WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
The archæology of Rome, Part 7 cover

The archæology of Rome, Part 7

Chapter 90: Description of Plate XXXVI.
By John Henry Parker
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

ArchitectureHistory - Ancient

About This Book

The author reports on late 19th-century excavations that revealed extensive substructures beneath the arena, showing earlier origins than commonly supposed and multiple construction phases from Scaurus and Nero to the Flavian emperors. The work describes underground features such as a movable boarded arena with corbels, animal cages with vertical lifts and trapdoors, canals and reservoirs for staged naval displays, and wide passages for scenery, and examines reused timber and stone, masonry of tufa, brick, and concrete, plus coins and graffiti as documentary evidence. It also traces repairs from earthquakes and argues the amphitheatre evolved over more than a century rather than being completed in ten years.

THE COLOSSEUM.
PLATE XXXVI.

PLAN OF THE GREAT DRAIN.

COLOSSEUM—PLAN OF THE GREAT DRAIN

Description of Plate XXXVI.

PLAN OF THE GREAT DRAIN.

A. The Colosseum.

B. Part of the Cœlian Hill, on which the Claudium stood.

C. Part of the Palatine Hill.

a. Summa Sacra Via.

a*. Clivus Triumphalis.

b. Meta Sudans.

c. Arch of Constantine.

d d. Passage of Commodus.

e. Site on which the steam-engine was placed in 1874-5, to pump out the water coming from this point.

f. Piscina of the time of Nero.

g. Castellum Aquæ, or reservoir of Alexander Severus.

g*. Aqueduct of the third century.

h h. Exhedra of the Ludus Magnus.

i i i. Great Drain of the Colosseum, to convey the water to the Tiber.

k. The exact spot where the water runs down from the Cœlian into the Colosseum, called a natural spring, but not having the usual bubbling character of a spring.

l. Via di S. Giovanni in Laterano.

m. Via Cœlimontana.

n n n. Orto Botanico. Waste ground at the foot of the Cœlian Hill, planted with trees and shrubs, called the Botanical Garden, but not used as such.

o o. Via del Arco di Constantino. The road between the Cœlian and the Palatine Hill.

p. Podium of the colossal statue of Gordianus, 50 ft. high.