editerranean, thus forfeiting my rights on S. S. Messengerie-Maritime,
that had been paid from Piraeus to Marseilles.
Happily, Mr. Christopher was also representing the S. S. Co., of Fabre
Line, and the S. S. Germania of the same company was scheduled to depart
from the harbor of Naples in a few days. It certainly was a pleasure and
an opportunity of which we took advantage to visit the most interesting
places in and around Naples, the city of far famous and at the same time
notorious, for there the stranger notices, in every step, the beauty of
Italian art and the Neapolitan filth combined in the most peculiar
texture.
Making good use of the little time which we had at our disposal, we took
the train and went up to see the City in which the Pope entombed himself
a living mummy rather than to co-operate with the civilized world in
building God's Kingdom on earth.
In looking over my memorandums I have just discovered a description that
I kept about the Eternal City. The historical facts therein are
supported by undisputable authority. And I think it apropos beneficial
to my readers, if it will be placed at their hands before the closing of
this chapter.
On the river Tiber, about fifteen miles from its mouth in the plain of
what is now called the Campagna, stands the famous capital of the
Western World, and the present residence of the Pope, the City of Rome.
The surrounding country is not a plain, but a sort of undulating
table-land, crossed by hills, while it sinks towards the southwest to
the marshes of Maremma, which coast the Mediterranean. In ancient
geography the country, in the midst of which Rome lay, was termed
Latium, which, in the earliest times, comprised within a space of about
four geographical square miles the country lying between the Tiber and
the Numisius, extending from the Alban Hills to the sea, having for its
chief city Laurentum. Here, on the Palatine Hill, was the city of Rome
founded by Romulus and Remus, grandsons of Numitor, and sons of Rhea
Sylvia, to whom, as the originators of the city, mythology ascribed a
divine parentage. The origin of the term Rome is in dispute. Some derive
it from the Greek Romee, "strength," considering that this name was
given to the place as been a fortress. Cicero says the name was taken
from that of its founder Romulus. At first the city had three gates,
according to a secret usage. Founded on the Palatine Hill, it extended,
by degrees, so as to take in si
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