S V B T E R R A N E A

In Rome, the capital city of the Empire, a very complex organisation for the production of the amphitheatre shows was established since the first century AD. The Ratio a Muneribus, a kind of Ministry of the Games, had the task of organising the hunts and the munera.

The pegmata were the machines that emerged in the arena from under the floor and were deployed to create an instant scenery. They were built very near the amphitheatre (from Vespasian to Hadrian) in the Summum Choragium along the Via Sacra. When that location was destined to the grandiose temple dedicated to Venus and Rome, the Choragium was relocated not far away, near the Temple of Isis and Serapis, along actual Via Labicana.

In Rome the munera were offered by the emperor or by high officials like the praefectus urbi, so they were particularly sumptuous and involved a great number of people: bestiarii, gladiators, attendants, not to speak of the hundreds of animals that were massacred during the hunts.

The preparation of the parades and the assembling of the scenarios took place, as we would say today, in real time. It is assumed that the scenarios prepared in the Choragium before its relocation (when it still was in the area of the temple of Venus and Rome) were transported under the arena by an underground passage and emerged directly in the arena from below through big openings in the wooden floor.

The final preparation of the shows took place under the arena, with hundreds of people working together at different tasks. The brick walls that we see today inside the arena were built to support the floor and to separate different areas needed for the preparation of the shows.

Today it is very difficult to understand the functions of these subterranean spaces, but certainly there were areas reserved for the wild animals before they came out in the open, and there are still evident traces of the lifts that carried the beasts (and maybe not only them) up to trapdoors placed all around the arena.

The scenarios were probably first transported into the underground, and then driven up ramps and deployed in the arena by means of movable platforms placed in the central area.

We can only imagine the frantic activities that took place on the day of the show down there, in the dark narrow corridors with the roar of the crowd above and the smell and the din of men and beasts, just like in a giant circus.

The brick walls under the arena were built about 10 years after the inauguration of the amphitheatre (80 AD); it is generally agreed that before their construction, that dates back to Domitian times, the arena could be filled with water in order to produce naumachiae, i.e. mock naval battles.
Dio Cassius (Historia Romana 65.25) wrote about the inauguration: "For Titus suddenly filled this same theatre with water and brought in horses and bulls and some other domesticated animals that had been taught to behave in the liquid element just as on land. He also brought in people in ships, who engaged in a sea-fight there, impersonating the Corcyreans and Corinthians.... "

There are in fact some remains that have been interpreted as traces of the "locks" necessary to make the arena waterproof up to a depth (5 feet) sufficient for the ships to float. In the underground there are two spaces in particular were it is thought that the ships were prepared and kept aground before the water filled the arena, and were then launched at the right moment. These spaces have been called "darsene" (docks) by the specialists. Lugli (L'Anfiteatro Flavio) argues that the practice of the naumachiae was abandoned because of the complications involved in keeping the arena waterproof, and also because  in the city other places were dedicated to these superproductions.

The visit

When it was opened to the public (now - Jan 2012 - visits are temporarily suspended because of the flooding of the underground last Oct. 20th, due to the bursting of a main drain nearby) I went on a guided group visit of these spaces and of the 2nd and 3rd floor. Our visit was led by Dr.ssa Valentina Mastrodonato, whom I warmly thank for her competence and helpfulness.

The entrance to the underground is by a staircase placed along the main axis in the NW area of the amphitheatre (near the Stern buttress). These service areas are beneath the Porta Libitinaria, where there was also the underground corridor that connected the Ludus Magnus to the Colosseum. Follow my visit with the pictures I could take on that occasion. The points and directions of the shots are marked on the map of the underground (here on the right, complete and detailed). Click on the pictures to get a bigger image.

1 - Vault of the central entrance corridor	2 - Corridor

Photo 1 shows the vault of the main central corridor, that also appears in 2. One can see the partial reconstruction of the arena floor, made of wood. The walls of the underground are very well preserved, as they had filled up with earth since the V-VI century AD, probably due to the obstruction of the drains. They were buried until the end of the XIX century, when they were brought to light again with a lot of effort.

