The Roman Amphitheater

THE ROMAN AMPHITHEATER A Roman amphitheatre is large, circular or oval open air an open-air venues with raked seating in all sides. Mostly, they were used for events such as gladiator combats, chariot races, venationes and executions. Until now, we don’t know for sure where the first amphitheater was built. There’ve been many debates about it’s original birthplace. According to Jean-Claude Golvin, the earliest known stone amphitheatres are found in Campania, at Capua, Cumae and Liternum. And the next earliest-known surviving example was the amphitheater at Pompeii; it was a compromise. The building is only partly standing; half of it is propped against the city wall, it was sited so that seats at one end could be supported on rising ground (Later amphitheaters built in France at Arles and Nimes were constructed almost entirely above ground level). Outside staircases led to a corridor at the summit where the seats for women are.. Greatest of all was the Flavian Amphitheater, also as known as the Colosseum, completed in 80 A.D, during the reign of Vespasian, has the capacity of 50,000 people. It’s building was remarkable in many ways. The architectures employed arches to great practical and aesthetic effect, it was divided by columns form an arcade. Except for the top level of seats, which rested on wooden supports the entire building was masonry, a combination of cut stones and concrete resting on carefully laid foundations. And it was so successful that is still, two thousand years later, no trace of settlement. The construction was so effectively organized that the Colosseum was ready for service just ten years after its inception.

Although the Colosseum remains today a partial ruin because of devastating earthquakes and stone-robbers, the Colosseum is an iconic symbol of Imperial Rome. It is worthy testimonial to Roman construction skill.

WORKS CITED
Glancey, Jonathan. “Architecture”. FK Publishing, Inc 2006. 106
Freeman, Charles. “EGYPT,

Cited: Glancey, Jonathan. “Architecture”. FK Publishing, Inc 2006. 106 Freeman, Charles. “EGYPT, GREECE AND ROME civilizations of the ancient mediterranean” . OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1996. 413 – 414. Woodehouse, Lawrence and Moffett, Marian. “a history of WESTERN ARCHITECTURE”. Mayfield Publishing Company, 1989. 79, 81. Kostof, Spiro. “A History of Architecture Settings and Rituals”. OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1995. 207 Colosseum <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colosseum> Roman amphitheatre <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Roman_amphitheatres>