CHAP. Games and fpectacles. But the moft lively and fplendid amufement of the idle multitude, depended on the frequent exhibition of public games and fpectacles. The piety of Christian princes had fuppreffed the inhuman combats of gladiators; but the Roman people still confidered the Circus as their home, their temple, and the feat of the republic. The impatient crowd rushed at the dawn of day to fecure their places, and there were many who paffed a fleepless and anxious night in the adjacent porticos. From the morning to the evening, carelefs of the fun, or of the rain, the fpectators, who fometimes amounted to the number of four hundred thousand, remained in eager attention; their eyes fixed on the horfes and charioteers, their minds agitated with hope and fear, for the fuccefs of the colours which they efpoufed: and the happiness of Rome appeared to hang on the event of a race The fame immoderate ardour infpired their clamours, and their applaufe, as often as they were entertained with the hunting of wild beafts, and the various modes of theatrical reprefentation. These representations in modern capitals may deferve to be confidered as a pure and elegant school of tafte, and perhaps of virtue. But the Tragic and Comic Muse of the Ro 60 60 Juvenal. Satir. xi. 191, &c. The expreffions of the historian Ammianus are not lefs ftroug and animated than thofe of the fatirift; 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 Notitia of the city. The differences between them prove that they did not tranfcribe each other; but the fum may appear incre dible, though the country on thefe occafions flocked to the city. mans, XXXI. mans, who feldom afpired beyond the imitation CHAP. of Attic genius", had been almost totally filent fince the fall of the republic"; and their place was unworthily occupied by licentious farce, effeminate mufic, and fplendid pageantry. The pantomimes", who maintained their reputation from the age of Auguftus to the fixth century, expreffed, without the ufe of words, the various fables of the gods and heroes of antiquity; and the perfection of their art, which fometimes difarmed the gravity of the philofopher, always excited the applause and wonder of the people. The vaft and magnificent theatres of Rome were filled by three thousand female dancers, and by three thousand fingers, with the mafters of the refpective choruffes. Such was the popular favour which they enjoyed, that, in a time of fcarcity, when all ftrangers were banished from the city, the merit of contributing to the public 61 Sometimes indeed they compofed original pieces. Veftigia Græca Aufi deferere et celebrare domeftica facta. Horat. Epiftol. ad Pifones, 285. and the learned, though perplexed, note of Dacier, who might have allowed the name of tragedies to the Brutus and the Decius of Pacuvius, or to the Cato of Maternus. The Octavia, ascribed to one of the Senecas, ftill remains a very unfavourable fpecimen of Roman tragedy. 62 In the time of Quintilian and Pliny, a tragic poet was reduced to the imperfect method of hiring a great room, and reading his play to the company, whom he invited for that purpose (See Dialog. de Oratoribus, c. 9. 11. and Plin. Epistol. vii. 17.). 63 See the Dialogue of Lucian, intitled, De Saltatione, tom. ii. P. 265-317. edit. Reitz. The pantomimes obtained the honourable name of xgoro; and it was required, that they should be converfant with almost every art and science. Burette (in the Memoires de l'Academie des Infcriptions, tom. i. p. 127, &c.) has given a short history of the art of pantomimes, pleasures CHAP. pleasures exempted them from a law, which was strictly executed against the profeffors of the liberal XXXI. Populouf nefs of Rome. It is faid, that the foolish curiofity of Elagabalus attempted to difcover, from the quantity of fpiders webs, the number of the inhabitants of Rome. A more rational method of enquiry might not have been undeserving of the attention of the wifeft princes, who could easily have refolved a queftion fo important for the Roman government, and fo interefting to fucceeding ages. The births and deaths of the citizens were duly registered; and if any writer of antiquity had condefcended to mention the annual amount, or the common average, we might now produce fome fatisfactory caculation, which would deftroy the extravagant affertions of critics, and perhaps confirm the modeft and probable conjectures of philofophers The most diligent researches have collected only the following circumftances; ; which, flight and imperfect as they are, may tend, in fome degree, to illuftrate the queftion of the populoufnefs of ancient Rome. I. When the capital of the empire was befieged by the 65 64 Ammianus, 1. xiv. c. 6. He complains, with decent indig nation, that the streets of Rome were filled with crowds of females, who might have given children to the state, but whofe only occupation was to curl and drefs their hair, and jactari volubilibus gyris, dum exprimunt innumera fimulacra, quæ finxere fabulæ theatrales. 