Rollo in Rome

Glad

it was that that man

rge. "The first question I knew must be whether we wished to

they keep the gate lo

ay when we come dow

ey mean to make us

e another reason, however, why they keep the gate locked; and that is, to prevent children and stragglers

ere are dangerous place

here are a great many; and I advise

was very broad; and it was formed of the long, flat bricks, suc

ere covered with slabs of mar

e; "either with marble, or

On one side, you could pass through arches, and come out to the platforms where the seats had originally been arranged, and where you could look down upon the arena. The seats themselves were all gone, and in their places nothing was

said Mr. George; "

is safe," said Rollo, "and I will

at pleasure and satisfaction in going into dan

ey found ruins of staircases in great numbers, so that there were a great many different places where they could go up. Mr. George allow

y generally bowed to Rollo and Mr. George as they passed, and greeted them with a pleasant smile, as if of recognition. If,

rge made no objection to this. Indeed, he allowed Rollo to choose the way, and to go where he pleased. He himself followed, walking

ressing book here, I would gather some of

rvey of the whole interior of the Coliseum; and he was endeavoring to picture to his imagination the

nts growing on the ruins of a building

one made expressly for the purpose of pressing

w that Mr. George did not like to have dried plants in the Guide Book. Such specimens between the leaves of a book interfer

bring my pressing book, and then I can get as many

r. George had been paying very little a

ring my pressing book, so as to collect s

sh, while you are doing it, you would gather some for me. And if

id Rollo. "I will wai

and fifty feet, which would be the height of a house fifteen s

ut an acre of open and level space in the centre for the arena, the whole finished in the most magnificent and gorgeous manner, with columns, statues, sculptured ornaments, and all the seats, and walls, and staircases, and corridors, and vestibules, and tribunes, and pavilions for musicians, and s

e extent of the interior of the edifice, that they were not at all too high to see the arena to advantage. Here Rollo crept out upon one of the sloping platforms, where there had forme

n here a few minutes, and make believe that the g

. In that way we can get a bette

gain," said Rollo, "just as it was i

e magic of imaginati

they did down in the arena were so dreadfu

The spectacles must have b

rs came out to tear and devour t

killed, and not the men. It was a combat, and I suppose that the men were usually victorious. It was the spectacle of the fury of the combat, an

d have found any men that would have been

generals used to bring home a great many prisoners of war from the different countries that they conquered, and these men were trained in Rome, and in other great cities

ke to see it

ying Gladiator. I presume the sculptor of it made it from his recollections of the posture and expression of face which wer

must see it,

"It is celebrated all over the world. Byro

he stanza?"

owed, though he yielded to death, he conquered and triumphed over the pain. Then there is something about his wife and children, far away in Dacia, his native

member the lines the

them in the Guide Bo

pened the Guide Book, a

the statue of the Dying Gl

there yet, have

in ancient times one of the most important public places in Rome, and when the city was destroyed, immense numbers of statues, and inscribed marbles, and beautiful sculptured ornaments were buried up there in the

s as follows. He read them

re me the g

n his hand;

death, but c

ed head sinks

side the last dr

ash, fall heav

of a thunder

ims around h

an shout which haile

but he heede

heart, and tha

f the life he l

rude hut by

young barbari

Dacian mother-

o make a Ro

with his blood.

ise, ye Goths, an

after he had finished reciting the lines, "for they were in

Rollo had a good opportunity to procure specimens of marble and of stamped bricks, for in various places there, he found immense stores of bricks and marble, and other rubbish, piled up in square heaps under arches, or in great recesses among the ruins. Rollo selected some of the bricks which had st

es from those which they had taken in coming up; but they came out at last at the same gateway. The custodian was just unlocking the g

n every side, as they passed, broken columns and ruined arches, with the mouldering re

we are going directly by the Capitol Hill as we go

said Mr. Geor

them. You see this ascent in the engraving. It is in the centre of the view. There are statues of lions at the foot of it, with water spouting from their mouths. At the top are larger statues of horses, standing on lofty pedestals, with men by the side of them, holding them by the

TO THE

scent than the one I have been describing, leading up to it. On the right is a winding

e square, and entered a door over which was an inscription denoting that it led to the museum of sculptures and statues. After ascending one or two staircases, they came to the entrance of a suit of apartments in which the statuary was c

and other works of ancient sculpture on each side. These marbles were almost all more or less ch

walked along, "how came all their ea

d Mr. George, "a few hundred years ago. For nearly a thousand years before

ing himself, "who looks as if he could speak French. I m

ch, asked him the question, and the gentleman, replying in French, gave th

all for the Dying Gla

these museums are named from the most celebrated statue that there is in them. And

among them it was very easy to recognize at once the one which they had come to see, both on account of

F THE GL

looked upon the statue for

, "yes, I see. He is dying.

ound in his side?

o, "and the drops o

" said Mr. George. "It is

e some other things lying on the ground ben

eems to be a sort of trumpet. People thi

he was a gladia

for. You see it was dug up out of a heap of rubbish, just as almost all these statues were, and people have to g

rd around his neck

man was a Gaul. The Gauls used

was a Dacian

the expression of it. It is an expression of mingled suffering and rage, and yet he l

"he does not seem t

culptor, to express such different, and, as one would think, a

s of sculpture that there were there. They afterwards came back again to the gladiator, in order to take one more view o

asts of it and drawings of it without number, and you will find descriptions of it and allusions to it continually recurring in the conversation that you hear and