VIII.

THE THEATRES.

     THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE PLACES OF AMUSEMENT.—­ENTRANCE TICKETS.—­THE
     VELARIUM, THE ORCHESTRA, THE STAGE.—­THE ODEON.—­THE HOLCONII.—­THE
     SIDE SCENES, THE MASKS.—­THE ATELLAN FARCES.—­THE MIMES.—­JUGGLERS,
     ETC.—­A REMARK OF CICERO ON THE MELODRAMAS.—­THE BARRACK OF THE
     GLADIATORS.—­SCRATCHED INSCRIPTIONS, INSTRUMENTS OF TORTURE.—­THE
     POMPEIAN GLADIATORS.—­THE AMPHITHEATRE:  HUNTS, COMBATS, BUTCHERIES,
     ETC.

We are now going to rest ourselves at the theatre.  Pompeii had two such places of amusement, one tragic and the other comic, or, rather, one large and one smaller, for that is the only positive difference existing between them; all else on that point is pure hypothesis.  Let us, then, say the large and small theatre, and we shall be sure to make no mistakes.

The grand saloon or body of the large theatre formed a semicircle, built against an embankment so that the tiers of seats ascended from the pit to the topmost gallery, without resting, on massive substructures.  In this respect it was of Greek construction.  The four upper tiers resting upon an arched corridor, in the Roman style, alone reached the height on which stood the triangular Forum and the Greek temple.  Thus, you can step directly from the level of the street to the highest galleries, from which your gaze, ranging above the stage, can sweep the country and the sea, and at the same moment plunge far below you into that sort of regularly-shaped ravine in which once sat five thousand Pompeians eager for the show.

At first glance, you discover three main divisions; these are the different ranks of tiers, the caveae.  There are three caveae—­the lowermost, the middle, and the upper ones.  The lowermost was considered the most select.  It comprised only the four first rows of benches, or seats, which were broader and not so high as the others.  These were the places reserved for magistrates and other eminent persons.  Thither they had their seats carried and also the bisellia, or benches for two persons, on which they alone had the right to sit.  A low wall, rising behind the fourth range and surmounted with a marble rail that has now disappeared, separated this lowermost cavea from the rest.  The duumviri, the decurions, the augustales, the aediles, Holconius, Cornelius Rufus, and Pansa, if he was elected, sat there majestically apart from common mortals.  The middle division was for quiet, every-day, private citizens, like ourselves.  Separated into wedge-like corners (cunei) by six flights of steps cutting it in as many places, it comprised a limited number of seats marked by slight lines, still visible.  A ticket of admission (a tessera or domino) of bone, earthenware, or bronze—­a sort of counter cut in almond or en pigeon shape, sometimes too in the form of a ring—­indicated