Rollo in Rome Read online

  CHAPTER VI.

  THE COLISEUM.

  The grandest of all the ruins in Rome, and perhaps, indeed, of all theruins in the world, is the Coliseum.

  The Coliseum was built as a place for the exhibition of games andspectacles. It was of an oval form, with seats rising one above anotheron all sides, and a large arena in the centre. There was no roof. Thebuilding was so immensely large, that it would have been almostimpossible to have made a roof over it.

  The spectacles which were exhibited in such buildings as these wereusually combats, either of men with men, or of men with wild beasts.These were real combats, in which either the men or the beasts wereactually killed. The thousands of people that sat upon the seats allaround, watched the conflict, while it was going on, with intenseexcitement, and shouted with ferocious joy at the end of it, in honor ofthe victors.

  The men that fought in the arena were generally captives taken inbattle, in distant countries, and the wild beasts were lions, tigers,and bears, that were sent home from Africa, or from the dark forests inthe north of Europe.

  The great generals who went out at the head of the Roman armies toconquer these distant realms and annex them to the empire, sent homethese captives and wild beasts. They sent them for the express purposeof amusing the Roman people with them, by making them fight in thesegreat amphitheatres. There was such an amphitheatre in or near almostevery large town; but the greatest, or at least the most celebrated, ofall these structures, was this Coliseum at Rome.

  Mr. George and Rollo went to the Coliseum in a carriage. After passingthrough almost the whole length of the Corso, they passed successivelythrough several crooked and narrow streets, and at length emerged intothe great region of the ruins. On every side were tall columns, brokenand decayed, and immense arches standing meaningless and alone, andmounds of ancient masonry, with weeds and flowers waving in the air onthe top of them. There were no houses, or scarcely any, in this part ofthe city, but only grassy slopes with old walls appearing here and thereamong them; and in some places enclosed fields and gardens, with corn,and beans, and garden vegetables of every kind, growing at the base ofthe majestic ruins.

  The carriage stopped at one end of the Coliseum, where there was apassage way leading through stupendous arches into the interior.

  They dismissed the carriage, Rollo having first paid the coachman thefare. They then, after gazing upward a moment at the vast pile of archesupon arches, towering above them, advanced towards the openings, inorder to go in.

  There was a soldier with a musket in his hands, bayonet set, walking toand fro at the entrance. He, however, said nothing to Mr. George andRollo; and so, passing by him, they went in.

  They passed in under immense arches of the most massive masonry, andbetween the great piers built to sustain the arches, until they reachedthe arena. There was a broad gravel walk passing across the arena fromend to end, and another leading around the circumference of it. The restof the surface was covered with grass, smooth and green.

  The form of the arena was oval, as has already been said, and on everyside there ascended the sloping tiers, rising one above another to avast height, on which the seats for the spectators had been placed. Mr.George and Rollo advanced along the central walk, and looked aroundthem, surveying the scene,--their minds filled with emotions of wonderand awe.

  "What a monstrous place it was!" said Rollo.

  "It was, indeed," said Mr. George.

  "Is it here where the men fought with the lions and the tigers?" askedRollo, pointing around him over the arena.

  "Yes," said Mr. George.

  "And up there, all around were the seats of the spectators, I suppose,"said Rollo.

  "Yes," said Mr. George, "on those slopes."

  You must know that the scats, and all the inside finish of the Coliseum,were originally of marble, and people have stripped it all away, andleft nothing but the naked masonry; and even that is all now going toruin.

  "What did they strip the marble off for?" asked Rollo.

  "To build their houses and palaces with," replied Mr. George. "Half ofthe modern palaces of Rome are built of stone and marble plundered fromthe ancient ruins."

  "O, uncle George!" exclaimed Rollo.

  "Come out here where we can sit down," said Mr. George, "and I'll tellyou all about it."

  LOOKING DOWN FROM THE COLISEUM.]

  So saying, Mr. George led the way, and Rollo followed to one side of thearena, where they could sit down on a large, flat stone, which seemed tohave been an ancient step. They were over-shadowed where they sat bypiers and arches, and by the masses of weeds and shrubbery that weregrowing on the mouldering summits of them, and waving in the wind.

  In the centre of the arena was a large cross, with a sort of platformaround it, and steps to go up. And all around the arena, on the sides,at equal distances, there extended a range of little chapels, withcrucifixes and other Catholic symbols.

