“The greater part of the Campagna of Rome is reduced to a dreary and desolate wilderness: the overgrown estates of the princes and the clergy are cultivated by the lazy hands of indigent and hopeless vassals; and the scanty harvests are confined or exported for the benefit of a monopoly.”

ANOTHER INTERIOR OF THE SO-CALLED VILLA OF MÆCENAS AT TIVOLI (Illustration credit ill.15)

“A taste for building, however costly, may deserve some praise and much excuse; from thence industry is fed, art is encouraged, and some object is obtained of public emolument or pleasure; the use of a road, an aqueduct, or an hospital is obvious and solid.”

THE SO-CALLED TEMPLE OF HERCULES AT CORI, NEAR VELLETRI (Illustration credit ill.16)

MAP OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, A.D.