worst, a tiller of the soil. In the same region now with free labor, the cultivation of kitchen vegetables, of olives, of vines, of orchards, of hay and grain, as well as the dairy, are more profitable than the breeding of cattle.

Horticulture was not neglected. Pliny mentions twenty-nine varieties of apples, as many of figs, eleven of plums, eight of chestnuts, and several of peaches and cherries; and he refers to a great number of pears. High prices were paid for the best horses, cows, and jacks. All the branches of agriculture seem to have been pursued with more skill in the valley of the Po and in the neighborhood of Capua than in central Italy.

The Romans mined for gold, silver, iron, copper, lead, and quicksilver. They smelted iron ore in small furnaces to produce steel. They had no cast iron, nor could they make plates or wire of iron or of steel by any process, save that of hammering. They washed gold from alluvial deposits in board and ground sluices without the aid of the hydraulic pipe; and they crushed auriferous quartz in preparation for the separation of the metal from the rock. Argentiferous ores were smelted. Quicksilver was obtained by sublimation in small quantity for the production of vermilion, and for amalgamation with gold and perhaps with silver.

In the late republic the chief source of the precious metals was Spain; and Hindostan was then, as it now is, called "the sink of silver." The Hindoos sent spices and muslins to the Mediterranean, and in exchange received about $50,000 annually in coin. Their trade gave employment to one hundred and twenty ships in the Red Sea, and to numerous caravans from Myos Hermas on the eastern shore of Egypt to the Nile. There were also caravans that brought silks from China.

Every leading handicraft had its guild or association, with written rules for the admission and expulsion of members, and mutual protection and assistance to the members and the widows of members. These guilds did not undertake to regulate the prices of labor or to prevent persons not members from getting employment. Each occupation had a street or district in Rome where most of its workshops could be found.

SEC. 495. Size of Rome.-Nearly all of the wall of Rome built before the time of Augustus and repaired in the IIIrd century A. D. by Aurelian, still stands with a circuit of thirteen miles and an inclosed area of about twelve square miles. The number of inhabitants is not reported to us by any ancient author, and the best materials for calculating the population are, first, the area, and, second, the number of persons supplied with free grain. The space within the walls is one-fifth of the space inside of the walls of Paris as they stood in 1824, when that city had 1,050,000 inhabitants. It is true that much of the space inside of the Parisian walls was not covered with houses in 1824, but that was also the case in ancient Rome, which had numerous large gardens and open spaces. If imperial Rome, when most flourishing, had on the average twice as many people to the acre as Paris had in 1824, the population was 420,000; if as many as Florence has now, it had 300,000. On the other hand we are told that when Julius Cæsar became master of the city, 320,000 persons were supplied with grain from the public stores; and this is stated as if these were all adult male citizens residing in or near the city. We are told, however, that there was no suburban population. Merivale, a writer of much authority, thinks the total population did not exceed 700,000. Friedlander

supposes that it was three or four times greater.

Merivale estimates the population of the early empire at 85,000,000, including 16,000,000 in Italy, 24,000,000 in other parts of Europe, 28,000,000 in Asia and Cyprus, and 17,000,000 in northern Africa.

The dwellings of imperial Rome have all been destroyed, but they were doubtless like those of Pompeii, except that generally they were higher and grander in style. Their material was brick or stone; and many of them had six or eight stories. The roofs and floors were of tile. The public buildings and the palaces of the wealthy families were cased inside and out with marble.

Before the time of Augustus the population of Italy began to decline. The devastations of the wars, the introduction of immense numbers of slaves, the increase of pasturage, and the more cruel exactions of the Romans in the allied states after the fear of foreign enemies diminished, all tended to impoverish the country. Large numbers of the freemen emigrated to Gaul and Spain, and smaller numbers to Sicily, Greece, Asia, and Africa. In 210 B. C. Italy furnished 200,000 men to the army; and two centuries later, not 40,000. Nor was the decay limited to Italy and to the time of the republic; it prevailed in many provinces. The most notable exceptions were Gaul and Spain, which, during the first two centuries of the empire, continued to increase in population and wealth.

The only large dome of ancient construction now in existence is that of the Pantheon in Rome. It has an

internal diameter of one hundred and forty-two, and a height of one hundred and forty-eight, feet from floor to ceiling. The aqueducts of imperial Rome were numerous and large. Their aggregate length was three

hundred and sixty miles, and they poured into the city 370,000,000 gallons every day. The arches still standing are in many places thirty or forty feet high for long distances; and several of the old conduits continue to carry their water. No other city has ever received so much water through aqueducts.

Many of the provincial cities were supplied with aqueducts under the Roman government. That of Nismes, the ruins of which are still standing, was one hundred and fifty feet high; that of Segovia, one hundred feet high; that of Tarragona, eighty-three feet high. The bridge of St. Angelo in Rome is one of the legacies of antiquity, and its masonry promises to last for many centu-ries more.

The streets of the cities were paved with flat stones, most of which were from a foot to a foot and a half across. These stones were too large, and after a few years of usage were too slippery for horses to trot over them, and the unevenness of surface was too great for wagons, unless moving with a slow walk. In Pompeii, the best place for observing the ordinary street pavement of the ancient Romans, there are large stepping-stones from fifteen to twenty inches across and fully six inches above the general level of the roadway, so that pedestrians could cross the street without getting into the mud. But the height and width of these stones, the short distances from crossing to crossing, and the narrowness of the roadways, indicate that the streets were not designed for pleasure

wagons.

The military roads of the Romans were about twelve feet wide, and had a foundation of broken stone a foot deep, to give drainage and solidity. Cuts and embankments were made to reduce steep grades; firm founda

tions were laid in swamps; bridges were built across streams and gullies; and tunnels were made through hills. Before our own century no other country did so much work on its roads as did Rome; but of late the grading of the ancients has sunk into relative insignificance.1

Relatively little use was made of wheeled vehicles. There was no cart with shafts to be drawn by one horse; no spring wagon; no conveyance like the modern stage or omnibus to furnish transportation to the general public; and no four-wheeled wagon in extensive use. Most of the carts were very heavy and were drawn by oxen. For horses there was no such harness as is now in use. There was neither collar for draught, nor traces, nor breeching. The wagon was drawn by the tongue, which, instead of being nearly level as in the modern wagon, rose at an angle of perhaps twenty degrees, so as to rest on a yoke, which was fastened to saddles on the backs of the horses. With this system all the horses must be side by side, and there must be two or four in the team. With small wheels, the draft was heavy; and without springs, driving over large stones could not be considered a source of pleasure.

As mariners the Romans did not excel, and they made no notable improvement in marine architecture, or important addition to the knowledge of commercial geography. They sent out no celebrated exploring expedition. They added nothing to the previous knowledge of southern Africa or eastern Asia. After 65 B. C. they had exclusive control of the shipping in the Mediterranean and in the Red Sea, so that maritime commerce was conducted with more system than before; but to the last, most of their merchant ships were built and manned by their provincial subjects.