Roman amphitheatre

Thus, an amphitheatre is distinguished from the traditional semicircular Roman theatres by being circular or oval in shape.

A cuneus (Latin for "wedge"; plural, cunei) was a wedge-shaped division separated by the scalae or stairways.

The arched entrances both at the arena level and within the cavea are called the vomitoria (Latin "to spew forth"; singular, vomitorium) and were designed to allow rapid dispersal of large crowds.

There are records attesting to temporary wooden amphitheatres built in the Forum Romanum for gladiatorial games from the second century BC onwards, and these may be the origin of the architectural form later expressed in stone.

[3] According to Jean-Claude Golvin, the earliest known stone amphitheatres are found in Campania, at Capua, Cumae and Liternum, where such venues were built towards the end of the second century BC.

[6] There are relatively few other known early amphitheatres: those at Abella, Teanum and Cales date to the Sullan era (until 78 BC), those at Puteoli and Telesia from the Augustan (27 BC–14 AD).

[2] Imperial amphitheatres comfortably accommodated 40,000–60,000 spectators, or up to 100,000 in the largest venues, and were only outdone by the hippodromes in seating capacity.

[7] As the Empire grew, most of its amphitheatres remained concentrated in the Latin-speaking Western half, while in the East spectacles were mostly staged in other venues such as theatres or stadia.

Gladiatorial munera began to disappear from public life during the 3rd century, due to economic pressure, philosophical disapproval and opposition by the increasingly predominant new religion of Christianity, whose adherents considered such games an abomination and a waste of money.

[10] Spectacles involving animals, venationes, survived until the sixth century, but became costlier and rarer.

[12] After the end of venationes, the only remaining purpose of amphitheatres was to be the place of public executions and punishments.

It was built in Mauretania between the times of 25 BC and 23 AD by the Roman-appointed ruler Juba II and his son Ptolemy,[20] which is now considered to be modern day Cherchell, Algeria.

[17] Built in the reign of emperor Hadrian, 117–138 AD, the Italica amphitheatre could hold up to 25,000 people and still stands today.