Verona Arena

About

The Verona Arena is a Roman amphitheatre located in the historic center of Verona, Italy. It is among the best-preserved ancient amphitheatres to have survived into the modern era. This remarkable state of preservation is largely due to systematic restoration efforts that began in the 16th century. During the summer months, the Arena hosts the Arena di Verona Festival, with opera seasons that have run uninterrupted except by wars since 1913. Throughout the rest of the year, it serves as a concert venue. The arena hosted the closing ceremony for the 2026 Winter Olympics and the opening ceremony for the 2026 Winter Paralympics.

Controversies surrounding the construction date

In the absence of written sources regarding the amphitheatre's construction, historical proposals for when it was built range from the 1st to the 3rd century. Historian Pirro Marconi suggested a date between the second and third decades of the 1st century—spanning the late Augustan and early Tiberian periods—while more recently, Luigi Beschi leaned toward the mid-1st century.

To more accurately date the Arena, scholars have compared it to the amphitheatre of Pula, which shares similarities with Verona's in both stylistic and technical aspects. Both belong to a common geographical and cultural region, and some historians have hypothesized that they may have been designed by the same architect and constructed by the same workforce. The Pula amphitheatre is generally dated to the Augustan period, suggesting that the Arena of Verona may have been built around this time.

Additional clues aiding in the dating process include the amphitheatre's decorations, particularly a tuff sculpture depicting a life-sized gladiator 's head encased in a helmet. This helmet features two round openings revealing the fighter's eyes, with a visor composed of two sections meeting precisely at the face's midline. The cheek guards, starting narrow at the ears, widen to cover the entire face except the eyes and appear to be fastened by two crossed straps beneath the chin.

This helmet style emerged at the end of the Augustan era, around 10–20 AD. This narrows the construction window to the late reign of Augustus and the early reign of Claudius. Given that statues were typically crafted at the end of a building's construction, Pirro Marconi inferred that the Arena was completed by approximately 30 AD.

The amphitheatre were part of the monumentalization projects in Verona during the Julio-Claudian era, which also included the Forum of Verona and the embellishment of the city's gateways. Both the Verona and Pula amphitheatres predate the construction of the Colosseum, representing new developments in the evolution of this architectural form.

Much of the amphitheatre’s history in antiquity remains obscure. The city played a role in the war between Vitellius and Vespasian in 69 AD. with the latter selecting Verona as a stronghold due to its surrounding open fields, ideal for deploying cavalry. However, the city walls had become inadequate, partly because the amphitheatre stood just outside them. To address this, Vespasian ordered the construction of a rampart and the excavation of the Adigetto, a long moat south of the city center that remained in use into the Middle Ages. This project confirms that by 69 AD, the amphitheatre was already built.

Emperor Gallienus faced prolonged conflicts to repel the 3rd-century barbarian invasions, employing Verona in his innovative elastic defense strategy, which relied on key cities such as Mediolanum, Verona, and Aquileia. In 265, he refurbished Verona’s late Republican walls and construct a new 550-meter section of curtain wall to encompass the Arena, resolving the issue of its dominant position outside the earlier Republican defenses.

In 1874, Antonio Pompei conducted excavations around the Arena, uncovering the foundations of the Gallienus walls, which ran 5 meters from the amphitheatre. It was discovered that these walls intersected the rainwater drainage channels, though the Arena remained usable for spectacles thanks to an alternative solution: a large central well, identified in the 18th century. However, the drainage system became less efficient, marking the beginning of the amphitheatre’s decline.

Though unconfirmed, it is possible that the amphitheatre was used for the martyrdom of Christians. The Marquis Scipione Maffei speculated that Firmus and Rusticus were martyred here in 304, on the same occasion that Bishop Proculus asked to be martyred, but was instead mocked and sent away because he was old.

In 312, Verona played role in the war between Constantine and Maxentius, when the latter barricaded himself in the city, and Constantine’s forces laid siege. The assault focused on the amphitheatre, which served as a bastion for the defenders due to its height surpassing the Gallienus walls. Two critical clashes of that campaign occurred in front of the Arena: the sortie by the besieged, enabling Ruricius Pompeianus to seek reinforcements, and the nocturnal battle, where Constantine faced attacks from both the defenders and arriving reinforcements yet emerged victorious.

