The archæology of Rome, Part 7

by John Henry Parker

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:—