The archæology of Rome, Part 7

by John Henry Parker

LIST OF PLATES.

[I.]	Exterior—General View.
[II.]	Views of Parts—Upper Gallery, and remains of Reservoir in first gallery.
[III.]	General View in 1812.
[IV.]	View in the Substructures in 1874.
[V.]	View in the Interior in 1874.
[VI.]	Interior—View at the South-east End.
[VII.]	General View in the South-east Part, with the Cradle.
[VIII.]	Plan of the Part Excavated.
[IX.]	Arches in the Substructure, of the first and second century.
[X.]	Canals for the Naval fights.
[XI.]	Two Capitals, one from the upper gallery the other from the lower one.
[XII.]	Restoration of one Compartment.
[XIII.]	Section and Details of one Compartment.
[XIV.]	Section of one Bay, and Plans of the Six Storeys.
[XV.]	A. Probable Restoration of the Stagna, &c. B. Brick arches of Nero supporting a tufa wall and arch.
[XVI.]	Probable Restoration of the Lifts and Pegmata, or cages, with the animals leaping out.
[XVII.]	View in the Substructures, shewing the Consoles for placing the boards upon.
[XVIII.]	View and Plan of one Division, shewing the great consoles inserted into the old tufa wall.
[XIX.]	View in the Substructure, with the mouth of the Great Drain, and the iron grating and the grooves of the sluice-gate.
[XX.]	Portion of the Superstructure in the principal gallery.
[XXI.]	View in the Upper Part, with the aperture from which a travertine pier has been carried away.
[XXII.]	The Graffiti: A. and B. Athletes; C. A hunt of wild beasts.
[XXIII.]	A Graffito of the framework of the netting or gilt wire on the podium.
[XXIV.]	Representations of the Colosseum on Coins.
[XXV.]	Diagrams of the Coins.
[XXVI.]	A Roman Galley on a Cradle.
[XXVII.]	I. Amphitheatre at Capua. II. Amphitheatre at Pompeii, from a fresco of the first century.
[XXVIII.]	Amphitheatre at Capua—Perspective View and Details.
[XXIX.]	Amphitheatre at Capua—Details.
[XXX.]	Amphitheatre at Capua—Plan of Substructures and Superstructures.
[XXXI.]	Amphitheatre at Verona—A. Exterior. B. Interior.
[XXXII.]	Amphitheatre at Pozzuoli—Arena.
[XXXIII.]	Amphitheatre at Pozzuoli—Plan.
[XXXIV.]	Amphitheatre at Pozzuoli—Views and Section.
[XXXV.]	Amphitheatre at Pozzuoli—Views in the Interior, subterranean part.
[XXXVI.]	Colosseum—Plan of the Great Drain.

THE FLAVIAN AMPHITHEATRE,
COMMONLY CALLED
THE COLOSSEUM.

The importance of the great excavations made in 1874 and 1875 in this colossal building, and the evidence obtained by them for the history of the fabric, can hardly be overrated. It is now evident that the substructures under the level of the base of the podium are (when not rebuilt) the earliest part of it, and considerably earlier than the time of the Flavian Emperors, who built the magnificent front and corridors around a theatre previously existing on that site.

This great amphitheatre is indeed enumerated by Suetonius[23] among the works of Vespasian, and he adds that an amphitheatre in the centre of Rome had been projected by Augustus. But he does not say that it was then begun, and it seems evident that it was in use in the time of Nero in connection with his great golden house, and was partly built by him, but the exterior left unfinished. It contained the stagna, or stagnum navale, called also Vetus Naumachia, made at a still earlier period on the same site, which was called the old naumachia, when Augustus made new and larger ones in the Trastevere. It also contained his gymnasium on the boarded floor, or arena, of the theatre, over the stagna maritima, or canals for the sham naval fights. We know nothing certain as to the exact date of the commencement, but the building was continued during the reign of Vespasian and till the second year of Titus, namely A.D. 80, when it was dedicated. There is no evidence to prove that it was commenced even under Nero.

Pliny gives an account of a wooden amphitheatre built by Statilius Taurus, which was in the Campus Martius; he says[24] that

“he made two large theatres of wood, morticed together in a singular manner, and suspended so as to turn freely, in which on both sides were exhibited the afternoon shows of plays, then turning them round—nor were the scenes interrupted by the turning—quickly turning to face each other, and (intermediate) boards falling down; and the two parts held together by horns. He made an amphitheatre and exhibited the gladiatorial shows, carrying with him the consent of the greater part of the Roman people. For which was most to be admired, the inventor or the thing invented? The work or its author? To have thought of such a thing, or to have carried it out? To exhibit it, or permit it? Upon all these points there was a furor of the people, to dare to sit on such an unsafe and unstable seat.”

This gave the form of an amphitheatre, or a theatre round at both ends, and not with one side flat, as in the other theatres, but the two names are often used indifferently; this set the fashion, and Julius Cæsar followed it a few years afterwards in his great wooden amphitheatre; but the turning round had been abandoned, and the advantage of substructures under the stage would become apparent for making the shows still more popular. It is mentioned as being very large, to admit of naval fights with large vessels, but this was in the Campus Martius, and was a temporary structure only, as stated by Dio Cassius[25].

The Theatre of M. Scaurus, the ædilis, is mentioned by Pliny[26] as being on an enormous scale,—the scena of triple height, with 360 columns, and he enumerates it among the insane works that were made at his private cost. The upper part was of wood.

“He made, during the time that he was edile, the greatest work that ever was made by human hands, not for temporary use only, but destined for eternity also[27]. This was a theatre; the scena of it was triple in height. There were three hundred and sixty columns in that building, of which six were brought from Hymettus, not without reproach at the sumptuousness of a citizen. The lowest part of the scena was of marble, the middle part of glass, an unheard-of luxury in that kind of work; the highest part of gilt wood. The columns were at least thirty-eight feet high; the images between the columns were three thousand in number; the cavea itself held eighty thousand people.”

Scena usually means the stage for the actors to perform upon, but how could this be triple, and three storeys high? To what other site in Rome, excepting this great amphitheatre, which held 80,000 people, could all this possibly apply?

This was in the time of Sylla; the site is not mentioned. Dio mentions[28] a great flood in the time of Julius Cæsar, A.U.C. 694 (B.C. 59), extending as far as the great wooden theatre. The clivus Scauri descends from that part of the Cœlian Hill on which the Claudium was afterwards built, to the level of the road or street that leads from the Circus Maximus to the Colosseum. All this was under water at the time of the great flood in 1871.

The name of cavea is said by Lipsius[29] to be applied to the amphitheatre by several classical authors. He cites Ammianus Marcellinus[30], Prudentius[31], and others, as using that name for it; but they probably meant not only the hollow where the seats were placed, but also the hollow space under the arena, with the dens for the wild beasts, to which that name was also applied. Statius[32] uses the word cavea for the cages for lions, with doors round them, the closing of which frightened the lions. Livy mentions iron cages (caveas), but Claudian says that the animals were shut into wooden houses[33]; probably the cages in which they were brought from the vivaria were of iron, but wooden cages (pegmata) were sufficient to place upon the lifts, and send the animals up to the trap-doors[34].

Long before this time wild beasts had been brought into Rome for exhibition, in the year 502 of Rome[35] (B.C. 251). Lucius Cæcilius Metellus, the pro-consul, when he had conquered Sicily from the Carthaginians, brought into Rome 142 elephants taken from them, which he exhibited in the Circus Maximus. The custom of sending culprits to execution by being torn to pieces by wild beasts is very ancient in the East, as the well-known history of Daniel and the lions clearly shews. The invention of circuses and amphitheatres for the exhibition of hunts is attributed to the Athenians by Cassiodorus[36]; but it is generally thought to be a Roman invention, although the name is Greek. Livy[37] records that in the year 568 of Rome (B.C. 217), Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, after the war with the Ætolians, exhibited for the first time “the athletes, and the hunting of lions and panthers.”

In the year 586 of Rome (B.C. 227), Livy[38] also relates that “P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica and P. Lentulus, the Ædiles Curules, exhibited 63 African wild beasts, 40 bears and elephants.” Martial, who was a contemporary of Vespasian and Titus, Domitian and Trajan, has numerous epigrams on the subject of scenes that took place in the Amphitheatre of the Cæsars, by which he obviously means the Colosseum; a large part of his first book, de Spectaculis, relates to such scenes on this spot[39]. On one occasion, he mentions that a representation of Rhodope (a mountain in Thrace), where Orpheus sang, with the rocks and woods, was given upon the stage. It is evident from this, and from many other passages in the classical authors, that the stage, called the Arena, was on the level of the podium, and visible to the people in every part of the great theatre; and not at the bottom of a pit twenty feet deep, where only a small number could have seen it, although some persons maintain this opinion.

