AMUSEMENTS; BATHS
REFERENCES: Marquardt, 269-296, 834-861; Staatsverwaltung, III,
504-565; Göll, III, 455-480, 104-157; Guhl and Koner, 643-658,
804-829, 609-618; Friedländer, II, 295-637; Ramsay, 394-409;
Pauly-Wissowa, _amphitheātrum_, _calx_, _circus_, _Bader_; Smith,
Harper, Rich, _amphitheātrum_, _balneae_, _circus_, _gladiātōrēs_,
_theātrum_, and other Latin words in text; Baumeister, 694, 241-244,
2089-2111; Lübker, 1073 f., 1199 f., 477 f., 1048 f., 185, 1213;
Kelsey-Mau, 135-161, 180-220.
§316. After the games of childhood (§§102, 103) were passed the Roman
seemed to lose all instinct for play. Of sport for sport's sake he
knew nothing, he took part in no games for the sake of excelling in
them. He played ball before his dinner for the good of the exercise,
he practiced riding, fencing, wrestling, hurling the discus (Fig.
128), and swimming for the strength and skill they gave him in arms,
he played a few games of chance for the excitement the stakes
afforded, but there was no "national game" for the young men, and
there were no social amusements in which men and women took part
together. The Roman made it hard and expensive, too, for others to
amuse him. He cared nothing for the drama, little for spectacular
shows, more for farces and variety performances, perhaps, but the one
thing that really appealed to him was excitement, and this he found in
gambling or in such amusements only as involved the risk of injury to
life and limb, the sports of the circus and the amphitheater. We may
describe first the games in which the Roman participated himself and
then those at which he was a mere spectator. In the first class are
field sports and games of hazard, in the second the public and private
games (_lūdī pūblicī et prīvātī_).
[Illustration: FIGURE 128. DISCUS THROWER]
§317. Sports of the Campus.--The Campus Martius included all the level
ground lying between the Tiber and the Capitoline and Quirinal hills.
The northwestern portion of this plain, bounded on two sides by the
Tiber, which here sweeps abruptly to the west, kept clear of public
and private buildings and often called simply the _Campus_, was for
centuries the playground of Rome. Here the young men gathered to
practice the athletic games mentioned above, naturally in the cooler
parts of the day. Even men of graver years did not disdain a visit to
the Campus after the _merīdiātiō_ (§302), in preparation for the bath
before dinner, instead of which the younger men preferred to take a
cool plunge in the convenient river. The sports themselves were those
that we are accustomed to group together as track and field athletics.
They ran foot races, jumped, threw the discus (Fig. 128), practiced
archery, and had wrestling and boxing matches. These sports were
carried on then much as they are now, if we may judge by Vergil's
description in the Fifth Aeneid, but an exception must be made of the
games of ball. These seem to have been very dull and stupid as
compared with ours. It must be remembered, however, that they were
played more for the healthful exercise they furnished than for the joy
of the playing, and by men of high position, too--Caesar, Maecenas,
and even the Emperor Augustus.
[Illustration: FIGURE 129. FOLLES]
[Illustration: FIGURE 130. GAME OF BALL]
§318. Games of Ball.--Balls of different sizes are known to have been
used in the different games, variously filled with hair, feathers, and
air (_follēs_, Fig. 129). Throwing and catching formed the basis of
all the games, the bat being practically unknown. In the simplest game
the player threw the ball as high as he could, and tried to catch it
before it struck the ground. Variations of this were what we should
call juggling, the player keeping two or more balls in the air (Fig.
130), and throwing and catching by turns with another player. Another
game must have resembled our handball, requiring a wall and smooth
ground at its foot. The ball was struck with the open hand against the
wall, allowed to fall back upon the ground and bound, and then struck
back against the wall in the same manner. The aim of the player was to
keep the ball going in this way longer than his opponent could.
Private houses and the public baths often had "courts" especially
prepared for this amusement. A third game was called _trigōn_, and was
played by three persons, stationed at the angles of an equilateral
triangle. Two balls were used and the aim of the player was to throw
the ball in his possession at the one of his opponents who would be
the less likely to catch it. As two might throw at the third at the
same moment, or as the thrower of one ball might have to receive the
second ball at the very moment of throwing, both hands had to be used
and a good degree of skill was necessary. Other games, all of throwing
and catching, are mentioned here and there, but none is described with
sufficient detail to be clearly understood.
§319. Games of Chance.--The Romans were passionately fond of games of
chance, and gambling was so universally associated with such games
that they were forbidden by law, even when no stakes were actually
played for. A general indulgence seems to have been granted at the
Saturnalia in December, and public opinion allowed old men to play at
any time. The laws were hard to enforce, however, as such laws usually
are, and large sums were won and lost not merely at general gambling
resorts, but also at private houses. Games of chance, in fact, with
high stakes, were one of the greatest attractions at the men's dinners
that have been mentioned (§314). The commonest form of gambling was
our "heads or tails," coins being used as with us, the value depending
on the means of the players. Another common form was our "odd or
even," each player guessing in turn and in turn holding counters
concealed in his outstretched hand for his opponent to guess. The
stake was usually the contents of the hand though side bets were not
unusual. In a variation of this game the players tried to guess the
actual number of the counters held in the hand. Of more interest,
however, were the games of knuckle-bones and dice.
[Illustration: FIGURE 131. GIRLS PLAYING WITH KNUCKLE-BONES]
§320. Knuckle-bones.--Knuckle-bones (_tālī_) of sheep and goats, and
imitations of them in ivory, bronze, and stone, were used as
playthings by children and for gaming by men. Children played our
"jackstones" with them, throwing five into the air at once and
catching as many as possible on the back of the hand (Fig. 131). The
length of the _tālī_ was greater than their width and they had,
therefore, four long sides and two ends. The ends were rounded off or
pointed, so that the _tālī_ could not stand on them. Of the four long
sides two were broader than the others. Of the two broader sides one
was concave, the other convex; while of the narrower sides one was
flat and the other indented. As all the sides were of different shapes
the _tālī_ did not require marking as do our dice, but for convenience
they were sometimes marked with the numbers 1, 3, 4, and 6, the
numbers 2 and 5 being omitted. Four _tālī_ were used at a time, either
thrown into the air with the hand or thrown from a dice-box
(_fritillus_), and the side on which the bone rested was counted, not
that which came up. Thirty-five different throws were possible, of
which each had a different name. Four aces were the lowest throw,
called the Vulture, while the highest, called the Venus, was when all
the _tālī_ came up differently. It was this throw that designated the
_magister bibendī_ (§313).
[Illustration: FIGURE 132. PLAYING DICE]
§321. Dice.--The Romans had also dice (_tesserae_) precisely like our
own. They were made of ivory, stone, or some close-grained wood, and
had the sides numbered from one to six. Three were used at a time,
thrown from the _fritillus_, as were the knuckle-bones (Fig. 132), but
the sides counted that came up. The highest throw was three sixes, the
lowest three aces. In ordinary gaming the aim of the player seems to
have been to throw a higher number than his opponent, but there were
also games played with dice on boards with counters, that must have
been something like our backgammon, uniting skill with chance. Little
more of these is known than their names, but a board used for some
such game is shown in §336 (Fig. 144). If one considers how much space
is given in our newspapers to the game of baseball, and how impossible
it would be for a person who had never seen a game to get a correct
idea of one from the newspaper descriptions only, it will not seem
strange that we know so little of Roman games.
§322. Public and Private Games.--With the historical development of
the Public Games this book has no concern (§2). It is sufficient to
say that these free exhibitions, given first in honor of some god or
gods at the cost of the state and extended and multiplied for
political purposes until all religious significance was lost, had come
by the end of the Republic to be the chief pleasure in life for the
lower classes in Rome, so that Juvenal declares that the free bread
(§286) and the games of the circus were the people's sole desire. Not
only were these games free, but when they were given all public
business was stopped and all citizens were forced to take a holiday.
These holidays became rapidly more and more numerous; by the end of
the Republic sixty-six days were taken up by the games, and in the
reign of Marcus Aurelius (161-180) no less than one hundred and
thirty-five days out of the year were thus closed to business.[1]
Besides these standing games, others were often given for
extraordinary events, and funeral games were common when great men
died. These last were not made legal holidays. For our purposes the
distinction between public and private games is not important, and all
may be classified according to the nature of the exhibitions as, _lūdī
scēnicī_, dramatic entertainments given in a theater, _lūdī
circēnsēs_, chariot races and other exhibitions given in a circus, and
_mūnera gladiātōria_, shows of gladiators usually given in an
amphitheater.
[Footnote 1: There are sixty holidays annually in Indiana, for
example, and this is about the average for the United States.]
§323. Dramatic Performances.--The history of the development of the
drama at Rome belongs, of course, to the history of Latin literature.
In classical times dramatic performances consisted of comedies
(_cōmoediae_), tragedies (_tragoediae_), farces (_mīmī_), and
pantomimes (_pantomīmī_). The farces and pantomimes were used chiefly
as interludes and afterpieces, though with the common people they were
the most popular of all and outlived the others. Tragedy never had any
real hold at Rome, and only the liveliest comedies gained favor on the
stage. Of the comedies the only ones that have come down to us are
those of Plautus and Terence, all adaptations from Greek originals,
all depicting Greek life, and represented in Greek costumes (_fābulae
palliātae_). They were a good deal more like our comic operas than our
comedies, large parts being recited to the accompaniment of music and
other parts sung while the actor danced. They were always presented in
the daytime, as Roman theaters were provided with no means of
lighting, in the early period after the noon meal (§301), but by
Cicero's time they had come to be given in the morning. The average
comedy must have required about two hours for the acting, with
allowance for the occasional music between the scenes. We read of a
play being acted twice in a day, but this must have been very
exceptional, as time had to be allowed for the other more popular
shows given on the same occasion.
