managed principally, at least, by the Hieromnemons, who appear, from a verse in Aristophanes, 'Nub.' 613, to have been appointed by lot, but we are not as well informed respecting the limits which separated their duties from those of the Pylagoræ, nor respecting the relative rank which they held in the council. (See Æsch. Contr. Ctes.' p. 6872; Fals. Leg. p. 43.) The little that is told is to be found for the most part in the ancient lexicographers and scholiasts, or commentators, who knew perhaps nothing about the matter, and whose accounts are sufficiently perplexing to give room for great variety of opinions among modern writers. Some have seemed to themselves to discover that the office of the Hieromnemons was of comparatively late creation, that these new deputies were of higher rank than the Pylagore, and that one of them always presided in the council; others again have supposed, what, indeed, an ancient lexicographer has expressly asserted, that they acted as secretaries or scribes. Two Amphictyonic decrees are found at length in the oration of Demosthenes on the Crown, both of which begin thus: "When Cleinagoras was priest, at the vernal Pylaa, it was resolved by the Pylagora and the Synedri (joint councillors) of the Amphictyons, and the common body of the Amphictyons." Some have assumed that Cleinagoras the priest was the presiding Hier omnemon, and others that the Hieromnemons are comprehended under the general name of Pylagoræ. Eschines again has mentioned a decree in which the Hieromnemons were ordered to repair at an appointed time to a session at Pyla, carrying with them the copy of a certain decree lately made by the council. Of the council, as it existed before the time of Eschines, a few notices are to be found in the ancient historians, some of which are not unimportant. According to Hero lotus, vii. 200, the council held its meetings near Thermopylæ, in a plain which surrounded the village of Anthela, and in which was a temple dedicated to the Amphictyonic Ceres; to whom, as Strabo tells us, ix. 429, the Amphictyons sacrificed at every session. This temple, according to Callimachus, Ep.' 41, was founded by Acrisius; and hence arose, as Müller supposes in his history of the Dorians (vol. i. p. 289, English translation), the tradition mentioned We are told by Strabo, ix. 418, that after the destruction of Crissa by an Amphictyonic army, under the command of Eurylochus, a Thessalian prince, the Amphictyons instituted the celebrated games, which from that time were called the Pythian, in addition to the simple musical contests already established by the Delphians. Pausanias also, x. 7., attributes to the Amphictyons, both the institution and subsequent regulation of the games; and it is supposed by the most skilful critics, that one occasion of the exercise of this authority, recorded by Pausanias, can be identified with the victory of Eurylochus, mentioned by Strabo. According to this supposition, the Crissaan, and the celebrated Cirrhaan war, are the same, and Eurylochus must have lived as late as B.C. 591. But the history of these matters is full of difficulty, partly occasioned by the frequent confusion of the names of Crissa and Cirrha.

above.

From the scanty materials left us by the ancient records, the following sketch of the history of this famous council is offered to the reader, as resting on some degree of probability

The council was originally formed by a confederacy of Greek nations or tribes, which inhabited a part of the country afterwards called Thessaly. In the lists which have come down to us of the constituent tribes, the names belong for the most part to those hordes of primitive Greeks which are first heard of, and some of which continued to dwell north of the Malian bay. The bond of union was the common worship of Ceres, near whose temple at Anthela its meetings were held. With the worship of the goddess was afterwards joined that of the Delphic Apollo; and thenceforth the council met alternately at Delphi and Pylæ. Its original seat and old connections were kept in remembrance by the continued use of the term Pylæa, to designate its sessions wherever held; though eventually the Delphic god enjoyed more than an equal share of consideration in the confederacy. It may be remarked that the Pythian Apollo, whose worship in its progress southwards can be faintly traced from the confines of Macedonia, was the peculiar god of the Dorians who were of the Hellenic race; whilst the worship of Ceres was probably of Pelasgic origin, and appears at one time to have been placed in opposition to that of Apollo, and in great measure to have retired before it. There is no direct authority for asserting that the joint worship was not coeval with the establishment of the council; but it seems probable from facts, which it is not necessary to examine here, that an Amphictyonic confederacy existed among the older residents, the worshippers of Ceres, in the neighbourhood of the Malian bay, before the hostile intruders with their rival deity were joined with them in a friendly coalition. The council met for religious purposes, the main object being to protect the temples and maintain the worship of the two deities. With religion were joined, according to the customs of the times, political objects; and the jurisdiction of the Amphictyons extended to matters which concerned the safety and internal peace of the confederacy. Hence the Amphictyonic laws, the provisions of which may be partly understood from the terms of the Amphictyonic oath. Confederacies and councils, similar to those of the Amphictyons, were common among the ancient Greeks. Such we those which united in federal republics the Greek colonists of Asia Minor, of the Eolian, Ionian, and Dorian nations. Such also was the confederacy of seven states whose council met in the temple of

ARTS AND SCI. DIV. VOL. I.

