APPENDIX. • 197

vision made to seat about one in five of the free population. But would
not this be an enormous proportion to attend at any one spectacle ?

Look, again, at the loss of life in the arena. At the triumph of
Trajan 10,000 gladiators fought ; and 60,000 fell under Spartacus ; and
1,000 knights and senators fought in the Campus Martins at one spectacle
given by Nero. There were also 10,000 combatants in the Naumachia
on Lake Fucinus, under Claudius. These numbers surely indicate a
great population.
Consider also this statement of Eusebius. On the occasion of a great
epidemic in Bome, he says, for many days 10,000 dead were reported in
the journal : " Ingentem Romse luem factam ita ut per mtiUoa dies in
ephemeridem, decern miUia mortiwrum referrentur** — ^that is, if there were
4,000,000 of inhabitants, one in four hundred died daily, for many
days ; and if those " mtiUos dies " were ten, the city lost 100,000 persons.
This would be an enormous mortality even in such a population.
Long afber its great imperial days were past, the remains of Bome
attest its former grandeur. Even as late as the sixth century, and after
the passage of Alaric and Genseric, it must have been a wonderftd city,
as will be seen by the following statistical statement foimd by Cardinal
Mai, and descriptive of this period.
This document, which dates from the middle of the sixth century
(540), was written by a certain Zacharia, and begins thus : — " This is a
brief description of the beauties of the city of Rome. Its abimdanoe in
everything and its tranquillity are great ; its delights and comforts {com'
moditates) are marvellous, and such as conform to this admirable city.
