British Architects, Jlaich Ith.) 



It is remarkable how much kuoivledge of the habits, occupa- 

 tions, and even religion of an ancient people may be pained 

 from the kind of edifices their ardiiteots were called to construct. 

 So much so, that, if the pages of history were blotted out, the dumb 

 monuments, which time has spared, would speak to us of tlie re- 

 creations, the morals, the mode of life, and even the mode of death 

 adopted by the ancient Greeks and Romans. In no age has the 

 architect the choice of the kind of buildings he would erect. His 

 business is to give shape and proportion to the edifices which the 

 climate, the habits, the religion or the jjopular pursuits of a people 

 demanded. The buildings of ancient Rome, which atforded the 

 most ample scope for architectural skill, would not be required, 

 for instance, in our metropolis. The buildings, which gave scope 

 for the architect's skill, the porticoes, theatres, baths, are lost to 

 our time and climate. 



It is with special reference to sepulchral monuments that I 

 have introduced these preliminary remarks. These afforded a field 

 for the architect of classic times, which in our day has been en- 

 tirely transferred to the stonemason. The pyramids in Egypt, 

 the monument of Philo])appus at Athens, and the sepulchres of 

 Augustus and Hadrian at Rome, were among the most conspicuous 

 edifices of their respective countries and ages. But where now 

 should we find a tomb in our public cemeteries oi grave yards which 

 would require any skill to construct, beyond what might be found 

 in a very moderate artist.' I speak not of the monuments of our 

 great men, which the art of sculpture has touched, and which 

 stand under the shelter of a cathedral vault. Speaking, as I intend 

 to do, of sepulchral mouuments as buildings, I have yet to ascer- 

 tain the cause why this class of edifice has been lost to tlie modern 

 architect. The cause is in the change wliich Christianity has 

 wnnight in tli3 hopes and prospects of what may hajjpen after 

 death. The ancients considered a tomb in a much more important 

 light than we either can or ouglit to do. So feeble were their ex- 

 pectations of living in their fancied elysium, that they generally 

 looked forward to the honour of a tomb, as the only blessing that 

 awaited them. Hence the anxiety so frequently discovered on 

 monumental inscriptions, which the individual during lifetime 

 had for providing for himself and his family a place of burial free 

 from intrusion. The initials, " H, S. F. V." — Hoe iihi fecit vivas: 

 '•He made this for himself while he was alive" — we constantly 

 find on ancient tombs. And we cannot wonder, that the wealthy, 

 under these circumstances, should have bestowed so much of their 

 substance in erecting tlieir private monuments, and the warrior 

 and the statesman so much care and toil in gaining this as a public 

 honour. 



The ancient Romans erected their splendid tombs by the sides 

 of the public roads, and from the remains still existing along the 

 Via Appia, that road might, without any further indications, be 

 traced for at least four miles from Rome. The sepulchres of the 

 Scipios, the Metelli, and the Servilii are enumerated by Cicero as 

 amongst the tombs which stood without the Porta Capena. And 

 he thinks, that no one, looking on those monuments of the il- 

 lustrious dead, can esteem the buried inmates unfortunate. This 

 was all the immortality to which the Egyptian Pharoahs, the Athe- 

 nian sages, or the Roman generals aspired ; and therefore the 

 more durable the monument, and the more conspicuous its massive 

 walls, the more the honour, the greater the consolation. Pali- 

 nurus was soothed by the assurance, which jEneas gave his wander- 

 ing ghost, that he should have a Cape called after his name, which 

 would be more durable than even a mausoleum. 



jEtermimque locus Paiiiiari numen habebit 

 Hia diLtis viirie emotffi 



gamiet cognomine terra.- Virg. JEa. vi..S82. 



The early sepulchres of the Republic at Rome were of that kind 

 called "Hypogsea." that is, chambers underground, with an eleva- 

 tio:. little more than enough to exhibit the inscription to the 

 passers by. Such were the sepulchres of the Scipios, as it is yet 

 to be seen near the Porta St. Sebastiano. But towards the end of 

 the Republic, when the luxury of marble began to be known, and 

 governors of provinces returned home laden with the spoils of the 

 East, the colossal taste in sepulchral monuments was introduced. 

