s bestowed on that
ancient edifice by a king of Cappadocia, it was again fallen to
decay. Herod restored its ancient beauty and magnificence. Nor was the
liberality of that illustrious citizen confined to the walls of Athens.
The most splendid ornaments bestowed on the temple of Neptune in
the Isthmus, a theatre at Corinth, a stadium at Delphi, a bath at
Thermopylae, and an aqueduct at Canusium in Italy, were insufficient to
exhaust his treasures. The people of Epirus, Thessaly, Euboea, Boeotia,
and Peloponnesus, experienced his favors; and many inscriptions of the
cities of Greece and Asia gratefully style Herodes Atticus their patron
and benefactor.

In the commonwealths of Athens and Rome, the modest simplicity of
private houses announced the equal condition of freedom; whilst the
sovereignty of the people was represented in the majestic edifices
designed to the public use; nor was this republican spirit totally
extinguished by the introduction of wealth and monarchy. It was in works
of national honor and benefit, that the most virtuous of the emperors
affected to display their magnificence. The golden palace of Nero
excited a just indignation, but the vast extent of ground which had been
usurped by his selfish luxury was more nobly filled under the succeeding
reigns by the Coliseum, the baths of Titus, the Claudian portico, and
the temples dedicated to the goddess of Peace, and to the genius of
Rome. These monuments of architecture, the property of the Roman people,
were adorned with the most beautiful productions of Grecian painting and
sculpture; and in the temple of Peace, a very curious library was open
to the curiosity of the learned. * At a small distance from thence was
situated the Forum of Trajan. It was surrounded by a lofty portico,
in the form of a quadrangle, into which four triumphal arches opened
a noble and spacious entrance: in the centre arose a column of marble,
whose height, of one hundred and ten feet, denoted the elevation of the
hill that had been cut away. This column, which still subsists in
its ancient beauty, exhibited an exact representation of the Dacian
victories of its founder. The veteran soldier contemplated the story
of his own campaigns, and by an easy illusion of national vanity, the
peaceful citizen associated himself to the honors of the triumph. All
the other quarters of the capital, and all the provinces of the empire,
were embellished by the same liberal spirit of public magn