Amphitheatre

Amphitheatre, in architecture, spacious open-air building generally oval in form. The earliest amphitheatres were constructed of wood, and later ones of stone. They were used by the Romans for gladiatorial combats, fights of wild beasts, and other spectacles. The arena was encircled by tiered seats. The first amphitheatre was constructed in 59 bc by the Roman pontifex maximus (head of the priests' college in Rome) Gaius Scribonius Curio. The first partial stone amphitheatre was built in 30 bc by Augustus, before he became first emperor of Rome. This amphitheatre remained the only one in Rome not entirely of wood until the erection of the Colosseum by the Roman emperor Vespasian, whose son and successor, Titus, dedicated the edifice in ad 80. The upper part of the Colosseum itself, however, was originally of wood; it was replaced by stone after 223. The example of Rome was followed by all the cities of any importance throughout the Roman Empire. According to a 4th-century document the Colosseum in Rome seated 87,000 people; modern scholars, however, believe that only about 50,000 could be seated. The colosseums of Pozzuoli, Capua, Verona, and Tarragona (all in Italy) are about the same size. See also Circus, Roman.