taught him cheerfully to exchange those triumphant arms for the tools of peaceful labor, that he might insure the solid permanency of his conquests, by the perfection of such works as would make tranquillity desirable to the conquered, and soothe them to repose under a dominion which so effectually secured their good. Roads, that have made Roman ways proverbial, and which the perfection of modern art has never equaled in more than one or two instances, reached from the capital to the farthest bounds of the empire. Seas, long dangerous and almost impassable for the trader and enterprising voyager, were swept of every piratical vessel; and the most distant channels of the Aegean and Levant, where the corsair long ruled triumphant, both before and since, became as safe as the porches of the capitol. Regions, to which nature had furnished the indispensable gift of water, neither in abundance nor purity, were soon blessed with artificial rivers, flowing over mighty arches, that will crumble only with the pyramids. In the dry places of Africa and Asia, as well as in distant Gaul, mighty aqueducts and gushing fountains refreshed the feverish traveler, and gave reality to the poetical prophecy, that
"In the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert."
Roads.—I was at first disposed to make some few exceptions to this sweeping commendation
of the excellence of Roman roads, by referring simply to my general
impressions of the comparative perfection of these and modern works of the same
character; but on revising the facts by an examination of authorities, I have been
led to strike out the exceptions. Napoleon's great road over the Simplon, the great
northern road from London to Edinburgh, and some similar works in Austria,
seemed, before comparison, in extent, durability, and in their triumphs over nature,
to equal, if not surpass, the famed Roman WAYS; but a reference to the minute descriptions
of these mighty works, sets the ancient far above the modern art. The
Via Appia, "regina viarum," (Papinius Statius in Surrentino Pollii,) stretching
three hundred and seventy miles from Rome to the bounds of Italy, built of squared
stone, as hard as flints, and brought from a great distance, so laid together that for miles
they seemed but a single stone, and so solidly fixed, that at this day, the road is as entire
in many places as when first made,—the Via Flaminia, built in the same solid
manner,—the Via Aemilia, five hundred and twenty-seven miles long,—the Via
Pertuensis, with its enormous double cause-way,—the vaulted roads of Puzzuoli and
Baiae, hewn half a league through the solid rock, and the thousand remains of similar
and contemporaneous works in various parts of the world, where some are in use
even to this day, as far better than any modern highway,—all these are enough to
show the inquirer, that the commendation given to these works in the text, is not
over-wrought nor unmerited. The minute details of the construction of these extraordinary
works, with many other interesting particulars, may be much more fully
learned in Rees's Cyclopædia, Articles Way, Via, Road, Appian, &c.
Aqueducts.—The common authorities on this subject, refer to none of these mighty Roman works, except those around the city of Rome itself. Those of Nismes and Metz, in Gaul, and that of Segovia, in Spain, are sometimes mentioned; but the reader would be led to suppose, that other portions of the Roman empire were not blessed with these noble works. Rees's Cyclopædia is very full on this head, in respect to the aqueducts of the great city itself, but conveys the impression that they were not known in many distant parts of the empire. Montfaucon gives no more satisfactory information on the subject. But a reference to books of travels or topography, which describe the remains of Roman art in its ancient provinces in Africa
