Amphitheater

History

The origin of the amphitheater

The amphitheater, as its name indicates it, is presented in the form of a combination of two theaters. It includes/understands an arena around which flights of steps develop. If the first buildings of this kind were built mainly in Bois, thereafter these constructions became immense, using the brick and the stone. Largest of them then had three or four stages of arcades, reaching a 35 meters height (57 meters for the Colisée, with Rome). In the ancient Rome, the towns of Campania, in the south of the Italy, are the first to build permanent specific buildings, thanks to an installation of the natural relief. The spoil extracted during the excavation of the surface of combat, glaze of sand ( arena ), is rejected to around support the steps maintained laterally by a concentric retaining wall. This last structure is called Cavea . The Amphitheater of Pompéi, built according to this principle towards 80 av. J. - C., is oldest which is preserved. The buildings of Capoue and Pouzzoles (Italy), built at the end of second century BC, constitute the oldest specimens of this monument, which had as a destination first to accommodate combat of gladiators. The practice to organize such spectacles was not then an innovation: as of third century BC of the engagements are attested at the time of funeral in Étrurie and Campania. In Rome even, it disputed some for the first time in 264 av. J. - C., with the Forum Boarium, then on several occasions on the forum itself. The place, under which galleries of service had been dug, was used as arena. Wood steps set up with the entour received the spectators. Appeared tardily, the amphitheater was not essential like the only framework of huntings and the combat of gladiators. The first amphitheater in Rome, built in 29 av. J. - C., was a long time competed with by the Roman Forum then by the Champ de Mars.

As from first century BC, however, the amphitheaters multiply. The arena revêt generally an elliptic plan, which is most favorable to the perception of the spectacles by the whole of the public. It is accessible by doors located at the ends from the main roads of the ellipse and supplemented in certain buildings by accesses on its small axis. Under its ground are arranged as from the time augustéenne rooms and corridors of which some are connected to surface by trap doors. Hoists hoisted the animals intended for huntings. A high crowned unevenness of a parapet separates the arena from the public. As in the theater, the steps are divided horizontally by précinctiones defining maeniana and vertically by radiant staircases limiting of the cunei. In the oldest buildings, the arena was sometimes dug and the Cavea was leant with the original ground or rested on embankment which, compartmentalized or not, was retained by a wall with its periphery. The accesses to the steps were then laid out outside the monument. This method of construction remained majority until in the Sixties a. J. - C., but was competed with starting from second half of first century BC by the device with structure digs adopted in the theaters. Radiant walls connected by vaults supported the steps. Peripheral galleries and staircases integrated into the substructure of the cavea led to Vomitoire S. the external frontage of the monument was presented in the form of a superposition from one to three levels of arcades and a attic decorated of committed natures.

The largest specimen and most elaborate of these buildings with artificial substructions was the Amphitheater flavien of Rome, commonly called Colisée. Started into 71 or 72 on the initiative of Vespasien, it was inaugurated under Titus per hundred days of spectacles during which five thousand wild beasts were killed. The building site was completed under Domitien after more than twelve years of work. Its arena of 79,35 X 47,20 m was included/understood in a cavea of 187,75 X 155,60 Mr. Some fifty six lines of steps, divided with the image of the social groups which sat there, could receive approximately 60 000 people. The first degrees received the mobile seats of the spectators of mark. The last, built out of wood, were laid out under a gantry. The exterior facade in Travertin was composed of three levels of eighty spans superimposing the orders dorico - Tuscan, ionic and Corinthian. An attic with Pilastre S Corinthians crowned construction. Bored windows and decorated shields, it carried the consoles useful for the fixing of the masts of the velum ombrageant the steps. A detachment of sailors of the fleet was affected with the handling of the ropes of this immense aerofoil. In its last state, the basement of the arena entirely was arranged and connected by an underground corridor to the large barracks of gladiators located near the amphitheater. The building was used as model with many amphitheaters built in the Roman Empire, without nevertheless imposing a planimetric uniformity on it. In Gaulle, it was competed with by monuments combining an arena with an incomplete cavea.

In Occident, the amphitheater was end of the 1st century in the middle of the 3rd century. the most obvious sign of the romanity and urbanity. In the East, on the other hand, the amphitheater knew a weak diffusion. In the countries where the Greek culture was well established, few amphitheaters were built. The theaters and the stages were often arranged to receive the spectacles of the arena.

The construction of these monuments continued until the 3rd century. One counts several hundreds of them through the Roman Empire, among which are a hundred mixed buildings: theaters in the beginning which, by the addition, often later, of an elliptic arena , became amphitheaters hybrid, called “amphitheater-theaters” or “amphitheaters with scene”: it is the provision of the Arènes of Lutèce. In the East, they had for some a scene and an orchestra with podium.

One distinguishes the complete buildings according to their plan (oblong, circular or elliptic) and according to their structure (full or hollow). Buildings with arena (standard Large, France), where the steps do not surround the surface on all its periphery, will not be neglected.

See also: List of the Roman amphitheaters, largest Roman amphitheaters

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