THE GARDENS OF PAPAL ROME 



spends the whole day walking about these delicious 

 gardens and groves of pines and orange trees, which 

 afford him the greatest possible pleasure." * 



The Pope's collection of antiques, which daily received 

 new additions, was another source of continual delight, 

 and Federico filled his letters to his mother with glow- 

 ing descriptions of the Laocoon, which had lately been 

 dug up in the Sette Sale, near the Baths of Titus, and 

 which he longed to send home to Mantua. Only a 

 year after the discovery of the Laocoon, a Roman who 

 was digging in his garden in the Campo de' Fiori, 

 found a life-size image of Hercules wearing the lion's 

 skin, with a club in one arm and the boy Telephus on 

 the other. This statue was taken to the Belvedere 

 the same day, and the lucky finder was rewarded by 

 the Pope with a benefice worth 130 ducats a year. 

 At this time there was a perfect passion for antiques 

 in Rome, and the keenest competition prevailed among 

 cardinals and princes for the marbles that were 

 brought to light. Great excitement was caused when, 

 one day in January 1512, some masons who were 

 building a house near the Dominican Church of S. 

 Maria sopra Minerva discovered a large recumbent 

 statue of the river-god Tiber, with the wolf suckling 

 Romulus and Remus at his side. This group was 

 also secured for the Pope and brought to the Bel- 



1 A. Luzio, Federico Ostaggio, p. 9. 

 71 



