ROME. 



of Conftantine, of Alexander, of Domitian, or rather of 

 Titus, fome veftige might yet be found. 4. The tri- 

 umphal arches of Titus, Severus, and ConStantine, were 

 entire, both the Structure and the infcriptions ; a falling 

 fragment was honoured with the name of Trajan ; and two 

 arches then extant, in the Flaminian way, have been afcribed 

 to the bafer memory of Fauilina and Gallienus. 5. After 

 the wonder of the Colifeum, Poggius might have overlooked 

 a fmall amphitheatre of brick, mod probably for the ufe 

 of the Praetorian camp : the theatres of Marcellus and 

 Pompey were occupied in a great meafure by public and 

 private buildings ; and in the circus Agonalis and Maximus, 

 little more than the fituation and the form could be invelti- 

 gated. 6. The columns of Trajan and Antonine were ftill 

 ere£t ; but the Egyptian obelilks were broken, or buried. 

 A profile of gods and heroes, the workmanfhip of art, 

 was reduced to one equeftrian figure of gilt brafs, and to 

 five marble ftatues, of which the moil confpicuous were the 

 two horfes of Phidias and Praxiteles. 7. The two maufo- 

 leums or fepulchres of Auguilus and Adrian could not 

 totally be loll ; but the former was only vifible as a mound 

 of earth ; and the latter, the caftle of St. Angelo, had ac- 

 quired the name and appearance of a modern fortrefs. With 

 the addition of fome feparate and namelefs columns, fuch 

 were the remains of the ancient city : for the marks of a 

 more recent Structure might be detected in the walls, which 

 formed a circumference of ten miles, included three hundred 

 and feventy-nine turrets, and opened into the country by 

 thirteen gates. 



Of the Government of Rome under the Popes. — For this part 

 of our article we {hall be chiefly indebted to the jullly de- 

 nominated " Clafiical Tour through Italy," by the Rev. 

 I. C. Euftace, whofe partiality for whatever is papal, may 

 render him, perhaps, fomewhat partial as an hiftorian. In 

 fpeaking of this government, as it existed previoufly to the 

 ravages of the French at the clofe of the laft century, he 

 fays, though defpotic above all controul, it is exercifed by 

 the pontiff with mildnefs, and fubmitted to by the people 

 with refpeft. The facred character of the bifhop influences 

 both the fovereign and the fubject. The government is 

 elective ; promotion depends in a great degree upon talents 

 and virtues ; and, confequently, there is a (limulus to exertion 

 and a fcope for honourable ambition. As for the origin of 

 the temporal fovereignty of the popes, it may be molt ho- 

 nourably and firmly eitabliihed on the confent of the people. 

 After the expulfion of the Goths, when the arms of the 

 Eaftern emperors had re -conquered, but were incapable of 

 protecting Italy ; when the incurfions and menaces of the 

 Lombards kept the city in conltant alarm, and peftilence 

 and famine had preyed upon it ; the Romans naturally turned 

 their eyes to their bilhops, and found in them the fupport 

 which they had vainly folicited from their fovereigns. The 

 pontiffs had till that period been as eminent for their virtues 

 as for their Station, and when forced by public diilrefs to 

 take a considerable fhare in the administration of the Hate, 

 they difplayed a prudence equal to their fandtity, and a be- 

 nevolence as extenfive as the poffeffions of the Roman 

 church. " We fee them," fays Mr. Euftace, " in the feventh, 

 eighth, and ninth centuries, protecting Rome on one fide 

 againft the attacks of the Lombards, and fecuring it on the 

 other from the rapacity and treachery of the exarchs, re- 

 pairing its walls, feeding its inhabitants, engaging diStant 

 princes in its interelh, and finally reltoring the majeSty of 

 its name in the new empire. Rome, indeed, feems to owe her 

 exiftence to her pontiffs ; and had not the chair of St. Peter 

 replaced the throne of the Csefars, and the feat of empire 

 become the fandtuary of religion, Rome would probably 

 4 



have funk into a heap of uninhabited ruins, and left to 

 pofterity nothing more than the •wh'ijlling of a mighty 

 name." 



