Amphitheatre of Capua
About
Second in size only to Rome's own Colosseum, this arena seated some 60,000 spectators around a floor spanning 170 meters, its four tiers of seating carried on eighty travertine arches. Underground passages threaded beneath the sand, moving animals and fighters up through trapdoors into the show above. Ancient inscriptions credit Augustus with building it; the city's own heritage authority instead dates it a century later. Either way it was already old and celebrated by 117 CE, and tradition holds Rome modeled its own Colosseum on this one, not the reverse.
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 →