Amphitheater Neronis
The Amphitheater Neronis was an amphitheater in the city of Rome , built in the time of Nero in 57.
The amphitheater, built with Lucius Calpurnius Piso during the consulate of Nero with Lucius Calpurnius Piso within only one year, was made entirely of wood and replaced the statilius Taurus amphitheater , a stone building from 29 BC , which no longer met the requirements . BC, which was only destroyed in the fire of 64 . Like that of Statilius Taurus, the Neronian building stood on the Field of Mars . However, since it is not listed among the buildings that fell victim to the fire in the year 80, it seems to have been in its northern area.
For the construction, the architects Nero used the largest tree trunk that was ever used in Rome, a 120-foot (around 35 meters) long larch , which Tiberius once had brought to Rome as a curiosity. The amphitheater could be covered with huge sun protection sails, called vela , made of sky-blue colored linen, which was studded with stars.
According to Suetonius , no one was killed in the building, but Nero had 400 senators and equites fight in the amphitheater, organized animal hunts and naumachia . There is a description of such an animal hunt in Nero's amphitheater by the little-known poet Calpurnius Siculus , a contemporary of Nero's amphitheater, which is of particular social and historical importance, since it reports on the conditions of the allocation of seats - the farmer Corydon, who was visiting Rome as a visitor, had to be poorly dressed fellow citizens take their seats in the top tier.
literature
- Domenico Palombi: Amphitheater Neronis . In: Eva Margareta Steinby (Ed.): Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae . Vol. 1. 2. Ed. Quasar, Rome 1993, ISBN 88-7097-019-1 , p. 36.
- Samuel Ball Platner , Thomas Ashby : A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Oxford University Press, London 1929, p. 5 ( online ).
- Lawrence Richardson Jr .: A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1992, p. 10 fsv Amphitheatrum Neronis .
Web links
- Rome, amphitheater of Nero. In: Amphi-Theatrum .