LOST TEMPLE OF OLD ROME FOUND BY ACCIDENT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18556, 11 August 1922, Page 7

LOST TEMPLE OF OLD ROME FOUND BY ACCIDENT

Walking on the tracks of th© Rome-Naples railway, just outside the Porta Maggiore, the best known of the gates of Rome, a labourer fell into a hole. Quickly scrambling to his feet, be discovered that he had fallen into the courtyard of an ancient temple, which evidently was built by Taurus, and which had been forgotten by all succeeding generations. The labourer looked about him in the subterranean darkness. He found a long passage and followed it, think, ing he could find au exit. He came to the ruins of a great buildAng. He struck matches and peered about the walls. All was curious to him, but he recognised the appearance of a temple. The labourer reported to his foreman. A hole in the ground in Rome always is worth investigating. They went together, and after the engineer had seen for himself he excitedly rushed to the headquarters of the archaeological authorities of ' Rome, and excavation work was begun on the spot, within a fortnight. The official report of the explorations has just been published. The forgotten ru-ns proved to be of a Greek temple, dedicated to an unknown deity, gleaming with bas reliefs in white stucco, which reveal a lost art. A lost, temple, a lost deity, a lost art—all discovered because of the heedless feet of an uninterested labourer! But tlie history of the temple, is known. Tacitus wrote it. It dates back to the first century. A.I). The Underground .Basilica. as Rome is beginning to call its latest historic treasure, has now been completely excavated, and artists and archaeologists have been allowed to study the structure. The building was partly filled with debris and the entrance was caved in: otherwise the temple was almost as intact as it must have been while a priestess celebrated some forgotten rites at its altar two thousand years ago. The basilica has a central nave nearly 4 0 feet long, flanked by side aisles marked off by four arches supported on oblong pillars and endJin g in an apse. The ante-chamber leads into the main part of the temple and gives the only light, for there are no windows. In the half twilight of the temple (he goddesses and graceful dancing figures on the walls seem to glow with life. Old Story Verified. I he most interesting thing about this discovery is that it verifies and changes i into history a .story which for twenty centuries has been held as tradition. It is likewise amazing, and in no way according to precedent, that the temple vvas not buried by the blanket of time. It has been preineditatively and purport Lilly concealed under the earth by a builder who wished a secret sanctuary where lie might worship hidden securely from public observance. Tacitus tells the story that Agrippina. mother of the Emperor Nero, and from whom he inherited both his ambition, and his cruelty, caused the death of a certain Statilius Taurus, who had been Governor of Africa, but who had returned to Rome. Agrippina, had condemned him to death on the charge that he had been practising foreign religious rites in the very capital of the empire, lacitus wrote she wanted for herself the magnificieut gardens of Taurus, on the Esqudine Hill, which was the fashionable residence district of first century Roman society Here the nobles had villas and gardens. Taurus knew Agrippina; he knew her cruelty; he knew after he was condemned that she would devise most terrible tortures for him. Therefore he committed suicide rather than submit to the suffering which lie accounted inevitable unless death should intervene. Now the underground basilica was unearthed in exactly the .spot where the unfortunate Taurus bad his gardens. There is every possibility, according to the archaeologists, that the story told by Tacitus was true, and that Taurus celebrated his foreign rites—believed to have been some form of sun worshipin this lovely white temple sunk below the olive and lemon trees of his garden, 'there is no doubt that the temple was an underground one, for it is fourteen feet below the level of the ancient road unearthed in the neighborhood. Perfectly Preserved, Aside from its historical interest the basilica contains the most superb stucco bas reliefs known to exist. They are pure white and, in spite of their delicacy, almost perfectly preserved. The entire surface of walls and ceilings is divided by moldings into panels. Mythological scenes alternate with decorative motifs of victories, crowning trophies, winged genii, gorgeou heads and palmettes. The antechamber differs from the main room in that it is decorated' in dark red and blue, witli pictures of Bacchic revelry. One relief shows the mad Agave with the head of Penthcus, the subject of the Bacchae of Euripides. In the vault of the nave is pictured a winged genius carrying off Ganymede to be the cupbearer of Jupiter, and another genius bearing away a female figure thought to represent one of the daughters of Leucippus. Some of the scenes are done in a spirit of humour. Tliere is a picture of Jason, who is made so small that he lias to climb on a table to reach th© Golden Fleece while a Brobdingnagian Media gives a magic potion to the dragon The most magni.ficient work is that in the halt dome of the apse It shows a. woman clad in a long garment which floats out behind hei in the wind as she leaps down from the rocks into the sea. In one hand she holds the seven stringed lyre. A winged Eros assists her, and in the sea a figure holds a scraf as if to break her fall. A scaly tailed Triton rises from the water. At the left an Apollo with a how stands on a cliff and behind him sits a veiled figure in an attitude of lamentation. The scene is believed to represent the poetess Sappho leaping from the Leucadian cliff to : escape her love for the boatman Phaon.