Amphitheater of Cumae
About
Builders cut Cumae's amphitheater into the natural slope of Monte Grillo, banking up an earthen wall on the north side to complete the oval bowl. It ranks among Campania's earliest stone amphitheaters, raised alongside similar arenas at Capua and Liternum around the turn of the 2nd to 1st century BCE. The arena floor sat sunk below ground level, with much of the seating carved directly against the hillside. By 117 CE the structure had already hosted spectacles for close to two centuries.
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.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →