Some are of opinion, that the Pantheon is much more ancient than the
Augustan age, and that the portico, which is the only part those
antiquarians admit to be the work of Agrippa, though beautiful in itself,
does not correspond with the simplicity of the temple.
As the Pantheon is the most entire, the Amphitheatre of Vespasian is the
most stupendous, monument of antiquity in Rome. It was finished by his
son Titus, and obtained the name of Colosseum, afterwards corrupted into
Coliseum, from a colossal statue of Apollo which was placed before it.
This vast structure was built of Tiburtine stone, which is remarkably
durable. If the public buildings of the ancient Romans had met with no
more inveterate enemy than Time, we might, at this day, contemplate the
greater number in all their original perfection; they were formed for
the admiration of much remoter ages than the present. This Amphitheatre
in particular might have stood entire for two thousand years to come:
For what are the slow corrosions of time, in comparison of the rapid
destruction from the fury of Barbarians, the zeal of Bigots, and the
avarice of Popes and Cardinals? The first depredation made on this
stupendous building, was by the inhabitants of Rome themselves, at that
time greater Goths than their conqueror. We are told, they applied to
Theodoric, whose court was then at Ravenna, for liberty to take the
stones of this Amphitheatre for some public work they were carrying on.
The marble cornices, the friezes, and other ornaments of this building,
have been carried away, at various times, to adorn palaces; and the
stones have been taken to build churches, and sometimes to repair the
walls of Rome, the most useless work of all. For of what importance are
walls to a city, without a garrison, and whose most powerful artillery
affects not the bodies, but only the minds, of men? About one-half of the
external circuit still remains, from which, and the ruins of the other
parts, a pretty exact idea may be formed of the original structure. By
a computation made by Mr. Byres, it could contain eighty-five thousand
spectators, making a convenient allowance for each. Fourteen chapels
are now erected within side, representing the stages of our Saviour’s
passion. This expedient of consecrating them into Christian chapels and
churches, has saved some of the finest remains of Heathen magnificence
from utter destruction.
Our admiration of the Romans is tempered with horror, when we reflect on
the use formerly made of this immense building, and the dreadful scenes
which were acted on the Arena; where not only criminals condemned to
death, but also prisoners taken in war, were obliged to butcher each
other, for the entertainment of an inhuman populace. The combats of
Gladiators were at first used in Rome at funerals only, where prisoners
were obliged to assume that profession, and fight before the tombs of
deceased Generals or Magistrates, in imitation of the barbarous custom of
the Greeks, of Sacrificing captives at the tombs of their heroes.
This horrid piece of magnificence, which, at first, was exhibited only on
the death of Consuls, and men of the highest distinction, came gradually
to be claimed by every citizen who was sufficiently rich to defray the
expence; and as the people’s fondness for these combats increased every
day, they were no longer confined to funeral solemnities, but became
customary on days of public rejoicing, and were exhibited, at amazing
expence, by some Generals after victories. In the progress of riches,
luxury, and vice, it became a profession in Rome to deal in gladiators.
Men called Lanistæ made it their business to purchase prisoners and
slaves, to have them instructed in the use of the various weapons; and
when any Roman chose to amuse the people with their favourite show, or
to entertain a select company of his own friends upon any particular
occasion, he applied to the Lanistæ; who, for a fixed price, furnished
him with as many pairs of those unhappy combatants as he required. They
had various names given to them, according to the different manner in
which they were armed. Towards the end of the republic, some of the rich
and powerful citizens had great numbers of gladiators of their own, who
were daily exercised by the Lanistæ, and always kept ready for fighting
when ordered by their proprietor. Those who were often victorious, or had
the good fortune to please their masters, had their liberty granted them,
on which they generally quitted their profession; though it sometimes
happened, that those who were remarkably skilful, continued it, either
from vanity or poverty, even after they had obtained their freedom; and
the applause bestowed on those gladiators, had the effect of inducing men
born free, to choose this for a profession, which they exercised for
money, till age impaired their strength and address. They then hung up
their arms in the temple of Hercules, and appeared no more on the Arena.
————Veianius armis
Herculis ad postem fixis latet abdicus agro,
Ne populum extrema toties exoret Arena.
