the construction peculiar to the Roman theatre, the stage was brought nearer to the audience (the arc not exceeding a semicircle), and made considerably deeper than in the Greek theatre. The length of the stage was twice the diameter of the orchestra. The Roman orchestra contained no thymele. The back of the stage, or proscenium, was adorned with niches, and columns, and friezes of great richness, as may be seen in some of the theatres of Asia Minor, and in the larger theatre at Pompeii, which

belong to the Roman period. On the whole, however, the construction of a Roman theatre resembled that of a Greek one. The Senate, and other distinguished persons, occupied circular ranges of seats within the orchestra; the prætor had a somewhat higher seat. The space between the orchestra and the first præcinctio, usually consisting of fourteen seats, was reserved for the equestrian order, tribunes, &c. Above them were the seats of the plebeians. Soldiers were separated from the citizens. Women were appointed by Augustus to sit in the portico, which encompassed the whole. Behind the scenes were the postscenium, or retiring-room, and porticoes, to which, in case of sudden showers, the people retreated from the theatre. The earliest theatres at Rome were temporary buildings of wood. A

magnificent wooden theatre, built by M. Æmilius Scaurus, in his edileship, B.C. 58, is described by Pliny. In 55 в.c., Cn. Pompey built the first stone theatre at Rome, near the Campus Martius. A temple of Venus Victrix, to whom he dedicated the whole building, was erected at the highest part of the cavea. The next permanent theatre was built by Augustus, and named after his favourite, the young Marcellus, son of his sister Octavia. Vitruvius is generally reported to have been the architect of this building, which would contain 30,000 persons. The audience part was a semicircle 410 feet in diameter. Twelve arches of its external wall still remain. From marks still visible in the large theatre at Pompeii, the place reserved for each spectator was about 13 inches. This theatre contained 5000. The theatre of Pompey, at Rome, contained 40,000. The theatre of Scaurus is said to have contained 80,000. The Romans surpassed the Greeks in the grandeur and magnificence of these buildings. They built them in almost all their towns. Remains of them are found in almost every country where the Romans carried their rule. One of the most striking Roman provincial theatres is that of Orange, in the south of France.

Odea.-Odeum was a building intended for the recitations of rhapsodists and the performances of citharædists, before the theatre was in existence. In its general form and arrangements the odeum was very similar to the theatre. There were, however, some characteristic differences. The odeum was much smaller than the theatre, and it was roofed over. The ancient and original odeum of Athens in the agora was probably erected in the time of Hipparchus, who, according to Plato, first introduced at Athens the poems of Homer, and caused rhapsodists to recite them during the Panathenæa. There were two others in Athens-the odeum of Pericles, and that of Herodes Atticus. The Odeum of Pericles was built in imitation of the tent of Xerxes. It was burnt by Sylla, but was restored in exact imitation of the original building. It lay at the east side of the theatre of Dionysus. The odeum of Herodes Atticus was built by him in memory of his departed wife Regilla, whose name it commonly bore. It lies under the south-west angle of the Acropolis. Its greatest diameter within the walls was 240 feet, and it is calculated to have held about 8000 persons. There were odea in several of the towns of Greece, in Corinth, Patræ, and at Smyrna,

Ephesus and other places of Asia Minor. There were odea also in Rome; one was built by Domitian, and a second by Trajan. There are ruins of an odeum in the villa of Adrian, at Tivoli and at Pompeii.

AMPHITHEATRES: Etruscan.-Remains of amphitheatres are found in several cities of Etruria. The amphitheatre of Sutri is considered to be peculiarly Etruscan in its mode of construction. It is cut out of the tufa rock, and was no doubt used by that people for festal representations long before Rome attempted anything of the kind. The Romans copied these edifices from the Etruscans. We have historical evidence, also, that gladiatorial combats had an Etruscan origin, and were borrowed by the Romans.

The

Roman.-Amphitheatres were peculiar to the Romans. gladiatorial shows, and the chase and combats of wild beasts with which the amphitheatre is always connected, were at first given in the circus. Its unsuitableness for such sports determined Julius Cæsar, in his dictatorship, to construct a wooden theatre in the Campus Martius, built especially for hunting. Caius Scribonius Curio built the first amphitheatre, for the celebration of his father's funeral games. It was composed of two theatres of wood, placed on pivots, so that they could be turned round, spectators and all, and placed face to face, thus forming a double theatre, or amphitheatre (aμp, on both sides; Oéarpov, a theatre), which ending suggested its elliptical shape. Statilius Taurus, the friend of Augustus, B.C. 30, erected a more durable amphitheatre, partly of stone and partly of wood, in the Campus Martius. Others were afterwards built by Caligula and Nero. The amphitheatre of Nero was of wood, and in the Campus Martius.

