COLOSSEUM—TWO CAPITALS
A. OF UPPER STOREY—B. OF LOWER
Description of Plate XI.
TWO CAPITALS.
A. From the Upper Storey.
B. From the lower one, or the Podium.
It will be seen at once that this capital (A) is intentionally left in a rude state to be seen from a distance[247], the upper gallery being nearly a hundred feet above the level of the arena. A great number of these capitals, and of the white marble columns to which they belonged, have rolled down from the top of the building to the bottom in an earthquake, crushing all the seats of the galleries in their fall; as many as forty of them have been found, and a still larger number of broken columns, which have evidently fallen with great force; some of them have been found passing quite through the walls in the substructure, and can be still seen with one end on one side of the wall, and the other on the opposite side.
B. is a highly-finished capital of the Corinthian order: of this kind only three or four have been found, but much more perfect than most of the others. They were probably on the short columns of the podium by the side of the state entrance.
THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XII.
RESTORATION OF ONE COMPARTMENT OF THE SUPERSTRUCTURE.
