There is an air of grandeur and strength in the | The wood, however, has several disadvantages comCedar, when full grown, that renders it far superior pared with box; it is not so close-grained, and conin appearance to any other of the cone-bearing tribes. sequently could not be used for very fine engravings; Its mantling foliage or shadowing shroud," is its and its dark colour and resinous nature render it greatest beauty; this, from the peculiar sweeping difficult to draw on with effect, the latter quality soon horizontal growth of its branches forms a graceful causing a pencil drawing to become obliterated, and covering of foliage, impervious to the heat and rays its colour preventing the lighter shades being seen, so of the sun, thus producing a depth of shadow that that a pen and ink drawing is the only practical mode greatly increases its otherwise elegant appearance. in which it could be used. The contrast of different tints is a contrast of surfaces only, and therefore the feeling that it produces wants the elements of duration, without which no feeling can be said to be truly sublime. The contrast of light and shade in the same tint of colour, is, on the other hand, inseparable from a feeling of solidity and duration; and it is not possible to look upon a Cedar, without having the association that it is a lasting tree. The Cedar of Lebanon has been cultivated in Great Britain for a century and a half, and many good examples of it are to be found in different parts of the country, even as far north as Scotland. It is not of quick growth during the first few years, but after the lapse of eight or ten years, its increase in size is very rapid, and it soon becomes an ornament to the spot on which it was planted. The hardy nature of the Cedar, and its power of enduring the varying weather of our variable Spring, has been proved; the Pines of Canada, and even of Labrador, have had their shoots blighted by frosts, which have not in the least affected the Cedar of Lebanon. That the Cedar likes moisture, appears from the fact of those in Chelsea Gardens showing signs of decay soon after a neighbouring pond had been filled up. Mr. Mudie, in his Botanical Annual, says that These circumstances point out the Cedar of Lebanon as peculiarly adapted for ornamental planting in Britain; and as it grows as fast to a large tree as the oak, stands as long or longer, is green all the year round, and therefore a shelter to the land, at the same time that it is the most ornamental of all large growing trees, it is somewhat singular that the planting of it has not become more general. The same author observes that the timber of the Cedar is of a good colour and most agreeable odour, works well, and is sufficiently close in the grain to enable the engraver on wood to use it instead of boxwood; to prove this, an engraving of the cone and leaf of the Cedar, brought from Lebanon itself, forms one of the illustrations to the work we have quoted. The mountains of Lebanon, which, in the time of Solomon, were noted for their immense Cedar- forests, are at present but thinly covered with this stately tree. The timber of the Cedar appears to have received greater credit for durability than it deserves, owing, no doubt, to the frequent mention made of it in the Scriptures. Evelyn, in his Sylva, sums up its supposed merits in the following words: It resists putrefaction, destroys noxious insects, continues preserving books and writings, purifies the air by its effluvia, a thousand or two years sound, yields an oil famous for inspires worshippers with a solemn awe when used in wainscoting churches. In the temple of Apoilo at Utica, was found timber 2000 years old. At Saguntum, in Spain, a beam, in an oratory consecrated to Diana, was brought from Zante, two centuries before the destruction of Troy; Sesostris built a vessel of cedar of 280 cubits! LONDON: Published by JOHN WILLIAM PARKER, WEST STRAND; and sold by all Booksellers. 202 SOME ACCOUNT OF THE CITY OF ROME PART THE FIFTH, THE CAPITOLINE HILL. "To most persons," says Dr. Burton, "the Capitoline Hill will be even more interesting than the Palatine. The earliest history of Rome makes us acquainted with the latter, but the Capitol is conspicuous through every stage of its grandeur," The learned writer might have extended our interest in it over a still wider field; in the Rome of the middle ages, the Capitol plays as important a part, comparatively speaking, as it played in the Rome of antiquity. Not only "the Sabines, the Gauls, the republicans, the imperialists," but also "the citizens of papal Rome," to use the words of Sir John Hobhouse, "have all contended for dominion on the same narrow spot." This is the smallest of the seven hills; its circuit at the base is not a mile. In its form it resembles, roughly speaking, a flat ellipse, whose greater diameter is equal to two of its shorter diameters; or in other words, it resembles an oval, half as broad as it is long. The general direction of its length is nearly north and south; the distance from the northern to the southern extremity along the top is about thirteen hundred feet, and the breadth of the hill at the middle of its length, about half as many. The top of the hill exhibits a peculiar conformation; instead of presenting one level surface, it rises at the two extremities into two summits, between which lies the rest of the hill, sunk a little lower, like a small plain or valley. This plain was called by the ancient Romans the Intermontium,-or "Between-Mounts," as we may say; it is still called Intermonzio at the present day. If we consider the Intermontium as itself a square hill, and the two summits as two higher semicircular hills joined on