The Old Roman World : the Grandeur and Failure of Its Civilization.Lord, John
History
The Old Roman World : the Grandeur and Failure of Its Civilization.
Lord, John
Rome -- Civilization
remain, must have been a city of considerable importance. Its
amphitheatre would seat seventeen thousand people; and its aqueduct
constructed of three successive tiers of arches, one hundred and fifty-
five feet high, eight hundred and seventy feet long, and fifty feet
wide, is still one of the finest monuments of antiquity, built of stone
without cement. It is still solid and strong, and gives us a vivid
conception of the magnificence of Roman masonry. Narbo (Narbonne) was
another commercial centre, adorned with public buildings which called
forth the admiration of ancient travelers. The modern cities of Treves,
Boulogne, Rheims, Chalons, Cologne, Metz, Dijon, Sens, Orleans,
Poictiers, Clermont, Rouen, Paris, Basil, Geneva, were all considerable
places under the Roman rule, and some were of great antiquity.
[Sidenote: Illyricum.]
Illyricum is not famous in Roman history, but was a very considerable
province, equal to the whole Austrian empire in our times, and was as
completely reclaimed from barbarism as Gaul or Spain. Both Jerome and
Diocletian were born in a little Dalmatian town.
[Sidenote: Cultivated face of nature.]
[Sidenote: Agricultural wealth.]
Nothing could surpass the countries which bordered on the Mediterranean
in all those things which give material prosperity. They were salubrious
in climate, fertile in soil, cultivated like a garden, abounding in
nearly all the fruits, vegetables, and grains now known to civilization.
The beautiful face of nature was the subject of universal panegyric to
the fall of the empire. There were no destructive wars. All the various
provinces were controlled by the central power which emanated from Rome.
There was scope for commerce, and all kinds of manufacturing skill.
Italy, Sicily, and Egypt were especially fertile. The latter country
furnished corn in countless quantities for the Roman market. Italy could
boast of fifty kinds of wine, and was covered with luxurious villas in
which were fish-ponds, preserves for game, wide olive groves and
vineyards, to say nothing of the farms which produced milk, cheese,
honey, and poultry. Syria was so prosperous that its inhabitants divided
their time between the field, the banquet, and the gymnasium, and
indulged in continual festivals. It was so rich that Antiochus III. was
able to furnish at one time a tribute of 15,000 talents, beside 540,000
measures of wheat. The luxury of Nineveh and Babylon was revived in the
Phoenician cities.
[Sidenote: Natural productions of the various provinces.]
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