There were many Amphitheatres at Rome, in other towns of Italy, and in
many provinces of the empire; but this of Vespasian was the largest that
ever was built. That at Verona is the next in size in Italy, and the
remains of the Amphitheatre at Nîmes, in the south of France, prove, that
it was the most magnificent structure of this kind in any of the Roman
provinces. The Romans were so excessively fond of these exhibitions,
that wherever colonies were established, it was found requisite to give
public shews of this kind, to induce the emigrants to remain in their
new country: and in the provinces where it was thought necessary that
a considerable body of troops should remain constantly, structures of
this kind were erected, at vast labour and expence, and were found the
best means of inducing the young officers to submit cheerfully to a long
absence from the capital, and of preventing the common soldiers from
desertion. The profusion of human blood, which was shed in the Arena, by
the cruel prodigality of the Emperors, and the refinements which were
invented to augment the barbarous pleasure of the spectators, are proofs
of the dreadful degree of corruption and depravity to which human nature
is capable of attaining, even among a learned and enlightened people,
when unrestrained by the mild precepts of a benevolent religion. We are
told, that the gladiators bred for the use of particular patricians, as
well as those kept for hire by the Lanistæ, were, for some weeks before
they appeared in the Arena, fed upon such succulent diet, as would
soonest fill their veins, that they might bleed freely at every wound.
They were instructed by the Lanistæ, not only in the art of fighting,
but also in the most graceful manner of dying; and when those wretched
men felt themselves mortally wounded, they assumed such attitudes as
they knew pleased the beholders; and they seemed to receive pleasure
themselves from the applause bestowed upon them in their last moments.
When a gladiator was thrown by his antagonist to the ground, and directly
laid down his arms, it was a sign that he could resist no longer,
and declared himself vanquished; but still his life depended on the
spectators. If they were pleased with his performance, or, in a merciful
disposition, they held up their hands, with the thumb folded down, and
the life of the man was spared; but if they where in the humour to see
him die, they held up the hand clenched, with the thumb only erect. As
soon as the prostrate victim beheld that fatal signal, he knew all hopes
of life were vain, and immediately presented his breast to the sword of
his adversary, who, whatever his own inclinations might be, was obliged
to put him to death instantly.
As these combats formed the supreme pleasure of the inhabitants of
Rome, the most cruel of their Emperors were sometimes the most popular;
merely because they gratified the people, without restraint, in their
favourite amusement. When Marcus Aurelius thought it necessary, for
the public service, to recruit his army from the gladiators of Rome;
it raised more discontent among the populace, than many of the wildest
pranks of Caligula. In the times of some of the Emperors, the lower
class of Roman citizens were certainly as worthless a set of men as
ever existed; stained with all the vices which arise from idleness
and dependence; living upon the largesses of the great; passing their
whole time in the Circus and Amphitheatres, where every sentiment of
humanity was annihilated within their breasts, and where the agonies and
torments of their fellow-creatures were their chief pastime. That no
occasion might be lost of indulging this savage taste of the populace,
criminals were condemned to fight with wild beasts in the Arena, or were
exposed, unarmed, to be torn in pieces by them; at other times, they
were blindfolded, and in that condition obliged to cut and slaughter
each other. So that, instead of victims solemnly sacrificed to public
justice, they seemed to be brought in as buffoons to raise the mirth of
the spectators.
The practice of domestic slavery had also a great influence in rendering
the Romans of a cruel and haughty character. Masters could punish their
slaves in what manner, and to what degree, they thought proper. It was
as late as the Emperor Adrian’s time, before any law was made, ordaining
that a master who should put his slave to death without sufficient
cause, should be tried for his life. The usual porter at the gate of
a great man’s house in ancient Rome, was a chained slave. The noise
of whips and lashes resounded from one house to another, at the time
when it was customary for the masters of families to take an account of
the conduct of their servants. This cruel disposition, as is the case
wherever domestic slavery prevails, extended to the gentle sex, and
hardened the mild tempers of the women. What a picture has Juvenal drawn
of the toilet of a Roman lady!
