AMPHITHEATRE ANAGRAMS. 



209 



which they were exhibited. From them the Ro- 

 mans derived their taste for these sanguinary spec- 

 tacles, and which they introduced among every 

 people they subjected to their dominion thus we 

 find amphitheatres in every part of the Roman em- 

 pire ; but it has been remarked, that there is no 

 example of a similar institution in nations beyond 

 the pale of their conquests. But we certainly 

 ought not to look for the amusements of the am- 

 phitheatre and its sanguinary games among that 

 people, the inventors and embellishers of the arts, 

 and the softeners of the human character. The 

 Greeks, at once civilized and warlike, tempered the 

 ferocity of war by the pursuits of the arts and 

 philosophy ; they granted no honours and opened 

 no gymnasia, but for exercises calculated to soften 

 the spirit and to form the body. As long as they 

 remained free, sanguinary and cruel exhibitions ap- 

 peared not on their stages, nor did they ever pay 

 men to mangle each other with dexterity or to die 

 with grace. Some authors, however, say, that such 

 spectacles were not unknown in Ionia ; Winckel- 

 mann observes, that if the fact were so, they were 

 not of long duration. Antiochus Epiphanes, king 

 of Syria, was the first who exhibited these ferocious 

 sports in Greece, but he brought gladiators from 

 Rome. These wretched victims of a ferocious en- 

 joyment at first excited pity only and horror in the 

 minds of the Greeks; in process of time their sen- 

 sibility became weakened, and usage at last rendered 

 these horrid spectacles familiar. 



The first mention of the combats of wild beasts 

 in Roman history is about the year of Rome 568 ; 

 and twenty years afterwards, Livy says, the shows 

 were celebrated with no small pomp, sixty-three 

 panthers, forty bears, besides elephants, were ex- 

 hibited : from this time they gradually increased. 

 Marcus Scaurus exhibited one hundred and fifty 

 tigers. Pompey exhibited four hundred and ten 

 tigers and five hundred lions, besides elephants. 

 Caesar, after the civil war, exhibited a still greater 

 number, besides twenty elephants, and five hundred 

 gladiators on foot, and three hundred on horseback. 

 These games being advanced to such a pitch of 

 magnificence, a new kind of edifice became neces- 

 sary, in which they could be celebrated with more 

 convenience and pleasure. In Cicero's time they 

 were performed either in the theatre or circus. The 

 circus, however, was objectionable on many oc- 

 counts, besides its danger. At Pompey's games 

 the people were in danger from the elephants, and 

 Caesar, to avoid the same accident, had trenches 

 dug round the arena. 



Augustus being a great admirer of public shows, 

 particularly of the combats of wild beasts, (in one 

 of his exhibitions three thousand five hundred of 

 these animals were killed,) had a design to build 

 an amphitheatre entirely of stone, but it was never 

 carried into execution. However, in his time, 

 Statilius Taurus undertook the affair, thinking that 

 it might be agreeable to the emperor : and he 

 erected, at his own charge, a hunting theatre of 

 stone in the Campus Martius, and dedicated it by 

 the combats of armed men ; this, which appears to 

 have been comparatively, of insignificant dimen- 

 sion, was destroyed by fire in the reign of Nero. 

 From its small dimensions the public shows were 

 yet exhibited in wooden amphitheatres. Caligula 

 began another amphitheatre, but did not finish it. 

 Nero built a new amphitheatre of wood in the 

 Campus Martius, and finished it within the year : 

 it was well founded, of great size, and firmly sup- 



VII. 



ported by large beams. Pliny (lib. xiv. c. 39.) 

 says it had a beam of the larix tree, '120 feet long 

 and 2 broad, which was carried from Rhaetia by 

 Tiberius's order, when that great emperor caused 

 the bridge at the Naumachia to be rebuilt, and by 

 him shown for a wonder, and preserved long after 

 as a rarity. After the example of Rome, many 

 other cities erected amphitheatres. 



AMYGDALINE, the peculiar principle of 

 bitter almonds, tp which they are indebted for the 

 difference of properties between them and sweet 

 almonds. It is extracted from bitter almonds by 

 means of alcohol, from its solution in which it 

 crystalises in white mother-of-pearl like plates. 

 This body consists of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon 

 and azote. Amygdaline dissolves in water unalter- 

 ed, but this solution suffers a most remarkable 

 change when it is brought with the white emulsion 

 of the almond. Prussic acid and the oil known as 

 volatile oil of bitter almonds, are the results. The 

 fact that bitter almonds distilled with water yields 

 these two substances, has long been known, but the 

 true nature of the reaction that here takes place, 

 has only been lately cleared up by Wohler and 

 Liebig. It has been shown that neither prussic 

 acid nor volatile oil of bitter almonds, exist ready 

 formed in the almond ; but that they are the pro- 

 ducts of the reaction of the amygdaline in the 

 emulsion which is formed when water is added ; 

 amygdaline is contained in very small proportions 

 in bitter almonds, on an average one ounce is ob- 

 tained from four pounds. A formula for Prussic 

 acid has been prepared for medical use from amyg- 

 daline. 



ANAGRAMS, (a) are now hardly known as 

 efforts of wit, but in ancient times they formed the 

 subject of learned disquisition, and were ranked 

 among the cabalistic sciences. The paltry process 

 of anagramatising sentences and proper names was 

 also extremely fashionable in the sixteenth and 

 seventeenth centuries, occupying that place now 

 enjoyed by conundrums, and other small means of 

 amusement among the idle. The French are re- 

 puted to have been exceedingly fond of anagrams. 

 On one occasion an anagram was made on the 

 mistress of Charles IX., which threw the nation 

 into an ecstacy of delight. The name of the lady 

 was Marie Touchet, the letters of which words 

 were transformed into Je charme tout (or, / charm 

 all) an anagram said to be historically just. But 

 this anagram was perhaps surpassed by the follow- 

 ing : The assassin of Henry III. was Frere Jacques 

 Clement, and it was soon discovered that the letters 

 of these three words could form the appalling sen- 

 tence, C'est I'enfer qui via cree (or, It is hell which 

 created me.) 



Various anagrams were appropriately formed on 

 the name and titles of our own King James VI., 

 one of which was, James Stuart a just master. 

 One on the same monarch, but referring to his com- 

 plete name, was, Charles James Steuart claims 



Arthur's Seat. Of the poet Waller it was said 



His brows nood not with laurel to be bound, 

 Since in his name with I.awrel he is crowned. 



And Handle Holmes, a person who wrote a book on 

 heraldry, was complimented by the expressive ana- 

 gram, Lo Men's Herald I Perhaps the happiest of 

 all anagrams, says D'Israeli, " was produced on 

 a singular person and occasion. Lady Eleanor 

 Davies, the wife of the celebrated Sir John Davies. 

 the poet, was a very extraordinary character : she 

 was the Cassandra of her age ; and several of her 



