ing of a sandal latchet, gave to the apartment the name of the Cella Solearis. While the lower orders mixed in the same baths, rooms were fitted up for the more fastidious, with bathing vessels of granite, porphyry, and basalt; many of which may still be seen in the Vatican. These costly vessels were called Labra, and independent of these there were no less than 1600 cellæ or common baths. There was, in addition to all this, every luxury and convenience that could minister to the gratification of the people-theatres, promenades, gymnasia, libraries, and magnificent porticos to protect them from the sun and rain.

The water was heated by means of a large hypocaustum or stove. At a stated hour in the evening, it was customary to ring a bell, to give intimation that the water was warm and the baths ready. They who bathed at any other time were obliged to content themselves with cold water. Hence the following line of Martial:—

Redde pilam-sonat æs thermarum: ludere pergis?

Such were the baths, or rather the therma of the Romans*; for the baths did not include the same superb

Lucilius gives us, in the following passage, a formidable catalogue of the operations a polite Roman underwent, even at that period, before he had finished his toilet:

:

Scabor, suppilor, desquamor, pumicor, ornor,

Expolior, pingor.

"I scratch myself, pluck out my superfluous hairs, rub off my scurf, pumice my skin, decorate, polish, and paint myself."

establishments as the thermæ, which have been well described as "Lavacra in modum provinciarum exstructa." -(A. Marcellin. Lib. xvi. c. 10).

It was in the baths of Caracalla that some of the finest pieces of sculpture were discovered-the famous Torso of the Vatican, the Farnese Hercules, the Flora, the Callypygian Venus, and the group of Dirce and Amphion, known by the name of the Toro Farnese.

BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN.-Some idea may be formed of the vast extent of Diocletian's baths, by considering the church of S. Bernardo as one of four round towers which stood at the angles. The whole establishment must have occupied a space of at least four hundred yards square. The round structures, whether balnea or exhedræ, are still sufficiently entire to serve for churches and granaries. But the ground being partly built over, and partly taken up by roads and vineyards, the general plan is less obvious than that of Caracalla's ruins.

All the other baths have been entirely stripped of their magnificent columns; but the great hall of these— the Pinacotheca as it is called-has been converted into a church by M. Angelo; and the superb granite pillars, each consisting of a single block, forty-three feet in height, still remain as they stood in the days of Diocletian, supporting a rich and well-preserved entablature. This church-known by the name of S. Maria degli Angioli is in the form of the Greek cross, a form so

much more favourable than the Latin for displaying the whole interior of the building at one view. Hence, they who object to the plan of St. Peter's, adduce this structure as an instance of what St. Peter's might have been, had M. Angelo's plan of the Greek cross been adopted.

"These baths," says Forsyth, "co-existing with others of equal extent, will appear too extravagantly large even for the most high and palmy state of Rome,' until we reflect on the various exercises connected with the bath, on the habits of the people, the heat of the climate, the rarity of linen, and the cheapness of bathing, which brought hither the whole population of the city.”

BRIDGES.—To this period may we refer the Ponte S. Angelo and the Ponte Sisto. The former of these, consisting of five arches, was built by the Emperor Hadrian, and thence called Pons Ælius, or Pons Hadriani. Its present name it derives from the Castle of S. Angelo, near which it stands. Having sustained some injury from the crowds assembled on it at the celebration of the Jubilee of 1450, it was widened and improved by Nicholas V.; it was again repaired by Clement IX., under whom Bernini added the balustrade and statues, which still decorate it.

PONTE SISTO. This bridge, consisting of four arches, was formerly called Pons Janiculensis, from its proximity to the Janiculan Hill. Its date is not exactly known: some ascribe it to Trajan, others to Antoninus Pius. An inscription given by Nardini records its repair by

Hadrian. In 1474 it underwent some further reparations by Sixtus IV., to whom it owes its present name*.

The two bridges which connect the island in the Tiber with the city-the one called Quattro Capi, from the four heads of Janus formerly placed upon it; the other, Ponte di S. Bartolommeo, from the neighbouring church-were built during the republic. The former was built in the year of Rome 692 by L. Fabricius, and thence styled Pons Fabricius. It is mentioned by Horace:

Atque a Fabricio non tristem ponte reverti.-SAT. L. ii. 3, 36. The latter, originally called Pons Cestius, was erected by a person of the name of Cestius, of whom, however, nothing further is known. The Pons Palatinus or Senatorius-the first stone bridge ever built in Rome is also a work of the republic. It derives its modern name of Ponte Rotto from the destruction of two of its arches by a great flood in the year 1598. It is still used by foot passengers; a continuation having been made of wood.

Some remains of the Pons Triumphalis and of the Pons Sublicius may still be seen occasionally when the Tiber is low.

305

WORKS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

Raphaël a dit que Rome moderne étoit presqu'en entier bâtie avec les débris de Rome ancienne; et il est certain qu'on n'y peut faire un pas sans être frappé de quelques restes de l'antiquité.-CORINNE. THE oblong churches, called basilicas, so numerous in Italy, appear to be constructed on the model of those old Roman basilicæ, where causes were heard, ambassadors received, and various kinds of public business transacted. Their form was oblong; and in the middle was an open space called testudo. This inner space was surrounded by colonnades, consisting of one or more rows of pillars, forming a sort of side aisles, termed porticus. The testudo ended in a curve, to which, as causes were heard there, the name tribunal was applied. Hence the term tribune, still applied to that end of the Roman churches which is behind the grand altar, and which in the oldest structures still retains the curved form.

sort of transepts, were sometimes added*.

Chalcidica, a

* These transepts, however, seem not to have produced the form of the Latin cross, but to have been added at the extremity of the building; for Baptista Albertus says, "they joined these two (the Testudo and the Chalcidicum) so as to form a resemblance to the letter T." The old Basilica of St. Peter was exactly of this form. It is not improbable, that in the Christian Basilicæ the transepts were moved lower down in the building, in order to assimilate it to the form of the cross. The Italians always call the transept Crociata, and by those who write in Latin its designation is Crux.