The archæology of Rome_ Part 7 _ The Flavian amphitheatre_ commonly called the Colosseum John Henry Parker 1210 downloads.pdf

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Title: The archæology of Rome, Part 7
The Flavian amphitheatre, commonly called the Colosseum

Author: John Henry Parker

Release date: June 1, 2024 [eBook #73751]

Language: English

Original publication: London: James Parker and Co, 1876

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
ARCHÆOLOGY OF ROME, PART 7 ***

PART VII.
THE COLOSSEUM.

JOHN HENRY PARKER C.B.

hon. m.a. oxon. f.s.a. london etc. etc.

THE
FLAVIAN AMPHITHEATRE,
COMMONLY CALLED

THE COLOSSEUM AT ROME:
ITS HISTORY AND SUBSTRUCTURES
COMPARED WITH
OTHER AMPHITHEATRES.

BY

JOHN HENRY PARKER, C.B.
Hon. M.A. Oxon., F.S.A. Lond.;

Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum of History and Antiquities in the University of Oxford, etc.

OXFORD:
JAMES PARKER AND CO.

LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET.
1876.

PREFACE TO THE COLOSSEUM.
The great excavations carried on in this colossal building in the years
1874 and 1875, have thrown an entirely new light on its history. These were
made under the level of the ground, at the foot of the podium, which is the
same as that of the original arena; this large level space had been
indifferently called the ground, the floor, the stage, the area, or the arena; no
one had any idea that the original pavement would be found 21 ft. below
that level, and that the intervening space was filled with walls and passages,
dens for wild beasts, places for lifts to send up men, and dogs, and animals:
and canals for water, and several other contrivances for the use of the
performers on the stage above, for practically the arena was the stage on
which the performances took place. These excavations have enabled us to
ascertain that this had been a boarded floor covered with sand, or arena
(whence its name), and that this floor could be moved and replaced in a
short time, at the word of the Emperor[1]. The evidence of this is brought
out clearly in the present work. Large corbels, or brackets, are provided for
placing the boards upon when removed, and keeping them out of sight of
the people in the galleries; they project from the wall below the podium, in
the passage over the dens[2].
We had all of us hitherto been taught that this enormous structure had
been all built in ten years by the Flavian emperors; this is the uniform
modern history, but no ancient author says so. It is only one of the so-called
“Roman Traditions,” which (as I am obliged to repeat continually) are
nothing but the conjectures of learned men during the last three centuries,
especially Panvinius and his school in the seventeenth. In the present
instance it is evident that so far from having been all built in ten years, it
was more than a century about from first to last; it was begun in the time of
Sylla the Dictator, by his step-son Scaurus, and is described by Pliny in his
“Natural History” by the name of the insane work of Scaurus, who was
called insane because he spent such an enormous fortune upon the work,
(equal to more than two millions sterling of modern money). It is true that
Pliny calls it a theatre and not an amphitheatre, and this has deceived
scholars, who do not perceive that the two names were used quite

indifferently at that period. Pliny himself contrasts it with the great theatre
of Pompey, built long afterwards, and when the city had increased so much,
yet which only held 40,000 people, while this building would hold 80,000.
There is no other site in Rome where 80,000 people could be placed to see a
show excepting this and the Circus Maximus, which is never called a
theatre. An inscription has been found in the amphitheatre itself, in which it
is called theatrum and not amphitheatrum, which is still a theatre, though it
has two round ends to it, instead of one being flat. The celebrated Greek
theatre at Taormina, in Sicily, which has the most perfect scena that is
known anywhere, is still called by the people either theatre or amphitheatre
indifferently, as I was told by the local guide on the spot, in May, 1876.
Either a theatre or an amphitheatre was a place of public amusement.
This great building of Scaurus was three storeys high. On the level of the
ground were marble columns by the hundred, on the first floor glass
columns (the only instance on record), on the upper floor they were of gilt
wood. Pliny says that part of this insane work was only calculated to be of a
temporary character, and it was in fact all destroyed by fire a few years
afterwards, and the glass columns perished equally with those of gilt wood;
he also adds that other parts were calculated to be eternal, and this equally
applies to the part we have remaining, the great substructures, which being
underground, and built of large blocks of tufa, would last as long as the hills
if let alone. Many of these great blocks of tufa appear to have been used a
second time; they were most probably brought from the second wall of
Rome, which enclosed the two hills (the Capitoline and Palatine) in one
City, and therefore must have passed under the south end of the Palatine,
close to this great amphitheatre. Immediately in front of it, and separated
from it only by a paved street, the south end of the Summa Sacra Via is
supported by a rough concrete wall of the time of Sylla, and on the surface
of this concrete wall there are impressions of large blocks of tufa in the
plaster with which the concrete is covered. It is well known that Roman
mortar is often harder and more durable than stone. A few of the large
blocks of tufa also remain in their places, where they were necessary to
carry the vault of the platform above. These tufa blocks were used under the
podium at the bottom, to the height of twenty feet, and parallel to them is
another wall of the same kind, with just room enough for a narrow passage
between them[3]. In these walls, on both sides, are vertical grooves,

evidently for lifts to be pulled up and let down, and larger apertures at
intervals for the counter-weights.
Behind this wall, under the path in front of the podium, are the dens for
the wild beasts. At the back of each den, in the corner, is a vertical aperture
about four feet square, descending from the passage in front of the podium;
this descends to ten feet from the ground only, and was for the men to go
down and feed the animals below without being exposed to danger. In front
of each den is a hole in the original brick pavement, sometimes with a
bronze socket remaining in its place. These sockets (of which there are a
great number in the pavement) are evidently made for a pivot to work in
each, and these pivots must have been the lower end of a post for a capstan
to wind the twenty-one feet of cord upon, when the animal in his cage was
pulled up to the top, and the trap-door opened by the same cord from below,
to let him jump out when required for effect on the stage[4]. It is recorded by
contemporary authors that on several occasions a hundred lions leapt on to
the stage or arena at once. Some very curious graffiti, or scratchings on
marble, by the workmen of the third century, have been found, one of which
represents a hunt of wild beasts on the arena, in which apparently the dogs
have broken loose[5]. Another shews the framework of the netting of gilt
wire in front of the lower gallery[6].
There are five different representations of the Colosseum on the coins or
medals of the Emperors, one of Vespasian, two of Alexander Severus, and
one of Gordianus. These all appear to have been made from the architect’s
designs before the work was completed; there are slight variations in the
accessories, and the upper storey varies considerably. That of Gordianus has
for the legend or inscription—
[7]
mvnificentia gordiani avg.

This great tufa wall, on the inner line, has evidently been much shaken by
earthquakes in different parts, and the heads of the apertures (which are
square-headed when original) have frequently had arches introduced, and
are supported by brick walls of different periods[8]. In one instance an arch
of tufa had been much shaken, and this is supported by a brick arch of the
time of Nero[9]; there are also many other walls and arches of his time in
different parts of the building, which make it clear that this building was the
amphitheatre for the gymnasium and the naumachia of Nero. It is the

natural site for it, close to his great palace, and the remains of that of
Scaurus made him excellent foundations to build upon, according to the
fashion of his own time, which was of brick, of the finest brickwork in the
world. Those whose eyes are accustomed to it can never mistake the
brickwork of the time of Nero; his awning is also mentioned; and the first
book of the Epigrams of Martial is full of incidents and spectacles in this
amphitheatre.
Down the centre of the building, for the whole length, is a wide passage,
which was called the gulf[10], and which was necessary for sending up the
scenery, of which we read frequently, and which must have been put
together below, and then sent up to the stage, as wanted, by means of this
passage; there is no room for it anywhere else, and there was no place
behind the scenes for the actors and workmen, as in a modern theatre. On
each side of this great central passage are remains of two canals for water,
each about ten feet square, and about the same height from the ground[11];
these were evidently filled with water supplied from the aqueducts, and
unmistakable traces of three reservoirs for water from the aqueducts have
been found in the first gallery. The four canals are not all quite of the same
period, nor on the same plan; one on each side was supported on flat arches
of brick of the third century, the other on large beams of wood; the places to
receive the ends of the beams are left in the walls on each side of the
passage for the workmen under it. These walls are of such a thickness in
proportion to their height, that they were evidently made to support the
great weight of water; these very thick walls served instead of the great
projection of the buttresses of the usual reservoirs of the aqueducts.
There is no bond or junction of any kind between this brick theatre, or
amphitheatre, and the magnificent stone corridors and grand front of the
Flavian Emperors; these have evidently been added to a brick building
previously existing in the centre[12]. It had long been a matter of wonder to
all the great architects of Europe how it could be possible to collect such an
enormous mass of material of all kinds, and put them together in ten years;
to bring that quantity of travertine stone from the quarries at Tivoli, twenty
miles off, cut it, and erect it, was in itself an enormous work. This gigantic
building is in round numbers 500 ft. long, 300 ft. wide, and 120 ft. high
above the foundations, and the grand corridors are double all round, with

the vomitoria, or stairs from the seats at short intervals, and there are
altogether six storeys, including the entresols.
The upper storey was originally of wood, and was destroyed by a great
fire caused by lightning, in the time of the Emperor Macrinus; it was
rebuilding of stone during the whole reign of Alexander Severus, and was
completed by Gordianus III., who commemorated it by a medal, taking the
credit of the rebuilding to himself. There was a row of columns in front of
the upper gallery; two of the bases remain there, and a number of capitals
that belonged to that colonnade[13] have fallen down in an earthquake, and
are now lying about on the ground on the level of the arena, but were found
in the substructures. These are very rude workmanship[14], perhaps only
because they were to be seen from a great distance, but they may possibly
have been preserved from the works of Scaurus; they are very different
from the finished capitals used in the lower gallery. This rebuilding and
addition of the upper storey alone took twenty years in a great building era.
Great changes were made at that time to raise the upper storey securely, and
this we have pointed out. It is seen that the builders had no faith in the soft
tufa for carrying any considerable weight, and provided piers of the hard
travertine at short intervals for that purpose[15]. There are altogether six
storeys in the present building, but three of them may be considered as
entresols for passages to and from the vomitoria[16]. Gordianus also rebuilt
the front of one bay of the lower storey, which had probably been damaged
by some of the burning timber falling in front of it. At the bottom of the
great central passage was found a very remarkable wooden framework,
resembling what is usually called a cradle in a dockyard, and used for a
vessel to stand upon[17]. This cradle had the appearance of having been
burnt, but it is known that long exposure to extreme moisture will give the
same appearance to wood that burning it does. At the east end of the
passage, at the lowest level, is the great drain, half above and half below the
level of the old pavement[18]. At the entrance to this are the grooves of a
sluice-gate in the walls on each side, and an original iron grating to prevent
anything being carried through by the rush of water; by this it is evident the
water was let off from the canals from time to time through this drain.
Unfortunately the old drain, which was at a great depth, was so much
damaged that it was found impracticable to repair it, though it was traced

the whole length of the building, as far as the Arch of Constantine at the
opposite end[19].
These interesting discoveries made me think it expedient to pay fresh
visits to other amphitheatres, to examine them again more carefully for the
purpose of comparison; accordingly, I have been to those of Capua[20],
Pozzuoli, Pompeii, and Verona, and found, as I expected, many
confirmations of what had been stated in Rome. I took with me Professor
Cicconetti, one of the best architectural artists in Rome, to Capua and
Pozzuoli[21], and have added some photo-engravings from his drawings. I
have also been to Pompeii, and to Sicily, to see Syracuse and Taormina, but
did not think it necessary to take him there, or add more plates from them.
A great work on the Roman amphitheatres in general would be very
interesting, but it would be adding too much to the bulk and to the cost of
the present work. I believe that enough has been done to illustrate and
explain the Colosseum. I should add, that the common idea that this
colossal building is named from the Colossal Statue of Nero, is a mistake.
That statue, of 120 ft. high, could not have stood on the basement or podium
on which the Roman antiquaries would place it, and there is good evidence
that a Colossal Statue of Gordianus, about half the size, stood there. The
great Colossus was moved by Hadrian from the place on which the Temple
of Rome was then built, on the east wall of which the Marble Plan of Rome
was fixed (now the church of SS. Cosmas and Damian), to the Summa
Sacra Via, where it was used as the statue of Apollo or the Sun, to which
Hadrian added one of the Moon. Heliogabalus rebuilt this temple of
Egyptian granite, of which the columns are still lying about[22] on the edges
of the great platform, in the centre of which now stands the church and
monastery of S. Francesca Romana, the campanile of which is of about the
same height as the Colossus of Nero, and stands near the same place.

CONTENTS.—COLOSSEUM.
PAGE PLATE
Excavations in 1874 and 1875 shew the foundation
to be earlier than the Flavian Emperors 1
Suetonius mentions it among the works of the
Flavian Emperors, and proposed by Augustus,
but not the beginning of the work ib.
Part of the Substructures is of the time of Nero ib.
It contained the Stagna, or old Naumachia, under,
and the Gymnasium, on the arena ib.
Nothing certain about the commencement ib.
Modern amphitheatre of Statilius Taurus ib.
—— Julius Cæsar 2
The building of M. Scaurus the ædile, in part
temporary, other parts calculated to be eternal,
according to Pliny ib.
This was on the site of the present amphitheatre 3
The Clivus Scauri leads to this site ib.
Cavea, a name for an amphitheatre, applied to the
galleries and to the dens and passages under the
arena ib.
Wild beasts brought into Rome by L. L. Metellus,
b.c. 251 ib.
Culprits executed by being thrown to wild beasts ib.
Amphitheatres a Roman invention (?) 4
Martial’s first book, De Spectaculis, relates chiefly
to this building ib.
Mountain of Rhodope represented as a scene ib.
Exhibitions in the Circus Maximus by Julius Cæsar ib.
A separate building required for these exhibitions 5
Gymnasium and Naumachia of Nero on this site ib.
Remains of Aqueducts and Piscina of Nero ib.

—— Piscina of Alexander Severus ib.
The Gymnasium of Nero was on the arena of this
building 6
Brickwork of the time of Nero in several parts ib. IX.
A straight vertical joint between the brick galleries
and the stone corridors ib. II.
The external wall of three periods,—Vespasian,
Titus, and Alexander Severus ib. I.
The upper storey an addition and an afterthought ib. II.
The arena full of trap-doors, through which the wild
animals were sent up in cages on lifts 7 XVI.
Grooves in the walls for the lifts, and sockets in the
pavement for the pivots of the capstans, to wind
the cords upon, were visible below ib.
The original walls of tufa are interfered with by later
walls of brick ib.
Inscriptions record the dates of these later walls ib.
Another inscription gives the word Theatrum for
this amphitheatre ib.
Supper of Nero in this amphitheatre ib.
Exhibitions of Titus at the dedication 8
Sea water (?) used in the canals ib.
The Naumachia were in this amphitheatre ib.
The stagna Neronis are the canals or reservoirs
supplied by aqueducts ib.
They are called by Tacitus Stagnum Navale 9
—— by Suetonius a “sea,” that is, when the surface
was flooded ib.
The new Naumachia were those of Augustus in
Trastevere ib.
Stagnum of Agrippa near the Pantheon, supplied by
the Aqua Virgo ib.
Stagna of Nero supplied by three aqueducts ib.
The old Naumachia in this building 10

No Naumachia in the amphitheatre of Statilius
Taurus ib.
The stagna were boarded over for the gladiators and
the wild beasts, but the boards could be
removed easily ib.
The canals brought to light in 1812, and more
clearly in 1875, with the substructures ib. III.
Open channels for running water in many parts of
the corridors 11
Water supplied by aqueducts.—Remains of two
piscinæ ib.
The arena was of wood covered with sand, and full
of trap-doors ib.
Corbels, or brackets, provided for placing the boards
upon when removed ib. XVII.
Gymnasium and Naumachia of Nero in this building ib.
Exterior of the brick theatre left unfinished by Nero,
finished by the Flavian Emperors in stone ib. I.
Upper gallery of wood destroyed by fire, a.d. 217 12
The original restoration in stone completed, a.d.
240, under Gordianus ib. II.
Vertical piers of travertine introduced to support this
upper floor ib.
Names of Stagna and Naumachia used indifferently ib.
The Stagnum of Nero, “like a sea,” was in the
Colosseum, when the surface was flooded ib.
Some of the walls of the substructures are of brick,
of the time of Nero ib.
The arches of the dens under the podium are of
Neronian brickwork ib.
The walls of tufa in the substructure are older than
the time of Nero 13
In the superstructure the walls of the front and of the
corridors are of travertine ib.

At Verona and at Capua are similar remains of
aqueducts ib.
At Pozzuoli (Puteoli) the arena is of brick, and full
of holes for trap-doors ib.
—— The surface there seems to have been flooded
for the Naumachia ib.
At Tusculum are canals, as in Rome 14
In the Colosseum the two sides appear to have been
flooded, but not the central passage ib.
The two stagna would be each 300 ft. long, and
about 50 ft. wide ib.
The canals were great cisterns or reservoirs under
the boarding ib.
These are 10 ft. deep, but not always the same width ib.
The walls to support the canals are unusually thick ib.
Canals were lined with lead, one supported on
arches, the other on great beams of wood, 8 ft.
above the pavement ib. X.
The lofty walls of tufa round the edge of the
substructure were for the lifts, not for the canals ib. XV.
Other lifts for men and dogs on each side of the
central passage ib.
An arch of tufa shaken by an earthquake, supported
by a brick wall of the time of Nero, and another
half-arch of the same period abutting against it ib. IX., XV.
Two small square chambers of Nero are enclosed in
the travertine walls of the Flavian Emperors 15
Augustus intended to build an amphitheatre here,
but did not ib.
The tufa walls are probably the work of Scaurus, in
the time of Sylla ib. V.
In these walls are vertical grooves for the lifts and
cages ib.
Animals were brought from the vivaria outside the
walls in cages, called pegmata ib. VI.

Podium protected by wire netting and bars 16
Seneca describes the pegmata in this theatre ib. XVI.
One vivarium was at the Prætorian Camp, the other
at the Sessorium ib.
A small stream of water ran in front of the dens 17
A pit 4 ft. square, for a man to descend to feed the
animals, behind each door ib.
The tufa walls were in some parts supported by
brick walls of the Flavian Emperors ib. IX.
Curious wooden framework on the floor of the
central passage, believed to have been a cradle,
or dry-dock 18 VII.
The general plan of the Colosseum is oval, with
galleries, vomitoria, &c. ib. VIII.
A large part destroyed by having been used as a
stone quarry ib.
The north side the only part at all perfect ib. I.
A great deal of tufa used to fill up between the piers
of travertine ib. XXI.
The tufa taken from the second wall of Rome close
at hand ib.
Travertine piers cut through the older wall to carry
the upper gallery 19 XX.
The front is of three periods, the upper storey added
a century after the rest ib.
A great mixture of stone and brick in the
construction ib.
Name of the architect not known; Gaudentius only
employed upon it 20
Views on coins, and in sculpture on the tomb of the
Aterii, of the first century ib.
Machine for raising stones for the walls 21
No open space under the arena ib.
A large number of broken columns and capitals have ib. XI.
fallen from the upper gallery on to the arena,

and into the cavea
Representation of the amphitheatre on coins ib. XXI.
Acts of Commodus in this building described by
Dion Cassius 22
The awning of Nero mentioned by Pliny 23 XIII.
Contrivances for supporting it. Masts and corbels ib.
Awning of the amphitheatre at Pompeii—shewn in a
fresco 24
Castra Misenatium, for the sailors employed here in
furling and unfurling the awning, or vela, or
velaria ib.
The wooden upper storey burnt, a.d. 217 25
a.d. 217. Restored by Heliogabalus, Alexander
Severus, and Gordianus ib.
The number of wild beasts kept for the shows, a.d.
244 ib.
100 lions killed at once in the shows 26
a.d. 320. The building damaged by lightning;
restored by Constantine ib.
—— 357. Amphitheatre described as perfect by
Ammianus Marcellinus ib.
—— 445. Restored by Lampadius, after being much
damaged by an earthquake 27
—— 508. Again restored by Venantius Basilius ib.
—— 519. Used for shows of wild beasts by
Theodoric ib.
—— 523. Again used. This is the last occasion
mentioned ib.
The building apparently perfect in the time of Bede ib.
a.d. 1130. The building made part of the fortress of
the Frangipani 28
—— 1227. Half of the fortress given to the
Annibaldi by Frederic II., but the grant
rescinded by Innocent IV., in 1244 ib.

—— 1349. The building much damaged by an
earthquake ib.
—— 1362. It is made common property as a stone-
quarry for the great families 29
—— Several palaces built of stone from this quarry ib.
—— 1540. Miracle plays performed there ib.
—— The view of Jerusalem belongs to this time ib.
—— 1575. Sixtus V. began to make it a cloth
manufactory ib.
—— 1703. The building again damaged by an
earthquake 30
—— 1728. Benedict XIII. consecrated the whole
area as a church ib.
—— 1749. The cross and the stations erected by
Benedict XIV. ib.
—— 1756. A grand mass celebrated here by the
Cardinal Vicar ib.
—— Palaces built out of the ruins ib.
The construction of the inner part is made visible by
the demolition of the outer corridor ib.
The north-eastern side is nearly perfect ib.
One arch of the lower storey restored by Gordianus,
a.d. 220-238 31
a.d. 1810. Excavations begun by the French ib.
—— 1812. The walls weeded by them; this was
repeated in 1870 ib. III.
The excavations of the French shew the channels for
water 32
Upper wall hastily built under Gordianus 33
a.d. 1864-5. Excavations made in search of treasure ib.
Many remains of shallow open channels for water ib.
Also remains of three reservoirs in the principal
gallery ib.
And of two piscinæ under the Cœlian, on the same
level as this gallery ib.

The excavations of the French were not deep enough
for historical purposes 34
When the boards were removed from the arena they
were placed on the corbels or brackets, or large
consoles provided for them below ib. XVII.
Apollodorus tells Hadrian that he ought to have
provided space for all this machinery ib.
A long and large passage found at the south-east end ib. IV.
The original pavement is 21 ft. below the level of
the arena 35
In the ancient tufa walls are vertical grooves for the
lifts, on which the pegmata, or cages for wild
beasts, were placed ib. VI.
There are also sockets for the pivots of the capstans ib. XVII.
Under the passage is a large drain ib.
An ancient iron grating at the mouth of the drain 36 XIX.
The place for the flood-gates is plainly visible ib.
Large corbels and brackets for placing the boards of
the arena upon, remain in many parts ib. XVIII.
The martyrdom of the early Christians took place on
the sand of the arena, not on the soil, 21 ft.
below it ib.
The results of the excavations of 1874-75 were a
great surprise 37
Many of the lower walls belong to the repairs after
earthquakes in a.d. 442 and 508 ib.
A narrow and lofty vaulted chamber on each side of
the central passage under the galleries, with six
sockets in a line 38
The wooden framework, cradle, or dry dock, fully
described ib.
The old substructures were evidently retained and
used when the upper part was built 39
Piers of travertine run from top to bottom of the
building to carry the upper gallery, and the old
tufa walls were cut through ib.

The Evidence of the Construction, and Comparison 40-54
Comparison one of the first principles of
Archæology, especially useful for this
enormous amphitheatre 40
Amphitheatre at Capua is almost the same size as
that of Rome 40, 41 XXVII.
—— The substructures more perfect than in Rome 41
—— Aqueduct and drain ib. XXVIII.
—— Dens under the podium ib.
—— Sockets for the pivots for the cages ib. XXIX.
—— Arena of brick, not wood, but had apertures for
the trap-doors ib. XXX.
—— Grooves for covers over them to make them
water-tight ib.
—— The building is of the time of Hadrian 40
—— Inscription 41, 42
—— Puteoli, or Pozzuoli 42, 43 XXXII.
—— Building much smaller than those of Rome or
Capua 42
—— Substructures more perfect and more highly
finished ib.
—— Arena of brick, with apertures for trap-doors ib.
—— Arrangement for fixing the masts or poles for
the awning, as in Rome 43 XXXIII.
Amphitheatre at Puteoli, or Pozzuoli—The building
also of the time of Hadrian ib. XXXIV.
—— The vaults preserved and used 42
—— Verona XXXI.,
43, 44 XXXII.
—— —— The outer wall almost destroyed 43
—— —— Arcade of two lower storeys preserved 44
—— —— Comparison of the number that each
amphitheatre would contain ib.
—— —— The seats remarkably well preserved ib.

—— —— Dimensions of all the three principal
amphitheatres at Rome, Verona, Capua 45
—— Pola, in Istria 45, 46
—— —— Built in white stone, like marble ib.
—— —— Two tiers of arches remain ib.
—— —— And a curious stone parapet, with
indications of the awning ib.
—— —— Built against a rocky mountain on the
slope ib.
—— —— Substructures in the lower part ib.
—— —— Canal for water visible ib.
—— —— Square towers (for the musicians?) 46
—— At Nîmes there is still a wooden floor, with
trap-doors in it ib.
—— —— But the arrangements below are quite
different ib.
—— At Arles, no substructures visible ib.
—— At Bordeaux, the remains are called the
Arènes, it had a boarded floor ib.
Substructures compared 47-52
Space required for the actors is usually given behind
the scenes in theatres, in an amphitheatre under
the stage 47
Vessels employed in the Naumachia were usually
rates, or rowing-boats ib.
The battles were of the sailors with swords, not with
the boats ib.
At Pozzuoli an intermediate passage for messengers ib.
In the Colosseum such a passage for the sailors to
manage the awning; the corbels that support it
are all that remain ib.
A great central passage or gulf in all the
amphitheatres ib.
Traces of a great machine for lifting up vessels at
Capua, as in the Colosseum ib.

Machines required were numerous and large 48
Apollodorus told Hadrian that he ought to have
provided a place for them, but he had not done
so ib.
Cords for the awning, strong enough to carry an
elephant, were called catadromus ib.
An actor playing the part of Icarus, leaping from the
upper gallery, fell dead at the feet of Nero ib.
Pegmata were not only cages but wooden machines;
these are mentioned by Josephus, Calpurnius,
Apuleius, Claudian, Vopiscus, and Martial 49
The Colossus (on the Summa Sacra Via) was visible
from the gulf ib.
That a hundred lions leaped on to the stage or arena,
at once, is mentioned not only by Herodian, but
by Vopiscus, Julius Capitolinus, Lampridius,
Ammianus Marcellinus, Statius 50
The netting to protect the lower gallery was of gold
(or gilt) wire, and was called retia, as
mentioned by Calpurnius ib.
Naval fights sometimes held in the Circus Maximus ib.
—— but must have been in the canals of the
Colosseum, because Heliogabalus filled them
with wine 51
They were called Circensian games, because
sometimes held in the circus ib.
Martial clearly distinguishes them ib.
That the vaults under the arena were called caveæ ib.
The Arena 52
Criminals torn to pieces by wild beasts upon it ib.
The gladiators and other actors often killed ib.
Celebrated gladiators were called for by the people ib.
Usually four gates to each amphitheatre 53
The names of these not easily ascertained ib.

One was called sandapila, or sanavivaria, or
libitinensis, from libitina, “death” ib.
Others—Porta Prætoria, Porta Sacra, Porta Cochlea 54
The Games on the Arena 55 XXII.
—— Great importance attached to them ib.
The Emperor went to see the wild beasts fed ib.
Tacitus gives an account of games performed under
his own direction ib.
Appendix.
Scaurus 56
—— The name means club-footed, from the first
member of the family, but it was a great family,
the Gens Æmilia ib.
One of the family built the Basilica Æmilia ib.
The insane works of Scaurus, their enormous cost ib.
His theatre, to hold 80,000 people, could only be on
the site of the Colosseum ib.
No other theatre is three storeys high ib.
Extract from Pliny, relating to Scaurus and his works ib.
The amphitheatre of Nero not in the Campus
Martius 58
The great drain 59 XXXVI.

LIST OF PLATES.
I. Exterior—General View.
II. Views of Parts—Upper Gallery, and remains of Reservoir in
first gallery.
III. General View in 1812.
IV. View in the Substructures in 1874.
V. View in the Interior in 1874.
VI. Interior—View at the South-east End.
VII. General View in the South-east Part, with the Cradle.
VIII. Plan of the Part Excavated.
IX. Arches in the Substructure, of the first and second century.
X. Canals for the Naval fights.
XI. Two Capitals, one from the upper gallery the other from the
lower one.
XII. Restoration of one Compartment.
XIII. Section and Details of one Compartment.
XIV. Section of one Bay, and Plans of the Six Storeys.
XV. A. Probable Restoration of the Stagna, &c. B. Brick arches of
Nero supporting a tufa wall and arch.
XVI. Probable Restoration of the Lifts and Pegmata, or cages, with
the animals leaping out.
XVII. View in the Substructures, shewing the Consoles for placing
the boards upon.
XVIII. View and Plan of one Division, shewing the great consoles
inserted into the old tufa wall.
XIX. View in the Substructure, with the mouth of the Great Drain,
and the iron grating and the grooves of the sluice-gate.
XX. Portion of the Superstructure in the principal gallery.
XXI. View in the Upper Part, with the aperture from which a
travertine pier has been carried away.
XXII. The Graffiti: A. and B. Athletes; C. A hunt of wild beasts.

XXIII. A Graffito of the framework of the netting or gilt wire on the
podium.
XXIV. Representations of the Colosseum on Coins.
XXV. Diagrams of the Coins.
XXVI. A Roman Galley on a Cradle.
XXVII. I. Amphitheatre at Capua. II. Amphitheatre at Pompeii, from a
fresco of the first century.
XXVIII. Amphitheatre at Capua—Perspective View and Details.
XXIX. Amphitheatre at Capua—Details.
XXX. Amphitheatre at Capua—Plan of Substructures and
Superstructures.
XXXI. Amphitheatre at Verona—A. Exterior. B. Interior.
XXXII. Amphitheatre at Pozzuoli—Arena.
XXXIII. Amphitheatre at Pozzuoli—Plan.
XXXIV. Amphitheatre at Pozzuoli—Views and Section.
XXXV. Amphitheatre at Pozzuoli—Views in the Interior, subterranean
part.
XXXVI. Colosseum—Plan of the Great Drain.

