COLOSSUS 



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COLOSSUS 



THE COLOSSEUM AT ROME, AS IT APPEARS TO-DAY 



ivory, gems, silks and perfumed fountains, was 

 for years the scene of combats between gladi- 

 ators, fights of wild beasts and persecution 

 of Christians. It was begun by Vespasian and 

 finished by Titus, A. D. 80. 



It was built in the form of an oval, about 

 620 feet long, 510 feet wide and 160 feet high, 

 and is said to have seated 87,000 people. The 

 flooring of the arena, or central space, was of 

 boards covered with red sand, to soak up and 

 conceal blood. A low wall enclosed the arena, 

 and underneath were rooms for housing men 

 and animals. Surrounding the arena were four 

 tiers of marble seats for the spectators. Three 

 rows of columns decorated the exterior of the 

 building, Doric on the first story, Ionic on the 

 next, and Corinthian on the third (see COL- 

 UMN). This imposing building remained 

 almost uninjured down to the sixth century. 

 Then, in the time of Theodoric and up to the 

 eighteenth century, many pieces of marble 

 were removed and used for other structures. 

 In the eighteenth century through the efforts 

 of Pope Benedict XIV it was saved from com- 

 plete destruction, and although the ruins to- 

 day show four storiep on one side only, Byron's 

 prophecy in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage may 

 still hold' true: 



"While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand ; 

 When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall ; 

 And when Rome falls the world." 



COLOSSUS., kolos'us, anything of gigantic 

 size, but a name used especially in sculpture 



for a statue much larger than life-size. The 

 bronze statue of Liberty Enlightening the 

 World in New York harbor is the largest ever 

 made. It is three times as high as the ancient 

 Colossus of Rhodes, one of the seven wonders 

 of the ancient world. The latter was a bronze 

 figure representing Helios, the sun god, and is 

 said to have stood astride the entrance of the 

 harbor of Rhodes until destroyed by an earth- 

 quake and sold to a Hebrew for old metal. 



Other modern colossi which are viewed with 

 interest by tourists are the Germania, at 

 Niederwald on the Rhine, Bavaria at Munich, 

 and the statue of Peter the Great at Petro- 

 grad. 



The Egyptians furnished the earliest exam- 

 ples of colossal statuary. Among those are 

 the wonderful colossi at Abu-Simbel of the 

 great king, Rameses II. Another one of inter- 

 est, now preserved in the British Museum, is 

 the human-faced Assyrian Winged Lion. But 

 the most celebrated are those of Amenophis 

 III, the head of one of which is displayed at 

 the British Museum. That is the Memnon 

 whose vocal powers were the fabled wonders of 

 ancient times. It is now believed that the 

 human tones which issued from this statue 

 were due to the cracking of the stones whA 

 the morning sun warmed the dew-covered 

 colossus. See MEMNON. 



The most artistic colossi were produced by 

 the Greeks, such as the bronze statue of Pallas 

 Athene on the Acropolis of Athens, the gold 



