Exploring Capua, where gladiator Spartacus trained

Hey this is Darius for Ancient Rome Live. We're traveling along the Via Appia Antica and in this episode we'll be exploring the city of Capua, famous for Spartacus, famous for the amphitheater and of course the Via Appia passed right through it. So subscribe to our channel so that you can hit every single episode on this epic adventure. We're going all the way to Brindisi. The Via Appia still exists as the SS7. Cars still drive along it. They're driving right along the Via Appia going through this monumental brick face arch celebrating your arrival into the great city of Capua. Now Capua is a great city that's going to be overtaken by the Romans in the Samnite Wars. Capua is a city that's going to have gladiatorial schools and one of the most famous protagonists in Roman history is a slave that's in the gladiator schools here. His name was Spartacus. He leads an incredible revolt, the slave revolt of the republican period and as a result he and his fellow revolters ultimately will be crucified and they line the Via Appia from Capua to Rome. Capua originated as an Etruscan town around 600 BC and its name meant city of marshes. It then became a Samnite city by 424 and a Roman ally in 343 during the Samnite Wars. But after the second war its lands were confiscated by Rome. In 312 its location on the Via Appia route made it even more important and during the second Punic War at the beginning it was one of the strongest cities in Italy, a rich and powerful autonomous city that gave lots of soldiers to Rome. But later it defected to Hannibal and afterwards the city was taken by Rome in 211, the magistrates killed and the city became part of the Agrippublicus of Rome. But it did continue to flourish always with its grain, spelt and the manufacture of bronze goods and of course its gladiatorial games. One of the key areas where we think that the games developed in the first place was here and it probably exerted a great influence on the gladiatorial games in Rome itself. But the revolt of Spartacus was a real shock to Rome. From 73 to 71 the war was waged in southern Italy. But throughout its history Capua remained a city of proverbial luxury, one of the major cities of Italy. Julius Caesar in 59 BC created a Roman colony here settling 20,000 Roman citizens and more citizens were added by Mark Antony and then Augustus. Today the remains of a small amphitheater, maybe the oldest in Italy where Spartacus once fought, is visible next to the more impressive remains of the imperial amphitheater which we can explore today. So we have here in this patch of grass a whole series of curved walls that would have formed an elliptical shape of an amphitheater, the first amphitheater here in Capua, the famous one where Spartacus was training and broke out from. Ultimately that amphitheater is replaced, new and improved, by this Hadrianic monster which is really an amazingly well-preserved site particularly at Hippogeum and was one of the largest amphitheaters in the Roman world but again in the shadow of Spartacus. It was built probably by Augustus and further enhanced and expanded by Hadrian, measuring 167 by 137 meters, one of the largest amphitheaters in the Roman world. It is a magnificent structure whose marble decorations and underground rooms for gladiators and animals are beautifully preserved. This incredible amphitheater, you can see the complexities of the Hippogeum below, was very close in its original preserved form to the scale and size of the Colosseum in Rome. Capua was one of the greatest amphitheaters in the ancient Roman world and the stellar feature today, it's not the preservation up on top, it's the preservation down below the subterranean levels, the Hippogeum, and you see here something that is extraordinary because it was so well preserved being buried and forgotten for such a long time. But unlike the Colosseum which is really mish-mashed and reused and cut and transformed over centuries, this was built at one time so really well and you feel like literally it was constructed yesterday. The local museum contains a wide variety of marble decoration from the amphitheater that attests to its prominence. The inscription dates the amphitheater to Hadrian and the marble balustrades for the sections of Capua's prominent citizens are carved into various animals and the dividing walls for seating were carved with dynamic mythological scenes. Caledonian boar hunt, the punishment of Marcius, the labors of Hercules, and more. Each outer archway was marked by the head of a deity. In contrast, the arcades of the Colosseum were marked with individual Roman numerals. Such were the incredible decorations of the amphitheater of Capua along the Via Appia. Thanks for joining us on Ancient Rome Live. You can find a lot more content on our website ancientromelive.org and of course you can also donate so that we can make more fantastic content. We're so excited about Ancient Rome and Empire and all that has been left behind throughout the Mediterranean. Let us know in the comments what you'd like us to make next.