A Companion to Roman Architecture (Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World) by

Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2013-10-09T16:00:00+00:00

Welch has demonstrated that the provision of amphitheaters in Italy and the western provinces during the late republican and early imperial periods was linked to army training and to veteran settlement and entertainment, as at Pompeii and Capua (Welch 2007: 88–91). These first permanent amphitheaters came to represent an important display of Rome’s power and culture in Italy. Late first-century-BCE colonies also provided the context for the earliest amphitheaters in the provinces, as at Carmona (Spain) and Corinth (Greece) (Figure 15.2; Golvin 1988: 41–42; Welch 2007: 255–259; Dodge 2009; 2010). In the early imperial period, this colonial association continued within Italy – for example, at Aosta and Verona. Both colonies and provincial capitals provided important contexts for the construction of amphitheaters in the provinces, as at Lyon (France), Mérida (Spain) and Carthage (Tunisia) (Golvin 1988: 82–83, 109–110, 122–123; Bomgardner 2000:128–141).

Amphitheaters survive in large numbers in Italy, North Africa, the Danube region, and the western provinces, although with much variation in size and design – for example, at Capua (170 × 139 m), second in size only to the Colosseum; Nîmes and Lyon; Tarragona and Mérida (Spain); Carthage and El Djem (Tunisia); and Lepcis Magna. Extramural amphitheaters were also built and survive at some tribal capitals in Britain, as at Silchester and Cirencester (Wilmott 2008). Legionary bases around the Empire were routinely provided with an extramural amphitheater – for example at Vetera (Germany); Caerleon and Chester (Britain); Carnuntum (Austria); and Lambaesis (Algeria) (Golvin 1988: 80, 88; Futrell 1997: 147–152). All are relatively small, both in overall size and scale of construction.

In the British and Gallic provinces, a hybrid structure, built to function as both theater and amphitheater, was often constructed – for example, Les Arènes in Paris. It is unclear if these “theater-amphitheaters” (also, confusingly, referred to as “semi-amphitheaters” by some modern commentators) were more amphitheater than theater and what kind of performances took place in them (Golvin 1988; Dodge 2009). They were generally not elaborately constructed, utilizing earth banks retained by masonry walls as supports for the seating area (cavea). Similar theater-amphitheaters were also associated with rural shrines in Gaul, as at Sanxay, and these perhaps should be interpreted as a continuation of the classical connection between temple and festival games as seen in the Greek sanctuaries at Delphi and Epidauros, and continued in Italy – for example, at Pietrabbondante (see Chapter 12). The only example of this type of hybrid theater-amphitheater outside the northwestern provinces is at Lixus in Morocco (Dodge 2009). There may also have been an economic element in this design, maximizing the facilities available in a single building.

By comparison with the West, there are far fewer purpose-built amphitheaters known in the eastern Roman provinces. This has been traditionally explained by the idea that the Greek East was more “civilized” than Italy and the western provinces, and therefore would not have indulged in the kind of blood-sports these structures accommodated. However, 22 purpose-built amphitheaters have already been identified in the East (Dodge 2009). The earliest example was constructed at Antioch-on-the-Orontes in the later first century BCE (Malalas 216.

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