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The amphitheatre stands some hundred yards from the theatres, in the south-eastern angle of the walls of the town. Although, perhaps, of Etruscan origin, the exhibitions of the amphitheatre are so peculiarly Roman, and Pompeii contains so many mementos of them, that a detailed account of them will not perhaps be misplaced. At an early period, B.C. 263, the practice of compelling human beings to fight for the amusement of spectators was introduced; and twelve years later the capture of several elephants in the first Punic war proved the means of introducing the chase, or rather the slaughter, of wild beasts into the Roman circus. The taste for these spectacles increased of course with its indulgence, and their magnificence with the wealth of the city and the increasing facility and inducement to practice bribery which was offered by the increased extent of provinces subject to Rome. It was not, however, until the last period of the republic, or rather until the domination of the emperors had collected into one channel the tributary wealth which previously was divided among a numerous aristocracy, that buildings were erected solely for the accommodation of gladiatorial shows; buildings entirely beyond the compass of a subject's wealth, and in which perhaps the magnificence of imperial Rome is most amply displayed. Numerous examples scattered throughout her empire, in a more or less advanced state of decay, still attest the luxury and solidity of their construction; while at Rome the Coliseum (see frontispiece) asserts the pre-eminent splendor of the metropolis—a monument surpassed in magnitude by the Pyramids alone, and as superior to them in skill and varied contrivance of design as to other buildings in its gigantic magnitude.

VIEW OF THE AMPHITHEATRE AT POMPEII.

The Greek word, which by a slight alteration of its termination we render amphitheatre, signifies a theatre, or place of spectacles, forming a continuous inclosure, in opposition to the simple theatre, which, as we have said, was semicircular, but with the seats usually continued somewhat in advance of the diameter of the semicircle. The first amphitheatre seems to have been that of Curio, consisting of two movable theatres, which could be placed face to face or back to back, according to the species of amusement for which they were required.

Usually, gladiatorial shows were given in the Forum, and the chase and combats of wild beasts exhibited in the Circus, where once, when Pompey was celebrating games, some enraged elephants broke through the barrier which separated them from the spectators. This circumstance, together with the unsuitableness of the Circus for such sports, from its being divided into two compartments by the spina, a low wall surmounted by pillars, obelisks, and other ornamental erections, as well as from its disproportionate length, which rendered it ill adapted to afford a general view to all the spectators, determined Julius Cæsar, in his dictatorship, to construct a wooden theatre in the Campus Martius, built especially for hunting, "which was called amphitheatre (apparently the first use of the word) because it was encompassed by circular seats without a scene."

The first permanent amphitheatre was built partly of stone and partly of wood, by Statilius Taurus, at the instigation of Augustus, who was passionately fond of these sports, especially of the hunting of rare beasts. This was burnt during the reign of Nero, and though restored, fell short of the wishes of Vespasian, who commenced the vast structure completed by his son Titus—called the Flavian Amphitheatre, and subsequently the Coliseum. The expense of this building it is said would have sufficed to erect a capital city, and, if we may credit Dion, 9,000 wild beasts were destroyed in its dedication. Eutropius restricts the number to 5,000. When the hunting was over the arena was filled with water, and a sea-fight ensued.

The construction of these buildings so much resembles the construction of theatres, that it will not be necessary to describe them at any great length. Without, they usually presented to the view an oval wall, composed of two or more stories of arcades, supported by piers of different orders of architecture adorned with pilasters or attached pillars. Within, an equal number of stories of galleries gave access to the spectators at different elevations, and the inclined plane of the seats was also supported upon piers and vaults, so that the ground plan presented a number of circular rows of piers, arranged in radii converging to the centre of the arena. A suitable number of doors opened upon the ground floor, and passages from thence, intersecting the circular passages between the piers, gave an easy access to every part of the building. Sometimes a gallery encompassed the whole, and served as a common access to all the stairs which led to the upper stories. This was the case in the amphitheatre at Nismes. Sometimes each staircase had its distinct communication from without: this was the case at Verona.

The arrangement of the seats was the same as in theatres; they were divided horizontally by præcinctiones, and vertically into cunei by staircases. The scene and apparatus of the stage was of course wanting, and its place occupied by an oval area, called arena, from the sand with which it was sprinkled, to absorb the blood shed, and give a firmer footing than that afforded by a stone pavement. It was sunk twelve or fifteen feet below the lowest range of seats, to secure the spectators from injury, and was besides fenced with round wooden rollers turning in their sockets, placed horizontally against the wall, such as the reader may have observed placed on low gates to prevent dogs from climbing over, and with strong nets. In the time of Nero these nets were knotted with amber, and the Emperor Carinus caused them to be made of golden cord or wire. Sometimes, for more complete security, ditches, called euripi, surrounded the arena. This was first done by Cæsar, as a protection to the people against the elephants which he exhibited, that animal being supposed to be particularly afraid of water. The arena was sometimes spread with pounded stone. Caligula, in a fit of extravagance, used chrysocolla; and Nero, to surpass him, caused the brilliant red of cinnabar to be mixed with it.

