Addressing a Greek audience, Strabo gives us this impression of
the physical aspect of the mighty city that had mastered the Greek
World.. He wrote in the age of Augustus. The city probably continued
to increase in magnificence for the next two hundred years, and a
number of the most famous buildings, e.g. the Flavian Amphitheater,
were not yet erected.
The Greek cities are thought to have flourished mainly on account
of the felicitous choice made by their founders, in regard to the
beauty and strength of their sites, their proximity to some haven, and
the fineness of the country. But the Roman prudence was more
particularly employed on matters which have received but little
attention from the Greeks---such as paving their roads, constructing
aqueducts, and sewers. In fact they have paved the roads, cut through
hills, and filled up valleys, so that the merchandise may be conveyed
by carriage from the ports. The sewers, arched over with hewn stones,
are large enough in parts for actual hay wagons to pass through, while
so plentiful is the supply of water from the aqueducts, that rivers
may be said to flow through the city and the sewers, and almost every
house is furnished with water pipes and copious fountains.
We may remark that the ancients [of Republican times] bestowed
little attention upon the beautifying of Rome. But their successors,
and especially those of our own day, have at the same time embellished
the city with numerous and splendid objects. Pompey, the Divine Caesar
[i.e. Julius Caesar], and Augustus, with his children, friends, wife,
and sister have surpassed all others in their zeal and munificence in
these decorations. The greater number of these may be seen in the
Campus Martius which to the beauties of nature adds those of art. The
size of the plain is remarkable, allowing chariot races and the
equestrian sports without hindrance, and multitudes [here] exercise
themselves with ball games, in the Circus, and on the wrestling
grounds. The structures that surround [the Campus], the greensward
covered with herbage all the year around, the summit of the hills
beyond the Tiber, extending from its banks with panoramic effect,
present a spectacle which the eye abandons with regret.
Near to this plain is another surrounded with columns, sacred
groves, three theaters, an amphitheater, and superb temples, each
close to the other, and so splendid that it would seem idle to
describe the rest of the city after it. For this cause the Romans
esteeming it the most sacred place, have erected funeral monuments
there to the illustrious persons of either sex. The most remarkable of
these is that called the "Mausoleum" [the tomb of Augustus] which
consists of a mound of earth raised upon a high foundation of white
marble, situated near the river, and covered on the top with evergreen
shrubs. Upon the summit is a bronze statue of Augustus Caesar, and
beneath the mound are the funeral urns of himself, his relatives, and
his friends. Behind is a large grove containing charming promenades.
In the center of the plain [the Campus Martius] is the spot where [the
body of] this prince was reduced to ashes. It is surrounded by a
double enclosure, one of marble, the other of iron, and planted within
with poplars. If thence you proceed to visit the ancient Forum, which
is equally filled with basilicas, porticoes, and temples, you will
there behold the Capitol, the Palatine, and the noble works that adorn
them, and the piazza of Livia [Augustus's Empress], each successive
work causing you speedily to forget that which you have seen before.
Such then is Rome!
In Rome there is continual need of wood and stone for ceaseless
building caused by the frequent falling down of houses, and on account
of conflagrations and of sales which seem never to cease. These sales
are a kind of voluntary falling-down of houses, each owner knocking
down and rebuilding according to his individual taste. For these
purposes the numerous quarries, forests, and rivers in the region
which convey the materials, offer wonderful facilities.
Augustus Caesar endeavored to avert from the city the dangers
alluded to, and instituted a company of freedmen, who should be ready
to lend their assistance in the ease of conflagration, while as a
preventive against falling houses he decreed that all new buildings
should not be carried to the same height as formerly, and those
erected along the public ways should not exceed seventy feet in
height. But these improvements must have ceased except for the
facilities afforded to Rome by the quarries, the forests, and the ease
of transport.