Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/472

 440 AMPHITHEATRE culiculum) of the chief magistrate or emperor was on a conspicuous part of the first platform (podium), as was that of the vestal virgins. A raised seat on the same was also assigned to the giver (editor) of the games. At each end of the arena was a large door for the entrance and exit of men and beasts. The latter were kept in dens under the platforms and seats, and were sometimes forced upon the arena through small doors in the side of the wall surround- ing it. Sometimes also, if not always, there were vast substructions beneath the floor of the arena containing dens from which the animals might be suddenly sent up through trap doors. Excavations in the amphitheatre at Pozzuoli have shown most clearly these ar- rangements. On the top of the wall of the arena was a railing of bronze or iron to protect those who sat on the first platform from any sudden spring of the wild beasts. As a further defence, ditches called euripi sometimes sur- rounded the arena. An awning (velarium), supported by ropes and pulleys from strong masts set in stone sockets around the top of the building, appears to have been sometimes extended over the spectators. When the wea- ther did not permit the velarium to be spread, broad-brimmed hats or a sort of parasols were used. The first amphitheatre in Rome seems to have been that of M. Curio, described by Pliny. It consisted of two wooden theatres made to revolve on pivots, in such a manner that they could by means of windlasses and machinery be turned round face to face, so as to form one building. Gladiatorial shows were first exhibited in the forum, and combats of wild beasts in the circus ; and it appears that the ancient custom was still preserved till the dictatorship of Julius Caesar, who built a wood- en theatre in the Campus Martius for the pur- Amphitheatre at Verona. pose of exhibiting hunts of wild beasts. Most of the early amphitheatres were merely tem- porary and made of wood ; such as the one built by Nero at Rome, and that erected by Atilius at Fidenro in the reign of Tiberius, which gave way during the games and killed or injured 50,000 persons. The first stone am- phitheatre was built by Statilins Taurus, at the desire of Augustus. This building, which stood in the Campus Martius near the Circus Ago- nalis, was destroyed by fire in the reign of Nero, and it has therefore been supposed that only the external walls were of stone, and that the seats and other parts of the interior were of timber. A second ^amphitheatre was com- menced by Caligula; but by far the most celebrated of all was the Flavian amphitheatre, usually called the Colosseum, which was begun by Vespasian and finished by his son THus, who dedicated it A. D. 80, on which occasion, according to Eutropius, 6,000, and according to Dion, 9,000 beasts were destroyed. The fol- lowing table has been compiled to show the proportions of some of the chief amphitheatres: PLACES. 1 I 3 Length of Arena, M. Breadth of Arena, feet. Height, feet. to 1 Rome (Colosseum). Verona 615 B18 610 410 281 24(4 176 147 If4 100 bO-100,000 22,000 608 486 Pozzuoli 1-0 8S2 886 188 25,000 Aries 459 888 816 180 55f 28,000 450 878 487 832 70 17-28,000 Pompeii 480 835 19S 107 10-20,000 Poitiers 426 875 264 210 Pola 886 292 75