Part 11 (1/2)

CHAPTER VI.

PANTHEON, COLUMN OF MARCUS AURELIUS, MAUSOLEUM OF AUGUSTUS, MAUSOLEUM OF HADRIAN, AND NEIGHBOURHOOD.

[Sidenote: The Septa.]

Near the Piazza Venezia and S. Marco, to the east of the site of the ancient Circus Flaminius, stood the Septa, an ancient building erected for the purpose of holding the Roman comitia or elections. Some ruins of a very peculiar kind are situated under the Palazzo Doria and the church of S. Maria in Via Lata. They consist of ancient piers of travertine stone, about thirty-nine inches square, standing in rows at distances of five or six yards, and evidently belonging to the remains of a portico. There are three rows of these, each containing eight piers under the Palazzo Doria, and five rows under the church of S. Maria in Via Lata, containing each five piers. It is plain that these were originally faced with marble, as the exterior surface of the travertine is rough hewn. The situation of these pillars agrees well with the locality in which the Septa are placed by cla.s.sical writers, and a further proof that they certainly formed a part of that building is given by the Capitoline map, upon which we find a large tract occupied by a building resting upon piers arranged in regular rows exactly corresponding to the piers under the church of S. Maria and the Palazzo Doria. Upon these fragments the letters SaePT and LIA are legible, which appear to belong to the words SaePTA JULIA.

The shape of the building is very peculiar. It must have reached along the side of the Via Lata from the Piazza di S. Marco to the church of S. Maria in Via Lata, and consisted of a long cloister supported by parallel rows of eight marble piers. This cannot have been the arrangement of the place in the Republican or early Imperial times, for a design less adapted for the orderly meeting of a large body of people can hardly be conceived. It is much more probable that in the present ruins we have the remains of Hadrian's Septa, built when the original purpose of the building, the reception and division of the centuries when they voted, had become an affair of the past.

The design of these s.p.a.cious covered cloisters seems to have been to afford a sheltered place for various cla.s.ses of the Roman populace. Even in Domitian's time the Septa had become the common resort of slave vendors, dealers in fancy goods, flaneurs and loungers, and the new arcades were intended possibly for the express accommodation of such persons. The wide court in which the great a.s.semblies of the centuries had previously been held was partly filled up by these new buildings, and partly occupied by private houses, as the Capitoline plan shows. When that plan was prepared, in the time of Septimius Severus, the old Septa had entirely lost their form and original use, and the name only remained attached to the s.p.a.cious colonnades of Hadrian.

In the early times of the Republic the Septa were simply an enclosed place on the Campus Martins part.i.tioned off into a number of different plots by means of ropes or slight railings, in each of which one division of voters or century a.s.sembled, and whence the presidents pa.s.sed one by one over the pontes to deliver the vote of their respective century. Hence arose the nickname of ovilia, which was given to the septa on account of their similarity to a sheepfold. Julius Caesar first entertained the idea of setting up marble enclosures for the comitia centuriata, and surrounding them with a magnificent portico. The whole formed a s.p.a.cious cloistered court, decorated with works of art, and closely connected with the Villa Publica. Caesar's design was completed after his death by Agrippa in B.C.

27, and he gave the building the name Septa Julia. A rostrum was erected in it, and such was the extent of the s.p.a.ce enclosed that gladiatorial shows, and sometimes naumachiae were held there. This was afterwards altered by Hadrian as above described.

[Sidenote: Temples of Isis and Serapis.]

Westwards from the septa and nearly upon the site now occupied by the church of S. Stefano del Cacco, the little Via di pie di Marmo and a part of the church of S. Maria sopra Minerva, stood the temples of Isis, Serapis, and Minerva Chalcidica.[91] The names of the three temples are given in the catalogue of the Curiosum in the ninth region, and the sites of the two first, the Iseum and Serapeum, have been sufficiently traced by the numerous Egyptian antiquities which have been found near the church of S. Maria sopra Minerva. Of these the most remarkable are the two obelisks, one of which now stands in the Piazza della Rotunda in front of the Pantheon, and the others on the Piazza della Minerva. The latter of these was found between the church of S. Ign.a.z.io and that of S. Maria in the time of Alexander VII. in 1665, and the former had stood, previously to its erection on the present pedestal, in a little piazza near this place, whence it was removed by Clement XI. The antiquarian Fea, in his Miscellanea, gives an account of various other Egyptian relics found on the south-east side of the church of S. Maria sopra Minerva, which undoubtedly belonged to the Iseum and Serapeum.[92]