We are told by Suetonius again[40] in the life of Julius Cæsar, that—

“these spectacles were exhibited in the Circus Maximus, in the circuit of the Euripus, with races of bigæ, and quadrigæ[41], and horses, with the young nobles for riders or drivers. Hunting of wild beasts for five days, and sham fights, castles being made over the metæ; a stadium or stage was made in the Campus Martius for the athletes, and naval fights in the smaller codeta[42],” (which was in the Trastevere, and probably on the site on which Augustus afterwards made his great Naumachia,) “and in the lake then dug out, biremes, and triremes, and quadriremes[43] of the Tyrian and Ægyptian fleets, in great number, fought together. The whole population of Rome was attracted by those exhibitions, so that the streets and houses were quite empty; and from the pressure of the crowd several persons were crushed to death, including two senators.”

These attractive exhibitions obviously required a building especially prepared and calculated for them, which Augustus proposed to provide, but left for his successors to carry out the plan. It is probable that in the time of Nero the great work was commenced on the site of that of Scaurus[44], and making use of his substructures, was carried on gradually, and eventually completed in this colossal building.

We are told that Nero made a Gymnasium and Naumachia in connection with his great palace, or golden house, and no vestiges of any such buildings have been found[45], unless both were combined in the great building called the Colosseum from its colossal size. The amphitheatre at Capua, being also a very large one, is said to have been called a Colosseum, but on rather doubtful authority. It is, however, certain that the name had nothing to do with the Colossus of Nero. It is evident that Nero made a great reservoir of water on this spot, which was supplied from his aqueduct on the Cœlian[46]. The specus, or channel for this water, remains in the wall of the Claudium, on the northern side, opposite the Palatine; and at the north-east corner of that part of the Cœlian Hill on which the Claudium stood, are remains of a piscina of the time of Nero, obviously intended for the filtering-place before the water went across into the Colosseum. At a short interval only, about a hundred yards to the south of this, is another piscina of the time of Alexander Severus, when the upper storey was added, and the whole building repaired after the great fire. It is quite possible that Nero made a large oval reservoir on this spot, adjoining to his palace, supplied by an aqueduct, similar to the great oval reservoir on the Palatine, near the house of Augustus, excavated in 1872. The Romans were fond of the oval form for a sheet of water; the basin of the fountain of Domitian, also on the Palatine, is oval; and the remains of the fountain of Juturna in the Forum Romanum shew the same form[47]. The long canals for the vessels to float in, which are ten feet deep, about the same width, and the same height above the original pavements, are not so early as the time of Nero; they are of the third century, with many later repairs.

To include the Gymnasium in the same building, Nero made a wooden floor over the reservoir, which he could remove and replace at pleasure; this was covered with sand for the athletes to wrestle upon, and became the Arena. Around this great oval basin galleries were erected for the spectators, which were gradually enlarged and raised higher as the seats were further off; and the great stone arcades of the Flavian Emperors, with the corridors in them, are built round those older galleries, which were chiefly faced with brick. Several of the arches of the galleries, in the fine brickwork of Nero, remain in the Colosseum[48]; and the stone arcades were evidently built up against them without any junction between the two in any part. The bricks on the side of the arch next the stone piers of the corridors, are in many places cut in half, to make way for the stone piers. The straight vertical joints between the brick galleries and the stone arcades are often two or three inches wide; this may be the effect of an earthquake, but there is no bonding between one and the other. The enormous arcades and corridors are in themselves a gigantic work, and it was evidently difficult to obtain so great a supply of materials.

The external wall and corridor are of three periods. The first is the ground floor only, with the Doric order of columns; the first and second floor, with the Corinthian columns, belong to the second period, and it is a little later than the lowest part, but not with any long interval; the upper floor is an addition of the third century, and replaces a wooden storey.

In the interior of the building, as we are told in the anonymous chronicle published by Eccard, which is good authority[49], Vespasian dedicated the three lower steps, and Titus added two others to the three placed by his father. The wooden gallery, built upon the top of the great corridors or arcades (for the plebs), appears to have been an afterthought, not part of the original design, but an addition obviously called for. The large space at that height gave accommodation for an enormous number of people, which could not have been given before, to see what was going on upon the Arena or Stage during the performance. This had numerous trap-doors in it, under which were lifts for the wild beasts in their cages to be sent up on to the stage when wanted. The performance was in many respects like our pantomimes. There are evident traces of the lifts below, by the vertical grooves in the tufa walls for them to slide up and down[50]; and recesses remain in these walls for the counter-weights also to work in, with holes in the pavement for the sockets of pivots for the capstans necessary to wind up the cords, and loose them as required. These original walls, with the grooves for the old machines, are in many parts interfered with by more modern walls built up between them, probably in the fifth and sixth centuries, when great repairs were made after earthquakes, or perhaps rendered necessary by the weight of the water under the wooden floor in the central part.

Two important inscriptions relating to the history of the building have been preserved[51]: one found in 1810 on the western side, recording the repairs after an earthquake by the præfect Basilius, A.D. 445; the other in 1813, recording similar repairs by Lampadius, A.D. 508. Three of the marble seats were also brought to light, one with the number XVIII., another with the word EQUITI, the third, with an inscription, the beginning of which is broken off:—

tr IB IN . THEATR . LEGE . PL . VI
vind ICET . P . X . II.

This is important, because it shews the use of the word Theatrum[52], and not Amphitheatrum, for the colossal building; which agrees with the usage of Dio and other contemporary authors, who always call it Theatrum par eminence, or the great theatre of Rome, there being no need to distinguish it further.

The following extracts from Dio Cassius can only apply to the great amphitheatre:—

“Such was the shamelessness of Nero, that he himself drove chariots in public; and, sometimes, having slain wild beasts, and having suddenly introduced water into the area, he made a naval battle; and then withdrawing the water, he introduced the gladiatorial strife. Then again introducing it, he gave in public a sumptuous supper. Tigellinus was the prefect (or overseer) of the supper, and it was a supper of the grandest magnificence, arranged in this manner. In the middle of the amphitheatre and in the water great wooden wine-casks were placed, and upon them a floor of planks[53] was laid, and around this, booths and small chambers were erected[54].”

“Nero had various kinds of shows in the amphitheatre, sometimes filling it with sea-water, in which fishes and sea monsters swam, and made a naval fight between the Persians and the Athenians; then suddenly withdrawing the water, and drying the ground, he ordered a number of men on foot to rush in, not singly, but in numbers and close together[55].”

“When he (Titus) dedicated the theatre for hunting, and the thermæ called after him, he exhibited many wonderful things. Cranes fought and four elephants, nine thousand wild boars and other beasts were killed, which women, even some of noble rank, had brought together. Many contests, also, on foot, and naval fights took place, for suddenly filling the amphitheatre with water, he introduced horses and bulls, and other tame animals, who had been taught to act in the water as on land. He also introduced men in ships, who, in the guise of Corcyrians and Corinthians, imitated a naval battle[56].”

In another chapter Dio repeats the same account, with the addition of “a public supper[57].” This shews that the arrangements in the amphitheatre were the same in the time of Nero as in the time of Commodus, when Dio was himself present, and describes what he saw. If the water was really sea-water, it could only have been in the canals. The fact of three aqueducts having converged to this point to bring water to the great building, makes it most probable that the water was not really sea-water, but perhaps had sea-weed inserted in it to suit the fishes and the sea monsters. Suetonius also mentions the naumachia in the amphitheatre[58] in the time of Domitian, among the magnificent shows that he provided for the people. Dio clearly distinguishes between the Amphitheatre of Nero and that of Statilius Taurus in the Campus Martius, which he also calls Theatrum Tauri[59].

The word stagnum is commonly translated pond, but it does not necessarily mean only a pond; any reservoir of water might be so called; the castellum aquæ, or large cistern for the water supplied by the aqueducts, was also a stagnum. The “Stagna Neronis[60]” are mentioned by Martial, as well as by Tacitus[61], who also mentions a stagnum navale among the games in the public theatre of Augustus[62].

Suetonius[63] compares the Stagnum of Nero to a “sea” surrounded by the buildings of a city: a strong expression, which shews that there were some buildings immediately round it. The Claudium on the Cœlian, the Porticus Liviæ on the Summa Sacra Via, and Porticus of Nero himself on the Esquiline, would be visible on three sides of it. The representation of this great building on the coin of Titus was evidently taken from the design of the architect. It represents a building of two storeys only, with gigantic statues under each of the arches of the corridors.

