HI shire, in Switzerland, Brabant, Malta, and various parts of Saxony. JS. AMPHIBIOUS. Aμp, about, on each side, and HI- Bus, life. Aug, from its application to that which GY. is unfixed, undefined in space or time, is further applied to that which is uncertain, doubtful. To animals, whose peculiar element of life is doubtful; abiding at one time on land, and at another in water. To that which is of a mixed or doubtful nature. A part provided them [frogs] a while to swim and move in the Would you preserve a numerous finny race; Gay's Rural Sports, Cant. i. Fantastical ideas and notions of every conceivable kind, and even of substances, immortal and mortal, celestial and infernal, divine and human, or amphibious beings, that partake of the two natures, stare us in the face whenever we look into the histories, traditions, and philosophical remains, that are come down to us from the remotest antiquity. Bolingbroke's Essay on Human Knowledge. No lands are ancient demesne, but lands holden in socage: that is, not in free and common socage, but in this amphibious subordinate class of villein socage. Blackstone's Commentaries. AMPHIBLESTROIDES, (aμpißλEOTрor, a net, and eidos, like), in Anatomy, that part or coat of the eye denominated the retina. AMPHIBOL'OGY, AMPHIBOLOG'ICAL, AMPHIBOLY, Aμpißolor λoyo: from aup, about, each way; Baw, to cast; and Xoyos, speech. AMPHIB'OLOUS. Speech that may bear each way; that has opposite tendency; and therefore ambiguous, doubtful. He hath nat wel the goddes vnderstonde Chaucer. Troilus and Creseide, book iv. f. 183. c. iii. The fallacies whereby men deceive others, and are deceived themselves, the antients have divided into Verball and Reall. Of the Verball, and such as conclude from mistakes of the word, although there be no less than six, yet are there but two thereof worthy our notation; and unto which the rest may be referred; that is the fallacy of equivocation and amphibologie; which conclude from the ambiguity of some one word, or the ambiguous syntaxis of Brown's Vulgar Errours. many put together. As at playes, masks, great feasts and banquets, one singles out his wife to dance, another courts her in his presence, a third tempts her, a fourth insinuates with a pleasing complement, a sweet smile, ingratiates himself with an amphibological speech, as that merry companion in the satyrist did to his Glycerium, adsidens et interiorem palmam amabiliter concutiens. Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. The Casuists vary; and, out of respect to their own laws, are much perplexed in their resolutions: making the great scruple to be in the juridical interrogations, which, if the judge have not proceeded in the due form of law required in such cases, may warrant the offender's denial: and, secondly, making difference of the quality of the offence, and danger of the punishment: which, if no less than capital, may, say they, give just ground to the accused party, either to conceal the truth, or to answer with such amphibolies and equivocations as may serve to his own preservation. Bp. Hall's Cases of Conscience. Never was there such an amphibolous quarrel, both parties declaring themselves for ye king. Howell. AMPHIBOLOGY, in Grammar, a loose manner of expression, whereby the sense may be construed into a double meaning. It has a similar application to phrases, or sentences, with the word equivocal, in respect to AMPHIwords. The ancient oracles were generally given in BOLOGY. this way, that they might receive their interpretation according to the events. The English language admits AMPHICof fewer amphibologies than most modern ones. AMPHIBRACHYS, in Poetry, the name of a foot of three syllables, having a long one in the middle, and a short one first and last, such as ǎmārě, Oμipoç. AMPHICLEA, in Ancient Geography, a town or city of Phocis, to which the Amphictyons gave the cities. Bacchus had a temple and an oracle in this name of Ophites, in their decree against the Phocian city, where many cures were said to have been wrought. AMPHICTYONS, or AMPHICTYONES (according to some ancient writers, from app, about, and KriŽEI, to dwell), in Ancient History, were representatives of certain neighbouring states of Greece in a general assembly, whose origin appears to be contemporary with that of the oracle of Delphi, at which place they held some of their most celebrated conventions. Its origin is attributed by some writers to Amphictyon, a son of Deucalion, by others to a son of Helenus of this name; and is a subject of considerable obscurity. The celebrity of this council for wisdom and integrity, and