The Archæology of Rome, Part VII: The Flavian amphitheatre, commonly called the Colosseum

CONTENTS.—COLOSSEUM.

LIST OF PLATES.

THE FLAVIAN AMPHITHEATRE, COMMONLY CALLED THE COLOSSEUM. — The Evidence of the Construction, and Comparison. — Capua. — Puteoli or Pozzuoli. — Verona. — The Amphitheatre at Pola, in Istria. — Substructures compared. — The Arena. — The Gates. — The Games in the Arena.

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

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.

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 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:—

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:—

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—

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 fallen out. They were of this form [106]. 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.

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:—

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 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:—

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].

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].

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].

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.

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:—

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.

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).

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).

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 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].

APPENDIX. — Scaurus. — Amphitheatre of Nero. — The Great Drain.

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:—

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.

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.

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. — Description of Plate I.

SUPERSTRUCTURE.
Exterior, from the Thermæ of Titus.

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].

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE II. — Description of Plate II.

SUPERSTRUCTURE.
Views of Parts of the Building.

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].

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE III. — Description of Plate III.

SUPERSTRUCTURE AND SUBSTRUCTURE.

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE IV. — Description of Plate IV.

SUBSTRUCTURES IN 1874.
Interior, at the South-east end. View in the Passages.

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE V. — Description of Plate V.

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

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE VI. — Description of Plate VI.

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

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE VII. — Description of Plate VII.

VIEW AT THE SOUTH-EAST END.

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE VIII. — Description of Plate VIII.

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

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE IX. — Description of Plate IX.

ARCHES IN THE SUBSTRUCTURE.

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE X. — Description of Plate X.

SUBSTRUCTURES.
Remains of two Canals, one supported on Timbers, the other on Brick Arches.

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XI. — Description of Plate XI.

TWO CAPITALS.
A. From the Upper Storey.
B. From the lower one, or the Podium.

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XII. — Description of Plate XII.

RESTORATION OF ONE COMPARTMENT OF THE SUPERSTRUCTURE.

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XIII. — Description of Plate XIII.

SECTION AND DETAILS OF ONE COMPARTMENT,
Including the Substructures below, and the Awning above.

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XIV. — Description of Plate XIV.

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

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XV. — Description of Plate XV.

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

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XVI. — Description of Plate XVI.

SUBSTRUCTURES EXCAVATED IN 1875,
With probable Restorations of the Lifts or Pegmata.

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XVII. — Description of Plate XVII.

VIEW IN THE SUBSTRUCTURES.

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).

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XVIII. — Description of Plate XVIII.

VIEW IN THE SUBSTRUCTURES.

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XIX. — Description of Plate XIX.

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

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XX. — Description of Plate XX.

PORTION OF THE SUPERSTRUCTURE IN THE PRINCIPAL GALLERY.

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XXI. — Description of Plate XXI.

VIEW IN THE UPPER PART.
Details.

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XXII. — Description of Plate XXII.

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

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XXIII. — Description of Plate XXIII.

GRAFFITO OF THE PODIUM, &c.

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XXIV. — Description of Plate XXIV.

REPRESENTATIONS ON COINS OR MEDALS.

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XXV. — Description of Plate XXV.

DIAGRAMS OF COINS OR MEDALS.

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XXVI. — Description of Plate XXVI.

A ROMAN GALLEY ON A CRADLE FOR LAUNCHING.

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XXVII. — Description of Plate XXVII.

AMPHITHEATRE OR COLOSSEUM AT CAPUA.

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].

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XXVIII. — Description of Plate XXVIII.

AMPHITHEATRE AT CAPUA.

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XXIX. — Description of Plate XXIX.

AMPHITHEATRE AT CAPUA.
Details.

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XXX. — Description of Plate XXX.

AMPHITHEATRE AT CAPUA.
Plan of the Substructures, with the Superstructures in dotted lines.

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XXXI. — Description of Plate XXXI.

AMPHITHEATRE AT VERONA.

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XXXII. — Description of Plate XXXII.

THE AMPHITHEATRE AT POZZUOLI, NEAR NAPLES.

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XXXIII. — Description of Plate XXXIII.

AMPHITHEATRE AT POZZUOLI.
Plan.

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XXXIV. — Description of Plate XXXIV.

AMPHITHEATRE AT POZZUOLI.

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XXXV. — Description of Plate XXXV.

AMPHITHEATRE AT POZZUOLI.

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.

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THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XXXVI. — Description of Plate XXXVI.

PLAN OF THE GREAT DRAIN.

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.

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FOOTNOTES

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.