ITALIAN SCENERY, MANNERS , A N D CUSTOMS.
PILATE XIH.
THE ROMAN FAMILY, AND THE TEMPLE OF MINERVA MEDICA.
\ \ HAT a misfortune it is to Italy to have been so beautiful 1 The northern nations, particularly
the Germans, who have been the scourge of this fine country, were not contented
with subduing and pillaging it, but have endeavoured to destroy it's magnificence; and their
rage has always been turned chiefly against Rome. Whether they hated it's beauty, as being
a reproach to their northern huts and their savage ignorance; or whether they me ant by
deforming it's splendour, to punish a sovereign fallen from power, for having formerly dragged
them chained to the car of triumph, in the same spirit with which the ass in the fable kicked
the dying lion; they have so well succeeded, that many of it's ancient monuments are reduced
to so ruinous a condition, it is difficult to say what they have been.
Thus the ruin represented in the annexed plate was long supposed to be the remains of the
basilic of Caius and Lucius, built in honour of them by their uncle Augustus, according to
Suetonius. Some maintain, that it cannot be a basilic, on the authority of Vitruvius, who
says, that the basilics were never built in a circular form, or decagon, ;is this is, but of an oblong
square; and have imagined it to be the temple of Hercules Callak-us, erected by Junius
Erntus, and so called from a people of Spain, whom he had just conquered.
In spite of all the ingenious arguments adduced in support of both these opinions, the modem
antiquaries are persuaded, that it is the temple of Minerva McUca, or the Goddess of
Health ; and there are ccrtainly many circumstances in favour of their opinion. Sextus says,
this temple was called the Pantheon; and it is certain, that, beside it's form, which is the only
one that can bear the name, monuments enough to warrant the idea have been discovered
near this place. The most valuable antiquity in the palace Giustiniani at Rome, the celebrated
statue of Minerva with a serpoit at her feet, being the symbol of the art of physic,
was Ibund on this spot: and under the reign of Pope Julius I I I were discovered here several
statues of Gods and Goddesses, which had probably adorned the Pantheon.
The dresses of the figures give an adequate idea of the costume of the lower class of the
people. It is the family of a mechanic: the falher is caressing his son ; while a man passing
by with oranges, hearing the little girl intreating her mother to buy an orange for her, is
looking and listening, as if expecting to be called.