The Roman Amphitheatre: From Its Origins to the Colosseum

Analyzing the evolution of the Roman amphitheatre as an architectural form, Katherine Welch addresses the critical period in the history of this building type. She covers the origins and dissemination under the Republic (from the third to first centuries BC); monumentalization as an architectural form under Augustus; and canonization as a building type with the Colosseum (AD 80). The study then focuses on the reception of the amphitheatre in the Greek East, a part of the Empire strongly divided about the new realities of Roman rule.