Amphitheatre of Itálica

The Roman amphitheatre of Italica (Spanish:Anfiteatro romano de Itálica) is a ruined Roman amphitheatre situated in the Roman settlement of Italica, present-day Santiponce, in Andalusia, Spain.

It was built during the reign of emperor Hadrian, approximately between the years 117 and 138, and was one of the largest in the entire Roman Empire.

Architectural features

The amphitheatre had capacity of 25,000 spectators. It has an elliptical shape, with a major axis of 160 metres (525 ft) and one less than 137 metres (449 ft), it had three levels of stands. Under the level of the old wooden floor of the amphitheater there was a service pit for the different gladiatorial shows, called munus gladiatorum and fights against wild beasts, called venatio.

The cavea was divided into three sections, the ima, media and summa cavea, separated by annular corridors called praecinctions. The first, the ima cavea, had 6 stands, with 8 access doors, and was reserved for a ruling class. The second, the media cavea, was intended for the humblest population, had 12 tiers and 14 access doors. The summa cavea, covered by an awning, was reserved only to children and women.

The amphitheatre also had several rooms dedicated to the cult of Nemesis and Juno.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Roman amphitheatre of Italica" and modified on April 11, 2020 according to the CC-BY-SA 4.0 International license.