DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4099#0288
260 CRUELTY OF THE ROMANS.
the authority of Pliny,' that a theatre, erected by Scaurus in that
capital, could contain eighty thousand people, and was decorated
with three hundred and sixty columns, and three thousand statues.
It is needless to mention the Flavian amphitheatre, which contained
eighty thousand spectators, and in which five thousand wild beasts
were let loose at the same moment to tear each other to pieces for
the amusement of the Roman ladies. The disgusting combats of
men and bulls, which are still exhibited at Rome, in the mausoleum
of Augustus, are a poor, but admired relic of this ancient barbarism,
and show that the love of savage sports is still predominant with the
modern inhabitants of that city.
Besides the temple of iEsculapius, and the theatre, Pausanias
mentions a temple2 of Diana, another3 of Venus and of Themis, and
a stadium formed, according to the Grecian custom, with a bank
of earth/ The structures raised by Antoninus Pius were a bath, a
temple5 of the gods Epidotai; and another,6 consecrated to the
associated divinities of Hygeia, iEsculapius, and the ^Egyptian
Apollo. He also restored the portico7 of Kotuos, and built an hospital
for the sick. Livy,8 speaking of the temple of iEsculapius, seems to
say that it was completely ruined, " Nunc vestigiis revulsorum dono-
rum, turn donis dives erat, quae remediorum salutarium aegri mer-
cedem sacraverant Deo/' It was evidently raised from its ruins
long after that period. Strabo9 says that the temple was always
filled with sick persons, and that it teemed with dedicatory tablets,
in which were described the maladies from which each patient had
been liberated, as at Kos, and Trikka. The remains of the stadium
are visible, near the great temple; the receptacles for the water of
the bath of Antonine are also preserved, and lined with stucco; a
1 Nat. hist. b. 36. c. 15.—See also Lipsius de magnif. Roman. 3. ■ va<;;.
3 i£f ov. * yys %w/xa. 5 VtfM. 6 vzov. < S/oa.
8 B. 45. c. 28.
1>- S. p. :;" k—xeu Ixv axaxf/aevicv mvoMuiv, er 'a; a.vxy By ^a^ivdi hyyavavaiv set hoinrirxs.
the authority of Pliny,' that a theatre, erected by Scaurus in that
capital, could contain eighty thousand people, and was decorated
with three hundred and sixty columns, and three thousand statues.
It is needless to mention the Flavian amphitheatre, which contained
eighty thousand spectators, and in which five thousand wild beasts
were let loose at the same moment to tear each other to pieces for
the amusement of the Roman ladies. The disgusting combats of
men and bulls, which are still exhibited at Rome, in the mausoleum
of Augustus, are a poor, but admired relic of this ancient barbarism,
and show that the love of savage sports is still predominant with the
modern inhabitants of that city.
Besides the temple of iEsculapius, and the theatre, Pausanias
mentions a temple2 of Diana, another3 of Venus and of Themis, and
a stadium formed, according to the Grecian custom, with a bank
of earth/ The structures raised by Antoninus Pius were a bath, a
temple5 of the gods Epidotai; and another,6 consecrated to the
associated divinities of Hygeia, iEsculapius, and the ^Egyptian
Apollo. He also restored the portico7 of Kotuos, and built an hospital
for the sick. Livy,8 speaking of the temple of iEsculapius, seems to
say that it was completely ruined, " Nunc vestigiis revulsorum dono-
rum, turn donis dives erat, quae remediorum salutarium aegri mer-
cedem sacraverant Deo/' It was evidently raised from its ruins
long after that period. Strabo9 says that the temple was always
filled with sick persons, and that it teemed with dedicatory tablets,
in which were described the maladies from which each patient had
been liberated, as at Kos, and Trikka. The remains of the stadium
are visible, near the great temple; the receptacles for the water of
the bath of Antonine are also preserved, and lined with stucco; a
1 Nat. hist. b. 36. c. 15.—See also Lipsius de magnif. Roman. 3. ■ va<;;.
3 i£f ov. * yys %w/xa. 5 VtfM. 6 vzov. < S/oa.
8 B. 45. c. 28.
1>- S. p. :;" k—xeu Ixv axaxf/aevicv mvoMuiv, er 'a; a.vxy By ^a^ivdi hyyavavaiv set hoinrirxs.