FLAX, OR LINE. 203 



that the sails of the ship in which Antony 

 and Cleopatra came to Actium, were dyed 

 purple. 



Julius Caesar caused the Forum at Rome 

 to be covered with fine curtains ; as also 

 the whole of the principal street called 

 Sacra, from his own dwelling to the cliff 1 of 

 the Capitol. This sumptuous sight, says 

 Pliny, was beheld with great wonder and 

 admiration. 



Marcellus, during his iEdileship, upon the 

 calends (or first) of August, caused the Ro- 

 man Forum to be hung and canopied with 

 curtains, that those who came to plead at 

 the bar might stand under shade. " What a 

 change," says Pliny, " since the days of Cato 

 the Censor, who advised that the said Forum 

 should be paved over with caltrops, to keep 

 away the lawyers and busy pleaders." 



Nero caused the amphitheatre to be co- 

 vered with curtains of a sky-blue, spangled 

 with stars. 



We now see the rustics of our own country 

 enjoying their pipe and their ale beneath the 

 linen canopy in a rural fair, as proud of their 

 liberty as the Eastern monarchs were of their 

 temples, or the Romans of their dictatorship. 



