Roman Amphitheatre of Ancona · Wikimedia Commons

Amphitheatrum Anconitanum

Roman Amphitheatre of Ancona

AmphitheaterItalia · Ancona, ItalyBuilt 30 BCE

About

Ancona's amphitheater rose on the hill the cathedral now occupies, its long elliptical wall built up in alternating bands of opus reticulatum and brick that still stand near Piazza del Senato. Augustan builders raised the first arena to hold a few thousand spectators, and later enlargement under Trajan pushed capacity toward ten thousand, tying the games here directly to the same imperial patronage rebuilding the harbor below. By 117 CE it had hosted the city's spectacles for close to a century and a half, only recently expanded to match Ancona's growing importance as an eastern gateway.

What happened here

Doors open early and the programme runs all day. Morning is animal hunts, staged with scenery hauled up through trapdoors from the corridors below. Midday is executions, and it is the hour when the seats thin out and people go for lunch. The afternoon is the gladiators, matched by type and record like boxers, refereed, and stopped when a man raises a finger. Most fights are not to the death — a trained fighter is expensive — but a decision can go the other way and the crowd is consulted. Seating is strictly by rank: officials at the front, women at the top. Awnings are worked by sailors detailed for the job. Sand is spread thick and replaced between shows, and the whole building smells of it.