was for continuing his career of ambition.--Eutrop. 1. 53.

[149] The Tiber has been always remarkable for the frequency of its
inundations and the ravages they occasioned, as remarked by Pliny, iii.
5. Livy mentions several such occurrences, as well as one extensive
fire, which destroyed great part of the city.

[150] The well-known saying of Augustus, recorded by Suetonius, that he
found a city of bricks, but left it of marble, has another version given
it by Dio, who applies it to his consolidation of the government, to the
following effect: "That Rome, which I found built of mud, I shall leave
you firm as a rock."--Dio. lvi. p. 589.

[151] The same motive which engaged Julius Caesar to build a new forum,
induced Augustus to erect another. See his life c. xx. It stood behind
the present churches of St. Adrian and St. Luke, and was almost parallel
with the public forum, but there are no traces of it remaining. The
temple of Mars Ultor, adjoining, has been mentioned before, p. 84.

[152] The temple of the Palatine Apollo stood, according to Bianchini, a
little beyond the triumphal arch of Titus. It appears, from the reverse
of a medal of Augustus, to have been a rotondo, with an open portico,
something like the temple of Vesta. The statues of the fifty daughters
of Danae surrounded the portico; and opposite to them were their husbands
on horseback. In this temple were preserved some of the finest works of
the Greek artists, both in sculpture and painting. Here, in the presence
of Augustus, Horace's Carmen Seculare was sung by twenty-seven noble
youths and as many virgins. And here, as our author informs us,
Augustus, towards the end of his reign, often assembled the senate.

[153] The library adjoined the temple, and was under the protection of
Apollo. Caius Julius Hegenus, a freedman of Augustus, and an eminent
grammarian, was the librarian.

[154] The three fluted Corinthian columns of white marble, which stand
on the declivity of the Capitoline hill, are commonly supposed to be the
remains of the temple of Jupiter Tonans, erected by Augustus. Part of
the frieze and cornice are attached to them, which with the capitals of
the columns are finely wrought. Suetonius tells us on what occasion this
temple was erected. Of all the epithets given to Jupiter, none conveyed
more terror to superstitious minds than that of the Thunderer--

Coelo tonantem credidimus Jovem
Regnare.--Hor. 1. iii.