magination; still they are
described minutely by contemporary and serious writers, by Suetonius, by
Martial and by Tacitus. Suetonius adds that the day Nero took possession
of his Golden House, he was heard to exclaim, "At last I am lodged like
a man."

The wonders created by him, however, did not last very long. Otho, his
successor, on the very day of his election to the throne, signed an
order of fifty millions of sesterces (two million dollars) to bring the
Golden House to perfection; but after his murder Vespasian and Titus
gave back to the people the greater portion of the ground usurped by
Nero. They built the Coliseum on the very site of Nero's artificial
lake, and the thermae of Titus on the foundation of his private palace;
they respected only that portion of Nero's insane construction which was
comprised within the boundaries of the Palatine hill.

THE COLISEUM[8]

BY GEORGE STILLMAN HILLARD

The Venerable Bede, who lived in the eighth century, is the first person
who is known to have given to the Flavian amphitheater its comparatively
modern and now universal designation of the Coliseum; tho the name,
derived from a colossal statue of the emperor Nero which stood near it,
was probably then familiar to men's ears, as we may infer from his so
calling it without explanation or remark.

When in its perfect state, the exterior, with its costly ornaments in
marble, and its forest of columns, lost the merit of simplicity without
gaining that of grandeur. The eye was teased with a multitude of
details, not in themselves good; the same defects were repeated in each
story, and the real height was diminished by the projecting and
ungraceful cornices. The interior arrangements were admirable; and
modern architects can not sufficiently commend the skill with which
eighty thousand spectators were accommodated with seats; or the
ingenious contrivances, by which, through the help of spacious
corridors, multiplied passages, and staircases, every person went
directly to his place, and immense audiences were dispersed in less time
than is required for a thousand persons to squeeze through the entries
of a modern concert-room. We know that this interior of the Coliseum was
decorated with great splendor. The principal seats were of marble, and
covered with cushions. Gilded gratings, ornaments of gold, ivory, and
amber, and mosaics of precious stones, displayed the generosity of the
emperors, and gratified the taste