  The arena of the Coliseum was kept in very neat order. For a wonder,there were no beggars to be seen, but instead of them there were variousparties of well-dressed visitors walking about the paths, or sitting onthe massive stone fragments which lay under the ruined arches.

  High up above these arches, the sloping platforms, on which the seatsformerly were placed, were to be seen rising one above another, tierafter tier, to a great height, with the ruins of galleries, corridors,and vaulted passage ways passing around among them. The upper surfacesof all these ruins were covered with grass and shrubbery.

  "What has become of all the seats, uncle George?" said Rollo.

  "Why, the seats, I suppose, were made of marble," replied Mr. George,"or some other valuable material, and so all the stones have been takenaway."

  Presently Rollo saw a party of visitors coming into view far up amongthe upper stories of the ruins.

  "Look, uncle George! Look!" said he; "there are some people away upthere, as high as the third or fourth story. How do you suppose they gotup there? Couldn't you and I go?"

  "I presume so," said Mr. George. "I suppose that, in the way ofclimbing, you and I can go as high as most people."

  While Mr. George was saying this, Rollo was adjusting his opera glass tohis eyes, in order to take a nearer view of the party among the ruins.

  "There are four of them," said he. "I see a gentleman, and two ladies,and a little girl. They seem to be gathering something."

  "Plants, perhaps," said Mr. George, "and flowers."

  "Plants!" said Rollo, contemptuously; "I don't believe that any thinggrows out of such old stones and mortar but weeds."

  "We call such things weeds," said Mr. George, "when they grow in thegardens or fields, and are in the way; but when they grow in wild placeswhere they belong, they are plants and flowers."

  "The gentleman is gathering them from high places all around him," saidRollo, "and is giving them to the ladies, and they are putting them inbetween the leaves of a book."

  "They are going to carry them away as souvenirs of the Coliseum, Isuppose," said Mr. George.

  "The girl has got a white stone in her hand," said Rollo.

  "Perhaps it is a piece of marble that she has picked up," said Mr.George.

  "Now she has thrown down her white stone," said Rollo, "and has begun togather flowers."

  "There is an immense number of plants that grow in and upon theColiseum," said Mr. George. "A botanist once made a complete collectionof them. How many species do you think he found?"

  "Twenty," said Rollo.

  "Guess again," said Mr. George.

  "Fifteen," said Rollo.

  "O, you must guess more, not less," said Mr. George.

  "Thirty," said Rollo.

  "More," said Mr. George.

  "Forty," said Rollo.

  "Add one cipher to it," said Mr. George, "and then you will be prettynear right."

  "What! four hundred?" exclaimed Rollo.

  "Yes," said Mr. George. "A botanist made a catalogue of four hundred andtwenty plants, all growing on t
he ruins of this single building."

  "O, uncle George!" said Rollo; "I don't think that can possibly be. Imean to see."

  So saying, Rollo laid the opera glass down upon the seat where he hadbeen sitting, and began to examine the masses of old ruined masonry nearhim, with a view of seeing how many different kinds of plants he couldfind.

  "Must I count every thing, uncle George?" said Rollo.

  "Yes," said Mr. George, "every thing that is a plant. Every differentkind of sprig, or little weed, that you can find--mosses, lichens, andall."

  Rollo began to count. He very soon got up to twenty, and so he came tothe conclusion that the guide book--which was the authority on which Mr.George had stated the number of plants found upon the ruins--was right.

  While Rollo was thus engaged, Mr. George had remained quietly in hisseat, and had occupied himself with studying the guide book.

  "Uncle George," said Rollo, when he came back, "I give it up. I have nodoubt that there are hundreds of plants in all, growing on these ruins."

  "Yes," said Mr. George; "whatever is stated in this book is very apt toprove true."

  "What else did you read about, uncle George," said Rollo, "while I wascounting the plants?"

  "I read," said Mr. George, "that the Coliseum was begun about A. D. 72,by one of the Roman emperors."

  "Then it is almost eighteen hundred years old," said Rollo.

  "Yes," said Mr. George; "and when it was first opened after it wasfinished, they had a sort of inauguration of it, with greatcelebrations, that continued one hundred days."

  "That is over three months," said Rollo.

