The first was famous on account of serving for the public treasury--the reason of which some fancy to have been because Saturn first taught the Italians to coin money; but most probably it was because this was the strongest place in the city. Here were preserved all the public registers and records, among which were the _libri elephantini_, or great ivory tables, containing a list of all the tribes and the schemes of the public accounts. The other was a square building, some say of entire brass, so large as to contain a statue of Janus, five feet high, with brazen gates on each side, which were kept open in war, and shut in time of peace. CHAPTER VIII. _Of other public Buildings._ Theatres, so called from the Greek θεαομαι, to see, owe their origin to Bacchus. That the theatres and amphitheatres were two different sorts of edifices, was never questioned, the former being built in the shape of a semicircle; the other generally oval, so as to make the same figure as if two theatres should be joined together. Yet the same place is often called by these names in several authors. They seem, too, to have been designed for quite different ends: the theatres for stage plays, the amphitheatres for the greater shows of gladiators, wild beasts, &c. The following are the most important parts of both. _Scena_ was a partition reaching quite across the theatre, being made either to turn round or draw up, to present a new prospect to the spectators. _Proscenium_ was the space of ground just before the scene, where the _pulpitum_ stood, into which the actors came from behind the scenes to perform. The middle part, or area of the amphitheatre, was called _cavæ_, because it was considerably lower than the other parts, whence perhaps, the name of pit in our play houses was borrowed; and arena, because it used to be strown with sand, to hinder the performers from slipping. There was a threefold distinction of the seats, according to the ordinary division of the people into senators, knights, and commons. The first range was called orchestra, from ορχειςθαι, because in that part of the Grecian theatres, the dances were performed; the second _equestria_; and the other _popularia_. [Illustration: Ruins of the Flavian Amphitheatre, commonly called the Colisæum. Pl. 2.] The Flavian amphitheatre, now better known by the name of the _Colisæum_, from its stupendous magnitude, excites the astonishment of the world. It was five hundred fifty feet in length, and four hundred seventy in breadth, and one hundred sixty in height. It was surrounded to the top by a portico resting on eighty arches, and divided into four stories. The arrangement of the seats was similar to that in the theatres; but there was a large box projecting from one side, and covered with a canopy of state for the accommodation of the emperor and the magistrates, who were surrounded with all the insignia of office.