First Building
The amphitheatre was built at the foot of the La Croix-Rousse hill at what was then the confluence of the Rhône and Saône . An inscription on one of the blocks found in 1957 (Inscription latine des Trois Gaules, n°217 (AE 1959, n°61)) allows the amphitheatre to be connected with the sanctuary of Rome and Augustus and allows its origins to be identified :
E TI(beris) CAESARIS AVG(vsti) AMPHITHEATR
ODIO C IVL C RVFVS SACERDOS ROM(ae) ET AVG(vsti)
FILII F. ET NEPOS X CIVITATE SANTON. D(e) S(ua). P(ecunia).FECERVNT Which can be completed as
- /e Ti(beri) Caesaris Avg(vsti) amphitheatr / pod/io C(aivs) Ivl(ivs) C(aii) f(ilivs) Rvfvs sacerdos Romae et Avg(vsti) / filii f(ilivs) et nepos ex civitate Santon(orvm) d(e) s(va) p(ecvnia) fecervnt.
- For the safety of Tiberius Caesar Augustus, C. Julius Rufus, citizen of the city of Santons (Saintes), priest of Rome and of Augustus, his son and grandson built this amphitheatre and its podium at their own expense.
This dates the building to 19 A.D. The figures who financed its construction belonged to an old Gallic family in Saintes which had held Roman citizenship since the Gallic Wars and also built the arch of Germanicus there. The curious formula "filii f(ilius)" perhaps derives from a wish to affirm the antiquity and continuity of the family's lineage, as on the arch of Germanicus, which names Rufus's ancestors. Other stones bear the names of Gallic tribes (Arverni, Tricasses, Bituriges) confiring its identification as federal sanctuary. Excavations have revealed a basement of three elliptical walls linked by cross-walls and a channel surrounding the oval central arena. The arena was slightly sloped, with the building's south part supported by a now-vanished vault. The arena's dimensions are 67.6m by 42m, analogous to those at the arenas at Nîmes and Arles, though with a smaller number of rows of seats (probably only 4 levels) that gave the amphitheatre external dimensions of 81m by 60m (much smaller than those of Nîmes, which was 133m by 101m). This phase of the amphitheatre housed games which accompanied the imperial cult, with its low capacity (1,800 seats) being enough for delegations from the 60 Gallic tribes.
Read more about this topic: Amphitheatre Of The Three Gauls, History
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