Of bread and circuses

Having saved some of the WW2 sites near Nantes for another visit, Mr B was keen to visit the Roman amphitheatre at Saintes to feed his historical bent. Once the provincial capital of Santionge under Roman occupation, our Rough Guide described it as ‘one of the finest in France’ and expectation levels were high!

We camped up on a lovely municipal site just a short cycle ride away from the centre and were pleased to be able to get a pitch right next to the river Charente. This location is another good example of how well positioned some municipal sites can be – and good value too.

With mixed weather overhead we saddled up ready for a Roman adventure. The cycle route (courtesy of Google) was a little odd and took us through some small back lanes and passages in the outskirts…

…where, completely unexpectedly, the massive arena of the amphitheatre nestles in a valley, now surrounded by houses!

What the site might lack in completeness (most of the external walls were taken town as a source of building materials after the Romans left) it more than makes up for in the scale of the arena and seating that still survives – as well as the totally bizarre location! Dated from about 40AD and with a capacity of around 15,000, it has now joined Mr B’s list of ancient monuments that continue to remind us of the sheer scale and sophistication of Roman society – and the crude but effective means of keeping control over their subjects as they slowly ‘Romanised’ them, by offering regular, often brutal spectacles of combat, as well as a steady supply of bread to keep the population subdued and less inclined to criticise their rulers!

We also visited the Arc de Germanicus on the river bank, built on the orders of a local dignitary in 19AD to celebrate the life of Germanicus Ceasar and the emperor Tiberius. It used to stand on the main route into Saintes until it was dismantled in the 19^th Century to make way for road improvements. Luckily, it was rebuilt by a local French dignitary, just along the river from where it once stood. And when we visited, it was draped in a strange web of ropes that we think was part of a contemporary art installation. Mr B would of course have preferred it undraped, but it still conveyed a sense of what the Roman world must have been like all those centuries ago.

Despite the loungers on the riverbank that the local council had installed calling us to put our feet up and rest awhile, we decided to head back to camp and get going to our next stopover as we drift south towards the Mediterranean…

S&J