So then he entered Rome, the home of empire and of every virtue, and when he had come to the Rostra, the most renowned forum of ancient dominion, he stood amazed; and on every side on which his eyes rested he was dazzled by the array of marvellous sights. He addressed the nobles in the senate-house and the populace from the tribunal, and being welcomed to the palace with manifold attentions, he enjoyed a longed-for pleasure; and on several occasions, when holding equestrian games, he took delight in the sallies of the commons, who were neither presumptuous nor regardless of their old-time freedom, while he himself also respectfully observed the due mean.

For he did not (as in the case of other cities) permit the contests to be terminated at his own discretion, but left them (as the custom is) to various chances. Then, as he surveyed the sections of the city and its suburbs, lying within the summits of the seven hills, along their slopes, or on level ground, he thought that whatever first met his gaze towered above all the rest: the sanctuaries of Tarpeian Jove so far surpassing as things divine excel those of earth; the baths built up to the measure of provinces; the huge bulk of the amphitheatre, strengthened by its framework of Tiburtine stone,Travertine. to whose top human eyesight barely ascends; the Pantheon like a rounded city-district,Regio here refers to one of the regions, or districts, into which the city was divided. vaulted over in lofty beauty; and the exalted heights which rise with platforms to which one may mount, and bear the likenesses of former emperors;The columns of Trajan, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. The platform at the top was reached by a stairway within the column. the Temple of the City,The double temple of Venus and Roma, built by Hadriian and dedicated in A.D. 135 the Forum of Peace,The Forum Pacis, or Vespasiani, was begun by Vespasian in A.D. 71, after the taking of Jerusalem, and dedicated in 75. It lay behind the basilica Aemilia. the Theatre of Pompey,Built in 55 B.C. in the Campus Martius. the Oleum,A building for musical performances, erected by Domitian, probably near his Stadium. the Stadium,The Stadium of Domitian in the Campus Martius, the shape and size of which is almost exactly preserved by the modern Piazza Navona. and amongst these the other adornments of the Eternal City.

But when he came to the Forum of Trajan, a construction unique under the heavens, as we believe, and admirable even in the unanimous opinion of the gods, he stood fast in amazement, turning his attention to the gigantic complex about him, beggaring description and never again to be imitated by mortal men. Therefore abandoning all hope of attempting anything like it, he said that he would and could copy Trajan’s steed alone, which stands in the centre of the vestibule, carrying the emperor himself.

To this prince Ormisda, who was standing near him, and whose departure from Persia I have described above,In 323 (Zosimus, ii. 27); hence in one of the lost books of Ammianus. replied with native wit: First, Sire, said he, command a like stable to be built, if you can; let the steed which you propose to create range as widely as this which we see. When Ormisda was asked directly what he thought of Rome, he said that he took comfortValesius read displicuisse, and was followed by Gibbon. Robert Heron (pseudonym of John Pinkerton) in (London, 1789), xii., p. 68, discusses this remark at some length, disagreeing with Gibbon. He thinks that the prince’s envy at the pleasures of the inhabitants of Rome could only be moderated by the reflection that their pleasures were transitory. in this fact alone, that he had learned that even there men were mortal.