Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/325

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 305 a scene of pomp and luxury, which might excite the envy of the kings of Asia.^" From these stately palaces issued a swarm of dirty and ragged plebeians, without shoes, and with- out a mantle ; who loitered away whole days in the street or Forum, to hear news, and to hold disputes ; who dissipated, in extravagant gaming, the miserable pittance of their wives and children ; and spent the hours of the night in obscure taverns and brothels in the indulgence of gross and vulgar sensuality. I But the most lively and splendid amusement of the idle Games and multitude depended on the fi'equent exhibition of public games and spectacles. The piety of Christian princes had suppressed the inhuman combats of gladiators ; but the Roman people still considered the Circus as their home, their temple, and the seat of the republic. The impatient crowd rushed at the dawn of day to secure their places, and there were many who passed a sleepless and anxious night in the adjacent porticos. From the morning to the evening, careless of the sun or of the rain, the spectators, who sometimes amounted to the number of four hundred thousand, remained in eager attention ; their eyes fixed on the horses and charioteers, their minds agitated with hope and fear, for the success of the colours which they espoused : and the happiness of Rome appeared to hang on the event of a race."^^ The same immoderate ardour inspired their clamours and their applause, as often as they were enter- tained with the hunting of wild beasts and the various modes of theatrical representation. These representations in modern capitals may deserve to be considered as a pure and elegant school of taste, and perhaps of virtue. But the Tragic and Comic Muse of th Romans, who seldom aspired beyond the ^0 Seneca (epistol. Ixxxvi.) compares the baths of Scipio Africanus, at his villa of Liternum, with the magnificence (which was continually increasing) of the public baths of Rome, long before the stately Thermae of Antoninus and Diocletian were erected. The quadrans paid for admission was the quarter of the as, about one eighth of an English penny. ^1 Ammianus (1. xiv. c. 6, and 1. xxviii. c. 4), after describing the luxury and pride of the nobles of Rome, exposes, with equal indignation, the vices and follies of the common people. 63 Juvenal. Satir. xi. 191, &c. The expressions of the historian Ammianus are not less strong and animated than those of the satirist ; and both the one and the other painted from the life. The numbers which the great Circus was capable of receiving are taken from the original Notitice of the city. The differences between them prove that they did not transcribe each other ; but the sum may appear incredible, though the country on these occasions flocked to the city. VOL. III. 20