Roman entertainment arenas varied depending on the nature of the spectacle, just as today we have different kinds of arenas depending on the nature of the event (e. g., football stadiums, baseball fields, hockey arenas). Some types of Roman arenas originated in the Greek world. For example, theaters first developed in Greece in the sixth and fifth centuries B. C.E. Originally they consisted of simple wooden bleachers on the natural slope of a hill, arranged in a semicircle around a circular area below that was called an orchestra, where the chorus chanted. A modest wooden scene building was located behind the orchestra. By the Roman period, concrete technology made it possible to place seats on artificial vaulted structures anywhere, not just on natural hillsides. Roman orchestras were cut in half by a raised wooden stage in front of the scene building, which was two to three stories high and had elaborate decoration, including projecting columns and niches framing statues. The scene building was a false fafade that created a backdrop for the actors performing on the stage.
Whereas theaters originated in the Greek world and were used for the performance of plays, amphitheaters were a purely Italic invention. The word amphitheater comes from a Greek word referring to the fact that the oval arena was completely encircled by seats (usually supported by a built, vaulted structure). Amphitheaters were used for gladiator and animal fights. Perhaps the most famous example is the Flavian amphitheater in Rome, popularly known as the Colosseum because the emperor Vespasian built it near the site of a colossal statue of his predecessor Nero.
Other types of arenas included stadiums for footracing, which had a long tradition in the Greek world going back at least to the first Olympic games in 776 B. C.E., and hippodromes, which were horse and chariot racecourses. Hippodromes were long and narrow, with one curved end and a flat end with the starting gates. Banks of seats, set on natural hillsides or on built vaulted structures, lined the sides of Roman hippodromes. A wall called a spina (Latin for spine) bisected the middle of the course and typically had obelisks, lap counters, and other monuments set atop it. The Romans called a hippodrome (Greek for “horse-racing course") a circus. The most famous Roman hippodrome was the Circus Maximus, located at the foot of the Palatine Hill in Rome.
The Romans also developed a sophisticated culture of baths and bathing. Most Roman cities had one or more public bath houses, and the palaces and villas of the wealthy were equipped with private bath houses. No matter what their size, Roman bath houses typically contained the same types of rooms: a dressing room (apodyterium), a cold-water plunge bath (frigidarium), a
Warm room [tepidarium], and the hot room or steam bath (caldarium). The caldarium usually was heated by a hypocaust system, in which hot air from a furnace outside the room circulated below a raised floor and through pipes along the walls. Steam was created by throwing water from bathtubs onto the floor and walls (see Chapter 10). A constant supply of fresh water was brought to the bath house by aqueduct. It was common for bath houses to include a latrine, with rows of stone or wooden seats lining the walls and a channel with water underneath to carry away the waste.
Extended from the round towers on the north (see the discussion of Straton's Tower in Chapter 4) to the theater on the south. By the fifth century, a new wall encompassing a much larger area was built, attesting to the continued growth of the city. After the Muslim conquest, the elite quarter was abandoned and covered with sand dunes, as mentioned earlier. By the Crusader period the settlement had contracted to a fraction of the Herodian city, centering on the Temple Platform and inner harbor.
On the northeast side of the city, the outlines of an unexcavated amphitheater are visible among the agricultural fields. The amphitheater lies at the edge of the Herodian city, but well within the expanded walls of the fifth century C. E. The oval arena must have been used for animal and gladiator fights.
World History
