Arena
Arena
1. Sand.
The composition of Roman mortar and cement is described under STRUCTURA: we here notice the different kinds of sand employed,--a subject to which Vitruvius has devoted a chapter (2.4). He reckons four kinds of pit sand (fossilis), besides sea and river sand; the black (nigra), the white (cana), the red (rubra), and the volcanic (carbunculus: cf. Varr. L. L. 1.9, 2). Pliny recognises only the distinctions of sea, river, and pit sand, not those of colours (H. N. 36. § § 54, 55). In another chapter (2.6) Vitruvius describes the pulvis Puteolanus, or volcanic sand of the neighbourhood of Vesuvius, as a different material, unaware that it is substantially identical with that of the Roman Campagna. The modern name pozzolana is applied indifferently to both.
2. Amphitheatre
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.