There are in Rome two sets of antiquities, the christian and the heathen. The former, though of a fresher date, are so embroiled with fable and legend, that one receives but little satisfaction from searching into them. The other give a great deal of pleasure to such as have met with them before in ancient authors; for a man who is in Rome can scarce see an object that does not call to mind a piece of a Latin poet or historian. Among the remains of old Rome, the grandeur of the commonwealth shows itself chiefly in works that were either necessary or convenient, such as temples, highways, aqueducts, walls, and bridges of the city. On the contrary, the magnificence of Rome, under the emperors, is seen principally in such works as were rather for ostentation or luxury, than any real usefulness or necessity, as in baths, amphitheatres, circusses, obelisks, triumphal pillars, arches, and mausoleums; for what they added to the aqueducts was rather to supply their baths and naumachias, and to embellish the city with fountains, than out of any real necessity there was for them. These several remains have been so copiously described by abundance of travellers, and other writers, particularly by those concerned in the learned collection of Grævius, that it is very difficult to make any new discoveries on so beaten a subject. There is, however, so much to be observed in so spacious a field of antiquities, that it is almost impossible to survey them without taking new hints, and raising different reflections, according as a man's natural turn of thoughts, or the course of his studies, direct him. No part of the antiquities of Rome pleased me so much as the ancient statues, of which there is still an incredible variety. The workmanship is often the most exquisite of any thing in its kind. A man would wonder how it were possible for so much life to enter into marble, as may be discovered in some of the best of them; and even in the meanest, one has the satisfaction of seeing the faces, postures, airs, and dress of those that have lived so many ages before us. There is a strange resemblance between the figures of the several heathen deities, and the descriptions that the Latin poets have given us of them; but as the first may be looked upon as the ancienter of the two, I question not but the Roman poets were the copiers of the Greek statuaries. Though on other occasions we often find the statuaries took their subjects from the poets. The Laocoon is too known an instance among many others that are to be met with at Rome. In the villa Aldabrandina are the figures of an old and young man, engaged together at the Cæstus, who are probably the Dares and Entellus of Virgil; where by the way one may observe the make of the ancient Cæstus, that it only consisted of so many large thongs about the hand, without any thing like a piece of lead at the end of them, as some writers of antiquities have falsely imagined. I question not but many passages in the old poets hint at several parts of sculpture, that were in vogue in the author's time, though they are now never thought of, and that therefore such passages lose much of their beauty in the eye of a modern reader, who does not look upon them in the same light with the author's contemporaries. I shall only mention two or three out of Juvenal, that his commentators have not taken notice of. The first runs thus, Multa pudicitia veteris vestigia forsan, Aut aliqua extiterint, et sub Jove, sed Jove nondum Some thin remains of chastity appear'd Ev'n under Jove, but Jove without a beard. Sat. 6. DRYDEN. I appeal to any reader, if the humour here would not appear much more natural and unforced to a people that saw every day some or other statue of this god with a thick bushy beard, as there are still many of them extant at Rome, than it can to us who have no such idea of him; especially if we consider there was in the same city a temple dedicated to the young Jupiter, called Templum Vajovis, where, in all probability, there stood the particular statue of a Jupiter Imberbis.”, a Vid. Ov. de Fastis, lib. 3. ecl. 71. L Juvenal, in another place, makes his flatterer compare the neck of one that is but feebly built, to that of Hercules holding up Antæus from the earth. Et longum invalidi collum cervicibus æquat His long crane neck and narrow shoulders praise; Sat. 3. DRYDEN. What a strained unnatural similitude must this seem to a modern reader, but how full of humour, if we suppose it alludes to any celebrated statues of these two champions, that stood perhaps in some public place or highway near Rome? And what makes it more than probable there were such statues, we meet with the figures, which Juvenal here describes, on antique intaglios and medals. Nay, Propertius has taken notice of the very statues. -Luctantum in pulvere signa Herculis Antaique Antæus here and stern Alcides strive, And both the grappling statues seem to live. Lib. 3. car. 1. I cannot forbear observing here, that the turn of the neck and arms is often commended in the Latin poets among the beauties of a man, as in Horace, we find both put together, in that beautiful description of jealousy. Dum tu Lydia Telephi Cervicem roscam, et cerea Telephi Laudas brachia, væ meum Fervens difficile bile tumet jecur: Tunc nec mens mihi, nec color Certâ sede manent: humor et in genas Furtim labitur, arguens Quam lentis penitus macerer ignibus. By fits my swelling grief appears This we should be at a loss to account for, did we not observe in the old Roman statues, that these two parts were always bare, and exposed to view, as much as our hands and face are at present. I cannot leave Juvenal without taking notice that his Ventilat æstivum digitis sudantibus aurum Charg'd with light summer rings his fingers sweat, Sat. 1. DRYDEN. was not anciently so great an hyperbole as it is now, for I have seen old Roman rings so very thick about, and with such large stones in them, that 'tis no wonder a fop should reckon them a little cumbersome in the summer season of so hot a climate. It is certain that satire delights in such allusions and instances as are extremely natural and familiar: when therefore we see any thing in an old satirist that looks forced and pedantic, we ought to consider how it appeared in the time the poet writ, and whether or no there might not be some particular circumstances to recommend it to the readers of his own age, which we are now deprived of. One of the finest ancient statues in Rome is a Meleager with a spear in his hand, and the head of a wild boar on one side of him. It is of Parian marble, and as yellow as ivory. One meets with many other figures of Meleager in the ancient basso relievos, and on the sides of the Sarcophagi, or funeral monuments. Perhaps it was the arms or device of the old Roman hunters; which conjecture I have found confirmed in a passage of Manilius, that lets us know the pagan hunters had Meleager for their patron, as the christians have their St. Hubert. He speaks of the constellation which makes a good sportsman. Quibus aspirantibus orti Te Meleagre colunt MANIL. lib. 1. I question not but this sets a verse, in the fifth satire. of Juvenal, in a much better light than if we suppose that the poet aims only at the old story of Meleager, without considering it as so very common and familiar a one among the Romans. -Flavi dignus ferro Meleagri A boar entire, and worthy of the sword Juv. Sat. 5. Mr. BOWLES. In the beginning of the ninth satire, Juvenal asks his friend why he looks like Marsya when he was overcome? Scire velim quare toties mihi Navole tristis DRYD. JUV. Tell me, while saunt'ring thus from place to place, I meet thee, Nevolus, with a clouded face? Some of the commentators tell us, that Marsya was a lawyer who had lost his cause; others say that this passage alludes to the story of the satyr Marsyas, who contended with Apollo, which I think is more humorous than the other, if we consider there was a famous statue of Apollo fleaing Marsya in the midst of the Roman forum, as there are still several ancient statues of Rome on the same subject. There is a passage in the sixth satire of Juvenal, that I could never tell what to make of, 'till I had got the interpretation of it from one of Bellorio's ancient basso relievos. Magnorum artificum frangebat pocula miles Juv. Sat. 11. Or else a helmet for himself he made, |