n the games
of which religion, politics, and amusement, were combined, was, according
to Pliny, three stadia (of 625 feet) long, and one broad, and held
260,000 spectators; so that Juvenal says,

"Totam hodie Romam circus capit."--Sat. xi. 195.

This poetical exaggeration is applied by Addison to the Colosseum.

"That on its public shews unpeopled Rome."--Letter to Lord Halifax.

The area of the Circus Maximus occupied the hollow between the Palatine
and Aventine hills, so that it was overlooked by the imperial palace,
from which the emperors had so full a view of it, that they could from
that height give the signals for commencing the races. Few fragments of
it remain; but from the circus of Caracalla, which is better preserved, a
tolerably good idea of the ancient circus may he formed. For details of
its parts, and the mode in which the sports were conducted, see Burton's
Antiquities, p. 309, etc.

[589] The Velabrum was a street in Rome. See JULIUS CAESAR, c. xxxvii.

[590] Acte was a slave who had been bought in Asia, whose beauty so
captivated Nero that he redeemed her, and became greatly attached to her.
She is supposed to be the concubine of Nero mentioned by St. Chrysostom,
as having been converted by St. Paul during his residence at Rome. The
Apostle speaks of the "Saints in Caesar's household."--Phil. iv. 22.

[591] See Tacitus, Annal. xv. 37.

[592] A much-frequented street in Rome. See CLAUDIUS, c. xvi.

[593] It is said that the advances were made by Agrippina, with flagrant
indecency, to secure her power over him. See Tacitus, Annal. xiv. 2, 3.

[594] Olim etiam, quoties lectica cum matre veheretur, libidinatum
inceste, ac maculis vestis proditum, affirmant.

[595] Tacitus calls him Pythagoras, which was probably the freedman's
proper name; Doryphorus being a name of office somewhat equivalent to
almoner. See Annal. B. xv.

[596] The emperor Caligula, who was the brother of Nero's mother,
Agrippina.

[597] See before, c. xiii. Tiridates was nine months in Rome or the
neighbourhood, and was entertained the whole time at the emperor's
expense.

[598] Canusium, now Canosa, was a town in Apulia, near the mouth of the
river Aufidus, celebrated for its fine wool. It is mentioned by Pliny,
and retained its reputation for the manufacture in the middle ages, as we
find in Ordericus Vitalis.

[599] The Mazacans were an African tribe from the deserts in the
interior, famo