THE MATERIAL GRANDEUR AND GLORY OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
To the eye of an ancient traveler there must have been something very
grand and impressive in the external aspects of wealth and power which
the Roman Empire, in the period of its greatest glory, presented in
every city and province. It will therefore be my aim in this chapter to
present those objects of pride and strength which appealed to the senses
of an ordinary observer, and such as would first arrest his attention
were he to describe the wonders he beheld to those who were imperfectly
acquainted with them.
[Sidenote: Culmination of Roman greatness.]
It is generally admitted that Roman greatness culminated during the
reigns of the Antonines, about the middle of the second century of the
Christian era. At that period we perceive the highest triumphs of
material civilization and the proudest spirit of panegyric and self-
confidence. To the eye of contemporaries it seemed that Rome was
destined to be the mistress of the world forever.
[Sidenote: Extent of the empire.]
[Sidenote: Square miles.]
[Sidenote: Seas and rivers.]
[Sidenote: Boundaries.]
[Sidenote: Scandinavia.]
[Sidenote: Sarmatia.]
[Sidenote: Mountains.]
We naturally glance, in the first place, to the extent of that vast
empire which has had no parallel in ancient or modern times, and which
was erected on the ruins of all the powerful states of antiquity. It was
a most wonderful centralization of power, spreading its arms of hopeless
despotism from the Pillars of Hercules to the Caspian Sea; from the
Rhine and the Danube to the Euphrates and Tigris; from the forests of
Sarmatia to the deserts of Africa. The empire extended three thousand
miles from east to west, and two thousand from north to south. It
stretched over thirty-five degrees of latitude, and sixty-five of
longitude, and embraced within its limits nearly all the seas, lakes,
and gulfs which commerce explored. It contained 1,600,000 square miles,
for the most part cultivated, and populated by peoples in various stages
of civilization, some of whom were famous for arts and wealth, and could
boast of heroes and cities,--of a past history brilliant and impressive.
In nearly the centre of this great empire was Mediterranean Sea, which
was only, as it were, an inland lake, upon whose shores the great cities
of antiquity had flourished, and towards which the tide of Assyrian and
Persian conquests had rolled and then retreated forever. The great
rivers--the Nile, the Po, and the Danube--flowed into this basin and its
connecting seas, wafting the produce of distant provinces to the great
central city on the Tiber. The boundaries of the empire were great
oceans, deserts, and mountains, beyond which it was difficult to extend
or to retain conquests. On the west was the Atlantic Ocean, unknown and
unexplored--that mysterious expanse of waters which filled navigators
with awe and dread, and which was not destined to be crossed until the
stars should cease to be the only guide. On the northwest was the
undefined region of Scandinavia, into which the Roman arms never
penetrated, peopled by those barbarians who were to be the future
conquerors of Rome, and the creators of a new and more glorious
civilization,--those Germanic tribes which, under different names, had
substantially the same manners, customs, and language,--a race more
unconquerable and heroic than the Romans themselves, the future lords of
mediaeval Europe, the ancestors of the English, the French, the
Spaniards, and the Germans. On the northwest were the Sarmatians and
Scythians--Sclavonic tribes, able to conquer, but not to reconstruct;
savages repulsive and hideous even to the Goths themselves. On the east
lay the Parthian empire, separated from Roman territories by the
Euphrates, the Tigris, and the Armenian mountains. The Caucasian range
between the Euxine and the Caspian seas presented an insuperable
barrier, as did the deserts of Arabia to the Roman legions. The Atlas,
the African desert, and the cataracts of the Nile formed the southern
boundaries. The vulnerable part of the empire lay between the Danube and
Rhine, from which issued, in successive waves, the Germanic foes of
Rome. To protect the empire against their incursions, the Emperor Probus
constructed a wall, which, however, proved but a feeble defense.
[Sidenote: Provinces.]
[Sidenote: Results of successive conquests.]
[Sidenote: Vastness of the political power.]
[Sidenote: Empire universal.]
This immense empire was divided into thirty-six provinces, exclusive of
Italy, each of which was governed by a proconsul. The most important of
these were Spain, Gaul, Sicily, Achaia, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt.
Gaul was more extensive than modern France. Achaia included Greece and
the Ionian Islands. The empire embraced the modern states of England,
France, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Bavaria, Austria, Styria,
the Tyrol, Hungary, Egypt, Morocco, Algiers, and the empire of Turkey
both in Europe and Asia. It took the Romans nearly five hundred years to
subdue the various states of Italy, the complete subjugation of which
took place with the fall of Tarentum, a Grecian city, which introduced
Grecian arts and literature. Sicily, the granary of Rome, was the next
conquest, the fruit of the first Punic War. The second Punic War added
to the empire Sardinia, Corsica, and the two Spanish provinces of Baetica
and Tarraconensis--about two thirds of the peninsula--fertile in the
productions of the earth, and enriched by mines of silver and gold, and
peopled by Iberians and Celts. The rich province of Illyricum was added
to the empire about one hundred and eighty years before Christ. Before
the battle of Actium, the empire extended over Achaia, Asia Minor,
Macedonia, Narbonensic Gaul, Cyrenaica, Crete, Cilicia, Cyprus,
Bithynia, Syria, Aquitania, Belgic and Celtic Gaul. Augustus added
Egypt, Lusitania, Numidia, Galatia, the Maritime Alps, Noricum,
Vindelicia, Rhaetia, Pannonia, and Mosia. Tiberius increased the empire
by the addition of Cappadocia. Claudius incorporated the two
Mauritanias, Lycia, Judaea, Thrace, and Britain. Nero added Pontus. These
various and extensive countries had every variety of climate and
productions, and boasted of celebrated cities. They composed most of the
provinces known to the ancients west of the Euphrates, and together
formed an empire in comparison with which the Assyrian and Egyptian
monarchies, and even the Grecian conquests, were vastly inferior. The
Saracenic conquests in the Middle Ages were not to be compared with
these, and the great empires of Charlemagne and Napoleon could be
included in less than half the limits. What a proud position it was to
be a Roman emperor, whose will was the law over the whole civilized
world! Well may the Roman empire be called universal, since it
controlled all the nations of the earth known to the Greeks. It was the
vastest centralization of power which this world has seen, or probably
will ever see, extending nearly over the whole of Europe, and the finest
parts of Asia and Africa. We are amazed that a single city of Italy
could thus occupy with her armies and reign supremely over so many
diverse countries and nations, speaking different languages, and having
different religions and customs. And when we contemplate this great
fact, we cannot but feel that it was a providential event, designed for
some grand benefit to the human race. That benefit was the preparation
for the reception of a new and universal religion. No system of "balance
of power," no political or military combinations, no hostilities could
prevent the absorption of the civilized world in the empire of the
Caesars.