The new naumachia made by Augustus in the Trastevere were larger reservoirs for the same purpose; this naumachia is also called a stagnum by Tacitus[64], who describes a similar scene in the stagnum of Agrippa[65] (which was in his thermæ, near the Pantheon), with the letting in the water suddenly for a naval battle; and then letting it off again as suddenly, and having a supper in the same place; he also mentions the stagna of Nero[66], and the stagnum navale of Augustus[67]. The stagnum of Agrippa was supplied with water by his aqueduct (the Virgo), and it has been mentioned that those of Nero were supplied by three aqueducts, two from the Cœlian and one from the Esquiline. The remains of the specus and of the piscinæ have been already mentioned[68]. There are slight remains of three reservoirs in the gallery, lined with the peculiar cement used only for the aqueducts, called opus signinum. From the Esquiline the water was brought to the Amphitheatre in leaden pipes, after serving the Thermæ of Titus; a quantity of these leaden pipes have been found in excavations at different periods[69], as recorded at the time by eye-witnesses, and some of them are still preserved as mementoes in the office of the Municipality.

Suetonius[70] mentions that some of the amusements for the people provided by Nero were held in the wooden amphitheatre of Statilius Taurus in the Campus Martius, but he mentions the naumachia separately, and we have no account of any stagnum having been there, nor is it probable, as it could only have been supplied with water by the aqueduct of Agrippa, and it was originally built before that aqueduct was made. The naumachia were an essential part of the amusements of many Roman amphitheatres, and there are considerable remains of the canals for them at Capua and at Tusculum.

Suetonius, in his life of Titus, thus writes:—

“Having dedicated the Amphitheatre, and having quickly completed the Thermæ hard by, he provided the most magnificent and expensive entertainment [for the people]. He exhibited a naval fight in the old Naumachia, and also a combat of gladiators; and, in one day also, five thousand wild beasts of all sorts[71].”

Those stagna were boarded over for the gladiators and for the wild beasts, but the boards could be moved and naval fights exhibited at other times, as had previously been done on the same spot in “the old Naumachia[72].” The account of the scenes that took place here, described by Dio Cassius, agrees with this. The excavations made in 1814 shewed that there were canals built of brick running parallel to each other the whole length of the area, as at Capua, and in several other amphitheatres; these were, no doubt, for the naval fights. The vessels were probably towed along from the opposite ends, and where they met were lashed together, and the sailors of one of them tried to board the other: to prevent this was the naval fight. Probably the space between these two canals was flooded when the water was let in. These canals, reservoirs, or stagna, were brought out more clearly in 1875, and the substructures which supported them were then made visible[73].

In the corridors are many remains of the open channels for the water brought from the aqueducts. They are not more than a foot deep, often not so much, being frequently much worn: when perfect they are nearly of that depth, and are lined with the peculiar cement used only for the aqueducts, called Opus signinum, and in Italian, Coccio-pesto. This is an invariable mark of an aqueduct; this open channel must have been brought across from the Cœlian reservoir on the colonnade, shewn upon the coin of Titus. The system of drainage for the rain-water is quite distinct from the channels for the aqueducts.

The floor of the Arena for the gymnastics and the slaughter of wild beasts was of wood covered with sand; on one occasion (as we have shewn) placed upon wine-barrels in the parts that had been flooded; the boards could be removed or replaced with facility. It was full of trap-doors with lifts under them, some large for the animals to jump through, these are over the passage round the outer line, in front of the dens under the podium; others smaller for men and dogs for the hunt; these are on each side of the central passage. Large corbels, with bold projections for placing the boards upon when removed from the floor of the stage, are provided over the stream of water, in front of the podium, but at a lower level; they are in pairs six feet apart, and also served to stiffen the lower end of the masts or poles for the awning; on the surface of them a notch is cut to place the boards upon, and ready access was given by the passage in front of the podium. The gymnasium and the stagna were in one and the same building used for both purposes, and Nero probably built galleries of brick round it for the accommodation of the people, according to the fashion of his time. The exterior was left unfinished for some years, and completed of stone by Titus and the Flavian emperors on a more magnificent scale. The space for the upper galleries was afterwards very much enlarged by building them upon the magnificent double arcades of stone round it, and so completing the great building known as the Colosseum. The straight vertical joint, which is plainly seen between the old brickwork within and these stone galleries and corridors, and the want of any bond between them, is thus accounted for[74]. The upper gallery for the common people was an addition to the original design over these arcades and corridors, and was originally of wood; it was destroyed by fire caused by lightning in the time of the Emperor Macrinus, A.D. 217, and restored in stone in about twenty-three years, having been completed by Gordianus III., A.D. 240. To support this upper gallery of stone at that enormous height vertical piers of travertine are introduced, cutting through the walls of the lower galleries from top to bottom[75]; these walls are of tufa, faced with brick. In several instances portions of these piers of travertine have been removed for building purposes in the Middle Ages, and the space that had been occupied by the piers is left empty. The brick facing of the walls on either side stands just as firm without these travertine piers as with them, a clear proof that their object was to support the upper gallery when it was rebuilt in stone, and not to support the brick walls of the lower one through which they were cut, although they appear to do so. This accounts for the fact that in the brick arches of construction (as they are called), the bricks, originally two feet square, are cut down to a few inches[76].

The names of stagnum or stagna, and naumachia, are evidently used indifferently by the classical authors. It has been already mentioned that in the description of the far-famed palace of Nero, reaching from the Esquiline to the Palatine Hill, Suetonius also speaks of it having “a lake (stagnum) like a sea surrounded by buildings, after the fashion of cities[77].” This could only apply to the Colosseum, and from this it would appear that in the time of Nero the surface could be flooded when required for theatrical display. Probably in two parts, divided by the great central passage or the gulf, and these two parts were called the stagna. It must always be remembered that the one object of the whole building was a theatre for the amusement of the people, very much like the Crystal Palace for London.

The probability is that some of the walls of the buildings of Nero round his stagna were used as part of the lower galleries of the Colosseum; these walls and arches are a mixture of stone and brick, and some of the brickwork has quite the character of the time of Nero, so well known to Roman antiquaries as the finest brickwork in the world[78]. The excavations of 1874 and 1875 have confirmed this opinion; there is a series of arches over the entrance to the dens for wild beasts, under the podium, which are distinctly of the well-known brickwork of Nero. Some of these walls of the substructure are earlier than the time of Nero, others are later, with large repairs of the fifth and sixth centuries. The great external corridors are entirely built of stone, and are evidently added on to the galleries; there is a straight joint from top to bottom in all parts, and no junction with ties anywhere in the original construction. The construction of the walls of the Colosseum in the interior shews such evident patchwork of different periods, that it is impossible to believe they were all built within ten years, as is commonly said.

In many other places besides Rome, part of the amphitheatre was at times filled with water for the exhibition of naval fights, indeed the actual remains of the conduit for the water are shewn in more than one place. At Verona, where the area of the amphitheatre is considerably below the level of the adjacent ground, the conduit or specus is shewn at the level of the second gallery, and below that of the upper one, and the water seems to have gone down a cascade into the end of a corridor or passage at the lowest level. At Capua the aqueduct for bringing in the water and a large drain for carrying it off rapidly, are shewn, both at a low level[79]. In either of these cases, the substructure is to a great extent filled up with vaulted brick chambers separated by passages, but the walls and vaults are lined with that peculiar cement that resists water, and thus a great part of the surface may have been covered with water to a sufficient depth for the purpose. At Puteoli or Pozzuoli, near Naples, the underground chambers of the amphitheatre are unusually perfect, and the brick floor over them, with numerous trap-doors, with deep grooves round the edge for a cover to fit tight over them when the surface was flooded[80]; at Tusculum one of the canals has been excavated, the other is still buried. From these it appears that the naval fights were represented as in a river, rather than in the sea. There are two long straight passages, the whole length of the central space, with no doors in them; and the walls are faced with the peculiar water-cement. These passages are wide enough for a trireme to pass along, and it seems more probable that the naval fight took place on this sort of river than on the whole surface, which would have been necessary for a sea-fight.