Neptune, in the island of Calauria, and which is even called by Strabo, viii. 374, an Amphictyonic council.

The greater celebrity of the northern Amphictyons is attributable partly to the superior fame and authority of the Delphic Apollo; still more, perhaps, to their connection with powerful states which grew into importance at a comparatively late period. The migrating hordes, sent forth from the tribes of which originally or in very early times the confederacy was composed, carried with them their Amphictyonic rights, and thus at every remove lengthened the arms of the council. The great Dorian migration especially planted Amphictyonic cities in the remotest parts of Southern Greece. But this diffusion, whilst it extended its fame, was eventually fatal to its political authority. The early members, nearly equal perhaps in rank and power, whilst they remained in the neighbourhood of Mounts Eta and Parnassus, might be willing to submit their differences to the judgment of the Amphictyonic body. But the case was altered when Athens and Sparta became the leading powers in Greece. Sparta, for instance, would not readily pay obedience to the decrees of a distant council, in which the deputies of some inconsiderable towns in Doris sat on equal terms with their own. Accordingly in a most important period of Grecian history, during a long series of bloody contests between Amphictyonic states, we are unable to discover a single mark of the council's interference. On the other hand, we have from Thucydides i. 112, a strong negative proof of the insignificance into which its authority had fallen. The Phocians (B.C. 448) possessed themselves by force of the temple of Apollo at Delphi; were deprived of it by the Lacedæmonians, by whom it was restored to the Delphians; and were again replaced by the Athenians. In this, which is expressly called by the historian a sacred war, not even an allusion is made to the existence of an Amphictyonic council. After the decay of its political power there still remained its religious jurisdiction; but it is not easy to determine its limits, or the objects to which it was directed. In a treaty of peace made (B.C. 421) between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians (Thucyd. v. 17), it was provided that the temple of Apollo at Delphi, and the Delphians, should be independent. This provision, however, appears to have had reference especially to the claims of the Phocians to include Delphi in the number of their towns, and not to have interfered in any respect with the superintendence of the temple and oracle, which the Amphictyons had long exercised in conjunction with the Delphians. We have seen that the Amphictyons were charged in the earliest times with the duty of protecting the temple and the worship of the god. But the right of superintendence, of regulating the mode of proceeding in consulting the oracle, in making the sacrifices, and in the celebration of the games, was apparently of much later origin, and may, with some probability, be dated from the victory gained by Eurylochus and the Amphictyonic army. The exercise of this right had the effect of preserving to the council permanently a considerable degree of importance. In early times the Delphic god had enjoyed immense authority. He sent out colonies, founded cities, and originated weighty measures of various kinds. Before the times of which we have lately been speaking, his influence had been somewhat diminished; but the oracle was still most anxiously consulted both on public and private matters. The custody of the temple was also an object of jealous interest on account of the vast treasures contained within its walls. The Greek writers, who notice the religious jurisdiction of the council, point our attention almost exclusively to Delphi; but it may be inferred from a remarkable fact mentioned by Tacitus, Ann.' iv. 14, that it was much more extensive. The Samians, when petitioning in the time of the Emperor Tiberius for the confirmation of a certain privilege to their temple of Juno, pleaded an ancient decree of the Amphictyons in their favour. The words of the historian seem to imply that the decree was made at an early period in the existence of Greek colonies in Asia Minor, and he says that the decision of the Amphictyons on all matters had at that time pre-eminent authority The sacred wars, as they were called, which were originated by the Amphictyons in the exercise of their judicial authority, can here be noticed only so far as they help to illustrate the immediate subject of inquiry. The Cirrhæan war, in the time of Solon, has already been incidentally mentioned. The port of Cirrha, a town on the Crissæan bay, afforded the readiest access from the coast to Delphi. The Cirrhæans, availing themselves of their situation, grievously oppressed by heavy exactions the numerous pilgrims to the Delphic temple. The Amphictyons, by direction of the oracle, proclaimed a sacred war to avenge the cause of the god; that is, to correct an abuse which was generally offensive, and particularly injurious to the interests of the Delphians. Cirrha was destroyed, the inhabitants reduced to slavery, their lands consecrated to Apollo, and a curse was pronounced on all who should hereafter cultivate them. We are told that Solon acted a prominent part on this occasion, and that great deference was shown to his counsels. Mr. Mitford, indeed, has discovered without help from history, which is altogether silent on the subject, that he was the author of sundry important innovations, and that he in fact remodelled the constitution of the Amphictyonic body. He has even been able to catch a view of the secret intentions of the legislator, and of the political principles which guided him. But in further assigning to Solon the command of the Amphictyonic army, he is opposed to the direct testimony of the ancient historians.

