This Was So Large, That
Heliogabalus, Having Filled It With Excellent Wine, Exhibited
Naval Engagements In It, For The Amusement Of The People.
It
surrounded three sides of the square, so that the whole extent of
the race did not much exceed
An English mile; and when Probus was
at the expence of filling the plain of it with fir-trees to form
a wood for the chace of wild beasts, I question much if this
forest was more extensive than the plantation in St. James's
Park, on the south side of the canal: now I leave you to judge
what ridicule a king of England would incur by converting this
part of the park into a chace for any species of animals which
are counted game in our country.
The Roman emperors seemed more disposed to elevate and surprize,
than to conduct the public diversions according to the rules of
reason and propriety. One would imagine, it was with this view
they instituted their naumachia, or naval engagements, performed
by half a dozen small gallies of a side in an artificial basin of
fresh water. These gallies I suppose were not so large as common
fishing-smacks, for they were moved by two, three, and four oars
of a side according to their different rates, biremes, triremes,
and quadriremes. I know this is a knotty point not yet
determined; and that some antiquarians believe the Roman gallies
had different tires or decks of oars; but this is a notion very
ill supported, and quite contrary to all the figures of them that
are preserved on antient coins and medals.
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