ITALY. 



663 



Some of the figures are admirable, but 

 there is no perspective, or light and shad- 

 ow. At Pompeii the baths are the per- 

 fection of elegance and convenience. 



The obelisks were antiquities to some 

 of the ancients ; they were of remote an- 

 tiquity when Rome was in her splendor. 

 All were brought from Egypt wiih incred- 

 ible labor and expense. Yet, when in mod- 

 ern times one (and not the largest) was to 

 be removed a short distance to the Piazza 

 of St. Peter's, years of preparation elaps- 

 ed, and application was made for advice 

 to men of science over Europe. It was 

 set in its place after fifty-two trials. The 

 obelisks are of one shaft of granite. The 

 largest, though broken and reduced, that in front of St. John de Lateran, is upwards of 100 

 feet in height. It is contemporary with the Trojan war. To transport it, the Romans 

 diverted the course of the Nile. The obelisk on Monte Citorio, formerly served as a gnomon 

 in the Campus Martius. The other principal obelisks are on the Esquiline and Pincian, and 

 Coslian hills, in the Piazza del Popolo, and before the church of St. Mary the Greater. 



The tombs of the Romans partake of the magnificence of their public works ; the ruins of 

 them line the Appian Way for miles. The most perfect and beautiful is that of Cecilia Me- 

 tella, the wife of Crassus ; the only tomb which has an inscription. It is a circular edifice, 

 composed of huge blocks of stone ; and the walls are 24 feet in thickness. The sarcophagus 

 has been removed to the Vatican. The tomb of Augustus is large enough for an amphithe- 

 atre, and it has circular ranges of vaults, for it was intended for all the emperor's dependants. 

 The tomb of Adrian was also of great magnitude, and go strongly built, that it is at this day 

 the citadel of Rome, the castle of St. Angelo. The pyramid of Caius Cestius perpetuates 

 the name of a man unknown to history ; it is 113 feet in height and 60 in breadth, at the base. 

 At Mola di Gaeta is a ruin supposed to mark the spot where Cicero was killed. The tomb 

 of the Scipio family is a vault, and the sarcophagus of Scipio Barbatus is so elegant that it is 

 often copied. The sarcophagus of the empress Helena is celebrated ; but nothing is more 

 common than these sarcophagi. There are thousands of them, and the swine may be some- 

 times seen feeding from them. Various funeral inscriptions both in Greek and Latin are set 

 in the walls of an entry, at the Vatican. The catacombs are passages excavated for miles in 

 extent under the city of Rome, and in various directions. They are supposed to have been 

 dug out for materials for building, and they sometimes offered retreats to the persecuted Chris- 

 tians. They were used also as cemeteries, and the bones were formerly seen on a sort of 

 shelves hollowed out in the walls. But they have all been converted to pious uses, and ex- 

 ported as the relics of saints, over the Catholic world. A cardinal had the care of this 

 lucrative traffic. At Naples a great attraction is the tomb of Virgil, or what tradition affirms 

 to be such. It is near the grotto of Pausilippo, in a charming spot, halfway up the hill. It 

 is a small arched dome, with a fev/ niches oi- columbaria. 



There are some remains of ancient roads, especially of the Appian Way, which is the most 

 distinct at Terracina. It consists of hard hexagonal stones, fitted exactly to each other. At 

 Rome is preserved the first mile-stone on this road. At Rimini, there is an ancient bridge, 

 a great monument of architecture ; but at Rome none of the ancient bridges are entire. The 

 Pons Fabricius has much of the old part remaining, and there is a vestige of the Pons Tri- 

 umphalis. There is a single fallen arch of the bridge where Codes fought. The piers and 

 arches of the bridge of St. Angelo are ancient. At Pausilippo, near Naples, the road passes 

 under a hill by what is called the grotto of Pausilippo, which was of remote antiquity in the 

 time of Strabo. It is straight and level, and a little lighted by two orifices from the top of 

 the hill. It is wide enough for three carriages to pass abreast, 40 or 50 feet in height, and 

 about a quarter of a mile in length. Twice in the year the sun shines through it. Nothing 

 can be more enchanting than to pass through the grotto from the Pozzuoli side, and to come 

 at once from its darkness to all the glories of earth, sea, and sky, that belong to the Bay of 

 Naples Th'. grotto of the Sybil at Cuma, is a similar passage but smaller. 



Caracalla s Baths. 



