Cyrene (Shahat)

CYRENE (Shahat), ancient Cyrenaica, modern Libya.

COORDINATES: 32º49’12.59’’N // 21º51’26.20’’E

TIPOLOGY: Roman theatre. Urban. Called “Market theatre” or “Theatre of Suk”.
DATE: Last quarter of IV A.D. It is one of the five theatres or odeons that there are in Cyrene.
TRANSFORMATIONS: The theatre was transformed in kolymbethra in V a.D., for aquatic games.
CAPACITY:
CAVEA: Facing North. 40 m. diameter. Built against slope. Irregular semi-circle.  Maenianum: Ima cavea with 6 rows of seat in 5 cunei; Summa cavea with 7 rows in 5 cunei. There were  not aditus maximi but lateral passageways. Before the theatre was built there was a religious complex in the area built in II A.D., in fact a small temple dedicated to Asklepiusand Hygeia, destroyed by an earthquake in 365 A.D.
ORCHESTRA: 15,5 m. diameter, surrounded by a podium.
STAGE BUILDING: Proscaenium was built with reused II A.D. stones. Scaenae frons was rectilinear with three doors.
LOCATION: “Market theatre” is north of Agora, in the central quarter, close to the road that runs between the north hill and south hill.

MY BEDSIDE TABLE: Sear, Frank; “Roman theatres: an architectural study”. Oxford University Press, 2006. // Ciancio Rossetto, Paola; Giuseppina Pisani Sartorio (eds); “Teatri Greci e Romani: alle origini del linguaggio rappresentato”. Rome: SEAT, 1995.// Di Vita, Antonio; Di Vita-Evrard, Ginette; Bacchielli, Lidiano; “Libia antigua”. Barcelona, Könemann, 1999. // Dal Bosco, Oriana; Grassi, Maria Teresa; “Mediterranean and Roman Libya”. Firenze, Polaris, 2005. // Goodchild, Richard; “Cyrene and Apollonia. An historical guide”. Tripoli, Dar-Al Fergiani, 1993.

OUT OF PRINT: There are ancient cities that had more than one ancient theatre; for example in Jerash, in Joedan, there are three, or in Gortyn -Creta, Greece- there are four. The ancient that preserves more ancient theatres is Cyrene, in modern Lybia, it has remains of five ancient theatres, some of them well preserved; we talk about five, but we could consider six if we consider the ancient Greek theater of Apollonia, in fact Cyrene´s port, 14 klm. nort-east from the city –see the my information about Apollonia in the blog-. It was a long day to discover ancient Cyrene... not only for the number of ancient theatres, each of the diferent, but for all that ancient Greek and Roman city was.