f galleries on stone vaults round the area, on which every
rank and station, from the Emperor and Vestal Virgins down to the
slaves, had their places, whence to see gladiators and beasts struggle
and perish, on sands mixed with scarlet grains to hide the stain, and
perfumed showers to overcome the scent of blood, and under silken
embroidered awnings to keep off the sun.

Vespasian was an upright man, and though he was stern and unrelenting,
his reign was a great relief after the capricious tyranny of the last
Claudii. He and his eldest son Titus were plain and simple in their
habits, and tried to put down the horrid riot and excess that were
ruining the Romans, and they were feared and loved. They had great
successes too. Britain was subdued and settled as far as the northern
hills, and a great rising in Eastern Gaul subdued. Vespasian was accused
of being avaricious, but Nero had left the treasury in such a state that
he could hardly have governed without being careful. He died in the year
79, at seventy years old. When he found himself almost gone, he desired
to be lifted to his feet, saying that an Emperor should die standing.

[Illustration: VESUVIUS PREVIOUS TO THE ERUPTION OF A.D. 63.]

He left two sons, Titus and Domitian. Titus was more of a scholar than
his father, and was gentle and kindly in manner, so that he was much
beloved. He used to say, "I have lost a day," when one went by without
his finding some kind act to do. He was called the delight of mankind,
and his reign would have been happy but for another great fire in Rome,
which burnt what Nero's fire had left. In his time, too, Mount Vesuvius
suddenly woke from its rest, and by a dreadful eruption destroyed the
two cities at its foot, Herculaneum and Pompeii. The philosopher
Plinius, who wrote on geography and natural history, was stifled by the
sulphurous air while fleeing from the showers of stones and ashes
cast up by the mountain. His nephew, called Pliny the younger, has left
a full account of the disaster, and the cloud like a pine tree that hung
over the mountain, the noises, the earthquake, and the fall at last of
the ashes and lava. Drusilla, the wife of Felix, the governor before
whom St. Paul pleaded, also perished. Herculaneum was covered with solid
lava, so that very little could be recovered from it; but Pompeii, being
overwhelmed with dust or ashes, was only choked, and in modern days has
been discovered, showing perfectly what an old R