[22] See the Part of this work on the Forum Romanum and the Via Sacra for evidence of this.
[23] “Fecit et nova opera ... item amphitheatrum urbe media, ut destinasse compererat Augustum.” (Suetonius, Vespasianus, c. 9.)
[24] Plinii Nat. Hist., lib. xxxvi. c. 24, s. 8.
[25] Dionis Hist., lib. xliii. c. 25.
[26] “Non patiemur duos Caios, vel duos Nerones, ne hac quidem gloria famæ frui: docebimusque etiam insaniam eorum victam privatis operibus M. Scauri, cujus nescio an ædilitas maxime prostraverit mores civiles, majusque sit Sullæ malum, tanta privigni potentia, quam proscriptio tot millium. Hic fecit in ædilitate sua opus maximum omnium, quæ unquam fuere humana manu facta, non temporaria mora, verum etiam æternitatis destinatione. Theatrum hoc fuit. Scena ei triplex in altitudinem, CCCLX columnarum, in ea civitate, quæ sex Hymettias non tulerat sine probro civis amplissimi. Ima pars scenæ e marmore fuit: media e vitro, inaudito etiam postea genere luxuriæ: summa, e tabulis inauratis.” (Plinii Nat. Hist., lib. xxxvi. 24. 7.)
[27] The meaning of this appears to be that the upper part was temporary, and was removed shortly afterwards, as is related in another place; but the substructures were permanent, or eternal.
[28] Dionis Hist. Rom., lib. xxxvii. c. 58.
[29] Justi Lipsii de Amphitheatro liber, 1684; et apud Grævii Thesaurus Ant. Rom., Lugd. Bat. 1699, folio, vol. ix.
[30] “Alter in Amphitheatrali cavea cum adfuturus spectaculis introiret.” (Ammiani Marcellini, lib. xxix. 1, Valentinianus, &c., A.D. 371.)
[33] Claudianus de laudibus Stilicho, lib. iii.
[34] Lipsius has collected a host of extracts from the classical authors respecting this great amphitheatre, and the arrangement and amusements in it; but as the substance of these is given in the usual classical dictionaries, especially Dr. Smith’s, and they do not affect the history of the building, it is not necessary to repeat them here.
[35] Polybii Hist., i. 84.
[36] Cassiodori Variar., lib. v. epist. 42.
[37] Livii Hist., xxxix. 22.
[38] Ibid., xliv. 18.
[39] Sig. Fabio Gori has collected all these passages, and given an Italian translation of them in his work entitled Le memorie storiche, i giuochi e gli scavi dell’ anfiteatro Flavio. Roma, 1874.
[40] Suetonii Julius Cæsar, cap. 39.
[41] That is, chariots on two wheels and others on four wheels.
[42] “In minore Codeta, defosso lacu.”
[43] Vessels with two, or three, or four rows of oars.
[45] Every square yard of this part of Rome has been trenched in the search for statues in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and records of these numerous excavations are carefully preserved in the Miscellanea of Fea. Had there been any such building as would be required for this purpose anywhere near his palace, it must have come to light, and nothing of the kind has been found.
[47] The basin of Nero was possibly cut through the layer of tufa, which underlies the whole soil of Rome, down to the clay under it. In some excavations made under my direction in a cave under the Aventine, near the Marmorata, which was the mouth of the Aqua Appia, a level bed of white clay was found under the tufa rock of which the Aventine Hill consists; this would account for the walls in the central part built of concrete and brick, on this clay foundation, having been frequently damaged by earthquakes, while the great stone arcades, being built upon the tufa rock, did not suffer from the shocks. Clay is always a bad foundation to build upon, and there are always settlements in buildings that rest upon it. The objection to this theory is, that the surface of the water would be twenty-one feet below the arena and the foot of the podium.
[49] In the ancient catalogue of the Emperors and their works, known as “Catalogus Viennensis Imp. Rom. apud Eccard.,” under Vespasian, it is stated that he dedicated the first three steps of the amphitheatre, implying that three were already finished even in his time.
[A.D. 70.] “Hic prior tribus gradibus amphitheatrum dedicavit;”
That Titus added two more.
[A.D. 81.] “Hic amphitheatrum a tribus gradibus patris sui dura adjecit.”
And further, that Domitian completed the building up to the clypea, that is, the top cornice at that time, when the upper storey was of wood.
[A.D. 92-96.] “Domitianus Imp. ... Amphitheatrum usque ad clypea.”
[51] Photos., Nos. 3136, 3137.
[52] Photos., No. 3204.
[53] This platform was, perhaps, constructed of a great number of timbers fastened together. Lucan has described such a platform with a tower on it. (Pharsal., lib. iv. 420, sqq.)
[54] Dionis Hist., lib. lxii. cap. 15.
[55] Ibid., lib. lxi. Nero, vi. c. 9 and 17.
[56] Ibid., lib. lxvi. c. 25.
[57] Ibid., lib. lxii. Nero, iii. c. 15, and 20, 22.
[58] “Spectacula magnifica assidue et sumptuosa edidit, non in amphitheatro modo, rerum et in circo ... ac in amphitheatro, navale quoque.” (Suetonii Domitianus, c. 4.)