the influence it possessed over all the affairs of the Greeks for ages, were strong temptations to the setting up of fictitious claims of this kind to flatter the predominant states or interests of the day. Strabo attributes its origin to Acrisius, king of the Argives. A modern writer in the Edin. Transactions (vol. iii. p. 150 &c.), has conjectured that the Hellenes, being the founders of the oracle at Delphi, as well as of that of Dodona, they naturally chose the former place, both for its central situation and as deriving considerable interest from its religious institutions, for the council of the parent states, when they began to grow jealous of the oriental colonists. It is well known that one of the most important offices of the Amphictyons was that of a guardianship over the treasures of the Delphian oracle; while it is equally clear, from all history, that sacrifices to a common deity were regarded as the strongest token of civil union. This account of its institution, moreover, will accord with the mixed offices and general controul over the interests of Greece that were exercised from a very remote period by this council; and with the fact that of the two deputies, generally supposed to have been sent from each state represented, one of them was called 'Iɛpoμvnμor, as a superintendant of religious ceremonies; and the other Ivλayopas, as appointed to settle private and civil differences. Both of these, however, had a right to hear and vote upon all cases that concerned the interest of their constituents; the former was chosen by lot, the latter by suffrage. Of the states represented by this council, different lists have been given by Pausanias, Eschines, Strabo, &c. Pausanias enumerates but ten; the Ionians (including the Athenians), the Dolopians, Thessalians, Enianians, Magnesians, Melians, Phthians, Dorians, Phocians, and Locrians. Eschines reckons eleven, adding the Etans, and substituting the Perrhœbians and Boeotians for the Dolopians and Enianians. Strabo states, that the Amphictyons from the first institution represented twelve different tribes (in which Harpocration and Suidas concur with him) and gives the following list, viz.: Ionians, Dorians, Perrhœbians, Boeotians, TYONS. AMPHIC- Magnesians, Echeans, Phthians, Melians, Dolopians, TYONS. Enianians, Delphians, Phocians. of The power with which this council was invested was almost unlimited. It could declare war against a foreign enemy, or even against a state represented in its own body, if it were guilty of any violent aggression on the rights or privileges of the rest, or of any single member of the league. In like manner it could demand that hostilities should cease amongst any of its constituents, or towards any of their foes; and from its decision no appeal was attempted. The laws and regulations every individual state were here to be subordinated to the general good; it could decree public honours and impose fines on the different states, which, if not paid at the appointed time, were doubled; but no state could be deprived of its right of sending deputies, nor of its running waters. Nor could the safety of the temple of Delphi, its ornaments, or its treasures, ever be compromised. These were fundamental articles of the union, against every violation of which, universal war was to be declared, and the members of the council took an oath to this effect, the form of which is preserved in Eschines, Orat. wept Haрanрeçß. It closes with invoking the "vengeance of Apollo, Diana, Latina, and Minerva," on its violators. "May their soil be barren," it is added, "their wives produce only monsters; may their adversary prevail in every law-suit; may they be conquered in war; their houses be demolished; and themselves and their children delivered to the ravages of the sword." The form of this oath was, according to Eschines, settled by Solon. At the opening of every session, an ox was solemnly cut in pieces, and sacrificed to the Delphic Apollo, as an emblem of their union in their sacred charge over the worship of the god, and with each other. They also, after the overthrow of Cirrha, revived and improved the Pythian games; of which, from this time, they had the official controul. They added the gymnastic exercises, and changed the prizes; what before had been valuable, into garlands and crowns of laurel, &c. We have had occasion, in another place (HIST. and EIOG. Division, vol. ix. p. 375), to notice the successful opposition made by Themistocles to a proposition for excluding three cities from their right of representation, who did not join in resisting the Persian