THE GRANDEUR OF THE COLOSSEUM
Some of the most imposing palaces which lend dignity to the modern city have been built with this material. Although fully half the stone has been thus removed, the part of the structure which still remains is the most impressive of all the ruins of the city—a monument of the grandeur and of the moral degradation of Rome. It is an especially rich experience to visit the Colosseum by moonlight, where, seated on a stone at the edge of the arena, we may in imagination, with the aid of the tranquil light, reconstruct the vast interior and repeople it with a Roman multitude breathlessly awaiting the opening of the games or exulting over the triumph of a popular favorite. On certain nights the municipal authorities illuminate the interior with colored lights, whose weird spell awakens the imagination to sights of bloody conflict amid a yelling, savage mob.
THE BASILICA OF TRAJAN
One of the buildings of the Forum of Trajan. The interior as it looked in the days of ancient Rome.