PLATE XXII. THE GRAFFITI, OR SCRATCHINGS ON MARBLE BY THE WORKMEN OF THE SECOND CENTURY. [Illustration: COLOSSEUM—GRAFFITI A. AND B. ATHLETES C. WILD-BEAST HUNT] DESCRIPTION OF PLATE XXII. THE GRAFFITI, OR SCRATCHINGS ON MARBLE BY THE WORKMEN OF THE SECOND CENTURY. A. An athlete, commonly called a wrestler; but the athletes were more than merely wrestlers, they were often men of high rank, and fought with weapons also, sometimes with fatal results. This is a prize-man with his palm-branch in his hand. B. Athletes.—On this fragment of marble the drawing is very indistinct, but there appear to be two figures only, with arms in their hands, and their heads bare, their helmets being on a table behind them. Inscriptions are scratched upon these, which are rather difficult to make out, but seem to be—on one, IVTOR (?); on another, LIMENI NIKÆ; on a third, OVIM. The rest are too indistinct to be read. C. A hunt of wild beasts.—This is extremely curious, but not very distinct in the original, and therefore not in the photo-engraving, which admits of no _restorations_. There are five animals all of the same kind, but what animal they are intended for it is not easy to say; they have claws, the heads look like wolves’. Each has a broken cord hanging to its neck. There are two huntsmen with spears in their hands running after them; they are clothed in tight dresses, with bands round the waist and the knees, and with buskins on their feet. THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XXIII. GRAFFITO OF THE PODIUM, &c. [Illustration: COLOSSEUM. GRAFFITO OF THE PODIUM etc.] DESCRIPTION OF PLATE XXIII. GRAFFITO OF THE PODIUM, &c. This is one of the four _graffiti_ found during the excavations in 1874. It represents the front of the _podium_, with the framework for the netting to protect the spectators in the lower gallery, or state-gallery, from the wild beasts, if they should attempt to spring up into it when hunted on the stage or arena below, at the foot of the _podium_. This fragment shews the lower portion of the screen, which is recorded to have had a bar at the top that turned round, so that if any animal tried to cling to it he would fall backwards on the arena. This was level with the foot of the _podium_, and twenty-one feet above the pavement at the bottom, on the level of the dens for the wild beasts, and the floor of the passage between the two walls of tufa, with vertical grooves in them for the lifts, with the cages upon them. Behind the place for each cage in the paved floor of the passage, is a socket for a pivot to work in, at the foot of a capstan or post, to wind the twenty-one feet of cord upon, with the lift, when pulled up to the trap-door of the arena. This pavement is represented as resting on the top of a series of arches with bars across; these are probably intended for the doors of the wild beasts below, but rudely represented, and with some sort of performance going on in front. THE COLOSSEUM. PLATE XXIV.