CHAP. 61.—THE FIRST PAVEMENTS IN USE AT ROME.

The first pavements, in my opinion, were those now known to us as barbaric and subtegulan[1] pavements, a kind of work that was beaten down with the rammer: at least if we may form a judgment from the name[2] that has been given to them. The first diamonded[3] pavement at Rome was laid in the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, after the commencement of the Third Punic War. That pavements had come into common use before the Cimbric War, and that a taste for them was very prevalent, is evident from the line of Lucilius— "With checquered emblems like a pavement marked."[4]

1. "Subtegulanea."—"Under cover;" in contradistinction to the "subdialia" of next Chapter.

2. "Pavimentum," from "pavio," to "beat down."

3. "Scutulatum."—Having figures in the shape of a lozenge or rhombus.

4. The line is, "Arte pavimenti atque emblemate vermiculato;" literary compositions being compared by him to the artificial construction of a pavement.