ROMANS didn’t just send people to gruesome deaths in their gladiatorial amphitheatres, they could hear every last scream, too. The acoustics of Greek and Roman amphitheatres, it seems, improved with every new design.
The open-air theatres of ancient Greece around 1500 BC were simple rectangular or trapezoidal arenas surrounded by wood or stone seating on the same level. By 500 BC, the semicircular amphitheatre began to take shape, with concentric rows of marble seats often raised on a low slope. Later, the Romans raised the stage, walled it at the back and made the seats very highly tiered.
But were…
