AMPHITHEA´TRUM
AMPHITHEA´TRUM (
ἀμφιθέατρον a description of building arranged for the exhibition
of combats of gladiators, and wild beasts, and ships, which constituted the
ludi amphitheatrales. [GLADIATORES;
VENATIO; NAUMACHIA.]
I.
Its History.--Such exhibitions--which were peculiar to the
Romans, and which were unknown to the Greeks till the Romans introduced
them--originally took place in the
FORUM and the
CIRCUS
the shows of gladiators being given in the former, and those of wild beasts
in the latter; indeed the amphitheatre itself is sometimes called
circus. The shape of the circus, however, was much better
fitted for the chariot races, for which it was at first designed, than for
the gladiatorial combats, and the more wholesale slaughter of animals,
which, in process of time, came to be the favourite amusements of the
Romans. For these purposes, the circus was too long and too narrow, and the
spina was a great impediment, so that a new form of building was required,
which should accommodate a multitude of spectators in such a manner as that
all might have a good view of the space occupied by the combatants, which
space too required to be of quite a different shape from the circus, as the
combatants were to be kept as much as possible in the same place. The idea
of such a building was suggested, as the name seems to imply, by the already
existing theatre: indeed, the first amphitheatre of which we have any
account--that of C. Scribonius
[p. 1.107]Curio--was,
literally, a
double theatre,
1 being composed of two theatres, placed on pivots, so that they could
be turned round, spectators and all, and placed either back to back, forming
two separate theatres for dramatic exhibitions, or face to face, forming an
amphitheatre, for the shows of gladiators and wild beasts. This edifice,
which was erected by Curio, the celebrated partisan of Caesar, in B.C. 50,
for the celebration of his father's funeral games, is described by Pliny
(
H. N. 36.116 ff.). The next amphitheatre, and apparently
the first to which the name was applied, was built by Julius Caesar himself,
during his perpetual dictatorship, in B.C. 46 (
D. C.
43.22, who thus describes the building:
Θέατρόν τι κυνηγετικὸν, ὃ καὶ ἀμφιθέατρον ἐκ τοῦ πέριχ
πανταχόθεν ἔδρας ἄνευ σκηνῆς ἔχειν προσερρέθη). This,
however, was still only of wood,--a material which was frequently used for
theatres, and which was, therefore, naturally adopted for amphitheatres, but
which sometimes proved inadequate to support the weight of the immense body
of spectators, and thus occasioned serious accidents. For example, we are
told that a wooden amphitheatre, which was built at Fidenae in the reign of
Tiberius A.D. 27 by Atilius, a freedman, fell in, and buried either 20,000
or 50,000 spectators in its ruins. (
Suet. Tib.
40;
Tac. Ann. 4.63.) Tacitus, who
gives the higher and almost incredible number, expressly states that the
loss of life was equal to that of a great war. These wooden buildings were,
of course, also exposed to great danger from fire; thus a wooden
amphitheatre at Placentia was burned in the civil war between Otho and
Vitellius. (
Tac. Hist. 2.20.)
It was not, however, till the fourth consulship of Augustus, B.C. 30, that a
more durable amphitheatre, of stone, was erected by Statilius Taurus, in the
Campus Martius. (
D. C. 51.23; Suet.
Octav. 29;
Tac. Ann.
3.72;
Strab. vi. p.236.) But, since
this building was destroyed by fire, it must be supposed that only the shell
was of stone, and the seats and staircases of wood. This edifice was the
only one of the kind until the building of the Flavian amphitheatre. It did
not satisfy Caligula, who commenced an amphitheatre near the Septa; but the
work was not continued by Claudius. (
D. C.
59.10;
Suet. Cal. 18,
21.) Nero too, in his second consulship, A.D.
57, erected a vast amphitheatre of wood, but this was only a temporary
building. (
Suet. Nero 12;
Tac. Ann. 13.31.) The amphitheatre of Taurus
was destroyed in the burning of Rome, A.D. 64 (
D. C.
62.18), and was probably never restored, as it is not again
mentioned. It has been a question with the topographers whether any traces
of it are now visible. (Becker,
Röm. Alterth. i. pp.
642, 643; and Urlichs,
Beschreibung Roms, pp. 53, 54.
2) The slight elevation called
Monte Giordano has been
supposed, not improbably, to be caused by its ruins; the same has been said
of the
Monte Citorio, but it is known now that this is over
the remains of the temple of M. Aurelius. (Middleton, p. 300.)
