The Story of Rome from the Earliest Times to the End of the RepublicGilman, Arthur
History
The Story of Rome from the Earliest Times to the End of the Republic
Gilman, Arthur
Rome -- History -- Republic, 510-30 B.C.
Another game was the Play of Troy, fabled to have been invented by
Æneas, in which young men of rank on horses performed a sham fight. On
another occasion the circus would be turned into a camp, and
equestrians and infantry would give a realistic exhibition of battle.
Again, there would be athletic games, running, boxing, wrestling,
throwing the discus or the spear, and other exercises testing the
entire physical system with much thoroughness. One day the amphitheatre
would be filled with huge trees, and savage animals would be brought to
be hunted down by criminals, captives, or men especially trained for
the desperate work, who made it their profession.
For the purposes of these combats the circus was found not to be the
best, and the amphitheatre was invented by Curio for the celebration of
his father's funeral games. It differed from a theatre in permitting
the audience to see on both sides (Greek _amphi_, both), but the
distinctive name was first applied to a structure built by Cæsar, B.C.
46. The Flavian Amphitheatre, better known as the Colosseum, of which
the ruins now stand in Rome, was the culmination of this sort of
building, and affords a good idea of the general arrangement of those
that were not so grand. That of Cæsar was, however, of wood, which
material was used in constructing theatres also; the first one of stone
was not erected until 30 B.C., when Augustus was consul. [Footnote:
History gives an account of one edifice of this kind made of wood that
fell down owing to imperfect construction, killing many thousand
spectators, and of another that was destroyed by fire. Pompey's theatre
of stone, built B.C. 55, has already been mentioned (page 231).]
Variety was given to the exhibitions of the amphitheatre by introducing
sufficient water to float ships, and by causing the same wretched class
that fought the wild beasts to represent two rival nations, and to
fight until one party was actually killed, unless preserved by the
clemency of the ruler.
It must not be supposed that all these exhibitions were known in early
times, for, in reality, they were mostly the fruit of the increased
love of pleasure that characterized the close of the period of the
republic, and reached their greatest extravagance only under the
emperors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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