Part 14 (1/2)
Caesar said that Preciozi and he were the most anti-historic men going about in Rome.
One morning they went to the Piazza del Campidoglio. It was drizzling; the wet roofs shone; the sky was grey.
”This intrusion of the country into Rome,” said Caesar, ”is what gives the city its romantic aspect. These hills with trees on them are very pretty.”
”Only pretty, Don Caesar? They are sublime,” retorted Preciozi.
”What amazement I shall produce in you, my dear abbe, when I tell you that all my knowledge in respect to the Capitol reduces itself to the fact that some orator, I don't know who, said that near the Capitol is the Tarpeian Rock.”
”You know nothing more about it?”
”Nothing more. I don't know if Cicero said that, or Castelar, or Sir Robert Peel.”
Preciozi burst into merry laughter.
”What statue is that?” asked Caesar, indicating the one in the middle of the square.
”That is Marcus Aurelius.”
”An Emperor?”
”Yes, an Emperor and a philosopher.”
”And why have they made him riding such a little, potbellied horse?”
”I don't know, man.”
”He looks like a man taking a horse to water at a trough. Why does he ride bare-back? Hadn't they invented stirrups at that period?”
Preciozi was a bit perplexed; before making a reply he gazed at the statue, and then said, confusedly:
”I think so.”
They crossed the Piazza Campidoglio and went out by the left side of the Palazzo del Senatore. Down the Via dell' Arco di Severo, a street that runs down steps to the Forum, they saw a large arch that seemed sunk in the ground, and beyond, further away, another smaller arch with only one archway, which arose in the distance as if on top of the big arch. A square yellow tower, burned by the sun, lifted itself among the ruins; some hills showed rows of romantic cypresses, and in the background the blue Alban Mountains stood out against a grey sky.
”Would you like to go down to the Forum?” said the abbe. ”Down there where the stones are? No. What for?”
”Do you wish to see the Tarpeian Rock?”
”Yes, man. But explain to me what this rock was.”
Preciozi got together all his information, which was not much.
They went by the Via Monte Tarpea, and came back by the Via della Consolazione.
”They must have thrown people who were already dead off the Tarpeian Rock,” said Caesar, after hearing the explanation.
”No, no.”
”But if they threw them down alive, the majority of those they chucked down here would not have died. At most they would have dislocated an arm, a leg, or a finger-joint. Unless they chucked them head first.”