Arena Veronensis
About
Raised outside Verona's walls in the early 1st century CE, most likely around 30 CE, in pink and white limestone, the Verona Arena could seat around 30,000, one of the largest amphitheaters in Roman Italy after the Colosseum and Capua's arena. Its outer ring mostly collapsed in a 12th-century earthquake, but the inner structure survives intact enough to still host opera today. In full use for games nearly a century before Trajan's reign closed in 117 CE.
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.
In ancient writing
- Pliny the Younger, Letters 6.34
Pliny writes to Maximus praising him for giving a gladiatorial spectacle to the people of Verona as a memorial to his late wife, a Veronese woman; the letter does not name the amphitheater building itself but is about games staged at Verona.
Sources
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 →