In the centre of the arena was an altar dedicated sometimes to Diana or Pluto, more commonly to Jupiter Latiaris, the protector of Latium, in honor of whom human sacrifices were offered. Passages are to be found in ancient writers, from which it is inferred that the games of the amphitheatre were usually opened by sacrificing a bestiarius, one of those gladiators whose profession was to combat wild beasts, in honor of this bloodthirsty deity. Beneath the arena dens are supposed to have been constructed to contain wild beasts.

At the Coliseum numerous underground buildings are said by Fulvius to have existed, which he supposed to be sewers constructed to drain and cleanse the building. Others with more probability have supposed them to be the dens of wild beasts. Immense accommodation was requisite to contain the thousands of animals which were slaughtered upon solemn occasions, but no great provision need have been made to carry off the rain-water which fell upon the six acres comprised within the walls of the building. Others again have supposed them formed to introduce the vast bodies of water by which the arena was suddenly transformed into a lake when imitations of naval battles were exhibited. Doors pierced in the wall which supported the podium communicated with these, or with other places of confinement beneath the part allotted to the audience, which being thrown open, vast numbers of animals could be introduced at once. Vopiscus tells us that a thousand ostriches, a thousand stags, and a thousand boars were thrown into the arena at once by the Emperor Probus. Sometimes, to astonish, and attract by novelty, the arena was converted into a wood. "Probus," says the same author, "exhibited a splendid hunting match, after the following manner: Large trees torn up by the roots were firmly connected by beams, and fixed upright; then earth was spread over the roots, so that the whole circus was planted to resemble a wood, and offered us the gratification of a green scene."

The same order of precedence was observed as at the theatre—senators, knights, and commons having each their appropriate place. To the former was set apart the podium, a broad precinction or platform which ran immediately round the arena. Hither they brought the curule seats or bisellia, described in speaking of the theatres of Pompeii; and here was the suggestus, a covered seat appropriated to the Emperor. It is supposed that in this part of the building there were also seats of honor for the exhibitor of the games and the vestal virgins. If the podium was insufficient for the accommodation of the senators, some of the adjoining seats were taken for their use. Next to the senators sat the knights, who seem here, as in the theatre, to have had fourteen rows set apart for them; and with them sat the civil and military tribunes. Behind were the popularia, or seats of the plebeians. Different tribes had particular cunei allotted to them. There were also some further internal arrangements, for Augustus separated married from unmarried men, and assigned a separate cuneus to youths, near whom their tutors were stationed. Women were stationed in a gallery, and attendants and servants in the highest gallery. The general direction of the amphitheatre was under the care of an officer named villicus amphitheatri. Officers called locarii attended to the distribution of the people, and removed any person from a seat which he was not entitled to hold. We may notice, as a refinement of luxury, that concealed conduits were carried throughout these buildings, from which scented liquids were scattered over the audience. Sometimes the statues which ornamented them were applied to this purpose, and seemed to sweat perfume through minute holes, with which the pipes that traversed them were pierced. It is this to which Lucan alludes in the following lines:—

—— As when mighty Rome's spectators meet

In the full theatre's capacious seat,

At once, by secret pipes and channels fed,

Rich tinctures gush from every antique head;

At once ten thousand saffron currents flow,

And rain their odors on the crowd below.

Rowe's Lucan, book ix.

Saffron was the material usually employed for these refreshing showers. The dried herb was infused in wine, more especially in sweet wine. Balsams and the more costly unguents were sometimes employed for the same purpose.

Another contrivance, too remarkable to be omitted in a general account of amphitheatres, is the awning by which spectators were protected from the overpowering heat of an Italian sun. This was called Velum, or Velarium; and it has afforded matter for a good deal of controversy, how a temporary covering could be extended over the vast areas of these buildings. Something of the kind was absolutely necessary, for the spectacle often lasted for many hours, and when anything extraordinary was expected the people went in crowds before daylight to obtain places, and some even at midnight.

The Campanians first invented the means of stretching awnings over their theatres, by means of cords stretched across the cavea and attached to masts which passed through perforated blocks of stone deeply bedded in the wall. Quintus Catulus introduced them at Rome when he celebrated games at the dedication of the Capitol, B.C. 69. Lentulus Spinther, a contemporary of Cicero, first erected fine linen awnings (carbasina vela). Julius Cæsar covered over the whole Forum Romanum, and the Via Sacra, from his own house to the Capitol, which was esteemed even more wonderful than his gladiatorial exhibition. Dio mentions a report that these awnings were of silk, but he speaks doubtfully; and it is scarcely probable that even Cæsar's extravagance would have carried him so far. Silk at that time was not manufactured at Rome; and we learn from Vopiscus, that even in the time of Aurelian the raw material was worth its weight in gold. Lucretius, speaking of the effect of colored bodies upon transmitted light, has a fine passage illustrative of the magnificence displayed in this branch of theatrical decoration.

