all the amenities known to the modern world were seen, especially in Athens and Corinth and the Ionian capitals.  What could be more polite and courteous than the intercourse carried on in Greece among cultivated and famous people?  When were symposia more attractive than when the elite of Athens, in the time of Pericles, feasted and communed together?  When was art ever brought in support of luxury to greater perfection?  We read of libraries and books and booksellers, of social games, of attractive gardens and villas, as well as of baths and spectacles, of markets and fora in Athens.  The common life of a Pericles or a Cicero differed but little from that of modern men of rank and fortune.

In describing the various arts which marked the nations of antiquity, we cannot but feel that in a material point of view the ancient civilization in its important features was as splendid as our own.  In the decoration of houses, in social entertainments, in cookery, the Romans were our equals.  The mosaics, the signet rings, cameos, bracelets, bronzes, vases, couches, banqueting-tables, lamps, colored glass, potteries, all attest great elegance and beauty.  The tables of thuga root and Delian bronze were as expensive as modern sideboards; wood and ivory were carved in Rome as exquisitely as in Japan and China; mirrors were made of polished silver.  Glass-cutters could imitate the colors of precious stones so well that the Portland vase, from the tomb of Alexander Severus, was long considered as a genuine sardonyx.  The palace of Nero glittered with gold and jewels; perfumes and flowers were showered from ivory ceilings.  The halls of Heliogabalus were hung with cloth of gold, enriched with jewels; his beds were silver, and his tables of gold.  A banquet dish of Drusillus weighed five hundred pounds of silver.  Tunics were embroidered with the figures of various animals; sandals were garnished with precious stones.  Paulina wore jewels, when she paid visits, valued at $800,000.  Drinking-cups were engraved with scenes from the poets; libraries were adorned with busts, and presses of rare woods; sofas were inlaid with tortoise-shell, and covered with gorgeous purple.  The Roman grandees rode in gilded chariots, bathed in marble baths, dined from golden plate, drank from crystal cups, slept on beds of down, reclined on luxurious couches, wore embroidered robes, and were adorned with precious stones.  They ransacked the earth and the seas for rare dishes for their banquets, and ornamented their houses with carpets from Babylon, onyx cups from Bithynia, marbles from Numidia, bronzes from Corinth, statues from Athens,—­whatever, in short, was precious or rare or curious in the most distant countries.

What a concentration of material wonders was to be seen in all the countries that bordered on the Mediterranean,—­not merely in Italy and Greece, but in Sicily and Asia Minor, and even in Gaul and Spain!  Every country was dotted with cities, villas, and farms.  Every country was famous for oil, or fruit, or wine, or vegetables, or timber, or flocks, or pastures, or horses.  More than two hundred and fifty cities or towns in Italy alone are historical, and some were famous.