[59] Dionis Hist., lib. lxii. c. 18.
[61] Taciti Ann., xv. 42.
[62] Ibid., lib. xiv. c. 15.
[63] Ibid., c. 31.
[64] “... lacu in ipso navale prælium adornatur, ut quondam Augustus, structo cis Tiberim stagno; sed levibus navigiis et minori copiâ ediderat.” (Taciti Annal., xii. 56.)
[65] “Igitur in stagno Agrippæ (Tigellinus) fabricatus est ratem, cui superpositum convivium aliarum tractu navium moveretur ... volucres et feras diversis e terris, et animalia maris Oceano abusque petiverat.” (Taciti Annal., lib. xv. c. 37.)
[66] Taciti Ann., lib. xv. c. 42.
[67] Ibid., lib. xiv. c. 15.
[69] Santi-Bartoli (in a paper printed in the Miscellanea, by Fea, vol. i. p. ccxxiii.) states that in his time a quantity of leaden water-pipes, which carried water from the Thermæ of Titus to the Colosseum, were found in an orchard north of the Colosseum.
[70] Suetonii Nero, c. 12.
[71] This dedication is referred to by Eutropius thus,—
“Hic [Titus] amphitheatrum Romæ ædificavit, et in dedicatione ejus quinque millia ferarum occidit.” (Eutropius, lib. vii. c. 14. See also Cassiodorus, Variar. l. v. op. 42. Opera omnia, ed. 1679, fol. vol. i. p. 94, c. 2.)
The account by Suetonius, writing some eighty or ninety years previously, is very clear:—
“Amphitheatro dedicato, thermisque juxta celeriter exstructis, munus edidit apparatissimum largissimumque. Dedit et navale prœlium in veteri naumachia: ibidem et gladiatores: atque uno die quinque millia omne genus ferarum.” (Suetonius Titus, c. 7.)
These old naumachia were the same as the stagnum navale, the old place for such amusements on the spot. They have been supposed to be the Naumachia of Augustus in the Trastevere, but without authority; and the mention of the gladiators in connection with them implies that it was at the same place.
[72] See Photos., Nos. 3268, 3269, and the drawing of this restored in Plates VII. and XV.
[74] Photos., Nos. 1761, 1762.
[76] It is important to notice this, because some able architects did not see it at first sight, and imagined that these brick arches rested upon the stone piers, which was evidently not really the case, though it appears to be so.
M. Viollet-le-Duc, one of the most eminent architects of our time, says that an experienced architect would cut through old tufa walls of this kind as easily, and with as little scruple, as he would cut through cheese, and the brick facing made no material difference.
[77] “... item stagnum maris instar, circumseptum ædificiis ad urbium speciem.” (Suetonii Nero, c. 31.)
[78] Photos., Nos. 3282, 3285.
[82] Photos., No. 3268, 3269.
[83] Photos., Nos. 3203, 3205, 3282, 3283. In some parts a brick wall of the fifth or sixth century has been introduced between the two old tufa walls, during the repairs after the earthquakes. This is at first sight rather puzzling, until it is examined and properly considered.
[84] Photos., No. 3271.
[85] Photos., Nos. 3285, 3286.
[86] For elephants there are four larger dens provided, two on either side of the central passage. See the Plan.
[87] Photos., No. 3282.
[89] This vivarium is a triangular piece of ground, the wide end of which touches the wall of the Amphitheatrum Castrense; the narrow end is only just wide enough for the body of a man to pass through an aperture made in it, as the ground is between a wall of Aurelian on the inner side, and a wall of the Sessorium on the outer side, preserved by Aurelian as an outwork. This was the scene of the celebrated ambuscade of Belisarius, by means of which the Goths were driven away from Rome, as described by Procopius (De Bello Gothico, lib. i. c. 22.)
PRO S. IMP. M. ANTONI . GORDIANI . PII
FELICIS AVG. ET TRANQVILLINAE SABI
NAE AVG. VENATORES IMMVN. CVM CV
STODE VIVARI PONT. VERVS MIL. COH
VI. PR. CAMPANIVS VERAX. MIL. COH. VI
PR. FVSCIVS CRESCENTIO ORD CVSTOS
VIVARI. COHH. PRAETT. ET VRBB
DIANAE AVG. D. S. EX. V. P.
DEDICATA XII. KAL. NOV.
IMP. D. N. GORDIANO AVG. ET POMPEIANO COS.
(Inscription found in Rome in 1710, and printed by Nibby, Roma Antica, vol. i. p. 386.)
[91] A compartment of this is shewn in one of the graffiti, found in the excavations of 1874.
[92] “Caius princeps in circo pegma duxit.” (Plinii Nat. Hist., xxxiii. 16.)
[93] “Ludiviæ sunt, quæ ad voluptatem oculorum atque aurium tendunt. His annumeres licet machinatores, qui pegmata per se surgentia excogitant, et tabulata tacite in sublime crescentia, et alias ex inopinato varietates, aut dehiscendentibus quæ cohærebant, aut his quæ distabant, sua sponte coeuntibus aut his quæ eminebant paulatim in se residentibus.” (Seneca, Epist., 88, s. 19.)
