A Home Fit For Heroes To Live In - Part One

It's mid February already! Preparations for the Carnival in Capua have already begun.I've been here for 6 weeks now. After two interviews seems like I have two jobs! Like a plant I seem to have absorbed enough sunshine and food to want to put down roots. Or maybe I've absorbed something stronger?
Something in the air? It's difficult to say. It's difficult to be clear. It's already difficult to contemplate leaving.

I's sitting in the museum cafe of the Roman
amphitheatre at Santa Maria Capua Vetere
This is the second largest amphitheatre after the colosseum. Orginally a four-tiered structure able to seat 60,000 people, decorated with elaborate columns and sculpture; some of which remain. It was begun by the emperor Nerva and completed by Trajan and Hadrian in 138AD. The huge arches glisten in the late afternoon sunshine. You sip your coffee. You are remote from it all.


That changes when you enter the building. You climb the red brick steps and gaze down at the huge arena below.

You begin to imagine the gruesome scenes that the spectators witnessed 2000 years before. You begin to feel uneasy. Yet you want to find out more.










You descend similar red brick steps below the ground. Now its almost dark. There are occasional square holes in the roof above you that allow natural light to enter.There's grooves in the walls that maybe held flaming torches. A well built water channel runs along the floor. The passages extend outwards, well beyond the perimeter of the amphitheatre. To where? The cages that held the half-starved wild animals? To the Ludus,  the gladiator school?

Suddenly you are startled. You come across a small door leading out onto the arena. Then a larger door, one larger enough for wild animals. Even now, 2000 years on, this place has the power to shock. I have never before experienced what it is to be caught in a deadly trap. These walls still seem to contain the sheer terror felt by both men and animals.Who could possibly escape?








And yet 70 gladiators did! In 73BC they seized kitchen tools and fought their way out of the place, with several wagons of gladiatorial weapons and armour.