View of the Arena of Amphitheater, Puteoli

‎Here is a fine view of the bay, the distant mountains and the shores of Puteoli. In imagination one can easily reconstruct this desolate ruin, and people it under the sunny skies of southern Italy with the vast multitude of eager spectators whose gay attire shines in the Italian sun and whose shouts of applause fill the air. The amphitheater was three hundred and sixty-nine feet in length and two hundred and sixteen feet in breadth. It was capable of holding twenty-five thousand persons. We see in these ruins, excavated in 1838, the opening leading down into the subterranean passage and chambers where the wild beasts were kept. We can see, also, the air-holes and the outlets of the dens. Here Nero celebrated the gladiatorial combat when he received the king of Armenia as the guest of his court. It was at this time that the emperor himself entered the arena. Nor was the view of Puteoli different in its most important elements in the days of the apostle from that now presented to us. The same forms of the landscape met the eye; the same gleams of purple and crimson wandering over town and vineyard and wood, transfiguring the scene, and which give it more than half the loveliness now. But its human elements were different. Swarming with life as are these shores at the present time, they were even more populous then. The shores were the very centers of Roman splendor. They were crowded with the vessels of the Roman fleet commanded by Pliny, and its waters were alive with the pleasure boats of the patrician youths filling the air with the music of their song and laughter.