From the conclusion of the Cirrhæan war to the time of Philip of

U

Macedon, an interval exceeding two centuries, we hear little more of the Amphictyons, than that they rebuilt the temple at Delphi, which had been destroyed by fire B.C. 548; that they set a price on the head of Ephialtes, who betrayed the cause of the Greeks at Thermopyla, and conferred public honours on the patriots who died there; and that they erected a monument to the famous diver Scyllias, as a reward for the information which, as the story goes, he conveyed under water from the Thessalian coast to the commanders of the Grecian fleet at Artemisium. If Plutarch may be trusted, the power of the Amphictyons had not at this time fallen into contempt. When a proposition was made by the Lacedæmonians to expel from the council all the states which had not taken part in the war against the Persians, it was resisted successfully by Themistocles, or the ground that the exclusion of three considerable states, Argos, Thebes, and the Thessalians, would give to the more powerful of the remaining members a preponderating influence in the council dangerous to the rest of Greece.

After having, for a long period, nearly lost sight of the Amphictyons in history, we find them venturing, in the fallen fortunes of Sparta, to impose a heavy fine on that state as a punishment for an old offence, the seizure of the Theban Cadmeia, the payment of which, however, they made no attempt to enforce. In this case, as well as in the celebrated Phocian war, the Amphictyonic council can be considered only as an instrument in the hands of the Thebans, who after their successful resistance to Sparta, appear to have acquired a preponderating influence in it, and who found it convenient to use its name and authority, whilst prosecuting their own schemes of vengeance or ambition. Though the charge brought against the Phocians was that of impiety in cultivating a part of the accursed Cirrhæan plain, there is no reason to think that any religious feeling was excited, at least in the earlier part of the contest; and Amphictyonic states were eagerly engaged as combatants on both sides. For an account of this war, the reader is referred to a general history of Greece. The council was so far affected by the result, that it was compelled to receive a new member, and in fact a master, in the person of Philip of Macedon, who was thus rewarded for his important services at the expense of the Phocians, who were expelled from the confederacy. They were, however, at a subsequent period restored, in consequence of their noble exertions in the cause of Greece and the Delphic god against the Gauls. It may be remarked, that the testimony of the Phocian general Philomelus, whatever may be its value, is rather in favour of the supposition that the council was not always connected with Delphi. He justifies his opposition to its decrees, on the ground that the right which the Amphictyons claimed was comparatively a modern usurpation. In the case of the Amphissians, whose crime was similar to that of the Phocians, the name of the Amphictyons was again readily employed; but Eschines, who seems to have been the principal instigator of the war, had doubtless a higher object in view than that of punishing the Amphissians for impiety.

The Amphictyonic council long survived the independence of Greece, and was, probably, in the constant exercise of its religious functions. So late as the battle of Actium, it retained enough of its former dignity at least, to induce Augustus to claim a place in it for his new city of Nicopolis. Strabo says that in his time it had ceased to exist. If his words are to be understood literally, it must have been revived; for we know from Pausanias (x. 8.), that it was in existence in the second century after Christ. It reckoned at that time twelve constituent states, who furnished in all thirty deputies; but a preponderance was given to the new town of Nicopolis, which sent six deputies to each meeting. Delphi sent two to each meeting, and Athens, one deputy; the other states sent their deputies according to a certain cycle, and not to every meeting. For the time of its final dissolution, we have no authority on which we can rely.

