The Private Life of the Romans Part 13

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 129. FOLLES]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 130. GAME OF BALL]

--318. Games of Ball.--b.a.l.l.s of different sizes are known to have been used in the different games, variously filled with hair, feathers, and air (_folles_, Fig. 129). Throwing and catching formed the basis of all the games, the bat being practically unknown. In the simplest game the player threw the ball as high as he could, and tried to catch it before it struck the ground. Variations of this were what we should call juggling, the player keeping two or more b.a.l.l.s in the air (Fig.

130), and throwing and catching by turns with another player. Another game must have resembled our handball, requiring a wall and smooth ground at its foot. The ball was struck with the open hand against the wall, allowed to fall back upon the ground and bound, and then struck back against the wall in the same manner. The aim of the player was to keep the ball going in this way longer than his opponent could.

Private houses and the public baths often had "courts" especially prepared for this amus.e.m.e.nt. A third game was called _trigon_, and was played by three persons, stationed at the angles of an equilateral triangle. Two b.a.l.l.s were used and the aim of the player was to throw the ball in his possession at the one of his opponents who would be the less likely to catch it. As two might throw at the third at the same moment, or as the thrower of one ball might have to receive the second ball at the very moment of throwing, both hands had to be used and a good degree of skill was necessary. Other games, all of throwing and catching, are mentioned here and there, but none is described with sufficient detail to be clearly understood.

--319. Games of Chance.--The Romans were pa.s.sionately fond of games of chance, and gambling was so universally a.s.sociated with such games that they were forbidden by law, even when no stakes were actually played for. A general indulgence seems to have been granted at the Saturnalia in December, and public opinion allowed old men to play at any time. The laws were hard to enforce, however, as such laws usually are, and large sums were won and lost not merely at general gambling resorts, but also at private houses. Games of chance, in fact, with high stakes, were one of the greatest attractions at the men's dinners that have been mentioned (--314). The commonest form of gambling was our "heads or tails," coins being used as with us, the value depending on the means of the players. Another common form was our "odd or even," each player guessing in turn and in turn holding counters concealed in his outstretched hand for his opponent to guess. The stake was usually the contents of the hand though side bets were not unusual. In a variation of this game the players tried to guess the actual number of the counters held in the hand. Of more interest, however, were the games of knuckle-bones and dice.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 131. GIRLS PLAYING WITH KNUCKLE-BONES]

--320. Knuckle-bones.--Knuckle-bones (_tali_) of sheep and goats, and imitations of them in ivory, bronze, and stone, were used as playthings by children and for gaming by men. Children played our "jackstones" with them, throwing five into the air at once and catching as many as possible on the back of the hand (Fig. 131). The length of the _tali_ was greater than their width and they had, therefore, four long sides and two ends. The ends were rounded off or pointed, so that the _tali_ could not stand on them. Of the four long sides two were broader than the others. Of the two broader sides one was concave, the other convex; while of the narrower sides one was flat and the other indented. As all the sides were of different shapes the _tali_ did not require marking as do our dice, but for convenience they were sometimes marked with the numbers 1, 3, 4, and 6, the numbers 2 and 5 being omitted. Four _tali_ were used at a time, either thrown into the air with the hand or thrown from a dice-box (_fritillus_), and the side on which the bone rested was counted, not that which came up. Thirty-five different throws were possible, of which each had a different name. Four aces were the lowest throw, called the Vulture, while the highest, called the Venus, was when all the _tali_ came up differently. It was this throw that designated the _magister bibendi_ (--313).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 132. PLAYING DICE]

--321. Dice.--The Romans had also dice (_tesserae_) precisely like our own. They were made of ivory, stone, or some close-grained wood, and had the sides numbered from one to six. Three were used at a time, thrown from the _fritillus_, as were the knuckle-bones (Fig. 132), but the sides counted that came up. The highest throw was three sixes, the lowest three aces. In ordinary gaming the aim of the player seems to have been to throw a higher number than his opponent, but there were also games played with dice on boards with counters, that must have been something like our backgammon, uniting skill with chance. Little more of these is known than their names, but a board used for some such game is shown in --336 (Fig. 144). If one considers how much s.p.a.ce is given in our newspapers to the game of baseball, and how impossible it would be for a person who had never seen a game to get a correct idea of one from the newspaper descriptions only, it will not seem strange that we know so little of Roman games.

