forming the roof of Hadrian's Temple of Venus and Rome.1 From this anecdote we may infer that the temple was at that time in a good state of preservation, since otherwise the roof could not have existed; while, on the other hand, the stripping off of the roof was a sure way to effect the destruction of the building. To Honorius is ascribed the foundation of the church of S. Adrian near the Forum, in the district called Tria Fata. At length, in 663, Rome again, and for the last time, received an emperor within her walls-a rare occurrence in the monotonous history of her decadence. The wanderings of Constans were perhaps partly caused by the pangs of a guilty conscience; but he is also said to have contemplated making Rome again the seat of empire. Constans landed at Tarentum in the spring of 663, and after an unsuccessful attempt to wrest Beneventum from its Lombard duke, he proceeded by the Via Appia to Rome. The Pope Vitalianus, the clergy, and the deputies of the people, met him at the sixth milestone, not in military array, but with crucifixes, banners, and burning tapers. Thus Rome had already put on all the external attributes of a theocratic state. Nothing but humiliation seemed to be reserved for the popes in their intercourse with the Byzantine court. Gregory had been compelled to flatter a low assassin; and now Vitalianus had to receive with all the honours of the city a fratricide, and, what perhaps in his eyes was almost as bad, a monothelite heretic. Constans exhibited no games, distributed no bread nor money. Instead of these, we hear of nothing but processions of priests and the emperor's visits to St. Peter's, Sta. Maria Maggiore, and the Lateran. The ancient temples had for the most part either been converted into churches, or had served as materials for erecting new ones. The two centres of life at Rome were now at its extreme points, the 1 Anast. in Honor. Lateran and the Vatican. Between them lay the ancient city, deserted and ruinous, though interspersed here and there with modern churches. It is probable, however. that some part of the palace on the Palatine still remained habitable, and that Constans took up his abode there. Something, however, was still left to plunder. We have seen, from the precedents of the Pantheon and the Temple of Venus and Rome, that the ancient monuments of the city were regarded as the property of the emperors. In the twelve days which Constans spent at Rome, he carried off as many bronze statues as he could lay hands on; and though the Pantheon seemed to possess a double claim to protection, as having been presented by Phocas to the pope, and as having been by him converted into a Christian church, yet Constans was mean and sacrilegious enough to carry off the tiles of gilt bronze which covered it. Thus the Christian emperor contrived in this short and friendly visit to inflict upon the city almost as much damage as it had suffered from the repeated sieges of the Goths, Vandals, and Lombards. After perpetrating these acts, which were at least as bad as robberies, and attending mass at the tomb of St. Peter, Constans carried off his booty to Syracuse, where he heaped up other spoils from Sicily, Calabria, Africa, and Sardinia. But at this place he was murdered a few years after by a slave, while in the bath, and his plunder ultimately fell into the hands of the Saracens. Towards the end of the seventh century, the diffusion of Christianity in Europe, and the fame of Rome as the seat of St. Peter and his successors, had produced a great increase in the pilgrimages to the city. Here each nation had its proper houses of reception, with guides to conduct the pilgrims to the churches, the catacombs, and other objects of curiosity and interest. The pilgrims chiefly arrived at Easter, and generally brought with them valuable presents. Among the pagan monuments the Flavian amphitheatre was naturally the great object of their wonder and admiration. It was about this time that it obtained the name of Colosseum or Colysæus, which we first find mentioned by Beda in the famous prophecy respecting Rome: 'Quamdiu stat Colysæus stat et Roma: quando cadet Colysæus, cadet et Roma, cadet et mundus.' 