Amphitheater in Capua - the first Roman amphitheater (11 photos + 1 video)

Of all the amphitheatres built by the Romans, the Colosseum or Flavian Amphitheatre in Rome is the largest in size. It is followed by the amphitheatre of Capua, Pozzuoli and El Jem (already in Tunisia, which is also the largest in Africa). However, it is not the oldest, since this honor belongs to the amphitheatre of Capua.





Moreover, experts believe that it could even serve as a model for the Colosseum, since it has many structural features in common with it and the others. We are talking about amphitheaters built of stone, since previously they were built of wood.



The amphitheater is located in the ancient city of Capua in Italy, which was not located where the modern city of the same name is now, but in the neighboring municipality of Santa Maria Capuia Vetere, and which became the second largest and most prosperous city on the Italian peninsula after Rome. Curiously, the city was called Santa Maria la Mayor until 1861. Archaeological excavations that discovered old Capua forced the name change.





The amphitheater has an elliptical plan, its dimensions are 170 meters along the main axis and 139 meters along the minor axis. The height of the facade reaches 46 meters, it is divided into four levels, the lower of which is made in the Doric order, and the rest - in the Tuscan order. The three lower levels consisted of 80 travertine arches, decorated with a bust of the god.



The upper level was formed by a wall decorated with pilasters, between which were windows that illuminated the corridor intended for holding funeral ceremonies, used to protect spectators from the sun and bad weather. The arcades on the second floor gave way to a double open portico supported by columns and covered with vaults.

The dimensions of the arena are the same as those of the Colosseum in Rome: 76.29 m long and 45.93 wide. The dungeon is labyrinthine, intact, consisting of brick pillars supporting the vaults on which the arena rests.



The cages where the wild animals were kept are still clearly visible, as are the service galleries and the well-preserved freight elevator system leading to the hatches.

It had a complex network of sewer pipes that turned the amphitheater into a giant impluvium - a pool in which water collected in the cave was directed to a cistern installed outside. At the same time, an aqueduct provided the water needed to service the building.



The amphitheater could accommodate between 45,000 and 50,000 spectators, with seats divided into low (on the podium), medium (on the marble stands), and high. This large capacity and the significant movement of the public at the beginning and end of each event forced the architects to provide the amphitheater with a double gallery for peripheral circulation on the ground floor, which it shares only with the Colosseum.

Here was the first and most famous gladiator school in the Roman world, belonging to the lanista Lentulus Batiato, who had mainly Gallic and Thracian gladiators.



The exact date of its construction is unknown, but it is already mentioned in sources when talking about Spartacus, the famous gladiator who led the rebellion from the Capuan amphitheater in 73 BC. (There is no evidence for this, but it is quite possible that Spartacus could have fought in the arena of the Capuan amphitheater).



However, some historians believe that the current building was built at the end of the 1st century BC on the ruins of the previous one. If this hypothesis were true, then the oldest Roman amphitheater would be the amphitheater of Pompeii, built in 70 BC.



This hypothesis is supported by an inscription found at the entrance to the amphitheater in 1726, which dates its construction to the time of Augustus. According to this inscription, it was later restored by Hadrian in 119 CE, who added statues and columns to it, and consecrated by Antoninus Pius in 155 CE.



Gladiatorial combats were banned by the Emperor Honorius in 404 AD, although wild animal shows continued to be staged in the amphitheatre. After the fall of the empire, the Vandals of Genseric in 456 AD significantly damaged the building, as did the Saracens in 841. Much of the amphitheatre's stones were reused in Norman times to build the Castello delle Pietra and other buildings in the city.



Large blocks of stone were broken up to obtain the bronze and lead that held them together, while smaller stones were used to pave the streets. Conservation of the complex began only after King Francis I of the Two Sicilies declared it a national monument in 1826, ordering the amphitheatre to be cleared and excavated under the direction of the royal architect.