perpendicular. The cause of this very extraordinary inclination is supposed to be a want of care in the laying the foundation. Upon which subject the reader may consult Mr. Tappen, who has given a very interesting description of this town in his "Archi. tecture of France and Italy."

Of far higher antiquity is the celebrated column of Trajan at Rome, which we have selected for representation from an infinite multiplicity of superb remains which yet mark the universal sway which the mistress of the world once exercised. This was erected together with a long list of other public and magnificent edifices by the emperor whose name it bears; but it is regarded as his masterpiece. It stands in the middle of a square, to form which he levelled a hill of a hundred and forty feet high, and intended it both as a tomb for himself, and to show the height of the hill be had thus levelled, as appears from the inscription on its base, bearing date the seventeenth year of his tribunitial power, equivalent to the year of Christ, 114. The emperor Constantius, two centuries and a half afterwards, regarded this column and square as the most magnificent edifice by which Rome was even at that time embellished.

Nor can we avoid, while thus treading on classic ground, glan. cing at the far-famed colosseum or amphitheatre, the stately remains of which are to be seen in our own day, commenced by Vespasian, and finished by Titus, in the eighteenth year of the Christian æra. Upon its dedication, by this last emperor, on account of its completion, he gratuitously indulged the Roman peo. ple with public spectacles of the utmost magnificence, which lasted more than a hundred days. According to Dio Cassius, this sump. tuous building was erected in what then constituted the heart of the city; but such are the changes which Rome has since under. gone, that its ruins are in the present day in the outskirts. [Ammiam. Dio. Editor.

SECTION XIX.

Temple of Sancta Sophia, at Constantinople.

CONSTANTINE designed the metropolis that was built by himself and still bears his name, as the rival of Rome; and his successors pursued the same intention. With this view, Justinian in the sixth century, erected the venerable and magnificent monument before