This obviously applies equally to the Colosseum, where the great excavations in 1875 shewed that there were two canals on each side of a great central passage, parallel to it and to each other, with an interval of about six feet between them, which was flooded when the water was let in to make two fine sheets of water the whole length of the arena, each about three hundred feet long and fifty feet wide[81]. These were just under the boards, which were carried away and placed on the corbels provided for them in front of the podium, but below the level of the base of it. The walls to support this body of water are unusually thick, and have buttresses on both sides for greater strength[82]. The two canals were not of the same width, but of the same depth, ten feet, with passages, ten feet high, under them. The most narrow canal is nearest to the centre, and has been supported on great beams of wood resting upon the massive walls; the places for the ends of the beams are left at short intervals in the walls. The other and wider canal had brick arches to support it, which remain, though the great leaden cistern in the form of a canal has been destroyed.

The two great lofty walls of tufa are independent of the brick walls supporting the canals. The lifts, or pegmata for the wild beasts, were placed in the outer passage between the two tufa walls, just under the edge of the podium[83]. On each side of the central passage are a series of small square closets for lifts, for men and dogs to ascend from the passages at the lowest level to the floor above, through the trap-doors. These continue visible for the whole length of the surface and central passage. The pavement of these passages is of brick in herring-bone fashion, such as was common in Rome during the first three centuries. Some persons have imagined that the walls are built upon this pavement, but if this is the case anywhere, of which there is no evidence, it would only be a part of the later repairs of the fifth or sixth century.

There are some portions of a third wall of tufa parallel to the other two, and within them; this has been much damaged, and very little of it remains. In one place, near the south-west end, there is an arch in this tufa wall apparently much shaken by an earthquake, and consequently supported by two brick arches of Nero, one under it, the other abutting against it, like a flying buttress in a medieval church[84]. The long, thin bricks of the time of Nero are perfectly well known to all Roman archæologists, and are only met with in buildings of his time. Two other small square chambers, one on either side of the great central passage, also remain at the south end, with an arch of the brickwork of Nero on each side[85]. These chambers are enclosed in stone, so that half the thickness of the wall is of brick, the other half of travertine. This wall, therefore, affords conclusive evidence that there was a great theatre on this spot before the time of Vespasian, and that the tufa walls are earlier than the time of Nero.

We are expressly told that Augustus had intended to build an amphitheatre here, but had not done so. We have no mention of Claudius having built one, we are therefore driven back to an earlier period (probably to the amphitheatre of Scaurus, in the time of Sylla) for the date of the tufa walls, with the grooves for lifts, or pegmata, in them, as has been mentioned. Outside of these great walls of tufa, and under the path in front of the podium, are a number of dens for lions, or other wild beasts of that size[86]. And in front of each is an opening large enough for the animal to pass through into a cage placed on a lift in the passage between the two tufa walls, and in each of these walls are vertical grooves cut in them for the lifts to work up and down; also deeper grooves, about a yard long, for the counter-weights[87]. Behind the place for each cage, in the passage, is a socket let into the pavement for a pivot to work in[88], apparently for a capstan or post to wind the cord upon to pull up the lifts and cages. These cages were of wood, and called pegmata. The word pegma is used in different senses by Pliny, Martial, and others for a wooden box, cage, or framework; and the wild beasts were brought in such cages from the places where they were kept outside the walls, called vivaria.

There were two vivaria, one on the southern side of the Prætorian Camp, of which there are some remains. The evidence for this is an inscription of the time of Gordianus III. (A.D. 241), which mentions a keeper of the vivarium[89] belonging to the sixth Cohort of the Prætorian and Urban[90] Guards. The other was on the southern side of the Sessorium, which was both a palace and a Prætorian Camp.

The podium was protected by nets[91]; and there were projecting bars for rollers, which turned round when touched, so that the claws of an animal could have no hold upon them: these are mentioned by Calpurnius. Seneca, in his Epistle (88) uses the word pegma for “a wooden machine in the theatres,” which raised and lowered itself imperceptibly—evidently what we now call a lift—the machinery of which was not seen by the spectators. Wooden towers used on the stage in sham fights were also called pegmata[92]. The following account given by Seneca[93], who wrote about A.D. 20, of these machines, clearly applies to the Colosseum and the substructures under it. As that was before the time of the Flavian Emperors, it is probable that the wooden amphitheatre on this spot was in existence in his time, and that the tufa walls for the lifts now remaining were then standing and in use. He says—

“There are games that give pleasure to the eyes and the ears. Among these we may enumerate the machines which cause the cages to raise themselves, and silently rise to the top of the wooden floor (or stage), and others in unexpected variety, either gaping open or coalescing again, others which were distant drawing together again spontaneously, or those which were near gradually retiring from each other. The eyes of the silly people are astonished at all these sudden movements, the causes of which they do not understand.”

Juvenal, writing about A.D. 100, also mentions the pegmata in the Colosseum[94], with the velaria.

There is a small stream of water in front of the dens, supplied by the aqueducts, from which the animals could drink. Behind each den is a small cell, four feet square, descending from above, called catabolicus[95], but not lower than ten feet from the ground, apparently for a man to go down and feed them safely.

In what seems the earliest part of the two tufa walls, near the south-west end of the building, the apertures in the inner part are square-headed doorways, and not arches[96]. These are filled up with brick walls of the time of the Flavian emperors, or later[97]. In other parts of these tufa walls there are arches in the inner wall, also supported by brick arches of the time of the Flavian emperors, in which the bricks are thicker, and there is more mortar between them than in those of the time of Nero.

On the floor of the central passage is a remarkable piece of ancient wooden framework lying on the ground[98], which has the appearance at first sight of having been burnt, but long exposure to wet will have the same effect on wood that fire has. (The Irish bog-oak often appears as if it had been burnt, and wood has been dug from under the foundations of an Irish round tower that had the same appearance.) This framework is a good deal worn, as if it had been much used; it has all the appearance of a dry dock, or a cradle for a vessel to stand upon. When the stagnum navale of Nero was in use, there must have been some machinery for lifting up the vessels and placing them on the canals. They must also have been removed out of the way when the water was let off, and the boarded floor of the stage or arena replaced[99].

On each side of this wooden framework is a series of slabs of stone about a yard square, placed upright, with a hole through each for a water-course. These seem to have been for fixing the wooden frame of a cradle for the vessels to stand upon, and to keep them upright. This plan is well shewn in a drawing of a trireme that was made for Napoleon III., to shew the French people what a Roman trireme was like[100].

It is well known that the general form of the Colosseum is oval, and that it had four principal entrances, one of which only remains; this is said to have been the entrance for the emperor and his suite, it is not numbered as the other entrances and seats were[101]. The theatre, as we are told in the Regionary Catalogues, was calculated to hold 87,000 people, and was admirably adapted for its purpose. There were four principal staircases, by which the spectators could ascend to the highest tier of seats, and these were so arranged that the different orders could disperse without meeting each other. The numerous places of egress, called vomitoria, and the windows to light the staircases, were contrived with great skill.

Vast as this amazing edifice still is, the whole of the outer wall with the arcades and corridors, on the south and west sides, have been destroyed, having been used as a stone quarry for building some of the largest palaces in Rome, but on the north and east sides it is tolerably perfect. A correct idea of the whole can only be formed by mounting to the top, and surveying the whole extent from thence. The finest view of the exterior is from the Thermæ of Titus, or the windows or the garden of the monastery of S. Pietro in Vincoli, on the hill opposite the north front.

The great mass of the building under the corridors is of tufa, and was probably taken from that part of the second wall of Rome which passed under the south end of the Palatine close at hand; each block of tufa, being of large size and a ton in weight, was likely to be brought from the nearest point. It has been mentioned that there are piers of travertine at short intervals, as if the builders were afraid to trust the soft tufa to carry so great a weight[102]. These piers go right through the walls from top to bottom, to carry the weight of the upper gallery when full of people; tufa is too soft a material to be trusted for this purpose, and the brick facing did not add materially to the strength. It is faced with cut stone (travertine) on the exterior, and with brick on the interior. The work, as said before, was evidently carried on for a long time. Three periods may be perceived[103] in the stonework, with apparently an interval of some years between them. The upper storey is of a later date, of the time of Alexander Severus and Gordianus, and was evidently completed in great haste, of materials previously prepared, (as may be distinctly seen in the interior); this upper wall is built also in the most slovenly manner, with portions of cornices and of columns, or fragments of old tombs, built into it as mere pieces of stone[104]. On the interior of this wall large corbels remain distinctly visible, which could only be for the floor of the wooden gallery.

In the lower series of seats the vaults under them are not original, except those on the ground-floor; and in the corridors the large corbels for wooden floors and galleries still project from the face of the wall very distinctly[105]. The mixture of stone and brick in the construction is curious, and in several parts indicates the great repairs in the fifth and sixth centuries recorded by inscriptions found during the excavations.

