Londinium


In 2006, I visited the amphitheater of Londinium or London. The above drawing gives a nice panoramic view over Londinium - fort and vicus - at around 200 AD, with the river Thames at the background. The amphitheater is in the lower center, close to the rectangular form (the Roman fort). Currently, the remains are buried under the medieval Guildhall. 

The discovery of the Guildhall amphitheater in 1988 was proclaimed on national and international television and radio. The Observer (February, 28) described it as 'one of the most exciting archeological finds since the Second World War'. The Sunday Telegraph (March, 6) called it 'one of the most important (finds) in Britain this century'. Historians and archeologists still agree with this view.
The amphitheatre may have seated more than 5000 spectators. The position of the amphitheater near to the Roman fort, suggests that the arena would have been used for entertaining soldiers as well as the general public. The amphitheater was also the largest venue suitable for important religious activities.


Reacties

Een reactie posten

Populaire posts van deze blog

Polydus, champion charioteer for the reds

Afbeelding
Last week, I visited Landesmuseum Trier for the third time, which probably sounds boring but its collection is of great quality. The museum was renovated a few years ago, so a good excuse to visit it again. In my previous blog post I already wrote that the circus of Colonia Augusta Treverorum dates back to the earliest period of the cities history. The race track may have been created immediately after the city was founded. Quite some interesting finds, referring to the circus are in Landesmuseum Trier on display, including this mosaic of Polydus, a popular charioteer for the red faction (factio russata), and his lead horse Compressor. He is taking a victory lap. My picture is the centerpiece of a mosaic floor from a villa in front of the Imperial Baths in Trier. The representations on Roman mosaics of the victorious charioteer of the circus may be compared with similar representations in other forms of Roman art, both major and minor. Certa...
Meer lezen

Papposilenos of the band of satyrs

Afbeelding
Until recently, I didn't have much documentation about Roman or Greek Theaters or actual plays. Probably, I was inattentive, but in Berlin I found two great volumes. 'The Art of Ancient Greek Theater' by Mary Louise Hart, associate curator in the Dept. of Antiquities at the Getty Museum and a German copy of 'Teatri Greci e Romani' or 'Antike Theater' , by Umberto Pappalardo. I was happy to find more information of the statue of an actor disguised as Papposilenos, the oldest member of the band of satyrs who raised Dionysos. I saw the statue last year in the Palazzo Massimo all Terme in Rome.  The Papposilenos served as the chorus leader in the satyr play because in a sense he was the least vulgar. To some extend, Hart explained, he mitigated the obscenity and crudity of the other players as he paraphrased the heroic themes proper to tragedy. The Roman statue dates from  the 2nd century AD and was found in 1957 on the beach of...
Meer lezen

Subterranean theater of Herculaneum

Afbeelding
I visited Herculaneum twice, and both times my camera mall functioned. Or, I only made a very limited amount of pictures because of whatever. Which is a pitty, while the remains of the city are of great splendor and in many aspects more intense than Pompei. At the internet I found this chalk model of the theater of Herculaneum, which was made in 1808. In 1711, workers digging a well in a small town of Resina, found three mostly intact marble statues of draped women. Heralding the discovery of ancient Herculaneum, the sculptures are known today as the Large and Small Herculaneum Women. But that is not the topic of this entry. When they were discovered, the Herculaneum Women were hoisted through a well shaft that led down to the remains of a Roman theater buried 75 feed below the street level of modern Ercolano. The theater of Herculaneum was the first Roman theater found largely intact. Its grand arcades and polychrome wall paintings influenced a new generation - I learned - of a...
Meer lezen