[Sidenote: The Mediterranean the centre of the empire.]
If we more particularly examine this great empire, we observe that it
was substantially composed of the various countries and kingdoms which
bordered on the Mediterranean, and those other seas with which it was
connected. Roman power was scarcely felt on the shores of the Baltic, or
the eastern coasts of the Euxine, or on the Arabian and Persian gulfs.
The central part of the empire was Italy, the province which was first
conquered, and most densely populated. It was the richest in art, in
cities, in commerce, and in agriculture.
[Sidenote: Italy.]
[Sidenote: Natural productions.]
[Sidenote: Population.]
[Sidenote: Cities.]
[Sidenote: Italian Cities.]
[Sidenote: Memorable cities.]
Italy itself was no inconsiderable state--a beautiful peninsula,
extending six hundred and sixty geographical miles from the foot of the
Alps to the promontory of Leucopetra. Its greatest breadth is about one
hundred and thirty miles. It was always renowned for beauty and
fertility. Its climate on the south was that of Greece, and on the north
that of the south of France. The lofty range of the Apennines extended
through its entire length, while the waters of the Mediterranean and the
Adriatic tempered and varied its climate. Its natural advantages were
unequaled, with a soil favorable to agriculture, to the culture of
fruits, and the rearing of flocks. Its magnificent forests furnished
timber for ships; its rich pastures fed innumerable sheep, goats,
cattle, and horses; its olive groves were nowhere surpassed; its
mountains contained nearly every kind of metals; its coasts furnished a
great variety of fish; while its mineral springs supplied luxurious
baths. There were no extremes of heat and cold; the sky was clear and
serene; the face of the country was a garden. It was a paradise to the
eye of Virgil and Varro, the most favored of all the countries of
antiquity in those productions which sustain the life of man or beast.
The plains of Lombardy furnished maize and rice; oranges grew to great
perfection on the Ligurian coast; aloes and cactuses clothed the rocks
of the southern provinces; while the olive and the grape abounded in
every section. The mineral wealth of Italy was extolled by the ancient
writers, and the fisheries were as remarkable as agricultural products.
The population numbered over four millions who were free, and could
furnish seven hundred thousand foot and seventy thousand horse for the
armies of the republic, if they were all called into requisition. The
whole country was dotted with beautiful villas and farms, as well as
villages and cities. It contained twelve hundred cities or large towns
which had municipal privileges. Mediolanum, now Milan, the chief city in
Cisalpine Gaul, in the time of Ambrose, was adorned with palaces and
temples and baths. It was so populous that it lost it is said at one
time three hundred thousand male citizens in the inroads of the Goths.
It was surrounded with a double range of walls, and the houses were
elegantly built. It was also celebrated as the seat of learning and
culture. Verona had an amphitheatre of marble, whose remains are among
the most striking monuments of antiquity, capable of seating twenty-two
thousand people. Ravenna, near the mouth of the Padus (Po), built on
piles, was a great naval depot, and had an artificial harbor capable of
containing two hundred and fifty ships of war, and was the seat of
government after the fall of the empire. Padua counted among its
inhabitants five hundred Roman knights, and was able to send twenty
thousand men into the field. Aquileia was a great emporium of the trade
in wine, oil, and salted provisions. Pola had a magnificent
amphitheatre. Luna, now Spezzia, was famous for white marbles, and for
cheeses which often weighed a thousand pounds. Arutium, now Avezzo, an
Etrurian city, was celebrated for its potteries, many beautiful
specimens of which now ornament the galleries of Florence. Cortona had
walls of massive thickness, which can be traced to the Pelasgians.
Clusium, the capital of Porsenna, had a splendid mausoleum. Volsinii
boasted of two thousand statues. Veii had been the rival of Rome. In
Umbria, we may mention Sarsina, the birthplace of Plautus; Mevania, the
birthplace of Propertius; and Sentinum, famous for the self-devotion of
Decius. In Picenum were Ancona, celebrated for its purple dye; and
Picenum, surrounded by walls and inaccessible heights, memorable for a
siege against Pompey. Of the Sabine cities were Antemnae, more ancient
than Rome; Nomentum, famous for wine; Regillum, the birthplace of Appius
Claudius, the founder of the great Claudian family; Reate, famous for
asses, which sometimes brought the enormous price of 60,000 sesterces,
about $2320; Cutiliae, celebrated for its mineral waters; and Alba, in
which captives of rank were secluded. In Latium were Ostia, the seaport
of Rome; Laurentum, the capital of Latinus; Lavinium, fabled to have
been founded by Aeneas; Lanuvium, the birthplace of Roscius and the
Antonines; Alba Longa, founded four hundred years before Rome; Tusculum,
where Cicero had his villa; Tibur, whose temple was famous through
Italy; Praeneste, now Palestrio, remarkable for its citadel and its
temple of Fortune; Antium, to which Coriolanus retired after his
banishment, a favorite residence of Augustus, and the birthplace of
Nero, celebrated also for a magnificent temple, amid whose ruins was
found the Apollo Belvidere; Forum Appii, mentioned by St. Paul, from
which travelers on the Appian Way embarked on a canal; Arpinum, the
birthplace of Cicero; Aquium, where Juvenal and Thomas Aquinas were
born, famous for a purple dye; Formiae, a favorite residence of Cicero.
In Campania were Cumae, the abode of the Sibyl; Misenum, a great naval
station; Baiae, celebrated for its spas and villas; Puteoli, famous for
sulphur springs; Neapolis, the abode of literary idlers; Herculaneum and
Pompeii, destroyed by an eruption of Vesuvius; Capua, the capital of
Campania, and inferior to Rome alone; and Salernum, a great military
stronghold. In Samnium were Bovianum, a very opulent city; Beneventum,
and Sepinum. In Apulia were Sarinum; Venusia, the birthplace of Horace;
Cannae, memorable for the great victory of Hannibal; Brundusium, a city
of great antiquity on the Adriatic, and one of the great naval stations
of the Romans; and Tarentum, the rival of Brundusium, a great military
stronghold. In Lucania were Metapontum, at one time the residence of
Pythagoras; Heraclea, the seat of a general council; Sybaris, which once
was the mistress of twenty-five dependent cities, fifty stadia in
circumference, and capable of sending an army of three hundred
thousand [Footnote: Anthon, _Geog_. _Diet_.] men into the field,
--a city so prosperous and luxurious that the very name of
Sybarite was synonymous with voluptuousness.
