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OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 297 with the figures of various animals.^^ Followed by a train of fifty sei-vantSj and tearing up the pavement, they move along the streets Avith the same impetuous speed as if they travelled with post horses ; and the example of the senators is boldly imitated by the matrons and ladies, whose covered carriages are continually driving round the immense space of the city and suburbs. Whenever these persons of high distinction condescend to visit the public baths, they assume, on their entrance, a tone of loud and insolent command, and appropriate to their own use the conveniencies which were designed for the Roman people. If, in these places of mixed and general resort, they meet any of the infamous ministers of their pleasures, they express their affection by a tender embrace; while they proudly decline the salutations of their fellow-citizens, who are not permitted to as- pireabove the honour of kissing their hands or their knees. Assoon as they have indulged themselves in the refreshment of the bath, they resume their rings, and the other ensigns of their dignity ; select from their private wardrobe of the finest linen, such as might suffice for a dozen persons, the garments the most agree- able to their fancy, and maintain till their departure the same haughty demeanour ; which perhaps might have been excused in the great Marcellus, after the conquest of Syracuse. Some- times, indeed, these heroes undertake more arduous achieve- ments ; they visit their estates in Italy, and procure themselves, by the toil of servile hands, the amusements of the chase. **^ If at any time, but more especially on a hot day, they have courage to sail, in their painted galleys, from the Lucrine lake *^ to their elegant villas on the sea-coast of Puteoli and Caieta,^^ they compare their own expeditions to the marches of Caesar 39 In a homily of Asterius, bishop of Amasia, M. de Valois has discovered (ad Ammian. xiv. 6), that this was a new fashion ; that bears, wolves, lions and tigers, woods, hunting-matches, <S;c. , were represented in embroidery ; and that the more pious coxcombs substituted the figure or legend of some favourite saint. ■10 See Pliny's Epistles, i. 6. Three wild boars were allured and taken in the toils, without interrupting the studies of the philosophic sportsman. •*! The change from the inauspicious word Aver/ins, which stands in the text, is immaterial. The two lakes, Avernus and Lucrinus, communicated with each other, and were fashioned by the stupendous moles of Agrippa into the Julian port, which opened, through a narrow entrance, into the gulf of Puteoli. Virgil, who resided on the spot, has described (Georgic ii. i6i) this work at the moment of its execution ; and his commentators, especially Catrou, have derived much light from Strabo, Suetonius, and Dion. Earthquakes and volcanos have changed the face of the country, and turned the Lucrine lake, since the year 1538, into the Monte Nuovo. See Camillo Pellegrino Discorsi della Campania Felice, p. 239, 244, &c., Antonii Sanfelicii Campania, p. 13, 88. ^ The regna Cumana et Puteolana ; loca cseteroqui valde expetenda, interpel- lantium autem multitudine poena fugienda. Cicero ad Attic, xvi. 17.