The imperial palace was a maze of splendor such as Babylon had never
seen. It had its own great aqueducts to carry water for its fountains,
for the gardens and for the imperial baths that were as magnificent, if
not so large, as the Thermae of Titus. Palace after palace had been
wrecked, remodeled and included in the whole, under the succeeding
emperors, until the imperial quarters on the Palatine had grown into a
city within a city.

There were barracks for the praetorian guard that lacked not much of
being a fortress. Rooms and stairways for the countless slaves were
like honeycomb cells in the dark foundations. There were underground
passages, some of them secret, some notorious, connecting wing with
wing; and there was one, for the emperor's private use, that led to the
great arena where the games were held, so that he might come and go with
less risk of assassination.

Even temples had been taken over and included within the surrounding
wall to make room for the ever-multiplying suites of state apartments,
as each Caesar strove to outdo the magnificence of his predecessor.
Oriental marble, gold-leaf, exotic trees, silk awnings, fountains, the
majestic figures of the guards, the bronze doors and the huge height of
the buildings, awed even the Romans who were used to them.

The throne-room was a place of such magnificence that it was said that
even Caesar himself felt small in it. The foreign kings, ambassadors
and Roman citizens admitted there to audience were disciplined without
the slightest difficulty; there was no unseemliness, no haste, no