A Smaller Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities

by William Smith

M″, The second maenianum.

M‴, The third maenianum, elevated considerably above the preceding one, and appropriated to the pullati.

W, The colonnade, or gallery, which contained seats for women.

E, The narrow gallery round the summit of the interior, for the attendants who worked the velarium.

pr, pr, The præcinctiones, or landings, at the top of the first and second maenianum; in the pavement of which were grated apertures, at intervals, to admit light into the vomitoria beneath them.

V V V V, Vomitoria.

G G G, The three external galleries through the circumference of the building, open to the arcades of the exterior.

g g, Inner gallery.

The situation and arrangement of the staircases, &c., are not expressed, as they could not be rendered intelligible without plans at various levels of the building.

AMPHĬTHĔĀTRUM, an amphitheatre, was a place for the exhibition of public shows of combatants, wild beasts, and naval engagements, and was entirely surrounded with seats for the spectators; whereas, in those for dramatic performances, the seats were arranged in a semicircle facing the stage. An amphitheatre is therefore frequently described as a double theatre, consisting of two such semicircles, or halves, joined together, the spaces allotted to their orchestras becoming the inner inclosure, or area, termed the arena. The form, however, of the ancient amphitheatres was not a circle, but invariably an ellipse. Gladiatorial shows and combats of wild beasts (venationes) were first exhibited in the forum and the circus; and it appears that the ancient custom was still preserved till the time of Julius Caesar. The first building in the form of an amphitheatre is said to have been erected by C. Scribonius Curio, one of Caesar’s partisans; but the account which is given of this building sounds rather fabulous. It is said to have consisted of two wooden theatres, made to revolve on pivots, in such a manner that they could, by means of windlasses and machinery, be turned round face to face, so as to form one building. Soon after Caesar himself erected, in the Campus Martius, a stationary amphitheatre, made of wood; to which building the name of amphitheatrum was for the first time given. The first stone amphitheatre was built by Statilius Taurus, in the Campus Martius, at the desire of Augustus. This was the only stone amphitheatre at Rome till the time of Vespasian. One was commenced by Caligula, but was not continued by Claudius. The one erected by Nero in the Campus Martius was only a temporary building, made of wood. The amphitheatre of Statilius Taurus was burnt in the fire of Rome in the time of Nero; and hence, as a new one was needed, Vespasian commenced the celebrated Amphitheatrum Flavium in the middle of the city, in the valley between the Caelian, the Esquiline, and the Velia, on the spot originally occupied by the lake or large pond attached to Nero’s palace. Vespasian did not live to finish it. It was dedicated by Titus in A.D. 80, but was not completely finished, till the reign of Domitian. This immense edifice, which is even yet comparatively entire, covered nearly six acres of ground, and was capable of containing about 87,000 spectators. It is called at the present day the Colosseum or Colisaeum. The interior of an amphitheatre was divided into three parts, the arena, podium, and gradus. The clear open space in the centre of the amphitheatre was called the arena, because it was covered with sand, or sawdust, to prevent the gladiators from slipping, and to absorb the blood. The size of the arena was not always the same in proportion to the size of the amphitheatre, but its average proportion was one-third of the shorter diameter of the building. The arena was surrounded by a wall distinguished by the name of podium; although such appellation, perhaps, rather belongs to merely the upper part of it, forming the parapet, or balcony, before the first or lowermost seats, nearest to the arena. The arena, therefore, was no more than an open oval court, surrounded by a wall about fifteen feet high; a height considered necessary, in order to render the spectators perfectly secure from the attacks of wild beasts. There were four principal entrances leading into the arena; two at the ends of each axis or diameter of it, to which as many passages led directly from the exterior of the building; besides secondary ones, intervening between them, and communicating with the corridors beneath the seats on the podium. The wall or enclosure of the arena is supposed to have been faced with marble, more or less sumptuous; besides which, there appears to have been, in some instances at least, a sort of net-work affixed to the top of the podium, consisting of railing, or rather open trellis-work of metal. As a further defence, ditches, called euripi, sometimes surrounded the arena. The term podium was also applied to the terrace, or gallery itself, immediately above the arena, which was no wider than to be capable of containing two, or at the most, three ranges of moveable seats, or chairs. This, as being by far the best situation for distinctly viewing the sports in the arena, and also more commodiously accessible than the seats higher up, was the place set apart for senators and other persons of distinction, such as foreign ambassadors; and it was here, also, that the emperor himself used to sit, in an elevated place, called suggestus or cubiculum, and likewise the person who exhibited the games on a place elevated like a pulpit or tribunal (editoris tribunal). Above the podium were the gradus, or seats of the other spectators, which were divided into maeniana, or stories. The first maenianum, consisting of fourteen rows of stone or marble seats, was appropriated to the equestrian order. The seats appropriated to the senators and equites were covered with cushions, which were first used in the time of Caligula. Then, after an interval or space, termed a praecinctio, and forming a continued landing-place from the several staircases in it, succeeded the second maenianum, where were the seats called popularia, for the third class of spectators, or the populus. Behind this was the second praecinctio, bounded by a rather high wall; above which was the third maenianum, where there were only wooden benches for the pullati, or common people. The next and last division, namely, that in the highest part of the building, consisted of a colonnade, or gallery, where females were allowed to witness the spectacles of the amphitheatre, but some parts of it were also occupied by the pullati. Each maenianum was not only divided from the other by the praecinctio, but was intersected at intervals by spaces for passages left between the seats, called scalae, or scalaria; and the portion between two such passages was called cuneus, because the space gradually widened like a wedge, from the podium to the top of the building. The entrances to the seats from the outer porticoes were called vomitoria. At the very summit was the narrow platform for the men who had to attend to the velarium, or awning, by which the building was covered as a defence against the sun and rain. The velarium appears usually to have been made of wool, but more costly materials were sometimes employed. The first of the preceding cuts represents a longitudinal section of the Flavian amphitheatre, and the second, which is on a larger scale, a part of the above section, including the exterior wall, and the seats included between that and the arena. It will serve to convey an idea of the leading form and general disposition of the interior. For an account of the gladiatorial contests, and the shows of wild beasts, exhibited in the amphitheatre, see [Gladiatores], [Naumachia], and [Venatio].