It is not easy to estimate with much certainty the effects produced on the Greek nation generally, by the institution of this council. It is, however, something more than conjecture, that the country which was the seat of the original members of the Amphictyonic confederacy, was also the cradle of the Greek nation, such as it is known to us in the historical ages. This country was subject to incursions from barbarous tribes, especially on its western frontier, probably of a very different character from the occupants of whom we have been speaking. In the pressure of these incursions, the Amphictyonic confederacy may have been a powerful instrument of preservation, and must have tended to maintain at least the separation of its members from their foreign neighbours, and so to preserve the peculiar character of that gifted people, from which knowledge and civilisation have flowed over the whole western world. It may also have aided the cause of humanity; for it is reasonable to suppose that in earlier times, differences between its own members were occasionally composed by interference of the council; and thus it may have been a partial check on the butchery of war, and may at least have diminished the miseries resulting from the cruel lust of military renown. In one respect, its influence was greatly and permanently beneficial. In common with the great public festivals, it helped to give a national unity to numerous independent states, of which the Greek nation was composed. But it had a merit which did not belong to those festivals in an equal degree. It cannot be doubted that the Amphictyonic laws, which regulated the originally small confederacy, were the foundation of that international law which was recognised throughout Greece; and which, imperfect as it was, had

some effect in regulating beneficially national intercourse among the Greeks in peace and war, and, so far as it went, was opposed to that brute force and lawless aggression, which no Greek felt himself restrained by any law from exercising towards those who were not of the Greek name. To the investigator of that dark but interesting period in the existence of the Greek nation, which precedes its authentic records, the hints which have been left us on the earlier days of this council, faint and scanty as they are, bave still their value. They contribute something to those fragments of evidence with which the learning and still more the ingenuity of the present generation are converting mythical legends into a body of ancient history. AMPHIPROSTYLE. This is an architectural term, compounded of three Greek words. It is used to designate structures having the form of an ancient Greek or Roman parallelogramic temple, with a prostyle or portico on each of its ends or fronts, but with no columns on its sides or flanks. [TEMPLE.]

AMPHI'SCII, literally double shadowed, a Greek term applied by ancient astronomers to the inhabitants of the torrid zone, with whom the sun passes the meridian at noon, sometimes on the north, sometimes on the south, of the zenith, and whose shadows at noon are therefore turned to the south during one part of the year, and to the north during the remainder.

AMPHITHEATRE, the name by which a species of structure much used by the Romans, and combining the forms and some of the uses

of the ancient theatre and circus, is generally distinguished; indeed most of the Roman classical writers apply to it the name of circus also. A distinction, however, is now always made; the term amphitheatre being applied to the species of structure here referred to, and circus being restricted to the Roman stadium or hippodrome. [CIRCUS.]

The name amphitheatre seems intended to convey the idea of a double theatre; but what is termed a theatre is, with reference to its original uses, more strictly an odeum, and what we call an amphitheatre was truly a theatre. The one was for hearing music and recitations, and the other for seeing sights, -as the words import. [THEATRE.]

The form of the amphitheatre is, on the plan, that of an ellipsis, with a series of arcaded concentric walls, separating corridors which have constructions with staircases and radiating passages between them. It encloses an open space called the arena, either on, or a very little above or below the level of the surface of the ground on which the structure is raised. From the innermost concentric wall,-which bounds the arena, and which will be from ten to fifteen feet above its level,-an inclined plane runs upwards and outwards over the intermediate wall, staircases, and corridors, to a gallery or galleries over the outermost corridors. The inner and upper part of the inclined plane is covered with a graduated series of benches following the general form of the plan; these are intercepted at intervals by radial passages leading by a more easy gradation to and from the staircases which pass through the substructions of the benches to the corridors. These corridors, in the principal stories, continue uninterruptedly all round the edifice, and afford easy access to, and egress from, every part. In cases where the radiating passages through the bank of benches were few, concentric platforms or precinctions went round to make the communications complete. The external elevation of an amphitheatre is almost dictated by its internal arrangement and construction, and it generally falls into two or more stories of open arches, which are necessary to give light and air to the corridors and staircases.

The Amphitheatre seems to have been contrived for the more convenient exhibition of such shows as were confined throughout to the same place, such as combats, which could not be seen advantageously along the length of the circus; and moreover the circus had not the lofty stereobate, podium, or cincture, to protect the spectators from the savage and powerful brute animals which were frequently used in the public shows of the Romans. Indeed, it is reported that this defect was a cause of the abandonment of the circus for such exhibitions as required the use of wild beasts. The great length also of the circus would be a sufficient reason for adopting the more compressed and lofty form given to the amphitheatre, whose arrangement admits of a far greater number of persons being brought within a

smaller area, and consequently within more convenient view of the

arena.

