RECOLLECTIONS OF HOME.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 43, 21 February 1874, Page 10

RECOLLECTIONS OF HOME.

HO. VII. "The Coliseum by moonlight, how heavenly !" (said our poetic friend) " we shall see there n'.esl-ee-pas ?" (our friend affected French as well as poetrj). Oh certainly ! we promised i and I resolved to epend some of the intervening time in heating up appropriate quotations, so that I should not be absolutely unprepared for the poetry which the occasion would be suro to require. My hunt was successful, and before the moon rose I was ready with — " While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand • "When falls the dlkeum. Rome skill fall ' And wueu Rome Ullb— the world." But tl< is elaborate preparation was in vain, for when half-past eight came, I found that the days sight-seeing had developed n elHit cold into a bad attack of influenza, which needed bed and cruel and made me Judder at the idea of a gloomy ruin where the coli winds played at hide and seek, and the heavy dew wept for tho memories of the pait. I wi o h I could recall what 1 heard next day from my fi iends who had b-en oble to go, and who gave me v glowing description of •what they had seen and felt, for I shall not be able°to give you mv own impre*s:oi.s as I never m-ule another attempt to see tho Coliseum by moonlight. Early in my vi it to Rome I had been to see the beautiful Protestant cemctry outs-de the a alls, where arc buried the poets Shelley and E.cati ; and when there 1 had been struck by the number of graves of young people, some of them perhaps who had come to se?k for health in tic eternal city, aud had found death in the freezing art galleiics nnd m torchlight recession* to the Coliseum. Perhaps because T was accustomed to ihe bright newness of everything in Australia (warn , li 3on chose, juu may make- your plantation on.grJund which no pluuph has ever turned) the dust of ages had a most depressing influence on me. The cold- bad no freshness about it but eeemeJ like aiiicj bivoth from the countless tombs, which lieund-r the city. I Avouldhavo been mest unwilling to add another grave where there are already such multitudes, so I took care seldom to go

out after night-fall But I often saw the Coliseum by daylight, and I must try and describe it for you. The building was at first ca'led the * avian Ampitheatro, from the family name of the Emperor Vespasian who commenced its erection in a.d. 72, but it afterwards came to b» called the Coliseum, from its immense size. Even now when contunes have passed away, when palaces have been built out of huge blocks of stone carried off by the Forneso, the Barborini, the Fran<npam, and other noble families, when war in the twelfth century translormed the theatre into a fortress and it lost its western and southern sides, when peace scarcely less barbarously endeavored iii the sixteenth century to turn it first into a woollen factory, and then into a magazine for saltpetre, enough i, left te make it still the mightiest ruin the wonder of Home, and of the world. When we look at it now in its melancholy decay, and pioture to ourselves what it was in the days of its splendor, it gives us truly an idea of the vanity of human greatness Where aro theemperors, the vestal virgins, the Roman citizens, who thronged this vast arena, and feasted their eyes on th 3 dying aroniea of the gladiators, or on the heroic fortitude of the Christian matyrs who were there torn co pieces by ferocious beasts ? Wild flowers, myrtles and olives fid the galleries where once sal the great ones of Rome • and on the spot where Ihe martyrs shed their blood the cross now stands triumphant. The stations of the cross now take the place of the dens of lions and tigers, aud the preaching of Capuchin friars telling their eager listeners of the holy ones whoso blood deluged that very ground, may be heard instead of the Romans hungry for more slaughter. The Coliseum covers almost six acres, and is supposed to have been able to contain eighty seven thousand spectators. It is said to have been designed by Gaudentius, a Christian architect and martyr, and aftor the destruction of Jerusalem imny thousand captive Jews were employed in building it. From what still rimiius it is easy to picture whatit was before 'ho haad of timg had marked it so rudolv. The form of the ampitlioatre is oval. The outer elevation consists of four stories, the seats were also arranged in four tiors which sloped towards the centre and were divided as our modern theatres are into different compartments, for the patriciaus and plsbians. There was a cohered gallery, on the same level as the arena, set apart for the emperor, the senators, and the vestal virgins. The Roman ladies took part in these scenes, and appear to have been oven more blood-thirsty than their husbands and brothers. The last martyr who was sacrificed at the Coliseum was Telemachus (not the Prince so deservedly detected by school boys and girls for his dreary travels and moral reflections, to say nothing of the uncomfortable old gentleman who accompanied him and read him such lectures), bat an Eastern monk who went to Rome in the reign of Honorius to protest against the barbarity of the gladiatorial shows ; he throw himsalf betwein the combatants and endeavoieJ to separate them, but his interference was taken in bad part by the angry Romans who did not choose to have theii favorite amusement meddled with, so they heightened tb.6 fun by tearing him to pieces. Of course all those who vis?it the Coliseum take away a bit. of stone or, if very enthusiastic, half a brick to remind him of what they have seen. Perhaps the ultimate fate of the wonderful ruin which has resisted war and spoliation of every kmd will be to be carried away piecemeal in tourists' pockets. I hare to answer for a fragment in Australia, and I am sure there must be some tons of travertin in New York, for if the good Americans go to Paris when they die they go to Rome without waiting to be particularly cood, and while still in the flesh, and as they, like ua, have no ruins of their own, they tako home a scrap of Coliseum, a few m saice from the flooring of Pompei, and some dust from the Roman forum. But if this should really come to pass the destruction of the Flavian Ampitheatre would not be the only thing to grieve over. What would become of the records of the travellers who, determining to leave a name in history, cut into the solid stone with their penknives the fact that they had Visited the Coliseum. John Brown had a yearning for immortality, he would have won a famous battle or written a great poem if the opportunity had offered, but fate was unkind and he feels himself growing to be an old man without having achieved anything great. But the name of John Brown shall not die, for he has cut It under that of Samuel Green, and stated in the clearest terms that on Feb. It), '54, he and his wife Charlotte, and his daughter Maud, saw, admired, and approved of the Coliseum. This habit of wishing to carve one's name on the walls of great buildings is one with which I have not much sympathy, but it is very wide-spread. I was a little surprised, however, to soe the name of one of our Australian co'onists who had vnndu the grand tour some years before. Our colonies are scarcely old enough yet to send home many rich Australians, but by degrees our wool and gold will make as »ood an appearance at the foreign tables d'hote as the shoddy and oil of our American cousins, and wo shall send home our girls to buy expensive Froneh milincry, and tee the sights of Roinu as the American girls do at present. S. G. D.