Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/433

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 409 of Titus, which so well deserved the epithet of colos- CHAP. saP. It was a building of an elhptic figure, five hun- -^^^^ dred and sixty-four feet in length, and four hundred and sixty-seven in breadth, founded on fourscore arches, and rising, with four successive orders of architecture, to the height of one hundred and forty feet^ The outside of the edifice was encrusted with marble, and decorated with statues. The slopes of the vast con- cave, which formed the inside, were filled and sur- rounded with sixty or eighty rows of seats of marble likewise, covered with cushions, and capable of re- ceiving with ease above fourscore thousand specta- tors ^ 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 con- venience 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 aro- matics. In the centre of the edifice, the arena, or stage, was strewed with the finest sand, and succes- sively assumed the most different forms. At one mo- ment 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 y See MafFei, Verona Illustrata, p. iv. I. i. c. 2. ^ MafFei, 1. ii. c. 2. The height was very much exaggerated by the ancients. It roached ahnost to the heavens, according to Calphurnius, (Eclog. vii. 23.) and surpassed the ken of human sight, according to Am- mianus Marcellinus, xvi. 10. Yet how trifling to the great pyramid of Egypt, which rises five hundred feet perpendicular ! ^ According to different copies of Victor, we read seventy-seven thou- sand or eighty-seven thousand spectators; but MafFei (1. ii. c. 12.) finds room on the open seats for no more than thirty-four thousand. The remain- der were contained in the upper covered galleries. •» See Maffei, 1. ii. c. 5 — 12. He treats the very difficult subject with all possible clearness, and like an architect, as well as an antiquarian.