.)<>-! TEMPLE OF SANCTA SOPHIA. 



perpendicular. The cause of (his very extraordinary inclination 

 is supposed to be a want of care in the la \ing the foundation. 

 I p.in which subject the reader may consult Mr. Tappon, \\ho has 

 given a very interesting description of this town in his " Archi. 

 tirfure of France and Italy.'-' 



Of far higher antiquity is the celebrated column of Trajan at 

 Rome, which we have selected for representation from an infinite 

 multiplicity of superb remains which yet mark the universal sway 

 which the mistress of the world once exercised. This was erected 

 together with a long list of other public and magnificent edifices by 

 the cuiperor whose name it bears ; but it is regarded as his master- 

 piece. It stands in the middle of a square, to form which he le- 

 velled a hill of a hundred and forty feet high, and intended it 

 both as a tomb for himself, and to show the height of the hill he 

 had thus levelled, as appears from the inscription on its base, bear- 

 ing date the seventeenth year of his tribunitial power, equivalent to 

 the year of Christ, 114. The emperor Constantius, two centuries 

 and a half afterwards, regarded this column and square as the 

 most magnificent edifice by which Rome was even at that time em. 

 bellished. 



Nor can we avoid, while thus treading on classic ground, glan. 

 cing at the far-famed Colosseum or amphitheatre, the stately re. 

 mains of which are to be seen in our own day, commenced by 

 Vespasian, and finished by Titus, in the eighteenth year of the 

 Christian ajra. Upon its dedication, by this last emperor, on ac. 

 count of its completion, he gratuitously indulged the Roman peo- 

 ple with public spectacles of the utmost magnificence, which lasted 

 more than a hundred days. According to Dio Cassius, this sump, 

 tuous building was creeled in what then constituted the heart of 

 the city ; but such are the changes which Rome has since under- 

 gone, that its ruins are in the present day in the outskirts. 



\Ammiam. Dio. Editor. 



SECTION XIX. 



Temple of Sancta Sophia, at Constantinople. 



CONSTANTINE designed the metropolis that was built by himself 

 and still bears his name, as the rival of Rdtbe ; and his successors 

 pursued the same intention. With this vie\v, Justinian in.the sixth 

 century, erected the venerable and magnificent monument before 



