Let Memphis be silent about the barbarian splendor of the pyramids,

And let Assyrian labor not boast of Babylon;

Let the effeminate Ionians not be praised because of the temple of Diana,

Let the altar crowded with horns allow Delos to exist in obscurity;

Let the Carians not glorify Mausolus’ tomb hanging in empty air.

Let all work yield to Caesar’s amphitheater,

Fame will speak of one work in preference to all of the above.

Martial, Spect. 1

Up until the late first century BC gladiatorial combats were held in the Forum, the Circus Maximus, and at other sites. When the games were held in the Forum, temporary wooden stands were put up. In 53 BC, the politician Curio (or one of his architects) had an interesting idea. Curio had two semi-circular wooden stands built on a pivot. When these stands were back-to-back, the spectators in each were treated in the morning to a different theatrical presentation, but in the afternoon the two sets of stands were swiveled about so that they together formed an oval. Thus the amphitheater was born. The first permanent stone amphitheater in Rome was built by Statilius Taurus in 29 BC.

Of course, everyone is familiar with the greatest Roman amphitheater, the Colosseum, which has remained a tourist attraction from the first century AD to the present day (see exterior above and interior left).  The exterior of the Colosseum  consists three tiers of arches and an attic story (most of the third tier and attic story have not survived).  Note the underground area (hypogeum) that the destruction of the arena floor has revealed.  This area was used for storage of equipment and to house wild animals. Elevators  raised animals in cages from this underground level so that they could enter the arena through trap doors.

The name"Colosseum" came from a colossal statue (120 ft. high) of Nero that was located in the area near this amphitheater,¹ which, however, was not called the "Colosseum" until the Middle Ages.  It  was built by the members of the Flavian dynasty (Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian) and its name in ancient times was the amphitheatrum  Caesareum, "Caesar's (i.e., the emperor's) amphitheater."   In modern times,  it is often referred to as the "Flavian Amphitheater.  It was dedicated in 80 AD by the emperor Titus and estimates of its capacity range from 40,000 to about 60,000 (see an ancient depiction of a crowded Colosseum on a coin). There were amphitheaters throughout the rest of Italy and all over the Roman world in Spain, Gaul, northern Africa, and the Greek east. Many amphitheaters in southern France are very well preserved and still in use as venues for bullfights, such as the one in Arles.

The amphitheater was a microcosm of Roman society. The seating arrangements reflected the stratification of Roman society.   On a large podium the emperor had a special box and senators sat on marble seating divided into fourteen sections.  Next came the members of the equestrian order, who sat in the lowest tier (ima cavea) of the amphitheater, consisting of  twelve rows of marble seating divided into sixteen sections.  Roman citizens affluent enough to afford to wear a toga occupied nineteen rows of marble seats in sixteen sections in middle of the seating area (media cavea).  Above them in the summa cavea sat poorer citizens clad in dark garments (the pullati), slaves, freedmen, and foreigners residing in Rome.  Women from these groups probably also sat among the men.  This tier consisted of seven rows of limestone seating divided into sixteen sections.  Finally, at the very top of the amphitheater was an gallery with wooden seats (summum maenianum in ligneis) on  which sat wives of senators and equestrians protected from sun² and rain by a colonnade.³  The podium, ima cavea and media cavea thus consisted of reserved seating,⁴ in which subdivisions of each group sat together.  The status of a senator determined in what section he sat on the podium, as did that of an equestrian in the ima cavea.  For example, in ima cavea there was a section reserved for those equestrians who had been assigned the honor of "with public horse," and who served on special jury panels.  There even seems to have been a section reserved for bankrupt equestrians.  In the media cavea soldiers were separated from civilians, married men from bachelors; boys and their tutors sat together, etc.  In these three tiers the status of an individual in Roman society and within his own class would have been clear at a glance.⁵

 In the minds of the Romans, the amphitheater was a place of significant symbolic meaning. It was a place of civilized order where, from the Roman point of view, the victory of civilization over lawlessness, chaos, barbarism, and savagery was regularly enacted. It was also a place of justice: certain criminals were executed there by being given to the wild beasts or were forced to fight to the death as gladiators. It also represented the domination of Rome over its enemies: prisoners of war were either executed or forced to fight each other as gladiators. For the professional gladiator, however, the amphitheater was also a place of redemption, in which one could overcome death by victory or by stoically accepting it.

Notes

 1.  Subsequent to the great fire (64 BC) Nero had seized for his own estate a huge parcel of choice land in the middle of Rome  on which he built his grandiose palatial complex called "the Golden House." After Nero's death, Vespasian restored this land to the people of Rome and  built his amphitheater, which could be enjoyed by Romans of all classes, on the site of Nero's artificial lake.  Martial expresses his gratitude to Vespasian's son, Titus, for this dramatic change in Rome's landscape by comparing the glorious present with the awful past (Spect. 2):

Here where the gleaming colossus sees the stars from a closer distance

And high scaffolding increases in the middle of the road,

The hateful halls of the savage king used to radiate light and

One home [i.e., the Golden House] then was occupying the whole city.

Here where the venerable mass of the remarkable amphitheater

Is being erected, was the artificial lake.

Here where we wonder at the quickly built gift of bath buildings,

The haughty estate had taken away homes from the poor.

Where the Claudian portico unfolds extensive shadows,

Was the very edge of the palace.

Rome has been restored to itself and under your leadership, Caesar,

Back to text.

2. The rest of the spectators were screened from the sun by awnings suspended from poles that were installed around the rim of the Flavian amphitheater on the attic story (see image at top of page).  An indication that these awnings were not always used everywhere is the fact that they were mentioned very specifically in advertising (CIL 4.1190 and 4.3884). The Latin word for these awnings was vela, which also means 'sails'.  In fact, a company of sailors were in charge of the awnings of the Flavian Amphitheater.  Back to text.

3. "Although in the past custom permitted [upper-class] women to view gladiatorial combat while sitting scattered throughout the amphitheater, Augustus allowed them to do so only from the higher part of the auditorium" (Suet. Aug. 44).  Back to text.

4.  The summa cavea probably consisted of unreserved seating.  Coin-like tickets called tesserae, probably distributed through the patron-client network, were required for admission.  Back to text.

5  Information in this paragraph is derived from David Bomgardner's The Story of the Roman Amphitheatre (London & New York 2000) 11-14.  Back to text.

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