present
piazzas in Italy.

Arches were public buildings designed for the encouragement and reward
of noble enterprises, erected generally to the honor of such eminent
persons as had either won a victory of extraordinary consequence abroad,
or had rescued the commonwealth, at home, from any considerable danger.

At first they were plain and rude structures, by no means remarkable for
beauty or taste: but in latter times no expense was thought too great to
render them in the highest manner splendid and magnificent. The arches
built by Romulus were only of brick, that of Camillus of plain square
stone, but those of Caesar, Drusus, Titus, &c. were all of marble.

Their figure was at first semicircular, whence probably they took their
names; afterwards they were built four square, with a spacious arched
gate in the middle, and small ones on each side. Upon the vaulted part
of the middle gate, hung little winged images representing victory, with
crowns in their hands, which, when they were let down, they put upon the
conqueror's head, as he passed under the triumphal arch.

The columns or pillars, over the sepulchres of distinguished men, were
great ornaments to the city: they were at last converted to the same
design as the arches, for the honorable memorial of some noble victory
or exploit. The pillars of the emperors Trajan and Antoninus deserve
particular attention for their beauty and curious workmanship.

The former was set up in the middle of Trajan's forum, being composed of
twenty-four great stones of marble, but so skilfully cemented as to
appear one entire stone. The height was one hundred forty-four feet; it
is ascended on the inside by one hundred eighty-five winding stairs, and
has forty little windows for the admission of light. The whole pillar is
incrusted with marble, in which are expressed all the noble actions of
the emperor, and particularly the Decian war.

But its noblest ornament was the gigantic statue of Trajan on the top,
being no less than twenty feet high; he was represented in a coat of
armour proper to the general, holding in his left hand a sceptre, in his
right a hollow globe of fire, in which his own ashes were deposited
after his death.

The column of Antoninus was raised in imitation of this, which it
exceeded only in one respect, that it was one hundred seventy six feet
high--for the work was much inferior to the former, being undertaken in
the declining age of the empire. The ascen