There is no more unerring index to the character of a people than the streets of their cities.
It is near evening.

In the widest part of the Campus Martius crowds of people are assembled before the gates of a palace.

They are congregated to receive several baskets of provisions, distributed with ostentatious charity by the owner of the mansion.

The incessant clamour and agitation of the impatient multitude form a strange contrast to the stately serenity of the natural and artificial objects by which they are enclosed on all sides.
The space they occupy is oblong in shape and of great extent in size.
Part of it is formed by a turf walk shaded with trees, part by the paved approaches to the palace and the public baths which stand in its immediate neighbourhood.

These two edifices are remarkable by their magnificent outward adornments of statues, and the elegance and number of the flights of steps by which they are respectively entered.