All These Recollections And Ideas Crowded On My Imagination
Without Regard To Order Or Chronology, And I Remained For Some
Time in a
state of the most profound reverie, from which I was only roused by my
friend the Jew
Reminding me that we had a quantity of other things to see.
The first object that engaged my attention on being roused from my reverie,
was the Arch of Severus at the foot of the Capitol which towers above it.
Excavations have been made around this Arch (for otherwise only half of it
could be seen) and a stone wall built around the excavated ground in the
same manner as at the Arch of Constantine. Round several of the columns of
the temples I have above enumerated, excavations have been also made;
otherwise the lower half of them would remain buried in the earth and give
to the monuments the appearance of a city which had been half swallowed up
by an earthquake. By dint of digging round the column of Phocas, the
ancient paved road which led to the Capitol has been discovered and is now
open to view. This ancient road is at least thirty feet below the surface
of the present road and the ground about it. This shows how the ground must
have been filled up by the destruction of buildings at the different
sackings of Rome and the consequent accumulation of rubbish. The French
when they were here began these excavations and the Duchess of Devonshire
continues them.[86] It is useful in every way; it employs a number of poor
people and may be the means of discovering some valuable remains of
antiquity and objects of art. At any rate it is highly gratifying to have
discovered the identical road to the Capitol on which so many Consuls,
Dictators and Emperors moved in triumph, and so many captive Kings wept in
chains.
We then ascended the steps that lead to the modern Capitol and mounted on
the Campanile of the same, from whence there is a superb panoramic view
of Rome. On descending from the Campanile, we visited the Tarpeian rock,
which is now of inconsiderable height, the ground about it and heaps of
rubbish having filled up the abyss below. We then entered the court yard of
the Capitol. The Capitol and building annexed to it form three sides of a
rectangle, the centre or corps de logis lying North and South, and the
wings East and West, the whole inclosing a court yard open on the South
side of the rectangle, from whence you descend into the street on the plain
below, by a most magnificent escalier or flight of steps. Of the Capitol,
the corps de logis or central building to which the Campanile belongs,
is reserved for the occupation and habitation of the Senator Romano, a
civil magistrate, corresponding something to the mayor in France or
Oberbuergermeister in the German towns, and who is chosen from among the
nobility and nominated by the Pope.
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