Cirencester Amphitheatre was a Roman amphitheatre in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England. Its remains are scheduled as an ancient monument.
Archaeological digs have uncovered the earthworks, revealing the outline of the construction, which is still visible, with the banking reaching 25 feet from the bottom of the arena. The arena itself is approximately 150 feet (46 m) by 135 feet (41 m). Roman artefacts including coins and pottery have been discovered on the site. It is estimated that it was constructed towards the beginning of the 2nd century.
In Roman Britain, Cirencester was known as Corinium Dobunnorum, and was the second biggest town in Britannia, after Londinium (London). This amphitheatre is also the second largest, which indicates the significance of the location in Roman times. Although only slightly larger in diameter than the amphitheatre in Silchester, it has much higher sides. The earthworks show evidence of tiered wooden seats for around 8,000 people, placed upon terraces made of stone, although a timber-only structure may have existed before the 2nd century. There are two entrances, at the north-east and south-west ends of the stadium.
During the 5th century, when the Western Roman Empire was under attack and soldiers returned to Rome to defend it, the amphitheatre was fortified to defend against the invading Saxons. Wooden structures were erected within the arena, placed in postholes, and the north-east entrance was partly blocked.
Unlike other amphitheatres, it is aligned in parallel to the streets of the town.
It has taken a long time for the real purpose of the earthworks to be identified, as the mounds were not clearly Roman, and the location amongst other quarried areas confused the situation for antiquarians. The site has been referred to as the 'Bull Ring', and a reason often given for this is the idea that the sport of bull-baiting used to take place there. The name, and the association with bull-baiting goes back to at least 1780 (noted by Samuel Rudder), but just as often thought unlikely, e.g. by Rev John Skinner who thought it derived from bul, a term he suggested meant an agger or bank to defend a ford. With or without the possibility of bull baiting, it was not until 1800 that its identity as a Roman amphitheatre was suggested, when Rudder made a more detailed study of the site. In 1824 Skinner made the first archaeological investigation, but found little evidence of stone seating or high quality workmanship. He did however identify the nearby Roman quarry and 'Romanized British Cemetery', for which subsequent excavation has given ample evidence.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Cirencester Amphitheatre was a Roman amphitheatre in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a amphitheatre site from the Roman period in Britain.
Sapperton and Cirencester amphitheatre is classified as a Roman amphitheatre — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Korinion/Cironium (0.1 km), Corinium Roman town (0.3 km), Tar Barrows: the earthwork and buried remains of two prehistoric or Roman round barrows and the buried remains of a Romano-British or earlier funerary and ritual site (1.6 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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