CURRENT LITERATURE.
Historic and Monumental Rome. By C. J. Hemans. (Williams and Norgate.)—This is an enlarged and rewritten edition of Mr. Hemans's " Story of Monuments in Rome and its Environs," published in 1865. It is a work which should be read in connection with any guide to Roman monuments, for it gives in a very compendious and convenient form an account of what they were, and how they came to be what they are. One is inclined to wonder, when we read what Rome once contained, that so little should be left. In the fifth century, after the capture by the Goths, but before that by the Vandals, Rome contained, among other things, 424 temples and 1,352 fountains ; and in the time of Justinian, about 120 years later, it could show 3,785 bronze and marble statues of distinguished persons, besides a multitude of others. On the other hand, it is almost a marvel, considering what the city has gone through, that anything should be left. If a Teutonic Papacy had had its seat there, the destruction of the relics of pagan antiquity would probably have been much more complete. As it is, the Popes have done a good deal in the way of destruction. Sixtus IV. destroyed the tomb of Sylla to restore the Flaminian Gate,—a double atrocity ; Alexander va destroyed the arch of Marcus Aurelius to make a better approach to the race-course ; Innocent VIIL rebuilt the Church of St. Maria in Via Leta out of the materials of the arch of Diocletian; Urban VIII. and Benedict NW. despoiled the Pantheon ; and Paul V. demolished the temple of Pallas. The present Italian Government has, it seems, destroyed the Porta Salaria, the gate by which Marie entered, and which bore the marks of " Gothic " treatment. To visitors at Rome this volume must be most useful; any reader ought to find it interesting.
Previous page
