Amphitheatre of Serdica - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Amphitheatre of Serdica was an amphitheatre

Amphitheatre

An amphitheatre is an open-air venue used for entertainment and performances.There are two similar, but distinct, types of structure for which the word "amphitheatre" is used: Ancient Roman amphitheatres were large central performance spaces surrounded by ascending seating, and were commonly used...

in the Ancient Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

city of Ulpia Serdica

History of Sofia

The history of Sofia, Bulgaria's capital and largest city, spans thousands of years from Antiquity to modern times, during which the city has been a commercial, industrial, cultural and economic centre in its region and the Balkans.-Antiquity:...

, now Sofia

Sofia

Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...

, the capital of Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

. Discovered in 2004 and the subject of excavations in 2005 and 2006, the ruins of the amphitheatre lie on two adjacent sites in the centre of modern Sofia. The amphitheatre was built in the 3rd–4th century AD on top of a 2nd–3rd century theatre

Roman theatre (structure)

The characteristics of Roman to those of the earlier Greek theatres due in large part to its influence on the Roman triumvir Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. Much of the architectural influence on the Romans came from the Greeks, and theatre structural design was no different from other buildings...

which had been ravaged by the Goths

Goths

The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....

. However, the amphitheatre remained in use for less than a century and was abandoned by the 5th century.

With an arena only around 10 m (32.8 ft) smaller than the Colosseum

Colosseum

The Colosseum, or the Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre , is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire...

, the Amphitheatre of Serdica was among the biggest in the eastern part of the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

and the largest in what is today Bulgaria. It lay outside the city walls of Serdica and hosted fights

Bestiarii

Among Ancient Romans, bestiarii were those who went into combat with beasts, or were exposed to them. It is conventional to distinguish two categories of bestiarii: the first were those condemned to death via the beasts and the second were those who faced them voluntarily, for pay or glory...

between gladiator

Gladiator

A gladiator was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their legal and social standing and their lives by appearing in the...

s and wild beasts, which were advertised at the entrance of the city.

History

The Amphitheatre of Serdica was built on top of an earlier Roman theatre, which was constructed in the 2nd or 3rd century AD. Its ruins were discovered 5 metres (16.4 ft) under the amphitheatre ruins. The theatre, 55 m (180.4 ft) wide and at least twice as large as the Plovdiv Roman theatre, was perhaps built simultaneously with Serdica's defensive walls under Commodus

Commodus

Commodus , was Roman Emperor from 180 to 192. He also ruled as co-emperor with his father Marcus Aurelius from 177 until his father's death in 180. His name changed throughout his reign; see changes of name for earlier and later forms. His accession as emperor was the first time a son had succeeded...

(r. 177–192). It was active during the reigns of Septimius Severus

Septimius Severus

Septimius Severus , also known as Severus, was Roman Emperor from 193 to 211. Severus was born in Leptis Magna in the province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary succession of offices under the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Severus seized power after the death of...

(r. 193–211) and Caracalla

Caracalla

Caracalla , was Roman emperor from 198 to 217. The eldest son of Septimius Severus, he ruled jointly with his younger brother Geta until he murdered the latter in 211...

(r. 198–217); the former may have visited the theatre with his family in 202 or 209. In the first half of 268, however, a Gothic

Goths

raid ravaged and burned the theatre, forcing its permanent abandonment.

As evidenced by coin and ceramic

Ancient Roman pottery

Pottery was produced in enormous quantities in ancient Rome, mostly for utilitarian purposes. It is found all over the former Roman Empire and beyond...

findings, including a rare bronze medallion of Antinous

Antinous

Antinoüs or Antinoös was a beautiful Bithynian youth and the favourite of the Roman emperor Hadrian...

, the amphitheatre was constructed on top of the theatre ruins in two stages during the late 3rd and early 4th century AD, under Roman emperors Diocletian

Diocletian

Diocletian |latinized]] upon his accession to Diocletian . c. 22 December 244 – 3 December 311), was a Roman Emperor from 284 to 305....

(r. 284–305) and Constantine the Great (r. 306–337). The amphitheatre itself was in use for less than a century, as it was abandoned by the 5th century, perhaps due to the anti-pagan policies of Theodosius I

Theodosius I

Theodosius I , also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule over both the eastern and the western halves of the Roman Empire. During his reign, the Goths secured control of Illyricum after the Gothic War, establishing their homeland...

(r. 379–395). In the 5th and 6th century, barbarian

Barbarian

Barbarian and savage are terms used to refer to a person who is perceived to be uncivilized. The word is often used either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage...

invaders set up their homes within the former arena, and during the Ottoman

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

period (late 14th–19th century) it was used as a source of building materials

Spolia

Spolia is a modern art-historical term used to describe the re-use of earlier building material or decorative sculpture on new monuments...

for new housing.

Discovery

The existence of a Roman amphitheatre in ancient Serdica had been conjectured ever since 1919, when a stone plate depicting an amphitheatre's facade and fights between gladiator

Gladiator

s and wild animals was unearthed near what is today the Council of Ministers of Bulgaria

Council of Ministers of Bulgaria

The Council of Ministers is the main authority of the executive power in the Republic of Bulgaria. It consists of the Prime Minister of Bulgaria and all the specialized ministers....

edifice. The plate shows crocodile

Crocodile

A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...

s, bear

Bear

Bears are mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, with the pinnipeds being their closest living relatives. Although there are only eight living species of bear, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern...

s, bull

Bull

Bull usually refers to an uncastrated adult male bovine.Bull may also refer to:-Entertainment:* Bull , an original show on the TNT Network* "Bull" , an episode of television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation...

s and wild cat

Wild cat

The wildcat is a small cat with several subspecies and a very broad distribution, found throughout most of Africa, Europe, and southwest and central Asia into India, China, and Mongolia. It is a hunter of small mammals, birds, and other creatures of a similar or smaller size. Sometimes included is...

s as involved in the fights. It is thought to have stood at the entrance of Roman Serdica, so as to serve as advertisement for these events. The plate is currently displayed in the National Historical Museum

National Historical Museum (Bulgaria)

The National Historical Museum in Sofia is Bulgaria's largest museum. It was founded on 5 May 1973 and its first representative exposition was opened in 1984 to commemorate 1300 years of Bulgarian history...

of Bulgaria in the same city.

