own as many to the entrance.

There are two other temples, particularly worth notice, not so much for
the magnificence of the structure, as for the customs that depend upon
them, and the remarkable use to which they were put. These are the
temples of Saturn and Janus.

The first was famous on account of serving for the public treasury--the
reason of which some fancy to have been because Saturn first taught the
Italians to coin money; but most probably it was because this was the
strongest place in the city. Here were preserved all the public
registers and records, among which were the _libri elephantini_, or
great ivory tables, containing a list of all the tribes and the schemes
of the public accounts.

The other was a square building, some say of entire brass, so large as
to contain a statue of Janus, five feet high, with brazen gates on each
side, which were kept open in war, and shut in time of peace.

CHAPTER VIII.

_Of other public Buildings._

Theatres, so called from the Greek {theaomai}, to see, owe their origin
to Bacchus.

That the theatres and amphitheatres were two different sorts of
edifices, was never questioned, the former being built in the shape of a
semicircle; the other generally oval, so as to make the same figure as
if two theatres should be joined together. Yet the same place is often
called by these names in several authors. They seem, too, to have been
designed for quite different ends: the theatres for stage plays, the
amphitheatres for the greater shows of gladiators, wild beasts, &c. The
following are the most important parts of both.

_Scena_ was a partition reaching quite across the theatre, being made
either to turn round or draw up, to present a new prospect to the
spectators.

_Proscenium_ was the space of ground just before the scene, where the
_pulpitum_ stood, into which the actors came from behind the scenes to
perform.

The middle part, or area of the amphitheatre, was called _cavae_, because
it was considerably lower than the other parts, whence perhaps, the name
of pit in our play houses was borrowed; and arena, because it used to be
strown with sand, to hinder the performers from slipping.

There was a threefold distinction of the seats, according to the
ordinary division of the people into senators, knights, and commons. The
first range was called orchestra, from {orcheisthai}, because in that
part of the Grecian theatres, the dances were performed; the seco