persecuting zeal of so many Emperors until Theodosius II. and in spite of the irreconcilable hatred of the Christians of that age, both in the East and West, to the monuments of paganism. It is beyond doubt, that the heathens did every thing in their power to conceal their sanctuaries from the eyes of their enemies. This is the reason why statues are constantly discovered in places where we know, certainly, that no temples or other sacred buildings ever existed.

*

Constantine, however, was not satisfied with the works of ancient art which he collected from the various provinces of the empire. He caused to be erected upon a pillar, a statue representing the figure of the Empress Helena, and many representing his own. The ideas of many other works of art which were ordered to be executed, were taken from the Christian religion; one represented a fountain upon which Christ, in the character of the good shepherd, was standing, and a group of bronze imaged Daniel among the lions. This last became afterwards a favourite subject with the Christian artists, and is to be frequently met with on sarcophagi. Constantine also erected a statue behind the saloon of the senate chamber, to the father of Athanarich, a Gothic king, whose conquests he praised, in order to show his esteem for the Goths. Historians mention, in particular, two churches as the most important among the many which that Emperor built at Constantinoplethe church of peace and that of the apostles. Of these, the last was designed as the burying place of the Emperors, and the former was subsequently enlarged and dedicated to St. Sophia, under which name it is universally renowned. He adorned its outside with 450 statues which could have no reference to religion, because, in that early age of Christianity, the use of sacred figures and images was not yet introduced, or was deemed sinful; moreover, when this very church of St. Sophia was burnt down in the times of John Chrysostom, and Justinian began to rebuild it, more than seventy statues of Greek gods, and the twelve signs of the zodiac, together with some images of Christian kings, were found at one side under the rubbish, and were placed as ornaments in different parts of the city. Constantine also built at Jerusalem upon the site of the temple of Venus, which he ordered to be demolished, the ehurch of the Resurrection. Many other heathen temples

Heyne de senioris artis operibus, quæ sub imperatoribus Byzantinis facta me+ Themist. Orat xv.-notæ.

morantur.

Suidas mentions this fact, according to the testimony of Pietro Gilgi, in his topography of Constantinople. See Gronov. Thesaur. Antiquit. Græcar. t. vi.

were demolished by his order about the year 333, although when the unrestrained and imitative zeal of the Christians began to violate those statues of the gods which served as ornaments to the heathen burying places, he established laws forbidding these violations. However, the above mentioned instances of oppression of the heathen religion took place in the Eastern, more than in the Western part of the Empire, for in the latter, idolatry existed long after the death of Constantine the Great.

Constans, his son and successor, abolished at Rome, for the first time, in the year 341, the offering feasts of the heathens, and closed their temples without destroying them, with the exception of the altar of the goddess Victoria, which suffered on that occasion, (Symmach. epist. liv. lib. 10, ad Valentinian.) and in the year 356, new edicts are issued against idols and sacrifices. Under the reign of Valentinian II. the senators who adhered to the old national faith, obtained permission to sacrifice at the altar of Victoria upon the capitolbut in the year 376, the Prefect of Rome, Gracchus, upon the order of Gratian, destroyed this altar together with many idols.

Under the reign of Julian the apostate, the Christian religion suffered a great shock, and the heathen monuments were repaired and rebuilt. We know the zeal with which he erected statues, even to long forgotten deities, and ordered feasts for them. Good taste in the arts was in his age not quite lost, for the Greek artists, even then, travelled to Elis to copy with great preciseness from the Olympian Jupiter of Phidias.|| The early death of Julian destroyed all hope of ever restoring classical antiquity; his efforts were, perhaps, too much opposed to the spirit of the age to have succeeded, even had his reign been of longer duration. Under the equally short reign of Jovian, we find nothing worth notice recorded of the fine arts. He was succeeded by Valentinian and Valens; the latter tolerated in the East, not only the exercise of the Jewish religion, but also that of the heathens. Under Theodosius the great, the arts appear to have become a little more fashionable; for they erected monuments to him on various occasions, two of which twisted with works in bas-relief, are especially worth notice; the one was erected at the forum of Taurus,

Eunap. Sardian. in vita Aedessi-Theodoret, lib. v c. 10. Julian. Orat, vii+ Cod. Theodos. lib. ix. tit. xvii. de Sepulchris violatis.

Ibid. xvi. tib. xvi, de pagan. sacrif. &c. § Cod. Theodos. lib. xvi. tit. x. leg. G Winkelman, T. ii. note a.

ornamented with bas-reliefs, which immortalized his exploits against the Goths, Vandals, &c. It does no longer exist; Bajazet destroyed it entirely; but the altar, which Arcadius erected to his father upon the Forum Arcadium, has been preserved to the present day, but it is surrounded by so many buildings of the Harem, that it is entirely impossible to approach it. Yet we possess a good drawing of it, executed by Gentile Bellini, in the time of Mahomet the II. It is in the painting academy at Paris.* That the number of the statues erected in the Roman empire in honor of Theodosius, must have been considerable, is plain from the circumstance, that in the rebellion which took place at Antioch in the year 387, the ringleaders threw down the figures of the emperor, his wife and children. These manifestations of respect could not have been very flattering, since it was customary to erect at the public places in the capital towns, the figures of actors and wags at the side of those of the emperors; which circumstance exhibits to us at once the complete effeminacy and corruption of the age. Zeal of religion, rather than hatred towards the arts, was the reason why Theodosius himself gave in the East strict orders against idolatry, and commissioned Valentinian to abolish it in Italy; he demolished also many temples, the most famous of which was that of Serapis, in Egypt. Yet the Romans who adhered to the ancient heathen creed continued, in spite of these repeated prohibitions, to exercise their religious processions publicly, as is plainly seen from the many consular inscriptions. Paganism found as yet a great support in the Roman senate, because the majority of them professed it.

