Travels Through France And Italy by Tobias Smollett (beautiful books to read .txt) 📖

Lakes, Rivers, And Sources, At A

Considerable Distance From The City. These Works Are The Remains

Of The Munificence And Industry Of The Antient Romans, Who Were 

Part 7 Letter 30 ( Nice, February 28, 1765.) Pg 245

Extremely Delicate In The Article Of Water: But, However, Great

Applause Is Also Due To Those Beneficent Popes Who Have Been At

The Expence Of Restoring And Repairing Those Noble Channels Of

Health, Pleasure, And Convenience. This Great Plenty Of Water,

Nevertheless, Has Not Induced The Romans To Be Cleanly. Their

Streets, And Even Their Palaces, Are Disgraced With Filth. The

Noble Piazza Navona, Is Adorned With Three Or Four Fountains, One

Of Which Is Perhaps The Most Magnificent In Europe, And All Of

Them Discharge Vast Streams Of Water: But, Notwithstanding This

Provision, The Piazza Is Almost As Dirty, As West Smithfield,

Where The Cattle Are Sold In London. The Corridores, Arcades, And

Even Staircases Of Their Most Elegant Palaces, Are Depositories

Of Nastiness, And Indeed In Summer Smell As Strong As Spirit Of

Hartshorn. I Have A Great Notion That Their Ancestors Were Not

Much More Cleanly. If We Consider That The City And Suburbs Of

Rome, In The Reign Of Claudius, Contained About Seven Millions Of

Inhabitants, A Number Equal At Least To The Sum Total Of All The

Souls In England; That Great Part Of Antient Rome Was Allotted To

Temples, Porticos, Basilicae, Theatres, Thermae, Circi, Public

And Private Walks And Gardens, Where Very Few, If Any, Of This

Great Number Lodged; That By Far The Greater Part Of Those

Inhabitants Were Slaves And Poor People, Who Did Not Enjoy The

Conveniencies Of Life; And That The Use Of Linen Was Scarce

Known; We Must Naturally Conclude They Were Strangely Crouded

Together, And That In General They Were A Very Frowzy Generation.

That They Were Crouded Together Appears From The Height Of Their

Houses, Which The Poet Rutilius Compared To Towers Made For

Scaling Heaven. In Order To Remedy This Inconvenience, Augustus

Caesar Published A Decree, That For The Future No Houses Should

Be Built Above Seventy Feet High, Which, At A Moderate

Computation, Might Make Six Stories. But What Seems To Prove,

Beyond All Dispute, That The Antient Romans Were Dirty Creatures,

Are These Two Particulars. Vespasian Laid A Tax Upon Urine And

Ordure, On Pretence Of Being At A Great Expence In Clearing The

Streets From Such Nuisances; An Imposition Which Amounted To About

Fourteen Pence A Year For Every Individual; And When Heliogabalus

Ordered All The Cobwebs Of The City And Suburbs To Be Collected,

They Were Found To Weigh Ten Thousand Pounds. This Was Intended

As A Demonstration Of The Great Number Of Inhabitants; But It Was

A Proof Of Their Dirt, Rather Than Of Their Populosity. I Might

Likewise Add, The Delicate Custom Of Taking Vomits At Each

Other's Houses, When They Were Invited To Dinner, Or Supper, That

They Might Prepare Their Stomachs For Gormandizing; A Beastly

Proof Of Their Nastiness As Well As Gluttony. Horace, In His

Description Of The Banquet Of Nasiedenus, Says, When The Canopy,

Under Which They Sat, Fell Down, It Brought Along With It As Much

Dirt As Is Raised By A Hard Gale Of Wind In Dry Weather.

 

 

 

              --Trahentia Pulveris Atri,

Quantum Non Aquilo Campanis Excitat Agris.

 

 

Part 7 Letter 30 ( Nice, February 28, 1765.) Pg 246

 

Such Clouds Of Dust Revolving In Its Train

As Boreas Whirls Along The Level Plain.

 

 

 

I Might Observe, That The Streets Were Often Encumbered With The

Putrefying Carcasses Of Criminals, Who Had Been Dragged Through

Them By The Heels, And Precipitated From The Scalae Gemoniae, Or

Tarpeian Rock, Before They Were Thrown Into The Tyber, Which Was

The General Receptacle Of The Cloaca Maxima And All The Filth Of

Rome: Besides, The Bodies Of All Those Who Made Away With

Themselves, Without Sufficient Cause; Of Such As Were Condemned

For Sacrilege, Or Killed By Thunder, Were Left Unburned And

Unburied, To Rot Above Ground.

 

 

 