At first, and for some time, amphitheatres were constructed of timber. Several accidents occurred, indeed, in consequence of the use of such, from fire, and from their incapacity to bear the weights they were subjected to; and, in one instance, it is related (Tacitus, Annal.' iv. 62; Suetonius, Tiber.' 40), that an amphitheatre of this kind fell during the exhibition of the shows, in the town of Fidena, when a very large number of persons, variously stated at 20,000 and 50,000, were either killed or hurt. Afterwards they were more securely and more permanently constructed of brick or stone, according to the facilities the place afforded, or the means of the people at whose expense the structures were raised.

It was in the latest period of the Republic that the Romans were debased by the gladiatorial and other shows which led to the use and construction of amphitheatres; and to the gratification of this passion for demoralising public spectacles may be attributed, in some degree, its eventual overthrow, in all but form, and the establishment of the despotism of the emperors. All the powerful men in the state who aimed still higher, sought favour with the people by these barbarous entertainments; and the sums expended and the numbers of men and beasts engaged, and for the most part destroyed, in furnishing them seem almost incredible.

The difference in the national characteristics of the Greeks and Romans is by nothing more forcibly illustrated than by the constant indications of theatres or odeums which mark the sites or immediate vicinities of ancient Greek cities, and the remains of amphitheatres which are common to those of the Romans.

To save unnecessary expense, the Grecian theatre was formed on or in the side of a hill, whenever the locality would afford this advantage; the seats were generally cut in the living rock, and such constructions added before it in the formation of the orchestra and proscenium and their accessories, as were absolutely necessary to complete the theatre. The amphitheatre of the Romans was raised, for the most part, within the town or city, on the level plain, of costly magnificence, and generally of enormous extent, while their theatres are in every respect secondary, and of inferior importance. Indeed, theatres for music and the drama are seldom found among the remains of purely Roman cities, but almost every Roman colony, and even camp, bears indications of a constructed or excavated amphitheatre. The great mother city of Rome herself can hardly be said to exhibit the remains of a theatre, unless it be that which is called the theatre of Marcellus; and even this appears to have been more used for games of the circus, or amphitheatrical shows, than for dramatic representations, and is not of extraordinary extent. But the Colosseum would contain from eighty to a hundred thousand persons;-and the little city of Pompeii, which has indeed two theatres, has, moreover, an amphitheatre, whose arena alone would contain them both. The Grecian cities of Sicily, on the contrary, exhibit remains and indications of spacious theatres where those of the amphitheatres of their Roman masters are few and unimportant; and the old cities of Greece itself, and the Grecian cities of Asia Minor, are almost entirely free from the pollution of the amphitheatre,-the Roman garrisons appearing to have contented themselves with castrensian or camp-built amphitheatres alone. Of this sort,-the castrensian amphitheatre, we have indications still existing in England;-the principal are at Banbury, Cirencester, Dorchester, Richborough, Silchester, and Caerleon; but these were originally little more than mere excavations, or turf-built cinctures made up with what walling was absolutely necessary to form the grand concentric bank of benches. In the provinces of Gaul,-both transalpine and cisalpine,-Nimes and Verona, by the remains of their amphitheatres, show how much more completely the inhabitants were nationalised, or Romanised, than were those of Greece, or of Britain.

There is, perhaps, no species of structure peculiar to the Romans, with the details of which we are so well informed, as of those of the amphitheatre, and there is hardly any one of which we have fewer descriptions by ancient writers. The remains which still exist in various places tell us much more plainly what they were than the most elaborate descriptions can do; and although there is no example of an amphitheatre in complete preservation, or even nearly so, yet the existing specimens preserve the various parts so completely, that there is but little difficulty in supplying from one of them what is defective in another. Still there are minor particulars of which we must remain ignorant, unless we take them from such descriptions as exist, or supply them from analogy. We know of no sort of ancient edifice, generally, in which so much ingenuity is displayed in the arrangement, or so much skill in the construction, as were exemplified by the Romans in the design and execution of the amphitheatre; but for architectural character, the external composition of the amphitheatre is very far from being entitled to praise.

As the most remarkable, and one of the most perfect in its details, of the remaining examples of the amphitheatre, that which is known as the Colosseum at Rome is here used to illustrate this kind of edifice; the plan and elevation are almost entirely made out from the existing remains; and the section also, to a certain extent, as well as from the analogy afforded by other examples and from probability. The vignette sketch at the head of this article is a view of the amphi

theatre of Verona, as it exists, looking down into it; this will aid the section in giving an idea of the arrangement of the benches, and the mode of access to them.

