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* This is a rather unorthodox view, but nonetheless interesting,
especially as it pertains to his following statements. -- A. R. L., 1996.
--
For an evening's healthy enjoyment I believe a circus is as good a place
as can be found anywhere. The air there is not close and vitiated
as in a theater; you can spend two or three hours comfortably
without inhaling noxious atmospheres. It is interesting to note
that the circus is perhaps the only form of ancient entertainment
which has retained something of its pristine simplicity.
To-day, as in the old Roman circuses, tiers of seats run round the course,
which in the larger circuses is still in the form of an ellipse,
with its vertical axis, where the horses and performers enter, cut away.
But the modern world has nothing in this connection to compare
with the Circus Maximus of Rome, which, according to Pliny,
held a quarter of a million spectators. It is singular, however,
that while the old Roman circuses were held in permanent buildings,
modern circuses are mostly travelling exhibitions in temporary erections.
In some respects the entertainment offered has degenerated with the change,
for we have to-day nothing in the circus to correspond to
the thrilling chariot races in which the old Romans delighted.
I wonder that in these days of restless search for novelties some one
does not re-introduce the Roman chariot race under the old conditions,
and with a reproduction of the old surroundings.
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