The theatre itself was big enough to seat 3400 spectators, which is more than most theatres in London could do, and as Timgad was merely a country town of no very great size it shows that the Romans were as fond of theatrical plays as the English are of cinematograph shows to-day.
They were equally fond of bathing, and in this one town alone there were twelve public baths. They were what we call Turkish baths, that is, there were bathrooms of several grades of heat to be gone through—one tepid, the next warm, the next one very hot, and then cooler and cold, and the Romans were fond of taking these baths every day.
This is too much of a good thing, as it is apt to weaken a man. The Romans, as you know, were in the end driven out of their Empire, because they allowed themselves to become weak in mind and in body by too much laziness in theatre-going and continual hot baths.
One inhabitant had inscribed on a stone in Timgad what he thought to be the best form of happiness. He wrote:
"To hunt, to bathe, and to laugh—that's the way to live."
And there is a good deal in what he says, for in hunting you have to use much woodcraft and hard exercise, and keeping clean and being cheery is all part of the Scout's life.
But he has forgotten to mention one very important thing towards making your life a happy one, and I expect that any Scout could tell me at once what that point is—couldn't you?
He has left out the happiness which you get from doing a good turn. If he had slightly altered his sentence, and had put it this way:
"To scout, to bathe, to do a good turn, and to smile—that is the way to live and be happy," he would have said the truth, and he would have exactly described what every Boy Scout does.
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