The erection of an amphitheatre in the midst of Rome, proportioned to the
magnitude of the city, was among the designs of Augustus, who delighted in
the spectacles of the
venatio, and especially
in the uncommon species and immense number of the animals exhibited in them;
so that, as he himself informs us, in one of his
venationes there were no less than 3500 animals slaughtered.
(Suet.
Vesp. 9; Aur. Vict.
Epit. 1;
Monum. Ancyr.) It was not, however, till the reigns of
Vespasian and Titus that the design of Augustus was carried into effect by
the erection of the
Amphitheatrum Flavium, or,
as it has been called since the time of Bede, the
Colosseum or
Coliseum, probably on account of
its gigantic size. According to some, this name was derived from the
colossal statue of Nero, which stood close by, but this is not probable, as
the bronze Colossus had been overthrown and melted long before the name
Colosseum had been applied to the Flavian amphitheatre (Middleton, p. 302).
This wonderful building, which for magnitude can only be compared to the
pyramids of Egypt, and which is perhaps the most striking monument at once
of the material greatness and the moral degradation of Rome under the
empire, was commenced by Vespasian (Suet.
Vesp. 9), probably
at an early period of his reign; for the genuineness of the medal, which is
quoted by Lipsius as placing its commencement in his eighth consulship, A.D.
77, is more than doubtful (Eckhel,
Doctr. Num. Vet. vol. vi.
p. 840), and the time too short. It was completed by Titus, who dedicated it
in A.D. 80, when 5000 animals of different kinds were slaughtered. (Suet.
Tit. &;
D. C.
66.25.) He seems, however, only to have completed the main framework
of the building so far as was necessary to make it possible to hold games in
it, and Domitian afterwards added the last story and the ornamental work
(
usque ad clypea: Catal. Viennensis ap. Roncalli, p.
243). As built by the Flavian emperors, the highest tiers of seats inside,
and probably the fourth story as a whole, were of wood. An examination of
the existing structure shows that it is of two distinct dates, with a
considerable interval; and these portions of it are now proved to be not
earlier than the time of Alexander Severus and Gordian III. The junction of
the work of the two periods can be clearly seen in the interior. (Burn, p.
235; Parker, pt. vii. pp. 6, 25; Middleton, p. 303 f.)
There is an ecclesiastical tradition, but not entitled to much credit, that
the architect of the
Coliseum was a Christian, and afterwards
a martyr, named Gaudentius, and that thousands of the captive Jews were
employed in its erection. Venuti gives, as the authority for this statement,
an inscription now in the church of
S. Martino on the
Esquiline. The inscription,
[p. 1.108]however, probably
relates only to the martyrdom of Gaudentius in the amphitheatre, and does
not even say that he was an architect. (Burn,
l.c.;
Middleton,
l.c.）
The Flavian amphitheatre, from its enormous size, rendered the subsequent
erection of any other such building in Rome perfectly unnecessary. It became
the spot where prince and people met together to witness those sanguinary
exhibitions, the degrading effects of which on the Roman character can
hardly be over-estimated. It was partially repaired by Antoninus Pius
(Capit.
Ant. Pi. 8). In the reign of Macrinus, on the day of
the Vulcanalia, it was struck by lightning, by which the upper rows of
benches were consumed, and so much damage was done to other parts of the
structure, that the games were for some years celebrated in the Stadium.
(
D. C. 78.25.) Its restoration was
commenced by Elagabalus and completed by Alexander Severus. (Lamprid.
Heliog. 17;
Alex. Sev. 24.) A medal of
Gordian III. represents the Coliseum with the legend
munificentia
Gordiani Aug., showing that fresh works were undertaken within a
few years. It was again struck by lightning in the reign of Decius (Hieron.
p. 475), but was soon restored, and the games continued to be celebrated in
it down to the sixth century. It is usually stated that, in consequence of
the self-devotion of Telemachus, an Asiatic monk, who rushed into the arena
to separate the gladiators, and was overwhelmed under a shower of stones,
Honorius abolished for ever the sacrifices of the gladiators (Theodoret.
5.26); but there is evidence that they were continued even at a later
period. (Augustin.
Confess. 6.8; Salvian.
de Gubern.
