DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61893#0141
Ch Al. THROUGH ITALY. 113
to this celebrated monument, and passed the
greater part of the morning in climbing its seats
and ranging over its spacious arena. The ex-
ternal circumference, forming the ornamental
part, has been destroyed long ago; with the ex-
ception of one piece of wall containing three
stories of four arches, rising to the height of
more than eighty feet. The pilasters and de-
corations of the outside were Tuscan, an order
well adapted by its simplicity to such vast fabrics.
Forty-five ranges of seats, rising from the arena
to the top of the second story of outward arches,
remain entire, with the different vomitoria, and
their respective staircases and galleries of com-
munication. The whole is formed of blocks of
marble, and presents such a mass of compact
solidity, as might have defied the influence of
time, had not its powers been aided by the more
active operations of barbarian destruction. The
arena is not, as in Addison’s time, filled up and
level with the first row of seats, but a few feet
lower; though still somewhat higher than it was
in its original state. As it is not my intention to
give an architectural account of this celebrated
edifice, I shall merely inform the reader, in order
to give him a general idea of its vastness, that
the outward circumference is 1290 feet, the
length of the arena 218, and its breadth 129:
VOL. I.
T
to this celebrated monument, and passed the
greater part of the morning in climbing its seats
and ranging over its spacious arena. The ex-
ternal circumference, forming the ornamental
part, has been destroyed long ago; with the ex-
ception of one piece of wall containing three
stories of four arches, rising to the height of
more than eighty feet. The pilasters and de-
corations of the outside were Tuscan, an order
well adapted by its simplicity to such vast fabrics.
Forty-five ranges of seats, rising from the arena
to the top of the second story of outward arches,
remain entire, with the different vomitoria, and
their respective staircases and galleries of com-
munication. The whole is formed of blocks of
marble, and presents such a mass of compact
solidity, as might have defied the influence of
time, had not its powers been aided by the more
active operations of barbarian destruction. The
arena is not, as in Addison’s time, filled up and
level with the first row of seats, but a few feet
lower; though still somewhat higher than it was
in its original state. As it is not my intention to
give an architectural account of this celebrated
edifice, I shall merely inform the reader, in order
to give him a general idea of its vastness, that
the outward circumference is 1290 feet, the
length of the arena 218, and its breadth 129:
VOL. I.
T