[Sidenote: Pompeii.]
Such were among the principal cities of Italy. More than two hundred and
fifty towns or cities are historical, and were famous for the residence
of great men, or for wines, wool, dyes, and various articles of luxury.
The ruins of Pompeii prove it to have been a city of great luxury and
elegance. The excavations, which have brought to light the wonders of
this buried city, attest a very high material civilization; yet it was
only a second-rate provincial town, of which not much is commemorated in
history. It was simply a resort for Roman nobles who had villas in its
neighborhood. It was surrounded with a wall, and was built with great
regularity. Its streets were paved, and it had its forum, its
amphitheatre, its theatre, its temples, its basilicas, its baths, its
arches, and its monuments. The basilica was two hundred and twenty feet
in length by eighty feet in width, the roof of which was supported by
twenty-eight Ionic columns. The temple of Venus was profusely ornamented
with paintings. One of the theatres was built of marble, and was capable
of seating five thousand spectators, and the amphitheatre would seat ten
thousand.
[Sidenote: Sicily and Sardinia.]
[Sidenote: Richness of Sicily.]
[Sidenote: Syracuse.]
But Italy, so grand in cities, so varied in architectural wonders, so
fertile in soil, so salubrious in climate, so rich in minerals, so
prolific in fruits and vegetables and canals, was only a small part of
the empire of the Caesars. The Punic wars, undertaken soon after the
expulsion of Pyrrhus, resulted in the acquisition of Sicily, Sardinia,
and Africa, from which the Romans were supplied with inexhaustible
quantities of grain, and in the creation of a great naval power. Sicily,
the largest island of the Mediterranean, was not inferior to Italy in
any kind of produce. It was, it was supposed, the native country of
wheat. Its honey, its saffron, its sheep, its horses, were all equally
celebrated. The island, intersected by numerous streamy and beautiful
valleys, was admirably adapted for the growth of the vine and olive. Its
colonies, founded by Phoenicians and Greeks, cultivated all the arts of
civilization. Long before the Roman conquest, its cities were famous for
learning and art. Syracuse, a Corinthian colony, as old as Rome, had a
fortress a mile in length and half a mile in breadth; a temple of Diana
whose doors were celebrated throughout the Grecian world, and a theatre
which could accommodate twenty-four thousand people. No city in Greece,
except Athens, can produce structures which vie with those of which the
remains are still visible at Agrigentum, Selinus, and Segesta.
[Sidenote: Carthage.]
Africa was one of the great provinces of the empire. It virtually
embraced the Carthaginian empire, and was settled chiefly by the
Phoenicians. Its capital, Carthage, so long the rival of Rome, was
probably the greatest maritime mart of antiquity, next to Alexandria.
Though it had been completely destroyed, yet it became under the
emperors no inconsiderable city, and was the capital of a belt of
territory extending one hundred and sixty miles, from the Pillars of
Hercules to the bottom of the great Syrtis, unrivaled for fertility. Its
population once numbered seven hundred thousand inhabitants, and ruled
over three hundred dependent cities, and could boast of a navy carrying
one hundred and fifty thousand men.
[Sidenote: The richness of Greece.]
Greece, included under the province called Achaia, was the next great
conquest of the Romans, the fruit of the Macedonian wars. Though small
in territory, it was the richest of all the Roman acquisitions in its
results on civilization. The great peninsula to which Hellas belonged
extended from the Euxine to the Adriatic; but Hellas proper was not more
than two hundred and fifty miles in length and one hundred and eighty in
breadth. Attica contained but seven hundred and twenty square miles, yet
how great in associations, deeds, and heroes! When added to the empire,
it was rich in every element of civilization, in cities, in arts, in
literature, in commerce, in manufactures, in domestic animals, in
fruits, in cereals. It was a mountainous country, but had an extensive
sea-coast, and a flourishing trade with all the countries of the world.
Almost all the Grecian states had easy access to the sea, and each of
the great cities were isolated from the rest by lofty mountains
difficult to surmount. But the Roman arms and the Roman laws penetrated
to the most inaccessible retreats.
[Sidenote: Her monuments and arts and schools.]
In her political degradation, Greece still was the most interesting
country on the globe. Every city had a history; every monument betokened
a triumph of human genius. On her classic soil the great miracles of
civilization had been wrought--the immortal teacher of all the nations
in art, in literature, in philosophy, in war itself. Every cultivated
Roman traveled in Greece; every great noble sent his sons to be educated
in her schools; every great general sent to the banks of the Tiber some
memento of her former greatness, some wonder of artistic skill. The
wonders of Rome herself were but spoliations of this glorious land.
[Sidenote: The glory of Athens.]
[Sidenote: Temples.]
First in interest and glory was Athens, which was never more splendid
than in the time of the Antonines. The great works of the age of
Pericles still retained their original beauty and freshness; and the
city of Minerva still remained the centre of all that was elegant or
learned of the ancient civilization, and was held everywhere in the
profoundest veneration. There still flourished the various schools of
philosophy, to which young men from all parts of the empire resorted to
be educated--the Oxford and the Edinburgh, the Berlin and Paris of the
ancient world. In spite of successive conquests, there still towered
upon the Acropolis the temple of Minerva, that famous Parthenon whose
architectural wonders have never been even equaled, built of Pentelic
marble, and adorned with the finest sculptures of Pheidias--a Doric
temple, whose severe simplicity and matchless beauty have been the
wonder of all ages--often imitated, never equaled, majestic even in its
ruins. Side by side, on that lofty fortification in the centre of the
city, on its western slope, was the Propylaea, one of the masterpieces of
ancient art, also of Pentelic marble, costing 2000 talents, or
$23,000,000[Footnote: Smith, Geog. Diet.] when gold was worth more than
twenty times what it is now. Then there was the Erechtheum, the temple
of Athena Polias, the most revered of all the sanctuaries of Athens,
with its three Ionic porticos, and its frieze of black marble, with its
olive statue of the goddess, and its sacred inclosures. The great temple
of Zeus Olympius, commenced by Peisistratus and completed by Hadrian,
the largest ever dedicated to the deity among the Greeks, was four
stadia in circumference. It was surrounded by a peristyle which had ten
columns in front and twenty on its sides. The peristyle being double on
the sides, and having a triple range at either end, besides three
columns between the antae at each end of the cella, consisted altogether
of one hundred and twenty columns. These were sixty feet high and six
and a half feet in diameter, the largest which now remain of ancient
architecture in marble, or which still exist in Europe. This vast temple
was three hundred and fifty-four feet in length and one hundred and
seventy-one in breadth, and was full of statues. The ruins of this
temple, of which sixteen columns are still standing, are among the most
imposing in the world, and indicate a grandeur and majesty in the city
of which we can scarcely conceive. The theatre of Bacchus, the most
beautiful in the ancient world, would seat thirty thousand spectators. I
need not mention the various architectural monuments of this classic
city, each of which was a study--the Temple of Theseus, the Agora, the
Odeum, the Areopagus, the Gymnasium of Hadrian, the Lyceum, and other
buildings of singular beauty, built mostly of marble, and adorned with
paintings and statues. What work of genius in the whole world more
interesting than the ivory and gold statue of Athena in the Parthenon,
the masterpiece of Pheidias, forty feet high, the gold of which weighed
forty talents,--a model for all succeeding sculptors, and to see which
travelers came from all parts of Greece? Athens, a city of five hundred
thousand inhabitants, was filled with wonders of art, which time has not
yet fully destroyed.
