Rome became dependent upon wells and the Tiber, wretched
resource compared with the never-failing and abundant streams which
once poured through every region of the city and threw up fountains
in all but every street. Belisarius, as soon as the Goths retreated,
ordered the repairing of an aqueduct, that which served the
transtiberine district, and was indispensable to the working of the
Janiculan mills, where corn was ground; but, after his departure,
there was neither enough energy nor sufficient sense of security in
Rome for the restoration of even one of the greater conduits. Nobles
and populace alike lived without the bath, grew accustomed to more
or less uncleanliness, and in a certain quarter suffered worse than
inconvenience from the lack of good water.
Formerly a young Roman of Basil's rank, occupied or not by any
serious pursuit, would have spent several hours of the day at one or
other of the Thermae still in use; if inclined to display, he would
have gone thither with a train of domestic attendants, and probably
of parasites; were the season hot, here he found coolness; were it
cold, here he warmed himself.
Pages:
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269