Theatre at Merida

On December 31, 2015April 15, 2017 By Paul Coby and Sally BlandfordIn Colonia, SpainLeave a comment

Overall 5 ***** beautifully preserved large theatre with scaena

Display 4 **** informative bilingual display boards

Access 3 *** well laid-out archaeological park – parking difficult

Atmosphere 5 ***** almost unique impression of what a Roman Theatre looked like

Other 4 **** next door to Spain’s magnificent Roman Museum and other sites

The Theatre at Emerita Augusta is without doubt the ‘star attraction’ of the city and is arguably the best preserved Theatre in the Roman Empire.

It is constructed of concrete and granite ashlars. Most of the cavea (seating) tiers are set back into the hillside, as is normal, and it has 13 entrances. Its maximum diameter is 87m and it could seat 6,000 people.

The orchestra is a semi-circle paved with white and blue marble in front of the stage. Around it are 3 tiers of seats separated from the rest by a marble parapet. Three doors allow for the entrance of actors onto the stage.

What really makes the Theatre at Emerita outstanding is the survival of the beautiful scaena (back scene), most of which is still in place including the statues and the columns of the tiered colonnades. The statues are of Ceres, Pluto and Proserpina, with others interpreted as imperial portraits.

It is built according to the rules of Vitruvius and is, as a result, similar to other surviving theatres at Orange in Southern France and Dougga in Tunisia.

Inscriptions show that the Theatre was begun by the remarkable Marcus Agrippa, Augustus’s right-hand man, in 16 BCE when he was campaigning in Iberia. It was modified over the centuries of use: the current scaena was erected under Trajan, and under Constantine (330-40CE) new decorative elements were added.

What was performed in a Roman Theatre? There were comedies and tragedies, most being re-workings of Greek subjects. The Roman comedies that have survived are the work of Plautus and Terentius, who took Greek subjects, removed the role of the chorus and introduced musical accompaniment. Action is set on a street with complications following from overhearing what the stock characters are saying to each other. When you watch Shakespeare’s ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’, you get a pretty good impression of the kind of plays the citizens of Emerita would have enjoyed here. The most prominent tragedian was the Stoic philosopher Seneca, who also adapted Greek originals for a Latin audience.

For a Colonia, building a Theatre was a very visible statement of its Romanitas or ‘Roman-ness’, as well as a way for the urban elite to show off in the front rows. Theatres were maintained in major settlements throughout the Roman World – clearly, gladiators and games had their place in popular culture, but so did comedies and tragedies!

Introduction to Merida, Emerita Augusta

On December 30, 2015April 15, 2017 By Paul Coby and Sally BlandfordIn Colonia, SpainLeave a comment

Overall 6 ****** a must-see Roman Colonia with ‘one of everything’

Display 5 ***** informative bilingual display boards all around the City

Access 3 *** in a well laid-out archaeological park – parking is difficult

Atmosphere 6 ****** remarkable assemblage of Roman remains

Other 4 **** Merida has Spain’s Roman Museum (closed on Mondays of course!)

The Roman Colonia of Emerita Augusta was founded in 25 BCE by P. Carisius, legate of Augustus, for veteran soldiers (emeriti) from the bloody wars against the Cantabri in the north of the Iberian Peninsular. The soldiers originally came from Legio V Alaudae and Legio X Gemina, and later from VI Victrix and VII Gemina.

Emerita guarded the principal crossing of the River Guardiana (Fl. Ana in Latin) and became the capital of the Roman Province of Lusitania. The territorium of the Colonia stretched out as far as 100kms from the City.

The original settlement was probably a rectangle like a military camp, possibly with the surviving Arch of Trajan marking one of its gates. Later, in the 3rd Century, a much larger city wall was built enclosing the amphitheatre and theatre in the north-east, to protect the City against the rampaging Franks and Alamanni who had by then broken into the Empire.

Emerita contains a remarkable assemblage of Roman remains including a bridge of 57 arches over the Guardiana which carried the Roman road from Asturica Augusta in the north to Italica in the south. (See our separate post about the bridge.)

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There are remains of the Forum and porticos, a Temple to Rome (wrongly called the Temple of Diana) adjacent to the Forum, and the remains of the Temple of Mars under the Church of Santa Eulalia in the west.

The most remarkable remains are the “entertainment quarter” in the north-east, containing arguably the best-preserved Theatre in the Roman World for refined entertainment, a large Amphitheatre for gladiatorial games, and a Circus for chariot racing.