The amphitheatre itself was accidentally discovered in 2004, during the early constructions of what came to be known as the Arena di Serdica Hotel. In the modern cityscape of Sofia, the ruins lie south of Knyaz Aleksandar Dondukov Boulevard

Knyaz Aleksandar Dondukov Boulevard

Knyaz Aleksandar Dondukov Boulevard , shortly referred to as Dondukov, is an important central boulevard in Sofia. It is named after the Russian general and statesman Alexander Dondukov-Korsakov. It lies between the TZUM and the Chavdar bridge...

, between the Goethe-Institut

Goethe-Institut

The Goethe-Institut is a non-profit German cultural institution operational worldwide, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and relations. The Goethe-Institut also fosters knowledge about Germany by providing information on German...

headquarters and the embassy of the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. Until the digging of the foundations of a National Electric Company office building in the vicinity in July 2006 came across further ruins, however, it was not clear that the unearthed Roman structure was indeed part of a large arena

Arena

An arena is an enclosed area, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theater, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators. The key feature of an arena is that the event space is the...

. The east gate and the section of the amphitheatre within the hotel lot, which is about 1/6th of the entire building, was preserved and incorporated into the hotel's ground floor. It is freely accessible for tourists during the day, except on Mondays, and includes a small expositions of coins and ceramics unearthed on the site. As of 2007, the west gate and the adjacent part of the amphitheatre was being excavated at the National Electric Company lot and a campaign had begun to prevent the construction of the planned building on the site.

Physical description

With its original dimensions of 60.5 by 43 m (198.5 by 141.1 ft), the arena of the Amphitheatre of Serdica is commonly cited as having been some 10 m (32.8 ft) smaller than the Colosseum

Colosseum

The Colosseum, or the Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre , is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire...

in the imperial capital Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. It ranked among the largest in the eastern part of the empire and was much larger than two other Roman amphitheatres in modern Bulgaria, at Diocletianopolis

Diocletianopolis in Thracia

Diocletianopolis in Thracia was an ancient Roman town in the region of Thrace, nowadays the town of Hisarya in Bulgaria. It gained its official status as a city in 293 CE by the Roman emperor Diocletian....

(Hisarya

Hisarya, Bulgaria

Hisarya is a small resort town in Bulgaria, in Plovdiv Province.Located in the outskirts of the Sredna Gora mountain range, it boasts of a very mild climate and over two dozen different mineral springs, which make it a favorite spa for many Bulgarian and foreign tourists.The town's population is...

) and Marcianopolis

Marcianopolis

Marcianopolis or Marcianople was an ancient Roman city in Thracia. It was located at the site of modern day Devnya, Bulgaria.-History:...

(Devnya

Devnya

Devnya is a town in Varna Province, Northeastern Bulgaria, located about 25 km away to the west from the city of Varna and The Black Sea Coast. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Devnya Municipality...

). In terms of architecture, the amphitheatre is comparable to the Arènes de Lutèce

Arènes de Lutèce

The Arènes de Lutèce are among the most important remains from the Gallo-Roman era in Paris , together with the Thermes de Cluny...

in modern Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, and was designed for a maximum attendance of more than 20,000 or around 25,000. Like arenas in the Mediterranean

Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...

region, the Amphitheatre of Serdica has an east–west orientation. It lay outside the city walls of Serdica.

The stand for high-ranking Roman officials

Lex Roscia theatralis

The lex Roscia theatralis was a Roman law dated to 67 BC. It reserved 14 rows in the theater to members of the Equestrian order.The Latin poet Horace refers to it satirically in his Epistulae, and wonders whether "melior est an puerorum nenia" ....

lay in the southern section of the amphitheatre, near what is today the National Art Gallery

National Art Gallery (Bulgaria)

The National Art Gallery is Bulgaria's national gallery and houses over 50,000 pieces of Bulgarian art. It is located on Battenberg Square in the capital city of Sofia, occupying most of the historic and imposing edifice of the former royal palace of Bulgaria, having been established in 1934 and...

. The amphitheatre featured two main gates, from the west and the east, linked by an underground water canal. The west gate, which reaches 3.5 m (11.5 ft) in width, is estimated to have been topped by an arch 5 m (16.4 ft) high. Among the excavated and preserved ruins are the main entrance, the underground level, part of the main section with at least seven spectator seats and gates with sliding doors to let animals into the arena. The opus mixtum
Opus mixtum
thumb|right|275px|Example of Opus mixtum in the [[Brest Castle]], [[France]].Opus mixtum , or Opus vagecum and Opus compositum, was an ancient Roman construction technique...

construction technique was employed in the construction of at least a part of the amphitheatre. Items discovered during the amphitheatre excavations include bear and boar bones, hundreds of bronze

Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...

coins and clay stones imprinted with the footprints of goats, dogs and cats.

History

Discovery

Physical description

See also