travels,
that a man might jump down it now and not do himself much harm: the
truth is, its present appearance is not formidable; but I believe it is
not less than forty feet high at this moment, though the ground is
greatly raised.

Of all things at Rome the Cloaca is acknowledged most ancient; a very
great and a very useful work it is, of Ancus Martius, fourth king of
Rome. The just and zealous detestation of Christians towards Pontius
Pilate, is here comically expressed by their placing his palace just at
its exit into the Tyber; and one who pretended to doubt of its being his
residence, would be thought the worse of among them.

I recollect nothing else built before the days of the Emperors, who, for
the most part, were such disgracers of human nature and human reason,
that one would almost wish their names expunged, and all their deeds
obliterated from the face of the globe, which could ever tamely submit
to such truly wretched rulers.

The Capitol, built by Tarquin, stood till the days of Marius and Sylla
it seems; that last-named Dictator erected a new one, which was
overthrown in the contests about Vitellius; Vespasian set it up again,
but his performance was burned soon after its author's death; and this
we contemplate now, is one of the works of Domitian, and celebrated by
Martial of course. Adrian however added one room to it, dedicated to
Egyptian deities alone: as a matter of mere taste I fancy, like our
introducing Chinese temples into the garden; but many hold that it was
very serious and superstitious regard, inspired by the victory Canopus
won over the Persian divinity of fire, by the subtlety of the Egyptian
priests, who, to defend their idol from that all-subduing element,
wisely set upon his head a vessel filled with water, and having
previously made the figure of Terra Cotta hollow, and full of water,
with holes bored at the bottom stopped only by wax to keep it in, a
seeming miracle extinguished the flames, as soon as approached by
Canopus; whose triumph was of course proclaimed, and he respected
accordingly. The figure was a monkey, whose sitting attitude favoured
the imposture: our antiquaries tell us the story after _Suidas_.

As cruelty is more detestable than fraud, one feels greater disgust at
the sight of captive monarchs without hands and arms, than even these
idolatrous brutalities inspire; and no greater proof can be obtained of
Roman barbarity, than the statues one is shewn here of ki