who consecrated the building about the
middle of the last century, and placed it under the protection of the
martyrs, who had there borne testimony with their blood to the
sincerity of their belief.

There is nothing in the amphitheatre of Pompeii at variance with the
general description of this class of buildings, and our notice of it
will therefore necessarily be short. (See page 121.) Its form, as
usual, is oval: the extreme length, from outside to outside of the
exterior arcade, is 430 feet, its greatest breadth is 335 feet. The
spectators gained admission by tickets, which had numbers or marks on
them, corresponding with similar signs on the arches through which
they entered. Those who were entitled to occupy the lower ranges of
seats passed through the perforated arcades of the lower order; those
whose place was in the upper portion of the cavea ascended by
staircases between the seats and the outer wall of the building. From
hence the women again ascended to the upper tier, which was divided
into boxes, and appropriated to them.

The construction consists for the most part of the rough masonry
called _opus incertum_, with quoins of squared stone, and some
trifling restorations of rubble. This rude mass was probably once
covered with a more sumptuous facing of hewn stone: but there are now
no other traces of it than a few of the key-stones, on one of which a
chariot and two horses is sculptured, on another a head; besides which
there are a few stars on the wedge-stones.

At each end of the ellipse were entrances into the arena for the
combatants, through which the dead bodies were dragged out into the
spoliarium. These were also the principal approaches to the lower
ranges of seats, occupied by the senators, magistrates, and knights,
by means of corridors to the right and left which ran round the arena.
The ends of these passages were secured by metal gratings against the
intrusion of wild beasts. In the northern one are nine places for
pedestals to form a line of separation, dividing the entrance into two
parts of unequal breadth. The seats are elevated above the arena upon
a high podium or parapet, upon which, when the building was first
opened, there remained several inscriptions, containing the names of
duumvirs who had presided upon different occasions. There were also
paintings in fresco, one representing a tigress fighting with a wild
boar; another, a stag chased by a lioness; another, a battle between