Cbap. 24.] MAEYELLOUS BUILDINGS AT HOME 349 



City environed by the palaces of the Emperors Caius ^^ and 

 I^'ero; that of the last, that nothing might be wanting to 

 its magnificence, being coated with gold.^* Surely such palaces 

 as these must have been intended for the abode of those who 

 created this mighty empire, and who left the plough or their 

 native hearth to go forth to conquer nations, and to return 

 laden with triumphs ! men, in fact, whose very fields even occu- 

 pied less space than the audience-chambers^ of these palaces. 



Indeed, one cannot but help reflecting how trifling a portion of 

 these palaces was equal to the sites which the republic granted 

 to its invincible generals, for the erection of their dwellings. 

 The supreme honour, too, attendant upon these grants — as in 

 the case of P, Valerius Publicola, the first consul with L. Bru- 

 tus, for his many meritorious services; and of his brother, 

 who twice in one consulship defeated the Sabines — was the 

 permission granted, by the terms of the decree, to have the 

 doors of their houses opening from without, and the gates 

 thrown back upon the public street. Such was t' e most dis- 

 tinguished privilege accorded in those days to triumphal man- 

 sions even ! 



I will not permit, however, these two Caiuses,^^ or two 

 l^eros, to enjoy this glory even, such as it is ; for I will prove 

 that these extravagant follies of theirs have been surpassed, in 

 the use that was made of his wealth by M. Scaurus, a private 

 citizen. Indeed, I am by no means certain that it was not 

 the sedileship of this personage that inflicted the first great 

 blow upon the public manners, and that Sylla was not guilty 

 of a greater crime in giving such unlimited power to his step- 

 son,^' than in the proscription of so many thousands. During 

 his aedileship, and only for the temporary purposes of a few 

 days, Scaurus executed the greatest^^ work that has ever been 



83 Caligula. The Palace of Caligula was situate on the Palatine Hill : 

 that of j^ero extended from the Palatine Hill to the Esquiline, nearly the 

 whole of which was covered by it. It was left unfinished by Nero, bat 

 the Emperor Otho completed it. Martial, Spectac. Ep. 2, speaks in terms 

 of indignation of there being now " but one house in all the City ;" but, 

 unfortunately, he gives utterance to it with a view of flattering Domitian. 



^[ Whence its name, " Aurea," the " golden" Palace. ^5 u Sellaria." 



^'' By this mode of expression, he probably means that they were " birds 

 3t a feather" — one as bad as the other. 



^' His mother, Metella Caecilia, became the wife of Sylla. 



^^ He forgets the Pyramids and the Labyrinth of Egypt, which he has 

 to recently described. 



