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theaters, it is oval in form, surrounded by walls, four stories high, supported by huge columns, and forming splendid chambers and galleries, which have now fallen into decay. The whole structure covers six acres of ground, and the outer walls rise to the hight of one hundred and fifty-eight feet, and would contain nearly ninety thousand persons as spectators, leaving an immense arena for the cruel combat. A part of the walls have been thrown down, and the building has been robbed of its decorations, to increase the glory of the new city. Though crumbling to pieces, it speaks of its former beauty and grandeur, and tells its horrid tales of assassination, cruelty, and blood from every fallen pillar and every broken arch. As I stood in the center of the arena, beside a rude wooden cross, which has been erected by Papal priests, and which if any one shall kiss, an indulgence of two hundred days is granted to him, I seemed to see the flitting shadows of the early Christians who wrestled here with wild beasts, and fell martyrs to the rage of pagan idolatry. Here suffered, in this way, the illustrious Ignatius, the venerable Bishop of Antioch, who loved, and was familiar with, the apostles. Hated for his sublime faith, he was torn from his faithful church, and escorted to Rome. To his brethren he sent, from the very jaws of death, a comforting message. "Let fire and the cross," he wrote, "let companies of wild beasts, let breaking of bones and tearing of members, let the shattering in pieces of the whole body, and all the wicked torments of the devil come upon me, only let me enjoy Jesus Christ. All the ends of the world, and the kingdoms of it, will profit me nothing. I would rather die for Jesus Christ than rule to the utmost ends of the earth. Him I seek who died for us. This is the gain that is

laid up for us. My love is crucified." He was condemned to die by the beasts, and, calm and saintlike, was led into the arena. He looked upon the gathered thousands without resentment, and upon the ferocious beasts without fear. With an eye upturned to heaven, he advanced towards the lion, who sprang upon him; and soon his course was ended. Two of his deacons, who had followed him with tears from Antioch to Rome, gathered up his bones, and carried them away, and laid them down at the feet of the saints. Other noble and devoted men have suffered in this broad arena, and here sealed their devotion to Christ with their own blood; and now it stands crumbling to pieces, the wonder of the world. As you enter it, and stand amid its broken ruins, the oft-repeated prophecy will be remembered,

“While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand;
When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall;
And when Rome falls, the world."

This vast pile, in its decaying grandeur, is an illustration of the present condition of Rome; and one half of the prediction has been more than verified, and the decay of Rome has more than kept pace with the demolition of the Coliseum. The old gladiators are gone, and this, their battle field, still remains in the hands of Papal priests, one of whom preaches every Friday on the spot where once his brethren were thrown to the devouring beasts. His rude pulpit stands, and around it, once a week, the people gather to hear the word of God where once howled and raged the inhuman conflict. I wished to visit the Coliseum in the night, but did not. The words of Byron haunted me; and oft repeating them, I longed to obtain the same view which enabled him to give, it is said by

some, the most correct and just description of this ancient pile ever written.

I do remember me that, in my youth,
When I was wandering, upon such a night,
I stood within the Coliseum's wall,
'Midst the chief relics of almighty Rome.
The trees which grew along the broken arches
Waved dark in the blue midnight, and the stars
Shone through the rents of ruin; from afar
The watch dog bayed beyond the Tiber, and,
More near, from out the Cæsars' palace came
The owl's long cry, and, interruptedly,
Of distant sentinels the fitful song
Began and died upon the gentle wind.
Some cypresses beyond the time-worn breach
Appeared to skirt the horizon; yet they stood
Within a bow shot where the Cæsars dwelt ;
And dwell the tuneless birds of night amidst
A grove which springs through leveled battlements,
And twines its roots with the imperial hearths.
Ivy usurps the laurel's place of growth;
But the gladiator's bloody circus stands,
A noble wreck in ruinous perfection;

While Cæsar's chambers and the Augustan halls
Grovel on earth, in indistinct decay.

And thou didst shine, thou rolling moon, upon
All this, and cast a wide and tender light,
Which softened down the hoar austerity
Of rugged desolation, and filled up,
As 'twere anew, the gaps of centuries;
Leaving that beautiful which still was so,

And making that which was not, till the place

Became religion, and the heart ran o’er

With silent worship of the great of old

The dead, but sceptered sovereigns, who still rule
Our spirits from their urns."

From the Coliseum we turn to the Circus ruins, of which there are several, still showing that performances were held in them which had a charm for the people

of Rome. They are now divested of all their elegance, and some of them are only rude mounds, where the dust of ages has been collecting. The Circus Maximus, which lies in a hollow between two of the hills on which Rome was built, was of extraordinary beauty and elegance, twenty-one hundred and eighty-seven feet long, nine hundred and sixty feet broad, and capable of seating two hundred thousand persons. It was used for chariot races, and the various other performances of the Circus. The immense assemblies which gathered here and in similar places, rising rank above rank, gave Paul the idea which led him to exclaim, "We are compassed about with a great cloud of witnesses!"

The Circus of Maxentius, more perfect than the one just referred to, was also a noble structure, and its ruins are the study of the present age. There still remain the entrances, the apartments for the chariots, the seats for the nobility, and even the balcony of the emperor. Near by is the Temple of Romulus, the whole group forming a most interesting object of study and contemplation. There are also other structures of the same kind, more or less decayed, showing that the Romans, in their palmy days, were fond of feats of agility and strength; and well if, in our age, the circus was confined to these healthy and reasonable amusements. They could be encouraged and patronized without danger. But whoever seeks this kind of diversion now, instead of witnessing the manly and honorable competition of the charioteers or flying horsemen, accompanied with patriotic speeches and songs, will have his eyes saluted with disgusting sights, and his ears poisoned with low and disgusting sounds, from which a Roman would have turned away with a blush of shame. The Circus of the first century was more

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reasonable and virtuous than its filthy namesake of our

own age.

The old Palace of the Cæsars is on the Palatine Hill -a monstrous mass of ruins, through which, as one walks, he sees the lizard creeping across the pavement where once Augustus, Tiberius, Nero, and Titus trod, and where, for centuries, imperial power held its sway and kept its throne. These ruins seem only to tell of past greatness and perished glory. Enlarged and beautified by numerous emperors, it became one of the largest palaces in the world, stretching off in one direction towards the Capitol, and in another towards the Coliseum, until its ruins show that a small city could have been built within its walls. Gardens and vineyards flourish over the broken piles and the ruins of fallen arches, and the feet of strangers wander where once royalty lived and flourished. The outlines of this overgrown structure are now very indistinct, and can hardly be traced out. The hand of Time is rapidly effacing them, and the bounds set by Nero and Caligula to their royal residences soon no traveler will be able to find.

The Golden House of Nero still lingers to tell of the extravagance and ambition of its founder, and a visit to it furnishes a good lesson to any one who is willing to learn. In these halls, now lonely and deserted, the monster lived and reveled in his iniquity; and the very walls seem to cry out against his crimes. His name is associated with all that is brutal and depraved in man. At the early age of seventeen, he poisoned his friend,' and then, to accomplish his ambitious purpose, murdered his mother. His instructors 3 he also

2

1 Britannicus.

2 Agrippina.

3

• Seneca and Lucan.

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