It was then discovered that the walls under the arena date back in fact to the 1st century AD, but there are many additions and rebuilding dating back to the 2nd and 3rd century.

3 - Attachment of capstan in the "dock""	4 - Door to the left side "dock"

Photo 3 shows the bronze attachment of a capstan sunk in the floor of the two oblique corridor on the right and left of the central corridor. Each corridor has six of these attachments, marked on the map on the right by green circles. The capstans probably pulled the ropes necessary to activate the equipment of the scenarios and/or to open up trapdoors. Please note the brick floor (opus spicatum). Photo 8 shows another attachment.

The door of photo 9 leads to the "dock" where the ships were prepared for the naumachiae during the phase that the scholars call "pre-arena", i.e. before the bricks walls under the arena were built.

 

5 - the "dock"	6 - The central Corridor

Photo 5 shows the row of the bronze attachments in the "dock". 6 shows the corridor of photo 2 in the opposite direction. The travertine blocks still appear surprisingly new.

7 - Drainpipe	8 - Capstan attachment

Under the corridor of photos 2 and 6 there is (7) a drain for the rain waters that that day were particularly clear. We understood that a safety hazard for the visiting public is the slow outflow of the water. The underground may be flooded during a downpour - as recently happened, also due to the burst of a modern drain nearby - and the water may reach a dangerous level for the visitors. That is why the visits to the underground are suspended during very bad weather. Photo 8 shows another attachment for the capstans.

9 - The view from below	10 - Model of the underground walls

A section of the arena floor was recently reconstructed in wood. When one comes out from beneath this is the view (9), that shows the central corridor between the brick walls that once supported the arena floor and divided the area in specific zones for the different activities.

A model (10) reproduces the wall of the arena underground before the Domitian walls were built. The wall is marked by big niches that were planned when the amphitheatre was built. It was during this time that the space under the arena could be flooded, like an enormous bathtub. This was possible only during the period between the inauguration (80 AD) and the construction of the brick wall, under Domitian. In this phase - called by the scholars "pre-arena" - a floor for hunts and gladiator games could be built by raising a mobile structure made of wooden pillars and beams, traces of which have been discovered on occasion of the 1998-1999 excavations.

The white area above the niches is the podium, the space reserved to the senators; on the side of the podium wall one can see the section of the service passage, lighted by narrow vertical windows, that went inside the wall.

11 - Capitals	12 - Graffiti of the spectators

Photo 11 shows two types of the capitals of the columns that supported the roof of the maenianum summum (the upper floor of the cavea), found in recent times when the arena was excavated. There are two types of them: an older more ornate one on the left, dating back to the restoration of the Colosseum in Severian times after the fire that destroyed the amphitheatre in 217 AD, and the more recent one on the right, probably dating back to the VI century AD.

Photo 12 shows some graffiti on a marble block: two gladiators fighting and a feline attacking. It is assumed that they were impromptu sketches made by some spectators of the games.

After the visit of the underground we went up to the 2nd and 3rd floor, where one can enjoy a magnificent view (13, 14, 15, 16) of the Arch of Constantine and of via dei Fori Imperiali.

 

13 - Panorama 1	14 - Panorama 2
15 - Panorama 3	16 - Panorama 4

Also the view of the interiors from above (17, 18, 19 e 20) is stupendous: one can appreciate the width of the cavea.

17 - Interiors 1	18 - Interiors 2
19 - Interiors 3	20 - Interiors 4

The visit was thorough and exciting! Our guide Valentina was very competent and efficient! I actually tormented her with a lot of questions so as to have as many explanations as possible. I thank her very much for her collaboration in preparing this webpage.

I advise everybody to book and visit; call Tel.+39 (0)6 39967700 for information.