Roman Theatre of Volterra site features

The site sits in a hollow on the northern slope of Volterra's hill, just outside the Etruscan wall — close enough to the town to be reached in minutes, far enough down that the whole complex lies below you.

Start on the walls above, because the summa cavea corresponded roughly to the line of the medieval wall. From there the plan is laid out whole: the semicircular curve of the cavea resting against the hill, its lateral extremities ending on virgin rock; the orchestra; and the line of the stage building beyond.

The seating is local limestone — the tufo di Pignano — and this is the detail to look for: the names of representatives of the most influential families of Roman Volterra are still incised in it, the Caecinae, the Persii and the Laelii. Only some of the radial stairways, made of stone from Montecatini Val di Cecina, survive.

Behind the orchestra stood the scaenae frons, and its figures are worth holding in mind as you look at the standing columns: 35.98 metres long — 122 Roman feet — of two colonnaded storeys rising over 16 metres. Access to the auditorium was from the upper part of the building, not from below.

The scale was modest by imperial standards and generous for the town: about 3,500 spectators, a cavea 60 metres in diameter with 24 tiers, comparable to the theatres of Trieste, Djemila and Dougga. Traces survive of the structure that supported a velarium, a cloth on ropes covering the whole theatre.

Behind the stage, in the porticus post scaenam, are the remains of a later bath complex — and the baths that originally stood opposite the theatre, at the locality of Ortino, are the structures the site's water conduits actually served.

• The view from the walls above — the summa cavea runs roughly along the line of the medieval wall, so the entire plan reads from outside and from above, for nothing.
• The incised names in the seating — the local tufo di Pignano still carries the names of the leading families of Roman Volterra: the Caecinae, the Persii and the Laelii.
• The cavea cut into the slope — partly excavated from the natural hillside in analogy with Greek theatres, resting on the slope with its lateral ends on virgin rock.
• The scaenae frons — 35.98 metres long, 122 Roman feet, of two colonnaded storeys over 16 metres high.
• The scale — about 3,500 spectators, a cavea 60 metres across with 24 tiers, comparable to Trieste, Djemila and Dougga.
• The velarium traces — remains of the structure that supported a cloth, carried on ropes, covering the entire theatre.
• The radial stairways — partly preserved, in stone from Montecatini Val di Cecina.
• The baths in the porticus post scaenam — inserted between the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 4th century AD, inside a portico that had itself been added in the Claudian age with heavy infills and terracings.
• The dedicatory epigraph — not on site: it is in the Museo Etrusco Guarnacci, and records that the Caecina family, two consulars among them, paid for the building.