The discontinuance of the processions must then be assigned to the period between the building of the Small Theatre and the changing over of the Theatre Colonnade into barracks, which, to judge from the masonry and the remains of the decoration, did not take place before the time of Nero. The processions were abandoned either in the troubled period of the Civil Wars, or in the early years of the Empire; if in the latter period, their discontinuance may have been due to legislation connected with the reorganization of the Empire under Augustus, or to the overshadowing of them by more imposing ceremonies introduced in connection with the religious festivals. Our information in regard to the later use of the Theatre Colonnade is indeed meagre; not a single inscription bearing upon it has been found. Yet when we take into account the changes that were made in it, and the objects found there, the supposition that it was turned into barracks for gladiators in the time of the Early Empire, and so used till the destruction of the city, is seen to harmonize with almost all the facts. First, rooms were built on all sides behind the colonnade; on the north side they took the place of the south arm of the colonnade in the area back of the stage. They were in two series, one above the other; the upper rooms were entered from a low wooden gallery accessible by three stairways. They could not have been intended for shops; they were too small, measuring on the average hardly more than twelve feet square, and the doors were too narrow. There were no doors opening from one room into the other. Both lower and upper rooms, we may conclude, were used for men's quarters. [Illustration: PLATE IV.--THE BARRACKS OF THE GLADIATORS, LOOKING SOUTH] In the middle of the south side a large room was left, with the front open toward the area, an exedra (6). On the east side was a still larger room the front of which is divided off by pillars; other rooms open from it, and among them is one (10) with several hearths, evidently intended for a mess kitchen, if the hearths are ancient; they may be modern. Over these rooms was a second story, reached by a broad stairway (9). The immediate connection of the colonnade with the area behind the stage was now cut off by a wall (4); there was left only a small door in the corner, which could be readily fastened. The entrance from the passage leading to Stabian Street (2) was provided with doors and placed under the control of a guard, for whom a special room was built at one side (3). There was a third entrance, narrow and easily closed, at the northwest corner, where a flight of steps connected the foot of the broad stairway (5) with the landing of the stairs leading to the wooden gallery.