Roman Theatre and Amphitheatre — Entertainment as Imperial Order
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Transcript
The theatre and amphitheatre stood close together but served different spectacles. The theatre framed drama, music and public ceremony behind a monumental stage building. The amphitheatre staged gladiatorial combat and animal hunts for thousands of spectators.
Neither was merely leisure. Seating reflected social rank, patrons advertised generosity, and public spectacle helped bind a provincial capital to Roman political culture. The theatre was inaugurated in the late first century BC and remodeled repeatedly.
The modern classical theatre festival gives the ancient building a living function again, but what survives today is the result of excavation and restoration as well as Roman construction.