THE VILLAS OF FRASCATI. 
147 
that the descending water could be utilised to the greatest possible advantage. In addition to all 
that taste and love of luxury could do, Lucullus maintained here his celebrated library, to which 
Cicero often had recourse. Here he gave magnificent banquets, with delicacies brought from all 
parts of the known world ; here, perhaps, he planted those cherry trees which he was the first 
to introduce into Europe, bringing them from Cerasus in Pontus. At his death his superb 
villa came into the hands of the Flavii. In the first century it was part of the Imperial domains 
and was restored and embellished by Domitian, and though the latter is said to have loved best 
his villa at Castel Gandolfo, numerous inscriptions, lead labels and pieces of sculpture show 
the care he bestowed on the adornment of this retreat at Frascati. 
What strikes us most as we examine the sites or read descriptions of the old classic 
villas is the lavish scale on which their halls and arrangements are planned. “ One 
loses oneself,” says M. Gaston Boissier, writing of Pliny, “ in the enumeration 
which he makes of his apartments. He has dining-rooms of various sizes for all 
154. — ILEX AVENUE, VILLA BARBERINI, CASTEL GONDOLFO, NEAR FRASCATI. 
occasions. He dines in this one when he is alone ; the other serves him to receive 
his friends in ; the third is the largest, and can contain the crowd of his invited guests. 
This one faces the sea, and while taking one’s meal one beholds the waves breaking against the 
W'alls ; another is buried in the grounds, and in it one enjoys on all sides a view of the fields 
and of the scenes of rustic life. Nowadays one bedchamber usually satisfies the most exacting ; 
it would be difficult to say how' many Pliny’s villa contained. There are not only bedrooms 
for every want, but for every caprice. In some one can behold the sea from all the windows, 
in others one hears without seeing it. This room is in the form of an abside, and, by large 
openings, receives the sun at every hour of the day ; the other is obscure and cool, and only lets 
in just so much light that one may not be in total darkness. If the master desires to enliven 
himself, he remains in this open room, w'hence he can see all that passes outside ; if he desires to 
meditate he has a room just suited for the purpose, where he can shut himself up, and the 
apartment is so arranged that no noise ever reaches his ears. Let us add that these rooms are 
