The Roman
city of Itálica was founded in the year 206 B.C. on the initiative of Publius
Cornelius Scipio, known as “the African”. Under the Emperor Augustus, Itálica
became a town and was granted the privilege of minting its own money. It is the
birthplace of the emperors Trajan and Hadrian. Italica was the birthplace of
the Roman emperor Trajan. Hadrian was generous to his settled town, which he
made a colonia; he added temples, including a Trajaneum
venerating Trajan, and rebuilt public buildings. Italica’s amphitheater seated
25,000 spectators—half as many as the Flavian
Amphitheatre in
Rome— and was the third largest in the Roman Empire. The city's Roman
population at the time is estimated to have been only 8000. The games and
theatrical performances funded by the local aristocracy, who filled the
positions of magistrate, were a means of establishing status: the size of the
amphitheater shows that the local elite was maintaining status that extended
far beyond Italica itself.
