But in the later period of the Roman republic some of the oligarchical leaders and successful generals constructed large buildings, of which traces can now be found. Thus the foundations of the temples and of the portico built in the Campus Martius by Metellus Macedonicus and by Cn. Octavius can be still recognised, and ruins of the immense stone theatre of Pompeius Magnus remain to the present day. But the greater portion of the ruins of Rome dates from the Augustan age and the subsequent imperial ages. First among them stands the Pantheon, which has kept its roof and its original structure uninjured through the storms and earthquakes and the wasting hand of time during more than nineteen centuries. It bears the date of B.C. 27 on the frieze of its portico. The Theatre of Marcellus must be next mentioned, and the Mausoleum of Augustus. To the Julian dynasty may be also ascribed the colossal columns of the Temple of Mars Ultor, with the huge wall adjoining them, and the Egyptian obelisks which still decorate some of the piazzas. To the same dynasty we owe the vast arches of the Claudian aqueduct, and the massive brick foundation of the Palatine palace.
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The Flavian dynasty, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian changed the characteristic features of the city of Rome. Where Caligula and Nero had covered the ground with costly palaces and pleasure-grounds, the Flavian emperors built the resorts of military and of national life. The Coliseum and the Arch of Titus were the fit accompaniments of their world-subduing, blood-thirsty legions, and the Baths of Titus, and the public reception rooms on the Palatine, encouraged the citizen life of Rome once more to develop itself.
The political aims and imperial ideas of Trajan, Hadrian and the Antonines are nobly illustrated by the modifications and enlargements they introduced in the structure and extent of the city of Rome. Trajan in his magnificent Forum and library sought to encourage the metropolitan life and literary tastes of the nation, while on his storied column he recorded their world-wide triumphs and reminded them of their enormous power.
The Mausoleum of Hadrian remains to commemorate the vast and ponderous strength of his rule, and the Aurelian Column stands to attest the lofty magnificence of the Antonine dynasty.
In the reign of Commodus, between the Antonine era and the time of Severus, a great fire devastated the central districts of Rome. The restorations effected by Severus and the popular policy of his successors are commemorated in the Arch of Severus, the Portico of the Pantheon, and the huge ruins of the Baths of Caracalla. The defensive power of the Roman nation then became gradually weaker and weaker, till in sixty years after the time of Caracalla, Aurelian commenced the sad task of home fortification. His walls, which were completed a hundred years later by Honorius, still surround the greater part of Rome. During these hundred years the power of the Constantinian rule, of which the great basilica and arch remain monuments, and the warlike courage of Diocletian revived for a time the imperial spirit at Rome.