(Entrance, one lira)

stands on the slope of the heights of Tivoli, from which it is only thirty minutes' walk. It once covered an area of several square miles; and its magnificent grounds, unequalled in the Roman Empire, were laid out by Hadrian in order to assemble within them models of everything that had struck him during his travels, and accordingly they were filled with the finest statuary, palaces, temples, theatres, circuses, and academies. Some of the finest antique statues were found here under the popes. All this sumptuousness was destroyed in the sixth century by the Goths. Extensive ruins still exist. It is thus described by Pope Pius II.:—

"About the third of a mile from the city of Tivoli, the Emperor Hadrian built a very splendid villa, like a great village. The lofty and vast roofs of the temples still remain; the columns of the peristyles and sublime porticoes may yet be gazed at with admiration. There are still the remains of the piscinas and baths, where a canal derived from the Anio once cooled the summer heats.

"Age deforms all things: the ivy now drapes those walls once covered with painted hangings and cloths woven with gold; thorns and brambles have grown where purple-clothed tribunes sat; and snakes inhabit the chambers of queens. Thus perishable is the nature of all things mortal."

PLAN OF HADRIAN'S VILLA AT TIVOLI.
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VILLA OF HADRIAN.
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