MALDACINI DONNA, a woman of a very uncommon character. She flourished about the middle of the 17th century. She was father-in-law to Pope Innocent X. and had the address to acquire an unlimited power over this vain, weak, and injudicious ecclesiastic. Her son Camillo was promoted to the cardinalate, under the title of Pamphilio; but falling in love with the princess Roffana, a beautiful young widow, he laid aside his hat, and married. The crime, if it was one, was esteemed by the Romans in general at least venial. The pope, however, was displeased; and Olympia procured their banishment, being afraid lest her daughter-in-law should lessen her authority in the sacred court. This authority, equally unnatural and uncommon, reflected neither honour on her who held it, nor on the man who allowed her to hold it. Such elevated situations, however, whether they are the reward of merit, the effect of chance, or acquired by cunning, are seldom very secure. Olympia, who had procured the disgrace of many who did not deserve it, and who had herself long merited such a fate, at length experienced both disgrace and banishment. This was obtained by means of Cardinal Panzirollo, a great favourite of the pope's. The immediate cause of it was this: The pope had determined, in order to lessen his own trouble, to adopt a nephew, and to make him a Cardinal Patron, in order to give audience to ambassadors and ministers, and in his absence to preside at the council. For this purpose, at the recommendation of his favourite, his holiness made choice of Affalli, brother of the marquis Affalli, who had married a niece of Olympia. Olympia indeed was slightly consulted on the affair, and showed no disapprobation of the appointment. The pope, however, no sooner got him fixed in his new office, than he showed his own weakness by repenting of it. Olympia too was displeased, and by her solicitations procured the disgrace of Affalli, before he had enjoyed either the honours or emoluments of his office. Panzirollo, however, soon managed matters so as to turn the scales: he prevailed on the pope again to countenance and honour Affalli; and, what was more, had influence sufficient to persuade him to disgrace Olympia, and to banish her the court. She had indeed abused her authority in a most scandalous manner, and had gained such an absolute ascendant over the pope, that in every thing his will had been subservient to her dictates.—Her avarice and ambition were unbounded: she disposed of all benefices, which were kept vacant till the fully informed herself of their value: she rated an office of 1000 crowns for three years, at one year's revenue, and if for life, at 12 years purchase, one half of which sum she required to be paid in advance: she gave audience upon public affairs, enacted new laws, abrogated those of former popes, and sat in council with Innocent, with bundles of memorials in her hands. It was generally said that they lived together in a criminal correspondence, and that she had charmed him by some secret incantation. In the Protestant countries the loves and intrigues of Innocent and Donna Olympia were represented upon the stage; and severe sarcasms were daily put into the hands of Paquin at Rome.—As she had usurped such an absolute authority, the new cardinal nephew saw the necessity of ruining her credit; he therefore seconded the endeavours of Panzirollo.—He intimated to the pope, that his reputation had suffered greatly among the Catholics by her scandalous proceedings, and that his nuncios were treated with disrespect and contempt at the courts of the emperor, France, and Spain. Upon these representations, Innocent at length, but with great reluctance, banished Olympia, and was reconciled to Prince Camillo and the prince's Roffana; though some authors affirm that her banishment was no more than a political retreat, and that she still in private directed the affairs of the pope. A woman of Olympia's character, however, with such unbounded ambition, such an extravagant lust for power, and such an ambitious desire of wealth, and who had once possessed so great an ascendancy over such a man as Innocent, was not to be so easily put off. She was banished in 1653; but in 1653, she again assumed the supreme direction of affairs just as before her disgrace. She again accomplished the disgrace of Affalli, and procured the promotion of Azzolimi to the office of secretary of the briefs. In 1654, his holiness resigned himself entirely into the hands of this amusing woman; who, observing his infirmities daily increasing, redoubled her rapacity, disposing of benefices to the highest bidders in all parts of Italy. She was again, however, in hazard of being displaced by a new favourite, viz. the cardinal de Retz; and had not the pope's dissolution prevented it, it would in all probability quickly have taken place. During his last illness he received nothing but from the hands of Donna Olympia, who was at great pains to prolong his life, watched continually at his bed side, and prevented the ambassadors or others from disturbing him with discourtesies upon business. She is said, during the last ten days of his life, when he continued without the use of reason, to have amassed about half a million of crowns. She did not find the succeeding pope (Alexander VII.) so easy to be played upon as his weak predecessor: a number of memorials were sent in against her, and his holiness was well disposed to attend to them: he ordered her to retire from Rome, and at the same time began to examine witnesses respecting her conduct. She was cut off, however, before the trial was finished, by the plague, which, in 1636, afflicted Rome and its neighbourhood. Her estate was not confiscated as was generally expected; and the prince Pamphilio was allowed to succeed her. The pope only reserved for his own relations about a million of crowns.

