e very numerous. The first theatre was erected by Pompey the Great;
but the Circus Maximus, where gladiatorial combats were displayed, was
erected by Tarquinus Priscus; this enormous building was frequently
enlarged, and in the age of Pliny could accommodate two hundred
thousand spectators. A still more remarkable edifice was the
amphitheatre erected by Vespasian, called, from its enormous size, the
Colosse'um.

19. Public baths were early erected for the use of the people, and in
the later ages were among the most remarkable displays of Roman luxury
and splendour. Lofty arches, stately pillars, vaulted ceilings, seats
of solid silver, costly marbles inlaid with precious stones, were
exhibited in these buildings with the most lavish profusion.

20. The aqueducts for supplying the city with water, were still more
worthy of admiration; they were supported by arches, many of them a
hundred feet high, and carried over mountains and morasses that might
have appeared insuperable. The first aqueduct was erected by Ap'pius
Clo'dius, the censor, four hundred years after the foundation
of the city; but under the emperors there were not less than twenty of
these useful structures, and such was the supply of water, that rivers
seemed to flow through the streets and sewers. Even now, though only
three of the aqueducts remain, such are their dimensions that no city
in Europe has a greater abundance of wholesome water than Rome.

21. The Cloa'cae, or common sewers, attracted the wonder of the
ancients themselves; the largest was completed by Tarquin the Proud.
The innermost vault of this astonishing structure forms a semicircle
eighteen Roman palms wide, and as many high: this is inclosed in a
second vault, and that again in a third, all formed of hewn blocks of
pepenno, fixed together without cement. So extensive were these
channels, that in the reign of Augustus the city was subterraneously
navigable.

22. The public roads were little inferior to the aqueducts and Cloa'cae
in utility and costliness; the chief was the Appian road from Rome to
Brundu'sium; it extended three hundred and fifty miles, and was paved
with huge squares through its entire length. After the lapse of
nineteen centuries many parts of it are still as perfect as when it
was first made.

23. The Appian road passed through the following towns; Ari'cia,
Fo'rum Ap'pii, An'xur or Terraci'na, Fun'di, Mintur'nae, Sinue'ssa,
Cap'ua, Can'dium, Beneven'tum, Equotu'ti