Roman Theatre of Sessa Aurunca, Roman theatre in Sessa Aurunca, Italy.
The Roman Theatre of Sessa Aurunca is a Roman theatre built into a hillside, with a cavea about 110 metres in diameter that held between 7,000 and 10,000 spectators. Its stage building measured 40 metres long and 24 metres high, with three tiers of 84 columns, and the walls were faced with marble from Numidia, Egypt, Greece and Carrara.
The theatre was built in the early first century AD and served as a center for public entertainment in the Roman city. Over time the structure fell into disrepair, and sections were eventually unearthed through archaeological work.
Matidia minor, sister of Empress Vibia Sabina and aunt of Hadrian, paid for the theatre's monumental expansion and had herself depicted as Aura at the centre of the stage, surrounded by the imperial family. She also gave the city a library and an aqueduct. Behind the stage stood a porticus post scaenam where spectators could get refreshments during breaks.
The theatre lies just outside the medieval walls of Sessa Aurunca, on the hill beside the town, and is reached on foot. The adjacent cryptoporticus, excavated in 1926 and restored only in 2014, can be visited in its northern arm alone: the western arm was absorbed into a farmhouse and the eastern one collapsed. Parts of the cryptoporticus remain under private land and are closed.
Behind the stage stood a 40-metre-long, 24-metre-high building with three tiers of colonnades, described as an open-air museum of statues of gods, nymphs and the imperial family. One statue behind the podium portrayed Vibia Matidia in black and white marble; only the 10-metre base of the central sacellum survives.
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