st danger from the chariots during the races. Claudius
(c. xxi.) rebuilt the carceres with marble, and gilded the metae. This
vast centre of attraction to the Roman people, in the games of which
religion, politics, and amusement, were combined, was, according to Pliny,
three stadia (of 625 feet) long, and one broad, and held 260,000
spectators; so that Juvenal says,

"Totam hodie Romam circus capit."--Sat. xi. 195.

This poetical exaggeration is applied by Addison to the Colosseum.

"That on its public shews unpeopled Rome."--Letter to Lord Halifax.

The area of the Circus Maximus occupied the hollow between the Palatine
and Aventine hills, so that it was overlooked by the imperial palace, from
which the emperors had so full a view of it, that they could from that
height give the signals for commencing the races. Few fragments of it
remain; but from the circus of Caracalla, which is better preserved, a
tolerably good idea of the ancient circus may be formed. For details of
its parts, and the mode in which the sports were conducted, see Burton's
Antiquities, p. 309, etc.]

[Footnote 589: The Velabrum was a street in Rome. See JULIUS CAESAR, c.
xxxvii.]

[Footnote 590: Acte was a slave who had been bought in Asia, whose beauty
so captivated Nero that he redeemed her, and became greatly attached to
her. She is supposed to be the concubine of Nero mentioned by St.
Chrysostom, as having been converted by St. Paul during his residence at
Rome. The Apostle speaks of the "Saints in Caesar's household."--Phil.
iv. 22.]

[Footnote 591: See Tacitus, Annal. xv. 37.]

[Footnote 592: A much-frequented street in Rome. See CLAUDIUS, c. xvi.]

[Footnote 593: It is said that the advances were made by Agrippina, with
flagrant indecency, to secure her power over him. See Tacitus, Annal.
xiv. 2, 3.]

[Footnote 594: Olim etiam, quoties lectica cum matre veheretur,
libidinatum inceste, ac maculis vestis proditum, affirmant.]

[Footnote 595: Tacitus calls him Pythagoras, which was probably the
freedman's proper name; Doryphorus being a name of office somewhat
equivalent to almoner. See Annal. B. xv.]

[Footnote 596: The emperor Caligula, who was the brother of Nero's
mother, Agrippina.]

[Footnote 597: See before, c. xiii. Tiridates was nine months in Rome or
the neighbourhood, and was entertained the whole time at the emperor's
expense.]

[Footnote 598: Canusium, now Canosa, was a town in Apulia, near