The Theater of Balbus was the third and smallest permanent stone theater built in ancient Rome. Located in the Campus Martius, it stood a short distance southeast of the Theater of Pompey, near the Porticus Minucia Frumentaria and the Temple of the Nymphs, traces of which can still be seen today.
The theater was commissioned by Lucius Cornelius Balbus the Younger, who served as consul in 32 BCE. Financed with the spoils of his victory over the Garamantes in 19 BCE, the building was dedicated in 13 BCE. According to the Regionary Catalogues, it could accommodate approximately 11,500 spectators. Balbus was also the last private citizen, rather than a member of the imperial family, to celebrate a Roman triumph.
The cavea (seating area) had a radius of roughly 30–31 meters, giving the theater an overall diameter of about 90 meters. This made it around 60 meters smaller than the Theater of Pompey and about 40 meters smaller than the Theater of Marcellus.
Ancient sources record an unusual event during the dedication ceremony. The Tiber River flooded, leaving the theater accessible only by boat. The building later suffered damage in the great fire of 80 CE before being restored during the reign of Domitian.
Very little of the theater survives above ground today. Archaeological remains lie beneath the Palazzo Mattei di Paganica, Palazzo Caetani, and a building on Via Paganica.
Attached to the theater was the Crypta Balbi, a large square courtyard enclosed by a portico and featuring a semicircular exedra on its eastern side. During the reign of Hadrian, the 22-meter-wide exedra was converted into a public latrine. Today, substantial remains of this complex can be visited at the Crypta Balbi Museum, part of the Museo Nazionale Romano. Most of the archaeological remains are visible within the museum’s courtyard, while others are preserved beneath and inside the museum building.
The site continued to evolve long after antiquity. During the Middle Ages, the portico became a workspace for rope makers. Visitors to the Crypta Balbi Museum can still see evidence of these later occupations, including lime kilns, a millstone, and the laundry facilities associated with the nearby church of Santa Caterina dei Funari, whose name recalls the neighborhood’s historic rope-making industry.
Some archaeologists have proposed that three rooms on the southern side of the complex were converted into a Mithraeum during the mid-second century CE. Amanda Claridge discusses this interpretation, although it is not universally accepted.
Scholars have also suggested that a Temple of Vulcan once stood at the center of the Crypta Balbi complex. Supporting this possibility is a funerary inscription belonging to Lucius Aufidius Aprilis and his wife, discovered outside the Porta del Popolo. The inscription identifies Lucius as a corinthiarius de Teatro Balbi, a specialist metalworker associated with the Theater of Balbus. Because Vulcan was the Roman god of fire and craftsmanship, some historians have proposed that the presence of metalworkers nearby reflects the location of a sanctuary dedicated to the god. While the evidence is suggestive rather than conclusive, it may also help explain why later craft industries, including rope making and lime burning, became established within the complex.
Bibliography:
Claridge, Amanda. Rome: An Oxford Archaeological Guide. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 2010.
Coarelli, Filippo. Rome and Environs: An Archaeological Guide. University of California Press, 2014.
Gallia, Andrew B. “Theatrum: Balbus.” Digital Augustan Rome. https://www.digitalaugustanrome.org/records/theatrum-balbus/
Richardson, Lawrence. A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.
THEATRUM BALBI, a stone theatre built by L. Cornelius Balbus the younger (RE iv. 1270), and dedicated in 13 B.C. (Cass. Dio liv. 25; Suet. Aug. 29). It was injured by fire during the reign of Titus (Cass. Dio lxvi. 24) and restored, probably by Domitian: Ausonius speaks of it as still in use (Lud. septem sap. 40), and it is mentioned in Not. (Reg. IX).
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It had 11510o loca, or room for about 7700 spectators (BC 1894, 320). Four small columns of onyx, set up by Balbus in his theatre, were regarded at that time as very wonderful (Plin. NH xxxvi. 60). The location of this building near the Tiber, directly north of the upper end of the island, is indicated by the slight elevation known in the Middle Ages as the Monte dei Cenci. It occupied part at least of the ground covered by the Palazzo Cenci, the buildings between it and the Via Arenula, and the Piazza Cenci. The curve of the cavea was nearly tangent to the Via Arenula, and its main axis ran northwest-southeast. The theatre is marked on two fragments of the Marble Plan (FUR fig. 29; BC 1899, pl. i. No. 23; Atti del Congresso storico i. I 7 ; HJ 519-521).
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