Nevertheless, this borrowing from Greece has not been slavish. Romans, if not great artists, are master adapters. Perhaps they have not invented the _arch_ and the _vault_,[6] but in any case they have utilized them in connection with the Greek system of columns to produce magnificent effects whereof Argos and Ephesus never dreamed. By concrete vaulting can be made those enormous substructures which sustain the great palaces, and again, the lofty domes of such splendid creations as the Pantheon. By the arches can be upheld the tiers of the Flavian Amphitheater, the pretentious company of theaters and circuses, and last but not least the long arrays of stately aqueducts which bring the great water supply so many miles to Rome. Underground also the arch system is upbearing the vast network of sewers which has redeemed the city from a quagmire. In the _fora_ and across many avenues are thrown in their turn the imposing _triumphal arches_, crowned with heroic statues or with prancing chariots which are unmatched by anything in Greece. Having taken in the generalities, it is now proper to go down from our viewpoint and plunge boldly into the vast city. The wise man should not, however, visit at first the Fora, the Palatine, and the other “show places” which officious guides here as everywhere are always glad to display to visitors. More helpful it is to examine at the outset certain typical streets first in a poor and next in a more aristocratic quarter, to enter the houses, and to penetrate the daily lives of the masses of the people. Then with better understanding can one approach the famous “Heart of Rome.” CHAPTER II STREETS AND STREET LIFE =11. The Regions of Rome: Fashionable and Plebeian Quarters.=--The great Augustus divided the capital into 14 _regiones_ or “wards” and these in turn into 265 _vici_ or precincts. Obviously some of these districts are more select than others. No citizen of decent tastes will, unless compelled by dire poverty, live in the network of hovels beyond the bridges and under the brow of the Janiculum, where a great colony of Jews and other Orientals exist in what is alleged to be extreme squalor. If you go south also from the Forum and Palatine, you are likely to run into a wide complex of unlovely industrial districts and laborers’ quarters, especially along the Tiber, although there are still some very good residential streets upon the Aventine.