Scolacium, hidden and exclusive

Departing from Rome, a six hours journey by train brought me to Calabria. Here, I visited the ruins of the Greek city of Schilletion, or Roman Scolacium. An insiders tip away from the more crowded Tyrrhenian Sea and Vibo Valentia. Although the city is the birthplace of Cassiodorus (480-575), I was primarily interested in the small and intimate and very well preserved Roman theater, shown below. Originally built during the Greek era, the present building is Hadrianic. Due to its late Hellenistic origin, a small temple (or Frova) was built behind. A similar find was recorded at Teanum Sidicinum.

The theater is built against the hillside on concentric and radial support walls. The outer cavea wall is remarkably (still) decorated in opus reticulatum. Although it is forbidden to enter the structure, my curiosity and ambition to get some good pictures for this blog made me to become a trespasser, again.
I couldn't find a clue on its capacity, but I guess - with an orchestra of approximately 19,5 meters - it could hold about 3500 spectators.

The stage area is not fully cleared and only the north part of the scaenae frons survives above the ground. All three doorways in semicircular niches and the back walls are made of opus quadratum.

During the exavations three late Republica heads, two headless statues and an above-sized draped figure with nude torso was discovered. The beautiful head shown here is suggested to image Germanicus.
More of my pictures can be seen here!