OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

399

flood." Under the reign of Augustus, the samecalamity was renewed; the lawless river over-turned the palaces and temples on its banks ; 0and, after the labours of the emperor in cleans-ing and widening the bed that was encumberedw'ith ruins, p the vigilance of his successors wasexercised by similar dangers and designs. Theproject of diverting into new channels the Tyberitself, or some of the dependent streams, waslong opposed by superstition and local interests; qnor did the use compensate the toil and costof the tardy and imperfect execution. The ser-vitude of rivers is the noblest and most impor-tant victory which man has obtained over the

n a. u. c. 507, repentina subversio ipsius Romae prevenit triumphumRomanorum .... diversa: ignium aquarumque clades pent absumsereurbem. Nam Tiberis iusolitis auctus imbribns et ultra opinionem, veldiurnitale vel magnitudine redundans, omnia Roma: atdificia iu pianoposita delcyit. Diver.see qualitates locorum ad uiiam convenere perni-ccm : quoniam et quae segnior inundatio tenuit madefacta dissolvit, etquae cursus torrentia invenit impulsa dejecit (Orosius, Hist. 1. iv, c. 11,p. 244, edit. Havercamp). Yet we may observe, tliat it is the planand study of the Christian apologist to magnify the calamities of thepagan world.

0 Vidimus flavum Tiberim, retortisLittore Etrusco violenter undisIre dejecttim monumenta regis

Templaque Vestae. (Horat. Cairn. 1 2).

If the palace of Numa, and temple of Vesta, were thrown down inHorace’s time, what was consumed of those buildings by Nero’s firecould hardly deserve the epithets of vetustissima or iurorrupta.

p Ad coercendas inundationes alveum Tiberis laxavit, ac repurga-vit, completum olim ruderibus, et aedificiorum prolapsionibus coarc-tatum (Suetonius in Augusto, c. 30),s Tacitus (Annal. i, 79) reports the petitions of the different townsof Italy to the senate against the measure ; and we may applaud theprogress of reason. On a similar occasion, local interests would un-doubtedly be consulted ; but an English house of commons would re-ject with contempt the arguments of superstition, “ that nature had“ assigned to the rivers their proper course," &c.

CHAP.

LXXI.