y could see it, and ordered that the
building be called "[Greek: abaton]."

16. Since such very powerful kings have not disdained walls built of
brick, although with their revenues and from booty they might often have
had them not only of masonry or dimension stone but even of marble, I
think that one ought not to reject buildings made of brick-work,
provided that they are properly "topped." But I shall explain why this
kind of structure should not be used by the Roman people within the
city, not omitting the reasons and the grounds for them.

17. The laws of the state forbid that walls abutting on public property
should be more than a foot and a half thick. The other walls are built
of the same thickness in order to save space. Now brick walls, unless
two or three bricks thick, cannot support more than one story; certainly
not if they are only a foot and a half in thickness. But with the
present importance of the city and the unlimited numbers of its
population, it is necessary to increase the number of dwelling-places
indefinitely. Consequently, as the ground floors could not admit of so
great a number living in the city, the nature of the case has made it
necessary to find relief by making the buildings high. In these tall
piles reared with piers of stone, walls of burnt brick, and partitions
of rubble work, and provided with floor after floor, the upper stories
can be partitioned off into rooms to very great advantage. The
accommodations within the city walls being thus multiplied as a result
of the many floors high in the air, the Roman people easily find
excellent places in which to live.

18. It has now been explained how limitations of building space
necessarily forbid the employment of brick walls within the city. When
it becomes necessary to use them outside the city, they should be
constructed as follows in order to be perfect and durable. On the top of
the wall lay a structure of burnt brick, about a foot and a half in
height, under the tiles and projecting like a coping. Thus the defects
usual in these walls can be avoided. For when the tiles on the roof are
broken or thrown down by the wind so that rainwater can leak through,
this burnt brick coating will prevent the crude brick from being
damaged, and the cornice-like projection will throw off the drops beyond
the vertical face, and thus the walls, though of crude brick structure,
will be preserved intact.

19. With regard to burnt brick, nobody can t