llecting that I mentioned those facts before, as occasion
served.

13. As he went on, having entered Rome, that home of sovereignty and of
all virtues, when he arrived at the rostra, he gazed with amazed awe on
the Forum, the most renowned monument of ancient power; and, being
bewildered with the number of wonders on every side to which he turned
his eyes, having addressed the nobles in the senate-house, and harangued
the populace from the tribune, he retired, with the good-will of all,
into his palace, where he enjoyed the luxury he had wished for. And
often, when celebrating the equestrian games, was he delighted with the
talkativeness of the common people, who were neither proud, nor, on the
other hand, inclined to become rebellious from too much liberty, while
he himself also reverently observed a proper moderation.

14. For he did not, as was usually done in other cities, allow the
length of the gladiatorial contests to depend on his caprice; but left
it to be decided by various occurrences. Then, traversing the summits of
the seven hills, and the different quarters of the city, whether placed
on the slopes of the hills or on the level ground, and visiting, too,
the suburban divisions, he was so delighted that whatever he saw first
he thought the most excellent of all. Admiring the temple of the
Tarpeian Jupiter, which is as much superior to other temples as divine
things are superior to those of men; and the baths of the size of
provinces; and the vast mass of the amphitheatre, so solidly erected of
Tibertine stone, to the top of which human vision can scarcely reach;
and the Pantheon with its vast extent, its imposing height, and the
solid magnificence of its arches, and the lofty niches rising one above
another like stairs, adorned with the images of former emperors; and the
temple of the city, and the forum of peace, and the theatre of Pompey,
and the odeum, and the racecourse, and the other ornaments of the
Eternal City.

15. But when he came to the forum of Trajan, the most exquisite
structure, in my opinion, under the canopy of heaven, and admired even
by the deities themselves, he stood transfixed with wonder, casting his
mind over the gigantic proportions of the place, beyond the power of
mortal to describe, and beyond the reasonable desire of mortals to
rival. Therefore giving up all hopes of attempting anything of this
kind, he contented himself with saying that he should wish to imitate,
and could im