1 a beautiful villa by the gallant Emperor. Here the Syrian queen insensibly sunk into a Roman matron, her daughters married into noble families, and her race was not yet extinct in the fifth century.' In an earlier age, Syphax, king of Numidia, died here 201 B.C., having been brought from Africa to adorn the triumph of Scipio. The town was surrendered by the Isaurian garrisons, which Belisarius had placed there, to the Goths under Totila, who both burnt and rebuilt it (A.D. 547). In the eighth century the name was changed to Tivoli. In the wars of the Guelfs and Ghibellines it bore a prominent part and was generally on the imperial side. The sound of the falling waters was esteemed a cure for insomnia: from which both Maecenas and Augustus are known to have suffered, and the latter certainly visited Tibur. But modern poetry does not flatter the climate: Tivoli di mal conforto, O piove, o tira vento, o suona a morte.' As we ascend the hill, its wonderful beauty becomes more striking at every turn. Close to the Sta. Croce gate of the town (tramway station) on the right, is the picturesque five-towered Castle, built by Pius II. (1458-64) (Piccolomini), on the site of the amphitheatre. Not far, on our left, will be found the Villa D'Este and S. Maria Maggiore. If we enter Tivoli here, we must walk a quarter mile across the town by a street which leads to the Hotel Regina (Piazza del Plebiscito) and on to the Sibylla, in the narrow street called after it, which all artists will prefer, and which, we trust, never merited the description of George Sand : L'affreuse auberge de la Sibylle, un vrai coupe-gorge de l'OpéraComique.' It stands on the edge of a precipice, though no longer on 'The green steep whence Anio leaps In floods of snow-white foam.' -Macaulay. It This is an almost isolated quarter of the town, occupying a distinct point of rock, called Castro Vetere, which is supposed to have been the arx or citadel of ancient Tibur-probably the Sicelion of Dionysius. Here, on the verge of the abyss, with coloured cloths hanging out over its parapet wall, as we have so often seen it in pictures, stands the beautiful little building which has been known for ages as the Temple of the Sibyl, but really that of Vesta. was once encircled by eighteen Corinthian columns of travertine, and of these ten still remain. The ruined cella is of Opus Incertum.' It displays a niche for a statue, one of its windows, and a doorway. It was formerly used as a church. In its delicate form and rich orange colour, standing out against the opposite heights of Monte Sterparo, it is impossible to conceive anything more picturesque. 1 Gibbon, ch. xi. Close behind the circular temple (only ten feet distant from it) is a little oblong temple of travertine, with engaged Ionic columns, until lately (1885) the Church of S. Giorgio. Those who contend that the circular temple was dedicated to Vesta, call this the Temple of the Sibyl (Albunea); others say it is the Temple of Tiburtus, the founder of the city. We know from Lactantius that the tenth and last of the Sibyls, whose name was Albunea, was worshipped at Tivoli, and her temple seems to be coupled by the poets with a shrine of Tiburtus above the Anio. Close to the temples an iron gate will admit visitors (lira) into the beautiful descending walks (Falls) begun by General Miollis, and finished under the Papal Government. Those who are not equal to a long round, should not enter upon these, and in taking a local guide (tariff 2 lire, to include Grotte and Villa d'Este. Carriages for Villa Hadriana must be bargained for) it should be recollected that there is scarcely the slightest ground for anything they say, and tha the names they give to villas and temples are generally convenient inventions. The walks, however, are charming, and lead by gradual descent to the caves called the Grottoes of Neptune and the Sirens, into the chasm beneath which the Anio fell magnificently until 1826,1 when an inundation occurred which carried away a church and twentysix houses. This led the Papal Government, in 1834, to divert the course of the river, and to open a new artificial cascade, 320 feet high, in order to prevent the temples from being carried away also. The Anio at Tivoli, as the Velino at Terni, possesses extraordinary petrifying properties, and the mass of stalactites and petrified vegetation hanging everywhere from the rocks adds greatly to their picturesqueness. 'Above the cold deep dell into which you dive to see the mysteries of Anio's urn, raised high on a pedestal of sharply-cut rock and seated as on a throne of velvet verdure, towers, like a pinnacle projected on the deep blue sky, the graceful temple of the Sibyl, that most exquisite specimen of art crowning nature, in perfect harmony of beauties.'