Ancient Geography, with the surname Pisanis (Strabo); so called from the territory of Pisa in Elis; described by Strabo, "as the temple of Jupiter Olympius, before which stands a grove of wild olive trees, in which is the stadium, or foot-course, so called because the eighth part of a mile; and by which the Alpheus, coming down from Arcadia, runs." Olympia, however, was famous not merely for the temple of Jupiter, but also for a temple of Juno, 63 feet long, with columns round it of the Doric order; and a Metroum or temple of the mother of the gods, a large Doric edifice; with holy treasuries. These, and the porticoes, a gymnasium, prytaneum, and many more buildings, chiefly in the enclosure, with the houses of the priests and other inhabitants, made Olympia no inconsiderable place. The stadium was in the grove of wild olive trees, before the great temple; and near it was the hippodrome or course for the races of horses and chariots. The Alpheus flowed by from Arcadia with a copious and very pleasant stream, which was received on the coast by the Sicilian sea.

The temple of Jupiter was of the Doric order, 68 feet high to the pediment, 95 wide, and 230 long; the cell encompassed with columns. It was erected with the country stone; the roof not of earth baked, but of Pentelic marble; the slabs disposed as tiles; the way to it up a winding staircase. The two pediments were enriched with sculpture; and one had over the centre a statue of Victory gilded; and underneath a votive buckler of gold. At each corner was a gilded vase. Above the columns were fixed 21 gilded bucklers, offered at the conclusion of the Achaean war by the Roman general Mummius. The gates in the two fronts Olympia, were of brads, and over them were carved the labours of Hercules. Within the cell were double colonnades, between which was the approach to the image.

The Jupiter of Olympia was accounted alone sufficient to immortalize its maker, Phidias. It was of ivory and gold, the head crowned with olive. In the right hand was a statue of Victory; in the left a flowered sceptre, composed of various metals, on which was an eagle. The sandals were of gold, as also the vestment, which was curiously embossed with lilies and animals. The throne was gold inlaid with ebony and ivory, and fludded with jewels, intermixed with paintings and exquisite figures in relief. The pillars between the feet contributed to its support. Before it were walls, serving as a fence, decorated principally with the exploits of Hercules; the portion opposite to the door of a blue colour. It was the office of a family descended from Phidias, called phedruntae or the pollyberi, to keep the work bright and clean. The veil or curtain was cloth rich with the purple dye of Phoenicia and with Assyrian embroidery, an offering of King Antiochus, and was let down from above by looening the strings. The image impressed on the spectator an opinion that it was higher and wider than it measured. Its magnitude is such, that though the temple was very large, the artist seemed to have erred in the proportions. The god, sitting, nearly touched the ceiling with his head; suggesting an idea, that if he were to rise up, he would destroy the roof. A part of the pavement before it was of black marble, enclosed in a rim of Parian or white, where they poured oil to preserve the ivory.

The altar of Jupiter Olympus was of great antiquity, and composed of ashes from the thighs of the victims, which were carried up and confined on the top with wood of the white poplar tree. The ashes also of the prytaneum, in which a perpetual fire was kept on a hearth, were removed annually on a fixed day, and spread on it, being first mingled with water from the Alpheus. The cement, it was affirmed, could be made with that fluid only; and therefore this river was much respected, and esteemed the most friendly of any to the god. On each side of the altar were stone steps. Its height was 22 feet. Girls and women, when allowed to be at Olympia, were suffered to ascend the base ment, which was 125 feet in circumference. The people of Elis sacrificed daily, and private persons as often as they chose.

Religion flourished at Olympia, and many deities were worshipped besides Jupiter. Pausanias has enumerated above 60 altars of various shapes and kinds. One of the unknown gods stood by the great altar. The people of Elis offered on all these monthly; laying on them boughs of olive; burning incense, and wheat mixed with honey; and pouring libations of such liquors as the ritual prescribed. At the latter ceremony sometimes a form of prayer was used, and they sung hymns composed in the Doric dialect.

Olympia was situated on an eminence, between two mountains called Ossa and Olympus. Though its ancient splendour is gone, the place reminds the traveller of what it once was. It is in the Morea, being now a small place called Longinico, 50 miles south of Lepanto, in E. Long. 22. o. N. Lat. 37. 40.