its own precincts everything which could be subservient either to use or luxury-markets, hippodromes, temples, fountains, baths, porticoes, shady groves, and artificial aviaries."* A remarkable instance of Roman splendour, belonging to an earlier period, is afforded in the account we have of the house of Scaurus, which was valued at a sum equal to £885,000 of our money. A distinguished antiquary has given a fancy picture of the dining-room in this palace, which was probably equalled in some of the Roman houses of a later date. He describes the apartment as divided into two portions; the upper occupied by tables and couches, the lower left empty for the convenience of attendants. The former was adorned with valuable curtains: garlands entwined with ivy divided the wall into compartments, which were bordered by fanciful ornaments and the frieze above the columns was formed in twelve divisions, each of which was surmounted by a sign of the zodiac, and by meat, fish, and game, emblematical of the season. Bronze lamps, suspended from the ceiling, or raised on candelabra, shed a brilliant light, and were trimmed by slaves. The tables were of citron-wood more precious than gold, and rested on ivory feet. The couches were overlaid with silver, gold, and tortoiseshell; the mattresses were of Gallic wool, dyed purple; the cushions of silk, embroidered with gold, were worked at Babylon,

* Gibbon, vol. iv. p. 94.

and cost thirty-two thousand pounds. The pavement was of mosaic, and represented the fragments of a feast scattered about, as if the floor had not been swept since the last meal. While waiting for their masters, young slaves strewed over the pavement sawdust, dyed with saffron, and vermilion, mixed with a brilliant powder, made from the lapis specularis, or talc.* An historian, before quoted,†who lived during the fourth century, gives a lively description of the Roman nobility at that time, from which it appears that luxury of every kind was carried to the greatest excess. They adorned their houses with magnificent statues of themselves. Their robes were of the most costly description, and became a burden to the wearer from the immoderate weight of their rich embroidery. When they travelled to any distance, so large was the retinue that it was like the march of an army, and even when they rode in their splendid chariots through the streets of the city, they were followed by a train of fifty servants, and tore up the very pavement by their furious driving. Sometimes they sailed in their painted yachts from the Lucrine lake, on the coast of Puteoli, and thought when they had done it, that they had performed an exploit which might rival the expeditions of either Alexander or Cæsar. Their tables were covered with the rarest delicacies, and the pleasures of the feast occupied no small share of their time and conversation. Musical Pompeii, vol. ii. p. 13.

† Ammianus Marcellinus.

concerts and visiting the baths, the theatres, and other places of amusement, absorbed nearly all the rest. Great was the change since the days of Cincinnatus. Roman simplicity had been succeeded by oriental magnificence. Cloaks of Laconian wool and purple, tables of thurga-root, with claws of silver and ivory, services of plate, set with precious stones, furniture of the costliest materials, and most elegant workmanship, banqueting-halls of florid architecture, baths of marble, and villas surrounded by enchanting gardens, were now the signs of greatness, instead of wisdom in the cabinet, or valour in the field.

The second class of Roman society consisted of the plebeian citizens, numbers of whom, neglecting all industrious employments, lived upon the public distribution of bread, bacon, oil, and wine, which, from the time of Augustus, had been made for the relief of the indigent among the people. These idlers spent their time chiefly in baths and taverns, and in witnessing those public amusements in the circus and the theatre, which their corrupt magistrates and great men, from the emperors downwards, were accustomed to provide as a means of securing and maintaining popularity. "Some," says Ammianus, "passed the night in taverns, and others under the awnings of the theatres : they occupied their time in playing at dice, or, which was a more favourite employment, in sitting from morning till evening in the sun or the rain, enjoying the amusements of the circus,

and discussing the excellences, or the defects of the horses and the charioteers. It was truly surprising to see an innumerable concourse of people, with the most ardent minds, watching the event of a chariot race."*

The third portion of Roman society consisted of slaves. This unhappy class formed a large portion of the Roman population from an early period. So numerous were they at one time, that when it was proposed to distinguish them from the citizens by a particular dress, the proposal was negatived, on the ground that it would be dangerous to the state, if these bondmen discovered their numerical strength. Donestic occupations of all kinds were allotted to slaves, numbers of them were employed as artisans. Some of them were devoted to professional pursuits; and great men had among their slaves, physicians, librarians, and secretaries a state of things obviously most pernicious, as the moral influence exerted by them upon the families with whom they resided must have been most injurious: nor was the peril small from having so large a class of persons in the community, whose feelings towards their masters, in a multitude of instances, must have been deeply embittered. At one period, the possessors of slaves in Rome exercised over them a perfectly irresponsible authority, and scourged and put them to death at pleasure: but under the emperors Adrian, and the Antonines, the shield of legal protection was

*Ammianus Marcellinus. lib. xiv. c. 25.

extended over this oppressed portion of society. Some melioration in the state of Roman slaves, no doubt, was secured during the last age of the empire; but the wrongs inseparable from slavery were still endured, and a disposition to be avenged on their oppressors still nourished; for amidst the scenes of terror and violence, which marked the taking of Rome by Alaric, we have seen forty thousand slaves rising to join the Goths in shedding Roman blood, and in trampling in the dust the remains of Roman pride and greatness. That the servile part of the Roman population, ministering, as they did, to the luxury, the extravagance, and the vices of their masters, partook of the prevalent moral corruption of the times is certain; and thus society, in the imperial city, presented the picture so affectingly described by the prophet, "the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint, from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it: but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores; they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment."*

Had not Christianity "mollified" them? No doubt what there was of healing and preserving power in society at Rome, during its latter days, proceeded from the influence of the Christian religion; and it is worthy of remark that the court of the Christian emperors presented a striking contrast, in point of morality,

* Gibbon gives a full view of the state of Roman society, ch. xxxi. of his "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."