[Illustration: A ROMAN AQUEDUCT The Pont du Gard near Nîmes (ancient Nemausus) in southern France. Built by the emperor Antoninus Pius. The bridge spans two hilltops nearly a thousand feet apart. It carries an aqueduct with three tiers of massive stone arches at a height of 160 feet above the stream. This is the finest and best preserved aqueduct in existence.] THERMAE The abundant water supply furnished by the aqueducts was connected with a system of great public baths, or _thermae_. [37] Scarcely a town or village throughout the empire lacked one or more such buildings. Those at Rome were constructed on a scale of magnificence of which we can form but a slight conception from the ruins now in existence. In addition to many elaborate arrangements for the bathers, the _thermae_ included lounging and reading rooms, libraries, gymnasia, and even museums and galleries of art. The baths, indeed, were splendid clubhouses, open at little or no expense to every citizen of the metropolis. [Illustration: THE COLOSSEUM] TRIUMPHAL ARCHES AND COLUMNS A very characteristic example of Roman building is found in the triumphal arches. [38] Their sides were adorned with bas-reliefs, which pictured the principal scenes of a successful campaign. Memorial structures, called columns of victory, [39] were also set up in Rome and other cities. Both arch and column have been frequently imitated by modern architects. [Illustration: A ROMAN CAMEO Portrait of a youth cut in sardonyx. Probably of the first century A.D.] CIRCUSES, THEATERS, AND AMPHITHEATERS The palaces of Roman emperors and nobles, together with their luxurious country houses, or villas, have all disappeared. A like fate has befallen the enormous circuses, such as the Circus Maximus [40] at Rome and the Hippodrome [41] at Constantinople. The Roman theaters that still survive reproduce, in most respects, the familiar outlines of the Greek structures. In the amphitheaters, where animal shows and gladiatorial combats were exhibited, we have a genuinely Roman invention. The gigantic edifice, called the Colosseum, in its way as truly typifies Roman architectural genius as the Parthenon represents at its best that of the Greeks. ROMAN SCULPTURE Roman sculpture owed much to Greek models. However, the portrait statues and bas-reliefs show originality and illustrate the tendency of the Romans toward realism in art. The sculptor tried to represent an historic person as he really looked or an historic event, for example, a battle or a triumphal procession, as it actually happened. The portrait statues of Roman emperors and the bas-reliefs from the arch of Titus impress us at once with a sense of their reality. WALL PAINTINGS