Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

84 AMPHITHEATRUiM.. AMPHITHEATRUM.
size, rendered the subsequent erection of ally other and arrangements of which were such as to furnish
such building in Rome perfectly unnecessary. It seats for 87,000 spectators, round an arena large
became the spot where prince and people met to- enough to afford space for the combats of several
gether to witness those sanguinary exhibitions, the hundred animals at once, for the evolutions of
degrading effects of which on the Roman character mimic sea-fights, and for the exhibition of artificall hardly be over-estimated. It was thoroughly cial forests; with passages and staircases to give
repaired by Antoninus Pius. (Capit. Ant. Pi. 8.) ingress and egress, without confusion, to the imIn the reign of Macrinus, on the day of the Vulca- mense mass of spectators, and others for the atnalia, it was struck by lightning, by which the tendants on the arena; dens for the thousands of
upper rows of benches were consumed, and so much victims devoted to destruction; channels for the radamage was done to other parts of the structure, pid influx and outlet of water when the arena was
that the games were for some years celebrated in the used for a nasunachia; and the means for the reStadium. (Dion Cass. lxxviii. 25.) Its restora- umoval of the carcasses, and the other abominations
tion was commenced by Elagabalus and completed of the arena. Admirable pictures of the magniby Alexander Severus. (Lamprid. Hleliog. 17; tude and magnificence of the amphitheatre and its
Alex. Sev. 24.) It was again struck by lightning spectacles are drawn in the Essays of Montaigne
in the reign of Decius (Hieron. p. 475), but was (iii. 6.), and in the latter part of Gibbon's twelfth
soon restored, and the games continued to be cele- chapter. As a general description of the building
brated in it down to the sixth century. The latest the following passage of Gibbon is perfect: -" It
recorded exhibition of wild beasts was in the was a building of an elliptic figure, founded on fourreign of Theodoric. Since that time it has been score arches, and rising, with four successive orders
used sometimes in war as a fortress, and in peace of architecture, to the height of 140 [157] feet. The
as a quarry, whole palaces, such as the Cancellaria outside of the edifice was incrusted with marble,
and the Palazzo Farnese, having been built out of and decorated with statues. The slopes of the vast
its spoils. At length the popes made efforts to concave, which formed the inside, were filled and
preserve it: Sixtus V. attempted to use it as a surrounded with sixty or eighty rows of seats, of
woollen factory, and to convert the arcades into marble likewise, covered with cushions, and capable
shops; Clement XI. enclosed the lower arcades, of receiving with ease about 80,000 spectators.
and, in 1750, Benedict XIV. consecrated it to Sixty-four svomitories (for by that name the doors
Christians who had been martyred in it. The best were -very aptly distinguished), poured forth the
accounts of the building are contained in the follow- immense multitude; and the entrances, passages,
inog works: Lipsius de Anspitls#eoatro; Nibby, dell' and staircases, were contrived with such exquisite
An fiteatro Flavio, a supplement to Nardinli, vol. i. skill, that each person, whether of the senatorial,
p. 233, in which we have the most complete his- the equestrian, or the plebeian order, arrived at
torical account; Fea, VNotizis deyli scavi ell' his destined place without trouble or confusion.
Anfiteatro Flavio; Bunsen, Beschreibung d. Staldt Nothing was omitted, which, in any respect, could
Room. vol. iii. p. 319, &c.; Cressy and Taylor, be subservient to the convenience and pleasure of
Tlte Architectural Antiquities of Rome; Maffei, the spectators. They were protected from the sun
Y1erona Illustrata; Stieglitz, Arcliiol. dl. Bacukuszst; and rain by all ample canopy, occasionally drawn
Hirt, Cesciicelte d. Baaukunst bei den Alten. over their heads. The air was continually reII. Description qf tlhe Flavian Am7,)liteatre. - freshed by the playing of fountains, and proNotwithstanding tle damages of time, war, and fusely impregnated by the grateful scent of arospoliation, the Flavian amphitheatre still remains matics. In the centre of the edifice, the arena, or
complete enouggh to give us a fair idea, excepting stage, was strewed with the finest sand, and sucin some minor details, of the structure and ar- cessively assumed the most different forms. At
rangements of this description of building. The one moment it seemed to rise out of the earth, like
notices of the ancient authors are extremely scanty; the garden of the Hesperides, and was afterwards
and Vitruvius of course fails us here altogether; broken into the rocks and caverns of Thrace.
indeed, this description of building was so corm- The subterraneous pipes conveyed an inexhaustible
pletely new in his time, that only once does the supply of water; and what had just before apbare word amphithleatrus7ne occur ina his book (i. 7). peared a level plain, might be suddenly converted
We derive important aid from the remains of into a wide lake, covered with armed vessels, and
amphitheatres in the provinces of the ancient replenished with the monsters of the deep. In
Roman empire. WTe shall first describe the Co- the decoration of these scenes, the Roman emlisaeum, and then mention the chief points of dif- perors displayed their wealth and liberality; and
ference between it and these other amphitheatres. we read on various occasions that the whole furniThe very site of the Flavian amphitheatre, as of ture of the amphitheatre consisted either of silver,
most others, furnishes an example of the prodigal or of gold, or of amber. The poet who describes
contempt of labour and expense which the Roman the games of Carinus, in the character of a shepemperors displayed in their great works of archi- herd, attracted to the capital by the fame of their
tecture. The Greeks, in choosing the sites of their magnifiencene, affirms that the nets designed as a
theatres, almost ahlvmys availed themselves of some defence against the wild beasts were of gold
natural hollow on the side of -a hill; but the Roman wire; that the porticoes were gilded; and that
amphitheatres, with few exceptions, stand upon a the belt or circle which divided the several ranks
plain. The site of the Colisaeumi was in the mid- of spectators front each other, was studded with a
die of the city, in the valley between the Caelius, precious mlosaic of beautiful stones."
the Esquiline, and the Velia, on the marshy ground The following ground-plan, external elevation,'vhich was previously the pond of Nero's palace, and section, are from Hirt, and contain of course
stagnum Neronis (Suet. Vesp. 9; Martial. de Spect. some conjectural details. The ground plan is so
ii. 5). No mere measures can give an adequate arranged as to exhibit in each of its quarters the
conception of this vast stricture, the dimensions plan of each of the stories: thus, the lower right