es of water by which the arena was suddenly transformed into
a lake when imitations of naval battles were exhibited. Doors pierced
in the wall which supported the podium communicated with these, or
with other places of confinement beneath the part allotted to the
audience, which being thrown open, vast numbers of animals could be
introduced at once. Vopiscus tells us that a thousand ostriches, a
thousand stags, and a thousand boars were thrown into the arena at
once by the Emperor Probus. Sometimes, to astonish, and attract by
novelty, the arena was converted into a wood. "Probus," says the same
author, "exhibited a splendid hunting match, after the following
manner: Large trees torn up by the roots were firmly connected by
beams, and fixed upright; then earth was spread over the roots, so
that the whole circus was planted to resemble a wood, and offered us
the gratification of a green scene."

The same order of precedence was observed as at the theatre--senators,
knights, and commons having each their appropriate place. To the
former was set apart the podium, a broad precinction or platform which
ran immediately round the arena. Hither they brought the curule seats
or bisellia, described in speaking of the theatres of Pompeii; and
here was the suggestus, a covered seat appropriated to the Emperor. It
is supposed that in this part of the building there were also seats of
honor for the exhibitor of the games and the vestal virgins. If the
podium was insufficient for the accommodation of the senators, some of
the adjoining seats were taken for their use. Next to the senators sat
the knights, who seem here, as in the theatre, to have had fourteen
rows set apart for them; and with them sat the civil and military
tribunes. Behind were the popularia, or seats of the plebeians.
Different tribes had particular cunei allotted to them. There were
also some further internal arrangements, for Augustus separated
married from unmarried men, and assigned a separate cuneus to youths,
near whom their tutors were stationed. Women were stationed in a
gallery, and attendants and servants in the highest gallery. The
general direction of the amphitheatre was under the care of an officer
named _villicus amphitheatri_. Officers called _locarii_ attended to
the distribution of the people, and removed any person from a seat
which he was not entitled to hold. We may notice, as a refinement of
luxury, that concealed conduits were carried throughou