Читать книгу Roman Antiquities, and Ancient Mythology - Charles K. Dillaway - Страница 21

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The porticos are worthy of observation: they were structures of curious work and extraordinary beauty annexed to public edifices, sacred and civil, as well for ornament as use.

They generally took their names either from the temples which they stood near, from the builders, from the nature and form of the building, or from the remarkable paintings in them.

They were sometimes used for the assemblies of the senate; sometimes the jewellers and such as dealt in the most precious wares took their stand here to expose their goods for sale; but the general use they were put to, was the pleasure of walking or riding in them, like the present piazzas in Italy.

Arches were public buildings designed for the encouragement and reward of noble enterprises, erected generally to the honor of such eminent persons as had either won a victory of extraordinary consequence abroad, or had rescued the commonwealth, at home, from any considerable danger.

At first they were plain and rude structures, by no means remarkable for beauty or taste: but in latter times no expense was thought too great to render them in the highest manner splendid and magnificent. The arches built by Romulus were only of brick, that of Camillus of plain square stone, but those of Cæsar, Drusus, Titus, &c. were all of marble.

Their figure was at first semicircular, whence probably they took their names; afterwards they were built four square, with a spacious arched gate in the middle, and small ones on each side. Upon the vaulted part of the middle gate, hung little winged images representing victory, with crowns in their hands, which, when they were let down, they put upon the conqueror's head, as he passed under the triumphal arch.

The columns or pillars, over the sepulchres of distinguished men, were great ornaments to the city: they were at last converted to the same design as the arches, for the honorable memorial of some noble victory or exploit. The pillars of the emperors Trajan and Antoninus deserve particular attention for their beauty and curious workmanship.

The former was set up in the middle of Trajan's forum, being composed of twenty-four great stones of marble, but so skilfully cemented as to appear one entire stone. The height was one hundred forty-four feet; it is ascended on the inside by one hundred eighty-five winding stairs, and has forty little windows for the admission of light. The whole pillar is incrusted with marble, in which are expressed all the noble actions of the emperor, and particularly the Decian war.

But its noblest ornament was the gigantic statue of Trajan on the top, being no less than twenty feet high; he was represented in a coat of armour proper to the general, holding in his left hand a sceptre, in his right a hollow globe of fire, in which his own ashes were deposited after his death.

The column of Antoninus was raised in imitation of this, which it exceeded only in one respect, that it was one hundred seventy six feet high—for the work was much inferior to the former, being undertaken in the declining age of the empire. The ascent on the inside was by one hundred six steps, and the windows, in the sides, fifty-six; the sculpture and the other ornaments were of the same nature as those of the first, and on the top stood a colossal statue of the emperor, naked, as appears from his coins.

Both of these columns are still standing at Rome; the former almost entire: but Pope Sixtus the first, instead of the two statues of the emperors, set up St. Peter's on the column of Trajan, and St. Paul's on that of Antoninus.

There was likewise a gilded pillar in the forum, called the milliarium aureum, erected by Augustus Cæsar, at which all the highways of Italy met and were concluded; from this they counted their miles, at the end of every mile setting up a stone, whence came the phrase primus ab urbe pisla.

But the most remarkable was the columna rostrata, set up to the honor of Caius Duilius, when he had gained a victory over the Carthaginian and Sicilian fleets, four hundred ninety-three years from the foundation of the city, and adorned with the beaks of the vessels taken in the engagement. This is still to be seen at Rome; the inscription on the basis is a noble example of the old way of writing, in the early times of the commonwealth.

Trophies were spoils taken from the enemy, and fixed upon any thing as signs or monuments of victory: they were erected usually in the place where it was gained and consecrated to some divinity, with an inscription.