At last the sun dials that stand in every open spot around the thermæ indicate that the afternoon is well spent. From the laconicum the refreshed bathers return to the milder tepidarium, to recover from the shock of the intense heat and to resume their garments. Then the crowds all hasten out again. Some of the privately owned bathing-places may remain open all night, but the great thermæ, lately the scene of such boisterous life, stand vast, dark, and empty. =314. The Great Porticoes along the Campus Martius. The Park System towards the Tiber.=--The public baths are not the only places for daily enjoyment which a solicitous government has provided for the quirites. The fora are limited and the city proper is very closely built, but around its outskirts and especially to the north and west there is a genuinely magnificent park system. The beginnings of this are reached after you go through the Forum of Trajan and follow along “Broadway.” Here are the great porticoes and promenades of the Sæpta Julia. The famous stores (see p. 228) are mostly on the east side of the avenue verging off towards the slopes of the Quirinal, but the west side, going clear across the broad Campus Martius to the Tiber, is more strictly public property. This wide level area formed by the great bend in the river has long since ceased to be a mere parade ground for the army. There are broad masses of greenery, grateful shade trees, spreading over neatly graveled walks, as well as literally miles of lofty porticoes stretching in every direction and giving comfortable places for strolling in bad weather. The greatest of these porticoes is, of course, the long Sæpta Julia, but there is a succession of others, so that you can almost wander from the Column of Trajan across the Campus clear to the Ælian Bridge completely defiant of any rain. In the open pleasure grounds there are always people exercising without the restraints inevitable at the thermæ, playing ball, wrestling, exhibiting horses and chariots, as well as very many children chasing about with hoops. If legionaries are passing through the city, their leathern tents probably stand here, and here, too, can be held all the vast open-air pageants which cannot accommodate themselves inside any building.