ARCHITECTURE. 77 
hill of this period. The ships in port were obliged to load with the rubbisu 
as a return freight. To this period also belongs the beginning of the so- 
called golden house of Nero, of which Severus and Celer were the architect 
and builder. It is difficult to form a just idea of the magnificence of this 
house, which embraced corn fields, meadows, vineyards, forests, and fish 
ponds, and in which stood the colossal iron statue of Nero 120 feet high. 
The interior of the building glowed with gold and precious stones, and 
there were banqueting halls, with ivory tables wound with flowers, and 
with ceilings pierced like sieves, in order to shower odors upon the guests. 
When Nero dedicated the completed house he said, “ That he had at length 
a home fit for a human being to live in.” The statuary Zenodorus cast the 
colossus of Nero. 
With Nero ended the Augustan family, and the emperors Galba, Otho, 
and Vitellius reigned too short a time to complete any important works. 
So much the more, however, was accomplished under the three next 
emperors of the family of Flavius. 
6. Vuspastan. The first great undertaking of this emperor in building was 
the often-projected re-construction of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, which 
was once more burned, and this time in the struggles of the followers of 
Vitellius with those of Flavius. Vespasian commenced the work with great zeal. 
He put his own hand to the work, in order to encourage the laborers, and 
the corner-stone was laid with great pomp. For the rest, according to the 
decrees of the augurs the new temple should in no manner differ from the 
old, except in the little greater height of the columns. But the building 
was not destined to remain a long time, for it was again burned under Titus, 
and, as we shall presently see, was rebuilt by Domitian. The golden house 
of Nero was for the greater part destroyed, and the remainder much changed. 
A second important building was the temple of Peace, whose form, how- 
ever, differed materially from that formerly in use. According to the 
remains it was long in form, with a wide nave in the middle supported by 
eight Corinthian marble columns 5 feet, 8 inches, 3 lines in thickness, and about 
57 feet, 1Linches high. Atthe sides were three deep spaces like chapels, and 
in the front-wall of the great aisle was the large niche for the temple 
statue. The temple, besides its chief entrance from the Coliseum, had also 
aside passage towards the modern street. We find more of the basilica 
form in this temple, and to such an extent, that these remains are sometimes 
called the Basilica of Constantine, which however they are not. A very 
beautiful architrave soffit of this temple is given in pl. 19, fig.27. Bramante, 
in his first plan of St. Peter’s, placed the Pantheon upon the Temple of Peace. 
In the interior of this temple rare works of art, and valuable objects of 
all kinds, even the state treasury and the money of private individuals were 
kept, sothat when it was burned in the time of Commodus the loss was 
incalculable. One of the colossal columns yet remains, and stands upon 
the place Santa Maria Maggiore. The height of the temple from the floor 
to the top of the arch was 112 feet, and this is probably the first instance 
of the great cross arch. This temple is also called the Temple of the Ceesars, 
from which we represent a capital (jig. 11). 
17 
