Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/239

Rh The aqueducts the fabrication of which was begun by Caius Caesar, and which were brought to their highest perfection by the emperor Claudius, were incontrovertibly superior to the productions of that nature which had been before undertaken. The elevated columns, and dilated arches, that served as canals for the conveyance of the immense masses of water, which, in precipitating itself from the lofty summit of the Aventine hill, appeared to irrigate a profound valley, are the most authentic and demonstrative monuments of the sublimity of the mind of man.

The Romans were not, however, satisfied with these rare edifices, which vied in magnificence with the superb pyramids of Egypt, and exceeded them in utility ; but meditated daily new modes of improving the science of the movement of the waters, a part of which they preserved in a determinate place. Marcus Agrippa, when edile, undertook to convey them to a fountain; to unite many streams after they had been well cleansed; and to form seven hundred lakes or pools; five hundred piles; and a hundred and thirty receptacles; adorning the whole of these works with three hundred statues of marble and bronze, and four hundred columns. He thus contributed towards the splendour of Rome, and bestowed a lasting benefit on his fellow-citizens, whom he constantly supplied with salubrious and abundant waters.

These fountains, these immense aqueducts, on which prodigious sums were expended, were not confined to the limits of Rome: the provinces of the empire likewise enjoyed all the beauties of their fine architecture, and the copious waters they distributed artificially. The Roman aqueduct entitled the Pont-du-Gard, in the vicinity of Nismes, boasts at this time a degree