This the crowd surveys

Oft in the theatre, whose awnings broad,

Bedecked with crimson, yellow, or the tint

Of steel cerulean, from their fluted heights

Wave tremulous; and o'er the scene beneath,

Each marble statue, and the rising rows

Of rank and beauty, fling their tint superb,

While as the walls with ampler shade repel

The garish noonbeam, every object round

Laughs with a deeper dye, and wears profuse

A lovelier lustre, ravished from the day.

Wool, however, was the most common material, and the velaria made in Apulia were most esteemed, on account of the whiteness of the wool.

Those who are not acquainted by experience with the difficulty of giving stability to tents of large dimensions, and the greater difficulty of erecting awnings, when, on account of the purpose for which they are intended, no support can be applied in the centre, may not fully estimate the difficulty of erecting and managing these velaria. Strength was necessary, both for the cloth itself and for the cords which strained and supported it, or the whole would have been shivered by the first gust of wind, and strength could not be obtained without great weight. Many of our readers probably are not aware, that however short and light a string may be, no amount of tension applied horizontally will stretch it into a line perfectly and mathematically straight. Practically the deviation is imperceptible where the power applied is very large in proportion to the weight and length of the string. Still it exists; and to take a common example, the reader probably never saw a clothes-line stretched out, though neither the weight nor length of the string are considerable, without the middle being visibly lower than the ends. When the line is at once long and heavy, an enormous power is required to suspend it even in a curve between two points; and the amount of tension, and difficulty of finding materials able to withstand it, are the only obstacles to constructing chain bridges which should be thousands, instead of hundreds of feet in length.

In these erections the piers are raised to a considerable height, that a sufficient depth may be allowed for the curve of the chains without depressing the roadway. Ten times—a hundred times the power which was applied to strain them into that shape would not suffice to bring them even so near to a horizontal line but that the most inaccurate and unobservant eye should at once detect the inequality in their level; and the chains themselves would probably give way before such a force as this could be applied to them. The least diameter of the Coliseum is nearly equal in length to the Menai bridge; and if the labor of stretching cords over the one seems small in comparison with that of raising the ponderous chains of the other, we may take into consideration the weight of cloth which those cords supported, and the increase of difficulties arising from the action of the wind on so extensive a surface.

In boisterous weather, as we learn from Martial and other authors, these difficulties were so great that the velum could not be spread. When this was the case the Romans used broad hats, or a sort of parasol, which was called umbella or umbraculum, from umbra, shade. We may add, in conclusion, that Suctonius mentions as one of Caligula's tyrannical extravagances, that sometimes at a show of gladiators, when the sun's heat was most intense, he would cause the awning to be drawn back, and, at the same time, forbid any person to leave the place.

The difficulty of the undertaking has given rise to considerable discussion as to the means by which the Romans contrived to extend the velum at such a height over so great a surface, and to manage it at pleasure. Sailors were employed in the service, for the Emperor Commodus, who piqued himself on his gladiatorial skill, and used to fight in the arena, believing himself mocked by the servile crowd of spectators, when once they hailed him with divine honors, gave order for their slaughter by the sailors who were managing the veils.

COLISEUM OF ROME.

Concerning the method of working them no information has been handed down. It is evident, however, that they were supported by masts which rose above the summit of the walls. Near the top of the outer wall of the Coliseum there are 240 consoles, or projecting blocks of stone, in which holes are cut to receive the ends of spars, which ran up through holes cut in the cornice to some height above the greatest elevation of the building. A sufficient number of firm points of support at equal intervals was thus procured; and, this difficulty being overcome, the next was to stretch as tight as possible the larger ropes, upon which the whole covering depended for its stability.

The games to which these buildings were especially devoted were, as we have already hinted, two-fold—those in which wild beasts were introduced, to combat either with each other or with men, and those in which men fought with men. Under the general term of gladiators are comprised all who fought in the arena, though those who pitted their skill against the strength and ferocity of savage animals were peculiarly distinguished by the name of bestiarii. In general these unhappy persons were slaves or condemned criminals, who, by adopting this profession, purchased an uncertain prolongation of existence, but freemen sometimes gained a desperate subsistence by thus hazarding their lives; and in the decline of Rome, knights, senators, and even the emperors sometimes appeared in the arena, at the instigation of a vulgar and degrading thirst for popular applause.

The origin of these bloody entertainments may be found in the earliest records of profane history and the earliest stages of society. Among half-civilized or savage nations, both ancient and modern, we find it customary after a battle to sacrifice prisoners of war in honor of those chiefs who have been slain. Thus Achilles offers up twelve young Trojans to the ghost of Patroclus. In course of time it became usual to sacrifice slaves at the funeral of all persons of condition; and either for the amusement of the spectators, or because it appeared barbarous to massacre defenceless men, arms were placed in their hands, and they were incited to save their own lives by the death of those who were opposed to them.

