Funereamque toris quassat uterque facem.
Victores committe, Venus, quos iste manebit
Exitus, una duos ut Libitina ferat.”
(Martial. Epig., lib. viii. 43.)
[229] “Ferrarium vicinum, aut hunc qui ad Metam sudantem tubas experitur
et tibias.” (Senecæ, Epist. 56.)
Some of the tubes or leaden pipes have been found (as before mentioned).
[230] “Ostium humile et augustum, et potissimum ejus generis, quod
_cochleam_ appellant, ut solet esse in _cavea_ ex qua tauri pugnare
solent.” (Varr. de Re Rustica, iii. 5.)
[231] “Edidit et Circenses plurimos a mane usque ad vesperam, interjecta
modo Africanarum venatione, modo Trojæ decursione: quosdam præcipuos,
_minio_ et _chrysocolla_ constrato circo nec ullis nisi ex senatorio
ordine aurigantibus.” (Suetonii Caligula, 18.)
[232] “Inquietatus fremitu gratuita in Circo loca de media nocte
occupantium, omnes fustibus abegit; elisique per eum tumultum viginti
amplius Equites Romani, totidem matronæ, super innumeram turbam ceteram.”
(Suetonii Caligula, cap. 26.)
A similar mania has sometimes been heard of in recent times in Paris and
in London.
[233] “Bestiariis meridianisque adeo delectabatur, ut et prima luce ad
spectaculum descenderet et meridie dimisso ad prandium populo persederet
præterque destinatos, etiam levi subitaque de causa, quosdam committeret,
de fabrorum quoque ac ministrorum atque id genus numero si automatum,
vel pegma, vel quid tale aliud parum cessisset. Induxit et unum ex
nomenclatoribus suis, sicut erat togatus.” (Suet. Claudius, c. xxxiv.)
[234] “Visumque jam est Neronis principis spectaculis arenam Circi
chrysocolla sterni cum ipse concolori panno aurigaturus esset.” (Plinii
Nat. Hist., xxxiii. 27.)
[235] “Subinde intraverunt duo Æthiopes capillati, cum pusillis utribus,
quales solent esse qui ARENAM _in amphitheatro_ spargunt.” (Petronii
Sat., cap. 34.)
[236] Taciti Annales, lib. xi. c. 11.
[237] “Lithostrota acceptavere jam sub Sulla: parvulis certe crustis
exstat hodieque, quod in Fortunæ delubro Præneste fecit. Pulsa deinde ex
humo pavimenta in cameras transiere, e vitro: novitium e hoc inventum.
Agrippa certe in Thermis quas Romæ fecit, figlinum opus encausto pinxit:
in reliquis albaria adornavit: non dubie vitreas facturus cameras, si
prius inventum id fuisset, aut a parietibus scenæ, ut diximus, Scauri,
pervenisset in cameras. Quamobrem et vitri natura indicanda est.” (Plinii
Nat. Hist., lib. xxxvi. 64.)
[238] Friedländer says that a compact floor of glass was found at Veii
(vol. iii. p. 103).
[239] This remarkably fine pavement is still preserved (1876) at
Præneste, now called Palestrina.
[240] Pliny, Nat. Hist., bk. xxxvi. 2, 3.
[241] Ibid. xxxvi. 24, 7.
[242] “Nerone secundum, L. Pisone consulibus, _pauca memoria_ digna
evenere: nisi cui libeat, laudandis fundamentis et trabibus, quis molem
amphitheatri apud Campum Martis, Cæsar exstruxerat, volumina inplere: cum
ex dignitate populi Romani repertum sit, res inlustres annalibus, talia
diurnis urbis actis mandare.” (Taciti Annales, lib. xiii. c. 31.)
[243] See Plate XXVII.
[244] See Plate XXV.
[245] See Plate XX.
[246] The photo-engraver has unfortunately turned this photograph upside
down, but it is not of much consequence, as the size and thickness of the
bricks of Nero can be seen just the same. The space is so narrow that it
was difficult to get a photograph of it at all; but this is just one of
the cases in which a photograph is of great importance, because there
is nothing in which artists are so careless as in the thickness of the
bricks and of the mortar between them; there is nothing in which it would
be more easy to play tricks, if they wished to do so.
[247] The fragment of sculpture placed upon this capital has nothing to
do with it, being merely placed there by the workmen, but a photograph
necessarily reproduces things exactly as they were found at the time the
photograph was taken.
[248] The piers of tufa are represented as transparent, to shew the
insertion of the consoles in them. This insertion, with the irregularity
of the plan of the tufa piers, contrasted with the mathematical accuracy
of the work of the Flavian Emperors, proves that they belonged to an
earlier building.
[249] In other instances, the brick arches of construction appear to rest
on the piers of travertine between them; but as these have been removed,
and the brick walls stand equally well without them, it is evident that
this is not the case. The tall piers of travertine reach the whole height
of the building, to support the upper gallery. In the following plate
the same remarkable construction is shewn more clearly, because in this
instance the aperture left by the removal of the stone piers is visible
in two storeys, and it is seen that three piers extended from the upper
gallery to the ground, passing through all the other storeys.
[250] In this plate the coins are taken by photograph from the originals
in the British Museum.
[251] Qy. Colonnade of Aqueduct, or Piscina Limaria.
[252] Qy. Reservoir (_castellum aquæ_) of the time of Alexander Severus,
of which there are remains.
[253] For further details see the _Descrizione di Pompeii per Giuseppe
Fiorelli_, Napoli, 1875, 12mo., pp. 56 and 70. All who are interested in
Pompeii should have this valuable little work.
THE
ARCHÆOLOGY OF ROME,
BY
JOHN HENRY PARKER, C.B.
HON. M.A. OXON., F.S.A. LOND.;
KEEPER OF THE ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND ARCHÆOLOGY, OXFORD;
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE OXFORD ARCHITECTURAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
AND OF THE BRITISH AND AMERICAN ARCHÆOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ROME;
MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ARCHÆOLOGICAL INSTITUTE,
MEMBRE DE LA SOCIETÉ FRANÇAISE D’ARCHÉOLOGIE,
HONORARY MEMBER OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS,
AND OF VARIOUS ARCHÆOLOGICAL SOCIETIES, ENGLISH AND FOREIGN.
=PART VII.=
THE FLAVIAN AMPHITHEATRE,
COMMONLY CALLED
THE COLOSSEUM.
=OXFORD:=
JAMES PARKER AND CO.
=LONDON:=
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET.
1876.
[Illustration]