--322. Public and Private Games.--With the historical development of the Public Games this book has no concern (--2). It is sufficient to say that these free exhibitions, given first in honor of some G.o.d or G.o.ds at the cost of the state and extended and multiplied for political purposes until all religious significance was lost, had come by the end of the Republic to be the chief pleasure in life for the lower cla.s.ses in Rome, so that Juvenal declares that the free bread (--286) and the games of the circus were the people's sole desire. Not only were these games free, but when they were given all public business was stopped and all citizens were forced to take a holiday.

These holidays became rapidly more and more numerous; by the end of the Republic sixty-six days were taken up by the games, and in the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161-180) no less than one hundred and thirty-five days out of the year were thus closed to business.[1]

Besides these standing games, others were often given for extraordinary events, and funeral games were common when great men died. These last were not made legal holidays. For our purposes the distinction between public and private games is not important, and all may be cla.s.sified according to the nature of the exhibitions as, _ludi scenici_, dramatic entertainments given in a theater, _ludi circenses_, chariot races and other exhibitions given in a circus, and _munera gladiatoria_, shows of gladiators usually given in an amphitheater.

[Footnote 1: There are sixty holidays annually in Indiana, for example, and this is about the average for the United States.]

--323. Dramatic Performances.--The history of the development of the drama at Rome belongs, of course, to the history of Latin literature.

In cla.s.sical times dramatic performances consisted of comedies (_comoediae_), tragedies (_tragoediae_), farces (_mimi_), and pantomimes (_pantomimi_). The farces and pantomimes were used chiefly as interludes and afterpieces, though with the common people they were the most popular of all and outlived the others. Tragedy never had any real hold at Rome, and only the liveliest comedies gained favor on the stage. Of the comedies the only ones that have come down to us are those of Plautus and Terence, all adaptations from Greek originals, all depicting Greek life, and represented in Greek costumes (_fabulae palliatae_). They were a good deal more like our comic operas than our comedies, large parts being recited to the accompaniment of music and other parts sung while the actor danced. They were always presented in the daytime, as Roman theaters were provided with no means of lighting, in the early period after the noon meal (--301), but by Cicero's time they had come to be given in the morning. The average comedy must have required about two hours for the acting, with allowance for the occasional music between the scenes. We read of a play being acted twice in a day, but this must have been very exceptional, as time had to be allowed for the other more popular shows given on the same occasion.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 133. SCENE FROM A COMEDY]

--324. Staging the Play.--The play, as well as the other sports, was under the supervision of the officials in charge of the games at which it was given. They contracted for the production of the play with some recognized manager (_dominus gregis_), who was usually an actor of acknowledged ability and had a.s.sociated with him a troupe (_grex_) of others only inferior to himself. The actors were all slaves (--143), and men took the parts of women. There was no limit fixed to the number of actors, but motives of economy would lead the _dominus_ to produce each play with the smallest number possible, and two or even more parts were often a.s.signed to one actor. The characters in the comedies wore the ordinary Greek dress of daily life and the costumes (Fig. 133) were, therefore, not expensive. The only make-up required was paint for the face, especially for the actors who took women's parts, and the wigs that were used conventionally to represent different characters, gray for old men, black for young men, red for slaves, etc. These and the few properties (_ornamenta_) necessary were furnished by the _dominus_. It seems to have been customary also for him to feast the actors at his expense if their efforts to entertain were unusually successful.

--325. The Early Theater.--The theater itself deserved no such name until very late in the Republic. During the period when the best plays were being written (200-160 B.C.) almost nothing was done for the accommodation of the actors or the audience. The stage was merely a temporary platform, rather wide than deep, built at the foot of a hill or a gra.s.s-covered slope. There were almost none of the things that we are accustomed to a.s.sociate with a stage, no curtains, no flies, no scenery that could be changed, not even a sounding-board to aid the actor's voice. There was no way either to represent the interior of a house, and the dramatist was limited, therefore, to such situations as might be supposed to take place upon a public street. This street the stage represented; at the back of it were shown the fronts of two or three houses with windows and doors that could be opened, and sometimes there was an alley or pa.s.sageway between two of the houses.