In later times, the furnishing these unhappy men became matter of speculation, and they were carefully trained to the profession of arms, to increase the reputation and popularity of the contractor who provided them. This person was called lanista by the Romans. At first these sports were performed about the funeral pile of the deceased, or near his sepulchre, in consonance with the idea of sacrifice in which they originated; but as they became more splendid, and ceased to be peculiarly appropriated to such occasions, they were removed, originally to the Forum, and afterwards to the Circus and amphitheatres.

Gladiators were first exhibited at Rome, B.C. 265, by M. and D. Brutus, on occasion of the death of their father. This show consisted only of three pairs. B.C. 216, the three sons of M. Æmilius Lepidus, the augur, entertained the people in the Forum with eleven pair, and the show lasted three days. B.C. 201, the three sons of M. Valerius Lævinus exhibited twenty-five pairs. And thus these shows increased in number and frequency, and the taste for them strengthened with its gratification, until not only the heir of any rich or eminent person lately deceased, but all the principal magistrates, and the candidates for magistracies, presented the people with shows of this nature to gain their favor and support.

This taste was not without its inconveniences and dangers. Men of rank and political importance kept families, as they were called, of gladiators—desperadoes ready to execute any command of their master; and towards the fall of the republic, when party rage scrupled not to have recourse to open violence, questions of the highest import were debated in the streets of the city by the most despised of its slaves. In the conspiracy of Catiline so much danger was apprehended from them, that particular measures were taken to prevent their joining the disaffected party; an event the more to be feared because of the desperate war in which they had engaged the republic a few years before, under the command of the celebrated Spartacus. At a much later period, at the triumph of Probus, A.D. 281, about fourscore gladiators exhibited a similar courage. Disdaining to shed their blood for the amusement of a cruel people, they killed their keepers, broke out from the place of their confinement, and filled the streets of Rome with blood and confusion. After an obstinate resistance they were cut to pieces by the regular troops.

The oath which they took upon entering the service is preserved by Petronius, and is couched in these terms: "We swear, after the dictation of Eumolpus, to suffer death by fire, bonds, stripes, and the sword; and whatever else Eumolpus may command, as true gladiators we bind ourselves body and mind to our master's service."

From slaves and freedmen the inhuman sport at length spread to persons of rank and fortune, insomuch that Augustus was obliged to issue an edict, that none of senatorial rank should become gladiators; and soon after he laid a similar restraint on the knights.

Succeeding emperors, according to their characters, encouraged or endeavored to suppress this degrading taste. Nero is related to have brought upwards of four hundred senators and six hundred knights upon the arena; and in some of his exhibitions even women of quality contended publicly. The excellent Marcus Aurelius not only retrenched the enormous expenses of these amusements, but ordered that gladiators should contend only with blunt weapons. But they were not abolished until some time after the introduction of Christianity. Constantine published the first edict which condemned the shedding of human blood, and ordered that criminals condemned to death should rather be sent to the mines than reserved for the service of the amphitheatre. In the reign of Honorius, when he was celebrating with magnificent games the retreat of the Goths and the deliverance of Rome, an Asiatic monk, by name Telemachus, had the boldness to descend into the arena to part the combatants. "The Romans were provoked by this interruption of their pleasures, and the rash monk was overwhelmed under a shower of stones. But the madness of the people soon subsided; they respected the memory of Telemachus, who had deserved the honors of martyrdom, and they submitted without a murmur to the laws of Honorius, which abolished forever the human sacrifices of the amphitheatre." This occurred A.D. 404. It was not, however, until the year 500 that the practice was finally and completely abolished by Theodoric.

Some time before the day appointed for the spectacle, he who gave it (editor) published bills containing the name and ensigns of the gladiators, for each of them had his own distinctive badge, and stating also how many were to fight, and how long the show would last. It appears that like our itinerant showmen they sometimes exhibited paintings of what the sports were to contain. On the appointed day the gladiators marched in procession with much ceremony into the amphitheatre. They then separated into pairs, as they had been previously matched. An engraving on the wall of the amphitheatre at Pompeii seems to represent the beginning of a combat. In the middle stands the arbiter of the fight, marking out with a long stick the space for the combatants. On his right stands a gladiator only half armed, to whom two others are bringing a sword and helmet. On the left another gladiator, also only partly armed, sounds the trumpet for the commencement of the fight; whilst behind him two companions, at the foot of one of the Victories which enclose the scene, are preparing his helmet and shield.

EXAMINING THE WOUNDED.

