 Bill Thayer   [Link to a series of help pages] [Link to the
next level up] [Link to my homepage]  The Vanishing Amphitheater
In a nutshell: a large Roman amphitheatre has essentially
disappeared, I've heard it said that the lost stone is accounted
for by the construction of a nearby church a tenth its size
built 600 years later, and I don't believe it. It's true that
the church is only 100m away. . . .  As a first step, one might
calculate the volume of stone used in the amphitheatre of
Hispellum, subtract the stone still in situ, and compare the
result with the volume of stone used in S. Claudio; but since so
little of the Roman building is left and nowhere do we still
have the top of it, the numbers could be juggled to support
almost any idea.  Visual inspection might be simpler and more
effective. The amphitheatre is built of opus caementicium
(rubble and mortar) clad with a facing of courses of squared
stone.  If the rubble was used in S. Claudio, it would have to
be inside the walls there, too — but it