Chap. 24.] MARVELLOUS BUILDINGS AT nOME. 3-47 



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

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

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

 old men still spoke in admiration of the vast proportions of 

 the Agger, 79 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 M which we recently mentioned, navi- 

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

 happened in the anlileship 81 of M. Agrippa, after he had filled 

 the oflice of consul. 



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

 channels, to flow beneath the city. Hushing 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 nrm and solid 

 is the masonr}', that it is enabled to oiler an effectual resist- 

 ance. Enormous as are the accumulations that arc carried along 

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

 jailing spontaneously to ruins, or levelled with the ground 

 by conflagrations, are continually battering against them ; 

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

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

 Priscus, seven hundred years ngo, these constructions have 

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

 tion one remarkable circumstance, and all the more remark- 

 able from the fact, that the most celebrated historians have 

 omitted to mention it. Tarquinius Priscus having commenced 

 the sewers, and set the lower classe? to work upon them, the 

 laboriousnesi 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 



" "Mound," or "Terrace." See 11. iii. c. 0, where it is ascribed to 

 Tarquinius Supcrbus ; but Strabo stems to attribute its foundation to 

 Servius Tullius. b( > Thebes, in Kjrypt. See Chapter 20 of this Book. 



Bl A.U.C , 721. lie alludes probably to the cleansing of the ecwcrs b> 

 ntnth the city, which took place, Uiu'u Cassias informs us, in the scJile- 

 sliip of Agrippa. 



