Palatine and Cælian to discharge itself into the Tiber. The new drain follows the same line.

Immediately over the mouth of this drain is another long passage, with a square-headed opening; this was the covered-way, by which the animals brought down in cages from the vivaria were introduced into the building, and they could thence be conveyed either right or left of the entrance, along the base of the outer tufa wall to their dens.

Above the passage again, and clear of the substructure, is an archway, the continuation of which formed one of the chief entrances: it was through this and a similar opening at the opposite end of the arena, facing the Palatine, that the State processions made their entry. The only one of the four great entrances that remains perfect is that on the north side, in the direction of the Esquiline, and it is through this one, as is believed, that the Imperial personages and court passed to their seats on the podium, which was the place of honour for those of highest rank in the State, including the Senators and Vestal Virgins*.

To protect spectators sitting on the lowest range next the arena, a strong netting or trellis-work of metal, and gilded, was fixed in a stout frame of wood, surmounted by a revolving bar, which was overlaid with ivory, so that if a hunted beast sprang up from below and tried to cling to it with his claws, he should find no hold, and thus would fall back again on to the arena. This contrivance is represented by a rude delineation on marble, discovered in the excavations of the Colosseum, shewing the screen spoken of resting on the pavement in front of the podium. Below the pavement are seen the tops of a series of arches, with bars across the headings, which are intended for the dens of the wild beasts in the area, and in front of them some sort of performance is going on. Such rough kinds of carving or shallow incisions, called graffiti, usually made • The imperial seat was called Pulvinar.

on the plaster-coating of walls, have frequently occurred in the ruins of Rome, and many of them have been transferred

to museums.

The spectators were protected from the heat of the sun by an awning, Velarium, which was suspended by cords from the tops of masts. For supporting these masts, exposed to a strain necessarily very great, the contrivances were of an ingenious kind, and are still distinctly visible where the upper storey remains perfect. On the exterior wall, ten feet below the summit, there is a row of corbels projecting for the feet of the masts to rest upon, and holes are left in the cornice above through which the body of the masts passed; and on the inner side of the uppermost wall are other corbels, to which were lashed the stays for keeping them upright. From each mast-head a rope was stretched, sloping down inwards towards the arena, and upon these ropes the sections of the velarium were spread, running upon rings. At the bottom of the galleries next the podium are similar contrivances, evidently for supporting standing poles.

The awning was worked by a staff of seamen, who were detached for this purpose from the fleet stationed off Misenum, in the Bay of Naples, and hence the quarters provided for them within the walls were called Castra Misenatium. As this covering, requiring to be furled and unfurled according to the state of the weather and the position of the sun, was of immense weight, several hundreds of men were needed for the duty. The practice of shading theatres had been long before introduced; canvas was the material generally used, but afterwards the surface of the vela was decorated, and Pliny mentions an awning in Nero's time which was painted to resemble the blue sky, and was studded with stars.

The taste for shows similar to those exhibited in Rome spread largely through the Empire, and buildings on the plan of amphitheatres must have been frequent in the chief cities. But it is probable that many of them continued to be constructed of wood, as had been the case at Rome till the time of Augustus. The structures of a permanent kind erected subsequently, whether in Italy or elsewhere, seem all to have followed the model of the Flavian amphitheatre, so perfect in its plan and all its arrangements. There are amphitheatres at Capua, Puteoli, Pompeii, at Verona, at Nîmes, Arles and Bordeaux, and on the eastern shore of the Adriatic at Pola in Istria. Such of these as have been excavated mostly exhibit the same provisions for the naval fights, with the conduits of aqueducts to supply the canals beneath the arena. At Pompeii, however, there were no aquatic shows, and no substructions under the stage; the dens for the wild beasts are therefore on the same level as the arena, and behind the podium instead of underneath it. The whole arrangements there indicate an early date, probably anterior to that of the Colosseum.

In one feature, however, the Roman amphitheatre differed from all the rest, namely, in having double corridors all round the galleries; the absence of an outer passage made a different adaptation of the stairs to the vomitoria necessary between this and the other amphitheatres, where the spectators went out straight through each archway. The comparative dimensions of the three principal Italian amphitheatres are thus given in Neapolitan feet :

Out of the eighty arches composing the outer circuit of the arcade of the Colosseum, forty-seven have perished. The most perfect portion of the exterior wall is upon the north-eastern side, opposite the Thermæ of Titus, on the Esquiline, where all four stages of the building are seen, representing with their columns the Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Tuscan orders of architecture respectively. The ruin was begun by earthquakes, which occurred at least five times between the fifth and eighteenth centuries; and the work of destruction was carried on by the Romans themselves during many centuries, for the sake of the valuable materials. Some of the largest palaces were reared by the Pontifical families out of the magnificent blocks of travertine facing the whole exterior, and the marble casing of the seats was burnt into lime for building purposes. Like other solid structures, it was also occupied during the times of anarchy in the Middle Ages as a military stronghold of different powerful clans; and it was not till 1728 that the misuse and continued spoliation of the amphitheatre was finally put an end to by the consecration of the whole of its remains.

CHAPTER XV.

PALACES OF THE CÆSARS.

D URING the time of the Republic the Pontifex Maximus, as holding the highest dignity in the State, and representing the sacred element of the kingly office, had the Regia assigned him as his residence. That building, under the northern corner of the Palatine, was the palace of the later Kings; it seems to have stood on the edge of the Forum Romanum, at the point of greatest distance from the Capitol. Julius Cæsar himself, as chief pontiff, occupied it till his death; but Lepidus, who succeeded him, resided chiefly in the provinces of which he held the government, and though in disgrace with Augustus and banished from Rome, still retained his office. When he died, B.C. 13, Augustus, as chief of the State, assumed the Pontificate, but declined to leave his own house on the Palatine, which had been the property of Hortensius the orator. Of this Suetonius says, "Octavius lived at first near the Forum Romanum, by the side of the steps of the ring-makers: he afterwards moved to the Palatine Hill, where he resided in a small house belonging to Hortensius, not remarkable either for its size or its ornamentation, the arcades being small, the pillars of peperino, and the rooms without either marble or mosaic pavement; he continued to use the same bed-chamber for both winter and summer during forty years." It was the wish or the policy of Augustus to live as a private citizen, either from real modesty and a love of retirement, or because this only stimulated the citizens to do him more honour, and to insist on providing him with