Are You Not Entertained!

12-Oct-23

The most spectacular Roman ruins we've seen on the trip were in Mérida, formerly known as Emerita Augusta & the Roman capital of Lusitania in 25 BCE.

Peristyle behind Roman Theater

We visited the remains of the Roman Circus, built in 20 BCE & modeled after the Circus Maximus in Rome. It's massive 400m long race track could hold 30,000 spectators for chariot races. We attempted to walk along the central divider but, ugh, this heat wave is too BRUTAL.

Looking down into the Circus

Floor level of the Circus

Former stadium seating

The old aqueduct stands nearby the Circus

Rounding out the ancient 'entertainment district' were the Roman Theater and Amphitheater. Built in 8 BCE, 15,000 spectators could watch gladiatorial fights at the Amphitheater. Most of those seats are just piles of rock now but we could walk onto the central arena & take a peak into the fossa bestiaria in the middle - the hidden cavern underneath the arena where animals were kept before entering the fight.

Arena Floor

Crowd tunnel access

The tunnels & holding rooms where the animals & gladiators were kept was sobering.

So too was the fact that in the Roman Theater (built in 16 BCE), women had the lowest-status seats, all the way up in the nosebleed section behind foreigners & the enslaved. 🤨 Kids apparently got front row seats with the clergy in the 6,000 seat theater. 😶

The restoration of the Theater was impressive - so much so, it's still used for a Classical Theatre Festival each year, which must be cool to see! Most of the artwork & statues that formerly adorned the theater had been looted &/or damaged during the Napoleonic Wars (early 19th century), so reproductions had been put in their place. But some artifacts had recently been repatriated & installed in the National Museum of Roman Art.

Model of what records indicate the ancient theater used to look like