There is a series of arches on the first floor within, some of them begun, and some completed, in stone, but the greater part have springing stones only upon the stone jambs, the arches afterwards being completed in brick, and brick vaults introduced in place of the original wooden floors and galleries; above, nearly all is brick, except the corridors and the outer facing. The construction of this part is very good throughout; the stones are in large oblong blocks, closely fitted together, originally held with iron clamps, fragments of which remain, as may be seen or felt in the interior of the building in apertures of the wall: the holes where other iron clamps have been, are left all over the face of the building, and in the corridors, always at the edges of the stones, where in rusting they have split the stone and fallen out. They were of this form

[106]. On the west side, where the outer wall is gone, the inner wall (now external) shews distinctly the flat pilasters of stone carried up nearly to the top, but left unfinished, and continued with brick afterwards.

Nothing is known with certainty of the architect of the work; an inscription found in the Catacomb of S. Agnes, in memory of Gaudentius, has given rise to the legend that he was the architect[107], and that he afterwards suffered as a martyr within its walls. Twelve thousand Jewish slaves are said to have been employed upon it during five years, and ten million Roman scudi expended upon it in the same time.

The fine tomb of one of the family of the Aterii found at Cento Celle, and now preserved in the Lateran Museum, is covered with panels of sculpture of numerous buildings packed closely together, of which there is reason to believe some are only designs, and were never executed. This makes it probable that it was the tomb of an architect, and one of the sculptures represents the Summa Sacra Via as he thought it ought to have been. One building is a triumphal arch, with a colossal figure under it, and an inscription on the cornice—ARCVS IN SACRA VIA SVMMA; another triumphal arch has the inscription ARCVS AD ISIS. Between these two is seen the Colosseum looking down upon it, represented as of two storeys only, and not quite the same as the existing building, but the figures under the arches are shewn as on the coin. Another sculpture on the same tomb represents the machine for raising large stones to the top of a high wall or building, described in Part III. of this work (Construction, p. 91). From the circumstance of this machine being represented upon the tomb, it seems most probable that the person here interred was the inventor, or had made some improvement in it, and that it was especially intended for the Colosseum, for which it certainly would have been very useful. The date of the tomb is of the first century[108]. Such a machine is mentioned by Vitruvius, and similar machines are still in use in some parts of Switzerland.

The numerous walls that intersect the space under the stage shew clearly that there could be no area in this theatre, that there is no open space excepting on the stage itself, and this was the boarded floor, called the arena, from the sand with which it was covered. The latter is quite a different thing from an area, and yet almost all the modern writers on the antiquities of Rome fall into this mistake. The passage cited in a previous page from Dio Cassius, who describes what he saw, is quite decisive that the arena was a boarded floor covered with sand.

A great number of large marble columns and capitals of the Composite order, rudely worked, as if on purpose to be seen from a great distance only, have rolled down from the edge of the upper gallery to the arena below, probably in an earthquake. They must have fallen before the substructures were filled up with earth, as many of them were found at the bottom on the old pavement, which they had damaged by falling upon it, and some have made holes through great walls, and were found lying with half the column on the inner side of the wall, and the other half on the outer one. Probably the cords for the awning were caught on the entablature of this colonnade as they passed, the length from top to bottom being too great to keep them tight. There must have been at least a hundred of these columns; possibly there were two colonnades, the second on the edge of one of the lower galleries, but they are work of the third century, not earlier, and as the upper gallery was added at that time, they must have belonged to that period.

The Flavian Amphitheatre and Meta Sudans are represented on four coins of the emperors, one of Vespasian[109], A.D. 80, with the head of Titus, and inscription on the obverse. This is a bird’s-eye view, represented with the walls of the two storeys, and with the Meta Sudans on one side, and a double range of columns on the opposite side, one over the other. This medal was used by Fontana in his plans and drawings of a restoration[110], though he does not give an engraving of it. The upper storey is very different from the existing building; in the interior the upper gallery is evidently represented on this medal as of wood; the colonnade or arcade, of two storeys, connecting the amphitheatre with the Cœlian, seen on the coin, was most probably to carry the shallow open channel of water from the Aqueduct[111]. The second of Domitian, nearly the same as the last, but with a double arcade instead of colonnade; the third of Alexander Severus, with the Meta Sudans[112] on the right, and a group of figures on the left. There are two coins of this emperor with the same subject on the reverse, not of the same size, and not quite alike. The fourth of Gordianus III., with the legend on the obverse, IMP . GORDIANUS . PIVS . FELIX . AVG.; on the reverse the view of the Colosseum, as if looking down upon it, with the masts for the awning, and a wild-beast hunt going on at a high level, certainly not at the bottom (as has been said). On the left, standing behind the Meta Sudans, is a colossal figure about fifty feet high[113]. On the right is a small building which is just below, and a gable end to the roof, probably the piscina of Alexander Severus, of which we have remains. Over the Colosseum is the legend MUNIFICENTIA GORDIANI AVG.[114] In this the upper storey is represented as of stone.

A.D. 150. By the time of Antoninus Pius the amphitheatre needed repairs, as we learn that it was restored by him[115].

In A.D. 191, Dio Cassius, who was a Roman senator in the time of Commodus, was an eye-witness of the games, and gives an account of the manner in which that emperor amused himself in this amphitheatre.

“He used to put on, before he entered the amphitheatre, a tunic with sleeves made of white silk embroidered with gold, and thus habited we (the Senators) saluted him; but on entering it he put on his purple robe sprinkled with gold, like a Greek chlamys, and a gold crown with Indian jewels; he was also accustomed to carry a caduceus like Mercury. In the street some one carried before him a lion’s skin and a club. But when he went into the theatre he sat on a gold seat. He also entered the theatre in the costume of Mercury, and threw aside the other things which he had carried except the tunic.

“On the first day he alone killed a hundred bears with javelins thrown from the paths in the upper part. For the amphitheatre being everywhere divided by diametrical partitions, each division having a roof, round which he could go, he could the more readily strike down the wild beasts, who were themselves divided into four divisions....

“These things being done on the first day, on other days he descended from the upper place into the area of the amphitheatre, and killed the fatted beasts when they came near to him, or were led to him, or brought in cages; he killed a tiger, and an hippopotamus, and an elephant: having done these things he went away. Then after dinner he went through the gladiatorial exercise armed as a gladiator, with the shield on his right arm, and holding the wooden sword in his left hand, of which he was very proud, as he was left-handed.... For fourteen days exhibitions of this kind were continued, and I can certify that we senators always came with the knights, except Claudius Pompeianus, the senior, he never was there, but sent his sons to see the shows....

“But of the rest of the people many did not go into the amphitheatre, and some after they had seen a little went away, some from being ashamed of what they saw done there, others from fear, because it was reported that the Emperor wished to kill some of them with arrows as Hercules formerly killed the Stymphalidæ.... This fear was common to all, belonging not more to others than to us; for even to us Senators he did things in such a manner, that for any cause we expected to be killed. He even killed an ostrich and cut off its head, when he came to the place where we were seated, holding in his left hand the head and in his right his bloody sword, and saying nothing, he moved it grinning, to shew he would serve us in the same manner; and which many people laughed at seeing our fear, &c.... These things being done he comforted us, and ordered us, when he was fighting in the manner of a gladiator, to go into the theatre in our habits and cloaks as knights: in which costume we were not accustomed to go into the theatre except on the death of the Emperor. It happened also to him that on the last day of the games his helmet was carried through the door by which the dead were usually carried, which things, in the opinion of many, were done to indicate to every body his approaching death. It is certain that soon after he died, or rather was killed[116].”

The spectators were protected from the heat of the sun by a great awning, which was suspended from masts or poles at the top by cords. Pliny mentions an awning painted in imitation of the sky, with stars in it, in the amphitheatre of the Prince Nero[117]. There were similar poles at the bottom also, to support the lower end of the cords over the heads of the spectators in the galleries[118]. These are likely to have had the great beams of the screen in the front of the podium fixed to them. The contrivances for supporting them at the top were very ingenious, and can still be seen. On the exterior there is a row of corbels, ten feet below the summit, for the ends of the poles to rest upon, and holes are left in the cornice for them to pass through. These masts stood full twenty feet above the walls; and on the inner side of the upper wall are also corbels for the cords to be fastened to, to keep them upright. At the bottom of the galleries, in front of the podium, there are similar contrivances to support the poles for the awning, a recess in the wall of tufa, with a piece of travertine let in for the lower ends to stand upon, and long corbels on each side to support and stiffen the lower part[119]. The central space was not covered over, and the athletes were exposed to the weather. There is an excellent representation of an amphitheatre, with the awning partly closed and partly open, in a fresco-painting of the first century at Pompeii, which has been engraved in the valuable Journal of Pompeii, edited by the learned Keeper of the Museum, Sig. Com. Fiorelli[120]. The construction of the upper walls is quite different from, and very inferior to that of the great arcades; this belonging to the third century, not to the first; and part of it has all the appearance of having been completed in a great hurry, as we see in the interior many pieces of stone evidently prepared for other parts of the building, and used as blocks of old material only, some with inscriptions on them, apparently taken from tombs[121]. The tradition is that the Emperor Gordianus insisted on the completion of the building-contract by the time appointed, which was done with great difficulty.

