“Such was the shamelessness of Nero, that he himself drove chariots in public; and, sometimes, having slain wild beasts, and having suddenly introduced water into the area, he made a naval battle; and then withdrawing the water, he introduced the gladiatorial strife. Then again introducing it, he gave in public a sumptuous supper. Tigellinus was the prefect (or overseer) of the supper, and it was a supper of the grandest magnificence, arranged in this manner. In the middle of the amphitheatre and in the water great wooden wine-casks were placed, and upon them a floor of planks[53] was laid, and around this, booths and small chambers were erected[54].” “Nero had various kinds of shows in the amphitheatre, sometimes filling it with sea-water, in which fishes and sea monsters swam, and made a naval fight between the Persians and the Athenians; then suddenly withdrawing the water, and drying the ground, he ordered a number of men on foot to rush in, not singly, but in numbers and close together[55].” “When he (Titus) dedicated the theatre for hunting, and the thermæ called after him, he exhibited many wonderful things. Cranes fought and four elephants, nine thousand wild boars and other beasts were killed, which women, even some of noble rank, had brought together. Many contests, also, on foot, and naval fights took place, for suddenly filling the amphitheatre with water, he introduced horses and bulls, and other tame animals, who had been taught to act in the water as on land. He also introduced men in ships, who, in the guise of Corcyrians and Corinthians, imitated a naval battle[56].” In another chapter Dio repeats the same account, with the addition of “a public supper[57].” This shews that the arrangements in the amphitheatre were the same in the time of Nero as in the time of Commodus, when Dio was himself present, and describes what he saw. If the water was really _sea_-water, it could only have been in the canals. The fact of three aqueducts having converged to this point to bring water to the great building, makes it most probable that the water was not _really sea-water_, but perhaps had _sea-weed_ inserted in it to suit the fishes and the sea monsters. Suetonius also mentions the _naumachia_ in the amphitheatre[58] in the time of Domitian, among the magnificent shows that he provided for the people. Dio clearly distinguishes between the Amphitheatre of Nero and that of Statilius Taurus in the Campus Martius, which he also calls _Theatrum Tauri_[59].