Shall cause its beauty wholly to expire.
Human exertions raised that splendid Rome,
Which gods in vain shall strive to overcome.
Bid wealth, bid marble, and bid fate attend,
And watchful artists o'er the labour bend.
Still shall the matchless ruin art defy
The old to rival, or its loss supply.
Here gods themselves their sculptur'd forms admire,
And only to reflect those forms aspire;
Nature unable such like gods to form,
Left them to man's creative genius warm;
Life breathes within them, and the suppliant falls.
Not to the God, but statues in the walls.
City thrice blessed! were tyrants but away.
Or shame compelled them justice to obey.
Are not these sufficient to point out in such a city, both the dignity of its former advantages, and the majesty of its present ruin? But that nothing may be wanting to its honour, I will add the number of its gates, and the multitude of its sacred relics; and that no person may complain of his being deprived of any knowledge by the obscurity of the narrative, the description shall run in an easy and familiar style.[1]
The first is the Cornelian gate, which is now called the gate of St. Peter, and the Cornelian way. Near it is situated the church of St. Peter, in which his body lies, decked with gold and silver, and precious stones: and no one knows the number of the holy martyrs who rest in that church. On the same way is another church, in which lie the holy virgins Rufina and Secunda. In a third church, are Marius and Martha, and Audifax and Abacuc, their sons.
The second is the Flaminian gate, which is now called the gate of St. Valentine,[2] and the Flaminian way, and when it arrives at the Milvian bridge, it takes the name of the Ravennanian way, because it leads to Ravenna; and there, at the first stone without the gate, St. Valentine rests in his church.
The third is called the Porcinian[3] gate, and the way the