THE FLAVIAN AMPHITHEATRE,
COMMONLY CALLED
THE COLOSSEUM.
The importance of the great excavations made in 1874 and 1875 in this
colossal building, and the evidence obtained by them for the history of the
fabric, can hardly be overrated. It is now evident that the substructures
under the level of the base of the podium are (when not rebuilt) the earliest
part of it, and considerably earlier than the time of the Flavian Emperors,
who built the magnificent front and corridors around a theatre previously
existing on that site.
This great amphitheatre is indeed enumerated by Suetonius[23] among the
works of Vespasian, and he adds that an amphitheatre in the centre of Rome
had been projected by Augustus. But he does not say that it was then begun,
and it seems evident that it was in use in the time of Nero in connection
with his great golden house, and was partly built by him, but the exterior
left unfinished. It contained the stagna, or stagnum navale, called also Vetus
Naumachia, made at a still earlier period on the same site, which was called
the old naumachia, when Augustus made new and larger ones in the
Trastevere. It also contained his gymnasium on the boarded floor, or arena,
of the theatre, over the stagna maritima, or canals for the sham naval fights.
We know nothing certain as to the exact date of the commencement, but the
building was continued during the reign of Vespasian and till the second
year of Titus, namely a.d. 80, when it was dedicated. There is no evidence
to prove that it was commenced even under Nero.
Pliny gives an account of a wooden amphitheatre built by Statilius
Taurus, which was in the Campus Martius; he says[24] that

“he made two large theatres of wood, morticed together in a singular
manner, and suspended so as to turn freely, in which on both sides
were exhibited the afternoon shows of plays, then turning them
round—nor were the scenes interrupted by the turning—quickly

turning to face each other, and (intermediate) boards falling down;
and the two parts held together by horns. He made an amphitheatre
and exhibited the gladiatorial shows, carrying with him the consent
of the greater part of the Roman people. For which was most to be
admired, the inventor or the thing invented? The work or its author?
To have thought of such a thing, or to have carried it out? To exhibit
it, or permit it? Upon all these points there was a furor of the people,
to dare to sit on such an unsafe and unstable seat.”

This gave the form of an amphitheatre, or a theatre round at both ends,
and not with one side flat, as in the other theatres, but the two names are
often used indifferently; this set the fashion, and Julius Cæsar followed it a
few years afterwards in his great wooden amphitheatre; but the turning
round had been abandoned, and the advantage of substructures under the
stage would become apparent for making the shows still more popular. It is
mentioned as being very large, to admit of naval fights with large vessels,
but this was in the Campus Martius, and was a temporary structure only, as
stated by Dio Cassius[25].
The Theatre of M. Scaurus, the ædilis, is mentioned by Pliny[26] as being
on an enormous scale,—the scena of triple height, with 360 columns, and
he enumerates it among the insane works that were made at his private cost.
The upper part was of wood.

“He made, during the time that he was edile, the greatest work
that ever was made by human hands, not for temporary use only, but
destined for eternity also[27]. This was a theatre; the scena of it was
triple in height. There were three hundred and sixty columns in that
building, of which six were brought from Hymettus, not without
reproach at the sumptuousness of a citizen. The lowest part of the
scena was of marble, the middle part of glass, an unheard-of luxury
in that kind of work; the highest part of gilt wood. The columns
were at least thirty-eight feet high; the images between the columns
were three thousand in number; the cavea itself held eighty
thousand people.”

Scena usually means the stage for the actors to perform upon, but how
could this be triple, and three storeys high? To what other site in Rome,
excepting this great amphitheatre, which held 80,000 people, could all this
possibly apply?
This was in the time of Sylla; the site is not mentioned. Dio mentions[28]
a great flood in the time of Julius Cæsar, a.u.c. 694 (b.c. 59), extending as
far as the great wooden theatre. The clivus Scauri descends from that part of
the Cœlian Hill on which the Claudium was afterwards built, to the level of
the road or street that leads from the Circus Maximus to the Colosseum. All
this was under water at the time of the great flood in 1871.
The name of cavea is said by Lipsius[29] to be applied to the amphitheatre
by several classical authors. He cites Ammianus Marcellinus[30],
Prudentius[31], and others, as using that name for it; but they probably
meant not only the hollow where the seats were placed, but also the hollow
space under the arena, with the dens for the wild beasts, to which that name
was also applied. Statius[32] uses the word cavea for the cages for lions,
with doors round them, the closing of which frightened the lions. Livy
mentions iron cages (caveas), but Claudian says that the animals were shut
into wooden houses[33]; probably the cages in which they were brought
from the vivaria were of iron, but wooden cages (pegmata) were sufficient
to place upon the lifts, and send the animals up to the trap-doors[34].
Long before this time wild beasts had been brought into Rome for
exhibition, in the year 502 of Rome[35] (b.c. 251). Lucius Cæcilius
Metellus, the pro-consul, when he had conquered Sicily from the
Carthaginians, brought into Rome 142 elephants taken from them, which he
exhibited in the Circus Maximus. The custom of sending culprits to
execution by being torn to pieces by wild beasts is very ancient in the East,
as the well-known history of Daniel and the lions clearly shews. The
invention of circuses and amphitheatres for the exhibition of hunts is
attributed to the Athenians by Cassiodorus[36]; but it is generally thought to
be a Roman invention, although the name is Greek. Livy[37] records that in
the year 568 of Rome (b.c. 217), Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, after the war
with the Ætolians, exhibited for the first time “the athletes, and the hunting
of lions and panthers.”

In the year 586 of Rome (b.c. 227), Livy[38] also relates that “P. Cornelius
Scipio Nasica and P. Lentulus, the Ædiles Curules, exhibited 63 African
wild beasts, 40 bears and elephants.” Martial, who was a contemporary of
Vespasian and Titus, Domitian and Trajan, has numerous epigrams on the
subject of scenes that took place in the Amphitheatre of the Cæsars, by
which he obviously means the Colosseum; a large part of his first book, de
Spectaculis, relates to such scenes on this spot[39]. On one occasion, he
mentions that a representation of Rhodope (a mountain in Thrace), where
Orpheus sang, with the rocks and woods, was given upon the stage. It is
evident from this, and from many other passages in the classical authors,
that the stage, called the Arena, was on the level of the podium, and visible
to the people in every part of the great theatre; and not at the bottom of a pit
twenty feet deep, where only a small number could have seen it, although
some persons maintain this opinion.
We are told by Suetonius again[40] in the life of Julius Cæsar, that—

“these spectacles were exhibited in the Circus Maximus, in the
circuit of the Euripus, with races of bigæ, and quadrigæ[41], and
horses, with the young nobles for riders or drivers. Hunting of wild
beasts for five days, and sham fights, castles being made over the
metæ; a stadium or stage was made in the Campus Martius for the
athletes, and naval fights in the smaller codeta[42],” (which was in
the Trastevere, and probably on the site on which Augustus
afterwards made his great Naumachia,) “and in the lake then dug
out, biremes, and triremes, and quadriremes[43] of the Tyrian and
Ægyptian fleets, in great number, fought together. The whole
population of Rome was attracted by those exhibitions, so that the
streets and houses were quite empty; and from the pressure of the
crowd several persons were crushed to death, including two
senators.”

These attractive exhibitions obviously required a building especially
prepared and calculated for them, which Augustus proposed to provide, but
left for his successors to carry out the plan. It is probable that in the time of
Nero the great work was commenced on the site of that of Scaurus[44], and

making use of his substructures, was carried on gradually, and eventually
completed in this colossal building.
We are told that Nero made a Gymnasium and Naumachia in connection
with his great palace, or golden house, and no vestiges of any such
buildings have been found[45], unless both were combined in the great
building called the Colosseum from its colossal size. The amphitheatre at
Capua, being also a very large one, is said to have been called a Colosseum,
but on rather doubtful authority. It is, however, certain that the name had
nothing to do with the Colossus of Nero. It is evident that Nero made a
great reservoir of water on this spot, which was supplied from his aqueduct
on the Cœlian[46]. The specus, or channel for this water, remains in the wall
of the Claudium, on the northern side, opposite the Palatine; and at the
north-east corner of that part of the Cœlian Hill on which the Claudium
stood, are remains of a piscina of the time of Nero, obviously intended for
the filtering-place before the water went across into the Colosseum. At a
short interval only, about a hundred yards to the south of this, is another
piscina of the time of Alexander Severus, when the upper storey was added,
and the whole building repaired after the great fire. It is quite possible that
Nero made a large oval reservoir on this spot, adjoining to his palace,
supplied by an aqueduct, similar to the great oval reservoir on the Palatine,
near the house of Augustus, excavated in 1872. The Romans were fond of
the oval form for a sheet of water; the basin of the fountain of Domitian,
also on the Palatine, is oval; and the remains of the fountain of Juturna in
the Forum Romanum shew the same form[47]. The long canals for the
vessels to float in, which are ten feet deep, about the same width, and the
same height above the original pavements, are not so early as the time of
Nero; they are of the third century, with many later repairs.
To include the Gymnasium in the same building, Nero made a wooden
floor over the reservoir, which he could remove and replace at pleasure; this
was covered with sand for the athletes to wrestle upon, and became the
Arena. Around this great oval basin galleries were erected for the
spectators, which were gradually enlarged and raised higher as the seats
were further off; and the great stone arcades of the Flavian Emperors, with
the corridors in them, are built round those older galleries, which were
chiefly faced with brick. Several of the arches of the galleries, in the fine
brickwork of Nero, remain in the Colosseum[48]; and the stone arcades were

evidently built up against them without any junction between the two in any
part. The bricks on the side of the arch next the stone piers of the corridors,
are in many places cut in half, to make way for the stone piers. The straight
vertical joints between the brick galleries and the stone arcades are often
two or three inches wide; this may be the effect of an earthquake, but there
is no bonding between one and the other. The enormous arcades and
corridors are in themselves a gigantic work, and it was evidently difficult to
obtain so great a supply of materials.
The external wall and corridor are of three periods. The first is the ground
floor only, with the Doric order of columns; the first and second floor, with
the Corinthian columns, belong to the second period, and it is a little later
than the lowest part, but not with any long interval; the upper floor is an
addition of the third century, and replaces a wooden storey.
In the interior of the building, as we are told in the anonymous chronicle
published by Eccard, which is good authority[49], Vespasian dedicated the
three lower steps, and Titus added two others to the three placed by his
father. The wooden gallery, built upon the top of the great corridors or
arcades (for the plebs), appears to have been an afterthought, not part of the
original design, but an addition obviously called for. The large space at that
height gave accommodation for an enormous number of people, which
could not have been given before, to see what was going on upon the Arena
or Stage during the performance. This had numerous trap-doors in it, under
which were lifts for the wild beasts in their cages to be sent up on to the
stage when wanted. The performance was in many respects like our
pantomimes. There are evident traces of the lifts below, by the vertical
grooves in the tufa walls for them to slide up and down[50]; and recesses
remain in these walls for the counter-weights also to work in, with holes in
the pavement for the sockets of pivots for the capstans necessary to wind up
the cords, and loose them as required. These original walls, with the
grooves for the old machines, are in many parts interfered with by more
modern walls built up between them, probably in the fifth and sixth
centuries, when great repairs were made after earthquakes, or perhaps
rendered necessary by the weight of the water under the wooden floor in the
central part.

Two important inscriptions relating to the history of the building have
been preserved[51]: one found in 1810 on the western side, recording the
repairs after an earthquake by the præfect Basilius, a.d. 445; the other in
1813, recording similar repairs by Lampadius, a.d. 508. Three of the marble
seats were also brought to light, one with the number xviii., another with the
word equiti, the third, with an inscription, the beginning of which is broken
off:—
tr ib in . theatr . lege . pl . vi
vind icet . p . x . ii.
This is important, because it shews the use of the word Theatrum[52], and
not Amphitheatrum, for the colossal building; which agrees with the usage
of Dio and other contemporary authors, who always call it Theatrum par
eminence, or the great theatre of Rome, there being no need to distinguish it
further.
The following extracts from Dio Cassius can only apply to the great
amphitheatre:—

“Such was the shamelessness of Nero, that he himself drove
chariots in public; and, sometimes, having slain wild beasts, and
having suddenly introduced water into the area, he made a naval
battle; and then withdrawing the water, he introduced the
gladiatorial strife. Then again introducing it, he gave in public a
sumptuous supper. Tigellinus was the prefect (or overseer) of the
supper, and it was a supper of the grandest magnificence, arranged
in this manner. In the middle of the amphitheatre and in the water
great wooden wine-casks were placed, and upon them a floor of
planks[53] was laid, and around this, booths and small chambers
were erected[54].”
“Nero had various kinds of shows in the amphitheatre, sometimes
filling it with sea-water, in which fishes and sea monsters swam, and
made a naval fight between the Persians and the Athenians; then
suddenly withdrawing the water, and drying the ground, he ordered
a number of men on foot to rush in, not singly, but in numbers and
close together[55].”

“When he (Titus) dedicated the theatre for hunting, and the
thermæ called after him, he exhibited many wonderful things.
Cranes fought and four elephants, nine thousand wild boars and
other beasts were killed, which women, even some of noble rank,
had brought together. Many contests, also, on foot, and naval fights
took place, for suddenly filling the amphitheatre with water, he
introduced horses and bulls, and other tame animals, who had been
taught to act in the water as on land. He also introduced men in
ships, who, in the guise of Corcyrians and Corinthians, imitated a
naval battle[56].”

In another chapter Dio repeats the same account, with the addition of “a
public supper[57].” This shews that the arrangements in the amphitheatre
were the same in the time of Nero as in the time of Commodus, when Dio
was himself present, and describes what he saw. If the water was really sea-
water, it could only have been in the canals. The fact of three aqueducts
having converged to this point to bring water to the great building, makes it
most probable that the water was not really sea-water, but perhaps had sea-
weed inserted in it to suit the fishes and the sea monsters. Suetonius also
mentions the naumachia in the amphitheatre[58] in the time of Domitian,
among the magnificent shows that he provided for the people. Dio clearly
distinguishes between the Amphitheatre of Nero and that of Statilius Taurus
in the Campus Martius, which he also calls Theatrum Tauri[59].
The word stagnum is commonly translated pond, but it does not
necessarily mean only a pond; any reservoir of water might be so called; the
castellum aquæ, or large cistern for the water supplied by the aqueducts,
was also a stagnum. The “Stagna Neronis[60]” are mentioned by Martial, as
well as by Tacitus[61], who also mentions a stagnum navale among the
games in the public theatre of Augustus[62].
Suetonius[63] compares the Stagnum of Nero to a “sea” surrounded by the
buildings of a city: a strong expression, which shews that there were some
buildings immediately round it. The Claudium on the Cœlian, the Porticus
Liviæ on the Summa Sacra Via, and Porticus of Nero himself on the
Esquiline, would be visible on three sides of it. The representation of this
great building on the coin of Titus was evidently taken from the design of

the architect. It represents a building of two storeys only, with gigantic
statues under each of the arches of the corridors.
The new naumachia made by Augustus in the Trastevere were larger
reservoirs for the same purpose; this naumachia is also called a stagnum by
Tacitus[64], who describes a similar scene in the stagnum of Agrippa[65]
(which was in his thermæ, near the Pantheon), with the letting in the water
suddenly for a naval battle; and then letting it off again as suddenly, and
having a supper in the same place; he also mentions the stagna of Nero[66],
and the stagnum navale of Augustus[67]. The stagnum of Agrippa was
supplied with water by his aqueduct (the Virgo), and it has been mentioned
that those of Nero were supplied by three aqueducts, two from the Cœlian
and one from the Esquiline. The remains of the specus and of the piscinæ
have been already mentioned[68]. There are slight remains of three
reservoirs in the gallery, lined with the peculiar cement used only for the
aqueducts, called opus signinum. From the Esquiline the water was brought
to the Amphitheatre in leaden pipes, after serving the Thermæ of Titus; a
quantity of these leaden pipes have been found in excavations at different
periods[69], as recorded at the time by eye-witnesses, and some of them are
still preserved as mementoes in the office of the Municipality.
Suetonius[70] mentions that some of the amusements for the people
provided by Nero were held in the wooden amphitheatre of Statilius Taurus
in the Campus Martius, but he mentions the naumachia separately, and we
have no account of any stagnum having been there, nor is it probable, as it
could only have been supplied with water by the aqueduct of Agrippa, and
it was originally built before that aqueduct was made. The naumachia were
an essential part of the amusements of many Roman amphitheatres, and
there are considerable remains of the canals for them at Capua and at
Tusculum.
Suetonius, in his life of Titus, thus writes:—

“Having dedicated the Amphitheatre, and having quickly
completed the Thermæ hard by, he provided the most magnificent
and expensive entertainment [for the people]. He exhibited a naval
fight in the old Naumachia, and also a combat of gladiators; and, in
one day also, five thousand wild beasts of all sorts[71].”

Those stagna were boarded over for the gladiators and for the wild
beasts, but the boards could be moved and naval fights exhibited at other
times, as had previously been done on the same spot in “the old
Naumachia[72].” The account of the scenes that took place here, described
by Dio Cassius, agrees with this. The excavations made in 1814 shewed that
there were canals built of brick running parallel to each other the whole
length of the area, as at Capua, and in several other amphitheatres; these
were, no doubt, for the naval fights. The vessels were probably towed along
from the opposite ends, and where they met were lashed together, and the
sailors of one of them tried to board the other: to prevent this was the naval
fight. Probably the space between these two canals was flooded when the
water was let in. These canals, reservoirs, or stagna, were brought out more
clearly in 1875, and the substructures which supported them were then
made visible[73].
In the corridors are many remains of the open channels for the water
brought from the aqueducts. They are not more than a foot deep, often not
so much, being frequently much worn: when perfect they are nearly of that
depth, and are lined with the peculiar cement used only for the aqueducts,
called Opus signinum, and in Italian, Coccio-pesto. This is an invariable
mark of an aqueduct; this open channel must have been brought across from
the Cœlian reservoir on the colonnade, shewn upon the coin of Titus. The
system of drainage for the rain-water is quite distinct from the channels for
the aqueducts.
The floor of the Arena for the gymnastics and the slaughter of wild
beasts was of wood covered with sand; on one occasion (as we have shewn)
placed upon wine-barrels in the parts that had been flooded; the boards
could be removed or replaced with facility. It was full of trap-doors with
lifts under them, some large for the animals to jump through, these are over
the passage round the outer line, in front of the dens under the podium;
others smaller for men and dogs for the hunt; these are on each side of the
central passage. Large corbels, with bold projections for placing the boards
upon when removed from the floor of the stage, are provided over the
stream of water, in front of the podium, but at a lower level; they are in
pairs six feet apart, and also served to stiffen the lower end of the masts or
poles for the awning; on the surface of them a notch is cut to place the
boards upon, and ready access was given by the passage in front of the

podium. The gymnasium and the stagna were in one and the same building
used for both purposes, and Nero probably built galleries of brick round it
for the accommodation of the people, according to the fashion of his time.
The exterior was left unfinished for some years, and completed of stone by
Titus and the Flavian emperors on a more magnificent scale. The space for
the upper galleries was afterwards very much enlarged by building them
upon the magnificent double arcades of stone round it, and so completing
the great building known as the Colosseum. The straight vertical joint,
which is plainly seen between the old brickwork within and these stone
galleries and corridors, and the want of any bond between them, is thus
accounted for[74]. The upper gallery for the common people was an addition
to the original design over these arcades and corridors, and was originally
of wood; it was destroyed by fire caused by lightning in the time of the
Emperor Macrinus, a.d. 217, and restored in stone in about twenty-three
years, having been completed by Gordianus III., a.d. 240. To support this
upper gallery of stone at that enormous height vertical piers of travertine are
introduced, cutting through the walls of the lower galleries from top to
bottom[75]; these walls are of tufa, faced with brick. In several instances
portions of these piers of travertine have been removed for building
purposes in the Middle Ages, and the space that had been occupied by the
piers is left empty. The brick facing of the walls on either side stands just as
firm without these travertine piers as with them, a clear proof that their
object was to support the upper gallery when it was rebuilt in stone, and not
to support the brick walls of the lower one through which they were cut,
although they appear to do so. This accounts for the fact that in the brick
arches of construction (as they are called), the bricks, originally two feet
square, are cut down to a few inches[76].
The names of stagnum or stagna, and naumachia, are evidently used
indifferently by the classical authors. It has been already mentioned that in
the description of the far-famed palace of Nero, reaching from the Esquiline
to the Palatine Hill, Suetonius also speaks of it having “a lake (stagnum)
like a sea surrounded by buildings, after the fashion of cities[77].” This
could only apply to the Colosseum, and from this it would appear that in the
time of Nero the surface could be flooded when required for theatrical
display. Probably in two parts, divided by the great central passage or the
gulf, and these two parts were called the stagna. It must always be

remembered that the one object of the whole building was a theatre for the
amusement of the people, very much like the Crystal Palace for London.
The probability is that some of the walls of the buildings of Nero round
his stagna were used as part of the lower galleries of the Colosseum; these
walls and arches are a mixture of stone and brick, and some of the
brickwork has quite the character of the time of Nero, so well known to
Roman antiquaries as the finest brickwork in the world[78]. The excavations
of 1874 and 1875 have confirmed this opinion; there is a series of arches
over the entrance to the dens for wild beasts, under the podium, which are
distinctly of the well-known brickwork of Nero. Some of these walls of the
substructure are earlier than the time of Nero, others are later, with large
repairs of the fifth and sixth centuries. The great external corridors are
entirely built of stone, and are evidently added on to the galleries; there is a
straight joint from top to bottom in all parts, and no junction with ties
anywhere in the original construction. The construction of the walls of the
Colosseum in the interior shews such evident patchwork of different
periods, that it is impossible to believe they were all built within ten years,
as is commonly said.
In many other places besides Rome, part of the amphitheatre was at times
filled with water for the exhibition of naval fights, indeed the actual remains
of the conduit for the water are shewn in more than one place. At Verona,
where the area of the amphitheatre is considerably below the level of the
adjacent ground, the conduit or specus is shewn at the level of the second
gallery, and below that of the upper one, and the water seems to have gone
down a cascade into the end of a corridor or passage at the lowest level. At
Capua the aqueduct for bringing in the water and a large drain for carrying
it off rapidly, are shewn, both at a low level[79]. In either of these cases, the
substructure is to a great extent filled up with vaulted brick chambers
separated by passages, but the walls and vaults are lined with that peculiar
cement that resists water, and thus a great part of the surface may have been
covered with water to a sufficient depth for the purpose. At Puteoli or
Pozzuoli, near Naples, the underground chambers of the amphitheatre are
unusually perfect, and the brick floor over them, with numerous trap-doors,
with deep grooves round the edge for a cover to fit tight over them when the
surface was flooded[80]; at Tusculum one of the canals has been excavated,
the other is still buried. From these it appears that the naval fights were

represented as in a river, rather than in the sea. There are two long straight
passages, the whole length of the central space, with no doors in them; and
the walls are faced with the peculiar water-cement. These passages are wide
enough for a trireme to pass along, and it seems more probable that the
naval fight took place on this sort of river than on the whole surface, which
would have been necessary for a sea-fight.
This obviously applies equally to the Colosseum, where the great
excavations in 1875 shewed that there were two canals on each side of a
great central passage, parallel to it and to each other, with an interval of
about six feet between them, which was flooded when the water was let in
to make two fine sheets of water the whole length of the arena, each about
three hundred feet long and fifty feet wide[81]. These were just under the
boards, which were carried away and placed on the corbels provided for
them in front of the podium, but below the level of the base of it. The walls
to support this body of water are unusually thick, and have buttresses on
both sides for greater strength[82]. The two canals were not of the same
width, but of the same depth, ten feet, with passages, ten feet high, under
them. The most narrow canal is nearest to the centre, and has been
supported on great beams of wood resting upon the massive walls; the
places for the ends of the beams are left at short intervals in the walls. The
other and wider canal had brick arches to support it, which remain, though
the great leaden cistern in the form of a canal has been destroyed.
The two great lofty walls of tufa are independent of the brick walls
supporting the canals. The lifts, or pegmata for the wild beasts, were placed
in the outer passage between the two tufa walls, just under the edge of the
podium[83]. On each side of the central passage are a series of small square
closets for lifts, for men and dogs to ascend from the passages at the lowest
level to the floor above, through the trap-doors. These continue visible for
the whole length of the surface and central passage. The pavement of these
passages is of brick in herring-bone fashion, such as was common in Rome
during the first three centuries. Some persons have imagined that the walls
are built upon this pavement, but if this is the case anywhere, of which there
is no evidence, it would only be a part of the later repairs of the fifth or
sixth century.

There are some portions of a third wall of tufa parallel to the other two,
and within them; this has been much damaged, and very little of it remains.
In one place, near the south-west end, there is an arch in this tufa wall
apparently much shaken by an earthquake, and consequently supported by
two brick arches of Nero, one under it, the other abutting against it, like a
flying buttress in a medieval church[84]. The long, thin bricks of the time of
Nero are perfectly well known to all Roman archæologists, and are only
met with in buildings of his time. Two other small square chambers, one on
either side of the great central passage, also remain at the south end, with an
arch of the brickwork of Nero on each side[85]. These chambers are
enclosed in stone, so that half the thickness of the wall is of brick, the other
half of travertine. This wall, therefore, affords conclusive evidence that
there was a great theatre on this spot before the time of Vespasian, and that
the tufa walls are earlier than the time of Nero.
We are expressly told that Augustus had intended to build an
amphitheatre here, but had not done so. We have no mention of Claudius
having built one, we are therefore driven back to an earlier period (probably
to the amphitheatre of Scaurus, in the time of Sylla) for the date of the tufa
walls, with the grooves for lifts, or pegmata, in them, as has been
mentioned. Outside of these great walls of tufa, and under the path in front
of the podium, are a number of dens for lions, or other wild beasts of that
size[86]. And in front of each is an opening large enough for the animal to
pass through into a cage placed on a lift in the passage between the two tufa
walls, and in each of these walls are vertical grooves cut in them for the lifts
to work up and down; also deeper grooves, about a yard long, for the
counter-weights[87]. Behind the place for each cage, in the passage, is a
socket let into the pavement for a pivot to work in[88], apparently for a
capstan or post to wind the cord upon to pull up the lifts and cages. These
cages were of wood, and called pegmata. The word pegma is used in
different senses by Pliny, Martial, and others for a wooden box, cage, or
framework; and the wild beasts were brought in such cages from the places
where they were kept outside the walls, called vivaria.
There were two vivaria, one on the southern side of the Prætorian Camp,
of which there are some remains. The evidence for this is an inscription of
the time of Gordianus III. (a.d. 241), which mentions a keeper of the
vivarium[89] belonging to the sixth Cohort of the Prætorian and Urban[90]

Guards. The other was on the southern side of the Sessorium, which was
both a palace and a Prætorian Camp.
The podium was protected by nets[91]; and there were projecting bars for
rollers, which turned round when touched, so that the claws of an animal
could have no hold upon them: these are mentioned by Calpurnius. Seneca,
in his Epistle (88) uses the word pegma for “a wooden machine in the
theatres,” which raised and lowered itself imperceptibly—evidently what
we now call a lift—the machinery of which was not seen by the spectators.
Wooden towers used on the stage in sham fights were also called
pegmata[92]. The following account given by Seneca[93], who wrote about
a.d. 20, of these machines, clearly applies to the Colosseum and the
substructures under it. As that was before the time of the Flavian Emperors,
it is probable that the wooden amphitheatre on this spot was in existence in
his time, and that the tufa walls for the lifts now remaining were then
standing and in use. He says—

“There are games that give pleasure to the eyes and the ears.
Among these we may enumerate the machines which cause the
cages to raise themselves, and silently rise to the top of the wooden
floor (or stage), and others in unexpected variety, either gaping open
or coalescing again, others which were distant drawing together
again spontaneously, or those which were near gradually retiring
from each other. The eyes of the silly people are astonished at all
these sudden movements, the causes of which they do not
understand.”