-Cardinal Wiseman. The small ruins of two Roman bridges were rendered visible when the course of the river was changed, and by one of these the ancient Via Valeria passed. Ascending again the upper road beyond the falls, guides, on no authority whatever, point out some ruins as those of the Villa of Vopiscus, a poet of the time of Domitian. That he owned a property at Tibur we know from the verses of Statius, who has left a pleasant account of the villa of his friend. His grounds appear to have extended on both sides of the river. But Tibur owned over a hundred villas. We now follow round the base of Monte Catillo passing under the railway bridge and thence past S. Antonio to the point opposite the Cascatelle, which is known to have borne the name of Quintiliolo in the tenth century, and where a little church is still called La This fall, though natural, was itself the result of an inundation in A.D. 105, which is recorded by Pliny the Younger (Ep. viii. 17). Madonna di Quintiliolo. It is practically certain this name derives from Quintilius Varus, the loser of the Augustan legions, and that his villa, mentioned by Horace1 as near the town, is the vast one on three terraces, in this immediate neighbourhood. Nothing can exceed the loveliness of the views from the road (via delle Cascatelle), which leads from Tivoli by the priory chapel and villino of S. Antonio to this church. On the opposite height climbs the town with its classic temples, its old brown-tiled houses and towered churches, clinging to the edge of the cliffs, which are overhung with luxuriant vegetation; and beyond, beneath the piles of building on the site formerly known as the Villa of Maecenas, the noisy cataracts of the Cascatelle leap forth beneath the old masonry, and sparkle and dance and foam through the greenand all this is only foreground to vast distances of dreamy campagna (seen through the gnarled hoary stems of veteran olivetrees)-hued with every delicate tint of emerald and amethyst, and melting into palest sapphire, where the solitary dome of S. Peter's guards the horizon. And the beauty is not confined to the views alone. Each turn of the winding road forms a picture: deep ravines of solemn olives that waken into silver light as the wind lifts their leaves-old convents and chapels recessed in shady nooks on the mountain-side -thickets of laurustinus, roses, genista, and the lovely styraxbanks of lilies and hyacinths, anemones and violets-grand masses of grey rock, up which white-bearded goats scramble to nibble myrtle and rosemary or wild asparagus, knocking down showers of the red earth-and a road, with stone seats, winding along the flank of the hill through a constant diorama of loveliness, peopled by groups of peasants returning from work, singing wild nasal canzonetti which echo in the hills, or by women washing at wayside fountains, or marching, with brazen conche poised upon their heads, like stately goddesses! "The pencil only can describe Tivoli; and though, unlike other scenes, the beauty of which is generally exaggerated in pictures, no representation has done justice to it, it is yet impossible that some part of its peculiar charms should not be transferred upon the canvas. It almost seems as if Nature herself had turned painter when she formed this beautiful and perfect composition.'-Eaton, 'Rome.' Far below Quintiliolo, easily reached by a good winding path through grand old olive-woods, is Ponte dell' Acquoria-the bridge of the golden water,' so called from a beautiful spring which rises near it. It is a single arch of travertine, crossed by the ancient Via Tiburtina. This probably dates back to the first century, and the limpid golden-gleaming waters that flow beneath it help to bring out its beauty. Adjoining it are remains of a brick continuation of the bridge, belonging to the second or third century. It is at first thought difficult to understand why brick was used in a land of travertine; but we remember that the greatest of brick 1 Carm. i. 18. builders, Hadrian, had been unusually energetic in the neighbourhood before this restoration or expansion of the bridge was made. We may have, while admiring the scene, to take refuge in a green salad-garden beside the rivulet in order to let a small herd of long-horned iron-grey cattle pass by on their way to the daily drink in the river-bed beyond. They are quite gentle beasts; but their horns have an imposing spread not convenient on this narrow bridge. Passengers now cross the Anio by a wooden bridge, and ascend the Clivus Tiburtinus to Tivoli on the other side. Much of the ancient pavement remains. On the right of the road in a vineyard is the small circular octagonal-domed building, somewhat resembling the Nymphaeum called Minerva Medica at Rome, and named by local antiquaries Il Tempio della Tosse, or 'The Temple of Cough'; but with much more likelihood attributable to the sepulchre of the Turcia family, one of the members of which, Lucius Arterius Turcius, is shown by an inscription to have repaired the neighbouring road in the time of Constans. In the interior are some remains of frescoes, which indicate that this was once used as a Christian church. It was possibly a nymphaeum, like the above-mentioned building. The Via Constantina, which leads into the town from the Ponte Lucano, falls into the Via Tiburtina near this. An inscription of Constantius and Constans records how the Roman Senate and people levelled the Clivus Tiburtinus. On the brow of the hill, we may now visit the immense ruins formerly called The Villa of Maecenas, though there is no reason whatever to suppose that it was a villa, or even that he had a villa at Tibur at all. The idea was started by Ligorio when building Villa d'Este. 