 The rich Crassus erected a mausoleum for his wife on the Via Appia, 

 built of travertine stone, twenty-four feet thick; and every one 

 who has visited the Campagna at Rome, will be familiar with the 

 striking monument of Cecilia Metella. Forsyth observes, "the 



general form of the tombs on the Appian Way, is a cylinder or 

 a truncated cone with a cubic base and a convex top. This com- 

 bination," he says, '"conveys the idea of a funeral pyre, and has 

 some tendency to the pyramid, the figure most appropriate to a 

 tomb, as representing the earth heaped on a grave, or the stone 

 piled on a military barrow." Perhaps Crassus was the first who 

 broke through this general rule, when he gave more rotundity to 

 his wife's monument. Caius Cestius went back to the pyramid: 

 and these two monuments, which we may consider as belonging to 

 the Republic, have now stood for nearly 2,000 years, and there 

 seems no reason why they should not stand for 2,000 more. 



But I come now to the two great sepulchres of Imperial Rome. 

 Augustus chose for the site of his mausoleum a place in the 

 Campus Martins, between the Via Flaminia and the Tiber. The 

 remains of that monument are now to be seen behind the Palazzo 

 Corea, near the Porto di Ripetta. 'J"he ancient walls are so con- 

 cealed or involved with the surrounding buildings that its magni- 

 tude can hardly be estimated by the spectator. Strabo has given 

 us some description of it, and he considered it the object most 

 worthy of notice among the spleiulid edifices of the Campus 

 Martiiis. It stood upon a lofty substruction of white stone, near 

 the bank of the river; and it was shaded to the very top by ever- 

 green trees. The summit was ci-owned by the statue of Augustus 

 in bronze. The trees ajipear to have been planted on the belts of 

 the stories, as the circumference contracted towards the top. 

 Behind the mausoleum there was a grove laid out in walks, the 

 care of which was committed to a procui'ator. The tomb was 

 built twenty -seven years before the Christian era, and it is 

 probable that the boy Marcellus was the first of the imperial 

 family interred within its walls. 



qiipp, Tiberine, videbis 

 F.ire a. ctim, tum'ilum pritleilabere recu-nteia ! 



It was in this tomb that Agrippa and Drusus were buried. And 

 in the nineteenth year of the Christian era, Agrippina, in the 

 midst of weeping crowds of citizens, brought the ashes of Ger- 

 manicus to be placed within its walls. But the monument, which 

 was designed by the first master of the Roman world to be the 

 silent repository of the ashes of himself and his posterity, has 

 come to an ignoble end. The ruins, which time and Robert Guis- 

 card the Norman, have left, are now consolidated into the plat- 

 form of an amphitheatre; and in the summer months, several 

 thousands of the Roman people sit round the ample circumference, 

 to witness the horrors of a bull-fight, the feats of horsemanship, 

 and the antics of a vagrant clown. I have mentioned this monu- 

 ment, in many respects similar to that of Hadrian, in order that I 

 may with advantage introduce the subject which has been an- 

 nounced for this evening. 



As if it were to show how little any works, however great, are 

 valued, which have not some public object or utility, this colossal 

 monument, which we are about to view, is hardly noticed by the 

 ancient writers. But there is little doubt that the emperor 

 Hadrian himself was the architect of his own tomb: the whole of his 

 life was dedicated to the arts, and he could ill brook a rival in the 

 science on which he thought he excelled. ApoUodorus, the greac 

 architect of that day, the man of taste, was doomed to view all the 

 designs the emperor sent him, and to choose between praising what 

 he could not admire, or going into exile. Appollodorus ended in 

 the latter alternative, and left the imperial architect to construct 

 his own mausoleum. Uion Cassius tells us, that when Hadrian 

 was buried in the tomb he built on the bank of the Tiber, that of 

 Augustus was full, and no more ashes could be deposited within it. 

 But I apprehend that Hadrian had cast an emulous eye upon the 

 great work of his predecessor, and perhaps chosen the garden of 

 bomilia, nearly opposite, to confront with greater splendour the 

 monument whi'ch Strabo had praised; the rich materials he had 

 probably collected in his travels through the empire, and I imagine 

 like those, who built a still larger tower in the plains of Shinar, 

 the vain notion of his mind might be expressed in the same lan- 

 guage — "Come let us make us a name." Be this as it may, all that 

 Spartian, the biographer of Hadrian, tells us about this stu- 

 pendous work is, ''Fecit et sui nominis jmitem et seimlchrum 

 jiuta Tiherim." The bridge here mentioned, is that which Ha- 

 drian erected across the Tiber to give an easy access to his tomb, 

 and which he ca led Pons Elius, after his prenomen. There is a 

 medal extant, which exhibits this bridge with three main arches 

 in the middle, and at each end two of smaller dimensions. .Much 

 of the ancient construction of peperine stone still remains in tha 

 vaults of the arches, and with the name changed to Ponte S. 

 Angelo, it preserves to this day the appearance of what it was 

 originally. I am fortunate enough to be able to point to some 



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