42

nally, according to Maffei, consisted of two large semi-circulartheatres of wood, which were united by hinges, and turnedupon pivots. Cajsar first erected a permanent one of wood ;afterwards, several others were constructed, one of which, inthe reign of Tiberius , A. D. 27, fell during the celebration ofthe games, and 50,000 persons were either killed or dangerouslyhurt. Pompey , others say Statilius Taurus, in the reign ofAugustus , erected one of stone : but the most magnificentAmphitheatre was that commenced upon by Vespasian , andfinished by Titus, A. D. 79, called the Coliseum , and capableof accommodating 87,000 spectators, having an arena, inwhich from five to nine thousand wild beasts were exhibitedat one time. In the year of Rome , 490, the first gladiatorycombats were exhibited in that city, and in the year 502, wildbeasts were introduced among the public spectacles of Rome .All the Amphitheatrical amusements were left off in the sixthcentury, and in the succeeding ages tilts and tournamentswere, in their stead, performed in the arena.

AMPUTATION was not practised by the ancient Greeks,at least no mention is made of its having been performed inthe time of Hippocrates , the father of medicine, who wasborn about 460 years before the Christian sera. Celsus , wholived during the government of Tiberius , is the first writer who has taken any notice of the subject, and that in a veryconcise manner : and, as the only mode, for many ages, ofsuppressing the bleeding, was either by searing the orifices ofthe arteries with hot irons, or by putting the limb into boiling-oils, pitch, &e. which is still practised by the natives of India,the operation generally proved fatal, and, of course, was veryseldom resorted to. It was not till towards the middle of thesixteenth century, that cauterizing instruments were discon-tinued, and the general use of a needle and ligature introdu-ced by Ambrose Pere, a celebrated French surgeon, whichmethod had been previously practised by the Greeks and Ara-