THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 



21 



CHAPTER III. 



THE VATICAN GARDENS, ROME. 



ALTHOUGH the Vatican hill was not surrounded with walls until the ninth century, 

 the ground now occupied by the gardens has been a sacred spot from prehistoric 

 times The earliest legends speak of it as the abode of a god. It was the fourteenth 

 of the fourteen regions into which Augustus divided the city. Gardens such as those 

 of Agrippina, and the still more famous ones of Domitian, were situated here. Here was the 

 circus of Caligula, which was rendered conspicuous by the lofty obelisk which now adorns the 

 Piaxxa of St. Peter. This obelisk, which towered over the spina of the circus, enjoys the 

 distinction of never having been levelled to the ground, for it was only re-erected in its present 

 position. Here was the sepulchre of Scipio, the young destroyer of Carthage, and that of 

 Honorius and his wife Maria, daughter of Stilicho, the last great Roman general. Here stood 

 a temple dedicated by Nero to the memory of Romulus, one to Mars, and one to Apollo, Pliny 

 speaks of them, and all ancient writers concur that they were the most sublime of buildings. At 

 the time that Aurelian had enclosed the city with walls the necessity for including the Vatican 

 had not arisen, and it remained open and outside the city. 



As time wore on this part of outlying Rome was deserted, and shared the general decay. 

 Writers in the eighth century characterise the Vaticanum as " the detestable fields," from the 



. 



TABVIA 8l5 



ICHklOCRAPHI A 



VAT1CAN1 



SVB PAVLO V DEL1NEATA 

 MARTINO 



FfRRABOSCO 



29. PLAN OF THE VATICAN GARDENS. 



l-'rnm BIIIUIIII. 



