A complete dictionary of the Greek and Roman antiquities explaining the obscure places in classic authors and ancient historians relating to the religion, mythology, history, geography and chronology of the ancient Greeks and Romans, their ... rites and customs, laws, polity, arts and engines of war : also an account of their navigations, arts and sciences and the inventors of them : with the lives and opinions of their philosophers / compiled originally in French ... by Monsieur Danet ; made English, with the addition of very useful mapps.

AEDES,

in the singular number, is a House in general, whether publick or private, in the City or the Country: yet according to exact Propriety of Speech, Aedes was used for Houses in the City, and Villa for those in the Coun∣try. Nevertheless, in the Numbring of the People made by the Censors, Villae were called Aedes.

The Romans, till the time of Pyrrhus, i. e. for more than four hundred Years, had their Houses built after a very plain fashion. They were made like a Terras, cover'd with Slates and Straw, according to the Testimony of Varro, scandulis robusteis & stramento tectae. But in af∣ter-ages the Magnificence of their Buildings grew to such an Excess, that the Author of the Preface to Vitruvius says, the House of a private Person was found to amount to near fifty Millions; and an Aedile caused to be built, in less than a year's time, a Theatre, which had three hundred and sixty-Pillars, whereof the lowermost, which were of Mar∣ble, were forty feet high; those in the middle were of Brass, and those in the third rank were of Crystal: 'tis said also that this Theatre was adorn'd with three thousand Statues of Brass; and, after all, that this so magnificent Building was to serve only for six Weeks.

We shall elsewhere give an account of the Magnificence of their publick Building.

The Pomp and Accommodations of the Ro∣man Houses were remarkable for their Height, the great number of Apartments they had for Summer and Winter, for divers Ornaments of Atchitecture used about them, as well as for the Beauty and scarceness of the Materials of which the Bulk of the Building consisted. They raised their Houses to such a monstrous Height, that to prevent the Ruine of many Houses, Augustus confin'd their Height to se∣venty feet, and Nero to sixty only. The Ora∣tor Aristides considering this excessive Height, says, That if one should take asunder all the Raf∣ters of their Houses, and range them in order one beside another, they would cover all Italy from Ti∣ber as far as the Ionian Sea. These Houses had many Partitions consisting of several Apart∣ments, which made them to be taken for so many Towns. 'Tis a strange thing, says Valerius Maximus upon this occasion, that the Grandees of Rome thought their Houses were confin'd within too narrow bounds, tho they were of as large extent as the Inheritance of Cincinnatus; Angustè se habi∣tare

credunt, quorum domus tantum patet, quantum Cincinnati rura patuerunt. Seneca adds, That they built Courts as large as Towns, and Houses as high as Mountains. Ovid informs us, That Vedeius Pollio having left, as a Legacy by his Last Will, to Augustus, a very magnificent and sumptuous House; this wise Prince, who then discharg'd the Office of Censor, thought that the excessive Magnifi∣cence of this stately House was a bad Example, and therefore caus'd it to be demolished. After this Livia built in the same place a Temple, which she dedicated to Conjugal Concord. We scarce read any thing else in the Historians and Poets but Invectives against the Houses of the Grandees of Rome, which had coop'd up the Country Farmers within a very narrow com∣pass, which took up whole Countries, and en∣closed Canals of Water, round and four-squa∣red, of very large extent upon the great Lakes of Italy; whereas in former times, the Houses of private Men were small, and the Republick great, all sumptuous Buildings were reserv'd for the publick Conveniencies of Cities, or the Adorning of Temples. This is what Horace tells us in these Verses,

Iam pauca aratro jugera regia Males relinquunt: undique latins Extenta visentur Lucrino Stagna lacu, platanusque coelebs Evincet ulmos.—Non it a Romuli Praescriptum, & intensi Catonis Auspiciis, veterumque norma. Privatus illis census erat brevis: Commune magnum—oppida publico Sumtu jubentes, & Deorum Templa nove decorare saxo. Od. 15. lib. 11.

This Poet elsewhere blames one of his Friends, who had reason to apprehend the approach of Death, and yet was still projecting to build Works of Marble; The his whole Thoughts ought to be employ'd upon Death and the Grave, yet the Earth was not large enough for his Designs, and he undertook to turn back the Sea, to make may for his Buildings; he drove away his Neighbours, whose Lands were added to his own, instead of thinking in how few days he himself should be laid in a Grave, which would take up no more room than those he had driven away from their Possessions. The same Com∣plaints we may make at this day, of the great∣est part of the Grandees, who enlarge their own Lands at the expence of private Men:

Non ebur, neque aureum Meâ renides in domo lacunar— Tu secanda marmora Lacas sub ipsum funus: & sepulcri Immemor struis domos: Marisque Baiis obstrepentis urges Summovere littora, Parúen locuples centinente ripa. Quid quod usque proximos Revellis agri terminos? & ultra Limites clientium Salis avarus?— —Quid ultrà tendis? Aequa tellas Pauperi recluditur, Regumque pueris, &c. Od. 18. lib. 11.