At first, however, they contended only with staves, called rudes, or with blunted weapons; but when warmed and inspirited by the pretense of battle, they changed their weapons, and advanced at the sound of trumpets to the real strife. The conquered looked to the people or to the emperor for life; his antagonist had no power to grant or to refuse it; but if the spectators were dissatisfied and gave the signal of death, he was obliged to become the executioner of their will. This signal was the turning down the thumbs; as is well known. If any showed signs of fear, their death was certain; if on the other hand they waited the fatal stroke with intrepidity, the people generally relented. But fear and want of spirit were of very rare occurrence, insomuch that Cicero more than once proposed the principle of honor which actuated gladiators as an admirable model of constancy and courage, by which he intended to animate himself and others to suffer everything in defence of the commonwealth.

The bodies of the slain were dragged with a hook or on a cart through a gate called Libitinensis, the Gate of Death. The victor was rewarded with a sum of money, contributed by the spectators or bestowed from the treasury, or a palm-branch, or a garland of palm ornamented with colored ribbons—ensigns of frequent occurrence in ancient monuments. Those who survived three years were released from this service, and sometimes one who had given great satisfaction was enfranchised on the spot. This was done by presenting the staff (rudis) which was used in preluding to the combat; on receiving which, the gladiator, if a freeman, recovered his liberty; if a slave, he was not made free, but was released from the obligation of venturing his life any further in the arena.

Gladiators were divided, according to the fashion of their armor and offensive weapons, into classes, known by the names of Thrax, Samnis, Myrmillo, and many others, of which a mere catalogue would be tedious, and it would be the work of a treatise to ascertain and describe their distinctive marks.

Another group consists of four figures. Two are secutores, followers, the other two, retiarii, net men, armed only with a trident and net, with which they endeavored to entangle their adversary, and then dispatch him. These classes, like the Thrax and Myrmillo, were usual antagonists, and had their name from the secutor following the retiarius, who eluded the pursuit until he found an opportunity to throw his net to advantage. Nepimus, one of the latter, five times victorious, has fought against one of the former, whose name is lost, but who had triumphed six times in different combats. He has been less fortunate in this battle. Nepimus has struck him in the leg, the thigh, and the left arm; his blood runs, and in vain he implores mercy from the spectators. As the trident with which Nepimus is armed is not a weapon calculated to inflict speedy and certain death, the secutor Hyppolitus performs this last office to his comrade. The condemned wretch bends the knee, presents his throat to the sword, and throws himself forward to meet the blow, while Nepimus, his conqueror, pushes him, and seems to insult the last moments of his victim. In the distance is the retiarius, who must fight Hyppolitus in his turn. The secutores have a very plain helmet, that their adversary may have little or no opportunity of pulling it off with the net or trident; the right arm is clothed in armor, the left bore a clypeus, or large round shield; a sandal tied with narrow bands forms the covering for their feet. They wear no body armor, no covering but a cloth round the waist, for by their lightness and activity alone could they hope to avoid death and gain the victory. The retiarii have the head bare, except a fillet bound round the hair; they have no shield, but the left side is covered with a demi-cuiarass, and the left arm protected in the usual manner, except that the shoulder-piece is very high. They wear the caliga, or low boot common to the Roman soldiery, and bear the trident; but the net with which they endeavored to envelop their adversaries is nowhere visible. This bas-relief is terminated by the combat between a light-armed gladiator and a Samnite. This last beseeches the spectators to save him, but it appears from the action of the principal figure that this is not granted. The conqueror looks towards the steps of the amphitheatre; he has seen the fatal signal, and in reply prepares himself to strike.

ASKING PARDON.

NOT GRANTED.

Between the pilasters of the door the frieze is continued. Two combats are represented. In the first a Samnite has been conquered by a Myrmillo. This last wishes to become his comrade's executioner without waiting the answer from the people, to whom the vanquished has appealed; but the lanista checks his arm, from which it would seem that the Samnite obtained pardon.

Another pair exhibits a similar combat, in which the Myrmillo falls stabbed to death. The wounds, the blood, and the inside of the bucklers are painted of a very bright red color. The swords, with the exception of that of Hyppolitus, are omitted; it is possible that it was intended to make them of metal.

The bas-reliefs constituting the lower frieze are devoted to the chase and to combats between men and animals. In the upper part are hares pursued by a dog; beyond is a wounded stag pursued by dogs, to whom he is about to become the prey; below, a wild boar is seized by an enormous dog, which has already caused his blood to flow.

In the middle of the composition a bestiarius has transfixed a bear with a stroke of his lance. This person wears a kind of short hunting boot, and is clothed as well as his comrade in a light tunic without sleeves, bound round the hips, and called subucula. It was the dress of the common people, as we learn from the sculptures on Trajan's column. The companion of this man has transfixed a bull, which flies, carrying with him the heavy lance with which he is wounded. He turns his head toward his assailant, and seems to wish to return to the attack; the man by his gestures appears astonished, beholding himself disarmed and at the mercy of the animal, whom he thought mortally stricken. Pliny (lib. viii. cap. 45) speaks of the ferocity shown by bulls in these combats, and of having seen them, when stretched for dead on the arena, lift themselves up and renew the combat.

