that not one of them would miss any part of the shows.

As the number was odd, Causidiena decreed that they should be
conveyed to the spectacles each in her own state coach, attended
by her maid of honor. The maids, of course, did not sit with the
Vestals, but had seats far back with the populace.

In their luxurious private box in the Colosseum the five Vestals sat
in the ample front row arm-chairs. They were seated not according
to seniority, but Numisia in the middle, Meffia and Brinnaria, as the
youngest, on either side of her, Gargilia next Meffia, and Manlia next Brinnaria.

In the Imperial loge near them Aurelius, now for more than a year
a widower, presided over the games, clad in his gorgeous silk robes
and attended by his fifteen-year-old son Antoninus, afterward known
by his nickname of "Commodus." The four tiers of the Colosseum
were packed with spectators, pontiffs, senators, nobles, ambassadors
magistrates and other notables in the front seats along the coping
of the arena wall, lesser notables in the first tier, well-to-do persons
in the second tier, traders and manufacturers and such like in the
third tier and the commonalty in the fourth.

Besides the ninety thousand seated spectators* many thousand more
stood in the galleries, in the openings of the stairways, in any place
where a foothold could be found and from which a view could be
obtained. The outlook from the Vestals' box was across the level
sand to the gigantic curve of seats, all hidden under their occupants,
so that the interior of the Amphitheatre was a vast expanse of
flower-crowned heads, eager faces and waving fans.