Minor Latin poets; with introductions and English translations

I aw• 1 lyCALPrUNIUS SICULUSa theatre that rose skyward on interwovenIn nu'^ and almost looked doAvn on the summit ofthr C'ajntoline." Passing up the steps and slopesot uentle incline, we came to the seats, where indingy garments the baser sort viewed the show closeto the women's benches. For the uncovered parts,exposed beneath the open sky, were thronged byknights or white-robed tribunes.'' Just as thevalley here expands into a wide circuit, and, windingat the side, with sloping forest background allaround, stretches its concave curve amid the unbrokenchain of hills, so there the sweep of. theamphitheatre encircles the level ground, and theoval in the middle is bound by twin piles of building,''Why should I now relate to you things which I myselfcould scarcely see in their several details ? Sodazzling was the glitter everywhere. Rooted to thespot, I stood with mouth agape and marvelled atall, nor yet had I grasped every single attraction,when a mian advanced in years, next me as it chancedI'll my left, said to me: "Why wonder, country-( 'Mi^in, that you are spellbound in face of such111 lunificence ? you are a stranger to gold andknow the cottages and huts which are yourliiiinble homes. Look, even I, now palsied with;i-(', now hoary-headed, grown old in the citytin re, nevertheless am amazed at it all, Certes,we rate all cheap we saw in former years, andshabby every show we one day watched."was made by C. Scribonius Curio (Plin. X.H. xxxvi. 15 (24),117) of two wooden theatres revolving on pivots to face eachother, and each greater than a semicircle. Pliny pictures theimperial Roman people whirled round by this inventionthrough the air and cheering at the risk they ran (loc. cit.281