Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/487

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 463 Though Constantine, from a very obvious prejudice, CHAP, affects to mention the palace of Diocletian with con- '_ tempt*^, yet one of their successors, who could only see OfDiocle- it in a neglected and mutilated state, celebrates its mag- J^^° ^ ^^' nificence in terms of the highest admiration^. It co- vered an extent of ground consisting of between nine and ten English acres. The form was quadrangular, flanked with sixteen towers. Two of the sides were near six hundred, and the other two near seven hun- dred feet in length. The whole was constructed of a beautiful freestone, extracted from the neighbouring quarries of Trau or Tragutium, and very little inferior to marble itself. Four streets, intersecting each other at right angles, divided the several parts of this great edifice; and the approach to the principal apartment was from a stately entrance, which is still denominated the golden gate. The approach was terminated by a peristylium of granite columns, on one side of which we discover the square temple of iEsculapius, on the other, the octagon temple of Jupiter. The latter of those deities Diocletian revered as the patron of his fortunes, the former as the protector of his health. By comparing the present remains with the precepts of Vitruvius, the several parts of the building, the baths, bedchamber, the atrium, the basilica, and the Cyzi- cene, Corinthian, and Egyptian halls, have been de- scribed with some degree of precision, or at least of probabiHty. Their forms were various, their propor- tions just; but they were all attended with two imper- fections, very repugnant to our modern notions of taste and conveniency. These stately rooms had neither windows nor chimneys. They were lighted from the cious writer, perhaps a monk, supposes to have been one of the principal reasons that determined Diocletian in the choice of his retirement. Fortis, p. 45. The same author (p. 38.) observes, that a taste for agriculture is reviving at Spalatro; and that an experimental farm has lately been estab- lished near the city, by a society of gentlemen. c Constantin. Orat. ad Coetum Sanct. c. 25. In this sermon, the em- peror, or the bishop who composed it for him, affects to relate the miserable end of all the persecutors of the church. •* Constantin. Porphyr. de Statu Imper. p. 86.