DOI chapter:
Chap. V: Magnificence of Ancient Rome - its Cloacæ - Aqueducts - Viæ - Forums - Temples - Thermæ - Theatres - Instances of private Magnificence - Greatness, the Characteristic of Roman Taste at all times
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62268#0180
170
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch, V,
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 believe most of the roads, were
of the republican era, when magnificence was
confined to public edifices, and the resources of
architecture were employed for the convenience
or the amusement of the people at large. To treat
of each separately.
CLOAC.E.
It appears singular to rank sewers among ob-
jects 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 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 con-
nected together, that notwithstanding the weights
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch, V,
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 believe most of the roads, were
of the republican era, when magnificence was
confined to public edifices, and the resources of
architecture were employed for the convenience
or the amusement of the people at large. To treat
of each separately.
CLOAC.E.
It appears singular to rank sewers among ob-
jects 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 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 con-
nected together, that notwithstanding the weights