theaters
Location
Location Description
In 206 BC Publius Cornelius Scipio settled wounded veterans of the battle of Ilipa in an existing Turdentanian town which he renamed Italica to remind the settlers and their descendants of their origins. Three centuries later, it was still a town of some 14 hectares, less than a fourth the size of Pompeii and much smaller than neighboring Hispalis (Sevilla) or Corduba. Little is known of this town archaeologically because it lies under modern Santiponce.
Italica underwent a major expansion during the reign of the emperor Hadrian, a native of the town. A new area of 30 hectares to the northwest of the old city was enclosed with walls, laid out in an orthogonal plan, and provided with aqueduct water and a well-designed sewer system. Imperial-style baths were built, and a vast and innovative monument to Hadrian's adopted father Trajan, the Traianeum, was erected. Just north of the new walls an amphitheater accommodating 25,000 spectators was constructed. Dio Cassius says (69.10.1) says that Hadrian showed his patria great honor and bestowed on it many splendid gifts. Style and construction techniques point to imperial and even eastern influence in the layout, the baths, and the Traianeum. Mileposts on a new road leading north proclaim his patronage, the aqueduct is almost surely his work, and his initials are found on some lead pipes.
Garden
Theater
Keywords
- columns (architectural elements)AAT:300001571
- courtyards (uncovered spaces)AAT:300004095
- pedestalsAAT:300001744
- peristyles (Roman courtyards)AAT:300080971
- porticoesAAT:300004145
- statuesAAT:300047600
Garden Description
The Italica Theater makes use of the side of a hill to support most of its gradería, as do all known theaters in Spain. It was built in the oldest sector of the city and in a location earlier occupied by a simpler structure. The theater had a portico behind the scaena in which there was a chapel to Isis in the second century AD. The portico with heavy sandstone columns covered in stucco surrounded a grand courtyard. At some point low walls were constructed between the columns, and pedestals for honorific statues were placed on top of the low walls. When the ground level in the courtyard was raised (possibly for the creation of a garden) a wall was built to keep earth from entering the portico.
Maps
Images
Dates
unspecified
Bibliography
- Antonio Garcia y Bellido,Colonia aelia augusta Italica, Instituto Español de Arqueologia, (Madrid 1960). (worldcat)
- A. Caballos and P. León,ITALICA MMCC: Actas de las Jornadas del 2.200 Aniversario de la Fundación de Itálica, Sevilla, Consejeria de Cultura, (Sevilla 1997).(worldcat)
- A. Caballos, J. Marín and J. M. Rodríguez Hielgo, Itálica Arqueológica, Universidad de Sevilla, (Sevilla 1999). (worldcat)
Places
- [2224658206]/test-drafts/place/hispania_baetica/italica/)