18. Mr. Hume is justly surprised at a passage in Herodian
(1. iv. p. 139), who, on this occasion, represents the
Imperial palace as equal in extent to the rest of Rome. The
whole region of the Palatine Mount on which it was built,
occupied, at most, a circumference of eleven or twelve
thousand feet (Notitia and Victor, in Nardini's Roma
Antica). But we should recollect that the opulent senators
had almost surrounded the city with their extensive gardens
and suburban palaces, the greatest part of which had been
gradually confiscated by the emperors. If Geta resided in
the gardens that bore his name in the Janiculum; and if
Caracalla inhabited the gardens of Maecenas on the
Esquiline, the rival brothers were separated from each other
by the distance of several miles; and yet the intermediate
space was filled by the imperial gardens of Sallust, of
Lucullus, of Agrippas of Domitian, of Caius, etc., all
skirting round the city, and all connected with each other,
and with the palace, by bridges thrown over the Tiber and
the streets. But this explanation of Herodian would require,
though it ill deserves, a particular dissertation,
illustrated by a map of ancient Rome.