invasion under Mardonius. He, at that time, speaks of thirty-one cities been included in the representation. The ordinary periods of the meeting of the Amphictyons were in the spring and autumn of the year; though instances occur of their being called together at every part of it, and even of their continuing their session throughout the year. Some of their earliest meetings were held at Thermopyla; but even at this period, there are writers who speak of the members residing at Delphi (M. VALOIS, Mem. Acad. Belles Lettres, v. iii), over the concerns of which city it is certain they exercised a very ancient charge. Others again state, that they regularly held their spring meeting at Delphi, and their autumnal session at Anthela, in the vicinity of Thermopylæ. Solon distinguished himself by conducting the first interference of Athens, with the interests of the Delphian oracle, and by several regulations of the Amphictyonic council. The neighbouring tribes of the Phocians asserted an exclusive right to the controul of the sacred ceremonies, and the charge of the treasure of the place; when Solon, putting himself at the head of his country men, whom he devoted as an "army to the god," re- AMPHI established the impartial administration of the Amphic- TYON tyons, and obtained the applause of all Greece, for his steady and wise arrangements. History, which is always more busy with the evil than the benevolent deeds of mankind, notices the proceedings of this celebrated court very rarely from the time of Solon to the Phocian or sacred war, which lasted ten years; when various occurrences conspired to give it a new importance. The accumulated treasure of Delphi had long tempted the cupidity of the Lacedæmonians, while the great preponderancy of the votes of the northern states of Greece in the Amphictyonic council, was a constant check to their ambition. They therefore, at an early period of their ascendancy over the minor states, offered to take the Delphians under their particular protection, and gradually secured an authority over the city and its institutions, which greatly rivalled that of the Amphictyons. But amidst the reverses that occurred to Lacedæmon in her strug gle with Thebes for ascendancy, the latter power appealed to this celebrated court, now regularly holding its sessions at Delphi, and a fine was levied on the Lacedæmonian people to the amount, according to Diodorus, of 500 talents, or nearly 100,000l. sterling. Neither Thebes, nor her allies, however, had power to levy this by force, and after remaining unpaid beyond the limited time, it was doubled. The value of the precious metals at this time deposited at Delphi (which, as well as its offerings to the god, contained a kind of separate fund or bank, composed of the redundant property of every considerable state of Greece, and considered as an inviolable treasury), was upwards of 2,000 talents, or more than 2,000,000 7. sterling. This treasure seems to have become, at this period, an object of appetency to both the Thebans and the Lacedæmonians. But the former possessing the greater influence with the Amphictyons (now fast declining in their reputation and integrity), a further decree was procured against the Phocians, the allies of Lacedæmon, which fined them also in a large sum, for an alleged profanation of the sacred Cirrhæan land. At the expiration of the appointed time for the payment, this fine too was doubled. We now find a congress of the Phocian cities called by Philomelus their general, in which he ventured to stigmatize the conduct of the Amphictyons as the most intolerable oppression, and called for resistance to their decree as " a not less just than necessary religious duty." In an oration preserved in Diodorus, he further declares that the presidency of Delphi was originally vested in his countrymen; and that wrongful, though long possession, was the only title which the Amphictyons could show. Shortly after this, making common cause with the Lacedæmonians, he drew together their united forces, to the amount of between 2 and 3,000 men, on the shores of the Corinthian gulf, and crossing it before his daring proj. ct was suspected, seized the sacred town and dispersed the council. He then fortified Delphi; and caused the marble inscriptions of the Amphictyonic decrees against Phocis and Lacedæmon (which it was the custom of the council thus to publish) to be erased; but he declared that the treasur: should remain inviolate, as well as the temple and its ministers. The Amphictyons now met at Thermopyla and excluded the Phocians from their right of representation; to