[Sidenote: Corinth.]
[Sidenote: The wonders of Corinth.]
[Sidenote: Its luxury.]
Corinth was another grand centre of Grecian civilization, richer and
more luxurious than Athens. When taken by the Romans she possessed the
most valuable pictures in Greece. Among them was one of Dionysus by
Aristides for which Attalus offered 600,000 sesterces. Rich commercial
cities have ever been patrons of the fine arts. These they can
appreciate better than poetry or philosophy. The Corinthians invented
the most elaborate style of architecture known to antiquity, and which
was generally adopted at Rome. They were also patrons of statuary,
especially of works in bronze, for which the city was celebrated. The
Corinthian, vessels of terra cotta were the finest in Greece. All
articles of elegant luxury were manufactured here, especially elaborate
tables, chests, and sideboards. If there had been a great exhibition in
Rome, the works of the Corinthians would have been the most admired, and
would have suited the taste of the luxurious senators, among whom
literature and the higher developments of art were unappreciated. There
was no literature in Corinth after Periander, and among the illustrious
writers of Greece not a single Corinthian appeared. Nor did it ever
produce an orator. What could be expected of a city whose patron goddess
was Aphrodite! But Lais was honored in the city, and rich merchants
frequented her house. The city was most famous for courtesans, and
female slaves, and extravagant luxury. It was like Antioch and Tyre and
Carthage. Corinth was probably the richest city in Greece, and one of
the largest. It had, it is said, four hundred and sixty thousand slaves.
Its streets, three miles in length, were adorned with costly edifices.
Its fortress was one thousand eight hundred and eighty-six feet above
the sea and very strong.
[Sidenote: Sparta.]
Sparta, of historic fame, was not magnificent except in public
buildings. It had a famous portico, the columns of which, of white
marble, represented the illustrious persons among the vanquished Medes.
[Sidenote: Olympia.]
Olympia, the holy city, was celebrated for its temple and its
consecrated garden, where stood some of the great masterpieces of
ancient, art, among them the famous statue of Jupiter, the work of
Pheidias,--an impersonation of majesty and power,--a work which
furnished models from which Michael Angelo drew his inspiration.
[Sidenote: Delphi.]
Delphi, another consecrated city, was enriched with the contributions of
all Greece, and was the seat of the Dorian religion. So rich were the
shrines of its oracle that Nero carried away from it five hundred
statues of bronze at one time.
[Sidenote: Greece enriches Rome.]
Such was Greece, every city of which was famous for art, or literature,
or commerce, or manufacture, or for deeds which live in history. It had
established a great empire in the East, but fell, like all other
conquering nations, from the luxury which conquest engendered. It was no
longer able to protect itself. Its phalanx, which resisted the shock of
the Persian hosts, yielded to the all-conquering legion. When Aemilius
Paulus marched up the Via Sacra with the spoils of the Macedonian
kingdom in his grand and brilliant triumph, he was preceded by two
hundred and fifty wagons containing pictures and statues, and three
thousand men, each carrying a vase of silver coin, and four hundred more
bearing crowns of gold. Yet this was but the commencement of the plunder
of Greece.
[Sidenote: Islands colonized by Greeks.]
And not merely Greece herself, but the islands which she had colonized
formed no slight addition to the glories of the empire. Rhodes was the
seat of a famous school for sculpture and painting, from which issued
the Laocoon and the Farnese Bull. It contained three thousand statues
and one hundred and six colossi, among them the famous statue of the
sun, one hundred and five feet high, one of the seven wonders of the
world, containing 3000 talents--more than 3,000,000 dollars. Its school
of rhetoric was so celebrated that Cicero resorted to it to perfect
himself in oratory.
[Sidenote: Asia Minor.]
[Sidenote: Its extent.]
[Sidenote: Cities.]
[Sidenote: Antioch.]
If we pass from Greece to Asia Minor and Syria, with their dependent
provinces, all of which were added to the empire by the victories of
Sulla and Pompey, we are still more impressed with the extent of the
Roman rule. Asia Minor, a vast peninsula between the Mediterranean,
Aegean, and Euxine seas, included several of the old monarchies of the
world. It extended from Ilium on the west to the banks of the Euphrates,
from the northern parts of Bithynia and Pontus to Syria and Cilicia,
nine hundred miles from east to west, and nearly three hundred from
north to south. It was the scene of some of the grandest conquests of
the oriental world, Babylonian, Persian, and Grecian. Syria embraced all
countries from the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean to the Arabian
deserts. No conquests of the Romans were attended with more eclat than
the subjection of these wealthy and populous sections of the oriental
world; and they introduced a boundless wealth and luxury into Italy. But
in spite of the sack of cities and the devastations of armies, the old
monarchy of the Seleucidae remained rich and grand. Both Syria and Asia
Minor could boast of large and flourishing cities, as well as every kind
of luxury and art. Antioch was the third city in the empire, the capital
of the Greek kings of Syria, and like Alexandria a monument of the
Macedonian age. It was built on a regular and magnificent plan, and
abounded in temples and monuments. Its most striking feature was a
street four miles in length, perfectly level, with double colonnades
through its whole length, built by Antiochus Epiphanes. In magnitude the
city was not much inferior to Paris at the present day, and covered more
land than Rome. It had its baths, its theatres and amphitheatres, its
fora, its museums, its aqueducts, its temples, and its palaces. It was
the most luxurious of all the cities of the East, and had a population
of three hundred thousand who were free. In the latter clays of the
empire it was famous as the scene of the labors of Chrysostom.