Juvenal, writing about a.d. 100, also mentions the pegmata in the
Colosseum[94], with the velaria.
There is a small stream of water in front of the dens, supplied by the
aqueducts, from which the animals could drink. Behind each den is a small
cell, four feet square, descending from above, called catabolicus[95], but not
lower than ten feet from the ground, apparently for a man to go down and
feed them safely.
In what seems the earliest part of the two tufa walls, near the south-west
end of the building, the apertures in the inner part are square-headed

doorways, and not arches[96]. These are filled up with brick walls of the
time of the Flavian emperors, or later[97]. In other parts of these tufa walls
there are arches in the inner wall, also supported by brick arches of the time
of the Flavian emperors, in which the bricks are thicker, and there is more
mortar between them than in those of the time of Nero.
On the floor of the central passage is a remarkable piece of ancient
wooden framework lying on the ground[98], which has the appearance at
first sight of having been burnt, but long exposure to wet will have the same
effect on wood that fire has. (The Irish bog-oak often appears as if it had
been burnt, and wood has been dug from under the foundations of an Irish
round tower that had the same appearance.) This framework is a good deal
worn, as if it had been much used; it has all the appearance of a dry dock, or
a cradle for a vessel to stand upon. When the stagnum navale of Nero was
in use, there must have been some machinery for lifting up the vessels and
placing them on the canals. They must also have been removed out of the
way when the water was let off, and the boarded floor of the stage or arena
replaced[99].
On each side of this wooden framework is a series of slabs of stone about
a yard square, placed upright, with a hole through each for a water-course.
These seem to have been for fixing the wooden frame of a cradle for the
vessels to stand upon, and to keep them upright. This plan is well shewn in
a drawing of a trireme that was made for Napoleon III., to shew the French
people what a Roman trireme was like[100].
It is well known that the general form of the Colosseum is oval, and that
it had four principal entrances, one of which only remains; this is said to
have been the entrance for the emperor and his suite, it is not numbered as
the other entrances and seats were[101]. The theatre, as we are told in the
Regionary Catalogues, was calculated to hold 87,000 people, and was
admirably adapted for its purpose. There were four principal staircases, by
which the spectators could ascend to the highest tier of seats, and these
were so arranged that the different orders could disperse without meeting
each other. The numerous places of egress, called vomitoria, and the
windows to light the staircases, were contrived with great skill.
Vast as this amazing edifice still is, the whole of the outer wall with the
arcades and corridors, on the south and west sides, have been destroyed,

having been used as a stone quarry for building some of the largest palaces
in Rome, but on the north and east sides it is tolerably perfect. A correct
idea of the whole can only be formed by mounting to the top, and surveying
the whole extent from thence. The finest view of the exterior is from the
Thermæ of Titus, or the windows or the garden of the monastery of S.
Pietro in Vincoli, on the hill opposite the north front.
The great mass of the building under the corridors is of tufa, and was
probably taken from that part of the second wall of Rome which passed
under the south end of the Palatine close at hand; each block of tufa, being
of large size and a ton in weight, was likely to be brought from the nearest
point. It has been mentioned that there are piers of travertine at short
intervals, as if the builders were afraid to trust the soft tufa to carry so great
a weight[102]. These piers go right through the walls from top to bottom, to
carry the weight of the upper gallery when full of people; tufa is too soft a
material to be trusted for this purpose, and the brick facing did not add
materially to the strength. It is faced with cut stone (travertine) on the
exterior, and with brick on the interior. The work, as said before, was
evidently carried on for a long time. Three periods may be perceived[103] in
the stonework, with apparently an interval of some years between them.
The upper storey is of a later date, of the time of Alexander Severus and
Gordianus, and was evidently completed in great haste, of materials
previously prepared, (as may be distinctly seen in the interior); this upper
wall is built also in the most slovenly manner, with portions of cornices and
of columns, or fragments of old tombs, built into it as mere pieces of
stone[104]. On the interior of this wall large corbels remain distinctly visible,
which could only be for the floor of the wooden gallery.
In the lower series of seats the vaults under them are not original, except
those on the ground-floor; and in the corridors the large corbels for wooden
floors and galleries still project from the face of the wall very distinctly[105].
The mixture of stone and brick in the construction is curious, and in several
parts indicates the great repairs in the fifth and sixth centuries recorded by
inscriptions found during the excavations.
There is a series of arches on the first floor within, some of them begun,
and some completed, in stone, but the greater part have springing stones
only upon the stone jambs, the arches afterwards being completed in brick,

and brick vaults introduced in place of the original wooden floors and
galleries; above, nearly all is brick, except the corridors and the outer
facing. The construction of this part is very good throughout; the stones are
in large oblong blocks, closely fitted together, originally held with iron
clamps, fragments of which remain, as may be seen or felt in the interior of
the building in apertures of the wall: the holes where other iron clamps have
been, are left all over the face of the building, and in the corridors, always
at the edges of the stones, where in rusting they have split the stone and
[106]
fallen out. They were of this form . On the west side, where the
outer wall is gone, the inner wall (now external) shews distinctly the flat
pilasters of stone carried up nearly to the top, but left unfinished, and
continued with brick afterwards.
Nothing is known with certainty of the architect of the work; an
inscription found in the Catacomb of S. Agnes, in memory of Gaudentius,
has given rise to the legend that he was the architect[107], and that he
afterwards suffered as a martyr within its walls. Twelve thousand Jewish
slaves are said to have been employed upon it during five years, and ten
million Roman scudi expended upon it in the same time.
The fine tomb of one of the family of the Aterii found at Cento Celle, and
now preserved in the Lateran Museum, is covered with panels of sculpture
of numerous buildings packed closely together, of which there is reason to
believe some are only designs, and were never executed. This makes it
probable that it was the tomb of an architect, and one of the sculptures
represents the Summa Sacra Via as he thought it ought to have been. One
building is a triumphal arch, with a colossal figure under it, and an
inscription on the cornice—arcvs in sacra via svmma; another triumphal
arch has the inscription arcvs ad isis. Between these two is seen the
Colosseum looking down upon it, represented as of two storeys only, and
not quite the same as the existing building, but the figures under the arches
are shewn as on the coin. Another sculpture on the same tomb represents
the machine for raising large stones to the top of a high wall or building,
described in Part III. of this work (Construction, p. 91). From the
circumstance of this machine being represented upon the tomb, it seems
most probable that the person here interred was the inventor, or had made
some improvement in it, and that it was especially intended for the
Colosseum, for which it certainly would have been very useful. The date of

the tomb is of the first century[108]. Such a machine is mentioned by
Vitruvius, and similar machines are still in use in some parts of Switzerland.
The numerous walls that intersect the space under the stage shew clearly
that there could be no area in this theatre, that there is no open space
excepting on the stage itself, and this was the boarded floor, called the
arena, from the sand with which it was covered. The latter is quite a
different thing from an area, and yet almost all the modern writers on the
antiquities of Rome fall into this mistake. The passage cited in a previous
page from Dio Cassius, who describes what he saw, is quite decisive that
the arena was a boarded floor covered with sand.
A great number of large marble columns and capitals of the Composite
order, rudely worked, as if on purpose to be seen from a great distance only,
have rolled down from the edge of the upper gallery to the arena below,
probably in an earthquake. They must have fallen before the substructures
were filled up with earth, as many of them were found at the bottom on the
old pavement, which they had damaged by falling upon it, and some have
made holes through great walls, and were found lying with half the column
on the inner side of the wall, and the other half on the outer one. Probably
the cords for the awning were caught on the entablature of this colonnade as
they passed, the length from top to bottom being too great to keep them
tight. There must have been at least a hundred of these columns; possibly
there were two colonnades, the second on the edge of one of the lower
galleries, but they are work of the third century, not earlier, and as the upper
gallery was added at that time, they must have belonged to that period.
The Flavian Amphitheatre and Meta Sudans are represented on four coins
of the emperors, one of Vespasian[109], a.d. 80, with the head of Titus, and
inscription on the obverse. This is a bird’s-eye view, represented with the
walls of the two storeys, and with the Meta Sudans on one side, and a
double range of columns on the opposite side, one over the other. This
medal was used by Fontana in his plans and drawings of a restoration[110],
though he does not give an engraving of it. The upper storey is very
different from the existing building; in the interior the upper gallery is
evidently represented on this medal as of wood; the colonnade or arcade, of
two storeys, connecting the amphitheatre with the Cœlian, seen on the coin,
was most probably to carry the shallow open channel of water from the

Aqueduct[111]. The second of Domitian, nearly the same as the last, but with
a double arcade instead of colonnade; the third of Alexander Severus, with
the Meta Sudans[112] on the right, and a group of figures on the left. There
are two coins of this emperor with the same subject on the reverse, not of
the same size, and not quite alike. The fourth of Gordianus III., with the
legend on the obverse, imp . gordianus . pivs . felix . avg.; on the reverse the
view of the Colosseum, as if looking down upon it, with the masts for the
awning, and a wild-beast hunt going on at a high level, certainly not at the
bottom (as has been said). On the left, standing behind the Meta Sudans, is
a colossal figure about fifty feet high[113]. On the right is a small building
which is just below, and a gable end to the roof, probably the piscina of
Alexander Severus, of which we have remains. Over the Colosseum is the
legend munificentia gordiani avg.[114] In this the upper storey is represented
as of stone.
a.d. 150. By the time of Antoninus Pius the amphitheatre needed repairs,
as we learn that it was restored by him[115].
In a.d. 191, Dio Cassius, who was a Roman senator in the time of
Commodus, was an eye-witness of the games, and gives an account of the
manner in which that emperor amused himself in this amphitheatre.

“He used to put on, before he entered the amphitheatre, a tunic
with sleeves made of white silk embroidered with gold, and thus
habited we (the Senators) saluted him; but on entering it he put on
his purple robe sprinkled with gold, like a Greek chlamys, and a
gold crown with Indian jewels; he was also accustomed to carry a
caduceus like Mercury. In the street some one carried before him a
lion’s skin and a club. But when he went into the theatre he sat on a
gold seat. He also entered the theatre in the costume of Mercury, and
threw aside the other things which he had carried except the tunic.
“On the first day he alone killed a hundred bears with javelins
thrown from the paths in the upper part. For the amphitheatre being
everywhere divided by diametrical partitions, each division having a
roof, round which he could go, he could the more readily strike
down the wild beasts, who were themselves divided into four
divisions....

“These things being done on the first day, on other days he
descended from the upper place into the area of the amphitheatre,
and killed the fatted beasts when they came near to him, or were led
to him, or brought in cages; he killed a tiger, and an hippopotamus,
and an elephant: having done these things he went away. Then after
dinner he went through the gladiatorial exercise armed as a
gladiator, with the shield on his right arm, and holding the wooden
sword in his left hand, of which he was very proud, as he was left-
handed.... For fourteen days exhibitions of this kind were continued,
and I can certify that we senators always came with the knights,
except Claudius Pompeianus, the senior, he never was there, but
sent his sons to see the shows....
“But of the rest of the people many did not go into the
amphitheatre, and some after they had seen a little went away, some
from being ashamed of what they saw done there, others from fear,
because it was reported that the Emperor wished to kill some of
them with arrows as Hercules formerly killed the Stymphalidæ....
This fear was common to all, belonging not more to others than to
us; for even to us Senators he did things in such a manner, that for
any cause we expected to be killed. He even killed an ostrich and
cut off its head, when he came to the place where we were seated,
holding in his left hand the head and in his right his bloody sword,
and saying nothing, he moved it grinning, to shew he would serve
us in the same manner; and which many people laughed at seeing
our fear, &c.... These things being done he comforted us, and
ordered us, when he was fighting in the manner of a gladiator, to go
into the theatre in our habits and cloaks as knights: in which
costume we were not accustomed to go into the theatre except on
the death of the Emperor. It happened also to him that on the last
day of the games his helmet was carried through the door by which
the dead were usually carried, which things, in the opinion of many,
were done to indicate to every body his approaching death. It is
certain that soon after he died, or rather was killed[116].”

The spectators were protected from the heat of the sun by a great awning,
which was suspended from masts or poles at the top by cords. Pliny

mentions an awning painted in imitation of the sky, with stars in it, in the
amphitheatre of the Prince Nero[117]. There were similar poles at the bottom
also, to support the lower end of the cords over the heads of the spectators
in the galleries[118]. These are likely to have had the great beams of the
screen in the front of the podium fixed to them. The contrivances for
supporting them at the top were very ingenious, and can still be seen. On
the exterior there is a row of corbels, ten feet below the summit, for the
ends of the poles to rest upon, and holes are left in the cornice for them to
pass through. These masts stood full twenty feet above the walls; and on the
inner side of the upper wall are also corbels for the cords to be fastened to,
to keep them upright. At the bottom of the galleries, in front of the podium,
there are similar contrivances to support the poles for the awning, a recess
in the wall of tufa, with a piece of travertine let in for the lower ends to
stand upon, and long corbels on each side to support and stiffen the lower
part[119]. The central space was not covered over, and the athletes were
exposed to the weather. There is an excellent representation of an
amphitheatre, with the awning partly closed and partly open, in a fresco-
painting of the first century at Pompeii, which has been engraved in the
valuable Journal of Pompeii, edited by the learned Keeper of the Museum,
Sig. Com. Fiorelli[120]. The construction of the upper walls is quite different
from, and very inferior to that of the great arcades; this belonging to the
third century, not to the first; and part of it has all the appearance of having
been completed in a great hurry, as we see in the interior many pieces of
stone evidently prepared for other parts of the building, and used as blocks
of old material only, some with inscriptions on them, apparently taken from
tombs[121]. The tradition is that the Emperor Gordianus insisted on the
completion of the building-contract by the time appointed, which was done
with great difficulty.
A large number of sailors were kept continually employed in furling and
unfurling the great awning, and attending to the machinery. They had a
camp provided for them near at hand, called Castra Misenatium, because
the sailors came originally from the fleet at Misenum (in the bay of Naples).
The exact site of this camp has not been ascertained. Some suppose it to
have been on the Cœlian, near where the navicella, or model of a galley in
marble, now stands[122], but it was not in that Regio; it must have been on
the Esquiline, immediately to the north of the great building, or on the

Velia. The awning was called vela or vehela, an old Latin word, from which
came also the name of velabrum, meaning “sails.” The modern name “veil”
is supposed to come from it.
Calpurnius[123] describes a visit to Rome by a country lad, and gives an
account of the amphitheatre:—

“We saw the theatre (amphitheatre) with interwoven beams rising
to heaven, so high as almost to overlook the Tarpeian rock, and the
immense steps and the sloping passages gently descending.... What
shall I describe further? I saw all kinds of wild beasts, ... not only
those carniverous monsters of the forest, but sea-monsters together
with fighting bears. I saw seals, and herds of shapeless animals
bearing the name of horses (hippo-potami), but deformed, the
offspring of the Nile. Oh how often have we trembling seen the
arena sinking in parts, and a gulf burst open in the ground from
which wild beasts have emerged[124].”

In a.d. 217, the amphitheatre was struck by lightning and burnt under
Macrinus, as we are told by Dio Cassius. This passage shews that the upper
storeys were of wood, and that there was much woodwork about the
galleries and corridors.

“The amphitheatre also was struck by lightning on the very day of
the Vulcanalia (23rd of August), all was consumed to such an extent
that the upper precinct and whatever was on the area was burned,
and all the remaining part shivered in pieces by the heat; nor could
the fire have been extinguished by human means, although there
was plenty of water, had there not also been copious and vehement
rain from the heavens. All the gladiatorial games, consequently, for
many years were transferred to the Stadium[125].”

The restoration was begun in the time of Heliogabalus[126], and continued
through the whole reign of Alexander Severus[127], a.d. 222-235; and
finished under Gordianus III., a.d. 244, as has been shewn by his coin. In

a.d. 248 the games, which had been transferred for a time to the Circus
Maximus, were again celebrated here.
In a.d. 238-44, we learn that the number of wild beasts kept in Rome for
the use of the amphitheatre during the time of the Emperor Gordianus was
as follows: 32 elephants, 10 elks, 60 tame lions, 10 tigers, 30 leopards, 10
hyenas, 1 hippopotamus, 1 rhinoceros, 10 wild lions, 10 camelopards, 20
wild asses, 40 wild horses, and many other wild animals, besides two
thousand hired gladiators[128]. All these, the Chronicler adds, were exhibited
or slain by Philippus, at the Ludi Sæculares which he celebrated with great
pomp for the thousandth[129] anniversary of the foundation of Rome, a.d.
248, when he had gladiatorial and wild-beast exhibitions in the
amphitheatre[130].
Herodian[131], the Greek historian, writing about the middle of the third
century, says that a hundred lions, killed in the amphitheatre by Commodus,
appeared to leap out from under the earth. More strictly speaking, they
came from under the sand on the stage, as they were sent up in cages which
opened at the top, and naturally sprang out as soon as liberty was given to
them.
In a.d. 250, another fire took place under Decius, but the damage was
speedily repaired.
In a.d. 280, the Emperor Probus in his triumphal shows again had a
hundred lions killed in the amphitheatre[132].
In a.d. 320, the amphitheatre was again damaged by lightning, but was
soon restored by Constantine[133]. An attempt was made, a.d. 325, to
abolish the barbarous combats, and the exposure of convicts, but this was
not effected until the martyrdom of Telemachus, an Oriental monk, a.d.
403, who made a pilgrimage from the East on purpose to be martyred here,
and during one of the sanguinary shows he rushed into the midst, and
falling on his knees, entreated the spectators to have mercy on their victims.
He was immediately stoned to death, but so great a sensation was caused by
this martyrdom, that the emperor Honorius was able to take advantage of it
to suppress the shows.
In a.d. 357, the amphitheatre is described by Ammianus Marcellinus as
perfect, and as a marvellous work, from its great height, and its immense

size. He also mentions the massive walls of rough stone, or concrete
(moles), bound together by travertine (lapis tiburtinus)[134].
a.d. 445. The amphitheatre was much repaired by the Prefect Rufus
Cecina Felix Lampadius, under Theodosius II. He restored the seats, the
arena, and the podium, as appears from an inscription[135] dug up on the
spot in 1814, and fixed on the wall within the building to preserve it. These
repairs are supposed to have been required in consequence of the damage
done during the siege by the Goths under Alaric, or more probably from the
effect of the earthquake mentioned by Paulus Diaconus[136] as taking place
in that year, when he says that many of the great buildings in Rome were
damaged.
a.d. 508. The Prefect Venantius Basilius also repaired the arena and the
podium, which had been damaged by an earthquake[137].
It was again used for the show of wild beasts under Theodoric in a.d.
519[138], and under Anicius Maximus, a.d. 523. These were the last
occasions on which we have any mention of these savage exhibitions. In the
beginning of the eighth century it appears to have been still perfect, from
the well-known proverb preserved in Bede’s Excerptiones patrum,
Collectanea, &c.; that the Colosseum and Rome would stand or fall
together[139]; but during that century it was again seriously damaged by an
earthquake, and it was then so much in ruins that it was not used until the
eleventh, when it was converted into a fortress, and the southern side is said
to have been much damaged by Robert Guiscard and his Normans, but
more probably by the travertine stone being carried away for building
materials.
In 1130, it became the chief fortress of the Frangipani family, and Pope
Innocent II. took refuge here from the anti-pope Anacletus[140].
In 1142, the Roman people had driven out the barons, and had possession
of this with their other fortresses, as appears from the records of the Roman
Senate at that period[141]. But the Frangipani[142] soon recovered it, and the
pope of their party, Innocent III., a.d. 1180 (called by the opposite party the
anti-pope), was their guest; and from hence he fulminated his
excommunication against the emperors, but he was soon afterwards
captured and banished.

In 1160, Alexander III.[143] (Bandinelli of Siena, called the orthodox
Pope) in his second year, being besieged by the Emperor Frederic
Barbarossa, abandoned the Lateran Palace, and took refuge in the
stronghold of the Frangipani, with his brothers and their families. He there
held courts, treated causes, and also waited for opportunities. At that time
the Colosseum gave its name to the district around it. The fortifications
included part of the Palatine Hill, with the Arch of Titus, on which was a
large tower.
Under Gregory IX., a.d. 1227, the Annibaldi family obtained a decree
from Frederic II., requiring the Frangipani to cede to them one-half of the
Colosseum fortress, which might have led to its entire destruction; but
Innocent IV., in 1244, rescinded the engagement, and declared this building
to be under the direct dominion of the Holy See. During the residence of the
Popes at Avignon, the Colosseum belonged to the Annibaldi or
Annibaldeschi, who were then in the ascendant[144]. In 1312, the Emperor
Henry VII. obliged them to give it up, and placed it under the care of the
municipality, who appropriated it to bull-fights; but this only lasted until
1332, when eighteen youths of noble families were killed by the infuriated
bulls, of which a minute account is given in the chronicle of Monaldeschi,
printed in Muratori’s collection[145].
In 1349, it was again damaged by the earthquake described in Petrarch’s
letters; after this the great families entered into a compact, in 1362, to make
the ruins common property as a quarry, by which all might profit[146]. In
1381, the senate gave a portion of the arcades to the Chapter of the Lateran,
for a ward to their hospital. Their badge, the head of Christ between two
candlesticks, is carved over some of the archways.
In 1438, Eugenius IV. built two walls to connect the Colosseum with the
monastery of S. Pietro in Vincoli, in order to prevent the evil doings that
were going on there; but after the death of that Pope, the Roman people
went in a crowd and pulled down those walls which had shut them out of
the great building. The monks stated to Flaminius Vacca that they had
preserved the deed of gift, and if they ever had a pope from their monastery,
it would be acted upon[147].
In the fifteenth century, the great palace of S. Mark of Venice, built by
Paul II., 1464-1471, at the south end of the Corso, the Farnese in 1534, the

Cancelleria in 1495, the Borghese in 1590, and many other edifices[148],
were built out of this quarry.
In the sixteenth century it was used for miracle plays; this practice began
under Paul III. in 1540[149], a purpose to which it had previously been
applied on Good Friday in each year by the “Confraternity of the
Gonfalone;” this is mentioned as early as 1263.
We have one vestige of this remaining, a view of Jerusalem with the
Crucifixion, painted on the wall over the principal entrance then in use at
the north end over the arch, and seen in going out as we look up. It shews to
what a height the earth had then been raised to make this a convenient place
for such a picture.
Sixtus V. proposed to turn it into a cloth manufactory, and drawings for
that purpose were actually prepared by his architect, Fontana[150], in 1590;
but the design was abandoned at the death of the Pope.
In 1703 it was again damaged by an earthquake, and soon afterwards
Clement XI. destroyed the lower arches of the western side of the corridor,
and used some of the stone to build the steps at the Port of Ripetta, on the
Tiber. He employed other parts as a warehouse for saltpetre for the
neighbouring manufactory of gunpowder, on the hill adjoining, near the
church of S. Pietro in Vincoli, still indicated by the name of the street, and
this manufactory continued in use until 1811.
In 1728, Benedict XIII. consecrated the whole area, at the instigation of a
Carmelite friar, Angelo Paoli. A small chapel was made under one of the
archways, and dedicated to S. Maria della Pietà. In 1741, a hermit was
appointed to reside here, but in the following year he was stabbed by an
assassin, and although the wound did not prove fatal, the Pope ordered the
closing of every ingress by gates locked and barred. About the same period,
Leonardo da Porto Maurizio, a Minorite friar, drew immense congregations
to his sermons in the Colosseum.
In 1749, Benedict XIV. ordered the erection at his private expense of the
central cross, and the fourteen stations of the Via Crucis, which remained
until 1874, when they were removed for the ground to be excavated.
In 1756, a grand mass was celebrated here by the Cardinal Vicar of Rome
under Benedict, in the presence of a very numerous assembly. The same

ceremony was repeated a few years afterwards under Clement XIII.
The outer arcade on the south-western side of this colossal building was
entirely destroyed in the middle ages by the Pontifical families, who used it
as a stone-quarry for building their great palaces. This enables us to see
more clearly the construction of the walls of the corridors and front of the
three periods:—

First, the arches on the ground-floor, built of travertine.
Second, the first-floor, also of travertine, not long after the other.
Third, the upper storey, of brick on the inner side, of the
beginning of the third century.

We also see the numerous holes left by the iron clamps with which the
edges of the stones were bound together, according to a Roman fashion
which has been in use from the time of Servius Tullius to the present time.
On the north-eastern side the front is perfect, and we see the ornamental
columns and cornices in the two lower storeys, and in the upper one the
corbels for the masts to carry the awning, with holes in the cornice to let
them pass through. One of the arches of the lower storey has been restored
in the time of the Gordians, a.d. 220-238, and is a good example of the still
good construction of that period, though not so good as that of the time of
Titus and Vespasian[151].
In 1810, when Rome was incorporated in the French Empire, the
Governor, Baron Daru, placed the Colosseum under the direction of the
Roman architect Valadier, to carry on regular excavations, which were
continued for four years, from 1810 to 1814; of these works the Comte de
Tournon[152], then prefect, has written an account.
In 1812, under the French, the ruins of the walls and the surface of the
vaults were weeded of the vegetation which threatened their ultimate
destruction, and the uprooting of the shrubs had become necessary to save
the walls. In sixty years they had again grown up so vigorously that another
weeding was absolutely required, and in November, 1870, the whole of the
ruins of the Colosseum were cleared of weeds and shrubs, under the
direction of Signor Rosa, who was appointed by the Italian Government to

superintend the works, and to carry on excavations on a large scale, from
that building to the Forum Romanum. There is no doubt that it was quite
time this clearing should take place, as the roots of the plants were in many
parts displacing the stones, and would soon have done serious mischief.
There was a great outcry against this necessary work by the botanists and
the lovers of the picturesque, but archæologists must approve of it. Many
things are now brought into view more clearly than they were before.
A view of these excavations was taken and engraved in 1813. It
represents clearly the passages round it, and two straight parallel channels
down the middle of it for the naval fights, which were in reality not a
representation of sea-fights but of river-fights. In 1814, and again in 1867,
the subterranean passage leading from the Amphitheatre on the side next the
Cœlian was excavated as a private speculation in search of treasure, which
was not found; but the passage was left open as we now see it[153].
In 1864-5, considerable excavations were made between the Colosseum
and the Cœlian, in search of treasure supposed to have been buried there,
but only a subterranean passage was found. The work was interrupted by
water gushing out in great abundance,—to such an extent that the area of
the Colosseum was completely inundated, and the water was obliged to be
drawn off by a steam engine[154]. The passage then discovered is still left
open; the upper part of the vault only is removed, which formed the floor,
or rather supported the floor, of another passage on the present level of the
ground, leading from the podium, or lowest storey, towards the Cœlian. The
point where the water gushed out and stopped the work was just outside of
the site of the outer wall, long since destroyed on that part of the building.
The great excavations of 1874 shewed that this passage turned to the left or
south when it reached the outer wall, and followed the line of it until it
joined the outer end of the long straight passage down the centre of the
building.
The upper wall on the north side, where it remains perfect, formed the
back of the wooden gallery over the corridors for the common people, and
was faced with brick, but the greater part of the ancient brickwork had
fallen down, and has been copied in modern times; a great deal of the back
of the stone wall, left exposed, shews the hasty construction[155], in the time
of Gordianus.

The remains of Aqueducts and Piscinæ have already been mentioned[156],
but some further account of them seems to be requisite. A piscina always
consists of four vaulted chambers, two above and two below, and the
middle wall of the two lower chambers has small holes in it, for straining
the water as it passes through. The lower chamber of a piscina is also
known by having no windows in it, and the lining being of the water-
cement (opus signinum). The lower chambers of two piscinæ only remain;
of the northern one the middle wall between the two lower chambers is the
only part now visible, this is faced with opus reticulatum of the time of
Nero, and has the usual small holes for water-pipes through the wall. The
southern one is of brickwork of the third century, of the time of Alexander
Severus; of this there is much more remaining, one end with the usual
boldly projecting buttresses to support the weight of water, and part of two
other chambers of the reservoir.
The excavations which had been made in the time of the first Napoleon
and of Pope Pius VII., 1810-1814, were filled up again after drawings and
plans had been made of them. They were not considered satisfactory by
scholars because the excavations had not gone deep enough, having been
stopped by water, as very often happens in Rome at certain periods of the
year, when the springs are high. They were again suspended by the same
cause in the spring and summer of 1874, but Signor Rosa, with his usual
energy, obtained machinery and a steam-engine to pump the water out[157].
The whole area was found to be undermined by chambers and passages,
with walls chiefly of brick, but some of tufa, with indications of several
different periods[158].
When the Pontifical Government returned to power in 1815, Pope Pius
VII. ordered the enormous buttress to be built, for supporting one end of the
wall then left broken, and preventing the ruin from extending further. We
have already lost forty-seven out of the eighty arches, which have been
destroyed for using the materials by previous Popes to build their family
palaces, or monasteries and churches, so that there remain only thirty-three
of the external arches of travertine. The other end of the wall, near the Meta
Sudans, was left in a dangerous state until that was also supported by the
great buttress of Leo XII. In 1828, Gregory XVI. followed the example of
his immediate predecessors, and rebuilt in brick some arches of what had
been the internal corridors, but had become external, owing to the

demolition of the great outer arcades in earlier ages. In 1852, Pius IX.
repaired the principal entrance from the Esquiline side, and some more of
the arches of the inner arcade.
Under the arena was all the machinery usual under the stage of a large
theatre; and much space was required for it. When the boards had to be
cleared off the central part, to leave open the four long channels of water,
which are seen in the view of the Colosseum taken in 1812[159], and the
space between them which was probably flooded to the depth of a few feet
for effect, the boards removed from the centre must have been piled up at
the sides, and on the large corbels before mentioned[160]. Apollodorus, the
architect, in his celebrated reply to the Emperor Hadrian, told him that he
ought to have prepared a place for the machinery of the great amphitheatre
under the platform, and in such a manner that the great building should
have been visible from the Forum Romanum. The site intended by him for
the temple evidently was the large level platform on the Summa Sacra Via,
on which S. Francesca Romana now stands; and the place for the machinery
intended by him was obviously that excavated in the spring of 1874, under
the south-east end of the platform immediately opposite to the Colosseum, a
very convenient place for the purpose. There still remains a rude rubble
vault, of the time of the Republic, with a small aqueduct introduced in the
time of the early Empire to carry water to the fountains at each corner of the
Porticus Liviæ, which must have been on this site, but which did not extend
to the end. There is an excellent place for a temple at the end of the porticus
or colonnade; and the platform could easily have been extended several
yards nearer to the Colosseum: it is evident that this is what Apollodorus
said that Hadrian ought to have done, but that he had not done so.
At the south-east end, under the old entrance, at the present level of the
ground, a long passage has been found, with a series of square-topped
arches, at about fifteen feet below that level. This has been traced further to
the south, beyond the limits of the building; it must have led from the great
foss-way in that direction. There is a large and deep drain extending from
the south end of the Colosseum, turning at an angle and passing at the foot
of the Claudium to the Meta Sudans, near the arch of Constantine. It was
continued under the present Via di S. Gregorio, and the south-east end of
the Palatine[161].