Of course,

The form of the external periphery of the plan is that of an ellipsis, whose conjugate diameter, or minor axis, is to the transverse, or major axis, as five to six, nearly, the length through, from outside to outside of the external wall, being 620 feet, and the breadth to the same extent, 513 feet; but as these dimensions are variously stated by different authorities, something may be allowed for inaccuracy, and the proportion between one diameter and the other may be fairly assumed in the original draft to have been as above stated. in the diminishing series of concentric walls, the proportion of the ellipsis is continually altering, so that the diameters of the arena are as five to eight, as nearly as may be, the length being 287 feet, and the breadth 180 feet. The difference between the external and internal diameters, of 333 feet, or 166 ft. 6 in. at each end, is occupied by four corridors and two blocks of radiating substructions,-in, or between, which are the staircases and ways from the outer corridors to the inner, and to the arena, together with the concentric or encircling walls which gird the structure, separate the corridors, and enclose the arena. Two of the surrounding corridors lie together, or adjoin each other, on the outer side; and in this particular the Colosseum exceeds every other structure of the kind of which we have any knowledge, all the rest having but one only; it thus acquires a second gallery, as may be perceived by referring to the section, in which, also, it is singular. The space covered by this immense edifice will be found to be little short of six acres. Seats were provided for 80,000 spectators; while the arena was sufficiently capacious to admit of several hundred animals fighting within it at one time, or the evolutions of numerous vessels in mimic sea-fights, and several other exhibitions requiring great amplitude of space.

The outer encircling wall is pierced with eighty openings, leaving, of course, an equal number of piers; every opening is arched, and in or against every pier is a column projecting about half its diameter, and supporting an entablature which runs in an unbroken line all round the structure. With the exception of the four central openings, which lie on the diameters of the ellipsis, and are each nearly two feet wider than the rest, all the openings are very nearly the same, their width being 14 feet 6 inches. An exactly similar series of arches, diminished only in proportion to the smaller extent of the ellipsis, separates the second corridor from the first; and another, bearing the same relation to the second series, that the second does to the first, or outer, bounds the second corridor. The inner faces of the outer piers, both faces of the piers of the intermediate series, and the outer faces of the piers of the innermost series, have pilasters projecting from them, corresponding in height with the external columnar ordinance, and bearing a moulded architrave from the top of which semicircular arches are turned over the corridors and continued all round the edifice. The accompanying plan and section exhibit the general arrangement of the corridors here described, though the details cannot, on so small a scale, be made obvious. The elevation shows how a second and third columnar ordinance, with corresponding and nearly similar arched intervals, superimpose the lowest, and each other, and that each of these two upper ordinances rests upon a continued stylobate or dado, which is broken into every interval or under every column. section indicates the repetition of the double series of outer corridors in every story, or behind every one of the three columnar ordinances, and above the outermost corridor in the third story, a mezzanine, or small middle story, for a corridor behind the first, and under the second, or upper, gallery. The same diagrams show that the third story of columns is superimposed by a pilastrated ordinance on a continued and recessed dado also, with a deep plinth; they show, moreover, that a bold and massive entablature crowns the whole elevation, and runs its cornice round in one unbroken line.

The

From the third series of eighty piers, on the ground story, as many walls, with the exceptions to be noticed, run inwards to the third concentric corridor, which is arched over as the outer ones are; the walls are continued on the other side of it to the fourth or innermost corridor, which is bounded on the other side by the massive wall of the podium encircling the arena, and is also arched over, though it is not so lofty as the other three corridors are. Between the radiating walls of the two blocks separating the second from the third, and the third from the fourth corridors, are of course as many intervals. Some of these form the traversing passages; and the rest, in the outer block, contain the staircases which lead to the upper concentric corridors, and so onward to the upper benches and galleries; in the inner block are those which lead to the lower benches, and small staircases in the thickness of the innermost wall conduct to the benches immediately on the podium. The benches extend in one long graduated and concentric series from the podium up to the level of the second story of the outer corridors, and over all the constructions within the second of them. They are bounded above by a wall which is pierced with doors; these give access from the upper and inner corridor to the radiating flights of steps which intercept the benches at intervals, and cut them up into wedges, by which name in Latin, cunei, the divisions thus made were distinguished. This encircling wall has windows in it also, which may have been requisite to aid in ventilating the immense area; or they may have been intended merely to afford a view of the arena to persons who

