t these
buildings, from which scented liquids were scattered over the
audience. Sometimes the statues which ornamented them were applied to
this purpose, and seemed to sweat perfume through minute holes, with
which the pipes that traversed them were pierced. It is this to which
Lucan alludes in the following lines:--

---- As when mighty Rome's spectators meet
In the full theatre's capacious seat,
At once, by secret pipes and channels fed,
Rich tinctures gush from every antique head;
At once ten thousand saffron currents flow,
And rain their odors on the crowd below.

Rowe's _Lucan_, book ix.

Saffron was the material usually employed for these refreshing
showers. The dried herb was infused in wine, more especially in sweet
wine. Balsams and the more costly unguents were sometimes employed for
the same purpose.

Another contrivance, too remarkable to be omitted in a general account
of amphitheatres, is the awning by which spectators were protected
from the overpowering heat of an Italian sun. This was called Velum,
or Velarium; and it has afforded matter for a good deal of
controversy, how a temporary covering could be extended over the vast
areas of these buildings. Something of the kind was absolutely
necessary, for the spectacle often lasted for many hours, and when
anything extraordinary was expected the people went in crowds before
daylight to obtain places, and some even at midnight.

The Campanians first invented the means of stretching awnings over
their theatres, by means of cords stretched across the cavea and
attached to masts which passed through perforated blocks of stone
deeply bedded in the wall. Quintus Catulus introduced them at Rome
when he celebrated games at the dedication of the Capitol, B.C. 69.
Lentulus Spinther, a contemporary of Cicero, first erected fine linen
awnings (carbasina vela). Julius Caesar covered over the whole Forum
Romanum, and the Via Sacra, from his own house to the Capitol, which
was esteemed even more wonderful than his gladiatorial exhibition. Dio
mentions a report that these awnings were of silk, but he speaks
doubtfully; and it is scarcely probable that even Caesar's extravagance
would have carried him so far. Silk at that time was not manufactured
at Rome; and we learn from Vopiscus, that even in the time of Aurelian
the raw material was worth its weight in gold. Lucretius, speaking of
the effect of colored bodies upon trans