VILLA MEDICI, ROME. 



55 



was well chosen by Lucullus, by Domitian, and by Sallust, for their pleasure gardens. A votive 

 tablet discovered in 1868 proves that the site of the villa formed part of the gardens of the 

 Acilii Glabriones, a family conspicuous in Roman history from the time of the battle of 

 Thermopylae. Two members of the family, Maximus Acilius and Priscilla, embraced 

 Christianity about A.D. 152, and were buried in the Catacomb of Priscilla on the Via Salaria. 

 In the gardens of Lucullus 

 avenues of carefully cut 

 ilexes, bay and cypress over- 

 shadowed fountains and 

 were grouped round temples, 

 shrines and porticoes gar- 

 landed with roses and jas- 

 mine. There stood that 

 marvellous Hall of Apollo 

 wherein Lucullus once 

 feasted Cicero and Pompey 

 at a cost of fifty thousand 

 drachmae. Near by Messa- 

 lina took desperate refuge, 

 and heard the garden gates 

 behind her being broken 

 down by the centurion 

 Euodus, bent on making an 

 end of her. Here on the 

 site of the gardens of Sallust, 

 the millionaire historian, the 

 statue of the dying Gaul 

 was found. 



On the eastern side the 

 villa garden is built upon 

 the actual walls of Rome, 

 those walls of Aurelian 

 which were stormed at this 

 very point by the Goths. A 

 gate was opened by traitors, 

 and the villa of Sallust was 

 given over to fire and sword, 

 its flaming towers providing 

 a light to guide the con- 

 querors to the first sack of 

 Rome. On the south the 

 ground slopes down by gentle 

 degrees in gardens and ter- 

 races. It adjoins that to 

 which, long ages ago, the 

 old senator Pincius gave 

 his name, gardens which 



are still the favourite promenade of the Romans. From the height of the eastern wall we look 

 down on those slopes where Alaric marshalled his army of Goths, and where on a later day 

 was pitched the camp of Belisarius and his Byzantine host. Procopius says, " The greater 



68. ROMAN MARBLE RELIEF BUILT INTO THE WALLS OF THE 



VILLA MEDICI. 



(1) Entrance to villa. 



(2) Open vestibule. 



(3) Grand gallery of antiques. 



(4) Terrace. 



(5) Grotto under same. (g) City walls. 



((>) Pavilion on the wall of the city. (10) Vineyards. Nowa road down to the Borghrse Gardens. 



(7) Sloping carriage way. (n) Slope down to Piazxa di Spagna. 



(8) Great terrace with view over Koine. (12) Bosquet des Jardins. 



(See plan on page 54.) 



