Theater--page 1 (of two pages)

12 BCE; enlarged in 196 CE; restored during the late Empire; restored/partly reconstructed 1940s CE



Distant oblique view of the theater along the Decumanus Maximus.

At the time of Augustus this theater was originally built of tufa blocks, although two centuries later it was enlarged to a capacity of about 3500 and it was faced in parts with brick and at the entrance in stucco work.
 

Front entrance

 

Buttresses for the cavea or seating area and alternative entrances

 

Left and center: seating area and right: view from behind the proscenium and scaena

Scholars believe the seating area could have had an awning to shade the spectators. The seats may have originally had marble cladding.
 

Left and center: seating area and right: view of the orchestra (where in Roman theaters the audience sat), the proscenium, with concave and alternating rectangular niches, the void where the stage of wooden boards was, and the remains behind this brick wall of the scaena, which is thought to have been two-stories high



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© 2007 Mary Ann Sullivan. I have photographed (on site), scanned, and manipulated all the images on these pages. Please feel free to use them for personal or educational purposes. They are not available for commercial purposes.