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Nicaea Theatre
About
Nicaea's showcase theatre held roughly 10,000 spectators across a three-story, 24-meter cavea built on vaulted arches instead of a hillside, a rare flat-ground design in Anatolia. Governor Pliny the Younger inspected the unfinished building around 111 CE and found its walls already cracking and sinking, despite more than 10 million sesterces spent. He recommended tearing it down; Trajan told him to use his own judgment on the spot. Construction pressed on regardless.
What happened here
Seating is the message: the front rows are reserved by law for the town council, and everyone can see who is sitting where. The building is a half-circle against a tall stone backdrop that also serves as a permanent set, and the acoustics are good enough that an actor can be heard without effort. The programme is mime and pantomime more than the old tragedies — bawdy, topical, sometimes politically sharp enough that performers get exiled. Audiences are loud, partisan, and quite prepared to shout a piece down. Awnings and perfumed water sprays are laid on when the sponsor is generous. Shows are attached to religious festivals and paid for by a magistrate who wants the credit, and his name is on the seating.
In ancient writing
- Pliny the Younger, Epistulae 10.39
Reports to Trajan that Nicaea's unfinished theatre, already costing over 10 million sesterces, showed severe cracking and subsidence.
- Trajan, Epistulae (replies) 10.40
Tells Pliny to decide on the spot whether to complete or demolish the half-built theatre.
Sources
Nearby
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