DOI Kapitel:
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 Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62268#0216
206 CLASSICAL TOUR Ch. V.
well known to him* and his contemporaries.
These works were, I admit, not the display, but
the prodigality of magnificence. As such, they
are justly censured by the philosopher, and
placed far below the more solid and more per-
manent, though less showy splendor of the Mar-
tian and Claudian aqueducts. Yet they are stu-
pendous both in conception and execution, and
shew the natural tendency of the Roman mind
to the grand and the wonderful.f
The same noble taste shone forth with un-
usual splendor at the restoration of the arts iu
the sixteenth century, and displayed itself in
numberless instances, too well known to be enu-
* xxxv. 15.
t When we consider the prodigious number of pillars,
and various species of marble alluded to above, we shall
cease to wonder that Rome still exhibits so many superb
columns, which a late learned French writer* represents as
including in .granite only six thousand, or that her ruins,
even after so many ages of research, form a quarry still un-
exhausted. We may even conclude, that the pillars dug up
bear a small proportion to those that still remain interred,
and indulge a hope that in more tranquil times many a for-
gotten colonnade may once more arise in all its ancient
beauty.
* Abb. Barthelemi.
well known to him* and his contemporaries.
These works were, I admit, not the display, but
the prodigality of magnificence. As such, they
are justly censured by the philosopher, and
placed far below the more solid and more per-
manent, though less showy splendor of the Mar-
tian and Claudian aqueducts. Yet they are stu-
pendous both in conception and execution, and
shew the natural tendency of the Roman mind
to the grand and the wonderful.f
The same noble taste shone forth with un-
usual splendor at the restoration of the arts iu
the sixteenth century, and displayed itself in
numberless instances, too well known to be enu-
* xxxv. 15.
t When we consider the prodigious number of pillars,
and various species of marble alluded to above, we shall
cease to wonder that Rome still exhibits so many superb
columns, which a late learned French writer* represents as
including in .granite only six thousand, or that her ruins,
even after so many ages of research, form a quarry still un-
exhausted. We may even conclude, that the pillars dug up
bear a small proportion to those that still remain interred,
and indulge a hope that in more tranquil times many a for-
gotten colonnade may once more arise in all its ancient
beauty.
* Abb. Barthelemi.