, circus buildings,
amphitheatres, stages, stadia for athletic sports, hippodromes, open
colonnades, temples with all their numerous and extensive outbuildings
scattered everywhere through the grounds of the whole park.

The grove had originally been dedicated to Aphrodite (Venus), therefore
statues of this goddess and of Eros (Cupid) appeared most frequently in
the wide grounds, though Christian zeal had shattered the heads,
breasts, and noses of many such figures and broken the bow of many a
Cupid. Since the reign of Constantine, most of the pagan temples had
been converted into Christian oratories and churches, but by no means
all; and those that had been withdrawn from the service of the pagan
religion and not used for the Christian one had now for two centuries,
with their special gardens, arbors, and grottoes, been the scenes of
much vice, gambling, drunkenness, and matters even worse. The gods had
been driven out; the demons had entered.

Among more than a hundred buildings in the grove, two near the Southern
Gate of the city were specially conspicuous: the Old Circus and the
Amphitheatre of Theodosius.

The Old Circus had been erected in the period of the greatest
prosperity of Carthage, the whole spacious structure, with its eighty
thousand seats, was planned to accommodate its great population. Now
most of the rows stood empty; many of the Roman families, since the
Vandal conquest, had moved away, been driven forth, exiled. The rich
bronze ornaments of numerous single seats, rows, and boxes had been
broken off. This was done not by the Vandals, who did not concern
themselves about such trifles, but by the Roman inhabitants of the city
and by the neighboring peasants; they even wrenched off and carried
away the marble blocks from the buildings in the grove. The granite
lower story, a double row of arches, supported the rows of marble
seats, which rose from within like an amphitheatre. Outside, the Circus
was surrounded by numerous entrances and outside staircases, besides
niches occupied as shops, especially workshops, cookshops, taverns, and
fruit booths. Here, by night and day, many evil-minded people were
always lounging; from the larger ones, hidden by curtains from the eyes
of the passing throng, cymbals and drums clashed, in token that,
within, Syrian and Egyptian girls were performing their voluptuous
dances for a few copper coins. South of the Circus was a large lake,
fed with sea-water from the "Sta