“Hic [Titus] amphitheatrum Romæ ædificavit, et in dedicatione ejus quinque millia ferarum occidit.” (Eutropius, lib. vii. c. 14. See also Cassiodorus, Variar. l. v. op. 42. Opera omnia, ed. 1679, fol. vol. i. p. 94, c. 2.)
The account by Suetonius, writing some eighty or ninety years previously, is very clear:—
“Amphitheatro dedicato, thermisque juxta celeriter exstructis, munus edidit apparatissimum largissimumque. Dedit et navale prœlium in veteri naumachia: ibidem et gladiatores: atque uno die quinque millia omne genus ferarum.” (Suetonius Titus, c. 7.)
These old naumachia were the same as the stagnum navale, the old place for such amusements on the spot. They have been supposed to be the Naumachia of Augustus in the Trastevere, but without authority; and the mention of the gladiators in connection with them implies that it was at the same place.
[72] See Photos., Nos. 3268, 3269, and the drawing of this restored in Plates VII. and XV.
[73] See p. [37], and Plate [X.]
[74] Photos., Nos. 1761, 1762.
[75] Photos., No. 3279, and Plates [II.] and [XX.]
[76] It is important to notice this, because some able architects did not see it at first sight, and imagined that these brick arches rested upon the stone piers, which was evidently not really the case, though it appears to be so.
M. Viollet-le-Duc, one of the most eminent architects of our time, says that an experienced architect would cut through old tufa walls of this kind as easily, and with as little scruple, as he would cut through cheese, and the brick facing made no material difference.