[96] Photos., No. 3283.
[98] Photos., No. 3263.
[99] Those English people who remember Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London about 1820, must know that there was always a sheet of water or reservoir under the stage, and trap-doors in the floor by which sea-monsters could be introduced. The amusements of the old Roman people seem to have been frequently of this kind. Naval fights in boats might have been performed in the Colosseum, and a great deal of machinery must have been required to remove the floor and replace it.
A wooden Roman bridge still remains under water near Compiègne in France, of which M. Peigné Delacourt has published an account, with engravings of it, so that wood under water is preserved in the same manner as when it is buried in a wet soil. This is well known in the case of piles for bridges, and in those under the city of Amsterdam.
[101] It appears evident from the inscriptions from the College of the Arvales that the seats were regularly and permanently allotted to different persons holding different offices, according to their rank. The lower seats being of marble, the upper ones of wood.
There are many inscriptions relating to the seats in the different theatres and amphitheatres in Rome:
LOCA . ADSIGNATA IN AMPHITEATRO
L . AELIO . PLAVTIO . LAMIA . Q . PACTVMEIO
FRONTONE . COS .
ACCEPTVM . AB . LABERIO . MAXIMO
PROCVRATORE . PRAEF . ANNONAE
L . VENNVLEIO . APRONANO . MAG .
CVRATORE . THYRSO . L
FRATRIBVS . ARVALIBVS . MÆNIANO .
I̅ . CVN . X̅I̅I̅ . GRADIBVS . MARM . VIII.
GRADVI . P . V = GRAD . VIII . PED .
V≡£ . F . PED . XXXXIIS . GRADV. I . VNO .
P . XXII S . ET . MAENIANO . SVMMO .
I̅I̅ . CVN . V̅I̅ . GRADIB . MARM . I̅V̅ .
GRADV . I . VNO . P . XXII S . ET .
MAENIANO . SVMMO . IN . LIGNEIS .
TAB . LIII . GRADIBVS . XI . GRADV .
I PED . V = GRAD . XI. PED . V = = —)
F̅. PED . LXIII S = = — SVMMA . PED .
Cxxviiii S = = —
(Gius.-Ant. Guattari, Roma descritta ed illustrata, &c. Roma, 1805, 4to., vol. ii. p. 13.)
[102] Photos., No. 3279.
[104] See Photos., No. 367.
[105] One series of these corbels in the upper corridor seems to have been for a wooden gallery, for the use of the sailors going to furl or unfurl the awning.
[106] Some clamps of the same form were found, in 1870, in the interior of the wall of Servius Tullius, (in the part destroyed for the railway,) where the stones were joined together by them.
[107] sIc PREMIA SERVAS VESPASIANE DIRE PREMIATVS ES MORTE GAVDENTI LETARE CIVITAS VBI GLORIE TVE AVTORI PROMISIT ISTE DAT KRISTVS OMNIA TIBI QVI ALIVM PARAVIT THEATRV̅ IN CELO. This inscription only shews that he was employed upon the work; it is preserved in the church of S. Martino a Monti. See Nibby, Roma nell’ anno MDCCCXXXVIII. parte i. Antica, p. 400.
[108] See Photographs, Nos. 1500 and 1501, and the Photo-engraving, Plate XXIII. of Supplement to vol. i.
[110] L’Anfiteatro Flavio descritto e delineato dal cavaliere Carlo Fontana. Nell’ Haia, M.DC.XXV. fol. max.
[111] These views of buildings on coins appear to have been made from the architect’s designs before they were carried out, and were sometimes altered. There is no representation of the Colossus of Nero in any of them. For the shallow channel of water, see Photos., No. 1759.
[112] See No. 302, and 488 c.
[113] On bad impressions of this coin the Meta Sudans looks like a second smaller figure, or of a youth; but on good impressions the Meta Sudans is distinct, and the figure behind it overtops it by the head and shoulders only.
[114] See No. 488 c.
[115] “... Romæ templum Hadriani, honori patris dicatum, Græco-stadium post incendium restitutum, instauratum amphitheatrum,” &c. (Jul. Capitolinus-Antoninus Pius, c. 8, ap. Script. Hist. Aug.)
[116] Dionis Cass. lib. lxxii. c. 17-22.
[117] “Postea in theatris tantum umbram fecere: quod primus omnium invenit Q. Catulus, cum Capitolium dedicaret. Carbasina deinde vela primus in theatro duxisse traditur Lentulus Spinter Apollinaribus ludis.... Vela nuper colore cæli, stellata, per rudentes iere etiam in amphitheatro principis Neronis.” (Plinii Nat. Hist., lib. xix. c. 6.)
[119] Photos., No. 185.
[121] Photos., Nos. 167, 185.
[122] See Regio III., Castra Misenatium.
[123] Calpurnius has usually been considered as a writer of the third century, but the most recent editor of his Eclogues (Haupt) shews that he was contemporary with Nero and Titus, and Dean Merivale is of the same opinion.