Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/387

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 309 the massy greatness of the amphitheatre of Titus, the Oil A I*, elegant architecture of the tlieatre of Pompey and the temple of peace, and, above all, the stately structure of the forum and column of Trajan ; acknowledging, that the voice of fame, so prone to invent and to mag- nify, had made an inadequate report of the metropolis of the world. The traveller who has contemplated the ruins of ancient Rome, may conceive some imper- fect idea of the sentiments which they must have in- spired when they reared their heads in the splendour of unsullied beauty. ' The satisfaction which Constantius had received A new obe- from this journey excited him to the generous emula- tion of bestowing on the Romans some memorial of his own gratitude and munificence. His first idea v.as to imitate the equestrian and colossal statue which he had seen in the forum of Trajan ; but when he had maturely weighed the liifficulties of the execution', he chose rather to embellish the capital by the gift of an Egyptian obelisk. In a remote but polished age, which seems to have preceded the invention of alphabetical writing, a great number of these obelisks had been erected, in the cities of Thebes and Heliopolis, by the ancient sovereigns of Egypt, in a just confidence that the simplicity of their form, and the hardness of their substance, would resist the injuries of time and vio- lence". Several of these extraordinary columns had been transported to Rome by Augustus and his suc- cessors, as the most durable monuments of their power and victory '^ ; but there remained one obelisk, which, ' HormisJas, a fugitive prince of Persia, observed to the emperor, that if he made such a horse, he must think of preparing a similar stable (the forura of Trajau.) Another saying of Hormisdas is recorded, " that one thing only had displeased him, to find that men died at Rome as well as elsewhere." If we adopt this reading of the text of Ammianus, {dispUcuisse instead of placuisse,} we may consider it as a reproof of Roman vapity. The contrary sense would be that of a misanthrope. " When Germanicus visited the ancient monuments of Thebes, the eldest of the priests explained to him the meaning of these hieroglyphics. Tacit. Annal. ii. c. 60. But it seems probable, that before the useful invention of an alphabet, these natural or arbitrary signs were the common characters of the Egyptian nation. See Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses, vol. iii. p. 69— 243. " See Plin. Hist. Aat. I. xxxvi. c. 14, 15. VOL. II. 1! b