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Soluntum (modern Soluto, Sicily, Italy). Cavea width: 40 m, 22 rows in 7 cuni; capacity: 1,500 to1,800; orchestra width: 14 m; skene base: 21.6 x 2.2 m; ca. mid 4th century BCE; renovations100 years later; abandoned and built over by 1st century BCE.
The partially exposed ruins of Soluntum’s small Hellenistic-Roman theatre are located 20 kilometers southeast of Parlermo on the coast of Sicily. The archaeological site is located high above the modern city of Solunto, Italy on the southeastern foothills of Mount Catalfano. The archaeological remains that have survived to this day are related to the 4th century BCE, Hellenistic-Roman city, which replaced the Phoenician settlement that dates back at least to the 7th century BCE. The Punic name of the town was simply Kapara, meaning "Village". The Greek name appears in surviving coins as Solontînos but appears variously in other sources as Solóeis, Soloûs, and Solountînos.
“The theatre is situated in the natural slope of the hill. While the central pan of the cavea (koilon) was excavated in the rock, the two wings and in particular the northern one probably had high substructures. The analemma. the external wall of the cavea has the shape or a precise polygon with 13 sides, obtained by the division of a circle in 24 segments. This method for the plan definition reminds Vitruvio's theory about the building of the Greek theatre, developed in his famous architectural treatise dedicated to Emperor Augustus. The semicircular-shaped cavea had about 22 rows of seats, 38 cm high. The cavea was divided into seven cunei by six small radiating stairways and two stairways along the side walls, the paradoi. In this way the cavea provided 1,500-1,800 seats for the audience. The circular orchestra. whose diameter was 10 m. has two building phases: the first and lower one and the second one was at a higher level and built with a thick "cocciopesto” (Roman building material made from tiles broken up into very small pieces, mixed with mortar, and then beaten down with a rammer). The stage was separated from fire caves by two corridors, the paradoi. Only the base of 21.6 x 2.20 m of the skene remains with the proskenion symmetrically enclosed by the two wings of the paraskenia. From the graphic rebuilding it is possible to understand that it was a building with two floors and with two architectonic orders: the lower level was Doric and the upper level was Ionic. The building was on a base as high as the logeion, the floor of the stage. The skene, opening onto the legeion with the traditional three doors and was flanked by two protruding paraskenia, so making a “u” plan that limited the area of the stage. This peculiar arrangement, well-known elsewhere and mostly in Athens and Syracuse, is here realized with particular care, because the short walls of the paraskenia do not create right but lightly blunt edges with more optical and acoustic effects for the audience sitting in the koilon.”
From the Soluntum Archaeological Site
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