Famously, Suetonius records the boast of the emperor Augustus that he found Rome made of brick and left it made of marble. Republican Rome had been a powerful and no doubt impressive city. Its physical fabric had been embellished over the centuries with public buildings and monuments erected largely by wealthy aristocrats. (We have already touched on the portrait-statues of these individuals, but other works, particularly temples, trumpeted their military prowess and political importance.) However, in the middle of the first century BC the city of Rome still lacked many of the splendours that even relatively unimportant Greek cities could boast, and its spaces and structures were sometimes run-down and disorganized. Powerful individuals in the late republic started to transform the city, competing to emulate the Greek towns with public works that reflected their wealth and authority.