The amphitheaters in Roman cities. Urbanistic correspondence during the Augustan age in some Italian contexts

The amphitheatre is one of the most dynamic reality of the Roman cities. In Italy first amphitheatres were built about the I century B.C.; today archaeological remains allow to count circa sixty amphitheatres between the Augustan Age and the first half of the I century A.D.. All Italian cities are invested by a process of renovatio urbis, wanted by the princeps. Thanks to this new urban-planning, a very high number of public areas became spaces for public utilities, especially dedicated to an important aspect of Roman daily life: “free time”. From the architectural point of view, the monumental expression of Roman “free time” are: thermae, theatrum, amphiteatrum. Specifically, the amphitheatre appears as macrocosm for entertainment inside the greater macrocosm represented by the city; the amphitheatre in fact can hold for itself thousand people and include many spaces for public utilities. The purpose of this study is to explain how far this huge typology of ‘free time’ architecture has modified the urban-topography, in order to highlight their position, inside or outside the city wall, paying attention to the connection between city, amphitheatre and main urbanistic roads system. In many cases in fact, beside the renovatio of a consular road corresponds the construction of an amphitheatre in a peripheral or suburban city area.