In fact, after his death, the barbaric inundation spread without obstacle, and swept away almost every remnant of civilization; the language hitherto spoken, at Rome at least with grammatical accuracy, was rapidly mutilated and disfigured; the number of inhabitants continued to decrease, and the few surviving Romans, though still free and still spectators of the most stupendous monuments of ancient grandeur, began to lose sight of the glories of their country, and forget that their ancestors had once been the masters of the universe. But to return to our subject-The modern capitals of Europe, and indeed most ancient cities, derived their fame from one, or at the utmost a few edifices. Thus London glories in St. Paul's, St. Martin in the Fields, the two St. George's, &c. Paris boasts of the Colonnade of the Louvre, the Front of the Thuilleries, the Church of the Invalids, St. Ge dictates of religion, and consequently approve of the conduct of Gregory, who enforced the same principle at a time when the prevalence of barbarism and increasing ignorance required all the zeal and all the efforts of the episcopal body. He is also accused of having burnt the Palatine library, and destroyed several temples, &c. The Palatine library was burnt in the conflagration of Nero, and when restored, if restoration were possible, a second time under Domitian, and finally and utterly by Genseric. As for temples, he orders St. Augustin, the monk, to spare them in England, and convert them into churches; why then should he destroy them in Rome? These accusations cannot be traced farther back than the twelfth century, that is five hundred years at least after this Pontiff's death. His real crimes in the eyes of both Bayle and Gibbon, are, that he was a Pope, and that he converted England to Christianity! nevieve, St. Sulpice, &c. Berlin has its Brandenburgh Gate, and Dresden its Electoral Chapel. So anciently Ephesus had its Temple of Diana; Halicarnassus its Mausoleum; Rhodes its Colossus. Athens itself, the mother of the arts, could not exhibit more than twenty edifices of extraordinary beauty, among which the Parthenon, the Temple of Theseus, the Propyleium, and the Portico, were the principal. Rome seems to have presented a perpetual succession of architectural scenery, and exhibited in every view groupes or lines of edifices, every one of which taken separately, would have been sufficient to constitute the characteristic ornament of any other city. But to enable the reader to form a clearer idea of this magnificence, I will descend to particulars, and give a concise account of some of its principal edifices, such as the CloacaAqueducts (Roads) Forums-Porticos-Temples--and Therma: after which I will subjoin some singular and striking instances of private grandeur. A Greek author* has observed, that Roman greatness manifested itself most conspicuously in the Cloaca, the aqueducts and the high roads, works peculiarly Roman, and from a singular combination of utility, solidity, and grandeur, indicative in a very uncommon degree of the genius and character of that wonderful people. Some of these works, such as the Cloaca, were built in the very infancy of the city, and seemed to have been considered as omens and pledges of its duration and future greatness. Many of the aqueducts, and I * Dion. Antiq. Rom. 111. believe, most of the roads were of the republican era, when magnificence was confined to public edifices, and the resources of architecture employed for the convenience or amusement of the people at large. To treat of each separately. CLOACE. It appears singular to rank sewers among objects of admiration, yet no edifices are better calculated to excite it. The Cloaca were arched galleries carried under the city in every direction; they were wide enough for a loaded cart or a boat to pass with convenience, and all communicated with the Cloaca maxima. The latter is about sixteen feet in breadth and thirty in height; its pavement, sides, and arch, are all formed of blocks of stone, so solid in themselves, and so well connected together, that notwithstanding the weights that have rolled over them, the buildings that load them, and the ruins that encumber them, not one has given way during the space of more than two thousand years.. To cleanse them, various streams were introduced, which rolled along with a rapidity sufficiently violent to weaken any ordinary edifice; when obstructed, the expense of clearing them was enormous, and upon one occasion amounted to a sum exceeding one hundred thousand pounds sterling. The Cloaca maxima was erected, as is well known, in the reign of Tarquinius Superbus, and shews to what a degree of perfection the arts were carried at Rome then in its infancy. They were all still unimpaired in the reign of Theodoric, and drew from that prince some exclamations of surprize and admiration. The Cloaca maxima stands even now, (though almost choaked up with rubbish and weeds, and damaged at one end not by time but by interest and folly), a monument of proportion and solidity. AQUEDUCTS. Ancient Rome was supplied with water by nine aqueducts, of which the first was opened by Appius, and bears his name. The others were, Anio Vetus-Martia-Tepula - Julia-Virgo— Alsietina (Augusta)—Claudia-Anio Novus*. These aqueducts ran a distance of from twelve to sixty-two miles, and conveyed whole rivers through mountains and over plains, sometimes under ground, and sometimes supported by arches, to the centre of the city. Two in particular, the Claudia and Anio nova, were carried over arches for more than twenty miles, and sometimes raised more than one hundred and twenty feet above the level of the country. The channel through which the water * The reader will observe, that in the names and number of the aqueducts I confine my statements to the reign of Nerva; succeeding Emperors increased the numbers, and changed the names. + The short description which Statius gives of some of the principal aqueducts is poetical, and indeed in his best style. Vos mihi quæ Latium, septenaque culmina Nymphæ Syl. Lib. 1. 5. flowed in these aqueducts, (and in one of them two streams rolled unmingled the one over the other), was always wide and high enough for workmen to pass and carry materials for repair, and all were lined with a species of plaster hard and impenetrable as marble itself, called by the ancients, opus signinum. Of these aqueducts three are sufficient to supply modern Rome, though it contains not less than one hundred and eighty thousand inhabitants, with a profusion of water superabundantly sufficient for all private as well as public purposes; what a prodigious quantity then must the nine have poured continually into the ancient city.. As I have already given some account of these aqueducts, I shall here confine myself to a few additional observations. Authors differ as to their number, because the same great channel often branched out into lesser divisions, which, on account of the quantity of water which they supplied were sometimes considered as separate aqueducts; to which we may add, that the same aqueduct sometimes bore different names. I have adopted the number given by Frontinus, who was employed by the Emperor Nerva to inspect and repair these important works, and must of course be considered as decisive authority. Most parts of the city were supplied by two aqueducts, in order to prevent the inconveniences occasioned by derangements and reparations; and one aqueduct, which conveyed a stream of less pure and wholesome water was appropriated exclusively to supply the Naumachias, Circus's and Cloacæ. The number of public reservoirs of water called from their depth and extent Lakes, is supposed to have been more than thirteen hundred, and that of fountains scarcely credible, since Agrippa alone, as has been noticed elsewhere, opened more than one hundred in |