AMPHITHEATER, a spacious building, generally elliptical in form, used by the Romans for exhibiting gladiatorial combats, fights of wild beasts, and other spectacles. The A. differed from a theater for dramatic performances (theatrum) in this, that whereas the theater had only a semicircle of seats fronting the stage, the A. was entirely sur rounded by them; and hence the name of A. (Gr. alliphi, " on both sides "or "all round"). Till a late period at Rome, these erections were of wood. and merely temporary, like a modern race-stand. They seem, however, to have been of enormous size, as Tacitus mentions one, during the reign of Tiberius, which gave way, and caused the death or injury of 50,000 spectators. Amphitheaters of stone had begun, however, to be erected at an earlier period than this, the first having been built at the desire of Augustus. The Flavian A. at Rome, known as the Colosseum, which was begun by Vespasian, and finished by Titus 80 A.D., ten years after the destruction of Jerusalem, was probably the largest structure of the kind, and is fortunately also the best preserved. It covers about five acres of ground, and was capable of containing 87,000 persons. Its greatest length is 620 ft., and its greatest breadth 513. On the occasion of its dedication by Titus, 5000 wild beasts were slain in the arena, the games having lasted for nearly 100 days. The exterior is about 160 ft. in height, and consists of three rows of columns, Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian, and, above all, a row of Corinthian pilasters. Between the columns there are arches, which form open galleries throughout the whole building; and between each alternate pilaster of the upper tier there is a window. There were four tiers or
stories of seats, corresponding to the four external stories. The first of these is supposed to have contained 24 rows of seats; and the second, 16. These were separated by a lofty wall from the third story, which is supposed to have contained the populace. The podium was a kind of covered gallery surrounding the arena, in which the emperor, the senators, and vestal virgins had their seats. The building was covered by a temporary awning or wooden roof, called relarium, the mode of adjusting and fastening which has given rise to many antiquarian conjectures. The open space in the center of the A. was called arena, the Latin word for sand, because it was covered with sand or sawdust during the performances. The taste for the excitement of the A. which existed in Rome naturall1 spread to the provinces, and large amphitheaters were erected not only in the provincial towns of Italy, as at Capua, Verona, Pompeii, etc., but at Arles and Nismes, in France; and even in this country, at Cirencester, Silchester, and Dorchester.
AIIPHITRI'Tg, the daughter of the sea-god Nereus and of Doris—or, according to Apollodorus, of a daughter of Oceanus—was the wife of Neptune. When the latter demanded her in marriage, she fled to Mt. Atlas, but was discovered by a dolphin, which Neptune had sent after her, and borne back to him. As goddess and queen of the sea, she is represented with her husband's trident in her hand, sitting in a car of shells drawn by Tritons, or on a dolphin, before which a Cupid swims.