TWO BOOKS ON ROME.*

PROFESSOR LANCIANI'S beautiful new book, New Tales. of Old -Rome, may be described as a companion volume to his well-known Pagan and Christian Rome. It is divided into eight chapters, each, as in the former book, complete in itself, and mostly dealing with subjects of even greater interest, at least for those to whom the most enthralling study in Rome is that of the recent discoveries among its ancient monu-

ments. Professor Lanciani's charming way of writing about these things, the happy union in him of the mind of a scholar, an antiquary, an archaeologist, with the eye of an artist and the picturesque touch of a romancer, makes him an

enchanting guide among these wonders of the old world. He, more than any other writer with whom we are acquainted, ought to be able to comfort those who have still, in Rome, nothing but regrets for that mediaeval past which has so largely vanished, destroyed by the same modern spirit which excavates the Forum and brings back to the light of day an older world still. The mediaeval world tore down remorselessly those ancient

monuments to build its own. A new Rome always rises out of the old ; it is a law of the city's life, as Lanciani

himself has pointed out before now. We can even foresee a time, as " the whirligig of time brings in his revenges," when any scrap of Middle Age or Renaissance work will again be mere valued than the classical ; when the precious discoveries of to-day will once more sleep under a shroud of green grass, and young trees will spring again among the great bones of the Coliseum.

However, in the present day there is an immense amount of very romantic interest to be found in these excavations, -which more and more, after the manner of all modern dis-

coveries, tend to prove how much more truth than falsehood underlay the historical legends and traditions on which the oldest of us were brought up. Professor Lanciani's first chapter is occupied with the recent discoveries in the Forum, and especially that of the black stone that marled, according to early writers, the tomb of Romulus, the founder of the city. The excavations in the Sacra Via have brought to light a great deal of information regarding early Roman religion, drawn chiefly from discoveries on the site of the Regis, the devastation of which was finally accomplished by Paul III. in search of materials for the finishing of St. Peter's. This is a subject difficult to enlarge upon without exaggera- tion, especially when we see, from the glorious fragments

• remaining, of what kind were the marble treasures then sawn up for use or thrown into the lime-kiln.

" The early paganism of Rome, with the many superstitions belonging to it, the paganism which has not in fact lost its hold on Italy, and which will last, probably, as long as materialism allows any spirit of fancy to move in the beautiful Nature where it was born, is illustrated by many most curious facts and discoveries recorded in the chapters called " The Sacred Grove of the Arvales " and " Strange Superstitions in Rome." Paganism was of course absorbed by Christianity ; but seldom, so much as in Rome and Southern Italy, has the conqueror stepped into the garments and dwellings of the conquered. Perhaps that period of transition, in its more picturesque aspects, is the most romantic and curiously fascinating in Roman history. Gibbon's way of looking at it all is not the only way; the methods of Christianity were not always barbiroas. "The religious transformation Of the Campagna "—most pagan of distzicts—" was gently brought

about" ;—

"The picturesque shrines which the explorer of the Campagna and of the Sabine and Vulscian districts mee,s at the crossings of roads and !apes havo not changed their site or purpose; only the crescent which once shone on the forehead of Diana the huntress is now trodden by the feet of the Virgin Mary, who also appears crushing the head of the snake once sacred to Juno Lanuvina ; but the wild flowers still ptrfume with their delicious • (1.) Mu Tales of Old Rome. By Rodolfo Lanciani. Profusely ithistratcd. London: Macmillan and CO. [243.j—(2.) Rome, the Eternal City: Religions, Monuments, Literature, and drt. 2 cols. By chin F.rdsiro Cionent. I Illustrated. Lotidon Goy and, Bird. [25s.1 scent the iconetta,' as the shrine is still called in the Byzantine fa-bion among our peasantry, and the sweet oil, instead of being poured Over the altar, burns before the image of the Mother of Grid in quaint little lamps. The month bf Daly, once sacred to the Dea Dia, has become the month of Mary."

Some of Professor Lanciani's most striking pages deal with

the mysterious superstitions connected with the worship of Cybele, the Mother of the Gods; and in a description of the search made by himself and Signor Visconti in the sacred field ofQybele at Ostia, which resulted in the finding of the Venus Clotho, now in the Lateran, and the recumbent statue of Atys, he makes us realise the unique joy of the excavator

in seeing a bronze hand or a marble bead appear above the surface of the earth. Such episodes as this and many others, such as the finding of the extraordinary ships in the Lake of Nemi, quite remove any suspicion of scientific dryness from

these studies, and make the book more interesting than any romance dealing with the past.

The later chapters are not so much concerned with ancient

Rome as with the traces left by various foreign nations from the early Middle Ages to the present day. This is a very interesting subject, and might well fill a volume ; but here Professor Lanciani only deals with Jewish, English, and Scottish memorials in Rome. He has collected a number of curious facts which will be new to the ordinary reader. He

bestows a good deal of space on Cardinal York, a very respectable man who, so far as we know, did only one bad action, that of destroying the venerable temple of Jupiter Latialis on Monte Caro, in order to rebuild a church and convent of Passionist monks We wonder that a Roman antiquarian is content to say, as he generously does, Reguiescat in pace over such a Prince of the Church as this.

The other book before us is an ambitious effort, in which the letterpress is hardly on a level with the general get-up and the illustrations. But it is not by any means a book to be passed over among the mass of Roman literature, if only because of the fearless way in which it challenges attention. The two large volumes are bound and covered in brilliant scarlet—an unfortunate choice, some people will think I—and finished off regardless of expense. They are full of illustrations, photo-etchings and woodcuts, in- cluding views in Rome and pictures of all her greatest worn of art. The maps and plans are very good. The contents include the whole religious, archaeological, artistic, and literary history of Rome, from the earliest times to the Renaissance, with a great quantity of collected information regarding the manners and customs of the city at various periods. One may say, indeed, that all which is known about Rome has found its way in between these gorgeous covers. But never, perhaps, was there a stronger instance of the fact that the actual contents of a book matter much less than the way in which they are arranged and presented. The author has taken enormous pains, and those—they will probably be young persona in search of knowledge—who read through her eight hundred pages will find a great deal to satisfy them. But nobody, we are afraid, will read the book for pleasure.' The style is stiff and awkward, sometimes baldly simple, sometimes complicated and confused to a

degree rather unaccountable in a writer of such wide study. Here and there it is impossible to know what she means.

Such a sentence as this, for instance, seems to defy interpre- tation. Writing of the days of St. Jerome, the author says : " Great numbers of women were counted among the Christian martyrs, and a little later they were numerous among the Apostles." This must have some meaning; but what its it? A curious confusion of ideas, too, seems to haunt the mention of Horace and his library : " The most ideal portion of his life, however, was passed on his farm, where he had a well.

selected library, in which he wrote many of his satires."

At the same time, we repent, the author of Rome, the Eternal City has worked hard upon her tremendous subject; the has studied all kinds of authorities; she knows her Roma, and loves it with a passion which is real, though disappointing in exnressior..