Articles

Launching into History: Aquatic Displays in the Early Empire*

K. M. Coleman^a1

^a1 University of Cape Town / Trinity College, Dublin

Dio devotes almost an entire chapter to the aquatic displays forming part of Titus' one hundred days of spectacles to celebrate the inauguration in A.D. 80 of the Flavian Amphitheatre (which he calls θέατϱον [ϰυνηγετιϰόν]). He is not without limitations as an historian; but when his testimony contains details which are difficult to explain, it is not to be dismissed out of hand.

Footnotes

* This article is based upon a paper delivered at the Triennial Meeting of the Greek and Roman Societies in Cambridge in 1991. Members of the audience on that occasion, at the University of Cape Town, at the Institut für Klassische Archäologie of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, and at the Seminar für Klassische Philologie at the Freie Universität, Berlin, gave me many stimulating ideas. I am very grateful to the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung for a fellowship which enabled me to pursue research on this topic; to N. M. Horsfall, R. R. R. Smith, and D.A. West for reading an expanded draft with close and expert attention; to A. Burgers for advice on aspects of hydraulic engineering; to A. Wilkins for drawing the plans; and to the Editorial Committee for numerous helpful suggestions.

The following works are cited in abbreviated form:

Coarelli 1992: F. Coarelli, ‘Aedes Fortis Fortunae, Naumachia Augusti, Castra Ravennatium. La via Campana Portuensis e alcuni edifici adiacenti nella pianta marmorea Severiana’, Ostraka I (1992), 39–54.

Coleman 1990: K. M. Coleman, ‘Fatal charades: Roman executions staged as mythological enactments’, JRS 80 (1990), 44–73.

Golvin 1988: J.-C. Golvin, L'Amphithéatre romain.

Golvin-Landes 1990: J.-C. Golvin and C. Landes, Amphithéâtres et gladiateurs.

Golvin-Reddé 1990: J.-C. Golvin and M. Reddé, ‘Naumachies, jeux nautiques et amphithéâtres’, in C. Domergue, C. Landes, and J. -M. Pailler (eds), Spectacula-I. Gladiateurs et amphithéâtres, 165–77.

Liberati 1986: A. M. Liberati, ‘Le Naumachie e il Tevere’, in Tevere. Un antica via per il mediterraneo, 266–7.

Liberati Silverio 1987: A. Liberati Silverio, ‘Naumachie e tetimimi’, in Lo Sport nel mondo antico, 61–3.

Rea 1988: R. Rea, ‘Le antiche raffigurazioni dell'anfiteatro’, in Anfiteatro Flavio. Immagine testimonianze spettacoli, 23–46.

Traversari 1960: G. Traversari, Gli Spettacoli in acqua net teatro tardo-antico.