Among these was a statue of Isis now in the hall of the dying gladiator in the Capitol, the two Egyptian lions now at the foot of the steps of the Capitol; the famous group of the Nile now in the Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican, and two fragments of an altar with Egyptian reliefs, and the inscription ISIDI SACRUM. Further traces of the same Egyptian wors.h.i.+p were found by Canina in the year 1852, of which he has given an account in the Annali dell' Inst.i.tuto of that year. The emperors Commodus and Caracalla were particularly given to the wors.h.i.+p of Egyptian deities, and the emperor Alexander Severus is said to have bestowed additional decorations upon those temples. The third temple, that of Minerva Chalcidica, which was restored by Domitian, together with the Iseum and Serapeum after the fire in A.D. 80, stood nearer to the Pantheon, and probably occupied the site of the present church called S. Maria sopra Minerva. The statue of Minerva, formerly in the Giustiniani Palace and now placed in the Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican, was found here. Some few remains of pilasters which are built into the foundations of the houses between the Via della Minerva and the Via di pie di Marmo may have belonged to this temple.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Pantheon.]

[Sidenote: Pantheon.]

At the same time with his Thermae, which occupied this district, Agrippa built the famous dome, called by Pliny and Dion, and in the inscription of Severus on the architrave of the building itself, the Pantheon, and still retaining that name, though now consecrated as a Christian Church under the name of S. Maria ad Martyres or della Rotunda. This consecration, together with the colossal thickness of the walls, have secured the building against the waste of time, and the still more destructive attacks of the barons of the Middle Ages, who destroyed most of the other great edifices of imperial Rome by either making them their strongholds or pulling them down for building materials. The p.r.o.naos rests upon sixteen granite columns, with marble Corinthian bases and capitals. It was formerly approached by six steps, but two only are now above the level of the surrounding ground. The architrave and frieze are plain, and on the latter stands the inscription, which formerly, as may be seen by the holes for nails, was formed by metallic letters:

M . AGRIPPA . L . F . COS . TERTIUM . FECIT.

Agrippa was consul for the third time in B.C. 27, so that the building is now 1906 years old. Another inscription in smaller characters stands under this upon the two upper ledges of the architrave, commemorating the restoration of the building by Severus and Caracalla. The pediment, as may be seen by the holes of the metal fastenings, formerly contained a bronze relief representing Jupiter hurling thunderbolts upon the giants. The roof of the p.r.o.naos was originally arched, but the vaulting has been replaced by strong beams, and on the outside the gilded bronze has been replaced by lead. In the interior of the p.r.o.naos, on each side of the entrance are two huge niches which formerly contained the statues of Augustus and Agrippa, but are now empty.

The p.r.o.naos is connected with the rotunda by two ma.s.sive projections of masonry ornamented at the sides with marble pilasters and exquisitely worked reliefs in pentelic marble representing candelabra and sacrificial implements entwined with wreaths. These connecting walls originally rose to an equal height with the walls of the rotunda, but are now hidden by the bell towers, erected by Bernini in the time of Urban VIII. about A.D.

1625.

The doorway is of magnificently carved marble slabs, and the folding doors, moving on ma.s.sive hinges fixed in two projecting pilasters, are of exquisitely worked bronze.

The rotunda rests on a rectangular base, similar to those which support the cylindrical part of the mausoleum of Hadrian and the tomb of Cecilia Metella. In the parts where the thickness of the wall is not lessened by niches in the interior, it has the amazing breadth of nineteen feet of solid brickwork. In addition to this it is strengthened with numerous arches built into the wall. Three cornices run round the exterior of the rotunda and divide it into three rings, the lowest of which was faced with marble, and the two upper with stucco. The dome springs from the second cornice, and consists first of a ring of masonry seven feet high, and then of six concentric rings, presenting on the exterior the appearance of six steps. The top is flat, and is pierced in the centre with a large round opening twenty-seven feet in diameter. Round the opening is a ring of ornamental gilded bronze, which is the only part of the old bronze gilt roof now remaining. The masonry of the dome is of wedge-shaped pumice stones, chosen for this purpose on account of their lightness. The same kind of stone is used in several other buildings in Rome where lightness combined with moderate strength is required. The exterior of the dome is flat and heavy, and impressive only from its stern and ma.s.sive solidity.