An altar stood on the stage, we are told, to remind the people of the religious origin of the games. No better provision was made for the audience than for the actors. The people took their places on the slope before the stage, some reclining on the gra.s.s, some standing, some perhaps sitting on stools they had brought from home. There was always din and confusion to try the actor's voice, pushing and crowding, disputing and quarreling, wailing of children, and in the very midst of the play the report of something livelier to be seen elsewhere might draw the whole audience away.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 134. EXTERIOR OF THEATER AT ORANGE]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 135. THEATER AT POMPEII]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 136. SECTION OF THEATER OF MARCELLUS (Restored)]

--326. The Later Theater.--Beginning about 145 B.C., however, efforts were made to improve upon this poor apology for a theater, in spite of the opposition of those who considered the plays ruinous to morals. In that year a wooden theater on Greek lines provided with seats was erected, but the senate caused it to be pulled down as soon as the games were over. It became a fixed custom, however, for such a temporary theater with special and separate seats for senators, and much later for the knights, to be erected as often as plays were given at public games, until in 55 B.C. Pompeius Magnus erected the first permanent theater at Rome. It was built of stone after the plans of one he had seen at Mytilene and seated at least seventeen thousand people; Pliny says forty thousand. This theater showed two noteworthy divergences from its Greek model. The Greek theaters were excavated out of the side of the hill, while the Roman theater was erected on level ground (that of Pompeius in the Campus Martius) and gave, therefore, a better opportunity for exterior magnificence. The Greek theater had a large circular s.p.a.ce for choral performances immediately before the stage; in the Roman theater this s.p.a.ce, called the orchestra then as now, was much smaller, and was a.s.signed to the senators. The first fourteen rows of seats rising immediately behind them were reserved for the knights. The seats back of these were occupied indiscriminately by the people, on the principle apparently of first come first served. No other permanent theaters were erected at Rome until 13 B.C., when two were constructed. The smaller had room for eleven thousand spectators, the larger, erected in honor of Marcellus, the nephew of Augustus, for twenty thousand. These improved playhouses made possible spectacular elements in the performances that the rude scaffolding of early days had not permitted, and these spectacles proved the ruin of the legitimate drama. To make realistic the scenes representing the pillaging of a city, Pompeius is said to have furnished troops of cavalry and bodies of infantry, hundreds of mules laden with real spoils of war, and three thousand mixing bowls (--314). In comparison with these three thousand mixing bowls, the avalanches, runaway locomotives, sawmills in full operation, and cathedral scenes of modern times seem poor indeed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 137. PLAN OF THEATER]

--327. The general appearance of these theaters, the type of hundreds erected later throughout the Roman world, may be gathered from Fig.

137, the plan of a theater on lines laid down by Vitruvius (--187). GH is the front line of the stage (_proscaenium_); all behind it is the _scaena_, devoted to the actors, all before it is the _cavea_, devoted to the spectators. IKL in the rear mark the position of three doors, for example, those of the three houses mentioned above (--325). The semicircular orchestra CMD is the part appropriated to the senators.

The seats behind the orchestra, rising in concentric semicircles, are divided by five pa.s.sageways into six portions (_cunei_), and in a similar way the seats above the semicircular pa.s.sage (_praecinctio_) shown in the figure are divided by eleven pa.s.sageways into twelve _cunei_. Access to the seats of the senators was afforded by pa.s.sageways under the higher seats at the right and the left of the stage, one of which may be seen in Fig. 135, which represents a part of the smaller of the two theaters uncovered at Pompeii, built not far from 80 B.C. Over the vaulted pa.s.sage will be noticed what must have been the best seats in the theater, corresponding in some degree to the boxes of modern times. These were reserved for the emperor, if he was present, for the officials who superintended the games and (on the other side) for the Vestals. Access to the higher seats was conveniently given by broad stairways constructed under the seats and running up to the pa.s.sageways between the _cunei_. These are shown in Fig. 136, a theoretical restoration of the Marcellus theater mentioned above. Behind the highest seats were broad colonnades, affording shelter in case of rain, and above them were tall masts from which awnings (_vela_) were spread to protect the people from the sun. The appearance of the stage end may be gathered from Fig. 134, showing the remains of a Roman theater still existing at Orange,[2] in the south of France. It should be noticed that the stage was connected with the auditorium by the seats over the vaulted pa.s.sages to the orchestra, and that the curtain was raised from the bottom, to hide the stage, not lowered from the top as ours is now. Vitruvius suggested that rooms and porticos be built behind the stage, like the colonnades that have been mentioned, to afford s.p.a.ce for the actors and properties and shelter for the people in case of rain.

