The resemblance between this and the Colosseum in Rome is so remarkable, that there can be no doubt one is a copy from the other. In this amphitheatre the two canals for water, on each side of the great central passage, and the curved passage round the outer edge, are distinctly visible. At Capua, the aqueduct for the water, and the drain to carry it off, remain.
Amphitheatre at Pompeii, from a Fresco Painting.
The lower view is from a fresco at Pompeii. It shews the awning is drawn off behind. There is a front built out distinct from the oval building, with which it is connected by a curved wall at each end, and on which is a passage with persons upon it; there are two grand flights of steps leading up to the top, and persons going up them. These steps are carried on arches, increasing in height as they get nearer the top. The front passage is also carried on tall arches. All these arrangements for the entrance and exit seem to be a bad substitute for the vomitoria of the Roman Colosseum.
There appears to be another place of amusement of some kind by the side of the amphitheatre. A square space enclosed by a high wall, with two arches on one side or doorways (?), probably a school for gladiators, with an impluvium in the middle. There is an inscription on the wall, of which all that is legible is DIVCRET ...; there is also in the front of the picture a tent with persons under it, and two small square or oblong huts, evidently of wood, the planks being shewn in one with a door; this was probably a wine-shop.
There are a number of figures in active motion in all parts of the picture, many of them evidently fighting, and it represents a skirmish between the Nucerini and the Pompeiani; the inhabitants of a neighbouring town, called Nuceria or Nocera, having made a sudden inroad on Pompeii, the Pompeians are flying in all directions, closely followed, some dying and some dead. These hand-to-hand fights are seen on the arena, in the corridors or ambulatories, on the walls of the town, and on the esplanade round the building, which is planted with trees for shade[253].
THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XXVIII.
AMPHITHEATRE AT CAPUA.
AMPHITHEATRE AT CAPUA—VIEW AND DETAILS