[Illustration: FIGURE 133. SCENE FROM A COMEDY]
§324. Staging the Play.--The play, as well as the other sports, was
under the supervision of the officials in charge of the games at which
it was given. They contracted for the production of the play with some
recognized manager (_dominus gregis_), who was usually an actor of
acknowledged ability and had associated with him a troupe (_grex_) of
others only inferior to himself. The actors were all slaves (§143),
and men took the parts of women. There was no limit fixed to the
number of actors, but motives of economy would lead the _dominus_ to
produce each play with the smallest number possible, and two or even
more parts were often assigned to one actor. The characters in the
comedies wore the ordinary Greek dress of daily life and the costumes
(Fig. 133) were, therefore, not expensive. The only make-up required
was paint for the face, especially for the actors who took women's
parts, and the wigs that were used conventionally to represent
different characters, gray for old men, black for young men, red for
slaves, etc. These and the few properties (_ōrnāmenta_) necessary were
furnished by the _dominus_. It seems to have been customary also for
him to feast the actors at his expense if their efforts to entertain
were unusually successful.
§325. The Early Theater.--The theater itself deserved no such name
until very late in the Republic. During the period when the best plays
were being written (200-160 B.C.) almost nothing was done for the
accommodation of the actors or the audience. The stage was merely a
temporary platform, rather wide than deep, built at the foot of a hill
or a grass-covered slope. There were almost none of the things that we
are accustomed to associate with a stage, no curtains, no flies, no
scenery that could be changed, not even a sounding-board to aid the
actor's voice. There was no way either to represent the interior of a
house, and the dramatist was limited, therefore, to such situations as
might be supposed to take place upon a public street. This street the
stage represented; at the back of it were shown the fronts of two or
three houses with windows and doors that could be opened, and
sometimes there was an alley or passageway between two of the houses.
An altar stood on the stage, we are told, to remind the people of the
religious origin of the games. No better provision was made for the
audience than for the actors. The people took their places on the
slope before the stage, some reclining on the grass, some standing,
some perhaps sitting on stools they had brought from home. There was
always din and confusion to try the actor's voice, pushing and
crowding, disputing and quarreling, wailing of children, and in the
very midst of the play the report of something livelier to be seen
elsewhere might draw the whole audience away.
[Illustration: FIGURE 134. EXTERIOR OF THEATER AT ORANGE]
[Illustration: FIGURE 135. THEATER AT POMPEII]
[Illustration: FIGURE 136. SECTION OF THEATER OF MARCELLUS (Restored)]
§326. The Later Theater.--Beginning about 145 B.C., however, efforts
were made to improve upon this poor apology for a theater, in spite of
the opposition of those who considered the plays ruinous to morals. In
that year a wooden theater on Greek lines provided with seats was
erected, but the senate caused it to be pulled down as soon as the
games were over. It became a fixed custom, however, for such a
temporary theater with special and separate seats for senators, and
much later for the knights, to be erected as often as plays were given
at public games, until in 55 B.C. Pompeius Magnus erected the first
permanent theater at Rome. It was built of stone after the plans of
one he had seen at Mytilene and seated at least seventeen thousand
people; Pliny says forty thousand. This theater showed two noteworthy
divergences from its Greek model. The Greek theaters were excavated
out of the side of the hill, while the Roman theater was erected on
level ground (that of Pompeius in the Campus Martius) and gave,
therefore, a better opportunity for exterior magnificence. The Greek
theater had a large circular space for choral performances immediately
before the stage; in the Roman theater this space, called the
orchestra then as now, was much smaller, and was assigned to the
senators. The first fourteen rows of seats rising immediately behind
them were reserved for the knights. The seats back of these were
occupied indiscriminately by the people, on the principle apparently
of first come first served. No other permanent theaters were erected
at Rome until 13 B.C., when two were constructed. The smaller had room
for eleven thousand spectators, the larger, erected in honor of
Marcellus, the nephew of Augustus, for twenty thousand. These improved
playhouses made possible spectacular elements in the performances that
the rude scaffolding of early days had not permitted, and these
spectacles proved the ruin of the legitimate drama. To make realistic
the scenes representing the pillaging of a city, Pompeius is said to
have furnished troops of cavalry and bodies of infantry, hundreds of
mules laden with real spoils of war, and three thousand mixing bowls
(§314). In comparison with these three thousand mixing bowls, the
avalanches, runaway locomotives, sawmills in full operation, and
cathedral scenes of modern times seem poor indeed.
[Illustration: FIGURE 137. PLAN OF THEATER]
§327. The general appearance of these theaters, the type of hundreds
erected later throughout the Roman world, may be gathered from Fig.
137, the plan of a theater on lines laid down by Vitruvius (§187). GH
is the front line of the stage (_proscaenium_); all behind it is the
_scaena_, devoted to the actors, all before it is the _cavea_, devoted
to the spectators. IKL in the rear mark the position of three doors,
for example, those of the three houses mentioned above (§325). The
semicircular orchestra CMD is the part appropriated to the senators.
The seats behind the orchestra, rising in concentric semicircles, are
divided by five passageways into six portions (_cuneī_), and in a
similar way the seats above the semicircular passage (_praecīnctiō_)
shown in the figure are divided by eleven passageways into twelve
_cuneī_. Access to the seats of the senators was afforded by
passageways under the higher seats at the right and the left of the
stage, one of which may be seen in Fig. 135, which represents a part
of the smaller of the two theaters uncovered at Pompeii, built not far
from 80 B.C. Over the vaulted passage will be noticed what must have
been the best seats in the theater, corresponding in some degree to
the boxes of modern times. These were reserved for the emperor, if he
was present, for the officials who superintended the games and (on the
other side) for the Vestals. Access to the higher seats was
conveniently given by broad stairways constructed under the seats and
running up to the passageways between the _cuneī_. These are shown in
Fig. 136, a theoretical restoration of the Marcellus theater mentioned
above. Behind the highest seats were broad colonnades, affording
shelter in case of rain, and above them were tall masts from which
awnings (_vēla_) were spread to protect the people from the sun. The
appearance of the stage end may be gathered from Fig. 134, showing the
remains of a Roman theater still existing at Orange,[2] in the south
of France. It should be noticed that the stage was connected with the
auditorium by the seats over the vaulted passages to the orchestra,
and that the curtain was raised from the bottom, to hide the stage,
not lowered from the top as ours is now. Vitruvius suggested that
rooms and porticos be built behind the stage, like the colonnades that
have been mentioned, to afford space for the actors and properties and
shelter for the people in case of rain.
[Footnote 2: This theater has been restored and used for reproductions
of the Classical Drama. See the interesting account of it in the
"Century Magazine" for June, 1895. It is supposed to have been erected
in the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161-180) and allowed to fall into
ruins in the fourth century A.D.]
[Illustration: FIGURE 138. VICTORIOUS AURIGA]
§328. Roman Circuses.--The games of the circus were the oldest of the
free exhibitions at Rome and always the most popular. The word
_circus_ means simply a ring and the _lūdī circēnsēs_ were therefore
any shows that might be given in a ring. We shall see below (§343)
that these shows were of several kinds, but the one most
characteristic, the one that is always meant when no other is
specifically named, is that of chariot races. For these races the
first and really the only necessary condition is a large and level
piece of ground. This was furnished by the valley between the Aventine
and Palatine hills, and here in prehistoric times the first Roman race
course was established. This remained _the_ circus, the one always
meant when no descriptive term was added, though when others were
built it was called sometimes by way of distinction the Circus
Maximus. None of the others ever approached it in size, in
magnificence, or in popularity.
§329. The second circus to be built at Rome was the _circus
Flāminius_, founded in 221 B.C. by the same Caius Flaminius, who built
the Flaminian road. It was located in the southern part of the Campus
Martius (§317), and like the Circus Maximus was exposed to the
frequent overflows of the Tiber. Its position is fixed beyond
question, but the actual remains are very scanty, so that little is
known of its size or appearance. The third to be established was that
of Caius (Caligula) and Nero, named from the two emperors who had to
do with its construction, and erected, therefore, in the first century
A.D. It lay at the foot of the Vatican hill, but we know little more
of it than that it was the smallest of the three. These three were the
only circuses within the city. In the immediate neighborhood, however,
were three others. Five miles out on the _via Portuēnsis_ was the
circus of the Arval Brethren. About three miles out on the Appian way
was the Circus of Maxentius, erected in 309 A.D. This is the best
preserved of all, and a plan of it is shown in the next paragraph. On
the same road, some twelve miles from the city, in the old town of
Bovillae, was a third, making six within easy reach of the people of
Rome.
[Illustration: FIGURE 139. PLAN OF THE CIRCUS OF MAXENTIUS]
§330. Plan of the Circus.--All of the Roman circuses known to us had
the same general arrangement, which will be readily understood from
the plan of the Circus of Maxentius shown in Fig. 139. The long and
comparatively narrow stretch of ground which formed the race course
proper (_arēna_) is almost surrounded by the tiers of seats, running
in two long parallel lines uniting in a semicircle at one end. In the
middle of this semicircle is a gate, marked _F_ in the plan, by which
the victor left the circus when the race was over. It was called,
therefore, the _porta triumphālis_. Opposite this gate at the other
end of the arena was the station for the chariots (_AA_ in the plan),
called _carcerēs_, "barriers," flanked by two towers at the corners
(_II_), and divided into two equal sections by another gate (_B_),
called the _porta pompae_, by which processions entered the circus.
There are also gates (_HH_) between the towers and the seats. The
exterior appearance of the towers and barriers, called together the
_oppidum_, is shown in Fig. 140.
[Illustration: FIGURE 140. OPPIDUM OF A CIRCUS]
§331. The arena is divided for about two-thirds its length by a fence
or wall (_MM_), called the _spīna_, "backbone." At the end of this
were fixed pillars (_LL_), called _mētae_, marking the inner line of
the course. Once around the _spīna_ was a lap (_spatium_,
_curriculum_), and the fixed number of laps, usually seven to a race,
was called a _missus_. The last lap, however, had but one turn, that
at the _mēta prīma_, the one nearest the _porta triumphālis_, the
finish being a straightaway dash to the _calx_. This was a chalk line
drawn on the arena far enough away from the second _mēta_ to keep it
from being obliterated by the hoofs of the horses as they made the
turn, and far enough also from the _carcerēs_ to enable the driver to
stop his team before dashing into them. The dotted line (_DN_) is the
supposed location of the _calx_. It will be noticed that the important
things about the developed circus are the _arēna_, _carcerēs_,
_spīna_, _mētae_, and the seats, all of which will be more
particularly described.