[Footnote 2: This theater has been restored and used for reproductions of the Cla.s.sical Drama. See the interesting account of it in the "Century Magazine" for June, 1895. It is supposed to have been erected in the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161-180) and allowed to fall into ruins in the fourth century A.D.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 138. VICTORIOUS AURIGA]

--328. Roman Circuses.--The games of the circus were the oldest of the free exhibitions at Rome and always the most popular. The word _circus_ means simply a ring and the _ludi circenses_ were therefore any shows that might be given in a ring. We shall see below (--343) that these shows were of several kinds, but the one most characteristic, the one that is always meant when no other is specifically named, is that of chariot races. For these races the first and really the only necessary condition is a large and level piece of ground. This was furnished by the valley between the Aventine and Palatine hills, and here in prehistoric times the first Roman race course was established. This remained _the_ circus, the one always meant when no descriptive term was added, though when others were built it was called sometimes by way of distinction the Circus Maximus. None of the others ever approached it in size, in magnificence, or in popularity.

--329. The second circus to be built at Rome was the _circus Flaminius_, founded in 221 B.C. by the same Caius Flaminius, who built the Flaminian road. It was located in the southern part of the Campus Martius (--317), and like the Circus Maximus was exposed to the frequent overflows of the Tiber. Its position is fixed beyond question, but the actual remains are very scanty, so that little is known of its size or appearance. The third to be established was that of Caius (Caligula) and Nero, named from the two emperors who had to do with its construction, and erected, therefore, in the first century A.D. It lay at the foot of the Vatican hill, but we know little more of it than that it was the smallest of the three. These three were the only circuses within the city. In the immediate neighborhood, however, were three others. Five miles out on the _via Portuensis_ was the circus of the Arval Brethren. About three miles out on the Appian way was the Circus of Maxentius, erected in 309 A.D. This is the best preserved of all, and a plan of it is shown in the next paragraph. On the same road, some twelve miles from the city, in the old town of Bovillae, was a third, making six within easy reach of the people of Rome.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 139. PLAN OF THE CIRCUS OF MAXENTIUS]

--330. Plan of the Circus.--All of the Roman circuses known to us had the same general arrangement, which will be readily understood from the plan of the Circus of Maxentius shown in Fig. 139. The long and comparatively narrow stretch of ground which formed the race course proper (_arena_) is almost surrounded by the tiers of seats, running in two long parallel lines uniting in a semicircle at one end. In the middle of this semicircle is a gate, marked _F_ in the plan, by which the victor left the circus when the race was over. It was called, therefore, the _porta triumphalis_. Opposite this gate at the other end of the arena was the station for the chariots (_AA_ in the plan), called _carceres_, "barriers," flanked by two towers at the corners (_II_), and divided into two equal sections by another gate (_B_), called the _porta pompae_, by which processions entered the circus.

There are also gates (_HH_) between the towers and the seats. The exterior appearance of the towers and barriers, called together the _oppidum_, is shown in Fig. 140.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 140. OPPIDUM OF A CIRCUS]

--331. The arena is divided for about two-thirds its length by a fence or wall (_MM_), called the _spina_, "backbone." At the end of this were fixed pillars (_LL_), called _metae_, marking the inner line of the course. Once around the _spina_ was a lap (_spatium_, _curriculum_), and the fixed number of laps, usually seven to a race, was called a _missus_. The last lap, however, had but one turn, that at the _meta prima_, the one nearest the _porta triumphalis_, the finish being a straightaway dash to the _calx_. This was a chalk line drawn on the arena far enough away from the second _meta_ to keep it from being obliterated by the hoofs of the horses as they made the turn, and far enough also from the _carceres_ to enable the driver to stop his team before dashing into them. The dotted line (_DN_) is the supposed location of the _calx_. It will be noticed that the important things about the developed circus are the _arena_, _carceres_, _spina_, _metae_, and the seats, all of which will be more particularly described.

