Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - The Roman Emperors in Marble - 5. Nero
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
126 ROMAN DAYS.
also included in its precincts. The usual entrance—or
rather passage—was at the place where the triumphal
arch of Titus was afterwards erected.
Hardly on the throne, the Flavians hastened to de-
stroy this wonder. To do so, was to pull down the finest
part of Rome ; a barbarism that not even hatred of Nero
would have forgiven, had it not been made the means of
a flattering attention to the people. The Romans had
complained that Nero wished to make the metropolis of
the world a dwelling for himself alone : they could now say
that the Flavians dedicated the site of the golden house
to the pleasures of the Quiritians. Over the great lake
which had borne Nero’s brilliant vessels, was built the
amphitheatre, afterwards called the Colosseum, the walls
of which yet astonish the world. That part of the palace-
front that faced the Coelian hill, was hidden by Titus
behind a projecting edifice, several stories high, supported
on powerful arches. The remaining portions of the pal-
ace, which were not razed to the ground were filled with
earth and made to serve as foundation to the great
baths which Titus presented to the Romans. How could
these complain of the destruction of the golden house,
when from the enjoyment of the luxurious baths, they
wandered off to the nerve-thrilling games of the amphi-
theatre, and from them back to the porticoes of the baths
—in their shade, amid statues, plashing fountains and
fragrant roses, to drink, and talk of the fair ones of Sub-
urra.
The colossus of Nero was allowed to remain for some
time ; no longer representing Nero, however, but the god
of the sun. When Hadrian, over the ruins of the fore-
court of the golden house, built his temple of Venus and
Roma, the colossus, as it stood, was drawn by twenty-
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
