The Roman theater at Carthage.

Abstract

A thorough study of the Carthage theater has been long overdue, especially in view of the continuing deterioration of its preserved remains. By bringing together a variety of evidence, this dissertation has been able to reconstruct many aspects of the theater's plan and appearance. A partial reconstruction of the three superimposed orders of columns which fronted the scaenae frons is proposed. The style of the carving of the architectural elements assigned to the scaenae frons, especially the cornice blocks, suggests that the extant theater was constructed around the middle of the second century A.C. For a theater of this date, it is surprisingly "Vitruvian" in its design. Four of the staircases of the first maenianum were located at Vitruvian points E, F, H, I. The cavea did not exceed a semicircle, the aditus maximi lay on the cavea side of line CD, the pulpitum wall of the stage was aligned with CD, and the scaenae frons was located at or near line AB. This study has also identified several important phases in the subsequent history of the Carthage theater. At the beginning of the third century, when Carthage was granted the right to hold Pythian games, colossal statues of Apollo and Hercules were placed in the niches above the central and eastern doors of the scaenae frons. Two Keay Type XXV B amphoras in the concrete above the vaults of the cavea provide evidence for a major repair to its substructures sometime after the middle of the fourth century. Around A.D. 382, a proconsul of Africa repaired the statues of the theater. It was destroyed by the V and als in A.D. 439. Though the extant theater appears to be Antonine, it hardly seems conceivable that Carthage had no theater prior to the middle of the second century A.C. This study argues that a variety of indirect evidence suggests that in fact the city might have possessed a theater as early as the time of Augustus.