Luxury en couraged by the empe 1ors. were evidently bed-chambers. But the houses of the Romans, in the time of their splendour, seem to have been towns, rather than the habitations of particular persons; for they included in their precincts every thing subservient either to use or luxury. In the early period of the Roman republic, frugality and patriotism went hand in hand. Modestly lodged themselves, they employed what riches they had to build temples and public works. The house did not then honour the master, but the master the house in their huts dwelt justice, generosity, probity, faith, and honour. It was towards the end of the republic that, enriched by conquest, luxury made such progress, and hastened its ruin. For luxury is the certain destroyer of commonwealths: although, perhaps, it may be compatible, in some degree, with extensive monarchies: but even these luxury, like a canker-worm, will at last destroy. Augustus and Tiberius, able politicians, who had overturned the commonwealth, and were founding a monarchy, artfully evaded the enacting of sumptuary laws, or any reform of manners to be presented by him to the emperor when at supper, informs us how the Romans employed themselves during the day: "Prima salutantes atque altera continet hora; Exercet raucos tertia caussidicos; In quinctam varios extendit Roma labores; Sexta quies lassis, septima finis erit; Sufficit in nonam nitidis octava palæstris; Imperat extructos frangere nona toros. Hora libellorum decima est, Eupheme, meorum." L. 4. ep. 8. proposed to them by the senate. Tiberius said,* " we were frugal when citizens of one town, but we now consume the riches of the world: we now make both masters and slaves work for us."—"The examples of ancient severity were changed into a more agreeable manner of living." "Multa duritiei veterum melius et lætius mutata." The emperors therefore promoted and encouraged luxury and shows of every kind, well knowing that they had little to fear from men immersed in pleasure: "Non his juventus orta parentibus Pyrrhumque, et ingentem cecidit Antiochum, Hannibalemque dirum."+ But, notwithstanding Augustus's political knowledge, a principal cause of the decline of the empire may be traced from him. Because, thinking it a security to his new government, he enervated the citizens, by indulging them in the love of pleasure and ease; and thus he rendered them, who should have been the proper defenders of the empire, unfit for the fatigues of war. And, in place of the citizens, he employed mercenary soldiers to guard the cities; and limited the bounds of the empire by rivers and great fosses, or by steep mountains, desert and impracticable passes, which he injudiciously thought would defend the empire.‡ Chimnies. It has been a matter of dispute whether or not the ancients used chimneys, or only heated their rooms with coals on brasiers, as is still common in most parts of Italy. They probably made more use of brasiers than chimneys. But when they burnt wood, which Horace tells us they did, they must necessarily have had chimneys to carry off the smoke : "Dissolve frigus, ligna super foco Largè reponens." That the Romans had chimneys may be inferred from Virgil.+ "Ante focum, si frigus erit, si messis, in umbra." Here the bard, always accurate in expression, must have meant a chimney, and not a brasier; which last was circular, placed in the middle of the room, and round which people sat: the preposition ante could not therefore, with propriety, be applied to it. Although among the ruins of Rome I observed no chimneys, yet that they were used there, as well as in Greece, seems to appear from passages in ancient authors.-Philocleon, in the comedy of the Wasps of Aristophanes, act 1. sc. 2, hid himself in a chimney. A slave hearing some noise, called out— "what noise is that in the pipe of the chimney?"-Philocleon, finding himself discovered, answered, “that it was the smoke which endeavoured to get out."-And the son of Philocleon, a little after, complains that they call him the son of a chimney-sweeper. And Appian, de Bell. Civ. l. 4. mentioning the proscriptions of the triumvirates, tells us that many citizens hid in chimneys to conceal themselves from the murderers. We know, even at present, how uncertain it is to construct chimneys, so as to prevent smoke. And though the Romans may not have constructed theirs on mechanical or philosophical principles, yet they must, in general, have succeeded to do so tolerably well; otherwise Horace would not have complained so much of smoke, at one of his stages, in his journey to Brundisium : "nisi nos vicina Trivici Villa recepisset, lacrimoso non sine fumo; Udos cum foliis ramos urente camino."* It is true, the wood here used, being green and moist, would have occasioned more smoke. Cato indeed says, that wood, soaked in the lees of olive oil, burns well, and produces no smoke. The same observation is mentioned by Pliny.‡"Postremò ligna macerata amurcâ, nullius fumi tædio ardere." Flues were used for heating the baths, as will appear when I come to that subject. The ingenious art of making glass is of great antiquity. Glass winThe quantities found in Herculaneum, and elsewhere, are a dows. proof of it. Indeed it has been doubted if the ancients employed it in their windows: but it is clear that they did so, from a glass window found in the ruins of Pompeia. Besides * Hor. l. 1. sat. 5. v. 79. t Hist. Nat. 1. 15. c. 8. + De Re Rust. c. 131. Lapis specularis. many fragments of glass, proper only for windows, and some of them even polished like mirror, have been collected by the curious; particularly by my worthy and learned friend James Byres, Esq. But glass windows were probably rare for the ancients, in place of glass, commonly used a transparent stone, lapis specularis, which they called speculum. Pliny * informs us, that these stones were first dug in Segobriga in Spain, but that they were afterwards got in Cyprus, in Africa, and in Sicily. It was either a talc, or gypsum, or a sort of alabaster. Talc is a concretion of mica attenuated by humidity. It is found in many parts of the world. But the finest and largest sheets hitherto discovered, are on the banks of the river Witim, in Siberia. It is called Muscovia talc. The Russians generally make use of it in windows in place of glass, and particularly in the windows of their ships; because it is less brittle, and more pliable than glass, and resists better the shock of the rebound of cannon. But if the ancients, according to Pliny, made their best lime from the lapis specularis, it could not be talc, which is not calcinable: it must there * Lib. 36. c. 22. "Histoire naturelle des Mineraux, par M. de Buffon." Tom. 1. and 4. ed. in 4to. Hist. Nat. 1. 36. c. 24, where, treating of lime, he says, " omnium autem optimum fieri compertum est e lapide speculari." From Martial it appears that the Romans knew the use of hot-houses, to protect their plants from the cold, and which they covered with the lapis specularis: "Hibernis objecta notis specularia puros Admittunt soles, et sine fæce diem." L. 8. ep. 14. |