s that in our times have not infrequently
occurred, when an alarm of fire has been given. The mode of
arrangements, too, saved the spectators from all the deleterious
results of impure air, while the velarium preserved them from the sun.
But not only were the spectators screened from too fervid heat, but
they could retreat at pleasure, in case of rain or storm, into the
galleries, where they were sheltered from the rain. Our superior
civilization and refinement have not led to an equal attention to
safety and comfort in the mode of our ingress and egress from theatres,
or to their ventilation; but perhaps this omission may be accounted for
by the difference of our habits from those of the Romans. Public
amusements were deemed as essential to their comfort, as the enjoyment
of home is to ours; and, consequently, while we prefer home--and long
may we continue to do so--our theatres will not be either so vast or so
commodious as in those times and countries, where domestic happiness
was so much less understood or provided for.

The erection of this magnificent edifice is attributed to Vespasian,
Titus, or Domitian, from a fragment of an inscription discovered here
some fourteen or fifteen years ago, of which the following is a
transcript:--

VII. TRI. PO.....

And as only these three filled the consulate eight times since
Tiberius, in whose age no amphitheatre had been built in the Roman
provinces, to one of them is adjudged its elevation.

Could I only remember one half the erudition poured forth on my addled
brain by the cicerone, I might fill several pages, and fatigue others
nearly as much as he fatigued me; but I will have pity on my readers,
and spare them the elaborate details, profound speculations, ingenious
hypotheses, and archaiological lore that assailed me, and wish them,
should they ever visit Nismes, that which was denied me--a tranquil and
uninterrupted contemplation of its interesting antiquities, free from
the verbiage of a conscientious cicerone, who thinks himself in duty
bound to relate all that he has ever heard or read relative to the
objects he points out.

Even now my poor head rings with the names of Caius and Lucius Caesar,
Tiberius, Trajan, Adrian, Diocletian, and Heaven only knows how many
other Roman worthies, to whom Nismes owes its attractions, not one of
whom did this learned Theban omit to enumerate.

Many of the antiquities of Nismes, which we went over to-day, might
well com