§332. The Arena.--The arena is the level space surrounded by the seats
and the barriers. The name was derived from the sand used to cover its
surface to spare as much as possible the unshod feet of the horses. A
glance at the plan will show that speed could not have been the
important thing with the Romans that it is with us. The sand, the
shortness of the stretches, and the sharp turns between them were all
against great speed. The Roman found his excitement in the danger of
the race. In every representation of the race course that has come
down to us may be seen broken chariots, fallen horses, and drivers
under wheels and hoofs. The distance was not a matter of close
measurement either, but varied in the several circuses, the Circus
Maximus being fully 300 feet longer than the Circus of Maxentius. All
seem to have had constant, however, the number of laps, seven to the
race, and this also goes to prove that the danger was the chief
element in the popularity of the contests. The distance actually
traversed in the Circus of Maxentius may be very closely estimated.
The length of the _spīna_ is about 950 feet. If we allow fifty feet
for the turn at each _mēta_, each lap makes a distance of 2,000 feet,
and six laps, 12,000 feet. The seventh lap had but one turn in it, but
the final stretch to the _calx_ made it perhaps 300 feet longer than
one of the others, say 2,300 feet. This gives a total of 14,300 feet
for the whole _missus_, or about 2.7 miles. Jordan calculates the
_missus_ of the Circus Maximus at 8.4 kilometers, which would be about
5.2 miles, but he seems to have taken the whole length of the arena
into account, instead of that merely of the _spīna_.
[Illustration: FIGURE 141. THE CARCERES]
§333. The Barriers.--The _carcerēs_ were the stations of the chariots
and teams when ready for the races to begin. They were a series of
vaulted chambers entirely separated from each other by solid walls,
and closed behind by doors through which the chariots entered. The
front of the chamber was formed by double doors, with the upper part
made of grated bars, admitting the only light which it received. From
this arrangement the name _carcer_ was derived. Each chamber was large
enough to hold a chariot with its team, and as a team was composed
sometimes of as many as seven horses the "prison" must have been
nearly square. There was always a separate chamber for each chariot.
Up to the time of Domitian the highest number of chariots was eight,
but after his time as many as twelve sometimes entered the same race,
and twelve _carcerēs_ had, therefore, to be provided, although four
chariots was the usual number. Half of these chambers lay to the
right, half to the left of the _porta pompae_. The appearance of a
section of the _carcerēs_ is shown in Fig. 141.
[Illustration: FIGURE 142. BOX OF THE DATOR LUDORUM]
§334. It will be noticed from the plan (§330) that the _carcerēs_ were
arranged in a curved line. This is supposed to have been drawn in such
a way that every chariot, no matter which of the _carcerēs_ it
happened to occupy, would have the same distance to travel in order to
reach the beginning of the course proper at the nearer end of the
_spīna_. There was no advantage in position, therefore, at the start,
and places were assigned by lot. In later times a starting line
(_līnea alba_) was drawn with chalk between the second _mēta_ and the
seats to the right, but the line of _carcerēs_ remained curved as of
old. At the ends of the row of chambers, towers were built which seem
to have been the stands for the musicians; over the _porta pompae_ was
the box of the chief official of the games (_dator lūdōrum_), and
between his box and the towers were seats for his friends and persons
connected with the games. In Fig. 142 is shown a victor pausing before
the box of the _dator_ to receive a prize before riding in triumph
around the arena.
[Illustration: FIGURE 143.]
§335. The Spina and Metae.--The _spīna_ divided the race course into
two parts, making a minimum distance to be run. Its length was about
two-thirds that of the arena, but it started only the width of the
track from the _porta triumphālis_, leaving entirely free a much
larger space at the end near the _porta pompae_. It was perfectly
straight, but did not run precisely parallel to the rows of seats; at
the end B in the exaggerated diagram (Fig. 143) the distance BC is
somewhat greater than the distance AB, in order to allow more room at
the starting line (_līnea alba_, §334), where the chariots would be
side by side, than further along the course, where they would be
strung out. The _mētae_, so named from their shape (§284), were
pillars erected at the two ends of the _spīna_ and architecturally a
part of it, though there may have been a space between. In Republican
times the _spīna_ and the _mētae_ must have been made of wood and
movable, in order to give free space for the shows of wild beasts and
the exhibitions of cavalry that were originally given in the circus.
After the amphitheater was devised the circus came to be used for
races exclusively and the _spīna_ became permanent. It was built up,
of most massive proportions, on foundations of indestructible concrete
(§210 f.) and was adorned with magnificent works of art that must have
entirely concealed horses and chariots when they passed to the other
side of the arena.
[Illustration: FIGURE 144. BOARD-GAME SHOWING SPINA]
[Illustration: FIGURE 145. OBELISK ONCE IN CIRCUS MAXIMUS]
[Illustration: FIGURE 146. A CANAL AS SPINA]
§336. A representation of a circus has been preserved to us in a
board-game of some sort found at Bovillae (§329), which gives an
excellent idea of the _spīna_, (Fig. 144). We know from various
reliefs and mosaics that the _spīna_ of the Circus Maximus was covered
with a series of statues and ornamental structures, such as obelisks,
small temples or shrines, columns surmounted by statues, altars,
trophies, and fountains. Augustus was the first to erect an obelisk in
the Circus Maximus; it was restored in 1589 A.D., and now stands in
the Piazza del Popolo, measuring without the base about 78 feet in
height. Constantius erected another (Fig. 145) in the same circus,
which now stands before the Lateran church, measuring 105 feet. The
obelisk of the Circus of Maxentius now stands in the Piazza Navona.
Besides these purely ornamental features, every circus had at each end
of its _spīna_ a pedestal supporting seven large eggs (_ōva_) of
marble, one of which was taken down at the end of each lap, in order
that the people might know just how many remained to be run. Another
and very different idea for the _spīna_ is shown in Fig. 146 from a
mosaic at Lyons. This is a canal filled with water, with an obelisk in
the middle. The _mētae_ in their developed form are shown very clearly
in this mosaic, three conical pillars of stone set on a semicircular
plinth, all of the most massive construction.
§337. The Seats.--The seats around the arena in the Circus Maximus
were originally of wood, but accidents owing to decay and losses by
fire had led by the time of the Empire to reconstruction in marble
except perhaps in the very highest rows. The seats in the other
circuses seem to have been from the first of stone. At the foot of the
tiers of seats was a marble platform (_podium_) which ran along both
sides and the curved end, coextensive therefore with them. On this
_podium_ were erected boxes for the use of the more important
magistrates and officials of Rome, and here Augustus placed the seats
of the senators and others of high rank. He also assigned seats
throughout the whole _cavea_ to various classes and organizations,
separating the women from the men, though up to his time they had sat
together. Between the _podium_ and the track was a screen of open
work, and when Caesar showed wild beasts in the circus he had a canal
ten feet wide and ten feet deep dug next the _podium_ and filled with
water as an additional protection. Access to the seats was given from
the rear, numerous broad stairways running up to the _praecīnctiōnēs_
(§327), of which there were probably three in the Circus Maximus. The
horizontal spaces between the _praecīnctiōnēs_ were called _maeniāna_,
and each of these was in turn divided by stairways into _cuneī_
(§327), and the rows of seats in the _cuneī_ were called _gradūs_. The
sittings in the row do not seem to have been marked off any more than
they are now in the "bleachers" at our baseball grounds. When sittings
were reserved for a number of persons they were described as so many
feet in such a row (_gradus_) of such a section (_cuneus_) of such a
circle (_maeniānum_).
[Illustration: FIGURE 147. RESTORATION OF THE CIRCUS MAXIMUS]
§338. The number of sittings testifies to the popularity of the races.
The little circus at Bovillae had seats for at least 8,000 people,
according to Hülsen, that of Maxentius for about 23,000, while the
Circus Maximus, accommodating 60,000 in the time of Augustus, was
enlarged to a capacity of nearly 200,000 in the time of Constantius.
The seats themselves were supported upon arches of massive masonry; an
idea of their appearance from the outside may be had from the exterior
view of the Coliseum in §356. Every third of these vaulted chambers
under the seats seems to have been used for a staircase, the others
for shops and booths and in the upper parts for rooms for the employés
of the circus, who must have been very numerous. Galleries seem to
have crowned the seats, as in the theaters (§327), and balconies for
the emperors were built in conspicuous places, the ruins not enabling
their positions to be fixed precisely. An idea of the appearance of
the seats from within the arena may be had from an attempted
reconstruction of the Circus Maximus (Fig. 147), the details of which
are quite uncertain.
§339. Furnishing the Races.--There must have been a time, of course,
when the races in the circus were open to all who wished to show their
horses or their skill in driving them, but by the end of the Republic
no persons of repute took part in the games, and the teams and drivers
were furnished by racing syndicates (_factiōnēs_), who practically
controlled the market so far as concerned trained horses and trained
men. With these syndicates the giver of the games contracted for the
number of races that he wanted (ten or twelve a day in Caesar's time,
later twice the number, and even more on special occasions), and they
furnished everything needed. These syndicates were named from the
colors worn by their drivers. We hear at first of two only, the red
(_russāta_) and the white (_albāta_); two more were added, the blue
(_veneta_) in the time of Augustus probably, and the green (_prasina_)
soon after, and finally Domitian added the purple and the gold. The
greatest rivalry existed between these organizations. They spent
immense sums of money on their horses, importing them from Greece,
Spain, and Mauritania, and even larger sums, perhaps, upon the
drivers. They maintained training stables on as large a scale as any
of which modern times can boast; a mosaic found in one of these
establishments in Algeria names among the attendants jockeys, grooms,
stable-boys, saddlers, doctors, trainers, coaches, and messengers, and
shows the horses covered with blankets in their stalls. This rivalry
spread throughout the city; each _factiō_ had its partisans, and vast
sums of money were lost and won as each _missus_ was finished. All the
tricks of the ring were skillfully practiced; horses were hocused,
drivers hired from rival syndicates or bribed, and even poisoned, we
are told, when they were proof against money.
