[Illustration: RUINS OF THE COLOSSEUM SEEN FROM THE PALATINE HILL]
Another game was the Play of Troy, fabled to have been invented by
?neas, in which young men of rank on horses performed a sham fight. On
another occasion the circus would be turned into a camp, and
equestrians and infantry would give a realistic exhibition of battle.
Again, there would be athletic games, running, boxing, wrestling,
throwing the discus or the spear, and other exercises testing the
entire physical system with much thoroughness. One day the amphitheatre
would be filled with huge trees, and savage animals would be brought to
be hunted down by criminals, captives, or men especially trained for
the desperate work, who made it their profession.
For the purposes of these combats the circus was found not to be the
best, and the amphitheatre was invented by Curio for the celebration of
his father's funeral games. It differed from a theatre in permitting
the audience to see on both sides (Greek _amphi_, both), but the
distinctive name was first applied to a structure built by C?sar, B.C.
46. The Flavian Amphitheatre, better known as the Colosseum, of which
the ruins now stand in Rome, was the culmination of this sort of
building, and affords a good idea of the general arrangement of those
that were not so grand.
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