AMPHITHE'ATEE. 



AMPHORA. 



293 



could not find room on the benches. The section shows that the 

 radiating flights of steps intercepting the benches do not run through 

 their whole extent, but are themselves intercepted and taken up again, 

 other lines or flights commencing intermediately and at intermediate 

 heights. Access is given to these flights at their upper ends by door- 

 ways from the corridors behind, sometimes directly, and sometimes by 

 means of the internal staircases ; and in most cases a short reversed 

 flight of steps is made on the outside of the doorways, or vomitories, as 

 they are termed, to afford headway, and avoid intercepting the benches 

 further back than could be possibly helped. Almost every thing that 

 appears in the section above the level of the third story, except the 

 external wall itself, is restored from analogy and conjecture. The 

 peristyle, or encircling range of columns before the upper gallery, is 

 entirely from conjecture ; but for the galleries themselves there is 

 sufficient evidence in the existing indications of stairs, and in the tooth- 

 ings of the remaining walls and piers. The benches in the grand series 

 were probably of stone, perhaps of marble ; but in the galleries it is 

 most likely they were of wood, and graduated so as to give their 

 occupiers a view of the arena. 



The most distinguished seats were those on the podium, and these 

 were assigned to the emperor, whose place was, by way of eminence, 

 called the tuygcutum, and to the senators, to foreign ambassadors, and 

 to the great officers of the state. The magistrates appear to have sat 

 here in their curule chairs : and the person who gave the games seems 

 to have occupied a sort of pulpit on the podium, called the editoris 

 tribunal. The cunei, or wedges, behind and above, were assigned to 

 different classes, according to their rank, station, and tribe. The Vestal 

 virgins had one of the best positions assigned to them, and with them 

 sat such ladies of high rank as could obtain the advantage ; but the 

 women generally occupied the open gallery at the top. 



As the plan indicates, the four central entrances those which lie on 

 the ends of the diameters of the ellipsis are wider than the corre- 

 sponding parts of the rest of the structure. They were arcaded through, 

 and finished more carefully, especially those leading from the sides, or 

 on the minor axis ; these, it is most likely, were reserved for those 

 persons who went to the seats on the podium, and as they gave access 

 also to the arena, they would of necessity be more strictly guarded. 



It does not appear that any part of the structure above the level of 

 the ground, and outside of the arena, was appropriated as dens for the 

 beasts which were used in the shows ; for indeed the corridor leading 

 to the principal seats in the amphitheatre must have been traversed by 

 them in their way to the arena, if that were the case. Substructions 

 were discovered and excavated a few years ago over the whole extent 

 of the arena ; these lead to a belief that it was floored with wood, BO 

 that the animals required for the day may have been kept in dens 

 under the floor, and allowed to issue at traps in it. But some have 

 supposed dens ranged all round the arena, within its surface and below 

 the podium, from which the beasts would issue to the combat directly. 



In the Colosseum the great crowning cornice of the external ele- 

 vation is pierced through at regular intervals with square holes or 

 mortises, from which grooves are cut down through the rest of the 

 entablature flush with the outer surface of the wall ; and every mortise 

 and groove is immediately above a strong projecting stone or corbel at 

 about two-thirds the height of the pilastraded ordinance. These are 

 supposed to have been used to insert and receive poles to carry an 

 awning strained over the whole inclosure to protect the spectators from 

 the sun and from rain. It is however difficult to understand how 

 such an extent of cloth or canvass could have been borne in that man- 

 ner without some intermediate support, of which we are not aware. 



The external elevation is composed, as it has been already described, 

 anil as the elevation indicates, of three series or stories of attached 

 or engaged columns with their usual accesssories, and a pilastraded 

 ordinance, forming a species of attic, which is pierced with windows, 

 one in every other interspace. The lowest ordinance of columns 

 rests on the upper step of the substructions, or on the ground floor of 

 the structure ; it is of what is termed the Doric style or order, but in 

 the debased Roman manner, and its entablature wants the distinguish- 

 ing feature of that style, the triglyph. The intervening arches are 

 semicircular ; they spring from moulded imposts, and have moulded 

 archivolts on their outer faces. The second ordinance is in the Roman 

 Ionic style, having voluted capitals to the columns ; and the third is 

 in the Corinthian or foliated style : these, as before stated, rest upon 

 continued, but broken or recessed, stylobata, but their entablatures 

 are, like the rest, perfectly unbroken throughout, and the arches in 

 the intercolumniations in both, correspond exactly except in minor 

 details with those of the lowest or Doric ordinance. The pilasters 

 have foliated capitals also, and are called composite ; they rest on deep 

 plinths under which there is a continued and recessed dado super- 

 imposing the Corinthian entablature ; this dado is pierced with holes 

 or small windows, alternating with those of the ordinance above, to 

 give light to the corridor behind the lower and under the upper 

 gallery on the inside. The crowning entablature is made bold and 

 effective by deep modillion blocks or consoles occupying the whole 

 depth of the frieze. 



The style of these architectural decorations is, for the most part, 

 rude and tasteless ; the Colosseum, however, from its magnitude, from 

 its general form, and no doubt also from the feelings arising from the 

 contrast between its present state and ancient splendour, never fails to 



produce a profound impression on the spectator. Internally the 

 amphitheatre must always have been strikingly grand and impressive ; 

 here none of the littlenesses of storied columns appeared, but the long 

 unbroken lines ef the podium, and the graduated series of the benches, 

 and the galleries with the encircling peristyle above when it existed 

 would have been as beautiful in general effect, as anything archi- 

 tecture ever produced. 



