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feet, and the minor 513. The central portion, st}ded the arena, is 

 219 feet in length, by 151 in breadth, the height of the outer wall 

 being 157 feet. Its name was derived from the Flavium family, it 

 having been begun and completed by three Emperors of that race 

 — viz., Vespasian, by whom it was commenced ; Titus, who carried 

 it on nearly to completion ; and Domitian, who actually finished 

 the whole. Its title, " Colosseum," may have been derived from 

 its immense size, as being the colossus among buildings. Having 

 minutely described the building in detail, he explained that the 

 entire was so skilfully arranged that the whole multitude occupy- 

 ing this vast space could break up and be dispersed in perhaps less 

 time than the Ulster Hall could be cleared of its contents. The 

 purposes for which the Colosseum was used were then fully dis- 

 cussed and described. The chief of these was the combats of 

 gladiators. Victorious Roman Generals were accustomed to bring 

 back with them wild animals, the combats of which were at first 

 exhibited in the circus. Pliny records the fact of elephants and 

 other wild animals being so exhibited in the circus by Maximus 

 during Pompey's triumph. Augustus is said to have caused the 

 destruction of 3,500 wild beasts by his will, for the gratification of 

 the populace. A Eoman citizen, named Stabilius Taurus, is said, 

 by Dion Cassius, to have been the first to erect, at his own expense, 

 a theatre of stone, which he dedicated with a fight of armed men. 

 Such was the feeling excited in the Saxon pilgrims of the seventh 

 century, whose exclamation, recorded by the venerable Bede, has 

 come down to us — " While stands the Colosseum, Rome shall ; 

 when falls the Colosseum, Rome shall fall ; and when Rome falls, 

 the world." The history of the most remarkable exhibitions of 

 wild beasts given in Rome was then fully detailed, from the first 

 on record, on the occasion of the victory of Lucius Metellus over 

 the Carthaginians, in Sicily, in the year 502, from the building of 

 the city. The catalogues of such massacres of beasts and men* 

 until the reign of Gordiem III., Avere enormous. That Emperor 

 is said to have maintained for this purpose 1,000 pairs of gladiators. 

 One hundred lions are said to have rushed at once, on one occasion, 

 into the amphitheatre, whose roaring sounded like thunder. The 

 history, character, and condition of the gladiators — Venatorcs ies- 



