On the opposite side of the road, beyond the earthen mounds of the
Horatii and Curiatii, a large mass of picturesque ruins covers the
Campagna for a considerable distance. The peasants persist in calling
this spot _Roma Vecchia_, under the idea that ancient Rome stood
there, and that these ruins are the remains of the city. Antiquarians,
however, are agreed that the ruins belong to the large suburban villa
of the Quintilii, one of the noblest and most virtuous families of
ancient Rome. One member, the celebrated rhetorician Quintilian, was
the first who enjoyed the regular salary allotted by Vespasian to
those who provided a solid education for the upper classes. In the
time of the Emperor Commodus the villa was owned by two brothers of
the Quintilian family, Maximus and Condianus, whose fraternal love is
as well known almost as the friendship of Damon and Pythias. They were
inseparable in all their pursuits and pleasures; they shared this
villa and the surrounding property together; they composed a treatise
in common, some fragments of which still survive. They were raised
together to the consular dignity by Marcus Aurelius, who greatly
valued their virtue and their mutual attachment, and were entrusted
together with the civil government of Greece. They were both falsely
accused of taking part in a plot against the emperor's life; and
Commodus, who coveted their property, had them both put to death
together. The tyrant then took possession of their villa, which became
as notorious for the evil deeds done in it as it was famous before for
the virtuous life of its owners. Here Commodus, the base son of a
heroic father, practised those lusts and brutalities which have
branded his name as that of one of the most unmitigated monsters that
ever stained the pages of history. It was here that the
people--exasperated by their sufferings through fire and famine, by
the open sale of justice and all public offices, and by the blood shed
in the streets by the prætorian cavalry--surrounded the villa, and