Chap. IV.

ROMAN.

119

There were sixteen long rooms of considerable height, and eight smaller under the stairs.Twenty-eight dens or caves and other rooms were contrived in various parts for the animalsand those who attended.

The Amphitheatre at Pola in Istria, situated out of the town, is not in a very perfectstate. The longest diameter from north to south is 436 feet 6 inches ; the other, 346 feet2 inches : its height, 97 feet. The exterior is rusticated, and has two orders of pilasters,the lower placed on pedestals, above which is an attic. Around the ellipsis are seventy-two arches, the extreme being both higher and wider than the others. It is built of stonefrom the neighbourhood, in appearance resembling marble, and based upon the solid rock.The architect who constructed this edifice placed it on the side of a hill, to economise themasonry.

This amphitheatre was probably erected by Diocletian , or by Maximin : the interior isquite destroyed, not any of the division walls or seats remaining, a wide area extending tothe outer wall.

Amphitheatre at ElJemm in Africa is one of the most perfect, vast, and beautiful remainsof this kind of structure that exists. It is situated at a short distance from the shores ofthe Mediterranean Sea, in the beylek of Tunis , from which place it is about eighty milesdistant to the south, and not far from the shore of the ancient Syrtis Minor .

It is probably the ancient Tysdrus or Thysdrus , five miles south-east from Elalia, andthirty-three miles from Leptiminus. This amphitheatre has four stories, each of the threelower adorned with sixty-four arches and columns: the upper is a pilastrade, with a squarewindow in every third interpilaster.

With the exception of one breach, the circuit of the walls is entire ; the interior is lessperfect. The inclined plane on which the seats rested remains, as do all the galleries andtheir vomitories. Beneath the arena are deep pits of hewn stone. The length of thebuilding from east to west is 429 feet, the breadth 368 feet.

The arena measures 238 feet by 182 feet. The floor of the first arcade is 33 feet from thelevel of the exterior pavement, and the height of the outer wall was probably 100 feet.

The elder Gordian was proclaimed emperor in this city ; and on the medals of theyounger Gordian is an amphitheatre, which has occasioned some to attribute this buildingto him.

The Amphitheatre at Arles is of an oval form, its greater diameter being 455 feet, and itssmaller 338 feet. It was two stories in height, and had around it sixty arcades, builtof square stone throughout; it is now so occupied by buildings of various kinds, that it canscarcely be recognised as an amphitheatre.

The Circus. The chariot races of the Romans, which constituted their games duringthe time of the republic, supposed to be of Etruscan origin, were celebrated in the circus,which had an oblong form, terminated with a flat curve at one end, and a semicircle at theother. The arena was divided longitudinally by a spina, round which the chariots drove.The first circus was on the site of the Circus Maximus , though the buildings around werenot erected till after the reign of Tarquinius Priscus . In the time of Julius Ca?sar, it issaid by Dionysius Halicarnassus to have contained 150,000 spectators. It appears to havebeen considerably augmented after that period by Trajan, as Pliny tells us it wouldaccommodate 250,000. It was enlarged by Constantine, by adding to the number ofseats, without increasing the dimensions of the course, so as to contain 360,000. For along time this was the only circus in Rome ; but another was formed in the CampusMartius, without the Flaminian gate, by the consul of that name, of which not a vestigeremains.

Livy mentions the circus Agonalis, w'here the piazza Navona now stands : this was probablyinstituted by Nuraa Pompilius. The circi of Flora, of Sallust, of Nero, Hadrian , Helio-gabalus, remain only in name, not one stone being left upon another.

Previous to the games, a procession of the images of the gods, drawn in sacred cars, tookplace, and before they commenced, the cars intended for the race were drawn up in front ofthe carceres, and prevented from passing out by a rope stretched to two termini: whenthe signal for starting was given, which was usually done by the emperor, this was droppedor withdrawn. A line, or furrow, filled with white chalk, called the alba linea , denotedthe boundary that must be passed to win the victory.

The circus called Caracalla's is distant from Rome about two miles: much of the wallsthat supported the seats, and the foundations for the two obelisks which formed the spina,remain. Its length is 1602 feet, its breadth 260 feet: the length of the spina is 922 feet.The distance from the carcere, where the horses started, to the first meta or goal, was 550feet. These structures were in the form of a parallelogram, one end of which was semi-circular, and the other, where the carceres were placed, was the segment of a circle. Sevenranges of seats -were placed around, on arches, in the same manner as in the theatres andamphitheatres. The segmental end was so arranged that the horses at starting should allhave an equal distance to proceed to reach the first meta.

Riding schools, of a circular form, for training, triumphal arches for the victors in the

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