[Sidenote: Ephesus.]
Ephesus, one of the twelve of the Ionian cities in Asia, was the glory
of Lydia,--a sacred city of which the temple of Diana was the greatest
ornament. This famous temple was four times as large as the Parthenon,
and covered as much ground as Cologne Cathedral, and was two hundred and
twenty years in building. It had one hundred and twenty-eight columns
sixty feet high, of which thirty-six were carved, each contributed by a
king--the largest of all the Grecian temples, and probably the most
splendid. It was a city of great trade and wealth. Its theatre was the
largest in the world, six hundred and sixty feet in diameter, [Footnote:
Muller, _Anc. Art._] and capable of holding sixty thousand
spectators. Ephesus gave birth to Apelles the painter, and was the
metropolis of five hundred cities.
[Sidenote: Jerusalem.]
[Sidenote: The Temple.]
[Sidenote: The Acropolis.]
Jerusalem, so dear to Christians as the most sacred spot on earth,
inclosed by lofty walls and towers, not so beautiful or populous as in
the days of Solomon and David, was, before its destruction by Titus, one
of the finest cities of the East. Its royal palace, surrounded by a wall
thirty cubits high, with decorated towers at equal intervals, contained
enormous banqueting halls and chambers most profusely ornamented; and
this palace, magnificent beyond description, was connected with porticos
and gardens filled with statues and reservoirs of water. It occupied a
larger space than the present fortress, from the western edge of Mount
Zion to the present garden of the Armenian Convent. The Temple, so
famous, was small compared with the great wonders of Grecian
architecture, being only about one hundred and fifty feet by seventy;
but its front was covered with plates of gold, and some of the stones of
which it was composed were more than sixty feet in length and nine in
width. Its magnificence consisted in its decorations and the vast
quantity of gold and precious woods used in its varied ornaments, and
vessels of gold, so as to make it one of the most costly edifices ever
erected to the worship of God. The Acropolis, which was the fortress of
the Temple, combined the strength of a castle with the magnificence of a
palace, and was like a city in extent, towering seventy cubits above the
elevated rock upon which it was built. So strongly fortified was
Jerusalem, even in its latter days, that it took Titus five months, with
an army of one hundred thousand men, to subdue it; one of the most
memorable sieges on record. It probably would have held out against the
whole power of Rome, had not famine done more than battering rams.
[Sidenote: Damascus and other cities.]
Many other interesting cities might be mentioned both in Syria and Asia
Minor, which were centres of trade, or seats of philosophy, or homes of
art. Tarsus in Cilicia was a great mercantile city, to which strangers
from all parts resorted. Damascus, the oldest city in the world, and the
old capital of Syria, was both beautiful and rich. Laodicea was famous
for tapestries, Hierapolis for its iron wares, Cybara for its dyes,
Sardis for its wines, Smyrna for its beautiful monuments, Delos for its
slave-trade, Gyrene for its horses, Paphos for its temple of Venus, in
which were a hundred altars. Seleucia, on the Tigris, had a population
of four hundred thousand. Caesarea, founded by Herod the Great, and the
principal seat of government to the Roman prefects, had a harbor equal
in size to the renowned Piraeus, and was secured against the southwest
winds by a mole of such massive construction that the blocks of stone,
sunk under the water, were fifty feet in length and eighteen in width,
and nine in thickness. [Footnote: Josephus, _Ant_., xv.] The city
itself was constructed of polished stone, with an agora, a theatre, a
circus, a praetorium, and a temple to Caesar. Tyre, which had resisted for
seven months the armies of Alexander, remained to the fall of the empire
a great emporium of trade. It monopolized the manufacture of imperial
purple. Sidon was equally celebrated for its glass and embroidered
robes. The Sidonians cast glass mirrors, and imitated precious stones.
But the glory of both Tyre and Sidon was in ships, which visited all the
coasts of the Mediterranean, and even penetrated to Britain and India.
[Sidenote: Egypt.]
[Sidenote: Its ancient grandeur.]
[Sidenote: Glories of Egypt.]
[Sidenote: Thebes.]
But greater than Tyre, or Antioch, or any eastern city, was Alexandria,
the capital of Egypt, which was one of the last provinces added to the
empire. Egypt alone was a mighty monarchy--the oldest which history
commemorates, august in records and memories. What pride, what pomp,
what glory are associated with the land of the Pharaohs, with its mighty
river reaching to the centre of a great continent, flowing thousands of
miles to the sea, irrigating and enriching the most fertile valley of
the world! What noble and populous cities arose upon its banks three
thousand years before Roman power was felt! What enduring monuments
remain of a its ancient very ancient yet extinct civilization! What
successive races of conquerors have triumphed in the granite palaces of
Thebes and Memphis! Old, sacred, rich, populous, and learned, Egypt
becomes a province of the Roman empire. The sceptre of three hundred
kings passes from Cleopatra, the last of the Ptolemies, to Augustus
Caesar, the conqueror at Actium; and six millions of different races,
once the most civilized on the earth, are amalgamated with the other
races and peoples which compose the universal monarchy. At one time the
military force of Egypt is said to have amounted to seven hundred
thousand men, in the period of its greatest prosperity. The annual
revenues of this state under the Ptolemies amounted to about 17,000,000
dollars in gold and silver, beside the produce of the earth. A single
feast cost Philadelphus more than half a million of pounds sterling, and
he had accumulated treasures to the amount of 740,000 talents, or about
860,000,000 dollars. [Footnote: Napoleon, _Life of Caesar_.] What
European monarch ever possessed such a sum? The kings of Egypt were
richer in the gold and silver they could command than Louis XIV., in the
proudest hour of his life. What monarchs ever reigned with more absolute
power than the kings of this ancient seat of learning and art! The
foundation of Thebes goes back to the mythical period of Egyptian
history, and it covered as much ground as Rome or Paris, equally the
centre of religion, of trade, of manufactures, and of government,--the
sacerdotal capital of all who worshiped Ammon from Pelusium to Axume,
from the Red Sea to the Oases of Libya. The palaces of Thebes, though
ruins two thousand years ago as they are ruins now, were the largest and
probably the most magnificent ever erected by the hand of man. What must
be thought of a palace whose central hall was eighty feet in height,
three hundred and twenty-five feet in length, and one hundred and
seventy-nine in breadth; the roof of which was supported by one hundred
and thirty-four columns, eleven feet in diameter and seventy-six feet in
height, with their pedestals; and where the cornices of the finest
marble were inlaid with ivory moldings or sheathed with beaten gold! But
I do not now refer to the glories of Egypt under Sesostris or Rameses,
but to what they were when Alexandria was the capital of the country,--
what it was under the Roman domination.
