In
the year of the consulship of Marcus Licinius and Lucius Calpurnius, the
losses of a great war were matched by an unexpected disaster, no sooner
begun than ended. One Atilius, of the freedman class, having undertaken to
build an amphitheatre at
Fidena for the exhibition
of a show of gladiators, failed to lay a solid foundation and to frame the
COLLAPSE OF AMPHITHEATRE AT FIDENÆ |
wooden superstructure with beams of
sufficient strength; for he had neither an abundance of wealth, nor zeal for
public popularity, but he had simply sought the work for sordid gain.
Thither flocked all who loved such sights and who during the reign of
Tiberius had been wholly debarred from such amusements; men and women of
every age crowding to the place because it was near
Rome. And so the calamity was all the more fatal. The
building was densely crowded; then came a violent shock, as it fell inwards
or spread outwards, precipitating and burying an immense multitude which was
intently gazing on the show or standing round. Those who were crushed to
death in the first moment of the accident had at least under such dreadful
circumstances the advantage of escaping torture. More to be pitied were they
who with limbs torn from them still retained life, while they recognised
their wives and children by seeing them during the day and by hearing in the
night their screams and groans. Soon all the neighbours in their excitement
at the report were bewailing brothers, kinsmen or parents. Even those whose
friends or relatives were away from home for quite a different reason, still
trembled for them, and as it was not yet known who had been destroyed by the
crash, suspense made the alarm more widespread.