to its northern and southern sides respectively, we shall have a rough notion of the Capitoline mount, such as it would appear in its natural state. We have already described the Palatine as forming a sort of centre round which the other six hills are arranged. Among these six the Capitol finds its place on the northwest of this centre; or, in other words, the Capitol has the Palatine on its south-east. On its north-east it has the Quirinal, the only hill besides the Palatine which approaches at all near to it. On the south-west it has the Tiber, just where that river makes a bend and alters its course from the south-east to the south-west. To the west and the north it opens directly upon the large plain of the Campus Martius, in which the great bulk of the modern city is built. From this description the reader will understand that while the circuit of Rome was confined to its seven hills, the Capitol was just at the western edge of the city; in fact, the western wall of the city passed along the whole of the western side of the hill from its northern to its southern extremity. The Campus Martius, which lay to the west of the Capitol, was thus outside of the city; in fact, it continued for a long while to be an open field in which the consuls and other magistrates were elected, and to which the citizens resorted as a suburban place of exercise and amusement. In process of time it became covered with buildings; and when at length it was enclosed within the walls by Aurelian, the Capitol, instead of, as formerly, having the city wholly upon its east, had it partly upon the east and partly upon the west. At the present day the eastern half of Aurelian's city is nearly uninhabited; so that now instead of having, as at first it had, the whole city upon its east, or as it afterwards had, a part of the city upon its east and a part upon its west, the Capitol has scarcely anything but deserted districts upon its east, and nearly the whole of the reduced bulk of the inhabited city upon its west. These changes in the relative position of the Capitol towards the bulk of the city, consequent upon the rise and decline of Rome should be clearly understood by a reader wishing to become acquainted even slightly with its topography. and even thus early investing the hill with that peculiar sanctity which constantly attached to it in the eyes of the Romans throughout the whole period of their greatness When Evander is visited by the Trojan prince, he conducts his guest over the site of the future city, and points out the memorable localities, the cave of Cacus, the spot on which afterwards stood the Carmental Gate, the grove of the Asylum,-the Lupercal: Thence to the steep Tarpeian rock he leads, Now roofed with gold; then thatched with homely reeds. Among the rude) e'en then possessed the swains, Th' Arcadians thought him Jove; and said they saw And either place the founder's name retains. THE CAPITOL OF THE MONARCHY AND THE REPUBLIC. WHEN Romulus had founded his city on the Palatine the forest which in after times, Juvenal, in one of his satires, after allowing that the In the war which broke out between the Sabines and the Romans, three Latin towns on the Anio, allies of the former, were successively overpowered; and the king of one of them was slain in an engagement, by the hand of Romulus himself, and stripped of his armour. The conqueror returning to his infant city entered it, at the head of his rejoicing soldiers; and this rude procession was the first beginning of those splendid triumphs with which in after ages the Romans celebrated their conquests. He then ascended the Capitoline Hill, bearing the spoils of his slain enemy on a frame fashioned for the purpose, and there hanging them upon an oak-tree held sacred among the shepherds, he offered them under the name of Spolia Opima, or "Rich Spoils," to Jupiter, whom he honoured with the epithet of Feretrius, or "Bearer of Spoils." the same time he marked out the bounds of a temple which he dedicated to the god, to be the seat of the Spolia Opima, which thereafter should be offered by any leader of the Romans who might slay the king or commander of an enemy. "This," says Livy, "is the origin of the temple which, of all, was the first consecrated at Rome." remarks also that the promise of future spoils, implied in the dedication of Romulus, was not a vain one; neither was the value of the offering diminished by the frequency of the repetition. Only "twice afterwards, during so many years, so many wars, were the Spolia Opima obtained; and the number was never increased after Livy's time. At He Before the foundation of Rome, this hill is said to have Very shortly after this event, the Sabines set out to been called Saturnia, or Mons Saturnius; and there attack Rome. The Capitoline, or Saturnian Hill, as it was seems to have been a tradition among the Romans, that a still called, seems upon this occasion to have first assumed town was built upon it before the settlement of Evander the appearance of a fortress; its steep rocky sides rendered on the Palatine. Virgil has availed himself of this tradition, it naturally a place of strength, and for its further security and his fancy has left us a picture in the time of Æneas, it was now encompassed with a ditch and palisade. Into artfully adapted as usual to the vanity of his countrymen, ❘ this strong hold Romulus threw a garrison; and here too he caused the husbandmen to retire with their flocks in the night. The Sabines were saved the trouble of forcing their defences; for, according to the old story, they gained possession more easily through the treachery of Tarpeia, the daughter of the Roman commander. It appears that having gone without the walls