Chap. 24.] MAHYELLOTJS BUILDINGS AT HOME. 347 



lions of sesterces ; a state of things, to be considered, in my 

 opinion, as one of the most portentous phaenomena in the his- 

 tory of the human mind. But it was in those days, too, that 

 old men still spoke in admiration of the vast proportions of 

 the Agger,'^ and of the enormous foundations of the Capitol ; 

 of the public sewers, too, a work more stupendous than any ; 

 as mountains had to be pierced for their construction, and, 

 like the hanging city ®^ which we recently mentioned, navi- 

 gation had to be carried on beneath Rome ; an event which 

 happened in the sedileship^' of M. Agrippa, after he had filled 

 the oflSce of consul. 



For this purpose, there are seven rivers, made, by artificial 

 channels, to flow beneath the city. Eushing onward, like so 

 many impetuous torrents, they are compelled to carry off and 

 sweep away all the sewerage ; and swollen as they are by the 

 vast accession of the pluvial waters, they reverberate against 

 the sides and bottom of their channels. Occasionally, too, 

 the Tiber, overflowing, is thrown backward in its course, and 

 discharges itself by these outlets : obstinate is the contest that 

 ensues within between the meeting tides, but so firm and solid 

 is tlie masonry, that it is enabled to off'er an eff'ectual resist- 

 ance. Enormous as are the accumulations that are carried along 

 above, the work of the channels never gives way. Houses 

 falling spontaneously to ruins, or levelled with the ground 

 bj' conflagrations, are continually battering against them ; 

 ihe ground, too, is shaken by earthquakes every now and 

 til en ; and yet, built as they were in the days of Tarquinius 

 Priscus, seven hundred years ago, these constructions have 

 survived, all but unharmed. We must not omit, too, to men- 

 tion one remarkable circumstance, and all the more remark- 

 able from the fact, thjjt the most celebrated historians have 

 omitted to mention it. Tarquinius Priscus having commenced 

 the sewers, and set the lower classes to work upon them, the 

 laboriousness and prolonged duration of the employment be- 

 came equally an object of dread to them ; and the consequence 

 was, that suicide was a thing of common occurrence, the 



■^3 " Mound," or " Terrace." See B. iii. c. 9, where it is ascribed to 

 Tarquinius Superbus ; but Strabo seems to attribute its foundation to 

 Servius Tullius. ^o Thebes, in Egypt. See Chapter 20 of this Book. 



^^ A.u.c , 721. He alludes probably to the cleansing of the sewers be- 

 neath the city, which took place, Dion Cassius informs us, in the aedile- 

 ship of Agrippa. 



