two Emperors, Vespasian and Titus,
and which was finished eighty years after the birth of Christ. The
outside walls are nearly 160 feet high. The tiers of benches, which
could accommodate 85,000 spectators, were divided into four blocks, of
which the outermost and highest was set apart for freedmen and slaves
with their women. The tickets were of ivory, and indicated the different
places so clearly that every one could easily find his way in the huge
passages, colonnades, and staircases. The benches were covered with
marble, and many statues of the same material adorned the upper walls of
the amphitheatre. The spectacles were usually held in the daytime, and
to abate the heat of the sun immense silken awnings were stretched over
the arena and the auditorium. When the theatre was full, it presented a
scene of dazzling splendour. In the best places sat senators in
purple-bordered togas, the priests of the various temples, the Vestal
virgins in black veils, warriors in gold-embroidered uniforms. There sat
Roman citizens in white or coloured togas, bareheaded, beardless, and
closely cropped, eagerly talking in a language as euphonious as French
and Italian. All strangers who were staying in Rome were there,
ambassadors from all the known countries of the world, statesmen,
merchants, and travellers from Germany and Gaul, from Syria, Greece, and
Egypt.

A circus or theatre of our day is a toy compared to the Colosseum. The
old Romans were masters in the arrangement of spectacles to satisfy the
rude cravings of the masses. Woods and rocks were set up, in which
bloody contests were fought, and where gladiators hunted lions and
tigers with spears. The immense show-ground could be quickly filled with
water, and on the artificial lake deadly sea battles were fought; and
the bodies of the slain and drowned lying on the bottom were invisible
when the water was dyed red with blood. The arena could be drained at
once by ingenious channels, slaves dragged out the corpses through the
gate of the Goddess of Death, and the theatre was made ready for the
night performance. Then the arena was lighted up with huge torches and
fires, and troops of Christians were crucified in long rows or thrown to
the lions and bears. When a Roman emperor celebrated the thousandth
anniversary of the founding of Rome, two thousand gladiators appeared in
the Colosseum, thirty-two elephants, and numbers of wild animals.

[Illustration: PLATE XXVI. THE COLOSSEU