THERE was no kind of civil edifice, or public work, more frequent among the Romans, in Italy or the conquered provinces, than such as related to sports and games; for that brave and wise people both judged and found that method well calculated to bring over the nations to their own language and customs, being agreeable contrivances that seemed rather pleasure and delight than compulsion. Such were theatres, circs, amphitheatres, stadia, and the like. There were three amphitheatres in the city of Rome; that of Vespasian, the Castrense, and of Statilius Taurus: and, though we find them not so particularly taken notice of elsewhere in historians, yet we behold the things themselves, whose immense bulk and weighty materials have generally so long out-faced time and weather. We may affirm, there was scarce any colony or free city, of considerable note, in their extensive empire, that wanted these places of public pastime; and scarce any province now, where their footsteps at least are not visible, and many almost intire, particularly what we are now treating upon, amphitheatres: yet I believe it will appear a novelty to most people, when we shall talk of such curious antiquities in Britain. TAB. LXI. XCVII.But since this time twelve-months, I have seen three, one at Silchester, another at Richborough castle in Kent, and this at Dorchester in Dorsetshire. I have been told of one with six tire of seats, three mile off Redruth in Cornwall. Sir Christopher Wren is the first person that I know of who gave this hint of inquiry, in discovering this, many years ago, in his journeys to the isle of Portland, when he began to build St. Paul’s cathedral. Great pity it is that he did not take an exact description of it at that time, when in greater perfection, before the gallows were removed hither by an unlucky humour of the sheriff; since when the parapet at top is on that side much beaten down, by the trampling of men and horses at executions; but especially because his great skill might have done it exact justice, and by means of his pen it might have shared in the duration of his works. In defect of such illustration, I hope the reader will accept of my mean endeavours to preserve so valuable a piece of architecture, which, notwithstanding the damage above mentioned, and that the area of it has been ploughed up these many years, will still give a spectator a fine notion in the structures of this sort abroad, deservedly the admiration of travellers; and will present a person of understanding, the pleasure of observing the noble and great genius of the Romans in every production of their hands. Nor does the meanness of its materials debase, but rather inhance, its value and its art; for, though less costly and lasting than stone and marble, of which others are generally built, yet for the same reason less liable to rapine, and the covetous humour of such as plunder them for other uses: therefore I believe, in the main, it is as perfect as most abroad, if not so alluring to the eye; whence we may suppose it has so long escaped common observation, though close by a great town and road.
An amphitheatre is properly a double theatre, or two theatres joined together. A theatre is a semicircle wherein are the seats of the spectators; the apparatus of the actors, or scenes, filling up the diameter before it. But if we would be more exact, we shall observe, it is half as long again as the radius; for they cut off the fourth part of a circle, then the rest became the form of their theatres. Now two such as these joined together, throwing away the scenic part, constituted an amphitheatre; taking its name from circular vision, and because the seats were continued quite round, the faces of the people being all directed to the centre of its excentricity: so its use required, different from that of the theatre, where the company look all one way toward the stage. But then, as Lipsius takes notice in discoursing upon this topic, the lines, at the ends where they are conjoined, must be drawn outward a little, approaching more to strait lines, than it becomes a true oval, well expressed by Cassiodorus; “for, (says he) the area includes the figure of an egg, which affords due space for combatants, and more advantage to spectators to see every thing by its long curvity or relaxed circle.� These were not put in practice at Rome till the end of the commonwealth, and appropriated to the hunting and fighting of wild-beasts, to gladiators and the like; and at last to sea engagements, represented in gallies floating upon the water, which they introduced for that purpose. First of all, they made them pro tempore of timber, being two theatres, each fixed upon a wonderful axis, and so contrived, that when they pleased they could turn both together, with all the people on their seats, and make an amphitheatre; of which Pliny, xxxv. 15. speaks with a note of astonishment, as it really was. This was done by C. Curio, one of Cæsar’s party. It is worth while to read the great naturalist’s descant upon it. This I suppose gave occasion to the building of regular amphitheatres, of which Cæsar made the first in the Campus Martius, but of wood, when he was dictator. The first of stone was erected in Augustus his time, by Statilius Taurus, in the place of the former, which was the only one till Vespasian, whose work was the monstrous Colissæum, but finished by his son Titus. This has afforded materials for many public buildings in Rome, and still boasts its immense ruins, as one of the greatest prodigies of the imperial city.