to draw water, the damsel was seized by the Sabines; when dazzled by their ornaments of gold, she agreed, on consideration of receiving the bracelets which they wore on their left arms, to open to them a gate of the fortress by night. She fulfilled her promise and claimed her reward; the Sabines threw their shields upon her, their king himself setting the example, and she was crushed beneath the ponderous load. She was buried where she fell, and for many ages yearly libations were poured on her tomb; and the memory of her crime was vividly preserved among the Romans of succeeding generations, by the association of the name of Tarpeia with the rock from which traitors were hurled in after-ages. Yet it was a subject of dispute among the ancient historians themselves, whether she was really a traitress to her country; for, according to another story, it was her object to lure the Sabines within the fortress, that they might encounter a certain destruction, and although her scheme was unsuccessful through the neglect of her countrymen, it was discovered by the enemy, and by them punished with the forfeiture of her life. It is said that, after her death, the whole hill exchanged the name of Saturnius for Tarpeius, which it retained, until it acquired the more glorious and lasting appellation of Capitolinus. When peace ensued between the Romans and the Sabines, and the two nations became united into one people, the Sabines settled upon the Saturnian, or Tarpeian Hill. The arx, or citadel of Rome, seems to have been afterwards formed upon this hill; it originally occupied the southern summit, or that approaching towards the Tiber, but as the entire mount was afterwards enclosed by walls and fortified, the appellation of arx became applied indiscriminately to the whole. According to Sir William Gell, the fortress was supplied with water by a deep well at the foot of the rock, into which buckets were lowered through an artificial groove or channel, for the passage of which the face of the precipice was cut into a perpendicular. This channel must have been protected by a wall to prevent an enemy from possessing himself of the well. "No labour," says that writer, was saved by the excavation of the well at the foot of the cliff instead of on the summit, for Mr. Laing Meason found a gallery or passage cut in the solid rock, for the purpose of descending from the top towards the water; it was, therefore, from some superstition that the well was constructed beyond the walls of the fortress, which, as we have before remarked, was the case almost universally." The fourth successor of Romulus, Tarquinius, surnamed Priscus, or the Elder, has the merit of founding the great temple which formed the chief ornament of this hill. That monarch, when engaged in a war with the Sabines, vowed that if he came off victorious, he would build a temple to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. The Sabines were defeated, and, in fulfilment of his vow, Tarquinius prepared a site for the building. He selected one of the summits of the Tarpeian Hill, and rendered it fit for his purpose by raising up a lofty wall round its rugged peak, and filling up the hollow thus made. He died before he could carry the work further; and the full accomplishment of his vow was reserved for his son Tarquinius Superbus, or the Proud, the seventh and last king of Rome, who engaged Etrurian workmen for the task, and employed in it the Romans' share of the booty of Suessa Pometia, a city of the Volsci, which, in conjunction with his Latin allies, he had taken and destroyed. The foundation of the temple was, of course, accompanied with remarkable prodigies. It appears that the ground chosen was already occupied by several altars and chapels, which had been consecrated by the Sabines; and the augurs were directed to ascertain if the deities to whom these were sacred would yield their place to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. The auguries were consulted, and allowed the removal of all except the shrines of Terminus and Juventus, the gods of "Boundaries" and "Youth" respectively; these deities stoutly refused to stir, and their obstinate tenacity was received as a happy omen that the boundaries of the Roman land should never recede, and that the state should be for ever young. A second prodigy still more remarkable, as indicating the future magnitude of the Roman dominion, followed upon digging for the foundations. A human head with the face entire, "as of one newly slain," presented itself to the workmen. Tarquinius stopped the progress of the works, and called in the soothsayers; the meaning of the prodigy lay too deeply hidden for the native professors of the art, and reference was had to their Etruscan brethren. By these it was interpreted as an omen that the spot should be the "citadel of empire and the head of things." The temple-or the building-or both, received accordingly the name of Capitolium, from the Latin word Caput, signifying a head; and it was said to be dedicated to Jupiter Capitolinus. The hill also exchanged the appellation of Tarpeius for that of Mons Capitolinus, or the Capitoline Mount. At a subsequent period the name of the temple, and of the summit on which it stood, was extended to the whole hill; and Capitolium was applied indifferently to all three, just as the arx was applied to the other summit and the whole hill also. This confusion of names in the ancient writers is a source of much annoyance to antiquaries. From whence the story of the head arose, as Dr. Burton observes, "it is impossible to discover; but the invention of the prophecy was at least politic: and it is singular how early the Romans seem to have talked of the extended empire which their descendants were one day to hold. It may, however, be objected, that several expressions which Livy puts into the mouths of his speakers, were purposely used by him without reference to the feelings of those times." Encouraged by these omens, Tarquinius proceeded on a scale of greater magnificence; so that as Livy says, "the booty of Pometia, which had been destined to carry the work to its summit, scarcely sufficed for the foundations." The people were forced to contribute their labour, receiving from the king a scanty measure of food in exchange, and we are told that they felt little aggrieved at having to build the temples of their gods with their own hands, though they worked unwillingly when compelled by the same monarch to complete the Circus Maximus, and the Great Sewers of the city. