Amphitheatres, although not so ubiquitous as, say, bath-buildings, were common enough in the Roman world to attract a set of terms applicable to their very distinctive structural features. It is true that they varied in construction from a simple earth bank to an elaborate masonry building like the Colosseumat Rome. But certain characteristics were constant, and it seems useful to list the technical terms used to describe amphitheatres. Some of these are scarcely applicable to the relatively simple Chester amphitheatre, while others are etymologically rather dubious. This list itself is almost entirely confined to the structural features since there are easily accessible descriptions of the spectacles which took place within amphitheatres. Previous lists have been given by Dyggve in his description of the amphitheatre at Salona and by Heidenreich in his report on the civil amphitheatre of Colonia Traiana at Xanten.

No abstract