But its noblest ornament was the gigantic statue of Trajan on the top, being no less than twenty feet high; he was represented in a coat of armour proper to the general, holding in his left hand a sceptre, in his right a hollow globe of fire, in which his own ashes were deposited after his death. The column of Antoninus was raised in imitation of this, which it exceeded only in one respect, that it was one hundred seventy six feet high--for the work was much inferior to the former, being undertaken in the declining age of the empire. The ascent on the inside was by one hundred six steps, and the windows, in the sides, fifty-six; the sculpture and the other ornaments were of the same nature as those of the first, and on the top stood a colossal statue of the emperor, naked, as appears from his coins. Both of these columns are still standing at Rome; the former almost entire: but Pope Sixtus the first, instead of the two statues of the emperors, set up St. Peter's on the column of Trajan, and St. Paul's on that of Antoninus. There was likewise a gilded pillar in the forum, called the _milliarium aureum_, erected by Augustus Cæsar, at which all the highways of Italy met and were concluded; from this they counted their miles, at the end of every mile setting up a stone, whence came the phrase _primus ab urbe pisla_. But the most remarkable was the _columna rostrata_, set up to the honor of Caius Duilius, when he had gained a victory over the Carthaginian and Sicilian fleets, four hundred ninety-three years from the foundation of the city, and adorned with the beaks of the vessels taken in the engagement. This is still to be seen at Rome; the inscription on the basis is a noble example of the old way of writing, in the early times of the commonwealth. Trophies were spoils taken from the enemy, and fixed upon any thing as signs or monuments of victory: they were erected usually in the place where it was gained and consecrated to some divinity, with an inscription. CHAPTER X. _Bagnios, Aqueducts, Sewers and public Ways._ The Romans expended immense sums of money on their bagnios. The most remarkable were those of the emperors Dioclesian and Antonius Caracalla--great part of which are standing at this time, and with the high arches, the beautiful and stately pillars, the abundance of foreign marble, the curious vaulting of the roofs, and the prodigious number of spacious apartments, may be considered among the greatest curiosities of Rome.