COMBATS WITH BEASTS

Another sort of amphitheatrical amusements consisted in witnessing the death of persons under sentence of the law, either by the hands of the executioner, or by being exposed to the fury of savage animals. The early Christians were especially subjected to this species of cruelty. Nero availed himself of the prejudice against them to turn aside popular indignation after the great conflagration of Rome, which is commonly ascribed to his own wanton love of mischief; and we learn from Tertullian, that, after great public misfortunes, the cry of the populace was, "To the lions with the Christians."

The Coliseum now owes its preservation to the Christian blood so profusely shed within its walls. After serving during ages as a quarry of hewn stone for the use of all whose station and power entitled them to a share in public plunder, it was at last secured from further injury by Pope Benedict XIV., who consecrated the building about the middle of the last century, and placed it under the protection of the martyrs, who had there borne testimony with their blood to the sincerity of their belief.

There is nothing in the amphitheatre of Pompeii at variance with the general description of this class of buildings, and our notice of it will therefore necessarily be short. (See page 121.) Its form, as usual, is oval: the extreme length, from outside to outside of the exterior arcade, is 430 feet, its greatest breadth is 335 feet. The spectators gained admission by tickets, which had numbers or marks on them, corresponding with similar signs on the arches through which they entered. Those who were entitled to occupy the lower ranges of seats passed through the perforated arcades of the lower order; those whose place was in the upper portion of the cavea ascended by staircases between the seats and the outer wall of the building. From hence the women again ascended to the upper tier, which was divided into boxes, and appropriated to them.

The construction consists for the most part of the rough masonry called opus incertum, with quoins of squared stone, and some trifling restorations of rubble. This rude mass was probably once covered with a more sumptuous facing of hewn stone: but there are now no other traces of it than a few of the key-stones, on one of which a chariot and two horses is sculptured, on another a head; besides which there are a few stars on the wedge-stones.

At each end of the ellipse were entrances into the arena for the combatants, through which the dead bodies were dragged out into the spoliarium. These were also the principal approaches to the lower ranges of seats, occupied by the senators, magistrates, and knights, by means of corridors to the right and left which ran round the arena. The ends of these passages were secured by metal gratings against the intrusion of wild beasts. In the northern one are nine places for pedestals to form a line of separation, dividing the entrance into two parts of unequal breadth. The seats are elevated above the arena upon a high podium or parapet, upon which, when the building was first opened, there remained several inscriptions, containing the names of duumvirs who had presided upon different occasions. There were also paintings in fresco, one representing a tigress fighting with a wild boar; another, a stag chased by a lioness; another, a battle between a bull and bear. Other subjects comprised candelabra, a distribution of palms among the gladiators, winged genii, minstrels, and musicians; but all disappeared soon after their exposure to the atmosphere. The amphitheatre comprises twenty-four rows of seats, and about 20,000 feet of sitting-room.

It may be observed that the arena of the amphitheatre of Pompeii appears to be formed of the natural surface of the earth, and has none of those vast substructions observable at Pozzuoli and Capua. It does not, therefore, appear capable of being turned into a Naumachia, nor indeed would it have been easy to find there water enough for such a purpose.

In the Roman theatre the construction of the orchestra and stage was different from that of the Greeks. By the construction peculiar to the Roman theatre, the stage was brought nearer to the audience (the arc not exceeding a semi-circle), and made considerably deeper than in the Greek theatre. The length of the stage was twice the diameter of the orchestra. The Roman orchestra contained no thymele. The back of the stage, or proscenium, was adorned with niches, and columns, and friezes of great richness, as may be seen in some of the theatres of Asia Minor, and in the larger theatre at Pompeii, which belong to the Roman period.

On the whole, however, the construction of a Roman theatre resembled that of a Greek one. The Senate, and other distinguished persons, occupied circular ranges of seats within the orchestra; the prætor had a somewhat higher seat. The space between the orchestra and the first præcinctio, usually consisting of fourteen seats, was reserved for the equestrian order, tribunes, etc. Above them were the seats of the plebeians. Soldiers were separated from the citizens. Women were appointed by Augustus to sit in the portico, which encompassed the whole. Behind the scenes were the postscenium, or retiring-room, and porticoes, to which, in case of sudden showers, the people retreated from the theatre.

The earliest theatres at Rome were temporary buildings of wood. A magnificent wooden theatre, built by M. Æmilius Scaurus, in his edileship, B.C. 58, is described by Pliny. In 55 B.C., Cn. Pompey built the first stone theatre at Rome, near the Campus Martius. A temple of Venus Victrix, to whom he dedicated the whole building, was erected at the highest part of the cavea.

