The Student's Roman Empire: A History of the Roman Empire from Its Foundation to the Death of Marcus Aurelius [27 B.C.-180 A.D.]

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J. Murray, 1900 - Rome - 638 pages

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Page 534 - What more dost thou want when thou hast done a man a service? Art thou not content that thou hast done something conformable to thy nature, and dost thou seek to be paid for it, just as if the eye demanded a recompense for seeing, or the feet for walking?
Page 302 - Pilatum supplicio adfectus erat ; repressaque in praesens exitiabilis superstitio rursum erumpebat, non modo per ludaeam, originem eius mali, sed per urbem etiam, quo cuncta undique atrocia aut pudenda confluunt celebranturque.
Page 622 - The outside of the edifice was encrusted with marble and decorated with statues. The slopes of the vast concave, which formed the inside, were filled and surrounded with sixty or eighty rows of seats of marble likewise, covered with cushions, and capable of receiving with ease about fourscore thousand spectators.
Page 622 - Nothing was omitted which in any respect could be subservient to the convenience and pleasure of the spectators. They were protected from the sun and rain by an ample canopy, occasionally drawn over their heads. The air was continually refreshed by the playing of fountains, and profusely impregnated by the grateful scent of aromatics.
Page 446 - Soon afterwards the crime, as it often happens, by being pursued, became more diffusive, and a variety of matters of fact were specified to me. An information, without a name, was put into my hands, containing a list of many persons, who deny that they are, or ever were Christians ; for, repeating the form of invocation after me, they called upon the gods, and offered incense, and made libations to your image...
Page 622 - In the centre of the edifice, the arena, or stage, was strewed with the finest sand, and successively assumed the most different forms. At one moment it seemed to rise out of the earth, like the garden of the Hesperides, and was afterwards broken into the rocks and caverns of Thrace. The subterraneous pipes conveyed an inexhaustible supply of water, and what had just before appeared a level plain might be suddenly converted into a wide lake, covered with armed vessels, and replenished with the monsters...
Page 622 - In the decoration of these scenes, the Roman emperors displayed their wealth and liberality ; and we read on various occasions that the whole furniture of the amphitheatre consisted either of silver, or of gold, or of amber. The poet who describes the games of Carinus, in the character of a shepherd attracted to the capital by the fame of their magnificence, affirms that the nets designed as a defence against the wild beasts were of gold wire ; that the...
Page 622 - Sixty-four vomitories (for by that name the doors were very aptly distinguished) poured forth the immense multitude ; and the entrances, passages, and staircases, were contrived with such exquisite skill, that each person, whether of the senatorial, the equestrian, or the plebeian order, arrived at his destined place without trouble or confusion.5 Nothingwas omitted which, in any respect, could be subservient to the convenience and pleasure of the spectators.
Page 447 - I had prohibited all public assemblies. From these circumstances I thought it more necessary to try to gain the truth, even by torture, from two women who were said to officiate at their worship. But I could discover only an obstinate kind of superstition, carried to great excess.
Page 447 - ... before it was light to sing alternately among themselves hymns to Christ as to a god, binding themselves by oath not to be guilty of any wickedness, not to steal nor to rob, not to commit adultery, nor break their faith when plighted, nor to deny the deposits in their hands whenever called upon to restore them. These ceremonies performed, they usually departed, and came together again to take a repast, the meat of which was innocent and eaten promiscuously...

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