Behind The Amphitheatre
Were The Thermae Of The Same Emperor Titus Vespasian.
In the same
quarter was the Circus Maximus; and the whole space from hence on
both sides, to the walls of Rome, comprehending above twice as
much ground as the modern city, is almost covered with the
monuments of antiquity.
I suppose there is more concealed below
ground than appears above. The miserable houses, and even garden-walls
of the peasants in this district, are built with these
precious materials. I mean shafts and capitals of marble columns,
heads, arms, legs, and mutilated trunks of statues. What pity it
is that among all the remains of antiquity, at Rome, there is not
one lodging-house remaining. I should be glad to know how the
senators of Rome were lodged. I want to be better informed
touching the cava aedium, the focus, the ara deorum penatum, the
conclavia, triclinia, and caenationes; the atria where the women
resided, and employed themselves in the woolen manufacture; the
praetoria, which were so spacious as to become a nuisance in the
reign of Augustus; and the Xysta, which were shady walks between
two porticos, where the men exercised themselves in the winter. I
am disgusted by the modern taste of architecture, though I am no
judge of the art. The churches and palaces of these days are
crowded with pretty ornaments, which distract the eye, and by
breaking the design into a variety of little parts, destroy the
effect of the whole. Every door and window has its separate
ornaments, its moulding, frize, cornice.
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