The middle part, or area of the amphitheatre, was called cavæ, because it was considerably lower than the other parts, whence perhaps, the name of pit in our play houses was borrowed; and arena, because it used to be strown with sand, to hinder the performers from slipping.
Pl. 2
Ruins of the Flavian Amphitheatre, commonly called the Colisæum.
There was a threefold distinction of the seats, according to the ordinary division of the people into senators, knights, and commons. The first range was called orchestra, from ορχειςθαι, because in that part of the Grecian theatres, the dances were performed; the second equestria; and the other popularia.
The Flavian amphitheatre, now better known by the name of the Colisæum, from its stupendous magnitude, excites the astonishment of the world. It was five hundred fifty feet in length, and four hundred seventy in breadth, and one hundred sixty in height. It was surrounded to the top by a portico resting on eighty arches, and divided into four stories. The arrangement of the seats was similar to that in the theatres; but there was a large box projecting from one side, and covered with a canopy of state for the accommodation of the emperor and the magistrates, who were surrounded with all the insignia of office.
As combats of wild beasts formed a chief part of the amusements, they were secured in dens around the arena or stage, which was strongly encircled by a canal, to guard the spectators against their attacks. These precautions, however, were not always sufficient, and instances occurred in which the animals sprung across the barrier.
This huge pile was commenced by Vespasian, and was reared with a portion of the materials of Nero's golden palace: its form was oval, and it is supposed to have contained upwards of eighty thousand persons. A large part of this vast edifice still remains.
Theatres, in the first ages of the commonwealth, were only temporary, and composed of wood. Of these, the most celebrated was that of Marcus Scaurus—the scenes of which were divided into three partitions, one above another, the first consisting of one hundred and twenty pillars of marble; the next, of the like number of pillars, curiously wrought in glass. The top of all had the same number of pillars adorned with gilded tablets. Between the pillars were set three thousand statues and images of brass. The cavca would hold eighty thousand men.
Pompey the great was the first who undertook the raising of a fixed theatre, which he built nobly of square stone. Some of the remains of this theatre are still to be seen at Rome.