This weekend I checked out ancient Capua (Santa Maria Capua Vetere). If Capua sounds familiar maybe it's because you recall a certain gladiator named Spartacus. Spartacus trained as a gladiator in the ancient Capua. Lots of gladiators did actually as it was the training grounds. As a community with a love hate relationship with Rome, its loyalty to the Empire faltered over the years, especially during war time. At one point, Capua severed winter holding grounds for Hannibal during his attack on Rome. In its time, Capua was a big deal! It was the second most important city in Italy (second to Rome) due to the number of soldiers it produced for war time campaigns. The Appian Way (Via Appia) which was the main road to Rome cuts right through the city.
Unfortunately I had no time to put together a gladiator outfit together for our visit to the ancient gladiator training grounds. (You better believe this will not be a mistake made twice!) What remains now of the anfiteatro built in the time of Augustus is still impressive. The once 4 story structure could hold 60,000 spectators. The current structure was built between the 1st and 2nd century AD, most likely over the existing type of structure. And even better? Unlike the coloseo in Rome, you can wander through the passages below! And this isn't a tiny structure either, it's the next largest one to it's famous Roman relative.
Of course we didn't realize this as first and as we stood on the floor of the area, thinking about the deaths that took place under our feet we realized there were a ton of passages below. "I want to go there! And hey, since this is Italy there has got to be a way." As we wandered through the arena I spotted stairs going down into darkness so naturally I took them. At the bottom of the stairs a metal gate blocked the doorway, however several of the bars had been moved bent so that you could easily pass through. Alright, maybe not so easily, but I had my 'sploring jacket on so it had to be done.
Once through the fence, we found ourselves in a land of columns, neatly arranged between channels (mini moats). Green moss grew under the filtered sunshine streaming in and the air smelled like moist dirt. Shortly after being an "alley" of columns I realized we were on a set of a horror film so scurried back over to the others and we vowed to stay in a pack. It made the demon possessed coos from a pigeon a few minutes later way less frightening...once we realized what was making that terrible sound. The different sections are still a mystery as what they were really used for, but in my mind they were small rooms for animals and the gladiators. We passed column after column and finally realized that we had 2 options to get back up to the ground level. As in a much more visitor friendly way to tour the underground passages. See? Totally "legal" touring method and we had more fun taking the path less traveled!
Next time, there has to be a next time so I need to show up with my triton and net, come visit with us and we can re-create Spartacus' Rebellion!
