The Complex of the Theater Dedicated to Marcellus

Augustus, even before becoming the first Roman emperor always desired to have male heirs. However, although at the end of the civil war became the richest and most famous Roman, he was unlucky in this regards. He tried to favor his male relatives and he tried to built a theater dedicated to his newphew Marcus Marcellus and a library dedicated to his sister Octavia. Because this theater was so close to the docks of the Tiber River, it needed to be built with a big Scaenae Frons and a higher podium to avoid periodical floods from the main river of Rome. The theater of Marcellus was one of the three main theatrical complexes built in ancient Rome, and it was the second to be built after the theater of Pompey the Great. It could accommodate 20.000 spectators and had three orders of arches like the Colosseum. Without a doubt when the Colosseum was built, Roman engineers studied it thoroughly and took inspiration from this Augustan monument. Still today may people get confused and think that the Theater of Marcellus is indeed the Colosseum. However, at a closer look, as the picture reveals, the last floor of the theater is missing because in the middle ages the wealthy family of the Savelli built its residence on top of it, reusing the same travertine blocks that belonged to the third order of arches.