Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/367

Rh "Two aqueducts were scarcely sufficient to wash off the human blood which a few hours' sport shed in this imperial shambles. Twice in one day came the Senators and matrons of Rome to the butchery; a virgin always gave the signal for slaughter." Roman virtue and Roman heroism have passed into bye-words in history and in tale; but every nation has its vice, and no civilized people of whom there is any record in history were so brutally cruel, so savagely and passionately fond of witnessing suffering as the Romans. It is said, indeed, that the truly brave are never cruel; but to that assertion the Roman amphitheatre gives the lie.

The partial destruction of this solid pile is no doubt partly due to the effects of time and partly to the vandalims [sic] of barbarians, but it is mainly due to the vandalism of the people of Rome itself during long centuries in the Middle Ages. For centuries the Colosseum was used as a quarry, and many palaces of modern Rome, have been built with materials taken from the Colosseum. As Byron sings:—

We have now traversed the whole length of the valley from the Capitoline Hill to the Colosseum. Along one side of the valley, as I have stated before, is the Palatine Hill,—that Hill which was all Rome in the time of the early kings. On this hill are the ancient ruined arches of a house said to be the palace of Tarquinus Priscus, one of the early kings of Rome.