In one part, near the south end, on the western side of the central passage
at the lowest level, which is twenty-one feet below the present level of the
ground and the top of the walls of the substructure, the two ancient tufa
walls (before mentioned) remain nearly perfect, with the vertical grooves
opposite to each other, evidently for lifts to slip up and down, and in each
instance in the wall on one side a hollow is cut, for the counter-weight to
work up and down[162]. These lifts are very near together in the outer
passage, in front of the podium, but far below the bottom of it. Behind each
of them is a small square chamber under the passage in front of it, with a
narrow entrance to it, and a small stream of water running in front for the
use of the animals, as these are plainly the dens for the wild beasts to be
placed in temporarily, and there is just space enough for the animal to pass
through into the wooden cage (pegma[163]), which had two doors, one at the
side, the other at the top. When the cage on the lift was pulled up to the
level of the floor of the stage or arena, under one of the trap-doors, the
upper part was pulled up by a cord from below along with the trap-door,
and the animal thus placed at liberty sprang out on to the stage. In the
original pavement, which remains round a great part in the passages, behind
the place for each of the lifts, is a round hole for the socket of a pivot to
work in, evidently for the windlass for winding up the cord[164]. It is
calculated that there was one of these lifts in front of each arch, and a den
behind each, all round the enceinte of the building, so that all the wild
beasts could spring on to the stage at once with tremendous effect. The
persons in the lower gallery were protected by strong nets, and by bars that
turned round on pivots, so that the claws of wild beasts had no hold upon
them.
Under the long passage which comes in at the south end is a large drain
at a considerably lower depth; there are gratings in the paved floor of the
passage above opening into it, which had unfortunately been stopped up in
some of the great floods, but was partially cleared out as far as the Meta
Sudans in 1875. The paved floor of the passage over the drain under the
arena is three feet above the level of the pavement, which is of herring-bone
brickwork (opus spicatum), and the passage before mentioned goes all
round the building nearly under the edge of the podium. Modern iron steps
have been placed for people to descend to the bottom of the building, and
under these is seen the ancient iron grating to prevent anything being

carried off by the rush of water[165]. From this it is evident that the great
drain was to carry off the water used in the canals for the naumachia, when
the Emperor “ordered the water to be let off and the boards to be replaced.”
There are evident marks of a great flood-gate or sluice drawn up, as a
portcullis, at the entrance to this drain. It also appears that the vessels were
floated down on the wooden framework on which they were dragged along,
now made visible, but it does not appear that they could have been floated
up also to the level of the canals. The space between the wooden floor of
the stage, called the arena, and the original pavement being twenty-one feet,
the canals were ten feet deep, and yet room is left for the passages and
machinery under them. Possibly, but not probably, the whole central space
could be floated, excepting just at the south end, where room was left for
the machinery. The vessels were probably never removed from the building,
but left under the vaults, and dragged out when required.
The tufa walls with the grooves for lifts belong to the earliest part of the
building, and must be earlier than the time of Nero[166], as has been shewn;
and his stagnum navale, or naumachia, his venationes, or wild-beast hunts,
and gymnasium, which are recorded as belonging to his great palace, could
have been nowhere else but on this spot.
We now see distinctly the large corbels[167] all round the building at a
certain height, about six feet below the present level of the soil, for carrying
the boards of the great floor covered with sand called the arena, upon which
the athletes wrestled, the wild beasts were killed, and the persons
condemned to death were torn to pieces by wild beasts; so that the
martyrdom of the early Christians who were condemned to death in this
manner took place on the sand of the arena, and not on the soil of the area.
These corbels, in some instances, at the south end of the building, have the
ends of them built into the old tufa wall, which is cut away to receive them.
This old wall is not so regular in plan as the great work of the Flavian
Emperors, the architect of which probably intended to destroy these old
walls ultimately. Dio Cassius (himself a Roman senator) gives a vivid
description of scenes which took place in this Amphitheatre[168] in his
presence, in the time of Commodus (as has been said), which leaves no
doubt about the matter. Similar scenes are described in the time of Nero.
The whole of the arena was, in fact, supported in all directions by the walls
of the chambers or passages not more than ten feet apart; one object of

which, no doubt, was to carry the great boarded floor, that could be
removed at pleasure by the order of the emperor, and replaced as
readily[169].
The excavations of 1874 and 1875[170] very much astonished the people
in Rome, and more especially the English visitors, who had been long
accustomed to consider the area and the arena to be the same thing; they
were amazed to see the whole of the area undermined with walls[171]. The
walls that were first seen are for the most part brick walls of the fifth
century, and the inscription[172] found there in 1814 records that they had
been repaired by Lampadius, prefect, a.d. 442. This was after they had been
much damaged by an earthquake. Another inscription records repairs of the
arena and the podium by Basilius, prefect and consul, a.d. 508, after
another earthquake. A long subterranean passage[173] at a considerable
depth, leads out at the south-east end in the direction of the church of S.
Clement; this passage passes under a number of square-topped arches or
doorways, and has rather the appearance of having been a state entrance at
the time that the level of the street was as low as that passage, that is, before
the filling-up of the foss-ways, which began in the second century. On each
side of this passage is a long narrow vaulted chamber parallel to it, under
the corridor, and in the pavement of each of these chambers is a series of six
round holes lined with hard copper or bronze, for a pivot to work in; they
are somewhat worn, and in a straight line one behind the other. The most
probable use for these was for a windlass or capstan to be worked in each,
and by these means to drag along the vessels in the canals before
mentioned, as extending down the centre of this colossal building.
It has also been mentioned that a very ancient wooden frame, calculated
for the keel of a vessel to slide upon, remained on the ground in 1875, just
within the passage at the south-east end of the building, as if the vessels
used in the sham fights could be placed out of sight in the lofty central
passage. This is said by those accustomed to dockyards to have all the
appearance of a dry dock, or a cradle for vessels to stand upon[174]. We read
of the vessels being divided into two nations or sides, there were probably
six on each side, and each nation occupied one of the canals. It is probable
that the surface between the two canals on either side of this central
passage, just under the level of the arena (which was twenty-one feet above
the brick floor), was flooded with two or three feet in water, but the keels of

the vessels were in the canals. On either side of the passages before
mentioned[175] are remains of other walls of tufa, with vertical grooves in
them, as if for lifts; the brick walls, between those of tufa, have been
introduced at a later period, and in these instances the grooves are not
opposite each other. This shews that great alterations have been going on at
different periods in these subterranean works, some of which are earlier
than the existing building, and others considerably later[176]. In one place,
near the south-east entrance, the two old stone walls, with the vertical
grooves, remain in their original places facing each other, so that lifts might
work up and down in them.
Architects had long wondered where the builders could possibly have
obtained such an immense mass of materials in so short a time, it was
therefore evidently natural that they should make use of anything that
served their purpose. It appears that in some parts the galleries for the
spectators of the old Naumachia were thus made use of as they stood,
without actually rebuilding them. The great tufa blocks of the second wall
of Rome were also used as old materials for the substructure of the great
stone arcades; but the builders, who had to add the upper gallery, were
afraid to trust the soft tufa to carry so great a weight[177], and therefore built
piers of travertine about four feet wide[178]. These piers to support the upper
gallery go right through the walls of all the lower galleries, from the top to
the bottom of the building (as has been said on p. 12).
The architectural details of the Colosseum are much admired by
architects; the cornice-mouldings of the lower storey are good examples of
the style of the latter part of the first century[179]. The supply of water for
the naval fights must have been from the Aqueducts; the water was brought
from the Cœlian in a shallow channel, carried upon a lofty double
colonnade, or arcade[180]. It has been mentioned[181] that there are slight
remains of three reservoirs to receive it, which can be traced by remains of
the particular cement used only for the aqueducts[182]. The continuations of
the shallow channel along the corridors can be seen in many places, and are
shewn in the photographs[183].
In the upper storey of the third century, on the exterior, the corbels for the
masts to rest upon, and the holes in the cornice for them to pass through,
have been mentioned[184]. On the interior of this wall, now that it has been

stripped of plaster, and the wooden gallery that had been built up against it
has been destroyed, we see clearly how hastily it has been built of old
materials[185]. In other parts it has been cased with modern brickwork, but
the corbels for fastening the masts on the inside are preserved[186].

The Evidence of the Construction, and Comparison.

It is well known that the first principle of the modern science of
archæology is comparison. To compare small remains of one place with
more perfect remains of the same kind, and as far as may be, of the same
period, in other places. By these means, what has been destroyed in one is
frequently supplied by the corresponding part in another. This is remarkably
the case with regard to the amphitheatres, which are very numerous; there
was one to every Roman town of importance, and such large buildings have
almost invariably left remains visible[187]. It appears nearly certain that the
Colosseum in Rome was the earliest, and that this was the type generally
followed more or less closely by the others. This was a gradual
development, and not merely one original design; the magnificent front and
stone corridors of the Flavian emperors, which constitute what is usually
considered to be the amphitheatre, were in fact built round a theatre
previously existing[188]; that the names of theatre or amphitheatre were used
indifferently is implied in many instances, and is distinctly shewn by an
inscription found in the Colosseum itself, and preserved on the spot, in
which it is called theatrum, and not amphitheatrum[189]. The theatre, or
amphitheatre, round which the corridors were built, has been shewn to have
been in parts of the time of Nero[190], and other parts earlier, most probably
the work of Scaurus in the time of Sylla[191]. This colossal building was
finished and consecrated by Titus in the year 80[192].

Capua.

The great amphitheatre at Capua is almost of the same size as the
Colosseum in Rome, and a remarkably exact copy of it; some say that it
was called by the same name, but this is rather doubtful, as persons who
have resided at Capua for years say they have never heard it so called; the
name is not of much importance: the plan and arrangements are identical,

and although the superstructure has been almost entirely destroyed, the
substructures at Capua are far more perfect than in Rome; and here we have
the mouth of an aqueduct perfect in these substructures, and remains of
canals for water, with the very massive walls to support them, exactly as in
Rome. The great drain to carry off the water also remains, but on rather a
different plan; instead of being carried under a low arch at the end of the
great central passage, as in Rome, the water is conveyed into a large and
deep well in the centre of the building, with four small channels running
into it, beside the great central opening. From this well there is a large and
deep drain leading to the river. There are the same dens for wild beasts
under the podium, and in the pavement the same sockets for pivots to work
in, to pull up the cages, or pegmata, or lifts. The arena, instead of being a
boarded floor, is of brick, carried on vaults, with numerous square apertures
for the trap-doors. The central passage is vaulted at the two ends, but open
in the greater part. Round each of the openings there is a deep groove, as if
a wooden cover had been fitted tightly over each and made water-tight, so
that the surface of the arena might be flooded for naval fights; but there is
reason to believe that only rowing-boats, drawing little water, were used in
this instance, and not galleys.
The earliest part of the building at Capua is of the time of the Emperor
Hadrian, but only a small part of that period remains, as shewn by the
construction (reticulated work with a framework of brick). Most of the
walls in the substructure are faced with brick of the second or third century,
with later repairs[193].

Puteoli or Pozzuoli.

This amphitheatre is very much smaller than either the Colosseum in
Rome, or the amphitheatre at Capua; the superstructure is in a very ruinous
state, but the substructure is almost perfect, and the work is much more
highly finished than in either of the others. There are considerable remains
of rich stucco ornament on the vault over the passage to one of the side
doors. The arena is nearly intact, and is of brick, carried on vaults, what the
Italians call pensile; this word does not mean literally hanging, but hollow
underneath; and this brick floor is full of square holes for trap-doors; round
the edge of each is a deep groove, as if for a cover to fit into, which may

very well have been made water-tight. Signor Scherillo, a native of
Pozzuoli, and now a canon of the cathedral at Naples, has published several
papers on this amphitheatre in the Atti dell’ Accademia di Archeologia,
Letteratura e belle Arti di Napoli. He is of opinion that the arena was
flooded to the depth of about three feet, or about half way up the podium;
the water would only cover the two or three lower steps, and there were
probably also water-tight doors at the foot of them. At a short distance in
front of the podium is a channel about a foot deep, in which probably a
beam of wood has lain, and at intervals of ten or twelve feet is a square
hole, evidently for a beam of wood to have stood in, no doubt the lower part
of the frame for the netting to keep off the wild beasts from the people in
the lower gallery, as in the Colosseum, and probably carried up as poles or
masts to receive the lower ends of the cords to carry the awning; there are
also remains at the top of the outer wall of the same arrangement of fixing
the masts there as in the Colosseum, and the same thing can be seen in
many other amphitheatres where the outer wall remains perfect. This
amphitheatre is entirely of the time of Hadrian, a beautiful piece of
construction. It seems to have been a favourite show-place of the Emperors
on state occasions, for the upper classes and foreigners, when the fleet was
assembled in the Bay of Naples, in which the Cape of Misenum is one of
the promontories near this spot. The enormous reservoir of water for the
supply of the fleet, called the Piscina Mirabilis, is also not far off; and the
amphitheatre belonged to the great imperial villa, originally of Nero, in the
bay adjoining.
This amphitheatre has been shamefully used in the Middle Ages, the
arena having been made into a cabbage garden, with a deep bed of earth
upon it. The upper parts of the walls had probably been damaged by the
great earthquake, and in order to get rid of the numerous broken columns
and capitals lying about, the gardeners threw them down the openings into
the vaults below, where they are stacked up under the arches like so many
mere blocks of stone, to put them out of the way. Fortunately it is owing
probably to the vaults having thus been made use of, that they have been so
well preserved, and also because there was not much call for building-stone
in the neighbourhood, as the ruins of the villa and the temples had supplied
as much as was wanted.

Verona.

In many of the Italian cities, as well as in Gaul and Britain, the
amphitheatre was made of earth and wood only, the seats cut out in banks
on the slope of a hill or of an agger, in districts where stone was scarce. In
the Circus Maximus also the seats for the plebs on the Aventine seem to
have been made in that manner, the stone galleries were on the Palatine
only.
At Verona, as in many other instances, the outer wall has been almost
entirely destroyed; two bays, or four arches of it only remain, but these are
sufficient to shew the plan, and that it was three storeys high, the Tuscan
order of columns being used throughout. The upper storey seems to have
been for the passage round the seats over the corridors; the two lower ones
with the seats remain nearly perfect, forming a fine double arcade on the
outer side without columns, now made visible by the demolition of the
outer corridor and wall. In its present state it is one of the finest buildings of
its class. There seems to be no historical evidence of its date; in Murray’s
Handbook it is said to be of the time of the Flavian Emperors, but no
authority for this is given, and it is not probable. The measurements given
by Maffei do not quite agree with those taken by Alvino[194], but the
variations are not great; and as one is taken in Neapolitan palms of ten
inches, the other in Veronese feet, the apparent variation probably arose
only from the different mode of calculating. None of them agree with those
in Murray’s Handbooks, which are taken from the Lectures of Mr. Woods.
The general proportions may be judged of by the number of persons that
each would contain; Publius Victor states that the Colosseum had 87,000
places, and Maffei states that this at Verona had 77,000, this would make it
one-eighth less. The variations are not of much importance. The outer wall
was partly destroyed by an earthquake in 1184, and the stones were then
used as building material, as in other places, but this was soon stopped. The
unusually perfect state of the seats arises from the care taken of them in the
Middle Ages, very much to the credit of the inhabitants at that period. As
early as 1228, it was agreed that each podesta (or mayor) should expend
500 lire (about £20[195]) on the repairs of this building; and in 1435
penalties were inflicted on any one who removed any of the stone. This
shews that the people of Verona were more civilized than the Romans at

that period. In 1545 a special officer was appointed to take charge of it. The
restoration of the seats has been carefully done, and is not perceived
without some examination. This restoration was begun by voluntary
subscription as early as 1568, and continued as late as 1805. The arches
were numbered on the exterior, as in the Colosseum; the four that remain
have the numbers LXIIII to LXVII over them. The arrangement of the
masts and poles for the awning are the same as in Rome, and were managed
in the same manner. The plan of the vomitoria is also nearly the same. No
excavations appear to have been made under the arena; a plan and section
of the substructures under the galleries is given by Maffei, they are similar
to those in Rome. He does not appear to have been aware that there was
likely to have been anything under the arena; he mentions the conduits of
aqueducts, and drains for carrying off the water, which seem to shew that
naumachia were held here, but we have no information as to how they were
managed.
The proportions of the three principal amphitheatres, as given in the work
of Alvino[196], in Neapolitan palms[197] of ten inches are:—

Colosseum. Verona. Capua.
Length of interior 639 522 645
Breadth of interior 527 417 530
Length of arena 298 252 289
Breadth of arena 186 149 174
Height of first order 35 29 36
Entire height of interior 174 91 169
No. of orders[198] 4 3 4
Actual height of ruins 171 62 75
No. of arches 80 72 80
Circuit 170 134 178
Gates 2 1 2
Width of arches 15 12½ 15
Breadth of pilasters 8 6⅓ 8

The Amphitheatre at Pola, in Istria.

This fine structure is built of beautiful white stone, almost marble, in
large blocks without mortar, but it had metallic fastenings, which have all
disappeared, and left their marks behind them. There are two rows of
arches, and above a line of square windows; also a curious stone parapet,
with very distinct indications of arrangement for spreading the velarium or
vela (the awning). There is only one line of columns, but there was
originally a second, and most of the bases of them are still in situ. The
amphitheatre is built against a rocky mountain, which causes the northern
part of the ellipse to be much lower than the outer one. There are numerous
passages and substructures, except on the rocky half of the building. There
are two principal entrances facing each other, and in a line with them is a
trench exactly similar to the one in the Colosseum, and at Capua, &c. These
canals for conducting water into the arena can still be seen, and there seems
no doubt of its having been used for naumachia. There are but few remains
of the seats, except a large accumulation of débris, and traces of the stairs
and vomitoria. The whole line of the podium is also perfectly preserved, but
no trace of the concentric euripus found in other amphitheatres. The most
puzzling parts of the structure are four rectangular towers, which appear to
have had no special staircases leading to them from the ground; antiquaries,
with all their ingenuity, have not yet given any satisfactory explanation of
these objects. They were most probably for the music, as in the circus of
Maxentius on the Via Appia, near Rome, where one tower remains at each
end of the carceres[199].
The amphitheatre at Nîmes, in Aquitaine, still has a wooden floor with
trap-doors in it; the present floor is not ancient, but no doubt replaces an old
one; there is no staircase, and the only access to the passages below is by a
step-ladder, and the arrangement of the substructures is quite different from
that in Rome, or at Capua, or Puteoli. There are large masses of stone at
intervals to support the floor, and wide passages between them. On two of
these massive piers are inscriptions, with the name of the architect, the
same inscription repeated twice, in characters of the third century. There are
no signs of naumachia, or of aqueducts; the seats and the superstructure are
more perfect than usual, and have a very fine effect.
At Arles the superstructure also is very grand, but there are no
substructures under the arena visible. It is partly cut out of the rock, the
lower part supported by massive substructures, but no passages in them are

visible. Excavations have not been made there, and the doorways appear to
be filled up to half their height, as at the Porta Tiburtina in Rome.
At Bordeaux the ruins of the amphitheatre are called the (arènes) arena,
and it evidently had a boarded floor covered with sand, as in the
Colosseum; and the superstructures, with the seats, are more perfect than in
Rome. There is a great general resemblance, but the details are not the
same. The Colosseum is the only amphitheatre which has double corridors
round it, and the absence of this outer passage makes a different
arrangement of the stairs to the vomitoria necessary in this and other
amphitheatres, where the people went straight out through each archway.

Substructures compared.

In treating of the amphitheatres in general, and corroborating the account
given in this work of the Colosseum, it must be borne in mind that in every
theatre a considerable space is required behind the scenes for the use of the
actors. The performances in an amphitheatre would equally require such
space for the performers when off the stage, and the only space to which
they could possibly retire is under that stage which is called the arena,
because it was covered with sand; and it has been shewn that in these
substructures there are numerous passages and contrivances for the
machines to send up the wild beasts to be hunted, the men and the dogs to
hunt them, and the athletes for the wrestling matches; we have also canals
for water for the keels of the vessels, in some instances, but not in all; in
some cases, the vessels employed could only have been rowing-boats, rates.
We have also mention of battles with swords in the naumachia, and of
many men being killed. This seems to make it clear that the principal
amusement consisted in the crew of one vessel trying to board the other,
and the defendants preventing their doing so in every way that they could,
either by throwing them off into the water, or with swords and spears.
At Pozzuoli, where the substructures are nearly perfect, there are remains
of an intermediate passage, as if for men to run along; and this has been
traced to communicate with the Emperor’s seat, and is thought to have been
for messengers to go with orders, and to give the necessary directions. All
that remains of this intermediate passage are the corbels for carrying a
wooden gallery upon. There are similar corbels for an intermediate passage

between two floors in the Colosseum, but here in the upper part, apparently
for the sailors to run along to furl or unfurl the awning, not in the
substructures; there also appear to have been separate stairs and vomitoria
for that passage, and as we know that several hundred sailors were
employed in the Colosseum, such an arrangement would be quite necessary.
Mention has frequently been made of the great central passage, which
exists not only in the Colosseum, but in all other amphitheatres where
substructures were made. This passage appears to have served for several
useful purposes; there are traces of machines in it for lifting up some large
object, not only in the Colosseum but also at Capua; and the things to be
lifted up in all probability must have been the vessels for the naval fights.
This central passage is mentioned or implied in several instances in the
classical authors; it had the appearance of a gulf dividing the earth or arena
into two parts. Apuleius calls it vorago terræ (a gulf of the earth); Martial,
the via media, or middle way; and Petronius, ruina terræ, from the
appearance of a swallowing-up the machines and the gladiators.
The machines used for these public amusements were evidently
numerous and important, and required a good deal of space to stow them
away, more even than was afforded by the vaults and passages under the
arena in the Colosseum. This is implied by the celebrated letter of
Apollodorus, the architect, to the Emperor Hadrian, in which the architect
told the Emperor that he ought to have built the Temple of Roma at the
south end of the Summa Sacra Via, and to have made room for this
machinery of the amphitheatre in vaulted chambers under it (as before
mentioned); that he did not do so is evident, for the excavations of 1874
brought to light rude concrete walls of the time of the Republic, with a
small aqueduct of the time of the Early Empire, made to carry water to the
fountains at the corners of the porticus above. The accounts which we have
in classical authors, of the machinery employed in the amphitheatre, remind
us very much of that used for a Christmas pantomime in one of the London
theatres, and all these great shows were very much of the character of a
pantomime. To begin at the top, the cords which carried the velarium, or
awning, were strong enough for a rope-dancer, and were called by the name
of catadromus; and we have an account in Suetonius, in the time of Nero, of
an elephant being taught to walk upon these cords with a Roman cavalier on
his back[200]. We also have an account of an actor trying to play the part of

Icarus, and fly down from the top, falling dead at the feet of Nero, and
sprinkling him with his blood[201].
The pegmata have been mentioned as cages for wild beasts, and this was
evidently one meaning of the word, as used by Seneca in his Epistles,
quoted in a previous page, but this was one meaning only; the same name
was applied to a wooden framework of any kind, sometimes evidently what
we now call scenery, either fixed or moveable. Josephus mentions pegmata
used in the triumphal procession of Titus, one of which was three storeys
high, and another four, on which were representations of the capture of
Jerusalem. Another is mentioned by Calpurnius as representing the Tarpeian
rock[202], and the victims were thrown from the top of it on to the arena, or
into the gulf, and killed on the spot. Apuleius also describes one as
representing Mount Ida, with trees, and shrubs, and fountains, on which
appeared from time to time Paris and Mercury, and the three goddesses,
Juno, Pallas, and Venus, with a number of animals to complete the
scene[203]. Another is described by Claudian as representing Mount
Etna[204], with the flames burning at the top. Others representing Vulcan
and Cyclops; these were in the shows of Carinus and Numerianus, and are
mentioned by Vopiscus[205]. It is evident that this scenery must have been
prepared below and sent up from the central passage, as there was no room
anywhere else for sending it up. Martial[206] also mentions pegmata as
rising, from this middle way, and that a person could see from thence the
Colossus among the stars. As the Colossus stood on an elevated platform
on the Summa Sacra Via, just in a line with this middle way, and was itself
120 ft. high, it is quite probable that the head of it could be seen from
below, over the upper gallery.
The dens for the wild beasts in the substructures under the podium are
found both at Capua and at Pozzuoli, just as in the Colosseum, and the
technical name for such a den was catabolus[207]. Besides the mention by
Herodian of a hundred lions leaping on to the arena at once, as “if out of the
earth,” (mentioned in page 26), the same thing is mentioned by several
other authors at different periods, both of lions and of other wild beasts.
Vopiscus mentions this in the life of Probus[208], and that all the doorways
were stopped for a time; and he distinctly mentions the animals coming out
of the caves below. Ammianus Marcellinus[209] also mentions the doorways

being often stopped for the wild beasts. Statius mentions the same[210], and
Julius Capitolinus, both in the time of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius.
In each case a hundred lions are mentioned, and in the latter that they were
killed with arrows; and in the time of Probus, not only a hundred lions, but
also a hundred Lybian leopards, a hundred Syrian ones, a hundred lionesses,
and three hundred bears. Lampridius[211] also mentions in the time of
Gordianus the almost incredible number of a thousand bears, in addition to
a hundred Lybian leopards.
To protect the people in the lower gallery from these wild beasts, a strong
netting was provided (as has been mentioned); this was of gold wire, fixed
in a wooden frame, and at the top was an ivory rod which turned round, so
that if an animal should attempt to cling to it, he would necessarily fall
back. This net was called retia, and at Puteoli or Pozzuoli it was either of
gold, or gilt; and this was the case in the Colosseum also, and in other
instances. Our authority for this is Calpurnius in his Eclogues[212].
The naval fights with the larger vessels were sometimes held in the
Circus Maximus, which could be flooded to the depth required by stopping
up at the lower end the stream that runs through it, which is in fact a branch
of the small river Almo, but was in this part called the Euripus. This name
was also given to the canals for the naumachia, as in the Colosseum. This
must have been the case, because the Emperor Heliogabalus upon one
occasion filled these canals with wine, which could not have been done in
the Circus Maximus, where the Euripus was a natural running stream of
water; but in the Colosseum a canal supplied with water from an aqueduct,
which could be let in or drawn off at pleasure, might very well have been
filled with wine during an abundant season, when in Rome the wine is
sometimes worth less than the vessel that holds it, so that large quantities
are frequently wasted for want of casks to put it in. In all wine-growing
countries, the same thing occurs from time to time in superabundant
seasons. It is true that these naval fights were called Circensian games,
because they were sometimes held in a circus (as has been said), but the
same name was given to them when they were held in the amphitheatre, as
in this instance, by Lampridius[213]. Martial[214] distinguishes very clearly
both the one and the other, and makes it evident that the stagna of Nero
were used for the naumachia of the Cæsars.

That the vaults under the arena were called caveæ, caves (or cavities),
has been already mentioned, and is evident from many passages in classical
and mediæval authors; as in Tertullian and in Prudentius[215], when
describing the scenes that had taken place in the amphitheatre as the wicked
rites in which the gladiators were killed on the arena, and the impious
games in which the sad spectacles of funereal character were brought up
from the caves, worthy only of the infernal Jupiter (whom the Christians
call Satan).

The Arena.

That one of the modes of putting criminals to death in Rome was to
throw them to the wild beasts to be torn to pieces on the arena, to glut the
savage taste of the Roman people, is notorious; but that many of the
gladiators and other actors were also frequently killed on the arena is not so
generally known, and yet the evidence for it is too distinct to be doubted.
Seneca mentions distinctly, in one of his Epistles[216], that a number of the
bodies were exposed to view, of men who were unable to defend
themselves by their swords or their shields. He justly says that the men
were as savage as the lions or the bears, and the usual end of these fighting
men was death on the arena. There is a representation of them in a fine
mosaic picture in the Villa Borghese, with the letter θ, and others on two of
the graffiti found in the Colosseum in 1875[217].
It is well known that the Roman people sometimes called upon the
emperor to produce the most celebrated gladiators, who had been named in
the programme for the show. Horace[218] alludes to this in his Epistles; and
Martial[219] speaks of two of these gladiators, one called Myrinus, and the
other Triumphus (a name which has misled some of the commentators).
Another gladiator of that period was named Columbus, and was called for
by the people under Claudius, who promised that he should be exhibited if
he could be found, as is related by Suetonius[220]. Under Gordianus we are
told that thirty-two elephants, and about a thousand gladiators were
exhibited; it is probable that many of these were killed in the fight. It has
already been stated that Commodus fought himself with the gladiators on
the arena.

There was a particular costume for the athletes, and also for the emperor
when he went on to the arena, and Commodus gave offence by not
complying with the custom which had been established by Titus at the
opening, as is mentioned by Suetonius[221]. The carrying out of the dead
bodies from the arena is also mentioned by Quintilian[222] as done with
pomp. Lampridius[223] expressly says that Commodus acted contrary to the
established custom, and was not dressed in the proper manner; and that his
helmet was carried out of the theatre by the gate by which the dead bodies
were usually carried out, which was considered a bad omen, and he was
murdered soon afterwards. This is also mentioned by Dio Cassius (as
quoted on page 23).

The Gates.

There were naturally four gates to this enormous structure, one at each
end, and one in the middle of each side; and the same arrangement was
followed in all the other amphitheatres. By what names these gates were
called, and whether these names were special for each particular building,
or general for all, is a question still undecided, and also which was the state
entrance. It is commonly said that in the Colosseum the state entrance was
on the northern side, next the Esquiline Hill, because there is no number
over that arch as there is over the other arches, but this was probably the
case with all the four entrances; the other three gates are destroyed. The
excavations in 1875 have been supposed to shew that the passage on the
southern side towards the Cœlian did not lead direct to the palace of
Commodus, but was carried round the outer line of the building to the
south-east end, near S. Clemente; the natural entrance from the palace of
Nero would be from the gate at the east end, and not on the north side. The
names of the gates are not easily fixed; one was called Porta Libitinensis,
and from this door the bodies of those who were killed were carried out, as
we learn from Lampridius in the life of Commodus[224]. They were carried
out of this gate on a special bier provided for the purpose, called sandapila,
as is mentioned by Juvenal[225], and explained by the old Scoliast. This
name is sometimes written sanavivaria, as in the Acta Martyrum Felicita et
Perpetua[226]. The word libitina signifies death, or a funeral, or a bier; it is
used also by Horace in his Odes[227], and explained by the Scoliast in the

same manner, and by Martial in his Epigrams[228]. It appears that the name
of sandapilaria and libitinensis were synonymous. Another gate was called
Porta Prætoria, probably that at the south-east end, opening from the road to
the Vivarium at the Prætorian Camp. Another, Porta Sacra, probably that at
the north-west end, opening to the Via Sacra. The Meta Sudans was close to
this gate, and was supplied with water by tubes, as Seneca mentions in his
Epistles[229]. His fifty-seventh letter is full of lamentation for the fate of the
athletes.
The name of cochlea is given to one of the doors of the amphitheatre,
which led from the cavea to the arena. This name is used by Varro[230], and
has puzzled all the commentators; it need hardly be said that cochlea is
literally “a snail,” and the name has been supposed to apply to some narrow
doorway; but the name is well known in mediæval Latin as applied to a
winding or newel staircase, popularly called a corkscrew-staircase, and
there are two such staircases leading from the substructures or cavea to the
level of the arena, one on either side, at the south-east end of the great
central passage in the Flavian amphitheatre, to which there can be no doubt
that this name was applied. Trajan’s column is frequently called columna
cochlea, because there is such a staircase inside of it.

The Games in the Arena.

The importance attached to the public amusements, both by the people
and by the emperors, appears extraordinary to modern ideas. Caligula[231]
was present from morning to evening, and had a series of the various kinds
of hunting in different countries exhibited, such as the hunts of the Africans
and of the Trojans; on these occasions, the arena was strewed with red and
green foliage. At this period Suetonius also mentions that the people
assembled at midnight for the shows of the following day, when they were
gratuitous[232]. The Emperor Claudius himself would go at daybreak to the
amphitheatre, and see the wild beasts fed, and again at mid-day[233]. The
same practice is mentioned by Pliny as used in the time of Nero[234].
Petronius also mentions the custom for two old negroes to sprinkle the
arena with scents from small bottles, which they brought for the

purpose[235]. Tacitus gives an account of the games performed under his
own direction in the time of Claudius[236].

