The Height And Extent Of It May Be Guessed From The Number Of
Spectators It Contained, Amounting To One Hundred Thousand; And
Yet, According To Fontana's Mensuration, It Could Not Contain
Above Thirty-Four Thousand Persons Sitting, Allowing A Foot And
An Half For Each Person:
For the circuit of the whole building
did not exceed one thousand five hundred and sixty feet.
The
amphitheatre at Verona is one thousand two hundred and ninety
feet in circumference; and that of Nismes, one thousand and
eighty. The Colossaeum was built by Vespasian, who employed
thirty thousand Jewish slaves in the work; but finished and
dedicated by his son Titus, who, on the first day of its being
opened, produced fifty thousand wild beasts, which were all
killed in the arena. The Romans were undoubtedly a barbarous
people, who delighted in horrible spectacles. They viewed with
pleasure the dead bodies of criminals dragged through the
streets, or thrown down the Scalae Gemoniae and Tarpeian rock,
for their contemplation. Their rostra were generally adorned with
the heads of some remarkable citizens, like Temple-Bar, at
London. They even bore the sight of Tully's head fixed upon that
very rostrum where he had so often ravished their ears with all
the charms of eloquence, in pleading the cause of innocence and
public virtue. They took delight in seeing their fellow-creatures
torn in pieces by wild beasts, in the amphitheatre.
They shouted with applause when they saw a poor dwarf or slave
killed by his adversary; but their transports were altogether
extravagant, when the devoted captives were obliged to fight in
troops, till one side was entirely butchered by the other.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 429 of 535
Words from 114741 to 115017
of 143308
