350 plixt's natural history. [Book XXXVI. 



made by tlie hands of man, even when intended to be of ever- 

 lasting duration ; his Theatre, I mean. This building con- 

 sisted of three storeys, supported upon three hundred and 

 sixty columns ; and this, too, in a city which had not allowed 

 without some censure one of its greatest citizens^^ to erect 

 8ix^° pillars of Hymettian marble. The ground-storey was of 

 marble, the second of glass, a species of luxury which ever 

 since that time has been quite unheard of, and the highest of 

 gilded wood. The lowermost columns, as previously®^ stated, 

 were eight-and-thirty feet in height ; and, placed between 

 these columns, as already®^ mentioned, were brazen statues, 

 three thousand in number. The area®^ of this theatre afforded 

 accommodation for eighty thousand spectators ; and yet the 

 Theatre of Pompeius, after the City had so greatly increased, 

 and the inhabitants had become so vastly more numerous, was 

 considered abundantly large, with its sittings for forty thou- 

 sand only. The rest of the fittings of it, what with Attalic" 

 vestments, pictures, and the other stage -properties,®^ were of 

 such enormous value that, after Scaurus had had conveyed to 

 his Tusculan villa such parts thereof as were not required for 

 the enjoyment of his daily luxuries, the loss was no less than 

 three hundred millions of sesterces, when the villa was burnt 

 by his servants in a spirit of revenge. 



The consideration of such prodigality as this quite distracts 

 my attention, and compels me to digress from my original pui'- 

 pose, in order to mention a still greater instance of extrava- 

 gance, in reference to wood. C. Curio,®® who died during the 

 civil wars, fighting on the side of Caesar, found, to his dismay, 

 that he could not, when celebrating the funeral games in 

 honour of his father, surpass the riches and magnificence of 

 Scaurus — for where, in fact, was to be found such a stepsire 

 as Sylla, and such a mother as Metella, that bidder at all 

 auctions for the property of the proscribed ? Where, too, was 

 he to find for his father, M. Scaurus, so long the principal man 

 in the city, and one who had acted, in his alliance with Marius, 



8^ See B. xvii. c. 1, and Chapter 3 of the present Book. L. Crassus is 

 the person alluded to. 



^0 " Four" is the number mentioned in B. xvii. c. 1. 



91 In Chapter 2 of this Book. '^ In B. xxxiv. c. 17. 



93 '* Cavea." The place where the spectators sat, much like the ** pit" 

 of our theatres. ^4 ggg B. xxxiii. c. 19. ^' "Choragio." 



96 He was defeated and slain in Africa by Juba and P. Attius Varus. 



