Theatre of Marcellus site features

The two surviving tiers

Doric below, Ionic above, in travertine, curving away on both sides. These are the parts that survive because somebody kept using them.

The Orsini palace

The sixteenth-century residence by Baldassare Peruzzi, built on top of the ancient structure for the Orsini. Its upper floors are private apartments, which is the reason the whole monument is exterior-only.

The Temple of Apollo Sosianus

Three standing Corinthian columns with their entablature, immediately beside the theatre. They are not part of it and are frequently photographed as though they were.

The excavated level

The archaeological area cleared in the 1930s, several metres below the modern road, where the bases of the arches can be reached on foot. This is the open, free part.

The numbers nobody agrees on

The Sovrintendenza: diameter 130 m, capacity 15,000 and up to 20,000. Wikipedia: diameter 111 m, with a fourth-century catalogue recording 17,580 and an original range of 11,000-20,000.