[Illustration: FIGURE 148. RACING CHARIOT AND TEAM]
§340. The Teams.--The chariot used in the races was low and light,
closed in front, open behind, with long axles and low wheels to lessen
the risk of turning over. The driver seems to have stood well forward
in the car, there being no standing place behind the axle, as shown in
the cut (Fig. 148). The teams consisted of two horses (_bīgae_), three
(_trīgae_), four (_quadrīgae_), and in later times six (_sēiugēs_) or
even seven (_septeiugēs_), but the four-horse team was the most common
and may be taken as the type. Two of the horses were yoked together,
one on each side of the tongue, the others were attached to the car
merely by traces. Of the four the horse to the extreme left was the
most important, because the _mēta_ lay always on the left and the
highest skill of the driver was shown in turning it as closely as
possible. The failure of the horse nearest it to respond promptly to
the rein or the word might mean the wreck of the car (by going too
close) or the loss of the inside track (by going too wide), and in
either case the loss of the race. Inscriptions sometimes give the
names of all the horses of the team, sometimes only the horse on the
left is mentioned. Before the races began lists of the horses and
drivers in each were published for the guidance of those who wished to
stake their money, and while no time was kept the records of horses
and men were followed as eagerly as now. From the nature of the course
(§332) it is evident that strength and courage and above all lasting
qualities were as essential as speed. The horses were almost always
stallions (mares are very rarely mentioned), and were never raced
under five years of age. Considering the length of the course and the
great risk of accidents it is surprising how long the horses lasted.
It was not unusual for a horse to win a hundred races (such a horse
was called _centēnārius_), and one Diocles, himself a famous driver,
owned a horse that had won two hundred (_ducēnārius_).
[Illustration: FIGURE 149. DRESS OF AN AURIGA]
§341. The Drivers.--The drivers (_agitātōrēs_, _aurīgae_) were slaves
or freedmen, some of whom had won their freedom by their skill and
daring in the course. Only in the most corrupt days of the Empire did
citizens of any social position take actual part in the races. The
dress of the driver is shown in Fig. 149; especially to be noticed are
the close fitting cap, the short tunic (always of the color of his
_factiō_), laced around the body with leathern thongs, the straps of
leather around the thighs, the shoulder pads, and the heavy leather
protectors for the legs. Our football players wear like defensive
armor. The reins were knotted together and passed around the driver's
body. In his belt he carried a knife to cut the reins in case he
should be thrown from the car, or to cut the traces if a horse should
fall and become entangled in them. The races gave as many
opportunities then as now for skillful driving, and required even more
of strength and daring. What we should call "fouling" was encouraged.
The driver might turn his team against another, might upset the car of
a rival if he could; having gained the inside track he might drive out
of the straight course to keep a swifter team from passing his. The
rewards were proportionately great. The successful _aurīga_, despised
though his station, was the pet and pride of the race-mad crowd, and
under the Empire at least he was courted and fêted by high and low.
The pay of successful drivers was extravagant, the rival syndicates
bidding against each other for the services of the most popular. Rich
presents, too, were given them when they won their races, not only by
their _factiōnēs_, but also by outsiders who had backed them and
profited by their skill.
[Illustration: FIGURE 150. INSCRIPTION IN HONOR OF CRESCENS]
§342. Famous Aurigae.--The names of some of these victors have come
down to us in inscriptions (§10) erected in their honor or to their
memory by their friends. Among these may be mentioned Publius Aelius
Gutta Calpurnianus (§58) of the late Empire (1,127 victories), Caius
Apuleius Diocles, a Spaniard (in twenty-four years 4,257 races, l,462
victories, winning the sum of 35,863,120 sesterces, about $1,800,000),
Flavius Scorpus (2,048 victories at the age of twenty-seven), Marcus
Aurelius Liber (3,000 victories), Pompeius Muscosus (3,559 victories).
To these may be added Crescens, an inscription[3] in honor of whom was
found at Rome in 1878 and is shown in Fig. 150.
[Footnote 3: "Crescens, a driver of the blue syndicate, of the Moorish
nation, twenty-two years of age. He won his first victory as a driver
of a four-horse chariot in the consulship of Lucius Vipstanius
Messalla on the birthday of the deified Nerva in the twenty-fourth
race with these horses: Circius, Acceptor, Delicatus, and Cotynus.
From Messalla's consulship to the birthday of the deified Claudius in
the consulship of Glabrio he was sent from the barriers six hundred
and eighty-six times and was victorious forty-seven times. In races
between chariots with one from each syndicate he won nineteen times,
with two from each twenty-three times, with three from each five
times. He held back purposely once, took first place at the start
eight times, took it from others thirty-eight times. He won second
place one hundred and thirty times, third place one hundred and eleven
times. His winnings amounted to 1,558,346 sesterces (about $78,000)."]
§343. Other Shows of the Circus.--The circus was used less frequently
for other exhibitions than chariot races. Of these may be mentioned
the performances of the _dēsultōrēs_, men who rode two horses and
leaped from one to the other while going at full speed, and of trained
horses who performed various tricks while standing on a sort of
wheeled platform which gave a very unstable footing. There were also
exhibitions of horsemanship by citizens of good standing, riding under
leaders in squadrons, to show the evolutions of the cavalry. The
_lūdus Trōiae_ was also performed by young men of the nobility, a game
that Vergil has described in the Fifth Aeneid. More to the taste of
the crowd were the hunts (_vēnātiōnēs_), when wild beasts were turned
loose in the circus to slaughter each other or be slaughtered by men
trained for the purpose. We read of panthers, bears, bulls, lions,
elephants, hippopotami, and even crocodiles (in artificial lakes made
in the arena) exhibited during the Republic. In the circus, too,
combats of gladiators sometimes took place, but these were more
frequently in the amphitheater. One of the most brilliant spectacles
must have been the procession (_pompa circēnsis_) which formally
opened some of the public games. It started from the capitol and wound
its way down to the Circus Maximus, entering by the _porta pompae_
(named from it, §330), and passed entirely around the arena. At the
head in a car rode the presiding magistrate, wearing the garb of a
triumphant general and attended by a slave who held a wreath of gold
over his head. Next came a crowd of notables on horseback and on foot,
then the chariots and horsemen who were to take part in the games.
Then followed priests, arranged by their colleges, and bearers of
incense and of the instruments used in sacrifices, and statues of
deities on low cars drawn by mules, horses, or elephants, or else
carried on litters (_fercula_) on the shoulders of men. Bands of
musicians headed each division of the procession, a feeble
reminiscence of which is seen in the parade through the streets that
precedes the performance of the modern circus.
§344. Gladiatorial Combats.--Gladiatorial combats seem to have been
known in Italy long before the founding of Rome. We hear of them first
in Campania and Etruria. In Campania the wealthy and dissolute nobles,
we are told, made slaves fight to the death at their banquets and
revels for the entertainment of their guests. In Etruria the combats
go back in all probability to the offering of human sacrifices at the
burial of distinguished men in accordance with the ancient belief that
blood is acceptable to the dead. The victims were captives taken in
war, and it became the custom gradually to give them a chance for
their lives by supplying them with weapons and allowing them to fight
each other at the grave, the victor being spared at least for the
time. The Romans were slow to adopt the custom, the first exhibition
being given in the year 264 B.C., almost five centuries after the
founding of the city. That they derived it from Etruria rather than
Campania is shown by the fact that the exhibitions were at funeral
games, the earliest at those of Brutus Pera in 264 B.C., Marcus
Aemilius Lepidus in 216 B.C., Marcus Valerius Lavinus in 200 B.C., and
Publius Licinius in 183 B.C.
[Illustration: FIGURE 151. A "SAMNITE"]
§345. For the first one hundred years after their introduction the
exhibitions were infrequent as the dates just given show, those
mentioned being all of which we have any knowledge during the period,
but after this time they were given more and more frequently and
always on a larger scale. During the Republic, however, they remained
in theory at least private games (_mūnera_), not public games
(_lūdī_); that is, they were not celebrated on fixed days recurring
annually, and the givers of the exhibitions had to find a pretext for
them in the death of relatives or friends, and to defray the expenses
from their own pockets. In fact we know of but one instance in which
actual magistrates (the consuls Publius and Manlius, 105 B.C.) gave
such exhibitions, and we know too little of the attendant
circumstances to warrant us in assuming that they acted in their
official capacity. Even under the Empire the gladiators did not fight
on the days of the regular public games. Augustus, however, provided
funds for "extraordinary shows" under the direction of the praetors.
Under Domitian the aediles-elect were put in charge of these
exhibitions which were given regularly in December, the only instance
known of fixed dates for the _mūnera gladiātōria_. All others of which
we read are to be considered the freewill offerings to the people of
emperors, magistrates, or private citizens.
[Illustration: FIGURE 152. WEAPONS OF GLADIATORS]
[Illustration: FIGURE 153. WOUNDED GLADIATOR]
§346. Popularity of the Combats.--The Romans' love of excitement
(§316) made the exhibitions immediately and immensely popular. At the
first exhibition mentioned above, that in honor of Brutus Pera, three
pairs of gladiators only were shown, but in the three that followed
the number of pairs rose in order to twenty-two, twenty-five, and
sixty. By the time of Sulla politicians had found in the _mūnera_ the
most effective means to win the favor of the people, and vied with one
another in the frequency of the shows and the number of the
combatants. Besides this, the same politicians made these shows a
pretext for surrounding themselves with bands of bravos and bullies,
all called gladiators whether destined for the arena or not, with
which they started riots in the streets, broke up public meetings,
overawed the courts and even directed or prevented the elections.
Caesar's preparations for an exhibition when he was canvassing for the
aedileship (65 B.C.) caused such general fear that the senate passed a
law limiting the number of gladiators that a private citizen might
employ, and he was allowed to exhibit only 320 pairs. The bands of
Clodius and Milo made the city a slaughterhouse in 53 B.C., and order
was not restored until late in the following year when Pompey as "sole
consul" put an end to the battle of the bludgeons with the swords of
his soldiers. During the Empire the number actually exhibited almost
surpasses belief. Augustus gave eight _mūnera_, in which no less than
ten thousand men fought, but these were distributed through the whole
period of his reign. Trajan exhibited as many in four months only of
the year 107 A.D., in celebration of his conquest of the Dacians. The
first Gordian, emperor in 238 A.D., gave _mūnera_ monthly in the year
of his aedileship, the number of pairs running from 150 to 500. These
exhibitions did not cease until the fifteenth century of our era.