--332. The Arena.--The arena is the level s.p.a.ce surrounded by the seats and the barriers. The name was derived from the sand used to cover its surface to spare as much as possible the unshod feet of the horses. A glance at the plan will show that speed could not have been the important thing with the Romans that it is with us. The sand, the shortness of the stretches, and the sharp turns between them were all against great speed. The Roman found his excitement in the danger of the race. In every representation of the race course that has come down to us may be seen broken chariots, fallen horses, and drivers under wheels and hoofs. The distance was not a matter of close measurement either, but varied in the several circuses, the Circus Maximus being fully 300 feet longer than the Circus of Maxentius. All seem to have had constant, however, the number of laps, seven to the race, and this also goes to prove that the danger was the chief element in the popularity of the contests. The distance actually traversed in the Circus of Maxentius may be very closely estimated.

The length of the _spina_ is about 950 feet. If we allow fifty feet for the turn at each _meta_, each lap makes a distance of 2,000 feet, and six laps, 12,000 feet. The seventh lap had but one turn in it, but the final stretch to the _calx_ made it perhaps 300 feet longer than one of the others, say 2,300 feet. This gives a total of 14,300 feet for the whole _missus_, or about 2.7 miles. Jordan calculates the _missus_ of the Circus Maximus at 8.4 kilometers, which would be about 5.2 miles, but he seems to have taken the whole length of the arena into account, instead of that merely of the _spina_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 141. THE CARCERES]

--333. The Barriers.--The _carceres_ were the stations of the chariots and teams when ready for the races to begin. They were a series of vaulted chambers entirely separated from each other by solid walls, and closed behind by doors through which the chariots entered. The front of the chamber was formed by double doors, with the upper part made of grated bars, admitting the only light which it received. From this arrangement the name _carcer_ was derived. Each chamber was large enough to hold a chariot with its team, and as a team was composed sometimes of as many as seven horses the "prison" must have been nearly square. There was always a separate chamber for each chariot.

Up to the time of Domitian the highest number of chariots was eight, but after his time as many as twelve sometimes entered the same race, and twelve _carceres_ had, therefore, to be provided, although four chariots was the usual number. Half of these chambers lay to the right, half to the left of the _porta pompae_. The appearance of a section of the _carceres_ is shown in Fig. 141.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 142. BOX OF THE DATOR LUDORUM]

--334. It will be noticed from the plan (--330) that the _carceres_ were arranged in a curved line. This is supposed to have been drawn in such a way that every chariot, no matter which of the _carceres_ it happened to occupy, would have the same distance to travel in order to reach the beginning of the course proper at the nearer end of the _spina_. There was no advantage in position, therefore, at the start, and places were a.s.signed by lot. In later times a starting line (_linea alba_) was drawn with chalk between the second _meta_ and the seats to the right, but the line of _carceres_ remained curved as of old. At the ends of the row of chambers, towers were built which seem to have been the stands for the musicians; over the _porta pompae_ was the box of the chief official of the games (_dator ludorum_), and between his box and the towers were seats for his friends and persons connected with the games. In Fig. 142 is shown a victor pausing before the box of the _dator_ to receive a prize before riding in triumph around the arena.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 143.]

--335. The Spina and Metae.--The _spina_ divided the race course into two parts, making a minimum distance to be run. Its length was about two-thirds that of the arena, but it started only the width of the track from the _porta triumphalis_, leaving entirely free a much larger s.p.a.ce at the end near the _porta pompae_. It was perfectly straight, but did not run precisely parallel to the rows of seats; at the end B in the exaggerated diagram (Fig. 143) the distance BC is somewhat greater than the distance AB, in order to allow more room at the starting line (_linea alba_, --334), where the chariots would be side by side, than further along the course, where they would be strung out. The _metae_, so named from their shape (--284), were pillars erected at the two ends of the _spina_ and architecturally a part of it, though there may have been a s.p.a.ce between. In Republican times the _spina_ and the _metae_ must have been made of wood and movable, in order to give free s.p.a.ce for the shows of wild beasts and the exhibitions of cavalry that were originally given in the circus.

