THEATRUM MARCELLI
* Julius Caesar planned to build a theatre (Suet.
Caes. 44:
theatrumque summae magnitudinis Tarpeio monti accubans;
Cass.
Dio xliii. 49. 2;
liii. 30. 5), and to make room for it he removed
the temple of
PIETAS (q.v.) in the forum Holitorium and other shrines
and private houses (Plin.
NH vii. 21 ; Cass.
Dio xliii. 49. 3), but the
building was not actually constructed by him but by Augustus, who
found it necessary to purchase additional land from private owners at his
own expense (Mon.
Anc. iv. 22). The theatre was a memorial of Marcellus
and dedicated in his name (Cass. Dio, Mon. Anc. locc. citt.; Liv. Epit. 138;
Suet. Aug. 29; Plut. Marc. 30). In 17 B.C. the work of construction was
so far advanced that part of the celebration of the ludi saeculares took
place within the theatre (
CIL vi. 32323. 157 ;
1 EE viii. 233), but the
dedication did not occur until 13 (Cass.
Dio liv. 26. i), or less probably II
(Plin.
NH viii. 65; cf. Chron. Pasch. a. u. c. 732, ed.
Momms. i. 218).
On this occasion magnificent games were held (Cass.
Dio liii. 30. 6;
liv. 26. I; Suet. Aug. 43). Augustus placed four remarkable marble
columns from the house of Scaurus on the Palatine 'in regia theatri ' (Asc.
in Scaur. 45), but whether this was the middle door in the scaena, as was
.probably the case in the theatre of
POMPEIUS (q.v.), or one of the halls
at the ends of the scaena (see below), is uncertain (LR 498;
BC 1901, 56).
Besides the ordinary form of the name, the theatre was also called theatrum
Marcellianum (Suet. Vesp. 9 ;
Mart. ii. 29. 5;
CIL vi. 33838 a).
Vespasian restored the scaena (Suet. Vesp. 19), which had perhaps
been injured when the Vitellians stormed the Capitol, and Alexander
Severus is said to have intended to restore it again (Hist. Alex. Sev. 44),
but of this nothing more is known. Martial mentions this theatre with
that of Pompeius as one of the notable structures of the city (x. 51. 11);
and parts of the ludi saeculares of Severus were celebrated in it, as in
the games of Augustus (
CIL vi. 32328, 33 ;
EE viii. 271, 285). It is
found on sundry inscriptions as an indication of location (Fast. Allif.
Vail. a. d. xvi Kal. Sept., CIL i². 217, 240, Amit. a. d. xv Kal. Nov.,
12. p. 245:
Iano ad theatrum Marcelli; Urb. CIL i². 252, 339;
vi. 9868:
sagarius a theatro Marcelli; 10028; 33838 a:
coactor a theatro Marcelliano); in Servius incidentally (
Aen. vii. 607, cf.
Jord. i. 2, 347); and in
Reg. (Reg. IX).
Some of the travertine blocks used in the restoration of the pons
Cestius in 370 A.D. were taken from this theatre (
NS 1886, 159), which
may perhaps indicate that the destruction of the building had begun
by that time, although Petronius Maximus, prefect of the city, set up
statues within it in 421, and one inscribed pedestal was found in situ in
the eighth century by the compiler of the Einsiedeln Itinerary (
CIL vi.
1650). Hulsen has shown (
RPA i. 169-174; HCh 226 (S. Caeciliae
de Monte Faffo, cf. 337
2) that the name templum Marcelli still clung to
the ruins in 998, that the Fabii or Faffi were in possession of them as
early as the middle of the twelfth century, and held them until the end
of the thirteenth, when they were succeeded by the Savelli. It is very
doubtful, on the other hand, whether the Pierleoni had any connection
with the theatre. In 1368 it came into the possession of the Savelli family,
and in 1712 into that of the Orsini. The present Palazzo was built
by Baldassare Peruzzi for the Savelli in the early part of the sixteenth
century, and stands upon the scaena and a large part of the cavea of the
theatre (
BC 1901, 52-70;
1914, 109; Lovatelli, Passeggiate nella Roma
antica,
Rome 1909, 53-88;
LS iii. 7-8; for drawings of the ruins from the
fifteenth century,/dateRange> on, see literature just quoted; PBS ii., index to plates,
p. 90;
vi. 200; DuP 134-136; and see Ill. 48; and HJ 517, n. 29, 30;
for a reconstruction, Canina, Ed. iv. pls. 159-163; for a reliable plan,
that of Peruzzi, Uffizi 478, 631,
3 ap. Bartoli, Mon. di Roma ii. pl. 185).
The theatre is represented on fragments (28, 112) of the Marble Plan,
and stands near the Tiber, on the north-west side of the forum Holitorium. The stage is toward the river, and the main axis runs north-
north-east and south-south-west. It was built of travertine for the
most part, with opus reticulatum in the foundations and inner walls
(
AJA 1912, 393), covered on the inside-and perhaps partly on the
outside-with stucco and marble. A little less than one-third of the
semi-circular exterior is still standing in the Via del Teatro di Marcello.
It was built with three series of open arcades, one above the other.
Between the arches of the lowest arcade are half-columns of the Doric
order, and above them is a Doric entablature with triglyphs and an
attic, 1.20 metre high, with projections that form the bases of the half-
columns of the second Ionic arcade. The entablature above these
columns consists of an architrave of three projecting ledges, with a
plain frieze and cornice. The original third arcade with Corinthian
pilasters has been entirely destroyed and replaced with modern masonry.
Thirteen piers, 3 metres wide and 2 thick, with their engaged columns,
are still standing, and were till lately buried to about one-third of their
height beneath the ground. Immediately within these piers was an
ambulatory running round the cavea, from which spur walls were built
on radial lines to support the tiers of seats. The construction of the
walls, seats, etc., as well as of the exterior, seems to have been quite like
that of the theatre of Pompeius and that which was afterwards developed
in the Colosseum. The arcades, ambulatories, and chambers between
the open walls have now been cleared. The diameter of the theatre was
about 150 metres, the scaena was about 80-9o metres long and 20 deep;
and at each end of the scaena was an apsidal hall, about 25 by 15 metres,
one of which may have been the regia (see above).
According to the Notitia, this theatre had 20500 loca, and if this is
interpreted to mean running feet of seats, as is usual at present, it would
accommodate from ten to fourteen thousand spectators (
BC 1894, 320),
but much doubt attaches to these estimates of seating capacity (in
addition to literature cited see in general
BC 1901, 65-70; HJ 515-519;
LR 493-495; D'Esp.
Mon. i. 36-38; ASA 88; ZA 231-236;
Capitolium
i. 529-534;
ii. 594-600).