as a defence against the wild beasts,
were of gold wire; that the porticos were gilded; and that the belt or
circle which divided the several ranks of spectators from each other was
studded with a precious mosaic of beautiful stones. [97]

[Footnote 91:
See Maffei, Verona Illustrata, p. iv. l. i. c. 2.]

[Footnote 92: Maffei,
l. ii. c. 2. The height was very much exaggerated by the ancients. It
reached almost to the heavens, according to Calphurnius, (Eclog.
vii. 23,) and surpassed the ken of human sight, according to Ammianus
Marcellinus (xvi. 10.) Yet how trifling to the great pyramid of Egypt,
which rises 500 feet perpendicular]

[Footnote 93: According to different copies of Victor, we read 77,000,
or 87,000 spectators; but Maffei (l. ii. c. 12) finds room on the open
seats for no more than 34,000. The remainder were contained in the upper
covered galleries.]

[Footnote 94: See Maffei, l. ii. c. 5--12. He treats the very difficult
subject with all possible clearness, and like an architect, as well as
an antiquarian.]

[Footnote 95: Calphurn. Eclog vii. 64, 73. These lines are curious, and
the whole eclogue has been of infinite use to Maffei. Calphurnius,
as well as Martial, (see his first book,) was a poet; but when they
described the amphitheatre, they both wrote from their own senses, and
to those of the Romans.]

[Footnote 96: Consult Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 16, xxxvii. 11.]

[Footnote 97: Balteus en gemmis, en inlita porticus auro Certatim
radiant, &c. Calphurn. vii.]

In the midst of this glittering pageantry, the emperor Carinus, secure
of his fortune, enjoyed the acclamations of the people, the flattery
of his courtiers, and the songs of the poets, who, for want of a more
essential merit, were reduced to celebrate the divine graces of his
person. [98] In the same hour, but at the distance of nine hundred miles
from Rome, his brother expired; and a sudden revolution transferred into
the hands of a stranger the sceptre of the house of Carus. [99]

[Footnote 98: Et Martis vultus et Apollinis esse putavi, says
Calphurnius; but John Malala, who had perhaps seen pictures of Carinus,
describes him as thick, short, and white, tom. i. p. 403.]

[Footnote 99: With regard to the time when these Roman games were
celebrated, Scaliger, Salmasius, and Cuper have given themselves a great
deal of trouble to perplex a very clear subject.]

The sons of Carus never saw each other after their father's death. The