The next permanent theatre was built by Augustus, and named after his favorite, the young Marcellus, son of his sister Octavia. Vitruvius is generally reported to have been the architect of this building, which would contain 30,000 persons. The audience part was a semi-circle 410 feet in diameter. Twelve arches of its external wall still remain. From marks still visible in the large theatre at Pompeii, the place reserved for each spectator was about 13 inches. This theatre contained 5,000. The theatre of Pompeii, at Rome, contained 40,000. The theatre of Scaurus is said to have contained 80,000. The Romans surpassed the Greeks in the grandeur and magnificence of these buildings. They built them in almost all their towns. Remains of them are found in almost every country where the Romans carried their rule. One of the most striking Roman provincial theatres is that of Orange, in the south of France.

Odeum was a building intended for the recitations of rhapsodists and the performances of citharædists, before the theatre was in existence. In its general form and arrangements the odeum was very similar to the theatre. There were, however, some characteristic differences. The odeum was much smaller than the theatre, and it was roofed over. The ancient and original Odeum of Athens in the Agora was probably erected in the time of Hipparchus, who, according to Plato, first introduced at Athens the poems of Homer, and caused rhapsodists to recite them during the Panathenæa. There were two others in Athens—the Odeum of Pericles, and that of Herodes Atticus. The Odeum of Pericles was built in imitation of the tent of Xerxes. It was burnt by Sylla, but was restored in exact imitation of the original building. It lay at the east side of the theatre of Dionysus. The Odeum of Herodes Atticus was built by him in memory of his departed wife Regilla, whose name it commonly bore. It lies under the southwest angle of the Acropolis. Its greatest diameter within the walls was 240 feet, and it is calculated to have held about 8,000 persons. There were odea in several of the towns of Greece, in Corinth, Patræ, and at Smyrna, Ephesus and other places of Asia Minor. There were odea also in Rome; one was built by Domitian, and a second by Trajan. There are ruins of an Odeum in the villa of Adrian, at Tivoli and at Pompeii.

Remains of amphitheatres are found in several cities of Etruria. The amphitheatre of Sutri is considered to be peculiarly Etruscan in its mode of construction. It is cut out of the tufa rock, and was no doubt used by that people for festal representations long before Rome attempted anything of the kind. The Romans copied these edifices from the Etruscans. We have historical evidence, also, that gladiatorial combats had an Etruscan origin, and were borrowed by the Romans.

Amphitheatres were peculiar to the Romans. The gladiatorial shows, and the chase and combats of wild beasts with which the amphitheatre is always connected, were at first given in the circus. Its unsuitableness for such sports determined Julius Cæsar, in his dictatorship, to construct a wooden theatre in the Campus Martius, built especially for hunting. Caius Scribonius Curio built the first amphitheatre, for the celebration of his father's funeral games. It was composed of two theatres of wood, placed on pivots, so that they could be turned round, spectators and all, and placed face to face, thus forming a double theatre, or amphitheatre, which ending suggested its elliptical shape. Statilius Taurus, the friend of Augustus, B.C. 30, erected a more durable amphitheatre, partly of stone and partly of wood, in the Campus Martius. Others were afterwards built by Caligula and Nero. The amphitheatre of Nero was of wood, and in the Campus Martius.

The assembled people in a crowded theatre must have been an imposing spectacle, in which the gorgeous colors of the dresses were blended with the azure of a southern sky. No antique rendering of this subject remains. The spectators began to assemble at early dawn, for each wished to secure a good seat, after paying his entrance fee. This, not exceeding two oboloi, was payable to the builder or manager of the theatre. After the erection of stone theatres at Athens, this entrance fee was paid for the poorer classes by Government, and formed, indeed, one of the heaviest items of the budget. For not only at the Dionysian ceremonies, but on many other festive occasions, the people clamored for free admission, confirmed in their demands by the demagogues. Frequently the money reserved for the emergency of a war had to be spent for this purpose. The seats in a theatre were, of course, not all equally good, and their prices varied accordingly. The police of the theatre had to take care that everybody took his seat in the row marked on his ticket. Most of the spectators were men. In older times women were allowed only to attend at tragedies, the coarse jokes of the comedy being deemed unfit for the ears of Athenian ladies. Only hetairai made an exception to this rule. It is almost certain that the seats of men and women were separate. Boys were allowed to witness both tragedies and comedies. Whether slaves were admitted amongst the spectators seems doubtful. As pedagogues were not allowed to enter the schoolroom, it seems likely that they had also to leave the theatre after having shown their young masters to their seats. Neither were the slaves carrying the cushions for their masters' seats admitted amongst the spectators. It is, however, possible that when the seats became to be for sale, certain classes of slaves were allowed to visit the theatre. Favorite poets and actors were rewarded with applause and flowers; while bad performers had to submit to whistling, and, possibly, other worse signs of public indignation. Greek audiences resembled those of southern Europe at the present day in the vivacity of their demonstrations, which were even extended to public characters amongst the spectators on their clearing the theatre.

