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Founded: c. 200 ADCategory: Prehistoric and archaeological sites in Germany
Historical period: Germanic Tribes (Germany)
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In the neighborhood of the fort of Rainau-Buch, the remains of several other Roman buildings are visible. For instance, there is the ruin of a monumental gate in the limes wall near the modern village of Rainau-Dalkingen, about a kilometer north of the fort. Originally, it was a wooden construction, but it was rebuilt several times.
In the final phase, at the beginning of the third century, it must have had a façade like the stage of a theater, with rather plumb columns. In the upper part of the gate, there must have been a bronze statue of an emperor, perhaps Caracalla, who defeated the Germanic tribe of the Alamans in 213, and may have started his campaign from Dalkingen. Twenty years later, the Alamans stroke back, and the gate was burned down.
References:Built around AD 90 to entertain the legionaries stationed at the fort of Caerleon (Isca), the impressive amphitheatre was the Roman equivalent of today’s multiplex cinema. Wooden benches provided seating for up to 6,000 spectators, who would gather to watch bloodthirsty displays featuring gladiatorial combat and exotic wild animals.
Long after the Romans left, the amphitheatre took on a new life in Arthurian legend. Geoffrey of Monmouth, the somewhat imaginative 12th-century scholar, wrote in his History of the Kings of Britain that Arthur was crowned in Caerleon and that the ruined amphitheatre was actually the remains of King Arthur’s Round Table.
Today it is the most complete Roman amphitheatre in Britain.