[269] ILL-CONSTRUCTED HOUSES. Every well-to-do citizen of ancient Rome had his own house. The great mass of poor people lived in rented dwellings, built by unprincipled speculators with unprecedented carelessness, on the principle “cheap and bad,” yet nevertheless leased at high prices. The fall of such houses was therefore no rare occurrence, as is proved by the constant association of the words “fire and fall” (_incendia acruinae_)--catastrophes which Strabo (V, 3, 7) characterizes as constant. (See also Senec. _Ep._ XC, 43, Cat. XXIII, 9; Juv. _Sat._ III, 7.) [270] UNDER THE TILES, (_sub tegulis_,) was a common phrase for the upper story. (See Suet. _Gramm._ 9, where it is said of the poor schoolmaster Orbilius, that in his old age he lived “under the tiles.”) [271] REMEMBER THAT IN ROME EVERY STONE HAS EYES AND EARS. See Tacit. _Ann._, XI, 27, where Rome is called a “city that hears everything, and keeps silence about nothing.” Seneca too (_De tranq. an._ XII) is scandalized at the eaves-dropping which is common in Rome. Juvenal says an aristocratic Roman can have no secrets at all, for: “_Servi ut taceant, jumenta loquentur, et canis et postes et marmora._” “Even if the slaves are discreet, the horses talk, and the house-dog, and the posts and marble walls. Close the windows and cover every chink with hangings, yet the next day the people in every tavern will be discussing the master’s doings.” (Juv. _Sat._ IX, 102-109.) [272] OUR PURSUERS ARE ON OUR TRACES ALREADY. There were persons in Rome, who made a business of catching runaway slaves. [273] GROUND SET APART FOR CRIMINALS AND OUTCASTS. The usual mode of conducting a funeral under the emperors was to burn the corpse on a pyre (_rogus_); the original custom of interment had become more rare. Slaves and criminals were buried on the Esquiline Hill. [274] THE VIA MONETA led from the Flavian amphitheatre to the Porta Querquetulana. [275] THE WAY OF STEPHANUS. See (Suet _Dom._ 17,) where it is related of Stephanus, that he was accused of embezzling money. That such incredible forgeries of wills really occurred, is frequently explicitly stated by the ancient authors. Pliny (_Ep._ II, 11,) gives an amazing example of the insolence with which influential persons conducted their bribery. [276] THE VESTAL VIRGINS. It was believed, that the vestal virgins possessed the power of detaining runaway slaves, by certain spells, within the city limits. [277] FACTORIES AND PRISONS. Ergastulum was the name given to a kind of prison where slaves, who had been guilty of any fault were kept at specially hard labor. The arrangement, of these ergastula in many respects resembled our modern prisons.