eral sweep of the tiers--the
_visorium_? Three grand divisions as in the theatre; the lowermost
separated, by entries and private flights of steps, into eighteen boxes;
the middle and upper one divided into cunei, the first by twenty
stairways, the second by forty. Around the latter was an inclosing wall,
intersected by vomitories and forming a platform where a number of
spectators, arriving too late for seats, could still find standing-room,
and where the manoeuvres were executed that were requisite to hoist the
velarium, or awning. All these made up an aggregate of twenty-four
ranges of seats, upon which were packed perhaps twenty thousand
spectators. So much for the audience. Nothing could be more simple or
more ingenious than the system of extrication by which the movement, to
and fro, of this enormous throng was made possible, and easy. The
circular and vaulted corridor which, under the tiers, ran around the
arena and conducted, by a great number of distinct stairways, to the
tiers of the lower and middle cavea, while upper stairways enabled the
populace to ascend to the highest story assigned to it.

One is surprised so see so large an amphitheatre in so small a city.
But, let us not forget that Pompeii attracted the inhabitants of the
neighboring towns to her festivals; history even tells us an anecdote on
this subject that is not without its moral.

The Senator Liveneius Regulus, who had been driven from Rome and found
an asylum in Pompeii, offered a gladiator show to the hospitable little
city. A number of people from Nocera had gone to the pageant, and a
quarrel arose, probably owing to municipal rivalries, that eternal curse
of Italy; from words they came to blows and volleys of stones, and even
to slashing with swords. There were dead and wounded on both sides. The
Nocera visitors, being less numerous, were beaten, and made complaint to
Rome. The affair was submitted to the Emperor, who sent it to the
Senate, who referred it to the Consuls, who referred it back again to
the Senate. Then came the sentence, and public shows were prohibited in
Pompeii for the space of ten years. A caricature which recalls this
punishment has been found in the Street of Mercury. It represented an
armed gladiator descending, with a palm in his hand, into the
amphitheatre: on the left, a second personage is drawing a third toward
him on a seat; the third one had his arms bound, and was, no doubt, a
prisoner. This inscription acco