The archæology of Rome, Part 7

by John Henry Parker

The podium was protected by nets[91]; and there were projecting bars for rollers, which turned round when touched, so that the claws of an animal could have no hold upon them: these are mentioned by Calpurnius. Seneca, in his Epistle (88) uses the word pegma for “a wooden machine in the theatres,” which raised and lowered itself imperceptibly—evidently what we now call a lift—the machinery of which was not seen by the spectators. Wooden towers used on the stage in sham fights were also called pegmata[92]. The following account given by Seneca[93], who wrote about A.D. 20, of these machines, clearly applies to the Colosseum and the substructures under it. As that was before the time of the Flavian Emperors, it is probable that the wooden amphitheatre on this spot was in existence in his time, and that the tufa walls for the lifts now remaining were then standing and in use. He says—

“There are games that give pleasure to the eyes and the ears. Among these we may enumerate the machines which cause the cages to raise themselves, and silently rise to the top of the wooden floor (or stage), and others in unexpected variety, either gaping open or coalescing again, others which were distant drawing together again spontaneously, or those which were near gradually retiring from each other. The eyes of the silly people are astonished at all these sudden movements, the causes of which they do not understand.”

Juvenal, writing about A.D. 100, also mentions the pegmata in the Colosseum[94], with the velaria.

There is a small stream of water in front of the dens, supplied by the aqueducts, from which the animals could drink. Behind each den is a small cell, four feet square, descending from above, called catabolicus[95], but not lower than ten feet from the ground, apparently for a man to go down and feed them safely.

In what seems the earliest part of the two tufa walls, near the south-west end of the building, the apertures in the inner part are square-headed doorways, and not arches[96]. These are filled up with brick walls of the time of the Flavian emperors, or later[97]. In other parts of these tufa walls there are arches in the inner wall, also supported by brick arches of the time of the Flavian emperors, in which the bricks are thicker, and there is more mortar between them than in those of the time of Nero.

On the floor of the central passage is a remarkable piece of ancient wooden framework lying on the ground[98], which has the appearance at first sight of having been burnt, but long exposure to wet will have the same effect on wood that fire has. (The Irish bog-oak often appears as if it had been burnt, and wood has been dug from under the foundations of an Irish round tower that had the same appearance.) This framework is a good deal worn, as if it had been much used; it has all the appearance of a dry dock, or a cradle for a vessel to stand upon. When the stagnum navale of Nero was in use, there must have been some machinery for lifting up the vessels and placing them on the canals. They must also have been removed out of the way when the water was let off, and the boarded floor of the stage or arena replaced[99].

On each side of this wooden framework is a series of slabs of stone about a yard square, placed upright, with a hole through each for a water-course. These seem to have been for fixing the wooden frame of a cradle for the vessels to stand upon, and to keep them upright. This plan is well shewn in a drawing of a trireme that was made for Napoleon III., to shew the French people what a Roman trireme was like[100].

It is well known that the general form of the Colosseum is oval, and that it had four principal entrances, one of which only remains; this is said to have been the entrance for the emperor and his suite, it is not numbered as the other entrances and seats were[101]. The theatre, as we are told in the Regionary Catalogues, was calculated to hold 87,000 people, and was admirably adapted for its purpose. There were four principal staircases, by which the spectators could ascend to the highest tier of seats, and these were so arranged that the different orders could disperse without meeting each other. The numerous places of egress, called vomitoria, and the windows to light the staircases, were contrived with great skill.

Vast as this amazing edifice still is, the whole of the outer wall with the arcades and corridors, on the south and west sides, have been destroyed, having been used as a stone quarry for building some of the largest palaces in Rome, but on the north and east sides it is tolerably perfect. A correct idea of the whole can only be formed by mounting to the top, and surveying the whole extent from thence. The finest view of the exterior is from the Thermæ of Titus, or the windows or the garden of the monastery of S. Pietro in Vincoli, on the hill opposite the north front.