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creased, however, and the people became 

 more refined, the residences in the suburbs 

 of Rome were judged suitable only for 

 farming purposes, and their owners 

 erected costly villas more remote, in 

 connection with which were the pleasure 

 grounds, containing all that pertained to 

 embellishment : as flower-beds, walks, 

 statuary, fountains, shrubbery, and vari- 

 ous shade trees. The accounts which 

 have come down to us of the magnifi- 

 cence of these villas and their pleasure 

 grounds both within and without the 

 city seem almost incredible. Among 

 these may be mentioned those of Cicero, 

 Sallust, and Lucullus. Plutarch thus 

 speaks of the Lucullian gardens : "I 

 give no higher name to his sumptuous 

 buildings, porticos and baths, still less to 

 his paintings and sculptures, and all his 

 industry about these curiosities, which 

 he collected with vast expense, lavishly 

 bestowing all the wealth and treasure 

 which he got in the war upon them, in- 

 somuch that even now, with all the ad- 

 2 17 



