Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/818

774 they also retained for themselves the superintendence of the and the administration of its treasures.  AMPHION, in, the son of by, and the husband of , was a ian of such wonderful power, that at the sounds of his  the s began to move, and formed themselves into s around , after his conquest of. He was killed by for assaulting his ; or, as some report, he destroyed himself in despair at the slaughter of his children by. The famous Farnese bull, discovered in, represents Amphion punishing for her treatment of. There are four other mythical personages of this name.  AMPHIOXUS, a of, differing widely from all other known s. See.  AMPHIPOLIS, a of, situated on the east of the , about three s from. It was originally a, known as the Ἐννέα οδοί (Nine s), and was  by the  in , two previous attempts ( and ) having been unsuccessful. In it surrendered to the ns without resistance, and the  never afterwards recovered possession of it. For his failure to prevent this disaster was  from. The site of Amphipolis is occupied by the modern Jeni Keui.  AMPHISBÆNA (from ἀμφίς, on both sides, and βαίνω, to go), a of s, found only in and the, which, though they have the general appearance of s or s, belong to the  Lacertilia, or s. The best known  are the y or dusky amphisbæna (A. fuliginosa), and the rarer A. alba. The body of the amphisbæna, from 18 to 24 es long, is of nearly the same thickness throughout. The is small, and there can scarcely be said to be a, the vent being close to the extremity of the body. The lives mostly underground, ing in soft, and feeds on  and other small s. From its appearance, and the ease with which it moves backwards, the popular belief in the  where it prevails has been that the amphisbæna has two s, and that when the body is cut in two the parts seek each other out and reunite. From this has arisen another popular error, which attributes extraordinary to its  when  and pulverised.  AMPHITHEATRE (from ἀμφί and θέατρον) denotes a in which the spectators were placed “all round” the. Though the is of, the thing itself is distinctively , being designed for those cruel shows of s and wild s in which that people took great pleasure, and which in modern s are only represented by the barbarous  still popular in. In the present article we do not enter on the consideration of the spectacles themselves, but shall confine ourselves to the, which were devised to allow as large a number of spectators as possible to enjoy the sight of the show. In a it is necessary, that the s should be heard, and also that their faces should be seen, and the audience has therefore to be arranged in a in front of them; but when men fought with other men or with s, they could be seen equally well from all sides. In, combats of s at first took place in the s, where temporary en s were for the spectators; and Vitruvius gives this as the reason why in the s were in the shape of a  instead of being s as in. Wild s were also hunted in the. But towards the end of the, when the shows increased both in frequency and in costliness as grew in power, special  began to be provided for them; and when the consolidation of peace under  had secured great material prosperity for the s, such as they had never enjoyed when separated into small s and often at  with each other, the example of  was followed by many other s in ; so that nearly a hundred amphitheatres have been identified, either by the existence of their ruins or by being mentioned by. There were even a few in, although such cruel s were quite alien to the elegance and refinement of the mind. From their being so admirably adapted for enabling the greatest possible number of people to behold a spectacle, it is natural to suppose that they would be occasionally used for purposes different from those usually intended by them; and accordingly Suetonius relates how had an impertinent  in the amphitheatre, and how  ordered the informers, after having been  in the, to be led through the, apparently that they might be exposed to the execrations of the people. were also sometimes exposed in them to be devoured by wild s, and many of the s died in this way. The first amphitheatre was that,, by. The only by whom it is described is Pliny, whose account of it rather taxes our credulity. He tells that built two en s, which were placed back to back, and that after the  were finished, they were turned round, with all the spectators in them, so as to make one , in [the centre of which s fought. And this was repeated more than once. ,  (also of ) the first regular amphitheatre, and exhibited wild s in it; and,   the first one of , which was burnt in the  during the reign of. Probably the outside only were of.

Several others were under, but they were entirely superseded and eclipsed by that of and, the vast ruins of which strike the traveller with awe. Set on by  under the , it was restored by , the shows during the interval being held (as of old) in the. The latest record of its being used is in the, when was present; but Bede in the  speaks of the  as still entire. During the many of the s of this, as of many other ancient, were carried away for  purposes; and among the plunderers we regret to have to reckon the great , who worked up a large number of its s into a  for one of the   families. As, however, the Colosseum had been the scene of many of the s,, whose  ought never to be mentioned without an expression of admiration and gratitude for his enlightened age of  and , took advantage of this to  the interior by the  of es and , thereby preserving it from further depredations. Of late s considerable s have been made to examine its substructures. Its is variously written, but on the whole it would seem that the most correct orthography is Colosseum (not Coliseum), and that it is derived from its colossal size, which far surpassed any former edifice of the sort. Many of its minor arrangements are uncertain, but the main features and general plan are sufficiently intelligible. The external elevation of the Colosseum consisted of four stages, each adorned with engaged s of the three orders of. The lowest three were d, having each eighty s and as many es. Those of the basement story served as entrances; seventy-