THE COLOSSEUM
This immense amphitheater was built by Vespasian and dedicated by Titus. It is a gigantic oval four stories in height. From the north side, which is still nearly intact, the first three stories present simply a series of arcades; the fourth story is a closed wall. Four entrances lead into the arena; seventy-six others into vaulted corridors, whence the spectators passed up various stairways to their seats, which extended in tiers from near the floor to the top of the highest story. The seats have disappeared, but careful measurement places the capacity at 45,000, with standing room for perhaps 5,000 more. Hidden from view were the cages of wild beasts and the cells for gladiators, and beneath the arena were machines for elevating animals to the surface.
INTERIOR OF THE COLOSSEUM ON A FÊTE DAY
The dedication in 80 A. D. was accompanied with games lasting through a hundred days. A Roman “game” involved a contest; and those offered by Titus at the dedication included the baiting and slaughter of savage beasts, fights of gladiators, and a sham naval battle, the arena being flooded for the purpose. It is difficult to understand how a ruler such as Titus, who abhorred bloodshed and would condemn no man to death during his administration, provided the city populace with this bloody, brutalizing sport. But love of popularity has always been a powerful motive among men; and some emperors and patriotic citizens tried to excuse the sport on the foolish supposition that it fostered the military spirit. As a matter of fact, the populace who attended these shows grew more and more unwilling and unfit to defend their country and homes against invading barbarians.
THE BASILICA JULIA
A drawing showing the reconstructed interior of this building, which formerly stood in the Forum.
It was not till some years after Titus that the spectators began to experience a new kind of pleasure in seeing Christians thrown living to the wild beasts of the arena. Many thus perished as witnesses of a better faith and a higher morality. When, however, Christianity triumphed and became the religion of the empire, an effort was instituted, first by Constantine, to stop the degrading shows. But the people were so frantically addicted to them that they were scarcely abated by government edicts till Emperor Honorius succeeded in abolishing gladiatorial fights in 404. Long afterward the hunting of wild beasts continued. The massive structure remained scarcely impaired by time till about the middle of the fourteenth century, when the greater part of the southern half collapsed, probably through an earthquake. The ruin piled up a “mountain of stone,” which for the next five centuries served the Roman nobles as a quarry.