Excavations at the Alcazabar (later Arab citadel) have revealed Roman streets and insulae inside a Roman wall, and remains of the Roman dyke that protected the river quality, an ancient forerunner of Bazalgette’s ‘interceptor sewer’ in London.

Emerita had a large population whose water consumption required advanced hydraulic systems fed by two large reservoirs, both of which are still in working order. The Proserpina Reservoir could hold 8 million cubic metres of water. Two aqueducts fed the town.

There is also a stunning Roman Archaeological Museum with the finds from Emerita, in a modern building made out of replica Roman brick. Sadly the museum was closed on our Monday visit to Merida (although we did see it years ago), so we will need to review it on a future occasion.

So why the very high score of 6 stars? The Bridge, Amphitheatre and especially the Theatre are wonderfully preserved, they are well presented and there are enough other key Roman buildings preserved (temples, porticos and aquaducts) that it gives you a real feeling for what a major Roman Colonia was like.

Amphitheatre at Merida

On December 30, 2015April 15, 2017 By Paul Coby and Sally BlandfordIn Colonia, SpainLeave a comment

Overall 5 ***** well preserved large amphitheatre

Display 4 **** informative bilingual display boards

Access 3 *** well laid out archaeological park – parking difficult

Atmosphere 4 **** has the melancholy air of most Roman amphitheatres

Other 4 **** next door to Spain’s magificent Roman Museum

We don’t particularly like Amphitheatres, for the simple reason of what happened there and the brutal and bloody aspect of Roman ‘civilisation’ it forces you to confront. (The feeling of ‘preserved misery’ in the passages under the Amphitheatre at El Djem in Tunisia was palpable for us.) However, you cannot escape them: no provincial capital worth the name could afford not to have its Amphitheatre and the one at Merida is magnificent.

It formed of a large ellipse some 126m by 103m. Crowd control was as usual excellent, with 16 entrances, each of which accessed a stairway connecting the 32 vomitoria (entrance/exits) that opened onto the cavea (seating) for as many as 15,000 spectators. There was a grandstand for local VIPs. Clearly, as with Directors’ Boxes at the Emirates or the Etihad Stadiums, being visible in the best seats mattered in the City’s social pecking order.

Inscriptions give the probable date of construction as 8 BCE, when Emerita Augusta was still only 16 years old and was expanding fast. The emeriti – retired legionaries after whom the City is named – would no doubt have wanted their fill of games both to show their status and civilisation, and also for entertainment as in their ‘good old days under the eagles’.

Construction, like the Theatre next door, is of concrete and ashlars. There is a fossa bestiaria (large pit) in the arena floor which was used for release of wild animals and other unpleasant surprises for the gladiators and victims of the games.

The Amphitheatre, as with all sites in Merida, has informative bilingual displays. The more blood-thirsty in your party can learn that there were many different types of gladiator for the Roman ‘games enthusiast’ in addition to the retarii (net men) and the murmillones (full armour specialists).

The Amphitheatre is only part of a large well-displayed archaeological park in the north-east of the old city of Merida, complete with a world class Roman Museum devoted to Roman Spain. There are some pretty good tapas bars and a brew pub opposite. A ticket gives entrance to this zone and four other Roman sites.

Roman Bridge over the River Guardiana Merida

On December 30, 2015April 22, 2017 By Paul Coby and Sally BlandfordIn Colonia, SpainLeave a comment

Overall 4 **** remarkable survival through wars and floods

Display 5 ***** bilingual information with diagrams, some on Alcazaba above

Access 5 ***** a pedestrian bridge open at all times, parking on road nearby

Atmosphere 3 *** the view form the Moorish Alcazaba is superb

Other 4 **** a tribute to Roman engineering and construction

The Roman Road from Asturica to Italica crossed the River Guardiana (Latin Ana plus later Arabic Wadi = Wadi-ana).

In the river there is a central island that serves to break the force of the water in spate. The original Roman bridges connected the City with the island and the island with the southern bank. In the 17th Century the two bridges were connected with arches in the middle as well.

Today the bridge now has 57 arches of various periods and spans 792m making it the longest surviving bridge from Antiquity. The best preserved Roman section is the one from the City to the island, identified by curved breakwaters up-stream. Within the arches are spillways to reduce the resistance to flood-waters and no doubt a key reason this magnificent bridge is still here. A remarkable survival!

Roman Legionary Fortress of II Augusta Exeter

On December 13, 2015April 16, 2017 By Paul Coby and Sally BlandfordIn Army, Roman BritainLeave a comment

Overall no stars Very little to see – need to use your imagination

Display 1 * Occasional tours of the sites are provided by tourist info

Access 1 * Easy to walk round the streets but need to use your imagination

Atmosphere no stars Hard to imagine what the fortress looked like

Other no stars If only the Lottery Bid to display the fine baths had come off!

