From miles away the travelers could see the roofs of the temples on the hill called the Capitol. Their fresh gilding gleamed in the sunlight,, and as the men drew nearer they saw that the temples had all been newly painted and their stonework restored. The road was lined with tombs, and these, too, had been carefully restored and planted all around with new trees and shrubs.
"They restored the temples and the tombs first," Zeno noted. "The Romans were a famously pious people."
"It's not much of a town," Izates said.
"Your Alexandria sets a high standard. In Athens, only the Acropolis is truly beautiful. So it is here. It looks as if they took pains to embellish their public places and let the rest of the city sprawl in all directions with no planning. But look at the walls."
"What about them?"
"They have been restored; you can see the new stonework. But they have made no effort to strengthen them further. They haven't been raised; there are no new defensive towers, no protective ditch dug, nothing."
"An odd oversight for people who can expect a Carthaginian offensive at any moment. The army Hamilcar sent to Egypt is said to be huge, and it must be on its way to Italy by now."
"I don't think it was an oversight," Zeno said. "I heard that their capital in Noricum has no wall at all. Like the Spartans, the Romans believed that a wall would breed a cautious, defensive attitude. They preferred to entrust their safety to the perfection of their legions. They've restored this wall because it is ancient and was built by one of their kings before Rome became a republic."
"Like these Romans, the old Spartans were arrogant. Where are the Spartans now? The city is nothing and the men are the hirelings of others because they know no art save soldiering."
"Gorgas," Zeno said, "did you spend much time in Rome after you came south?"
"Just a few days. They were still dredging out the Forum. It had reverted to the marsh it once was. There is a vast drain under there, the Cloaca Maxima. It was built by another old king. They were getting it unplugged when my master took me down to Tarentum. Half the city was still in ruins. Old Hannibal's men did a thorough job of wrecking the place and after that the people who moved in grazed their cattle and sheep in the public places."
"Who moved in?" Zeno asked.
"After the Romans were exiled there were still plenty of Italians who had never really reconciled themselves to Roman rule: Campanians, Lucanians, Samnites, Etruscans and so forth. They brought their livestock and cut up the old estates into small farms. The big plantations are mainly to the south of here."
"Where are those people now?" Izates wanted to know.
Gorgas shrugged. "Pushed out. Some have hired on as labor. Some will probably be tenant farmers for the big Roman landlords. The Romans don't think the descendants of the people who wouldn't go north with the exile to be worthy of citizenship. There is talk that some will be drafted into the navy Rome is going to build. That way they may in time earn at least partial citizenship."
They entered the city through a gate whose stonework was ancient, but its wooden doors were so new that the timbers still oozed sap and their ironwork was still bright. Traffic in and out was brisk, but there were no guards to accost them or demand their business.
"This is the Capena Gate," Gorgas told them.
They passed beneath two. aqueducts that ran parallel to the city wall and thence into a district of low houses. Within a few minutes they came to a valley dominated by an immense structure from which came the sound of intense hammering. The end they came to was rounded and the rest of it stretched straight northwest for an unbelievable distance.
"No need to tell us what this is," Zeno said. "This has to be the Great Circus." The histories he had read all mentioned the Romans' passion for chariot races and the unprecedentedly huge structure they had erected for the purpose. It was built primarily of wood, and wagonload after wagonload of lumber stretched in a. chain from the nearby river wharfs. Slaves were busily painting away with brushes the size of brooms.
"The Romans have a taste for the gaudy and garish," Izates said. "When this monstrosity is finished, it will serve as a new standard for tastelessness."
"Considering the many oversized monuments of Alexandria," Zeno said, "that seems unwarranted."
"I confess that my native city is addicted to grotesque grandiosity. The successors of Alexander sought to cover their backwoods origins with a surfeit of marble and gilding. But at least they had the decency to employ Greek artists and architects who possessed a modicum of restraint."