The Galician Woman by William Mesusan

Author:William Mesusan [Mesusan, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: William Mesusan
Published: 2021-02-11T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Solomon stood on the top step of a descending, semi-circular seating area at the apex of Mérida's ancient Roman Theater. His breathing was labored, a result of climbing up from ground level. Below him, twenty-eight rows of stone benches stretched one hundred yards wide to frame an area capable of seating an audience of six thousand onlookers.

Having grown up in Córdoba, with its superbly engineered arched bridge and massive city walls, he'd developed a familiarity with Roman architectural styles and building materials. Remains of ancient temples, mausoleums, and a smaller Roman theater, still scattered around the Andalusian capital, rounded out his knowledge.

Mérida's impressive Roman Theater dwarfed any site he'd previously encountered. Located adjacent to the city walls, at the at the edge of the old Roman city, nearby groves of fifty-foot tall cypress trees offered the only visual competition. This Roman theater was built in 16-15 CE by Consul Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, son-in-law of Emperor Augustus, and modeled after the great theaters of Rome. Constructed using dry-stone methods, this remarkable structural achievement required the precise placement and interlocking of thousands of stone blocks.

After taking in an impressive view of the entire theater, Solomon walked down to the grand-stand carrying a small pack with him. Poor, miserable Jalal dutifully followed as they walked down through all three zones of seating from the top tier, the five rows of the middle tier, and the lower tier's twenty-two rows. The bottom of the theater, where the wealthier social classes sat, had been excavated and gained its support from the slope of the land without any use of manmade supports.

They stopped just above the orchestra, an open space for the choir set in white and blue marble, and then Solomon crossed three wide marble steps where the movable seats for senators and the top officials attending the theater were once placed.

Looking up at the stage from below, they gained the most spectacular view of the theater property. Solomon guessed it to be about twenty feet wide, two hundred feet long, and fifty feet high. It stood framed by massive two-storied Corinthian columns whose bases and cornices were built of marble. The backdrop, adorned with sculptures in the spaces between the columns, contained three doors. A central door and two side doors gave actors ingress and egress to their scenes.

The aspiring poet found it easy to imagine plays once being staged here, but he didn't think there'd be any shows offered in the foreseeable future. Despite their appreciation of Greek science, philosophy, and medicine, the Muslims displayed little interest in the ancient world's dramas, either comedies or tragedies.

Solomon retraced his steps back across the orchestra, sat down on a bench in the theater's front row, and searched inside of his pack until he found what he was looking for. Tucked down into one corner were a small vial and a writing instrument. He took them out and placed them on the bench next to himself before extracting a small tablet, a leather-bound sheath filled with linen paper.

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