From the re-eftablilhment of the Weftern empire to the 

 tenth century, the popes employed their influence in op- 

 pofing the growing power of the Saracens, and in protect- 

 ing the coafts of Italy, and the capital itfelf, againft the pre- 

 datory incurfions of thofe barbarians. Shortly after com- 

 menced their contefts with the German Caefars : but how- 

 ever much the popes may be cenfured, as ecclefialtics, in 

 thofe destructive quarrels ; as princes and as Romans they 

 may claim indulgence, as they Struggled againlt foreign in- 

 fluence, and finally fucceeded in freeing Italy from the yoke 

 of a German, a barbarian, and an abfen.tee ruler. The dif- 

 putes of the popes with the barons and the Roman people 

 were founded on the jult oppofition of a firm government, 

 to the arrogance and tyranny of an ariilocratic body on the 

 one fide, and to the licentioufnefs of a turbulent populace 

 on the other. But Rome has jult caufe to deplore and con- 

 demn the folly and the perverfity of her pallors, when they 

 forfook her venerable walls, and fubmitted to voluntary 

 exile, alternately the inftruments and victims of French in- 

 trigue and ambition. Of all the difallers that befel Rome 

 in the long feries of her eventful hiftory, this, perhaps, was 

 the mod pernicious both in its immediate effects and diltant 

 confequences, and to it may be afcribed the degradation of 

 the nobleft monuments, the depopulation of the capital and 

 its neighbourhood, and the evils that anarchy and tyranny 

 never fail to bring in their train. Thefe evils continued to 

 operate long after their efficient caufes had ceafed to exill, 

 and the popes, during many ages after their re-eftablilhment 

 in Rome, had to Struggle with the reftlefs and unbridled 

 paflions excited by the guilt or the folly of their abfentee 

 predeceflors. Sixtus Quintus fucceeded in breaking the 

 fpirit of the barons, and having brought the people to fub- 

 miflion, he rellored order, peace, and indultry, to the Ro- 

 man States. 



From this period Rome rapidly increafed in profperity, 

 riches, and population, and became the feat of the arts and 

 fciences, the centre of political negociation, and not unfre- 

 qjiently of courtly intrigue. Moll of the fucceeding popes 

 took an active part in the public tranfaClions of the times, 

 fometimes as mediators, but too frequently as parties con- 

 cerned, with a view to national interests, or to family ag- 

 grandizement. Their conduct, in this refpect, though little 

 conformable to the principles of their profeflion, was advan- 

 tageous to their territories, as it brought wealth to the in- 

 habitants, and reflected luttre on a city, at the fame time the 

 metropolis of the Christian world, and the capital of an ex- 

 tenfive and flourifliing country. - 



The reformation produced at the time little or no dimi- 

 nution of the temporal greatnefs and consideration of the 

 popes : fo little indeed, that in the century following that 

 event, Rome feems to have enjoyed a fplendour and pro- 

 fperity not witneil'ed within her walls fince the fall of the 

 empire. Hence it has been obferved, " that if Pyrrhus's 

 ambaSTador could with propriety call the Roman Senate in 

 his time a consrefs of kings, a Similar appellation might 

 with equal veracity be applied to the modern fenate of Rome, 

 the college of cardinals, during the feventeenth century. 

 That affembly was, Strictly fpeaking, compofed of princes, 

 the fons, nephews, brothers, or uncles of the firll fove- 

 reigns in Europe ; men who not unfrequently, as ftalefmen 

 and ministers, had held the reins of empire at home, or as 

 ambaSTadors, reprefented their royal relatives abroad. They 

 either generally refided or frequently alfembled at Rome, not 

 only to difcharge their duties about the perfon of the pon- 

 tiff, 



