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INTRODUCTION 



N the old Roman Via Cassia, once one of the most 

 important highways of Europe, and northward beyond 

 the bridge (of which the central part is 2000 years old), a 

 road, corresponding more or less to the ancient Via 

 Flaminia, leads to Prima Porta and to all that remains of 

 the Villa Livia. Here the Empress Livia, second wife of 

 Octavianus Augustus, 1 had a summer retreat whence she 

 could see, as one can see to-day, a wonderful view of the 

 Tiber, Rome in the distance, and the Campagna stretch- 

 ing away to the blue Sabine Hills. Nothing remains of 

 this villa save the spacious ' garden room,' with its barrel- 

 vaulted roof and the walls, adorned all round with a 

 singularly beautiful fresco representing a scented garden, 

 possibly the Empress' favourite garden. Although painted 

 1900 years ago this wonderful fresco is in an exceptionally 

 good state of preservation, for it is no ordinary fresco 

 painting, with the colour laid on the wet plaster. The 

 colour was worked in with wax, and it is probable 

 that it was by no less an artist than Ludius, famous, 

 according to Livy, in the days of Augustus. This no 

 one can say for certain, but the fresco is the work of a 

 master hand. Here we have depicted for us in arresting 

 beauty an early morning scene in a scented garden of 

 well-nigh two thousand years ago, and its fascination 



1 The ' Caesar Augustus' of S. Luke 11. I. 



