Under the wings of the Roman eagle, the material prosperity of Toledo steadily increased. From a collection of wretched huts, it had become a _colonia_, the capital of Carpetania. As such it would have had its _arx_, or citadel, prætorium, forum, temples, baths, and _vici_, or long suburbs straggling into the country. Of all these practically no traces remain. But in the Vega, outside the town, may be traced a semicircular enclosure, formed by masses of stones and mortar, about a metre in thickness, but of varying height. This space has been dignified with the name of Circus Maximum, and is undoubtedly a Roman work. But Señor Amador de los Rios has demonstrated almost conclusively that the Circus never advanced much beyond the foundations, which we now see before us probably in no very different state from that in which they were left some two thousand years ago. But though no Celtiberian captives or Christian martyrs here were “butchered to make a Roman holiday,” the consecration of the spot to the practice of cruelty bore fruit in after years. For the fires lit by the Inquisition were kindled here, and the Christian put the incompleted amphitheatre to the use for which it had been designed by the Pagan. To-day the men of Toledo play at _pelota_ in the enclosure, and their cheery shouts may well scare away the ghosts of torturer and victim. This may be regarded as the most important Roman remains in the neighbourhood of the city. The famous Cave of Hercules, which figures so largely in legendary lore, was probably the crypt or substructure of a Temple of Jupiter; and on the cliff-side below the Alcazar are a few fragments of a once-important aqueduct. It has been conjectured from the dimensions of the projected Circus that the Romans had at one time thought of elevating Toledo to the rank of chief city of Spain. The design, if it ever was formed, was never carried into execution. Of what passed in the town under Latin rule we have but the vaguest notion. Toledo, like almost every other place in Europe, has its traditions of fierce persecution productive of local martyrs. Almost as many Christians were massacred in Spain, if we credit these stories, as Gibbon thinks perished in the whole Roman Empire. Among the martyrs of Toletum, it is perhaps superfluous to say, was a young and lovely virgin, in this instance called Leocadia. She was done to death by the truculent Dacian. St. Eugenius, the first bishop of Toledo, is said to have been a disciple of St. Paul. He was martyred at Paris, and his alleged remains were obtained from Charles IX. of France and presented to the city by Philip II.