Author: Charles Isidore Hemans

Publisher:

Published: 2015-06-30

Total Pages: 612

ISBN-13: 9781330510414

Excerpt from A History of Ancient Christianity and Sacred Art in Italy Christian Rome presents no solemnities so interesting, from the historic point of view, as those for the Festival of SS. Peter and Paul, which, if somewhat two much gilded with the pomp of courts, are still a splendid symbol of the most wondrous development the world has ever beheld; and the contrast suggested by local association, at the great basilica, is in a scene once enacted on the same site, when the imperial circus with its long arcades, spina, and obelisk, rose dim-defined in darkness luridly dispelled by fires consuming human victims - how enduring their pangs we known not, though we know for what they suffered, some clad in beasts' skins and thus exposed to be torn by dogs, others crucified naked, others made to light up by their death-fires the arena in which, among a pleasure-seeking crowd, Nero drove round in his chariot to enjoy the spectacle he had ordered as well for amusement as for policy, desiring thus to divert against an obscure sect the popular suspicions awakened by recent disaster. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.