which the Lacedæmonians, contriving to make their PHIC- peace with Thebes and Athens, was about the same ONS. time admitted. PHI ENIA. The Amphictyonic influence was found, however, to have received a fatal blow; the sacred treasure of Delphi began to be appropriated by the Athenians in their wars with Macedon; and the voice of the council, instead of being hailed, as heretofore, as the acknowledged call to peace and order, was but as the trumpet of discord throughout Greece. Πολλη ταραχή kai diagraσis ny kať óλny τŋy EXλada. Diodorus xvi. 28. Like other "sacred wars," the memorable contests between the rival states became unusually bloody in their character; and the Thebans having declared that a sentence of the Amphictyons condemned the Phocian prisoners to death as accomplices in the sacrilege committed at Delphi, retaliatory measures were adopted by Philomelus, and continued the frequent practice of the numerous states who mingled in the war. After the close of these contests, however, we find Demosthenes the Athenian representative at the Amphictyonic session; and Eschines succeeding him on the triumph of the rival party. At this time it would appear, that Athens sent four deputies to the council; before whom Æschines (to whom we are principally indebted for any authentic details of this institution) accused Demosthenes of being corrupted by the gold of the Amphessians, who had profaned the sacred land. The greatest irregularities disgraced this session; the Amphictyons inviting the citizens of Delphi to arm and attack the Amphessians in their forbidden possessions; while to the various disputes connected with these circumstances, we owe many of the splendid philippics of Demosthenes. The Amphictyons ultimately elected Philip, king of Macedon, for their general, and deputed Cottyphus, their president, to request his acceptance of that office; which presenting to his ambition a happy union of popular and arbitrary power, greatly facilitated the final subjugation of the states of Greece to the Macedonian arms. On the irruption of Brennus into Gaul, the Phocians so boldy contested his passage, that they were formally restored to a seat in the Amphictyonic council. During the reign of Augustus, we find it an object of a Roman imperial decree, which claimed the admission of the city of Nicopolis to a representation in this body, and declared the rights of the Dolopians, Magnesians, Melians, Phthians, and nianians, to be merged in those of the Thessalians. In the time of Antoninus Pius, we hear, through Pausanias, of its assembling thirty members regularly, being delegated by the people of whom we have given the list of this historian in the former part of the article; the Romans never appear to have opposed its sitting; but the institution had now dwindled into total insignificance. AMPHIDROMIA, in Antiquity, a feast observed at Athens, on the fifth day after the birth of every child, denominated the lustral day, when a person ran with the infant round the fire, to dedicate it to the household gods, on which occasion also its name was generally given. Lys. Hesychius in Verb. AMPHIDRYON, in Ecclesiastical History, a curtain or veil in ancient churches, placed before the door of the bema, or chancel. AMPHIGENIA, in Ancient Geography, a town of Messenia, in the Peloponnesus, which the natives declared to be the birth-place of Apollo. VOL. XVII. BAY. AM AMPHILA BAY, a remarkable bay of the Red sea, on AMPHILA the eastern coast of Abyssinia, which contains thirteeen marine islands, spread along a breadth of about 16 miles, and formed almost entirely of alluvies of the sea, PHION. strongly cemented together, and overspread with a thin soil. There are no regular inhabitants; but goats, kids, and camels find food here, and a few trees are seen to the leeward. AMPHILOCHIA, in Ancient Geography, the country round the city of Argos Amphilochicum, in Epirus, east of the bay of Ambracia. The inhabitants were called Amphilochi. AMPHILOCHI, in Ancient Geography, a town of Gallicia, in Spain; according to Strabo, founded by Teucer, when he returned from the Trojan war, and called after one of his companions, Amphilochus. Its modern name is Orense. AMPHIMACER, in Poetry, an ancient verse, with a foot of three syllables, the middle one being short, and the first and last long. AMPHIMALIA, or AMPHIMALLIUM, in Ancient Geography, a town and harbour in the N. of Crete, E. of Sydonia. The ruins of the place, part of which are the foundation of a Greek monastery, are still to be seen to the S. of the gulf of Suda, about a mile from the sea. AMPHIMASCALOS, in