[Sidenote: Extent and population of Alexandria.]
[Sidenote: Library.]
[Sidenote: Public buildings.]
[Sidenote: Commerce.]
The ground-plan of this great city was traced by Alexander himself, but
it was not completed until the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus. It
continued to receive embellishments from nearly every monarch of the
Lagian line. Its circumference was about fifteen miles; the streets were
regular, and crossed one another at right angles, and were wide enough
to admit both carriages and foot passengers. The harbor was large enough
to admit the largest fleet ever constructed; its walls and gates were
constructed with all the skill and strength known to antiquity; its
population numbered six hundred thousand, and all nations were
represented in its crowded streets. The wealth of the city may be
inferred from the fact that in one year 6250 talents, or more than
6,000,000 dollars, were paid to the public treasury for port dues. The
library was the largest in the world, and numbered over seven hundred
thousand volumes, and this was connected with a museum, a menagerie, a
botanical garden, and various halls for lectures, altogether forming the
most famous university in the empire. The inhabitants were chiefly
Greek, and had all their cultivated tastes and mercantile thrift. In a
commercial point of view it was the most important in the empire, and
its ships whitened every sea. Alexandria was of remarkable beauty, and
was called by Ammianus _Vertex omnium civitatum_. Its dry
atmosphere preserved for centuries the sharp outlines and gay colors of
its buildings, some of which were remarkably imposing. The Mausoleum of
the Ptolemies, the High Court of justice, the Stadium, the Gymnasium,
the Palaestra, the Amphitheatre, and the Temple of the Caesars, all called
out the admiration of travelers. The Emporium far surpassed the quays of
the Tiber. But the most imposing structure was the Exchange, to which,
for eight hundred years, all the nations sent their representatives. It
was commerce which made Alexandria so rich and beautiful, for which it
was more distinguished than both Tyre and Carthage. Unlike most
commercial cities, it was intellectual, and its schools of poetry,
mathematics, medicine, philosophy, and theology were more renowned than
even those of Athens during the third and fourth centuries. For wealth,
population, intelligence, and art, it was the second city of the world.
It would be a great capital in these times.
[Sidenote: Power of the empire seated in the western provinces.]
Such were Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, and Africa, all of which had
been great empires, but all of which were incorporated with the Roman in
less than two hundred years after Italy succumbed to the fortunate city
on the Tiber. But these old and venerated monarchies, with their
dependent states and provinces, though imposing and majestic, did not
compose the vital part of the empire of the Caesars. It was those new
provinces which were rescued from the barbarians, chiefly Celts, where
the life of the empire centred. It was Spain, Gaul, Britain, and
Illyricum, countries which now compose the most powerful European
monarchies, which the more truly show the strength of the Roman world.
And these countries were added last, and were not fully incorporated
with the empire until imperial power had culminated in the Antonines.
From a comparative wilderness, Spain and Gaul especially became populous
and flourishing states, dotted with cities, and instructed in all the
departments of Roman art and science. From these provinces the armies
were recruited, the schools were filled, and even the great generals and
emperors were furnished. These provinces embraced nearly the whole of
modern Europe.
[Sidenote: Spain.]
[Sidenote: Its provinces.]
[Sidenote: Productions.]
[Sidenote: Its towns and cities.]
[Sidenote: Its commercial centres.]
Spain had been added to the empire after the destruction of Carthage,
but only after a bitter and protracted warfare. It was completed by the
reduction of Numantia, a city of the Celtiberians in the valley of the
Douro, and its siege is more famous than that of Carthage, having defied
for a long time the whole power of the empire, as Tyre did Alexander,
and Jerusalem the armies of Titus. It yielded to the genius of Scipio,
the conqueror of Africa, as La Rochelle, in later times, fell before
Richelieu, but not until famine had done its work. The civilization of
Spain was rapid after the fall of Numantia, and in the time of the
Antonines was one of the richest and most prized of the Roman provinces.
It embraced the whole peninsula, from the Pillars of Hercules to the
Pyrenees; and the warlike nations who composed it became completely
Latinized. It was divided into three provinces--Boetica, Lusitania, and
Tarraconensis--all governed by praetors, the last of whom had consular
power, and resided in Carthago Nova, on the Mediterranean. Under
Constantine, Spain, with its islands, was divided into seven provinces,
and stood out from the rest of the empire like a round bastion tower
from the walls of an old fortified town. This magnificent possession,
extending four hundred and sixty miles from north to south, and five
hundred and seventy from east to west, including, with the Balearic
Isles, 171,300 square miles, with a rich and fertile soil and
inexhaustible mineral resources, was worth more to the Romans than all
the conquests of Pompey and Sulla, since it furnished men for the
armies, and materials for a new civilization. It furnished corn, oil,
wine, fruits, pasturage, metals of all kinds, and precious stones.
Boetica was famed for its harvests, Lusitania for its flocks,
Tarraconensis for its timber, and the fields around Carthago Nova for
materials of which cordage was made. But the great value of the
peninsula to the eyes of the Romans was in its rich mines of gold,
silver, and other metals. The bulk of the population was Iberian. The
Celtic element was the next most prominent. There were six hundred and
ninety-three towns and cities in which justice was administered. New
Carthage, on the Mediterranean, had a magnificent harbor, was strongly
fortified, and was twenty stadia in circumference, was a great emporium
of trade, and was in the near vicinity of the richest silver mines of
Spain, which employed forty thousand men. Gades (New Cadiz), a
Phoenician colony, on the Atlantic Ocean, was another commercial centre,
and numbered five hundred Equites among the population, and was
immensely rich. Corduba, on the Boetis (Guadalquivir), the capital of
Boetica, was a populous city before the Roman conquest, and was second
only to Gades as a commercial mart. It was the birthplace of Seneca and
Lucan.
