he
Tiber, laden with a considerable booty.

It seems that the advance fort of Johannipolis was finished and
consecrated by Pope John soon after the naval battle of Cape Circeo
(A. D. 877), because the inscription above referred to speaks of him
as a _triumphant_ leader,--SEDIS APOSTOLICAE PAPA JOHANNES OVANS.

The location of this fortified outpost could not have been more
judiciously selected. It commanded the roads from Ostia, Laurentum,
and Ardea, those, namely, from which the pirates could most easily
approach the city. It commanded also the water-way by the Tiber, and
the towpaths on each of its banks. It is a great pity that no stone
of this historical wall should be left standing. It saved the city
from further invasions of the African pirates, as the _agger_ of
Servius Tullius had saved it, centuries before, from the attacks of
the Carthaginians. I have examined the ground between S. Paul's, the
Fosso di Grotta Perfetta, the Vigna de Merode, at the back of the
apse, and the banks of the river, without finding a trace of the
fortification. I believe, however, that the wall which encloses the
garden of the monastery on the south side runs on the same line with
John's defences, and rests on their foundations. We must not wonder at
the disappearance of Johannipolis, when we have proofs that even the
quadri-portico, by which the basilica was entered from the riverside,
has been allowed to disappear through the negligence and slovenliness
of the monks. Pope Leo I. erected in the centre of the quadri-portico
a fountain crowned by a Bacchic Kantharos, and wrote on its epistyle a
brilliant epigram, inviting the faithful to purify themselves bodily
and spiritually, before presenting themselves to the apostle within.
When Cola di Rienzo visited the spot, towards the middle of the
fourteenth century, the monument was still in good condition. He calls
it "the vase of waters (_cantharus aquarum_), before the main entrance
(of the church) of the blessed Paul." One century later the whole
structure had become a heap of ruins. Fra Giocondo da Verona looked in
vain for the inscription of Leo I.; he could only find a fragment
"lying among the nettles and thorns" (_inter orticas et spineta_). The
same indifference was shown towards the edifices by which the basilica
was surrounded. They fell, or were overthrown, one by one.

In 1633, when Giovanni Severano wrote his book on the Seven Churches,
only one bit of ruins could be iden