Amphitheatres are undoubtedly of Roman invention, and were at first constructed of timber; and it was not till the reign of Augustus that one of stone was built by Statilius Taurus, but this does not appear to have been held in much estimation as it was very seldom resorted to. The Roman amphitheatre, called the Coliseum, or ColiRsenm, was begun by the emperor Vespasian, and finished by his son Titus, and is deservedly celebrated as a prodigy among the ancients. At the solemn games, when this edifice was dedicated, five thousand wild beasts, according to Eutropius, and nine thou sand, according to Dio, were destroyed on its arena. When the hunting was concluded, the arena was suddenly filled with water, in which aquatic animals were made to contend, and then a sea-fight ensued. According to Tappen, the greater axis of the ellipsis of this stupendous edifice was (P27 feet, and the lesser, 530. According to Desgodetz, the height of the exterior wall was 156 feet, the greater axis of the arena about :264 feet, and the lesser 165 feet ; therefore the medium breadth of the circuit, tbr seats, galleries, and wall, was about 179 or ISO feet.—This edifice covered some thing more than five acres of ground.
The boundary wall was pierced by five ranges of aper tures, of which the three lower were arcades, having eighty openings in each range, and the upper two win d()WS. Its exterior side was decorated with orders, in four ranges, with continued entablatures; the three lower were colonnades, and the upper a pilastrade.
The lowest order was Doric, without mutules, triglyphs, and gutter; but the shafts of the columns terminated with bases: the. second was Ionic. with the Attie base; its volutes were slightly formed, and the dentil band uncut : the third and fluirth orders were Corinthian, with unraffied leaves. The diameter of the columns, in the several ranges, was two feet eight inches and three quarters, as also the breadth of the pilasters ; the columns of the lower range were twenty-six feet high, and each of the others twenty-flan' feet only. This makes the Doric columns higher than either the Ionic or Corinthian, and the altitude of the Italie and Corinthian equal to each other, while. all the columns have equal diameters, and are of the same breadth with the pilas ters of the upper range. The sima of the cornice of the lower Corinthian was supported by modillions. without the intervention of the corona, and the column has a Tuscan base. The upper Corinthian had its cornice formed in front by three faces, and a cymatium like an architrave, and sup ported by cantalivers, projecting out of the frieze; or the entablature may be looked upon as an arehitrave cornice, reck oning the frieze and cantalivers a part of it. The whole edifice was crowned with a bloeking, course.
The first colonnade was raised on several steps, about three feet two inches above ground, and the bases of the columns stood on the uppermost step, which formed the pave ment of the entrances. In the superior stories, the piers and columns were elevated on stylobatte and podia, and the second and third ranges of arcades stood upon podia also. The
boundary wall was diminished upwards in its thickness on both sides, hut more particularly from the exterior side of it, in each succeeding story, and the columns of the two lower ranges projected three quarters of their diameter, while those of the third range did not project more than the half; and therefore the axes of the columns of each succeed- • ing range upwards, were more recessed than those of the inferior range. This recession is more observable in the upper range of columns than in that immediately below ; but still more in the pilasters of the third order. The dimi nution of the columns commences from the third part of their height. The straight soffits of the fillets and other horizontal projections rise more in the front than in the rear. The lower range of the rectangular windows had one window disposed in every alternate podium, below the upper order ; and had the upper range of windows in the inter-pilasters ' above the imperforated podia. The cornice of the uppermost order was pierced with square mortises, through which the awning poles passed to a range of eorbels below, somethin. higher than the middle of the pilasters. Seventy-six of he lower range of arcades were about thirteen feet four inches broad, and the four placed upon the extremities of the axes, about fourteen feet six inches. The lowest range of arcades radiated vault-wise towards the arena, in a direction almost at right angles to the curve of the plan of the exterior wall, and intersecting two vaulted corridors, passed on to the stair cases in the same direction. Two other corridors were placed between these stairs and the wall of the podium, and other stairs between the second and fourth corridors. The first staircases were entered by the second and third 01)1.1.414,1.s, and those next to the arena by the third corridor only ; this corridor was lighted from above, by vertical square holes. descending through the crown of the vault ; and. it is pro bable, that the flai•th corridor, adjoining the wall of the podium, was lighted in the same manner. The second story had three corridors, laid open to one another by radiating passag,es : the first two were placed over the first and second eorridors on the ground-ff)or, and bet ween tIi second and third were placed stairs, which ascended on the one hand to the second range of vomitoria, and on the other. to another high-groined corridor, forming a mezzanine, which was lirthted from the floor of the gallery above, and from which the stairs ascended to the next story. The third story con sisted of a double corridor, from which the stairs continued upwards to the fourth galleries, the interior wall of which was pierced with windows and doors, or vomitoria, that opened to the uppermost cutlet of benches. On the inside of the exterior wall are vestiges of stairs which led to a fifth gallery ; this again had four staircases, which led to a sixth gallery ; and from thence the stairs continued to the top. The two upper floors were contained in the height of the pilastrade.