Dei, 6.2, written after 455: see Dr. Smith's Note to Gibbon, iv.
p. 41.) In later times the amphitheatre has been used sometimes in war as a
fortress, and in peace as a quarry; whole palaces, such as the Cancelleria
and the Palazzo Farnese, having been built out of its spoils. At length the
popes made efforts to preserve it: Sixtus V. attempted to use it as a
woollen factory, and to convert the arcades into shops; Clement XI. enclosed
the lower arcades, and in 1750 Benedict XIV. consecrated it to Christians
who had been martyred in it. The best accounts of the building are contained
in the following works: Lipsius,
de
Amphitheatro; Nibby,
dell' Anfiteatro Flavio, a
supplement to Nardini, vol. i. p. 233, in which we have the most complete
historical account; Fea,
Notizie degli scavi nell‘
Anfiteatro Flavio; Bunsen,
Beschreibung d. Stadt
Rom, vol. iii. p. 319, &c.; Cressy and Taylor,
The
Architectural Antiquities of Rome; Maffei,
Verona Illustrata; Stieglitz,
Archäol. d.
Baukunst; Hirt,
Geschichte d. Baukunst bei den
Alten; Burn,
Rome and the Campagna, p. 234 ff.; J. H.
Parker,
Archaeol. of Rome, pt. vii.; J. H. Middleton,
Ancient Rome in 1885, p. 300 foll.
II.
Description of the Flavian Amphitheatre.--Notwithstanding
the damages of time, war, and spoliation, the Flavian amphitheatre still
remains complete enough to give us a fair idea, excepting in some minor
details, of the structure and arrangements of this description of building.
The notices of the ancient authors are extremely scanty; and Vitruvius of
course fails us here altogether: indeed, this description of building was so
completely new in his time, that only once does the bare word
amphitheatrum occur in his book (1.7). We derive
important aid from the remains of amphitheatres in the provinces of the
ancient Roman empire. We shall first describe the Coliseum, and then mention
the chief points of difference between it and these other amphitheatres.
The very site of the Flavian amphitheatre, as of most others, furnishes an
example of the prodigal contempt of labour and expense which the Roman
emperors displayed in their great works of architecture. The Greeks, in
choosing the sites of their theatres, almost always availed themselves of
some natural hollow on the side of a hill; but the Roman amphitheatres, with
few exceptions, stand upon a plain. The site of the Coliseum was in the
middle of the city, in the valley between the Caelian, the Esquiline, and
the Velia, on the marshy ground which was previously the lake of Nero's
palace,
stagnum Neronis.
“
Hic ubi conspicui venerabilis amphitheatri
Erigitur moles, stagna Neronis erant.
” (Mart.
de Spect. 2.5.)
No mere measures can give an adequate conception of this vast structure, the
dimensions and arrangements of which were such as to furnish seats for
87,000 spectators, round an arena large enough to afford space for the
combats of several hundred animals at once, for the evolutions of mimic
sea-fights, and for the exhibition of artificial forests; with passages and
staircases to give ingress and egress, without confusion, to the immense
mass of spectators, and others for the attendants on the arena; dens for the
thousands of victims devoted to destruction; channels for the rapid influx
and outlet of water when the arena was used for a
naumachia; and the means for the removal of the carcases, and
the other abominations of the arena. Admirable pictures of the magnitude and
magnificence of the amphitheatre and its spectacles are drawn in the
Essays of Montaigne (3.6), and in the latter part of
Gibbon's twelfth chapter. As a general description of the building, the
following passage of Gibbon is perfect:--“It was a building of an
elliptic figure, founded on fourscore arches, and rising, with four
successive orders of architecture, to the height of 140 [157] feet. The
outside of the edifice was incrusted with marble, and decorated with
statues. The slopes of the vast concave which formed the inside were
filled and surrounded with sixty or eighty rows of seats, of marble
likewise, covered with cushions, and capable of receiving with ease
about 80,000 spectators. Sixty-four
vomitories
(for by that name the doors were very aptly distinguished) poured forth
the immense multitude; and the entrances, passages, and staircases were
contrived with such exquisite skill, that each person, whether of the
senatorial, the equestrian, or the plebeian order, arrived at his
destined place without trouble or confusion. Nothing was omitted which,
in any respect, could be subservient to the convenience and pleasure of
the spectators. They were protected from the sun and rain by an ample
canopy, occasionally drawn over their heads. The air was continually
refreshed by the playing of fountains, and profusely impregnated by the
grateful scent of aromatics. In the centre of
[p. 1.109]the edifice, the
arena, or stage, was
strewed with the finest sand, and successively assumed the most
different forms. At one moment it seemed to rise out of the earth, like
the garden of the Hesperides, and was afterwards broken into the rocks
and caverns of Thrace. The subterraneous pipes conveyed an inexhaustible
supply of water; and what had just before appeared a level plain might
be suddenly converted into a wide lake, covered with armed vessels, and
replenished with the monsters of the deep. In the decoration of these
scenes, the Roman emperors displayed their wealth and liberality; and we
read on various occasions that the whole furniture of the amphitheatre
consisted either of silver, or of gold, or of amber. The poet who
describes the games of Carinus,
3 in the character of a shepherd, attracted to the capital by the
fame of their magnificence, affirms that the nets designed as a defence
against the wild beasts were of gold wire; that the porticoes were
gilded; and that the
belt or circle which
divided the several ranks of spectators from each other, was studded
with a precious mosaic of beautiful stones” [really, of glass
tesserae in imitation of jewels; cf.