Ever since, this kind of edifice was erected in numbers, in almost all the towns of the Roman Empire. The form of the amphitheatre generally adopted was that of an ellipsis, with a series of arcaded concentric walls, separating corridors, which have constructions with staircases and radiating passages between them. It enclosed an open space called the arena, from its being strewed with the finest sand, on the level of the surface of the ground on which the structure was raised. It was here that were given the combats of gladiators and wild beasts, which

were enclosed in cells (carceres) on the same level as the aréna . From the innermost concentric wall, which surrounded the arena, and which was of sufficient height, about fifteen feet, to guard the spectators against any danger from the wild beasts, an inclined plane rose upwards over the intermediate walls, staircases, and corridors, to a gallery, or galleries, over the outermost corridors. The inner and upper part of the inclined plane was covered with a graduated series of benches. On the top of the first concentric wall or parapet (the podium), was a broad præcinctio, or platform, which ran immediately round the arena. This was set apart for the senators, magistrates, and other persons of distinction. Here the magistrates brought their curule seats, or bisellia, and here was the suggestus, a covered seat appropriated to the Emperor. The person who exhibited the games (editor) had his seat here also. Above the podium were the gradus, or seats of the other spectators, which were divided into stories, called mæniana. The first mænianum was appropriated to the equestrian order. Then, after a horizontal space, termed a præcinctio, and forming a continued landingplace from the several staircases which opened on to it, succeeded the second mænianum, where were the seats called popularia, for the third class of spectators, or the populace. The doors which opened from the staircases and corridors on to the several landing-places, were designated by the very appropriate name of vomitoria. Behind the second mænianum was the second præcinctio; above which was the third mænianum, where there were only wooden benches for the pullati, or common people. The open gallery at the top was the only part of the amphitheatre in which women were permitted to witness the games. The seats of the mæniana did not run in unbroken lines round the whole building, but were divided into portions called cunei (from their wedgelike shape), by short flights of stairs, which facilitated the access to the seats. The whole of the interior was called the cavea. A contrivance by which the spectators were protected from the overpowering heat of the sun, must not be omitted. It was called Velum, or Velarium. This was a vast extent of canvas, which was supported by masts fixed into the outer wall. Projecting stones are still to be seen at the top of the Colosseum and other amphitheatres, which were evidently connected with this contrivance. Sailors were employed for the purpose of straining the canvas. We learn from Lucretius

that this covering was coloured, and Dio mentions a purple awning, in the middle of which was a figure of Nero driving his chariot, and stars of gold placed round him.

The most famous amphitheatre was the Colosseum or Amphitheatrum Flavium, at Rome. This amphitheatre was begun by Vespasian in A.D. 72, and dedicated by Titus, in his eighth consulate, A.D. 80. It was completed by Domitian. At the dedication of the building 5000 wild beasts were slaughtered in the arena, and the games in honour of the event lasted for nearly 100 days. It was the scene of gladiatorial spectacles for nearly 400 years. The amphitheatre is, as usual, elliptical. The wall which surrounds the whole consists of three rows of arches, one above the other, with columns between each arch. In each row there are eighty arches: still higher was a fourth row of pilasters, with forty square windows, but without arches. The Tuscan, Ionic, and Corinthian orders were successively employed in the three rows; and the pilasters of the fourth or upper row were also Corinthian. It was terminated by an entablature. The entrances were by eighty arches in the outer wall, which opened into the first arcade: from thence the people might pass by as many arches into the second, where they found at intervals staircases leading to the seats. The immense crowds which frequented this amphitheatre could enter and depart in a short time, and with little confusion. The arches were all numbered on the outside, from I. to LXXX. Between XXXVIII. and XXXIX. is an arch a little wider than the rest, without a number, and with no cornice over it, which is supposed to have served as the private entrance from the palace of Titus, on the Esquiline hill. The height of the outer wall is 157 English feet. The major axis of the building, including the thickness of the walls, is 620 feet; the minor axis 573 feet. The length of the arena is 287 feet; the width 180 feet. It covers nearly six acres of ground. According to P. Victor, 87,000 persons would be accomodated in the seats, and some consider it probable that 20,000 more could have found places above.*

* The general conclusion which archæologists have arrived at from recent excavations, in regard to the arena in the Colosseum, is that there were two. The upper or spectacular arena, which was a boarded stage, supported on travertine brackets, the lower area, which served for the naumachia, prior to the performance of which the elliptical area was flooded with water, and the boarded stage removed. On the upper arena the gladiatorial combats and wrestling of athletes took place. On this