  "Yes," said Mr. George; "it was a very long celebration. During thistime about five thousand wild beasts were killed in the combats in thearena."

  "This very arena right before us?" said Rollo.

  "Yes," said Mr. George.

  On hearing this, Rollo looked upon the arena with renewed interest andpleasure. He endeavored to picture to himself the lions, and tigers, andleopards, and other ferocious wild beasts, growling, snarling, andtumbling over each other there, in the desperate combats which theywaged among themselves, or with the men sent in to fight with them.

  "It continued to be used for such fights," added Mr. George, "for fourhundred years; and during this time a great many Christians were sent into be devoured by wild beasts, for the entertainment of the populace.

  "After a while," continued Mr. George, "the Roman empire becameChristian; and then the government put a stop to all these savagegames."

  "And what did they do with the Coliseum then?" asked Rollo.

  "They did not know what to do with it for a time," said Mr. George; "butat last, when wars broke out, and Rome was besieged, they tried to turnit into a fortress."

  "I should think it would make an excellent fortress," said Rollo, "onlythere are no port-holes for the cannon."

  "Ah! but they had no cannon in those days," said Mr. George. "They hadonly bows and arrows, spears, javelins, and such sort of weapons, sothat they did not require any port-holes. The men could shoot theirweapons from the top of the wall."

  In further conversation on the subject of the Coliseum, Mr. Georgeexplained to Rollo how, in process of time, Rome was taken by thebarbarians, and a great portion of the Coliseum was destroyed; and then,afterwards, when peace was restored, how the government, instead ofrepairing the building, pulled it to pieces still more, in order to getmarble, and hewn stone, and sculptured columns, to build palaces with;and how, at a later period, there was a plan formed for converting thevast structure into a manufactory; and how, in connection with thisplan, immense numbers of shops were fitted up in the arcades and archesbelow,--and how the plan finally failed, after having cost the pope whoundertook it ever so many thousand Roman dollars; how, after this, itremained for many centuries wholly neglected, and the stones, falling infrom above, together with the broken bricks and mortar, formed on thearena below, and all around the walls outside, immense heaps of rubbish;and finally, how, about one hundred years ago, people began to take aninterest in the ruins, and to wish to clear away the rubbish, and toprop up and preserve what remained of the walls and arches.

  "It was the French that cleared away the rubbish at last," said Mr.George, "and put the ruins in order."

  "The French!" repeated Rollo; "how came the French here?"

  "I don't know," said Mr. George. "The French are every where. Andwherever they go, they always take with their armies a corps ofphilosophers, artists, and men of science, who look up every thing thatis curious, and put it in order, and preserve it if they can."

  "Then I am glad they came here," said Rollo.

  Here Mr. George shut his book, and rose from his seat, saying, as he didso,--

  "The Coliseum is so large that it covers six acres of ground."

  "Six acres?" repeated Rollo.

  "Yes," said Mr. George. "It is six hundred and twenty feet long. That ismonstrous for such a building; but then the steamship Great Eastern isabout a hundred feet longer."

  "Then the Great Eastern is bigger than the Coliseum."

  "She is longer," said Mr. George, "but she is not so wide nor so high."

  "And which, all things considered, is the greatest work, do you think?"asked Rollo.

  "The Coliseum may have cost the most labor," said Mr. George, "but theGreat Eastern is far above it, in my opinion, in every element of realgreatness. The Coliseum is a most wonderful structure, no doubt; but thebuilding of an iron ship like the Great Eastern, to be propelled bysteam against all the storms and tempests of the ocean, to the remotestcorners of the earth, with ten thousand tons of merchandise on board, orten thousand men, is, in my opinion, much the greatest exploit."

  "At any rate," said Rollo, "the Coliseum makes the finest ruin."

  "I am not certain of that, even," said Mr. George. "Suppose that theGreat Eastern were to be drawn up upon the shore somewhere near London,and be abandoned there; and that then the whole world should relapseinto barbarism, and remain so for a thousand years, and afterwards thereshould come a revival of science and civilization, and people shouldcome here to see the ruins of the Coliseum, and go to London to seethose of the great ship, I think they would consider the ship thegreater wonder of the two."

  "I think they would," said Rollo, "if they understood it all as well."

