; and about this time she became
so enormously wealthy that vast sums of money were expended, both
publicly and privately, in the erection of monuments, many of which
remain to the present day, more or less altered. The first marble
temple in Rome was built by the Consul Q. Metellus Macedonicus, who
died B.C. 115. Roman architecture from this period began to show a
wonderful diversity in the objects to which it was directed,--a
circumstance perhaps as interesting as its great scientific and
structural advance upon all preceding styles. In the earlier styles
temples, tombs, and palaces were the only buildings deemed worthy of
architectural treatment; but under the Romans baths, theatres,
amphitheatres, basilicas, aqueducts, triumphal arches, &c., were
carried out just as elaborately as the temples of the gods.

It was under the Emperors that the full magnificence of Roman
architectural display was reached. The famous boast of Augustus, that
he found Rome of brick and left her of marble, gives expression in a
few words to what was the great feature of his reign. Succeeding
emperors lavished vast sums on buildings and public works of all
kinds; and thus it comes to pass that though the most destructive of
all agencies, hostile invasions, conflagrations, and long periods of
neglect, have each in turn done their utmost to destroy the vestiges
of Imperial Rome, there still remain fragments, and in one or two
instances whole monuments, enough to make Rome, after Athens, the
richest store of classic architectural antiquities in the world.

But it was not in Rome only that great buildings were erected. The
whole known civilised world was under Roman dominion, and wherever a
centre of government or even a flourishing town existed there sprang
up the residences of the dominant race, and their places of business,
public worship, and public amusement. Consequently, we find in our own
country, and in France, Spain, Germany, Italy, North Africa, and
Egypt--in short, in all the countries where Roman rule was
established--examples of temples, amphitheatres, theatres, triumphal
arches, and dwelling-houses, some of them of great interest and
occasionally in admirable preservation.

FOOTNOTE:

[19] The story of the Tarquins probably points to a period when the
chief supremacy at Rome was in the hands of an Etruscan family, and is
interesting for this reason.

[Illustration: FIG. 124.--"INCANTADA" IN SALONICA.]

CHAP