ABSTRACT

Those who are interested in the various spectacles offered by Roman civilization will soon turn their attention to the many buildings of the Empire that have hosted them: circuses, theaters, odeons, and of course amphitheaters. Is not the Colosseum often presented as the symbol of Roman civilization? The same approach applied to Etruria would prove a priori very disappointing since we know of virtually no permanent Etruscan performance structures, with the exception of the theater of Castelsecco in Arezzo, but by then we are in the Hellenistic period, with “Romanization” in full swing, and the elliptical building at Cerveteri, the purpose of which is at best ambiguous (Camporeale 2004: 165, 337). Does this mean that Etruria was not a society of the spectacle, in contrast to Roman civilization? Obviously not: the chronological question is the key here, indeed prior to the first century bce in Rome itself one could not cite many stone theatral structures: by contrast, places of entertainment constructed in perishable materials, wood especially, were numerous, in Etruria as well as in Rome.