APARTMENT IN THE PALACE OF SATURNINUS AT ROME.

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 favourite mode of indulgence was in splendour 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, 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. 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 48,500l., which was refused by the owner.

TITUS ANDRONICUS.

ACT IV. SCENE II.

Dem.

ROME.-Room in the Palace of SATURNINUS.

Let's see;

AARON, CHIRON, and DEMETrius.

What's there? A scroll; and written round about?

Integer vitæ, scelerisque purus,

Non eget Mauri jaculis, nec arcu.

Chi. O, 't is a verse in Horace; I know it well:

I read it in the grammar long ago.

Aar. Ay, just!-a verse in Horace :—right, you have it. (Aside.) Now, what a thing it is to be an ass!

Here's no sound jest! the old man hath found their guilt;

And sends the weapons wrapp'd about with lines,

That wound, beyond their feeling, to the quick.

But were our witty empress well afoot,
She would applaud Andronicus' conceit.
But let her rest in her unrest awhile.—
And now, young lords, was 't not a happy star
Led us to Rome, strangers, and, more than so,
Captives, to be advanced to this height?
It did me good, before the palace gate

To brave the tribune in his brother's hearing.