The Pompeii Amphitheatre, built around 70 BC — more than a century before the Colosseum.
It started as a game.
It didn’t stay one.
I stepped into the silent Pompeii Amphitheatre through a long tunnel, white gravel crunching under my shoes.
A few minutes earlier I had hurried across wet cobblestone streets, slipping past my tour group to see the place where Pink Floyd played to silent stone and two local boys during the filming of Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii in 1971.
Standing in the center of the arena, I bent down and picked up a handful of gravel.
It was easy to imagine time rewinding.
Past Pink Floyd.
Past the tourists.
Back to a long afternoon in 59 AD, when a gladiator contest in this gray stone arena turned into one of the most violent stadium riots in the Roman world.
The people of Pompeii built this amphitheater around 70 BC, making it more than a century older than the Colosseum.
Nearly twenty thousand spectators once packed these stone tiers—more people than lived in Pompeii itself.
Th…