1 The prophecy, which seems to have been current among the Roman populace, probably contributed, like many other prophecies, to its own fulfilment, and to the preservation, at least in great part, of the amphitheatre, whilst its fellows, as well as the other theatres and circuses, have been almost entirely swept away. That the name of Colosseum was derived from its size, and not from the Colossus of Nero, I am now inclined to think, from the fact mentioned by Gregorovius,2 that the amphitheatre of Capua was also called Colossus. Among the pilgrims to Rome the Anglo-Saxons are conspicuous, who, after their conversion by Gregory the Great, continued to maintain a particular connection with the holy city. Ceadwald, king of the West-Saxons, after his wars with the Scots, proceeded in 689 to Rome to be baptised, and died there shortly after at the early age of thirty. His epitaph is still preserved.3 King Conrad of Mercia, and Offa, son of the king of the East-Saxons, cutting off and consecrating their long hair at the tomb of St. Peter, exchanged their royal robes for the garment of a monk, and entered a convent near the church of the apostle, where they also seem to have quickly died. Ina, king of Wessex, like many of his Anglo-Saxon subjects, high as well as low, rich as well as poor, undertook a pilgrimage to Rome about the year 727, and, with the approbation of Pope Gregory II., founded a church in honour of the Virgin, in order that the Anglo-Saxons 1 Ap. Gibbon, t. viii. p. 281, note. 2 B. ii. S. 211. 3 See Beda, Hist. Eccl. Gentis Angl. lib. v. c. 7; Paul Diac. De might have a place of prayer, and those that died a grave. Ina likewise ordained that every house in Wessex should contribute, in honour of St. Peter, a penny a year towards the maintenance of the Anglo-Saxons settled at Rome. For this monarch appears to have founded there a Schola Anglorum, or sort of Anglo-Saxon colony; which may be supposed to have principally consisted of monks and priests, and of young men being educated for the ecclesiastical profession. But all the principal foreign settlements at Rome appear to have been called scholæ, without any reference to objects of education. Thus we read of Scholæ Francorum, Frisonum, and Longobardorum, as well as Saxonum; and even of a Schola Græcorum and a Schola Judæorum. But of all these the school of the Anglo-Saxons was the largest and most celebrated. Offa, king of Mercia, who made a pilgrimage to Rome in 794, with a view to make atonement for his treacherous murder of the East-Anglian king, Ethelbert, and the seizure of his dominions, still further endowed the Saxon school at Rome, and extended the payment of the Romescot to a part of his own dominions.2 This Saxon settlement, called Burgus Saxonum, Vicus Saxonum, Schola Saxonum, and simply Saxia or Sassia, embraced a considerable district on the right bank of the Tiber, between the Castle of S. Angelo and the Piazza di S. Pietro, which is still marked by the churches of S. Spirito in Sassia, and S. Michele in Sassia. The church founded by Ina, Sta. Maria quæ vocatur Schola Saxonum, is mentioned as late as the year 854. When Leo IV. enclosed this part of the city, it obtained the name of Borgo, from the Burgus Saxonum, and one of the gates was called Saxonum Posterula.3 The present hospital of S. Spirito, 1 Matth. Westmonast. ad ann. 727, p. 269 (ed. 1570). 2 Id. loc. cit. et ad ann. 794. 36 'Posterula quæ respicit ad scholam Saxonum.'Anastas. Leo IV. n, 534. founded by Pope Innocent III., now occupies a considerable portion of the Saxon quarter. The Schola Francorum, also in the Borgo, was the most celebrated after that of the Anglo-Saxons; while those of the Frisians and Lombards were of minor importance. All these Scholæ disappeared between the ninth and eleventh centuries; or at least shrank into mere hospitals for the reception of poor pilgrims, and buryingplaces for the respective nations. The Schola Saxonum disappeared in the hospital of S. Spirito, and the Schola Francorum vanished altogether. The Schola Græca was situated at the spot now marked by the church of Sta. Maria in Cosmedin, and consequently in the ancient Forum Boarium. This church was originally called Sta. Maria in Schola Græca. Its new name, ' in Cosmedin,' which it obtained after its rebuilding by Pope Adrian I., seems to have been derived either from its beauty (xóoμos) or from a place at Constantinople. The memory of the school is, however, still preserved by the Via della Greca. In the middle ages the whole bank of the river at this part appears to have been called Ripa Græca.1 At the period of which we are now speaking, we hear nothing of the Jews. Their synagogue is mentioned for the last time under Theodoric; after which they disappear altogether till the tenth century; when, under the Othos, we find them singing the praises of the emperor in Hebrew, and in the twelfth century they are mentioned under the title of Schola Judæorum.2 Thus they survived all the other schools or colonies. The edict of Leo the Isaurian, in 726, against image worship, and the policy of the succeeding iconoclast emperors, served to loosen the connection between Constantinople and Rome; though the nominal sovereignty of the 1 Gregorov. B. ii. S. 448. 2 Ordo Rom. xii. ap. Mabillon, t. ii. p. 195. |