“During the same consulship, in the year of Rome eight hundred,
the secular games were celebrated, after an interval of sixty-four
years since they were last solemnized in the reign of Augustus.
“Being at that time one of the college of fifteen, and invested with
the office of prætor, it fell to my province to regulate the
ceremonies. Let it not be imagined that this is said from motives of
vanity. The fact is, that in ancient times the business was conducted
under the special directions of the quindecemviral order, while the
chief magistrates officiated in the several ceremonies. Claudius
thought proper to revive this public spectacle. He attended in the
circus, and, in his presence, the Trojan game was performed by the
youth of noble birth. Britannicus, the emperor’s son, and Lucius
Domitius, who by adoption took the name of Nero, and afterwards
succeeded to the empire, appeared, with the rest of the band,
mounted on superb horses. Nero was received with acclamations,
and that mark of popular favour was considered as an omen of his
future grandeur.”

APPENDIX.
Scaurus.

The meaning of the word Scaurus is “club-footed,” and no doubt the first
member of the family had that peculiar formation of the foot; but this
family was a branch of the great Gens Æmilia, one member of that family
built the Basilica Æmilia in the Forum Romanum, and another was one of
the second Triumvirate. The Scaurus who built this great amphitheatre was
a man of enormous wealth, and a great builder; he is mentioned by several
of his contemporaries, of whom one was Cicero; he was an ædile, and was
noted for his great liberality in his ædileship. His father was an orator, and
was consul in the year of Rome 688 (b.c. 35); his mother, when a widow,
married Sylla the dictator. Pliny mentions him several times in his Natural
History[237]; he calls his buildings insane works, on account of the
enormous sum expended upon them, which must have exceeded the
equivalent of two millions sterling of our money. The temporary
amphitheatre which he built would hold 80,000 persons, it was three storeys
high, and had 360 marble columns in it; these were on the ground-floor, and
it is mentioned that those on the first floor were of glass[238], a luxury
before unheard of (and apparently not repeated), on the upper storey they
were of gilt wood. Pliny thus describes this building of Scaurus:—

“Mosaic pavements were first introduced in the time of Sylla; at
all events, there is still in existence a pavement[239], formed of small
segments, which he ordered to be laid down in the Temple of
Fortune, at Præneste. Since his time, these mosaics have left the
ground for the arched roofs of houses, and they are now made of
glass. This, however, is but a recent invention; for there can be no
doubt that, when Agrippa ordered the earthenware walls of the hot
baths, in the thermæ which he was building at Rome, to be painted
in encaustic, and had the other parts coated with pargetting, he
would have had the arches decorated with mosaic in glass, if the use
of them had been known; or, at all events, if from the walls of the

theatre of Scaurus, where it figured, as already stated, glass had by
that time come to be used for the arched roofs of apartments. It will
be as well, therefore, to give some account also of glass[240].”
“It may possibly be observed, that this was because marble was
not then introduced. Such, however, is not the fact; for in the
ædileship of M. Scaurus, three hundred and sixty columns were to
be seen imported, for the decorations of a temporary theatre, too,
one that was destined to be in use for barely a single month. And yet
the laws were silent thereon, in a spirit of indulgence for the
amusements of the public, no doubt. But then, why such
indulgence? or how do vices more insidiously steal upon us than
under the plea of serving the public? By what other way, in fact, did
ivory, gold, and precious stones, first come into use with private
individuals?
“Can we say that there is now anything that we have reserved for
the exclusive use of the gods? However, be it so, let us admit of this
indulgence for the amusements of the public; but still, why did the
laws maintain their silence when the largest of these columns,
pillars of Lucullan marble, as much as eight-and-thirty feet in
height, were erected in the atrium of Scaurus? a thing, too, that was
not done privately, or in secret; for the contractor for the public
sewers compelled him to give security for the possible damage that
might be done in the carriage of them to the Palace.... Already had
L. Crassus, the orator, he who was the first to possess pillars of
foreign marble, and in this same Palatium too, received from M.
Brutus, on the occasion of a dispute, the nickname of the ‘Palatine
Venus,’ for his indulgence in this kind of luxury. The material, I
should remark, was Hymetian marble, and the pillars were but six in
number, and not exceeding some twelve feet in height.... These
particulars, and others in the sequel, will shew that we are so far
improved; for who is there at the present day that has, in his atrium,
any such massive columns as these of Scaurus[241]?” ...
“I will not permit, however, these two Caiuses, or two Neros, to
enjoy this glory even, such as it is; for I will prove that these
extravagant follies of theirs have been surpassed, in the use that was
made of his wealth by M. Scaurus, a private citizen. Indeed, I am by

no means certain that it was not the ædileship of this personage that
inflicted the first great blow upon the public manners, and that Sylla
was not guilty of a greater crime in giving such unlimited power to
his step-son, than in the proscription of so many thousands. During
his ædileship, and only for the temporary purposes of a few days,
Scaurus executed the greatest work that has ever been made by the
hands of man, even when intended to be of everlasting duration; his
theatre, I mean. This building consisted of three storeys, supported
upon three hundred and sixty columns; and this, too, in a city which
had not allowed without some censure one of its greatest citizens to
erect six pillars of Hymetian marble. The ground-storey was of
marble, the second of glass, a species of luxury which ever since
that time has been quite unheard of, and the highest of gilded wood.
The lowermost columns, as previously stated, were eight-and-thirty
feet in height; and, placed between these columns, as already
mentioned, were bronze statues, three thousand in number. The area
of this theatre afforded accommodation for eighty thousand
spectators; and yet the theatre of Pompey, after the city had so
greatly increased, and the inhabitants had become so vastly more
numerous, was considered abundantly large, with its sittings for
forty thousand only. The rest of the fittings of it, what with Attalic
vestments, pictures, and the other stage properties, were of such
enormous value that, after Scaurus had conveyed to his Tusculan
villa such parts thereof as were not required for the enjoyment of his
daily luxuries, the loss was no less than three hundred millions of
sesterces, when the villa was burnt by his servants in a spirit of
revenge.... C. Curio, who died during the civil wars, fighting on the
side of Cæsar, found, to his dismay, that he could not, when
celebrating the funeral games in honour of his father, surpass the
riches and magnificence of Scaurus—for where, in fact, was to be
found such a step-sire as Sylla, and such a mother as Metella, that
bidder at all auctions for the property of the proscribed? Where, too,
was he to find for his father, M. Scaurus, so long the principal man
in the city, and one who had acted, in his alliance with Marius, as a
receptacle for the plunder of whole provinces? Indeed, Scaurus
himself was now no longer able to rival himself; and it was at least
one advantage which he derived from this destruction by fire of so

many objects brought from all parts of the earth, that no one could
ever after be his equal in this species of folly. Curio, consequently,
found himself compelled to fall back upon his own resources, and to
think of some new device of his own.”

The points on which this account agrees with the Colosseum are so
remarkable, that there can hardly be a doubt that the enormous building of
Scaurus was on this site, and the old tufa walls of the substructure must
have belonged to his building. This was the earliest amphitheatre, and in
none of the other amphitheatres built in imitation of it do we find similar
old tufa walls, although in other respects some are exact copies of the
Colosseum.

Amphitheatre of Nero.

Some persons interpret a passage in the Annals of Tacitus[242] to mean,
that the amphitheatre of Nero was in the Campus Martius, but this is only a
wrong interpretation of the passage; he is speaking of the great wooden
amphitheatre which Julius Cæsar built there, and which was repaired and
restored to use in the second consulate of Nero (a.d. 56). He mentions
foundations and beams only, and especially says it was of little importance.
The time of Nero was a great building era in Rome, and he no doubt
repaired all the public buildings that required it.

The Great Drain.

There is considerable difficulty at the present time (in 1876) in obtaining
correct information on the subject of the great drain, which carried off the
water from the substructures. The entrance to it from the south-east end,
under the entrance for animals, has been mentioned before, with the sluice-
gate, which lifted up like a portcullis, and the grooves for it remain.
Openings into it, covered with modern iron gratings, are seen in the floor of
the passage, and across the mouth of it is an ancient iron grating. This great
and deep drain carried the water in a straight line beyond the outer wall of
the building, and just at this point a steam engine was placed in the years
1874 and 1875 to pump out the water, which gushed out of the earth a little

further on, in the direction of the church of S. Clement, with a divergence to
the south towards the Cœlian Hill. This water was very abundant, but it
appeared more like the continuous stream of an aqueduct than a natural
spring of water; it was at a very low level, quite 30 ft. underground. At a
considerably higher level, and near the surface of the ground, was an
aperture into the brick specus or conduit of an aqueduct of the third century,
in which the water was flowing steadily along from west to east; this
continued all the summer of 1874, and the water was always flowing. This
aperture was closed in the summer of 1875, and the whole specus buried
again; where the water was sent to is not known to any one but the persons
employed, and they say that this water had little to do with the other water
which they pumped out, although both were always good clear limpid
streams of drinking water. The water was pumped out and conveyed in an
open channel, parallel to the building, to the Arch of Constantine, where it
made a small flood during all the spring of 1875, and was then carried into
a modern drain under the road between the Cœlian and the Palatine, after
passing over the road and washing the base of the Arch of Constantine for
several months. The old drain, at a great depth, was traced the whole length
of the Colosseum, parallel to it, close under the foot of that part of the
Cœlian Hill on which the Claudium stood, and under which the two
piscinæ, one of the time of Nero, the other of Alexander Severus, have been
mentioned. The workmen employed to clear out the old drain were alarmed
at the great depth; an enormous quantity of earth had been thrown upon it,
and they were afraid of its falling in behind them, and blocking up their
only mode of exit; deep wells were made down into it, but after they had
gone nearly as far as the Arch of Constantine at this depth, they were
stopped for want of air. Another well, or air-pipe, was necessary, but the
works were then all suspended for want of funds. It is known that an ancient
drain, at a great depth, went under the road, and at a much lower level than
a modern drain, which passes near the monastery or church of S. Gregory
on the Cœlian, between that and the Palatine; and there can be little doubt
that this was a continuation of the same drain, and that it might all be
cleared out and repaired, but unless air-pipes can be put down by boring the
expense would be enormous.
Another small ancient drain has also been found coming from the Summa
Sacra Via, apparently for the fountains at the four corners of the Porticus
Liviæ. The workmen had been told that they were to find the great drain

passing under that part, and going on to the Cloaca Maxima in the Forum
Romanum, but this could not be found, and did not appear practicable.
Father Mullooly, the excellent Prior of S. Clement, says he has observed
that the water under this church always rises and falls at the same time as
that under the Colosseum, and he is convinced that they both come from the
same source. It seemed probable that this source, or at least one of the
sources of this water, is the great reservoir of the earliest aqueduct, the Aqua
Appia, under the garden of the Villa Cœlimontana, formerly called Villa
Mattei, which is now the property of the Baron Hoffman, at the west end of
the Cœlian Hill, on a high level. The Baron wanted to make this old vaulted
reservoir into a wine-cellar, but found it impossible to get rid of the water,
which is always two or three feet deep, and as fast as he pumped it out it
filled again to the same level, but no higher; this shews that there must be
some outlet to it, but so deep underground that no one knows which way it
goes. This old reservoir is nearly under the great reservoir of Nero for the
Anio Novus, which was fifty feet higher, and carried on his arches, for
which also the Arch of Dolabella was used as a substructure only. We have
found in our examination of the aqueducts that the later ones always
followed the same course as the earlier ones, not exactly over them, but by
the side of them, each succeeding aqueduct being always on a higher level,
and there is always a subterranean reservoir of one of the earlier aqueducts
nearly under those of the later period. The Appia was made nearly four
centuries before the Anio Novus, still it is very probable that the same plan
was followed in both cases. We have found that the aqueduct of Claudius
and Nero, called the Anio Novus, was divided into three branches at this
point; one went straight on over the Palatine to the Capitoline Hill, another
branch went to the left, or south, of the Aventine, and a third to the right, or
north, to the Colosseum. It seems extremely probable that the same plan
had been followed with the Appia, both were carried along the high ground
of the Cœlian Hill as far as could be done, and then each was divided into
three branches. We traced one branch of it over the Porta Capena to the
Aventine and the Tiber; this is now necessarily out of use, the gate on the
arch of which it was carried having been destroyed. A landslip in the garden
of the Marchese Rappini, in February, 1876, between the Villa
Cœlimontana and the Palatine, served to shew that a specus or conduit
passed there, now also out of use. An excavation was made there in April of
the same year, but all that came to light was a deep well, an ancient quarry

of tufa, also at a great depth, and the specus of the aqueduct coming from
the reservoir under the Claudium, called a vivarium, and going in the
direction of the valley in which was the Porta Capena. This specus has been
long out of use, and could not have had any connection with the flood in the
Colosseum, which was the object of the search. The water conveyed in this
specus originally must have been one of those that passed over the short
agger of Servius Tullius from the Cœlian to the Aventine, found in the
excavation of 1868, and traced also in 1876 in the cave under S. Sabba, by
the side of the Aqua Appia, in the same tunnel, but in a terra-cotta pipe, not
in the stone specus. The third branch, in the direction of the Colosseum,
may still be in use, though so deep as to be unknown, supplying wells only,
and this may be the one tapped by the workmen employed by Signor Rosa,
and which now floods the Colosseum, and S. Clement’s also. The only
outlet from a large reservoir, in which the water is always three feet deep,
must afford a very abundant supply of water, and the account given by the
workmen who made this branch of it agrees with this. They say it was a
steady constant stream of water, and it did not gush out of the earth in the
manner that a natural spring does; the spring must therefore be at some
distance. If this view is correct, it would be comparatively easy to turn the
stream into a drain under the Clivus Scauri, and into the one made by the
Municipality about 1865, under the road near the church of S. Gregory,
between the Cœlian and the Palatine, and to carry it in that manner to the
Tiber.
It is however probable that this spring alone, which was only a subsidiary
spring to the Appian aqueduct, is not sufficiently abundant to supply the
quantity of water, which now rises to the height of about ten feet, or quite
three metres, in the substructures of the Colosseum. There is another spring,
or perhaps more than one, in the ancient stone quarry under the garden of
the monks of SS. John and Paul, on the other side of the Clivus Scauri, on
the site of the Claudium, or that square part of the Cœlian Hill which is
nearest to the Colosseum. This site is marked on an old plan of Rome, of
the sixteenth century, as a reservoir of water, and there are no less than ten
wells that descend into this old stone quarry. In the eighteenth century, and
down to the middle of the nineteenth, this was called a vivarium, and was
supposed to be the place where the wild animals were kept for exhibitions
in the Colosseum, but there is no visible communication from one to the
other. A plan of the old quarry, which was made for this work some years

since, shews that this was not a vivarium. There are three ponds, but
perhaps only one spring of water in it, and if the outlet for this water was
stopped, the whole of the quarry, or caves as they are called, would soon be
full of water. It seems probable that this is the place from which the greater
part of the water comes that floods both the Colosseum and the cave of
Mithras, nearly under the church of S. Clement. It seems also quite
practicable to remove the water by an iron pipe into the drain under the road
between the Cœlian and the Palatine, made by the Municipality about 1866.
The level of the quarry is eight metres above that of the Colosseum; the soil
there is on the level of the arena, and that is seven metres above the original
pavement; the water in the old quarry is therefore fifteen metres, or about
45 ft. above the level of the old drain of the Colosseum, and nearly six
metres above the drain made by the Municipality.
This opportunity may be taken to say, that great credit is due to the
Municipality of Rome for the energy and perseverance with which they
have carried on an admirable system of new drainage for the city; and not
only the new city on the hills on the site of the city of the Kings and of the
Empire, but also of the modern city of the Popes, built in the swamp
between the hills and the Tiber, the draining of which is by no means easy.
Nothing can be better than the old Cloaca Maxima, which is still the chief
drain to this part of Rome, or for that of part of the old city; it drains the
water of the streams that run down from three hills, the Palatine, the
Capitoline, and the Quirinal, on this side. But on the northern side of the
Capitoline Hill, in which was the Campus Martius, the mediæval drains are
by no means equally good with those of the Kings; the mouths of these
drains are always open to the Tiber, and when there is a flood of the river
the water runs up the drains, and the Pantheon, which stands on very low
ground, is always the first place in Rome to be flooded. Surely a sluice-gate
might be placed at the mouth of each drain, suspended from a bar at the top,
and worked on pivots only, which would let the water out, but would not let
any in, as in the common traps of a drain in daily use in England.
The Roman authorities say that the water of the Tiber would close the
doors, and not let any of the water in the drain pass out, but if the door was
placed obliquely, and let the water flow past it with as little pressure upon it
as possible, the water in the drains, which runs rapidly and with
considerable force, would very soon force open the door that was

suspended at the mouth of it. Any embankment of the Tiber would be
money thrown away; if the great engineers and architects who built the wall
of Aurelian, could not make it secure on the bank of the Tiber, no modern
engineers or architects will do so. We see that nearly the whole of the great
wall of Aurelian, on the bank of the Tiber, has been swept away by the great
floods; the substructures of the towers, under water, remain, and are visible
when the water is low in the river, but all along the bank has been swept
away. When the water rises at the rate of a foot in an hour, and continues to
do so for twenty hours consecutively, and runs at the rate of nine or ten
miles an hour, no wall can stand against it that offers any resistance to it;
smooth walls parallel to the course of the river might stand, as the quay of
the Ripa Grande does, because it offers no resistance to the water.
After the greater part of this chapter was written and in type, I thought it
necessary to go to Capua and Pozzuoli again to examine the remains of
these amphitheatres, and I did so in November, 1875; it was my intention at
the same time to have gone to Pompeii, to examine the amphitheatre there
also, but the weather was so bad at that time I found it quite impracticable
to do so; I therefore did so in May, 1876, and I find that the amphitheatre at
Pompeii is of the time of Sylla the Dictator, and that the arrangements are
not the same as those of the Roman amphitheatre; there are no substructions
under the arena, and it appears there never could have been any, as in the
centre there is the top of an original well, and the floor seems always to
have been of earth only; there are no preparations for Naumachia, and the
dens for the wild beasts are on the same level as the arena, and behind the
podium. In the principal entrances there are sockets for a wooden
balustrade, to separate the people from the wild beasts. The corridor round
at the back of these dens has the original walls of brickwork, of good hard
bricks, but rather thick, somewhat similar to those of the Pantheon at Rome,
but much thicker than those of the time of Nero; the brick vaults of this
corridor, or passage under the lower gallery, are modern or mediæval
repairs. Many of the seats have been preserved or restored, they are of stone
of volcanic character, the stone of the country, in fact, but they are of a
convenient height, and comfortable to sit upon, though closely packed; the
seat is raised two or three inches above the place for the feet of those in the
next seat above. The construction of the outer wall is of blocks of lava,
about the shape of English bricks, but rather larger, and with opus
reticulatum, the pattern of large size, enclosed in a sort of framework of

these quasi-bricks, very similar to the Muro Torto at Rome. The fresco of
the first century found on a wall here, and now preserved in the Museum at
Naples[243], is a caricature of the building; and the vomitoria, which form a
conspicuous object in the front of the picture, are greatly exaggerated, made
much more lofty and more long and narrow than they really are. They are
said to be the ladies’ entrance to their gallery, which was the upper gallery
at the back; but as the slope was very gradual, and the building not nearly
so high as the Colosseum, they would be able to see perfectly well, and
their entrance and exit being entirely on the exterior of the building, while
that of the men was from the interior, was a very convenient arrangement. It
seems probable that Scaurus, the step-on of Sylla, had seen this building in
progress, and as the Romans always had the idea of making Rome the most
magnificent city in the world, he built the far more magnificent
amphitheatre in Rome; but as the upper part was built of wood, though
magnificently decorated with columns of marble, of glass, and of gilt wood,
as we have said, it seems to have offended the Republican notions of the
Romans, and this upper part was entirely destroyed, or this may have
happened from an accidental fire; but as the substructures were of tufa they
were everlasting, as Pliny says, and they still remain as the principal
foundations of the Colosseum, with brick walls and galleries erected upon
them in the time of Nero, and the whole enclosed by the magnificent stone
front and double corridors of the Flavian Emperors.

ALPHABETICAL INDEX.
THE COLOSSEUM.

Actors, space required for, under the stage, 47.
Alexander Severus, Piscina of, 5;
walls of, 6.
Amphitheatres a Roman invention (?), 4;
—of Nero not in Campus Martius, 56, 58;
—represented on coins, 21;
—described as perfect by Ammianus Marcellinus, a.d. 357, 26;
—restored by Lampadius, a.d. 445, 27;
—again by Venantius Basilius, a.d. 508, ib.;
—used for shows of wild beasts by Theodoric, a.d. 519, ib.;
—again used in 523, the last occasion mentioned, ib.;
—again damaged by earthquake, a.d. 1703, 30;
—consecrated as a church, a.d. 1724, ib.;
—north-western side nearly perfect, ib.;
—Arch of lower storey restored by Gordianus, a.d. 220-238, 31.
— at Arles, 46.
— at Bordeaux, 46.
— at Capua, 40, 41.
— at Nismes, 46.
— at Pompeii, 63.
— at Pozzuoli, 42, 65.
— of Scaurus, on this spot, 56.
— at Verona, 43, 65.
Animals brought from vivaria in cages, called pegmata, 15.

Apollodorus told Hadrian he ought to have provided space for the
machinery, 34.
Apuleius mentions pegmata in amphitheatre, 49.
Arch of tufa shaken by an earthquake, supported by brick wall of
Nero, 14.
Arena, for the gymnasium, 1;
—of wood covered with sand, and full of trap-doors, 7, 11;
—no open space under the, 21;
—criminals torn to pieces upon it, 52.
Arles, Amphitheatre at, 46;
no substructures visible, ib.
Augustus intended to build an amphitheatre here, but did not, 15.
Awning of Nero mentioned by Pliny, 23;
contrivances for supporting it, ib.;
at Pompeii, shewn in a fresco, 24;
an intermediate passage for sailors to manage awning, 47;
cords for it, strong enough to carry an elephant, called
catadromus, 48.

Battles of sailors with swords, not with boats, 47.
Benedict XIII. consecrated area of amphitheatre as a church, a.d. 1728,
30.
Benedict XIV. erects cross and stations in amphitheatre, a.d. 1749, 30.
Boards removed from arena placed on corbels provided for them, 34.
Bordeaux, Amphitheatre at, 47;
Remains called the Arènes, it had a boarded floor, ib.
Brickwork of Nero here, 6.
Building apparently perfect in time of Bede, 27;
—made part of fortress of Frangipani, a.d. 1130, 28;
—half given to Annibaldi by Frederick II., grant rescinded by
Innocent IV. in a.d. 1244, ib.;

—much damaged by an earthquake, a.d. 1349, ib.;
—made common property as a stone-quarry, a.d. 1362, 29;
—several palaces made out of this quarry, ib.

Calpurnius mentions pegmata in amphitheatre, 49.
Canals brought to light in 1812 and 1875, with substructures, 10;
—great cisterns under boards, 14;
about 10 ft. deep, but not always the same width, ib.;
—walls to support unusually thick, ib.;
—lined with lead, one on arches, the other on beams of wood, ib.
Capitals fallen from upper gallery, 21.
Capstans, sockets for, 7.
Capua, Amphitheatre almost the same size as that of Rome, 40;
—Substructures more perfect, ib.;
—Aqueduct and drain, ib.;
—Remains of aqueduct, 13;
—Dens under the podium, 40;
—Sockets for pivots for cages, ib.;
—Arena of brick, not wood, but apertures for trap-doors, ib.;
—Grooves for covers over them to make them water-tight, ib.;
—Building of the time of Hadrian, ib.;
—Inscription, 41;
—Machine for lifting vessels, as in the Colosseum, 47.
Castra Misenatium, for sailors employed in furling awning, or vela, or
velaria, 24.
Catadromus, cords for awning, 48.
Cavea, name for an amphitheatre, 3;
and for vaults under it, 51.
Chambers, narrow and lofty vaulted, on each side of central passage,
38.
Circensian games, name retained in amphitheatre, 51.
Circus Maximus, sometimes used instead of amphitheatre, 50.

Claudian mentions pegmata in amphitheatre, 49.
Clivus Scauri, Arcade to this amphitheatre, 3.
Colossus visible from gulf in amphitheatre, 49.
Columns and capitals fallen from upper gallery on to arena, and into
cavea, 21.
Commodus, acts of, in this building, described by Dion Cassius, 22.
Comparison and construction, 40;
—one of the first principles of archæology, ib.;
—especially useful for this amphitheatre, ib.
Construction, here made visible by demolition of outer corridor, 30.
Corbels or brackets for placing boards of arena upon, 11, 36.
Corridors, open channels for running water, in amphitheatre, 11;
—water supplied by aqueducts, ib.
Cradle, or dry-dock, in central passage, 18, 38.
Culprits executed by being thrown to wild beasts in this amphitheatre,
3.

Dens under the podium have arches of Neronian brickwork, 12;
—small stream of water in front of them, 17.
Drain, large, under passage, 35, and in Appendix, 56, 59;
ancient iron grating at mouth of, 36;
place for flood-gates visible, ib.

Emperors went to see wild beasts fed, 55.
Evidence of construction, and comparison, 40.
Excavations begun by the French, a.d. 1810, 31;
not deep enough, 33;
shew channels for water, 32;
—made in search of treasure, a.d. 1864, 1865, 33;
—a.d. 1874, 1875, 1;

results of them a great surprise, 37.
Exhibitions by Julius Cæsar in circus required a separate building, 5.

Framework, curious wooden, on floor of central passage, a cradle, or
dry-dock, 18.
Frangipani make amphitheatre part of fortress, a.d. 1130, 28.
Front of three periods, upper storey added a century later, 19.

Gallery, upper, of wood, destroyed by fire, 12;
restored in stone, completed a.d. 240, under Gordianus, ib.
Games on arena, 55;
great importance attached to them, ib.
Gates, usually four to each amphitheatre, 53;
names of, not easily ascertained, ib.;
one called sandapila, ib.;
others called Porta Prætoria, Porta Sacra, Porta Cochlea, 54.
Gaudentius employed upon it, not the architect of it, 20.
Gladiators often killed, 52;
—called for by the people, ib.
Gordianus completed the building, and restored arch of lower storey,
a.d. 220-238, 31.

Grooves in walls for lifts, 7.
Gulf, or central passage, in all amphitheatres, 47.
Gymnasium on the arena, 1;
of Nero also here, 6.

Hadrian and Apollodorus, 34.
Herodian mentions 100 lions leaping on to the arena in amphitheatre,
50.

Icarus, an actor playing part of, fell dead at feet of Nero, 48.
Inscriptions record dates of later walls, 7;
—give the word Theatrum for Amphitheatre, ib.

Jerusalem, view of, century xvi., 29.
Joints, straight vertical, between the brick galleries and stone corridors,
6.
Josephus mentions pegmata in amphitheatre, 49.
Julius Cæsar, Amphitheatre of, 2.
Julius Capitolinus mentions 100 lions in amphitheatre, 50.

Lampadius restores amphitheatre, a.d. 445, 27.
Lampridius mentions 100 lions in amphitheatre, 50.
Lifts for men and dogs on both sides of central passage, 14;
grooves for, remain in walls, 7.
Lions, 100 killed at once in the shows, 26.

Machine for raising stones for walls, 21.
Machines required, numerous and large, 48.
Martial’s first book, De Spectaculis, relates to this amphitheatre, 4;
—mentions pegmata in amphitheatre, 49.
Martyrdom of early Christians on sand of arena, not on soil 21 ft.
below, 36.
Mass celebrated in amphitheatre by Cardinal Vicar, a.d. 1756, 30.
Masts, or poles, and corbels for awning, 24.
Miracle plays performed in amphitheatre, a.d. 1540, 29.
Mixture of stone and brick in construction, 19.

Naumachia, the new, those of Augustus in Trastevere, 9;
—the old, in this building, 1, 8, 10;
—none in amphitheatre of Taurus, 10;
—and Stagna, names used indifferently, 12;
—the two sides were flooded, not the central passage, 14;
—vessels employed in usually rates, 47.
Naval fights held sometimes in Circus Maximus, 50;
—must have been in canals of Colosseum, as Heliogabalus filled
them with wine, 51;
—called Circensian games, ib.;
—Martial distinguishes them, ib.
Nero, substructures part of the time of, 1, 12;
—gymnasium and naumachia of, on site of this amphitheatre, 5;
—remains of aqueducts and piscina, ib.;
—gymnasium of, on the arena, 6;
—brickwork of time of, ib.;
—supper of, in the amphitheatre, 7;
—exterior of brick unfinished by him, and finished by Flavian
Emperors in stone, 11;
—two small chambers of brick, of his time, enclosed in travertine
walls, 15;
—awning of, mentioned by Pliny, 23;
—amphitheatre of, not in Campus Martius, 56;
—his Stagna were canals of aqueducts, 8.
Netting to protect lower gallery of gold (or gilt) wire, called retia, 50.
Nismes, amphitheatre still has a wooden floor with trap-doors in it, 46;
arrangements below quite different, ib.

Palaces, several made out of amphitheatre, 29.
Passage, great, found at S.E. end, 34.
Passages, small special, for messengers, intermediate between the
great ones at Pozzuoli, and in Colosseum at Rome, 47;
—central, or gulf, in all the amphitheatres, ib.

Pavement, original here, 21 ft. below level of arena, 35.
Pegmata, cages for wild beasts, 15;
—described by Seneca, 16;
—not only cages, but wooden machines, 49.
Piers of travertine, introduced to support floors, 12;
—from top to bottom, to carry upper gallery, 39.
Piscinæ, remains of two, 11.
Pit for a man to descend to feed the animals, 17.
Plan, general, is oval, with galleries, vomitoria, &c., 18.
Pliny mentions Scaurus and his insane works, 56.
Podium protected by wire netting and bars, 16.
Pola, in Istria, Amphitheatre at, 45, 46;
—built of white stone, ib.;
—two tiers of arches remain, ib.;
—A curious stone parapet, with indications of awning, ib.;
—Built against rocky mountain, ib.;
—Substructures in lower part, ib.;
—Canal for water visible, ib.;
—Square towers (for musicians?), 46.
Pozzuoli (Puteoli), Arena of brick full of trap-doors, 13, 42;
—Surface there flooded for naumachia, 13;
—An intermediate passage for messengers, 47;
—Building much smaller than those of Rome and Capua, 42;
—Substructures more perfect and more highly finished, ib.;
—Arena of brick, with apertures for trap-doors, ib.;
—Arrangement for fixing masts for awning, as in Rome, 43;
—Building also of time of Hadrian, ib.;
—Vaults preserved and used, ib.

