WINTER SESSION. 



The Winter Session was inaugurated on Thursday evening, 3rd 

 December, by a lecture on " The Colosseum of Ancient Rome," by 

 Shakspeare Wood, Esq. The interest attaching to the subject 

 6c4ected, as well as the already well-known and well-earned reputa- 

 tion as an artist of the lecturer, attracted a large audience, and, we 

 may add, an appreciative and delighted one. Mr. Wood has been 

 for several years resident in Rome, where his studio has not unfre- 

 quently been visited by our fellow-townsmen, and has also been 

 long well known in " the eternal city" as among the best read and 

 most earnest local antiquarians. The chair was occupied by Pro- 

 fessor Thompson, C.E., who introduced the lecturer by a few 

 appropriate remarks. Mr. Wood commenced his address by re- 

 marking on the three species of public amusements most followed 

 in ancient Rome. In reference to the popularity of such amuse- 

 ments, especially in the days of the decline of the Republic, the 

 saying of the satirist, Juvenal, was quoted, "panem et circenses" 

 intimating that all which a degenerate Roman then sought was 

 bread and the games of the circus, or rather of the largest amphi- 

 theatre. It was in order to give an adequate idea of the largest 

 and most magnificent of these that the lecture was delivered — 

 namely, the Colosseum, or Amphitheatre Flavium. Its size might 

 be best appreciated by comparison. Our largest building, the 

 Ulster Hall, contains about 2,500 persons — the Colosseum seated 

 87,000, independently of standing-room for 22,000. -The building 

 is oval, and covers six acres of ground, the major axis being 620 