The proportions of the interior are altogether different, and have been universally admired for their elegance, and the exquisitely simple taste with which they are decorated. The lower part contains eight deep niches, alternately semicircular and square, in one of which the entrance doors are placed, while the others were filled with statues of deities, now replaced by Romish altars. They are decorated with pilasters, and two Corinthian columns stand in front of each, supporting the entablature which runs round the whole interior. Between the eight princ.i.p.al niches are eight smaller ones, now used as altars, faced with aediculae consisting of two small columns with entablature and pediment. The two ring cornices in the interior answer in position to the lower exterior cornices. Above the upper cornice which runs quite round the building there were originally twelve niches surrounded with elegant marbles and stucco work.

These were altered in 1747, and their effect injured by the introduction of heavy pediments, and by the removal of the marbles and stucco work. The interior of the roof is relieved by well-designed rectangular coffer work, decreasing in size towards the apex of the dome so as to give the impression of height and s.p.a.ce. The floor is laid with slabs of Phrygian and Numidian marble, porphyry, and grey granite, in alternate squares and circles, set in reticulated work. In the centre it has a depression pierced with small holes to carry off the rain water from the aperture above. This drain probably communicated with the great cloaca built by Agrippa to drain the Campus Martius. The proportions of the interior of the dome are admirably adjusted, so that no part of the building has an undue prominence, contrasting favourably in this respect with S. Peter's, where the immense size of the piers on which the dome is supported dwarf the upper part too much. The Pantheon will always be reckoned among the masterpieces of architecture for solid durability combined with beauty of interior effect.

The Romans prided themselves greatly upon it as one of the wonders of their great capital, and no other dome of antiquity could rival its colossal dimensions.[93] The height from the pavement to the crown of the dome is 143 feet, half of which is occupied by the cylindrical wall and half by the dome; this height is insignificant when compared with S.

Peter's, the dome of which is 405 feet from the pavement to the base of the lantern, and the exterior appearance of S. Peter's is far finer, but the diameter of the Pantheon is the greater, and the proportions of the interior more harmonious.

The inscription a.s.signs its completion to the year B.C. 27, the third consuls.h.i.+p of Agrippa. For a long time the mistaken notion prevailed that the building was dedicated to Juppiter Ultor, a misapprehension arising from a corrupt reading in a pa.s.sage of Pliny, where the words Jovis Ultoris had been inserted instead of diribitori. The original name, Pantheon, taken in connection with the numerous niches for statues of the G.o.ds in the interior, seems to contradict the idea that it was dedicated to any peculiar deity or cla.s.s of deities. The seven princ.i.p.al niches may have been intended for the seven superior deities, and the eight aediculae for the next in dignity, while the twelve niches in the upper ring were occupied by the inferior inhabitants of Olympus. Dion hints at this explanation when he suggests that the name was taken from the resemblance of the dome to the vault of heaven.[94]

Originally, to all appearance, the Pantheon was not intended for a temple, but for a part of Agrippa's Thermae. Its shape corresponds very closely with the description given by Vitruvius of the Laconic.u.m or Sudatio attached to all Roman Thermae. He recommends a dome-shaped building, with a round opening like that of the Pantheon at the crown, which can be opened or closed at pleasure, so as to lower or raise the temperature, by the removal or application of a lid (clypeum) moved by chains.

And on an examination of the p.r.o.naos it will be found that the stones in its upper part, which abut on the central building, are not bonded into it, but are only placed against it, showing that the p.r.o.naos was an after-thought, and was not erected till the rotunda had been finished.

Agrippa must have changed the design of the building after the completion of the dome, and, perhaps because he found it too vast for the purposes of a sudatio, or because he thought it too splendid a building to be employed for such a purpose, have determined to dedicate it to the G.o.ds of heathendom. The bronze gilt statuary, the work of Diogenes of Athens, with which the temple was decorated, was much admired by the Roman connoisseurs, and in particular the group upon the pediment and the Caryatides. The statue of Venus was adorned with the two divided halves of the famous pearl of Cleopatra, fellow to the one which Cleopatra is said to have dissolved in vinegar in order to win her wager that she could spend ten million sesterces in one dinner.