§347. Sources of Supply.--In the early Republic the gladiators were
captives taken in war, naturally men practiced in the use of weapons
(§161), who thought death by the sword a happier fate than the slavery
that awaited them (§140). This always remained the chief source of
supply, though it became inadequate as the demand increased. From the
time of Sulla training-schools were established in which slaves with
or without previous experience in war were fitted for the profession.
These were naturally slaves of the most intractable and desperate
character (§170). From the time of Augustus criminals were sentenced
to the arena (later "to the lions"), but only non-citizens, and these
for the most heinous crimes, treason, murder, arson, and the like.
Finally in the late Empire the arena became the last desperate resort
of the dissipated and prodigal, and these volunteers were numerous
enough to be given as a class the name _auctōrātī_.
[Illustration: FIGURE 154. HELMETS OF GLADIATORS]
§348. As the number of the exhibitions increased it became harder and
harder to supply the gladiators demanded, for it must be remembered
that there were exhibitions in many of the cities of the provinces and
in the smaller towns of Italy as well as at Rome. The lines were,
therefore, constantly crossed, and thousands died miserably in the
arena whom only the most glaring injustice could number in the classes
mentioned above. In Cicero's time provincial governors were accused of
sending unoffending provincials to be slaughtered in Rome and of
forcing Roman citizens, obscure and friendless, of course, to fight in
the provincial shows. Later it was common enough to send to the arena
men sentenced for the pettiest offenses, when the supply of real
criminals had run short, and to trump up charges against the innocent
for the same purpose. The persecution of the Christians was largely
due to the demand for more gladiators. So, too, the distinction was
lost between actual prisoners of war and peaceful non-combatants;
after the fall of Jerusalem all Jews over seventeen years of age were
condemned by Titus to work in the mines or fight in the arena. Wars on
the border were waged for the sole purpose of taking men who could be
made gladiators, and in default of men, children and women were
sometimes made to fight.
[Illustration: FIGURE 155. SCHOOL FOR GLADIATORS AT POMPEII]
§349. Schools for Gladiators.--The training-schools for gladiators
(_lūdī gladiātōriī_) have been mentioned already. Cicero during his
consulship speaks of one at Rome, and there were others before his
time at Capua and Praeneste. Some of these were set up by wealthy
nobles for the purpose of preparing their own gladiators for _mūnera_
which they expected to give; others were the property of regular
dealers in gladiators, who kept and trained them for hire. The
business was almost as disreputable as that of the _lēnōnēs_ (§139).
During the Empire training-schools were maintained at public expense
and under the direction of state officials not only in Rome, where
there were four at least of these schools, but also in other cities of
Italy where exhibitions were frequently given, and even in the
provinces. The purpose of all the schools, public and private alike,
was the same, to make the men trained in them as effective fighting
machines as possible. The gladiators were in charge of competent
training masters (_lanistae_); they were subject to the strictest
discipline; their diet was carefully looked after, a special food
(_sagīna gladiātōria_) being provided for them; regular gymnastic
exercises were prescribed, and lessons given in the use of the various
weapons by recognized experts (_magistrī_, _doctōrēs_). In their
fencing bouts wooden swords (_rudēs_) were used. The gladiators
associated in a school were collectively called a _familia_.
[Illustration: FIGURE 156. PLAN OF SCHOOL FOR GLADIATORS]
§350. These schools had also to serve as barracks for the gladiators
between engagements, that is, practically as houses of detention. It
was from the school of Lentulus at Capua that Spartacus had escaped,
and the Romans needed no second lesson of the sort. The general
arrangement of these barracks may be understood from the ruins of one
uncovered at Pompeii, though in this case the buildings had been
originally planned for another purpose, and the rearrangement may not
be ideal in all respects. A central court, or exercise ground (Figs.
155, 156) is surrounded by a wide colonnade, and this in turn by rows
of buildings two stories in height, the general arrangement being not
unlike that of the peristyle of a house (§202). The dimensions of the
court are nearly 120 by 150 feet. The buildings are cut up into rooms,
nearly all small (about twelve feet square), disconnected and opening
upon the court, those in the first story being reached from the
colonnade, those in the second from a gallery to which ran several
stairways. These small rooms are supposed to be the sleeping-rooms of
the gladiators, each accommodating two persons. There are seventy-one
of them (marked _7_ on the plan), affording room for 142 men. The uses
of the larger rooms are purely conjectural. The entrance is supposed
to have been at _3_, with a room, _15_, for the watchman or sentinel.
At _9_ was an _exedra_, where the gladiators may have waited in full
panoply for their turns in the exercise ground, _1_. The guard-room,
_8_, is identified by the remains of stocks, in which the refractory
were fastened for punishment or safe-keeping. They permitted the
culprits to lie on their backs or sit in a very uncomfortable
position. At _6_ was the armory or property room, if we may judge from
articles found in it. Near it in the corner was a staircase leading to
the gallery before the rooms of the second story. The large room,
_16_, was the mess-room, with the kitchen, _12_, opening into it. The
stairway, _13_, gives access to the rooms above kitchen and mess-room,
possibly the apartments of the trainers and their helpers.
§351. Places of Exhibition.--During the Republic the combats of
gladiators took place sometimes at the grave or in the circus, but
regularly in the forum. None of these places was well adapted to the
purpose, the grave the least of all. The circus had seats enough, but
the _spīna_ was in the way (§335) and the arena too vast to give all
the spectators a satisfactory view of a struggle that was confined
practically to a single spot. In the forum, on the other hand, the
seats could be arranged very conveniently; they would run parallel
with the sides, would be curved around the corners, and would inclose
only sufficient space to afford room for the combatants. The
inconvenience here was due to the fact that the seats had to be
erected before each performance and removed after it, a delay to
business if they were constructed carefully and a menace to life if
they were put up hastily. These considerations finally led the Romans,
as they had led the Campanians half a century before, to provide
permanent seats for the _mūnera_, arranged as they had been in the
forum, but in a place where they would not interfere with public or
private business. To these places for shows of gladiators came in the
course of time to be exclusively applied the word _amphitheātrum_,
which had been previously given in its correct general sense to any
place, the circus for example, in which the seats ran all the way
around, as opposed to the theater in which the rows of seats were
broken by the stage.
§352. Amphitheaters at Rome.--Just when the first amphitheaters, in
the special sense of the word, were erected at Rome can not be
determined with certainty. The elder Pliny (†79 A.D.) tells us that in
the year 55 B.C. Caius Scribonius Curio built two wooden theaters back
to back, the stages being, therefore, at opposite ends, and gave in
them simultaneous theatrical performances in the morning. Then, while
the spectators remained in their seats, the two theaters were turned
by machinery and brought together face to face, the stages were
removed, and in the space they had occupied shows of gladiators were
given in the afternoon before the united crowds. This story is all too
evidently invented to account for the perfected amphitheater of
Pliny's time, which he must have interpreted to mean "a double
theater." We are also told that Caesar erected a wooden amphitheater
in 46 B.C., but we have no detailed description of it, and no reason
to think that it was anything more than a temporary affair. In the
year 29 B.C., however, an amphitheater was built by Statilius Taurus,
partially at least of stone, that lasted until the great conflagration
in the reign of Nero (64 A.D.). Nero himself had previously erected
one of wood in the Campus. Finally, just before the end of the first
century of our era, was completed the _amphitheātrum Flāvium_, later
known as the _colossēum_ or _colisēum_, which was large enough and
durable enough to make forever unnecessary the erection of other
similar structures in the city.
[Illustration: FIGURE 157. EXTERIOR OF AMPHITHEATER AT POMPEII]
[Illustration: FIGURE 158. INTERIOR OF AMPHITHEATER AT POMPEII]
[Illustration: FIGURE 159. SECTION OF AMPHITHEATER AT POMPEII]
§353. The Amphitheater at Pompeii.--The essential features of an
amphitheater may be most easily understood from the ruins of the one
at Pompeii, erected about 75 B.C., almost half a century before the
first permanent structure of the sort at Rome (§352), and the earliest
known to us from either literary or monumental sources. The exterior
is shown in Fig. 157 (see also Overbeck, pp. 176-180; Mau-Kelsey, pp.
206-212) and a section in Fig. 159. It will be seen at once that the
arena and most of the seats lie in a great hollow excavated for the
purpose, thus making sufficient for the exterior a low wall of hardly
more than ten to thirteen feet in height. Even this wall was necessary
on only two sides, as the amphitheater was built in the southeast
corner of the city and its south and east sides were bounded by the
city walls. The shape is elliptical, the major axis being 444 feet,
the minor 342. The arena occupies the middle space. It was encircled
by thirty-five rows of seats arranged in three divisions, the lowest
(_īnfima_ or _īma cavea_) having five rows, the second (_media cavea_)
twelve, and the highest (_summa cavea_) eighteen. A broad terrace ran
around the amphitheater at the height of the topmost row of seats.
Access to this terrace was given from without by the double stairway
on the west, shown in Fig. 157, and by single stairways next the city
walls on the east and south (_10_ in Fig. 160). Between the terrace
and the top seats was a gallery, or row of boxes, each about four feet
square, probably for women. Beneath the boxes persons could pass from
the terrace to the seats. The amphitheater had seating capacity for
about 20,000 people.
[Illustration: FIGURE 160. PLAN OF ARENA IN AMPHITHEATER AT POMPEII]
§354. The arena is shown in Fig. 158, its plan in Fig. 160. It was an
ellipse with axes of 228 and 121 feet. Around it ran a wall a little
more than six feet high, on a level with the top of which were the
lowest seats. For the protection of the spectators when wild animals
were shown, a grating of iron bars was put up on the top of the arena
wall. Access to the arena and to the seats of the _cavea īma_ and the
_cavea media_ was given by the two underground passageways, _1_ and
_2_ in Fig. 160, of which _2_ turns at right angles on account of the
city wall on the south. From the arena ran also a third passage, _5_,
low and narrow, leading to the _porta Libitinēnsis_, through which the
bodies of the dead were dragged with ropes and hooks. Near the mouths
of these passages were small chambers or dens, marked _4_, _4_, _6_,
the purposes of which are not known. The floor of the arena was
covered with sand, as in the circus (§332), but in this case to soak
up the blood as well as to give a firm footing to the gladiators.
