At a short distance behind this magnificent temple Agrippa—­who was in charge of the aqueducts and water-supply—­had also built the first great public baths.  It would probably be incorrect to found any detailed description of them upon what we know of the stupendous structures of Caracalla and Diocletian, which were perhaps the most amazing exhibitions of public luxury ever seen in the world.  Of these we know how huge and splendid were the halls, with their coloured marbles, their mosaic floors, their colossal masterpieces of statuary, their elaborate arrangements of baths—­cold, tepid, hot and dry-sweating—­their conversation-rooms and reading-rooms.  But we cannot pretend to say how far the Agrippan and Neronian baths of the year 64 corresponded in magnificence to these.  We shall be safer in simply assuming that, since the baths of Pompeii were in full swing in the year in question, Home must have possessed establishments of a similar kind but on a larger and more sumptuous scale.

[Illustration:  FIG. 24.—­EXTERIOR OP THEATRE OF MARCELLUS. (Present state.)]

Leaving without further mention the various temples of Minerva, Isis, Serapis, and other deities which might be found about the Campus Martius, we note an undistinguished stone amphitheatre, the only resort of the kind as yet possessed by the metropolis.  In this were exhibited the sanguinary combats of gladiators with each other, and the fights with wild beasts performed by trained professionals or by criminals selling their lives as dearly as possible.  Of these “sports” we have to treat in a later chapter.  Coming nearer to the Tiber, while returning towards the city proper, we pass in succession the three great theatres, lofty semicircular constructions of stone and concrete faced with marble, one computed to hold 40,000 spectators, but probably accommodating not more than 25,000, and the others some 20,000 and 12,000 respectively.  In these matters we must allow both for Roman exaggeration and Roman close-packing.  The theatres rise in three stories, of which the outward sides consist of open arcades adorned with pillars in varied styles, while round their bases are shops for the sale of sweetmeats, beverages, perfumes, and other articles which the theatre-goer or the loitering public may require.  What a theatrical Performance was like is a matter belonging to the question of spectacles and amusements.  At the back of the largest theatre—­that of Pompey—­lies a large square surrounded by colonnades of a hundred pillars, where sycamores form avenues and fountains play, while statues of finished workmanship stand where they produce the best effect.  Particularly grateful to the Roman lounger were the seats in the large semi-circular bays, so placed as to offer full protection from too hot a sun or too cold a wind.

[Illustration:  FIG. 25.—­THEATRE OF MARCELLUS. (Restored.)]

[Illustration:  FIG. 27.—­CIRCUS MAXIMUS (restored); Imperial Palaces on Palatine to left.]