Bread and games

We don't often get a chance to revisit places but Saintes was but a hop, step and jump away from where we were headed, and Robin, you will be pleased to hear that this time we spent much of a rainy afternoon investigating its Roman ruins, but particularly its Roman Amphitheatre, which had some features we found really interesting.

Tucked away in what today is a narrow side street, but in the first century AD when it was built was part of a great Roman road between Lyon and Bordeaux, the Amphitheatre was built with its seating carved into the ground following the lie of the land. 

Its thick walls were made by packing rubble mixed with mortar and lime between two rows of neatly cut and mortar-laid stones. The vaults, too, were made using mortar and irregular stones after first laying a curved frame of wood, after which the vaults were layered with a veneer of dressed stone, which has now all fallen away.

The amphitheatre was a place of gladiatorial events and violent animal spectacles where participants regularly died. The emperors provided such entertainment free to the masses, along with adequate food supplies, as standard form, and as a subtle way of maintaining control of the masses. The opiate of the people in Roman times was panem et circenses - bread and games.

Luckily the emperors provided a Carcer, a waiting room for the gladiators, from which probably comes the word incarceration, I am thinking. And a Sacellum, a tiny chapel, one here dedicated to Nemesis near to the sand covered arena for when it was needed. Here any battle victims were kept until the spectacle was over.  For the masses, they provided what is aptly-named, a Vomitorium -- public access ways leading to the stairs. I wonder how many of the spectators left early?

Roman amphitheater at Saintes

Vomitorium

A model of the amphitheatre.  How it was once