THE ASHES OF A CÆSAR.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2012, 10 June 1885, Page 2

THE ASHES OF A CÆSAR.

Hamlet traced in imagination the noble (luafcof Alexander until it wag found stopdead, and tinned to day, " Might atoplftJiolg to Koepith&iwiwl awdy," But it ivas 'reseife'd for tJiis : a||fo ,: 'bf "eiirprises to preßent : the aletuakfacfc of a Csesar's dust being employed for the 'lye of a Roman "woman|s Wasli-ttib. ! "-The description Tapitus giyesof thfe events confioetetj'witly' fclie fragi<| ! <|eara qfp|Emperor' l |luHt particular iiiterfestfor 'the L for it includes 'sdlne : |opogtapM ; i) l tions. wifji % M ,ili|i m flieriiii and gpxraM fyr fpftHK and others, b||t J fugt late tlje faptg jn' illjigttftlifin"' pf impprtflni; dSvgry that has been mado in connection with them, and what followed it, On the 18th day before the calends of February, a.d. 69, Galba was present at a sacrifice in the Temple of Apollo, when he heard that Otho had been declared Emperor by the Guards. Galba hesitated as to what course to pursue. Should he folW the of Tit,! YiiiiPiftliy 'G&isiif, Vhfi advised his bapriq,iding himself in the Palaoe, or adopt the mora vigorous moasures recommended by Laco and others ? He decided for the . latter, and, girding on his cuirass, was carried.in a litter down to the forum. The porticoes of the Basilicas, and the steps of the temples wpyq crowded vfith people, alarmed, and yet unaMe 'to uMerstahii l the: ; n'a'fai'e' o( tM inipeiidirig "revolutiori. "Oalba' was'bonie about in various directions by the pressure' of the ' multitude.' Again "1$ Tw\ij diyideilby counsels, return to thoPalace; qthers fop taking possession pf the Rostra and the Capitol. At this juncture Otho's adherents, w}th swords drawn, rushed headlong into the Forum, The people fled in consternation, Galbi/s litter was overturned; a soldier pf the 15th legion out the Emperor's throat as ■he lay upon the .ground; another hacked the head from the body, aWd, as there was-rio; hair to carry it by, 'ttfrust' his 'finger'into ffie mouth, and carried it,thus, Jike a codfish. toOtho. I '".' " .

But these tragedies were accompanied

' by another, just as bloody and far moro piteous. Only four days previously balba had adopted Piao Lieinianus as Mb sun and successor, and proclaimed him - , UEsar. He was a young man of illus-' r tnous descent, add had scarcoly completed > his 31st year, His father was M. Licinius Crassus, and his mother,' Scribonia, was the great grand-daughter of Pompey the Great. Suetonius and Plutarch speak of 1 him as a youth of great promise. He had suffered adversity, but his worldly pros- ■ pects were now,bright, and lie,was happy 1 in his marriage with Verania, daughter of ' Quintus Yeranius, Piao, after addressing the soldiers from the steps of tht? f palace, and making other efforts to turn the< tide, accompanied Galba down to the Forum. By the devotion of the centurion of the guards attending him, he was able in the confusion to escape into the House of the Ve3tals. One of their slaves gave him shelter in his room, but finally, having been discovered by Sulpicious Floras, a British soldier, and Statius Marcus, a Pnetorian, who had been sent by Otho in quest of liini, he was dragged forth and butchered in front of the temple. When the head of Galba was taken to Otho he exclaimed, " Nihil est hoc, 0 cominilitones; caput Pisonis mihi osfcenditeand the head of Piso was severed from his body and carried to the new He'gazed on it with supreme satisfaction, and then, yielding to the gilded supplica- ' tiohs of Yerania, sold it with the body to her for a'large sum of money. The mutilated remains of Piso—l quste now also - from'the information just obtained—were, religiously burdt by,' his.f (distracted widow arid his brother Seribonius, and his ashes were finally, enclosed in a handsome white marble cippw, placed in the tombofthe,Licinian family on the Via Appia, a short distance outside the Porta Oollina, : The site of the Curtian Lake, where Galba fell from his litter and was butchered; the remains of the. temple of Juliua, where Vinius was slain, and of,the House of. the Vestals, i into whiih , Piso fled, have all been restored to light, . We. can stand at those spot-s and call tip the memory of the events themselves;ancl now 'the actual scene where the last act of this tragedy, as it concern Piso, was performed, has-been discovered. The wovkmeu busy in digging tliJ foundations. ,fw one of die new line- oP houses, just within the modern Porta Salvia encountered that by no means rare phenomenon of the ground.bounding hollow beneath. them, and there below' they founk a vaulted chamber, the hypogeum of a family tomb, with sevon handsome eippi standing in their places around it—that in which the weeping Ycwm placed the alabaster .urn .confining thft ashes of her husbantl exactly }s() years ago, and those whwsyx the TOpjnjs of his father, one oJI\ } $ brothers, and four other momtapf 14a family wore deposited. with these-cippi; a beautiful bronze statuette about. 2ft, in height was standing in the tomb,, but it was. hidden . by some of the workmen, and found its way, as was afterwards ascertained, into the possession of .a Russian collector, who paid G.OOOf, for it, and sent ifc out of Rows at once, _ The sellers Qf antiquities obtained in this fashion h&Ye never tim% to haggle about prices, an<\ one %ay wel] s Upppae v - therefore, that the statuette to' wo/iji at four times what the or the receiver got for it. BmUhis to sot all, When the owner of the property, Sigitpr Maraim, who naturally enough, in the circumstances, was somewhat tardily informed the discovery, went down to see i|j. 41 the cippi had been opened, and the cinerary urns which were in theiru had all d.isappearec, excepting one of rave Oriental alabaster* ft had also, been opened, and was empty, " Where,", asked Signor Jlaraini, "are the ashes, that were in these monuments ?" ''•Ashe??" replied the man, as if astonished. " Yes, ashes," repeated SignerMaraini, "Well," he answered, " in truth there were ashes, and a great many, of them, but I never dreamed that they were of the slighest importance, and, as they were very white and clean, k ho ■mcolte in wia casta, eMo mandate alh mia-.moglie per fare |il bucato" ("1 gathered them together into a basket, and Bent thorn to my wife to make lye of for her washing"). And thus have the ashes of an Imperial Ca:sar, adopted by j Galba as Tiboriiis was adopted by* Augustus; and accepted by the Senate,'*, been used in this year of grace 1885, more than 18 centuries after his death, by a Roman washerwoman to cleanse her dirty linen with, together with the ashes of other members of his family; in veins flowed the noble blood pf pras?l pd pf.Pppey fh ? |-:b.as? use- one but'-'iatitojk '' %h !" l "a 3 'did' when lie" pW dowWihe Slcull'.-Rdpie ?orr^on^|| j! -