Antiquity, the coats of freemen, which had two short sleeves, covering the arm as far as the elbow, to distinguish them from the slaves, who were only allowed one sleeve. AMPHIMONE, in Zoology, a genus of sea-worms, consisting of four species, placed by Pallas under the genus Aphrodita, and by Gmelin under the species Flaxa carunculate rostrata, and Camphanata of the Terebella genus. AMPHION, in Entomology, a species of Hesperia, found in Germany. AMPHION, in the Heathen Mythology and Fabulous History, was a twin child of Antiope, the daughter of Nycteus, king of Boeotia, by Jupiter, or as it is sometimes stated, by Epopeus, king of Sicyon. (See ANTIOPE). He was born on Mount Citharon, whither his mother had retired from the resentment of her father on her becoming pregnant, and where he was brought up with his brother Zethus, by the shepherds of the district. The name of Amphion is principally known in history as connected with many beautiful fables of the poets. Thus he is said to have been the first of mortals who practised the science of music, which he was taught by Mercury, and to have called the stones of the walls of Thebes together by the inspiration of his lyre. Dictus et Amphion, Thebanæ conditor arcis, To this instrument he added three strings, and he built AMPHITHEATRE. AMPHIPOLES, in Antiquity, the chief magistrates or archons of Syracuse, established in the 109th Olympiad, by Timoleon, when he had expelled Dionysius. Their government continued 300 years. DIOD. xvi. AMPHIPOLIS, in Ancient Geography, was a city built by Agnon, the son of Nicias, upon the Strymon, between Macedonia and Thrace, and was frequently the occasion of war between the Spartans and Athenians. The inhabitants were called Amphipolitani. HEROD. v. c. 126. DIOD. 11, 12. AMPHIPPI, in Antiquity, persons who rode on two horses, by springing from one to the other; or a particular description of cavalry among the Greeks, furnished with two horses each, which they rode upon and led alternately. AMPHIPRORÆ, in Antiquity, ships adapted to rapid streams and narrow channels, by having a prow at each end, thereby avoiding the inconvenience of turning. AMPHIPROSTYLOS (apot, both; po, before; and orvos, a column), in Ancient Architecture, a pronaos, LO temple with a portico of four columns, crowned with a AMP pediment in front, and another exactly to correspond PRO in the rear. The front portico was called the and the back one posticum. VITRUVIUS, l. ii. c. 1. AME AMPHISBÆNA (from apoißairw, to go both ways), in Zoology, a genus of American serpents, containing LE five species, and so called from their moving with either head or tail foremost. They appear to be without poison, subsisting upon ants, worms, and other insects. AMPHISCII (from aude, about, and okea, a shadow), in Astronomy and Geography, a denomination sometimes given to the inhabitants of the torrid zone, who have their shadows turned to the north at one time of the year, and at the other to the south. AMPHISSA, in Ancient Geography, a town of the Brutii, in the Farther Calabria, on the sea-coast between Locri and Caulina; its modern name is Rocella. OVID Met. xv. v. 703. Also the principal city of the Ozolean Locrians, so named after Amphissa, or Issa, a daughter of Macareus, where Minerva had a temple, and a statue in bronze. Liv. xxxvii. c. 5. STRAB. ix. AMPHITAPE, in Antiquity, a peculiar sort of cloth or carpet, wove with a warm knap on both sides. AMPHITHEATRE, pai, to see, to look. AMPHITHEATRE. Appearpov, from augt, Αμφιθέατρον, αμφι, about, around, and Seaoabout, around, and Seao The amphitheatre begun by Vespasian, but finished and dedicated by Titus, was one of the most famous, the height whereof was such, that the eye of man could hardly reach it. Hakewill's Apologie. He [Theseus] first enclos'd for lists a level ground, The whole circumference a mile around; The form was circular; and all without A trench was sunk, to moat the place about. Dryden's Palamon and Arcite. Figure to yourself an immense amphitheatre; but such as the hand of nature could only form. Before you lies a vast extended plain, bounded by a range of mountains, whose suminits are covered with lofty and venerable woods, which supply variety of game: from thence, as the mountains decline, they are adorned with underwood. Melmoth's Pliny's Letters. The inhuman sports exhibited at Rome, may justly be considered as an effect of the people's contempt for slaves, and was also a great cause of the general inhumanity of their princes and rulers. Who can read the accounts of the amphitheatrical entertainments without horror? Or