[311] Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber, about thirteen miles from the city, was founded by Ancus Martius. Being the port of a city like Rome, it could not fail to become opulent; and it was a place of much resort, ornamented with fine edifices, and the environs "never failing of pasture in the summer time, and in the winter covered with roses and other flowers." The port having been filled up with the depositions of the Tiber, it became deserted, and is now abandoned to misery and malaria. The bishopric of Ostia being the oldest in the Roman church, its bishop has always retained some peculiar privileges. [312] The Gymnasia were places of exercise, and received their name from the Greek word signifying naked, because the contending parties wore nothing but drawers. [313] A.U.C. 752. [314] The cloak and slippers, as distinguished from the Roman toga and shoes. [315] A.U.C. 755. [316] This fountain, in the Euganian hills, near Padua, famous for its mineral waters, is celebrated by Claudian in one of his elegies. [317] The street called Carinae, at Rome, has been mentioned before; AUGUSTUS, c. v.; and also Mecaenas' house on the Esquiline, ib. c. lxxii. The gardens were formed on ground without the walls, and before used as a cemetery for malefactors, and the lower classes. Horace says-- Nunc licet Esquiliis habitare salubribus, atque Aggere in aprico spatiari.--Sat. 1. i. viii. 13. [318] A.U.C. 757. [319] A.U.C. 760. [320] A.U.C. 762. [321] Reviving the simple habits of the times of the republic; "nec fortuitum cernere cespitem," as Horace describes it.--Ode 15. [322] A.U.C. 765. [323] The portico of the temple of Concord is still standing on the side of the Forum nearest the Capitol. It consists of six Ionic columns, each of one piece, and of a light-coloured granite, with bases and capitals of white marble, and two columns at the angles. The temple of Castor and Pollux has been mentioned before: JUL. c. x. [324] A.U.C. 766. [325] A.U.C. 767. [326] Augustus interlards this epistle, and that subsequently quoted, with Greek sentences and phrases, of which this is one. It is so obscure, that commentators suppose that it is a mis-reading, but are not agreed on its drift. [327] A verse in which the word in italics is substituted for cunctando, quoted from Ennius, who applied it to Fabius Maximus. [328] Iliad, B. x. Diomede is speaking of Ulysses, where he asks that he may accompany him as a spy into the Trojan camp. [329] Tiberius had adopted Germanicus. See before, c. xv. See also CALIGULA, c. i. [330] In this he imitated Augustus. See c. liii. of his life. [331] Si hanc fenestram aperueritis, if you open that window, equivalent to our phrase, "if you open the door."