A large number of sailors were kept continually employed in furling and unfurling the great awning, and attending to the machinery. They had a camp provided for them near at hand, called Castra Misenatium, because the sailors came originally from the fleet at Misenum (in the bay of Naples). The exact site of this camp has not been ascertained. Some suppose it to have been on the Cœlian, near where the navicella, or model of a galley in marble, now stands[122], but it was not in that Regio; it must have been on the Esquiline, immediately to the north of the great building, or on the Velia. The awning was called vela or vehela, an old Latin word, from which came also the name of velabrum, meaning “sails.” The modern name “veil” is supposed to come from it.

Calpurnius[123] describes a visit to Rome by a country lad, and gives an account of the amphitheatre:—

“We saw the theatre (amphitheatre) with interwoven beams rising to heaven, so high as almost to overlook the Tarpeian rock, and the immense steps and the sloping passages gently descending.... What shall I describe further? I saw all kinds of wild beasts, ... not only those carniverous monsters of the forest, but sea-monsters together with fighting bears. I saw seals, and herds of shapeless animals bearing the name of horses (hippo-potami), but deformed, the offspring of the Nile. Oh how often have we trembling seen the arena sinking in parts, and a gulf burst open in the ground from which wild beasts have emerged[124].”

In A.D. 217, the amphitheatre was struck by lightning and burnt under Macrinus, as we are told by Dio Cassius. This passage shews that the upper storeys were of wood, and that there was much woodwork about the galleries and corridors.

“The amphitheatre also was struck by lightning on the very day of the Vulcanalia (23rd of August), all was consumed to such an extent that the upper precinct and whatever was on the area was burned, and all the remaining part shivered in pieces by the heat; nor could the fire have been extinguished by human means, although there was plenty of water, had there not also been copious and vehement rain from the heavens. All the gladiatorial games, consequently, for many years were transferred to the Stadium[125].”

The restoration was begun in the time of Heliogabalus[126], and continued through the whole reign of Alexander Severus[127], A.D. 222-235; and finished under Gordianus III., A.D. 244, as has been shewn by his coin. In A.D. 248 the games, which had been transferred for a time to the Circus Maximus, were again celebrated here.

In A.D. 238-44, we learn that the number of wild beasts kept in Rome for the use of the amphitheatre during the time of the Emperor Gordianus was as follows: 32 elephants, 10 elks, 60 tame lions, 10 tigers, 30 leopards, 10 hyenas, 1 hippopotamus, 1 rhinoceros, 10 wild lions, 10 camelopards, 20 wild asses, 40 wild horses, and many other wild animals, besides two thousand hired gladiators[128]. All these, the Chronicler adds, were exhibited or slain by Philippus, at the Ludi Sæculares which he celebrated with great pomp for the thousandth[129] anniversary of the foundation of Rome, A.D. 248, when he had gladiatorial and wild-beast exhibitions in the amphitheatre[130].

Herodian[131], the Greek historian, writing about the middle of the third century, says that a hundred lions, killed in the amphitheatre by Commodus, appeared to leap out from under the earth. More strictly speaking, they came from under the sand on the stage, as they were sent up in cages which opened at the top, and naturally sprang out as soon as liberty was given to them.

In A.D. 250, another fire took place under Decius, but the damage was speedily repaired.

In A.D. 280, the Emperor Probus in his triumphal shows again had a hundred lions killed in the amphitheatre[132].

In A.D. 320, the amphitheatre was again damaged by lightning, but was soon restored by Constantine[133]. An attempt was made, A.D. 325, to abolish the barbarous combats, and the exposure of convicts, but this was not effected until the martyrdom of Telemachus, an Oriental monk, A.D. 403, who made a pilgrimage from the East on purpose to be martyred here, and during one of the sanguinary shows he rushed into the midst, and falling on his knees, entreated the spectators to have mercy on their victims. He was immediately stoned to death, but so great a sensation was caused by this martyrdom, that the emperor Honorius was able to take advantage of it to suppress the shows.

In A.D. 357, the amphitheatre is described by Ammianus Marcellinus as perfect, and as a marvellous work, from its great height, and its immense size. He also mentions the massive walls of rough stone, or concrete (moles), bound together by travertine (lapis tiburtinus)[134].

A.D. 445. The amphitheatre was much repaired by the Prefect Rufus Cecina Felix Lampadius, under Theodosius II. He restored the seats, the arena, and the podium, as appears from an inscription[135] dug up on the spot in 1814, and fixed on the wall within the building to preserve it. These repairs are supposed to have been required in consequence of the damage done during the siege by the Goths under Alaric, or more probably from the effect of the earthquake mentioned by Paulus Diaconus[136] as taking place in that year, when he says that many of the great buildings in Rome were damaged.

A.D. 508. The Prefect Venantius Basilius also repaired the arena and the podium, which had been damaged by an earthquake[137].

It was again used for the show of wild beasts under Theodoric in A.D. 519[138], and under Anicius Maximus, A.D. 523. These were the last occasions on which we have any mention of these savage exhibitions. In the beginning of the eighth century it appears to have been still perfect, from the well-known proverb preserved in Bede’s Excerptiones patrum, Collectanea, &c.; that the Colosseum and Rome would stand or fall together[139]; but during that century it was again seriously damaged by an earthquake, and it was then so much in ruins that it was not used until the eleventh, when it was converted into a fortress, and the southern side is said to have been much damaged by Robert Guiscard and his Normans, but more probably by the travertine stone being carried away for building materials.

In 1130, it became the chief fortress of the Frangipani family, and Pope Innocent II. took refuge here from the anti-pope Anacletus[140].

In 1142, the Roman people had driven out the barons, and had possession of this with their other fortresses, as appears from the records of the Roman Senate at that period[141]. But the Frangipani[142] soon recovered it, and the pope of their party, Innocent III., A.D. 1180 (called by the opposite party the anti-pope), was their guest; and from hence he fulminated his excommunication against the emperors, but he was soon afterwards captured and banished.

In 1160, Alexander III.[143] (Bandinelli of Siena, called the orthodox Pope) in his second year, being besieged by the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa, abandoned the Lateran Palace, and took refuge in the stronghold of the Frangipani, with his brothers and their families. He there held courts, treated causes, and also waited for opportunities. At that time the Colosseum gave its name to the district around it. The fortifications included part of the Palatine Hill, with the Arch of Titus, on which was a large tower.

Under Gregory IX., A.D. 1227, the Annibaldi family obtained a decree from Frederic II., requiring the Frangipani to cede to them one-half of the Colosseum fortress, which might have led to its entire destruction; but Innocent IV., in 1244, rescinded the engagement, and declared this building to be under the direct dominion of the Holy See. During the residence of the Popes at Avignon, the Colosseum belonged to the Annibaldi or Annibaldeschi, who were then in the ascendant[144]. In 1312, the Emperor Henry VII. obliged them to give it up, and placed it under the care of the municipality, who appropriated it to bull-fights; but this only lasted until 1332, when eighteen youths of noble families were killed by the infuriated bulls, of which a minute account is given in the chronicle of Monaldeschi, printed in Muratori’s collection[145].

In 1349, it was again damaged by the earthquake described in Petrarch’s letters; after this the great families entered into a compact, in 1362, to make the ruins common property as a quarry, by which all might profit[146]. In 1381, the senate gave a portion of the arcades to the Chapter of the Lateran, for a ward to their hospital. Their badge, the head of Christ between two candlesticks, is carved over some of the archways.

In 1438, Eugenius IV. built two walls to connect the Colosseum with the monastery of S. Pietro in Vincoli, in order to prevent the evil doings that were going on there; but after the death of that Pope, the Roman people went in a crowd and pulled down those walls which had shut them out of the great building. The monks stated to Flaminius Vacca that they had preserved the deed of gift, and if they ever had a pope from their monastery, it would be acted upon[147].

In the fifteenth century, the great palace of S. Mark of Venice, built by Paul II., 1464-1471, at the south end of the Corso, the Farnese in 1534, the Cancelleria in 1495, the Borghese in 1590, and many other edifices[148], were built out of this quarry.

