26 



Severus and Celer ; men possessed of genius and courage, to 

 attempt by Art, even what Nature had denied."* 



The citizen's Gardens of the age we are considering, ^^ere 

 similar to those which now exist in the suburbs of all our great 

 towns. The paintings lately exhumed from the ruins of Her- 

 culaneum, which was overwhelmed, A. D. 79. represent the 

 Gardens before the townsmen's houses, as small square en- 

 closures, girded by Trellis work and Espaliers ; and orna- 

 mented with Urns, Fountains and Careatides. As now they had 

 pots and boxes of Plants in their Windows.f To demonstrate 

 that the splendid style of Gardening adopted by Nero, was 

 neither singular or evanescent, I shall quote the examples of 

 three of the later Emperors. In the reign of Hadrian, who 

 died A. D. 138. a palace was built at Tivoli. Its grounds 

 were of a very large extent, and included within their bounds 

 some of the most picturesque and romantic scenery that 

 abounds in the broken and irregular ground of that vicinity. 

 We have records of its containing, " a Vale of Tempe," — 

 " the Elysian fields,"—" the Regions of Tartarus, &c." ; which 

 epithets however hyperbolical, aftord decisive proof of the 

 beauty and wildness which had been secured in its prospects, 

 as well as of the feelings with which they were viewed. 



The Imperial Brothers, Caracalla and Geta, A. D.210. had 

 Palaces and Gardens which equalled in extent the remainder 

 of Rome. J This is easy of belief, when we recollect with 

 Mr. Gibbon, that the opulent inhabitants of Rome had almost 

 surrounded the City with their Villas, which these Emperors 

 had by degrees confiscated for the most part to their own use. 

 If Geta resided in the Gardens, which bore his name in the 

 Janiculum, and Caracalla those of Moecenas on the Esquiline, 

 they were separated by a space of several miles, yet that space 

 was occupied by Gardens which had once belonged to Sallust, 



• Tacitus Ami. xv. 42. f riiny xix. 4. 19. J Herodian, b. iv. p. 139. 