Vitruvius mentions nothing of amphitheatres; therefore he probably published his book before that of Taurus was built: as for Cæsar’s, it belonged not to masonry, being carpenter’s work; in which he was a very great master, as in every thing else: so that we must form our notions of these things from the works themselves, and the ruins that time has spared. The parts of an amphitheatre are these: the arena or space within, the scene of action; the euripus, or river that generally encompassed the verge of it; the podium, or parapet at bottom; the itinera, or viæ, which were the walks between certain series of seats; the ascensus, steps or stairs; the pulpita or tribunalia, a sort of covered chair of state, where the emperor, his legate, the prætor or chief magistrate of a city, sat; the cathedræ, where the senators, foreign ambassadors, and great personages, sat; the gradus, or common seats; the præcinctiones, which I suppose balustrades; the aditus or vomitoria, being the passages from the stairs withinside to the seats, a metaphorical name, from the people pouring themselves through them with violence; the cunei, which were the space of seats comprehended between two of those passages, so called from their wedge-like shape; the porticus, or galleries within, partly for magnificence, and partly for convenience: all these particulars are easily apprehended from inspection of schemes and sections of these works in many authors. Some of them could not, others need not to be in our work; therefore I shall occasionally enlarge upon those pertinent to this subject, as they fall in our way in the description.
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The Geometrical Groundplot of the Roman Amphitheatre at Dorchester
Aug. 22. 1723.
Stukeley designr.
TAB. LXXVII.The amphitheatre at Dorchester is situate on a plain in the open fields about a quarter of a mile (being just 300 of my paces) or 1500 foot south-west from the walls of the town, delicately ascending all the way, close by the Roman road running from thence to Weymouth. The vulgar call it Maumbury, but have no notion of its purpose, though it is a common walk for the inhabitants, and the terrace at top is a noted place of rendezvous, as affording a pleasant circular walk, and a prospect of the town and wide plain of corn fields all around, much boasted of by the inhabitants for most excellent grain. Westward of the town we see the Roman camp called Poundbury, and southward the most famous one Maiden castle, both before described. More southerly all the hill-tops, as far as the eye reaches, are covered with an incredible number of Celtic barrows. It stands upon the very edge of that part of the fields which declines gently northward, or toward the town, upon a chalk, and which without doubt at first was perfect down, like that of Salisbury plain, or the neighbouring downs in the way to Bridport. One may in fancy imagine the beauty of its prospect, and the pleasantness of the walk hither upon that fine carpet, when all was in its first perfection; but at present it is ploughed up to the very skirt of the amphitheatre, both within and without: TAB. LXXVIII.so foolishly greedy are the country people of an inch of ground, that they have levelled several barrows lately in the neighbourhood, which cost more than the spot they covered will pay in fifty years. This work of ours is raised of solid chalk upon the level, without any ditch about it. I have endeavoured to delineate, as exactly as I could by mensuration, the true and original ground-plot thereof, or architectonic design upon which it is formed, from what is left by the injuries of age, of the plough, of men and beasts; and that in its first and genuine scale the Roman foot, which is about an eleventh part less than ours. The TAB. L.[plate No 50], represents the amphitheatre as covered with the subsellia, and as in its primitive perfection; for we may well suppose age has diminished it on all dimensions: and in truth it requires a great deal of thought and judgement to attempt to measure it. It is obvious thence to observe, in the general, its conformity with other works of this sort abroad, as far as its different materials will allow; and the great judgement of the architect in varying his scheme thereto, so as fully to answer the proposed end. It is to be noted that half this work is above, and half below the surface of the ground, asTAB. LIII. visible in a section; so that great part of the matter was dug out of the cavea in the middle; for it is a solid bed of