'It was an immense quadrilateral edifice, 637 feet long, and 450 broad, surrounded on three sides by sumptuous porticoes. The fourth side, or that which looks toward Rome, which is one of the long sides, had a theatre in the middle of it, with a hall or saloon on each side. The porticoes are arched, and adorned on the side towards the area with half-columns of the Doric order. Behind is a series of chambers. An oblong tumulus now marks the site of the house, or, according to Nibby (who regards it as the temple of Hercules), of the Cella. The pillars were of travertine, and of a beautiful Ionic order. One of them existed on the ruins as late as 1812. This immense building intercepted the ancient road, for which, as appears from an inscription preserved in the Vatican, a vault or tunnel was constructed, part of which is still extant. Hence it gave name to the Porta Scura or Obscura, mentioned in the Bull of Benedict, which it continued to bear at least as late as the fifteenth century.'-Smith, Dictionary of Roman and Greek Geography.' The site called the Villa of Maecenas is the only one in Tivoli which at all corresponds with the allusions in the poets to the Heracleum, or Temple of Hercules, which was of such a size as to be quoted, with the waterfall, by Strabo as a characteristic feature of Tivoli, just as the great Temple of Fortune was the distinguishing feature of Praeneste. It contained a library, and had an oracle, which answered by 'sortes' (or lots) like that of Praeneste. Augustus, when at Tibur, sometimes administered justice in the portico of the Temple of Hercules. The electrical works now occupy the site, in the making of which were found endless votive offerings in terra-cotta, as well as many inscribed pedestals belonging to the Hall of the Guild of the Augustales and the porticus, or colonnade pertaining to it. To trace all the poetical allusions to it would be endless: here are a few of them : 'Curva te in Herculeum deportant esseda Tibur.' -Propertius, ii. 32. Tibur in Herculeum migravit nigra Lycoris.' -Martial, iv. 62. "Venit in Herculeos colles. Quid Tiburis alti -Mart. vii. 13. 'Nec mihi plus Nemee priscumque habitabitur Argos, -Stat. Silv. iii. 1. 182. Quosque sub Herculeis taciturno flumine muris -Sil. Ital. iv. 224. We re-enter the town by a gate with swallow-tailed battlements (Pta. del Colle), near which are curious mediaeval houses, one with a beautiful outside loggia (by Vicolo Leoncini). Passing up the steep street called Via di S. Valerio, where copper-smiths abound, we pass a picturesque archway covered with cactus, and a thirteenthcentury tower, and so reach a little square (Piazza del Olmo), one side of which is occupied by the Cathedral of S. Lorenzo (rebuilt 1635), a picturesque building containing four bays, with a good rose-window. Behind the choir is a noble cella (of opus incertum) of the age of Augustus, which antiquaries have referred to the temple of Hercules Saxana. In the bold apse (behind the modern one) is seen the square-headed niche for the statue. The 2nd Chapel (R.) has columns of marmor Celticum. The 3rd has an altar-front of Pietra-dura. In the Sacristy are two columns of 'Cipollino,' and a fragment of 'opus Cosmatescum, adorns the Piscina. In order to visit the Villa d'Este (where we are admitted on ringing a bell), if we have come by the tramway, we have merely to keep to the left within the Porta S. Croce, to reach the Piazza di S. Maria Maggiore,1 or follow Via degli Estense, and we are at the entrance. Crossing a courtyard, and descending a long vaulted passage, we are allowed to enter and wander about in one of the grandest and most impressive terraced gardens in the world. The villa itself, built in 1549, by Pirro Ligorio, for Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, son of Alfonso II., Duke of Ferrara, is stately and imposing in its vast forms, bold outlines, and deeply-projecting cornices. Within, it is decorated by frescoes of the Zuccari, and Muziano. Beneath it runs a broad terrace (formerly haunted by Liszt), ending in an archway, which none but an artist would have placed where it stands, in glorious relief against the soft distances of the many-hued Campagna. Beneath the twisted gentle staircases which lead down from this terrace, fountains jet forth silvery spray on each succeeding 1 Door, pavement and rose-window, xiv. c. |