XXIX

All that the Egyptians once devised,
All that Greece, with its Corinthian,
Ionic, Attic, and its Dorian
Ornament, in its temples apprised,

All that the art of Lysippus comprised,
The hand of Apelles, or the Phidian,
That used to adorn this city, and this land,
Grandeur that even Heaven once surprised,

All that Athens in its wisdom showed,
All that from richest Asia ever flowed,
All that from Africa strange and new was sent,

Was here on view. O wonder now unfurled!
Living Rome, the ornament of the world,
Now dead, remains the world’s monument.