they reared their heads in the splendor of unsullied beauty.

[See The Pantheon: The severe simplicity of the Pantheon]

The satisfaction which Constantius had received from this journey
excited him to the generous emulation of bestowing on the Romans some
memorial of his own gratitude and munificence. His first idea was to
imitate the equestrian and colossal statue which he had seen in the
Forum of Trajan; but when he had maturely weighed the difficulties of
the execution, he chose rather to embellish the capital by the gift of
an Egyptian obelisk. In a remote but polished age, which seems to have
preceded the invention of alphabetical writing, a great number of these
obelisks had been erected, in the cities of Thebes and Heliopolis,
by the ancient sovereigns of Egypt, in a just confidence that the
simplicity of their form, and the hardness of their substance, would
resist the injuries of time and violence. Several of these extraordinary
columns had been transported to Rome by Augustus and his successors,
as the most durable monuments of their power and victory; but there
remained one obelisk, which, from its size or sanctity, escaped for a
long time the rapacious vanity of the conquerors. It was designed by
Constantine to adorn his new city; and, after being removed by his
order from the pedestal where it stood before the Temple of the Sun
at Heliopolis, was floated down the Nile to Alexandria. The death of
Constantine suspended the execution of his purpose, and this obelisk was
destined by his son to the ancient capital of the empire. A vessel of
uncommon strength and capaciousness was provided to convey this enormous
weight of granite, at least a hundred and fifteen feet in length, from
the banks of the Nile to those of the Tyber. The obelisk of Constantius
was landed about three miles from the city, and elevated, by the efforts
of art and labor, in the great Circus of Rome.

The departure of Constantius from Rome was hastened by the alarming
intelligence of the distress and danger of the Illyrian provinces. The
distractions of civil war, and the irreparable loss which the Roman
legions had sustained in the battle of Mursa, exposed those countries,
almost without defence, to the light cavalry of the Barbarians; and
particularly to the inroads of the Quadi, a fierce and powerful nation,
who seem to have exchanged the institutions of Germany for the arms and
military arts of their Sarmatian allies. The garrisons of