One side of the roadway in which stood Vetranio's palace was occupied,
along each extremity, as far as the eye could reach at night, by the
groves and outbuildings attached to the senator's mansion. The palace
grounds, at the higher and farther end of the street--looking from the
Pincian Gate--crossed it by a wide archway, and then stretched backward,
until they joined the trees of the little garden of Numerian's abode.
In a line with this house, but separated from it by a short space, stood
a long row of buildings, let out floor by floor to separate occupants,
and towering to an unwieldy altitude; for in ancient Rome, as in modern
London, in consequence of the high price of land in an over-populated
city, builders could only secure space in a dwelling by adding
inconveniently to its height. Beyond these habitations rose the trees
surrounding another patrician abode; and beyond that the houses took a
sudden turn, and nothing more was visible in a straight line but the
dusky, indefinite objects of the distant view.
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