The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1875-01-28
The Colosseum at Rome.


The Colosseum at Rome.
The Colosseum deserves to stand for
other than architectural reasons. 1t is the
greatest monument of that wild thirst for
blood and cruelty which distinguished
Rome above all other nations of the world.
There have been in every country times
when atrocious and horrible punishments
were devised, slow ways of tearing life bit
by bit from the body, ingenious and fiendish
devices for prolonging and intensifying pain
till the sufferer could feel no more. But
the punishment and the torture were meant
to be regarded with horror. In Rome
alone they became the favorite spectacle of
the people, and it was through the debased
rulers of the empire that a terocious crav-
ing for the sight of suffering was cultivated
and developed. On the arena of the Colos-
scum not only did gladiators fight with each
other and prisoners with lions, but dramas
were enacted the plots of which were taken
from some well-known tale of antiquity.
They were plays which required no librettO,
because the story was known by every one
of the eighty thousand spectators. And
they had the great and absorbing interest
that nothing was acted-all was reality
and the catastrophe, eagerl expected, was
not simulated. The hapless actor who had
to wear the shirt of Nessus knew that when
he put it on lined and smeared with pitch
it would be set fire 90, so that he should
represent in actual torture the agonies Of
the dying hero. Acteon knew that the
dogs would be loosed upon him when the
time came, and would tear him to pieces
amid the applause of the people. Medea
stabbed her children c0rdn. p0pHla; Dirce
acted her part knowing that she would be
tied by the hair to the horns Of the bull,
who would drag her till she died. This
was the flvorite spectacle Of the Romans,
gentle and simple. Such shrieks, such
shouts of applause, have echoed from these
walls as no other theatre has ever heard
such tragedies have been enacted as no
other play have over dreamed of; the
citizens were insatiate the roads that led
to Rome were throngcd with prisoners
coming to take part in the sports the old
could at least be torn by the beasts-th,
young could fight. And these sports CON
tinued for 400 years, until the Emperor
Honorius stopped them. Later on they
were partially revived, but only for combats
of beasts, by Theodore and bull fight
was held in the old arena SO late as 500
years ago, at which the noblest of the Ro-
mans fought. Since then the Colosseum
has rested in silence.
a whole literature has grown up around
this great amphitheatre, the modern aspect
of which has hithcr to presented insuper-
able difficulties in any attempt at under
standing the old accounts. For, if it were
true that the arrangements were such that
wild beasts could be let loose by hundreds,
and prisoners by thousands if, also, the
arena could be flooded with water, so as to
admit Of the representation of a sea fight,
in which all was real except the hostility of
the combatants, by what means were the
beasts kept ready and loosed upon their
prey ? where were the prisoners kept SO as
net to interfere with the audience? and
how was water drained Of after every sea
fight Partial excavations were commenced
sixty years ago, but were discontinued af-
ter short time They made confusion
more hopeless by revealing a number of
walls below the surface running about in
several directions, and seeming to answer
no purpose But within the last few
months Signor Rosa has commenced fresh
excavations on a scientific plan on large
scale, and has already been enabled by his
discovers to settle most of the disputed
points The proper level of the ground is
twenty-one feet below the present surface.
The arena itself has been found, with the
original ''hcrring bone pavement, perhaps
that laid by Titus. What has been hitherto
supposed the front of the podium-the
lowest wall separating spectators from ac-
tors-is really, the back and, in clearing
away the newly-found front, three great
arch-ways were discovered, which have al
ready so far been cleared cut as to show
what was their original purpose. These
were the entrances of the actors. BY these
avenues marched the morituri, sturdy pris-
oners of war or shrinking women by those
their bodies were dragged away an hour or
two later. And below the arena Signor
Rosa has found the great drain, the cloaea
which carried away the water used for the
sea fights. In the corridors still stand the
bronze sockets on which, perhaps, swung
the doors which divided the animals into
their various groups and there have been
found marble slabs on which are representa-
,bo ~,Io III ,tori,l eontaets men with nen