Amphitheatre of Italica

Amphitheatrum Italicense

AmphitheaterBaetica · Santiponce, Spain

Not standing in 117 CE

About

One of the largest arenas anywhere in the Roman world seated roughly 25,000 spectators, with its lower tiers cut straight into the hillside to save on masonry. Hadrian commissioned it as part of a sweeping expansion of his home city after becoming emperor. Trajan, also born in Italica, never saw it: construction fell entirely within Hadrian's reign, which began the very day this map is set.

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.