fashion and beauty of eighteen centuries ago, and the lizards sun

themselves in the sacred seat of the Emperor. More vividly than all the

written histories, the Coliseum tells the story of Rome's grandeur and

Rome's decay. It is the worthiest type of both that exists. Moving

about the Rome of to-day, we might find it hard to believe in her old

magnificence and her millions of population; but with this stubborn

evidence before us that she was obliged to have a theatre with sitting

room for eighty thousand persons and standing room for twenty thousand

more, to accommodate such of her citizens as required amusement, we find

belief less difficult. The Coliseum is over one thousand six hundred

feet long, seven hundred and fifty wide, and one hundred and sixty-five

high. Its shape is oval.

In America we make convicts useful at the same time that we punish them

for their crimes. We farm them out and compel them to earn money for the

State by making barrels and building roads. Thus we combine business

with retribution, and all things are lovely. But in ancient Rome they

combined religious duty with pleasure. Since it was necessary that the

new sect called Christians should be exterminated, the people judged it

wise to make this work profitable to the State at the same time, and

entertaining to the public. In addition to the gladiatorial combats and

other shows, they sometimes threw members of the hated sect into the

arena of the Coliseum and turned wild beasts in upon them. It is

estimated that seventy thousand Christians suffered martyrdom in this

place. This has made the Coliseum holy ground, in the eyes of the

followers of the Saviour. And well it might; for if the chain that bound

311

The Innocents Abroad