There are varieties in the arrangement of the details of the amphi- 

 theatre, as other examples show. Intermediate concentric galleries, 

 platforms, or precinctions sometimes intercepted the great bank of 

 graduated benches to serve as passages of communication ; and some- 

 times each staircase communicated directly and exclusively with one 

 vomitory, instead of leading to encircling corridors which communicated 

 generally, and gave access alike to every part of the enclosure. 



Next in importance to the Colosseum at Rome, of existing structures 

 of the kind, is the Ampitheatre of Verona. The prefixed vignette 

 will give a tolerable idea of its state of preservation. The great 

 external cincture is entirely gone, with the exception of four arches 

 and their accessories ; but the great bank of concentric benches, with 

 the staircases leading to them, and the parts about the arena, remain 

 in a comparatively perfect state. The outer cincture was pierced with 

 seventy-two arches, which number appears in the inner, with the 

 corresponding radiating walls to the traversing passages and staircases, 

 for this had not a second encircling corridor on the outside of the 

 stairs block as the Colosseum has. The outer dimensions of this 

 structure were 502 feet by 401 feet ; the length of its arena is 242 feet, 

 and its breadth or length, on the conjugate, 146 feet; the form, of 

 course, was ellipitical. 



The amphitheatre at Nimes in Languedoc is large (430 feet by 

 378), and in comparatively good preservation. The great external 

 cincture of an amphitheatre (436 feet by 346) remains in a very 

 perfect state at Pola in Istria. Rome contains the remains of a second 

 amphitheatre called the Castrensian. There are also considerable 

 remains of an amphitheatre at Capua, rivalling in size that at Verona ; 

 and of another at Pozzuoli near Naples. That of Pompeii, it has been 

 already remarked, was an extensive structure. It was also in many 

 respects peculiar, but it is not so well preserved as some other examples 

 which have been more exposed, as it suffered considerably from earth- 

 quakes before it was buried. At Peestum, there are indications of an 

 amphitheatre, though not a large one ; at Catania, in Sicily, the upper 

 and outer encircling corridor of an extensive amphitheatre is accessible, 

 considerably under the level of the modern city, buried by the torrents 

 of lava from Mount Etna. Syracuse and several other of the ancient 

 cities of Sicily exhibit remains or indications of small amphitheatres. 

 In our own country, as has been noticed, there are several vestiges of 

 amphitheatres; indeed, wherever Roman remains are found to any 

 extent, whether at home or abroad, some indication may be almost 

 certainly discovered of the existence at some time of an amphitheatre. 



AMPHITRITE, is represented by Hesiod as a goddess, the wife of 

 Poseidon or Neptune, to whom she bore three sons ; and she changed 

 Scylla into a horrible monster when she had become jealous of her. 

 By later poets she is treated as the goddess of ocean generally. There 

 was a temple to Neptune and Amphitrite at Tenos, as is shown by an 

 inscription on one of the marbles of the Elgin collection in the British 

 Museum ; and in the temple of Poseidon on the Corinthian Isthmus, 

 there was a statue of the goddess. Amphitrite was represented in 

 Greek art as resembling Aphrodite, but her hair was confined by a net. 

 There is a colossal statue of her in the Villa Albani at Rome. She is 

 also frequently represented on coins, especially on those of Syracuse. 



AMPHITRITE. One of the group of small planets revolving 

 between Mars and Jupiter. [ASTEROIDS.] 



A'MPHORA (dntt>upii>s), in it* ordinary acceptation, means an 

 earthen vessel, used as a measure for liquids both by the Greeks and 

 Romans, and for preserving wine, grapes, olives, oil, and other articles 

 which required careful keeping. It received its name on account of its 

 two ears or handles. It is generally two feet, or two feet and a half 

 in height : and the body, which is usually about six inches in diameter, 

 ending upwards with a short neck, tapers toward the lower part 

 almost to a point. This pointed end was inserted in a hole in the 

 ground, or in a stand to keep the vessel upright. The Attic amphora 

 contained three Roman urnse, or seventy-two sextaries, equal to about 

 two gallons five pints and a half of English wine-measure. The 

 Roman, sometimes called the Italic amphora, contained two urnse or 

 forty-eight sextaries, about seven gallons one pint English. Homer 

 mentions amphora; both of gold and stone ; in later times glass am- 

 phoric were not uncommon ; and the Egyptians had them of brass. 

 There are various specimens of earthen amphorae in the British 

 Museum, in the Elgin and Townley Galleries. 



There was another amphora among the Romans, which was a dry- 

 measure, and contained about three bushels. 



Earthen amphorae of the Roman time have been frequently found in 

 England. Like other domestic vessels of the Romans, they appear to 

 have been sometimes used as funeral urns. They were also used as 

 coffins : the amphora was cut in half in the direction of its length, and 

 the corpse having been placed inside, the two halves were united 

 again and buried. Amphorae used for wine were usually lined with 

 pitch or some other coating, on account of the porous nature of the 

 material of which they were formed. Amphorae were placed as urinals 