ABACULUS].
The ground-plan, external elevation, and section given on p. 111 are from
Hirt, and contain of course some conjectural details. The ground-plan is so
arranged as to exhibit in each of its quarters the plan of each of the
stories: thus, the lower right-hand quarter shows the true
ground-plan, or that of the lowest story; the next
on the left shows a plan of the erections on the level of the second row of
exterior columns, as well as the seats which sloped down from that level to
the lower one; the next quarter shows a similar plan of the third order, and
the upper right-hand quarter exhibits a view of the interior as it would
appear to an eye looking vertically down upon it. The dotted lines on the
arena are the radii, and their points of intersection the centres, of the
several arcs which make up the ellipses.
This structure, like nearly all the other existing amphitheatres, is of an
elliptical form. It covers nearly six acres of ground. The plan divides
itself naturally into two concentric ellipses, of which the inner
constituted the
arena or space for the combats,
while the ring between this and the outer circumference was occupied by the
seats for the spectators. The lengths of the major and minor axes of these
ellipses are, respectively, 287 feet by 180, and 620 feet by 513. The width
of the space appropriated to spectators is, therefore, 166 1/2 feet all
round the building. The ratio of the diameters of the external ellipse is
nearly that of 6 to 5, which becomes exactly the proportion, if we take in
the substructions of the foundation. Of course, the ratio of the diameters
of the arena is different, on account of the diminished size: it is, in
fact, nearly as 8 to 5. The minor axis of the arena is here, and generally,
about one-third of that of the outer ellipse. The material used was stone,
in large blocks, fastened together, where necessary, by metal clamps. The
exterior was faced with marble and adorned with statues. The external
elevation requires little description. It is divided into four stories,
corresponding to the tiers of corridors by which access was gained to the
seats at different levels. These corridors are connected with the external
air by eighty arched openings in each of the three lower stories. To the
piers which divide these arches are attached columns which, in the first and
second stories, stand out from the wall by nearly three-quarters of their
circumference; in the third story, owing to the diminished
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Elevation of the Flavian Amphitheatre restored. (Daremberg and
Saglio.)
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thickness of the walls, only by a half. Thus, each of the three
lower stories presents a continuous façade of eighty columns
backed by piers, with eighty open arches between them, and with an
entablature continued unbroken round the whole building. The width of the
arches is as nearly as possible the same throughout the building, namely, 14
feet 6 inches, except at the extremities of the diameters of the ellipse,
where they are two feet wider. Each tier is of a different order of
architecture, the lowest being a plain Roman Doric, the next Ionic, and the
third Corinthian. The columns of the second and third stories are placed on
pedestals; those of the lowest story are raised from the ground by a
substructure of two steps.
[p. 1.110]The fourth story has no
arches, but consists of a wall pierced with larger and smaller square
windows, placed alternately, and is decorated with pilasters of the
Composite order. Between each pair of pilasters three consoles or brackets
project from the wall, and above these are small vertical shafts in the
entablature. The masts, upon which the
velaria
or awnings were stretched, rested on these brackets and passed through the
shafts in the manner represented in the above engraving. The total height of
that part of the building which remains entire, namely, about three-eighths
of the whole circumference, is 157 feet: the stories are respectively about
30, 38, 38, and 44 feet high. The massiveness of the crowning entablature,
the height of the upper story, and the great surface of blank wall in its
intercolumniations, combine to give the elevation a somewhat heavy
appearance; while the projecting cornices of each story, intercepting the
view from below, take off very much from the apparent height of the
building. Indeed, it would be a waste of words to attempt to specify all the
architectural defects of the composition.
The stone used in the exterior is tufa and travertine, and very massive: some
of the blocks are as much as five feet high, and eight or ten feet long: and
it is remarkable that all these have inscribed upon them small numbers or
signs, which evidently indicate the place of each in the building, and which
prove how great was the care taken to adapt every single stone to the form
of the whole edifice. In some parts of the interior large masses of
concrete, brickwork, and tufa are seen; and in the upper part there are
fragments of other buildings worked in; but this, no doubt, happened in some
of the various repairs.
