THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 
21 
CHAPTER in. 
THE VATICAN GARDENS, ROME. 
A 1. THOUGH the Vatican hill was not surrounded with w'alls until the ninth century, 
the ground now occupied by the gardens has been a sacred spot from prehistoric 
tunes 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 sueh 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 
Piazza of St. Peter. This obelisk, which towered over the spifia of the circus, enjoys the 
distinction of never having been levelled to the ground, for it was onlv re-erected in its present 
position. Here w'as 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 w'riters 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 citv. 
As time wore on this part of outlying Rome w'as deserted, and shared the general decay. 
Writers in the eighth century characterise the Vaticanum as “ the detestable fields,” from the 
29. — PLAN OF THE VATIC.AN GARDENS. 
From Boiuiiii. 
