Expert: Maria - 4/12/2008

Question
Hello

Thankyou for your time

I was wondering if you know who was the architect of Les Arènes, Nîmes and the Collesium in Rome?

I think Les Arènes is a copy of the collesium (is this correct?) and recent excavations have proved that the “Arènes” were constructed between 90 and 120 AD. Did all Roman amphitheaters use the same design and architect?

Thanks

David

Answer
Hello,

Actually nobody knows the name of the architect of the Colosseum in Rome, originally called Flavian Amphitheatre as it was built under the Flavian emperors in the 1st.century AD.

Begun between AD 70 and 72 during the reign of Vespasian, officially dedicated in AD 80 by the emperor Titus and finally completed in AD 82 by Domitian, this building, considered an architectural and engineering wonder, is the greatest amphitheatre of the antiquity, but its architect is absolutely unknown since we don’t find the  name of the architect either in  the primary sources like Suetonius, Cassius Dio and Martial.

As for  the Roman amphitheatre Les Arènes à  Nîmes, which  measures 133m in length and 101m width, with a façade is 21m high, two levels of 60 arcades each, and could  hold about 20,000 spectators, while the Colosseum designed to hold 50,000 spectators measures 48 metres high, 188 metres long, and 156 metres wide, and has four  levels of  arcades, it really seems to be a copy of the Colosseum, but this was quite obvious since  all the Roman amphitheatres all over the empire used more or less the same design which dates back to the first Roman amphitheatre which was erected by C.Scribonius Curio, a partisan of Caesar, for the celebration of his father's funeral games (see Pliny the Elder, Historia Naturalis, book XXXVI, chapter XXIV, paragraph 116).
The next amphitheatre, and apparently the first to which the name “amphitheatrum” (literally “double theatre “) was applied, was built by Julius Caesar himself, during his perpetual dictatorship, in  46 BC.

To conclude, first of all the name of  the architect of the Colosseum is unknown as well as that of all the architects of the Roman amphitheatres whose design was however the same; secondly, it is quite sure that the Arena of Nîmes was constructed not in the time of Emperor Augustus (between 27 BC and 14 AD), but later  between 90 and 120 AD, as recent excavations have proved, contrary to what was believed for a long time.

Best regards,
Maria

 
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For other amphitheatres similar to Colosseum see for example The Arena in Pula, Croatia and The Arena in Arles, France.
Note that an amphitheatre in a community became a prized symbol of Roman citizenship in the outlying areas of Italy.