There are coins extant, bearing on the reverse a view of the amphitheatre, so
arranged as to show not only the outside, but a portion of the interior
also. It is from them that we learn the fact that the outer arches of the
second and third stories were decorated with statues in their openings,
unless, indeed, the figures shown in the arches are meant for rude
representations of the people passing through the outer colonnade. These
coins also show, on the highest story, in the alternate spaces between the
pilasters, circles against the wall, corresponding to the windows in the
other alternate spaces; they are, perhaps, the
clypea mentioned by the old author cited above,--that is, ornamental
metal shields, hung there to decorate the building. There are several coins
of Titus and Domitian of this type (Eckhel,
Doctr. Num. Vet.
vol. vi. pp. 357-359, 375). There are similar coins of Gordian, which are,
however, very inferior in execution to those of Titus and Domitian. (Eckhel,
vol. vii. p. 271.) The coins of Titus and Domitian also show a range of
three stories of columns by the side of the amphitheatre, which (though the
matter is doubtful) is supposed to represent a colonnade which ran from the
palace of Titus on the Esquiline to the amphitheatre, to which it gave
access at the northern extremity of its minor axis, as shown on the plan. At
the other extremity of this axis was the entrance from the Palatine.
The seventy-six arches of the lower story (omitting the four at the
extremities of the axes) formed the numbered entrances for the spectators,
and gave admission to a corridor, running uninterruptedly round the
building, behind which again is another precisely similar corridor. (See the
plan and section.) The space behind the second corridor is divided by eighty
walls, radiating inwards from the inner piers of the second corridor; which
support the structure, and between which are partly staircases leading to
the upper stories, and partly passages leading into a third corridor, which,
like the first and second, runs round the whole building. Beyond this
corridor the radiating walls are again continued, the spaces between them
being occupied, as before, partly by staircases leading on the one side to
the
podium, and on the other to the lower range
of seats (
maenianum), and partly by passages leading
to a fourth continuous corridor much lower and smaller than the others,
which was divided from the
arena by a massive
wall (called
podium), the top of which formed
the place assigned to the spectators of the highest rank. From this fourth
corridor there are several entrances to the
arena; and it is most probable that the whole of the corridor was
subservient to the arrangements of the
arena.
(See the lower right-hand quarter of the plan, and the section.) On the
second story we have the two outer colonnades repeated, and the radiating
walls of the first block are continued up through this story; and between
them are staircases leading out on to the second range of seats, and
passages leading into a small inner corridor, from which access is obtained
to a sort of terrace (
praecinctio) which runs
round the building between the first and second ranges of seats, and
increases the facilities for the spectators getting to their proper places.
Sloping down from this
praecinctio to the level
of the top of the
podium, and supported by the
inner series of radiating walls, are the lower series of seats. On the third
story (above the floor of which the details are almost entirely
conjectural), we have again the double colonnade, the inner wall of which
rises immediately behind the top of the second range of seats, with only the
interval of a narrow
praecinctio, to which
access was given by numerous doors in the wall just mentioned, which was
also pierced with windows. Above the outer corridor of this story is an
entresol, or small middle story, in front of which and above the inner
colonnade were a few tiers of wooden benches for the lowest class of
spectators. Above this entresol was a gallery, which ran right round the
building, and the front of which is supposed to have been formed by a range
of columns. It seems that the terrace formed by the top of this gallery
would be also available for spectators. And, lastly, the very summit of the
wall was formed into a sort of terrace, which was, no doubt, occupied by the
men who worked the ropes of the
velarium. The
doors which opened from the staircases and corridors on to the interior of
the amphitheatre were designated by the very appropriate name of
vomitoria. The whole of the interior was called
cavea. The following section (from Hirt)
exhibits these arrangements as clearly as they can be shown without the aid
of perspective.
The arena was surrounded by a wall of sufficient height to guard the
spectators against any danger from the wild beasts; namely, about fifteen
feet. A further protection was afforded,
[p. 1.111]at least
sometimes, by a network or trellis of metal; and it is mentioned, as an
instance of the profuse ostentation which the emperors were so fond of
displaying, that Nero, in his amphitheatre, had this trellis gilt, and its
intersections ornamented with bosses of amber.
 |
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Ground-plan of the Flavian Amphitheatre
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 |
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Longitudinal Elevation of the Flavian Amphitheatre.
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 |
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Longitudinal Section of the Flavian Amphitheatre.