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who wrote in the time of Augustus, gives us the following description of the temple as it stood in his days; the edifice which he describes is not that which Tarquin built, but he himself tells us in what respects it differed. "It rested upon a lofty foundation; its circuit was eight hundred feet, and each of its sides very nearly two hundred; as to the small difference between them, one would find the excess of the length over the breadth, to be scarcely fifty full feet. For it is upon the very same foundations that, after its burning, it was rebuilt in the time of our fathers, differing only in the greater costliness of the materials from the old structure. The front, looking towards the south, has a triple row of pillars; the sides a double row. Within it are three parallel shrines, having common sides; the middle one is that of Jupiter; on the one hand is that of Juno, and on the other that of Minerva, all covered by one roof." Their THE CAPITOL OF THE REPUBLIC. TARQUINIUS was driven from Rome before the dedication of the temple which he had built; the performance of that ceremony was reserved for the first or third year of the infant republic. The two consuls, Valerius and Horatius, drew lots for the honourable task; it fell to the latter, and the friends of his rival, (who was himself absent, conducting a war,) feeling much aggrieved thereat, strove by all means to prevent Valerius from fulfilling it. last resource was to interrupt him while in the very act or addressing his prayer to the gods, with the "foul tidings," that his son was dead. "Whether it was," says Livy, "that he did not believe the fact, or that the strength of his mind was so great, is not recorded as certain, nor to be easily understood; but, nothing moved from his purpose, further than to order the dead body to be carried out for burial, he kept his station, went through the prayer and dedicated the temple." The temple thus dedicated, endured upwards of four hundred years, or throughout the greater part of the republican period of Rome. We have no direct description of the building in detail; but from the scattered references in the pages of ancient writers, we may suppose, that though majestic from its size, it had very little of that magnificence which is derived from richness of materials and splendour of decoration. About three hundred years before the Christian era, it was adorned with brazen thresholds, the produce of fines levied upon some unfortunate usurers-a class of men, whose involuntary contributions to the public works of ancient Rome are more than once recorded by Livy, in winding up the events of a year. At the same time, a statue of Jupiter was placed on the summit, with a chariot drawn by four horses; it was, probably, of bronze, though, afterwards, a gilt one was placed there. More than a century afterwards, the pillars of the building were "made smooth and plastered," by the Censor Emilius Lepidus; and from this it is inferred, that their material was brick, or at least, that it was not stone. After the fall of Carthage, when the age of Roman luxury may be said to have commenced, the Capitol first became entitled to that epithet of "golden," which was afterwards so constantly associated with its name; for in the year 142 B.C., the timber roof was gilt on the interior. It was then, too, that a pavement of mosaic was laid down. 666 We frequently read of valuable offerings being deposited in this temple. When the Dictator Camillus triumphed, in the year 388 B.C., so many captives were led before his chariot, that a portion of the money resulting from their sale, was expended in three golden cups, which were placed in the shrine of Jupiter, before the feet of Juno. Nine years afterwards, Titus Quintius Cincinnatus, who was then dictator (not the celebrated dictator of that name), having reduced Præneste and its eight subject towns, bore the enemy's standard in his triumph, and deposited it in the Capitol. It was consecrated between the shrines of Jupiter and Minerva, and underneath it was fixed an inscription, "in nearly these words," as Livy says, Jupiter and all the gods granted that Titus Quintius, dictator, should take nine towns." The shield of the Carthaginian general, Asdrubal, which formed a part of the booty acquired by the Romans, when they stormed his camp in Spain, during the second Punic war, was another of the trophies which decorated the Capitol; it was of silver, weighing one hundred and thirty-eight pounds, and was suspended over the door of the temple. There seem to have been a great many of these trophies affixed to the columns of the building; for we are told, that the same censor, Lepidus, who had the pillars themselves "made smooth and plastered," in the year 181 B.C., " removed from them the shields and the military standards of every kind, as seeming