[220] “Fuerunt sub Gordiano Romæ elephanti triginta et duo, gladiatorum Fisculium paria mille.” (Julii Capitolini Gordianus tertius.)
[221] Suetonii Titus, c. 9.
[222] “Jam ad spectaculum supplicii nostri populus convenerat: jam ostentata per arenam periturorum corpora mortis suæ pompam duxerant.” (Quinctil., Decl. 9.)
[223] Lampridii Commodus Antoninus, 16.
[224] “Contra consuetudinem (Commodus) pænulatos jussit spectatores, non togatos ad munus convenire, quod funeribus solebat, ipse in pullis vestimentis præsidens. Galea ejus per portam Libitinensem elata est.” (Lampridii Commodus Antoninus, ap. Script. Hist. Aug., c. 16.) This circumstance is also mentioned by Dio Cassius, as quoted previously.
[225] “Inter carnifices et fabros Sandapilarum.” (Juvenal, Sat. viii. 175.)
[226] “Ruinart Acta Martyrum Sincera.” (ap. Grævii Thesaurus, tom. ix.)
[229] “Ferrarium vicinum, aut hunc qui ad Metam sudantem tubas experitur et tibias.” (Senecæ, Epist. 56.)
Some of the tubes or leaden pipes have been found (as before mentioned).
[230] “Ostium humile et augustum, et potissimum ejus generis, quod cochleam appellant, ut solet esse in cavea ex qua tauri pugnare solent.” (Varr. de Re Rustica, iii. 5.)
[231] “Edidit et Circenses plurimos a mane usque ad vesperam, interjecta modo Africanarum venatione, modo Trojæ decursione: quosdam præcipuos, minio et chrysocolla constrato circo nec ullis nisi ex senatorio ordine aurigantibus.” (Suetonii Caligula, 18.)
[232] “Inquietatus fremitu gratuita in Circo loca de media nocte occupantium, omnes fustibus abegit; elisique per eum tumultum viginti amplius Equites Romani, totidem matronæ, super innumeram turbam ceteram.” (Suetonii Caligula, cap. 26.)
A similar mania has sometimes been heard of in recent times in Paris and in London.
[233] “Bestiariis meridianisque adeo delectabatur, ut et prima luce ad spectaculum descenderet et meridie dimisso ad prandium populo persederet præterque destinatos, etiam levi subitaque de causa, quosdam committeret, de fabrorum quoque ac ministrorum atque id genus numero si automatum, vel pegma, vel quid tale aliud parum cessisset. Induxit et unum ex nomenclatoribus suis, sicut erat togatus.” (Suet. Claudius, c. xxxiv.)
[234] “Visumque jam est Neronis principis spectaculis arenam Circi chrysocolla sterni cum ipse concolori panno aurigaturus esset.” (Plinii Nat. Hist., xxxiii. 27.)
[235] “Subinde intraverunt duo Æthiopes capillati, cum pusillis utribus, quales solent esse qui ARENAM in amphitheatro spargunt.” (Petronii Sat., cap. 34.)
[236] Taciti Annales, lib. xi. c. 11.
[237] “Lithostrota acceptavere jam sub Sulla: parvulis certe crustis exstat hodieque, quod in Fortunæ delubro Præneste fecit. Pulsa deinde ex humo pavimenta in cameras transiere, e vitro: novitium e hoc inventum. Agrippa certe in Thermis quas Romæ fecit, figlinum opus encausto pinxit: in reliquis albaria adornavit: non dubie vitreas facturus cameras, si prius inventum id fuisset, aut a parietibus scenæ, ut diximus, Scauri, pervenisset in cameras. Quamobrem et vitri natura indicanda est.” (Plinii Nat. Hist., lib. xxxvi. 64.)
[238] Friedländer says that a compact floor of glass was found at Veii (vol. iii. p. 103).
[239] This remarkably fine pavement is still preserved (1876) at Præneste, now called Palestrina.
[240] Pliny, Nat. Hist., bk. xxxvi. 2, 3.
[241] Ibid. xxxvi. 24, 7.
[242] “Nerone secundum, L. Pisone consulibus, pauca memoria digna evenere: nisi cui libeat, laudandis fundamentis et trabibus, quis molem amphitheatri apud Campum Martis, Cæsar exstruxerat, volumina inplere: cum ex dignitate populi Romani repertum sit, res inlustres annalibus, talia diurnis urbis actis mandare.” (Taciti Annales, lib. xiii. c. 31.)
[246] The photo-engraver has unfortunately turned this photograph upside down, but it is not of much consequence, as the size and thickness of the bricks of Nero can be seen just the same. The space is so narrow that it was difficult to get a photograph of it at all; but this is just one of the cases in which a photograph is of great importance, because there is nothing in which artists are so careless as in the thickness of the bricks and of the mortar between them; there is nothing in which it would be more easy to play tricks, if they wished to do so.
[247] The fragment of sculpture placed upon this capital has nothing to do with it, being merely placed there by the workmen, but a photograph necessarily reproduces things exactly as they were found at the time the photograph was taken.
[248] The piers of tufa are represented as transparent, to shew the insertion of the consoles in them. This insertion, with the irregularity of the plan of the tufa piers, contrasted with the mathematical accuracy of the work of the Flavian Emperors, proves that they belonged to an earlier building.
[249] In other instances, the brick arches of construction appear to rest on the piers of travertine between them; but as these have been removed, and the brick walls stand equally well without them, it is evident that this is not the case. The tall piers of travertine reach the whole height of the building, to support the upper gallery. In the following plate the same remarkable construction is shewn more clearly, because in this instance the aperture left by the removal of the stone piers is visible in two storeys, and it is seen that three piers extended from the upper gallery to the ground, passing through all the other storeys.
[250] In this plate the coins are taken by photograph from the originals in the British Museum.
[251] Qy. Colonnade of Aqueduct, or Piscina Limaria.
[252] Qy. Reservoir (castellum aquæ) of the time of Alexander Severus, of which there are remains.
[253] For further details see the Descrizione di Pompeii per Giuseppe Fiorelli, Napoli, 1875, 12mo., pp. 56 and 70. All who are interested in Pompeii should have this valuable little work.