THE FOUNTAIN. 



degree of preservation which evinces both the skill of the ar- 

 chite6l, and the solidity of the materials employed in its con- 

 stru6lion. Public utility was not the sole obje6t of these mag- 

 nificent undertakings, in many instances of which vanity and 

 diversion had a predominant share. The water destined for 

 those edifices of superb archite6ture, the baths and nymphcea, 

 was conveyed to them by well-formed pipes, at the same time 

 that different fountains were made to play, so as to combine a 

 refreshing coolness with an agreeable perspe6live. Julius Ca- 

 pitolinus makes mention of the nyviphcea fabricated at Rome by 

 Gordian, and dwells with particular pleasure on the one con- 

 stru6led by Clearcus, prefe6l of Constantinople, in the forum 

 of Theodosius, the water for the supply of which was brought 

 from the magnificent aquedu6t built by the emperor Valens. 

 Socrates, in his Ecclesiastical History, extols the Aquileian 

 baths in the above city, which were destroyed by fire in the year \ 

 of Christ 430, and in which art displayed all its graces and 

 beauties. ^ 



Even individuals displayed a rare magnificence in the foun- 

 tains and reservoirs of water they had in their houses, as well 

 in the city as in their country retirements. Pliny, in his cele- 

 brated epistle to Apollinaris, gives a most pompous descrip- 

 tion of his Tuscan villa, which was embellished by a profusion 

 of fountains, cascades, &c. ; and Cicero speaks of the con- 

 duits, stiled Euripi and Nili, provided with lofty arches, that 

 conveyed, from great distances to the houses of the grandees, 

 the immense masses of water distributed in the piscinae, foun- 

 tains, and lakes, which a boundless vanity had multiplied. 



Other nations, nobly vying in opulence with ancient Rome, 

 have likewise excelled in the erection of these monuments, in 



which 



