JOTTINGS FROM A TRAVELLER'S JOURNAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1054, 19 January 1884, Page 4

JOTTINGS FROM A TRAVELLER'S JOURNAL.

[SPECIALLY WRITTEN POE “ THE ASHBURTON GUARDIAN. ”]

OHAP. XXV.—"(Continued). The Theatre of Margrllus—The Appxan Way—An Historical Spot—The ■ •Baths op OarraoilLla—Their His-

tory. .... * We passed the remains of the vast theatre of Marcellas, a building projected by Julius Cseaar, but erected byAuguatus. It was capable of containing twenty thousand spectator a. The imperfect rum, magnificent even in its ruins, now serves only to display more strikingly the infenority of thepaltry modern erections that surround it. We drove under the arch of Constantine down the Via Triumphabs, and came to the Porta Caporia. We talked of many things, and amongst others of the disputes of the learned concerning the exact site of the gate that marked the commencement of the A.ppian Way, t B i without-troubling ourselves about minute topographical questions we were content to know that we were entering the Appian Way, famous alike in secular ar.d sacred history. -We' were on, or near the spot where’Hbratins, In a fit of patriotic pride and passion,' drew his sword and stabbed his sister to theHieart, because sho bewailed the death of her lover, me of the languished Ouriatii, whose cloak, worked by hex own hands,., was borne on the shoullers of her brother as a spoil of war. |fa could not broolc even the tears of a betrothed- »Utep*hen shed id memory of fide oftthe enfemiea of. Rome ; And so he killed TiWLßSjing—“ So perish the Roman maidefe%W«hair weep for her conn-try-s enemy .’’ Lisy tell ua that-a tomb WM-ereptedonthe spot to commemorate the fate of the'murdered maiden. But this, together with many other historical, buildings that anciently stood in this locality—the temples of Mars and Hercules, and of Honour and Virtue, and the fountainofMercury—have all disappeared, not a trace, pf them remains. _ A little to the left a valley was pointed out to ns as the site of the grove where Numa Pompiliua held mysterious consultations with the nymph Egeria. Turning up the Via Antonina we arrived at the ruins of the bath*'of Cataoalla, perhaps the most stupendous of the relics of anoient Home. I hey are scattered over an area of 2,625.000 square yards. Shelley, the*,poet, waa.eaamouredof this spot, maXwhb'ria. said to have written the greater part of his poem ‘‘ Prometheua Unbound while seated on the su mit of one of the massive walls —speaks of •* the flowery glades and , thickets of odonriferous blooming trees, which are extended in ever winding labyrinths upon its immense. platforms and dizzy arches suspended on the aiy.’’; But if such verdant drapery graced the ruins in his day, they are . now stripped and bare, and stand naked' .before the spectator in all their gaunt but still grand proportions. Well might Ammianns Marcillinus exclaim, “the Roman baths are like provinces !" Imagination can scarcely picture the , magnificence of this structure when it stood uninjured and perfect, the resort of'the wealthy and the focus of the fashion ; and, alas ! also of the vice and vagrancy of the great city. History furnishes abundant evidence that these baths encouraged other and less praiseworthy habits than . cleanliness. Nay, snr flagitious were many of the practices common amongst the bathers that the earlv Christians went to the opposite extreme of considering uncleanlinesß from disuse of bathing VirtueDistinctive names have been 1 given to the chambers still . existing.;, but they, are regarded as puroly fanciful. 1 The visitor may not be blamed if he hesitates in adopting the nomenclature of the guide whoconduots him successively to the Galedariunti, the Irftconionm, the i epedarium, theFrlgidarium, and other hypothetical diviaiohh. "Some of the choicest specimens of art now to be seen in the Vatican and other museums were found in the halls and passages and chambers of these baths. «Wfr a&g&fo’flfcuinV of the- pugilists desin a former letter, He colossal Flora, the-SVrnese bull, the Atrens and Thyestes/ the besides,'innumerable caineoa v medals ‘and bas> reliefs were discovered liefev I cannCt venture-'.upoft-'a ; detailed' description of than vast’ ruins, but will endeavor to convey- tolthe readsr>an idea of the' grandeur of the original structure by quoting the eloquent description given by the historian of the Decline and Fall of the Roman' Ernpi'e ; ’ —“ These Thermae- of Oamfcklla,iwhiclv were one mile in circumference'SiOdbpen at stated hours, for the Indiscriminate service of the senators and theJpeople’j AontaiiiAd -Above sixteen hun* dredseats’- lo£ i fliaifblej hufW t walls of the i-Jofty- were' covfere’d with-’burtons mCsaics that imitated the srtscrf"tbeipenoil in elegance of design and in ,*to~- Variety colors. The Egyptiab' granite .-'was' -beautifully encrusted with the precious green marble of Nuta«lis;'>-i The perpetuAFstyream 1 bMiot watwr-'isme .poured-into , the capacious so fcfiany wide months of bright and massy silver and the meanest Roman’could puf6haße‘ I With‘a small copebjoyinfenl of a scene of envy-bf-the-Kifige of Asia;' From thCse' stately palaces issued forth,, a swarm of dirtyilnu ringed without shees and without''mantle,' who.. away Whole days in the street pf faium./to hear news and hold disputes, who dissipated in extravagant gaming, the miserable pittance, of,.their; wives apd and apeni'itne hbura of thejn. the indulgence of gross and vulgar sensuality. ”, I must reserve the narrative of the remainder; pf -the day’s • excursion for my ■ : ' Viator.