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（
Plin. Nat. 37.45; Calpurn.
Eel. 7.47.) The wall just mentioned appears to have been
faced with marble, and to have had rollers suspended against it as an
additional protection against the possibility of the wild beasts climbing
it. (Lips.
de Amph. 12.) The terrace on the top of this wall,
which was called
podium (a name sometimes also
applied to the wall
[p. 1.112]itself), was about 12 feet
high, and no wider than to be capable of containing two, or at the most
three ranges of separate marble thrones. This, as being by far the best
situation for distinctly viewing the sports in the arena, and also more
commodiously accessible than the seats higher up, was the place set apart
for senators and other persons of distinction, such as the ambassadors of
foreign states (Suet.
Octav. 44;
Juv.
2.143, &c.); the magistrates seem to have sat here in
their curule chairs (Lipsius,
de Amph. 11); and it was here,
also, that the emperor himself used to sit, in an elevated place called
suggestus (
Suet.
Jul. 76; Plin.
Paneg. 51), or
cubiculum (
Suet. Nero 12); and
likewise the person who exhibited the games, on a place elevated like a
pulpit or tribunal (
editoris tribunal). The
vestal virgins also appear to have had a place allotted to them
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I. II. III. IV. the four stories of the exterior. A. The arena. B. The
podium. C, D, E, F. The four corridors. G, H,
I. The three maeniana. K. The upper
gallery; L. the terrace over it. R.
The space on the summit of the wall for the managers of the
velarium. Z. The steps which surrounded the building
on the outside. a. Stairs from the
third colonnade to the podium. b. Short
transverse steps from the podium to the first maenianum. (Compare
the plan.) c, d. Stairs from the ground
story to the second; whence the second maenianum was reached in two
ways, e and g.
e. Steps to the first praecinctio, from which there were short
transverse steps (f) to the second
maenianum. g. Stairs leading direct from the
corridors of the second story to the second maenianum, through the
vomitorium a. h. Stairs leading from the
floor of the second story to the small upper story, whence other
stairs (δ) led to the third story,
from which access was obtained to the upper part of the second
maenianum by doors (β) in the inner
wall of the second corridor q. k. Stairs
from the second story to the entresol, or middle story, whence
access was obtained to the third maenianum by passages (γ). l. Stairs in
the entresol, leading to the upper part of the third maenianum, and
to the gallery K. m. Steps from the gallery to the
terrace over it. n. Steps from that terrace
to the summit. o, p. Grated openings to
light the two inner corridors. q. See under
h. s. Windows to light the entresol. t. Windows of the gallery. v. Rest, and w,
loop, for the masts of the velarium, y.
Section of the Corridors, Stairs, and Seats.
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on the podium. (Suet.
Octav. 44.) Some of these
marble seats were taken in the Middle Ages, and used as episcopal thrones in
the centre of church apses. (Middleton, p. 315.)
Above the podium were the
gradus, or seats of
the other spectators, which were divided into stories called
maeniana. The whole number of seats is supposed to
have been about eighty. The first
maenianum,
consisting of fourteen rows of stone or marble seats, was appropriated to
the equestrian order. The seats appropriated to the senators and equites
were covered with cushions (
pulvini), which
were first used in the time of Caligula. (
Juv.
3.154;
D. C. 59.7.) Then, after a
horizontal space, termed a
praecinctio, and
forming a continuous landing-place from the several staircases which opened
on to it, succeeded the second
maenianum, where were
the seats called
popularia (
Suet. Dom. 4), for the third class of
spectators, or the
populus. Behind this was the
second
praecinctio, bounded by the high wall
already mentioned; above which was the third
maenianum, where there were only wooden benches for the
pullati, or common people. (Suet.
Octav. 44.) The open gallery at the top was the only part of
the amphitheatre in which women were permitted to witness the games, except
the vestal virgins, and perhaps a few ladies of distinction and influence
who were suffered to share the space appropriated to the vestals (Suet.
Octav. 44). The seats of the
maeniana did not run in unbroken lines round the whole building, but
were divided into portions called
cunei (from
their shape), by short flights of stairs which facilitated the access to the
seats. (Suet.
Oct. 44; Juv.
Sat.
6.61.) See the plan, and the annexed section of a small portion of the
seats.
