Abroad Again, or a Fresh Foray in Foreign Fields (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1888 edition. Excerpt: ...led to the menagerie. There is BEHIND THE SCENES. 237 a long covered passage, which has been opened, that ran completely around the arena, just back of the inner wall, and which, our cicerone informed us, was used as a passage for the slaves and those who did the work of the arena to pass from point to point to perform their duties while the combats were going on, so as not to cross the open space or interrupt the proceedings. Then we went into two great dens, recently cleared out, where the wild beasts were confined, close to the arena, so they could be easily freed and sent out to take their part in the scene before the populace. In another passage running around the arena are smaller dens, with holes above, through which the occupants could be fed. The various chambers, galleries, dens, and great arched cell-looking apartments behind the podium must have been those that held gladiators, beasts, horses, chariots, and slaves. It is really the " behind the scenes," as it were, and where hungry wild beasts were imprisoned; where fierce gladiators, armed and impatient, waited their turn to distinguish themselves in mortal combat beneath the imperial eye; where trembling martyrs heard the fierce cry of the assembled thousands that crowded the circus hungry for their blood, and demanding them to be brought forth. And here is one of the entrances through which the gladiators stepped forth into the arena beneath the excited gaze of a hundred thousand spectators. And I walked forth through it on a bright, beautiful spring day, paced across the arena, and stood in the centre of the Roman Colosseum, beneath and before the emperor's seat upon the podium. No one who is at all familiar with the bloody scenes enacted on this spot and in this great...