  "They could not be easily made to believe, I suppose," said Mr. George,"that such an immense structure, all of iron, could have been made, andlaunched, and then navigated all over the world just by the power of themaze of iron beams and wheels, and machinery, which they would see inruins in the hold."

  "Uncle George," said Rollo, "what curious bricks the Romans used!"

  So saying, Rollo pointed to the bricks in a mass of masonry near wherethey were standing. These bricks, like all those that were used in theconstruction of the building, were very flat. They were a great deallonger and a great deal wider than our bricks, and were yet not muchmore than half as thick. This gave them a very thin and flat appearance.Instead of being red, too, they were of a yellow color.

  These bricks had not originally been used for outside works, but onlyfor filling in the solid parts of the walls, and for forming the arches.But the stones with which the brick masonry had been covered andconcealed having been removed, the bricks were of course in many placesbrought to view.

  After looking about for some time, Rollo found a brick with two lettersstamped upon it. It was evident that the letters had been stamped uponthe clay in the making of the brick, while it was yet soft. The letterswere P. D.

  "Look, uncle George!" said Rollo; "look at those letters! What do yousuppose they mean?"

  "That is very curious," said Mr. George; and so saying he proceeded toexamine the letters very closely.

  "They were evidently stamped upon the brick," he said, "when it wassoft. Perhaps they are the initials of the maker's name."

  "I mean to look and see if all the bricks are stamped so," said Rollo.

  So Rollo be
gan to examine the other bricks wherever he could find anywhich had a side exposed to view; but though he found some whichcontained the letters, there were many others where no letters were tobe seen.

  "Perhaps the letters are on the under side," said Rollo. "I mean to geta stone and knock up some of the bricks, if I can, and see."

  "No," said Mr. George; "that won't do."

  "Yes, uncle George," said Rollo; "I want to see very much. And besides,I want to get a piece of a brick with the letters on it, to carry homeas a specimen."

  "A specimen of what?" asked Mr. George.

  "A specimen of the Coliseum," said Rollo.

  "No," said Mr. George; "I don't think that will do. They don't want tohave the Coliseum knocked to pieces, and carried off any more."

  "Who don't?" asked Rollo.

  "The government," said Mr. George; "the pope."

  "But it's very hard," said Rollo, "if the popes, after plundering theColiseum themselves for hundreds of years, and carrying off all thebeautiful marbles, and columns, and statues, to build their palaceswith, can't let an American boy like me take away a little bit of abrick to put into my museum for a specimen."

  Mr. George laughed and walked on. Rollo, who never persisted in desiringto do any thing which his uncle disapproved of, quietly followed him.

  "Uncle George," said Rollo, "how do you suppose we can get up into theupper part, among the tiers of seats?"

  "I think there must be a staircase somewhere," said Mr. George. "We willramble about, and see if we do not find one."

  So they walked on. They went sometimes along the margin of the arena,and then at other times they turned in under immense openings inmasonry, and walked along the vaulted corridors, which were built in thethickness of the walls. There were several of these corridors side byside, each going entirely round the arena. They were surmounted bystupendous arches, which were built to sustain the upper portions of thebuilding, which contained the seats for the spectators, and the passageson the upper floors leading to them.

  VIEW OF THE LOWER CORRIDOR.]

  After rambling on through and among the corridors for some time, Mr.George and Rollo, on emerging again into the arena, came to a woodengate at the foot of a broad flight of stone steps, which seemed to leadup into the higher stories of the ruin.

  "Ah!" exclaimed Rollo, as soon as he saw this gateway and the flight ofsteps beyond it, "this is the gate that leads up to the upper tiers."

  "Yes," replied Mr. George, "only it is shut and locked."

  Rollo went to the gate and took hold of it, but found, as Mr. George hadsaid, that it was locked.

  "But here comes the custodian," said Mr. George.

  Rollo looked, and saw a man coming along the side of the arena with akey in his hand. When the man came near, he looked at Mr. George andRollo, and also at the door, and then asked a question in Italian.

  "_Si, signore_," said Mr. George.

  So the man advanced and unlocked the door. As soon as he had unlockedit, and Mr. George and Rollo had passed through, he looked towards themagain, and asked another question.

  "_No, signore_," said Mr. George.

  Mr. George and Rollo then began to go up the stairs, while the man,having locked the door after them, went away.