This battle is documented in a panegyric to Constantine and depicted in a relief on the Arch of Constantine, showing Verona under siege. In the square relief, Constantine is depicted on the left, shielded by a guard and crowned by Victory, while on the right, his army assaults the city as the defenders hurl arrows and javelins from the walls and towers. The rightmost section of the wall, lacking lower-level windows, likely represents the portion enclosing the Arena.

The rise of Christianity and the subsequent end of gladiatorial games, coupled with the inefficiency of public institutions in maintaining the monument, were factors in its abandonment.

Few documents detail the spectacles held in the Verona amphitheatre, with the only surviving literary record being a letter from Pliny the Younger :

Gaius Plinius to his friend Maximus. You did well to promise our Veronese a gladiatorial show, for they have long loved, respected, and honored you. It was also from this city that your most beloved and virtuous wife hailed. It was fitting to dedicate some public work or spectacle to her memory—and what better than a spectacle, the most appropriate tribute for a funeral? Moreover, the request was so insistent that denying it would have seemed not steadfastness but harshness. I commend you further for your generosity and willingness in granting it; such acts also demonstrate magnanimity. I wish the African panthers you had purchased in great numbers had arrived on time, but though delayed by bad weather, you still earned gratitude, as their absence was no fault of yours. Farewell. C. PLINIUS MAXIMO SUO S. Recte fecisti quod gladiatorium munus Veronensibus nostris promisisti, a quibus olim amaris suspiceris ornaris. Inde etiam uxorem carissimam tibi et probatissimam habuisti, cuius memoriae aut opus aliquod aut spectaculum atque hoc potissimum, quod maxime funeri, debebatur. Praeterea tanto consensu rogabaris, ut negare non constans, sed durum videretur. Illud quoque egregie, quod tam facilis tam liberalis in edendo fuisti; nam per haec etiam magnus animus ostenditur. Vellem Africanae, quas coemeras plurimas, ad praefinitum diem occurrissent: sed licet cessaverint illae tempestate detentae, tu tamen meruisti ut acceptum tibi fieret, quod quo minus exhiberes, non per te stetit. Vale. — Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, Epistularum, Book VI, 34

From this letter, it can be inferred that Pliny’s friend offered Verona a hunting spectacle, a venatio, as a funeral tribute to his wife. Pliny deems this choice particularly fitting, noting that such spectacles originated as funerary games of Etruscan or Campanian origin.

Several funerary inscriptions of gladiators who died fighting in the Arena have also been discovered in Verona. The least informative is a damaged slab bearing the phrase [famil]ia gladiatoria ; a second mentions the secutor Aedonius, who fought eight times in Verona before being defeated and killed at the young age of twenty-six; another pertains to a retiarius named Generosus, from the gladiatorial school of Alexandria, who fought twenty-seven times without defeat and died of natural causes; yet another belongs to Pardon, a Dertonensis, who perished in his eleventh bout.

The most intriguing inscription belongs to a certain Glaucus : From this, it appears that Glaucus made a vow to Nemesis, a deity revered by gladiators, for his safety, but to no avail. He warns readers not to place too much faith in Nemesis, as a gladiator’s fate also hinged on skill and chance. Glaucus, whose inscription features depictions of a retiarius ’s weapons, indicating he was likely a retiarius, must have been a skilled fighter, as his tomb was funded partly by his supporters.

In a house in Verona, just outside the ancient Roman walls, a mosaic depicting gladiatorial games was uncovered, dating from the Flavian era to the early 2nd century. The mosaic features a central panel with geometric patterns, dolphins, and plant motifs within circles. Surrounding these are panels portraying gladiators, particularly the three central ones. As a purely decorative piece, it is unlikely to depict specific games held in the Verona amphitheatre, yet it includes inscriptions with gladiators’ names, possibly famous local figures.