Walks in RomeHare, Augustus J. C. (Augustus John Cuthbert)
History
Walks in Rome
Hare, Augustus J. C. (Augustus John Cuthbert)
Rome (Italy) -- Description and travel
"We passed on to the arch of Titus. Amongst the reliefs there is
the figure of a man bearing the golden candlestick from the Temple
at Jerusalem, as one of the spoils of the triumph. Yet He who
abandoned His visible and local temple to the hands of the heathen
for the sins of His nominal worshippers, has taken to Him His great
power, and has gotten Him glory by destroying the idols of Rome as
He had done the idols of Babylon; and the golden candlestick burns
and shall burn with an everlasting light, while the enemies of His
holy name, Babylon, Rome, or the carcass of sin in every land,
which the eagles of His wrath will surely find out, perish for ever
from before Him."--_Arnold's Journal._
"The Jewish trophies are sculptured in bas-relief on the inside of
the arch beneath the vaulting. Opposite to these is another
bas-relief representing Titus in the quadriga, the reins borne by
the goddess Roma. In the centre of the arch, Titus is borne to
heaven by an eagle. It may be conjectured that these ornaments to
his glory were designed after the death of Vespasian, and completed
after his own.... These witnesses to the truth of history are
scanned at this day by Christians passing to and fro between the
Coliseum and the Forum; and at this day the Jew refuses to walk
beneath them, and creeps stealthily by the side, with downcast
eyes, or countenance averted."--_Merivale, Romans under the
Empire_, vii. 250.
"The restoration of the arch of Titus reflects the greatest credit
on the commission appointed by Pius VII. for the restoration of
ancient edifices. This, not only beautiful, but precious monument,
had been made the nucleus of a hideous castellated fort by the
Frangipani family. Its masonry, however, embraced and held
together, as well as crushed, the marble arch; so that on freeing
it from its rude buttresses there was fear of its collapsing, and
it had first to be well bound together by props and bracing beams,
a process in which the Roman architects are unrivalled. The simple
expedient was then adopted by the architect Stern of completing the
arch in stone; for its sides had been removed. Thus increased in
solid structure, which continued all the architectural lines, and
renewed its proportions to the mutilated centre, the arch was both
completely secured and almost restored to its pristine
elegance."--_Wiseman's Life of Pius VII._
The processions of the popes going to the Lateran for their solemn
installation, used to halt beside the arch of Titus while a Jew
presented a copy of the Pentateuch, with a humble oath of fealty. This
humiliating ceremony was omitted for the first time at the installation
of Pius IX.
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