Augustus Caesar said, "I found it [Rome] a city of bricks, and left it a city of ...."

One of Emperor Augustus Caesar's most famous quotations came from Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius. He was a Roman historian belonging to the equestrian order who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. In his writings, The Life of Augustus, Suetonius held that Augustus said, "I found it [Rome] a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.

Suetonius also wrote, "Since the city was not adorned as the dignity of the empire demanded, and was exposed to flood and fire, he [Augustus] so beautified it that he could justly boast that he had found it built of brick and left it in marble. He made it safe too for the future."

Today, it is believed that only a small number of the buildings in Augustan Rome were converted from brick to marble. Plus, these marble buildings were badly placed within the city's landscape.

Before Augustus came to power, the Carrara marble quarries on the northwest coast of Italy were opened, and the Roman world entered an era of true peace, called the the Pax Romana. With the availability of marble and absence of war, the emperor was free to begin a massive construction project in the city.

Augustus commissioned large marble structures, some of which took 40 years to complete. As a result, massive marble blocks were being moved through the city. Because people saw construction taking place they really believed that Rome had been transformed into marble. But in reality, Rome was not really changed.”