Rhodope, mountain of, represented as a scene here, 4.

Scaurus, Family of Æmilius, 56;

—name means club-footed, ib.;
—one of the family built Basilica Æmilia, ib.;
—insane works of, so called from their enormous cost, ib.;
—his theatre to hold 80,000 people could only be on site of
Colosseum, ib.;
—no other theatre three storeys high, ib.;
—extract from Pliny, ib.;
—walls of, 15;
—buildings of, parts temporary, other parts eternal, according to
Pliny, on site of present amphitheatre, 3;
—Clivus of, leads to this site, ib.
Sea-water (?) used in canals, 8.
Seneca, pegmata described by, 16.
Severus, Alexander, piscina of, 5;
wall of, 6.
Sockets in the pavement for pivots of capstans, 7, 35.
Stagna, or old naumachia, under the arena, 1, 12;
—of Nero supplied by three aqueducts, 9;
—boarded over for gladiators and wild beasts, but boards
removed easily, 10;
—two, each 300 ft. long, and about 50 wide, 14.
Stagnum of Nero, “like a sea,” when surface was flooded, 9, 12.
— Navale of Tacitus, 9.
— of Agrippa near the Pantheon, 9.
Statilius Taurus, Amphitheatre of, 1.
Storey, upper, an addition and an afterthought, 6.
Substructures, part of the time of Nero, 1;
—evidently retained and used when upper part was built, 39;
—compared with others, 47.
Suetonius does not mention the beginning of the work, 1.

Tacitus gives an account of games here under his own direction, 55.
Taurus, Statilius, Amphitheatre of, 1.
Theatrum and Amphitheatrum, names used indifferently for this
building, 7.
Theodoric uses amphitheatre for shows of wild beasts, a.d. 519, 27.
Titus, wall of, 6;
—exhibitions of, at the dedication, 8.
Trap-doors in the arena numerous, 7.
Travertine piers cut through older wall, of tufa and brick, to carry
upper gallery, 19.
Tufa, much used to fill up between piers of travertine, 18;
—taken from second wall of Rome, ib.
Tusculum, canals in amphitheatre, as in Rome, 14.

Upper storey, of stone, an addition to the plan, 6, 12;
damaged by lightning, a.d. 230, 26;
of wood, burnt, a.d. 217, 25;
restored by Heliogabalus, Al. Severus, and Gordianus, ib.

Vaults under arena called caveæ, 51.
Venantius Basilius restores amphitheatre, a.d. 508, 27.
Verona, Amphitheatre at, 43, 44;
—Outer wall almost destroyed, 43;
—Arcade of two lower storeys preserved, 44;
—Comparison of the number that each amphitheatre would
contain, ib.;
—Seats remarkably well preserved, ib.;
—Dimensions of the three principal amphitheatres, Rome,
Verona, Capua, 45;
—and Capua, remains of aqueducts, 13.

Vertical joints, open, between brick walls of galleries, and stone walls
of corridors, 6.
Vespasian and Titus, Walls of, 6.
Vessels employed in naumachia usually rates, 47.
View of Jerusalem, century xvi., 29.
Views on coins, and in sculpture on tomb of Aterii, 20.
Vivaria outside walls of Rome, 15;
—one at Prætorian camp, 16;
—the other at Sessorium, ib.
Vopiscus mentions pegmata and 100 lions in amphitheatre, 49.

Wall, the outer, of three periods, Vespasian, Titus, and Alexander
Severus, 6.
Walls, original, of tufa, interfered with by later work, 7;
—of tufa in substructure older than time of Nero, 13;
—of front, and of the corridors in the superstructure, are of
travertine, ib.;
—of tufa, round edge of substructure for lifts, not for canals, 14;
—of tufa, probably of Scaurus, time of Sylla, 15;
—grooves in, for lifts and cages, 15, 35;
—of tufa, in parts supported by brick walls of Flavian Emperors,
17;
—part destroyed by being used as a stone-quarry, 18;
—north side only part perfect, ib.;
—weeded by the French in 1812, this repeated 1870, 31;
—upper, hastily built under Gordianus, 33;
—lower, of brick, belong to repairs after earthquakes in a.d. 442,
and 508, 37.
Water, shallow open channels for, remain, 33;
—reservoirs in principal gallery, ib.;
—two piscinæ or ——, under Cœlian, ib.
Wild beasts brought to Rome, b.c. 251, 3;

—number kept for shows, 25.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE I.
SUPERSTRUCTURE.
Exterior, from the Thermæ of Titus.

THE COLOSSEUM IN 1874.

EXTERIOR N.E. SIDE FROM THE THERMÆ OF TITUS

Description of Plate I.

SUPERSTRUCTURE.
Exterior, from the Thermæ of Titus.
This view shews the only part that is at all perfect of the magnificent
work of the Flavian Emperors, consisting of the grand front and the
splendid corridors, built around the brick theatre of Nero, with the galleries

for spectators, which are surrounded by these stone corridors. These are of
the best building stone to be had in Rome,—the travertine from the quarries
near Tibur, now Tivoli.
The front had evidently been left unfinished by Nero, as we find no
traces of any brick front according to the fashion of his time, when the
brickwork was the finest that the world has ever seen.
It will be observed that the lower part of the ground-floor is concealed in
the view by the bank of earth on which the modern road is carried, and the
parapet wall of that road. It will also be observed that each storey is
different; the lower storeys have different orders of architecture, but with
scarcely any difference of plan or of construction, whereas the upper storey
is quite different from the rest. There are no arches in it, but flat pilasters
instead of columns, small square windows, and a row of corbels projecting
boldly from the wall, and a prominent cornice over it. These corbels were
for the purpose of carrying the feet of the masts that supported the awning
over the heads of the spectators in the galleries, and these masts passed
through holes left for them in the cornice, as will be seen more plainly in
Plate XII.
This upper storey is more than a century later in date than the lower parts
of the building; it replaces a wooden gallery for the common people, which
had been made upon the top of the great corridors, which was too tempting
a place for the purpose to be lost, although this wooden gallery does not
appear to have formed part of the original design,—to judge from the
representations of the building on the coins, which are probably made from
the designs of the architects before the work was executed. There are six
designs extant on the coins, and no two of them are exactly alike, especially
for this upper storey[244].

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE II.
SUPERSTRUCTURE.
Views of Parts of the Building.

COLOSSEUM—VIEWS OF PARTS

A. FROM UPPER GALLERY—LOOKING DOWN

B. REMAINS OF RESERVOIR IN FIRST GALLERY

Description of Plate II.

SUPERSTRUCTURE.
Views of Parts of the Building.
A. The upper view is taken from the top gallery looking down, and
shewing the ruins of the lower brick galleries, with the windows of the
corridors. Behind the wall in which these windows are placed is seen part of
one of the corridors without its roof or vault, but with the steps of one of the
vomitoria, and at the back of that the arches can be seen of the outer
corridor; for it must be remembered that there was a double corridor all
round this enormous fabric. The object of this was to facilitate ingress and
egress from the rest of the building, and the galleries were divided into
many distinct parts, each with its own passages and steps, so that there
would be no more confusion or pressure in emptying this enormous
building than from the emptying of an ordinary room that would hold fifty
people. In the upper part of this view, on the right hand, is seen in the
distance the church of S. Stefano Rotondo and the trees on the Cœlian Hill.
B. The lower view is taken from the inner side of the chief gallery on the
first floor, looking outwards, through one of the arches of the corridor. In
this particular compartment was one of the reservoirs of water supplied by
the aqueducts. The evidence for this is seen on the right-hand side of the
picture, where the lower part of a specus or channel for the water remains,
with some of the peculiar cement used only for the aqueducts, against the
wall and lining the specus.
Half way along this brick wall is seen a part of one of the narrow piers of
travertine which go from the top to the bottom of the building, to carry the
upper gallery at that enormous height, as the engineers were afraid to trust
the soft tufa wall with the facing of brick. A little further on the right is seen
the opening between the brick wall of the gallery and the stone wall of the
corridor; the light is seen shining through the opening, which is here about
three inches wide, and there is no bonding anywhere between the brick wall
of the gallery and the stone wall of the corridor. Towards the south end of
the building on this level, in at least two instances, the stone piers have been
carried away for building materials, and the lower part of the brick wall,
through which it had been cut, stands just as well without it as with it. The
object of this tall stone pier was to carry the upper gallery only, not to
support the old walls of the lower galleries[245].

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE III.
SUPERSTRUCTURE AND SUBSTRUCTURE.

THE COLOSSEUM IN 1812

Description of Plate III.

SUPERSTRUCTURE AND SUBSTRUCTURE.
The Interior as it appeared in 1812, when partially excavated by order of
the French Government. This view, taken from an engraving of the period,
helps to explain what follows, but the excavations at that time were only
carried to the depth of ten feet, and the original pavement was found only
(in 1874) at the depth of twenty-one feet from the foot of the podium, which
is on the ordinary level of the soil. Consequently, we only have here visible

the surface, with the central passage and the two canals on each side of it,
and the side passage round the edge just under the podium. The square
openings for the lifts for men and dogs are seen on each side of the central
passage. The ruins of the brick galleries are also seen much as they remain
now.
The view is taken from above, at the north end. It is singular that the
engineers at that time did not see that they had excavated the tops of arches
of which the lower parts were still buried, yet the same thing is clearly seen
in the excellent set of drawings made for the French Government at the
time, and now preserved in the British Museum. In these all the details are
given with exact measurements, and yet they appear not to have seen that
they had excavated the tops of a series of arches and left the rest buried.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE IV.
SUBSTRUCTURES IN 1874.
Interior, at the South-east end. View in the Passages.

THE COLOSSEUM IN 1874.

INTERIOR S.E. END.—THE PASSAGES

Description of Plate IV.

THE COLOSSEUM IN 1874.
Substructure.
Interior, at the South-east end. View in the Passages.
In the centre of the view, at the foot, are seen the boards for the
wheelbarrows of the workmen, leaning against the top of the arch of the
great subterranean drain to carry off the water when it was let off with a
rush after the naval fights. Under the boards are remains of an ancient iron
grating, to prevent any object being carried off into the drain by the force of
the water. On each side of these boards are traces of the flood-gate, by
which the water could be stopped, or the rate of it regulated.
Beyond this, on each side, is a wide arch of stone parallel to the great
central passage. These arches open into two large and lofty vaulted
chambers of considerable length, passing under the galleries. In the
pavement of the floor in each of these is a line of seven sockets for pivots to
work in, some of which retain the bronze socket, in others it has been torn
out.
Between the two great round-headed arches is seen a square-topped
opening at the end of a long passage over the great drain. This was the
passage for the animals that were brought through it in their cages,
excepting the elephants, which were led into the large dens provided for
them, two on each side of the passage further on.
Above this was the state entrance from the south towards S. Clement’s
and the Lateran, and on each side are the ruins of the galleries as before.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE V.
INTERIOR, TOWARDS THE SOUTH-WEST,
With the Substructures in 1874.

THE COLOSSEUM IN 1874

INTERIOR S.W.—THE SUBSTRUCTURES

Description of Plate V.

INTERIOR, TOWARDS THE SOUTH-WEST,
With the Substructures in 1874.
Immediately to the right, and nearly in the centre of the picture, is seen
the earth not then excavated when this view was taken. In front of this, as
shewn to the right of the picture, is one of the ancient walls of tufa faced
with brick, which carries on its right-hand side one of the canals of water.
To the left of the view, close under the podium, is seen another wall of tufa,
but cut, and with vertical grooves clearly seen in it; these were for the lifts.
Behind this are the arches of the dens of the wild beasts, under the path in
front of the podium; then the podium itself, with square recesses in it,
usually said to have been for men to take refuge in, should the animals be
able to spring over the net-work in front; but this is not probable, when we
see the precautions taken: they were more likely for the athletes, or for the
attendants or guards under the state gallery. Behind this are the ruins of the
galleries and the windows of the corridors, as before.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE VI.
INTERIOR, AT THE SOUTH-EAST END.
With the early Walls of Tufa.

THE COLOSSEUM IN 1874.

INTERIOR S.E. END WITH THE EARLY WALLS

Description of Plate VI.

INTERIOR, AT THE SOUTH-EAST END.
With the early Walls of Tufa.
In this view the grooves in the walls are clearly seen on both sides of the
passage between them, and the arches of the dens behind the outer wall.
The lions, or other wild animals about that size, passed from the dens

through an opening in the wall into the cages provided for them in this
passage. The cages were placed upon lifts, and when the word was given by
the emperor, were all pulled up at once to the arena, or floor of boards, with
trap-doors in it all along over this passage. We are told by Herodian (as has
been shewn in the text, p. 26) that on one occasion a hundred lions leaped
on to the stage or arena at the same time, and appeared to the spectators in
the gallery to “leap out of the earth;” the sand with which the floor was
covered over would have that appearance when the trap-doors, and lifts, and
the tops of the cages along with them, were opened from below. In the
passage is a long series (one behind the place for each cage and lift) of
sockets seen in the pavement, apparently each for a capstan to wind the
twenty-one feet of cord upon, when the cage was pulled up to the top, and
the trap-doors opened.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE VII.
VIEW AT THE SOUTH-EAST END.

THE COLOSSEUM 1875.

VIEW OF SOUTH EAST END

Description of Plate VII.

VIEW AT THE SOUTH-EAST END.
This plate is from an excellent drawing of Signor Cicconetti, made
chiefly from the photographs, in order to explain them more clearly. The
photographs are evidence of historical facts, which no drawing alone can
be, because drawings are always liable to errors, accidentally or otherwise.
Unfortunately drawings are very often made to suit the idea either of the
artist who draws the object as he thinks “it must have been,” or to suit the
view of the person who orders the drawing. These drawings can be
compared with the photographs throughout, and make them more easy to
understand.
A. Wooden framework (?), cradle (?), or dry dock (?).
B, B. Marble slabs placed upright, to serve as struts to support the galleys
standing on the frame.
C, C. Walls of the central passage.
D. Line of one of the canals.
E, E. Ancient tufa walls, with the dens behind them.
F, F. Podium and state gallery.
G, G. Principal gallery.
H, H. Second gallery.
I. Top gallery, added after the fire.
K. Drain or cloaca.
L. Passage for animals.
M. State entrance and corridor.
N. Modern buttress.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE VIII.
PLAN OF THE SOUTHERN HALF, AT THE LOWEST LEVEL,
Shewing the Excavations in 1874 and 1875.

THE COLOSSEUM—PLAN AT THE LOWEST LEVEL IN 1875.

Description of Plate VIII.

PLAN OF THE SOUTH-EASTERN HALF, AT THE LOWEST LEVEL,
Shewing the Excavations in 1874 and 1875.

A, A. The frame, cradle, or dry dock, for the galleys to stand upon when
not wanted for use.
F, F. The podium.
L. The passage for animals.
T, T. Lofty vaulted chambers, with seven sockets in a line in each.
V. Subterranean side-passage, called of Commodus.
a. The dens for wild beasts.
b. The shaft for a man to descend and feed the animals.
c. The drain and flood-gate at the mouth of it.
e, e. Small brick chambers of the time of Nero.
All the sockets that are visible are shewn in the plan, whether in the
passages or in the chambers.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE IX.
ARCHES IN THE SUBSTRUCTURE.

COLOSSEUM.

Arch of the Second Century, in the Substructure.

Brick Arch of Nero, in the Substructure.

Description of Plate IX.

1. Arch of the Second Century in the Substructure.
In addition to the two ancient walls of tufa parallel to each other round
the edge, with the grooves for lifts in them, there are some remains here and
there of a third wall of tufa within the other two, and this appears to have
been much shaken by an earthquake. In this, little is perfect, but in the parts
that remain there are arches, and these arches are supported by brick walls
of different periods. The upper arch in this plate is supported by a brick wall
of the second century, as is seen by the thickness and quality of the bricks
and of the mortar between them. This is shewn by the six-foot rule, each
foot painted alternately black and white, by which the bricks can be counted
the same as on the spot.
2. Arch of the First Century in the same.
This small arch is in the same wall, but in this case the brick arch that
supports the tufa is clearly of the time of Nero[246]. The long, thin bricks of
his time, nine or ten to the foot, are well known to all Roman archæologists,
and are so marked that there is no mistaking them: they are thus good
evidence that the amphitheatre of Nero, mentioned by Pliny, was on the
same site as the Flavian Amphitheatre. A segment of another arch of the
same period abuts against it, to support it like a flying buttress, and is seen
in the plate.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE X.
SUBSTRUCTURES.
Remains of two Canals, one supported on Timbers, the other on Brick
Arches.

COLOSSEUM—SUBSTRUCTURES

A. REMAINS OF A CANAL SUPPORTED ON TIMBERS

B. —— OF ANOTHER CANAL SUPPORTED ON ARCHES

Description of Plate X.

SUBSTRUCTURES.
Remains of two Canals, one supported on Timbers, the other on Brick
Arches.
These two canals, parallel to each other, to be supplied with water by the
aqueducts, and used for the naumachia or naval fights, are among the most
curious discoveries brought to light in the recent explorations. They shew
how completely the whole of the great public exhibitions of the ancient
Romans were theatrical displays, with all the usual tricks of a theatre, just
the same as in a Christmas pantomime.
This shews also that stagna do not necessarily mean ponds; any reservoir
of water is a stagnum, whether supplied by a natural spring or by an
aqueduct. Neither of these now remaining are of the time of Nero, they
belong to later repairs or alterations; but the great thickness and strength of
the wall of so little height could only have been made to support the weight
of water. This is especially evident in the upper view, where the wall is
nearly as thick as it is high. In this passage the canal, lined with lead, was
supported on massive wooden beams; in the lower view the canal in that
passage, which is wider than the other, was supported on the brick arches of
the second or third century, shewn in this view.
It is even probable that the stagna of Nero were in the same place as
these, as a good deal of brickwork of his time is on a higher level than these
walls, and the two sheets of water, one on either side of the great central
passage, would have been magnificent sheets of water, about three hundred
feet long and fifty or sixty or more wide in the central part, though narrow
at both ends. It is still possible, though not probable, that the stagna of Nero
were on a lower level, cut through a bed of tufa, which is not generally very
thick, to the clay of the Tiber valley beneath. This would account for the
central passages on the site of the stagna having suffered so much from the
earthquakes, while the great corridors of the Flavian Emperors, standing on
the bed of tufa, have not suffered at all.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XI.
TWO CAPITALS.
A. From the Upper Storey.
B. From the lower one, or the Podium.

COLOSSEUM—TWO CAPITALS

A. OF UPPER STOREY—B. OF LOWER

Description of Plate XI.

TWO CAPITALS.
A. From the Upper Storey.
B. From the lower one, or the Podium.
It will be seen at once that this capital (A) is intentionally left in a rude
state to be seen from a distance[247], the upper gallery being nearly a
hundred feet above the level of the arena. A great number of these capitals,
and of the white marble columns to which they belonged, have rolled down
from the top of the building to the bottom in an earthquake, crushing all the
seats of the galleries in their fall; as many as forty of them have been found,
and a still larger number of broken columns, which have evidently fallen
with great force; some of them have been found passing quite through the
walls in the substructure, and can be still seen with one end on one side of
the wall, and the other on the opposite side.
B. is a highly-finished capital of the Corinthian order: of this kind only
three or four have been found, but much more perfect than most of the
others. They were probably on the short columns of the podium by the side
of the state entrance.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XII.
RESTORATION OF ONE COMPARTMENT OF THE
SUPERSTRUCTURE.

COLOSSEUM—SUPERSTRUCTURES

RESTORATION OF ONE COMPARTMENT

Description of Plate XII.

RESTORATION OF ONE COMPARTMENT OF THE
SUPERSTRUCTURE.
Shewing the colonnade of the third century, on the upper storey, after the
burning of the wooden upper floor; to this colonnade the capitals and
columns that have fallen down in an earthquake have belonged,—shewing
also the arrangement of the seats, the corridors, and the vomitoria.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XIII.
SECTION AND DETAILS OF ONE COMPARTMENT,
Including the Substructures below, and the Awning above.

THE COLOSSEUM 1875. SECTION AND DETAILS

Description of Plate XIII.

SECTION AND DETAILS OF ONE COMPARTMENT,
Including the Substructures below, and the Awning above.
A, A, A. The wooden framework.
C. Wall of central passage.
D. Wall of central passage.
E, E, E. The ancient tufa walls.

F. The podium.
G. First gallery.
H. Second gallery.
I, I. Upper galleries.
K. The drain or cloaca.
L. The passage for animals.
M, M. The state corridors.
O, O, O, O. Corbels at the foot of the masts.
P, P. The dens, and vertical shafts for a man to descend to feed the
animals.
R, R, R, R. Corbels to stiffen the masts, and to carry the boards or planks
of the arena.
S. Passage from the den to the cage.
a. Series of lattice-work to protect the lower gallery from the wild beasts.
b, b, b. Masts to carry the awning.
e. Place for the counter-weight in the tufa wall.
f, f. Sockets in the pavement of the passage, for the pivots of the capstans
to work in.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XIV.
SECTION OF ONE BAY OR COMPARTMENT, AND PLANS OF THE
SIX STOREYS.

COLOSSEUM

PLANS OF THE SIX STOREYS

SECTION OF ONE BAY

Description of Plate XIV.

SECTION OF ONE BAY OR COMPARTMENT, AND PLANS OF THE
SIX STOREYS.
a. Ground-storey and corridor.
b. First storey and upper corridor.
c. Second storey and vomitoria.
d. Third storey, passage, and vomitoria.
e. Fourth storey with vomitoria.
f. Upper storey.
It has not been generally observed that there are so many floors or storeys
in the Colosseum. Two of these are only subdivisions for the vomitoria,
still, to give a complete idea of the whole building, it was necessary to have
them.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XV.
SUBSTRUCTURES,
With probable Restorations of the Stagna, the Arena, &c.
Two Views.

COLOSSEUM—SUBSTRUCTURES

h.h. STAGNUM—l.l. ARENA

BRICK ARCHES OF NERO SUPPORTING THE TUFA WALL AND ARCH

Description of Plate XV.

SUBSTRUCTURES,
With probable Restorations of the Stagna, the Arena, &c.
Two Views.

A. Stagnum and Arena.
h, h. Stagnum.
i, i. Space between two canals, flooded at the time of the shows.
g, g, g. Passage under the canals.
A. The wooden framework.
F, F, F. Narrow platform and passage in front of the podium, and one of
the dens.
I, I, I. The trap-doors for the lifts.
k, k. Smaller trap-door for lifts, (for dogs?).
B. Brick Arches of Nero supporting the Tufa Wall and Arch.
n, n, n. Level of the original pavement.
o. Passage.
p. Ancient tufa wall.
q. Brick arch of Nero, under an arch of tufa.
r. Segment of another brick arch of Nero, abutting against the centre of
the tufa arch to support it, like an arch-buttress or flying-buttress of the
Middle Ages. (For the Phototype of this arch, see Plate IX.)
s. Socket for a pivot to work in.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XVI.
SUBSTRUCTURES EXCAVATED IN 1875,
With probable Restorations of the Lifts or Pegmata.

THE COLOSSEUM—SUBSTRUCTURES IN 1875

WITH PROBABLE RESTORATION OF THE LIFTS OR PEGMATA

Description of Plate XVI.

SUBSTRUCTURES EXCAVATED IN 1875,
With probable Restorations of the Lifts or Pegmata.
The object of this plate is to make more clear to the eye what has
previously been explained. An animal is represented first as coming out of
the den behind the tufa wall into the cage, with the empty socket behind, as

they actually remain, and a capstan with the cord is placed in the socket on
the opposite side of the cage. The second is half-way up, to shew the action
of the cords, which seems the only mode of explaining the things found. In
the third the animal is leaping out on to the stage or arena, as described by
Herodian. In front of the podium a piece of trellice-work is shewn in its
place, taken from a graffito found on the spot.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XVII.
VIEW IN THE SUBSTRUCTURES.

VIEW IN THE SUBSTRUCTURES.

Description of Plate XVII.

VIEW IN THE SUBSTRUCTURES.

E. The Consoles, for placing the boards of the arena upon when not in
use.
F. F. The Podium.
X. The level of the arena.
a a a. Doorways to small chambers, to descend to feed the wild beasts in
their dens.
b b b. The dens for the wild beasts.
c c c. Blocks of travertine to support the foot of the masts.
d d d. Aperture at the foot of the small chambers, for feeding the wild
beasts; these are ten feet from the ground.
e e e. Small water-course in front of the dens.
f. Socket for the pivot of a capstan.
g g. Original pavement of bricks, arranged herring-bone fashion.
h h. Sites of piers of tufa, (removed in the drawing to shew what is
behind them).

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XVIII.
VIEW IN THE SUBSTRUCTURES.

VIEW IN THE SUBSTRUCTURES.

Description of Plate XVIII.

VIEW IN THE SUBSTRUCTURES[248].
E. The consoles, for placing the planks of the arena upon.

E*. Consoles, now enclosed in the older tufa wall, in which holes are cut
to insert them.
F. The podium.
X. Level of the arena.
a. Doorways of the small descending passages, for feeding the wild
beasts in the dens below.
b. The dens for the wild beasts.
c. Blocks of travertine, to support the lower end of the masts for the
awning.
d. Recesses for lamps.
e. Small drain for water, which runs round the building in front of the
dens.
f. Sockets for the pivots of the capstans.
g. Brick pavement of the second century, in herring-bone pattern.
h. Line of the profiles of ancient tufa piers of arches. (These are
represented by dotted lines only, as if transparent, to shew the consoles of
the Flavian Emperor inserted in them.)
i*. Line of second arcade of tufa.
A. Plan.
B. Section.
The same letters of reference are used in the plan of this section.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XIX.
VIEW IN PART OF THE SUBSTRUCTURE, WITH PLAN AND
SECTION.

VIEW IN THE SUBSTRUCTURES.

Description of Plate XIX.

VIEW IN PART OF THE SUBSTRUCTURE, WITH PLAN AND
SECTION.
E E. The consoles.
F F. The podium.
a. Entrance to the descent to feed the animals.
b. One of the dens.
c. The stream of water in front of the dens.

f f. The sockets for pivots for the capstan to work in.
g g. The original pavement.
h h. Piers of tufa in front of the dens.
k k. Long and lofty chamber under the gallery, in which are seven sockets
for the pivots of the capstan to work in.
y. Mouth of the great drain, with the iron grating.
z. Site of the sluice-gate, and groove for it to work in, as a portcullis.
A. The Plan of this part.
B. The Section of it.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XX.
PORTION OF THE SUPERSTRUCTURE IN THE PRINCIPAL
GALLERY.

PORTION OF THE SUPERSTRUCTURE IN THE PRINCIPAL GALLERY.

Description of Plate XX.

PORTION OF THE SUPERSTRUCTURE IN THE PRINCIPAL
GALLERY.

A A. Walls of brick, dividing the different bays of the gallery.
B B. Arches of construction, to make the brick facing adhere better to the
mass of tufa concrete behind it.
C C. A void space from which a pier of travertine has been carried away
for building purposes[249].
D D. The great pier of travertine on one of the arches of the corridor of
the Flavian Emperors.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XXI.
VIEW IN THE UPPER PART.
Details.

COLOSSEUM

DETAILS IN UPPER PART

Description of Plate XXI.

VIEW IN THE UPPER PART.
Details.
A A. Piers of the great corridor.
a a. Aperture from which a pier of travertine has been removed for
building material, by the Barberini (?).
b b. Wall of brick, with arch of construction standing equally well
without the support of the travertine pier.
c c. Wall of tufa, of a lower storey.
d d. Vault of a third storey, below.
e e. Remains of the vault of the stairs to the upper storey.
f f. Floor of the second corridor.
g g. Floor of the principal gallery.
The object of this plate is to make it still more clear that the brick arches
of construction did not really rest on the piers of travertine, although at first
sight they appear to do so. The Roman bricks of the first century are two
feet square and one inch thick, but in these arches they are cut down from
two feet to three or four inches at the impost, or springing of each arch, just
where the greatest strength would have been required. They have evidently
been cut through to admit the stone piers, which were required to carry the
upper gallery, when that was built of stone instead of wood.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XXII.
THE GRAFFITI,
Or Scratchings on Marble by the Workmen of the Second Century.

COLOSSEUM—GRAFFITI

A. AND B. ATHLETES

C. WILD-BEAST HUNT

Description of Plate XXII.

THE GRAFFITI,
Or Scratchings on Marble by the Workmen of the Second Century.
A. An athlete, commonly called a wrestler; but the athletes were more
than merely wrestlers, they were often men of high rank, and fought with
weapons also, sometimes with fatal results. This is a prize-man with his
palm-branch in his hand.

B. Athletes.—On this fragment of marble the drawing is very indistinct,
but there appear to be two figures only, with arms in their hands, and their
heads bare, their helmets being on a table behind them. Inscriptions are
scratched upon these, which are rather difficult to make out, but seem to be
—on one, ivtor (?); on another, limeni nikæ; on a third, ovim. The rest are
too indistinct to be read.
C. A hunt of wild beasts.—This is extremely curious, but not very distinct
in the original, and therefore not in the photo-engraving, which admits of no
restorations. There are five animals all of the same kind, but what animal
they are intended for it is not easy to say; they have claws, the heads look
like wolves’. Each has a broken cord hanging to its neck. There are two
huntsmen with spears in their hands running after them; they are clothed in
tight dresses, with bands round the waist and the knees, and with buskins on
their feet.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XXIII.
GRAFFITO OF THE PODIUM, &c.

COLOSSEUM. GRAFFITO OF THE PODIUM etc.

Description of Plate XXIII.

