Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

AMFIIIDROMIA.

21

AMPIIITIIEATPOI.

without tlie Amphictyons raising one word in
opposition. Indeed, a few years before the
Peloponnesian war, the council was a passive
spectator of what Thucydi ies calls the Sacred
War (o Upbs 7roAe/u.os), wh3n the Lacedaemo-
nians made an expedition to Delphi, and put
the temple into the hands of the Delphians,
the Athenians, after their departure, restoring
it to the Phocians. The council is rarely
mentioned after the time of Philip. "We are
told that Augustus wished his new city,
Nicopolis (a. d. 31), to be enrolled among
the members. Pausanias, in the second
century of our era, mentions it as still exist-
ing, but deprived of all power and influence.

AMPHIDKOMIA (ip.0i6pdp.io. or 6pop.i-
ap.<pioi> ^p.ap), a family festival of the Athe-
nians, at which the newly-born child was
introduced into the family, and received its
name. The friends and relations of the
parents were invited to the festival of the
amphidromia, which was held in the evening,
and they generally appeared with presents.
The house was decorated on the outside with
olive branches when the child was a boy, or
with garlands of wool when the child was a
girl; and a repast was prepared for the
guests. The child was carried round the
fire by the nurse, and thus, as it were, pre-
sented to the gods of the house and to the
family, and at the same time received its
name, to which the guests were witnesses.
The carrying of the child round the hearth
was the principal part of the solemnity, from
which its name was derived.

AMPHITHEATRUM, amphitheatre,
was a place for the exhibition of public shows
of combatants, wild beasts, and naval engage-
ments, and was entirely surrounded with
seats for the spectators ; whereas, in those
for dramatic performances, the seats were
arranged in a semicircle facing the stage.
An amphitheatre is therefore frequently de-
scribed as a double theatre, consisting of two
such semicircles, or halves, joined together,
the spaces allotted to their orchestras becom-
ing the inner inclosure, or area, termed the
arena. The form, however, of the ancient
amphitheatres was not a circle, but invariably
an ellipse. Gladiatorial shows and combats
of wild beasts (' venationes) were first exhi-
bited in the forum and the circus; and it
appears that the ancient custom was still
preserved till the time of Julius Caesar. The
first building in the form of an amphitheatre
is said to have been erected by C. Scribonius
Curio, one of Caesar's partisans; but the
account which is given of this building sounds
rather fabulous. It is said to have consisted
of two wooden theatres, mad6 to revolve on
pilots, in such a manner that they could, by

means of windlasses and machinery, be turned
round face to face, so as to form one building.
Soon after Caesar himself erected, in the
Campus Martius, a stationary amphitheatre,
made of wood ; to which building the name
of amphitheatrvm was for the first time given
The first stone amphitheatre was built by
Statilius Taurus, in the Campus Martius, at
the desire of Augustus. This was the oi'lv
stone amphitheatre at Home till the time nf
Vespasian. One was commenced by Caliguia,
but was not continued by Claudius. The one
erected by Nero in the Campus Martius was
only a temporary building, made of wood.
The amphitheatre of Statilius Taurus was
burnt in the fire of Rome in the time of Nero ;
and hence, as a new one was needed, Vespa-
sian commenced the celebrated Amphitheatrum
Flavium in the middle of the city, in the
valley between the Caelian, the Esquiline,
and the Velia, on the spot originally occupied
by the lake or large pond attached to Nero's
palace. Vespasian did not live to finish it
It was dedicated by Titus in a. d. 80, but was
not completely finished till the reign of Domi-
tian. This immense edifice, which is even yet
comparatively entire, covered nearly six acref
of ground, and was capable of containing
about 87,000 spectators. It is called at the-
present day the Colosseum or Colisacum. The
interior of an amphitheatre was divided into
three parts, the arena, podium, and gracilis.
The clear open space in the centre of the
amphitheatre was called the arena, because
it was covered with sand, or sawdust, to
prevent the gladiators from slipping, and to
absorb the blood. The size of the arena was
not always the same in proportion to the size
of the amphitheatre, but its average propor-
tion was one third of the shorter diameter of
the building. The arena was surrounded by
a wall distinguished by the name of podium ;
although such appellation, perhaps, rather
belongs to merely the upper part of it, form-
ing the parapet, or balcony, before the first
or lowermost seats, nearest to the arena. The
arena, therefore, was no more than an open
oval court, surrounded by a wall about fifteen
feet high ; a height considered necessary, in
order to render the spectators perfectly secure
from the attacks of wild beasts. There were
four principal entrances leading into the arena;
two at the ends of each axis or diameter of it,
to which as many passages led directly from
the exterior of the building; besides secondary
ones, intervening between them, and commu-
nicating w-ith the corridors beneath the seats
on the podium. The wall or enclosure of the
arena is supposed to have been faced with
marble, more or less sumptuous; besides
which, there appears to have been, in some