[Sidenote: Richness of Gaul.]
[Sidenote: Population and cities.]
[Sidenote: Splendor of Gaulish cities.]
Gaul, which was the first of Caesar's most brilliant conquests, and which
took him ten years to accomplish, was a still more extensive province.
It was inhabited chiefly by Celtic tribes, who, uniting with Germanic
nations, made a most obstinate defense. When incorporated with the
empire, Gaul became rapidly civilized. It was a splendid country,
extending from the Pyrenees to the Rhine, with a sea-coast of more than
six hundred miles, and separated from Italy by the Alps, having 200,000
square miles. Great rivers, as in Spain, favored an extensive commerce
with the interior, and on their banks were populous and beautiful
cities. Its large coast on both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic gave
it a communication with all the world. It produced corn, oil, and wine,
those great staples, in great abundance. It had a beautiful climate, and
a healthy and hardy population, warlike, courageous, and generous. Gaul
was a populous country even in Caesar's time, and possessed twelve
hundred towns and cities, some of which were of great importance.
Burdigala, now Bordeaux, the chief city of Aquitania, on the Garonne,
was famous for its schools of rhetoric and grammar. Massolia
(Marseilles), before the Punic wars was a strong fortified city, and was
largely engaged in commerce. Vienne, a city of the Allobroges, was
inclosed with lofty walls, and had an amphitheatre whose long diameter
was five hundred feet, and the aqueducts supplied the city with water.
Lugdunum (Lyons) on the Rhone, was a place of great trade, and was
filled with temples, theatres, palaces, and aqueducts. Nemausus (NOEmes)
had subject to it twenty-four villages, and from the monuments which
remain, must have been a city of considerable importance. Its
amphitheatre would seat seventeen thousand people; and its aqueduct
constructed of three successive tiers of arches, one hundred and fifty-
five feet high, eight hundred and seventy feet long, and fifty feet
wide, is still one of the finest monuments of antiquity, built of stone
without cement. It is still solid and strong, and gives us a vivid
conception of the magnificence of Roman masonry. Narbo (Narbonne) was
another commercial centre, adorned with public buildings which called
forth the admiration of ancient travelers. The modern cities of Treves,
Boulogne, Rheims, Chalons, Cologne, Metz, Dijon, Sens, Orleans,
Poictiers, Clermont, Rouen, Paris, Basil, Geneva, were all considerable
places under the Roman rule, and some were of great antiquity.
[Sidenote: Illyricum.]
Illyricum is not famous in Roman history, but was a very considerable
province, equal to the whole Austrian empire in our times, and was as
completely reclaimed from barbarism as Gaul or Spain. Both Jerome and
Diocletian were born in a little Dalmatian town.
[Sidenote: Cultivated face of nature.]
[Sidenote: Agricultural wealth.]
Nothing could surpass the countries which bordered on the Mediterranean
in all those things which give material prosperity. They were salubrious
in climate, fertile in soil, cultivated like a garden, abounding in
nearly all the fruits, vegetables, and grains now known to civilization.
The beautiful face of nature was the subject of universal panegyric to
the fall of the empire. There were no destructive wars. All the various
provinces were controlled by the central power which emanated from Rome.
There was scope for commerce, and all kinds of manufacturing skill.
Italy, Sicily, and Egypt were especially fertile. The latter country
furnished corn in countless quantities for the Roman market. Italy could
boast of fifty kinds of wine, and was covered with luxurious villas in
which were fish-ponds, preserves for game, wide olive groves and
vineyards, to say nothing of the farms which produced milk, cheese,
honey, and poultry. Syria was so prosperous that its inhabitants divided
their time between the field, the banquet, and the gymnasium, and
indulged in continual festivals. It was so rich that Antiochus III. was
able to furnish at one time a tribute of 15,000 talents, beside 540,000
measures of wheat. The luxury of Nineveh and Babylon was revived in the
Phoenician cities.
[Sidenote: Natural productions of the various provinces.]
Spain produced horses, mules, wool, oil, figs, wine, corn, honey, beer,
flax, linen, beside mines of copper, silver, gold, quicksilver, tin,
lead, and steel. Gaul was so cultivated that there was little waste
land, and produced the same fruits and vegetables as at the present
day. Its hams and sausages were much prized. Sicily was famous for
wheat, Sardinia for wool, Epirus for horses, Macedonia for goats,
Thessaly for oil, Boeotia for flax, Scythia for furs, and Greece for
honey. Almost all the flowers, herbs, and fruits that grow in European
gardens were known to the Romans--the apricot, the peach, the
pomegranate, the citron, the orange, the quince, the apple, the pear,
the plum, the cherry, the fig, the date, the olive. Martial speaks of
pepper, beans, pulp, lentils, barley, beets, lettuce, radishes, cabbage
sprouts, leeks, turnips, asparagus, mushrooms, truffles, as well as all
sorts of game and birds. [Footnote: Martial, B. 13.] In no age of the
world was agriculture more honored than before the fall of the empire.
[Sidenote: Roads.]
And all these provinces were connected with each other and with the
capital by magnificent roads, perfectly straight, and paved with large
blocks of stone. They were originally constructed for military purposes,
but were used by travelers, and on them posts were regularly
established. They crossed valleys upon arches, and penetrated mountains.
In Italy, especially, they were great works of art, and connected all
the provinces. Among the great roads which conveyed to Rome as a centre
were the Clodian and Cassian roads which passed through Etruria; the
Amerina and Flavinia through Umbria; the Via Valeria, which had its
terminus at Alternum on the Adriatic; the Via Latina, which, passing
through Latium and Campania, extended to the southern extremity of
Italy; the Via Appia also passed through Latium, Campania, Lucania,
Iapygia to Brundusium, on the Adriatic. Again, from the central terminus
at Milan, several lines passed through the gorges of the Alps, and
connected Italy with Lyons and Mayence on the one side, and with the
Tyrol and Danubian provinces on the other. Spain and southern Gaul were
connected by a grand road from Cadiz to Narbonne and Arles. Lyons was
another centre from which branched out military roads to Saintes,
Marseilles, Boulogne, and Mayence. In fact, the Roman legion could
traverse every province in the empire over these grandly built public
roads, as great and important in the second century as railroads are at
the present time. There was an uninterrupted communication from the Wall
of Antonius through York, London, Sandwich, Boulogne, Rheims, Lyons,
Milan, Rome, Brundusium, Dyrrachium, Byzantium, Ancyra, Tarsus, Antioch,
Tyre, Jerusalem--a distance of 3740 miles. And these roads were divided
by milestones, and houses for travelers erected every five or six miles.
