The glass flasks tell us that a theatre and an odeum (a small building for musical performances) could be found in Puteoli. Nothing else is known about the odeum, but much more about the theatre. It is mentioned for the first time in an inscription from 11 AD, discovered in 2002, in which we hear of theatrical productions (magistri qui in theatro pu[blicos? ludos fe]cerunt).

The inscription from 11 AD, mentioning the theatre.
EDR161125. Photo: Zevi et al. 2008, p.32.

Remains of what may well have been the theatre have been discovered amongst the modern buildings of Pozzuoli, in 1855 and in the 1980's.

Hypothetical plan and location of the theatre, in grey.
Image: Peluso 2008, Tav. 1.

In the first or early second century AD the Puteolan city council set up a statue for a man from Africa, "[---]ius Afer, also called Syphax, on account of his eminent poetry". He will have performed in the theatre or odeum.

The inscription of Afer, with a partial reconstruction. EDR101138. Image: Camodeca 2002, fig. 2.

Mimes were also performed in the theatre. As Costas Panayotakis points out, mime as a form of modern theatre should not be confused with what the Romans understood by the term 'mime': "Mime in Roman culture was primarily a type of popular entertainment which covered any kind of theatrical spectacle that did not belong to masked tragic and comic drama, and in which actors and actresses enacted mainly low-life situations and used words in their performances". A fragment from Suetonius' work De Poetis informs us that the mime-writer Decimus Laberius died in Puteoli in 44-43 BC (Laberius mimorum scriptor decimo mense post C. Caesaris interitum Puteolis moritur). One of his works, of which only tiny fragments survive, was entitled Lacus Avernus, the name of the famous lake near Puteoli. Inscriptions document three mime players in Puteoli, two of them Imperial freedmen, from the late first century AD to around 200 AD: Caius Ummidius Actius Anicetus, pantomimus; Lucius Aurelius Pylades, pantomimus temporis sui primus, "first of his time"; Marcus Aurelius Hilas Septentrio, known also from Sessa Aurunca (Caserta) as pantomimus temporis sui primus (EDR146137, EDR101530 and EDR106610, EDR105744).

Aulus Gellius tells us about a literary entertainer in the theatre, performing around 140 AD:

Cum Antonio Iuliano rhetore, viro hercle bono et facundiae florentis, complures adulescentuli, familiares eius, Puteolis aestivarum feriarum ludum et iocum in litteris amoenioribus et in voluptatibus pudicis honestisque agitabamus. Atque ibi tunc Iuliano nuntiatur, αναγνωστην quendam, non indoctum hominem, voce admodum scita et canora Ennii Annales legere ad populum in theatro. "Eamus," inquit, "auditum nescio quem istum Ennianistam"; hoc enim se ille nomine appellari volebat. Quem cum iam inter ingentes clamores legentem invenissemus - legebat autem librum ex annalibus Ennii septimum -, hos eum primum versus perperam pronuntiantem audivimus: Denique vi magna quadrupes equus atque elephanti Proiciunt sese, neque multis postea versibus additis, celebrantibus eum laudantibusque omnibus, discessit. Tum Iulianus egrediens e theatro: "Quid vobis," inquit, "de hoc anagnosta et de quadrupede equo videtur? sic enim profecto legit: Denique vi magna quadrupes equus atque elephanti Proiciunt sese. Ecquid putatis, si magistrum praelectoremque habuisset alicuius aeris, 'quadrupes equus' dicturum fuisse ac non 'quadrupes eques', quod ab Ennio ita scriptum relictumque esse nemo unus litterarum veterum diligens dubitavit?"

A number of us young men, friends of his, were at Puteoli with the rhetorician Antonius Julianus, a fine man in truth and of distinguished eloquence, and we were spending the summer holdays in amusement and gaiety, amid literary diversions and seemly and improving pleasures. And while we were there, word was brought to Julianus that a certain reader, a man not without learning, was reciting the Annals of Ennius to the people in the theatre in a very refined and musical voice. "Let us go," said he, "to hear this 'Ennianist', whoever he may be"; for that was the name by which the man wished to be called. When at last we had found him reading amid loud applause - and he was reading the seventh book of the Annals of Ennius - we first heard him wrongly recite the following lines: Then, with great force, on rush the four-footed horse And elephants, and without adding many more verses, he departed amid the praises and applause of the whole company. Then Julianus, as he came out of the theatre, said: "What think you of this reader and his four-footed horse? For surely he read it thus: Denique vi magna quadrupes equus atque elephanti Proiciunt sese. Do you think that, if he had had a master and instructor worth a penny, he would have said quadrupes equus and not quadrupes eques? For no one who has given any attention to ancient literature doubts that Ennius left it written in that way."

Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights 18,5,1-6. Translation J.C. Rolfe.

The identification of the remains is supported by the place of discovery of some relevant inscriptions. An inscription found in the 1980's in the presumed area of the theatre mentions the socii tibicines, flute players who performed in the theatre, but also participated in sacrifices and funerals (EDR169617). Three inscriptions, found together in the same area in 1855, document the collegium of the scabilarii. These were musicians using the scabillum, a percussion instrument of cymbals between two small wooden planks worn like a sandal on the foot. The guild erected statues of Antoninius Pius, his wife Faustina, and Marcus Aurelius in 139, 140 and 161 AD, on a spot assigned by the city council (EDR108292, EDR116775, EDR116776).

Mosaic from Pompeii with masked musicians in the theatre. Signed by Dioskourides of Samos.
Archaeological Museum, Naples. Photo: Wikimedia, Marie-Lan Nguyen.