ABSTRACT
The arena is a place of action, spectacular displays and dazzling exhibitions in which human courage, breath-taking feats, pain, disappointments and loss, as well as the glory and excitement of victory, are disclosed to and experienced by the audience. This chapter examines publicity as a spectacle of political performance. It explores the political arena in ancient Athens and imperial Rome to establish a critical perspective on the theatrical artifice of political publicity and rhetoric in modern democratic forums. The ancient arenas are revealed as authentic sites of competition, persuasion and spectator participation in matters of life and death, whether in the precarious existence of the Athenian city-state or the Colosseum's bloody spectacle. he arena, as a site of combat, has never been more vividly displayed than in the Colosseum of Rome. The public spectacle of actual competition, at least in representative democracies, is today the exclusive domain of modern sporting arenas.
