Amphitheatres

What are Amphitheatres?

An Amphitheatre is a vintage outdoor

stadium where people watched different events.

The word Amphitheatre comes from the ancient Greek word amphi - meaning around and theatron meaning place for viewing.

What is an Amphitheatre?

They had tiered seating in Amphitheatres just like stadiums or circuses today.

The stadiums we have today are based on Amphitheatres.

They were called amphitheatres because they were built like two theatres facing each other.

Why were they built?

They were built because they wanted a permanent structure so they did not have to keep putting up temporary amphhitheatres.

Before amphitheatres were built wooden or temporary structures were used put up by city councils or rich men and women.

How were they built? Slaves were mainly used to build

amphitheatres. Slaves would quarry stone from miles away

and carry it to the building site. Stone masons, artists,  builders, engineers,

painters and decorators did the skilful jobs that slaves couldn’t do.

They invented concrete which was made out of rubble, sand volcanic rock called pazzolona and a mix of mortar.

Arches were also used to hold the amphitheatres up.

Uses for Amphitheatres Amphitheatres were used to entertain people from all

around. Gladiators fought each other and wild animals like

lions , bears , ostriches and lots of other animals people had never seen before.

There were also chariot races in amphitheatres and people would bet on which chariot would win.

Amphitheatres were also used for re-enacting sea battles.

Executions were also held in amphitheatres. Much later famous people like Mussolini held rallies to

show their wealth and power.

Gladiators

Gladiatorial fights started off when rich men and women made their slaves fight to the death in Campania and Etruria!

Gladiators were usually slaves or prisoners of war.

Gladiator schools were set up and the gladiator’s had to stick to a strict diet.

At the peak of the gladiatorial fights people that were in prison were forced to fight and if you completed a minor crime you were also forced to fight.

Chariot racing

Most of the chariot racing drivers were slaves but there were a few professional racing drivers too.

Each driver wore a coloured tunic so people could see what team they were on.

The chariot drivers usually had quite a short career before they injured themselves or died.

There were no lanes and pretty much no rules. The races were usually seven laps around the

stadium. The top drivers were like celebrities today they

were better known then the gladiators around the empire.

Chariot racing stadium

Chariot racing in Ben Hur

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiIXUtpfjwQ

Roman Amphitheatres around the world

The Colosseum is the most famous amphitheatre.

The oldest surviving amphitheatre was built around 70 A.D and could hold up to 20,000 people.

The remains of 230 amphitheatres have been found all over the Roman Empire.

The first and second biggest amphitheatres are in Italy.

It took roughly 9-11 years to build the Colosseum!

Amphitheatre Pompeii

El Jem El Jem was built around 238 AD. In Tunisia It is the biggest Amphitheatre in North

Africa. It could hold up to 35,000 people. El Jem has no foundation, and is

completely freestanding.

El Jem is 138 metres long and 114 metres wide. That is at least 20 metres longer than a soccer pitch and twice as wide

El Jem

It has a circumference of 427 metres and is 36 metres high.

They got stone and brought it to El Jem from up to 50 kilometres away.

It was named a Unesco world heritage site in 1979.

It is the third biggest amphitheatre in the Roman Empire.

Early amphitheatres

The first wooden amphitheatre was put up around 59 B.C in Rome.

Early amphitheatres were made out of wood and were a circular shape.

Two semi circular wooden theatres were put together to make a circular theatre.

Natural amphitheatres

Slane concert

Concerts have been taking place since 1981. 80,000- 100,000 people usually attend the

concerts held there. Slane concert takes place in county Meath. Slane castle is just a couple of kilometres from

Newgrange. Jon Bon Jovi and eminem are due to play in

Slane in August 2013.

Contemporary amphitheatres

My favourite amphitheatre

Is Pompeii amphitheatre. It was the first amphitheatre to be made

out of stone and was built in 70 B.C. In 62 A.D an earthquake struck Pompeii. It’s not like other amphitheatre’s around

the empire because it is a couple of feet below ground level.

Two local officials built it.

Gruesome facts

The Caspian Tiger and the African Elephant were driven to extinction because so many were killed in different amphitheatres around the empire.

On the day the Colosseum opened 5,000 animals died.

The games played in the colosseum are thought to have taken the lives of about 500,000 people and 1,000,000 wild animals!

Amphitheatre still in use!

Arles is in France

It was built in 90 AD

Arles can seat 20,000 spectators.

It is used today for bull fighting, concerts and plays.

After the fall of the Roman Empire it became shelter for many people with houses and churches contained inside it.

Arles as a town 18th century

QUESTIONS ANYONE?

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