The archæology of Rome, Part 7

by John Henry Parker

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].