70
In other matters, it appears that he was moderate in his habits, and free from suspicion of any kind of vice. He lived at first near the Roman Forum, above the Ring-maker's Stairs, in a house which had once been occupied by Calvus the orator. He afterwards moved to the Palatine Hill, where he resided in a small houseEnlarged by Tiberius and succeeding emperors. The ruins of the palace of the Caesars are still seen on the Palatine. belonging to Hortensius, no way remarkable either for size or ornament; the piazzas being but small, the pillars of Alban stone, Probably travertine, a soft limestone, from the Alban Mount, which was, therefore, cheaply procured and easily worked. and the rooms without any thing of marble, or fine paving. He continued to use the same bed-chamber, both winter and summer, during forty years:It was usual among the Romans to have separate sets of apartments for summer and winter use, according to their exposure to the sun. for though he was sensible that the city did not agree with his health in the winter, he nevertheless resided constantly in it during that season. If at any time he wished to be perfectly retired, and secure from interruption, he shut himself up in an apartment at the top of his house, which he called his Syracuse or ΤεχνόφυονThis word may be interpreted the Cabinet of Arts. It was common, in the houses of the great, among the Romans, to have an apartment called the Study, or Museum. Pliny says, beautifully, "0 mare! 0 littus I verum secretumque μουσεῖον, quam multa invenitis, quam multa dictatis?" O sea! O shore! Thou real and secluded museum; what treasures of science do you not discover to us!—Epist. i. 9. or he went to some villa belonging to his freedmen near the city. But when he was indisposed, he commonly took up his residence in the house of Maecenas. Maecenas had a house and gardens on the Esquiline Hill, celebrated for their salubrity: Nunc licet Esquiliis habitore salubribus. Hor. Sat. i. 8, 14. Of all the places of retirement from the city, he chiefly frequented those upon the seacoast, and the islands of Campania,Such as Baiae, and the islands of Ischia, Procida, Capri, and others; the resorts of the opulent nobles, where they had magnificent marine villas. or the towns nearest the city, such as Lanuvium, Praeneste, and Tibur,Now Tivoli, a delicious spot, where Horace had a villa, in which he hoped to spend his declining years. Ver ubi longum, tepidasque praebet Jupiter brumas: … … ibi, tu calentem Debit sparges lachryma favillam Vatis amici. Odes, B. ii. 5. Adrian also had a magnificent villa near Tibur. where he often used to sit for the administration of justice, in the porticos of the temple of Hercules. He had a particular aversion to large and sumptuous palaces; and some which had been raised at a vast expense by his grand-daughter, Julia, he leveled to the ground. Those of his own, which were far from being spacious, he adorned, not so much with statues and pictures, as with walks and groves, and things which were curious either for their antiquity or rarity; such as, at Capri, the huge limbs of sea-monsters and wild beasts, which some affect to call the bones of giants; and also the arms of ancient heroes.