That division in the Eastern and Western empires, which chronologers date from the year 395, the year when Theodosius died, is by no means necessary, and is a misrepresentation of history. The Roman empire remained in itself wholly undivided, although it was governed by two coequal emperors at two different places; it resembled much the government of the three sons of Constantine, when the unity of the empire did not suffer in the least. The laws were given in common by the two emperors, and were in force throughout the whole of the empire; their names, too, were together written in the consular

* The chief work on that monument is "Menetrii Columna Theodosiana, quam vulgo historiatam vocant," with 18 copper-plates, by Hierony. Vallet. Gothfr. Chronol. Cod. Theodos. ad ann. 387.

Cod. Theodos. lib. xv. tit. 7. leg. 15.

6 Ibid. xvi. tit. 10.

VOL. VII. NO. 13.

17

annals, and engraved in public buildings. After the death of Honorius, Theodosius the II. sent Valentinian the III to Rome, first with the title of Cæsar, and afterwards of Augustus. Also, Leo the Great, sent thither Anthemius; and Mauritius, the Cappadocian, in his will, left the East to his first born son Theodosius, and Rome, together with Italy, to Tiberius, although this latter clause was not carried into effect, since he was succeeded by Phocas. After the death of Augustulus, who is generally considered as the last Western emperor, there was an interregnum in Italy, which terminated in sending thither from Constantinople Exarchs,* to govern that part of the country which had not as yet fallen into the hands of the barbarians. All these facts are so many proofs of the undivided Jus imperii. It was not until long after, that Charlemagne founded in the West a new empire of a form quite different from that of Constantinople; and only from that time can we with justice oppose the two empires.

The destructive zeal of the Christians against the arts, of which we have given some instances, increased with the course of time. Not content with destroying all that they met with of heathen gods in painting, mosaic or sculpture, they turned their rage upon the monuments which the ancients erected to the memory of their heroes and other celebrated men, without any reference to religion. Their hatred against all that belonged to the heathens was so great, that they, for the most part, destroyed them entirely, or if they wished to turn them to some profitable use, they first purified them. So when they were often short of materials in building or ornamenting new churches and basilicas, they destroyed the heathen temples or other profane buildings. Honorius, although he prohibited, in Spain, in 399, the offeringfeasts of the heathens, still not wishing to strip their buildings of any thing, published a law in which he forbade the destruction of such statues as served for ornaments of public buildings.

The fifth century was the most destructive to the remnants of former art, on account of the frequent attacks of the differ

Longinus was the first exarch at Ravenna in the year 567.

Thus, Hermoldus Nigellus abbè of Languedoc advised Harold, king of Daene. mark, to melt first into a mass two metal statues of Jupiter and Neptune, and then to make of them kitchen furniture.

De Jove fac ollas nigras, fulvos que lebetes, Ignem semper ament, auctor ut ipse suus; Neptuno fabricetur aquae gerulus tibi iure Urceus, et laticum semper habebit honos. See Mailly, t. ii. p. 418.

ent barbarous nations upon the Roman Empire, in which they sometimes succeeded in ravaging not only Italy and Rome, but also other provinces. First came the Visi-goths, who conquered Rome under the command of their king Alaric, in the year 410, yet without injuring the monuments of art." Genseric, king of the Vandals, ordered, 437, as an Arian, the first persecution of the Catholic Christians in Africa. In the year 445, during the pontificate of Leo I. Attila, called the divine scourge, with his army of Huns, appeared in Italy. All the historians do not agree in the statement, that Genseric when he landed 455, with a large fleet from Africa, in Italy, did much mischief in Rome. Iornandest denies that he set the town on fire; but many other contemporary writers, among them St. Augustin maintains the fact positively. Procopius says, that only the Salaric gate, where Genseric entered, and the adjoining houses were destroyed by fire, among which was the celebrated palace of Sallust. Certain it is, that Genseric plundered the imperial palace and took away with him every thing of any value, even the copper furniture. He also took the half of the plates of gilded bronze, with which the temple of the Capitoline Jupiter was covered. A vessel, loaded with statues and bound for Carthage, sunk in the sea.

In the year 476, in the time of Pope Simplicius, Odoacer, king of the Heruli, entered Italy, deposed Augustulus from the throne; and, in some degree, terminated the Western empire; for these barbarous conquerors did not choose to assume the title of emperor, but were satisfied with that of king. Thus an interregnum continued in Italy 324 years until Charlemagne was crowned emperor.

In the year 493, Theodoric, king of the Ostro-goths, seized the government of Italy, which lasted thirty-three years. He had in Cassiodorus a wise and humane counsellor, by whose advice he repaired many old and built new monuments; and thus he favoured the arts. Cassiodorus notices the formula comitivae Romanae which agreed with the instruction of a Centurio rerum nitentium, whose duty it was to watch over the preservation of the public works of art. Although

Baronius maintains falsely (sub. 389 No. 2) that the destruction of the idols in Italy is to be attributed more to the Goths than to the Christians; Gibbon, (Hist. of the Decline, &c. v. xii.) shows the contrary.

Ammian. Marcellin. lib. xvi. c. 6, where Valesius, in his notes, thus explains, the words of Ammian.:-Centurio nitentium rerum, i. e. qui signorum ac statuarum ex aere ac marmori in urbe curam gerebat, noctuque cum militibus observabat, ne quis ea confringeret aut mutilaret."