Roman Amphitheatres. What were they for, and What Happened to them?

In any political and social system, large places of assembly are important. They provide a space to communicate, instruct, entertain, scare, control and administer what passes for justice, in front of a large audience.  The Roman Amphitheatre was the Cathedral, Circus, Football Stadium, Drive in Cinema, Open air courtroom and Public Gallows of its day.

Like walls, military camps and temples, amphitheatres were a visible manifestation of civic prestige and colonial control. My research into amphitheatre locations owes as much to satellite mapping and photography as to archaeology and academic publications. Although it is no substitute for actually going there, searching street patterns, finding the co-ordinates and spotting clues on a satellite map is great fun.

In terms of function it is reasonably easy to distinguish between ‘Imperial’ or ‘Urban’ amphitheatres and ‘Military’ amphitheatres. The Urban version is generally centrally located, close to large population centres and seated 10,000 or more spectators. Smaller ‘Military’ amphitheatres seated far fewer and, it is inferred, had a training function as well as an entertainment and civic or political role. Many of there appear more ‘circular’ than oval in shape and are found near Legionary encampments. On the fringes of the empire it’s not uncommon to find a civilian town with a nearby and supporting military base, both having their own amphitheatre (Petronell and Trier for example). Whilst there are plenty of ‘lists’ of amphitheatre sites that hover around the 230 mark, the received wisdom is that most major cities or encampments had an amphitheatre of some sort. It’s just that lots of them are lost or have left no trace as yet discovered. Recent archaeology  has found evidence of a number of circular structures, likely to have been wooden amphitheatres, at auxiliary forts, However I’ve compiled a working list of  generally acknowledged ‘proper’ amphitheatres which are in my view worth visiting.

A variety of fates await large and functionally obsolete buildings when an occupying power ups and leaves, or economic progress bypasses them.  In the case of Roman amphitheatres they were designed and built as single purpose structures to provide seating and an unobstructed 360 degree view for large numbers of spectators.  If there is no longer any demand for that function (subject to the quirks of geography, location, climate and build quality) the options are limited. They could undergo periods of continued use, complete abandonment, adaptation or demolition for re-use of materials.

Amphitheatres were built in, or close to, places naturally attractive for settlement by virtue of their strategic and defensible locations, consequently in many cases successful and prosperous communities hung on to the sites. If that community turned into a major city in the ensuing millennia there was a fair chance of an amphitheatre disappearing without trace, particularly if it was one of the cruder structures of wood and earth banking or the stone was easy to scavenge.  If it was an imposing stone structure, post-Imperial survival and use as a spectator venue seems limited to a few examples where the appetite for violent slaughter as public entertainment somehow bypassed the evolution of more enlightened attitudes to animal welfare (bullfighting).

The most common re-uses of amphitheatres have been one or more of the following: Housing, Quarry, Fortification, Hole to put rubbish in, Meeting Place.

Many ‘city centre’ arenas became handily located quarries and builders’ yards providing a ready supply of cut and dressed stone for new construction. This could result in razing to the foundations and  complete disappearance, or at least extensive dereliction. The Colosseum, I assume, was simply so massive, and surrounded by so many other easily plundered ancient buildings, that it was able to survive in its present state despite providing materials for a lot of churches and other buildings in Rome.

Some of the most interesting examples occur where rebuilding and replacement has used the foundations and fabric of the original structure. This can range from sections of later houses or other buildings sitting on or against remaining parts of the arena, to the former use being only visible in an unexpectedly oval street pattern. Google Maps (other satellite photography websites are available) can provide great satisfaction for sleuths trying to spot these.

Abandonment and dereliction happened gradually. The Romans didn’t simply pack everything into chariots and head south in the third century. There is evidence that lifestyles and behaviours carried on. Recent dating science has found ‘Roman’ mosaic flooring in a Gloucestershire villa constructed 150+ years after the Imperial presence had supposedly departed the British Isles. Local populations often carried on using roads and other infrastructure as long as it suited them. In addition to the bullfighting example, commentators have drawn attention to the way in which the ‘ghost’ of past activity seems to linger in later use.  Maumbury Rings in Dorchester was still used for public hangings into the 17th century and the open space of the amphitheatre site which became London’s Guildhall Square was used through the centuries for ‘sports’ such as jousting and football.

Smaller amphitheatres serving military outposts, bases and training camps obviously fell into decline with the departure of the army where it left no substantial town or civilian population with a reason to remain. There are also examples of locations where the later medieval towns in the vicinity did not stay at the Roman site. Silchester obviously thrived when the road network was at the core of Roman Britain. When that fell into decline and disuse, the Thames at Reading a few miles to the north provided a much bigger draw with a ready-made highway for water transport that needed a lot less maintenance.  Silchester’s fate was like that of abandoned railway sidings awaiting a regeneration project that never came.

The Roman Empire also went a long way south. Some of its settlements and associated entertainment venues consequently went the way of lots of things built in and around parts of North Africa and the near east, namely the desert reclaimed them until somebody came along with the means and inclination to dig them out. Tunisia in particular has many sites. The area was the focus of massive expansion at the height of the imperial period following the ‘hostile takeover’ of the Carthaginians. The cultivation of marginal scrubland in olive plantations, vineyards or orchards was encouraged by various imperial schemes which combined security of tenure with built-in rent exemptions during the initial startup phase. This unallocated land, which had not been suitable for planting in large agri-business farms, the imperial saltus of North Africa, producing corn for export to Rome, had previously been overlooked for cultivation. The resettlement, including of  army veterans with land and facilities, gave rise to many new towns, serviced by massive engineering projects of aqueducts and cisterns to supply them with water, and amphitheatres to amuse and keep them in check.