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
"Cicero obtained public grants for the restoration of his house and
of his Tusculan and Formian villas, but very far from enough to
cover the losses he had suffered. The aristocratic part of the
Senate appears to have envied and grudged the _novus homo_ to whose
abilities they looked for protection. He was advised not to rebuild
his house on the Palatine, but to sell the ground. It was not in
Cicero's temper to take such a course; but he was hampered ever
after with debts. Clodius, who had been defeated but not beaten,
still continued his persecutions. He organised a gang of street
boys to call out under Cicero's windows, 'Bread! Bread!' His bands
interrupted the dramatic performances on the Palatine, at the
Megalesian games, by rushing upon the stage. On another occasion,
Clodius, at the head of his myrmidons, besieged the Senate in the
temple of Concord. He attacked Cicero in the streets, to the danger
of his life; and when he had begun to rebuild his house, drove away
the masons, overthrew what part had been re-erected of Catulus'
portico, and cast burning torches into the house of Quintus Cicero,
which he had hired next to his brother's on the Palatine, and
consumed a great part of it."--_Dyer's City of Rome_, 152.
The indemnity which Cicero received from the state in order to rebuild
his house on the Palatine, amounted to about 16,000_l._ The house of
Quintus Cicero was rebuilt close to his brother's at the same time by
Cyrus, the fashionable architect of the day.[133]
Among other noble householders on this part of the Palatine was Mark
Antony,[134] whose house was afterwards given by Augustus to Agrippa and
Messala, soon after which it was burnt down.
A small _Museum_ in this part of the garden contains some of the
smaller objects which have been found in the excavations, and specimens
of the different marbles and alabasters. There is nothing of any great
importance. The fragments of statues and some busts which have been
found (including Flavia Domitilla, wife of Vespasian, and Julia,
daughter of Titus), have been sent to Paris, but casts have been left
here.
We have now made the round of the French division of the Palatine.
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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