o decay. Herod restored
its ancient beauty and magnificence. Nor was the liberality of that
illustrious citizen confined to the walls of Athens. The most splendid
ornaments bestowed on the temple of Neptune in the Isthmus, a theatre at
Corinth, a stadium at Delphi, a bath at Thermopylae, and an aqueduct
at Canusium in Italy, were insufficient to exhaust his treasures.
The people of Epirus, Thessaly, Euboea, Boeotia, and Peloponnesus,
experienced his favors; and many inscriptions of the cities of Greece
and Asia gratefully style Herodes Atticus their patron and benefactor.
[70]

[Footnote 69: Aulus Gellius, in Noct. Attic. i. 2, ix. 2, xviii. 10,
xix. 12. Phil ostrat. p. 564.]

[Footnote 691: The Odeum served for the rehearsal of new comedies as well
as tragedies; they were read or repeated, before representation, without
music or decorations, &c. No piece could be represented in the theatre
if it had not been previously approved by judges for this purpose.
The king of Cappadocia who restored the Odeum, which had been burnt by
Sylla, was Araobarzanes. See Martini, Dissertation on the Odeons of the
Ancients, Leipsic. 1767, p. 10--91.--W.]

[Footnote 70: See Philostrat. l. ii. p. 548, 560. Pausanias, l. i. and
vii. 10. The life of Herodes, in the xxxth volume of the Memoirs of the
Academy of Inscriptions.]

In the commonwealths of Athens and Rome, the modest simplicity of
private houses announced the equal condition of freedom; whilst the
sovereignty of the people was represented in the majestic edifices
designed to the public use; [71] nor was this republican spirit totally
extinguished by the introduction of wealth and monarchy. It was in works
of national honor and benefit, that the most virtuous of the emperors
affected to display their magnificence. The golden palace of Nero
excited a just indignation, but the vast extent of ground which had been
usurped by his selfish luxury was more nobly filled under the succeeding
reigns by the Coliseum, the baths of Titus, the Claudian portico, and
the temples dedicated to the goddess of Peace, and to the genius of
Rome. [72] These monuments of architecture, the property of the Roman
people, were adorned with the most beautiful productions of Grecian
painting and sculpture; and in the temple of Peace, a very curious
library was open to the curiosity of the learned. [721] At a small distance
from thence was situated the Forum of Trajan. It was surrounded by a
lofty portico, i