How much did Pliny exaggerate? For the Theatre of Pompey, it would seem his number is between 3 and 4 times the actual. High, the middle one of glass (an extravagance unparalleledĮven in later times!), while the top storey was made of gilded

Scaurus, the aedile of 58 bc.The auditorium held 80,000 spectators, twice the capacity of the Theatre of Pompey.adorned with 3,000 bronze statues andģ60 columns, the lowest storey of marble with columns 38 feet Pliny gives what is clearly an exaggeratedĪccount of the temporary theatre built by Marcus Aemilius The 20,000 estimate is based the work of Cynthia Finlayson who was involved in excavations in the area from 2008 to 2010. The only other known theatre that is considerably larger was the Theatre of Pompey in Rome, with a cavea diameter of approximately 156.8 metres (514 ft) One of the largest surviving theatres of the Roman world with a cavea diameter of 139 metres (456 ft) and an estimated seating capacity in excess of 20,000. He also quotes a figures of 20,350 for Smyrna (Izmir) and 19,700 for Megalopolis (Arkadia).Īnother candidate is Roman Theatre at Apamea which Wikipedia describes as Sears provides tables with seating capacity calculations which give 19,717 for Ephesus (but another estimate he quotes is 21,500) and 18,537 for Miletus. He further explains that theatres in Greece and Asia Minor had a much greater capacity than western theatres with a similar diameter. In the Theatre of Dionysus atĪthens marks indicating individual seats were 0.41 metres apart, Stobi prohedroi were allocated 0.80 metres, which suggests that Seat width was normally between 0.36 and 0.50 metres. Seating, which meant that capacity varied according to theĪmount of space assigned to an individual seat (locus). That was presumably because ancient theatres did not have individual seats as do modern theatres.

Specified the length of seating, rather than the actual number of Which gave the seating capacity of the theatres of Rome, He also explains the problems in calculating capacity: Sear goes into much detail on seat measurements and theatre types, and provides several tables showing the capacity of different theatres. In a footnote, Sear adds (referring to the aforementioned Regionary catalogues):Īccording to the same catalogues, the Theatre of Marcellus had a greater seating capacity, although its diameter was 20 m less than that of the Theatre of Pompey. It is quite possible that by then parts of the auditorium were The condition of the 400-year-old building in the fourth century. Very low for a theatre of this size and it may be explained by The fourth-century Regionary catalogues state that it hadġ5,580 feet of seating or around 11,600 seats. However, modern estimates put the capacity at only 10,000 but there are no details on how this number was arrived at.įrank Sear, in 'Roman Theatres: An Architectural Study', disagrees with this estimate: If Pliny is to be believed, the largest theatre would appear to be the Theatre of Pompey, completed during Pompey's consulship in 55 BC, with a capacity of 40,000.

In terms of capacity, there is some dispute, much of it due to variations in how much seating space is 'allowed' per person. The Greek geographer Pausanias gives no numbers but says that the one at Megalopolis was the largest in Greece. While Pliny the Elder gives substantially larger figures for both the Theatre of Pompey and a temporary theatre from around 58 AD, he was prone to exaggeration. Among these are the ones at Ephesus, Syracuse, Apamea, Smyrna and Megalopolis. It is impossible to say with any certainty, but there are a number of theatres which, according to modern estimates, could hold around 20,000, give or take a few thousand.

Map roman arausio