who is surprised, that the emperors should treat that people in the same way the people treated their inferiors? Hume's Essays. Notes. AMPHITHEATRE, in Roman Antiquities, at first called Theatrum Venatorium, or the Theatre for Hunting, and sometimes Visorium, from its convenient exhibition of the games to the sight of the people, an open elliptical building, containing numerous seats for spectators, and a spacious area in the centre where the various sports and combats took place. We meet with several remarkable erections of this kind in the later history of the empire; as the temporary amphitheatre of Curio, a friend of Julius Caesar's, that of Statilius Taurus, the first permanent building of this kind, in the time of Augustus; the amphitheatres of Nero and of Atilius, and the Flavian Amphitheatre, beside various others scattered over the larger towns and cities. The area in the middle was sometimes called Cre the cavea, from its being considerably lower than any other part of the amphitheatre, but more generally the arena, from the circumstance of its being strewed with pa sand, to prevent the gladiators from slipping, and to absorb the blood. Lipsius observes, that the whole of some amphitheatres are frequently called by both these names. Around, and on a level with the arena, strong cells were constructed for the temporary or permanent lodgment of the animals brought forward in the games, and from its limits, or from the top of these cells, the seats of the spectators arranged according to their various ranks, graduated upwards to the extremites of the building. The whole exterior circuit of the princi pal amphitheatres was divided into two or more stories of arcades, opening into arched passages and staircases, which tended towards the centre of the arena, and by communicating with other passages, or corridors meeting them at right angles, led the way to every part of the building. Of these arched entrances, the four which, on the ground floor, formed the diameter of the ellipsis, were usually of larger dimensions than the rest; by the longer radii the wild beasts, the gladiators, and those concerned in the management of the games, entered direct into the arena; and by the shorter, in the amphitheatre at Rome, the principal personages among the spectators were conducted to the platform, or gallery attached to the first row of seats round the arena, called the podium. Magnificent gateways were gene rally erected at the extremities of these passages below, E. HI- four of which, belonging to the amphitheatre at Verona, EA were standing at the beginning of the last century. The doors of entrance from the staircases and passages into the body of the amphitheatres, were called vomitories, in front of which was a platform which ran round the whole range of those on the same level, and these platforms bore the name of precinctiones; the fronts of the walls which bounded them on the ascending side were called belts. Short staircases communicated from one precinction to the belt of another. These lines of stairs, all radiating towards the arena, divided the exterior face of the amphitheatre into wedge-like compartments or sets of seats, to which were given the name of cunei, and every citizen was placed in that which belonged to his own rank or tribe, according to certain laws of the amphitheatre, and numbers assigned to the cunei and to each of the archways leading to them. From the first accounts of the distribution of the seats in the amphitheatre at Rome, we find that in the middle of one side of the podium (the broadest of all the platforms that circumscribed the building), a pavilion was erected for the emperor, called the suggestum; the rest of the podium was occupied by ambassadors, senators, the vestals, and ladies of high rank. The front of the podium was guarded with strong net-work, and rails of iron surmounted with spikes and large rollers of wood, hung vertically, to prevent the hunted animals from leaping over. Married men had distinct seats from the unmarried throughout the amphitheatre; and youths of respectability were placed with their tutors: the upper galleries were naturally accounted the most inferior places; and here generally the plebeians stood behind the women. The amphitheatres, as open buildings, were exposed to considerable inconvenience occasionally, by the changes of the elements, and were furnished with various inventions to meet them. Down the edges of the benches adjoining the stairs, channels were cut to drain off the rain water, which communicated with ample drainage-pipes below; an awning, or canopy, which