37. The 'carrucae', or coaches of the Romans, were often of
solid silver curiously carved and engraved; and the
trappings of the mules or horses were embossed with gold.
This magnificence continued from the reign of Nero to that
of Honorius; and the Appian way was covered with the
splendid equipages of the nobles, who came out to meet St.
Melania when she returned to Rome six years before the
Gothic siege (Seneca, Epist. lxxxvii.; Plin. Hist. Natur.
xxxiii. 49; Paulin. Nolan. apud Baron. Annal. Eccles. A.D.
397, No. 5). Yet pomp is well exchanged for convenience; and
a plain modern coach that is hung upon springs is much
preferable to the silver or gold 'carts' of antiquity, which
rolled on the axletree, and were exposed, for the most part,
to the inclemency of the weather.