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.
2.
3.
4.
"Arte pavimenti atque emblemate vermiculato;"
literary compositions being compared by him to the artificial construction
of a pavement.