nd other articles found in them; and such information upon
the domestic manners of the ancient Italians as may seem requisite to
the illustration of these remains. This branch of our subject is not
less interesting, nor less extensive than the other. Temples and
theatres, in equal preservation, and of greater splendor than those at
Pompeii, may be seen in many places; but towards acquainting us with
the habitations, the private luxuries and elegancies of ancient life,
not all the scattered fragments of domestic architecture which exist
elsewhere have done so much as this city, with its fellow-sufferer,
Herculaneum.

Towards the last years of the republic, the Romans naturalized the
arts of Greece among themselves; and Grecian architecture came into
fashion at Rome, as we may learn, among other sources, from the
letters of Cicero to Atticus, which bear constant testimony to the
strong interest which he took in ornamenting his several houses, and
mention Cyrus, his Greek architect. At this time immense fortunes were
easily made from the spoils of new conquests, or by peculation and
maladministration of subject provinces, and the money thus ill and
easily acquired was squandered in the most lavish luxury. One favorite
mode of indulgence was in splendor of building. Lucius Cassius was the
first who ornamented his house with columns of foreign marble; they
were only six in number, and twelve feet high. He was soon surpassed
by Scaurus, who placed in his house columns of the black marble called
Lucullian, thirty-eight feet high, and of such vast and unusual weight
that the superintendent of sewers, as we are told by Pliny,[2] took
security for any injury which might happen to the works under his
charge, before they were suffered to be conveyed along the streets.
Another prodigal, by name Mamurra, set the example of lining his rooms
with slabs of marble. The best estimate, however, of the growth of
architectural luxury about this time may be found in what we are told
by Pliny, that, in the year of Rome 676, the house of Lepidus was the
finest in the city, and thirty-five years later it was not the
hundredth.[3] We may mention, as an example of the lavish expenditure
of the Romans, that Domitius Ahenobarbus offered for the house of
Crassus a sum amounting to near $242,500, which was refused by the
owner.[4] Nor were they less extravagant in their country houses. We
may again quote Cicero, whose attachment to his Tusculan and Fo