Not only were the different ranges of seats appropriated to different classes
of spectators,
[p. 1.113]but the tickets of admission marked
the exact seat the holder was to occupy, with the number of the
maenianum and the
cuneus, who was at once guided to his place by numbers placed
over the external arches by which the building was
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ZZZ
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entered: these numbers still exist. “An existing ivory
ticket for the amphitheatre of Frosinone has similar indications (see
Mommsen in
Berl. Sachs Gesell. 1849, p. 286), namely, CVN.VI.IN.XVIII.; that is,
the sixth
cuneus, lowest row, seat No. 18.” (Middleton, p.
306.) An important inscription, now in the Capitoline Museum, bearing the
names of the consuls A.D. 80, shows the manner in which seats in the
amphitheatre were distributed and numbered. The office of preserving order
in the distribution of the places was assigned to attendants, and the whole
management was under the superintendence of the
vilicus
amphitheatri.
It only remains to describe the
arena, or
central open space for the combatants, which derived its name from the sand
with which it was covered, chiefly for the purpose of absorbing the blood.
Such emperors as Caligula, Nero, and Carinus, showed their prodigality by
using cinnabar and borax instead of the common sand. It was bounded, as
already stated, by the wall of the
podium, but
in the earlier amphitheatres, in which the
podium was probably not so lofty, there were ditches (
euripi) between it and the
arena, which were chiefly meant as a defence against the
elephants. The
euripi were first made by Julius
Caesar, and were dispensed with by Nero, in order to gain space for the
spectators. (
Suet. Jul. 39;
Plin. Nat. 8.21; Lipsius,
de
Amph. 12.)
The space of the arena was entirely open. If, as Lipsius thinks (
de
Amph. 4), there was an altar on which sacrifices were offered at
the opening of the games, it must have been a moveable one, as a permanent
structure would have interfered with the exhibitions. There were four
principal entrances to it, at the extremities of the axes of the ellipse, by
passages which led directly from the four corresponding arches of the
exterior; there were also minor entrances through the wall of the
podium. This wall has now been removed, and the
arena is consequently much larger than its original size, which was about
250 ft. by 150. In the year 1813, the arena was partially excavated, and
extensive substructions were discovered, which were at once supposed to be
the dens from which the animals were let loose upon the arena through
trap-doors. The chief difficulty was to reconcile such an arrangement with
the fact that the arena was frequently flooded and used for a naval combat,
and that too in the intervals between the fights of wild beasts. (Calpurn.
Eclog. 7.64, 73: the whole poem is a very interesting
description of the games of the amphitheatre.) [
NAUMACHIA] Further excavations in 1874-5 laid bare
the whole substructure of the arena, and cleared up several points which
were before uncertain, or only inferred from the well-preserved lower
portions of the amphitheatre at Pozzuoli. The sockets were discovered in
which the
pegmata or lifts worked by which the
cages were raised to the level of the arena. These are figured by Parker in
plate xvi. of his work on the Coliseum, whence the illustration on the next
page is partly derived. We must not suppose that the animals were kept for
any length of time in the dens below the podium. Immense numbers of slaves
were employed, and animals must have been brought up in moveable cages as
they were wanted. When a
naumachia took place
between the
venationes, we must assume that the animals intended for the
second
venationes were kept in the innermost
colonnade, or in its immediate vicinity, during the
naumachia, and afterwards transferred to the lifts, as the
spaces under the seats seem to have been entirely devoted to the passage of
the spectators, with only the exception of the innermost corridor. The vast
brick walls which fill the entire space below the arena show that there
could have been no great depth of water when it was let in for the
naumachia. There are, however, canals along which
the vessels may have moved, but could not manœuvre; the fighting
of the crews, and not their evolutions, being the principal amusement. Over
the shallower portions flat rafts (
rates) may
have moved more freely. The floor of the arena above these substructures was
of boards covered with sand, and moveable; and it was probably not more than
a few feet below the present surface of the ground. Had it been below the
substructures, as some have thought (referring them to a later date), none
but the foremost spectators could have seen anything. Inscriptions dug up at
the time of the first excavations in 1813-14 show that the arena and podium
were repaired by two prefects of the city, Lampadius and Basilius, in the
years 445 and 508 respectively; the second time in consequence of damage by
an earthquake; but much of the brick-work lately disclosed is coeval with
the building itself, and confirms the conclusions of common sense as to the
original level of the arena. Middleton describes (p. 326) the four long
subterraneous passages, which led from the space under the
arena in different directions. One led towards the
baths of Titus on the Esquiline; a second to the palace of Commodus on the
Caelian hill; a third branched from the second in a southward direction; a
fourth towards the Lateran hill. The first three are not now accessible; and
of the fourth about a hundred yards are now cleared out.
