294 Outlines of European History Luxury and corruption of the city The country people who yielded to the attractions of the city were only debased by the life they entered there. At Rome the newcomer found a city of sumptuous marble where once there was little but brick. Noble architecture enveloped the Forum Fig. 126. The Vast Flavian Amphitheater at Rome now CALLED THE COLOSSEU.M. (AfTER LuCKENBACH) This enormous building, one of the greatest in the world, was an oval arena surrounded by rising tiers of seats, accommodating nearly fifty thousand people. We see here only the outside wall, as restored. It was built by the emperors Vespasian and Titus, and was completed in 80 A.D. as a place for spectacular combats. Athletic games and contests of strength had long accompanied the funerals of great men in Greece and Rome. The Romans then continued such combats for their own sake, and the combatants, czWtd, gladiators (meaning "swordsmen"), often took each other's lives (compare Fig. 116) and crowned the Seven Hills (Figs. 113, 127). Outward pros- perity, luxury and splendor, chariot races, bloody games and spectacles (Fig. 126), free distribution of bread, wine, and meat to all needy citizens at the cost of the State — these things completely concealed from the discernment of the mob the cur- rents beneath the surface which were setting so steadily toward ruin. The city of Rome thus became a great hive of shiftless
