Cagliari - amphitheatre
Cagliari can boast of a well-preserved amphitheatre, probably built at the end of the second century AD. It was partly inserted in a rocky hill. The large stone blocks and bricks of the other part were removed for re-use over the centuries. The arena measured 46 x 31 m, the building 93 x 79 m. It must have been a little over 21 m high. It was four times smaller than the Colosseum, and could accomodate 8000 spectators.
The amphitheatre of Cagliari. Photo: sardegnasotterranea.org.
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Plan of the amphitheatre of Cagliari. Image: Crespi 1888, Tavola I.Of particular interest are rooms below the seats, cut out in the rock. In the perimetral wall of the arena are four small alcoves with drinking troughs in the floor, apparently serving as cages for wild animals, to be released in the arena.
The perimetral wall of the arena.
Photo: Dadea 2006, fig. 16.An alcove that served as a cage for a wild animal.
Photo: Dadea 2006, fig. 17.One of the underground rooms has been identified as the spoliarium, the place where the clothes were stripped from the slain gladiators who were dragged there. The identification rests solely on the presence of a narrow bench however. The entrance of another room was closed off with a grill, fastened in holes in the jambs and lintel. It received light through a hole in the vaulted ceiling. In the floor are numerous hollows, a few of which may have been used as latrine. In the walls handles had been hacked out. It has been suggested that chains were fastened to the handles and that the room served as a carcer, a dungeon where criminals sentenced to death awaited the execution of their sentence. In a nearby room are numerous niches with traces of paintings. In one of the niches a relief of Hercules was seen in the early 19th century, later destroyed by vandals. Apparently the room was a shrine.
Two doors leading to the presumed spoliarium, in the background.
Photo: Dadea 2006, fig. 19.The presumed carcer.
Photo: Dadea 2006, fig. 20.Below the arena, which must have had a floor of removable planks, machines were installed with which scenery and animals could be lifted up. Large stone blocks with holes were found here. These may have supported the machines, but also the poles of the awning stretched above the amphitheatre to keep off the sun (velarium).
An underground service corridor.
Photo: Dadea 2006, fig. 22.A large block with a hole in a service corridor.
Photo: Dadea 2006, fig. 25.Not far from the amphitheatre (to the north-west, in the Orto dei Cappuccini) is a huge cistern that received rainwater from the hill of the amphitheatre through a corridor 96 metres long. Already in antiquity the cistern seems to have become a dungeon. Some thirty handles for attaching shackles can be seen.
Part of the cistern.
Photo: Dadea 2006, fig. 35.The corridor connecting the amphitheatre and the cistern.
Photo: Dadea 2006, fig. 33.On one of the walls a graffito can be seen of a cargo ship. The main mast has partly been changed to a P above an X, thus forming the Christian chi-rho symbol. To the lower corners of the main sail the first and last letter of the Greek alphabet are attached: A and ω. Twelve vertical strokes on the hull of the ship may be a reference to the twelve apostles. Not only convicted criminals were led to the arena through the corridor, but also Christians.
Drawing of the graffito. The Christian chi-rho is not the thick black inverse P, but to the right.
Image: Dadea 2006, fig. 37.
