the past and the present are incongruously united in Rome. You see on
the right side of the road a picturesque ridge of cliffs clothed with
shaggy ilexes and underwood, overhanging at intervals the walls and
buildings. It was formed by lava ejected from some ancient volcano in
the neighbourhood; and over it was deposited, by the action of
acidulated waters rising through the volcanic rock, a stratum of
travertine or fresh-water limestone. Not far off is a mineral spring
called Acqua Acetosa, much frequented by the inhabitants on summer
mornings, which may be considered one of the expiring efforts of
volcanic action in the neighbourhood. The Milvian Bridge is associated
with most interesting and important historical events. The Roman
citizens, two hundred years before Christ, met here the messengers who
announced the defeat of Asdrubal on the Metaurus at the end of the
second Punic war. Here the ambassadors of the Allobroges implicated in
Catiline's conspiracy were arrested by order of Cicero. And from the
parapets of the bridge the body of Maxentius, the rival pagan emperor,
was hurled into the Tiber, after his defeat by Constantine in the
great battle of Saxa Rubra, which took place a little distance off.
Visitors to the Vatican will remember the spirited representation of
this battle on the walls of Raphael's Stanze, designed by the
immortal master, and executed by Giulio Romano, the largest historical
subject ever painted. By the tragic details of this battle, men and
horses being entangled in the eddies of the river, the Christians were
reminded of the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea,
and the consequent deliverance of Israel. The victory on the side of
Constantine led to the total overthrow of paganism, and put an end to
the age of religious persecution. On this memorable day the
seven-branched golden candlestick which Titus had taken from the
temple of Jerusalem, according to tradition, was thrown into the
Tiber, where it lies under a vast accumulation of mud in the bed of