Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/373

Rh Of the other ruins of Ancient Rome the vast aqueducts supported on arches are the most remarkable, and can be seen in numbers to the south-east of Rome. The Aqua Marcia was 56 miles in length, the Aqua Claudia was 46 miles, the Anio Novus was 62 miles. Aqua Julia was built by Augustus, B. C. 34, and Aqua Virgo derives its name from the tradition that its source was pointed out to the soldiers by a young girl. Older than all these is the ancient Cloaca Maxima of Rome, a part of which I saw among the ruins in the Forum, and which was built by Tarquinus Priscus or Tarquinus Superbus to drain that low valley by connecting it with the Tiber.

Mediæval Rome boasts of one superb structure which combines with the stupendous size of the monuments of Ancient Rome, a beauty and rich elegance which has never been equalled in the world. St. Peter's church is beyond comparison the grandest work built by the hand of man for the worship of the Deity.

The church is approached by two semi-circular colonnades consisting of 284 lofty columns, on which 192 statues of saints stand as sentinels! But the loftiness of these columns is lost in the presence of the church itself, and the loftiness of the church too is lost in its extremely just proportions. The proportions are so just that the eye fails to grasp the stupendous height of the