DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62267#0052
42
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. IL
opulent citizens, and endowed with rich lands.
In most of these respects, modern Como does
not perhaps yield to the ancient city. The ca-
thedral, in materials, magnitude, and probably
in decoration, though not in style, equals the
temple of Jupiter, and ten or fifteen other
churches, four or live of which are remarkable
for some peculiar excellence or other, may be
deemed as ornamental to the city as half the
number of temples. One of these churches, that
of St. Giovanni, is adorned by several pillars,
which are supposed to have belonged to a por-
tico which Pliny mentions, as erected by Faba-
tus, his wife’s grandfather.* Three colleges of
reputation, and as many public libraries, are ad-
vantages, which Pliny would have extolled with
rapture, and are far superior, it must be owned,
even to the collection of imperial statues, and
to the temple erected for their receptacle.*)* To
complete the resemblance or the equality, Como
is now, ('was lately, I should have said) as an-
ciently, governed by Decurions of birth and pro-
perty ; to which I must add, that it contains a
* v. 12.
t The curious reader may see a description of a temple
which Pliny was about to erect, though probably on his
Tuscan property, not at Comum.—ix. 40.
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. IL
opulent citizens, and endowed with rich lands.
In most of these respects, modern Como does
not perhaps yield to the ancient city. The ca-
thedral, in materials, magnitude, and probably
in decoration, though not in style, equals the
temple of Jupiter, and ten or fifteen other
churches, four or live of which are remarkable
for some peculiar excellence or other, may be
deemed as ornamental to the city as half the
number of temples. One of these churches, that
of St. Giovanni, is adorned by several pillars,
which are supposed to have belonged to a por-
tico which Pliny mentions, as erected by Faba-
tus, his wife’s grandfather.* Three colleges of
reputation, and as many public libraries, are ad-
vantages, which Pliny would have extolled with
rapture, and are far superior, it must be owned,
even to the collection of imperial statues, and
to the temple erected for their receptacle.*)* To
complete the resemblance or the equality, Como
is now, ('was lately, I should have said) as an-
ciently, governed by Decurions of birth and pro-
perty ; to which I must add, that it contains a
* v. 12.
t The curious reader may see a description of a temple
which Pliny was about to erect, though probably on his
Tuscan property, not at Comum.—ix. 40.