QUANTIFYING THE POPULARITY OF AMPHITHEATRE SPECTACLES IN THE ROMAN WEST: DO AMPHITHEATRE SEATING CAPACITIES INDICATE POPULARITY LEVELS? BY JONATHAN LUKE HACKETT A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of MASTERS OF RESEARCH in ANCIENT HISTORY Department of Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology School of History and Cultures College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham September 2019 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This thesis aims to determine whether it is possible to quantify the popularity of amphitheatre spectacles in the Roman West. Traditionally, amphitheatre spectacles have been regarded as having experienced widespread popularity, and there has been little in the way of a proper assessment of contemporary levels of popularity in modern scholarship. This work will attempt to tackle this issue, and the popularity of amphitheatre spectacles will be primarily explored through the comparison of amphitheatre seating capacity estimates with their corresponding urban population estimates. Through a number of case studies, this thesis will argue that, instead of the traditionally accepted widespread popularity of amphitheatre spectacles, contemporary levels of popularity were complex, and could differ greatly, depending on time period and region of the Roman West. In these case studies, a number of factors will be considered to assess if the popularity levels in a certain region are truly reflected by the capacity-to-population ratio. This assessment includes analyses of elements of urbanism, rural populations, economic factors and the popularity of other spectacles in the area. The data required to undertake this comparison has been compiled in an extensive database, which is presented in the appendices of this work. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank a number of people, who without which this thesis would not have been possible. Firstly, the staff at the University of Birmingham Main Library, who over the course of the last twelve months have put up with my endless enquiries and e-mails when in search of new material. Secondly, I thank my thesis supervisors, Dr Gareth Sears and Dr Dominik Maschek, for their constant support and expert advice throughout the course of my research, in addition to enduring my Black Country dourness. I would like to thank Dr Sears for giving me access to some of his own personal research, as well as regularly pointing me towards new sources which I was previously unaware of. Additionally, I thank Dr Maschek for allowing me to participate in two archaeological field schools during his time at the University of Birmingham, which greatly enhanced my abilities as an archaeologist, as well as developing my understanding of Roman archaeology. Thirdly, I would like to thank my family, who first instilled in me a love for history, and followed me around countless museums and almost inaccessible heritage sites on family holidays across England and Wales. Finally, I would like to thank my partner, Shannon, who has shown me the up-most love, patience and encouragement throughout the course of the thesis; each time I lost faith in my abilities, she was there to pick me back up again. This thesis would not have been at all possible without her. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1: The State of Amphitheatre Studies ............................................................................ 10 1.1: The Different Strands of Amphitheatre Studies ........................................................................ 10 1.2: Problems and Trends Within Amphitheatre Studies ................................................................. 12 1.3: Architectural Studies of Amphitheatres .................................................................................... 15 1.4: Popularity of the Games and Material Culture .......................................................................... 17 1.5: The ‘New’ Future of Amphitheatre Studies ............................................................................... 19 Chapter 2: Methodology ............................................................................................................ 22 2.1: Calculating the Population of Urban Landscapes ...................................................................... 22 2.2: Calculating the Population of Rural Landscapes ........................................................................ 27 2.3: Calculating Amphitheatre Seating Capacities ............................................................................ 29 2.4: Methods of Comparing Capacity Estimates and Population Estimates ..................................... 34 2.5: ‘Golvin’ and ‘Hackett’ Numbers ................................................................................................. 35 2.6: Determining a Suitable Methodology ........................................................................................ 36 Chapter 3: Quantifying Popularity: The Case for Regional Amphitheatres .................................... 38 3.1: Defining ‘Oversized’ Amphitheatres .......................................................................................... 38 3.2: The Parameters of the Data ....................................................................................................... 40 3.3: The Dataset ................................................................................................................................ 41 3.4: Explaining ‘Oversized’ and ‘Regional’ Amphitheatres ............................................................... 42 3.4.1: Regional Interactivity and Connectivity.............................................................................. 43 3.4.2: Rural Populations ............................................................................................................... 47 3.4.3: Periodical Markets .............................................................................................................. 49 3.5: Case Study One: Campania ........................................................................................................ 51 3.5.1: Chronology ......................................................................................................................... 53 3.5.2: Rural Surveys and Rural Populations .................................................................................. 54 3.5.3: Travel and Regional Interactivity ........................................................................................ 58 3.6: Case Study Two: Etruria ............................................................................................................. 59 3.6.1: Chronology ......................................................................................................................... 62 3.6.2: Rural Surveys and Rural Populations .................................................................................. 62 3.6.3: Travel and Regional Interactivity ........................................................................................ 65 3.7: Case Study Three: Hispania Baetica ........................................................................................... 67 3.7.1: Chronology ......................................................................................................................... 68 3.7.2: Rural Surveys and Rural Populations .................................................................................. 69 3.7.3: Travel and Regional Interactivity ........................................................................................ 71 3.8: Conclusions: ‘Regional’ Amphitheatres? ................................................................................... 72 Chapter 4: Quantifying Popularity: Do Low Capacities Indicate Low Levels of Popularity? ............ 75 4.1: Defining ‘Undersized’ Amphitheatres ........................................................................................ 76 4.2: The Dataset ................................................................................................................................ 76 4.3: Explaining ‘Undersized’ Amphitheatres ..................................................................................... 79 4.3.1: Other Forms of Spectacle Structures ................................................................................. 80 4.3.2: Chronology of Spectacle Structures ................................................................................... 81 4.3.3: Literary, Epigraphical and Material Culture ....................................................................... 82 4.3.4: The Case Studies ................................................................................................................. 83 4.4: Case Study One: The Four Gauls ...............................................................................................