The Earth Was So Raised As To Cover Part Of The Temple, And
There Was A Descent Of Some Steps Into The Porch:
But that
pontiff ordered the ground to be pared away to the very pedestal
or base of the portico, which is now even with the street, so
that there is no descent whatsoever.
The height is two hundred
palmi, and the breadth two hundred and eighteen; which, reckoning
fife palmi at nine inches, will bring the height to one hundred
and fifty, and the breadth to one hundred and sixty-three feet
six inches. It was not any covering of copper which pope Urban
VIII. removed, but large brass beams, which supported the roof of
the portico. They weighed 186,392 pounds; and afforded metal
enough not only for the pillars in St. Peter's church, but also
for several pieces of artillery that are now in the castle of St.
Angelo. What is more extraordinary, the gilding of those columns
is said to have cost forty thousand golden crowns: sure money was
never worse laid out. Urban VIII. likewise added two bellfrey
towers to the rotunda; and I wonder he did not cover the central
hole with glass, as it must be very inconvenient and disagreeable
to those who go to church below, to be exposed to the rain in wet
weather, which must also render it very damp and unwholesome. I
visited it several times, and each time it looked more and more
gloomy and sepulchral.
The magnificence of the Romans was not so conspicuous in their
temples, as in their theatres, amphitheatres, circusses,
naumachia, aqueducts, triumphal arches, porticoes, basilicae, but
especially their thermae, or bathing-places. A great number of
their temples were small and inconsiderable; not one of them was
comparable either for size or magnificence, to the modern church
of St. Peter of the Vatican. The famous temple of Jupiter
Capitolinus was neither half so long, nor half so broad: it was
but two hundred feet in length, and one hundred and eighty-five
in breadth; whereas the length of St. Peter's extends to six
hundred and thirty-eight feet, and the breadth to above five
hundred. It is very near twice as large as the temple of Jupiter
Olympius in Greece, which was counted one of the seven wonders of
the world. But I shall take another opportunity to explain myself
further on the antiquities of this city; a subject, upon which I
am disposed to be (perhaps impertinently) circumstantial. When I
begin to run riot, you should cheek me with the freedom of a
friend. The most distant hint will be sufficient to, - Dear Sir,
Yours assuredly.
LETTER XXXII
NICE, March 10, 1765.
DEAR SIR, - The Colossaeum or amphitheatre built by Flavius
Vespasian, is the most stupendous work of the kind which
antiquity can produce. Near one half of the external circuit
still remains, consisting of four tire of arcades, adorned with
columns of four orders, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite.
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