Verona Arena

History

In the absence of written sources regarding the amphitheatre's construction, historical proposals for when it was built range from the 1st to the 3rd century. Historian Pirro Marconi suggested a date between the second and third decades of the 1st century—spanning the late Augustan and early Tiberian periods—while more recently, Luigi Beschi leaned toward the mid-1st century.

To more accurately date the Arena, scholars have compared it to the amphitheatre of Pula, which shares similarities with Verona's in both stylistic and technical aspects. Both belong to a common geographical and cultural region, and some historians have hypothesized that they may have been designed by the same architect and constructed by the same workforce. The Pula amphitheatre is generally dated to the Augustan period, suggesting that the Arena of Verona may have been built around this time.

Additional clues aiding in the dating process include the amphitheatre's decorations, particularly a tuff sculpture depicting a life-sized gladiator's head encased in a helmet. This helmet features two round openings revealing the fighter's eyes, with a visor composed of two sections meeting precisely at the face's midline. The cheek guards, starting narrow at the ears, widen to cover the entire face except the eyes and appear to be fastened by two crossed straps beneath the chin.

This helmet style emerged at the end of the Augustan era, around 10–20 AD. This narrows the construction window to the late reign of Augustus and the early reign of Claudius. Given that statues were typically crafted at the end of a building's construction, Pirro Marconi inferred that the Arena was completed by approximately 30 AD.

The amphitheatre were part of the monumentalization projects in Verona during the Julio-Claudian era, which also included the Forum of Verona and the embellishment of the city's gateways. Both the Verona and Pula amphitheatres predate the construction of the Colosseum, representing new developments in the evolution of this architectural form. …

Inscriptions

Several inscriptions found near the amphitheatre, given its size, undoubtedly pertain to it. One, indecipherable, reads CON, while another appears to be [...] ET DEDIT. A complete inscription states:

NomineQ(uinti) Domini AlpiniLicinia matersignum Dianae et venatoriem et salientes t(estamento) f(ieri) i(ussit)

It records that a wealthy woman, in her son’s name, bequeathed funds to erect a statue of Diana, stage a hunting spectacle (venatio) in the Arena, and install salientes—possibly water conduits or fountains—within the amphitheatre.

Additionally, an original Arena step was found, inscribed with a seat number: I / LOC(US) IIII, LIN(EA) I, meaning wedge one, step four, seat one.

Description

The amphitheatre's foundational layout is an ellipse forming the arena (the central performance space), likely traced on the ground at the project's outset. The outer perimeter was derived by drawing a concentric line around this ellipse. This base ellipse was constructed using four circles: two smaller ones (along the major axis) derived by dividing the semi-major axis into five 25-foot segments, with two segments forming the radius at the axis's ends, and a larger curve with a seven-part, 25-foot radius centered at the outer extension's end.

The arena measures 75.68 m × 44.43 m (250 × 150 Roman feet), a round figure reflecting the simplicity of the base module, with a 5:3 ratio between the major and minor axes. The cavea spans 39.40 m (125 feet), while the amphitheatre's maximum dimensions (major × minor axis) are 152.43 m × 123.23 m (520 × 420 Roman feet). These dimensions rank the Arena eighth among Roman amphitheatres and fourth in Italy, following the Colosseum, the Campanian Amphitheatre, and the Amphitheatre of Milan.

The amphitheatre was built on a slight artificial elevation (now below street level), with foundations of an opus caementicium plate. A 1.60 m height difference exists between the outermost ring and the podium base. Rainwater drainage, critical for such a large structure, was managed by three annular sewers beneath the floors of concentric galleries supporting the first level. Two additional sewers along the major and minor axes channeled runoff to the Adige, one explored for about 100 meters. This sewer system was highly efficient, with a consistent two-meter height. Constructed with sections of pebble masonry bound by mortar, interspersed with three horizontal brick rows, they were capped with large stone slabs—a technique mirrored in Verona's civic sewer system. …

Legends

Over time, legends have emerged about the Arena’s origins. In the Middle Ages, one story claims that a Veronese nobleman, condemned to death for a heinous crime, promised the city’s leaders he would build a vast edifice overnight to house all citizens and host spectacles, bargaining his soul with the devil to complete it between the evening and morning Hail Marys.

That night, all the devils of Hell converged on Verona, but the nobleman repented, praying to the Holy Virgin, who granted a miracle: the sun came up two hours earlier. In the morning, at the first note of the Hail Mary, the demons all sank back into the ground, leaving the building, though well underway, incomplete: this is said to be the origin of the Ala.

Other medieval legends attributed its construction to the Devil because of its immense size, considered impossible to build using human hands. Additional tales credited King Theodoric, likely because he restored it and held numerous spectacles there.