Roman Theaters and amphitheatres in Switzerland
21 April 2022
Ancient theatres
A theatre tradition was absent in the western provinces of the Roman Empire until August (emperor from 27 BC—14 AD). Stone theatres existed only in Greek settlements in Spain (Hispania) and southern France (Gallia Narbonensis).
Stone theatres were not built in Rome and the conquered western territories until the last phase of the Roman Republic (the period after 55 BC).
The theatre was an essential means of communication in Greece and played a prominent political role in society.
Rome
The Senate banned stone theatres in the Roman Republic because they could be abused for political purposes. Wooden theatres were allowed because they were not permanent.
After all, the theatre was not just a place to perform a comedy or tragedy but primarily a meeting place for the elite and citizens.
In addition, religion played a prominent role in the theatre. Processions, sacrifices, and other religious rituals were central to theatre performances, which lasted for days.
Aosta, the only roof-covered Roman theatre, next to the amphitheatre.
The Republic
In the last decades of the Republic, theatrical performances and the size of wooden theatres, which could accommodate many thousands of spectators, surpassed each other in originality and cost. Generals and other high-ranking and wealthy citizens financed the spectacles.
Ideology, religion and propaganda went hand in hand. Against this background, the general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, Pompey the Great (106 – 48 BCE) built the first stone theatre in Rome in 55 BCE, presented as a temple, as it was still formally forbidden.
And there was indeed a temple present, though dwarfed by its construction for tens of thousands of spectators.
His opponent, Julius Caesar (100-44 BC), did not leave it at that and started building a gigantic stone theatre in Rome, which, however, was not completed until 11 BC and by Emperor August, the Marcellus theatre. In Spain, Lucius Cornelius Balbus (100-32 BC), an ally of Caeser, built a vast stone theatre at Gades (Cadiz) in 44. Chr.
Theatre Aventicum (Avenches)
Emperor Augustus
Under Augustus (63 BC – 14 AD), the stone theatre became an important ideological and political medium. He struggled to present his monarchy in Republican Rome without being called king.
After all, that had proved fatal to his adoptive father, Caesar, in 44 BC, August called himself princeps inter pares, hence the name Principate, but he could not hide the fact that there was, in fact, a monarchy, which was only called an empire after Augustus.
Theatre Augusta Raurica
Propaganda
Propaganda, the feeling of peace, security, and economic prosperity after decades of civil war, was also crucial for legitimising his power.
Not the letter of the (republican) law, which formally remained in place, but imperial ideology and the imperial cult were the de facto constitution.
The theatre became one of the empire’s mouthpieces and propaganda institutions. It was an essential means of communication, organised strictly hierarchically according to an established building concept.
The theatres, ideology, communication
Rome’s theatres became the architectural benchmark for provincial towns and local elites, urbs pro maiestatae imperii ornata.
The local elites financed the theatres and performances, mirroring the building and cultural policies of the emperor, Rome, and its immediate surroundings.
In this ideology, theatres were an essential communication tool between the emperor and his citizens in Rome, Italy and distant provinces.
The political significance of the theatre stemmed from the omnipresent emperor’s cult, statues, and other images and because the performances took place in his name. The theatre was a political building.
It was a medium for mass communication, with religion and self-representation of the elite and financiers playing a central role.
For this reason, Augustus introduced numerous new religious festivals and ceremonies, expressed in the theatre in combination with performances.
By closely linking religion and political ideology, Augustus created a new structure for loyalty to his person and regime in the profoundly religious ancient world.
This feature was the core of the imperial cult, expressed by priests. Augustus had appreciated the importance of theatre.
Amphitheatres
Amphitheatres did not arise until much later, at the end of the 1st century. The Colosseum in Rome (70 AD) is the best-known example. Because of its success in Rome, amphitheatres were built in the provinces in the 1st and 2nd centuries. Spectacles, wild animals and gladiators were the main events. However, like the theatre, it was a political institution of propaganda and communication with citizens.
Avenches (Aventicum), amphitheatre. Musée romain.
Political
Local elites had to copy Rome’s model and started financing and building stone theatres in their cities. They also organised festivals and ceremonies more than fifty days a year.
Stone theatres and performances were not only a favour of the emperor and the local elite but also a right of the people. The people expected public sponsorship from the elites. In the theatre, citizens’ political involvement led to participation in the performances by publicly expressing approval or disapproval of policies.
After all, Augustus had effectively established an absolute monarchy under the guise of a republican form of state, and the theatre was one of the lubricants to maintain this system.
Theatres in Switzerland
During the first and second centuries AD, several large stone theatres were built on Swiss territory, in Augst, Lausanne, Nyon, Lenzburg, and Avenches. Amphitheaters have also been discovered in Windisch, Avenches, Nyon, Augst, Kaiseraugst, and Martigny. The local elites paid for them and their maintenance, sometimes perhaps with the (financial) support of the emperor, his closest relations, and the manpower of the local legions.
Nothing is known about the performances, but propaganda and the imperial cult will also have been prominent in these theatres.
(Source: U. Pappalardo, Antique Theatre, Petersberg, 2007)