After the amphitheater was devised the circus came to be used for races exclusively and the _spina_ became permanent. It was built up, of most ma.s.sive proportions, on foundations of indestructible concrete (--210 f.) and was adorned with magnificent works of art that must have entirely concealed horses and chariots when they pa.s.sed to the other side of the arena.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 144. BOARD-GAME SHOWING SPINA]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 145. OBELISK ONCE IN CIRCUS MAXIMUS]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 146. A Ca.n.a.l AS SPINA]

--336. A representation of a circus has been preserved to us in a board-game of some sort found at Bovillae (--329), which gives an excellent idea of the _spina_, (Fig. 144). We know from various reliefs and mosaics that the _spina_ of the Circus Maximus was covered with a series of statues and ornamental structures, such as obelisks, small temples or shrines, columns surmounted by statues, altars, trophies, and fountains. Augustus was the first to erect an obelisk in the Circus Maximus; it was restored in 1589 A.D., and now stands in the Piazza del Popolo, measuring without the base about 78 feet in height. Constantius erected another (Fig. 145) in the same circus, which now stands before the Lateran church, measuring 105 feet. The obelisk of the Circus of Maxentius now stands in the Piazza Navona.

Besides these purely ornamental features, every circus had at each end of its _spina_ a pedestal supporting seven large eggs (_ova_) of marble, one of which was taken down at the end of each lap, in order that the people might know just how many remained to be run. Another and very different idea for the _spina_ is shown in Fig. 146 from a mosaic at Lyons. This is a ca.n.a.l filled with water, with an obelisk in the middle. The _metae_ in their developed form are shown very clearly in this mosaic, three conical pillars of stone set on a semicircular plinth, all of the most ma.s.sive construction.

--337. The Seats.--The seats around the arena in the Circus Maximus were originally of wood, but accidents owing to decay and losses by fire had led by the time of the Empire to reconstruction in marble except perhaps in the very highest rows. The seats in the other circuses seem to have been from the first of stone. At the foot of the tiers of seats was a marble platform (_podium_) which ran along both sides and the curved end, coextensive therefore with them. On this _podium_ were erected boxes for the use of the more important magistrates and officials of Rome, and here Augustus placed the seats of the senators and others of high rank. He also a.s.signed seats throughout the whole _cavea_ to various cla.s.ses and organizations, separating the women from the men, though up to his time they had sat together. Between the _podium_ and the track was a screen of open work, and when Caesar showed wild beasts in the circus he had a ca.n.a.l ten feet wide and ten feet deep dug next the _podium_ and filled with water as an additional protection. Access to the seats was given from the rear, numerous broad stairways running up to the _praecinctiones_ (--327), of which there were probably three in the Circus Maximus. The horizontal s.p.a.ces between the _praecinctiones_ were called _maeniana_, and each of these was in turn divided by stairways into _cunei_ (--327), and the rows of seats in the _cunei_ were called _gradus_. The sittings in the row do not seem to have been marked off any more than they are now in the "bleachers" at our baseball grounds. When sittings were reserved for a number of persons they were described as so many feet in such a row (_gradus_) of such a section (_cuneus_) of such a circle (_maenianum_).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 147. RESTORATION OF THE CIRCUS MAXIMUS]

--338. The number of sittings testifies to the popularity of the races.

The little circus at Bovillae had seats for at least 8,000 people, according to Hulsen, that of Maxentius for about 23,000, while the Circus Maximus, accommodating 60,000 in the time of Augustus, was enlarged to a capacity of nearly 200,000 in the time of Constantius.

The seats themselves were supported upon arches of ma.s.sive masonry; an idea of their appearance from the outside may be had from the exterior view of the Coliseum in --356. Every third of these vaulted chambers under the seats seems to have been used for a staircase, the others for shops and booths and in the upper parts for rooms for the employes of the circus, who must have been very numerous. Galleries seem to have crowned the seats, as in the theaters (--327), and balconies for the emperors were built in conspicuous places, the ruins not enabling their positions to be fixed precisely. An idea of the appearance of the seats from within the arena may be had from an attempted reconstruction of the Circus Maximus (Fig. 147), the details of which are quite uncertain.