[Sidenote: Commerce.]
[Sidenote: Objects of ancient commerce.]
Commerce under the emperors was not what it now is, but still was very
considerable, and thus united the various provinces together. The most
remote countries were ransacked to furnish luxuries for Rome. Every year
a fleet of one hundred and twenty vessels sailed from the Red Sea for
the islands of the Indian Ocean. But the Mediterranean, with the rivers
which flowed into it, was the great highway of the ancient navigator.
Navigation by the ancients was even more rapid than in modern times
before the invention of steam, since oars were employed as well as
sails. In summer one hundred and sixty-two Roman miles were sailed over
in twenty-four hours. This was the average speed, or about seven knots.
From the mouth of the Tiber, vessels could usually reach Africa in two
days, Massilia in three, Tarraco in four, and the Pillars of Hercules in
seven. From Puteoli the passage to Alexandria had been effected, with
moderate winds, in nine days. But these facts apply only to the summer,
and to objects of favorable winds. The Romans did not navigate in the
inclement seasons. But in summer the great inland sea was white with
sails. Great fleets brought corn from Gaul, Spain, Sardinia, Africa,
Sicily, and Egypt. This was the most important trade. But a considerable
commerce was carried on in ivory, tortoise-shell, cotton and silk
fabrics, pearls and precious stones, gums, spices, wines, wool, oil.
Greek and Asiatic wines, especially the Chian and Lesbian, were in great
demand at Rome. The transport of earthenware, made generally in the
Grecian cities; of wild animals for the amphitheatre; of marble, of the
spoils of eastern cities, of military engines, and stores, and horses,
required very large fleets and thousands of mariners, which probably
belonged, chiefly, to great maritime cities like Alexandria, Corinth,
Carthage, Rhodes, Cyrene, Massalia, Neapolis, Tarentum, and Syracuse.
These great cities with their dependencies, required even more vessels
for communication with each other than for Rome herself--the great
central object of enterprise and cupidity.
[Sidenote: The metropolis of the empire.]
[Sidenote: The centre and the pride of the world.]
[Sidenote: Its varied objects of interest.]
In this survey of the provinces and cities which composed the empire of
the Caesars, I have not yet spoken of the great central city--the City of
the Seven Hills, to which all the world was tributary. Rome was so
grand, so vast, so important in every sense, political and social; she
was such a concentration of riches and wonders, that it demands a
separate and fuller notice than what I have been able to give of those
proud capitals which finally yielded to her majestic domination. All
other cities not merely yielded precedence, but contributed to her
greatness. Whatever was costly, or rare, or beautiful in Greece, or
Asia, or Egypt, was appropriated by her citizen kings, since citizens
were provincial governors. All the great roads, from the Atlantic to the
Tigris, converged to Rome. All the ships of Alexandria and Carthage and
Tarentum, and other commercial capitals, were employed in furnishing her
with luxuries or necessities. Never was there so proud a city as this
"Epitome of the Universe." London, Paris, Vienna, Constantinople, St.
Petersburg, Berlin, are great centres of fashion and power; but they are
rivals, and excel only in some great department of human enterprise and
genius, as in letters, or fashions, or commerce, or manufactures--
centres of influence and power in the countries of which they are
capitals, yet they do not monopolize the wealth and energies of the
world. London may contain more people than ancient Rome, and may possess
more commercial wealth; but London represents only the British monarchy,
not a universal empire. Rome, however, monopolized everything, and
controlled all nations and peoples. She could shut up the schools of
Athens, or disperse the ships of Alexandria, or regulate the shops of
Antioch. What Lyons or Bordeaux is to Paris, Corinth or Babylon was to
Rome--secondary cities, dependent cities. Paul condemned at Jerusalem,
stretched out his arms to Rome, and Rome protects him. The philosophers
of Greece are the tutors of Roman nobility. The kings of the East resort
to the palaces of Mount Palatine for favors or safety. The governors of
Syria and Egypt, reigning in the palaces of ancient kings, return to
Rome to squander the riches they have accumulated. Senators and nobles
take their turn as sovereign rulers of all the known countries of the
world. The halls in which Darius, and Alexander, and Pericles, and
Croesus, and Solomon, and Cleopatra have feasted, if unspared by the
conflagrations of war, witness the banquets of Roman proconsuls. Babylon
and Thebes and Athens were only what Delhi and Calcutta are to the
English of our day--cities to be ruled by the delegates of the Roman
Senate. Rome was the only "home" of the proud governors who reigned on
the banks of the Thames, of the Seine, of the Rhine, of the Nile, of the
Tigris. After they had enriched themselves with the spoils of the
ancient monarchies they returned to their estates in Italy, or to their
palaces on the Aventine, for the earth had but _one_ capital--one
great centre of attraction. To an Egyptian even, Alexandria was only
provincial. He must travel to the banks of the Tiber to see something
greater than his own capital. It was the seat of government for one
hundred and twenty millions of people. It was the arbiter of taste and
fashion. It was the home of generals and senators and statesmen, of
artists and scholars and merchants, who were renowned throughout the
empire. It was enriched by the contributions of conquered nations for
eight hundred years. It contained more marble statues than living
inhabitants. Every spot was consecrated by associations; every temple
had a history; every palace had been the scene of festivities which made
it famous; every monument pointed to the deeds of the illustrious dead,
and swelled the pride of the most powerful families which aristocratic
ages had created.
* * * * *
For the ancient authorities, see Strabo, Pliny, Polybius, Diodorus
Siculus, Titus Livius, Pausanias, and Herodotus. There is an able
chapter on Mediterranean prosperity in Napoleon's _History of
Caesar_. Smith, _Dictionary of Ancient Geography_, is exhaustive.
See, also, Muller, article on _Atticus_, in Ersch, and Gruber's
_Encyclopedia_, translated by Lockhart; Stuart and Revett,
_Antiquities of Atticus_; Dodwell, _Tour through Greece_; Wilkinson,
_Hand-book for Travelers in Egypt_; Becker, _Hand-book of Rome_.
Anthon has compiled a useful work on ancient geography, but the most
accessible and valuable book on the material aspects of the old
Roman world is the great dictionary of Smith, from which this chapter is
chiefly compiled.