278 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 17 17. 



there was found a coin of Posthumus; and in the ground dug for the founda- 

 tion of a dwelling house, a coin of Constantine's. 



From the nearness of the bath, it may reasonably be concluded that the 

 pavement was neither a part of a temple, nor for a place of justice : the con- 

 tinuation of the foundations every way to be traced from it, and what was last 

 discovered, are rather an argument it was an apartment of a magnificent 

 palace. 



Pliny (Sect. Hist. 1. 36, c. 25) supposed that these lithostrota, or tessellated 

 pavements, had their origin in Greece : but perhaps the Grecians borrowed 

 their patterns from Asia : for from the book of Esther, (ch. 1, v. 5) we learn, 

 there was a most royal banquet at Suza, on a lithostroton (so the Septuagint 

 has it) of costly stones, 400 years before the time of Sylla, wfio brought them 

 first into Italy. Josephus (against Apion, 1. 2) affirms, that the Grecian laws, 

 learning and arts were fetched from Asia : and indeed when we reflect on the 

 antiquity of the Levitic law ; the pyramids of Egypt ; the temple of Solomon ; 

 the walls and palaces of Babylon ; and the sumptuous remains of Palmyra and 

 Persepolis ; we have no reason to reckon the Grecians authors, but rather good 

 imitator* of those early examples of learning and arts they had to follow. 



When Quinctus Cicero accompanied Caesar, the second time he invaded 

 Britain, his brother Tully had the oversight of some buildings he had appointed 

 to be made in the Villa Manliana at Arcano : and in a letter sent into Britain, 

 Tully (Cic. ad Quinct. Frat. 1. 3, ep. 1.) informs Quinctus, that he was well 

 pleased with the seat, and the more so, because the pavimented piazza was 

 magnificent ; that the pavement seemed to be exactly well made : that he 

 had directed some chambers to be altered, because he did not approve of them : 

 that in the bathing apartment, he had removed the sweating room into another 

 corner of the apodyterium. And afterwards in the same letter makes mention 

 of such another work, which was in hand for him in the city also. Again, 

 about the time Quinctus returned out of Britain, and was fixed with the legion 

 he presided over, in winter quarters among the Nervii (of whom Cassar makes 

 mention in his Commentaries ; Tully (ib. epist. 3) takes notice of a pavement 

 that was making for himself also. It is hinted by Varro (de Re rust. 1. 3), that 

 a Lithostroton was one of the members of a complete villa : Varro was 80 years 

 old when his books de Re rustica were composed : Tully was somewhat more 

 than 50 when the above cited epistles were written; Caesar when a general, 

 (in Suet. Tranq. Caes. cap. 46) made the tesserae and sectilia for pavements, to 

 be part of his baggage ; and Vitruvius, (1. 7> cap. 5) cotemporary with these 

 three, calls the Lithostrota, Principia Expolitionum ; which make it evident 

 that these floors were held in great esteem. From the whole we may observe. 