unsuitably placed against them." On the top of the temple, besides the statue of Jupiter already mentioned, there was a figure of the god "Summanus," in a car drawn by four horses, all of baked clay; the deity mentioned under this name is supposed to be Pluto, but Ovid himself was doubtful to whom it really belonged. The statue of Jupiter which stood within this temple, was, of course, an object of interest. According to Pliny, it was originally of baked clay, and, as some readings have it, painted red. Immortal Jove, framed by a potter's hand, So says Ovid, writing under Augustus, and referring to former times. To the same effect may be adduced the authority of the satirist Juvenal, who, when lamenting the aversion of the gods from the age of vice and splendour, in which he lived, contrasts it with the signal favour shown to the more humble and virtuous generations which preceded, alluding, in particular, to the preservation of the Capitol from the Gauls. Then, then the majesty of temples showed The expression used by both these writers, iterally denotes an image "made of clay or earth." The first "profanation" with gold, seems to have been about 180 years after the repulse of the Gauls, when a thunderbolt of that metal, weighing fifty pounds, was presented to the deity; this was one of the measures resorted to at the instance of the keepers of the Sibylline books, to appease the wrath which the gods were supposed to have evinced by certain prodigies. This temple, with all the treasures which it contained, was burnt down in the year 84 B.C., during the civil war of Marius and Sylla. It was rebuilt by Sylla, upon the same foundations, but with more costly materials; the pillars were of a variegated marble, and were brought from the temple of Jupiter Olympius at Athens. "The man who had so deeply imbrued his hands in his country's blood," says Mr. Burton, "was not permitted to consecrate the national sanctuary. Sylla died before the dedication, and that ceremony was performed by Catulus, whose name was inscribed upon it." It was Catulus, too, who had the bronze tiles upon the roof gilt,-an act for which he was censured by some of his contemporaries, as one of extrava · gance. It is of this second edifice that Dionysius speaks in the description already quoted. About the same time that the temple was restored, Catulus erected upon the Intermontium of the Capitoline Hill, in the part overlooking the Forum, the great Tabularium, a record-office, and its massive substructions, of both of which some portions are still to be seen. The Sibylline books were preserved in the temple, in a stone chest, under ground. The story of them is variously told. According to one version, a strange woman presented herself before Tarquin, bearing nine books, for which she demanded a certain price, very great. The king refused to give it. The woman accordingly departed, burnt three of the books, and returning, demanded the same price for the six which remained. The king still refused to give it, and even ridiculed her as a senseless old woman; she a second time departed and burnt three; then again returning, demanded the same price for the three which were left. Surprised at this strange proceeding, Tarquin consulted the augurs, who declared their regret at the loss of the books which had been burnt, and advised the king to buy the three which remained at the price demanded. He did so, and the woman having delivered up the books, with an injunction that they should be carefully preserved, departed, and was never afterwards seen. Tarquin committed them to the care of two men of illustrious birth, who bore the title of Decemviri or Decemvirs; one of whom he is said to have punished for being unfaithful to his trust, by ordering him to be sewn up alive in a sack, and cast into the sea,-the punishment afterwards inflicted on parricides. The number of guardians was afterwards increased to ten, of whom five were patricians, and five plebeians; and afterwards to fifteen and sixteen. The secrecy in which their contents were wrapped, was never violated except by a decree of the senate, in seasons of danger and distress. These books were burnt when the first Capitol was destroyed by fire. THE CAPITOL OF THE EMPIRE. THE second temple of Jupiter was destined to stand a the reign of the "beastly Vitellius," during the commotion much shorter time than its predecessor. It was burnt in which preceded his downfall and murder. Of this calamity Tacitus has left us an eloquent description. Vespasian, the successor of Vitellius, rebuilt the temple, and is recorded to have begun the work by labouring at it with his own hands. This third edifice was burnt in the reign of Titus. The Emperor Domitian restored it; he adorned it with columns of Pentelic marble brought from Athens, but, according to Plutarch, by smoothing and polishing them too much, he injured their proportions, and made them too slender. He followed the example of Catulus in gilding the outside of the roof, but the profusion of the emperor far exceeded that of the republican consul, twelve thousand talents, or about £2,400,000 of our money, are said to have been expended by him in that part of the building alone. The extravagance of Domitian in this and other public works, led to that exceeding severity which accompanied the exaction of the capitation-tax from the Jewish people. It was the opinion of a contemporary of the emperor, that if he were to reclaim from the gods the sums which he had expended upon them, even Jupiter himself, though he were to hold a general auction in Olympus, would be unable to pay a twelfth of his debts, or, as we should say, 1s. 8d. in the pound. If Cæsar all thou to the powers hast lent, |