Must have
been a fall or cataract in it immediately above this tract, as it
is not pretended that the bed of it is raised in any part above
the city; otherwise such an elevation would have obstructed its
course, and then it would have overflowed the whole Campania.
There is nothing extraordinary in its present overflowings: they
frequently happened of old, and did great mischief to the antient
city. Appian, Dio, and other historians, describe an inundation
of the Tiber immediately after the death of Julius Caesar, which
inundation was occasioned by the sudden melting of a great
quantity of snow upon the Apennines. This calamity is recorded by
Horace in his ode to Augustus.
Vidimus flavum Tiberim retortis
Littore Etrusco violenter undis,
Ire dejectum monumenta regis,
Templaque Vestae:
Iliae dum se nimium querenti,
Jactat ultorem; vagus et sinistra
Labitur ripa, Jove non probante
Uxorius Amnis.
Livy expressly says, "Ita abundavit Tiberis, ut Ludi Apollinares,
circo inundato, extra portam Collinam ad aedem Erycinae Veneris
parati sint," "There was such an inundation of the Tiber that,
the Circus being overflowed, the Ludi Appollinares were exhibited
without the gate Collina, hard by the temple of Venus Erycina."
To this custom of transferring the Ludi Appollinares to another
place where the Tyber had overflowed the Circus Maximus, Ovid
alludes in his Fasti.
Altera gramineo spectabis equiriacampo
Quem Tiberis curvis in latus urget aquis,
Qui tamen ejecta si forte tenebitur unda,
Coelius accipiet pulverulentus equos.
Another race thy view shall entertain
Where bending Tiber skirts the grassy plain;
Or should his vagrant stream that plain o'erflow,
The Caelian hill the dusty course will show.
The Porta del Popolo (formerly, Flaminia,) by which we entered
Rome, is an elegant piece of architecture, adorned with marble
columns and statues, executed after the design of Buonaroti.
Within-side you find yourself in a noble piazza, from whence
three of the principal streets of Rome are detached. It is
adorned with the famous Aegyptian obelisk, brought hither from
the Circus Maximus, and set up by the architect Dominico Fontana
in the pontificate of Sixtus V. Here is likewise a beautiful
fountain designed by the same artist; and at the beginning of the
two principal streets, are two very elegant churches fronting
each other. Such an august entrance cannot fail to impress a
stranger with a sublime idea of this venerable city.
Having given our names at the gate, we repaired to the dogana, or
custom-house, where our trunks and carriage were searched; and
here we were surrounded by a number of servitori de piazza,
offering their services with the most disagreeable importunity.
Though I told them several times I had no occasion for any, three
of them took possession of the coach, one mounting before and two
of them behind; and thus we proceeded to the Piazza d'Espagna,
where the person lived to whose house I was directed.