would protect the whole circumference of the building, was drawn at convenience over the heads of the spectators, and fountains refreshed the air with the aromatics of the east. On some occasions we read of the whole furniture of the amphitheatre dazzling the eye, with ornaments of gold, silver, or amber; and the net-work in front of the podium, in the time of Carinus, is said to have been formed of gold wire. To these luxuriant innovations in the manner of conducting the public amusements, we find the poets frequently allude. Thus Ovid Tune neque marmoreo pendebant vela theatro, Qualibet hirsutas fronde tegente comas. The strictest attention is said to have been paid to order, and the claims of the different ranks and tribes of the people in the arrangement of their seats; officers, called the locarii, had the care of the cunei, and the general superintendance of the building was placed under the direction of a villicus amphitheatri. The history of these edifices presents us with many striking features of the Roman mind and manners. While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand, TRE. says a modern poet, quoting after Mr. Gibbon, from AMPHIthe venerable Bede, a saying of the Anglo-Saxon pil- THEAgrims who visited Rome early in the eighth century, "Quamdiu stabit Colysæus, stabit Roma, quando cadet Colysæus, cadet et Roma; quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus;" for that celebrated amphitheatre concentrates in its ruins, perhaps the most remarkable memorial extant of the grandeur and barbarity of her character. The games, for the exhibition of which these build- The games. ings were erected, were truly Roman in their origin. We have had occasion to notice in another place (HISTORICAL and BIOGRAPHICAL DIVISION, vol. ix. p. 228), the progress of those political circumstances which formed the sanguinary military character of the Romans. A. U. 490 is the date that has been generally assigned to the introduction of the gladiatorial combats; which, according to Valerius Maximus, were first exhibited by M. and D. Brutus, on the decease of their father; and the elephants taken from the Carthagenians during the first Punic war, about a. v. 502, afford the earliest instance of wild animals being brought into the forum. The custom in the ancient world of sacrificing their enemies to the manes of their great men, was at least as old as the time of Homer (Iliad, lib xxiii.), and it had long been usual to immolate slaves, and persons of low condition, at the funerals of the great; but it was reserved for the Romans, to exhibit the combats by which this was generally effected as a public sport. Once introduced, however, it became so favourite a spectacle with the people, that the heir of every considerable family was expected to renew it upon these occasions; and the candidates for public favour found no readier mode of obtaining it, than by indulging the citizens with frequent exhibitions of the kind. The hunting of wild beasts in these games may be allowed, perhaps, to have grown out of a more justifiable intention that of inuring the Roman people to despise the unwieldy addition of elephants to the armies of the Carthagenians and their Asiatic enemies. It is certain from the testimony of Pliny, that the first display of this kind was with that object; when a few slaves, armed with blunted javelins, goaded through the circus a large number of these animals, taken in Sicily by Metellus. Gradually, however, the attachment of the people to these entertainments, and the magnificence with which they were exhibited, became almost unbounded. The gladiators were regularly trained to their profession; persons of respectability entered into the contests with them, and hundreds of couples came to be exhibited at once in the time of Julius Cæsar. Artificial forests were planted in the midst of the circus, and mountains and caves appeared to abound with the wild inhabitants of the deserts of Africa and the East: thousands of wild beasts of every description have been thus exhibited and slain on particular occasions; after which the centre of the amphitheatre would suddenly be converted into an immense basin of water, and sea-fights be conducted in it on a considerable scale; while the honours of the chieftain or emperor, who thus gratified the multitude, resounded through all the cunei. To Julius Caesar, or his friend Caius Curio, were History of "the masters of the world" indebted for the introduc- these buildtion of the first regular ampitheatres as the scene of ings. these sports. It would appear, that a singular con |