Amphitheater (Capua)

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Anfiteatro Campano - 003.jpg

The amphitheater of Capua ( Italian anfiteatro Capuano, also anfiteatro Campano ) is the amphitheater of the ancient Roman city ​​of Capua and - after the Colosseum in Rome, which it may have served as a model - the second largest of its kind and probably one of the oldest preserved in the Roman world.

Today it is located within the municipality of Santa Maria Capua Vetere , opposite Piazza I Ottobre. Stones from the building were used by the inhabitants of Capua, which was newly founded in the 9th century, during the time of the Norman rule in the construction of the Castello delle pietre ; some of the decorative sculptures were integrated into the facade of the city's Palazzo del Comune .

history

There was a previous Republican building about 100 meters long southwest of the imperial building. This apparently resembled the much larger amphitheater in Pompeii and came from the 1st century BC.

Edification

During the excavations in September 1726 a mutilated inscription was found in front of the south gate of the amphitheater, which was supplemented by the archaeologist Alessio Simmaco Mazzocchi as follows:

“COLONIA IULIA FELIX AUGUSTA CAPUA FECIT DIVUS HADRIANUS AUG RESTITUIT IMAGINES ET COLUMNAS ADDI CURAVIT IMP CAES T AELIUS HADRIANUS ANTONINUS AUG PIUS DEDICAVIT”

"The colony of Iulia Felix Augusta Capua did it, the divine Augustus Hadrian restored it and added the statues and columns, the Emperor Caesar Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius inaugurated it."

Image of the inscription

The inscription, which was originally placed at the entrance to the amphitheater, was shown under the archway of the Church of Sant'Eligio in Capua, today it is in the Museo campano in Capua. With this inscription it was possible to reconstruct the history of the building. According to this, it was in Capua , conquered by Augustus after the battle of Actium and elevated to a Roman colony, at the end of the 1st century BC. Erected in AD, restored under Hadrian in AD 119, adding columns and statues, and inaugurated by Antoninus Pius in 155.

As for the dating of the edification, not all historians consider the first century BC to be credible. After some of them, the current amphitheater was built between the first and second centuries AD on the ruins of a previous building. At least that is in the year 70 BC. The amphitheater of Pompeii built the oldest surviving Roman structure of its kind.

Decay of the building

The arena of the amphitheater on a 19th century stereoscopy

After the fall of the Roman Empire , the amphitheater was destroyed by vandals under Geiseric and during the war for the succession of the Duchy of Benevento in 884 together with the old city of Capua by the Saracens .

It was initially used as a fortress for the Lombard princes of Capua . From the end of the 9th century it was extensively plundered by the inhabitants of Capua, who transferred the Civitas Capuana to the site of the ancient Casilinum , where today's Capua is located. The materials were used in particular for the construction of the Lombard castle and cathedral of Capua and its bell tower, but also for numerous palazzi of today's Capua, later also for the church dell'Amnunziata. However, the alleged dismantling of the structure for the Palace of Caserta turned out to be historically incorrect.

The work of looting was wild: large stones were smashed to extract lead and bronze, and the smallest stones were used as road paving.

architecture

As with all amphitheatres, the structure of the building was built on an elliptical floor plan; as far as the dimensions are concerned, only the Colosseum in Rome challenged him for first place. It has various architectural solutions in common with it, so that one can assume that it served directly as a model for the Colosseum.

Outside, the main axis measured 170 meters with a width of 139 meters. The facade was structured according to the Tuscan order by four storeys with half columns and a total of 46 meters high. The three lower floors each had 80 travertine arcades , the keystones of the arches were adorned with busts of deities, seven of which were incorporated into the facade of the town hall of Capua, others are on display in the city's museum.

Some remains of the amphitheater are shown in the Museo campano in Capua and in the Museo archeologico dell'antica Capua in Santa Maria Capua Vetere.

In Roman times, the Capuas gladiator school , made famous by the Spartacus revolt, was located near the building .

Quote

"I walked around alone in the ruins of the Anfiteatro campano, where I stayed for many hours and thought of the ancient greatness of Capua, of Hannibal, of the whole story of Livy ..."

Picture gallery

Web links

Commons : Amphitheater (Capua)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Touring Club Italiano (ed.): Guida d'Italia. Campania. Milan 1981.
  2. a b c Website of the municipality of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, accessed on May 21, 2008 ( Memento from June 18, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ Katherine E. Welch: The Roman Amphitheater. From its Origins to the Colosseum. Cambridge (New York) 1997, ISBN 978-0-521-80944-3 .
  4. CIL 10,3832
  5. ^ History and description of the amphitheater of Pompeii on the website of the Soprintendenza archeologica di Pompei, accessed on August 24, 2010
  6. "Me ne andavo solo tra le rovine dell'anfiteatro campano, dove rimanevo molte ore, pensando all'antica grandezza di Capua, Annibale ad, a tutta la storia di Livio ..."; quoted in: Alberto Perconte Licatese Capua antica. Edizione Spartaco, 1997.

Coordinates: 41 ° 5 ′ 10 ″  N , 14 ° 15 ′ 0 ″  E