Misceli Subj. CV1. - Fol. VI. No. 57. 



THE COLOSSEUM OR THE AMPHITHEATRE OF THE EM- 

 PEROR FLAVIUS VESPASIANUS. 



To the most remarkable and magnificent 

 remains of ancient Roman Architecture be- 

 long too the Amphitheatres partly still ex- 

 tant. Among those , that at present are to 

 be seen at Rome more or lefs mutilated, 

 the most beautiful and largest is that, of 

 which the table here adjoined exhibits a 

 representation. It was constructed by the 

 Roman Emperor Flavius Fe spasi ana s two 

 years after the subversion of Jerusalem, and 

 has been preserv'd for the greatest part till 

 our times. For what now is deficient in it, 

 has not been mutilated and robb'd by time, 

 but by men. 



It is a prodigious building, of which 

 we view under Fig.. I, on our Table one of 



the best preserv'd sides, four stories high, 

 each adorn'd with a colonnade. 



It is, as the plan Fig. II. shows, an Oval. 

 In the midst of it is the open fighting-place, 

 the Arena (a), where men must fight with 

 men or with wild beasts for the amusement 

 and diversion of the many thousand spec- 

 tators, who found place all-around in the 

 massive building. Round about this fight- 

 ingplace below runs a Gallery with steps 

 (&) under which are the caves, where the 

 wild beasts were kept. Four principal en- 

 tries (e) led into the building and to the 

 fighting- place; through four other ones (c) 

 one came to the upper stories and through 

 as many to the inferior ones. 



