Chap. 24 ] MAHYELLOU3 BUILDINGS AT ROME. 3-45 



tivc Stone ;" 70 the Argonautcc, who used it for the purposes of 

 an anchor, having left it there. This stone having repeatedly 

 taken tlight from the Prytanocum, 71 the place so called where 

 it is kept, it has been fastened down with lead. In this 

 city also, near the gate which is known as the " Trachia,"" 2 

 there are seven towers, whieh repeat a number of times all 

 sounds that are uttered in them. This phenomenon, to which 

 the name of " Echo,*' has been given by the Greeks, depends 

 upon the peculiar conformation of localities, and is produced 

 in valleys more particularly. At Cyxieus, however, it is the 

 effect of accident only ; while at Olympia, it is produced by 

 artificial means, and in a very marvellous manner; in L, portico 

 there, which is known as the " Jleptaphonon," 7 * from the cir- 

 cumstance that it returns the sound of the voice seven times. 

 At Cyzicus, also, is the Ihileuterium, 74 a vast edifice, con- 

 structed without a nail of iron ; the raftering being so con- 

 trived as to admit of the beams being removed and replaced 

 without the use of stays. A similar thing, too, is the case 

 with the Sublician Bridge :5 at Home ; and this by enactment, 

 on religious grounds, there having been such difficulty experi- 

 enced in breaking it down when lloratius Codes 75 * defended it. 



CO A 1\ 2-1. MARVELLOUS BUILDINGS AT ROME, EIGHTEEN IN XUMIlFK. 



But it is now time to pass on to the marvels in building 

 displayed by our own City, and to make some enquiry into the 

 resources and experience that we have gained in the lapse of 

 eight hundred years ; and so prove that here, as well, the rest of 



<3 " "Lupin Fugitivus." 



71 A public place where the Prytancs or chief magistrates assembled, 

 and where the public banquets were celebrated. 



72 Or 4i Narrow" gate, apparently. Dion Ca^sius, B. 74, tells a similar 

 story nearly, of seven towers at Byzantium, near the Tkracian Oufe ; and 

 ' Thracia " is given by the Bamberg MS. It is most probable that the two 

 accounts were derived from the same source. 



7J '\L.Trrd(f>un>ov t " seven times vocal." Plutarch also mentions this 

 portico. 



"* B<n'Xu'r//pioi>, the " senate house " or *' council-chamber." 

 75 It was the most ancient of the bridges at Koine, and was so called 

 from its being built upon " suhliccs," or wooden beams. It was originally 

 built, by Ancus Martins, and was ufterwardi rebuilt by the Pontitices or 

 pontiffs. AVc learn from Ovid, l-'asti, 13. v. 1. C'21, that it was still u 

 wooden bridge in the reign of Augustus. In the reign of Otho it was 

 carried away by nn inundation, in later tinu-s it was also known as the 

 Pons JKmihus, from the name of the person probably under whose supcr- 

 mUndeuee it was rebuilt. * 6 ' See B. xixiv. c. 11. 