GRAFFITO OF THE PODIUM, &c.
This is one of the four graffiti found during the excavations in 1874. It
represents the front of the podium, with the framework for the netting to
protect the spectators in the lower gallery, or state-gallery, from the wild
beasts, if they should attempt to spring up into it when hunted on the stage
or arena below, at the foot of the podium. This fragment shews the lower
portion of the screen, which is recorded to have had a bar at the top that

turned round, so that if any animal tried to cling to it he would fall
backwards on the arena. This was level with the foot of the podium, and
twenty-one feet above the pavement at the bottom, on the level of the dens
for the wild beasts, and the floor of the passage between the two walls of
tufa, with vertical grooves in them for the lifts, with the cages upon them.
Behind the place for each cage in the paved floor of the passage, is a socket
for a pivot to work in, at the foot of a capstan or post, to wind the twenty-
one feet of cord upon, with the lift, when pulled up to the trap-door of the
arena. This pavement is represented as resting on the top of a series of
arches with bars across; these are probably intended for the doors of the
wild beasts below, but rudely represented, and with some sort of
performance going on in front.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XXIV.
REPRESENTATIONS ON COINS OR MEDALS.

REPRESENTATIONS ON COINS OR MEDALS.

Description of Plate XXIV.

REPRESENTATIONS ON COINS OR MEDALS[250].

1. Titus sitting upon a trophy of arms (a.u.c. 823, a.d. 80).
On the obverse the legend is, tib. vesp. avg. p.m. tr. p.p. cos. viii. s.c.
On the reverse is the amphitheatre, with the Meta Sudans to the left, and
on the right a double colonnade, one over the other, for the aqueduct (?).

2. Head of Alexander Severus, a.d. 224.
Legend:—imp. cæsar divi sev. alexander.
Reverse:—The Amphitheatre, with the Meta Sudans on the right, and two
figures on the left, with the legend of the dates of his tribuneship and
consulate.

3. Obverse:—Head of Alexander Severus (a.u.c. 937, a.d. 224).
Legend:—imp. caes. divi. sev. alexander.
Reverse:—Amphitheatre, with a group of figures to the left, and a
building of two storeys to the right[251].
Legend:—Dates of tribuneship and consulate.

4. Obverse:—Head of Gordianus III. (a.u.c. 997, a.d. 244).
Legend:—imp. gordianvs pivs felix avg.
Reverse:—Amphitheatre, with a colossus on the left, and a small
building on the right[252].
Legend:—munificentia gordiani. avg.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XXV.
DIAGRAMS OF COINS OR MEDALS.

COLOSSEUM—REPRESENTATIONS ON COINS

Description of Plate XXV.

DIAGRAMS OF COINS OR MEDALS.

1. Obverse:—Head of Titus.
Legend:—vesp. gens. t. caes. imp.
Reverse:—Amphitheatre, with Meta Sudans to the left, and double
colonnade to the right. (Same as No. 1, Plate XXIV.)

2. Obverse:—Head of Domitian, with legend, imp. caes. domit. avg.
germ. p.m. trp. xiiii.

Reverse:—Amphitheatre, with Meta Sudans and colonnade, probably of
aqueduct from the Cœlian.

3. Obverse:—Head of Alexander Severus (same as No. 3, Plate XXIV.),
with legend, imp. caes. m. avr. sev. alexander. avg.
Reverse:—Amphitheatre, with group of figures on the left, and a small
building on the right (castellum aquæ?).

4. Obverse:—Head of Gordianus III.
Legend:—imp. gordianvs. pivs. felix. avg.
Reverse:—Amphitheatre, with a colossus and a building.
Legend:—mvnificentia gordiani. avg.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XXVI.
A ROMAN GALLEY ON A CRADLE FOR LAUNCHING.

COLOSSEUM—A ROMAN GALLEY ON A CRADLE FOR LAUNCHING

Description of Plate XXVI.

A ROMAN GALLEY ON A CRADLE FOR LAUNCHING.
This is drawn from a restoration made by M. Viollet-le-Duc for Napoleon
III. at Compiègne. It illustrates in a very remarkable manner the cradle
found in the Colosseum, with the struts on each side. As this cradle was
made from the best authorities long before the finding of the cradle in the
Colosseum, it is particularly valuable for the purpose of comparison.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XXVII.
AMPHITHEATRE OR COLOSSEUM AT CAPUA.

AMPHITHEATRE OR COLOSSEUM AT CAPUA

AMPHITHEATRE WITH AWNING FROM A FRESCO AT POMPEII

Description of Plate XXVII.

AMPHITHEATRE OR COLOSSEUM AT CAPUA.

This Plate is a reproduction of Photograph with no attempt at restoration.
The resemblance between this and the Colosseum in Rome is so
remarkable, that there can be no doubt one is a copy from the other. In this
amphitheatre the two canals for water, on each side of the great central
passage, and the curved passage round the outer edge, are distinctly visible.
At Capua, the aqueduct for the water, and the drain to carry it off, remain.
Amphitheatre at Pompeii, from a Fresco Painting.
The lower view is from a fresco at Pompeii. It shews the awning is drawn
off behind. There is a front built out distinct from the oval building, with
which it is connected by a curved wall at each end, and on which is a
passage with persons upon it; there are two grand flights of steps leading up
to the top, and persons going up them. These steps are carried on arches,
increasing in height as they get nearer the top. The front passage is also
carried on tall arches. All these arrangements for the entrance and exit seem
to be a bad substitute for the vomitoria of the Roman Colosseum.
There appears to be another place of amusement of some kind by the side
of the amphitheatre. A square space enclosed by a high wall, with two
arches on one side or doorways (?), probably a school for gladiators, with
an impluvium in the middle. There is an inscription on the wall, of which all
that is legible is divcret ...; there is also in the front of the picture a tent
with persons under it, and two small square or oblong huts, evidently of
wood, the planks being shewn in one with a door; this was probably a wine-
shop.
There are a number of figures in active motion in all parts of the picture,
many of them evidently fighting, and it represents a skirmish between the
Nucerini and the Pompeiani; the inhabitants of a neighbouring town, called
Nuceria or Nocera, having made a sudden inroad on Pompeii, the
Pompeians are flying in all directions, closely followed, some dying and
some dead. These hand-to-hand fights are seen on the arena, in the corridors
or ambulatories, on the walls of the town, and on the esplanade round the
building, which is planted with trees for shade[253].

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XXVIII.
AMPHITHEATRE AT CAPUA.

AMPHITHEATRE AT CAPUA—VIEW AND DETAILS

Description of Plate XXVIII.

AMPHITHEATRE AT CAPUA.
A. Perspective view, looking down upon it, with a restoration of the
canals for water.
d. The pavement.
g g. Walls to support the canals of water.
h h. Dens for the wild beasts.

i. Socket for a pivot.
k k. Canals for water.
B. One of the chambers in the substructure of the time of Hadrian, with
the aqueduct, l, and an opening made in the vault.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XXIX.
AMPHITHEATRE AT CAPUA.
Details.

AMPHITHEATRE AT CAPUA—DETAILS

A. PORTION OF EXTERIOR

B. LONGITUDINAL SECTION

C. PORTION OF ARCADES AND DENS

D. PLAN OF THE SAME

Description of Plate XXIX.

AMPHITHEATRE AT CAPUA.
Details.

o o o. Portion of the exterior,—all that remains of it being two arches of
the arcade, with pilasters between them, and one pilaster of the upper
storey.
A—B. Transverse section of the remains.
C. Four arches of the inner arcade.
h h h. Dens for wild beasts.
P P P. Corbels, or consoles, as in the Colosseum, Plate XVII.
l l. Aqueduct coming from the chambers of the time of Hadrian. (See the
Plan.)
D. Plan of this portion of the building.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XXX.
AMPHITHEATRE AT CAPUA.
Plan of the Substructures, with the Superstructures in dotted lines.

AMPHITHEATRE AT CAPUA

PLAN WITH THE SUBSTRUCTIONS

Description of Plate XXX.

AMPHITHEATRE AT CAPUA.
Plan of the Substructures, with the Superstructures in dotted lines.
a. North entrance.
b b b. Central passage.
c c c. Eastern passage.
d. Small chamber of the time of Hadrian.
e e. Western passage.
f f. The galleries.
g g. Substructures with water.
h h h. Dens for the wild beasts.
i i. Sockets for pivots, as in the Colosseum.
k k k. Canals for water.
l l. The aqueduct.
m m. The drain.
n n. Stairs.
o o. Superstructure. The only remains of the exterior façade.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XXXI.
AMPHITHEATRE AT VERONA.

AMPHITHEATRE OF VERONA

A. VIEW OF EXTERIOR WITH THE ARCADES

B. VIEW IN INTERIOR WITH SEATS

Description of Plate XXXI.

AMPHITHEATRE AT VERONA.
(From Photograph.)
A. Exterior, with the double arcade,—and remains of the exterior front.
B. Interior, with the marble seats. These are the most perfect that remain
anywhere, and they shew what the Colosseum must have been when
perfect.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XXXII.
THE AMPHITHEATRE AT POZZUOLI, NEAR NAPLES.

AMPHITHEATRE AT POZZUOLI, NEAR NAPLES.

Description of Plate XXXII.

THE AMPHITHEATRE AT POZZUOLI, NEAR NAPLES.
In this instance the arena has fortunately been preserved, with the trap-
doors in it; those round the edge being for wild beasts, the others for men
and dogs, and the central passage as in the Colosseum. We see that the
central passage has been boarded over also. The arrangement of the seats in

the galleries is also the same, and the tufa wall behind probably indicates
that there was an awning over the galleries in the same manner. This
confirms one part of the history of the Colosseum, and the Amphitheatre at
Capua confirms another part, the canals for the naumachia or naval battles,
although these were evidently very different from what had formerly been
supposed. At each end of the part that is uncovered of the central passage it
will be observed that there is a short post, looking very much like a capstan
for winding a cord upon, as in Rome, although in this instance they are
square and on the surface, and not on the pavement below. Each of the
openings to the trap-doors has a groove round it, for a cover to fit into;
possibly this was made water-tight, so that the whole surface could be
flooded. The central passage has the same sort of groove sunk round it. The
same arrangement may have been used in the Colosseum, but in that case
there is the difficulty of the interval between the podium of the lower
gallery and the floor of the arena, which does not appear to have existed at
Pozzuoli. This would have made it impracticable to flood the whole surface
at Rome, which might have been done at Pozzuoli.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XXXIII.
AMPHITHEATRE AT POZZUOLI.
Plan.

AMPHITHEATRE AT POZZUOLI—PLAN

Description of Plate XXXIII.

AMPHITHEATRE AT POZZUOLI.
Plan.
A—B. Line of the Longitudinal Section.
C—D. Line of the view of the exterior.
a. Plan of the substructions.
b. With the superstructure in dotted lines.

c. Principal entrance from the west.
d. Eastern entrance.
e. Central passage.
f. Transverse Section.
g. Aqueduct.
h. Dens for animals.
i i. Part of the substructure not yet excavated.
k. Chambers commonly called “the Prison of Nero.”
l l. Drain leading to the sea.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XXXIV.
AMPHITHEATRE AT POZZUOLI.

AMPHITHEATRE AT POZZUOLI

Description of Plate XXXIV.

AMPHITHEATRE AT POZZUOLI.
A—B. Longitudinal Section.
c. Principal entrance from the west.
d. Eastern entrance.
These two entrances are on sloping ground, descending to the central
passage, e e e.
e. The drain to the sea.

C—D. View of the Exterior, from the principal entrance on the western
side.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XXXV.
AMPHITHEATRE AT POZZUOLI.

AMPHITHEATRE AT POZZUOLI—DETAILS

Description of Plate XXXV.

AMPHITHEATRE AT POZZUOLI.
E. View in the principal corridor, with the receptacles to collect the water,
m m m.
F. View in a subterranean corridor under the arena, shewing remains of
the decorations thrown down by the hand of men, through the aperture, n.
It is here impossible that they could have fallen down in an earthquake,
as was the case in the Colosseum. A garden was made here upon the arena,

and these decorations were removed from the surface, as interfering with
the cultivation of the garden, and thrown down into the substructures, and
then arranged under the vault as we see them.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XXXVI.
PLAN OF THE GREAT DRAIN.

COLOSSEUM—PLAN OF THE GREAT DRAIN

Description of Plate XXXVI.

PLAN OF THE GREAT DRAIN.
A. The Colosseum.
B. Part of the Cœlian Hill, on which the Claudium stood.
C. Part of the Palatine Hill.
a. Summa Sacra Via.

a*. Clivus Triumphalis.
b. Meta Sudans.
c. Arch of Constantine.
d d. Passage of Commodus.
e. Site on which the steam-engine was placed in 1874-5, to pump out the
water coming from this point.
f. Piscina of the time of Nero.
g. Castellum Aquæ, or reservoir of Alexander Severus.
g*. Aqueduct of the third century.
h h. Exhedra of the Ludus Magnus.
i i i. Great Drain of the Colosseum, to convey the water to the Tiber.
k. The exact spot where the water runs down from the Cœlian into the
Colosseum, called a natural spring, but not having the usual bubbling
character of a spring.
l. Via di S. Giovanni in Laterano.
m. Via Cœlimontana.
n n n. Orto Botanico. Waste ground at the foot of the Cœlian Hill, planted
with trees and shrubs, called the Botanical Garden, but not used as such.
o o. Via del Arco di Constantino. The road between the Cœlian and the
Palatine Hill.
p. Podium of the colossal statue of Gordianus, 50 ft. high.

FOOTNOTES
[1] See Plate XIII.
[2] Ibid. XVII., XVIII.
[3] See Plates V., VI.
[4] See Plate XVI.
[5] Ibid. XXII.
[6] Ibid. XXIII.
[7] Ibid. XXIV., XXV.
[8] Ibid. X.
[9] Ibid. IX., XV.
[10] See Plate IV.
[11] Ibid. XV.
[12] Ibid. I., II.
[13] See Plate XII.
[14] Ibid. XI.
[15] Ibid. XX., XXI.
[16] Ibid. XIV.
[17] Ibid. VII., VIII., XXVI.
[18] Ibid. XIX.
[19] Ibid. XXXVI.
[20] See Plates XXVII., XXVIII., XXIX., XXX., XXXI.
[21] Ibid. XXXII., XXXIII., XXXIV., XXXV.
[22] See the Part of this work on the Forum Romanum and the Via Sacra for
evidence of this.
[23] “Fecit et nova opera ... item amphitheatrum urbe media, ut destinasse
compererat Augustum.” (Suetonius, Vespasianus, c. 9.)
[24] Plinii Nat. Hist., lib. xxxvi. c. 24, s. 8.
[25] Dionis Hist., lib. xliii. c. 25.
[26] “Non patiemur duos Caios, vel duos Nerones, ne hac quidem gloria famæ
frui: docebimusque etiam insaniam eorum victam privatis operibus M. Scauri,
cujus nescio an ædilitas maxime prostraverit mores civiles, majusque sit Sullæ
malum, tanta privigni potentia, quam proscriptio tot millium. Hic fecit in
ædilitate sua opus maximum omnium, quæ unquam fuere humana manu facta,
non temporaria mora, verum etiam æternitatis destinatione. Theatrum hoc fuit.

Scena ei triplex in altitudinem, ccclx columnarum, in ea civitate, quæ sex
Hymettias non tulerat sine probro civis amplissimi. Ima pars scenæ e marmore
fuit: media e vitro, inaudito etiam postea genere luxuriæ: summa, e tabulis
inauratis.” (Plinii Nat. Hist., lib. xxxvi. 24. 7.)
[27] The meaning of this appears to be that the upper part was temporary, and
was removed shortly afterwards, as is related in another place; but the
substructures were permanent, or eternal.
[28] Dionis Hist. Rom., lib. xxxvii. c. 58.
[29] Justi Lipsii de Amphitheatro liber, 1684; et apud Grævii Thesaurus Ant.
Rom., Lugd. Bat. 1699, folio, vol. ix.
[30] “Alter in Amphitheatrali cavea cum adfuturus spectaculis introiret.”
(Ammiani Marcellini, lib. xxix. 1, Valentinianus, &c., a.d. 371.)
[31]

“Quid pulvis Caveæ semper funebris et illa
Amphitheatralis spectacula tristia pompæ.”

(Prudentius contra Symmachum, lib. i. l. 384-5.)

[32]

“... stat cardine aperto
Infelix Cavea et clausis circum undique portis
Hoc licuisse nefas pavidi timuere Leones.”

(Statii Silvæ, lib. ii. 5; Leo Mansuetus imp., l. xi.)

[33] Claudianus de laudibus Stilicho, lib. iii.
[34] Lipsius has collected a host of extracts from the classical authors
respecting this great amphitheatre, and the arrangement and amusements in it;
but as the substance of these is given in the usual classical dictionaries,
especially Dr. Smith’s, and they do not affect the history of the building, it is not
necessary to repeat them here.
[35] Polybii Hist., i. 84.
[36] Cassiodori Variar., lib. v. epist. 42.
[37] Livii Hist., xxxix. 22.
[38] Ibid., xliv. 18.
[39] Sig. Fabio Gori has collected all these passages, and given an Italian
translation of them in his work entitled Le memorie storiche, i giuochi e gli scavi
dell’ anfiteatro Flavio. Roma, 1874.
[40] Suetonii Julius Cæsar, cap. 39.
[41] That is, chariots on two wheels and others on four wheels.
[42] “In minore Codeta, defosso lacu.”
[43] Vessels with two, or three, or four rows of oars.

[44] See Plate IX.
[45] Every square yard of this part of Rome has been trenched in the search
for statues in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and records of these
numerous excavations are carefully preserved in the Miscellanea of Fea. Had
there been any such building as would be required for this purpose anywhere
near his palace, it must have come to light, and nothing of the kind has been
found.
[46] See Plate II.
[47] The basin of Nero was possibly cut through the layer of tufa, which
underlies the whole soil of Rome, down to the clay under it. In some excavations
made under my direction in a cave under the Aventine, near the Marmorata,
which was the mouth of the Aqua Appia, a level bed of white clay was found
under the tufa rock of which the Aventine Hill consists; this would account for
the walls in the central part built of concrete and brick, on this clay foundation,
having been frequently damaged by earthquakes, while the great stone arcades,
being built upon the tufa rock, did not suffer from the shocks. Clay is always a
bad foundation to build upon, and there are always settlements in buildings that
rest upon it. The objection to this theory is, that the surface of the water would
be twenty-one feet below the arena and the foot of the podium.
[48] See Plate IX.
[49] In the ancient catalogue of the Emperors and their works, known as
“Catalogus Viennensis Imp. Rom. apud Eccard.,” under Vespasian, it is stated
that he dedicated the first three steps of the amphitheatre, implying that three
were already finished even in his time.
[a.d. 70.] “Hic prior tribus gradibus amphitheatrum dedicavit;”
That Titus added two more.
[a.d. 81.] “Hic amphitheatrum a tribus gradibus patris sui dura adjecit.”
And further, that Domitian completed the building up to the clypea, that is, the
top cornice at that time, when the upper storey was of wood.
[a.d. 92-96.] “Domitianus Imp. ... Amphitheatrum usque ad clypea.”
[50] See Plates V., VI., XV., XVI.
[51] Photos., Nos. 3136, 3137.
[52] Photos., No. 3204.
[53] This platform was, perhaps, constructed of a great number of timbers
fastened together. Lucan has described such a platform with a tower on it.
(Pharsal., lib. iv. 420, sqq.)
[54] Dionis Hist., lib. lxii. cap. 15.
[55] Ibid., lib. lxi. Nero, vi. c. 9 and 17.
[56] Ibid., lib. lxvi. c. 25.
[57] Ibid., lib. lxii. Nero, iii. c. 15, and 20, 22.
[58] “Spectacula magnifica assidue et sumptuosa edidit, non in amphitheatro
modo, rerum et in circo ... ac in amphitheatro, navale quoque.” (Suetonii

Domitianus, c. 4.)
[59] Dionis Hist., lib. lxii. c. 18.
[60]

“Omnis Cæsareo cedat labor Amphitheatro:
Unum pro cunctis fama loquatur opus....”

(Martialis, De Spectaculis, Epigr. 1.)

“Hic, ubi conspicui venerabilis Amphitheatri
Erigitur moles, stagna Neronis erant.”

(Ibid., Epigr. 2.)

[61] Taciti Ann., xv. 42.
[62] Ibid., lib. xiv. c. 15.
[63] Ibid., c. 31.
[64] “... lacu in ipso navale prælium adornatur, ut quondam Augustus, structo
cis Tiberim stagno; sed levibus navigiis et minori copiâ ediderat.” (Taciti Annal.,
xii. 56.)
[65] “Igitur in stagno Agrippæ (Tigellinus) fabricatus est ratem, cui
superpositum convivium aliarum tractu navium moveretur ... volucres et feras
diversis e terris, et animalia maris Oceano abusque petiverat.” (Taciti Annal., lib.
xv. c. 37.)
[66] Taciti Ann., lib. xv. c. 42.
[67] Ibid., lib. xiv. c. 15.
[68] See p. 5.
[69] Santi-Bartoli (in a paper printed in the Miscellanea, by Fea, vol. i. p.
ccxxiii.) states that in his time a quantity of leaden water-pipes, which carried
water from the Thermæ of Titus to the Colosseum, were found in an orchard
north of the Colosseum.
[70] Suetonii Nero, c. 12.
[71] This dedication is referred to by Eutropius thus,—
“Hic [Titus] amphitheatrum Romæ ædificavit, et in dedicatione ejus quinque
millia ferarum occidit.” (Eutropius, lib. vii. c. 14. See also Cassiodorus, Variar. l.
v. op. 42. Opera omnia, ed. 1679, fol. vol. i. p. 94, c. 2.)
The account by Suetonius, writing some eighty or ninety years previously, is
very clear:—
“Amphitheatro dedicato, thermisque juxta celeriter exstructis, munus edidit
apparatissimum largissimumque. Dedit et navale prœlium in veteri naumachia:
ibidem et gladiatores: atque uno die quinque millia omne genus ferarum.”
(Suetonius Titus, c. 7.)
These old naumachia were the same as the stagnum navale, the old place for
such amusements on the spot. They have been supposed to be the Naumachia of

Augustus in the Trastevere, but without authority; and the mention of the
gladiators in connection with them implies that it was at the same place.
[72] See Photos., Nos. 3268, 3269, and the drawing of this restored in Plates
VII. and XV.
[73] See p. 37, and Plate X.
[74] Photos., Nos. 1761, 1762.
[75] Photos., No. 3279, and Plates II. and XX.
[76] It is important to notice this, because some able architects did not see it at
first sight, and imagined that these brick arches rested upon the stone piers,
which was evidently not really the case, though it appears to be so.
M. Viollet-le-Duc, one of the most eminent architects of our time, says that an
experienced architect would cut through old tufa walls of this kind as easily, and
with as little scruple, as he would cut through cheese, and the brick facing made
no material difference.
[77] “... item stagnum maris instar, circumseptum ædificiis ad urbium
speciem.” (Suetonii Nero, c. 31.)
[78] Photos., Nos. 3282, 3285.
[79] See Plate XXI.
[80] See Plate XXII.
[81] See Plate XV.
[82] Photos., No. 3268, 3269.
[83] Photos., Nos. 3203, 3205, 3282, 3283. In some parts a brick wall of the
fifth or sixth century has been introduced between the two old tufa walls, during
the repairs after the earthquakes. This is at first sight rather puzzling, until it is
examined and properly considered.
[84] Photos., No. 3271.
[85] Photos., Nos. 3285, 3286.
[86] For elephants there are four larger dens provided, two on either side of
the central passage. See the Plan.
[87] Photos., No. 3282.
[88] See Plates XVI., XVII.
[89] This vivarium is a triangular piece of ground, the wide end of which
touches the wall of the Amphitheatrum Castrense; the narrow end is only just
wide enough for the body of a man to pass through an aperture made in it, as the
ground is between a wall of Aurelian on the inner side, and a wall of the
Sessorium on the outer side, preserved by Aurelian as an outwork. This was the
scene of the celebrated ambuscade of Belisarius, by means of which the Goths
were driven away from Rome, as described by Procopius (De Bello Gothico, lib.
i. c. 22.)
[90]

PRO S. IMP. M. ANTONI . GORDIANI . PII
FELICIS AVG. ET TRANQVILLINAE SABI
NAE AVG. VENATORES IMMVN. CVM CV
STODE VIVARI PONT. VERVS MIL. COH
VI. PR. CAMPANIVS VERAX. MIL. COH. VI
PR. FVSCIVS CRESCENTIO ORD CVSTOS
VIVARI. COHH. PRAETT. ET VRBB
DIANAE AVG. D. S. EX. V. P.
DEDICATA XII. KAL. NOV.
IMP. D. N. GORDIANO AVG. ET POMPEIANO COS.
(Inscription found in Rome in 1710, and printed by Nibby, Roma Antica, vol.
i. p. 386.)
[91] A compartment of this is shewn in one of the graffiti, found in the
excavations of 1874.
[92] “Caius princeps in circo pegma duxit.” (Plinii Nat. Hist., xxxiii. 16.)
[93] “Ludiviæ sunt, quæ ad voluptatem oculorum atque aurium tendunt. His
annumeres licet machinatores, qui pegmata per se surgentia excogitant, et
tabulata tacite in sublime crescentia, et alias ex inopinato varietates, aut
dehiscendentibus quæ cohærebant, aut his quæ distabant, sua sponte coeuntibus
aut his quæ eminebant paulatim in se residentibus.” (Seneca, Epist., 88, s. 19.)
[94]

“Sic pugnas Cilicis laudabat, et ictus;
Et pegma et pueros inde ad velaria raptos.”

(Juvenal, Satyr iv. 121, 122.)

[95] See p. 49.
[96] Photos., No. 3283.
[97] Photos., No. 3286, and Plate VII.
[98] Photos., No. 3263.
[99] Those English people who remember Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London
about 1820, must know that there was always a sheet of water or reservoir under
the stage, and trap-doors in the floor by which sea-monsters could be introduced.
The amusements of the old Roman people seem to have been frequently of this
kind. Naval fights in boats might have been performed in the Colosseum, and a
great deal of machinery must have been required to remove the floor and replace
it.
A wooden Roman bridge still remains under water near Compiègne in France,
of which M. Peigné Delacourt has published an account, with engravings of it,
so that wood under water is preserved in the same manner as when it is buried in
a wet soil. This is well known in the case of piles for bridges, and in those under
the city of Amsterdam.
[100] See Plate XXVI.

[101] It appears evident from the inscriptions from the College of the Arvales
that the seats were regularly and permanently allotted to different persons
holding different offices, according to their rank. The lower seats being of
marble, the upper ones of wood.
There are many inscriptions relating to the seats in the different theatres and
amphitheatres in Rome:
LOCA . ADSIGNATA IN AMPHITEATRO
L . AELIO . PLAVTIO . LAMIA . Q . PACTVMEIO
FRONTONE . COS .
ACCEPTVM . AB . LABERIO . MAXIMO
PROCVRATORE . PRAEF . ANNONAE
L . VENNVLEIO . APRONANO . MAG .
CVRATORE . THYRSO . L
FRATRIBVS . ARVALIBVS . MÆNIANO .
I̅ . CVN . X̅ I̅ I̅ . GRADIBVS . MARM . VIII.
GRADVI . P . V = GRAD . VIII . PED .
V≡£ . F . PED . XXXXIIS . GRADV. I . VNO .
P . XXII S . ET . MAENIANO . SVMMO .
I̅ I̅ . CVN . V̅ I̅ . GRADIB . MARM . I̅ V̅ .
GRADV . I . VNO . P . XXII S . ET .
MAENIANO . SVMMO . IN . LIGNEIS .
TAB . LIII . GRADIBVS . XI . GRADV .
I PED . V = GRAD . XI. PED . V = = —)
F̅ . PED . LXIII S = = — SVMMA . PED .
Cxxviiii S = = —
(Gius.-Ant. Guattari, Roma descritta ed illustrata, &c. Roma, 1805, 4to., vol.
ii. p. 13.)
[102] Photos., No. 3279.
[103] See p. 6, and Plates II. and XX.
[104] See Photos., No. 367.
[105] One series of these corbels in the upper corridor seems to have been for
a wooden gallery, for the use of the sailors going to furl or unfurl the awning.
[106] Some clamps of the same form were found, in 1870, in the interior of
the wall of Servius Tullius, (in the part destroyed for the railway,) where the
stones were joined together by them.
[107] sIc PREMIA SERVAS VESPASIANE DIRE PREMIATVS ES MORTE
GAVDENTI LETARE CIVITAS VBI GLORIE TVE AVTORI PROMISIT ISTE
DAT KRISTVS OMNIA TIBI QVI ALIVM PARAVIT THEATRV̅ IN CELO.
This inscription only shews that he was employed upon the work; it is preserved
in the church of S. Martino a Monti. See Nibby, Roma nell’ anno mdcccxxxviii.
parte i. Antica, p. 400.
[108] See Photographs, Nos. 1500 and 1501, and the Photo-engraving, Plate
XXIII. of Supplement to vol. i.
[109] See Photos., No. 488, and Plates XXIV., XXV.

[110] L’Anfiteatro Flavio descritto e delineato dal cavaliere Carlo Fontana.
Nell’ Haia, m.dc.xxv. fol. max.
[111] These views of buildings on coins appear to have been made from the
architect’s designs before they were carried out, and were sometimes altered.
There is no representation of the Colossus of Nero in any of them. For the
shallow channel of water, see Photos., No. 1759.
[112] See No. 302, and 488 c.
[113] On bad impressions of this coin the Meta Sudans looks like a second
smaller figure, or of a youth; but on good impressions the Meta Sudans is
distinct, and the figure behind it overtops it by the head and shoulders only.
[114] See No. 488 c.
[115] “... Romæ templum Hadriani, honori patris dicatum, Græco-stadium
post incendium restitutum, instauratum amphitheatrum,” &c. (Jul. Capitolinus-
Antoninus Pius, c. 8, ap. Script. Hist. Aug.)
[116] Dionis Cass. lib. lxxii. c. 17-22.
[117] “Postea in theatris tantum umbram fecere: quod primus omnium invenit
Q. Catulus, cum Capitolium dedicaret. Carbasina deinde vela primus in theatro
duxisse traditur Lentulus Spinter Apollinaribus ludis.... Vela nuper colore cæli,
stellata, per rudentes iere etiam in amphitheatro principis Neronis.” (Plinii Nat.
Hist., lib. xix. c. 6.)
[118] See Plate XVII.
[119] Photos., No. 185.
[120] This is reproduced in Plate XXI.
[121] Photos., Nos. 167, 185.
[122] See Regio III., Castra Misenatium.
[123] Calpurnius has usually been considered as a writer of the third century,
but the most recent editor of his Eclogues (Haupt) shews that he was
contemporary with Nero and Titus, and Dean Merivale is of the same opinion.
[124]

“Vidimus in cœlum trabibus spectacula textis
Surgere, Tarpeium prope despectantia culmen,
Immensosque gradus, et clivos lene jacentes....
Ordine quid referam? vidi genus omne ferarum....
Non solum nobis silvestria cernere monstra
Contigit: æquoreos ego cum certantibus ursis
Spectavi vitulos, et equorum nomine dignum,
Sed deforme pecus (i.e. Nilo).
Ah trepidi quoties nos descendentis arenæ
Vidinus in partes ruptaque voraginæ terræ
Emersisse feras!
Et coit in rotulam teretem quo lubricus axis
Impositos subita vertigine falleret ungues
Excuteretque feras auro quoque torta refulgent

Retia, quæ totis in arenam dentibus extant,
Dentibus æquatis: et erat mihi crede Lycota
Si qua fides, nostro dens longior omnis aratro.”