could not find room on the benches. The section shows that the radiating flights of steps intercepting the benches do not run through their whole extent, but are themselves intercepted and taken up again, other lines or flights commencing intermediately and at intermediate heights. Access is given to these flights at their upper ends by doorways from the corridors behind, sometimes directly, and sometimes by means of the internal staircases; and in most cases a short reversed flight of steps is made on the outside of the doorways, or vomitories, as they are termed, to afford headway, and avoid intercepting the benches further back than could be possibly helped. Almost every thing that appears in the section above the level of the third story, except the external wall itself, is restored from analogy and conjecture. The peristyle, or encircling range of columns before the upper gallery, is entirely from conjecture; but for the galleries themselves there is sufficient evidence in the existing indications of stairs, and in the toothings of the remaining walls and piers. The benches in the grand series were probably of stone, perhaps of marble; but in the galleries it is most likely they were of wood, and graduated so as to give their occupiers a view of the arena.

The most distinguished seats were those on the podium, and these were assigned to the emperor, whose place was, by way of eminence, called the suggestum, and to the senators, to foreign ambassadors, and to the great officers of the state. The magistrates appear to have sat here in their curule chairs: and the person who gave the games seems to have occupied a sort of pulpit on the podium, called the editoris tribunal. The cunei, or wedges, behind and above, were assigned to different classes, according to their rank, station, and tribe. The Vestal virgins had one of the best positions assigned to them, and with them sat uch ladies of high rank as could obtain the advantage; but the women generally occupied the open gallery at the top.

As the plan indicates, the four central entrances-those which lie on the ends of the diameters of the ellipsis-are wider than the corresponding parts of the rest of the structure. They were arcaded through, and finished more carefully, especially those leading from the sides, or on the minor axis; these, it is most likely, were reserved for those persons who went to the seats on the podium, and as they gave access also to the arena, they would of necessity be more strictly guarded. It does not appear that any part of the structure above the level of the ground, and outside of the arena, was appropriated as dens for the beasts which were used in the shows; for indeed the corridor leading to the principal seats in the amphitheatre must have been traversed by them in their way to the arena, if that were the case. Substructions were discovered and excavated a few years ago over the whole extent of the arena; these lead to a belief that it was floored with wood, so that the animals required for the day may have been kept in dens under the floor, and allowed to issue at traps in it. But some have supposed dens ranged all round the arena, within its surface and below the podium, from which the beasts would issue to the combat directly. In the Colosseum the great crowning cornice of the external elevation is pierced through at regular intervals with square holes or mortises, from which grooves are cut down through the rest of the entablature flush with the outer surface of the wall; and every mortise and groove is immediately above a strong projecting stone or corbel at about two-thirds the height of the pilastraded ordinance. These are supposed to have been used to insert and receive poles to carry an awning strained over the whole inclosure to protect the spectators from the sun and from rain. It is however difficult to understand how such an extent of cloth or canvass could have been borne in that manner without some intermediate support, of which we are not aware.

The external elevation is composed,- -as it has been already described, and as the elevation indicates, of three series or stories of attached or engaged columns with their usual accesssories, and a pilastraded ordinance, forming a species of attic, which is pierced with windows, -one in every other interspace. The lowest ordinance of columns rests on the upper step of the substructions, or on the ground floor of the structure; it is of what is termed the Doric style or order, but in the debased Roman manner, and its entablature wants the distinguishing feature of that style, the triglyph. The intervening arches are semicircular; they spring from moulded imposts, and have moulded archivolts on their outer faces. The second ordinance is in the Roman Ionic style, having voluted capitals to the columns; and the third is in the Corinthian or foliated style: these, as before stated, rest upon continued, but broken or recessed, stylobata, but their entablatures are, like the rest, perfectly unbroken throughout, and the arches in the intercolumniations in both, correspond exactly-except in minor details-with those of the lowest or Doric ordinance. The pilasters have foliated capitals also, and are called composite; they rest on deep plinths under which there is a continued and recessed dado superimposing the Corinthian entablature ;-this dado is pierced with holes or small windows, alternating with those of the ordinance above, to give light to the corridor behind the lower and under the upper gallery on the inside. The crowning entablature is made bold and effective by deep modillion blocks or consoles occupying the whole depth of the fraze.

The style of ese architectural decorations is, for the most part, rude and tasteless; the Colosseum, however, from its magnitude, from its general form, and no doubt also from the feelings arising from the contrast between its present state and ancient splendour, never fails to

produce a profound impression on the spectator. Internally the amphitheatre must always have been strikingly grand and impressive; here none of the littlenesses of storied columns appeared, but the long unbroken lines of the podium, and the graduated series of the benches, and the galleries with the encircling peristyle above-when it existed would have been as beautiful in general effect, as anything architecture ever produced.

