ace below, where the plays were played, to make it by art
first open and cleave into chinks, representing caves that vomited out
the beasts designed for the spectacle; and then secondly, to be
overflowed with a profound sea, full of sea-monsters, and loaded with
ships of war, to represent a naval battle: and thirdly, to make it dry
and even again for the combats of the gladiators; and for the fourth
scene, to have it strewed with vermilion and storax, instead of sand,
there to make a solemn feast for all that infinite number of people--the
last act of only one day.

"Sometimes they have made a high mountain advance itself, full of
fruit-trees and other flourishing sorts of woods, sending down rivulets
of water from the top, as from the mouth of a fountain: other whiles, a
great ship was seen to come rolling in, which opened and divided itself;
and after having disgorged from the hold four or five hundred beasts for
fight, closed again, and vanished without help. At other times, from the
floor of this place, they made spouts of perfumed water dart their
streams upward, and so high as to besprinkle all that infinite
multitude. To defend themselves from the injuries of the weather, they
had that vast place one while covered over with purple curtains of
needle-work, and by-and-by with silk of another color, which they could
draw off or on in a moment, as they had a mind. The net-work also that
was set before the people to defend them from the violence of these
turned-out beasts, was also woven of gold."

"If there be anything excusable in such excesses as these," continues
Montaigne, "it is where the novelty and invention creates more wonder
than expense." Fortunately for the real enjoyments of mankind, even
under the sway of a Roman despot, "the novelty and invention" had very
narrow limits when applied to matters so utterly unworthy and
unintellectual as the cruel sports of the amphitheatre. Probus indeed,
transplanted trees to the arena, so that it had the appearance of a
verdant grove; and Severus introduced four hundred ferocious animals in
one ship sailing in the little lake which the arena formed. But on
ordinary occasions, profusion,--tasteless, haughty, and uninventive
profusion,--the gorgeousness of brute power, the pomp of satiated
luxury--these constituted the only claim to the popular admiration. If
Titus exhibited five thousand wild beasts at the dedication of the
amphitheatre, Trajan bestowed ten thousand on