HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 5 



put it up myself. It cnntaiiis a very warm \\-intcr room [Ih'Uoca}}ii)ius\ one side of which looks 

 down the terrace, while the other has a view of tlie sea, and both h'e exposed to the sun , . . . ' 



The other of Pliny's villas, known as the Tusculan, is described hi his letter to ApoIIinaris. It 

 was his favourite \-illa, and whereas the Laurentine huuse was used in the modern sense of a villa in 

 the suburbs, this was intended more as a summer resort. It was divided into three principal parts. 

 First, the immediate surrounding of the house, including the hippodrome, surrounded by a grand 

 double avenue of plane-trees, and intended for equestrian exercises ; adjoining was the gesfafio^ a 

 place of repose where slaves carried their masters on litters, and the xysfiis, or flower garden. 

 Secondly was the labyrinth, w ith straight and curved walks, and thirdly, the Incus, or sacred wood, 



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' a relic of very ancient days, where there were temples dedicated to all the di\-initics of ancient 

 paganism. The description left by Plin)- is of great interest, and perliaps on this account we may be 

 excused for giving it here in full, though it has been often transcribed. ' My villa,' says Pliny, 'is so 

 advantageously situated that it commands a full view of all the country round ; \-et }-ou approach it by 

 so insensible a rise that yuu Hnd yourself upon an eminence without perceiving you ascended. Behind, 

 but at a great distance, stand the Apennine Mountains. In the calmest flays wc are refreshed b\' the 

 winds that bK)w- from thence, but so spent, as it were, by the long tract of land they travel over, that 

 they are entirely divested of all their strength and violence before the)- reach us. The exposition of 

 the principal front of tlie house is full south, and seems to Invite the afternoon sun In summer (but 

 somewhat earlier In winter) into a spacious and well-prupurtloned portico, consisting of several 

 members, particularly a porch built in the ancient manner. In the front of ihc portico Is a sort of 

 terrace, embellished with \-arIous figures and bounded with a box-hedge, from whence yuu descend 

 by an easy slope, adorned with the representation of diverse animals in box, answering alternately to 

 each other, Into a lawn overspread w\\\\ the soft — I had almost said the liquid —Acanthus : this is 

 surrounded by a walk enclosed with tonsile evergreens shaped into a variety of forms. Re\'ond it Is 

 the Gestatio, laid out in the form of a circu'^, ornamented in the middle with box cut in numberless 

 different figures, together with a plantation of shrubs, prevented b)- the shears from shootin<^- up too 

 high ; the whole is fenced In by a wall covered by box, rising hy different ranges to the top. On the 

 outside of the wall lies a meadow that owes as man\' beauties to nature as all I have been describin--^ 

 iviihlii does to art ; at lliu end of which are several other meadows and fields interspersed with thickets. 

 At the extremity of this portico stands a grand dining-room, which opens U2)on one end of the terrace 

 {xysfiis); as from the windows there is a very extensive prospect over the meadows up into the 

 countr)-, from whence you also have a view of the terrace and such parts of the house which project 

 forward, together with the woods enclosing the ancient hippodrome. Opposite, almost at tlie centre of 

 the p(jrtico, stands a square edifice which encompasses a small area, shaded by four plane-trees, In the 

 midst of which a fountain rises, froni whence the \\'atcr, running over the edges of a marble basin 

 gently refreshes the surrounding plane-trees and the \-erdure underneath them. . . . Tn the front of 

 these agreeable buildings lies a very spacious hippodrome, entirely open In the middle, by which 

 means the eye, upon your first entrance, takes In Its whole extent at one glance. It is encompassed 



