All this education was for the upper and middle classes, and for occasional bright boys from the lower classes who found some wealthy patron. Little was done toward dispelling the dense ignorance of the masses.

D. ARCHITECTURE.1

520. Characteristics.

art.

With the Early Empire it takes on its distinctive character. To the Greek columns it adds the noble Roman arch,

with its modification, the dome. As compared with Greek architecture it has more massive grandeur and is more ornate. The Romans commonly used the rich Corinthian column instead of the simpler Doric or Ionic (§ 127).

521. Famous Buildings and Types. The most famous building of the Augustan Age is the Pantheon, "shrine of all saints and temple of

1 Ferguson's Ancient and Modern Architecture; Inge, ch. v; Thomas, ch. iii; Boissier's Rome and Pompeii; Dyer's Pompeii; Lanciani's Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries and The Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome. In the absence of such works, articles on architecture in good encyclopaedias will be found useful.

all gods," built in the Campus Martius by the minister Agrippa.1 It is a circular structure 132 feet in diameter and of the same height, surmounted by a majestic dome that originally flashed with tiles of bronze. The interior is broadly flooded with light from an aperture in the dome 26 feet in diameter. The inside walls were formed of splendid columns of yellow marble, with gleaming white capitals, supporting noble arches, upon which again rested more pillars and another row of arches - up to

the base of the dome. Under the arches in pillared recesses stood the statues of the gods of all religions; for this grand temple was symbolic of the grander toleration and unity of the Roman world. Time has dealt gently with it, and almost alone of the buildings of its day it has lasted to ours.2 The Coliseum was begun by Vespasian and finished by Domitian. It is a vast stone amphitheater (two theaters, face to face) for wild beast

1 Agrippa was an early friend of Augustus and a faithful assistant through his whole life. He was an able soldier and an ardent builder. In his patronage of art and architecture he filled a place like that of Maecenas in literature (§ 475). Agrippa's generalship won the battle of Actium. He became the son-in-law of Augustus, and, except for his death shortly before that of the Emperor, he would probably have succeeded to his power.

2 Read the picture in Byron's Childe Harold, canto iv.

TRAJAN'S COLUMN TO-DAY.

shows and games. It covers six acres, and the walls rise 150 feet. It is said to have seated eighty thousand spectators. For centuries in the Middle Ages its ruins were used as a quarry for the palaces of Roman nobles, but its huge size has prevented its destruction.

A favorite application of the arch was the triumphal arch, adorned with sculptures and covered with inscriptions, spanning a street, as if it were a city gate. Among the more famous structures of this kind in Rome were the arches of Titus, Trajan, Antoninus, and, later, of Constantine (see pages 433, 474).

The Romans erected also splendid monumental columns. The finest surviving example is Trajan's Column, one hundred feet high, circled with spiral bands of sculpture containing twenty-five hundred human figures. It commemorated and illustrated Trajan's Dacian expedition (§ 487).

522. Roman Basilicas and the Later Christian Architecture. One other kind of building must have special mention. A little before the Empire, the Romans adopted the Greek basilica 2 and soon made it a favorite form of building for the law

courts.

The general plan was that of a great oblong hall, its length some two times its breadth, with a circular raised apse at the end, where sat the numerous judges. The hall itself was divided by two long rows of pillars into three parts running from the entrance to the apsè-a central nave and two aisles, one each side of the nave. Sometimes there were double rows of pillars, making two aisles on each side. The nave was left open up to the

1 Read the description in Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, bk. i, ch. xii.

2 So called from the hall at Athens where the basileus archon (king archon) heard cases at law involving religious questions.

lofty roof, but above the side aisles there were galleries shut off by a parapet, which supported a row of elevated pillars. were for the general public.

These galleries

The Christians found this building admirably adapted for their worship. After the conversion of the Empire, numerous basilicas were converted

INTERIOR VIEW OF TRAJAN'S BASILICA, as restored by Canina.

into churches, and for centuries all ecclesiastical buildings had this general plan. With slight changes, it grew into the plan of the medieval cathedral.

SPECIAL REPORTS.-The Roman house; the Roman villa; mosaic pavements; excavations at Pompeii.

E. LITERATURE.1

Literature plays so small a part in Roman life until just before the Empire, that it has not been needful to mention it until now. To grasp the literary conditions under the Empire, however, it is desirable to survey the whole field. The brief outline given here is designed only for reading and reference, not for careful study. If the teacher likes, it can be discussed in class, with open books.

Rome had no literature until the

523. Before the Age of Cicero. middle of the third century B.C. Then the influence of her conquest of Magna Graecia began to be felt. Livius Andronicus, a Greek slave from Tarentum, introduced the drama at Rome; but his plays, and those of his successor Naevius, were mainly translations from older Greek writers.

Ennius, also from Magna Graecia, comes in the period just after the Second Punic War. He translated Greek dramas, but his chief work was an epic on the legendary history of Rome.

Comedy was represented by two greater names, Plautus (of Italian origin) and Terence (a slave from Carthage). Both modeled their plays upon those of the Greek Menander (§ 236). Plautus (254-184 B.C.) is rollicking but gross.

elegant.

Terence (a generation later) is more refined and

To the period between the Second and Third Punic Wars belong also the Origines of Cato (an early history of Rome) and his writings on Agriculture, an earlier history by Fabius Pictor, and the great history by the Greek Polybius, all of whom have been referred to before in this volume.

524. The part of the first century B.C. preceding Augustus is sometimes known as the Age of Cicero, from the name that made its chief glory. Cicero remains the foremost orator of Rome and the chief master of Latin prose.

Two great poets belong to the period: Lucretius the Epicurean, a Roman knight, who reaches a sublimity never attained by other Latin poets; and Catullus from Cisalpine Gaul, whose lyrics are unsurpassed for delicacy, and who attacked Caesar with bitter invective, to meet gentle forgiveness.

History is represented by the concise, graphic, lucid narrative of

1 Mackail, Latin Literature; or Cruttwell, Roman Literature.