Story of the Roman Amphitheatre

This thoroughly corrected, updated and enlarged edition illuminates the epic story of the birth, early development, widespread flourishing and slow decline of that most typical Roman monument, the amphitheatre.

This lucid and accessible work, lavishly illustrated with plans and photographs, breaks new ground with the incorporation of sociological, psychological, historical and even ecological material into the study of the amphitheatre. This edition has been thoroughly revised and updated, including a new interpretation of the phasing of the Pompeii amphitheatre as well as inclusion of the latest information on the other amphitheatres in this monograph.

This volume is a valuable reference work for students and scholars of Roman history and architecture, and this new updated edition will bring this topic to a new generation of readers.

David Bomgardner has a wide experience of teaching and lecturing. He studied for a joint degree in chemistry and ancient Greek with a minor in ancient history at Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA, before going on to complete a PhD in classical art and archaeology at the University of Michigan (Thesis: An Analytical Study of Roman North African Amphitheaters, 1985). He has worked at the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Keble Road, Oxford, undertaking atomic absorption spectroscopy analysis of ceramic materials. He was Head of Classics and Director of the Scholarship Programme at Elstree School, Woolhampton, Berks. During this time, he also taught courses in ancient history and classical archaeology part-time in the Adult Studies Programme at Reading University and was a Swan Hellenic cruise lecturer for five years. In 2014 he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, London. Since 2015 he has been a visiting research fellow at the University of Winchester in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology. In 2020 he was appointed an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Archaeology, Durham University. He is the author of numerous articles and publications about the study of amphitheatres, their history and development: use, disuse and reuse.