(T. Calpurnii Siculi Bucol. Ecloga vii.)
[125] Dionis Cass. lib. lxxviii. c. 25.
[126] “Opera publica ipsius præter Æden Heliogabali Dei ... et amphitheatri
instauratio post exustionem ... nulla extant.” (Lampridius, Antoninus
Heliogabalus, c. 17, ap. Script. Hist. Aug.)
[127] “... sumptibus publicis ad instaurationem theatri, circi, amphitheatri, et
ærarii, deputavit.” (Lampridius, Alexander Severus, c. 24.) There are coins of
this emperor with the amphitheatre on the reverse. See Plate XXV.
[128] “Fuerunt sub Gordiano Romæ elephanti triginta et duo, quorum ipse
duodecim miserat, Alexander decem: alces decem, tigres decem, leones
mansueti sexaginta, leopardi mansueti triginta, belbi, id est hyænæ, decem,
gladiatorum fiscalium paria mille, hippopotamus et rhinoceros unus,
archoleontes decem, camelopardali decem, onagri viginti, equi feri quadraginta,
et cetera hujusmodi animalia, innumera et diversa: quæ omnia Philippus ludis
sæcularibus vel dedit vel occidit.” (Jul. Capit. Gordianus Tertius, c. 33.)
[129] This celebration shews that the chronology then accepted by the Roman
people is the same as that of Livy, which is used as the chronological table of
buildings prefixed to this work.
[130] Suetonius in Gordiano III., c. 33.
[131] Herodian, lib. i. c. 8. Ammianus Marcellinus mentions the same
exhibition, and the same number of lions leaping out at once, lib. xxxi. c. 19. See
Plates VI. and VIII.
[132] “Centum jubatos leones.” (Vopiscus in Vita Probi, c. 19.)
[133] “Eam autem denunciationem adque interpretationem, quæ de jactu
amphitheatri scripta est, de qua ad Heraclianum Tribunum, et magistrum
officiorum scripseras, ad nos scias esse perlatum.” (Codex Theodosianus, lib.
xvi. tit. x. lex 1. Imp. Constantinus ad Maximum, a.d. 321.)
[134] “Amphitheatri molem solidatam lapidis Tiburtini compage, ad cujus
summitatem ægre visio humana conscendit.” (Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. xvi.
c. 10.)
[135] salvis . dd. nn. theodosio . et . placido . valentiniano . augg. rvfvs
caecina . felix . lampadivs . vc. et . inl. praef. vrb. harenam . amphiteatri . a .
novo . vna . cvm . Podio . et . portis . posticis . sed . et . reparatis . spectacvli .
gradibvs restitvit.

[136] Paulus Diaconus, Miscell., lib. xiv.; ap. Murat. Rer. Ital. Script., vol. i. p.
96, c. 1, A.
[137] This appears from another inscription found in 1813:—
DECIVS MARIVS VENANTIVS BASILIVS V̅ C̅ et INL̅ . PRAEF V̅ RB
PATRICIVS CONSVL ORDINARIVS ARENAM ET PODIVM QVAE

ABOMINANDI TERRAEMOTVS RVIN PROSTRAVIT SVMPTV PROPRIO
RESTITVIT.
[138] “Muneribus amphitheatralibus diversi generis feras, quas præsens ætas
pro novitate miraretur, exhibuit. Cujus spectaculi voluptates etiam exquisitas
Africa sub devotione transmisit.” (Cassiodori Chronicon, a.d. 519; inter opera
ejus, ed. 1679, fol., tom. i. p. 195, col. 2.)
[139] “Quamdiu stat Colysæus, stat et Roma; quando cadet Colysæus, cadet et
Roma; quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus.” (Bedæ Opera, Basileæ, 1563, fol.,
vol. iii. col. 651.)
[140] Card. de Aragonia, Vita Innocentii II. apud Muratori, Rerum Italicarum
Scriptores, vol. iii. p. 1, p. 435 B.
[141] Cort. de Senatu Romano, lib. vii. c. 1, §. 168.
[142] Delle Memorie Sacre, e profane dell’ Anfiteatro Flavio di Roma, &c.,
dal Canonico Giovanni Marangoni Vicentino. In Roma, 1745, 4to. Cap. l. p. 49,
Codice pergameno, Scritto dal celebre Onofrio Panvino inedito ed intitolato, de
Gente Fregepanica.
[143] Card. de Aragonia, Vita Alexandri III. ap. Muratori, Rerum Ital. Script.,
tom. iii. p. i. p. 459.
[144] Albertino Mussato, Hist. Aug., lib. v.; ap. Murat. Rerum Italic. Script.,
tom. x. c. 454. Nibby, Roma nell’ anno mdcccxxxviii, parte i. p. 413.
[145] Rainaldi Annal. an. 1244; Panvin. de gente Frangipani; Muratori, Rerum
Italicarum Scriptores, tom. xii. col. 535, 536. Nibby gives a more complete and
accurate version of this occurrence from a better text, though modernized. See
Roma Antica, part i. p. 414.
[146] “... et præterea se omnes emendarent de faciendo tiburtinam (travertini)
quod esset commune id quod judicitur.” (Fea, Dissertazione nelle Ruine di
Roma, p. 398.)
[147] F. Vacca, Memorie ap. Fea, lxxiv. p. 72.
[148] Poggio the Florentine, writing in 1425, says that a large part of the
building was reduced to lime by the stupidity of the Romans:—“... atque ob
stultitiam Romanorum majori ex parte ad calcem delatum.” (Poggio, de Varietate
Fortunæ, lib. i.)
[149] Flaminio Vacca, Memorie, 72; Marangoni, Memorie dell’ Anfiteatro
Flavio, p. 57, quoted by Nibby, Roma nell’ anno mdcccxxxviii, parte i., Antica,
p. 418.
[150] Bellori, Vita di Domenico Fontana. Roma, nell’ anno mdcccxxxviii,
&c., parte i., Antica, pp. 414-417. (Le Vite de pittori, &c., Roma, 1728, 4to. p.
93.)
The space enclosed within the outer walls is six acres, and there is an
extraordinary difference of climate between the northern and the southern side.
Dr. Deakin published a work on the Flora of the Colosseum: he found 423
species of plants, belonging to 253 genera.
Over the door now generally used is a painting of the heavenly Jerusalem and
the Crucifixion, of the time of Paul III., a.d. 1534-50, in the style of the older

pilgrimage pictures. At the time it was painted the passage appears to have been
filled up with earth to such a height as to make the picture a conspicuous object
in leaving the building; at present it is quite above the heads of the passers-by,
and is seldom noticed or seen.
[151] The interior of the building is still grand in its ruins. This is well shewn
in the photograph (No. 1195,) with the cross, and the altar, and the stations
erected by the pope about 1750, and destroyed in 1874, in order to excavate the
whole of the area. A restoration of the interior according to Canina can also be
seen in another photograph (No. 724).
[152] Etudes Statistiques sur Rome, par le Conte P. N. C. de Tournon. Paris,
Didot, 1821, 8vo., 4 vols., and deuxième edition, 3 Volumes en 8vo avec atlas,
Paris, 1858.
The fine set of drawings made for the French Government at that period are
now preserved in the British Museum, and fully bear out what I had stated
before I had seen them. They clearly shew that the French excavations were not
carried down more than ten feet. The tops of the arches of the lower passage are
shewn in the drawings, but these excavations appear to have been stopped by
water rising to that height. See Plate III.
[153] See No. 1742, and Plate III.
[154] Probably the aqueduct which passes there had a hole made in it; the
same aqueduct goes on from this side of the building to the south-east end. This
occurred again in 1874, and a steam engine had again to be employed. This
passage, before it turns, goes in the direction of the castellum aquæ of the time
of Alexander Severus, of which there are considerable remains between this
point and the Cœlian. The specus of an aqueduct of the same period passes along
between the Cœlian and the amphitheatre, near the surface of the ground; a
portion of this was visible in 1874.
[155] See Photograph, No. 367.
[156] See p. 5.
[157] In the summer of 1875 they were again suspended for want of funds to
pay for the steam-engine, which costs a pound a-day.
[158] Of which an account has been given in pages 5, 6, 10, 13, 14, 21, 35, of
this chapter.
[159] See Plate III.
[160] See Plate XV.
[161] About the year 1865 a new drain was made by the Municipality under
that road, and when it was nearly finished the old drain of the Empire (?), or of
the time of Sylla (?), was found under it at a considerably lower level. It is
fifteen metres below the surface of the ground, and so much filled up with earth
that it is considered (in 1876) quite impracticable to have it cleared out and
repaired.
[162] Photos., Nos. 3203, 3283.
[163] For the pegmata, see p. 14, and the authorities quoted in the note.

[164] See Plates XVIII., XIX., and Photos., No. 3283, and the graffito of the
net, Plate XXIV.
[165] See Photos., No. 3201, and Plate XIX.
[166] See the evidence of this, p. 13.
[167] See Plates XIII. and XVI.
[168] Dionis Cass. Hist. Rom., lib. lxxii. c. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21.
[169] Some scholars say that those scenes could not have taken place on this
site, because the Flavian Amphitheatre was not built in the time of Nero. But it
has been shewn that an awning in the amphitheatre of Nero is described by
Pliny, writing at the time, during the life and reign of Nero, as he uses the
expression principis Neronis, which he could hardly have used after his death.
No other site but this can be found for such a large building as an amphitheatre,
and this is close to the Golden House of Nero. In any case athletes or wrestlers,
and naumachia or naval fights, are part of the tradition of many Roman
amphitheatres, and there are sufficient remains of the substructures in many
places to prove that this tradition is well founded. The corridors of the Flavian
Emperors, though splendid additions to this great theatre, were not necessary for
the performance of those pantomimes. It has also been shewn that the old tufa
walls must be earlier than the time of Nero, and are probably of the time of
Sylla.
[170] See Plates IV. to X.
[171] They were made at the suggestion of the author of this work, rather
sooner than would otherwise have been the case, in order that he might be able
to see them. Signor Rosa unfortunately began pulling down the walls of the
substructure, calling them “Frangipani walls.” The Frangipani family had
possession of the Colosseum in the twelfth century, but the construction of that
period is totally different from any of the walls in the Colosseum, either above or
below the level of the arena. The Minister of Public Instruction fortunately
arrived in Rome in time to stop their demolition, and obtained an Act of
Parliament, in 1875, appointing a general Archæological Commission for all
Italy, with Signor Fiorelli, from Pompeii, at the head of it; and no individual will
in future be permitted either to destroy antiquities, or to build anything new,
without the consent of the Commission.
[172] See No. 3202, and p. 27.
[173] See No. 3201.
[174] See No. 3263, and Plate VII.
[175] See No. 3203.
[176] The plan of one section of this enormous building (see No. 183 and
Plate XIV.), and those of the six different floors or storeys, shew the admirable
arrangement of the seats and passages, and vomitoria for the rapid exit of the
people, as well as the plan of the whole building would do. The magnificent
stone arcades of the Flavian Emperors, a.d. 80, appear in many parts to be built
against brick walls and galleries of the time of Nero, originally built for the
spectators of the old Naumachia. (See No. 3205, 1762.)

[177] The amphitheatre is 1,837 Roman feet in circuit, 638 long, 535 wide,
and 165 high from the ground, besides 21 feet for the substructures, so that the
whole height was 186 feet. The Roman foot is not quite so long as the English
foot, but the difference is trifling. The number of spectators was 87,000
according to the Regionary Catalogue; modern authorities say that the
measurement shews this number to be rather exaggerated.
[178] See Nos. 1081, 1762.
[179] See No. 1346.
[180] A coin of Titus shews a colonnade, and one of Domitian also. See Plate
XXV.
[181] See p. 11.
[182] See No. 1761.
[183] See Nos. 1758, 1759, 1760, 1763.
[184] They are more clearly shewn in another photograph, No. 827.
[185] See No. 367.
[186] See No. 185.
[187] They were, however, not always of stone or brick; in places where stone
was scarce, they were frequently of wood only.
[188] See p. 1.
[189] See p. 7.
[190] See p. 6.
[191] See pp. 2, 9, 23.
[192] See pp. 1, 8. That the amphitheatres were among the finest buildings of
the Romans in all their cities it is hardly necessary to say; it seems clear that they
were first built for the favourite amusement of the hunting of wild beasts, and
that the first name for them was Theatrum Venatorium; but the gladiators were
soon introduced, for the further amusement of the people in the same buildings.
Both amusements are believed to have been used in Greece before they were
introduced into Rome, but they were in use in Rome before the time of the
Empire. At first, the amphitheatres were temporary buildings of wood only (as
has been shewn), but there were several of these. After the great Flavian
amphitheatre was completed, this seems to have been the only one in Rome; but
those of several other cities, such as Capua and Verona (see the learned work of
Scipio Maffei, Verona Illustrata, Milano, 1876, parte quarta) must have been
nearly equal to it.
[193] The following inscriptions, found upon the spot, agree with the
construction, as is always the case when the true date can be ascertained. The
first is of the time of Hadrian, a.d. 120, (No. 43 in chapter vii. of the work of
Francesco Alvino, which contains the ancient inscriptions found upon the spot);
the second (No. 48 of the same collection) appears to be of Septimius Severus
and Pertinax, a.d. 192; the third in point of date (No. 16 in the collection)
records restorations by Lampridius:—

XLIII.
IMP. CÆS. T. ÆLIO
HADRIANO AVG
PATRI PATRIÆ
SVBLEVATORI ORBIS
RESTITVTORI OPE
RVM PVBLICORVM
INDVLGENTISSIMO
OPTIMAQ. PRINCIPI
CAMPANI
OB INSIGNEM ERGA EOS BE
NIGNITATEM D. D.
XLVIII.
IMP. CÆS. DIVI M. ANTONINI
GERM. SARM. FIL. DIVI COMMODI
FRATRI DIVI ANTONINI PII NEPOTI
DIVI HADRIANI PRONEPOTI DIVI
TRAIANI PARTHICI ABNEPOTI DIVI
NERVAE ADNEPOTI
SEPTIMIO SEVERO PIO PERTINACI
ARABICO ADIABENICO P.P. PONT. MAX
TRIB. POT. I̅ I̅ I̅ I̅ . IMP. VIII. COS II. PROC
COLONIA CAPVA
XVI.
POSTVMIO LAMPADIO
V. C.
ET INLVSTRI CON. CAMPANIAE
RESTITVTORI PATRIAE
ET REDINTEGRATORI OPERVM PVBLICORVM
By a singular coincidence, Lampadius was also the name of the Prefect who
restored the Flavian amphitheatre in a.d. 445; but though the surname is the
same, the prename is not, he was probably of the same family.
[194] See p. 45.
[195] This would be at least equal to £200 of modern money.
[196] Anfiteatro Campano illustrato e Restorato da Franceso Alvino terza
edizione col paragone di tutti gli anfiteatri D’Italia ed un cenno sugli antichi
monumenti di Capua. Napoli, 1842.
[197] The Neapolitan palm is ten inches English measure. If the
measurements of Signor Alvino are reduced to English measure, they do not
agree with those of Messrs. Taylor and Crecy for the Colosseum; as he used the
same scale for all three, the proportions are the same.
[198] In Rome these are Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Composite; at Verona, all
Tuscan; at Capua, all Doric.
[199] I am indebted for this clear account of the amphitheatre at Pola to Lord
Talbot de Malahide, who was there in October, 1875. The excellent drawings of
Mr. Arthur Glennie, who resided at Pola for one whole summer, also agree
perfectly with the excellent account of that remarkable building, which further

contributes to illustrate the Colosseum at Rome. An excellent account of Pola
appeared about the same time in the Saturday Review, but this is more general,
not so specially written with this object in view.
[200] “Notissimus eques Romanus elephanto supersedens per catadromum
decucurrit.” (Suetonii Nero, cap. xi. Xiphil. lxi.)
“Ego eo vocabulo funem intelligo, qui summo theatro alligatus, declinis ad
imum theatri pertinebat solum defigebaturque, per quem descendere maximi
periculi et artis atque adeo miraculi erat.” (Turnebo, Adv. xxvii. 18.)
[201] “Icarus, primo statim conatu, juxta cubiculum ejus (Neronis) decidit,
ipsumque cruore respersit.” (Suetonii Nero, c. 12.)
[202]

“Vidimus in cœlum trabibus spectacula textis
Surgere, Tarpeium prope despectantia culmen.”

(Calpurnii, Ecloga vii. v. 23.)

[203] “Erat mons ligneus ad instar incliti montis illius, quem vates Homerus
Idæum cecinit, sublimi instructus fabrica, consitus viretis et vivis arboribus
summo cacumine, de manibus fabri fonte mænante, fluviales aquas eliquans.”
(Apulei, Metamor., lib. x. c. 30.)
[204]

“Mobile ponderibus descendat Pegma reductis
Inque chori speciem, spargentes ardua flammas
Scena rotet: varios effingat Mulciber orbes
Per tabulas impune vagus, pictæque citato
Ludant igne trabes, et non permissa morari
Fida per innocuas errent incendia turres.”

(Claudianus, De Consulatu Mallii. v. 325.)

[205] “Memorabile maxime Cari et Carini et Numeriani hoc habuit imperium,
quod ludos populo Romano novis ornatos spectaculis dederunt, quos in Palatio
circa porticum statuti pictos vidimus ... centum pantomimos et gymnicos mille
pegma præterea, cujus flammis scena conflagravit quam Diocletianus postea
magnificentiorem reddidit.” (Vopiscus in Carino, cap. 18, ap. Script. Hist. Aug.)
[206]

“Hic ubi sidereus propius videt astra Colossus,
Et crescunt media Pegmata celsa via,
Invidiosa feri radiabant atria regis.”

(Martialis, De Spectaculis, Ep. 2.)

[207] “Catabolum erat locus, in quo feræ erudiebantur sive ad mansuetudinem
sive etiam ad crudelitatem, quam in bestiarios exercerent.” (Papias.)

“Catabolum est clausura animalium, ubi desuper aliquid jacitur.” (Vossii,
Lexicon Etymologicum.)
The Catabolensis or Catabolici were the men who fed the wild beasts, and
threw down their food from the small passage before mentioned. (See p. 17.)
[208] “Addidit alia die in Amphitheatro una missione centum jubatos leones,
qui rugitibus suis tonitru excitabant; qui omnes e posticis interempti sunt, non
magnum præbentes spectaculum quo occidebantur. Neque enim erat bestiarum
impetus ille, qui esse e caveis egredientibus olet.” (Vopisci Probus, c. 19, ap.
Script. Hist. Aug.)
[209] “Ut sæpe faciunt amphitheatrales feræ diffractis tandem solutæ
posticis.” (Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. 27.)

[210] “Stat. Cardine aperto—Infelix cavea.” The door opening on a hinge or
a pivot.
[211] “Feras lybicas una die centum exhibuit, ursos una die mille.” (Julii
Capitolini, i. c. 3, ap. Script. Hist. Aug.)
[212]

“... Auro quoque torta refulgent
Retia, quæ totis in Arenam dentibus extant.
... nec non, ubi finis Arenæ,
Proxima marmoreo peragit spectaculo muro:
Sternitur adjunctis ebur admirabile truncis,
Et coit in rotulam, tereti qua lubricus axis
Impositos subita vertigine falleret ungues
Excuteretque feras.”

(Calpurnii, Ecl. 7.)

[213] “Fertur in euripis vino plenis Navales Circenses exhibuisse.” (Lampridii
Antoninus Heliogabalus, c. 23, ap. Script. Hist. Aug.)
[214]

“Quidquid et in Circo spectatur et amphitheatro,
Dives Cæsarea præstitit unda tibi:
Fucinus et pigri taceantur stagna Neronis:
Hanc norint unam sæcula Naumachiam.”

(Martialis de Spect. Ep. 28.)

That is, the stagna in the amphitheatre were supplied by an aqueduct from the
lake of Fucino. This lake has been drained in 1874-75 by Prince Torlonia, by
carrying out the project of the great engineers of the time of the Emperor
Claudius, and making an emisarium, on even a grander scale than the one
partially made in the time of Claudius, on a similar plan to those of the lakes of
Albano and Nemi.
[215]

“Respice terrifici scelerata sacraria Ditis,

Cui cadit infausta fusus gladiator arena,
Heu male lustratæ Phlegetontia victima Romæ.
Nam quid vesani sibi vult ars impia ludi?
Quid mortes juvenum, quid sanguine pasta voluptas
Quid pulvis Caveæ semper funebris et illa
Amphitheatralis spectacula tristia pompæ?
Nempe Charon jugulis miserorum se duce dignas
Accipit inferias, placatas crimine sacro.
Hæ sunt deliciæ Jovis Infernalis: in istis
Arbiter obscuri placidus requiescit Averni.”

(Aur. Prudentius Clem. contra Symmachum, 379-389.)
[216] 2. “Casu in meridianum spectaculum incidi, lusus expectans et sales et
aliquid laxamenti, quo hominum oculi ab humano cruore acquiescant. 3. Contra
est: quidquid ante pugnatum est, misericordia fuit. Nunc omissis nugis, mera
homicidia sunt. Nihil habent quo tegantur; ad ictum totis corporibus expositi,
nunquam frustra mittunt manum mittunt. Hoc plerique ordinariis paribus et
postulatitiis præferunt non galea, non scuto repellitur ferrum. Quo munimenta?
quo gladii artes? Omnia ista mortes meræ sunt. Mane leonibus et ursis homines,
meridie spectatoribus suis objiciuntur. 4. Interfectores interfecturis jubentur
objici, et victorem in aliam detinent cædem, exitus pugnantium mors est ferro et
ignores geritur. Hæc fiunt dum vacat arena.” (Sen., Epistolæ ad Lucilium, 7.)
[217] See Photos., Nos. 3273, 3274, and Plates XXIII., XXIV.
[218]

“Prima dicte mihi, summa dicende Camœna,
Spectatum, satis et donatum jam rude quæris,
Mæcenas, iterum antiquo me includere ludo.”

(Horatii Epist., lib. i. 1.)

[219]

“Dum peteret pars hæc Myrinum, pars illa Triumphum;
Promisit pariter Cæsar utrâque manu.”

(Martiali de Spectaculis, Epig. 20.)

[220] “Fuerunt sub Gordiano Romæ elephanti triginta et duo, gladiatorum
Fisculium paria mille.” (Julii Capitolini Gordianus tertius.)
[221] Suetonii Titus, c. 9.
[222] “Jam ad spectaculum supplicii nostri populus convenerat: jam ostentata
per arenam periturorum corpora mortis suæ pompam duxerant.” (Quinctil., Decl.
9.)
[223] Lampridii Commodus Antoninus, 16.
[224] “Contra consuetudinem (Commodus) pænulatos jussit spectatores, non
togatos ad munus convenire, quod funeribus solebat, ipse in pullis vestimentis
præsidens. Galea ejus per portam Libitinensem elata est.” (Lampridii Commodus

Antoninus, ap. Script. Hist. Aug., c. 16.) This circumstance is also mentioned by
Dio Cassius, as quoted previously.
[225] “Inter carnifices et fabros Sandapilarum.” (Juvenal, Sat. viii. 175.)
[226] “Ruinart Acta Martyrum Sincera.” (ap. Grævii Thesaurus, tom. ix.)
[227]

“Non omnis moriar, multaque pars mei
Vitabit Libitinam.”

(Horatii Odæ, lib. iii. ode 30.)

[228]

“Effert uxores Fabius, Christilla maritos,
Funereamque toris quassat uterque facem.
Victores committe, Venus, quos iste manebit
Exitus, una duos ut Libitina ferat.”

(Martial. Epig., lib. viii. 43.)

[229] “Ferrarium vicinum, aut hunc qui ad Metam sudantem tubas experitur et
tibias.” (Senecæ, Epist. 56.)
Some of the tubes or leaden pipes have been found (as before mentioned).
[230] “Ostium humile et augustum, et potissimum ejus generis, quod
cochleam appellant, ut solet esse in cavea ex qua tauri pugnare solent.” (Varr. de
Re Rustica, iii. 5.)
[231] “Edidit et Circenses plurimos a mane usque ad vesperam, interjecta
modo Africanarum venatione, modo Trojæ decursione: quosdam præcipuos,
minio et chrysocolla constrato circo nec ullis nisi ex senatorio ordine
aurigantibus.” (Suetonii Caligula, 18.)
[232] “Inquietatus fremitu gratuita in Circo loca de media nocte occupantium,
omnes fustibus abegit; elisique per eum tumultum viginti amplius Equites
Romani, totidem matronæ, super innumeram turbam ceteram.” (Suetonii
Caligula, cap. 26.)
A similar mania has sometimes been heard of in recent times in Paris and in
London.
[233] “Bestiariis meridianisque adeo delectabatur, ut et prima luce ad
spectaculum descenderet et meridie dimisso ad prandium populo persederet
præterque destinatos, etiam levi subitaque de causa, quosdam committeret, de
fabrorum quoque ac ministrorum atque id genus numero si automatum, vel
pegma, vel quid tale aliud parum cessisset. Induxit et unum ex nomenclatoribus
suis, sicut erat togatus.” (Suet. Claudius, c. xxxiv.)
[234] “Visumque jam est Neronis principis spectaculis arenam Circi
chrysocolla sterni cum ipse concolori panno aurigaturus esset.” (Plinii Nat. Hist.,
xxxiii. 27.)

[235] “Subinde intraverunt duo Æthiopes capillati, cum pusillis utribus,
quales solent esse qui arenam in amphitheatro spargunt.” (Petronii Sat., cap.
34.)
[236] Taciti Annales, lib. xi. c. 11.
[237] “Lithostrota acceptavere jam sub Sulla: parvulis certe crustis exstat
hodieque, quod in Fortunæ delubro Præneste fecit. Pulsa deinde ex humo
pavimenta in cameras transiere, e vitro: novitium e hoc inventum. Agrippa certe
in Thermis quas Romæ fecit, figlinum opus encausto pinxit: in reliquis albaria
adornavit: non dubie vitreas facturus cameras, si prius inventum id fuisset, aut a
parietibus scenæ, ut diximus, Scauri, pervenisset in cameras. Quamobrem et vitri
natura indicanda est.” (Plinii Nat. Hist., lib. xxxvi. 64.)
[238] Friedländer says that a compact floor of glass was found at Veii (vol. iii.
p. 103).
[239] This remarkably fine pavement is still preserved (1876) at Præneste,
now called Palestrina.
[240] Pliny, Nat. Hist., bk. xxxvi. 2, 3.
[241] Ibid. xxxvi. 24, 7.
[242] “Nerone secundum, L. Pisone consulibus, pauca memoria digna
evenere: nisi cui libeat, laudandis fundamentis et trabibus, quis molem
amphitheatri apud Campum Martis, Cæsar exstruxerat, volumina inplere: cum ex
dignitate populi Romani repertum sit, res inlustres annalibus, talia diurnis urbis
actis mandare.” (Taciti Annales, lib. xiii. c. 31.)
[243] See Plate XXVII.
[244] See Plate XXV.
[245] See Plate XX.
[246] The photo-engraver has unfortunately turned this photograph upside
down, but it is not of much consequence, as the size and thickness of the bricks
of Nero can be seen just the same. The space is so narrow that it was difficult to
get a photograph of it at all; but this is just one of the cases in which a
photograph is of great importance, because there is nothing in which artists are
so careless as in the thickness of the bricks and of the mortar between them;
there is nothing in which it would be more easy to play tricks, if they wished to
do so.
[247] The fragment of sculpture placed upon this capital has nothing to do
with it, being merely placed there by the workmen, but a photograph necessarily
reproduces things exactly as they were found at the time the photograph was
taken.
[248] The piers of tufa are represented as transparent, to shew the insertion of
the consoles in them. This insertion, with the irregularity of the plan of the tufa
piers, contrasted with the mathematical accuracy of the work of the Flavian
Emperors, proves that they belonged to an earlier building.
[249] In other instances, the brick arches of construction appear to rest on the
piers of travertine between them; but as these have been removed, and the brick
walls stand equally well without them, it is evident that this is not the case. The

tall piers of travertine reach the whole height of the building, to support the
upper gallery. In the following plate the same remarkable construction is shewn
more clearly, because in this instance the aperture left by the removal of the
stone piers is visible in two storeys, and it is seen that three piers extended from
the upper gallery to the ground, passing through all the other storeys.
[250] In this plate the coins are taken by photograph from the originals in the
British Museum.
[251] Qy. Colonnade of Aqueduct, or Piscina Limaria.
[252] Qy. Reservoir (castellum aquæ) of the time of Alexander Severus, of
which there are remains.
[253] For further details see the Descrizione di Pompeii per Giuseppe Fiorelli,
Napoli, 1875, 12mo., pp. 56 and 70. All who are interested in Pompeii should
have this valuable little work.

THE
ARCHÆOLOGY OF ROME,

BY

JOHN HENRY PARKER, C.B.
Hon. M.A. Oxon., F.S.A. Lond.;

keeper of the ashmolean museum of history and archæology, oxford;
vice-president of the oxford architectural and historical society,
and of the british and american archæological society of rome;
member of the royal archæological institute,
membre de la societé française d’archéologie,
honorary member of the royal institute of british architects,
and of various archæological societies, english and foreign.

PART VII.

THE FLAVIAN AMPHITHEATRE,
COMMONLY CALLED

THE COLOSSEUM.

OXFORD:
JAMES PARKER AND CO.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET.
1876.

*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
ARCHÆOLOGY OF ROME, PART 7 ***

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