In the sixteenth century it was used for miracle plays; this practice began under Paul III. in 1540[149], a purpose to which it had previously been applied on Good Friday in each year by the “Confraternity of the Gonfalone;” this is mentioned as early as 1263.

We have one vestige of this remaining, a view of Jerusalem with the Crucifixion, painted on the wall over the principal entrance then in use at the north end over the arch, and seen in going out as we look up. It shews to what a height the earth had then been raised to make this a convenient place for such a picture.

Sixtus V. proposed to turn it into a cloth manufactory, and drawings for that purpose were actually prepared by his architect, Fontana[150], in 1590; but the design was abandoned at the death of the Pope.

In 1703 it was again damaged by an earthquake, and soon afterwards Clement XI. destroyed the lower arches of the western side of the corridor, and used some of the stone to build the steps at the Port of Ripetta, on the Tiber. He employed other parts as a warehouse for saltpetre for the neighbouring manufactory of gunpowder, on the hill adjoining, near the church of S. Pietro in Vincoli, still indicated by the name of the street, and this manufactory continued in use until 1811.

In 1728, Benedict XIII. consecrated the whole area, at the instigation of a Carmelite friar, Angelo Paoli. A small chapel was made under one of the archways, and dedicated to S. Maria della Pietà. In 1741, a hermit was appointed to reside here, but in the following year he was stabbed by an assassin, and although the wound did not prove fatal, the Pope ordered the closing of every ingress by gates locked and barred. About the same period, Leonardo da Porto Maurizio, a Minorite friar, drew immense congregations to his sermons in the Colosseum.

In 1749, Benedict XIV. ordered the erection at his private expense of the central cross, and the fourteen stations of the Via Crucis, which remained until 1874, when they were removed for the ground to be excavated.

In 1756, a grand mass was celebrated here by the Cardinal Vicar of Rome under Benedict, in the presence of a very numerous assembly. The same ceremony was repeated a few years afterwards under Clement XIII.

The outer arcade on the south-western side of this colossal building was entirely destroyed in the middle ages by the Pontifical families, who used it as a stone-quarry for building their great palaces. This enables us to see more clearly the construction of the walls of the corridors and front of the three periods:—

First, the arches on the ground-floor, built of travertine.

Second, the first-floor, also of travertine, not long after the other.

Third, the upper storey, of brick on the inner side, of the beginning of the third century.

We also see the numerous holes left by the iron clamps with which the edges of the stones were bound together, according to a Roman fashion which has been in use from the time of Servius Tullius to the present time. On the north-eastern side the front is perfect, and we see the ornamental columns and cornices in the two lower storeys, and in the upper one the corbels for the masts to carry the awning, with holes in the cornice to let them pass through. One of the arches of the lower storey has been restored in the time of the Gordians, A.D. 220-238, and is a good example of the still good construction of that period, though not so good as that of the time of Titus and Vespasian[151].

In 1810, when Rome was incorporated in the French Empire, the Governor, Baron Daru, placed the Colosseum under the direction of the Roman architect Valadier, to carry on regular excavations, which were continued for four years, from 1810 to 1814; of these works the Comte de Tournon[152], then prefect, has written an account.

In 1812, under the French, the ruins of the walls and the surface of the vaults were weeded of the vegetation which threatened their ultimate destruction, and the uprooting of the shrubs had become necessary to save the walls. In sixty years they had again grown up so vigorously that another weeding was absolutely required, and in November, 1870, the whole of the ruins of the Colosseum were cleared of weeds and shrubs, under the direction of Signor Rosa, who was appointed by the Italian Government to superintend the works, and to carry on excavations on a large scale, from that building to the Forum Romanum. There is no doubt that it was quite time this clearing should take place, as the roots of the plants were in many parts displacing the stones, and would soon have done serious mischief. There was a great outcry against this necessary work by the botanists and the lovers of the picturesque, but archæologists must approve of it. Many things are now brought into view more clearly than they were before.

A view of these excavations was taken and engraved in 1813. It represents clearly the passages round it, and two straight parallel channels down the middle of it for the naval fights, which were in reality not a representation of sea-fights but of river-fights. In 1814, and again in 1867, the subterranean passage leading from the Amphitheatre on the side next the Cœlian was excavated as a private speculation in search of treasure, which was not found; but the passage was left open as we now see it[153].

In 1864-5, considerable excavations were made between the Colosseum and the Cœlian, in search of treasure supposed to have been buried there, but only a subterranean passage was found. The work was interrupted by water gushing out in great abundance,—to such an extent that the area of the Colosseum was completely inundated, and the water was obliged to be drawn off by a steam engine[154]. The passage then discovered is still left open; the upper part of the vault only is removed, which formed the floor, or rather supported the floor, of another passage on the present level of the ground, leading from the podium, or lowest storey, towards the Cœlian. The point where the water gushed out and stopped the work was just outside of the site of the outer wall, long since destroyed on that part of the building. The great excavations of 1874 shewed that this passage turned to the left or south when it reached the outer wall, and followed the line of it until it joined the outer end of the long straight passage down the centre of the building.

The upper wall on the north side, where it remains perfect, formed the back of the wooden gallery over the corridors for the common people, and was faced with brick, but the greater part of the ancient brickwork had fallen down, and has been copied in modern times; a great deal of the back of the stone wall, left exposed, shews the hasty construction[155], in the time of Gordianus.

The remains of Aqueducts and Piscinæ have already been mentioned[156], but some further account of them seems to be requisite. A piscina always consists of four vaulted chambers, two above and two below, and the middle wall of the two lower chambers has small holes in it, for straining the water as it passes through. The lower chamber of a piscina is also known by having no windows in it, and the lining being of the water-cement (opus signinum). The lower chambers of two piscinæ only remain; of the northern one the middle wall between the two lower chambers is the only part now visible, this is faced with opus reticulatum of the time of Nero, and has the usual small holes for water-pipes through the wall. The southern one is of brickwork of the third century, of the time of Alexander Severus; of this there is much more remaining, one end with the usual boldly projecting buttresses to support the weight of water, and part of two other chambers of the reservoir.

The excavations which had been made in the time of the first Napoleon and of Pope Pius VII., 1810-1814, were filled up again after drawings and plans had been made of them. They were not considered satisfactory by scholars because the excavations had not gone deep enough, having been stopped by water, as very often happens in Rome at certain periods of the year, when the springs are high. They were again suspended by the same cause in the spring and summer of 1874, but Signor Rosa, with his usual energy, obtained machinery and a steam-engine to pump the water out[157]. The whole area was found to be undermined by chambers and passages, with walls chiefly of brick, but some of tufa, with indications of several different periods[158].

When the Pontifical Government returned to power in 1815, Pope Pius VII. ordered the enormous buttress to be built, for supporting one end of the wall then left broken, and preventing the ruin from extending further. We have already lost forty-seven out of the eighty arches, which have been destroyed for using the materials by previous Popes to build their family palaces, or monasteries and churches, so that there remain only thirty-three of the external arches of travertine. The other end of the wall, near the Meta Sudans, was left in a dangerous state until that was also supported by the great buttress of Leo XII. In 1828, Gregory XVI. followed the example of his immediate predecessors, and rebuilt in brick some arches of what had been the internal corridors, but had become external, owing to the demolition of the great outer arcades in earlier ages. In 1852, Pius IX. repaired the principal entrance from the Esquiline side, and some more of the arches of the inner arcade.

Under the arena was all the machinery usual under the stage of a large theatre; and much space was required for it. When the boards had to be cleared off the central part, to leave open the four long channels of water, which are seen in the view of the Colosseum taken in 1812[159], and the space between them which was probably flooded to the depth of a few feet for effect, the boards removed from the centre must have been piled up at the sides, and on the large corbels before mentioned[160]. Apollodorus, the architect, in his celebrated reply to the Emperor Hadrian, told him that he ought to have prepared a place for the machinery of the great amphitheatre under the platform, and in such a manner that the great building should have been visible from the Forum Romanum. The site intended by him for the temple evidently was the large level platform on the Summa Sacra Via, on which S. Francesca Romana now stands; and the place for the machinery intended by him was obviously that excavated in the spring of 1874, under the south-east end of the platform immediately opposite to the Colosseum, a very convenient place for the purpose. There still remains a rude rubble vault, of the time of the Republic, with a small aqueduct introduced in the time of the early Empire to carry water to the fountains at each corner of the Porticus Liviæ, which must have been on this site, but which did not extend to the end. There is an excellent place for a temple at the end of the porticus or colonnade; and the platform could easily have been extended several yards nearer to the Colosseum: it is evident that this is what Apollodorus said that Hadrian ought to have done, but that he had not done so.

