The three successive tiers were called cavea. Above these was a tier for the people; above this one for the "gods;" thus making six in all. The amphitheatre seated eighty-seven thousand people, and there was standing room for thirteen thousand more.

The walls standing upon the area, composed of tufa, travertine, and brick, old material re-used, were built at a period long after the building was dedicated, when the naval fights being abandoned there was no longer any occasion for a movable stage or arena as before. They contained the machinery for the stage above, and for the lifts or pegmata to send men or beasts from the area to the arena. Probably these are the walls thus alluded to by Dion Cassius: "He [Commodus] divided the theatre into four parts by two partitions that cut through diametrically, and by right angles, to the end that from the galleries that were round about he might with greater ease single out the beasts he aimed at."

PLAN OF THE EXCAVATIONS BELOW THE ARENA OF THE COLOSSEUM.
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"The emperor having employed himself in shooting from above ... descended afterwards to the bottom of the theatre, and there slew some other private beasts, whereof some made toward him, others were brought to him, and others were shut up in dens. Returning after dinner, he used the exercises of a gladiator, with a shield in his right hand, and in his left a wooden sword. After him fought those whom he had chosen in the morning at the bottom of the theatre." Also, in his life of Septimius Severus, he says: "There was a kind of cloister made in the amphitheatre, in the form of a ship, to receive them [the wild beasts]. On a sudden there issued out bears, lions, ostriches, wild asses, and foreign bulls."

The walls before us are of very bad construction, evidently repairs of a late date: they are the work of either Lampridius, prefect of Rome under Valentinian III., 425–455, who repaired the steps and renewed the arena; or of Basilius, who restored the podium and arena after their destruction by an earthquake in 486—this we learn from two inscriptions standing at the entrance. Half way, on each side, two large passages have been discovered choked up with mud: they were the aqueducts to bring the water for the naumachiæ from the reservoirs upon the Esquiline and Cælian Hills respectively; from the small openings in the blind arches the water also poured out over the top of the dens, thus forming cascades all round. At the end opposite the present entrance a long passage has been opened, above the level of the area floor; below this passage is the great drain, with the remains of the iron grating[6] to prevent large objects going down: this and the passage were closed by flood-gates on naval representations, which can be clearly seen in the construction. On the right and left of this passage, connected with it, but at a lower level, two dens have been cleared out, 27 yards long by 5 wide, containing six holes in the floor, in the centre of square blocks of stone, and these holes are faced with bronze, evidently the sockets into which metal posts were fixed to which the beasts were chained. On the fragments depicting scenes from the arena, the animals are shown with a long piece of rope or chain dangling from their necks, which seems to bear out our idea that they were attached to posts fixed in these sockets, and that as they were wanted the chain or rope was cut, and they were free to rush upon the arena.

The corbels round the front of the line of arches under the podium are in pairs, and between them the masts were inserted to support the awning on the inside, as the holes and corbels supported the masts on the outside; for we find on examination that those inside are exactly in a line with those outside at the top of the building. These corbels are 29 inches deep, and from them to the level of the area is 10 feet, and to the present surface 11 feet; between each pair of corbels are chases 19½ inches wide, ending on a block of travertine for the masts to rest on, the chases coming down 1½ yards below the corbels, which are 15 feet apart. They probably helped to support the arena, and show what the height of this wooden arena must have been, and that from its vast size it must have had a framework and supports: the numerous holes on the area, in travertine, were for the heels of the supports; one of these, a square one, has remains of the decayed timber in it.

In the central passage, resting on the area and extending as far as the excavations, is an ancient wooden framework in a decomposed state. Various suggestions have been made as to its use,—we suppose it to be the framework and joists of the flooring covering the central passage; others, a sort of tramway for running the cages along,—but till the whole space has been cleared out it is impossible to arrive at a correct estimate of its use.

Honorius, A.D. 404, having abolished the gladiatorial combats, probably the last display of wild beasts was that given by King Theodoric at the beginning of the sixth century.