[Illustration: FIGURE 161. BISELLIUM]
§355. Of the part of this amphitheater set aside for the spectators
the _cavea īma_ only was supported upon artificial foundations. All
the other seats were constructed in sections as means were obtained
for the purpose, the people in the meantime finding places for
themselves on the sloping banks as in the early theaters (§325). The
_cavea īma_ was strictly not supplied with seats all the way around, a
considerable section on the east and west sides being arranged with
four low, broad ledges of stone, rising one above the other, on which
the members of the city council could place the seats of honor
(_bisellia_, Fig. 161) to which their rank entitled them. In the
middle of the section on the east the lowest ledge is made of double
width for some ten feet; this was the place set apart for the giver of
the games and his friends. In the _cavea media_ and the _cavea summa_
the seats were of stone resting on the bank of earth. It is probable
that all the places in the lowest section were reserved for people of
distinction, that seats in the middle section were sold to the
well-to-do, and that admission was free to the less desirable seats of
the highest section.
[Illustration: FIGURE 162. EXTERIOR OF THE COLISEUM]
§356. The Coliseum.--The Flavian amphitheater (§352) is the best known
of all the buildings of ancient Rome, because to a larger extent than
others it has survived to the present day. For our purpose it is not
necessary to give its history or to describe its architecture; it will
be sufficient to compare its essential parts with those of its modest
prototype in Pompeii. The latter was built in the outskirts of the
city, in a corner in fact of the city walls (§353); the coliseum lay
almost in the center of Rome, the most generally accessible of all the
public buildings. The interior of the Pompeian structure was reached
through two passages and by three stairways only, while eighty
numbered entrances made it easy for the Roman multitudes to find their
appropriate places in the coliseum. Much of the earlier amphitheater
was underground; all of the corresponding parts of the coliseum were
above the level of the street, the walls rising to a height of nearly
160 feet. This gave opportunity for the same architectural
magnificence that had distinguished the Roman theater from that of the
Greeks (§326). The general effect is shown in Fig. 162, an exterior
view of the ruins as they exist to-day.
[Illustration: FIGURE 163. INTERIOR OF COLISEUM]
§357. The interior is shown in Fig. 163. The form is an ellipse with
axes of 620 and 513 feet, the building covering nearly six acres of
ground. The arena is also an ellipse, its axes measuring 287 and 180
feet. The width of the space appropriated for the spectators is,
therefore, 166½ feet all around the arena. It will be noticed, too,
that subterranean chambers were constructed under the whole building,
including the arena. These furnished room for the regiments of
gladiators, the dens of wild beasts, the machinery for the
transformation scenes that Gibbon has described in his twelfth
chapter, and above all for the vast number of water and drainage pipes
that made it possible to turn the arena into a lake at a moment's
notice and as quickly to get rid of the water. The wall that
surrounded the arena was fifteen feet high with the side faced with
rollers and defended like the one at Pompeii with a grating or network
of metal above it. The top of the wall was level with the floor of the
lowest range of seats, called the _podium_ as in the circus (§337),
and this had room for two or at the most three rows of marble thrones.
These were for the use of the emperor and the imperial family, the
giver of the games, the magistrates, senators, Vestal virgins,
ambassadors of foreign states, and other persons of consequence.
[Illustration: FIGURE 164. SECTION OF COLISEUM]
§358. The arrangement of the seats with the method of reaching them is
shown in the sectional plan, Fig. 164. The seats were arranged in
three tiers (_maeniāna_, §337) one above the other, separated by broad
passageways and rising more steeply the farther they were from the
arena, and were crowned by an open gallery. In the plan the _podium_
is marked A. Twelve feet above it begins the first _maeniānum_, B,
with fourteen rows of seats reserved for members of the equestrian
order. Then came a broad _praecīnctiō_ (§327) and after it the second
_maeniānum_, C, intended for ordinary citizens. Back of this was a
wall of considerable height and above it the third _maeniānum_, D,
supplied with rough wooden benches for the lowest classes, foreigners,
slaves, and the like. The row of pillars along the front of this
section made the distant view all the worse. Above this was an open
gallery, E, in which women found an unwelcome place. No other seats
were open to them unless they were of sufficient distinction to claim
a place upon the _podium_. At the very top of the outside wall was a
terrace, F, in which were fixed masts to support the awnings that gave
protection against the sun. The seating capacity of the coliseum is
said to have been 80,000, and it had standing room for 20,000 more.
[Illustration: FIGURE 165. RETIARIUS AND SECUTOR]
§359. Styles of Fighting.--Gladiators fought usually in pairs, man
against man, but sometimes in masses (_gregātim_, _catervātim_). In
early times they were actually soldiers, captives taken in war (§347),
and fought naturally with the weapons and equipment to which they were
accustomed. When the professionally trained gladiators came in, they
were given the old names, and were called Samnites, Thracians, etc.,
according to their arms and tactics. In much later times victories
over distant peoples were celebrated with combats in which the weapons
and methods of war of the conquered were shown to the people of Rome;
thus, after the conquest of Britain _essedāriī_ exhibited in the arena
the tactics of chariot fighting which Caesar had described generations
before in his Commentaries. It was natural enough, too, for the people
to want to see different arms and different tactics tried against each
other, and so the Samnite was matched against the Thracian, the heavy
armed against the light armed. This became under the Empire the
favorite style of combat. Finally when people had tired of the regular
shows, novelties were introduced that seem to us grotesque; men fought
blindfold (_andabatae_), armed with two swords (_dimachaerī_), with
the lasso (_laqueatōrēs_), with a heavy net (_rētiāriī_), and there
were battles of dwarfs and of dwarfs with women. Of these the
_rētiārius_ became immensely popular. He carried a huge net in which
he tried to entangle his opponent, always a _secūtor_ (see below),
despatching him with a dagger if the throw was successful. If
unsuccessful he took to flight while preparing his net for another
throw, of if he had lost his net tried to keep his opponent off with a
heavy three-pronged spear (_fuscina_), his only weapon beside the
dagger (Fig. 165).
[Illustration: FIGURE 166. THRAEX]
[Illustration: FIGURE 167. VOTIVE GALERUS]
§360. Weapons and Armor.--The armor and weapons used in these combats
are known from pieces found in various places, some of which are shown
in Fig. 152, §345, and from paintings and sculpture, but we are not
always able to assign them to definite classes of gladiators. The
oldest class was that of the Samnites (Fig. 151, §344). They had
belts, thick sleeves on the right arm (_manica_), helmets with visors,
shown in Fig. 154, §348, greaves on the left leg, short swords, and
the long shield (_scūtum_). Under the Empire the name Samnite was
gradually lost and gladiators with equivalent equipment were called
_hoplomachī_ (heavy armed), when matched against the lighter armed
Thracians, and _secūtōrēs_, when they fought with the _rētiāriī_. The
Thracians (Fig. 166) had much the same equipment as the Samnites, the
mark of distinction being the small shield (_parma_) in place of the
_scūtum_ and, to make up the difference, greaves on both legs. They
carried a curved sword. The Gauls were heavy armed, but we do not know
how they were distinguished from the Samnites. In later times they
were called _murmillōnēs_, from an ornament on their helmets shaped
like a fish (_mormyr_). The rētiāriī had no defensive armor except a
leather protection for the shoulder, shown in Fig. 165. Of course the
same man might appear by turns as Samnite, Thracian, etc., if he was
skilled in the use of the various weapons; see the inscription in
§363.
§361. Announcement of the Shows.--The games were advertised in advance
by means of notices painted on the walls of public and private houses,
and even on the tombstones that lined the approaches to the towns and
cities. Some are worded in very general terms, announcing merely the
name of the giver of the games with the date:
A • SVETTI • CERTI
AEDILIS • FAMILIA • GLADIATORIA • PUGNAB • POMPEIS
PR • K • JVNIAS • VENATIO • ET • VELA • ERUNT[4]
[Footnote 4: "On the last day of May the gladiators of the Aedile
Aulus Suettius Certus will fight at Pompeii. There will also be a hunt
and the awnings will be used."]
Others promise in addition to the awnings that the dust will be kept
down in the arena by sprinkling. Sometimes when the troop was
particularly good the names of the gladiators were announced in pairs
as they would be matched together, with details as to their equipment,
the school in which each had been trained, the number of his previous
battles, etc. To such a notice on one of the walls in Pompeii some one
added after the show the result of each combat. The following is a
specimen only of this announcement:
MVNUS • N... • IV • III
PRID • IDUS • IDIBUS • MAIS
T M O T
_v._ PUGNAX • NER • III _v._ CYCNVS • IVL • VIII
_p._ MVRRANVS • NER • III _m._ ATTICVS • IVL • XIV[5]
[Footnote 5: "The games of N... from the 12th to the 15th of May. The
Thracian Pugnax, of the gladiatorial school of Nero, who has fought
three times will be matched against the _murmillō_ Murranus, of the
same school and the same number of fights. The _hoplomachus_ Cycnus,
from the school of Julius Caesar, who has fought eight times will be
matched with the Thracian Atticus of the same school and of fourteen
fights."]
The letters in italics before the names of the gladiators were added
after the exhibition by some interested spectator, and stand for
_vīcit_, _periit_, and _missus_ ("beaten, but spared"). Other
announcements added to such particulars as those given above the
statement that other pairs than those mentioned would fight each day,
this being meant to excite the curiosity and interest of the people.
§362. The Fight Itself.--The day before the exhibition a banquet
(_cēna lībera_) was given to the gladiators and they received visits
from their friends and admirers. The games took place in the
afternoon. After the _ēditor mūneris_ had taken his place (§355), the
gladiators marched in procession around the arena, pausing before him
to give the famous greeting: _moritūrī tē salūtant_. All then retired
from the arena to return in pairs according to the published
programme. The show began with a series of sham combats, the
_prōlūsiō_, with blunt weapons. When the people had had enough of this
the trumpets gave the signal for the real exhibition to begin. Those
reluctant to fight were driven into the arena with whips or hot iron
bars. If one of the combatants was clearly overpowered without being
actually killed, he might appeal for mercy by holding up his finger to
the _ēditor_. It was customary to refer the plea to the people, who
waved cloths or napkins to show that they wished it to be granted, or
pointed their thumbs downward as a signal for death. The gladiator who
was refused release (_missiō_) received the death blow from his
opponent without resistance. Combats where all must fight to the death
were said to be _sine missiōne_, but these were forbidden by Augustus.
