Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/358

 326 ROMAN AECHITECTUKE. Part L of public buildings from the Etruscans. At Sutri there is a very noble one cut out of the tufa rock, which was no doubt used by that people for festal representations long before Rome attempted anything of the kind. It is uncertain whether gladiatorial fights or combats of wild beasts formed any part of the amusements of the arena in those days, though boxing, wrestling, and contests of that description certainly did ; but whether the Etruscans actually proceeded to the shedding of blood and to slaughter is more than doubtful. Even in the remotest part of Britain, in Germany and Gaul, wherever Ave find a Roman settlement, we find the traces of their amphitheatres. Their soldiery, it seems, could not exist without the enjoyment of seeing men engaged in doubtful and mortal combats — either killing one another, or torn to pieces by wild beasts. It is not to be Avondered at that a people Avho delighted so much in the bloody scenes of the arena should feel but very little pleasure in the mimic sorroAvs and tame humor of the stage. The brutal exhibition of the amphitheatre fitted them, it is true, to be a nation of conquerors, and gave them the emi)ire of the Avorld, but brought Avith it feelings singularly inimical to all the softer arts, and Avas perhaps the great cause of their ultimate debasement. As might be expected, the largest and most splendid of these buildings is that Avhich adorns the capital ; and of all the ruins Avhich Rome contains, none have excited such universal admiration as the Flavian Amphitheatre. Poets, painters, rhapsodists, have exhausted all the resources of their art in the attempt to convey to others the overpoAvering impression this building produces on their own minds- "With the single exception, perhaps, of the Hall at Karnac, no ruin has met Avith such universal admiration as this. Its association Avith the ancient mistress of the Avorld, its destruction, and the half- prophetic destiny ascribed to it, all contribute to this. In spite of our better judgment Ave are forced to confess that " The gladiators' bloody circus stands A noble Avreck in ruinous perfection," and worthy of all or nearly all the admiration of Avhich it has been the object. Its interior is almost Avholly devoid of ornament, or anything that can be called architecture — a vast invei'ted })yramid. The ex- terior does not possess one detail wiiich is not open to criticism, and indeed to positive blame. Notwithstanding all this, its magnitude, its form, and its associations, all combine to produce an effect against Avhich the critic struggles in vain. Still all must admit that the pillars and their entablature are useless and ai*e added incongruously, and that the u))per story, not being arched like the lower, but solid and with ugly ))ilasters, is a painful blemish. This last defect is so striking, that in spite of the somewhat dubious evidence of medals, I