JOTTINGS FROM A TRAVELLER’S JOURNAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1024, 17 August 1883, Page 4

JOTTINGS FROM A TRAVELLER’S JOURNAL.

["WRITTEN BPEOIAMiYFOR THE ‘ 'ASHBURTON guardian;”]

No. XX. —(continned,) A Chapter op Ancient History—The Mpbo Tosto-t-A Legend of St. Peter >■ —A Rich Garden—An Obelisk .

As as she beard of his death, JJessalpna took possession of ths villa and ’"held High revels there with hernumerous lofttrs, with the most favored of whom, Silius, she had actually gone through the religious rites of marriage in the life time of the Emperor, Who was absent at Ostia. JBut a conspiracy among ■ the freedmen of the royal household informed the Emperor of what was taking place, and at last ~ even Claudius was aroused to a sense of . - her enormities. In her suburban palace Messalina was' abandonding herself to voluptuous transports. The season was mid-autumn ; the vintage was in full progress ; the wine-press was groaning.,; the ruddy juice was streaming ; women girt with scanty fawnskins danced as drunken /Bacchanals around her, while she herself , with her.hair loose and disordered, brandished the, thyrsus in the midst,* and 1 Silius by her side, buskined and crowned with'ivy, tossed his head to the flaunting : strains of Silenus and the satyrs. Yettius, one, it seems, of the wanton’s less fortunate ..paramours, attended the cereipony, and cnmbed, in merriment, a lofty, tree in the garden! When asked what, heisaw, he replied, “ an awful storm from Ostia,” and, whether there was actually such an 'appearance, or .-whether the words were' spoken-1 at random, they were accepted ~ afterwards as an omen of the catastrophe '■* whichquiokly followed. For now, in the midst of these wanton orgies, the nimor quickly spread, and swiftly messdrigers ~ arrived to. confirm dt, that Claudius knew it all, that Claudius was on his wSy to Rome, and was coming in anger and Vengeance. The lovers part. Silius- for the forum and the tribunals; Mea-

salina for the shade of her gar-' dens on the Pincio, the of the blood of the .murdered Asiaticus. <>Untoqrthe attempted tu ’to* 'meet Claudius, taking her children with her, and accompanied by Yibidia, the eldest of th'e~vestal virgins, whomishe’ persuaded to intercede for but iher prevented her gaining to her husband; yibidia was satisfied, ; for the moment,’ by 'vague promises of a tyter hearing, and upon the arrival of Claudius, in Rome, Siliua and the other principal lovers of the Empress were put.to death. Still iMesaalina. hoped.. She had withr tu thb gardens’ of and was there engaged in composing addresses of supplication to her husband in which her pride and long accustomed in-

r wUh 'tor fekra; The *' ' Emperor still paltered with the treason. He had retired to hia palace, be had bathed, anointed, and lain down to supper; and warmed with wine and fgenerous cheer; he had actually despatched a messenger to “ the poor creature,” as he called her, bidding her come ; the next > day and plead her cause before him. But her enemy Narcissus, knowing how easy might be the: passage from compassion to love, glided from the chamber and boldly ordered a tribune and some centurions to go and slay his victim, “ suoh,’\ he said, “vyas the Emperor’s command,” and his word was obeyed without hesitation. Under the direction of the freedman

Euodas, the armed men sought the outcast in her. gardens, where she lay/prbs- , i frite dn the ground by the side of her mother Lepida. While their fortunes flourished, dissensions had existed between the two; but now in her last distress, the mother had Refused to desert her child, and only strove to nerve her resolution to a voluntary death. “ Life,” she urged, H is’o*er ; naught remains but to look for a decent exit-from it.” But the sou! of the reprobate was corrupted by her vices, she retained no sense of honor. She con-

tinued tow.eep and groan as if hope still -. existed, when suddenly the doors were ; ’buwtppea,the tributei and his swordsmen appeared before her, and Euodas assailed her, dumb-stricken as she lay, 'with contumelious and brutal reproaches. ! ’Roused aft last to the consciousness of her desperate,.condition 1 , she took a weapon from one of the men’s hands, and pressed it,., trembling, against her throat and bosom- Still, she wanted resolution to giye tho thrust, and it was by a blow of . the tribune’s falchion that the horrid ’deed was finally accomplished. 1 The deatb of Aaiaticus was avenged on the very spqtr—the hot blood of the wanton smoked bn the pavement of his gardens and stained with a deeper hue the variegated marbles -of Lueullus. ’ ' . ,Who could walk about a locality where such scenes were, once enacted without - emotion ? f 11 At one corner of the grounds a frag- . merit of bid wall is seen, tt is called the Muro Tosto ; and is regarded. as too sacred 'tb' ! be ■ touched by the hands of modem architects and restorers. For. here, traditibn'says, St Peter played the hero. . ; He, who on a former occasion, displayed combative, inclinations by cutting off the ear of Malchus, defended this part of the wall with unflinching courage against the Yitiges. The gifted Hawthorne, whose reminiscences of Borne are deeply interesting, describes this relic as ■♦‘a massive fragment of the oldest Roman

wall, which juts over as if ready to tumble

down by its own weight, yet seems still the most , indestructible piece of work that men’s hands ever piled together.” How many generations have lived and passed away since the workmen laid these long thin brickg, and tempered the' mortar that holds them together. In Borne, not merely the actual remains of the hoary past you gaze upon excite feelings of indescribable interest, but the possible revelations of the localities all around stir imagination to its Utmost - tension. The authoress of “Ariadne” hasjiell said ;—“ You may watch a cabbage gardeh being dug, and under the careless stroke of the spade it may yield up imperial marbles, or broken household gods; you may speak to a village workman coming down frpm the bills into the streets, and he may give you, by mere chance, some priceless secret of the past as only a few years since the poor artificer of the Sabine mountains gave up the secret of the Etruscan goldsmiths’ chains.” Busts of many of the Emperbra.and illustrious men of Boman history line the broad walks of the Fincio,'reminding one of the words of the poet:— . How reverend is the view of those hushed heads, Looking tranquility. There Is also, at a central spot, an Obelisk that : was brought from. Egypt; It was originally erected by Hadrian and his wife Sabina, * to commemorate the death of theit son Antinous, who was drowned in the Nile. T ' (To be continued,).