The body of the dead man was dragged away through the _porta
Libitinēnsis_, sand was sprinkled or raked over the blood, and the
contests were continued until all had fought.
[Illustration: FIGURE 168. TESSERA GLADIATORIA][6]
[Footnote 6: _Lepidus Mummēiānī s(ervus). Spectāvit m(ense) Iuniō, C.
Sentiō Cōnsule._]
D • M • ET • MEMORIAE
AETERNAE • HYLATIS
DYMACHAERO • SIVE
ASSIDARIO • P • VII • RV • I
ERMAIS • CONIVX
CONIVGI • KARISSIMO
P • C • ET • S • AS • D[7]
[Footnote 7: Inscription on tomb of a gladiator. "To the Gods Manes
and the lasting memory of Hylas, a dimachaerus or essedarius of seven
victories and head trainer. His wife Ermais erected this monument to
her beloved husband and dedicated it, reserving the usual rights."]
§363. The Rewards.--Before making his first public appearance the
gladiator was technically called a _tīrō_. After his first victory he
received a token of wood or ivory (Fig. 168), which had upon it his
name and that of his master or trainer, a date, and the letters SP,
SPECT, SPECTAT, or SPECTAVIT, meaning perhaps _populus spectāvit_.
When after many victories he had proved himself to be the best of his
class, or second best, in his _familia_, he received the title of
_prīmus_, or _secundus_, _pālus_. When he had won his freedom he was
given a wooden sword (_rudis_). From this the titles _prīma rudis_ and
_secunda rudis_ seem to have been given to those who were afterwards
employed as training masters (_doctōrēs_, §349) in the schools. The
rewards given to famous gladiators by their masters and backers took
the form of valuable prizes and gifts of money. These may not have
been so generous as those given to the _aurīgae_ (§341), but they were
enough to enable them to live in luxury the rest of their lives. The
class of men, however, who followed this profession probably found
their most acceptable reward in the immediate and lasting notoriety
that their strength and courage brought them. That they did not shrink
from the _īnfamia_ that the profession entailed is shown by the fact
that they did not try to hide their connection with the amphitheater.
On the contrary, their gravestones record their classes and the number
of their victories, and have often cut upon them their likenesses with
the _rudis_ in their hands.
§364. Other Shows in the Amphitheater.--Of other games that were
sometimes given in the amphitheaters something has been said in
connection with the circus (§343). The most important were the
_vēnātiōnēs_, hunts of wild beasts. These were sometimes killed by men
trained to hunt them, sometimes made to kill each other. As the
amphitheater was primarily intended for the butchery of men, the
_vēnātiōnēs_ given in it gradually but surely took the form of
man-hunts. The victims were condemned criminals, some of them guilty
of crimes that deserved death, some of them sentenced on trumped up
charges, some of them (and among these were women and children)
condemned "to the lions" for political or religious convictions.
Sometimes they were supplied with weapons, sometimes they were exposed
unarmed, even fettered or bound to stakes, sometimes the ingenuity of
their executioners found additional torments for them by making them
play the parts of the sufferers in the tragedies of mythology. The
arena was well adapted, too, for the maneuvering of boats, when it had
been flooded with water (§357), and naval battles (_naumachiae_) were
often fought within the coliseum as desperate and as bloody as some of
those that have given a new turn to the history of the world. The
earliest exhibitions of this sort were given in artificial lakes, also
called _naumachiae_. The first of these was dug by Caesar, for a
single exhibition, in 46 B.C. Augustus had a permanent basin
constructed in 2 B.C., measuring 1,800 by 1,200 feet, and four others
at least were built by later emperors.
[Illustration: FIGURE 169. HALL IN THERMAE OF CARACALLA]
§365. The Daily Bath.--To the Roman of early times the bath had stood
for health and decency only. He washed every day his arms and legs,
for the ordinary costume left them exposed (§239), his body once a
week. He bathed at home, using a very primitive sort of wash-room,
situated near the kitchen (§203) in order that the water heated on the
kitchen stove might be carried into it with the least possible
inconvenience. By the last century of the Republic all this had
changed, though the steps in the change can not now be followed. The
bath had become a part of the daily life as momentous as the _cēna_
itself, which it regularly preceded. It was taken, too, by preference
in one of the public bathing establishments which were by this time
operated on a large scale in all parts of Rome and also in the smaller
towns of Italy and even in the provinces. These offered all sorts of
baths, plain, plunge, douche, with massage (Turkish), and besides in
many cases features borrowed from the Greek gymnasia, exercise
grounds, courts for various games, reading and conversation rooms,
libraries, gymnastic apparatus, everything in fact that our athletic
clubs now provide for their members. The accessories had become really
of more importance than the bathing itself and justify the description
of the bath under the head of amusements. In places where there were
no public baths, or where they were at an inconvenient distance, the
wealthy fitted up bathing places in their houses, but no matter how
elaborate they were the private baths were merely a makeshift at best.
[Illustration: FIGURE 170. TEPIDARIUM AT POMPEII]
§366. Essentials for the Bath.--The ruins of the public and private
baths found all over the Roman world, together with a dissertation by
Vitruvius, and countless allusions in literature, make very clear the
general construction and arrangement of the bath, but show that the
widest freedom was allowed in matters of detail. For the luxurious
bath of classical times four things were thought necessary: a warm
ante-room, a hot bath, a cold bath, and the rubbing and anointing with
oil. All these might have been had in a single room, as all but the
last are furnished in every modern bathroom, but as a matter of fact
we find at least three rooms set apart for the bath in very modest
private houses and often five or six, while in the public
establishments this number may be multiplied several times. In the
better equipped houses were provided: (1) A room for undressing and
dressing (_apodytērium_), usually unheated, but furnished with benches
and often with lockers for the clothes; (2) the warm ante-room
(_tepidārium_), in which the bather waited long enough for the
perspiration to start, in order to guard against the danger of passing
too suddenly into the high temperature of the next room; (3) the hot
room (_caldārium_) for the hot bath; (4) the cold room (_frīgidārium_)
for the cold bath; (5) the _ūnctōrium_, the room for the rubbing and
anointing with oil that finished the bath, from which the bather
returned into the _apodytērium_ for his clothes.
[Illustration: FIGURE 171. STRIGILES]
§367. In the more modest houses space was saved by using a room for
several purposes. The separate _apodytērium_ might be dispensed with,
the bather undressing and dressing in either the _frīgidārium_ or
_tepidārium_ according to the weather; or the _ūnctōrium_ might be
saved by using the _tepidārium_ for this purpose as well as for its
own. In this way the suite of five rooms might be reduced to four or
three. On the other hand, private houses had sometimes an additional
hot room without water (_lacōnicum_), used for a sweat bath, and a
public bathhouse would be almost sure to have an exercise ground
(_palaestra_), with a pool at one side (_piscīna_) for a cold plunge
and a room adjacent (_dēstrictārium_) in which the sweat and dirt of
exercise were scraped off with the _strigilis_ (Fig. 171) before and
after the bath. It must not be supposed that all bathers went the
round of all the rooms in the order given above, though that was
common enough. Some would dispense with the hot bath altogether,
taking instead a sweat in the _lacōnicum_, or failing that, in the
_caldārium_, removing the perspiration with the strigil, following
this with a cold bath (perhaps merely a shower or douche) in the
_frīgidārium_ and the rubbing with linen cloths and anointing with
oil. Young men who deserted the campus and the Tiber (§317) for the
_palaestra_ and the bath would content themselves with removing the
effects of their exercise with the scraper, taking a plunge in the
open pool, and then a second scraping and the oil. Much would depend
on the time and the tastes of individuals, and physicians laid down
strict rules for their patients to follow.
[Illustration: FIGURE 172. SUSPENSURA]
§368. Heating the Bath.--The arrangement of the rooms, were they many
or few, depended upon the method of heating. This in early times must
have been by stoves placed in the rooms as needed, but by the end of
the Republic the furnace had come into use, heating the rooms as well
as the water with a single fire. The hot air from the furnace was not
conducted into the rooms directly, as it is with us, but was made to
circulate under the floors and through spaces between the walls, the
temperature of the room depending upon its proximity to the furnace.
The _lacōnicum_, if there was one, was put directly over the furnace,
next to it came the _caldārium_ and then the _tepidārium_, while the
_frīgidārium_ and the _apodytērium_ having no need of heat were at the
greatest distance from the fire and without connection with it. If
there were two sets of baths in the same building, as there sometimes
were for the accommodation of both men and women at the same time, the
two _caldāria_ were put on opposite sides of the furnace (see the plan
in §376) and the other rooms were connected with them in the regular
order, the two entrances being at the greatest distance apart. The
method of conducting the air under the floors is shown in Fig. 172.
There were really two floors, the first being even with the top of the
firepot, the second (_suspēnsūra_) with the top of the furnace.
Between them was a space of about two feet into which the hot air
passed. On the top of the furnace, just above the level, therefore, of
the second floor, were two kettles for heating the water. One was
placed well back, where the fire was not so hot, and contained water
that was kept merely warm; the other was placed directly over the fire
and the water in it, received from the former, was easily kept
intensely hot. Near them was a third kettle containing cold water.
From these three kettles the water was piped as needed to the various
rooms. The arrangement will be easily understood after a study of the
plans in §§376, 378.
