THE THEATRE AT LEPCIS MAGNA

1
THE THEATRE AT LEPCIS MAGNA
2
WHERE IS LEPCIS MAGNA?

• Rome
• Lepcis Magna
• Lepcis (Leptis) Magna had been occupied since
  Phoenician times.
• on the Mediterranean coastline in Northern
  Africa.
• was once an important and wealthy city.

3
MAJOR PARTS OF A ROMAN THEATRE

• scaena
• scaenae frons
• pulpitum
• proscaenium
• vomitoria
• cavea
• orchestra

• stage building
• front of the stage
• platform (stage) for acting on
• front façade of the pulpitum
• corridors into the theatre
• tiered seating area

4
(No Transcript)
5
ADDITIONS TO THE THEATRE

• soon after completion official boxes (Tribunalia)
  for the magistrates were added over the side
  entrances.
• a colonnade along top of the cavea was added
  later also.
• a temple to Ceres-Augusta was erected in 35-36 AD
  by a lady called Suphunibal on the upper level of
  the auditorium.
• in 43 AD Iddipal Tapapius built a temple to the
  Deified Emperors behind the scene building.
• in 91 AD an octagonal altar was place at the foot
  of the auditorium by another citizen, Tiberius
  Claudius Sextius.
• in the mid-2nd century AD the original limestone
  columns of the façade were replaced by marble
  columns.

6

• the seating arrangement derives from the style
  used in Greek theatres rising in semi-circular
  rows of seating.
• the seating is divided into zones up and down by
  walk-ways.
• the lowest zone could also be reached by
  passageways at the end of the stage.

7

• the upper levels are supported on a man-made
  
  superstructure which includes 5 vaulted passages
  (vomitoria) .
• the central zones
  
  are supported by
  
  an artificial bank
  
  made from rubble
  held in
  place by
  masonry.
• the lowest zone
  
  rests on a natural
  
  bank.

8

• the theatre was fully enclosed because the
  scaenae frons was three stories high.
• at the back of the
  
  scaena were 3 apses
  
  that
  corresponds to
  
  3 entrances onto the
  
  stage.
• statues were placed
  
  between the columns
  
  on the scaena.
• the front face
  
  (proscaenium) is
  
  punctuated by niches
  
  for small statues.

9

• at the ends were
  
  busts of the patron
  
  deities of the citys
  
  Hercules and
  
  Dionysus.
• 5 shallow steps are
  
  placed just below
  
  the stone wall.
• external diameter
  
  of the auditorium
  
  is
  88.5m.

10
THE ORCHESTRA

• a stone wall screens the rest of the cavea.
• the floor of the orchestra was originally
  stuccoed and then later paved in marble.
• the stage (pulpitum)
  was about 1 m high and it originally had a
  wooden floor.

11
PROPAGANDA AND THE THEATRE

• the reach of propaganda and the extent of control
  the Emperor had even over the furthermost reaches
  of the empire is shown through
• the dedication of a temple to the Deified
  Emperors.
• the epithet Augusta attached to the name of the
  goddess Ceres honoured at the top of the cavea.
• the use of Roman features of decoration and the
  use of limestone as a building material.

12
THE THEATRE AT LEPCIS MAGNA