30 NOVEMBER 1907, Page 26

What Rome Was Built With. By Mary Wincarle Porter. (H.

Frowde. 3s. 6d. net.)—This is a carious bypath of history. No one would imagine how large the subject is. It was Augustus's boast that he found a Rome of brick and left a Rome of marble. But when we inquire how many kinds of marble are to be found in the great city we begin to understand what the boast meant. Italy supplied the famous Carrara marble; Africa the marmor Numidicum, with its endless varieties of colour; Egypt the marmor Alabastrum ; France the marmor Celticum ; and Greece many varieties from Chios, Carystos, Hymettus, Pares, Scyros, Taenarus, and other places. Even Western Asia contributed kinds of its. own. Other stones besides marble were used; there was tuff,, oiler, porphyry, granite, verde antico, basalt, and others. All this,. with many details which we must leave unnoticed, makes up a highly interesting book.