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
Male visitors are admitted through the convent to its large and
beautiful _Garden_, which overhangs the steep side of the Cœlian
towards the Coliseum, of which there is a fine view between its ancient
cypresses. Here, on a site near the monastery, are some remains believed
to be those of the temple built by Agrippina (_c._ A.D. 57), daughter of
Germanicus, to the honour of her deified husband (and uncle) Claudius,
after she had sent him to Olympus by feeding him with poisonous
mushrooms. This temple was pulled down by Nero, who wished to efface the
memory of his predecessor, on the pretext that it interfered with his
Golden House; but was rebuilt under Vespasian. In this garden also is
the entrance to the vast substructions known as the _Vivarium_, whence
the wild beasts who devoured the early Christian martyrs were frightened
by burning tow down a subterranean passage into the arena.
The famous Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo at Venice was founded by
emigrants from this convent. The memory of these saints was so much
honoured up to the time of Pope Gregory the Great, that the eve of their
festival was an obligatory fast. Their fête (June 26) is still kept with
great solemnities on the Cœlian, when the railing round their place
of execution is wreathed and laden with flowers. When the "station" is
held at their church, the apse is illuminated.
Continuing to follow the lane up the Cœlian, we reach the richly
tinted brick _Arch of Dolabella_, erected, A.D. 10, by the consuls P.
Cornelius Dolabella and Caius Julius Silanus. Nero, building his
aqueduct to the palace of the Cæsars, made use of this, which already
existed, and included it in his line of arches.
Above the arch is a _Hermitage_, revered as that where S. Giovanni di
Matha lived, and where he died in 1213. Before he came to reside here he
had been miraculously brought from Tunis (whither he had gone on a
mission) to Ostia, in a boat without helm or sail, in which he knelt
without ceasing before the crucifix throughout the whole of his voyage!
Passing beneath the gateway, we emerge upon the picturesque irregular
Piazza of the Navicella, the central point of the Cœlian, which is
surrounded by a most interesting group of buildings, and which contains
an isolated fragment of the aqueduct of Nero, dear to artists from its
colour. Behind this, under the trees, is the little marble _Navicella_,
which is supposed to have been originally a votive offering of a sailor
to Jupiter Redux, whose temple stood near this; but which was adapted by
Leo X. as a Christian emblem of the Church,--the boat of St. Peter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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