Vitruvius has given some minute directions, strongly illustrative of the importance of the subject, for choosing a proper situation for a theatre. "When the Forum is finished, a healthy situation must be sought for, wherein the theatre may be erected to exhibit sports on the festival days of the immortal gods. For the spectators are detained in their seats by the entertainment of the games, and remaining quiet for a long time, their pores are opened, and imbibe the draughts of air, which, if they come from marshy or otherwise unhealthy places, will pour injurious humors into the body. Neither must it front the south; for when the sun fills the concavity, the inclosed air, unable to escape or circulate, is heated, and then extracts and dries up the juices of the body. It is also to be carefully observed that the place be not unfitted to transmit sound, but one in which the voice may expand as clearly as possible."

The ancient scene was not, like that of the modern stage, capable of being shifted. It consisted of a solid building (scena stabilis), representing the facade of a royal palace, and adorned with the richest architectural ornaments. It was built of stone, or brick cased with marble, and had three doors, of which the middle one, called porta regia, larger and handsomer than the others, was supposed to form the entrance to the palace. This was used only in the representation of tragedies, and then only by the principal personages of the drama. The door in the right wing was appropriated to inferior personages, and that on the left to foreigners or persons coming from abroad. In our plan, the five angles of the triangles not yet disposed of determine the disposition of the scene. Opposite the centre one are the regal doors; on each side are those by which the secondary characters entered. Behind the scene, as in the Greek theatre, there were apartments for the actors to retire into; and under it were vaults or cellars, which, as in the modern stage, served for the entrance of ghosts, or the appliance of any needful machinery. The proscenium, or space between the orchestra and the scene, answering to our stage, though deeper than the Greek, was of no great depth, which was not required for the performance of ancient dramas, in which only a few personages appeared on the stage at once. Besides, in the absence of any roof, the voice of the performers would have been lost if the stage had been too deep. That of Pompeii is only about twenty-one feet broad, though its length is one hundred and nine.

Along the front of the stage, and between it and the orchestra, runs a tolerably deep linear opening, the receptacle for the aulæum, or curtain, the fashion of which was just the reverse of ours, as it had to be depressed instead of elevated when the play began. This operation, performed by machinery of which we have no clear account, was called aulæum premere, as in the well-known line of Horace:19

Quatuor aut plures aulæa premuntur in horas.

It should, however, be mentioned that the ancients seem also to have had movable scenery (scena ductilis), to alter the appearance of the permanent scene when required. This must have consisted of painted board or canvas.

Another method of illusion was by the use of masks. These were rendered necessary by the vastness of the ancient theatres, and the custom of performing in the open air.

In the eastern portico of the Triangular Forum are four entrances to different parts of the greater theatre. The first two, as you enter, lead into a large circular corridor surrounding the whole cavea; the third opens on an area behind the scene, from which there is a communication with the orchestra and privileged seats; the fourth led down a long flight of steps, at the bottom of which you turn, on the right, into the soldiers' quarter, on the left, into the area already mentioned. The corridor is arched over. It has two other entrances, one by a large passage from the east side, another from a smaller passage on the north. Six inner doors, called vomitoria, opened on an equal number of stair-cases which ran down to the first præcinctio. The theatre is formed upon the slope of a hill, the corridor being the highest part, so that the audience upon entering descended at once to their seats, and the vast staircases, which conducted to the upper seats of the theatres and amphitheatres at Rome, were saved. By the side of the first entrance is a staircase which led up to the women's gallery above the corridor; here the seats were partitioned into compartments, like our boxes. The benches were about one foot three inches high and two feet four inches wide. One foot three inches and a half was allowed to each spectator, as may be ascertained in one part, where the divisions are marked off and numbered. There is space to contain about five thousand persons. Here the middle classes sat, usually upon cushions which they brought with them; the men of rank sat in the orchestra below, on chairs of state carried thither by their slaves. Flanking the orchestra, and elevated considerably above it, are observable two divisions, appropriated, one perhaps to the pro-consul, or duumvirs and their officers, the other to the vestal virgins, or to the use of the person who gave the entertainments. This is the more likely, because in the smaller theatre, where these boxes, if we may call them so, are also found, they have a communication with the stage.

This theatre appears to have been entirely covered with marble; the benches of the cavea were of marble, the orchestra was of marble, the scene with all its ornaments was also of marble; and yet of this profusion of marble only a few fragments remain.

It appears, from an inscription found in it, to have been erected, or much improved, by one Holconius Rufus. Upon the first step of the orchestra was another inscription, composed of bronze letters let into the marble. The metal has been carried away, but the cavities in the marble still remain. They were placed so as partly to encompass a statue, and run thus:

M. HOLCONIO. M. F. RVFO. II. V.I.D. QVINQVIENS. ITER. QVINQ. TRIB. MIL. A. P. FLAMEN. AVG. PATR. COLON. D.D.

signifying, that the colony dedicated this to its patron, M. Holconius Rufus, son of Marcus: then follow his titles. In the middle of this inscription is a vacant space, where probably stood the statue of Holconius, as the cramps, by which something was fastened, still remain. Or possibly it may have been an altar, as it was the custom among the ancients to sacrifice to Bacchus in the theatre.