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The Awnings of Roman Theatres and Amphitheatres

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2010

Robert B. Montilla
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Extract

Unquestionably an awning or system of awnings was used as a protective cover over Roman theatres and amphitheatres during the Empire. Its appearance and operation however, still puzzle theatre historians.

Because only scanty descriptive evidence of it is available, historians mention the awning barely, if at all. What comments they do make are often incorrect. For example, Bieber's statement that the awnings were “to protect the spectators from rain and sunburn” is true only of the sunburn. In the light of this and other misconceptions about the Roman awning, a review of the evidence is now in order.

Type
Research Article
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , May 1969 , pp. 75 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1969

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References

NOTES

1 Bieber, Margarete, The History of the Greek and Roman Theatre (Princeton, 1961), p. 179.Google Scholar

2 Juvenal and Persius, trans. C. G. Ramsay, The Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass., 1952), IV, 121–22.

3 The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus, trans. John C. Rolfe (London, 1887), XIV, 6, 25–29.

4 De Rerum Natura, trans. Cyril Bailey, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1947), Vol. II, VI, 109.

5 Dio's Roman History, trans. Earnest Cary, 9 vols., The Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass., 1955), Vol. VIII, LXII, 6.

6 Natural History, trans. H. Rackham, The Loeb Classical Library, 10 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1952), Vol. V, XIX, vi.

7 Roman History, XIV, 6, 25–29.

8 Book II, iv, 6, as quoted by Beare, W., The Roman Stage: A Short History of the Latin Drama in the Time of the Republic, 2nd ed. (London, 1955), p. 170.Google Scholar

9 Sextus Aurelius Propertius, trans. H. E. Butler, The Loeb Classical Library (New York, 1912), III, xviii, 12–13.

10 Propertius, IV, i, 15.

11 The Art of Love and Other Poems, trans. J. H. Mozley, The Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass., 1952), 1, 103.

12 Livy, trans. B. O. Foster, 14 vols., The Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass., 1961), Vol. I, I, 35.

13 Dio's Roman History, Vol. VII, LIX, 7. The Diribitorium was roofed.

14 Gusman, Pierre, Pompeii: The City, Its Life and Art (London, 1900), p. 156.Google Scholar

15 Pompeii: Its Life and Art, trans. Francis W. Kelsey (New York, 1904), p. 142.

16 The Architecture of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, trans. Joseph Gwilt (London, 1826), Chapter III.

17 Epigrams, trans. Walter C. A. Ker, 2 vols., The Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass., 1955), Vol. II, XIV, xxix.

18 Ibid., xxviii.

19 Ibid., Vol. II, IX, xxxviii.

20 On the Nature of the Universe, trans. R. E. Latham (Baltimore, 1951), VI, 108–15.

21 The Roman History, XIV, 6, 25–29.

22 Lampridius, Aelius, “Commodus Antoninus,” in Scriptores Historiae Augustae, trans. Magie, David, 3 vols., The Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass., 1921), Vol. I, XV, 6.Google Scholar

23 Chapot, Victor, La Flotte de Miséne: Son Histoire, son Recrutement, son Régime Administratif (Paris, 1896), p. 84.Google Scholar

24 Roman Life and Manners Under the Early Empire, trans. J. H. Freere and Leonard A. Magnus, 4 vols. (London, [1920]), II, 179.

25 Juvenal and Persius, IV, 121–22.

26 Orelli, Joseph C., Inscriptionum Latinarum Colletio, 3 vols. (Turici, 1828), 2569.Google Scholar

27 De Rerum Natura, IV, 70–85.

28 Natural History, Vol. V, XIX, vi.

29 Dio's Roman History, Vol. VIII, LXII, 6.

30 Epigrams, Vol. II, XI, xxi.

31 Orelli, ILC, 2556, 2559, 5814, 6166, 6167, 6168, 6169 and Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, ed. Academie Litterarum Regiae Borussicae, 4 vols. (Berolini, 1871), IV, 1177,1180, 1181, 1183, 1189, 1190,1192, 1194, 1200.

32 Not all scholars agree that the corbels at Aspendos and Orange were part of the provision for an awning. Durm, , Handbuch der Architektur, 2nd. ed., 2 vols. (Stuttgard, 1905)Google Scholar, figs. 730, 733, shows the roof over the stage-house at Aspendos and Orange suspended by cables from masts inserted in the corbels along the back of the stage-house wall.

33 Fiechter, Ernst R., Die baugeschichtliche Entwicklung des antihen Theaters (München, 1914), p. 125.Google Scholar

34 Dittenberger, Wilhelmus, Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae (Lipsiae, 1905), p. 510.Google Scholar

35 Bieber, Margarete, The History of the Greek and Roman Theatre, p. 179Google Scholar, “The Greek name for these awnings, as testified by an inscription in Ephesus, is petasos.” And Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, revised (Oxford, 1942), petasos: “III, from its shape, also, awning…OGI 510.4.” But see also the 1925 edition of the same work, petasos: “III, from its shape, also, the roof of the Odeium.”

36 OGI, 510.

37 “Explorations in Rome in the Season of 1874–75,” in Archaeological Journal, XXXII, p. 286, as quoted by Munro, H. A. J., T. Lucreti Cari: De Rerum Natura, Libri Sex, 4th ed., 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1886), II, 234.Google Scholar

38 Handbuch der Architektur, p. 688.

39 De Rerum Natura, IV, 70–85.