The archæology of Rome, Part 7 : $b The Flavian amphitheatre, commonly called the ColosseumParker, John Henry
History
The archæology of Rome, Part 7 : $b The Flavian amphitheatre, commonly called the Colosseum
Parker, John Henry
Rome -- Antiquities
The _pegmata_ have been mentioned as cages for wild beasts, and this was
evidently one meaning of the word, as used by Seneca in his Epistles,
quoted in a previous page, but this was one meaning only; the same name
was applied to a wooden framework of any kind, sometimes evidently
what we now call scenery, either fixed or moveable. Josephus mentions
_pegmata_ used in the triumphal procession of Titus, one of which was
three storeys high, and another four, on which were representations
of the capture of Jerusalem. Another is mentioned by Calpurnius as
representing the Tarpeian rock[202], and the victims were thrown from
the top of it on to the arena, or into the gulf, and killed on the spot.
Apuleius also describes one as representing Mount Ida, with trees,
and shrubs, and fountains, on which appeared from time to time Paris
and Mercury, and the three goddesses, Juno, Pallas, and Venus, with a
number of animals to complete the scene[203]. Another is described by
Claudian as representing Mount Etna[204], with the flames burning at the
top. Others representing Vulcan and Cyclops; these were in the shows of
Carinus and Numerianus, and are mentioned by Vopiscus[205]. It is evident
that this scenery must have been prepared below and sent up from the
central passage, as there was no room anywhere else for sending it up.
Martial[206] also mentions _pegmata_ as rising, from this middle way,
and that a person could see from thence THE COLOSSUS among the stars. As
the Colossus stood on an elevated platform on the Summa Sacra Via, just
in a line with this middle way, and was itself 120 ft. high, it is quite
probable that the head of it could be seen from below, over the upper
gallery.
The dens for the wild beasts in the substructures under the _podium_ are
found both at Capua and at Pozzuoli, just as in the Colosseum, and the
technical name for such a den was _catabolus_[207]. Besides the mention
by Herodian of a hundred lions leaping on to the arena at once, as “if
out of the earth,” (mentioned in page 26), the same thing is mentioned by
several other authors at different periods, both of lions and of other
wild beasts. Vopiscus mentions this in the life of Probus[208], and that
all the doorways were stopped for a time; and he distinctly mentions the
animals coming out of the caves below. Ammianus Marcellinus[209] also
mentions the doorways being often stopped for the wild beasts. Statius
mentions the same[210], and Julius Capitolinus, both in the time of
Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. In each case a hundred lions are
mentioned, and in the latter that they were killed with arrows; and in
the time of Probus, not only a hundred lions, but also a hundred Lybian
leopards, a hundred Syrian ones, a hundred lionesses, and three hundred
bears. Lampridius[211] also mentions in the time of Gordianus the almost
incredible number of a thousand bears, in addition to a hundred Lybian
leopards.
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