According to Tacitus, Nero's famous golden palace was one of the most
magnificent edifices ever built, and far surpassed all that was
stupendous and beautiful in Italy. It was erected on the site of the
great conflagration at Rome, which was attributed by many to the
wickedness of the tyrant. His statue, 120 feet high, stood in the midst
of a court, ornamented with porticos of three files of lofty columns,
each full a mile long; the gardens were of vast extent, with vineyards,
meadows, and woods, filled with every sort of domestic and wild animals;
a pond was converted into a sea, surrounded by a sufficient number of
edifices to form a city; pearls, gems, and the most precious materials
were used everywhere, and especially gold, the profusion of which,
within and without, and ever on the roofs, caused it to be called the
Golden House; the essences and costly perfumes continually shed around,
showed the extreme extravagance of the inhuman monster who seized on the
wealth of the people to gratify his own desires. Among other curiosities
was a dining-room, in which was represented the firmament, constantly
revolving, imitative of the motion of the heavenly bodies; from it was
showered down every sort of odoriferous waters. This great palace was
completed by Otho, but did not long remain entire, as Vespasian restored
to the people the lands of which Nero had unjustly deprived them, and
erected in its place the mighty Colosseum, and the magnificent Temple of
Peace.