There are varieties in the arrangement of the details of the amphitheatre, as other examples show. Intermediate concentric galleries, platforms, or precinctions sometimes intercepted the great bank of graduated benches to serve as passages of communication; and sometimes each staircase communicated directly and exclusively with one vomitory, instead of leading to encircling corridors which communicated generally, and gave access alike to every part of the enclosure.

Next in importance to the Colosseum at Rome, of existing structures of the kind, is the Ampitheatre of Verona. The prefixed vignette will give a tolerable idea of its state of preservation. The great external cincture is entirely gone, with the exception of four arches and their accessories; but the great bank of concentric benches, with the staircases leading to them, and the parts about the arena, remain in a comparatively perfect state. The outer cincture was pierced with seventy-two arches, which number appears in the inner, with the corresponding radiating walls to the traversing passages and staircases, for this had not a second encircling corridor on the outside of the stairs block as the Colosseum has. The outer dimensions of this structure were 502 feet by 401 feet; the length of its arena is 242 feet, and its breadth or length, on the conjugate, 146 feet; the form, of course, was ellipitical.

The amphitheatre at Nimes in Languedoc is large (430 feet by 378), and in comparatively good preservation. The great external cincture of an amphitheatre (436 feet by 346) remains in a very perfect state at Pola in Istria. Rome contains the remains of a second amphitheatre called the Castrensian. There are also considerable remains of an amphitheatre at Capua, rivalling in size that at Verona; and of another at Pozzuoli near Naples. That of Pompeii, it has been already remarked, was an extensive structure. It was also in many respects peculiar, but it is not so well preserved as some other examples which have been more exposed, as it suffered considerably from earthquakes before it was buried. At Pæstum, there are indications of an amphitheatre, though not a large one; at Catania, in Sicily, the upper and outer encircling corridor of an extensive amphitheatre is accessible, considerably under the level of the modern city, buried by the torrents of lava from Mount Etna. Syracuse and several other of the ancient cities of Sicily exhibit remains or indications of small amphitheatres. In our own country, as has been noticed, there are several vestiges of amphitheatres; indeed, wherever Roman remains are found to any extent, whether at home or abroad, some indication may be almost certainly discovered of the existence at some time of an amphitheatre. AMPHITRITE, is represented by Hesiod as a goddess, the wife of Poseidon or Neptune, to whom she bore three sons; and she changed Scylla into a horrible monster when she had become jealous of her. By later poets she is treated as the goddess of ocean generally. There was a temple to Neptune and Amphitrite at Tenos, as is shown by an inscription on one of the marbles of the Elgin collection in the British Museum; and in the temple of Poseidon on the Corinthian Isthmus, there was a statue of the goddess. Amphitrite was represented in Greek art as resembling Aphrodite, but her hair was confined by a net. There is a colossal statue of her in the Villa Albani at Rome. She is also frequently represented on coins, especially on those of Syracuse. AMPHITRITE. One of the group of small planets revolving between Mars and Jupiter. [ASTEROIDS.]

A'MPHORA (dupopeús), in its ordinary acceptation, means an earthen vessel, used as a measure for liquids both by the Greeks and Romans, and for preserving wine, grapes, olives, oil, and other articles which required careful keeping. It received its name on account of its two ears or handles. It is generally two feet, or two feet and a half in height : and the body, which is usually about six inches in diameter, ending upwards with a short neck, tapers toward the lower part almost to a point. This pointed end was inserted in a hole in the ground, or in a stand to keep the vessel upright. The Attic amphora contained three Roman urnæ, or seventy-two sextaries, equal to about two gallons five pints and a half of English wine-measure. The Roman, sometimes called the Italic amphora, contained two urnæ or forty-eight sextaries, about seven gallons one pint English. Homer mentions amphora both of gold and stone; in later times glass amphore were not uncommon; and the Egyptians had them of brass. There are various specimens of earthen amphora in the British Museum, in the Elgin and Townley Galleries.

There was another amphora among the Romans, which was a drymeasure, and contained about three bushels.

Earthen amphora of the Roman time have been frequently found in England. Like other domestic vessels of the Romans, they appear to have been sometimes used as funeral urns. They were also used as coffins the amphora was cut in half in the direction of its length, and the corpse having been placed inside, the two halves were united again and buried. Amphoræ used for wine were usually lined with pitch or some other coating, on account of the porous nature of the material of which they were formed. Amphora were placed as urinals