A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

The Campus Martius 473
hindrance, and allows multitudes to exercise themselves
at ball, in the circus, and in the palestra. The buildings
which surround it, the turf covered with herbage all the
year round, the hilltops beyond the Tiber, extending from
its banks like a panorama, present a view which the eye
abandons with regret.
Near this plain is another surrounded with columns,
sacred groves, three theatres, an amphitheatre, and superb
temples close to one another. So magnificent is the place
that it would seem idle to describe the rest of the city after
it. For this reason the Romans, esteeming it the most
sacred place, have there erected funeral monuments to
the most illustrious persons of both sexes. The most remarkable
of these monuments is the Mausoleum, which
consists of a mound of earth raised on a high foundation
of white marble, situated near the river and covered to the
top with evergreen shrubs. On the summit is a bronze
statue of Caesar Augustus, and beneath the mound are
the ashes of himself, his relatives, and friends. Behind is
a large grove with charming promenades. In the centre
of the plain is the spot where the body of this prince was
reduced to ashes; it is surrounded with a double enclosure,
one of marble, the other of iron; and the interior is planted
with poplars. If from there you proceed to visit the anci-ent
Forum, which is equally filled with basilicas, porticos,
and temples, you will there behold the Capitol, the Palatine
Hill, with the noble works which adorn them, and the
piazza of Livia,—each succeeding place causing you speedily
to forget what you have before seen. Such is Rome.
The Forum,
VII.
A Possible Heir
Meanwhile as supports to his despotism he raised to the
office of pontiff and to the curule aedileship Claudius Mar-