quote · Legacy record
Rome was mud and smoky skies; the rank smell of the Tiber and the exotically spiced cooking fires of a hundred different nationalities. Rome was white marble and gilding and heady perfumes; the blare of trumpets and the shrieking of market-women and the eternal, sub-aural hum of more people, speaking more languages than Gaius had ever imagined existed, crammed together on seven hills whose contours had long ago disappeared beneath this encrustation if humanity. Rome was the pulsing heart of the world.
Rome was mud and smoky skies; the rank smell of the Tiber and the exotically spiced cooking fires of a hundred different nationalities. Rome was white marble and gilding and heady perfumes; the blare of trumpets and the shrieking of market-women and the eternal, sub-aural hum of more people, speaking more languages than Gaius had ever imagined existed, crammed together on seven hills whose contours had long ago disappeared beneath this encrustation if humanity. Rome was the pulsing heart of the world.
Approximate author period: c. 1952 AD · modern
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- Author or tradition
- Marion Zimmer Bradley
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1952 AD · modern
Approximate author-period evidence for Marion Zimmer Bradley: documented activity in 1952. Wikidata Q465179, inspected 2026-10-08. Not a quotation composition date or independent verification of attribution. Source: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q465179 (accessed 2026-10-08).
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 90628; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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