the many wolfes preserved in ancient Rome; but of the two rather bends to the Ciceronian statue 1). Montfaucon 2) mentions it as a point without doubt. Of the latter writers the decisive Winkelmann 3) proclaims it as having been found at the church of Saint Theodore, where, or near where, was the temple of Romulus, and consequently makes it the wolf of Dionysius. His authority is Lucius Faunus, who, however, only says that it was placed, not found, at the Ficus Ruminalis by the Comitium, by which he does not seem to allude to the church of Saint Theodore. Rycquius was the first to make the mistake, and Winkelmann followed Rycquius. Flaminius Vacca tells quite a different story, and says he had heard the wolf with the twins was found 4) near the arch of Septimius Severus. The commentator on Winkelmaun is of the same opinion with that learned person, and is incensed at Nardini for not having remarked that Cicero, in speaking of the wolf struck with lightning in the Capitol, makes use of the past tense. But, with the Abate's leave, Nardini does not positively assert the statue to be that mentioned by Cicero, and, if he had, the assumption would not perhaps have been so exceedingly indiscreet. The Abate himself is obliged to own that there are marks very like the scathing of lightning in the hinder legs of the present wolf; and, to get 1) Nardin Roma Vetus, lib. v. cap. iv. 2) "Lupa hodieque in capitolinis prostat aedibus, cum vestigio fulminis quo ictam narrat Cicero. Diarium Italic. tom. i. p. 174. 3) Storia della Arti, etc. lib. iii. cap. iii. §. ii. note 10. Winkelmann has made a strange blunder in the note, by saying the Ciceronian wolf was not in the Capitol, and that Dion was wrong in saying so. 4) Intesi dire, che l'Ercolo di bronzo, che oggi si trova nella sala di Campidoglio, fu trovato nel foro Romano appresso l'arco di Settimio e vi fu trovata anche la lupa di bronzo che allata Romolo e Remo, e stà nella Loggia de conservatori. Flam. Vacca, Memorie, num. iii. pag. 1. ap. Montfaucon, Diar. tal. tom. i. rid of this, adds, that the wolf seen by Diony. sius might have been also struck by lightning, or otherwise injured. Let us examine the subject by a reference to the words of Cicero. The orator in two places seems to particularize the Romulus and the Re mus. especially the first, which his audience remembered to have been in the Capitol, as being struck with lightning. In his verses he records that the twins and wolf both fell, and that the latter left behind the marks of her feet. Cicero does not say that the wolf was consumed: and Dion only mentions that it fell down, without al luding, as the Abate has made him, to the force of the blow, or the firmness with which it had been fixed. The whole strength, therefore, of the Abate's argument, hangs upon the past tense; which, however, may be somewhat diminished by remarking that the phrase only shows that the statue was not then standing in its former posi tion. Winkelmann has observed, that the present twins are modern; and it is equally clear that there are marks of gilding on the wolf, which might therefore be supposed to make part of the ancient group. It is known that the sacred images of the Capitol were not destroyed when injured by time or accident, but were put into certain under-ground depositaries called favissae 1). It may be thought possible that the wolf had been so deposited, and had been replaced in some conspicuous situation when the Capitol was rebuilt by Vespasian. Rycquius, without mentioning his authority, tells that it was transferred from the Comitium to the Lateran, and thence brought to the Capitol. If it was found near the arch of Se verus, it may have been one of the images which Orosius says was thrown down in the Forum by lightning when Alaric took the city. That it is of very high antiquity the workmanship is a decisive proof; and that circumstance induced Winkelmann to believe it the wolf of Dionysius 1) Luc. Faun, ibid. 2) See note to Stanza LXXX. in Historical Illustrations. T 12 S t The Capitoline wolf, however, may have been of the sanie early date as that at the temple of Romulus. Lactantins 1) asserts that in his time the Romans worshipped a wolf; and it is known that the Lupercalia held out to a very late period 2) after every other observance of the ancient super. stition had totally expired. This may account for the preservation of the ancient image longer than the other early symbols of Paganism. It may be permitted, however, to remark, that the wolf was a Roman symbol, but that the worship of that symbol is an inference drawn by the zeal of Lactantius. The early Christian writers are not to be trusted in the charges which they make against the Pagans. Eusebius accused the Romans to their faces of worshipping Simon Magus, and raising a statue to him in the island of the Tyber. The Romans had probably never heard of such a person before, who came, however, to play a considerable, though scandalous part in the church history, and has left several tokens of his aerial combat with St. Peter at Rome; notwithstanding that an inscription found in this very island of the Tyber showed the Simon Magus of Eusebius to be a certain indigenal god, called Semo Sangus or Fidius 3). 