In c55 CE the Roman invasion force established a Legionary Fortress for the Legio II Augusta. It is usually thought that this legion had been active in conquering the South West Peninsula and the tribes of the Durotriges and Dumnonii, initially under the command of the future Emperor Vespasian.

The II Augusta presence in Exeter is confirmed by a dolphin antefix from the baths, dated to about 60CE, made from the same mould as an antefix from Caerleon.

The fortress was 17ha (42 acres) in extent and the excavations that have taken place show it to have been a classic first Century playing card design with barracks, granaries and workshops built in timber.

The only stone building was a magnificent bath house, supplied by an aquaduct through the Porta Decumana. The hot room (caldarium) and the warm room (tempidarium) have been excavated, and there was an exercise yard (palaestra) where a cockfighting pit has been found. Alas the remains outside the West Door of the magnificent medieval Cathedral were covered over and a recent lottery bid to re-excavate and display them failed.

II Augusta remained at Isca Dumnoniarum for approximately 20 years, presumably pacifiying the Dumnonii, before departing for the Silurian front in South Wales, settling finally into another Isca (Caerleon).

The above finds of a legionary dagger (pugio) and more carved antefixes from the bath roof are in the Exeter Museum RAMM.

The Legionary Fortress was connected to coastal shipping supply by subsidiary fort at Topsham on the River Exe Estuary. There was a supply depot at St Loyes between Topsham and the Legionary Fortress.

In about 75CE, the Fortress appears to have been handed over to the civilian Civitas (self governing tribe) of the Dumnonii, in an apparently brilliantly successful example of turning hostile Celtic tribes into Romano-Britons – or at least transforming the tribal leadership. A policy Tacitus set out clearly in his hagiographical biography of Britannia Governor Julius Agricola (77-85CE).

In order, by a taste of pleasures, to reclaim the natives from that rude and unsettled state which prompted them to war, and reconcile them to quiet and tranquillity, he [Agricola] incited them, by private instigations and public encouragements, to erect temples, courts of justice, and dwelling-houses…..He was also attentive to provide a liberal education for the sons of their chieftains, preferring the natural genius of the Britons to the attainments of the Gauls; and his attempts were attended with such success, that they who lately disdained to make use of the Roman language, were now ambitious of becoming eloquent….At length they gradually deviated into a taste for those luxuries which stimulate to vice; porticos, and baths, and the elegancies of the table; and this, from their inexperience, they termed politeness, whilst, in reality, it constituted a part of their slavery.; Tacitus, Agricola 21

The stone built legionary baths were presumably too luxurious for the civilian Civitas and were demolished.

Roman Civitas Walls, Exeter

On December 13, 2015May 7, 2017 By Paul Coby and Sally BlandfordIn Civitas, Roman BritainLeave a comment

Overall 1 * the lower courses survive in some sections

Display 2 ** good wall walk published by Council covering all periods

Access 4 **** easy throughout the entire length on streets and parks

Atmosphere 2 ** you can get start to get a feel for the shape of the Isca Dumnoniorum

Isca Dumnoniorum inherited the site and presumably many of the buildings of the former Legionary Fortress of II Augusta, when the legion vacated the site in c75CE.

In Ptolemy’s Geographia of the 2nd Century Isca – which means ‘water’ in Celtic – is one of the four ‘cities’ of the Dumnonii, and is also the termination of one of the routes of the Antonine Itinerary.

The Civitas capital of the Dumnonii was twice as large than the preceding Legionary Fortess of 17ha and was enclosed by a ditch and rampart enclosing 37ha (92 acres). In the late 2nd Century a stone wall was constructed. The circuit of stone defensive walls is on the Roman foundations but has successively been rebuilt and raised by Saxons, Normans, Plantagenets and in the Civil War. The layers of wall can be clearly seen in the Northenhay section above. The Roman layers are the squared grey volcanic ‘trap’ at the bottom. The Alfredian section is the white stone above. Further examples from the same sector are below.

Not much of Isca has been discovered in excavations and there is even less to see. There was a civilian bath house and there is evidence of copper and bronze working. A possible stock-yard has also been identified.

Many coins have been discovered from the early 4th Century but hardly any later than 380, suggesting that at least its role as a regional market centre ended several decades before the end of central Roman rule.

Roman Sites

Month: December 2015