Note 54: — XV.—TOOLS, BUILDING, AND SCULPTURE. (Wall-Cases 45-48.)

Towards the end of the Republic and under the Empire the Romans devoted much attention to the adornment of their buildings, public and private. For this purpose marbles of every variety were imported from all parts of the world, while an elaborate system of wall-painting was also developed. Mamurra, an officer of Julius Caesar, is said to have been the first to veneer the walls of his house with marble. A few selected examples from the Tolley collection of polished specimens of the materials used in ancient Rome are here exhibited (No. 498). The whole collection comprises some 700 specimens, so that we cannot be surprised that Pliny declines to enumerate the varieties known in his day, on account of the vastness of their number.54 The simpler building materials used at Rome were, besides the tiles or bricks already mentioned, the hard limestone rock known as travertine and the volcanic tufa and peperino. A specimen of the last is shown here.