Anfiteatro Romano di Larino

The amphitheater of Larino, located in the area of Piana S. Leonardo, the ancient Larinum, is certainly the testimony of the importance of the city in the historical period considered: built most likely between 70 and 150 AD, it was built thanks to the generosity of a rich and wealthy senator of the town, as attested by the stone inscription on one of the doors.
Cicero reports (Pro Cluentio, IX, 27) that in Larino, long before having a permanent amphitheater, public games and shows (ludi) were habitually practiced in the city. It is likely that, as was also the case in Rome, they used mobile wooden structures or were used, as was the case in Sepino, the spaces of the Forum.
Designed to be inserted in the urban context, at that time already well defined, the amphitheater was built in a marginal area, already occupied by a slope that sloped to the west, on the outskirts of the Hellenistic and Roman city. In order to build it, it was necessary to excavate the southern part of the town, sacrificing the buildings and roads that already occupied the area. Several archaeological evidences (three short stretches of dry-stone masonry, two residues of herringbone cobblestones), well before its construction, because they date back to the period VI - III century B.C., have confirmed the use of the area in an age preceding the construction of the amphitheatre. The only remains of the previous settlement, razed to the ground during the construction of the cavea. In the area of the amphitheater were also found several graves because most likely the same area was used as a necropolis. Very interesting is instead its construction in the space, said to mixed structure: a part of the amphitheater is built in elevation with respect to the street level, the other part instead was built about six meters deep.
The amphitheater has an elliptical base, with four main entrances and twelve secondary doors, which allowed access to the tiers. It was a theater of medium size - it could contain, in fact, about 15,000 spectators - and was intended primarily for gladiatorial combat and hunting shows. To be remembered, finally, as in the Middle Ages the area of the amphitheatre was used for burials; recently some tombs dating back to this period have been found, accompanied by interesting kits.