chalk, and the rest fetched from elsewhere. I believe the method of building it, was to join solid chalk cut square like stones, and that mortar made of burnt chalk was run into the joints; and probably all the outside was neatly laid with scantlings of the same, but with the natural turf on: so that it is not much inferior in strength to those of stone, though infinitely less expensive; but for use and convenience there is very little difference; and as to beauty, as far as relates to the seats, and what was visible on the inside, our work no doubt was very handsome, and even now is a very pleasant sight. It is observed of most amphitheatres abroad, that they are placed without the cities for wholesomness, and upon elevated ground for benefit of the air, and perflation; a thing much recomended for theatres in Vitruvius; as that of Bourdeaux, 400 paces without the city. Besides, this is very artfully set upon the top of a plain, declining to the north-east; whereby the rays of the sun, falling upon the ground hereabouts, are thrown off to a distance by reflection, and the upper end of the amphitheatre, for the major part of the day, has the sun behind the spectators.
When you stand in the centre of the entrance, it opens itself with all the grandeur that can be imagined: the jambs are wore away somewhat, and the plough encroaches on its verge every year, especially the cheeks below: never did I see corn growing, which of itself is an agreeable sight, with so much indignation as in this noble concavity, where once the gens togata, and majesty of imperial Rome, used to show itself. The conjugate, or shortest diameter externally, is to the longest as 4 to 5; that of the area within, as 2 to 3: this is the same proportion as of the amphitheatre at Lucca, which is 195 brachia in length, 130 broad: a brachium is about 23½ of our inches: it is 25 high. In ours therefore the two centres upon the transdiameter, or longest that form it, are 100 feet distant: the ends of the oval are struck with a radius of 60 feet set upon each of those centres. The centres that describe the side-lines are formed by setting off 85 feet on each side the diameter, from the centre of excentricity. Thus from these four centres only the whole is delineated, and that most easily and naturally; whence I suspect Desgodetz, in laying down his plot of the Coliseum, has without necessity employed no less than eight centres, which is an operation of great perplexity: but still we except the circle in the middle, which so remarkably distinguishes this from all other works, and which gives so great a beauty to the scheme: this is that artful contrivance supplying the place of portico’s, stair-cases, vomitoria, and all the costly work in the grander amphitheatres, for ready conveyance of the spectators in and out to their proper places: it is described from the common centre of the whole, and in the ground-plot is a true circle; but upon the place becomes a walk of eight foot broad, gradually ascending, from the ends upon the long diameter, to its highest elevation in the middle upon the short diameter, where it reaches half-way up the whole series of seats of the spectators, who marching hence distribute themselves therein from all sides without hurry and tumult. On the top is a terrace twelve feet broad at least, beside the parapet outwardly five feet broad, four high. There are three ways leading up to this; at the upper end of the work, over the cave, one; and one on each side upon the shortest diameter, going from the elevated part of the circular walk: horses very conveniently, several a-breast, may go upon this, and frequently do, ascending by the ruin of the cave, but not on the outward steep. The parapet is now three or four foot high, but much ruined on that side next the gallows since last year, at an execution: not only so, but I saw a mixen heap laid under it on that side; and some vile fellow had been digging down part of the amphitheatre to lay among it for compost. There is some enormity, if one examines this work in mathematical strictness without proper judgement: because it stands on a declivity, some parts of the out-side are higher than others, not only as to the same side, but as to the same part on different sides: the plain on which it stands, declines to the north-east: hence the outer side of the work is higher there than in other places; therefore in my sections and ground-plot I endeavour to reduce it to a medium, and the measure which seems to have been the primary intent of the architect.