65 Lipfius (tom. iii. p. 423. de Magnitud. Romanâ, 1. iii. c. 3.) and Ifaac Voffius (Obfervat. Var. p. 26-34.) have indulged ftrange dreams of four, or eight, or fourteen millions in Rome. Mr. Hume (Effays, vol. i. p. 450-457.), with admirable good fenfe and fcepticifm, betrays fome fecret difpofition to extenuate the populouf nefs of ancient times. Goths, 66 It XXXI. Goths, the circuit of the walls was accurately CHAP. measured, by Ammonius, the mathematician, who found it equal to twenty-one miles ". should not be forgotten, that the form of the city was almost that of a circle; the geometrical figure which is known to contain the largest space within any given circumference. II. The architect Vitruvius, who flourished in the Augustan age, and whose evidence, on this occafion, has peculiar weight and authority, obferves, that the innumerable habitations of the Roman people would have spread themselves far beyond the narrow limits of the city; and that the want of ground, which was probably contracted on every fide by gardens and villas, fuggefted the common, though inconvenient, practice of raising the houses to a confiderable height in the air 7.. 67 But the loftiness of these buildings, which often confifted of hafty work, and infufficient materials, was the cause of frequent and fatal accidents; and it was repeatedly enacted by Auguftus, as well as by Nero, that the height of private edifices, within the walls of Rome, fhould not exceed the meafure of seventy feet from the ground. III. Juvenal 66 Olympiodor. ap. Phot. p. 197. See Fabricius, Bibl. Græc. tom. ix. p. 400. 67 In eâ autem majestate urbis, et civium infinitâ frequentiâ innumerabiles habitationes opus fuit explicare. Ergo cum recipere non poffet area plana tantam multitudinem in urbe, ad auxilium altitudinis ædificiorum res ipfa coëgit devenire. Vitruv. ii. 8. This paffage, which I owe to Voffius, is clear, ftrong and comprehenfive. 68 The fucceffive teftimonies of Pliny, Ariftides, Claudian, Rutilius, &c. prove the infufficiency of these restrictive edicts. See Lipfius, de Magnitud. Romanâ,' 1. iii, c, 4. Tabulata XXXI. 69 CHAP. venal laments, as it should feem from his own experience, the hardships of the poorer citizens, to whom he addreffes the falutary advice of emigrating, without delay, from the fmoke of Rome; fince they might purchase, in the little towns of Italy, a cheerful commodious dwelling, at the fame price which they annually paid for a dark and miferable lodging. Houfe-rent was therefore immoderately dear: the rich acquired, at an enormous expence, the ground, which they covered with palaces and gardens; but the body of the Roman people was crowded into a narrow fpace; and the different floors, and apartments, of the same house, were divided, as it is still the custom of Paris, and other cities, among feveral families of plebeians. IV. The total number of houses in the fourteen regions of the city, is accurately stated in the description of Rome, compofed under the reign of Theodofius, and they amount to forty-eight thousand three hundred and Tabulata tibi jam tertia fumant Tu nefcis; nam fi gradibus trepidatur ab imis Juvenal. Satir. iii. 199. 69 Read the whole third satire, but particularly 166. 223, &c. The` description of a crowded infula, or lodging-house, in Petronius (c. 95. 97.), perfectly tallies with the complaints of Juvenal; and we learn from legal authority, that in the time of Auguftus (Heineccius, Hift. Juris Roman. c. iv. p. 181.), the ordinary rent of the feveral canacula, or apartments of an infula, annually produced forty thoufand fefterces, between three and four hundred pounds fterling (Pandect. I. xix. tit. ii. No 30.); a fum which proves at once the large extent, and high value, of those common buildings. eighty |