Nam si constituit, solitoque decentius optat
Ornari —— ——
Componit crinem laceratis ipsa capillis,
Nuda humeros Psecas infelix, nudisque mamillis,
Altior hic quare cincinnus? Taurea punit.
Continuo flexi crimen facinusque capilli.
It was customary for avaricious masters, to send their infirm and
sick slaves, to an island in the Tiber, where there was a Temple of
Æsculapius; if the God pleased to recover them, the master took them
back to his family; if they died, no farther inquiry was made about
them. The Emperor Claudius put a check to this piece of inhumanity, by
ordaining, that every sick slave, thus abandoned by his master, should be
declared free when he recovered his health.
From these observations, are we to infer, that the ancient Romans were
_naturally_ of a more cruel turn of mind, than the present inhabitants
of Europe? Or is there not reason to believe that, in the same
circumstances, modern nations would act in the same manner? Do we not
perceive, that the practice of domestic slavery has, at this day, a
strong tendency to render men haughty, capricious, and cruel. Such, I am
afraid, is the nature of man, that if he has power without controul, he
will use it without justice; absolute power has a strong tendency to make
good men bad, and never fails to make bad men worse.
It was an observation of the late Mareschal Saxe, that in all the
contests between the army waggoners and their horses, the waggoners were
in the wrong; which he imputed to their having absolute authority over
the horses. In the qualities of the head and heart, and in most other
respects, he thought the men and horses on an equality. Caprice is a
vice of the temper, which increases faster than any other by indulgence;
it often spoils the best qualities of the heart, and, in particular
situations, degenerates into the most unsufferable tyranny. The first
appearance of it in young minds ought to be opposed with firmness, and
prevented from farther progress, otherwise our future attempts to arrest
it may be fruitless; for
Mobilitate viget, viresque acquirit eundo.
The combats in the Amphitheatres were, as I have already said, introduced
by degrees at Rome. The custom of making prisoners fight around the
funeral piles of deceased heroes, was a refinement on a more barbarous
practice; and the Romans, no doubt, valued themselves on their humanity,
in not butchering their prisoners in cold blood, as was the custom in
the earliest ages of Greece. The institution of obliging criminals to
fight in the Arena, and thus giving them a chance for their lives, would
also appear to them a very merciful improvement on the common manner of
execution. The grossest sophistry will pass on men’s understandings, when
it is used in support of measures to which they are already inclined. And
when we consider the eagerness with which the populace of every country
behold the accidental combats which occur in the streets, we need not
be surprised to find, that when once the combats of gladiators were
permitted among the Roman populace, on whatever pretext, the taste for
them would daily increase, till it erased every idea of compunction from
their breasts, and became their ruling passion. The Patricians, enriched
by the pillage of kingdoms, and knowing that their power at Rome, and
consequently all over the world, depended on the favour and suffrages of
the people, naturally sought popularity by gratifying their favourite
taste. Afterwards the Emperors might imagine, that such shows would keep
the citizens from reflecting on their lost liberties, or the enormities
of the new form of government; and, exclusive of every political reason,
many of them, from the barbarous disposition of their own minds, would
take as much pleasure in the scenes acted on the Arena, as the most
savage of the vulgar.
While we express horror and indignation at the fondness which the Romans
displayed for the bloody combats of the Amphitheatre, let us reflect,
whether this proceeded from any peculiar cruelty of disposition inherent
in that people, or belongs to mankind in general, let us reflect, whether
it is probable, that the people of any other nation would not be
gradually led, by the same degrees, to an equal passion for such horrid
entertainments. Let us consider, whether there is reason to suspect
that those who arm cocks with steel, and take pleasure in beholding
the spirited little animals cut one another to death, would not take
the same, or superior delight, in obliging men to slaughter each other
if they had the power.—And what restrains them? Is there no reason to
believe, that the influence of a purer religion, and brighter example,
than were known to the Heathen world, prevents mankind from those
enormities now, which were permitted and countenanced formerly? As soon
as the benevolent precepts of Christianity were received by the Romans
as the laws of the Deity, the prisoners and the slaves were treated with
humanity, and the bloody exhibitions in the Amphitheatres were abolished.