I Believe The Moderns Retain More Of The Customs Of Antient

Romans, Than Is Generally Imagined. When I First Saw The Infants

At The Enfans Trouves In Paris, So Swathed With Bandages, That

The Very Sight Of Them Made My Eyes Water, I Little Dreamed, That

The Prescription Of The Antients Could Be Pleaded For This

Custom, Equally Shocking And Absurd: But In The Capitol At Rome,

I Met With The Antique Statue Of A Child Swaddled Exactly In The

Same Manner; Rolled Up Like An Aegyptian Mummy From The Feet. The

Circulation Of The Blood, In Such A Case, Must Be Obstructed On

The Whole Surface Of The Body; And Nothing Be At Liberty But The

Head, Which Is The Only Part Of The Child That Ought To Be

Confined. Is It Not Surprising That Common Sense Should Not Point

Out, Even To The Most Ignorant, That Those Accursed Bandages Must

Heat The Tender Infant Into A Fever; Must Hinder The Action Of

The Muscles, And The Play Of The Joints, So Necessary To Health

And Nutrition; And That While The Refluent Blood Is Obstructed In

The Veins, Which Run On The Surface Of The Body, The Arteries,

Which Lie Deep, Without The Reach Of Compression, Are Continually

Pouring Their Contents Into The Head, Where The Blood Meets With

No Resistance? The Vessels Of The Brain Are Naturally Lax, And

The Very Sutures Of The Skull Are Yet Unclosed. What Are The

Consequences Of This Cruel Swaddling? The Limbs Are Wasted; The

Joints Grow Rickety; The Brain Is Compressed, And A

Hydrocephalus, With A Great Head And Sore Eyes, Ensues. I Take

This Abominable Practice To Be One Great Cause Of The Bandy Legs,

Diminutive Bodies, And Large Heads, So Frequent In The South Of

France, And In Italy.

 

 

 

I Was No Less Surprised To Find The Modern Fashion Of Curling The

Hair, Borrowed In A Great Measure From The Coxcombs And Coquettes

Of Antiquity. I Saw A Bust Of Nero In The Gallery At Florence,

The Hair Represented In Rows Of Buckles, Like That Of A French

Petit-Maitre, Conformable To The Picture Drawn Of Him By

Suetonius. Circa Cultum Adeo Pudendum, Ut Coman Semper In Gradus 

Part 7 Letter 30 ( Nice, February 28, 1765.) Pg 247

Formatam Peregrinatione Achaica, Etiam Pene Verticem Sumpserit,

So Very Finical In His Dress, That He Wore His Hair In The Greek

Fashion, Curled In Rows Almost To The Crown Of His Head. I Was

Very Sorry However To Find That This Foppery Came From Greece. As

For Otho, He Wore A Galericulum, Or Tour, On Account Of Thin

Hair, Propter Raritatem Capillorum. He Had No Right To Imitate

The Example Of Julius Caesar, Who Concealed His Bald Head With A

Wreath Of Laurel. But There Is A Bust In The Capitol Of Julia

Pia, The Second Wife Of Septimius Severus, With A Moveable

Peruke, Dressed Exactly In The Fashionable Mode, With This

Difference, That There Is No Part Of It Frizzled; Nor Is There

Any Appearance Of Pomatum And Powder. These Improvements The

Beau-Monde Have Borrowed From The Natives Of The Cape Of Good

Hope.

 

 

 

Modern Rome Does Not Cover More Than One-Third Of The Space

Within The Walls; And Those Parts That Were Most Frequented Of

Old Are Now Intirely Abandoned. From The Capitol To The Coliseo,

Including The Forum Romanum And Boarium, There Is Nothing Intire

But One Or Two Churches, Built With The Fragments Of Ancient

Edifices. You Descend From The Capitol Between The Remaining

Pillars Of Two Temples, The Pedestals And Part Of The Shafts Sunk

In The Rubbish: Then Passing Through The Triumphal Arch Of

Septimius Severus, You Proceed Along The Foot Of Mons Palatinus,

Which Stands On Your Right Hand, Quite Covered With The Ruins Of

The Antient Palace Belonging To The Roman Emperors, And At The

Foot Of It, There Are Some Beautiful Detached Pillars Still

Standing. On The Left You See The Remains Of The Templum Pacis,

Which Seems To Have Been The Largest And Most Magnificent Of All

The Temples In Rome. It Was Built And Dedicated By The Emperor

Vespasian, Who Brought Into It All The Treasure And Precious

Vessels Which He Found In The Temple Of Jerusalem. The Columns Of

The Portico He Removed From Nero's Golden House, Which He

Levelled With The Ground. This Temple Was Likewise Famous For Its

Library, Mentioned By Aulus Gellius, Further On, Is The Arch Of

Constantine On The Right, A Most Noble Piece Of Architecture,

Almost Entire; With The Remains Of The Meta Sudans Before It; And

Fronting You, The Noble Ruins Of That Vast Amphitheatre, Called

The Colossaeum, Now Coliseo, Which Has Been Dismantled And

Dilapidated By The Gothic Popes And Princes Of Modern Rome, To

Build And Adorn Their Paultry Palaces. Behind The Amphitheatre

Were The Thermae Of The Same Emperor Titus Vespasian. In The Same

Quarter Was The Circus Maximus; And The Whole Space From Hence On

Both Sides, To The Walls Of Rome, Comprehending Above Twice As

Much Ground As The Modern City, Is Almost Covered With The

Monuments Of Antiquity. I Suppose There Is More Concealed Below

Ground Than Appears Above. The Miserable Houses, And Even Garden-Walls

Of The Peasants In This District, Are Built With These

Precious Materials. I Mean Shafts And Capitals Of Marble Columns,

Heads, Arms, Legs, And Mutilated Trunks Of Statues. What Pity It

Is That Among All The Remains Of Antiquity, At Rome, There Is Not

One Lodging-House Remaining. I Should Be Glad To Know How The 

Part 7 Letter 30 ( Nice, February 28, 1765.) Pg 248

Senators Of Rome Were Lodged. I Want To Be Better Informed

Touching The Cava Aedium, The Focus, The Ara Deorum Penatum, The

Conclavia, Triclinia, And Caenationes; The Atria Where The Women

Resided, And Employed Themselves In The Woolen Manufacture; The

Praetoria, Which Were So Spacious As To Become A