The Roman Theater at Carthage

Even when it was discovered in 1904, the Carthage theater was not well preserved; nor has time dealt kindly with the exposed remains. In spite of two excavations, many aspects of the building's plan, elevation, and history have remained unclear. This article draws on a variety of evidence, including the preserved remains, plans from both excavations, early photographs, comparisons with other theaters, and Vitruvius's rules for theater planning. The results include an improved understanding of the theater's substructures, a restored plan of the building, and the identification of a number of the marble architectural elements from the colonnades of the scaenae frons. The evidence suggests a date for the construction of the extant theater around the middle of the second century A. D. For a theater of this date, its plan is surprisingly Vitruvian. This fact, together with a variety of other indirect evidence, suggests that Carthage might have possessed a theater as early as the time of Augustus. The stage of the extant theater was richly decorated with sculpture. It is here proposed that the colossal statues of Apollo and Hercules, which stood above two of the three doors of the scaenae frons, were erected in connection with the instigation of the Pythian Games at Carthage in the early third century A. D.