[Illustration: FIGURE 173. SECTION OF CALDARIUM]
§369. The Caldarium.--The hot water bath was taken in the _caldārium_
(_cella caldāria_), which served also as a sweat bath when there was
no _lacōnicum_. It was a rectangular room and in the public baths was
longer than wide (Vitruvius says the proportion should be 3:2) with
one end rounded off like an apse or bay window. At the other end stood
the large hot water tank (_alveus_), in which the bath was taken by a
number of persons at a time. The _alveus_ (Fig. 173) was built up two
steps from the floor of the room, its length equal to the width of the
room and its breadth at the top not less than six feet. At the bottom
it was not nearly so wide, the back sloping inward, so that the
bathers could recline against it, and the front having a long broad
step, for convenience of descent into it, upon which, too, the bathers
sat. The water was received hot from the furnace, and was kept hot by
a metal heater (_testūdō_), opening into the _alveus_ and extending
beneath the floor into the hot air chamber. Near the top of the tank
was an overflow pipe, and in the bottom was an escape pipe which
allowed the water to be emptied on the floor of the _caldārium_, to be
used for scrubbing it. In the apse-like end of the room was a tank or
large basin of metal (_lābrum_, _solium_), which seems to have
contained cool water for the douche. In private baths the room was
usually rectangular and then the _lābrum_ was placed in a corner. For
the accommodation of those using the room for the sweat bath only,
there were benches along the wall. The air in the _caldārium_ would,
of course, be very moist, while that of the _lacōnicum_ would be
perfectly dry, so that the effect would not be precisely the same.
§370. The Frigidarium and Unctorium.--The _frīgidārium_ (_cella
frīgidāria_) contained merely the cold plunge bath, unless it was made
to do duty for the _apodytērium_, when there would be lockers on the
wall for the clothes (at least in a public bath) and benches for the
slaves who watched them. Persons who found the bath too cold would
resort instead to the open swimming pool in the _palaestra_, which
would be warmed by the sun. In one of the public baths at Pompeii a
cold bath seems to have been introduced into the _tepidārium_, for the
benefit, probably, of invalids who found even the _palaestra_ too cool
for comfort. The final process, that of scraping, rubbing, and oiling,
was exceedingly important. The bather was often treated twice, before
the warm bath and after the cold bath; the first might be omitted, but
the second never. The special room, _ūnctōrium_, was furnished with
benches and couches. The scrapers and oils were brought by the
bathers, usually carried along with the towels for the bath by a slave
(_capsārius_). The bather might scrape (_dēstringere_) and oil
(_deungere_) himself, or he might receive a regular massage at the
hands of a trained slave. It is probable that in the large baths
expert operators could be hired, but we have no direct testimony on
the subject. When there was no special _ūnctōrium_ the _tepidārium_ or
_apodytērium_ was made to do instead.
[Illustration: FIGURE 174. BATH AT CAERWENT]
§371. A Private Bathhouse.--In Fig. 174 is shown the plan of a private
bath in Caerwent, Monmouthshire, England, the ruins of which were
discovered in the year 1855. It dates from about the time of
Constantine (306-333), and small though it is gives a clear notion of
the arrangement of the rooms. The entrance _A_ leads into the
_frīgidārium B_, 10'6" x 6'6" in size, with a bath _C_, 10'6" x 3'3".
Off this is the _apodytērium D_, 10'6" x 13'3", which has the
apse-like end that the _caldārium_ ought to have. Next is the
_tepidārium E_, 12' x 12', which contrary to all the rules is the
largest instead of the smallest of the four main rooms. Then comes the
_caldārium F_, 12' x 7'6", with its _alveus G_, 6' x 3' x 2', but with
no sign of its _lābrum_ left, perhaps because the basin was too small
to require any special foundation. Finally comes the rare _lacōnicum
H_, 8' x 4', built over one end of the furnace _I_, which was in the
basement room _KK_. The hot air passed as indicated by the arrows,
escaping through openings near the roof in the outside wall of the
_apodytērium_. It should be noticed that there was no direct passage
from the _caldārium_ to the _frīgidārium_, no special entrance to the
_lacōnicum_, and that the _tepidārium_ must have served as the
_ūnctōrium_. The dimensions of the bath as a whole are 31 x 34 feet.
§372. The Public Baths.--To the simpler bathhouse of the earlier times
as well as to the bath itself was given the name _balneum_
(_balineum_), used often in the plural, _balnea_, by the dactylic
poets for metrical convenience. The more complex establishments of
later times were called _balneae_, and to the very largest with
features derived from the Greek gymnasia (§365) the name _thermae_ was
finally given. These words, however, were loosely used and often
interchanged in practice. Public baths are first heard of after the
second Punic war. They increased in number rapidly, 170 at least being
operated in Rome in the year 33 B.C., and later there were more than
800. With equal rapidity they spread through Italy and the provinces,
all the towns and many villages even having at least one. They were
public only in the sense of being open to all citizens who could pay
the modest fee demanded for their use. Free baths there were none,
except when some magistrate or public-spirited citizen or candidate
for office arranged to relieve the people of the fees for a definite
time by meeting the charges himself. So Agrippa in the year 33 B.C.
kept open free of charge 170 establishments at Rome. The rich
sometimes provided free baths for the people in their wills, but
always for a limited time.
§373. Management.--The first public baths were opened by individuals
for speculative purposes. Others were built by wealthy men as gifts to
their native towns, as such men give hospitals and libraries now, the
administration being lodged with the town authorities who kept the
buildings in repair and the baths open with the fees collected. Others
were built by the towns out of public funds, and others still as
monuments by the later emperors. However started, the management was
practically the same for all. They were leased for a definite time and
for a fixed sum to a manager (_conductor_) who paid his expenses and
made his profits out of the fees which he collected. The fee
(_balneāticum_) was hardly more than nominal. The regular price at
Rome for men seems to have been a _quadrāns_, less than a cent, the
bather furnishing his own towels, oil, etc., as we have seen (§370).
Women paid more, perhaps twice as much, while children up to a certain
age, unknown to us, paid nothing. Prices varied, of course, in
different places. It is likely that higher prices were charged in some
baths than in others in the same city, either because they were more
luxuriously equipped or to make them more exclusive and fashionable
than the rest, but we have no positive knowledge that this was done.
§374. Hours Opened.--The bath was regularly taken between the
_merīdiātiō_ and _cēna_, the hour varying, therefore, within narrow
limits in different seasons and for different classes (§310). In
general it may be said to have been taken about the eighth hour, and
at this hour all the _conductōrēs_ were bound by their contracts to
have the baths open and all things in readiness. As a matter of fact
many people preferred to bathe before the _prandium_ (§302), and some
at least of the baths in the larger places must have been open then.
All were regularly kept open until sunset, but in the smaller towns,
where public baths were fewer, it is probable that they were kept open
later; at least the lamps found in large numbers in the Pompeian baths
seem to point at evening hours. It may be taken for granted that the
managers would keep the doors open as long as was profitable for them.
§375. Accommodations for Women.--Women of respectability bathed in the
public baths, as they bathe in public places now, but with women only,
enjoying the opportunity to meet their friends as much as did the men.
In the large cities there were separate baths devoted to their
exclusive use. In the larger towns separate rooms were set apart for
them in the baths intended generally for men. Such a combination is
shown in the next paragraph and the arrangement has been explained in
§368. In the very small places the bath was opened to men and women at
different hours. Late in the Empire we read of men and women bathing
together, but this was true of women only who had no claim to
respectability at all.
[Illustration: FIGURE 175. THERMAE AT POMPEII]
§376. Thermae.--In Fig. 175 is shown a plan of the so-called Stabian
baths at Pompeii, which gives a correct idea of the smaller _thermae_
and serves at the same time to illustrate the combination of baths for
men and women under the same roof. In the plan the unnumbered rooms
opening upon the surrounding streets were used for shops and stores
independent of the baths, those opening within were for the use of the
attendants or for purposes that can not now be determined. The main
entrance (_1_), on the south, opened upon the _palaestra_ (_2_),
surrounded on three sides by colonnades and on the west by a bowling
alley (_3_), where large stone balls were found. Behind the bowling
alley was the _piscīna_ (_6_) open to the sun, with a room on either
side (_5_, _7_) for douche baths and a _dēstrictārium_ (_4_) for the
use of the athletes. There were two side entrances (_8_, _11_) at the
northwest, with the porter's room (_12_) and manager's office (_10_)
within convenient reach. The room (_9_) at the head of the bowling
alley was for the use of the players and may be compared with the
similar room for the use of the gladiators marked _9_ in Fig. 156
(§350). Behind the office was the _latrīna_ (_14_).
§377. On the east are the baths proper, the men's to the south. There
were two _apodytēria_ (_24_, _25_) for the men, each with a separate
waiting-room for the slaves (_26_, _27_) with a door to the street.
Then come in order the _frīgidārium_ (_22_), the _tepidārium_ (_23_),
and the _caldārium_ (_21_). The _tepidārium_, contrary to custom, had
a cold bath as explained in §370. The main entrance to the women's
bath was at the northeast (_17_), but there was also an entrance from
the northwest through the long corridor (_15_), both opening into the
_apodytērium_ (_16_). This contained in one corner a cold bath, there
being no separate _frīgidārium_ in the baths for women. Then come in
the regular position the _tepidārium_ (_18_) and _caldārium_ (_19_).
The furnace (_20_) was between the two _caldāria_, and the position of
the three kettles (§368) which furnished the water is clearly shown.
It should be noticed that there was no _lacōnicum_. It is possible
that one of the waiting-rooms for men (_24_) may have been used as an
_ūnctōrium_. The ruins show that the rooms were most artistically
decorated and there can be no doubt that they were luxuriously
furnished. The colonnades and the large waiting-rooms gave ample space
for the lounge after the bath, which the Roman prized so highly.
[Illustration: FIGURE 176. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN]
§378. Baths of Diocletian.--The irregularity of plan and the waste of
space in the Pompeian _thermae_ just described are due to the fact
that it was rebuilt at various times with all sorts of alterations and
additions. Nothing can be more symmetrical than the _thermae_ of the
later emperors, as a type of which is shown in Fig. 176 the plan of
the Baths of Diocletian, dedicated in 305 A.D. They lay on the east
side of the city and were the largest and with the exception of those
of Caracalla the most magnificent of the Roman baths. The plan shows
the arrangement of the main rooms, all in the line of the minor axis
of the building; the uncovered _piscīna_ (1), the _apodytērium_ and
_frīgidārium_ (2), combined as in the women's baths at Pompeii, the
_tepidārium_ (3), and the _caldārium_ (4) projecting beyond the other
rooms for the sake of the sunshine. The uses of the surrounding halls
and courts can not now be determined, but it is clear from the plan
that nothing was omitted known to the luxury of the time. An idea of
the magnificence of the central room may be had from Fig. 169 (§365),
showing the corresponding room in the Baths of Caracalla.