Il Teatro romano di Sessa Aurunca, brought to light and restored between 1999 and 2003, is one of the most imposing Roman-era public buildings discovered so far in Campania. Built under the empire of Augustus, in the 1st century AD, it was restructured and expanded in the 2nd century AD, under Antoninus Pius. Due to the grandeur of the remains and the preciousness of the artifacts found, it is tangible evidence of the power and interest of Rome in Campania and specifically Suessa. The building with walls preserved up to 20.00 meters in height, includes a cavea of 110 meters in diameter, excavated into the hill and partly set on galleries, with three tiers of limestone seating that could host from 7000 to 10000 spectators. Also substantial are the remains of the structure that supported the velarium, used to protect spectators from the sun, and the large stage building, 40.00 meters long and originally 24.00 meters high, equipped with three superimposed orders of 84 columns. The stage constituted a true open-air museum where Roman artists and stonemasons used many types of marble to create architectural decorations, consisting of friezes, architraves, and capitals. The columns were made with five different types of colored marbles, coming from the Greek islands, Numidia, and Egypt, while the architraves and capitals were carved in white marble from Carrara and Athens. An extraordinary series of finds also consists of dedicatory and commemorative inscriptions, as well as numerous fragments of sculptures that decorated the theater, belonging to the gallery where members of the imperial house were celebrated, such as the emperors Trajan and Hadrian, and their respective wives Plotina and Sabina; the colossal statues of Livia and Agrippina Major. From the sacellum in summa cavea also come the sculptures of Matidia Major, Sabina, Plotina, and Matidia Minor. Behind the stage building developed the porticus pone scaenam, for spectators to rest during intervals of performances. On its sides rose two basilica-plan halls, the southern one frescoed and equipped with a nymphaeum, the northern one with a crypt and connected to the suburban road network, near the entrance of which is a sacellum with fresco of the Genius loci. Adjoined to it was built in the 3rd century AD a latrine with tessellated floor and marble-covered walls. A short distance from the theater on the terrace to the west of the ancient city, near the Forum, stands the cryptoporticus, a building probably for public use that overlooked a paved open area in opus spicatum, where it is hypothesized a sacellum once stood. This monument, probably used for public purposes, with its construction characteristics appears to date back to the Sullan or late Sullan period. The cryptoporticus is articulated in three arms, divided into two naves separated by rows of pillars and covered by barrel vaults, illuminated by slanting windows. The walls preserve white stucco cladding with relief architectural moldings, attributable to the first decades of the 1st century AD, on which interesting graffiti with names of poets and Virgilian verses are engraved, suggesting also a use of the building as a school. Also near the theater, in the area of the current Porta Cappuccini, a large suburban residential villa has recently been discovered and explored, perhaps belonging to Matidia, equipped with a pars rustica with a torcularium for wine production, and a pars urbana, with residential rooms. Built in opus incertum in the 2nd century BC, restructured in opus reticulatum between the 1st century BC and the 1st AD, it was further refurbished in the 2nd century AD before abandonment.
Information on the Roman Theatre and Cryptoporticus of Sessa Aurunca
Via Aldo Moro
81037 Sessa Aurunca (Caserta)
0823.936455 (Archaeological Office of Sessa Aurunca); 0823.972130 (Archaeological Office Mondragone)
sar-cam.mondragone@beniculturali.it
Source: MIBACT
