Augustus.
Chat with our AI personalities
"I found Rome a city of brick and left it a city of marble." -Augustus when Augustus took over Rome, it was in really bad condition, but through his reign he improved Rome and was able to restore it to what it had been in the early reign of Caesar and improve it further. When he started his reign, conditions were bad (bricks) after he restored it, it became marble. Marble is also a very sturdy stone and also refers to how he strengthened Rome.
You are thinking of Augustus.
Augustus summed up his view in a famous sentence he said on his deathbed: "I found Rome a city of brick and left it a city of marble."
He was a very big patron of the arts and he boasted that he found Rome a city of bricks and left it in marble.
an old peace of brick