Roman Entertainment: The Amphitheatre and Theatre

Two buildings, two audiences

Roman towns built two very different places for watching things, and both survive at Pompeii, which is why your specification uses that town as its example. The amphitheatre was built for combat: an oval arena with seating rising all the way round it, so that every seat looked down on the same central space. The theatre was built for plays: a semicircle of tiered seats facing a stage with a decorated building behind it. The shapes are different because what happened in them was different, and that is the first thing to be able to explain. But there is a second thing, and it is what this component actually examines. You are given named sources, and they are not decoration. They are the evidence, and what a source can prove depends on what kind of source it is. You will meet three kinds here. A funerary inscription commemorates a dead person, so it tells you what those who buried him wanted remembered. A satire attacks, so it tells you what attitudes existed to be mocked, not what usually happened. A comedy script was written to be performed, so it tells you about the stage and its conventions rather than about the street outside. Get the kind of source right and the rest of the answer follows. Get it wrong, and you will confidently prove something the source cannot show.

Words for the arena and the stage

Six terms across the two buildings. Learn the two fighter types together, because they were paired against each other on purpose.

Which building is which

A visitor to Pompeii finds a building with tiered seating in a full oval around a central space. What was it for?

• The amphitheatre, used for gladiatorial combat: the seating surrounds the arena so the whole audience looks down on the same central space
• The theatre, used for plays
• The forum, used for markets and public business
• The public baths

Oval and semicircle

The two entertainment buildings compared. Notice how much of each design follows from what had to be seen and heard.

Match each fighter to his equipment

The man inside the spectacle

Before going further, be clear about who fought in the arena, because it is examinable and because it changes how the evidence reads. Most gladiators were not there by choice. They were enslaved people, condemned criminals or prisoners of war, trained in schools and owned by the men who ran them. Some free men did volunteer, taking on a contract for payment and fame, but they were the minority, and even a successful gladiator was held in low regard socially despite drawing large crowds. That combination, admired and disreputable at once, is one of the most revealing things about Roman society. Now the source your specification names. ILS 5111 is a gladiator's funerary inscription, and it is worth understanding what that kind of source does. An inscription of this sort records a man's name, his type of fighting, and something of his record, set up by those who buried him. It is not a description of the games. It is a person being commemorated as an individual, by people who wanted him remembered, in the same way any Roman might be. That matters for two reasons. As history, it is first-hand and contemporary, though shaped by what mourners chose to record, which is exactly the limitation to state in an answer. And as a corrective, it puts a name and a life back into a spectacle that is usually described in terms of crowds. A source that lets you say something about one person is more useful than one that lets you say something vague about everybody.

Which two are true of the Roman theatre

Select the TWO accurate statements about theatre in a town like Pompeii.

• All the actors were male and wore masks showing which stock character they were playing
• Many of the comedies performed were adapted from Greek originals
• Elaborate changes of painted scenery were moved between every scene
• Performances were given in a full oval building so the audience surrounded the actors

The buildings in words

The _____ was an oval building with seating all around a central arena, used for gladiatorial combat; the _____ in Rome is the largest example. A lightly armed gladiator with a net and trident was a _____, regularly matched against the heavily armed secutor. The theatre was a _____ facing a stage, behind which stood the decorated scaenae frons. All actors were male and wore a _____, which showed the audience which stock character was speaking.

Reading a satirist properly

Your specification names Juvenal, Satires 6.103-113, in which Eppia, a senator's wife, is described as having abandoned her family to run off with a gladiator called Sergius. Here is how to use it, and how not to. How not to: "Juvenal shows that Roman women often ran away with gladiators." That treats a satire as a survey. Juvenal was writing to mock, and the whole point of the passage is that the behaviour is outrageous; if it had been ordinary there would have been nothing to satirise. How to use it: "Juvenal's account of Eppia is satire, written to attack, so it is unlikely to describe a common event. What it does show is that gladiators could be objects of fascination, and that a Roman audience would find a respectable woman's attraction to one both shocking and funny. The passage is therefore good evidence for ATTITUDES to gladiators and to women, and poor evidence for what women actually did." Notice the shape, because it works for any hostile source. Name the kind of source. Say what its purpose was. Then separate what it can show from what it cannot, and be specific about both. The same discipline applies to your other named source here: Plautus wrote comedies for performance, so *The Pot of Gold* and *The Brothers Menaechmus* are excellent evidence for how the Roman stage worked, its stock characters and its conventions, and weak evidence for how Romans behaved at home. A source is not simply reliable or unreliable. It is reliable FOR something, and the mark is in saying what.

Satire read as a report

Four sentences using the named sources. Select the ONE that treats a satire as a factual report.

• Juvenal's portrait of Eppia is satirical, so it shows what a Roman audience would find shocking rather than what commonly happened.
• Juvenal proves that senators' wives frequently left their families for gladiators.
• ILS 5111 is a funerary inscription, so it records what those who buried the gladiator chose to have remembered about him.
• Plautus wrote for performance, so his plays are strong evidence for the conventions of the Roman stage.

The order to judge a source in

Put the steps of evaluating a named source into the order that produces a full answer.

• Identify what kind of source it is: an inscription, a satire, a comedy, an image
• Say what it was made for, and who made it
• State what it is therefore good evidence FOR
• State what it cannot show, and why that follows from its purpose
• Reach a conclusion that uses the source for the thing it can actually support

Say what the source can show

Assemble a sentence that uses a source for what it can actually support.

Three sources, three limits

You are asked what the named sources tell us about Roman entertainment. Work through each.

• A question asks what ILS 5111 tells us about gladiators. What is the strongest answer?
• You want to add a limitation to that answer. What is the right one?
• A question asks what Plautus tells us about Roman life. What do you say?
• You are asked for a general point about using these sources. What earns most credit?

Explain the buildings and their sources

Describe the Roman amphitheatre and theatre, and explain what the named sources tell us about entertainment in each. Say what each source is good evidence for, and what it cannot show.

• Describe the shape and purpose of the amphitheatre, and say why the shape suits the use
• Name at least two types of gladiator and describe how each was equipped
• Explain who most gladiators were, and that most were not there by choice
• Describe the shape of the theatre, the scaenae frons, and how actors and masks worked
• Explain what ILS 5111 is and what it lets us say about gladiators
• Explain why Juvenal on Eppia is evidence for attitudes rather than for events
• Explain what Plautus shows about the stage rather than about daily life
• Finish by explaining why the kind of source decides what it can prove