The Roman Amphitheatre
From its Origins to the Colosseum
Published on 2. February 2009
Book
Paperback/Softback
378 pages
978-0-521-74435-5 (ISBN)
Description
This is the first book to analyze the evolution of the Roman amphitheatre as an architectural form. Katherine Welch addresses the critical period in the history of this building type: its origins and dissemination under the Republic, from the third to first centuries BC; its monumentalization as an architectural form under Augustus; and its canonization as a building type with the Colosseum (AD 80). She explores the social and political contexts of each of these phases in detail. The study then shifts focus to the reception of the amphitheatre and the games in the Greek East, a part of the Empire that was, initially, deeply fractured about the new realities of Roman rule.
Reviews / Votes
'Repeatedly, Welch's book stirs the embers under simmering controversies, thereby giving us both good reading and adventurous scholarship.' Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 'The Colosseum, more than any other building from ancient Rome, is routinely the subject of both scholarly and popular texts. While it seems that important studies are published on this structure every year, rarely does any attain the status of definitive text. Katherine Welch's The Roman Amphitheatre: From Its Origins to the Colosseum is such a book. Welch's splendid volume is a culmination of her amphitheatre studies and provides a much-needed examination of the building type's origins in Republican Rome and its development up to and including the Colosseum.' Thomas J. Morton, The Art BulletinMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Dimensions
Height: 244 mm
Width: 170 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
678 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-521-74435-5 (9780521744355)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
09/2007
Cambridge University Press
€83.08
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Previous edition
Book
09/2007
Cambridge University Press
€83.08
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Person
Katherine E. Welch is Associate Professor of Fine Arts at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She is a scholar of Roman art and archaeology and has held fellowships at the American Academy in Rome and the American School of Classical Studies in Athens.
Content
Introduction: the 'imperial' interpretation of arena games; 1. Arena games during the Republic; 2. Origins of amphitheatre architecture; 3. Stone amphitheatres during the republican period; 4. The amphitheatre between republic and empire: monumentalization of the amphitheatre building; 5. The colosseum: canonization of the amphitheatre building type; 6. The reception of the amphitheatre in the Greek world in the early imperial period; Conclusion; Appendix: amphitheatres of republican date.