3) "Romuli nutrix Lupa honoribus est affecta divinis, et ferrem si animal ipsum fuisset, cujus figuram gerit. Lactant. de Falsa Religione, lib. 1. cap. 20. pag. 101. edit. varior. 1660; that is to say, he would rather adore a wolf than a prostitute. His commentator has observed that the opinion of Livy concerning Laurentia being figured in this wolf was not universal. Strabo thought so. Rycquius is wrong in saying that Lactantius mentions the wolf was in the Capitol. " 2) To A. D. 496. "Quis credere possit, says Baronius (Ann. Eccles. tom. viii. p. 602. in ann. 496.) "viguisse adhuc Romae ad Gelasii tempora, quae fuere ante exordia urbis allata in Italiam Lupercalia? Gelasius wrote a letter which occupies four folio pages to Andromachus the senator, and others, to show that the rites should be given up. 3) Eusebius has these words: καὶ ανδριάντι παρ' ὑμῖν ὡς θεὸς τετίμηται, ἐν τῷ Τίβερι Even when the worship of the founder of Rome had been abandoned, it was thought expedient to humour the habits of the good matrons of the city by sending them with their sick infants to the church of Saint Theodore, as they had before car. ried them to the temple of Romulus 1). The practice is continued to this day; and the site of the above church seems to be thereby identified with that of the temple: so that if the wolf had been really found there, as Winkelmann says, there would be no doubt of the present statue being that seen by Dionysius. But Faunus, in saying that it was at the Ficus Ruminalis by the Comitium, is only talking of its ancient position as recorded by Pliny; and even if he had been remarking where it was found, would not have alluded to the church of Saint Theodore, but to a very different place, near which it was then thought the Ficus Ruminalis had been, and also the Comitinm; that is, the three columns by the church of Santa Maria Liberatrice, at the corner of the Palatine looking on the Forum. ποταμῷ μεταξὺ τῶν δύο γεφυρών, ἔχων 1) In essa gli antichi pontefici per togl'er la memoria de giuochi Lupercali istituiti in onore di Romolo, introdussero l'uso di portarvi Bambini oppressi da infermità occulte, ac cio si liberino per l'intercessione di questo Santo, come continuo si sperimenta. » Rione xii. Ripa accurata e succincta descrizione, etc. di Roma Moderna dell' Ab. Ridolí. Venuti, 1766. 2) Nardini, lib. v. cap. 11. convicts Pomponius Laetus crassi erroris, in putting the Ruminal fig tree at the church of Saint Theodore: bat as Livy says the wolf was at the Ficus Ruminalis, and Dionysius at the temple of Romulus, he is obliged (cap. iv.) to own that the two were close together, as well as the Lupercal cave, shaded, as it were, by the fig-tree. It is, in fact, a mere conjecture where the image was actually dug up), and perhaps, on the whole, the masks of the gilding, and of the lightning, are a better argument in favour of its being the Ciceronian wolf than any that can be adduced for the contrary opinion. At any rate, it is reasonably selected in the text of the poem as one of the most interesting relics of the ancient city 2), and is certainly the figure, if not the very animal to which Virgil alludes in his beautiful verses: "Geminos huic ubera circum Ludere pendentes pueros, et lambere matrem Impavidos: illam tereti cervice reflexam Mulcere alternos, et corpora fingere linguâ 5)... 47. For the Roman's mind Was modell'd in a less terrestrial mould. Stanza xc. lines 3 and 4. It is possible to be a very great man and to be still very inferior to Julius Caesar, the most com. plete character, so Lord Bacon thought, of all an. tiquity. Nature seems incapable of such extraor dinary combinations as composed his versatile capacity, which was the wonder even of the Romans 1) "Ad comitium ficus olim Ruminalis germinabat, sub qua lupae rumam, hoc est, mammam, docente Varrone, suxerant olim Romulus et Remus; non procul a templo hodie D. Mariae Liberatricis appellato ubi forsan inventa nobilis illa. aenea statua lupae geminos puerulos lactantis, quam hodie in capitolio videmus. Olai Borrichi Antiqua Urbis Romanae facies, cap. x. See also cap. xii. Borrichius wrote af ter Nardini in 1687. Ap. Graev. Antiq. Rom. tom. iv. p.1522. 2) Donatus, lib. xi. cap. 18. gives a medal representing on one side the wolf in the same position as that in the Capitol; and in the reverse the wolf with the head not reverted. It is of the time of Antoninus Pins. 3) Aen. viii. 631. See-Dr. Middleton, in his Letter from Rowho inclines to the Ciceronian wolf, but without examining the subject. |