there remain two large arcades and four flights of steps
ascending to the top of the structure. The arena was so called because
of the layer of sand which covered it and imbibed the blood.

It is reached by two large vaulted and paved corridors with a quite
steep inclination. One of these is strengthened with seven arches that
support the weight of the tiers. Both of them intersect a transverse,
circular corridor, beyond which they widen. It was through this that the
armed gladiators, on horseback and on foot, poured forth into the arena,
to the sound of trumpets and martial music, and made the circuit of the
amphitheatre before entering the lists. They then retraced their steps
and came in again, in couples, according to the order of combat.

To the right of the principal entrance a doorway opens into two square
rooms with gratings, where the wild beasts were probably kept. Another
very narrow corridor ran from the street to the arena, near which it
ascended, by a small staircase, to a little round apartment apparently
the _spoliatorium_, where they stripped the dead gladiators. The arena
formed an oval of sixty-eight yards by thirty-six. It was surrounded by
a wall of two yards in height, above which may still be seen the
holes where gratings and thick iron bars were inserted as a precaution
against the bounds of the panthers. In the large amphitheatres a ditch
was dug around this rampart and filled with water to intimidate the
elephants, as the ancients believed them to have a horror of that
element.

[Illustration: The Amphitheatre of Pompeii.]

Paintings and inscriptions covered the walls or podium of the arena.
These inscriptions acquaint us with the names of the duumvirs,--N.
Istadicius, A. Audius, O. Caesetius Saxtus Capito, M. Gantrius
Marcellus, who, instead of the plays and the illumination, which they
would have had to pay for, on assuming office, had caused three cunei to
be constructed on the order of the decurions. Another inscription gives
us to understand that two other duumvirs, Caius Quinctius Valgus and
Marcus Portius, holding five-year terms, had instituted the first games
at their expense for the honor of the colony, and had granted the ground
on which the amphitheatre stood, in perpetuity. These two magistrates
must have been very generous men, and very fond of public shows. We know
that they contributed, in like manner, to the construction of the
Odeon.

Would you now like to go over the gen