At the south-east end, under the old entrance, at the present level of the ground, a long passage has been found, with a series of square-topped arches, at about fifteen feet below that level. This has been traced further to the south, beyond the limits of the building; it must have led from the great foss-way in that direction. There is a large and deep drain extending from the south end of the Colosseum, turning at an angle and passing at the foot of the Claudium to the Meta Sudans, near the arch of Constantine. It was continued under the present Via di S. Gregorio, and the south-east end of the Palatine[161].

In one part, near the south end, on the western side of the central passage at the lowest level, which is twenty-one feet below the present level of the ground and the top of the walls of the substructure, the two ancient tufa walls (before mentioned) remain nearly perfect, with the vertical grooves opposite to each other, evidently for lifts to slip up and down, and in each instance in the wall on one side a hollow is cut, for the counter-weight to work up and down[162]. These lifts are very near together in the outer passage, in front of the podium, but far below the bottom of it. Behind each of them is a small square chamber under the passage in front of it, with a narrow entrance to it, and a small stream of water running in front for the use of the animals, as these are plainly the dens for the wild beasts to be placed in temporarily, and there is just space enough for the animal to pass through into the wooden cage (pegma[163]), which had two doors, one at the side, the other at the top. When the cage on the lift was pulled up to the level of the floor of the stage or arena, under one of the trap-doors, the upper part was pulled up by a cord from below along with the trap-door, and the animal thus placed at liberty sprang out on to the stage. In the original pavement, which remains round a great part in the passages, behind the place for each of the lifts, is a round hole for the socket of a pivot to work in, evidently for the windlass for winding up the cord[164]. It is calculated that there was one of these lifts in front of each arch, and a den behind each, all round the enceinte of the building, so that all the wild beasts could spring on to the stage at once with tremendous effect. The persons in the lower gallery were protected by strong nets, and by bars that turned round on pivots, so that the claws of wild beasts had no hold upon them.

Under the long passage which comes in at the south end is a large drain at a considerably lower depth; there are gratings in the paved floor of the passage above opening into it, which had unfortunately been stopped up in some of the great floods, but was partially cleared out as far as the Meta Sudans in 1875. The paved floor of the passage over the drain under the arena is three feet above the level of the pavement, which is of herring-bone brickwork (opus spicatum), and the passage before mentioned goes all round the building nearly under the edge of the podium. Modern iron steps have been placed for people to descend to the bottom of the building, and under these is seen the ancient iron grating to prevent anything being carried off by the rush of water[165]. From this it is evident that the great drain was to carry off the water used in the canals for the naumachia, when the Emperor “ordered the water to be let off and the boards to be replaced.” There are evident marks of a great flood-gate or sluice drawn up, as a portcullis, at the entrance to this drain. It also appears that the vessels were floated down on the wooden framework on which they were dragged along, now made visible, but it does not appear that they could have been floated up also to the level of the canals. The space between the wooden floor of the stage, called the arena, and the original pavement being twenty-one feet, the canals were ten feet deep, and yet room is left for the passages and machinery under them. Possibly, but not probably, the whole central space could be floated, excepting just at the south end, where room was left for the machinery. The vessels were probably never removed from the building, but left under the vaults, and dragged out when required.

The tufa walls with the grooves for lifts belong to the earliest part of the building, and must be earlier than the time of Nero[166], as has been shewn; and his stagnum navale, or naumachia, his venationes, or wild-beast hunts, and gymnasium, which are recorded as belonging to his great palace, could have been nowhere else but on this spot.

We now see distinctly the large corbels[167] all round the building at a certain height, about six feet below the present level of the soil, for carrying the boards of the great floor covered with sand called the arena, upon which the athletes wrestled, the wild beasts were killed, and the persons condemned to death were torn to pieces by wild beasts; so that the martyrdom of the early Christians who were condemned to death in this manner took place on the sand of the arena, and not on the soil of the area. These corbels, in some instances, at the south end of the building, have the ends of them built into the old tufa wall, which is cut away to receive them. This old wall is not so regular in plan as the great work of the Flavian Emperors, the architect of which probably intended to destroy these old walls ultimately. Dio Cassius (himself a Roman senator) gives a vivid description of scenes which took place in this Amphitheatre[168] in his presence, in the time of Commodus (as has been said), which leaves no doubt about the matter. Similar scenes are described in the time of Nero. The whole of the arena was, in fact, supported in all directions by the walls of the chambers or passages not more than ten feet apart; one object of which, no doubt, was to carry the great boarded floor, that could be removed at pleasure by the order of the emperor, and replaced as readily[169].

The excavations of 1874 and 1875[170] very much astonished the people in Rome, and more especially the English visitors, who had been long accustomed to consider the area and the arena to be the same thing; they were amazed to see the whole of the area undermined with walls[171]. The walls that were first seen are for the most part brick walls of the fifth century, and the inscription[172] found there in 1814 records that they had been repaired by Lampadius, prefect, A.D. 442. This was after they had been much damaged by an earthquake. Another inscription records repairs of the arena and the podium by Basilius, prefect and consul, A.D. 508, after another earthquake. A long subterranean passage[173] at a considerable depth, leads out at the south-east end in the direction of the church of S. Clement; this passage passes under a number of square-topped arches or doorways, and has rather the appearance of having been a state entrance at the time that the level of the street was as low as that passage, that is, before the filling-up of the foss-ways, which began in the second century. On each side of this passage is a long narrow vaulted chamber parallel to it, under the corridor, and in the pavement of each of these chambers is a series of six round holes lined with hard copper or bronze, for a pivot to work in; they are somewhat worn, and in a straight line one behind the other. The most probable use for these was for a windlass or capstan to be worked in each, and by these means to drag along the vessels in the canals before mentioned, as extending down the centre of this colossal building.

It has also been mentioned that a very ancient wooden frame, calculated for the keel of a vessel to slide upon, remained on the ground in 1875, just within the passage at the south-east end of the building, as if the vessels used in the sham fights could be placed out of sight in the lofty central passage. This is said by those accustomed to dockyards to have all the appearance of a dry dock, or a cradle for vessels to stand upon[174]. We read of the vessels being divided into two nations or sides, there were probably six on each side, and each nation occupied one of the canals. It is probable that the surface between the two canals on either side of this central passage, just under the level of the arena (which was twenty-one feet above the brick floor), was flooded with two or three feet in water, but the keels of the vessels were in the canals. On either side of the passages before mentioned[175] are remains of other walls of tufa, with vertical grooves in them, as if for lifts; the brick walls, between those of tufa, have been introduced at a later period, and in these instances the grooves are not opposite each other. This shews that great alterations have been going on at different periods in these subterranean works, some of which are earlier than the existing building, and others considerably later[176]. In one place, near the south-east entrance, the two old stone walls, with the vertical grooves, remain in their original places facing each other, so that lifts might work up and down in them.

Architects had long wondered where the builders could possibly have obtained such an immense mass of materials in so short a time, it was therefore evidently natural that they should make use of anything that served their purpose. It appears that in some parts the galleries for the spectators of the old Naumachia were thus made use of as they stood, without actually rebuilding them. The great tufa blocks of the second wall of Rome were also used as old materials for the substructure of the great stone arcades; but the builders, who had to add the upper gallery, were afraid to trust the soft tufa to carry so great a weight[177], and therefore built piers of travertine about four feet wide[178]. These piers to support the upper gallery go right through the walls of all the lower galleries, from the top to the bottom of the building (as has been said on p. [12]).

The architectural details of the Colosseum are much admired by architects; the cornice-mouldings of the lower storey are good examples of the style of the latter part of the first century[179]. The supply of water for the naval fights must have been from the Aqueducts; the water was brought from the Cœlian in a shallow channel, carried upon a lofty double colonnade, or arcade[180]. It has been mentioned[181] that there are slight remains of three reservoirs to receive it, which can be traced by remains of the particular cement used only for the aqueducts[182]. The continuations of the shallow channel along the corridors can be seen in many places, and are shewn in the photographs[183].

In the upper storey of the third century, on the exterior, the corbels for the masts to rest upon, and the holes in the cornice for them to pass through, have been mentioned[184]. On the interior of this wall, now that it has been stripped of plaster, and the wooden gallery that had been built up against it has been destroyed, we see clearly how hastily it has been built of old materials[185]. In other parts it has been cased with modern brickwork, but the corbels for fastening the masts on the inside are preserved[186].