4
It is unnecessary to attempt a detailed description
[p. 1.114]of the statues and other ornaments with which the amphitheatre was
adorned; but the
velarium, or awning, by which
the spectators were sheltered from the sun, requires some explanation which
will be found under VELUM. the space required for
the working of the
velarium, and the height
necessary for keeping it from bending down by its own weight so low
 |
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Method of raising wild beasts in the Amphitheatre.
|
as to obstruct the view from the upper benches, are probably the
reasons for the great disproportion between the height of the upper part of
the amphitheatre, and the small number of spectators accommodated in that
part.
The luxurious appliances of fountains of scented water to refresh the
spectators, and so forth, are sufficiently described in the passage already
quoted from Gibbon. (Comp.
Lucan 9.808.)
III.
Other Amphitheatres.--The Flavian amphitheatre, as has
been already stated, was, from the time of its erection, the only one in
Rome; for the obvious reason that it was sufficient for the whole
population. The little
Amphitheatrum Castrense (see p. 107,
note) was probably only intended for the soldiers of the guard, who amused
themselves there with fights of gladiators. But in the provincial cities,
and especially the colonies, there were many amphitheatres. Indeed, it is
not a little interesting to observe the contrast between the national tastes
of the Greeks and Romans, which is indicated by the remains of theatres in
the colonies of the former, and of amphitheatres in those of the latter. The
immense expense of their construction would, however, naturally prevent the
erection of many such buildings as the Coliseum. (Cassiod.
Ep. 5.42.) The provincial amphitheatres were, probably, like
the earlier ones at Rome itself, generally built of wood, such as those at
Placentia and Fidenae, already mentioned. Of these wooden amphitheatres
there are of course no remains; but in several of the larger cities of the
Roman empire there are important ruins of large amphitheatres of stone. The
principal are those at Verona, Paestum, Pompeii, and Capua, in Italy; at
Nimes, Arles, and Fréjus, in France at Pola, in Istria; at
Syracuse, Catania, and some other cities in Sicily. They are all constructed
on the same general principles as the Coliseum, from which, again, they all
differ by the absence of the outermost corridor; and, consequently, their
height could not have exceeded three stories; while some of them only had
two. Of the Veronese amphitheatre, the outer wall and colonnade are entirely
gone, excepting four arches; but the rest of the building is almost perfect.
It was built of marble from some quarries in the neighbourhood. When
complete, it had seventy-two arches in the outer circle, and, of course, the
same number of radiating walls, with their passages and staircases. The
lengths of the axes of the outer ellipse were 500 and 404 feet; those of the
arena, 242 and 146. It was probably built under Domitian and Nerva. (Maffei,
Verona Illustrata.) The next in importance
is that at Nîmes, the outer diameter of which is 437 feet which
includes the thickness of the walls. The exterior wall, which is nearly
perfect, consists of a ground story and upper story, each pierced with sixty
arches, and is surmounted by an attic. Its height, from the level of the
ground, is above
[p. 1.115]70 English feet. The lower or
ground story is adorned with pilasters, and the upper with Tuscan or Doric
columns. The attic shows the holes destined to receive the posts on which
was stretched the awning that covered the amphitheatre. The rows of seats
are computed to have been originally 32 in number. There were four principal
entrances. The amphitheatre has been computed to hold 17,000 persons. That
at Arles was three stories high, and has the peculiarity of being built on
uneven ground; so that the lowest story is, for the most part, below the
level of the surface, and the principal entrances are on the second story.
(For a detailed description, see Guis,
Description de
l'Amphithéâtre d'Arles, 1665.) Both these
amphitheatres belong probably to the time of the Antonines. (Maffei,
de Amph. Gall.) The amphitheatre at Pola stands on the
side of a hill, and is higher on one side than on the other. There is little
to remark respecting the other amphitheatres, except that a fragment of an
inscription, found in that at Capua, informs us that it was built under
Hadrian, at the cost of the inhabitants of the city, and was dedicated by
Antoninus Pius; and, concerning that of Pompeii, that the earthquake which
preceded the eruption by which the city was buried injured the amphitheatre
so much, that antiquarians have been disappointed in looking for any new
information from it. There are traces of amphitheatres of a ruder kind,
chiefly of earth, in various parts of our own country, as at Dorchester,
Silchester, Caerleon, and Redruth.
IV.
Uses of the Amphitheatre.--This part of the subject is
treated of under GLADIATORES, NAUMACHIA, and VENATIONES. This is not the place to discuss the
influence of the spectacles of the amphitheatre on the character and
destinies of the Roman people.
[
P.S] [
W.W]
