dings,
different suites of rooms having been occupied according to the seasons,
and at Pompeii and Herculaneum, thanks to the remarkable preservation of
many of the houses in them, notably that named after Pansa, the domestic
architecture of the private citizens of the great Roman Empire, of which
picturesque arcaded courts were a noteworthy feature, can be well
studied, as well as that of the temples, triumphal arches, public baths,
&c., all of which greatly resembled those of the Capital.

[Illustration: Arch of Titus at Rome]

Whether the Romans were or were not the first people of Western Europe
to use the arch, they certainly took a very great delight in it, setting
up ornately decorated examples of it at the entrances to their towns,
their fora, and their bridges, as well as in commemoration of great
victories in war and of the completion of civic enterprises. Most
remarkable of those still standing in Rome are the Arch of Titus of one
span only, erected in memory of the destruction of Jerusalem by the
Emperor after whom it is named; the triple-span arch of Septimius
Severus, and the smaller one of Constantine. Though they were rather
triumphs of engineering skill than works of architecture properly so
called, the fine stone built aqueducts such as those in the Campagna of
Rome and at Nimes must be mentioned here on account of the aesthetic
effect of the long rows of lofty arches, and a few words must also be
said of the Pillars of Victory, of which that of Trajan at Rome is the
most notable still extant, adorned as it is with a spiral of finely
sculptured bas-reliefs.

In the early days of the Roman power it was customary to cremate the
dead, the ashes being preserved in urns that were ranged in cells known
as Columbaria, generally hewn in the living rock. As time went on,
however, the Egyptian mode of sepulchre was adopted. Bodies were
embalmed and laid in stone or marble coffins which were placed in the
basements of tombs of two or more stories, surmounted by round towers
with pointed or circular roofs. Of these complex resting-places of the
dead the finest now in existence is the Mole or Mausoleum of Hadrian,
known as the Castle of S. Angelo, at Rome, which is some 300 feet high
and was originally encased in marble. No burial was allowed within the
walls of a Roman city, but the approaches were generally lined with
tombs as at Rome, at Pompeii, and elsewhere, most of them, though on a
smaller scale, of a si