Aurelian | Page 3

better one than the other, but doubtless as good. It is this: that
for a long time I have been engaged in taking possession of my new
dwelling upon the Coelian, not far from that of Portia. Of this you may
have heard, in the letters which have reached you; but that will not
prevent me from describing to you, with more exactness than any other
can have done it, the home of your old and fast friend, Lucius Manlius
Piso; for I think it adds greatly to the pleasure with which we think of
an absent friend, to be able to see, as in a picture, the form and material
and position of the house he inhabits, and even the very aspect and
furniture of the room in which he is accustomed to pass the most of his
time. This to me is a satisfaction greater than you can well conceive,
when, in my ruminating hours, which are many, I return to Palmyra,
and place myself in the circle with Gracchus, Calpurnius, and yourself.
Your palace having now been restored to its former condition, I know
where to find you at the morning, noon, and evening hour; the only
change you have made in the former arrangements being this: that
whereas when I was your guest, your private apartments occupied the
eastern wing of the palace, they are now in the western, once mine,
which I used then to maintain were the most agreeable and noble of all.
The prospects which its windows afford of the temple, and the distant
palace of the queen, and of the evening glories of the setting sun, are
more than enough to establish its claims to an undoubted superiority;
and if to these be added the circumstance, that for so long a time the
Roman Piso was their occupant, the case is made out beyond all
peradventure.

But I am describing your palace rather than my own. You must
remember my paternal seat on the southern declivity of the hill,
overlooking the course of the Tiber as it winds away to the sea. Mine is
not far from it, but on the northern side of the hill, and thereby
possessing a situation more favorable to comfort, during the heats of
summer--I loving the city, as you well know, better if anything during
the summer than the winter months. Standing upon almost the highest
point of the hill, it commands a wide and beautiful prospect, especially
toward the north and east, the eye shooting over the whole expanse of
city and suburbs, and then resting upon the purple outline of the distant
mountains. Directly before me are the magnificent structures which
crown the Esquiline, conspicuous among which, and indeed eminent
over all, are the Baths of Titus. Then, as you will conjecture, the eye
takes in the Palatine and Capitol hills, catching, just beyond the last, the
swelling dome of the Pantheon, which seems rather to rise out of, and
crown, the Flavian Amphitheatre, than its own massy walls. Then, far
in the horizon, we just discern the distant summits of the Appenines,
broken by Soracte and the nearer hills.
The principal apartments are on the northern side of the palace, opening
upon a portico of Corinthian columns, running its entire length and
which would not disgrace Palmyra itself. At the eastern extremity, are
the rooms common to the family; in the centre, a spacious hall, in the
adorning of which, by every form of art, I have exhausted my
knowledge and taste in such things; and at the western extremity, my
library, where at this moment I sit, and where I have gathered around
me all in letters and art that I most esteem. This room I have decorated
for myself and Julia--not for others. Whatever has most endeared itself
to our imaginations, our minds, or our hearts, has here its home. The
books that have most instructed or amused; the statuary that most raises
and delights us; the pictures on which we most love to dwell; the
antiquities that possess most curiosity or value, are here arranged, and
in an order that would satisfy, I believe, even your fastidious taste.
I will not weary you with any more minute account of my new
dwelling, leaving that duty to the readier pen of Julia. Yet I cannot
relieve you till I have spoken of two of the statues which occupy the

most conspicuous niche in the library. You will expect me to name
Socrates and Plato, or Numa and Seneca--these are all there, but it is
not of either of them that I would speak. They are the venerable
founders of the Jewish and Christian religions, MOSES and CHRIST.
These statues, of the purest marble, stand side by side, at one extremity
of the apartment;