This is what is believed to be the history of the Amphitheatre PRIOR to the current project.
We used to believe that the amphitheatre was built in the 70s AD, by Legion II Adiutrix. However, the excavations carried out since 2000 have revealed another building underneath the east entrance - this means that there was a Roman building here before the amphitheatre. We don’t yet know what it was, as so little of it has been found. So the amphitheatre may have been built later than the 70s - but still in the first century.
There are two theories about the way the amphitheatre was built. One is that it was constructed completely from timber, and some time later rebuilt in stone. The other says that the amphitheatre was made form a mixture of wood and stone, with timberwork staging to support the front rows of seats. We hope to discover which of these theories is true.
Some time before the middle of the second century, the amphitheatre stopped being used. So it may only have been in service for 20 or 30 years. The arena became a rubbish dump and the building slowly fell into disrepair.
It was brought back into use some time after the 270s, but only for a short time. The staircases up to the seats were repaired, a new surface was laid in the arena and the east entrance was drastically remodelled. Our current theory is that the amphitheatre was brought back in to use for a very special reason. In 287 the province of Britain revolted from the Roman Empire, and was not reconquered until 296/7. We know that one of the British legions was a strong supporter of the rebel governor, Marcus Aurelius Carausius. What if that legion was XX Valeria Victrix? The amphitheatre could have been remodelled by the victorious government forces as a place of execution for the ringleaders, with the remainder of the disgraced legion - and perhaps local dignitaries - forced to watch.
The refurbished amphitheatre had fallen into decay again by the beginning of the fourth century and the site began to be used for other purposes. Two lean-to buildings against the arena wall were found during the 1960s, and postholes found in the middle of the arena could be the remains of a sub-Roman hall building.
A feature of the eastern entrance of the amphitheatre are some very large sandstone blocks, together with the remains of steps on the south side. The masonry is unlike any other Roman work in Chester, and the wear on the steps implies centuries of use. One suggestion is that the old entrance passage was converted in the Dark Ages into a crypt for an early version of St John's church.
By about 1200, people were living on the site, perhaps in the dilapidated shell of the Roman building. The area was cleared during the Civil War siege of Chester in the 1640s, and later the site was dominated by two large Georgian houses, built in the 1730s. One was St John’s House, which was demolished so that the northern half of the amphitheatre could be excavated; the other is Dee House, which still stands over part of the southern half.
Back to History