§358. The arrangement of the seats with the method of reaching them is shown in the sectional plan, Fig. 164. The seats were arranged in three tiers (_maeniāna_, §337) one above the other, separated by broad passageways and rising more steeply the farther they were from the arena, and were crowned by an open gallery. In the plan the _podium_ is marked A. Twelve feet above it begins the first _maeniānum_, B, with fourteen rows of seats reserved for members of the equestrian order. Then came a broad _praecīnctiō_ (§327) and after it the second _maeniānum_, C, intended for ordinary citizens. Back of this was a wall of considerable height and above it the third _maeniānum_, D, supplied with rough wooden benches for the lowest classes, foreigners, slaves, and the like. The row of pillars along the front of this section made the distant view all the worse. Above this was an open gallery, E, in which women found an unwelcome place. No other seats were open to them unless they were of sufficient distinction to claim a place upon the _podium_. At the very top of the outside wall was a terrace, F, in which were fixed masts to support the awnings that gave protection against the sun. The seating capacity of the coliseum is said to have been 80,000, and it had standing room for 20,000 more. [Illustration: FIGURE 165. RETIARIUS AND SECUTOR] §359. Styles of Fighting.--Gladiators fought usually in pairs, man against man, but sometimes in masses (_gregātim_, _catervātim_). In early times they were actually soldiers, captives taken in war (§347), and fought naturally with the weapons and equipment to which they were accustomed. When the professionally trained gladiators came in, they were given the old names, and were called Samnites, Thracians, etc., according to their arms and tactics. In much later times victories over distant peoples were celebrated with combats in which the weapons and methods of war of the conquered were shown to the people of Rome; thus, after the conquest of Britain _essedāriī_ exhibited in the arena the tactics of chariot fighting which Caesar had described generations before in his Commentaries. It was natural enough, too, for the people to want to see different arms and different tactics tried against each other, and so the Samnite was matched against the Thracian, the heavy armed against the light armed. This became under the Empire the favorite style of combat. Finally when people had tired of the regular shows, novelties were introduced that seem to us grotesque; men fought blindfold (_andabatae_), armed with two swords (_dimachaerī_), with the lasso (_laqueatōrēs_), with a heavy net (_rētiāriī_), and there were battles of dwarfs and of dwarfs with women. Of these the _rētiārius_ became immensely popular. He carried a huge net in which he tried to entangle his opponent, always a _secūtor_ (see below), despatching him with a dagger if the throw was successful. If unsuccessful he took to flight while preparing his net for another