of the fine arts cultivated by peace; both have
disappeared.

There is still remaining, on Mount Palatine, some chambers of the Baths
of Livia; we are there shown the holes which contained the precious
stones that were then lavished upon ceilings, as a common ornament, and
paintings are to be seen there whose colours are yet perfectly
untouched; the fragility of the colours adds to our astonishment at
seeing them preserved, and seems to carry us back nearer to past ages.
If it be true that Livia shortened the days of Augustus, it is in one of
these rooms that the crime was conceived, and the eyes of the sovereign
of the world, betrayed in his most intimate affections, were perhaps
fixed upon one of those pictures whose elegant flowers still remain[16].
What, in old age, were his thoughts upon his life and his pomp? Did he
recall to mind his proscriptions or his glory? Did he hope, or did he
fear a world to come? Does the last thought, which reveals everything to
man; does the last thought of a master of the universe still wander
beneath these vaults?

Mount Aventine offers more traces than any other of the first periods of
the Roman History. Exactly opposite the Palace, raised by Tiberius, we
see the ruins of the Temple of Liberty, which was built by the father of
the Gracchi. At the foot of Mount Aventine stood the temple dedicated to
the Fortune of men by Servius Tullius, to thank the gods for having
raised him from the condition of a slave to the rank of a king. Without
the walls of Rome we find also the ruins of a temple, which was
consecrated to the Fortune of women when Veturia stopped the progress of
Coriolanus. Opposite Mount Aventine is Mount Janicula, on which Porsenna
placed his army. It was opposite this Mount that Horatius Cocles caused
the bridge leading to Rome to be cut away behind him. The foundation of
this bridge is still to be seen; there stands on the bank of the river a
triumphal arch, built of brick, as simple as the action which it recalls
was grand; this arch having been raised, it is said, in honour of
Horatius Cocles. In the middle of the Tiber is perceived an island
formed of sheaves of corn gathered in the fields of Tarquin, which were
a long time exposed on the river because the Roman people would not take
them, believing that they should entail bad fortune on themselves by so
doing. It would be difficult in our days to cast a malediction upon
riches of any sort which could prevent everybo